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By Morieka Johnson, Mother Nature NetworkLost dog
From his first day of obedience class, Champ stood out from the crowd. The fawn-colored pit bull already had mastered basic commands and seemed content showing his four-legged peers how to properly heel, sit and tune out distractions. During walks around the neighborhood, kids were drawn to the well-behaved 9-month-old puppy. Working as a team, Champ and his owner Deandre Weaver tried to set an example for other dog owners.
But nobody's perfect.
"I did what I shouldn't have done. I tied him to a pole in front of the store," saysWeaver, a dog trainer and owner of K-9 Train to Go in Atlanta. "I kept looking out. At the last moment, I went out and he was gone in just a split second."
Weaver canvassed the neighborhood, frantically retracing routes away from the store. Somehow, a dog everyone knew and loved had vanished without a trace. Weaver, who worked as an anti-dogfighting advocate with the Humane Society of the United States, called his colleagues for advice. They suggested that he post a $500 reward. Once again, Weaver canvassed the area distributing cards and photos of Champ.
"As soon as I went back to the house, before I went back to the house, there was a call," Weaver says. "I'm glad I got him back as fast as I did. That was like a miracle. In most cases people don't get their dogs back." (That's Deandre and Champ at right. For details on their accomplishment, keep reading.)
We all have seen flyers of lost pets strewn across neighborhoods, and even a few remarkable cases of pets reuniting with owners several years later. But many lost pets do not have happy reunions with their owners. According to the National Council on Pet Population Study and Policy (NCPPSP), less than 2 percent of cats and up to 20 percent of dogs that end up in animal shelters reunite with their owners. But there are measures you can take to improve your chance of finding lost or stolen pets.
Related: Watch adorable service puppies via webcam
Updated ID tags are essential
Even if it's a quick potty break, make sure your pet doesn't set foot outdoors without a collar and up-to-date ID tags that list your contact information as well as other key info. Amber Burckhalter, a certified dog behavior consultant and owner of K-9 Coach in Smyrna, Ga., invests in comfy yet sturdy dog collars and makes sure her three dogs wear them at all times. Each has detailed info that could serve as a deterrent for people hoping to steal a well-trained pooch.
"If you fix your dog, most people won't take it," she says. "My pit bulls, it says on their collar 'fixed and neutered.'" Burckhalter also has a deaf dog, which is clearly noted on the ID tag.
Invest in a microchip - and keep the info updated
Microchips add another layer of insurance if your pet is lost. Veterinarians insert microchips around the pet's shoulder blade, and each chip has an ID number that owners use to register contact information with the manufacturer. Prices can vary widely, from $20 to $50, depending on the veterinarian.
If your pet is ever lost, shelters or veterinarians use a hand-held scanner to obtain the chip ID number. In a recent study conducted by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), 15 percent of lost dogs were found thanks to ID tags or microchips. Some companies, including HomeAgain, offer more proactive measures. For a $17.99 annual membership fee, the company will alert animal shelters, vet clinics and volunteer rescuers within a 25-mile radius of where the pet was lost. But those nifty chips are useless if your information is not up to date. To check on the information currently on file for your pet, ask your vet to scan the chip and provide the ID number.
Related: Shopping for a new dog food? Here's what you need to know
A picture truly is worth a thousand words
A simple flyer with one up-to-date photo of your lost pet can make a big difference, says pet detective Carl Washington (below), who has been locating lost animals across the country for more than 16 years. In addition to cool gear such as fluorescent lights and detailed maps of the area's topography, Washington's pet-sleuthing arsenal includes Coco the poodle and Rocky the Jack Russell terrier. He notes that a clear photo of lost pets can speak volumes.
"Always have one picture," says Washington, who adds that many distraught pet owners make the mistake of posting too many photos. "Nobody wants lots of pictures. Just say, 'Lost cat' and add a bold number."
It's not uncommon for Washington to set up shop in a gas station parking lot, armed with a large photo of the missing pet. Over the course of a day, he says that people will walk up offering information. If you cannot find an image that shows the dog or cat's identifying features (my Lulu's ears are hard to ignore), Washington recommends conducting aGoogle search for a pet with similar features.
"Find a nice, clear lookalike to use on the flyer," he says.
Flyers should be short, sweet - and strategically placed
When it comes to flyers for lost pets, Washington says to keep it simple. All you really need is a photo and key contact information. Make sure it's a number you can answer at any time. "People are passing through, jogging, and they are not going to call you twice," he says. "You need to pick up in three to four rings and have a pen and pad ready."
Also, avoid the urge to saturate your neighborhood with flyers. Instead, focus on areas that get a lot of traffic, such as main entrances to your neighborhood, and extend the radius from there. Washington says that most cats roam until they find cover and a safe place to stay, typically maintaining a 400-yard radius from home. With dogs, it depends on the size. Lap dogs normally travel no more than a half-mile from the house. Medium-size dogs may travel up to a mile, while larger dogs can go up to 2 miles.
Place flyers in areas frequented by pet owners, such as nearby animal shelters, dog parks, pet stores and veterinary clinics. The ASPCA also recommends posting flyers at a kid's eye level near schools. Again, focus on strategic placement instead of volume.
"Don't trash up the neighborhood," Washington says. "People selling houses are going to take your stuff down."
Related: How to approach a stray dog
Consider a reward
Good Samaritans will do their part to help recover lost pets. But Weaver quickly learned that rewards can help grease the wheels. Washington says that rewards may be helpful in areas frequented by contract workers.
"In my experience, $500 is what has activated people," says Burckhalter, who notes that one pet owner posted reward info and promptly received a call from an animal control officer. "The dog had been there the whole time."
Work the Net
Deirdre Anglin of Ireland reached out to friends and family online when her dog Patch went missing on the evening of July 3. The next morning, Patch boarded a Dublin-bound commuter train. Good Samaritans ushered the pooch to Irish Rail officials, and the transit system tweeted a "lost dog" alert to its network of 18,000 followers. Five hundred retweets and 32 minutes later, Anglin spotted her dog and arranged a reunion.
You, too, can harness the power of Facebook and Twitter to find lost pets. Many neighborhood associations, pet stores and veterinary clinics have Facebook pages and active members. Also, ask rescue groups in your area to help spread the word. Petfinder.org offers a handy search tool to locate rescue groups in your area. If you do receive word that your pet has been located, be prepared to show proof of ownership such as photos of you with the pet, Washington says.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure
If your pet tends to bolt at the first opportunity, it may be worth investing in high-tech gear to monitor its activity. In a previous roundup of cool pet problem solvers, I included the Tagg Pet Tracker ($99.95), which incorporates GPS technology to keep an eye on wandering cats and dogs. Attach the device to your pet's collar and set a defined boundary. If your pet starts roaming too far, Tagg will send text message alerts. The system requires a $7.95 monthly subscription service. (I also recommend a few obedience classes, which may be a less expensive option.)
Training courses strengthen the bond between pets and their people, making it easier to retrieve a dog that slips out of his leash during walks or dashes out the door when neighbors drop by unannounced. Training also can be especially important with newlyadopted rescue dogs that have been accustomed to life on the street. Priority No. 1: Teach the dog to come when called. (We know cats will ignore you either way.) In a previous column, trainers offer tips to accomplish that life-saving command.
Weaver also stresses the importance of monitoring pets closely when they are outside. During walks in the neighborhood, visits to the corner store are off limits - no matter how short - and he never leaves Champ outside unattended.
"He filled a place in my heart that really needed to be filled," says Weaver, noting that Champ returned with a few bruises and scrapes but recovered quickly from the experience. "I can't think of not having this dog." | <urn:uuid:43f29cfe-b805-4793-bd3d-9c3003c248ba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://shine.yahoo.com/pets/pet-missing-235200780.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967601 | 2,029 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Emily Post Teen Manners by Cindy Post Senning, ED.D & Peggy Post
You may be wondering, who is Emily Post? Why does she care about manners? Emily Post, who died in 1960, opened the Emily Post Institute in 1946 to teach manners. Today its operated by third generation family members. The Post family has published several titles from weddings, table manners, business etiquette to raising polite children.
In this small book, Emily Post Teen Manners: From Malls to Meals to Messaging and Beyond , the Post family creates a manual for teens. This book has it all:
- Why Etiquette
- Keeping in Touch
- The Manners and Art of Mealtime
- School Daze
- Getting a Job or Getting into College
- Social Savvy
- Out and About
Emily Post Teen Manners does a good job of explaining why we need etiquette, what it is, and how you can achieve it. The passage on the history of the word etiquette is very interesting.
“A French Word From Yesterday for Today
In the seventeenth century King Louis XIV had a magnificent chateau with beautiful gardens and parks all around it. Often, when he hosted parties, people would walk all over the grass, pick the flowers, wade in the fountains, and leave litter behind. They didn’t have formal gardens and parks at their own houses and didn’t know how to behave. The head gardener went to the king in great distress and asked what he could do to keep things nicer. They decided to put up little signs all the over the place: Keep on the Paths, Enjoy the Flowers, But Please Don’t Pick Them, Stay Out of the Fountains, Please don’t Litter. The French word for “little sign” or “ticket” is etiquette.” (Page 2) | <urn:uuid:d986e6be-533c-423b-a007-16551a2fc722> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sonomalibrary.org/blogs/ya/2009/10/02/book-spotlight-emily-post-teen-manners/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948224 | 392 | 2.515625 | 3 |
- AVMA Model Veterinary Practice Act
- Breed Specific Homeowner's Insurance
- Companion Animal Trusts
- Crate Training
- Breed Specific Legislation
- Defining “Dog-Friendly”
- Dominance and Dog Training
- Fireworks and Other Loud-Noise- Producing Events
- Law Enforcement Use of Lethal Force against Dogs
- Limit Laws
- Model Dog Law
- Surgical Debarking
Association of Pet Dog Trainers
The following statement reflects the opinion of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers.
The Association of Pet Dog Trainers recommends the use of crates for puppies and dogs as a short-term training tool and as safety equipment throughout the dog's life.
Crates are a valuable tool for house training, as well as for managing the environment so dogs avoid developing problem behaviors such as destructive chewing and counter-surfing. Crates also provide safe restraint in the car, and make it easier to travel with your dog by providing short-term confinement options in a hotel or anywhere else you might visit. Crate training also helps minimize stress during times of emergency, while boarding in a kennel or while spending a night at the vet clinic. When introduced properly, a crate becomes a safe place that many dogs seek out when they need a break from a hectic home environment.
Introduce dogs to the crate gradually and make sure that it's a pleasant experience. It is important to choose a crate of appropriate size and adjust confinement times as the dog matures in order to build long term success. Avoid using the crate as punishment, and avoid crating a dog who is experiencing anxiety, whether that anxiety stems from the confinement itself, separation from a loved one, or from environmental factors like a thunderstorm or other dogs.
The APDT does not recommend the use of crates as a confinement tool for extended periods – this is a tool best used in conjunction with a comprehensive training and socialization program guided by a professional dog trainer. To find a trainer in your area visit the APDT trainer search page.
For detailed tips on choosing a crate, introducing your dog to it, and appropriate crating schedules, see this article on our website at www.apdt.com/veterinary/articles/crate-training.Approved October 2012 | <urn:uuid:99dee533-c6c6-4a4b-a3d0-267679369395> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.apdt.com/about/ps/crate-training/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924015 | 470 | 2.421875 | 2 |
THREE Merseyside film-makers knew crowdfunding was their only hope – and they knew the force was with them when even Luke Skywalker gave his backing to their campaign.
More and more people in the creative and digital sectors are using crowdfunding websites, such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo, to attract funding from backers around the world.
Creative sector businesses have always found it hard to win bank funding – and, in the current climate, many complain it is almost impossible.
Crowdfunding gives them a way to bypass traditional financial institutions and appeal directly to their fans.
The sites allow people to pledge money towards projects of their choice. If the project doesn’t raise all the cash it needs, they get their money back. If it does, they get “perks”.
Alan Donohoe, Jamie Williamson and Laura Purcell successfully raised $16,000 to make their film I Have A Bad Feeling About This.
Bad Feeling, which was filmed in and around Liverpool, tells the tale of the desperate attempts of two sci-fi fans to win tickets to a one-off screening of all three original Star Wars movies.
Their campaign won the Twitter backing of Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker in the first three Star Wars movies.
Other local organisations that have used crowdfunding include not-for-profit body First Take, which used Sponsume to raise funds towards its film Big Society The Musical.
And Lucy Myatt, who runs video game and comic shop Level Up in Liverpool, is currently running an Indiegogo campaign to raise funds to create a “retro gaming cafe”.
Mr Donohoe shared his experiences at the “Power to the People” debate, held at Leaf cafe in Bold Street last Thursday.
The event, organised by support agency ACME and Liverpool Sound City, aimed to help people make the most of a crowdfunding campaign.
Mr Donohoe said: “Myself and my friend Jamie graduated from university in 2010 into the big empty void that was the recession. We studied film and television, so that didn’t help. “There were no jobs there. We were bored and quite depressed.
“So we started to write a film.”
They did not have the cash to make it themselves – so they made a trailer for £300 and then launched an Indiegogo campaign to raise $16,000 dollars for the full feature.
The Bad Feeling team used social media to promote its work.
Its first campaign just missed its target. But the producers regrouped, got most backers to pledge again, and launched a second campaign that hit its goal.
Bad Feeling was filmed in August and September last year, and the team has since been editing the footage together.
Now they plan to launch another campaign in March to get the film released later this year.
The other speaker at Power to the People was singer-songwriter Chris Mackintosh, who raised £3,500 through website Pledge Music to record his debut album as Silent Sleep.
The self-effacing Mr Mackintosh said: “You’re trying to give people an incentive to buy a new album before it’s been made and before they’ve even heard it. Why would they do that? Why shouldn’t they wait ‘til it’s made, then buy it?
“That was one of the trickiest bits of the process for me – what was worth me putting out there to entice people to buy it?
“I started off with a download-only option for £8. And one of the things that came up was me coming round your house to cook tea – that cost £100. It’d be the most expensive beans on toast they’d ever had.”
“Only one person, he said, had expressed any interest in that. But he had sold a DJ set for £500.
“Even if you think nobody’s going to buy it, people want to get involved and want to help you. The pledges may not be worth £500, but people want to help you.
“If you’re thinking about doing this, it’s worth thinking about the most ridiculous incentives. People do want to help.”
Mr Donohoe said Bad Feeling’s offers to pledgers included personalised scripts and DVDs.
“We started our donations at $10,” he said. “We just said ‘if you do that, you’ll get a credit on the movie’. But that’s really exciting for some people – they can say ‘there’s my name’.”
Other filmmakers, he said, had asked for as much as $50 for a credit on a film.
But, he added: “Most people are going to donate because they want to be a part of it, not necessarily because they want something physical or material back.”
One criticism of crowdfunding is that it can feel as though it is, as host Niall McGuinness said, a form of “begging”. But all panellists said that it should not be thought of in that way as people are donating towards specific goals and receiving perks in return.
Mr Mackintosh said: “It was something I was quite conscious about.
“But you’re doing something creative. If I went ahead, recorded an album, then went on Facebook and Twitter and said ‘I’ve recorded an album, please buy it’, “I think I would have felt worse saying ‘this is what I want to do, come on board’.
“It was something they were all involved in. I was keeping up to date with video on the site and things like that. It’s a really exciting process.”
Mr Donohoe said: “It’s glorified begging in many ways.
“But I say it’s for a good cause. It’s not for charity, but we’re being up-front about it.
“I think there is a chance it will implode at some point. If you’re going to do it, do it now rather than later.
“There have been some scams already. If you’re smart it’s free money. That’s what it should be. It should be about funding your production.”
Later, though, Mr Mackintosh disagreed that crowdfunding would “implode”. Instead, he said, it could become a vital part of the record industry as artists choose to fund their own recordings rather than hoping for increasingly rare advances from major record labels.
Mr Donohoe said he had had to be careful not to “pester” people too much when promoting his campaigns. But social media is, he said, the most powerful tool a campaign can have.
The Bad Feeling team were thrilled, for example, when Mark Hamill tweeted about their project, prompting a surge of interest.
And they also organised “Facebook surges”, in which they encouraged their friends to all go online and talk about their film at a specific time. We wanted to spam the internet,” he said. “We raised $2,000 in one night doing that.”
Karen Bair, head of music at Indiegogo, joined the debate by phone from the US.
She said 45 days was the optimum length for a campaign, and said all campaigns should be launched with a short explanatory video.
Ms Bair said anyone considering crowdfunding should come up with a detailed plan for their whole campaign.
“It’s great if you can add new perks half-way through,” she said. “There’s always a lull.
“About 24% of people who look at your campaign say they will come back in three or four weeks. There’s a large surge at the beginning and a surge at the end.
“And always pick perks you know you can fulfil. Don’t come up with outlandish ideas you can’t deliver once the campaign is over."
Mr Donohoe agreed with Ms Bair’s point about planning crowdfunding, saying the second, successful Bad Feeling campaign on Indiegogo was much more tightly planned than the first.
He said the team was already planning its third campaign, which will launch in March. It will raise money for reshoots and will also help fund the film’s promotion.
And, finally, Ms Bair again hit out at the perception that crowdfunding is in some way equivalent to begging.
She said: “You’re offering people the opportunity to participate from the ground up and offering them things they couldn’t get anywhere else. The perception that it’s ‘panhandling’ is so far off the mark’.” | <urn:uuid:05e5b0f4-b5b4-4976-96a0-e9e14268d975> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/ldpbusiness/business-local/2013/02/11/liverpool-creatives-debate-crowdfunding-99623-32789404/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977591 | 1,883 | 1.648438 | 2 |
The point is that none of the other formats come close to being appropriate
for use on the Web. The main points of HTML are
You can't do hypertext in postscript
2. Small data sizes (except for images which you can choose not to load)
There is no concept of "load the text of the postscript but
not the images".
There is no information describing the meaning of any
text in postscript. Using markup information can present in
special ways for different people including being spoken
for blind people using different volumes and tones depending
on the "font".
4. Widespread availability
Its easy to get the basic WWW browser and you don't need to
have 16M of memory to run it. Sure maybe I can't watch the
movies or play the sounds without extra software but so far
these things haven't even been really integrated into anything
because the bandwidth isn't there (click here to hear Socks
I'm not for putting everything including the kitchen sink into HTML but I
think it is reasonable to plug a few of the big holes. The bottom line is
that the WWW is not an invention that is good because some engineers found the
most logical process for describing a worldwide network of information. It
is simply something that worked that everyone understands and everyone has
access to. I'd rather not screw this up by encouraging that people start
authoring using proprietary formats like postscript or MS Word. | <urn:uuid:99cfb11a-91e6-47b2-9e63-4d0c5aae6604> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://1997.webhistory.org/www.lists/www-html.1995q1/0065.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927794 | 303 | 2.484375 | 2 |
Judy Blume(Judy Sussman)
Birthplace: Elizabeth, New Jersey
Blume began writing stories for her own children, but quickly became the definitive author of books on the many adventures and trials of childhood and adolescence. Her frank and open discussions of such issues as peer pressure, puberty, love, and divorce led to many censorship battles along the way. Among her best-loved works are Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret (1970), Freckle Juice (1971), Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing (1972), Blubber (1974), and Forever (1975).
Fact Monster/Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
More on Judy Blume from Fact Monster: | <urn:uuid:ec57df52-f2ab-407f-9934-3355e8e9f72c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0762073.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909305 | 155 | 1.882813 | 2 |
Instruments lowerd down to the ocean bed are not easy to control. Besides underwater modems the main control option is still based on wire connections. Instruments mounted on a frame (e.g. tripods) are
connected to a distribution box and data and power are controlled via a submersible cable. This cable acts as a connection between the submerged frame and a floating buoy were the data can be send via radio modems.
A battery source inside the buoy is powering up the instrument at the submerged frame.
The weakest link of this system is the cable itself. Tides, wind and other events are pulling, pushing and twisting on the cable, and the cable will eventually break. The biggest stress on the cable is
the torgue generated by twisting against a fixed support. A decoupling piece is neccessary to reduce the torque and the risk of breaking the cable.
To minimize the risk of cable breakage ARGUS developed a novel DATA-POWER-SWIVEL (DPS) which resists a load of 4...15 tons. The rotary joint contains an optical data unit. The data transfer is 115.2
kb/s. The serial data in- and output can be configurated as RS 485, 422, 232. The cable can be as long as 1.300 m depending on the cable quality (twisted pair). Another interesting feature is the possibility
of powering up instruments or charging batteries mounted on a submerged frame. The swivel contain a DC/DC converter which transforms power through an air gap (water gap). Thus the swivel galvanically isolates the
floating system from the submerged one galvanically. | <urn:uuid:4037c978-401e-450c-b275-31131b90c7a0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.argusnet.de/Instruments/Rotary_Joint/rotary_joint.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.900802 | 345 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Color Your Own "It's All About Books" Posters
These posters have so much for students to work on. It is a great activity for students to work on, especially if your students are going to give a book report. The posters are a great visual aid and there are spots to put information about a specific book and author.
April 2, 2011
Great for classroom b-day's
We bought this for my daughter's class to give out on her b-day. The kids get to fill it out and it is something educational for them to do. Her teacher loved the idea and is incorporating it into the classroom activity. It is great value and a perfect count for the classroom.
October 12, 2010
Fun for all ages!
What a great idea. I'm using these as a 7th grade book club activity and I did one myself as an example. I had a great time myself! I suggest having the kids brainstorm their words first before they create their poster for better results.
The paper is a little thinner than I expected but a good value for the price.
I showed all my kids the posters because I was so excited when the package arrived. Now they all want to join book club so they can make a poster. 12 yr olds are not too old for these posters, and I dare say no one is.
November 21, 2009
All About Books
I will be teaching Language Arts to 40 first graders and thought this would be an excellent tool to use for focusing on books!
August 4, 2009 | <urn:uuid:476f77d8-6d6d-45e6-bffb-6ecd02692bb5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.orientaltrading.com/color-your-own-its-all-about-books-posters-a2-62_9258-11-0.fltr?xsaleSku=48/9780 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967585 | 316 | 2.46875 | 2 |
September 17, 2011
Desert Crossing, Rajasthan, India
Photograph by Shivji Joshi, My Shot
This Month in Photo of the Day: Your Photos With Tips From Photographer Catherine Karnow
This simple image is all about symmetry and, I would bet, persistence. I doubt the photographer just happened to be standing in the desert when these five women walked by. To get this kind of photograph, you need to spend time with people and follow along with them. In this shot, each woman is stepping forward, and this creates a lovely harmony of movement. Also, each sari is billowing out in the same direction, and the women are evenly separated, which adds to the sense of harmony. To achieve this kind of symmetry, you may have to walk or run alongside the women for as long as it takes to get this shot.
Photo Tip: You may have to spend quite a while with your subjects, following alongside them, to get that perfect shot.
See more pictures of India »
Get more photo tips » | <urn:uuid:5fde2fa8-0779-4a2b-851e-7e621e595539> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-of-the-day/rajasthani-girls/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946364 | 213 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Ruth Handler, Barbie Creator
Ruth Handler, inventor of the Barbie doll and co-founder of Mattel, died ten years ago today, but her most famous creation continues to evolve.
Born Ruth Mosko, she was the youngest of 10 children in a family of Polish immigrants living in Denver. At age 19, she moved to Hollywood and married Elliot Handler, her high school boyfriend and a plastics specialist. Along with partner Harold Mattson, they formed the Mattel toy company in 1945. Their first successful product was a toy ukulele called the Uka-a-doodle.
But the instrument’s sales would be dwarfed by what came next.
Though it seems hard to believe now given the ubiquity of Barbie and similar dolls, before the 1950s nearly all dolls marketed to girls were cherub-faced and designed with infant or toddler proportions. Ruth Handler, watching her own daughter play, noticed that she liked to pretend her dolls were actually adults.
Handler was also inspired on a trip to Europe in 1956, where she purchased a German produced Bild Lilli doll, Barbie’s indisputable progenitor. The doll was based on a popular German comic about a sassy, curvaceous and free-spirited secretary named Lilli. Meant as a sexy novelty gift (and, like Barbie, with additional outfits sold separately), Bild Lilli was well-crafted, expensive and definitely not marketed to children. It was designed basically as miniature 3D pin-up.
But Handler saw that such a doll could fulfill the needs of her children to project their fantasies of adult life onto playthings. Barbie – named after Handler’s daughter Barbara – premiered at a toy fair in March of 1959 and was an overnight sensation, selling 350,000 units in its first year alone. This success allowed Mattel to buy up the rights for Bild Lilli (and all associated patents) and shut down production of its German competitor.
The first Barbies, marketed as ‘Teen Age Fashion Models,’ came dressed in black and white striped swimsuits and were available as blondes or brunettes. The first Ken dolls – named for Handler’s son – would appear in 1961.
Almost since their inception, the dolls have served as 11½-inch lightning rods for controversy. Much of the criticism has centered on the dolls proportions, which many argue gives young girls an unrealistic image of the ideal female body. If inflated to human scale, the original dolls’ measurements would have been 39" 18" 33." In 1971, Mattel redesigned the mold to widen the waistline and decrease the bust, but the controversy persisted, with Barbie being blamed for body image issues like anorexia and plastic surgery addictions.
Feminists also derided the early Barbie for being accessorized as either a housewife or party girl (neither did they like the 1992 talking Barbie whose bon mots included “Math class is tough!”). This lead Mattel to issue astronaut Barbies, doctor Barbies, and even NASCAR-racing Barbies. Flight attendant Barbies are now complemented by commercial airline pilot Barbies.
Indeed, pilot Barbie could nearly fill an entire 727 with her merchandised Barbie companions, which would swell to include not only 7 siblings but more than 100 friends, families, neighbors and bandmates (from both “Barbie and The Rockers” and “Barbie and The Sensations”). Her pets would no doubt take up much of the cargo hold, as she owned 40 plus, including dogs, cats, horses, lions, zebras and pandas.
Mattel’s efforts at introducing Barbie’s diverse group of friends have not been universally well-received. Their first non-white doll, 1967’s “Colored Francie,” was criticized for lacking any African-American physical characteristics aside from dark skin. A 1997 cross-promotion with Nabisco resulted in the regrettable black version of the now highly collectible “Oreo Barbie” – leading one to wonder how teams of marketers at both companies were ignorant of the fact that the term is derogatory slang for African-Americans perceived as being “black on the outside, but white on the inside.” When Mattel introduced the wheelchair-bound Becky, a disabled child discovered the doll’s wheelchair would not fit inside the elevator of Barbie’s Dream House.
But the brand survived all manner of controversy and competition. Mattel claims that over a billion Barbies have been sold worldwide, with three more being sold every second (except in Saudi Arabia, where the dolls were banned in 2003).
Ruth Handler retired from Mattel in 1975 in the midst of an SEC investigation, but by then she had already been focusing most of her efforts on her second career. After being diagnosed with breast cancer in 1970, she’d undergone a radical mastectomy and, unimpressed with the prosthetic options available to her, had created a line of artificial breasts called NearlyMe. Given all the controversies surrounding Barbie’s bustline, the irony was not lost on Handler. “I’ve lived my life from breast to breast,” she was known to quip.
Ruth Handler died from complications related to colon cancer surgery on April 27, 2002, at the age of 85.
Barbie, meanwhile, continues to evolve more than fifty years after her creation. Young girls can now add a “Ken” tattoo to the lower backs of their “Totally Stylin’ Tattoos Barbie” or follow Barbie’s exploits on her Facebook and Twitter pages.
Originally published November 2010 | <urn:uuid:b45e3148-1141-4c6d-903d-b81de7f69760> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.legacy.com/ns/news-story.aspx?t=ruth-handler-barbie-creator&id=867 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967396 | 1,178 | 2.734375 | 3 |
I have been reading of late some histories of Germany in the 1930's, with a particular emphasis on racial laws and policy. Over time the expanding bans on Jewish participation in the economy and society as well as preferences given to non-Jews for government jobs led to some practical problems, including:
- What percentage of Jewish blood made one Jewish? The Nazis messed around with this problem a long time, in part because of Hitler's absolute reluctance to get involved in such details. Was it one grandparent? Three grandparents?
- How does one test for such things? In the thirties, there was an boom in geneology research in Germany, as everyone raced around trying to figure out what evidence was sufficient to establish someone's race
It would be nice to think we put this kind of thing to bed, but here we are in the 21st century running around trying to answer the exact same questions
- Does 1/32 Cherokee blood make Elizabeth Warren the member of a protected group? Does 1/8 black blood mean George Zimmerman is not a racist?
- We are building infrastructures to make rulings on race. I found this story amazing
This story reminded me of the 1980s case of the twin red-haired Boston firefighters who claimed to be black, based on a photo of a great-grandmother and alleged oral history. While I remembered that they had gotten fired for their alleged fraud, I didn’t remember this detail:
Under current rules, said [general counsel to the state personnel office] Ms. Dale, candidates who say they are members of minority groups are judged by appearance, documented personal history and identification with a minority community. Disputes over claims of minority status are resolved by the Department of Personnel Administration.
And indeed, there eventually was a two-day administrative hearing, in which the hearing officer determined that the twins failed all three criteria, and thus were not black. A judge upheld the ruling, finding that the twins had claimed minority status in bad faith.I have to admit being under the impression until now that as a legal matter, minority status was an in issue of self-reporting. But at least in the Massachusetts Civil Service system, one can get fired for “racial fraud.”
- Every year, in the name of some sort of racial harmony, I have to sit down and report to the government on the race of each of my employees. For 364 days a year I can ignore the race of my employees, but one day a year the government makes me wallow in it. Here are part of the instructions:
Self-identification is the preferred method of identifying the race and ethnic information necessary for the EEO-1 report. Employers are required to attempt to allow employees to use self-identification to complete the EEO-1 report. If an employee declines to self-identify, employment records or observer identification may be used.
Where records are maintained, it is recommended that they be kept separately from the employees basic personnel file or other records available to those responsible for personnel decisions.
Race and ethnic designations as used by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission do not denote scientific definitions of anthropological origins.
I am told we are trying to create a society free of racism, but the results sure look a lot like racism to me. | <urn:uuid:18c2632b-224b-40d5-aebc-fd889172e7f4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/tag/eeo | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962786 | 674 | 2.390625 | 2 |
Elizabeth Jester Fellows Award
In honor of Elizabeth J. Fellows - 1944-2000
At the time of her death, November 10, 2000, Elizabeth Jester Fellows was the Director of the Assessment and Watershed Protection Division in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Wetlands, Oceans, and Watersheds. She had been the Chief of the Monitoring Branch in the Office for 6 years during which she was the EPA Co-Chair of the Intergovernmental Task Force on Monitoring Water Quality (ITFM), the predecessor to the National Water Quality Monitoring Council. She was one of the most insistent voices that the National Water Quality Monitoring Council be chartered to succeed the ITFM.
Elizabeth’s commitment to public service and environmental protection was felt deeply and expressed early. She began her career with the Massachusetts Audubon Society. Her jobs included working with the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. She worked at the Federal Office of Management and Budget before joining the EPA. During a period starting in 1997, she was Deputy Director of the Office of Groundwater and Drinking Water at EPA. Elizabeth dedicated her career to natural resources management and environmental protection. She was an effective advocate for developing a nationwide framework for coordinating, collecting, assessing, and communicating water quality monitoring information and results.
In the spirit of continuing to work toward the goals that she established, the National Water Quality Monitoring Council has established the Elizabeth Jester Fellows Award as a way of permanently honoring her. The EJF Award is to recognize and honor individuals for outstanding achievement, exemplary service, and distinguished leadership in the field of water quality monitoring, and/or distinguished leadership at the local, state, interstate, tribal, and/or national levels in natural resource management and environmental protection.
The award is presented at the biannual National Monitoring Conference. The first award was presented in May 2002 and each conference since then to the following individuals:
- 2012: Charles A. Peters, Director, USGS Wisconsin Water Science Center
- 2010: Dr. Robert C. Ward, Colorado State University (retired)
- 2008: Anthony R. (Tony) Olsen, U.S. EPA - Corvallis
- 2006: Eleanor Ely, Editor, The Volunteer Monitor
- 2004: Daniel R. Butler, Oklahoma Conservation Commission
- 2002: Emery Cleaves, Maryland Water Monitoring Council | <urn:uuid:86bcf8fe-48f2-46b4-9caf-0413e25e2ddf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://acwi.gov/monitoring/conference/ejf_award.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939931 | 493 | 1.929688 | 2 |
Oravetz admits that when she decided to attend Reed, she planned to major in French or math--a major in religion and serious inquiry into the work of a sixteenth-century Jewish mystic were not in her life's plan. However, one thing led to another: coursework in her junior year in Jewish mysticism, led by Steven Wasserstrom, Moe and Izetta Tonkon Associate Professor of Judaic Studies and the Humanities, and a class in early modern European humanities, taught by David Sacks, professor of history and humanities, helped determine her course of study.
Oravetz decided she wanted to examine the work of a sixteenth-century Jewish mystic for her thesis, but she was disenchanted by many of the systematic and slightly dry accounts of mystical experiences she came across. She found these accounts problematic, because although they belonged to the tradition of Jewish mysticism known as kabbalah, they didn't match anyone's notion of what mysticism was. Then Wasserstrom handed her a translation of Abraham Yagel's book, A Valley of Vision.
Oravetz opened up the book and be-gan to read the first passage, an account of Yagel's time in prison. Yagel, a physician from northern Italy, described how, lying in a prison bed, he was visited by a vision of his dead father. Overcome with emotion, he flung himself on the ground, wailing.
The old text intrigued Oravetz. As she grew more comfortable with the obscure writing, she observed aspects of the text not regarded by David Ruderman, the main translator, biographer, and scholar of Yagel. She read the text as more strongly mystical than Ruderman did. She detected an apocalyptic strain, which, again, he had not credited to Yagel. | <urn:uuid:d1ffa041-a94c-4f53-8dd7-3021c7fcec36> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.reed.edu/reed_magazine/nov1998/mystic/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974033 | 374 | 1.992188 | 2 |
BugBand Insect Repellent Wristbands are a good choice for recreational and lighter-duty applications. Comes in a variety of colors including olive green, bright green, blue, yellow, red, pink, and glow-in-the-dark.
- Does not contain DEET
- The vapors from the plastic BugBand wristband form a protective shield around the immediate area, keeping insects a safe distance away.
- While many repellents are easily diluted or rinsed off with swimming or perspiration, the wristband just keeps working, up to 120 hours.
- Packaged in an innovative reusable plastic pod which can be used to store the wristband and can be sealed between uses to preserve the active life of the product.
- Designed with a patented break-away strap that snaps if it becomes entangled.
- Can also be worn on belt loops, hatbands, pet collars, fastened in tents, attached to baby carriages or applied to other areas where insects could be a problem. Several wristbands can be strung together to create a longer band.
Geraniol, the active ingredient in BugBand insect repelling products, is a natural essential oil derived from geraniums. When Geraniol is exclusively formulated with other minimum risk or food-grade ingredients, the resulting insect repellent products are not regulated pesticides when they meet federally established criteria. It is a biodegradable ingredient that is safe to use and safe for the environment. There is no known toxicity to animals or wildlife.
