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Education, general, including:
Over the past few decades, scientific disciplines have changed significantly with the introduction of new and complex aspects of research, particularly in the area of nanoscience and nanotechnology (N&N). Efforts to develop science education programmes in N&N area to adopt these complex changes are also evident from recent literature and educational reports. However, these attempts are focused towards identification and inclusion of contextual scientific knowledge in the curricula and very little is understood about the attributes knowledge, skill and competence necessary to successfully undertake N&N research. Identification of these attributes is important so that the contextual scientific knowledge can be embedded in the curricula more effectively. Also, it is uncertain whether this growing research area requires researchers that have studied specialised undergraduate or postgraduate N&N programmes or traditional science and engineering disciplines. In other words, is N&N research multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary or will it develop into a unique discipline is not clear. To address this question, this qualitative study will examine the postgraduate researchers’ experiences of researching in N&N area. Studying how the researchers understand, interpret and describe their experiences, we can achieve a new; or; at the very least a wider understanding of what N&N research is; and how the postgraduate researchers use their education and training to research in this area. This in turn will inform the curriculum development at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels and address the issues of whether we should have specialised undergraduate N&N programmes or simply different distinct science and engineering disciplines coming together.
Deepa Chari, Paul Irving, Robert Howard and Brian Bowe “Identifying knowledge, skill and competence for nanoscience and nanotechnology research: study of researchers’ experiences” Special issue on current trends in nanotechnology education, International Journal of Engineering Education (IJEE), Vol. 28 (5), pp 1046-1055 | <urn:uuid:be774621-7e35-46c7-a64e-b14f499befa5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://arrow.dit.ie/phyeduart/2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908367 | 401 | 2.453125 | 2 |
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (AP) -- Virginia is setting aside more than 1,000 acres of prime water bottom to promote the farming of oysters and clams.
Called "aquaculture opportunity zones," the 15 areas will be located in the Rappahannock River, in the tributaries of Mobjack Bay and around Tangier Island in the Chesapeake Bay.
The Virginia Marine Resources Commission is expected to approve the new shellfish farming zones at its Jan. 25 meeting.
Under the proposal, the commission will streamline the permitting process and waive the typical fees and related costs, which can range up to $1,000. A one-time application fee of $100 will be levied.
"This is an incredible opportunity," Jack Travelstead, the commission's fisheries chief, said in a statement Wednesday. "Shellfish aquaculture is more dependable than going out and catching oysters, and reduces pressure on our wild stocks."
Two diseases have devastated oyster stocks in the bay.
The zones are located on hard bottom and in clean shallow waters. The bottoms are state-owned.
"These are excellent locations for the farming of oysters and claims in on-bottom cages," Secretary of Natural Resources Doug Domenech said.
The new zones will be divided into 5-acre blocks and assigned on a first-come, first-serve basis, the commission said. Only Virginia residents can apply. | <urn:uuid:7b406e8f-238f-458e-b9ab-8a7a56bc4b14> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wusa9.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=124612 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941698 | 297 | 2.03125 | 2 |
The Facebook entry elicited a notable response from Marshall Shepherd, the director of the program in atmospheric sciences at the University of Georgia. In comparing the track forecasts for Isaac with that for Katrina, he noted how much of what is called the “cone of uncertainty” – the wide area over which the track could range — had shrunk in comparing the forecasts seven years apart. (You can learn more about the challenges of hurricane track and intensity forecasting in my 2004 piece on Hurricane Ivan.)
Prof. Shepherd added, “[T]his has important emergency management and economic implications.” And indeed it does. Just to check on the state of the art, I sent the following query to a batch of hurricane researchers this morning. I’ll report back as responses come in. If you know studies pointing to an answer, please comment away.
Here’s my query to hurricane scientists: Read more…
It seems inevitable to have finger-pointing whenever a hurricane makes landfall. If the storm weakens, there are charges of alarmism and fear-mongering. If it veers or strengthens, hammered communities cry out. With Hurricane Irene, it was mostly the former, as various factions with axes to grind piled on the National Hurricane Center. (A case in point was Patrick Michaels, a climate scientist at the anti-regulatory Cato Institute who last Friday said the storm should be renamed “Hurricane Hype,” adding that he doubted it would “cough up even eight bodies.” With the death count far higher, he apologized through the Watts Up With That blog.)
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration created a video (above) to bolster its argument that it predicted Irene’s track, if not the storm’s strength, right four days in advance.
Jeff Masters of Wunderground credited the hurricane center for getting the track remarkably right and noted, importantly, the role of investments in satellite and computer analysis, which end up a bargain when averted costs are weighed:
According to a 2007 presentation at the 61st Interdepartmental Hurricane Conference, the improved hurricane forecasts between 2000 – 2006 resulted in savings of $3 billion compared to what the forecasts of the 1990s would have cost.
Jason Samenow, an excellent weather/climate blogger for the Washington Post, noted a hint of cherry-picking in the video in that a subsequent forecast actually strayed in its track, but that’s minor, to my mind.
Anyone griping abut the intensity forecast for Irene simply has no case, in that these forecasts are always portrayed as conditional and history shows just how much small shifts in conditions in the last few dozen miles offshore can make or break a tropical cyclone. Where there’s hype it usually shows up when media, or sometimes officials, pick up on worst-case outcomes and drop the uncertainty or error bars.
In following the course of projections for this storm, and then the burst of criticism about failed intensity forecasts, I was brought back to the hours I spent with meteorologists at the National Hurricane Center in September, 2004, as they tracked the course of Hurricane Ivan (shortly before I headed to Alabama to cover its landfall as a major hurricane; here’s a narrated report I filed from Mobile).
Here’s the scene in the Miami forecasting center, which illustrates why the midpoint of hurricane forecast tracks is relatively meaningless: Read more…
My guess is that the dodged hydrological bullet may work the other way, allowing city officials to punt the question. The difference between New York and London — and even more so the Netherlands, which built storm defenses sturdy enough for the rarest calamity — is likely in part a function of America’s newness, Bowman said, adding, “The United States is a young country with that exuberance and sense of indestructibility of youth.”]
The final output from the Stony Brook group on the New York City storm tide and surge (for the Battery, at the south tip of Manhattan) is below:
6:49 p.m. | Updated The video of Hurricane Irene above was shot by astronauts aboard the International Space Station, 230 miles overhead.
Here’s a fresh view showing how computer simulations are converging on a disastrous trajectory for Hurricane Irene, which is almost assuredly bound for the densely populated corridor from Washington, D.C., through New York City:
4:32 p.m. | Postscript |
Chris Mooney has written a nice reflection on how a nation (I’d say a species) that’s focused on the here and now tends to build vulnerability to threats that are inevitable but rare.
This means that inland residents need to be prepared even if this storm, as a hurricane or something weaker, remains offshore. The precipitation potential is enormous, as indicated in the simulation at right, run yesterday by federal weather analysts. The darkest blue patches indicate cumulative rainfall of 20 inches or more.
Conditions could pump Hurricane Irene up to Category 4. With this storm and the long gap since the last coastal hit in mind, I sent a query to half a dozen experts on tropical cyclones and their impacts, asking them to assess the gap in land-falling hurricanes and the conditions, including simple chance, that favor ravaged or spared coasts.
Brian McNoldy, a meteorologist tracking Atlantic Ocean hurricanes at Colorado State University, just distributed this note from Phil Klotzbach, a colleague, about the unusual storminess in the Atlantic and Caribbean at the moment:
With Karl becoming a hurricane, we have three hurricanes at the same time. This is a pretty rare occurrence. The only other years that this has occurred are 1893, 1926, 1950, 1961, 1967, 1980, 1995, and 1998. 1998 even had four hurricanes at the same time!
I’ve sent a query to some hurricane researchers to get a bit more on what, besides warm sea temperatures, makes conditions this ripe for powerful tropical storms. McNoldy said the conditions are ripe because we’re precisely in the middle of hurricane season and there’s little wind shear, a condition in which layers of air at different altitudes move at different speeds and which tends to break up hurricanes. More reactions will be added as they come in. In the meantime, keep a weather eye on the Web site of the National Hurricane Center and Kerry Emanuel’s page at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which collects a variety of forecasts of storm strengths and tracks.
A very large, broad, easterly wave is located just south of the Cape Verde islands, with a disorganized low-mid-level circulation at about 12N 25W (easy to spot from the 07:25Z WindSat and 10:55Z ASCAT microwave scatterometer overpasses). It exited the coast about a day ago, and already has a weak anticyclone positioned over it, greatly reducing the vertical shear and enhancing outflow.
Nearly every global model develops the system substantially, bringing it northeast of the Lesser Antilles (roughly 20N 55W) as a hurricane in about a week.
I’ve been asked by a few people why the season has been so quiet so far. In reality, it hasn’t been; it’s been on par with climatology… by this date, an average season has had 3 named storms, 1 hurricane, and 0 major hurricanes, which is exactly what 2010 has seen. Given the continued favorable environment across most of the basin though, once the heart of the season is upon us (very soon), people will be asking why there are so many storms! The bulk of a season’s activity typically comes in a relatively short timeframe.
7:43 p.m. | Updated
There were a couple of days of breathless news stories playing up the threat to operations around the BP oil gusher posed by the brewing storm called Alex. But federal storm forecasters never saw much of a chance of this storm shifting northeast toward the region beset by slicks and oiled shores. As of Sunday night, the storm, still a tropical depression, had finished pummeling the Yucatan Peninsula and was projected to strengthen over warm Gulf of Mexico waters before making landfall on shores in the western gulf (although some models still calculate a possible risk to the oily east).
As the storm season builds, if you want to keep close tabs on the possible intersection of tropical tempests and oiled waters while avoiding potential hype, here are some great resources:
A populated park as a model for Earth in the Anthropocene.
About Dot Earth
By 2050 or so, the human population is expected to reach nine billion, essentially adding two Chinas to the number of people alive today. Those billions will be seeking food, water and other resources on a planet where, scientists say, humans are already shaping climate and the web of life. In Dot Earth, which recently moved from the news side of The Times to the Opinion section, Andrew C. Revkin examines efforts to balance human affairs with the planet’s limits. Conceived in part with support from a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, Dot Earth tracks relevant developments from suburbia to Siberia. The blog is an interactive exploration of trends and ideas with readers and experts.
Access to cheap energy underpins modern societies. Finding enough to fuel industrialized economies and pull developing countries out of poverty without overheating the climate is a central challenge of the 21st century.
Enshrined in history as an untouchable frontier, the Arctic is being transformed by significant warming, a rising thirst for oil and gas, and international tussles over shipping routes and seabed resources.
Human advancement can be aided by curbing everyday losses like the millions of avoidable deaths from indoor smoke and tainted water, and by increasing resilience in the face of predictable calamities like earthquakes and drought.
How are climate change, scarcer resources, population growth and other challenges reshaping society? From science to business to politics to living, reporters track the high-stakes pursuit of a greener globe in a dialogue with experts and readers. Join the discussion at Green. | <urn:uuid:a6c18f13-b09c-4ccd-84fd-b62ae4f24e96> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/tropical-storms/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946336 | 2,104 | 2.15625 | 2 |
All the events that happened in the Middle Ages
Created by SYNDICATExSOUL on Mar 14, 2011
Last updated: 03/15/11 at 03:59 PM
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St. Patrick helped convert the Irish to Christianity. When Patrick was a teenager, he was kidnapped in Britain and was taken to Ireland where he was forced to work as a Shepard. In legend also won favor with the Irish by driving all snakes out of Ireland into the sea. He's basically important because he spread Christianity from Britain to Ireland.
Started in Constantinople
the Battle of Hastings was major, and changed the course of England's History. It was changed because it would be the last time foreign power took control over England. Harold the Second of England and Duke William of Normandy fought over the throne.
He was thin and healthy until he grew older and became fat. King Phillip commented that William looked like a pregnant woman because he was so big.
Christianity brought a lot of people hope. Catholic was a popular sects in Christain. it had a huge upperhand.
Alfred is know for his defense for the southern kingdoms of Europe when the Vikings attacked. Making him be the only English Monarch still to be called the great. Alfred was given the title "The great" for his leadership in defeating the danes vikings as they were invading Europe in the 800's. Alfred was born and lived with his father Aethelwulf who was king of Wessex and his queen Osburga. Alfred was the fourth born son and had only 1 younger sister.
Conquered Italy and was crowned king
The Muslim army led by governor of Spain, Abd-er Rahman marched along to the north to conquer. They were on the outskirts of Tours when they were met by Charles Martel. Though the Muslim army had cavalry the Franks held their ground and the battle ended with the death of Abd-er Rahman.
Pepin the short was the first King of the Franks. He was said to be 3 feet and 6 inches. In 741 he and his brother Carloman succeeded their father, Charles Martel. After the retirement of Carloman (747), Pepin got permission from Pope Zachary) to be king. Pepin was named for his grandfather, Pepin of Heristal, who was named for his grandfather, Pepin of Landen,
Charles Martel or Charles the hammer was a German military leader who successfully kept Europe as a christian society. In a battle in Guam in which Invaders from Northern Africa tried to convert or kill anyone who was Christian. Charles the Hammer won this battle by going to the church to aquire what he needed to train an army. He formed a wall of soldiers that successfully defended Guam.
The riots were caused by Chariot race money being extracted to profit Justinian to save the Empire
Died Nov. 13, 565. Was the ruler of the Byzantine Empire. Known as the Great. Wanted to revive the Empire and Gain back all of Rome
Wa the first king of the Franks. Was a Catholic King that ruled France
387 BC Rome was desperate to keep goths out. Paid them to keep out. One day, Rome stopped paying, goths were mad, and invaded.
He was also known as Augustine of Hippo. He was a Latin-speaker philosopher and church father but he was a Roman African. He studied at Cathage
306 AD ended in 1453. Ruled By Justinian and Theodora. Nika Riots scared Justinian Theodora saved him and the Empire and continued to rule | <urn:uuid:850dee47-cfe7-4402-9090-be7ec6811f81> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dipity.com/SYNDICATExSOUL/Medieval-Events/ | 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 | 0.991469 | 752 | 3.109375 | 3 |
Joomla is an award-winning content management system (CMS), which enables complex Web sites to be built rapidly. Many aspects, including its ease-of-use and extensibility, have made Joomla the most popular Web site software available.
A content management system is a server based software systems that keeps track of every piece of content on a Web site. In some respects it is analogous to a local public library in so far as it keeps track of books and stores them. Content can be simple text, photos, music, video, documents, or just about anything that can be delivered digitally.
A major advantage of using a CMS is that it requires almost no technical skill or knowledge to manage.
- Corporate Web sites or portals
- Corporate intranets and extranets
- Online magazines, newspapers, and publications
- E-commerce and online reservations
- Government applications
- Small business Web sites
- Non-profit and organizational Web sites
- Community-based portals
- School and church Web sites
- Personal or family homepages | <urn:uuid:7f81f1cd-d4e7-43c1-b502-b6c8247e74b1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://green-inc.eu/index.php/systems/joomla | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91795 | 219 | 2.03125 | 2 |
Modern-Day Earth Angels
By Dorka Keehn
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Eco Amazons & PowerHouse Books
Boca Raton, Florida
Vital stats: Founder of organic apparel company Under the Canopy, and FASE, a sustainable lifestyle, clothing, and accessory brand.
Backstory: Nature fuels me, and in college at UC Berkeley, I had a vision of creating an ethically profitable, environmentally sustainable, socially responsible company. I went on to found a holistic health and nutrition center in New York; soon, I saw the connection between food and fiber. Conventional cotton is a leading cause of air and water pollution. Understanding that the issue was bigger than what we put in our bodies, I left the center in 1996 to start an organic clothing and home fashion brand.
Bold move: When I started Under the Canopy, organic clothing was crunchy and frumpy. So I focused on style, quality, and fit, partnering with Indian nonprofits to convert farmers from conventional to organic cotton. I operated out of my house; my sister and sisters-in-law were the catalog models.
Turning point: People thought I was insane to try and combine the worlds of ecology and fashion. The environmentalists hated the fashion industry because of the toxins and materialism; the fashion designers didn't want to compromise their style by using organic fabrics. But women got it they like to feel good about their purchases. In a few years, we were mailing more than one million catalogs a year.
What's next: With my new line, FASE, I want to develop educational campaigns for local-to-global engagement. My goal is for organic, fair-trade, and sustainable fashion and textiles to become mainstream. Almost 20 percent of industrial water pollution comes from treating and dyeing fabrics, but textile companies are thinking differently about how they develop products. We're moving in the right direction. | <urn:uuid:a71c8fb8-8a72-4b7b-9000-ebae4b6d3533> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.marieclaire.com/world-reports/news/eco-amazons-3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959955 | 392 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Full-time jobs rise impressive: Shorten
- From: AAP
- November 08, 2012
EMPLOYMENT Minister Bill Shorten says the creation of 18,700 full-time jobs in October is impressive in the face of continuing uncertainty in the global economy.
Australian Bureau of Statistics data released on Thursday also showed the jobless rate remaining at 5.4 per cent, when economists had expected a rise to 5.5 per cent.
Mr Shorten said this solid result confirms that more than 820,000 jobs have now been created since Labor came to power in November 2007.
"This is a standout achievement in the context of fragile global growth and high levels of unemployment in advanced economies around the world," Mr Shorten said in a statement.
"Australia has an enviable set of economic fundamentals that sees us performing well in the face of these persistent global headwinds." | <urn:uuid:4f024c9a-c8fe-4749-811b-8afa74b04c8c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/breaking-news/full-time-jobs-rise-impressive-shorten/story-e6frg13c-1226513073252 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944576 | 181 | 1.523438 | 2 |
In the mid-20th century, the composer was still a rare individual with very specialized knowledge, skills and years of training, making complicated mathematical statements that were hard on the ear. Composers were still considered as a kind of mysterious and elusive lot… mostly male in gender, as that occupation had not been open to women, with a few exceptions.
Now at the end of the first decade of the 21st century, not only women composers (who have emerged in large numbers in the latter part of the 20th century), but just about everyone can be a composer right at home with a computer. Styles are so numerous that it is difficult to even draw up a list. There is at this point in time an explosion of musical styles that reflect different social environments, histories, geographies, ethnicities, coming together as a global culture, and as far as I am concerned they are all valid, from the street to the Metropolitan Opera.
Composing is demystified. It is not the pride and privilege of an elite. Everyone can afford access to music composition and production tools – some like GarageBand are readily available free with every Mac computer. This program offers a very intuitive interface and a series of musical loops that can be arranged and manipulated into songs. Like a child’s construction set, it comes in pieces to rearrange. And everyone has the opportunity to get into the game of songwriting and composing. Even the tone deaf could do it.
It is interesting that while music is widely distributed through free or low-cost downloads, therefore becoming accessible to millions of people, the general interest for music has expanded considerably. And in typical 21st century fashion, people want to “interact†with the music;  they want to create it themselves and make use of the tools that are available – hundreds of affordable software packages (Logic, Reason, Cubase, Digital Performer, Ableton, Kontakt, and many more) teach everything from songwriting to composing to sound manipulation to music production, while notation software (Finale, Sibelius) can display a score from a performance on a midi keyboard without anyone sitting down to write it. The new DAW (digital audio workstation) software is forgiving for those who do not have much keyboarding technique. With Reason, for instance, you can actually pencil in your notes – they appear as little rectangles. Which means you can create something using a visual interface without having to play an instrument and without knowledge of traditional music notation. I think this is a break-through in terms of creativity.
I am particularly sensitive to this turn of events because of my current teaching job at New York City College of Technology where I introduce both musicians and non-musicians to the creation of music on the computer. Some non-musicians are thrilled that they actually can enjoy the type of self-expression that is afforded by their own music. Some students tell me that they dreamed about making music but felt inadequate because they did not have training on an instrument. It’s been a long time since schools offered music classes, and a lot of people miss them.
When I went to elementary school I had weekly music classes and choir practice as part of the regular curriculum; we had public performances where the school children sang and played the recorder. In high school I remember performing in the chorus of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, again part of the high school program. I know… it was in Europe. But that early education may have had a powerful impact on my desire to make music.
Now the education in America is science and technology oriented. It is therefore not surprising that music creativity is finding some new outlets with technology and computers. Even cell phone ring tones make a statement about a favorite piece or can be easily created by the users themselves. Music still is a very important part of our lives… it just comes through different channels. | <urn:uuid:7d3616da-e882-412a-8537-080919a05351> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sequenza21.com/lauten/2010/03/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972197 | 827 | 3.015625 | 3 |
A leading scientist speculates on far-future scientific developments and their possible impact on the human condition. Dyson (From Eros to Gaia, 1992, etc.) points out that our culture has apparently lost its long-range vision. Drawing on a fascinating cross-section of scientific and technological history, the professor emeritus at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study lays the groundwork for a longer view, with a special interest in making the case for what has been called ``small science.'' He argues that massive projects with politically imposed deadlines (e.g., nuclear power plants) are incapable of developing naturally, because any failure is likely to be so massive that it brings all progress to a stop. When a smaller project fails, others can learn from it and build something better. Dyson contrasts two scientific styles: the Napoleonic, with huge teams and enormous budgets, under dictatorial supervision, and the Tolstoyan, in which creative anarchy is the rule. The Tolstoyan can thrive in times when tight budgets force such Napoleonic projects as the Superconducting Supercollidor onto the scrap heap. Looking ahead, Dyson suspects that the greatest surprises will come from the biological sciences. Genetic engineering is barely in its infancy; the visions of Jurassic Park or Brave New World could well become realities within a few centuries. Dyson bravely peers into even more distant vistas, to eras normally the province of science fiction; a million years in the future, the human race is likely to be altered almost beyond recognition--especially if a significant fraction of the population moves off Earth into environments that we can barely imagine. Finally, Dyson examines the interaction between scientific progress and social justice, and asks to what extent science should inquire into the application of its discoveries. At every turn, he illustrates his subject with reference to a wide range of writers and philosophers, making the book a delight to read. Essential reading for anyone who looks beyond the coming millennium. | <urn:uuid:e4100f79-36e0-4ba5-824c-36404b36cdcb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/freeman-dyson/imagined-worlds/print/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934128 | 394 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Shows & Panels
- Accelerate and Streamline for Better Customer Service
- Ask the CIO
- The Big Data Dilemma
- Carrying On with Continuity of Operations
- Client Virtualization Solutions
- Data Protection in a Virtual World
- Expert Voices
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- Federal Tech Talk
- Feds in the Cloud
- Health IT: A Policy Change Agent
- Improving Healthcare Outcomes through IT Policy
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- Navigating the Private Cloud
- One Step to the Cloud, Two Steps Toward Innovation
- Path to FDCCI Compliance
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Presidential surprises - don't be surprised!
Wednesday - 11/7/2012, 2:00am EST
(This was written hours before the polls closed on what we were told would be a very-close election. The winner, for purposes of this piece, doesn't really matter. The point is that whoever it is will probably have a lot of surprises, good and bad, for a lot of people. Including people who work for the federal government.)
Whether the POTUS is a re-elected lame duck or a newcomer to the White House, the commander-in-chief is also the CEO of the federal civil service. And what you see (or think you see) or hear him say, isn't always what you get. For instance:
Shortly after Ronald Reagan was elected, a Washington newspaper predicted that our D.C.-Maryland-Virginia-West Virginia metro area would be plunged into a recession because it said the new president would "decimate" the government and cut federal employment, the primary support system even for those of us here who don't work for the government.
The prediction made perfect sense. Except that it didn't happen. The overall number of federal workers (especially in Defense-related areas) and contractors increased.
Ironically, one of only two federal unions to support Reagan was PATCO. The Professional Air Traffic Controllers. They expected to be tight with the new president. But when PATCO members went out on an illegal strike over wages, Reagan fired those who refused to return by a certain deadline.
When President Bill Clinton was elected, federal unions cheered. Yet one of his first orders of business was to propose a one-year pay freeze instead of the increase called for in a bipartisan 1990 law designed to close the gap between federal and private-sector pay. Clinton continued to propose smaller raises than those called for by the pay act for the rest of his administration. He said — and many agreed — that the value of federal benefits, such as vacations, holidays, sick leave and retirement should be included in a "total compensation" match-up between the feds and the private sector.
When George W. Bush came into office, he stuck with the precedent of proposing smaller raises than those called for by the federal pay law that his father — and a Democratic Congress — had promised and approved.
President Barack Obama won the enthusiastic endorsement of federal and postal unions in 2008. So they were disappointed (to say the least!) when he proposed a two-year freeze on federal salaries and proposed that feds contribute a larger share of their salaries toward their retirement. His proposal is more modest than a congressional GOP plan, but still...
So what do the next four years hold for feds? Will the government go off the fiscal cliff, and take you (and the rest of us) with it? Can and will congressional Republicans and Democrats learn to get along (or at least tolerate each other) and get back to basics — like approving budgets and maybe fewer vacations.
What do you think? Whether you are a relative newcomer, an old hand or somebody in mid-career you must have some idea as to what's next for you and the government. Somebody is bound to be right.
Medicare Part B. Who needs it?
Many federal retirees and their survivors are just fine without Medicare, if they have one of the federal health plans. So who are these people, and what are those plans? Today on our Your Turn radio show, David Snell from the National Active and Retired Federal Employees talks about best buys for retirees. The health insurance hunting season begins next Monday.
Politics, sequestration, POTUS
Also on the show, Federal Times senior writer Sean Reilly talks about what the election may mean for feds, the consequences of falling off the fiscal cliff and the latest on the U.S. Postal Service plans to slim down and stay alive.
NEARLY USELESS FACTOID
By Jack Moore
Vice President Joe Biden admitted he's watched snippets of "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo" aboard Air Force Two.
(Source: ABC News)
MORE FROM FEDERAL NEWS RADIO
OPM makes dent in
retirement backlog as claims continue rolling in
For the fourth straight month, the number of federal employees filing for retirement has outstripped the Office of Personnel Management's expectations, according to new data released by the agency. | <urn:uuid:a5ac662b-196f-4e91-8b6b-926986477cdc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.federalnewsradio.com/1076/3108538/Presidential-surprises---dont-be-surprised | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959659 | 1,060 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Now that we have defined the problem, we must decide the most effective course of action for public education to minimize the problem. Obviously, this is a very complicated subject that DOES NOT lie completely within the realm of meteorology, especially when addressing the area of public perception of warnings and public response. The authors feel that there is a need for improvement of the current open country safety guidelines. However, we also feel that simply stating "do not go under the overpass" does not go far enough, nor is it effective. The challenge for us is to provide the best possible sound and practical guidelines of what TO do. Positive reinforcement, in most instances, is a much more effective approach. See Slides 21 and 22 for further discussion of this topic. | <urn:uuid:6fe3f792-70c6-4722-8adf-1eb44e6dec95> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/?n=safety-overpass-slide20 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94954 | 151 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Earthquakes In China Force Evacuation Of 3,800
After an earthquake shook the Xinjiang-Uighur, a northwest region of China, extensive damage was reported, media said.
Chinese seismologists measured the quake at 6-magnitude.
It struck Tuesday morning, destroying at least 800 homes, and forcing the evacuation of more than 3,800 people, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
No casualties were reported, UPI.com said.
Though the quake was centered in Yining and Gongliu ,counties in the Kazak region, it was felt in several nearby counties, the report said.
Direct economic losses were estimated at about $10.5 million, UPI.com reported.
As two rescue teams were dispatched for recovery work, schools in the area remained closed. Relief supplies were being sent to the area, including tents, beddings and shoes, the regional bureau of civil affairs said.
In addition to destroying homes, the quake also triggered a landslide on a national highway in the region. However, normal traffic had resumed Wednesday.
This quake was one of two that hit China Tuesday morning.
Another one, a 5.4-magnitude quake, rocked Sichuan and Gansu provinces in western China, but no casualties were reported. There were no immediate reports of damage in the two provinces.
China's worst quake in recent years was a 7.9-magnitude quake in Sichuan province in May 2008. It killed nearly 90,000 people. | <urn:uuid:09670683-3ef4-4f42-85ae-8894f8c1e947> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thirdage.com/news/earthquakes-in-china-force-evacuation-of-3800_11-04-2011 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977028 | 318 | 2.09375 | 2 |
Recently, Republicans have exhibited a fascination with the “flavor of the month” in presidential politics. Flavors have included Marco Rubio, Chris Christie, Herman Cain, and now Dr. Benjamin Carson.
The tendency towards such infatuation is understandable, especially given the Party’s tendency to nominate stale candidates like Robert Dole, John McCain, and (many would say) Mitt Romney. Unfortunately, though, a few speeches and appearances on conservative talk shows provide a dramatically insufficient basis for judging a person’s suitability for the presidency. We need to see a potential presidential candidate circle the track at least once before making such judgments.
In Chris Christie’s first full trip around the track, he over-indulged in a show of bipartisanship with President Obama on the eve of the presidential election, to the detriment of his own party’s candidate. In Marco Rubio’s first full trip around the track, he may prove to be the vehicle through which liberal Democrats (e.g., Chuck Schumer) and unreliable Republicans (e.g., McCain and Lindsey Graham) push through immigration reform that provides a path to citizenship for 10 million or more illegal immigrants. Would conservatives have swooned for Rubio with such unanimity in 2009 if he had advocated such legislation then? I doubt.
Bobby Jindal was once a flavor of the month Republican. But now that he’s circling the track the second time, we’re in a better position to assess his leadership skills, his potential electoral appeal, and his conservative bona fides.
As to the latter, there’s much to like in Jindal’s record. As this report in Politico observes, after a fairly cautious first term, Jindal (having been reelected overwhelmingly) has pushed an aggressive conservative agenda:
His education reform plans last year, which drastically expanded the state’s voucher system and reformed the teacher tenure process, established Jindal as a national leader on the issue. This year, Jindal made news with his rejection of the Medicaid expansion in the national health care law.
And in perhaps his boldest proposal yet, Jindal announced he wants to eliminate the state income tax. The details of the plan, which will be taken up by the Louisiana Legislature this spring, haven’t been announced yet.
Viewing Jindal’s overall record, Phil Musser, former executive director of the Republican Governors Association, concludes that “by any objective measure, Gov. Jindal has set the standard for policy accomplishments from the perspective of a forward-thinking conservative.” I agree.
Politico speculates that Jindal is pushing this agenda in anticipation of a presidential bid in 2016. Certainly, that’s a possibility. But Politico fails to provide any evidence (other than its own view that Jindal should accept the Medicaid expansion) to support the notion that Jindal’s actions are not in line with his beliefs.
Right now, for what it’s worth, Rubio and Rand Paul are the most widely mentioned prospective Republican presidential candidates for 2016. Right now, for what it’s worth, I think I prefer Jindal. | <urn:uuid:2fb696cb-ae1d-4a30-8ba3-4aa2428dca1b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2013/02/appreciating-bobby-jindal.php?tsize=small&tsize=large | 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 | 0.958538 | 645 | 1.65625 | 2 |
FIT TIP: As the years start ticking by, we often succumb to the ‘mid life spread’, often resulting in what has been termed a ‘beer belly’ – the round stomach bump that forms mainly on men and starts to make them look rather pregnant (with a baby keg perhaps). Hovever, beer is not to blame in most cases. The cause of this is ‘visceral fat’, which is the fat that stores internally around the organs. This fat grows to such a level that it starts to squeeze the organs and push them out, which is why if you ever touch a ‘beer belly’, it will actually feel hard. That is because you are touching the stomach which has been pushed outwards by the fat inside!! This is a VERY dangerous condition and is a silent killer.
Females are much less prone to this condition, because they tend to store fat subcutaneously (that is, just under the skin). Because this is much more visible, the appearance can be much worse than visceral fat, however the health risk is nowhere near as high. But be aware – high levels of fat in females also means that the visceral fat rating will increase to dangerous levels.
At the Busy Body studio, we have a very fancy piece of equipment that uses electrical impulses and can determine your visceral fat rating!!
So how can we get rid of visceral fat?? The same way we reduce all other forms of fat. Your best options are a healthy eating plan, strength training (once per week), and high intensity cardio (2-3 times per week). | <urn:uuid:6efdbe23-e5f1-44d0-8882-a06511860c6f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.busybody.co.nz/?p=266 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965767 | 332 | 1.617188 | 2 |
For centuries, humans have sought methods to describe relationships. The most common practice is to assign names to the kinships, such as father, mother, sister, brother, uncle, niece, and grandfather. However, these terms do not define consanguinity precisely enough for maximum scientific use. Geneticists and genealogists need a system that permits them to comprehend more complex relations than those traditionally possible. Sir Francis Galton (1822-1911) stated the problem over a century ago in a letter to the editor of Nature, concerning an "Arithmetic Notation of Kinship." According to Galton:
Galton's letter briefly discusses the sequential numbering scheme for ancestors now known by European genealogists as the Kekule von Stradonitz System and by North American genealogists as the Stradonitz or Ahnentafel System. However, the plan was invented by neither Sir Francis Galton nor Stephen Kekule von Stradonitz (1863-1933). The latter's name is attached to it because he was the first to describe its properties (in 1898). The first printed version of this arrangement dates back to 1590, when an Austrian historian and diplomat, Michael Eyzinger (Michael von Aitzing, 1530-1598), used it in his book on European princely and royal houses. The scheme is so simple and logical that many genealogists since then have used it without knowledge of predecessors and even without considering it in need of explanation. Here, the method is referred to as the Sequential System.
- "Many writers have endeavoured to devise a simple method of describing the various forms of kinship, which, when expressed verbally, are cumbrous and puzzling in the highest degree. I suspect, however, that if we had always been as familiar with the binary system of arithmetic as we are with the decimal, that the facilities afforded by a numerical system of notation of kinship would have been so obvious that it would have been adopted as a matter of course."
The Sequential System
Widely accepted as the preferred notation for documenting and exchanging genealogical research, its plan is simple. Consecutive integers (whole numbers) are assigned to all ancestors of a person - 1 to the person, 2 to the father, 3 to the mother, 4 to the father's father, etc. Because each person has a countable number of ancestors and there exists an infinite number of integers, it is possible to assign a correct number to any ancestral position, even if other positions remain unidentified. Because of the inherent binary structure of bisexual reproduction, many properties may be derived directly from this numbering plan. Among these:
Gender: Male ancestral positions have even numbers; female ancestors have odd numbers.
Parents: The father of any ancestor n has number 2n, and the mother has number 2n + 1.
Offspring: The offspring of any ancestor n can be calculated as the integer part of n ÷ 2.
Mate: A male ancestor's mate has number n + 1, and a female ancestor's mate has number n - 1.
Relationship: The exact relationship between any ancestor n and the individual at position 1 is found by successively dividing n by 2, discarding fractions at each stage, until reaching the number 1. The resulting list of integers identifies the ancestral positions that form the lineage. The number of times that n is halved equals the number of generations between the individual and the ancestor at position n.
Ancestors per generation: The first ancestor number in every generation (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, etc.) corresponds to the number of ancestor positions in that generation.
Generation numbers: The above numbers are also exponentiations of 2 (i.e., 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, etc.), and the exponent may be used as the generation number (i.e., 24 - or, 2 to the fourth power - represents the fourth ancestral generation). | <urn:uuid:996c4210-8281-48b3-aca7-47f8b5265069> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.knotsystem.dk/sequ.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944809 | 815 | 3.453125 | 3 |
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Images on government or government agency websites are not necessarily public domain; always look for copyright notices.
When uploading a government work, always link to the source webpage or explain how you found and identified the work. If works cannot be confirmed as created by the government, they will likely be deleted. | <urn:uuid:94332074-2d19-4b39-912d-3a072c613330> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Uploadtext/fromgov | 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 | 0.948739 | 117 | 1.75 | 2 |
Who Are They Calling Elitist?
The contemporary conservative obsession with the "liberal elite" has its origin in the campaign of 1964, when Ronald Reagan crisscrossed the country in support of Barry Goldwater's presidential aspirations, accusing liberals of believing that "an intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves." Richard Nixon took up the cudgel in his second State of the Union speech, complaining that "a bureaucratic elite in Washington knows best what is best for people everywhere." But it was Nixon's Vice President, Spiro Agnew, who, aided by speechwriters Pat Buchanan and William Safire, showed right-wingers what political potential lay in this line of attack, with his orgies of alliteration regarding the evildoings of various "pusillanimous pussyfooters," "hopeless hysterical hypochondriacs of history," "nattering nabobs of negativism" and "effete corps of impudent snobs," to pick just a few of his favorite epithets for liberal opponents in the media and academia.
Since then, no right-wing campaign has been complete without some form of repudiation of what former Vice President Dan Quayle named the liberal "cultural elite," whose avowed purpose is to undermine all that is admirable and virtuous in Middle America, or as Quayle termed it, "the rest of us." (Asked to define the evildoers, Quayle responded, "They know who they are.") Quayle's addition of the word "cultural" to "elite," coupled with his attack on a popular television character, single mom/anchorwoman Murphy Brown, was a stroke of genuine genius, as it allowed conservatives to continue to feel themselves oppressed even as they gained control of virtually all of the levers of political power in the United States and much of the news media. Liberals' power, conservatives continue to insist, trumps political power because we allegedly control the "culture." Today it is all but impossible to hear the word "liberal" without the word "elite" attached.
It's hard to know exactly what conservatives mean by the accusation of elitism, as it appears to fit almost any occasion. If you examine the definitions offered by elitism's accusers, the crime is apparently one of mind, akin to such offenses as "bourgeois sentimentality" or "rootless cosmopolitanism" in the Stalinist Soviet Union. Rush Limbaugh posited his success as an example of what he termed "middle America's growing rejection of the elites," which he defines as "professionals" and "experts," including "the medical elites, the sociological elites, the education elites, the legal elites, the science elites...and the ideas this bunch promotes through the media." Conservative pundit Peggy Noonan identifies "America's elite" as "the politicians, wise men, think-tank experts, academics, magazine and editorial-page editors, big-city columnists, TV commentators" who had the temerity to oppose Bush's ruinous war in Iraq. The qualities of the "big and real America," from which George W. Bush (of Harvard, Yale and Andover) hails, are those that liberal elites would recognize as native to "another America, and boy has it endured. It just won a war. [Noonan was writing in early 2003, before the catastrophe that Iraq has become was apparent to all.] Its newest generation is rising, and its members are impressive. They came from a bigger America and a realer one--a healthy and vibrant place full of religious feeling and cultural energy and Bible study and garage bands and sports-love and mom-love and sophistication and normality."
Conservatives did not, of course, wish to do away with "elites." They merely wanted to replace them with their own. As John Judis pointed out in his book-length study The Paradox of American Democracy, "Instead of creating a new elite, they undermined what it meant for a country to have one. The new groups, in contrast to the old, did not seek to be above class, party and ideology. On the contrary, they were openly probusiness and conservative.... They did not seek to mediate conflicts but to take one side. They had no ties to labor unions or to the environmental, consumer or civil rights movements that had emerged in the sixties, but only to the business counteroffensive against them.... They did not seek to produce objective results by means of social science. On the contrary, they were willing to use social science to achieve partisan results."
