text stringlengths 213 24.6k | id stringlengths 47 47 | dump stringclasses 1 value | url stringlengths 14 499 | file_path stringlengths 138 138 | language stringclasses 1 value | language_score float64 0.9 1 | token_count int64 51 4.1k | score float64 1.5 5.06 | int_score int64 2 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
What would the Founders do? How many times have we asked that very question? What would the likes of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, Hamilton, and the Adams cousins say to our current problems, challenges and crises. Joe Connor, my good friend and a true patriot, along with Mike Duncan has taken a great stab at unraveling the mystery. In their novel The New Founders, Joe and Mike bring them back to life in today’s America and record their reactions as they address the growth of the federal government, our overly partisan political environment, and massive national debt and our economic malaise. How do Joe and Mike know what they would say were they here? Connor and Duncan asked them! Each of these magnificent men left a lengthy written record of their opinions on almost everything. By rummaging around original historical sources — their letters (often to one another), documents, speeches, and writings — they provide the answer to the key question: What would they say?
As he surveys the delicate web of international relations with the U.S. at the center, would Washington stand on his warning against “entangling alliances?” When Jefferson and Madison see what the political party they spawned is advocating, would they remain on board? How would Hamilton — the apostle of a strong central government — react to the modern American nation with it’s Washington-centric system? And what would the first Secretary of the Treasury say about our staggering debt and the freedom with which we print money, debasing our currency?
No need to wonder. Just check it out. That’s what Connor and Duncan have done and we all owe them a great debt for doing so.
I got to know Joe when the terrorists who claimed his father Frank’s murder in the Fraunces Tavern bombing were granted presidential clemency. Ever since, Joe has been a staunch crusader against terrorism and a stand-up advocate for American values and ideals. But as an historian, he may have found his true calling. Joe and Mike have not merely written history, they invented a new genre. By bringing these great men back to life and re-writing their own words in the modern context, they have done a real service to our understanding of democracy.
I can only hope that this is the beginning of a type of historical writing which will catch on.
The Founders have so very much to teach us. If we but listen to them. | <urn:uuid:0b64f08c-c83a-4435-b1e4-ab9d5c7b895a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thenewfounders.net/foreword-by-dick-morris-july-2012/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974475 | 497 | 2.3125 | 2 |
Did you know? Women start businesses at one-and-a-half times the national average, yet only five percent of startups are owned by women.
And, although women now comprise roughly half of American workers and earn nearly 60% of university degrees,1 only 24% of the people heard or read about in print, radio and television news are female.2
(My FAVE tips are below the infographic.)
Five Social Tips for Women to Increase Media Exposure
If you’re a women business owner, expert in your field or want to grow your online presence, you need to become your own best publicist. No one ever became a successful business owner by sitting quietly and waiting for customers to come pouring in. Getting sourced in the media is a great way to garner awareness and build your credibility. Third party endorsements are powerful. So, how can you use social media to garner some earned publicity?
1. Locate and follow bloggers and journalists online
Most journalists and online bloggers include a Twitter handle with their online stories or other tools to follow them online. Take the time to follow, get to know them and then look for ways to insert yourself into the conversation and build a relationship. The key — instead of thinking about how they can help you, think about how you can help them. Follow them on the Internet, read and comment on their stories and posts using connecting, trending industry issues to draw them out in two-way conversation.
2. Leave a trail so others can find you
In an era of digital technology, journalists increasingly rely on the Internet and search to locate sources and information. To be seen and heard, use basic SEO and hyperlinks to plot out each mile marker and make it easier for others to find you. Make sure that each tactic supports an overarching objective. For example, don’t create a Twitter account or Facebook page – think resourcefully and ask yourself how social media can lead you and others to a strategic online destination.
3. Produce interesting content
Create a centralized location for content, such as a website or blog, and position yourself as a leader in your industry by producing thought-worthy content. Don’t just blog, tweet or create status updates simply because you can — research the latest trends, stay up on the news and look for the unique angle that excites you and provides value. To drive viewership, learn basic search engine optimization to ensure the footprint you’re creating drives traffic to your site.
Develop a microblogging strategy that encompasses a combination of publishing and publicity. Look for existing industry groups on social networks to increase your reach by participating in industry chats on Twitter, niche networks and message boards.
5. Be a resource to reporters
Instead of pitching yourself to the media, let them come you with queries. Sign up for Help A Reporter Out (HARO) to receive daily email blasts with reporter queries from you local daily to the New York Times. Look for the stories that you can serve as an expert resource to or provide helpful information and respond.
Fact: Companies with more equalized gender distribution have 30 percent better IPOs. (link)
Fact: Women pursuing MBAs are at an all-time high. Women now make up one-third of all MBA candidates. (link)
Fact: 40 percent of large companies have no women on their boards and only 5 percent of startups are owned by women. (link)
(The “5 tips” were originally shared on PRsarahevans.com) | <urn:uuid:5f335b0a-66b8-4135-81a8-697311b6417d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sarahsfav.es/2012/04/12/fave-tips-5-social-tips-for-women-to-increase-media-exposure/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940337 | 720 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Pan-European cybersecurity exercise simulates DDoS attacks on banks
- — 04 October, 2012 14:46
Over 300 IT security professionals from banks, ISPs, telecommunication companies and government agencies participated in a pan-European cyberattack exercise on Thursday.
The exercise tested how the private and public sectors would react and cooperate in the event of a major DDoS (distributed denial of service) campaign against public-facing computer systems that provide financial services for millions of citizens and businesses across Europe.
A total of 25 countries actively participated in the exercise and four others acted as observers. The countries were either members of the European Union or the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) -- a trade association between Liechtenstein, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland.
Called Cyber Europe 2012, the cyberattack exercise was the second event of this type in Europe and was significantly larger in scale, scope and complexity than the one that took place in 2010. It was also the first time private companies were invited to participate in such an event.
The cooperation between the private and public sector is essential given the growing sophistication and scale of cyberattacks, European Commission Vice-President Neelie Kroes said.
The exercise was organized by the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) with support from the European Commission, and simulated over 1,200 separate cyberincidents as part of an escalating DDoS attack campaign.
A self-contained system that simulated the characteristics and performance of actual critical IT infrastructure was used during the exercise, according to ENISA. The participants had to respond and take action at the national level, as well as engage in cross-border cooperation.
The simulation of a DDoS attack against the computer infrastructure of financial institutions seems timely given the recent DDoS attacks against the websites of some of the largest U.S. banks.
During the past two weeks, a series of DDoS attacks have caused intermittent outages on the websites of Wells Fargo, US Bancorp, PNC Financial Services Group, Citigroup, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, leaving many consumers unable to perform online banking operations.
According to security experts from DDoS mitigation vendor Prolexic, those attacks consumed up to 70Gbps of bandwidth, well beyond what the Internet uplinks commonly used by banks can handle.
"The recent attacks on U.S. banks just go to show the increasing sophistication of hackers, or cyber criminals, and that any site can be brought down -- even some of the most well protected organisations," Paul Lawrence, vice-president of international operations at network security vendor Corero Network Security, said Thursday via email. "This goes to show that DDoS attacks have gone from a minor annoyance carried out by bedroom hackers, to a serious security threat that ENISA feels needs to be addressed."
Speaking at the Conference on Cyberspace in Budapest on Thursday, European Commission Vice-President and High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton said that trust and confidence should be improved between the private and public sector on matters of cybersecurity.
"To address challenges posed by transnational cyberthreats, we also have to step up our efforts in increasing cyber security capacity globally," Ashton said. "To make sure we can do this, there is a need for new capacity building programs and also for better coordination of existing initiatives." | <urn:uuid:5dd434bb-9f88-48ae-961e-bc4e80d782d0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cso.com.au/article/438260/pan-european_cybersecurity_exercise_simulates_ddos_attacks_banks/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95507 | 680 | 1.570313 | 2 |
The Register primer on MPLS IP VPN
Connecting the multisite organisation
Multi-protocol Label Switching (MPLS) based virtual private networks (VPNs) have emerged as an affordable option for connecting medium-sized multi-site organisations.
Very briefly, MPLS allows for much larger packets to be transferred with far less overhead than older standards such as Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) and Frame Relay. It uses labels to define the content of each packet, meaning it can carry a number of different kinds of traffic, voice, data and applications.
VPNs offer secure connections across MPLS. Packets are encrypted as they are passed onto the MPLS infrastructure, and decrypted as they exit, ensuring that confidentiality and privacy are preserved.
That's the barebones: need help wading through this acronym soup? The Register primer on MPLS IP VPN is designed for you, to help to make the most of MPLS IP VPN and ensure you have the proper agreements when choosing a service provider.
Networking techies, this primer is not aimed at you - unless you want some collateral to help you make the business case for upgrading to MPLS. | <urn:uuid:4b2d26a2-f3be-4c51-b5b7-6cc3d447158f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/22/mpls_ip_vpn_primer/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920664 | 241 | 2.3125 | 2 |
One year ago this week, the energy and outrage simmering in New York's Zuccotti Park bubbled over in cities throughout the Pacific Northwest.
Thousands of people gathered in Portland alone for a rally and march that gave way to Occupy Portland, the largest Occupy encampment on the West Coast.
Many look back on Occupy Portland as a defining moment, but they're still trading views on the founding principles of the movement.
Cameron Whitten's trying to tell me a story.
"My fondest memory from Occupy would be October 29th. That was the first time I had ever organized a civil disobedience demonstration," Whitten says.
But he can't get far into the story without someone interrupting.
"We didn't bring sleeping bags, we didn't bring tarps, anything like that we knew ... "
Two rumpled guys and a girl, in their late teens or early twenties, want to shake Whitten's hand.
It's hard to hear on the tape, but they're asking if Whitten was the man who staged a 55-day hunger strike, stationed mostly in front of City Hall.
"Were you that guy who did the hunger strike thing?" they ask.
"Yes, I was," Whitten replies
Their faces light up as they trade hugs with Whitten.
"Aw, thank you. Can't complain," he said laughing.
One year ago, Cameron Whitten was just another student couch surfing in Portland. Now, he's something of a street celebrity. After camping in Chapman and Lownsdale Squares, he ran an unsuccessful campaign for Mayor during the primary in May, staged the hunger strike in June to bring attention to housing issues, and kept attending classes at Portland Community College sporadically throughout the summer.
Now he's on the ballot again, as the Oregon Progressive Party's nominee for state Treasurer.
Whitten is just 21, and says he learned more from Occupy than from any class he ever attended.
"I feel like Occupy really incorporated all the ingenuity and the desire for freedom and rebellion that George Washington, Thomas Jefferson - all these great people had. Being polite and always saying the nice things, hasn't really been the way that America actually changes. I feel like Occupy Portland really brought America back to its roots," he said.
At the same time, his Occupy experience left him wanting a deeper engagement with the political process. That was something he had to leave the movement to do.
Revolutionary history was also an inspiration for Jordan LeDoux. A Portland native and self-described political nerd as a child, he got involved in Ron Paul's candidacy in 2008. Then he found himself drawn in by the Occupy movement's energy. He says there was more diversity of thought in the camp than mainstream reports let on.
"We had people who were apolitical but they were very dissatisfied with aspects of how our society is working, financially," LeDoux says.
Ledoux says he feels Occupy totally changed the national conversation about politics and the economy. But he says he picked up on something even bigger at the camp.
"People have been so disenfranchised, so destroyed by the lack of opportunity and involvement in our civic structures and in our social structures that the more important thing to them right now than solving problems is to be heard. That is more important than solving things. They want to know that they still matter."
When I met LeDoux at Occupy, he was gaunt from sleeplessness, with hair grown to his shoulders. He lost his job a few days after the camp was disbanded, and subsequently, his apartment.
He walked away from Occupy after becoming frustrated with the movement's focus on politics at the expense of results.
Now, his hair's cut short. He's got a pair of cool eyeglasses and a button down shirt. And the day we spoke, he'd just landed a programming job in Santa Monica with a salary he describes as being in the low six figures.
"You that's the thing, from my perspective, it isn't a different world. I don't feel like I ever was or ever will be more important than any of those other people there. I sat down and I would talk with a person who's been homeless for 20 years, who's high on meth and drinking vodka. That's the same reality that I go to my job and I don't really feel like those are different things."
Watching over so many Occupiers of such different backgrounds also proved to be a test for the city police.
Dozens of people were arrested over the life of the encampment, everything from possession to disorderly conduct. Some of those cases are still working their way through the court system. But many gave the police force high marks for keeping a relatively low profile.
Commander Bob Day of the Portland Police Bureau says he is very comfortable with the way officers met the situation.
"We had to recognize we were not able to manage in a typical police fashion."
That's partly because of politics, Day explains.
Mayor Sam Adams made it known early the city would not interrupt the protests as long as they remained peaceful. But the scale of the ensuing crowd was beyond anything the Police Bureau had dealt with in modern history.
Day says the weeks of round-the-clock activity forced police into new thinking about keeping officers fresh for potentially provocative situations -- ranging from philosophical discussions with peaceful camp dwellers to streets filled with hundreds of loud, keyed-up marchers.
"We tried to be mindful of the standard amount of time someone could stand there and give direction without getting upset. I think sometimes we'd notice sometimes we did have a heavy enforcement presence, sometimes we didn't. We varied our assignments in an attempt to help officers be successful, be respectful."
Over the weeks, Day says he appreciated the historic nature of what was happening. But he says he became deeply frustrated with the lack of structure.
He'd meet with a liaison committee, and find the next day members had no standing to negotiate or make changes. That was part of how Occupy did business and still does.
The Occupy movement's consensus model, with no formal leadership structure, forbade any action on behalf of the group without building consensus in lengthy General Assembly and Spokes Council meetings. It was part of what drove some people, like Cameron Whitten and Jordan LeDoux, away.
But those who stayed defend the approach as totally appropriate for a movement fighting for economic justice.
Carrie Medina is an active Occupy volunteer. "In my experience with Occupy, the more people involved, the better. If every person isn't allowed to be part of that process and be heard, what's the point?"
Medina says she thinks one of Occupy's biggest achievements was bringing the consensus decision-making process into a large-scale movement. Beyond that, she points to the many ways economic and social justice are cropping up in the national dialog -- from foreclosure reforms to presidential posturing on key percentages of the American population.
Whatever the enduring political legacy of Occupy, Cameron Whitten says the experience was an unforgettable expression of righteous energy. Let's get back to the story he started to tell me about the his favorite Occupy
"That was Occupy the Pearl District. We decided there was a really strong point for us to make, to address wealth disparities. It was around midnight. We were all just sitting there, about 27 of us. It was raining on us, a little bit - not too bad."
The police said they'd had complaints from neighbors in the condos surrounding Jamison Square. They showed up after midnight to break up the protest.
With their cars, and horses and riot gear. We actually had around 150 people who started marching around us chanting. I remember we were holding hands, we had candles lit. The passion and protection I felt. It was so interesting. Knowing that the police were going to do some sort of resistance against us. I felt so protected by all these people. It was everything I wanted the movement to be about." | <urn:uuid:1aca320d-10bc-42a6-a55a-2d69133845a0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.opb.org/news/article/a-young-movement-looks-back-on-its-first-year/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981808 | 1,649 | 1.6875 | 2 |
.- In a pastoral letter sent to the priests of his diocese, Bishop Demetrio Fernandez of Tarazona, Spain, said they should they should wear the Roman collar as “a sign of God for mankind today,” and he reminded them that “simple people want to see priests as men of God.” In his letter, which marked the institution of the priesthood and the Eucharist, Bishop Fernandez wondered “why it is that in a secular society such as ours, priests are contributing to the erasing of all signs of God and hiding our consecrated nature by not dressing as priests.”
He also pointed to the same phenomenon among religious. “And so we complain about a secularized society, when we have been on the forefront in eliminating the signs that distinguish us and are signs of God for mankind today.”
In his letter, the bishop invites priests to celebrate the liturgy with great care, since “what we have in our hands is a great mystery of our faith, and not something we should mess around with.”
Bishop Fernandez recalled the need to do away with the idea that there is some kind of opposition between the laity and religious and instead build up the relationship between the two states of life in the Church. “We need to be clear that if there are more priests, there will be more laity as well,” he concluded. | <urn:uuid:f4ed4618-defa-4dc4-a02b-31ae62340f8b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/priests_should_wear_their_roman_collars_says_spanish_bishop/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97888 | 292 | 2.40625 | 2 |
Edinburgh is capital of Scotland. It has bright days and golden evenings. Sunset reflects beautiful views in Edinburgh. Its landscape is lashing green. Since, Edinburgh is on very north of the earth, it has normally cold weather. Aroma of its breezes replenishes mind and soul of tired people. It has mostly brick architectures in city. Amazingly, its downtown streets are very crowded. This city attracts many people from around the world. Since, it is capital of Scotland, many entrepreneurs also visit here often.
Edinburgh hotels are always ready to provide great reception to their guests. These hotels have romantic outlooks most of the time. They look like medieval times homes of rich people from outside. Their staffs are very regal in appearance and provide extremely delicate services. Theses staff members have years of experience and training in hospitality.
Downtown of Edinburgh is called City Centre. Edinburgh hotels in City Centre are perfect for entrepreneurs.
Many people like to travel from Glasgow or other cities of U.K to Edinburgh. It is convenient to travel via car. Therefore, Edinburgh hotels with parking are consistently trying to get attention of tourists who travel by car.
Cheap Edinburgh hotels are also present for people who have frugal budget.
When it comes to visit, Edinburgh is full of tourist attractions. Edinburgh Castle is number 1 attraction for Edinburgh visitors. It is located at green hill. You can see lots of shows in this castle like ancient times. The Hubb is relishing for children and adults. It is a festival with lots of things to do. The Museum of Childhood is stellar to children. It has wonderful food place too. Place of Holyrood is interesting for visitors. It is an official residence of Queen in Scotland. Scottish National Potrait Gallery is intriguing for art lover. You will find remarkable Scottish paintings here. To visitors, Edinburgh is filled with hospitality and fun. | <urn:uuid:a306f68c-0c02-4c4e-8e3a-9d22d854a8ad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hoteltravelexpress.com/edinburgh-hotels.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967884 | 389 | 1.804688 | 2 |
- Unemployment up by 2 thousand in March
- Youth unemployment noticeably higher than one year ago
- Number of WW benefits down by 3 thousand in March
- More WW benefits than twelve months ago
According to the most recent figures released by Statistics Netherlands, seasonally adjusted unemployment rose marginally in March 2012 to 465 thousand, i.e. 5.9 percent of the labour force.
Figures published by the Institute for Implementation of Employees’ Insurances (UWV) show that the number of unemployment (WW) benefits declined by 3 thousand to 296 thousand.
Youth unemployment growing
Unemployment increased by 2 thousand to 465 thousand in March, i.e. 5.9 percent of the labour force versus 5.1 percent one year ago. Youth unemployment rose dramatically from 9.2 percent in March 2011 to 11.8 percent in March 2012.
Number of WW benefits still below 300 thousand
In March this year, 296 thousand WW benefits were paid, a decline by 3 thousand from February; 45 thousand new benefits were granted and 48 thousand were terminated. The number WW benefits grew by more than 25 thousand relative to one year previously. The number of WW benefits rose most rapidly among under-35s and over-55s. The increase in the age category 35-55 jaar was fairly modest.
Fewer people unemployed in manufacturing industry
Within twelve months, the number of WW benefits granted to people employed in the sector financial and business services has risen 13 thousand to 114 thousand. In the sector health care, welfare and culture, 8 thousand new benefits were issued. In the sector manufacturing industry the number of benefits was reduced by 3 thousand relative to one year previously. | <urn:uuid:dda19375-fb90-4553-9aa8-7e103c43558e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cbs.nl/en-GB/menu/themas/dossiers/conjunctuur/publicaties/artikelen/archief/2012/2012-024-pb.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95914 | 341 | 2.3125 | 2 |
Fyrebug is a new site where you can easily and quickly create a “personalized” game using a variety of templates. As in several of the sites I highlighted in my The Best Websites For Creating Online Learning Games, the games themselves have zero educational value.
However, the learning occurs for English Language Learners when they have to describe the game and then comment on the games created by their peers. The games that are created are embeddable, so they could be placed on a student Jottit page or blog for others to leave comments. That way, students won’t be tempted to play all the other games available on the Fyrebug site.
I think some other sites on my “The Best…” list are better, but this one is worth a look.
I’m placing the link on my website under Student Video Games. | <urn:uuid:19c334a2-97ec-4974-8024-ec8f6c236490> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/05/07/create-a-game-at-fyrebug/comment-page-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946734 | 182 | 1.804688 | 2 |
OK, let's cut to the chase--let's not get bogged down in statistics or projected spending figures or discussions about "initial gates" and "main gates" (more about them later): Trident is a nuclear weapons system and nuclear weapons are WRONG. Wrong enough to be the primary justification for the war in Iraq. Wrong enough for the International Court of Justice to state, in 1996, that the threat or use of nuclear weapons would, in most cases, violate the Geneva Convention, the Hague Convention, the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and for Rabinder Singh, QC and Christine Chin-kin of Matrix Chambers to argue, in December 2005, that "the replacement of Trident is likely to constitute a breach of Article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty".
Wrong enough, in fact, to get me nodding in agreement with the words of a Catholic priest -and that doesn't happen often, I assure you. On 29 June, Cardinal Keith O'Brien wrote in the Times: "We must simply ask ourselves, 'Are nuclear weapons useable?' The inherently indiscriminate and devastatingly powerful destructive force of a nuclear weapon makes it qualitatively different from any other type of ordnance. Their first use, under any circumstances whatsoever, would be ... a crime against God and humanity. Likewise, a counter-strike in retaliation would be just as immoral, even more so, because it would be motivated not by defence, but by the hollow and hellish vengeance of the vanquished." Keith, mate--I couldn't agree with you more.
So, we've established that the mere possession of Trident is morally wrong. But if it's always been morally wrong, why all the fuss now? Because it's up for replacement. That is going to cost a staggering amount of money and mean that the UK will … | <urn:uuid:6adf1a51-3a87-4f18-9660-e0ce52a5300d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.questia.com/library/1G1-209578032/after-the-fall-the-bailout-billions-have-disappeared | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95327 | 374 | 1.679688 | 2 |
In an effort to help Punjab farmers diversify to crops other than wheat and paddy, Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal has asked US-based Monsanto hybrid seed company to establish its research centre to undertake extensive research for the production of high-yield hybrid seeds of maize in the state.
A high-level delegation of the company, led by the vice-president, Global Vegetables and Asia Commercial, Consuelo E Madere, called on the CM last week.
During the deliberations, Monsanto's CEO (India region) D Narain told the CM that the company had developed heat-tolerant hybrid maize varieties for the northern region, especially Punjab, adding that Monsanto had focused on developing maize varieties for the kharif season in order to provide a viable alternative to paddy in the state. He also assured Badal that the company would also make all-out efforts to develop high-yield soyabean seeds in its endeavour to boost diversification of agriculture.
Assuring all possible assistance to the company, the CM directed the vice-chancellor of Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, to provide technical data and logistic support to enable them to produce quality hybrid seeds best suited to climatic conditions of the state.
Badal also constituted a high-level committee headed by Punjab Farmers Commission chairman Dr GS Kalkat, financial commissioner (development) GS Sandhu, agriculture advisor Dr Balwinder Singh Sidhu and director, agriculture, Dr Mangal Singh Sandhu as members to work out modalities for developing high-yield varieties and maize seeds in tandem with Monsanto.
The committee has also been mandated to suggest a self-sustaining marketing mechanism to ensure hassle-free marketing of maize to farmers. The CM also asked the Monsanto team to provide high-yield varieties of soyabean seed to give a fillip to crop diversification.
Notably, the state government has planned to reduce the area under paddy from 28 to 16 lakh hectares in a phased manner over a period of six years. Initially, it is purposed to bring nearly 4 acres of this area under maize. | <urn:uuid:6759fac6-b64f-4d8f-9647-fa014433ee0d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/chandigarh/Punjab-CM-asks-Monsanto-to-set-up-maize-seed-research-centre/Article1-964674.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949918 | 437 | 1.75 | 2 |
One of Uptown’s greatest assets is the parks and natural expanses that envelop the neighborhood in a sea of green. My favorite park, by far, is Inwood Hill Park, which runs from Dyckman Street and Payson Avenue all the way to the very tip of Manhattan.
More than just a park, Inwood Hill Park is the last remaining primeval forest in all of Manhattan. It is 196 acres of natural beauty; 200+-year old trees, the last salt water marsh in the island as well as wildlife such as hawks, wild turkeys, possums among many more.
The Lenape Indians that inhabited the area called it Shorakapok, meaning either “the wading place,” “the edge of the river,” or “the place between the ridges.” There was a Native American presence in the area all the way up to the 1930’s.
In my humble estimation, you can still feel their aura in this edenic paradise set amid the hustle and bustle of Manhattan. The Inwood Hill Nature Center, located in the northern end of the park, is an ideal place to learn about the park’s ecology, history and other park related subjects. The Urban Park Rangers, located onsite, provide tours and nature workshops for the public. If you would like to see how Manhattan looked and felt in pre-colonial times you could do no better than Inwood Hill Park.
The Inwood Hill Nature Center
Replica of a Lenape wigwam
According to legend, this is the spot where the Dutch hoodwinked the Lenape out of Manhattan. On that very same spot once stood a Tulip tree that was 300 years old whose dimensions were 165 feet in height and 6 and 1/2 feet in diameter. | <urn:uuid:b19053ea-1afb-49b2-acac-7f4c2668d73a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.uptowncollective.com/2010/04/19/uptown-gem-inwood-hill-park/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956576 | 379 | 2.171875 | 2 |
By guest blogger Peter Bond
The first person to predict a transit of Venus was the German mathematician and astronomer, Johannes Kepler, who calculated that one would take place on 6 December 1631. Unfortunately, the transit was not visible from Europe and there is no record of anyone seeing it.
Jeremiah Horrocks, a young English astronomer, studied Kepler’s planetary tables and discovered, only a month in advance, that a previously unrecognised transit of Venus would occur on 24 November 1639. (Note: two calendars were used at that time. According to the Gregorian calendar, which added 10 days to the older Julian calendar, the date of the 1639 transit took place on 4 December).
Horrocks observed part of the transit from his home at Much Hoole, near Preston. His friend, William Crabtree, also saw it from Manchester, having been alerted by Horrocks. As far as is known, they were the only people to witness the event.
By the mid-17th century, the relative distances of the planets from the Sun were well known. According to Kepler’s third law of planetary motion, if Earth was at one astronomical unit (1 AU), then Venus orbited the Sun at 0.72 AU, Mars at 1.52 AU, and so on.
However, the actual distance of the Sun and planets from Earth was not known with any degree of accuracy. The best estimate of the time was that the Sun-Earth distance was 137.7 million km. (The actual figure is about 150 million km.)
Edmond Halley (of comet fame) suggested that observations of transits of Venus could, in principle, be used to find out how far the Sun is from Earth.
He suggested that observers in widely separated locations would carefully measure the time that either side of Venus’s disc first ‘touched’ one edge of the Sun, and then exited on the opposite limb of the Sun. This sequence comprised four separate events, called contacts. Each of these had to be timed with split-second accuracy at the far-flung observing sites.
Once the precise contact times were determined, a complex mathematical calculation was performed to determine the observed path of Venus across the Sun from each location. The angular difference between these paths resulted from a parallax shift. Corrections had to be made for the slight differences in contact times caused by east-west differences in longitude.
Halley died in 1742, but hundreds of scientists travelled across the world to try out his method during the transits of 1761 and 1769. Captain James Cook’s expedition to Tahiti in 1769 is one of the most famous expeditions, part of a voyage in which he discovered the east coast of Australia.
One of the unluckiest expeditions was led by Guillaume le Gentil, who set out for Pondicherry, a French colony in India. As his ship was nearing India, he learned that the British had occupied Pondicherry, so he returned to Mauritius. Unable to make proper observations of the 1761 transit, he decided to stay on the island until the next transit, eight years later.
Unfortunately, when the long-awaited day arrived, the Sun was hidden behind a blanket of cloud. When he finally arrived back in Paris in October 1771, he had been declared legally dead, his wife had remarried and all of his possessions had been divided up among his relatives!
Continue reading in part 2: the 'black drop' problem... | <urn:uuid:a818527a-4941-49f6-9d60-6e74cfce963d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.esa.int/venustransit/2012/05/30/measuring-the-size-of-the-solar-system-transits-through-the-ages/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97927 | 724 | 3.921875 | 4 |
SUBSIDIES AND HORMONES
In “How to Fix the Obesity Crisis,” David H. Freedman proposed behavior modification as a solution, but it cannot be applied to 200 million overweight people. Freedman also seems to support subsidies for fruits and vegetables and other government-sponsored programs. But where is the money going to come from?
For decades now the U.S. government has subsidized corn production. Corn is used as inexpensive feed to fatten cows in feedlots and to make a cheap sweetener called high-fructose corn syrup. Fat cows and high-fructose corn syrup are key ingredients in most fast food, including hamburgers and sugary soft drinks—the foods that Freedman correctly acknowledges contribute greatly to the obesity epidemic. By subsidizing corn, the U.S. is making fast food cheaper than healthy food. What if we transferred the subsidies from corn to healthy, sustainable crops?
Now schools would have to choose healthier food because it would be cheaper than junk food, and it would be a simpler decision for the poor to choose the healthier food. Although the full solution to obesity would undoubtedly involve a change to our entire culture, an easy first step would be to stop subsidizing the food that is helping to make us so overweight.
Cell and Molecular Biology graduate program
University of Nevada, Reno
It was disappointing that your cover article on obesity did not include any mention of recombinant bovine growth hormone, or rBGH, which is banned in virtually every developed country on earth but not in the U.S. The corporate lobbies that control our legislature have done an excellent job of sweeping all controversy about these artificial hormones under the rug—especially because rates of obesity in countries that ban rBGH are much lower than the rates here in the U.S.
As an expert on the psychology of eating and weight and a four-book author on the subject, I thoroughly applaud Freedman’s covering the wide range of biological and social factors involved. But one major factor was left out: the underlying, often unconscious, intrapsychic conflicts eaters have about eating healthfully, losing weight, being thin or giving up food as comfort. In more than 30 years of working with troubled eaters, I have rarely met one who does not have unresolved, mixed feelings about substantially changing their eating or their weight. Psychotherapy works to identify and resolve these conflicts so that people stop sabotaging their progress and instead form a healthy relationship with food and their body.
Karen R. Koenig
LIFE IS RANDOM
I’m wondering how chromatin, the thick fiber formed from DNA folding on itself, knows where to become loose or tight to enable DNA transcription, as Tom Misteli describes in “The Inner Life of the Genome.” I imagine that some signal goes out from the activated gene, along the chain of histones [“spools” around which DNA twists], to loosen ties between the histones. After transcription is completed, another signal would need to follow from said gene to retighten the chain. Maybe chromatin-remodeling complexes simply carry and execute these signals?
MISTELI REPLIES: The chromatin fiber opens and closes continuously because of the stochastic action of chromatin-remodeling complexes that roam the cell nucleus. Once a chromatin region is open, it will stay open for a certain period. If during that time an activating transcription factor binds, we might see gene activation; if no factor binds, the chromatin will “close” again. In response to signals such as hormones, transcription factors often become modified so that they have higher affinity to bind to their target sites. This leads to increased and prolonged binding at their gene targets, thus sustaining the transcriptional response. When the signal abates, the transcription factors fall off the target gene, thus reducing its activity. An incoming factor may also be a histone modifier protein that more permanently marks a region to be open or closed. | <urn:uuid:e5fa5d82-c585-4457-948a-1e3da7603ba4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=letters-jun-11 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950378 | 823 | 2.578125 | 3 |
SÃO PAULO - How do a $1,700 monthly scholarship, a three-floor apartment, free medical assistance and return-home trips to Brazil sound? School never sounded so good! These are some of the selling points the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), is using to attract Brazilian students.
Located in Saudi Arabia, the worlds biggest oil producer, KAUST aims to become one of the worlds Top Ten technology universities by 2020.
Founded in 2009 by King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud with an initial investment of more than $20 billion, KAUST focuses on research and technology that applies to both local issues, such as oil dependence and lack of water, as well as global issues. Some of its partners include University of California and Cambridge University.
Fifteen Brazilian students have already graduated from the Masters and PhD programs at KAUST. I enjoyed my experience, even though there are culture differences with Brazil, admits Rafael Coelho Lavrado, 25, who studied Electrical Engineering.
Before he left for Saudi Arabia, he was awarded a $1,200 monthly stipend *for a year* to buy books and supplies, as well as take trips to other countries to improve his English skills.
Oil engineer Guilherme Ribeiro, 26, did his Masters degree on Earth Sciences. He now lives in Saudi Arabia and works for state-owned Saudi Aramco, the world's largest oil company. I was hired as soon as I had finished my studies, which is quite atypical, considering that the company usually retains people with over ten years of experience, says Ribeiro.
KAUST offers a $20,000 to $30,000 annual scholarship, depending on the candidates CV. There are about 800 graduate students from around the world, with classes in English only. Course subjects range from Life Sciences, Engineering, Computer Sciences to Physical Sciences.
The Saudi university has a very international feel, starting with the schools dean: Shih Choon Fong, former dean of the National University of Singapore.
Read more from Folha. Original article by Venceslau Borlina Filho.
Photo - AT Service
*This is a digest item, not a direct translation. | <urn:uuid:057685fe-a330-437c-afaa-92b3bc28722d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.worldcrunch.com/saudi-arabian-university-pays-big-bucks-recruit-brazils-best-and-brightest/culture-society/saudi-arabian-university-pays-big-bucks-to-recruit-brazil-s-best-and-brightest/c3s5341/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972635 | 463 | 1.554688 | 2 |
By Jessica Wohl
(Reuters) - Target Corp
The discount retailer's fourth-quarter profit fell short of Wall Street expectations as the number of purchases dropped 1 percent, the first such decline in 14 quarters.
Its shares fell nearly 1 percent at $63.46 after dropping as much as 3.7 percent.
"The U.S. economy is growing at a painfully slow rate," Chief Executive Gregg Steinhafel said on a conference call.
"We have a tempered view of the near-term sales environment," he said, adding that shoppers, or "guests" as Target calls them, are "quite resilient."
Target's sales started off softly in February, similar to results at rival Wal-Mart Stores Inc
Target is testing programs such as letting shoppers pay online and pick up in-store, or have items delivered on the same day as well as catering to customers using mobile devices. Some of the plans discussed on Wednesday were similar to efforts already tested or rolled out by Walmart.
Target will have a transition year: It is selling its credit card portfolio to Toronto-Dominion Bank
The Canada plans cut earnings by 48 cents per share in 2012 and should trim earnings by about 45 cents in 2013.
'LINKED WITH ECONOMY'
Target expects sales to rise about 2 percent this year, down from 5.1 percent growth last year, which had an extra sales week. Sales at stores open at least a year should rise in line with 2012's 2.7 percent increase.
The fourth-quarter marked Target's weakest holiday season performance since 2008, and some strength in January helped prop up what could have been even weaker numbers, said Sandy Skrovan, U.S. research director at Planet Retail.
"Walmart proved the victor over Target for the 2012 holiday season," Skrovan said, pointing out that Walmart U.S. same-store sales rose 1 percent in the quarter. "But Target won the year overall since, unlike Walmart, its affluent shopper base tends to be more insulated from economic swings."
While food and other basics sold well, shoppers held back from discretionary purchases like toys in an uncertain economy. Shoppers bought 0.7 percent more each time they shopped and the average spent was up 1.4 percent.
"Given the size of the company, anything that they do is linked inextricably with the economy," said Cowen & Co analyst Faye Landes. "In addition, they are in the fashion business and that business is clearly not without risk."
Target's holiday season included a disappointing showing for its collection of gifts sold in collaboration with high-end department store chain Neiman Marcus
Wal-Mart said last week that Walmart U.S. same-store sales were likely to be flat this quarter as consumers faced higher gasoline prices and smaller paychecks after the expiration of the U.S. payroll tax cut.
At Target, more shoppers used its credit and debit cards. The cards offer a 5 percent discount to foster customer loyalty, but the discount can also pressure margins.
Target said 15.5 percent of store sales during the quarter were paid with its cards, up from 14 percent in the third quarter and 10.8 percent a year earlier.
The fourth-quarter gross margin declined to 27.8 percent of sales from 28.4 percent a year earlier, due to the increased card usage, remodeling and markdowns on seasonal merchandise.
Target earned $961 million, or $1.47 per share, in the quarter, down from $981 million, or $1.45 per share, a year earlier. Target had fewer shares outstanding in the latest period.
Analysts, on average, expected earnings of $1.48 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Adjusted earnings per share, excluding items such as costs related to Canada, rose to $1.65 from $1.49 a year ago.
Target tempered profit expectations back in early January, when it said earnings would just meet or somewhat exceed the low end of its prior view for net earnings of $1.45 to $1.55 per share and adjusted profit of $1.64 to $1.74 per share.
For the current year, Target forecast adjusted earnings of $4.85 to $5.05 per share, which would exceed the $4.76 it earned last year. It forecast first-quarter adjusted earnings of $1.10 to $1.20 per share versus $1.11 a year ago.
It was not immediately clear how the company's profit forecast compared to analysts' expectations.
Target previously said fourth-quarter sales rose 6.8 percent to $22.37 billion, with same-store sales up 0.4 percent. Same-store sales missed analysts' average target of 0.8 percent.