Geraniol has a relatively high vapor pressure and gives off a dilute vapor into the air stream which acts as an area repellent. This helps repel insects before they land. The natural tendency of Geraniol to evaporate makes it work as the active ingredient in wristbands, plastic beads, and other BugBand repellent products. It also helps to improve the efficacy of liquid spray Geraniol BugBand repellents.
Active Ingredients(20%): Geraniol
Inert Ingredients(80%): Polyethylene
Directions: Remove from plastic case carefully. Remove band from resealable container. Loop band on wrist, ankle or belt. Place tip with arrow through hole. Pull to your wrist size then place arrow to desired opening on band. When not in use, place band into reusable plastic case to prolong its life. Can be placed on table, bedpost or any other object indoors. Can be used on strollers, walkers. Dispose of product with recyclable plastic.
Warnings: May cause skin irritation in rare cases. If irritation occurs, wash with mild soap and water. If irritation continues, contact a physician. Irritation occurs, wear in belt loop or exterior clothing. Do not wear in sleeping bag or bed.
BugBand is the next generation of protection. BugBand products are a proven, effective alternative to synthetic traditional pesticides, protecting children and adults from biting insects while avoiding the risks associated with irritating chemicals. BugBand is not only a safer choice, it's more effective. Geraniol, the plant-based active ingredient in BugBand, is a proven repellent.
The BugBand products are safe to use on people or with equipment and do not have the flammability issue. In fact, products like the wristband don't even need to be worn with direct skin contact. Many users put them on belt loops, baby strollers, shoelaces or hat bands and find them to be highly effective when used in this manner. | <urn:uuid:854785ba-f041-46d5-b302-49f07e46e3c1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.4allvitamins.com/product_info.php?products_id=21779&product_configuration_id=30426 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91243 | 728 | 1.851563 | 2 |
Turkish police have fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse thousands of people protesting an education reform bill that opponents say will boost the influence of Islamic schools, a move seen as contrary to Turkey's secular constitution.
Police broke up the demonstration in Ankara on Thursday, ending a two-day standoff with protesters who wanted to march toward Parliament where the bill is being debated.
The government wants to overturn a 1997 law that kept students under 15 years old from attending religious "imam
hatip" schools. That law led to a sharp decline in attendance at the schools.
A Reuters witness said protesters threw stones at riot police on Thursday as they moved in to break up the demonstration after refusing the group's request to march on parliament. There were further clashes in side streets.
Similar demonstrations held elsewhere in Turkey on Wednesday were also broken up by police.
Several demonstrators were hurt in the clashes on Thursday, but t here were no reports of detentions or major casualties among protesters at the rally organised by the KESK public workers union confederation.
Parliament is hotly debating a bill overturning the 1997 law, that was imposed with the backing of the military.
Parliamentarians on Thursday accepted a proposal from Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party to offer optional courses on the Quran and the Prophet Mohammad's life for middle and upper school pupils - from about 10 to 18 years old.
The assembly was expected to approve the bill in the coming days and the AK Party is able to call on a large parliamentary majority to push the law through.
The 1997 law had led to a sharp decrease in the numbers at iman hatip schools which were originally set up to train Muslim clerics. Erdogan and half his cabinet attended such schools.
The main secular opposition People's Republican Party (CHP) agrees on the need for education reform, but says Erdogan is seeking revenge for the 1997 law and attempting to bring about his stated desire to raise a "religious youth".
While the AK Party has won three elections since 2002 and remains popular, there is a large minority of urbanised Turks who are wary of its roots in political Islam and suspect it has plans to overturn, piece-by-piece, the secular republic.
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Other articles in Europe
French ministers disclose personal wealth 15 April 2013
Turkish pianist convicted of insulting Islam 15 April 2013
Italy ship disaster inquiry resumes 15 April 2013
Cyprus eases citizenship to soothe investors 15 April 2013
Italy's Berlusconi 'ready to run for PM' 15 April 2013
Protesters in Spain call for end to monarchy 15 April 2013
New committee to advise Pope on reforms 13 April 2013
French Senate passes gay marriage bill 12 April 2013
Britain's Cameron leads Thatcher tributes 11 April 2013
Serbia mourns 13 killed in shooting rampage 11 April 2013 | <urn:uuid:47bb3c13-957b-49f7-a839-46966da1b114> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mwcnews.net/news/europe/17878-turkey-police.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958461 | 577 | 1.53125 | 2 |
How many times have you succumbed to a movie or book plot just to be jolted awake by a glaring addition of something so very out of place like a wrong year car driving over a bridge that collapsed years before the manufactured year? Or maybe it’s a pineapple tree growing (naturally) on the streets of New York City? The last time I was bumped out of the fantasy, it had to do with a police uniform and the color of a shirt. Not everyone will realize or catch mistakes, but why ruin it for anyone? Just because it’s fiction doesn’t mean it shouldn’t seem real.
Some research may come along easily especially if we write about areas, customs and time periods we are most familiar with. If I wrote about my community, my experiences, my lifestyle and my life in every book, I doubt readers would be fascinated (at least not beyond one story). I have to learn as much as possible about other occupations, religions, areas, cultures and more in order to make my stories real and believable.
We have muses, we have voices in our heads, and we live in fantasy worlds - but we do try to stay grounded in reality.
And click here for more terrific VHP authors | <urn:uuid:65b01424-4fcf-4cad-90a1-daaa070af15a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://chellecordero.blogspot.com/2012_08_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964368 | 256 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Drinking, fighting, tricking soup kitchens - some Irish run wild in Western Australia
Last May GAA clubs in Perth were contacted by the police and warned about alleged antisocial behaviour among some young Irish.
The behaviour involved drinking and violence, but also rental properties getting so damaged during parties that agencies were reluctant to rent to Irish people.
Joan Ross, president of the Claddagh Association, an Irish welfare group in Perth, says that warning has largely worked.
“There’s a few Irish policemen here and they said to the GAA, ‘tell the lads to keep it down. Don’t rock the boat. We have a good name in Australia. We don’t want our reputation tarnished by a few louts’,” she says.
“They’re getting very savvy now. They’re getting units [flats] and they’re keeping their noses clean to keep that accommodation.”
Ross, who is originally from Co Armagh, says some Irish are ill-prepared for the challenges of emigration.
“They are arriving on one-way tickets with a few hundred dollars in their pocket. They think they are just going to walk straight into a job,” she says.
“There are young people who come out and they know what they need to do and they’re very streetwise. Then there are other ones whose mummies have been looking after them all their lives and they don’t know what to do. They’re the ones that seem to be falling through the cracks.”
Ross says some Irish are getting food from a Northbridge soup kitchen which feeds homeless people.
“Since Christmas we’ve had five young men in trouble. One of those lads told us that there were a lot of young Irish looking for food in Northbridge. We took a walk down there one night just to observe what was happening.
“There were about 100 people, about 20 of them were, we suspected, backpackers,” Ross adds. “We spoke to the volunteers and they said a lot of backpackers come, but they were told they had to feed the people who were regulars before the young people.
“But this lady said ‘if there’s food they get it. We won’t let anyone starve.’ We offered to make a donation, but she said they are well funded.”
Nicki McKenzie of the Manna Inc charity confirms the story of Irish backpackers lining up for food. “We don’t say no to anyone. We don’t know who is destitute. We don’t know what their circumstances are. We hope that people aren’t jumping in line for free food.” | <urn:uuid:cdf5b934-8e8c-4d74-bcdf-7a573061122b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/drinking-fighting-tricking-soup-kitchens-some-irish-run-wild-in-western-australia-1.1314506?page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985136 | 592 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Reposted for new Sky View readers:
I once read that “false gods demand innocent blood.” The truth of that statement is undeniable. The innocent suffer under false religions and godless ideologies. Whether it be the cult of human sacrifices in ancients or the cult of the State which oppressed and liquidated its citizens in modern times, there is a false god demanding innocent blood. But when Jesus Christ dethrones these false gods by being accepted into the hearts of the people, His Holy Sacrifice to the Father, perpetuated throughout time and manifested on every Catholic altar, quenches and appeases this animal-like blood thirst. This craving for the shedding of innocent blood is not just the trait of barbaric and uncivilized people. No. It is to be found in the most civilized parts of the world wherever the true God was not worshiped. No doubt, it is a perverse but ever so common desire which is the result of sin and fallen human nature. But the truth is that human guilt longs for its own expiation through the shedding of innocent blood.
Perhaps this is why Catholics receive the Innocent Blood of Christ from the consecrated hands of priests. From the altar comes atonement for sin and healing for the soul. For those who receive the Eucharist with faith, human dignity shines all the brighter in their hearts of minds. When a people benefit from the blessings of this Holy Sacrament, the innocence of every life becomes more self-evident, sacred and inviolable. And because the blood of the Lamb expiates our human guilt, no other “innocent blood” is needed. But unbelievers and pagans have to find it elsewhere. They look for it in abortion clinics, in the destruction of human embryos, in Hollywood’s glorification of violence and death, in inner-city crime, in the practice of euthanasia in hospitals, in Islamic jihad and the list goes on. Outside of God, the search for atonement always comes at the expense of the innocent.
As we shall see, religious doctrine and ritual do have social and political consequences. Even for those who claim to reject all forms of religion, something or someone is held up as supreme. And that which is supreme, whether it be the State or self, demands obedience. In either case, the master to be obeyed quite often turns out to be cruel and authoritarian. So you see, the choice is never between the belief in God or not believing in God at all. Rather, people must choose between the true God who is the Father of all and the false gods, whatever these gods may be. One thing for sure: The worship of these false gods will inevitably involve human cruelty.
Mexico is a fine illustration of how a false religion- both in its ritual and political form -exploits people. Its history also shows that through God’s intervention a people can be saved from the misery of false religions and oppressive rulers. And it further reminds us how sanctity, civility and progress can be squandered. Indeed, once demons have been driven out of a nation and the Holy Spirit ushered in, more demons than before will return if moral and spiritual defenses are relaxed. As our Lord said, "When an unclean spirit goes out of a person it roams through arid regions searching for rest but finds none. Then it says, 'I will return to my home from which I came.' But upon returning, it finds it empty, swept clean, and put in order. Then it goes and brings back with itself seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they move in and dwell there; and the last condition of that person is worse than the first. Thus it will be with this evil generation." (Matthew 12:43-45)
A World Without Christ:
Our Lady of Guadalupe’s appearance to St. Juan Diego in December of 1531 transpired ten years after the Spanish explorer Hernan Cortes and the Spanish Conquistadors conquered the Aztecs in 1521. In any case, the Aztec civilization was probably the most advanced in the Western hemisphere during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Yet, it was plagued by the Culture of Death.
Upon arriving in the New World (i.e. Caribbean Islands, Cuba and Mexico), what the Spanish explorers found absolutely shocked their Christian sensibilities. Pyramids and temples were set up everywhere for human sacrifices. For instance, Huitzilopochtle, the Aztec god of war, demanded human sacrifices according to the natives. On Tepeyac Hill, where our Lady eventually appeared to St. Juan Diego, there was once a great devotion to the goddess Tonantzin. Her cult too demanded innocent blood.
According to one source, Cortez learned that smaller Indian nations were ruled by the Aztec emperor Montezuma II. Captives from the wars waged against these smaller nations were offered for human sacrifice. According to Dianna Cary, author of Cortes and the Valiant Little Ladies, in one community of conquered Indians there was a blood tribute of 25,000 human sacrifices a year. They would even fatten these captives for a more worthy sacrifice. The author went to say that in each town there were temples or pyramids made of stone topped with small wooden apartments housing hideous idols of the Indians’ blood thirsty gods. However, “when Cortes [devoted to the Blessed Virgin] discovered the purpose of these caged captives, he ordered their release; he then had temples cleansed, the images cast down and a crucifix and a Madonna placed on an altar atop each pyramid.”
Bernal Diaz: An Eye Witness
One of the more trustworthy eye witness sources of what the Spaniards discovered was Spanish historian Bernal Diaz. He accompanied Cortes and chronicled the events as the Spanish expedition traveled from territory to territory. Upon meeting Montezuma II, the emperor of the Aztec Empire, a team of Spaniards were taken on a tour of sorts to the inner chamber of palaces and temples. Some of the places, like the other conquered nations, had hideous idols with human blood splashed on the walls in order to appease the gods and idols. Two such idols were Huichilobos and Tezcatepuca. Bernal Diaz reports the following gruesome details:
“They had offered to this idol five hearts from that day’s sacrifices. In the highest part of the Cue…both walls and altar, and the stench was such that we could hardly wait the moment to get out of it.” Elsewhere he reported that just how cruel the ritual of human sacrifice was: “When they sacrifice a wretched Indian they saw open the chest with stone knives and hasten to tear out the palpitating heart and blood, and offer it to their Idols in whose name the sacrifice is made. Then they cut off the thighs, arms and head and eat the former at feasts and banquets, and the head they hang up on some beams, and the body of the man sacrificed is not eaten but given to these fierce animals.”
The Spaniards, in good conscience, did not pretend in any way that the Aztec religion was worthy of respect nor did they hesitate to condemn it as evil. In fact, when Cortes and his men convened with Montezuma II, they told the emperor upfront just how evil the false gods and idols were. The Spanish historian describes the meeting:
“Our Captain said to Montezuma through our interpreter, half laughing: ‘Senor Montezuma, l do not understand how such a great Prince and wise man as you are has not come to the conclusion, in your mind, that these idols of yours are not gods, but evil things that are called devils, and so that you may know it and all your priests may see it clearly, do me the favor to approve of my placing a cross here on the top of this lower, and that in one part of these oratories where your Huichilobos and Tezcatepuca stand we may divide off a space where we can set up an image of Our lady (an image which Montezuma had already seen) and you will see by the fear in which these Idols hold it that they are deceiving you.’”
Needless to say, the Aztec emperor took great offense to what was said by the captain. He defended his gods as good and worthy of respect. Montezuma even felt compelled to pray and offer sacrifices on behalf of the “blasphemy” against the gods. Nevertheless, during his visits with the Aztecs, Cortes, on many occasions, explained the Christian Faith to them. Although he had to denounce the evil of human sacrifices, there were commendable aspects of the Aztec religion.
To make a long story short, the Aztec Empire was eventually conquered in two short years (1519-1521) by the Spaniards. They managed to develop allies with the other conquered Indian nations and eventually Montezuma himself was killed by his own Indians in a battle. And probably the most welcomed result of this conquest was that majority of human sacrifices had ceased.
A Prophesy: The One True God
There is something else which lent itself to the pacification of Montezuma II and his Aztec Indians. There is a reason why the Aztec Indians were not decisive in defeating the Spanish Conquistadors when the opportunity presented itself. Although the Spaniards had superior arsenal for battle, they were outnumbered a thousand to one (at the very least). They should have been defeated by these odds.
Dr. Charles Wahlig wrote a piece entitled, The Aztec Empire and Civilization. In it he makes reference to a prophesy by an Indian named Quetzalcoatl. He was the king of the Toltecs in the 800’s (about six hundred years before Columbus sailed for the New World) and he “taught the Toltecs of the existence of a Supreme Being, the Creator of all things, whose help and blessings they were to seek through worship and adoration that did not involve human sacrifice.” However, around 890 A.D. Quetzalcoatl was forced to leave his throne and he promised to return in 1519 to rule Mexico again. Dr. Wahlig adds that “his teaching about the true God was revived by the king of Texcoco, Nezahualcoyotl, in the middle of the fifteenth century…just a hundred years before the arrival of the Spanish explorers and missionaries. It was in 1519, as you recall, that Cortes and the Conquistadors brought the Catholic Faith the America’s.
Kindness from Heaven:
For the next ten years after the Aztec Empire had been subdued by the Spaniards. During this time period the Aztec Indians felt defeated and as such, they were resistant to the Gospel. The Franciscan missionaries enjoyed little success in making converts. However, that all changed when the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Juan Diego, a native of the region, in December of 1531. Juan Diego had converted to Catholicism in 1525 and had received instructions on the Faith for six years. On Tepeyac Hill where the goddess Tonantzin was worshiped and human sacrifices performed, a new beginning dawned for the Indians. The Blessed Virgin had come to bring the light of the Gospel to America herself. In contradistinction to the goddess Tonantzin, the “ever virgin Holy Mary, Mother of the True God” came to bring healing and consolation…not death. As a compassionate Mother who wants the best for her children, she came to give to the Aztec Indians the greatest gift she could give, namely, her Son. Cortes tore down the cult that demanded scores of human sacrifice. Our Lady of Guadalupe, on the other hand, came to build-up a confused and downtrodden people by leading them to the clean oblation of her Son. And she further promised to heal the infirmed uncle of Juan, not to have him sacrificed on some pyramid. With affection, therefore, she spoke to Juan Deigo, not as a subject, but as a son.
“Know and understand well, you the most humble of my son, that I am the ever virgin Holy Mary, Mother of the True God for whom we live, of the Creator of all things, Lord of heaven and the earth. I wish that a temple be erected here quickly, so I may therein exhibit and give all my love, compassion, help, and protection, because I am your merciful mother, to you, and to all the inhabitants on this land and all the rest who love me, invoke and confide in me; listen there to their lamentations, and remedy all their miseries, afflictions and sorrows… Let not your heart be disturbed. Do not fear that sickness, nor any other sickness or anguish. Am I not here, who is your Mother? Are you not under my protection? Am I not your health? Are you not happily within my fold? What else do you wish? Do not grieve nor be disturbed by anything. Do not be afflicted by the illness of your uncle, who will not die now of it. Be assured that he is now cured.”
On the spot where she appeared, Our Lady of Guadalupe requested that church be built in her honor so that the downtrodden Indians could participate in her Son’s Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, one that is life-giving and supremely pleasing to God.
Please scroll down for part two. Thank you. | <urn:uuid:d5111ea1-8697-4259-b3f1-6a510ab6df4d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://catholic-skyview-tremblay.blogspot.com/2012/05/before-guadalupe-false-gods-culture-of.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962987 | 2,813 | 1.5 | 2 |
November 23, 2011
by Jeremiah Norris
Letter to the Editor
Sir, Your Seasonal Appeal article "Focus on a brighter future" (November 21) could not have been published at a more auspicious time for those that have been so long in the public shadow combating preventable blindness in the developing world. Last week, the Hudson Institute delivered its draft research white paper on neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) to the Sabin Vaccine Institute. Of the NTDs, two addressed preventable blindness: trachoma and river blindness. Never since the eradication of smallpox has the global health community been able to declare an end point to their interventions: trachoma has been eliminated in six countries, and river blindness in 13 countries. In July 2011, the World Health Organization declared that with a new drug available to treat river blindness, moxidectin, "river blindness may cease to be a public health problem".
A signature feature of these programmes is public-private partnerships, working collaboratively with bilateral and multilateral agencies, civil society groups such as Sightsavers, and governmental institutions in the affected countries. For instance, in the elimination of river blindness through the Onchocerciasis Control Programme, 99 per cent of field personnel were Africans – and every OCP director was an African.
Whether it is Standard Chartered, or the UK government, or groups like Sightsavers, be it known that their support for global programmes of preventable blindness leads to the eventual elimination of these diseases at pennies per person treated relative to all other donor-sponsored health interventions – truly the best buy in global public health.
Jeremiah Norris is a Senior Fellow and Director of Hudson Institute's Center for Science in Public Policy. He specializes in public-private partnerships in development assistance, trade and development, and global AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria policies.
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© Copyright 2013 Hudson Institute, Inc. | <urn:uuid:099d578f-68b2-4f21-abf9-20c928e5031a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hudson.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=publication_details&id=8522 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.910632 | 477 | 2.140625 | 2 |
A new book written by an executive for other executives uses gaming as a way to make workplace teams stronger. The new book is called "ENTERPRISE GAMES: Using Game Mechanics to Build a Better Business" (O'Reilly Media, October 20212), and is written by Michael Hugos. According to the PR for the book, which you can find on Amazon, managers and executives can learn better ways to manage teams from virtual worlds and the type of behavior needed to survive in them.
Hugos attempts to show how game mechanics - particularly those found in popular multiplayer games - can provide "field-tested best practices" for engaging workers in creative and complex activities. Using the game-related models presented in the book, companies can shift from an "outmoded top-down hierarchy to an agile network structure that promotes coordination over control."
Here are some of the bullet points:
-- Discover why industrial age business structures from the 20th century no longer work
-- Design real-time business collaboration systems, using massively multiplayer online game concepts
-- Make your in-house systems more agile with technologies such as social media, mobile devices, and cloud computing
-- Understand game dynamics: goals, rules, real-time feedback, and voluntary participation
-- Apply virtual worlds and 3-D animation to business intelligence and data analytics applications
Find out more about the book here. | <urn:uuid:8043e43c-dc4a-4964-8a22-82e10d90a55d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gamepolitics.com/2012/10/03/new-book-promotes-game-mechanics-best-model-efficient-workplace | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932801 | 279 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Investment Bond Advice
An Investment bond seems to be one of the most popular investment products for financial advisers to sell.
There are lots of different investment options to consider. The investment wrapper (pension, ISA, unit trust, investment bond, Investment trust, OEIC etc) simply determines the taxation of the Investment. We are picking on the Investment bond here, as it is widely misused in our view.
Read our page on ‘Investment Options’
Consider a number of issues, however:
There are three ways to measure an investment bond: charges, tax, and investment performance.
The charges are often hidden or at best disguised. The allocation rate they mention is a lure and if you have ever used a lure when fishing you will realise there are a number of sharp hooks which apparently don’t hurt the fish.
Instead of taking an upfront charge of x% it is hidden and charged to your investment over a period of 5 years typically.
Don’t believe it’s a bargain as the charge is reasonably steep. Ask your investment adviser if you took the cash out the day after investing what the charge would be and you’ll see the true impact of the charges, as they will hit you with the full fee at that point.
The tax is not advantageous at all. Study it and you’ll see that the tax break you are being offered is 5% of your investment as an income per year over 20 years (that’s just your money back and is hardly a break). What you also don’t see is that the investment fund is disadvantaged by paying tax as it grows and you can’t reclaim that. That’s more of a brake than a break. There are other tax problems, such as when an over 65 year old encashes the investment, the gain is added to their income. That could cost them to lose their age allowance and an immediate tax charge of up to £719.00.
If you are encashing the investment consider also that the gain will have to be calculated to assess if further tax is payable. The rate could easily be a further 18% if not planned correctly.
From a performance point of view it’s worth pointing out that most investment bonds have a limited range of funds, which are at the very best average. Some companies realise this and offer a large range of investment funds. One we looked at, had over 150 funds to choose from, but when I researched the actual investment performance, not one of the funds was on our buy list. They were simply a range of cheap funds to make you feel you were achieving an investment spread.
The more preferable options to consider are an ISA or unit trust. An ISA allows for the investments inside it to grow free of capital gains tax but you are limited to just £11,280 per person (for 2012/13). A unit trust has numerous breaks. You are allowed a capital gains allowance each year of £10,600 (for 2012/13). This means that you can access £10,600 each year without any liability to capital gains tax. If the gain is more than that, you can delay it for a year and use next year’s allowance. Remember that the allowance is per person and both husband and wife have one.
On that basis you could take 5% per year per couple from a £404,000 investment, which would be completely tax-free.
Lastly a unit trust allows you to offset any gains or losses you have made elsewhere. If you have made a gain on your 2nd investment property and your unit trust had gone down you could simply encash both in the same year and offset the loss against the gain.
An investment bond would not give you that break at all. In fact it gives you none.
We should hope it wouldn’t be a consideration of the adviser but you will find that some insurance bonds do pay up to 7.5% commission whereas a unit trust and ISA typically pay 3%. Your adviser will have to display this to you anyway.
Before encashing an Investment bond seek careful advice.
Find out why many people switch their Investment adviser to Worldwide Financial Planning by calling 0800 0112825 or complete the enquiry form in confidence.
Why switch your investment adviser to us? Call:
0800 0112825 or complete the enquiry form
and we'll call you straight back.
Our fee guarantee: You will not pay any fees unless we can help you.
"To win demanded skills of fund selection and portfolio construction of a highly professional nature - those IFA's who come top have demonstrated that they are the best there is"
Call free on
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16 FT Awards in 4 Years | <urn:uuid:c8e994c9-566a-49cd-b29c-ed92ef5373f2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wwfp.net/investment/investment-bond-advice.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963409 | 988 | 1.796875 | 2 |
The Weekend Warrior's Guide to Eight Common Injuries
Get hurt during a workout last weekend? You're not alone. Exercise-obsessed baby boomers are reluctant to slow down as they agebut sometimes their bodies have different ideas. People with sports injuriesled by boomersare now the No. 2 group coming into the doctor's office, behind those complaining of a cold. And most of their aches and pains can be traced to a few common injuries that doctors see over and over.
We asked three specialists to offer advice on how to avoid the most common sports injuries and what to do if you're sidelined by one. Our experts: Nicholas DiNubile, an orthopedic surgeon based in Havertown, Pa., and author of FrameWork; Scott Rodeo, an orthopedic surgeon and researcher at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York; and Andrew Chen, an orthopedic surgeon based in Littleton, N.H., who is a spokesperson for the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons.
As a rule of thumb, if you feel sharp or stabbing pain (as opposed to sore muscles) during activitystop! If the pain doesn't go away after a few days off and some ice, seek medical advice. Here are several other guidelines for the injuries doctors see most often:
Rotator cuff problems
What goes wrong: The four muscles that sit right above your shoulder joint can get caught between the bones in the shoulder and upper arm, causing tendinitis and eventually a tear.
Who gets it: Weight lifters, swimmers, tennis players, volleyball players, baseball pitchers
Ways to prevent it: Ask a trainer to make sure your weight routine works all the rotator cuff muscles, not just the front part. How to fix it: Until it's healed, avoid aggravating it with repetitive motion or overhead weight lifting. If it doesn't get better with time, you may need surgery.
The latest treatment: Having blood drawn before surgery to isolate growth factor-containing platelets. Technicians then concentrate those platelets into something resembling a wad of chewing gum, which is put into the cuff to speed healing.
What goes wrong: Repetitive motion can cause tendinitis on either side of the elbow.
Who gets it: Tennis players (tennis elbow), racquetball and squash players, fencers, golfers (golfer's elbow)
Ways to prevent it: Ask a coach or a pro to make sure your technique is correct. One wrong move, repeated hundreds of times, can easily cause injury.
How to fix it: It usually doesn't require surgery, but you may need a brace or splint while you're taking time off to heal.
The latest treatment: The same platelet-concentrating technique used for the rotator cuff is being studied for tennis elbow.
What goes wrong: The cartilage in the knee breaks down, allowing the bones to rub together.
Who gets it: Could be anybody: One likely cause is something called "malalignment," where the upper and lower legs don't line up correctly. Being bowlegged or knock-kneed can make cartilage damage more likely.
Ways to prevent it: To counteract malalignment, your doc may prescribe physical therapy. Regular exercise can also help strengthen and balance the body. | <urn:uuid:5ad40496-79cc-47db-9112-4023966ef70a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://health.usnews.com/usnews/health/articles/070608/8injuries.sportsmed.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939863 | 686 | 1.859375 | 2 |
the saving to the association of many thousands of dollars. The worthy poor are said to be better cared for, and a check is given to imposition and fraud, formerly so prevalent. The association has in its service three of these paid visi tors, each assigned to a particular district.
Mr. Frothingham considers that experience has proved beyond question that great relief agencies like the over seers of the poor (who have charge of public outdoor relief in Massachusetts) and the Provident Association can do their work far more expeditiously, economically, and safely with a small body of trained visitors than through a large number of inexperienced volunteers. The conclusion, however, does not apply to a society like the Associated Charities, in the prosecution of whose work volunteer visitors are, he thinks, indispensable.
In the year 1871 the Chicago Relief and Aid Society had an experience such as has probably never fallen to the lot of any other organized charity of Europe or America. This was the task of receiving and disbursing within a period of about six months the sum of about $5,000,000 for the relief of sufferers from the Chicago fire. An account of the manner in which this trust was discharged is given in a separate chapter.
It is unnecessary to trace the beneficent and multi farious activities of the special and general relief societies of various types organized in recent years. Scarcely any city is without such private societies, and sometimes they are subsidized from the public treasury. Moreover, the churches engage to a greater or less extent in relief work, their funds for this purpose being placed either in the hands of paid visitors or of special church officers, such as deacons, although it not infrequently happens that it is thought best to organize a special committee or society within the church to discharge this duty. The Protestant churches have not passed beyond this somewhat unorgan ized stage, nor have they usually reached the conclusion which would be the most sensible, and of which there are some striking examples, viz., to withdraw entirely from the province of material relief.
The Roman Catholic church has developed within the past forty years a network of societies of laymen which have greatly simplified and improved the charitable ac tivity of that church so far as it has to do with the care and relief of needy families. The Society of St. Vincent
de Paul owes allegiance to the Council-General in Paris, but with the exception of ninety-two conferences in the three councils of Brooklyn, St. Louis, and New Orleans, the conferences in the United States are under the direction of what is known as the Superior Council of New York. There were in 1902 four hundred and twenty-eight distinct conferences with an active membership of 6979. Their receipts and disbursements for relief were about $180,000. While this is only a small part of the total amount given by the Catholic church and its members to destitute fami lies, it is of importance because of the comparatively pro gressive and enlightened manner in which the society is administered, and because it is supplemented by the volunteer personal service of the active members of the society who pledge themselves to visit and to give religious and moral oversight to those under its care.
Extraordinary conditions in the Jewish communities of the chief centres of population, arising from the heavy immigration from eastern Europe, have made necessary liberal provision for the needs of destitute Hebrews. Of recent years the distribution of this relief has been systema tized, and in some instances greatly increased in amount. In several cities various societies have been consolidated into an organization known as the United Hebrew Chari ties, or the Federation of Jewish Charities. The United Hebrew Charities of New York has four constituent socie ties and seventeen cooperating societies and sisterhoods. It maintains an employment bureau, a medical and obstet rical service, provides regular monthly stipends aggregating in 1903 about $35,000, occasional relief in money to the amount of nearly $80,000 ; transportation to about $17,500; clothing, shoes, furniture, tools, etc., about $8000 ; fuel, about $3000. The cost of the medical service is a little under $4000, and that of burials nearly $3000. The total expenditures of the United Hebrew Charities for the five years ending September 30, 1903, were : 1899, $136,439.75 ; 1900, $145,734.72 ; 1901, $155,602.64 ; 1902, $175,046.40 ; and 1903, $206,148.74. | <urn:uuid:434daccf-4c1d-486e-91ac-facfe82f9f0d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gluedideas.com/The-Principles-of-Relief-1914/Private-Outdoor-Relief-in_P4.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965491 | 924 | 2.328125 | 2 |
the past ten years governments, donor agencies, non-governmental
organizations and civil society have struggled together to
give more people a chance to receive basic education. People
involved in the Education for All movement around the world
were asked to give their views on how this partnership has
worked and on what they see as the major challenges in education
at the dawn of the new millennium. | <urn:uuid:ba12836e-c464-4525-9380-b826eb611a4e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.unesco.org/education/wef/en-news/views.shtm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945496 | 79 | 1.84375 | 2 |
The efficacy of wetting sun-dried cassava tuber meal as a method of reducing its hydrocyanide (HCN) content and improving its nutritive value for laying hens was investigated. Cassava tubers were peeled, chopped into pieces, sun-dried and then milled. Part of the Sun-dried Cassava Tuber Meal (SCTM) was soaked in water at the rate of 5 parts of water to 4 parts of the meal, thinly spread on the floor for 5 h and then taken out and sun-dried again. The Raw Cassava Tuber Meal (RCTM), Sun-dried Cassava Tuber Meal (SCTM) and Wetted Sun-dried Cassava Tuber Meal (WSCTM) were analyzed for HCN content. Five diets were made such that diet 1 (control) contained no cassava tuber meal; in diets 2 and 3, 50% of the maize in diet 1 was replaced with SCTM and WSCTM, respectively, while in diets 4 and 5, 100% of the maize was replaced with SCTM and WSCTM, respectively. Each diet was fed to a group of 24 laying hens for 12 weeks. At the end of the feeding trial, 4 birds were randomly selected from each group and used for determination of internal organ weights and haematological indices. Raw cassava tuber meal contained 800 ppm HCN, SCTM contained 50 ppm HCN while WSCTM contained 10 ppm HCN. The group on 100% WSCTM diet consumed significantly (p<0.05) less feed, gained least body weight and recorded least hen-day egg production, possibly due to very powdery nature of the diet. Egg weight and feed conversion ratio were not affected by the treatments (p>0.05). Egg quality indices were also not affected by the treatments (p>0.05). Internal organ weights were not affected by the treatments (p>0.05) but the birds on cassava diets recorded significantly (p<0.05) more abdominal fat. The birds on cassava diets also recorded significantly (p<0.05) less WBC and PCV values relative to the control group.
G.E. Enyenihi, A.B.I. Udedibie, M.J. Akpan, O.L. Obasi and I.P. Solomon, 2009. Effects of 5 h Wetting of Sun-Dried Cassava Tuber Meal on the Hydrocyanide Content and Dietary Value of the Meal for Laying Hens. Asian Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances, 4: 326-331. | <urn:uuid:c7d176d2-9c43-4426-a753-8686b5c4f5d6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://scialert.net/abstract/?doi=ajava.2009.326.331 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96033 | 552 | 2.15625 | 2 |
Tombstone Tuesday: John H. and Bertha L. (LeMasters) Yaeger
John Henry and Bertha Fidelia (LeMASTERS) YAEGER are buried in the Salamonia Cemetery, Madison Township, Jay County, Indiana. Bertha is my paternal great-grandaunt.
John was born October 4, 1874 in Jay County, Indiana. I do not know his parentage.
Bertha was born May 31, 1874 in Darke County, Ohio, the daughter of Luman Walker and Mary Keziah (CHEW) LeMASTERS.
John and Bertha married May 20, 1903 in Jay County, Indiana. They had 6 children, and lived in Clay County, Indiana where both were teachers.
John died in 1963. Bertha died March 16, 1922 in Clay County, Indiana.
Tombstone Tuesday – To participate in Tombstone Tuesday simply create a post which includes an image of a gravestone of one or more ancestors and it may also include a brief description of the image or the ancestor. This is an ongoing series at GeneaBloggers. | <urn:uuid:fdef451e-209d-4cd3-ad1e-e45d9ad20b2e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tjlgenes.blogspot.com/2010/11/tombstone-tuesday-john-h-and-bertha-l.html?pfstyle=wp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972674 | 232 | 1.71875 | 2 |
The answer is yes for Miami, Miami-Dade, Broward counties and their unincorporated areas.
After some confusion in Miami-Dade, county officials issued a needed trash advisory Sunday night.
Here’s the breakdown:
The Miami-Dade County Public Works and Waste Management Department will resume normal operations on Monday.
• Weekly curbside garbage pickup and every-other-week recycling collection service and recycling customers will be provided on regular pickup days.
