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Having just concluded perhaps the first formal (i.e., well-controlled) ethological analysis of rough-and-tumble play in the human species in the late 1990s, where laughter was an abundant response, I had the “insight” (perhaps delusion) that our 50-kHz chirping response in playing rats might have some ancestral relationship to human laughter. The morning after, I came to the lab and asked my undergraduate assistant at the time to “come tickle some rats with me.”
Over the ensuing years Panksepp and his research assistants systematically conducted study after study on rat laughter, revealing a striking overlap between the functional and expressive characteristics of this chirping response in young rodents and laughter in young human children. To elicit laughter in his rat pups, Panksepp used a technique that he called “heterospecific hand play,” which is essentially just jargon for tickling.
Rats are particularly ticklish, it seems, in their nape area, which is also where juveniles target their own play activities such as pinning behavior [when one rat pins another on its back]. Panksepp soon found that the most ticklish rats—which, empirically, means simply those rats that emitted the most frequent, robust and reliable 50-kHz chirps in human hands—were also the most naturally playful individuals among the rat subjects. And he discovered that inducing laughter in young rats promoted bonding: tickled rats would actively seek out specific human hands that had made them laugh previously. In addition, and as would be expected in humans, certain aversive environmental stimuli dramatically reduced the occurrence of laughter among rodent subjects.
For example, even when tickling stimulation was kept constant, chirping diminished significantly when the rat pups got a whiff of cat odor, when they were very hungry or when they were exposed to unpleasant bright lights during tickling. Panksepp also discovered that adult females were more receptive to tickling than males, but in general it was difficult to induce tickling in adult animals “unless they have been tickled abundantly when young.” Finally, when rat pups were given the choice between two different adults—one that still spontaneously chirped a lot and one that did not—they spent substantially more time with the apparently happier grown-up rat.
Perhaps not surprisingly, Panksepp has encountered an unfortunate resistance to his interpretation of this body of findings, especially among his scientific colleagues. Yet he protests:
We have tried to negate our view over and over, and have failed to do so. Accordingly, we feel justified in cautiously advancing and empirically cultivating the theoretical possibility that there is some kind of an ancestral relationship between the playful chirps of juvenile rats and infantile human laughter.
Now, Panksepp would be the first to acknowledge that his findings do not imply that rats have a “sense of humor,” only that there appear to be evolutionary contiguities between laughter in human children during rough-and-tumble play and the expression of similar vocalizations in young rats. A sense of humor—especially adult humor—requires cognitive mechanisms that may or may not be present in other species. He does suggest, however, that this may be an empirically falsifiable question: “If a cat … had been a persistently troublesome feature of a rat's life, might that rat show a few happy chirps if something bad happened to its nemesis? Would a rat chirp if the cat fell into a trap or was whisked up into the air by its tail? We would not recommend such mean-spirited experiments to be conducted but would encourage anyone who wishes to go in that direction to find more benign ways to evaluate those issues.”
Differences between laughing “systems” among mammals are reflected by cross-species structural differences in brain regions as well as in vocal architecture. In the same issue of Behavioural Brain Research, neuropsychologist Martin Meyer and his colleagues describe these differences in rich detail. Although brain-imaging studies of human participants watching funny cartoons or listening to jokes reveal the activation of evolutionarily ancient structures such as the amygdala and nucleus accumbens, more recently evolved, “higher-order” structures are also activated, including distributed regions of the frontal cortex. So although nonhuman primates laugh, human humor seems also to involve more specialized cognitive networks that are unshared by other species. | <urn:uuid:096f3bc2-0ab4-4886-89b9-8f55ae465767> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=rats-laugh-but-not-like-human&page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977607 | 918 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Thelonious Monk, American Composer
Masters of American Music
Masters of American Music is an award-winning television series of ten shows that celebrate a pantheon of the greatest innovators in Jazz. Both the video and audio content now has been restored and remastered in accordance with state-of-the-art specifications, employing award-winning tools exclusively for this production.
Produced by Toby Byron, it was the first TV series devoted to Jazz. Individual programmes trace the lives and works of master musicians who defined the course of America's classical music. From its birth in New Orleans, to swing, the big bands, bebop, free Jazz and beyond: all of it is explored with sensitivity and in unique depth.
Through a more personal and conversational style of documentary, American Composer was the first fully rounded portrait of Monk, a terribly misunderstood man and musician. He was the pianistic ringleader of the bebop revolution and, after Duke Ellington, Jazz’ first major composer.
Thelonious Sphere Monk - a most original talent - remained a highly productive musician after more than thirty years of musical activity and continued to be a growing artist- exploring his art and extending his range. In 1964, Thelonious Monk had “arrived” appearing on the cover of Time Magazine.
With Thelonious Monk III, Ben Riley, Billy Taylor, Orrin Keepnews, Randy Weston. Filmed at Minton's Playhouse, New York City.
Duration : 01 h 00 min
Production date : 1991
Production : © East Stinson Inc. Toby Byron / Multiprises
Available version(s) : VOST FR | <urn:uuid:44eb94c5-b6d2-4b5a-ab8b-472b1286abe5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.medici.tv/?_escaped_fragment_=/masters-of-american-music-thelonious-monk-american-composer | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929869 | 344 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Benefits of Aquatic Therapy in Rehabilitation
Everyone knows how good it feels to take a dip in the pool on a hot day, and how water can relax you and relieve tired muscles. But did you know that it can add a boost to your physical therapy routine as well? When part of an overall plan for rehabilitation, aquatic therapy has a number of advantages:
1. Less pressure. The buoyancy of the water decreases the amount of pressure, or compressive forces, on your joints and spine. When you’re immersed in water up to your neck, the weight pressing down on your body is reduced by 90%. When the water is up to your waist, the pressure is reduced by 50%. This can be especially helpful after surgery, when your body is healing and you need to be careful about how much weight is placed on the surgical site.
2. Reduced swelling. The pressure of the water helps to move fluid from the injured area back into the body. Decreased swelling is essential for regaining the strength and motion needed for recovery.
3. Decreased pain. Water slows and buffers movement, which then decreases the incidence of pain. Warm water helps to decrease muscle spasms as well.
4. Ease of movement. Water is a medium that supports and assists movement. It offers a safe and pain-free setting for you to focus on regaining strength and joint range of motion.
5. Faster progress. Aerobic conditioning can often be performed in the water even when it may be too soon or too difficult to do in the gym. Staying stable in the water challenges your core and balance, and sports-specific activity can begin earlier than it can on land. Aqua running can produce cardiovascular results with less impact on your joints.
6. It’s fun! Water is a constantly changing environment that can keep you challenged and motivated during your recovery.
If you’d like to give it a try, talk to your doctor or physical therapist to help you decide whether or not aquatic therapy is right for you.
Sarah Killian, physical therapist, is certified by the Aquatic Therapy & Rehab Institute and offers aquatic therapy services at the Sports Rehabilitation and Performance Center at Hospital for Special Surgery. | <urn:uuid:2fbacb2f-9773-42f4-add0-dc8ec48cdda1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hss.edu/onthemove/fitness-friday-benefits-of-aquatic-therapy-in-rehabilitation/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960243 | 455 | 2.390625 | 2 |
During the Storm
What to do when a storm is hitting your area.
When a hurricane hits, do everything you can to protect yourself: Stay inside, away from windows and doors.
If you do not feel safe during the storm, head immediately to the “safe room” in your home.
Old storm TV sets now require converter box Now that television is digital, TV sets that get only broadcast signals, using rabbit ears or roof antennas — including that emergency TV you bought — won’t work.
During a storm, more people are trying to use their phones at the same time. The increased calling volume may create network congestion, leading to “fast busy” signals on your wireless phone or a slow dial tone on your landline phone.
Radar maps, latest news, videos and more to keep you current on the latest storm developments.
What to do when a storm threatens or is approaching
Tips on how to survive and recover after a storm
Ads By Google | <urn:uuid:dd7e79a6-821d-4b51-b80d-15ef3f955491> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wftv.com/s/weather/hurricane/during-the-storm/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924145 | 205 | 2.203125 | 2 |
Apr. 17, 2007 Breastfeeding can offset the increased risk of invasive breast cancer for women who had their first full-term pregnancy after the age of 25, a study led by researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) suggests.
"Breastfeeding may have a protective effect that negates the increased risk of breast cancer associated with late pregnancies," says Giske Ursin, M.D., Ph.D, associate professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. "As more women may choose to delay pregnancy until after 25, it is important to note that breastfeeding provides protection against both estrogen and progesterone receptor positive and negative tumors."
While having a first full-term pregnancy before the age of 25 and having many children protect against the type of breast cancers that express estrogen and progesterone receptors, these factors do not protect against the rarer tumors that do not have these receptors. Breastfeeding, however, appears to protect against both types of breast tumors, Ursin says.
Researchers analyzed data for women aged 55 and older--including 995 invasive breast cancer patients--who participated in the Women's Contraceptive and Reproductive Experiences (CARE) Study. The women varied by their age at first birth, their breastfeeding history and hormone receptor status.
Previous results from the Women's CARE Study have shown that early age at first pregnancy (younger than 25) and having many children (defined as four or more) are associated with a lower risk of breast cancer, Ursin says. Researchers sought to gain a better understanding of the associations between reproductive factors and breast cancer risk in women with a late age at first birth, she says.
Breastfeeding appears to have a protective effect regardless of when women started giving birth, Ursin says. This is important since having many children was only protective among women who gave birth early, she says. Giving birth after age 25--the average age that women in the U.S. first give birth, according to Census data--was associated with increased risk of hormone receptor negative breast cancer.
"Evidence suggests that women who have children after age 25 can reduce their risk of breast cancer by choosing to breastfeed," Ursin says.
The study was funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and by the National Cancer Institute.
The findings of the study were presented at a news conference on Monday, April 16 at the 2007 annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research held in Los Angeles.
Reference: Sarah J. Lord, Leslie Bernstein, Karen Johnson, Kathi Malone, Linda Weiss. Jill McDonald, Giske Ursin, "Parity, breastfeeding and breast cancer risk by hormone receptor status in women with late age at first birth--A Case Control Study."
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead. | <urn:uuid:9762c9d2-9f7e-4abd-985f-5c47891296da> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070416193310.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959179 | 593 | 2.75 | 3 |
Roman Catholic - Immaculate Conception
THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF MARY
WAS MARY SINLESS?
One particular branch of Christianity, Roman Catholicism, holds firmly to a teaching called the “immaculate conception” of Mary. This teaching is very important to their understanding of who Mary was, what she did, and what she has been doing since she died and went to heaven. The interesting thing about this Catholic teaching is that many Catholics have it confused with another teaching of the church, the virgin birth of Christ. I have personally asked many Catholics what the Immaculate Conception means and I have rarely had even one give me the correct answer. You would think that being such an important doctrine that all Catholics would understand its meaning and implications.
Lets begin by comparing the virgin conception with the immaculate conception and in doing so clarify the issue. The virgin birth or conception has to do with the fact that Mary conceived Jesus unlike any woman before her or after her. She did not conceive through the seed of a man but rather through the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit. Luke bears out this truth in Luke 1.
Luke 1:30-35, “Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end." Then Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I do not know a man?" And the angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.”
God had several reasons why He chose to have Jesus enter the world in this manner. First of all it would be a sign to the house of David as recorded in Isaiah 7:12-14. Secondly, if Christ was born as the product of a natural conception than He could not be the sinless Savior Who would take away the sins of the world. All born in the line of Adam by natural procreation are born with a fallen nature and become sinners and therefore become unfit to serve as a sacrifice even for themselves. However, since Jesus was conceived directly by God He by passed this fallen nature and in doing so became the sinless Son of God (Heb. 4:15). A perfect sacrifice, without spot or blemish that through His righteousness all who put their faith in Him will enter into heaven. Paul brings this truth forth wonderfully in the book of Romans when he writes,
Rom 5:12-17, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned — (For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man's offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.)
A third reason for the need of the virgin birth has to do with the origins of Jesus. Jesus existed before man’s existence because He is the eternal God, the God of Creation, the God of Genesis 1:1, equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit (John 8:58; John 1:1-4). Therefore when God created man in His image, He did so by placing within the physical body of man a spirit, a finite version of His infinite being. With this said, the definition of human life is a spirit or soul (the image of God) dwelling in a physical body (1 Cor. 5:1-5; James 2:26; Phil. 1:21-24; 2 Cor. 6:5-8). With this definition clearly stated by God, then no matter what state of development man is in, whether a one cell fetus in a womb or an 80 year old adult, he is truly human. This give worth to all men, from the moment of conception to the moment of death thus abortion and euthanasia are truly the taking of human life.
If Mary had conceived naturally, then a human spirit would have been conceived to dwell in the body of Jesus and is true in all human conception. However, no such spirit was necessary for Christ already was a Spirit, the image of God Himself. Therefore, to become human God only needed to created a physical body in which the Spirit, Jesus, might dwell for all of eternity. This could only be accomplished through the virgin conception and birth of Jesus Christ.
The immaculate conception, on the other hand, has to do with the conception of Mary, not Jesus. It is held by the Catholic Church that for Mary’s womb to hold God as He formed into a baby, then she too had to be sinless. Thus it is the Catholic position that Mary was conceived, born, and lived a sinless life to be a chosen and holy vessel of the Savior. In light of this teaching, it is believed that Mary was kept a virgin (she is often called “The Perpetual Virgin”) and though married to Joseph, never had sexual relations with Him. The so called brothers and sisters of Jesus were actually the children of Joseph and a second wife. Because of her sacred conception and calling, Mary is held today by the Catholic Church on a level equal to Jesus. She is called the Mother of God, she is omnipresent as she may be prayed to at anytime through the rosary, and she has even recently been declared a co-redeemer with Christ.
Now that we understand the meaning of the Immaculate Conception, the question must be asked, is it true? The answer from the Bible is no for several reasons.
1) First, all individuals selected of God for a special purpose from the moment of conception were fully aware of their specialcalling. Two examples of this are Samson and John theBaptist. Mary on the other hand is not aware that she has been chosen by God and did see herself as no different thanof her peers (Luke 1:26-38).
2) There are no scriptural references to Mary being conceived or born in any nique way. It is not until 431 AD at the council of Ephesus is the term Mother of God” ascribed to her and notuntil 1854 AD that Immaculate Conception of Mary was proclaimed by Pope Pius IX.
3) Thirdly, Mary speaks of Jesus as her Savior (Lk. 1:47). A sinless person does not need a Savior but a sinner does. The Bible is very clear that born of Adam and Eve are sinners with one exception, the God/man, Christ Jesus
Rom 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”
1 Cor 15:22-23. “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.”
Gal 3:22, “But the Scripture has confined all under sin, thatthe promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.”
1 John 1:8-10, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”
4) Fourthly, Mary did have normal marital sexual relations with her husband Joseph as declared in Matt. 1:25. Matt 1:24-25, “Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name Jesus.
Therefore the brothers and sisters mentioned of Jesus would have been his half brothers and sisters having the same mother but not the same father (Matt. 12:46-47; Matt.13:55-56). Please also note that in the time of Jesus polygamy was not practiced. In fact one is hard pressed to find any reference to polygamy being practiced during NT times.
5) Fifthly, 1 Cor. 12:13 indicates that the Holy Spirit dwells within the soul of every believer from the moment of Salvation on. If God could indwell even though we still sin it is no difficulty for Christ to have dwelt in the body of Mary even though she sinned as every human does.
6) Sixthly, never does it ever say that Mary is the Mother of God! To imply this is to destroy to key truths of Scripture. First it would imply that God is not eternal and secondly it would imply that someone other than God is equal with God. Mary was the mother of man Jesus or the physical side of Jesus but was in no way the mother of the deity of Christ. Therefore she can not be a co-redeemer neither can Saints pray to her and expect to get an answer. God clearly says we have only one intercessor between God and man and that is Christ Jesus (1 Tim. 2:5).
7) Finally, after the Resurrection Mary falls into obscurity. She is mentioned once in Acts and after that silence. She was cared for by John and she probably died at an old age. No mention is made of her death or her burial. The reason I believe this took place was at the bidding of the Holy Spirit. God knew that if Mary were to play a prominent role in the NT Church that there would be the danger that some in the Church might worship her. Even with the silence about her later years, yet many today worship her with more fervency than they do the Savior whom she carried.
In conclusion, Mary was a normal woman, no different than any other woman with two exceptions. She was a Saint of God and she was chosen to carry the Savior of the world. She was a great woman of faith just as Sarah, Rebekah, Rahab, Ruth, Hannah, Esther, Elizabeth and the list could go on and on. She is to be respected for the life she lived but it should be noted that she should never be worshipped, prayed too, or considered a co-redeemer. Only to God can we rightly ascribe those things. Salvation lies in Jesus Christ, and Him alone (John 14:6). Any other way to God will fail! | <urn:uuid:8530eaba-c892-4794-b07f-ba51b584fa7d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gbcwashingtonin.com/BST%20-%20Roman%20Cath%20-%20Was%20Mary%20Sinless.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980533 | 2,388 | 2.078125 | 2 |
8a Treport St
London SW1B 2BP
Tel: 01-874 3262
To provide a world-wide network with information and publications about the human rights situation in Indonesia and East Timor. To campaign for the release of political prisoners. To inform people about the annexation of East Timor and the right to self-determination of the West Papuans.
Monitoring and reporting information from sources in Indonesia and elsewhere.
Publicising cases of injustice and repression in Indonesia through the international press.
Working with other groups on the adoption of political prisoners.
Providing speakers for meetings
Campaigning activities directed towards organisations. individuals, the British and Indonesian governments.
Publishing the hi-monthly TAPOL Bulletin. This is in English and is distributed to subscribers all over the world.
Publishing pamphlets and special publications.
TAPOL would not claim to have secured the release of any particular prisoner, but many prisoners have thanked us for being instrumental in their release.
The Indonesian human rights movement has recognised TAPOL’s role in the fight for human rights in Indonesia and East Timor.
After 8 years of campaigning there are still many political prisoners in Indonesia.
Acts of repression and violations of human rights are all too common, especially in East Timor, West Papua and Acheb.
Unfortunately there remains a general lack of awareness and interest in these matters in Britain.
To extend and intensify TAPOL’s work on behalf of those Indonesian and East Timorese people whose rights have been or are in danger of being violated.
A book is being written by TAPOL on West Papua.
Voluntary help in preparing the Bulletin and general help in the TAPOL office is always required.
Sources of reliable information from people or organisations connected with Indonesia are particularly valuable for our work.
PEACE ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN
P.O. Box 24,
Oxford OX1 3JZ
Tel: 099-389 686
To question the assumption that fear, threats and force are a normal basis for human relationships - personal and international. To give ordinary people the confidence to have a say in their own and their children’s future.
To provide an avenue for people with professional media skills to put them at the service of the peace campaign.
We raise funds by voluntary donation from individuals, trusts and companies in order to finance individual press advertisements and poster campaigns.
A central working group plans the basic form of the campaign and solicits or commissions artwork and copywriting for these advertisements. Where WDC, CND, END and other groups wish to sponsor billboard posters, we provide a booking service with the benefit of discounts due to block booking on a national scale
About 750 copies of our giant billboard poster. The average British family spent~l6 a week on arms last year’ were posted in 100 different towns and boroughs. One was sited right opposite the Imperial War Museum in London during the autumn 1981 national CND demonstration.
A succession of press ads. — one voted Ad of the Week in the Guardian — have helped raise public awareness of the way the arms race is impoverishing everyone, North, South, East and West.
We have so far failed to dent the war paranoia on which the arms race feeds. While many peace organisations have been encouraged by our work to think in terms of laying hands on the major levers of publicity, we still haven’t really got into the big league.
A second wave of billboard advertising this autumn based on a new poster design and a determined attempt to involve industry in financing it, as a way of helping get more economic resources devoted to productive not destructive activity.
Professional ad writers and above all visual designers. Realistic sources of major finance to ‘gear up’ the campaign.
29 Pandora Road
London NW6 1TS
To improve, simplify and economise international communication
To establish direct, accurate communication with the Third World worker.
To provide a common auxiliary language for the EEC, and for scientists, technicians, computers and view data, around the world.
No textbook is necessary as there is no grammar. The Basic Dictionary of 1,400 words contains all the information needed for speaking and writing in Glosa. Glosa words are Greek and Latin which are already internationally familiar. They are short, easily memorised and pronounced. A much larger vocabulary is available for literature, poetry and stylistic variety. The Dictionaries are equally suitable for Third World and EEC use. We publish a monthly newsletter, Glosa Notas, with articles on conservation, ecology, education, science and technology.
We now have an enthusiastic nucleus of Glosa speakers in every continent and we are continually receiving enquiries from influential organisations. Following an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour programme, many people wrote to us in Glosa
Several schools in the Third World have started to teach Gloss and one public school in England.
The International Technology newspaper of the Science Policy Foundation published an article in Glosa in their September 1981 issue.
None so far. We have very, very limited funds but we’re finding this is an advantage in some ways as it forces us into better presentation of the project.
To contact educational, cultural and international organisations. Publicity is essential to our project but with our limited funds we have to concentrate on getting free publicity through the media, wherever possible.
We need the sustained interest of people who can see the urgent importance of our project and who can find time to teach Glosa and communicate in it by letter and tape with people in the Third World. We also want more subscribers to our news sheet and people who can provide gift subscriptions. | <urn:uuid:ceeabb18-fde0-446b-bd16-f01a1fcf9601> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://newint.org/features/1983/01/01/action/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924194 | 1,181 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Google to Offer Book Downloads
Google says it will soon sell full-text versions of books online at the request of its book publishing partners.
As to when books can be purchased, Google said, "This is just a preliminary release to allow U.S. and U.K. publishers to set prices and to choose which books they want to include. This feature isnt yet available as an option for consumers."
Google has been hinting about its ambitions for several months, so the recent development comes as no surprise.
With the move, Google plans to begin competing against major publishing and book retailing interests also distributing their books online.
That list includes Amazon and publishers Harper Collins and Random House expect to make available entire books for download.
According to Google, the Internet search engine will soon let book publishers in the United States and United Kingdom choose which tomes offer, then split the revenues with Google.
The books cannot be downloaded onto a computer. Rather, each is only available online.
So far, publishers Taylor & Francis and Netherlands-based Brill were expected to be among those offering books for sale through Google Books.
"Its a way for publishers to experiment with a new method of earning money from their books in addition to those that already exist," Google writes of its motives.
"Think of it as a way to reach more users by offering a new version of your book with a different reading experience."
The Google Book Partner Program is the least controversial of Googles online book efforts.
Nearing 2 years old, it was designed to let book publishers better market their books by voluntarily offering snippets through the Google search engine.
By working with existing publisher partners, Google hopes to avoid the copyright controversy thats settled over Googles other book search effort, the one in which entire library collections worth of books are made available.
So far two lawsuits claim that Googles library project is a violation of copyrights. Its a charge Google vehemently denies.
Check out eWEEK.coms for the latest news, views and analysis on enterprise search technology. | <urn:uuid:00fc2de1-f35b-46d3-9dea-eb9fdb269c3f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eweek.com/print/c/a/Search-Engines/Google-to-Offer-Book-Downloads/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951631 | 423 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Rheumatic Disease Patients Often Have Low Vitamin D Levels
June 28, 2010 by Personal Liberty News Desk
Two new European studies have found that vitamin D deficiencies are extremely common among individuals suffering from several different rheumatic diseases.
In the first study, a team of UK researchers assessed the vitamin D levels of 180 patients who were recently diagnosed with an inflammatory joint disease, such as rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis or unexplained muscle pain. They found that 58 percent of respondents had vitamin D levels that were clinically insufficient.
For the second study, Dr. Luca Idolazzi, of the University of Verona in Italy, and his colleagues analyzed the blood work of 1,191 rheumatoid arthritis patients, discovering that 85 percent of those who were not taking supplements had lower than recommended serum levels of vitamin D.
These patients scored significantly worse on three disease activity assessments compared to those who took vitamins on a daily basis. Patients whose disease was in remission had, on average, the highest vitamin D levels.
"We have seen in studies that vitamin D deficiency is common in patients with a range of rheumatic diseases, and our results have confirmed this using several clinically accepted measures of disease activity," said Idolazzi. "What we need to see now is a range of long term studies, which examine the clinical response of patients to vitamin D supplementation." | <urn:uuid:a040f974-def9-4ca2-9c5e-2a931206cb92> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://personalliberty.com/2010/06/28/rheumatic-disease-patients-often-have-low-vitamin-d-levels-19852934/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=f35e2c39af | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965549 | 280 | 2.40625 | 2 |
You may have heard of the term top-level domain, often referred to as TLD, when talking about domain registration. The top-level domain is the .com or other extension that follows your individual domain. They fall into two categories – generic TLDs and country-specific TLDs. Currently there are just over 20 generic top-level domains (the most notable being .com, .net, .org, .gov, .edu, .biz) plus top-level domains for most countries.
What’s in a Domain Name?
A domain is broken into several parts, but it can be simplified to a great degree. Historically when talking about a website, you’d specify www.domain.com when telling someone your web address. However, with most web browsers are now improved to the point where if you simply type “domain.com” the website will resolve without a problem. Everything to the left of the TLD in a domain name is technically a subdomain. The “domain” in www.domain.com is a subdomain of the .com TLD, and the “www” is a subdomain of domain.com.
The domain name system in general can be a little confusing, but it’s much better than having to type in the IP address that the domain name represents. You’d end up typing 184.108.40.206 into your address bar to get to Domain.com without the domain name system. If you’re curious about more domain name system details, the Wikipedia page is a good place to start.
About Those TLDS…
TLDs are one of the primary measures used to structure the internet. ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, is the entity that coordinates domains and IP adresses for the internet. This includes managing the creation of TLDs. Each TLD is operated by a registry, and that registry pays fees to ICANN to be able to operate the TLD. Domain Registrars such as Domain.com then pay registries to register domains for end users.
ICANN has historically been very strict about allowing the creation of new TLDs. To this point, new generic TLDs have been rare, with .tel being the newest. Each registry for specific countries controls the use of their country specific TLD. Originally, the country TLDs were intended to help divide the internet geographically, but .com has become the dominant worldwide TLD instead. Some country TLDs are still fairly restricted, while others have been opened to be registered by all. For instance, to register a .ca domain, you have to live in Canada, but .me (Montenegro’s TLD) is open to everyone, and is generally presented as a good TLD to use for a personal website.
The king of TLDs continues to be .com, and part of the shortcomings of the country TLDs was that they were introduced after the .com standard already existed. The intended use of .com for commercial purposes has never been fully followed. Instead, businesses, individuals, and nearly everyone else choose a .com address. The result has been that .net has become a backup if the .com you want to register is taken, while .org is generally used by most non-profits. However, country codes have somewhat fallen by the wayside, particularly in the US. This is beginning to change with new TLDs for specific purposes, such as .me for personal websites, and .tel for contact information.
The Future of the TLD
The stage is set for a dramatic change in TLDs in 2010. ICANN has decided to allow the creation of numerous new generic TLDs as well as TLDs to companies for specific trademarks. The details of the new TLDs and how many new TLDs there will be are still somewhat unclear, but ICANN has indicated that registry creation for new TLDs will be opened for many more generic TLDs than currently exist. Many have suggested that new registries for TLDs such as .blog, .food, and others will spring up. Businesses will also be able to become their own registry as well, resulting in closed registries such as .apple or .nike.
The ongoing debate about this issue is the intent behind creating new TLDs. ICANN is looking at the issue from the perspective that the good .com domains are all taken and they want to reorganize the internet based upon TLDs having more meaning to the domain. From a business standpoint, the new TLDs will allow businesses to fight cyberquatting more effectively. Opponents to the new TLD plan generally argue that ICANN is simply looking for more funding and the changes won’t effectively make the needed changes to the domain name system.
Regardless of the ongoing debate, it appears that new TLDs are definitely coming. When they’re available, be sure to check out Domain.com for more details. Tell us your thoughts on the new TLDs in the comments or vote in our new TLD poll.
Find domains at Domain.com: | <urn:uuid:91200505-0ec1-4be2-bde5-11912e425fb7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.domain.com/blog/tag/subdomain/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939836 | 1,074 | 3.4375 | 3 |
µC/OS-II is a highly portable, ROMable, scalable, preemptive real-time, multitasking kernel (RTOS) for microprocessors and microcontrollers with performance comparable to – and in some cases exceeding – commercially-available kernels. Written in ANSI C for maximum portability, µC/OS-II has been ported to more than 40 different processor architectures ranging from 8- to 64-bit CPUs. Certifiable for use in safety-critical systems, this RTOS has been proven to be robust, reliable, and safe enough for you to use in your own applications.
Independent review by author and embedded systems expert Jack Ganssle (excerpted from Embedded Systems Programming Magazine, January 1999, p89-91):
Jean Labrosse has a new revision of his µC/OS-II, The Real Time Kernel available. I’ve long been a fan of Jean’s, of the µC/OS product itself, and his books. This version is more than a simple upgrade; it appears to be a total rewrite. Weighing in at 600 pages it’s a complete description of the RTOS, and about how to use it in your application. The RTOS itself now has file system and GUI support. It’s certified to DO-178B, and an upgrade to DO-178A is coming. It has been ported to a vast number of microprocessors. Best of all, to me, is the code is written in an eminently clear and consistent fashion. Want to teach people how to write clean code? Have them read the source to µC/OS. The book no longer includes source listings of the RTOS; those are on the companion CD. Instead, Jean has added chapters and more material that gives a very easy-to-understand description of what is going on. There are many more illustrations than in the previous volume. I like the fact that he has annotated the listings (listings that demonstrate how to use the RTOS) with numbers that refer to descriptions in the text. That speeds understanding of the concepts a lot. Highly recommended. It’s available on Amazon.com or from Jean’s site at www.Micrium.com.
This book provides basic, reusable real-time system modules and explains how to use and modify them. Portable, ready to use code will save time and costs in system development and shorten time to market. Time to market is becoming as important as cost control in gaining competitive advantage.
Jean J. Labrosse has been designing embedded systems for over 15 years. Thousands of people are using his first book, µC/OS-II: The Real-Time Kernel. His experience has taught him that certain pieces are common to most systems: a display, a keypad for interacting with the system, various analog and discrete inputs, various types of outputs, communications with host computers, event timing, and keeping track of date and time. Labrosse provides basic building blocks for all these processes, freeing other developers to work on the fun and unique parts of their designs. By providing some of the peripheral functions, Labrosse enables designers to put their energy into the hard specifics of each unique system.
The genesis of the Micrium product line began in 1992 with the publication of μC/. Meaning “MicroController”, μC/ is Micrium’s first proprietary embedded software component, and the product of years of research and development by Micrium’s founder, Jean J. LaBrosse. Micrium’s μC/ enables the engineer programmer to improve their computer software and hardware design and development services. With the companion CD to provide user support, μC/ may be incorporated in a wide variety of products and shorten time-to-market throughout all product development cycles. Micrium has successfully used μC/ to create a diverse portfolio of products and services, such as real-time operating systems, software, tools and embedded software components.
Micrium designs and produces high-quality embedded software components and real time operating systems for use in the industry by way of engineer-friendly source code, extensive technical documentation and unsurpassed customer support and training. | <urn:uuid:fac469da-4212-4d7a-b03a-511da0eddb36> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://micrium.com/books/older-books/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937612 | 865 | 1.78125 | 2 |
What is life? It is the soul’s only opportunity to manifest and fulfil the Divine here on earth. When life begins its journey, Infinity shakes hands with it. When the journey is half done, Eternity shakes hands with it. When life’s journey is complete, Immortality shakes hands with it. Life lives the life of perfection when it lives in spirituality. When life lives in spirituality, the breath of God, it stands far above the commands of morality and the demands of duty.
God says to the human life, “Arise, awake, aspire! Yours is the goal.” The human life says to God: “Wait, I am resting. I am sleeping. I am dreaming.” Suddenly life feels ashamed of its conduct. Crying, it says, “Father, I am coming.” Throbbing, it says, “Father, I am come.” Smiling, it says, “Father, I have come.”
Life, the problem, can be solved by the soul, the solution; but for that, one has first to be awakened from within.
- Sri Chinmoy
Excerpt from: Commentary On The Bhagavad Gita by Sri Chinmoy, Copyright © 1971 by Sri Chinmoy – All rights reserved | <urn:uuid:f37e9ddc-3b7e-427d-940a-f17c3f62314c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.writespirit.net/indian-wisdom/commentary-on-the-bhagavad-gita/life/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939576 | 275 | 1.984375 | 2 |
To the chief Musician on Neginoth, A Psalm of David.
Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer.
O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame? how long will ye love vanity, and seek after leasing? Selah.
But know that the LORD hath set apart him that is godly for himself: the LORD will hear when I call unto him.
Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.
Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the LORD.
¶ There be many that say, Who will shew us any good? LORD, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us.
Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased.
I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety.
PREVIOUS CHAPTER | | <urn:uuid:52695e9d-2871-49e5-9b8f-a92c6e100acf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.audio-bible.com/bible/psalms_4.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911032 | 239 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Two major European consortiums joined forces Thursday in an ambitious project to capture solar and wind energy across Arab deserts in order to power homes in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.
The German-led Desertec Industry Initiative (DII) signed a memorandum of understanding with Medgrid, founded by French energy giants, on the sidelines of a meeting of EU energy ministers in Brussels.
“By joining efforts and coordinating their approaches, the two initiatives take a truly European dimension,” said EU energy commissioner Guenther Oettinger.
“There is now a concrete perspective of solar and wind energy being produced for the joint benefit of European and northern African and Middle Eastern citizens, as well for the benefit of both markets,” he said.
DII, whose shareholders include German industry giant Siemens, major lender Deutsche Bank and power supplier EON, wants to produce sun and wind power in the deserts of north Africa and the Middle East.
The group’s goal is to meet 15 percent of Europe’s electricity demand by 2050.
Medgrid, founded by French energy giants Areva and EDF, along with engineering group Alstom and others, plans to build underwater links between Europe and Africa to transport electricity.
Under the cooperation agreement, the two consortiums will exchange information, give each other updates on progress and join efforts “on the EU and Middle East and North Africa level to obtain a more favorable regulatory framework for renewable energy markets,” the commission said.
The European Union is subsidizing the projects as part of its efforts to combat global warming. | <urn:uuid:ef3c6a24-1bd6-4e86-928e-8513e475e18e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/11/24/179018.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936822 | 328 | 2.15625 | 2 |
My thoughts today are focused on Janice and Rachel. Today was our second day visiting the Iridimi refugee camp in eastern Chad. Refugee camp! In eastern Chad! I had to stop every once in a while and repeat that sentence to myself today as we sat in the “homes” (mud brick hovels) of 5 different families as we heard stories of how using solar cookers has made their lives safer and more secure.
And I can’t stop looking at Janice. And whispering to her, “Look what you’ve done!” As you all know, Rabbi Harold Schulweis had an incredible vision for an organization that would awaken the hearts and minds of our synagogue community to the genocides happening now, to “other people” around the world. And he tapped Janice to co-found that organization with him. Not only did she co-found it – but she ran it out of her home for more than 2 years and built it into the 56-synagogue strong coalition it now represents. In addition to educating the community and advocating to stop the genocide in Darfur, JWW has built medical clinics and water wells, funded trauma counselors and political mediators – everything geared toward humanitarian assistance for the refugees.
Eighteen months ago Janice and the JWW Women’s Committee decided to try to do something to try to prevent the rape and attacks against the refugee women who had to leave the relative safety of the refugee camps to look for firewood for cooking. They discovered a small pilot project in the Iridimi, run by Derk Rijks, to outfit the camp with solar cookers. The idea is so simple – reduce the amount of wood the women need, thereby reducing the number of trips outside the camp they must make, and thereby reducing their risk of attack or rape. And do it cheaply, with cardboard and aluminum foil.