Meanwhile, Dollar Tree Inc
(Reporting by Jessica Wohl in Chicago; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe) | <urn:uuid:b16b07ea-d978-4fe3-bba9-e401e3562730> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://q957.com/news/articles/2013/feb/27/target-profit-slipped-in-winter-holiday-quarter/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966849 | 1,025 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Assessment of Pacific marine biodiversity
27 January 2011 | News story
The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) has released a report on the state of marine biodiversity in the Pacific. The region includes four EU overseas entities – French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Pitcairn, and Wallis and Futuna. The report provides an overview of major pressures affecting ecosystems in the region, as well as the responses of countries and territories in addressing, alleviating and/or mitigating these threats.
The major marine environmental issues identified include potential (and perceived) impacts from environmental change (including climate variability and climate change), habitat loss and the effects of coastal modification, the introduction of invasive species, fishing pressure (including destructive practices), increased sedimentation and nutrient loading from land-use practices (including coastal mining), solid waste and liquid effluents, and other sources of land and marine pollution.
The report concludes that the lack of human, technical, institutional and financial capacity in the Pacific Island Countries and Territories is a key factor in environmental management. Lack of capacity leads to poor monitoring and highlights the need to provide appropriate resources and funding for data collection, management and analysis in the region.
SPREP prepared the report for the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), as part of a global assessment by the UNEP Regional Seas Programme. | <urn:uuid:28b0fa80-7fe1-4de6-abac-6328b1900d5f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.iucn.org/news_homepage/news_by_date/2011_news_gb/january_2011/?6843/Assessment-of-Pacific-marine-biodiversity | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.907833 | 287 | 3.203125 | 3 |
A new survey has found that Facebook might be enabling eating disordered thinking and behaviour.
The survey, conducted by The Center for Eating Disorders at Sheppard Pratt in Baltimore, suggests that the omnipresent and seemingly omnipotent social media site “is influencing body image and hyper-awareness of body size.”
The CED surveyed 600 Facebook users between the ages of 16 and 40 nationwide. Fifty-one percent of respondents reported that “seeing photos of themselves and others makes them more conscious of their body and weight.”
Some more sobering stats from the survey:
51% of respondents said that seeing photos of themselves make them more conscious about their body and weight.
51% agree that they often find themselves comparing their life to that of their friends when they read status updates and see pictures posted.
32% said they feel sad when comparing Facebook photos of themselves to their friend’s photos.
44% wish they had the same body or weight as a friend when looking at photos.
37% feel they need to change specific parts of their body when comparing their bodies to friend’s bodies in photos.
Also, 44% of respondents “said they are always conscious when attending social events that photos of them might get posted on Facebook.” The Center says that Facebook is contributing to a “camera ready” mentality, but it’s not simply camera-readiness that’s the problem; it’s how people behave when they don’t feel camera-ready. The survey found that 43% of respondents “will avoid having people photograph them at a social event if they don’t feel they look their best.”
And, as Facebook becomes ever more ubiquitous and brings in more and more features, those features are enabling disordered thinking and behaviour:
53% have compared their body and weight in photos taken at different times.
14% have used Facebook’s new weight loss tracker. 37% are interested in trying it.
Of course, this thinking and behaviour were a problem well before Facebook. People would compare their bodies to their friends’ or compare old photos to new ones whether Facebook or Facebook Timeline existed. But the survey indicates that Facebook is enabling that behaviour.
And as Facebook and other photosharing sites become more and more present, it becomes harder for people to create safe spaces for themselves. As Dr. Harry Brandt, the director of the Center for Eating Disorders, says, “it’s becoming increasingly difficult for people to remove themselves from images and other triggers that promote negative body image, low self-esteem and may ultimately contribute to eating disorders.”
So what’s the solution? As usual, it’s critical consumption of technology and media. It’s a matter of teaching people, especially young people, how to use these technologies responsibly and safely.
And of course, it’s about continuing the long, hard slog of breaking down the cultural expectation that we should hate our own bodies. That expectation existed long before Facebook, and unless we keep pushing back hard against it, it will continue to co-opt new technology. This survey suggests that with Facebook, one of the world’s most profitable and influential pieces of new technology, it has already succeeded. | <urn:uuid:a6e3b769-893d-47eb-9d65-f6fbd9b1b030> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://feministing.com/2012/03/28/is-facebook-enabling-eating-disorders/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954503 | 680 | 2.578125 | 3 |
- Important: All passwords were reset on 06/15/11. Old passwords will no longer work. Click here to retrieve your password.
- Subscribe to Our Free Dewsletter
We are non-commercial, all volunteer and supported by our readers. Please help sustain the Dew by making a donation.
Bedbugs – The Pest That Keeps On Living
So it’s about time someone addresses this issue of “bedbugs”.
These buggers are spreading their infestations faster than new weapons are being developed to combat them. No one is really sure why the resurgence of these critters is happening now, as they were eradicated and have not existed in the industrialized world for the past half century. We killed the little buggers.
Not only are they back, they are congregating in the state of Ohio. They are so bad there that the governor has asked for help back in 2007.
To make matters worse the EPA is so unbending about what you can and cannot use that it threw up its hands and called the Department of Defense on behalf of the besieged and beleaguered state of Ohio, which has been battling the bothersome bugs for years. Some fatigued citizens of Cincinnati have even resorted to sleeping on the streets in an attempt to escape relentless infestations at home. You know you’ve got serious problems when you have to call in the Department of Defense to help with anything.
The Department of Defense? Yup. You read that right. I’m not sure why they think the DOD can do anything about bed bugs. Are we looking for nuclear weapons to once again eradicate these pests?
Though many other states, like New York, have battled bed bugs, Ohio seems to have been hardest hit by the creepy-crawly epidemic, and citizens of the Buckeye State simply haven’t been able to end home infestations with commonly used DIY methods.
DIY has failed? Send them on down to see Bubba. He’s never failed at killing anything he wanted to see dead.
The last time the bedbugs visited in such numbers they were sent on their way by DDT. Which by the way was banned shortly after the killing of the pests.
There is a weapon that will kill adult bedbugs within 24 hours and continue to kill newborns as they hatch. The new weapon is called propoxur, and was promptly also banned by the EPA, FDA, NASA, NATO, NORAD, and the little green men from Mars. Although the EPA rejected Ohio’s please in June to be allowed to use propoxur, the agency had meeting on August 18th with state and municipal leaders to try to formulate an abatement strategy everyone can live with. Does this include the bedbugs? Among the meeting’s participants: representatives from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and, no joke, the Department of Defense.
Though other states are also experiencing infestations of the bedbug critter type, it appears the residents of Ohio are more bothered by them. In 2007 Cincinnati created a Bedbug Remediation Commission, to discuss plans to mobilize strategies to control infestations of the resilient insects, which can hide in almost any crack or crevice and can go a year or more without eating. Not only can they go a year without eating, they are apparently kin to the cockroach that has been around longer than dinosaurs. Find something that kills them and they morph into a new type creature that is not affected by the killing agent.
Current strategies for “bedbug death” include roasting the buggers. Their living abodes are sealed and then blasted with heat until everything reaches a toasty 113º F. The infestation is so bad in some areas that dogs have been trained to sniff out the pests. Pest companies now including roasting in their arsenals for bug/critter/pest/creature removal/detainment/slaying.
I can’t wait to see how the Billy the Exterminator from Vexcon as seen in the infamous tv show would handle bedbugs. He wrangles snakes, alligators, opossums, raccoons, mice, bats, and other vermin. I wonder if he can wrangle or trap bed bugs.
I guess this explains why Arizona is not on the map of states with bedbug infestations.
For home infestations, the EPA recommends reducing clutter, sealing cracks and crevices, vacuuming often, drying infested clothes at high heat and using a special mattress cover so you can sleep tight without letting the bedbugs bite. Oh, of course. I knew cleaning and organizing would be slipped in here somehow. Way to go EPA.
Travelers should inspect hotel mattresses, box springs and headboards for the pests and the ink like streaks of their droppings. DUH. Don’t sleep on a dirty bed. I could have told you that.
In other words, a dose of vigilance — if not outright paranoia — is the best preventive. You should think before setting your purse down on an empty movie seat, lest you want the bedbuggers going home with you. If you have college kids, encourage them to move away quickly and refuse to store your kids’ college furniture in the basement when they come home, opting instead to purchase everything new for them when they return to college next year. Be very cautious and conscious that anybody from a group-living situation may come back with bedbugs.
Ohioans you are not alone. Just this week, one of the largest movie theatres in New York City, AMC Empire 25 in Times Square, announced that it was closing its doors to deal with an infestation problem. It since has reopened. You heard me, movie theatre. What’s next? Our beloved Wal-Marts? Well, that’s where we congregate in the south. It’s our form of communal living.
Bedbugs don’t actually transmit disease, but they can make you insane and cause other mental health problems, like hating your neighbors and threatening bodily harm on others suspected of being transportation mechanisms for the pests.
End of story. I need a shower so I can stop scratching.
From the life and mind of Wanda M. Argersinger. © 2010 All Rights Reserved www.wandaargersinger.com
Worthy of Comment
Also on the Dew
My beloved colleagues in Teh Media sure get on my last damn nerve. Most of the time it's just from sloppy work or jumping on whatever bandwagon is rolling by at the time, something along the lines of a pet peeve. Like when my Twitter list of political reporters blows up with some hashtag meme instead of actual reporting. Today it's #Obamacareinthreewords, launched by that icon of credibility, Rep. Darrell Issa. It's the second time around for that one -- Rep. Kevin McCarthy launched it the first time last June. (@WhiteHouse even got in on it, tweeting "It's.The.Law." Republicans responded with "arrogance Read on →
Last Thursday, just before I took my daily two-mile run/walk hunger struck. A few bites of watermelon did the trick. When I bit into that cold sweet watermelon a flood of summer memories rushed in. I recalled the great tastes of summer and with those memories came warm images of youth in the Georgia countryside. I saw stacks of dark green, striped watermelons, red, ripe tomatoes, and heard the beautiful grinding of a hand-cranked ice cream churn. Recalling the great tastes of summer I thought will make a good column. I created a document and titled it “The Tastes of Summer.” I’m Read on →
Anything characterized by high energy, originality, humor and intelligence is bound to get my attention. I was at an annual fund-raising party for an alternative art center called Nexus in about 1986. Touring the studios I kept being distracted from the visual art by some very interesting Rock 'n Roll. I wasn't the only one. A large segment of the crowd was gathered around the Swimming Pool Qs in the courtyard. Once in their vicinity I was there for as long as they would play. In any field of endeavor certain efforts stand out and the Qs were (are) definitely one Read on →
None other than the Harvard Business Review reports that the ability to communicate is the number one trait top executives possess. The ability to communicate trumps ambition, education, sound decisions, and a capacity for hard work. It’s too damn bad the folks on top can’t delegate their talent. Way too many business people cannot write. How well I know. My eyes glaze over at their attempts. Check out most corporations’ mission statements and you’ll need a café latte with an extra shot of espresso. Here’s a snoozer for you: “We strive to globally provide access to multimedia-based intellectual capital and efficiently simplify effective so Read on → | <urn:uuid:1b74f86a-b4be-4c1c-abdc-a02a23a3c608> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://likethedew.com/2010/08/21/bedbugs-%E2%80%93-the-pest-that-keeps-on-living/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955769 | 1,877 | 2.296875 | 2 |
Euro finance ministers in new crisis talks
BRUSSELS — Eurozone finance ministers will hold talks on the debt crisis on Monday to flesh out plans made at a Brussels summit this month to save the European currency.
With several members under threat of credit rating downgrades, a key focus of the telephone conference will be boosting International Monetary Fund (IMF) coffers to enable it to come to the aid of floundering economies.
A government source told Agene France-Presse on condition of anonymity that the so-called Eurogroup ministers will from around 1500 GMT “discuss what happens after the European summit of December 8 and 9″ on saving the eurozone.
European Union members who are not part of the monetary union will also take part.
At the recent summit, which saw Britain block plans for EU treaty change to save the currency, member countries announced plans to pump 200 billion euros ($260 billion) into an IMF warchest.
Eurozone members were to provide about three quarters, and other EU countries the rest. The aim was to allow the Washington-based institution to come to the aid of eurozone countries in trouble, and the summit gave leaders 10 days to work out the details.
Several countries have agreed to the move in principle, without saying how much they would be willing to contribute. Belgium has promised 9.5 billion euros, Denmark 5.4 billion euros and Sweden 11 billion euros.
But non-euro country Britain has refused to take part.
“We did not agree any increase in bilateral resources last week. We made very clear in that meeting that we were not contributing to that 200 billion euros,” a spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron said Friday.
Short URL: http://business.inquirer.net/?p=35911 | <urn:uuid:08994669-e117-4da1-a1ed-b8e8567fe605> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://business.inquirer.net/35911/euro-finance-ministers-in-new-crisis-talks | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947375 | 362 | 1.578125 | 2 |
May 28, 2010 Over the last decades, global warming has been accompanied by an increase in the taxonomic biodiversity of phytoplankton and zooplankton in the North Atlantic Ocean and a reduction in the average size of these organisms, according to researchers.
These results have been obtained by a researcher from the Laboratoire d'Océanologie et de Géosciences (CNRS/Université Lille 1/Université du Littoral-Cote d'Opale, Wimereux) in collaboration with the Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science (Plymouth) and the Laboratoire d'Océanologie de Villefranche (CNRS/Université Pierre et Marie Curie). Researchers demonstrate that this structural modification of biological systems could bring about an alteration to the carbon sink in the North Atlantic and a reduction in the presence of subarctic fish such as cod.
The work has recently been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Observations show that 84% of global warming occurs in oceans. Numerous results already show that marine organisms respond to this rise in temperature. However, few studies have been carried out on the consequences of global climate change on the evolution of marine biodiversity on a large spatial scale.
The Continuous Plankton Recorder program based in Plymouth in the United Kingdom has been monitoring, every month since 1946, the presence and the abundance of nearly 450 species of plankton in the North Atlantic Ocean. The team, headed by Grégory Beaugrand of the Laboratoire d'Océanologie et de Géosciences (CNRS/Université Lille 1/Université du Littoral-Côte d'Opale, Wimereux), has analyzed the 97 million items of data stemming from this program. The researchers focused on the taxonomic diversity of key groups of phytoplankton, such as dinoflagellates and diatoms, and zooplankton, particularly copepods that ensure the transfer between primary producers (phytoplankton) and upper trophic levels.
Their analysis has evidenced for the first time that the rise in temperatures has been accompanied by an increase in the biodiversity of these plankton groups in the North Atlantic Ocean and by a 25 to 33% reduction in the average size of copepods, of which one hundred or so species live in this part of the ocean. The size of these organisms has in fact decreased from 3-4 mm to 2-3 mm on average in a number of regions situated between the temperate and polar systems.
The researchers then focused on the consequences of this surprising evolution. They demonstrated that the decrease in the mean size of copepods, which ensure the transfer of atmospheric carbon dioxide from the surface to the bottom of the oceans through the food chain, could lead to a reduction, not yet quantifiable, in the amount of atmospheric carbon trapped by the North Atlantic Ocean, which accounts for one quarter of the total atmospheric carbon trapped by the world's oceans.
Such weakening of the carbon sink in the North Atlantic Ocean, added to that predicted by biogeochemical models, namely that the rise in temperatures will increase thermal stratification of the water column, will make it more difficult for nutritive salts to reach the surface from the deeper layers, eventually causing marine productivity to decline. Researchers have also highlighted a faster circulation of biogenic carbon from organism to organism within the trophic network, reflecting an increase in the ecosystem metabolism, which is entirely consistent with the fact that the smaller an organism, the faster it develops and dies.
Finally, using data from models designed to assess the probability of cod presence based on the characteristics of their environment, researchers have found that the presence of cod was inversely proportional to the taxonomic diversity of zooplankton. Consequently, the increase in the diversity of zooplankton and its decline in size could result in reduced cod presence in the North Atlantic, a phenomenon that would amplify the effect of over-exploitation by fishing of this subarctic species.
This study reveals that an increase in taxonomic biodiversity, often considered positive as far as the ecosystem is concerned, could, if it occurred in all oceans, temporarily alter important functions for humans, such as the regulation of carbon dioxide and the exploitation of marine resources. This increase, which had never been observed on such a large scale, is a sign of profound structural upheaval within the biological systems of the North Atlantic in response to global warming.
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
- G. Beaugrand, M. Edwards, L. Legendre. Marine biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and carbon cycles. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2010; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0913855107
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead. | <urn:uuid:e6f6e7ee-57d2-4bfa-b721-2ad343732779> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100528093212.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909514 | 1,017 | 3.390625 | 3 |
Trade License (Živnostenský List) or Company (s.r.o.) ?
Similarities between a trade license and an s.r.o. company
- Both can be used to apply for a Business Visa (although most nationalities only have a realistic chance with an sro),
- In both cases, if you are here as employee and quit your job, the purpose of stay changes, and you will have to apply again for a Business Visa (because the first 2 years it is not possible anymore to change the purpose of stay) or at least change the purpose of stay. (if you are here longer than 2 years)
- In both cases, you do not need a Work Permit - since you are not an employee
- Both can sell goods / services internationally,
- Both can have a turnover of millions,
- Both can have employees on temporary basis or on 'real' contracts,
- In both cases, if your expected turnover is higher than 1.000.000 CZK in 12 months, you are obligated to register for VAT.
Benefits of a trade license
- easier to set up and stop (liquidation (stopping an sro) is a long and expensive process),
- typically lower taxes than being employee or having an sro (more bang for the buck),
- no need for basic capital,
- better suitable for 'one-man' activities,
- accounting is easier than for an sro.
Benefits of an s.r.o.
- A jednatel does not have to be employed at his / her own company,
- A jednatel of an s.r.o. can be his own employee, simplyfing getting health insurance (especially interesting for EU-citizens),
- The chance you will get a Business Visa is bigger (for some nationalities),
- An s.r.o. can have more than one director,
- An s.r.o. can attract external capital in exchange for shares,
- An s.r.o. is able to pay dividends,
- An s.r.o. has a more professional image than 'just a živnostenký list',
- An s.r.o. has limited liability. *
This means that with a živnostenský list you are responsible with your entire private capital,
but with an s.r.o. your liability is only the amount of shares you've put in.
Foundation / Registration CostsThere is a large difference in setup costs:
Registering a živnostensý list costs about 7.500 CZK whereas founding an s.r.o. quickly costs 50.000 CZK. However, for 3rd-Country Nationals, the živnostenský list needs to be re-registered each time the visa expires and an s.r.o. only once.
If you decide to start an s.r.o. from scratch, you'll also need a minimum of 200.000 CZK as basic capital in addition to the founding costs. If you do not have the basic capital, it is clever to consider registering a trade license, instead of buying a ready-made company.
The Alien's Act changed significantly in 2011 which has an impact on everybody getting and extending a business visa. Both trade licenses and sro's need to provide much more paperwork proving the business is really doing something and you make enough money to make a living in Czech Republic.
If you do not make money with your business (or cannot provide for your own living costs), you do not fullfill the purpose of stay (which is doing business) and the visa extended may become very problematic.
Alexio sro foundation / trade license registration servicesAlexio offers a full package of formation / registration services.
We do not only set up businesses, but we help you decide what is best for you and how to set it up.
Further, we will help you with your visa (or residence permit for EU Citizens) and offer accounting and tax services.
We guarantee that if you invest in 1 or 2 hours of consultation, we will be able to answer 99% of your questions and without doubt your start in Czech Republic will be much easier. | <urn:uuid:7794f751-2ecf-4f64-ad2c-7c9c9694ff5b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://alexio.cz/business/zivnostensky_list_or_sro_company.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936791 | 909 | 1.539063 | 2 |
U.S. envoys: Progress in North Korea food aid talks
A South Korean truck driver works on sacks of flour for North Koreans before leaving for North Korean city of Kaesong at the Unification bridge near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) of Panmunjom at the Imjingak in Paju, South Korea, Thursday, Sept. 16, 2010. (AP / Ahn Young-joon)
Published Wednesday, March 7, 2012 7:01AM EST
BEIJING - U.S. envoys said there was progress in talks Wednesday on arrangements for the first U.S. government food aid shipment to impoverished North Korea in three years, part of an agreement aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear programs.
Special envoy Robert King said negotiations with their North Korean counterparts in Beijing went on until Wednesday evening and that officials would meet again Thursday.
"We've discussed a number of the issues and we're making progress," he said, declining to elaborate on the specifics.
An agreement was reached last week for a resumption of shipments in exchange for North Korea agreeing to freeze nuclear activities and allow the return of U.N. nuclear inspectors.
King and senior aid official Jon Brause said the talks are intended to ensure proper procedures and safeguards are in place to make sure that nutritional aid for about 1 million North Koreans gets to those who need it most. The program is focusing on vulnerable groups such as children, pregnant women, nursing mothers and the elderly.
The last U.S. food handouts ended abruptly in 2009 when North Korea expelled U.S. food monitors. An initial agreement on the provision of food aid was reached late last year, only to be delayed by the death in December of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il.
Talks later resumed under Kim's son and successor, Kim Jong Un, who is seen as closely hewing to his father's negotiating strategy of mixing willingness to engage with threats and brinkmanship.
Washington has said last week's agreement was only a first step toward total dismantling of the North's nuclear weapons program.
The deal foresees the delivery of 240,000 tons of U.S. food aid in exchange for a moratorium on long-range missile and nuclear tests, as well as the suspension of nuclear work at North Korea's Yongbyon reactor.
The deal also opens the way for United Nations nuclear monitors to inspect the North's nuclear program, which has gone unmonitored since Pyongyang asked agency experts at the Yongbyon reactor to leave and restarted its atomic activities three years ago. | <urn:uuid:4eded293-5b55-4439-8ac4-b63bcb9cc228> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ctvnews.ca/u-s-envoys-progress-in-north-korea-food-aid-talks-1.778537 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962933 | 526 | 1.6875 | 2 |
DAMASCUS - As more blood is being shed in the pivotal Arab country, Muslims from Chechnya and North Caucasus are leaving for Syria to join the fighting against Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad's security forces.
"This is the first time that a mass number of Chechens have taken part in military actions abroad," Paris-based analyst Mairbek Vatchagayev told Reuters on Thursday, March 6.
Estimates show that dozens of Muslims from Chechnya and North Caucasus are fighting in Syria against Assad's forces.
Syria's Islamic Opposition: Missing a Vision?
Misery of Syrian Refugees (Watch)
Syria Refugees Shiver in Freezing Cold
The Plight of Syrian Refugees (Help Now)Take Action for Syria (Active Tips)
"Jihad needs very many things, Omar Abu al-Chechen tells his fighters in the Brigade of Migrants says in a video.
Firstly it needs money. Much is dependent on money today for jihad," al-Chechen, his nomme de guerre, says in Russian and his speech is translated by fellow fighters into Arabic.
"(We) have missed many chances, but truly today there is a chance to establish (an Islamic state) on Earth.
One Syrian opposition source said Chechens are the second biggest force of foreigners after Libyans who joined the Syrian uprising after overthrowing and killing Muammar Gaddafi.
An opposition source said 17 fighters from the North Caucasus were killed in fighting outside Aleppo last month.
Analysts say many of the fighters from North Caucasus are students who studies in religious schools outside Russia.
However, they have fighting skills and experience due to their participation in the wars against Russian forces in Chechnya in 1994-96 and 1999-2000.
"They are very significant, in some areas they are leading the fighting and some of them are leaders of Brigades, a Syrian opposition source in touch with fighters said.
They are experienced fighters and also they are fighting based on ideological belief, so they do not want anything in return.
More than 70,000 people have been killed in two years of between Assad's security forces and opposition forces.
The fighting has forced more than one million Syrians to flee their home to neighboring countries in addition to the displacement of two millions others inside the country.
But some Syrians are worried about the presence of foreign fighters in the fighting against Assad.
"We call all brothers from all the countries, please, my brothers we do not need men, Brigadier Selim Idris, head of an opposition military command, told Reuters.
Stay in your own countries and do something good inside your own countries.
If you want to help us just send us weapons or funding or even pray for us but you do not have to come to Syria," he said.
"(Those) who are entering the country have a negative impact on the revolution, because we need the help from (Western and regional) countries. Please understand this issue.
The presence of foreign fighters in Syria has already raised alarm in a number of Western countries.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague has warned that the presence of foreign fighters in Syria poses a threat to Western interests.
"Syria today has become the top destination for jihadists anywhere in the world," he said. "We cannot allow Syria to become another breeding ground for terrorists who pose a threat to our national security."
There is no end in sight to the conflict in Syria, which has divided world powers.
Russia and Shiite Iran support Assad, while the United States, along with some European and Sunni Muslim Gulf Arab nations back a fractured opposition.Damascus and some of its opponents have said they will consider peace talks, but no meetings have been arranged.
Reproduced with permission from OnIslam.net | <urn:uuid:e6f222f7-00b4-42dd-9df2-df2c85e402ff> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.islamonline.com/news/articles/2/Syria-Lures-Chechnya-Jihadists.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96418 | 772 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Updated 02/06/2013 07:38 PM
Cuomo's visit reignites the debate over raising the sales tax
Tuesday's visit to the North Country by Governor Andrew Cuomo has re-ignited the debate over whether St. Lawrence County should raise the sales tax there. The move would require an act by the state legislature. YNN's Barry Wygel spoke with local leaders to find out where the proposal stands in Albany.
To view our videos, you need to
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.
Then come back here and refresh the page.
ST. LAWRENCE COUNTY, N.Y. -- It's been a topic of conversation for months, but after Governor Andrew Cuomo visited the area Tuesday, talks have begun again about raising the St. Lawrence County sales tax.
"Matters like that, I respect the locality and I respect the local legislators, so if it's passed, I'll sign it," said Gov. Cuomo on Tuesday.
But in order to get to the governor's desk, it must be passed by the state legislature, where opinions are mixed on the issue.
"I've already got a bill in that would allow a number of the counties to do what they all requested. The essence of this bill is that it gives them the ability to raise the tax, but they have to get the approval of the population," said State Senator Joe Griffo.
But people only want the sales tax increase to go through if it achieves its desired effect, which is to lower property taxes.
In a statement, the St. Lawrence County Chamber of Commerce said, “Unless we bring some revenue into this county, we’re all in trouble and a sales tax hike is preferable to any more property tax increases.”
But there is some opposition in Albany.
"I'm not in favor of tax increases. I think the county should be looking at ways to cut spending," said State Senator Patty Ritchie.
Even Senator Griffo, who proposed the bill to allow the increase, says there must be assurances that the county will use the new revenue for its intended use.
"Even though things are being done to alleviate the burden on them, they are still having these problems, so I believe there needs to be an audit by the state comptroller of the county," said Griffo.
The county, which imposed a 14 percent property tax hike on its residents this year, says it has been losing money due to a decreasing fund balance and lost gaming revenue.
Senator Betty Little, who now represents part of St. Lawrence County due to redistricting, says she has sponsored this legislation for other counties before and would be willing to do it again. | <urn:uuid:7681b855-c925-46d5-aca5-2a20850d0b9d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://watertown.ynn.com/content/top_stories/636902/cuomo-s-visit-reignites-the-debate-over-raising-the-sales-tax/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964772 | 553 | 1.539063 | 2 |
David Groome with Nicola Brace, Hazel Dewart, Graham Edgar, Helen Edgar, Anthony Esgate, Richard Kemp, Graham Pike, and Tom Stafford.
An Introduction to Cognitive Psychology: Processes and Disorders is a comprehensive introductory textbook for undergraduate students. It covers all the key areas of cognition, including perception, attention, long-term memory, working memory, thinking and language. Uniquely, alongside the chapters on normal cognitive function, there are also chapters on the related clinical disorders (agnosia, amnesia, thought disorder and aphasia) which helps to provide a thorough insight into the nature of cognition. Key features:
- This new edition has been carefully revised throughout to provide a comprehensive overview of current thinking in the field
- Includes greater coverage of neuropsychological disorders, with additional material from the latest research using brain imaging
- Accessibly written, by authors at the cutting edge of their subject areas
- Specially designed textbook features such as chapter summaries, further reading, and a glossary of key terms.
Written to cover all levels of ability using helpful figures and illustrations, this book has sufficient depth to appeal to the most able students while the clear and accessible text, written by experienced teachers, will help students who find the material difficult. It will appeal to any student on an undergraduate psychology degree course as well as to medical students and those studying in related clinical professions such as nursing. | <urn:uuid:af7fad5b-2c40-4b50-9773-afc37eec5f19> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.phatcampus.com/textbooks/psychology/intro-to-cognitive-psychology-rev-p.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934402 | 287 | 2.953125 | 3 |
The following obituary appeared on March 24, 1877 in The Law Times, Volume LXII, page 378.
This account of a patent issued to Messrs. Reeves, of Bratton, Wiltshire was first published in The London Journal of Arts, Sciences and Manufactures and Repertory of Patent Inventions conducted by Mr. W. Newton of the Office for patents, Chancery lane, London in 1852.
Joshua Cecil Whitaker was born in 1841 at Bratton, Wiltshire, England the second son of Joshua Whitaker and Jane Saffery. His father was a prominent local farmer, having some 950 acres and employing 36 men. His mother was the daughter of Baptist minister John Saffrey of Salisbury, Wiltshire and his hymn writing wife Maria Grace Andrews.
Henry Whitaker was baptised on November 2, 1642 at Bratton, Wiltshire, England the seventh of eight children of John Whitaker and second wife Margaret Aldridge. There were also three children from his first marriage to Dionise Aldridge, believed to be Margaret’s sister. About 1664 Henry married Ann Blatch of Bratton, daughter of Phillip Blatch and Maude Liddiard, a union which was to produce ten children.
Marjorie Ethel Reeves was born at Bratton, Wiltshire on July 17, 1905 the second daughter of Robert John W. Reeves and Edith Sarah Whitaker. Her father’s family owned and ran a successful iron works in the village making agricultural machinery. Her mothers family could trace its continuous presence in Bratton from 1576. Marjorie was brought up in Wiltshire and educated at the High School for Girls in Trowbridge before studying modern history at St Hugh’s College, Oxford.
Alfred Whitaker was born on 27 Jul 1799, at Bratton, Wiltshire, England, the son of Philip Whitaker and Anne Andrews. The first recorded evidence that Alfred Whitaker was practising as a solicitor in Frome, Somerset is on May 6, 1823, Alfred Whitaker, Solicitor, Frome and his clerk J. Buller are witnesses to the will of James Clement, Clothier of Frome. Both of them were also witnesses to a codicil to the will dated March 22, 1825. The will was proved on May 11, 1825 by the executors at PCC London. | <urn:uuid:b95a283e-528c-493b-b0c3-c58d310ec4ae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://myancestors.wordpress.com/tag/bratton/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979806 | 504 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Download the latest Digital Tribes report here.
The Digital Tribes series of reports is the first product of the Digital Vision project, an effort to help new thought leaders get their insight out into the digital marketing world. The reports look at how Native American tribal characteristics reveal substantive practices that build stronger, more fulfilling and highly committed online communities.
Digital marketers have spent the better part of the last decade studying trends in media consumption, and many analysts have made comparisons of social media platform users to tribes. Phrases like "neo-tribe" and "digital tribes" have, in some corners, become popular descriptions of the individuals who have banded together in groups and built communities around communications software.
But, what is a tribe? How do they work? And what can digital marketers learn from studying them?
Digital Vision grant winner Allison Aldridge-Saur argues that three distinct elements are necessary for a tribe to form: Language, Culture, and Organization. Each of these "Tribal Pillars" are explored at length in a series of three reports.
The first report in this series was published in March 2012 and explores the topic of how names are vital to the identity of online communities, and examines the construction of private languages, jargon, symbols, and naming practices for communities, individuals and events.
The second report, published in May 2012, discusses the vital differences between audience and community building, and provides examples about how the latter has historically been accomplished within Native American tribes.
The third report, published in September 2012, focuses on organization or how online communities structure themselves and how they recognize leaders. It studies traditional Native American tribal practices to suggest how, once marketers have done the hard work of creating communities, they might ensure their longevity.
Download the first two reports to learn more: | <urn:uuid:c8aa4448-f86b-433b-aa58-2a86b50193d8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://econsultancy.com/au/reports/digital-tribes | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948309 | 366 | 1.757813 | 2 |
As a lagniappe following my most recent post, here is a miscellany of Shaw quotes that are obviously not true:
Defending his vegetarianism: "Think of the fierce energy concentrated in an acorn! You bury it in the ground, and it explodes into an oak! Bury a sheep, and nothing happens but decay." If this means anything, it means that there is more nutrition in an acorn than in an equal amount of sheep tissue. Of course, the reverse is true. The reason a buried sheep doesn't do anything is that it is not a seed. On the other hand if you bury a fertilized sheep ovum in a sheep uterus, it explodes into something far more good to eat, and good for you, than a tree.
"There is only one religion, though there are a hundred versions of it." It is impossible to exaggerate how fatuously stupid this comment is. Under what conceivable interpretation are Islam and Buddhism the same? Yet this perfect piece of ignorance is endlessly repeated by Shaw's spiritual brethren.
"He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches." As a teacher, I resemble this remark. ... Seriously, if you can't do it, how could you teach how to do it? I think this obvious falsehood is repeated so often because it is a perfect model of sparse, severely economical wording, not because it is true.
"[Brahms' German Requiem] could only have come from the establishment of a first-class undertaker.” Once again, this is very cute, but that doesn't make it just or true.
"I have always held the religion of Muhammad in high estimation because of its wonderful vitality. It is the only religion which appears to me to possess that assimilating capability to the changing phase of existence which can make itself appeal to every age." Again, GBS has it bass-ackwards. As Nietzsche pointed out, the champion of chameleon religions is Christianity. During the Enlightenment Christians were rationalists, during the Romantic era they were soulful and idealistic. In the twentieth century they got into existential anst. What is the essence of Christianity? There's not much to it, really. On the other hand, Islam does not assimilate, it does not accommodate, and it does not negotiate. Like it or lump it, it is what it is. It's "appeal to every age" is its integrity, not the accommodationism for which he idiotically praises it.
"A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul." This would be right, except that he probably means it as a reason for robbing Peter.
"My specialty is being right when other people are wrong." This shows that truth, too, can stand on its head. | <urn:uuid:15eeb688-5664-4d7e-aa42-22f8ba925e89> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lesterhhunt.blogspot.com/2010/09/more-balderdash-from-george-bernard.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976277 | 575 | 1.5 | 2 |
HONOLULU — From the deck of a ship in the invasion fleet on a chilly gray dawn 40 years ago, Iwo Jima`s misty contours looked like those of a gigantic sea monster, with a central plateau as its arched back and the volcanic cone of Suribachi as its rearing head.
In the days ahead, the obscure dot on the map 660 miles south of Tokyo, once inhabited by a few hundred Japanese fishermen and farmers but later built into an air base guarding approaches to the Japanese homeland, would become the scene of one of the fiercest battles of World War II.
Apart from the gore and horror of the fighting, Iwo Jima is remembered by this reporter as a special place in other ways.
The landscape, mostly plains of black cinder as bleak and sterile as the surface of the Moon, was as different as could be from the lush tropical surroundings of earlier Pacific Island battlegrounds: The only pretty thing seen in days of exploring the island was a tiny purple flower about the size of a dime, growing on a sickly creeper that laced the pulverized lava overlay. Americans who fought in the South Pacific cursed the heat, the mosquitoes and the monsoon rains that periodically made the jungle floor a sea of clinging red mud.
On Iwo Jima, it was the black dust, which bit into the skin and got into the eyes and between the teeth, and the ever-present miasma of pungent sulfur fumes from which the island got its name. Iwo Jima is Japanese for Sulfur Island.
The marines` job was to capture this blob of volcanic slag, the first Japanese home territory to be invaded by Allied forces, so it could be made into a base for fighter planes accompanying B-29 bombers to targets in Japan such as Tokyo. It was also to serve as a haven for damaged bombers.
D-Day for Iwo Jima arrived Feb. 19, 1945, in a cacophony of heavy explosions as the air and naval forces accompanying troop transports pounded the black beaches and the higher ground behind them with bombs, rockets and 2,000-pound shells from the roaring 16-inch guns of the battleships offshore. The defenders` artillery and mortars were already zeroed in on the narrow eastern beaches where the Japanese knew the Americans would have to land because of the rocky shores elsewhere.
When the 4th and 5th Marine Divisions hit the beach shortly after 9 a.m.--the 3d Marine Division, held in reserve, landed a few days later--the men found themselves in some of the weirdest terrain in the world. The coal-black sands were warmed by volcanic fires deep in the earth, which often quivered as beds of molten lava shifted far below.
The crisp air was filled with the acrid stench of sulfur from the jets of steam issuing from countless tiny vents in the ground. As the marines advanced, there were inevitable comparisons with hell.
The real inferno began with devastating effect a few minutes later, when the Japanese batteries on the slopes of Mt. Suribachi opened fire on the men massed on the beaches.
Following the battle plan, the marines moved inland in a two-pronged attack. The Japanese, holding the higher ground, met both assaults with a ferocity that made Iwo Jima legendary in the annals of warfare.
The fight for Suribachi, rising 556 feet into the air at the southern tip of the 5-mile-long island, went on for four days, with the marines using flame throwers to incinerate the Japanese in their pillboxes and caves, and finally resorting to bayonets in hand-to-hand combat.
On the fifth morning the marines reached the rim of the crater and an American flag was raised at about 10:30 a.m.
After the capture of Suribachi and the airfield, the rest of the Iwo Jima story is a gory saga of fighting almost yard by yard through interlocking fields of fire from a network of enemy pillboxes, caves and tunnel openings, with flame-throwing tanks the spearhead of the marine attack.
