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Brr… why hello there!
Ahh yes, ‘tis winter, the coldest season for us New Yorkers. By the same token, “winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home” (Edith Sitwell). I consider the whole state my home, and what better way to celebrate this time of the season than by taking a staycation.
Having said that, I am SOOO stoked about my trip to Lake Placid this weekend via Amtrak. Why Lake Placid? Well, its green leadership in conserving energy and making recycling easier for the community makes it an eco-tourist destination at the forefront of the sustainability movement, and let’s not forget its picturesque mountains!
On Friday, I’ll be staying at Gauthier’s Saranac Lake Inn in the Adirondack Mountains. This family-owned, two-acre waterfront Inn has been recognized by Audubon International as a Green Leaf Property as it continues to work hard to preserve its environment and support local small business through its Green Sustainability Initiatives. FYI: Lake Placid’s larger next-door neighbor is Saranac Lake, which was honored as an All-American City in 1998. Learn more about the Saranac Lake Chain including Upper Saranac Lake, Middle Saranac Lake and Lower Saranac Lake here.
As one of I LOVE NY’s Top Ten green destinations, Adirondack Park in The Adirondack region was created in 1892 and is the largest publicly protected area in the U.S. Click here for an interactive map of the Adirondacks. According to the NYS Adirondack Park Agency, the region “boasts over 3,000 lakes, 30,000 miles of rivers and streams, and a wide variety of habitats, including globally unique wetland types and old growth forests – [giving] the Adirondacks a [biodiversity] found nowhere else.” And did you hear from the New York Times that New York State recently bought conservation rights for 89,000 acres of forest in the Adirondacks? Whoa!
Moving on… Saturday, I’ll be marching with the Adirondack Green Circle and wearing a medieval costume IN the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival parade, which is the oldest Winter Carnival in the Eastern U.S. and is now celebrating its 114th anniversary. I’ll also be dining at Generations restaurant inside the ground-breaking green hotel Golden Arrow Resort with its 5 Greenleaf Status kudos to the Audubon International‘s eco-rating program. This status makes it the only resort in the US with this honor and only “one of two resorts in the world who have achieved this eco-rating.”
Sunday morning, I’ll tour the Lake Placid Conference Center, which anticipates the GOLD LEED Certification upon completion by incorporating “optimized energy performance, renewable, recycled materials and natural daylight.” Learn more about what LEED means and other prospective and confirmed LEED projects within New York State by checking out my previous “All About LEED” blog post. I have the afternoon all to myself, so I’ll probably do more outdoorsy stuff like snowshoeing and squeeze in some hot chocolate before getting ready for dinner with great company like Mayor Craig Randall. Here are some much-deserved shout-outs to some cool green New Yorkers in the Adirondack region:
- Subscribe To The Almanack, a weblog that posts everything about the Adirondacks, from culture to politics to history to the environment. Recently, it posted an event called “Adirondack Harvest Hosts Farmer and Chef Meeting” with Chef David Hunt and many other chefs and farmers to encourage culinary and agricultural connections resulting in more Adirondack-grown food served in local restaurants.
- Mirror Lake Inn Resort & Spa – its unique efforts to be globally as well as locally responsible include working with Clean the World (CTW) to remove and recycle all the used bars of soap as well the little bottle of liquids and sending hair clippings from the Inn’s salon in support of the Hair Mat Oil Program led by Matter of Trust.
Alas, it’s Monday, and the time has come for me to depart this wonderful place. But wait, it’s also Valentine’s Day! Well, as long as you’re trying to figure out last-minute plans, why not be green about it too? Here are some tips:
- Visit I LOVE NY’s “Valentine’s Day” section here for local activities you can do with that special someone, such as “Chocolate & Wine” in Watkins Glen, Finger Lakes, or Jane Monheit (The Egg) in Albany, Capital-Saratoga, or even the “Buffalo Winterfest & Powder Keg Festival” in Buffalo, Greater Niagara. And Time Out New York put together this Ski guide for wintry weekends near NYC, including “all-inclusive day trips to the mountains and stylish gear for on and off the slopes.”
- You can also take a walk in your local park (especially helpful if you’re a pet owner) and have your own ice-skating/snowboarding/skiing/etc. adventures in the great outdoors. If there’s snow, that’s a real plus because then you can have a snowball fight =P
- If you are giving a card, make it an e-card, a card printed on recycled paper, or one that has a second purpose, such as seed paper that can be planted like this one. FYI: whether you’re single, married, or somewhere in between, there is something for everyone on V-day – just click here for some ideas!
- Why not bake/cook your present? It’s been said that “the way to [anyone’s] heart is through [their] stomach,” so pay a visit to your farmer’s markets and “expand your culinary curiosity with uniquely seasonal fare in New York.” Prepare to be impressed =D
- Also check out these fun articles for more eco-friendly ideas:
1. The Daily Green, “Green Valentine’s Day Gifts”
2. Planet Green, “Green Valentine’s Day”
3. The Huffington Post, “Last-Second Green Valentine’s Day Guide”
4. Real Simple, “Easy DIY Valentine’s Day Ideas” – Get the kids involved spreading holiday cheer, no matter how much you love (or love to hate) February 14.
5. Tonic, “Valentine’s Day Gift Guide” – This Feb. 14, show your love for your one-and-only love and love the earth with these traditional — but far from trite — gifts.
And last but not least, here are some timeless QUOTES for you hopeless Romantics out there:
- Love is life. All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love. Everything is, everything exists, only because I love. Everything is united by it alone. – Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace (1869)
- We come to love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly. – Anonymous
- Love has its reasons that reason knows nothing of. – Blaise Pascal, Pensées (1660)
- One is never too old for romance. – Ingrid Bergman, Sunday Mirror (5 May 1974)
- I am nothing special, of this I am sure. I am a common man with common thoughts and I’ve led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten, but I’ve loved another with all my heart and soul, and to me, this has always been enough. — Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook
- Who could NOT mention the song lyrics to L.O.V.E. by Natalie Cole:
L is for the way you look at me,
O is for the only one I see,
V is very, very extraordinary,
E is even more than anyone that you adore
Love is all that I can give to you,
Love is more than just a game for two.
Two in love can make it,
Take my heart but please don’t break it.
Love was made for me and you…
So, how would you green your Valentine’s Day? From our green heart to yours o^_^o | <urn:uuid:a38418fe-ab94-47b5-8d83-a1865f47c474> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://greenheartny.wordpress.com/2011/02/09/your-green-valentine%E2%80%99s-playbook-with-my-own-lake-placid-adirondack-eco-trip/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931773 | 1,861 | 1.523438 | 2 |
ACC holds a monthly support group, family get-togethers and a teen social skills group.
Early signs of autism can often be detected in infants as young as 6-18
example, if a baby fixates on objects or does not respond to people, he or
she may be exhibiting early signs of an autism spectrum disorder. Older
babies and toddlers may fail to respond to their names, avoid eye contact,
lack joint attention (sharing an experience of observing an object or event
by gazing or pointing), or engage in repetitive movements such as rocking or
arm flapping. They may play with toys in unusual ways, like lining them up
or focusing on parts of toys rather than the whole. Parents who notice these
signs, or are concerned their children are not meeting developmental
milestones, should contact their pediatricians and request a developmental
screening. Learn more about the early warning signs of autism here.
In 2012, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network reported that approximately 1 in 88 children in the United States has an Autism Spectrum Disorder. This represents an increase in the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders compared to earlier in the decade when prevalence was cited as 1 in 110 and 1 in 166. In the 1980’s autism prevalence was reported as 1 in 10,000. In the nineties, prevalence was 1 in 2500 and later 1 in 1000. It is problematic to compare autism rates over the last three decades, as the diagnostic criteria for autism have changed with each revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM). In 1983 the DSM did not recognize PDD-NOS or Asperger's syndrome, and the criteria for autistic disorder (AD) were more restrictive.
Scientists agree that the earlier in life a child receives early intervention services the better the child’s prognosis. All children with autism can benefit from early intervention, and some may gain enough skills to be able to attend mainstream school. Research tells us that early intervention in an appropriate educational setting for at least two years prior to the start of school can result in significant improvements for many young children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. As soon as autism is diagnosed, early intervention instruction should begin. Effective programs focus on developing communication, social, and cognitive skills.
The most effective treatments available today are applied behavior analysis (ABA) and occupational, speech and physical therapy. Many “cures” for autism are touted on the Internet, but these interventions are not backed by science and in many cases can cause harmful side effects. Most individuals with autism will need support and services their entire lifetime.
Some service providers, celebrities, parent groups and medical practitioners may talk about “recovery” from autism. “Recovery” is a subjective term, and what one family calls "recovery" may be different for others. Parents should be skeptical of any health care provider holding out "recovery" as an option, as it often leads to expensive and ineffective treatments that can burden families with needless debt. Remember, autism is pervasive developmental delay, which means children will continue to develop, learn, gain skills and adapt as they age. Sometimes children lose their diagnosis altogether, leading to claims of recovery. Keep in mind that symptoms of autism change as a child develops.
Research has shown that children who are diagnosed by the age of two are more likely to eventually lose their autism label because early diagnosis leads to behavioral treatment, which benefits the child, and because these children are more likely to be misdiagnosed altogether. (Turner and Stone, 2007). “Recovery” can be a useful concept, but only if defined as the ability of individuals with ASD to lead fulfilling lives, given the challenges of their condition.
Parents can protect themselves and their children from expensive and ineffective treatments by learning to critically evaluate various claims. Before having their child begin any treatment, parents should question whether there is a coherent scientific rationale behind the intervention and whether it makes biological sense. They should also ask their health care practitioner whether the treatment has been proven effective and safe in objective scientific studies (with comparison to controls – i.e., patients who did not receive the treatment), and whether those studies have been published in well established, highly reputable, peer-reviewed medical journals. It is important to know that anyone can publish a study on the Internet or start a new journal.
Health care fraud is a huge business in the U.S., and parents of children with autism are often targeted. Fringe treatment providers prey on desperation and fear, and deceive parents with numerous unfounded claims. You may read about the following non-evidence based treatments:
Chelation: Chelation therapy involves administering chemicals designed to bind to heavy metals and eliminate them from the body. Chelating agents have a legitimate use in the treatment of poisoning from lead, mercury and other metals. However, there is no evidence in the medical literature that chelation is safe or effective for the treatment of ASDs. Autism is not metal poisoning. In 2005, a child with autism died from chelation therapy, when the chelating agent administered bonded with calcium in the child’s body, causing his heart to stop.
No paper published in the peer-reviewed literature has reported an abnormal body burden of mercury in individuals with autism spectrum disorder. Mercury poisoning is associated with bilaterial constriction of visual fields, paresthesias (tingling or numbness of the skin), hypertension, skin rashes, and thrombocytopenia (low platelet count). These conditions are seldom seen with autism.Exposure to mercury and other neurotoxins in fetuses and infants is associated with microcephaly (small head size). In autism, increasing evidence indicates that both head and brain size tend to be larger than population norms.
Lupron protocol: Lupron is a testosterone-inhibiting drug used in the treatment of precocious puberty (which is rare) and prostate cancer, as well as for the “chemical castration” of sex offenders. Its use for autism is based on the hypothesis that testosterone magnifies the toxic effects of mercury (see above). There is no evidence that Lupron is safe or effective for the treatment of autism. Side effects of Lupron include hives, difficulty breathing or swallowing, numbness, tingling, weakness, painful or difficult urination, blood in the urine, bone pain, testicular pain and osteoporosis.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy: HBOT is proven effective for gangrene, carbon monoxide poisoning, “the bends” and various other conditions related to oxygen in blood. There is no evidence that ASD is related to insufficient oxygen. There is insufficient evidence to determine if HBOT is safe or effective for the treatment of autism. Furthermore, the benefits of hyperbaric oxygen delivered in a soft-shelled chamber are no different than with a less expensive oxygen tent, or nasal cannula.
Free-Casein Free (GFCF) Diet: Promoters
of a gluten (wheat) and casein (dairy) free diet claim that children with
autism have "leaky guts" that allow opioids to escape into the bloodstream,
where they travel to the brain, causing autistic behaviors. There is no
evidence for this claim, and at least one study has found that children with
autism have no more opioids in their blood than a control group.
Furthermore, children on the GFCF diet have been found to have lower bone
density than controls, which could lead to osteoporosis. A large scale study
of the safety and efficacy of the GFCF diet is currently underway.
Autism Spectrum Disorders are characterized by significant impairments in social interaction and communication skills, as well as by the presence of extremely challenging behaviors. Such behaviors include stereotyped motor behaviors (hand flapping, body rocking), insistence on sameness, resistance to change and, in some cases, aggression or self injury. Many individuals with autism spectrum disorder have significant cognitive impairments, although some have typical or even above average IQs. 30-50% of people with autism have seizures.
Autism was first described by Dr. Leo Kanner in 1943. He reported on eleven children who showed a marked lack of interest in other people, but a highly unusual interest in the inanimate environment. Initially, autism was thought to be an early form of schizophrenia, which led to the belief that its onset could be caused by negative experience or bad parenting. We now know that this is not the case.
No one is sure what causes autism. Through twin studies, scientists have determined that autism is a genetically based condition. If one identical (monozygotic) twin has autism then there is an 80-90% chance that the other twin will also be diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. For non-identical (dizygotic) twins there is a 3-10% chance that both twins will develop autism spectrum disorder. The chance that siblings will both be affected by ASD is also approximately 3-10%.
Scientists are unsure what, if any, environmental triggers may be involved in autism. One theory popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s, that vaccines may cause autism, has since been disproven by numerous studies conducted in multiple labs around the world.
Early signs of autism can be detected in infants as young as 6-18 months. For example, if a baby fixates on objects or does not respond to people, he or she may be exhibiting early signs of an autism spectrum disorder. Older babies and toddlers may fail to respond to their names, avoid eye contact, lack joint attention, or engage in repetitive movements such as rocking, or arm flapping. They may play with toys in unusual ways. Parents who notice these signs, or are concerned their children are not meeting developmental milestones, should contact their pediatricians and request a developmental screening.
Scientists agree that the earlier a child receives early intervention services the better the child’s prognosis. All children with autism can benefit from early intervention, and some may gain enough skills to be able to attend a mainstream school. The most effective treatments available today are applied behavioral analysis (ABA) and occupational, speech and physical therapy. Many “cures” for autism are touted on the internet, but many of these interventions are not backed by science and can often cause harmful side effects. Most individuals with autism will need support and services throughout their lifetime.
Beyond the Autism/Vaccine Hypothesis: What Parents Need to Know about Autism Research
It’s been so rewarding to see the scientific progress being made toward understanding what causes autism and in developing better treatments for individuals with autism. While there are still a handful of parents who, in almost a religious way, cling to the notion that vaccines cause autism, the vast majority of parents and scientists have accepted what the data clearly show. There is no data to support an autism vaccine link. There never has been. Vaccines don’t cause autism.
A decade ago most agreed that we need to study vaccines in relation to autism. We had to reconcile the fact that the number of vaccines children were receiving was increasing, and at the same time, the number of children who were being diagnosed with autism also was on the rise. But fortunately this was a question that could be studied – and answered – by science. We looked at children who received vaccines and those who didn’t, or who received them on a different, slower schedule. There was no difference in their neurological outcomes. We’ve done multiple studies looking at the measles, mumps and rubella vaccination in relation to autism. We’ve looked at thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative, and its relation to autism. The studies are very clear; there is no relationship in the data between vaccines and autism. Read the studies themselves below.
It’s Time to Ask New Questions
If we ask the same questions we’ll get the same answers. We’ve asked the autism vaccine question over two dozen times and each time we get the same response; no relationship. We need to move on; We need to invest in studying genetics, the brain structures of children with autism, and environmental factors that may be playing a role.
Read the Science
Literature Reviews: Autism and Vaccines
Vaccine Receipt in the First Year Does Not Adversely Affect
Vaccines and Autism: A Tale of Shifting Hypotheses
"Immunization Safety Review: Vaccines and Autism"
Too Many Too Soon?
Addressing Parents' Concerns: Do Multiple Vaccines Overwhelm
or Weaken the Infant's Immune System?
Immunization Safety Review: Multiple Immunizations
and Immune Dysfunction
Cellular Immune Responses in Neonates
Neonatal and Early Life Vaccinology
The Problem with Dr. Bob's Alternative Vaccine
Thimerosal and Autism Studies
Neuropsychological performance 10 years after immunization
in infancy with thimerosal-containing vaccines.
Continuing Increases in Autism Reported to
California's Developmental Services System
Early Thimerosal Exposure and Neuropsychological
Outcomes at 7 to 10 Years
Lack of Association Between Rh Status, Rh Immune
Globulin in Pregnancy and Autism
Comparison of Blood and Brain Mercury Levels in
Infant Monkeys Exposed to Methylmercury or Vaccines
Thimerosal Exposure in Infants and Developmental
Disorders: A Prospective Cohort Study in the United Kingdom
Does Not Support a Causal Association
Neurotoxic Effects of Postnatal Thimerosal Are Mouse
Safety of Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines: A
Two-Phased Study of Computerized Health Maintenance
Association Between Thimerosal-Containing Vaccine
Thimerosal and the Occurrence of Autism: Negative
Ecological Evidence from Danish Population-Based Data
"Autism and Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines: Lack of
Consistent Evidence for an Association"
Thimerosal and Autism?
Mercury concentrations and metabolism in infants
receiving vaccines containing thiomersal: A descriptive
Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR) Vaccine and Autism Studies
Association Between Measles Virus Vaccine and Autism with
Enteropathy: A Case-Control Study
Measles Vaccination and Antibody Response in Autism
Pervasive Developmental Disorders in Montreal,
Quebec, Canada: Prevalence and Links With Immunizations
MMR Vaccination and Pervasive Developmental
Disorders: A Case-Control Study
Association of Autistic Spectrum Disorder and the
Measles, Mumps, and Rubella Vaccine
Neurologic Disorders After Measles-Mumps-Rubella
No Evidence for a New Variant of
Autism and Vaccines in the Media
On January 21st, 2011, Dr. Paul Offit was on The Colbert Report speaking about his new book, "Deadly Choices: How The Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All." Click Here to Watch the Interview.
Autism Caregivers Connect websites
www.AutismCaregiversConnect.org www.AutismCaregiversConnect.com www.ACCBrevard.org | <urn:uuid:f60a60f3-b2aa-4eb2-8099-fe22a397a8af> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.accbrevard.org/what-is-autism.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942087 | 3,166 | 3.8125 | 4 |
|NM Center on Law and Poverty Collage|
Other voices have come forward,, including NMCLP executive director Kim Posich, who published an Op-Ed in the Albuquerque Journal on Monday, June 17. Here are a few excerpts:
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – formerly known as the food stamp program – provides food assistance to over 450,000 low-income New Mexicans. The assistance is in the form of a small monthly stipend put on an EBT card that families can use in their local grocery to help put food on the table.
When added up, the stipends amount to over $ 650 million federal dollars going directly into New Mexican grocery stores every year.
Those who argue for cutting the nutrition program may not know all the facts. The great majority of recipients of SNAP food assistance are children, the disabled and the elderly. Recipients who don’t fit into one of these categories are mostly working adults who toil in low-paying jobs.
The relatively few adults who receive food assistance but aren’t working are special cases, such as pregnant women or a small number of people living in areas of very high unemployment.
These are all people who need help.
Here is the full piece entitled Cutting Food Money Profound Mistake. (If you are not a subscriber to the newspaper online or via delivery, you can still see the article by answering a couple of questions related to advertisers). | <urn:uuid:c91c0435-9c10-43fc-8897-a41b5478eea9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://breadnm.blogspot.jp/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954745 | 291 | 2.390625 | 2 |
Civil War historians Clark B. “Bud” Hall and Childs Burden will present a free lecture, "Middleburg and its Strategic Role in the Gettysburg Campaign of the Civil War," at the National Sporting Library at 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 19, 2010. This event is part of the Saturday Public Lecture Series, made possible by an anonymous donor.
The bronze Civil War horse in front of the Library memorializes the 1 ˝ million horses and mules in the Union and Confederate cavalries which perished during the Civil War and at the same time commemorates the fighting that took place near that spot during the Battle of Middleburg on June 19, 1863. This battle was part of the Gettysburg Campaign in which the Confederate Army marched northward through the Old Dominion on its way to Pennsylvania. Federal cavalry led by Union General Alfred Pleasonton attacked the Confederate forces of General Jeb Stuart, with heavy fighting occurring south and west of town. The Citizens Committee on the Historic Cavalry Battles of Aldie, Middleburg and Upperville plans to install an interpretative marker on NSL grounds as part of the Virginia Civil War Trail.
In their lecture, Hall and Burden will focus on Middleburg's strategic geographical role in the Gettysburg Campaign and the street-by-street action that ensued on June 19, as Confederate and Union cavalry battled for supremacy of this militarily-vital hamlet. The discussion will conclude with a description of the decisive Battle of Upperville on June 21 where Stuart’s forces prevailed.
The National Sporting Library is located at 102 The Plains Rd. in Middleburg. For more information, visit www.nsl.org. Admission is free, but seating is limited. RSVP to Judy Sheehan at 540-687-6542 x 10 or email@example.com leaving your name and contact number.
Bud Hall of Middleburg, Virginia, has written and lectured widely on the cavalry operations in the American Civil War. Childs Burden, also of Middleburg, has been active in historic preservation for over 25 years. Burden will introduce Hall and will also discuss Civil War cavalry.
National Sporting Library
102 The Plains Rd. (P.O. Box 1335)
Middleburg, VA 20117
(540)687-6542 x 10 Email: firstname.lastname@example.org Visit the website at http://www.nsl.org/
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announcements appearing in this service. (Administration) | <urn:uuid:46ca7474-b28d-4e20-80e0-83012b8dad3a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=176599 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949098 | 596 | 2.515625 | 3 |
A simple operation, little-known in the UK, may offer hope to women prone to miscarriage. The “transabdominal cerclage” operation reinforces the top of the cervix, making it strong enough to hold a baby.
The operation succeeded for Janett Walker, who gave birth to a healthy baby girl in June after previously suffering four miscarriages and losing a premature baby. The procedure is fairly common in the US and Cumbrian Jannett hopes to raise awareness in this country, reports the Metro.
“If I hadn’t been fitted with a bionic cervix, I would never have been able to have a child,” Jannett said.
Doctors can check for a weak or “incompetent” cervix in a matter of minutes. Though it is a rare condition often only discovered after a miscarriage occurs, it can seriously affect a woman’s chance of carrying a baby to full term and should be carefully monitored. | <urn:uuid:367733fa-f18f-4faf-bceb-17a7bfd55a94> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thinkbaby.co.uk/miscarriage-and-loss/bionic-cervix-brings-baby-joy-for-couple-after-seven-years-of-trying/3018.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947592 | 205 | 2.265625 | 2 |
The business of craft beer has exploded.
In five years, craft beer has nearly doubled its market share, growing rapidly even as the industry as a whole has contracted.
The Brewers Association defines a craft brewer as "small, independent and traditional," and the United States is home to 2,286 of them -- the most since before Prohibition.
But it wasn't always like this.
"The first decade [after opening] was very tough," said Mike Stevens, who started Founders Brewery with Dave Engbers in 1997. "You had to beg distributors to carry your beer and hand-sell to one retailer at a time."
Founders, based in Grand Rapids, Mich., started with just three employees -- including the two co-founders -- and spent the first decade "flirting with bankruptcy ... just trying to keep our heads above water," said Stevens. The brewery now employs approximately 130 people and distributes to 23 states, with plans to add three more this year.
Many of today's biggest craft brewers actually got their start in the '80's.
"It was all by the seat of our pants," said Larry Bell, who founded Bells Brewery in 1985. Based in Kalamazoo, Mich., Bells is now the seventh largest craft brewery in the United States, with 207 employees and two production facilities. Bells distributes in 18 states, plus Puerto Rico and Washington, DC. and soon plans to expand to New York State.
Craft breweries make up 6% of the total market volume, up from 3.7% in 2007, and had revenue of $8.7 billion in 2011, compared to $96 billion for the industry overall.
But the beer industry is overwhelmingly dominated by two players: Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABI) and MillerCoors (a joint venture between SABMiller and Molson Coors). Together, they have about 75% of the market in terms of sales volume, and it's not just their big-name brands. The companies are also responsible for a number of specialty brands like Bass, Hoegarten and Shock Top (ABI), and Blue Moon, Leinenkugel and Pilsner Urquell (MillerCoors). They've also worked to get in on the craft market: Anheuser-Busch InBev bought Chicago craft brewery Goose Island in 2011. | <urn:uuid:790c0338-3f7d-422a-9118-b5fe172d71eb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ksbw.com/news/money/Small-craft-breweries-hit-it-big/-/1850/18445932/-/yd0fh2z/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973576 | 485 | 1.945313 | 2 |
Evolution in taijiquan is always ongoing so any feasible explanation that makes sense has a following so all taijiquan is good as stated. All MA start with a large (open, expanded) way of doing a said form but the form is usually 'empty'. As the form becomes rote, and natural rhythm/way of form self expression becomes second memory, the individual can do what he needs with the form. Chengfu's expression was the form! In the same breath, Lutang's expression was the form (his own understanding of Wu/Hao, xing-i and baquazhang). I cannot imagine Lutang exhibiting a form in the frame of Chengfu since the body type and understandings were different. All poins of view are valid and they are followed by their corresponding camps. All taijiquan is good.
Taipei, America, France, Australia, Estonia, Russia, Italy, Switzerland, Japan, Germany. I think it is also practised in Germany and the Netherlands - probably a lot of other places I don't know about as well. | <urn:uuid:5b61b6f1-4b39-47a1-a227-e33187783e03> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.yangfamilytaichi.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=2159 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97737 | 229 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Posts Tagged ‘college fraternities’
The decision to join a fraternity or sorority can be a big one! After all, being a member can largely influence your college experience. Whether that’s a positive or negative experience depends on who you are, and what you want out of college! Earlier, we discussed three reasons to go Greek this semester. The fact is, going Greek isn’t for everyone, even if there are many who truly thrive from it. Here are three reasons being a member of a fraternity or sorority may not be for you.
It’s a Time Commitment
Being a member of a fraternity or sorority means quite a bit more than attending a weekly meeting. As a member, you will be expected to take part in the numerous events that are held, which can be anything from volunteer work off campus, to attending a ball put on by other members of the group. It means giving up some of your nights, and sometimes chunks of your weekend. While this can be a great way to become involved in your campus and community, as well as make friends, it also means less time to work on your academics, and fewer opportunities to join other groups, visit family members, and see friends outside of your fraternity or sorority. If you’re not willing to give up this much of your own time, you may not want to take part in Greek life.
Membership is a Long, Selective Process
As you probably already know, fraternities and sororities don’t take just anyone. There is usually a week or so (a process called “rush”) where interested students go through a series of activities to get to know one another and current members of Greek life. At the end of this recruitment process, they will pick a certain number of students to “advance.” It might be a semester of trying to prove yourself before a decision is made about your membership. Once you’re a member, you are expected to pay dues initially, and every semester following. This amount can be anywhere from a hundred dollars, to a thousand. While this process might be exciting and motivating for some, for others, this is just way too much work when so many other college groups will take anyone.
Membership is an On-Going Process
Once you have been initiated and have pledged to the group, staying in the group is still an on-going process. You may have to attend a certain number of events each month to avoid suspension. Failing to pay dues, or just not getting along with everyone else might also lead to suspension. In addition, your grades usually have to be above a 2.5 to stay in the group. For many students, none of these factors will ever become an issue, but for some, having your social life directly depend on your GPA or your financial situation can be a bit of a drag.
So you’re thinking about joining a fraternity or sorority!
At many universities, Greek organizations have a long history with and are deeply rooted in the school’s culture. These social groups are designed to get men and women to meet more people, develop character, and to make a contribution to their campus and community! There are likely many different fraternities and sororities to choose from on your campus, and each has its own set of unique characteristics for you to explore. Here are three reasons why you might want to consider one of them as part of life at college this semester!
To Meet New People
At a fraternity or sorority, you will become close with the other members through meetings, group bonding activities, volunteer work, and social events. It’s a great way to make new friends outside your residence hall and major. In addition, fraternities and sororities often have “mixers” with other fraternities and sororities, which will give you the opportunity to meet members of the opposite sex! Why is this important? Well, for many students, gaining dating experience, or meeting the person they will someday want to settle down with are goals they have set for themselves in college. When you’re in an all-girl residence hall, and your major is something like early childhood education made up predominantly of other women, or when you’re a freshman guy in an engineering major, opportunities to meet new people outside of these parameters is welcome!
To Contribute to the Campus and Community
Fraternities and sororities tend to spend a lot of their time running events or doing volunteer work on the campus and in the community, and there is much to be done! They might take part in sporting events, plan dances, start a fundraiser, donate to a charity, set up a speed dating activity, support a cause, run a marathon, sell t-shirts, and a million other things all on a weekly basis! If you’re looking to busy yourself with these kinds of events that are designed to benefit those around you, then this might be a good fit for you!
To Be Part of Something
You know what it feels like to be part of a team? To wear a jersey or a sports jacket with your team’s name on the back and your name on the front? How about knowing that there’s people who will always have your back? Being a member of a fraternity or sorority is a lot like that! There is a strong bond between fraternity and sorority members, much like in a sports team. You will often find yourself working with that group of students together on a project, as well as confiding in them about personal issues. You will be wearing apparel with your fraternity or sorority’s name on it. You will be recognized as a member of that group, sharing the honor with those who have come before you and the generation that will follow.
Sometimes, fraternities and sororities on campus are seen as important aspects of campus culture. Other times, they’re selective clubs that promote negative activities on campus.
Recently, two major universities took action to deal with what they perceived were the problems with Greek life on their college campuses. The University of South Carolina put a freeze on fraternity rush. The decision came after a student drank so much at a fraternity recruitment party that he became unresponsive and was taken to the hospital by ambulance.
At Princeton University, officials recently banned students from participating in freshman rush beginning in fall 2012. The decision was made because of the school’s beliefs that social and residential life should revolve around the residential colleges, eating clubs, and shared experiences of the undergraduates living and dining on campus. Other officials at the school find that fraternities and sororities contribue to a sense of social exclusivity and privilege among students.
Are there more negatives to Greek life than positives? Here some pros and cons:
Pros to Greek life
- friendship–it’s an easy way to meet some of your best friends for life
- academics–often times a big purpose of the fraternity/sorority community is to encourage and develop high scholastic achievement among its members
- social life–planned mixers, parties, etc.
- community service opportunities
- networking–the Kappa Fig Newton could connect you with your dream job
Cons to Greek life
- dues — Greek life gets expensive!
- stigma–unfortunately, people tend to stereotype people in the Greek system
- drama–living with a small community of boys/girls can become a bit much, and a little misunderstanding could lead to a big fall out
- hazing–it’s technically not allowed, but depending where you go, it still happens
Do you agree with these university officials on their stances against Greek life? Share your opinion by leaving a comment below!
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White Board Friday | <urn:uuid:9ecf70dd-bd25-45fd-95af-b8c93dbef53a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cappex.com/blog/tag/college-fraternities/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964226 | 1,706 | 1.617188 | 2 |
MICHAEL GOODMAN, REAL NEWS MEMBER: We support The Real News Network because we want to have independent journalism, and in a democracy there's nothing more important than the free flow of information. Please join with us and help support The Real News Network.
Chomsky on the economy
PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome back to the second part of our interview with Professor Noam Chomsky. Professor Chomsky, ordinary people are trying to understand the current crisis, financial crisis, the people who've been already suffering from what they call a crisis in the real economy and maybe have not yet quite felt the effects of what the financial crisis is going to mean to day-to-day life. So, quickly, are we moving into something that resembles a serious depression as some people are suggesting? And if we are, do you think we might see some similar radicalization of the working class that we saw during the 1930s? But start from helping us understand what are we moving into here.
NOAM CHOMSKY, PROFESSOR OF LINGUISTICS, MIT: Well, the immediate crisis that's on the front pages is the financial crisis. The credit system has frozen, so banks don't lend to each other, they don't trust each other. The housing market has collapsed. These are things that, of course, influence people's lives directly. So it's not happening kind of in the stratosphere. But the visible crisis, the one that's discussed, has to do with finance. However, there is a growing crisis in the rest of the economy too, and it's a serious one. That's why the automakers are disappearing, for example. There's a major crisis coming along which is going to dwarf this one, and that's the growth in medical costs. If you look at the trajectory and extrapolate, extend it, the highly inefficient medical system is going to swamp the federal budget. This is usually described as a benefits system—you know, medicine, Medicare, and social security—but that's just a technique to try to destroy social security. In fact, social security's in pretty good shape; it's the health system that's the problem. But the immediate problem is the financial system. The roots go back to the early 1970s, when finance was liberalized; it was freed from the constraints of the post-war period. Now, the constraints of the post-war period, roughly 1945 to 1970, they were instituted by the United States and Britain for a reason, one, because it was assumed correctly that allowing governments to control capital movements and currencies would provide a basis for rapidly expanding growth and trade and so on, which indeed happened. That's called the golden age of modern capitalism. Whereas freeing these constraints would retard growth and development, as indeed it has done. But there was a second reason, which isn't being discussed much: allowing governments to control capital movements provides them with a certain space for introducing what we call welfare state programs. If capital movements are free, attacks on currencies are free, there's what economists call a "virtual parliament" of investors and lenders who actually vote, every minute in fact. If they don't like what a government is doing, they attack the currency, there's capital flow—.
JAY: And how likely is world capital to vote no faith any longer in US Treasury bonds? Is that really—?
CHOMSKY: No. In fact, they're fleeing to US Treasury bonds.
JAY: Now, but they're in this push-pull—either they have to defend it or abandon it, and right now they're defending it. Is there any choice to abandon it? Or they really don't have one?