Janice then hired the indefatigable Rachel Andres to research and implement the Solar Cooker Project. And the rest is history… well, almost. Not only have we received incredibly positive feedback about the SCP project during this visit to Chad from the UN High Commission on Refugees, the Chadian government, and other NGO’s, but the refugees themselves are telling us that this has made a huge difference in their lives, and in the lives of the daughters and granddaughters. And because of the scarcity of wood throughout eastern Chad, the UNHCR is talking about ways to expand this project to other camps as well.
I have believed in this organization from the start, and certainly would not have taken on the position as Executive Director almost a year ago if I did not think it was doing incredible work in our Jewish community for the benefit of others. As we walked through zone after zone in the refugee camp we spotted steaming pots of rice, beans and tea cooking on solar cookers in almost every courtyard. And, in the home of one of the women whose afternoon meal was cooking nearby in a solar cooker, I sat with Janice and Rachel and listened to the woman thank us for giving her and her daughters their safety back, after all they have been through in Darfur. I have never been more proud and more inspired to be in the company of my friends and colleagues, the founder of Jewish World Watch and the Director of the JWW Solar Cooker Project respectfully, Janice Kamenir-Reznik and Rachel Andres. | <urn:uuid:c16c4b80-c5b4-4381-89dd-d830fe4826c7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jewishworldwatch.org/blog/blog/chad/3285 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970205 | 708 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Technology projects that range from delivering clean drinking water to implementing a cheaper bank infrastructure in developing countries were honored last night at the Tech Awards in San Jose, Calif.
Five of the 15 projects honored also received $50,000 each for developing technology that benefits humanity and supports sustainability.
The Tech Awards, sponsored by The Tech Museum in San Jose, were established in 2001, to recognize 15 projects annually in five categories: environment, education, equality, health, and economic development.
"The tens of thousands of people who didn't have clean water to cook or bathe in Honduras now have safe, usable water today. In fact, there are millions who live in the Philippines who didn't have access to toilets. Today that has changed, too," Ann Bowers, chairwoman of The Tech Museum board of directors, said in a statement, when the 15 honorees were first announced last month.
The winner of the Intel Environment Award is Agua Clara, which solves the problem of delivering clean drinking water to people in Honduras. The gravity-powered water treatment unit operates without electricity. The water project brings drinking water to more than 20,000 people, who often live off $2 per day. Additionally, the program trains local entrepreneurs to further promote sustainability within the community.
The Microsoft Education Award goes to PhET for improving science literacy. PhET's interactive simulations explain physical phenomena. And this project, based at the University of Colorado at Boulder, also translates the research-based models into 64 languages.
The winner of the Katherine M. Swanson Equality Award is Universal Subtitles Project, which puts subtitles on videos. So far this year, 25,000 videos have been translated through this project. Another 100,000 are set for translation by year's end. The service has been used by the media during events like the Japanese tsunami.
The Nokia Health Award was presented to We Care Solar, which stands for Women's Emergency Communication and Reliable Electricity. We Care puts solar energy systems into a suitcase so clinics and medical facilities can power up, even when they are off-grid. The suitcases are in use in 100 clinics in developing countries and disaster zones.
And finally, the Flextronics Economic Development Award went to Eko India Financial Services, which brings banking to underserved areas in India. It has already reached 800,000 clients.
Other honorees include the Kommunity Desk, which provides desks to children in developing countries (it's on track with its partnership with the Tutudesk Campaign to hand out 20 million desks by 2015); Games for Change, which supports video games that create a social impact; and the Water, Agroforestry, Nutrition, and Development Foundation, which provides a low-cost composting toilet to people living in the Philippines.
Jeff Skoll, who was eBay's first president, received the Global Humanitarian award last night. Former recipients include Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and former Vice President Al Gore.
"The Global Humanitarian Award is personally very meaningful to me for two primary reasons. Even when I was a young engineer, I really believed that technology could help improve people's lives. It's the great enabler. It gives voice to the voiceless, it empowers people, and it connects them," Skoll said to the audience during the awards ceremony.
"The second reason is the company that it keeps. When I look at the list of past recipients, these are all people who I've worked with directly, and I deeply respect the work they're doing. So, it's very humbling to be considered alongside these great humanitarians." | <urn:uuid:b5073e06-2f5c-449b-9aa3-fb2c0d06baf7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-20123554-76/tech-awards-water-cleaning-device-solar-in-a-suitcase/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968351 | 737 | 2.328125 | 2 |
I worked at The Beacon-News in Aurora for five years. At least half a dozen times in each of those years, we would get the following call from a concerned citizen: “Fermilab’s on fire!”
Without fail, the caller had seen a plume of black smoke rising from the Fermilab grounds, and imagined the worst. And without fail, when I called for information, I found out that the lab had been engaging in prairie burns.
We’ve been burning the prairie again over the past couple weeks, and no doubt some of you have noticed the smoke. (And probably called the newspaper.) So I’m here to tell you that, no, the lab is not burning down. We’re doing this on purpose, and I can tell you why.
Or rather, Mike Becker, of the lab’s roads and grounds department, can tell you why. He says burning is essential to restoring a natural habitat like the 1,000 acres of prairie on the Fermilab site. Natural grasses will have a strong root structure underground, and will grow again after a fire. Invasive plants, the kind you don’t want, will be burned away.
If you don’t burn, Becker said, you’ll get woodsy vegetation, instead of the tall, flowing grass that marks a healthy prairie. Fermilab’s restored grassland represents one of the largest prairies in the state, and that strong network of roots also helps prevent erosion and preserve the area’s aquifers.
But is it safe to burn? Becker said every precaution is taken before and during a prairie burn. Wind direction is one of the biggest factors when deciding whether to burn on a certain day — we don’t want to send smoke onto busy streets like Kirk Road, or into places where people work, Becker said.
Everyone who helps with prairie burns has been through wildfire training, and some of the pros involved have 25 years experience, Becker said. The burns are safe and controlled.
We’re at the end of our current burn season, so you likely won’t be seeing any more plumes of smoke until next spring. Our burns usually take place in March and April, and in November, with the occasional burn in December. Becker said he tries to get to about half the prairie each year — around 600 to 700 acres.
So next time you see smoke rising from Fermilab, check our Facebook page first. That’s where we’ll let you know if a burn is scheduled for that day. And if you’re interested in helping us keep our prairie healthy, check out the Fermilab Natural Areas website for news about upcoming volunteer opportunities.
Andre Salles is the media and community relations specialist at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. He can be reached at email@example.com, or at 630-840-6733. | <urn:uuid:b6506e2e-a8e1-4a25-b9aa-7d610ad8364b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://yorkville.patch.com/blog_posts/where-theres-smoke-theres-a-fermilab-prairie-burn | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942464 | 631 | 2.9375 | 3 |
Yes, it’s no coincidence that the founders of Facebook are of the Millennial/Gen Y generation and that their most loyal followers are largely the same. However, that’s now expanding, and it’s more of a sign of things to come than a fad (unless they sell out like MySpace). So it may be worth taking the time to understand how it can benefit your community, build better places. It can… tremendously. Even if Facebook eventually goes away, social networking is only going to grow.
One way to look at Facebook’s rise is to look at the fundamental thesis of the Cluetrain Manifesto (a popular guide to understanding the impact of the Internet in business), “Markets are conversations”. It explains, “A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies.”
Take a look at the following observations:
- Attendees at conferences consistently say that the most valued parts were the networking in the halls and the public Q&A after presentations.
- People spend a significant amount of time watching publicly broadcast interview shows, from daytime to late night.
- People choose where to spend money based on publicly posted peer reviews (ie Amazon, Yelp!, iTunes, eBay) rather than those of ‘experts’.
The point is, buzz happens around interesting conversations, like when you feel compelled to spontaneously join a conversation, “I couldn’t help but overhear, but…” When those conversations are public, you’re actually encouraged to participate, and that’s when we benefit from a diversity of dialogue. Over time, there is trust built among those in conversation, which leads to dialogue + time = action.
So to answer the question, Facebook is a medium that facilitates such public conversations, whether they’re a result of dialogue initiated face-face (the most effective by far), at a conference, on a show, etc. However, the difference is that these public conversations are among people you chose to trust, whether they’re the friends in your network or people you share a passion with in a Group or Fan Page, shortening the time needed for action.
Thus, to use Facebook as a tool to help beautiful places like these outdoor cafe scenes come to fruition, start a Group or Fan Page and start talking about it. In fact, CreativesDC, a social network of creatives in Washington DC, has found Facebook to be their most effective tool by far in terms of getting people to meet and converse about building great places in DC, such as promoting this public event on March 31, 2009.
Photo of Oxford Circus, London by nickjeffery. | <urn:uuid:431daac9-838f-413a-95c4-10600f7d9847> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cooltownstudios.com/2009/03/31/how-facebook-can-help-build-better-places/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948517 | 594 | 1.828125 | 2 |
On Friday, August 21, the Maui High Performance Computing Center Department of Defense Supercomputing Resource Center [MHPCC DSRC] hosted a dedication ceremony for its latest supercomputing system. “Mana”, as its called, will replace the previous system, Jaws. “Mana” is the Hawaiian word for power and authority.
High-performance computing is powering breakthrough discovery,” said DSRC Executive Director Gene Bal. “Current state-of-the-art systems, software, tools and expertise are advancing our nation’s technological dominance in the 21st Century. Researchers are harnessing the power of these key enabling technologies, and leading the transformation of advanced technology concepts into critical national security capability. MHPCC stands ready to deliver these world-class technologies, accelerating our nation’s ability to meet its most demanding challenges.”
The new system consists of 1,152 Dell M610 node blades. Each blade holds two, 2.8Ghz Intel quad-core Nehalem processors and 24GB of memory [3GB/core]. The total 9,216 cores has over 103TF of compute capability. Included with the install was 400TB of spinning disks behind a DataDirect Networks raid controller.
Mana can do more calculations in one second than 1,000 scientists can do in 3,200 years at the rate of one calculation per second each,” said MHPCC Acting Director David L. Stinson. “The 400-terabyte disk storage has the capacity to store more than 40 times the entire printed works of the Library of Congress.” “Mana is currently about the 45th most powerful computer in the world,” Stinson added.
For more info on the new digs in Maui, read the full article here. | <urn:uuid:e85d1f39-d59b-454c-96d3-4a3996b93b48> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://insidehpc.com/2009/09/03/mhpc-doubles-its-computing-power/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920538 | 375 | 2.078125 | 2 |
Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Williams and General Sir Graeme Lamb said the Ministry of Defence should be “hauled from an industrial age into an information one”.
The pair have called on the Government to invest more in “information-based technology” and less in “tanks, ships [and] aircraft”.
Writing in The Times they argued: “The foot-dragging of the MoD over the need to shift to a technology-based environment has cost us lives on the ground, and will cost more in the future.”
General Lamb and Colonel Williams also called for the Territorial Army to be doubled in size, in line with other countries such as the US, Canada and Australia.
They argued: “We should reduce our number of full-time troops by about 25 per cent and equip them to fight the technologically sophisticated conflicts we face across the world.”
They added: “Most important of all, policy-makers and military itself must accept that it is investment in information-based technology that will provide UK Forces with their competitive advantage over any enemy in any environment, not more investment in tanks, ships, aircraft and regular servicemen.”
Their comments come as the Government conducts a review of the UK's defence and security needs.
Ministers are considering delaying the replacement of the Trident nuclear weapons system, according to the BBC. | <urn:uuid:b6d347d3-ee8e-42b2-b917-93b0a6e4302b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/8005812/Ex-SAS-chiefs-call-for-greater-investment-in-technology-for-Armed-Forces.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951752 | 289 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Larry Lessig, Thomas Hazlett, Richard Epstein, Edward Welbourne and Frank Walker weigh in on copyright, stimulating and stifling innovation, the increasing costs to innovation brought by extending copyright. Welbourne discusses an interesting idea: the net present value of a copyrighted work at the time of sale to a publisher, verses the value after each 20 year extension, diminishing over time, which eventually is worth less than 1%. He proposes that copyrighted works go into the public domain, as averaged within a specific category, after the value of works diminish to 1%. It would require an economist to figure it out, but they've got to do better than Congress at this point.
For more on the percents, the economist's amicus brief in Eldred.
Eldred v. Ashcroft, the oral arguments at the Supreme Court, 10:03 - 11:01am 10/09/02.
And a list of the briefs filed in Eldred.
As of today, Internet radio stations are required to pay high royalty fees (2 cents for every 100 Internet listeners per song, with a minimum of $500 annually), retroactive to 1998, which may put many of them out of business, or at least off the web.
The Small Webcaster Amendments Act of 2002 would have offered other options for all parties involved, but it was stalled in the Senate this past Friday -- *just* in time to forestall benefit to the small webcasters (or buy more time for campaign contributions to come through? hrm...).MORE...
Brewster Kahle, director of the Internet Archive, is taking his show on the road. The Bookmobile is his mad creation, thinking it up about a month before the Eldred case went before the Supreme Court. Their motto: "Universal access to human knowledge." (~borrowed from Raj Reddy at CMU).
Brewster and his son, Caslon are driving from Palo Alto to Washington DC, via Berkeley and even Columbus Ohio (for a bookmobile convention!) to print out books (there are 6000 titles) in the public domain. They download from the internet via satellite, on the spot, publishing one at a time, books like a cir. 1900 copy of the Wizard of Oz (be patient, it's a big photo -- but that down-home populist toothy grin is so cute!), Huck Finn and Alice in Wonderland. As the stone out front at the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh says: "Free to the People".
Archive.org has also been looking into making a moving images archive available for public use, too.
adding to maggie's post on DMCA and Elcomsoft....
Ironically, Dmitry Sklyarov and ElcomSoft's CEO Alexander Katalov have been denied visas by the US State Department in Moscow, even though their visa apps stated that they were coming to the US to participate in the trial.... No reasons were given for the rejection. The deal with the DOJ was that in exchange for Dmitry's testimony, they would drop the charges against him. How absurd can it get?
Microsoft still refuses to share, despite the anti-trust settlement against them. Tech companies and their lawyers are crying foul over the contrived hoops MS requires them to jump through in order to access details about the communications protocols its products use to transfer information (both internally and with non-MS products). Without such protocols, competing gadgets and software won't work as well with Windows as Microsoft's own products do.
Seems the only game they know how to play is monopoly.
Moscow-based ElcomSoft Co. Ltd. became a household name last year when, at the behest of eBook software maker Adobe Systems Inc., the FBI arrested Dmitry Sklyarov, a Russian resident and ElcomSoft software engineer who had been visiting DEF CON 2001 in Las Vegas. Sklyarov was incarcerated from July 16 to August 6, 2001.
After a failed attempt to dismiss the case on constitutional grounds, US v. ElcomSoft, the first (and, more importantly, precedent-setting) Digital Millenium Copyright Act criminal trial will begin this coming Monday.MORE...
The Register has a really strange article about Red Hat's latest update. Apparently, for people from the US, Red Hat can't, under DMCA rules, explain the update. Instead, Red Hat directs people to thefreeworld.net's site where it tells you:
If you're a US citizen and you are hurt because the DMCA doesn't allow you access to the information on this site, you should realise that you live in a democratic country and it's time for you to change the law so that you aren't hurt by it. Don't expect us to take the risk of going to jail because of a law which is inconveniencing you but write your congressmen instead....MORE...
A classical music fan responds to the NY Times article last week on the Eldred case, and expresses hope that works by artists such as Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Rachmaninoff will return to the public domain. Just another argument for rethinking the revised law. And he's from my home town. :)
Ummm... not. But perhaps they are moving, ever so cautiously, in that general direction? InternetWeek reports (here and here) that Microsoft's new (as of last July) licensing/auditing terms, along with by now famous security concerns (for example...), are sending some smaller customers chasing after the Linux bandwagon. Around the same time, MS announced that companies, academics, developers, and gov't agencies will soon be able to license source code for its controversial (some say scary) Passport software.MORE...
...and shrink wrap license - fair use issues. An amici brief was submitted asking the court to clarify their position that it's okay for companies to use a shrink-wrap license to waive consumer copyright protections.
The anti-piracy group Music United for Strong Internet Copyright (MUSIC) launched a public education campaign last week, including a TV spot and a newspaper ad. Participating artists include Madonna, Elton John, Eminem, Jay Z and Britney Spears.
According to the website, "copying and distributing copyrighted music without permission is wrong, dangerous, and against the law." I'd say this sentence is a little redundant if you take the stance of this group -- but I guess that just PR speak, eh?
That scraping sound you hear is U.S. District Judge John D. Bates scratching his head over the DMCA right now. The AP reports today that faced with making a decision on the RIAA v. Verizon Communications saga, he's having trouble interpretting the legislation that Congress passed in 1998, lamenting that they "could have made this statute clearer."
Meanwhile, music companies, file swappers, and ISPs are holding their breath....
Time for déjà vu all over again. IDG News Service reports that a company called 321 Studios is less than a month from being ready to sell you its tools to duplicate your DVDs, bit-for-bit. To fray the entertainment industry's nerves even more, 321's software uses controversial DeCSS decryption code. (Not to be missed: this truly inspired DeCSS haiku.)MORE...
Many consider tinkering (or reverse-engineering) to be an essential ingredient to the innovative process, but many others see it as a tool of the devil. In a 9/26 law.com commentary, Mike Goodwin presents compelling arguments in support of tinkering, a freedom that (like fair use) is not explicitly guaranteed in the Constitution -- but, he suggests, "maybe it should be." Amidst a climate of increasing Hollywood lockdowns (Disney's Eisner is quoted as declaring piracy "a killer app"), this column considers a variety of proposed standards, legislation (e.g. "copyright cop" and "broadcast flag" technology specs) and reports that provoke many questions about the freedoms that many of us currently take for granted. | <urn:uuid:f8457d53-dd7f-4765-9a86-60a378d9bcb0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.boalt.org/biplog/archive/2002_10.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948206 | 1,638 | 1.515625 | 2 |
A consortium of the UK’s biggest technology and media companies plan to trial the use of unused TV channels to carry mobile data.
Microsoft, BBC, BSkyB, BT, Samsung and Nokia are amongst several companies that have joined the Cambridge TV White Spaces consortium to evaluate the potential for radio technology to support increased demand for mobile broadband.
The trial will test whether new “cognitive” radio technologies, in conjunction with online databases that identify available space, can avoid interfering with licensed broadcasts. Typically the channels are used as a buffer to avoid interference.
Dan Reed, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of technology, policy, strategy and extreme computing group urged the world’s broadcast regulators to rethink how spectrum is used.
“To realise this vision of cognitive radio and dynamic broadband, we need to fundamentally rethink how we allocate spectrum,” argued Reed in a blog post.
“A number of the companies participating in the Cambridge trial have worked on these technologies for years. For our part, we’ve worked hard to address spectrum sharing, and design a system that allows cognitive radios to connect seamlessly without interference.”
Consortium member, Nuel, a Cambridge start-up which makes “white space radio systems”, claims there are 150Mhz of white space spectrum available in the UK, which compared with the 30Mhz typically available for 3G network spectrum.
It claims its base station can deliver up to 16Mbps speeds on a single white space channel across a distance of 10 kilometres.
But the technologies that will be trialled are fraught with technical difficulties, in part because radio waves are susceptible to changes in atmospheric pressure, while finding empty frequencies also remains a challenge, according to a report by The Register.
Microsoft's argues that the US broadcast regulator the FCC approved the use of white space spectrum for wireless broadband last year.
A small 2009 trial in the US, which used white space spectrum as a backhaul network rather than to connect homes, also got the thumbs up from local Senators, according to Ars Technica.
The benefit of using TV white spaces, according to Microsoft’s press statement, was that it works in much the same was as Wi-Fi, but travels farther and is better at penetrating walls, therefore lowering demand for access points.
The UK’s broadcast regulator Ofcom granted the consortium a multi-site test license in support of the project.
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A Valley located about 35 KMs to the north-west of Madina in Saudi Arab. A road passes through the bed of the valley. What’s famous about this place is that, cars actually accelerate on their own with their engines off. They are known to accelerate over a stunning 120 Km/hr speed.
You may search on YouTube where people have uploaded their recordings of this experience. Where the engine of the car is turned off and the gear shifted to neutral, the car starts to accelerate on the road that appears to go up-hill. I would like to share one of the videos from YouTube here, for those who want to see what I’m trying to explain here.
The name of the valley was given by the locals for they believed that Jinn lived in these mountains; and that the accelerating of the cars are actually the Jinn pushing them. Only Allah knows best if Jinn live there, but the phenomena of the accelerating cars on a straight road itself, has nothing to do with jinn. This might sound offensive to some, but I would like to re-assure that I have dedicated this website solely for the purpose of making people believe in the existence of Jinn, but I would not lie if once I come to know of the real perspective of a scenario – that it in fact a natural phenomenon, and that it has nothing to do with jinn.
Before I start posting my personal observation, I would like to quote an explanation to this phenomenon called the Magnetic Hill or Gravity Hill.
Gravity hill, also known as Magnetic hill (and sometimes a mystery hill or a gravity road), is a place where the layout of the surrounding land produces the optical illusion that a very slight downhill slope appears to be an uphill slope. Thus, a car left out of gear will appear to be rolling uphill. There are hundreds of gravity hill locations around the world. Here is a list of other similar places on our Planet:
The slope of gravity hills is an optical illusion, although tour guides may claim natural or even supernatural forces are at work. The most important factor contributing to the illusion is a completely or mostly obstructed horizon; without a horizon, judging the slope of a surface is difficult as a reliable reference is missing. Objects one would normally assume to be more-or-less perpendicular to the ground (such as trees) may actually be leaning, offsetting the visual reference. The illusion is similar to the well-known Ames room, in which balls can also appear to roll against gravity.
Here’s another example of the above phenomenon:
I would like to re-quote a line from the above explanation that is suffice to explain the phenomenon in the Valley of Jinn – “The most important factor contributing to the illusion is a completely or mostly obstructed horizon; without a horizon, judging the slope of a surface is difficult as a reliable reference is missing.” This is very obvious in all the videos on YouTube. There is no horizon, hence no reliable reference to judge the slope of the road.
One of the easiest ways to prove that the surface of the road that APPEARS to go UP-HILL is actually DOWN-HILL is to take an Inclinometer to the site and put it on the road to see how it is actually proves the opposite. You would then look around and see the road appearing to go up-hill, yet the inclinometer would suggest that it is in fact down-hill.
But since I cannot afford to go to the blessed land Madina and take a visit to the site myself, I have improvised another way to prove that the road is actually down-hill, and not really flat as it appears in the videos. I have used the software Google Earth for this purpose, and it is actually very helpful to find out distance and elevations of these surfaces from a satellite view.
I would like you to take a look at this image, and read the explanation along its side. If it is hard for you to understand, you may click the image to view it in full size.
The Red circle in the image is where the cars turn off their engines and start to accelerate down the road towards Madina. Google Earth shows you the elevation of the surface on which you hover your mouse over; I find the elevation at the point of the Red circle to be 948. I then come down the road for about 7Kms, and then mark another point that is the Blue circle. The elevation here was 638.
We notice, there is a drop of 310 Meters in just 7 KMs. I estimated the angle of inclination by taking multiple sites on the same road, and I find the average inclination of the road to be 11.5 Degrees downwards South. Knowing this fact, no matter what we see apparently on the side of the road, we have to admit to the fact that this road is in fact a downward-slope, and that the accelerating of cars is actually the Nature of Allah Subhanahu Wa ta’ala.
For those who wish to find out an inclination ought to take the Distance as the Hypotenuse, and NOT as the Base of the triangle, for that is the way GoogleEarth works. You may then find the Base-Distance via Pythagoras Theorem and eventually find the angle of inclination via Cos(A) = base/hyp = 11.5.
You may try this out on your own computers, simply by downloading Google Earth and follow the Coordinates: 24°43’21.65″N 39°26’57.67″E
Wa huwa Aalaa kulli shay'in Qadeer. | <urn:uuid:fa99ecd4-9b75-4911-bce1-7f9ad4eb9af5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jinndemons.com/wadi-jinn-valley-of-jinn-solved-mystery/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963458 | 1,165 | 2.3125 | 2 |
New resource from ChangeMakers Refugee Forum: How bullying affects us: refugee-background youth talk back.
Settling into a new school can be difficult for anyone, but young people from refugee backgrounds can find it particularly hard. Bullying is not just about getting beaten up. It can include name-calling, intimidation and ostracism. For refugee-background young people, it includes being mocked for their accent, their clothing, the colour of their skin.
How bullying affects us: refugee-background youth talk back is a resource that explores the impact of bullying on refugee-background high school students.
ChangeMakers and Voice Arts Trust worked with Collabor8 – a group of eight refugee-background youth who live in the Wellington region – documenting Collabor8's views about bullying and designing a drama, which was performed on World Refugee Day 2011.
Insights into life as a refugee-background student as well as Collabor8’s performance are now available on dvd to schools, communities, and organisations. A booklet with information about how bullying affects refugee-background youth and bullying as a human rights issue comes with the dvd. It includes discussion guides for educators, schools, families and communities, and a comprehensive list of places to go for more information and support.
The dvd and booklet are for now available for sale
$10 for individuals / $20 for schools and ngos / $30 for government agencies. Click here to download an order form. If you’d like to order copies of this resource, or if you have any questions, contact Alia Bloom at firstname.lastname@example.org or 04 801 5812. | <urn:uuid:48e11c1f-8c2b-4f3d-9cab-cd8bd073959f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.crf.org.nz/bullying%20resource | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94185 | 339 | 2.984375 | 3 |
The premise of the good, old press release is to give all media outlets equal footing on your story. But that’s not what the media wants. Outlets want to beat other outlets, plain and simple. They want the story other outlets don’t have.
As a news reporter, I fought daily for the coveted exclusive. So now, as I sit on the PR side, I remind myself to consider before sending out a press release: “What’s the media’s motivation to cover this story?” It’s a question PR pros sometimes forget to ask. Your story can quickly rise to become a reporter’s top priority if they know they will be the only one presenting it.
The common fear of promising a reporter an exclusive is losing coverage by everyone else. But the reality is often quite the opposite. If the exclusive story is run by a leading newspaper or television station, you will find all other outlets will take the cue and follow. It’s really using the media to write and issue your press release.
An exclusive can make your story’s perceived importance rise significantly. How? A story that would be buried as a blurb in the business section might make front page if the newspaper knows it’s the only outlet in town with the information. The story suddenly becomes much more important to the news outlet as it can symbolize a well-built relationship with a source or superior reporting skills, so the outlet is more likely to want to show it off. And once other outlets see the story get top billing, they are more likely to cover it as well. Here are some FAQs on handling the exclusive:
In what situations should you consider using the power of the exclusive?
This strategy can be ideal for significant announcements you want to lead the newscast or appear on the front page of the newspaper for which you might not otherwise get that kind of placement. Again, remember your story often rises in importance to the media outlet if they know they will be the only news organization in town with the information. Another time to consider giving an exclusive is during a crisis. Why? The strategy allows you to choose one reporter, perhaps one you trust or have an already strong relationship with, to work with one-on-one to get the right information out.
Won’t other reporters be upset you seemingly favored another outlet?
If the strategy is not well thought out or executed, this is the potential downside. Yes, other reporters may inquire why they lost out on getting the story first. But that won’t keep them from covering the story too, what’s news is news.
You definitely do not want to damage relationships over this strategy so it is important to think through what your reasoning will be to the other reporters about how and why they didn’t get the exclusive. Maybe the reporter you gave the exclusive to was the first to inquire on the story. Maybe the reporter you gave the exclusive to works for a media outlet that has some special interest in the story, (i.e. a business journal getting an exclusive on a new business strategy your company is announcing). So if the reasoning is strong, other outlets won’t interpret your move as simply favoring an outlet.
How do you choose which reporter or media outlet to give an exclusive to?
There are three questions to ask yourself when making this decision.
1. “What is the best audience for this story?” Again, a story about a new business strategy may best be featured in a business journal.
2. “Is there a reporter who I want to build a relationship with on this topic?”For instance, a reporter who writes heavily on the subject of your announcement may be a natural fit.
3. “What outlet will give this story greatest visibility?” Is this announcement a better print story maximized in the city’s daily newspaper? Or is the announcement a better television story that would be most impactful if aired on your market’s most watched news station?
How do you maximize coverage after your exclusive?
Remember, your exclusive can serve as your press release. So be prepared for other outlets to call immediately after it runs, and be prepared for them to ask if there is any additional information you can provide them that was not included in the exclusive. Also, consider that the exclusive story can announce a press conference. For instance, a story in the city’s morning newspaper can end by saying your organization will be releasing more information at a press conference later that day, helping you get the word out.
If deployed in the right situation and given to the right reporter, the power of an exclusive can make an announcement that might otherwise get mediocre coverage a PR success. PRN
This article is written by Nikki Mitchell, VP of public relations at Baylor Health Care System in Dallas. She can be reached at nikkimit@BaylorHealth.edu. | <urn:uuid:04578d77-8c5a-4339-a9dc-58ec267ed185> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.prnewsonline.com/featured/2012/04/23/how-to-harness-the-power-of-the-exclusive-story/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951049 | 1,022 | 1.8125 | 2 |
On June 26, the woman known affectionately as the First Lady of Israeli Song died at the age of 74.
It was indicative of songwriter Naomi Shemer’s place in the Israeli imagination that her death and the national grieving it engendered took over the front pages of Israel’s newspapers for two days running, forcing the intifada and the raging political debates deep inside.
“She succeeded in connecting us to our roots, to our origins, to the beginnings of Zionism,” Prime Minister Sharon said at his weekly Cabinet meeting. “Today, when we part with Naomi Shemer, we bow our heads in sorrow and are grateful for the wonderful gift Naomi gave us.”
Shemer’s repertoire forms some core components of the canon of Israeli folklore and culture, and her works have become the songs of Jewish youth groups and mothers’ lullabies. Easily recognizable by their charm and innocence, her countless tunes often describe Israel’s topography, particularly her childhood memories of Galilee. And in nearly five decades of her professional career, she seemed to embody the emotional arc of Israeli public opinion.
Shemer got her musical start at kibbutz sing-alongs. She studied in music schools in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, later served in the army, and began composing songs while she was in her 20s. Her first record appeared in 1959.
She rose to stardom with “Jerusalem of Gold,” written at the request of Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek in 1966, shortly before the reunification of Jerusalem in the Six-Day War. The song, which evoked the age-old yearning for Jerusalem, was instantly popular and played continually on Israeli radio in the weeks leading up to the war. After the war, Shemer added a verse celebrating the victory. The song has since served as an unofficial national anthem.
Many of her songs depicted, in simple language and tunes, romanticized images associated with early Zionist settlers. Her famous songs include “Lu Yehi” (“Let It Be”), written after the Yom Kippur War, and “Al Kol Eleh,” which included the famous line: “All of these.… The honey and the sting.… The bitter and the sweet…. My garden and my baby … Guard all these things for me, dear God.”
In the mid-1970s, Shemer began to identify with Gush Emunim, the religious nationalist settler movement that arose after the Yom Kippur War, and some of this week’s commentary reflected a lingering discomfort with her political views.
“The land of Israel was for her a one-nation land, devoid of conflicts, devoid of minorities,” wrote Nahum Barnea, the doyen of Israeli political commentary, in Yediot Aharonot. “A one-sided deal for Jews alone. Even the wars to which we went out on with her songs were one-sided. It was not an enemy facing us, but a virgin land waiting to be conquered.” Barnea also quoted Shemer as having once said that “the Arabs like their murder hot, moist and fervid. If they ever have the freedom to fulfill themselves, we will long for the nice, sterile gas chambers of the Nazis.”
“Al Kol Eleh,” with its tagline “Do not uproot what has been planted,” became an anthem of the settlers at Yamit, though Shemer denied that it was written for this purpose. After the settlement’s evacuation in 1982, Shemer took herself out of politics. “At Yamit I learned that the commandment to settle the land on which I was raised was no longer valid,” she told Ha’aretz four years ago. “In settling the land there is definitely desire and passion. I am not prepared to be ashamed of this, because I grew up on the importance of settlement. But since Yamit, I feel that we have already evacuated the Golan Heights.”
“Any political discussion of Shemer diminishes her talents,” singer Chava Alberstein told Ha’aretz. “She is an artist at the level of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. Despite the differences of opinion about her positions, she always wrote from a positive outlook, with great innocence.”
In 1983, Shemer was awarded the prestigious Israel Prize for her contributions to Israeli music. Following the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, she translated and put to music Walt Whitman’s “O Captain! My Captain!” Her last work, composed as she lay dying, was a tribute to Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon, who died in the space shuttle Columbia.
Shemer is survived by her husband, poet Mordechai Horowitz, two children and four grandchildren. She was buried at her birthplace, Kibbutz Kinneret.
Among the hundreds present at Shemer’s funeral were Sharon and President Moshe Katzav. No eulogies or speeches were given, at her request. Instead, four of her songs were sung by mourners. | <urn:uuid:1c10b892-2029-4708-af2d-a986465f686d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://forward.com/articles/4929/a-nation-mourns-naomi-shemer-iconic-songstress/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980043 | 1,083 | 2.25 | 2 |
In March 2011, Thomson Reuters Science Watch rated genetics as the hottest research area. Around the same time, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration approved the first genomics-derived drug—Benlysta for lupus from Human Genome Sciences (Rockville, Md.) and GlaxoSmithKline (Brentford, U.K.). These bits of news also arose during a seemingly unending increase in sequencing power, from next generation to next-next and beyond. All of these aspects of genomics indicate the ongoing need for advances in software. Researchers need tools to track data in today’s complex experiments and to analyze the output.
When asked about the biggest challenges in using genomics software today, data analyst Johanna Swanson, who works in Deborah Nickerson’s laboratory at the University of Washington, says, “For our lab, it’s scalability. We need to have the computer power to do the analysis and also flexibility in what you can do since the science is changing constantly.”
Beyond scaling in terms of technology, genomics software must also fit the needs of a wide range of users. “There are both advanced users and general users,” says Mindy Zhang, a senior scientist who works in the functional genomics group at Genzyme (Cambridge, Mass.). In addition, the range of users puts the software to use in different ways. “You need a group of software to meet the different user needs—all with minimal overlap,” says Zhang. “It’s quite challenging.”
As an overview of some of the categories of genomics research, Zhang mentions handling data from arrays, genetics, and next-generation sequencing (NGS), as well as data mining. In considering researchers working in all of these areas, she says that you must think about how many applications people can handle. “We have all this different software, but we want to make sure that people understand what’s going on behind the user interface.” That’s especially difficult to do since you “need to revisit software every year. [A] program that is the greatest one year can be obsolete the next,” she says.
Staying on track
To keep track of data, Swanson and her colleagues use the GenoLogics LIMS, or lab information management system. GenoLogics (Victoria, B.C., Canada) made this LIMS software just for genomics labs. “It tracks what tests we do to samples from the moment they enter the lab until we hand them off to the sequencers,” Swanson explains. “It tracks plates, transfers, sample prep, or any quality control steps.”
The complexity of modern genomics research requires such tracking. “Some labs have been using manual or semi-manual process or homebrew solutions,” says Bruce Pharr, vice president, products and marketing at GenoLogics. “Given the expense of some modern techniques, including NGS, it pays to prepare samples as efficiently as possible. For example, a lab might run samples from multiple patients—even samples from different labs—in one NGS run,” says Michael Kuzyk, PhD, senior product manager, genomics at GenoLogics.
Such a variety of samples means some researchers want the ability to modify software. That’s why GenoLogics developed its rapid-scripting application programming interface (API). “This allows on-the-fly adaptations to workflows,” says Pharr.
Kuzyk adds, “With the rapid-scripting API, users with some programming capabilities can ensure that any data-analysis pipeline they generate can be seamlessly integrated into our own system—all without our assistance.” For customers who lack that programming skill, GenoLogics helps there too. “We can customize our software for customers where needed,” says Pharr.
Swanson points out that the Genologics software is pretty easy to use. “We picked it up in a few weeks,” she says. “Our techs use it through a [graphical user interface]. They can show that, for instance, they moved a sample from this plate to that one and what reagents they added.”