Somewhere, the Japanese commander, Lt. Gen. Tadamichi Kuribayashi, who has been described by marine veterans of Iwo Jima as the ablest Japanese commander they had ever faced in combat, is thought to have committed ritual suicide in the last hours of the battle.
Robert Trumbull covered the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945 for The New York Times. | <urn:uuid:fb42a4b2-b960-4e08-aaaf-29d907d45752> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1985-02-24/news/8501110116_1_iwo-jima-sulfur-island-japanese-homeland | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96522 | 941 | 2.953125 | 3 |
ESA astronaut Timothy Peake set for Space Station20 May 2013 ESA’s Director General, Jean-Jacques Dordain, announced today that the ISS Multilateral Crew Operations Panel has decided on Friday, 17 May to accept his proposal to fly astronaut Timothy Peake to the International Space Station in 2015.
Next destination: space16 May 2013
Next destination: space16 May 2013 ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano left for Baikonur, Kazakhstan today, his last stop before heading to the International Space Station on 28 May.
Leak repaired on International Space Station 13 May 2013
Leak repaired on International Space Station 13 May 2013 Over the weekend the crew of the International Space Station worked overtime to fix a leaking cooling network outside the orbital outpost. Astronauts Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn ventured into space on Saturday and replaced a pump unit that was lea...
Springing into action 06 May 2013
Springing into action 06 May 2013 Spring has arrived and thousands of schoolchildren are stretching their muscles and brains to reach the finishing line of Mission-X. After six weeks of activities inspired by astronaut training, these future space explorers will celebrate their achiev...
Stress to rest 26 April 2013
Stress to rest 26 April 2013 On Sunday, ESA’s bedrest volunteers began lying down for their second three-week session with their heads angled below the horizontal to help research the effects of weightlessness on the human body.
Against-the-clock rehearsal for Station immunology test25 April 2013 Simply getting anything into space is tough, but doing so against a strict deadline can be really stressful. Researchers in an ESA laboratory nervously checked the clock as they extracted immune cells – beginning a full dress rehearsal to prepare a ti... | <urn:uuid:39cf6cb7-334d-490f-861c-a3930341121f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_Spaceflight | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927778 | 353 | 1.75 | 2 |
Seeing the digital forest through the trees in a Dodge truck television commercial
By Audrey Doyle
It can take Mother Nature 60 years to grow a single redwood tree to a height of 130 feet. In "Off Road," a television commercial advertising the Dodge RAM 4x4 off-road vehicle, Digital Domain grows a square-mile section of redwood forest, including eight types of vegetation, in less than 30 seconds.
Created for agency BBDO (Detroit), the spot begins with the truck in a stark white space. As the camera pans across the truck and the vehicle slowly rotates, out of the void a lush, photorealistic forest begins to grow, complete with redwood and deciduous trees, two types of ferns, sorrel, bushes, clover, and a sparkling stream. Simultaneously, mountains and a skyline unfold in the background so that by the end of the spot, the truck appears to be deep in the middle of a majestic redwood forest. Approximately 97% of the forest is computer-generated; the only live-action elements in the commercial are the truck, the stream, portions of the sky, and a few of the plants in the foreground.
|In a challenging TV spot for Dodge, animators at Digital Domain created a realistic CG forest from the ground up. Typically, artists generate fully developed, rather than growing, vegetation because of the difficulty in making the imagery appear realistic|
According to Eric Barba and Les Ekker, co-visual effects supervisors for the spot, this was the most difficult job the Venice, California, studio has worked on in years. "Getting plants and trees to look real as they're growing-making sure the timing and shadows are accurate and the wind is acting realistically on the foliage-is difficult," says Barba. "That's why, typically, computer graphics technology is used to generate developed rather than growing vegetation."
Says Ekker, "Some allergy commercials today show CG vegetation growing before your eyes, but that vegetation has an animated look. Plus, the surrounding landscape in those spots is live action, not CG." In the Dodge spot, nearly the entire landscape is computer-generated. "And even though it's growing as you're watching it, it looks organic," he notes.
Before the digital "foresting," the artists researched the types of vegetation typically found in a Northern California redwood forest, then they analyzed how that vegetation grows. To better understand the growing process, the artists viewed "Panspermia," a short animation created a decade ago by computer graphics pioneer Karl Sims, as well as time-lapse photography of plants growing. "We did not want to reinvent nature; we wanted to reproduce it," says Ekker.
In the beginning of the spot, the truck appears in an all-white set, created in NewTek's (San Antonio, TX) LightWave and composited with the truck footage in Discreet's (Montreal) Flame. Shortly thereafter, the floor of the 3D set cracks in numerous places, from which 3D plants and trees begin to emerge. For the sequence, eight artists were assigned their own vegetation to model and animate. To provide direction as to what plant or tree needed to grow when, Barba, Ekker, and the spot's director, Nick Piper, created a timeline in Microsoft's (Redmond, WA) Excel.
"That was really helpful," Barba says. "It told us things like when the first fern should start growing, when it should finish growing, when the first redwood should start growing, and how everything should mix with what was happening with the mountains and sky."
To model and animate the hero redwoods, the animators used Side Effects Software's (Toronto) Houdini. As a result of Digital Domain's work on the film What Dreams May Come, "we knew how Houdini's L-systems could be used to grow trees," Barba explains. To model and animate the trees in the distance as well as the small plants and shrubs, the team chose LightWave and Dynamic Realities' (Waukesha, WI) Tree Druid LightWave plug-in, which pro vided the desired speed and look. For the ferns, the artists used proprietary software "because the third-party software we tried wasn't giving us the level of realism we needed," Barba adds.
|To generate the CG redwood grove, the artists started with a stark-white set created in NewTek's LightWave, with composited film footage of the truck. Using a detailed timetable, animators "grew" 3D images of plants, shrubs, trees, and other vegetation in|
In total, the spot has 135 layers of vegetation growth, 40 of which are layers of ferns. Each plant is animated to grow ac cording to its own preset timing, to cast shadows, and to be affected by wind. "Controlling how everything grew and then art-directing it so it looked beautiful was difficult," says Barba. "We had to keep the growth subtle and the camera moves smooth."
Equally challenging was creating the bark on the trees. "We tried to grow it the way it would grow in nature-sort of growing out, and staying in place as the tree matures-but it didn't look natural," says Barba. "So we took a few liberties." The team modeled and animated the bark in Houdini and rendered it in Side Effects' Mantra. For added realism, the artists creating their own bark shader so the bark looked like it was growing rather than stretching. The 3D software for this portion of the spot, as well as for all the other digital vegetation, ran on SGI (Mountain View, CA) 320 NT workstations and IBM (Armonk, NY) IntelliStations.
To model and animate the mountains and sky in the background, Digital Domain's Chris Blythe used a proprietary version of Terra Gen, a scenery renderer for landscapes and skies developed by English programmer Matt Fairclough, that ran on an SGI 320. Digital Domain licensed the software from Fairclough and hired him to continue developing it in-house so the artists could control the growth of landscapes and skies over time. "Using the software, we made these mountains actually thrust out of the ground and grow from nothing," says Ekker. "TerraGen handled the forms, textures, and surfaces."
Although all the mountains were created in TerraGen, the sky transitions from a TerraGen sky in the beginning of the spot to a combination TerraGen/live-action sky toward the end. "We shot some motion-control passes-some of them at very low frame rates-on real sky footage because we wanted to get a time-lapse look to the footage so we could see the sky evolving the same way the mountains were evolving," explains Ekker. For initial compositing of all the CG and real elements, Barba used the studio's Nuke software; for final compositing, Digital Domain's Pete Joppling used Flame.
Shooting the truck footage was as arduous as modeling and animating the vegetation. Using Alias|Wavefront's (Toronto) Maya, the team previsualized the camera moves, then moved to a live-action set built on a large turntable outside a hangar at Van Nuys Airport in California. The set was dressed with real ferns, mulch, moss, rocks, and a stream created with actual water and a circulation pump, which were placed around the immediate footprint of the truck.
"We used real water because it would have been difficult to create a CG stream and show it from different angles while tracking it to the landscape the truck was sitting in," explains Ekker. Real plants were also used, he says, because the agency and client wanted the area immediately surrounding the truck to remain photographic. "But very little of the real foliage ended up in the commercial," he adds, "because our 3D foliage looked better."
The live-action team shot motion-control footage of the truck as the turntable rotated 120 degrees and a Fischer box-a lighting system generally used in advertising to give a "liquid-light" look to vehicles-shone from above. The team shot approximately 45 motion-controlled lighting passes on the truck and combined them in Flame. "We lit the truck piece by piece, concentrating on one area and making sure the lighting was perfect, shooting the footage, then repositioning the lights and concentrating on the next area, until we covered the entire truck," Ekker says. "Advertisers like to see light spilling all over the bodywork of their cars."
To add reflections of the digital forest to the body of the truck, the CG team created a LightWave version of the vehicle and animated the forest growing around it. Then they composited more than 60 reflections from the CG truck onto the real truck using Flame. To make sure the CG truck tracked perfectly with the real one, the team used Digital Domain's Track 3D tracking program. Rotoscoping was accomplished in Avid's (Tewksbury, MA) ElasticReality.
Although creating this spot took about 10 weeks of challenging work, the end result was somewhat of a milestone for Digital Do main. "When we started, we knew it would be a difficult project," Ekker says. "We knew technology existed to make things grow, but we had never done this sort of thing ourselves."
Freelance writer Audrey Doyle is a Computer Graphics World contributing editor and former editor-in-chief of Digital Magic. She can be reached at email@example.com.
Houdini, Side Effects Software (www.sidefx.com)
LightWave, NewTek (www.newtek.com) | <urn:uuid:6dee281a-11c0-40b1-a88f-66d8cb9d1f82> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cgw.com/Publications/CGW/2000/Volume-23-Issue-6-June-2000-/Growing-Pains.aspx?LargeFonts=true | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963894 | 2,029 | 1.960938 | 2 |
There's tons of FUD flying around (sorry, poor choice of words) in the aftermath of that botched terrorism attack on the Northwest Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit.
It looks like, for the most part, domestic flights -- as in starting and ending in the United States -- are unaffected, which is good news for all you folks sporting new Android phones after the holidays.
But international flights headed to the U.S. are subject to some new rules, as detailed in a Transportation Security Administration Security Directive and obtained by Gizmodo. In addition to additional screening at the point of departure:
1. Passengers must remain in seats beginning 1 hour prior to arrival at destination.
2. Passenger access to carry-on baggage is prohibited beginning 1 hour prior to arrival at destination.
3. Disable aircraft-integrated passenger communications systems and services (phone, internet access services, live television programming, global positioning systems) prior to boarding and during all phases of flight.
4. While over U.S. airspace, flight crew may not make any announcement to passengers concerning flight path or position over cities or landmarks.
5. Passengers may not have any blankets, pillows, or personal belongings on the lap beginning 1 hour prior to arrival at destination.
Sorry, folks, but you'll have to put your Android phones in their full upright and locked positions for the last hour of your flight. Hopefully we'll see everything calm down soon. And if all this FUD has you freaking out a little, we'll point you to this excellent piece by fivethirtyeight.com about the odds of an incident on any given flight.
Be sure to check TSA.gov and with your airline before flying, however, as things are likely to change. (And there's more analysis on this by our Canadian pals at The iPhone Blog.) | <urn:uuid:b3e4ece9-bce7-44a3-be38-e9d165df9dce> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.androidcentral.com/?page=1832 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943502 | 376 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Ford and GE announced the purchase of the C-Max Energi hybrid Tuesday.
GE has set a goal of converting half its fleet to alternative energy vehicles. With the Ford purchase, GE now has 5,000 alternative-fuel vehicles, or about 10 percent of its fleet.
Ford will promote GE's electric vehicle charging stations as part of the agreement.
The two companies also plan to work with researchers from Georgia Tech to study employees' driving and charging habits. The results of those studies will be shared with other companies that want to add electric cars to their fleets.
The C-Max Energi went on sale this month. It can go around 20 miles in all-electric mode before a gas engine kicks in. | <urn:uuid:9131cd6e-c640-492a-9e2f-13b88b25d9b9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.marinij.com/business/ci_22032029/ge-buys-2-000-ford-plug-hybrids-fleet | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969639 | 148 | 1.65625 | 2 |
This is a really great YouTube discussion between Terence McKenna and Ram Dass, also known as Richard Alpert, filmed in Prague.
Both of these guys have spent their lifetimes engaged with the idea that the outer world is somehow a projection of the inner mind, and that by changing the inner mind we can, and should, change the outer world.
McKenna’s ideas were almost invariably potty, but he’s easily forgiven since he was also highly entertaining. At least he makes a refreshing antidote to the ultra-serious mode of existence that most of us spend much of our lives in. If you’re weary of your job or the demands of family life, McKenna appears as a bolt from the insane blue, a person highly concerned with questions so abstruse and downright peculiar that you can end up feeling like you’ve been transported to another, somewhat more interesting planet, just by listening to him.
McKenna was obsessed with “magic” mushrooms, for good or ill; he and his brother Dennis figured out how to grow them back in the 70′s and published a book on the subject. Although McKenna sadly died in 2001 (allegedly of a mushroom-shaped brain tumour), his voice and ideas, however crazy, live on in Internet form. The Internet is a richer place for it.
Ram Dass taught at Harvard in his earlier guise as Richart Alpert. It was there that he met Timothy Leary and became heavily involved with LSD. Alpert later traveled to India and became interested in Indian spirituality, largely ceasing to have much to do with LSD, since he seemed to later form the opinion that LSD can at best give one short-lived insights into something that only non-drug spiritual practice can attain for the longer term. He was renamed Ram Dass by his guru and in 1971 wrote the spiritual classic Be Here Now.
As of the date of publication of this blog post, he is still alive and still teaching, although he suffers some verbal impairment due to a stroke.
Both men in his video appear to be concerned with the question of how the inner world can change the outer world, and why so little progress appears to really occur. Dass seems the more optimistic of the two, although McKenna often expressed huge optimism in his speeches (alas, much of it was connected to his belief that something huge would happen on December 21st, 2012 – and as we now can say, if anything did happen, it happened pretty quietly). | <urn:uuid:092ebd5b-3636-473b-a3bd-256974bd1379> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.quantumlifetime.com/blog/ram-dass-and-terence-mckenna-in-prague/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987144 | 515 | 2.0625 | 2 |
- Sarah Crean on Exclusive: Proposed policy would allow industries to self-audit pollution-generating activities
- David Howard King on Bronx senator's health quest
- Cristian Salazar and Carla Murphy on Stops lawsuit given class status
- Cristian Salazar on NYC Council passes banking bill
- David Howard King on Senate Dems Look to Nat'l Issues
H-1B Working Visa
by Larry Tung
After almost a year of job searching in New York, David Chim has given up and is ready to move back to his native Singapore.
With a master’s degree in International Relations from the University of Chicago and some experience as an auditor at a big accounting firm in his native Singapore, Chim has not been able to find a job since his graduation last year. In the midst one of the country’s worst recessions, Chim has another dilemma – as a foreigner, he needs a work permit, which is also known as the H-1B visa.
The H-1B visa program, designed to allow American companies to hire foreign professionals on a temporary basis, has long been a popular way for international students to obtain legal right to work in the United States after graduation. Employers have to prove that they cannot find American workers with the same or similar skills, and are required to provide prevailing salaries for the foreign nationals they hire. But less and less employers are willing to do it.
“I was disappointed,” said Chim, joining tens of thousands of foreign graduates from American universities who have to leave or find alternatives after their one-year Optional Practical Training expires. “I was hoping to gain some overseas work experience…I know it doesn’t matter to big firms if they have to sponsor, but for small and medium firms, maybe it is an issue.”
The Optional Practical Training is a one-year program for international students to work in the United States after their graduation during which they must find a H-1B sponsor if they intend to continue working afterwards.
The H-1B, classified as a non-immigrant visa, is approved in an increment of three years with a possible extension for a total of six years. It has to be petitioned by a perspective employer and becomes invalid when the employment is terminated. According to the 1990 Immigration Act, the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (USBCIS) can issue 65,000 H-1B visas every year. In 2004, the cap was reached in mid February, only four and half months into the fiscal year, which ends in September.
“Although it was harsh on me, I still think it is a fair system,” Chim said. “I can understand that from an American point of view, their citizens come first.”
Jeffrey Lu, who is getting his MBA from Baruch College this month, shares Chim’s pain. He had been to several job fairs and interviews and found that many companies do not sponsor foreigners.
“Many big companies such as Met Life, New York Life, and HSBC, made it clear that they do not sponsor work visas,” Lu said. “I am very disappointed because they rejected me before they even get to know me.”
“The United States prides itself as a nation committed to diversity and multi-culturalism,“ Lu added. “There shouldn’t be so many restrictions.”
Frustrated but undeterred, Lu, a native of Taiwan and an aspiring financial analyst, chose to settle for a job that pays way below his qualifications. He accepted an accountant position at a branch office of a Taiwan-based company in New Jersey that has agreed to sponsor him for an H-1B.
“It’s hard to say no because I don’t know if this kind of opportunity will come again,” Lu said.
Lu is not the only one who put his dream aside for an H-1B. Fernanda Marmo, a teacher at an adult school in Flushing, Queens, said she missed some good opportunities because of her status.
“I would like to teach children in a public school,” said Marmo, who comes from Sao Paolo, Brazil and holds a master’s degree in TESOL from Long Island University. “But all public schools require certification, and I can’t even take the state exams because I don’t have a green card.” According to New York Education Law, one has to be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident to qualify for a Permanent or Professional NYS Teaching Certificate, which is required for public school teachers.
Currently with six more months on her OPT, Marmo said her employer is going to sponsor her but she is still worried that USBCIS might reject her application.
“You never know,” Marmo said. “They can always reject you.”
Despite the increasing restrictions and reluctance from employers to sponsor foreign workers, critics of the H-1B program said it’s time to cut back or abolish it, adding that as more companies are taking jobs overseas, known as outsourcing, even the jobs that stay here are not for Americans, particularly in professions such as the IT industry.
“The biggest misconception is that employers must first attempt to fill positions with American workers,” wrote Kim Berry, president of the Programmers Guild, a Web-based advocacy group, in an online article. “This is false. Under current law, an employer can fill dozens of openings H-1B programmers without advertising the position or even considering U.S. programmers for the positions.”
But some see it as a business decision and fair competition.
John Yu, an American citizen who works at the IT department at AIG in New York, said he does feel a little threatened by foreign programmers but it’s all fair game.
“This is a business world,” Yu said. “It’s free competition and employers should be able to hire whoever they think are good workers and at the same time good deals to their business.”
A native of Taipei, Taiwan, Larry Tung is a frequent contributor to the Citizen.
Discuss this Article
Other Related Articles:
Visit the complete Topic Archives | <urn:uuid:0c7a6b86-5f76-4bcd-9c2a-cc433a5f7d8a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://old.gothamgazette.com/article/immigrants/20040601/11/994 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971681 | 1,324 | 1.789063 | 2 |
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski addresses the media on Internet neutrality in 2010. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
The Supreme Court on Friday rejected challenges to the Federal Communication Commission's U.S. media-ownership rules, longtime limits on cross-ownership of a newspaper and a broadcast outlet in a single market
The justices refused to hear appeals by Media General Inc., by broadcast and newspaper groups and by a broadcasting trade group arguing that the Supreme Court should reconsider past precedents that broadcast "scarcity" justified the ownership restrictions under the First Amendment.
At issue before the Supreme Court was the FCC's loosening of some rules in 2008. Media owners challenged the rules on the grounds the FCC failed to go far enough to lift ownership caps.
A U.S. appeals court based in Philadelphia a year ago left most of the 2008 order intact, along with the FCC's authority to preserve media competition. That was a setback for proponents of fewer restrictions, such as the National Association of Broadcasters.
The association appealed to the Supreme Court. The FCC opposed the appeal, saying the appeals court correctly upheld the local television ownership rule implementing a long-standing policy of limiting the number of licenses in a local market that a single entity may own or control.
The FCC narrowly approved a loosening of its three-decade-old restrictions on ownership of a newspaper and a broadcast outlet in the 20 biggest U.S. cities.
A number of broadcast and newspaper groups separately appealed to the Supreme Court. They included the Tribune Co., News Corp.'s Fox television, Sinclair Broadcast Group, Clear Channel Communications Inc and the Newspaper Association of America.
They argued that the so-called "scarcity doctrine" involving the broadcast industry dating back to a 1969 Supreme Court decision should be overruled, invalidating the FCC's media ownership rules.
The appellants said continued restriction on cross-ownership in the same market is unconstitutional because it singled out newspapers among all forms of mass communication for unequal treatment.
Media General filed a separate Supreme Court appeal making similar arguments.
The appeals court upheld the FCC's rules limiting the number of television stations and radio stations a company can own in a market, depending on market size and other factors.
Broadcasters argued that the competitive landscape has vastly changed since the FCC ownership rules were adopted decades ago, due to competition from cable and satellite-delivered services.
The three appeals had been held by the Supreme Court, pending its decision on the FCC's separate indecency crackdown on broadcast profanity and nudity. The court ruled narrowly and unanimously against the FCC on that issue June 21.
The justices did not reach the argument by the television networks that the media landscape has changed dramatically over the past 30 years so the court should overturn its 1978 ruling upholding the FCC's power over broadcast indecency.
The Supreme Court denied the appeals on the media ownership rules without any comment, leaving in place the appeals court ruling for the FCC.
The Supreme Court cases are Media General v. FCC, No. 11-691, Tribune Co. v. FCC, No. 11-696, and National Association of Broadcasters v. FCC, No. 11-698. | <urn:uuid:f9090b05-5452-4766-81e2-38a3f6ac6f78> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-06-29/business/chi-supreme-court-upholds-media-crossownership-rules-20120629_1_ownership-rules-broadcast-and-newspaper-groups-fcc | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95662 | 647 | 1.625 | 2 |
Slum-dwellers who make up a third of the world's urban population often live no better - if not worse - than rural people, a United Nations report says.
Family life continues in slums despite the squalor, the report says
Anna Tibaijuka, head of the UN Habitat agency, urged governments and donors to take more seriously the problems of at least a billion people.
Worst hit is Sub-Saharan Africa where 72% of urban inhabitants live in slums rising to nearly 100% in some states.
If no action is taken, the world's slum population could rise to 1.4bn by 2020.
More than one billion people live in slums now.
Habitat - the UN's human settlements programme - is hosting an Urban Forum in Vancouver next week on how to stem the crisis.
Its report is billed as a ground-breaking survey of urban growth, making a clear distinction between slum and non-slum development for the first time in UN history.
According to Dr Tibaijuka, speaking to reporters in London, slum-dwellers suffer a double disadvantage: they both live in misery and their plight often goes unreported given the traditional focus on the rural poor in the developing world.
"The average aid worker is not aware of the extent of the problem - this report is the proof," UN Habitat's executive director added.
Some states, the report notes, have already taken significant action to improve conditions, notably in Latin America where about 31% of urban people are classified as living in slums (figures for 2005) - down from 35% in 1990.
Such progress is welcomed as part of the UN's Millennium Development Goal of achieving a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum-dwellers by 2020.
Among the report's findings:
"Rural poverty has long been the world's most common face of destitution but urban poverty can be just as intense, dehumanising and life-threatening," UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan says in an introduction to the report.
- Expectations of better access to education are unmet for most slum-dwellers; a 2003 study found that one in five children in the Nairobi slum of Kibera had no access to primary schools
- Poor sanitation, described as a "silent tsunami", means illness and death are rife; in one part of Harare, 1,300 people share one communal toilet with just six squatting holes
FIVE CHIEF FEATURES OF A SLUM
Lack of durable housing
Insufficient living area
Lack of access to clean water
Definition: UN Habitat
- In Cape Town's slums, children under the age of five are five times more likely to die than those living in the city's high-income districts
- Young adults living in slums are more likely to have a child, be married or head a household than their counterparts living in non-slum areas
Upgrade and prevent
A slum is defined by UN Habitat as a place of residence lacking one or more of five things: durable housing, sufficient living area, access to improved water, access to sanitation and secure tenure.
Slums have existed in what is now the developed world since the Industrial Revolution and 6% of its current urban population also fall under Habitat's definition.
However, the growth in slums is unprecedented, Habitat finds, and the nature of the problem has also changed.
Of the urban population of South Asia, 57% live in slums though this is down on the 1990 figure of nearly 64%.
Dr Tibaijuka told journalists that urbanisation in itself was not the problem as it drove both national output and rural development.
"History has shown that urbanisation cannot be reversed," she continued.
"People move to the cities not because they will be better off but because they expect to be better off."
The only effective way to upgrade slums and prevent new ones emerging, she said, was to persuade governments to improve infrastructure.
While help from international donors was required, she also argued that governments could take relatively cost-free action such as reforming property laws. | <urn:uuid:dce7fb24-2d2a-4fec-a74a-e5819e10504a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/5078654.stm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953092 | 871 | 2.90625 | 3 |
OFFICIALS IN Columbus recently held their first meeting to focus on the redrawing of state and congressional districts. The redistricting occurs once every 10 years, creating new jurisdictions for state and federal representatives in Ohio.
Also occurring once every 10 years is the federal census, which recently revealed slower growth by the state of Ohio compared to other states in the nation. This will affect the redistricting, as the state will be losing two Congressional seats. This has happened in the past. In fact, Ohio previously lost two U.S. districts in 1990 and another in 2001.
The last time these lines were redrawn, the area districts were somewhat fractured. Congressional districts saw the 18th district move west, keeping Harrison County and only two townships in Belmont County. The 6th Congressional District moved up the river from the south, making it a long stretch of riverside territory.
State districts will also be redrawn in the coming months. A state apportionment board will be meeting again over the next few months to hammer out the new district lines. Hopefully partisan politics will not play into this decision, which will define the jurisdictions of our governmental representatives for the next 10 years.
Last week, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted unveiled a new Web site sponsored by his office, along with the Legislative Task Force on Redistricting and the Ohio Apportionment Board. The site - ReshapeOhio.org - is designed to give Ohioans an opportunity to engage in the effort to redraw state and congressional district boundaries.
New technology will not only give Ohio residents, taxpayers and voters an opportunity to follow the process of redistricting, but also give them a format to become involved and provide input on this important measure.
Maptitude - a Web-based map-drawing program - along with detailed 2010 Census data, will be available on the ReshapeOhio.org Web site soon. This will allow visitors to draw their own maps in their own homes and "take some of the mystery out of the process," according to Husted.
We encouraged everyone to become involved and do everything they can to understand this process as it unfolds. The redistricting will affect all Ohioans soon and will reshape Ohio's legislative landscape for the next decade. | <urn:uuid:84a6c35f-25ee-4ca0-bb59-ca08391ba715> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.timesleaderonline.com/page/content.detail/id/532450/Legislative-Landscape.html?nav=5005 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962972 | 461 | 2.75 | 3 |
Outdoors | Recreation,
The Dunwoody Nature Center will be offering three classes (10:00, 12:00 and 2:00) for adults and children to participate in this year s Great Backyard Bird Count (for more information on this nationwide birding initiative, please go to http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/ ) Birding lessons offered at the Nature Center will feature information about species identification, the importance of the bird count, how to do basic bird observation, and how to correctly enter the tally into the Great Backyard Bird Count website. Several computers will be available at the Nature Center so that participants are able to enter their data correctly. After the introduction, participants are encouraged to use the 22 acres of Dunwoody Park to do their bird count. There are several prime viewing areas throughout the park including the tree house pavilion, education building, gazebo, Wildcat Creek and miles of trails. Participants are welcome to come back to the park throughout the weekend to continue their bird count or may take the information learned from the class home with them to continue their count at home. As part of the Nature Center s mission to educate children, families, and adults of all ages about the natural world and our place in it, this event will be FREE and open to the public. | <urn:uuid:d979dc3b-1c9a-4170-804c-a44c6a09400c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.b985.com/events/detail/3117912/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924696 | 269 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Divorce, with all its stresses and strains, comes with a horde of fabrications and falsehoods. A couple eager to present his or her own side in the best light can be known to stretch the truth. There are many myths about divorce, but David Popenoe, who is co-director of the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University, whittled the number down to the top 10.
In Popenoe’s 40 years at Rutgers he racked up enough credibility to be considered the top in his field. As the leader in things related to marriage and divorce, Popenoe made the rounds on talk shows like Good Morning America, and was often quoted in newspapers such as USA Today. His leaning to the religious right and the fact that he raised his children in his local Quaker meeting might make some a little queasy, but a 47-year marriage to wife Katherine redeems him in that capacity. Add to that careful documentation of all his pronouncements and a number of big-selling books that established him, once and for all, as the expert. Popenoe no doubt got his inspiration from his father, Paul, who was even a more dominant figure than his son.
Papa Popenoe was a product of his times, when women were taught to walk three steps behind their husbands. In one of his regular columns in Ladies Home Journal in the 1950s and ’60s, Paul advised the wife to lose at cards to restore her husband’s sense of superiority. How quaint.
Son David, while respecting his father’s take on marriage, nevertheless debunked his ideals, and moved ahead into the 21st century, where men and women are equal in the eyes of the law. There is one thorn in his side, however. In today’s technological climate, Popenoe’s pet peeve is computer dating sites that promise a perfect match. “They tend to throw people off what’s important, which is, rather than choosing a good partner, being a good partner.”
Here are David Popenoe’s Top 10 Myths of Divorce, reprinted from the Rutgers National Marriage Project Web site.
1. Because people learn from their bad experiences, second marriages tend to be more successful than first marriages. Although many people who divorce have successful subsequent marriages, the divorce rate of remarriages is in fact higher than that of first marriages. By one estimate, 37 percent of remarriages end in a separation or divorce within 10 years, compared to 30 percent of first marriages.
2. Living together before marriage is a good way to reduce the chances of eventually divorcing. Actually, the opposite is true, and the reasons for this are not well understood. The type of people who are willing to cohabit may also be those who are more willing to divorce. There is some evidence that cohabiting generates attitudes in people that are more conducive to divorce; for example, that relationships are temporary and easily can be ended.
3. Divorce may cause problems for the children who are affected by it, but by and large these problems are not long-lasting and the children recover relatively quickly. Actually, divorce increases the risk of interpersonal problems in children. There is evidence, both from small qualitative studies and from large-scale, long-term empirical studies, that many of these problems are long-lasting. In fact, they may even become worse in adulthood.
4. Having a child will improve marital satisfaction and prevent divorce. Many studies have shown that the most stressful time in a marriage is after the first child is born. Couples who have a child together have a slightly decreased risk of divorce compared to couples without children, but the decreased risk is far less than it used to be when parents with marital problems were more likely to stay together “for the sake of the children.”
5. Following divorce, the woman’s standard of living plummets by 73 percent while that of the man improves by 42 percent. The perceived inequity, one of the most widely publicized from the social sciences, was later found to be based on a faulty calculation. A re-analysis of the data determined that the woman’s loss was 72 percent, while the man’s gain was 10 percent.
6. Children are better off if their parents divorce than if they stay together. A recent large-scale, long-term study suggests otherwise. While it found that parents’ marital unhappiness and discord have a broad negative impact on virtually every dimension of their children’s well-being, so does going through a divorce. In examining the negative effects on children more closely, the study discovered that it was only the children in very high conflict homes who benefitted from the conflict removal that divorce may bring. In lower-conflict marriages that end in divorce—and the study found that perhaps as many as two-thirds of divorces are of this type—the situation of the children was made much worse following a divorce. Based on the findings of this study, therefore, except in the minority of high-conflict marriages it is better for the children if their parents stay together and work out their problems than if they divorce.
7. Because they are more cautious in entering marital relationships and also have a strong determination to avoid the possibility of divorce, children of divorce tend to have as much success in their own marriages as those from intact homes. The opposite is true. A major reason for this, according to a recent study, is that children learn about marital commitment or permanence by observing their parents. In the children of divorce, the sense of commitment to a lifelong marriage has been undermined.
8. Following divorce, the children involved are better off in step-families than in a single-parent families. The evidence suggests that step-families are no improvement over single-parent families, even though typically income levels are higher and there is a father figure in the home. (Presuming the father is the non-custodial parent, which is rarer these days.) Step-families tend to have their own set of problems, including interpersonal conflicts with new parental figures and a very high risk of family breakups.
9. Being very unhappy at certain points in a marriage is a good sign that the marriage will eventually end in divorce. All marriages have their ups and downs. Recent research using a large national sample found that 86 percent of people who were unhappily married in the late 1980s, and stayed with the marriage, indicated when interviewed five years later that they were happier. Indeed, three-fifths of the formerly unhappily married couples rated their marriages as either “very happy” or “quite happy.”
10. It is usually men who initiate divorce proceedings. Two-thirds of all divorces are initiated by women. One recent study found that many of the reasons for this have to do with the nature of our divorce laws. For example, in most states, women have a good chance of receiving custody of their children. Because women more strongly want to keep their children with them, in states where there is a presumption of shared custody the percentage of women who initiate divorces is much lower. | <urn:uuid:b4385716-ae4a-4e1a-beab-7f537fa30f08> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://syracusenewtimes.com/newyork/article-2786-breaking-it-down.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97959 | 1,481 | 2.171875 | 2 |
"This moving report looks back through 30 years of bloodshed in Sri Lanka to place today's violence in its proper context. Why did the ceasefire, agreed two years ago, falter?
In 1956, an ambitious politician used the race card to be elected. He promised to make Sinhala the official language. Tamils who weren't fluent were dismissed, sparking a backlash that contributed to the emergence of the Tigers. In the war that followed, an estimated 40,000 disappeared. "We live in a country where anyone can take away another person, and nobody can do anything to stop it"." journeymanpictures
History of Sri Lanka
|Liveleak on Facebook| | <urn:uuid:2005afd6-8af4-495d-9454-5de4c04c16ae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=2b2_1202232011 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941112 | 138 | 3.25 | 3 |
Young and Old Join Forces at Brownson
BY ANGELA ZUMWALT
Special to The Pilot
On a Sunday morning in early June, a large white truck rolled into the back parking lot and up to a ramp at Brownson Memorial Presbyterian Church in Southern Pines.
The church campus was quiet under a hot sun with only the muffled sound of the congregation singing during the church service in the sanctuary.
While the congregation sang, a small team set to work unloading boxes of dried foods and large bags of rice and soy from the truck and transporting them to the fellowship hall on the church campus. Tables in various configurations were already in place.
Matt Anlyan, from the Stop Hunger Now organization in Raleigh, had driven the truck, and now took his position directing the team members regarding the positioning of boxes, containers, rice, dried foods, scales and sealing machines.
The church service ended, and 140 volunteers swarmed the registration table to collect a name badge and an assignment. The noise level rose as people gathered for a simple sandwich lunch prepared by the first wave of volunteers.
After lunch, the volunteers stood at their assigned stations, listening intently to Anlyan as he described the process. The goal was to carefully bag as many meals as possible. Teams at nine tables would measure and make up plastic bags containing rice, soy, dried vegetables, a broth cube and vitamin powder. Each bag will feed six people. Runners would take the bags to the "weighers" who would add or subtract rice to the exact required weight. The "weighers" would pass the bags to the "sealers," seated opposite them, who would heat-seal the bags. Runners would take the sealed bags to the counting table, where they would be counted and then packaged into boxes, which were then taped closed, marked and taken out to the truck.
There was plenty of work for everyone - no matter what their age or physical ability. As each one thousand meals were successfully packaged, the Rev. Grady Perryman and a young "gonger" would strike the large gong up on the stage. The competition for this activity was fierce.
The excitement grew. They were ready. But first, they all needed to wear either a red or blue paper sanitary shower cap. The crowd dissolved in laughter, gaining just enough composure to begin the task.
The teams picked up speed, the weighers weighed, the sealers sealed, the runners screamed and laughed and ran, the counters counted and boxed. GONG! and a cheer erupted.
The teams went faster; more weighers and sealers were needed. Young church members jumped in and joined the older members, seated at the weighing and sealing tables. Music rang out over the sound system, and the children ran and danced and laughed. GONG! and another thousand meals were packaged.
That day, the volunteers cheered as they heard 18 gongs: 18,456 meals were packaged. They were taken by truck to the Stop Hunger Now warehouse in Raleigh.
Established in 1998, Stop Hunger Now is an international relief organization that coordinates the distribution of food and other life-saving aid around the world.
Brownson Memorial Presbyterian Church provided the funding and the volunteers for 18,456 meals. The meal packaging event was chosen by Brownson as a way to allow all of its members - young and old - to participate in an effort to help others in times of need around the world.
More like this story | <urn:uuid:2cf22ef2-841c-4b4e-9cb6-9283b6f4d39f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thepilot.com/news/2011/jul/06/young-and-old-join-forces-at-brownson/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978549 | 718 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Fri October 12, 2012
For Sale: A Chunk Of Mars
Originally published on Tue October 23, 2012 2:31 pm
Few things are as rare as a piece of rock that falls from outer space and crashes onto Earth.
Among the most prized of these meteorites are from Mars. Friday, scientists describe the latest one discovered: It's called Tissint, and this weekend you can buy a piece of it.
First, it's clear to experts that Tissint is extraordinary as well as extraterrestrial. It contains a unique story about Mars. Says meteoriticist Caroline Smith of the London Museum of Natural History: "Many people think that this meteorite may well be one of the most important meteorites that have actually fallen in the last century."
She's one of those people.
The museum owns the biggest piece of Tissint, and Smith is one of the scientists who described it in the journal Science on Friday.
Tissint's journey began as basaltic volcanic rock on the Martian surface. Smith says scientists can tell liquid washed over the rock and weathered it. It deposited elements from Martian soil inside cracks in the rock. Then an object — probably an asteroid — smacked into Mars and blasted the rock into space. In July 2011, it flamed through the Earth's atmosphere and smashed into the Moroccan desert.