CHOMSKY: No, because the United States, despite all the crises, is far and away the richest and most powerful country in the world. And if the United States tanks, the world economy will tank. So it's a safe bet, if you want security, yes, get Treasury bonds. But the system has unacceptable risk built into it. It's well known among economists that markets are inefficient from the narrowest perspective. So let's make it simple. Suppose you sell me a car, okay? We may make a good deal for ourselves, but we're not taking into account the effect on him. It's what's called an externality. And there's an effect. If you sell me a car, it increases gas prices, it increases pollution, it increases congestion. And that extends very broadly; these so-called externalities can be very large. Now, in financial institutions it's far worse. They are in the business of taking risks. If they're well managed, say, Goldman Sachs, they calculate the potential cost to themselves if there's a loss. But the important words are "to themselves." They don't calculate in what's called systemic risk, the effect on the whole system if I go bust, you know, and it has a huge effect. The result is that risk-taking is under-priced, meaning there's a lot more of it than there would be in a reasonable system. And so, therefore, it was predicted right off that when financial liberalization took place, there would be more regular financial crises and deeper ones. And this particular one is accelerated by the fact that there was a subprime housing bubble and many other factors, so it became far more severe than anyone expected. But it's built into the system. Now, this was kind of combined with a kind of religious market fundamentalism based on doctrines of, you know, self-regulating markets and so on, which are pure fantasy. So the regulatory apparatus was dismantled. Well, that accelerates the pace of potential financial crisis. And along with that came the creation of highly exotic financial instruments. Well, all of this combined, it was pretty clear the early part of this decade that a major crisis was brewing. Alan Greenspan, head of the Federal Reserve, refused to prick the bubble as could have been done in simple ways, on the basis of religious belief in self-regulating markets. And finally it came to this catastrophe where there's a credit freeze, the system's freezing up. Something has to be done, and it's interesting what the choices are. It goes back to our earlier discussion. So this morning on the radio, George Bush announced that the government is intervening in the banks, but we want to make sure that we go back to the profit motive, not policy motives, not political motives. What are political motives? Well, that means participation of the population in making decisions. So we hate democracy; we don't want the public to be involved in decisions about things; we want to go back to the profit motive, meaning that a private tyranny, which is what a corporation is, should look out for itself, not for the public interest.
JAY: Which is what got us here. It's interesting. For the first times, one is hearing the discourse open up. And maybe they don't like the words "socialism" and "capitalism," even as words, are actually entering the public discourse.
CHOMSKY: I don't think it has anything to do with socialism. That's a scare word. It has to do with democracy. So what is being called "government intervention" in a democracy would mean intervention of the population. I mean, if you believe the 4 July speeches, you know, of government of, by, and for the people, then the government is not some alien force stealing for you; government intervention means giving the public a role in making decisions about things that matter to them like working conditions and wages and so on and so forth. In a democracy, political motives would mean the interests of the population in determining what's going to happen next. If you decode the rhetoric, the question is: Do we want private concentrations of power to make decisions for their own benefit? Or do we want the public to be concerned, to make decisions for the public welfare? That's what's really behind it.
JAY: For ordinary people, as this crisis deepens, what do you think they can do? What should they do?
CHOMSKY: It's very striking. When the $700 billion bailout was announced, the public was outraged. There was furious objection, so much so that the House of Representatives had to vote it down. Now, on the surface, that looks like an exercise of democracy, but it isn't. Even in a dictatorship, if the dictator does something outrageous, the public can riot and he'll have to back down. Now, in a democracy, functioning democracy, what happens is different: not just shouting "no," which is what happened, but active popular organizations like unions or political clubs or whatever would be coming forth with specific proposals and demanding that their representatives implement them. And there are proposals; there's quite a lot of proposals on the table. Joseph Stiglitz, who's [inaudible] from outer space, made a very simple point. He said if we put money into the banks, pour liquidity into the banks, we can pour it in, and they'll pour it out—mergers and acquisition, anything—for their own benefit, 'cause that's what they're in business for, for their benefit, not for our benefit. So he said we have to have veto power. Well, veto power means voting rights, and if it's a real democracy, voting rights means popular participation and initiative. Well, the initiative should be coming from the population, like with health care, where the population has definite views. But the country is so depoliticized that popular views are considered politically impossible, lacking political support. Well, that's what's called a democratic deficit: formal democratic institutions, but not functioning. And we have to overcome that. That underlies lots of issues.
JAY: Thank you very much, Professor Chomsky. And thank you very much for joining us.
Please note that TRNN transcripts are typed from a recording of the program; The Real News Network cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | <urn:uuid:29f65b84-14d3-4e7d-9efc-85e543ede444> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.zcommunications.org/the-economy-by-noam-chomsky | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975181 | 2,077 | 1.898438 | 2 |
CPU Tech and BAE announced (PDF) today that
they have been funded by the U.S. Army TACOM Life Cycle Management Command for a collaborative effort to begin the development of a SystemLab based virtual model of BAE Systems’ Bradley Combat Systems vehicle. The virtual model will run on CPU Tech’s new SystemLab Platform Simulator (SystemLab PS) and execute actual Bradley software at real time speeds. When completed, the virtual model will enable engineering teams networked together to have complete visibility inside the electronics of the entire vehicle during actual real time software execution.
I spoke with a representative of the company who shared some interesting perspective with me.
The company describes it as “a technology breakthrough on the level of what the “X-ray” did for the medical industry.” SystemLab PS is a ‘tipping point’ in technology development that enables engineers to “see inside” and perform internal, system-level diagnostics of highly-complex electronic systems, enabling real-time diagnosis and debugging of system-level problems resulting in a more rapid and cost-effective time to production.
Announced in May of this year, the SystemLab PS product line is a complete solution that includes hardware, enterprise software, virtual model development, custom library elements, training and support. | <urn:uuid:b4c8e31f-11bc-4f36-8b26-9eb686967386> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://insidehpc.com/2007/06/26/cpu-tech-and-bae-working-on-bradley-vehicle/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.90068 | 271 | 1.632813 | 2 |
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Choose from over 60 different jobs and see what exactly it is they do. From plumbers and pilots to computer programmers and cartoonists. | <urn:uuid:07e9cb2e-153f-4373-af6d-38bdcb73f6e1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://roxanalibrary.org/kids-teens/kid-s-corner/careers.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919432 | 134 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Telcos keep investing in improving their broadband networks: from ASDL to ASDL2+ to VDSL and now Fiber-to-the-home (FTTH). FTTH will enable bandwidths in the order of 100 Mbps, both for downlink and uplink.
Telcos are investing important sums to bring fiber to the users: Verizon, SBC and BellSouth plan multi-billion dollars investments in the next three years. NTT has reached 9 million subscribers in Japan for FTTH and target 30 million in 2010.
How will Telcos get a return on this massive investment? What applications can they deliver to justify it?
1) IPTV. This is the obvious answer. High Definition video will be the killer app, not only for video-on-demand but also for broadcast TV channels and live events. To deliver a HD channel requires around 10-15Mbps. With the trend of multiple set-top-boxes per family (in the living-room, in each of the bedrooms, in the kitchen), FTTH will enable multiple HD streams to reach each STB in the home with a different program. 3D HDTV is still in early stage, but will also provide a compelling reason for users to demand fiber.
2) Interactive TV applications. Benefit from the high-bandwidth return channel to provide interactive TV applications on top of IPTV, like TV portals or participation TV (voting, messaging or video calls). Interactive Advertisement is one of the most promising applications for generating revenues. Targeted, relevant adds can be a reality on the TV, as the telco can have a detailed profile for their users, even measuring the response to campaigns. Interactive Advertisement will enable users to respond to the ads, e.g. by providing an email address, subscribing to the BMW channel, purchasing the product from the TV ad, setting up a video call to a sales agent or simply recommending the ad to a friend. The possibilities are end-less, and the potential to generate additional revenues huge.
3) High-Def Videoconferencing and evolution to 3D HD conferencing. Once multi-parties calls are set-up, the demand for bandwidth multiplies
4) Wholeselling to Internet players, like Google, Yahoo or Microsoft. High bandwidth/QoS demanding applications could be sold by Internet players, including the bandwidth required to deliver the application, purchased from the operator as a wholeseller. e.g. Google Earth Premium providing not only satellite pictures but also high quality live video, Rhapsody music service evolving to subscription-based video and music service through a QoS-aware sub-network ”wholesold” by the telco, Premium YouTube HD with connectivity sold by YouTube, etc.
Having a FTTH network can provide Telcos an important competitive advantage and the means to provide new applications we can not even imagine now. Telcos need to keep focus on developing these applications.
Another alternative, not to be neglected, is to ask for government funding, given the social benefits Internet clearly provides. Renamed in the past as the Information Highway, there is no reason we should not have toll-free Information highways too. It worked in Korea and other Asian countries. It is a matter of understanding Internet as another public infrastructure.
See what Samsung envisions as the Ultra-High Definition (UD) 3D. At 4096 x 2160 resolution it will require 300 Mbps of bandwidth. Not even current FTTH will be enough. | <urn:uuid:5ac5b304-469e-4f53-a2ee-4d85082aae76> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://disruptionmatters.com/tag/interactive-tv-applications/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908298 | 712 | 1.679688 | 2 |
I disagree with some of the things MikeW said. No matter what is between the subject and the sensor (or film), there will be light loss relative to what you would otherwise expect by considering only the f-stop. This is basic physics.
The additional light loss relative to f-stop is 1/(1 + M)^2, where M is the magnification from the real subject to its size on the focal plane. When taking a picture of a mountain or something, M is a very small number 1/1.000001 is still basically 1, so you don't notice the effect. However, at 1:1 we have 1/(1+1)^2 = 1/4, or 2 f-stops down. Real macro lenses may hide this effect by adjusting the aperture.
You don't lose more light because you flipped a lens around. You do lose light because you're probably magnifying more than unity else you wouldn't have flipped the lens around in the first place, so you're down 2 f-stops or more depending on actual magnification. Flipped lenses work because the lens was designed to focus close on the camera end and far on the subject end. With greater than 1x magnification, the lens will be closer to the subject than the film plane, so flipping it around uses it closer to how it was designed.
Depth of field is again due to physics. It's a function of the f-stop and magnification. Dedicated macro lenses live by the same laws of physics and can't make this go away. What they can do is have unusually high f-stops to allow for larger depth of field if you have the light to otherwise support using the high f-stop. Eventually diffraction effects get you (another basic physics issue), so even for dedicated macro lenses there is no point going further. For example, my Nikon 60mm macro lens stops down to f/64. That's about where diffraction effects start making the picture look a bit less sharp, so they stopped there. I have to think about using f/64 to consider whether the extra depth of field is worth the loss in sharpness. If the lens had f/91, I'd probably not use it anyway.
One effect to consider for extension tubes in particular is center haze. It happens because the light rays from the subject are less parallel than the widest angle difference the lens was designed for. Basically, when subject light comes in from a wide angle, the effective aperture is not constant accross the image. This is part of the same issue why DX lenses don't work with FX frame sizes. In case you think this is just a academic argument, here is a good example of this phenomenon:
Notice the white haze in the middle of the picture. This was a decent 135mm lens at f/8 with extension tubes. At f/8, it's not a diffraction issue and I've seen this at wider f-stops too. Some of this is also due to light bouncing off the inside of the extension tubes. Yes they rings and a flat black coating, but just looking thru them with your eyes you can see some reflection off the inside walls. This is a inherent problem with extension tubes.
Since the magnification was still less than 1 (I'm guessing maybe 1/3), flipping the lens around wouldn't have yielded anything useful, and I don't have such a adapter anyway. I don't blame the 135mm lens, since this was well beyond a geometry is was designed to operate at. This is actually a very nice and sharp lens when used as intended.
Here is a shot at about 1:1 magnification with a real macro lens:
Notice how the brightness appears pretty even over the whole frame. The macro lens is a Nikon 60mm at f/32. I've tried various lenses with extension tubes and not gotten something that even and without distorion effects in the corners.
Here are two pictures that illustrate the diffraction effect at very small apertures. This is the native pixels of a small region in the center of the previous image:
That was at f/32 as I said above. Here is the same shot at f/64:
There is a little motion blur (it was hand held at 1/15 second although my hand was resting on the ground), but that's not most of why it looks less sharp. You can see the aperture is smaller because the depth of field is greater as can be seen by comparing the backgrounds. It's not a focusing error either. From the whole picture I can see that this little fruiting body was about in the middle of the focused region.
So in conclusion, you can get useful shots with any of the three methods as long as you know the limitations of your setup and are willing to deal with them. However, dedicated macro lenses have some technical advantages that make them more convenient and allow higher quality pictures in some cases. They cost more, but extension tubes that carry all the special electrical signals and mechanical actions between the camera and lens aren't cheap either. Getting all that with a reverser is even harder, which makes them even more expensive if they do all that. Compare that to the price of a decent macro lens and the latter may not seem all that expensive for what you get after all. | <urn:uuid:7876cfec-bebe-471d-a706-7d2b9d1cc5d6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/19009/what-are-the-biggest-differences-between-reversal-rings-extension-tubes-and-mac | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972747 | 1,083 | 2.453125 | 2 |
History of the Counselor Education Program
Western’s Graduate Counselor Education Program Mission Statement:
The Counselor Education Program is committed to standards of excellence in the counseling profession. The program acknowledges a commitment both to the students who will pursue professional preparation as community and school counselors, and to the larger public to be served by our graduates.
In 1974, the Counselor Education Program, initially known as the Guidance and Counseling Program, was proposed and established in “A Report prepared for the Connecticut State Department of Education in accordance with the Procedures and Standards for Certification.” Faculty from the Psychology Department were responsible for initial planning of the Guidance and Counseling Program. At this time, a Master of Science Degree was to be awarded to students who completed the 33-credit program.
In 1977, Dr. Daniel Joynt was transferred from the Psychology Department to the Education Department, with the specific charge and responsibilities for developing and coordinating the Guidance and Counseling Program. For 14 years, Dr. Joynt served as the Program’s first coordinator. Today the Program remains housed in the Education and Educational Psychology Department. In 1977 Dr. Mary Friel also transferred from the Psychology Program to the Education Department to teach courses in the new Counselor Education Program. Additionally, Dr. Esther Morgan and Dr. Harold Burke, from the Psychology Department, were asked to teach counseling courses.
In 1985, a Community Advisory Board was established to help with the ongoing development of the Counselor Education Program. In 1989, a Community Agency Counseling option was developed as a separate option from that of program’s School Counseling option. At this time, Dr. Barbara McNelis joined the Program., and became the Coordinator of the School Counseling option.
In 1990, the Counselor Education Program explored the feasibility of national accreditation from the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP). In 1995, the credit hour requirement for both Program options was increased to 48 semester hours and the Program received initial CACREP accreditation. In 1997 full accreditation was granted through 2002. In 2002, the Counselor Education Program was reaccredited by CACREP through 2010.
In 1992, Dr. Theresa Canada joined the Counselor Education Program, and in 1994, Dr. Barbara McNelis assumed position of CACREP Unit Leader. In 1996, Dr. Kathryn Campbell joined the Counselor Education Program, and assumed the position of Unit Leader in 1999. .In 1998, Dr. Mike Gilles replaced Dr. Daniel Joynt, who retired. Dr. Mary Friel also retired that year. In 1999 Aram Aslanian joined the Counselor Education staff replacing Dr. Barbara McNelis who retired.
In the Spring of 2001, the Counselor Training Center is was established with Drs. Aram Aslanian and Mike Gilles providing supervision of counselor education students who together with counseling faculty co-facilitated family counseling sessions for participating families. As part of their Practicum and Internship experiences, students in the Community Counseling Program continue to provide family counseling and parent education under the supervision of Dr. Mike Gilles.
In early Fall of 2003, the Counselor Education Programs received full CACREP reaccreditation. In July 2003, Dr. Mike Gilles assumed the position of CACREP Unit Leader when Dr. Campbell stepped down to assume Department Chair of Education & Educational Psychology.
Graduates of the program have assumed leadership positions of the Connecticut Counseling Association (CCA) as well as the Connecticut School Counselors Association (CSCA). Two graduates of the Counselor Education Program, Bob Schmidt and Gail Lehman, have both served as Past Presidents of the Connecticut Counseling Association (CCA). Counselor Education faculty have also been active members of the Connecticut Counseling Association and the Connecticut Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (CACES). Dr. Dan Joynt has served as President of CCA; Drs. Joynt, Gilles and Aslanian have all served as chairpersons of CACES and continue to serve as Board Members of CACES providing specialized CACES Training Sessions for clinical supervisors throughout the state.
The Counselor Education Program is currently proposing a 60 credit M. S. in Counselor Education – Clinical Mental Health Counseling Option to replace the current 48-credit M. S. in Counselor Education—Community Counseling Option. This change has become necessary in order to meet the new 2009 standards of the Council for Accreditation on Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP). The new Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program Option is projected to begin in the Fall of 2010.
The Counselor Education Program must acknowledge the on-going support and cooperation from the WCSU administration and the many schools and community agencies that have provided excellent sites and supervision for several hundred counseling students. We thank you all. | <urn:uuid:48771877-09b4-44d2-b8c0-fa4e4173c9d5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://boilyp@wcsu.edu/sps/historyce.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946651 | 1,000 | 1.78125 | 2 |
My Calculus Project
This page is still not properly constructed. You can read my Calculus writeup.
It is a work in progress, take a look at the tables of content, the first one reflects
the material that I usually teach in my Elementary Calculus class for high school
students at MIT under HSSP initiative, the second is a tentative and more
elaborate, it is for a book that I hope to finish some day. I have not decided on the
name of the book, my latest favorite is "Caclulus: the Final Solution" with the subtitle:
"caution: reading this book may be harmful to your mental health." In accordance
with the modern tradition of intellectual freedom, it will include the source (LaTeX
and .fig, all the ones done so far are here now, the instructions are in README.txt)
and will be copylefted, see FDL for details.
I will appreciate any comments. Please, e-mail them to firstname.lastname@example.org,
email@example.com or firstname.lastname@example.org will work as well.
The idea to treat differentiation as division of functions came to me in the fall of 1997
when I worked as a part time recitation instructor at Suffolk University and was
disgusted by the textbook by Anton. I learned later that this idea had been used
by Caratheodory in his 1950 book on complex variables, and in fact (in a slightly
different form) by Weierstrass in his 1860-s lectures (see Ch.3 of Analysis by Its
History, which is one of the books related to Calculus that I recommend).
This insight was very useful, and the students liked this algebraic approach
that allows to deal efficiently with rational and elementary algebraic functions
without using limits (Susan Bassein's book from my list is a good example of
this ideology in action). It looked natural to me to treat differentiation as division
of continuous functions to develop the analytic aspects of Calculus. At this stage
I benefited a lot from my conversations with Mark Bridger who suggested using
uniform continuity (see his article in AMM ), some interest and incouragement
from Eric Towne who is a Calculus instructor at Harvard Extension School,
from David Mumford who was back then my close neighbor, from Victor Guillemin
and Richard Melrose who are still my close neighbors and from Richard Palais
who was my advisor at Brandeis in the late 80-s. The numerous discussions on
calc-reform and mathedu internet forums were also very helpful.
But the problem of explaining continuity (it was clear to me that continuity
should be dealt with before limits and limits should be explained in terms of continuity
as was done by E.Chech, according to Jerry Uhl ) still remained a daunting obstacle
to making Calculus elementary. The breakthrough came in May of 2001, when I met
with Hermann Karcher who was visiting Richard Palais in Weston, MA.
He told me about his brilliant idea to use uniform Lipschitz estimates
instead of uniform continuity, see the English summary of his approach
and his German lecture notes (see also Karl Dovermann's Applied Calculus based
on non-uniform Lipschitz estimates, that lead to a more cumbersome treatment,
as another attempt to avoid premature introduction of limits and continuity).
This proved to be the silver bullet that I needed to make Calculus truly
elementary without sacrificing much of its power. Unfortunately it looks
like popularizing these ideas among Calculus teachers may be an uphill battle because
of the conservative and entrenched nature of the establishment (I fondly call it
The Church of Limitology). The audience at Mathfest gave me a cold shoulder
in the August of 2001 when I tried to outline my plan for simlifying Calculus (to be fair,
I must admit that my talk was rather lousy and too short to make a point).
I got a warmer reception in September of 2001 at Williams College when Frank Morgan
invited me to give a colloquium talk. So I remain optimistic, most of all becuase I see
that the students who want to learn Calculus really like the approach that I take, and
to me it is the most important thing. In any case, here I have one more way to explain
Calculus, and the more ways we have - the better.
"Calculus without limits" T-shirt is available from my e-shop, take a look.
Slides (13 pages) for my talk on Friday the 13th in August 2004 at MathFest.
Slides (20 pages) for my talk at Wayne State on 10/11/2010.
My recent and still not quite finished article "You could simplify calculus" is on arxiv
and its slightly updated version is available too. | <urn:uuid:598359a9-515d-446d-857b-2fb15b938d0d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mathfoolery.com/calculus.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950873 | 1,036 | 2.015625 | 2 |
Post from the past: security fix after 8 years
The advisory from January 2005 was just one of hundreds of similar notices around then: a PHP application wasn't validating the parameters of a database query, which could have allowed an attacker with special URLs to inject database commands. The strange thing about this bug report for PHP Gift Registry, however, is that after more than seven years, the program's developer has finally decided to respond.
"All SQL queries have been replaced with parameterised statements in version 2.0.0" is all that is written in a message from Monday, 3 December 2012, that is apparently from the program's developer.
These kinds of SQL injection vulnerabilities are still widespread and are web applications' biggest security issues. Prepared statements are the easiest and most efficient way to protect against them; the developer prepares a database query, declaring which variable should be specified later, like the username:
$stmt = $dbh->prepare("SELECT user FROM users WHERE (user=:user)");
When the program is run, the developer only has to specify the username and can then send the prepared database query:
$user = 'ju';
The advantage with this method is that even if, for some strange reason, something like
ju';DROP TABLE users; --
ends up in the
$user variable, it will always just be treated like a strange search criterion and will never lead to unwanted database commands like table deletion. | <urn:uuid:fb1add41-3b7d-484a-950f-0af68598e089> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Post-from-the-past-security-fix-after-8-years-1762101.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931168 | 299 | 2.03125 | 2 |
In the September 2007 issue of Archives, a French group published the article “Surgery Without Scars: Report of Transluminal Cholecystectomy in a Human Being.”1 Their patient experienced “scarless” surgery, scant discomfort, and immediate return to activity. In contrast, laparoscopic cholecystectomy involves 4 small abdominal scars with mild pain lasting a few weeks. However, natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) adds hazards, the most serious being the risk of peritonitis due to leaks from the stomach or other access organs. Even with the ingenious closure techniques being developed in animals,2 we know leaks will occur. In their 2006 white paper on NOTES, the authors stated, “A 1% leak rate is not acceptable,” while acknowledging that leaks would be “inevitable (even if rare).”3 If the rate reached only a quarter of a percent (0.25%), with 750 000 cholecystectomies annually, NOTES would still cause 1875 people to go through a second operation and to protest, “The small gain in comfort, cosmesis, and activity was not worth it.”
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Country-Specific Mortality and Growth Failure in Infancy and Yound Children and
Association With Material Stature
Use interactive graphics and maps to view and sort country-specific infant and early
dhildhood mortality and growth failure data and their association with maternal
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Athens and Shibboleth are access management services that provide single sign-on to protected resources. They replace the multiple user names and passwords necessary to access subscription-based content with a single user name and password that can be entered once per session. It operates independently of a user's location or IP address. If your institution uses Athens or Shibboleth authentication, please contact your site administrator to receive your user name and password. | <urn:uuid:6ef9451c-3aaf-43a2-b597-557ac979b69d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://archsurg.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=600525 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.902477 | 825 | 2.015625 | 2 |
This post discusses the creation of beamer presentations using a combination of markdown, pandoc, and LaTeX. This workflow offers the potential to reduce typing and increase readability of beamer presentation source code. Source code for an example presentation is provided containing markdown and LaTeX source code along with a makefile for building the beamer PDF.
Monday, July 23, 2012
Thursday, July 19, 2012
This post presents the video of a talk that I presented in July 2012 at Melbourne R Users on using knitr, R Markdown, and R Studio to perform reproducible analysis. I also provide links to a github repository where the R markdown examples can be examined and the slides can be downloaded. | <urn:uuid:69e75ba9-3a76-428c-991d-8d91f75ae6fc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jeromyanglim.blogspot.com/2012_07_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.904021 | 145 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Last week, I lamented the fact that I’d been beaten to the punch in posting about finding images for blog posts. I sent our bloggers a link to the Smackdown post, but I think that post does a little too much “throat clearing” before it gets to the good stuff. (I say this because I’ve still had a lot of questions about image rights, and I’ve had to remove some images that we didn’t have the rights to use.) Here’s a simpler guide to finding free images for your blog posts.
Public Domain Images
You really can’t get much better than images in the public domain. No attribution is needed. You can modify them and use them commercially. How can you find public domain images to use?
- Wikipedia is your friend. While I don’t often advocate using Wikipedia as a source for anything, they provide a great listing of public domain image resources, and they list them by category. Categories include history, art, books, logos and flags, postage stamps, culture, and more.
- Try the US Government. There are a lot of great .gov images in the public domain. The government even made a list of the best copyright-free image libraries they offer.
- Good ol’ DMOZ. Why not check the open directory for some free images? DMOZ categories have human editors, so you can trust that each link does what it says on the box. Check out their listing of clip art in the public domain.
Creative Commons Images
Because not everything you need is going to be available in the public domain, Creative Commons is the next best thing. These images were often created by people like us who want to share their work as long as they get credit for it. If you use any images with the Creative Common license, make sure you follow the artist’s wishes for proper attribution! There are a lot of great Creative Commons resources out there:
- Flickr. There are so many images out there on Flickr! For our purposes, we use the Flickr Advanced search. The Smackdown post has a great screen capture (have to scroll down) of the Creative Commons section of the search page. Since we don’t generally need to modify or build upon the images we find, we only need to check the Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content and Find content to use commercially options, but I can’t currently create my own screencap to portray this. Maybe I can edit later.
- Google it. You can’t just do a Google image search for this; most of the images you find from a normal image search will return images with uncertain usage rights. But one user created their own Custom Search engine called the Connected Classroom Creative Commons Image Search, which searches 14 sites for Creative Commons images.
- Bad Neighborhood. The Creative Commons Google Image Search Assistant is a great meta search tool that can save you a lot of legwork by crawling multiple image resources to find only images that can be both modified and used commercially.
Free Stock Images
And of course, there are sites out there that offer free stock photos with their own rules for usage. Some require attribution, while others do not. Some require artist notification… Be sure to read the guidelines for each site to make sure you’re following the rules!
- Stock Exchange. This is one of my personal favorites. You’ll get to know the Stock Exchange URL (sxc.hu) quite well. They do list “premium” results at the top of each search page, which require purchase to download, so be sure you’re looking at the free image results. If you don’t see a watermark, you should be fine.
- MorgueFile. I used this site a lot when I was writing for a popular web content portal. Artists generally ask to be notified when you use their photos, and it doesn’t take long to leave them a comment to let them know where they can see their pics in use.
- Top Free Photo Site Lists. Everyone has an opinion about the best free stock image sites. See what the following people have to say: SpeckyBoy, DazzlinDonna, HubPages, PhotoshopSupport, Digital Image Magazine, CPAOffers (formerly Nooti)… You get the idea.
- Bad Neighborhood. And of course, there’s always the Free Image Meta Search that crawls multiple free image sites to save you the hassle of going to each site yourself. I generally don’t use this unless I hit a wall, because I like to check the sites with the best usage terms for my needs first.
Have I overlooked your favorite source of free images? Let me know. | <urn:uuid:25bd9417-aab1-4c31-ada3-44950cfd0b31> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.webuildpages.com/blog/blogging/the-simple-guide-to-finding-free-images-for-your-blog-posts/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915257 | 994 | 1.9375 | 2 |
SLAC at 50: Honoring the Past and Creating the Future
In the early 1960s, a two-and-a-half-mile-long strip of land in the rolling hills west of Stanford University was transformed into fertile ground for physicists' dreams.
They built the longest and straightest structure in the world – a linear particle accelerator first dubbed Project M and affectionately known as "the Monster" to the scientists who conjured it – to explore the mysterious subatomic realm.
Fifty years later, more than 1,000 people gathered at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory on Friday and Saturday to celebrate the scientific successes generated by that accelerator and the ones that followed, and the scientists who developed and used them.
The two-day event for employees, science luminaries and government and university leaders was more than a tribute to the momentous discoveries and Nobel Prizes made possible by the minds and machines at SLAC. It also provided a look ahead at the lab's continuing evolution and growth into new frontiers of scientific research that will keep it at the forefront of discovery for decades to come.
A history of discovery
The original linear accelerator project, approved by Congress in 1961, was a supersized version of a succession of smaller accelerators, dubbed "Mark I" through "Mark IV," that were built and operated at Stanford University. It would accelerate electrons to nearly the speed of light for groundbreaking experiments in creating, identifying and studying subatomic particles.
Stanford University leased the land to the federal government for the new Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and provided the brainpower for the project, setting the stage for a productive and unique scientific partnership that continues today, made possible by the sustained support and oversight of the U.S. Department of Energy.
Gregory Loew joined Project M in 1958 and saw the formation of SLAC and many changes during his 50-year career, which included time as SLAC's deputy lab director. "If you asked me when I joined the project what we were going to discover with this accelerator, I didn't know,” he said. “But I fully trusted that something new and exciting was going to be found."
Soon after the new accelerator reached full operation, a research team including SLAC and Massachusetts Institute of Technology physicists used the electron beam to discover that protons in the atomic nucleus were composed of smaller entities called quarks. That research led to the 1990 Nobel Prize in Physics, shared by SLAC's Richard Taylor and Jerome I. Friedman and Henry Kendall of MIT.
A dozen years after SLAC’s founding, researchers again struck physics gold with discoveries that were made possible by another major technical feat – the addition of the Stanford Positron Electron Asymmetric Ring (SPEAR). Rather than aiming the electron beam at a fixed target, scientists used SPEAR to bring circling beams of electrons and positrons from the linear accelerator into steady head-on collisions.
In what became known as the "November Revolution" in particle physics, experiments led by physicists Burton Richter at SLAC and Samuel Chao Chung Ting at Brookhaven National Laboratory announced their independent discoveries of the J/psi particle, which consists of a paired charm quark and anti-charm quark, in 1974. They received the Nobel Prize in Physics for this work in 1976.
And in 1975, SLAC physicist Martin Perl announced the discovery of the tau lepton, a heavy relative of the electron and the first of a new family of fundamental building blocks, for which he shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1995.
The age of colliders
These discoveries and others that reshaped our understanding of matter were empowered by a series of colliders and detectors:
- The Positron-Electron Project (PEP), a collider ring with a diameter almost 10 times larger than SPEAR, ran from 1980-90.
- The Stanford Linear Collider, completed in 1987, allowed scientists to focus electron and positron beams from the original linac into micron-sized spots for collisions. The SLC hosted a decade of seminal experiments.
- PEP was followed by the PEP-II project, which included a set of two storage rings and operated from 1998-2008. PEP-II featured the BaBar experiment, which created huge numbers of particles called B mesons and their antimatter counterparts, anti-Bs. In 2001 and 2004, BaBar researchers and their Japanese colleagues at KEK’s Belle experiment announced evidence supporting the idea that matter and antimatter behave in slightly different ways, confirming theoretical predictions of charge-parity violation.
Synchrotron research and an X-ray laser
Notably, new research areas and projects at SLAC have often evolved as the offspring of the original linear accelerator and storage rings.
Stanford and SLAC researchers quickly recognized that electromagnetic radiation generated by particles circling in SPEAR, while considered a nuisance to the particle collision experiments, could be extracted from the ring and used for other types of research. They developed this “synchrotron radiation,” which came in beams of X-ray and ultraviolet light, as a powerful scientific tool for exploring samples at a molecular scale. This early research blossomed as the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Project, a set of five experimental stations that opened to visiting researchers in 1974.
Its modernized descendant, the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, now supports 30 experimental stations and about 2,000 visiting researchers a year. SPEAR, now known as SPEAR3 following a series of upgrades, became dedicated to SSRL operations 20 years ago and celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.
Roger D. Kornberg, professor of structural biology at Stanford, received the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2006 for work detailing how the genetic code in DNA is read and converted into a message that directs protein synthesis. Key aspects of that research were carried out at SSRL.
SLAC’s Chief Research Officer, Keith Hodgson, joined SSRP in 1973 and has served as SSRL director, SLAC deputy director and an associate lab director for Photon Science. In the course of nearly 40 years he has participated in the growth and diversification of SLAC into a laboratory with world-class capabilities for the study of the structure and function of matter.
“The vision and determination of a few faculty and staff at Stanford and SLAC,” he said, “gave birth to SSRP, which evolved into SSRL as we know it today and along the way spawned innovative science and technology, including the concept and proof of principle for an X-ray free-electron laser.”
Meanwhile, sections of the linear accelerator that defined the lab and its mission in its formative years are still driving electron beams today as the high-energy backbone of two cutting-edge facilities: the world's most powerful X-ray free-electron laser, the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), which began operating in 2009, and FACET, a test bed for next-generation accelerator technologies.
An expansion of LCLS, dubbed LCLS-II, is slated to begin construction next year. It will draw electrons from the middle section of the original linear accelerator and use them to generate X-rays for probing matter with high resolution at the atomic scale.
A changing mission
The late Wolfgang K. H. “Pief” Panofsky, who served as the lab's first director from 1961-84, had often noted that big science is powered by a ready supply of good ideas. He referred to this as the "innovate or die" syndrome.
In 1983, Panofsky wrote that he had been asked since the formation of the lab, "How long will SLAC live?"
The answer was then, and still is today, "About 10 to 15 years, unless somebody has a good idea. As it turns out, somebody always has had a good idea which was exploited and which has led to a new lease on life for the laboratory."
Under the leadership of its past two directors – Jonathan Dorfan, who helped launch the BaBar experiment and the astrophysics program, and Persis Drell, who presided over the opening of the LCLS – SLAC's scientific mission has grown and diversified. In addition its original focus on particle physics and accelerator science, SLAC researchers now also delve into astrophysics, cosmology, materials and environmental sciences, biology, chemistry and alternative energy research.
Outside scientists still come by the thousands to use lab facilities for an even broader spectrum of research, from drug design and industrial applications to the archaeological analysis of fossils and cultural objects. Much of this diversity in world-class experiments is based on continuing modernizations at SSRL and the unique capabilities of LCLS.
The lab’s scientists and engineers continue to actively collaborate in international projects – designing machines and building components, running experiments and sharing data with other accelerator laboratories in the U.S. and around the globe, including Japan, China, Russia, the United Kingdom, Korea, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Latin America.
The lab's longstanding collaboration with CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, provided an important spark in the formative years of the World Wide Web and led to SLAC's launch of the first Web server in the United States. SLAC is also playing an important role in the ATLAS experiment at CERN's Large Hadron Collider, an international endeavor to explore the tiniest components of matter, where the elusive Higgs particle seems to have been discovered recently.
In the area of synchrotron science, collaborations with U.S. national laboratories and with overseas labs such as DESY and KEK have contributed greatly to the development of advanced tools and methodologies with enormous scientific impact.
Expertise in particle detectors has even elevated SLAC research into outer space. SLAC managed the development of the gamma ray-detecting Large Area Telescope, the main instrument aboard the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope that launched into orbit in 2008 and continues to make numerous discoveries.