To make this software even easier for some users, GenoLogics and Illumina (San Diego, Calif.) signed a co-selling agreement. In short, researchers who use Illumina sequencers and kits will find that the GenoLogics LIMS is ready to run the sequencing. “It includes preconfigured workflows so you can be up and running right away,” Kuzyk explains.
Getting a jump on statistics
The increasing complexity of genomics research also demands new ways to analyze the results. “Many studies are now conducted at the whole-genome scale,” says Zhang of Genzyme, “so it becomes essential that software includes a comprehensive stats tool.”
To get that statistical power, Zhang and her colleagues use JMP Genomics from SAS (Cary, N.C.). According to Shannon Conners, a product manager for JMP life sciences, the latest JMP Genomics 5 needs to handle a range of users. “There are biologists at a bench who need genomic analysis and software to make sense of their data,” she says. “There are also biostatisticians who want to do even more detailed analysis.” That breadth of applications creates a challenge.
As Conners explains it: “You need workflows that are simplified for nonexperts but provide enough flexibility and openness of code to satisfy biostatisticians.” To help bridge that divide, SAS built JMP Genomics with an open architecture. When a biostatistician wants to “look under the hood,” it’s possible. For a nonexpert who just wants to “run the engine,” that’s possible too.
When asked how drug discovery and development researchers might use genomics software, Conners quickly starts down a list. “On the expression side and in early studies,” she says, “researchers might look at profiles to explain how a drug works—looking for the mode of action and which pathways get turned on or off.” She adds that pharmaceutical researchers also explore pathways in search of adverse side effects.
With expanding genomics capabilities, researchers also dig deeper into an individual’s genome. “They often look at how individual variation impacts someone’s response to drugs,” Conners says. “They even look at profiles of expression changes in cells and try to relate that to genetic variants.”
Genomics research also plays a role in developing diagnostics. “This can be used to see which set of patients should be given one drug or another,” Conners says. “We see lots of predictive modeling efforts aimed at finding biomarkers that indicate who will respond—or not—to a particular drug.”
Instead of continuing the list, Conners just says, “Genomics is being used throughout the process, and it’s not always with the same platform or tool.”
Consequently, SAS keeps adding features to JMP Genomics. Conners says that recent advances include a server version of the software and analytic tools that collectively examine groups of rare and common variants. She adds, “For example, you can group variants by gene pathways or within a locus to look for a relationship with a specific outcome or trait.” For NGS, Connors says, “We’ve added import tools for standard formats, with more coming for JMP Genomics 5.1. We also support text files output from partner software, such as GenoLogics.”
According to Zhang, “Statistics make up the strength of SAS software. It is a very effective tool for predictive modeling.” Here, the SAS software is getting even better. Conners points out the addition of tools for predictive modeling. “You can call different SAS procedures—behind the scenes—that are made for predictive modeling and tailored to genomics data sets,” she says.
To keep genomics as a hot area of research, scientists need ongoing improvement in software. This technology fuels deeper mining of the genome, and that unearths increasingly valuable discoveries that explain biology and can be used in clinical research and practice.
About the Author
Mike May is a publishing consultant for science and technology based in Austin, Texas. | <urn:uuid:efcd7be8-4d5d-45a0-837e-93e2b1280a7e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dddmag.com/articles/2011/05/softer-side-genomics | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936811 | 1,796 | 2.34375 | 2 |
If you follow news about the automobile industry at all, you have no doubt been bombarded with news of alternative fuel technologies. Of course, everyone related to the auto industry is currently feverishly attempting to discover the next mass-market alternative fuel source to successfully power our vehicles. While the electric, rechargeable battery received a lot of press this year, as your local Honda New Jersey dealer, we at Planet Honda would like to make you aware of another option in the alternative fuel market.
The vehicle is our Honda Civic Natural Gas, formally known as the Honda Civic GX. To the untrained eye, the Honda Civic Natural Gas looks all but identical to the regular Honda Civic, save for a few identifying letters on its side. But as always, it is what's on the inside that counts. Inside the powerhouse of this four-door sedan's engine is, as the vehicle's name suggests, natural gas. As Honda Corporate describes it quite cleverly, 'the best way to save gas is to not use it at all.'
As mentioned above, electric vehicles received a lot of airtime this year, especially for their "green" attributes. While we are proponents of developing alternative fuel technologies like electric batteries, we at your Newark Honda dealership would like to let you in on a little secret - the electric vehicles are the "greenest cars" on the market, next to the Honda Civic Natural Gas.
That's right, your Newark Honda dealership is proud of the fact that the Honda Civic Natural Gas was voted the greenest car on the market in 2011. The said Civic is "greener" than electric vehicles because the natural gas source is sure to be "green" as well, where as electricity provided via a coal-powered plant cannot claim the same as true.
However, as is true with electric vehicles, natural gas filling stations are scarce across our country at this time. But, once again the Honda Civic Natural Gas beats out its electric vehicle competitors in this category thanks to the fact that there are nearly 900 natural gas charging stations across the country currently. What's more, only five states exist with no charging station.
So the next time you are in the market for a new vehicle and you are interested in a vehicle that runs on an alternative fuel source, do not forget to check out a Honda Civic Natural Gas sedan at your local Honda New Jersey dealership of Planet Honda. You just might like what you find. | <urn:uuid:e21bd82d-3f26-4b2e-9911-1d581ecda2d8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.planethondanj.com/blog/2011/august/8/Honda-tries-natural-gas.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955458 | 491 | 1.96875 | 2 |
A year ago I had begun my fire service writing with a reflection of the powerful statement in an article by Charles Bailey of the disconnect in learning within the American fire service. Bailey had shared that the problem is the process between crafting the messages and how the messages are learned are not conjoined. Despite all the constant reminders of safe practices via multiple media forms something (dependent upon the main idea the writer is trying to expound) is lost in translation. As this first year of writing came to a close I began to review if I had met my purpose and whether or not the purpose still led to additional writing.
The popular beliefs regarding line of duty deaths are missing the fact that the largest cause of line of duty deaths are medically related. If you read the various websites, forums and blogs you can easily surmise that a great majority of the average hundred firefighters killed each year have died while performing suppression operations. A small majority of writers and random comments refute this universal notion by redirecting others to the irrefutable evidence that stress, cardiac events and vehicle accidents are the greatest causes of line of duty deaths. Every year a report is produced that gives us detailed information about the previous year’s line of duty deaths. Likewise, an investigation report is produced for every line of duty death termed official, regardless of the nature and cause of death. While the death of any firefighter should never be taken lightly, the fire service has to be aware when it begins shaping tradition out of what is defined by PSOB benefit terminology. Collectively the fire service should work to stop wearing its deaths on its heart sleeve. Length of service to one’s department and related emotional commitment does not have an exact relation to cause and nature of death. A 70-year old fire-police member who dies in his sleep after performing traffic duty at an auto accident early in the afternoon should not be held on the same level as the 34-year old firefighter who dies in the floor collapse of a burning house (let’s leave it there for now, we’ll get back to whether or not said house is occupied later). The American fire service is steeped in tradition, a majority of which has created our cultural values and shaped the foundations of various training and public information. The typical line of duty death, pre-PSOB definition, was one where the fallen died within a direct time relation to firefighting duties (i.e. response, fireground and return to quarters). Now a firefighter can be a line of duty death if he is killed in an auto accident returning home from an association meeting. Compare that with the death of a firefighter killed in a flashover trying to get the child gate off a window he and the three-year old are trapped behind. Ask yourself honestly if they are equal sacrifices. Take this same premise of comparison to the medical cause of line of duty deaths and ask yourself at what point do you stop allowing the unhealthy firefighter to participate in fireground operations? While a cardiac death may not be as titillating as a roof collapse, you can read that a number of medical lines of duty death reports state the fallen had a prior existing history of insufficient cardiovascular health.
The problem of LODD information sharing and learning is the reluctance to recognize the disparity between traditional and scientific line of duty death. This was proven to me by the Firehouse.com News Director. I noticed that the site wasn’t posting the NIOSH LODD investigation reports that involved medical causes of death. When asked why, the reply I was given was that medical causes do not provide the typical lessons learned to readers that traumatic or significant injuries do (his personal opinion). While is it proven that the majority of line of duty deaths are medical related, this person with nearly ten years of work experience in one of the most well known fire service websites failed to see the correlation. Instead he proved to me the abstract that significant traumatic death is held at a greater peer acceptance despite the true data, at least in his opinion. A chief officer once spoke to me about this dilemma, the broad definition of LODD and its acceptance, in terms easy to understand. Take the American farmer; in his course of work from sunrise to sunset he is performing a variety of duties relevant to his occupation. If we allow a line of duty definition similar in task definition to cover the work of the farmer, then farming would most likely be the one of our nation’s most dangerous vocations. It is akin to trying to ‘out poor’ or ‘out ghetto’ each other (“when I was growing up I was so poor…”) but by recognizing that culture and tradition should not shape LODD definition we may take the bite out of the too safe/not safe debate. We are dead because we have been working with an 80% arterial blockage undiagnosed for a number of years and not because we may be too encapsulated by our PPE or we performed VES on a vacant structure.
Fire service information and the creation of our own participatory culture are another area of disconnect. The benefit that some fire service blogs have over websites and forum boards are that the ability to participate is easier and depending on the parameters allowed by the author, quicker. This allows for a faster exchange of information at a widely discernable quality to be posted to a related article. With the induction of Twitter by various fire service bloggers readers can have nearly minute by minute previews of someone they have chosen to follow. This flow of newly published information is great, especially for organizations and individuals such as NIOSH, the USFA and public information officers. In a conference about participatory culture attended by figures in press and media, the term was defined as having participants (readers) being not focused on the information but ‘addicted’ to their ‘friends’. The value to the reader is not the subject matter but who is talking and to whom. This I learned to be somewhat true on various fire service websites. On Firehouse.com forums, I learned that there are some persons in the fire service that while they have allegedly (I have to state ‘allegedly’ since it is basically anonymous users on the internet) attended various rapid intervention training they never heard of using a LUNAR report for a missing firefighter. Despite the number of websites covering rapid intervention, saving our own and close calls, as well as news about the same, LUNAR was a foreign concept. The second example from the same site was about users that had not heard of the technique for repositioning the SCBA waist strap on a downed firefighter for removal. Again, while it appeared to be foreign to a minority, I wonder if the important information we read is truly distributed to the masses or does it remain within various sub-cultures. To me this became paramount with the infamous Ray McCormack speech (if I have to explain it then we have another example of participatory culture) at FDIC. Not as much as the speech itself but the commentary and comments that followed afterwards that showed shallow participation by some individuals. Simply, the American fire service will never be able to come close to looking seriously into changing traditional tactics and strategy if the first salvoes of debate are nothing more than calling each other freelancing cowboys or safety sallies. Although everyone is not a writer or orator neither side will gain credibility if we give serious discussion nothing more than slapstick. Bobby Halton, who caved to FDNY Chief Cassano and pulled Ray’s speech, could have set a ground breaking event by instead calling for a nationwide roundtable to discuss what makes Johnny a poor leader. Imagine how much more of an impact the speech would have had if Halton had asked the IAFF, IAFC, NVFC, NIOSH and the USFA to participate and take it across the country in tow
n hall meetings. Instead the most hype came from downloading it before it was pulled again.
A final note about participatory culture is the lack of participation in some specific areas. During this period of writing I came across two requests that I believed would surely be well known. The first and probably lesser known was the call for committee members to various NFPA committees. The very organization that a majority of firefighters believed to be taking the bite out of interior firefighting were asking for participation from firefighters. I am not a regular browser of the NFPA website or recipient of latest NFPA news, so I expect that such calls are relatively normal. I was surprised though that the request was not widely distributed. The same confusion applies to the request for comments to the vacant, abandoned, unoccupied structures draft also. Only on Fire Engineering did I see this mentioned among industry briefs. How is it that the huge numbers of medium we have miss these calls for input from the backstep firefighter? There are two reasons that I have experienced. Posting of fire service news is dependent on two things. First is the source of the site’s news. Feed subscription will give you what is on the 11 o’clock news. Industry-specific news such as the need for assistance with a committee or recommendation draft is rarely a feed item. One has to be either a very regular site visitor or receive regular updates via email. The second is the point where news information crosses a writer’s or editor’s desk. If you follow a particular fire service website for pertinent information, then you should know who it is that determines what information is posted and their public safety experience, or lack thereof. The journalist and editor without fire service knowledge, even at a rudimentary level, will decide for themselves what readers will be interested in. While the story and photos of a three-alarm fire gain page views, the advisory about a humat valve rupture will have a greater importance. But, if the advisory isn’t posted, you know nothing.
The great disconnect between teaching and learning will have to be resolved as Bailey suggests by including scientists, sociologists or behavioral scientists. This doesn’t imply that there needs to be a push to over-educate today’s firefighters and officers but that if we are serious about changing, or preserving, parts of our culture then catchphrases must give way to smart debate. Two examples of despite how close we may be to each other technologically, we are many miles apart. | <urn:uuid:4fc81f6d-f90b-48a6-80e4-9a3635ab3154> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://backstepfirefighter.com/2009/05/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963707 | 2,118 | 1.945313 | 2 |
About the Joseph Project
18 May, 1999
Thousands of people in the United States are descendants of Joseph
HEDGES: "Joseph of Monocacy" as he was known during his
lifetime and we call him still today. Joseph died at Monocacy Manor in
Prince George's Co., Maryland in 1732. He was not the first
"Hedges" in the New World, but if you share our ancestry, he
was the first of our line confirmed to have been in America. (1)
Unfortunately, the information being circulated about Joseph of
Monocacy seems to be as much misinformation as fact. Depending on whom
it is you want to believe, his parents could have been any one of three
or four pairs; and about as many names have been suggested for his
As one book puts it, "Joseph Hedges was English, but - not
withstanding elaborate family claims to the contrary - no substantiated
tie has ever been established to a marriage in England or to his
The problem is that his early life is not well recorded. Primary
documentation is sparse and secondary documentation is scarcely better.
Most of the time neither is cited. Nowhere, to our knowledge, has there
been a recognized effort to bring the documentation together in one
place where it can be evaluated. In this age of electronic
communications we believe it is possible to do better. Cooperative
efforts can be mounted to improve the documentation. Even if no further
evidence is located, merely bringing the information together so that
the preponderance of evidence can be discussed and assessed, offers hope
for a consensus about Joseph of Monocacy.
We propose The Joseph Project - A global effort: To share the facts,
legends, opinions, and whatever else seems relevant about Joseph of
Monocacy. To identify opportunities for improving the factual base. To
conduct further research where it seems appropriate. To document what is
found. To compile the findings into a single collection. To evaluate and
discuss what is found. To reach conclusions and a consensus, if
possible, about the facts and the life of Joseph of Monocacy.
- By one scenario, Joseph was
the son of William, and William was the first of the line in
alternatives have been listed for interested readers.
- "Pioneers of Old
Monocacy, the Early settlement of Frederick County, Maryland,
1721-1743" by Grace L. Tracey and John P. Dern, Clearfield
Company, Baltimore, 1987.
Updated: Monday, May 22, 2000 | <urn:uuid:781bddf0-7ddc-43a9-83e0-7e55c02de7db> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~hedges/joseph/about.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950249 | 542 | 2.4375 | 2 |
Habitat for Humanity’s Disaster Response
Devastating natural disasters happen around the world every year. War, conflict and civil unrest also create millions of refugees and internally displaced people. Families left homeless by disasters and refugees returning to their homelands face uncertain futures, often confronting dire housing needs as they struggle to rebuild their lives.
The devastating effects of disasters
Disasters cause losses that exceed the community’s ability to cope without help. It is a situation in which the community’s means to sustain life with dignity have failed, requiring external assistance to overcome.
The mission of Habitat’s Disaster Response
To develop innovative housing and shelter assistance models that generate sustainable interventions for people vulnerable to or affected by disasters or conflicts. In addition, Disaster Response builds the capacity of the global Habitat community in the areas of disaster mitigation, preparedness and recovery through education, training and partnerships.
More than 50,000 families worldwide have been served under Habitat’s disaster recovery programs.
By giving the communities the means to rebuild, Habitat has been able to support, empower and work with families in building recovery shelter and housing solutions.
Disaster Response programs
How you can help
Make a difference in the lives of those affected by disasters and conflicts. | <urn:uuid:33eb5e65-decd-4f63-a445-96b88b314a9b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.habitat.org/eurasia/learn_about_habitat/what_we_do/disaster_response.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940519 | 263 | 3 | 3 |
What is the Stem Cell Donor Registry ?
Héma-Québec has set up and manages Québec’s Stem Cell Donor Registry: a computerized bank containing the names of Quebecers who could eventually agree to a stem cell donation.
More than 39,000 people are listed in Québec’s Stem Cell Donor Registry. This registry is linked to the Canadian registry as well as international registries, which enables us to look for an unrelated stem cell donor for a patient on an international scale. In return, our Registry is available to all patients in other provinces and elsewhere in the world who are waiting for a stem cell transplant. The Canadian registry includes nearly 320,000 donors (including Québec donors), while all of the international registries together provide access to more than 19,000,000 potential donors.
We intervene when the patient’s doctor asks us to look for an unrelated donor and when no family member has been found to be compatible. If a donor who is compatible with the patient is found in the Stem Cell Donor Registry, Héma-Québec will contact that person.
Every month, our team handles about a hundred requests for searches for unrelated stem cell donors. Locating these donors is a major mandate, and our challenge consists in maintaining a sufficiently large and diversified Registry.
The Stem Cell Donor Registry could not operate without your invaluable contribution. | <urn:uuid:ce44089d-fd1a-4255-ac4d-2eab51c6fc7a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hema-quebec.qc.ca/comprendre/cellules-souches/index.en.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919164 | 294 | 2.21875 | 2 |
The John Lennon Educational Tour Bus will pull up to the Grayson Tech High School on October 24th, SAE Atlanta on October 25th, and Meadowcreek High School on October 27th for student recording sessions and interactive tours. For 14 years the Lennon Bus has provided free songwriting and multimedia production workshops to America’s youth. With the assistance of three on-board engineers, students learn how to write, perform, record, and produce original songs, produce and shoot music videos and documentaries and complete a broadcast quality music video.
Joel Kosche and Will Turpin from Collective Soul, will be on board the Bus on October 24th working with the students. Keyboardist Chuck Leavell, (The Allman Brothers Band, Eric Clapton and The Rolling Stones) will be on the Bus working with students on October 25th. On October 27th, the Bus will offer interactive tours to students. The select group of students will have the opportunity to record their own original song and music video in the state-of-the-art studio used by artists such as the Black Eyed Peas, Natasha Bedingfield, and Justin Timberlake.
The concept began as an offshoot of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, which is dedicated to providing opportunities for both professional and amateur songwriters around the world. The Bus travels across the U.S. and Canada year-round, providing free tours and workshops at schools, retailers, festivals, on tours with headlining artists, and at major industry conferences.
For more info. www.lennonbus.org.
Category: Atlanta Music News
Sites That Link to this Post
- » John Lennon Educational Tour Bus Hits Atlanta! Will Turpin And The Way | October 25, 2011 | <urn:uuid:a7bbe5c2-bde7-49af-af57-5efc751f5d2c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.atlantamusicguide.com/2011/10/21/john-lennon-educational-tour-bus-hits-atlanta/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939142 | 358 | 1.585938 | 2 |
In this issue:
A. August Neuroscience for Kids Newsletter was archived
B. New NeuroCalendars
C. Optogenetics: Shedding Light on Monkey Behavior
D.Baby Bumbo Seats Bumped from Shelves
In August, 7 new figures were modified and 30 pages were modified.
As part of a Psychology 1 unit, the Florida Virtual School has created a
module about neuroscience and behavior. The module has eight lessons
after a preassessment: a) the brain, b) communication in the brain, c)
tasting, smelling, hearing, d) seeing and feeling, e) perception, f) sleep
and dreams, g) consciousness and h) review and exam. Each section takes
between 30 minutes and 3 hours to complete. You can jump around from
lesson to lesson, skipping any you like, but I suggest you follow the
lessons in order. Many interactive activities and short videos sprinkled
throughout the lessons help explain concepts and open new doors for
The teachers worked through all of the lessons we have developed so far. They had a chance to make extracts and decoctions from plants and herbs and to test these substances on various invertebrate preparations such as planaria (flatworms), daphnia (water fleas), lumbriculus (brown worms) and cockroach leg nerves. The teachers also toured the UW Medicinal Herb Garden, the Herbarium and Burke Museum Garden.
With the feedback from the teachers, the Sowing the Seeds of Neuroscience staff now have information about how to revise the lessons. The staff will work over the next few months to improve the material and will then create kits with everything a teacher will need to teach the lessons to their middle school students. The kits will be available to the teachers next winter and spring.
Another Sowing the Seeds of Neuroscience teacher workshop will be held
during the summer of 2013. Teachers who complete the workshop will be
allowed to check out the kits to use with their students. Stay tuned to
this newsletter and the Sowing the
Seeds of Neuroscience web site for workshop registration information.
The NEI will select up to 20 winners who will receive a prize of $3,000 and an additional $2,000 in travel funds to attend a special meeting. The deadline for entry submissions is November 12, 2012. Challenge rules and entry information are available at:
UW Medicine sponsors a weekly Summer Concert Series held in a local mall parking lot not too far from the University of Washington. They invite a band to play for two hours with a 15 minute intermission. During intermission, the crowd likes to be entertained while the band takes a break. When I asked the sponsors about past people who had taken this 15 minute intermission slot, they mentioned that the University of Washington mascot, "Harry the Husky," was a crowd pleaser. UW Medicine had never before asked a scientist or faculty member to speak at the concert intermission. The sponsors also asked if I could have a booth with activities to help concert-goers learn about the brain.
For several days, I thought of some possible ways to speak to a crowd who had come to hear music, not learn about the brain. Eventually, I decided that it would be best if I could somehow get the crowd to interact with me. I also asked several undergraduate students if they could help staff a booth with visual illusions, coloring sheets, reaction time tests, brain puzzles and neuroscience crafts.
The day of the event was one of the warmest in Seattle: sunny, with temperatures in the high 80s. I was sure that many people would be drawn to the music and band ("The Paperboys") and I was not wrong: about 800 people showed up! The students and I quickly set up our booth and soon many kids came by to see what we had on display. The kids seemed to enjoy making pipe cleaner neurons, color pictures of the brain and spin Benham's tops.
When intermission came, it was my turn. I was escorted onto the stage and as I set up between instruments and microphones, a DJ from a local radio station introduced me. I started by welcoming the crowd and then asked how many people had come to the concert by car or bike. I congratulated those people who wore seat belts and helmets, and scolded those who did not. I then moved on to basic anatomy and I held up a brain model as I pointed out the different parts of the brain and explained the function of each part. It's likely that people at the back of the parking lot could not see the brain very well, but it was the best I could do. The crowd was especially interested in my discussion of brain size and gender differences.
Finally, I invited several people on stage to create a giant nerve cell model from rope and plastic containers. Some people held ropes to represent dendrites, others held the cell body and one person held a container with ping pong balls that modeled the synaptic terminal and neurotransmitters. We got a big round of applause when the "neurotransmitters" shot out of the "terminal."
I ended intermission by teaching the crowd a short song, sung to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star":
Twinkle, twinkle brain of mine,
How I think you're really fine.
Up above in my head so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle brain of mine,
How I think you're really fine.
It was great to hear the crowd sing!
I thought the event went well and hope I generated some interest in
neuroscience. If the audience went home with questions about the brain,
then I consider the presentation a success.
B. SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN (September, 2012) includes the articles "Can We Keep Getting Smarter?" by Tim Folger, "The Case of the Sleeping Slayer" by James Vlahos, "Mind in Motion" by Miguel A.L. Nicolelis, and "Machines of the Infinite" by John Pavlus.
C. "The Complex Call of the Carolina Chickadee" by Todd Freeberg, Jeffrey
Lucas, and Indrikis Krams (AMERICAN SCIENTIST, September-October, 2012,
issue) discusses communication and language.
B. Hair cells in the cochlea are replaced in birds, but not in humans. (Source: Birkhead, T., Bird Sense. What It's Like to Be a Bird, New York: Walker & Company, 2012.)
C. The nucleus comprises up to 80 to 90 percent of the volume of small neuron cell bodies in tiny insects. (Plenty of Room at the Bottom? by: Eberhard, William G., Wcislo, and William T., American Scientist, May/Jun 2012, Vol. 100, Issue 3.)
D. The eyes of a human occupy 2% of the face; the eyes of a European starling (a bird) occupy 15% of the face. (Source: Montgomery, S., Birdology, New York: Free Press, 2010.)
E. Wild Bactrian camels can locate water from 50 miles away by smelling
bacteria that live in the water. (Source: "Numbers Game: Sniffing Out
the Facts," Audubon magazine, May-June 2012.)
Help Neuroscience for Kids
Your comments and suggestions about this newsletter and the "Neuroscience for Kids" web site are always welcome. If there are any special topics that you would like to see on the web site, just let me know.
Eric H. Chudler, Ph.D. | <urn:uuid:2d77bd70-4a34-4c30-b101-50896d014031> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/news169.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920796 | 1,582 | 2.890625 | 3 |
1: one that imparts motion; specifically : prime mover
2: any of various power units that develop energy or impart motion: as
a : a small compact engine
b : internal combustion engine; especially : a gasoline engine
c : a rotating machine that transforms electrical energy into mechanical energy.
History of motorcycle
: American, Sylvester Howard Roper (1823-1896) invented a two-cylinder, steam-engine motorcycle (powered by coal) in 1867....German, Gottlieb Daimler invented the first gas-engined motorcycle in 1885, which was an engine attached to a wooden bike.....However, inventors such as William Harley and the Davidsons brothers continued to develop motorcycles and their business competitors were other new start-up companies such as Excelsior, Indian, Pierce, Merkel, Schickel and Thor.
So far I'm figuring that the Indian is the only true enginecycle. | <urn:uuid:2f26ddd2-3d1d-41ae-bf6b-3337a30c99e5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://roadstarclinic.com/component/option,com_fireboard/Itemid,187/func,view/catid,49/id,494000/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943807 | 196 | 2.96875 | 3 |
Free Tool Promotes Adherence, Lowers Cost of Asthma
Online “Asthma PACT" Helps Patients and Parents
The Asthma PACT™ (Personal Assessment and Control Tool) available at www.AsthmaPACT.org, is a free online program hosted by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA) that helps patients and parents reduce the cost and suffering from asthma. The concept is simple: individuals with asthma must follow directions from their medical providers, including medications to take, to properly treat this chronic disease. The Asthma PACT helps patients and parents to identify reasons why they may be having difficulty following the treatment plan, and it gives feedback – in written and video formats – about how to manage these problems. Individuals can print their personal assessment and take it to their medical provider for further discussion. Jacqui Vok, AAFA’s Senior Educational Programs Manager, says, "Placing the Asthma PACT personalized assessment in the hands of their physicians empowers patients to get the advice they need to help them manage their asthma symptoms." The Asthma PACT is a validated asthma adherence survey that is currently being used in research projects at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
"Each patient is their own cost center," says Andrew Weinstein, MD, a Board Certified allergist and President of Adherence Management Systems (AMS), developer of the Asthma PACT tool. "By focusing on why you have persistent symptoms, you can improve your health and reduce your cost of care." Also, according to Weinstein, the Asthma PACT "helps the patients self-identify the ‘rough areas’ and acts as a vehicle to bring potential solutions to the individual and family."
The key to education and counseling is to know why individuals are not following the directions. This is the value of the Asthma PACT in preventing sleepless nights, work and school absence and unnecessary emergency and healthcare costs.
An estimated 25 million Americans have asthma, 7.1 million under the age of 18. The annual cost of care is estimated at $19.7 billion, with 456,000 hospitalizations and 1.5 million ER visits. African Americans are three times more likely to be hospitalized or die from asthma. Inhaled corticosteroids effectively control symptoms and reduce morbidity, mortality, health care utilization and costs.
The Right Tool for a Big Problem
Weinstein treated 59 children with severe asthma in an inpatient rehabilitation setting at the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children. The year prior to treatment, the median cost per patient was $10,240. Each child had seven hospital days and four emergency room visits. At all four years of follow-up, median hospital days and emergency room visits were zero. The cost of care fell below $2,000 at the end of the fourth year. The key to the success of the program was the ability of the health care team to identify the difficulties that the family was experiencing following the treatment plan and helping them become successful.
These outcomes were duplicated in the outpatient setting in children with severe asthma at the same hospital and in adult patients with severe asthma referred by Blue Cross Blue Shield Delaware. Weinstein transferred the analytic questions from his adherence care model and, in partnership with AAFA, made it available online as the Asthma PACT at no charge for all asthma patients and parents.
Adherence - The Key to Controlling Healthcare Costs
Despite high-profile discussions to control healthcare costs, there is little emphasis on the contributors to high costs, nor the actions that can be taken to reduce costs. Individuals with chronic diseases such as asthma, diabetes and heart disease are responsible for more than 80% of all health care costs due to medications, physician visits, hospitalizations, emergency care, and disability caused by these diseases. It has long been observed that 45-60 percent of individuals with these chronic diseases do not follow their prescribed medication plans, called "non-adherence" or "non-compliance," which further adds an estimated $600 million to the annual cost of care in the U.S.
Experts have identified more than twenty reasons why so many asthma patients are non-adherent; however, a partial list includes - cost; comprehension of instructions; concern about side effects; lack of support; emotional response to symptoms; disagreeing with the diagnosis; and believing the medication is ineffective.
Asthma PACT Increases Adherence, Decreases Costs
The Asthma PACT includes 75 percent of these "reasons for non-adherence" and presents them in an organized way to the patient and provider. One problem area that is now beginning to be addressed by medical schools and residency programs is the lack of counseling skills by practicing physicians. The personnel in the asthma rehabilitation program mentioned above had psychological training to help the families work through the obstacles that were preventing them from consistently giving the medication. Most individuals with asthma do not have significant psychological issues and can be helped by practitioners with basic counseling skills. But the key to education and counseling is to know why individuals are not following the directions. This is the value of the Asthma PACT in preventing sleepless nights, work and school absence and unnecessary emergency and hospital care and healthcare costs.
Visit www.AsthmaPACT.org for more information. "Asthma PACT™" and "AsthmaPACT.org" are trademarks of the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA). .
This article was originally published in Coping® with Allergies & Asthma magazine, Winter 2011-2012. | <urn:uuid:36dc1675-61d9-4786-a6b5-021fe8d48e21> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://copingmag.com/ana/index.php/feature_article/free_tool_promotes_adherence_lowers_cost_of_asthma | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955552 | 1,136 | 2.5 | 2 |
Brussels, 10 November 2010
Energy: Commission presents its new strategy towards 2020
The Commission today presented its new strategy for a competitive, sustainable and secure energy. The Communication "Energy 2020" defines the energy priorities for the next ten years and sets the actions to be taken in order to tackle the challenges of saving energy, achieving a market with competitive prizes and secure supplies, boosting technological leadership, and effectively negotiate with our international partners.
Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger said: "The energy challenge is one of the greatest tests for us all. Putting our energy system onto a new, more sustainable and secure path may take time but ambitious decisions need to be taken now. To have an efficient, competitive and low-carbon economy we have to europeanise our energy policy and focus on a few but pressing priorities."
In the Communication adopted today, the Commission identifies five top priorities. On the basis of these priorities and the action presented, the Commission will come forward with concrete legislative initiatives and proposals within the next 18 months. This communication also sets the agenda for the discussion by Heads of States and Governments at the very first EU Summit on Energy on 4 February 2011.
The Commission proposes to focus its initiatives on the two sectors with the biggest energy saving potential: transport and buildings. To help house owners and local entities to finance renovation and energy saving measures, the Commission will propose investment incentives and innovative financial instruments by mid 2011. The public sector should take energy efficiency into consideration when buying works, services or products. In the industrial sector, energy efficiency certificates could be an incentive for companies to invest in technology which uses less energy.
Pan-European integrated energy market with infrastructures
The Commission sets a target date for completing the internal energy market. By 2015 no Member State should be isolated. Over the next ten years, overall energy infrastructure investments in the EU of Euro 1 trillion are needed. To speed up essential EU strategic projects, the Commission proposes simplified and shorter building permits, setting a maximum time frame until final authorisation and EU funding. A "one-stop shop" should coordinate all the permit requests needed to realize a project.
27 States, one voice on energy in the world
It is proposed that the EU coordinates its energy policy vis-à-vis third countries, especially in its relation with key partners. Within the neighbourhood policy, the Commission proposes to extend and deepen the Energy Community Treaty to further integrate countries willing to participate in the EU’s energy market. A major cooperation with Africa is also announced, which aims at providing sustainable energy to all citizens of this continent
Europe's leadership in energy technology and innovation
Four major projects in key areas for Europe's competitiveness will be launched, such as new technologies for intelligent networks and electricity storage, research on second-generation biofuels and the 'smart cities' partnership to promote energy savings in urban areas.
Safe, secure and affordable energy through active consumers
The Commission proposes new measures on price comparison, switching suppliers, clear and transparent billing.
EU energy goals have been incorporated into the "Europe 2020 Strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth", as adopted by the European Council in June 2010. In particular, the EU aims at achieving ambitious energy and climate-change objectives for 2020: reduce the greenhouse gas emissions by 20 %, increase the share of renewable energy to 20 % and make a 20 % improvement in energy efficiency.
For more information on Energy strategy 2020 please see: http://ec.europa.eu/energy/strategies/2010/2020_en.htm
More information on the public consultation towards an energy strategy 2020 here: http://ec.europa.eu/energy/strategies/consultations/2010_07_02_energy_strategy_en.htm | <urn:uuid:8d15262d-3a11-41e6-89d7-bb7ecf82dd19> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-10-1492_en.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909926 | 769 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Used Clark Forklift
Used Clark Forklifts
Clark is one of the oldest and most respected names in materials handling equipment. Back in 1917, it was Clark that introduced the world’s first internal combustion materials handling vehicle. The “Tructractor” was an instant success and led to the development of many other Clark industry “firsts,” including the world’s first internal combustion lift truck to use hydraulics instead of a mechanical lifting mechanism. While you probably don’t want one of these used Clark forklifts unless you’re a museum curator, if you’re looking for tough, reliable used forklifts for sale, you can’t do better than Clark.
Never a company to rest on its laurels, Clark continued to enlarge and improve its line of materials handling equipment. Today, if there’s a need for a specialized lift truck, Clark can fill it. The range of new and used Clark forklifts includes:
- 5 Internal Combustion (IC) Pneumatic Tire Forklift Ranges
- 4 Cushion Tire IC
- 6 Electric Forklifts with carrying capacities of up to 15,400 lbs.
- 6 Walkies, including electric pallet trucks and stackers
That alone is an impressive range of vehicles, but many of these also come in a variety of models for different load capacities and applications. For example, there are 4 diesel/LPG models in Clark’s range of rugged IC pneumatic tire forklifts designed for heavy manufacturing. The Clark ECX range of electric forklifts designed for manufacturing, warehousing and distribution is another example of the wide selection of quality new and used Clark forklifts on the market.
Used Clark Forklifts from ReconditionedForklifts.com
When you browse the huge inventory of used forklifts here on ReconditionedForklifts.com, you may be surprised to discover just how much you can learn from our product descriptions alone. You can see at a glance whether a vehicle is sold in “As Is – Parts Only”, “As-Is”, “Guaranteed Operational” or “Reconditioned” condition. All details about the truck are listed and where photographs are available, they are not doctored in any way: what you see is what you get. To find out more about these classifications, check out our article, About Reconditioned Forklift Types.
On occasion, you may not see an image accompanying a used lift truck. This is most likely because it has just come into our inventory. That’s one of the reasons why we prominently display a “Request Product Info” button next to the price sticker. We encourage you to know everything about a used forklift you are considering buying from us before you make your purchase.
Purchasing a used forklift is never an easy decision. You will probably want to consider several before you make your final decision. That’s why we make it easy for you to compare vehicles by providing one click “Download PDF”, “Print” and “Add to Watchlist” buttons.