In observing the members of the conservative elite denouncing "elitists," it can be difficult to tell your players without the proverbial scorecard. For instance, radio talk-show host and former conservative cable host Laura Ingraham has written an entire book about the dangers posed by liberal elites, Shut Up and Sing: How Elites From Hollywood, Politics, and the Media Are Subverting America. In it, this daughter of a Connecticut lawyer, a graduate of Dartmouth and the University of Virginia Law School who now lives in an expensive home in Washington, DC, distinguishes between liberal elitists and those she terms "true Americans." She begins her treatise by explaining who these "elite Americans" are and what they think: "They think we're stupid. They think our patriotism is stupid. They think our churchgoing is stupid. They think our flag-flying is stupid. They think having big families is stupid. They think where we live--anywhere but near or in a few major cities--is stupid. They think our SUVs are stupid. They think owning a gun is stupid. They think our abiding belief in the goodness of America and its founding principles is stupid."
Ingraham is joined in her crusade by another ex-MSNBC pundette, the second-generation Connecticut lawyer and Cornell University alumna Ann Coulter, who rhapsodizes about red-state denizens, as Geoffrey Nunberg notes in his book Talking Right, "with the effusiveness of a fifth-grader reporting on a zoo visit": "I loved Kansas City! It's like my favorite place in the world.... It's the opposite of this town. They're Americans, they're so great, they're rooting for America!" "I love Texas Republicans!... Americans are so cool!" "Queens, baseball games--those are my people. American people." Like Ingraham, Coulter distinguishes between "us" and "them" on the basis of attitude rather than income, though the multimillionaire does allow that "the whole point of being a liberal [is] to feel superior to people with less money."
John Podhoretz, the son of neoconservatism's second couple, Norman Podhoretz and Midge Decter, who attended elite private schools and the University of Chicago before his father's connections helped him secure jobs in the media empires of Sun Myung Moon and Rupert Murdoch, also professes to see America through rose-hued glasses. "Bush Red is a simpler place," he explains, on the basis of a visit to Las Vegas. It's a land "where people mourn the death of NASCAR champion Dale Earnhardt, root lustily for their teams, go to church, and find comfort in old-fashioned verities." His comrade in anti-intellectual arms, former CBS News reporter Bernard Goldberg, who has spent a career working within what conservatives would call the "liberal media elite" and who wrote a book comparing his former friend Dan Rather to a "prison bitch," has sworn off all association with liberals even when he agrees with them, he says, "because of their elitism. They look down their snobby noses at ordinary Americans who eat at Red Lobster or because they like to bowl or they go to church on a regular basis or because they fly the flag on the Fourth of July." | <urn:uuid:29e8fcb7-80ef-4b56-9f5d-b6479d4bfbdf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thenation.com/article/who-are-they-calling-elitist | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973976 | 1,626 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Adobe has plugged a hole in its ubiquitous Flash media player that attackers were exploiting to control services such as webmail accessed by end users.
The universal XSS, or cross-site scripting, vulnerability is present in all versions of Flash, but was only being actively exploited in versions that worked with Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser. In a security bulletin, Adobe credited Google for discovery of the bug and warned it "could be used to take actions on a user's behalf on any website or webmail provider, if the user visits a malicious website." Representatives with Adobe and Google didn't elaborate on the in-the-wild attacks or the underlying bug, except for an Adobe spokeswoman saying Google first reported it on February 10.
Security researchers, meanwhile, said the squashed bug was exotic.
"They're kind of rare and they're extremely powerful, so now you're talking about an 0-day cross-site scripting flaw being used in the wild, which can really only be useful for account takeovers," said Jeremiah Grossman, a Web security expert and the CTO of WhiteHat Security. He said he's aware of only a handful of times an attacker has found one and used in the wild. Other examples are documented here and here. (He originally told us it was the first example he had heard of.)
Over the past few years, Adobe has worked hard to improve the security of its Acrobat, Reader, and Flash applications, which are available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux operating systems and installed on millions of machines. In 2010, the software maker released a Windows version of Reader that included a security sandbox that isolated the document viewer from sensitive OS functions, such as the changing of registry settings and the writing or modification of crucial files. That same year, Adobe Flash for Google Chrome added similar protection. Last week, Adobe released a beta version of Flash for Firefox when running on Windows Vista and Windows 7 and has said similar protection will be coming to the IE version of Flash soon.
As useful as sandboxes are in restricting potentially buggy code to a small part of the operating system, they do nothing to minimize the damage that can be done by attacks that exploit universal XSS flaws, researchers said.
"Adobe and Google, when they create their sandboxes, they're designing them to stop memory corruption vulnerabilities," Chris Rohlf of Leaf Security Research told Ars. "To their credit, the sandboxes do a good job of stopping memory corruption vulnerabilities, but they're simply not designed to stop these sorts of things."
An updated version of Flash, which includes fixes for several other vulnerabilities Adobe rated as critical, is available here. | <urn:uuid:65e636e6-7448-4900-b4ef-4f6059992522> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://arstechnica.com/business/2012/02/exotic-xss-bug-in-adobe-flash-exploited-to-control-users-web-accounts/?comments=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956373 | 538 | 1.960938 | 2 |
Malaria Treatment & Prevention Unit
Head of Unit
The Malaria Treatment and Prevention Unit Team is part of the Malaria Group at the Center for Vaccine Development at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
To use science and epidemiology to answer critical questions about the treatment, prevention, control and ultimately elimination of malaria and to maximize child health.
To conduct research that is scientifically rigorous and upholds the highest ethical standards.
To train and mentor young researchers who join our team in the United States, Malawi and other international settings to conduct meaningful research, to become leaders in their field and to support public health and academic institutions. | <urn:uuid:af311953-9685-4128-b664-0737b7515f89> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://medschool.umaryland.edu/malaria/treatment.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923251 | 129 | 1.78125 | 2 |
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MACHINE AND METHOD FOR INFLATING
AND SEALING AIR FILLED PACKING
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED 5
This application is a division of U.S. application Ser. No. 10/087,897, filed Mar. 1, 2002.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention pertains generally to packing materials and, more particularly, to a machine and method for making air-filled packing cushions. 15
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Air-filled pillows or cushions are currently used as a packing material and void filler in shipping cartons and the 2o like. Such cushions typically have two layers of plastic film material which are sealed together to form chambers that are filled with air. The cushions are usually made in continuous strings, with perforations between successive ones of the cushions so they can be torn apart. 25
Although very light in weight, air-filled cushions do take up a substantial amount of space, and to reduce the volume of material which must be shipped and stored, such cushions are commonly made at or near the point of use. To avoid the need for packers and shippers to have large, complex 30 cushion making machines in their facilities, suppliers of air-filled packing cushions provide their customers with prefabricated film materials in which the major seals and perforations have already been formed. Those materials usually wound into rolls or folded into boxes for shipment 35 and storage.
Packers and shippers who use the prefabricated film materials are also provided with relatively simple, inexpensive machines for inflating and sealing the materials to complete the cushions at or near the point of use. Examples 40 of such machines are found in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,209,286, 6,659,150, and 6,410,119, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 45
It is in general an object of the invention to provide a new and improved machine and method for making air-filled packing cushions.
Another object of the invention is to provide a machine 50 and method of the above character which overcome the limitations and disadvantages of the prior art.
These and other objects are achieved in accordance with the invention by providing a machine and method for making air-filled packing cushions from a roll of prefabri- 55 cated film material having two layers which are sealed together to form a longitudinally extending inflation channel near one edge of the material, rows of chambers extending across the material, flow passageways interconnecting the chambers in each of the rows, and inlet passageways extend- 60 ing between the inlet channel and one of the chambers in each of the rows.
The roll rests on a pair of spaced part, horizontally extending rollers. The film material is fed from the roll to an inflation tube which extends into the inflation channel, air is 65 introduced into the chambers through the inflation tube to inflate the cushions, and a longitudinally extending seal is
formed across the passageways between the channel and the chambers after the cushions are inflated.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a plan view, partly broken away, of one embodiment of a prefabricated film material for use in making air-filled packing cushions in accordance with the invention.
FIG. 2 is an isometric view of one embodiment of a machine for inflating and sealing air-filled packing cushions in accordance with the invention.
FIG. 3 is an exploded isometric view of the embodiment of FIG. 1.
FIG. 4 is a fragmentary side elevational view of the sealing unit in the embodiment of FIG. 2.
FIG. 5 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view of the sealing unit of FIG. 4.
FIG. 6 is an operational view of the embodiment of FIG. 2 transforming a prefabricated film material into air-filled packing cushions.
FIG. 7 is a plan view of another embodiment of a prefabricated film material for use in making air-filled packing cushions in accordance with the invention.
The prefabricated film material shown in FIG. 1 consists of two layers 12, 13 of a suitable film material such as high density polyethylene or low density polyethylene. The material can be in the form of a flattened tubing which is joined together, or closed, along both of its longitudinal edges 16, 17, or it can be open along one or both edges. In the embodiment illustrated, a single elongated sheet, or strip, of film material is folded along its centerline to form edge 16. That edge is closed, and edge 17 is open.
The two layers of film are sealed together to form an inflation channel 19 and inflatable chambers 21, 22. The channel extends longitudinally near one edge of the material, and the chambers are arranged in pairs which are positioned side-by-side across the material. Inlet passageways 23 extend between the inflation channel and one of the chambers in each pair, and passageways 24 interconnect the chambers. Outlet passageways 25 extend between the inflation channel and the open edge 17 of the material.
Each row or pair of chambers forms a single cushion in the finished product. These cushions and other cushions with two or more interconnected chambers have been found to provide better cushioning and shock absorption in some applications that cushions with just one chamber do. With the interconnected chambers, air can shift from chamber to chamber as pressure is applied to different portions of the cushion.
Transverse rows of perforations 26 extend across the tubing between the chambers of successive cushions to facilitate separation of the material either before or after the chambers are inflated to form the cushions.
The prefabricated film material is wound onto a cylindrical core 27 to form a roll 28 for shipment and storage.
FIG. 2 illustrates a compact, self-contained machine for inflating and sealing a prefabricated film material in accordance with the invention. This machine has a relatively small cabinet 31 which is adapted to rest on a table top or other supporting surface. The cabinet has an L-shaped base 32 with an upstanding front wall 33, end walls 34, 36 and a removable cover 37 for the top and rear sides of the cabinet.
A pair of spaced apart, horizontally extending rollers 39, 41 are mounted on the upper side of the cabinet for receiving the roll of prefabricated film material. The roll rests on the rollers and is free to rotate as the material is drawn from it. The gap between the rollers is less than the diameter of the
core so that the roll will not drop between the rollers as it decreases in size. If desired, the axis of one or both of the rollers can be inclined slightly, i.e., up to about 10 degrees, in order to keep the roll against a stop toward one side of the machine. 5
Roller 39 is rotatively mounted on a stationary shaft 42 which extends between end walls 34, 36 near the front of the cabinet. Roller 41 consists of two relatively short rollers 41a, 41b which are mounted on a rotatively mounted shaft 43 to the rear of roller 39. The two rollers are positioned 10 toward opposite ends of the machine for engagement with the roll of film material toward the edges of the roll. A nip roller 44 is mounted on shaft 43 next to roller 41b and directly beneath inflation channel 19 in the prefabricated film. A timing disk 46 is also mounted on shaft 43, with 15 openings 47 which are detected optically to monitor rotation of the roll and the removal of material from it.
A stop 49 located toward one side of the cabinet serves as a guide for positioning the roll on the rollers. The roll is placed on the rollers with the edge adjacent to the inflation 20 channel abutting against the stop so that the channel and the inlet passageways will always be in the same position regardless of the width of the roll. As noted above, one or both of the rollers can be inclined down toward the side of the cabinet where the stop is located to help keep the roll 25 against the stop. With one or both of the rollers inclined in this manner, they are still substantially horizontal, and the axis of the roll is still substantially parallel to the axes of the rollers. The roll can be of any desired width, and it can even overhang the side of the cabinet opposite the stop as long as 30 it is not so wide that the weight of the overhang causes the roll to tip or to be unstable on the rollers.
A drive mechanism 51, an inflation tube 52 and a sealing assembly 53 are combined into a single modular unit 54 which is located toward the front of the machine. As best 35 seen in FIG. 3, this unit is removably mounted on the outer side of end wall 36, and projects through an opening 56 in that wall, with an end cover 57 and a front cover 58 enclosing portions of it.
The drive mechanism includes input rollers 61-64 and 40 output rollers 66-69 which engage the edge portion of the film material and feed it through the machine. The input and output rollers are arranged in dual sets for engaging the film material on opposite sides of the inflation channel. Thus, input rollers 61, 62 and output rollers 66, 67 engage the film 45 material between the inflation channel and the edge of the material, whereas input rollers 63, 64 and output rollers 68, 69 engage it between the channel and the chambers.
The feed rollers are driven by a motor 71 which is mounted inside the cabinet, with a drive gear on the motor 50 shaft (not shown) driving gears 72 which are affixed to the shafts on which the rollers are mounted. The gearing is such that the output rollers rotate slightly faster than the input rollers (e.g., an 8:7 ratio) in order to tension the film material and maintain better control of it as it passes through the 55 sealing assembly.
Inflation tube 52 is positioned between the inner and outer feed rollers and extends in an upward direction, curving inwardly as it does, for insertion into the inflation channel of the film material. Air is supplied to the tube at a pressure on 60 the order of 0.5 to 10 psig by an air pump 73 which is also mounted inside the cabinet. If desired, a regulator (not shown) can be connected between the pump and the air tube to allow users to adjust the air pressure and, hence, the degree of firmness to which the cushions are inflated. 65
An enlarged bulb 52a at the upper end of the air tube facilitates movement of the film material over the end
portion of the tube and also helps to prevent air from escaping back along the tube from the inflation channel. A fitting 52b is provided at the other end of the tube for connection to the air pump.
Sealing assembly 53 is positioned between the input and output rollers and includes a heating element 76 and a roller 77 which presses the film material against the heating element. The heating element is mounted in a stationary position, and the roller is mounted on a carriage 78. The roller is pressed against the heating element by a cam 79 when the machine is operating, and withdrawn from the heating element by springs when the machine is idle.
As best seen in FIGS. 4-5, the heating element comprises a stainless steel rod 80 of relatively small diameter which extends vertically, so that it is parallel to the direction of film travel and perpendicular to the axis of roller 77. Thus, the curved surfaces of the heating element and the roller come together at a very small point, so that a given point on the film material is in contact with the heating element for only about one millisecond. With that brief contact, higher heating element temperatures can be used, which results in better seals than are possible with the prior art.
Sealing assembly 53 is somewhat similar to the sealing unit shown in Ser. No. 09/648,843, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. There, however, the heating element consists of a pair of Nichrome wires which are covered with Teflon tape that prevents the film material from contacting the wires directly. Consequently, the film material is not heated to as high a temperature as it is in the present invention where it makes direct contact with the actual heating element. Also, in the unit shown in Ser. No. 09/648,843, the roller is mounted in a fixed position, and the heating element is withdrawn from the roller by a pneumatic actuator.
Cover 58 terminates just in front of the path traveled by the film material in passing through the feed rollers and sealing assembly, and a flange 81 which extends from the front wall of the cabinet in alignment with the left side of the cover terminates just to the rear of the film path. Guide shoes 82, 83 are mounted on the confronting edges of the cover and flange to define an access opening 84 for the film material and to help guide the material into the feed rollers. Another guide 86 is positioned toward the front of the cabinet above the air tube and feed rollers to guide the film material toward them.
A control panel 87 is located on an inclined portion of end cover 57 to the right of the drive module. This panel includes controls for turning the machine on and off and for controlling various operational functions such as number and firmness of cushions being made.
Operation and use of the machine, and therein the method of the invention, can best be described with reference to FIG. 6. The roll of prefabricated film material 28 is placed on rollers 39, 41, with the inflation channel side of the roll 19 abutting against stop 49, so that the inflation channel itself is aligned with nip roller 44 and inflation tube 52.
The free end of the film material is pulled down over guide 86 and onto the inflation tube, with the tube extending into inflation channel 19. The operator continues to pull down on the material until it engages the upper feed rollers and is thereafter fed by the rollers. The air tube serves as a guide for keeping the film material properly aligned with the rollers, and the curvature of the tube helps to guide the material into the rollers.
As the film material travels along the air tube, the air injected through the tube flows through passageways 23, 24 and into chambers 21, 22 in the portion of the film between
the roll and the tube, thereby inflating the cushions. The air is confined primarily to this portion of the film by constriction of the inflation channel as it passes around the roll and is pinched closed by nip roller 44. Depending upon the diameter of the roll, the film material is withdrawn from the 5 roll about 90 to 180 degrees from the point where the inflation channel is pinched closed by the roller. With the inflation channel closed down in this manner, the cushions are inflated more efficiently and more uniformly than in systems where the air diffuses into substantial portions of the 10 film material upstream of the filling an sealing units.
Following inflation, the film material travels through sealing assembly 53 where roller 77 presses the material into direct contact with heating element 76. The two layers of film material are thus fused together along a relatively 15 narrow seal line 89 which extends longitudinally of the film material and across inlet passageways 23 to seal the chambers.
After a cushion is inflated and sealed, the film material travels past a knife (not shown) which slits open the edge of 20 the material next to the inflation channel so the air tube can exit from the channel.
In the film material illustrated in FIG. 7, each cushion 90 has one full-size chamber 91 and two half-size chambers 92. The full-size chamber has four sections 93 which are posi- 25 tioned side-by-side across the film material, with passageways 94 between them. Each half-size chamber has three sections 96, with passageways 97 between them.
Inlet passageways 98, 99 extend laterally between a longitudinally extending inflation channel 101 and the first 30 section in each of the chambers, and outlet passageways 102 extend between the inflation channel and the adjacent edge of the film material. Perforations 103 are provided between the cushions for use in separating them.
The film material of FIG. 7 is processed into cushions in 35 exactly the same way as the material of FIG. 1. It is fed through the machine by feed rollers 61-69, with inflation tube 52 extending into inflation channel 101 to deliver air for inflating the cushions, and sealing assembly 53 forming a longitudinally extending seal across inlet passageways 98, 40 99 to seal the inflated cushions.
With the feed rollers and the inflation tube engaging only one edge portion of the film material, the machine can process materials of any desired width to make cushions having any desired number of chambers, including cushions 45 having a single chamber that extends the full width of the material.
It is apparent from the foregoing that a new and improved machine and method for inflating and sealing air-filled
packing cushions have been provided. While only certain presently preferred embodiments have been described in detail, as will be apparent to those familiar with the art, certain changes and modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention as defined by the following claims. We claim:
1. A method of making air-filled packing cushions from a roll of prefabricated film material having a longitudinally extending channel, a plurality of chambers, and inlet passageways extending between the channel and chambers adjacent to the channel, the method comprising:
resting the roll of film material on a pair of spaced apart, horizontally extending rollers, with the longitudinally extending channel being pinched closed by one of the rollers;
withdrawing the film material from the roll; and injecting air into the longitudinally extending channel in a portion of the material which has been withdrawn from the roll, with the air in the longitudinally extending channel flowing around the roll only to the point where the channel is pinched closed by the roller.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the film material is withdrawn from the roll about 90 to 180 degrees from the point where the longitudinally extending channel is pinched closed by the roller.
3. An apparatus for making air-filled packing cushions from a roll of prefabricated film material having a longitudinally extending channel, a plurality of chambers, and inlet passageways extending between the channel and chambers adjacent to the channel, the apparatus comprising:
a pair of spaced apart, horizontally extending rollers on which the roll of film material rests, with the longitudinally extending channel being pinched closed by one of the rollers;
a feed mechanism for withdrawing the film material from the roll; and
an air injector for injecting air into the longitudinally extending channel in a portion of the material which has been withdrawn from the roll, with the air in the longitudinally extending channel flowing around the roll only to the point where the channel is pinched closed by the roller.
4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the film material is withdrawn from the roll about 90 to 180 degrees from the point where the longitudinally extending channel is pinched closed by the roller. | <urn:uuid:c7c67fac-ddc1-4eb8-bf8f-69e7566161cd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.google.es/patents?pg=PA6&dq=flatulence&id=fEV-AAAAEBAJ&hl=es&output=text | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935434 | 4,049 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Board games by the numbers: what it costs to Kickstart, produce, and ship a new game
Minion Games has just launched a new Kickstarter campaign for their upcoming board game Hegemonic. That’s not very newsworthy. What is impressive is the fact that this is the company’s sixth Kickstarter campaign, and they’ve finished and shipped a board game for each one.
“I wouldn’t say that we made many actual mistakes because we started using Kickstarter early and much wasn’t known about how to approach it as a board game maker,” James Mathe, the owner of Minion Games, told the Penny Arcade Report. Kickstarter allows the company to release games that are profitable right out of the gate. So I had to ask, what were they doing so right?
The lessons learned
Mathe listed a few examples of Kickstarter best practices. Get your social network in place before launch. Make sure you have a realistic plan for stretch goals if funding exceeds your expectations. Don’t overpromise on delivery dates, as it takes three months to create a board game, but that’s only if everything goes smoothly. And sometimes things don’t go smoothly.
Board games are an international business, and Mathe claimed there were no good US manufacturers who can deliver quality production of board games in small batches at an affordable price.
“In Europe you can find some good printers, although still expensive - they are in the right price range,” he explained. “Then you can obviously find many in China but then you’re really rolling the dice with what will actually show up at your door step. They all promise the world and very, very few deliver.” Companies that successfully deal with Chinese manufacturing have a representative located in the actual plant; someone who can maintain standards and understands the business. That comes with its own cost.
So what can go wrong? Mathe described some of the printing mistakes he saw in their early games that came from Chinese plants.
“The cards were not on card stock, just paper stock, which is a typical thing they do to lower the bid. Then our cards and cardboard were not printed straight and many had markings or writings from their quality control people,” he said.
“That’s right, their quality control people screwed up some of our games. Then worst of all they made the games in a non climate controlled building so all the moisture from China’s wet season was in the cardboard and it all molded inside the packaging after 6 months, and that was with silicon packs,” he continued. “The cards also got brittle and literally started to fall apart. Communication is a big nightmare too and they’ll say anything you want to hear”
If you don’t have the resources to maintain quality control in China, you’ll be printing in Europe, which introduces the challenge of shipping games to the United States. Don’t worry about weight, as you pay by volume.
“Then there is a few hundred dollars for customs fees and then a freight company has to train and/or truck the games to the warehouse,” Mathe said, explaining the costs of shipping. “The actual costs very but a typical $50 game of 2000 units will cost us about $3000-$4000 USD to get it to the warehouse from Europe or China. Then most warehouses will charge you a monthly fee per pallet…”
In other words, it’s expensive as hell.
What happens to these games at retail?
Mathe owns three gaming stores, so he gets to see both sides of the business. He told the Penny Arcade Report that hits on Kickstarter will be hits in the store. “Flash Point, for example, continues to sell steady. D-Day Dice sold well when it came out and it had broken a lot of KS sales records. Then there is Alien Frontiers as well which keeps on selling. But these are all hit games,” he explained.
What about his own games?
“As for Minion Games, the Manhattan Project just sold out of of its second print run. So Kickstarter has not hurt sales in game stores,” he said. “Tahiti, our second most recent Kickstarter sold well out of the gate in distribution as well.” The other games are doing well, but “not stellar.”
You also see much more of your profit in games sold via your Kickstarter campaign. “A publisher wants to sell as much as he can through Kickstarter as they will see 3 times as much profit in doing so, but in the end if a game is to be a solid regular seller, it must go through the distribution system,” he said.
Mathe said that his fulfillment company stated that out of 80 new products in 2012, only 22 of them sold over 500 units at retail. That’s a sobering look at the reality of the board game business, and it’s a business with a heavy cost in terms of production and shipping. In contrast, Mathe gets production quotes assuming runs of 1,500 to 2,000 copies of each game. “You’re not going to sell more then that on Kickstarter and through distribution unless you have a real hit of a game,” he explained. “Which is rare, though everyone thinks their game is great.”
Why Kickstarter is great for board games
Minion Games used to ask for small amounts in their campaigns to help defray the cost of production, and early Kickstarters only asked for $5,000 or so. In the early days of the service they could hit their goals without so much as a video. Things have changed, and fans now expect more from Kickstarter campaigns. The good news is that many more people are willing to fund projects and help spread the word. This makes the business of board games much less risky.
“We put up the REAL cost of our games these days and only print if we cover the true cost of printing the game,” Mathe said. This removes much of the risk of releasing new games. Board games are an analog business in a digital world, and Kickstarter allows companies like Minion Games to try new things without risking expensive flops. If there is no interest from players, the game simply won’t be made.
“We let the fans decide if it’s worth of printing! Our last two campaigns both did in the $30,000 range so I’m comfortable that our reputation and Kickstarters maturity are at a level that we can get this amount,” he said when I asked about Hegemonic’s $30,000 goal, which is the company’s largest to date. “We are also experienced with how to market these campaigns now. In fact as I write this we have reached 17% of our goal in only 8 hours, so we’re doing something right.”
You can learn more about, and support, Hegemonic right now. The game looks great, and I’d like to thank Mathe for taking the time to walk us through the specifics of his business. | <urn:uuid:e9857b57-5bb0-47d0-a1e3-85f8f264def8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://penny-arcade.com/report/article/board-games-by-the-numbers-what-it-costs-to-kickstart-produce-and-ship-a-ne | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973126 | 1,503 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Banging up an orchestra
Graeme Leak's passion for percussion in his loud and funky Noise Orchestra
Graeme Leak is standing in a suburban garage surrounded by piles of junk.
Battered tins that once contained kerosene and maple syrup, a copper dam float picked up in outback Queensland, broken shop dummies, an old kitchen sink. Graeme doesn't regard these objects as junk though; he collects them because they make noise when he beats, bangs and slaps them. They're the perfect instruments for his Noise Orchestra.
Leak credits his inspiration for the orchestra to early 20th century Italian futurists.
"These guys really celebrated the sound of machinery and wanted to bring [it] in to the concert hall and into art," he explains.
The founder of the Futurist movement Filippo Marinetti created an "orchestra" of big wooden boxes with horns attached and stretched wires inside. Leak says they haven't survived, but it's believed that outside handles on the boxes turned wheels that rubbed bits of rosin on the wires "and they screeched and yelled and made horrible sounds".
"[The Futurists] used to do concerts in concert halls and the establishment musicians and artists would come and sit in the audience and boo," he says. "And so the boys used to get off stage and go out into the audience and have a fight, and there were riots. So there was noise on stage and fights in the aisles."
Thankfully Leak's version of the Noise Orchestra doesn't include riots and fights but it does feature riotous rhythms. Leak is a professional musician and composer who studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He has a passion for percussion which he believes is a "community instrument" and looks to the music of Africa which, he says, is comprised of generally simple parts."
"It's the way all of those parts fit together to become the groove or to complete the jigsaw puzzle that is where the interest lies," Leak says. "To me that's the essence of community music making."
Leak also enjoys working with people who've never played music before.
"I love giving people an opportunity to be part of an ensemble and to just get a taste of what it feels like to be producing music and working together...even just for one afternoon or a few hours."
For a few hours on Monday 11 March the Noise Orchestra will be part of Canberra's 100th birthday celebrations. Leak is running a series of workshops, open to the public, which will culminate in a parade and what he describes as "a special moment" also featuring a combined brass band, a didgeridoo and a soprano.
That event is still hush-hush - but is expected to be one of the highlights of a day of activities and spectacle around Lake Burley Griffin. Leak is also co-ordinating the musicians on boats, who'll float around the lake, performing for the crowds.
His other projects include Listen to My Kitchen, a show he played over ten years to 150-thousand school children. He also constructed the Musical Fence instllation at Winton, used by the Grammy-award winning Gotye in his song Eyes Wide Open.
Leak says the famous fence is now a tourist attraction maintained by the local council.
"Busloads visit it every day," he says, proudly. "Whenever I'm there doing any work, which is only every few years, a constant stream of cars and buses are dropping in. And I think some of the locals play it too but they do it in secret."
As he cuts broomsticks into clap sticks and shows off the plastic grass catcher he's turning into a drum, Leak explains why he's so fond of his grubby bits of metal, wood and plastic.
"To me the whole beauty of the junk is that it's not perfect and that it's got all these random overtones that I find quite beautiful," he smiles.
Information on how to join the Noise Orchestra will be on the Canberra Centenary website soon.
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Latest stories from ABC Canberra. Including audio, photo, video, recipes and reviews across the region. | <urn:uuid:29212e97-6c2a-4133-9efc-a3adef59014d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2013/02/19/3693810.htm?site%3Dcanberra?h=HAQHLFEE_&s=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958616 | 1,003 | 1.679688 | 2 |
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) -- Obama administration officials say a new timetable developed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers should speed up the search for a permanent method of protecting the Great Lakes from Asian carp and other invasive species.
Officials said Tuesday the corps will present a short list of options by the end of 2013 for preventing the carp and other fish from migrating between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins through waterways in the Chicago area. Congress will have the authority to make a final choice.
The corps previously said it would develop a single recommendation by late 2015, drawing criticism from members of Congress and state officials who said that wasn't fast enough.
White House Asian carp director John Goss said the change could bring a quicker solution. | <urn:uuid:c1cd2f73-a006-4ddf-8250-c6ff9e0729b6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.crescent-news.com/ap%20state/2012/05/08/army-corps-quickens-pace-on-asian-carp-study | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950511 | 156 | 2.265625 | 2 |
HALIFAX, April 11 — A century after its sinking the Titanic haunts this Canadian port where some 150 victims are buried, but has helped spur a tourist boom as it readies to commemorate the sombre anniversary.
The Titanic is everywhere here.
The flags of the ship’s owner, the now defunct White Star Line, are draped across the city’s streets on the 100th anniversary of one of the worst nautical disasters in history.
Models and photos of the ship adorn store windows, as artists, historians, researchers, local authorities and naval museums in Halifax ready to commemorate the sinking.
“It will be commemoration, not celebration,” underscored Kyla Friel, spokeswoman for the Nova Scotia culture ministry, which is helping to coordinate events including a candlelight vigil and a moment of silence to mark the time when the liner began sending distress calls.
“Our goal is to help Nova Scotians and visitors make a connection with Halifax’s very historic role” in the days following the disaster, she added.
There are plans for lectures, prayers, shows and even an original play.
The Titanic, billed as the world’s most luxurious passenger liner and reputedly unsinkable, left Southampton, southern England, for New York City on its maiden voyage across the Atlantic on April 10, 1912.
Four days into the voyage it struck an iceberg and sank 604km off Newfoundland with the loss of 1,514 of the 2,224 people on board.
Survivors were picked up by the liner Carpathia and taken to New York while four Canadian ships dispatched from Halifax with embalming supplies, undertakers, and clergy recovered 328 bodies.
Halifax taxi driver Bruce Blandin recalled how his grandfather was one of the Canadian cable ship crew who recovered the dead, while his grandmother watched the coffins being unloaded on the beaches.
“My grandmother was on the shore when they brought the bodies in. She told me about it when I was a boy. And now I tell the story to my grandchildren,” he said.
Passing steamships also retrieved five more victims and 153 unclaimed bodies were eventually buried in three Halifax cemeteries.
The port itself went into mourning for the loss of one of its favourite sons, George Wright, a millionaire philanthropist who perished with the Titanic, said Garry Shutlak of the Nova Scotia Archives.
Shutlak said “the interest goes up and down” in stories of the Titanic, but he keeps memories alive with frequent talks at schools.
The anniversary is also putting a spotlight on Titanic researchers, such as marine geologist Steve Blasco who descended to the disintegrating wreck some 3,780m down in 1991, and his colleague Henrietta Mann.
They studied the ocean floor where the liner rests and its brittle steel hull, which Mann said could be transformed into a “heap of rust” within 30 years by bacteria “munching” on it.
“Mixing Titanic and science is good for attracting the public to lectures,” Blasco said. At conferences, he plays audiences a video and takes them “for a ride in a submarine, showing them the Titanic through a small porthole.”
The rescue ships also recovered numerous objects from the Titanic, including deckchairs. Purchased by the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, these form part of the largest collection of Titanic memorabilia in the world.
Visitors to the permanent exhibition are invited to sit in the chairs and “imagine what it would have been like to relax aboard the most luxurious vessel in its time.”
Other events include a “musical memoir” by Rosalee Peppard who portrays the only Nova Scotian to have survived the disaster, Hilda Slayter.
And there are performances of a play by Anthony Sherwood about “the only black on the Titanic,” Haitian engineer Joseph Laroche, denouncing the racism of the era.
Shutlak says it is difficult to calculate the huge impact the ship has had on tourism in the Canadian province. But it is certainly on the minds of every passenger of the 120 cruise ships that dock here each year.
With an encyclopedic memory, he recalls the kosher menu offered to third class passengers and the amount of US$20,000 (RM60,000), a huge sum at the time, claimed by Slayter for the loss of her family jewels and wedding dress.
The Five Fishermen restaurant is also serving up a menu inspired by the last meal offered to first class passengers — oysters “a la russe” with a vodka, tomato and horseradish relish. — AFP/Relaxnews | <urn:uuid:c9ffcd0d-4cdd-4393-943c-0c23d6c9bfeb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/litee/print/travel/fascination-with-titanic-buoys-canada-tourism/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96055 | 992 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Attend today's unique African Marketat Augustana Lutheran Church, and you will never again think of Africans as a generic people. That's the goal of the event, says Phil Gazley of Lutheran Family Services, a sponsoring organization that provides resettlement services to refugee groups from around the globe: to increase local awareness of the myriad African cultures thriving in the metro area. "Even I'm still learning, in terms of what groups are actually out there," Gazley admits. But, in truth, he's got a better handle than most of us. He rattles off an impressive list of the names and situations of each group, beginning with the Sudanese, who have been in the media spotlight only recently, in spite of Sudan's twenty-year history of genocidal strife. Most are members of the opposing Dinka and Nuer tribes and have arrived here in the last five years. There are two groups of Somalis, as well -- a general population that fled to refugee camps in Kenya in the early '90s before dispersing to other countries, and the Bantu, one of Somalia's last remaining tribal ethnic groups.
"The Bantu were taken out of Tanzania in the 1800s as slaves to work on banana plantations owned by Italians," Gazley explains. "As a result, they love eating pasta." He recalls a recent visit to a Bantu home: "Their cupboard was just crammed full of spaghetti. Usually when we help these people get settled, we like to make sure they have a colander and big pot." But in Africa, life for the Bantu, victims of bias, has been no plate of ravioli. Miraculously, such prejudices don't seem to have followed members of opposing communities when they re-established in the metro area. "We don't face those kinds of issues here," he says. "People really get along."
There are also Ugandans, Ethiopians, Mauritanians, Ghanaians, Liberians and more, many of whom will join today's event. "It's a real celebration of diversity," Gazley says. "We hope to introduce people to all the different fragrances of African cultures." To that end, a whole palette of African dishes will be served up, along with a Ugandan fashion show, Somali and Sudanese dance performances and Sudanese gospel music sung in Arabic. Handmade jewelry, crafts and traditional clothing will be for sale, and for kids, there'll be face painting, a mankala tournament, hair braiding and henna body painting.
The market, which runs from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Augustana, 5000 East Alameda Avenue, is free. Call 303-980-5400. -- Susan Froyd
Exotic Flavors The Boulder Asian Festival roars SUN, 8/22
At 11 a.m. today, the street performers on the Pearl Street Mall will meet their match. That's when a 75-foot dragon will weave its way up and down the outdoor shopping area. And though it might freak out some Boulderites, the fire-breather will be made of fabric and carried by students from the Shaolin Hung Mei Kung Fu Association, a Colorado organization that promotes Chinese martial and cultural arts. The beast's arrival will signal the start of the Boulder Asian Festival.
The non-profit Boulder Asian Pacific Alliance started the festival ten years ago with the intention of bringing "the history and flavors of all the different Asian communities" to Boulder, says event co-chair Brenda Pearson. For this year's festival, Alliance members will employ a multi-tiered approach.
First, they've recruited more than seventy vendors to sell items ranging from embroidered Vietnamese tablecloths to Chinese calligraphic art. Second, they will tempt tastebuds with food from nations all over the globe -- Korea, Thailand and Nepal, to name a few. And finally, as if the balloon-animal guy won't be made envious enough by the opener, they'll bust out the entertainment. Denver Taiko, a Japanese drum ensemble, and Gamelan Tunas Mekar, an orchestra that specializes in Indonesian music, will add sonic splendor.
The trip around the world will last for two days in front of the Boulder County Courthouse, between 13th and 14th streets on the mall; admission is free. Call 303-499-0108 or visit www.bapaweb.org for more information. -- Caitlin Smith
Hail, Caesar SUN, 8/22
To anchovy or not to anchovy? That is one question the Colorado Chapter of the American Institute of Wine & Food will pose to top toques from six restaurants in the sixth annual Greatest Caesar in Denver Competition & Silent Auction. The potential for creativity with the traditional tossed combo -- romaine lettuce, raw egg, the signature dressing -- led Colorado's AIWF to choose the Caesar salad as the contest's featured fare. Variables are not merely a question of fishies or no fishies. Past competitors have fashioned croutons from scratch, served parmesan in curlicues and tossed in crispy capers for zest. This year's lineup includes head chefs from Sambuca, Panzano, Brasserie Rouge, Il Fornaio Cucina Italiana and Restaurant Aix.
For $35 to $40, would-be rabbits can sample each eatery's greens and appetizers, and those will be topped off with a catered dessert. Participants also get to vote on which leaf mixture is best.
The Walnut Foundry Event Center, 3002 Walnut Street, will host tonight's tasting, which starts at 6 p.m. and includes a silent auction. Proceeds from the auction benefit an AIWF scholarship fund that helps send Colorado residents to local culinary schools. | <urn:uuid:02235153-b3fb-429d-b2c5-14e8cea6729c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.westword.com/2004-08-19/calendar/talking-shop/ | 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 | 0.944365 | 1,198 | 2.28125 | 2 |
Brief SummaryRead full entry
SummaryActinemys marmorata (Family Emydidae) occurs in the Pacific States of North America from Baja California Norte north through Washington and, possibly, into southernmost British Columbia, Canada. Recent genetic studies indicate the presence of four groups or clades within the species, although historically there were two recognized subspecies. The species appears to be declining in abundance in the northernmost and southernmost portion of its range, but not in the core of its range from central California to southern Oregon. The primary threats are loss and alteration of both aquatic and terrestrial habitats. These losses fragment remaining populations and, perhaps, magnify the effects of introduced species through predation, competition, and epidemic disease(s). Historically, A. marmorata were collected for the food and pet trades. Most states now protect the species and, in Washington, it is listed as Endangered. Research is ongoing on many aspects of the species' ecology, but not all of the studies are published. Greater effort is needed to protect and manage aquatic habitats as well as nesting and overwintering sites in adjacent uplands. | <urn:uuid:30687cc8-f071-49dc-805c-ea7892e80b46> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://eol.org/pages/1056841/overview | 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 | 0.950531 | 231 | 2.828125 | 3 |
I can help you or your loved once move forward overcoming the issues you face in regards to Anxiety Disorders. Click Read more to find out all about how I can help you and book a session or book me for a Free Pre-Session.
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There are various types of anxiety disorders all with different symptoms. That said, most of them revolve around anxiety - feeling nervous, anxious or worried in public even when there is no need to be. The dangers associated with these types of mental disorders are less than some other mental illnesses, but they can have disastrous effects on a person's life.