• If Monday is your regular day, residents should place their carts at the curb by 7 a.m. as normal; however, collection may be later in the day due to Tropical Storm Isaac.
• For areas where roads may be inaccessible to garbage and recycling collection vehicles, residents should place their green waste carts at the curbside of the nearest open street.
• The 13 centers will observe normal hours of operation from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Sunday to Saturday. Residents can deliver manageable storm debris, yard trash and other household trash. No garbage is accepted at these centers.
• Bulky waste scheduling is available by calling 311 or scheduling online at www.miamidade.gov/publicworks. Due to the volume of calls anticipated following the storm, collection may take longer than the normal 1-9 day service goal.
• All waste department disposal facilities – The Resources Recovery Facility, South and North Dade Landfills and the Northeast, Central and West Transfer Stations – will observe regular hours of operation.
• For more information on resumption of waste and recycling services or to report issues with traffic signals, damaged or missing street signs, potholes, downed street lights or street flooding, residents should call 311, the county’s Answer Center, or visit the department’s website at www.miamidade.gov/publicworks .
• The city of Miami will have regular trash and debris pickup.
• Garbage pick-up for Broward municipalities and unincorporated areas will be on a normal schedule on Monday, except in the city of Weston, where there will not be trash pick-up. | <urn:uuid:351bd8a2-4a72-4986-a124-b73be1442709> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/26/2969683/will-there-be-garbage-pick-up.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916957 | 443 | 1.679688 | 2 |
For 10 long years, the Quartet on the Middle East has sought, unsuccessfully, to mediate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and bring about a two-state solution. The group, comprising the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia, has talked and made empty proclamations while enormous changes have occurred around them: the "war on terror" has come and gone, the invasion of Iraq shattered that country and the Arab Spring is still taking place.
In all those years, the Quartet has stuck to the same tired script, speaking the language of "legitimacy" and "negotiation", while Israeli settlements continue, while the siege of Gaza continues, while a future Palestinian state is dissected by checkpoints, and while Hamas and Fatah have torn themselves apart with their rivalry.
Attempts to change the situation on the ground for Palestinians, whether by the international community's effort to break the siege of Gaza, or by the Palestinian bid for recognition at the United Nations, have been opposed by the Quartet. This has been especially true of Tony Blair, a man whose appointment as the Special Envoy must surely herald - to reuse the apocryphal quote from Tom Lehrer about Henry Kissinger - "the death of satire".
Last year, shortly after the Palestinian Authority first sought recognition at the United Nations, the Quartet agreed to a new framework. As with so many of its declarations over the decade, it appeared utterly unrealistic: the parties were to sit down within a month for talks, make serious proposals within three months and have an agreement by the end of 2012. That deadline expires in a couple of weeks and the parties still have not sat down for meaningful dialogue.
In reality, there is a framework already in place. The Oslo Accords established the parameters of a two-state solution and the Arab Peace Initiative has offered peace to Israel building on the Accords. The initiative, tabled by Saudi Arabia in 2002, offers recognition to Israel by all Arab countries in return for its withdrawal from occupied Palestinian land.
In reality, the initiative offers Israel more than Oslo does, and more than it could expect from negotiations with the PA. Still, the Israelis have rejected it. On Sunday, Qatar's Prime Minister Hamad bin Jaber Al Thani suggested that the offer might be withdrawn - since Israel has shown no interest in accepting it.
A new direction is needed. Following Egypt's negotiation of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, it is clear that Arab and regional countries need a larger role.
The Arab world must take greater responsibility for the conflict that remains at the heart of the region and its politics. Arab countries such as Egypt and regional powers such as Turkey are already doing this - and by reforming the Quartet, a new legitimacy could be injected.
The way to do this would be to expand the "Quartet" to become a quintet. This fifth seat would be occupied by a special envoy, reporting to three countries: Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
Post-revolution Egypt has the political will, and to a degree the moral authority, to represent the wishes of Egyptians on Palestinian issues. Given its border with Gaza, and its historic role both in the region and in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Egypt's would be a credible voice.
The same applies to Turkey, which has increasingly asserted its role in recent years. Saudi Arabia has also played a surprisingly strong part behind the scenes, briefing the Quartet and often warning its closest western partner, the United States, of the dangers of letting the Palestinian issue slip off the world's agenda. Over the years, Riyadh has funded both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.
Such an addition to the Quartet would, naturally, sideline the Arab League. But the Arab League - with the exception of some support for an intervention last year in Libya - has been ineffective, riven by internal conflicts and failing to promote a coherent regional policy.
What would a Quintet prove? Would it not be better to let the Quartet - which is, in any case, unelected and unaccountable - simply fade away? Perhaps. The Quartet has too often served as a cover for US and Israeli policy - at one point in 2011, Palestinians accused Tony Blair of merely trumpeting Israel's talking points.
Yet the Quartet is unlikely to be dissolved. Rather, as with the Arab Peace Initiative and the Palestinian UN bid, regional actors will simply find ways to work around it. But a revitalised Quintet could bring regional states, along with their money and political capital, into the international framework.
With a fifth seat at the table, options that previously could not be countenanced - such as talking to Hamas - become possible. Moreover, it would bring the largest movement in the Arab world - the Muslim Brotherhood - into a position where it could have a stake in solving the conflict. That would strengthen Hamas, certainly, but it would also tie the security of Israel to the development of Egypt.
The Arab Spring is sweeping away old certainties of the region. The history of the Palestinian conflict (and, indeed, one of its origins) shows that deals about the territories have been made without Arab input. By reforming the ineffective Quartet, influential regional countries would be given an important role and a stake in solving this intractable Middle East conflict.
On Twitter: @FaisalAlYafai | <urn:uuid:78ae37ff-b5bb-47ca-a507-e95faf013e84> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/comment/save-the-quartet-from-itself-by-including-arab-powers | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960706 | 1,095 | 1.898438 | 2 |
An engrossing, vivid study of the life and work of one of America’s most important feminist artists.
Levin (Art/Baruch Coll. and The Graduate Center, CUNY; Edward Hooper: An Intimate Biography, 2005, etc.) turns her attention to Judy Chicago (born in 1939), tracing Chicago’s early interest in art, exploring her psychological reaction to her father’s early death and chronicling her first brief marriage. The artist’s commitment to feminism was forged in that marriage: Long before it was fashionable, Chicago insisted that spouses share housework, once exclaiming to her husband, “What makes you think that because, by a biological accident, I was born with a cunt, I am supposed to pick up your socks?” Those feminist convictions soon found expression in her work. Her first major work of feminist art was her 1972 Womanhouse, a multimedia installation that explored the ways in which women have been oppressed by domestic expectations. The author strikes just the right balance between Chicago’s oeuvre and her life, offering frank discussion of Chicago’s complex second marriage, careful attention to Chicago’s relationship with Judaism and a thoughtful examination of Chicago’s feminist pedagogy. But the most arresting section is devoted to Chicago’s masterpiece, The Dinner Party. Levin captures what an artistic challenge The Dinner Party posed for her subject, and spells out the personal and financial sacrifices she made in order to complete the massive work. Though this is not an authorized biography, Chicago was cooperative and generous with Levin, who seems to have unfettered access not only to Chicago’s papers, but to dozens and dozens of people she knew and worked with, including ex-lovers, students, relatives and friends. The book is marred only by Levin’s slightly stilted prose.
A gift for those interested in the history of American art and the history of feminism. | <urn:uuid:3308e9c0-e0dc-423b-9c6d-fc8018e6380d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/gail-levin/becoming-judy-chicago/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964496 | 403 | 1.875 | 2 |
VILNIUS — The Lithuanian government is in the midst of modifying the contentious “protection of minors” law that the European Parliament (EP) condemned last week as discriminatory.
On Sept. 16 the EP voted 349-218, with 49 abstentions, to ask that Lithuania revamp the recently-passed child protection legislation to avoid any possibility of discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation. The EP resolution states that the Lithuanian law is “vague and legally unclear and might lead to controversial interpretations.”
The Law on the Protection of Minors against the Detrimental Effect of Public Information was passed in July in reaction to an uproar about the EU’s Gender Loops project that teaches alternative gender roles to primary school students. The law, which takes effect in March 2010, bans the public display of information that promotes homosexuality, polygamy, the paranormal, graphic violence and unhealthy eating habits to minors. This is not limited to within classrooms but television shows, radio and print media.
The law was vetoed by former President Valdas Adamkus, but passed the Seimas with a sufficient majority to force current President Dalia Grybauskaitė to sign it. Grybauskaitė has since set up a panel to amend to the law to make it less discriminatory, and the prime minister’s office said it is open to the panel’s proposals.
“Of course [the coalition] is open to changing and improving that law to avoid any discrimination,” Ridas Jasiulionis, an adviser to the prime minister, told Baltic Reports today. “Some mistake happened, because the real goal of that law is to protect children from any bad information … that will bring any bad effect on the development of the child. So it wasn’t written correctly, so it will be improved.”
In addition to the EP, the law has been criticized by Amnesty International and gay rights groups as discriminatory against homosexuals.
Artūras Rudomanskis, representative of Tolerant Youth Association, told Baltic Reports that he was optimistic the law would be amended.
“I think it will be overturned because the EP is an important institution. It is a moral institution because all the people from Europe elect this government and so its closer to people and their opinion, not to what the MPs from each country want,” Rudomanskis said.
Not the first time
The protection of minors law was put forward by parliamentarian Petras Gražulis, a member of the conservative Order and Justice Party. Gražulis has also called for re-criminalizing homosexuality in Lithuania.
This isn’t the first time the EP has decried Lithuanian legislation on homosexuality. In the summer of 2008 the EP intervened to stop another Order and Justice proposal to remove anti-workplace discrimination laws protecting homosexuals.
— Baltic Reports assistant editor Adam Mullett contributed to this article. | <urn:uuid:1ce29fb1-ea1e-427b-9d4c-51c798f80c22> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://balticreports.com/?p=1826 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945652 | 608 | 1.75 | 2 |
After six months of packing my lunch, temptation-proofing my life and obsessively monitoring my bank account, I finally paid off my credit card balance.
I was so excited to make that last payment that I completely forgot I had auto-debits set up every two weeks. As a result, I accidentally paid twice as much as planned, leading to a negative $75 balance.
On Thursday, Bank of America agreed to credit the balance back to my checking account within a few days.
But this morning I'd been hit with a $0.35 finance charge. Thirty-five cents is basically nothing, but I was stumped.
How could I possibly pay interest on an account with a NEGATIVE balance?
First, I called the bank's customer service line and was given a headache-inducing spiel about billing cycles and balances, APRs and blah, blah, blah. I hung up after 15 minutes more perplexed than ever.
What he told me will change the way I pay down debt forever.
"Credit card companies charge interest every day,"not just once a month when it shows up on our bill. "They look at your balance at the end of each day and they multiply that balance with your APR, divided by 365 days to make it a daily APR. That's the interest you get for that day."
The reason customers rarely understand this is because all we see on our bill statement is one big finance charge, he added. But it's actually a cumulative tally of each day's interest charges. The average daily rate's often included in billing statements, but even then consumers might not know what it means.
Example: Let's say you're working on paying of your credit card, like I was. Your annual APR is 20%, which in your credit lender's books, would make your daily interest rate about .0005% on whatever balance you're carrying.
After making a bill payment, you've still got $100 left on your balance. On Day 1, the bank will start tacking that daily interest charge to your balance, bringing it to $100.05 in their books – even though you'll still see an even $100.
And get this: On Day 2, you'll get charged that same daily interest on your new $100.05 balance, not just the $100. That interest will continue to compound each day until you've paid down your balance.
There's an exception here and it applies to customers who pay their balance in full each moth. They enjoy something of a grace period when it comes to finance charges and don't accrue daily interest, Papadimitriou says. In that case, your strategy – and mine going forward – should be to keep your funds in your checking or savings account as long as possible before paying off a credit balance, so that money will still earn interest.
As soon as you let a balance carry over on another billing cycle, you'll lose the grace period privilege and have to earn it back by paying your balance in full two months in a row.The moral of the story
"If you're incurring finances charges – meaning you're carrying a revolving balance – then it's important that you don't wait until the due date to pay your bill," Papadimitriou said. "Pay as quickly as possible because each day that passes you're paying interest on your balance."See the 9 steps I took to get my personal finances back on track >
More From Business Insider | <urn:uuid:38364220-df85-499a-a3b3-347bfcd7bb03> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://in.finance.yahoo.com/news/credit-secret-change-way-pay-172500024.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972136 | 712 | 2.140625 | 2 |
No-one disputes the essential nature of aeration for healthy turf whether it is on a golf course, athletic field or your own back yard. Aeration tools come in a variety of forms from the simple hand fork, very labor intensive and time consuming but still effective, through slice aerators, deep vertical tine aerators to the air injection style, like the SISIS JAVELIN AER-AID.
Besides the tools, the tines vary dramatically. There are 4 basic types:
- Hollow tines that pull plugs,
- Solid tines,
- Air injection tines, and
- Deep slicing tines.
Dramatic results can be achieved by “pulling a plug” but on the downside it is essential that the holes are completely filled and this can mean an extensive amount of top dressing. Pulling plugs can disrupt play and cause surface disturbance.
The solid tine simply displaces soil and leads to a compacted wall area which does not receive the root structure of the plant at all well.
Air injection aerating:
This is true aeration as it injects air into the soil which fractures the soil structure producing an ideal root zone. The SISIS JAVELIN AER-AID offers this option, along with the ability to fit “conventional” hollow & solid tines.
Slit tines have the advantage that they open a large wall area and because the tine is relatively slim there is very little side wall compaction that more readily receives the root structure and nutrients. In addition the slim blades cause little or no surface disturbance enabling deep aerating without interrupting play, whilst opening up the soil for the ingress of water and nutrients.
Superintendents Golf School:
A superintendent recorded “Coring tines damaged the turf, with the members complaining that the greens were always torn up and bumpy”. Things came to a head when it took a very long time to smooth greens and he decided to try deep slicing, which he had done with great success on the fairways for years. He’s been doing it ever since - with a SISIS Multislit.
He uses the Multislit to aerate by deep slicing on the following schedule:
- Monthly from March through November
- 3 times during May, July, and September
When he uses the Multislit in May, July, and September, it is often in 3 or 4 directions, adding that . . .
“The depth you can go and not heave or make the green too soft far exceeds what you can do with conventional aerators. I have been able to increase frequency of aerating without damaging the putting surface. It is obviously each to their own but deep slice aerating, even if not a replacement for 'conventional' aerating methods, can be a great complimentary cost effective operation keeping the surface open maximizing any benefits from other forms of aeration."
Deep slicers from SISIS come in 3 sizes:
- The Multislit for Greens and Tee boxes
- The Maxislit for Tee boxes and Fairways
- The Megaslit for Fairways
As always, for more information, please contact us. We are THE turf experts, and we can help you choose the best equipment for YOUR grass, synthetic turf, and climate. | <urn:uuid:ed8e1c85-4614-478c-bd7c-2010afd4ba3b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.csturfproducts.com/news/2010/10/11/25-the-right-tine-at-the-right-time | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930114 | 689 | 1.867188 | 2 |
Conquering the Snooze Button
Joseph Grenny is coauthor of four New York Times bestsellers, Change Anything, Crucial Conversations, Crucial Confrontations, and Influencer.
Dear Crucial Skills,
One of my New Year’s resolutions is to wake up early every day and start the day with a planned schedule. I have read about the benefits of getting up early and would like to put them into practice. I am very motivated to do so, mainly because I do not have enough time during the day to complete things that are really important to my personal growth and development.
And yet, I am still struggling to stick to this resolution. I have tried all sorts of tricks like adjusting the clock ahead of time, doing affirmations before going to sleep, and going to bed earlier. My problem is I feel so good and lazy in “sleep mode” when the alarm rings that waking up is not a priority for me in that moment. How do I get myself to wake up early?
Dear Snooze Button,
I get up pretty early to exercise. Getting up isn’t my problem, it’s getting myself to start exercising. I read for a while before I go to our home gym so it’s pretty easy to lay on the couch five minutes longer, then ten minutes, then . . . So I know the feeling.
The good news is that you’re thinking very creatively in exactly the way you need to in order to change this habit. In Change Anything, we point out that those who succeed at changing tough habits are those who begin to act like both the scientist and the subject in their change challenge. You are the “subject” in that you are the snoozer. You need to be the “scientist” by standing above snoozer-you and experimenting with ways to get the snoozer to act differently. So let me talk to your inner scientist.
First, think about a variety of sources of influence that might get you moving. For example, could you get social support by committing to do a first-thing-in-the-morning activity with another person? Not letting your friend down might be enough to get you up and start your day. For example, if you’re trying to exercise, you could join an online group that checks in virtually before exercising as a way to support one another.
Could you create a little reward or punishment for when you get up or for when you don’t? For example, create charity and anti-charity jars and place them on your counter. When you get up on time, put a quarter in the charity jar. When you don’t, put a quarter in the anti-charity jar. At the end of the month, send the charity money to a cause you love and send the anti-charity money to me. Just kidding. Send it to a cause you don’t like—perhaps a political party you disagree with.
Thursdays are my hardest workout day. I used to dread that day until I created a special reward at the end of my workout. I bought some chocolate protein powder and I mix it up with a banana to make a shake that I only drink on that day. It’s funny how much I’ve come to look forward to Thursdays because that is “shake day” for me. It’s also funny to note how easy it is to change our experience of even unpleasant behaviors by adding in the right source of influence.
My inner scientist came upon another solution that has worked well for me. I notice that you’ve tried motivation strategies like affirmations. I discovered that you don’t need more motivation if you make it easier to follow through. For example, I realized I dreaded the treadmill because I tended to start my run as fast as I could to get it over with sooner. So I changed my workout to start with a pleasant walk, then a slow run. Just allowing myself to enjoy the first few minutes while I warm up changed how I felt about getting started. If you decrease difficulty, you don’t need as much motivation. Perhaps you could schedule something pleasant and easy to do first thing in the morning. For example, you could read a chapter of a book you enjoy.
I hope these ideas spark something useful to you. Don’t worry that your plan isn’t working yet. Turn bad days into good data by telling yourself, “That strategy was insufficient. Now I know I need an additional or different source of influence to accomplish my goal.” Check out Change Anything for lots of easy ideas. If you continue to approach it like a scientist, you’ll crack the code for sure.
And for the rest of you who have conquered the snooze button, feel free to comment on this article with your ideas as well!
- Joseph Grenny Says You’re On!: Keep Habits by Competing with Friends
- Lose Weight and Defy Your Critics | <urn:uuid:e3eafc74-4814-48f1-921b-5d2ba8ad2271> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.crucialskills.com/2012/03/conquering-the-snooze-button/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950906 | 1,049 | 1.734375 | 2 |
One feature of the Education Revolution notable by its absence is any sense of interest or engagement in Higher Education.
A year ago Minister Gillard outsourced that engagement to Professor Denise Bradley.
Professor Bradley's committee reported in December. The Minister gave her long awaited response in a series of three speeches at the beginning of this month. Unfortunately the speeches made no substantive commitments about funding or reform. While Minister Gillard committed the Government to no extra funding at this stage, she demanded the sector increase its output quite substantially – an increase in graduates that one Vice Chancellor has described as requiring billions of dollars and the construction of several new universities to achieve.
But far from the promised education revolution, when it comes to the higher education sector we are seeing a funding famine.
The Opposition has taken a great deal of political heat for voting against the Government's February stimulus package. It is worth thinking about the position of higher education in the Government's list of priorities, in the context of the stimulus package:
- we have seen $23 billion committed to cash handouts – of which 80% of the first round was saved rather than spent;
- $2 billion was committed to installing pink batts in ceilings around Australia;
- and $1 billion committed to local councils around Australia – money which is able to be spent at the whim of Mayors around Australia on whatever local project is considered suitably worthy.
At a time when the Government is spreading largesse around every imaginable branch and department of Canberra like a contagious disease, the higher education sector has remained remarkably immune from infection.
The Howard Government received a great deal of criticism in 1996/7 when it did not quarantine the University sector from the general cuts that it was making around the whole Government. Thirteen years on, it is worth remembering that those decisions were made in the context of a $10 billion Budget deficit, and $96 billion of debt that took a decade to pay off.
Tough decisions had to be made in those early years, but the social dividend was returned through lower taxes and improved services once the Budget situation had been rectified.
In the last year of the Coalition Government a record 185,898 Australians were offered a university place. The $1.9 billion “Releasing Our Potential” package introduced significant new funds into key areas. A dramatic increase in the level of Commonwealth scholarships was designed to ensure that all of our best and brightest had every opportunity to achieve their potential.
Similarly we increased the repayment threshold applying to when students must begin repaying their HECS HELP loans to just shy of $40,000 – making a world's best practice student contribution scheme even more accessible.
Therefore between 1995 and 2006 we saw a 23% increase in numbers of students from low socio-economic backgrounds attending University – this at a time of essentially full employment. Similarly we saw a 15% increase in students from rural areas, a 137% increase in students with a disability, and a 30% increase in indigenous students.
The final Budget of the Howard Government also included an investment of more than $6 billion in the Higher Education Endowment Fund – a forward thinking long term investment in the infrastructure of our Universities, designed to keep growing with future investment and keep improving our institutions into perpetuity.
But that is ancient history now. Kevin Rudd's Labor Government, bequeathed a $22 billion Budget surplus and the lowest unemployment rates since the 60s, is now approaching the half way point of its three year term.
Yet almost every policy that has been announced has amounted to this sector being asked to do more with less.
Turning our minds back to last year's Budget, you would remember the announcement of an $11 billion Education Investment Fund – or EIF. Legislation was passed in December to bring the Fund officially into existence. As a headline, an $11 billion Education Investment Fund was seen as good news.
The detail is, however, immensely disappointing.
First this is not new money – the first $6.2 billion in the fund was a direct transfer from the Higher Education Endowment Fund set up 12 months earlier. This $6.2 billion from the HEEF was then topped up with $2.5 billion from the last Howard surplus. The name was changed, and the guidelines for funding allocation were changed so that the money is now also available to the training and vocational education sector as well as universities.
By the time the legislation was introduced into the House, even the public servants who briefed the opposition on these details struggled to keep straight faces as they told us that the fund would only reach $11 billion if the Budget remained in surplus this year! The final $2 billion announced for the EIF and University infrastructure was spent instead on pink batts.
The fact of the matter is that Labor's new $11 billion fund is actually an $8.7 billion fund, paid for entirely by the previous Government, which Universities must now share with Australia's TAFEs, RTOs and VET providers, and it has a new name.
Precious little else has happened in Higher Education. We have seen the Government break their election promise on Voluntary Student Unionism. I'm well aware that many providers would welcome the injection of extra funds into campus service activities, but it strikes me as more than passing strange that the only new funding mechanism being given to the sector is a new tax on students.
Meanwhile the sector has had a genuine growth market – full fee domestic places – removed entirely with virtually no compensation.
And that sums up the total list of achievements of the Rudd/Gillard education revolution as it applies to the higher education sector. A new tax, reduced revenues, and an old fund renamed. And twenty five reviews last year, plus a further review in February to make recommendations about which recommendations of the Bradley review should be taken seriously.
In recent months we have seen Prime Minister Rudd holding the Finance Minister by his ankles on the cabinet table and shaking him until all the money comes out, but not a penny has been scooped up by the Minister for Education to go to the University sector.
The Government seems to have written itself out of the game in relation to improving higher education for some time to come.
We await with interest what, if any, investment we see in the sector in May's Budget. This Budget is crucial for our Universities, and it is in the context of this year's Budget that the Opposition will be framing our Higher Education policies for the next election.
Turning to the Bradley review …
This speech has been introduced as the Opposition's response to the Bradley Review.
In a speech I gave in December, in relation to this topic, I said that “what is far more important than the review itself is the response of the Rudd Government.”
I had hoped to be able to use this opportunity to inform the sector of our response to the detail and the breadth of Julia Gillard's vision for the future of higher education in Australia.
That will now have to wait until after the Budget, when the Government actually announces what it will do. Instead, just as Minister Gillard announced some preliminary thoughts earlier this month, I will do the same.
As a starting point let me say that, without systematically going through every recommendation, the Opposition endorses the general thrust and tenor of the Bradley Review, and its goals.
The Bradley review was given the remit of advising the Government on how to develop a “diverse, globally focused and competitive higher education sector with quality, responsive institutions following clear distinctive missions to provide higher education opportunities to students throughout Australia”.
Professor Bradley was asked for advice on “improving funding arrangements”, “widening access to higher education”, and “building an integrated relationship with vocational education and training.”
Denise Bradley and her expert panel were provided with a wealth of information from which to make their recommendations. Last year the sector responded with enthusiasm to the opportunity to have their say – 353 submissions were received from Universities, associations, student groups, academics, and other interested individuals.
Public consultations around the country were well attended and points of view were vigorously pursued.
Since the release of Professor Bradley's report, if anything the sector has responded with increased vigour to the public debate!
The headline in the Government's response was the signal that a kind of watered down vouchers, or “entitlement”, scheme. This corresponds with the first part of Recommendation 29 of the Bradley Report -
“That the Australian Government introduce a demand-driven entitlement system for domestic higher education students, in which recognised providers are free to enrol as many eligible students as they wish in eligible higher education courses….”
Of course the second part of that recommendation – “… and receive corresponding government subsidies for those students” awaits the May Budget for consideration.
While the Government's adoption of the principle that funding should be driven by student demand is not necessarily the end of the story, we would say that it is an improvement on the current situation where too much of the existing framework is the arbitrary result of historical accident.
The Opposition supports increased flexibility for students and Universities, and a reduction in bureaucratic involvement from Canberra. Decentralisation and deregulation may be words associated with Neoliberalism – apparently an evil as great as the enforced famines of the Soviet Union in the 20th Century – but if there was ever a poster-child for how the heavy hand of Government knows worst, then this may be it.
There can be no clearer demonstration of this than the example of Australia's shortage of doctors. In the 1990s, governments of both complexions were complicit in implementing the advice of the bureaucracy that the number of commencing medical places should be cut back.
The rationale for this cut was a belief in the bureaucracy that growing medical costs were the result of over-servicing, prompted by an excess of graduating doctors. The enlightened central planners certainly managed to solve that problem, as demonstrated by the current crisis!
In the face of reality, the myth must finally be put to bed that the allocation of student places between courses and institutions can be better handled by central control.
It is counter-intuitive that the number of places in specific disciplines at specific institutions is still determined in this day and age by bureaucrats in Canberra, based on historical allocations.
In my opinion a stronger Higher Education sector is one that is more independent, not less.
Today, Australia's 38 universities are competing not only against one another but against all other institutions of higher learning throughout the world to attract and then properly equip students with knowledge and skills to prepare them for productive life, be it in Newcastle or New York, Roma or Rome.
In such a truly open and global environment universities must be able to respond in a flexible way to ever-changing circumstances and needs. They must be free to specialise or diversify in a way that they feel will best build on their strengths and benefit their students.
Talking about building internationally competitive universities in Australia is one thing, but it seems like we're asking universities to compete while preventing them from responding to student demand. It is not unlike asking Olympic swimmers to take on the world's best in handcuffs.
So on the matter of place deregulation, we support the Government in principle, pending the detail of how this will be funded.
One of the problems of the Government's unbudgeted response to the Bradley Review was that while the Minister was happy to endorse targets – 40% of Australians to have a degree, 20% of enrolments to be from Australians of low SES background, and so forth – there is no real plan to how we will get there.
Such aspirational goals will require a significant increase in engagement in higher learning from a section of the community that is currently underrepresented. We already have generous scholarship schemes, and in HECS we have a repayment system that makes higher education genuinely accessible to all who are interested and of merit.
The key missing factor is inspiring young people from families in which nobody has ever studied at University to understand that the pursuit of a higher education degree will benefit their lives.
Last year I met with Deakin University's Vice Chancellor Sally Walker, who proposed one cut-through idea that is worth consideration. To increase the interest in university study among low SES students, and encourage more to focus on finishing school and taking up a place, Deakin's Bradley submission suggested: “… that consideration be given to a bold new scholarship program which involves awarding scholarships to low SES students in mid secondary school, with funding available if and when the student starts university. These scholarships should be very generous, covering the real cost of going to university.”
Talking to high school students when they are already at upper secondary levels may well be too late for too many students to put in the focus and energy that will drive them towards the sort of engagement that will take them to University.
Early engagement is crucial. In whatever form it takes, the Government must put in the work to ensure that there are sufficient interested and tertiary-ready students to fill the places that Universities will be required to create to meet new low-SES benchmarks.
If the Government is serious about reform, then come Budget time we should see some consideration given to reforms suggested by Bradley in student income support – to ensure that sufficient support is going to those who need it.
We would also like to see a coherent response to the improvements to research funding as discussed in both the Bradley and Cutler reviews.
When opportunities for revenue growth have been substantially cut in the term of this Government, we need an adequate response in this Budget to Professor Bradley's recommendations of increased funding. We look forward to seeing what is allowed to pass through Treasury.
One Bradley recommendation that has received very little media attention to date is Recommendation 39:
“That the Australian Government provide funds to match new philanthropic donations received in the sector as a means of stimulating an additional revenue stream from this source with the cost capped per institution, and in total at $200 million over three years.”
In 2007, only 0.9% of revenue in Australian universities – or $155.1 million – came from donations and bequests. The overwhelming majority of this benevolence is concentrated in seven institutions that receive over $15 million each. This is a remarkably underdeveloped source of income by comparison with the international community, and one that needs attention.
The Allen Consulting Group's 2007 paper, “Philanthropy in Australia's higher education system”, suggested that “the Australian Government should consider a range of measures to support philanthropy in the higher education sector. This includes more attractive tax incentives, matched funding programs, funding to support universities to build fundraising capacity as well as other innovative approaches to attract more philanthropic funds.”
What level of support is feasible at this stage for such initiatives is again a matter for those occupying the Treasury benches. However it is clear to the opposition that we can no longer rest on our laurels when it comes to encouraging a culture of philanthropy – the existence of which puts so many of our international competitors at a distinct advantage to us in Australia.
It is fair to say that if the Education Minister had a blank cheque book, a surplus budget, and a genuine interest in higher education policy, then the Bradley review recommendations would provide a fruitful resource in how to spend public money quickly.
Unfortunately for Higher Education, the Government is fresh out of blank cheques, having instead prioritised the needs of local mayors and councils, the insulation industry, and $900 personal cheques.
Funding aside, the other challenge ahead for Government is to unshackle the Higher Education sector from what has become a noose of bureaucracy.
The Liberal Party has always been the Party of small government and personal responsibility. I have been the first to admit that the previous Government could have gone much further in promoting this basic principle and philosophy.
Unfortunately, under this new Government the window for reform in this area may have already closed.
Australians deserve a ‘fair go'. But we need to earn a ‘fair go' through our own efforts and determination. Ours should be a country of enterprise and energy.
The debate over university funding is a complex one, but it boils down to a very simple question. Should we force our higher education system to meet the needs of our students in a competitive global environment? Or should we force our students to meet the needs of our centrally-controlled higher education system? Sadly, in too many ways, we have chosen the latter.
It is of crucial importance that any changes to the Higher Education sector ensure that the taxpayers' enormous investment in the sector is fully realised, while at the same time universities be granted the much needed freedom and flexibility that will enable them to meet the needs of students and also compete effectively against the rest of the world.
The tough decisions that arise out of the Bradley Review cannot be put off or the report buried in further committees and reviews, in working groups or inquiries. A ‘revolution' is meant to be swift and radical reform, therefore I am calling on the Government to get on with it. We have already seen too much prevarication on this issue. Any further delay in implementation past this year's May Budget would be a signal that the Government's lack of interest in this area has progressed from insulting to dangerous.
“Review of Australian Higher Education Discussion Paper”, June 2008, Appendix A (Terms of Reference) p69
Ibid, p69
Ibid, p69
Ibid, p70
“Review of Australian Higher Education: Final Report” Bradley et al, 2008, p xxiii
This section taken extensively from Christopher Pyne's December speech to QUT Forum.
“Submission to the Review of Australian Higher Education”, July 2008, Deakin University, p15
Bradley et al op cit, p xxiv
Allen Consulting Group, “Philanthropy in Australia's higher education system” 2007, p87 | <urn:uuid:8c95e7dd-6cab-46c2-bd35-aff3d9b77a45> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pyneonline.com.au/media/speeches-media/speech-australian-higher-education-congress | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964425 | 3,696 | 1.710938 | 2 |
for National Geographic News
The total solar eclipse occurred on Tuesday, December 3, 2002.
Amateur and professional astronomers are flocking to the southern hemisphere to catch one of nature's greatest showsa total eclipse of the sun. The spectacle gives earthlings a rare glimpse of the corona, the scorching hot and faint outer atmosphere of the sun.
"Solar eclipses are spectacular to watch because of the drama of the sky going dark in the daytime, the blue sky going away, the rapid changes in the sun," said Jay Pasachoff, an astronomer from Williams College in Massachusetts.
Pasachoff and his team of colleagues and student astronomers on an eclipse expedition to study the corona will join throngs of spectators in the normally sleepy coastal town of Ceduna, Australia to catch the tail end of the eclipse, which occurs less than an hour before local sunset.
The spectators in Ceduna and sprawled out along the track of totality [see sidebar], which will average 35 miles (56 kilometers) in width, will come from far and near. Among those from afar is Oliver Staiger, a self-proclaimed eclipse chaser from Switzerland who is in Australia to witness his seventh total eclipse.
"I like to travel and have a challenge, a goal, when I travel," he said. "And once you've seen a total eclipse it is difficult to not hunt for the next one. You get addicted to it."
Staiger works as rental car agent and limousine chauffer in Geneva to fuel his eclipse habit. He also maintains a popular Web site on eclipses and leads eclipse trips for Astronomical Tours, a U.S.-based travel company.
Pasachoff, an avid eclipse-chaser himself, will witness his 35th solar eclipse as he conducts a series of experiments to study the solar corona with colleagues and students from Williams College.
"We are studying how the solar corona got to be 2 million degrees [Celsius], what its polarization is, and how features that form on the solar surface propagate into the corona and even out to the Earth," he said.
Observations of the corona are possible from Earth only during the brief moments of a total solar eclipse. The corona is usually hidden by the blue sky as it is about a million times fainter than the photosphere, the layer of the sun seen shining every day.
Solar eclipses are possible only because the sun and the moon appear to be about the same size in the sky. In reality, the sun is about 400 times bigger than the moon, but it is also about 400 times further from the Earth than the moon, according to astronomers.
SOURCES AND RELATED WEB SITES | <urn:uuid:6808c52f-cd72-4265-8a74-f8a7bd9fbff0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/12/1203_021203_solareclipse.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946188 | 562 | 3.171875 | 3 |
ISLAMABAD — Pakistan and India will soon hold their first official talks since the Mumbai attacks, Islamabad announced on Friday, in a move seen as a significant bid to ease regional tensions.
"It was decided that foreign secretary level talks between the two countries would be held on February 25 in New Delhi," the Pakistani government announced.