Our commitment to your satisfaction doesn’t stop with our “virtual” showroom, either. Reconditioned Forklifts is not just a website, it is a team of dedicated professionals backed by Bahrns Materials Handling & Supplies Company, an Illinois based company with a solid history of service behind it. For more information about our company, our services or a specific used Clark forklift or other quality brand you are interested in, email firstname.lastname@example.org or use our contact form. We also welcome hearing from you personally, so don’t hesitate to call us during normal working hours (8am-5pm CST M-F) at 1-855-742-0159. | <urn:uuid:f7ba469f-0df7-451c-acc1-4eebdfd43217> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.reconditionedforklifts.com/used-clark-forklifts.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919671 | 824 | 1.523438 | 2 |
It has been reported that some regime elements are in favour of negotiating with the opposition. They “complain” that there are no visible or credible opposition leaders with whom they can negotiate; hence the only option is a crackdown to restore peace and order and a continuation of the status quo.
Where have we heard this fine line of argument before? Could it be the Israelis who, for 40 years, have ensured that no organised and effective Palestinian opposition could ever grow and develop?
The Turkish President Abdullah Gul says “we hope that a multiparty democratic order will be established in Syria that reflects the will of the people”. Turkish Prime Minister, Erdogan, has been working tirelessly behind the scenes for a number of years to persuade the regime to save itself from an ugly end by peacefully relinquishing its monopoly over power and putting an end to corruption and cronyism at the highest levels, but to no avail. Our Turkish neighbours may have their own long-term economic and political agendas but, unlike fundamentalist Iran, they do want to play a positive and stabilising regional role and support genuine progress next door.
In the last four decades, Syria has been transformed from a fairly efficient, somewhat-idealistic and semi-corrupt one-party state into a feudal principality with extreme concentration of power and wealth and dysfunctional administrative, legal and social institutions. In other words, while other nations have embraced universal values and enlightened development paths Syria has generally gone backwards for 40 years. Ordinary Syrians have survived on state handouts and remittances from relatives living abroad. Any perceptible improvement in their lives has been achieved by them through sweat and blood. This was never going to be sustainable. The regime has survived for so long because it has successfully driven out the urban middle class, co-opted the merchant class and minority religious leaders, fed its sophisticated security apparatus with oil money and kept its rival tribes at bay by awarding them smuggling and other economic licenses.
The Assad clan knew they could not continue to feed the system for ever with oil revenues dwindling and youth unemployment exploding. They have used the Iran card to ward off potential American-Israeli military adventures and blackmail Gulf Arabs. They have used the starry-eyed, London-educated Bashar Assad and his London-born wife as a façade to convince Islamophobic European governments with deep pockets and doubting capitalist investors of their good intentions and modernising instincts. This strategy had, until 8 weeks ago, worked reasonably well and effectively bought them a further 10-year lease of life.
Where do they go from here?
It is difficult to see how a feudal system, complete with war lords like Maher Assad can reform itself peacefully and gracefully. Many oppressed and impoverished Syrians had put up with the system in the hope of better times. Some intellectuals and those who stand to benefit most from genuine political and economic reforms have, until perhaps very recently, been prepared to give the regime the benefit of the doubt. Those in the regime who genuinely want to start a slow and peaceful transition to a (possibly corrupt and fractious) multi-party system may win the argument when the uprising reaches a tipping point and they are faced with the prospect of flight or total annihilation. Unfortunately for them, the dynamics will not change without more blood being shed and their superficial reforms will be dismissed as being too little late and too late. Many humiliated and oppressed Syrians, especially those with murdered relatives, will want their blood and a complete cleansing of the system.
One possible, but as-yet unrealistic and in the long-term undesirable scenario (because it comes with a price tag) is a military coup that eventually leads to better overall democratic outcome than anything modernising elements in the regime can do. Such a coup cannot succeed without some Western and Turkish backing to counter Iranian support of the regime.
The best possible outcome is for patriotic army officers to turn their guns on mountain goats (tuyus jabalieh) like Maher Assad and others like him who are holding the country to ransom and are quite prepared to bring temple down onto all our heads. | <urn:uuid:00a9de5a-0b92-439b-a138-bc95ca67afd1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://viarecta.blogspot.com/2011/05/turkey-yet-again-sets-good-example-for.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964497 | 825 | 1.5625 | 2 |
- (Photo:ImageMovers Digital LLC/Disney/Handout)
This week marked the 200th birthday of renowned author Charles Dickens, and across the world many were looking back at all he has given to culture and society.
Charles Dickens made huge contributions to English Literature with novels like Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, David Copperfield, among many others. But did Dickens contribute more than literature to modern society? There is evidence that Christmas as we know it would not exist without Dickens and his heartwarming tale, "A Christmas Carol."
While it's hard to imagine Christmas as anything but a day of exchanging gifts under the tree with family and loved ones- that was not always the case. In fact, Christmas was a somewhat unpopular holiday in the early 19th century. According to Historian David Cannadine, this is because the puritans "equated [Christmas] with the twin evils of popery and royalty, and they feared it meant people might enjoy themselves too much."
The Guardian points out that industrialization in the 1840's did not do anything to help Christmas. The publication states that the decline in celebration could have been due to "mass migration to the cities after industrialization. Out of the countryside, in new, fractured urban communities, the old traditions didn't wear well, although nostalgia for them persisted."
During this time Christmas didn't even stop the workday. Cannadine explains, "The Conservative Party arranged an ordinary business meeting on Christmas Day itself, on the grounds that the members would be both able and willing to attend."
The injustice of working on Christmas Day is a central theme to Dickens's popular novella "A Christmas Carol," published December 19, 1854. It was published at a time ripe for a revival of Christmas traditions, as Prince Albert had recently introduced the Christmas tree.
The novella features curmudgeon Ebenezer Scrooge realizing just how special Christmas is. But perhaps more important to creating the traditional Christmas we know today, "A Christmas Carol" also depicts a poor, down-on-their-luck family, overcoming odds and celebrating Christmas with a special dinner, the exchanging of gifts, and merely spending time with one another. "A Christmas Carol" romanticized the holiday, and helped make Christmas the heartwarming tradition it is today.
In the novella's preface, Dickens wrote:
"I have endeavored in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humor with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it."
He did more than raise the ghost of the idea of Christmas; he solidified the wonder and joy of Christmas as we know it. Although Christmas will obviously center on the birth of Jesus Christ for Christians, few would doubt Dickens' lasting impression his work had on the Christmas holiday. | <urn:uuid:7dd8d88b-4cbb-4507-a8d0-4e6b33f07179> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.christianpost.com/news/is-charles-dickens-responsible-for-christmas-68776/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971561 | 601 | 3.515625 | 4 |
As part of its outreach and educational efforts, the Innovation in Technology Education Center (iTec) sponsors a periodic seminar series. Speakers from the educational research community are invited to present on topics of interest to the faculty, staff, and students in the College of Computing and Digital Media (CDM).
On October 28, 2011 the members of the Innovation in Technology Education Center (iTec) hosted Mark Guzdial from Georgia Tech for the inaugural iTec seminar.
As a part of the event, Mark was interviewed for a future podcast, met with CDM faculty and Deans, and gave a presentation on “Media Computation: Contextualized Computing Education”.
The event attracted faculty, staff, and students from over 10 Chicago-area institutions including Loyola University, the University of Chicago Lab Schools, King College Prep High School, and Naperville North High School.
For more information on the presentation and our speaker, click here.
Iridel is a 3D game creation package specifically designed to explore the game development process while keeping the coding requirement as simple as possible.
Game development games requires mastering a vast array of skill sets. As a consequence, teaching game development should definitely place a very strong emphasis on creating games early and often. Unfortunately, even implementing simple games often requires significant programming skills. Even worse: not every game developer wants to end up on the programming side of the business.
This is where Iridel comes in.
The Innovation in Technology Education Center (iTec) promotes and enhances the creative educational and pedagogical work of the faculty of the College of Computing and Digital Media (CDM) at DePaul University.
iTec is committed to disseminating the unique approaches to technology education and curriculum that have been pioneered at CDM, as well as to obtaining funding for future innovations.
Director of iTec
Director of Student Learning
Dr. Steinbach teaches a variety of classes in the School of Computing in DePaul University’s College of Computing & Digital Media. Her favorite class to teach is the senior capstone that provides applications to community-based organizations using open source software. The class also integrates the students’ liberal studies education with their major technical coursework as demonstrated in leadership and career exercises, ethics and reflective essays, and communication skills.
Dr. Steinbach’s current research interests focus on implementing teaching strategies in both online and in-class courses. She is actively involved in recruiting and retaining women in technology and is the faculty advisor for DePaul’s ACM-W chapter and the Digital Divas, a networking and support group.
Dr. Steinbach serves on the board of the MidWest Girls Collaborative Project. She is a member of the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) Academic Alliance Executive Committee and chairs a Webinar series for the organization as well as chairing the Illinois Region Aspirations in Computing Award for NCWIT. Dr. Steinbach is Secretary/Treasurer of the ACM’s Special Interest Group for Information Technology Education. | <urn:uuid:fedc8858-a8cb-4fef-b217-3ad8b17b85ca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://itec.cdm.depaul.edu/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941267 | 630 | 2.296875 | 2 |
Reviewer: Ryan P. Smith, MD
The Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania
Last Modified: June 27, 2004
Author: Finn, OL
Source: Nature Reviews-Immunology, August 2003, pg 630
This is an excellent review article illustrating the current state of cancer vaccines and the hurdles that must be overcome if vaccines are to make their way into the clinic. Though written for an immunologist or someone familiar with the immune response and vaccine potential in detail, much of the information can be deciphered to gain a better understanding of the complexity of cancer vaccines and the obstacles that stand in the way of success.
Remember that vaccines, in their simplest terms, are designed to prepare the immune system for an encounter with either an infectious agent, or with tumor cells. The hope is that, with the immune system sensitized to the "non-host", it will attack and kill the bacteria, virus, etc, or cancer cell(s). However, all vaccines face certain challenges that are needed to overcome to elicit an effective immune response.
Just as successful vaccines to infectious agents have consisted of live but attenuated pathogens, the first cancer vaccines consisted of whole, inactivated tumor cells. These original vaccines, though, were found to be weakly immunogenic (eliciting a minor or no immune response). It was discovered that, in addition to receiving a signal of a foreign antigen (protein noted by the immune system), na?ve T-cells required additional co-stimulatory signals to elicit a vigorous response. Hence, new vaccines were designed that contained various co-stimulatory molecules or cytokines, which made them much more immunogenic. However, another problem with using whole cancer cells as the vaccine deals with autoimmunity. Though many of the antigens on the cancer cells are foreign, they also contain antigens that are similar to that of a patient's normal tissues. Therefore, cross reactivity could occur, where the immune system begins attacking the patient's normal cells as well. This undermines perhaps the most advantageous aspect of cancer vaccines-that of complete specificity. For these reasons, unique tumor antigens, which are products of random mutations or gene rearrangements (which in many cases are the exact carcinogenic signal) specific to tumor cells have been used as the antigens in vaccines.
Another challenge in a cancer, or any vaccine, is choosing the right "adjuvant", which is used to activate Antigen Presenting Cells (APCs). This assists in stimulating T cells, natural killer (NK) cells, or other cells of the immune system to produce cytokines, promote the survival of the antigen-specific T cells, and hence amplify the immune response. Currently, there are only two adjuvants available for clinical use. However, cytokines, such as interleukin-2, granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor, and several others have been tested as adjuvants in cancer vaccines. Bacterial products, which are obviously recognized as foreign by the immune system, have also been used as adjuvants. More recently, adjuvants have been developed to trigger a response in a desired processing pathway of the immune system. They either react to stimulate CD8 T-cells, causing T-cell dominated killing, or they stimulate CD4 T-cells, which leads to the production of antibodies. These adjuvants need continued development to advance the immune response induced by cancer vaccines.
Another issue is generating the correct immune response. Although metastatic cancer is a systemic disease, and hence expected to generate an immune response, most cancers start as mucosal diseases. The mucosal immune system has evolved to keep a balance between reacting to pathogens and ignoring more harmless foreign antigens, such as food and non-pathogenic bacterial flora that has colonized the mucosa. It seems as if the mucosal immune system ignores the cancer at first, and by the time it begins to recognize that it deserves attention, the tumor is too large to effectively control. None of the cancer vaccines developed thus far have been able to elicit mucosal immunity. Therefore, therapeutic (in contrast to prophylactic) vaccines are always fighting an uphill battle. By the time they are administered, the tumor bulk is so great that it is difficult to elicit a strong enough response to be efficacious.
Another obstacle in developing an effective vaccine is the difficulty in eliciting a long-term immune system "memory". This is especially true of prophylactic vaccines, such as those commonly administered to infants. The entire goal is to expose the immune system to an antigen from a pathogen (or in cancer vaccines, a carcinogen or mutated gene product) so that an immune response is not only generated but also remembered. This is required so that the next time the antigen is detected, a rapid immune response is again generated, keeping infection (or cancer growth) from occurring. The main problem that has deterred investigation into this field has been the difficulty in separating memory T-cells from other T cells. This continues to require advancement.
There are reasons that many of our vaccines against diseases are given in infancy or childhood. A major one is that our thymus is still functioning in childhood, with the ability to churn out a great number of na?ve T cells that can then react to antigens. Cancer vaccines have been tested in patients aged 65-80 years-decades after the thymus has stopped functioning. Therefore, the generation of a population of cells that respond to a vaccine is dependent on the already existing repertoire of T-cells. This age dependency has been proven in cancer vaccines in mice, as younger mice are able to generate a stronger immune response to vaccine than older mice. Hence, attention should be given to designing vaccines that can overcome the weakness of the aging immune response.
There is also evidence that the tumor itself induces immunosupression and evades the immune system. This is evident by the fact that tumor cells lose various antigens as they grow, indicating that the immune system had attempted to get rid of the tumor but failed. This is called cancer immunoediting. The ways in which tumors achieve this evasion have been described. The maturation and function of dendritic cells, perhaps the most important antigen presenting cells, are inhibited in cancer patients. Defects are also seen in T-cell activation and function. These effects can be mediated by interleukin-10, transforming growth factor- b, and other cytokines produced by tumors. There is also suppression of the activation of innate immunity by the tumor causing a state of oxidative stress, which is not completely understood. Devising treatment regimens to reverse this immunosupression before therapeutic vaccination is attempted may be key.
Cancer vaccines would be most efficacious in scenarios where they are designed to elicit or boost antitumor immunity in patients with minimal disease to attempt to prevent recurrence. However, in most studies completed thus far, the vaccines have been used in late stage disease with a large tumor burden. Hence, the success of the vaccines is dependent on the ability of the immune system to overcome imunosuppression induced by the many therapies the patient has had, age, and the tumor itself and then display efficacy against a large bulk of tumor. This is obviously a very difficult achievement.
The disease in which therapeutic vaccines have had the most testing is melanoma. Phase I and II trials in stage IV patients have shown a 10-20% response rate, with another 10-20% displaying stabilization of disease. In a phase III trial against a four-drug chemotherapy regimen, a vaccine showed similar response rates and survival with less toxicity. However, the key to therapeutic vaccines may come with the advent of those dendritic cell based vaccines that stimulate a vigorous immune response.
Many of the problems that diminish the efficacy of therapeutic vaccines would not need to be considered in the setting of cancer prevention. The idea of prophylactic cancer vaccines is akin to the classical way vaccines are thought of for the prevention of infectious diseases. An immune system that is primed to tumor antigens could destroy the tumor before it becomes clinically evident. The most successful testing of a prophylactic cancer vaccine is that against the human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV 16). HPV is a common infection in the general population, but some serotypes (HPV 16 and 18) are associated with cervical (and other) cancers. Therefore, a prophylactic vaccine against HPV 16 would attempt to protect against the infection that can lead to cancer. In a phase III trial, compared to control women, women who received the HPV 16 vaccine had zero infections with HPV 16. This would almost certainly translate into a huge decrease in cervical cancer. Another example of a prophylactic vaccine is the hepatitis B vaccine, which should guard against liver cancer.
One option is to continue to develop and test vaccines in cancer patients in small phase I and II studies. This should yield results for a limited number of patients at major medical centers in developed countries. Its effect on the global health problems as a whole, however, will likely be negligible. The other option is to shift to more of a preventative mode and develop more prophylactic vaccines. As discussed, therapeutic vaccines pose many problems in efficacy that prophylactic vaccines do not. Though this poses significant financial problems, this may prove to be more worthwhile in the long run. | <urn:uuid:b850fec2-8b71-4826-a49c-7dd02de7695f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://oncolink.org/library/article.cfm?c=2&s=75&id=768 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960169 | 1,930 | 2.765625 | 3 |
August 30, 2005
Extension is partner in 'Move More' standards
North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service and two partner organizations announced new standards last week to get the state’s K-12 students out of their desks and moving more in schools.
Cooperative Extension, the Division of Public Health and the N.C. Department of Public Instruction announced the new “Move More: North Carolina’s Recommended Standards for Physical Activity in School” on Aug. 26 at Carroll Middle School in Raleigh. These standards follow last year’s standards regarding all foods sold in schools.
“Serving as a partner in this ‘Move More’ initiative for public schools is a natural fit for us,” said Dr. Jon Ort, Cooperative Extension Service director. “We all realize that to truly have a healthy lifestyle, we must ‘eat smarter’ and ‘move more,’ the focus of these two initiatives.”
The physical activity standards relate to teacher qualifications, class size, school time spent in physical activity, equipment and facilities. Based on these criteria, schools can rate their programs from “needs improvement” to “minimum standard” to “superior standard.” The standards also call on school personnel and students’ families to model healthy lifestyles for students.
Ort described how Cooperative Extension’s long history in nutrition education and its commitment to improving the lives of young people made the “Move More” initiative a natural fit. Extension’s involvement in the “Move More” standards includes the expertise of professionals like Dr. Carolyn Dunn, N.C. State nutrition specialist, and Dr. Carol Mitchell, Cooperative Extension in Wake County, who helped develop the standards.
Throughout the state, a number of Extension professionals serve on their local School Health Advisory Councils – or SHACS – to help implement the school food and physical activity standards in their communities, he said.
Ort also described how the Pamlico County schools and Cooperative Extension had partnered to pay the salary of Sherry Howlett, program assistant, who teaches nutrition and activity lessons to the school system’s 1,700 students. School officials report that, as a result of the program, students perform better in school and make healthier choices in the cafeteria.
More than 30 percent North Carolina’s children struggle with overweight or are at-risk for being overweight, according State Health Director Dr. Leah Devlin who hosted the “Move More” standards announcement. Increasingly, children are diagnosed with type-2 diabetes, a disease normally associated with middle age. The costs of obesity and overweight to North Carolina exceed $2 billion.
Delvin said the “Move More” program is not about rating schools with “A’s and F’s. This is about moving everyone forward.”
Howard Lee, chairman of the State Board of Education, related his personal experience with diabetes and the discipline it requires to exercise and eat well. Visiting schools across the state, he says, he sees a number of students who are overweight.
“Youngsters who put on a lot of weight are toying with getting diabetes, and it is a dangerous and chronic disease,” he said.
That is why the State Board of Education has passed a requirement that students must spend 30 minutes a day in physical activity, Lee said. The rule will go into effect for the 2006-07 school year.
“The password of the day must be ‘activity,’” he said. “Unfortunately, the password seems to be ‘passivity:’ television, computers, video games, cars and fast food.”
More information on the "Move More" standards can be found on the Web at http://www.eatsmartmovemorenc.com/.
Posted by Natalie at August 30, 2005 03:50 PM | <urn:uuid:3217b6c3-47d8-4e38-a682-b6d45578ffa1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ncsu.edu/project/calscommblogs/archives/2005/08/extension_is_pa.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947089 | 813 | 2.21875 | 2 |
Not much to add to what others have said. Learning treble clef is always a good idea if you ask me (and bass as well, at least passably, even if one always plays treble-clef instruments and doesn't sing in the bass clef-- I can read bass clef well enough to get by, but I'm not as fluent in it as I probably would be had I taken the time as a kid). Once she's used to both, she'll be able to switch back and forth easily (I always have to practice at alto clef a bit but that's because I only pick up viola once in a blue moon and don't keep it in my mind-- after about ten minutes I'm reacquainted enough for it to be easy).
And, even if she starts on violin, she may be like my mom and eventually switch to viola anyway. Plenty of violin players tend to pick up viola in addition as well (like me and a lot of violinists I know) and play both. It's one of those things that seems almost like a no-brainer-- the skills are transferable with little adjustment (unlike, say, switching from violin to cello or bass), so why on earth not do it.
Thanks for the input. Her first viola class was canceled and I didn't go to the next one so I haven't been able to ask her teacher about all this.. maybe this week.
I'm curious, if one plays violin and wants to play viola.. I know they have 3 strings in common, but it seems that changes all the fingering patterns by shifting them up/down one string. Is this easy to do? Like a guitarist using a capo? I'm curious how that works.
Her viola is a very small one, too small for her actually but that's what they gave us since it's only for 6 weeks.. so for her I don't think she really sees any difference between violin & viola. I explained to her that the strings are shifted higher by one string and the violin plays a little higher. So I think it's really not going to be a problem for her to choose violin even though her 6 week introduction is on viola. And there are more violin teachers so more flexibility in scheduling lessons (compared to one viola teacher). | <urn:uuid:301bf8ea-2fb2-4cc2-9546-759769561439> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://forums.chiffandfipple.com/viewtopic.php?p=1073288 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988092 | 483 | 2.015625 | 2 |
World Meningitis Day 2012
WMD 2012 Kansas
Meningitis Angels from acroos the country led by Frankie Milley, national teen leader, Carye Wynn, regional teen leaders Harley Beaty and Johnny D'Antona, state team leaders, Aida D'anton, Donna Watson and Amanda Moran joined Senator Vicki Schmidt, Kansas Immunization Branch, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, Dillion Pharmacies, County Health Departments, School Districts, Washburn College, the Topeka Cruzline and others to educate on meningococcal disease and the vaccines to prevent it. A special thanks to Amanda D'Antona for posing as Beary Wise, Elizabeth D'Antona who was our Angel and Donna Beaty for posing as Bee Wise. A very special thanks to the Kansas Immunization Branch, Andy, Good Amanda, Patrick, Sal, Mike and all of those that made this a great week.
WMD 2011 Colorado
Loveland Colorado with a huge memorial event, following Sierra's Race Against Meningitis.
and Angels and Sierra's Race recieved a Colorado State resoloution. literally thousands of people were educated and later vaccinated. Angels took this opportunity to launch their Dads on Meningitis and Infant Toddler campaigns.
WMD 2010 Oklahoma
Meningitis Angels join with the families of the Oolagah outbreak and rembered those affected by a candle lighting service, reefs at the graves and a baloon launch of 1000 balloons.
WMD 2009 Houston Texas - Africa
Meningitis Angels sent flower seeds (Forget Me Nots out all over the world and hosted an international candle lighting service to remeber those lives affected by meningitis. | <urn:uuid:43d6bcd9-cb54-4838-8cf9-44458c75d4c0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://meningitis-angels.org/world-meningitis-day.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914506 | 353 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Social media has forced its way into the world of marketing, and it's here to stay. Social networks and blogs are among the most popular online activities, and their popularity will continue to grow as more businesses utilize them to directly engage customers. Consider these estimates from mid-2010:
Social media is big - and getting bigger. Use the power of social media to support your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy by integrating basic SEO best practices and using the same keywords you know work in SEO, in those environments to engage a wider audience and improve your online presence.
Engaging Your Audience
Social media is a terrific way to communicate with customers and improve brand awareness. If you have a social media team, get to know them really well! If you do, they should do this, if not, you do it: create a corporate profile on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn and establish a company blog. Your company will not only appear more often in search engine results, but you'll set the stage for stronger communication between your company and customers. It might seem overwhelming at first, but soon you'll find that just by engaging with customers - responding to complaints and praise on Twitter, for example - you'll begin to create more content and drive more traffic. Remember: social media isn't free; this work takes a lot of strategic thinking, inter-department cooperation, and dedicated time of staff and/or agencies to monitor and engage with customers. The worst thing you can do is set these up then forget them! Check out ClickZ content on social media to help you out.
Even if you don't have an actual brick-and-mortar location, submitting your business to Google's Local Business Listings can help your company rank higher. These listings take precedence over others, and they have the added benefit of increasing customer confidence because they see you're a real company.
In many cases, just creating profiles will help your company dominate the results for brand terms. Search engines trust social media platforms and often usher them to the front of the line. This will help both potential and devoted customers find your content either in social networking profiles or your corporate website. It will also leverage universal search results to push either competitors or "negative content" about you down off the first page of results. Check out Andy Beal who spoke about reputation management at SES San Francisco and his other ClickZ columns.
"Take the online shoe company Zappos: a search for the brand results in Facebook and Twitter accounts and their corporate blog. Three listings link to the company website and five of the top 10 are part of Zappos' social media marketing efforts. "
These are just a couple of easy things you can do to enhance your SEO rankings through social media. If you properly optimize these profiles and let users generate even more content in their own terms and language, you can reach an even wider audience and further dominate search results.
Learning From Interactions
While dominating the results for branded keywords is important, social media also positively influences your website's link authority (aka PageRank). By controlling these profiles, you can share links to internal pages of your website. If you're an advanced social media user, incorporate trending topics and popular hash tags into your tweets to appear in Google's real-time search results.
Submitting your blog posts to social bookmarking sites like Digg and Reddit can drive traffic to your website and create strong back-links. If you apply cross-linking principles, readers can visit your website via links posted on your profiles. Monitoring social bookmarking sites also provides a glimpse of how people discuss your company. Understanding your audience and their language aids your keyword research and marketing efforts. We put the "AddThis" functionality in a "Share" button on every page of our site to great effect.
Establish a strong social following and respond quickly and effectively to important industry events or negative press. By reacting quickly through all your outlets including social profiles, using your SEO best practices and the keywords you know your customers use, you can secure multiple listings in the search engine results pages and push negative content down to the second or third pages. This is perhaps the most powerful integration of social media and SEO, but you can't do it overnight. So start creating these profiles and developing your strategy, supporting a loyal following. Benefits will accrue to you quickly and continue to grow.
This column was originally published on August 25, 2010 on ClickZ.
Crispin Sheridan is the Senior Director, Global Search at SAP. As part of the digital team, he established and leads the search and testing practices at SAP. Crispin is responsible for paid, natural, and mobile search and all online testing. Search and testing at SAP are fully centralized and globally funded and run under a hybrid in-house and agency model.
Crispin has proven that search learnings and keyword insights work hand in hand with social media marketing and together can effectively drive B2B lead generation. Furthermore, the development of the SAP.com Test Lab has contributed significant success to SAP's digital marketing efforts.
A frequent guest speaker at conferences, including SES New York, San Francisco, Toronto, London, Delhi, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, Crispin was appointed to the SES Advisory Board in December 2009. He has also been a guest speaker at the e-Metrics Summit and ad:Tech, and is a member of Google's B2B Technology Council. You can follow him on Twitter at @crispinsheridan and read his monthly SEO column on ClickZ.
June 5, 2013
1:00pm ET / 10:00am PT | <urn:uuid:edf47332-f20e-47b3-882e-581c93e56ef6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/1729491/seo-integration-with-social-media | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937941 | 1,147 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Potty training a child is part of growing up. The process also brings relief the parents. The child may find the idea of diapers convenient, but they are messy and not environmentally friendly Unless the parent uses cloth or biodegradable diapers, the discarded disposable diapers will sit in a landfill for centuries.
Opinions on when to potty train a child vary. Some sources suggest waiting until the child is ready. A book will occasionally recommend waiting for Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off | <urn:uuid:dbf3d4ab-4872-4447-8ae8-1c511cf5d85b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.healthlinkplus.org/page/2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916999 | 108 | 2.296875 | 2 |
The people of Navajo Nation are haunted by issues with uranium-contaminated drinking water, housing dilemmas and negative effects of coal mines threatening to reopen. Many are suffering from multiple ailments such as cancer, infections and organ failure. Others are living in substandard ghousing conditions and have been for more than 40 years. For decades, they feel they have been completely ignored. They feel invisible to both the Navajo and federal governments.
They are the people of Navajo Nation; they are those who make up the Forgotten People organization. | <urn:uuid:5861a342-79b8-4e26-932e-dafb7b8d1970> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pavementpieces.com/the-forgotten-navajo-the-faces-of-navajo-nation/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974818 | 107 | 2.046875 | 2 |
More Canada Travel Information
As the second largest country in the world in terms of sheer land area, it's no wonder that Canada boasts diversity at nearly every turn, from its people and culture right down to the rich host of things for travelers to do and see. Comprised of ten provinces and three territories, Canada has an endless bounty of geographic and cultural features. Not only do cities like Toronto and Montreal offer vibrant culinary, music, and art scenes, they also respectively sport some of the highest standards of living on Earth. In British Columbia you'll find Pacific tides and Rocky Mountain slopes; sleek cities like Vancouver and quaint, history-rich cities like Victoria. If you're an outdoors lover, we dare you not to fall in love with Banff and Jasper National Parks, where unparalleled skiing, snowboarding, hiking, fishing and canoeing are available in endless profusion. Historic Quebec is of course a must-see for first time visitors, but the fishing villages arrayed along Canada's Atlantic coast are equally well-worth exploring. One thing that's uniform in Canada: from ocean to ocean, cities to wilderness, hospitality pervades. | <urn:uuid:2e8cbd2b-37e3-4aa5-b5b3-d24b865914d9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.10best.com/destinations/canada/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923568 | 229 | 1.898438 | 2 |
Much of The Pearl is about pursuing wealth and the dangers that such an endeavor brings. Because wealth is so highly valued (for no good reason, the novella argues), men make extraordinary sacrifices in its name. Such blind, irrational values can only bring destruction in this text.
Wealth is proportional to evil in The Pearl. The more wealth a character possesses, the more evil he is. | <urn:uuid:b4577c7c-fdd8-4af7-a478-4b1e57a1e530> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.shmoop.com/the-pearl/wealth-theme.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.905195 | 80 | 2.3125 | 2 |
May 22, 2012
The Department of Energy's Clean Cities Alternative Fuel Vehicle Grant Program Funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act), the Department of Energy's (Department) Clean Cities Alternative Fuel Vehicle Grant Program (Clean Cities Program) received nearly $300 million, or 30 times its Fiscal Year 2009 funding of approximately $10 million. From this amount, the Department awarded grants ranging from $5 million to $15 million to 25 recipients, including Clean Cities coalitions and other entities that partnered with coalitions. Clean Cities coalitions are volunteer groups that join with public and private sector organizations to promote alternative and renewable fuels, fuel economy measures and new technologies.
Our review disclosed that the Department had followed established procedures for the solicitation, merit review and selection of the Clean Cities projects. However, the Department had not always effectively managed the use of Recovery Act funding and other post-award aspects of the Clean Cities Program. In our review of seven recipients, we found that the Department had inappropriately: 1) reimbursed a recipient about $1.5 million for costs incurred even though the costs were not substantiated, and approved $615,000 in unsubstantiated cost-share contributions; 2) paid one recipient $250,000 for a down payment on an alternative-fueling station that had been invoiced 3 months prior to the grant's authorized spending date of July 2009; 3) approved a claim for $164,000 in cost-share contributions even though the recipient lacked documentation supporting the reasonableness of costs; and, 4) allowed three recipients to award almost $20 million without documenting their decisions to award contracts and/or identifying potential conflicts of interest as required by Federal procurement regulations. In total, we questioned about $5 million in direct payments to recipients and nearly $2 million cost- share contributions claimed by recipients. | <urn:uuid:f4fc70ef-7665-4222-9cce-3da2c74bd9fc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov/ig/downloads/audit-report-oas-ra-12-12 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963152 | 387 | 1.804688 | 2 |
His Dreams Took Flight…Literally!
Retired teacher and library media specialist Stan Nowak still remembers his family’s excitement on October 14, 1947, when General Chuck Yeager became the first pilot to break the sound barrier. The Nowaks were proud to say the record was set in an aircraft made in their hometown of Buffalo, New York. For Stan, the event ignited a lifelong passion.
As a child, he spent hours creating model airplanes to hang in his room and took trips to the local airport with his father, further cementing his love of flight. Nowak earned his pilot’s license at age 19 and has been flying for more than 40 years.
“Aviation was always in my blood,” Nowak said. “The thrill is still there even after all these years.”
In 1980, Nowak became a flight instructor at the Chief Niagara Frontier Flying Club, a part of the Buffalo-Niagara International Airport, and now serves as chief pilot. He’s flown all over the east coast, going as far south as Florida and as far north as Montreal, Canada.
Nowak soared in the education world, too. After teaching language arts for several years, he was asked by his Board of Education in the 1960s to help construct library media centers at Woodlawn Junior High and then West Hertel Middle School, where he would spend 28 years. He’s also been active in NEA, serving in various positions, including as retired representative to New York State United Teachers.
After a fulfilling 34-year education career, Nowak continues to reach new students as a flight instructor.
“I’m not one to stand around and let grass grow under my feet,” he said, “and I like helping people.”
Retired teacher Jo Ann Peschel has voted in nearly every election since first casting her ballot in the 1960 presidential race. She’s driven 50 miles to ensure she didn’t miss a chance to vote.
Even as a politically aware girl growing up on a Texas farm, Peschel named one of her calves “Buckshot” in honor of five-time elected Sheriff Tom Will “Buckshot” Lane of Wharton County (who gained notoriety for his local newspaper column).
So, it seems fitting Peschel would choose to further express her passion by helping new citizens become new voters.
Every month, Peschel and other members of the League of Women Voters host voter registration for some 2,000 newly minted citizens following naturalization ceremonies.
“They are so happy to become citizens and they want to vote,” Peschel said. “Some have waited a long time to become citizens.”
After the difficult naturalization process, many people invite family and friends to the ceremony to celebrate the momentous occasion—an experience Peschel takes pleasure in.
“It is such a joy to see people who want to be citizens of this country, [because] we have so many people [in the U.S.] who are disgruntled.”
When she’s not registering voters, she stays busy interviewing political candidates and tracking bills in the state legislature for the League of Women Voters. Peschel, who taught physical education and health for nearly 40 years, also serves on the Legislative and Political Advocacy Committee and as treasurer for Texas State Teachers Association-Retired.
For the past five years, she and other Retired members have read to elementary school children during NEA’s Read Across America. The group plans to travel to Galveston, Texas, to deliver books to school libraries still reeling from Hurricane Ike. | <urn:uuid:86f2a309-c137-47f5-bdfc-cc37566ffcae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nea.org/home/36492.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975709 | 764 | 1.945313 | 2 |
See Advanced Grammar Checking in Action!
English Grammar Software: How Well Will It Help Me?
Anyone who does a lot of writing needs to constantly look for ways to improve their English grammar and style. English writing software can do a lot to help achieve this, though you’ll need to keep a level head – they’re not going to perform any major miracle.
English writing software, for the most part, can catch common grammar errors. It can even give suggestions when you’re trying to write in a particular style. We all know, though, that good writing is more than just about avoiding double negatives and bad punctuation. In many ways, writing well has to do with clarity and how well you impart your message.
Here’s a little secret: you can intentionally write the most garbled statements using flawless grammar and fool any writing software into thinking that you’re writing is good. It sucks, but it’s true. When you’re using English grammar software to help you, put faith that it can clean up bad entries in your copy, but it won’t change the core ideas that you use to express your message – that bit is all up to you.
All software are based on algorithms. The best English grammar software are usually derived from “learning” systems that read millions of different copy (from newspapers to business reports to blog posts) and processes those input to develop its core set of good practices.
Personally, I’ve seen what grammar software can do with large writing projects and I’m amazed with its results. If you take care of the job at your end, making sure your ideas express your message the best it can, the software can usually manage the rest. | <urn:uuid:065278e3-8aa9-4dc4-ad28-a902b1f744f2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bestenglishsoftware.com/tips/english-writing-software/english-grammar-software-how-well-will-it-help-me/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936853 | 363 | 2.078125 | 2 |
You always hear webmasters talking about how fast their site is and how they can speed it up even more. But why is that so important?
