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We are constantly being astonished at the amazing discoveries in the field of violence. But I maintain that far more undreamt-of and seemingly impossible discoveries will be made in the field of nonviolence.
“The time was during World War II, when Japan was advancing on India. I was lying in my room one night, and my parents thought I was asleep. But I was just pretending to sleep, because, like all children in the world, I wanted to listen to my parents. So they were talking about me—which made me even more interested.
“The topic was this: That afternoon, Gandhi had said that if he had an army of nonviolent soldiers, he would like to defend the country nonviolently by standing before the advancing Japanese troops. And so these two members of Gandhi’s ashram were trying to decide which of them should join this army. Since they had an adolescent child, namely me, they were thinking that one of them should stay behind. That way, at least one parent would survive.
“My mother was saying, ‘He is nearly grown now, and you can probably look after him better. Let me join.’
“But my father was saying, ‘Even if I remain behind, I might not have time to look after him. So I should join.’
“That was the kind of tussle going on. But in the end, they decided they would both join. They would leave their child in the hands of God.
“That was the first time I heard of Shanti Sena.”
The time is now 1978, the place is an international gathering of activists in India, the speaker is Narayan Desai, and the topic is Shanti Sena, the Gandhian “Peace Army.” Narayan, the son of Gandhi’s chief secretary, Mahadev Desai, was at the time of this talk already a top leader of India’s Gandhians and was best-known as a long-time head of Shanti Sena. Today he directs his Institute for Total Revolution, a training center for nonviolent activists, and is known wordwide for leadership roles in War Resisters International and Peace Brigades International—an organization that Shanti Sena largely inspired.
Though Gandhi called for a peace army for national defense in 1942—a plan never tried, since the Japanese did not invade—the idea of Shanti Sena was usually linked to combatting riots.
“Gandhi first used the term Shanti Sena in 1922, during the first large-scale riots between Hindus and Muslims after his return to India. My father organized some local units of Shanti Sena during riots in 1941. But it was only in 1947, the year of our Independence, that Gandhi considered organizing a nationwide Shanti Sena. This was a response to the rioting that at that time covered almost the entire north.” In that holocaust, a half million people were slaughtered, and ten million driven from their homes, as united India was severed into India and Pakistan.
“Gandhi had invited a few hundred colleagues to come to his ashram and discuss organizing Shanti Sena. The conference was set for February 1948. Two days before the end of January, Gandhi was assassinated. So the conference was never held.”
But the idea was later revived by Vinoba, the “spiritual successor” of Gandhi, who had inherited leadership of India’s Gandhians. In 1957, Vinoba founded Shanti Sena to deal with riots that were endangering Gandhian development work in nearby villages. In 1962, Narayan Desai became Shanti Sena’s director, a position he held until 1978. Under his leadership, membership reached a high of about 6,000, in the mid-1960s.
Most of these Shanti Sainiks—“peace soldiers”—were regular Gandhian development workers from rural areas, who might take part in Shanti Sena actions when rioting broke out in nearby towns or cities. And though today Shanti Sena no longer exists as a formal organization, the Gandhians may still engage in such actions under other banners.
As Narayan told us, riots were a major plague of India. These riots might stem from differences in religion, language and culture, or political party; or they might be by protesting university students. The worst rioting, though, was between Hindus and Muslims, with the majority Hindus usually the aggressors.
Some of these riots were more like miniature civil wars.
“Arson and looting are common,” Narayan said. “Most of the direct violence against people is rock-throwing. But the knife is also used a great deal. In one riot, more than a thousand people were killed this way. Pistols and bombs are not used very much, but only because we don’t have many firearms in India. Perhaps if we had them, there would be even greater violence.”
The first step for a group of Shanti Sainiks that had decided to intervene in a riot was a public announcement, through newspapers and possibly radio. This publicity helped ease the approach to various figures in the conflict and also served to invite Shanti Sainiks of other areas to join up with that group. The announcement might also have included a brief, impartial statement on the issues, establishing the Sainiks’ nonpartisan stance.
The Sainiks would arrive in the city over the course of the next few days, coming by train. There might eventually have been 30 or more Sainiks working in a city. As they gathered, they divided into teams.
“The first team meets with leaders of the communities involved in the riot, as well as with other important figures. We present ourselves not as saviors but as people eager to assist them in their difficulty. We gather information from them and try to understand their minds. And we try to find the forces of peace on both sides. Often there are people who favor peace but do not know how to work for it.
“In one city, we met with the top police officer and requested him not to fire on the rioting crowds, which so far he had avoided doing. When the police resort to firing, this means that several people die.
“He said, ‘You are the first group asking me not to resort to firing. But there is a lot of political pressure on me to do it. What can I do?’
“So we met with this important political leader who was pressuring him. We knew that this political leader loved the city, so we asked him, ‘Do you want the image of this city stained by blood?’
“He had no reply. Then we offered an alternative: ‘You already have a curfew order in certain areas. Why not introduce it throughout the city?’
“So he immediately phoned the police officer and said, ‘Instead of firing on the crowds, let’s have a curfew order.’
“That officer was very happy to hear it.”
Sometimes the Sainiks would persuade leaders of opposing communities to call publicly for an end to violence, or to meet with leaders of the other side to begin talks.
“We usually try to organize some of these leaders into a peace committee. If the fighting is between Hindus and Muslims, we ask the Hindu community to suggest Muslim names for the committee, and vice versa.
“This is often very difficult, because tensions are very high. But once, say, the Hindus find out that the Muslims have given some Hindu names, they start thinking, yes, maybe they also can find names of some Muslims. And that creates joint committees in situations where people would not imagine that Hindus and Muslims could work together.”
Most of the Sainik teams would patrol areas of likely violence. The patrols talked to people on the street, and even in their houses, to find out what was on their minds and to convince them of the need to restore peace. Their presence alone also discouraged violence.
“In one place in the city of Baroda we came upon a huge pile of rocks. So we asked the people standing there what the rocks were for. They said, ‘These are country-made bombs. We’ll use them at the proper time’—meaning, when there was a lone policeman or sentry going around. So we said, ‘We guess you’ll have to use them on us instead.’
“Some of them were angry, but others thought about it and said they would find a better place. They thought, this wasn’t the right place because there was somebody watching. But there was ‘somebody watching’ all over the city.” Though there weren’t that many Sainiks in the city, only downtown areas were affected by the rioting, and the Sainik teams had stationed themselves at all the crucial spots. Other times, when their numbers were even fewer, teams moved from spot to spot.
But sometimes the Sainiks could not prevent violence through their presence or persuasion. In those cases, they blocked it with their bodies. Dressed in their distinctive uniforms of white khadi with saffron scarves, they rushed among the rioters, exhorting them or shouting peace slogans.
“Very often we have faced rock-throwing from both sides—or rock-throwing from one side and batons or tear gas shells from the other, if government forces were involved. Fortunately, no stabbings.
“Women participate in this direct intervention as well as men. In fact, they are more successful at it, because they are less likely to be attacked.”
One team of Sainiks might have had the special job of fighting rumors.
“Rumors are one of the chief causes of violence in riots. When people are afraid, they tend to believe almost anything they hear. Figures get exaggerated. A story could grow until people think a thousand people have been killed on the other side of town, when nobody has been killed at all.
“Sometimes too there is a deliberate effort to create rumors.” The Sainiks had known groups of troublemakers to travel around a city for hours spreading false stories.
Such stories had sometimes been spread by the media as well. “In the city of Ahmedabad, one of the most widely read newspapers had a banner headline saying, ‘Woman’s breasts cut off in such and such location.’ The newspaper did not say that a Muslim had cut off the breasts of a Hindu woman, but it as much as said that, because everyone knew that the mentioned area was Hindu.
“The Hindu community was infuriated. That same night, more than 1,500 Muslims were killed.
“The next morning, in the same newspaper, on the fifth page, in a small corner, you could see an apology saying that that news had been untrue. And they tendered that apology only because the government had told them, ‘Either you prove it, or you must retract.’
“So Shanti Sena has to fight rumors. And the best way to fight rumors is to give correct, unbiased information.
“We immediately go to the place mentioned to check the facts. We have the advantage in this, because very often Shanti Sena is the only group moving within both communities. So, when there is a rumor such as, ‘In the Muslim area, they are gathering weapons,’ we say, ‘Have you been there? We slept there last night. And we know that nothing of the sort is happening.’
“Usually we do not have access to radio or the newspapers, so we have to use alternative means to spread our information. We use megaphones, or hand out mimeographed leaflets, or post messages on the neighborhood blackboards that some of our cities have. There are ten thousand such blackboards in Ahmedabad, and within half an hour the entire city can be given a message.”
Both rumors and violence multiply where there is fear, so Shanti Sena worked hard to counter it.
“Fear and courage are equally contagious. So Shanti Sainiks often go to areas that are supposed to be dangerous to show that there is nothing to fear.