There was no immediate confirmation of the talks from New Delhi, which last week initiated hopes of a thaw in relations since the 2008 Mumbai attacks by proposing talks between the countries' top foreign ministry officials.
Tensions between the nuclear rivals, which have fought three wars since British partition of the sub-continent in 1947, have fanned instability on their border, in the divided Himalayan territory of Kashmir and in Afghanistan.
The move towards direct talks has been seen as a result of pressure from the United States, which is keen to keep South Asia trouble-free while deploying tens of thousands more troops into battle against the Taliban in Afghanistan.
US national security adviser James Jones was in Pakistan again on Friday for talks with government and military leaders on regional security.
Pakistan said its side "should raise all the core issues and impress upon India the need for the expeditious resolution through resumption of Composite Dialogue" -- a reference to Islamabad's desire for fully fledged peace talks.
"The prime minister directed the foreign secretary, who was also present in the meeting, that his talks with his Indian counterpart should be result oriented and meaningful," the prime minister's office said.
|Your name: *|
|Your email: *|
|Recepient's email: *|
|Enter code: *| | <urn:uuid:0bbf3f24-981e-4c67-a2bb-551926f17d6b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.global-report.com/india/a361633-india-pakistan-to-resume-talks-on-feb-25 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973633 | 337 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Although athletics and extra-curricular activities are considered essential components of a well-rounded education, academic subjects are the primary focus of an educational program.
The administration, faculty, and students of D.C. Everest Senior High take academics very seriously, and teachers are always willing to work together and experiment with new methods to make academics more rewarding for their students.
Check out our Course Selection Handbook to see a complete list of all courses offered at the Senior High:
We invite you to take a look at our academic departments:
Art Dept. Blog
Business & Technology
Career & Tech Ed
Family & Consumer Science
You can also access assignments for classes by going to the Senior High e-class here. | <urn:uuid:125c60c7-f7c0-46ed-aa13-81e2545a5211> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dce.k12.wi.us/srhigh/academics.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934537 | 146 | 1.59375 | 2 |
The patternmakers' vise shown
in Fig. 1, although made over twenty years ago, possesses
some advantages deserving attention.
Its main advantage is the quickness
with which it can be adjusted to any size of work.
Its mode of operation will be seen
by reference to the figure. The jaws A A are made of hard wood,
4 inches by 4-1/2
inches. The iron straps B B are pivoted at their upper ends to
the jaws of the vise and are pivoted together at their common
center C. Their free ends bear against iron plates L L, set
into the sides of the jaws. The action of the straps is to keep
the movable jaw at all times parallel with the fixed jaw or
post. Both the movable jaw and the post are recessed
sufficiently to receive the straps and thus allow the jaws to
The vise screw D is of ash. A
square thread at the front end is fitted with a handle nut and
is used for short adjustments and for clamping. The back end of
the screw is cut with coarse square teeth, with three of which
the stop E is engaged when the vise is being used.
This stop E is held into mesh with
the teeth by the spiral spring F. When the foot lever G is depressed the wire H draws down the block E
and the front jaw of the vise may be pulled out or pushed in at
will. This affords the quick adjustment. When the jaws are
pulled out a little beyond the required width the block E is
released and, rising, engages the teeth of the screw. The work
is then clamped by a few turns of the handle of the nut J.
On the face of each jaw is an iron
plate, the edges of which are beveled to fit the dovetail on the
back of the adjustable jaws. These jaws, shown in Fig. 2, have a
grooved or dovetailed back corresponding to the plates on the
jaws, and this back supports a jaw face which is pivoted on the
pin K so as to allow it to adjust itself to any taper that may
be on the work to be held.
One of the jaw plates is beveled on
its perpendicular sides while the other is beveled on its top
and bottom edge, so that the face of one adjustable Jaw pivots
vertically and the other horizontally. This allows the vise to
accommodate itself to work of almost any shape that it may be
desired to hold. | <urn:uuid:2c115ac6-0601-40b5-99e5-d2854c4720d2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wkfinetools.com/hUS-mechTools/z_reading/1901-PatternmakersVise/1901-PatternmakersVise.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939895 | 542 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Day 2 of Handheld Learning 2009 and the first day of the conference part featured lots of speakers. Funny (or ironic) part, there wasn’t a whole lot of talk about mobile or handheld learning, as the session titles indicate (Reflections on Learning, Creativity and Innovation, Games for Learning, Social Media for Learning). Maybe a sign of things to come??
Reflections on Learning
In any event, judging from the lively twitter feed, especially in the morning, opinions related to this trend were divided. Some people wanted to see more mobile learning stuff, others thought that the keynotes were provocative and forced the audience to think outside of the box. I would tend to agree with the latter, although at least some references to mobile learning would have been helpful (if you want to see any of the morning keynotes, please go here).
The keynotes kicked of with Zenna Atkins, the chair person of Ofsted, who talked about the current status of schools and technology in the UK to some extent and argued that change is needed and needs to be consumer-driven. She mentioned that mobile technologies are becoming increasingly important in schools, but not necessarily in ways intended. She mentioned that in some cases, camera phones were used by students to capture bad teaching. In addition, Like doctors, teachers will soon have pupils knowing more about outcomes/paths of their education, as some are looking up curriculum online and calling on teachers on not covering certain objectives. This consumer revolution in education will be about content, context, and how to get access. I still have some questions about what her vision would look like in reality and how it would be funded, as current educational structures and funding schemes most likely would not work.
Atkins was followed by Malcom McLaren, who admitted that he was speaking at a conference that was definitely not in his comfort zone, and proceeded by telling the audience his schooling/educational experiences, in rather colorful language. He talked about how Britain is broken, and its culture is failing many, by saying how too much of it supports the notion that it is cool to be stupid (karaoke culture), at least in the Anglo-Saxon world. In addition, he argued that failure and struggle are important to succeed. As far as the role of technology is concerned in all of this, McLaren said it was just a tool; don’t become a slave to it. Don’t let it replace experiencing the world.
Next up was Yvonne Roberts from the Young Foundation, who also talked (well, sort of rambled) about failure and grit, but said she sees Britain not as broken but as bursting with potential. She emphasized the importance of stories, and expressed the hope that testing and standards don’t drive out inquiry and children’s inquisitive nature. With regards to technology use for learning, Rogers disagreed with McLaren, calling it an ingredient, not a tool. She noted that research says that the best ratio of kids to computers is 2:1. She did not cite any research, but Yvonne Rogers made the same argument in Mobile technology for children: Designing for interaction and learning. How substantial the evidence is for this argument I do not know, but to some extent there is something to say for children collaborating face-to-face using digital tools, although I can think of plenty of examples where 1:1 ratios work well also. It all depends on the teacher and the pedagogy, not on the technology. Many in the audience disagreed with her arguments for 2:1 ratios.
The morning keynotes ended with a good talk by James Paul Gee, who discussed that video games have qualities to enhance learning that are based on solid educational research, and that formal education does not. He made the case that we learn by using experiences within which we can develop thoughts and understanding about concepts and ideas (situated meaning). He used the analogy that learning in school is like reading the manual to a video game without having seen the game, i.e. learning in school is learning devoid of context. Outside of school, kids are learning much more complicated things because something is at stake, e.g. when playing or modding video games or games like Yu-gi-oh. Gee emphasized the importance of passion and persistence. You learn if you’re passionate about something, but you can only become good at it if you put in the time (10,000 hours).
In sum, themes of the morning key notes seemed to be the importance of struggle and failure, and how current educational systems are not providing students with learning that is relevant, authentic, and motivating. Students need to be passionate and persistent about their learning, but it will not be easy to get to that point. In this regard, the key notes left some big questions unanswered;
- Technology can motivate students to learn, but how do you turn motivation into passion? (and 10,000 hours of persistence?)
- What are viable alternatives to current educational systems, what would they look like, and how would they be funded?
- How would we prepare pre-service and in-service teachers for such a system?
- What roles can mobile technologies play? For example, nobody, except maybe for Gee, discussed the role/importance of learning outside of school.
All in all, the morning was interesting and thought-provoking, and while not really providing concrete solutions, it left much food for thought. | <urn:uuid:8e84e8ba-72ab-48aa-adaa-ff658f28a29d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ubiquitousthoughts.wordpress.com/tag/zenna-atkins/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972277 | 1,117 | 1.5625 | 2 |
This is the year that I am finally going to grow my own garden and you can too, even if you have a small space to work with! My kids are at the ages now where I can spend more time working outside which is a passion of mine. Unfortunately, my property is not quite ready for my garden, so most of my gardening will have to be based around containers and hanging baskets.
While thinking about what I’m going to grow, I also have to consider where I am going to grow them! Over the years, I have seen many innovative and creative ways that you can grow a flourishing garden without digging a hole in the ground. These ideas got me thinking about how they could be used to grow a garden in a small space.
I’ve lost count a long time ago how many times I’ve heard, ‘I don’t have the space for a garden’, or ‘I live in an apartment, I can’t grow a garden’. With the exception of individuals who have balconies that get absolutely no sunlight, this is not true! Adopting the ideas of going vertical, and hanging plants such as tomatoes and strawberries can turn that small space into a beautiful, abundant vegetable garden!
Vegetable Garden Ideas For Small Spaces
One of my favourite trends that I have seen is using a shoe organizer to grow vegetables and herbs. I think this idea is brilliant, it gives you the ability to grow multiple varieties of plants and you can just hang it on a wall or a fence, or even a balcony! I have seen cloth hanging shoe organizers online in the $10.00 to $20.00 range, you could even find one at Goodwill if you are lucky. This vertical method is best used for growing herbs and plants such as lettuce and kale that can be confined to a smaller growing area.
I do recommend that if you are going to use this on a balcony that you place a container underneath to catch the drips when watering, your neighbours below would appreciate that. I am excited to do this, I already have the organizer and a good wall on my garden shed. I want to get a lot done on my property this summer so having this on the wall will keep it out-of-the-way leaving more room for my other ideas.
If you have a small backyard with a fence or garden shed you can attach some pots/containers directly to the fence or shed. Using single containers you have the ability to use different pot sizes and can allow more spacing between plants, which means more plant options. Some bigger pots on the ground along the fence line could be planted with carrots, kohlrabi, tomatoes, peppers, etc. I am giving my wall space to the organizer but I do have a small area of patios stones in the backyard that will one day be made into a nice sitting area, for now it will serve as an area for multiple container plants.
Most people typically think of flowers when they think of a hanging basket, but there are multiple plants including tomatoes, peppers, beans, and strawberries, zucchini, and cucumbers, that can be grown this way. I have picked up a few of the ‘As seen on TV Topsy Turvy’ from the dollar store for $2.00 each. I have seen success with this product. I will let you all know what I think of it, I’m going to try it with tomatoes and zucchini this summer. I have a long porch and it will be lined with strawberry hanging baskets this year, I’m looking forward to those. You can purchase a hanging basket stand at your local garden centre which allows you to hang multiple pots if you have no place to hang them.
I would like to shake hands with the person who originally thought of these! This is a great way to turn a small space into a vegetable haven. Among many plants tomatoes, peppers and strawberries can be grown in them. I’ve found a website for DIY Walls Bags which shows a quick, affordable, budget friendly way to make your own. When filling the bags with potting soil, it is very important that they are firmly packed full, the soil needs to settle firmly when watered through with no gaps, to ensure full root coverage.
Tips For Container Gardening
- Make sure any container you use has a drainage hole and avoid recycled plastic containers (ex. margarine container) in the sun, as the plastic will deteriorate,
- Choose a good quality potting mix, I would avoid the dollar store bags.
- Never use garden soil or ‘dirt’. It will not drain properly and makes the containers extremely heavy
- Fertilize often, plants need food!
- Watering will be required more often than in a traditional garden, it’s better to give a plant more water once then a little water here and there. Most, but not all plants like to dry out slightly (not bone dry) in between waterings, you need to avoid over and underwatering but always watering thoroughly!
Climate will always be a factor in which plants you are able to grow, but do not feel restricted due to space and remember that realistically not all garden plants can be grown in small spaces. It’s important to use trial and error and over time you will know exactly what you can and can’t grow. Be creative, make efficient use of that small space, and enjoy watching your garden grow! Keep your eyes out here at Canadian Budget Binder this summer as I look forward to sharing the results of my garden with all of you!
Editors Note: Thanks Katrina for a very informative post about organic gardening in small spaces which a few CBB fans have asked me about. Katrina will be working alongside me this summer sharing her expertise and passion for nature, beauty, landscaping and gardening. If you missed her first post here at CBB about how she turned her passion and skills into making extra money give it a read. It’s a very inspirational story about a woman who sets out to follow her passion in life, gardening. If you have any topics you would like Katrina to blog about or questions for her simply email her at canadianbudgetbinder [at] yahoo dot [ca]
Post Contribution By: Katrina is a horticulture graduate with over 10 years experience with landscaping and greenhouse production. Her goal is to share her knowledge and experiences through blogging in hopes of helping others realize their gardening abilities.While being a single mom of two and working in a sales and marketing position, Katrina runs her own Landscaping Services in Southwestern Ontario.
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- Starting Our Frugal Garden From Seed (canadianbudgetbinder.com)
- Landscaping on a Budget in Canadian Soil (canadianbudgetbinder.com)
- Sow, Grow and Save (canadianbudgetbinder.com)
- Growing Our Frugal Garden From Seed (canadianbudgetbinder.com)
- Turning Leaves Into Compost (canadianbudgetbinder.com)
- Fall Gardening, Go Grow Something And Save (canadianbudgetbinder.com)
- Sustainable Living On A Budget, A Lil Suburban Homestead Thing (canadinbudgetbinder.com)
Photo: Tomato Cucumber Harvest via 123RF | <urn:uuid:05e3f0df-5c2b-4b8c-bda2-6c734e9eb43b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://canadianbudgetbinder.com/tag/cost/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940212 | 1,594 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Pau Grand Prix, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France, 1962
Auto Universum continues its decade-long 50th Anniversary of the Sixties series with a look back at 1962.
If you missed seeing Maurice Trintignant claim the chequered flag at the Grand Prix de Pau on Easter Sunday fifty years ago, you still had the chance to witness plenty of exciting automobile introductions, architectural presentations, product unveilings and cultural events that took place throughout the year.
Lord Brett Sinclair’s Bahama Yellow Aston Martin DBS in “The Persuaders!”
Ancient wisdom once held that in the vintage car market, red, white and black were the best colours for resale. However, as Bob Dylan once declared; The times they are a-changin’.
Early Porsche 911 collectors for example often seek out and pay a premium for the colours that made those cars unique to their time period: Signal Orange, Viper Green, Aubergine, Tangerine; even the more esoteric shades of Olive and Golden Green.
1964 Porsche 904 Carrera GTS. A masterwork in the annals of badging: cursive lettering, gold-anodised finish, canted 45-degrees, and unique placement flowing over the curved transition from rear deck to rear quarter panel
Free-flowing cursive script is not often seen on automobiles today. It still survives at Alfa Romeo, Lamborghini, Maserati and Porsche. Outside this quartet it is rare indeed. In days past, cursive was common throughout the industry.
Such longhand script was often utilized to enable casting a complete badge out of a single piece of metal. The alternative was to either run block letters together, or connect individual block characters with a bar across the top (à la Ferrari,) a bar at the bottom (typified by BMW and Mercedes-Benz) or through the centre in the style of Alfa Romeo.
Pre-war cars used cursive scripting almost exclusively, although badging itself was generally minimal or nonexistent. In the 1900’s manufacturer nameplates were usually affixed only to the front of the radiator, and model designations were not displayed. In the thirties, even this practice declined, with most vehicles displaying the manufacturer’s name only via a stylized logo atop the radiator shell. After the war, marque and model badging began proliferating and begat its own art form.
1961 Porsche poster celebrating competition victories of the prior season
By 1961 the last vestiges of the fifties were ebbing and the currents of the sixties starting to more strongly assert themselves. The second year of the decade witnessed the first manned space flight, construction of the Berlin Wall and the first season of The Avengers.
It was a banner year for British sports car enthusiasts. Jaguar unleashed its dramatic new feline, the ‘E’ Type, dubbing it The Most Advanced Sports Car in the World.
Carlo Abarth poses alongside his Fiat Derivazione Abarth 750
In the 1950’s, long before a Mini Cooper, Lotus Cortina, BMW Alpina or AMG Mercedes ever turned a wheel, two cars debuted that introduced the concept of sanctioning outside firms to design and create modified, high-performance versions of standard road-going sedans. These cars, like their successors that would follow, combined the everyday practicality of the family car with a healthy dollop of the performance and driving pleasure of a sports car.
The first was produced in 1956 by Carlo Abarth in the form of the Fiat Derivazione Abarth 750, based on the recently introduced Fiat 600 Berlina. Far from being simply a repository for a collection of bolt-on pieces, the 750 was heavily modified by Abarth in a very thorough and systematic fashion that would set the standard for future vehicles of its type.
The 1950’s and early 1960’s were the dawn of the jet age and the public clamoured for anything new and futuristic. What could be more alluring than gliding down the road in a jet-powered automobile?
A number of manufacturers toyed with gas turbine developments at this time including Rover, Fiat, Renault, General Motors and Chrysler.
Turbines are ideal in jet aircraft as they run at nearly constant speed. To adapt them for automotive use they had to be modified to provide much faster throttle response and quicker transition times from idle to maximum power. Provision for engine braking was also required as was the necessity for lower exhaust gas temperature.
In the 1950’s and 1960’s, a number of firms built specialized vehicles to be run in the Tour de France publicity caravan that rolls though France ahead of the peloton. Since the three-week event routinely attracted over 10 million spectators, it was an ideal venue for advertisers to reach a broad audience. This practice continues today.
One of the most distinctive and enduring of these vehicles was the Le Nain Gourmand Renault, which debuted on the 1952 Tour to promote the products of the popular confectioner. The front featured a giant replica of the founder and the rear incorporated a depiction of his wife. In between were displayed oversized candies, chocolates and bon-bons.
The test of time may well be the harshest test of all. Styles change and the public’s tastes and requirements change. Yet a cohesive, intelligent and functional design can sometimes overcome these obstacles. I have assembled a list of ten cars that enjoyed a lifespan of twenty years or more. The requirements were fairly simple; a candidate had to be mass-produced and sold as a passenger car for at least two decades by its original manufacturer in basically the same design configuration with no more than superficial changes.
In order of decreasing longevity, here are the survivors:
When one is discussing creatively gifted automotive engineers, a few fabled and legendary names are normally exhumed and bandied about: Ferdinand Porsche, Hans Ledwinka, Dante Giacosa, Alec Issigonis, André Lefèbvre…
Too often in the midst of such discourse, enthusiasts fail to recall the accomplishments of Louis Réard. Monsieur Réard was an engineer at Régie Nationale des Usines Renault SA in Billacourt, where he helped develop and refine such 1930’s models as the Primaquarte and Nervasport. However, what makes Louis notable, and what thrusts him into the pantheon of such august company, is what he accomplished in women’s prêt-à-porter.
On the 5th of July 1946, he summoned the press to the most fashionable swimming pool in Paris, the Piscine Molitor in the exclusive 16ème arrondissement. There he presented dancer Micheline Bernardini, fresh from the risqué Casino de Paris on Rue Clichy. She came out wearing nothing but a bra, two triangles of cotton and some string.
Louis Réard, automotive engineer, invented the bikini. | <urn:uuid:3512c7e2-48fb-4796-941d-638a9fe1132d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://autouniversum.wordpress.com/category/renault/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945748 | 1,454 | 1.75 | 2 |
The Zipit is a fairly capable audio device. There are several applications that can play audio on the Zipit. Yahoo! group. has some of these in the files section (see OpenZipIt / Applications / Freebase for example)
Thanks to Ken McGuire, The ZipIt's audio hardware is supported and you have access to a standard OSS-style audio device. This means that any application that works with /dev/dsp should work once compiled for the ZipIt. The Device names are a little different than what you may be used to by default. They are:
Mixer: /dev/zipm # mknod /dev/zipm c 245 0 Audio: /dev/zipaudio # mknod /dev/zipaudio c 245 4 DSP: /dev/zipd # mknod /dev/zipd c 245 3
The zipaudio device is the one you wind up dealing with most often. As on any other linux machine you can cat wav files to it and hear sound, provided the wav files are encoded to exactly what the zipaudio device is expecting.
Generally speaking, the zipaudio device expects audio data in RAW format at 44100 Hz, 2 channel, 16bits (signed little-endian) per sample. This equates to the following SOX output options:
sox inputfile.wav -t raw -c 2 -r 44100 -w -s output.wav
Note: If your audio file was created on a big-endian machine (powerpc, etc) you need to swap the bytes using the -x flag to sox
The big limitation on audio capability on the ZipIt is CPU power. The ZipIt's 90Mhz Arm CPU does not give you a lot of room for audio processing. Though some users have had success with audio decoding on the ZipIt, at 'average' bitrates, decoding the audio and playing it back seems to take the majority of the CPU.
Other applications running while performing MP3 or OGG decoding tend to make the audio 'skip' from time to time - though a well optimized / buffered player can minimize or even alleviate this.
The company that makes and markets the ZipIt, ZipitWireless has recently released an update that allows users to listen to music from their PC. Though little is known about how this is actually accomplished, it is believed that the decoding occurs on the PC, and raw audio is streamed to the ZipIt. | <urn:uuid:b85994dd-4f70-4910-a613-9329a3b00fd7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://elinux.org/ZipIt_Audio | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913513 | 511 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), eBay (EBAY) and Intuit (INTU) rank among the top 10 companies nationally for protecting personal privacy, according to an annual consumer survey released Monday that also found most respondents feared their privacy rights are being diminished
HP was deemed the second most trusted company for protecting privacy behind American Express in the study by the Ponemon Institute, which has conducted the survey annually since 2006. The 6,704 U.S. adults responding to the survey also ranked eBay ninth and Intuit 10th.
HP and eBay have consistently ranked in the top 10 in every year of the study, except 2008, when HP placed 16th. Intuit, which also ranked 10th last year, generally has been in the top 20 in recent years.
Two other Bay Area companies ranking high were Visa, in 18th place, and Mozilla, which was number 20.
However, the report cautioned that it has found "consumer perceptions about privacy can be influenced by a
The study by the Michigan-based Ponemon Institute, which conducts independent research on privacy and data protection issues, also found consumers feeling increasingly vulnerable about their personal information.
That so many respondents expressed such worries didn't surprise Paul Stephens, director of policy and advocacy of the nonprofit Privacy Rights Clearinghouse in San Diego. Since 2005, when his organization began tracking the subject, he said, "we have found that almost 607 million records have been breached." That includes Social Security numbers and medical information, but not less serious privacy violations, such as email addresses that were inappropriately accessed.
"It is truly a growing problem," Stephens said. "The numbers are absolutely staggering and unfortunately it does not seem many companies are taking data breaches very seriously."
The concern is shared by Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington.
"We think the privacy system in the United States, such as it is, simply isn't working," he said. "Consumers sense that they are on their own and run a risk every time they visit a website, download an app or do an Internet search.
Contact Steve Johnson at email@example.com or 408-920-5043. Follow him at Twitter.com/steveatmercnews.
Most trusted firms for guarding privacy
1. American Express
5. U.S. Postal Service
6. Procter & Gamble
7. USAA (United Services Automobile Association)
Source: Ponemon Institute consumer survey | <urn:uuid:e3e2bb13-6a06-49c6-a06f-51b20ec9d0e2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.siliconvalley.com/ci_22466905/hp-ebay-and-intuit-praised-protecting-privacy-but | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963948 | 518 | 1.609375 | 2 |
In his obituary of Bertil Ohlin, Paul Samuelson plays the game of “what if” — in this case, “what if the Nobel Prize was established in 1900, then who would have won the prize between 1901 and 1930?”
This is list of names Samuelson thinks would have won the prize:
“One cannot forbear playing the game of might-have-been. Here is the most likely scenario of awards from 1901 on: Bohm-Bawerk, Marshall, J.B. Clark, Walras, and Wicksell; Carl Menger, Pareto, Wicksteed, Irving Fisher, and Edgeworth; Sombart, Mitchell, Pigou, Adolph Wagner, Allyn Young, and Cannan; Davenport, Taussig, Schumpeter, Veblen, and Bortkiewicz; Cassel, J. M. Keynes, Heckscher, J. R. Commons, and J. M. Clark; Hawtrey, von Mises, Robertson, H. L. Moore, and F. H. Knight.”(p. 358, n1)
What do you think of that list? And, what do you think it says about Mises’s stature as an economic thinker if even Samuelson signaled that he would have been honored with the Nobel Prize for his contributions to economic science? | <urn:uuid:9a3e168c-2049-4cc5-9f09-19eeb67fd004> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://archive.mises.org/21112/mises-wins-the-nobel-prize-in-economic-science-well-sort-of/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934115 | 296 | 2.59375 | 3 |
The City of Fort Worth was flooded with calls during recent bad weather asking if there is a public shelter during storms. The answer is no. There is no official public shelter. But there are plenty of public places to find safety if you’re caught out in a storm. The problem is, most people think the same as way as Paul Crockett, who works in downtown Fort Worth.
City leaders are taking a closer look at the Fort Worth animal shelter, after CBS 11 reported some of its animals came down with distemper.
The forecast for this afternoon in North Texas again includes heavy storms, hail and the possibility of dangerous tornadoes. So, how should you prepare?
Lost pets in Granbury are being reunited with their owners through Hood County Animal Control with generous help from NewsScope Marketing, which donated both a building and employees to help volunteers coordinate the reunions.
Trying to find a reputable breeder? With so many choices in this vast city, it is hard to know where to look. If full breed is what you need, then look no further. Here is a list of some of the best breeders in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.
As a result of the I-Team investigation, the city council will get a full briefing on the matter from the shelter’s veterinarian and the code compliance director next week.
After a CBS-11 I-Team investigation, some people in Fort Worth went to city hall Tuesday night demanding action at the city’s animal shelter.
When you bring a dog home from a shelter, you don’t expect it to die within weeks of adopting it.
It was a night spent bundled up in blankets, cramped together on cardboard, and sleeping outside in the cold. That’s what more than one hundred 7th and 8th grade students from All Saints Episcopal School did for a project called “Project Empathy.”
In just a few weeks census workers will fan out across North Texas to count the number of homeless in the area. To accomplish the task professionals and volunteers are put together.
If the Mayans are correct, a South Texas man is ready to ride out the end of the world in a fortified steel compound.
Dozens of weary evacuees from Louisiana have made their way to an American Red Cross shelter at Faith Bible Church in DeSoto.
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- Remembering The Meaning Of Memorial Day | <urn:uuid:e3656455-d970-4646-8148-40d0549c6806> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dfw.cbslocal.com/tag/shelter/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914842 | 705 | 1.59375 | 2 |
THE LUCKY FEW: Some 700 people escaped the Titanic disaster, including the handful of survivors pictured above. The ship did not carry enough lifeboats to accommodate everyone on board. Image: National Archives
After the Titanic sank on its maiden voyage across the Atlantic, claiming more than 1,500 lives, the international community took swift action to prevent similar catastrophes.
Just over one month after the Titanic struck an iceberg late on April 14, 1912, the U.S. Navy dispatched the cruiser USS Birmingham to begin preliminary ice patrols of the North Atlantic, near where the wrecked ocean liner lay. By January 1914 an international conference produced the first of several conventions for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), dictating safety standards for mariners. Included in the 1914 convention was the requirement that ships carry enough lifeboats to accommodate all passengers and crew on board, a precaution that was not taken for the Titanic's voyage.
Those changes, along with the advent of superior technologies for navigation and communication, have made the seas much safer since 1912. As such, it is unlikely that the specific circumstances leading to the sinking of the Titanic will recur. But the ocean remains an unpredictable place, fraught with hazards.
Ice patrols from sea and sky
The first SOLAS convention addressed the proximate cause of the Titanic disaster: the danger of icebergs near the Grand Banks off the Newfoundland coast. The international agreement called for regular ice patrols, funded by a consortium of seafaring nations and carried out by the U.S. Those patrols, which continue today, have kept watch on the icebergs floating over the underwater plateau of the Banks, where transatlantic shipping routes cross the path of icebergs drifting down from Greenland.
Today's ice watchers, of course, have access to technology that did not exist in the early 20th century. Nowadays the U.S. Coast Guard's International Ice Patrol (IIP) monitors the Grand Banks with radar-equipped HC-130 aircraft. "It's certainly not the days of old where the guy's freezing his butt off on the lookout," says John Luzader, senior chief marine science technician with the IIP. Both the IIP and the Canadian Ice Service (CIS) fly reconnaissance flights over the iceberg-infested waters off Newfoundland, using all-weather radar and, when possible, visual confirmation to identify icebergs.
Together, the two patrol agencies issue a daily ice report, which defines the so-called iceberg limit. "We draw a line in the water and say, you should be safe to navigate beyond that line," Luzader says. "Inside that line, we say, 'there may be ice, and proceed at your own risk.'"
The iceberg bulletin also draws on satellite observations and reports from the crews of passing ships, which may have sighted an iceberg or simply picked up a stationary object on radar. Even if the iceberg in question has already been identified from the air, the ship reports can provide updates on an iceberg's position. In the absence of a recent sighting, the iceberg forecasters use a computer model to predict the bergs' drift and deterioration.
In nearly 100 years of operations, the IIP has established an enviable track record. "Since we've taken over ice patrol, nobody that's heeded our warning has struck an iceberg," Luzader says. (Less successful were the IIP's early attempts to destroy icebergs altogether. A 1959 article in The New York Times documented a failed attempt at an incendiary bombing campaign, which followed similar experiments with guns, torpedoes and explosives. Finally, the Times reported, the patrol "conceded that the icebergs had been more or less impervious to destruction by man-made means.")
But ice hazards have continued to doom ships beyond the Grand Banks. In 1959 a deadly accident occurred north of the zone monitored by the IIP. On its maiden voyage the Danish ship Hans Hedtoft struck an iceberg and sank off the southern tip of Greenland, claiming the lives of all 95 people on board. And in the Southern Ocean the Antarctic cruise ship Explorer sank in 2007 after ice punctured its hull; fortunately everyone on board was rescued. | <urn:uuid:99248762-b7b3-4052-9554-e8ad13c47717> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=titanic-safety-rescue | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947454 | 853 | 4.03125 | 4 |
In recent years Session Initiation Protocol or SIP has become a widespread protocol of choice for multimedia applications. In particular SIP has become quite popular in voice applications. Most major PBX manufacturers now support IP endpoints and also support SIP trunks and extensions. The growing popularity of the open source PBX software Asterisk and its various derivatives (e.g.Asterisk Business Edition, AsteriskNow, Elastix, Trixbox, Switchbox etc.) has also fueled the development and implementation of SIP.
Of note is the growth of the SIP compliant hardware industry. Major manufacturers like Aastra, Grandstream, Polycom, and Snom produce SIP phones that are in common use. Even proprietary PBX manufacturers like Avaya, Nortel, and Cisco have their own flavors of SIP firmware available for their IP telephones.
With the advent of SIP trunking as well as SIP-based hosted IP PBX solutions, the cost of owning a small business phones system has also shifted. Using SIP trunking, some businesses are realizing significant savings on long distance costs. With hosted IP PBX solutions, businesses can subscribe to PBX features and use SIP compatible phones without the necessity of purchasing an on premise PBX system. Not only can you save on hardware costs, but you can also save on installation and maintenance.
Early adopters have found some quality issues with SIP trunking. Most of these issues are inherent in VoIP technology (e.g. echo, latency, jitter). Better quality is often found with providers who monitor the connections to their network. This means that you usually have to purchase your digital trunk connection directly from them. SIP providers that offer broadband agnostic services that travel over the public internet often have more quality issues.
As far as SIP-based PBX equipment goes, there are many flavors of the popular open source Asterisk movement. Some are free and others have licensing costs. There are also many hosted IP PBX service cropping up around the nation with great success. Some even use Asterisk based platforms.
If you’re trying to save money with IP, then look into SIP trunking, SIP telephones, SIP-based PBX’s, and even hosted IP PBX offerings. SIP may be the avenue for you. | <urn:uuid:55986471-3d1d-49d4-a522-c02f2d75717d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pediaworld.com/category/mgt-communication/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959445 | 483 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Balancing Conservation and Development in a Changing Arctic
By David J. Hayes, Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of the Interior
Presented at the Arctic Imperative Summit, Gridwood, Alaska
Good morning. Thank you for the introduction.
I am delighted to be here this morning to talk about how the Department of the Interior can – and must – balance our dual missions of conservation and development here in Alaska.
But first, if I may, I would like to thank the sponsor of this wonderful conference, Alice Rogoff, for all that she is doing to bring attention to the Alaskan Arctic. And I would also like to acknowledge her husband, David Rubinstein, for a special connection that he has with our Department of the Interior.
As you may have noted from recent press coverage, it was a year ago that an unexpected earthquake hit Washington. Most of the city was ok – we are generally good in rolling with the punches – but the Washington monument was not. Built on fill material, it was rocking and rolling and several large cracks formed in some of its granite blocks and a cascade of mortar fell inside the monument. It had to be closed and was facing a big repair bill – an unfunded mandate.
It was then that David Rubinstein came forward and, as a citizen of our city of Washington DC and an admirer of our National Mall and the Washington Monument, made the remarkable offer to contribute $7 and a half million dollars of his personal funds to get the Monument repaired. We accepted it!
I was fortunate enough to celebrate his donation, along with Jon Jarvis, the Director of the National Park Service, a couple of months ago. Thank you again for your generosity, and your patriotism, David.
Now for Alaska and the Department of the Interior.
As you know, the United States Congress has placed an enormous responsibility and trust in our Department when it comes to Alaska. Through the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, we manage more than 200 million acres of Alaska – more than half the landmass of the entire State. In addition to these land management responsibilities, Congress has charged the Interior Department with permitting responsibilities for oil and gas and renewable energy resources in Alaska’s offshore waters. Through our Bureau of Indian Affairs, and with the help of the Fish & Wildlife Service, we also have a special responsibility to promote the federal government’s relationship with Alaska natives, including honoring their cultural heritage and helping to implement their subsistence rights. And, finally, the world-class scientists in our United States Geological Survey, working with scientists in our other bureaus, and with scientists at the University of Alaska and others, are working every day to monitor and better understand seismic and volcanic hazards in this state, to assess Alaska’s energy resources, to evaluate the health of polar bear, walrus, caribou and other wildlife populations, and to analyze the impact that the changing climate in Alaska is having on everything from coastal erosion to permafrost loss to increased fire risk.
If this weren’t enough, the President last year asked our Department to take on additional responsibilities in Alaska. Last July, the President issued an Executive Order that created the Interagency Working Group on Coordination of Domestic Energy Development and Permitting in Alaska, and he asked me to Chair the group. As an Administration, we had recognized that because of the way that Congress has divvied up various permitting responsibilities among different agencies – from the Department of the Interior, to NOAA, to EPA, to the Corps of Engineers, the Coast Guard and others – businesses seeking permits had to go from window to window, from Department to Department. Even within the Interior Department, there were several different stops for businesses: the Fish & Wildlife Service, the BLM, and our offshore agencies – the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (which together formed the former Minerals Management Service).