Why Speed Matters
If you’ve ever visited a website that takes forever to load, you know the answer to this. Visitors leave before you’ve even had a chance to convince them you have what they’re looking for. Google has taken this one step further by including it in their list of ranking factors.
So, how fast a page loads does really sort of matter. Not that 1/100ths of a second will make that big of a deal, but if you can improve your load time and your code, there’s no reason not to spend some time on it.
Tricks for Speeding Up Load Times
You can do tons of little things to speed up a page’s load time:
Caching — Plugins and tools such as WP Super Cache turn PHP into quick HTML, to ease the burden of heavy files and display pages faster. It’s effortless and only takes a few seconds to set up.
CSS Sprites — If you’re a little more familiar with code, or have someone available to help tweak your code, you can consider using CSS sprites. Basically, this trick combines all of your graphics into one file and positions them correctly using CSS.
Redirects — While often necessary, redirects can really inflate page load times. Save yourself and the visitors the time by eliminating them where possible. As an added benefit, you’ll also find you can deter people from linking to the wrong URL.
Use External Scripts
That way the browser already has it in it’s cache and won’t have to read it each time another page loads. This one saves a ton of load time, specially for larger scripts!
Split Up Long Pages – Multiple Short Pages Load Faster
By splitting up long pages into multiple pages you not only make the content show up faster but many people that see a very long scroll bar give up. Try breaking it up into more readable lengths.
Remove Excess “Whitespace”
Whitespace is the spaces between your coding, removing the unneeded tabs and spaces can help a lot. Doing this will take a lot of extra bytes off the total size of your page and will speed up load time quite a bit.
Images and Videos — These things can eat up a lot of resources too. Get rid of any that aren’t necessary (If your site is slow, a ton of ads in the sidebar is often the culprit). Then, compress and shrink them to the right size.
Analytics Programs — While extremely helpful and useful, analytics can take a long time to load up. Save yourself some headaches by eliminating the code for any analytics programs you’re not using.
Hardcode — While all the gidgets, widgets, and doodads can be really nice, they can also require a fair bit of time to load. By hardcoding things like the header, footer, and sidebars, you can eliminate this time by causing it to load with the rest of your site.
Databases — Just like trying to find something in a messy room, a messy database takes a lot of extra time to use. Clean it up, fix it, and optimize it regularly.
Tools and Resources You Might Find Helpful
Google Page Speed Tool — Google has a great set of tools here to help you speed things up a bit.
Google’s Page Speed Service — If you’d like to speed things up, but aren’t too keen on tinkering with it yourself, this could be a great option for you.
Best Practices for Speeding Up Your Web Site — From the Yahoo! Developer Network, this post is filled with all sorts of great ideas and how tos for speeding up your website. A must read, if you’re looking for ideas.
Web Page Analyzer — Another useful webiste which will help you to optimize your webiste. | <urn:uuid:0cf9707f-8041-49bf-823c-8f179018ef1a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.planetdomain.com/support/web-hosting/how-to-speed-up-your-site%e2%80%99s-load-time-and-why-it-matters | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.905457 | 842 | 1.828125 | 2 |
The Multiple Education and Employment Pathways initiative (Multiple Pathways) is designed to support efforts across the state to decrease dropout rates, increase graduation rates and support new ways for young people prepare for success in a 21st century economy.
To accomplish the goal of universal success for all of our youth, state and community leaders must offer educational options and supports that are student-centered and designed to meet each young person’s unique needs.
Dropout Reduction & Multiple Pathways Development Virtual Tool Shed
The new “Dropout Reduction and Multiple Pathways Development Virtual Tool Shed,” a state-wide effort in collaboration with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (ESE), the Executive Office of Education (EOE), and other key stakeholders. This project is designed to collect and share effective tools for practitioners in the field working on improving graduation rates and developing multiple pathways to graduation.
Download a more detailed description of the project, including a list of categories of tools being sought.
We are soliciting contributions from practitioners across Massachusetts who are using effective tools in existing programs. Anyone interested is encouraged to submit relevant materials.
For instructions on submitting tools, download the submission form.
For more information, contact Shailah Stewart at firstname.lastname@example.org. | <urn:uuid:5e022bad-1da9-4fe6-8f2e-825b78265310> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://commcorp.org/areas/program.cfm?ID=126&p=44 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920543 | 261 | 2.1875 | 2 |
FoodPaths - September 2011
All Over Almonds
Jerry Chicca: Twin Farms
If you live in California, or are passing through, you will inevitably find yourself on I-5, the state’s main North/South thoroughfare known for never-ending construction, mega traffic tie-ups, and virtually nothing but farmland on either side of the road. It is harvest time in the Central Valley. I am on the way to meet Jerry Chicca, 4th generation grower, who farms, with his brother, Terry, nearly 3,000 acres in the fertile soil of the southern San Joaquin Valley. About one-third is almonds.
Traffic is backed up three exits, I am late. I turn off I-5 seeking a detour. Not so smart. Within minutes I know I am in deep trouble. I know I am somewhere near the Lost Hills exit, but I haven’t seen a road sign for miles. I am not only late, but I am lost looking for Lost Hills. Miles and miles of unmarked green fields and brown dirt. No stoplights. No road markers. No cell phone access. I have resisted installing a GPS in my car. Navigation technology does not fit into my belief that knowing where you are going takes the fun out of “discoveries by detour.” Lots of roadside stands advertise Pastrami Burgers. Is this local name for a Reuben Sandwich? There are no signs for Reuben Sandwiches. My car is covered with brown dust. The almond harvest has begun. I will navigate by following the beige clouds floating over the landscape.
Soon I spot Jerry waiting at the entrance to Twin Farms. It is 103 degrees.
* * *
You will not find Jerry Chicca selling almonds at a local farmer’s stand. You will not be able to buy his almonds direct. Jerry is one of thousands of farmers in the Central Valley that passionately grow food for the world. The growing conditions of the Central Valley produce 80 per cent of the world’s almonds. Its dry climate, soil structure, wind currents, chilling hours during dormancy, and the land to support large orchards combine to foster ideal growing conditions.
If you buy almonds, most likely they have come from here. Almonds are generally acknowledged to be one of the world’s perfect foods. Healthy, with respected medical research confirming them as a major cholesterol-buster, accessible, and priced reasonably, I am here to learn how almonds move from orchard to consumer. If we are entering an era of consumer-driven food systems, how does this perfect food travel from fields through the food production system to our tables?
“Food is not grown in stores,” Jerry said. “Most people have no idea what it really takes to grow and move quality food consistently to markets. Food has to come from someplace and someone’s gotta’ farm it.”
* * *
ScoopTo an outsider, an almond orchard during harvest is like being in an airport without a traffic controller. Huge pieces of equipment move like jack rabbits. Coincidentally, the harvester is actually named “JackRabbit.” On the ground, precision rules as harvest follows a three-step process:
- Shake. Trees receive a “hug” as metal arms encircle the trunk and shake the nuts from the tree. The almonds remain on the ground for 7-10 days until dry.
- Sweep. A giant vacuum cleaner sweeps the nuts into neat winrows, splitting the outer hull, separating leaves, and blowing debris aside.
- Scoop. Tidy rows of almonds are scooped into bins and loaded onto trailers bound for the processor.
* * *
“How were almonds harvested before there cutting edge equipment?” I ask Jerry as the JackRabbit races by, covering us with dust.
“Mallets? You mean guys walking from row to row hitting trees with hammers?”
* * *
We watch a run of almonds loaded onto trailers, then follow the trucks to the processor where the hull is removed from the inner nut in a “crack, clean and air” process. An almond has three parts – the outer shell, the inside hull, and the brown nut. Once the almonds are separated and cleaned, they are packed immediately into shipping crates and sent off to brokers who sell them in the open market. The hulls are held back, ground and sold as nutritional supplements for cattle feed. There are only so many hours to move the 2011 Central Valley almond crop from orchard to market. Like any product, the crop must be harvested and processed when optimally ripe. Jerry’s hauler, Farmer’s Cooperative Almond Hullers, will process 500,000 pounds of “meat” in 24 hours; in 2010, the California almond crop yielded 63 million pounds of product, with roughly 50 per cent sold to Germany, Italy and Spain.
For a grower like Jerry, payment is made by size and weight. “Size is important, the bigger the nut, the bigger the check, but I never see the value of the end product until I get the spread sheets,” he offers.
|Click here for the “Cycle of an Almond Harvest” photo gallery.|
* * *
Back at the orchard, we follow the sweeper as it races up and back through the rows, sweeping more rows of nuts into neat winrows, splitting the outer hull, separating leaves, and blowing debris aside. “You have to get rid of the dirt on the orchard floor,” Jerry states. “We don’t want dirty almonds. If a grower doesn’t manage his pests, he winds up with poop in the crop. The hauler has to red-tag the truck, then red-tag the crop for contamination. That crop is set aside until the very end of harvest to avoid contamination of the processing machinery. It may never reach the consumer. No pest management in the fields means problems in the product. A lot of organic farmers do not treat for disease or pests. Poop is collateral damage. By the way, you missed the shaker. We’ll catch up tomorrow.”
“Almonds are like little kids,” this father of four explains. “You have to pay attention... nurse them every day...you can’t take your eyes off them.”
* * *
The vast majority of the almond crop is eating almonds – non-pareils -- but there are other varietals. Carmel and Monterey yield bigger nuts; Butte, Mission, Padre and Fritts are better for use in candy bars, cereal and baked goods.”
The trees I am staring at all look the same to me.
Varietals are critical for another reason. Almonds do not generally self-pollinate. For optimal pollination, more than one variety must be planted in the orchard, preferably three. Bees are brought into the orchards after dormancy in the winter months and before the white and pink blossoms of spring bloom. If the temperature is too cold or wet, the bees will not fly and a percentage of pollination is lost. The habits of bees can cost a crop.
“A tree will only hold on to so many nuts, aborting those they cannot support,” Jerry explains. “We need as many of the blooms to set; every tree will drop a certain number of nuts.”
* * *
Like any other crop, a watchful eye over pests and disease is essential. Almonds are particularly susceptible to Blossom Rot, which shrinks and destroys the nut; Shod Hole, a spore that grows and infects a tree because of excessive moisture and wetness; Mites, which suck the juice out of a tree leaving dry, golden leaves, stress the tree, forcing its likely loss; Gophers (and Mice). Growers will mitigate against mites by wetting down the roads for dust control, but with large acreage and constant high temperatures, often well over 100 degrees, this is a battle not easily won. Naval Orangeworm (acronym NOW), is a primary pest of almonds. Found inside the nutmeat, or between the hull and shell, the larvae can consume most of the nut, producing large amounts of webbing. Rapid early harvest, according to guidelines issued by the U.C. Davis Integrated Pest Management Program, is one of two cultural practices that can eliminate infestation.
Ahhhhh. Big Trucks racing through orchards are not only working against the harvest clock, but doing housekeeping and pest control chores.
* * *
The roots of the Chicca Family were sowed in Lucca, Italy. After a circuitous route via Argentina, Jerry’s great-grandfather landed in San Francisco, working as a blacksmith until a land developer recruited new immigrants to broadcast wheat and till the soil in the Central Valley. With little other than a promise of horses, tillage and seeds to get started, the family relocated to the small town of Buttonwillow. They continue to farm this land.
Jerry’s father, Gino, diversified the business at the beginning of World War II when ordered to remain on the farm to grow cotton, alfalfa, sugar beets, and row crops such as lettuce and tomatoes. “I had a little red flyer wagon,” Jerry recalls. “I would pick vegetables, my father would connect a small tractor, and I would drive it to the house, delivering the load to my mother. Pasta with fresh vegetables is still my favorite meal.”
By the time Jerry entered the business formally in 1975, international competition had entered American agriculture, specifically, China and India. “Cotton was no longer a viable crop,” he said. “We had to make a decision.” Two Chicca children, Antone and Alex, would join the business; the family took a step back and planted almonds. “Economically, it simply made sense,” said Jerry. “We are in the right place with the right growing conditions.” It took three years for the first crop to “bear fruit.”
* * *
For a farmer, he or she might do everything right and still have a failure crop. Weather is always the primary concern. Keeping up with technology is sometimes daunting. Water management is a killer.
“Environmentally, farmers are one of the biggest supporters of clean water,” Jerry offered. “We cannot produce food without water. There needs to be balance in water rights, environmental discussions, a re-building of infrastructure to bring water to where it is needed, and a commitment to putting people to work within the agricultural segment of our economy. Are we going to work together and participate in feeding the world or save tiny fish? The days of workers hitting trees with sticks to bring nuts to market are over.
“To be an organic farmer,” continued Jerry. “land must first go fallow for three years. A huge boundary around any land certified as organic is required. My neighboring grower is steps away from my property line. Is he going to give up his land so I can have an acceptable perimeter? I would rather not spend a nickel on spraying, but eliminating preventive care in the orchards is likely to mean crop loss.”
“California has the strictest rules and regulations of any state over agricultural production,” he continued. “Paperwork must be filed with the County Health Department indicating an “intent to spray” and listing what I will be using and how much. Until I receive approval, I cannot proceed. Virtually every aspect of my business is monitored. This is protection for us and equally important, protection for the consumer. Growning food is not a one way or the other proposition.”
* * *
Jerry did not offer this information, but I learned that he had recently converted 600 acres of one of his ranches to wetlands, under a conservation program managed by the California Department of Fish & Game. He did offer that he had recently invested in sophisticated drip tape irrigation management that monitors and manages the water and nutrition needs of each tree, downloading real-time information from water meters in the orchards to a laptop-based centralized computer system. This has saved millions of gallons of water, cut fertilizer allocations in half, and allowed for daily soil amendment review and micro-management of nutrients to keep the trees healthy and in balance so that they do not “sugar up,” attracting pests or providing an environment for disease. Cost of each meter runs in the thousands.
For the future, Jerry has his eyes to the ground on pistachios, an ever-bearing nut (almonds have a life span of 25 years) that grows in only a few places around the world. The Central Valley is one of them. With 9-10 years needed for pistachio trees to bear fruit, Jerry expects his first crop to give birth next year. He is keeping his eye on “the babies.”
“Nothing is a sure bet,” he said, “Every year something pops up. The farmer assumes all the risk and we don’t get paid until the crop is sold. There are no guarantees in a land-based business, but the crop will talk to you. If you are not out there walking the fields, how can you know what’s going on? The best fertilizer is your shadow.” | <urn:uuid:1f1a82c1-0cd5-4828-83ed-a19cd6875f3a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.foodpaths.com/episode-14 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952566 | 2,858 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Madonna on the Rocks
Leonardo was commissioned to paint this picture for an altar at a church. After painting this picture, they were so astonished as to what he put into it that he was made to make a "watered-down" version that is called Virgin on the Rocks.
In the picture, there is the Virgin Mary, with baby Jesus. Then Uriel with baby John the Baptist. There was supposed to be Jesus blessing John the Baptist. But, in turn, Leonardo depicted Jesus being blessed by John. In doing this, he claimed that John was really older than Jesus and making it so the Virgin Mary wasn't honestly a virgin.
Mary is holding her fingers in a talon-like way over top of John's head. Uriel then put her hand underneath of Mary's hand, almost in a head-chopping manner.
In the Virgin of the Rocks, there is no talon-like hand depiction, but it still has Jesus being blessed by John.
His Works Back | <urn:uuid:cfe80e4f-d347-4887-a2b4-f3a56353516d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/01478/Madonna.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983952 | 204 | 2.03125 | 2 |
Diarrhea is a symptom, not a disease. It is defined as passing frequent loose stools. The acute form lasts only a day or two and usually isn't serious, but it can be linked with some other problems. It affects people of all ages, and some types are infectious. The average person may get acute diarrhea 3 to 5 times a year, and long-term effects are rare. Children under 5 years of age experience about 1 to 3 episodes of diarrhea every year.
Chronic diarrhea lasts longer than 2 weeks, or shows up as repeated episodes of diarrhea lasting less than 2 weeks each. An inflammatory bowel condition such as ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease may be to blame.
Children and infants with diarrhea should be seen by a doctor.
People get diarrhea when the feces move too quickly through the bowels so that the intestines don't have enough time to pull water from the waste to "firm it up."
People get diarrhea for many reasons, including:
In functional bowel disorders like irritable bowel syndrome, the muscles that normally move waste along the intestine can spasm, causing diarrhea.
If you think that a medication you're taking is causing the problem, don't stop taking it before talking to your doctor.
Diarrhea isn't always due to things that are eaten or swallowed - emotional stress or turmoil can also bring it on.
Your stool will be loose and watery. You may suffer from abdominal cramping, nausea, or bloating. You may even have a fever, along with chills. If you've had diarrhea for a few days, you may feel lightheaded or weak. This comes from rapidly losing the minerals, sugar, and water that your body needs. Normally, diarrhea won't cause you to lose control of your bowels - if this happens, you should consult your doctor.
You may also notice that you're urinating less. This is because your body is losing water through bowel movements instead of urine. If the diarrhea lasts longer than 48 hours or you have a fever of 38.5ºC or higher, or have severe abdominal pain or vomiting that prevents fluid replacement by mouth, see a doctor immediately. Acute diarrhea accompanied by fever and stools with blood can be signs of a potentially dangerous infection or parasite.
Always consult a doctor for a child with diarrhea who hasn't urinated for 6 hours - the child could be dangerously dehydrated. | <urn:uuid:fe5071b1-d64c-433c-ba9b-e03df06a2bf1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://chealth.canoe.ca/channel_condition_info_details.asp?disease_id=224&channel_id=2059&relation_id=75654 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959936 | 496 | 3.71875 | 4 |
Jews in Salonica
(November 11, 1943)
OFFICE OF STRATEGIC SERVICES
Reports on Greece
SUBJECT: Military and political affairs.
All the Jews who were still in Salonica-most of them working in the port and at the station, and living in labor camps without any contact with the population, have been sent away from Salonica, probably to Poland. Jews from Volos and Athens who were concentrated at a camp at Asvestochori, a few miles from Salonica, have also been sent toward central Europe. All the property of the Jewish community of Salonica is managed by the Bank of Salonica, formerly a Jewish bank but taken over by the Germans since 1941, and now subordinate to the Reichsbank.
New military zones have been created everywhere. The whole of Nikis Avenue, leading from the Customs the the White Tower along the quays, has been prohibited to public traffic. The same applies to all the coastal zone from the Villa Alatini to Kara-Bournou. Part of Tsimiski Street-at the crossing of Venizelos Street has also been declared a military zone.
Great military activity is observable in Salonica. There is a continual travel by plane, of high-ranking German officers between Salonica and Berlin and between Salonica and Sofia.
A few villages on the outskirts of Salonica have been evacuated. Their population has been directed toward Western Macedonia and Thessaly and strictly forbidden to return to Salonica or Volos. Nevertheless, a few peasants and a priest managed to reach Salonica and reported that important Bulgarian forces were advancing toward Salonica. This created panic among the Salonicians which was justified a few days later when three to four thousand Bulgarian soldiers, mostly belonging to the infantry, crossed the city in a southerly direction. However, the evacuation of the neighboring villages had no connection with this movement of Bulgarian troops. The Germans had evacuated the villages for reasons of military safety and in order to install their radio service and a few anti-aircraft units to defend Sedes airdrome.
Another reason for this evacuation is that the Germans, for some time past, have been taking measures for the defense of Salonica from an attack coming from the interior. Such an attack might come either from Greek and Yugoslav patriots or from the Allies, in the event of their landing south of the city and advancing on it from the rear.
Through the press and through all means of propaganda at their disposal, the Nazis have launched a large-scale campaign to pacify Salonician public opinion. They claim there will be no eventual occupation of this city by the Bulgars. They even go as far as to state that in the event of a landing, the Germans alone will take charge of the defense of the city and not a single Bulgar will enter it.
Source: "Documents: The Jews in Greece, 1941-1944: Eyewitness Accounts," by Alexandros Kitroeff, Journal of the Hellenic Diaspora, Vol. XII, No. #3, (Fall 1985) | <urn:uuid:7a5c260c-01fa-4690-b766-fd98036322d2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/greece107942.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97305 | 630 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Dr. Derek Lehmberg co-authors "What do we make of Japan: Myths and Realities"
The disastrous events of 2011 - an earthquake and a nuclear accident, a major accounting scandal at a well-known company, and an unusual current account deficit - have brought Japan back in to the international news. Although China and other countries in Asia have grown faster and gained greater attention in the last decade, Japan continues to be an important country for business. Japan has the world's third largest economy, and is home to many major corporations, leading edge technology, operational know-how, and a strong currency. While much about Japan seems familiar, many of our beliefs remain frozen in early 90s, when Japanese management was a hot topic and Japanese businesses appeared invincible to many. Japan has changed much since then, and deserves an updated understanding. In this paper, we identify six commonly-held myths about Japan, present corresponding realities, and discuss recent developments and implications for managers.
Business Horizons is published by the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University | <urn:uuid:201ecc9b-efc0-4597-a916-0fe023fd2511> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ndsu.edu/mgmt_mrkt/news_events/faculty_spotlight/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961975 | 211 | 2.0625 | 2 |
Intelligent factories of the futureBrian Bailey is teaching a free week-long online class called "Intelligent Embedded Systems for the New Era of Industrial Apps" at EE Times University.
Just when you think you understand a new concept it seems to already be blasé and replaced by something else. For those of you just catching up on the concept of cloud computing, I have news for you. Cloud computing was just a small part of a much bigger trend that encompasses the Internet of Things. The world is moving from a concept of computing being the center of attention to communicating computers and everything that entails. It has to do with sensors driving data to computers, about the intelligent use of huge amounts of data to create knowledge or intelligence and to use that to drive modern factories, power distribution, and even deliver to us ever more useful smart phones and autonomous cars.
I'll be giving a class on that subject in a couple of weeks titled "Intelligent Embedded Systems for the New Era of Industrial Apps" as part of the EE Times University. Each class will consist of a 30-minute lecture followed by a chat session.
Part 1: Introduction: Understanding the Connected Factory of the Future & Next-Gen Industrial Apps
Part 2: Four Pillars of Intelligent Industrial Apps: Security, Manageability, Connectivity & Performance
Part 3: Rethinking Embedding Processing: The Bridge to Ivy Bridge
Part 4: Apps Development Utilizing the Partner Ecosystem of Intelligent Solution
Part 5: Case Study: Highlighting a Successful Design Example
November 26th through 30th at noon eastern time, 9am pacific. Sign up click here and I hope to see you in the chat sessions.
Keeping you covered,
Brian Bailey is a freelance editor on EDN and EE Times' Designlines. He is an independent engineering consultant working in the fields of electronic system level (ESL) methodologies and functional verification of embedded systems. He was previously chief technologist for verification at Mentor Graphics, where he pioneered work on hardware/software co-design and co-verification. For more information on Brian Bailey, click here. | <urn:uuid:9a98f17e-e039-4583-b4a7-d5daa8786013> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.embedded.com/electronics-blogs/embedded-cloud-talkers/4401646/Intelligent-factories-of-the-future | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919853 | 437 | 2.09375 | 2 |
Wednesday, Mar. 21, 2012
It's going to be hard to argue that a woman can be an Olympic champion but not be behind the wheel.
- ERIKA GEORGE,
- professor at the University of Utah, on Saudi Arabia allowing females to finally compete in the Olympic Games; London 2012 could be the first time every participating nation is represented by at least one female athlete | <urn:uuid:cac3268f-83b4-40bf-b95d-c99f2b710bc3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.time.com/time/quotes/0,26174,2109696,00.html | 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 | 0.946189 | 79 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Dr. Mark Funkhouser, a former Kansas City mayor and auditor, is the director of the Governing Institute.E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.org
In college, I was a political-science major caught up in the turmoil of the Sixties, deeply interested in civil rights, the women's movement and the Vietnam war. After graduation, I worked in a youth prison, then as a social worker, then as a government auditor, and finally, before becoming director of the Governing Institute, I was a big-city mayor. Always my focus has been on what was wrong and what we needed to do to make things better.
Another plane landing safely is not something to think about. My work has always focused on the political and social equivalent of plane crashes — and how to avoid them. So you might think that I'm an angry scold. Actually, I'm a happy, misty-eyed Pollyanna, and what follows is a list of five things that fill me with hope and optimism.
1. The deliberative democracy movement. Across America, under the radar, this movement is changing the way ordinary citizens relate to their government in positive ways that give the lie to the idea that citizens are apathetic. When government officials work with citizens in an atmosphere of mutual respect and use technology and face-to-face meetings to include a large and representative slice of the population in genuine dialogue, good things happen. This movement is described in "The Next Form of Democracy: How Expert Rule is Giving Way to Shared Governance" by Matt Leighninger and in the monthly newsletter of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium. I've also seen it in action at events put on by AmericaSpeaks, a nonprofit that has used innovative deliberative tools to connect with more than 160,000 people across the country and around the world, giving citizens an opportunity to have a strong voice in public decision-making.
2. The rising acceptance of interracial marriage and the increasing pressure to sanction same-sex marriage. My daughter is going to marry a black man. He's a decent fellow, so I'm happy about this, but I thought it was uncommon. Then I saw the recent story in the Washington Post with the headline "Intermarriage rates soar as stereotypes fall." This is good. Frequent contact between people of different races reduces racism, so marriages that bring families of different races together will help remove one of the historically uglier aspects of American life.
Mountains of pain also have also been created by the suppression of homosexuality. Marriage and family are the fundamental building blocks of social order. Allowing same-sex couples to openly declare themselves as partners in relationships to which they are so committed that they want their unions to receive the approval of government in the form of a marriage license brings more stability and happiness to our communities.
3. Americans' rising and shifting health consciousness. Health care costs are on an unsustainable path in this country. But more and more of us are aware of facts like those laid out in a recent Atlantic Cities piece about diabetes, obesity and the value of purposeful walking. Much of our built environment militates against purposeful walking. Smart public officials, such as Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett, who put his city "on a diet," and New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who declared a goal of having the cleanest air of any big city in America, are beginning to find ways to create the same kind of energy around health outcomes that was generated around climate change and other environmental issues.
4. The Millennial Generation. "Over the next decade, the Millennial Generation will entirely recast the image of youth from downbeat and alienated to upbeat and engaged — with potentially seismic consequences for America." That's from "Millennials Rising" by Neil Howe and William Strauss. On several occasions, I've heard Neil Howe speak at Governing events about the generation born between the mid-1980s and the mid-2000s. His description of these young people matches what I have observed with my own kids, ages 26 and 22, and their friends. Generally speaking, they care about family and feel more collective responsibility. They're more interested in advancing the welfare of the group than in cutthroat competition, and, unlike us boomers, they don't especially like argument and debate. They are an extremely social generation. Thinking about these young folks fills me with hope.
5. The good politicians. During my time as mayor of Kansas City, I learned how incredibly difficult is the work of an elected official who wants to create meaningful change. I got to see quite a few of those officials up close, and my respect and admiration for them grew. Part of the mission of the Governing Institute is to recognize public officials for their good work, which Governing does through its annual Public Officials of the Year program. Part of my job is to build a network of connections among the members of this elite cadre. The work of a politician may often be dirty or nasty, and yet good people, skilled and articulate, go forth and do it every day. Under the radar, beyond the range of the talking heads on the cable-TV shows, good politicians are governing effectively. The more I get to know them, the better I feel about the future. | <urn:uuid:d2fb2272-b92d-49d5-b778-15058304c148> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.governing.com/gov-institute/funkhouser/col-five-reasons-hope-optimism.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97027 | 1,080 | 1.835938 | 2 |
One of the most frequently addressed subjects in product liability cases is defects. As far as the law is concerned, the term takes on more meaning than expected. The law considers a defective product to be any product that presents an unreasonable danger when being used as it was intended. When analyzing this definition, keep in mind that the phrase "unreasonable danger" is vital to the meaning of the word defective. As a result, a product could be intrinsically harmful if used inappropriately. However, when used as directed, it would not be considered unreasonable.
For example, gasoline is naturally harmful when met by fire, but its usage value definitely outweighs its potential danger. Thus, the law does not recognize gas as unreasonably dangerous when it is used in a logical manner. If the day ever comes where a less risky, inexpensive substitute for gasoline becomes the fuel of choice, the law could allow a product liability action to verify that gasoline is an unreasonably dangerous product, or defective.
Likewise, a knife is undeniably dangerous, but the law would not label it unreasonably dangerous. In contrast, a knife with a handle so brittle that it might break under normal conditions would present unreasonable danger and be deemed defective.
When injuries are reported from a dangerous product or drug, it may lead to a dangerous product recall. When a request is filed to return a batch or entire production due to product hazards, this is known as a product recall.
An additional defective product characteristic is what kind of warning signs it communicates to the user. In other words, an inadequate warning that a product is on the verge of malfunctioning will heighten the amount of danger associated with product usage and could even be considered negligence on behalf of the manufacturer. Furthermore, an adequate warning could be the difference-maker in court that proves that the product's risk factor is not enough to constitute a stamp of unreasonable danger. On the other hand, a practical product that is inherently hazardous may be described as unreasonably dangerous for its everyday usage based on the fact that it does not provide adequate warning to its user.
In a product liability case, the party harmed by the dangerous product must show that the manufacturer owed a duty and failed that duty to the consumer. The injured party must also show that manufacturer negligence caused the injury and the manufacturer was liable for injury caused by reasonable use of the faulty product. Product liability claims ususally fall under defective manufacturing, defective design or negligence to warn of product defect.
The following is a list of defective products which are subjects of current defective product cases and product recalls. It can be beneficial to contact a product liability lawyer if you have experienced injury because of the following defective products or drugs:
If you have suffered a defective product injury, it is important to contact a defective product lawyer or product recall lawyer immediately. A good product liability attorney can aggressively litigate your product liability claim and help you get the compensation you deserve. | <urn:uuid:930667e6-80f0-49ec-9a63-3a02291f0e30> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.forthepeople.com/defective_products_consumer_information.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966961 | 590 | 2.625 | 3 |
Reducing or Ignoring Workplace Safety During Business Downturs Could Be Costly, American Society of Safety Engineers NoteMonday, December 29, 2008
DES PLAINES, IL — “Workplace safety processes must be in place at all times,” American Society of Safety Engineers’ (ASSE) President Warren K. Brown, CSP, ARM, CSHMM, of Fairborn, Ohio, said today. “They are even more critical during business downturns.” Brown is referring to recent reports of some companies cutting safety processes hoping to reduce costs.
“If companies believe they will save money by reducing or ignoring safety for their workers, customers and communities they do business in, they are mistaken,” Brown said. “The ongoing positive results are in and have been for companies that have a strong safety culture and continually invest in and implement effective safety processes. Not only does their bottom line benefit positively, but their company reputation stays intact, employees stay safe and healthy reducing health care, workers comp, training and turnover costs not to mention keeping customers, the communities they do business in, vendors and employees happy. Safety is good business.”
Members of the 97-year-old ASSE -- occupational safety, health and environmental professionals located worldwide -- caution employers against cutting back on workplace safety in time of economic difficulty.
President-Elect of the ASSE South Carolina Chapter Laura Comstock said, “Some safety related purchases and testing can be deferred, but other purchases, such as those for employee personal protective equipment (PPE) like hardhats, safety glasses and respirators, are critical to operations.”
It is especially important for companies to show support for their employee safety during challenging economic times, she notes. “Employee morale may be low and employees may be carrying additional workloads, such as working additional hours or doing unfamiliar tasks due to cutbacks,” she notes. Comstock added, “In order to remain viable long-term, a company must maintain a solid safety process even through difficult times. The most successful companies in the long term also have the strongest safety performance.”
“We realize these are tough times, but during economic down-turns, employers seeking to cut expenses may target variable operating costs such as travel, training and safety,” Brown said. “Money cut from safety processes now could have an enormous cost later; this can be from injury and health care costs, fines, lost production time, employee morale, or worst of all, employee injury or even death. There are better and smarter ways to protect the bottom line.”
The South Carolina ASSE chapter suggests employees can also take measures to help companies save money such as by: following safe working procedures and practices to prevent injuries, related downtime and expenses such as costly fines; by properly using, cleaning and caring for protective equipment such as hardhats and respirators; reusing gloves whenever possible for as long as possible; and by keeping track of safety glasses and reusable hearing protection.
Investing in safety pays and contributes positively to a company’s bottom line. Businesses spend about $170 billion a year on costs associated with workplace injuries and illnesses and pay almost $1 billion every week to injured employees and their medical providers. In addition, a recent investment firm study in Australia showed valuation links between workplace safety and health factors and investment performance. It found that companies who did not adequately manage workplace safety issues underperformed those that did.
Comstock also reminds employers, “When considering training reductions, some safety related training is driven by regulation, is time sensitive and cannot be delayed. Safety training related savings can be generated by streamlining and implementing simple solutions including using online or electronic safety training services, rather than face-to-face classroom safety training.”
“We need to work together during these difficult times, but reducing or ignoring workplace safety should not be a strategic or budget option,” Brown said. “The costs – both tangible and intangible – are far too high and hard to recoup.”
Founded in 1911, the Des Plaines, IL-based ASSE is the largest and oldest professional safety organization and is committed to protecting people, property and the environment. Its more than 32,000 occupational safety, health and environmental professional members lead, manage, supervise, research and consult on safety, health, transportation and environmental issues in all industries, government, labor, health care and education. For more information please go to www.asse.org. | <urn:uuid:cb0b56ad-a663-44f2-b5a6-18c84c7889bd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mhnetwork.com/news/reducing-or-ignoring-workplace-safety-during-business-downturs-could-be-costly-american-society-of-safety-engineers-note/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967277 | 935 | 1.882813 | 2 |
Q: How often should children have their eyes examined?
A: According to the American Optometric Association (AOA), infants should have their first comprehensive eye exam at 6 months of age. After that, kids should have routine eye exams at age 3 and again at age 5 or 6 (just before they enter kindergarten or the first grade).
For school-aged children, the AOA recommends an eye exam every two years if no vision correction is needed. Children who need eyeglasses or contact lenses should be examined annually.
Q: My 5-year-old daughter just had a vision screening at school and she passed. Does she still need an eye exam?
A: Yes. School vision screenings are designed to detect gross vision problems. But kids can pass a screening at school and still have vision problems that can affect their learning and school performance. A comprehensive eye exam by an optometrist can detect vision problems a school screening may miss. Also, a comprehensive eye exam includes an evaluation of your child’s eye health, which is not part of a school vision screening.
Q: What is vision therapy?
A: Vision therapy (also called vision training) is an individualized program of eye exercises and other methods to correct vision problems other than nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism. Problems treated with vision therapy include amblyopia (‘lazy eye”), eye movement and alignment problems, focusing problems, and certain visual-perceptual disorders. Vision therapy is usually performed in an optometrist’s office, but most treatment plans also include daily vision exercises to be performed at home.
Q: Can vision therapy cure learning disabilities?
A: No, vision therapy cannot correct learning disabilities. However, children with learning disabilities often have vision problems as well. Vision therapy can correct underlying vision problems that may be contributing to a child’s learning problems.
Q: Our active 1-year-old boy needs glasses to correct his farsightedness and the tendency for his eyes to cross. But he pulls them off the second they go on. We've tried an elastic band, holding his arms, tape... He just struggles and cries. How do we get him to wear his glasses?
A: In most cases, it just takes awhile for a toddler to get used to the sensation of wearing glasses. So persistence is the key. Also, you may want to put his glasses on as soon as he wakes up – this will usually help him adapt to the glasses easier.
But it’s also a good idea to recheck the prescription and make sure his glasses were made correctly and are fitting properly. Today, there are many styles of frames for young children, including some that come with an integrated elastic band to help keep them comfortably on the child’s head. Bring your son and the eyewear to our office. Even if you didn’t purchase the glasses from us, we will be happy to give you our opinion about why your son is having a tough time wearing them and what you can do about it.
Q: Our 3-year-old daughter was just diagnosed with strabismus and amblyopia. What are the percentages of a cure at this age?