“For example, in Bhivandi, when we met with the Hindus, they said, ‘Why talk to us about peace? Why don’t you try to go to the Muslim part of the city? The minute you go there, you’ll be killed!’
“So we said, ‘All right, we’ll go lodge there.’ Then we went and lived with the Muslims.
“The Hindus of that city were amazed. They could never have imagined that a mostly Hindu group, including five Hindu women, could stay with the Muslims overnight and be alive the next morning. But we were all safe. Not only were we safe, but the Muslims thought they were safe, because they had Hindu Shanti Sainiks protecting them.
“In Calcutta in 1964, we organized a silent procession of 3,000 people through the streets where there had been violence. This is one of the most effective techniques to fight fear. On all the streets, just as we passed by, the closed shops were thrown open, and the shop owners would say, ‘Ah, we are safe now that Shanti Sena has come.’
“Wherever Shanti Sena functions, it creates this atmosphere of trust.”
As violence subsided, the Sainiks would shift their focus to reconstruction efforts. This often became another means to reconcile the opposing communities.
“In the state of Orissa, there was a riot in which the Christians burned down the homes of the Muslims. My mother-in-law and other Shanti Sainiks there persuaded the Christian community to donate funds for rebuilding the Muslims’ houses. Some of the people who contributed were some of the ones who had burned them down!”
According to Narayan, Shanti Sena worked under several handicaps. Most of the Sainiks lived in rural areas, but the riots were in towns and cities. Shanti Sena lacked quick means of communication and transportation. It sometimes took two or three days just to get permission to pass through military lines into a city.
As a result, Shanti Sena would usually arrive only after the worst violence had passed. Most of its success, then, had been in bringing hostilities to a more rapid close and in moving warring communities toward reconciliation.
But there had been times when violence was averted.
“This is possible when a Shanti Sainik has lived in an area for a long time. The Shanti Sainik would assess the situation and talk to the right people, and in this way prevent a real outbreak. Of course, in a case like this, Shanti Sena would receive no credit, because things would go on as normal, and the public would not know there had been a likelihood of a riot.
“Peace is not news.”
Gandhi spoke of the “undreamt-of and seemingly impossible discoveries” that would be made in the field of nonviolence. Shanti Sena is surely one of those.
More on Shanti Sena, Peace Brigades, and Narayan Desai
Gandhi’s Peace Army: The Shanti Sena and Unarmed Peacekeeping, by Thomas Weber, Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, New York, 1996.
A Nonviolent Revolutionary: Story of a Gandhian Educator, by Narayan Desai, edited by Paul A. Hare, Edwin Mellen Press, 1997. Collected writings of Narayan Desai, with commentary.
Towards a Nonviolent Revolution, by Narayan Desai, Sarva Seva Sangh, Varanasi, 1972. On Shanti Sena.
Liberation without Violence, edited by A. Paul Hare and Herb Blumberg, Rex Collings, London, 1977. Includes “peace brigade” actions by Shanti Sena and by several international groups.
Civilian-Based Defense: A Post-Military Weapons System, by Gene Sharp, Princeton University, 1990. A serious and detailed discussion of how nonviolent resistance could be used for national defense, as first proposed by Gandhi.
Gandhi Today: A Report on Mahatma Gandhi’s Successors, Simple Productions, Arcata, California, 1987 (reprinted by Seven Locks Press, Washington, D.C., 1987). Includes a profile of Narayan Desai with additional aspects of his life and work, and also a brief discussion of international peace brigades.
Handbook for Satyagrahis: A Manual for Volunteers of Total Revolution, by Narayan Desai, Gandhi Peace Foundation, New Delhi, and Movement for a New Society, Philadelphia, 1980. A nonviolence training manual.
Gandhi Through a Child’s Eyes: An Intimate Memoir, by Narayan Desai, Ocean Tree Books, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1992. About Narayan’s childhood in Gandhi’s ashrams.
Please see Other Peace Resources on my Peace Page. | <urn:uuid:7ff43f6e-cbd7-4276-98a2-3f5a7bfd9ae2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.markshep.com/peace/GT_Sena.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979704 | 3,661 | 2.25 | 2 |
China’s Ministry of Commerce has released a statement saying that the government has raised export quotas for rare earth elements to over 30,000 metric tons for 2011, virtually identical with shipments of the minerals in 2010. The move follows a ruling less than two weeks ago from the World Trade Organization that China’s limits on rare earth shipments violated global trade rules.
US rare earth miners Molycorp, Inc. (NYSE: MCP), Avalon Rare Metals, Inc. (AMEX: AVL), and Rare Element Resources Ltd. (AMEX: REE) are not yet in production, so the impact of China’s decision should be negligible as far as today’s revenues are concerned. China Shen Zhou Mining & Resources, Inc. (AMEX: SHZ) also produces some rare earth minerals from its mines in China.
Prices for the rare earths have been skyrocketing since the beginning of the year following the imposition of tighter Chinese quotas. The Chinese produce about 97% of the world’s supply of rare earth minerals, which are important in the manufacturing of a variety of high-tech, alternative energy, and defense products. Recent composite prices for eight of the seventeen rare earths mined in Australia rose to $223.16/kilogram, or about $223,000/metric ton, according to Bloomberg.
As with many things involving China, it’s not crystal clear that the entire increase in exports will be in shipments of rare earths. The ministry has apparently added ferrous alloys that include rare earths in their list of export increases. This might mean that less of the raw minerals will be shipped than the headline number indicates.
The Chinese are probably hoping that raising the quota will put an end to the dispute of rare earths exports. Chinese producers will continue to have a virtual monopoly on rare earths production until the end of 2012, and maybe beyond.
Shares of Molycorp are trading down about -1% today, at $53.78, within a 52-week range of $12.10-$79.16. Avalon’s shares are down about -0.3%, at $6.56, within a 52-week range of $2.16-$10.11. Rare Element’s shares are up more than 1%, to $10.38, in a 52-week range of $2.08-$17.92. China Shen Zhou’s shares are down about -0.6%, at $3.10, in a 52-week range of $0.60-$10.84. The Market Vectors Rare Earth/Strategic Metals ETF (NYSE: REMX) is up about 0.2%, at $24.95, within a 52-week range of $19.25-$28.91. | <urn:uuid:c62f1827-72ed-4ae8-8a51-ee26a1f8ab04> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://247wallst.com/2011/07/14/confusion-reigns-as-china-raises-export-quotas-on-rare-earths-mcp-avl-ree-shz-remx/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933445 | 588 | 1.554688 | 2 |
By Kate Kelland, Health and Science Correspondent
LONDON (Reuters) - When it comes to protecting millions of people from deadly infectious diseases, Mark Kendall thinks a fingertip-sized patch covered in thousands of vaccine-coated microscopic spikes is the future.
A biomedical engineer with a fascination for problem solving, he has developed the so-called "nanopatch" to try to transform delivery of life-saving vaccines against potential killers like flu and the HPV virus that causes cervical cancer.
After 160 years of using needles and syringes for immunization, he says, at-risk people - especially those living in poorer, tropical, remote countries - need something simpler, stabler and easier to use. And he thinks he has the answer.
"Most current vaccines are delivered via the needle and syringe system that was developed in 1853," the scientist said in an interview from his laboratory in Australia. "It's effective on many levels but it also has many downsides."
Kendall's nanopatch has yet to prove itself in human clinical trials, but has had impressive results in animal tests.
Those have been enough to persuade U.S. pharmaceutical giant Merck, maker of many of the world's top-selling vaccines, to give Kendall a three-year research grant to take the device into human trials.
NO COLD CHAIN
The nanopatch is designed to place a tiny amount of vaccine just under the skin without the need for a needle jab. Because it delivers the active ingredient right to where it is needed, tests have shown it can generate same immune response with only a fraction of the dose needed in a conventional vaccine.
And because it uses the vaccine in dried form, it does not need cold-chain refrigeration or trained staff to deliver it.
Kendall says one key limitation of needle and syringe vaccines, beside needing expensive cold-chains and specialist staff to deliver them, is that the needle puts the vaccine into muscle, which has relatively few immune cells.
In the last 30 years or so, immunologists have discovered that skin, unlike muscle, is rammed full of immune cells, making it a far more effective place to apply vaccines. "You could argue the skin is our immune sweet spot," Kendall said.
So far, Kendall's research team at the University of Queensland's Institute for Biotechnology and Nanotechnology have tested the nanopatch on mice using various inoculations - including against flu, the human papillomavirus (HPV) that causes cervical cancer, and even with a potential new vaccine against mosquito-borne viral disease chikungunya.
"We demonstrated that you need only a tiny fraction of the dose, perhaps a hundredfold less" to get the same immune response, Kendall said.
Among other potential advantages of the nanopatch are that it is pain free, low cost - it could be made for under $1 a dose compared with more than $50 for many current vaccines - and easily transportable. Kendall even ponders whether it might be mailed to remote places for people to administer it themselves.