In addition to not being coordinated across the federal agencies, there was no coordinated reach-out occurring on important permitting issues to the State of Alaska, municipalities, native Alaskans, conservation groups and other stakeholders. Federal officials were tripping over each other as they scheduled inconveniently-located meetings to get input from local citizens.
No previous Administration had ever taken on the task of facilitating coordination. Through the President’s action, and operation of the new Alaska Interagency Working Group, we have. And we believe that these reforms are providing clearer access to decision-makers for all stakeholders with an interest in proposed development activity, and more certainty for companies that want to do business in Alaska and the Arctic.
By way of example, when ConocoPhillips was facing delays due to a failure by the Corps of Engineers, EPA and the Fish & Wildlife Service to reach an agreement with the company on appropriate permitting conditions for its new oil play in the National Petroleum Reserve at CD-5, our Alaska Interagency Working Group got involved and we helped bring the agencies together and solve the issue.
We are now turning our attention to an application that ExxonMobil has pending for its Point Thomson project. Proof that we are making a difference came when the Alaskan delegation raised concerns last week to Secretary Salazar -- and not the Army Corps of Engineers -- that the Corps was delaying a permit needed by ExxonMobil.
The reality is that we knew about the issue and had already reached out to decision-makers at the Corps and the other agencies with equities in the project and made certain that all of them shared a common understanding of the importance of the issue and the need to provide timely decisions. Our Alaska Interagency Working Group doesn’t tell agencies how they should make decisions under the authority that Congress gave to them. But we do expect the agencies to communicate with each other and to respect reasonable timelines.
And, of course, the Alaska Interagency Working Group that I chair has been providing on-going attention over the past year to Shell’s requests for approvals to undertake exploratory drilling this summer in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. Rather than have our Bureau of Ocean Energy Management approve an Exploration Plan and our Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement approve a Spill Response Plan only to have another agency with equities in the activity – like the Coast Guard, or EPA, or NOAA, for example – enter the picture later with questions, comments or concerns about some aspect of those plans, or to have another agency issue a late-breaking permitting decision of its own that renders the other agencies’ work moot -- as has been the pattern in the past -- all of the agencies sat at the table working together through these approval processes and addressed their own permitting requirements on a parallel schedule. We also provided a forum for input by municipalities, native Alaskans and other key stakeholders, and we made a number of adjustments based on their concerns, including requiring drilling in the Beaufort to accommodate the Beaufort whale hunt.
As a result of the coordination and outreach effort, Shell has known for many months what is expected of it, and it has moved forward with that understanding. We continue to engage with Shell as part of an ongoing dialogue regarding their potential drilling activities in Alaska yet this summer. Any approved activities that occur in the Chukchi or Beaufort Seas will be held to the highest safety, environmental protection, and emergency response standards.
Before I leave the Alaska Interagency Working Group, let me also mention that the Working Group is pursuing an aggressive renewable energy agenda and is working to facilitate the development of wind, biomass, and hydropower across Alaska, with a special focus on delivering affordable, reliable energy to remote villages located off the electricity grid. In particular, our Working Group is collaborating with the State of Alaska, industry, Alaska renewable energy experts, and native community representatives to develop practical and, to the extent possible, replicable small-scale wind-diesel energy technologies for villages off the grid in Alaska. The potential upside here is enormous, both for the Native Alaska villages and for the promise that such systems might hold for other isolated villages around the world.
Let me share a couple of additional examples of how we balance conservation and development interests at the Department of the Interior.
Focusing again on the development of offshore oil and gas resources, the President took action a couple of years ago to cancel a proposed offshore oil lease sale in Bristol Bay. He went further and issued a Presidential memorandum that took Bristol Bay off the table for oil and gas development until at least 2018. The President decided, with the Secretary’s full support, that the enormous, multi-billion dollar fishery in Bristol Bay should not be imperiled by oil and gas development there. Simply put, we think that there are some areas where leasing should not occur. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge falls into that category as well.
More typically, accommodations can be made to avoid a stark choice between development and conservation interests. This was our approach when putting together the next 5 year plan for offshore oil and gas development in Alaska, which we released just a couple of months ago. For example, our new plan notes that given the robust inventory of already-leased tracts in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas, and the need to learn more about the nature of the resources and the potential risks of offshore development, any potential lease sales in the Arctic should occur later in the 5 year period – when more data and experience will be available to make sound decisions. And rather than take the shot-gun approach of inviting industry to bid for any lease tracts anywhere in the Arctic, inviting litigation around sensitive environmental and subsistence areas, the new plan will provide more clarity and certainty to industry by developing more tailored lease offerings that avoid particularly sensitive natural or cultural resources that are identified by
local Alaskans, scientists, and industry.
The Secretary played out the same balanced approach for onshore oil and gas development in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve, in an announcement that he made earlier this month regarding his preferred alternative for how to manage the 22.5 million acre NPR-A. The proposed path forward will help harness the oil and gas potential of the NPR-A while also protecting wildlife and subsistence rights of Alaska Natives.
More specifically, after engaging in unprecedented outreach to local communities, industry, and other stakeholders, and reviewing more than 400,000 comments, BLM has developed a proposal under which the large majority of oil and gas reserves in the NPR-A will be available for leasing, but some sensitive areas will be off-limits to leasing – such as some key subsistence hunting areas and the unique migratory bird stronghold in the Teshekpuk Lake area -- one of the largest Arctic lakes in the world and summer home for hundreds of thousands of waterfowl. The proposed plan also makes it clear that if pipelines are needed, they will not be precluded by the plan, but instead will undergo customary project-specific reviews.
The bottom line is that companies will have added certainty once the new plan goes final about where and how development can move forward in the NPR-A. The annual lease sales in the NPR-A that the President has called for, and that BLM has been holding, will continue – but now with a more certain result that they are not likely to be protested, given the comprehensive planning exercise that BLM has undertaken – for the first time ever -- for the entire 22.5 million acre NPR-A.
While we believe that we are making good, common-sense decisions on all of these Arctic development issues, based on the best science available and input from the State, municipalities, native Alaskans and other stakeholders, our Alaska Interagency Working Group’s coordination activities have uncovered nagging concerns about whether all of us who are interested in the Arctic have the information and tools needed to make sound, longer-term investment decisions in the Arctic.
For one thing, I have been struck by the fact that although there is an enormous amount of scientific research underway in the Arctic, there is a lot we can do to improve the lines of communication between the scientific community and decision-makers who are anxious to get solid scientific input on key questions that are before them. That’s when I invited your former Lieutenant Governor and the Chair of the Arctic Research Commission, Fran Ulmer, to work with me to bring the science community together with decision-makers and discuss how scientific information -- including Traditional Knowledge -- might be made more readily available to decision-makers, to companies, and to the general public about sensitive and changing resources in the Arctic.
Our Alaska Interagency Working Group also has been encountering the “silo-ing” of important decisions by different federal, state and local agencies. Major scientific work has been going into agency-specific planning and project reviews, but no one – either at the federal, state or local level -- has been looking across the board at future development trends and potential resource or cultural restraints – so as to enable decision-making that goes much beyond one-off projects.
Interestingly, the international Arctic community has been concerned about this same phenomenon. At the last meeting of the eight nation Arctic Council in Nuuk, Denmark, which was attended by Secretaries Clinton and Salazar, Senator Murkowski, Lt. Governor Mead Treadwell and me, among others, the Arctic Council formed a technical work group to discuss how best to address both of these problems and engage in longer term planning efforts across the Arctic.
Given the shortcomings that our Alaska Working Group has identified, and mindful that the Arctic Council is looking at similar issues, our Alaska Interagency Working Group recently was asked to prepare a report to the President by the end of this year that addresses and proposes a way forward on the two key issues that I have identified here:
(1) Providing more and better access for all decision makers – whether they are state, federal or local – to a centralized hub or portal for scientific information -- including Traditional Knowledge -- to help inform decision-makers and the public. The initiative must and will build upon existing data collections, such as the North Slope Science Initiative’s Data Catalogue, Arctic ERMA, regional observing systems, private industry and the University of Alaska’s Geographic Information Network of Alaska, and it will complement and coordinate with existing interagency efforts like the Alaska Data integration Group and the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee, which is developing a five-year plan for Arctic research in FY 2013-2017;
(2) Taking jurisdictional lines off the Arctic map and identifying future development scenarios and potential constraints so when decisions that the federal government makes – and, we hope, that the State and others make, they are made with an eye to the future, and in a context that takes into account infrastructure and human capital needs associated with a broader sweep of potential development – and not solely on a project-by-project basis. The idea is to work closely with the State of Alaska, Alaska Natives, local communities and the many agencies and stakeholders that have been focusing on specific projects or regions and develop an Integrated Arctic Management framework which pulls together Arctic-wide information that is relevant to future decision-making, including: (1) ecologically and culturally important areas, natural resources and processes, and key drivers of environmental changes in the Arctic – regardless of which agency’s territory they are found in; (2) trends – like climate change – that may affect these resources over time; and (3) commercial, societal, and governmental trends that could lead to future infrastructure related needs in the Arctic. This means going beyond the energy sector and working with industry, the State, boroughs, Native corporations, tribes and others to anticipate and discuss potential future scenarios associated with shipping, tourism, fishing, and the military.
We are gearing up for this important exercise and will need all of your help and collaboration in pulling it off. The report that our Alaska Interagency Working Group will inform the development of the Arctic Strategy that Secretary Clinton has committed our Administration to develop in response to requests by the Alaska delegation, and which will be the subject of Deputy Secretary Tom Nides’ speech tomorrow evening. Never before has there been an effort to pull together the scientific information into a single portal for access by all. And we must take the first steps – together – in developing a long-range Integrated Arctic Management strategy that looks clearly toward the future, anticipating development that we think may occur, and enabling local, state and federal decision makers to have a bigger picture in mind when they are presented with requests for permits.
In that regard, I look forward to working with folks like Fran Ulmer, Commissioner Dan Sullivan, Mayor Brower, and many others governmental, tribal, industry and NGO leaders in this room in the months ahead. We’ll be reaching out. Although this is a report to the President that I will be responsible for delivering to him in my capacity as Chair of the Alaska Interagency Working Group, this is an exercise that must be run here out of Alaska, with strong staffing and clear deliverables. We will look forward to working with all of you on this important project. Stay tuned, and please help us make the most of this opportunity. | <urn:uuid:a5cf3de9-59d5-4a5b-870d-2c1a4cc3e6f7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.interior.gov/news/doinews/Balancing-Conservation-and-Development-in-a-Changing-Arctic.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952557 | 3,498 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Zimbabweans who fail to gain asylum will be forced to return
Britain is to begin the forced return of thousands of failed asylum seekers to Zimbabwe in a change of policy condemned by human rights groups.
The Immigration minister, Damian Green, told MPs yesterday that Zimbabweans would now be treated like any other failed asylum seekers.
But he added that the policy will not be enforced until the Immigration and Asylum Chamber of the Unified Tribunal Service (IAC) gives further guidance on the "general safety of return to Zimbabwe".
The forcible return of refugees from the UK to Zimbabwe was halted four years ago, after the High Court ruled that opponents of President Robert Mugabe would be at risk.
Ministers first considered lifting the ban on removals after the presidential election of Morgan Tsvangirai in March 2008, but Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF followers embarked on a campaign of intimidation and violence in which more than 180 people – mostly supporters of Mr Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change – were killed.
Those who are perceived as a threat to the regime are said to have been randomly abused, and supporters of Mr Mugabe in the UK are reported to have used videos to identify Zimbabwe refugees protesting outside the embassy building.
The Foreign Office says the situation in Zimbabwe has improved since 2008, but "remains unpredictable and could deteriorate". UK travellers are warned to avoid demonstrations and known trouble spots as "human rights abuses and instances of political violence continue, particularly in agricultural and mining areas".
Among those who could be affected by the decision is Gamu Nhengu, the former X Factor contestant whose family fled Zimbabwe eight years ago and now faces deportation. The UK Border Agency has refused to extend the family's visas. Sarah Harland, co-ordinator of the Zimbabwe Association, said: "We do not believe this is the right time for enforced returns, with control of the state security forces remaining in the hands of the perpetrators of violence." She said a recent international report warned of a further decline in the rule of law in Zimababwe.
She said it was important that the Government had conceded there were some Zimbabweans who still have a well-founded fear of persecution and would benefit from protection in the UK, and that no action would be taken until the end of the court case.
Donna Covey, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: "We are concerned the Government plans to resume forcibly returning Zimbabwean asylum seekers to their country. However, it is encouraging that they recognise each individual case needs to be carefully considered before deciding whether to send them back."
Mr Green said the change in policy "does not reflect any change in our categorical opposition to human rights abuses in Zimbabwe", adding that the decision to resume enforced returns reflected the "improved stability in Zimbabwe since 2009 and the UK courts' view that not all Zimbabweans are in need of international protection."
He said: "Those who have no right to remain in the UK, and who choose not to return voluntarily, will then face enforced return, in exactly the same way as failed asylum seekers of all other countries.
"The courts have found that not all Zimbabweans need international protection, and given the improved situation since the formation of the inclusive government in 2009, the time is now right to bring our policy... into line with that of every other country. Those found not to be in need of protection have always been expected to return home."
Woolwich attack exclusive: Man in bloody video - named 'Mujahid' - was known to Anjem Choudary's banned Islamist group Al Muhajiroun
That's some guestlist! Stunning images show huge dynastic wedding between Ultra-Orthodox Jewish families which attracted 25,000 guests
'Sickening, deluded and unforgivable': Horrific attack brings terror to London’s streets
World news in pictures
Ingrid Loyau-Kennett, the mother-of-two hailed as a hero for confronting Woolwich attackers, thought: 'better me than a child'
- 1 Woolwich attack exclusive: Man in bloody video - named 'Mujahid' - was known to Anjem Choudary's banned Islamist group Al Muhajiroun
- 2 'Sickening, deluded and unforgivable': Horrific attack brings terror to London’s streets
- 3 Grace Dent: I’m not sure how these people can avoid being called ‘bigots’. And the more ‘civilised’, the worse they are
- 4 Ingrid Loyau-Kennett, the mother-of-two hailed as a hero for confronting Woolwich attackers, thought: 'better me than a child'
- 5 Woolwich attack: The EDL will seek to exploit this evil crime for their own evil ends
BMF is the UK’s biggest and best loved outdoor fitness classes
Find out what The Independent's resident travel expert has to say about one of the most beautiful small cities in the world
Win anything from gadgets to five-star holidays on our competitions and offers page. | <urn:uuid:6009da91-84ff-449e-83be-d170d7cc8aa5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/zimbabweans-who-fail-to-gain-asylum-will-be-forced-to-return-2107132.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955471 | 1,055 | 1.78125 | 2 |
By: Rick Cole
Among the hot topics sure to get plenty of comment these days are high gasoline prices, global warming and traffic congestion. Not enough of our leaders, however, are connecting the dots.
Last fall, Californians approved a nearly $20 billion transportation bond that was supposed to untangle gridlock on our major transportation corridors. But no sooner had Caltrans staff unveiled their recommendations for spending the first $4.5 billion, than howls of outrage came from localities whose highway projects had been passed over. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa even waded into rush hour traffic to urge motorists to call the California Transportation Commission to add a nearly $1 billion widening of the 405 to the list of funded projects.
Villaraigosa’s lobbying was successful, but are we on the right road? While voters are fed up with congestion, colossal spending on freeway projects just postpone dealing with the real challenge for Southern California’s future – how do we move beyond our dependence on cars?
Experts may differ on how quickly, but no one seriously doubts that the era of cheap energy is coming to a close. Whether because of diminishing supplies, national security or planetary climate change, we can’t go on as we have for the past fifty years. Building freeways won’t solve our congestion problems – nor can alternative fuels wean us quickly from petroleum burning autos. The cost of our current auto dependence is staggering – just the projects on Caltrans drawing board exceed $100 billion and that doesn’t take into account the now chronic deficit to simply maintain the highway infrastructure we’ve already built.
The San Gabriel and Verdugo cities covered by Business Life are in a unique position to lead the transition to cities built around people, not cars. Not only have these cities been pioneering smart growth efforts, they have a remarkable depth of world-class engineering talent and capacity. Surely there are opportunities for Glendale, Burbank, Pasadena, Monrovia and other communities to show the rest of California a better vision for the 21st Century than traffic gridlock. The answers need not push the bleeding edge of technology. Completing the Gold Line extension would be a major step forward. So would bringing back street cars to central cities, as is happening in major western cities like Portland, Seattle, San Francisco and Tucson. Improving the bus transit experience with cheaper fares, shorter headways between buses and clean, well-lit bus stops is vital.
We have lived so long with our cars, for those who aren’t too old, too young or too poor to drive, it is hard to imagine life without them. But with global gas prices and temperatures rising, local cities can lead the way into the future. Instead of pouring money into backward-looking highway projects, why not show the rest of Southern California how to make more livable and prosperous communities where people can safely, conveniently and affordably walk, bike and use public transit?
RickCole, CityManager, City of Ventura, (805) 654-7740 or visit www.ityofventura.net | <urn:uuid:c3c58329-91da-4151-8306-4048fe42d0ec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.businesslife.com/articles.php?id=96 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93028 | 634 | 2.265625 | 2 |
Nephew of Lorenzo de’ Medici. First cousin of Pope Leo X. Cardinal in 1513. As archbishop of Florence, Italy he was noted as a reformer. Chief supporter and adviser of Adrian in his attempts to reform the church. Proved unaware of the menace of Lutheranism to the Church, and lost the opening battles against the Reformation for the hearts of the people.
Relations with Holy Roman Emperor Charles V were strained as Clement allied with Francis I of France in the League of Cognac in 1526. Imperial troops attacked Rome in 1527, sacked the city, and held the pope hostage. Peace was re-established in 1529, and Clement crowned Charles emperor.
1527 saw the start of King Henry VIII‘s struggle with the Church to obtain a divorce. Clement’s reaction has been called vacillating, but later canon lawyers maintain that, whether he was influenced by Charles V or not, Clement followed the only course possible on legal grounds.
Patron of the artists Raphael, Michelangelo, and Benvenuto Cellini. | <urn:uuid:d75add44-71c2-4ec2-b01e-ba7c2b14773f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://saints.sqpn.com/pope-clement-vii/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969257 | 221 | 3.21875 | 3 |
Those who oppose women in the infantry argue that they would change group dynamics, disrupt bonding and ultimately harm unit cohesion. In the past, these fears have been brought up regarding the participation of minorities and homosexuals, too. But data show these negative predictions don't come true. Instead, successful integration has happened with strong leadership, and, critically, a process that is broadly perceived to be fair.
Even if the arguments underpinning the ban on women in combat have weakened, is there sufficient justification for change? The Joint Chiefs apparently believe so, as they have unanimously recommended the ban be lifted.
Each of the services already has been taking steps along these lines. This is in part driven by the evolution of the battlefield. When today's senior leaders were serving time in Iraq and Afghanistan, they realized that the restrictions on women sometimes also restricted their missions.
They implemented work-arounds and sought exceptions to policy. But they came home with firsthand experience of the mismatch between modern warfare and the policies limiting women's role. Women are in combat, and senior military leaders believe that future success demands they must remain available to be so, in even greater numbers.
From the institutional viewpoint, there are also concerns that the traditional limitations fail to make the best use of women in the service. Combat experience weighs heavily in promotion decisions, and restrictions have precluded women from gaining experiences equal to those of male counterparts.
Women are also excluded from many of the occupations disproportionately represented in senior leadership, and that automatically limits the number of women who can advance to the highest levels. At the same time, the pool of Americans eligible for military service is shrinking, and competition for high-quality recruits is intensifying. So it's imperative that the military fully leverage the talent of the men and women it has and that it seeks to attract.
The arguments in favor of lifting the ban on women in combat outweigh those against it. Despite Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's announcement on Thursday, the military services maintain the prerogative to preclude women from serving in certain positions or occupations.
Infantry, or at least some specialties within that branch, could well be a case in which restrictions are warranted. But military leaders have time to evaluate this proposition, and to set the conditions to make any change stick. The path ahead may not be smooth, but it is necessary.
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Join us on Facebook/CNNOpinion. | <urn:uuid:efbaad23-6057-40aa-a1b9-6c35a5ec8ccb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wgal.com/news/national/Leed-Women-in-infantry-a-tough-challenge/-/9360498/18276688/-/item/1/-/wjcxqu/-/index.html | 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 | 0.963853 | 494 | 2.234375 | 2 |
One day as Jesus was teaching to a large gathering of people, His mother and brothers tried to make their way through the crowd, but couldn't reach Him. When someone mentioned it, He simply responded, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.“
Jesus' words don't leave room for ambiguity. The family of God does what the word of God says. His people know and follow scripture.
Christ is making a direct, pointed distinction between our natural family and the Kingdom of God. Jesus' listeners knew He had a mother who gave birth to Him and His brothers. But our identity in the Kingdom isn't dependent on natural birth, it's dependent on supernatural rebirth through faith in Jesus. The Apostle Paul says, “…for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith” (Galatians 3:26). Christ's family is made of the people He's redeemed from sin and death, people who aren't just hearers of the word, but doers.
Apart from God's grace, we're fundamentally incapable of doing what He commands in His word. We don't have it in us. We're dead in our sins.
The writer of Proverbs once said, “Even a child makes himself known by his acts, by whether his conduct is pure and upright” (Proverbs 20:11). This theme is repeated throughout scripture–the idea that our character is predominantly shaped by our consistent actions over time.
Without Jesus, we'll still be known by our acts, but our conduct won't be pure or upright because our sinful nature prevents it. Repenting of sin and trusting in Jesus enables us to hear and to do, to be sons and daughters of God, to be reconciled to our Creator, and to be able to, “…present [ourselves] to God as those who have been brought from death to life…instruments for righteousness“ (Romans 6:13). | <urn:uuid:59f00910-4730-4b23-9c2f-b1693e973998> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://newspring.cc/study/three/dont-just-hear-do/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98306 | 411 | 2.078125 | 2 |
The South End Project Area Committee (SEPAC) was formed by a resolution of the Boston City Council passed on May 5, 1969 and affirmed by a vote of the Boston Redevelopment Authority Board on July 31, 1969. It served as a vehicle for citizen involvement in the South End urban renewal program with the endorsement of the Mayor, Boston Redevelopment Authority and the City Council. Powers of SEPAC were set out in various memoranda and documents issued by the Mayor's Office, Boston Redevelopment Authority and the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). SEPAC could initiate, review and suggest changes in proposals; veto sponsors and developers; review and approve demolition plans; form committees for special proposals; sponsor legislation and ordinances; enter into contracts; and negotiate with the City of Boston through appropriate agencies. SEPAC members were elected every two years at elections conducted by the City's Election Department.
9707.001 Records 1969-1981 3 record cartons
Scope and Contents note
Includes minutes, correspondence, reports and issues of the SEPAC newspaper. | <urn:uuid:3867e091-f076-4218-9e8f-7a34b777ee74> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cityofboston.gov/archivesandrecords/guide/sepac.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957593 | 218 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Is Methotrexate a type of Chemotherapy
Yes. Methotrexate is an anti-cancer ("antineoplastic" or "cytotoxic") chemotherapy drug. It is classified as an "antimetabolite. [ Source: http://www.chacha.com/question/is-methotrexate-a-type-of-chemotherapy ]
More Answers to "Is Methotrexate a type of Chemotherapy"
- Is Methotrexate a type of Chemotherapy
- Yes. Methotrexate is an anti-cancer ("antineoplastic" or "cytotoxic") chemotherapy drug. It is classified as an "antimetabolite.
Related Questions Answered on Y!Answers
- My Mom's Following Chemo Drugs: Cytoxan, 5-FU, Methotrexate?
- Q: How strong is this type of Chemotherapy with Cytoxan, 5-FU, and Methotrexate? She would have to go once every 3 weeks for 6 months. Then as I overheard, a radiation treatments. What are the typical side effects? She had some lymph nodes under her right arm near the breast area that came out positive. Doctor says they may have been leftover/Undetected from a 2001-2002 Surgery where she had her right breast removed. I don't know what to say to her. She's even thinking of canceling her treatment because it starts this coming Monday and she's just so afraid of the Chemo's side effects and complications of developing more health problems. She is aware of the possible hair-loss but thats not her worry.Just how serious is this type of Chemo with these chemicals?
- A: This sounds like a typical course of chemotherapy treatment. Chemo is a very good weapon against cancer, but it is very difficult if you're not prepared. She needs to be fully informed about what's going to happen. The most important thing is to stay hydrated. She needs to drink as much water as she can the entire time she's in treatment. The more water, the faster the chemicals will be flushed out of her system. The day before her treatment, she needs to eat light meals. The day of, she needs a good breakfast that's not greasy or heavy. Eggs, toast, and muffins are great. On the day, she should take a few snacks like animal crackers, pudding, and applesauce. They'll give her plenty of meds to fight the nausea. She needs to follow the instructions exactly. The day of her infusion, she'll feel pretty normal. The following day, she'll start to feel the effects of it. She needs to be able to rest as much as possible, and eat at least a little bit three or four times a day. She'll feel like she has a really bad flu for a few days, then she'll start to come out of it. Once she's out of the fog, she can return to her normal activities. The meds will make her digestive system go crazy; she'll need to have stool softeners and Imodium AD on hand to fight the effects. It's important that she keeps it under control; she shouldn't go longer than two days without a movement, and she should treat diarrhea immediately. She should be well aware that her hair WILL start to fall out around day 14 after her first treatment. She can either cut her hair short ahead of time, or wait until it starts to fall. For some women, it can be very traumatizing to see handfuls of hair coming out when you run your hands through it. As far as her cancelling her treatment because of future medical problems, she needs to be aware of the consequences. If she doesn't get the treatments, the cancer will more than likely come back. The chemicals themselves have a VERY small risk of developing cardiotoxicity or other health problems. But, of course, it's up to her to decide what she wants to do, but be sure it's not out of fear. If she's that afraid, have her talk to her doctor. And if she wants, she can join my online bc support group at youngsurvival.org . If she wants to talk to me personally, feel free to email me and I'll send you my phone number. God Bless and I wish her well. Email me with any questions you may have, hun.Blessings
- I have a question about different forms of chemotherapy?
- Q: I do not have cancer. I have Psoriatic Arthritis. But, every 6 weeks for the last two years I have been getting Remicade infusions, and I take a weekly dose of Methotrexate. Recently a friend of mine in the nursing profession asked me "You do know that both of these are a form of chemotherapy don't you?" I did know that, but it got me thinking.What would the long term effects be, since there is no end to these IV treatments or taking methotrexate? Is it such a low grade of chemotherapy that it wouldn't likely have long term effects? I know Remicade infusions are used for certain types of cancer as well. I'm hoping someone knowledgeable in this area can give me some layman's information I may be missing.I have asked my doctor, but he seems determined to remain vague about this.Thank you.Thanks hirschel, I hope so too...
- A: Cancer treatment drugs fall into 2 classes: (1) drugs that inhibit tumor growth by blocking some type of chemical reaction needed for growth; and (2) drugs (toxins) that kill certain types of cells. Methotrexate is used as an anti-cancer drug. It blocks the growth of fast-growing cells such as tumors or cells that form the scaly patches. The most serious side effect of this drug is generally scarring in the liver. The docs can determine if this is occurring through a blood test. There can be some normal cell types that are killed by this drug - it varies from person-to-person.Remicade is completely different. It blocks chemical pathways needed to cause inflammation, and it does not affect cell growth. This drug has more numerous and more serious side effects, including increasing cancer risk.
- Psoriatic arthritis - Is this bad?
- Q: I am 43 years old. About this time last year I started to get a sore hip and had an xray and it showed minor osteoarthritis. I started to take anti-imflammatory's for a while and they seemed to work. Then nearing October last year, the pain reoccurred. After changing to different types of anti-imflammatory's and trying the high strength paracetamol I realized that the effect of the medication was insignificant. By the time November came around I developed pains elsewhere (neck, back, shoulders, wrists, fingers, ankles, heels, toes). I was forced to give up work, I really could not continue. This has happened so quick and when I started to endure with this sudden influx of pain, it effected my sleep patterns, waking frequently etc... I did become accustomed eventually and now sleep is better. I get fatigue really bad after simple tasks. Of course I had to learn a whole new way of doing everything from walking to turning off the tap. I am getting everything else; the morning stiffness and stiffness in general. I have seen specialists and so far I have tried the methotrexate (chemotherapy) and at the moment I am on the sulpher medication. The methotrexate did not agree with my liver and the sulpher does not seem to be having an effect.Anyway; this has all happened in about a year from first symptoms (although I have always had psoriasis since my early '20's). My question is: I know that there is no consistency with this ailment but, is this a more extreme case?
- A: Psoriatic arthritis can be very bad, especially without treatment. Surgery most likely won't help. You can't replace every joint that may be affected. As far as medications, anti-inflammatories help some. It sounds like you've been down that road. Methotrexate is an old drug- works but has many side effects as you mentioned. There are some newer drugs on the market such as Humira and Enbrel. Steroids such as prednisone can also be useful. Talk to your dermatologist or rhuematologist. Either should be able to provide information and prescribe the meds.
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Watch Out for This New Scam
If you get an e-mail claiming to be from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) telling you that your bank has failed and asking you to download a personal FDIC insurance file, it's a scam.
According to a special alert from the FDIC, the subject line of the e-mail includes "check your Bank Deposit Insurance Coverage." The e-mail states: "You have received this message because you are a holder of a FDIC-insured bank account. Recently FDIC has officially named the bank you have opened your account with as a failed bank, thus, taking control of its assets."
It also directs recipients to click on a link that supposedly goes to the FDIC site but really goes to a fraudulent site.
The recession sparked several schemes to watch for, including mortgage-relief and job-search scams. See Scams Exploit Hard Times and Scams Ripped From Today's Headlines. Also take our quiz, Is This a Scam? | <urn:uuid:58dd02d3-6881-4ad8-97f8-0d63ea644b56> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kiplinger.com/article/spending/T048-C011-S001-watch-out-for-this-new-scam.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958198 | 209 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Aaron McGowan has posted his list of five things he wishes PHP could change (or even had) in future versions of the language.
Recently I have been hard at work trying to finish up a few major source packages and one application - but I have recently found myself thinking about how much better and more "grown" up PHP would be if it had a few things that other technologies such as C++ and C# have.
The five things on his list are:
- Operator Overloading
- Method and function Overloading
- Advancement of Namespaces
- Use of final keyword for class member variables
- 'Getters' & 'Setters' similar to C#'s for class member variables
Each point comes with a summary and a bit of code to show what he's talking about. He sees these things as major steps in PHP "growing up" and as features that could help it make a translation over from things like .NET simpler. | <urn:uuid:ed60e95b-7acc-48ed-a235-6b4bc9bbf27a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://phpdeveloper.org/news/14300 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979038 | 196 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Two new U.S. studies say the nutritional benefits of eating fish outweigh the potential hazards from environmental contaminants. Some environmental and consumer groups dispute the finding.
You may have heard that fish contain mercury and other compounds called PCBs and dioxins that can be harmful physically. But Harvard University doctors and a separate panel of private experts reporting to the U.S. government say eating fish regularly is very healthy, especially for the heart.
One of the authors of the Harvard study, Dariush Mozaffarian, puts it this way.
"The benefits of eating fish are far greater than the potential risks. If you eat a fish and it has some mercury in it, you might be getting less benefit from that fish than if it did not have mercury in it, but the overall benefit is still positive," he said.
The Harvard team says that benefits are great even for women of childbearing age if they avoid certain fish that are likely to contain mercury levels dangerous to fetuses. The second study lists them as predatory fish with long lifespans, such as swordfish, shark, and tilefish.
This study is by the U.S. Institute of Medicine, a branch of the National Academy of Sciences that uses private experts to investigate issues for the U.S. government. Like the Harvard study, it is a summary of recent major research on fish consumption.
Both reports note that consumers are faced with conflicting evidence about eating fish. It is a good protein source containing the type of fat considered healthy for the heart. But some species absorb toxins present in the environment, causing confusion about the role of fish in a healthy diet.
So Institute of Medicine committee member David Bellinger, a Harvard nerve specialist not associated with the Harvard study, offers this advice.
"Because of the uncertainties, especially on the risk side, consumers should consume a variety of fish because the fish that contain one contaminant may not be the same fish that contain another contaminant, so that by consuming a variety of species, the benefits can be maximized, but the overall risk profile can be managed," he noted.
A U.S. environmental group disputes the findings. The National Environmental Trust argues that the two studies ignore evidence that chemicals used as flame retardants are also pervasive in the environment and contaminate fish. In addition, the organization's vice-president for marine conservation, Gerald Leape, says boosting fish consumption would strain wild fish populations that already suffer from overfishing and cause expansion of fish farms where contaminants are more prevalent.
"They have left out a true examination of the role of contamination, and there was no effort to take into account the ecological impacts not only of wild fish captures, but also of aquaculture farming," he said.
Another group, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, warns that fish and shellfish are significant sources of cholesterol, a factor in heart disease. It points out that shellfish in particular have more cholesterol than an equivalent amount of beef.
But Harvard University's Dariush Mozaffarian counters with one of the main findings of his study.
"We found that a modest intake of fish, about one or two servings per week, was enough to reduce the risk of dying from a heart attack by about 35 percent, which is a considerable effect," he explained.
VOA News Service
Author: David McAlary
First published: October 17, 2006 | <urn:uuid:eca0830f-29b7-4f3e-9350-e98f7617247d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://anglerama.blogspot.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954616 | 694 | 3.359375 | 3 |
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Top 5 quotes from Isaac Disraeli
"Fortune has rarely condescended to be the companion of genius."
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Comparison of Different Soil Tillage Systems to Extend the Required Thermal Time for Second Crop Silage Corn Production
Engin OZGOZ, Huseyin ONEN, Hikmet GUNAL, Selahattin IPTAS
Gaziosmanpasa University, Faculty of Agriculture, 60240 Tokat, Turkey.
The aim of this study was to determine the appropriate soil tillage method that would enable us to efficiently use the second crop silage corn production period, and provide opportunity to extend the thermal time required for corn. The soil tillage methods used were; (Y1) Irrigation + moldboard plowing + disking, (Y2) moldboard plowing + rotary tilling, (Y3) rotary tilling, (Y4) chisel plowing + disking, and (Y5) direct seeding. Soil moisture content, soil bulk density, penetration resistance, mean emergence dates, percentage of emerged seedlings were determined to evaluate the soil tillage methods in both herbicides applied (HA) and no herbicide (NH) parcels. Soil tillage methods significantly affected the soil moisture content and penetration resistance at 0-10 cm soil depth, and penetration resistance was also affected at 10-20 cm and 20-30 cm depths. The lowest emergence duration (12.31 days) was occurred with Y1 application; however, the difference was not statistically significant between the applications. The lowest and the highest seedling emergence percentages were obtained with Y2 (65.13%) and Y3 (81.73%) applications. The highest and the lowest green hay yields in NH parcels were obtained with Y2 (4671.13 kgda-1) - Y1 (5751.19 kgda-1) and in HA parcels were Y4 (4974.55 kgda-1) and Y1 (6172.92 kgda-1). The results indicated that soil tillage methods allowed early planting enabled to extend the thermal time in the transition belt of Tokat-Turkey.