"The thing is, no matter how fantastic the robotic missions are, it's still not the same as being able to actually analyze a piece of rock in a laboratory on Earth," she says. "So I think the big message here is that the meteorite is almost ground-truthing what we're actually seeing on Mars."
There are a few other Martian meteorites. But Tissint is special for several reasons. The impact that blew it off Mars melted part of its surface into smooth, black glass. That trapped bubbles of Martian atmosphere and elements inside, including cerium, an element scientists thought might be on Mars but weren't sure of. Also, its fragments were found quickly, so it hasn't been too contaminated by elements on Earth. It's also one of only five Martian meteorites that was observed hitting the Earth.
Scientists have just begun to tease out its story.
"Whenever I pick up a meteorite," says Smith, "I get excited. Each of those stones is a little time capsule and a little space probe to actually help us understand how our solar system formed."
But the piece in London is just one of many that broke off Tissint as it hurtled through Earth's atmosphere. Where they ended up is a story that begins in Morocco.
Meteorite scientist Hasnaa Chennaoui Aoudjehane at Hassan II Casablanca University had heard news of the fireball that lit up the sky in the summer of 2011. Last January she traveled 700 miles from Casablanca, over the Sahara, to find the "strewn field" — where pieces spread across the sand. She was not the first one there. "The first thing that I see is hundreds of people in the middle of nowhere. And this is something that I will never forget."
Men, women and children were camped out, hunting for the pieces. Meteorites are often found in North Africa — unusual rocks stand out in the desert — and they bring a good price.
People brought pieces to her to identify. "On the first view of the first sample, it's clear that it's a Martian meteorite," she says. Professional dealers scooped up most of the pieces. Aoudjehane bought some small pieces for her university in Casablanca, where laboratory tests confirmed what she'd recognized on sight — Martian rock. She's a co-author on the paper in Science.
About the time Aoudjehane was collecting pieces, a meteorite collector and dealer in New York City named Darryl Pitt got a tip about fragments of Mars for sale. Pitt, who is curator of the Macovich Collection of meteorites, got money from a group of investors. A Moroccan dealer sold him a piece, dispatching his au pair to fly with it to New York City. "Immediately after she clears customs, she reaches into her purse and gives me a packet and I'm looking around and looking at the cameras and thinking, 'Oh my golly, this is going to be a problem.' " Not that it was illegal; the transaction just made it look suspicious.
Pitt bought or brokered the sale of more pieces, including the one that went to the London's Natural History Museum. "It's important to make the material available to scientists and researchers first and foremost," he says. Collectors like Pitt have the time and means to cultivate contacts in places like Morocco, where the trade has flourished, especially among the Berber nomads. "Several of these fellows that I know have become rich. A couple own hotels now. They're no longer trekking the desert. ... it's been really fantastic."
The museum's Caroline Smith agrees that collectors and scientists do help each other — the collectors to find meteorites, the scientists to analyze them. "I would be not telling the truth if I said there was no tension with anything where large amounts of money is involved," she says. "But I would like to stress that, you know, on the whole relationships are very good, it's a mutually beneficial arrangement in many cases." The trade does push up prices, sometimes beyond what scientists can afford. But Smith says sometimes collectors sell them to museums at a discount.
On Sunday, a piece of Tissint will be offered at a meteorite auction in Manhattan. It's billed as the biggest ever, and Pitt helped Heritage Auctions arrange it. There are pieces from the moon and from the asteroid belt. But Pitt says the Martian meteorites are the stars because they are so rare. All told on Earth, he says, "You're talking like about 300 pounds of material. That's it. Mars is among the rarest substances on Earth."
The Tissint fragment at the auction starts at $230,000. As for potential buyers, Pitt says they're "most anyone who has an appreciation for the exotic, the romantic. Anyone who wants to enthrall a child or anyone's sense of wonder. Radio hosts? Everyone." Pitt notes that the piece at the auction actually fits exactly into the piece at the London museum. He's hoping whoever buys it will reunite the two. | <urn:uuid:3b39cdc3-16a0-4ea5-990c-b8ddc934816f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nipr.fm/post/sale-chunk-mars | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970127 | 1,329 | 3.03125 | 3 |
As Ivory Coast's renegade President Laurent Gbagbo shrugs off international attempts to isolate his regime, smugglers continue to export 'blood diamonds' in contravention of a United Nations ban.
Freetown, Sierra Leone
"Blood diamonds" have been eradicated in every part of the world, save one: Ivory Coast, the small West African nation that now stands on the brink of returning to civil war.
Smugglers in Ivory Coast continue to carry illicit diamonds across the country's porous borders despite a United Nations ban on exports of the stones. Revenues from the illegal trade are probably buying arms for the New Forces rebel group in the north, even as the southern half of the country remains fixed in an increasingly violent political standoff in which renegade incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo refuses to hand power to President-elect Alassane Ouattara.
Exports of "blood diamonds" have underwritten grisly civil conflicts in Africa for more than 15 years, most famously in Angola, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. To combat the trade, the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme was established in 2003 and has been widely hailed as a success. But even though the diamond-funded conflicts of the 1990s are over and most of the countries involved now mine and export diamonds legally, Ivory Coast remains the one exception.
"[Ivory Coast] is the only country where, strictly speaking, you do have conflict diamonds," says Stéphane Chardon, the chairman of the Kimberley Process's Working Group on Monitoring. "I think this is a very volatile situation. At this stage, the main goal is to prevent [Ivorian] diamonds from contributing to any wrongdoing."
A country divided | <urn:uuid:e0e6e731-5167-4abd-b1e7-6033b26cf344> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://m.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/2011/0123/As-Ivory-Coast-s-Gbagbo-holds-firm-blood-diamonds-flow-for-export | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94088 | 346 | 2.0625 | 2 |
At #python.web we warn against using mod_python. Here's a handful of the reasons:
- It complicates your upgrade process, as versions of Python, Apache, and mod_python must be coordinated. The appropriate versions are not always available for some combinations.
- It makes user separation or chrooting of webapps impossible.
If you're using PHP and mod_python, and you're using MySQL in both languages, you generally must coordinate versions of MySQL as well, or suffer lots of configuration headaches. The same applies for many other popular C libraries.
- Apache's processes will be heavier because you're embedding a python interpreter in it.
- Debugging a wsgi app is a lot easier.
- mod_python is a module for Apache, which is tested less than other well known Apache modules such as mod_proxy. Because of this reason the server administrator (which might not be you) might not want to install this module for security reasons.
- You wont find a lot of hosting companies offering mod_python, which makes wsgi applications (which can be deployed through several ways) very flexible in your quest for a hosting company.
- Using nginx as a front-end is usually a more speedy and flexible solution.
When using mod_python.publisher you have to keep in mind that any object globaly accessible with string representation is exposed to the web except you add an underscore in front. If not thought on ahead this kills your code in notime (so make sure to read this first | <urn:uuid:d45b25d5-a60c-4eaf-8879-ee651c714c84> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wiki.python.org/moin/PoundPythonWeb/mod_python?highlight=(CategoryHomepage) | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.906087 | 319 | 2 | 2 |
Does Your Future Lie in Architecture? (Jan, 1930)
Does Your Future Lie in Architecture?
Advantage of architecture as a profession is primarily that it is creative work and permits exercise of imagination and requires a broad and accurate knowledge of many things in designing buildings to meet requirements.
By F. M. MANN
Professor of Architecture, University of Minnesota Fifth of a series to help you in choosing a vocation.
AN ARCHITECT is a person who designs buildings to meet special requirements. He strives to meet the needs so perfectly that his buildings may become beautiful. His designs are not merely picture on paper, but an image in his mind of the building actually translated into material form. To build this image in his mind he must think through every part of it and ultimately show his conception by drawings in order that his client and the builder may see and understand it. Design therefore, involves many things including planning and construction, selection of materials, equipment and the working out of every part in detail. The architect’s work also includes the supervision and much of the business and organization of the process of producing the actual building from his design.
After the architect receives a commission to produce a building he first studies the uses which it is to serve. He determines with his client the economic limit of cost which the purpose requires and warrants. He often helps select a proper site and then studies its physical character, its contour, its surroundings, its exposure to the cardinal points of the compass, finds out what its available heating, lighting, power and other services are. He also informs himself fully as to the requirements of the proposed uses of the building and to the means by which all such requirements may be met. He then proceeds to work out various possible plans and in conference with his client finally develops a plan that seems to his client and to himself to meet all requirements in the most perfect way possible. After the plan is developed he selects the materials to be used and works out the general exterior appearance best suited to the purpose of the building. From the beginning he must consider how the various parts can be constructed most simply, and economically. Thus far the work is in what can be called the preliminary stage. When the form of the building and its parts becomes definite he must begin to calculate each part for strength and economy and, in order to make the building fit its requirements practically, he must perfect all forms and proportions. If it perfectly fits its purpose his design begins to give a degree of satisfaction beyond the utilitarian and takes on elements of beauty. Thus far the architect has perfected his conception or “design” and perhaps determined the exact size and strength of all structural members.
In order to translate this design into material form many drawings are required and the office draftsmen are called upon to lay out the various parts to exact scale. Even on relatively simple buildings many sheets of drawings are necessary and on large buildings the number of drawings often runs into hundreds.
Meanwhile the mechanical requirements are studied and developed. These include heating, ventilation, plumbing and electrical equipment, all of which must not only be calculated, but must be completely shown on drawings.
When the drawings reach a stage of substantial completion the specifications are begun. The specifications exactly describe the materials and methods that are to be used and followed in the construction of the building. When drawings and specifications have been completed and approved by the owner, bids are invited from building contractors and are received usually at the architect’s office. These bids are then studied and analyzed and a report prepared for the owner, who, in consultation with the architect, determines which bid is most advantageous. The architect then prepares agreement documents, and the contractor selected and the owner sign these and the actual building operation is ready to begin.
During the construction work the architect supervises the work at the building both to see that the plans and specifications are being followed in detail and to explain and interpret their intention to the builder.
I have stated the above to indicate the complexity and responsibility involved in the architect’s work.
The advantage of architecture as a profession is primarily that it is creative work and permits the exercise of imagination, acknowledged to be one of the finest of human faculties, and requires a broad and accurate knowledge of many things. The architect’s work also includes the business of organizing and directing the complicated operations of building.
If the young man entering the profession of architecture has the aim to arrive at a high place in the profession where he will win fame, the responsibilities and the corresponding emoluments of a large practice, he must expect advancement toward his goal to be slow. The same may be said of high places in any other profession or business. As to earnings, a man is paid in proportion to the service he renders.
The importance of architecture in human activities is obviously great. Shelter is a primary necessity and beyond common necessity happiness and efficiency are dependent upon pleasant environment and are increased by the element of beauty. The architect has to do with all of these. His ideal is to create beauty as well as to satisfy the requirements of utility. | <urn:uuid:5d89df84-26e0-4505-ba2a-869985c8bb88> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.modernmechanix.com/does-your-future-lie-in-architecture/1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977185 | 1,029 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Explore The central plains
Set at the confluence of two rivers, the Kwai Noi and the Kwai Yai, the provincial capital of KANCHANABURI makes the perfect getaway from Bangkok, a two- to three-hour bus ride away. With its rich wartime history, plentiful supply of traveller-oriented accommodation and countless possibilities for easy forays into the surrounding countryside, there are plenty of reasons to linger here, and many visitors end up staying longer than planned. The big appeal is the river: that it’s the famous River Kwai is a bonus, but the more immediate attractions are the guesthouses whose rooms overlook the waterway, many of them offering fine views of the jagged limestone peaks beyond.
The heart of Kanchanaburi’s ever-expanding travellers’ scene dominates the southern end of Thanon Maenam Kwai (also spelt Kwae) and is within easy reach of the train station, but the real town centre is some distance away, running north from the bus station up the town’s main drag, Thanon Saeng Chuto. Between this road and the river you’ll find most of the town’s war sights, with the infamous Bridge over the River Kwai marking the northern limit. Every day, tour groups and day-trippers descend on the Bridge, a symbol of Japanese atrocities in the region, though the town’s main war museums and cemeteries are actually much more moving. Many veterans returning to visit the graves of their wartime comrades are understandably resentful that others have in some cases insensitively exploited the POW experience – the commercial buzz around the Bridge is a case in point. On the other hand, the Thailand–Burma Railway Centre provides shockingly instructive accounts of a period not publicly documented outside this region.
The Chungkai war cemetery and a handful of moderately interesting temples – including cave temples at Wat Tham Khao Poon and Wat Ban Tham, the hilltop twins of Wat Tham Sua and Wat Tham Khao Noi, and a wat featuring a rather bizarre floating nun – provide the focus for pleasurable trips west of the town centre.
It’s worth noting that Kanchanaburi gets packed during its annual son et lumière
River Kwai Bridge Festival, held over ten nights from the end of November to commemorate the first Allied bombing of the Bridge on November 28, 1944, so book accommodation well ahead if you’re planning a visit then.
The Bridge over the River Kwai
The Bridge over the River Kwai
For most people, the plain steel arches of the Bridge over the River Kwai come as a disappointment: as a war memorial it lacks both the emotive punch of the museums and the perceptible drama of spots further up the line, and as a bridge it looks nothing out of the ordinary – certainly not as awesomely hard to construct as it appears in David Lean’s famous 1957 film, Bridge on the River Kwai (which was in fact shot in Sri Lanka). But it is the link with the multi-Oscar-winning film, of course, that draws tour buses by the dozen, and makes the Bridge approach seethe with trinket-sellers and touts. For all the commercialization of the place, however, you can’t really come to the Kwai and not see it.
The fording of the Kwai Yai at the point just north of Kanchanaburi known as Tha Makkham was one of the first major obstacles in the construction of the Thailand–Burma Railway. Sections of a steel bridge were brought up from Java and reassembled by POWs using only pulleys and derricks. A temporary wooden bridge was built alongside it, taking its first train in February 1943; three months later the steel bridge was finished. Both bridges were severely damaged by Allied bombers (rather than commando-saboteurs as in the film) in 1944 and 1945, but the steel bridge was repaired after the war and is still in use today. The best way to see the Bridge is by walking gingerly across the tracks, or taking the train right over it: the Kanchanaburi–Nam Tok service crosses it three times a day in each direction, stopping briefly at the River Kwai Bridge station on the east bank of the river.
The Death Railway
The Death Railway
Shortly after entering World War II in December 1941, Japan, fearing an Allied blockade of the Bay of Bengal, began looking for an alternative supply route to connect its newly acquired territories that stretched from Singapore to the Burma–India border. In spite of the almost impenetrable terrain, the River Kwai basin was chosen as the route for a new Thailand–Burma Railway, the aim being to join the existing terminals of Nong Pladuk in Thailand and Thanbuyazat in Burma – a total distance of 415km.
About sixty thousand Allied POWs were shipped up from captured Southeast Asian territories to work on the link, their numbers later augmented by as many as two hundred thousand conscripted Asian labourers. Work began at both ends in June 1942. Three million cubic metres of rock were shifted and 14km of bridges built with little else but picks and shovels, dynamite and pulleys. By the time the line was completed, fifteen months later, it had more than earned its nickname, the Death Railway: an estimated sixteen thousand POWs and hundred thousand Asian labourers died while working on it.
The appalling conditions and Japanese brutality were the consequences of the samurai code: Japanese soldiers abhorred the disgrace of imprisonment – to them, ritual suicide was the only honourable option open to a prisoner – and therefore considered that Allied POWs had forfeited any rights as human beings. Food rations were meagre for men forced into backbreaking eighteen-hour shifts, often followed by night-long marches to the next camp. Many suffered from beriberi, many more died of dysentery-induced starvation, but the biggest killers were cholera and malaria, particularly during the monsoon. It is said that one man died for every sleeper laid on the track.
The two lines finally met at Konkuita, just south of present-day Sangkhlaburi. But as if to underscore its tragic futility, the Thailand–Burma link saw less than two years of active service: after the Japanese surrender on August 15, 1945, the railway came under the jurisdiction of the British who, thinking it would be used to supply Karen separatists in Burma, tore up 4km of track at Three Pagodas Pass, thereby cutting the Thailand–Burma link forever. When the Thais finally gained control of the rest of the railway, they destroyed the track all the way down to Nam Tok, apparently because it was uneconomic. Recently, however, an Australian–Thai group of volunteers and former POWs has salvaged sections of track near the fearsome stretch of line known as Hellfire Pass, clearing a memorial walk at the pass and founding an excellent museum at the site. There have been a number of books written about the Death Railway, including several by former POWs; the Thailand–Burma Railway Centre stocks a selection, as do the town’s bookshops. | <urn:uuid:a5f1d0a7-44b5-476c-ab58-fda609496444> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.roughguides.com/destinations/asia/thailand/central-plains/kanchanaburi/?wpfpaction=add&postid=23364 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967713 | 1,502 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Art and barbarism, is that a theme? Up at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the new esthetic blockbuster "Barcelona and Modernity: Gaudí to Dalí," Mar. 7-June 3, 2007, begins with Belle Epoque café society and ends with Fascism, literally moving from Pablo Picasso’s Le Moulin de la Galette (made in 1890, when the artist was 19) to a large final gallery containing studies for Guernica (1937), a model of Josep Lluís Sert’s Pavilion of the Spanish Republic at the 1937 Paris International Exposition -- mounted during the tragic Spanish Civil War -- and several red-and-black anti-Fascist posters featuring huge swastikas.
It’s like an art-world version of Cabaret. The show includes lots of fancy decorative arts, for those who like that sort of thing, but most impressive is its demonstration of the power of the big three of Catalan painting -- Picasso, Joan Miró and Salvador Dalí -- especially when their painterly fires were fanned by the winds of war. Installed side by side, Miró’s Still Life with Old Shoe (1937) and Dalí’s Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War) (1936) positively glow with historical passions that are political as well as esthetic. Nearby is a bronze Raised Left Hand (ca. 1942) by Julio González, a classic modernist image of supplication.
A more contemporary barbarism is the subtext of "Dateline Israel: New Photography and Video Art," Mar. 10-Aug. 5, 2007, a show at the Jewish Museum of works by 23 artists -- including a single Palestinian -- that address issues of "contested land" and "religious ideology" in Israel since 2000. Very little overt propaganda is on hand; rather, the works take a pensive, even mournful tone, with sympathy overwhelmingly shown for the ordinary people whose lives are upturned by forces -- government and military forces -- beyond their control.
The sense of inevitability, even though it’s of the human-engineered sort, is provided by Wall by London-based artist Catherine Yass. The 30-minute-long looped video simply follows the tall, concrete barrier constructed after the 2000 intifada, sometimes up close, other times from a distance.
Another striking work in the show is Guy and Ranit, Israel, 2003, a photograph by the New York photojournalist Gillian Laub of a young Israeli whose legs were blown off by a roadside bomb. "I am happy, strong and healthy," says Guy, via the wall label. "I believe that we all have an extreme internal power that is released only in these situations." This kind of image -- young men with missing lower limbs -- is rare in the U.S. but promises to become commonplace, thanks to the Iraq war.
Barbarism is the ostensible subject of Eve Sussman’s The Rape of the Sabine Women, the much-anticipated second film from the maker of the stunning 89 Seconds at Alcazar that, in the end, has not exactly garnered stellar reviews. As a formal exercise, the work has a certain style -- if you remove dialogue from a film, you are essentially left with the "blocking," or a dance. The grand finale, a bacchanalian orgy that is reminiscent of Carolee Schneemann’s Meat Joy of 1964, is worth the 80-minute wait, which includes choreographed scenes of men in suits reading newspapers in a station waiting room, women in 1960s dress lounging about an art moderne home, and women being snatched from the frame, cartoon-style, in a crowded Greek market.
But as a meditation on a classic tale of duplicity and murder, the work is less satisfying. The original Sabine Women is a horrible story -- the Romans slit the throats of their male hosts and kidnap their wives and daughters -- the kind of fable that civilized people tell themselves to place horror in the myth-shrouded past and prove just how far they have come. But (as ever?), the barbarism behind The Sabine Women is all too close today, whether at Guantanamo Bay or in Baghdad. What is to be done?
At any rate, Wall’s cryptic images become much more interesting once you realize that he is toying with pictorial conventions in the manner of Manet, Tintoretto and Velazquez. Many of his photographs are in fact photo-pastiches of famous artworks past. For instance, Wall’s Picture for Women (1979), a pared-down scene of a young man (Wall himself) and a woman looking out at the viewer, refers to Edouard Manet’s famous A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1881-82).
I seem to remember one of the critics complaining that Manet’s barmaid has downcast eyes -- she actually gazes askance at the invisible customer with perfectly pitched anomie -- and that the customer isn’t in the painting -- he’s to the right, visible in the mirror. Amusingly, Manet’s picture contains brown bottles with the still-recognizable Bass Ale logo, which is just one bit of the kind of clutter that is absent in Wall’s version of the picture. Wall seems to posit the photographic "picture plane" as congruent with the mirror that he presumably used to photograph the scene, though who knows, it could all be a ruse.
Many of his images, much reproduced, are less than thrilling. A Sudden Gust of Wind (after Hokusai) (1993) is a yawn, as is his illustration of a scene from Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, a set piece showing a shabby apartment with hundreds of light bulbs on the ceiling. Dead Troops Talk (1992), which confounds a scene of fallen soldiers in Afghanistan with a comic "Living Dead" horror movie, is in poor taste, to say the least.
Other photographs snap into place. His still-lifes, which usually use low-rent settings, are richly textured. A Donkey in Blackpool (1999), a photo of a sleepy animal in an airless stall, invokes a contemporary nativity (though it is said, less interestingly, to be a citation of George Stubbs as well), while The Crooked Path (1991), an edge-of-the-city field with a footpath snaking through the grass, suggests the viewer’s gaze zigzagging deep into the picture. Neither work is in the show, but The Storyteller (1986) is, and it’s a great channeling of both Henri Matisse’s The Music (1910) and Manet’s Le Dejeuner (1862-63) by a scene of immigrants posed under a highway overpass.
Wall enlists a naturalistic vocabulary to make -- what? -- cryptic conceptual art? -- and so does Lorna Simpson, a latter-day story artist whose captioned photographs, sculptures and videos are currently on view at the Whitney Museum. The emblematic image for the show is poetically multivalent, featuring a woman in a white shift, seen from the back, pouring water from a gallon plastic jug in one hand (like a refugee) and from a silver pitcher in the other (like a servant). An allegory of the African diaspora? The caption added beneath the picture further complicates the reading.
Simpson has a strong feel for seductive textures, as is shown by the photographic images printed on large sheets of pale felt, and a pronounced interest in social melodrama, often with erotic or ribald overtones. Typically, a long-distance image of an urban building or park scene is paired with a short caption that alludes to a secret rendezvous. A couple of the film installations are almost entertaining, as young women complain about how foolish their suitors are, or suggest that their male friends are less than completely masculine. Simpson’s men don’t come off that well.
But the majority of the works involve emblems of blackness, like African hair and hairstyles; a couple of them involve jazz. Overall, the work is highly refined, and the exhibition is striking in the way that it takes over the museum space and opens up a new world of people of color. It’s a very stylish world, esthetic and educated and utterly bourgeois -- dare we say "white bread?" -- it’s just that none of its inhabitants are white. It’s different, needless to say, and very interesting.
Another show that was greeted with a certain amount of enthusiasm was "Not for Sale," which opened in February at P.S.1, a show of two dozen or so artworks that the artists who made them have decided to keep. My hopes for insight into the art market were dashed -- artists keep works back for obvious and mundane reasons. And, come to think of it, art shown at nonprofit space like P.S.1 is not typically "for sale," whatever the title of the show.
Instead, "Not for Sale" demonstrates something about curating. It is an example of the kind of old-school alternative-space exhibitionism that P.S.1 was founded on and that you’d think might fall by the wayside now that the place has become part of a real museum. That is, this show doesn’t pursue an art-historical or theoretical premise, but rather results from the curator -- P.S.1 chief Alanna Heiss -- calling up people whose names are in her Rolodex. As we all know too well, that’s how all too many contemporary shows are organized, anyway.
In any case, the show’s pretext gives every work a social subtext. David Salle presumably kept his classic painting from the ‘80s because it includes a portrait of his one-time wife and muse, Karole Armitage, while it’s fun to imagine that Mark di Suvero retained his sculptural chair because it was, well, just a little too "applied art" to let it out there with all his fabulously cosmic abstractions.
Also good to see are works by longtime downtown Manhattan residents who were on the scene when Heiss was just beginning to forge her empire of cast-off industrial spaces, including the now all-but-forgotten Idea Warehouse on Reade Street and the Clocktower on lower Broadway. One such old-timer is Minimalist sculptor Richard Nonas, who contributes a strangely muscular rusted steel donut. "Salome’s Bell / Babtisto’s Well is not for sale," Nonas writes in the caption accompanying his sculpture, "because it is the first rough single-part steel chunk-piece I could hold an empty room with, and the only sculpture that has threatened me every day for 20 years in ways I still do not understand."
Also out at P.S.1, in one of the classrooms devoted to solo shows, is an installation of works by Stefan Eins from his new, global museum-without-walls, the Museum of One. I first met the guy in 1975, when he operated the 3 Mercer Street store, a tiny storefront near Canal in SoHo, where he showed a pair of shoes by Sherrie Levine as well as a rubber-band-powered mechanical bird imported from China, among many other things. Later, in the 1980s, he opened Fashion Moda in the South Bronx, in a storefront that wasn’t 100 percent habitable.
More recently, Eins has been chronicling his own kind of pataphysics, capturing primordially biomorphic images in accidental applications of paint that are akin to Surrealist frottage. At P.S.1 he has several new photographic exhibits, including one depicting an irregular composite patch in a Greenwich Village sidewalk that glitters with an otherworldly purplish hue, and another that documents the discovery of a purple paint stain that replicates the profile of President Bill Clinton -- miraculously found at a location not far from his office on 125th Street.
Also out in Brooklyn, though at a considerably smaller alternative space located in Williamsburg -- Momenta Art, at 359 Bedford Avenue by South 4th Street -- was a show of ink drawings, gouaches and brightly colored ceramics by Elisabeth Kley, an artist who sometimes writes art criticism (including for this magazine, occasionally). Kley is fascinated with divas, people like Jack Smith, Ethyl Eichelberger and Candy Darling, subjects who are perfect for our celebrity-addled time, in which identity becomes real only when it is a media construction.
With drag-queen divas like these, the subject is twice removed from any pretense of authenticity. These characters -- peacocks, really, another one of Kley’s subjects -- are rendered in a hyper-stylized line that is reminiscent of the lesser modes of 1950s décor. It’s as if Kley has turned to a manner of illustration as patently artificial and exotic as her subjects.
The exhibition also features Kley’s ceramics, decorated vases and tabletop fountains made in the form of Eastern palazzos. Here, art is like a vase, a container for flowers -- in other words, a way to make nature into a stylish and artificial objet d’art.
Back over in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood is an exhibition of new works by Cary Leibowitz at Alexander Gray Associates, located in the big gallery building at 526 West 26th Street. For more than 20 years, sometimes under the name Candyass, Leibowitz has pursued his uniquely homoerotic muse, happily playing the role of the sole male "abject" artist. His is a flaming, typographically fey version of the sans-serif texts of hard-core Conceptual Art. That in itself should be rationale enough.
This time around, Leibowitz has several paintings in enamel on sturdy sheets of plywood -- a pink painting with the words "I Love Warhol Piss Paintings," a round painting ringed by geeky knit caps and titled Tondo Schmondo Fran Drescher Fan Club, and a pair of Gay Pride rainbows, called Sad Rainbow, Happy Rainbow. Also on hand are some oversized buttons, scarves and cushions, printed with the same sentiments. Prices range from $36 for a button to $14,000 for a painting. A scarf reading "I Love Warhol Piss Paintings" is $135.
Across the street at Lombard-Freid Projects, the Iranian-born U.S. artist Tala Madani is having her first solo show of paintings, and it seems rather successful. A recent Yale grad who is soon to take a residency at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam, Madani makes mocking, cartoonish-but-precise images of Iranian men engaged in argument, homoerotic encounters and, most provocative of all, religious ritual. God’s beneficence, for instance, which is typically depicted as a shower of gold, here resembles a shower of piss. Many of the paintings are sold, with the smallest works starting at $2,000 and the large paintings going for $18,000.
Further downtown, on West 13th Street, the Bohen Foundation is presenting new work by the British artist Rachel Howard, who recently had a sold-out exhibition of her works at Gagosian Gallery in Los Angeles. The present series of paintings and works on paper is based on images of hanged women that she found on the internet. Some of the figures are shown hanging from the rafters. Others have hung themselves simply by bending their knees (what is called, in a term of art, the "short drop").
Many of the figures are nude, which suggests a whole new kind of relation of the artist to his or her model. But suicidal women, Howard explains, often do the deed undressed, as if to enter the afterworld cleansed of earthly accoutrements. Her paintings of these images are slick and impressionistic, and look as if they had been uniformly wiped with a squeegee. In fact, Howard has tipped the paintings up and allowed gravity to pull the image down. The accompanying drawings of the subjects, by contrast, are brutal in their linear economy.
One might expect a British artist to pursue such a sensational subject, but Howard takes a somber view of the whole business. "To see these tragic moments plastered on the web is shocking -- I feel a responsibility to these people, I want to move them to a different space." The drawings are $1,000, someone said, though you would have to contact Howard’s gallery in London, Haunch of Venison.
Megadealer Larry Gagosian, who currently operates galleries in New York, Los Angeles and London, is opening a new branch in Rome, in a building midway between the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain. The space may debut in June, they say, with a show of Richard Prince.
Kaikai Kiki, the artists’ agency set up by Takashi Murakami, has added a new artist to its roster -- Akane Koide, who showed her precise, dreamy images of young women at Geisai #10 and who recently collaborated with the Tokyo Girls fashion group.
Coming out soon, Real Life Magazine: Selected Writings and Projects, 1979-1994, a compilation of articles from the underground art mag co-edited by Thomas Lawson, now dean of California Institute of the Arts, and including a seminal text by yours truly, titled "The Quest for Failure." Co-editor of the new imprint is Miriam Katzeff.
Painter Joanne Greenbaum is off to the art colony in Marfa, Texas, as painter-in-residence for two months at either the Judd Foundation or the Chinati Foundation (or both, who can tell which).
Video artist Brody Condon, who shows with Virgil de Voldere Gallery here in New York, is slated to have a project room exhibition at the Santa Monica Museum of Art next January.
Even though the New York Times gave Marc Handelman’s show of giant abstractions at Sikkema Jenkins & Co. one of those bad reviews that takes your breath away -- how about "essentially academic pastiches of known motifs executed with unimaginative diligence"? -- it was too late. The pictures had already sold out at prices approaching $50,000.
The new blog for art-world insiders is Artworld Salon, overseen by art-journalist Mark Spiegler. . . . To keep up with author Michael Gross, who is working on a book about Philippe de Montebello and the Metropolitan Museum, check his Gripebox blog. . . . For art news up Boston way, see Charles Giuliano’s Berkshire Fine Arts blog . . . . Fans of toilet humor can check out artist Gavin Turd in the online Saatchi Gallery, where he has a series of "Last Supper" photos -- can you guess what’s in the pictures?
Spotted together at the International Center of Photography, the tweed brothers -- artist Duncan Hannah and critic Adrian Dannatt. Who says style is dead?
WALTER ROBINSON is editor of Artnet Magazine. | <urn:uuid:6b102282-65db-4c2a-8ae9-23911797d55c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/reviews/robinson/robinson3-9-07.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951918 | 4,081 | 1.96875 | 2 |
Global Earth Observations (5-24-05)
In July 2003, thirty-three nations plus the European Commission declared their committment to building a comprehensive and coordinated earth observation system. According to a ten year plan, satellites, ocean buoys, and terrestrial measurement stations will be coordinated alongside a new generation of monitoring systems such as unmanned drones. The goal of the project is to vastly improve the quality of information and knowledge about dynamic earth, ocean, and atmospheric processes for a number of societal and ecological benefits. The project values integration of observed information because of a shared understanding about the interconnected systematic nature of earth processes.
On April 27, 2005 the National Research Council (NRC) released an interim report on Earth Observations and Applications From Space, which finds that federal Earth science programs may be threatened by recent changes in executive policy and federal budget support, particularly at NASA. With the approaching FY 2006 and FY 2007 budgets, House Science Committee staff requested the release of the NRC's initial findings to "provide an early indication of urgent, near-term issues that may require attention" before publication of the committee's final decadal survey, which will be completed by the end of 2006.
The Council's report states that, "at NASA, the vitality of Earth science and application programs has been placed at substantial risk by a rapidly shrinking budget that no longer supports already-approved missions and programs of high scientific and societal relevance." Driven by the President's Vision for Space Exploration, NASA may be jeopardizing other Presidential obligations, such as the Climate Change Research Initiative and leadership in a Global Earth Observing System of Systems (GEOSS).
The NRC makes several recommendations in the report to address several delayed, descoped or canceled Earth observing satellite missions. The NRC primarily recommends that the Global Precipitation Measurements (GPM) mission be launched without delay and that the Atmospheric Sounding from Geostationary Orbit (GIFTS) mission be launched by 2008. The GPM mission is an international collaborative effort to improve climate, weather, and hydrological predictions by taking more accurate and frequent precipitation measurements. Intended to be the successor to the successful Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), GPM has been delayed several times by NASA. GIFTS will provide high-temporal-resolution measurements of atmospheric temperatures and water vapor. These measurements will help with the detection of rapid atmospheric changes associated with destructive weather events. Built at a cost of about $100 million, GIFTS has been canceled for a variety of reasons.
The report also urges that the Ocean Vector Winds, Landsat Data Continuity and Glory missions be reconsidered. The Ocean Vector Winds mission will monitor global ocean surface vector winds, which have implications for enhanced severe storm warning and El Nino predictions. Landsat has successfully collected data on Earth's continental surfaces for over 30 years, supporting science research, state and local governments with the longest continuous record of the changing Earth's surface as seen from space. The Glory mission was developed to measure aerosol properties and quantify their effect on climate. Aerosols are a significant source of uncertainty in climate predictions. Glory would also monitor the total solar irradiance or how the Sun's energy output varies to help estimate the effects of solar variations on climate change.
On May 28, 2005, the House Science Committee held a hearing
to address the shortfalls in federal Earth Science programs as set
forth by the NRC. Click
here to read the Committee's hearing charter. (5/24/05)
At the third Earth Observation Summit in Brussels on February 16,
2005 sixty nations agreed to expand and integrate their own earth
observing capabilities into a single, global data-sharing network
and all-hazards warning system. This Global Earth Observation System
of Systems (GEOSS) was also endorsed by forty international organizations
at the summit. (2/21/05)
At a Washington, D.C. summit on July 31, 2003, thirty-three nations plus the European Commission adopted a declaration that signifies political commitment to move toward development of a comprehensive, coordinated, and sustained Earth observation system(s). According to the Group on Earth Observations, "The participants affirmed the need for timely, quality, long-term, global information as a basis for sound decision making. In order to monitor continuously the state of the Earth, to increase understanding of dynamic Earth processes, to enhance prediction of the Earth system, and to further implement environmental treaty obligations, participants recognized the need to support the creation of a comprehensive, coordinated, and sustained Earth observing system or systems." Another summit took place in Tokyo, Japan, in April 2004, where the Framework Document for a 10-Year Implementation Plan for hatched. The project was officially named the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS).
In September of 2004, the Bush administration gave the green light to the U.S. Integrated Earth Observation System (IEOS), the U.S. component of GEOSS. On September 8, 2004, the National Science and Technology Council's Interagency Working Group on Earth Observations (IWGEO), comprising representatives from 16 U.S. federal agencies, released its Draft Strategic Plan, a preliminary blueprint for the construction and integration of global observational technology over the next 10 years.
The U.S. co-chairs GEOSS along with the European Commission, Japan, and South Africa. Vice Admiral Conrad Lautenbacher Jr., the head administrator of NOAA, and Chip Groat, Director of USGS, lead the U.S. delegation. They and the delegations from the participating countries will meet in February 2005 in Brussels to further coordinate the international effort.
Scott Rayder, the Chief of Staff for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration told Greenwire on September 9, "While not strictly a climate change program, expanding climate observations is a key driver of EOS we need more data, and we need better data on how the systems on the planet work". In addition to climate observation, the report outlines nine principle benefits to society including improved monitoring and managing of natural disasters, ecosystem health and diversity, ocean and fresh water resources, and disease control. Rayder told Greenwire that U.S. investment in the IEOS will probably range in the billions of dollars as it envisions a significant leap forward in observational technology in the next decade.
Sources: Interagency Working Group on Earth Observations, Group on Earth Observations, Greenwire
Contributed by David R. Millar 2004 AGI/AAPG Fall Intern, Katie Ackerly,
2005 AGI/AAPG Spring Intern, and Amanda Schneck, 2005 AGI/AIPG Summer
Please send any comments or requests
for information to AGI Government Affairs
Last updated on May 24, 2005. | <urn:uuid:946c6834-88e8-49c0-b647-fba31147110c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.agiweb.org/gap/legis109/earthobservation_cont.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.910554 | 1,391 | 3.4375 | 3 |
With Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, Paris, 1935-1937; with Karl Nierendorf, Nierendorf Gallery, New York, 1937-1943 ; on consignment to Galka E. Scheyer (1889-1945), San Francisco and Los Angeles ; sold to Louis Blembel, [Los Angeles?], 1943 . With Stendahl Art Galleries, Los Angeles, as of August 1948 (from Blembel?) ; sold to Louise and Walter C. Arensberg, Los Angeles, September 28, 1948 ; gift to PMA, 1950.