Also, the lab has earned a role in building the world's largest digital camera for an Earth-based observatory, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, scheduled to begin construction in 2014 for eventual operation on a Chilean mountaintop.
Burton Richter, who served as SLAC director from 1984 to 1999, said the fast-evolving nature of science necessitates a changing path and pace of research.
"Labs can remain on the frontiers of science only if they keep up with the evolution of those frontiers," remarks Richter.
"SLAC has evolved over its first 50 years and is still a world leader in areas beyond what was thought of when it was first built. It is up to the scientists of today to keep it moving and keep it on some perhaps newly discovered frontiers for the next 50.” | <urn:uuid:eb1ab2d9-ebf3-42ea-a307-b950351db583> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www6.slac.stanford.edu/news/2012-08-24-slac-at-50-honoring-the-past-and-creating-the-future.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955974 | 2,246 | 3.09375 | 3 |
BLA is a frequency-enhanced, energized elixir that uses the ancient model of healing based on subtle vibrational energy to discharge patterns of disease. Energy healing has been used for thousands of years in many cultures throughout the world via a wide spectrum of modalities from breathing and movement techniques, to meditation, acupuncture and natural herbal remedies. What brings about dramatic healing from the above-mentioned energy modalities is the transfer of subtle energy to the cells guided by vibration. The importance of vibration can not be overstated in terms of how subtle energy communicates with our cells, changing their structure and function. Vibration encodes how the energies are used by the cells.
This elixir uses laser technology to frequency-enhance the highest quality artesian water with vibrational frequencies. BLA delivers frequencies instructing all cells that are overproducing lactic acid (fermentation being their primary mode of producing energy), to stop pumping lactic acid out of the cells into the rest of the body. Blocking these pumps prevents the cells from acidifying the body, inducing natural cell death due to lactic acid buildup.
Because BLA works by blocking lactic acid effluxion from these cells, supplements that enhance the elimination of lactic acid from cells should be avoided -- this includes Alkaline Water, calcium and mineral supplements, MSM, and OCMP. NOTE: Green Drinks should be limited to 1 serving per day. Fruits and vegetables that alkalinize the body are OK to consume in limited quantities while taking BLA.
Ingredients: Frequency Enhanced Purified Water | <urn:uuid:0f961374-ef19-460f-b616-0d6e80729ae3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gethealthyagain.biz/product_info.php?cPath=58&products_id=26173 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921029 | 319 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Thread: Isaiah 7,14 for dummies
May 21st 2004, 03:15 AM #1
Isaiah 7,14 for dummies
13 Then Isaiah said, ‘Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of men? Will you try the patience of my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. 15 He will eat curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right. 16 But before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste. 17 The LORD will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since Ephraim broke away from Judah — he will bring the king of Assyria.’ (NIV)
The context of this verse is that an alliance was threatening the idolatrous king Ahaz. Not only was he in danger, but the house of David was threatened with extinction. Therefore, Isaiah, addressing the house of David (as shown by the plural form of ‘you’ in the original Hebrew of v.13), stated that a sign to them would be a virgin conceiving. To comfort Ahaz, Isaiah prophesied that before a boy (Isaiah’s son, Shear-Jashub who was present, v. 3) would reach the age of knowing right from wrong, the alliance would be destroyed (vv. 15–17). It is important to recognize that the passage contains a double reference, so there is a difference between the prophecies to Ahaz alone (indicated by a the singular form of ‘you’ in the Hebrew) and the house of David as a whole (indicated by the plural form). Some anti-Christians, starting with the medieval Jewish commentator David Kimhi,have failed to understand this and misinterpreted the child Immanuel as a sign to Ahaz, possibly Ahaz’s godly son Hezekiah.
The word for virgin here is ‘almah. Some liberals and Orthodox Jews claim that the word really means ‘young woman’, and this is reflected in Bible translations such as the NEB, RSV, NRSV, and GNB. Such people fail to explain why a young woman’s bearing a son should be a sign — it happens all the time. The Septuagint translates it as παρθενος (parthenos), the normal word for virgin.Later Jews, such as Trypho, Justin Martyr’s (c. 160) dialog opponent, and Rashi (11th Cent.) have claimed that the Septuagint was wrong. Trypho claimed that ‘almah should have been translated neanis (young girl) rather than parthenos.
Once upon a time (around 735 BC) there was a king named Ahaz, from the house of David who reigned from Jerusalem over Juda. One day, a coalition formed by the king of Syria Rezin and the King of Ephraim Pekah, lays siege to Jerusalem and threatens to destroy it and to put another (puppet) king on the throne of David. Needless to say, poor Ahaz is terrified, but God sends forth the prophet Isaiah, who is accompanied by his son Shearjashub, to reassure him:
"Thus saith the Lord GOD, It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass."
"...within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people."
But incredible as it sounds, God makes it clear that unless Ahaz believe firmly in the prophecy, it will not come to pass. See how important man is for the realization of God's plans!
"If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established."
So, the next step is for God (represented by Isaiah who acts as the divine spokesman) to ask Ahaz what kind of sign, either celestial or terrestrial, would completely convince him that the prophecy is true. In other words, he asks him to play the role of the apostle Thomas !
"Ask thee a sign of the LORD thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above. "
But poor Ahaz refuses to tempt God. God then gets in a rage and chooses the sign himself.
What is the sign?
"A young woman is pregnant and will bear a son and she will call him "God/ a mighty man is with us." This child will only eat butter and honey until he is capable of distinguishing between good and evil. Before this (archvegetarian) boy reaches spiritual maturity, though, both Syria and Ephraim wil have lost their respective kings. (my own simplified translation from "this child" onwards)
As you can see, there is no cutting the prophecy in two: the so-called "virgin" here, and the vegetarian son there.
The notion that the son is really Isaiah's son is not supported by the textual evidence at all. Besides, if Shearjashub accompanied Isaiah to his meeting with Ahaz, we have good reason to think that he had already reached an age at which he could distinguish between good and evil. And of course there is nothing in the book of Isaiah to back up the claim that his son only ate "butter and honey" in hs early childhood.
So the "son" is clearly the son of the young woman who is pregnant at the moment when Isaiah utters his prophecy.
That this is indeed so is shown by the original Hebrew text which says literally :
theyoungwoman...pregnant...and...bearing...son...andwillcall...hisname...withus... God (or "mighty man", el has different meanings).
There is no future (imperfect) tense in Hebrew, except when it says that the woman will call her son Imanu El. While in the KJV we find "the virgin shall conceive", the Hebrew text simply says: "the young woman[is] pregnant". "Pregnant" is harah in Hebrew: it is an adjective and the verb "to be" is implied. If the prophecy is to have any significant effect on the future of the kingdom of Juda, it goes without saying that the pregnancy must have been an actual fact when Isaiah made his prophecy.
As far as the alleged virginity of the mother is concerned, I think that the situation is quite clear: in Hebrew there is an unambiguous word for "virgin" and this word is not almah but bethulah. That the Hebrew were pretty sensitive to the shade of meaning between the two is shown by Genesis 24,16 where Rebecca is identified as a "bethulah". Once the reader has been apprised of her marital and physiological status, and only then, does the author of Genesis go on to describe her as an almah. (24,43)
Conclusion: Isaiah 7,14 has nothing to do with the Messiah. The prophecy concerning the young woman was misappropriated by bumbling Matthew in his zeal to show that Jesus was born in a unique way.
Last edited by Magdalenbrother; May 21st 2004 at 03:32 AM.
May 21st 2004, 08:07 AM #2Originally posted by Magdalenbrother
May 23rd 2004, 11:15 PM #3
Re: Isaiah 7,14 for dummies
Do we have to take each Evangelist in bulk? Is it forbidden to distinguish historical facts from myths, theological elaborations, pious fables and edifying stories in each single author ?
I remind you that for me myths are highly instructive stories about inner realities. They are in fact more valuable than historical facts.
By Timothy in forum Eschatology 201Replies: 49Last Post: March 27th 2009, 11:50 AM
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By tsmethers in forum Philosophy 201Replies: 10Last Post: January 16th 2004, 03:00 PM | <urn:uuid:27268000-b052-4f8c-9672-ad4c157181d4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theologyweb.com/campus/showthread.php?26799-Isaiah-7-14-for-dummies | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956302 | 1,754 | 1.976563 | 2 |
(247 quotes found)
“RECRUIT, n. A person distinguishable from a civilian by his uniform and from a soldier by his gait.
Fresh from the farm or factory or street, His marching, in pursuit or in retreat, Were an impressive martial spectacle Except for two impediments --his feet. --Thompson Johnson”
“Our town was rigid in many ways, in terms of the uniformity of things, the colors of skin, the makes of cars, the lushness of the lawns, but on top of that it was sort of a blank canvas so-and again, I guess this is true of any child-I was ready to quickly accept the sudden and total substitutions of all I knew to be true.” | <urn:uuid:906a7614-6569-4c75-8ed1-dc59c3872837> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.quotesdaddy.com/tag/Uniform | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972904 | 158 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Female Genital Problems
A change in your normal vaginal discharge may be the first sign of a vaginal problem. Changes in urination, such as having to urinate more frequently or having a burning feeling when you urinate, also may be a symptom of a vaginal problem.
Conditions that may cause a change in your normal vaginal discharge include:
The exact cause of pelvic pain may be hard to find. The severity of your pain and other symptoms you have may help determine what is causing the pain. For example: A condition, such as functional ovarian cysts, may cause pelvic pain and vaginal bleeding when you are not having your period.
If you think you may have symptoms of an STI:
The presence or excess growth of yeast cells, bacteria, or viruses can cause a vaginal infection. A vaginal infection may occur when there is a change in the normal balance of organisms in your vagina.
The three most common types of vaginal infections are:
Common symptoms of vaginal infection include:
If you are pregnant and have vaginal symptoms, talk with your doctor about your symptoms before considering any home treatment measures. Some home treatment measures may not be appropriate, depending on the cause of your vaginal infection. Conditions such as bacterial vaginosis can affect your pregnancy, so it is important to talk with your doctor and be treated appropriately.
Vaginal infections may increase the risk for pelvic infections, such as pelvic inflammatory disease (PID).
Vaginal or vulvar problems
Other vaginal or vulvar problems may occur from the use of birth control methods, the use of medicines, or aging, or as a result of changes after pregnancy. These problems include:
A young girl with unusual vaginal symptoms should be evaluated by her doctor to determine the cause. Vaginitis in a young girl may be caused by:
A young girl with vaginal symptoms must also be evaluated for possible sexual abuse.
Rashes, sores, blisters, or lumps in the vaginal or vulvar area
Many conditions can cause a rash, sore, blister, or lump in your vaginal area (vulva). One of the most common causes of a rash is genital skin irritation that may occur when soap is not rinsed off the skin or when tight-fitting or wet clothes rub against the skin. A sore, blister, or lump in your vaginal area may require a visit to your doctor.
Treatment of a vaginal problem depends on the cause of the problem, the severity of your symptoms, and your overall health condition.
Check your symptoms to decide if and when you should see a doctor.
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A security device that stands between a private network and the Internet. It is like a wall in that it can prevent unwanted traffic from passing either way. Some firewalls have proxy functions built-in. In fact, the distinction between a firewall and a proxy is often blurry. Add in the differences and similarities between a firewall and a packet-filtering router and you’ve got one big ball of confusion. True firewalls generally support packet-filtering, proprietary application filtering, and some proxy functions, combining the features of other devices or software into one unified package. | <urn:uuid:8e792fc5-1e54-444b-b2b7-9ba553c7de5a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.geek.com/glossary/firewall/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937718 | 117 | 2.390625 | 2 |
With a new state statute regarding smoking in place, Grand Junction City Council members tweak the city's smoking ordinance.
Grand Junction did adopt an ordinance in October 2005 and began enforcing it this year, regulating smoking in public places.
Recently, Governor Bill Owens signed legislation enacting the Colorado Clean Indoor Act, which involves further restrictions.
The state legislation trumps the city ordinance which stated that smoking would be allowed indoors and in designated areas, therefore, City Council members simply reworked the ordinance to comply with the newly enacted legislation.
Because the state–based legislation was deemed a matter of state–wide concern, Grand Junction City Council members have no sway to either adopt or denounce the ordinance, the city must simply comply.
The new ordinance that will go into effect next month restricts smoking in most indoor public places, including bars and restaurants, but excludes casinos.
According to City Attorney John Shaver, this is just another phase of a continuously changing Grand Junction ordinance that is nearly 30 years old.
The statute has met with some resistance from business owners from throughout the state, however, come July 1, every business under the umbrella of the ordinance will have to comply. | <urn:uuid:12881666-5830-4281-98bc-b58320bedd5e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nbc11news.com/news/headlines/2998801.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964919 | 237 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Almost as common as “going green” or maybe “think global, act local,” a perennial contender, or should I say offender, for most overused sayings in our industry is “adding value.” What does this really mean and how can your company profit from it? “Adding value” or “Value added” are basic economic terms which represent the price difference between what it costs you to make a product and what you sell it for. Yes, in other words, it is why we are in business. It is our favorite goal/concept/need/passion—you get the point—Profit!
The challenge with this concept is how to add more of it doing what you are doing today. For example, if you are a marketing service provider, it might be time to make the foray into analytics or velocity drip marketing systems.
The great news is that adding profit doesn’t necessarily need to come by way of new investments or enhancing services. It can come by partnerships or dependable vendor relationships.
Although there are a lot of ways to add value, in my experience, the prerequisite to adding more value requires a departure from the “business as usual” mentality of figuring it out when the customer need arises. What can be done today to increase the profit of the engagement is a question that needs to be asked as many times as you can during the business day.
Once you identify what services are reasonable extensions of your or your staff’s capability, list them in order, with the highest margin work on top, and select the top quarter.
Can I Add Value by Reducing Cost?
Yes, as long as profitability is increased, so is the value. One example is use of the Every Door Direct service from USPS. By allowing you to use carrier route-based delivery, local businesses can now effectively mail to relevant target audiences for less than 15-cents apiece.
Granted, you cannot use personalization. However, you can certainly add lots of profit by placing SMS text-based coupons, QR codes, and mobile websites on static print (read, litho) to deliver a highly memorable experience at rates not seen since 1978 for a postage stamp.
Isn’t Adding Value All About Customer
No, adding value is all about profitability. Unless the brand value of your company allows you to consistently charge more for your product than the marketplace, it does not constitute added value. I point this out, as a lot of us are victims to investing in systems that make our process better, but not able to command a higher value for the product or service.
Needless to say, depending on whether your customers are print management companies, agencies, or end customers will have a tremendous impact on acceptable profit margins, but there are strategies and services which will help you command more value for your product in each of these segments.
Until next month, keep printing, my friends!
Sudhir Ravi is a serial entrepreneur who runs a variable data print practice within TVP Graphics in Streamwood, IL. Want to continue the conversation? Contact him at firstname.lastname@example.org or 312-772-3191. Connect via Twitter @ThinkVariable. | <urn:uuid:fe801788-7f12-4d28-96a8-762365ea9e33> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.myprintresource.com/article/10625275/keeping-print-relevant-adding-value-overused-term-or-overlooked-strategy | 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 | 0.947369 | 669 | 1.828125 | 2 |
We love holidays at Laura Ashley and Halloween is no exception-- we fancy every opportunity to create, decorate and celebrate so we were quite envious of our teammates across the pond who attended the London Design Festival and a workshop to create their very own BOO Faces! Based in the Sackler Centre of the Victoria & Albert Museum (London) the workshop used re-purposed materials and hand printing processes to form a 3D ‘BOO’ mask. The hosts, Ana and Amy from Studio Boo, encouraged attendees to get completely ‘stuck in’ with a long table of weird and wonderful craft materials from paper leaves and swatches of leather to fake hair and re-purposed pieces of metal.
To make your own, start by carving eyes in the mask and begin layering with all sorts of mad features-- from feathered beards to leafy hair or leather thong eye lashes-- the options are endless.
A BOO face starts to take shape!
Glue gun at the ready for sticking down leaves on a BOO mask.
A few other BOO faces on showcase at the end of the day.
Crafting a BOO face is a fun project for mums, dads and kids with Halloween just a few weeks out.
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Early retail acceptance can make or break many new products. When your latest innovation doesn’t hit the sales rate the retailer expects your product may be discontinued, resulting in a downward sales spiral. Here are some of the lessons learned from entrepreneurs who had to react quickly when CVS dropped their At Heart® emergency aspirin product. www.AtHeartOnline.com.
True to its name, At Heart®, can save your life during the first onset of heart attack symptoms. The American Heart Association recommends calling 911 and chewing an aspirin tablet at the first sign of a heart attack, but most of us are not walking around with a bottle of aspirin at the time. At Heart® is a portable, secure dispenser of two aspirin tablets that can clip onto a key ring for you to have with you at all times.
According to Mark Prus of PivotPoint Innovation, the agency for Advent Consumer Healthcare LLC, “We learned a lot about the introduction of an innovative product into the marketplace, first at retail and now on the internet. If we had a ‘do over’ we would incorporate the following lessons learned into our plans” :
1. Don’t swing for the fences – Most entrepreneurs want the “big hit” and sometimes you can go for it, but swinging for the fences carries a lot of risk, and if things don’t go the way you want, you can lose your shirt. The key is to do your homework and understand the size of the opportunity through intensive research with your target consumers. Only then can you develop plans that will produce results. In hindsight they would have been better off starting on the internet to build demand for the product and establish the brand equity before launching at retail.
2. Be prepared for the long run – This is the corollary to #1. Putting all the chips down on one number on the roulette wheel will bankrupt you pretty quickly. You need to spread your bets and invest a little in several opportunities until you figure out what is working.
3. Be sure you understand your target market – At Heart® is a useful product for men and women over 40, for people with a family history of heart disease, for those who don’t get regular physical activity or who smoke, who are obese, have diabetes, high cholesterol, or high blood pressure. That is a pretty big target market (e.g., 85 million people have some form of cardiovascular disease). Don’t make the mistake a lot of entrepreneurs make of saying “if we only get 1% of those people we will be rich!” According to Frank Alvino, the inventor of At Heart®, “We learned that most of the buyers are not the person at risk, but rather the caretaker of that person such as the spouse of someone who is at risk.” This has enormous implications for marketing the product properly.
4. Build in flexibility so you can react quickly – On the Dr. Oz Show, Rosie O’Donnell talked about her heart attack and pulled out her At Heart® and started to wax eloquent about the importance of the product. The opportunity came up quickly and the company had only a few days to react; the subsequent sales have been a difficult challenge for the company to meet. This type of unplanned promotion on Dr. Oz’s show is a gift for any entrepreneur.
5. Use experts and outsource where possible – The pairing of Frank Alvino, a seasoned entrepreneur, with Mark Prus, a veteran marketing and innovation expert, has been a great match. However, successfully launching a new product requires a lot of resources, and Mark and Frank have developed numerous outsourcing arrangements to fill the talent gaps as needed.
6. Stay in constant touch with consumers - Frank and Mark answer the phones and emails. While this may not be sustainable as volume grows, it is critically important in the launch period. For example, a glitch in the e-commerce solution was causing difficulty in ordering by some consumers. An alternate solution was developed to provide a quick patch while a long term fix is developed. A significant amount of sales would have been lost without constant contact.
Fortunately At Heart® has a second chance in the marketplace and is sold via the internet only. Perhaps when the brand is better established it may take another run at retail distribution. There is plenty of rationale for it to be in wide distribution at retail. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men and women in the United States. Each year, about 1 million Americans will suffer a first or recurrent heart attack, and some 500,000 will not survive it.
If you are looking for a stocking stuffer this holiday for someone you love, you might just be helping some entrepreneurs rescue their business. www.AtHeartOnline.com.
image credit: churning waters image from bigstock
Donna Sturgess is the President and Co-founder of Buyology Inc and former Global Head of Innovation for GlaxoSmithKline. Her latest book is Eyeballs Out: How To Step Into Another World, Discover New Ideas, and Make Your Business Thrive. Follow on Twitter: @donnasturgess | <urn:uuid:560b7e63-9847-4b68-9afd-32d0061ea45a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2012/12/10/lessons-from-an-innovation-rescue/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94725 | 1,061 | 1.6875 | 2 |
So much attention has been given to Stonehenge that many people are surprised to find that henges are so common around the world.
“There were no signs of any struggle. Everything looked peaceful. But the air seemed deadly.”
For the casual reader, Fractured Spirits is just enough to whet the appetite, and I’m not too proud to admit that a few of the featured stories gave me goose bumps.
The effects of the God Helmet ranged from feeling like they were in the presence of God, to seeing angels and auras and to feeling a nondescript presence in the room.
While no culprit was ever brought to account for these heinous crimes, this doesn’t mean that there aren’t a few theories about who was responsible.
As is their modus operandi, the AATs (Ancient Alien Theorists) point to elements of the mo’ai’s construction, transportation and erection and claim that our knowledge of these processes is either incomplete or inaccurate.
The colourful history of Sir Isaac Newton is a testament to the value of a scientific world-view. His application of the scientific method brought about a revolution in scientific thinking.
What is unanimously reported across news outlets is the fact that the pyramid has been completely destroyed with no hope of preservation.
Apparently, a stick-man encounter leaves the witness with a pointed feeling of dread and danger, much like the feelings reported by Shadow People witnesses.
Many of us view sleep as a sanctuary, a place of comfort and something to look forward to every evening, but what if you went into a deep sleep and for whatever reason, slept away the better part of a decade?
Of course, there are several plant species that are known for their aggressive predatory adaptations, such as the Pitcher Plant and the Venus Fly Trap.
The Dover Demon has made appearances in several books over the years, not the least of which is Coleman’s Mysterious America: The Revised Edition | <urn:uuid:4c6dabb2-48bf-4284-b588-8b6ec944178d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.paranormalpeopleonline.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969191 | 408 | 1.921875 | 2 |
In our SkyServer Projects, you will learn science by studying the 80 million stars and galaxies of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) - the same objects that professional astronomers study. Most of these objects have never been seen before by human eyes.
Work through these projects at your own pace. Each consists of several questions and exercises. If you get stuck, try reading our About Astronomy or About SDSS pages. Each project ends with a research challenge, which lets you do real astronomy research, just like thousands of professional astronomers around the world. When you finish the research challenge for each project, E-mail it to us. We'll look over all the results we get, and we'll put the best up on these pages!
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Spirits are natural denizens of the Shadow Realm, beings composed of ephemeral matter. As in animistic belief, spirits take a vast variety of forms, embodying the nature of anything from inanimate objects to living things to emotions, concepts and events.
Spirits have a complex relationship to the Material Realm; they may be birthed by strong emotions, the creation of objects or the birth of new life, or perhaps ephemera simply finds a home and identity by connecting with such things. Spirits begin their lives as tiny dormant motes of Essence. Eventually, as their material reflection grows and strengthens, they become powerful enough to awaken (or be awakened by something else). While some spirits may exhibit complex behaviour and high levels of intelligence, they always act according to their natures: wolf spirits hunt, toy spirits play, and flu spirits spread disease.
Regardless of their nature, however, all spirits require Essence, or spiritual energy. They may gather Essence by acting in accordance with their nature, but to grow more powerful, they must consume other spirits. Usually a spirit will consume spirits that somehow strengthen its identity: a wolf spirit may hunt and kill the spirits of prey animals, reinforcing its identity as a predator, or it may consume other less powerful wolf spirits. Sometimes, however, a spirit may consume another with a disparate nature, giving rise to hybrid spirits known to the Uratha as Magath.
While almost anything else may have a spirit reflection in the Shadow, humans and other similar beings (like vampires, werewolves and Prometheans) never do. This may be because they possess souls (or an equivalent). Human beings may leave behind ghosts when they die; such ghosts are distinct from spirits in that they do not naturally exist in the Shadow but in Twilight, and are thought to be mere echoes of a person, rather than a true reflection of their nature.
Spirits intrinsically feel a connection to other similar spirits, forming groups that the Uratha and mages call "choirs". These are broad categories defining spirits with compatible natures, such as Weather spirits, Tree spirits or Vehicle spirits. Powerful spirits may also be accepted into "descants", groups of more specific concepts, like Thunder spirits, Gum Tree spirits or Car spirits. Minor spirits are never considered part of a descant regardless of their natures, since membership in one conveys significant status.
Apart from this organisation, spirits are also intrinsically aware of their Rank, a measure of their power and ability which determines their place within the spiritual hierarchy. Spirits do not generally use names to refer to particular ranks or choirs, instead using descriptive terms or merely recognising another's level of power. Uratha and mages, however, have devised names which they apply to an abstraction of the levels of spiritual power, as follows:
|Rank||Description||Uratha name||Mage name|
|1||Newly self-aware spirit||Lesser Gaffling||Squire or page|
|2||Minor spirit||Greater Gaffling||Knight|
|3||Average spirit||Lesser Jaggling||Baron/Baroness|
|4||Powerful spirit||Greater Jaggling||Count/Countess|
|8|| Ancient or immense entities;|
universal concepts, planets etc.
|10||"Beyond manifest conception"|
Spirits of less than Rank 1 are tiny and exhibit no more intelligence or self-awareness than an insect; they are disregarded by all other spirits. Uratha, being spirit beings themselves, also have Rank, derived from their renown, though the Forsaken find most spirits acknowledge them only grudgingly.
An Awakened Master of the Spirit Arcanum can also instate herself into spirit hierarchy by casting the Spirit Court spell, and carries an effective rank no equal to Gnosis or dots in Spirit. (M:tA 256)
Powers and abilitiesEdit
Spirits do not possess learned skills or normal physical, mental or social attributes; instead, as they grow more powerful, they become simply better at doing whatever their natures require. In addition, they possess supernatural powers known as Numina which allow them to manipulate Essence to produce various effects, from bodily possession to crossing the Gauntlet into the Material World.
Spirits are also able to exert influence over whatever it is they embody. A Wrath spirit would be able to influence anger, making the emotion stronger, changing its target, or even making a calm person angry for no reason. Minor spirits generally have influence only over the single thing which they most embody. More powerful spirits have greater control over these influences, and may gain other influences as well. | <urn:uuid:1bb9a9ea-3c38-47ef-870f-dc237f475a5d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://whitewolf.wikia.com/wiki/Spirit_(WOD) | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92586 | 957 | 2.28125 | 2 |
Later, my father's oldest brother, 18 years his senior, brought the whole family to Tokyo to live with him. He had joined the railroad at an early age and had worked his way up to become stationmaster of Shimbashi, a major station on the line to Yokohama, Nagoya, and Osaka. The job came with a gold-braided stationmaster's cap and an official residence, modest but adequate to house his parents, brothers, and sisters. My uncle also got my father his first real job with the railways, earning a couple of yen – less than a dollar – per month. He worked his way through night school, studied English with an American missionary in Yokohama, and was baptized William – much to the distress of my devoutly Buddhist grandmother. His teacher called him Bill, a name he proudly adopted.
Those were heady days for Japan. The country had emerged from 200 years of feudal isolation in 1854, when Commodore Perry and his Black Ships sailed into Tokyo Bay (then called Edo), and forced the Tokugawa Shogunate to open its door to foreign trade. Japan modernized, Westernized, and won two short wars in quick succession – with China in 1894-95 and with Russia in 1904-05. World War I sparked Japan's first big economic boom. While the Europeans fought each other, Japan exported an increasing range of goods, from textiles to cement and steel. And that boom enabled my father to meet my mother.
Bill Oka was handsome, athletic, and a born salesman with a winning smile. His English, though broken, got him a job with Sale and Frazer, an Anglo-American trading company in Yokohama – Mr. Frazer being American and Mr. Sale, British. His first coup was to sell a new coupling system to the railways, which had been nationalized early in the 20th century. That prompted Mr. Frazer and Mr. Sale to send their employee on a field trip to the United States and England, visiting the Baldwin locomotive works in Pittsburgh and the Victor Talking Machine Company in London. | <urn:uuid:6dad7034-a91b-4b27-bd72-e271a6c0fc1b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://m.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/The-Home-Forum/2009/0430/p18s04-hfes.html/(page)/2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983325 | 429 | 2.28125 | 2 |
As Gaza is Savaged Again, Understanding the BBC’s Role Requires More than Sentiment
As Gaza Is Savaged Again, Understanding The BBC’s Role Requires More Than Sentiment
By John Pilger; November 23, 2012 - Znet
In Peter Watkins’ remarkable BBC film, The War Game, which foresaw the aftermath of an attack on London with a one-megaton nuclear bomb, the narrator says: “On almost the entire subject of thermo-nuclear weapons, there is now practically total silence in the press, official publications and on TV. Is there hope to be found in this silence?”
The truth of this statement was equal to its irony. On 24 November, 1965, the BBC banned The War Game as “too horrifying for the medium of broadcasting”. This was false. The real reason was spelled out by the chairman of the BBC Board of Governors, Lord Normanbrook, in a secret letter to the Secretary to the Cabinet, Sir Burke Trend.
“[The War Game] is not designed as propaganda,” he wrote, “it is intended as a purely factual statement and is based on careful research into official material ... But the showing of the film on television might have a significant effect on public attitudes towards the policy of the nuclear deterrent.”
Following a screening attended by senior Whitehall officials, the film was banned because it told an intolerable truth. Sixteen years later, the then BBC director-general, Sir Ian Trethowan, renewed the ban, saying that he feared for the film’s effect on people of “limited mental intelligence”. Watkins’ brilliant work was eventually shown in 1985 to a late-night minority audience. It was introduced by Ludovic Kennedy who repeated the official lie.
What happened to The War Game is the function of the state broadcaster as a cornerstone of Britain’s ruling elite. With its outstanding production values, often fine popular drama, natural history and sporting coverage, the BBC enjoys wide appeal and, according to its managers and beneficiaries, “trust”. This “trust” may well apply to Springwatch and Sir David Attenborough, but there is no demonstrable basis for it in much of the news and so-called current affairs that claim to make sense of the world, especially the machinations of rampant power. There are honourable individual exceptions, but watch how these are tamed the longer they remain in the institution: a “defenestration”, as one senior BBC journalist describes it.
This is notably true in the Middle East where the Israeli state has successfully intimidated the BBC into presenting the theft of Palestinian land and the caging, torturing and killing of its people as an intractable “conflict” between equals. Standing in the rubble from an Israeli attack, one BBC journalist went further and referred to “Gaza’s strong culture of martyrdom”. So great is this distortion that young viewers of BBC news have told Glasgow University researchers they are left with the impression that Palestinians are the illegal colonizers of their own country. The current BBC “coverage” of Gaza’s genocidal misery reinforces this.
The BBC’s “Reithian values” of impartiality and independence are almost scriptural in their mythology. Soon after the corporation was founded in the 1920s by Lord John Reith, Britain was consumed by the General Strike. “Reith emerged as a kind of hero,” wrote the historian Patrick Renshaw, “who had acted responsibly and yet preserved the precious independence of the BBC. But though this myth persisted it has little basis in reality … the price of that independence was in fact doing what the government wanted done. [Prime Minister Stanley] Baldwin … saw that if they preserved the BBC’s independence, it would be much easier for them to get their way on important questions and use it to broadcast Government propaganda.”
Unknown to the public, Reith had been the prime minister’s speech writer. Ambitious to become Viceroy of India, he ensured the BBC became an evangelist of imperial power, with “impartiality” duly suspended whenever that power was threatened. This “principle” has applied to the BBC’s coverage of every colonial war of the modern era: from the covered-up genocide in Indonesia and suppression of eyewitness film of the American bombing of North Vietnam to support for the illegal Blair/Bush invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the now familiar echo of Israeli propaganda whenever that lawless state abuses its captive, Palestine. This reached a nadir in 2009 when, terrified of Israeli reaction, the BBC refused to broadcast a combined charities appeal for the people of Gaza, half of whom are children, most of them malnourished and traumatized by Israeli attacks. The United Nations Rapporteur, Richard Falk, has likened Israel’s blockade of Gaza to the Warsaw Ghetto under siege by the Nazis. Yet, to the BBC, Gaza – like the 2010 humanitarian relief flotilla murderously attacked by Israeli commandos – largely presents a public relations problem for Israel and its US sponsor.
Mark Regev, Israel’s chief propagandist, seemingly has a place reserved for him near the top of BBC news bulletins. In 2010, when I pointed this out to Fran Unsworth, now elevated to director of news, she strongly objected to the description of Regev as a propagandist, adding, “It’s not our job to go out and appoint the Palestinian spokesperson”.
With similar logic, Unsworth’s predecessor, Helen Boaden, described the BBC’s reporting of the criminal carnage in Iraq as based on the “fact that Bush has tried to export democracy and human rights to Iraq”. To prove her point, Boaden supplied six A4 pages of verifiable lies from Bush and Tony Blair. That ventriloquism is not journalism seemed not to occur to either woman.
What has changed at the BBC is the arrival of the cult of the corporate manager. George Entwistle, the briefly-appointed director general who said he knew nothing about Newsnight’s false accusations of child abuse against a Tory grandee, is to receive £450,000 of public money for agreeing to resign before he was sacked: the corporate way. This and the preceding Jimmy Savile scandal might have been scripted for the Daily Mail and the Murdoch press whose self-serving hatred of the BBC has long provided the corporation with its “embattled” façade as the guardian of “public service broadcasting”. Understanding the BBC as a pre-eminent state propagandist and censor by omission -- more often than not in tune with its right-wing enemies – is on no public agenda and it ought to be. | <urn:uuid:2db3bf40-77da-4ead-a7cd-5740f1beea81> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mostlywater.org/gaza_savaged_again_understanding_bbc%E2%80%99s_role_requires_more_sentiment | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955777 | 1,427 | 1.65625 | 2 |
TARRYTOWN, N.Y. – A Hudson River advisory issued after partially treated and raw sewage washed into the river during Hurricane Sandy has been lifted, Westchester County health officials said Tuesday morning.
“People who use the Hudson River waters for recreational purposes, namely swimmers, boaters, kayakers and windsurfers, are free to resume direct contact with the water,” a statement from the county said.
The Wastewater Treatment Plant in Yonkers, the North Yonkers pump station and the Crotonville Pump Station were flooded during the storm, forcing officials to dump partially treated sewage and raw sewage into the Hudson River. An advisory was issued for Croton and all points south.
Officials say the Yonkers Wastewater Treatment Plant resumed secondary wastewater treatment on Nov. 22 and now meets testing requirements.