Keywords: Soil tillage, silage corn, weed control, thermal time, transition climate | <urn:uuid:baa6199a-1e36-4d29-b1e9-99c52a9c1200> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://a-c-s.confex.com/crops/2009am/webprogram/Paper55667.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919332 | 443 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Would you still drive a car if it was the Ford Model T? No? Even if the paint was new and it had air conditioning? The answer would always be “no,” said one education reform expert, because no matter how much you spruce up an old model, there’s always a maximum capacity … and the same applies to education.
During the American Association of School Administrators’ National Conference on Education Julie Mathiesen, director of Technology & Innovation in Education (TIE), a professional development organization based in Rapid City, S.D., argued that the only way to achieve true education reform is to redesign student learning from class time to curriculum, and from teaching styles to learning spaces.
A key way to accomplish this reform, said Mathiesen, is to implement “Mass Customized Learning,” in which the instruction is tailored to each student’s needs and interests. And technology helps make this mass customization possible through personalized digital learning.
“The current Industrial Age system of education is working perfectly,” she said, “if you’re looking for 25 percent skilled and 75 percent unskilled students—[or] if you’re looking to have around one million students fail to graduate high school every year. We need to completely revamp the system.”
According to Mathiesen, the old way of learning doesn’t work anymore, because students are living in a world where they are no longer “told” how to think and don’t process and learn through “telling.” Instead, students learn by doing and by learning anytime, anywhere.
“One way to accomplish this is through the use of technology. I heard a great quote recently,” said Mathiesen, smiling: “‘The web and technology are setting out a great buffet of teaching and learning tools; however, most schools are just eating the napkins.’ If schools could learn about some of the great, free resources available, and learn how to engage students, true reform could start to take hold. We can’t keep simply tinkering with education.”
Along with the Model T reference, Mathiesen also discussed the book Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.
According to the theory of “Flow,” there’s a boredom threshold and a challenge threshold. For example, we’re all skilled at clapping our hands but would find this too boring to do for fun. Like clapping hands, class activities can’t be based solely on skills—they have to be exciting and engaging as well.
Now take the example of knitting: People who knit like to apply skills to a challenging task to stimulate their mind. But if you say to those people, “You must knit a sweater and accomplish it all, perfectly, in one hour,” most will find it too challenging and quit.
“The classroom must be a place that balances both skill and engagement, and it can’t be limited to a time and place. One way to accomplish this engaging, successful, 24-7 learning environment is through customization that’s currently available through a number of resources,” said Mathiesen.
According to TIE, Mass Customized Learning (MCL) is described in this scenario: “What if every day, every learner came to school and was met with customized learning activities at his or her precise developmental and achievement level, was learning in his or her most effective elearning style with content of interest, was challenged, was successful, and left school eager to come back tomorrow?”
An example of MCL can be seen in this video, which theorizes what a student’s MCL experience would look like:
Mathiesen also named a number of free online resources that educators can use to reach and engage their students. Examples include:
• iTunesU: K-12 curriculum videos are also included.
• Google Earth: It’s not just a map; it also includes activities such as looking at classical art in museums in Italy and mapping shark and whale migratory patterns, to name a few.
• Wolfram Alpha: A computational knowledge engine.
• Khan Academy: Free online lectures and videos.
• CK-12.org: These free online textbooks are also customizable and include many interactive components.
A full list of online resources and tools, as well as Mathiesen’s presentation, can be found on her TIE wiki page.
More information about TIE’s approach to MCL, including a rubric to get started, can be found in the book Inevitable: Mass Customized Learning, Learning in the Age of Empowerment, by Chuck Schwann and Beatrice McGarvey. Information can be found here.
TIE also is collaborating with the authors of this book to produce a field book of resources to support educational leaders in implementing MCL. A sample of resources from the soon-to-be published field book can be found here.
“Obviously, you can’t go into your school tomorrow and say, ‘OK, let’s implement MCL in one day,’” Mathiesen said, “but you can start by identifying important content and skills today’s students need [and] determining how best students can learn these, by customizing content and by redefining space and time constraints.” | <urn:uuid:dcd43ca9-4014-498a-9231-8038114f7d29> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.empowerlms.com/index.php/mass-customized-learning-key-education-reform/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955068 | 1,156 | 2.984375 | 3 |
Stonington — More than one-third of the town’s 8,848 homeowners are likely to see an increase in property taxes of $200 or less in 2013-14 because of the recently completed revaluation.
The analysis, done by Director of Finance Maryanna Stevens, assumes that the proposed tax rate remains at 20.52 mills. The Board of Finance, however, is expected to cut the proposed budget and tax rate before submitting a budget to a referendum vote.
The analysis shows that 3,255, or 36.8 percent of residential property owners in town, would have a decrease or no increase in taxes. A total of 2,697 homeowners, or 30.5 percent, would have a tax increase of between zero and $200. Another 2,354, or 26.6 percent, of homeowners would see tax hikes of between $200 and $1,000.
The remaining 542 homeowners, or 6.1 percent, would see tax increases of between $1,000 to more than $10,000. Three homeowners are projected to have tax hikes of more than $10,000.
The town’s 2012 grand list, which is the sum of all taxable property in town, totaled $3.18 billion in 2011 but has now declined to $2.59 billion, a decrease of 18.6 percent, or more than $593 million. The decrease was expected because of the decline in real estate values over the past five years, when the last revaluation was conducted.
Property owners can figure out what their tax bill would be by taking their assessments, dividing them by 1,000 and then multiplying by 20.52.
— Joe Wojtas | <urn:uuid:ffe4113c-f230-4d2f-9831-f8886b3f7bab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theday.com/article/20130314/NWS01/130319766/1070/milestones02 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979352 | 350 | 1.523438 | 2 |
To open apps in Android, the typical way is to go to the app drawer and select the app you want to run. This may not be an efficient method. Using gestures to quickly launch your favorite app is perhaps one of the better way to be productive.
Some apps have gesture options. Browsers, searches and even apps that call and text can all be activated through gestures on Android. Trigger is one of the newer apps to the Google Play Store, but is really making some waves. While other apps are geared towards a specific task (e.g. dialling or searching), Trigger is all about launching Android apps and actions. The free version of Trigger will let you make up to six gesture actions so it is a good way to try it out before you buy it.
Using Trigger is not difficult. Right after you have installed it, you can start to add apps or other actions.
Starting out with the tabs across the top, you have six different parts of the phone or tablet you can control by gestures. Start by taking a look through all of the different options to get a feel for what you might want to have easier access to. Remember, the free version only lets you set up six different gestures. Most of the time you need fast access to an app or a setting, so that’s where we will be focusing.
With the Apps tab opn, you will see a fairly empty screen. To add an app, press the “+” at the top right. When you do, you will see a scrollable list of your apps and a spot to draw the gesture. Adding gestures to settings or other options is done the same way.
In this tutorial, I’m setting up a gesture for Dropbox. The gesture needs to be a single motion. So drawing an “=” or multiple letters will not work.
Once you have the gesture decided on, you will be asked to test it out. If the gesture is difficult to repeat with ease every time, you may want to try a different gesture.
When you have a few apps and settings added to Trigger, you can start to use it. You may have noticed the floating blue teardrop shape on your screen. This is how you open the Trigger screen to draw the gesture. You can also set up apps to be activated by dragging this little icon in a direction. To hide and show this icon, go to the notification bar and tap the Trigger Toggle tab.
Now that the HOW part is all done, let’s take a look at what you can really do with Trigger.
Uses for Gestures
As I mentioned earlier, the most common things most people are interested in having fast access to are apps and settings. Here are some possible uses:
- Toggle Google Voice call settings.
- Opening the compose window for a SMS to a specific person.
- Dialling a specific contact.
- Turn WiFi on or off.
- Toggle Bluetooth on or off.
- Start Google Maps with a predetermined location entered.
- Open any app on your phone or tablet.
- Go to a bookmark in your browser.
- Create a shortcut to something stored in Google Drive.
- Open a feed in Google Reader.
As you can see, there are a lot of possible uses and what I listed here is a really small portion of all the choices.
Whatever the reason you are getting into using gestures, Trigger is one of the most full-featured gesture launchers I have come across. If you are using some gestures in Dolphin HD or another browser and like how handy they are, Trigger would be a great addition to your phone or tablet.
How are you using gestures on Android?
Receive the latest update in your inbox. | <urn:uuid:6dce31cb-46d6-45eb-9040-67f2988a2571> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.maketecheasier.com/using-gestures-launch-apps-on-android/2013/02/27 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916028 | 773 | 1.765625 | 2 |
18 May 2011 16:24 [Source: ICIS news]
LONDON (ICIS)--Poland is holding a series of meetings with shale gas experts and officials from the US as it seeks to exploit reserves that could give it energy independence, the Polish economy ministry said on Wednesday.
The meetings, organised to correspond with President Barack Obama's visit to Warsaw on 27–28 May, should gain impetus from a study by the US Energy Information Administration which estimates Poland’s shale gas reserves at around 5.3 trillion cubic metres, it added.
This would be enough to meet Poland's annual gas consumption of 14 billion cubic metres for decades to come and put an end to its need to import 70% of its required gas from Russia, the ministry said.
Several companies from the US and Canada, where shale gas extraction has been pioneered, already have licences to drill in Poland.
Lane Energy Poland, a subsidiary of Isle of Man-based investment company 3Legs Resources, is drilling a third well in northern Poland after promising results from its first two wells.
French oil company Total has signed an agreement with US oil giant ExxonMobil to acquire an interest in the exploration of shale gas in Chelm and Werbkowice. US oil major Chevron has also obtained a licence to search for shale gas.
Polish refining, chemicals and petrochemicals group PKN Orlen has said that in 2012 it is to launch an upstream business with its own oil and gas extraction and energy production units. The strategy envisages a move into extracting and processing shale gas.
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|ICIS Global Petrochemical Index (IPEX). Download the free tabular data and a chart of the historical index| | <urn:uuid:1460d22a-69a1-49de-83c8-1e3fe4eba002> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.icis.com/Articles/2011/05/18/9461154/Poland-holds-meetings-with-US-experts-on-shale-gas-opportunities.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945318 | 446 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE)
What is Follicular Unit Extraction?
Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) is a method of obtaining donor hair
Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT), where individual
follicular units are harvested directly from the donor area, without
the need for a linear incision. In this hair restoration procedure,
a 1-mm punch is used to make a small circular incision in the skin
around the upper part of the follicular unit, which is then
extracted directly from the scalp.
Using direct extraction to harvest follicular
units was initially introduced by Dr. Woods in
Australia as the “Wood’s Technique,” but he did not disclose the
details of his technique. The procedure was first described in the
medical literature by Rassman and Bernstein in their 2002
Unit Extraction: Minimally Invasive Surgery for Hair
Follicular Unit Transplantation and
Follicular Unit Extraction are sometimes viewed as being two totally
different procedures. FUE, in fact, is a type FUT where the
follicular units are extracted directly from the scalp, rather than
being microscopically dissected from a strip that has already been
removed. To say it another way, in Follicular Unit Transplantation,
individual follicular units can be obtained in one of two ways;
either through single strip harvesting and stereomicroscopic
dissection, or through FUE.
Therefore, when comparisons are made between
FUT and FUE, what is really being compared is the way the follicular
grafts are obtained (i.e. strip harvesting and dissection vs. direct
extraction). The harvesting method does have other implications for
the procedure such as the transection (damage) rate, distribution of
follicular units, number of grafts per session, post-op care and the
Because FUE does not leave a linear scar, it
is used for patients who want to wear their hair very short. The
procedure is also useful for those who have healed poorly from
traditional strip harvesting or who have a very tight scalp.
Possibly the most important application of this technique is to
camouflage a widened linear donor scar from a prior hair transplant
Patients differ significantly with respect to
the ease in which the units can be removed from the scalp, with
extraction in some patients producing unacceptable levels of
transaction (damage due to cut hair follicles). All patients
considering FUE should be tested for the ease of extraction (the FOX
Test) so that those in whom extraction is difficult, or who show
significant degrees of transaction, can be identified in advance.
Patients undergoing a full Follicular Unit
Transplantation procedure should also be tested for Follicular Unit
Extraction at the time of surgery, in the event FUE may be needed in
a future session. One such use might be the camouflage of the linear
scar after the patient’s final FUT procedure. This testing is done
routinely (at no charge) in our practice.
A significant advance in Follicular Unit Extraction has been the
addition of “blunt” dissection to the original technique of “sharp”
dissection followed by extraction. In this three-step technique, a
sharp punch is used to score the epidermis (cut just the upper part
of the skin) and then a dull punch is used to bluntly dissect
(separate) the follicular unit grafts from the surrounding deeper
dermis. The third step is the same, namely removing the follicular
graft from the scalp using fine forceps.
At GHT we use a proprietary dissecting instrument that allows us to
efficiently perform this 3-step technique with minimal transection.
The instrument is positioned around the scored upper part of the
follicle and allowing the surgeon to remove the entire follicular
unit from the scalp. This new design was presented at the ISHRS
meeting in 2005.
The advantage of this hair transplant technique over the original
two-step process is that using a dull punch minimizes follicle
transection (damage). As the blunt-tipped punch is advanced into the
dermis, the follicles, which naturally separate deeper in the skin,
are “gathered together” within the opening of the instrument, rather
than risk the lower portions of the follicles being cut off. Another
significant advantage of the new technique is that it increases the
number of patients who are FOX positive and thus who are able to
benefit from FUE.
A problem of the three-step technique,
however, is a higher incidence of buried grafts. When a buried graft
is identified, it can sometimes be extracted by applying pressure to
the surrounding skin. If this maneuver fails, a small incision is
made to enlarge the opening and facilitate the removal of the graft.
If not removed, a buried graft can occasionally result in a small
cyst that would need to be removed at a later date.
The Advantages & disadvantages of
Follicular Unit Extraction
No linear scar
those who wear their hair short
healing time in the donor area
Useful for those
with a greater risk of donor scarring (Asians)
repairing donor scars that cannot be excised
on strenuous exercise after the procedure
alternative when the scalp is too tight for a strip excision
Extends the size
of the donor area (but not necessarily the total number of grafts)
Enables one to
harvest finer hair from the nape of the neck to be used at the
hairline or for eyebrows
theoretically possible to harvest non-scalp hair
Most useful when
a limited number of grafts are needed
follicular unit graft yield is lower than with FUT
variability in who are good candidates compared to FUT
to capture the entire follicular unit
Size of session
multiple sessions to equal the size of a single FUT
The most important difference between
Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) and the
Strip Method is the technique used for extracting the follicular
units. With FUE, a specialized punch with less than 1mm diameter is
used to extract the hair from the scalp. The main advantage of this
technique is that follicular units are extracted directly form the
scalp rather than in larger groups, which obviates the utilization
of scalpel and stitching.
This new non-invasive technique is offered by very few hair
transplantation clinics in
Europe. The reason is that very few hair transplant
surgeons are able to master this difficult technique because FUE
requires special know-how and correct practice from the medical team
in order to complete this procedure in a way to produce results.
It should also be noted that FUE clinics or individual FUE hair
transplant surgeons should be able to demonstrate extensive previous
experience in strip surgery and be able to produce documented
results like we do. This is the only way that they can prove that
they have mastered this hair transplant technique. It is therefore
recommended that potential FUE patients evaluate which FUE clinic
based to chose based on either its previous Strip results and/or its
current FUE results.
FUE, enables the surgical team to offer small Hair Transplant
sessions of 500 grafts, especially to patients who are in initial
stages of hair loss and might need to cover only their hairline or
temporal area. It is also the ideal technique for patients who want
to shave their heads since it leaves no visible scarring in the
This technique can also be used to perform a
body hair FUE hair transplant, allowing patients with bald or
almost completely bald heads to expand their donor possibilities.
photos below will help you to understand better the FUE technique
In this photo you can see the sites that have just been created
by using a 0.75mm punch. You can also see the sites that have
been punched the previous day, 20 hours after surgery. The
healing of these sites is amazing. After a few days it will
extremely difficult to notice that the patient has undergone
hair extraction from this area.
In this photo you can see the harvested follicular units with
0.75 mm punch. Notice the follicular units are intact with a
very low transection rate and with the proper amount of
sebaceous material to protect the grafts and generate new
arrector pili muscles and oil glands after being moved to the
These follicular units have been harvested with same punch size
as above. They are all single Follicular Units and they are to
be placed on the hairline where we only use singles. They are
intact with all the necessary tissue to give them an excellent
growth in a few months.
In this photo you can see a cross-section of the scalp after
removing a follicular unit via FUE. Notice that the
neighbouring follicular units have remained intact.
can I go back to work?
Many patients are concerned how they will look immediately after the
procedure and a few days later. Their main worry, is after how many
days following the procedure they will be able to return to work
without any visible signs. The photos below document a patient's
progress in the first ten days following hair transplant surgery.
during the procedure
Donor area 10
days after the procedure
during the procedure
Donor area 10
days after the procedure
For more information on Hair Transplantation please feel free to
Contact Us for free advice on your specific case. | <urn:uuid:e4a886c8-a4cf-4534-bbc2-9cbbc75d1a1d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ght.com.pk/new.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920717 | 2,070 | 1.859375 | 2 |
InetSoft BI Webcast: What is an Example of Drill-Down in the Customer Relationship Management Scenario?
This is a continuation of a transcript of a Webinar hosted by InetSoft in September 2010 entitled "Designing a Good Dashboard." The speaker is Mark Flaherty, Vice President of Marketing at InetSoft.
Mark Flaherty (MF): A good example is getting business intelligence on individual customers. You can understand their entire purchase behavior history. You can see what they purchase, and this is how drilling down can help close more deals, close them more quickly, generate cross selling opportunities and increase revenues. When you understand that this is what you can do, for the individual sales rep, first you summarize the information so it’s understandable to him or her. Then it should be intuitive where to drill down to help make the specific decision.
|View a five-minute Flash demo to get an overview of what InetSoft's business intelligence software, Style Intelligence, can do and how easy it is to use.|
What is some advice for designing a data visualization solution?
When you start offering a dashboard initially, you want to create a team that has a lot of expertise. Someone should be very experienced with dashboard intelligence, in the ideal world, in your organization. You also want to have a business analyst who responsible for collecting the requirements of the key performance indicators. And of course, you want the people who will be using the dashboard. Lastly you are going to have to work with the database team as well to make sure there are actual data behind these KPIs. With regard to the infrastructure, you need an IT team to work with, to make sure that database is ready to go, to establish the networking system, whatever the case may be.
And as with any project that cuts across functions in a large enterprise, you probably want project management involved to make sure everybody is communicating properly. Those are the technical aspects you would like to see in a dashboard development team. The first thing you start off with is figuring out the right KPIs, to make sure that the people who will be consuming the dashboards care about them. So generally speaking, you have to go to the stakeholders, ask questions, what are the corporate goals, what you are trying to improve in the organization.
Next come questions about data update frequency. How often will people need to be using this dashboard? Do you use it in real time, or is the data being updated daily in a data warehouse? Finally, are there existing reports in the organization already that could be the basis for arriving at the right KPIs?
"The open standards aspect is very important to us since it allows our customers to integrate our technology more easily and leverage assets they already have, in terms of hardware and software and IT skills. So based on this BI platform, our software delivers a host of front-end BI tools including visualization tools, enterprise reporting, monitoring dashboards, and analysis. Those functions were based on a very powerful patent-pending technology we call Data Block.
This Data Block technology is really made up of a back-end data mashup engine and a caching middle layer. There is a front-end we call the worksheet, which is a Web-based, spreadsheet-like user interface that a power user can easily use to combine and transform data blocks. The data blocks are typically started at the atomic data block level. That is typically created by an IT or a BI specialist. They choose these data blocks and performance tune those data blocks.
Then the power users can use those building blocks to build more complex, but more useful structures for answering the questions they have on hand. And all the data blocks you build, in turn become building blocks themselves. You can build on this architecture, building very sophisticated structures which you can use to answer a wide range of unanticipatible questions. " - Luke Liang, CEO, InetSoft
|Previous: Designing a Good Dashboard||Next: Different Versions of a Single Dashboard|
|Editing a Dashboard Layout|
|Editing Dashboard Tables| | <urn:uuid:8b99bde2-6138-4377-87e6-1b1e2e0149a3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.inetsoft.com/company/drill-down_dashboard_example/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943094 | 841 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Respiratory sensitization and allergy: current research approaches and needs.
ABSTRACT There are currently no accepted regulatory models for assessing the potential of a substance to cause respiratory sensitization and allergy. In contrast, a number of models exist for the assessment of contact sensitization and allergic contact dermatitis (ACD). Research indicates that respiratory sensitizers may be identified through contact sensitization assays such as the local lymph node assay, although only a small subset of the compounds that yield positive results in these assays are actually respiratory sensitizers. Due to the increasing health concerns associated with occupational asthma and the impending directives on the regulation of respiratory sensitizers and allergens, an approach which can identify these compounds and distinguish them from contact sensitizers is required. This report discusses some of the important contrasts between respiratory allergy and ACD, and highlights several prominent in vivo, in vitro and in silico approaches that are being applied or could be further developed to identify compounds capable of causing respiratory allergy. Although a number of animal models have been used for researching respiratory sensitization and allergy, protocols and endpoints for these approaches are often inconsistent, costly and difficult to reproduce, thereby limiting meaningful comparisons of data between laboratories and development of a consensus approach. A number of emerging in vitro and in silico models show promise for use in the characterization of contact sensitization potential and should be further explored for their ability to identify and differentiate contact and respiratory sensitizers. Ultimately, the development of a consistent, accurate and cost-effective model will likely incorporate a number of these approaches and will require effective communication, collaboration and consensus among all stakeholders.
[show abstract] [hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: Chemical sensitization remains an important environmental and occupational health issue. A wide range of substances have been shown to possess the ability to induce skin sensitization or respiratory sensitization. As a consequence, there is a need to have appropriate methods to identify sensitizing agents. Although a considerable investment has been made in exploring opportunities to develop methods for hazard identification and characterization, there are, as yet, no validated nonanimal methods available. A state of the art of the different in vitro approaches to identify contact and respiratory capacity of chemicals is covered in this chapter.EXS 01/2012; 101:289-314.
Article: Noninvasive and invasive pulmonary function in mouse models of obstructive and restrictive respiratory diseases.[show abstract] [hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: Pulmonary function analysis is an important tool in the evaluation of mouse respiratory disease models, but much controversy still exists on the validity of some tests. Most commonly used pulmonary function variables of humans are not routinely applied in mice, and the question of which pulmonary function is optimal for the monitoring of a particular disease model remains largely unanswered. Our study aimed to delineate the potential and restrictions of existing pulmonary function techniques in different respiratory disease models, and to determine some common variables between humans and mice. A noninvasive (unrestrained plethysmography) and two invasive pulmonary function devices (forced maneuvers system from Buxco Research Systems [Wilmington, NC] and forced oscillation technique from SCIREQ [Montreal, PQ, Canada]) were evaluated in well-established models of asthma (protein and chemical induced): a model of elastase-induced pulmonary emphysema, and a model of bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis. In contrast to noninvasive tests, both invasive techniques were efficacious for the quantification of parenchymal disease via changes in functional residual capacity, total lung capacity, vital capacity, and compliance of the respiratory system. Airflow obstruction and airflow limitation at baseline were only present in emphysema, but could be significantly induced after methacholine challenge in mice with asthma, which correlated best with an increase of respiratory resistance. Invasive pulmonary functions allow distinction between respiratory diseases in mice by clinically relevant variables, and should become standard in the functional evaluation of pathological disease models.American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology 05/2009; 42(1):96-104. · 5.13 Impact Factor | <urn:uuid:71b02e1d-0672-4fbf-9910-aa726f6f769d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.researchgate.net/publication/5823007_Respiratory_sensitization_and_allergy_current_research_approaches_and_needs | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930079 | 834 | 2.0625 | 2 |
Providence Tool Company Pattern 21 Sight
A while back I bought a .45-70 Winchester/Miroku 1886 Extra Lightweight rifle. I was in town only for a couple days between remote jobs, so I grabbed the rifle and a modern Lyman #66 receiver sight and headed back out to the bush. Since then, that ’86 rifle has worn the Lyman 66 sight, which was an annoyance to me, because as much as I love the Lyman receiver sights, I am a bit of a traditionalist, and it just wasn’t right for that rifle.
Now my purpose for the rifle is for bear protection, for hunting, and for the enjoyment of owning and shooting a fine lever-action rifle. For hunting or bear protection, the Lyman receiver sight was fine. For my enjoyment of the rifle, it was not. A tang sight would be great for target shooting, would work ok for hunting, and satisfy the traditionalist in me, but they tend to be more easily damaged, and this was a rifle that I planned to have beating around with me in the bush. I wanted a stronger type of sight that would be there when I needed it, but something that was period-correct for the 1886 Winchester.
Back in 1895 Winchester was introducing a new rifle. It had a long bolt that knocked tang sights over like bowling pins. Lyman designed a type of sight to go with the then new 1895 Winchester rifle. The Lyman Model 21 sight attached solidly to the frame of the rifle and allowed easy, fast adjustment for rainbow trajectories common with the cartridges of the day. This was just the sight that I needed for my 1886! The sight just looks right on the long frames of the 1886, and especially the 1895 Winchesters. It is a strong, simple design and provides easy elevation adjustments for longer hunting shots, yet the required ruggedness for daily carrying for bear protection. Lyman #21 (and 38) sights can still be found today, but if in good condition bring premium prices. I have seen them sold for as much as $500. I might purchase an original Lyman 21 sight for an original rifle, but I can’t justify the expense of putting an original sight on a new-production Winchester.
So there I was stuck with a nice 1880s style rifle wearing a modern sight. You can imagine how pleased I was to discover that Providence Tool Company was building a close replica of the original Lyman 21 “Climbin’ Lyman” sight.
The Providence Tool Company Pattern 21 Sight can be ordered directly from Providence Tool Company (check out their Peabody rifles while you are on their site) or can be ordered online from Buffalo Arms.
I ordered a Pattern 21 sight from Buffalo Arms on the recommendation of the guys at Providence Tool Co. The sight soon arrived packaged in a poly bag and included the parts of the sight itself, detailed instructions for installation and use, and quality drill bit and tap for drilling and tapping the receiver for the mounting screw and sight stud. If installing on an original Winchester 1895, the forward hole already exists with the correct threads. New Japanese built 1895 rifles have metric threading, so the forward hole can be simply rethreaded with the included tap. On 1886 Winchesters, new manufacture or original, both front and rear mounting holes will need to be drilled in the receiver. Any rifle previously drilled and tapped for a Lyman 21 sight will work with the Providence Tool Co. sight. If the original threads are poor, simply clean them up with the provided tap for installation of the new sight.
Providence Tool Co. also makes a shorter version of the sight for installation on ’92 and ’94 Winchesters, and a version for Marlin lever actions.
The sight is made of steel with a brass pointer. Two brass pointers of different thickness are included for correctly timing the locking lever. The steel is blued and can be used as is, or reblued, antiqued, or color case hardened to match the rifle or the look that you want. There is a faint mold mark on the locking lever, which I would probably remove if I was ever to refinish the sight for any reason.
The sight is adjustable for windage. I should probably say it can be set for zero, as it is held in place by a set screw and is not finger adjustable. If you want finger-adjustable windage, this modification could easily be done using parts from another type of receiver sight. This would make the sight more like a Lyman 38.
For installation I first disassembled the action. I probably could have found a way to drill the receiver with the action only partially disassembled, but I wanted to be able to easily clean the cuttings up so none remained in the action. I will post disassembly and reassembly instructions in another article, as I fixed
some major mistakes that Winchester made in building this rifle at the same time that I installed this sight. Instead of fixing these mistakes, Winchester gave them fancy names; rebounding hammer, and tang safety, and tried to pass them off to us as ”improvements.”
Once the action was disassembled, I located the front screw hole by following the instructions from Providence Tool Co. I marked the location and then drilled the hole.
I tapped the hole and then installed the sight frame and front screw. Holding the sight with the forward screw centered in the slot, I used a flat feeler gauge to place the sight .015″ above the top of the bolt and marked the location for the rear hole. After drilling and tapping the rear hole, I cleaned up the inside of the receiver and then adjusted the length of the screws to prevent interference with the bolt. The screws should be flush with the inside of the receiver and the edges of holes should be cleaned up so no metal protrudes into the receiver due to drilling or tapping. This will allow the bolt to travel smoothly and easily.
The screws were adjusted for length, and the the sight was installed. Now I needed to fit the brass pointer. I first put each pointer in place on the sight stud and spun the locking lever tight. The thinner pointer left the locking lever pointing forward when tight, and the thicker one left it pointing back, but a little high, so I used a file and a pit of sand paper to thin it down a little. The pointer has a little tab that rides in a slot in the sight and keeps the pointer aligned with the elevation marks. The tab is not bent and is left long for easier bending. Placing the pointer in a vice with the tab sticking up above the edges of the vice jaws allows it to be easily bent to a 90 degree angle. Once this is done, the tab is filed down to the correct thickness and length to ride easily in its slot on the sight body.
Once the pointer was ready, I installed everything, checked function, and then removed and reinstalled the rear sight stud and front screw using some Loctite to prevent vibration from loosening them. Any time you are shooting or carrying a firearm on a snow machine, four-wheeler, airplane, or other vehicle, there is a good possibility that screws will begin to back out.
I did not put locktite on the windage set screw yet because the rifle needs to be zeroed first. I plan to zero the sight at various ranges, taking a photo of each range setting, and then make range marks for each position by using a center punch to mark small dots on the sight.
The finished result looks great. It looks correct for the rifle, and the sight is solid. Installation was easy and the included tooling meant I did not have to look for a bit and tap. It is quick and intuitive to use. I am very pleased with the results.
The Providence Tool Company Pattern 21 sight is slightly different than the original Lyman 21. It is a bit simpler and uses fewer parts through a more efficient design. Some may feel that it is not close enough to the original sight, but I think it looks great, especially on a modern 1895 or 1886 rifle. If you are looking for total authenticity, get an original Lyman, of course. Still, I have seen varied examples of period gunsmith-made copies of Lyman 21 sights, so even with the small changes from the original and the Providence name on the side, this sight can look very correct on an original rifle.
If you have a lever action rifle that has been drilled for a side scope mount, this sight can also help cover the unsightly scope mount holes – a much more economical way to deal with them than having each welded up and the receiver refinished. There are many 1886 and especially 1894 and 1895 rifles out there that have been drilled for scope mounts, and the results can be pretty ugly on an otherwise nice looking rifle.
If you want the advantages of a receiver sight on an traditional-style lever action (or even a single-shot rifle), but do not want a blocky, modern-looking sight, I suggest that you seriously consider the Providence Tool Company Pattern 21 Sight. | <urn:uuid:e21724ba-a7d4-4116-a927-41765c780070> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://762precision.wordpress.com/product-reviews/providence-tool-company-pattern-21-sight/ | 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 | 0.95827 | 1,874 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Because we know that patients hate getting injections!
In February 2011 Kreativ introduced Milestone Scientific’s award-winning STA Wand® Plus system. The unit combines patented, state-of-the-art computer-controlled injection technology with the dentist’s training to achieve more precise injections, improved drug delivery and materially enhanced patient comfort levels. The cartridge holder, tube and handpiece are all disposable.
The Wand ® is a small hand piece that looks like a pen and is controlled by a computer delivery system allowing the dentist to numb even the most difficult tooth virtually painlessly! The mere sight of a dental syringe and the thought of having an injection by the dentist can easily make most patients wish they were somewhere else. For patients, this fear can be costly in the long run.
We've taken the fear, anxiety and pain out of injections. The Wand® is an excellent example of our efforts to bring you the latest technology and help you to have a pleasant experience in our surgery.
Most people who have had a bad experience with injections think that needles hurt because the skin is pierced, but this is usually not so! Most often, the pain was caused because the anesthetic was fired in too quickly. Obviously, it is possible for the dentist to control the speed with a standard syringe, but the idea of the Wand is to take out the "human error". This can be very reassuring for people with previous bad experiences.
We're not surprised our staff are already calling it 'the magic wand'. | <urn:uuid:4c3ac0ba-b045-4328-8768-6c487c3faecd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kreativdentalclinic.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=399 | 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 | 0.954973 | 310 | 1.554688 | 2 |
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Here are important tips to help students do well on tests.
Test Taking Tips
Multiple Choice Questions
- As you are reading the questions, try to come up with the answer in your head before you look at the answer choices.
- If you are not sure of an answer, eliminate the choices you know are incorrect by crossing them out.
- If two of the choices are similar or opposite, one of them is probably the correct answer
- Statements with always, never, every, all, and none in them are usually false.
- Statements with usually, often, sometimes, most, and many in them are usually true.
- Read True/False questions very carefully. One word will often determine whether a statement is True or False
- Read each question and then start with the easiest one.
- Note how many points each essay is worth, and adjust the time you spend on each question accordingly.
- Before you write, brainstorm. Jot down keys words, ideas, and points that you want to cover in your answer.
- When you write, begin by restating the question and tell the reader what they can expect to learn from your essay.
- Use complete sentences and write legibly.
- If you don’t know the answer to a question, take a couple minutes to write down what you do know about the subject. You may hit on something and get partial credit
Open Book Tests
- Have your notes already highlighted so that important information is easy to locate
- Put sticky notes or bookmarks in your textbook to help you locate important information.
Other Test Taking Tips
- Use relaxation strategies right before a test
- Look at the entire test and read the directions before you begin answering questions
- Mark the questions that you are not sure of and go back to them later
- Use a scrap paper or your hand to block out the other questions, so you are not looking at more than one question at a time. Sometimes a whole paper full of questions can be overwhelming.
- If you are not sure of an answer, go with your first instinct. Many times this is right. | <urn:uuid:7ac8a0ec-e920-4db3-a244-0aeeafc18b64> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://penn.phmschools.org/testtakingstrategies | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921809 | 554 | 3.734375 | 4 |
As the unit testing debates continue on my project, I can’t help but noticing that people are spending all sorts of time pontificating over the right way to unit test, without stepping back to consider what they’re trying to achieve with unit testing. And because they don’t know where they’re going, they’re not able to reach any conclusions on how to get there. Sound familiar?
There are actually a number of fabulous reasons for doing unit testing:
1. They help us think about our design in a way that we might not otherwise.
2. They lead to cleaner code because it’s often easier to re-factor our code to be more testable then it is to write unit tests that exercise obfuscated or otherwise hard to access code.
3. They validate that our modules are behaving correctly.
4. They provide a safety net to ensure our existing modules continue to function properly as our application evolves.
These aren’t all intuitive and so a lot of people will only consider #3 when they think about unit testing. And yet, what’s interesting is that #3 typically provides the smallest return on our unit testing investment because we tend to find WAY more defects through #1 and #2 as we work out how to develop our tests, and then of course in #4 as we continue to change our code over the application’s lifetime. And, unfortunately, by focusing only on #3, it can lead us to make some faulty decisions when we try to reason about the best way to do unit tests.