A: With proper treatment, the odds are very good. Many researchers believe the visual system can still develop better visual acuity up to about age 8 to 10. If your daughter’s eye turn (strabismus) is constant, it’s likely surgery will be necessary to straighten her eyes in order for her therapy for amblyopia (or “lazy eye”) to be successful. Strabismus surgery may be needed even if her eyes alternate in their misalignment. See a pediatric ophthalmologist who specializes in strabismus surgery for more information.
Q: My daughter (age 10) is farsighted and has been wearing glasses since age two. We think she may have problems with depth perception. How can she be tested for this, and if there is a problem, can it be treated?
A: We can perform a very simple stereopsis test to determine if your daughter has normal depth perception. In this test, she wears “3-D glasses” and looks at a number of objects in a special book or on a chart across the room. If she has reduced stereopsis, a program of vision therapy may help improve her depth perception.
Q: We have an 11-year-old son who first became nearsighted when he was 7. Every year, his eyes get worse. Is there anything that can be done to prevent this?
A: Rigid gas permeable (GP) contact lenses may help. Research shows that, in many cases, fitting myopic youngsters with GP lenses may slow the progression of their nearsightedness. There's also a special fitting technique with GP contacts called orthokeratology (or “ortho-k”) that can even reverse certain amounts of myopia. There is also research that suggests bifocals and/or reading glasses may slow down the progression of myopia in some children.
A: Convergence insufficiency (CI) is a common learning-related vision problem where a person’s eyes don’t stay comfortably aligned when they are reading or doing close work. For reading and other close-up tasks, our eyes need to be pointed slightly inward (converged). A person with convergence insufficiency has a tough time doing this, which leads to eyestrain, headaches, fatigue, blurred vision and reading problems. Usually, a program of vision therapy can effectively treat CI and reduce or eliminate these problems. Sometimes, special reading glasses can also help.
Q: My son is 5 years old and has 20/40 vision in both eyes. Should I be concerned, or could this improve with time?
A: Usually, 5-year-olds can see 20/25 or better. But keep in mind that visual acuity testing is a subjective matter – during the test, your child is being asked to read smaller and smaller letters on a wall chart. Sometimes, kids give up at a certain line on the chart when they can actually read smaller letters. Other times, they may say they can’t read smaller letters because they want glasses. (Yes, this happens!) Also, if your son had his vision tested at a school screening (where there can be plenty of distractions), it’s a good idea to schedule a comprehensive eye exam to rule out nearsightedness, astigmatism or an eye health problem that may be keeping him from having better visual acuity.
Q: My daughter has been diagnosed with refractive amblyopia due to severe farsightedness in one eye. She just got her glasses and the lens for her bad eye is much thicker than the other lens. She complains that the glasses make her dizzy and she refuses to wear them. Can anything be done about this?
A: In situations like this, where one eye needs a much stronger correction than the other, contact lenses are a better option. With glasses, the unequal lens powers cause an unequal magnification effect, so the two eyes form images in the brain that are different in size. This can cause nausea, dizziness because the brain may not be able to blend the two separate images into a single, three-dimensional one. And, of course, the glasses will be unattractive because one lens will be much thicker than the other.
Even if your child is quite young, she can probably handle contact lens wear. Contact lenses don’t cause the differences in image magnification that glasses do. Continuous wear lenses (worn day and night for up to 30 days, then discarded) or one-day disposable lenses may be good options.
Keep in mind that amblyopia is a condition where one eye doesn’t see as well as the other, even with the best possible correction lens in place. Simply wearing the contacts may not improve the vision in her weak eye. Usually a program of vision therapy will also be needed.
For more information on children’s vision or eye exams, visit All About Vision®.
Article ©2008 Access Media Group LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction other than for one-time personal use is strictly prohibited. | <urn:uuid:aea5ce7c-d6c3-49d5-bfb6-faefccf23ba6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.visioncaremedicalgroup.com/articles/childvision_FAQs.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961717 | 1,723 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Energy and protein supplementation during pregnancy
The nutritional status of women prior to and during pregnancy plays a key role in fetal growth and development. Providing food supplements to undernourished pregnant women may help their babies to grow and thrive.
Reviews of the most recent evidence conclude that giving nutritional advice and balanced energy and protein supplements to pregnant women can improve fetal growth and may reduce the risk of fetal and neonatal death. High-protein supplements for pregnant women are unlikely to be beneficial and may be harmful to the fetus.
Status: not currently available | <urn:uuid:b9d8aea2-5e43-4fe3-b23b-e00e736a6157> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://who.int/elena/titles/energy_protein_pregnancy/en/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943827 | 111 | 2.296875 | 2 |
Eastern Cape Heritage
The Eastern Cape can be considered to be the crucible of South African History. For such a poor and forgotten part of the country, the Eastern Cape has had an effect on Southern African Development that is out of all proportion to the size and the economic influence of the Province.
One of the first dinosaurs on to be identified comes from the Eastern Cape. This was the “Blinkwater Monster”, which was discovered and identified near Fort Beaufort. Sice then many other fossils have been discovered of many different species, throughout the Eastern Cape, which is not surprising in one of the oldest land masses in the world. The karoo areas are especially rich in both plant and reptilian fossils. All fossils are protected by the South African Heritage Resources Act.
The Eastern Cape is the area where some of the oldest sites of modern human beings have been discovered as well as some of the oldest, if not the oldest evidence of cultural activity in the world. This is the Klaasies River cave sites in the Tsitsikhamma which have been dated back 125 000 years. Evidence has been uncovered at this site which includes a grave where the skeleton was in a foetal position and surrounded by cowrie shells, indicating that the body was buried with some ceremony. Where there is ceremony there is culture and this is the earliest proven evidence of cultural activity to be found on Earth. There are several other sites of importance in the Province but it is not encouraged that people be taken to these sites because of their delicate nature.
All along the coastline of the Eastern cape there are a number of sites left by the Later Stone Age people, often erroneously called the “Strandloper” people. These sites are to be found in mounds where their rubbish was thrown and these are called middens. They can be found all alonjg the coast and are usually a pile of mussel shells and other seafood shells. There are also a number of fish traps such as that at Thysbaai near cape St Francis where these traps were built to trap fish in the out going tides. All these sites were built between 30000 and 150000 years ago when sea levels began to rise and reach their current status as the icecaps that covered vast portions of the Earth began to melt. Between 80 000 and 30 000 years ago at the height of the last ice age the shore was further away than it is now, possibly as much as 60 kms in the Tsitsikhamma and 10 to 20 kms from East London.
The most visible sites of Early, Middle and Later Stone Age people are to be found alond the walls and cliffs and in caves in the mountainous regions. These were painted by the early inhabitants of the Province and along with those in the rest of South Africa, make up the richest such heritage in the world. These rock paintings are very grahic in their original form, and in their detail, scope and depth are splendid renditions of animals that are identifiable today. These paintings did not depict everyday life of the times but were a portal into the spiritual world of the people. Towards the end of this era, these paintings began to lose the splendid renditions of the earlier times and began to be more simply rendered and were often monochrome as opposed to the colourfull renditions of earlier times. They also began to show scenes that were not of a spiritual nature such as Ox wagons, soldiers in red uniforms and other sites near Cape Town just discovered show early sailing ships. These are indications of a society under stress and this period can also be described as “Apocalyptic Rock Art”
These people were stone age people and all their tools were made from stones and the country side is littered with these stone tools. Please note that all these remains and artifacts are protected by the South African Heritage Resources Act.
Iron Age Sites
About 1000 years ago another group of people began to move into the Eastern Cape,
who unlike the Stone Age People, were skilled in metal work. The most southerly of these sites is at canasta Place, about 20kms south of East London on the Port Alfred road.
These people were also herders and also grew their own crops; we are uncertain whether the Stone Age People did this. They stored their harvest in large underground grain pits, which have been discovered as far south as the Nqushwa area. No such sites have been found further south than that probably because that area marks the transition from summer rainfall to winter rainfall areas, although the people no doubt did travel further south than that and also grazed their cattle in those areas. It may well be that tyhese people were the ancestors of the Xhosa people who first met white trekboers in the areas between the Gamtoos and the Tsitsikhamma.
The grain pits and other artifacts, the crops and the cattle breeds, as well as the customs and the traditions and the designs and building techniques of these people are all important components of our heritage, and heritage is best described as links with the past.
In the 1760s boer people started moving into the Province and in 1786 the first recognized town in the Eastern Cape, Graaf-Reinet, was established. These people have left many tangible signs of their earlier life including the Afrikaans language and many splendid specimens of their architecture including splendid examples of Cape Dutch Architecture, although the Western Cape has most of these examples there are many splendid examples in the Eastern Cape as well, notably Reinet House in Graaf Reinet.
It was in the Eastern cape that the Boers began to refer themselves not as “Dutch” or “Boers” but as Afrikaners. They started the missionary endeavour that has had such an influence on South Africa, and it was from the Eastern Cape that the Boers departed on the Great Trek that led to the founding of the other provinces of South Africa and thus it can be said that all the subsequent events in South Africa that shaped our nation had their origin in the Eastern Cape.
The Boers and the Xhosa began their conflict over land and grazing rights in 1779 and this was to be the longest Colonial struggle in the history of Africa. At the same time events in Europe were coming to one of their perennial crisis and the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon caused the British to start getting worried about the French taking over the Cape, especially after Holland was overrun and in 1799 and in 1806 the British took over the Cape and to their horror this included the Eastern Cape, which was now in its second decade.
The British were not really interested in the Cape at that point, which served as a refueling stop for ships traveling to and from India. Their own such stop was the island of St Helena, but they could not afford to allow the Cape to fall to the French, nor would they permit the French to establish a base anywhere along the South African coast.
Thus during the First British occupation they built a fort on a bluff overlooking Algoa Bay, which is now in the centre of Port Elizabeth. Fort Frederick was the first building erected by the British in South Africa.
After the second occupation, they found that most of their energies were being brought to bear on the Eastern Cape, the least wanted part of their new colony. It was the most fractious and the continuing warfare along the Eastern Cape Frontier was a headache they did not need especially as at the time they were involved in a life and death struggle with the French.
The Xhosa at this time had local problems of their own, that culminated in the bitter war between the forces loyal to Ndlambe and those of Nqika. This reached its height at the battle of Amalinde, at Debe Nek just below NtabaKaNdoda in 1818. After this battle a remarkable man came to the fore, Nxele, also known as Makana. Makana asked the Xhosa what they thought they were doing fighting each other when on their doorstep a group of people from over the seas who were making war on the Xhosa and steadily encroaching on their land. Already the British had established a town a Grahamstown in 1812, the first town in Southern Africa to be established by the British which housed the military garrison for the Eastern Cape.
Makana was able to gather an army of over 10 000 soldiers and in April 1819, he launched his famous assault on Grahamstown. This battle has been called the most important in South African History because had the British lost the battle they would have abandoned the Eastern Cape and the subsequent history of South Africa would have been very different to what eventually did unfold. The site of the battle is today known as Egazini.
As a result of the battle of Grahamstown the British Government decided to settle people of British origin in the Eastern Cape and thus the Eastern Cape became the site where the four of the major ethnic groups in South Africa first came into contact with each other.
Forts and Battlefields.
The Eastern Cape has more forts than the rest of the South Africa combined. This is a legacy of the century long wars of resistance in this Province. The War of Mlanjeni was the longest and most expensive war fought by the British on the African Continent until the Second Anglo Boer War.
The Mission Stations
The missionary endeavour in the Eastern Cape had crucial ramifications for South Africa as the missionaries, although their role is controversial, did provide the first world class modern educational opportunities to African People. As a result the Eastern Cape became the first place where the Bible was translated into an indigenous Southern African language. The first African Dictionary was published in the Eastern Cape. The first Newspaper to be published in an African Language was published in the Eastern Cape.
It was in the Eastern Cape that the philosophy of African Nationalism grew its embryonic roots. Out of the Mission Stations grew the University of Fort Hare, the first African University in Africa.
Mission Stations dating back to the early years of the nineteenth century are stretched throughout the Province and could make an interesting tourist route.
The Eastern Cape role in the struggle has often been overlooked as the other struggle areas such as Soweto and Robben Island become the main focus of the struggle interest. This is a pity as the Eastern Cape played a major role in the liberation of South Africa. The names of Chris Hani, Nelson Mandela, Steve Biko, Victoria and Griffiths Mxenge are well known but the fact that most of the People incarcerated on Robben Island were from the Eastern Cape and their stories perhaps could be trumpeted louder.
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Anthony Harris is a leading South African Artist who has exhibited extensively in South Africa, United Kingdom and the USA. Visit www.anthonyharris.co.za for more info.City or Town: Port Elizabeth | <urn:uuid:d03fbdb2-1b73-43ff-991e-80b954fb4ac5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ectourism.co.za/districts_eastern_cape_services_results.asp?keywords=&page=2&pp=10&district=&location=11&cat=3&sub=&rating= | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977048 | 2,697 | 3.296875 | 3 |
Regardless of OSU's press releases to the contrary, Joshua Robinson is now actively being prevented, by OSU employees, from carrying out his PhD research at OSU.
For his graduate work at OSU, Joshua Robinson, under the guidance of his mentor Dr. Michael Hartman, constructed a prompt gamma neutron activation elemental analyzer that is attached to the OSU nuclear reactor, which serves as its source of neutrons. Joshua won an OSU award for this work. This analyzer has been enthusiastically complemented by scientists at two prominent U.S. research facilities with whom Dr. Hartman and Joshua have collaborated in its use.
Joshua has been making improvements in this apparatus and using it for various analytical purposes in order to complete work for his PhD degree.
On Thursday, March 17, Joshua entered the reactor control room, through which he must pass in order to enter the reactor bay in which his analyzer is located. | <urn:uuid:3dc643d0-9599-4e86-871a-9cfcc92560ad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://oregonstateoutrage.squarespace.com/home/?currentPage=3 | 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 | 0.982354 | 189 | 1.875 | 2 |
By now, many of you have read recent headlines reporting that 6.5 million LinkedIn hashed passwords were stolen and published on an unauthorized website. We take this criminal activity very seriously so we are working closely with the FBI as they aggressively pursue the perpetrators of this crime. As you may have heard, there have been reports of other websites that have suffered similar thefts. We want to be as transparent as possible while at the same time preserving the security of our members without jeopardizing the ongoing investigation. In this post, we want to address questions we’ve been receiving and share what we’ve learned so far about the incident, how we’ve responded, and what we’re doing to protect our members going forward.
First, it’s important to know that compromised passwords were not published with corresponding email logins. At the time they were initially published, the vast majority of those passwords remained hashed, i.e. encoded, but unfortunately a subset of the passwords was decoded. Again, we are not aware of any member information being published at any time in connection with the list of stolen passwords. The only information published was the passwords themselves.
Here are the most common questions we are being asked by our members:
1. Am I at risk of having my account breached?
Thus far, we have no reports of member accounts being breached as a result of the stolen passwords. Based on our investigation, all member passwords that we believe to be at risk have been disabled.
2. News of the theft broke on Wednesday. Why didn’t I immediately receive notification that my password was disabled?
As soon as we learned of the theft, we launched an investigation to confirm that the passwords were LinkedIn member passwords. Once confirmed, we immediately began to address the risk to our members, prioritized as follows:
Based on our investigation, those members whom we believed were at risk, and whose decoded passwords already had been published, had their passwords quickly disabled and were sent an email by the Customer Service team.
By the end of Thursday, all passwords on the published list that we believed created risk for our members, based on our investigation, had been disabled. This is true, regardless of whether or not the passwords were decoded. After we disabled the passwords, we contacted members with instructions on how to reset their passwords.
3. What is LinkedIn doing to protect its members?
We have built a world-class security team here at LinkedIn including experts such as Ganesh Krishnan, formerly vice president and chief information security officer at Yahoo!, who joined us in 2010. This team reports directly to LinkedIn’s senior vice president of operations, David Henke.
Under this team’s leadership, one of our major initiatives was the transition from a password database system that hashed passwords, i.e. provided one layer of encoding, to a system that both hashed and salted the passwords, i.e. provided an extra layer of protection that is a widely recognized best practice within the industry. That transition was completed prior to news of the password theft breaking on Wednesday. We continue to execute on our security roadmap, and we’ll be releasing additional enhancements to better protect our members.
4. My password has not been disabled, what should I do now?
If your password has not been disabled, based on our investigation, we do not believe your account is at risk.
However, it is good practice to change your passwords on any website you log into every few months. For that reason, we have provided information to all of our members via the LinkedIn Blog, as well as a banner on our homepage instructing members on how to change their passwords.
Once again, we truly apologize for any inconvenience this has caused you, our members. | <urn:uuid:8b422d58-0a5d-41dd-ac0d-4c3929daa1e9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://christinehueber.com/2012/linkedin-passwords-leak-update/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982089 | 776 | 1.539063 | 2 |
More than 130 people are feared dead after an avalanche hit a Pakistani army base in the Himalayas near the border with India burying 124 soldiers and 11 civilians.
The incident happened early on Saturday near the Siachen Glacier.
A rescue party has been sent to the region to search for survivors. Helicopters and teams with search dogs are working at the site. But poor weather conditions are hampering the search. No survivors have been found so far.
Officials say the base is buried under more than 20 meters of snow.
Both Pakistan and India deploy thousands of troops along the border, because the two countries have a long-standing conflict over the Kashmir region. The Siachen Glacier is one of the disputed areas and has seen skirmishes between the sides since 1984, when India annexed parts of it from Pakistan.
The glacier has the distinction of being world’s highest battlefield, with elevations of up to 6,700 meters. According to military experts, deaths of soldiers and international climbers are common there due to the harsh climate and frequent avalanches. | <urn:uuid:642aad5f-0c14-440b-b7da-b65f863c0fb1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rt.com/news/pakistan-avalanche-soldiers-buried-494/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954294 | 217 | 2.09375 | 2 |
Publication Date:Sep 01, 1994
Source:Harvard Business Review Case Discussion
Also Available in:
In this fictional case study, Caroline Portal knows that La Shampoo is in trouble. Introduced in 1975 and targeted at women between the ages of 15 and 30, La Shampoo has a stylish image that had immediately become popular. Its slogan, "La Shampoo: For the Look and Feel of France," had remained the same since day one. In 1989, however, the line had begun a slow descent, but the company hadn't really addressed the problem until two years ago, when it named Caroline brand manager. At first, Caroline requested a new packaging design. The ad agency backed her up and called for a modest "new look" campaign. But the repackaging caused tension in the office and had no positive effect on sales: the numbers continued their slow decline. Caroline calls a meeting to examine proposals submitted by product sales manager Eric Woolf and a representative of the ad agency that held the La Shampoo account, Beth Hanson. Eric recommends a price cut, while Beth wants a relaunch. The tension grows in the meeting as Caroline weighs the options. A decision has to be made soon in order to save the brand. Which marketing plan should Caroline choose? Five experts examine the challenges of rebuilding a brand.
Brands; Marketing strategy; Product management
- Industry: Retail trade | <urn:uuid:02d40331-1bd8-4f0f-b4df-63879bd7c834> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/94508-PDF-ENG | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948388 | 282 | 1.929688 | 2 |
Breast Cancer Facts
Breast cancer occurs when cells in the breast begin to grow abnormally. They do not respond to regular cell growth, division, and death signals like they are supposed to. They also don’t organize normally. Instead they grow into a tumor, which may invade surrounding layers of breast tissue and possibly spread to other organs.
Although breast cancer primarily affects women, it can also occur in children and men. For the most part, the content in this section is directed at females, who make up 99 percent of all breast cancer patients. But most of the information applies to males as well.
According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), in the United States breast cancer is the second most common cancer in women (after skin cancer) and the second leading cause of cancer death in women (after lung cancer). ACS estimated that 290,170 new cases of breast cancer (in situ and invasive cancers) were diagnosed among women in this country in 2012.
Over a woman’s lifetime, there’s a one in eight chance she will get breast cancer. For men, the lifetime risk is much lower—about one in 1,000. Breast cancer can be a highly curable disease if detected and treated early.
Learn about diagnostic tests used when breast cancer is suspected.
Here’s an overview of some of the more common types of breast cancer—and what is meant by “grade,” “hormone-receptor positive,” and “HER2 positive.”
Find out how a cancer is classified based on its size and how far it’s spread—key factors that influence treatment.
Your questions about breast cancer answered—topics from digital mammography and hormone replacement therapy to tamoxifen and aromatase inhibitors.
The more you know about your disease, the more empowered you'll feel. This list of reputable sources about breast cancer makes gathering information easy. | <urn:uuid:948ebca9-41ca-4cb5-9579-683d46159469> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.seattlecca.org/diseases/breast-cancer-facts.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953054 | 401 | 3.453125 | 3 |
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14/03/2011 - General
IE University is playing an active role in the fourth excavation campaign at the Monthemhat burial site in el-Assasif, Luxor, Egypt. Monthemhat was Governor of High Egypt (670-648 BC) and the fourth Prophet of Amon, and his mummified remains lie somewhere in one of the largest and most complex burial sites in Western Thebes, Egypt. IE University researchers are working with experts from Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities, under the supervision of Dr. Farouk Gomaà from Tübingen University, to pinpoint the exact location of the mummy, which has survived attacks by tomb raiders over the centuries and resisted to date the attempts of archaeological expeditions to find it. Archaeological studies and fieldwork at the site are being led by IE University professor Emilio Illarregui.
The team is using a latest generation geo-radar to reveal hidden items and buried chambers. Coupled with tomographs, 3D scanners and radiodiagnostic aparatus, the radar is playing a major role in advancing this fourth excavation campaign. The geo-radar findings published yesterday in Madrid are positive and augur well for key discoveries over the next two weeks.
The excavations of the burial site of Monthemhat, also known as the King of Thebaid, have brought to light several important discoveries, including the sarcophagus of Nesptah, one of his sons. Researchers have also revealed that raiders had already found the remains of this wife. Monthemhat’s mummy has so far eluded archaeologists, who believe it may be buried under the actual burial site. The fact that the site comprises a total of fifty seven chambers constructed around two impressive courtyards serves to evidence the power held by the governor. “The tomb is more like that of a pharaoh than a high ranking civil servant”, says Professor Illarregui. “Each discovery is a step forward in piecing together our knowledge of a crucial period of Ancient Egyptian History.”
The archaeologists gained access to the underground chambers through 15 meter-deep wells and an intricate labyrinth where the lack of oxygen and colonies of bats hindered progress. The use of latest generation technologies to find underground chambers is key to advancing this fourth edition of excavations. A team comprising several MDs, a radiologist and a biologist are using a latest generation X-ray device, courtesy of Philips, to obtain X-rays of 40 mummies found in the tomb. Scientists are also creating a tri-dimensional reconstruction of the burial site using a 3D scanner, enabling a highly detailed virtual image of the site which will permit the analysis of the burial chambers from thousands of miles away.
The project is financed by IE University, the Bonastre Foundation and Universidad Internacional SEK.
14/03/2011 - General
IE University, the extension of the IE Business School educational model to graduate and postgraduate training, and Fujitsu Siemens Computers, have implemented a pilot project during the first year of the University´s new Segovia-based degree courses so that its students can convert the notes they take into digital files in real time without the need for special paper or electronic notebooks.
The project is based on the implementation of a revolutionary electronic pen, the Mobile NoteTaker, by Fujitsu Siemens, which converts handwriting on a sheet of paper into a Word or PDF file. This latest-generation device has put an end to notes being left forgotten in notebooks and time lost searching for information. Its mechanism is as simple as that of a normal pen. The tool does not require special paper or an electronic screen and users can write on any surface. Moreover users do not need to be connected to a computer while writing, since the information can be downloaded after the work is finished using the USB cable included in the package.
The LCD screen on the electronic pen enables users to see and control the information entered in real time. Users can scan, save and share drawings, notes and meeting memorandums, talks and conferences on up to 100 pages of A4-size paper.
For Gayle Allard, Vice Dean for Research at IE University, "the project has been welcomed by every student and with enormous satisfaction. Technology is one of our University´s key commitments. Our students will join the employment market with a greater knowledge of all the technology that can be applied to their work, helping them make the transition into the business world. Accordingly, the introduction of this new electronic pen places us at the leading edge of education, equipping our students with a tool that connects the traditional world of note-taking with new digital technologies".
14/03/2011 - General
The IE University Professor of Biology, Pablo Tejedo, set off for Santiago de Chile in December to embark on a journey to the continent of Antarctica to carry out research work directed by Doctor Javier Benayas del Álamo from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. The work focuses on assessing the environmental effects of tourism on this particular area of the planet, which is seriously threatened by global warming.
This initiative, launched by the Ministry of Science and Innovation, has brought together forty-eight research groups and one hundred and fifty researchers from seventy-four institutions, the largest contingent ever sent to Antarctica by Spain. IE University is represented in the campaign by Professor Pablo Tejedo, from IE School of Biology, who forms part of the project "Assessment of the environmental impact of commercial tourism on Antarctic ecosystems". The aim of the study is to act as a basis for the design of a monitoring plan to assess the long-term environmental effects of this commercial activity on the fragile ecosystems of Antarctica.
After a few days in Ushuaia, where he will interview professionals from the tourist industry specialised in Antarctic cruises, Professor Pablo Tejedo will board the Oceanographic Research Ship "Las Palmas", which will provide logistic support for the expedition on its way to the South Shetland Islands. Once there, he will complete the fieldwork stage of the project, and research work that forms part of the twenty-five projects developed by Spanish scientists and financed by the Ministry of Science and Innovation as part of the International Polar Year.
For a period of 20 days, from 16 January to 6 February 2009, Professor Tejedo will be visiting various locations to assess the effects of land visits made by tourists in Antarctica. During this time he will visit the Aitcho Islands, the area of Paradise Bay on the Antarctic Peninsular, Deception Island, Hannah Point and King George Island. Professor Tejedo designed the experiments that will make it possible to assess the impact of commercial tourism on Antarctic soils last year. Several professors from IE University were involved in this work, including David Melero, who helped build a sample-drying system based on renewable energies, and Jesús A. Gómez Ochoa de Alda, who proposed the use of Biolog plates to assess the changes to the microbial biodiversity of the soils in the areas subjected to greater volumes of tourists in Antarctica.
For more information: http://www.api-spain.es/
14/03/2011 - General
More than 500 people attended the presentation of the Master Plan of the Circle of Art and Technology (in Spanish, CAT), which took place yesterday in IE University´s Aula Magna. The project seeks to position Segovia at the leading edge of technological innovation.
The presentation was made by prestigious British architect David Chipperfield, winner of the international competition held by Segovia´s city hall to build an architectural complex on the outskirts of the town. The complex will comprise an R&D building, a knowledge centre, museum, and a commercial and leisure centre for entrepreneurs together with a conference centre.
David Chipperfield yesterday recognised at IE University that he was "very excited" about the project, the main challenge of which "is to project an idea through buildings" with a broad range of designs. The presentation of the "CAT Master Plan" of Segovia marked the end of the second edition of the Architecture Week organised by IE School of Architecture, the division of the Charter of Architects in Segovia and Segovia City Hall.
Chipperfield, who has studios in London, Berlin, Milan and Shanghai, was joined in the event by the Vice-Dean of External Relations of IE School of Architecture, the architect Martha Thorne, and the representatives of the other three studios that won awards in the competition: Andrés Perea, Jerónimo Junquera, Juan Carlos Sancho and Sol Madridejos.
The event was attended by the Mayor of Segovia, Pedro Arahuetes, representatives from IE School of Architecture and the Charter of Architects, and numerous architecture students from IE University and other universities.
14/03/2011 - General
July 2008 – IE Business School is set to invest around €14 million in the former convent of Santa Cruz la Real in Segovia to convert the building and the adjoining land into an international business university equipped with state-of-the-art technology. The project aims to make IE University a European benchmark for quality.
The venue chosen for IE’s university project is the former convent of Santa Cruz la Real, a building which was declared a national monument in 1931 and is one of the architectural gems of the city of Segovia. The restoration project for the building, which is located by the city wall and is very close to the aqueduct, was presented at a press conference in July by Miguel Sagüés, IE University’s managing director, and the architects Fernando Serrano-Suñer and Ismael Rodriguez.
The whole restoration project involves five phases which will take in the building’s 18,000 m² surface area, in addition to a plot of land covering 30,000 m² adjacent to the former convent. Restoration work began a year ago on the communal areas of the ground floor such as the cloister, the chapterhouse, the refectory hall and the dormitories. This summer, work will focus on the university’s lecture halls and include fitting automated lighting and sound systems in order to save energy while respecting the structure of the building. According to the architect, Fernando Serrano-Suñer, work on each of these two phases will cover a surface area of around 4,000 m².
After these first two stages, a third phase of restoration work will begin in 2009 and include a complete renovation project which will be presented to the Segovia City Council and the Heritage Commission during the next few days so that they can assess its feasibility. This phase will include work on the interior design and furnishings and will supplement the work carried out during the first two phases. It will also involve work on the outside of the building and the facades and a glass roof for the complex’s two characteristic courtyards. During the press conference, Fernando Serrano-Suñer insisted that the restoration work would “respect the building’s heritage” at all times and stressed that in the case of the facades, which are at present in a very poor state of repair, the aim was to “restore them to their former splendour”.
The fourth phase will focus on the total restoration of the building and work will begin in 2010. The final, most ambitious phase will involve work on urban planning, the outdoor areas and leisure and sports facilities. The idea is to provide the area which surrounds the former convent with green areas and landscaped gardens which can house open-air lecture areas, a plaza which can serve as a meeting point for students and a sports area which “blends in perfectly with the surroundings”. In addition, this project, which will be presented in report or draft form to the Heritage Commission, includes moving the current car park underground and thus providing the university with over 180 parking spaces. Above all, Serrano-Suñer highlighted that IE University aims to respect its surroundings and environment and is fully committed to respecting the extraordinary variety of natural landscapes found in the Eresma River valley, where the former convent is located.
IE University management estimates that the total restoration process of the former convent of Santa Cruz la Real will come to an end in 2014. Segovia will then be the home of an international university which will compete with the best in Europe and be equipped with the very latest technology whilst fully respecting the area’s natural and historic heritage.
SANTA CRUZ LA REAL, A NATIONAL MONUMENT
The convent of Santa Cruz la Real, which is located on the outskirts of the city of Segovia in the Eresma River valley, was founded in 1218, just two years after the creation of the mendicant Order of the Dominicans. Diego de Colmenares, a sixteenth century chronicler, reported that Saint Dominic did penance in a cave near the river to the north of the city and that he founded the order in this spot.
The convent was rebuilt during the last quarter of the fifteenth century over the old thirteenth century Romanesque structure and the current church, with its monumental portal, was built. The rebuilding work, carried out in late Gothic style, was carried out under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs and records referring to the project date back to 1478. The work was undertaken by the architect Juan Guás, who worked for the Crown of Castile between 1453 and 1496 and was the greatest exponent of the Hispano-Flemish school.
The Dominican presence in the convent lasted until the monks were released from their religious vows as decreed by the minister Mendizábal in 1836. The convent then became a hospice and, until recently, it was a nursing home for the elderly under the ownership of the Segovia Provincial Council. It has since been renovated to house IE University.
IE Business School entered the world of university education in January 2007 when it acquired IE University, a sophisticated, innovative, international institution committed to the business elite with a global outlook, entrepreneurial flair and a public-spirited nature. The fact that it is the first time a business school has purchased a university means that its students have an enterprising, business spirit which is lacking in universities in general.
IE University expands IE Business School’s international educational model to undergraduate and postgraduate studies, thus creating a unique space for higher education in Europe. IE University stands for a new model of university education based on the diffusion of knowledge and innovation among the leaders of tomorrow.
IE University offers an exclusive program including subjects from the fields of science and humanities. Degrees can be taken in Architecture (English and Spanish), Communication (English and Spanish), Construction Management, Journalism, Psychology, Telecommunication Engineering, History of Art, Tourism and Biology. Postgraduate studies offered by the university will include master’s degrees in Security Management, Communication Management in Social Networks and Work Space Design.
IE University currently has approximately 1,200 students and 170 professors. Student numbers for the new university are expected to reach 2,000 in five years, with 80% of these being international students. | <urn:uuid:3edaffa1-7e76-49dd-9faa-5d5fbda4fccd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ie.edu/university/news-events/news?pagina=19 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946401 | 3,145 | 2.1875 | 2 |
Please see the attached drawing.
Note: I cannot shift the Datum A since it is a functioning surface.
ASME Y14.5 permits a few dimensions to be omitted from the drawing because their indication would not clarify the reading of the drawing. Those dimensions are the 90 degree angle, basic 90 degree angle, zero degree angle, and linear dimensions of zero.
Per the drawing you provided, the use of 4X and the composite position tolerance would require the drawing reader to interpret that there are 4 coaxial diameters, even without seeing another drawing view.
The reference to datum A as a primary datum reference requires the reader to interpret that the 4 diameters are to be parallel to datum A, as well as located to datum A within the diameter 0.010 at MMC allowance.
The datum reference to datum B as a secondary datum requires the reader to interpret that the 4 diameters are located 2.675 from datum B within the diameter 0.10 at MMC allowance.
Not being able to see datum feature C in this drawing, I cannot elaborate on the requirement to datum C.
If the rules of ASME Y 14.5 are understood, the reader will understand the relationship to datum A that you were concerned about. This is partly why it is important to evaluate your supplier’s understanding of GD&T.
ETI has some interesting dialogue on this subject on our Linked-in group. Click here to connect with Alex and join the group.
ASME GDTP Senior Certified
Dimensional Engineering Mentor | <urn:uuid:da4ddde2-31c1-4216-937d-1203e6d579ba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.etinews.com/blog/2011/03/10/question-about-how-to-represent-a-dimension/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915802 | 327 | 2.078125 | 2 |
Hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS) is a disorder that usually occurs when an infection in the digestive system produces toxic substances that destroy red blood cells, causing kidney injury.
Causes, incidence, and risk factors
Hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS) often occurs after a gastrointestinal infection with E. coli bacteria (Escherichia coli O157:H7). However, the condition has also been linked to other gastrointestinal infections, including shigella and salmonella, as well as nongastrointestinal infections.
HUS is most common in children. It is the most common cause of acute kidney failure in children. Several large outbreaks in 1992 and 1993 were linked to undercooked hamburger meat contaminated with E. coli.
Other risk factors for HUS are unknown, although some cases are due to a familial form of the disease. HUS may occur with a variety of other diseases and infections, and after taking certain medications such as mitomycin C or ticlopidine.
HUS often begins with vomiting and diarrhea, which may be bloody. Within a week, the person may become weak and irritable. Persons with this condition may urinate less than normal. Urine output may almost stop.
Red blood cell destruction leads to symptoms of anemia.
Todd Gersten, MD, Hematology/Oncology, Palm Beach Cancer Institute, West Palm Beach, FL. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network. Also reviewed by Linda J. Vorvick, MD, Medical Director and Director of Didactic Curriculum, MEDEX Northwest Division of Physician Assistant Studies, Department of Family Medicine, UW Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Washington; David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc. | <urn:uuid:ff267033-4aa5-492d-b21a-68203335980d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sjhlex.org/body.cfm?id=9&action=detail&AEArticleID=000510&AEProductID=Adam2004_5117&AEProjectTypeIDURL=APT_1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944751 | 376 | 3.046875 | 3 |
eso9848 — Organisation Release
ESO Video News Reels
New Service to Broadcasters
19 October 1998
With the on-going commissioning of more and more elements of the Very Large Telescope Array at Paranal - Unit Telescopes and auxiliary instrumentation - it is expected that there will be an increased stream of news releases from ESO about important new scientific and technological results. In order to enable science editors working for television to benefit from this source in the most efficient way, ESO will from now on issue special Video News Reels (VNRs) with the latest news from ESO and the VLT project. All VNRs will be accompanied by detailed, written information about the images, including a shot list and suggested narration. The sound track will contain original sound, only.
ESO Video News Reels will normally be produced in conjunction with ESO Press Releases, providing additional background information.
ESO Video News Reels are produced specifically for broadcast use . They are available on VHS, Betacam SP and MII. The footage is free to air ("Conditions for Use of ESO Video Footage" are enclosed with the video tapes), if credit is given to the European Southern Observatory (© 1998).