Repairs to the wastewater treatment plant are ongoing. Those repairs are expected to cost $12.65 million. | <urn:uuid:fedfbdb6-6ea3-42b6-afba-c3a4818cb893> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://yonkers.dailyvoice.com/news/county-lifts-hudson-health-advisory-issued-during-sandy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954488 | 193 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Located in Charlevoix, Michigan, Northwest Academy is a public school academy emphasizing science and technology. The extensive use of technology at NWA allows for a more individualized approach to learning. Small class sizes also allow for more one to one contact between teacher and student. Students at NWA take part in a broad spectrum of experiences; including experiencing the wilderness of Northern Michigan as well as the global community on the Internet. Northwest Academy is unique in this blending of two worlds, where Northern Michigan and the rest of the world join together. | <urn:uuid:3893e007-0b8d-44b5-a5c3-59e47fcd1648> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.blondins.com/pp/tsld008.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938171 | 108 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Prototype Tiltrotor UAV Crashed April 5
Bell Helicopter may be
going back to the drawing board, but it isn’t giving up on
its quest to develop unmanned aircraft systems.
On April 5, Bell lost the only prototype of its TR-918 Eagle Eye
tiltrotor UAV in a test flight crash. All had been going well
during the flight when the Eagle Eye, flying at about 300 feet
above the ground, suddenly lost power. Investigators said an
unknown glitch caused the fuel supply to be cut to the aircraft's
Despite the setback, however, Bell's executive director of
vertical unmanned aircraft programs, Bob Ellithorpe, says the
company is pressing on with its UAV plans. He told the Fort Worth
Star-Telegram Bell plans to build another version of the Eagle Eye
to continue the testing and development, but not until the crash
investigation is complete so that improvements can be
"We have high confidence in the flight-control systems," said
Ellithorpe, "and we have high confidence in the data link."
Bell launched the Eagle Eye program several years ago, after an
order from the US Coast Guard. The Coast Guard funded development
of one version of the UAV, the TR-916 (below), which would be
equipped with surveillance systems for operation from ships at
Due to the cost of re-equipping its entire fleet of cutters and
patrol aircraft, however, the Coast Guard has since delayed funding
for the Eagle Eye -- but Bell launched its own effort, aimed at
producing a less complex version of the UAV, the TR-918, that could
be sold to the US military or law enforcement agencies.
Ellithorpe says that the Eagle Eye will fly again... but not
before Bell learns its lessons from the accident so improvements
can be made.
"What did we learn in flight test? What did we learn in the
mishap? Those will go into the calculation of what comes next,"
And as far as Bell's UAV plans after the Eagle Eye? Well, Bell
makes helicopters, after all... and Ellithorpe says they're not
overlooking the opportunity to develop an unmanned helicopter. | <urn:uuid:7a60ae43-c8d9-4837-8254-c51f20edaaa9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aero-news.net/bannertransfer.cfm?do=main.textpost&id=5b047b19-d711-4eac-8e3c-0384c4306028 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940945 | 473 | 1.757813 | 2 |
January 07, 2013172013
Health Tip: When Varicose Veins Are a Problem
Varicose veins are enlarged, bulging veins
often found on the thighs, calves or inside the leg that can cause
significant pain when standing or walking. They are rarely serious
but sometimes warrant evaluation by a doctor.
Moms May Use TV to Calm Fussy Infants: Study
Many babies spend almost
three hours in front of the TV each day, a new study finds,
especially if their mothers are obese and TV addicts themselves, or
if the babies are fussy or active.
Mental Health of Dads-to-Be May Influence Toddler's Behavior
Plenty of research has linked
a mother's mental health during and after pregnancy with her
child's well-being. Now, a new study suggests that an expectant
father's psychological distress might influence his toddler's
emotional and behavioral development.
Menopause Can Bring Lapses in Memory, Thinking, Study Finds
Women going through menopause
sometimes feel they are off their mental game, forgetting phone
numbers and passwords, or struggling to find a particular word. It
can be frustrating, disconcerting and worrisome, but a small new
study helps to explain the struggle. | <urn:uuid:95a7340e-7c6e-466f-a4ef-fe08630630d3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.crouse.org/news/health-news.aspx?chunkiid=841795 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919622 | 267 | 1.84375 | 2 |
I’ve been thinking of spiffying-up my Behold News mailings that I send out from time to time to Purchasers and Trial Users. Currently, I send out a text e-mail, but I was thinking of sending it out in HTML, so it could look nicer and match the look of my Behold website.
Quite a while ago, I had made up a template that was pretty close to what I wanted, so I thought it wouldn’t be a problem. But then as a test, I sent it from Outlook Express to myself, and to my great surprise, it came into my inbox marked as spam. So over the past two days, I have learned just about everything there is to know about spam e-mail, multipart messages (text and html), embedding images in email, and I have determined the best way to send HTML emails and have now finalized my template for future mailings. What I learned surprised me.
First, I found that my mailing list software makes it possible to add a 1 by 1 pixel transparent gif called a “web bug” that will record when the email was opened and every time it is opened. Spam mailers use this to verify that an e-mail address is valid. Second, the same software also allows tagging all links in the email so that when any link is clicked on, it will record who clicked what link and when. Marketers often use this for valid reasons, but there are many invalid uses as well.
I had heard about web bugs before hadn’t previously been concerned. I tried this out in some test mailings to myself, and now I’m a bit horrified. This amounts to blatantly hiding spyware inside an email message, and recording someone’s activities without their permission. To me that is not at all ethical, and I shudder to think how many email messages I have opened with such tracking devices in them. I’m not personally too worried, because I have nothing to hide about my emailing activities.
At any rate, I will not resort to such tactics, not now and not ever.
Instead, I think you’ll like the pleasant new look that my Behold News will have. For people who turn off viewing of images in their email reader to prevent this spying, my news should still look okay when it is translated to text form, although not quite as good as if I custom wrote the text part myself.
And a question: Does anyone who is reading this, have a copy of Behold on a Vista computer yet? I’m really curious as to whether it works without problems. I’m pretty sure it should, but you never know. | <urn:uuid:ae4c6c6b-75e9-4b7f-b5fc-f46ecc1b4df2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.beholdgenealogy.com/blog/?p=500 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966746 | 559 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Connecting With People
Today I want to talk about connecting with people.
Connecting in the way we communicate with them. Not just by what we say, but the way we make them feel.
Same principal applies to the way we interact with our spouse or partner, our family, friends, acquaintances, work colleagues, business associates, and everyone we interact with throughout the day. Even complete strangers we pass by on the street.
Without even being conscious of it we are connecting with people all the time.
It isn’t always easy to understanding how other people are feeling, and quite often we can get it wrong, With those close to us, we might think we understand, or we assume we know, but this is when things can go pear shaped, and we find we are miles off from where they really are.
I did this with an old friend recently where I made an assumption on how she was feeling, or so I thought.
Big, big mistake, in so much that I just took for granted that everything was as it had always been.
I forgot to check in and connect with her and get a feel for where she was at. I didn’t think I did anything wrong as such, but in her mind I had, and she didn’t hesitate to let rip at me for being so insensitive.
Sounds like a minor thing, but these small actions are what makes and breaks our relationships.
Just shows you that even when we think we have the answers, we are still vunerable to messing it up, so we always have to be working at it.
I’m sure all conflicts are caused because of some initial misunderstanding of how a message is first communicated to another. Want an example of this, think about the way men and women’s differing communication habits cause so many problems.
With our close relationships, like our partner or spouse, they will tell us when we stuff up, After all they have to live with us, so it becomes very difficult for them not to give us feedback, but with people we don’t know as well, it’s different. Like customers for instance.
If a customer feels that we haven’t connected with them, and made some effort to truly understand what they need, then they can just walk away.
With our customers and prospects, it is essential to get a grasp on their specific situation, where are they at, what are they looking for, what do they need to solve their problem, how do they feel, how can we help. If a customer can sense we genially care about them, if they feel we are listening to them and are trying to understand them, they will start to feel a little better about us. Then, and only then, the trust begins to build.
The deepest hunger of the human soul is to be understood.
When I meet or speak to a prospect or a customer, I make sure my full attention and focus is on them.
My language and demeanour is often what connects with them
The non -attachment mentality.
One of the biggest lessons you can learn when connecting with people in the network marketing industry, is developing a non-attachment mentality.
This is not to be confused with a blasé don’t care arrogant sort of attitude, but more of a mindset where your sole objective is to listen and understand the other persons needs. In other words helping them is the priority.
When you have a non attachment mentality with someone, you are not attached to the outcome. it does not matter whether or not this person becomes a customer, you are going to be successful.
Your purpose for sharing your opportunity with them is to genuinely improve their life significantly, and you believe that what you have will do that.
You are that confident of your ability. and belief in your self, that no matter whether that person buys from you or not, you know nothing will prevent your ultimate success.
Having the non-attachment mentality does require skill. Using language to connect with that person that expresses your only motive is them, and you have to be genuine. If your’e not genuine, then you need to work on yourself and get genuine, you can’t fake this. Try and you will look as phoney as glass eye.
The non-attachment theory will not work unless you genuinely care about people.
If your attitude is weak in these areas, you are going to find it hard truly connecting with people, and believing what you have will help others.
But if your attitude is in the right place it changes the dynamics of the conversation between you and the customer.
People don’t care about how much you know until they know how much you care.
If you like this post, on connecting with people feel free to share and leave a comment.
Member Since: 11/17/2011
I'm a Distributor For:: Magnetic Sponsoring
Other Company: Empower Network
Industry: Affiliate Marketing
Primary Web Site: http://www.empowernetwork.com/truestory.php?id=morgodub | <urn:uuid:7ca8a4de-c92f-44b6-8dd3-3fa99c18b21e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.betternetworker.com/articles/view/personal-development/positive-thinking/connecting-people | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972432 | 1,063 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Government workers, tribal elders, contractors and those alleged to spy for foreigners have all been targeted in a wave of killings in the first six months of the year.
A total of 255 civilians were executed and 101 wounded in the attacks in the first half of the year, up 53 per cent from a year earlier.
The overall number of civilians killed in the conflict fell over the same period, but officials said they feared the decline was in part due to a bitter winter and heavy snowfall rather than improving security.
Civilians were still being killed at "alarmingly high levels", with four fifths of deaths attributed to attacks by the Taliban-led insurgency.
Indiscriminate insurgent bombs and suicide attacks remained the biggest threat to civilians. The proportion killed by Afghan government or Nato forces has dropped to around 10 per cent.
Nicholas Haysom, the UN's deputy special representative to Afghanistan, said: "The reduction in civilian casualties is welcomed, but these gains are fragile. They do not reflect a move towards a peaceful society." He continued: "This report does not suggest that Afghans are necessarily safer or better protected in their communities. Nor does is suggest any real or concerted attempt by anti-government elements to minimise civilian casualties." In all, 1,145 civilians were killed and 1,954 wounded in the first half of 2012, down 15 per cent on a year previously.
The UN's figures are a keenly watched indicator of security. When Barack Obama ordered a surge of troops to Afghanistan, his commanders said their goal was to protect Afghans from the Taliban.
James Rodehaver, the UN's head of human rights in Afghanistan, said deaths had jumped significantly in July and he feared the trend remained upwards.
"We would caution reading too much into the 15 per cent overall reduction in civilian casualties," he said.
"That is a very hollow trend." | <urn:uuid:aab2ca2b-0450-4100-a931-cb52e0728c71> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/9461881/Targeted-killings-in-Afghanistan-up-53-per-cent.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977978 | 384 | 1.695313 | 2 |
10 BRIMFIELD (D.b.)
(O.S. 6 in. (a)VII, N.E., (b)VII., S.E., (c)VIII, N.W.,
Brimfield is a parish on the N. edge of the county,
6 m. N.N.E. of Leominster. Nun Upton is the
b(1). Parish Church of St. Michael (Plate 6)
stands on the N. side of the parish. The walls are of
local sandstone rubble and ashlar with dressings of the
same material; the roofs are slate-covered. The church,
judging by some re-set fragments, was partly a 12th-century building. The West Tower was added probably
early in the 13th century, and the chancel was re-built
perhaps in the 14th century. In 1834 the Chancel and
Nave were re-built. The tower was restored in 1884, and
in 1904–5 the Nave was again largely re-built. The
South Porch and Vestry were added in 1908.
Architectural Description—The West Tower (9½ ft.
by 10¼ ft.) is of three stages, the two lower probably
of early 13th-century date and of stone, and the top
stage timber-framed and with pyramidal roof. The
ground stage has a modern doorway in the E. wall
with a doorway to a former gallery above it; there is
a blocked modern doorway in the N. wall; the W.
window is modern, but above it is the round head of
the original window. The second stage has an original
window of one round-headed light in the N. and S.
walls; on the E. wall is the mark of the mediæval roof
of the nave with a blocked opening below it. The
timber-framed bell-chamber is probably of 16th or
17th-century date, and has vertical framing with curved
braces and close studding on the outward face; the
weather-boarding and windows are modern.
Fittings—Bells: three; 1st, inscription obliterated,
but possibly mediæval; 2nd, by John Martin, 1659;
3rd, cracked and inscribed in Lombardic capitals
"Sanb[c]ta Maria pro [no]bis," many of the letters
reversed, early 16th-century. Chair (Plate 48): In
chancel—with turned front legs, curved arms, enriched
rails, panelled back with incised design, carved top rail
and cresting, c. 1640. Font: quatre-foiled bowl with
moulded underside, quatre-foiled stem and moulded base,
early 13th-century, stem modern. Panelling: Round
walls of church, 17th-century panelling, re-set as dado.
Plate: includes a cup and cover-paten of 1637, and a
pewter flagon and two plates. Miscellanea: Re-set in E.
wall of porch, part of round head, perhaps of a window;
the round head of a second window is re-set in a building
at the S.W. angle of the church, both probably 12th-century or earlier.
Condition—Good, largely re-built.
d(2). Nun Upton (formerly Nunn's Upton), house,
over 1 m. S.E. of the church, is of two storeys with
cellars and attics; the walls are partly of brick and
partly timber-framed, and the roofs are covered with
tiles. The central block of the house was built in
the 16th century with a cross-wing on the N. Early
in the 17th century the S. cross-wing was re-built and
a further N. wing added, both in brick; at the same
time the W. side of the main block was faced in brick.
Late in the same century the gables of the brick wings
were re-built in curvilinear form. The roofs have been
largely re-built, and an addition made on the E. in
modern times. The E. face (Plate 21) of the original
building has close-set timber-framing; the porch has
been largely re-built, but the upper storey projects on a
moulded bressummer; S. of it is a 17th-century window
of four lights with moulded frame, mullions, transom
and sill. The S. wing has a moulded brick string
between the storeys and a later curvilinear gable with
a moulded coping and ball-ornaments at the base; the
17th-century window on the first floor is of four lights
with moulded jambs, mullions and label. The middle
chimney-stack is of early 17th-century date with two
diagonal shafts; the S. stack is of late 17th-century date
with three shafts, the two outer being rusticated; the
N. stack is of the same period. The S. face has two
added round gables, one retaining its ball-terminal.
The W. end of the S. wing is similar to the E. end. The
17th-century brick porch, on the W. side, has a round
gable and a segmental-headed doorway in the N. wall
with a moulded label or string above it. The N. end
of the N. wing is similar to the ends of the S. wing.
Inside the building the ceiling-beams are mostly
exposed. The S.E. room on the ground floor has an
early 17th-century plaster ceiling with remains of
moulded panels enclosing bands of running foliage and
fruit ornament. The mid 17th-century S. staircase has
heavy moulded strings and rails, turned balusters and
square newels with ball-terminals; some balusters of
the same date remain at the top of the N. staircase.
There is also a 17th-century panelled door.
The following monuments, unless otherwise
described, are of the 17th century and of two storeys;
the walls are timber-framed, and the roofs are covered
with tiles or slate. Most of the buildings have exposed
external timber-framing and internal ceiling-beams.
Condition—Good or fairly good, unless noted.
c(3). Cottage, on the W. side of Lynch Lane, 1¼ m.
E.N.E. of the church.
c(4). Cottage, at Gosford, 1,200 yards N.E. of the
church, has been partly re-built.
b(5). Cottage, on the S.E. side of the road, 300 yards
N. of the church, was built probably in the 16th
century, but has been much altered.
b(6). Cottage, on the S. side of the lane, 400 yards
S.S.E. of the church.
b(7). Cottage, on the N.E. side of Brimfield Common,
1,020 yards S.W. of the church, has a thatched roof.
b(8). Shortgrove, house, 1,450 yards S.W. of the church,
was built on an L-shaped plan with the wings extending
towards the E. and S. The upper storey projects at
the W. end of the E. wing on a moulded bressummer;
at the base of the gable are carved brackets.
b(9). Holmecroft, house, on the S. side of the road at
Wyson, ½ m. W. of the church, has a thatched roof.
b(10). House, on the S. side of the road, 100 yards
E.N.E. of (9), has exposed framing in squares. In the
E. wall is a blocked doorway with a triangular head.
b(11). Cottage, on the N. side of the road, nearly
b(12). Pool Cottage, on the S.E. side of the road, 800
yards W.N.W. of the church, has been heightened.
b(13). Cottage, 20 yards E. of (12), has a thatched roof.
a(14). Cottage, on the W. side of the road, 950 yards
N.W. of the church, has a corrugated iron roof. | <urn:uuid:ce942d9a-c617-4034-a729-c0c2d7eaa219> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=124599 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952081 | 1,889 | 1.828125 | 2 |
by Alan Caruba
In May Rasmussen Reports took a survey of a thousand adults asking if they believed that States have the right to secede. “One-in-five Americans believe individual States have the right to break away from the country, although a majority doesn’t believe it will actually happen.”
That a Tea Party movement sprang to life in the midst of the protests against Obamacare and then was instrumental in transferring political power in the House of Representatives in the 2010 election cannot be dismissed. People – lots of them – are increasingly wary of the central government, particularly one that has burdened them with more debt in the last three years than in the entire prior history of the nation.
In October, Pelican Press will publish Rethinking the American Union for the Twenty-First Century in which a number of scholars edited by Donald Livingston, a professor at Emory University in Atlanta, examine the implications of secession, possibly by regional groupings of States, from the present federal government.
Prof. Livingston is a political philosopher and scholar, the author of two books on the British philosopher David Hume and may well be one of a handful of people who have given serious thought to the question of whether the present Union has either outlived its usefulness or, worse, become a sinkhole of power aggregating to itself total control over the States.
The Tenth Amendment clearly states that “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
That is true, but I doubt there is a single Governor of any of the fifty States who cannot enumerate the ways the federal government has wrested power from them while imposing costs. When Arizona finds itself the object of a federal legal suit to prevent it from trying to control its border with Mexico, you know there’s a problem.
In an article, “Decentralization for Freedom”, by Prof. Livingston, he raises some issues that are increasingly troubling to a growing number of Americans. He addresses the measures States can take “to protect their citizens from usurpations by the central government.” Among these are the passing of resolutions. “A continuous flood of resolutions from the States about the constitutionality of this or that issue (and widely publicized) would serve to educate the public.”
Thereafter, Prof. Livingston recommends a resort to the Tenth Amendment by State legislators and governors in order to recover usurped authority. We are beginning to see another measure, the refusal to accept federal funding as regards its centralized control of education.
Resistance to Obamacare is based on the question whether the federal government can require individual citizens to purchase something they do not want. The House has passed a measure to repeal it, but it is stalled in the Democrat-controlled Senate. Reverse the situation and you have a federal government telling Americans what they cannot buy, as in the case of the 100 watt incandescent light bulb in use since the days of Thomas Edison.
“Genuine federalism in America can be recovered only by political action in the name of the State’s own authority and not by Supreme Court legalism,” says Prof. Livingston.
“To all of this it is often said that State interposition, nullification, and succession were eliminated as policy options by the Civil War. Brute force, however, cannot settle moral and constitutional question.” While Lincoln did “save the Union”, he did so at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives and the destruction of the South.
Clearly the central government has grown so large, so unwieldy, so wasteful, and so unresponsive to the problems and costs it has imposed that people are beginning to wonder why 435 Representatives in the House and 100 in the Senate should control the lives, the economy, and the education of more than 300 million people in fifty sovereign States.
The President virtually makes law with “executive orders” and the nine members of the Supreme Court exercises final authority of the constitutionality of laws. Congress is so divided by raw partisanship it is barely functioning.
“The only remedy,” says Prof. Livingston “is territorial division of the Union through secession into a number of different and independent political units.”
“The current central government of the United States hates inequality, but it also fears the people,” says Prof. Livingston, noting that “There is no law an American State can pass that cannot be overturned by the arrogant social engineers of the Supreme Court who in the last fifty years have played with the inherited moral traditions and federative policy of the American people like a quack with a hapless patient.”
“Constitutionally, this means that the States must reassert their sovereignty under the Ninth and Tenth Amendments and recall those powers they have allowed to slip out of their hands to the central government.”
This is not a call for anarchy. It is the realization that the modern presidency has aggregated to itself powers it does not have or, in the case of Libya, is ignoring the War Powers Act that limits its ability to engage the nation in conflicts Congress does not ultimately authorize.
It is the realization that every United Nations treaty the United States signs deprive it of its sovereign rights.
It is a call for consideration that regional groups of States with common interests might provide better government within such groups, leaving to the central government the responsibility to protect the nation via a common military, conduct foreign affairs, and return to the gold standard that would protect the value of a common currency.
When one-in-five Americans give credence to the right of secession, it is clear that the problems being experienced in all fifty States, the massive regulation of all activities within those States, the imposition of a centralized “core” curriculum to be taught in all schools, is arousing a rediscovered sense of liberty among Americans.
What steps must be taken to retain that liberty and even to restructure the Union are as yet undetermined, but they are increasingly entering the public debate.
There is no debate that something is terribly wrong when a president is elected whose eligibility and legitimacy is in serious question while the courts do nothing to address this critical constitutional issue and the Congress does nothing while sending bills for his signature.
Reprinted with permission from Warning Signs.
June 9, 2011
Alan Caruba founded The National Anxiety Center in 1990 where this series is posted. An author, business and science writer, he blogs daily at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com.
Steve Baysinger is the State Chapter Coordinator for the Texas Tenth Amendment Center.
If you enjoyed this post:
Click Here to Get the Free Tenth Amendment Center Newsletter, | <urn:uuid:a18f32e6-0e81-4dfc-b75c-6702363d2c89> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://texas.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2011/06/a-whiff-of-secession-and-nullification/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961684 | 1,396 | 2.46875 | 2 |
The U.S. government, in order to prevent an epidemic of anthrax, purchased in large quantities antibiotic Cipro (ciprofloxacin). Tens of thousands of U.S. citizens take this medicine as a preventive treatment. However, unjustified administration of powerful antibiotics develops “immunity” in many pathogenic viruses, and the same could happen with anthrax. In addition, under such conditions increases the likelihood of the possibility of purposeful development of a form of anthrax resistant to medicines that threatens a catastrophe.
Drugs-health.com is your healthy decision. You health is our speciality.
Currently in clinical practice are becoming more common so-called respiratory fluoroquinolones, which on one hand, preserve the activity of the early fluoroquinolones (eg ciprofloxacin) against gram-negative organisms, but on the other – are more active against pneumococci and atypical bacteria.
Levofloxacin, the active component of Levaquin, is the most studied substance among respiratory fluoroquinolones. It has been prescribed to more than 300 million patients worldwide. A number of clinical studies has confirmed Levaquin’s high efficacy and safety both in the traditional indications for this group of antibiotics, such as acute sinusitis, exacerbation of chronic bronchitis, community-acquired pneumonia, urinary tract infections, and in some other diseases: nosocomial pneumonia, chronic bacterial prostatitis.
United states Food and Drugs Administration approved the medication Staxyn (varbenafil HCL) tablets for the treatment of erectile dysfunction. The main advantage of Staxyn is that tablets are quickly dissolved in the mouth cavity under the tongue. Staxyn is made by GlaxoSmithKline and Merck & Co. The medication will be very soon available on US pharmaceutical market.
On June 14, 2010 Food and Drug Administration USA (FDA) approved drug Jalyn (dutasteride 0.5 mg and tamsulosin 0.4 mg) for the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) in men with prostate enlargement.
Dutasteride is an inhibitor of 5α-reductase, tamsulosin is α1-adrenoceptor blocker. The combination
of dutasteride and tamsulosin has been properly studied in patients with BPH and it was shown high effectiveness and safety profile.
The substance contained in green tea may become another tool for the treatment of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Researchers from the Mayo Clinic conduct the second phase of study of substance called epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), also known as Epigallocatechin 3-gallate.
US Food and Drug Administration approved the drug Prolia (denosumab) for the treatment of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women at high risk of fractures as well as for the treatment of bone tissue loss in men, prostate cancer patients with similar risk.
Clinical studies have shown that Denosumab works by improving bone mineral density and reducing different types of fractures.
FDA approved Zymaxid ophthalmic solution for the treatment of bacterial conjunctivitis. Zymaxid contains the active ingredient gatifloxacin that belongs to a group of fluoroquinolone antibiotics. Like other fluoroquinolone antibiotics Gatifloxacin works by inhibiting the enzyme DNA-gyrase. This enzyme is necessary for repairing and synthesis of bacterial genetic material (DNA).
Natazia is a new oral contraceptive that has been recently approved by FDA. Natazia is made by the pharmaceutical company Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals. Natazia is currently available in the European Union under the name Qlaira. Natazia is the first four-phase oral contraceptive that releases female sex hormone progestin at four times for twenty eight day in treatment cycle. Natazia contains 2 active active ingredients: estrogen (estradiol valerate) and progestin (dienogest).
According to a new study conducted in Finland, smoking during pregnancy can cause mental problems in the children.
It is well known that if a woman smokes during pregnancy, it can lead to a large amount of congenital diseases including respiratory diseases such as asthma, heart and blood vessels diseases, high risk of ENT infections and other health problems. The new study was focused on the relationship of mental health problems such as depression, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and maternal smoking during pregnancy.
According to a new study conducted in the UK regular use of olive oil high consumption can significantly reduce the risk of ulcerative colitis developing.
Ulcerative colitis is a chronic inflammatory disease of the rectum and colon. The main symptoms of the disease include abdominal pain, diarrhea and weight loss. The study found that people who regularly consume olive oil are at lower risk of ulcerative colitis development. | <urn:uuid:2cbe31b5-3b32-44a0-b25a-051fbbd52e67> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.drugs-health.com/blog/page/2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929361 | 1,041 | 1.984375 | 2 |
iPhone in the market today, it is normal to find that the iPhone is sold in exclusive contracts with various network providers. SIM locking mechanism is designed to improve the security of the phone enables exclusive agreements to broaden the appeal of the iPhone is for customers who may have an interest in the service provider selected. However, factory unlocked iPhone would less appealing to some providers have a legal right to provide the unlock code for a particular region or country.
In the case of SIM-locked iPhone, customers can expect lower prices when making a purchase is locked iPhone. You receive a subsidy that reduces the purchase price of the service providers, as we expect that revenues from the services offered. You can also expect to get a discount if you go for a monthly subscription that guarantees revenue to service providers. On the other hand, opens the iPhone will ensure that the market value is much higher. The amount will increase if some of the tools used to open the iPhone firmware to remove the operator logo officer.
Meanwhile, people who open their iPhone to allow the possibility of requesting a new SIM card into your iPhone. Consumers around the world are likely to continue its largest service providers to buy a new iPhone. It is also more useful when they bring their iPhone unlocked for travel abroad. You may want to use a network of foreign service providers who apply for a prepaid subscription plan.
Posted by: NAMA ANDAGreenpoisons Updated at: 7:25 PM Description: Economics Value behind Locked and Unlocked iPhone Rating: 4.5 Reviewer: Titi Sunarti - ItemReviewed: Economics Value behind Locked and Unlocked iPhone | <urn:uuid:f73c15d1-6144-4ba2-89a0-3f9d340ec820> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://greenpoisons.blogspot.com/2011/09/economics-value-behind-locked-and.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943013 | 323 | 1.59375 | 2 |
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- The capital and largest city of Suriname, on the Suriname River near its mouth on the Atlantic Ocean. Settled by the British from Barbados in the 1630s, it came under Dutch rule in 1815. Population: 220,000.
- n. The capital of Suriname.
- n. the capital and largest city and major port of Surinam
“The capital and largest city is Paramaribo, which is situated on the Suriname River. continue at Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition.”
“Peru Limma 379 4.7 A 235 220 1 1) urlname Paramaribo 394 292 250 206 EROPA BARAT 12”
“All the way from Paramaribo to Suriname, the [...] unlocked iphones Says:”
“The Central Suriname Nature Reserve (CSNR) is a World Heritage Site located in central Suriname, 200 kilometers (km) south west of Paramaribo, in the District of Sipaliwini.”
“The Paramaribo swamp forests, which cover about 8% of Suriname's land area, are characterized by the fact that they grow on almost permanently inundated soils.”
“We pull into Paramaribo at sundown and the driver starts dropping people off.”
“In Paramaribo, I had my best hotel of the trip, with free internet, air conditioning, and good coffee.”
“Paramaribo is a sleepy place, but it was my favorite stop of the time in South America on this trip.”
“After arriving in Paramaribo, Suriname on a long overland journey from Guyana, I was tired.”
“Of course, I'll already be in Suriname by then, since the border shack is several blocks inland -- but the point is, then I would be denied "entry" into the country and have a problem leaving from the airport back in Paramaribo the next day.”
These user-created lists contain the word ‘Paramaribo’.
It's an odd-looking pattern in English. Please add words if it makes you happy. :) K-POW! Wow @gulyasrobi!
Capitals of countries, states, provinces, regions, &c., including former capitals and de facto capitals.
Looking for tweets for Paramaribo. | <urn:uuid:e80bc6be-6ce1-4c4f-a563-6a1d9cc4f478> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wordnik.com/words/Paramaribo | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.900757 | 529 | 3.0625 | 3 |
Did Custer really make a last stand? Who was the real William Shakespeare? Was there a Pope Joan? How did the stones get to Stonehenge?
Welcome to the online package of our Mysteries of History special double issue.
In addition to reading the full text of each article from the magazine, you can:
- Find out about our contest,
where we report on winning mystery ideas from our readers.
- Join in our forum to share your own theories.
- Test your mystery savvy with a quiz.
- Read the transcript from our live chat on Custer's Last Stand.
Begin your investigation of these mysteries with our introduction.
From the 7/24/00 issue of USN&WR
Davy Crockett and Amelia Earhart are not alive and well on Atlantis. Or are they?
BY HOLLY J. MORRIS
Television has transformed the historical mystery into
a low-budget documentary full of hokey re-enactments
and spooky music. Fat paperback bestsellers promise
the secrets of the ancientsaliens, Atlanteans (as in
Atlantis residents), or the Freemasons, depending on
the book. For those who get their unsolved history from popular culture, every scientific answer is followed by a portentous ". . .
or is it?" and the answer of choice is whatever's weirdest.
The mysteries that occupy historians, both professional
and amateur, are rarely so cinematic. Real historical detectives
are more concerned with the gritty, hairsplitting details of history. Even searching for Atlantis, as grand and quixotic as that
may be, comes down to pragmatic concerns like raising funds
and chartering submarines. There's paperwork to be handled,
red tape to slog through, and hate mail to answer. Sometimes
the results will have echoing ramifications, as in the case of
Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, but more often than not,
the mysteries people care most about don't really matter all that
much. "I don't think this has any redeeming social significance,"
says Tom King, an archaeologist searching for Amelia Earhart.
"It's an intellectually engaging form of recreation." In other
words, it's a mystery that can't be put down.
If Earhart hadn't disappeared, she'd be far less interesting. She wouldn't have been captured by the Japanese or
frolicked on an idyllic tropical island. Conventional wisdom
says she ran out of fuel and crashed into the Pacific Ocean.
Finding her earthly remains is the full-time job of Ric Gillespie and Pat Thrasher of the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR), the nonprofit organization the couple founded 15 years ago to search for historic
plane wrecks. Their theory is hardly romantic: Earhart and
navigator Fred Noonan landed on the Pacific island of Nikumaroro (it would have been in
the right place when they ran
low on fuel), then died of disease or starvation. Thrasher
and Gillespie, a former aviation insurance accident investigator, work out of a home
office in Wilmington, Del.,
packed with Ameliana.
The results of four journeys
to Nikumaroro and constant
archive mining by TIGHAR
members are tantalizing but
inconclusive. There are the
crumbling fragments of an
Amelia-size woman's shoe, a
sheet of aluminum that could
be from her Lockheed Electra
if only the rivet pattern were
different, and a paper trail
documenting bones found on
the island in 1940. Gillespie is
now an expert in bizarre esoterica: What he can tell you
about 1930s Cat's Paw
women's replacement heels
could fill a book. The expeditions are gruelingGillespie
lost his corneas to equatorial
sunlightbut Earhart is the
sexy poster girl that keeps
TIGHAR's 800-odd dues-paying members happy. And it has
become a matter of pride. "There's just a chance we can
come up with hard evidence," he says. The dream find is an
"any-idiot artifact"something any idiot could tell is hers,
like a plane part with a serial number or a tooth packed with nice, DNA-rich pulp.
Lincoln's prose? If TIGHAR's work seems tedious, well,
it often is. Most historians endure their share of tedium.
Michael Burlingame, a professor of history at Connecticut
College and an Abraham Lincoln biographer, spent months
unraveling the authorship of the elusive "Bixby letter"literally word by word. On learning that Boston widow Lydia
Bixby had lost all five of her sons in the war, Lincoln ostensibly sent her a brief but exquisite letter of consolation.
It extolled, among other virtues, "the solemn pride that must
be yours, to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of
Freedom." The 1864 letter, considered by Lincoln scholars to be a masterpiece on par with the Gettysburg Address,
attained even greater fame when it was read at the start of
the 1998 film Saving Private Ryan.
But Lincoln probably didn't write the letterhis secretary, John Hay, did, says Burlingame. And Bixby was a liar
(only two of her five sons died in the war), a Southern sympathizer, and the mistress of a whorehouse. Tradition says
she loathed Lincoln and tore
up the letter.
The historian compared
each word in the letter with
the words in a database of Lincoln's writings. Then he did
the same for Hay, but without
a computer: He "read everything John Hay ever wrote."
Words used often in Hay's
writings, like "beguile" (at
least 30 times), but nowhere
in Lincoln's, were clues. And
he found a copy of the letter
pasted in a scrapbook Hay
kept of his media mentions.
"I've been like a dog with a
bone on this one. I knew controversy existed, but I never
thought it was something I'd
spend much time on," he says.
Burlingame continues to
pursue Lincoln arcana. He's
now using similar stylistic
analysis to find anonymous
satirical newspaper articles
that Lincoln wrote when he
was a journalist in his youth.
"It's kind of a minor footnote,"
he says. "But I love detective
work like this."