One of the most common questions people ask is whether to unit test private methods. I struggle to find any reasons why we should, but I do know a lot of reasons why we should not. I’m not saying that there’s never a reason to unit test private methods, I’m just saying to make sure you understand what that reason is before you go to all the effort.
In my opinion, the best way to achieve our unit test objectives is by validating our class’s interfaces. And when I think about interfaces, I’m thinking about the public methods we expose to other modules in our application. If we can validate that each of these methods is behaving as expected, then I’m going to feel satisfied that the class works correctly. For the purposes of unit testing, I don’t really care how the method achieves the result, as long as it’s the right one. I don’t care if the method figures out the result in-line, or by calling external methods or through internal private methods. If I call calculator.add( 2, 2 ) and get 4 then I’m happy. If I get 5, there’s a problem.
In fact, if we’re being good developers and remembering to re-factor our code as the application evolves, then there’s a good chance that the method we use to determine that result is going to change over the application’s lifetime. That gets back to reason #4 for having unit tests – they provide a safety net to ensure that our modules continue to function as we make changes to them. If those unit tests are dependent on how we provide results, then it means that every time we decide to change our class’s inner workings, we have to update our unit tests. And if we have to rewrite our unit tests, then what is happening to our safety net?
"being able to quickly create, move around, and change the functionality of private methods is vital to remaining agile"
– Charles Miller, The Fishbowl
Okay, sure if we change our public interfaces, we have to update our unit tests. But that makes sense. It means our interface specifications have changed and so our tests better be updated accordingly. Changing our public interfaces should incur a significant cost because other code relies on them. In fact, one might even argue that having high costs (such as having to update our unit tests) provides a good reminder to us that it’s in our best interest to keep our public interfaces stable.
On the other hand, the private parts of our implementations – those details that have been hidden behind our class’s interface – should not be costly to change. If we give them the high cost of having to redo our unit tests then it puts up a barrier against refactoring that we really don’t want. If we find that we’re using the same logic in 3 different places in our class, we should be able to easily move that logic into a single private method and then simply re-run our unit tests as they already exist to make sure our class continues to function as expected. We shouldn’t have to go write another unit test at this point because we haven’t added any new functionality. We’ve simply refactored our existing code to be more maintainable.
"Pure" Unit Tests with Mock Objects
Another big question people ask about unit testing revolves around how pure our unit tests need to be. Pure unit testing requires isolating an individual unit to validate its correctness.
So, for example, if our class interacts with external servers, we might create a stub to take the place of that server (such as a dummy server that simply listens on a port and returns the expected response). Our unit test can then validate our class using the stub rather than the real server. This enables us to validate that our class is doing its part correctly without depending on the external server acting right.
But what about if our class interacts with other classes? How do we factor them out? A popular idea is to use mock objects. Say we want to unit test our Training class, which contains a method enroll( Student ). Rather than passing it a real Student object, we could create a MockStudent object that implements the same interface as Student. We then tell MockStudent what methods we expect to be called, such as getFirstName() and getLastName(), and what to return for them.
Once we call Training.enroll( MockStudent), our mock object validates that every method we expected to be called was, indeed, called. We even have the option of requiring that these methods are called in a specific order. If any of the expected methods were not called, or if any unexpected methods were called, our test fails.
Well, I really like the idea of mock objects – up until that last little bit. We seem to be back to the same concern that I have with unit testing private methods, and that is who cares which methods in Student are called, much less in what order? All I care about is that the student was successfully enrolled in the training. Maybe Training.enroll() was only using the student’s first and last name to set a unique ID and the developer later realized that it’s a bad idea to have data in our key, so updated the method to use a GUID instead. Should the Training.enroll() unit test now break because that method is no longer calling Student.getFirstName()? I don’t think so. And, again, I think we’re setting up unnecessary barriers to refactoring.
So, this isn’t meant as a "never use mock objects" anymore than a "never test private methods." Just a recommendation to consider your unit testing objectives and what’s going to best serve them before blindly diving in to the latest cool thing you just read on some schmo’s blog.
» The Flawed Theory behind Unit Testing (Michael Feathers)
» Testing Private Methods with JUnit and SuiteRunner (great stuff, even if you’re not using these tools)
» Mocks Aren’t Stubs (Martin Fowler) | <urn:uuid:6aeaeec8-1b55-47a9-850e-42f1a3cf8bd3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hackerchick.com/2008/07/your-unit-tests-should-mind-their-own.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929139 | 1,618 | 1.820313 | 2 |
The business and computer education curriculum is a special area of instruction that helps students develop technology skills. One-semester elective courses are offered in the following areas: Microsoft Office, Multi-Media, and Web Mastering. Year-long computer programming courses include AP Computer Science and Data Structures & Algorithms. The classes of 2014 and 2015 must earn one half computer credit to satisfy the graduation requirement. Another one half computer credit is awarded to all students after the sophomore year for participation in the laptop program.
Jeff Wheeler, Department Chair
Business and Computer Education Courses
705 MULTIMEDIA AND IMAGE MANAGEMENT (1/2 credit)
Learn how to turn your research projects into multimedia experiences! In this one-semester course you will develop proficiencies in designing, importing and manipulating advanced text, graphics, audio and video used in multimedia presentations. The software used in this course is the MS Office suite and Adobe Photoshop. Open to grades 10-12. Course credit goes toward the computer requirement for graduation.
Offered during regular school sessions and during summer. 2013 will be the final summer session in which this course is offered.
720 INTRODUCTION TO MICROSOFT OFFICE (1/2 credit)
This one semester class will give students a broad introduction to the educational uses of Microsoft Office: Word-basic formatting, tables, graphics; Excel-worksheets, formulas, functions, charts; Access-general database design, manipulating data, reports; PowerPoint-creating effective presentations with graphics and music; Publisher-beginning desktop publishing and integration of the office tools. Open to grades 9 and 10. Course credit goes toward the computer requirement for graduation.
728 COMPUTER APPLICATIONS (1/2 credit)
Through a four-year study of computer applications, students will demonstrate the appropriate use of technology to problem solve, acquire and analyze information and communicate the results in electronic format. Students will learn to use the Internet and other electronic formats for information retrieval. They will acquire knowledge in creating documents in a variety of formats, including spreadsheets, databases, presentation designs and word processing. Additionally, students will become familiar with technology related terms and concepts and will be able to make informative decisions concerning hardware and software applications. Course credit goes toward the computer requirement for graduation.
730 WEB MASTERING (1/2 credit)
In this one semester course, students will learn how to use web editing software (WYSIWYG) to create professional web sites using graphics, hyperlinks, colors and multimedia. Creating professional looking web pages also involves an understanding of web design layout and concepts as well as a basic grasp of HTML, the programming language used to create web pages. Students will learn to create graphics for use in their web sites including backgrounds, animated images and rollover images. Course credit goes toward the computer requirement for graduation.
272 HONORS AP COMPUTER SCIENCE A (1 credit)
This course develops computer programming and problem-solving skills, using the language Java. It covers the A-level curriculum as defined by the College Board and is comparable to an introductory college level course for computer science majors. The student who enrolls in this course must be able to think abstractly and have strong analytical and problem-solving skills. Every student will be expected to take the AP Computer Science A Exam.
Prerequisite: an A in Geometry or a B or better in Honors Geometry. AP Course fee (includes AP exam): $92. Taken at Strake Jesuit.
290 HONORS DATA STRUCTURES AND ALGORITHMS (1 credit)
This advanced course in computer science follows a similar curriculum as that of a Computer Science II course in college. The content includes an introduction to the theoretical and practical aspects of data structures. Emphasis is on abstract data types using the programming language JAVA. Students learn to use and program common data types such as Stacks, Queues, LinkedLists, Maps, Sets, and Trees. The student who enrolls in this course must be able to think abstractly and have strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
Prerequisite: an A during one quarter of AP Computer Science. Taken at Strake Jesuit. | <urn:uuid:b53ec450-53a2-4574-8c67-a8b2971d36ed> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.st-agnes.org/(S(0jccf1551mfjgpq1kkolywev))/default.aspx?MenuItemID=847&MenuSubID=29&MenuGroup=Academics&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.906547 | 875 | 1.976563 | 2 |
Over the years the different players in the advertising world for Coca-Cola have helped shape the brand’s image and create a personality for the company. There have been tons of people who have contributed to the success of the Coca-Cola Company through the ideas they have come up with for its advertising. There are several major advertising agencies that have played a role in the company’s success including the D’Archy Advertising Agency and McCann-Erickson. However, in this section, I will focus on just a few of the major contributors to the brand image of Coca-Cola, as well as some of the players who helped get the name of the brand out to the public.
The company’s first president, Asa Griggs Candler played a large part in getting the business started in the 1890’s. He began to give out coupons for free tastes of the new product, which brought in many curious customers into his store who had heard about the mysterious fresh product that everyone was buzzing about. In addition to these coupons, he distributed clocks, urns, calendars, and apothecary scales that had the Coca-Cola logo on them throughout his pharmacy. The Coca-Cola brand was everywhere and his aggressive approach on promoting the product created an explosion of popularity for the drink.
Asa Griggs Candler
In 1928, Robert Woodruff, the second president of the Coca-Cola Company had Coca-Cola travel with the Olympic team to the Olympics in Amsterdam that year. This strategy was great advertising because Coca-Cola had just been introduced on an international level.
Soon after, in 1931, Haddon Sundblom created the image of Santa that we associate with the brand to this day. He was a jolly, plump old man with a white beard and a red suit. Few people know that this set the stage for the modern day image of Santa that we see everywhere; it was created by advertisers for Coca-Cola. Before this image of Santa drinking a Coke was released, everyone thought of Coca-Cola as a warm weather refreshment. However, this new illustration changed people’s point of view and it became a cold weather drink as well.
In 1971 Bill Backer wrote the famous “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke” song. This new jingle created a connection with the public and is arguably one of the best commercials of all time. The last advertiser I want to bring to light is Ken Stewart. He designed the famous Coca-Cola polar bear in 1993. This new animation could appeal to a large variety of target audiences and, in addition, created yet another positive brand image for the company. | <urn:uuid:17e0bc17-ef14-4ced-b9ce-3304be8bde23> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cocacoladvertising.blogspot.com/2011/03/players-in-world-of-advertising-for.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98112 | 551 | 1.851563 | 2 |
This is an image of the Mars '98 spacecraft being prepared for launch.
Click on image for full size
An Overview of the Mars '98 mission
The Mars '98 mission was made of two spacecraft called the Mars Climate Orbiter and the Mars Polar Lander. The Orbiter was going to orbit Mars and search for water. The Lander was supposed to land near the south pole. It would've used a robot arm to dig in the Martian soil! Cool!
The mission was suppose to build upon the discoveries of the Mars Pathfinder and Mars Global Surveyor missions. But, both spacecraft were lost when they reached Mars.
Shop Windows to the Universe Science Store!
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for you and your students. Issues of NESTA's quarterly journal, The Earth Scientist
are also full of classroom activities on different topics in Earth and space science!
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The Mars Odyssey was launched April 7, 2001. After a six-month journey, the Odyssey arrived at Mars on October 24, 2001. The instruments onboard the Mars Odyssey will study the minerals on the surface...more
The Mars 2005 mission is still in the planning stages. It is set to launch in the year 2005. ...more | <urn:uuid:40066134-42cc-4401-88ec-5e7bceffddd9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.windows2universe.org/mars/exploring/M98_overview.html&edu=elem | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95733 | 493 | 3.9375 | 4 |
August 23, 2012
Legarda: Heed the Call for Green, Sustainable Development
Senator Loren Legarda today reiterated her call for the nation to pursue green, sustainable and resilient development to prevent a "bleak and environmentally degraded future" that an Asian Development Bank study revealed.
Legarda, the United Nations Regional Champion for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation for Asia-Pacific, cited information from ADB's Key Indicators for Asia and the Pacific 2012, which showed that the fast rate of urbanization in Asia has been causing environmental degradation with the rise in pollution, more slum areas, and greater economic and social inequalities.
The Senator explained that other notable data in the ADB study include the alarming increase in carbon dioxide emissions that could rise to 10.2 metric tons per capita by 2050 with the lack of intervening actions to reverse the trend.
"As a nation, we have been engaging industrialized nations, through the annual climate change talks, to cut down on their greenhouse gas emissions. And while we wait for their positive response, our government must undertake a concrete strategy to pursue a green and disaster-resilient development path," Legarda stressed.
"Our government must design and implement a diversification of our energy systems. We have to explore and continue to develop hydropower, geothermal and wind power as renewable energy sources. We must engage the private sector to invest in clean new technologies, adopt energy efficiency measures and re-engineer corporate social responsibility to reflect the joint values of achieving business sustainability through building disaster-resilient local communities," she pointed out.
Legarda further noted that the ADB study also revealed that with increasing urban population, over 700 million people in Asian cities could be at risk of coastal flooding and inland flooding.
"We must heed the call for green, sustainable and resilient development. Our nation's economic development plan should consider the impacts of climate change so that it would actually contribute to the country's overall progress and not in the worsening of disaster risks," she explained.
"We must link disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation to national and local development planning by building homes, schools, and hospitals that are safe and secure amidst natural hazards; designing and constructing roads, bridges and other infrastructure that help spur economic growth with disaster risk reduction in mind; and recovering and rebuilding from any disaster impacts with building-back-better-and-greener as objective. Disaster risk reduction essentially means genuine development--development that is sustainable and economic growth that is resilient," Legarda concluded.
Wednesday, May 22
Tuesday, May 21
Monday, May 20
Sunday, May 19
Saturday, May 18 | <urn:uuid:0e4ec0cb-6f2a-4d71-ab86-12b3b0ded6cd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.senate.gov.ph/press_release/2012/0823_legarda1.asp | 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 | 0.945631 | 542 | 2.1875 | 2 |
English and auto mechanics are two subjects that generally arent taught side-by-side.
At Bonneville Joint School District 93s new Technical Careers High School in Idaho Falls, however, students learn how to apply basic academic skills such as writing and math to hands-on careers such as auto mechanics and welding.
The Technical Careers High School opened Aug. 28 in several converted vocational buildings.
A lot of what we do actually makes sense, senior Heath Hansen said. You arent just sitting there wondering, How the heck am I going to use this? You know how youre going to use (the instruction) in life.
Although students must meet all the same academic requirements as traditional high school students, instruction at the Technical Careers High School teaches students core principles in a way that will benefit their careers.
We understand our students are interested in the technical fields and trades, Principal Craig Miller said. We are trying to make it so whatever subject we teach, we relate it to their interests.
In English class, for instance, students write a business cost estimate rather than an essay on classic literature, Hansen said.
In government and economics classes, students focus on policies that affect the trades and business.
You tie your content to their trade in every way you can, teacher Terri Angell said.
Making lessons relate to student career choices keeps them interested in the general academic topics, Angell said.
The school offers training in welding, auto collision repair and automotive tech. School officials plan to add construction and drafting and energy systems technology next year.
Energy systems technology will focus on energy production, robotics and engineering.
Today, the school only offers a full-time curriculum for its 25 seniors.
About 80 juniors take half-time courses on campus, while 110 sophomores spend a quarter of their school day there.
During the next three years, course offerings will increase allowing sophomores, junior and seniors to attend full-time. The school will not cater to freshmen, as administrators decided they were too young to safely use welding and automotive equipment.
Eventually, the school will cap enrollment at 300 students.
If you get bigger than 300 students, you lose the personality of the school, Miller said. When you have a smaller school with a smaller student body and a smaller staff, they become more like a family; and you get to know each others strengths and weaknesses and (learn) how to push the students to get a better education.
The school has partnered with Eastern Idaho Technical College and the Idaho State University College of Technology to offer dual high school/college credit for each of its technical programs.
It also is working to get its core classes offered as dual-credit college courses.
Many of the Technical Careers High Schools teachers are working toward certification to teach college-level courses. All of the technical programs are taught by industry professionals with teaching credentials.
Students who complete three years of any of the schools technical programs will graduate with 10 to 12 college credits. They also will be ready for certification in their field.
Senior Jacob Creech will graduate ready to be certified in welding. He hopes to use the head start hes received to get a job right away.
This will let me get a job right out of high school, Creech said. Everything Ive learned here I wont have to learn again and I can just go into the workforce. | <urn:uuid:9e091bdf-7692-415d-96a4-7591732328dd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.idahostatesman.com/2012/10/10/2304243/idaho-high-school-aims-for-work.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963008 | 694 | 2.578125 | 3 |
(A) As used in sections 1321.01 to 1321.19 of the Revised Code:
(1) "Person" includes individuals, partnerships, associations, trusts, corporations, and all other legal entities.
(2) "License" means a license issued under sections 1321.01 to 1321.19 of the Revised Code to make loans at a single place of business.
(3) "Licensee" means a person to whom one or more licenses have been issued.
(4) "Principal amount" means the amount of cash paid to, or paid or payable for the account of, the borrower.
(5) "Interest" means all charges payable directly or indirectly by a borrower to a licensee as a condition to a loan or an application for a loan, however denominated, but does not include default charges, deferment charges, insurance charges or premiums, court costs, loan origination charges, check collection charges, credit line charges, credit report charges, or other fees and charges specifically authorized by law.
(6) "Interest-bearing loan" means a loan in which the debt is expressed as the principal amount and interest is computed, charged, and collected on unpaid principal balances outstanding from time to time.
(7) "Precomputed loan" means a loan in which the debt is a sum comprising the principal amount and the amount of interest computed in advance on the assumption that all scheduled payments will be made when due.
(8) "Actuarial method" means the method of allocating payments made on a loan between the principal amount and interest whereby a payment is applied first to the accumulated interest and the remainder to the unpaid principal amount.
(9) "Applicable charge" means the amount of interest attributable to each monthly installment period of the loan contract. The applicable charge is computed as if each installment period were one month and any charge for extending the first installment period beyond one month is ignored. In the case of loans originally scheduled to be repaid in sixty-one months or less, the applicable charge for any installment period is that proportion of the total interest contracted for, as the balance scheduled to be outstanding during that period bears to the sum of all of the periodic balances, all determined according to the payment schedule originally contracted for. In all other cases, the applicable charge for any installment period is that which would have been made for such period had the loan been made on an interest-bearing basis at the single rate provided in division (A) of section 1321.13 of the Revised Code, based upon the assumption that all payments were made according to schedule.
(10) "Annual percentage rate" means the ratio of the interest on a loan to the unpaid principal balances on the loan for any period of time, expressed on an annual basis.
(11) "Refinancing" means a loan the proceeds of which are used in whole or in part to pay the unpaid balance of a prior loan made by the same licensee to the same borrower under sections 1321.01 to 1321.19 of the Revised Code.
(12) "Superintendent of financial institutions" includes the deputy superintendent for consumer finance as provided in section 1181.21 of the Revised Code.
(B) The division of financial institutions is responsible for the administration of sections 1321.01 to 1321.19 of the Revised Code. Neither the superintendent of the division, nor any deputy, assistant, clerk, examiner, or other person employed by the division to assist in the administration of such sections shall be interested, directly or indirectly, in the business licensed under the sections and any person so interested or who becomes so interested shall not be eligible to hold or retain any such position.
Effective Date: 09-26-1996 | <urn:uuid:f030f2f0-c5cb-45ed-ab15-db6edffe385d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/1321.01 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956925 | 769 | 2 | 2 |
The Bat, the Bramble, and the Seagull
A Bat, a Bramble, and a Seagull went into partnership and determined to go on a trading voyage together. The Bat borrowed a sum of money for his venture; the Bramble laid in a stock of clothes of various kinds; and the Seagull took a quantity of lead: and so they set out. By and by a great storm came on, and their boat with all the cargo went to the bottom, but the three travellers managed to reach land. Ever since then the Seagull flies to and fro over the sea, and every now and then dives below the surface, looking for the lead he's lost; while the Bat is so afraid of meeting his creditors that he hides away by day and only comes out at night to feed; and the Bramble catches hold of the clothes of every one who passes by, hoping some day to recognise and recover the lost garments. | <urn:uuid:089428c8-6433-42e1-b8ba-2033738f9ee0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.infoplease.com/t/lit/aesop-fables-jones/220.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976516 | 194 | 3.078125 | 3 |
Expect to hear more and more talk that one of the presidential candidates could win more votes -- but lose the White House because the opponent wins the Electoral College.
As it stands now, Mitt Romney leads President Obama in the popular vote -- 47.7% vs. 46.7% -- according to the average of polls complied by the RealClearPolitics website.
But, according to averages of polls in individual states, Obama right now leads in those states with a total of 294 electoral votes, compared with 244 for Romney, according to RealClearPolitics.
Recall that we've had recent experience with this: In 2000, Al Gore won the popular vote, but lost the Electoral College to George W. Bush (after resolution of the dispute over Florida).
It's also happened in two other elections with two major candidates: In 1888, when Benjamin Harrison defeated popular-vote-winning president Grover Cleveland; and in 1876, when Rutherford Hayes scraped by Samuel Tilden after disputed returns in four states. (We're not counting the multi-candidate election of 1824, decided by the House of Representatives.)
If it happens again, expect to hear more calls to abolish the Electoral College -- but don't expect anything to change.
Smaller states would likely block any effort to eliminate the Electoral College because it gives them the prospect of power.
In this election, for example, battleground states include New Hampshire (four electoral votes), New Mexico (five), and Nevada (six) -- any of which could make the difference in a tight election.
Why is there an Electoral College?
Because of compromise by the framers of the Constitution -- some of whom wanted direct popular election of the president, while others said Congress should pick the chief executive.
A state's number of Electoral College members is determined by the number of members it has in Congress, and those numbers all change every 10 years based on population shifts. | <urn:uuid:76592f39-59cf-4395-9967-0c74b8b77f02> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.usatoday.com/story/theoval/2012/10/19/barack-obama-mitt-romney-electoral-college/1643519/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954899 | 392 | 2.75 | 3 |
The suit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union’s Vermont chapter on behalf of Kate Baker and Ming Linsley, said the couple was turned away last fall because of the inn’s owner has a “no-gay-reception policy.”
According to the complaint, Wildflower Inn in Lyndonville, Vermont refused to host a wedding reception for New York couple Kate Baker and Ming Linsley because of the owners’ personal bias against same-sex couples.
It was Linsley’s mother who was told the inn does not host “gay receptions,” particularly stinging to a mom trying to help her daughter plan the special day, the couple said.
According to the suit, at least two other couples have been turned away by the resort in the past 12 months.
According to the ACLU, the Vermont Fair Housing and Public Accommodations Act prohibits public accommodations from denying goods and services based on customers’ sexual orientation. The law applies to inns, restaurants, schools, stores, and any other business that serves the general public.
The act contains exceptions for religious organizations and small inns with five or fewer rooms, bu the ACLU asserts the Wildflower Inn fits neither category. The inn is a multimillion-dollar public business whose slogan is “Four Seasons for Everyone!”
The inn’s owners, Jim and Mary O’Reilly, issued a statement saying they are devout Catholics who believe in the sanctity of marriage between one man and one woman.
Filed under: Vermont | <urn:uuid:340b9332-d134-4aee-b452-28e226ad177e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2011/07/aclu-lesbian-couple-sue-vermont-inn-over-its-no-gay-reception-policy/ | 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 | 0.960758 | 322 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Thu., May 24, 2012 4:00pm
An art exhibit at Savannah's Telfair Museum highlights the work of Syrian-born Kahlil Gibran. The poet wrote some of the most famous lines in literature. But his drawings and paintings are less well-known. The immigrant had a Gegorgia connection who aided his career but refused to marry him. | <urn:uuid:6411e42d-84b8-4410-a294-665c31b7681a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gpb.org/news/The-Prophet/related | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.99281 | 76 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Robot cars are here. The waiting is over. Get used to it – but only if the insurance companies let you!
The fact is that robot cars have in fact been with us for five years already, as noted by FuturePundit back in 2006:
Skepticism about the feasibility of computer-operated vehicles became harder to maintain when the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency’s Grand Challenge periodic contest for autonomous driverless vehicles finally produced winners in October 2005.
So why aren’t the car showrooms full of self-driving robot cars? That’s a great question. One that was answered, for me, at the Singularity Summit Australia a few weeks ago here in Melbourne by James Newton-Thomas.
James spoke about his career with AI (artificial intelligence) – way back in the 1980s he had developed loan officer systems that the human loan officers came to rely upon! Through the 1990s he worked on autonomous vehicle AIs for Caterpillar (the big name in mining vehicles.) The comment that really piqued my interest was this : having developed a robot vehicle to replace human operators, the stumbling block to implementation around the year 2000 was that the insurance premium was so high that it wasn’t a financially viable option.
Now that is really interesting. This means that ten years ago JNT had developed a robot vehicle that was ready for work in the mining industry but was essentially blocked by the insurance industry!
Why was the premium so high? I am not an insurance industry expert, so I couldn’t tell you. James did mention that his impression at the time was that since there was no history, no set of facts upon which to calculate the risk, the insurers erred on the cautious side (as they should be wont to do) and went high. Really high.
So that’s where we were until this week. Robot cars are certainly possible, because they have been built. Sure, not in mass production. Sure there are still limitations, but those are being rapidly eroded.
Then everything changed – Google announced on October 9th, 2010 that they not only had built robot cars, but that they had driven them over 225,000km in San Francisco!
Our automated cars, manned by trained operators, just drove from our Mountain View campus to our Santa Monica office and on to Hollywood Boulevard. They’ve driven down Lombard Street, crossed the Golden Gate bridge, navigated the Pacific Coast Highway, and even made it all the way around Lake Tahoe. All in all, our self-driving cars have logged over 140,000 miles.
Wow – that means there’s over five thousand driving hours (assuming 25mph average urban speed) of robot cars. In an urban environment.
Is that enough data for an insurer to make a better assessment? We can only hope so. | <urn:uuid:cb4a79d2-f8db-4cae-9be7-341a64447438> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://adogsbreakfast.wordpress.com/2010/10/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98123 | 586 | 2.046875 | 2 |
|© UNICEF Liberia/2009/ Gordon|
|Lydia, 18, one of the participants in a youth radio workshop in Liberia. Lydia’s story was about the difficult transition from teenage life to young adulthood.|
MONROVIA, Liberia, 24 November 2009 – When Lydia graduated from school a few months ago, her future should have been boundless. She had done well in school and was expecting good results on her university entrance exam.
But after talking to her family, she realized that even if she passed the exam, it would not matter. The family did not have enough money to send their daughter to university.
It's a common problem in Liberia: At a crucial moment in life, right after high school graduation, many young girls are forced to choose employment over continuing their education. "It is very difficult to be an 18-year-old girl in Liberia," says Lydia. "We are vulnerable to many dangers."
Monrovia radio workshop
In August, Lydia was one of the participants in a week-long radio production workshop for seven young people from Liberia. UNICEF Radio – in partnership with UNICEF's ‘Back on Track’ programme on Education in Emergencies and Post-Crisis Transition, UNICEF Liberia and Talking Drum Studios – conducted the workshop with three boys and four girls chosen from around the country.
The youths learned how to record, edit, write and produce a radio story of their own.
Lydia's testimony offered a rare look at the helplessness that many young, educated Liberians feel, and detailed the stark choices many girls face when university is financially out of their reach.
"At times, you forget about school," Lydia explains in her 'Digital Diary'. "You say 'I don’t have support' or 'I have no means to go to school so it’s better that I use my body to make money.' I know so many girls who do that."
This was the second in a series of workshops conducted by UNICEF Radio and the Back on Track programme. The aim is to bring young people's perspectives into the debate around education in emergencies and post-crisis situations – and to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Meanwhile, UNICEF Liberia continues to work with community radio programmes throughout the country, in order to involve new youth journalists and empower young people by giving them the chance to broadcast their voices and their views.
Liberia's Memorandum of Understanding on respecting children's rights
Mamiwhe’s Digital Diary: A passionate commitment to education for all
Tereza’s story: I want to be a pilot
'Back on Track' website
CRC @ 20 | <urn:uuid:f0ba31be-09fd-4daa-a676-dadba6a5ecdc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/liberia_51905.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962071 | 567 | 2.28125 | 2 |
Tag Archives: SEO
Toronto, ON (Marketwired) Rank Secure, an eminent SEO company based out of Toronto, is making life easier for local businesses looking to top search engine rankings using ethical SEO practices. In addition to their standard SEO packages, the company is also the leading name throughout the GTA and Canada for keyword research, link building, pay per click, article writing, and much more.
Are you wondering whether you should use a dash versus an underscore in URLs? This article will provide a definitive answer.
Well, I recently recommended to a friend that he change his web site URLs from ‘keyword1_keyword2′ (underscore) to ‘keyword1-keyword2′ (dash).
Toronto, ON (PRWEB) Every business owner want’s their company website to attract thousands of new visitors each and every month. More website traffic will mean more sales, right? Not necessarily so, say IFM’s Creative Director, Len Doren. “We all want more web traffic. But, achieving more traffic does not always mean quality conversions. In fact, there is so much controversy regarding search optimization these days, many business owners are confused and can be fooled by the get-rich-quick advertisements which promise major traffic from the search engines for next to no cost.” The fact is, in this day and age, there isn’t a “magic bullet”. However, IFM offers 5 tips to help increase web traffic to any website.
Vancouver, BC PRLog (Press Release) “Many business owners have great intentions when they start a blog or website, but what they don’t know about search engine optimization can result in a lot of frustration and disappointment,”
Woodbridge, ON PRLog (Press Release) Now that search engine optimization is becoming more well known, small and large businesses alike have competition to get at the top of popular search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo and more. As search engine optimization becomes better known, this competition is creating even more rivalry in the quest for great search engine optimization. Now the search engine optimization company, Bit & Pix Corporation, of Woodbridge, Ontario is sharing with the public their incredibleProgressive SEO Formula to help businesses big and small.
(PRWEB) The independent authority on Search vendors in Canada, canada.topseos.com, has revealed their list of the thirty best search engine optimization companies in the online marketing industry for the month of February 2013. Out of thousands of online marketing agencies, only the thirty best offering SEO services in Canada are selected based on merit with no partiality attached. Businesses use the list in order to connect with top performing online marketing agencies in order to achieve stronger results for searches related to their offerings in major Search engines. | <urn:uuid:31b51150-4c07-40a4-917e-692e15faabc0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jamesdoan.ca/tag/seo/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936646 | 579 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Primary Documents - Tsar Nicholas II Takes Command of Russian Armies, 5 September 1915
Reproduced below is the text of Tsar Nicholas II's official letter to Grand Duke Nikolai dated 5 September 1915. In his formal letter the Tsar thanked Nikolai - his uncle - for serving as Russian Army Commander-in-Chief; he announced however that he had now found time to take day to day control of the Russian Army.
The Tsar's decision to assume command of the Russian Army was made in spite of virtually unanimous cabinet opposition; the latter correctly feared that any setbacks the Army suffered would necessarily reflect directly upon the Tsar himself.
Tsar Nicholas II to Grand Duke Nikolai
5 September 1915
At the beginning of the war I was unavoidably prevented from following the inclination of my soul to put myself at the head of the army. That was why I entrusted you with the Commandership-in-Chief of all the land and sea forces.
Under the eyes of the whole of Russia your Imperial Highness has given proof during the war of steadfast bravery which caused a feeling of profound confidence, and called forth the sincere good wishes of all who followed your operations through the inevitable vicissitudes of fortune of war.
My duty to my country, which has been entrusted to me by God, impels me to-day, when the enemy has penetrated into the interior of the Empire, to take the supreme command of the active forces and to share with my army the fatigues of war, and to safeguard with it Russian soil from the attempts of the enemy.
The ways of Providence are inscrutable, but my duty and my desire determine me in my resolution for the good of the State.
The invasion of the enemy on the Western front necessitates the greatest possible concentration of the civil and military authorities, as well as the unification of the command in the field, and has turned our attention from the southern front.
At this moment I recognize the necessity of your assistance and counsels on our southern front, and I appoint you Viceroy of the Caucasus and Commander-in-Chief of the valiant Caucasian Army.
I express to your Imperial Highness my profound gratitude and that of the country for your labours during the war.
Source: Source Records of the Great War, Vol. III, ed. Charles F. Horne, National Alumni 1923
Shrapnel comprised steel balls ejected from shells upon detonation.
- Did you know? | <urn:uuid:5c5b7460-8b78-4761-828d-044cedd5cc1d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://firstworldwar.com/source/russia_tsarincommand.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953443 | 503 | 2.296875 | 2 |
UN rights panel condemns Myanmar crackdown Mike Rosen-Molina at 12:34 PM ET
[JURIST] The UN General Assembly Third Committee Tuesday passed a draft resolution [press release] condemning the recent crackdown against political dissidents in Myanmar, calling on the country's military government to release all political prisoners and to cooperate with UN special envoy to Myanmar Ibrahim Gambari [official profile]. The resolution passed 88-24, with 66 abstentions, and now goes to the General Assembly itself. Myanmar's UN Ambassador U Kyaw Tint Swe criticized the resolution as an attempt to meddle in Myanmar's internal affairs and said it could hinder the country's efforts toward democracy. AP has more.
Gambari visited Myanmar [JURIST report] last month and returned in November to continue efforts to encourage the country's military junta to move toward democratization and reconciliation in the wake of the government crackdown against protesters which began in August. The crackdown started when Myanmar [JURIST news archive] security officers arrested hundreds of Buddhist monks demonstrating against rising fuel prices and human rights abuses by the military regime. Protests only subsided when junta troops effectively locked down Myanmar's major cities. At least 10 people were killed when government soldiers shot into protesting crowds [JURIST report] and the government has said that some 3,000 people were arrested for participating in the protests.
Paper Chase is JURIST's real-time legal news service, powered by a team of 30 law student reporters and editors led by law professor Bernard Hibbitts at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. As an educational service, Paper Chase is dedicated to presenting important legal news and materials rapidly, objectively and intelligibly in an accessible, ad-free format. | <urn:uuid:078408c1-cdaf-4a3b-9171-6624e37c0b32> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jurist.org/paperchase/2007/11/un-rights-panel-passes-resolution-on.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939915 | 351 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Cold Comfort: Winter-Friendly Veggies and Kale Chip Recipe
Think eating locally grown, planet-friendly food in the winter is impossible? Think again. Barbara Willard, an environmental studies professor at Chicago’s DePaul University, confirms that plenty of sustainable produce does well in winter. Whether you’re up for the gratifying challenge of growing your own, or prefer to buy all your produce, here are a few cold-weather-friendly veggies to consider.
- Brussels sprouts
- Winter squash
Of course, most winter veggies are well-known comfort food stars. But there are plenty of other, lighter ways to enjoy them, too. We’re currently obsessing over this kale chip recipe from Real Moms Love to Eat author Beth Aldrich. These healthy treats are packed with flavor, perfectly crispy, and completely addictive.