But he also recognizes there is a long way to go to bring what is still an experimental device to market - and he is aware of previous attempts at vaccine patches that had little success.
The Austrian biotech firm Intercell, now owned by France's Vivalis, saw its share price slump in 2010 after its experimental vaccine enhancement patch (VEP) system against pandemic flu failed in a mid-stage trial.
Kendall says, however, that Intercell's VEP system had a very different mode of action. The patch was applied after a needle vaccination and designed to boost the jab's effect by putting an adjuvant, or booster, into the skin.
His nanopatch applies the vaccine direct, with no adjuvant. "We apply the patch against the skin with an applicator ... and we have a high level of control of the antigen delivered."
Kendall is keen to ensure that if his patch does make it to market, it will not follow the pattern of many previous vaccine developments, which have seen life-saving shots go first to people in the wealthy world and only after several years start to reach those who need them in poorer countries.
There are still 17 million deaths a year from infectious diseases, mostly in poor countries that often cannot afford the pricey vaccines that could prevent them.
Kendall has just returned from a feasibility study using prototypes of the nanopatch in Papua New Guinea, which has one of the world's highest rates of infection with HPV - a virus that can lead to cervical cancer, the biggest cause of death in young women in developing countries.
He travelled in daytime temperatures of 30 to 40 degrees Celsius and up to 100 percent humidity "and when we got back and tested the patches we found there had been no loss in activity".
This success means Kendall now wants to push on to full clinical trials on humans, starting this year in Australia and followed swiftly with parallel trials in Papua New Guinea. An enterprise award of $100,000 from the luxury watchmaker Rolex is helping him along that path.
"This could potentially change the world of vaccinations. But we still have a very long way to go," he says.
(Editing by Louise Ireland) | <urn:uuid:b4287718-97e3-4584-90a9-136440621e2c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wifc.com/news/articles/2013/jan/10/bioengineer-developing-needle-free-nanopatch-vaccines/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961884 | 1,082 | 3.296875 | 3 |
Q. Our club has a game each week for the lowest putts. What is the recommended method for counting putts?
A. The Rules of Golf do not address how statistics are kept. In USGA Championships where putts are counted, the player has made his first putt once he has made a stroke from the putting green and all subsequent strokes are counted as putts. It is up to the Committee in charge of the event to determine how putts will be counted and the method used for counting. | <urn:uuid:3a58b2b3-bd0c-4bfd-b221-eb6b21db2398> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.usga.org/RulesFAQ/rules_answer.asp?FAQidx=123&Rule=100 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98768 | 104 | 2.3125 | 2 |
HEROIC PRIEST MET FATE LIKE SOLDIER
William E. Byles of Pacific St.
COMING TO MARRY BROTHER.
Priest Was to Have Performed Ceremony
"My brother was a priest, and I cannot see if it was true that hundreds drowned when the Titanic went down, how he could have been saved. It was his duty as a priest to stay to the last. He knew his duty. He must have gone down with the ship."
Speaking thus, a pathetic faith in a great heroism, William E. Byles of 124 Pacific street, told this morning that he had abandoned all hope that his brother, the Rev. Thomas R. D. Byles of Ongar, in Essex, England, would be among the survivors of the White Star Line's proudest steamship. And with this giving up of hope by Mr. Byles, the end was marked to the joy of the occasion that was bringing the priest to these shores, where, on Saturday, he was to have officiated at the marriage of his brother to Miss Katherine Russell of 119 Pacific street.
Mr. Byles is the head of the W. E. Byles Company, Ltd., of 90 Wall street, Manhattan. Associated with him is another brother, Laurence M. A fourth brother, W. Hunter Byles of Omaha, Neb., arrived in New York on Monday night, prepared to greet the brother from England, and whom none of them had seen for more than a year, and to be on hand for the wedding on Saturday.
"We had been worried," said W. E. Byles this morning, "but the White Star Line officials called me on the phone at my office at 4:30 Monday afternoon to tell me that all the passengers--everyone of them--had been transferred to other steamers. We were able to give Hunter full assurance that Thomas had been saved. Then that night came the dreadful word that the first news had not been true. It has been awful--dreadful, since then. Don't you think it possible that there may still be some survivors picked up by the fishing fleet that is known to have been near the Titanic when she went down?"
Mr. Byles said that he and his brothers had spent all their hours yesterday and until 1:30 o'clock this morning; seeking a final list of those saved at the White Star offices. But in all anxiety, Mr. Byles had no word of recrimination because of the false news of hope that had been first given him. He explained that he knew the demands on the wireless, and believed that the word: "Virginia is towing Titanic," had come because an "is" had been omitted from a query that had been sent out from many wireless stations.
At the same time, Mr. Byles stated that from his own experience, he believed the Titanic must have been going at top speed, despite the fog and icebergs, when she foundered.
"I came over myself not so very long ago," he said, "and our best run was made on a day when we were going through fog on the banks thick enough to cut with a knife."
Mr. Byles did not know this morning whether or not the marriage that was bringing his brother to this country would be postponded.
Father Byles and the three brothers who think him lost are nephews of Sir W. P. Byles, M.P. Their grandfather was William Byles, founder of the Yorkshire Observer. Father Byles was born a Protestant, but was converted to Roman Catholicism while a student at Oxford University. He was ordained in 1903 at Rome, and was 42 years old.
THE BROOKLYN DAILY EAGLE - Wednesday, April 17, 1912
This is the first publication of this
article since April 17, 1912. | <urn:uuid:23e2e03d-e46f-4cfe-a49b-3c8f4f13cc9f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fatherbyles.com/brooklyn.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.989489 | 793 | 1.703125 | 2 |
January 17, 2012
Changing its position on a perch high above the lake this eagle spreads its wings to maintain its balance as it moves around for a better position to watch the action below.
Stories this photo appears in:
The count is in — the Payson Christmas Bird Count, that is. Since 1900 the National Audubon Society has conducted bird counts throughout North America. Local birding enthusiasts conducted their eighth annual count on Dec. 30. There was beautiful, calm weather when the 17 participants headed out to spend the day identifying and counting all the birds they saw or heard in and around Payson. The good weather contributed to a record 99 species being observed as well as a record 4,376 birds. The count is a census of the birds found during a 24-hour period in a designated circle 15 miles in diameter. The Payson count circle is centered a little northwest of town. | <urn:uuid:71d79c1b-c223-46da-9110-e6fb94c5c1d3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.paysonroundup.com/photos/2012/jan/17/43848/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96737 | 183 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Katharine Everett: TV producer and first BBC controller of new media
Wednesday 18 February 2009
Katharine Everett’s television career took her from Tomorrow’s World to the hi-tech new world of the small screen: starting as a producer of science programmes, she became controller of British television’s first exclusively digital channel and then BBC controller of new media.
Launching BBC Choice, a general entertainment channel to complement BBC1 and BBC2, was a major challenge for Everett. Before the run-up to its 1998 launch, she also witnessed the fraught meetings that took place to create the corporation’s online services in those early days of the internet. She recalled the “harassed looks” on the faces of Edward Briffa, the head of BBC Online, and his creative team.
“To launch hassle-free in the BBC, you need to be allowed to hand-pick a team of experienced people and be left to get on with it,” she observed. “The launch of bbc.co.uk was in the full glare of the management headlights, with little of the basic support a team needs – and none of the systems and processes in place for running a large website. But it launched and has thrived since.”
When BBC Choice took to the air, after much hype and with a budget of only £20m for 3,500 hours of programming annually, it struggled to get a positive reaction, not helped by the fact that it started a week before digital decoders became widely available.
Everett’s description of it as “a friendly channel” was also seen as rather uninspiring, but she persisted with innovative ideas such as interactive programming – allowing viewers to choose their own camera angles for Wimbledon tennis, for example.
On becoming head of the corporation’s new media department (2001-3), she found herself in the crossfire again, “brokering peace” between different factions. “Stains of the blood that had been spilled in the very early days of the BBC’s venture on to the internet remain to this day on metaphorical carpets around the BBC,” she wrote in 2007, 10 years after the online launch.
Born in Surrey in 1952, Everett spent some of her childhood in Singapore, before attending Wycombe Abbey School in Buckinghamshire. After school, she studied English at Lady Margaret Hall in Oxford.
In 1975, she joined the BBC as a costume assistant in Television Centre’s wardrobe stockroom, then became a telephone enquiry clerk, before gaining a place as a research assistant on a BBC graduate trainee scheme.
Within a few years, Everett was a producer. Her first notable programme was the seven-part dramatisation Oppenheimer (1980), which starred Sam Waterston as the American physicist who developed the atomic bomb during the Second World War. It went on to win three 1981 BAFTA Awards.