Burlingame's theory didn't cause an outcry or damage
Lincoln's literary reputationafter all, he still wrote the
Gettysburg Address. But historians can and do strike
nerves when they challenge cherished myths. Since its
translation into English in 1975, an account of Mexico's
1836 campaign in Texas has caused outrage and anxiety
among worshipers of Davy Crockett. The account, by Mexican Army officer José Enrique de la Peña, says that Crockett did not die fighting on the ramparts of the Alamo but
was executed on the order of Mexican Gen. Antonio López
de Santa Anna. "How dare you degrade Davy Crockett? . . .
This is one of the Communists' plans to degrade our heroes. He's still king of the wild frontier," wrote a fan to Dan
Kilgore, whose 1978 book, How Did Davy Die?, gave credence to the theory.
Before the 1950s Disney tv show seared Crockett's
macho death into millions of baby boomer brains, there was
no debate, says Don Carleton, director of the Center for
American History at the University of Texas-Austin, which
owns the de la Peña document. Scholars are more interested
in the evolution of Alamo history than in the specifics of
Crockett's death. Even the mystery of why people care about
the mystery is subject to studyBrian Huberman, a professor of art and art history at Rice University in Houston,
just wrapped a documentary
on the topic. "What this whole
controversy has done is show
the way in which history
works, in the sense that it has
to be revitalized regularly for
each generation," he says.
The debate was revitalized
in 1994, when New York City
firefighter Bill Groneman
wrote Defense of a Legend. The
book asserted, based on stylistic, factual, and other inconsistencies, that the de la Peña
account was fake. Scholars
fussed and fumed, and Groneman was accused of being an
obsessive fan unable to accept
his hero's ignoble death.
"Don't write that I'm obsessed!" he says. (And his heroes are his father and John
Steinbecknot Crockett.) Despite the flak, Groneman enjoys his role in the controversy. "I don't really feel like
sitting back and letting someone else get the last word."
Guesswork. The University
of Texas-Austin is now testing
the manuscript for authenticity anyway. But even if the paper and ink are the right age,
de la Peña might have liedit would have behooved him
to make Santa Anna, who lost the war in Texas, look incompetent. "People want clear-cut answers," says Carleton.
"But history's really messy."
The story of Atlantis makes de la Peña's account look neat
and tidy. The destruction of the island is based solely on a
Platonic account of a utopia gone bad. Most scholars think
it's a fable. Yet the search for Atlantis is the historical mystery cottage industry. There are hundreds of books on the
subject, and it's been "found" in dozens of locations.
Scientists allow that Plato could have been inspired by
the Minoan civilization of Crete, which declined rapidly
after a nearby volcanic eruption. The rest, most say, is
hooey. Ken Feder, professor of anthropology at Central
Connecticut State University and author of Frauds, Myths,
and Mysteries, surveys college students every few years,
and the results are always
the same: About 1 in 3 believes in Atlantis. The grand
unification theories that cluster around Atlantis beliefsthat superhuman or extraterrestrial Atlanteans seeded
civilization and built the
Great Pyramids and everything elseannoy him. "Was
there nothing interesting in
the past?" asks Feder. "You
look at a place like Stonehenge or Gizathe beauty
and awe and majesty of those
placesthere, but it's entirely human."
So is the urge to keep
looking for something that
can never be found. Most determined are the Bimini
searchers, spending copious
amounts of their own money
and vacation time on their
quest. (Psychic Edgar Cayce
once predicted that Atlantis
would be found in the Bahamas, off the coast of Bimini.) "People say, 'No, you'll
never find anything,' but that
feels like a really dogmatic
approach," says Douglas Richards, a veteran of several
Bimini expeditions. Joan Hanley, a retired elementary
school principal who has led seven Bimini missions since
1989, cites evidence such as shark- and cat-shaped
mounds and place names using the letters "ATL." But
there's nothing conclusive. There probably never will be.
But even if not, it's fun, says Richards. "It's much more
interesting than diving to look for fish."
Credits for rotating image in title graphic:
STONEHENGE: RICHARD BAKER - IPG MATRIX;
CIVIL WAR: ALEXANDER GARDNER - NATIONAL ARCHIVES;
MARCO POLO: MUSEO CORRER, VENICE, ITALY - GIRAUDON/ART RESOURCE;
PORTRAIT OF DR. GACHET: ERICH LESSING - ART RESOURCE | <urn:uuid:194d7e2a-d08b-466d-aaec-9ddee2de220c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.usnews.com/usnews/doubleissue/mysteries/index.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929102 | 2,547 | 2.25 | 2 |
Lifestyle - A to Z
This page contains links to content about how lifestyle affects cancer risk.
Decades of research have shown that living a healthy life can reduce the risk of cancer.
Find out more by browsing the links below.
Lifestyle is a sub-category of Causes of cancer and Preventing cancer
Browse content about Lifestyle
- Diet, alcohol and cancer in the UK - statistics
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- What causes cancer?
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14 November 2011
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2 November 2011
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Question about cancer? Contact our information nurse team | <urn:uuid:7975ecc0-a117-4e20-bf98-cbfcccc4601f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-info/utilities/atozindex/atoz-lifestyle | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.902355 | 538 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Slow Food Los Angeles “Sprouts” Healthy Eaters
Thanks to a program hosted by the Milagro Allegro Community Garden in Highland Park, Los Angeles, we now have proof that nutrition education helps kids stay healthy. The program, called L.A. Sprouts, is one of the nation’s first research studies to measure and demonstrate the health benefits of youth focused long-term nutrition, cooking and gardening programs.
The after school course consisted of twelve weekly classes for fourth and fifth graders from a local school. Each meeting included a healthy cooking lesson followed by a gardening session with a master gardener. Workshop leaders demonstrated new recipes to the students weekly and, working together in groups of five, the students then prepared the meal themselves. As part of the program, the students regularly visited a local farmers market and received a voucher to buy a fruit or a vegetable to take home.
With the goal of converting learning into action, the L.A. Sprouts project focuses on making eating healthier a family affair by sharing information about recipes and farmers’ markets with the parents of participating children. The result? Workshop leaders found that children and families did make changes to their eating habits as a result of participating in this project.
“L.A. Sprouts participants had increased preference for vegetable intake, specifically carrots and nopales, and increased self-efficacy for cooking and gardening compared to control students, ” said one of the project organizers, Emily Ventura, PhD, MPH, University of Southern California.
Using cookware donated by Anolon, through a partnership with Slow Food USA, L.A. Sprouts students gained hands-on experience making complete and healthy meals like quesadillas with greens, quinoa salad with kale and winter squash, and whole-wheat pasta with vegetable ragout. L.A. Sprouts was organized by the Childhood Obesity Research Center at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
If your local chapter has a similar garden-to-table project and is in need of in-kind cookware support, Anolon may be able to provide assistance through our Creating A Delicious Future partnership. Please contact firstname.lastname@example.org for more information.
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© 2010 Slow Food USA - All Rights Reserved | <urn:uuid:28d0c58b-3cfe-4551-aa84-708fa5b8fe16> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.slowfoodusa.org/index.php/site/email_page/3249/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920385 | 543 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Tian Tian, the female panda bear also called Sweetie, looks out from her enclosure Dec. 16 as members of the public view her for the first time at Edinburgh Zoo in Scotland. The panda was named Wednesday as one of the 12 female faces of the year by the BBC.
The BBC's web page Wednesday showing the 2011 women's faces of the year.
The BBC's inclusion of a panda as one of the 12 "Faces of the year 2011 - the women" has caused an outrage.
The list published Wednesday included Tian Tian, also known as Sweetie, one of two giant pandas on loan from China to the Edinburgh zoo, for December. The women representing each of the other 11 months of the year are people, as are all the 12 men on the BBC's male faces list published Monday.
Freelance journalist Bob Chaundy, whose name appears at the bottom of the BBC's webpage, told the Guardian newspaper of London that he agreed the panda was an odd choice but that the selection was put together by BBC editors. He only wrote up their choices, he said.
The issue was playing out on Twitter with thousands of posts under the hashtag #pandagate.
"Here's why #pandagate matters: 3 out of 4 people in the news are men. Don't give the 1 female slot to a panda," posted Catherine Mayer.
Several Tweeters pointed out the BBC's choice was a female face "with 2 black eyes." Chaundy tweeted that's what he got from his wife over the 'pandamonium.'
The BBC's men's faces of 2011.
The BBC press office tweeted in response to the social media outrage: "Sweetie isn't the first non-human on Faces of the year list, Peppa Pig last year and Benson the carp on the 2009 male list."
The uproar was covered by news media on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
Labor member of Parliament Stella Creasy told the Guardian that the broadcaster had a long way to go when it comes to representing women. "Whilst we all love a good panda story, in a year when Christine Lagarde became head of the IMF, or Helle Thorning-Schmidt became prime minister of Denmark or even the sad death of Amy Winehouse, it's frustrating the BBC couldn't think of 12 human female faces who have made the news this year."
MSNBC's The Maddow Blog challenged readers to pick a human to replace the panda.
Panda-gate appears to be just the icing on the cake frosting BBC watchers already upset that the network did not include any women on its shortlist for Sports Personality of the Year.
Members of Parliament have accused the broadcaster of "ignoring women's achievements" in sports. | <urn:uuid:84558741-d033-4ddf-9873-669ea069fa4d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2011/12/28/9775821-bbcs-panda-choice-as-a-top-face-of-women-sparks-uproar | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976336 | 574 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Middleburgh is where Conrad Weiser, and his followers, decided to settle. Upon arguments over land, Weiser left Middleburgh and resettled in
John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, Henry’s son, accomplished many things in his life. In 1774, he was elected to the House of Burgesses, and in 1775, he became a colonel. In fact, after he concluded a sermon in favor of the Revolution, he got almost three hundred men to enlist under his command, that very day. Mr. Muhlenberg fought in the battle of
John Conrad Weiser Jr. succeeded his father as an Indian interpreter. John Jr. Worked for the government for some years, and even traveled with George Washington. Washington and Weiser were such good friends that
When the Palatines arrived to the valley, there were a small amount of Indians, Mohegans to be exact, living near the stream. These Indians gave the Palatines shelter, and helped them survive. As time went on, and the more there were whites, these Indians disappeared.
Between 1722 and 1775, the forest was cut down, and crops were grown. Also within this time period, houses were built, barns were constructed, and prosperity reigned. In 1732, the Reformed Dutch Church was built, and it stood until it was burned down by Johnson and Brant in 1780. In 1785, construction of a new church commenced, and in 1787, it was completed. In the meantime, services were held in the Middle Fort. Other churches in the area included, the
The Middle Fort was originally a wing of Johannes Becker’s mansion, which was sealed with wood and metal. In 1777, the property became a three acre fortress that accommodated the local farmers and the militia. In the fort were also cannons and an oven to serve the town.
Johnson and Brant came to raid the
When Johnson’s truce-flag approached the fort, Martinus Zielie fired on Major Woolsey’s flag, under Tim Murphy’s order. The second time the flag approached, Murphy fired at it. Also next to Tim Murphy was David Elerson.
The Zielie family came from
The Borsts came to the valley in 1713, or 1714. Peter Borst built a grist mill before the Revolution, which stood until 1795.
Thomas and Cornelius Eckerson came to the
Hartman’s Dorf was settled in 1713 and contained around sixty five houses. Planted there was the
The Richtmyer family came from
After the Revolution, Middleburgh was rebuilt using new technology. J. M. Scribner bought or built three mills. John Hinman made the first threshing machines in the county. In 1813, construction of a new bridge was started, and completed in 1819. Zodac Pratt made one of the largest tanneries in the state, and thanks to this tannery, the hamlet of Prattsville sprung up. George Danfort built another tannery in
The First National Bank was founded in 1880, with a treasury of $50,000. Port Stanton was named after a soldier that was mortally wounded at Bull Run. In the lists given about the bank, names like Becker and Danforth show up.
Lands around Schoharie were named after Governor Hunter. Thus we get the name “Huntersfield”, but, obviously, later on it’s name was changed to Huntersland. A large portion of this land was bought by Johannes Lawyer in 1768.
On this that stood out to me this entire chapter is that it seemed like everyone knew everyone else. These people must have been really popular. | <urn:uuid:1e15ff3f-bc57-4174-a72c-889f66d07853> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jumpinginpools.blogspot.com/2008/12/history-of-middleburgh.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985424 | 780 | 3.171875 | 3 |
Sharp size distribution of SPI-Mark™ Colloidal Gold products
While most immuno gold work, with electron microscopy has been done in conjunction with TEM, there have been published some very
exciting results based on the use of SEM as well. For example, there is great interest in using colloidal gold tagged antibodies
for identifying surface antigens on the surfaces of cultured cells. While the precise details of the protocol one would end up
using is very much dependent on the specifics of the samples, we believe that one of the best publications on this topic is the following:
Coller, Barry S., Kutok, J. L., Scudder, L. E., Galanakis, D. K., West, S. M ., Rudomen, G. S., Springer, K. T., "Studies of Activated GPIIb/IIIa
Receptors on the Luminal Surface of Adherent Platelets: Paradoxical Loss of Luminal Receptors When Platelets Adhere to High Density Fibrinogen."
J. Clin. Invest. Vol. 92, pp.2796-2806, 1993.
Everyone has at least some interest in the concentration of the gold colloid
and conjugate in the suspension being purchased. Most of this information
has been gathered on the unconjugated gold probes
but it would be applicable to the conjugates as well. How all this
translates down into what it means in terms of the number of protein
molecules per gold particle, consider these examples for Protein A:
The number of gold particles per ml is another question that is sometimes
asked. We don't have measurements on all gold sizes, but an example is
given for 20 nm gold conjugates:
For an optical density (OD) of 4: 2.8 x 10-12 particles per ml.
Note: Because of some technical difficulties, we are temporarily unable to offer 1 nm gold products, either conjugated or
unconjugated, but the example for 1 nm has been left in the table for illustrative purposes.
The larger the particle the greater the surface area therefore the greater the number of antibodies that can bind. Ultimately, it is
believed that there is some binding of the Fab region and that some binding sites are not going to be available. Some antibodies will
give better sensitivity than others because the amino acids in their Fab fragments don't bind and therefore the Fabs are free. If
sensitivity is poor, it may be worth examining antibodies from other host species, as each will have different characteristics.
Protein A is a lot smaller than IgG, therefore there would be less gold
particles of 1nm gold attached to Protein A, and more Protein A molecules
attached to the larger particles sizes. A 20nm gold particle would have
something like 150 Protein A molecules compared to the 48 IgG's.
Quite a bit of time, effort, and energy is spent characterizing such issues for the SPI-Mark Gold Probes, so if you have additional questions, let us
know, but with the caveat that what we tell you about the SPI-Mark brand of colloidal gold probe suspensions would not be directly applicable to other brands.
Questions often times come up about what should be the "correct color". In
general, the SPI-Mark Colloidal Gold products, like all other colloidal gold
products (to our knowledge) are that deep "Cabernet Sauvignon" red or almost
purple color except for the SPI-Mark 2 nm gold products. Both
are pale straw in color, and look brown when concentrated x10. If one ends
up with a water white clear solution and they don't now if there is any gold
present or not, then the conclusive "test" is to blot 1µl of each onto a
nitrocellulose membrane filter and silver enhancing.
If the clear solutions don't enhance, then there are no gold particles present. | <urn:uuid:fc7295c9-981c-4a14-8142-8c5f99b35eef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.2spi.com/catalog/chem/gold-1.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911456 | 835 | 2.15625 | 2 |
Given the importance of exercise to maintaining one's health and fitness levels, it's unfortunate that concerned individuals have to sort through a seemingly never-ending stream of misinformation, most of which is designed to sell ineffective equipment and unsafe supplements. If you're serious about building your muscles in a symmetrical and healthy way, you'll want to avoid the fraudulent muscle building substances, as well as any bizarre and flimsy equipment which focus solely on one part of the body. Even and safe muscle gain means a healthy diet with adequate caloric intake, short and intense workouts utilizing multiple muscle groups, and properly timed warmup and stretch periods.
Jumping right into a weight lifting workout after being sedentary for hours is a great way to injure oneself, but not particularly conducive to building muscle safely. Conventional wisdom used to hold that it was necessary to strength before lifting, though it has since been revealed that doing so can actually weaken muscles pre-lift. A better idea is to do some light jogging or stationary cycling for five minutes, in order to get your blood flowing and circulating throughout your muscle tissues. The current conventional wisdom is that it's best to stretch after a weight lifting workout, to prevent stiffness and release lactic acid buildup in the muscle tissues.
The internet is flush with questionable ads for "miracle" muscle growth supplements, most of which are completely useless, and some of which may be downright unhealthy. In terms of properly feeding your muscle growth, what you should be concentrating on is consuming an adequate number of calories based on your body weight and the intensity of your workouts, and getting an ample supply of protein. One good rule of thumb for weightlifters is to add 500 calories to the appropriate daily caloric intake for someone of their height and weight. You'll also want to be taking in roughly one gram of protein per pound of body weight on a daily basis. This can come from lean cuts of meat, fish or poultry, or from legumes, whole grains and low fat dairy products.
Lifting weights for hours, with lots of breaks in between sets, is an unnecessary waste of time which won't result in visible and even muscle growth, and which could actually lead to the injuries that can come with prolonged muscle fatigue. workouts should be no longer than 45 minutes in duration, doing between 12 and 20 sets per muscle group, and performing between six and 12 reps for each set. Each set should be markedly short (e.g. 40 to 70 seconds), and weight levels should be heavy enough to cause tangible exertion. In other words, keep your weight lifting sessions short and intense.
Compound exercises are exercises which engage multiple muscle groups simultaneously. These sorts of exercises are not only good for shortening and intensifying your workout, but are also good at evenly developing your muscles, as they force your muscles to maintain balance throughout the movements, resulting in improved symmetry of growth. Examples of compound exercises include squats, pull-ups, rows, presses and deadlifts. Another option is to alternate weight lifting routines between the upper body and lower body. While isolation exercises are effective, they also create the possibility of overdeveloping one muscle group at the expense of another. | <urn:uuid:1923fd2c-f16c-425d-a1c3-c5d2f52a5257> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ask.com/explore/tips-gaining-muscle-evenly-and-safely | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965811 | 642 | 2.15625 | 2 |
The Western Light, by Susan Swan (Cormorant, 320 pages, $29.95 hardcover)
Toronto writer Susan Swan’s novel The Western Light is set in a small Ontario community, not unlike Midland where the author was raised and where her father was a doctor. In this short excerpt, the narrator, Mary (Mouse) Bradford, who also appeared in Swan’s 1993 novel The Wifes of Bath, describes an incident involving her character John Pilkie, a former hockey star now under her father’s care:
On the day he murdered his family, Peggy Pilkie, John’s wife, had sprinkled kerosene on the bedroom floor to kill cockroaches and that night in a fit of temper, John threw a lit match on the oil-soaked boards and ignited an explosion called a flare fire. His wife was heard to shout that John would pay for his crime. She couldn’t make her way through the flames to save their baby girl, and the child died in the hospital of smoke inhalation. Mrs. Pilkie herself died a few hours later of shock and severe burns to her legs and torso.
I still shudder when I think about it. To set your wife and baby girl alight is unimaginable now, and it was even more unimaginable then. The courts said John Pilkie had been dethroned by reason and sent him away for life to a mental institution. Accompanying the article was a black and white diagram that depicted the former Pilkie home in Walkerville, a Windsor suburb named after a local liquor baron. A large X marked the second-story bedroom, where the fire began. Next to the diagram was a photograph of a young John Pilkie and a dark-haired woman leaning on a crutch. Its caption said: “As a girl, Pilkie’s young wife suffered from polio.” I had forgotten that John Pilkie’s wife had polio like me. It made me feel uneasy. And somehow implicated. Did he kill her because she limped too?
“Why did he leave his wife and baby behind to die?” I asked.
My aunt pointed to the last paragraph. “It says here that Pilkie suffered from a paranoid delusion that his wife was an enemy out to hurt him. That means he thought people were out to get him even if they weren’t.”
So he was overcome by a crazy notion. Maybe John Pilkie wasn’t a true killer, I told myself. A true killer would know it was his own wife and child he was burning up.
• Courtesy of Cormorant Books. Susan Swan will speak at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 23 at Word Words Books in Waterloo, along with Tamas Dobozy of Kitchener, author of the short story collection Siege 13. | <urn:uuid:912b31c0-8d02-454b-84aa-f9d88b963cec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.therecord.com/whatson/books/article/820848--books-a-short-excerpt-from-the-western-light-by-susan-swan | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987643 | 598 | 1.53125 | 2 |
The question ‘what is art?’ has triggered many lengthy debates, though a defined answer has never been landed on. Of all works that trigger such debates, the most notable is the famous urinal signed and displayed by Marcel Duchamp. The original was lost soon after it was first exhibited but a replica is here in the Barbican gallery for an exhibition that explores Duchamp’s influence on four other artists and their outputs — both in visual and performing arts.
The contrasts between these artists are stark. Duchamp’s jagged edges of a nude descending a staircase eschews realism in favour of motion. By comparison many of the works by Johns and Rauschenburg seem cluttered in comparison. Duchamp could simply place a wheel on top of a stool or hang a bottle rack from the ceiling and leave it at that, while other artists felt compelled to build upon this simplicity, thus decreasing its impact.
Of all the artists on display here, Cage came the closest to emulating Duchamp’s potency through minimalistic activity. His paintings created by dropping paint soaked strings on to paper are a prim example of this, as is his famous 4’33″ performance. On a few occasions Rauschenburg also rose to these heights, particularly with the paint transfer from a tyre across sheets of paper.
This exhibition isn’t aesthetically pleasing, but it is cerebrally challenging. It may not answer the question of ‘what is art?’ but, through examining Duchamp and his relationship with other artists, it provides plenty of fodder for the debate.
The Bride and the Bachelors: Duchamp with Cage, Cunningham, Rauschenberg and Johns is on display at the Barbican Art Gallery, Barbican Centre, Silk street, EC2Y 8DS until 9 June. Tickets are £10 for adults (online booking), concessions available. | <urn:uuid:2261d023-44eb-4aed-ad4a-0384e9ce1ea9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://londonist.com/2013/02/art-review-the-bride-and-the-bachelors-barbican-art-gallery.php?showpage=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966973 | 395 | 2.046875 | 2 |
Are you seduced by curvy Golden Crescent beans? By Purple Dragon carrots, cushion shaped orange eggplants or yard long Red Noodle beans?
Welcome to the club. I've never been able to resist oddball vegetables; show me a shape or color that's different and bam, it goes on the order list.
This has been going on for 30 years and will no doubt continue for many more, but meanwhile some of these bizarro thrills have become staples in my garden -- and just as many have been consigned to the "interesting experiment" list.
*Ronde de Nice zucchini, not the best for slicing but ace for stuffing.
Instead of the conventional canoe, you get a tidy little bowl that stays firmer in the oven and looks prettier on the plate. My favorite filling is caponata, topped with a thick layer of coarse breadcrumbs tossed with a little olive oil. Most delicious at room temperature.
* Yard long beans (Vigna unguiculata). You get a lot of bean with each bean, so they're quick to harvest and prepare. The taste is unique, sort of nutty and meaty instead of sweet and light like snap beans (Phaseolus vulgaris). They're not as crisp and juicy as snap beans, either, and are not helped by being lightly steamed. It takes thorough cooking to bring out their best.
Most published recipes are Chinese or Indian and involve several ingredients, but I usually just stir-fry them over medium high heat in olive oil or bacon fat until many brown spots appear.
Note: the red ones are great in flower arrangements and for the general wow effect, but they don't taste quite as good as the green ones, take longer to grow, and lose most of the color when cooked.
* Currant tomatoes, especially white currant. A labor of love. They're beyond easy to grow; plants are right next door to weeds and grow to huge size with no help from us. The labor part is harvesting. They're tiny ; each cluster ripens sequentially so they must be picked one by one and the calyxes tend to hang on, so if you're not careful the ripe fruit comes away with a hole in the top. Why bother? The love part. Beyond delicious. They are to full sized tomatoes as wild strawberries are to the cultivated kind.
* Yellow (Golden) beets. Everything that's tasty about beets, with no bleeding, and just as easy to grow if you don't count chronically lousy germination. More on beets anon; in the spirit of advocacy inspired by hearing that our new president hates them. No doubt he grew up on boiled and/or canned, and I'm sure that's got nothing to do with Hawaii though as I write the specter of pineapple raises its head ...
Where were we?
A FEW WILL DO
* Rat Tail Radishes are long, skinny seedpods, not roots, a godsend to anyone who has had trouble with root maggots, bolting or the numerous other ills that make me wonder why everyone says radishes are easy to grow. Nobody ever knows what they are, which is of course gratifying, and they're very tasty.
They grow in large bunches on gangly bushes about 3 feet tall that seem to withstand all pests and diseases. What's not to like? Two things:
1. Each pod is more or less wired to the main stem; unless you have iron fingernails every one must be individually cut from the plant.
2. The window of harvest is narrow. Picked too small, they're burning hot and tough; too large, they're hot, tough and unpleasantly strong flavored. Those that are heading toward large but not there yet are tasty stir-fried because cooking gentles them. And -- calling Goldilocks ! those that are just right are radishes: juicy and crisp and peppery, ideal radish substitutes.
* Crescent (Annelino) beans come in both green and yellow and are both tasty and handsome on the plate -- especially when presented as a tangle of mixed colors. Downside with these is the same as their raison de purchase: the uneven crescent shapes: you can't stack them, so they're laborious to trim. And because the sizes tend to vary you have to sort them into little piles and add them to the pan in batches if you want them to cook evenly.
DIDN'T WORK OUT (we've tried all these at least twice, just to be sure, except for the litchi tomatoes.)
Orange eggplants: As catalogs now have begun to admit the orange stage is fully mature, aka inedible. You eat them when they're green and there are plenty of other eggplants -- green, purple, lavender and white -- that taste and yield better.
Purple, yellow and white carrots: Have to confess I gave up on all these before the latest round of new introductions. None tasted anywhere nearly as good as the best orange carrots and the purple ones were especially frustrating: the flavor was unpleasant raw but the intense color was lost in cooking.
Cylindrical beets -- or at least Forono and Cylindra: Seems like such a good idea, a beet that gives even slices from end to end. And they lift their shoulders way out of the ground so they're almost worth it just for the dirty joke factor. Unfortunately the ones we grew were never as sweet and flavorful as the rainbow of round varieties, red, orange, white and candy striped that produce well every year.
Litchi tomatoes (Solanum sisymbriifolium): Like a lot of exotic solanums they grew easily into large bushes -- bigger in New York than Maine but plenty big there, too. The plants are quite fabulously thorny: stems, branches, leaves, fruit calyxes ... even the tiny seedling leaves have prickles stiff enough to hurt if accidentally pressed, so every stage of care and harvest was literally a pain. And when the fruit was finally fully ripe, phooey. Thick skinned, bland and almost fleshless; filled with hard little seeds. Maybe back home in South America, but not in the Northeast... where I have no doubt they'd have self-sown like bandits if not promptly uprooted.
Enter your city or zip code to get your local temperature and air quality and find local green food and recycling resources near you. | <urn:uuid:d2982ea2-6d1a-4f26-933f-e0c676c28643> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thedailygreen.com/green-homes/blogs/organic-gardening/exotic-vegetables-gardening-460209 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963599 | 1,349 | 1.554688 | 2 |
HOMEOWNERSHIP HELPS BOOST CHILDREN’S EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT, REDUCE BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS, STUDY FINDS
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Parents who own their own home may be helping to boost their children’s educational achievements and even reduce behavioral problems, according to a new nationwide study.
The research showed that for children living in owned homes rather than rental units, math achievement scores are up to 9 percent higher, reading achievement is up to 7 percent higher and behavioral problems are 1 to 3 percent lower.
These results held true after the researchers took into account a multitude of factors that may have influenced the findings, such as the fact that homeowners earn more and have higher levels of education than renters.
Homeownership seems to benefit children because the environments in homes – including such things as safety, maintenance and the availability of educational materials – are on average better than those in rental units, the study suggests. In addition, the greater stability of homeowners is good for children’s development.
Haurin conducted the study with R. Jean Haurin, a retired research scientist at Ohio State, and Toby Parcel, a former sociology professor at Ohio State now at Purdue University. Their results appear in the current issue of the journal Real Estate Economics.
The researchers used data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, a survey conducted by Ohio State for the U.S. Department of Labor. This study involved 1,026 children who were 5 to 8 years old in 1988 and included surveys of the children’s parents in 1988, 1990, 1992 and 1994.
One of the main reasons that children of homeowners did better was the differences in living environment, Haurin said. Findings showed that owning a home compared with renting leads to a 13 to 23 percent higher-quality home environment. This was measured by responses of the parents to survey questions and also by observations made by researchers who conducted the survey.
The home environment encompassed both the physical and emotional setting. The physical environment included a variety of factors, such as whether there were obvious safety hazards in the home, more subtle issues such as the quality of lighting, and whether the home contained intellectually stimulating materials, such as magazines.
“Owners have more of an incentive to make improvements in their home and create a more positive living environment,” Haurin said.
"They may be able to do things like create a better play area for their children, which could help their intellectual development.” Homeowners are also more likely to take care of dangers – such as lead-based paint in the home – that have been shown to harm children.
The emotional environment of the home included the parents’ activities with their children, such as how often they ate meals as a family and how many activities they did together.
“We were skeptical at first that homeownership would have any connection with the emotional environment, but it turned out that it did,” Haurin said. “Homeowners had on average a better emotional environment for their children than did renters.”
But the benefits for children came from more than just the improved environment, he said. The remainder of the benefits may come from the fact that homeowners tend to stay in one place longer than renters. This stability means that children stay in the same schools, and parents and children invest more time in developing positive relationships with their neighbors and the community. This investment in neighbor and community relationships may promote positive child outcomes.
The benefits of homeownership were also shown by the fact that children did better the longer they lived in owned homes. “It’s a cumulative effect,” he said.
One of the strengths of this study, according to Haurin, is that the researchers were able to control for many of the factors other than homeownership that may influence child outcomes.
“It’s easy to convince people that homeowners have nicer homes than those of renters,” he said. “It’s harder to convince people that there is an independent effect of homeownership on children’s outcomes once you have controlled for all these other factors. But that’s exactly what we found.”
Haurin said they were able to control for many characteristics researchers have connected to child outcomes, including parent’s wages, wealth and education, whether the children’s mother worked, number of siblings, marital status and history of the mother, and neighborhood characteristics, to name a few.
The results of this study show the value in existing federal tax codes and programs that promote homeownership, Haurin said. “The government should target homeowner tax relief to families who have young children so these children can benefit,” he said.
Moreover, the study shows that discrimination against minorities in providing loans or others assistance to buy homes is hurting children. “Our study suggests that discrimination against minorities in the housing market has the effect of reducing the level of cognition and increasing the behavioral problems of minority children,” he said. | <urn:uuid:4f8fec21-216d-46f2-ad12-c84dbd44b4de> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/chldhome.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97946 | 1,051 | 2.828125 | 3 |
After about four months in operation, the University of North Texas’ three wind turbines are producing more energy than the university estimated, although one currently isn’t working.
The wind turbines have been producing energy for the UNT athletic complex, which includes Mean Green Village, Apogee Stadium and Victory Hall residence hall, since they were completed in February.
UNT estimated each of the turbines would generate 150,000 kilowatts of renewable energy a year, which would total 450,000 kilowatts, said Don Lynch, director of system facilities administration and project manager for the wind turbines.
The 100-kilowatt turbines are each 120 feet tall with 30-foot blades, and are being paid for by a $2 million grant from the State Energy Conservation Office.
The university estimated the entire Eagle Point grid uses 7.5 million kilowatts each year, he said, and with the turbines it estimated 6 percent of that would be renewable energy.
In the four months that the turbines have been turning, they have created 8 percent more energy than UNT estimated, Lynch said. But the amount of energy produced depends on wind speed, he said. Just because a turbine is turning doesn’t mean it is generating at full power, he said.
“We’re going to have to see over the long haul,” Lynch said.
Right now the stadium is not really being used but when football season starts, there will be more demand on the grid, he said.
“Spring and fall are the good times for wind,” he said, adding that winds are slower in the summer.
“At this point, it’s doing a little better than what we’ve estimated,” he said.
But during a recent storms, Lynch said, one of the turbines quit working.
The manufacturer, Northern Power Systems, which monitors the turbines continuously, will be sending someone out to investigate why it’s not working, he said.
As part of the project, UNT is building a website that will offer data about the turbines. That data will be available to students and to the public. UNT plans to have that up in a couple weeks, Lynch said.
The website will be used by students for research projects, he said.
“That’s the main reason we are getting the website set up,” he said. “So students will have access to that data.”
RACHEL MEHLHAFF can be reached at 940-566-6889. Her e-mail address is firstname.lastname@example.org . | <urn:uuid:908fdd17-35d1-446b-9866-853f989df01b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dentonrc.com/local-news/local-news-headlines/20120618-unt-turbines-pushing-envelope.ece | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953588 | 551 | 2.203125 | 2 |
WASHINGTON — Nearly a dozen burly California raisin growers watched intently Wednesday as Supreme Court justices struggled to figure out how their industry works.
During an hour-long oral argument, the justices peppered lawyers with questions that increasingly suggested some sympathy for the growers, who are protesting a big Agriculture Department penalty.
The federal government fined Fresno County grower Marvin Horne and others hundreds of thousands of dollars for refusing to turn over raisins as part of a New Deal-era supply control program.
“Part of that penalty was, you know, ‘Your raisins or your life,’” Justice Antonin Scalia said, producing courtroom chuckles.
At issue is a federal order that requires “handlers” who process and pack raisins to place part of their product in reserve during certain years, with the industry-run Raisin Administrative Committee deciding how much handlers will be paid for this set-aside tonnage. Raisin handlers set aside 47 percent of their crop during the 2002-03 season and 30 percent for 2003-04, but they were paid for only part of what they surrendered.
The Hornes didn’t like the program and helped organize growers into the Raisin Valley Farms Marketing Association, which took care of the packing. By identifying themselves as producers rather than as handlers, the group’s members reasoned that they were exempt from the set-aside requirement imposed on handlers.
The Obama administration, however, termed this a “scheme” designed to avoid legal requirements. The USDA subsequently ordered the Hornes and their coalition to pay more than $650,000 in fees and penalties.
“They adopted a business model that was an intentional, willful attempt to evade regulatory requirements in order to secure an unfair competitive advantage,” said Assistant Solicitor General Joseph R. Palmore.
The dissident growers, in turn, call the raisin set-aside, as well as the fees and penalties, a “taking,” or seizure, of property. Under the Fifth Amendment, takings require just compensation by the government.