Some are unable to function productively in society because of their anxiety disorder. This is why treatment for anxiety disorders should be considered. Here at GoMentor.com, you can get online therapy that can help people with anxiety disorders. Before giving you more information on that, here are some other things you should know about anxiety disorders and how they might affect your life.
Types of Anxiety Disorders
These are some of the different types of anxiety disorders that can cause problems for people.
- In general a panic disorder is one that causes extreme emotional responses to certain situations in life.
This is an intense fear of being stranded in places where help is not available.
- Feelings of anxiousness and worry are normal human emotions, but in anxiety disorders, they are exaggerated.
- This anxiety disorder is characterized by intense self-consciousness, nervousness, or shyness.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
- In this particular anxiety disorder, people become trapped repeating patterns of behavior or repeated negative thoughts.
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
- PTSD is a mental disorder that is triggered by a large, traumatic event in a person's life and can appear some time after the event.
Acute Stress Disorder
- People with this anxiety disorder display extreme anxiety and dissociative feelings within one month of a seriously traumatic event.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
- This type of anxiety disorder is characterized by chronic anxiety, exaggerated worry and tension over things that do not warrant such behavior.
Unspecified Anxiety Disorder
- When someone exhibits symptoms from some or all of the other types of anxiety disorders, they are said to have unspecified anxiety disorder.
Knowing the symptoms and dangers of all of the different types of anxiety disorders is helpful for those affected by this disorder.
Symptoms of Anxiety Disorders
Depending on the exact nature of the anxiety disorder, the symptoms are going to vary, but in general they include extreme anxiety that causes a person to be unable to function in society or go out in public. These can be accompanied by panic attacks, causing a person to suffer physically as well. Beyond the physical symptoms, there are various emotional aspects to these disorders as well.
A feeling of detachment from the world is typical for people with an anxiety disorder. For some, this leads to an inability to leave the house for long periods of time. Exaggerated emotional response is another clear sign of a problem with an anxiety disorder. If the symptoms appear and aren’t handled, they could lead to other mental problems developing.
Treatment for Anxiety Disorders
When it comes to treatment for the various anxiety disorders that exist, there are many options available. One method that is useful is psychotherapy. Here at GoMentor.com you can find trained therapists and psychologists who specialize in anxiety disorders. Whether the problem is panic attacks or any of the other symptoms associated with anxiety disorders, there are solutions that can help.
Definition of Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety disorders are mental illnesses that affect a person's anxiety levels, leaving them unable to function in society. Psychotherapy is very useful in treatment for anxiety disorders.
Symptoms of / Reasons for Anxiety Disorders
- Panic attacks
- Detached feelings
- Feelings that the world is unreal
- Trembling or twitching
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I am a Medical Doctor and a Psychotherapist. I use...
I am a Medical Doctor and a Psychotherapist. I use webcam or face to face consultations to successfully treat issues ranging from depression, eating disorders, anxiety, abuse and grief to phobias, addiction and family issues.
I am down to earth,good at listening and capable o...
I am down to earth,good at listening and capable of having a "big" conversation. I am also good at gleening information and using it to help you make changes in your life.
Counselling can help you to manage crises in life ...
Counselling can help you to manage crises in life using skills you already have. Many people view counselling as a supportive resource, just as acceptable as learning about diet and physical health
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A coach helps clients determine and achieve their personal goals.
En terapeut har fokus på bearbejdning af årsagen til klientens udfordringer og arbejder med at ændre dette via terapi.
There are several types of psychologists, but most of them aim to treat people in crisis.
Hypnotherapist is a therapist, who works with your own internal resources and capabilities through deep relaxation.
A counsellor is a person, who gives advice, but is non directive.
Occupational therapist’s focus on enhancing people’s ability to perform activities of daily life, be it physically or mentally.
Der findes flere typer af psykologer, men de fleste arbejder typisk med kriseramte mennesker.
Psychotherapy is a 'talking' therapy, helping to overcome emotional & behavioral anxieties
En coach forsøger at frigøre potentialet i andre mennesker.
Mental health nurses work with people suffering from different mental health conditions. | <urn:uuid:283610b0-82ca-46c7-ac1f-8647521e7ed2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gomentor.com/articles/anxiety-disorders.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.901493 | 1,437 | 1.835938 | 2 |
I recently took a summer class on Bibliotherapy for Youth Services. If you’re not familiar with bibliotherapy (I wasn’t), it’s basically a way of using written material to address the concerns, fears, troubling situations, or life changes that an individual–in this case, a child–is going through. (There’s a pretty good Wikipedia article on it, here.)
Anyway, I read a great deal of picture books and children’s novels for this class, and thought I would post my reflections on the novels here. The reading list was interesting–a number of titles which were certainly good, but many which were either outdated or out of print. That got me wondering if the class’ reading list just needed to be updated, or if, perhaps, bibliotherapy is not as common in today’s children’s literature. If anyone has thoughts on this–particularly any children’s librarians–I’d be interested to hear them.
(Books listed in order they were read.)
A Taste of Blackberries
By: Doris Buchanan Smith
Illustrated: Mike Wimmer
Harper Trophy, 1988
Doris Buchanan Smith’s A Taste of Blackberries starts with an idyllic childhood moment: two young friends rambling through a blackberry patch, checking to see if the fruit is ripe. The lazy summer day continues with races and some
Everything changes when Jaime stirs up a bees nest that afternoon. Many of the neighborhood children get stung, including Jaime, who makes a big show of thrashing around on the ground and yelling. Or at least, everyone thinks it’s a big show, until they find out that Jaime was allergic to bee stings. And the one or two stings he received were actually enough to kill him.
Conveying the senselessness of a child’s death to young readers is difficult enough, but what makes A Taste of Blackberries even more tragic is the guilt that the narrator feels for ignoring his friend’s cries of pain. Smith handles both aspects of this troubling situation with grace and empathy, allowing the narrator to explore a whole range of emotions and mourn in his own way (he feels like he can’t eat until after Jaime’s funeral).
Equally important, Smith illustrates that caring adults are present everywhere in the narrator’s life. Not only his parents, but his neighbors, and even Jaime’s mother are there for him as he navigates this difficult time, ready to listen or even just sit quietly with him as he begins to heal. This is an important point for children to take away from such a story–that the adults in their lives are ready and able to be there for them during difficult and painful times.
Jessi’s Secret Language (The Babysitter’s Club)
Ann M. Martin
Apple Paperbacks, 1988
Jessi, one of the newest (and youngest) members of the Baby-sitter’s Club, gets a weekly job babysitting for a new family in town, the Braddocks. the Braddocks have two children–Haley and Matt. Matt is deaf, so Jessi begins to learn sign language to communicate with him.
Being one of the only black people in their town, Jessi understands how it feels to be different and isolated from the people around her. She begins to realize, however, that Matt’s deafness not only isolates him from children his age, but also Haley, who feels responsible for her brother, but sometimes wishes he could be “normal” like other kids. She has the idea to not only introduce the Braddock children to other kids their ages, but also teach the neighborhood children Matt’s “Secret Language.” Soon, all the babysitters are learning ‘Ameslan’ and teaching it to their charges.
Having always enjoyed this series when I was a kid, I was pleased to see how well it held up when I reread this title. Martin does a great job of instilling a sense of empathy in the story, and also drawing parallels between experiences that might not seem immediately similar to children who are reading the story. By this I mean not only the fact that Jessi relates to how Matt and Helen feel as outsiders in their community, but also the similarity she draws between dancing (“telling a story with your body”) and sign language. I think this encourages young readers to not only put themselves in the position of people who they don’t think (at first) that they can relate to, but also start to see that something that might not seem normal–like sign language–is actually very similar to something that is very familiar, like dancing.
The Alfred Summer
By Jan Slepian
Puffin Books, 1980
Four Brighton Beach teens–Lester, Alfred, Myron, and Claire–are all outcasts in some way. Lester has cerebral palsy and although he is smart, and witty, and insightful, all the people around him see is his physical disability. Alfred is learning disabled, a fact which leads many people to disregard his kind spirit and label him as a “retard” or “slow.” Myron is clumsy and overweight and spends his days being teased and pushed around by his mother and sisters, expected to fill the shoes of his deceased father, even though he’s only a teenager. And Claire is a champion runner on her track team, but she dresses like a boy, which many of her neighbors and peers find very disconcerting.
These four become unlikely friends, joining together to help Myron build a boat–The Getaway–which they hope will help them escape from their problems. What they find in the process is that with their new-found friendships, is that they no longer want to escape. Rather, spending time together, they discover the capacity to challenge not only the perceptions of people around them, but also the perceptions they have of themselves.
In Lester, Slepian has created a dynamic and unique voice–a smart, sarcastic, and cynical teen who has become resentful after years of being patronized by his parents, ignored by his peers, and unable to do the things he so wants to do. Although his experiences and feelings are very specific to those of an individual with cerebral palsy, many of his problems (an overbearing mother, a distant father) are common with teens and incredibly sympathetic. None of Slepian’s characters are pitiable, but rather, she shows them each to have their own strengths and gifts, failings and fears. As Lester’s father says in a rare show of attentiveness, “Sure people can be rotten. But at the same time people can be good. A little of both, son, a little of both…Just like me, Lester. And like your mother…and you,” (98).
This is a story which emphasizes the importance of taking charge of oneself, of learning how to cope with circumstances that are out of one’s control and making the best of them. This is not to say that The Alfred Summer is unrealistically optimistic or cheery. It’s actually anything but. Slepian acknowledges that these kids will face difficulties and prejudice and that sometimes, unpredictable, awful things happen to very good people. But her characters find strength within themselves to deal with the challenges that face them–they tap into Claire’s “Azzif Theory” and start to become the people that they want to be. It’s a great lesson for any child who feels alienated or without control in his/her own life.
In Lester’s Turn, Jan Slepian returns to Brighton Beach, “the old neighborhood,” where The Alfred Summer took place. Although only a few years have passed, there have been many changes since we last saw Lester, Alfred, Myron, and Claire. For one, Myron and Claire have moved away. Even more difficult, however, is that Alfred’s mother has died. Alfred’s epilepsy has worsened and his father spends a lot of time away from home on business. So Alfred has to live in a special hospital, where, to Lester’s eyes, he’s wasting away.
Lonely without the friends he had finally made and struggling with the idea that he’ll be graduating from high school soon, Lester decides that he is going to quit school and take Alfred away from the hospital. He envisions his new life–working a full time job and caring for Alfie, just the two of them together. His plan becomes big news for Claire (who he still sees), and his new acquaintances–a mother and son who live upstairs from Claire in her new home, and Tillie Rose, a neighborhood teenager who works in Alfie’s hospital. But after a special weekend outing with Alfred, something terrible happens, and Lester must face his own insecurities and start planning for his own future.
Although darker in themes (and plot line) than The Alfred Summer, Lester’s Turn maintains the frank honesty and perceptive empathy of its predecessor. Lester’s fear of facing his own future and making plans for his life after graduation will be familiar to older teens who are struggling to make their own choices. Alfred’s death, though difficult, also emphasizes the importance of making the most of one’s life, no matter the circumstances, and considering the impact that anyone can have on other’s lives.
Lisa, Bright and Dark
Lisa Shilling is an attractive, smart, and friendly girl from a comfortably middle class family in a small town in New York. She’s dating the most popular boy in her highschool, has lots of friends, and seems to have everything. But midway through her junior year of highschool, Lisa begins to notice that something is wrong.
She’s hearing voices, feeling isolated, has unpredictable mood swings and lashes out at her friends. She develops a cruel sense of humor, disappears from places unexpectedly, and even occasionally takes on an English accent and persona. And though her peers and close friends realize that something is wrong with Lisa, the adults in her life either pretend that nothing unusual is happening or refuse to take action. So three of Lisa’s friends take it upon themselves to buoy her up as best they can until they can convince an adult that Lisa isn’t acting out or faking it–she really does need professional help.
Lisa, Bright and Dark posits itself not only about a teen’s battle with mental illness, but also a sort of parable about the callousness and lack of responsibility that adults often take when dealing with young people. This is emphasized not only through Lisa’s neglectful parents, but also the counselor and teachers at her high school, who see that something is terribly wrong with one of their students, but are afraid of incurring the anger of her parents–of “interfering” with the way they raise their children. While certainly adults are often guilty of turning a blind eye to the problems and issues that their kids are going through–refusing to believe that their teens could be having sex, experimenting with drugs, etc.–I wonder if this book reflects attitudes that are still socially acceptable. It’s my feeling that if teachers, clergy members, and friends all noticed that a teen they knew was having mental health problems, a myriad of counselors and resources would be provided for her, even if the parents didn’t fully cooperate. It seems to me that it is now much more socially acceptable–and even socially mandated–to get involved when a teen shows signs of mental distress.
The fact that the book is narrated by one of Lisa’s less good friends, Betsy, works very well. Not only does Betsy’s bubbly voice balance out the harshness of Lisa’s story (peppered as it is with tangents about Paul Newman’s dreamy eyes, movie factoids, and high school social commentary), but it also provides a realistic window onto Lisa’s situation. It allows the reader to observe someone who is slowly descending into mental illness from an external point of view. This is probably a more empathetic position for most teens, but also makes the reader think about their own responsibilities to their friends and peers and the ways in which she might seek out help for a friend in a similar situation.
Light a Single Candle
By Beverly Butler
PocketBook, 1970 (original, 1962)
Cathy is a tomboyish, independent, and athletic teenager, who wants more than anything to become an artist. On her fourteenth birthday, Cathy–who has always had extremely poor eyesight–finds out that she will go blind before her next birthday. Although the transition to blindness is extremely difficult for Cathy, what makes it even more hard are the reactions she receives from those around her. No one will treat her like normal. After training with a guide dog named Trudy, however, Cathy finds that she can regain her independence and even return to a public high school.
A sweet story, which doesn’t romanticize blindness, but also doesn’t treat it as a condition to be pitied. A story which any teen who is struggling to learn (or earn) independence might benefit from.
Sixth Grade Can Really Kill You
Puffin Books, 1985
Helen Nichols has a reputation for being one of the best pitchers, and worst readers, in the sixth grade. She’s also known as one of the biggest troublemakers in school. At the start of the year, she’s assigned to the classroom of Mrs.Lobb–”Blob” to those who know her–a teacher with very little tolerance and a lot of rules. Although Helen works for hours after school every day with her mother on her homework, she can’t fake her way through reading assignments and tests all year, and soon she’s in danger of failing the sixth grade. With the sympathetic guidance of some understanding adults (her father, uncle, and new teacher, Mr. Marshall), Helen makes the difficult decision to start taking special ed classes in reading–even if it means getting made fun of by her classmates.
Although many of the references in the book are more than a little out of date–the students talk about playing Van Halen albums and use Pee Chee notebooks–DeClements does an excellent job of creating a relatable pre-teen world. Her sixth graders talk like sixth graders, and act like sixth graders, without ever lapsing into the sort of self consciously good behavior that makes it obvious that they were written by an adult. This is important, not only because it makes the characters believable, but because it is an honest portrayal of the sort of power struggles that kids at this age have with the adults around them. They’re not sure if they want to be treated like children or teenagers, and take a great deal of pride in pulling things over on adults (particularly their parents) when they can. Helen frequently does things at her friend’s house that she knows her mother wouldn’t allow–drive in her friend’s brother’s fiberglass car, go to a horror movie unchaperoned–and this seemed so wonderfully realistic to me.
DeClements also deals with Helen’s bad behavior and reading difficulties with the same sort of empathy and realism. It’s not difficult to see why she acts out so much, but the connection between her bad behavior and her disability is never belabored. Also, just because Helen decides to take special education classes doesn’t mean that she suddenly loses all of her self-deprecating negativity. “Face it, Helen,” she says in the next to last chapter. “You’re dumb in reading.”
Another facet of DeClement’s realism is that the adults in the novel have their problems and short-comings, too. Mrs. Lobb is certainly a beleagured teacher, but she’s also unable to find a way to connect with Helen and be a productive figure in her life. Helen’s mother also means well with her refusal to let Helen take special education classes, but her actions are mostly motivated by her pride, and Helen’s father even admits this to her. Adults aren’t perfect either, and I think that demonstrating that shows a lot of respect for young readers.
The other standout aspect of this book is that it really underscores the importance of taking responsibility for oneself and one’s actions. Helen not only decides of her own accord to pay back the school for her spray-painting vandalism, but also asks herself to be considered for special ed classes. Later in the book, she assures her mother that at twelve, she’s old enough–and responsible enough–to stay at home without supervision after school. Learning to be responsible helps Helen begin to feel better about herself as a person, and I think this is an applicable message for any young reader. | <urn:uuid:ee8fb260-f6af-4041-8435-097ea8ce16e7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://larissakyzer.wordpress.com/tag/assigned-reading/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974109 | 3,578 | 2.078125 | 2 |
About Census & Demographic statistics
The Census is required by the U.S. Constitution:
"Representation and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers ... . The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct."
-- Article I, Section 2, Constitution of the United States
- U.S. Census Bureau (2002) The Constitution, the Congress and the Census
The U.S. Census Bureau conducts the Decennial Census every 10 years as well as a number of other useful surveys such as the American Community Survey and the Economic Census.
The Census is a great source of demographic data, but it's not the only source. If the Census doesn't have the data you want, it may be collected by another government agency, poll or research project.
A Marriott Library Subject Specialist can help you get started using U.S. Census Data:
- Try the basic sources listed in this guide
- Register for a free, one hour Census data workshop offered each semester at the Marriott Library
- Request a presentation on Census data for your class.
- Request a consultation appointment with a subject specialist for personal help | <urn:uuid:49e8c068-a0b2-4e42-a4dd-310f0bd5f710> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://campusguides.lib.utah.edu/census | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931524 | 278 | 3.34375 | 3 |
RICHARD HUTTON/Niagara This Week
NIAGARA FALLS – The Canadian Association of Zoos and Aquariums accreditation committee has stopped short of giving Marineland a clean bill of health.
A report on findings from an inspection at the Niagara Falls theme park was released Wednesday afternoon. While inspectors who were at the Portage Road park found water quality and staffing to be adequate the day of the August 23 inspection, an inspection of water quality logs did find problems that CAZA wants addressed.
“Detailed examination of water quality logs and animal health records as well as interviews with some ex-employees, however, raise questions about how effectively the water quality systems in the three pools (stadium, arena and sea lion) are working,” the report said.
CAZA conducted the inspection after a Toronto Star investigation raised allegations of poor living conditions for the park’s whales, dolphins, walruses and sea lions. In the Star report, eight former employees alleged the animals were experiencing an array of health issues including skin problems, fur loss, impaired vision and blindness as a result of what they claimed to be poor water quality at the park’s aquatic facilities. Furthermore, allegations were also raised concerning the welfare of land animals.
The CAZA report made note of concerns over chlorine and ozone levels at the park’s facilities.
“While the water quality issues appeared in some instances to impact on the wellbeing of the animals in the pool in question, there was no evidence of animal abuse and the animals affected were under veterinary care and treatment.
The report made no specific mention of the condition of land animals but in a telephone interview, CAZA National Director Bill Peters said the inspection covered all areas at the park.
“Specifically, conditions in the deer park and the bear area were said to be adequate,” Peters said.
As a result of the inspection, CAZA’s accreditation commission and Marineland have agreed the park “will undertake an independent, external inspection of its water quality management systems for the pools in question.”
That inspection, the report said, will be based on Marineland updating its water quality management protocols “as soon as reasonably possible.”
CAZA is also to be consulted regarding the qualifications of evaluators.
Peter’s meanwhile, said inaction on the part of Marineland could eventually result in a loss of accreditation by CAZA.
“But there are several steps along the way,” Peters said, indicating that further directives would be issued by the agency before accreditation is withdrawn.
The CAZA decision was cited as a “small positive” by one of Marineland’s most vocal critics.
“This is abnormal for CAZA” said Dylan Powell, a spokesman for Marineland Animal Defense (MAD), a Niagara Falls-based animal rights group which has staged many protests at park entrances and in front of the home of its owner, John Holer. “It’s a good step.”
Powell said that the makeup of CAZA — the group’s board of directors is made up of industry executives and Holer was once a member — doesn’t bode well for independence, he said, which makes the group’s findings concerning Marineland a surprise.
In a statement issued by Ann Marie Rondinelli of the park’s marketing department, she said Marineland “welcomed and has been fully supportive of CAZA’s investigation.”
She said issues raised in the media were “very difficult and personally upsetting for many of us at Marineland and for the public, our primary concern continues to be providing a safe and healthy environment for our animals and a welcoming one for our guests.”
No further comment will be issued by the park, she said, until the OSPCA has concluded its investigation.
MAD, meanwhile, will be back at Marineland from noon to 2 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 7, the park’s final day of operations for the 2012 season. The group will be joined by Richard O’Barry, director of Earth Island Institute’s Dolphin Project and star of the Academy Award-winning documentary, The Cove, a controversial film which raises questions about Japan’s dolphin hunting methods.
For more news, sports and entertainment from Niagara This Week, please visit www.niagarathisweek.com. | <urn:uuid:03dca0a2-f810-49d6-aea2-75a4d59bf7df> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bulletnewsniagara.ca/2012/10/04/inspection-report-raises-questions-about-water-quality-at-marineland/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966163 | 932 | 1.554688 | 2 |
WALLACE: Now, we want to hear from the other side of the Wisconsin recall fight: organized labor. Joining us are two key officials: Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, the country’s largest union. And Thea Lee, deputy chief of staff and a leading policy voice at the AFL-CIO, the federation that represents more than 12 million workers.
And welcome to both of you.
DENNIS VAN ROEKEL, NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION: Thank you.
THEA LEE, AFL-CIO: Thank you, Chris.
WALLACE: Let’s start with the question I asked Governor Daniels. When you look at the recall vote in Wisconsin, as well as the vote in those two California cities to cut back on government worker pensions, what’s the message, Mr. Van Roekel?
VAN ROEKEL: I think one thing we overlooked is the changer in the Senate. There’s a balance of power now. I think that’s very important. Governor Walker –
WALLACE: You’re talk about Wisconsin?
VAN ROEKEL: Yes, in Wisconsin. And I think that’s very important.
The second thing I think, it really points out the impact of unlimited corporate funding in elections and we have to see as it plays out, especially as we move toward the November. Continue reading | <urn:uuid:c77c8b4b-a648-46b9-90c1-3e6aa7eec72a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://iearegion28.wordpress.com/category/nea-news/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946034 | 308 | 1.515625 | 2 |
If you think the life of a recruit is time consuming, think of what a college coach will have to endure year after year. A new recruiting class is just around the corner, which is why a serious recruit will have to be on top of their game when reaching out to college coaches for the first time.
How to Prepare
First start off by listing out your top colleges. Find colleges that you think will be a good match for you. Colleges have a lot to offer so make sure that the ones you are interested in are going to be a good fit. How far away do you want to be from home, what type of athletic program are you looking for, and what you will be studying? These are all questions you’ll have to ask in order to find suitable colleges.
The Power of Email
Lucky for you, email is easy to create and easy to send. Email is one of the easiest ways to get in contact with college coaches. Most coaches prefer learning about recruits through the ease of email, especially during the beginning of the recruiting process.
Getting Your Foot in the Door
Get your name out there. Begin to email college coaches early. Start by emailing coaches your basic academic and athletic information. Explain in detail, why you are interested in their program and university. Coaches can quickly spot poor quality emails. They also are not going to be impressed with receiving mass emails. It’s important for recruits to be original and sincere–you only have one chance to make a first impression so make sure that you’re sending a good one.
What to Say in Your Email to College Coaches
If possible ask if you can meet with the coach or a team representative during an unofficial visit.
Taking time and spending your own money to visit the campus and meeting with the coach will show them that you are serious about their program and that you are extremely interested in learning more.
Ask about possible camps and tournaments the coach will be attending or hosting. This will give recruits the opportunity to sign-up early and for them to be evaluated by college coaches they want to play for.
Recruits, who are busy emailing coaches, will need to stay on top of their correspondence. Even if you receive an email back with little to no information, you must send a follow-up email thanking the coach for his time and explain that you will keep him informed of your progress as a student and as an athlete. | <urn:uuid:01eccef6-7fdd-4684-9ade-06d69c08dd72> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.collegesportsscholarships.com/2012/03/20/college-coaches-emails.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97826 | 498 | 1.703125 | 2 |
The rise of the Internet and video-hosting sites such as YouTube has given missing episode hunters a new tool to locate rare material from around the world.
Lance Meenach shares his experiences of tracking down lost programmes, and how using the Web has aided him in that search in this exclusive feature for Wiped:
‘My primary interest started when I was younger. My father brought home a VHS of Doctor Who story ‘Genesis Of The Daleks’, which I loved.
When watching a few of the Patrick Troughton and William Hartnell VHS releases I noticed some gaps – thus I learned of gaps in the TV archives, and not only of the BBC and Doctor Who. I discovered that masses of material were missing from other broadcasters’ archives.
So I attempted to work, research, and learn as much as possible to attempt to restore some of these missing pieces of TV heritage. My father had been a professional musician, so having been raised around music I felt a particular attachment to music material.
To attempt to locate and preserve these moments in TV history assist to serve and to enlighten future generations of TV enthusiasts, historians,and archivists.
Using standard resources as well as electronic resources has aided in new discoveries, as well as promoting further research using both resources in tandem.
With the Internet, electronic databases are readily available and communication has been made both simplistic and fast. The ability to easily upload and post material from any number of sources has also aided in the growing popularity and use of the Internet in research of this type.
In unison all these aspects allow for a new frontier of possibilities for locating material that otherwise may have never been made available.
In regards to YouTube, this simplistic method of being able to load any manner of material from your PC with ease, and have a healthy viewing demographic, attracts larger amounts of posters and viewers than other rival sites.
YouTube’s large community environment is an enticing lure for collectors wanting to further enlarge their collections. Where otherwise they would not even mention the material they possess in public, by posting some segments of their material on-line other collectors with similarly rare material can then see what they have , and what other posters say they have.
Through on-line sources, as well as checking a US government archival listing of the visual contents of the US Library of Congress, I was able to find three episodes of TV series Spotlight. More importantly I discovered that every episode of Associated Rediffusion’s The Hippodrome Show existed on b/w 16mm film, as did the Spotlight editions.
As for my most exciting discovery? I would have to say the discovery of the Private CV-2000B video recordings of Irish singer and star Patricia Cahill, who had been wealthy enough at the time to afford the CV-2000B Videocorder to record her TV performances, and some other related material from both RTE TV (Irish), BBC,Yorkshire TV, ATV and other broadcasters.
Programme material included Sunday Night At The London Palladium; Stars On Sunday; Val Doonican Show and Olympia S.O.S., among others.
Patricia had apparently asked her husband to tape her TV performances, to watch later. They had a 5 ft mast on top of a five-storey house to record broadcasts. These had been kept since original transmission.
A few years ago they wanted to find a transfer service, one which would be able to handle the 405 line 1/2 open reel video recordings. They located a private transfer company in Belgium who made the transfers of these tapes to DVD. I’d been asking around a few of the vintage video transfer services in Belgium in regards to classic video formats, and recordings from the UK in particular.
To my amazement, the company responded saying they had recently transferred a very large collection of Sony CV-2000B videocorder recordings of off-air TV, and that there was a good deal of UK TV material present. After some time I was able to gain permission from the owner to send a screen grab to prove the existence of said material.
Later, I asked about the possibility of displaying the material in some way to which the owner agreed to post some short segments of the recovered transferred collection on YouTube.
The material posted from the ‘Cahill Collection’ stands out for me as the most prominent of finds, and the most interesting. Here are links to some of the clips:
As for missing clips, or performances I would like to find? There is an awful lot of music material I would love to have a chance to see one day. One would be the 500th edition of Top Of The Pops. Further material from Lift Off would also be a welcome addition as would BBC TV show Disco2; 45; The Six-Five Special; Ready Steady Go; Crackerjack; Colour Me Pop; Thank Your Lucky Stars; Russell Harty; LWT Music Special; Pink Floyd’s performance of ‘See Emily Play’ from Top Of The Pops and the Beatles performance of ‘Rain’. Any Slade, T.Rex, Sweet, and The Who performances would also be fantastic! | <urn:uuid:e9b9c102-11f3-41a4-ae43-5f25aefcd8f1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wipednews.com/features/electric-dreams-using-the-internet-to-locate-missing-material/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966905 | 1,068 | 2.453125 | 2 |
Headache is the most common health problem that a person experience. Back pain is the next common health problem experienced by people at some point in their lives. There are different causes of back pains and there are popular remedies for back pain too, such as:
- Acupuncture – according to traditional Chinese medicine, the energy block the pathways of the body which result to body pains. To help unblock these pathways, needles are inserted on these pathways. The natural opiods of the body is also released through acupuncture and it helps in minimizing the pain.
- Yoga – there are yoga poses that will help reduce back pain. It also helps develop the flexibility of the body and will help in strengthening the muscles too. Make sure that you are wearing your best yoga clothing so that you can move freely.
- Massage – whenever you experience body pains, having a good massage is the first thing that comes to your mind. Massage therapy soothes the muscles and reduce the anxiety and stress which is often associated with the pain that you feel. | <urn:uuid:8491325f-f1bc-4814-80ff-36db1c086afa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fedhz.com/archives/10747 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965887 | 210 | 2.453125 | 2 |
Transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) is surgery that
removes some tissue from inside the prostate gland. It is done to treat
prostate enlargement (called benign prostatic hyperplasia, or BPH).
A doctor inserts a special instrument through the urethra to
remove part of the inside of the prostate. The procedure is done under
TURP is not as common as it was in the past. Medicines are now available
that are very effective for relieving symptoms of prostate enlargement. Most
men who have an enlarged prostate do not need surgery.
E. Gregory Thompson, MD - Internal Medicine & J. Curtis Nickel, MD, FRCSC - Urology
How this information was developed to help you make better health decisions. | <urn:uuid:d2df7af0-3006-4441-a6e5-c9c78e50be3d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.uwhealth.org/health/topic/definition/turp/stt11466.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926951 | 164 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Type 2 diabetes happens when your body can't use insulin the right way or when the pancreas can't make enough insulin.
Insulin is a hormone that helps the body's cells use sugar (glucose) for energy. It also helps the body store extra sugar in muscle, fat, and liver cells. Without insulin, this sugar can't get into your cells to do its work. It stays in your blood instead. Your blood sugar level then gets too high.
High blood sugar can harm many parts of the body, such as the eyes, heart, blood vessels, nerves, and kidneys. It can also increase your risk for other health problems (complications).
Type 2 diabetes is different from type 1 diabetes. In type 1 diabetes, the body's immune system destroys the cells that release insulin, so that over time the body can't produce insulin at all. In type 2 diabetes, the body still makes some insulin, but it can't use it the right way.
You can get type 2 diabetes if:
-Your body doesn't respond as it should to insulin. This makes it hard for your cells to get sugar from the blood for energy. This is called insulin resistance.
-Your pancreas doesn't make enough insulin.
If you are overweight, get little or no exercise, or have type 2 diabetes in your family, you are more likely to have problems with the way insulin works in your body. Type 2 diabetes can be prevented or delayed with a healthy lifestyle, including staying at a healthy weight, making healthy food choices, and getting regular exercise.
Some people don't have symptoms, especially when diabetes is diagnosed early. This is because the blood sugar level may rise so slowly that a person may not know that anything is wrong.
The most common symptoms of high blood sugar include:
Feeling very thirsty.
Urinating more often than usual.
Feeling very hungry.
Having blurred vision.
You can get high blood sugar for many reasons, including not taking your diabetes medicines, eating more than usual (especially sweets), not exercising, or being sick or under a lot of stress.
The key to treating type 2 diabetes is to keep blood sugar levels controlled and in your target range.
All of the following help to lower blood sugar:
Eating healthy foods.
Losing weight, if you are overweight.
Getting regular exercise.
Taking medicines, if you need them.
It's also important to:
See your doctor. Regular checkups are important to monitor your health.
Test your blood sugar levels. You have a better chance of keeping your blood sugar in your target range if you know what your levels are from day to day.
Keep high blood pressure and high cholesterol under control. This can help you lower your risk of heart and large blood vessel disease.
Quit smoking. This can help you reduce your risk of heart disease and stroke. | <urn:uuid:b6ae19fa-8e2d-415e-b5fb-dca977eca376> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20121204/blogs/121209930/0/BLOGS | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944532 | 597 | 3.75 | 4 |
By Robert W. Bryant
The two most important math courses for you
Are Algebra I and Algebra II.
If you do very well in both of these,
You can handle other subjects with relative ease.
A good way to start is think "algebra's a game."
Learn a few simple rules, which for all are the same.
The more that you play, the better you will be,
So get paper and pencil, and together we will see.
"Paper and pencil? ...," that's the old way, you say
If you can't use your calculator, you don't want to play?
Keep your calculator handy, it's a tool we will need
Like a book, not much good, until you know how to read.
Press Toward the Mark
By Erma Evans
Many things in this life I don't understand.
Is this because I am merely hu-man?
This one thing I know, and that is true,
Christ Jesus is God and He's my Lord, too.
One thing I surely know, that is for sure-
To forget the past, things I cannot cure.
I need to reach forth doing God's will
Telling others of Jesus and praying still.
In summary, I surely need to walk wise
And press toward the mark, that is the prize
Of the high calling of God in the end
Through Jesus, my Savior, my Lord and my Friend.
Every one needs to be waiting by
For the arrival of the Lord in the sky.
The end of time, that day will soon come.
Are you ready for Jesus to take you home?
- Philippians 3:13-14
Anette, Looking Back
By P. Miller
Never held hand.
Looked at you
deserted, in pain.
Saw you cry
in dark alley ways.
of your mistreatment
how your time here
was so deeply painful.
Walked by me
apparently you did not hear.
never for me to see again.
your life be happy.
I fall asleep
weird, strange music,
fastly fly past.
a racing heart beat
I wake up.
Your smiling face
raven hair freshly washed
scented, middle parted
hands reach out
sleeveless black velvet dress
never sounded so sweet.
The dream disappears.
I wanted to love
By Patt L. Welsh
How do you
Friends are there
To lend an ear
They remain near
To help at any time
Through the years
They cry with you
They wipe your tears
They laugh with you
They give you hugs
To take away your fears
You can have one
Or a hundred
But the one true
Friend lasts forever. | <urn:uuid:6845bc8d-59e7-4c2a-9e19-74290910bdfa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://journal-news.net/page/content.detail/id/576105/Poetry-Conrer-For-Febuary--Part-I.html?nav=5236 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915172 | 591 | 1.96875 | 2 |
Being allergic to dogs doesn't mean you have to give up owning a pet. If someone in your house is allergic, consider these hypoallergenic breeds.
By Michele C. Hollow of Pet News and Views
Often called "powder puffs," these soft and curly-coated dogs don't shed, making them hypoallergenic. Plus, they have pleasant dispositions that make them perfect family dogs.
Schnauzers come in three sizes: miniature, standard, and giant. All have wire-haired coats that are soft to the touch. They do need to be bathed and groomed. Schnauzers are smart and enjoy being at the center of attention, so they're a great fit for active families.
Like schnauzers, poodles come in three sizes: toy, miniature, and standard (small, medium, and large). These incredibly smart dogs don't shed, but they do need regular grooming. Easily trainable, poodles are excellent dogs for families with kids.
This cross between a retriever and poodle has curly hair and doesn't shed. Labradoodles are quite friendly, making them great family dogs.
A little smaller than a greyhound, these dogs barely shed, which makes it easier to keep them free of allergens. Brushing them outside of the house keeps the fur to a minimum inside. Italian greyhounds need exercise and are extremely loyal and playful. They are good dogs for families. However, these dogs are quite sensitive to cold, so they aren't well suited to areas where the temperature dips to freezing and below.
We all know Bo, the four-legged resident living with the Obamas at the White House. The Obamas promised their children Sasha and Malia a dog in 2008. Malia has allergies, so the late Senator Edward Kennedy gave them Bo as a present. Portuguese water dogs are obedient, docile, and smart.
Playful, affectionate, and faithful, these large dogs have long silky coats that are soft to the touch. They don't shed in the spring and fall. Combing their hair will ensure that loose hair is kept to a minimum at home.
Samoyeds shed, but their skin has no dander, which makes them a good choice for families with allergies. These laid-back dogs are great around children.
Originally bred for hunting foxes, these bold and energetic dogs tend to pick fights with other dogs, but they are wonderful around children. They are curious and love to explore, and could benefit from obedience training.
Lively, gentle, loving, and trusting, Maltese dogs are devoted to those who care for them. They are good at learning tricks and great with kids. Most owners keep a Maltese dog's hair groomed short. Maltese dogs are popular because of their cheerfulness and because they don't shed.
If you have allergies and are considering adopting a hypoallergenic breed, why not foster one to see how well your family reacts to the dog? You can also purchase air purifiers. If allergies persist and you want to keep the dog in your family, make sure the dog is kept out of the bedroom. Grooming should be done outside the house -- if hair flies, it won't stay inside.
Michele C. Hollow writes the family-friendly pet blog "Pet News and Views." | <urn:uuid:a1099bb3-6b7b-4abd-ae8a-f0495dabf781> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.familycircle.com/family-fun/pets/best-dogs-for-people-with-allergies/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96972 | 695 | 2 | 2 |
September 1, 20099/1/09 0 commentsPrior to attending Des Moines University, Shannon studied Psychology at Iowa State University where he was first introduced to research. Shannon’s interest in research began his junior year at ISU when he took a required neurobiology course for his major.
“Most of my psychology courses at ISU focused on the psychosocial aspects of human behavior, the neurobiology course was my first opportunity to really study the biological aspects of behavior. I loved it. Before the class was over, I asked my advisor to connect me with a neuropsychology research project that would allow me to use my psychology experience and get my foot in the door of research.”
Shannon spent his next two semesters in a cognitive neuroscience lab analyzing event-related potentials to study the neural correlates of regulative and evaluative cognitive control and prospective and retrospective memory while completing his Psychology requirements. During his last two semesters at ISU, Shannon switched his coursework and research focus to a more biological path.
“I didn’t want a complete change, I just wanted to take a more biological neuroscience path.” The next two semesters Shannon worked in a biomedical science lab at the ISU Veterinarian Medicine facility assisting in motor learning research.
While visiting the Des Moines University campus, Dr. Larsen introduced Shannon to Dr. Terriann Crisp. “I was surprised that Dr. Crisp was willing to share her time and research with me. I was fascinated by the research and everyone I met at DMU made me feel at home. When the Biomedical science degree became available at DMU, I wanted to be the first in line. It was the perfect opportunity to earn my place in the research world, learn more about a topic I was already passionate about, and get a feel for the medical school environment.”
Received Bachelors of Science from Iowa State University
I am currently working with Dr. Terriann Crisp to investigate the involvement of reactive oxygen species and the effects of antioxidants in neuropathic pain conditions.
Most important lesson learned at DMU
Things don’t always turn out as expected in research. When you get an unexpected outcome, learn something from it. Even if you didn’t make the “right” choice, you can now eliminate a “wrong” choice.
I hope I will always be working in research, but I also love the physician-patient interaction. I am going to apply to D.O. schools this fall. I will spend a year teaching and hopefully find a neuroscience research project to work with. | <urn:uuid:d075d4ff-fd29-47c6-9825-228460736960> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dmu.edu/dose/2009/09/student-research-spotlight-shannon-egli/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963307 | 545 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Bokja presents “AND THEN THERE WERE NONE” at CUADRO Gallery as part of ART DUBAI starting Monday the 18th till the 7th of May.