From 1985, Everett specialised in science programmes, producing Your Life in Their Hands (1986), Q.E.D. programmes presenting the biological facts about AIDS (1987) and tracing the development of synthetic fibres (1988), and Tomorrow’s World (1989). She was also responsible for Life on One (1990), a magazine show presented by Sarah Greene and Simon Mayo, and Hospital Watch (1991), following a week in the life of Hammersmith Hospital.
Her programmes for Horizon, made between 1987 and 1993, included “The Iceman” (1992), about mummified remains found the previous year on the Italian-Austrian border in the Alps, dating back to about 3200 B.C.
Moving up the executive ladder, Everett became BBC television’s budget negotiator for factual programming (1993-4), BBC1 finance director (1994-5), then that channel’s head of commissions and development (1996-7).
After taking charge of BBC Choice (1997-9), BBC interactive TV and navigation (1999-2001), and the corporation’s new media department (2001-2003), she worked as project director for the “Make it Happen” campaign, launched in 2002 by the then BBC director-general Greg Dyke to encourage innovative thinking among staff. Two years later, Everett became the BBC’s director of change. She was married to the film editor Horacio Queiro.
Katharine Winn Everett, television producer and executive: born Woking, Surrey 3 July 1952; married 1988 Horacio Queiro (one son, one daughter); died London 3 February 2009.
IoS exclusive: MI5 'tried to recruit' Woolwich attack suspect Michael Adebolajo
French soldier stabbed in the neck in Paris
EDL marches on Newcastle as attacks on Muslims increase tenfold in the wake of Woolwich machete attack which killed Drummer Lee Rigby
Fallen angel: Winona Ryder on bouncing back from her decade in the wilderness
Hurricane season fears as warning satellite fails
BMF is the UK’s biggest and best loved outdoor fitness classes
Find out what The Independent's resident travel expert has to say about one of the most beautiful small cities in the world
Nook is donating eReaders to volunteers at high-need schools and participating in exclusive events throughout the campaign.
Get the latest on The Evening Standard's campaign to get London's children reading.
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Soy protein's ability to lower total and LDL (low-density lipoprotein or "the bad") cholesterol has been extensively studied, but the mechanism whereby soy protein lowers cholesterol remains unresolved. A new study published in the Journal of Clinical Lipidology last month shows that soy protein lowers total cholesterol and non-HDL (non-high-density lipoprotein) cholesterol significantly more than milk protein in patients with moderately high cholesterol levels.
"Non-HDL cholesterol has been shown to be a somewhat stronger predictor of cardiovascular disease and mortality risk than LDL cholesterol in population studies," said Elaine Krul, co-author of the study and nutrition discovery lead at Solae. "The fact that soy protein significantly decreased non-HDL cholesterol levels compared to milk protein in this study is very promising."
This randomized, controlled, parallel arm trial evaluated the effects of an insoluble fraction of soy protein, compared to total milk proteins with high calcium content, on the fasting lipid profile. It also assessed the potential contributions of increased excretion of bile acids and neutral sterols to their lipid-altering effects.
"The results of this study also showed that soy protein lowered non-HDL through a mechanism that does not involve increased bile acid excretion, but some yet to be determined mechanism," said Kevin Maki, lead author of the study. "Nonetheless, these results are supportive of the heart health claim for soy protein."
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) heart health claim for soy protein established in 1999 states that "25 grams of soy protein a day, as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, may reduce the risk of heart disease." Currently, 11 other countries have approved health claims for soy protein's potential to lower blood cholesterol and lower the risk of coronary heart disease.
Solae's soy protein that was used in this study was a relatively insoluble fraction of soy protein isolate that had been shown to lower plasma cholesterol and increase fecal bile acid excretion in animals. The levels of isoflavones in the soy protein were lower than the average commercial soy protein isolate further supporting the notion that isoflavones do not play a role in the cholesterol lowering. The milk protein supplemented group also showed a modest cholesterol lowering.
Subjects for this study included men and women 18 to 79 years of age with elevated cholesterol, defined as fasting LDL-cholesterol concentrations of at least 100 mg/dL and less than 200 mg/dL while receiving no lipid altering therapy. Once recruited, participants were asked to follow a Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes diet throughout the study. Subjects that still met the inclusion criteria were then screened for their ability to lower their cholesterol in response to a bile acid binding drug, colesevelam. A majority of subjects responded and were then randomized to the test protein groups. | <urn:uuid:a4764879-dece-4cec-9083-f034a9a34554> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sciencecodex.com/new_study_shows_soy_protein_lowers_nonhdl_cholesterol_significantly_more_than_milk_protein | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944932 | 577 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Term: timeline of Wisconsin history, 1750-1783
Adapted and expanded from Schafer, Joseph. "Outline History of Wisconsin." 1925 Wisconsin Blue book (Madison, 1925) . More information about most people and places listed here, including links to original sources, can be found by searching them in this Dictionary.
1750. Marin reestablished a post among the Sioux. He was in partnership with the governor, Marquis de la Jonquiere, to exploit the upper country, and obtained from the Wisconsin fur trade a net profit of 150,000 livres per year.
1752. Joseph Marin relieved his father at the Sioux post. The latter was recalled to serve on the Ohio frontier, where he died in 1753.
1753. Grant of the post of La Baye to Francois Rigaud, brother of the Marquis de Vaudreuil, last governor of New France. Peace was made by Marin and St. Pierre between the Sioux, Cree, and Chippewa, insuring quiet among the Wisconsin tribesmen.
1755. Wisconsin Indians, under Charles de Langlade, participated in Braddock's defeat on the Monongahela (July 9).
1756. Sioux post abandoned by Joseph Marin.
1757. Hubert Couterot was last French commandant at La Baye, and Pierre Joseph Hertel, sieur de Beaubassin, at Chequamegon. Wisconsin Indians took part in the siege and massacre of British troops at Fort William Henry, on Lake George (August 3-9).
1758. A Menominee insurrection resulted in the death of several Frenchmen and the pillage of a storehouse at La Baye. To expiate the crime, seven warriors were sent to Montreal, where three of them were publicly shot.
1759. Wisconsin Indians participated in the defense of Quebec, both at the Falls of Montmorency and on the Plains of Abraham.
1760. Wisconsin Indians went to aid in the defense of Montreal, but retired before its capitulation. News of the surrender being forwarded to Mackinac, the last French commandant, Louis Lienard de Beaujeu-Villemonde, evacuated the fort, retiring with his garrison to the Mississippi. In passing through Wisconsin, en route to Rock River, where he wintered, he probably took with him the garrison at La Baye, leaving that post unoccupied.
1760. Upon the surrender of New France to the British, Wisconsin became English colonial territory, being governed from Mackinac and Quebec. Previous to 1774 Wisconsin was under military authority, but the "Quebec Act" of that year made it a part of the Province of Quebec, and thus it remained until the close of the Revolutionary War, when it was ceded to the United States. The governors of Canada during the time Wisconsin was under British dominion, were: Sir Jeffrey Amherst (commander-in-chief), 1760-63; Gen. Thomas Gage (commander-in-chief), 1763-64; Gen. James Murray (first governor-general), 1764-66; Lt: Col. Aemilius Paulus Irving (president of council), 1766; Sir Guy Carlton (lieutenant-governor and commander-in-chief), 1766-78 Hector Theophilus Cramahe (acting lieutenant-governor while Carlton was in England), 1770-74; Gen. Sir Frederick Haldimand (governor-general), 1778-84.While the Northwest nominally became United States territory by the treaty of 1783, Great Britain still held the military posts on the upper lakes until 1796, among them Mackinac, of which Wisconsin was a dependency. Henry Hamilton (lieutenant-governor of Canada) succeeded Haldimand, 1784-85; Gen. Henry Hope (president of council), 1785-86; Lord Dorchester, formerly Sir Guy Carlton (governor-gen-eral), 1786-96; and John Graves Simcoe (lieutenant-governor of the Upper Province of Canada), 1792-96.
1760-61. Immediately after the evacuation of Montreal a detachment was sent under Maj. Robert Rogers to occupy the Western posts. Detroit was surrendered Nov. 29, 1760, but the attempt to occupy Mackinac was defeated by the ice in the lakes. No further move was made until after Sir William Johnson made treaties at Detroit, in the summer of 1761, with all the Northwestern tribes. Then Capt. Henry Balfour, of the Eightieth British infantry, was dispatched from Detroit to occupy the Western posts. He arrived at Green Bay October 12, and took possession of the old French stockade, renaming it Fort Edward Augustus. He left here in garrison Ensign James Gorrell of the Sixtieth (Royal American) regiment, with a sergeant, corporal, and fifteen privates. Sometime that autumn British traders began to arrive from Albany and followed Wisconsin tribes to their wintering grounds.
1762. Lt. Gorrell made treaties with the Menominee, Winnebago, Ottawa, Sauk, Foxes, and Iowa, and assisted in a treaty between the Chippewa and Menominee. In June, Ensign Thomas Hutchins, afterwards a famous geographer, visited the fort with orders and instructions for Gorrell. Several English traders were scattered throughout the territory, two of whom, Abraham Lansing and his son, of Albany were killed by their French employees near Muscoda, called (probably on that account) English Prairie.