1. Kahnweiler shipped the painting to Karl Nierendorf in New York on November 19, 1937 (information provided by Dr. Christian Rümelin, director, Catalogue raisonné Paul Klee, letter in curatorial file). As is evident from Nierendorf's correspondence with Earl Stendahl of the Stendahl Art Galleries (Archives of American Art), at the time of the 1941 Klee exhibition organized by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which traveled to San Francisco and Los Angeles, Nierendorf sent the painting, along with thirteen others, on consignment to Galka Scheyer in California. Probably shortly after the exhibition, she or Nierendorf lent the painting to John Huston on approval as a prospective buyer; when Huston left for military service around 1942 he returned the painting to Scheyer without buying it. In the meantime, after major disagreements Nierendorf had cancelled his business agreement with Scheyer. He attempted to retrieve this and other paintings he had with her, without success. Nierendorf was still trying to get the paintings back, or at least prevent her from selling them, when he wrote to Stendahl on February 9, 1943, that he had received an offer for the painting from Scheyer, who had found a buyer for it. Later, on February 23, he wrote Stendahl that "in spite of my protests she has sold Klee's 'Red Roof'," to a buyer she apparently did not disclose to him (see copies of correspondence in curatorial file).
2. A photo of ca. 1943 shows the painting hanging in Scheyer's house; see Sandback, "Blue Heights Drive," Artforum, v. 28, no. 7, p. 124.
3. According to the curatorial records, "Property of Louis Blembel" was written in pencil on the back of the frame; however, because the painting has been reframed the name cannot be verified. The same person (apparently a young man; Scheyer refers to him as a 'boy') bought two works by Lyonel Feininger from Scheyer in 1944, an oil entitled 'Fishing Cutter' of 1940 and a watercolor called 'Shelter Cove' of 1939. Scheyer mentions in a letter to Feininger of August 5, 1944, that Blembel "fell in love before" with a beautiful Klee which he paid for in installments -- undoubtedly "But the Red Roof!". The architect Rudolph M. Schindler built a house in Hollywood for a L. Blembel in 1949, possibly the same person.
4. Stendahl offered the painting to Curt Valentin of the Buchholz Gallery in a letter of August 25, 1948 (Stendahl Art Galleries records, Archives of American Art).
5. Receipt of this date from Stendahl Galleries in curatorial file (original in Arensberg Archives). A note in the curatorial file records a conversation with Stendahl, April 8, 1954, in which Stendahl said that he sold the painting to Walter Arensberg five or six years previously and that it came from Galka Scheyer's collection, who originally offered it to Arensberg.
Social Tags [?]
There are currently no user tags associated with this object.
[Add Your Own Tags
* Works in the collection are moved off view for many different reasons. Although gallery locations on the website are updated regularly, there is no guarantee that this object will be on display on the day of your visit. | <urn:uuid:0d099bba-fe6a-4fc3-a559-b2f09b9b3367> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/51037.html?mulR=7680%7C16 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954888 | 860 | 1.539063 | 2 |
I’m delighted to be part of NCR’s on-line conversational community.
This week, I’m struck (as I often am) by President Obama’s religious and linguistic skills, this time in Cairo as he addressed the Muslim world.
When he spoke at Notre Dame, I said to a friend, “he speaks Catholic.” After the Cairo address, it’s clear that he’s fluent in “Muslim.” In fact, in the theo-political world, he’s truly multi-lingual, interfaith. Today, I expect he will be fluent in Judaism as he walks through the tragic memories of Buchenwald.
More than that, he can deliver subtle messages without naming the intended recipient. At Notre Dame, he offered a wonderful personal memory of Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, but – if anyone was listening – he was also sending a powerful message to the present-day hierarchy that Bernardin’s moderate stance is a good model for bishops.
So also in his messages to the Muslim world. He never mentioned President Ahmadinejad of Iran by name, but his words decrying holocaust denial were a thinly-disguised message to Tehran. (They were also a message to Iranian voters, who will select a new president within days).
But most important, President Obama conveyed deep respect for the Islamic faith with his use of the Muslim greeting: Salaam aleikum (“Peace be with you”), when he mentioned the names of Mohammed, Moses and Jesus – followed immediately by the words, “may peace be upon them,” and with his multiple quotations from the Qu’ran. These are phrases I’ve heard from my Muslim guests on Interfaith Voices many times.
It’s a welcome change in knowledge, tone and respect.
I also loved the fact that Obama spoke strongly for women’s rights in the Islamic world. Well-placed sources tell me that he is visiting the Vatican some time this summer. Do you suppose he can deliver a similar message there? | <urn:uuid:06b43cbe-99e5-4874-902e-baf1ffc7a98b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/obamas-interfaith-fluency | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959423 | 438 | 1.8125 | 2 |
In English, there is an expression “April showers bring May flowers.” This means that it rains a lot in April, but this leads to a beautiful, colorful May. We say this expression when the weather is bad in April. In this expression, the word “shower” means “rain.” But there are many uses of the word [...]
Summer might technically be over, but in San Diego, we are still enjoying some fun in the sun! Recently our CISL San Diego ESL students took a trip to Belmont Park and sunny Mission Beach for some afternoon relaxation. Belmont Park is a staple of Mission Beach. Its major roller coaster, the Big Dipper, [...]
Spring has sprung! March 20 marked the beginning of spring, and in San Diego and San Francisco, the flowers are in full bloom. To celebrate the change of seasons, CISL presents a phrasal verb with the word spring. Phrasal Verb: spring for Definition: to spring for something means to pay for something. Usually English speakers [...]
The Word of the Day is: cognate • \KAHG-nayt\ • adjective 1 : of the same or similar nature 2 : related; especially : related by descent from the same ancestral language Example Sentence: Sean is a professor of astronomy whose background includes extensive work in the cognate fields of mathematics and physics. | <urn:uuid:2366f981-84cd-4c56-b413-876d6a76d65d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cisl.edu/wordpress/category/word-of-the-day | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933369 | 284 | 2.625 | 3 |
Hosted by Jay Adelson.
Entrepreneur, CEO, and business owner Jay Adelson (Equinix, Digg, Revision3, SimpleGeo) demystifies the start-up process by providing advice, tips, and answering questions. Ask Jay how to turn any business idea into reality: firstname.lastname@example.org, @jayadelson, or http://youtube.com/askjayadelson Read More
Successful entrepreneur and CEO Jay Adelson demystifies the start-up process by providing advice, tips, and answering questions. In this episode, Jay addresses the difficulty in telling your family and loved ones (and in-laws) that you're quitting your job to start a company.
Jay's Chalkboard Notes:
- The only person harder to sell than VCs is your mother-in-law
- The question boils down to protection and security from a financial standpoint
- The proverbial mother-in-law just wants to know that their child is going to be OK
- A business idea can usually be vetted before quitting a job
- You can usually fall back on a day job
- Taking the entrepreneurial risk usually generates a lot of respect
- Think about convincing your family the same way you would an investor
- Learn how to explain your business or idea to any lay person | <urn:uuid:ca94dbda-4da4-48c9-8720-be17a0902b00> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://revision3.com/askjay/mother-in-law | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922165 | 277 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Transfer of Tribute and the Balance of Payments in the CEHI
READING THROUGH the CEHI (Vol II, 1757-1970) is certainly a somewhat surrealist experience. At the end of the thousand-odd pages making up the volume, the reader is apt to feel thoroughly bemused—as though he has sat through the thousand and one nights of the celebrated Arabian vintage. The element of fantasy is pervasive, without the saving grace of entertainment. Was it really the case that the British came to India to build railways and telegraph, stimulate economic growth through their demand for primary commodities (which, we are told, it was in Indians interest to specialise in given her factor endowments), initiate large scale industry, promote a reduction in land concentration, and withdraw gracefully, after incurring sterling debts which were of benefit to India? The majority of the contributors— though not all—appear to hold the view, which stresses the positive, growth-promoting aspects of British rule, to the virtual exclusion of any discussion of the cost to the Indian people.
Upto a point, perhaps this is to be expected: a look at the list of contributors shows that a fair number of them, entrusted with the key papers, belong on the evidence of their earlier writings to a certain definite tendency in the writing of colonial history. Adherents of this tendency claim to take a 'balanced' 'objective' and 'non-ideological' view, informed by the results of the latest research, as opposed to the 'partisan' and 'ideological' positions of the classic, and by implication somewhat outdated nationalist and Marxist analyses of the imperialist impact on India. (It goes without saying that the allegedly balanced and up-to-date view, of necessity, expresses its own ideology which in most cases amounts to an unsubtle and transparent opologia for colonialism). However, it is not this approach which is a,cause for surprise:
geven the composition of the list of contributors, it is to be expected that the dominant thrust of the volume should be in this particular direction;
nor is this an illegitimate phenomenon, for every group of academics with common views seeks to project a particular viewpoint.
* Centre for Economic Mudirs and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. | <urn:uuid:dd227e6b-bed2-4b41-812a-6373dc50289e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dsal.uchicago.edu/books/socialscientist/text.html?objectid=HN681.S597_139_045.gif | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94098 | 472 | 2.03125 | 2 |
There is a man who graduated high school, college, and taught high school English and Social Studies for 19 years all without knowing how to read.
His name is John Corcoran, and today he is an American author. Until he was 48, his reading comprehension was only about that of a second grade level. He wasn’t discovered throughout his entire education and 29 years of his career.
Because he was one of six children, his parents were too overwhelmed to notice he had trouble reading. At school, he was assigned to the “dumb row,” but because of other disciplinary issues, teachers often forgot about his reading difficulties. He attended two junior colleges after graduating high school, and eventually went to and graduated from the University of Texas at El Paso.
He managed a bachelor’s degree in Education and Business administration thanks to his athletic scholarship and aggressive cheating. For his first job as a high school teacher, Corcoran had his students write their names on a seating chart and pronounce them for him daily.
Because his literacy had only fallen since second grade, he couldn’t even tell one name from the next. After 17 years of teaching, followed by ten years as a real estate developer, he decided it was time to learn to read. Since then, he has become a spokesman for literacy programs and has even started his own foundation devoted to reading. | <urn:uuid:42779618-9937-4dd6-b62d-50de2c1b4180> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.omg-facts.com/Language/There-Is-A-Man-Who-Graduated-High-School/52395?fromTN | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.995589 | 283 | 2.328125 | 2 |
Intermountain Jewish News Obituaries, 1918-2011
The Intermountain Jewish News (IJN) first began publication in Denver,
Colorado in 1913. This obituary index begins in October 1918 and extends
through June 2011. There are 15,348 records in this database.
The index is presented by the owners of this database, the Intermountain
Copies of the newspaper/obituaries can be found in the following locations:
- Denver Public Library —
the library has microfilm covering Oct 1918 - Jun 1944, and
Dec 1984 - Jan 2008.
- The Colorado History Museum library has microfilm covering Oct 1918 -
Jan 2008 [OEH 901.1].
- The Intermountain Jewish News
has the actual newspapers covering the entire span of this index.
However, the IJN does not have the staff or copy facilities
to handle requests for obituaries.
- Terry Lasky, the producer of this index, has copies of all of
the obituaries. He can be contacted
The index is composed of a number of columns of information, most
taken directly from the IJN obituary, but many also supplemented
from different sources. Associated cemetery (burial) information
is also included when that information could be identified in the obituary
or from other sources.
ID — used purely for sorting and as a unique identifier.
PAPER DATE — date on which the obituary appeared in the newspaper.
SURNAME — surname as found in the obituary.
If two names appear it is because the name in the cemetery record
GIVEN NAME — given name as found in the obituary.
Nicknames and names in the cemetery record that are different are found
in parenthesis. Women’s maiden names are also listed if they
are in the obituary.
DEATH DATE — date of death as found in the obituary.
If the date of death was not found in the obituary then the date
is from the cemetery record, the SSDI, or any other source that
could be found.
AGE — age at death if and only if it is listed in the obituary.
BURIAL LOCATION — name of the cemetery and its city and
state location. This can come from the obituary or any other
source that may give that information.
If the cemetery is unknown then the city and/or state where the
burial occurred is listed. Any name in parenthesis after the
cemetery name is the section (usually the name of the Jewish section)
of the cemetery where the burial occurred.
BIRTH DATE — date of birth if and only if it is listed
in the obituary.
BIRTH PLACE — place of birth if and only if it is listed
in the obituary.
DEATH PLACE — place of death if listed in the obituary.
If not listed in the obituary other sources were used when available.
SURNAME OF RELATIVES — surnames of any relatives that were
listed in the obituary. This field is also searched when a
surname is supplied in the search criteria.
PHOTO — "Yes" indicates that a photo of the person appeared
in the obituary.
ONLINE — Indicates if cemetery information is online.
If neither is indicated it doesn’t mean one doesn’t exist in those
sources (or other sources).
Find-A-Grave increased from 50 million records to 63 million while
this index was being created;
JOWBR grew by 25% during that same period.
In some fields a double asterisk (**) may occur.
That means that the value in the obituary was incorrect and that this is
the correct value.
Not all obituaries that appeared in the Intermountain Jewish News
were included in this index. If the person had no ties to the
Rocky Mountain Region of the country then they were not included.
Ties to this region included previously living here, born here, having
a relative living here or any other kind of relationship to the area.
Those obituaries not included in this index were usually of famous
Jewish people who lived their whole life in a foreign country or on
the east coast, etc. and never had any ties to the Rocky Mountain region.
Last Update: 5 Aug 2011 WSB | <urn:uuid:2d5a679a-c8d1-403f-b147-e476f7d4a522> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/USA/IJN.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940906 | 948 | 2.09375 | 2 |
|Library of Congress: Western Reserve|
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Cleveland and Northeast Ohio Ancestors
Looking for a photo of a Cleveland Service man from 1940-1955? Try the searchable database held on the Western Reserve Historical Society website. Maybe your search needs to begin with funeral records. Pease , JD Deutsch, McGorray Brothers and Chambers funeral home books have been indexed for various years and available for online searches on the Western Research Historical Society website.
In addition to its online presence the Western Research Historical Society has a Research Center just waiting for researchers tracing their Cleveland and Northeast Ohio ancestors; and is filled with manuscript collections offering textural social history, cultural references and photograph from as early as 1839.
If your early ancestors settled in the Western Reserve - Northeastern Ohio and western Connecticut lands, you will want to review the area history to understand the holdings and collections of the Western Reserve Historical Society. Note: this area was called the Western Reserve since it was the far west part of Connecticut’s contribution to the westward settlement.
Over 18000 family histories are include on microfiche and in other publications. Visit the Western Reserve Historical Society Family History website for information on genealogy research.
The Community History Archives holds special collections. Although the online presence of the African American Archives is rather extensive, the other ethnic collections are not catalogued online. Here’s a quick overview as reviewed online:
African American Archives
The African American Archives has an impressive newspaper collection, beginning with the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church collection from 1839-1849. Another pre-Civil war publication was The Anti Slavery Bugle, New Lisbon, Salem OH, from 1845-1861.
The Cleveland American, Ohio City, 1845 held the motto. “There is but one proper and effectual mode by which the overthrow of slavery can be accomplished, and that is by Legislative Authority; and this so far as my suffrage can go, shall not be wanting.”
Irish American Archives
If your African American family was in the Cleveland area, you will want to peruse the Allen E. Cole Photograph Collection, 1919-1960’sof over 30,000 negatives and 6000 prints. Visit here for the listing of the AfricanAmerican Photograph Collections.
The Irish American Archives holds papers and photographs. Available Collections are not online.
Italian American Archives
The Italian American Archives, established in 2005, is increasing its holdings through donations.
Cleveland Jewish Archives
If you are doing Jewish history research, the website at the Cleveland Jewish Archives lists many area resources.
One of my recent searches included the Jewish Marriage and Death Notices searchable database which holds over 25,000 entries from the Jewish Independent and The Jewish Review and Observer (1889-1964)
accurate, accessible answers
Posted by Kathleen Brandt, Professional Genealogist at 11:58 AM | <urn:uuid:464938a4-0e69-4017-a242-f96fb7cff3c2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.a3genealogy.com/2011/12/cleveland-and-northeast-ohio-ancestors.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91918 | 599 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Building an app (or doing any other development work) using solely a tablet or other mobile device is not currently an efficient workflow. It’s possible to do it all - from wireframing to design to development to testing - which is a testament to how far mobile devices and apps have come, but the aggravation resulting from not being able to easily see network traffic and tweak CSS in-browser isn’t worth it. That being said, there were some aspects of using the tablet that I did enjoy. Hey, how about a couple of lists -
- Testing complex PHP and JS is just brutal.
- Using the “old school” method of tweaking CSS (adjust a number in text editor, save, switch to browser, reload, repeat as necessary) is unacceptable, with the advent of desktop browsers’ layout inspectors. What could take seconds to adjust on a desktop can take minutes in a browser.
- Lack of windows slows things down a little.
- Wireframing simple (and possibly complex) applications is quick and to the point. Lack of options and granularity can be liberating and let you focus on important things like flow, rather than trying to use the right button theme or making sure everything is perfectly lined up.
- Roughing out the HTML/JS/CSS framework is just as fast as on a desktop.
- So much nicer to use my finger to control things.
- The tablet form-factor recalls days of yore when “laptops” could be used on one’s lap and in all manner of positions.
Final assessment: I’m not going to try to build anything using solely mobile apps, but I will for sure use my tablet to take care of the simpler, more straightforward aspects of design and development. Troubleshoot a database connection? No. Sit on the back deck while I throw together a mental map or user flow? Absolutely.
Thanks for following along. This was a fun experiment, and I hope that some of the things I’ve found and learned have been of some use to someone. Excelsior!
There is no new thing under the sun.
Turns out that there’s already a fairly popular (in the niche market I was targeting) and robust product that does what I was intending my application to do. It’s not mobile, but it works fine. Time to regroup. | <urn:uuid:ca3b7930-7290-487d-b6f4-7253d53b4ff6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dantefrancesco.tumblr.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942325 | 499 | 1.625 | 2 |
SugiTouch™Restriction in movement is the common feature of most health problems.
When you experience difficulties with coordination, balance or movement - whether it's in sports, play, dance, or just getting around - life is not as much fun. Not attending to these problems can result in injuries, aches and pains, disabilities, and countless other chronic problems.
Restricted movement inhibits the natural flow of neurological messages, circulation of blood, oxygen and energy. Inhibited flows create problems and slow down the healing process. By restoring movement quality there is an increase in range, ease, speed and coordination. Most symptoms and the causes of many problems are resolved with the increased ability to move.
What is SugiTouch™?
SugiTouch is a healing system designed to improve health by improving movement. SugiTouch uses a unique array of simple techniques for increasing the communication between the mind and body. Light touch and gentle movements easily create profound change.
SugiTouch™ involves gentle-touch guidance through a series of precise movements. These movements help alter habitual patterns and create new learning directly in the neuromuscular system. SugiTouch is painless, effective, and successfully addresses muscular-skeletal and neurological problems. Using gentle-touch and skilled manipulation, clients are guided through a series of precise movements.
Each of us has the capacity to live life to its fullest. We can learn, change and improve - at any age. SugiTouch assists in tapping this capacity to learn and change to:
- Ease chronic pain and discomfort
- Decrease stiffness and increase mobility
- Relieve tension and create ease of movement
- Gain peace of mind
SugiTouch is designed to improve inner coordination and result in improved movement - solving many vexing problems.
Special benefits to performing artists, children with disabilities, and athletes are:
- Develop better posture and alignment
- Boost performance and avoid injuries
- Increase balance and coordination
- Enhance brain function
- Improve fine motor skills
Ofer Erez created SugiTouch™ in 2003. His inspiration came from many years of experience in a variety of healing modalities, yoga, zen and martial arts. The works of Moshe Feldenkrais, Wilhelm Reich, William Glasser and other great thinkers strongly influenced his understanding of health and movement. | <urn:uuid:c5e168fb-b746-4a8d-b7d0-1c2c3bb9a216> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sugihealth.com/sugitouch.php | 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 | 0.92115 | 476 | 2.125 | 2 |
Proposed Multi-Site Training Procedures for Computerized Assessments
1. Trainee attends a standardized training session, in which the paper-and-pencil version is reviewed in conjunction with the manual or question specifications for that interview. At this training session DSM-IV criteria for each disorder are also reviewed, along with a brief history of the interview. The goal of this session is to achieve basic familiarity with all interview questions and the intent of each question, along with standard ways for reading questions, when and how to probe responses, rules for dealing with repetition and explanation of questions, and handling subject’s questions or provocations.
a. CIDI-SAM: “SAM Version 4.1 User’s Manual and Question-by-Question Specifications for the Paper Version”
b. DISC: “DISC-IV Interviewer’s Manual”
c. DIS: “Diagnostic Interview Schedule Version IV Question-by-Question Specifications” and Chapters 2, 3, and 4 of Interview Guide.
2. Using the paper-and-pencil version, the trainee administers a mock interview for each instrument to the trainer.
3. The computerized program for each instrument is reviewed in detail with the trainee. The goal of this session is to achieve basic familiarity with the program itself, as well as troubleshooting and discussion of common computer problems/issues.
a. CIDI-SAM: “Getting Started Guide to the Computerized SAM-IV Program”
b. DISC: “C-DISC4 for Windows User Manual”
c. DIS: TBA
4. The trainee conducts a computerized mock interview for each instrument with the trainer.
5. The protocol established by each site for reporting incidents such as suicidal ideation or child abuse is reviewed with the trainee.
6. The trainee role plays/or watches videotapes or observes “live” interviews to become more familiar with the interview. This can be done at any time during the training process.
7. Once training is completed, the trainee observes an experienced interviewer administer at least two computerized assessments during a “live” interview.
8. The trainee is observed by an experienced interviewer on at least two computerized assessments during a “live” interview.
9. The trainee is cleared to independently interview subjects once they administer two assessments with no errors in administration.
10. Regular tester meetings at each site will also address administration issues as they arise. Each site coordinator will be responsible for informing the other site coordinators via email or website posting of administration issues/decisions. This communication will ensure that sites continue to have similar administration procedures across time. Communication should take place monthly or more often if the administration issue warrants more immediate attention.
11. Approximately every 3 - 4 months, the trainer or an experienced interviewer from each site should observe each interviewer to ensure that standardized administration procedures are still being followed.
12. Each interviewer should also periodically observe a “live” computerized interview or training videotape and code along using the paper-and-pencil version. The purpose of this is to ensure that each interviewer remains proficient on the paper-and-pencil administration of each interview. The frequency with which this occurs should be decided by each site’s coordinator. | <urn:uuid:a98de1b7-e10e-4de3-93e2-6f4a1269b3ce> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ibgwww.colorado.edu/~corley/proto/Multi/Train0411.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915262 | 698 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Iraqi Public Works Minister Thanks U.S., Seeks Continued Support
By Staff Sgt. Stephen Hudson, ANG
Special to American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Sept. 24, 2003 Nasreen M. S. Berwari is thankful the United States led the effort to free her country from one of the most brutal governments in history.
Berwari is Iraq's newly appointed public works minister. The only female member of Iraq's new cabinet of 25 ministers heads a department of about 45,000 people.
The graduate of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University with a degree in public policy and management has a Herculean task ahead of her: helping her homeland recover from what she describes as "35 years of neglect and bad management."
Three weeks after taking office, Berwari traveled to the United States seeking continued support from Congress for rebuilding Iraq. She took a few minutes between meetings in Washington to reflect on the changes her country faces and to thank the American people who have in her eyes done so much for Iraq.
"I would like to give tribute to the lives that have been lost," she said. "We are very grateful.
During the torturous years under Saddam Hussein, Berwari said, 3 million Iraqis were displaced for seeking a better form of government. In the village of Halabja, Saddam's regime used chemical weapons to kill 5,000 Iraqis. The dictator led the Iraqi people into three wars, one with Iran and two with the United States and its coalition partners.
Berwari said the more than 100 unearthed mass graves sites expose the regime's brutality. "If the people cannot see it in the first mass grave, then I am sure that by the second and third they will realize the atrocities," she said.
The challenges the minister faces in her work are "daunting," she said. "We need and seek support."
"Without (the United States') help, we cannot move ahead," she said. "The investment that was made during the war in changing the regime may be lost if we do not now invest in the reconstruction process."
America's continued investment, she said, "will be put in good hands and will make Iraq stand on its feet by the end of 2004."
"Iraq is a country of resources," she said. "We are rich with oil and water, but above all, (with) human resources. We are passing through a critical time, but we will go through it with help from the United States."
Berwari foresees Iraq becoming a center of economic prosperity. She hopes Iraq will become a world leader upholding the ideals of peace.
With America's continued support, she said, Iraq will become a stable, secure nation, free of tyranny, a country that will not serve as a haven for terrorists.
"It's only with wise and committed leadership," she said, "that good things can happen in the world."
(Air National Guardsman Staff Sgt. Stephen Hudson is assigned to DefendAmerica.) | <urn:uuid:08bce56c-1791-46b4-807a-25701f14db74> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.defense.gov/News/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=28434 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974375 | 619 | 1.867188 | 2 |
Narrated 'Aisha:The Prophet (p.b.u.h) recited (the Quran) aloud during the eclipse prayer and when he had finished the eclipse prayer he said the Takbir and bowed. When he stood straight from bowing he would say "Sami 'al-l-ahu Lyman hamidah Rabbana walaka-l-hamd." And he would again start reciting. In the eclipse prayer there are four bowing and four prostrations in two Rakat. Al-Auza'i and others said that they had heard Az-Zuhi from 'Ursa from 'Aisha saying, "In the life-time of Allah's Apostle the sun eclipsed, and he made a person to announce: 'Prayer in congregation.' He led the prayer and performed four bowing 'Abdur-Rahman bin Namir had informed him that he had heard the same. Ibn Shihab heard the same. Az-Zuhrl said, "I asked ('Ursa), 'What did your brother 'Abdullah bin AzZubair do? He prayed two Rakat (of the eclipse prayer) like the morning prayer, when he offered the (eclipse) prayer in Median.' 'Ursa replied that he had missed (i.e. did not pray according to) the Prophet's tradition." Sulaiman bin Kathir and Sufyan bin Husain narrated from Az-Zuhri that the prayer for the eclipse used to be offered with loud recitation. | <urn:uuid:3384748e-13fe-4476-8c2a-7d2ad0797c05> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sacred-texts.com/isl/bukhari/bh2/bh2_171.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972089 | 320 | 2.328125 | 2 |
I normally prefer to get my exercise outside. But when I got home from work yesterday, it was pitch dark and freezing, so I went to the gym. Staring at the rows of treadmills, elliptical trainers, and stationary bikes, I couldn't help but wonder: Which is the best choice for the environment?
Your instinct to get outside is commendable, since many gyms are temples to environmental degradation (not to mention breeding grounds for all sorts of little nasties). The cavernous buildings, air-conditioned to bone-chilling temperatures for the handful of senior citizens working out at 10 a.m. on weekdays. The televisions in front of every machine. The jacuzzi that no one ever uses. It's enough to turn even the most athletic environmentalist into a locally grown, organic couch potato.
If you don't want to vegetate through the dark months, there are a few things you can do to minimize the impact of your gym visits. First, stay off the treadmill. Treadmills are, by far, the most popular machines in the club, but they're also the most prodigious consumers of energy.
On average, a treadmill uses between 600 and 700 watts of energy. That's the equivalent of watching three or four 46-inch LCD televisions or leaving 50 compact fluorescent light bulbs burning, for the duration of your workout. If you ran for two-and-a-half hours per week—the government's recommendation for ordinary adults—generating electricity for the treadmill would emit about 110 pounds of carbon dioxide annually. (That's about 1 percent of the annual CO2 emissions of the average car.)
Treadmills' power consumption varies significantly by model, though. A recent test of five leading brands showed a range of 280 watts to 928 watts, although the lower end represents a belt speed of 3.5 miles-per-hour—more of a stroll than a workout. Heavier runners also increase power consumption.
As a treadmill ages, it can consume 30 percent more energy than it did in its younger days. Your gym can prolong a machine's peak efficiency by vacuuming around it frequently and occasionally cleaning out the dust, dirt, and shoe rubber that builds up between the belt and deck.
If you forswear the treadmill and saunter over to your gym's stationary bikes and elliptical trainers, you'll be doing the earth—and your knees—a favor. Those machines typically provide resistance to your force using a magnetic brake. The harder you work, the harder the machine has to work against you. But even at maximum resistance, they require six to seven times less energy than treadmills.
Many commercial-grade elliptical trainers and stationary bikes—the types you might find in a modern gym—are completely self-powered these days. The energy the rider or strider generates feeds back into the machine to power the brake and the electronic display—those flashing green LEDs use about five to 10 watts of energy. Setting aside manufacturing inputs, that means a ride on the stationary bike generates no carbon. Strong bikers could even power a 15-inch LCD television during their workouts. But manufacturers don't usually offer that feature, since some people can't produce that kind of wattage.
(Stair machines are a mixed bag. The traditional pedal-style machines are often self-powered, but the stepmills, which look like a moving staircase, consume about the same amount of energy as a plug-in elliptical trainer.)
Gyms are willing to pay a premium for the self-powered machines because they can put them anywhere without worrying about outlets or wires. But, from a purely financial perspective, they don't make a lot of sense for the home user. Commercial-grade elliptical trainers can cost twice as much as their flimsier residential counterparts, a difference nearly impossible to make up for in energy savings. At prevailing electricity rates, you'd have to use your commercial-grade elliptical trainer nonstop for nearly 20 years to recover the extra $2,000 or so you paid for the self-powered option.
A few gyms are jumping on the human-powered bandwagon with particular vigor. A Connecticut-based company called Green Revolution retrofits spinner bikes to convert pedal power into electricity. A hard-working class can keep a gym lit while it's riding and power some of the televisions. But the package is relatively expensive and not yet widely available, so you might have a hard time finding a people-powered gym.
In the meantime, encourage your gym to green things up a bit. A few large televisions generally run less electricity than individual TVs on every machine. A sign on the screen reminding users to turn it off after use could save a kilowatt-hour per unit, per day. Ask the staff to nudge the thermostat up a little in the summer, and down a little in the winter. (Climate control accounts for far more energy than all the treadmills combined.) If you're looking for a new gym, ask what they're doing for the environment. You might be impressed. Some Lifetime Fitness clubs, for example, use recycled pool water to flush their toilets.
Of course, you could stop being such a baby, pull on some synthetic long johns, and train outside through the winter. Zero watts required. | <urn:uuid:0fd4a5ea-ef62-4c4f-95b9-079fa9eb3bbb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://responsibility-project.libertymutual.com/blog/burning-more-calories-and-fewer-watts | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956478 | 1,100 | 2.609375 | 3 |
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) released the results of the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) exam. Although TEA has not released the passing standards for the STAAR exam, Tomball ISD’s students scored very well on the new state assessment.
“As we look at the raw scores, it is apparent that in most areas our students scored better than students in our surrounding school districts,” John Neubauer, superintendent of schools, said. “I am very pleased with our results.”
As students and teachers prepared for the test last year, there were many uncertainties for all public schools. Tomball ISD administrators knew that the test would align with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills curriculum that all public schools use, but administrators were uncertain of the test format and the design of the test questions. The test was also timed, which presented a new challenge for students. Furthermore, TEA did not provide school districts with the passing rates for the STAAR exam.
“Despite a great deal of uncertainty, our teachers and students are to be commended for a job well done,” Neubauer said.
As a result of TEA implementing a new testing system, students in different grade levels took various tests. Although students in grades three through eight took the STAAR test, students in grades seven through nine took STAAR End of Course (EOC) exams if they were taking a course requiring an EOC test. Sophomores and juniors in high school took the TAKS test. As students in these grade levels graduate, the TAKS test will be replaced by the STAAR EOC exams for all grades at the high school level.
Tomball ISD’s STAAR test results indicated that students in grades three through eight scored higher than the state scores on the reading, writing, math, science, and social studies STAAR tests. Junior high and high school freshmen students scored higher than the state scores on the reading, writing, algebra I, geometry, science, and social studies STAAR EOC exams. Sophomores and juniors who took the English language arts, math, algebra I, science, and social studies TAKS tests also scored higher than the state scores.
Neubauer expects the STAAR passing rates to be released by TEA in 2013. “Even though we are still waiting on the passing standards, we remain committed to academic excellence,” Neubauer said. “I am confident that our students and teachers will do their best as they prepare for the second administration of the STAAR and EOC exams.” | <urn:uuid:44ded301-a6a1-4b72-8be6-61e47491c21d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tribunenews.com/index.php/classified-ads/itemlist/tag/TEA?change_direction=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968667 | 547 | 2.1875 | 2 |
Today marks the one-month anniversary of David Kroll’s blog post, “Trine Tsouderos on This Week in Virology: When do you fact-check article content with sources?” Over the next few days, I’ll be posting a series of discussions with people who have figured prominently in the ensuing debate. I will be mining reader comments for ways to shape the conversations still on tap – so please, don’t stop interacting. (For anyone coming to this topic for the first time, here’s a good beginning-of-the-episode recap of what’s happened so far.) Today’s installment features Kroll and Vincent Racaniello, a Columbia University virologist who hosts the TWiV podcast.
These will also serve to launch SciWriteLabs, a new project which I hope will be an ongoing venue for researchers, reporters, public officials, and anyone else interested in science and science writing to debate the issues of the day. More on that soon…
Without further ado, let’s get to today’s discussion.
SM: David and Vincent, you two have helped launch an incredible discussion about the appropriate ways for journalists and scientists to interact. I want to try to continue this conversation in a way that’s more focused than a free-for-all in the comments section but more fluid than a single-author blog post or newspaper column. One idea I had was to do something kind of akin to Slate‘s old “Book Club” feature. You two are coming at this from different perspectives: David, you’ve had training as a scientist, worked in industry and academia, and are these days focusing more and more on your writing; Vincent, you’re a working scientist who has been at the forefront of scientists communicating directly with the public. I don’t think either of you anticipated the reverberations from David’s original blog post. What has it been like to watch this unfurl? Has anything made you re-think/re-examine where you were coming from?
VR: I’m actually appalled and amazed by some of the reactions of science writers to Trine’s remarks on TWiV. Arrogance was one of the first words that came to my mind. One reason for this reaction is that I’ve been spoiled by the wonderful writers I’ve interacted with who take the fact-checking route. Back in 2009 I was contacted by Rebecca Skloot who was just about to finish her book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. After corresponding for a few days she asked if I would check her manuscript to make sure it was scientifically accurate. After I was finished I learned from Rebecca that book writers often don’t check their facts – they don’t have the budget. But she found me and I was happy to do it. Sometime later I met Trine who as you know is also fond of fact-checking. Dave Tuller has also run some of his statements past me. But I suppose these are the exceptions, or so I would conclude from the comments on David’s blog post.
Let me go over some of the reasons given for not fact-checking science writing. One is ‘there is no time.’ It seems to me that if you keep a list of reliable scientists on hand you can always find one to help you out. Trine has asked for my help an hour before a deadline, and if I have the time I’ll do it. I understand that this is not always possible but why not try?
Another reason – ‘it’s my byline.’ This is ego shining through. See the last paragraph.
My TWiV co-host, a science writer, wrote that he doesn’t fact check because he usually get things right. How would you know? Explain to me how, after working on viruses for 30+ years, I still get virus-related things wrong. And you are telling me that you can write in all kinds of science fields and get it all right? I just don’t believe it. The fact is, all science writers are going to make a mistake, probably more often than they think. Much more often than a scientist who works in the field and thinks about it every day and understands all the nuances and implications. Don’t tell me that it doesn’t matter for what you are writing or who you are targeting – if you don’t get the facts right, you are failing.
Another writer said that journalists who write about politics don’t fact check. Well, science isn’t politics (although politicians do like to meddle in science, and are messing it up – but I diverge). Science is a fact-based field. If you don’t get the facts right, you can’t do science, and you can’t write about it. There is no debating here. If you don’t know that Bacillus anthracis is not a virus, you aren’t helping anyone (it happens far more often than you would think).
In the end, it all comes down to this – you are writing about science to educate the public. Not to make money, or win prizes, or become famous. It is to help pass on the wonderful, exciting advances about our understanding of life (and viruses) to people who are curious. If you don’t get the facts right, you are not educating the public. And if you don’t want to fact check your science writing, then write about something else for a living.
SM: You’re definitely right about books not being fact-checked. (I find it simultaneously hilarious and distressing that many magazines use books as an acceptable form of verification.) That’s a whole other topic…
I think part of the emotion — and misunderstanding — that has arisen stems from different definitions/conceptions of fact-checking. Trine is a world-class reporter — and also tough as nails. It sounds like some other writers have asked you to confirm/review/discuss things they’ve been preparing for publication not because you’re the subject of the article but because they respect your knowledge. One thing that makes people (read: journalists) nervous is when there’s a feeling that reporters should allow sources/subjects to review stories about them. For instance: Compare an imaginary feature story about you/TWiV with, say, one of Trine’s pieces on XMRV. I think it’s easier for people to understand the potential utility of checking the latter than it is the former.
It’s interesting that you alighted on the arrogance of journalists who insist they shouldn’t ever check stories. One of the things that got my dander up was the flip-side: the arrogance of scientists (as exemplified by this Guardian piece) calling for journalists to act as stenographers. (I know I’m oversimplifying here…)
DK: Before I jump in, I want to go back to Seth’s original questions since my post started this latest, robust round of discussion. I love Vincent’s This Week in Virology and while I don’t listen as often as I should, I use his material often when I teach my half of the Immunology & Virology class at North Carolina Central University.