“And Then There Were None”is an installation of tactile spheres, each representing a leader from history. Injecting a twist of dark humor, Bokja presents the installation in parallel with the popular nursery rhyme, Ten Little Indians.
Bokja warns of the timeless phenomena of dictatorship and playfully questions a day when there will be none.
TEN LITTLE DICTATORS, by Bokja.
Ten little dictators all walking a fine line,
One lost his balance and then there were nine.
Nine little dictators ignoring their fate,
One met his early, and then there were eight.
Eight little dictators dreaming of heaven,
One said he’d stay there and then there were seven.
Seven little dictators knocking down bricks,
One got crushed and then there were six.
Six little dictators allowing no one to survive,
One turned against another and then there were five.
Five little dictators all rotten to the core,
One bit the other and then there were four.
Four little dictators who couldn’t agree
One lost his temper and then there were three.
Three little dictators who bit off more than they could chew,
One got swallowed up whole and then there were two.
Two little dictators fighting over a gun,
The inevitable happened and then there was one.
One dictator left, with no where to run,
His actions caught up with him and then there were none.
Our apologies to Septimus Winner for the misuse and abuse of his original song “Ten Little Injuns”, written in1868. | <urn:uuid:de12bfb3-76f4-4d51-9311-8d8a95e33611> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bokja.wordpress.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970756 | 372 | 1.765625 | 2 |
The Second American Tax Revolt
We are speeding toward an economic cliff because our government can’t practice restraint.
We spend so much more than we take in because politicians at every level use the public treasury to win elections. The public mostly accepts lavish promises of more and more federal spending because the cost of government has been so effectively divorced from what actually comes out of our paychecks.
Ask almost anyone how they did on their taxes and you’re likely to hear a happy exclamation that the taxpayer got a little money back! But ask the same person how much they paid the government over the year in withheld income and payroll taxes and you’ll often see a blank look.
When the money that government spends seems so unconnected to the money we earn it is easy for many to see government expenditures as “free money.” It’s not, but the engineered divorce in perception between the fruits of our labors and spending by elected officials has resulted in a national debt that equals more than $500,000 per American household. If not for accounting sleights-of-hand the national debt would be seen as much higher than even the shocking figure of more than $12 trillion.
As my father, Ronald Reagan, once said, “Our federal tax system is, in short, utterly impossible, utterly unjust and completely counterproductive, it reeks with injustice and is fundamentally un-American… it has earned a rebellion and it’s time we rebelled.”
I agree and that’s why I am enthusiastically now helping FairTax.org with pending legislation to replace the income tax entirely with a fair, progressive and honest national consumption tax aptly called the FairTax. It ends all federal taxes on income and earnings and replaces every penny now raised with a 23% tax on personal consumption at the point of final retail sale.
In conducting research on the FairTax, I have become convinced of two things: the FairTax is the best way to create a new era of healthy American economic growth, and that my father would have been a strong proponent of the FairTax as a tax reform/replacement model had it existed during his time in government.
Among many virtues, like the effect the FairTax will have on bringing trillions of private, job-producing investment dollars into our economy, the FairTax restores critically needed transparency to government spending. Because the taxpayer sees the cost of government on every receipt, the relationship between personal earnings and government spending becomes crystal clear. This will inevitably lead to public pressure to restrain spending — and not a moment too soon.
Workers take home paychecks free of federal withholding and FICA taxes under the FairTax. This is a stimulus idea that we all need. Congressional corruption of the tax code disappears under the FairTax because there are no exemptions that can be expanded and sold for profit and power by tax writing committees to the favored few. In essence, those who spend more pay higher taxes.
Instead of exemptions that can manipulated by Congress, the FairTax issues a monthly “prebate” check that covers the taxes we will pay on the necessities of life and which wipes out all federal taxes on spending up to the poverty level. In addition, hidden income-tax costs now embedded in the price of products we pay will also be eliminated and brought into the bright light of public scrutiny.
When you consider that fat cats, illegal immigrants and the underground economy all become part of the tax base, as consumers, it is easy to see that we can all pay less of a share for government. It’s just a better, more honest and simple way to collect federal taxes, and one that makes April 15 just another spring day.
It’s time for the second American tax revolt and that’s why I am helping lead the FairTax national movement and encouraging everyone to join the cause by visiting www.fairtax.org. | <urn:uuid:60f99728-f372-405c-9543-e9879facb926> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.humanevents.com/2010/01/30/the-second-american-tax-revolt/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96227 | 800 | 1.609375 | 2 |
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Professor Peter Schwartz, MD, is a very busy man in the European diabetes community. He's a professor of medicine, a scientist, and a medical doctor in the Division of Prevention and Care of Diabetes, Department of Medicine, University of Dresden. It's a mystery how he finds enough hours in the day to do what he does. Diabetes Health recently interviewed him via email since he lives and works in Dresden, Germany.
DH: Professor Schwarz, please tell us about the European and world-wide diabetes projects you're involved in.
IMAGE is a European project I am coordinating. (The acronym IMAGE stands for Development and Implementation of a European Guideline and Training Standards for Diabetes Prevention. It was submitted to the European Commission in June 2006 and was recommended for co-funding as part of the Public Health Programme (2003-2008) as one of the largest projects in the public health sector.)
We have four mandates.
1) We are working to develop a European guideline for the primary prevention of type 2 diabetes. We have 87 partners from 27 European countries, and we are very active in working to develop this guideline.
2) IMAGE also develops standards for training European prevention managers. A prevention manager establishes an intervention method to prevent diabetes in a regional setting.
3) We are working to develop a strategy for quality management in diabetes prevention. We believe that it is very helpful for healthcare professionals to measure the quality of the prevention program they work in. This will lead to an increase in the quality of preventive intervention.
4) We plan to present all the results via the Internet using an e-health portal.
Let me explain a little further. The IMAGE project is tasked with developing a European guideline for the prevention of diabetes. We will shortly publish an evidence-based guideline combined with a practice guideline for the primary prevention of diabetes. The evidence-based guideline will bring all the evidence and knowledge together. The practice guideline will be important for people who work every day in clinical and preventive work. The publication will show what must be done to prevent diabetes on a practical level. It's worth mentioning again that we are also developing a curriculum for training prevention managers that will one day be accessible through an e-health portal. Together with the quality management strategy for diabetes prevention, this is what the IMAGE project stands for.
At the World Congress for Prevention of Diabetes and its Complications in April 2010, the results of the IMAGE project will be presented. Everyone who reads this interview is warmly invited to attend this meeting and to discuss with us the results of the project.
World Congress on the Prevention of Diabetes and its Complications
I am proud to be the president of the World Congress on the Prevention of Diabetes and its Complications that will take place in Dresden, Germany, between April 8 and 11, 2010. People from all over the world who are interested in diabetes prevention will come to Dresden to discuss how to integrate diabetes prevention into real world practice. I am very busy right now developing the program and organizing the Congress. We expect to have approximately 3000 attendees.
Diabetes Prevention Directory
The Diabetes Prevention Directory is an idea that came out of the other projects I am involved in. My dream is to bring people together world wide-people who are interested and active in the prevention of diabetes. It's so important to exchange ideas, contacts, the experience of care, and the quality of practice. If we do this, we can increase our own quality of intervention, we can learn from each other, and we will be more successful as a group. This is the idea behind this Internet-based directory.
DH: What draws you to work in the diabetes community?
I am lucky to not suffer from diabetes. In my daily work, I am involved in treating and diagnosing people-mostly people with type 2. It's always the same: If I see a patient, I think about what could have been done to prevent the situation the patient is in. If I prescribe a drug, I always think about how we might have prevented the situation. I am always thinking how diabetes can be prevented.
In the past, I was involved in studying the genetics of diabetes, and this also was an important driving force. If we discovered a genetic variant for diabetes, I thought we could use this to help people to get better treatment, a better diagnosis, or ultimately even prevent the disease.
When I start working in the morning, the first thing I do is read and answer my e-mails. Then I drive to the University of Dresden Hospital, and for about two hours I see patients with diabetes, patients who are at increased risk for diabetes, and people involved in clinical studies. Then I work in my office on developing strategies, on proposals, and I am also involved in political work. In the afternoon I see more patients, and often in the evening I have a meeting with people in the diabetes field. Due to the number of international projects I am involved in, I am often abroad in Europe, Asia, or North America.
DH: What kinds of diabetes information are you hoping to share via the Diabetes Prevention Directory?
Our idea is to use the directory to bring people together-people who are active and interested in world-wide diabetes prevention. Sharing ideas is integral to becoming more efficient in diabetes prevention. We need to share ideas about the barriers and difficulties in diabetes prevention and how to successfully deal with them. I think it is very important to use the directory for sharing all experiences, good and bad. This will make everyone more successful in implementing and performing diabetes prevention in their practice.
DH: Has it been difficult to get people to sign up for the directory? How is word being spread?
Our initial dream was to get 200 people signed up for the directory world-wide by the end of the year. More than 2000 people signed up in the first three months so we feel it is a great success. We are highly motivated to continue to invite more and more people to join the directory. Anyone who reads this interview is invited to join the network. It costs nothing and you can find out more about it on our website.
DH: Are there countries underserved or generally not heard from when it comes to diabetes prevention that you hope will be represented in the Directory?
We welcome people from all countries. If you look at the directory, there are many countries with numerous representatives in the network and there are other countries where only one or two persons are taking part in the network. We are very happy that we already have more than 100 countries participating in the network and we would be very happy to get more. Countries from Africa, South America, Asia, and the Near East are very important for us. In those countries there is a high prevalence of diabetes and I believe there is a high demand and high activity that we can learn from and also the other way around. I am especially interested in people from the countries that are not represented at all of the big international meetings. I am interested in the people who do the daily work in diabetes. I would like to offer them the chance to use the network and the directory to share their ideas.
DH: Could you explain in more detail how you will "build a climate of understanding the successes and also of understanding the difficulties of implementing diabetes" by means of the Diabetes Prevention Directory?
I want to build a dialogue that leads to understanding what the difficulties in implementing diabetes prevention programs are. It is easy to learn from successes. It's much more difficult to learn from the failures and to learn about the barriers people face. I believe the latter is much more important for us. If someone is honest and reports the difficulties he's experienced in diabetes prevention, then he will help others to avoid making the same misstep. The network is designed to be a community that helps each other.
DH: What can people in the United States do to help or join these international efforts?
Everyone in the USA who is interested in joining the Diabetes Prevention Directory is invited to do so. America has a lot of experience in performing large prevention studies and also in implementing diabetes prevention into daily work. The experiences in the USA are different than in Finland or in Germany, and these are experiences that are so important for us. Please go ahead and register today. Share your experiences, your interests, and your ideas with all the other people in the network.
DH: Anything else you'd like to add, Professor Schwarz?
Diabetes prevention is important. I personally believe that the challenge we have to address in the next decade is prevention as well as education. I am 38 years old now, so I have about 20 years in the diabetes world ahead of me and I am sure that we will be successful. If we are able to develop, to implement, and to perform programs for the primary prevention of type 2 diabetes, we will be successful. We owe this to our patients, to their families, and to the world. It's also an obligation to ourselves if we are honest and agree that diabetes is a preventable disease.
I invite you to join the diabetes discussion, to help us and other people in the network and to let diabetes prevention become a reality in practice. Thank you.
0 comments - Nov 3, 2009
Diabetes Health is the essential resource for people living with diabetes- both newly diagnosed and experienced as well as the professionals who care for them. We provide balanced expert news and information on living healthfully with diabetes. Each issue includes cutting-edge editorial coverage of new products, research, treatment options, and meaningful lifestyle issues. | <urn:uuid:199095a6-07cf-48cb-9b4b-fe166e910915> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://diabeteshealth.com/read/2009/11/03/6433/preventing-type-2-in-europe-an-interview-with-dr--peter-schwarz/mysqli.select-db | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959383 | 2,000 | 2.015625 | 2 |
By Pete McMartin, Vancouver Sun
In Saturday’s column, I wrote about a study of Vancouver real estate prices by Andy Yan, an urban planner with Bing Thom Architects and an adjunct professor with the University of B.C.’s School of Community and Regional Planning.
Vancouver is soon to be a Chinese colony
In the study, Yan plotted the worth of all homes in neighbour-hoods zoned single-family residential – or RS, in planning par-lance. He plotted those homes assessed at over $1 million.
The study was an update of a similar one he had done in 2011, and Yan did the update to see what change there had been in the number of million-dollar homes.
He found a radical change.
In a single year, the number of million-dollar homes had increased by 10 per cent. More than half the single-family homes in Vancouver were now assessed at over $1 mil-lion. All homes had increased in value by at least $55,000 (out-stripping Vancouver’s median family income of $53,000) and 80 per cent of the homes had increased in assessed value by over $100,000.
He also found the traditional disparity in real estate prices between the west and east sides of the city had begun to blur. Several east-side neighbour-hoods had seen tremendous growth in the number of homes assessed at over $1 million.
The alarm over such increases has inspired, among other things, the Mayor’s Task Force on Housing Affordability.
It has also inspired calls to impose restrictions on offshore buyers, particularly those from China.
To judge by the increasing number of media stories, and the apocryphal tales of wealthy Chinese offering cash by the shovelful, and the unbridled (and usually vitriolic) comments about such buyers on web pages and in newspapers’ public comment sections, many believe that nouveau riche Chinese nationals are the main reason for the price increases.
Posted by CIReport.ca
on Apr 3, 2012 | 0 comments | <urn:uuid:0d367716-0b31-4ecc-86ad-e0d65296ba7a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cireport.ca/2012/04/03 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964554 | 432 | 1.601563 | 2 |
The following websites have been approved for use in the classroom by EDSITEment. Browse websites by subject area.
Seventeen Moments in Soviet History contains a rich archive of texts, images, maps and audio and video materials from the Soviet era (1917–1991). The materials are arranged by year and by subject, are fully searchable, and are translated into English. Students, educators, and scholars will find materials about Soviet propaganda, politics, economics, society, crime, literature, art, dissidents and hundreds of other topics.
Hosted by the History Teaching Institute at Ohio State University, this page has a variety of lesson plans that educate students on how the development of science in Europe related to ongoing revolutions in politics, religion, and society. These lessons are rich in primary source readings from figures like Sir Isaac Newton, Galileo, and Johannes Kepler.
A resource developed from NEH Summer Institutes held at Salem State University that explore early American art and culture. The website assists teachers of American history, literature, art, geography, social studies, American studies, and other fields who wish to incorporate American art into their classrooms. It includes podcasts, unit plans, and print and electronic bibliographies.
The products of this NEH-funded Summer Institute for School Teachers offers a wealth of curricular plans and interactive ideas for the classroom. Topics cover a variety of disciplines: history, geography, literature, religion, art, and environmental studies for every grade level.
WNET’s Shakeapeare Uncovered series tells the story behind the stories of Shakespeare’s greatest plays. Six episodes combine history, biography, performance and analysis and personal passion of each host as they conduct interviews with actors, scholars and directors from key locations and include video of performances.
Part of the American Experience series on PBS, Henry Ford documents the most influential American innovator of the 20th century, and offers an incisive look at the birth of the American auto industry with its long history of struggles between labor and management. | <urn:uuid:7cad24a2-4a7a-4990-89bc-6a504a6abf3a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://edsitement.neh.gov/websites/?page=1 | 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 | 0.927679 | 408 | 3.03125 | 3 |
[Bards] (no subject)
barrett1 at cox.net
Sat Nov 4 00:15:43 PST 2006
On Friday, November 3, 2006, at 10:33 PM, Dan Corley wrote:
> " What i have seen here is that most of our "bards" think that a bard
> was only a musicion or singer when they were actuall a travelling news
> source, juglers, jokers, musicians, magicians and even law keepers and
> judges in many cultures. If we have a college, let it truly reflect
> that a true Bard is so many different things. To quote from the Bardic
> Handbook "A bard is not a storyteller or harper playing long.....A
> Minstrels job it is to sing, a Bard's to BE the song" "
> Lord Cormac "The Black" Starwalker of the Barony of Namron
> Bards mailing list
> Bards at lists.ansteorra.org
I like your enthusiasm, Cormac, nice to see you here on the board.
As to your comments, to be quite frank with you, we are not bards in
the true Gaelic/Cymmri sense of the word.
I know of no one person who could recite over 200 poems from memory by
the age of twelve (and compose another 200 on their own before they are
considered legit) and can tell you the entire family history of every
person in their shire or barony, as well as interpreting both SCA and
Kingdom law for the Crown from memory while traveling to every group
with news of marriages, funerals, births, disputes and awards. The
Welsh bardagh and the Irish Filidh required the sort of rigorous
decades-long training that we might compare to some eastern religious
orders. Yes, bards were much more than entertainers, but what would be
required to become a functioning imitation would require many years of
mental preparation and a constant refreshment of knowledge most SCA
folk don't need in oral form. I can't begin to imagine the time that
would take from my real life.
Despite the SCA-wide tendency to label vocal performers as bards, many
They are those things intentionally. It's more accurate to their
Not everyone is Scots, Irish, Manx or Welsh, either, and
"bard/bardoi/bardagh" may not be appropriate to what they do. A Saxon
tale teller and poet is not a bard, he/she is a scop and not as pressed
for social authority as the bards of Ireland or Western Scotland. Not
by a long shot.
A viable college/grove/fellowship/whatever would welcome all these
different people as resources, not try to give them a universal style
so that they can all fit a particular image of a bard.
I personally strive to be a seanachie, an Irish storyteller and lore
keeper. Calling myself bard would have been seen as outlandishly
arrogant among my fellow Irish and subversive to our English
conquerors/tourists. Bad idea.
So while I doubt I'll ever find an historically true bard, the word
bard is such a common term to describe what we do that I avoid trying
to determine if someone is a "true" bard or not.
I might just irritate a "true" Norse skald, and I don't need that
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More information about the Bards | <urn:uuid:8b0ec6f2-e536-4866-be1c-d39820988252> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lists.ansteorra.org/pipermail/bards-ansteorra.org/2006-November/003393.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926947 | 834 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Osnabrück is natural
Those who approach the town by plane, train or car can't help noticing it: We are surrounded by a charming countryside with a whole host of recreational activities. Embedded between the Teutoburger Wald(Teutoburg Forest) and the Wiehengebirge (two ranges of wooded hills), the green traces of this nature reserve - or, as we call it: our "green fingers" - stretch right into the inner city.
Osnabrück is the largest German town situated in a nature reserve. More than 1/3 of the town area consists of rivers and lakes, woods, meadows and farmland. The 1,220 square kilometers of theUNESCO Geo Park TERRA.vita are wide open for you to go on a cycling tour, for hiking, running, skating, sailing, windsurfing, rowing or for improving your handicap on one of the many golf courses around Osnabrück.
The European powershad negotiated for five years in Münster and Osnabrück before they could put an end to the Thirty Years' War in Europe. October 24, 1648 was the official day of the conclusion of peace. This great event was celebrated from summer 1648 to early 1649 with numerous acts of state and commemorative events - and Osnabrück, as the city of the Peace of Westphalia, is inextricably linked to that event until the present day.
Long before the Peace of Westphalia, in the year 9 A.D., another group of people, the Germanic tribe fought for their rights against the Roman legions of Varuson the battlefield near Kalkriese. The victory of the Germanic tribe was supposed to be the beginning of the end for the long-lasted Roman Empire. 1989 this site was discovered by archaeologists. In the Museum Kalkriese you can experience the life and the battle of Romans and the Germanic tribe. | <urn:uuid:6154ebed-38e4-43f3-899a-20834f473449> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.historicgermany.travel/historic-cities/osnabrueck/region | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951442 | 416 | 2.46875 | 2 |
There's so much to like about Family Search. Between the Family History Library catalog, the indexed and digitized records, research guides and more, you can spend a lot of time researching your family history.
But did you know that they offer free online classes? If you go to www.familysearch.org, and then look at the bottom of the page, under the column heading Family History Library, there is a link for Free Online Classes. Click on that link and you will see a list of classes covering:
England Basic Research
Mexico Research (In Spanish)
Research Principals and Tools
What a great resource. Go try it! Afterall, it's free. | <urn:uuid:98bcf172-419a-4bb0-894d-b3f65d1f2394> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.philibertfamily.blogspot.com/2010/02/free-online-classes-at-family-search.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.900755 | 140 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Published on Brock University (http://www.brocku.ca)
Description of the Program:
Areas of Study
Social Personality Field
One major theme underlying Social and Personality Psychology at Brock is the study of psychological approaches to social issues - issues that have implications for understanding our interactions with other persons, groups, and institutions.
Nature of the Program:
At Brock, training of Social-personality graduate students emphasizes both theoretical and methodological aspects of the discipline. Our social-personality focus prepares graduate students for careers in academic, research, and applied settings. At both the MA and PhD levels, requirements are designed to give students breadth and depth of knowledge in the field. At the doctoral level, students will extend their teaching, research and applied skills to allow them to successfully pursue their post-graduate careers.
Students and faculty meet regularly to discuss readings and pressing issues in social and personality psychology. Students are given multiple opportunities to present their research ideas and gain feedback from their peers and faculty members.
We represent a broad group of researchers who share some overlapping interests. Our studies make use of diverse methods: observational, self-report (questionnaires and interviews, in labs and via the internet), experimental, and psychophysiological (ECG, blood pressure, cardiac impedance). Most projects are funded through agencies such as SSHRC. Students are encouraged to collaborate with multiple members of faculty to develop and strengthen their research experience.
Key Research Questions Include Investigation of:
Social/Personality lab websites: | <urn:uuid:a4c57a6b-f1a3-4cfa-9df0-09d39f61959f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.brocku.ca/print/9764 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927686 | 305 | 1.882813 | 2 |
Spam texts, and how to avoid them
Millions of spam texts are sent each day. We have advice on what to do when you get one.
If you text, you've probably gotten text spam. Mine seem to come in the middle of the night, or right before my alarm goes off. And the number of these annoyances has tripled in the last year -- to 45 million text spams a day, according to the security firm Cloudmark.
Nilesh Bhandari is a researcher at Cisco Security. He says one reason for the increase, “more and more people are checking text messages on their phone, often unsure of where these messages are coming from and responding to them quickly.” We all just need to be more careful. “It was the same way in the early days of email,” Bhandari says. “Over time the same sort of trends which causes now folks to be very cautious about email if they don't know who the sender is, I think we're going to see a similar trend happen in the mobile phone environment as well.”
The scammers are following traffic, says Mary Landesman, a researcher at Cloudmark. “The scammers are smart, as long as there's a revolving pool of new users, you know, anybody can get scammed once.” And some spam texts are hard to spot as spam. Say you get one from your bank... or is it a spammer pretending to be your bank? The best choice, Landesman says, is to call and check, “you want to contact your bank via an already-known good number. The same number that you would already contact them by, the same number on your bank statement or the number on the back of your credit card.”
So what about texts which are clearly spam? Landesman says it’s not easy to get off lists, because there aren’t necessarily lists in the first place.
“Scammers will use every possible area code and number combination for a given locale,” she says, “they don't know they have John Smith's number, they just happened to try a number sequence that happens to go to John Smith.”
She says replying “STOP” won’t do any good either. Just like with email spam, responding lets spammers know they have reached a real-live person. Instead, Landesman says, “your best bet is to forward spam to 7726, code for SPAM on old fashioned dial.” That sends it through for an evaluation and helps the phone companies block it in the future. It also gives you something to do, other than tossing your phone across the room. | <urn:uuid:3aa6b054-e4d5-47a8-9dc0-261d07262607> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.marketplace.org/topics/tech/spam-texts-and-how-avoid-them | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964065 | 571 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Background to scheme
The ASSECs programme was created by the Government in March 2006 to inspire Key Stage 3 students (ages 11-14) to learn and enjoy science and engineering in an extra-curricular setting. This was in direct response to the concerns of employers regarding a shortage of science and technology skills within the workforce. Originally, 250 clubs piloted the scheme. This expanded to 500 clubs in September 2008 due to its notable success.
A consortium of partners was involved in the ASSECs pilot. The partners included:
- The Association for Science Education
Providing Field Officer support for the Clubs Coordinator.
- British Science Association
Employing a dedicated Clubs Coordinator and developing a Clubs website.
- Association for Science and Discovery Centres
Developing a Clubs-specific handbook on how to run a science and engineering club.
- Network of Science Learning Centres
Providing Club leaders and teachers with Clubs-specific training.
- Specialist Schools and Academies Trust
Providing expertise on science and technology specialist schools.
STEMNET managed the ASSECs project on behalf of the consortium. | <urn:uuid:0ca5d32e-bd8d-4154-b883-8e7a82c3c730> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.stemclubs.net/about/463/background_to_scheme | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92455 | 226 | 3.0625 | 3 |
Special Sub-Topic: Is This the End of Rico?
|He was born Emanuel Goldenberg but in what country was he born?|
Romania. At the age of 10 his family migrated from Bucharest, Romania to New York City, where he grew up in a Jewish community. He became interested in acting and after graduating from City College of New York, went on to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
|Although often stereotyped as a gangster, Robinson played a wide variety of roles. Which of these roles did he NOT play?|
A Coca-Cola executive in "One,Two, Three" (1961). "One, Two, Three " was a James Cagney film. The others are films that show his depth of talent. The persistent claims adjuster, the manipulated mind reader, and the tender father to little Margaret O'Brien all are performances to be appreciated.
|During his acting career, for what film was he nominated for an Academy Award?|
He was never nominated. Robinson was recognized by the Academy for a lifetime of merit with an honorary Lifetime Achievement Award in 1973. This was ironic since he died two months before the award was presented. His performance in any of these three films deserved recognition.
|The movie quote most often ascribed to Robinson is: "Is this the end of Rico?" What was the name of the motion picture this is from?|
"Little Caesar" (1931). Robinson became stereotyped as a gangster in subsequent films but played a variety of roles up until his death, many highly dramatic. His character, Caesare "Rico" Bandello, was loosely based on Al Capone, a gangster in the headlines at the time. The complete quote, uttered near the end of the movie when he's shot dead: "Mother of mercy, is this the end of Rico?"
|What career setback did he receive during the years 1950 to 1953?|
Accused of communist leanings. Three times he was called to testify before the House Unamerican Activities Committee in the early 1950s. It cost him much time and money to clear his name. By that time he was on the Hollywood blacklist and directors and producers were reluctant to hire him.
|Although he was essentially blacklisted during the early 1950s, he did get a powerful part in a major motion picture. What Director had the courage to hire him?|
Cecil B. DeMille. As a part of clearing his name, he gave the HUAC the names of persons he felt were communist sympathizers. On one hand he lost roles because he had been accused of being a commie and other roles because he ratted out others. DeMille thought he was perfect for the role of the Dathan in "The Ten Commandments" and Robinson did not disappoint him, even though DeMille himself was firmly anti-communist.
|Robinson was noted as a collector. What did he collect?|
Modern art. Robinson was reputed to be have collected some of the finest examples of modern art. He was an intelligent urbane collector, respected by others.
|Robinson was second choice to play a role that won Marlon Brando an Oscar. What was that role?|
"The Godfather" (1972). Robinson was noted as a persuader in the sense that he sometimes talked his way into important roles. His glibness did not work here.
|What was the reason that he sold his famous collection?|
To pay for his divorce from Gladys Lloyd. Robinson was noted as a collector of modern art. The divorce proved costly to Robinson. At about the same time his son was having frequent conflicts with the law and had made several suicide attempts. Robinson career was revitalized at this time so he was working constantly.
|His last film role was in "Soylent Green" (1973) with Charleston Heston. How does he 'die' in the movie?|
Euthanized while watching a wall-sized television. His final film scene was prophetic as he was to die of cancer at 79 the same year.
Did you find these entries particularly interesting, or do you have comments / corrections to make? Let the author know!
Send the author a thank you or
Submit a correction | <urn:uuid:e2b4f32e-6252-40a5-967d-79c851b79d66> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.funtrivia.com/en/subtopics/Is-This-the-End-of-Rico-313303.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.990607 | 892 | 1.679688 | 2 |
YOKOHAMA, Japan – President Obama reacquainted himself with a piece of his childhood on Sunday before heading back to Washington at the end of his nine-day, four-country trip across Asia.
Obama visited the Great Buddha in Japan's small coastal city of Kamakura. He had stood in front of the imposing bronze statue, one of this country's most famous sites, as a 6-year-old boy. His mother had brought him there and then taken him for green tea ice cream, a memory he has reflected on fondly.
“It is wonderful to return to this great treasure of Japanese culture,” Obama wrote in a guest book at the temple. "Its beauty has stayed with me for many years."
The sacred statue of Amida Buddha is nestled in the hills around the Buddhist temple of K?tokuin. Dating to the 1200s, it’s roughly 40 feet tall and weighs about 100 tons.
Obama’s return to the site capped an overseas trip that was both business and personal.
From India to Indonesia to Japan, the president folded in stops that went beyond the state visits and global economic summits that brought him.
In Mumbai he visited a house where Mahatma Gandhi lived. Martin Luther King, Jr. had toured the home in 1959, signing the guest book just as Obama did last weekend. King and Gandhi are two of the president's biggest heroes.
In New Delhi, Obama walked the grounds of Humayun's Tomb. "Spectacular," he remarked as he left.
While he didn't stop at any of his childhood haunts in Jakarta, where he lived for four years, Obama said he found it "a little disorienting" to return to a modernized city he remembered for streets crowded with becaks and bemos when he moved there with his mother in 1967.
"I feel great affection for the people here,” he said at a news conference shortly after arriving. “The sights and the sounds and the memories all feel very familiar."
At the Great Buddha on Sunday, Obama told his guides about how he visited the statue with his mother when he was 6.
"I was this big," he said, holding his left hand at his waist to explain how small he was back then.
This time he gazed up at the statue, surrounded on three sides by low, tile-roof buildings, as president. He was shown around the site by the director of the Kotokuin Temple, Michiko Sato, and, Dr. Takao Sato, the temple’s 15th chief monk.
He sampled a green tea ice cream bar, like he had 43 years ago, and bought a pair of bracelets for his daughters at the gift shop.
Much of the town turned out to see the presidential motorcade wind through a small fishing village, past clusters of grocery stores and a group of surfers paddling around in the ocean.
At an ice cream store, a "Welcome President Obama" sign was hung over the door.
Before he flew to Kamakura, Obama wrapped up the two-day summit of Asian Pacific leaders. He will host APEC in his home state of Hawaii next year. | <urn:uuid:381b5cdc-1b9d-4b7d-9aab-25eec22bbcf2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=4A7071EB-9A8B-4936-FD8AF2ED2FA81B1B | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982773 | 664 | 1.90625 | 2 |
id Tech 2 (Quake II engine), upgraded from Quake engine is a game engine developed by id Software for use in their games, most notably Quake II. Since its release, the Quake II engine has been licensed for use in several other games.
One of the engine's most notable features was out-of-the-box support for hardware-accelerated graphics, specifically OpenGL, along with the traditional software renderer. Another interesting feature was the subdivision of some of the components into dynamic-link libraries. This allowed both software and OpenGL renderers, which were switched between by loading and unloading separate libraries. Libraries were also used for the game logic, for two reasons:
- id could release the source code to allow modifications while keeping the remainder of the engine proprietary.
- Since they were compiled for a native platform, instead of an interpreter, they could run faster than Quake's solution, which was to run the game logic (QuakeC) in a limited interpreter.
The level format, as with previous id Software engines, used BSP. The levels were lit through a lightmap method, in which light data for each surface is precalculated (this time, via a radiosity method) and stored as an image in the level file, which is then used to determine how much lighting intensity each model should receive, but not its direction.
John Carmack released the source code on 22 December 2001 under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
Games using the id Tech 2 (Quake II engine)
Games using a proprietary license
Games based on the GPL source release
See also
External links | <urn:uuid:b3b368e8-c9c8-4189-8254-5bd7a92cd4cc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Id_Tech_2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97063 | 336 | 1.890625 | 2 |
Ancient sediments like these in Brittany, France, help reconstruct Paleozoic sea-level history.
Click on image for full size
Image Courtesy of Bil Haq, NSF
Paleozoic "Sediment Curve" Provides New Tool for Tracking Sea-floor Sediment Movements
News story originally written on October 2, 2008
Geologists have developed a new sediment curve which shows where sediment-on-the-move is deposited during the development of sedimentary rocks. The sediment curve covers the entire Paleozoic Era.
Bilal Haq, a marine geologist and the main author of a report on this topic, explains that the new Paleozoic sea-level sediment curve provides a way for scientists to predict where sediments are deposited on the edges of continents and in interior seaways. Haq also explains that scientists and people in the oil industry will be interested in the sediment curve because it documents what happens when sea level rises and falls. This information helps scientists interpret Earth history and learn where deposition has happened.
Scientists can use stratigraphy, which is the study of rock layering (stratification), to understand a sequence of when events happened in a particular region. Because of recent developments, scientists are now able to reconstruct sea level during the Paleozoic Era. The rises and falls of sea level during this period determine the geology both in the sea and on land.
"We hope that the publication of a sediment curve for this entire era will enhance interest in Paleozoic geology," said Haq, "and help the exploration industry in its efforts to look at older and deeper sediments."
In addition to adding to scientific understanding, what scientists learn on this topic will help the oil industry to discover oil in places where searches have never taken place.
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The sun goes through cycles that last approximately 11 years. These solar cycle include phases with more magnetic activity, sunspots, and solar flares. They also include phases with less activity. The...more | <urn:uuid:77ce8a0e-54fe-4977-9f3f-cdd91d6d469d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.windows2universe.org/headline_universe/olpa/PaleoSediments_02Oct08.html&edu=mid | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935734 | 730 | 3.8125 | 4 |
Let Us Be Happy For…
In his book The Cider House Rules, John Irving describes life at an orphanage during the Great Depression and the years leading up to World War II. Every time Dr. Wilbur Larch, the director of the facility, has a successful adoption, he announces at the end of the night "Today, (insert orphan's name here) has found a new home. Let us be happy for (orphan's name)."
I was fascinated by this simple formula for closing out a chapter in the life of the orphans. It gave no one a chance to say goodbye in person, and excluded all possibility for an emotional farewell. But it worked as far as Larch was concerned, and he kept it working.
On a certain level, the same thing happens when I finally give in and adopt out a cat to a new home. There is an incredible emotional investment in these animals by the time they are ready to leave, and I feel every bit of it as I hold them for the last time. Sometimes it is a stray cat that has found us and is, after a bath and an alteration and time to put on some weight and get socialized, ready to move on. Sometimes it is a kitten that took its first breath while I helped its mother through her labor. And sometimes it is a painful goodbye to one of the special ones; one of the cats that we thought wouldn't make it and made fools of us. Whatever the circumstance, it is a painful one for me.
I always swear that this is the last time I let it get to me, and it happens every time. Sometimes I have a warning of several days, which makes it a little easier to slide into a goodbye. Sometimes, I have the few minutes that it takes a new adoptee to get their carrier from the car. Either way, I always seem to do about the same thing. I hold the cat close, look into its face and tell them that they will always have a home with us if things don't work out and that I have been privileged to know them, and that I will always remember them. The new owner comes and takes the cat, and the joy in that simple motion is almost enough to extinguish my heartache. The new owners are given a list of instructions that they don't need, and are told that if things don't work out for whatever reason they are free to bring the cat back, and then it is time to let go. For hours afterward I am moody and sullen.
I know that what I am doing is best for the cat. I can't keep all the cats that cross my path. There isn't enough love and time for all the cats that we have taken into our home over the years. We are lucky to have the seven that we do, and that they know they are loved and needed. But it still gets to me every time one leaves the house.
Tonight, a kitten named Thing One, after the Dr. Seuss character from Cat In The Hat, which was adopted out to a neighbor. The neighbor had been lobbying my wife to let him have the orange tabby, and he finally got his way. I had about ten minutes to say goodbye. I had been opposed to the adoption for several reasons, none of them valid except that I had formed an attachment to the cat in question. I am not sure why I gave in and let Gary take him. I do know that when Gary got Thing One in his hands, his face lit up like it was Christmas and he was a getting to open his presents early. I spent a good twenty minutes talking to Gary, explaining all of Thing One's foibles, bad habits and his particularly obnoxious personality. None of it had an effect on Gary. He took him anyway.
So now here I am, sitting at the computer and feeling sorry for myself. I know that Thing One will finally get a person all his own, and a name that suits him, and have a loving and good home. But I still feel miserable. I feel like I betrayed him because I gave him up.
It's irrational, and I know it. And I also know that I will feel this way about every cat that comes through the house, and leaves, because the minute I stop feeling that way I won't be working with animals anymore. So there it is. I have a forlorn and one-sided relationship with animals that are set up to break my heart. I place myself in that situation, and I will keep doing it as long as I think that I am doing any good in my community.
Today, Thing One found a new home. Let us be happy for Thing One.
Brian Baker is a writer and animal rights proponent. He has been published locally and nationally, most notably in Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul. Currently, Baker spends his time working with a local organization (www.safehavenforpets.org) that not only operates a shelter for animals but also does extensive work with feral cats. To exchange correspondence with the author, write to firstname.lastname@example.org or email@example.com | <urn:uuid:dd8a5395-af4b-4c64-97bc-2198649fda98> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://muttcats.com/articles/thing_one.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986889 | 1,061 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency - the body responsible in England for regulating external qualifications and keeping under review all aspects of the curriculum for compulsory school age pupils in maintained schools.
Qualifications and Credit Framework
The Quality Improvement Agency - now part of LSIS
Qualification Success Rate
Qualified teacher status required by teachers to work in maintained schools and special schools in England and Wales | <urn:uuid:df310bb0-4ad6-4865-b6d5-631f0b52bebf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aoc.co.uk/en/templates/glossary.cfm/order/Q | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913546 | 78 | 2.046875 | 2 |
Well I mean the phycological effects they have on people accross the world as a whole. How do they effect how people think, and how do those processes of thought effect the organization of society and culture in general?
I'm assuming that "compartmentalizing" is interchangeable with in-group bias?
I think all three have a negative impact on society, however I also think that all three can be overcome with education and practice.
In-group bias can be overcome by changing the parameters of the "group" (hard to exclude a demographic as "other" if you consider "all humans" to be part of your tribe). Confirmation bias can be overcome with skepticism and critical thinking (this is more of a habit than a silver bullet solution). Cognitive dissonance can be over come if you train yourself to recognize it and account for it in your decision making (again, a habit thing).
That's the good news. The bad news is that none of this is taught regularly. In-group bias is typically only discussed in sociological circles. Confirmation bias is typically only discussed in scientific circles. Cognitive dissonance is typically only discussed in psychological circles. Not many people have that resume. | <urn:uuid:d8427ccb-1df3-4534-930b-0bc12e217d68> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lucasforums.com/showthread.php?t=175866&goto=nextnewest | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95253 | 247 | 2.09375 | 2 |
In a near party-line vote, the North Carolina House of Representatives passed a bill that would harm many of the state's more vulnerable citizens by cutting back on unemployment insurance. The measure would cut maximum weekly benefits by one-third, bringing the top weekly payout to $350, and reduce the maximum length an unemployed worker can get from 26 weeks to 20. As the bill currently stands, 80,000 workers are set to lose unemployment insurance payments.