1763. The territories of New France, including Wisconsin, were formally ceded by the French to the British. Gorrell made a treaty with the Sioux. Pontiac's conspiracy led to a confederation of most of the Western Indians formerly allied with the French. They attacked the English posts on the upper Great Lakes, eight of which were captured. Divided counsels existed among Wisconsin Indians, however, and by skillful diplomacy Gorrell maintained himself at the Green Bay post until after the massacre of a large part of the garrison at Mackinac. Then he received orders from his Mackinac superior to evacuate his fort (June 21). The friendly Menominee escorted Gorrell and his party to l'Arbre Croche (on the east shore of Lake Michigan), where were quartered the remnants rof the Mackinac garrison, who were finally ransomed and sent down to Montreal under the protection of Wisconsin Indians. Fort Edward Augustus was never again garrisoned by British troops.
1764. Wisconsin Indians attended a general treaty at Niagara, and received certificates of commendation for their friendly conduct in Pontiac's conspiracy. The Langlade family removed from Mackinac and established themselves in the small French settlement at Green Bay.
1765. Alexander Henry and Jean Baptiste Cadotte founded a fur-trading post on Chequamegon Bay, Which region had been abandoned by whites since 1758.
1766. Jonathan Carver, a colonial officer from Weymouth, Mass., visited Wisconsin. In his published narrative he described the settlement at Green Bay, the old Indian town on Doty's island, the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, the Sauk town near the rapids of the Wisconsin, and the trading post at Prairie du Chien.
1773-75. Peter Pond, a Connecticut fur trader, visited Wisconsin and Minnesota, and wrote a detailed description of the Indian and French inhabitants of this region. He found a French ex-soldier named Pinnashon permanently established at the Fox-Wisconsin portage, transporting boats and cargoes. Pond assisted in escorting Sioux chiefs to Mackinac, where an advantageous peace was concluded with the Ojibwe.
1774. Civil government was established over the Northwest and Canada by the "Quebec Act," under which Wisconsin became a part of the British Province of Quebec.
1776-78. Wisconsin Indians under Charles de Langlade and Charles Gautier de Verville assisted the British during the Revolutionary War, and were concerned with the defense of Canada and the expedition of Burgoyne.
1778-79. De Langlade and Gautier rallied the Indians to the aid of the British Lt.-Gov. Henry Hamilton of Detroit against the Americans. After the latter's capture by the Americans at Vincennes (February 24, 1779), they opposed the projects of Col. George Rogers Clark's enterprising agent, Godefroy Linctot, Indian trader at Prairie du Chien, who detached many Wisconsin Indians from the British alliance. The Indians in the village at Milwaukee largely sided with the Americans. In the autumn, Capt. Samuel Robertson of the British sloop "Felicity" made a voyage of reconnoissance around Lake Michigan, inducing traders and Indians to support the British cause.
1780. An expedition of Canadians and Indians from Wisconsin advanced by way of Prairie du Chien, with a supporting column under de Langlade on the Illinois River, against the Spanish at St. Louis and the Americans in Illinois. They were repulsed and driven back (May 26), after having killed and captured several whites and African Americans. The Americans sent a retaliatory expedition to Rock River, one division of which penetrated southwestern Wisconsin. The British merchants of Mackinac sent a party to secure their furs stored at Prairie du Chien. Those that could not be carried away by them were burned, to prevent their falling into the hands of Americans.
1781. The Spanish organized an attack upon Fort St. Joseph, near the southeast corner of Lake Michigan, in which Milwaukee Indians participated. This is the traditional date of the settlement of Prairie du Chien by Basil Giard, Augustin Ange, and Pierre Antaya, although French traders had long dwelt upon the site seasonally.
1783. The treaty of Paris was concluded by which British territory east of the Mississippi was ceded to the United States. Joseph Calve was sent from Mackinac to notify the Indians along the upper Mississippi of the cessation of hostilities.
View related articles at Wisconsin Magazine of History Archives.
[Source: Schafer, Joseph. "Outline History of Wisconsin." 1925 Wisconsin Blue book (Madison, 1925).] | <urn:uuid:2eb6f327-984d-43d6-bd7d-24232edc150b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view&term_id=10478&keyword=huber | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959581 | 2,125 | 3.671875 | 4 |
Some contraindications are absolute, meaning that there are no reasonable circumstances for undertaking a course of action. For example, children and teenagers with viral infections should not be given aspirin because of the risk of Reye's syndrome, and a person with an anaphylactic food allergy should never eat the food to which they are allergic. Similarly, a person with hemochromatosis should not be administered iron preparations.
Other contraindications are relative, meaning that the patient is at higher risk of complications, but these risks may be outweighed by other considerations or mitigated by other measures. For example, a pregnant woman should normally avoid getting X-rays, but the risk may be outweighed by the benefit of diagnosing (and then treating) a serious condition such as tuberculosis. Relative contraindications may also be referred to as cautions, such as in the British National Formulary.
See also
- "Contraindication - Medical Definition and More from Merriam-Webster". Retrieved 14 December 2010.
- Raymond S. Sinatra, Jonathan S. Jahr, J. Michael Watkins-Pitchford (2011). The Essence of Analgesia and Analgesics. Cambridge University Press. p. 253. ISBN 0-521-14450-7.
|Look up contraindication in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.|
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National Power Supply -The Benefits Of Using Remanufactured Diesel Engines
There are several advantages of using remanufactured diesel engines from National Power Supply, such as the ones mentioned above, and here you will find the most important benefits.
In order to understand the benefits of remanufactured engines, you must firstly understand what "remanufactured" involves: in a nutshell, these engines have been dismantled, carefully inspected, cleaned and then some of their parts were either repaired or replaced, to make the engine functional again.
First and foremost, they are significantly more cost-effective than the brand-new diesel engines, which can cost you a little fortune. Despite the intensive labor that went into producing these engines, they come with an affordable price tag designed to meet the needs of every buyer. Cummins engines are known for being complex and very powerful, and the price for a brand new Cummins engine is directly proportional to these qualities. However, You can save some money if you decide to use remanufactured diesel engines, which work just as good as the ones you buy from the store - the sole difference is that they will not empty your pockets! In addition to this, a good and reliable remanufactured diesel engine can even increase your vehicle's life span, provided that you choose the most suitable engine for your vehicle!
Another important advantage is the fact that the product quality is not affected - remanufactured engines work just like the new ones, sometimes even better! This is possible because the old pieces that stopped functioning are usually replaced with new, original parts that lengthen the life of the engine, therefore making it reliable and safe to use in the long run.
At National Power Supply you can find a wide range of Caterpillar engines for your vehicles: you can choose from Cat 3126B Industrial Long Block or CAT 3306 DITA to Cat 3406B Industrial and many others.
The OEM specifications play a pivotal role, and one of the most important benefits of rebuilt engines is that they now meet the latest OEM specifications - as a matter of fact, most of them come with improvements in OEM specifications that are different from the original, therefore your remanufactured engine is very likely to run smoother and even more efficiently than ever before. Besides, remanufactured engines are known for having a significantly better gas mileage, and this aspect is of utmost importance given the fact that gasoline prices were projected to hit $4 this year. Rebuilt engines are known for emitting fewer pollutants as well as having a better gas mileage than worn out engines. This aspect is particularly useful for motorists.
Last, but certainly not least, another essential advantage of remanufactured diesel engine is that they are considerably more environmentally-friendly than brand new engines. If you choose to repair your old engine or to purchase a remanufactured one rather than going to the store to get a new one, you will limit the devastating effects industry has on the surrounding environment. This happens due to the fact that by purchasing a second-hand engine, you will save an incredible amount of raw materials that would otherwise be used to build a brand new engine from scratch.
In conclusion, purchasing a remanufactured diesel engine is far more convenient than buying a brand new engine from the store. National Power Supply is a company that offer great remanufactured engines. You not only pay less for it, but you also have the chance to save money in the long run, to lengthen the lifespan of the engine as well as the life span of your vehicle, you benefit from increased efficiency and your action is also very environmentally-friendly. The human actions on the surrounding environment are worsening with every year that passes, and purchasing a remanufactured engine will certainly limit the effects of engine-creating industries. National Power Supply provides numerous engine models from famous brands like Cummins, Caterpillar, John Deere or Kohler.
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Building permits and inspections are required for new construction, additions, and remodeling work to confirm that all structures meet applicable City, State and National building code requirements. This ensures that all buildings within Albuquerque are built and maintained safely.
Building owners are required to maintain their buildings to ensure a safe environment for the citizens of Albuquerque. The Building Safety Division provides services that ensure that buildings within the City of Albuquerque are built and maintained to the applicable building standards and codes.
For your convenience, Plan Review Comments are available under "Quick Links" at the bottom of this page.