The Video News Reels will be announced on the ESO homepage at the World-Wide Web and subscribers to the ESO e-mail press releases will be notified automatically. Please note, however, that the tapes are only available on request from the ESO EPR Department.
ESO Video News Reel 1 is published on October 19, 1998, and contains video material related to the recent work at the first 8.2-m VLT Unit Telescope (UT1). The main part is dedicated to the FORS instrument that was recently installed and tested at the Cassegrain focus of this telescope. There are sequences from Paranal and the testing of FORS, statements by one of the participating scientists about FORS and its performance, as well as some of the first images obtained with the new instrument. | <urn:uuid:f3ea061a-3061-4c1e-a39c-983cbd107775> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://eso.org/public/news/eso9848/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927174 | 419 | 1.773438 | 2 |
A Court’s Judgment is Binding
That is what President Obama’s Attorneys were told on March 3rd, after a judgment ruling against Obamacare January 31st. President Obama brushed off Judge Roger Vinson’s ruling so will he comply now?
On January 31st Judge Roger Vinson made a judgment against Obamacare stating that the mandatory insurance provision was unconstitutional and further declared the entire law void after having received twenty six states bringing lawsuits to the Florida district court challenging the Obama healthcare reform law referred to as Obamacare.
President Obama having been an attorney for a law firm in the past, as was his wife; knows full well how to play the system. Most all attorneys do it to gain ground and force things their way whether right or wrong; they don’t care about the wrong so long as they win.
President Obama seems to hold true to the Attorney format of things when it comes to his namesake Obamacare as the White House called Judge Vinson’s ruling “extreme” and “outlier;” then instructed the nation “implementation would proceed apace.” For those that don’t know the term “apace” means quickly.
Judge Vincent said the delay of two and a half weeks before even requesting a clarification on the courts interpretation of the constitution involving this case may have been calculated. Anyone that has had any dealings with attorneys would know that the delay was nothing more then a stall tactic; no surprise there.
Last week Judge Vinson issued a “stay” to delay the practical effects of overturning the healthcare law and allowed seven days for the administration to request an expedited appeal. President Obama is not the first President to attempt to overthrow a Supreme Court Decision; President Richard Nixon tried it in 1974, President Andrew Jackson in 1819 and President Abraham Lincoln acquiesced in a court’s decision regarding Dred Scott v Sanford in 1857. In short “The court has the final say in any legal controversy.” | <urn:uuid:24b9b86e-ce92-47c7-a318-671568de1276> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://newsflavor.com/politics/world-politics/a-courts-judgment-is-binding/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975496 | 413 | 1.601563 | 2 |
All Cat Photographs courtesy of Helmi Flick
FEATURED BREED: TOYGER
Its tawny coat with bold black stripes makes you stop and say "is that
a miniature Tiger?!" Well, yes, and no. It looks like a Tiger, but it's
a domestic cat: it's the Toyger.
In the late 1980's Judy Sugden noticed a different pattern in one of
her Bengals, and well, as they say, the rest is history. Later two cats
became the cornerstone for the Toyger - a striped domestic shorthair named
Scrapmetal and a big - boned Bengal named Millwood Rumpled Spotskin.
In 1993, Judy also imported Jammu Blu, a street cat from Kashmir, India,
who had all spots between his ears rather than the regular tabby lines.
Recognized first by TICA, today the Toyger competes for Championship
titles and Regional and International awards in TICA. The Toyger may look
like its ferocious relative, but it's a loving breed who wants to be with
people. To learn moreclick here
Previous Breeds of the Month
Have you ever gone
into a Japanese restaurant and been greeted by a statue of a cat holding its
one paw up, and resting his other paw on a golden coin? That's the Good Luck
Cat (also called Neko) who is fashioned after the Japanese Bobtail.
The Japanese Bobtail traces its history back to over 1,000 years ago and is
depicted in famous paintings, murals, pottery and statues found in Asia and
museums around the world. A natural breed originating in Japan, the Japanese
Bobtail has a chiseled head structure and stylized angular lines, comes in both
long- and short-haired coats, and is known for its vibrant, rich mi-ke or
tri-colored and bi-colored patterns.
The one feature that gave the Japanese Bobtail its name is its bobbed tail that
consists of a variety of kinks and curves creating a pom-pom effect-like. Its
tail is like a fingerprint because no two tails are ever the same. Active,
intelligent, and athletic, the Japanese Bobtail will entertain you with it s
To learn more about the Japanese Bobtail, click here | <urn:uuid:69abd972-3a02-42fa-9fe4-18463733cc84> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.professionalcatgroomers.com/Breed-of-the-Month.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950068 | 491 | 2.25 | 2 |
|Limestone Rededicates Winnie Davis Hall of History; Photo Slideshow Added|
On Friday, April 16th), the historic Winnie Davis Hall of History at Limestone College was rededicated.
Featured in the program were performances by The Limestone College and Community Chorus, The Limestone College Jazz Ensemble, and the student-group Saxophore.
See the photo slideshow here .Speaking at the event will be Limestone President Dr. Walt Griffin and representatives of college students, faculty, alumni and Board of Trustees. The ribbon cutting will be conducted by Mrs. Pat Plyler Watts, Mrs. Pat Williams Willis, Gaylord Perry (all co-chairs of the College's capital campaign to restore the building) and Lyman Hamrick, former Chair of the College's Board of Trustees.
Built in 1904, the Winnie Davis Hall of History is an excellent example of late Gothic Revival architecture. The building's design features an octagonal sky-lighted tower, a double staircase in its entry foyer and ornate, arched windows.
By 1977 the building had fallen into such disrepair that it was deemed unsafe and was closed. The College launched its $4.8 million initiative in 2008 to restore the building. With the start of the spring 2010 semester, the building began hosting classes for the first time in 30 years. It houses six wireless multimedia classrooms, three museums and galleries and faculty offices. A new tower was added to the west side of the hall for stairs, elevators and restroom facilities to meet building codes. A catering kitchen is also included in the new tower design.
In early March, the Palmetto Trust for Historic Preservation honored Limestone with an Excellence in Preservation Award for the College's restoration of Winnie Davis Hall of History. The presentation was made during the organization's 15th annual awards ceremony in Georgetown. Martin Meek, president of Campbell Meek Architects of Spartanburg who directed the Limestone initiative, was also honored with the Palmetto Trust's Governor's Award for Lifetime Achievement in Preservation. Meek's firm, as well as the contractors, McDaniel Construction, also received an Honor Award from Palmetto Trust.
"The Winnie Davis Hall of History is a shining example of taking a neglected, decaying historic property and bringing it back to life," said Michael Bedenbaugh, Executive Director of the Palmetto Trust. "The steps taken by Limestone resulted in an exceptional accomplishment in historical preservation, restoration and interpretation of South Carolina's architectural and cultural heritage." | <urn:uuid:c2979576-9014-4c38-afed-cdd90c76e88d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.limestone.edu/news-general/1060-special-observance-for-rededication-of-winnie-davis-hall-of-history | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965272 | 518 | 1.882813 | 2 |
BP seen as takeover target in wake of $4.5 billion settlement
Explore This Story
LONDON — Bob Dudley shrank BP Plc to save it.
The onetime Mississippian and current chief executive officer has sold more than $50 billion (U.S.) of assets to pay the costs of the worst U.S. oil spill in history in 2010. Rescued from the brink of collapse, Europe’s second-largest oil company is now seen as vulnerable to a takeover.
BP is the cheapest of the world’s five biggest non-state oil companies by market value relative to reserves, earnings and output. As a result it may become a target, according to people familiar with the strategic thinking of the London-based company and its potential acquirers.
Dudley’s boldest move as the first American in charge of the 103-year-old British company was last month’s exit from a turbulent Russian venture in exchange for a 20 per cent stake in state oil company OAO Rosneft and $12.3 billion (U.S.) in cash.
The deal solved one of BP’s two biggest challenges. The other, litigation in the U.S. over fines from the spill, came closer to a resolution last week with a $4.5 billion (U.S.) criminal settlement. The civil claims may vanish in a settlement before the trial set to start Feb. 25.
“You can absolutely make the case that it’s a potential takeover target” once BP’s U.S. settlement and the Russia deal are completed, said Julian Birkinshaw, a professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at the London Business School — Britain’s best, according to Financial Times rankings. “BP has been fighting wars on both the eastern and western fronts” that held back buyers, he said.
BP, founded as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in 1909 after William Knox D’Arcy struck oil in the nation now called Iran, rose to global prominence by absorbing pieces of John D. Rockefeller’s oil empire. BP is now the fourth-biggest non-state oil company by market value, having fallen behind Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron since the spill. Exxon remains the world’s most valuable oil company; at $394 billion it’s almost three times the size of BP.
Exxon is looking for ways to expand following Rosneft’s BP agreement that will displace the U.S. company as the world’s largest publicly traded oil producer by volume, the people said. A combination between BP and Shell to create a European energy champion is also possible, they said, asking not to be identified discussing a private matter.
Officials for Exxon and Shell declined to comment.
“Sum of the parts, BP is the cheapest big oil company in the world,” said Stuart Joyner, head of oil and gas at Investec Securities in London. “It will take BP a long time to turn itself around, and I doubt whether the market will have the patience.” A breakup of the company into its U.S. and international halves is a possibility, he said.
The energy industry’s top tier of so-called supermajor oil and gas producers has barely changed since 2001, when Chevron acquired Texaco. Among the five biggest publicly traded oil producers, BP is larger only than Total of France.
BP’s oil and gas reserves are valued at $7.07 (U.S.) a barrel, compared with $14.41 at Shell and $16.42 at Exxon. The company also has the lowest price-to-earnings ratio among the top five producers at 7.1, compared with Exxon at 11.
BP’s enterprise value, a measure of market value that includes debt, divided by thousand barrels of daily oil and gas production is the lowest among the top five companies at $51.51. Total comes fourth at $59.57, whereas Exxon’s is highest at $106.55.
An acquisition or a breakup would see the demise of a pillar of the British corporate world that was backed by the British government until 1987. Its predecessors built British influence in the Middle East in the build-up to World War I as then-naval chief Winston Churchill replaced coal with oil to fuel the imperial fleet.
In an Oct. 30 interview at BP’s London headquarters, Dudley, 57, said BP’s size would make a takeover attempt “very surprising” and would likely create regulatory objections.
To keep BP growing after its exit from Russia, he’s unveiled a 10-point plan that includes doubling margins on new projects and returning cash to shareholders. He also rewarded BP’s “very patient” investors with a surprise 12.5 per cent dividend increase in the third quarter of this year and the company is considering buying back shares.
“The main thing would be that we continue to perform and grow,” Dudley said. A takeover “is not in the best interest of our shareholders.”
BP’s size and importance may make it one of the few cases in which the British government could object to a merger attempt, especially by an overseas buyer, according to the LBS’s Birkinshaw. Britain didn’t intervene when Kraft Foods took over chocolate-maker Cadbury in 2010. Overseas rivals have also acquired British car companies Bentley Motors, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars and Jaguar Land Rover.
Investors aren’t convinced Dudley’s plan for BP is enough. The value of BP’s assets implies a share price of 732 pence, according to Investec’s Joyner, compared with a current price of about 417 pence. A sale or a breakup could narrow that gap of about $90 billion from the company’s current $126 billion market value.
BP is staking the future on its expertise in offshore drilling. Its most valuable assets are still in the deep-water Gulf of Mexico and Angola, as well as in Azerbaijan and the North Sea. Dudley said Oct. 30 that investment will focus on these four high-margin hubs over the next five years.
Dudley, the firm’s first non-British CEO, took the helm at BP in October 2010, six months after the accident at the Macondo well that halved the value of its shares. The U.S. has sued BP for charges under the Clean Water Act that may exceed $10 billion.
Dudley’s first task was to start to restore BP’s reputation while also ensuring its balance sheet could withstand the hit from cleanup and litigation. He set voluntary higher safety standards for drilling, shut production at sites until he was sure operations were safe and launched an asset disposal program to focus on the most profitable production and exploration.
Standing in his way were four Russian billionaires, the owners of the other half of the TNK-BP venture that Dudley helped establish in 2003 and ran until 2008. They blocked a planned alliance between BP and Rosneft that would have given BP access to the Arctic’s Kara Sea, home of some of the world’s largest untapped resources.
The setback was especially bitter for Dudley because he had been driven out of Russia and forced to resign as head of TNK-BP after clashing with the billionaires. The deal with Rosneft announced last month finally puts that partnership behind BP.
To be sure, the deal might also deter acquirers. The British company’s new partnership with Russia’s government could complicate matters for potential buyers or merger partners wary of too close an association with president Vladimir Putin, said Christopher Le Fevre, an energy consultant at research firm Oxford Analytica.
“I wouldn’t say Russia is a poison pill, but others wouldn’t assume they could just take over that position,” Colin McLean, CEO of SVM Asset Management in Edinburgh, a fund manager that owns BP shares. “BP needs to show it has gained an advantage in Russia, and that may take many years.”
Dudley, who worked in Russia as an Amoco executive from 1994 to 1997 and whose wife, Mary, runs a charity for disabled Russian children called Diema’s Dream, said the disputes with BP’s partners haven’t curbed his appetite for doing business in Russia.
“Russia gets into your blood,” he said. “Life is never a straight line. Persistence and enthusiasm is how you get things done.”
The same could be said for Dudley’s efforts to restore BP’s fortunes in the Gulf of Mexico. The company now has seven oil rigs operating in the region, more than ever before, and has plans for as many as 10, Dudley said Oct. 30.
“Dudley’s strategy is to return to business as usual as a large integrated oil company,” said Peter Hutton, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets in London. “Investors would want to give BP a period to focus, to get stuck into the business in ways they haven’t been able to for the past two-and-a-half years.”
Dudley rose through the ranks at Amoco and then BP after it acquired the U.S. company in 1998 for $56 billion, the biggest- ever oil and gas merger at the time. Born in New York and raised in Mississippi, he became a voice for BP during the Gulf spill and took over the restoration operation in June 2010, two months after the initial accident that started the worst U.S. spill.
Before running TNK-BP, he served as one of former BP CEO John Browne’s executive assistants, a position that traditionally leads to bigger roles.
Browne used deals to expand the global reach of BP over his 12-year tenure through 2007, envisioning the company as a competitor to Exxon and Shell. He led the acquisitions of Atlantic Richfield Co. and Amoco, molding BP into the second- largest global oil company by market value in 2006.
After last month’s deal in Russia, Dudley will have to turn his attention back to the U.S., where BP still faces a trial set to start in three months. BP said last week it’s still in talks with the Department of Justice and is willing to settle civil claims “on reasonable terms.”
_ With assistance from Ryan Chilcote in London.
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Zoocasa to feature property listings, realtor information. | <urn:uuid:47e27f8a-f997-477b-b14c-2c34de9b5586> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thestar.com/business/2012/11/24/bp_seen_as_takeover_target_in_wake_of_45_billion_settlement.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963372 | 2,352 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Best Known For
Roger Moore is a British actor best known for his role as James Bond in seven films from 1973-'85.
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Roger Moore is a British actor born on October 14, 1927, in London, England. He made his film debut in 1945 and appeared on Broadway and in television roles throughout the 1940s and 1950s. He is best known for playing the dashing spy James Bond, a role mastered in seven films from Live and Let Die (1973) to A View to a Kill (1985). The Queen of England knighted him in 2003, and he was named a commander in France's National Order of Arts and Letters in 2008.
Actor Roger Moore was born on October 14, 1927, in London, England. An art school student of painting, he made his film debut as an extra in 1945, and appeared in small roles on stage and in films prior to army service.
Moore appeared on Broadway in A Pin to See the Peepshow (1953) and in the Hollywood film The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954). On television he won stardom as the action-man hero of such series as Ivanhoe (1958), The Alaskans (1960-'61) and The Persuaders (1972-'73), but most especially, the character of Simon Templer in The Saint (1962-'69).
His own wittiest critic, Moore brought a lightweight insouciance to the role of James Bond in seven films between Live and Let Die (1973) and A View to a Kill (1985). Recent films include Spice World (1997). He was knighted in 2003.
Moore was named a commander in France's National Order of Arts and Letters on October 8, 2008. The award is one of France??s highest honors. The actor was in Paris to promote his memoir, My Word Is My Bond.
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United Nations Goodwill Ambassadors are prominent individuals who volunteer to highlight important areas of the U.N.'s work. Actors, athletes, authors and musicians use their celebrity to raise awareness of the issues faced by victims of poverty, famine, and violence worldwide. Goodwill ambassadors make widely publicized visits to the world's most troubled locales, and make appeals on behalf of their people. Here are some of the stars who use their famous names to promote causes close to their hearts.
U.N. Goodwill Ambassadors 38 people in this group
The 1960s were a time of significant cultural and social change in London. The post-World War II era, coined "Swinging London," saw a youth-driven shift in culture, from old to new. Symbolized by famous faces like English supermodels Jean Shrimpton and Twiggy to "British Invasion" rock bands like the Beatles and Cream, the era created a fresh and modern approach to everything from fashion to music to cultural attitudes. Biography.com looks at the inspirational forces behind the "Swinging London" revolution.
Swinging London - Cultural Icons: 1960s 41 people in this group
Action movie stars are the heroes and heroines who get our adrenaline pumping. Early action stars include Douglas Fairbanks, the swashbuckling adventurer of the 1920s and '30s; John Wayne, the famous gunslinger of the 1940s and '50s; and Sean Connery, who played the debonair spy Bond—James Bond—in the 1960s. By the 1970s, however, a new maverick action star had hit the silver screen, with rogue cops played by Steve McQueen in Bullitt and Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry, as well as the military mercenary Rambo (Sylvester Stallone). By the 1980s, action movies were literally exploding on screen, with big budgets and big stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger (The Terminator) and Bruce Willis (Die Hard), leading to today's action-packed blockbusters. Here's a look at some of Hollywood's most famous action movie stars, who have kicked some major butt on the big screen.
Famous Action Movie Stars 45 people in this group | <urn:uuid:fc4c3b57-7f2f-4481-b32e-0e9e1659de98> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.biography.com/people/roger-moore-9413743?page=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962245 | 907 | 1.9375 | 2 |
C O N T R O L S Y
S T E M S
The Inner Dictator:
How to Think Bad Things
by Swami Lego Ver,
exclusively for Anxiety Culture
As youve probably noticed, there is a
lot of resentment going around: political, ideological,
economic and personal. Much of it seems justified.
It also appears very contagious.
I tell my celebrity clients that no matter
how justified their resentment seems,
the effect on their health is still bad. And
while forgiveness looks like an antidote, the
moment they think they should forgive,
their resentment grows.
Recommending forgiveness upsets people and
its bad for business so I dont
mention it. I instead give my clients instructions
to calm down. In my soft guru voice, I say to
Could you sit quietly and let go of your
responsibilities for a moment?
Could you relax and let go of wanting to
Just for a moment, could you let go of wanting
to control yourself?
If they have problems relaxing, I have them
visualise their servants, chauffeurs and lawyers
taking care of all the troublesome things. Then
Could you trust billions of years of evolution
to produce in you normal, natural states such
as anger, fear, cowardice and greed, which can
be embarrassing and awkward for a person of
your high standing?
Could you feel a pleasurable lack of trust
in your ability to control these embarrassing
and awkward states?
Could you feel a pleasant sense of relief
from letting go, just for a moment, of wanting
to control everything?
Once the client is sufficiently relaxed, I
start to work on their resentment. First I get
them to think of a person they resent, and I
suggest that they welcome the feeling of resentment.
Generally, we are too controlling; our minds
are like dictatorships everything, inside
and out, has to be controlled. Most of my clients
are politically liberal, but since they run
their brains like totalitarian regimes, they
deal with resentment in the same way that they
deal with everything else by attempting
to control it. To ease up on controlling resentment,
just welcome it instead. Let it develop naturally
into a grudge.
If you resist the resentment, it will just
launch a coup détat in your
head anyway. So just let it exist. I say to
Could you let this person exist in a way
Could you let go of wanting to control them,
for a moment?
When you grant people the right to be obnoxious,
and you let go of wanting to control their annoying
behaviour, sometimes your resentment seems to
spontaneously dissolve. This is a mistaken perception
the resentment hasnt dissolved,
its just been postponed for a while. I
recommend that you allow your resentment to
linger. Reserve a little area of your brain
where you can store grudges.
Its possible to sincerely believe that
love is the answer and still hold
grudges. Thats because the human brain
is complex and can accommodate a multitude of
mental states. And, by definition, we experience
only one mental state at a time. In other words,
saints dont exist and the guru game is
a con. Love, saintliness and wisdom occasionally
manifest, but only for a while before pettiness
and stupidity reappear. People who manifest
wisdom relatively frequently all seem to agree
that the most one can hope for over the course
of a lifetime is to become a little kinder.
And perhaps to think more clearly. The rest
is guru bullshit, but its good for business.
Some people get confused about this. For example,
they worry about ethics and morals they
think ethical codes about behaviour should
also dictate how we think. They therefore
feel that its wrong to think bad
things. This is a recipe for a totalitarian
psychology an inner dictatorship.
To give an example: We have social rules about
honesty and politeness. But politeness often
means social lying (we tacitly agree to lie
to each other eg I had a nice time
to save time and energy). If you internalised
the rules about honesty and politeness, your
psychology would have to become extremely narrow
and controlling (basically neurotic) to exclude
all the psychological functions that arent
both polite and honest.
(Many people who rigidly internalise the kind
of qualities were supposed to exhibit
duty, responsibility, selflessness, rectitude,
etc end up with clinical depression).
So, my message to my clients is: Loosen
up your psychology. Play around with the contents
of your mind in ways that completely ignore
what you should or shouldnt
do. Feel free to commit sins inside your own
As the dark saying goes, Everything is
permitted, nothing is true. Make the most
of your psychological freedom while you can.
I guarantee that God wont strike you down
for thinking bad things.*
For example, we believe that our level of happiness
should reflect, in a reasonable
way, the circumstances in our lives. We should
be unhappy at a funeral; we should
be happy at getting promoted, etc. But there
are an infinite number of reasons in the world
to be unhappy (or happy). Why limit your choice
to your own immediate circumstances? Your mind
is free to rove the universe of space-time for
a reason to be happy (or unhappy). In fact,
you dont even need a reason, you can just
practice being happy or unhappy in a way that
disregards circumstances. (Neuro-Linguistic
Programming claims you can experience happiness
by just remembering the mental and physiological
states you associate with happiness).
(Note: Unless youre from the cerebrally-challenged
right, the idea that happiness neednt
depend on circumstances doesnt seem like
a very good argument for appallingly low wages,
poverty, shit jobs, cutbacks in welfare, lousy
public services and endless war).
What does all this have to do with control
systems? Well, the control system is what
makes people react to circumstances in a socially
acceptable way. Social expectations, laws and
rules, etc, have their place
But internally only your own rules can
apply. It might be a good idea to behave
like a responsible citizen (at least
when people are watching), but its not
a good idea to think or emote
This seems like good news to me. Its
an official** licence for you to use your ingenuity
to convert your brain into a pleasure generator,
without any social guilt. | <urn:uuid:a1dff9dd-1441-4aae-856f-84fba6e562c9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.anxietyculture.com/dictator.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923323 | 1,420 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Meet your MakerBot
In Player Piano, Kurt Vonnegut depicted a world in which the average working schmoe was completely redundant. Machines did all the work, made all the products, filled the steaming factories, leaving humans to hang around at a subsistence level, trying to find things to do with themselves. In Vonnegut’s dystopia, folks had trouble with that last bit. The church says constructive, ennobling work is part of what gives our lives meaning and promotes our dignity. Deprived of it by more efficient and non-coffee-break-taking machines, I wonder how we in the nonfiction land are going to fare. We are closer to our mechanized replacements than we may realize.
The New York Times offered an online spread recently, detailing a new device, the MakerBot 3-D printer, which promises to revolutionize manufacturing and possibly our lives in the near future. The devices were originally used to create the prototypes that helped launch traditional manufacturing efforts. The “printer” can, following digitized blueprints, make pretty much any simple assembled product you want; perhaps, for instance, a lot of the stuff you buy on the cheap that arrived on a slow container boat from China. The model detailed in the Times forms items out of plastic, heated and sprayed under pressure in microthin layers, but other 3D printers can throw more complicated products together using other materials, even metal. There is even as larger-scale model that can be used to construct houses. Seriously.
At first glance you might consider this a great innovation. At $1,300 a pop (unassembled, but maybe you can get a machine to do that for you on the cheap), they will be hard to resist. Now virtually any hobbyist or retail manager, homemaker even, can become their own object-specific, inventory-free manufacturer. No need to outsource the job to low-wage workers China and pay to have products shipped back. No need to warehouse anything. Just rev up one of these babies! They produce on demand.
We can keep the jobs here in the good old USA, um, that is, if there were actual jobs and not these infernal machines producing things. Ahh, there's the rub. And what about those folks left behind in China. Aren’t we contemporary custodians of the free market and the beneficence of capitalism counting on low-wage manufacturing gigs to provide the stepping stones for less economically advanced societies to move out of the poverty and deprivation of traditional life?
In “Player Piano” the bored and deprived underclass are driven by the machine-produced drudgery, poverty, and sloth to rise up against their social overlords and their world's mechanized tyranny. Much mayhem ensues. In a different version of the future, Gene Roddenbery’s, machines likewise have taken over the manufacture of most things. Here Star Trekian "replicators," much like the MakerBot, spit out pretty much anything you tell your voice-activated computer you want via a magical manipulation of carbon molecules. But in that vision of the future, people are not enslaved by boredom or entrapped by poverty because they are locked out of the modes of production. In Star Trek, most folks are content to let the replicators play the piano of production for them while they look into more meaningful, fulfilling pursuits like saving the universe, introductory Klingon or learning how to play the Vulcan harp or that crazy three-level chess game of Spock’s.
That’s certainly a more attractive option that the despair and substance abuse of Player Piano. Here’s hoping, when our inevitable redundancy arrives, we can “make it so.” | <urn:uuid:f82d9927-a707-47eb-b536-6c2bf111654a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.uscatholic.org/node/24572 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948927 | 768 | 1.90625 | 2 |
Conference 2011 - Blending humour with emotion
Report published 22 September 2011
Liz Feilding : Blending humour with emotion.
Liz talked passionately about writing with humour, explaining it can’t be taught and neither can it be forced. Humour comes from within and spills into your writing. It is part of who we are. Each of us has memories from past occasions that make us laugh, but some go from laughter to a prickle of tears, maybe whilst remembering something funny a much missed loved one once said.
Liz explained that you can have romance without humour, but not humour without emotion and the film Pretty Woman was used as an example of humour can be weaved in subtly. In the scene where Edward and Vivian return from the polo match she’s mad at him and he knows it, but doesn’t why. Her response to his questions is a constant ‘fine’ until finally she tells him exactly what she thinks of him. This scene shows how the humour is interwoven with the characters. There aren’t any punch lines or jokes. It’s subtle. It makes you smile, which is what is required when blending humour with emotion in romance.
Humour comes from characters and situations, with scenes shifting between smiles and anguish, giving two layers at the same time. It needs to be subtle and within situations that readers can relate to. Use your own experiences to colour your characters, don’t tell it in black and white. Make it funnier, more emotional or sexier, using the senses to heighten the emotion and make the reader feel.
Written by Rachael Thomas | <urn:uuid:edde1b40-3716-4d06-bb3c-e08f13a0c20c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.romanticnovelistsassociation.org/index.php/activities/report/conference_2011_blending_humour_with_emotion | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957356 | 344 | 1.789063 | 2 |
During the late 1850's Andrew David Lytle, a native of Ohio and journeyman photographer, came through Baton Rouge while traveling the South as an itinerant photographer. Lytle eventually settled in Baton Rouge in 1860, established his photographic studio on Main Street, and began what would turn out to be more than fifty years of photographing the life and times of this small river city. Over the course of those years Lytle would find himself in the right place at the right time to create images of the Union capture and occupation of Baton Rouge, construction of river levees, social events of great importance, and the occasional disaster.
Lytle would rise from an unknown itinerant photographer to become a relatively wealthy member of local society with ties to social organizations, civic organizations, and other local families. He would also branch out into documentary photography for the state, particularly prison life and levee construction. Lytle's work, ranging from formal portraiture to documentary images, nature scenes to casual family 'snapshots,' shows his ability to work both in the studio and outdoors.
Andrew would also suffer great personal loss. The death of his first son in Baton Rouge, 9 March 1859, may have been a factor in choosing to settle here. His second son, third son, and grandson would all precede him in death, as would his wife. Only in the waning years of his life would his name and work spread beyond Louisiana with the publication of some of his Civil War images in the 1911 publication The Photographic History of the Civil War.
Text from "An Eye of Silver: The Life and Times of Andrew D. Lytle" online exhibition.
LSU Libraries Special Collections | <urn:uuid:7964fcc3-dc7d-4acc-898d-0ba4fc1cd8c3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://louisdl.louislibraries.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/p15140coll12 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974171 | 340 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Posted: Oct 30, 2012 9:07 AM by Associated Press
Updated: Oct 30, 2012 9:30 AM
PARIS (AP) - French government ministers will be given anti-sexism lessons, in the wake of one minister's comments suggesting women couldn't handle technical work.
Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault has asked the French equality ministry to set up a series of 45-minute workshops where politicians are given examples of sexism in daily life and, with the aid of slide-shows, taught how to avoid sexist stereotypes in political communication.
Caroline de Haas, the adviser giving the lessons, told The Associated Press that all ministers are signed up or in the process of doing so.
The lessons were announced after Agricultural Minister Stephane Le Foll, in an interview on gender equality this month, said, "I've tried to promote women as much as possible, even though some of our dossiers are very technical."
(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
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Global Jesuit Dialog on Business Ethics
THE DHAKA FACTORY FIRE: WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?
Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2013
Case by Saayeli Mukherji and Noah Rickling, both Seniors at Santa Clara University and Fellows in Business Ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at SCU
BACKGROUND: The largest Bangladesh factory fire in recent times killed 112 people this last November. This horrible incident raises once again the dilemma of who bears responsibility in such a tragedy. As we examine this case, we have singled out specific players who might bear significant responsibility for this particular event. The Bangladeshi government has the dual responsibility of taking care of its citizens as well as maintaining its economy by supporting the $20 billion a year garment industry that serves as 80% of its total export earnings. The workers, mostly women, earn as little as $37 per month and depend on the government for their safety; however, corruption runs rampant in Bangladeshi politics and the country is currently ranked 142nd out of a 176 countries according to the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index. In this case, there are also implications of arson to further political interests of specific parties. Additionally, the owner of the factory constructed five more illegal floors beyond the original structure, and the factory location was in an area that large vehicles, specifically fire trucks, could not easily enter. Major international retailers have often been criticized for not taking responsibility for their subcontractors; companies whose products were produced at this particular factory include major retailers such as Walmart and Sears.
THE QUESTION: Do you think that it is the government’s responsibility to enforce safety regulations and bring these factories up to date, or should more be done by multinational corporations that use these factories in order to ensure the safety of their supply chain employees?
OUR RESPONSE: We assign the majority of responsibility in this case to the government, which has failed to protect its citizens and factory workers on multiple occasions. This most recent factory fire, although more deadly than any in recent memory, is unfortunately not a rarity in Dhaka. The Bangladeshi government fails to properly enforce safety standards they set because of the fear of the impact that those regulations would have on the garment exports. Although there has been an initial outcry against major companies, such as Sears and Walmart, who have subcontracted labor to different Bangladeshi factories, we believe that they are less culpable than the Bangladeshi government because of their degrees of separation from the actual event. Although we recognize the financial constraints and the associated corruption faced by the Bangladeshi government, we believe that only a local authority could create significant change in how safety is valued. The bottom line is that if the government regulations were properly enforced, factory fires, which are all too common in Bangladesh, would reduce in number resulting in safer working conditions for factory employees. Bringing these factories up to code would, however, create another cost for factory owners. This cost could either cut into the owner’s profits, cut the wages of factory workers, or be paid for by an increase is production costs paid for by subcontractors, which would be passed on to the multinational corporations that use these facilities to create goods. Ultimately, there is a tradeoff here between profit and safety. It has been estimated that a quarter of the factories in Dhaka are not up to current safety codes. If the government enforces these regulations, there will be less business generated because costs would increase, but the factory employees would be able to work in a safe environment and disasters like this fire would become much less likely.
YOUR RESPONSE: Who do you think bears responsibility for this tragedy? What other ethical frameworks (social, political, etc…) can help unpack this complicated scenario? How would you use these other frameworks to decide who is responsible? We look forward to hearing what you have to say and to entering into a conversation with you.
Photo by BatulTheGreat used under a Creative Commons License | <urn:uuid:a7805a27-4fdf-4dd4-8b26-b61448c98455> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scu.edu/r/ethics-center/ethicsblog/globaldialog/15006/THE-DHAKA-FACTORY-FIRE:-WHO-IS-RESPONSIBLE | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966494 | 830 | 2.03125 | 2 |
A test crash of a Boeing 727 in the Sonoran desert to learn more about what actually happens to passengers when a plane goes down found that simply bracing for impact could help save lives.
In one of the most ambitious tests ever undertaken in the name of airline safety, Discovery TV had a Boeing 727 equipped with more than a half a million dollars worth of crash test dummies, 38 specialized cameras and sensors, and a crew of incredibly daring pilots. The pilots, who'd donned parachutes, bailed out of a hatch in the back of the aircraft minutes before the huge jetliner careered into the ground in a horrific crash that tore the plane apart.
Staged last spring as part of the Discovery Channel's "Curiosity Plane Crash," the test crash was the result of four years of planning and consultations with a huge team of experts, all to better understand what happens to passengers when an aircraft goes down.
Cindy Bir, a professor of biomedical engineering at Wayne State University, took charge of the crash test dummies, examining them immediately after the the plane hit the desert to get an idea of what injuries might have been sustained. " I suspect ... one may have a concussion, one may have a broken leg," Bir said as she looked over the dummies.
Bir told ABC News that her data made it clear that bracing for impact -- placing one's head down and putting one's hands over one's head -- could increase the odds of survival.
During the crash, which was a belly flop done nose first, passengers near the front bore the brunt of the impact. Rows one through seven held the "fatal" seats -- seat 7A was catapulted straight out of the plane.
Many of the seat-belted dummies who weren't bent over in the bracing position incurred spinal injuries from jerking forward in their seat belts.
Bir also simulated a woman holding an infant on her lap -- a familiar one-seat money-saving move many parents opt for. After a relatively minor simulated impact, the mother could no longer hold on. Bir cautioned that holding a child on one's lap was not safe.
The test crash also revealed other aspects of plane crashes, such as the tremendous amount of debris that could prove deadly to any passenger sitting upright, and how important it was to be able to get out of the plane fast. Generally, sitting within five rows of an exit gave passengers the best odds.
An MIT study that drew on worldwide safety data from 2000 to 2007 found that the chance of dying on a scheduled flight in developed nations such as the United States, Japan or Ireland was one in 14 million. In other words, a passenger who took a single flight every day could on average go 38,000 years before dying in a plane crash.
Discovery's test findings offers some tips on how to perhaps improve those odds even further. | <urn:uuid:53627844-1f5f-4114-a30e-9691bb72e380> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://everythinglubbock.com/fulltext?nxd_id=122142 | 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 | 0.969071 | 588 | 2.984375 | 3 |
Barsey (Sikkim), May 15: With the onset of summer season, tourists are thronging Sikkim to see rhododendron flowers sanctuary situated in Barsey area of the state.
During March to May, various species of rhododendron flowers flourish in the sanctuary.
The locals believe that these flowers contribute in the natural beauty of the state and also help in promoting tourism in the region.
“I think tracking and others would contribute in promoting Sikkim tourism. As in Sikkim, there are many such places, which are very beautiful, which are very good for everything like rhododendron flowers, all are beautiful and they attract all the foreign tourists or even all the local tourists as well,” said Rakesh Rai, a local.
The tourists also praised the scenic beauty of the sanctuary blessed with various species of rhododendron flowers.