The bill now moves on to the state Senate, where Republicans have said they will support the bill. Gov. Pat McCrory (R) also expressed his intention to support the bill.
Most Democrats opposed the bill and made several attempts to reduce the negative impact on the unemployed, only to be rebuffed by Republicans:
"If you want them to lose their homes, if you want them to lose their respect, go ahead—kill the amendment," state Rep. Mickey Michaux (D-Durham) told AP reporter Gary D. Robertson.
He said lawmakers were to blame for the debt by cutting unemployment taxes in the 1990s and failing to restore them before the Great Recession: "Don't let 80,000 people suffer because of the mistakes that we made."
The bill would also raise unemployment taxes on businesses temporarily in order to help eliminate $2.6 billion the state owes the federal government for unemployment claims. Unions, such as the UAW, oppose the bill as putting too much of a burden on the unemployed:
"That bill is devastating to North Carolina families and to North Carolina workers," said Robert Riggins, who works at Freightliner's Mount Holly plant.
Opponents of the bill in North Carolina can send an email to their state senator. | <urn:uuid:cd2fbffa-07c4-4890-8c05-08afc5bf88d9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aflcio.org/Blog/In-The-States/North-Carolina-Republicans-Ramp-Up-Attacks-on-the-Unemployed | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969921 | 352 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Page (4 of 4) Quotes: 1 2 3 4
How we cite the quotes:
(Act.Scene.Line) according to the Norton edition
| Quote #10
Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of
me! You would play upon me; you would seem to know
my stops; you would pluck out the heart of my
mystery; you would sound me from my lowest note to
the top of my compass: and there is much music,
excellent voice, in this little organ; yet cannot
you make it speak. 'Sblood, do you think I am
easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what
instrument you will, though you can fret me, yet you
cannot play upon me.
When Rosencrantz and Guildenstern try to get Hamlet to confide in them (so they can report back to the king), Hamlet is furious. Here, he makes an analogy between deception and playing a musical instrument to demonstrate why his friends can't "play" him – they're simply not skilled enough. This, as we know, is what gets Rosencrantz and Guildenstern killed.
| Quote #11
An earnest conjuration from the king,
As England was his faithful tributary,
As love between them like the palm might flourish,
As peace should stiff her wheaten garland wear
And stand a comma 'tween their amities,
And many such-like 'As'es of great charge,
That, on the view and knowing of these contents,
Without debatement further, more or less,
He should the bearers put to sudden death,
Not shriving-time allow'd.
How was this seal'd?
Why, even in that was heaven ordinant.
I had my father's signet in my purse,
Which was the model of that Danish seal;
Folded the writ up in form of the other,
Subscribed it, gave't the impression, placed it safely,
The changeling never known. Now, the next day
Was our sea-fight; and what to this was sequent
Thou know'st already.
So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to't.
Why, man, they did make love to this employment;
They are not near my conscience; their defeat
Does by their own insinuation grow.
Hamlet gleefully describes to Horatio how he got revenge on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern by sending them to their deaths. He says this is fair repayment for the way they treated him and the deceit they practiced. Horatio, by the way, is Hamlet's only loyal friend. He's also the only main character to survive the bloodbath at the end of the play.
| Quote #12
I am justly kill'd with mine own treachery.
It is poison that ultimately brings down Laertes, Claudius, Gertrude, and Hamlet, both Laertes and Claudius die as a result of the poison they prepared for the Prince. The literally poisonous deception they practiced turns against them, and Laertes admits that they are fairly punished by their own dirty scheme. | <urn:uuid:cea2cb11-a5a2-4769-be58-a7f976dd3376> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.shmoop.com/hamlet/lies-deceit-quotes-4.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966764 | 687 | 2.3125 | 2 |
Designing an audio network
Spoke and hub topology
The spoke and hub remains the logical topology for an audio network. It is one of the most basic methods of communication between multiple locations. This method is used by airlines, the post office, the phone company and many others.
Radio stations still need separate studios to carry out specific functions, such as on-air and commercial production. Most stations have a rack room or some other location that is the heart of the facility, as shown in Figure 1. This is where the audio network hub (in the spoke and hub context) is located. Several manufacturers make use of a peer-to-peer variant on the spoke and hub idea, by use of a device commonly known as an audio engine. This is a device that handles the cross-point switching and other functions that would heretofore have been accomplished in a router. A unit such as this would be at the hub (in the spoke and hub context) but also, in some cases, in a studio. Most units such as this are mainframes, and as such have I/O cards to receive and send audio signals, in the analog or digital formats; logic I/O cards; DSP cards for audio processing (including mixing); and finally specific cards for communication with other audio engines (peers) or peripherals (spokes) in the audio network such as control surfaces. Shared audio devices (such as a satellite receiver) located in a rack room would connect to an audio engine located in the same room.
The studios themselves still have specific items that are needed locally (such as a CD player, for example). To avoid a wire run all the way back to the master control room audio (because after all, that was part of the reason for the network, right?) an audio I/O device still needs to play the role of interface between the audio network and the local device itself. Some manufacturers make special I/O devices and some simply specify that a stripped-down version of an audio engine be located in the studio. In some cases, an audio engine located in a studio has specific plug-in cards that allow it to work in conjunction with a control surface located in-studio, thus providing all the necessary and familiar console functions. Each audio engine, whether located in a studio, a rack room or some other place, is a peer. Essentially they are all functionally equivalent, and they communicate with one another. Their specific inputs and outputs become available throughout the entire network.
The audio engines
AEQ's offering is the BC 2000D, a mainframe (and hub of the system) that is built to house the various plug-in modules associated with the typical audio network: I/O cards and DSP boards. The control surface for the AEQ system is made up of combinations of the Arena DM (five input modules plus a monitor module) and an Arena D10, which has 10 input modules.
Axia's approach is perhaps the one that is most like a computer network. All signaling is routed via Ethernet. The heart of the audio network is an Ethernet switch that ties all the spokes together. Elements that communicate via Ethernet through this switch include the Axia Studio Engine, which is a 2RU device that uses DSP to accomplish all the mixing functions given it via the Smartsurface. The Smartsurface is the user-interface that looks and functions like an audio console.
Harris offers the Vistamax system. It starts with a mainframe that is loaded with the appropriate analog and digital I/O cards and communications cards, and will typically be installed in the rack room. Rack room sources are integrated into the audio network at this location. This particular frame would then make peer-to-peer connections with other frames throughout the facility.
Klotz Digital has recently introduced the Vadis 212, a fanless mainframe with 10 freely assignable slots for interface cards accommodating analog or digital inputs and outputs. With the appropriate DSP cards installed, the unit can perform mixing functions along with real-time audio processing functions such as EQ, compression and limiting. Like the other audio engines mentioned, the Vadis 212 operates in conjunction with a control surface, for example the Vadis DCII. (It should be noted in this case that the communications between the DCII and the Vadis 212 is via a proprietary digital interface.)
Logitek is a long-term player in the audio networking game. Its Audio Engine is a rack-mount main frame that offers the capability of direct connection to multiple control surfaces, and other Audio Engines as well, via fiber. In addition, the Audio Engine is a full X-Y router, and acts as the heart of the audio network. Under commands from the control surface, it performs all the normal console functions, such as mixing, channel on/off and cue. A fully configured Audio Engine can handle as many as 128 mono (64 stereo) inputs and outputs by way of plug-in analog or digital I/O cards. Control, programming and analysis can all be done via a TCP/IP connection.
Sierra Automated Systems offers the 32KD — its digital audio router that performs the requisite routing functions, and others as well, such as mixing, level control, intercom, IFB and mix minus. A single 32KD frame can accommodate 512 inputs and outputs, and multiple frames can be connected together via a fiber-optic link. Separate plug-in modules handle digital inputs, digital outputs, analog inputs, analog outputs and serial interfaces.
Studer offers the Route 5000 digital router system. The core of the 5000 is the mainframe into which the multichannel audio digital interface (MADI) cards are installed. Each MADI input or output card accommodates 28 AES data streams. In addition to the normal routing functions the 5000 offers DSP capability. It communicates with the PC that is the control server via a fiber-optic link. Other control workstations or XY controllers communicate with the control server via Ethernet. The 5000 can communicate with a Studer digital console via a MADI link.
Wheatstone offers the Bridge, an audio engine and routing system that works in conjunction with control surfaces remotely located in studios. The Bridge is a mainframe into which all the necessary cards are installed: analog and digital I/O cards, DSP cards, serial data cards and even one that supports 16 audio streams. Multiple Bridges can be connected via fiber or CAT-5 cables.
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Today in Radio History
The history of radio broadcasting extends beyond the work of a few famous inventors.
EAS Information More on EAS
The feed provides feeds for all US states and territories.
Need a calendar for your computer desktop? Use one of ours.
Information from manufacturers and associations about industry news, products, technology and business announcements.
This high-visibility and high-traffic area got the full acoustic treatment.
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Also in the May Issue
- Remote Access and Site Connectivity: Wireless
- Standards of FM Allocation and Interference
- Side by Side: Mic Processors
- Field Report: Deva Broadcast DB4004
- Field Report: APT WorldCast Systems Horizon NextGen
- New Products
- 20 Years of Radio magazine: May 1994 | <urn:uuid:465a0c96-4e7c-42be-a30d-d80b24422574> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://radiomagonline.com/studio_audio/routers/radio_designing_audio_network/index1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940387 | 1,535 | 3.4375 | 3 |
If you can't play the video, don't be sad. Take a look at it here...
Easily print your own postersdesign 60 times in a jiffy. Design and make your own wallpaper. Or customize t-shirts, bags and curtains using textile paint. Or... or... or... If you make a roller stamp yourself, please post a pic of the results!
The trick is to use a rolling pin as a roller, and pieces of inner tube as stamp rubber. Roller pins are really cheap, and available in various sizes (Ikea sells them in different sizes, their biggest model is 43 cm wide and costs €2,49 / $3,06). Used inner tubes are for free at your local bike shop (at least in The Netherlands. Bike shops here don't have a use for worn inner tubes. Tsssssskkk.....).
The making of the roller stamp itself is as easy as it gets. So invest your talent and time in making a good design and cutting it out of an inner tube.
Step 1: Stuff you need
For the roller stamp you need:
- Inner tube. Discarded by the bike shop, picked up by you. €0,- / $0,-
- Rolling pin. Choose your size. For starters, pick a small model. €2,50 / $3,10
- Super glue (I used a kind that stays flexible when it hardens) €4,- / $5,-
- Double sided sticky tape (used for carpeting). €2,50 / $3,10
Total costs per roller stamp: around €4,- / $5,-
- Cutting pad
- Hobby knife
- Scissors (nice, sharp scissors! Not-so-nice, blunt scissors ruin your design)
To print, you will need anything fluid that leaves a mark. Ink pads are fine, of course. But also good is paint (gouache or acryl) or ink-from-a-bottle. | <urn:uuid:e6776bca-df96-4d5b-a5a7-2de9dc772b95> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-a-Roller-Stamp-A-big-one/CLVN0PWGLWQW6VZ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919879 | 416 | 1.890625 | 2 |
Diary of a Country Priest
A young priest arrives in the rural hamlet of Ambricourt in northern France to attend to his first parish. Confronted with an indifferent and often hostile congregation, he's thrown into a crisis of faith that plays out on the pages of his private journal. As he commits himself to overcoming the villagers' apathy at all costs, he pursues an ascetic life sustained by a diet of bread, sweetened wine and contemplation. Writer/director Robert Bresson also strips away the inessential. The film's restraint—low-key performances, elliptical edits, unobtrusive compositions, piercing long takes—intensifies the spiritual journey of a man approaching sainthood. Bresson's fourth film brought the director international acclaim cemented his stature as France's preeminent postwar auteur and influenced directors as disparate as Martin Scorsese, Olivier Assayas, Kathryn Bigelow and Pedro Costa. (Travis Bickle, the eponymous Taxi Driver, was inspired by Bresson's introverted priest.) Pauline Kael praised Bresson's film as "One of the most profound emotional experiences in the history of film. No other director, with the possible exception of Dreyer with The Passion of Joan of Arc, has come so close to communicating a religious experience."
Bing Theater | $10 general admission. $7 museum members, seniors (62+), students with valid ID. | New 35mm print! | <urn:uuid:5e2d0b98-5af6-495d-bd2b-149e23c349bc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lacma.org/event/diary-country-priest | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948306 | 304 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Heathen Ethnicity Project
Get flash to fully experience Pearltrees
Mattias Gardell is a professor of religious history at the University of Stockholm's Center for Research in International Migration and Ethnic Relations.
Tomorrow is Columbus Day in the United States. Like many other countries in "the Americas," we still mark this day, officially and otherwise. Celebrations of the efforts of Columbus usually erase the horrors of what he and his men did to indigenous peoples, thereby erasing as well the indigenous peoples themselves.
If the grand jury investigating the white-on-black violence during the 1919 race riot in Chicago is to be believed, Irish American gangs played a central role in attempting to extend the bloodshed. Members of Ragen's Colts, one of the leading gangs, disguised themselves in blackface in order to set fire to Polish and Lithuanian neighborhoods in the Back of the Yards area.
Many films that do not seem to address issues of race or ethnicity are in fact doing the work of defining and fortifying such categories.
Titre du document / Document title | <urn:uuid:5f4139dc-2e54-4473-96dd-24445e2bd725> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pearltrees.com/t/heathen-ethnicity-project/id644299 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945369 | 215 | 3.046875 | 3 |
TRENTON — A new anti-fraud unit in New Jersey has caught at least $100 million in fraudulent unemployment claims over the last year, including those filed from overseas.
Labor Commissioner Harold Wirths is telling lawmakers today that the unit stopped between 2,000 and 2,400 false claims per week last year.
The department is using directories to determine if beneficiaries have returned to work. Payment is stopped when a match is found.
New software also is identifying claims filed from outside the country. These include more than 1,000 claims over a three-week period that mainly came from Internet addresses in South America.
The state Labor Department will soon begin a new program to stop claims made through stolen identities. | <urn:uuid:a3a87c96-bef9-4230-bb1f-ff5bd53ce7e4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/05/nj_stops_100m_in_fraudulent_un.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959319 | 146 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Written By International Women's Health CoalitionTuesday, 11 October 2005
The New York Times, October 11, 2005
The list of Bush appointees who seem to be rising on political connections rather than expertise continues to grow. A recent example is President Bush's choice to head a key office at the State Department that coordinates the delivery of life-sustaining emergency aid to refugees of foreign wars, persecution and natural disasters. The nominee is Ellen Sauerbrey, the former Maryland state legislator and twice-defeated Republican candidate for governor who was state chairman of Mr. Bush's 2000 campaign.
Written By International Women's Health CoalitionFriday, 22 April 2005
Written By International Women's Health CoalitionWednesday, 01 December 2004
Written By International Women's Health CoalitionWednesday, 10 November 2004
Written By International Women's Health CoalitionMonday, 25 October 2004
Summary: Delivered by Adrienne Germain, President, IWHC, at "AIDS in India," Asia Society, San Francisco, CA (5 pages).
Written By International Women's Health CoalitionMonday, 16 August 2004
Written By International Women's Health CoalitionFriday, 02 July 2004
Science, Vol 305, Issue 5680, 17, 2 July 2004
By Adrienne Germain
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decision in May 2004 not to allow over-the-counter sales of the morning-after pill, Plan B, is but one troubling example of the increasing impact of politics and ideology on science and health policy. The agency's ruling, contrary to recommendations from an external advisory panel and its own scientific staff, is indicative of the growing gap between common sense and U.S. policies affecting the well-being of women and girls worldwide.
Written By International Women's Health CoalitionThursday, 20 November 2003By Cynthia Rothschild
American Sexuality Magazine, Volume 1, No. 6
Summary: Discusses the Bush administration's determination to promote abstinence programs in lieu of comprehensive sexuality education both domestically and internationally, and analyzes abstinence programs from a human rights perspective.
Written By International Women's Health CoalitionWednesday, 15 October 2003
The New York Times, October 15, 2003
In August, the United States Agency for International Development abruptly canceled bids for a program to market condoms to gay men and others in Brazil. When the decision was criticized publicly, the agency reinstated most of the program. This was the right choice. Preventing the spread of AIDS means working with the groups most at risk.
Written By International Women's Health CoalitionMonday, 31 March 2003
The Miami Herald, March 31, 2003
By Adrienne Germain
President Bush's announcement of a $15 billion effort to fight HIV/AIDS in the worst affected countries may seem like a huge windfall, but when you witness the staggering impact of the disease on these countries, $15 billion starts to look more like a drop in the bucket. Unless Bush and Congress come up with a spending plan that reflects the depth and complexity of the crisis, that's exactly what it will continue to be.
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9/11 and After
Bin Laden was fixated on the idea that the United States was weak. In the years leading up to 9/11, he often spoke of its weakness to his followers, citing such examples as the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam in the 1970s, and from Somalia two decades later, following the Black Hawk Down incident, in which eighteen U.S. servicemen were killed. Bin Laden enjoyed recounting how al-Qaeda had slipped fighters into Somalia in 1993 to help train the Somali clans battling American forces, who were there as part of a UN mission to feed starving Somalis. “Our boys were shocked by the low morale of the American soldier, and they realized that the American soldier was just a paper tiger,” bin Laden exulted. His disciples eagerly agreed with the man they loved like a father.
Bin Laden assured his men that the Americans “love life like we love death” and would be too scared to put boots on the ground in Afghanistan. Look at what a drubbing bin Laden and his men had inflicted on the Soviets in Afghanistan! And America was every bit as feeble as the former Soviet Union, bin Laden told his nodding acolytes. Those in his inner circle who had any niggling doubt about this analysis largely kept it to themselves.
As plans for the 9/11 attacks took a more definite shape, some of al-Qaeda’s senior officials expressed concern that the coming attacks might anger the Taliban leader Mullah Omar, to whom bin Laden had, at least notionally, sworn an oath of allegiance. During the five years that bin Laden had been the Taliban’s honored guest, Mullah Omar and other Taliban leaders had made it clear that al-Qaeda could not use Afghanistan to conduct a freelance war against America. Bin Laden thought he could help inoculate himself against any anger caused by the attacks on the United States by offering the Taliban a highly desirable head on a platter: that of Ahmad Shah Massoud, the storied leader of what remained of the anti-Taliban resistance in Afghanistan. For the Massoud hit, bin Laden recruited two Tunisian Belgian al-Qaeda assassins, who disguised themselves as television journalists keen to interview the legendary guerrilla leader.
During the summer of 2001, while al-Qaeda groomed the Massoud assassins, the leaders of the group were putting the finishing touches on their plans for the spectacular attacks on America’s East Coast. Ramzi bin al-Shibh, a key plotter based in Hamburg, sent a message to bin Laden on Thursday, September 6, saying that the attacks on Washington and New York would take place the following Tuesday. And on September 9, bin Laden heard the welcome news that his assassins had mortally wounded Massoud, for whom he had long harbored contempt. Now the stage was set for what bin Laden believed would be his greatest triumph: a spectacular strike on the country that was Islam’s greatest enemy because it propped up the godless dictatorships and monarchies of the Middle East and, of course, Israel. With one tremendous blow against America, bin Laden would get the United States to pull out of the Middle East, and then Israel would fall, as would the Arab autocracies, to be replaced by Taliban-style regimes. This was bin Laden’s fervent hope and belief.
From the day that President George W. Bush took office, January 20, 2001, every morning, six days a week, CIA official Michael Morell briefed the president about what the intelligence community believed to be the most pressing national security issues. Reed-thin and in his early forties, Morell spoke in terse, cogent paragraphs. On August 6, eight months after Bush was inaugurated, Morell met with the president at his vacation home in Texas to tell him of the CIA’s assessment that bin Laden was determined to strike inside the United States. This briefing was heavily colored by the fact that Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian on the fringes of al-Qaeda, had recently pled guilty to charges that he planned to detonate a bomb at Los Angeles International Airport in mid-December 1999. The August 6 briefing noted that the FBI had come across information indicating “preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks.” After the briefing, Bush continued to enjoy the longest presidential vacation in three decades.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, in Sarasota, Florida, Morell gave the President’s Daily Brief as usual. There was nothing memorable in it. Together with political advisor Karl Rove and press secretary Ari Fleischer, Morell got into the president’s motorcade to head to the local elementary school where Bush planned to meet with some students. During the ride over, Fleischer asked Morell if he had heard anything about a plane hitting the World Trade Center. Morell said he hadn’t, but would check it out with the CIA Ops Center. Officials at the Ops Center confirmed the news and quickly demolished a widely held perception: it wasn’t a small plane that had wandered off course; it was a large commercial jet.
At the elementary school, where Bush was reading a story about a pet goat to a group of second-graders, the news came on TV that a second jet had hit the Trade Center. Bush was hustled out of the school to head to Air Force One, which took off for Barksdale Air Force Base near Shreveport, Louisiana. Fleischer was keeping careful notes that day, and the first time he recorded bin Laden’s name was at 10:41 a.m., when Chief of Staff Andy Card said to Bush on Air Force One, “It smells like Osama bin Laden to me.” By then, both towers of the Trade Center had collapsed and one of the hijacked planes had plowed into the Pentagon. Bush’s blood was boiling, and he vowed to himself, “We are going to find out who did this, and kick their ass.”
That same morning, bin Laden told Ali al-Bahlul, a bodyguard who doubled as his media maven, that it was “very important to see the news today.” Bahlul was eager to comply with his boss’s wishes; bin Laden ruled al-Qaeda just as he lorded over his own household, as an unquestioned absolute monarch. On this day, al-Qaeda’s leader was, as always, surrounded by his most trustworthy bodyguards, mostly Yemenis and Saudis. Like other members of al-Qaeda, the bodyguards had sworn a religious oath of personal obedience to bin Laden, rather than to his militant organization. (Similarly, those who joined the Nazi party swore an oath of allegiance to Adolf Hitler, rather than to Nazism.)
Bin Laden had founded al-Qaeda in 1988, and since then he had consolidated more and more power as the unquestioned, absolute leader of the group. The conventional view is that Ayman al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian doctor and al-Qaeda’s longtime second in command, was bin Laden’s “brain.” But in making the most important strategic shift in al-Qaeda’s history--identifying the United States as its key enemy, rather than Middle Eastern regimes--bin Laden brushed aside Zawahiri’s obsessive focus on overthrowing the Egyptian government. Bin Laden also kept Zawahiri in the dark for years about al-Qaeda’s most important operation--the planning for the 9/11 attacks--apprising his deputy only during the summer of 2001.
To his followers bin Laden was truly a hero, someone who they knew had given up a life of luxury as the son of a Saudi billionaire. Instead, he was living a life of danger and poverty in the service of holy war, and in person he was both disarmingly modest and deeply devout. Members of al-Qaeda modeled themselves on the man they called “the Sheikh,” hanging on his every pronouncement, and when they addressed him, they asked his permission to speak. His followers loved him. Abu Jandal, a Yemeni who was one of his bodyguards, described his first meeting with bin Laden in 1997 as “beautiful.” Another of bin Laden’s bodyguards characterized his boss as “a very charismatic person who could persuade people simply by his way of talking. One could say that he ‘seduced’ many young men.”
So, on the morning of September 11, bin Laden’s crew of bodyguards eagerly set out with the man they regarded as their “father,” leaving his main base near the southern city of Kandahar for the mountainous region of Khost, in eastern Afghanistan. Bahlul rigged up a TV satellite receiver in a minibus that was part of bin Laden’s caravan of vehicles, but when they reached Khost, he found it hard to get a television signal, so bin Laden tuned his radio to the BBC’s Arabic service.
Bin Laden told his followers, “If he [the newsreader] says: ‘We have just received this . . .’ it means the brothers have struck.” At about 5:30 in the evening local time, the BBC announcer said, “I have just received this news. Reports from the United States say that an airliner was destroyed upon crashing into the World Trade Center in New York.” Bin Laden told his men to “be patient.” Soon came the news of a second jet flying into the South Tower of the Trade Center. Bin Laden’s bodyguards exploded with joy; their leader truly was conducting a great cosmic war against the infidels!
About eight hundred miles to the south, in the heaving Pakistani megacity of Karachi, some of bin Laden’s most trusted lieutenants had also gathered to watch television coverage of the attacks. They were Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the portly commander of the 9/11 operation; Ramzi bin al-Shibh, an intensely religious Yemeni who was a key coordinator of the attacks; and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, the Saudi paymaster who had transferred tens of thousands of dollars to the hijackers living in the States for their flight lessons and living expenses.
Also watching TV with the three architects of 9/11 were some other al-Qaeda “brothers.” As the television showed the hijacked planes flying into the Trade Center, the brothers started weeping with joy, prostrating themselves, and shouting “God is great!” Bin al-Shibh admonished them, “Patience! Patience! Follow the news! The matter is not over yet!” Then came the attack on the Pentagon and the news of the fourth aircraft, which went down in Pennsylvania. The men from al-Qaeda embraced each other and wept again, this time in sadness for the brothers who had died on the hijacked planes.
Bin Laden was confident that the United States would respond to the attacks on New York and Washington only with cruise missile strikes, as it had done three years earlier, following al-Qaeda’s attacks against two American embassies in Africa in 1998. At most, he expected the kind of air strikes that the United States and NATO had employed against the Serbs during the air war in Kosovo in 1999. The paper tiger might bare its fangs, but it wouldn’t go in for the kill.
In Washington, news soon circulated that a Palestinian terrorist organization, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, had claimed responsibility for the attacks. Bush summoned Morell, asking, “What do you make of this?”
Morell replied, “The DFLP has a history of terrorism against Israel, but its capabilities are limited. It does not have the resources and reach to do this.”
In the early afternoon, Air Force One headed from Louisiana to Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha, Nebraska, home of the U.S. Strategic Command, which controls America’s nuclear missiles. Bush asked to see Morell again, and pushed him for his opinion about who was behind the attacks. “I don’t have any intelligence as yet, so what I am going to say is my personal view,” Morell said. “There are two terrorist states capable of conducting such a complex operation--Iran and Iraq--but neither has much to gain and everything to lose from attacking the U.S.” He added, “The responsible party is almost certainly a nonstate actor, and I have no doubt the trail will lead to bin Laden and al-Qaeda.”
“How soon will we know for sure?” Bush asked.
Morell reviewed how long it took for the United States to determine the culprits in several previous terrorist attacks. “We knew it was al-Qaeda within two days of the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998, but it took months in the case of the Cole bombing. Bottom line, sir, we may know very soon or it may take some time,” Morell concluded.
In fact, it would be only a matter of hours. When Bush landed in Nebraska at around 3:30 p.m., he spoke for the first time to CIA director George Tenet. Tenet told him that the attacks “looked, smelled, and tasted like bin Laden,” particularly because the names of two known al-Qaeda associates, Nawaf al-Hamzi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, had been found on the passenger manifests of one of the crashed planes. For the past several months, as many as sixty CIA employees had known that Hamzi and Mihdhar were living in the United States, but they had inexplicably failed to inform the FBI.
Over the next few days, Bush and his war cabinet set in motion a plan to overthrow the Taliban in Afghanistan--unconventional in that it relied on only some four hundred U.S. Green Berets, Special Operations forces, and CIA personnel on the ground, combined with massive American firepower from the air. And on September 17, Bush signed a highly classified authorization to hunt down and, if necessary, kill the leaders of al-Qaeda, allowing the CIA great leeway as to how to get the job done. One of the top lawyers at the Agency, John Rizzo, who had joined the CIA at the height of the Cold War and who helped draft the authorization, says, “I had never in my experience been part of or ever seen a presidential authorization as far-reaching and as aggressive in scope. It was simply extraordinary.” The same day that Bush signed this “finding,” he spoke with reporters at the Pentagon, saying, “I want justice. And there’s an old poster out West, I recall, that said, ‘Wanted, Dead or Alive.’ ”
On September 12, at his office in Islamabad, Jamal Ismail, Abu Dhabi Television’s correspondent in Pakistan, received a messenger from bin Laden, who told him, “Jamal, I came last night in a hurry from Afghanistan.” The messenger read a statement from bin Laden that, while it did not claim responsibility for the attacks, endorsed them heartily: “We believe what happened in Washington and elsewhere against the Americans was punishment from Almighty Allah, and they were good people who did this. We agree with them.” Ismail quickly read this message out on Abu Dhabi TV.
Ismail, a savvy Palestinian journalist long based in Pakistan, had known bin Laden on and off over the course of a decade and a half, having worked as a reporter in the mid-1980s for Jihad magazine, an organ funded by bin Laden that publicized the exploits of the Arabs then fighting the Soviets. Ismail had recently resumed his relationship with bin Laden when he interviewed him at length for a documentary profile that aired on Al Jazeera in 1999. Ismail thought that the message from bin Laden about the 9/11 attacks meant that bin Laden likely knew far more than he was publicly saying about the hijackers. “Osama never praised anyone who is non-Muslim. From this I determined he knows something, and he’s confident of their identity. They have links,” Ismail said.
Excerpted from Manhunt by Peter L. Bergen. Copyright © 2012 by Peter L. Bergen. Excerpted by permission of Broadway, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. | <urn:uuid:8a86e538-c7e1-40d0-b43d-e14308803fff> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.randomhouse.com/book/216480/manhunt-by-peter-l-bergen/ebook | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98007 | 3,475 | 2.234375 | 2 |
Future Reflections Winter 2012
by Mark A. Riccobono
From the Editor: Is technology a blessing or a barrier for blind students? Sometimes it is hard to know for sure. In this article Mark Riccobono, executive director of the NFB Jernigan Institute (the research and education arm of the National Federation of the Blind), examines the technological revolution in today's classrooms and calls for action to ensure that blind students fully reap the benefits.
Technology used to be something extra to help reinforce educational concepts. Its role in schools was confined to the school library and maybe a computer lab. Certainly it was not found in every classroom, and it was hardly in the hands of individual students on a consistent basis. But this scenario has been replaced by a technology revolution that has come so quickly many of us have been caught by surprise.
The father of a blind child recently posted the news to a parents' listserv: "Talk about a wake-up call! I learned that not only are iPads being piloted in the high school, but also in every school in our district. At my younger son's elementary school the whole fifth-grade class will be using iPads this school year. One of the other elementary schools in our district chose to pilot iPads at the kindergarten level! The whole district is getting wired to phase in the electronic era. This is no longer some futurist possibility--the e-wave is here and will likely roll into your district before you know it."
The e-wave is definitely upon us, but this article is not meant to brace you for yet another invasion of educational practices that will have to be worked around for blind children. It is, in fact, a call to action. Technology brings opportunities that blind students have never had before. However, it will take a consistent and insistent network of well-informed parents and advocates to ensure that these opportunities are realized.
In the days when the printed book was the primary instructional medium in the schools, blind children did not have immediate access to the materials their sighted peers were using. Fortunately, Louis Braille invented his tactile code for reading and writing during the nineteenth century. Over the years new technologies made it easier to transform the printed book into Braille as quickly as possible. Innovations included the development of Braille translation software, high-speed Braille embossers, optical character recognition (OCR), and desktop scanners. In the United States, an amendment to the Copyright Act permitted the reproduction and distribution of materials in specialized formats. As printed materials were increasingly produced digitally on computers before they were sent to a printing press, we were able to create systems for getting an electronic file of the printed work that could be transcribed into Braille. Today many stories and novels that are used in K-12 classrooms during the school year or for required summer reading are readily available for immediate download from WebBraille, a program of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS); or from Bookshare.org.
Due to the fact that each Braille textbook is composed of multiple volumes, students who use hardcopy Braille only have real-time access to one or a few volumes at a time during class. Ordinarily they don't have a full embossed copy of their textbooks at home, either. Teachers often teach chapters out of sequence. The blind student is at a serious disadvantage when the teacher suddenly skips ahead to a chapter near the back of the book and the student does not have the needed volume. When studying for exams, students may need access to chapters that are not at hand. The textbook glossaries and indexes are in completely separate volumes to which blind students may not have ready access.
Electronic books (e-books) can be read in Braille with a device such as the BrailleNote or PAC Mate. Unlike hardcopy Braille books, e-books are compact and highly portable. Electronic files containing the content of books are easily searchable, giving students ongoing access to material in all of the chapters as well as glossaries and textbook dictionaries. With a properly prepared e-book, the blind student easily can keep up with his or her sighted classmates.
Enter the technology revolution (or the e-wave). The once-familiar textbook, with its hundreds of pages between hard covers, is retreating into history. Today technology in the schools is no longer just a flashy enhancement or supplement, but an integral part of the curriculum. As school districts consider the adoption of new textbooks, increasing numbers are choosing digital versions in lieu of hardcopy editions. Sighted students use technology extensively to access core instructional materials. More and more educational content is delivered via the Internet or in other digital forms.
Technology is changing the paradigm of teaching and learning. It is also changing the paradigm for equal access to education for blind students, providing unprecedented opportunities as well as new challenges.
Unlike the printed book, most technology is not inaccessible to blind students by default. Digital content starts in a form that is inherently accessible, and it has the potential to remain accessible--as long as the correct design is implemented. In other words, the old paradigm of adapting what you get is being replaced by a promising new paradigm where what you get is accessible immediately, with no additional adaptation. We sometimes refer to this paradigm with the slogan, "Same book, same time, same price." However, this slogan may be too limiting, as the "book" is only one piece of the vast digital landscape of webpages and other systems used to facilitate learning in the twenty-first century.
Unfortunately, current technology designs frequently exclude accessibility. All too often the schools fail to keep accessibility in mind when they purchase new technology. The result is a broken promise, the promise of equal access to education paid for with public funds.
The paradigm shift that accompanies the increasingly high-tech learning environment leaves some people feeling uncertain. Yet the laws that ensure equal access to education for students with disabilities remain fairly clear when they are applied to the new paradigm for digital education. Access to technology in the schools is more than a promising practice for students who are blind--it is a right protected by law. Digital-based instructional tools and materials used in the classroom must be user-friendly for blind students, and e-content must facilitate the same functions and benefits for blind students that it provides to students without disabilities.
On May 26, 2011, Russlyn Ali, assistant secretary for civil rights for the US Department of Education, issued a "Dear Colleague Letter" to elementary and secondary education officials throughout the nation. This letter, along with an accompanying document listing frequently asked questions, makes it clear that schools must ensure equal access to the educational benefits and opportunities afforded by emerging technology, and that all students, including those with disabilities, must receive equal treatment in the use of technology. The Dear Colleague Letter and FAQ documents were the follow-up to a letter released jointly by the Department of Education and the Department of Justice on June 29, 2010. All of this correspondence sprang from complaints filed by the National Federation of the Blind on behalf of blind students.
Below are some highlights from the correspondence. (The URLs for the original documents are provided at the end of this article.)
The Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) makes it clear that these documents are not new statements of law or regulation, and emphasizes that existing laws and regulations ensure current civil rights protections. Question 1 in the FAQ notes in part: "The DCL discusses longstanding law. Specifically, it addresses key principles of federal disability discrimination law: the obligation to provide an equal opportunity to individuals with disabilities to participate in, and receive the benefits of, the educational program, and the obligation to provide accommodations or modifications when necessary to ensure equal treatment. Under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, these legal standards apply to entities that receive federal financial assistance, including elementary, secondary, and postsecondary institutions. ... Under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 (Title II), these obligations apply to entities of state and local government, including public schools."
As technology emerges there needs to be a shift from the accommodation model to one that embraces mainstream access. The FAQ goes on to say,
"For the purposes of assessing whether accommodations or modifications in the context of emerging technology, and, more specifically, electronic book readers, meet the compliance requirements, the DCL provides a functional definition of accessibility for students who are blind or have low vision. Under this definition, these students must be afforded the opportunity to acquire the same information, engage in the same interactions, and enjoy the same services as sighted students. In addition, although this might not result in identical ease of use compared to that of students without disabilities, it still must ensure equal access to the educational benefits and opportunities afforded by the technology and equal treatment in the use of such technology. The DCL uses the term 'substantially equivalent ease of use' to describe this concept."
The FAQ goes on to give examples and presents questions to be considered in implementing new technologies. "Sometimes accessibility is viewed either as a barrier to implementing new technology or as a secondary concern to the importance of staying on the cutting edge." The FAQ makes it clear that innovation and accessibility need not be mutually exclusive. "... the Department encourages schools to employ innovative learning tools. Because technology is evolving, it has the capability to enhance the academic experience for everyone, especially students with disabilities. Innovation and equal access can go hand in hand. The purpose of the DCL is to remind everyone that equal access for students with disabilities is the law and must be considered as new technology is integrated into the educational environment."
The original DCL (June 29, 2010) was written as a response to a specific set of events (the use of inaccessible e-book readers in several postsecondary institutions). The FAQ makes it clear that, "The principles underlying the DCL--equal opportunity, equal treatment, and the obligation to make accommodations or modifications to avoid disability-based discrimination--also apply to elementary and secondary schools under the general nondiscrimination provisions in Section 504 and the ADA."
The FAQ notes that nondiscrimination applies far beyond the set of circumstances around e-book readers. "All school programs or activities--whether in a 'brick and mortar' online, or other 'virtual' context--must be operated in a manner that complies with federal disability discrimination laws."
The two Dear Colleague Letters and the Frequently Asked Questions document are a great package of policy guides for school districts and state departments of education. However, guidelines are relatively meaningless to the blind student in the classroom unless we ensure that school district administrators and classroom teachers understand the equal access provisions under the law and work to make them part of the general practice of their school systems. The National Federation of the Blind continues to provide national leadership on these issues through policy, standards development, and use of the existing laws. Below are some of the things the NFB is doing at a national level to help advance this issue, followed by some of the local action that is needed by parents, educators, and others associated with the NFB. The race for equal access to technology is not over, and the outcome is not yet certain.
The National Federation of the Blind continues to protect equal access to education by:
It is important for parents and other interested parties to get actively involved in the systematic implementation of accessibility as the new technology paradigm takes shape. The local level for parental involvement includes the classroom, the school, the district, and the region, as well as the local chapter and parent division of the National Federation of the Blind. Parent advocacy on behalf of their own children will have an impact on other students, especially when parents work together.
Parents can make a difference by:
Sharing the DOJ/DOE Letters and FAQ's with key educational leaders and asking them what is or can be done to implement plans to ensure accessibility. As a parent or teacher you might share these materials with your school district superintendent, school principal, school board, technology officer, district director of special education, and the person specifically in charge of blind/visually impaired services for your district. It is important to note that special education services (and sometimes technology services) are not only delivered by a student's local school and school district. Frequently, school districts form consortia in geographical regions to provide and coordinate services. These consortia are sometimes referred to as education cooperatives or local education agencies. To raise awareness it is important to understand how services are coordinated and to know the key points of influence.
Finding out if your district has a technology committee. Suggest that the district establish a formal technology access subcommittee if one does not yet exist. The subcommittee can address the spectrum of access needs and offer to become an active member in the process of designing your child's future.
Meeting with district administrators or school board personnel to learn about your district's plans for the near and distant future. How is digital education going to be approached, adopted, and phased in over the next few years? Does the district plan to pilot electronic book readers? If so, which ones will be used? What are the plans for on-campus wireless access? Be sure to urge the district to think beyond the classroom. As this article was being finalized, the Baltimore City Public Schools announced a public/private partnership to rebuild school libraries and implement inaccessible electronic book readers for students to use. Why should students with print disabilities be shut out of the public school library?