But TWiV 149 was special because it was a video interview with a science and medical reporter I admire greatly, Trine Tsouderos – her work on the Geiers and XMRV has been superb and she’s tougher than a boiled owl.
When I heard Trine say that she often has some scientist interviewees review quotes or passages of her work, I was so surprised that I immediately fired up my PLoS blog and started writing while still listening to the rest of the interview. Why? Because I had always been told that journalists never run copy past their interview subjects regardless of whether the topic was highly technical. I tend to get interviewed quite a bit as an expert in drug action and drug safety but the only times I’ve been able to review copy was when it was being done for one of my institutions like Colorado or Duke – and I could hear in the PIOs voice that every journalist bone their body was cracking under the institutional weight of having to offer me a chance to check my quotes and background.
With regard to the reader response, I expected some but perhaps not the magnitude and scope of the discussion. That I dropped everything and started writing the post is indicative of its importance to me but that doesn’t always follow with blog traffic and comments. On the other hand, when the comments started rolling in, I felt a bit redeemed that I did indeed hit on something that interested those of you who do this for a living.
What surprised me most in the comments to that initial post was that most of these pro writers concurred with Trine that under very specific conditions, they will consult with interview subjects – and even show them copy – to assure the correct interpretation of some aspect of their piece. Maryn McKenna was awesome – she even shared with us her agreement with sources for doing such a thing. Adam Rogers offered to share what they allow at Wired. Then, there was George Johnson who upheld the journalistic tradition that nothing gets reviewed by sources. And Ed Yong, always the measured gentleman, suggested his approach to fact-checking: soliciting a researcher in the field who is unrelated to the original work. What also came out was that we need to be careful not to confuse fact-checking with copy-checking.
SM: That’s interesting – It sounds like your impression that reporters never share any information with sources before publication didn’t draw a distinction between subjects and sources. This also might seem like splitting hairs, but as a journalist, I think there’s a significant difference between my asking a source if s/he will go over something I’ve written and a source asking me to show them an article before it is published (I almost wrote “before it appears in print” – how quaint!). The latter implies approval; the former is, I think, more subject to the particulars of that interaction.
VR: It’s certainly possible that there is some miscommunication here. When I first read David’s initial blog post at PLoS, I wondered if in fact many of the writers commenting had actually listened to the TWiV episode. Because in that episode Trine made it very clear that she makes sure to get the science correct in her articles by consulting experts. It’s not a matter of writing a story about me, and then asking me if it is right. It’s about, say, writing a story on XMRV (not involving any of my work) and then asking me if the science is correct. If you don’t get this then I could see some writers bristling at the thought of having scientist check every word of their stories. That is not what this is about.
I wonder if the entire conversation would have gone differently if this had been stated up front, rather than depending on people to listen to the TWiV episode (I realize they are all long and only dedicated science geeks listen to all of it).
I can understand why writers would get ticked at being told to be stenographers. But that isn’t what Trine was saying.
These issues taken care of, I do believe there were some writers who understood what Trine was saying and still didn’t agree.
DK: Vincent, yes, I also worried that even my brief paraphrasing did not do justice to this part of the interview with Trine. I had the ulterior motive of encouraging readers to get a glimpse of the outstanding resource that is TWiV! (And this particular episode was not only for geeks!)
So, I felt it was an injustice to even write a transcript of Trine’s comments since the video was available in its full context. But I agree with you that the comment thread might have progressed differently had I introduced the topic more fully.
The Introducing SciWriteLabs. Today’s installment: Kroll and Racaniello discuss the journalism/factchecking debate by PLOS Blogs Network, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. | <urn:uuid:24d429eb-251b-40dd-af0a-7b33b700ccb9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.plos.org/blog/2011/10/19/introducing-sciwritelabs-todays-installment-kroll-and-racaniello-discuss-the-journalismfactchecking-debate/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969856 | 2,603 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Difference between "Copy" and "Mirror"?
n00b - August 2, 2007 - 2:48pm
App looks helpful, haven't tried it yet, but was wondering what the different between Copy and Mirror. The documentation says:
-"Copy files simply copies all of the files in the source directory into the destination"
-"Mirror creates an exact copy of the source in the destination"
What's the difference? Thanks for any help. | <urn:uuid:76207ae8-47d7-4aa4-b839-0a9f3692ba51> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://portableapps.com/node/8376 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929151 | 95 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Airline passengers have become accustomed to federal security personnel and equipment scrutinizing their carry-on items and checked luggage, especially since the Sept. 11 attacks.
But what about cargo carried in compartments alongside baggage in the bellies of airliners?
Air cargo can be as benign as tropical fish, which are frequent flyers out of Tampa International Airport. Automobile air bags are classified as hazardous material, subject to special packing rules because they have an explosive actuator that activates the bag. Some items, such as fireworks, must be sent in cargo aircraft rather than passenger flights.
The key question on passengers' minds: Is monitoring belly cargo as stringent as monitoring passenger luggage?
The answer federal authorities give is that procedures vary between passenger and cargo scrutiny. No one will say any defense system can be made perfect.
The Federal Aviation Administration, which focuses on air cargo safety, and the Transportation Security Administration, which focuses on air cargo security, play roles in how air cargo can be shipped and how it is inspected.
The TSA, created after the Sept. 11 attacks, recently announced efforts to strengthen air cargo security by adding measures and making permanent some other practices.
The new measures designed to protect more than 50,000 tons of cargo transported aboard passenger and all-cargo aircraft each day include: Requiring background checks of 51,000 off-airport freight forwarder employees.
Extending secure areas of airports to include ramps and cargo facilities.
That will require full criminal background checks for an additional 50,000 cargo aircraft operator employees.
Requiring employees of more than 4,000 freight forwarders to attend enhanced security training courses developed by the TSA.
Consolidating 4,000 private industry "Known Shipper" lists into one central database managed by the TSA.
"The TSA will have more visibility into the activities of companies shipping on passenger aircraft, and [the central database will] permit more in-depth vetting of known shippers," said Christopher White, a TSA spokesman in Atlanta.
"Between that and requiring background checks of off-airport freight forwarder employees, we hope to significantly enhance air cargo security."
All cargo carried on passengers planes is consolidated and handled only by companies that have security programs meeting TSA requirements, White said.
"From the counter where a package is submitted to the airline employees who load the packages, everyone has a role in security," he said.
Depending on the situation, requirements vary.
"For example, if you were to walk up to an airline cargo facility and have a package flown from Atlanta to Tampa, that package would require an inspection before it could ever be loaded onto an aircraft," White said.
"In another example, suppose I am a shipper, and you and I have been doing business for years. You have qualified as a known shipper under TSA guidelines. The packages you submit to me for transit would not be screened to the same level as in the first example."
TSA tops its security program off with random inspections with officers assigned to more than 250 U.S. airports. The TSA also uses 420 canine explosive-detection teams, a 70 percent increase since 2003, whose work at U.S. airports includes random screening of cargo and surveillance of cargo facilities.
News stories provided by third parties are not edited by "Site Publication" staff. For suggestions and comments, please click the Contact link at the bottom of this page.
The TSA recently announced efforts to strengthen air cargo security by adding measures and making permanent some other practices.
The new rule does not require widespread electronic screening of cargo.
The plan, originally proposed in Nov. 2004, includes new regulations for restricting access to sections of airports used for loading and unloading cargo. | <urn:uuid:4d2d05c4-d013-40f9-9f64-68d6a8f6f958> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aviationpros.com/news/10399297/tsa-to-ramp-up-air-cargo-security | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954461 | 759 | 1.75 | 2 |
HS Student’s Social-Media-Fueled Campaign Propels Him Into Local Office
Josh Lafazan, an 18-year-old high school senior from Syosset, New York, shattered all kinds of records when he was elected to his school district’s board last week. He became the youngest-ever elected official in New York state, and voter turnout was well above normal.
How did Lafazan make such an achievement possible? In part, thanks to smart use of the web and social media.
While many commentators are marveling at the Internet’s ability to bring together large swaths of people from across nations, Lafazan’s campaign did just the opposite: he used his website and social media, such as Facebook and live video service Spreecast, to bring together his nearby friends and neighbors under his campaign’s banner.
“Josh was the only candidate for school board to have a personal website,” said Jake Asman, Lafazan’s campaign manager and fellow Syosset High School student. “He really went out there and expressed his campaign views. He used his Facebook page and Spreecast the same way.”
On Spreecast, Lafazan engaged in face-to-face town halls with his soon-to-be constituency. Asman credits the video site with a great deal of the campaign’s success.
“Spreecast was a big one for us,” said Asman. “We had more than 2,000 views on our first Spreecast. Josh was able to interact directly, face-to-face with members of the community. It’s one thing to have a story on [the local news], it’s another for people to ask questions directly. He answered every question he got, it took almost two hours.”
Lafazan also built up a sizable community of followers on Facebook. A note he posted thanking his supporters gathered more than 400 likes — an impressive feat for a candidate in a campaign with only a few thousand voters.
Social media proved useful when the campaign took a turn for the bizarre. The Syosset school district accused Lafazan’s father, Jeffery, of stealing information about the district’s residents. An automated message that went out to voters before the election said that “Jeffrey Lafazan unlawfully removed district records that contained the names and addresses of residents. He removed the records without permission and ran away,” according to NBC.
Lafazan’s father later returned the documents, saying he didn’t know he wasn’t allowed to take them.
Lafazan, meanwhile, labeled the accusations as a “smear campaign.” He took to Facebook to explain his side of what happened, and Asman said that move helped Lafazan beat the rumors.
“When the school district tried to pull their smear campaign, Josh hopped on Facebook and sent out a status with what had really happened,” said Asman. “It got 250 likes and 200 shares. People very quickly realized what was happening.”
Of course, Lafazan campaigned hard in the offline world, too.
“He was in the community and the high school every day, interacting with neighbors and other seniors that were 18 and could vote,” said Asman.
Lafazan went on to win the election by more than 2,000 votes, or 82% of the total votes — and it looks like he’ll be using social media to govern, not just to campaign.
“If anyone has any suggestions to help improve this district,” wrote Lafazan in a post-victory Facebook post, “do not hesitate to contact me and share those ideas with me.”
How is social media changing local elections in your neighborhood? Let us know in the comments. | <urn:uuid:eced33e3-3b75-4cbd-b715-fab79dc35f2f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.techgatherer.com/hs-students-social-media-fueled-campaign-propels-him-into-local-office/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976309 | 825 | 1.75 | 2 |
Day Old Barred Plymouth Rock Bantams
Chicks hatching January to August.
The Bantam Rock is a scaled down version of the large fowl. In the United States, Bantam is used to refer to any of the breeds that are miniature versions of standard fowl, or varieties which only come in small sizes. The Bantam Rock cock should weigh in at 36 Oz. (3 lb.), while the hen will tip the scales at 32 Oz. While one third the size of the Large Fowl, the Bantam hen can produce 200-250 lovely brown tinted eggs per year which are half to three quarters the size of their large fowl counterparts.. Rock Bantams will go broody enough that a flock can be maintained without an incubator, but they are generally good layers and don’t brood too often. Both egg production and tendency to set eggs will vary by strain.
American Bantam Association Class : Single Comb Clean Legged Class
Bantam Barred Rocks were recognized in 1940, Blue, Buff, Columbian, Partridge, and Silver Penciled in 1960 and Black in 1990. Black is not recognized in the large fowl. I have heard that Barred Rock Bantams were developed from a large fowl sport carrying a dwarf gene. This gene was selected for and a bantam version was finally arrived at.
Another commercial role of the Rock Bantam is to provide capes and saddles for the fly fishing industry.
A beautiful black and white barred bantam. Lays a brown egg. Weight: Female 32 oz. Male 36 oz.
Barred Plymouth Rock Bantams
by Kirk Keene
Ask any Plymouth Rock fancier and he will answer "Plymouth Rocks, of course!"
Plymouth Rock bantams are familiar at poultry shows, winning top honors around the world. At home in the show coop or free ranging around the yard, Plymouth Rock bantams are a package of versatility. Adorned with a medium sized single comb, the Plymouth Rock is composed of gradual angles and rounded features. A leading breeder once described the Plymouth Rock shape "…as similar to a gravy boat." This overall balance helps make the Plymouth Rock a stylish and aesthetic living portrait.
Plymouth Rock bantams are not only beautiful, but are useful as well. With males weighing between 32-36 oz., and females weighing between 28-32 oz., these full-breasted birds can provide a tasty meal plus an abundance of good sized light brown eggs. If allowed to set, the females make great mothers.
If you like a variety of colors, the Plymouth Rock bantam is found in eight recognized varieties, including Barred, Black, Buff, Columbian, Partridge, Silver Penciled and White. The Plymouth Rock bantam is a very hardy breed, able to endure harsh Northern winters and sweltering Southern summers. Equally popular across the United States, Plymouth Rocks are truly an adaptable breed.
Perhaps their most endearing quality is their personality. Easy to tame as chicks, Plymouth Rocks are naturally calm birds. They make exceptional 4-H, FFA, or Showmanship projects for kids.
For those interested in the exhibition of their Plymouth Rock bantams, this breed is fortunate to have the backing of a strong organization. The Plymouth Rock Fancier’s Club was organized in 1973 to promote both large and bantam Plymouth Rocks. Special, State, District and National meets are held across the nation, bringing forth the cream of the competition.Plymouth Rock Fancier’s Club members receive a quarterly newsletter and are eligible for club sponsored awards. To join the Plymouth Rock Fancier’s Club, contact the secretary. The Plymouth Rock is backed worldwide with breed clubs in Australia, Great Britain and Canada. Even though this breed is an American creation, the Plymouth Rock is loved and admired around the world.
Standard Weights: Rooster 36 oz, Hen 32 oz, Cockerel 32 oz, Pullet 28 oz
This product was added to our catalog on Friday 08 May, 2009. | <urn:uuid:2fd124d7-15bb-4180-b17a-b4b13d898268> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.purelypoultry.com/barred-plymouth-rock-bantams-p-662.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936424 | 846 | 2.515625 | 3 |
New rules approved by Washington’s lawmakers will cut the amount of salmon-harming copper, toxic coal pollutants, and algae-stoking fertilizers that foul local waterways. Oregon legislators are halfway to approving a ban on copper brake pads—a ban that Washington approved last year.
It’s exciting news for Puget Sound, the Columbia and Willamette rivers, and countless other waterways threatened by the region’s fire hose of stormwater filth. But in truth, the stormwater cup is only half full as the Washington legislative session nears its close for the year. City and county organizations, green groups, and labor interests have again lost their fight to create a fee to pay for projects to reduce the stormwater runoff that imperils human health; salmon, orcas, and insects; and our buildings and roadways.
But let’s review the stormwater wins in more detail first.
Washington is now the first US state to approve a ban on coal-tar asphalt sealants that leach toxic chemicals into the environment, and eventually our homes. The coal-tar sealants are used to preserve asphalt parking lots and driveways, and it gives them a rich, black hue. But the sealant flakes off and can be tracked into our houses and workplaces, or it gets flushed into rivers and streams with stormwater. Investigate West’s Robert McClure, who has led the coverage of this issue, cites the potential harm to humans including:
- asthma, lower IQs, and other health problems in children
- sperm damage in men
- problems with umbilical cords in pregnant women
In the environment, chemicals found in the sealants “have been shown to kill tadpoles, cause tumors on fish, stunt growth of aquatic creatures and reduce the number of species able to live in a waterway,” McClure reports.
HB 1721 makes it illegal to sell coal-tar sealants beginning next year, and it will be illegal to apply coal-tar sealants after July 1, 2013.
Copper boat paint
Speaking of firsts in Washington, last year the state was the first in the nation to approve a near ban of copper from vehicle brake pads. The seemingly innocuous metal actually wreaks havoc on the ability of salmon and other fish to smell. They use their noses to find food, mates, avoid enemies and other essential functions.
This year, lawmakers turned their attention to copper boat paint. The legislation—SB 5436—had an unexpected champion: the Northwest Marine Trade Association—a group representing marina owners and other boat-related companies. Deborah Bach at Three Sheets Northwest, a marine news site, has done a great job tracking this issue and reports that the trade group was trying to get out in front of an environmental organization that has sued marinas for pollution violations. The rationale: remove the pollutant at the source, and the marinas don’t have to try to clean up the copper later.
The copper is added to the paint as an anti-fouling agent that prevents the growth of barnacles, worms, algae, and other watery pests that gnaw on boats.
The ban applies only to the use of copper-containing paint on recreational vessels that are less than 65 feet long; larger vessels and commercial ships are not affected. The law bans the sale of new, recreational vessels with copper-containing paint beginning in 2018. A ban on the sale of copper-containing boat paint starts in 2020.
Phosphorus in fertilizers
Phosphorus that makes lawns green and lush is also happily gobbled up by algae and other weeds that choke Northwest rivers, lakes, and bays. The wrong kind and amount of algae can prove insidiously awful. With help from fertilizers, the little water plants spring to life in big blooms, then die and rot, sucking the oxygen out of the water, potentially creating dead zones so oxygen depleted that they can kill fish. Some algae also create toxic chemicals, which forced a BC community to temporarily switch water sources after a bloom. Stormwater runoff scoops up the extra fertilizer from lawns, yards, and farmland, dumping it in fragile waterways.
New rules approved in Washington will shrink the use of phosphorus-containing fertilizers by making them more difficult to buy. HB 1489 will ban the sale and application of lawn fertilizer that contains phosphorus except in certain situations when (according to the bill report):
“…the fertilizer is being used to establish or repair grass during a growing season, for adding phosphorus to soils with deficient plant-available phosphorus levels, or for application to pasture lands, houseplants, flower or vegetable gardens, or agricultural or silvicultural lands.”
The most important thing here: the ag industry still has unfettered use of the phosphorus fertilizers. Is that a good thing for the environment? I can’t say, but the legislation’s green proponents aren’t complaining at the moment.
“We’ve worked hard over the past few years to craft sensible legislation to reduce phosphorus pollution,” said Rick Eichstaedt, with Spokane Riverkeeper, in a press release.
Copper brake pads
One of the prime sources of copper pollution in local waterways is copper brake pads (California calculated the sources in this study). When drivers tap their brakes, tiny amounts of copper are shaved off, which then migrate from the air to roads and driveways where it’s swept away with stormwater runoff that dumps it into salmon-bearing streams, lakes, and bays.
Washington got major kudos for last year becoming the first state to restrict the sale of copper brake pads, and California followed with a similar set of rules. Now Oregon is moving to do the same. State leaders in the Senate have approved new brake pad requirements, and now the measure, SB 945, moves to the House for consideration.
Pollution fee for stormwater
Now to the half empty part of our stormwater story. The third time was definitely not the charm when it came to creating a new funding source to clean up and curb Washington’s polluted stormwater.
In 2009, legislation ( fee on petroleum products. In 2010, new rules (/ ) sought to increase a tax that is already added to thousands of toxic chemicals, including petroleum, pesticides, and other products. This year, the anti-stormwater coalition backed the “Clean Water Jobs Act” ( / which would have put a 1 percent fee on petroleum products, pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers./ ) would have assessed a
Each of these measures failed; last year’s tax had a fighting chance, but the proposal this year never got a full vote in either the House or Senate. The past efforts have faced intensive lobbying from the petroleum and chemistry industries, and this year ag joined the fight as well thanks to the inclusion of pesticides and fertilizers in the list of items subject to fees.
What’s interesting is the biz world agrees that stormwater is a significant threat to the health of Puget Sound and other waterways—even Grant Nelson from the Association of Washington Business conceded the point at a stormwater forum that Sightline helped host this spring (see coverage in The Olympian here, and my blog here). But the various industries targeted by the fee or tax have argued—at great expense in lobbyists—that they’re being singled out unfairly to pay for stormwater solutions.
Last year the greens got a late-breaking stormwater win when the Legislature earmarked $50 million out of a state toxic cleanup fund to pay for stormwater projects, but no one yet knows if the region will score extra stormwater dollars this year (see this nice wrap up of the stormwater-fee legislation from Crosscut).
Trashy drain photo from Flickr user Chloe Dietz, dry-dock boat photo from Flickr user reidspice, geese in algae-polluted lake photo from Flickr user Andwar, and rainbow colored oil slick photo from Flickr user . All are used under the Creative Commons license. | <urn:uuid:cef24379-4576-438e-bc13-2a7758764341> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://daily.sightline.org/2011/05/20/stormwater-legislative-wrap-up/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933637 | 1,666 | 2.65625 | 3 |
In Africa, Will New Seeds Bring a Better Life?
Genetically Modified Food a Key Issue for Continent
| 2858 hits
WASHINGTON, D.C., OCT. 5, 2009 (Zenit.org).- The question of genetically modified seeds is, in itself, not a religious matter -- certainly not a matter of faith.
Yet, it is nearly a religious matter, because it is intertwined with issues of fundamental justice -- and of fundamental common sense -- which are of central importance to Catholics, as they are to all men of good will.
And that is why the preparatory document for the Synod on Africa, which opened today in Rome, among many other matters, also spoke about genetically modified seeds.
And that is why the Vatican itself has -- very cautiously -- been studying closely the question of genetically modified seeds in recent years.
I once traveled for two months across West Africa, from Algiers to Abidjan.
Africa, for me, means a vibrant place, a place of life -- even in the dryness of the Sahara. So I am on the side of those who wish that life in Africa be lived even more abundantly, that its tribal wars cease, and that it find its own way forward.
Once in Africa, I met a small boy, perhaps three years of age, with a cut on his heel. He scooped up the scrapings of a carrot I was "peeling" because it was dirty and I had no water to wash it, and quickly stuffed them in his mouth. There was no bandage on his cut. The wound was filled with dirt and a bit of white puss oozed out of the edges.
We found some water, and I washed the cut. The dirt and puss came out, and I covered the wound with a Band-Aid I was carrying with me. The cut healed.
The essential things are sometimes very simple: a bandage, or pipes for running water. Or, perhaps, improved plant seeds.
But are genetically modified seeds really improved?
Pro and contra
"On a continent, parts of which live under the shadow of conflict and death, the Church must sow seeds of life," Cardinal Peter Turkson said today as he opened the work of the Second Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops.
Everyone would agree, I think, that producing better crops would be a good thing.
But many African bishops fear that these seeds may make African farmers economically dependent on multinational companies that produce the new seeds.
And they worry that these new seeds, designed to resist certain diseases, may not be as good as promised, as super-diseases arise to attack the plants, and as the long-term effects of the modified plants on human health remain unknown.
There is a fundamental problem with some of these seeds: They are sterile.
That is, the plant grows, the fruit is produced -- whether corn or rice or wheat or soybean -- but the corn, rice, wheat, soybean is not fertile, so the seed cannot be set aside and used for the next year's crop, because it simply will not grow.
New seeds have to be purchased from the producing company each year.
Many of the bishops of Africa see this as a problem.
And they are quite right; it is a problem. For thousands of years, farmers have kept their seed for the next planting. This is the plain sense of the passage from Genesis, "while the world remains, seedtime and harvest time will not cease."
But this age-old cycle would be broken by this new technology. There would be seedtime, and harvest time, and then a new time: the time to buy next year's seeds from the agricultural company that supplies them.
The farmer would lose his or her ability to be self-sufficient, even if only on a subsistence level. The farmer would become totally dependent on the seed company.
The working document of the Synod of Bishops says this: "The seeding campaign of proponents of Genetically Modified Food, which purports to give assurances for food safety, should not overlook the true problems of agriculture in Africa: the lack of cultivatable land, water, energy, access to credit, agricultural training, local markets, road infrastructures, etc. This campaign runs the risk of ruining small landholders, abolishing traditional methods of seeding and making farmers dependent on the production companies [...] Will the synod fathers be able to remain unresponsive to these questions weighing so heavily on the shoulders of their countrymen?"
However, just when African bishops are expressing their concerns about these new seeds, some Vatican officials have been suggesting that the seeds may be a good way to improve the yields of African farms, and so, help prevent future starvation.
Improving agriculture is the key to improving the lives of Africans, and all tools, including genetically modified seeds, must be considered to further that goal, said speakers at a symposium Sept. 24 in Rome on the topic "For a Green Revolution in Africa."
Farmers from South Africa and Burkina Faso were on hand to testify to the improvements in their farming and their lives when they introduced genetically modified crops on their land.
Archbishop Giampaolo Crepaldi, former secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace (he has just been made the bishop of the Diocese of Trieste in northern Italy, and so is no longer a Vatican official), said that underdevelopment and hunger in Africa are due in large part to "outdated and inadequate agricultural methods," and that new technologies "that can stimulate and sustain African farmers" must be made available, including "seeds that have been improved by techniques that intervene in their genetic makeup."
A valid point was made by Father Gonzalo Miranda, a professor of bioethics at the Pontifical Regina Apostolorum university, which sponsored the symposium. He said in support of new biotechnology that, "if the data shows that biotechnology can offer great advantages in the development of Africa, it is a moral obligation to permit these countries to do their own experimentation."
But the key phrase is "if the data shows."
And that is the real problem here.
Because the data is not yet clear.
And, in fact, there is a considerable amount of data that suggests that there are problems with the new seeds: They may require more water than the old seeds; they cost much more than the old seeds, tempting the small farmer into debt; and many are infertile, meaning new seeds must be bought each year.
These negatives were noted in an important May 1, 2009, article in L'Osservatore Romano by Francesco M. Valiante, a regular writer for the Vatican daily.
And they were noted by Cameroon's Archbishop George Nkuo in an interesting interview he granted to American journalist John Allen, Jr., published May 20, 2009.
Nkuo was present at a "study week" in Rome from May 15-19 held by the Pontifical Academy for Sciences to look at the entire problem of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). He was the only African bishop, and one of the few non-scientists, who took part.
"Objectively, if this technology really makes a plant more productive, if it's accessible to the poor, and there are no obvious dangers to health or the environment, then I think there's nothing wrong with it," Nkuo said after the meeting.
But, he added that he did not know whether all this -- higher productivity, accessibility to the poor, no side-effects -- is really true.
"I really don't know," he said. "That's my problem. I don't understand how the science can be so confused. I thought there was supposed to be objective evidence, but the science seems to be in conflict. I think it's amazing how divergent the opinions are.
"The pro-GMO people say these plants are environmentally friendly and pose no threats to health. The anti-GMO people say they are dangerous and there's a problem of safety. What am I to believe?"
If this is the situation, if a bishop who spent a week at a recent pro-GMO gathering in Rome still does not know what to believe, then it seems the prudent course is to withhold judgment until the facts are clear.
Therefore, it seems, it would be the prudent and sensible thing for the Synod of Bishops on Africa to state in their final document that the health and life of their people is paramount to them, and that all means will be embraced to improve that health and life -- provided that the data shows that it will be a true improvement, and not a dead end.
Africa should not be rushed into any decision on genetically modified seeds that it would later regret.
* * *
Robert Moynihan is founder and editor of the monthly magazine Inside the Vatican. He is the author of the book "Let God's Light Shine Forth: the Spiritual Vision of Pope Benedict XVI" (2005, Doubleday). Moynihan's blog can be found at www.insidethevatican.com. He can be reached at: firstname.lastname@example.org. | <urn:uuid:1c2a61a9-ac7f-45e6-ba1d-685715d0f75a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/in-africa-will-new-seeds-bring-a-better-life | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972466 | 1,905 | 2.15625 | 2 |
Ministers and politicians on the right have asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to adopt the findings of a committee which concluded that Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria are not illegal under international law, since there was no official Palestinian entity in the territory before 1948.
As first reported by Israel Hayom last Tuesday, Retired Supreme Court Justice Edmond Levy, who headed a committee tasked with examining the legality of Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria, declared last Tuesday that Israelis have a legal right to settle the area.
"According to international law, Israelis have a legal right to settle all of Judea and Samaria, or at the very least the lands that Israel controls under agreements with the Palestinian Authority," Levy stated. "Therefore, the establishment of Jewish settlements [in Judea and Samaria] is, in itself, not illegal."
The committee was established by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an effort to determine and cement the legal status of the outposts in Judea and Samaria, with an emphasis on communities that were not built on privately owned Palestinian land, whose status was still in doubt due to legal bureaucracy.
According to Levy, the report's basic conclusion is that from an international law perspective, "the laws of 'occupation' do not apply to the unique historic and legal circumstances surrounding Israel's decades-long presence in Judea and Samaria."
"Likewise," the report said, "the Fourth Geneva Convention [relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War] on the transfer of populations does not apply, and wasn't intended to apply to communities such as those established by Israel in Judea and Samaria."
Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) welcomed Levy's findings, and said that he plans to ask the prime minister to convene the Ministerial Committee on Settlement Construction to discuss the report and devise a policy that would reflect its findings, Israel Radio reported.
"The report rectifies an unjust situation – both historically and legally – that was perpetuated by the skewed political views that governed Sasson's outpost report," Erdan told the radio station.
Upon its establishment in February, the committee headed by Levi was charged with reviewing a 2005 government report by former State Prosecutor's Office official Talia Sasson, which found that several dozen outposts had been built not only without state approval but on privately held Palestinian land. Officials said at the time that the report needed to be reviewed because Sasson, who later entered politics on the left-wing Meretz party list, may not have been entirely objective.
Head of the Yesha council [the council of the Jewish communities of Judea, Samaria and until 2005 in the Gaza Strip] Danny Dayan told Israel Radio that Levy's report reflects a "thorough, exhaustive and serious legal document that stands in stark contrast to the report compiled by Talya Sasson in 2005; His recommendations should be read thoroughly and implemented in an orderly fashion."
Sasson dismissed Levy's assertion Monday, telling Israel Radio that the Israeli High Court of Justice is the only body vested with the authority to rule on the legal status of Judea and Samaria and that Levy's report ignores the court's ruling that declared some of the outposts illegal.
Science and Technology Minister Daniel Hershkowitz (New National Religious Party) echoed Erdan's request to convene the ministerial forum and said he would like to see the report adopted without delay. He said that Sasson's report was political and that the new report should be treated as a binding document.
The committee's recommendations include the following: The government must clarify its position on the issue of Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria to prevent varying interpretations of its policy; a new community will only be built after the government or an authorized ministerial committee has approved it; the expansion of a community outside the bounds of its authorized jurisdiction must first be approved by the defense minister or a ministerial committee on settlements, in coordination with the prime minister.
On the other hand, the committee declared that the encouragement provided by the government to the settlement enterprise constituted authorization. According to the committee, communities that were built on land owned by the state, or privately owned Israeli land, with the help of government bodies could not be classified as "unauthorized" due to the absence of an official government decision to authorize them. The very assistance provided by the government in their establishment constitutes implicit authorization.
Reacting to the report, the Association of Civil Rights in Israel said Monday that Levy's conclusions were "unfounded and baseless in international law, and their aim is to legitimize and deepen the injustice perpetrated by successive Israeli governments in the Territories over the past 45 years. The settlement enterprise has created a wrongful situation in which the human rights of the Palestinians are totally subsumed in favor of the interests of settlers."
"No committee has the ability to change international law, whose main tenet is defense of human rights," ACRI said in a statement. "Since 1967, successive Israeli governments have held fast to the clear position that the Territories are held in belligerent occupation, that is, military occupation, and are thus not part of the State of Israel. In this matter there is complete agreement between the State of Israel and the international community. Reneging on this position, by a committee appointed by the prime minister, is scandalous," ACRI added.
Alan Baker, who served in the past as the chief legal counsel to the Foreign Ministry and sat on the committee, dismissed the allegations that Levy's report is politically biased, telling Israel Radio that the committee members took into account international law, Jordanian law (which is still partially enforced in Judea and Samaria owing to Jordan's almost 20-year rule) and Israeli law.
Baker said there are no grounds to the claim that settlement construction in Judea and Samaria is illegal, so long as it is not carried out on Palestinian land without authorization and that the necessary construction permits are issued. Baker believes the lack of clarity over property rights in Judea and Samaria and related petitions by alleged landowners prompted the government to commission the report. He said that demolition of structures in those areas should be subject to legal review to avoid a situation in which a "Civil Administration official or clerk decides to do so."
The Legal Forum for the Land of Israel, a group of activists and jurists, said of the report that "The Levy Committee frees the country from the horror show that was produced by jurists who had abused the interpretation of international law and tailored it to their political views. This was the first such instance where a serious committee headed by a [former] Supreme Court justice engages in a brainstorming session and issues a meaningful report that applies the proper interpretation to the law and points to the distortions created by the justice system. We implore the prime minister to embrace the report and have it serve as a guiding principle in government policymaking." | <urn:uuid:42184e48-e0cf-482c-b2cf-9f2810f40641> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=4999 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967485 | 1,403 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Juice sometimes gets a bad rap for being loaded with sugar and masquerading as a healthy choice when it's secretly bad for you. While sugar isn't exactly ever great for you, ABC News points out that the right kind of juice can still be a healthy option:
There's a big difference between 100 percent juice and a bottle of sugar water with a few cranberries squeezed into it. Yes, juice has a lot of the sweet stuff, but a six-ounce glass of 100 percent juice also counts as a full serving of fruit and delivers many of the same vitamins and antioxidants, making it worth the occasional sugar rush, says Jessica Ganzer, R.D., owner of Ganzer Wellness Consulting in Arlington, Virginia. And it can be the easiest way to get a superfood: Drinking 100 percent pomegranate juice is easy; picking apart a real pomegranate, not so much. As long as you drink 100 percent juice (from concentrate is fine) and limit yourself to one six-to-eight ounce glass a day, you're not breaking any rules of good nutrition.
So there you have it. If your juice is actually juice and you drink it in moderation, you're not destined for trouble. (Speaking of real juice, if you're really into it, you might want to consider a juicer. The Wirecutter recommends the Omega 8003.)
7 Diet Myths Exposed | ABC News
Photo by Jeremy Keith. | <urn:uuid:219afbf7-3b43-447b-a63c-bbe63453a77c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lifehacker.com/5898766/juice-isnt-always-a-sugar-bomb-pick-the-right-stuff-and-its-a-healthy-choice?tag=drink | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954023 | 299 | 1.96875 | 2 |
“Every week, our mobile clinic visits a small village about 45 minutes into the hills from Petit Goave, west of Port-au-Prince. There is no proper road to the village; instead our 4x4s take us up a stony riverbed – which will be totally impassable once the rainy season starts.
“Nearing the end of our clinic last week, a man ran in saying that his wife’s water had broken hours ago and she was having heavy contractions in the river bed below. She had been trying to hike the three hours to the nearest hospital, but was not going to make it.
“Only stopping to make sure that we had the equipment we needed, two doctors from our team and I trekked down to where she was laboring, perched on a tiny river rock. Her only company was the local birth attendant, an old man who was sitting in silence as she contracted away. He had no medical supplies or equipment with him.
“Dr. Mario and I immediately strapped on gloves, lifted up her gown and felt the head crowning. At that moment the lady stood upright and screamed as she pushed her baby out. Unbelievable! Blood and fluids absolutely everywhere, baby breathing okay and mama trembling.
“With the infant safely placed on her mother’s stomach, I tied off the umbilical cord and cut it with my scalpel – et voila! Happy birthday, baby! Her parents were so moved that they decided on the spot to name the baby after us – Maria Cezanne Merline.
“I can honestly say it was a life changing experience for us all.”
More midwives = more healthy mothers and babies
Thankfully for this new family everything was okay, but in a country with a dramatic shortage of trained midwives, stories like this are all too common. They don’t always end so well. In Haiti, 630 women will die for every 100,000 births – the highest maternal death rate in the western hemisphere. In the UK the figure is just a fraction of this, with less than 10 maternal deaths per 100,000 births.
Before the earthquake there were far from enough qualified midwives in the country, and it is thought that many of these may have been injured or killed during the disaster. There are many traditional birth attendants, but they are all too often unskilled and lack even the most basic equipment.
Because of this, Merlin encourages all women to deliver their children in a safe setting – a hospital or a health center. This is vitally important, as any birth carries inherent risks. Currently in Haiti only 25 per cent of women do so, and our midwives work with communities to get more women to safe birthing places.
But we know that this isn’t always possible, so our midwives also train local birth attendants to recognize the danger signs of common pregnancy and childbirth-related complications, urging them to refer these women in particular to local health centers. We also give birth attendants clean delivery kits, so that when referral is not possible, they have the equipment they need to help women give birth.
Cezanne adds, “The proud mother brought her baby daughter back to our clinic for her first antenatal clinic this week. Both mother and baby are doing great, and I now have a beautiful new Haitian goddaughter.” | <urn:uuid:1338ea36-be33-4c8a-9502-0255bb5fc99a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.merlinusa.org/2010/06/baby-merline-a-special-birth-in-haiti/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973188 | 699 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Francis Girod made a name for himself making really black portraits of life in France in the Nineteenth century and the Thirties of the Twentieth. No subject was too grim for this cheerful director--remember the trio of killers dissolving their victim in an acid bath (Le trio infernal, 1974). The story of Marthe Hanau, another forgotten name from the Thirties, must have appealed to Girod and Romy Schneider. Resnais had made his Stavisky with the same material and had had some success.
This story moves at the speed of a retreating glacier. Many scenes go flat for lack of interest. It takes a Renoir to draw a portrait of a society in crisis, and Girod is no Renoir. I am a fan of Jean-Louis Trintignant, Jean-Claude Brialy, Marie-France Pisier and the other stars in the cast, but they are used only for window-dressing. Happily there is Romy Schneider, the most beautiful woman in the business in those days, and she does not disappoint. Her costumes are gorgeous, her hair never looked better, and she can swoop into a room better than any other actress. The way she spits out her defiance of the corrupt, conservative officials who oppose her kept me interested in the film.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful to you? | <urn:uuid:1dee189a-6a1b-4f2b-9c75-ab229c127f24> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080415/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954741 | 292 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Best known for her provocative depictions of the human form, Kiki Smith has explored a range of subjects, from natural science to mythology. By turns intimate, universal, earthy, and fragile, her art renders the figure in frank, nonheroic terms, expressing its dual aspects of vulnerability and strength. Comprising more than 125 works, this Walker-organized 25-year survey reveals the startling symbolic potential in Smith’s choice of both traditional and unexpected materials in sculpture and also features prints, drawings, photographs, editioned objects, films, and installations.