The technicalities of the case seemed to fog the court for a while Wednesday, with farmers’ attorney Michael W. McConnell joking sardonically at one point about the “jurisdictional holding that is producing so much enjoyment for us this morning.”
The case, called Horne v. Department of Agriculture, could prove important in the long run, though, as a stepping stone for dissident farmers to avoid and potentially undermine at least parts of the so-called raisin “marketing order” established to smooth out prices and supplies.
Several justices sounded inclined to order the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to at least revisit the dissident farmers’ underlying argument that the Agriculture Department’s fine was a taking of property that violated the Constitution.
“And now the 9th Circuit can go and try and figure out whether this marketing order is a taking or it’s just the world’s most outdated law,” Justice Elena Kagan said, prompting further courtroom laughter.
Justice Steven Breyer, in a similar vein, added that “either this program is valid or it isn’t, and if it isn’t, some authoritative set of courts should tell us that,” while Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. pointedly focused on how the Justice Department has flip-flopped in its position on how the case should be resolved.
Horne said on the Supreme Court steps afterward that the justices’ quips and questions indicated “they did their homework” on the case that has its roots in farmers’ actions taken during the 2002-2003 crop year.
“It looked sort of favorable to me,” agreed Mike Jerkovich, a third-generation raisin farmer from the Fresno County town of Kerman.
The hearing over, the growers made plans to return to their California farms.
“The grapes are starting to turn green,” Horne said. “It’s time to start farming.”
Horne, Jerkovich and other farmers flew out for the argument, along with Clovis, Calif.-based attorney Brian C. Leighton, a longtime marketing order skeptic who joined McConnell at the lawyers’ table. McConnell is a former federal judge who teaches at Stanford Law School, in addition to working in private practice.
The Justice Department previously argued that the farmers should have taken their complaint to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed. That argument about jurisdiction, though, has since been abandoned, suggesting that the Supreme Court could now essentially kick the dispute back to the appellate court for a substantive decision on the taking claim itself.
Email: email@example.com; Twitter: @MichaelDoyle10 | <urn:uuid:8cd3fced-7ae0-4f67-8fa9-8ee6031b2477> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2013/03/20/2929829/supreme-court-chews-over-case.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956876 | 1,031 | 1.773438 | 2 |
The Grossman Laboratory aims to bridge the gap between clinical care, research, and education. Our mission is to improve care for patients with neurodegenerative disorders while gaining valuable information about the neural bases for cognition.
What is a Neurodegenerative Disease?
A neurodegenerative disease is a condition resulting from atrophy (shrinkage) of neurons (brain cells). This interferes with brain function including speech, comprehension, judgement, decision-making, movement, and memory. In the Grossman lab, we attend mainly to patients with some form of frontotemporal dementia (FTD), Corticobasal Dementia (CBD), Alzheimer's Disease (AD), and Parkinson's Disease (PD).
What is Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD)?
Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) refers to a group of neurodegenerative conditions that affect the frontal and temporal regions of the brain. These affected areas of the brain control speech and language, as well as personality and social functioning. FTD is characterized by a gradual impairment of language ability, self-awareness, and social behavior. Related conditions include corticobasal degeneration (CBD), progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) dementia. FTD is as common as Alzheimer's Disease in people less than 65 years old.
For more information about FTD go to: http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/ftd
What is Corticobasal Degeneration (CBD)?
Corticobasal Degeneration (CBD) refers to a specific form of frontotemporal dementia which affects speech, gestures, visual-spatial functioning, and movement. Some symptoms of CBD include progressive inability to perform simple calculations (Acalculia), difficulty with spatially-mediate tasks, involuntary movements, and muscle rigidity.
For more information about CBD go to: http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/ftd
What is Alzheimer's Disease (AD)?
Alzheimer's Disease is the most common neurodegenerative condition. It gradually leads to loss of various cognitive abilities such as memory, judgement, language, abstract thinking. AD can also cause extreme changes in personality and behaviors. Some symptoms of AD include memory loss, word-finding difficulty, poor sense of direction, difficulty accomplishing regularly daily tasks, and personality changes.
For more information about AD go to: http://www.alz.org/
What is Parkinson's Disease (PD)?
Parkinson's Disease (PD) is degenerative disorder which gradually leads to tremors, rigidity, slowed movements, and gait disorders. PD patients also experience cognitive deficits such as difficulty with selective attention and problem-solving.
For more information about PD go to: http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/parkinsons_disease/parkinsons_disease.htm
How do patients with these disorders contribute to our research?
Patients with these neurodegenerative disorders, upon consent, participate in several methods of investigation for research purposes. Patients are given several other non-invasive neurocognitive behavioral tasks to perform, and many receive MRI scans while performing cognitive tasks.. Patients who have difficulty traveling to our facility are visited at their homes.
Patient information is kept strictly confidential and anonymous. Once a patient has contributed their time to perform a behavioral task, any personal identification information is stripped from the data. The anonymous data are then categorized based on the age range, and ailment of the patients and is subject to analysis. This information is helpful for improving diagnostic accuracy, developing measures for clinical trials, and are prototypes for mental exercises. A patient may also participate in a MRI scan for research purposes only. While in the MRI, images of brain activation are collected while a patient partakes in a cognitive task. The accuracy of responses during the task provides a behavorial measurement with which we compare a patient's brain image over time. These images reflect reorganization of brain functioning which is an important compensatory mechanism in the fore of brain disease. Comparisons provide major insight for our understanding of prognosis in neurodegenerative diseases.
How can you participate in our research?
Please visit our Volunteer Page and fill in the requested information. You will be contacted shortly regarding your interest in our research. | <urn:uuid:138e2a81-a9f3-48f4-a52b-ed83676ef1e2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.med.upenn.edu/grossmanlab/patientinfo.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923703 | 913 | 2.828125 | 3 |
City & Urban News
City & Urban
A city is a large town or incorporated municipal center. Cities often feature teeming populations, a local government led by a mayor or group of aldermen, an organized structural layout, and sometimes a distinct culture. The term "urban" describes things related to cities.
The first cities evolved as agriculture let humans adopt more sedentary and specialized lifestyles, eventually becoming religious, administrative and industrial epicenters. The city of Jericho is arguably the oldest city to hold a continuous population since its founding — in 7000 BCE, the city had 2,000 residents, a thriving metropolis for its time. Ancient Rome was the first city to break the 1 million mark; today, Tokyo is the most populous city with 35 million people. (Photo: Ghassan Tabet/Flickr) | <urn:uuid:be11d51d-96c9-45b1-8176-39b8ced74139> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mnn.com/eco-glossary/city-urban?page=17 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951995 | 166 | 3.203125 | 3 |
I am developing an application for research in which I need extreme precision of frame updates.
The graphics is very simple - a high resolution checkerboard which inverts every 4 frames. The key thing is that there must be no dropped frames or variation of the update rate. I thought of simply having the two images in double buffered memory and simply issuing the swapbuffers command to flip them but I don't know a way of tying the code execution to the vsync. The same thing could be achieved by translating the pattern horizontally or vertically by one square except that the image would need to be bigger than the screen so that the edges don't move. Is there any simple way to do this fairly simple task with the required precision?
Any help much appreciated | <urn:uuid:82de9759-155a-4a67-aedf-1c7742f00d21> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.opengl.org/discussion_boards/showthread.php/180474-Lock-swapbuffers-to-frame-rate?p=1246293&viewfull=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938299 | 153 | 1.851563 | 2 |
Best known for his brilliantly colored, stunningly energetic images of sporting events and leisure activities, LeRoy Neiman is probably the most popular living artist in the United States. The artistic style of the fabulously successful Neiman is familiar to a remarkably broad spectrum of Americans --"rich and poor, black and white, urban and rural, educated and illiterate," and young and old alike. He was the official artist at five Olympiads. Millions of people have watched him at work: on ABC TV coverage of the Olympics,as CBS Superbowl computer artist, and at other major competitions, televised on location with his sketchbook and drawing materials, producing split-second records and highly developed images of what he is witnessing. "Before the camera, such reportage of history and the passing scene was one of the most important functions of painters and draftsmen of all sorts. Mr. Neiman has revived an almost lost and time-honored art form," Carl J. Weinhardt observed in the catalog for the exhibition of Neiman's 1972 Olympics sketches, which was mounted that year by the Indianapolis Museum of Art. In the Christian Science Monitor (May 2, 1972), Nick Seitz wrote that Neiman, who has been labeled an American Impressionist, "has the journalistic talent, as well as the artistic ability, to convey the essence of a game or contestant with great impact, from the Kentucky Derby to Wilt Chamberlain, from the America's Cup to Muhammad Ali, from the Super Bowl to Bobby Hull."
A teacher at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for 10 years early in his career, after studying there, Neiman also gained wide recognition as contributing artist for Playboy, in the 1950s. Many of his images of what he calls " the good life," have appeared in the form of etchings, lithographs, silkscreen prints, and sculptures as well as paintings, in the permanent collections of public and private museums and other institutions worldwide. These institutional acquisitions, along with sales of approximately 150,000 of his silkscreen prints to individuals, attest to the enormous appeal of his work. "Whether one approves of Neiman's work or not,... one must agree that he is a work of art himself," Stan Isaacs declared in New York Newsday (March 27, 1968), in a reference to Neiman's colorful public persona. "I guess I created LeRoy Neiman," the artist once said. "Nobody else told me how to do it. Well, I'm a believer in the theory that the artist is as important as his work."
Of Turkish and Swedish descent ("as near as I can figure out," as he has said), LeRoy Neiman was born on June 8, 1921 in St. Paul, Minnesota to Charles Runquist, an unskilled laborer, and Lydia (Serline) Runquist. His surname is that of one of his stepfathers; during his childhood his biological father abandoned the family, and his mother, whom he described to Jerry Tallmer for the New York Post (May 9, 1981) as "a very spirited woman, ahead of her times," later remarried twice. Raised in a rough blue-collar St. Paul neighborhood, early on LeRoy Neiman became a "street kid," in his words.
He attended a Roman Catholic primary school, where, he told Max Millard for the New York City Westside TV Shopper (January 27-February 2, 1979), he "was always drawing pictures and getting special treatment... showing off, copping out of other things." During recess periods he would inscribe pen-and-ink tattoos on his classmates' arms. A painting of a fish that he made in sixth grade won a prize in a national art competition. Starting in adolescence he earned money from local grocers by painting calcimine images of fruit, vegetables and meat as sale items, and portraits of the shopkeepers themselves on the windows of their stores. As a high school student, he created posters for school dances and athletic events. He participated in boxing matches in the basement of his church, which started a lifetime interest in prize fighting.
In 1942, Neiman quit school and enlisted in the United States Army. While serving as a cook for four years, with two years of combat in Europe, he painted sexually suggestive murals in military kitchens and dining halls that reportedly generated enthusiastic responses from women as well as men. He also painted stage sets for Red Cross shows under the auspices of the army's Special Services division. "If nothing else, the army completely confirmed me as an artist, " he wrote in his book LeRoy Neiman: Art and Life Style (1974). "During this period I made my crucial discovery of the difference between the lifestyles of the officer and the Pfc [private first class]. This was to become the basis of my later mission in art, to investigate life's social strata from the workingman to the multimillionaire. I discovered that while the poor I knew so well are so often pitiable, the rich can be fools."
Neiman has cited as especially influential in his development as an artist the work of the artists Leonardo da Vinci and Rubens, "for spirit"; Tintoretto, "for space"; and Fragonard, "for feel," as F. Lanier Graham quoted him as saying in The Prints of LeRoy Neiman: A Catalogue Raisonne of Serigraphs, Lithographs, and Etchings (1980). Others include various Romantic Realists, Impressionists, Post-Impressionists, and Fauvists; the French master of light and color Raoul Dufy; the Eastern European Expressionists Kees van Dongen and Oskar Kokoschka; George Bellows and other members of the Ashcan School of art; and the Abstract Expressionists, especially Jackson Pollock and other practitioners of action painting, in which paint is applied directly by such means as splattering and dribbling.
During his interview with Max Millard, Neiman said that his painting style came into being "very suddenly." The catalyst that sparked its emergence was Neiman's acquisition, one day in 1953, of partially used cans of enamel paints that were being discarded by the custodian of the apartment house adjacent to his. As F. Lanier Graham pointed out, "Freely flowing paint makes possible fast-moving strokes. With fast-moving strokes, one can render the impression of fast-moving action." "That was when I hit my stride," Neiman has been quoted as saying with regard to his initial experiments with house paints. Idle Boats, one of his earliest works in that medium, won first prize in oil painting at the 1953 Twin City Show. That same year it was bought by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and thus became the first of his paintings to be purchased by a museum. Also in 1953, Neiman had his first solo shows, at galleries in Chicago and Lincoln, Illinois. He was among the artists featured in "New Talent in America 1956," in Art in America (February 1956). In 1957 one of his paintings was included in the "American 25th Biennial Exhibition" at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, in Washington, D.C., and a Neiman work displayed at the Chicago Art Exhibition, which drew 25,000 visitors, won the prize for most popular painting.
Earlier, while freelancing at a Chicago department store, Neiman had made the acquaintance of Hugh Hefner, who was then a copywriter there. In December 1953 Hefner began publishing Playboy. A few months later, after a chance meeting, Neiman showed Hefner some of his paintings. Much impressed, Hefner brought Art Paul, Playboy's art director, to Neiman's apartment to see them. Paul immediately commissioned the artist to illustrate "Black Country," a short story by Charles Beaumont about a jazz musician. His creation of those illustrations, which earned Playboy an award from the Chicago Art Directors Club in 1954, marks the inception of Neiman's ongoing association with the magazine.
By his own account, LeRoy Neiman works very hard, has no hobbies, and does not take vacations. He paints in a double-height studio in the Hotel des Artistes, a landmark New York City building across the street from one of his favorite subjects--Central Park. In the same building he maintains an office; a penthouse pied-a-terre; and an apartment that he shares with his best friend--his wife, the former Janet Byrne, whom he married on June 22, 1957. His archives, which he is currently assembling for preservation at the Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, D.C., are also kept there. His signature black handlebar mustache and luxuriant slicked-back hair are now peppered with gray, and he is seldom photographed without his trademark prop, a long cigar. Described by Malcolm Lein as quiet and warm, for many years he cultivated a reputation as a flamboyant man-about-town. "I like being outrageous. . . ," he acknowledged to Pete Dexter for Esquire (July 1984). "I don't actually do anything, except be conspicuous. It keeps me revved up." In the New Yorker (February 5, 1979), he was quoted as saying, "My performance is part of my success."
A member of the New York City Advisory Commission for Cultural Affairs since 1995, Neiman has received four honorary degrees and, among other honors, an Award of Merit from the American Athletic Union (1976), a Gold Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement (1977), and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Muscular Dystrophy Association (1986). Through the years he has donated scores of his artworks to charitable organizations, and in 1995 he gave the School of the Arts at Columbia University, in New York City, a gift of $6 million to create the LeRoy Neiman Center for Print Studies. | <urn:uuid:fcd168f7-bb3e-4a70-8414-d4e67e5b92d3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rogallery.com/neiman_leroy/neiman-biography.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981077 | 2,041 | 2.03125 | 2 |
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- Two Tampa Bay lawmakers are proposing solutions to gun violence in the wake of the Connecticut school shooting.
A Hillsborough County commissioner wants an annual gun buyback program and a yearly memorial for victims of gun violence.
The Tampa Tribune reports that commissioner Kevin Beckner will make a proposal next week. Under his plan, money to buy weapons would come from an annual county allocation plus local business support.
In St. Petersburg, Councilman Steve Kornell will propose next week to support a lobbying effort with state and federal officials for increased gun control, including reinstating a national ban on assault-type weapons.
Kornell says he wants to ban military-style weapons as well as create laws that make it easier to prosecute people who illegally purchase guns for others.
(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.) | <urn:uuid:4d0b00f0-f5de-40f4-b180-4b5a370d3c59> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wtsp.com/politics/article/290282/36/Tampa-area-officials-discuss-gun-violence | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942522 | 190 | 1.570313 | 2 |
"The International Jew" Study Hour - Episode 9
August 23, 2012
Carolyn Yeager and Hadding Scott read and comment on Chapter 7, "Arthur Brisbane Leaps to the Help of Jewry."
Image: Arthur Brisbane in his newspaper office in New York. He was one of the best-known editors of the 20th Century -- becoming editor of William Randolf Hearst's New York Journal and a close friend of Hearst. His syndicated column had an estimated daily readership of over 20 million.
Brisbane's editorial of Sunday, June 20, 1920, titled "Facts: An Antidote to Prejudice," is the subject of this chapter which appeared in Ford's Dearborn Independent 2 weeks later on July 3, 1920.
Brisbane's editorial can be read here, as a reprint in the Canadian Jewish Chronicle of July 2, 1920. The front page of this edition of the Chronicle is also of interest, under "Poor Ford" where Henry Ford is described by the Jews as being either mentally unbalanced or mentally defective.
Note: We are using the Noontide Press publication of The International Jew — The World’s Foremost Problem which can be found online here as a pdf file. | <urn:uuid:79c86879-9ebd-42cd-9aa7-0d3dbf4814bf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://carolynyeager.net/node/884 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95502 | 255 | 2.71875 | 3 |
From Ohio History Central
Erma Bombeck was a well-known twentieth-century American journalist and humorist.
Erma Louise Fiste was born on February 21, 1927, in Dayton, Ohio. Her father died when she was nine years old and the family was left in poverty. Erma later graduated from Patterson Vocational High School, where she wrote for the school paper. She also served as a copygirl for the Dayton Herald newspaper.
After graduating from high school, Fiste enrolled in Ohio University and then in the University of Dayton. She graduated from the University of Dayton in 1949, with a degree in English and went to work as a reporter with the Dayton Journal Herald. In that same year, Fiste married Bill Bombeck, her college sweetheart and a school administrator. Erma Bombeck continued to write for the paper over the next five years, but she later resigned her position to raise a family.
After spending ten years as a homemaker, Bombeck returned to her newspaper career. She wrote a weekly column for the Kettering-Oakwood Times and earned three dollars for each column. She titled the column, "At Wit's End." Bombeck took a humorous look at motherhood and housework. She challenged the view that women were happy at home caring for their families. In 1965, newspapers across the United States carried Bombeck's column twice each week. She wrote the column for the next thirty-one years and completed over four thousand articles. Her popularity made her a household name. Bombeck began giving speeches based on her columns, and worked as a correspondent for "Good Morning, America" for eleven years. She wrote fifteen bestselling books. Bombeck donated all of the profits from "I Want to Grow Up, I Want to Grow Hair, I Want to go to Boise" to cancer research. Bombeck died in 1996 from kidney transplant complications. | <urn:uuid:5b4f430c-a76e-4fa3-a0ed-0cd5980c7bbc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Fiste,_Erma_L.?rec=1841&nm=Erma-L-Fiste-Erma-Bombeck | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984589 | 383 | 2.15625 | 2 |
Over the past 50 years, the raising of animals for food in the United States has shifted from traditional, diversified family farms to an industrialized system reliant on concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). This change has primarily been led by large companies, known as integrators, that control every aspect of production while ensuring that regulations remain minimal and farmers bear the brunt of the responsibility for waste management.
Pigs in gestation crates
In 2008, the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production completed a comprehensive, 2½-year study concluding that industrialized farm animal production systems (such as those used in CAFOs) often pose unacceptable risks to public health, the environment and the welfare of the animals, and recommended that significant changes be implemented immediately. Although some areas of animal agriculture have recognized these threats and taken action, it is clear that the industry has a long way to go.
Too Much Waste, Too Little Regulation
Data from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) indicate that 500 million to 1 billion tons of animal manure are produced annually by livestock operations, much of it from CAFOs. These huge volumes of waste are commonly stored in open lagoons or in large piles and then applied to cropland, often untreated and at levels that far exceed the fertilization needs of crops. This results in excess runoff into local bodies of water, including the Chesapeake Bay. The pollution harms aquatic life and water quality.
The EPA and state agencies have implemented some regulations to control nutrient pollution, but significant gaps remain in the permitting process, from criteria that define which facilities require permits to who bears responsibility for the manure and other CAFO waste that is stored, applied to cropland or moved from the CAFO for crop application.
CAFOs strive to pack the maximum number of animals into the smallest area and to employ the fewest number of workers to manage them. To do this, CAFOs use intensive confinement systems such as battery cages to hold egg-laying hens, and gestation crates to house pregnant pigs. Within these cages and crates, animals spend the majority of their lives deprived of the most basic natural behaviors, and the crowded conditions necessitate the routine use of antibiotics to minimize disease transmission. These confinement methods are among the least humane of industrial farm animal practices. Several states, along with the European Union, have enacted measures to phase out these systems.
What Needs to Be Done
Because of the impact of CAFOs on the environment, communities, public health and animal welfare, the industry should be regulated as rigorously as other industrial producers. The following policies are needed to reform industrial animal agriculture and minimize its detrimental effects:
How You Can Help:
Urge your state and federal lawmakers to support these four measures and a phase-out of intensive confinement systems such as gestation crates and battery cages.
- There must be a balance between waste generated by CAFOs and the amount of cropland available for its disposal. The pollution issues clearly indicate that, in areas of extreme concentration (such as the Delmarva Peninsula), caps on total animal density should be part of the solution in the absence of new programs to manage the manure in ways other than simple land application.
- Legal and financial responsibility for managing waste should be shared by farmers and the meat companies that own, slaughter and process the animals. Both should assume responsibility for adhering to carefully crafted and effective permits under the Clean Water Act.
- Manure transported off the site of a CAFO should be monitored for proper disposal and subject to a permitting process.
- The EPA, which is responsible for implementing the Clean Water Act, should maintain a publicly accessible inventory of all CAFOs, complete with permit and compliance records. | <urn:uuid:cb23325b-27ff-4454-b1ce-44006bec701f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pewenvironment.org/news-room/fact-sheets/industrial-animal-agriculture-a-broken-system-85899362018 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939833 | 753 | 3.625 | 4 |
Revista mexicana de biodiversidad
versão impressa ISSN 1870-3453
SERNA-LAGUNES, Ricardo et al. Morphological variability and body growth on four populations of Crocodylus moreletii in captivity. Rev. Mex. Biodiv. [online]. 2010, vol.81, n.3, pp. 713-719. ISSN 1870-3453.
The main goal of this study was to evaluate the effect of captivity upon morphological characteristics and body growth rates of the Morelet's crocodile (Crocodylus moreletii). The studied individuals are currently reared in the Management Unit for Wildlife Conservation (Cacahuatal), located at Veracruz, Mexico. Four populations were compared: individuals from 2 of them were born in wild conditions, whereas individuals from the other 2, were born in captivity. Morphology was similar among populations and between sexes. Body growth rates were significantly different among populations, those individuals born in natural conditions grew faster than those born in captivity. We conclude that captivity does not seem to affect the morphological expression of C. moreletii in comparison with a significant effect upon the rate of body growth. These results show that different populations of C. moreletii can exhibit differential body growth patterns depending on the conditions experienced in captivity.
Palavras-chave : morphology; body growth rate; Management Unit for Wildlife Conservation; Morelet's crocodile. | <urn:uuid:5c3cea14-c4e6-430c-bad6-9bf34fc5eb71> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S1870-34532010000300013&lng=pt&nrm=iso&tlng=en | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945239 | 302 | 2.1875 | 2 |
The rise in oil prices has become a very pressing issue. Certainly, nobody has to be reminded that crude is now hovering just below $80 per barrel, while gasoline has surpassed $3 per gallon on average around the nation.
The widely accepted explanation for oil prices' recent steep climb is strong demand. We are told that the global economy is firing on all cylinders, and that China and India have emerged as major consumers. In addition, we are told that supplies are tight; that the margin between what is produced and what is consumed on a daily basis has never been narrower; and furthermore, that major new discoveries of oil are few and far between.
These explanations certainly sound plausible, and perhaps we can even attribute some portion of the price rise to them. A closer analysis, however, shows that they are not sufficient to explain the full extent of the increases.
The speculation problem
A new report released last month by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations concludes that market speculation has played a role in the rise of oil and gas prices. It points a finger not only at commodity funds and hedge funds, but also at large institutional investors such as pension funds and mutual funds, which have become major participants in the energy markets over the past several years.
The investigation found that an estimated $60 billion has poured into regulated U.S. oil futures markets in the past few years. While this sounds like a lot (and it certainly is), the amount that has gone into non-regulated exchanges overseas is inestimable. Therein lies the problem.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission oversees all futures trading on U.S. markets, and it's constantly monitoring the positions of large speculators. However, the CFTC has no jurisdiction over exchanges that are outside the U.S. or in the murky over-the-counter market where billions of dollars of contracts are traded all the time. This leaves the oil markets subject to price manipulation or price distortion as a result of speculative money flows that cannot be regulated or monitored. One excerpt from the Senate's report reads as follows:
As an increasing number of U.S. energy trades [occur] on unregulated, OTC electronic exchanges or through foreign exchanges, the CFTC's large trading reporting system becomes less and less accurate, the trading data becomes less and less useful, and its market oversight program becomes less comprehensive.. A trader may take a position on an unregulated electronic exchange or on a foreign exchange that is either in addition to or opposite from the positions the trader has taken on the NYMEX, and thereby avoid and distort the large trader reporting system. Not only can the CFTC be misled by these trading practices, but these trading practices could render the CFTC weekly publication of energy market trading data, intended to be used by the public, as incomplete and misleading.
Despite this, some "experts" still contend that high oil and gas prices are uniquely an issue of supply and demand. Let's examine those arguments.
The limits of traditional thinking
First, we'll have a look at the demand side. According to the Energy Information Administration (a bureau of the Department of Energy), the daily global consumption of crude oil has climbed by 22% in the past 16 years; however, the price of crude has increased nearly eightfold. Gasoline demand in the same period is up about 44%, while the traded futures price of gasoline has increased sixfold. Clearly, the amount by which the price has risen seems to exceed the degree by which demand has grown.
The exact opposite is true, when you look at the growth in futures trading. Activity on the NYMEX alone has increased by more than 1,000% since 1990, and the total combined volume of global trade in energy derivatives has increased exponentially. While actual, physical demand has indeed been rising over these years, it simply cannot compare to the growth rate of futures and derivatives. Unfortunately, the market does not differentiate between the two sources of demand, so speculative demand is just as important as demand tied to actual physical consumption.
It's also important to understand that the numbers from the EIA are global demand numbers, and therefore include the impact of China and India and other emerging economies. Many oil bulls rely almost solely on the China rationale to justify current prices, yet it doesn't hold up to the test. Obviously, I'm not saying that China hasn't been a factor -- it just hasn't been enough of a factor to push crude to the prices we're seeing now.
On the supply side, the arguments are equally weak. At the present time, inventories of crude oil in the United States are at an eight-year high, and OECD inventories of crude are at a 20-year high. Yet prices continue to climb. In the past two years, as the price of crude has nearly doubled, U.S. inventories have increased by more than 70 million barrels (not including the Strategic Petroleum Reserve). The domestic gasoline supply has remained constant; however, imports have doubled in the past two years, making up the difference.
Any honest assessment of these numbers should lead to the inescapable conclusion that supply and demand factors alone cannot explain the large run-up in price we've seen thus far. And I haven't even discussed OPEC output and capacity growth (both have increased), the quiet return of Iraqi output to pre-war levels, and the lack of any major supply disruptions. If anything, these have been bearish factors for oil, not bullish ones.
When the market breaks down
The big problem now is that speculation has gotten so out of hand that it is distorting the very mechanism by which the market allocates supply. For example, a commodity that is in tight supply will normally exhibit a spot price that's higher than futures prices, since consumers are willing to pay up to obtain supplies that have suddenly become scarce. In turn, higher spot prices act as an inducement to producers or inventory-holders to sell their inventories into the market now, rather than hold them and realize a lower price at some future point. Selling inventory into the marketplace alleviates the shortage.
What we see happening now in oil is exactly the opposite. Despite all the talk of supply tightness and a concomitant 700% run-up in the price over the past seven years, spot prices for crude remain below futures prices all the way out to January 2009! It seems speculators are buying oil and holding it for the purposes of financial gain, in such huge quantities that it precludes the normal price relationship from occurring.
With the price curve as it is, an incentive is created to hold oil in inventory rather than sell it into the marketplace, and this creates a vicious circle: the more oil held in inventory, the more spot prices remain weak relative to futures, and the more investors want to hold it in inventory. The bottom line is that supplies are held off the market exactly at a time when they should be brought on.
Therefore, all the talk in the world about what will stop the price rise is moot if we fail to see it as a consequence of speculation, not supply and demand. Hopefully, the Committee's report will bring some relief. I have to say I'm not very hopeful, because the remedies suggested seem meek. I hope I'm wrong -- for the sake of consumers and the U.S. economy, I hope I'm doubly wrong.
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Fool contributorMike Norman is the founder and publisher of The Economic Contrarian Update and a Fox News business contributor. He is also a radio talk show host for the BizRadio Network. | <urn:uuid:ee88e21c-774a-4766-9b4d-ae276e3689e2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fool.com/investing/dividends-income/2006/08/01/the-reason-for-high-oil-prices.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970626 | 1,575 | 2.328125 | 2 |
The first sexual orientation label I ever gave myself, at age 14, was bi. I didn't have to question my sexuality to get to that--it was just obvious and simple and easy, or at least that's how I remember it. I reacted to boys and dreamed about girls. Of course, social pressures and teen angst step in, and so for a few years I try to cut my sexuality into easily-understandable pieces, question whether I'm straight or lesbian or asexual, beat myself up for never having kissed anyone, much less had sex with males and females to "prove" my orientation, etc.
At the same time, I'm angsting about gender. I'm railing against a lot of the female gender stereotypes/roles people perceive and pressure me to be in. I've been raised with a lot of misogyny, and maybe I invented some of my own out of resentment of the gender I'm imprisoned in. I struggle to accept feminism despite cultural indoctrination to reject it, struggle because I love women and girls and I can't not want to champion them, struggle because I find myself expressing my lust in predatorial thoughts that make me all the more aware that women can be victims. I become anti-gender, envisioning an ideal society in which people act according to their proclivities without necessity of categorizing.
Then my best friend comes out as FTM. He looks better as a guy, and I'm miffed that he didn't come out earlier so he'd be comfortable responding to my flirtations. I move away, so that comes to nothing, but I've embraced the androgyne gender identity. I obsess over gender for a while, before realizing that there's nothing that basically different about me (well, part of me knew this all along--it just takes time to assimilate things into a dynamic identity such as we all possess) except what I believe:
People are people. The "scientific" studies that reveal cognitive sex differences usually only report small differences in the statistical means of overlapping curves, many of which, like mathematical ability, may be a product of cultural context or study bias.
Sex and gender are different. Gender is a set of arbitrary rules and ingrained interpretations of data that just doesn't reflect reality for individuals. In most contexts, ANYONE (and especially me ^_^) might just as well be male as female. The only times these matter have to do with sex (the act), reproduction, and related organs. Of course, societies make sex/gender matter in a ton of other contexts in defiance of common sense, and that's what makes me a cheerful feminist. (If you don't understand the above, here's an example: We have different sentences for if a male or a female goes to the store, takes care of the kids, etc, depending upon the gender or sex we assign this person. "He took the kids to the store," vs, "She took the kids to the store." These sentences summon different mental images, but is there really a difference in the act? Do you really get meaningful information about a person just from knowing their gender--have you never been surprised by someone's appearance because they deviate from your generic "mother" figure, for example? I think it's harmful that such genderless activities are genderized by our use of pronouns and gender-specific naming conventions because it facilitates the creation and perpetuation of gender stereotypes. Where I grew up, any male who showed interest in literature or creative writing got slammed with homophobic suspicions of being gay. Obviously, this isn't good for my home region's cultural, intellectual, or emotional development.)
Sex is almost as arbitrary as gender. There are exceptions to the karyotype (XX = female, XY = male) and genital (penis = male, vagina = female) rules, but, more importantly, every human being experiences unique physical and emotional development with regards to sex. No one hits puberty at the same time, not all men have facial hair, every woman's labia resemble a different breed of flower. Not everyone with a uterus can medically bear children, and not everyone with a penis has a libido. So many people, especially preteens and teenagers but also a regrettably large number of adults in our society, feel insecure or hold themselves to unrealistic demands to match the label they've been given.
Sexuality means more than we give it credit for. It's the longing to touch another's skin, to share a deep emotional connection, to hook another personality to your own, as much as it is about more clearly sexual pleasure, and there's a lot of that. It includes ************ and partnered sex as well as grooming and self-presentation, how one fits into a larger social environment as well as how one relates to oneself and to a close partner. You can be sensual or sexual without stimulating sex organs at all, and on the flip side you can be sexual just by stimulating those organs, without being aroused by someone else's body or experiencing an emotional connection, and you can experience an infinite amount of other combinations, and you just about will--something's different every time.
Sexual/romantic orientation also has more to it than gender/sex. It's about how different people may or may not fulfill any of the above sexual desires, and a lot of that seems random to us or can't be controlled. Usually orientation is interpreted as excluding a segment of the population from one's dating pool--if you're homosexual, you're not going to be interested in people of the opposite sex. If heterosexual, not the same sex. If bisexual, anything goes, but if asexual, don't even look. And I think some people really do feel a strong enough orientation that they couldn't have a fulfilling relationship with one of the excluded people, but the problem is that a lot MORE people are excluded in most people's orientation than are indicated by the homosexual/heterosexual labels. Some people just don't click. Others are excluded because of age, lifestyle, or a million other factors. Are the hetero/homo labels really so useful when we already have to have fine-tuned sensors to hone in on the one case of mutual attraction out of a thousand or more no's? (Of course, sociopolitically the LGBT labels have been vital to earning recognition and fighting prejudice, and it's certainly useful for the sexual minorities to create a community to increase their/our likelihood of meeting a "yes".)
I'm pansexual because of who I have wanted and who I have loved emotionally. I don't know what physical sexual features (which certainly have more than two types--I was checking out a scrawny guy with beautiful, delicate hands and scraggly, long hair and facial hair on a narrow, acne-ridden face the other day) or gender/personality traits will attract me next. The only thing I can expect is that my attractions will continue to be diverse, and that I will not exclude anyone solely because they are male, female, intersexed, transgender, androgyne, butch, femme, etc. | <urn:uuid:6e612a82-2226-4113-91e6-9f57b90d6313> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.experienceproject.com/stories/Am-A-Pansexual/357903 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966362 | 1,457 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Animals that start with J
List of animals.
Just here looking for animals? This page gives you an alphabetical breakdown of the most popular animals, reptiles and birds, from farmyard to jungle.