Working with other members of the NFB at the local level to understand what statewide initiatives might impact the use of technology in the schools. The NFB has long been effective because of our collective action on key issues and our sharing of best practices and resources. Consider putting together a presentation with blind adults about the importance of access to technology, including examples of technologies that are and are not accessible.
Asking for a copy of your district's technology curriculum. Districts should have formal school-board-sanctioned policies available online. Share this curriculum with your child's teacher of blind students and make sure that clear and measurable technology goals are part of your child's IEP. The goals should emphasize age/grade-equivalent skills that sighted peers are also developing. Your child should be engaged in the same technology activities as his or her sighted classmates. Your advocacy for your child will help push accessibility in the technologies used in instruction.
Considering how your child's digital skills compare to those of classmates. Blind students should have ready access to screen-reading programs on campus and at home. The expectation should be that blind children develop Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and web-browsing skills at the same time and pace as their sighted classmates. Blind children also need to have age- and grade-equivalent skills with Braille notetakers.
Determining the accessibility of key web-based resources. Websites promoted for educational use are supposed to be accessible. Is your child able to access school calendars, teacher websites, publisher websites, class blog sites, and school newspapers independently to a high-level degree? It may be helpful to encourage uniformity within school districts by suggesting that all of the district's schools use the same grading and calendar programs.
Asking for a formal independent technology assessment from outside the school district, such as your state school for the blind, to ensure that technology skills and accessibility standards are being evaluated appropriately.
Encouraging early reading in all formats, including embossed Braille, e-books, and children's e-magazines. Be sure that your child has a Bookshare account, available free of charge to all students with qualifying print disabilities (<www.bookshare.org>).
Completing the National Federation of the Blind Digital Technology and Accessibility in Schools Questionnaire. The NFB is seeking information about accessibility barriers in the digital technology used by all students, teachers, and administrators in K-12 schools, universities, and colleges in the United States. This short online form helps us gather data about trends and accessibility, and it should be completed whenever you find new technology barriers.
Sharing what you learn through your advocacy with other members of the NFB so that we all can continue to make our advocacy efforts more effective.
The e-wave is here, but with it comes the great promise of mainstream access for students with disabilities. Powerful technologies that are built from the beginning with accessibility in mind are equipping blind students and blind professionals with the tools to maximize their talents and compete on terms of equality. We are in a time of transition. If the promise is to be fulfilled, we need to help the educators and administrators in our schools understand accessibility. By working together and sharing best practices, we will build a future full of opportunities with technologies accessible to all.
1. May 2011 Dear Colleague Letter to Elementary and Secondary Education Officials from Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Russlynn Ali. <http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-201105-ese.html>
2. The Frequently Asked Questions document published with the May 2011 DCL is available at <http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/dcl-ebook-faq-201105.html>
3. For more information, the June 2010 Dear Colleague Letter is available at <http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-20100629.html>
4. National Federation of the Blind Digital Technology and Accessibility in Schools Questionnaire <www.nfb.org/nfb/DirectTechAccess_193.asp>
5. This topic is frequently discussed on two NFB listservs. Both are good places for sharing ideas and resources: BlindKid, <www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindkid_nfbnet.org> and Professionals in Blindness and Education (PIBE), <www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/pibe-division_nfbnet.org>
6. December 2011--The Report of the Federal Commission on Accessible Instructional Materials in Postsecondary Education for Students with Disabilities (while not targeting K-12 education, there is overlap in the related technology issues--some may be interested in this as further background). <http://www2.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/aim/publications.html> | <urn:uuid:89e1caf7-72fc-4924-9337-daa1cc293867> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.actionfund.org/images/nfb/Publications/fr/fr31/1/fr310101.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949702 | 3,790 | 3.125 | 3 |
ETSC is a Brussels-based independent non-profit making organisation dedicated to reducing the numbers of deaths and injuries in transport in Europe.
Founded in 1993, ETSC provides an impartial source of expert advice on transport safety matters to the European Commission, the European Parliament, and Member States. It maintains its independence through funding from a variety of sources including membership subscriptions, the European Commission, and public and private sector support for various activities.
ETSC seeks to identify and promote effective measures on the basis of international scientific research and best practice in areas which offer the greatest potential for a reduction in transport crashes and casualties. It provides factual information in the form of scientific reports, fact sheets and newsletters in support of high safety standards in EU harmonisation, the take up of best practice and transport safety research. ETSC also organises several conferences yearly, including the European Transport Safety Lecture, Road Safety PIN Conference and the European Transport Safety Lunches. | <urn:uuid:6777b6cb-f8cc-48fd-bed7-26f2b9d2c289> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.etsc.eu/mission.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935905 | 192 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Photos by Huw Evens
Image is everything. And image is what Carroll Shelby oozed. From his racing days to his days as a promoter of Shelby vehicles, Carroll Shelby was a one-man marketing genius. The difference between him and other marketers was that his products backed up the image with exhilarating performance, looks and handling.
Since the first GT350 came off the assembly line, the Shelby line of cars built on the performance image. Many buyers of these special cars got a lot for their money, with plenty of them going from the dealership to the racetrack and winning on a regular basis. Others enjoyed the celebrity of owning a pure bred race car.
The 1968 GT500KR had its roots in the 1967 GT500. When launched, the GT500 was the epitome of cool. The new tougher body style of the Mustang fastback lent itself to Shelby modifications. Using the basic Mustang shell, a more aggressive front end looked like a killer shark ready for lunch. The hood and headlamps had an aggressive overhang while the grille looked menacing with its center mounted high beams.
Things were changing for the Shelby organization. Up until now, all GT350 and GT500s were built in Metuchen, New Jersey, as a Mustang GT, then sent to a rented facility at LAX airport for transformation into a Shelby GT. However in September 1967, Shelby lost his lease at the LAX facility and all production was moved the A.O Smith Company in Livonia, Michigan.
Rumor had it that Shelby moved because of losing his lease, but the truth was Ford wanted more control over the project, especially with respect to quality control of Shelby’s cars. Earlier fiberglass pieces were at best a poor fit, especially at the hood to headlamp bucket fit. Ford, for 1968, redesigned the fiberglass front end pieces and changed suppliers that resulted in the 1968 Shelby having a much better fit and finish along with a crisper look to the car. Front-end changes included a shorter hood with a scoop resting more forward than that of 1967. The new hood also included twin side mounted louvers for added airflow to the engine compartment. The grille was redesigned and offered twin pedestal style fog lamps built by first by Marchal, then later by Lucas. High beams reverted back to larger seven-inch headlamps.
From the side, the GT500 was carried over from 1967. A C-pillar mounted air vent pushed air into the cabin while the quarter-panel mounted lower scoop cooled the rear brakes. The rear end treatment included a fiberglass decklid with an integral spoiler. Taillights for 1968 were changed to 1965 Thunderbird for a better look than the Cougar lights used previously. Quad exhausts exited under the lower valence panel.
Inside, the GT500KR was all business. All cars were fitted with the Mustang Deluxe Interior. This included a woodgrain dash panel, deluxe door pads, Cobra logo floor-mounted shifter, 140 mph speedometer and an eight grand tach. Bucket seats, while handsome, offered no lateral support.
Fuel For Thought
Probably the most recognized factory performance car in history
Carroll Shelby is an icon in the industry
Incredible curb appeal
First year for production Shelby Mustang convertible
Number built – 1,053 Fastbacks (GT500KR), 517 Convertibles (GT500KR), 1 GT500KR Hertz
Construction – Unibody
Engine – 428 ci V8
Power/Torque – 335/440
Transmission – four-speed manual, three-speed automatic
Suspension front – independent ball joints, single lower control arm and upper a-type control arm with coil springs
Suspension rear – leaf springs
Steering – recirculating ball and nut
Brakes – 11.3-inch front disc brakes, 10 inch drums rear
Length/width/height – 183.6/70.9/51.8 inches
Wheelbase – 108 inches
Weight – 3,570 lbs.
0-60mph/quarter-mile – 6.5 seconds, 14.75 seconds at 98 mph (Motor Trend, March 1968 on a Mustang GT500)
Top speed – 116 mph
MPG – 12.8 average
Price – MSRP $4,438 (convertible), Today – $ 111,600
Insurance cost is $629 per year for a $100,000 1968 Mustang GT500KR. This is based on 3,000 miles per year of pleasure driving.
*Based on a quote from Heacock Classic Car Insurance
Engine - The FE Cobra-Jet block was designed for racing. There are no known weak areas. It would accept high RPM without wincing. Ford purposely underrated the horsepower but opponents knew it was much more than 335. Most experts rate the factory engine at 400 horsepower or more.
Handling - The GT500KR handled better than any other domestic production car of its time. Carroll Shelby had been a road racer and knew what it took to create a total performance car. With staggered shocks, heavy-duty springs and a large sway bar, the GT500KR took curves like a skateboard.
1968 Corvette 427 L71 Tri-Power
Number built – 2,898 (L71 Corvettes)
0-60/quarter mile – 6.3 seconds, 14.1 seconds at 103 mph
Top speed – 160 mph
Price – $4,663 plus $437.10 for the 427 tri-power engine; Today – $199,000 - $502,800.
1968 Yenko (Copo 9737) 427 Camaro
Number built – 65 units
0-60/quarter-mile – 5.7 seconds, 13.20 seconds at 106 mph est.
Top speed – 130 mph
Price – $3,995 –Today – $72,100 - $181,800
One of the most sought after cars in history
Expensive to purchase
Many unrestored cars have rust problems
Easy to clone
Most are trailer queens. Due to the high value of the GT500KR, very few are driven regularly.
What To Pay
1968 Shelby GT500KR
MSRP – $4,900
Low – $111,600
Average – $159,900
High – $231,900
*Prices courtesy of NADA,
Seat cover kit $201.95
Engine oil pan $54.95
Front fender $176.95
Complete floor pan $614.95
GT500 grille emblem $52.95
GT500 body side stripe $24.95
*National Parts Depot
Shelby Mustang by Tom Corcoran
Shelby Mustang by R.M. Clarke
Shelby: The Man, The Car, The Legend by Wallace Wyss
The Great Muscle Cars Compared by R.M. Clarke
Mustang Legends by Voyageur Press
The GT500KR is arguably the best total performance cars of the ’60s. The combination of stunning looks, excellent performance and outstanding handling was never duplicated by any other manufacturer. Today, these have become prized possessions and an ever-increasing value. | <urn:uuid:62d56f24-d28a-40db-ad69-4312ec8c9bcf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.autotraderclassics.com/car-article/1968+Shelby+GT500-169588.xhtml?conversationId=649626 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933414 | 1,483 | 1.929688 | 2 |
A week after the decision was made to put the Richmond County Animal Shelter into a new department under the Richmond County Health Department, the decision was changed to have the shelter fall under the County Manager.
For years the shelter has been run by the Humane Society.
At the County Board meeting on March 4, the county commissioners voted to establish the shelter as a new department under the jurisdiction of the Health Department.
Just a week later, on Tuesday, March 12, the county board met at Richmond County Airport at its annual planning retreat and the animal shelter was again on its agenda. It was then that the board decided to make the shelter an independent county department, instead of a division under the Health Department.
Rick Sago, county manager, said the only change that will happen with the operation of the shelter is the new director for the shelter will have to report directly to him.
“The county is going to put a lot of money into the shelter,” Sago said. He said the change from last week is because he is accountable to the county commissioners who are, in turn, accountable to the taxpayers.
The complete changeover will still take effect on May 1.
Discussions between the Humane Society and the county began in October 2012 and were centered around the shelter’s financial struggles and inability to keep the building up to code.
“The only thing we’re trying to do is let the Humane Society and any other animal advocacy group concentrate on finding these animals a home, without having to worry about how they are going maintain this big building,” Sago said.
He said that the county will provide the shelter with a “first class building and help these animals get a good home.”
At the county board meeting on March 4, Sago said the building will require several months of work before it will be up to code and a full-time shelter director will be hired.
“Nothing is changing in terms of how the (shelter) is going to operate,” said Tommy Jarrell, director of the Richmond County Health Department.
Jarrell said he doesn’t see how the change from the shelter being under the Health Department to being under the County Manager will make a difference. “I’m OK with it,” he said.
“The goal is to let the county run the shelter and partner with the Humane Society and let them (the society) concentrate on rescues and adoptions so they don’t have to worry about things like how to pay the bills and keep up the building,” Jarrell said.
Janet Woolard, acting president of the Humane Society Board, said: “We have been assured by the county that this new agreement will be a mutual benefit. The county will maintain the building and outside structures allowing the Humane Society to work towards our continued goal of placing animals in well deserved homes. We will continue to work with rescue and networking so that dogs and cats are given these opportunities. We will maintain an office at the shelter. Please continue your donations of money and supplies. We hope to hire a person to facilitate these actions.”
The shelter will remain located at 529 U.S. 74 Business in Rockingham.
— Staff Writer Laura Edington can be reached at 910-997-3111, ext. 18, or by email at firstname.lastname@example.org. | <urn:uuid:360f5dc5-d6d8-4f96-ae03-5886683db9a3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.yourdailyjournal.com/view/full_story_myown/21978094/article-Animal-shelter-will-see-another-change | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968203 | 707 | 1.59375 | 2 |
: "In the middle ages some poisons were reputed to have been
administered by contact: and there are many stories of poisoned rings
used for such a purpose. These rings were said to be poisoned on the
interior, having a sharp point there, so that when a person grasped the
hand wearing the ring, some of the poison was passed into his body. But
I believe the statement to be altogether without foundation, because
there is no kind of proof that the ancients had such a subtle poison as
is here supposed. We have hardly got such a thing now, and I think it
can scarcely have existed in the Middle Ages."
ring has always been the favourite ornament of the human race, from the
time of the prehistoric cave-dweller to the present day ; from the
plain bronze hoop of prehistoric man to the classic intaglio ring and
the masterpieces of the Renaissance craftsmen. There are signet rings,
papal rings, and memorial rings,—poison rings, and incantation
rings,—symbolical rings, and ceremonial rings,—rings with Egyptian
scarabs, Hebrew inscriptions, Koran texts, and reliquaries. There are
rings oriental, and occidental, of gold, and of silver, of bronze, and
of bone, of amber, and of terra-cotta.
THE EAGLE STONE.
" less precious" which were at one time in favour for wear, as of
supposed mystic properties, the Eagle Stone (no longer recognised by
our leading jewellers) may be taken for a fair instance. " The Eagle Stone (Dr. J. Schroder, Compleat Chymioal Dispensatory, 1669) " is so called because it is found in an eagle's nest, brought thither by an eagle, to help | <urn:uuid:5c9d71ad-79cc-41c5-bca3-8950e6957a30> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.farlang.com/gemstones/fernie-gemstones-curative-wear/page_356 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961771 | 387 | 2.875 | 3 |
Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a chronic autoimmune connective tissue disease characterized by excessive collagen deposition in the skin and internal organs, such as the gastrointestinal tract, kidney, heart, and lungs. Symptoms result from vascular dysfunction, inflammation, and progressive fibrosis, which lead to occlusion of the microvasculature.
As a result of the vascular injury, complications such as PAH and digital ulcers (DU) can occur.
Around 40% – 50% of SSc patients suffer from Digital ulcers at least once in their disease history. DUs are very painful and result in difficult-to-heal open sores on fingers and toes. They leave depressed scars and adversely affect the patient’s ability to perform work and daily activities, particularly those associated with fingertip functions. In severe cases, infection can become a complication, leading to osteomyelitis and gangrene, for which surgery and even amputation may be required.
Endothelin (ET) plays a key role in the underlying vasculopathy of DUs. The pathway leading to the vasculopathy of DUs is similar to that of PAH, involving excessive vasoconstriction and subsequent vascular remodeling. DUs are visible evidence of vasculopathy in SSc. | <urn:uuid:8885438d-20a3-4113-b05c-69e7393fc6b5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www1.actelion.com/en/healthcare-professionals/diseases/digital-ulcers/index.page | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940483 | 261 | 2.40625 | 2 |
I've had problems with the so-called output gap for the last couple years. The usual presentation ends up drawing a line that tracks and extends the 2005-2007 trend line.
But what if the calculation of Potential GDP is wrong?
The methods for ascertaining Pmax can be divided into two large groups: 1)The GDP that would be attained if all factors of production in a country were utilized to their maximum capacity and 2) The GDP level corresponding to a growth rate sustainable into the medium and long-terms. The CBO does a good job explaining some of the methods to estimate potential GDP. Here is the usual presentation:
What if "Okun's Law" is actually just "Okun's Strong Suggestion"?
If GDP growth was fueled by unsustainable debt, it was a chimera and we had better re-figure our assumptions on what maximum output of the economy actually is.
As Herb Stein used to say, “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.”
Both The Economist and FT Alphaville looked at the growth question this year:
Limits to Growth: Is the U.S. Economy Running at Max Growth Rate?
A Strong Case That Economic Growth as We Know it Is Over
Growth may simply not be strong enough to employ the current labor force.
That means high levels of unemployment may be with us for a while.
Professor Krugman is an indefatigable champion of the output gap theory which may no longer be operative or even relevant..
With that pre-ramble here's the headline story from Foreign Policy:
Why is the Nobel Prize-winning economist mocking the countries that have escaped the eurocrisis?
Amid the carnage of the European financial crisis, the Baltic countries, by and large, are doing quite well. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are booming. Last year, their growth rates reached 7.6 percent, 5.5 percent, and 5.9 percent, respectively. The turnaround, driven largely by manufacturing exports, has been one of the most remarkable and promising stories of the crisis. In 2008-2009, all three countries were badly hit by a nearly complete liquidity freeze, which sank their economies by as much as 24 percent. Even so, only Latvia required an IMF and EU bailout, and all three returned to growth after only two years of recession. Today, all three Baltic countries have ample access to international financial markets, and their credit ratings have risen steadily since the summer of 2009.See also:
The Balts' rebound stands in stark contrast to the fate of eight mainly southern EU countries -- Hungary, Romania, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Cyprus, Spain, and Slovenia -- which either already have or probably will require stabilization programs with external financial support.
So what happened?
The simple explanation is that the Baltic countries have pursued the opposite policy of the southern Europeans. In 2009, the Baltic governments each carried out strict austerity, with a fiscal adjustment of about 9.5 percent of GDP, mainly though expenditure cuts and substantial structural reforms. The southern Europeans, by contrast, delivered substantial fiscal stimulus in 2009. Previously fiscally conservative Cyprus and Slovenia ran up budget deficits of 6 percent of GDP in 2009, but neither benefited from greater growth. Instead, they have been trapped with large budget deficits and are now being overwhelmed by their public debt, admittedly also because of banking crises.
One would think, given the divergent outcomes, that a serious economist would advocate for countries to follow the successful example of northern Europe rather than the failed strategies of the south. Nobel laureate and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman doesn't seem to see it that way. Throughout the crisis, Krugman has attempted to explain away or even mock the Baltic countries' success even as they have continued to inconveniently disprove his arguments.
On Dec. 15, 2008, Krugman issued his first pronouncement on the Baltic crisis in a post titled, "Latvia is the New Argentina." He meant that Latvia would have to devalue its currency and perhaps default, as Argentina did in 2001. Neither happened. Latvia returned faster to fiscal health than anybody had anticipated. Krugman's claim that devaluation was necessary for Latvia's recovery (and presumably also Estonia and Lithuania's) turned out to be wrong.
Krugman's main line of argument has been that more fiscal stimulus is always needed as long as a significant output gap exists. But in Cyprus and Slovenia, very substantial fiscal stimulus generated minimal growth. Neither country would be suffering from its current financial conundrum had it not followed such a policy. Spain would probably be safe as well....MORE
"President of Estonia Calls Paul Krugman Smug, Overbearing, and Patronizing"
Latvian Hookers Signal No Recovery for Economy
"Europe and the Law of Sticky Wages (technical)"
Great.It may well be that the only stimulus that works was the one tried in Latvia, back in 2009:
On top of morose, despondent, borderline suicidal, the Telegraph's Ambrose Evans-Pritchard is getting technical.
From the Telegraph...
...On a more positive note, I researched this Sunday Telegraph story in depth:
Blondes march in Latvia 'to cheer-up nation'
Led by an orchestra, the first-ever blonde parade featured women dressed inpink and white, some accompanied by lapdogs, in a charity fund-raising event that organisers hope will become an annual event.......The parade was part of a "Blonde Weekend" which also featured a blonde golf tournament, a little lady fashion show, an evening ball, and a children's drawing competition."It's a great time to spend in the parade and contribute to a charity," said Ieva,one blonde spectator.
Apparently I am not the only analyst focused on this area:"Finally something different, something positive because I'm tired of hearingabout the crisis," said another, 70-year-old Ausma.The event attracted many locals and puzzled tourists....
Latvian blonde parade to become annual event
Blonde Parade Lifts Spirits in Gloomy Latvia
Many of the women were followed closely by enthusiastic musicians.... | <urn:uuid:ab8d8fb6-2259-4bae-bfde-4fe893e66f4b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://climateerinvest.blogspot.com/2012/09/paul-krugmans-baltic-problem.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957433 | 1,251 | 2.234375 | 2 |
The survey was conducted throughout Victoria in October 1986, as a supplement to the Australia-wide Monthly Population survey.
Information was collected on type of assistance, main reason for assistance, whether formal or informal assistance, frequency of assistance, source of assistance, home maintenance tasks, transport (source of assistance and destination), and unmet need by category of need. Socio-demographic variables include: household type, age group (elderly population only), sex and birthplace (5 categories). Geographic definition is at Melbourne Statistical Division and Rest of Victoria level.
The tasks included were meals, laundry, housework, gardening, mowing, home maintenance, and transport. Information was also collected about nursing, personal, and paramedical care received within the home. The survey ascertained the number of household members who had been an in-patient in a hospital or nursing home during the 12 months prior to interview. Information was obtained from all households regarding the need for assistance and care.
The User Guide provides sufficient information to enable analysis of the CURF. It provides detailed documentation describing data on the CURF and describes issues that may affect analysis, such as weighting.
This page last updated 22 September 2011 | <urn:uuid:488d0f3e-b753-4577-9396-9e2b3131df25> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/productsbyCatalogue/CDCEC7F6A766D96ACA257749001A9407?OpenDocument | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95451 | 244 | 2.4375 | 2 |
December 02, 2010
THE ALGIERS CHARTER SCHOOLS ASSOCIATION CELEBRATES THREE YEARS OF SUSTAINED STUDENT LEARNING GROWTH
ACSA Schools Have Achieved Significant Academic Growth Driven by the TAP System
New Orleans, LA—The Algiers Charter Schools Association (ACSA) and National Institute for Excellence in Teaching (NIET) today announced the charter school network had achieved a third year of significantly above average academic growth. ACSA uses TAP™: The System for Teacher and Student Advancement, a nationally proven model for increasing teacher effectiveness and student achievement in high-need schools. TAP is a comprehensive system of teacher and principal support and accountability that strives to draw more talented people to the teaching profession—and keep them there—by making it more attractive and rewarding to be a teacher.
ACSA CEO Dr. Andrea Thomas-Reynolds and NIET President and CEO Dr. Gary Stark
In the 2009-2010 school year, eight-of-nine ACSA network schools achieved more than a year's academic growth compared to other similar Louisiana schools; the ninth school achieved a solid year's growth.
- Seven of the schools—Algiers Technology Academy, Alice M. Harte Charter School, Dwight D. Eisenhower Academy of Global Studies, Edna Karr Charter High School, McDonogh #32 Literacy Charter School, O. Perry Walker College and Career Preparatory High School and Community Center and William J. Fischer Accelerated Academy—each recorded a value-added student achievement growth score of five, the highest score possible and signifying "far above average" results.
- One school, Harriet Ross Tubman Charter School for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, recorded a value-added student achievement growth score of four, signifying "above average" results.
- One school, Martin Behrman Charter Academy for Creative Arts and Sciences, recorded a value-added student achievement growth score of three, signifying a solid year's growth.
"Three years of consistent growth in ACSA demonstrates the power of TAP," said Dr. Andrea Thomas-Reynolds, CEO of the Algiers Charter Schools Association. "It's a very rewarding process to see our teachers providing high-quality education and our students effectively closing the achievement gap."
"Having high-quality teachers in the classroom is the single most important school factor driving increased student achievement, according to research data," said Gary Stark, president of the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching. "We work very hard to recognize teachers for their continued efforts to learn along with their students."
During an event earlier today at Harriet Ross Tubman Charter, principals and teachers were honored and celebrated the release of value-added scores from the 2009-10 school year, where all ACSA schools demonstrated a least one year of solid academic growth.
"As a parent, I want to send my children to a school where students and learning are the priority," said Latoya Turner-Perez, parent of two students at Harriet Ross Tubman Charter School for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. "During the years my child has attended Tubman, I have seen the school increasingly focus on student achievement. It is clear that TAP and ACSA are behind the creation of an environment that attracts high-quality teachers and provides students with the skills to be successful."
TAP measures student performance based on value-added student achievement growth—gains a student makes during the school year. These gains are evaluated by a statistical technique that uses student achievement data over time to measure the learning gains that students make. This methodology offers a way to estimate the impact schools and teachers have on student learning isolated from other contributing factors, such as family characteristics and socioeconomic background.
ACSA's implementation of TAP is funded in part through a federal grant from the Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF), a competitive funding program to support bold changes in the way that teachers and principals are supported, evaluated and compensated.
About TAP™: The System for Teacher and Student Advancement
Launched in 1999, the national TAP™ model offers powerful opportunities for teachers and principals to excel in order to improve student achievement: multiple career paths for teachers to pursue new roles and responsibilities with commensurate pay; ongoing applied professional growth to provide strong job-embedded development targeting individual student needs; instructionally focused accountability to ensure a fair, transparent system with observations several times a year; and performance-based compensation tied to responsibilities, instructional performance and student achievement growth. TAP now impacts 85,000 students and 7,500 teachers nationwide.
About The Algiers Charter Schools Association (ACSA)
The Algiers Charter Schools Association (ACSA) is a non-profit charter school management organization. In conjunction with the Orleans Parish School Board, the ACSA has elected to establish charter schools to address the needs of families living on the West Bank and East Bank of New Orleans. There are nine schools in the Algiers Charter Schools Association: six elementary schools and three high schools. The ACSA is led by a seven-member Board of Trustees and works to make the schools within the association free from the burdens of conventional education structures, and that each school is open by choice to all students without admissions tests, is not religiously affiliated, and has high accountability standards.
To learn more about TAP in the Algiers Charter Schools Association, visit www.algierscharterschools.org .
For information about TAP nationwide, visit www.tapsystem.org .
Jim Rex, Former South Carolina Superintentent of Education
"Through these efforts [implementing TAP], we'll reach the tipping point of moving from a pilot project to a full-blown statewide model of reform. A performance-based compensation system, using value-added measures that are reliable and transparent, will ultimately affect achievement for all students. . ." | <urn:uuid:c381e533-9bcf-458b-9d9a-d524bae1dda8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.talentedteachers.org/newsroom/newsroom.taf?page=pressreleases&id=109 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938312 | 1,216 | 2.0625 | 2 |
Good to know
These are all small things I have learnt through my HDR life full of reading, watching tutorials and mostly making photos and post-processing them, with lots, really lot of experiments.
Same Aperture, different shutter speed, this is the main rule when shooting HDR. The depth of field is a personal decision based on the subject you make the photo, of course. But always remember to keep the aperture (F-Stop) consistent, meanwhile the shutter speed can change to capture the pictures with higher and lower exposition. To make life easier keep the AV(Canon) or A(Nikon) value constant (decide your F-Stop) and leave the camera selecting the right shutter speed when bracketing. Alternatively you can do all Manual.
AEB (Auto Exposure Bracketing), this is the first thing you want to learn in your setup, when starting shooting HDR. This allows you to make three or more photos, one with the decided exposure value (EV) and the others with an higher/lower EV. The combination of these photos will give a much higher range of brightness levels and details that the 0EV exposure would probably miss.
HDR allows better photos also during the day. This is true, the over and under exposed (-2EV, +2EV as an example) photos will give you more details in the final picture than a single 0EV photo. This comes more evident during the day, when the sun is high in the sky and the shadows are really dark. Said that, the sunset and sunrise is still the time where you can have the best shots, no question about it. And remember that photography is not only HDR, and during these first and last hours of the day you can make non-HDR photo that would not be possible otherwise, with the same end result.
HDR from a single photo. Yes you can do it, however the end result depends on the camera you are using. Reading the technical description of your camera you may see that when you take a picture in RAW format (important), the file may keep information for an higher/lower EV. The HDR software takes this information to process the single photo as actually three different photos. Does it mean that 1 photo is enough? Not really. Try to process an HDR photo using a single shot or 3 shots and you will see the result.
Tripod is not essential, although highly suggested. If you think you have a great HDR composition in front of you, than try to take the 3+ photos keeping your camera as steady as possible. Always look around you, you may use a pole to help, or a fence, always check around. In any case the tripod, of course, make your life easier, but do not stop making photos just because you do not have 100% of your gear.
Windy day is always an enemy when shooting. With HDR is even worst. You organise your tripod, you are than able to take 2 pictures, but a gust moves your tripod slightly, what a shame. Back, another try, same result. Try to put your body between the coming wind and the camera if possible. The tripod quality plays a big role here. If still no good results, you can sometime work it out in post production. Use one of the photo, create a copy and increase/decrease the EV. In doing that many times you will have lots of noise. Try to reduce that in the source photos with software as Dfine or Lightroom. Run your HDR software again. If still not happy with the result, try once more the process….or go back to the same site for another shot, if possible. | <urn:uuid:a1466dbe-5698-4195-a34c-3d2ea064f372> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mel365.com/good-to-know/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94451 | 748 | 1.953125 | 2 |
The “Is Roland Burris a Senator?” game has just taken a shocking turn toward the past. When turned away from the Senate chamber, the reasons given were that “his credentials were not in order” because his appointment by the Governor of Illinois had not been certified, as required by law, by the Secretary of State of Illinois.
This is not the first time that we have faced a major controversy based on the obscure legal question about whether or not Secretaries of State, when charged by law with certifying and delivering state appointments, have some discretion, perhaps even some constitutional duty, to intercept and prevent improper or questionable appointments to offices of public trust. We may be facing the most improbable of replays because this case is now looking like Marbury v. Madison all over again.
Quite possibly the most famous but least understood of the great Supreme Court precedents, Marbury (1803) is widely believed to be the case that “created,” or at least “recognized,” the existence of judicial review in the U.S. constitutional system. However, many people don’t realize that Chief Justice John Marshall’s decision in Marbury marked, at least in the first instance, how weak the courts were when faced with direct conflicts of authority between themselves and the executive or legislative branches. In the incipient Burris case, it is not clear that the courts could exercise any more power now than Marshall’s court did then.
Let’s look at the facts of the earlier case in a very short form: William Marbury was appointed Justice of the Peace for the District of Columbia in the waning hours of the John Adams administration, one of many judicial officers who were appointed by the outgoing president and confirmed by the lame duck Senate in the panicked rush that preceded the inauguration of Thomas Jefferson as President. His appointment appeared to be clear of all of the constitutional hurdles, but federal law at the time required that commissions like Marbury’s be stamped with the Great Seal and then delivered by the Secretary of State. The outgoing Secretary of State – and incoming Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court – John Marshall did not have the time to perform this duty, and the new Secretary of State – James Madison – declined to do so on the argument that the appointment of these “midnight judges,” while perhaps technically legal, was certainly suspect. An outgoing administration, defeated at the polls and facing minority status in both houses of Congress as well as the loss of the presidency, seizes power in the judiciary by clever shenanigans.
Who could approve?
Madison’s disapproval of the Adams appointments is not at all unlike the widespread disgust now expressed about a presumptive felon and soon to be ex-governor making such an appointment to the Senate on behalf of all the people of Illinois.
Nobody claimed that Marbury did anything improper, but it was widely believed that those who created his position and appointed him to it did. Like Burris, he was deprived of a choice position on account of the presumed improprieties of those who appointed him. Marbury sued, as Burris presumably will, claiming that even though there were (and are) laws requiring action by the Secretary of State to complete official appointments, those laws do not allow any discretion for the Secretary of State(s). They are clear commands that the Secretary of State must take action to complete the appointments and a Secretary of State who fails to do so, does not prevent the appointment but only violates his own public duty. Marbury sued in the U.S. Supreme Court for a writ of mandamus, an order to act, that would force Madison to complete the sealing and delivery of his commission.
The Supreme Court accepted most of Marbury’s reasoning but ultimately (and this is what college freshmen often get wrong about the case) denied that it had the power to intervene in the dispute. Overturning a congressional law that (arguably) gave the Supreme Court the power to issue writs just like the one requested, John Marshall declared that yes, Marbury had a right to the office, and yes, Marbury was entitled to the commission, but no, the Court could not issue a mandamus to make Madison act. The Court’s decision seemed to concede that the judiciary could not make the executive branch deliver what it would not deliver. Thus, while laying the groundwork for the great power of judicial review, the case actually ended in the Court’s admission of its own weakness.
Now we return to Mr. Burris’s plight.
Perhaps he is correct that the Illinois Secretary of State cannot choose to withhold certification. Legally, there may be no discretion involved in the Secretary of State’s act, and perhaps, Burris has every legal right to the office of Senator. But let’s assume for a moment that the Senate majority is unmoved by these arguments, that they stand by the judgment that Burris’s appointment was “tainted” or improper, and that it is now incomplete. They can refuse to seat Burris, and even though Burris will sue, it is an open question whether the Court can now do what it could not do in 1803 – Can it force one of the other branches of the federal government to accept the judiciary’s judgment about who is properly appointed to an office under the other branch’s direct control?
Here, I have to say (the oft-cited but equally misunderstood Powell v. McCormack notwithstanding), Burris may face a fate not unlike Marbury’s. If the Senate relents and allows him to be seated, and there are some signs they may now plan to do so, all may yet end well for Roland Burris. But if the Senate leadership is really willing to stand by the judgment that the Illinois Secretary of State has effectively enjoined Burris’s appointment (much as Madison did Marbury’s), we may be reminded that for all of the judiciary’s apparent strength, the courts may not be any stronger in this regard than they were in 1803.
In 1803, rather than risk looking impotent when Madison simply ignored a mandamus directed to him, the Court found a way not to order anything that it could not enforce, and I suspect that faced with similar intransigence, should we make it that far, we may see this history repeated. I think that rather than watching the Senate ignore a court order that Mr. Burris be seated, courts might just decide that there is some good reason not to decide this case, or at least not to decide it quickly and to hope that another resolution saves them from ever having to do so.
I cannot say whether Marbury’s loss was tragedy, but we may safely say that this time, it is looking more and more like a farce. | <urn:uuid:51011e5b-f2ca-4513-a62d-df8fdf25f48a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2009/01/roland-burris-and-the-us-senate-a-replay-of-marbury-v-madison/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97558 | 1,416 | 2.3125 | 2 |
Regionalization, Changes in Home Bias, and the Growth of World Trade
NBER Working Paper No. 13023
In this paper we use numerical modeling methods to quantitatively assess the impacts of changes in home bias within regions on the growth of world trade among major blocs over the last three decades. Existing work focuses on the impacts of trade barrier, transport cost and income changes on trade growth, rather than preferences. Removing changes in home bias over the last three decades from our global general equilibrium model reduces world trade by 27% compared to actual world trade in 2004 in our central case scenario. These results support the view that world trade among major blocs has became more regionalized rather than internationalized which we suggest may be due to a proliferation of free trade agreements. We calibrate a simple global trade model of inter bloc trade to both 1975 and 2004 data and substitute different calibrated parameters from the two data sets between model parameterizations. Our results suggest that if changes over time in home bias involving different regionally sourced goods in a multi-region multi product model are removed, substantial effects follow for the growth of world trade in the last three decades. Home bias changes in developed and developing economies reduce world trade by 8% and 19% respectively, suggesting that regionalization is more pronounced in developing country trade. Our results also indicate that income growth, income convergence, and falling trade costs explain 76%, 4%, and 7% respectively of the growth of world trade over the last three decades.
Published: "Regionalization, Changes in Home Bias, and the Growth of World Trade" (with Xin Xian). Journal of Policy Modeling, forthcoming. | <urn:uuid:30eab304-7c4b-485d-8b1b-da8e0174b1db> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nber.org/papers/w13023 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.904128 | 336 | 1.875 | 2 |
Your Thanksgiving meal may be a little more expensive in 2012 over 2011 – about 13 percent higher, according to LSU AgCenter economists. But a turkey dinner with all the trimmings is still a bargain at about $4.50 per person, which is less than a typical fast food meal. Following are some tips to help make your Thanksgiving safe and enjoyable.
To make sure you have enough turkey for the feast and leftovers too, purchase at least one pound of uncooked turkey per person, says LSU AgCenter nutritionist Beth Reames.
“There’s no quality difference between a fresh or frozen turkey although fresh turkeys have shorter shelf lives,” Reames said. “And by purchasing a frozen turkey, you can often take advantage of special sales.”
If you buy a frozen bird, make sure you have adequate storage space in your freezer. If you buy a fresh turkey, be sure you purchase it only one or two days before cooking, she said.
Three safe ways to thaw a frozen turkey are in the refrigerator at 40 degrees or less, in cold water and in the microwave.
When thawing in the refrigerator, allow 24 hours of thawing time for every five pounds of turkey, Reames said. Place a frozen turkey in its store wrap on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator in a shallow pan or a baking sheet that has a lip to catch drips.
To thaw a turkey in cold water, keep it in the original packaging, place it in a clean and sanitized sink or pan, and submerge it in cold water. Change the cold water every 30 minutes.
When thawing a bird in the microwave, follow the manufacturer’s instructions. Plan to cook the turkey immediately after microwave thawing because some areas may become warm and begin to cook in the microwave.
“Do not thaw a commercially pre-stuffed frozen turkey before cooking,” Reames said. “If this product has been placed in the refrigerator and has completely thawed, discard both the turkey and the stuffing. Harmful bacteria may be present and can grow in the turkey as it thaws.”
If the turkey has ice crystals and the stuffing is still frozen, however, it is safe to cook. Both the turkey and the stuffing should be cooked to a safe minimum internal temperature of 165 degrees as measured with a food thermometer.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture no longer recommends rinsing a raw turkey in cool running water because heat during cooking will kill any bacteria, Reames said. Eliminating this step cuts the risk of cross contamination from rinse water splashed around the sink and on the counter.
To be safe after touching raw poultry or meat, Reames said, wash your hands for 20 seconds in hot, soapy water. Also, be sure that utensils, plates and work surfaces have been thoroughly cleaned.
Keep raw foods separate from cooked or ready-to-eat foods to avoid cross-contamination. Raw meat and poultry products may contain harmful bacteria, so it is important that the raw juices don’t come in contact with food that will be consumed without cooking. Also, never place cooked food on an unwashed plate that previously held raw meat or poultry.
To cook turkey safely, set the oven temperature no lower than 325 degrees. An unstuffed turkey that weighs 14 to 18 pounds will need to cook approximately 3 3/4 to 4 1/4 hours in a 325-degree oven.