Before Beginning the Project
Whether you are considering building a new structure, adding an addition to an existing structure or doing a remodel to an existing structure, please keep the following in mind:
Plan for Safety
Follow these guidelines for safe planning:
- Make a detailed catalog of the planned work. Is it just a simple replacement of some electrical equipment within a wall? Or the replacement of the entire wall? All proposed work must be included in the permit or extra fees may be applied.
- Contact the Planning Departments Building Safety Division at 505-924-3320 or the Permit Counter at 505-924-3962 and confirm what types of permits are required to do the work planned.
- Work with a design or contractor who knows the New Mexico State Building Codes and will include all safety requirements into the project design.
Build for Safety
- Choose a contractor who is licensed with the New Mexico Licensing and Regulation Department and will do the project according to the safety requirements in the approved plans. (Please use the PSI License Search tool to confirm that a contractor's license is valid.)
- Use building products that are safe, durable, and comply with all applicable codes.
Inspect for Safety
Ensure that all permitted work has all inspections done. Work must remain accessible and exposed for inspection until approved by the inspector. The permit professional or homeowner must schedule the inspections. The project must remain safe and be completed in a timely manner
The various codes used to review, approve and inspect construction projects and existing buildings.
Energy Code Information
To streamline the review of the adopted energy codes, the Building Safety Division will now require a new energy code checklist. (See enclosed) The new form will require only the results of the energy calculations be submitted at time of application.
The applicant must provide basic demographics, the method of compliance, the software used to determine compliance, and indicate the heating and cooling BTU load. The calculations must be available if requested but will not be required for submittal.
This simplified checklist will allow the designer of the project to utilize any Department of Energy approved method to achieve compliance and affirm conformity with the adopted 2009 energy code. The intent of this process is to reduce the burden to the building industry without lessening adherence to the codes.
Albuquerque’s Electronic Plan Review
Instructional Video for Electronic Plan Review
Building Forms & Permit Reports
A directory of forms and publications related to obtaining permits.
Contacts for Building Safety
Work must be inspected before it is considered complete.
Building Safety Quick Links
Albuquerque's Green Path Program
The Green Path Program encourages and facilitates voluntary design and construction of energy efficient buildings that:
- Substantially exceed code minimum requirements
- Only the most energy efficient buildings meet Greet Path criteria
- Green Path Energy Conservation Certificates, issued with the building permit, are official recognition by the Green Path Administrator of the extraordinary level of achievement these projects represent
- Albuquerque Green certificates are issued at completion of high-performance green building projects.
To request or inquire about FasTrax service - call 505-924-3959 or 505-924-3963
- FasTrax is an optional fee-based service
- Reduced time for plan review
- Assigned plan expediter
- Guaranteed initial plan review completion date
- Faster, easier, simpler
- FasTrax services are available from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays on the ground floor of Plaza del Sol, 600 Second NW | <urn:uuid:1e5454c0-ad65-47fc-bd8c-58de63cbf274> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cabq.gov/planning/our-department/building-safety | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.901522 | 842 | 1.78125 | 2 |
If one thing unites entrepreneurs, it’s our high expectations. We demand a lot from ourselves and are merciless in our self criticism when we don’t do enough.
It’s good to want to do more. When entrepreneurs feel like they’re not doing enough, they’re usually right. If you actioned even half of the things you tell yourself you should, your life would be transformed.
Some folks will tell you to suppress ambition, to live simply and go easy on yourself.
My view is different.
Relentless ambition should be encouraged. It should also be balanced by our desire and need for the zen. For happiness in the present.
Through the impossible tug of war between fulfillment (aka stillness) and desire (movement), we will create extraordinary lives. We might even make a difference.
So keep an eye on “balance” and avoid any serious burn-outs. If you’re an aspirational business owner, read on. You’re about to find out how to finally do what you tell yourself you should – by hacking your motivation.
For my entire adult life, I’ve been obsessed with motivation.
Confession time: It’s because I was very, very lazy.
Growing up at the tail end of the most sustained period of economic growth in human history, I was apathetic toward almost everything. I just didn’t care for “trying”.
After all, we don’t have to look far to make ourselves feel good. All kinds of seductively inticing instant gratification are readily available these days. It’s a dangerous world for hedonists! When pretty much everything is instantly available to us, why bother trying?
My journey as an entrepreneur was a constant wrestle with the forces of motivation and procrastination. And it meant nothing ever really got done.
Until I figured out how to hack my mind and ignite the fire.
Motivation Hack 1: Social Dynamics
Evolutionary psychologists believe that social concerns are one of our most powerful behavioral levers. In other words, we really care about what other people think.
This is a dynamic that is hardwired into our mammalian brain. Humans are social creatures and for most of our history, our survival has depended on the support of our community. We’re all in this together, so our fear of being ostracized is a serious one.
In the modern world, this means we’re far more likely to follow through on a commitment where failure would mean a loss of social status. An entrepreneur will always show up to a slightly pointless lunch meeting, even after spending the whole morning procrastinating the important and creative work that counts.
Knowing this is essential for motivational manipulation. When we make a commitment to another human, a special gravity tugs at us. We follow through on our social commitments, even when they’re not nearly as important as other tasks on our list.
To hack the mind, simply apply a social commitment to your most important goals. Build a board of directors, ship prototypes to a mentor/friend or create a formal accountability relationship. Whatever makes you commit action.
Motivation Hack 2: Kill discouragement – measure everything
The biggest contribution to action paralysis is the sickening knowledge that you’ve been totally ineffective. The less you do, the more overwhelmed you feel. A mountain is built from the molehill of your ineffectiveness.
It’s a slippery spiral and measurement is the only medicine.
Staying conscious of what you’re really getting done is a phenomenal way to avoid wildly over or under-exaggerated productivity. Our imagination runs wild and we frequently lie to ourselves about our effectiveness. The only solution is a rigid external measurement system.
Track what you’re getting done, record the hours and write a gratitude journal about it. Use this to support….
Motivation Hack 3: Commit to a productivity benchmark
Productivity is such a shifting, morphing concept it’s very difficult to gauge objectively. Thus, it’s difficult to maintain.
The trick is to group and elevate some tasks to an all new definition: The game-changing ones.
There can be hundreds of to-do items on your list, but entrepreneurs perform well when they aim to define and complete three game-changing actions a week. Only.
The rule of three is a powerful one. It’s a number optimized for focus and memory. It tickles our neural pathways right. As a productivity benchmark, it absolutely rocks.
By committing to three game changing actions a week, you set a benchmark for a baseline of ass-kicking productivity. It is only on this foundation that entrepreneurs are able to find peace. You’ll never have a weekend as relaxing as the one that follows a week where your three game-changing commitments were fulfilled.
The point is not so much to commit to specific items on your list. That gets overwhelming and requires a constant re-adjustment of strategy. You’ll be forever checking your list.
Instead, make your only commitment to getting three huge things done no matter what. Stop sweating the small stuff.
The collective impact of the thrice-weekly commitment, each week for a year, is phenomenal. That’s one hundred and fifty game changing actions, all contributing to your business’s bottom line. And the impact you make. And your sanity.
Laziness will destroy the world if we don’t do something about it
I believe that entrepreneurs want to be motivated. Most people wish they could get a whole lot more done. Most desperately want to commit to taking action. They want to see their ambitions realized.
I also believe entrepreneurs are (and are going to be) responsible for the big changes we need in this world. And procrastination is the biggest obstacle holding entrepreneurs back.
That’s why I’m declaring war on procrastination.
We need to pull the trigger. We need to bury procrastination for good.
I’ve been working for the last six months to develop a program for entrepreneurs that hacks the mind – that transforms the most paralyzed business owner into a to-do list smashing machine.
I’m announcing that program today. It’s called “Commit Action”.
Commit Action leverages social dynamics and measures your commitment to the productivity benchmark… before it even gets out of bed in the morning.
Beyond that, it’s a powerful tool to connect entrepreneurs with strategy and insight into their own businesses that’ll accelerate their success. Like a rocket.
There is literally nothing else like it in the world. Commit Action blends the cutting edge of entrepreneurial psychology with tried and true accountability practices to ensure you ruthlessly slay your tasks and crush the habit of procrastination.
This is my soft launch for the service. We’ve been testing Commit Action for some time now and a select few have even gotten access.
Today, we’re opening up twenty places in Commit Action. It’s a totally human powered service, not some infinitely downloadable ebook, so there is a real limit to the number of people we can bring in at one time.
And at the ridiculously low price we have this at (for now), those spots will vanish fast. You’ll see what I mean.
Want to hack your motivation and squash your to do list for good?