Jack Russells are small dogs that are mainly white, with patches of brown or black. They might have smooth or rough coats. They were originally bred for hunting foxes. They are intelligent, energetic, fearless and vocal. If they are left alone or not exercised enough, they can get bored and destructive. They do not make good indoor dogs.
A jackal is a small to medium sized close relative of the dog. They are found in Africa, Asia and some parts of Europe. Jackals normally live together in pairs, although they will sometimes form small packs to hunt. They hunt small to medium animals, and will eat dead animals they find. Like household dogs they will also eat fruit and other plants as well as meat.
Jellyfish come in almost every colour of the rainbow and range in size from smaller than your fingernail to having tentacles that are many metres long.
Some jellyfish are poisonous and their sting can kill a person. It is best to avoid touching a jellyfish if you don't know what sort it is. | <urn:uuid:672b2231-500c-4d2f-972c-3dffc0067003> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://photographicdictionary.com/animals/j | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970127 | 257 | 2.328125 | 2 |
Obama's Time Cover Transition: From FDR To Reagan
What a difference a shellacking makes . . .
Just after Barack Obama won the White House in 2008, Time photoshopped him into an iconic FDR photo at the wheel of a convertible, jaunty cigarette-holder in mouth.
Obama was riding high as the champion of the left, the promise and personification of a born-again big-government New Deal. That was then, this is the 9+% unemployment, recent-shellacking now. So with which president does Time now find it in the president's interest to be associated? Why, Ronald Reagan, of course.
The new Time cover, unveiled by Time editor Rick Stengel on Morning Joe today, features a Photoshop of a smiling Obama and Reagan, the Gipper's arm approvingly clapped around PBO's shoulder. The legend: "Why Obama Loves Reagan," [a symbolic heart in place of "loves"].
Stengel explains that for years Obama has admired Reagan's style, if not substance, and has sought to emulate it. Whatever. The bigger point is how the cover reflects the realization by some the more sentient precincts of the liberal media that Obama's big government project has failed. If PBO is to win in 2012, nothing might help him more than to be associated with the man who made famous the phrase "government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem." | <urn:uuid:1314e6cb-83b5-4859-931c-0c2705be0867> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://newsbusters.org/blogs/mark-finkelstein/2011/01/27/obamas-time-cover-transition-fdr-reagan | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00076-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94995 | 295 | 1.570313 | 2 |
At MAKE Labs we built a squadron of balsa-and-tissue ornithopters for William Gurstelle’s how-to article in MAKE Volume 08. The trickiest part was bending the tiny wire crank that flaps the wings in time. Even with Bill’s clear instructions, that little wire was trial-and-error.
This kit spares you that error. The pre-bent crank and laser-cut parts fit precisely; you only need scissors, glue, and a few evenings. Instructions are well illustrated, and online there’s a build video and a teacher’s guide. The delicate ’thopter weighs ¼oz, has a 16″ wingspan, and flies about 1 minute on 200 turns of the rubber band. At press time BirdKit.com was upgrading the kit, so yours may fly that much better. | <urn:uuid:bd00de85-b3e2-415e-b204-0299d8b89bab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.makezine.com/review/gryphon-ornithopter/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=4ca8fc8c32 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.906331 | 180 | 2.21875 | 2 |
One of the inventors of Liquidmetal, Atakan Peker, has said that Apple is ‘unlikely’ to use the alloy in its next MacBook range, but he does expect the company to use the technology in a ‘breakthrough product’.
“Given the size of MacBook and scale of Apple products, I think it’s unlikely that Liquidmetal casing will be used in MacBooks in the near term,” said Peker in an interview with Business Insider. “A MacBook casing, such as a unibody, will take two to four more years to implement.”
Peker added that rumours that Liquidmetal would be used in the next MacBooks might not be completely untrue, but it would be on a much smaller scale: “It’s more likely in the form of a small components such as a hinge or bracket.” Apple has used Liquidmetal in its products already, but just in the SIM card ejector pin, rather than in the body of the iPhone itself.
One of the reasons behind Peker’s belief that it will be a few more years before we see Liquidmetal as a main feature in Apple products is because it is still a new technology that is in the process of being developed. “I estimate that Apple will likely spend on the order of $300 million to $500 million – and three to five years – to mature the technology before it can be used in a large scale,” he said.
Peker thinks that Liquidmetal will be used to replace current materials used in Apple’s devices, and also believes that it will be used to make a breakthrough product. “Apple’s exclusively licensing a new material technology (specifically for casing and enclosures) is a first in the industry,” he said. “Therefore, I expect Apple to use this technology in a breakthrough product. Such product will likely bring an innovative user interface and industrial design together, and will also be very difficult to copy or duplicate with other material technologies.”
Apple has exclusively licensed Liquidmetal’s technology, but Peker expects that other companies will find a way to use the technology when it becomes more mature.
Peker explained what benefits Liquidmetal could bring to Apple’s devices: “Liquidmetal is super strong, scratch and corrosion resistant, resilient and can be precision cast into complex shapes. The benefits will be in the form of strong and aesthetic structural components, such as casing and frames.”
“At first look, it looks like a typical metal, more like stainless steel,” Peker explained. “Its silvery grey metallic colour has a bit different tone and hue than stainless steel. Depending on the specific alloy formulation, its hue may vary slightly. Its surface can be prepared in various cosmetic finishes, such as bright shiny, satin or brush metallic. It feels like a solid strong metal like stainless steel and comes a bit warmer to hand when touching compared to other metals.” | <urn:uuid:e2020dd7-68e4-4365-abc0-3c7057de34c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.macworld.co.uk/mac/news/?newsid=3355507&pagtype=allchandate | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938059 | 626 | 1.96875 | 2 |
Baltimore figures substantially in "Arts and the Mind," a two-hour documentary airing on PBS stations around the country.
Also getting attention is Dr. Charles Limb, the surgeon and neuroscientist (not to mention jazz sax player) at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. His studies into the creative process include putting a hip-hop performer under a brain scanner.
The program, with footage of diverse activities from Boston to Los Angeles, sets out to prove the need for the arts in our lives, and the benefits they can generate at any age. Talking points of every state arts council and philanthropic organization get a workout here.
With "Friends" star Lisa Kudrow serving as a pleasant, if dry, guide, the show does get a little heavy on cliches at times ("Art gives meaning to our lives"). Some of the arguments are unavoidably undercut by talk of "anecdotal evidence" and "observational data."
And it's deflating to hear that there is no evidence to support the popularly held notion that children studying music develop better math skills. But that doesn't mean there isn't a connection, says Ellen Winner, chair of the department of psychology at Boston College — just the sort of optimistic outlook this program dispenses from start to finish.
And why not? It's really hard to argue with it, especially when seeing the beauty and sensing the promise in shots of teens in L.A. reciting poetry with startling fervor, or seniors in a D.C. choir rehearsing for a concert, or excited OrchKids students heading onstage at Meyerhoff Hall to perform with the BSO.
Alsop and OrchKids director Dan Trahey drive home the point that music helps focus young lives in many ways.
As previously documented on a "60 Minutes" broadcast, there's something magical about the children in Baltimore's underserved, undernourished neighborhoods clutching the instruments they have chosen to play, staying after school to practice.
The show offers plenty of talking heads — an archaeologist, a psychologist, several other -ists — to explain and demonstrate how humans have always been artistic, how the brains of young and old alike can be stimulated by creative activity. Actor Tim Robbins and trumpeter Herb Alpert also are on hand to voice their conviction in the life-enhancing power of the arts.
There may be a lot of preaching to the choir in "Arts and the Mind" — school board officials prone to slice arts programs at the drop of a football probably won't tune in — but that should only make the choir sing out all the more vibrantly.
"Arts and the Mind" will be shown at 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 16, on WMPT-Channel 22, and 3 p.m. Sept. 23 on WETA-Channel 26. | <urn:uuid:6be980fc-fb64-424e-8711-692a00bf567e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mcall.com/entertainment/arts/bs-ae-bso-pbs-20120915,0,648525.story | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953563 | 586 | 2.203125 | 2 |
"People will just go in and take the fruit!" someone objected.
"That's the idea," he replied.
Last year, before one of our films held in the neighbouring village, some of Sustainable Bungay went and visited the newly planted site. Originally Rob said, the inspiration for a Village Orchard was romantic and Arcadian. Their choices for fruit were based on childhood memories and varieties that were locally known. The group had not thought about the future - who would look after it, or who the fruit might be for. Since coming into contact with Transition (Christine, his wife, is one of our Happy Mondays cooks), he was looking at the trees in a different light. In terms of local resilience. Most of the trees had been planted on dwarf stock, as the village had wanted "to see results", but some had been planted on M25s. Who knows who might benefit when those great fruit and nut bearers have reached their prime?
There is a huge inertia about collecting and gathering our native fruit and these enterprises help galvanise interest and connect us with our native roots. Industrialised to the max, we would rather buy apples flown in from New Zealand in a plastic bag from a supermarket than make good use of the fruit lying freely all about us. At Green Drinks Eloise told us that at her local primary school the School Council (made up of pupils) voted against planting fruit trees around the playground "because of wasps" (so much for education improving your intelligence!). Eloise who organises a team of "eco warriors" at the school has said the team are going to change their minds!
Not all institutions however are disconnected from nature. Recently the Norwich Steiner School began fruit-collecting and preserving alongside the Norwich Abundance Project and we were sent a press release about the project, written by one of the (14 year old) students involved. Do get in contact with them if you would like to take part. Here it is:
by George Thorley, Elder Class, Norwich Steiner School.
Norwich abundance is an urban fruit harvest project. Abundance began in Sheffield in 2007 finding all unused fruit trees and sharing the fruit with the public. This was to help show that fruit is being wasted each year and left to rot.
The new upper school of Norwich Steiner school recognised that they wanted to make people aware of the vast amount of fruit produce that is being wasted every day in the UK and other countries. There are lots of fruits being imported from New Zealand and other countries with a large carbon footprint, instead of using our seasonal glut of local fruit.
Norwich Steiner school upper school students, during September and October, are picking unwanted fruit and then this will be distributed to people who may not have access to fresh fruit. With any extra “fruit” we are making jams, chutneys, juices, and more. Alys Mendus, our teacher and project leader, said “We’re giving away the good apples then making the bruised ones into chutney and juice, that will be sold."
“The money that we make is going to fund the project, and any profit is going into our class and the school,” said class member Barnaby Taylor.
We are working with Transition Norwich who have been recording where fruit trees are. So we can help them map out fruit trees as well as picking fruit. Our class has created posters and these have been emailed to parents and others who are in the school mailing list. We have also made a flier that will be distributed to people in the local area and some shops in Norwich.
Get in touch with the school if you are willing to help us in this quest. Or if you have trees or know of any where the fruit needs picking, or if you have any queries get in touch with us. Those people who offer us their fruit will get them picked for free, then, we will offer them some of the fruit and take the rest for processing and distribution. So please get in touch if you are interested, and help us start picking!
Norwich Steiner school: 01603 611175 Email: firstname.lastname@example.org
The fruits of Transition: map of St James Village Orchard; damson tree at Cathy's orchand Ditchingham (Charlotte Du Cann; NR3 urban foraging map (helen of norwich; drawers of apples.Thorpe St Andrew (Bee Springwood) | <urn:uuid:46efb57e-a5d3-48f6-b62a-032ef8978009> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://transitionnorwich.blogspot.com/2012/10/a-school-of-apples.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976885 | 921 | 2.359375 | 2 |
Possible long-term side effects of treatments for rhabdomyosarcoma
Because more children with rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) are surviving longer, it is now possible to look at the long-term effects of their treatment. It's important to discuss what these possible effects might be with your child's medical team before starting treatment. Doctors try to limit these potential side effects as much as possible when planning treatment.
The long-term effects of surgery depend a great deal on the location and extent of the tumor(s). Some operations may result in few physical changes other than a scar, while more involved operations may lead to changes in appearance or in how some parts of the body function, and may require physical rehabilitation.
Some chemotherapy drugs may damage cells in the ovaries or testicles, which can affect a patient's ability to have children later on. For parents, it's important to discuss this with your child's health care team before treatment. In some cases there may be ways to help preserve fertility.
The long-term side effects of radiation therapy may be significant, especially for young children. Bones and soft tissues that are irradiated do not grow very well. Depending on the area getting radiation, this may result in curvature of the spine, a shortened arm or leg, limited motion of a joint, hardening of the surrounding soft tissue, stiffening of the lungs, poor development of the facial bones, cataracts and poor vision of the involved eye, later problems with sexual function, and other problems. Young children's brains are especially sensitive to radiation to the head, which can lead to learning problems or other issues, so doctors do their best to avoid this when possible.
Another unwanted long-term result is the small, but definitely increased, risk of second cancers in survivors who had chemotherapy and radiation therapy. These cancers include bone cancer, leukemia, or other soft tissue tumors. The bone cancers seem to be linked with radiotherapy, while the leukemias are more often seen after treatment with cyclophosphamide and related drugs.
It is important to remember that these second cancers affect only a small number of rhabdomyosarcoma survivors, and these are children who most likely would not have survived without these treatments.
Long-term follow-up care for children
To help increase awareness of late effects and improve follow-up care of childhood cancer survivors throughout their lives, the Children's Oncology Group (COG) has developed long-term follow-up guidelines for survivors of childhood cancers. These guidelines can help you know what to watch for, what screening tests should be done to look for problems, and how late effects may be treated.
It is very important to discuss possible long-term complications with your child's health care team, and to make sure there is a plan in place to watch for these problems and treat them, if needed. To learn more, ask your child's doctors about the COG survivor guidelines. You can also download them for free at the CureSearch Web site: www.survivorshipguidelines.org. The guidelines are written for health care professionals. Patient versions of some of the guidelines available (as "Health Links") on the site as well, but we urge you to review them with a doctor.
For more about some of the possible long-term effects of treatment, see our document, Children Diagnosed With Cancer: Late Effects of Cancer Treatment.
Keeping good medical records
As much as you might want to put the experience behind you once treatment is completed, it is very important to keep good records of your child's medical care during this time. Gathering these details soon after treatment may be easier than trying to get them at some point in the future. There are certain pieces of information that your child's doctors should have, even after your child has become an adult. These include:
- A copy of the pathology report(s) from any biopsies or surgeries.
- If there was surgery, a copy of the operative report(s).
- If your child stayed in the hospital, a copy of the discharge summaries that doctors prepare when patients are sent home.
- If chemotherapy was given, a list of the final doses of each chemotherapy drug or other drug your child received. (Certain chemotherapy drugs have specific long-term side effects. If you can get a list of these from the pediatric oncologist, this might also help any new primary care doctor.)
- If radiation therapy was given, a summary of the type and dose of radiation and when and where it was given.
It is also very important to keep your health insurance. Tests and doctor visits cost a lot, and even though no one wants to think of the tumor coming back, this could happen.
Last Medical Review: 04/26/2012
Last Revised: 04/26/2012 | <urn:uuid:fdf6ef74-da10-41db-bb46-f5a086ee5c46> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cancer.org/cancer/rhabdomyosarcoma/detailedguide/rhabdomyosarcoma-after-long-term-side-effects | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957142 | 999 | 2.8125 | 3 |
In The Naked Now, there's a virus spreading among the crew of the Enterprise. (Essentially the same virus as in The Naked Time: It forces characters to reveal their motivations and allows extreme amounts of character development to happen in a single episode.)
Data is shown, repeatedly, to be electronic and mechanical. We see servos in his limbs, electronic control panels in his head, the device that connects his head to his body, and even the effect of pushing his on/off switch. We later see that his skin isn't biological. (In First Contact we see what happens when Data gets actual skin hooked up to his system so he can feel.) (I also think I remember references to him feeling with microsensors, but I can't remember where or when that was said.)
So how can Data not only contract the biological virus that spreads through the rest of the crew and how can it effect his thinking, which is done with a Positronic brain? | <urn:uuid:1ded57f7-3288-40ca-b867-3e80514cb25c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/9807/how-can-a-biological-virus-infect-data | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986439 | 198 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Arthur Hays Sulzberger
Sulzberger, Arthur Hays, 1891–1968, American newspaper publisher, b. New York City. He joined the New York Times in 1918 and assisted his father-in-law, the publisher Adolph S. Ochs, succeeding Ochs upon his death in 1935. Sulzberger broadened the Times's use of background reporting, pictures, and feature articles, and expanded its sections. He supervised the development of facsimile transmission for photographs and built the Times radio station, WQXR, into a leading vehicle for news and music. Under Sulzberger the Times began to publish editions in Paris and Los Angeles with remote-control typesetting machines. In 1961 he turned the paper's management over to a son-in-law, while remaining chairman of the board. In 1963, his son, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, 1926–2012, b. New York City, took over as publisher and president after extensive newspaper experience on local news desks and in foreign bureaus. During his years at the Times 's helm (president, 1963–79; publisher, 1963–92), he led a transformation in the paper's production from hot type and Linotype machines to sophisticated digital processes. In 1964 he consolidated the operations of the daily and Sunday editions, which had been separate. One of his most important journalistic acts was the publication (1971) of the Pentagon Papers. A few years later, he introduced highly successful new feature sections. In 1987, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr., 1951–, b. Mt. Kisco, N.Y., was named deputy publisher; in 1992 he became publisher while his father continued as chief executive officer and chairman, posts held from 1979. In 1997 the elder Sulzberger retired as chairman and chief executive, and his son assumed corporate leadership.
See G. Berger, The Story of The New York Times (1951, repr. 1970); I. O. Sulzberger, Iphigene (1981); G. Talese, The Kingdom and the Power (1981); S. Tift and A. Jones, The Trust (1999). | <urn:uuid:3b5c8f62-6492-4a16-ac9d-a857bd5df163> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.factmonster.com/encyclopedia/people/sulzberger-arthur-hays.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956107 | 444 | 1.835938 | 2 |
At a recent meeting of the Baxley Lions Club, Dr. Orlando Fernando, or Dr. Orly as he is affectionately called, spoke about heart health. His wife, Nerry, and their two daughters, Alyssa and Andrea, accompanied him. The Deep South has the highest rate of heart disease in the United States. This is caused in part by poor eating habits and a sedentary lifestyle.
The main causes of heart attacks and strokes are high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, smoking and family history. Of all the relevant factors, the only one beyond control is family history. Dr. Fernando encouraged Lions to take control of their own lives by living sensibly and taking advantage of new medical advances.
Dr. Orly’s pretty daughter, Alyssa, celebrated her 16th birthday by assisting her father in his presentation. The Baxley Lions sang Happy Birthday to her. Appling County is fortunate to be the adoptive home of Dr. Fernando and his family. The Lions motto is: We Serve. | <urn:uuid:f384f646-4669-4e37-ac39-2e792d9dc8fe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.baxleynewsbanner.com/archives/2437-Dr.-Orly-speaks-to-Baxley-Lions-Club.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968193 | 214 | 1.679688 | 2 |
17–18 May 2012
A conference presented by the IBA-Art, Cultural Institutions and Heritage Law Committee, in cooperation with MAXXI
New art trends have emerged on the art scene in the few last decades. We may remember digital art and holograms, Art 2.0, bio art, performances and enactments, language and law based art, appropriationism and sampling, sound and ambient art, street art, and so many others. These art movements raise specific questions and can be considered as new legal challenges for art lawyers and artists, since they are creating new and unexplored legal issues. The Art, Cultural Institutions and Heritage Law Committee of the International Bar Association and MAXXI will analyse these artistic trends through a panel of top international experts from the lawyer, artist, art critic, and museum director’s points of view, exploring new scenarios and providing useful criteria and possible solutions to these new problems.
• The new boundaries of the concept of art and its legal consequences
• Legal issues raised by digital art and internet based art
• Transformative uses: appropriationism and sampling
• The immaterial character of performances and enactments
• The most challenging forms of artistic expression (language based art, law based art, street art, bio art, sound art) and the legal questions they raise
• What a museum must know to deal with contemporary art
Who should attend?
Lawyers in private practice, in house counsel, art law scholars, museum and cultural institutions directors and officers, art critics, artists, auction houses, art traders, art collectors and insurers. | <urn:uuid:de92b709-bcfa-4204-9e9f-cbe4adfae256> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fondazionemaxxi.it/2012/04/26/new-art-new-legal-challenges/?lang=en | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923479 | 324 | 1.726563 | 2 |
2006 News Releases
For immediate release: January 12, 2006
Dallas Fed Introduces New Economic Publication
DALLAS—The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas today launched Economic Letter, a monthly publication, that will provide commentary on important trends and policy issues shaping the increasingly global economy. Articles will be written by Dallas Fed economists.
In the debut issue, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist W. Michael Cox and economist Jahyeong Koo analyze why Japan has found it difficult to break out of a long period of stagnation.
“Neither insufficient demand nor tight monetary policy fully explains why a once-thriving, highly competitive economy might fail to respond to either fiscal or monetary stimulus,” the authors write in “Miracle to Malaise: What’s Next for Japan?”
“Much deeper problems hindered Japan, however, and a strong case can be made that the culprit was widespread impediments to economic change.”
Cox and Koo cite high taxes, trade barriers, government roadblocks to business startups, labor-market restrictions and inflexible banking regulations as major economic barriers. However, they found that Japan is showing a new willingness to reform and gaining labor-market flexibility with temporary and contract workers.
President and CEO Richard W. Fisher said that upcoming issues of Economic Letter will address post-Greenspan monetary policy and impediments to increasing world oil production.
“We will not neglect the national economy, but you will see in Economic Letter a focus on the changes being wrought by globalization. The topic is not fully understood. Freer cross-border movement of goods, services, labor, money and ideas raises new questions about how the economy operates,” he said.
The January 2006 issue of Economic Letter can be found at www.dallasfed.org.
Phone: (214) 922-5307 | <urn:uuid:41b3b648-1d4e-41fc-bed9-1cb946c6c9b7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dallasfed.org/news/releases/2006/nr060112.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00076-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.907948 | 384 | 1.65625 | 2 |
“It’s all about training your kids properly, giving them the tools necessary to do all the wonderful things designers dream up, and it’s TRAINING that will elevate your program from a mere collection of counts, into a wonderful effective masterpiece.” - Richard Kramer, WGASC V.P. of Adjudication
I must start off by stating that Richard Kramer actually contributed this quote in response to a previous article. However, once I started brainstorming for this article, it seemed a perfect starting point for a discussion on muscle memory. Thanks Richard.
As an instructor muscle memory is either your friend or your enemy. It is kind of like those infamous words ‘for better or for worse’; no matter how you train your team, you are perpetually joined with this physiological reality. Thankfully, the next phrase ‘till death do us part’ does not apply!!!!!
So, let’s get started – what in the world is muscle memory??? It is a partnership of sorts between the muscles of the body and the brain. The more an individual practices a specific skill, a transition occurs that transforms the skill from a conscious action to an automatic action. Neural pathways are created after repeatedly practicing an action which eventually becomes muscle memory (Meeks, 251). In respect to our activity, muscle memory begins in the basics block and continues in the instruction of choreography. However, you will see its greatest benefits in the competitive arena.
I am sure that the majority of instructors have heard the phrase, “Do we really have to do this again?!” from their students. In regards to establishing muscle memory the response should be a resounding “YES, ABSOLUTELY, AFFIRMATIVE, and AMEN!” One of your goals should be to establish this correctly and consistently in every member of your team. Hopefully the following steps will help break down this process.
Due to the fact that muscles become familiar with various aspects of equipment or movement manipulation over time, an instructor must make sure that the training is such that each and every performer is learning the same and appropriate technique over time.
Remember how I used the phrase ‘For better or for worse’? If you are not consistently specific with your instructions and expectations regarding all aspects of technique, the concept of muscle memory will come back to bite you in the … (and generally it will happen during a competitive performance). Ambiguous and inconsistent instruction leads to variations within performers. Considering the fact that color guard is a team activity – variation in technique is not your friend! If you happen to have variations in technique that are practiced over time; well, this is where the ‘worse’ side of the phrase comes in. We have all witnessed the rifle toss in which the performers clearly understand the effect of the toss within the show; however, their training does not reflect consistent muscle memory to support the toss. So, consider this license to be picky and specific with your guard.
Repeatedly rehearse basics – despite the pleas of your students. Make sure that the basics block includes phrases of choreography that you intend to implement within shows. So, if you have a 16 count phrase that you know will be used in shows…make it a part of your basics block. It takes approximately 4 weeks for the body/brain to establish muscle memory. Be patient in this process. Expect monotony, because you will spend a large amount of time on a small amount of counts. You need to realize that this is simply not going to happen overnight. In fact, if this is a new concept to you, you may have some work to do in correcting faulty technique in your performers. Whatever the case, do not give up and keep pushing the repetitions.
It is important to understand that our brain likes patterns of all sorts. In fact, it strives to find patterns in every action that we accomplish in our lives. Believe it or not, even brushing your teeth is a muscle memory that has been established through a sequence of patterns in the brain. I am sure not many of you think about the exact way you brush your teeth, but I would venture to guess that there is a specific process and duration that you perform this action each time (Wow! Did I really just talk about dental hygiene in a color guard article – awesome!!). OK, back on topic. Establish patterns in your choreography that the brain can embrace. This will make the cognitive part of muscle memory transcend the rehearsal into the performance.
Finally, during a performance, your students will have a ton of information streaming into their brains for processing. Because of this, it is inevitable that there will be some functions of performance that occur automatically without thinking. This is not to say that once muscle memory is established your performers can cease to think during a performance! To suggest this would be insanity. I am simply stating that if there are moments of ‘automatic pilot’, it is a wonderful feeling to know that your training that will, in all ways, support the performance. Because ultimately… “it’s TRAINING that will elevate your program from a mere collection of counts, into a wonderful effective masterpiece.”
Meeks, Linda et al. Comprehensive School Health Education. Boston, McGraw Hill, 2005.
About the Author (Author Profile)
Chris Casteel is an adjudicator with the Winter Guard Association of Southern California (WGASC). She was an instructor in the activity for approximately 20 years before moving into adjudication. She teaches Language Arts and Writing at a middle school in San Marcos, CA and is also a mentor teacher for the school. She holds a BA degree in Education, a California Teaching Credential and a Masters degree in education. Thanks to Chris Casteel for sharing her ideas and for WGASC for allowing the republication of her articles on this website for instructors outside of the WGASC circuit.
Sites That Link to this Post
- From the Archives: Movement, Crafts, lots of fun stuff! : colorguardeducator.com | December 13, 2011 | <urn:uuid:da5aee97-0128-4d2f-93be-e86b2f00c60a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://colorguardeducator.com/blog/for-better-or-worse-muscle-memory/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953293 | 1,255 | 2.640625 | 3 |
nytheatre.com review by Jo Ann Rosen
March 12, 2007
Should you feed off the ills of society when you feel powerless to change it? This is one of the pointed questions that reverberates in George Bernard Shaw's play Widowers' Houses, adapted by Ron Russell and Godfrey L. Simmons, Jr. By transplanting the action from turn-of-the-century England to Harlem in the 1990s, Russell and Simmons successfully show a period of urban renewal in New York City history that parallels that in the original script and makes the action as relevant today as it was when it was written.
Shaw addresses large social issues, such as housing for the poor and urban renewal, but at its most basic, the play is about money. Those who have it are in. Too bad for those who don't. In the play, two friends, the bumbling and inarticulate Harry Trench, who has just passed his medical examinations, and the suave yet pretentious William de Burgh Cokane, travel and meet a steely businessman, Mr. Sartorius, and his attractive daughter, Blanche. Harry and Blanche immediately fall in love and want to marry. Sartorius asks Harry to solicit, in writing, the approval of his prominent family. Harry complies, congratulations roll in, and the deal is done. Almost.
A number of revelations ensue: Sartorius is a slumlord; Lickcheese, his rent collector, transgresses; Harry discovers the source of his fixed income; and the engagement is called off. But, not to worry. Lickcheese proves an able catalyst for much of the action, and hits upon a workable scheme to bring all the money-minded characters in sync.
The multi-racial cast (another effective aspect of this adaptation) makes certain lines resonate, as when Sartorius (black) insists on letters from Harry's family (white) welcoming his daughter into the family unconditionally. Director Ron Russell accepts the characters as caricatures. This is particularly true of the female roles: the parlor maid, played by Jessica Richardson, and Blanche, played by Rachael Holmes. Holmes displays the character's entitlement on both sleeves, with little sentiment shown for her broken engagement. James Wallert is wonderfully clueless as Harry, the play's quasi moral conscience, and reacts with appropriate knee-jerk indignation at Sartorius's source of money. Peter Jay Fernandez delivers an elegant and imperious Sartorius. Simmons plays Cokane as an interlocutor, setting up scenes for Harry as well as reinforcing Sartorius's opinions. In his portrayal of Lickcheese, Jacob Ming-Trent gives us the sole three-dimensional character; sincere and scheming, uneducated but smart, poor and resourceful, humble yet proud. Energetic and earnest, he fills the stage and demands our attention. In short, he takes the play from Shaw and makes the whole Harlem experiment believable and worthwhile.
The marvelous sets designed by Cameron Anderson are simultaneously plush and simple, as exemplified by an imposing staircase that converts into a book-lined library. Margaret E. Weedon introduces both eras in her costumes—an ascot for Cokane, a morning jacket for Sartorius, a contemporary wool blazer for Harry, and a particularly eye-catching coat and skirt for Blanche in Act III. Tyler Micoleau's lighting—especially the sun-drenched patio—adds to the production.
Russell and Simmons set an ambitious agenda with Shaw's first play. One century after it was written the premise still works. However terrible the consequences, it is business and the money it generates that come first. Congratulations to Epic Theatre Center for undertaking this challenging project. | <urn:uuid:3f96f964-1fa6-4d4d-9d60-c553bdfe1950> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nytheatre.com/Review/jo-ann-rosen-2007-3-12-widowers-houses | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954369 | 771 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Written on April 6, 2008
A recent book on the topic is Zombies and Consciousness by Robert Kirk (Oxford University Press, 2008)
from the book description:
By definition zombies would be physically and behaviourally just like us, but not conscious. This currently very influential idea is a threat to all forms of physicalism, and has led some philosophers to give up physicalism and become dualists. It has also beguiled many physicalists, who feel forced to defend increasingly convoluted explanations of why the conceivability of zombies is compatible with their impossibility. Robert Kirk argues that the zombie idea depends on an incoherent view of the nature of phenomenal consciousness.
Journal of Consciousness Studies: Symposium on Conversations with Zombies (v2 n4, 1995), “Sniffing the Camembert: on the conceivability of zombies” by Allin Cottrell (v6, n1, 1999)
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article on zombies
Wikipedia entry for “philosophical zombies”
Filed in: consciousness. | <urn:uuid:91f4868a-654b-48eb-99a0-36a5cc484893> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mymindonbooks.com/?p=516 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925566 | 219 | 2.25 | 2 |
Potency Analysis Testing Learn More!
Botanical Diagnostic Analysis can be used for:
-Perfecting the curing of botanical flowers.
-Switching to a new technique of growing. Soil vs hydro etc.
-Helping to determine harvest times for different varieties/cultivars / strains.
-Self analyzing botanical varieties/cultivars / strains for therapeutic effect.
-Analyzing botanical varieties/cultivars /strains for breeding or results from crosses.
Certification is for:
-Assuring a caregivers’ patient/s that they are providing a quality botanical product.
-Transfers to other caregivers. Assure them the medicine is of top quality.
-Releasing a new variety/cultivar / strain to other caregivers.
-Patients to better determine the therapeutic effects of certified strains on THEIR condition.
-Helping to legitimize a controversial industry.
Genetic Screening Learn More!
Montana Biotech is proud to introduce the Plant DNA Collection Kit™. This kit has many functions! The small time patient, to the large scale farmer can gain from this kit / service!
In today’s environment of high competition in the medical marijuana industry, a way to distinguish what you have from your competitors is essential! This kit can be used to create a unique genetic profile of your hybrid! This PCR, gel electrophoresis based test can provide you a “picture” of YOUR plants genetic make-up!
Owner/Lead Researcher of Montana Biotech.
Mr. Lacerenza graduated from R.C.C. (Rogue Community College) with an associates degree in June 2004 after working for 2 years in the physical sciences department at R.C.C. as a student laboratory technician.
Joe enrolled in the PSPP department of the college of agriculture in their bachelor of science degree in Plant Biotechnology at Montana State University in 2005. Joe was published twice as the first author in two peer reviewed publications, one in Cereal Chemistry, 2006, and the other in The Oxford Journal of Experimental Botany, 2010.
In 2007 he was awarded the Spirit of Ethanol Award from EPAC (Ethanol Producers And Consumers) for his research in biofuels. Joe worked as a student and research assistant for four years in the PSPP department of the college of agriculture, MSU. His passion for plant biotechnology began when he started experimenting with marijuana cultivation.
Unfortunately, in the U.S. it was hard to discover the true scientific attributes to the plant he always yearned to learn about. For instance, a student could go to school today with the sole intent to go and work with peas, like Mendel once did, but not weed.
The Grow Buddy™ at home THC testing kit:
Plant DNA Collection Kit™ How does it Work?
Donate to Cannabis Research at Montana Biotech | <urn:uuid:8d58873b-1392-46f2-b596-726a10eba05c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://montanabiotech.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917417 | 604 | 1.984375 | 2 |
Look, let’s be honest, coffee may be the most important item in a teacher’s arsenal. For those of you that do not enjoy coffee, or feel I am being hyperbolic, please consider what your school would be like if your colleagues didn’t have their daily dose. Terrifying, isn’t it? Even those of you who do not partake get to reap the benefit of a happily caffeinated work force.
In an effort to move forward on the SITE Food for Thought zine, I have started a thread on this magical elixir here. As we’ve not done a lesson on food just yet, this particular outline is a bit of an experiment. It’s definitely lighthearted, but also involves responsible shopping, buying locally when possible and the health benefits and risks of more-than-moderate consumption.
As I was both a coffee-jerk in college, and have also produced a documentary on a local coffee company with CET’s George “cup of” Joe Miller and his brother, Reid (full video in the thread, trailer below), I’ve got a lot of thoughts and ideas on the subject. However, for most coffee drinkers, their preferences and such are personal. I’d love to hear about your morning rituals, methods of making, and other means of intake. | <urn:uuid:54291289-de1f-4267-bd58-84c0c24c6d49> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.depaulcet.org/site-coffee-the-secret-backbone-of-the-school-system/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960806 | 282 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Why Vaccinations Can Be Hazardous to Your Health
A vaccine contains weakened
(“attenuated” is the term used in medical journals) forms of
disease pathogens. Modern vaccine
theory is based on the work of an English country doctor Dr. Edward Jenner (1749-1823). Dr. Jenner discovered that farmers who
were in daily contact with cattle would often develop cowpox, but hardly ever
contract smallpox, a scourge of
Modern medicine took the concept further by isolating and attenuating disease micro-organisms and inoculating cultures of avian, animal or human tissues, or chicken eggs, the most commonly used culture medium for vaccines.