A food thermometer is the only way to make sure that turkey has reached a high enough temperature to destroy harmful bacteria, Reames said. To make sure a whole turkey has reached a safe minimum internal temperature of 165 degrees, check the innermost part of the thigh and wing and thickest part of the breast.
If you prefer, you may cook turkey to higher temperatures, but don’t exceed 170 degrees in the breast and 180 degrees in the thigh.
“The color of cooked poultry is not always a sure sign of its safety,” Reames said. “Turkey can remain pink even after cooking to a safe temperature. And the meat of smoked turkey is always pink.”
If using an oven cooking bag, follow the manufacturer's guidelines on the package. A turkey will cook faster in an oven bag with less cleanup afterwards. A thermometer can be inserted through a hole in the oven bag so you can tell when your turkey is safely done.
Reames recommends cooking stuffing separately to help prevent overcooking the turkey. Cook stuffing to an internal temperature of 165 degrees.
If you choose to stuff a turkey, prepare the stuffing and put it into the turkey immediately before it's placed in the oven. Mix the wet and dry ingredients separately and combine them just before stuffing the turkey loosely.
If the turkey is done and the stuffing is not yet 165 degrees at the center, remove the stuffing and place it in a greased casserole dish to continue cooking to temperature.
Take care of leftovers promptly to keep foodborne bacteria from growing, Reames said.
“Refrigerate or freeze perishables, prepared food and leftovers within two hours of cooking,” she said. “Cut the turkey into small pieces and refrigerate stuffing and turkey separately in shallow containers. Use leftover turkey and stuffing within three to four days and gravy within one to two days or freeze them.”
Consumers with food safety questions can call the toll-free USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline at 888-674-6854. The hotline is available in English and Spanish and can be reached from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Eastern time Monday-Friday and from 8 a.m.-2 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. Recorded food safety messages are available 24 hours a day.
Read more about why food is higher priced this holiday season.
Want to brine a turkey? Read this.
Sweet potatoes add color and nutrients to your holiday meals.
Fried turkey is not necessarily unhealthful. Read more.
Keep holiday desserts safe. Here’s how.
The LSU AgCenter is one of 10 institutions of higher education in the Louisiana State University System. Headquartered in Baton Rouge, it provides educational services in every parish and conducts research that contributes to the economic development of the state. The LSU AgCenter does not grant degrees nor benefit from tuition increases. The LSU AgCenter plays an integral role in supporting agricultural industries, enhancing the environment, and improving the quality of life through its 4-H youth, family and community programs.
Send to friend | <urn:uuid:76a3b2f2-481c-484f-814e-8121c9d7f754> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lsuagcenter.com/en/communications/leads/Enjoy-Your-Thanksgiving-.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938019 | 1,363 | 2.046875 | 2 |
6 Ways to Speed up a Slow Camera
There's little more frustrating than missing an amazing picture just because your camera takes too long to shoot after you press the button. But there are some quick and easy adjustments that can speed up the first shot and reduce the time between shots, increasing your chances of making that magic photo. The following tips are generic, so be sure to read the manual on your camera to determine how to adjust the settings.
- Turn off “instant preview”
“Instant preview” is the feature that lets you take a quick peek at the shot you just took before you take another one. But when the action is happening, you want to keep shooting! To check the shots, just tap the playback button. But keep yourself in capture mode when there are pictures to be made.
- Turn the flash off
When there is good light (and only if there’s good light), make sure the flash is turned off. That’s because many point-and-shoot digital cameras will not fire another shot while the flash is recycling. So you will be waiting, waiting, waiting for the flash to recycle before your next shot.
If you were using the flash as a fill-flash to “fill-in” details or soften shadows in bright, outdoor light, make sure to check your camera for shadow and highlight-adjustment modes (new models only). Turning theses modes on will produce a similar effect, showing more detail with less contrast than models from just a few years ago, without requiring the flash to be on.
- Turn the flash (and AF-assist beam) on
In dark rooms and outdoors at night, turn the flash and AF-assist (autofocus-assist) beam on. Your camera needs light and contrast to focus, and the onboard pre-flash and/or AF-assist beam will significantly reduce the time it takes the camera to find your subject and focus, and decrease the number of out-of-focus shots in dim situations.
- Skip the fancy focus modes and go with the center focusing point
When it’s all happening pretty fast, use center focus instead of multi-point or any other focus mode. Then turn on continuous focusing mode if your subject is moving. Lenses are sharpest and have the best resolution at their centers. If the composition seems off, you can always crop it afterward. Better a sharp picture that’s cropped, than a missed photo any day.
When you've got a subject that isn't moving (or moving parallel to the camera) prefocus the camera by pressing the shutter button half-way. Once the camera focuses, just wait for the magic to happen and fire the shutter at the right moment! (You can also use this trick to lock focus on a centered subject and then recompose the shot to be an off-centered composition. Only use this trick on subjects that are several feet away, though. In close-ups you’ll notice unacceptable softness if the focal point is even slightly off.)
Prefocus your subject
- “Pre-capture” to make up for slow reflexes
If you simply cannot train your reflexes to nail the winning shot no matter how hard you try, check to see if your camera has a pre-capture mode, which starts taking shots and then buffering several once you’ve prefocused. This mode is available on some Olympus and Casio cameras.
The most important thing is to be familiar with how your camera operates, and prepare accordingly. Don't wait for a once-in-a-lifetime moment to see if your camera is quick at focusing in low light. Read the manual (as boring as it is) and do a little experimentation. You’ll be amazed by how much better your photos become.
Jack Howard is Director of New and Social Media for Adorama, and is the proprietor of the TechToch blog and Learning Center and host of their Podcasts. Jack is the author of Practical HDRI: High Dynamic Range Imaging for Photographers by Rocky Nook, Inc. Previously, Jack was the Editor of PopPhoto.com, the online photo portal for Popular Photography and American Photo Magazines. Jack is also an established photojournalist and former staff shooter for the Asbury Park Press. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Star-Ledger, The Asbury Park Press, Ithaca Journal, LI Newsday and many other papers and publications. | <urn:uuid:eb25e4dc-a90f-40b6-a58f-2022487574fa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.techlicious.com/how-to/6-ways-to-speed-up-a-slow-camera/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942589 | 933 | 1.90625 | 2 |
The power plant is built on a 4,457-acre site, and its cooling lake was formed from scarred farming land and an old strip mine. Units 1 and 2 began commercial operation in July and October of 1988, respectively.
Both of Braidwood’s units are pressurized water reactors designed by Westinghouse. Unit 1 is capable of generating 1,194 net megawatts (MW) of electricity, while Unit 2 is capable of generating 1,166 net MW. Together they can produce enough electricity to power more than 2 million average American homes.
Committed to Safety
Braidwood Generating Station, like all U.S. nuclear energy facilities, is based on a “defense-in-depth” design, which means there are redundant layers of safety. There are multiple layers of safety systems to provide water to the reactor core. These safety systems, and their backup safety systems, are powered by multiple and redundant power sources. Nuclear energy plants are built with multiple physical barriers, including thick, steel-reinforced concrete walls around the reactor to contain radioactive materials.
Our employees are personally committed to safety. They are highly-skilled workers and continually receive training to make our safe work practices even safer. We have a culture of continuous learning and implement lessons learned from operating experience to continue to operate safe nuclear energy facilities. Each employee has 100 percent accountability. We welcome strict, daily oversight by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). We work with the NRC to ensure that all regulations are complied with - and exceeded.
Learn more about the safety of Exelon's nuclear energy plants.
Generating More Low-Carbon Electricity
As part of Exelon 2020, Exelon Nuclear launched a series of planned power uprates across the company's nuclear fleet that will generate additional generation capacity within 8 years without turning a spade of earth. Uprate projects improve the efficiency and increase electricity output of a nuclear generating unit through upgrades to plant equipment. The projects take advantage of new production and measurement technologies, new materials and learning from a half-century of nuclear power operations
Braidwood employs a sophisticated emergency response plan to protect public health and safety approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the state of Illinois. The Emergency Planning includes coordination with local counties, municipalities and school districts.
Supporting the Local Economy
The majority of Braidwood’s approximately 825 Exelon employees live in Grundy and Will counties. The power plant’s annual payroll is about $63 million. During refueling outages, Braidwood employs several hundred temporary contractors who boost the local economy during their stay.
Braidwood aims to be a good neighbor and is very active in the local community.
- Sponsorship. The power plant sponsors several community events including the Braidwood SummerFest Fireworks and the Braidwood Shootout, a 32-team basketball tournament held annually at Reed Custer High School. The plant also sponsors numerous other community events and youth sports teams.
- Charitable Giving. Braidwood employees give generously to the community through a variety of charitable activities including the local United Way chapters and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund. The plant also sponsors blood drives throughout the year, helping local hospitals. The plant’s “Goodwill Committee” also runs food, toy and fund drives to support various community groups and agencies.
- Events. “Fishing for a Cure” is the power plant’s signature event. This annual fishing tournament raises money for a local charity selected each year by employees. Exelon pays for the event, allowing 100% of the entry fee, raffles and silent auctions to go directly to the chosen charity. Over the years, the event has raised more than $150,000 for charity. The 2010 event, which benefited Operation MOMS Cookies and deployed American troops raised $28,000.
Braidwood Community Newsletter [PDF, 500 KB]Braidwood Generating Station strives to keep its neighbors informed about events at the plant. View a copy of the most recent community newsletter mailed to Braidwood's neighbors. | <urn:uuid:b75631ba-e024-4cf0-97e6-b50e801a7039> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.exeloncorp.com/PowerPlants/braidwood/profile.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941968 | 850 | 2.75 | 3 |
New Look for the Colorblind
While a new type of eyeglass lens won't bring a full rainbow of hues to the eyes of the colorblind, it may help some enjoy a more colorful life.
Reviewed By Michael Smith
When optometrist Frank Siciliano, OD, first saw an advertisement for ColorMax eyeglass lenses, he took more than a professional interest. Siciliano, who runs the Belmont Eye Clinic in Youngstown, Ohio, is colorblind himself and knows the frustration of not being able to see the world in full, brilliant color.
In September 1999 he contacted Color Vision Technologies Inc., the Tustin, Calif., company that developed the lenses, and became one of the first optometrists to both wear and prescribe them to improve his red-green colorblindness.
"There is no question they work," he says. "They are like wearing sunglasses, but they enhance reds. They brighten and lighten the shades you now see as dark and washed out. And the problem with greens is they aren't dark enough. With the lenses, the greens are much darker and you can see contrasts."
By slipping on eyeglass lenses with a unique coating that "fine tunes" the light entering the eyes, many of the 12 million colorblind people in the United States may, for the first time, be able to improve their ability to perceive some colors. James Bailey, OD, PhD, a member of ColorMax's science advisory board and a faculty member at the Southern California College of Optometry in Fullerton, emphasizes that the new lens coating is not a cure for colorblindness. He calls it "an optical and therapeutic aid that helps [some colorblind people] better use what vision they have."
"Anybody who works with surface colors, such as electricians, assemblers of color-coded parts, cooks who have to judge when meat is done, or aviators reading radar screens, might be helped with these lenses," says Bailey. Although they are only available for people suffering from red-green colorblindness, that represents 80% of those who have color vision problems.
Colorblindness, or more accurately color vision deficiency, mostly affects men and tends to run in families. As many as one in 12 men has some degree of this condition, as compared to about one in every 250 women. Besides difficulty with red-green perception, some people have other color vision problems, such an inability to distinguish yellows from blues. In very rare cases, a person may be truly colorblind and see only shades of black and white.
The ColorMax lenses work by shifting the wavelengths of the light entering the eye towards the longer end of the visible spectrum, Bailey says, making it easier for the eye to distinguish between the "warm" colors -- reds, yellows, and oranges. However, the wavelengths of colors at the shorter end of the spectrum -- blues and purples -- are also shifted. These may actually become slightly harder to distinguish. Greens fall in the middle and are less noticeably affected. The result is not "normal" vision, but an enhanced contrast between colors.
When Siciliano first tried the lenses, he could instantly see many more variations in shades of color. "You have to relearn all of the colors with the glasses on," he says. "Someone has to tell you, 'that is red.' You say, 'OK, that's red,' and work from there."
Even the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was careful to point out limitations of the ColorMax lens coating technique when the agency approved it in November 1999. "The lenses do not help wearers perceive or appreciate colors as people with normal color vision do, but merely add brightness/darkness differences to colors that are otherwise difficult or impossible to distinguish," says an FDA "Talk Paper." The FDA says that any promotion of the lenses as "a way to correct colorblindness" may be "misleading."
Many eye experts are similarly cautious. "The problem is that there is not a lot of information available to judge them," says Jeffrey Weaver, OD, the director of the clinical care group of the American Optometric Association. "I don't have the clinical trial information, although I've asked for it. I'm not going to be convinced of anything until the ColorMax researchers publish a paper on it."
Ophthalmologist Joel Pokorny, PhD, of the University of Chicago's visual sciences department, says he is "open" to the idea of the lenses, "but I don't think you're going to gain much. There is a theoretical possibility that they could improve some discrimination of color in the real world, but it's a trade off. You will lose some discrimination as well. But overall, they could help a little bit."
That little bit of help isn't cheap -- $699 for a pair of adult lenses, $499 for children's glasses. The high price reflects extensive research and development costs, according to the company. Pokorny called the price "way out of line" considering the limited improvements in vision.
Still, some colorblind patients are clearly willing to give the lenses a try. Some people need to distinguish among colors for their jobs, he said, while others "are motivated by simply being able to do better color matching of their clothes."
The co-author of two books, Jim Dawson is a former MIT Knight Science Journalism fellow and science writing fellow at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass. He also has written for the Minneapolis Start Tribune.
Originally published April 24, 2000.
Medically updated May 16, 2003.
©1996-2005 WebMD Inc. All rights reserved.
Get the latest health and medical information delivered direct to your inbox FREE! | <urn:uuid:a4cee609-016b-48c1-8a47-a0bd43f714f3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=51037 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96529 | 1,186 | 1.921875 | 2 |
Courses & Credits - Advanced Studies
Students studying on the Advanced Studies program will enroll 14-17 credits at the Skidmore Center in Paris and/or at a variety of institutions throughout Paris. Each student is required to take a French language course and at least one additional course taught at the Skidmore Center. Most courses are taught in French although there are a few courses taught in English in certain disciplines.
Coursework taken in Paris is reported on a Skidmore transcript, and grades will be computed into the Skidmore GPA. Maturity-level credits taken in Paris may count toward Skidmore's maturity-level requirements with upon departmental approval. Visiting students should check with their home campuses for information on credit transfer.
Skidmore Center Courses
Each semester, the Skidmore Center will provide 5-7 courses just for students on the program. Skidmore Center courses are only for students on the program and are taught by French or international faculty. Courses offered at the Skidmore Center are taught in French, except for the occasional English department course.
Partner Institutions (Courses outside of the Skidmore Center)
Skidmore partners with a number of academic institutions in Paris to offer a wider range of course options for students. However, enrollment at some outside institutions, like the French universities, Paris IV-La Sorbonne, Paris X-Nanterre, and l’Institut Catholique, depends on linguistic competence.
Skidmore has official exchange agreements with the Université de Paris IV, La Sorbonne and the Université de Paris X, Nanterre, however, program participants also have the opportunity to enroll in courses at additional institutions, such as:
*Require advanced language skills
Actual course offerings available outside the center will vary each semester depending on what is available through the local universities and students’ academic needs. The exact list of courses available at outside institutions will NOT be available until after arrival in Paris.
For information about course options in Paris, please see the Advanced Studies course guide.
Skidmore students who are French language majors at the advanced language level are required to take at least one elective at a French university that is taught in French.
Internship experiences are also available to full-year participants during the spring semester in a variety of fields. Internship participants must meet the appropriate qualifications and experience required for the placement. Fields included are business, psychology, government, art, as well as teaching English at various levels in Parisian public schools and colleges.
Tutorials for French university courses
Courses offered at the francophone universities are taught in French and are part of the regular curriculum at the university. In order to facilitate our students' comprehension and integration into the French academic system, select courses offered through the local universities are accompanied by Skidmore-sponsored tutorials that aim to help students succeed in that given discipline.
CREATIVE THOUGHT MATTERS
Skidmore College · 815 North Broadway · Saratoga Springs, NY 12866
© 2006 Skidmore College | <urn:uuid:4622c054-302e-4acf-a68a-4c147fd9bee2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cms.skidmore.edu/ocse/programs/paris/courses/index.cfm?RenderForPrint=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926563 | 639 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Most of the land in Maine that is covered with water is publicly
owned. Historically, this public ownership dates back to Colonial
times when these lands were reserved as a public trust. That
is, everyone had a right to use them for "fishing, fowling
(hunting), and "navigation". These were considered
essential public rights, and the State of Maine has retained
these rights, and included public access and recreation, as
have most other states.
Piers and other structures located
on submerged lands may be privately owned; the land and water
beneath them are not.
What We Do:
- Administer leases and easements for structures located on submerged lands.
- Administer the sunken log salvage program.
- Offering opportunities
for qualified companies and individuals to salvage sunken
logs from publicly owned submerged lands.
- For more information
view the Sunken
Log Salvage Rules. - PDF (33KB)
Publicly Owned Submerged Lands - as defined by the State of Maine:
Coastal region (including islands): All land from
the mean low-water mark out
to the three mile territorial limit. Where intertidal
flats are extensive, the shoreward boundary begins 1,650
feet seaward from the mean high-water mark.
Tidal Rivers: All land below the mean low-water
mark of tidal rivers upstream to the farthest natural
reaches of the tides.
Great Ponds: All land below the natural low-water
mark of ponds that are 10 or more acres in size in their
Boundary Rivers: Land lying between the banks
of rivers that form Maine's border with Canada.
Publicly owned submerged lands do not include:
- Beaches or
other shoreland that is covered by water only at high tide
- Land that has been flooded by dams
- Land beneath ponds that
are less than 10 acres in size, or
- Land beneath non-tidal rivers that do not border Canada
A Lease or Easement is Required for structures located on submerged land when:
- Existing use is being changed
- Size of an existing
structure is being changed
- New structures that will be permanent, are being built
- New seasonal
structures larger than 2,000 square feet and used for commercial
fishing related purposes, or larger than 500 square feet for
any other purpose
- Leases or easements are also required for
pipelines, utility cables, outfall/intake pipes, and dredging.
To Qualify for a Lease or Easement:
- Proposed use cannot
have adverse impacts on:
- Access to or over the waters of the
- Public trust rights - fishing, waterfowl hunting, navigation,
and recreation; and/or
- Services and facilities for commercial marine activities.
Lease or Easement?
The size and nature of the project determines whether a lease,
which has an annual rental fee, or an easement, which has
a registration fee, is required.
The Division will usually not approve leases or easements for:
- Filling submerged land
- Activities that could take place
on the upland such as offices, parking space, restaurants,
The Division may place special conditions on the terms of a
lease or easement when traditional and customary public uses
are diminished. Projects may be required to include public
walkways or boatramps; navigational improvements; publicly
accessible space for fishing, sight-seeing, waterfowl hunting,
or recreation; and/or protection of important commercial fishing
and water dependent activities.
Structures that were in place prior to October 1, 1975 were granted constructive easements that expired on September 30, 2005. New leases or easements from the Division are required to legally occupy the submerged lands where the structure is located. Applications are available from the Division to replace constructive easements with a new lease or easement.
For Lease Application process, including related fees, and information regarding the management of submerged
Application Forms are available from the Division of Parks and Public Lands.
For more information about submerged lands, contact:
Submerged Lands Program
Maine Division of Parks and Public Lands
22 State House Station
Augusta, Maine 04333-0022
Telephone: (207) 287-3061
Fax: (207) 287-8111 | <urn:uuid:23f5d657-3b1f-4ceb-95a6-38ff51fda691> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.maine.gov/doc/parks/programs/sublands/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920462 | 930 | 3.171875 | 3 |
It has been 30 years since the last bottle of New Albion beer was sold, marking an end to the first, short-lived modern microbrewery. But Jack McAuliffe's brewery, which lasted from 1977 to 1983, inspired a movement. Today, there are more than 2,290 craft breweries, and another 1,381 are in the planning stages. And New Albion's pale ale has been resurrected at last.
I've written about McAuliffe before and shared the tale of what happened after New Albion closed its doors, the brewmaster's return to his engineering career and his disappearance from the brewing scene. But the newest chapter hails from Boston Beer Co. founder Jim Koch, whose admiration for McAuliffe was so great that when he discovered the
When Koch started making Samuel Adams in 1984, there were very few new breweries. New Albion was like a "mythic unicorn, with tales told about it," he says. The pioneers in the craft brewing movement faced many challenges, including a dearth of small-scale brewing equipment and a lack of interest on the part of distributors and retailers.
"You had to make your own way," he says. "If you have to do that, you really appreciate and understand what it is to be a pioneer."
In the spring of 2007 -- thanks largely to Koch's efforts -- McAuliffe received a recognition award from the Brewers Association at the annual Craft Brewers
Two years later, McAuliffe was in a serious car accident and moved to San Antonio to live with his sister. There, he joined a local home-brew club, where he crossed paths with a Samuel Adams employee -- and word soon reached Koch.
Gradually, McAuliffe began reimmersing himself in the brewing community. He collaborated with Sierra Nevada brewmaster Ken Grossman on a special, anniversary beer, Jack & Ken's Ale. McAuliffe spoke at the 2011 Craft Brewers Conference, held in San Francisco, and visited Russian River Brewing in Santa Rosa, where the original New Albion sign hangs on the wall behind the bar. At the Great American Beer Festival that year, he sat down with Koch for the first time to talk about a new New Albion.
In July, McAuliffe flew to Boston to brew a pale ale, one of the original New Albion beers, with Koch. They spent the day tweaking the old recipe from memory. In the fall, the draft beer made its debut when McAuliffe served it at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver. He finally seemed pleased and at ease with the notion of what he had helped start, and he voiced his amazement at just how big small beer has become.
On Thursday, bottles of New Albion Ale will be available for the first time in three decades. McAuliffe and Koch will celebrate the launch at Russian River Brewing from 6 to 8 p.m. with Russian River Brewing co-founder Vinnie Cilurzo, who calls McAuliffe "one of the true pioneers in the craft beer industry, right up there with Fritz Maytag and Ken Grossman. We are thrilled to host Jack and the Boston Beer Co. and the rerelease of New Albion Ale."
Don't worry if you can't make it to Santa Rosa. Bottles are being released nationwide, so you should be able to find some anywhere Samuel Adams is sold -- and New Albion Ale proceeds go directly to the now-retired McAuliffe.
"I would like it to be significant enough to be meaningful to him," Koch says. "Jack started all this. We all have very good lives on account of what he went through on our behalf."
Join me in drinking a toast to the return of New Albion Ale. | <urn:uuid:fddf1868-ce77-4db4-8aba-e8e415d588fe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.insidebayarea.com/top-stories/ci_22332967 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974168 | 731 | 1.585938 | 2 |
- Turn 2 Home
- Turn 2 Programs
- Jeter's Leaders
- Kids' Corner
Youth In Action
Youth In Action is an after-school enrichment program at Milwood Magnet Middle School in Kalamazoo, Mich. The program was developed to help students handle the pressures they face to take part in unhealthy behaviors as they transition from elementary to middle school and from middle to high school. The program focuses heavily on educational enrichment and offers a life-lesson curriculum aimed at reinforcing healthy lifestyles and leadership. The program offers academic support, as well as field trips, athletics and teambuilding activities. Youth In Action students are often mentored by high school students including the Kalamazoo Jeter's Leaders.
2010-11 Program HighlightsAPRIL/MAY 2011
These months were packed with fun and educational activities. Activities included team-building workshops, video game day, "Can-Do Kitchen" activity, a trip to the nature center, a trip to Glass Works Kalamazoo, camping trip prep at Van Buren State Park, a tour of Kalamazoo Valley Community College, a tour of Kalamazoo College and an end-of-the-school year party!
The participants also had a learning activity entitled "Life Map." The activity made the students reflect on past and present experiences in their lives, and where they would like to go in the future.
Another great highlight was the camping trip to Van Buren State Park. The participants practiced living cooperatively for two days and one night during this adventure. The participants showed great self-sufficiency during the trip and reflected on the importance of living in a positive community.
March was a month of career exploration for participants at Youth in Action. The students visited several small businesses in Kalamazoo to get a first-hand look at entrepreneurship in their town. They also had guest speakers come in and talk to them about careers in medicine and hospitals. Many participants had also expressed interest in the education field, so they were able to have a guest speaker from Western Michigan University speak to them about possible careers in higher education.
In February, the youth kicked off their Prevention Works program. The program aims to raise awareness and educate on drug and alcohol prevention among youth. Students discussed ideas on how to stay drug-and-alcohol free and live a positive and healthy lifestyle. The program aims to spread the word of prevention to their peers as well.
During the month of January students participated in the Kalamazoo Community Day of Service on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Youth in Action participants volunteered working on brush clearing at the Kalamazoo Nature Center, as well as assisting first graders with homework at El Sol Elementary school. The group also went on a winter camping trip. Participants snow-shoed into a remote campsite and showed a great deal of commitment, preparation and perseverance throughout the entire activity.
The Kalamazoo Jeter's Leaders joined Youth in Action participants on a trip to the Kalamazoo Waste Water Treatment Plant. They discussed careers in science, education and the ecology of waste-water treatment.
December was a busy month for participants of the Youth in Action program. Eighth graders participated in a teen advisory board at the Kalamazoo public library, and the seventh graders participated in various team-building activities at Milwood Magnet Middle School. All students participated in service projects at Hays Park. Another great service activity for the month was the month-long Kalamazoo food drive!
First aid and safety was a big spotlight for the month of November. The students received a presentation in first aid. They were able to share what they learned with the Kalamazoo Jeter's Leaders when they visited them later in the month.
The program year got off to a great start with high attendance and great special events. Early in the month, the participants went to the Adventure Centre for some wall climbing, where they had to climb a large tower. They all had a great and safe time! Many students have identified academic goals for the start of the school year. The group set a 3.0 grade point average goal. Students also set goals to be better leaders, and live healthy lifestyles by participating in many school sports and extracurricular activities. | <urn:uuid:d47eebe9-8e67-407e-9c13-9e31d22284e4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://arizona.diamondbacks.mlb.com/players/jeter_derek/turn2/youth.jsp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968082 | 867 | 2.34375 | 2 |
Antipsychotics Tied to Kids' Weight Gain
Study Shows Weight Gain in First 3 Months of Taking Atypical Antipsychotic Drugs
Oct. 27, 2009 -- Taking newer antipsychotic drugs may lead to weight gain in
children and teens, a new study shows.
The study, published in The Journal of the American Medical
Association, focuses on atypical antipsychotics, which have been linked to
weight gain in adults.
The researchers tracked 338 children and teens (average age 14) in the
Queens, N.Y., area during their first three months of taking any of these
atypical antipsychotics: Abilify, Risperdal, Seroquel, and Zyprexa. When the
study started, most of the patients -- about 62% -- had a normal BMI (body mass
The children's doctors prescribed atypical antipsychotics to treat
conditions such as schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder, and disruptive
or aggressive behavior, which in some cases was linked to autism spectrum
disorders. Many of those uses are "off label," or not approved by the FDA, for
use in pediatric patients, although several are up for FDA consideration for
The findings link all four drugs to weight gain. Here are the average
amounts of weight gained by the kids after three months of treatment:
- Abilify: nearly 10 pounds
- Risperdal: nearly 12 pounds
- Seroquel 13 pounds
- Zyprexa: nearly 19 pounds
By comparison, 15 patients who refused or quit taking the drugs gained less
than half a pound during those three months.
The findings also link all of the drugs, except Abilify, to various
metabolic changes. Levels of total cholesterol and triglycerides rose in
patients taking Zyprexa and Seroquel. Triglycerides also increased in patients
The researchers, who included Christoph Correll, MD, of Zucker Hillside
Hospital in Glen Oaks, N.Y., call the findings "concerning." But they don't
advise against taking atypical antipsychotics when needed.
Instead, Correll's team suggests that children and teens get "more frequent
(e.g., biannual) cardiometabolic monitoring after the first three months of
treatment" with atypical antipsychotics.
The findings are "timely and sobering," states an editorial published with
"These medications can be lifesaving for youth with serious psychiatric
illnesses such as schizophrenia, classically defined bipolar disorder, or
severe aggression associated with autism," write the editorialists, who
included Christopher Varley, MD, of Seattle Children's Hospital.
"However, given the risk for weight gain and long-term risk for
cardiovascular and metabolic problems, the widespread and increasing use of
atypical antipsychotic medications in children and adolescents should be
Correll's study lasted three months; it did not track the patients'
In the journal, Correll and several other researchers disclose ties to
various drug companies, including the makers of Abilify, Risperdal, Seroquel,
and Zyprexa. The editorialists report no conflicts of interest. | <urn:uuid:6484d7d4-2ec3-48eb-91a4-96d119d4a18f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://children.webmd.com/news/20091027/antipsychotics-tied-to-kids-weight-gain?src=rsf_full-3617_pub_none_rltd | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911814 | 678 | 2.5 | 2 |
This chapter was contributed by the Australian Government Department of Defence (November 2009).
The Australian Defence Organisation is made up of over 90,000 personnel across the Australian Defence Force permanent forces, Reserve forces, and civilian employees. The operational tempo of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) has been high over the past year, with a peak contribution of over 3,500 personnel serving on 18 deployments around the world. The skill, courage, and integrity of our service men and women has been exemplary, evoking the finest traditions of the ADF. The awarding of the Victoria Cross to Trooper Mark Donaldson in January 2009, the first Australian in almost 40 years to receive the award, was a fitting recognition for his outstanding bravery and courage.
This chapter provides an overview of the roles and activities of Defence. In particular, it focuses on the strategic environment, current operations and capability. The chapter also shows trends in Defence spending, and looks at the composition of the workforce.
The information contained in this chapter was the most recent available at the time of preparation. Where available, further and more up-to-date information can be found on the Defence website, <http://www.defence.gov.au> or from the references listed in the bibliography at the end of this chapter.
This page last updated 21 January 2013 | <urn:uuid:e99187e0-d6d1-4288-b8f7-ab8105c96e3e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/0/9F6C9A6FCA43EEECCA25773700169C53?opendocument | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9483 | 268 | 2.703125 | 3 |
I love living in Haines, it is so beautiful – the mountains rise right up from the beach and river valleys. There are lots of fish and wildlife and plenty of interesting, friendly people. I also like the influence my Tlingit neighbors have on our culture and community values. Without traffic or chain stores, Haines is more like older towns Outside than many Alaskan communities. The shops are owned by locals and the new school is full of children whose families I know. We have sidewalks, a Main Street, and not one traffic light. It is a great place to walk, run and ride bikes. I’ve lived here all of my adult life, and can’t imagine living anywhere else. Haines is small, but we have everything you need, from books and groceries (including organic ones) to building supplies (thanks to my husband’s lumberyard) and sporting gear. Our library is in the heart of town and was voted The Best Small Library in America a few years back by Library Journal (I’m on the library board). We have a public radio station (I am a volunteer there, too), and a weekly paper, the Chilkat Valley News (I write the obituaries). The Chilkat Center for the Arts has wonderful acoustics, the Arts Council is active, our ambulance crew is first rate and the clinic is modern. Everyone in Alaska has heard of the Chilkat Bald Eagle Festival, our November gathering of 3,000 or so eagles, and the Kluane to Chilkat International Bike Relay from the Yukon down to Haines is another good reason to come here. Also, the Southeast Alaska State Fair (annually during the last few days of July) is a nice weekend of folksy, small-town music and fun.
1.) A taste of art and culture
One the neatest new attractions for both locals and visitors is the new Klukwan Traditional Knowledge Camp (32 Chilkat Ave., Klukwan, 907-767-5505) It is great place to spend some time learning about Tlingit culture from the people who have lived here for thousands of years. Haines has more artists per capita than any small town – and not just in Alaska but the whole country. When you live with artists, community discussions change. They see the world in a different way, and I appreciate their attitude toward work and life. It spills over into a town where people don’t live and work all that conventionally. There’s not room to list all the amazing artists in Haines, but to find their work and take some home, visit Whale Rider Gallery(16 Portage Street, 907-766-2540), Extreme Dreams Fine Arts Studio-Gallery (6.5 Mile Mud Bay Road, 907-766-2097) orAlaska Indian Arts, Inc. (24 Fort Seward Drive, 907-766-2160).
2.) Getting from here to there
I like our isolation, but I also like all the ways we can come and go, especially the Alaska Marine Highway (907-465-3941). Ferries are such a relaxing, civilized way to travel. It takes about five hours to reach Haines from Juneau, so if you want a quicker, 45-minute trip with flight seeing thrown in for free, try Wings of Alaska (907-766-2030). The scenic drive – or bicycle ride – on the Haines Highway to and from Canada, or the rest of Alaska, is also great.
3.) Hiking in Haines My favorite hike, winter (with snowshoes) and summer, is Mount Ripinsky. The 3,600-foot peak rises right up behind town and has several trails that offer steep terrain, great views and a quiet wilderness experience from our big woods, and lush coastal brush to the heath and flowered alpine. On the Fourth of July, there’s a race on one of the trails that is more of a rock scramble. It only takes about a half hour, but it may the hardest half hour you’ve ever spent. It is crazy and I love it. If I have an afternoon off—and even when I don’t, but the weather is good—Mount Ripinsky is where you’ll find me. Truly, in rain or shine, winter snow or under blue summer skies, even in the moonlight, it is a world-class hike right behind downtown Haines. Every time I’m up there it is like taking a little vacation.
4.) A relaxing day in Haines
The coastal Battery Point Trail makes a good, short, lunchtime walk with the dogs, especially since they can swim when we get to the beach. Mount Riley is a longer, woodsy hike, and just as pleasant in the rain. The Seduction Point Trail at Chilkat State Park is a good trail run or Sunday afternoon walk and nice when the blueberries are ripe. I also just like to mosey around historic Fort Seward, especially on summer afternoons when the shops and eateries are open. I like the smell of the smoking salmon from the smokery, and love hanging out in the English-style garden of Mayor Fred and Madeleine Shield’s art shop,The Wild Iris (22 Tower road, 907-766-2300) – the view is great, the flowers, fruits and vegetables are incredible, and Fred is always interesting to talk with.From there you can walk along Portage Cove to downtown. I love the giant hammer in front of the Hammer Museum (108 Main Street, 907-766-2374) – it is really something when it’s wrapped in Christmas lights. And you can’t pass the Babbling Book bookstore (223 Maine Street, 907-766-3356) without buying a book or newspaper. I like poking around the boat harbor when the gillnet fleet is in, looking at the boats and hearing the conversations and picking up some fresh crab, shrimp, salmon or halibut for dinner. A perfect summer Haines day for me begins with local coffee —Mountain Market (3rd Ave., 907-766-3340) roasts their own beans – includes something active outdoors and ends with a big dinner with family and friends of local fish, produce, and beer from the Haines Brewery (108 White Fang Way, 907-766-3823). My kids help gather spruce tips from the trees in our yard for the brewery’s spruce tip ale. | <urn:uuid:43b29edc-5909-4b9e-85bb-d48dd58289ae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.travelalaska.com/Experience%20Alaska/Alaska%20Locals/Heather%20Lende.aspx | 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 | 0.941171 | 1,388 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
By WILLIAM J. KEMBLE
WOODSTOCK, N.Y. — The Town Board has dropped a plan for a solar farm at the sewage treatment plant on state Route 212 and will start over in seeking a solar solution that can provide electricity for municipal buildings.
The decision was made during a meeting last week in a 4-0 vote, with Councilman Ken Panza abstaining on the resolution to drop the plan to hire a developer to install a 750-kilowatt solar farm at the sewage treatment plant.
“The town, based on the advice of the subcommittee consisting of councilpersons Jay Wenk and Cathy Magarelli, pulled the plug on the solar endeavor that we had launched last April or March,” Supervisor Jeremy Wilber said.
“They just felt the (power purchase agreement) structure ... was not right now the appropriate one for the town,” he said. “There are many alternatives that they think the town should consider. For instance, instead of one big solar farm with a net metering system like what was being contemplated ... go to each of the individual installations of the town that consume electric energy and put up solar arrays there.”
Under the plan the array would have been constructed for $3 million and owned by OnForce Solar for 20 years before it was turned over to the town at an unspecified price. Electricity generated by the system would have been sent into the regional grid, with the town receiving payment from Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp.
Officials have said the town has about $100,000 in annual electric costs that would not have been eliminated under the plan and would have had to spend about $7,000 annually to pay for the equipment under the OnForce Solar plan.
About half of the dozen speakers during a meeting in December expressed concern that expenses were not detailed and even supporters had questions about uncertainty over the absence of information about projected savings after completion. | <urn:uuid:e67f27ab-6bd5-4988-90c9-504fae094c24> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailyfreeman.com/articles/2013/02/19/news/doc5122b8e766f0b876486981.prt | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97737 | 403 | 1.625 | 2 |
When it comes to financing US elections, there are only three things one needs to know: inflation is runaway, monies come from businesses, and funding is anything but disinterested.
Runaway inflation? Each new election pulverises the records set by its predecessor: $1bn in 1992 grew to $2bn in 1996 and exploded to between $3bn and $4bn in 2000. The two media-aimed conventions of last summer, the Republican one in Philadelphia and the Democratic one in Los Angeles, cost the equivalent of the national budget of Mali (population 11m) for two months.
The party of Clinton and Gore may claim to be the party of the workers. However, large corporations, not unions, account for 75.2% of the contributions received this year by the Democratic National Committee. Gore has been especially pampered by Occidental Petroleum, Bell South, Hollywood studios and the lobby representing trial lawyers. Bush is the favourite son of military industries, insurance companies, and the real estate sector. Often multinationals, unable to discern the programme that will favour them the most, hedge their bets. Bill Gates, whose political "investments" have risen exponentially, made sure financially that whatever happens Microsoft will have a friend in the White House - and the White House a friend at Microsoft. On Wall Street, PaineWebber favours the Republicans whereas Goldman Sachs prefers the Democrats; the fancy of Citygroup was split, so it offered $567,000 to the Republicans and $552,000 to the Democrats (1).
Disinterested generosity? The leading mouthpiece for AOL-Time-Warner concluded in one of its inquiries into the matter: "Washington repeatedly favoured those who pay, at the expense of those who do not" (2). Americans who contribute the brunt of election funds make up barely 0.1% of the population, but their access to decision-makers in state bureaucracies and in Congress is guaranteed. The communications giants, who plan to invest $200bn over the next four years, donated $27m to the two main candidates - a modest investment, all things considered. Sixty per cent of that amount went to the Democrats. Does this express a desire to prepare the future or a gift for services already rendered? Political scientists are debating the question.
Over the last two years the average wealth of the 400 most affluent Americans has increased by $940m per person. Some of them have been goaded by this newfound wealth to try and entertain themselves with politics. Jon Corzine, who retired from his position as CEO of Goldman Sachs at the age of 53, was once too busy even to vote; he has now purchased himself as seat as US senator for New Jersey. The cost: $61m, paid for out of his own pocket. It is an all-time record and almost exactly the sum (480m francs) expended by all the 6,214 candidates in France’s last legislative election. Corzine is a Democrat.