Get Commit Action immediately (click here) – don’t procrastinate! | <urn:uuid:1e601f9d-70f8-4a2b-ae4e-63496c4afec7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.petershallard.com/how-to-hack-your-motivation-and-squash-your-to-do-list/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926878 | 1,579 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Weather-Related Morbidity and Mortality & Climate Change
The United States experiences a variety of extreme weather events, including hurricanes, flood, blizzards, and droughts. These events can lead to severe infrastructure damage and high rates of morbidity (illness) and mortality (death). Climate change is expected to increase the frequency and intensity of these events, including floods, droughts, and heat waves. The health impacts of these events can be severe, and include direct impacts such as injury, deaths, and mental health impacts, as well as indirect, such as population displacement and outbreaks of waterborne diseases. Preparation has a significant impact on the outcomes of extreme weather events, as it can reduce illness and deaths, as well as lower economic costs associated with recovery. While some of these strategies can be costly, implementing them over time reduces their cost. However, adaptation can be difficult in heavily affected areas where population growth will continue to increase, such as the U.S. Eastern seaboard that are vulnerable to storm surges and sea-level rise.
- More intense and frequent precipitation events leading to flooding, increasing exposure to toxic chemicals in runoff, waterborne diseases, and ecosystem changes such as loss of wetlands
- More intense and frequent hurricanes resulting in death and injury, infrastructure damage, and increases in stress and anxiety in vulnerable populations
Mitigation and Adaptation
- reducing greenhouse gas emissions through changes in land use, transport, and energy production
- Early warning systems
- Zoning and planning to avoid building in at-risk areas
- Reinforcing the built environment against hazardous weather events
- Evacuation planning and awareness
- Developing strategies for linking health databases with real-time monitoring and prospective assessment of weather, climate, geospacial, and exposure data in order to better characterize the health impacts of extreme weather events
- Improving the predictive power of modeling of health effects of extreme events such as droughts, wildfires, and floods
- Developing and validating techniques for downscaling global climate models to provide regional and local input into health early warning systems
- Evaluating and improving the effectiveness of health alert warning systems and other health risk communication tools
For more information, please visit the chapter on Weather-Related Morbidity and Mortality in A Human Health Perspective on Climate Change (Full Report) (4MB) . | <urn:uuid:8764c839-4807-475e-9448-56520a8c51d0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/programs/geh/climatechange/health_impacts/weather_related_morbidity/index.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937431 | 482 | 3.1875 | 3 |
In this ongoing series about what the Beating Conflict Manifesto might look like we turn to the issue of defensiveness.
Here’s a curious thought; We do not have conflict until someone becomes defensive.
Is that an aggressor’s charter? Not at all.
Of course attacks and challenges need to be managed and resolved.
Within a workplace setting this may well mean disciplinary measures being taken – quick note – conflict resolution should not be used as an excuse for not managing a difficult situation. I have previously turned down training work where it appears that conflict resolution workshops are being used as a soft alternative to unnattractive management steps being taken.
Attacks – and we are talking verbal challenges here – can be perceived or real.
I can be awful, really bad, at perceiving an attack in almost anything that is said to me. It is something that I have to work very hard upon. Because I am aware of it and take conscious steps to manage my own perception and subsequent response I have now got reasonably good at doing so.
I recall the end of one workshop I delivered to a team. The organiser had been anxious about how I would respond to the resistance within the group and came up to me saying “It was amazing how you handled that. How did you do it?”
Sure enough, within minutes, one of the delegates had started saying “I’ll tell you what the problem is here…”
The defensive habit within me perceived this;
“She thinks you do not know what you are doing, or that your stuff does not apply here.”
Sometimes attacks are quite deliberate. I referred in a previous post to the exchange between Francis Maude and Mark Serwotka on Newsnight recently. At the stage where Mark accuses Francis of lying, that is a deliberate attack. At the stage where Francis challenges Mark with the question “If you actually turned up then you might learn something of benefit for your members” (or similar) then that also was a clear attack only thinly veiled under a thin veneer of sarcasm.
When we allow ourselves to become defensive then we seek to preserve ourselves.
Very often we do this by rebutting what has been said. We very quickly get into a futile battle of debating ping pong. Alternatively we puff ourselves up in order to belittle what the other person is saying. We make excuses.
It is at these very moments that we join with the aggressor and unwittingly commit, together with them, to “have it out”, to play the conflict driven games that we see all the time. And think about that for a moment. We surrender our opportunity to shape and control the debate and agree to play by their ruleset. We say…
“Okay. If you want it that way, you can have it that way…”
Why would we do that? Why would we allow them to set the conflict agenda? And what might we do instead to influence the shape of this debate in ways that beat the conventional conflict influences?
That is where the final manifesto point, “Be curious” comes into play so powerfully! | <urn:uuid:e87e3474-dbe1-45d6-9b19-5049b6840774> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://neildenny.wordpress.com/tag/how-to-manage-conflict/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977627 | 656 | 1.5 | 2 |
Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities
Interview with Julie Doyle, ABC New 24
17 April 2012
COMPERE:The Federal Environment Minister, Tony Burke, says he's prepared to make the tough decisions when it comes to the future of the Murray-Darling Basin.
Public consultation on the draft Basin plan closed yesterday, and a final version will now be handed to the minister. The draft plan proposed the return of 2750 gigalitres of water to the environment, but that's angered people from both sides of the argument.
Tony Burke told political reporter, Julie Doyle, that he'll take all views into consideration.
[Excerpt from interview]
TONY BURKE: well, they have to be. I've noticed in some of the papers today it's states are putting recommended changes for the draft and, therefore, that's damaging the whole process. No, that's why you have a draft. You have a draft so that you can tease out the different ideas and work out what the best possible final plan would look like.
It's more complex than simply how high or low is the number that we're talking about. There's issues of ground water. There's issues of constraints in the system to work out what you can deliver. There's a lot that goes, it is how you actually then use the environmental water itself in the environmental watering plan.
All of this, combined with the how do you get there question - which has a big impact on communities.
JULIE DOYLE: So can we expect those major changes to the draft? Like will people be disappointed if there's not some big change? I mean what sort of scale are we talking about?
TONY BURKE: Well, let's face it; there'll be some people who are disappointed if there's any reform at all. There will be some people who are disappointed if there's any irrigation left at the end of the reform. There will be extremes of the argument. Some of that will be reflected in submissions, and you can safely bet that no final plan's going to go down either of those paths.
But where we have to get to is - and this is where, with Murray-Darling reform, often we look at it through the prism of the flood years or the drought years. It's actually the in between years that this reform's all about.
See, if you pull too much water out of the system, then unless it's a flood year all the environmental assets live as though you are already in drought, so that when the drought eventually hits there's no resilience left in the system.
So it's about making sure we have enough water reserved for environmental purposes, that you have a healthy system. And if you've got a healthy system, that doesn’t just underpin the environment. It underpins all the productive activity that communities rely on.
JULIE DOYLE: Well, that's a big concern that communities have, that - some of the farming communities do - that this plan will go too far - and too much water to the environment; not enough to keep their communities producing and keep the economies going; keeping these small towns alive. How do you balance that? How will you satisfy those concerns?
TONY BURKE: Look, the starting point is that you have to make sure the system is healthy again. That's a starting point. That's a reason why the reform even exists in the first place. You then want to work with communities to bridge that gap in the most sensible way you possibly can.
So there's a few things that you don't want to do. You don't want to recover more water than you can actually use. One of the things that's not often understood is the environmental water doesn’t just automatically flow downstream. It gets held in dams and storages.
Then what we do is we, effectively, act like irrigators. We irrigate the environmental sites. But you have to be able to get the water from the storages to the environmental sites. There's constraints in the system: places that you can't flood, bridges that you can't get the water level over, channels that have a particular size capacity.
Some of those constraints do put limits on how ambitious you can be with some of the environmental outcomes. It's like if you've got a five litre bucket of water. No matter how much you want to, you're not going to fill it with seven litres, and so we have to work within those constraints.
But also some people have said during the submission process let's see if there are creative ways where we might be able to lift some of those constraints or move beyond them.
JULIE DOYLE: Now, what about the states? You mentioned those a bit earlier. Now, Victoria and New South Wales, South Australia, all have concerns coming from different aspects.
TONY BURKE: Pretty different concerns, yes.
JULIE DOYLE: Yes, yes. How do you get them on board? You can't do it without them.
TONY BURKE: Yes, there are concepts that are contemplated within the Water Act where the Commonwealth actually does take over some of the powers of the states. But the preference is to get there in a co-operative way.
JULIE DOYLE: So if you can't get there in a co-operative way though would you go ahead and do that, take over those powers?
TONY BURKE: Those powers are in the Act. Those powers have been in the Act since the Howard Government was in office. They're there. I don't ignore that they're there. But my pathway at the moment is to try to get this done in a co-operative way because that's the most effective way of delivering the reform.
JULIE DOYLE: But if you can't, would you do that? Would you just go ahead?
TONY BURKE: I don't rule out any of my powers. Never have. They're there for a reason. If they were good enough for John Howard to put them in, then they're good enough to use if required.