Paper-Thin Crisp Kale Chips
- 1 Tb. organic honey
- 1 Tb. olive oil
- 1 tsp. fresh-squeezed lime juice
- 1 bag/bunch kale
- 1 pinch sea salt
- Line a baking sheet with a silicone liner or waxed paper. In a bowl, combine honey, olive oil, and lime juice. Set aside.
- Rinse the kale under cool water and salad-spin-dry thoroughly. If the kale is not completely dry, the kale chips will not cook; they will steam. So spin-dry it a second time or third time.
- Rip the kale leaves into bite-size pieces, discarding the tough stems. Place them in a single layer on the baking sheet and lightly sprinkle them with the honey mixture. Dehydrate at 120 degrees for approximately 8 hours. If you don’t have a dehydrator, make these chips in your convection or regular oven at 350. Cook for 12-18 minutes.
- For either cooking method, check to see whether the chips are done by gently touching them. If they are paper-thin and crackly, they’re done. If soft and pliable, cook a little longer. Avoid overcooking chips. If they turn brown, they will taste bitter.
- Sprinkle with sea salt immediately after removing pan from the oven. (If you salt the chips before putting them in the oven, it will bring out the moisture in the kale and lengthen cooking time.)
Check out Field to Plate for more detailed seasonal picks in your state. Happy eatin’!
Have you checked out the Shedd Aquarium’s Right Bite program? They make it super easy to enjoy your seafood while supporting ocean-friendly fishing practices. Check out this video on a recent Right Bite Fish of the Month for more info.
Clothes-Minded: How to Green Your Laundry Routine
- Keep it cold: Ninety percent of the energy used in a wash cycle goes to heating the water, so going cold whenever possible is one easy way to save big on your energy bill. For tough stains, try presoaking as opposed to running a whole load with hot water. Or, if you do need hot or warm water for some items, go with a cold rinse after the initial wash cycle—it won’t affect the cleanliness at that point.
- Fill ‘er up: Opting for full loads is a more efficient use of your household energy. That said, don’t overload it—that can keep clothes from moving freely, which is important in getting ‘em clean.
- Break out the rack: Since the dryer is the second biggest electrical appliance hog in your home after the fridge, air-drying is one of the biggest ways to save energy. We know, we know, scratchy, stiff laundry isn’t super appealing. But using quality detergent and a liquid fabric softener will help keep those threads nice and soft.
- Maximize heat: When you do use the dryer, utilize the cool-down function. It’ll maximize heat that’s already built up to finish the drying process. Also, do more than one load in a row when you can to take advantage of that residual heat.
- Check those filters: Every time you use the dryer, clean the lint filter to keep efficiency up (and maintenance needs down, as overworking the appliance makes it run down faster). Similarly, have a look at the outdoor exhaust vent every once in a while to make sure it’s clear too.
Want extra credit? If your washer/dryer is more than 10 years old, choose an EnergyStar appliance next time you buy. If we all did that, we’d save 790 million kWh of electricity, 32 billion gallons of water, and 2 trillion BTUs of natural gas annually. Not sure what those numbers mean? They add up to about $350 million energy bill savings every year.
Open yourself up to any one of these green laundry choices, and you’ll score money savings and a cleaner environment while you’re at it. Not too shabby for an otherwise humdrum chore, huh?
A Whole New Ball Game: 5 Tasty Ways to Green Your Superbowl Party
Looking for fresh, green ideas for your Superbowl party? This weekend, root for your team, eco-style, with these five earth-friendly snack and drink ideas from some of Chicagoland’s best.
First up: beer, obviously. One of the easiest (and most fun) ways to green your drinking routine is to take the plunge and buy a keg. Or a pony keg. Or a sixth of a keg. Or a growler. Whatever makes sense—the point is, opting for one large reusable container versus a bunch of small bottles or cans saves resources. Here, our nominees for tasty local beer that’s available in such a format:
- A 1/6 keg of Great Lakes IPA or lager from Binnys, which has 27 locations around Chicagoland. Yes, there are breweries that are more local than this Ohio biz, but their focus on sustainability coupled with the fact that their beer a.) tastes good and b.) is actually available in a smallish keg (56 servings as opposed to 165 in a full keg) make ‘em a favorite in our book.
- Another big reco goes to Chicago’s own Half Acre. Again it scores high marks in the taste department, with a trio of solid ale options. Plus there’s the fact that it’s made uberlocally (hello, Northcenter) which helps you save all the resources associated with shipping. A new 64-ounce growler is $16 plus tax, or you can do refills on ‘em for $12.
And as for eco-snack ideas:
- Chips and dips: Pick up homemade chips and dips at City Provisions in Uptown, made locally with fresh, sustainable ingredients. For those outside the city’s North Side, just swing by your favorite natural foods store and pick up organic chips like Kettle’s classic Sea Salt ones, sustainably produced meats, and dips like Simply Organic’s savory Chipotle Black Bean Dip. Got a few extra minutes on your hand? Another great green option: pick up some fresh veggies and make your own chips. Rodale has some simple instructions here.
- Sandwiches: If you haven’t yet tried Hannah’s Bretzel’s creations, prepare to be awed by organic, local deliciousness. We’re thinking a platter of the organic turkey and farmhouse cheddar sandos should hit the spot. City Provisions also does a mean Italian sub.
- Sweets: The Bleeding Heart Bakery has us constantly swooning over its tempting organic baked goods. The February flavor of the month is red velvet with cream cheese frosting, and you can get it either in cupcake, cake, or cakeball form. Of course there are also a mind-boggling array of other flavors…Our pick for football fans: the Triple Chocolate Cakeball because it’s simple and to the point in its deliciousness.
Got other tips on greening a Superbowl party? Share ‘em with our community on Facebook!
Home Is Where the Heat Is: 9 Ways to Keep It That Way
There’s nothing like a good ol’-fashioned November flurry to remind us that in Chicago, winter takes up way more than its fair share of the year. And since for many of us, that’ll mean spending a whole lot more time at home, we thought we’d put together some handy tips and tricks for keeping your digs toasty all season long.
Of course it’s smart to do a little home winterization every fall, but it’s especially good for your wallet this year. That’s because just last month, the U.S. Energy Information Administration predicted that consumers will face higher fuel prices this winter—roughly 10 percent higher on average. So, without further ado…
- Fill in small cracks: To find a draft, slowly move an incense stick along floors, windows, doors, vents, and walls—the smoke will flutter around leaks. Clean and dry the crack, then squeeze caulk along it. Try low-VOC AFM Safecoat Multi-Purpose Caulking Compound (under $10). Why bother? Sealing gaps and leaks can boost a home’s heat efficiency by 5-30 percent a year.
- Insulate outlets and switches: Since electrical boxes penetrate into the wall cavity, outlets and switches potentially cause air leakage. Use 10-cent outlet and switch gaskets to make sure they don’t. Just remove the cover plate with a screwdriver, insert the pre-cut foam seal, then put the plate back on. It’s one of the cheapest and easiest ways to reduce energy loss.
- Make the most of existing windows: Get better windows without actually buying ‘em—just cut air infiltration with EnergySavr Window Inserts ($39-$89), clear, lightweight insulators that pop into the frame. Or try shrink-fit window insulators ($4.50-$11.50 at Green Depot), which seal on to the existing window with a hairdryer. That simple step can cut heating bills in half.
- Mind the furnace filter: Keep the filter free of debris like dust, bacteria, mold, and pollen, all which clog and slow down the furnace. If you’ve got a throwaway fiberglass panel filter, remember to replace it monthly. But, since these only trap 10-40 percent of pollutants, consider switching to a permanent filter, which can trap 90 percent. Keeping the furnace clean reduces energy use, keeps you from having to replace it earlier than necessary, and saves up to 5 percent of household heating costs.
- Decrease water heater temperature: Make sure the thermostat dial, often located near the bottom on the gas valve, is set appropriately. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recommends 120 degrees for optimum performance/efficiency. Lowering the temperature by 10 degrees saves about 13 percent on water heating costs.
- Protect the water heater: Drape the tank with a wrap or blanket. This helps keep water hot longer, so the heater doesn’t need to work as hard. A good one can cost about $40 at Green Home Experts, but owner Maria Onesto Moran explains that you can make that money back in utility savings within just five months.
- Heat rooms you use, when you use them: If you’ve got a programmable thermostat, remember to use it. If you don’t, it’s well worth forking over a few bucks. A Honeywell Basic Programmable Thermostat is listed under $30 and they’re easy to install in half an hour with just a hammer, screwdriver, and drill. Switching to a programmable thermostat can save up to 20 percent on heating costs, says People’s Gas.
- Run fans in reverse: Find the switch on the fan’s wire housing and change direction to clockwise. This pulls cool air up and circulates warmer air that’s pooled near the ceiling back around the room. Run the fan at its lowest speed. Reversing the direction cuts your heating costs as much as 10 percent.
- Had enough tips for one go? We dig it. But stay tuned: later this month we’ll get into bigger projects, like fixing leaky ductwork and insulating water pipes. Till then, stay warm!
Go With the Flow: Reducing Water Use in the Shower
Prefer to keep things simple when it comes to saving the world? Ease into water and energy savings one shower at a time. Every day, the average home uses about 30 gallons on showers alone. Big picture: that’s 1.2 trillion gallons of water going down the bath drain daily in the US—enough to supply the needs of New York and New Jersey for a year, says the EPA.
What does that have to do with you, aside from the obvious feel-good factor that comes with any sort of conservation? Spending the $5-$50 it takes to go with a low-flow shower head can save you big time on your energy bill—about as much as it takes to power your TV use for a year.
Not too shabby for something that reduces shower flow by half without skimping on water pressure. Why fight it?
Ready for more?
- Check out the US EPA WaterSense site for more tips and stats.
- Visit the Department of Energy’s ins and outs of installing low-flow fixtures.
- Pick one up at your neighborhood hardware store or scope out EarthEasy’s online options.
- Score bonus points for just cutting one minute out of your shower time. With a regular recently-made nozzle that’ll save you almost a thousand gallons of water a year.
Posted by Daisy Simmons on September 20th, 2011
No-Meat Market: Go Veg Mondays and Reduce Your Water Footprint
Looking for a new food fling? Flirt with this culinary adventure: Meatless Monday. For vegetarians and vegans, it’s a no-brainer that you can eat well without eating meat. But for the tried-and-true omnivores out there, that may just not be in the cards. Still, joining in the effort to skip meat consumption once a week can make a big difference in the long run—both in terms of mama earth’s and your own health.
How’s that? Well in terms of your health, upping fruit and veggie intake is always a good thing, from curbing obesity to reducing the risk of cancer to avoiding the heart disease associated with red and processed meat. And as far as natural resources go, meat requires far more land and water to produce. Example: Swapping out one quarter-pounder beef burger for a veggie patty saves major water—like 625 gallons of it. (Yes, each time.)
So go ahead—scope out some hot new, uh, recipes now.
Hungry for more details?
- Visit Meatless Monday’s Why Meatless Monday page for a full rundown on health and eco impacts.
- Browse popular meat-free recipes online at Vegetarian Times’ magazine.
- Consider taking a one-time vegetarian cooking class at a local spot like the Chopping Block.
Posts by Daisy Simmons | <urn:uuid:e15d3c29-6b97-4d9d-93d1-ef56cfcfd17f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ecomythsalliance.org/living-green/goeco-home/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.903415 | 3,268 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Recently my family and I took an enjoyable trip on one of America's many tourist railroads. We boarded the train and immediately felt as if we'd stepped back in time to the days when the railroad was king. The passenger cars were vintage and had such a nostalgic feel to them. Although we didn't walk into it, we enjoyed a peek into the caboose which trailed behind us on our daylong trip. Our conductor was a gentleman who loved to tell stories. He shared many of them as he spoke about the flora, fauna and history of the areas that we were passing by on our rail journey. He also told us about the history of the railroad, and the very train that we were riding that day.
Along the iron veins that traverse the frame of our country, beat and flow the fiery pulses of its exertion, hotter and faster every hour. All vitality is concentrated through those throbbing arteries into the central cities; the country is passed over like a green sea by narrow bridges, and we are thrown back in continually closer crowds on the city gates.
~ John Ruskin, 1819-1900
It was a special treat for me when the engineer took the time to stop and speak with us. With many years of experience as both fireman and engineer on a steam engine, he was able to tell me firsthand about the type of work that many of my ancestors had done for a living on the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad.
What a comfortable feeling to be carried along as a passenger on a train and watch the world go by out your window. It may be because of the fond memories that I have of childhood rail trips, or because of the knowledge that I have about my family's history with the railroads, but trains have always had a special place in my heart.
You are not the same people who left that station
Or who will arrive at any terminus,
While the narrowing rails slide together behind you.
~ T.S. Eliot, 1888-1965 | <urn:uuid:c2a6d5f8-ada2-44fe-9c42-823e7ac61456> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://small-leavedshamrock.blogspot.com/2008/05/along-iron-veins.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.989074 | 406 | 2.046875 | 2 |
Documents that Egyptian Jews laid to rest centuries ago in a kind of mausoleum for sacred texts--delicate, crumbling manuscripts that form a priceless archive of everyday life in the Middle Ages--have arrived in Chicago for an exhibition in the Spertus Museum.
The text storeroom, called a geniza, contained 250,000 manuscripts and fragments of manuscripts in Hebrew, most dating to the 11th to 13th Centuries. The exhibit is the most comprehensive showing of that collection ever mounted.
The fragile documents still exist, Spertus curator Jacob Lassner explained, because of the Jewish sensitivity to the use of God's name. Any text with references to the Almighty can't simply be discarded when it wears out, as might another book. Instead, it has to be accorded a proper resting place, as humans are.
Accordingly, the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo, like others, maintained a storeroom for sacred texts no longer usable by the congregation. The synagogue's geniza was discovered in the 1890s, a half-century before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
And although those ancient Hebrew manuscripts are far better known to the general public, Lassner contends that the geniza may be the more significant find. The Dead Sea Scrolls shed light on the evolution of ancient Judaism, but their scope is limited to purely religious matters in the Holy Land.
"The geniza manuscripts relate to virtually every aspect of life," said Lassner, a professor at Northwestern University. "They're the raw material for writing the social history of their age. They tell us something about life in the whole Mediterranean world during the Middle Ages."
Most of the material recovered from the synagogue's geniza isn't religious at all. When scholars sorted through the manuscripts they found tens of thousands of court records, real estate deeds, marriage contracts, divorce decrees, prescriptions, bills of sale, account books, business correspondence and personal letters.
Experts speculate the geniza came to include secular material because the prohibition on discarding sacred texts must have been enlarged to include any work written in Hebrew, probably on the grounds that it was considered a holy language.
Thus one document on exhibit in Spertus is a letter from a woman to her husband who had been away on a long business trip. She both scolds him and begs him to return, while letting him know exactly what he is in for should he disregard her pleas.
"[I] implore you from the bottom of our hearts not to go further, either by sea or by land, because we have heard that you have the intention of leaving for Turkey," she wrote. "I swear to the Lord that if you do this, you must not speak with us any more."
Presumably, after the sender and recipient had died, their heirs must have found the letter among the couple's effects and deposited it in the geniza. Enough other families must have done likewise that the Cairo geniza became a de facto archive of day-to-day life.
Because the materials are unique, it is impossible to put a price tag on them--except perhaps by noting that representatives of the institutions that lent them went to Chicago to place with their own hands the fragile manuscripts in Spertus' display cases.
Through Aug. 18, the public will be able to see 41 original texts from this treasure trove, plus archeological artifacts dating to the age of the geniza, interpretive displays and a mockup of the site of the discovery.
A clue to the existence of the geniza surfaced in 1896, when a Cambridge University lecturer found two Scottish women at his door asking whether he would look at a manuscript they'd bought on a trip to the Middle East.
He was Solomon Schechter, and his field was Jewish literature. They were Agnes Smith Lewis and Margaret Dunlop Gibson, twin sisters who were what used to be called "learned ladies"--women who were self-taught, vitally interested in scholarship but barred from university careers by their gender.
Schechter was amazed to find that their purchase was an ancient Jewish work, the Wisdom of Ben Sira. Until then, it was known only from later translations, which is why the ancient rabbis hadn't incorporated it in the canon of the Bible. The women's manuscript, though, contained the original Hebrew text.
Retracing his visitors' steps, Schechter was led to the Cairo synagogue and its storeroom.
Schechter first brought his discovery to Cambridge and later transferred part of the collection to the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York when he immigrated to the United States. Both institutions are loaning texts to the Spertus for the exhibit.
The geniza materials do not illuminate only Jewish life, observed Norman Golb, a professor in the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago. Arabic history would have a lot of blank pages if it weren't for those Scottish women. | <urn:uuid:46d12e51-dd54-4ee8-af1c-4348c40e029b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2001-10-21/news/0110210181_1_dead-sea-scrolls-texts-holy-land | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969423 | 1,011 | 3.1875 | 3 |
- Bronx Banter - http://www.bronxbanterblog.com -
I Gotta Be Me
Posted By Alex Belth On May 25, 2004 @ 8:29 am In Bronx Banter,Roger Angell,Sportswriting | Comments Disabled
While I was doing research on Curt Flood up at the Hall of Fame library last week, I took the opportunity to look up some of my favorite baseball writers. Pat Jordan, Lee Allen and Ed Linn were just a couple I had time to get to. In Roger Angell’s file, I found a lengthy interview that appeared in a literary publication called “Writing on the Edge.” Conducted in July of 1993 by Jared Haynes, Angell talked about writing and baseball of course. Here are some words of wisdom then from one of the true masters of baseball writing:
Good writing is based on clear thinking, which is the hardest thing we have to do. Itís as plain as that. Itís hard to start to write because what you have to do is start to think. And not just think with the easy, up front part of your brain but with the deeper, back parts of the unconscious. The unconscious comes into writing in a powerful way.
Article printed from Bronx Banter: http://www.bronxbanterblog.com
URL to article: http://www.bronxbanterblog.com/2004/05/25/i-gotta-be-me/
Copyright © 2011 Bronx Banter. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:67a937c9-1ce2-4306-86a3-1faac0ba9b3c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bronxbanterblog.com/2004/05/25/i-gotta-be-me/print/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96048 | 321 | 1.515625 | 2 |
At the same time, our friends of the other hemisphere are at the top of their daylight empire, which is slightly declining.
December 20 and December 23 solstices occur less frequently than December 21 or December 22 solstices in the Gregorian calendar. It confirms once again that we measure time with rather relative parameters, while our earth simply doesn’t care for dates we have fixed, but keeps on with its regular movement to be always back to the same place at the due moment.
Only the natural phenomena are common for all the inhabitants of this little planet, and if there is ever any absolute value, it can be found only in them,
From the origin of their story, which is ours of course, human beings have always been scared by darkness and have worshipped light, as force of life and source of renewed natural energy.
So we find in all ancient culture ritual celebrations to welcome the return of light, leading slowly but securely to the next spring and, as a consequence, to the next promising harvest.
I have always enjoyed the symbolism of lights in the heart of winter. In many North European countries, where winter lights is even more reduced, people have the habit to light a candle on the windowsill when they come back home from work .
I liked that moment of the day when I was in Estonia. We lit up candles and we sat comfortably drinking something before dinner, while outdoors even the fields covered with snow looked dark in the total obscurity. | <urn:uuid:f51e6f1c-57e9-4248-a9a2-4eaaa721f44f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.marisalivet.com/3/post/2012/12/winter-solstice.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965657 | 299 | 2.3125 | 2 |
Grant Will Help Professor Develop Battery to Aid Home Energy Use
Friday, 28 September 2012 10:23 CDT
Research by a University of Kansas School of Engineering professor has the potential to reduce stress on the nation’s strained power grid and increase energy savings for consumers.
Trung Van Nguyen, professor of chemical and petroleum engineering, is leading an effort to develop a durable, low-cost battery capable of gathering power at off-peak hours and storing it for use during times of high demand.
Nguyen has partnered with researchers from Vanderbilt University and Lawrence-based fuel cell research and development business TVN Systems Inc. on a three-year, $1.72 million grant from the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) of the U.S. Department of Energy. The project is one of 19 transformative new projects that will receive a total of $43 million in funding from ARPA-E to leverage the nation’s brightest scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs to develop breakthrough energy storage technologies and support promising small businesses.
This grant seeks to transition energy storage technology from the laboratory to industry and builds on new knowledge and materials that were discovered through a $2 million National Science Foundation grant Nguyen and other collaborators received in 2010 to develop flow battery technologies.
Nguyen’s efforts focus on meeting two key areas for improvement identified by the Department of Energy. The first is to develop a system that allows the current electrical grid to more fully utilize renewable energy sources like solar and wind power, especially wind.
“Wind is a very variable source of energy and cannot be hooked to the electrical grid. It just can’t handle that type of fluctuation. It would cause the system to overload. So the only way for us to deploy more wind is to deploy some type of storage. If our approach works, it would satisfy that,” Nguyen said.
The Energy Department also has identified energy storage at the community and residential level as a key goal. Nguyen’s team is researching a battery that could be manufactured for use in households for around $1,000.
The battery would be installed during new home construction or major renovation.
The idea is to safely enclose it in a 3-foot by 3-foot strongbox and then bury it in the ground. It would be self-contained and could store enough charge to last about four hours while creating no waste or byproducts.
“You could take in electricity at night when it’s less expensive and store it to power your home during times when power usage is at its peak,” Nguyen said. “If every home could do that, you lower peak power demands and reduce the strain on the electrical grid. It would also provide homeowners with backup in times of power outages, such as severe weather.”
Nguyen’s team must deal with the challenges of keeping the battery stable and reliable. Team members are employing innovative technology to develop a membrane that prevents chemicals inside the battery from mixing, which could cause it to short out. The team also is utilizing a new method to develop a catalyst that can withstand the powerful chemicals inside the battery and keep it functional for years.
“This two-pronged approach is one of the things that makes our project so attractive. If one system fails, there’s still another method in place to keep the system running,” Nguyen said.
The ARPA-E grant spans three years, but researchers must reach certain goals within the first 12 months to receive funding for the second and third years.
“In that first year, we have to prove that this new membrane material can do its job. We have to prove that this new catalyst can do its job in terms of activity and stability. If we pass that first year, then we move to phase two, which is to develop a prototype from a single cell all the way to the full system,” Nguyen said. “We are confident we can deliver and look forward to the challenge.”
Nguyen’s team is set to officially receive the grant and begin work on the project Oct. 1. | <urn:uuid:a6592a15-e197-48ff-a1ba-631ec76d73e1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.engr.ku.edu/news/2012-09-28/grant-will-help-professor-develop-battery-aid-home | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962333 | 849 | 2.34375 | 2 |
Most Active Stories
Fri January 11, 2013
Jindal Declares Emergency Because of Storms
Gov. Bobby Jindal declared a statewide emergency Thursday after storms rolled across Louisiana, dumping huge amounts of rain and causing flooding in some areas.
The declaration lets Louisiana use state money to help local governments deal with flooding and storm
A slow-moving storm system dumped almost a foot of rain in some areas as it moved east, causing rivers to swell and flooding streets in some urban areas.
No injuries were reported, though authorities suspect a tornado may have been the cause of damage at an industrial plant near Baton Rouge.
Forecasters warned that another round of rain was likely across the state over the weekend. | <urn:uuid:d13ca652-b356-40c6-852f-49f8ab02e4b2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wwno.org/post/jindal-declares-emergency-because-storms | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933658 | 141 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Are Teachers Overpaid or Underpaid? – Survey of the Day
Although it varies from state to state, the average salary of a public school teacher in the United States is about $50,000 a year. For comparison sake, the average full-time worker in any profession has a median personal income of about $39,000 a year. Are teachers getting the better end of the stick?
According to a new survey from Poll Position of 1142 adults, they’re not. Fifty-six percent think teachers are underpaid, 13 percent think they are overpaid, 24 percent said they make the right amount, and eight percent didn’t have an opinion on the issue.
Interestingly, 18- to 29-year-olds are the demographic most likely to think teachers are underpaid. Suggesting that the younger a person is, the more likely they are to remember the good their teachers have done. (Or perhaps they are more likely to remember all the hell they put their teachers through.) | <urn:uuid:d140937e-4d6e-4886-8dfd-f86a14eae2d5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kkcb.com/teachers-overpaid-underpaid-survey/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979491 | 205 | 2 | 2 |
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- West Virginia's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was unchanged in January at 7.4 percent.
WorkForce West Virginia said Tuesday that the number of unemployed state residents increased by 100 to 60,300.
The goods-producing sector saw an employment gain of 1,500, while the service-providing sector lost 600 jobs.
Within the goods-producing sector, job gains included 1,100 in logging and mining, and 400 in construction.
Within the service-providing sector, job gains of 800 in leisure and hospitality and 600 in financial activities were offset by declines of 1,000 in government and 800 in educational and health services.
Nationally, the unemployment rate rose slightly to 7.9 percent in January.
West Virginia's unadjusted unemployment rate rose a full percentage point in January to 8.3 percent. | <urn:uuid:d2e35864-d9df-48e9-b8f9-a4fbedb03e8c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wvgazette.com/News/201303050255 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953324 | 178 | 1.882813 | 2 |
Soldiers Enjoy Gift Of Alabama Peanuts
They work long hot hours, facing injury and even death as they serve our country, and at the end of the day they return to care packages filled with...peanuts? Yes, that's right, U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq receive boxes filled with many different items, but one battalion stationed in Mosul, Iraq had a craving for something a bit out of the ordinary. They wanted homegrown Alabama peanuts.
|Sgt. Maj. Steve Boatwright of the 115th Signal Battalion holds some of the 2,000 packets of Alabama peanuts shipped to soldiers in Iraq.|
After the city of Dothan and a local Christian radio station sent boxes filled with inspirational CDs and CD players to Iraq, Sgt. Maj. Steve Boatwright of the 115th Signal Battalion, a group composed of men from small towns throughout northwest Alabama, wrote an email to the city of Dothan expressing his thanks for the CDs and making an unusual request.
"I'm a little embarrassed to ask," Boatwright wrote, "but is there any way that I could get some of the world-famous Alabama peanuts for my soldiers?"
Dothan Mayor Chester Sowell forwarded Boatwright's request to the Alabama Peanut Producers Association (APPA), and they donated more than 2,000 half-ounce peanut packets, which were shipped to Iraq.
"Peanuts are just so good to eat, and they are a source of quick energy as well," said Boatwright, who is an avid gardener and even is growing some vegetables in a small plot in Iraq. "Peanuts are something that everybody seems to like, and good things do come in small packages," he added. "I have had some of my soldiers say the peanuts bring back memories of Little League baseball games or Friday night high school football."
Teresa Wilson, information specialist for the APPA, said while it is not out of the ordinary to receive requests for peanuts from people who want to use them for promotional purposes, it was unusual to hear from soldiers. "This is kind of a different thing," she said, "...but we knew all of the troops would appreciate a taste of Alabama peanuts."
The Dothan area has long been known for its peanuts, and approximately 65 percent of the peanuts produced in the United States are grown within a 100-mile radius of the southeast Alabama city. Not only does the area produce tons of the nutritious and versatile nut, but Dothan peanuts also are famous for their quality and taste. "We consider ourselves the 'Peanut Capital of the World.'" Sowell said. "We've got the best peanuts in the world, so it just makes sense [that soldiers would ask for peanuts]."
Since receiving the peanuts, Boatwright and his soldiers have been sharing their packets with other troops, and the word about Alabama peanuts has spread. Now, troops from northern states are asking for their own peanut packages, said Wilson.
"We just didn't realize how far they'd go," she said. "They could have asked for anything, but we were real proud that they asked for Alabama peanuts."
The soldiers aren't the only ones benefiting from the connection between Dothan and Iraq. Wilson and others at the APPA have enjoyed forming a bond with Boatwright as they continue to receive emails regularly from him. "It's kind of nice to keep in touch with someone over there and to let him know that our thoughts and prayers are with them," Wilson said.
APPA is a division of the Alabama Farmers Federation. | <urn:uuid:faea5161-bd17-415a-a71d-ea34617fa7a1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.alfafarmers.org/friendsnfamily/friendsnfamilyStory.phtml?id=4035 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980888 | 726 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Posted by Brigham and Women's Hospital December 4, 2012
You’ve probably seen the signs at your doctor’s office, pharmacy, or local health department over the past few months: “Get Your Flu Vaccine Here.” But do you know why you need a flu vaccine every year and what’s the best time to get vaccinated? Read on to get the flu facts.
- What is the flu?
Influenza (flu) is an infection of the nose, throat, and lungs caused by flu viruses. Symptoms of the flu include fever, muscle aches, sore throat, and a nonproductive cough. There are three major groups of flu viruses: Types A, B, or C. Within each group there are many different strains of flu viruses and they change frequently. Type A and B flu strains cause the most serious illness.
Seasonal flu is not a specific type of flu virus. It refers to the group of flu viruses that cause illness each year from late fall to early winter. These viruses usually reappear each winter in slightly different forms. Each spring, public health experts from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the World Health Organization (WHO) review scientific information to determine which flu viruses are most likely to cause illness in the upcoming flu season.
The 2012-2013 flu vaccine covers two Type A viruses and one Type B virus. According the FDA, it’s especially important to get a flu shot this year because two of the three viruses covered by this year’s vaccine are different from last year. Plus, the CDC notes that this year’s vaccine is a good match with the flu strains that have been reported so far.
- Should I receive the seasonal flu vaccine?
The CDC recommends that anyone over six months of age should receive the seasonal flu vaccine.
It’s especially important that people who have a higher risk of complications from the seasonal flu, including young children (over 6 months), pregnant women, people aged 65 and older, people with weakened immune systems, and people with heart, lung, or kidney disease.
Though allergic reactions to the flu vaccine are rare, the CDC cautions that people who have life-threatening allergies, including allergies to eggs, talk to their doctor before getting a flu vaccine.
Vaccines are given in one of two forms: by injection or through administration of a nasal spray. Both protect against the same flu strains. The flu shot contains inactivated (killed) flu virus and is approved for use in healthy people older than 6 months and people with chronic health conditions. The nasal spray is made with a weakened form of live flu virus. The nasal spray vaccine is approved for healthy people between the ages of 2 and 49, except pregnant women.
- Can I still get the flu if I’ve been vaccinated?
If you are exposed to a strain of flu virus that is not covered by this year’s vaccine, there is a possibility you may get ill; however, your illness may be milder. According to the FDA, this is because certain flu viruses may be similar enough to those that are covered by the vaccine to provide some benefit.
And while vaccination is the best way to prevent the flu, you still should continue to focus on flu prevention throughout the flu season (October through March). Take care of yourself: eat right, exercise, and rest. Frequent hand washing, covering your nose or mouth with a tissue when sneezing, and avoiding contact with sick people are also important steps to staying healthy.
- When should I get vaccinated?
Flu season begins in October and peaks in February. If you haven’t yet gotten vaccinated, there is still time, especially if there are flu outbreaks in your area. According to the CDC, getting vaccinated as late as December will still be beneficial. To see flu outbreaks in your area, visit Flu Near You.
- Where can I get more information about flu vaccination?
Speak with your physician about flu vaccination, especially if you are in a high-risk group or have allergies. Flu.gov, a website created by the US Department of Health and Human Services also has plenty of helpful information, including how to find a flu clinic near you. The CDC is also a good source of information about the flu, vaccination, and prevention. They even have an influenza app so you can get flu facts on the go.
- Jamie R | <urn:uuid:7df63301-041a-440a-814a-9100b700907b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://healthhub.brighamandwomens.org/confused-about-flu-vaccinations-get-the-flu-facts | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965394 | 916 | 3.359375 | 3 |
In the future we will have cars, which are powered by wind. Some of these cars will be hybrids or combination propelled vehicles where wind will be one of the components and indeed there may even be pure wind-powered vehicles at a later date, as the technology gets better. But how can we mass-produce these wind-powered vehicles of the future using current manufacturing technologies of today?
Well as far as manufacturing these vehicles professionally, this is not so difficult as it might seem. I believe a modern Seadoo factory, semi robotic assisted would suffice. Of course to have production rates this high, means you need massive amounts of buyers too so before you start you must consider the order numbers. So, provided the sales teams and promotional teams could enlighten the masses and spark intrigue this could be done on a large scale. As a marketer myself this does not seem so difficult and as long a gasoline prices continue to be $3.00 and over you can bet that people would want to look into the wind-powered cars.
There are of course other issues as well such as the price of the cars must be within reason for the average consumer and the fuel savings of the assisted wind-powered cars or partial wind-powered hybrid vehicles would need to be significant to make it all worth while for the buyers. And this comes way before the manufacturing considerations even though we need to know our costs to produce them prior to figuring out what we can sell them for. Consider all this in 2006.
"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/
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Jean ArpArticle Free Pass
Jean Arp, also called Hans Arp (born September 16, 1887, Strassburg, Germany [now Strasbourg, France]—died June 7, 1966, Basel, Switzerland), French sculptor, painter, and poet who was one of the leaders of the European avant-garde in the arts during the first half of the 20th century.
First trained as an artist in his native Strasbourg, he later studied in Weimar, Germany, and at the Académie Julian in Paris. In 1912 he went to Munich, where, through his friend Wassily Kandinsky, he became briefly associated with Der Blaue Reiter. He returned to Paris in 1914 and became acquainted with the artists Modigliani, Picasso, and Robert Delaunay, as well as with the writer Max Jacob. During World War I he took refuge in Zürich, where he became one of the founders of the Dada movement. It was there that he produced his first painted reliefs. After the war he lived in Germany until 1924, when he and his wife, the artist Sophie Taeuber, whom he had married in 1921, settled near Paris in the town of Meudon. During the 1920s he was associated with the Surrealists, and in 1930 he was a member of the Cercle et Carré group. This was also the year in which he made his first papiers déchirés (“torn papers”). In 1931 he participated in the Abstraction-Création movement. During World War II he again went to live in Zürich, where his wife died in 1943. While in Switzerland he did his first papiers froissés (“crumpled papers”). After the war Arp returned to Meudon, where he continued his experiments with abstract form and colour and wrote poetry. Arp on Arp: Poems, Essays, Memories by Jean Arp (1972) and Arp’s Collected French Writings (1974) were edited by Marcel Jean.
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A friend of mine has purchased seeds for her garden. I can't remember what they are called, something like heirloom seeds or something. They are supposed to be seeds that have never been cross germinated or altered from the original plants of our grand parents or great grand parents era.
Unfortunately science is not always in our best interest.
Sharon in NW PA I always wanted my own library but I didn't realize it would be all knitting books!
I have saved seeds from my garden forever and trade with people who have done the same. IMO, fruits and veggies that are "heirloom" quality have the best flavor but frequently are not shipped because they can't stand up to the process.
I grew a French melon last season that was beyond delicious, but so fragile, there is no way that would be grown and shipped all over the country. This is another reason I buy locally and support local farmers if I can't grow it myself. | <urn:uuid:07cddc33-cb7c-4f5a-a5fc-76ae593d72da> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://knittersreview.com/forum/topic.asp?whichpage=1&TOPIC_ID=102434 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98463 | 198 | 1.945313 | 2 |