All this money is not devoid of effect: 92% of the representatives and 88% of the senators elected were the candidates who spent the most. Often their financial advantage is due to the fact that they are incumbents - the latter are re-elected in 95% of the cases - and that they already have rendered services for a fee. Thanks to this flood of money, Americans were able to consume an extra $1bn in advertising this year. Elections are now the third largest source of advertising revenue for the television channels. The media, interestingly, think US politics is very democratic As for the Supreme Court, it considers that stricter control of political spending would jeopardise freedom of expression. | <urn:uuid:2eb5d996-62ef-4ffb-b0f2-6f30f14d6f54> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mondediplo.com/2000/12/04business | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969067 | 748 | 1.882813 | 2 |
A lot of people will have shoulder pain at some point in their lives – especially if they spend a significant amount of time in front of a computer.One of the major reasons is poor posture. We have a tendency to slouch in front of our computers while we work (for some reason we always have to lean towards the screen). At first, this position is comfortable – but it easily becomes a bad habit. If you continue to slouch the muscles in your back and shoulders get stretched out. Muscles are similar to rubber bands – they can stretch very easily. But, if you stretch that rubber band too hard for too long it will get weaker AND longer. When muscles get too weak and too long they become painful.
Soreness and muscle knots are also common because of the stress the muscles are going through. They are your body’s reaction to the weakness and pain the muscles are experiencing. The knots can be very painful and can stick around for a very long time.
- Better POSTURE
- Stand up and stretch REGULARLY
- STRENGTHEN those weak muscles
- Get an ERGONOMIC setup at your work station
Contact a physical therapist for some suggestions as well, and you will be surprised how much better you will feel in only a week.Tyler Jepson, Doctor of Physical Therapy (P.T.) and Blog Sciences (B.S.) Emergency Department
Filed under: Common Aches & Pains | <urn:uuid:582b624f-c14d-4552-b043-275d6b75f5b4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://stlukeselksrehab.com/blog/?p=49 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960921 | 298 | 2.4375 | 2 |
Summary: With its complete, interactive, objective-based approach, Essential Mathematics with Applications is a best-seller in this market. The Seventh Edition provides mathematically sound and comprehensive coverage of the topics considered essential in an arithmetic course. The text includes chapter-opening Prep Tests, updated applications, and a new design. A robust Instructor's Annotated Edition features a comprehensive selection of instructor support materials. The Aufma ...show morenn Interactive Method is incorporated throughout the text, ensuring that students interact with and master the concepts as they are presented. This approach is especially important in the context of rapidly growing distance-learning and self-paced laboratory situations. Edition/Copyright: 7TH 05
- New! Study Tips margin notes provide point-of-use advice and refer students back to the AIM for Success preface for support where appropriate.
- Integrating Technology (formerly Calculator Notes) margin notes provide suggestions for using a calculator in certain situations. For added support and quick reference, a scientific calculator screen is displayed on the inside back cover of the text.
- Enhanced! More bulleted annotations have been added to the solution steps of examples and to the You Try It solutions in the appendix.
- Enhanced! Examples have been clearly labeled How To, making them more prominent to the student.
- Enhanced! More operation application problems integrated into the Applying the Concepts exercises encourage students to judge which operation is needed to solve a word problem.
- New! Nearly 100 new photos add real-world appeal and motivation.
- Revised! The Chapter Summary has been reformatted to include an example column, offering students increased visual support.
- Enhanced! In response to instructor feedback, the number of Chapter Review Exercises and Cumulative Review Exercises has increased.
- Enhanced! This edition features additional coverage of time (Chapter 8), bytes (Chapter 9), and temperature (Chapter 11).
- Aufmann Interactive Method (AIM) Every section objective contains one or more sets of matched-pair examples that encourage students to interact with the text. The first example in each set is completely worked out; the second example, called 'You Try It,' is for the student to work. By solving the You Try It, students practice concepts as they are presented in the text. Complete worked-out solutions to these examples in an appendix enable students to check their solutions and obtain immediate reinforcement of the concept. While similar texts offer only final answers to examples, the Aufmann texts' complete solutions help students identify their mistakes and prevent frustration.
- Integrated learning system organized by objectives. Each chapter begins with a list of learning objectives that form the framework for a complete learning system. The objectives are woven throughout the text (in Exercises, Chapter Tests, and Cumulative Reviews) and also connect the text with the print and multimedia ancillaries. This results in a seamless, easy-to-navigate learning system.
- AIM for Success Student Preface explains what is required of a student to be successful and demonstrates how the features in the text foster student success. AIM for Success can be used as a lesson on the first day of class or as a project for students to complete. The Instructor's Resource Manual offers suggestions for teaching this lesson. Study Tip margin notes throughout the text also refer students back to the Student Preface for advice.
- Prep Tests at the beginning of each chapter help students prepare for the upcoming material by testing them on prerequisite material learned in preceding chapters. The answers to these questions can be found in the Answer Appendix, along with a reference (except for chapter 1) to the objective from which the question was taken, which encourages students who miss a question to review the objective. The Go Figure problem that follows the Prep Test is a challenge problem for interested students. The solutions to many of these problems require skills that are used in the upcoming chapter.
- Extensive use of applications that use real source data shows students the value of mathematics as a real-life tool. Chapter openers have been updated with new photos and captions illustrating and referencing a specific application from the chapter.
- Focus on Problem Solving section at the end of each chapter introduces students to various problem-solving strategies. Students are encouraged to write their own strategies and draw diagrams in order to find solutions. These strategies are integrated throughout the text. Several open-ended problems are included, resulting in more than one right answer and strengthening problem-solving skills.
- Unique Verbal/Mathematical connection is achieved by simultaneously introducing a verbal phrase with a mathematical operation. Exercises following the presentation of a new operation require that students make a connection between a phrase and a mathematical process.
- Projects and Group Activities at the end of each chapter offer ideas for cooperative learning. Ideal as extra-credit assignments, these projects cover various aspects of mathematics, including the use of calculators, collecting data from the Internet, data analysis, and extended applications.
- Unique Instructor's Annotated Edition features a format rich with new instructor support materials, which are provided at point-of-use in the margins surrounding reduced student pages. (Answers to exercises and PowerPoint icons appear on the reduced student page.)
- Eduspace helps instructors take the proven Aufmann Interactive Method to the next level. Eduspace provides instructors with online courses and content in multiple disciplines. By pairing the widely recognized tools of Blackboard with high-quality, text-specific content from Houghton Mifflin, Eduspace makes it easy for instructors to create all or part of a course online. Homework exercises, quizzes, tests, tutorials, and supplemental study materials all come ready to use. Instructors can choose to use the content as is, modify it, or even add their own. Students using Eduspace can review and reinforce concepts with interactive tutorials, prepare for tests using practice exercises, and access all material 24 hours a day.
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Other Editions of Essential Mathematics With Applications: | <urn:uuid:d5c10ca1-2751-441c-9256-4ef0e1a78796> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.textbooks.com/Essential-Mathematics-With-Applications-7th-Edition/9780618503063/Vernon-C-Barker-Richard-N-Aufmann-and-Joanne-S-Lockwood.php?CSID=ACTJ2CDQSUJQUMQDMOTUUMCMS | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911895 | 1,228 | 2.921875 | 3 |
ABSTRACTS: (arranged alphabetically by author)
Chrisoula Andreou, “Environmental Preservation and Second-Order Procrastination”
When it comes to environmental preservation, procrastination, though it involves courting disaster, is difficult to resist. And it is not all that hard to see why. The long-term goal of environmental preservation has substantial immediate costs. Relatedly, it requires that we refrain from repeatedly taking actions whose effects are individually negligible but can be cumulatively devastating; and this is an exercise of the will that it can be quite tempting to put off. In my paper, I first explain the notion of procrastination with which I am concerned and elaborate on procrastination with respect to environmental preservation. I then introduce the idea of second-order procrastination, which involves procrastinating in dealing with a (first-order) procrastination problem. Finally, I argue that, although second-order procrastination does not always stand in the way of solving first-order procrastination problems, procrastination with respect to environmental preservation is in the class of procrastination problems that are particularly difficult to overcome because of the presence of factors that support second-order procrastination. If my reasoning is correct, then second-order procrastination can help explain the distressing fact—assuming it is a fact and not an invention of hysterical misapprehension—that, despite widespread professions of serious concern, the issue of environmental preservation is not getting as much of our attention as it deserves. My reasoning also suggests that improving our situation may require that some of the efforts now focused on promoting concern for environmental preservation be rerouted into tracking procrastination and deploying insights on how to cope with it. ▲Return to Conference Schedule
Paul Baer, “Greenhouse Development Rights”
Much of the ethical debate in the climate policy arena has revolved around the allocation of now-scarce rights to emit greenhouse pollution. The focal claim of many scholars and advocates has been that shared egalitarian principles demand an equal per capita right to emit. Yet both theoretical considerations and the practical confrontation of this idea with real-world politics show its weaknesses, including the crucial fact that it is the cumulative, not annual, right to pollute that is the resource that is ultimately being distributed. This substantially reduces the simplicity of applying an egalitarian principle to the distribution of the common resource.
An alternative focal point for analysis is the right to development - a complex and highly normative concept, but usable in spite of any controversy, and which I argue is the appropriate end to which the right to emit greenhouse pollution is a means. We suggest in our new “Greenhouse Development Rights” framework that the appropriate standard is that poor countries right to develop should not be impeded by the requirement to reduce GHG emissions, and that the presumably steep burden of mitigation costs must be shared on the basis of responsibility and capacity. A number of intermediate steps - particularly the quantification of responsibility and capacity, and the definition of appropriate developent thresholds, – are needed to move from this abstract principle to a coherent global policy scenario. In this paper, we describe the progress made to date in articulating the ethical foundations of the Greenhouse Development Rights framework, including assessing the importance of inequality within nations, and in producing a policy-relevant quantitative analysis. In particular, we focus on the roles played by the United States and China as prototypes of key categories of rich and poor countries. ▲Return to Conference Schedule
Simon Caney, “Climate Change and Human Rights”
It is widely recognized that the earth’s climate is undergoing some fundamental changes. I argue that these changes undermine several core human interests - including, interests in (i) decent health, (ii) economic necessities, and (iii) physical security. Building on this, and after taking into account the kinds of duties required to protect these
interests, I argue that persons have a right to the protection of these vital interests. These rights, I argue, are held by future people as well as contemporaries. I further explore how one specifies the level of protection that is required by these rights. The paper then proceeds to examine two kinds of challenge to this position - an extreme challenge
(which denies that future people have rights) and a moderate challenge (which claims that a positive social discount rate should be applied to the rights of future generations). Neither kind of challenge is found persuasive. ▲Return to Conference Schedule
Dennis Hartmann, “IPCC 2007 and Beyond”
A summary of the consensus of climate scientists on the causes, current status and expected future of human-induced climate change will be given, including assessment of uncertainty in predictions of future climate and some of the impacts that may be expected. ▲Return to Conference Schedule
Dale Jamieson, “What’s Wrong with Climate Change”
Since the 1980s, when the case for anthropogenic climate change began to look plausible, a small group of climate change deniers have actively attempted to thwart action. In recent years this group has been extensively scrutinized by anthropologists, political scientists, and journalists. While the deniers have had some effect in preventing
policy action, more important still is that even among those who believe that anthropogenic climate change is occurring (an overwhelming majority in all industrial countries), there is sharp disagreement about how important this is and why we should care about it. In this essay I will try to diagnose what is at the foundation of this largely undiscussed difference in perspective.
After briefly mentioning various cognitive and affective obstacles that I have discussed elsewhere, and the game-theoretic considerations adduced by Gardiner, I will discuss the following (non-mutually exclusive) views of what is wrong with climate change: 1. that it imposes unacceptable risks (Schneider and others); 2. that it will cause significant economic losses (Nordhause and others); 3. that it is unjust (Shue and others); 4. that it will have irreversible effects. While I think all of these are important considerations, for those who are most concerned about climate change there is a further, fundamental moral intuition that is at work that raises the salience of this issue. The intuition is roughly that it is simply wrong for humans to causally affect natural systems in such a profound way (cf. Goodin’s discussion). I will discuss to what extent this is an irreducibly deontological intuition and to what extent it can be defended. Finally, I will address the question of whether significant action on climate change can be motivated without recourse to some such fundamental intuition. ▲Return to Conference Schedule
Jeffrey T. Kiehl, “Ethics and Climate Modeling”
Climate models are the most comprehensive tool scientists have to project future climate change. These models continue to grow in complexity to account for the details of Earth’s climate system. However, climate models are not perfect representations of the global environment. In analogy with Plato’s theory of Forms, climate models provide representations of Nature. Often the public is unsure of how much to believe in these model representations. Indeed, climate skeptics claim these models are forced to agree with the present world, and thus present false projections of the future. I will discuss a number of ethical issues regarding how climate models are constructed and the ethical decisions that climate modelers face in conveying model results to the public. I will also argue that modeling the climate is grounded in value issues that need to be included in the climate modeling process. ▲Return to Conference Schedule
Gavin Schmidt, “The Ethics of Communicating Science”
Climate change is example of a science that, given the large perceived impacts, has become highly politicized. In such an environment, science is often used within the political context as a proxy for political positions. This ‘science’ is often uncontextualised, over-interpreted and frequently has nothing to do with the political debate at hand. Public statements by scientists—whether in media interviews, press releases or in briefings very often become fodder for political discussion in ways that are frequently contrary to the positions held by the scientists themselves. This ‘scientization’ of the political discourse places scientists in a very delicate position.
How far do scientists’ responsibilities go in ensuring that relevant science is appropriately transmitted and understood by the public and policy makers? Even if scientists are not interested in the political ramifications of their work, do they still have a responsibility to try and ensure that it is not misused? What recourses are available to extract work from the fake ‘scientized’ political debate? Do all scientists have this responsibility, or can the field rely on a few public spokespeople? To what extent are ‘public’ scientists responsible for explaining/defending the field as a whole rather than just their own work?
I will try to make the case that simple publication in the technical literature is clearly not sufficient, but that attempts at popularization of the science is fraught with problems of its own. Examples of unfortunate public statements and subsequently appalling media coverage are legion. ▲Return to Conference Schedule
Henry Shue, “Harming the Grandchildren”
This paper defends four theses:
1. Failing to deal with climate change constitutes, not failing to help future generations, but inflicting harm on them;
2. Failing to deal with climate change constitutes inflicting harm on generations who could have been spared all such harm;
3. Failing to deal with climate change constitutes not simply continuing to make it worse, but unnecessarily creating opportunities for it to become significantly worse by feeding upon itself through positive feedbacks that
would otherwise not have occurred; and
4. Failing to deal with climate change constitutes not only unnecessarily creating opportunities for the planetary environment to become significantly worse, but also unnecessarily creating opportunities for it to become catastrophically worse. ▲Return to Conference Schedule
Clark Wolf, “Climate as an Exhaustible Resource”
The problem of choosing an inter-generationally sustainable climate policy can be modeled as the sustainable use of a renewable, but exhaustible resource. Modeling the problem in this way makes it easier to link the problem of climate policy with theories of intergenerational justice. ▲Return to Conference Schedule | <urn:uuid:3a462349-5194-4268-9817-b0f370f77f81> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://depts.washington.edu/ponvins/ecc/abstracts.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948238 | 2,118 | 1.96875 | 2 |
versão ISSN 1727-897X
A mixed race female, 34 years of age was attended due to papule lesions in the facial area between one and ten mm of diameter. These lesions were flat, with skin colour, symmetrically distributed in the central part of the face (cheeks, chin and nose), of soft texture with telangiectasia. She referred to present these lesions since she was seven years of age, and three months before attending to consultation she noticed an increase in the number and size of these lesions. The patient has a normal intelligence coefficient and declared family history of these lesions. The diagnosis was sebaceous adenoma. Since this is not a frequent disease and due to the patient?s age we decided to publish this case.
Palavras-chave : Tuberous sclerosis; adenoma. | <urn:uuid:27395ee0-af9f-4c7b-bd19-63d32534f07c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://scielo.sld.cu/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S1727-897X2009000100009&lng=pt&nrm=iso&tlng=en | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963519 | 175 | 1.953125 | 2 |
- About MCC
- What we do
- Get involved
- Stories and resources
- Ways to give
MCC prepares for humanitarian crisis in the Middle East
February 23, 2012
About 20,000 Syrians have already fled to Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan and the flow of people is increasing, said Rick Janzen, a director of MCC’s programs in the Middle East.
MCC has launched a $500,000 Middle East Crisis appeal to assist partner organizations as they provide humanitarian aid and build peace. At this point MCC’s response includes:
1. Emergency assistance – food, medicine and non-food items for Syrians affected by violence and in need of basic supplies.
2. Relief kits – people in the U.S. and Canada are encouraged to assemble kits and drop them off at their nearest MCC office or warehouse.
3. Building peace – grassroots, community efforts that encourage conflict prevention.
Janzen, who travels often to the Middle East and visited Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Palestine in early February, said he was startled by the heightened fears of sectarian violence and political unrest across the Middle East.
“Everywhere we went, we heard outlooks for the future that were devastating and ominous,” said Janzen, who lives in Winnipeg. “Now is the time to put our peace theology to work; our partners are calling on us to support their efforts at conflict prevention and peacebuilding.
“One of our partners from Lebanon looked us squarely in the eye and asked: ‘Are you peace ambassadors or not? If you are, this is the time to act.'”
A significant part of MCC’s response will assist partner organizations in Lebanon to expand efforts that strengthen conflict prevention strategies and disaster preparedness. This includes training women peacebuilders, media training, encouraging dialogue among young leaders, trauma training and more.
MCC has been working in the Middle East for more than 60 years and currently supports peace and development work in Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Iran, Syria and Palestine and Israel.
Donations are welcome and should be marked Middle East Crisis. For more information about assembling relief kits please call your nearest MCC office or visit mcc.org/kits/relief. Go to mcc.org/middleeastcrisis to hear a podcast with MCC staff reflecting on what they are hearing from MCC partners, and to see a prayer compiled from recent prayers by church leaders in Syria and Lebanon.
Mennonite Central Committee: Relief, development and peace in the name of Christ | <urn:uuid:0f25a27c-d5a6-4dc9-8f93-51556fd9f599> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mcc.org/stories/news/mcc-prepares-humanitarian-crisis-middle-east | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942908 | 533 | 1.601563 | 2 |
About the Main Monument
When was it dedicated? 1885.
What is it made out of? Monument: granite; Eagle: marble; Base: stone.
What size is it? approx. 13 ft. 4 in. x 5 ft. x 5 ft.
Who made it? Brady, T. M., sculptor. Ford, A., sculptor.
What does it depict? Granite shaft topped by a marble eagle. The shaft is decorated with the U.S. shield, an Irish harp, a trefoil design, the flags of the Irish Brigade and the U.S. flag crossed, and shield of a person with bow and arrows. The monument cost $500.00. Monument is a three foot square granite shaft with a flat top that contains a sculptured marble eagle and set on a five foot square rough hewn base. The shaft has scotia molding and polished panels with inscriptions. Overall height is 13.4 foot. Flanking markers have gable tops with inscriptions on the west faces, 1.6×8 foot.
What does it honor? The monument marks the position attained by the 28th Massachusetts regiment about 5:30 on July 2, 1863 as they engaged the Confederates.
How is it inscribed? FAUGH A BALLAUGH/28TH MASS. INF’Y./VOL/COL. RICHARD BURNS COM./MEAGHER’S IRISH BRIG./COL. PATRICK KELLY COM/THIS REGT. WENT INTO BATTLE/JULY 2, 1863./NUMBERING 220/OFFICERS AND MEN/101 OF WHOM/WERE KILLED OR WOUNDED/ERECTED BY THE SURVIVORS/AND FRIENDS OF THE REGT./TO MARK THE SPOT WHERE IT/FOUGHT IN DEFENCE OF THE/AMERICAN UNION./28TH MASS
When was this photograph taken? December 10, 2011. Monument faces somewhat northeast.
Where is it located? Located Gettysburg National Military Park, Sickles Avenue at the Loop, east side, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania 17325
Is this monument located along the NPS Auto Tour route? Yes.
Has this monument been moved or changed? This monument has not been materially altered or moved.
Commander: Colonel Richard Byrnes (1833-1864).
Number Engaged: 265
Casualties: 8 killed, 57 wounded, 35 missing
Soldiers Buried in the Massachusetts Plot of the Gettysburg National Cemetery:
- Pvt. John Caswell, Company G, D-18
- Pvt. John Hickey, Company C, D-17
- Sgt. Edward Mooney, Company D, D-19
- Sgt. Peter W. Price, Company C, D-33
After Action Report: After Action Report of Col. Richard Byrnes (will open a pop up window).
Raised: Suffolk, Middlesex, and Worchester counties
Notable Facts: Among all Union regiments, the 28th Massachusetts ranked seventh in total losses. Roughly one-quarter of the 1,746 men who served in the unit were killed, died of wounds or disease, taken prisoner, or reported missing. The 28th Massachusetts Infantry regiment was the second primarily Irish American volunteer infantry regiment recruited in Massachusetts for service in the American Civil War.
Regimental History ~ Dyer’s Compendium of the War of the Rebellion:
Organized at Cambridge and Boston December 12, 1861. Left State for New York January 11, 1862. Duty at Fort Columbus, New York Harbor, until February 14. Sailed on Steamer “Erickson” for Hilton Head, S.C., February 14, arriving there February 23. Attached to Dept. of the South to April, 1862. 1st Brigade, 2nd Division, Dept. of the South, to July, 1862. 1st Brigade, 1st Division, 9th Army Corps, Army of the Potomac, to December, 1862. 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, 2nd Army Corps, Army of the Potomac, to June, 1864. 1st Brigade, 1st Division, 2nd Army Corps, to November, 1864. 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, 2nd Army Corps, to June, 1865.
SERVICE.–Moved to Dafuskie Island, S.C., April 7, 1862, and duty there until May –. (Cos. “A” and “K” detached at Jones and Bird Islands April 18-May 6. Cos. “A,” “C,” “D,” “F” and “K” moved to Tybee Island May 12 and duty there until May 28. Cos. “B,” “E,” “G,” “H” and “I” moved to Dafuskie Island and to Hilton Head May 28.) Operations on James Island, S.C., June 1-28. Skirmishes on James Island June 3-4. Battle of Secessionville June 16. Evacuation of James Island June 28-July 7. Moved from Hilton Head to Newport News. Va., July 14-18; thence to Aquia Creek and Fredericksburg August 3-6. Operations in support of Pope August 6-16. Pope’s Campaign in Northern Virginia August 16-September 2. Battles of Groveton August 29. Bull Run August 30. Chantilly September 1. Maryland Campaign September-October. Battles of South Mountain September 14. Antietam September 16-17. March to Pleasant Valley September 19-October 2 and duty there until October 25. Movement to Falmouth, Va., October 25-November 19. Battle of Fredericksburg December 12-15. “Mud March” January 20-24, 1863. At Falmouth until April 27. Chancellorsville Campaign April 27-May 6. Battle of Chancellorsville May 1-5. Gettysburg (Pa.) Campaign June 11-July 24. Battle of Gettysburg July 2-4. Advance from the Rappahannock to the Rapidan September 13-17. Bristoe Campaign October 9-22. Auburn and Bristoe October 14. Advance to line of the Rappahannock November 7-8. Mine Run Campaign November 26-December 2. At Stevensburg until May, 1864. Demonstration on the Rapidan February 6-7. Campaign from the Rapidan to the James May-June. Battles of the Wilderness May 5-7; Spottsylvania May 8-12; Po River May 10; Spottsylvania Court House May 12-21. Assault on the Salient May 12. North Anna River May 23-26. On line of the Pamunkey May 26-28. Totopotomoy May 28-31. Cold Harbor June 1-12. Before Petersburg June 16-19. Siege of Petersburg June 16, 1864, to April 2, 1865. Jerusalem Plank Road June 22-23, 1864. Demonstration on north side of the James July 27-29. Deep Bottom July 27-28. Strawberry Plains, Deep Bottom, August 14-18. Ream’s Station August 25. Boydton Road, Hatcher’s Run, October 27-28. Dabney’s Mills, Hatcher’s Run, February 5-7, 1865. Watkin’s House March 25. Appomattox Campaign March 28-April 9. Hatcher’s Run or Boydton Road March 31. White Oak Road March 31. Sutherland Station and fall of Petersburg April 2. Sailor’s Creek April 6. High Bridge and Farmville April 7. Appomattox Court House April 9. Surrender of Lee and his army. At Burkesville until May 2. March to Washington, D.C., May 2-15. Grand Review May 23. Duty at Washington until June 25. Mustered out June 29, 1865. Regiment lost during service 15 Officers and 235 Enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and 1 Officer and 136 Enlisted men by disease. Total 387.
Massachusetts at Gettysburg
1st Infantry :: 1st Company Sharpshooters :: 2nd Infantry :: 2nd Company Sharpshooters :: 7th Infantry :: 9th Infantry :: 10th Infantry :: 11th Infantry :: 12th Infantry :: 13th Infantry :: 15th Infantry :: 16th Infantry :: 18th Infantry :: 19th Infantry :: 20th Infantry :: 22nd Infantry :: 28th Infantry :: 32nd Infantry :: 33rd Infantry :: 37th Infantry :: 1st Cavalry :: 1st Light A :: 3rd Light C :: 5th Light E :: 9th Light | <urn:uuid:209ccba5-26c9-4e7d-a59b-32311fb4d4b9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.drawthesword.goellnitz.org/2007/07/28th-massachusetts-infantry/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931237 | 1,840 | 2.890625 | 3 |
Book Description: Everything you ever wanted to know about dragons, but were afraid to find out Fantasy artists will breathe easier to discover a less perilous alternative to drawing dragons from life. Dracopedia grants you safe, easy access to the world's most prominent dragon species, from tiny, innocuous feydragons to the ferocious wyvern. For years, artist William O'Connor has traveled the globe, studying dragons in their natural environments. His findings, field notes and sketches have been compiled for the first time into this single, beautifully illustrated compendium—a natural and cultural history of the beasts as well as a step-by-step drawing workshop. Details of the anatomy, behavior, habitats and legends of 13 major dragon families Heavily illustrated with field sketches, anatomical studies and gesture drawings Shows the start-to-finish creation of 13 striking paintings, illustrating key concepts that apply to every medium Dragons have terrorized and delighted humans for centuries—continue the tradition with Dracopedia. It's packed with inspiration for putting fierce" into your fantasy art, as well as the facts to keep your dragons true to life." | <urn:uuid:0256e235-ebf5-452e-8f28-17e120c7f795> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.campusbooks.com/books/arts-photography/history-criticism/themes/9781600613159_William-OConnor_Dracopedia-A-Guide-to-Drawing-the-Dragons-of-the-.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940186 | 226 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Attacks on the Press 2010 - Egypt
|Publisher||Committee to Protect Journalists|
|Publication Date||15 February 2011|
|Cite as||Committee to Protect Journalists, Attacks on the Press 2010 - Egypt, 15 February 2011, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4d5b95d2c.html [accessed 21 May 2013]|
|Disclaimer||This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.|
Government blocks satellite TV, news texting ahead of parliamentary vote.
Political maneuvering seen as critical editor sacked, another jailed.
12: Satellite television stations taken off the air one month before the election.
Back in 2005, reporters exposed widespread ballot fraud and voter intimidation during the country's first multi-party presidential election. Determined to avoid a repeat of such coverage during the November parliamentary elections, the government blocked satellite television, clamped down on news dissemination techniques, and orchestrated the silencing of critical voices. The ruling National Democratic Party swept the voting amid widespread reports of fraud.
In October, a month before parliamentary balloting, the government-owned satellite transmission company Nilesat abruptly stopped transmitting the signals of 12 private satellite channels and issued warnings to 20 others, according to news reports. Information Minister Anas el-Fekky labeled the stations "extremist," but Nabil Abdel Fattah, assistant director of the Cairo-based Al-Ahram Center for Political & Strategic Studies, told Reuters that the move was designed to silence channels that supported Muslim Brotherhood candidates.
The same month, the National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority imposed new rules that effectively barred private production companies from doing live broadcasts. Under the new rule, imposed just in time to block live election coverage, production companies must obtain special licenses for live broadcasts, The Associated Press reported. "I've had to cancel booking and broadcasting for news stations during elections," Nader Gohar, owner of Cairo News Company, told AP. Private production companies, which supplement news coverage for both international and domestic broadcasters, were instrumental in documenting instances of police officers beating and obstructing voters during the 2005 election.
At the same time, the authority imposed new regulations that effectively blocked most news media from using mass text messaging. The new regulations required news media to obtain a permit from the Ministry of Information and the Supreme Press Council in order to use text messaging services. Independent and opposition newspapers were widely using text messaging to send news alerts to their readers. Under the new rules, only state-approved news agencies and political parties were eligible for permits, according to news reports.
Authorities also used the courts for political ends. In July, a Cairo appeals court suddenly revived a dormant 14-year-old defamation case to keep a vocal government critic in prison. Activist and former newspaper editor Magdy Hussein was seeking release in June after serving three-quarters of a two-year prison term related to his political activism. Such early releases are customarily granted. In this case, though, the Court of Cassation ordered that Hussein be retried on an unrelated 1996 complaint that he defamed a former interior minister in opinion pieces published by the now-defunct paper Al-Shaab. Hussein was fined back in 1996, but the retrial yielded a new prison term of one year. The new verdict "obviously came about to keep an influential writer and opposition figure behind bars and far away from future parliamentary and presidential elections," said Gamal Eid, executive director of the Cairo-based Arab Network for Human Rights Information.
Journalists reported government harassment on Election Day. Ahmad Shokr, an editor at Al-Masry al-Youm, told CPJ that several of the daily's journalists were briefly detained and interrogated. Other journalists, working for both print and television outlets, reported that security personnel had deleted footage from their cameras. The Muslim Brotherhood, which had been the strongest opposition bloc in parliament, was swept out of office in the voting. Analysts saw government repression during the parliamentary vote as a preview of the restrictions that will be put in place for the November 2011 presidential election.
CPJ and others saw political machinations at work in the October dismissal of Ibrahim Eissa, one of the nation's most critical journalists, as editor-in-chief of the independent daily Al-Dustour. His firing came just 24 hours after Al-Dustour had been sold to an ownership group that included Al-Sayyid al-Badawi, a media mogul and leader of the opposition Al-Wafd party. "They bought the newspaper for $4 million just to stop me from writing," Eissa told the U.S.-based magazine Foreign Policy. Al-Badawi, who had issued public assurances that the new owners would not change the paper's editorial stance, said the dismissal was a labor dispute centering on staff salaries. But numerous analysts suggested Al-Wafd had struck a deal with the government to sack Eissa.
Eissa has faced ongoing persecution during his career, with more than 60 court cases filed against him for alleged publication violations, according to CPJ research. Eissa also lost a television show in 2010. The satellite channel ON TV pulled his political talk show in October, just a month before the election, the biggest political story of the year. No explanation was offered.
Another popular political show, hosted by Amr Adeeb on the Saudi-owned satellite network Orbit, was suddenly taken off the air in September. News reports said the move came after Adeeb criticized state media for excessively praising Gamal Mubarak, the president's son and a potential presidential successor. Adeeb told reporters he expected the program would return, but it remained off the air in late year.
Media owners come under significant government pressure, said Ahmed Bahgat, owner of the satellite channel Dream TV and a principal in the independent daily Al-Masry al-Youm. In a July interview with his newspaper, he said, "If I get a phone call telling me to shut down Dream TV, I will do so. What can we do? Are we going to fight the state? We can't."
Legal persecution of critical journalists continued in 2010 despite presidential promises made in 2004 to end prison sentences in media and publication cases. In September, prosecutors brought criminal defamation charges against the prominent newspaper columnist Hamdi Qandil in connection with a May opinion piece critical of Foreign Affairs Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit. Qandil and fellow columnist Alaa al-Aswani stopped writing their columns in the independent daily Al-Shuruq in September after newspaper managers warned them about "external" pressure to tone down their content, according to CPJ interviews.
The Finance Ministry pressed criminal charges against Wael al-Abrashy, the editor-in-chief of the weekly Sawt Al-Umma, and reporter Samar al-Dawi under Article 177 of the penal code for "inciting the public to disobey the law" in connection with a campaign started by the weekly to oppose a controversial new property tax. Article 177 has been used historically to prosecute armed or militant groups. The case was pending in late year.
Blogger Abdel Karim Suleiman, known online as Karim Amer, was released from prison in November after serving a four-year term on charges of insulting Islam and the president. Amer, the first blogger in the Middle East to be imprisoned explicitly for views expressed online, was harassed and beaten by authorities throughout his time in prison, CPJ sources said.
Egypt enjoys a diverse and fast-growing blogosphere. Journalistic bloggers have been instrumental in uncovering public corruption and the torture of detainees in police custody. But bloggers who express controversial views or are openly critical of government policies are routinely harassed by security agents. The government has numerous tools at its disposal to silence critical bloggers, including the 1996 Press Law, which criminalizes the vaguely defined offense of "spreading false news," and the penal code, which bars material deemed insulting.
Security forces continued a long-standing practice of obstructing journalists covering street protests. Officers harassed journalists working for Al-Jazeera, Dream TV, Al-Masry al-Youm, Nahdet Misr, and Al-Karama during protests in Cairo organized by the April 6 Youth Movement, according to news reports. Al-Jazeera correspondent Samir Amr told CPJ that "security officers surrounded us, seized our cameras, and ordered us to leave the scene." Ibrahim Kamal Eldeen, a photographer for Al-Masry al-Youm, told CPJ that two officers grabbed him by the neck and pushed him violently. "I showed them my journalist credentials," he said, "but they told me they didn't care." | <urn:uuid:f66ed9aa-9038-4fd5-a41a-64461f5c2420> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.refworld.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/rwmain?page=publisher&publisher=CPJ&type=ANNUALREPORT&coi=EGY&docid=4d5b95d2c&skip=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966487 | 1,824 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Regulations Governing the
Award of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize
For Science and Technology
Nomination proforma for updating contributions
- The award is named after the founder Director of
the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), the late Dr
(Sir) Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar and is known as the ‘Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar
(SSB) Prize for Science and Technology’.
- The Prize is given each year for outstanding
contributions to science and technology.
of the Prize
- SSB Prizes, each of the value of Rs 5,00,000
(Rupees five lakh only), are awarded annually for notable and outstanding
research, applied or fundamental, in the following disciplines: (1)
(2) Chemical, (3) Earth, Atmosphere, Ocean and Planetary, (4) Engineering, (5)
Mathematical, (6) Medical, and (7) Physical Sciences.
- Recognition of outstanding Indian work in
science and technology.
- Any citizen of India engaged in research in any
field of science and technology up to the age of 45 years as reckoned on
31st December of the year preceding the year of the Prize.Overseas citizen of India (OCI) and Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) working in India are also eligible.
- The Prize is bestowed on a person who, in the
opinion of CSIR, has made conspicuously important and outstanding
contributions to human knowledge and progress – fundamental and applied –
in the particular field of endeavour, which is his/her specialization.
- The Prize is awarded on the basis of
contributions made through work done primarily in India during the five
years preceding the year of the Prize.
(For this purpose ‘primarily’ will mean ‘for the most part’)
of the Prize
- In awarding the Prize, the Governing Body of
CSIR is guided by the recommendations of the Advisory Committees
constituted under clause 10.
- Names of candidates may be proposed by a member
of the Governing Body of CSIR; Presidents of academies of all-India
character; Vice Chancellors of Indian Universities; deemed Universities
and Institutions of national importance; Deans of Science, Engineering,
Medical, Agriculture, and Technology Faculties; Directors of the Indian
Institutes of Technology (IIT); Directors General of the major R&D
Organizations, such as the Defence Research & Development
Organization, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, the Indian
Council of Medical Research, India Meteorological Department; Chairmen of
Atomic Energy Commission, Oil & Natural Gas Corporation, etc.;
Directors of CSIR Laboratories/ Institutes, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre,
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Physical Research Laboratory,
Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, etc.; Secretaries of
the Government Science Departments like the Department of Atomic Energy,
the Department of Biotechnology, the Department of Environment, the
Department of Information Technology, the Department of Ocean Development,
the Department of Science and Technology, the Department of Scientific and
Industrial Research, the Department of Space; etc., Member in-charge
(Science) in the Planning Commission; and the former Bhatnagar Prize
Faculties should recommend scientists working in their institutions only and
route nominations through their respective Vice Chancellors, while the
Faculties in IITs are required to send their nominations through their
Directors. The Directors General of the
R&D Organizations and the Chairmen of Commissions may sponsor names of
scientists working in their respective organizations. The Directors of CSIR laboratories/ institutes can nominate
candidates in disciplines of their interest irrespective of the fact whether
they are working in CSIR laboratories/ institutes or outside. The recipient of a Bhatnagar Prize can send
nomination of one person only for each year’s award. Nominations from other individuals sponsoring their own names or
of others are not acceptable. Each nomination, as per the prescribed
pro-forma, should be accompanied by a detailed statement of work and
attainments of the nominee and a critical assessment report (not more than 500
words) bringing out the importance of significant research and development
contributions of the nominee made during the five years preceding the year of
the Prize. Nominations not made as per prescribed format are unacceptable.
A candidate once nominated would be considered for a
total period of three years, if age-wise eligible. Once such a nomination has been received,
CSIR may correspond directly with the nominator
for supplementary information, if necessary.
In case a nominee has resigned from his present position in India and
has gone abroad, his nomination would become invalid immediately.
- The Advisory Committees for each year’s award
are constituted with the approval of the Chairman of the Governing body of
CSIR. The Committees consist of at
least six experts including at least one former Bhatnagar Awardee in the
respective discipline. On receipt
of nominations for a particular year, CSIR circulates the list of nominees
along with the detailed statement of work and attainments of each
candidate to all members of the Advisory Committee related to the
concerned discipline. CSIR
convenes meetings of the various Advisory Committees in consultation with
the Chairmen, for selecting the recipients of the SSB Prizes. The compositions of various Committees,
the information submitted for their scrutiny, the proceedings of the
meetings and the procedure for consideration of the nominations, other
than as detailed herein, are kept confidential.
- Where the recommendation for the Prize is
unanimous or not less than 2/3rd of the members of the Advisory
Committee have agreed to one name (or maximum of two names in case they
are judged to be of equivalent merit), the recommendations are submitted
to CSIR for approval.
- The award of the Prize in a specific discipline
may be withheld by CSIR in any year, if, in the opinion of the Advisory
Committee, no sufficiently meritorious candidate is found suitable in that
- The names of the recipients are made public on
26 September, the CSIR Foundation Day by the Director General, CSIR.
- The Prizes are awarded at a formal presentation
ceremony arranged by CSIR. At the ceremony, a suitable citation on work of
the recipient of the Prize is read out.
SSB Awardee should give a lecture in the area of the award, especially in
a small college or a CSIR laboratory preferably away from the Awardee’s
city for dissemination of science.
HRDG can help by providing TA/DA for this.
- In all matters of award of SSB Prizes, the
decision of CSIR shall be final. | <urn:uuid:1f5292e4-4490-48c1-96a5-37db3d1bdd1d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://csirhrdg.nic.in/ssbb.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920433 | 1,466 | 1.828125 | 2 |