The human body—both in anatomical fragments and in full figure—is at the heart of Smith’s art. “I think I chose it as a subject because it is the one form that we all share,” she says. “It’s something that everybody has their own authentic experience with.” Her earliest works investigated its form and functions, which she articulated through individual parts, suggesting flesh with delicate handmade papers and fashioning internal organs and systems from fragile materials such as glass, papier-mâché, terra-cotta, and plaster. In the early nineties, she gained widespread attention for her life-size figures in wax and bronze depicting naked female bodies in disturbing, visceral poses.
Smith’s work has long addressed the ambiguous and difficult relationship between female artists and feminist issues. In the mid-nineties, she began to engage with themes from literature, history, and folklore, reinterpreting biblical and mythological women as inhabitants of resolutely physical bodies. More recently, her vocabulary has expanded to include animals, the cosmos, and the natural world: “My work has evolved from minute particles within the body, up through the body, and landed outside the body. Now I want to roam around the landscape.” In pieces that merge human and animal, she creates new mythologies, finding in the mortality that has pervaded so much of her process the possibility of rebirth. In her art, Smith has staged a persistent inquiry that has resulted in works of uncommon power and beauty, inviting us to reexamine ourselves, our history, and our place in the world.
Curator: Siri Engberg | <urn:uuid:04c07cac-b4e7-44c4-9931-94f6c814c976> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.walkerart.org/calendar/2005/kiki-smith-a-gathering-1980-2005 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96187 | 456 | 2.28125 | 2 |
Green clad mountain rising literally to a height 2000 ft. and dominating the surroundings landscape is Pachamalai. Pachamalai literally mean Green Mountain. A few 3000-foot-high cliffs and vales dotted with green pastures and rustling streams add more charm and verdurous elegance. Innumerable medicinal herbs, plants and a good variety of pods and flowers astonish the visitors. Pachamalai is in the shape of the glass the length of which 20 km the ghat road taking the start from Shobanapuram at the foothill with 11 hairpin bends is enjoyable-the road is well maintain and visitors sight the valley views 3 km down the ghat road. The unique features of the Pachamalai are that the hill is the preserve and conserve of the original inhabitants at bay. Pachamalai is the only hill tourist centre that the people of this area and tourist can visit.
Map Of Pachamalai, Tamilnadu : | <urn:uuid:f03b7b93-98bf-4efe-a81c-264e9f763725> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://overindia.com/tamil-nadu/pachamalai/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.912241 | 206 | 1.929688 | 2 |
Precautionary Saving and Consumption Fluctuations
This paper uses data on the expenditures of households to explain movements in the average growth rate of consumption in the U.S. from the beginning of 1982 to the end of 1997. We propose and implement a decomposition of consumption growth into series representing four proximate causes. These are new information, and three causes of predictable consumption growth: intertemporal substitution, changes in the preferences for consumption, and incomplete markets for consumption insurance. Incomplete markets for trading consumption in future states leads to statistically significant and countercyclical movements in expected consumption growth. The economic importance of precautionary saving rivals that of the real interest rate, but the relative importance of each source of movement in the volatility of consumption is not precisely measured.
Published: Parker, Jonathan A. and Bruce Preston. "Precautionary Saving And Consumption Fluctuations," American Economic Review, 2005, v95(4,Sep), 1119-1143. | <urn:uuid:4aaf0c2b-2a60-4706-a4b3-7121706719f9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nber.org/papers/w9196 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914136 | 197 | 2.359375 | 2 |
The head of the Democratic National Committee will visit the
Granite State this week to make the case that women are reaping benefits from
President Obama's health care legislation.
On Thursday DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz will participate in a panel discussion about how the Affordable Care Act has benefited women in New Hampshire. The event takes place at the Portsmouth headquarters of Obama For America, the president's campaign organization, which is located at 125 Brewery Lane. Doors open to the public at 9:15 a.m.
After being approved by a narrow margin on March 23, 2010, the Affordable Care Act has proved among the most controversial pieces of legislation advanced by the president, helping to galvanize Republican opposition.
Obama for America is hosting some 40 grassroots events across the state in the coming weeks to highlight the merits of the health care bill.
"In the two years since the president signed these important health reforms into law, millions of Americans have already experienced the benefits," OFA staffer Holly Shulman wrote in an email. "Medicare is now stronger for seniors, and women can now get life-saving mammograms at no extra cost."
Children who were born with pre-existing conditions such as asthma won't lose their health care coverage, and New Hampshire families are seeing how the Affordable Care Act is saving money but also saving lives."
Among the panelists joining Wasserman Schultz will be New Castle resident Mary Rauh and Lindsay Hanson, director of '08 Women for Obama New Hampshire. Panelists will recount their personal health care experiences to illustrate "what's at stake for women in this election," according to an announcement.
The discussion will also touch on controversial developments this year in the New Hampshire Legislature, which Democrats argue would limit women's access to health care. One such measure is a bill that allows employers with religious objections to exclude contraceptive coverage from their health plans. Dozens of women gathered at the Statehouse last week to demonstrate against the bill, which was passed by the Republican-controlled House on 196-150 vote.
House Speaker William O'Brien began championing the exemption after the federal government issued a rule requiring health insurance companies to provide contraceptives to employees of religious organizations. He accused President Barack Obama of using the issue to woo women to vote for him in November.
The measure's fate in the Senate is uncertain, and Gov. John Lynch, a Democrat, has not said if he would veto the bill.
This week, the N.H. House is expected to vote on three controversial bills related to abortion. One would ban partial-birth abortions, already prohibited under federal law. Another would change a requirement when a minor seeks permission to have an abortion without notifying her parents. In those cases, a judge must issue a ruling within 48 hours. The bill, a proposed amendment to New Hampshire's two-month-old parental notification law, would change that requirement to within two court business days.
A third bill requires women to wait 24 hours and be given information on fetal development before they can undergo an abortion.
To RSVP for Thursday's event, visit barackobama.com and click on "Attend an Event," or send an email to email@example.com.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
Most Popular Stories
- SEO Traffic Lab Celebrate Wins at Digital Marketing Event 'Internet World 2013' in London
- Social Media Initiatives Should Follow Customers' Lead
- Apple CEO: Offshore Units Not a 'Tax Gimmick'
- U.S. Senate Accuses Apple of Large-scale Tax Avoidance
- UTEP Water Recycling Project Wins Venture Titles
- Marketo Makes a Mint in IPO: Stock Shoots Up More than 50 Percent
- Bieber Booed at Billboard Awards
- Crude Oil Up, Gasoline Down
- Austin Startup Compare Metrics Raises $3.5 Million for Expansion
- Why So Many Top 'Car Guys' Are Actually Women | <urn:uuid:08fe0deb-e85e-4146-bd41-daab878a3bc0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/2012/3/13/dnc_chairwoman_to_visit_nh_for.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950628 | 814 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Events in Gramps
Here an overview of the predefined events in GRAMPS are given, with their meaning.
Events and event types
Events form a core concept in genealogical research. It is important therefore that the terminology and usage is consistent and well defined, so as to allow for optimal communication, translation and portability.
An "event" is an umbrella term, and is used loosely to denote a fact about an individual, an event proper that occurs in his or her life, or an attribute. As examples, every individual has a birth event, and eventually a death event. Children being born to the individual would also be events. Being childless however is an attribute or fact about that individual.
Generally setting an event for an individual allows you to to enter a data set, including the date, description, associated place, etc, in a structured way.
In GRAMPS you define an event as belonging to a event type. This is useful as it allows the grouping of events under a common denominator, the event type. When creating an event, you must first select the event type. This can be any of the predefined events, or you can create a custom event just by typing a name.
The pre-defined events provide most of what you need. For the sake of frivolity however, let us imagine that great uncle George was a lethario, and proud of it, and insisted that you recorded details of his numerous conquests in exchange for some vital genealogy documents that you need. You could then define an event type "affairs", and then in his individual record enter one such event for each affair, entering the date, place, details, etc for each. You then end up with a list of all his affairs listed chronologically.
Frivolity apart however, defining too many event types can be problematic, and in many cases it might be better practice to group events under the same event type, and instead use the description field to add an extra nuance.
Let us first provide an overview of the predefined events types available in GRAMPS, and then later mention event types that are not in that list.
Event types available in GRAMPS
The use of most event types is self explanatory, and the best way to familiarise yourself with them is simply to set to and dabble! However some events need more careful use, and introduce concepts that are not at first obvious.
This type is for events related to childhood adoption. Typically the event is added to the individual being adopted, with this person playing the primary role. Administrators, civil servants and parents can be added to the event with different event roles
The adoption event can be added for the process of adoption (which can take several months), but also as a placeholder for an adoption certificate that you have as a source.
On adding the person to the family he is adopted into, one should also set his relationship with his adoptive parents to adopted. This doubles the event information somewhat, but is used in some reports.
The religious event (not LDS) of baptizing and/or naming an adult person
Declaring a marriage void from the beginning (never existed)
The event of baptism (not LDS), performed in infancy or later
The ceremonial event held when a Jewish girl reaches age 13, also known as "Bat Mitzvah"
The ceremonial event held when a Jewish boy reaches age 13
The event of entering into life
A religious event of bestowing divine care or intercession. Sometimes given in connection with a naming ceremony
The event of the proper disposing of the mortal remains of a deceased person
Cause Of Death
A description of the cause of death
The event of the periodic count of the population for a designated locality, such as a national or state Census
The act of baptizing and/or naming a child
The religious event (not LDS) of conferring the gift of the Holy Ghost and, among protestants, full church membership
Disposal of the remains of a person's body by fire
The event when mortal life terminates
An event of dissolving a marriage through civil action
An event of filing for a divorce by a spouse
Indicator of a level of education attained
An event of leaving one's homeland with the intent of residing elsewhere
An event of recording or announcing an agreement between two people to become married
A religious rite, the first act of sharing in the Lord's supper as part of church worship
An event of awarding educational diplomas or degrees to individuals
An event of entering into a new locality with the intent of residing there
The marriage event is a bounding ceremony between two people before an official body. In other words, it is the state of being united to another person in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized (normally) by law.
You should hence use this event typically as the 'official' starting event of the family unit in GRAMPS, that is, use it as a family event, with event role family.
Note further that this means the marriage event is wider than what is used in day-to-day language. It indicates civil marriage, church marriage, and all other types of union between adults that is official.
To indicate an offical end of a marriage event, on should use the Divorce event.
An event of creating an agreement between two people contemplating marriage, at which time they agree to release or modify property rights that would otherwise arise from the marriage
An event of obtaining a legal license to marry
An event of recording a formal agreement of marriage, including the prenuptial agreement in which marriage partners reach agreement about the property rights of one or both, securing property to their children
An event of an official public notice given that two people intend to marry
The event of obtaining citizenship
Number of Marriages
The number of times this person has participated in a family as a spouse or parent
The type of work or profession of an individual
Pertaining to a religious ordinance in general
An event of judicial determination of the validity of a will. May indicate several related court activities over several dates
Pertaining to possessions such as real estate or other property of interest
A religious denomination to which a person is affiliated or for which a record applies
The act of dwelling at an address for a period of time
An event of exiting an occupational relationship with an employer after a qualifying time period
A legal document treated as an event, by which a person disposes of his or her estate, to take effect after death. The event date is the date the will was signed while the person was alive
Event types not available in GRAMPS
The Draft Lottery was a practice in general use, used to select who should have to undertake military service. Before the advent of a permanent professional army, it was not feasible to train all young boys, so some selection process was needed to determine who would or would not be drafted. So as to make this a fair process, it was common practice to organise a lottery, into which all boys of certain age had to be entered.
The documents pertaining to these lotteries form an useful source of genealogical information, as all boys of a certain age were required to participate.
This event type should be used for all the events/attributes relating to a Draft Lottery, for example:
a) the lottery itself. This is associated with a place, and a specific date.
b) legal documents relating to the lottery. Boys from rich families who were selected to join the army by the lottery process frequently paid commoners to take their place. Legal contracts were drafted for this.
c) desertion documents concerning the lottery. Many selected individuals emigrated abroad so as to avoid their draft, with the consequence that they were recorded as deserters in their home country. In genealogical research this event can prove very difficult to trace, as deserters often changed their name to evade detection. | <urn:uuid:161bc42f-43a7-4ad1-aed6-3ab806eb5e85> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gramps-project.org/wiki/index.php?title=Events_in_Gramps&oldid=7222 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961011 | 1,634 | 3.078125 | 3 |
NASHVILLE (AP).- A federal appeals court has dismissed claims against the German government by heirs of an art dealer whose collection was seized by the Nazis and sold at auction during World War II.
Fred Westfield, a retired Nashville professor, filed the federal lawsuit seeking payment for the art and tapestry collection belonging to his uncle Walter Westfeld, a German art dealer in the 1930s.
According to the lawsuit, Westfeld attempted to send his art collection to Tennessee, where his brother lived, but Nazi officials seized and sold off the collection. Westfeld later died in the Auschwitz death camp in Poland.
The 6th Circuit Court of Appeal ruled Wednesday that the claims against the German government were beyond its jurisdiction.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. | <urn:uuid:d1619381-1f5f-43ec-b5d0-167e2e1234d3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=11&int_new=44684&int_modo=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978059 | 154 | 1.929688 | 2 |
As reported in the Register last week (Fullerton to study transit line from downtown to CSUF), and flagged on the FFFF Blog, a Fullerton city bureaucrat and an “18-member steering committee” plans to spend $300k to decide why an existing OCTA bus route would be a less effective transportation mode than a slower streetcar or perhaps another megaspensive light rail debacle like the failed CenterLine project of ten years ago. Senior city planner Jay Eastman is coveting $270k of Caltrans money (which would probably filter through the OCTA) and $30k of his own city money to hatch another redundant local transportation empire not unlike Irvine’s as we discussed weeks ago and as Frank Mickadeit analyzed in his Register column today.
Eastman wishes to connect Cal State Fullerton with downtown Fullerton (the “metro center”), but looks to have ignored the #26 OCTA BUS THAT ALREADY RUNS ALL OF TWO MILES BETWEEN the two locations (we re-oriented the map for North to be at the top):
It’s a surprise that Fullerton Mayor Bruce Whitaker and the sensible conservative(s) on their City Council didn’t kill this study and his city’s contribution from its General Fund before it made the press — he should know better, and could have easily looked at the unusable OCTA trip planner or well done Google’s trip planning system to discover what we found above in about three minutes.
As we’ve seen too often in Orange County and State government, too much money sloshing around causes bureaucrats and cubicle monkeys to fantasize well above their pay grades — does Eastman want a streetcar or trolley because they’re in vogue like the growing debacle in Anaheim (that’s thankfully having another look) and Mayor Miguel Pulido’s pay-to-play project in Santa Ana? Or doesn’t he have enough to do?
Eastman told the Register that public transit along the route “has a lot of opportunity…we are trying to find something that is right and and also accommodates our growth”. Before they opt for an alternative to a bus system with proven performance that costs Fullerton nothing, Eastman might take a look at the another study we’ve often referenced on how transit-oriented development (a favorite urban planning shibboleth) failed in another mid-sized city– from Debunking Portland: The Public Transit Myth, in part:
Light rail and streetcars may be cute, but they are S-L-O-W. Portland’s fastest light-rail line averages 22 miles per hour. Portland’s streetcar goes about 7 miles per hour. I am waiting to see a developer advertise, “If you lived here and rode transit home from work, you’d still be sitting on the train.” The developments supposedly stimulated by new light-rail and streetcar lines? They were built only after the region started handing out billions of dollars in subsidies after the transit lines were built. When Portland opened its first light-rail line in 1986, the city immediately zoned the land near light-rail stations for high-density developments. A decade later, not a single transit-oriented development had been built in these areas.
To generate such developments, then-city Commissioner Charles Hales urged the city to offer property tax waivers, grants, and other subsidies to developers. “It is a myth to think that the market will take care of development along transit corridors,” said Hales. To date, Portland’s subsidies have exceeded $1.5 billion, and its suburbs and other agencies in the region have provided even more. Hales neglects to mention this today because he now works for a consulting firm selling streetcars to other cities.
Among the subsidies, the city has sold parks, school playgrounds, and other lands at below-market prices to developers on the condition that they replace those open spaces with transit-oriented developments. So much for livability. Portland has also learned that the so-called transit-oriented developments work only if they have plenty of parking. Though often located a few steps from light-rail stations, most of the people living in these developments still drive for most of their travel. That simply adds congestion to already crowded streets. — Randal O’Toole
Mayor Whitaker needs to rethink this, find something else for his planner to do and quit this waste of money fast — and keep it the hell away from the OCTA that’s unconscionably allowed two similar projects to suck Measure M tax money away from better, more responsible use. And Bruce, let the market determine what’s to be successful where — not the planners. | <urn:uuid:db2a7494-38b9-4579-83a2-4095e9fbc1f1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ocpoliticsblog.com/fullerton-to-drop-300k-on-useless-transit-study-more-streetcars/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956814 | 994 | 1.539063 | 2 |
raids into Ethiopia.
The UN and the World Bank managed to conduct a survey of social and economic conditions in Somalia. They found that 43 percent of the population is barely getting by, and dependent on foreign aid or local charity to survive. Nearly half the workforce is unemployed. Only about a quarter of the children have any access to health care. Some 75 percent of men and 87 percent of women are illiterate. Among men, gun ownership is much higher than literacy. But economic activity is difficult because of all the banditry and looting. The warlords basically live off the followers of other warlords, as well as whatever criminal, or legitimate business operations they can establish. | <urn:uuid:f6c37b7c-8035-497d-8870-d78621ca4d04> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://strategypage.com/qnd/somalia/articles/20040119.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961749 | 137 | 2.34375 | 2 |
Ready or not, drones are coming to a law enforcement agency near you.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, or drones, have been primarily used for surveillance and targeted killings in wars in faraway lands. Now, with apparently minimal debate, local police departments have begun using them for surveillance directed at American citizens.
To us, this is a grim illustration of the post-9/11 militarization of America.
While drones can serve valid purposes, like monitoring forest fires, surveying land and search-and-rescue missions, they pose a threat to our freedoms.
Their domestic use should be strictly controlled, and current legal standards updated to reflect this powerful new technology.
Instead, it has been authorized largely outside the public eye.
“All Americans should be asking their elected officials about the limits of the use of drones — before it’s too late.”
The Federal Aviation Administration began issuing permits for the domestic experimental use of drones in 2006. A lawsuit by the Electronic Frontier Foundation forced the FAA to start releasing the names of government agencies, companies and universities that have been granted permits. The FAA has issued about 750 permits, some 300 of which are still active.
The FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection applied for these permits, as did local police departments from small towns like Gadsden, Ala., to big cities like Houston. Many police departments received Homeland Security grants to buy drones and train their police forces to use them.
Facing slowing business as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wind down, drone manufacturers solicited the help of the 58-member Congressional Unmanned Systems Caucus to speed up the pace of the FAA permit process.
In February, Congress passed sweeping legislation that forces the FAA to fully integrate drones into our national airspace by 2015, and sooner for government agencies. By May, the FAA waived the application process for police use of drones weighing up to 25 pounds, and is now streamlining the approval process for larger drones.
As the Electronic Privacy Information Center explains, enhanced drone technology is capable of “peering inside high-level windows, and through solid barriers, such as fences, trees, and even walls.”
Worse, drones could move from surveillance to offensive action. The Montgomery County sheriff’s office in Texas used a $300,000 Homeland Security grant to buy a helicopter drone. The CEO of Vanguard Defense, the company that sold the drone, said it is designed to be weaponized and could easily be outfitted with tasers and stun batons.
This is a slippery slope. If confronted with a stand-off similar to the one at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco in 1993, will authorities resort to drones?
When FBI Director Robert Mueller was asked at a ongressional hearing in March if Americans could be targeted for assassination by drones here at home, he simply said that he did not know. That’s not very reassuring.
All Americans should be asking their elected officials about the limits of the use of drones — before it’s too late.
One option is to eliminate federal grants that subsidize drones for police departments. Another is to mandate that police obtain a warrant in circumstances where drones can surveil a private residence or anywhere else citizens have a reasonable expectation of privacy.
Militarization at home, as the Founding Fathers argued centuries ago, is inconsistent with the values of a free society.
Since 9/11, some in Washington seem to have forgotten that a free society depends on a citizenry whose natural rights are protected by a limited and accountable government — not by a government that uses high-tech, stealth video cameras to constantly surveil the public wherever and whenever it wants. | <urn:uuid:61ede1ed-c1a8-42dd-986e-09102aa47b13> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/look-sky-see-drone | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946758 | 759 | 2.125 | 2 |
Elisabeth: Meaning, Popularity, Origin of Baby Name Elisabeth | Girls
Origin of the name Elisabeth:
Derived from the Hebrew elīsheba` (God is my oath). The name is borne in the Bible by the mother of John the Baptist. Var: Elisabeth. Short: Beth, Elisa, Elise, Eliza, Lisa, Lisabeth, Liz, Liza, Lizabeth. Pet: Betsy, Betty, Ellie, Elsie, Lizzie, Lizzy.
Looking for more name information? Get Name MatchMaker & more Expert name-finding tools!
Sister & Brother Names
Know an Elisabeth? What are her siblings named?
Contribute your knowledge to the name Elisabeth
- Comments and insights on the name Elisabeth: | Edit
This is a great name for the child of an international family, as this spelling of Elizabeth is the standard form in many European countries, including Germany, France, Belgium, and Sweden. It can be a bit of a drag correcting the spelling, as most people in the U.S. will automatically spell it with a "z" unless told otherwise. However, it is distinctive and beautiful, and has many possible nicknames.
- Personal experiences with the name Elisabeth: | Edit
This is the 'fat girl' equivalent of the beautiful name Elizabeth.
I chose to use the spelling Elisabeth for my daughter because I liked the look better, and I dislike the nickname Liz. People do have to be told that it's with an s, and it is often misspelled, but so far, she's ok with that, and is even ok getting personalized items that say, "Elizabeth". She is 9. I love her name, and while it can be a pain to spell it, I don't regret choosing this spelling, and I hope that she never regrets that I chose this spelling.
Elisabeth is my middle name, and I have always loved that it's spelled with an "s" (I'm 28). I definitely like it better than Elizabeth, since it is less common in the United States, but more of an international name.
This is my name, and I've always really liked it because it looks so much prettier than Elizabeth, and it was chosen by my mother to honor her nationality, which is German. But nobody ever spells it correctly, even if you spell it for them. I go by Eliza, and once people realize that my full name is Elisabeth, they try to spell my nickname Elisa. When I went by Liz people would spell it Lis. It drives me nuts! But I guess what doesn't kill us makes us stronger! :)
- Nicknames for Elisabeth: | Edit
Libby, Beth, Betsy, Betty, Biz, Liese, Liesel, Ilse, Lis, Lise, Liz, Elisa, Ellie, Elly, Elsa, Else, Elsie, Lisa, Lili, Lisette, Lissie, Lizzie, Lizzy, Elis, Ellis, Eliza, Thea, Sabby
- Meanings and history of the name Elisabeth: | Edit
From Hebrew, meaning "God's promise". This is the original spelling, and the one used in most countries; the English version is Elizabeth.
- Famous real-life people named Elisabeth: | Edit
Elisabeth Rohm - American actress
Elisabeth Harnois - American actress
Elisabeth Moss - American actress
Elisabeth Sladen - English actress
- Elisabeth in song, story & screen: | Edit
"Good Night Elisabeth" by Counting Crows
"Elisabeth" (1992), musical about Empress Elisabeth of Austria
"Elisabeth", song by German New Wave group Snaep
Name Lists Featuring Elisabeth
Global Popularity of the Name Elisabeth
- #52 in Austria
- #81 in Canada (Quebec)
- #134 in Norway
- #525 in United States | <urn:uuid:86397d71-39ca-4c2c-80d1-95291db33822> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.babynamewizard.com/baby-name/girl/elisabeth | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.902074 | 848 | 1.960938 | 2 |
Magdalena Zschokke has been teaching creative writing at UCSC, through the Arts in Corrections program at Chowchilla, Soledad, and Salinas Valley State prisons, in alternative high schools, for cancer healing groups, and through the PEP program, as well as in independent courses for over 15 years. Ongoing groups are open to adults over 18.
As Epicurus (341-270 BCE) said, “The unconsidered life is hardly worth living.”
Depending on a group’s request, fiction writing courses focus on:
- short stories
- novel writing
- free writing
- group exercises
- narrative theory and praxis
If you’re interested in any all or of the above, give it a try: no memberships, no signup fees — the only commitment is the one you make to yourself.
“If you hang out with fiction long enough you begin to see its advantages over real life. In both fiction and life one spends an enormous amount of time trying to puzzle out why people do what they do. In life you can never be sure whether you’ve got it right and sometimes you can’t figure it out at all. In good fiction, though, you always discover the reasons people do what they do.” – John Leggett.
Contact me about classes: | <urn:uuid:957077bf-4843-4159-8349-8ff66fda3a08> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.magdalenazschokke.com/classes/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942427 | 284 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Each year an estimated 76 million Americans
— about one in four—become infected by what they eat. Approximately 325,000 are hospitalized. More than 5,000 (14 a day) die. The true magnitude of foodborne illness is likely to be much higher than even the official estimates because most people do not seek medical attention for its symptoms, such as abdominal cramps, vomiting, and diarrhea. In April 2009 the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC
) reported that progress in reducing foodborne infections had stalled, pointing to gaps in the existing food safety system and the need to develop improved food safety practices as products move from the farm to the table.
The Pathogens Behind Foodborne Illness
Foodborne disease occurs when a susceptible host
consumes contaminated foods or beverages. Many different disease-causing microorganisms—bacteria
, and parasites—can taint foods and liquids, each potentially associated with a different illness.
Raw foods of animal origin are the most likely to be contaminated—that is, raw meat and poultry, raw eggs, unpasteurized milk, and raw shellfish.
The most common causes of foodborne illness include the bacterial infections Campylobacter,
the most frequently identified bacterial cause of diarrheal illness
in the world; Salmonella,
which spreads to humans through a variety of foods of animal origin, or through fecal contamination of plant-based foods, such as in the 2009 peanut- product outbreak; and E. coli
O157:H7, the agent behind a serious and sometimes deadly complication called hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS). The most common viral cause of foodborne illness is Calicivirus,
also referred to as Norwalk-like virus or norovirus
. Unlike the previous three bacterial foodborne pathogens, noroviruses easily spread from one infected person to another and can contaminate an environment, making them extremely difficult to eradicate from hotels, hospitals, nursing homes, cruise ships, and similar establishments where large numbers of people congregate.
After you swallow a foodborne pathogen there may be a delay—the incubation period—before symptoms appear. This delay may range from hours to days. During the incubation period, the microbes pass through the stomach into the intestine, attach to the cells lining the intestinal walls, and begin to multiply there. Some types of microbes stay in the intestine. Some, like cholera
, produce a toxin that causes the body to secrete water, resulting in diarrhea. Others, like the typhoid bacillus, invade and replicate in the deeper body tissues.
Not all foodborne pathogens require an incubation period, however. Illness can result from toxins that form in the food before it is eaten—leading to true “food poisoning.” In such cases, bacteria do not need to replicate in the body at all and the onset of symptoms can be more rapid.
What Causes Outbreaks?
In the past few decades, food production and distribution for the developed world have increasingly involved vast and intricate global networks. This sprawling system produces food that, if contaminated, increases the potential for widespread epidemics
. In this giant food economy opportunities abound for food to come in contact with pathogens. Meat and poultry carcasses can become contaminated during slaughter by contact with small amounts of intestinal contents. Fresh fruits and vegetables become tainted if they are washed or irrigated with water contaminated with animal manure or human sewage. (Outbreaks related to fresh produce have increased eightfold in the United States during the past several decades.) And increasingly, we don’t cook our own meals, leaving food safety in the hands, literally, of others.
Raw foods of animal origin are the most likely to be contaminated—that is, raw meat and poultry, raw eggs, unpasteurized milk, and raw shellfish. Foods for which such products are pooled from many sources and batch processed are also hazardous, because a pathogen present in any one of the animals might contaminate the whole batch.
How to Protect Yourself
Consumers can reduce the risk of foodborne illness by adhering to the following safe food handling and preparation practices:
Wash hands thoroughly with soap and warm water before handling food.
Cook meat, poultry, and eggs thoroughly. Use a thermometer to measure the internal temperature of meat, to be sure that it is cooked sufficiently to kill bacteria. Ground beef, for example, should be cooked to an internal temperature of 160oF. Eggs should be cooked until the yolk is firm.
Separate: Avoid cross-contaminating foods by washing hands, utensils, and cutting boards after contact with raw meat or poultry and before they touch another food. Unless it is disinfected between each use, don’t use a “universal” cleanup tool such as a sponge. Place cooked meat on a clean platter, rather than back on the one that held the raw meat.
Chill: Bacteria can grow quickly at room temperature, so refrigerate leftover foods if they are not going to be eaten within 4 hours. A large volume of food will cool more quickly if divided into several shallow containers for refrigeration.
Clean: Rinse fresh fruits and vegetables in running tap water to remove visible dirt and grime. Remove and discard the outermost leaves from a head of lettuce or cabbage. Because bacteria can grow on the cut surface of fruits or vegetables, be careful not to contaminate these foods while slicing them on a cutting board, and avoid leaving cut produce at room temperature for many hours.
Report suspected foodborne illness to your local health department. | <urn:uuid:d3ba2ce1-14ee-47c3-9126-7a1ac1cca3ea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://needtoknow.nas.edu/id/threats/foodborne-pathogens/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937626 | 1,157 | 4 | 4 |
The Disutility of Injustice
Paul H. Robinson
University of Pennsylvania Law School
Geoffrey P. Goodwin
University of Pennsylvania - Department of Psychology
Arizona State University (ASU) - School of Criminology & Criminal Justice
New York University Law Review, Vol. 85, p. 1940, 2010
U of Penn Law School, Public Law Research Paper No. 09-24
For more than half a century, the retributivists and the crime-control instrumentalists have seen themselves as being in an irresolvable conflict. Social science increasingly suggests, however, that this need not be so. Doing justice may be the most effective means of controlling crime. Perhaps partially in recognition of these developments, the American Law Institute's recent amendment to the Model Penal Code's "purposes" provision – the only amendment to the Model Code in the 47 years since its promulgation – adopts desert as the primary distributive principle for criminal liability and punishment.
That shift to desert has prompted concerns by two groups – ironically, two groups traditionally opposed to one another. The first group – those concerned with what they see as the over-punitiveness of current criminal law – worries that setting desert as the dominant distributive principle means continuing the punitive doctrines they find so objectionable, and perhaps will make things worse. The second group – those concerned with ensuring effective crime control – worries that a shift to desert will create many missed crime-control opportunities; it will increase avoidable crime.
The first group's concern about over-punitiveness rests upon an assumption that the current punitive crime-control doctrines of which they disapprove are a reflection of the community's naturally punitive intuitions of justice. However, as Study 1 makes clear, today's popular crime-control doctrines in fact seriously conflict with people's intuitions of justice by exaggerating the punishment deserved.
The second group's concern that a desert principle will increase avoidable crime exemplifies the common wisdom of the past half century that ignoring justice in pursuit of crime-control through deterrence, incapacitation of the dangerous, and other such coercive crime-control programs is cost free. However, Studies 2 and 3 suggest that doing injustice has real crime control costs. Deviating from the community's shared principles of justice undermines the system's moral credibility and thereby undermines its ability to gain cooperation and compliance and to harness the powerful forces of social influence and internalized norms.
The studies reported here give assurance to both groups. A shift to desert is not likely to either undermine the criminal justice system's crime-control effectiveness, and indeed it may enhance it, nor is it likely to increase the system's punitiveness, and indeed it may reduce it.
Number of Pages in PDF File: 95
Keywords: Purpose of criminal law, criminal liability and punishment, retributivists, crime-control, Model Penal Code, desert, intuitions of justice, deterrence, social science research and law, “three strikes,” felony murder, drug offenses, strict liability, media coverage of crimeAccepted Paper Series
Date posted: September 10, 2009 ; Last revised: January 27, 2011
© 2013 Social Science Electronic Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
This page was processed by apollo8 in 0.516 seconds | <urn:uuid:baad01e3-0054-44f5-946e-26d81ece94bf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1470905&rec=1&srcabs=1590463 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927698 | 666 | 1.5625 | 2 |
As we throw away our canvas in approaches and yearn for a content-out process, there remains a pain point: the Content. It is spoken of in the hushed tones usually reserved for Lord Voldemort. The-thing-that-someone-else-is-responsible-for-that-must-not-be-named.
Designers and developers have been burned before by not knowing what the Content is, how long it is, what style it is and when the hell it’s actually going to be delivered, in internet eons past. Warily, they ask clients for it. But clients don’t know what to make, or what is good, because no one taught them this in business school. Designers struggle to describe what they need and when, so the conversation gets put off until it’s almost too late, and then everyone is relieved that they can take the cop-out of putting up a blog and maybe some product descriptions from the brochure.
The Content in content out.
I’m guessing, as a smart, sophisticated, and, may I say, nicely-scented reader of the honourable and venerable tradition of 24 ways, that you sense something better is out there. Bunches of boxes to fill in just don’t cut it any more in a responsive web design world. The first question is, how are you going to design something to ensure users have the easiest access to the best Content, if you haven’t defined at the beginning what that Content is? Of course, it’s more than possible that your clients have done lots of user research before approaching you to start this project, and have a plethora of finely tuned Content for you to design with.
Have you finished laughing yet? Alright then. Let’s just assume that, for whatever reason of gross oversight, this hasn’t happened. What next?
Bringing up Content for the first time with a client is like discussing contraception when you’re in a new relationship. It might be awkward and either party would probably rather be doing something else, but it needs to be broached before any action happens (that, and it’s disastrous to assume the other party has the matter in hand). If we can’t talk about it, how can we expect people to be doing it right and not making stupid mistakes? That being the case, how do we talk about Content? Let’s start by finding a way to talk about it without blushing and scuffing our shoes. And there’s a reason I’ve been treating Content as a Proper Noun.
The first step, and I mean really-first-step-way-back-at-the-beginning-of-the-project-while-you-are-still-scoping-out-what-the-hell-you-might-do-for-each-other-and-it’s-still-all-a-bit-awkward-like-a-first-date, is for you to explain to the client how important it is that you, together, work out what is important to your users as part of the user experience design, so that your users get the best user experience. The trouble is that, in most cases, this would lead to blank stares, possibly followed by a light cough and a query about using Comic Sans because it seems friendly.
Let’s start by ensuring your clients understand the task ahead. You see, all the time we talk about the Content we do our clients a big disservice. Content is poorly defined. It looms over a project completion point like an unscalable (in the sense of a dozen stacked Kilimanjaros), seething, massive, singular entity. The Content.
Defining the problem.
We should really be thinking of the Content as ‘contents’; as many parts that come together to form a mighty experience, like hit 90s kids’ TV show Mighty Morphin Power Rangers*.
*For those of you who might have missed the Power Rangers, they were five teenagers with attitude, each given crazy mad individual skillz and a coloured lycra suit from an alien overlord. In return, they had to fight a new monster of the week using their abilities and weaponry in sync (even if the audio was not) and then, finally, in thrilling combination as a Humongous Mechanoid Machine of Awesome. They literally joined their individual selves, accessories and vehicles into a big robot. It was a toy manufacturer’s wet dream.
So, why do I say Content is like the Power Rangers? Because Content is not just a humongous mecha. It is a combination of well-crafted pieces of contents that come together to form a well-crafted humongous mecha. Of Content.
The Red Power Ranger was always the leader. You can imagine your text contents, found on about pages, product descriptions, blog articles, and so on, as being your Red Power Ranger.
Maybe your pictures are your Yellow Power Ranger; video is Blue (not used as much as the others, but really impressive when given a good storyline); maybe Pink is your infographics (it’s wrong to find it sexier than the other equally important Rangers, but you kind of do anyway). And so on.
These bits of content – Red Text Ranger, Yellow Picture Ranger and others – often join together on a page, like they are teaming up to fight the bad guy in an action scene, and when they all come together (your standard workaday huge mecha) in a launched site, that’s when Content becomes an entity.
While you might have a vision for the whole site, Content rarely works that way. Of course, you keep your eye on the bigger prize, the completion of your mega robot, but to get there you need to assemble your working parts, the cogs and springs of contents that will mesh together to finally create your Humongous Mecha of Content. You create parts and join them to form a whole. (It’s rarely seamless; often we need to adjust as we go, but we can create our Mecha’s blueprint by making sure we have all the requisite parts.)
The point here is the order these parts were created. No alien overlord plans a Humongous Mechanoid and then thinks, “Gee, how can I split this into smaller fighting units powered by teenagers in snazzy shiny suits?” No toy manufacturer goes into production of a mega robot, made up of model mecha vehicles with detachable arsenal, without thinking how they will easily fit back together to form the ‘Buy all five now to create the mega robot’ set. No good contents are created as a singular entity and chunked up to be slotted in to place any which way, into the body of a site.