“The demand of this flower is high. Its growth is also good. The season of these flowers attracts tourists in the valley,” said Ashok Mukherjee, a tourist from West Bengal.
Sikkim is renowned as the treasure trove of the rhododendron flowers.
About 36 species of the flowers are found in the region, which is 72 percent of the total varieties available in the country. (ANI) | <urn:uuid:39ca0f90-d8fa-4443-8551-c877f9c31525> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.indiatalkies.com/2011/05/tourists-throng-sikkim-unique-rhododendron-flowers.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962862 | 280 | 1.914063 | 2 |
|Elder Care Zone - Caring for the Elderly
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Considerations for the aging population's medical expenses
What You Need to Know About Helping Senior Citizens
The baby boomers is the population which haven taken birth after second world war till 1965 when there was a tremendous increase in birth rate due to the social and economic development in the USA. Now this population is going into the old age and thus bringing a burden to the nation as the country has to take care of not only the food and shelter but also the medical care. Rather medical care is in a way more important as they are prone to many diseases not only infectious because of their lowered immunity but also non -communicable ones such as Diabetes Mellitus, Myocardial Infarction, Stroke, etc. not to speak of those other mental disorders such as Depression, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, etc.
There is more than 35million population in USA that is more than 65 years as per the latest Census Bureau report. This is nearly 12 % of the whole population and this is supposed to more than double in the next 50 years or so requiring the nation provide for their well-being. At present, it is said, that the disabled and elderly account for only around 20% of Medicaid spending but they account for more than 75% of the Medicaid spending on the prescription medicines. There is yet another set of problems. There is a progressive decline in the renal function of the elderly. The enzymes needed to metabolize the drug are less and have they have sensitivity towards certain drugs. They also have lesser free fluid volume. These and many other factors make the elderly especially susceptible for drug toxicity. Also adverse drug reactions are much more common in the aged population than others.
Buying cheap drugs
There are certain federal and other non-governmental plans available that help the senior citizens to buy the drugs cheaper. These are:
When president Lyndon Johnson signed the Medicare and Medicaid act in 1965 it marked a new era for the health care in USA. For a minimum amount, which is called a co-payment or some deductions, one can avail this facility. Nearly all states provide this facility to their population. You just have to fulfill certain their requirements.
2. Drug store discounts
Certain seniors are allowed a discount on their prescriptions, which can help them majorly.
3. Medicare drug discount cards
This is available for that elderly population who are not entitled for benefit under the Medicaid program.
4. Medicare prescription assistance programs
This type of program is available in nearly all states although they may differ in the eligibility requirements.
5. Online buying
People may buy the drugs online through the Internet but the only drawback is that they have to rely on the seller and in that process they may get duped by getting second grade items or by their money.
6. Buying from Canada
Some people prefer to buy their medicines from Canada, which has health policy a bit different from that of USA and hence provides a market for cheaper drugs. FDA does take it seriously if one buys them in small amounts.
There are certain charitable institutions, which help the elderly and the destitute in having their medicines, which at times they, give free of cost.
8. Others like state prescription fund, LCD, prescription drug credit program, subsidies, PAAD, PACENET,
Options available besides drugs
Besides the above options available for getting cheaper drugs there are other options like living in an extended health care facility or long term care facility or assisted living where people can not only live a normal healthy life but also get treatment if the need arise.
Tia arora writes helping senior citizens topics. Learn more at http://www.seniormedhelp.com.
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Elderly care home opposed by neighbors - Rome News Tribune
Human cost of failures in elderly care homes - BBC News
Elderly care still heading for 'disaster and tragedy' warns Joan Bakewell - Telegraph.co.uk
Adult Family Homes - a great alternative to Nursing Homes
As a long-term care consultant for seniors and their families I have visited many different types of facilities. But my favorite type of facility to visit is adult family homes.
Assisted Living - Nursing Homes are not the only answer
The cost of skilled nursing care is slowly rising. Currently, the average cost of care in Arizona ranges from $3,500 to $4,500 per month.
Psychologists: May be more effective than drugs, and covered by Medicare!
Medicare recognizes this need and, therefore reimburses your residents to receive advanced behavioral health services? making them free to your facility!Psychologists provide a wide variety of valuable and tested clinical services that can provide a big shot in the arm to your nursing home care. For example:1.
Selecting a reputable senior care service
Good news! You no longer have to risk chance when it comes to selecting a reputable elder care service for yourself or for a loved one. Senior Approved Services has certified a select number of businesses in our area serving the elderly and disabled populations.
How many employees should a nursing home have?
During the week of February 17, 2002, headlines screamed the news - more than 92% of US nursing homes fail to have an adequate number of staff to provide quality care for elderly residents. Newspapers and radio programs based their stories on the new study the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) recently provided to the Senate's Special Committee on Aging.
What is Christmas actually?
Every year, as Christmas approaches, you hear Christmas carols everywhere. Sometimes to the point where another Silent Night would make you want to silent the sound system.
Assisted Living - Combatting Patient Loneliness
Q: Six months ago we placed my mother in an assisted living facility. She gets along fairly well, but we thought she would get involved with all of the activities.
Care Givers - How to avoid burnout
Just for a moment I want you to imagine that you are coming out of a very deep sleep. If you have ever had surgery try to remember the way you felt as you were trying to make sense of things as you awoke.
Skilled Nursing Homes and other Assisted Living Arrangements compared
A skilled nursing home is a medical facility providing services similar to a hospital. The homes are staffed with licensed nurses, shared rooms, hospital beds, regular scheduled doctor rounds, meals and housekeeping.
A look at Board and Care Homes
Board and Care homes (also known as RCFE's - Residential Care Facilities for the Elderly) are residential private homes that have been licensed by the Department of Social Services to provide services to seniors. Most accept no more than six residents, but offer a cozy, home-like setting for frail seniors.
Getting your senior to wear adult diapers
Q: My mom is in the early stages of dementia and she is also incontinent we have tried to get her to stop wearing her underpants and have her start wearing pull-up diapers, she throws the Depends out the door and puts her underpants on. Of coarse we have a lot of laundry! How should I handle this?A: This one should be fairly easy to solve.
Using your Life Insurance to pay for long-term care
It's not a surprise that thousands of families across the nation are facing the challlenges of an aging population. The "sandwich" generation, those who are caring for their children as well as their parents, have been feeling the financial pinch of caring for loved ones.
Protecting Seniors from Fraud
Ruth is 87 years old this year and has been living alone since 1997. She is in good health, however the daily chores around the home became increasingly difficult.
Fighting your loneliness when caring for the disabled
Q: I hate Alzheimer's disease, not only has it robbed me of my husband, but it has taken my life too! I feel like all of my friends have disappeared. I am lonely, and that makes me feel guilty.
Stair Lifts when a doorway or aisleway are near the stairs
If a door at the top or the bottom of the stairs may be blocked by the rail of the stairlift, there are a number of models designed to overcome this problem. Some manufacturers are able to produce a rail with reduced overhang upstairs, so the lift will not protrude as far into the hallway.
Angels are for everyone
I am reminded time after time of the profound effect Angels have on people. Recently, I have been receiving many emails containing examples of how the Angels are reaching through the veils to assist the elderly.
How to decide if your loved one needs assisted living
According to the Administration on Aging, it is estimated by 2030, the older population will more than double to approximately 71.5 million.
Long-Term Care Insurance - What to look for when shopping
We will all grow old; this is a given. We will all have health issues as we grow older, this also is a given.
Prevent many chronic age-related illnesses by adding Protein
Youth, it is said, is wasted on the young. Too busy figuring life they hardly take the time to enjoy it.
Wheelchair accessories can make life easier and more comfortable
Wheelchairs come in every shape and size with sufficient options that you can find the wheels you like to take you where you want to go with the assistance you need. To enhance the comfort and convenience of your journey, choose accessories tailored to provide the best support for your activities and your health concerns.
|Home | Site Map | Privacy Statement | More Articles| | <urn:uuid:ac4d1dc2-5d5a-46aa-bfbf-367053b641f4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eldercarezone.com/42955.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958353 | 1,988 | 2.3125 | 2 |
By Megan Fitzpatrick
The crazy design of this titanium 5″ woodworker’s fretsaw from Knew Concepts is, I think it’s fair to say, the first thing you notice. But use it and you’ll quickly come to appreciate that the structure helps to make it lightweight and rigid, and the clever tensioning mechanism snugs up the blade tight – and keeps it there.
This frame is a redesign of the company’s earlier titanium woodworker’s fretsaw, the frame of which was a continuous piece of 1⁄8″-thick titanium (the same design as the aluminum woodworker’s fretsaw currently available). But in an effort that was initially meant to reduce materials waste and take advantage of more readily available 1⁄16″-thick titanium, designer Lee Marshall came up with a riveted truss system for the saw’s spine that’s even more rigid than the original (he calls it a “birdcage saw,” in honor of the Birdcage Maserati). The spine is riveted to 1⁄8″-thick titanium arms.
Also worthy of note is the blade-clamping and tensioning mechanism. On most fretsaws, the blade is pinched between two plates at either end. When a saw is properly tensioned, those plates need to hold the blade tightly; they typically don’t (and it is quite frustrating when the blade comes loose in the middle of a cut).
All Knew Concepts saws have a small plunger and anvil mechanism that grabs tight on the blade with little effort; get the blade positioned correctly in the blade slot, then turn the orange knobs to lock it securely.
And the tensioning mechanism is just as simple to use; it works more like the tension-release lever on a band saw than the typical thumbscrew arrangement. Set it just short of perfect by turning the knurled brass screw, then a cam clamp effects the final tension. Flip it against the saw’s arm, and you have a tight blade that will “ping” nicely if you pluck it. When the saw isn’t in use, release the tension to extend the blade’s life.
Another clever feature is that the blade-clamping mechanism can swivel left or right and lock in detents, from 0° to 45° (though 90° would be nice) – quite handy when removing dovetail waste in the middle of a board that’s wider than the saw’s armature. And while the saw I tested was a pre-production model and didn’t include this feature, Marshall tells me he’s added indexing positions to keep the swivel in place when tension is released. Is that a big deal? Not really, but it does mean the saw will stay in the same orientation you last left it, so there’s less fiddling.
At $225, the Knew Concepts titanium saw is certainly an investment in your work – but it is also the best fretsaw I’ve used. The company also offers a fine aluminum version (with a continuous frame) for $95.
Video: See the company’s titanium and aluminum fretsaws in action – coming soon.
From the December 2012 issue #201
Buy this issue now | <urn:uuid:0b63e748-3df3-4898-a80f-b962d6285421> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.popularwoodworking.com/dec12/tool-test-knew-concepts-titanium-fretsaw | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934497 | 707 | 1.710938 | 2 |
People are more affluent than ever before. And yet the number one cause of discouragement today is money. Families are especially hard hit. As a result, personal debt is soaring, resulting in an increasing number of financial crises. Ron Blue provides counseling on this critical need. No matter what your income is, the principles works.
The Plastic way to debt
The common mistakes in financial planning are all, in one way or another, related to debt. Debt and lifestyle go hand in hand in American society. When you use debt to fund a consumptive lifestyle, not only do you have the consumptive lifestyle working against you financially, but you also have the additional burden of debt working against you financially. Both should be avoided like the plague!
Avoiding the use of debt is incredibly difficult because the promotion of credit card use has .... [continue reading]
Tips and Toolbox
Master Your Money DVD Training Kit "Ron Blue is one of the foremost financial planners in the country today. Unlike most financial planning training, Master Your Money successfully presents an easily understood plan of action. | <urn:uuid:8608f1ca-eb50-4ac0-b2d0-b961fab69653> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mastermoney.org/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932335 | 217 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Korea and the U.S. agreed to cooperate on currency stabilization. Although the agreement remains a verbal promise, there are hopeful signs of stability for the won, which has been yo-yoing alarmingly in recent weeks as a result of global uncertainties.
When President Lee Myung-bak left for the U.S., nobody had high hopes of establishing a bilateral currency swap scheme. A source in the financial market said, "It seems that the U.S. brought up the issue as a gift to Korea after the Korea-U.S. free-trade agreement was ratified in the U.S. Congress."
However, it is unlikely that a currency swap agreement will be signed any time soon as neither side feels a compelling need yet. One high-ranked official at the Ministry of Strategy and Finance said, "In principle, the U.S. operates currency swap schemes with those who use global currencies such as the eurozone, the U.K., and Switzerland. The U.S. does not strike these deals with emerging economies except in emergencies. Korea does not need a currency swap that much at the moment, so we did not put it on the agenda."
Currency swapping is a double-edged sword. It gives Korea a strong and reliable backing from the U.S., and therefore can have a stabilizing effect on the Korean exchange market. But it can also trigger suspicions over Korea's financial situation as currency swapping may look like an emergency measure. Another official at the Ministry of Strategy and Finance said, "The reason why we have not openly talked about currency swapping is to avoid making the currency market more volatile."
Even if a bilateral currency swap scheme is established, it is unlikely to be used as extensively as in the past. The Korean financial authority used US$41 billion during the first round of the swap scheme, which was inked in October 2008 and ran until February 2010. An official at the Ministry of Strategy and Finance said, "During the global financial crisis in 2008, we had foreign currency reserves of just over US$200 billion. But now, we have over US$300 billion and are getting a series of good reviews and a positive outlook for the Korean economy. Based on this, we won't be making use of the swap very often." | <urn:uuid:22758a09-f54d-4111-b6b5-44ac79a52393> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/10/14/2011101401237.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962235 | 464 | 2.109375 | 2 |
What you need to know about breast cancer
As National Breast Cancer Awareness Month highlights the second most
common form of cancer in women (after skin cancer), medical
professionals can’t stress preventive measures strongly enough.
“It’s proven that a healthy diet and exercise help prevent breast
cancers,” says Dr. Parisa Lotfi, a radiologist at Boston’s Faulkner
Hospital’s Sagoff Centre. “Obesity is a risk factor.”
“Learn the basics of healthy eating, including plant-based diets,”
urges oncologist Dr. Leonard Farber, founder of Manhattan’s Farber
Center for Radiation Oncology, which specializes in emerging
technologies and integrative treatment.
Equally important is regular screening. Breast radiology usually
involves a mammogram, which can detect small lesions that aren’t
noticeable by physical exams.
“Never miss a screening. Follow guidelines to catch tumors early,”
says Dr. Farber.
“Catching these means a good prognosis,” says Dr. Lotfi. In the
U.S., women with no family history of breast cancer aren’t advised to
get annual mammograms until age 40. Dr. Lotfi recommends younger women
should have annual breast exams by a physician or gynecologist. Also
important are monthly self-administered exams. Women and men should be
on the lookout for small, immovable lumps in both their breasts and
“Breast cancer in younger women without a family history of the
disease is more rare, but when it does occur it’s usually a more
aggressive type of cancer,” she says.
Treatment for tumors includes surgery, chemotherapy, radiation,
hormonal therapy and biologically targeted therapy. There are
alternative therapies, too. New developments include options such as
Accuboost targeted breast radiation.
“It’s non-invasive. It targets the cancer to deliver a dose of
radiation that we know works,” Dr. Farber explains.
Breathe in, don’t panic
One thing patients shouldn’t do is panic.
“It’s important to take a breath and say, is this the only option?
If it doesn’t sit right, ask questions,” says Dr. Farber. “Hospitals are
a business, bottom line. So, hunt around. Choose your treatment,
choose your team. We try to empower the patient as much as possible.” | <urn:uuid:78dce6e0-d164-4a7f-95c2-cac2697baad9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.metro.us/newyork/news/national/2011/10/02/what-you-need-to-know-about-breast-cancer/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.912956 | 565 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Thursday, September 30, 2010
In this post, I was puzzling over the recent behavior of reserve balances. In this chart, if you look at total reserves of private financial institutions plus the reserves held by the Treasury in its General Account, some of the blips, including the most recent one, go away. You see a decline in this total since the beginning of the year (it's weekly data, from the beginning of 2007; I did not mark off the dates), but no rapid recent decline. What is going on is the following. When the Fed holds an auction of Treasury debt, it appears this typically goes temporarily into the Fed's general account with the Fed, until the Treasury spends the funds. In "normal" times, the Fed would typically offset the effects so that you see no effects on reserves or the effective fed funds rate. Currently, the Fed does not bother to offset these things, so a Treasury auction will temporarily increase funds in the Treasury's reserve account, and reduce private sector reserves. | <urn:uuid:a9924264-cedb-4790-b60a-85511c8e2bcf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://newmonetarism.blogspot.com/2010/09/reserves-ii.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953802 | 204 | 1.953125 | 2 |
Fuchs dystrophy is an inherited condition that affects the endothelium, the delicate innermost layer of the cornea. Fuchs dystrophy occurs when the endothelial cells gradually deteriorate over time. Once lost, these endothelial cells do not grow back, leading to corneal clouding, swelling, and impaired vision. In the early stages of Fuchs dystrophy, patients notice an increase in the appearance of glare and an increased sensitivity to light. As the condition progresses, vision may be blurred in the morning, then sharpen as the day goes on. As the condition worsens, vision may appear blurry throughout the day. Fuchs dystrophy affects both eyes and is slightly more common among women than men. It usually starts to develop around 30 to 40 years of age, with no apparent cause. If vision becomes severely impaired, a corneal transplant may be required.
All clinical services and programs are part of University of Utah Hospitals & Clinics | <urn:uuid:7675bf5c-0640-45a0-8c24-d6576cbd23ac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://healthcare.utah.edu/moran/patient_care/videos/corneal/fuchs_dystrophy.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911483 | 200 | 3.1875 | 3 |
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday that he and the Legislature have agreed on a plan that greatly expands New York City taxi service to the outer boroughs and brings an anticipated $1 billion in revenue to the city to ease a budget shortfall.
"The new law will make getting around town easier, safer and less costly for millions of New Yorkers," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. "It will make an enormous improvement in the getting of service for people with disabilities that need to have the ability to get around."
Under the compromise plan, the city will sell 18,000 of a new kind of permit that lets livery cabs pick up passengers who hail them on the street in upper Manhattan and the four other boroughs. Manhattan below 96th Street and the city's two airports will be off limits to this new class of taxis.
The city will provide grants of up to $15,000 to retrofit vehicles to accommodate the disabled or to purchase accessible vehicles.
The plan also authorizes the city to sell 2,000 new medallions, all of which will be restricted to vehicles that are wheelchair-accessible.
"The bill as originally passed failed to address the needs of individuals with disabilities and did not provide any incentive for the livery industry to ensure disabled New Yorkers had full access to the taxicab system," Cuomo said.
Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos said the deal announced Tuesday was "an improved piece of legislation that provides much-needed revenue for the City of New York and serves the needs of its residents and all of the interested parties."
Bloomberg said the plan is the realization of a goal that has eluded the city for three decades.
The new law will bring legal taxi service to 7 million people outside of Manhattan's central business district and will make more cabs accessible to the disabled. It will generate $1 billion for the city, Bloomberg said.
Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz says the plan will also offer considerable legal protection to livery cab drivers, many of whom are immigrants.
The bill allowing livery cabs to pick up street hails in New York City's outer boroughs stirred angry protests this fall from cabbies, who said their costly taxi medallions would be worthless if they lost exclusive rights to street hails.
Fernando Mateo, president of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers, said he supports the governor's approach and believes the changes negotiated in the bill will address at least 70 percent of taxi driver's concerns, but he doesn't think it will really work.
"We shall see. I believe that the livery industry will survive and I believe that those drivers that do switch over to do street hails will realize how expensive it is and will ultimately reject it," Mateo said. | <urn:uuid:fc817000-ba26-4333-9027-d85a18757e13> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/NYC-Taxi-Bill-Cuomo-Bloomberg-Outer-Borough-Service-135966453.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958064 | 564 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Campus Cards >> Shoppin' Via Consortium
For a trio of schools in Vermont, forming a card consortium for campus shoppers means functionality, cost-savings, and new revenue streams.
The northeast city of Burlington, Vermont is a cozy little college town; a tiny metropolis where pleasantries reign. Strangers smile and wave hello as they pass on the street; drivers stop for pedestrians in the crosswalks; neighbors band together to shovel snow in teams. But Burlington also is home to an outstanding campus card collaboration: a consortium that has combined multisite card services at the 9,400-student University of Vermont (UVM) with two smaller colleges, Saint Michael’s and Champlain. The effort, which began in January 2004 and
grew again this past summer, extended the resources of UVM to two colleges with
smaller campus populations and limited resources. While each school offers
different campus cards, the three share the same card system, a CSGold suite
from Diebold (www.diebold.com). Students,
faculty, and staff members from any of the three institutions can use
card-based debit capabilities at more than 100 merchants and restaurants
in town, as well as at vending machines, laundromats, and copy centers on
every campus. What’s more, UVM (the school managing the multisite system)
has turned the effort into a new revenue stream, and earns $1 per student,
per month from the two other schools that participate, or a guaranteed
minimum of $47,000 per year.
“This collaborative card system really has
revolutionized the way most of Burlington’s student population lives their
lives,” says Mark McKenna, manager of the CATcard service center at UVM and one
of the masterminds behind the effort. “It’s pretty amazing what you can
accomplish on a broad scale when you work together toward a goal that benefits
consortium effort began back in the summer of 2001, when representatives from
Saint Michael’s College in nearby Colchester contacted McKenna at UVM, while
administrators at Saint Michael’s were researching options for a card system of
their own. At the time, UVM was running its CATcard system via archaic
technology from a now-defunct card vendor (Griffin), and the school was
tinkering with the idea of investing in some new technology of its own. During
the discussions, McKenna told UVM and Saint Michael’s administrators that he
wanted a system capable of delivering debit card functionality to nearly 18,000
student, faculty, and staff users both on and off campus, a system through which
he also could manage facilities access, off-campus purchasing, and a variety of
other functions. Much to his surprise, the contingent from Saint Michael’s
wanted some of the very same things.
Then it dawned on them: What if the schools collaborated on a system
that served them both? UVM had in the pas entertained the possibility of hosting
a card system for neighboring Champlain College, but dragged feet on both sides
caused the idea to falter in critical planning phases.
Now, however, McKenna had
himself a willing partner, and renewed hope for a deal. Senior administrators
from both institutions met to discuss specifics of collaboration. Behind closed
doors, officials decided that the best way to link up the two schools would be
to establish a dedicated T1 connection between UVM’s central processor and Saint
Michael’s switch room. According to Dave Coseo, director of Purchasing and
Auxiliary Services at Saint Michael’s, the rest was history.
“Once we set up the
T1, we knew that, technically, we could do this without a problem,” he says now,
looking back. “That was really the biggest obstacle to the entire project.”
Choosing a Vendor
the process of picking a card vendor. McKenna and his colleagues at UVM had been
in negotiations with Diebold for a while, and when they told Diebold execs about
the need to incorporate Saint Michael’s into the system, the vendor suggested a
new system, CSGold. McKenna estimates the system has cost UVM $150,000 for the
server, software, cards, and database with unlimited capacity for growth; the
database is a feature ideally suited to one school offering services to another.
Diebold sales reps assured the schools that the system could manage two
institutions through one Oracle enterprise server (www.oracle.com
) and one CSGold
transaction processor. Diebold company officials, including Mark Reinart,
director of Marketing and Product Development, reviewed the plan and offered
Where’s the Money?
support was encouraging, but no amount of vendor enthusiasm would have helped
the schools foot the $150,000 bill. Instead, McKenna and Coseo put their heads
together and devised an ingenious strategy to defray the cost of the system,
essentially paying for CSGold with revenues from sharing its capabilities. In a
nutshell, Saint Michael’s agreed to pay UVM $2,500 per month for access to the
system and all of its functionality, or roughly $1 per student, per month. (As
with Visa or MasterCard, merchants also pay a transaction fee of 3.35 to 9
percent, depending upon the volume of business they do; the more business, the
lower the rate.) With 2,200 Saint Michael’s students using the system, and room
for growth, this arrangement would net UVM $30,000 per year. Coseo reports an
initial investment of about $86,000 in infrastructure for Saint Michael’s, but
this was money the college would have had to invest in order to accommodate any
card system—let alone one they would have had to shell out $150,000 for, had UVM
not come into the picture.
collaborating, we both saved a tremendous amount of resources up front,” agrees
UVM’s McKenna. “What we gained was a solid revenue source—and the great
publicity of a big state institution helping out a smaller college.”
Plan into Action
With a financing plan in place, the schools moved on to
ironing out responsibilities vis-á-vis the new technology. First, UVM would
maintain ownership of its central server and processor, but configured CSGold to
allow Saint Michael’s cardholders to use their new “Knightcards” at on- and
off-campus merchant locations throughout Burlington. (As with off-campus
merchants around UVM and Champlain, merchants purchase their own card
reader/printer equipment, or can order one through UVM, for about $180.) Saint
Michael’s, for its part, would maintain ownership of its own database, as well
as its own student information system, Colleague, from Datatel (
www.datatel.com). Saint Michael’s
would develop extracts from the database and system that would work with CSGold.
The college also accepted responsibility for troubleshooting any difficulties
with its own technologies, and agreed to set up a campus card office to
distribute cards and manage day-to-day operations.
Brandeis: Thwarting Identity Theft
No matter how different campus cards look on various campuses across the country, behind the scenes, just about every card system is tied to student ID numbers. The numbers are encoded in a magnetic stripe on the back of a card; they also appear in a database that catalogs certain user privileges across a variety of systems. When a student wishes to gain access to a dorm, for instance, she swipes her card in a reading device that reads the number, checks it against those in the database, and grants or rejects access accordingly. If the student's number is in the database, the system approves the request; if the number is absent, the system denies it.
At Brandeis University (MA), at least until recently, the ID numbers that drove the campus card system were students' nine-digit Social Security numbers (SSNs). Yet, with the rise in identity theft, students at Brandeis have recently grown concerned about their SSNs falling into the wrong hands on campus. With this in mind, campus services officials set out last June to transform the student ID numbering system forever. In July 2004, administrators settled on a new plan to switch the ID numbers from nine to 15 digits. New Brandeis student ID numbers begin with six standard numbers. The seventh digit indicates a student's year (all freshman are 6, for example) and the following eight are completely random, and share no connection whats'ever to student SSNs. The system—CSGold from Diebold (www.diebold.com) is capable of holding more than 100,000 15-digit IDs in all.
According to Rick Dovidio, associate director of University Services, the conversion process cost about $10,000: $7,000 for the new cards, and about $3,000 in labor. “These days, people can do a lot of harm with the right information,” he says, adding that the switch took about four weeks to complete. “We wanted our system to offer the latest in privacy and privacy control.
Next, of course, came the implementation itself. UVM
and Saint Michael’s finalized their agreements toward the end of October 2001,
and the partnership was set to go live in January 2002, so the schools worked
fast to get the system up to snuff. In the end, the implementation took 72 days.
UVM students already had their cards, but Saint Michael’s had to procure card
stock, print cards, and encode each one with appropriate student ID data. Coseo
and staff distributed cards before Christmas break, promising to have the system
working when students returned. Today, Coseo recalls that the system went live
on a Monday, although the Thursday prior, nothing worked. “It got a little hairy
toward the end, but we did it,” he jokes. “Things have been better around here
Champlain Antes In
collaboration has matured, it has attracted attention from other local Vermont
schools. In August 2004, officials at Champlain College, the school that once
entertained the possibility of collaboration with UVM, decided it was time to
join the party. Aaron Videtto, Telecommunications administrator, contacted
McKenna and expressed interest in signing on 2,500 new users—1,700 full-time
students and 800 part-timers. For Videtto, the task was even easier than it had
been for Coseo at Saint Michael’s: Because Champlain’s campus sits adjacent to
UVM’s, officials had, years before, installed fiber optic cables for an Ethernet
connection connecting the two schools.
Nova Southeastern: Uniformity as Goal
The University of Vermont, Saint Michael's College and Champlain College aren't the only schools that have come together to explore the benefits of multisite campus card services; at Nova Southeastern University (FL), officials are using a similar strategy to tie together the school's disparate campuses across the Sunshine State. The school's NSU Card program, based largely upon a hodgepodge of Integrated Data Management System (IDMS) technologies from a variety of vendors, enables students at the main NSU campus in Ft. Lauderdale to use their cards to purchase items from vending machines, pay for laundry, and settle other outstanding campus-related fees, such as library fines and parking tickets.
Currently, students at NSU's Kendall, North Miami and West Palm Beach campuses can use their cards to pay for copies and printing. But according to John Brucek, director of Campus Card Services, the main-campus card program ultimately will be extended to students at NSU's three other campuses across the state. Brucek says he plans to roll out all of the card system's multisite functionalities, perhaps even adding a system through which students and other users can add value to their cards on a Web site, via the campus network.
“Our goal is to mirror services we have on our campus, then grow the system by whatever means necessary,” he says. “Eventually, we want to bring complete functionality to everyone in our network.”
What makes the NSU program so unique is the dual functionality of its cards. While most schools utilize nothing more than magnetic-stripe cards, NSU employs both magnetic stripes and smart chips. All small-dollar purchases are handled by the chip, which enables students to add value in increments of $1, $5, $10, or $20. The magnetic stripe, on the other hand, controls more complicated functions, such as building access, meal plan usage, and more.
Brucek says that as the campus card system continues to grow, he will explore expanding the number of functionalities on the smart chip. Down the road, he foresees incorporating a biometric identifier, enabling distance education students to combine NSU Card authentication with fingerprint authentication to provide a system that enhances security and furthers the notion of multisite accessibility
This existing T1 connection enabled McKenna and his
implementation team to launch the Champlain program quickly, after $9,000 in
improvements to the equipment, and the CC-CashCard program was born. Champlain
signed on at the same rate as Saint Michael’s: $1 per student per month, or a
guaranteed minimum of $20,000 per year. Perhaps the toughest part of the
Champlain installation was integration; Champlain uses an AS400 student
management system from IBM (
www.ibm.com), necessitating special
programming that facilitates a) the transfer of information into the Oracle
database, as well as b) a number of custom flags to smooth synchronization into
the CSGold processor. Champlain also utilizes proximity-based card readers from
Best Access (www.bestaccess.com)
to handle access control, another roadblock
that required special attention. “When you’re building a system like this, you
have to do whatever it takes to write your way around systems that won’t
communicate,” Videtto says. “We’re piggy-backing off their system, so when they
want to upgrade, they do it, and we need to just go along with it.”
So far, for
all three schools, “going along” with the multisite campus card collaboration
has paid huge dividends. Videtto deems “a shared knowledge base of information
and skills” Champlain’s greatest benefit from participation in the
multi-institutional collaboration. At Saint Michael’s, Coseo agrees, noting that
his students now have access to services they “never could have dreamed of”
without the help of a larger, richer institution such as UVM. And at UVM,
McKenna gives the collaboration rave reviews of his own; not only has the deal
established an annual revenue stream of at least $50,000 a year, it also has
inspired the school to develop a plan for offering other IT services to Saint
Michael’s and Champlain, as well as expanded card services to schools of all
levels across the Green Mountain State.
McKenna reveals that he’s considering
expanding the CSGold multisite card services consortium to incorporate
Middlebury College in central Vermont, and nearby Norwich University in
Northfield, down the road. He says he’s even considered trying to sell wireless
ID-card-based services to Burlington-area elementary and secondary schools, all
as part of the CSGold offering. First, though, UVM may go ahead and implement
Diebold’s CSHousing, and roll it out to the consortium partners. McKenna says
that with an additional $1 per user per month fee, UVM could capture an added
$45,000 to $50,000 yearly.
“The trickle-down aspects of this whole project are
pretty much limitless,” he says. “We have lifted the lid off the box and
suddenly everyone is thinking about how they can make things better.”
Creighton: Going for Ubiquity
Debit functions on campus ID cards are nothing new to
students at Creighton University (NE); Since 1997, school officials have enabled
students to use the cards as cash through a program called JBucks. By storing
funds on one of the cards’ three magnetic stripes, students have been able to
pay for campus items such as laundry, copies, parking tickets, and flu shots.
Now, however, with the help of Blackboard (www.blackboard.com
), students can bring this purchasing power into
the Omaha community and purchase goods and services there, too.
the new system enables Creighton students to use their JBucks cards at a handful
of off-campus establishments and stores, just as they would any other form of
plastic. To participate, merchants sign up and purchase card readers that
connect over the Internet to servers back on campus. At the end of every day,
the servers automatically tabulate how much money in transactions a merchant
conducted, and the server credits that amount to the merchant’s account.
the first time ever,” boasts Brenda Hovden, Creighton’s director of Card
Services, “our students can use their cards to take their spending power off
Behind the scenes, the system also allows Creighton
students to manage their JBucks funds in an online banking environment similar
to those offered by professional financial institutions such as U.S. Bank (www.usbank.com) and Bank of America (www.bankofamerica.com
). What’s more, the system syncs up with a
calendaring function that notifies students when it’s time to act on library
fees, tuition, and other recurring issues.
The added capabilities are designed
to enhance system usefulness. According to Tom Bell, VP of Industry Relations
for Blackboard, the goal of the new capabilities is to make the campus card a
more central part of student life, at Creighton and anywhere else BbOne is used.
“Our goal is to extend the services to the point where the card has real
ubiquity,” he says. “As campuses look for ways to enhance the student
experience, this will be a big issue.” | <urn:uuid:5d1c48b0-c271-44fc-be35-38d11c048fec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://campustechnology.com/articles/2005/02/campus-cards--shoppin-via-consortium.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943204 | 3,960 | 1.523438 | 2 |
EDITOR’S NOTE: Behind the Pine Curtain is a series of anecdotes collected and edited by Herald-Press Publisher Gary Connor.
“Who will help me plant my wheat?” asked the little red hen.
“Not I,” said the cow.
“Not I,” said the duck.
“Not I,” said the pig.
“Not I,” said the goose.
“Then I will do it by myself.” She planted her crop and the wheat grew and ripened.
“Who will help me harvest my wheat?” asked the little red hen.
“Not in my union contract,” said the cow.
“Not in my job description,” said the duck.
“I’d lose my seniority,” said the pig.
“I’d lose my unemployment compensation,” said the goose.
“Then I will do it by myself,” said the little red hen, and so she did.
“Who will help me bake the bread?” asked the little red hen.
“That would be overtime for me,” said the cow.
“If I’m to be the only helper, that’s discrimination,” said the duck.
“That might void my Lone Star Card,” said the pig.
“I might lose my welfare benefits,” said the goose.
“Then I will do it by myself,” said the little red hen.
She baked five loaves and held them up for all of her neighbors to see. They wanted some and, in fact, demanded a share but the little red hen said, “No, I shall eat all five loaves. None of you worked to help me plant, harvest or bake the bread.”
“Excess profits!” cried the cow.
“Capitalist leech!” screamed the duck.
“I demand equal rights!” yelled the pig.
“I am entitled!” shouted the goose.
And they all painted “Unfair!” picket signs and marched around and around the little red hen, shouting obscenities.
When farmer Barry came he said to the little red hen, “You must not be so greedy.”
“But I earned the bread,” said the little red hen. “I planted the wheat then reaped it and I baked the bread all by myself!”
“Exactly,” said Barry the farmer. “That is what makes our free enterprise system so wonderful. Anyone in the barnyard can earn as much as he wants.
But under our modern government regulations, the productive workers must divide the fruits of their labor with those who are lazy and idle. It’s call redistribution of wealth.”
And, everyone in the barnyard was happy, including the little red hen, who smiled and clucked, “I am grateful, for now I truly understand.”
But, her neighbors became quite disappointed in her for she never planted or harvested wheat or baked bread again because she joined the “party” so she, too, could receive her bread free. And all the Socialists smiled. “Fairness” had been established.
Individual initiative had died, but nobody noticed; perhaps no one cared as long as there was free bread. | <urn:uuid:8c79b766-e3fc-4e33-8d23-0d14b2bb8255> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://palestineherald.com/opinion/x2056575288/LIFE-BEHIND-THE-PINE-CURTAIN-The-LIttle-Red-Hen/print | 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 | 0.968643 | 745 | 1.828125 | 2 |