A problem with this method is that protein molecules from the medium used to culture the vaccines contain proteins foreign to the human body. If we eat animal flesh or an egg, it is digested (broken down) into simpler amino acids before entering the bloodstream. The digestive process in most cases changes protein molecules so they don’t trigger an immune reaction when we eat them. This is not the case for vaccines, since they are injected undigested, directly into the bloodstream, where they then circulate throughout the body.
When the body detects the presence of the foreign proteins, an immune response is triggered. Killer cells (white blood cells or phagocytes) are then sent out to consume the cells containing the foreign proteins and protein fragments. This process is nature’s way of protecting the body from being overwhelmed by invading organisms and eventually succumbing to them.
If the body survives, it also produces templates, called antibodies, which are reserved to protect the body from future attacks of micro-organisms with similar genetic codes. This process is called the natural immune response and creates natural immunity. Such natural immunity is created by allowing the body to undergo a full-blown immune reaction to a disease.
According to vaccine theory, by exposing the body to protein fragments from the disease organisms one is trying to develop immunity to, the immune system is stimulated to create antibodies that will protect one from a full-blown, natural immune reaction. In this way, the theory goes, one can enjoy immunity to disorders without having to suffer from actually getting sick. However, there are two main problems from trying to “trick” our bodies in this way.
These problems are as follows:
1) Upon being vaccinated the body has protein fragments of disease organisms floating around in the body. The protein fragments are attenuated or weakened so they will stimulate a mild immune response. However, the body is not always stimulated sufficiently to mount an adequately robust response to create antibodies while also destroying the foreign protein fragments. The foreign protein fragments then get absorbed into body cells. T-Cells, sensing they are there, but unable to reach them directly, attack the body cells that harbor them. This can lead to auto-immune disorders, like multiple sclerosis, arthritis and cancer, which are essentially degenerative disorders caused by the body trying to destroy cells that contain the foreign protein fragments. Getting vaccinated can subject one to low-grade fevers that can persist throughout life due to the immune system trying unsuccessfully over a long period of time to rid the body of foreign protein fragments left behind from childhood vaccinations. Ultimately, the immune system is weakened or destroyed by this prolonged battle and degenerative disorders whose etiologies have baffled medical science can be the result.
2) Another hazard of vaccinations is the fact that foreign proteins from the culture medium, though they are supposed to be filtered out during vaccine manufacture, can remain in the vaccines. By injecting them the body is then exposed to other foreign protein fragments that can also lodge themselves in body tissues. The immune system is thereupon triggered in an attempt to eliminate them. A low-grade and chronic fever of unknown origin then occurs to assist their removal. However, again, this low-level response often proves equally ineffective at resolving the problem initiated by the injection of foreign proteins into the bloodstream. The protracted auto-immune response can result in eventual debility and the appearance of many disorders that baffle modern medical research to resolve.
The best way to avoid illness in general is to eat right, get enough sleep, try not to worry or overwork, get enough fresh air, sunshine and pure water to build and maintain a strong immune system. One should also fill one’s life with loving relationships and enjoy a spiritual life based on love. Then when one is exposed to pathogenic micro-organisms, the body’s strengthened immune system will protect from developing life-threatening illnesses. One may experience discomfort as the immune system rallies and defeats the invaders, but it will soon pass, leaving a body that now has natural immunity to that particular disease and is ready to successfully battle and overcome any future mutation of the illness.
A big problem facing the world today is the widespread prevalence of many people whose immune systems have been weakened from unhealthful living habits, unhealthful living conditions, smog, pollution of air, water and lack of sunshine, and even vaccinations, that were invented to help protect one from disorders, but which in the case of persons with weakened immune systems can actually add one more challenge that such people do not need.
-- Fred Pulver | <urn:uuid:c10603e1-ea78-4ee3-847f-c2d972262feb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.macrobiotic.org/vaccines.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954312 | 1,065 | 3.59375 | 4 |
Piles of Pillowcases
These instructions will make one standard size pillowcase (approximately 32” x 20”). I have adapted these into EASY instructions from some complicated directions I got for free from a quilt shop in California about 15 years ago. There are almost no limits to the fabrics and colors available. The instructions can be adapted to any size pillow.
- I first made pillowcases when my daughters were headed off to college:
- If your students attend a large school it is fairly easy to find novelty fabric, otherwise use the school colors
- Use stencils to cut out the school/sorority letters out of iron-on patch material; zigzag around to make sure they stay on through repeated washings
- I have also made them to decorate beds
- An inexpensive way for decorator pillows to coordinate with sheets on the bed – pick up a twin size flat to match to use as the fabric
- Use ribbons and buttons to close up the end
- Now I make them for the “grands”
- for holidays
- to decorate their bedrooms (e.g., anything pink, baseball)
- or their hobbies and interests (e.g., Boy Scouts, dance, soccer)
Fabric (44-45” wide) required:
1 yard (44-45” wide) for body of pillowcase
1/3 yard for end of pillowcase
1/8 yard for accent strip
It is up to you to decide whether you want to use something recommended for children’s wear (e.g., flame retardant fabrics). I’ve always used 100% cotton (e.g., quilting-type fabrics, novelty & holiday-print fabrics and flannel). Prewash all fabrics.
Optional: Rickrack and other embellishments
Cutting (or “ripping”) Directions:
From the 1 yard piece, cut one piece 27” x 41”
From 1/3 yard piece, cut one piece 10” x 41”
From 1/8 yard piece, cut one piece 3” x 41”
Press the 3” x 41 accent strip in half lengthwise, right side out, raw edges together (strip will now be 1 ½” x 41”) .
Press the 10” x 41” end piece in half lengthwise, right side out, raw edges together (strip will now be 5” x 41”).
Sandwich the accent (1 ½” wide) strip between the end piece (5” wide) and right side of the bottom long edge of the body fabric with all raw edges together. You can pin them together if you are hesitant about feeding them along, or do like I do and just hold them in place. Make sure that your “body” fabric is going in the desired direction.
Sew a 5/8” wide seam along the bottom edge. Don’t panic if they don’t match up exactly on the other end, just trim accordingly!
Press: 1) seams up; 2) accent piece up; and 3) end piece down.
Top stitch the accent piece to keep it standing up. This is a good time/place to add rickrack or ribbon, if desired. I only add buttons and other embellishments if the pillowcases won’t actually be used for sleeping (who wants a button in their ear?).
Fold the body piece (with attached accent and end piece) in half with right sides together, matching the edges (should be starting to look like a pillowcase at this point!).
Sew a 5/8” seam around the long side and top open edges. You can doublestitch this if you think it will get heavy duty wear.
Clip close to the seam and the corners.
Turn inside out and press.
Taking pictures and all, this one took me about 30 minutes. Usually I make these in “assembly-line” fashion. In no time at all you’ll have a Pile of Pillowcases.
I just had a brilliant idea to make “tooth” pillows – will let you know how those work out (when I get around to them).
Linking up to: | <urn:uuid:0382d43b-7f72-4169-a20e-080ae2464f8a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://threadedtogether.com/2010/07/18/piles-of-pillowcases/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909194 | 910 | 1.632813 | 2 |
What Are They? NPGA Business Councils provide a mechanism for companies that wish to conduct advocacy, research and other activities on specific topics or areas of interest to the public and the propane gas industry. Generally, councils are formed around issues which are of concern to only one segment of the membership but not to all. This allows pursuit of their activities under the NPGA umbrella without expenditure of NPGA general revenues. Councils are funded by voluntary subscription and operate under the auspices of NPGA with oversight by the Executive Committee. Participation is open to all NPGA members and may include non-members, if desired by the council organizers. Councils are established and permitted to operate under the auspices of NPGA according to terms agreed to by the participants of the council and the NPGA Executive Committee. The following principles govern all councils.
A council may develop its own strategies and positions on issues, may engage in research, and may take actions without prior notice to or approval by NPGA, provided the activities are consistent with standing policies and procedures.
NPGA offers full administrative services to any council including record keeping, file retention, mailing services, and financial services. If the council contracts with another source for these services, and is not separately incorporated, periodic reports on its activities and finances will be required to be made to the NPGA Executive Committee to satisfy their fiduciary obligations.
The relationship between NPGA and a council may be dissolved by either party at any time, subject to notification. Upon dissolution, the council may elect to operate separate from NPGA, or may discontinue its activities.
How is a Council Created? To establish a council, the organizers need to agree upon a mission and activities and how they will be funded. A proposal is then made to the Executive Committee to form a council. In deciding whether to authorize the establishment of the council, the Executive Committee will consider such factors as:
the number of NPGA members involved,
whether the council's objectives should be budgeted as an NPGA activity,
whether the council's proposed positions and policies are compatible with NPGA established positions, and
the extent to which the council will focus on developing new markets or new industry activities. | <urn:uuid:f0a2d7a7-a4c9-41a4-936c-81bc6dcf8431> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.npga.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=471 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958322 | 462 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Review of Michael Dowd's "Thank God For Evolution!"
A review of Michael Dowd, Thank God for Evolution!: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World. (San Francisco: Council Oak Books, 2007).
Japanese Buddhists use the term “the stench of Enlightenment,” or so I have been told, to describe someone who has newly achieved satori. The newly initiated or born-again religious believer is often just too much to take, hence “the stench”! With time and maturity, the Zen masters reassure us, the over enthusiasm of the newly enlightened will wear off a bit, and a more mature spirituality will ensue.
Back in 2002, when I first met Michael Dowd through his new wife, Connie Barlow, I was reminded of that lovely Zen phrase. Rev. Dowd had already traveled from the Pentecostal enthusiasm of the Assembly of God to the liberal confusion of United Church of Christ. He had been recently converted to the Epic of Evolution, as told by Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme.† Connie Barlow, a science writer and atheist, was his new wife. Together, they would live the lives of wandering evangelists for the Great Story. Together, their marriage would embody the union of religion and science, Christianity and atheism. Together, they would take the Good News of Evolution to churches, schools, and community groups all over North America, all the while developing the artistic and liturgical forms and pedagogical tools to make the Epic of Evolution existentially relevant to the lives of children and adults alike. Their devotion to the Great Story was just too much, at least for this staid academic.
There is, however, nothing like a true believer to get the job done. So while their enthusiasm was a little too enthusiastic, I was very, very curious to see how their itinerant ministry would evolve. They brought a lot of skills and passion to the job. And over the years, I have read their reports and musings with great interest and been pleased to creatively plagiarize some of their pedagogical tools (in an evolutionary universe all creativity is creative plagiarism).
Five years into their journey, there is now a remarkable book and website to show for their effort. Thank God for Evolution! is single authored book, but Connie Barlow certainly deserves an award for the best-supporting editor. Indeed, their marriage, its joys and troubles, is itself a major topic in the book. The subtitle of the book is thus appropriately “How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World.”
The book is a genre bender—mixing inspirational science writing, theological reflection, Biblical interpretation, and self-improvement manual into a sometimes distracting blend. Though based on “the Greatest Story ever told,” TGFE! itself lacks a strong narrative structure, which frankly makes the book easier to pick-up, skip-around, put-down and pick-up again. And that is how this book is best read and used. In that sense, it is a very useful book for adult religious education, youth ministries, and individual study. I foresee no adoption at the university level, but frankly in the pews is where the greater need is. That is not to say the sophisticates and stayed members of the Academe might not also benefit from reading something completely out-of-the-box.
Dowd has succeeded in attracting glowing endorsements of TGFE! from a huge variety of scientists, religious leaders, and authors. This is accomplished in part by the many generous citations included from these very authors, among others. The book is valuable simply as a collection of quotes on evolution, science, and religion (though regrettably full citations are not included). Dowd channels a lot of Thomas Berry, both in his prose and in his citations. Second to Berry is the work of David Sloan Wilson. He has wrapped himself in the words and wisdom of many, many others, and provided a who-is-who directory in the back, which I found myself frequently consulting. Seven chapters into the book, I had read so many quotes from so many authors that I was beginning to feel a little left out and over-looked, but then was pleased to discover my own words and name staring back at me on page 127. Thanks, Michael!
While Dowd affirms multiple religious traditions, he engages the Christian idiom in depth, offering creative evolutionary reinterpretations of concepts like Original Sin, Resurrection, and Personal Salvation. He refers to these as “REALizing” religion, moving religious doctrines of the “Night Language” of dreams to the “Day Language” of science, from the “Private Revelations” of scriptures to the “Public Revelations” of science. Continuing revelation is a big theme in TGFE! Unfortunately, the book will be a non-starter for anyone who rejects the notion of continuing revelation.
I particularly liked Part III: “The Gospel According to Evolution,” in which he uses evolutionary brain science and evolutionary psychology to reconstruct the doctrine of “Original Sin”. He notes the quadrune evolution of the human brain with its “Lizard Legacy” in the cerebellum and brainstem, its “Furry Li’l Mammal” in the limbic systems, its “Monkey Mind” in the neo-cortex, and its “Higher Porpoise!” in the prefrontal cortex. It is the interplay of these evolved structures of our brain that inevitably lead to sin. Dowd dwells on the story of Rev. Ted Haggard, President of the National Association of Evangelicals, who was outed as a closet homosexual in November 2006, as well as a number of other religious and political leaders who had been tempted by their Lizard Legacy and Furry Li’l Mammal. Dowd writes:
So long as religious and political leaders continue to ignore our evolutionary heritage, and thus do not put in place structures of internal and external support that can withstand the high dosages of testosterone that high status and power necessarily confer, then there will be no hope for a less calamitous future.
Understanding the unwanted drives within us as having served our ancestors for millions of years is far more empowering than imagining that we are the way we are because of inner demons, or because the world’s first woman and man ate a forbidden apple a few thousand years ago. The path to freedom lies in appreciating one’s instincts, while taking steps to channel these powerful energies in ways that will serve our higher purposes (Dowd, 2007, 148).
What follows in the next few chapters is the self-improvement section of the book, as Dowd develops his “Evolutionary Spirituality”. There are sections on “Taming Our Monkey Mind” and “Evolving Our Most Intimate Relationships”. As someone who cannot bear to read self-improvement manuals, I had to read these sections with a certain anthropological detachment, curious to see how evolutionary psychology and evolutionary spirituality can be adapted, but not likely to ever practice any of the exercises he recommends.
Michael Dowd is himself a big presence in the book, frequently referring to his own life and struggles. In the end, I did not really want to know or infer that much about him, his problems, and his marriage. Dowd has developed a content rich website for this book, where you can also preview the book (www.thankgodforevolution.com). I was a bit put off by all of the pictures and video clips of Dowd the Preacher on the website, but then that too is part of the genre of the mega-church and evangelical mission, which informs the passionate commitment and creativity.
Let that not deter you from perusing this book. Much insight and wisdom has been assembled in these pages. Take what you like and leave the rest, as the saying goes. And there is a lot to like, much to learn, experiments to be modified and adapted, and a refreshingly creative attempt to take the drama of the constructive engagement of religion and science from the Ivory Towers into the popular culture. Let’s hope we see Rev. Michael Dowd sometime soon on “The Hour of Power” and “The Oprah Winfrey Show”.
† Disclosure: My dissertation was in part a case study of Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme’s The Universe Story, San Francisco: Harper, 1992. The dissertation is entitled Reinventing Nature: Science Narratives as Myths for an Endangered Planet, Temple University Department of Religion, 1994.
Join Metanexus Today
Metanexus fosters a growing international network of individuals and groups exploring the dynamic interface between cosmos, nature and culture. Membership is open to all. Join Now! | <urn:uuid:80cfb45f-14d1-4cb6-85d1-e38e7f652fac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.metanexus.net/book-review/review-michael-dowds-thank-god-evolution | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960105 | 1,843 | 1.53125 | 2 |
LTU Laptop Initiative
Lawrence Tech's Laptop Initiative is a dynamic plan to assure that Lawrence Tech students are well prepared and positioned to take full advantage of advanced learning opportunities, greater access to educational resources, and ultimately, achieve a competitive edge in the workplace! The Initiative, launched in Fall 2000, followed several years of study by administrators, faculty, staff, students and others representing the entire campus community. Their conclusion? The level of sophistication now available in laptop computers assures that they can be tremendously helpful to students as they learn, retain, analyze, present, use, and exchange complex technological and graphical information.
The Laptop Initiative represents more than the machines themselves-it is an event that changes, fundamentally, the teaching and learning process. The University is expending considerable resources for staff training, setting up a service infrastructure, and making numerous improvements to campus facilities that will allow students to utilize their laptops to their fullest capabilities.
Each fall semester, a specially configured and branded laptop unit, complete with furnished software, is issued to all undergraduate students. The LTU Help Desk provides assistance and on-the-spot repairs if problems occur.
The assignment of the LTU laptop to undergraduate students each semester is included in tuition and fees.
If you have additional questions about Lawrence Tech's Laptop Initiative, e-mail: email@example.com or phone 248.204.2330. | <urn:uuid:33194713-e804-478a-ac67-9300a7354117> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ltu.edu/futurestudents/international/laptop.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933864 | 286 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Tangible expressions of grief keep lost loved ones close. Curator Kim Ivey explains the customs of mourning art.
Lloyd Dobyns: Hi. Welcome to Colonial Williamsburg: Past & Present on history.org. This is “Behind the Scenes” where you meet the people who work here. That’s my job. I’m Lloyd Dobyns and mostly I ask questions.
Mementoes and memorials of grief from centuries past are connections to the larger culture, and also to individual lives. Associate Curator of Textiles and Historic Interiors Kim Ivey is here to tell us more about these tangible reminders of personal loss. Mourning, m-o-u-r-n-i-n-g, became quite the big thing after the death of George Washington in December 1799. Is that when we really got into this?
Kim Ivey: That’s absolutely correct. With the sudden death of George Washington on December 14th, 1799, the whole America, all of the colonies, all of the states were just plunged into a period of mourning. The figure of Washington had been honored, but in death, he actually became a real hero and a real figurehead.
This whole mourning expression was not just due to the death of George Washington. There were a number of more complicated factors that played into it. Certainly the neoclassical movement, the study of Greek and Roman ruins, just the whole religious movement during the 18th century, and free will. All of that played in to this phenomenon that occurred and really took off – I don’t like to really say that word, took off, but really took off with the death of Washington.
Interestingly in England, there was also a very popular mourning period. It was spurred on by the death of Princess Charlotte in 1817. She died in childbirth. She would have been the hair the heir to the throne.
Lloyd: For all the same reasons that George Washington’s death spurred it here, her death spurred it there. Phenomenal how one individual can really solidify something that is coming together for other reasons, but comes together solidly around that one person.
Kim: That one event or person. What I can say is that the act of mourning influenced a variety of art forms. The objects were made by professionals, like jewelers or goldsmiths, as well as amateurs such as schoolgirls.
For example, a professional artist marketed prints, metals, ceramics, jewelry and textiles bearing mourning images and memorials to honored heroes. But also, amateurs like schoolgirls wrought permanent memorials in needlework, in paint, and in ink. These schoolgirls were attending female academies or boarding schools, where they were not only creating these memorials, but they were also studying English, arithmetic, geography and other subjects.
Lloyd: There were a lot of requirements: you used a certain kind of thread if you wanted to show one thing, and a different kind if you wanted to show something else. There were a lot of quite strict conventions about what you could do and what you couldn’t do, and what tree symbolized this and what urn symbolized that.
Kim: Right. Well what we, when we talk about needlework, we typically say that the needlework of the late 18th and early 19th century was involved different hands. There was the schoolteacher’s hand. She would design the needlework piece, she would possibly draw the design. Sometimes she brought in a professional artist, who drew the design and painted details. The actual needlework was stitched by the schoolgirl, typically between the ages of 11 and 16.
It was part of the culture of the time, at all levels and by all different social strata. You have the schoolgirls doing mourning work art, you have the professional artists who are selling mourning work, and we haven’t even spoken about the jewelers who were selling mourning jewelry, which is probably the most popular form of mourning art, and probably the type of object that most of our visitors to Colonial Williamsburg readily recognize.
Wearing mourning jewelry really connected a relative with a deceased family member or or a lost one. They were really personal reminders of human mortality. The ring especially was a very popular mourning form of jewelry, because it symbolized eternity. Rings were often given out at funerals. We read in wills that the deceased specify that rings be given out to their friends and those attending the funerals.
Lloyd: Rings would be suitable for men and women, would they not?
Kim: Correct. What we do find in portraits of the period – and when I say “period,” I’m talking about late 18th century, early 19th century – what we do find are figures of people wearing mourning jewelry such as brooches with figures of weeping women and urns, and weeping willows. We do see rings on these figures in the portraits, and they’re usually of lost loved ones.
But getting back to just the symbolism of a weeping willow, it did symbolize death. It was also used in the graveyard. You see weeping willows in graveyards because the tree absorbed moisture from the ground and it kept a graveyard drier. So it had a very practical use, as well as a symbolic use.
While we’re talking about symbolism, I think it’s interesting to point out some of the symbols that actually had, or some of the objects that we see in needlework pictures that actually had hidden meanings. These meanings may not be familiar to us today, but they were very familiar to the people making these pictures and to those viewing those pictures in the period.
The urn, for example, we probably do recognize it has the symbol of death today. It was also known for being the repository for earthly remains. The oak tree, a symbol of strength – if you were to see an oak tree cut down in a tree, or laying on its side, it would symbolize death, as in being cut down in the prime of your life. A sailing ship referred to the departure of your soul. A river or a path usually was referring to time. So those are just some of the symbols, or some of the objects that we see in these pictures that have symbolism or meanings.
Lloyd: So in that period, if I were looking at something and it had an oak tree and a ship sailing, I would know what that meant, just because it was common knowledge.
Kim: More than likely you would. If you had had some formal education, you would recognize those symbols. They were fairly recognizable to the general public at that time.
Lloyd: I had never figured that out, that everything in one of these pictures must have a meaning, or it wouldn’t be there.
Kim: In the mourning pictures, yes. That’s not to say that a decorative border or pattern was painted or stitched onto a picture simply because it looked nice, and they made the picture more attractive. But generally speaking, there were certain elements put on or stitched or painted on to a picture that meant something.
Lloyd: We’ve mentioned stitching, needlework. Were there other kinds of mourning art? We’ve also mentioned rings, jewelry. Anything that we haven’t talked about?
Kim: Well, can you imagine sleeping under a memorial to your deceased president? Or a former president? We own, or we have a quilt in our collection, a bed quilt in the collection, that features a printed handkerchief in the center that commemorates the death of George Washington. It was clearly a prized possession. It was kept in mint condition, and probably only brought out for special occasions and possibly slept under by the owner.
Some people consider mourning art morbid. But that’s not how it was considered during the period. It was an appropriate way to express your grief, whether you were an adult or a schoolgirl. I think that’s a real difference in how we approach mourning today. During the 18th and early 19th centuries, you were allowed to grieve. Can you imagine a schoolgirl working through the grief of her mother by stitching a commemorative to her mother, by using her needle, in and out, in and out, and working through her grief.
Today if you’re fortunate, you’re given three days off from work, and you’re right back at work. There’s nothing that you wear that symbolizes you hurt, there’s nothing that you hang on the outside of your house, so I think it’s very different.
Lloyd: That's Colonial Williamsburg: Past & Present this time. We like hearing from you; send us a comment at history.org/podcasts. Check back often, we'll post more for you to download and hear. | <urn:uuid:dc9e91c9-924c-4cb2-bee6-242af06b4dd7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://podcast.history.org/2009/01/26/mourning-art/ | 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 | 0.981819 | 1,870 | 3.484375 | 3 |
Docent Training at Arroyo Hondo Preserve
Begin the New Year with a new quest for learning and for teaching others about one of the area’s most diverse and exquisite natural areas.
When: Monday, Feb. 11, 2013, 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Where: Arroyo Hondo Preserve, Gaviota Coast, 4.5 miles past Refugio State Beach, Santa Barbara
Cost: Not available
Age limit: Not available
Categories: Volunteer Opportunites
Training starts in mid-January at Arroyo Hondo Preserve, which is owned and managed by the Land Trust for Santa Barbara County. Learn from local experts about many topics including the history, flora, fauna, ecology, and geology of this beautiful canyon.
As a Land Trust Docent, you will become part of a wonderful team of dedicated natural history enthusiasts as you train to share your knowledge with school children and adults.
Training will be held from 12:30 - 3:30 p.m. on the following Mondays:
January 14 and 28
February 4, 11 and 25
March 4 and 11
As part of your training, you will be given materials to study at home. During the spring, you will also shadow and assist experienced Docents as they lead tours of the canyon.
To save your place for this program, please e-mail your name and contact information to email@example.com
Event posted Dec. 19, 2012
Last updated Dec. 19, 2012 | <urn:uuid:a6e9caeb-020f-4cac-8e0f-4b95505cc91c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://independent.com/events/2013/feb/11/27855/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.907712 | 323 | 1.734375 | 2 |
*Cottonseed oil is edible vegetable oil extracted from the seeds of the cotton plant after the lint has been removed.
*It is solid at room temperature and does not need hydrogenation.
*Has a high smoking point and long shelf life and so is used in high heat cooking, like deep frying in the snack industries.
*It has a nutty buttery flavor but does not impart any color or odor to the fried foods. While unsaturated fats break down when used for repeated frying, cottonseed oil retains its nutritional value and keeps very well.
*Cheaper than other vegetable oils.
*Has a long shelf life without refrigeration when stored properly away from light and heat.
Is it raw?
No. Cottonseed oil is cleansed and processed using heat and chemicals, but it retains its nutritional value. Make sure you read the label.
1. Cottonseed oil has moderate amount of saturated fats, good amount of monounsaturated fats, high content of polyunsaturated fats and no cholesterol.
2. Oleic acid, the monounsaturated fat, is good for the heart and it lowers the LDL cholesterol and total cholesterol in blood and maintains the HDL cholesterol.
3. Has good amounts of essential fatty acids, nearly 51% of linoleic acid (omega-6) and
0.2% of alpha-linolenic acid (omega-3), which are the precursors of prostaglandins, which are hormone like substances that have a variety of functions like contraction and relaxation of smooth muscles, control of blood pressure, pain and inflammatory response, etc in humans and animals.
4. Has high amounts of vitamin E (176%) and phytosterols, which fight against the free radicals in the body, preserve the integrity of the cell membranes and reduce the risk of heart diseases, cancers and other degenerative disorders.
5. Has no trans fats at all, but is semi-solid to solid at room temperature.
6. According to a recent study, researchers found gossypol, a compound derived from cottonseed oil and thought to be toxic, is used in Chinese medicine to help chemotherapy become more effective in patients with cancers of the head and neck. Usually chemotherapy or radiation does not respond very well in head and neck cancers. The health benefits of gossypol need to be studied more. | <urn:uuid:9c8c9b60-c5e5-4850-8220-f1d95a4ff2a9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.triedtastedserved.com/oils/cottonseed.php | 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 | 0.927713 | 488 | 2.25 | 2 |
Yesterday a federal appeals court unanimously upheld the EPA's finding that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health and welfare, deeming the EPA "unambiguously correct" in addressing climate change through the Clean Air Act. One media
outlet that is curiously silent on the ruling is the Daily Caller, whose reporter Matthew Boyle previously claimed the resulting regulations would cause the EPA to hire an "ARMY OF 230k BUREAUCRATS." The claim was completely false, and their refusal to correct the clear error damaged their reputation and embarrassed employees.
Boyle's claim on Twitter echoed his Daily Caller article misreading an EPA court filing. The EPA said that it avoided a scenario that would require 230,000 workers by using a "tailoring rule" to regulate only the largest polluters -- a rule that was upheld in the recent court ruling. After several outlets ridiculed Daily Caller's error, its executive editor defended the article by making a snide comment to Politico and making several bad rationalizations about why they did not correct their false report.
In addition to ruling in favor of the tailoring rule, the court also affirmed that the EPA made a "science-based judgment." This court ruling directly contradicts a previous Daily Caller report titled "Weird Science: EPA's own Inspector General calls greenhouse gas science flawed," which falsely claimed that the "scientific basis" of the endangerment finding for greenhouse gases "violated the EPA's own peer review procedure." In fact, the Inspector General report addressed obscure procedural issues, not the merits of EPA's finding or the extensive science on which it was based. The Daily Caller later changed its headline (without noting the change) to "Weird science: EPA Inspector General calls greenhouse-gas regulatory process flawed."
The Daily Caller also dedicated an entire article earlier this year to listing every reason that Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli thought the EPA "violated the law." You'd think the Daily Caller would let its readers know the result. | <urn:uuid:8f825574-95ac-4e48-8f37-a296cd20d5fb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2012/06/27/daily-caller-silent-on-epas-legal-victory/183917 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952816 | 397 | 1.945313 | 2 |
Today, accounting and finance represent the most popular majors at colleges and universities worldwide. Students graduating from those business programs will leave with similar degrees. So where is the competitive edge you need to stand out from other graduates? IMA can help you open the door to a dynamic career in management accounting. In fact, IMA is the leading organization for management accounting and finance professionals worldwide.
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Reading for Accounting Students
The following articles will be of interest to students considering careers in management accounting:
- Management Accountants' Roles on Cross-Functional Teams
- Skills Needed for Entry Level Management Accounting Positions
- What Do Management Accountants Do? | <urn:uuid:cc832be6-d374-4941-88fe-14a08b4cfd21> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.imamichigan.org/detroit/students.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911988 | 138 | 1.515625 | 2 |
LONDON — The low-carbon products and services sector, often referred to as green business, could contribute 20 billion pounds ($31.16 billion) to Britain’s economy by 2015, the country’s leading business lobby said Thursday.
“Get our energy and climate change policies right, and we can add 20 billion pounds extra to our economy and knock 0.8 billion pounds off the trade gap, all within the lifetime of this Parliament,” said John Cridland, director general of the Confederation of British Energy (CBI).
The CBI wants the government to meet its fourth carbon budget, which sets goals for Britain’s carbon-cutting programme, to ensure its current electricity market reform gives long-term investment signals. It also wants the government to reduce complexity in low-carbon regulation.
“The so-called ‘choice’ between going green or going for growth is a false one. We are increasingly hearing that politicians are for one or the other, when in reality, with the right policies in place, green business will be a major pillar of our future growth,” Cridland said.
The CBI estimates that over a third of all UK growth in 2011/12 may have come from green business, a market which was globally worth 3.3 trillion pounds in 2010/11. The sector now employs nearly one million people in the UK, the group said. — Reuters | <urn:uuid:7254d2b7-dddf-4b13-965a-0e1ee7a56e3c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=20120706129118 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953975 | 291 | 2.140625 | 2 |
Refiguring Prose Style: Possibilities For Writing Pedagogy
Utah State University Press
Publication date: June 2009
Digital Book format: PDF (Adobe DRM)
You save: $4.01 (22%)
For about two decades, say Johnson and Pace, the discussion of how to address prose style in teaching college writing has been stuck, with style standing in as a proxy for other stakes in the theory wars. The traditional argument is evidently still quite persuasive to some—that teaching style is mostly a matter of teaching generic conventions through repetition and practice. Such a position usually presumes the traditional view of composition as essentially a service course, one without content of its own. On the other side, the shortcomings of this argument have been much discussed—that it neglects invention, revision, context, meaning, even truth; that it is not congruent with research; that it ignores 100 years of scholarship establishing composition's intellectual territory beyond "service." The discussion is stuck there, and all sides have been giving it a rest in recent scholarship. Yet style remains of vital practical interest to the field, because everyone has to teach it one way or another. A consequence of the impasse is that a theory of style itself has not been well articulated. Johnson and Pace suggest that moving the field toward a better consensus will require establishing style as a clearer subject of inquiry. Accordingly, this collection takes up a comprehensive study of the subject. Part I explores the recent history of composition studies, the ways it has figured and all but effaced the whole question of prose style. Part II takes to heart Elbow's suggestion that composition and literature, particularly as conceptualized in the context of creative writing courses, have something to learn from each other. Part III sketches practical classroom procedures for heightening students' abilities to engage style, and part IV explores new theoretical frameworks for defining this vital and much neglected territory. The hope of the essays here—focusing as they do on historical, aesthetic, practical, and theoretical issues—is to awaken composition studies to the possibilities of style, and, in turn, to rejuvenate a great many classrooms. | <urn:uuid:e5a52012-54f4-4e33-a2ea-513b80094b68> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ebookmall.com/ebook/refiguring-prose-style/t-r-johnson/9780874216219 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940124 | 433 | 2.1875 | 2 |
Visitors press a button to start the contraption, which pipes icing in a hypotrochoid pattern, like a Spirograph toy, until the visitor releases the button.
Silver balls are then added until the user presses stop.
In this way the user decides when enough decoration has been applied, since the machine cannot be restarted until a new cake is inserted.
Called Till You Stop, the project was presented as part of an exhibition entitled Design Criminals at the MAK museum of applied and contemporary arts, which revisits Adolf Loos' 1908 essay Ornament and Crime.
The following details are from the designers:
'Till you stop' - cake decoration
for the exhibition 'Design Criminals or A new joy into the world' - a cooperation of MAK and departure, curated by Sam Jacob.
confectioner - 'Till you stop' - cake decoration
How much is too much?
'Till you stop' - cake decoration is an idea for a cake decoration method that allows the costumer/visitor to decide how much decoration is applied onto the cake. A simple machine decorates the cake with lines and continuously decorates until the costumer/visitor decides to stop the decoration process. Then in a second process sugar pearls/decoration are dropped onto the glazing. The decor is continuously changing and the costumer/visitor decides whether he prefers a simple ornament or a more complex one. When is the right time to stop? Once the decoration machine is stopped it can not be started again.
The project reflects, on the one hand, the industry behind decoration (industrialised image vs. the romantic imagination) and on the other hand it should trigger people to think about the amount of decoration they actually like.
an automated cake decoration process (sugar glazing and sugar decoration) can be started and stopped by the buyer / visitor.
Step one: the cake rotates and the sugar glazing gets applied in lines. The pattern is similar to the ones of 'Spirographs' which can be applied over a longer period of time.
Step two: the cake with glazing turns and single sugar pearls fall on the cake.
On Tuesday the 5th of October, 15 visitors at the 'MAK Design NITE - eyes wide shut' will have the possibility to decorate a cake with the decoration machine. The event is part of VIENNA DESIGN WEEK 2010
|An enormous cake
made of bricks
|A font made
|The Idea of a Tree by | <urn:uuid:2a1c6c58-3996-474d-8346-a299b990d3ac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dezeen.com/2010/10/16/till-you-stop-by-mischertraxler/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922868 | 527 | 1.976563 | 2 |