Think contents, not the Content. Think of contents as smaller units, or as a plural. The Content is what you have at the end. The contents are what you are creating and they are easy to break down. You are no longer scaling the unscalable. You can draw the map and plot the path, page by page, section by section.
The page table is your friend
To do this, I use a page table. A page table is a simple table template you can create in the word processor of your choice, that you use to tell you everything about the contents of a page – everything except the contents itself.
This particular page table template owes a lot to Brain Traffic’s version found in Kristina Halvorson’s book Content Strategy for the Web. With smaller clients than, say, the government, I might use something a bit more casual. With clients who like timescales and deadlines, I might turn it into a covering sheet, with signatures and agreements from two departments who have to work together to get the piece done on time.
I use page tables, and the process of working through them, to reassure clients that I understand the task they face and that I can help them break it down section by section, page stack to page, down to product descriptions and interaction copy. About 80% of my clients break into relieved smiles. Most clients want to work with you to produce something good, they just don’t understand how, and they want you to show them the mountain path on the map. With page tables, clients can understand that with baby steps they can break down their content requirements and commission content they need in time for the designers to work with it (as opposed to around it). If I was Santa, these clients would be on my nice list for sure.
My own special brand of Voldemort-content-evilness comes in how I wield my page tables for the other 20%. Page tables are not always thrilling, I’ll admit. Sometimes they get ignored in favour of other things, yet they are crucial to the continual growth and maintenance of a truly content-led site. For these naughty list clients who, even when given the gift of the page table, continually say “Ooh, yes. Content. Right”, I have a special gift. I have a stack of recycled paper under my desk and a cheap black and white laser printer. And I print a blank page table for every conceivable page I can find on the planned redesign. If I’m feeling extra nice, I hole punch them and put them in a fat binder.
There is nothing like saying, “This is all the contents you need to have in hand for launch”, and the satisfying thud the binder makes as it hits the table top, to galvanize even the naughtiest clients to start working with you to create the content you need to really create in a content-out way. | <urn:uuid:6a95661f-7c8f-4d2c-9c9e-21ef1b5635c0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://24ways.org/2011/extracting-the-content/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940542 | 2,044 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Neighbors are furious after vandalism at Woodland Park leads to one of the city's oldest trees being cut down.
Last week two trees at the park were set on fire.
The trees were significantly damaged, but they survived the first bout of vandalism. However, the vandals struck again Wednesday night and this time, they destroyed one of the trees.
An enormous sycamore tree, more than 100 years old, was so badly burned, city officials were concerned about its structural soundness.
Cutting the tree down has stirred up some controversy among people who live near Woodland Park. Some say the city acted too quickly in getting rid of the tree.
We're told four different arborists looked at the tree and because of the fire damage inside they agree the tree is not structurally sound.
So, for safety reasons, all 10 tons of the tree are coming down.
We're told that the city is trying to save the other tree that was vandalized.
There is a one thousand dollar reward being offered for information on the vandals.
Enter your number for a chance to win great prizes!
Message and data rates may apply | <urn:uuid:fa422e7f-7cb7-4c02-8253-5487ce5f2cef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wkyt.com/home/headlines/7448521.html?site=full | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980648 | 237 | 2.21875 | 2 |
This October marked the 27th National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and women are not the only ones giving back! Thousands of men around the country are participating in breast cancer awareness events in support of their mothers, sisters, wives, aunts, daughters, and other loved ones.
“I’ve done breast cancer walks for the last two years,” T. Shivers, 31, told me. “And about half of the participants were men.”
I had never really thought about the extent of male interest in the cause, but was surprised by Shivers’ statement. After all, breast cancer strikes women, primarily, and the “faces” of breast cancer awareness are typically female.
“Breast Cancer affects us because it affects the women in our lives,” Shivers said, when he noticed my surprise.
It is, largely, with this sentiment that public interest organization, “Men Against Breast Cancer” or “MABC,” was formed. MABC, founded in 1999, provides “targeted support services that educate and empower men to be effective caregivers when cancer strikes.” Its website describes the organization’s philosophy as “leverage[ing] the support of the whole family to help the patient, with special emphasis on the important role of men in caring for the women they love.”
It is an important role, indeed.
The American Cancer Society estimates that there will be 226,870 new cases of invasive breast cancer found in women this year, and about 39,510 deaths. These are frightening numbers. But I am encouraged, inspired, and strengthened to learn about the commitment so many men have made to the cause. And I am quite certain that the 2.9 million breast cancer survivors in the United States share my feeling.
So, on behalf of your mothers, sisters, wives, aunts, and daughters, I say, “thank you” to the MABC and all male supporters of the cause. And I urge you to keep fighting! We need all the fight we can get to conquer this thing.
To learn more about MABC, visit its website at http://www.menagainstbreastcancer.org/. | <urn:uuid:49956d04-4e0b-49ea-a265-f16b0eac2bfd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mzshyneka.com/2012/10/for-the-love-of-our-women-men-against-breast-cancer/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95463 | 462 | 2.109375 | 2 |
'Research has found emotional eaters tend to eat more when happy', reports the Mail Online website.
The news is based on a small study looking at whether experimentally altering mood has an effect on the amount of calories a person eats.
The researchers examined the effects on what they describe as 'emotional eaters' - people who reported using food as a coping mechanism for emotions.
A group of 86 students, who said they were either emotional or non-emotional eaters, were shown TV and movie clips to evoke either a positive, negative or neutral mood. The researchers then assessed how much the students ate when provided with bowls of crisps and chocolate, as well as assessing their change in mood.
Emotional eaters who were shown the positive mood-inducing scenes significantly increased their food intake compared to emotional eaters shown the neutral mood-inducing scenes. However, the negative mood-inducing scenes had no effect on food intake of emotional or non-emotional students.
The common assumption is that emotional eaters eat more when in a negative mood, but this study provides very limited evidence to suggest that this may not always be the case.
However, because this experiment was based in a laboratory and researchers did not measure how hungry people were, even this finding should be viewed with caution. As ever, more and better research is needed if people with eating disorders or weight problems are to be helped effectively.
Cannot control your eating?
It is common for many of us to take solace in scoffing down an entire chocolate bar or pigging out on a pizza at the end of a bad day. But if you find yourself regularly binge eating in order to cope with emotional stress then you may need medical help for binge eating.
Warning signs include:
- eating a large amount of food when you are not hungry
- eating alone or secretly due to being embarrassed about the amount of food you eat
- having feelings of guilt, shame or disgust after binge eating
Where did the story come from?
The study was carried out by researchers from Maastricht University in The Netherlands and was funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research. It was published in the peer-reviewed journal, Appetite.
The story was picked up by the Mail Online website and it was covered appropriately, although the limitations of the study could have been described in more detail.
What kind of research was this?
This was a laboratory study looking at the effect of experimentally influencing mood changes in a group of students reported to be emotional or non-emotional eaters, and then looking at the effect on their food and calorie intake.
The researchers say emotional eaters are thought to increase their food intake in response to negative emotions, but little is known about the effect of positive emotions on their food intake. Meanwhile, non-emotional eaters are not believed to change their intake levels in response to emotions, and they might even restrict food intake in response.
The main limitation of this research is that a study of a small, select population sample under experimental conditions can only provide very limited indications about the possible influence emotions may have upon the eating patterns of different people in daily life.
For example, if you thought that researchers could be measuring how much you were eating it could make you, perhaps unconsciously, reluctant to eat as much as you normally would. Alternatively, being in this type of study could make you nervous, leading you to eat more than you normally would.
What did the research involve?
The researchers recruited 86 psychology students in their second year at Maastricht University in the Netherlands who received credit points for their participation. The students were predominantly female (75%) and had an average age of 21.6 years (range 19 to 43).
The students answered a series of questionnaires to assess their mental health and eating behaviours. Emotional eating was assessed using a questionnaire called the Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (DEBQ). Students were asked, 'Do you have a desire to eat when you're feeling lonely?' and provided answers on a five-point Likert scale that ranged from 'never' to 'very often'.
The researchers then carried out a series of experiments in a laboratory setting that aimed to change the student's mood. Students were randomly allocated to view clips from television or films that aimed to evoke either a positive, negative or neutral mood:
- 28 students were shown two clips to evoke a positive mood. Firstly, they were shown a scene from the television series Mr Bean (which showed Mr Bean struggling to copy answers from his neighbour during an exam). The second clip was taken from the movie 'When Harry Met Sally' which showed the famous scene where Meg Ryan's character simulates an orgasm in front of other diners in a restaurant.
- 28 students were shown one negative clip from the film 'The Green Mile', which showed an innocent man being executed.
- 30 students were shown part of a documentary about fishing to evoke a neutral mood.
The students were told to give in to the emotions the clips evoked, and were presented with bowls containing 191g of chocolate (white, milk and dark, equivalent to 1,000 kcal), 225g of salted crisps (1,229 kcal) and 225g of ketchup crisps (1,217 kcal). The bowls were weighed before and after the experiment to determine the amount of food eaten and calorie intake.
The students were asked to assess their mood using a visual analogue scale (this is essentially a straight line - where the far left of the line represents poor mood and the far right represents very good mood) at five points during the experiment:
- before the experiment began
- immediately after watching the television or movie scenes
- 5 minutes after the experiment
- 10 minutes after the experiment
- 15 minutes after the experiment
The students were told when entering the laboratory that they were taking part in an experiment on the effect of movie clips on taste perception.
The researchers analysed their results using validated methods and adjusted the results for gender, body mass index (BMI), external eating and dietary restraint as assessed by the DEBQ, and negative mood as assessed by the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS).
What were the basic results?
Overall, there was no significant difference between emotional eaters eating more than non-emotional eaters who were shown positive, negative or neutral clips.
When looking specifically at only the emotional eaters:
- those shown the positive mood-inducing scenes significantly increased their intake of food compared to those shown the neutral mood-inducing scenes
- there was no difference in food intake between students shown negative mood-inducing scenes and those shown neutral or positive mood-inducing scenes
How did the researchers interpret the results?
The researchers concluded that self-reported emotional eaters respond in a different way to emotions than non-emotional eaters. They say that emotional eaters ate more in a positive mood compared to a neutral mood, whereas non-emotional eaters ate about the same amount in both conditions.
In discussing the results, the researchers say the findings could be of value for the treatment of obesity.
Overall, this small study provides very limited evidence to suggest emotional eaters eat more when feeling in a positive mood. There are several limitations to this study, some of which are noted by the researchers. These include the facts that:
- the laboratory setting may not be an appropriate setting to test emotional eating with different mood feelings. It is possible that students felt uncomfortable in this setting and limited their food intake as they were being watched
- the students were told they were partaking in an experiment of taste perceptions, so may have been inclined to eat more than they normally would have because of what they were told the study was looking at
- no hunger measurements were taken during the study and how hungry each student was could have greatly affected the results
- there was no group included in the study that did not eat, so it is not possible to say from the findings that the changes in mood were due to food intake
- all of the participants were students, so findings may not be the same as if the same experiments were carried out in different groups who report being emotional eaters
To draw firmer conclusions about the effects of mood on emotional eating, larger studies of different groups are required that carry out experiments in more natural environments.
Links to Headlines
Forget comfort eating - could happiness be the reason you're piling on the pounds? Mail Online, May 13 2013
Links to Science
Bongers P, Jansen A, Havvermans R, et al. Happy eating: The underestimated role of overeating in a positive mood. Appetite. Published online April 10 2013 | <urn:uuid:0edfc227-f394-4eb3-a133-9a9174fb6ea4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.halesowennews.co.uk/families/food/New_Alzheimer___s_drug_can_stop_symptoms_.nhschoices.09ff1974-b8e3-49cd-b553-4cbf6e4b785c/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979219 | 1,783 | 3.015625 | 3 |
THE WORLD OUTDOORS
Websites growing as nature resource 0
This Northern harrier was photographed flying along Lake Erie’s north shore. The breeding area of this species covers most of Canada and the north half of the United States. While many of these birds will migrate to the Southern U.S. and Mexico, some will spend the winter in Southwestern Ontario. (Shay Redmond, Special to QMI Agency)
Online birding and nature resources are great for everyday use.
Sites such as the Cornell Lab of Ornithology are treasure troves of avian facts but local and regional sites are generally more exciting because you can find out what’s flying right now.
My favorite local site is still the Middlesex Elgin nature Yahoo! group. Search on “sightings in Middlesex” then click on Messages. It is primarily a site where members can post current nature observations from Middlesex, Elgin and Oxford counties.
Peter Burke established the site in 2009 and remains the moderator. “This site is similar to other nature discussion groups. It was more or less inspired by a rudimentary digital hot line that was operating in Peterborough when I lived there. After moving to London a friend pointed me to the Yahoo! groups and boom . . . we were off. It was easy to launch the site.”
Any nature enthusiast can check out the posted messages. The group’s members post the updates. They also automatically receive new postings via e-mail.
Burke said the growth in members was slow at first. “There was a bit of hesitancy, maybe a bit of a generational thing at first. There was a little learning curve.” There are now more than 100 members.
There is no cost to becoming a member of the group. Participants simply follow the basic, sensible protocols that are published. To join, go to the home page of the site, click on Join This Group! and follow the prompts.
Apart from continuing to encourage the sharing of nature highlights, there are no plans for the site. “It’s all about sharing the local observations” added Burke. “In a land-locked county like Middlesex our observations will be a bit different and sharing is helpful.”
While some sites focus on rare bird alerts, the Middlesex-Elgin nature group has posts for any current sightings. I’m interested to read about pine siskens arriving at local feeders or a yellow-bellied sapsucker flying through. Neither of these events is rare but they are they helpful in telling the current migration story and prompting readers in terms of what to be watching for.
Members will also post updates relating to butterflies, other insects, mammals, herps and plants across the three counties.
Through the late summer and fall I also check the daily postings of the Hawk Cliff Hawkwatch. This is a regional birding website. Although the primary focus is on raptors, I always read the non-raptor entries, too. Click on Migration #’s then click on the daily summaries link.
As the name suggests, ONTBIRDS is a site that’s provincial in scope.
Search on Ontario Surfbirds for current details. It is for birds only and the focus is on unusual sightings including rare vagrants, regional rarities, birds seen out of season, and birds in unusual geographic locations.
I do receive daily ONTBIRDS notices, but for me and most other subscribers the info on this site is more interesting than useful since I don’t yet chase birds outside of Southwestern Ontario.
Birders’ increasing reliance on web-based technologies for updates has dramatically changed the purpose of formal telephone hotlines and even bird columns such as this.
Fanshawe College’s Continuing Education is introducing a new Arts & Lifestyle course on Nature and Wildlife Photography this fall. It will run on Thursday evenings starting Oct. 18 and will be led by London nature photographer Paul Brewer. Check the Fanshawe course catalogue for details or call (519) 452-4441 for more information.
Nature London has planned a guided hike through Warbler Woods, one of London’s 13 environmentally sensitive areas. It is open to the public. Birds and flora will be the focus. Hikers should meet before 6 p.m. Wednesday at the parking area off Warbler Woods Walk, just east of Oxford W. and Commissioners Rd. W. There is no charge. Check naturelondon.ca for details.
Last weekend, Steve Charbonneau of Erieau added a Nelson’s sharp-tailed sparrow at the Blenheim Lagoons and a Franklin’s gull and a Hudsonian godwit at Rondeau Provincial Park to his 2012 species total for the Rondeau circle. These birds brought his area total for the year to 258.
Paul Nicholson can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org | <urn:uuid:a6c8d07e-c40c-43f4-a77a-803940d568dc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lfpress.com/2012/10/03/the-world-outdoors-websites-growing-as-nature-resource | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930973 | 1,037 | 2.203125 | 2 |
Domestic Courts and Growing NGO Investment in "International Law": At What Cost and Consequence to Democracy?
May 1, 2003Donald J. Kochan
Increasingly, United States courts are recognizing various treaties, as well as declarations, proclamations, conventions, resolutions, programmes, protocols, and similar forms of inter- or multi-national “legislation” as evidence of a body of “customary international law” enforceable in domestic courts, particularly in the area of tort liability. These so-called “legislative” documents, referred to herein as customary international law outputs (“CILOs”), are seen by some courts as evidence of jus cogens norms that bind not only nations and state actors, but also private individuals. Such enforceability has occurred even where such international CILOs have not been codified or otherwise adopted by Congress. | <urn:uuid:7cddef5c-bc80-4d74-a345-65beab17b265> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fed-soc.org/publications/detail/domestic-courts-and-growing-ngo-investment-in-international-law-at-what-cost-and-consequence-to-democracy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945355 | 187 | 1.710938 | 2 |
THE ANTIDOTE: GENUINE LOVE
November 13, 2002
From the first human tragedy to the heartless snipers who terrorized the Washington area, all our past and current troubles are caused by the absence of genuine love. With the exception of only a handful of people, nearly everyone who has ever lived came into the world and died without having been genuinely loved, ever. This may include you and everyone you know. Shocking.
Look at your face, up close, and the faces of all the adults around you. Observe those deepening frown lines, which begin on each side of the nostrils and end on each side of the upper chin. Look closely at your own down turned lips. This is often a sure sign of a sad soul. Notice all the slumped shoulders, evidence of a kind of "heaviness," and a malnourishment of the whole person, dying from the lack of love.
We are all quietly emaciated, not unlike a person who hasn't eaten in months. People are tired, famished. Our core selves, which power our minds and bodies, have, since childhood, been forced to exist with little to no infusion of energy from our source. We consume everything except what we need to survive spiritually. We have not as yet seen that without spirit nothing else can exist.
Junk food is the equivalent of the counterfeit love so embellished by our world. Because we have no comparison, we cannot see that we function as if barely alive and that only by emotional energy, which consumes rather than gives energy.
Teens from 14 to 19 years old are engaging in sex at an alarming rate. The argument among the experts is between funding more contraception and the teaching of abstinence. It was the teaching of abstinence that got Miss America, Erika Harold, in big trouble with the Miss America committee. She was censured by the committee for telling youngsters "about the debilitating effects of premature sex." No such censure for Miss Gay America, who preaches lesbianism. What must be understood is the vehement objection to healthy behavior for young people and a classic rejection of true love. Even educators want-unconscienciously, I believe-to harm youngsters with their endorsement of a poisonous, false love.
Whether the Miss America committee or the Noble Prize committee's award to former President Jimmy Carter, nearly every movie you see, or the whole of the American culture, there is an insistence for the poison. Moreover, despite progress in every area of human endeavor, even intelligent men fall dumb and silent when the poison is held up as genuine love. And if anyone suggests that the poison is poison, that person is blacklisted, called "out of touch" or "insensitive."
False love explains why many children, too young to understand the fatality of what has invaded their minds, crave the most destructive forms of everything. First, they are starved for genuine love, which most have never experienced. Then their naiveté sends them on a wild goose chase for the antidote everyone says is easily found. In time, their rage sees the betrayal. This perpetuates an angry cynicism that eventually destroys them.
Genuine love is a form of light, which was our soul's original food. Love is not a sentiment or an emotion. It is power in the purest form. Having forgotten the source, we are reminded by the traveling Israelites, who ate food that fell from heaven, daily. Manna, as it was called, was the physical example of inward nourishment. It comes to all those who journey in search of that quiet place in their own hearts. We are like those Israelites. They, and we, become bored with genuine love from heaven and demand "quail," representative of false love. Here it is again. Even when we have access to genuine love we refuse it for a better-tasting succulent, in the forms of money, notoriety, lust, pride, power, sex, etc. Six thousand years and we have not nailed this down yet. Only genuine love will work.
There is no way to receive real love if you will not let go of the look-alike, convinced you already hold the genuine article. We have three selves. One we put on like our clothes. We show this self to the world. It is usually phony and designed to fit in. The second self is more private. Only our family sees this one. It is still largely contrived but closer to what we really are. Your anger is freed to express itself here. Your sons and daughters know the effects of this semi-private self. And they often hate you for the contradiction.
The third self is mostly hidden, even from yourself. This self is the reason you create the first self. God refers to this self as "your hidden part." This is the disfigured, real you. It carries a scar for every infraction against youself, your family, neighbors and God. We are terrified of facing this self. No such fear would exist if you didn't already know something of how ugly you are inside. Your greatest fear is exposure. You know and don't care that God sees you as you are. Him you can avoid, you think. You want and need genuine love but not if you have to go to Him for it. And so, at an early age you began to grow uglier by the day. Eventually you collapse from fatigue.
Genuine Love is less a feeling and more a power source, like fire. Love has a magnetic quality and responds to its counterpart, you and I, when our call is genuine. God's love, bouncing off the sphere of paradise, is one thing, but when it transforms the unloving its true nature is realized. I do not imply that God needs humans to express his love, without which he is missing something. No. I say that a fuller appreciation of real love is realized when it melts and changes us. Likewise, a hammer is no less a hammer even if it is never used. But when that hammer is used to build a mansion, then it is fulfilling a more profound purpose.
Look at the birds. Have you ever seen a sluggish one? All of them sing and leap through trees limbs at full speed, without touching a leaf. They are happy, compulsively so. Would the Creator do less for us? So why are we, all of us, so sluggish?
We are mistaken if we believe that love exist in the midst of chaos. Chaos would fall to the ground and burn if real love were to make a sudden appearance. We hear it all the time; "I loved my son or daughter with all my heart, and they chose drugs over me." But real love dominates everything else, no exceptions. It is never defeated when it is present. Any other implication suggests an impossibility, that God failed. It is we who fail to find authentic love. We are too cozy with the false love.
Look at your son, daughter or spouse. Get close and look them in the eye. Be still and notice the uneasy feeling creeping in. What is that? Is it a gulf that exists between the two of you? It is the absence of love for each other, despite what you may tell each other, verbally. Hold that contact, and speak to each other in truth about important things. You'll find that looking people in the eye isn't easy. Behind your eyes and theirs is the soul, and behind the soul is God.
For those who faithfully practice the Foundation's observation excerise, and you have achieved a measure of objectivity, there is something you may have missed. Despite your many mistakes, daily, you often encounter a quiet that fills your entire being, when you meditate. It is often warm, illuminating and energizing. It is never rude. It is honest and powerfully gentle. You see yourself in this space. Notice there is no judgment or condemnation here. This is the love of God. It is kind and awarded to those who persevere in the stillness, no matter how long it takes or how rotten you are or how rabid your thoughts.
Despite your faults, your lungs never lose their capacity to take in air. You continue to eat, sleep and are the recipient of gifts, as if packaged by heaven itself, even while you are living selfishly. You are not the cause of your living. Your life is God's attitude toward you. A gladness about this truth should be your attitude toward those in the circle in which God has placed you.
Genuine love is the oldest brother of truth. It does not come without being called, drawn. Unconditional love? Toss that out the window. Real love has many conditions, the first of which is "you must seek it with all your heart." The call cannot go out if you are satisfied with the love you know has done nothing to transform your life. You know this is right.
Today, children are being absorbed by a love defined by gratification. No matter how the false love destroys millions of children through divorce, causes wars between nations, is deceit between men and women, we still have not advanced to see false love for what it is. We are conditioned to look for love out there, not realizing that looking locks real love out. This is like prescribing rat poison for headaches.
The body of a person indwelled by genuine love is warm, even when exposed to cold temperatures. Angry people often have cold hands, while real lovers do not get as cold as quickly. I do not imply that their body temperature is higher. It is normal, 98.6 degrees. But the source of that temperature is from a strong, constant source. If you have it, the inward heat source is like an invisible, electric blanket wrapped around the body. There are people who never have cold hands, are rarely sick, and walk with erect shoulders and heads. Some of them have found genuine love.
We can be vessels, and full vessels at that. Here is an acid test. How many of us who find ourselves in a position of power over our families (defenseless children) and fellows, and are unable to take even the slightest advantage? If you can honestly say that you cannot maliciously hurt others, you are on your way. Love never establishes itself by any form of brutality. It couldn't hurt a butterfly's wings. Real love (pure strength) never knocks people around, verbally, mentally, physically or spiritually. This is the power of genuine love. It can be yours the day you set your unwavering sights on it.
© 2002 Emanuel McLittle - All Rights Reserved
Sign Up For Free E-Mail Alerts
Emanuel McLittle has a Masters Degree and two decades of experience in Counseling Psychology. His keen insight, developed over 24 years, makes him qualified to deliver honest, unambiguous guidance. firstname.lastname@example.org | <urn:uuid:8b69051e-4bb3-45ff-ba3c-bbf3d116e494> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://newswithviews.com/EmanuelMcLittle/mclittle3.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966798 | 2,232 | 1.679688 | 2 |
An Electricity eBay Framework Takes Shape in Europe
The PowerMatchingCity pilot in the city of Groningen in Holland deploys a number of innovations in policy, market models, and technology. One of the most intriguing innovations is their creation of a framework to enable easy communications between energy devices. In the past, energy devices were either producers – like generation plants – or consumers – like a refrigerator. Devices in markets used to be limited to large generation sources that had centralized and predictable characteristics.
The Smart Grid enables the democratization of energy markets for new participants and the vast expansion of energy markets with new devices. Smart Grid technologies enable these changes for distributed energy resources (generation, storage, price-based consumption, and aggregated DR) via distributed intelligence in the grid using both powerline carrier and wireless communications technologies. Communications networks have critical roles in these pilots. Peer-based energy grids require “smart controllers” in all devices that are “enrolled” in the grid that receive realtime and day ahead price signals.
As described in my previous article, the PowerMatchingCity pilot has been focused on building a peer-based or hyperlocal transactive energy grid that accommodates new devices into the energy market. TNO researchers define four types of devices that can participate in peer-based energy grids and markets:
- Timeshifters – appliances or equipment that can be operated on a discretionary basis to take advantage of lowest energy prices.
- Buffers – devices that can store thermal energy, such as ice-based chillers or hot water heaters that bank energy.
- Uncontrolled loads or producers, such as wind and solar generation. (Note – while we cannot control the sources of solar and wind power, we can develop sophisticated models to predict their performance patterns and behaviors.)
- Electrical storage in the form of fixed batteries or electric vehicles (EVs).
Classifying all market-participating devices in one of these categories simplifies development of the semantic framework. Such a framework provides context for energy market interactions and the concepts within these interactions. It also helps ensure that all devices are equal in a market, and regardless of wired or wireless communications preference, can participate as defined by their owners
The projected benefits are ambitious: to give consumers maximum choice in device decisions; prevent vendor “lock-ins”; and create an eBay-like energy market. There are benefits for utilities in these pilots too in the forms of reduced grid loads, reduced need for more transmission line investments, and support for virtual power plants (VPPs).
These benefits are not fully appreciated yet in the USA. But the challenges facing construction of high voltage transmission lines (NIMBY, costs, logistics, and project timelines) reduce the odds that large and remote generation will continue to be the only electricity supply chain configuration. Once timelines and costs are fully defined, investments in small-scale, distributed generation in the distribution grid may become more attractive to utilities and to the financial communities that invest in them.
But there are significant challenges with peer-based energy grids that currently remain unanswered. One puzzle is how to tally, audit, summarize, and present the energy exchanges for participating consumers. With the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) principle in mind, will our future energy bills be multiple pages that reflect daily purchases and sales of electricity at variable prices? Will consumers accept and trust additional bill complexity with buy/sell transactions, or do we need to rethink bill presentment? Just as importantly, what market rules will deliver the trust that is keenly important to the success of peer-based energy grids?
Other challenges concern the interoperability standards that will create uniform interfaces for all devices to operate in peer-based energy grids. A new industry alliance called the Flexiblepower Alliance Network (FAN) was announced at the recent Metering/Billing/CRM Europe conference that intends to leverage agreement about semantics to develop open standards and implementation support tools to encourage vendors to incorporate a uniform interface in their devices. The device classification listed above is a good start in that direction.
Image: Electricity via Shutterstock
Christine Hertzog is a consultant, author, and a professional explainer focused on Smart Grid technologies and solutions. She provides strategic advisory services to startups and established companies that include corporate development, market development, and funding strategies. She is the author of the Smart Grid Dictionary, now in its 4th Edition, the first and only dictionary that ...
Other Posts by Christine Hertzog
The Energy Collective
- Rod Adams
- Scott Edward Anderson
- Charles Barton
- Barry Brook
- Dick DeBlasio
- Simon Donner
- Big Gav
- Michael Giberson
- James Greenberger
- Lou Grinzo
- Tyler Hamilton
- Christine Hertzog
- David Hone
- Gary Hunt
- Jesse Jenkins
- Sonita Lontoh
- Jesse Parent
- Jim Pierobon
- Vicky Portwain
- Tom Raftery
- Joseph Romm
- Robert Stavins
- Robert Stowe
- Geoffrey Styles
- Alex Trembath
- Gernot Wagner
- Dan Yurman | <urn:uuid:de62aefd-742f-4a14-8a3a-fe4f0feb5049> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://theenergycollective.com/christine-hertzog/136546/electricity-ebay-framework-takes-shape-europe | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917983 | 1,055 | 2.34375 | 2 |
4 20mph limit campaign
Articles and reports on the spread of area-wide, default 20mph speed limits.
3 Cycling for Health
Climate change is the biggest threat to continuing human life on this planet followed by the battle against blubber.
Wolverhampton is sadly a major player in the Obesity epidemic and the venue of choice for BBC Midlands today to report on the related issues.
Cycling is the best form of aerobic exercise that is non-load bearing on the joints. It's also a useful form of travel, cheap, pollution-free and visually stimulating.
Documents and links highlight the issues in this section of the Archive
6 Design Guides
This section contains design guidance on cycle-friendly infrastructure, cycling on the highway and streets for people.
 Documents held on this website and links to others on their own host site are used.Â
Will these get read by local decision makers ? Let's hope that people designing and altering the Wolverhampton cycle network [ie all roads except motorways plus cycleways] include practical pedal cycle use in their designs. One side of Road Safety Section teaches vehicular cycling to the National Cycle Training Standards after all.Â
Or do they really wish to win a WoWcc Chocolate Chain Ring or the shame of a Warrington Cycle Campaign Facility of the Month award ?
Cycling deserves the best it can get for vehicular cycling and for nervous shared-use cycling to thrive.
6 Wolves on Wheels forms
Campaign forms and stationery (registered users only)
8 Articles and Presentations
This section is for work that we admire by other people. There are e.g. notes on presentations given at Cycle Campaigns Network conferences or pieces by other CTC Right to Ride Representative, or cycling for Health articles.
10 Ranger group reports
Sustrans Ranger Group 4036 Wolves on Wheels are well known for their survey reports. Here is the group's output on NCN route 81and the Wolverhampton cross-city report to date
7 Infrastructure Lists
If you're an official of WCC and you want some project ideas to help cycling in the borough look in here! Don't waste precious money on advisory cycle lane paint and signs just because it's nearing the end of the budget year when you could create much needed cycle parking and shortcuts!!
More 1.1 metre wide cycle lanes in Wolverhampton only make conditions worse and show a complete lack of imagination. Measures that give convenience, advantage and means of promoting Vehicular Cycling per the National Cycle Training Standards (taught by WCC's own cycling instructors) are the class of work we're seeking.
15 Cycle Routes
Cycle Routes contributed by Wolves on Wheels members.
6 Bike Rail Integration
Integration of Cycle Trips with light and heavy rail is of vital importance. A cycle trip of up to five miles coupled with either parking at the station or onward cycle carriage brings huge opportunities for travel.
15 Newsletters by WoW
Wolves on Wheels produces the only cycling magazine for the city which it attempts to publish quarterley.
13 Wolverhampton City Cycle Forum
Following on from the WoWcc report on the Future Wolverhampton Cycle Forum, the Wolverhampton City Cycle Forum was formed in 2004. Its aims, minutes, and projects are recorded here.
41 Wolves on Wheels Reports
13 Tettenhall Road Cycle Review
In 2001 Wolves on Wheels members produced a full IHT Cycle Audit and Review of the route between Tettenhall village and Chapel Ash along the Tettenhall Road, Wolverhampton. This was a UK first for a cycle campaign group.
3 Old Reports
Old reports from old website | <urn:uuid:b8b7c36b-4a71-4fe1-97aa-3d3ff0285f15> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wolvesonwheels.co.uk/joomla/index.php?option=com_docman&Itemid=11&8cc312e38288d28b380c072060a36883=f3bb2e33786306305ddd707dc4c0f322 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91814 | 754 | 2.015625 | 2 |
New York, 8 March 2004 - Secretary-General's opening remarks at meeting with Nato ParliamentariansLadies and Gentlemen,
It is a great pleasure to welcome you to UN Headquarters. You are important partners of the United Nations for two reasons:
First, as parliamentarians, you are vital links between the people and the state. But more importantly for the United Nations, in an interdependent world you also serve a bridge between the local and the global. That role is more pivotal than ever, and the United Nations has been taking steps to ensure that your voices can be a bigger part of our work.
Second, as members or associate members of NATO, you represent an alliance whose unrivalled ability to deploy rapidly and robustly can have a major impact on the UN's work for peace and security. So I am pleased to have this opportunity to explore what more we can do together.
I will say a few words to get our discussion started, and then we can open the floor for questions and comments.
Let me start with our existing cooperation, which is wide-ranging both in terms of geography and the challenges involved. We have worked alongside each other in the Balkans for almost a decade. More recently that collaboration has been extended to Afghanistan. Here I would want to stress just one point: it is absolutely essential that we sustain these efforts over the long-term. That is especially true of Afghanistan, where elections are approaching, and where sustained commitment and expanded engagement by NATO would make a real difference.
Looking to the future, NATO's increasing willingness to “go global” presents important opportunities, in particular for Africa. As you know, the Security Council has just authorized a new peace operation for Cote d'Ivoire. It is also likely that the year ahead will see other new peace operations in Africa, as well as in Haiti and possibly elsewhere. Should such a surge take place, stronger support from NATO would be tremendously helpful. Specifically, NATO might be employed in a “peace enforcement” role, much as the European Union deployed “Operation Artemis” in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as a bridging force before the deployment of a UN operation.
NATO could also provide an “over-the-horizon” capacity, should the need arise for localized enforcement tasks.
We look forward to continuing our dialogue on such issues. Moreover, now that your own Secretary-General has indicated a readiness to send troops to Iraq, if so requested by a new sovereign government and if approved by the Security Council, we may well work together in that context as well.
Of course, the UN-NATO relationship is not focused exclusively on peace operations. We also share a concern about the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and about terrorism. I would welcome your thoughts on how to move ahead in this area, particularly in strengthening compliance with the multilateral treaties and addressing gaps in international coverage.
We also share concerns about the effectiveness of our collective security system. The war in Iraq, the terrorist attacks on the United States and other events of the past few years have revealed serious divergences of opinion on fundamental questions of policy and principle. To find a new consensus, and to equip us to deal with a newly uncharted security landscape, I have appointed a panel of eminent men and women from around the world to look at the issues involved. People have described this panel as a panel on UN reform. It may indeed propose changes in our rules and mechanisms. But if so, those changes will be a means to an end. The objective is to have a collective security system that acts effectively to deal with all global threats, and inspires confidence in all states. I hope to make recommendations to the General Assembly later this year or early in 2005.
Let me stop there, since I would also like to hear from you.
I'm afraid I will have to leave mid-way through this session, since I must catch a plane for Canada. But I will leave you in the very capable hands of Sir Kieran Prendergast, head of the Department of Political Affairs.
Thank you very much. The floor is open.
Statements on 8 March 2004 | <urn:uuid:58d6cd4f-103f-4e5e-b653-190898dbc131> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.un.org/sg/statements/index.asp?nid=808 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964321 | 853 | 1.875 | 2 |
Now the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, the son of Iddo, were preaching to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel.
Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, got up and made a start at building the house of God at Jerusalem: and the prophets of God were with them, helping them.
At the same time, Tattenai, ruler of the land across the river, and Shethar-bozenai, and their men, came to them and said, Who gave you orders to go on building this house and this wall?
Then they said these words to them: What are the names of the men who are at work on this building?
But the eye of their God was on the chiefs of the Jews, and they did not make them give up working till the question had been put before Darius and an answer had come by letter about it.
This is a copy of the letter which Tattenai, the ruler of the land across the river, and Shethar-bozenai and his friends the Apharsachites, living across the river, sent to Darius the king:
They sent him a letter saying, To Darius the king, all peace:
This is to give the king word that we went into the land of Judah, to the house of the great God, which is made of great stones, and has its walls supported with wood, and the work is going on with industry, and they are doing it well.
Then we said to the men responsible, who gave you authority for the building of this house and these walls?
And we made request for their names, so that we might send you word, and give you the names of the men at the head of them.
And they made answer to us, saying, We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are building the house which was put up in times long past and was designed and made complete by a great king of Israel.
But when the God of heaven was moved to wrath by our fathers, he gave them up into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, the Chaldaean, who sent destruction on this house and took the people away into Babylon.
But in the first year of Cyrus, king of Babylon, Cyrus the king gave an order for the building of this house of God;
And the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the Temple which was in Jerusalem, and put into the house of his god in Babylon, these Cyrus the king took from the house of his god in Babylon, and gave to one named Sheshbazzar, whom he had made ruler;
And he said to him, Go, take these vessels, and put them in the Temple in Jerusalem, and let the house of God be put up again in its place.
Then this same Sheshbazzar came and put the house of God in Jerusalem on its bases: and from that time till now the building has been going on, but it is still not complete.
So now, if it seems good to the king, let search be made in the king's store-house at Babylon, to see if it is true that an order was given by Cyrus the king for the building of this house of God at Jerusalem, and let the king send us word of his pleasure in connection with this business. | <urn:uuid:102db4c9-daa4-41a0-89ca-85546e0e9c3a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.speedbibleverse.com/basic_english/B15C005.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984226 | 732 | 1.90625 | 2 |