JULIE DOYLE: Now, once you get the final plan, then it will be up to you to look at this and decide what you want to do and to get some legislation into Parliament. Will you have the courage to make the tough decisions, knowing that you're going to upset some people no matter what you do?
TONY BURKE: If I was worried about being in front of people who are upset I wouldn't have gone to the public meetings I've gone to over the last few months. Change is hard. Reform is difficult. Not reforming is unthinkable.
I was Agriculture Minister during the last drought. I saw exactly what happened to communities when there was no resilience left in the system. I saw what happened to irrigation and I saw what happened to the environment. I don't want to see us go into the next drought unprepared again.
Make no mistake, you know, some people have said oh well there's a whole lot of water in the system; hasn't it fixed itself? No, it hasn't. The fact that it looks wet doesn’t mean the ecology's recovered. It doesn’t mean the system's strong again.
Sure, it's better than it was three years ago, but we want to make sure we build that resilience again. So I'm determined that we get right what generations of Australians and Australian leadership has got wrong. We've always lacked the courage to view the Basin as a total system and we've just let it be a tug of war between the states. That has to end this year.
JULIE DOYLE: So when will we see that legislation then come before Parliament?
TONY BURKE: Look, it's a plan that I sign off. It then becomes a disallowable instrument. I'm expecting - and I don't want to give a deadline because sometimes, you know, you can add an extra few weeks because there is some extra information that allowed you to improve it.
So I don't want to give deadlines, but we'll be dealing with it in the Parliament this year, and there is an argument where some people have said - and there was a moment a few months ago where some of the environmentalists - some of the irrigators - were giving me an out to say just put it off for a couple of years while you try to get more scientific information.
That's been the problem: that we've always had an excuse to put it off. And, politically, it's always been an easy out. I don't intend to take that out. My determination this year is we get right what Australia has always got wrong, and we manage the Murray-Darling Basin as the total system that it is.
JULIE DOYLE: Tony Burke, thank you very much for your time.
TONY BURKE: Pleasure. | <urn:uuid:85580084-a08e-4d1a-859b-cd5259f895fd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.environment.gov.au/minister/burke/2012/tr20120417.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973126 | 1,870 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Android is not only with regard to cell phones nowadays. So that at this time there can come every day while Android mobile phone will be more essential versus iphone 3gs, more essential when compared with Windows, plus much more essential when compared with any unit. Android isn’t just for cell phones anymore.
Android Operating system can be an start source operating-system created by Google for main use of about clever telephones, and is at present in use about quite a few cellular phones such as the Motorola Droid, the HTC Droid Eris, the HTC Eris, the HTC Hero, the My Touch 3G Slideshow, along with the Dell Streak.
Lately there is some sort of designer release from the Google android OS intended for make use of the x86 architecture, that may ultimately make it possible for Google android for being ported for your Tablets, net books and even on to Laptops and computers in addition to on to many other devices, for example set-top boxes, Video game systems, Home Control systems.
Android can be written within java on the changed edition on the Linux kernel. Due to its start structure, it truly is easy for coders to build software to operate around the Android computer. As opposed to the actual the Apple Company closed structure, using its draconian gatekeepers, any person efficient at coding could write an application to operate about Android. And if Google’s policies usually are put into practice, in which app will probably be made available to many Android people.
What exactly meaning for you is which if you would like the cell phone to accomplish anything this doesn’t happen at present carry out, and there is not an Android app software which manages to do it, anyone be capable of deal with a builder on an software developed that could enable the cell phone to accomplish precisely what you look for, though in addition there are builder organizations who, when the strategy is an excellent just one, may take assembling your garden shed with intern intended for the chance to fit his or her identify onto it and give maintenance and customization of their software, which can be the way wide open supply operates. The particular heavens are the control!
As of this writing there are approximately two Android OS phones activated for each second. Because Android OS exists with so many excellent phones, with quite a few brand-new ones to become unveiled shortly, it certainly can’t always be long before Android OS phones store an increased market share when compared with any other operating system with any other telephone, such as i phone, particularly because the Android OS 2.2 Froyo relieve helps Adobe Display, any sticking level while using i phone along with cellular phones. Android OS 2.2 Froyo is actually at the moment being folded available towards Nexus a single, and will shortly be around for many different Android OS phones. | <urn:uuid:2062328c-9d43-4ea3-83f8-db413e24d62c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gamesht.com/2012/08/07/android-is-not-only-for-mobile-phones/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945533 | 578 | 2.203125 | 2 |
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Q&A: The son of a refugee, Goodwill Ambassador Dalaras helps today's displaced
News Stories, 9 March 2007
ATHENS, March 9 (UNHCR) – Acclaimed Greek musician and singer George Dalaras was appointed a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador last October after a long and fruitful relationship with the refugee agency. His empathy for uprooted people from around the world comes from his mother's experience as a refugee. In February, he made his first overseas mission as a UNHCR envoy, visiting Sierra Leone and Liberia with his wife Anna, a volunteer worker for the agency. Athens-based Public Information Officer Ketty Kehayioylou recently put some questions to Dalaras. Excerpts from his answers:
Your mother was a refugee? Has this fact shaped your views at all?
Yes, my refugee background – from the side of my mother – has deeply affected me. As a young child, I was able to understand what it means to be a refugee. And I believe that this is very important in civilised societies – for people to be able to understand who a refugee is. A refugee is not a person who wants to leave his or her home and employment, but someone who is forced to flee their country.
From my mother, I certainly learned about all the good things that refugees from Asia Minor brought with them to mainland Greece. Aside from their bitterness and anguish, they also brought with them their songs and their wonderful culture. All this made me respect and appreciate all those people who seek asylum. I also believe that, as Europeans, it is disparaging for our culture and our history if we raise walls to keep out refugees.
You often perform rebetika, songs that emerged from the suffering of Greeks uprooted from Asia Minor. What meaning do they have for you?
The songs of Asia Minor are mainly smyrnaiika, which together with rebetika – which was the marginal music of the last century until 1960 – virtually make up our songs of strength. The rebetika and the smyrnaiika, for us, are full of inspiration, musical variety and remarkable lyrics. They are our blues, our flamenco and they are always inspiring, at least they are for me as a musician. These songs speak very much to the soul of young people. On my international tours, I have come across foreigners who appreciate good music and who know these songs.
How has Greece's history shaped attitudes towards refugees today?
I believe Greeks have been sympathetic to refugees because of the Asia Minor catastrophe [which saw the Greek population of Turkey exchanged with the Turkish population of Greece after the 1919-1922 Greco-Turkish War] and the tragedy of Cyprus [in 1974 when the island was divided and many Greek and Turkish Cypriots displaced], but also from much earlier. The Greeks are generous, hospitable and supportive, probably because we know first hand how it feels to be a refugee or an immigrant in difficult times. Unfortunately, however, I am starting to see an opposite trend among the Greeks. And this is something that we, especially artists and volunteers who work on refugee issues with UNHCR or non-governmental organisations, must try to prevent by raising awareness.
Can you tell us about your involvement with UNHCR?
I have always been very sensitive to refugee issues. From a young age, I have participated in and held hundreds of concerts in aid of refugees. I have been supporting UNHCR since 2001 by holding concerts and assisting with public awareness campaigns and fund-raising.
I think I can help, above all, by raising public awareness. We must knock on the doors of the mass media, so that television, radio, newspapers and magazines will cover stories about refugees and appeal for assistance. Many people want to help, but they drown in a sea of futility, thinking that nothing can be done to improve the situation. But this is not true. Ideally, every citizen must make a small commitment because collectively they can make a difference.
Tell us about your trip to West Africa and why you chose it for your first mission as a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador
I am Greek and a citizen of the world. And as a citizen of the world, I know that Africa is a priority. We cannot consider ourselves civilised as long as people, especially children, women and other vulnerable groups, are being denied a life of dignity. And this is exactly what I said to the people I met there. I told them that I would do all I possibly could, with the little power I have, to help them achieve this goal.
My experience [in Sierra Leone and Liberia] was shocking. No matter how well you have prepared yourself, you will still be shocked. And of course these overseas missions with UNHCR will continue in the future, in between and in combination with my professional commitments as a singer.
Has becoming a Goodwill Ambassador changed anything?
Yes.... It's not so much the title of Goodwill Ambassador, but what it means to hold this position. I think a lot about which doors I have to knock on and how I will promote the issue of improving asylum procedures, especially in Europe. I also think about how to improve the safety of refugees and their living conditions.
You have donated proceeds from concerts and albums to UNHCR programmes. Are there are other ways that you can help?
Aside from the proceeds from concerts that you mentioned, I am working with the UNHCR office in Athens to draft a comprehensive proposal about how the [Greek] government may offer assistance to countries in Africa where there are refugees. The other thing that we are doing is to meet repeatedly with officials at the public order ministry to ask that they streamline asylum procedures and improve the detention facilities. And the other thing that we do daily is to highlight the demands of refugees and to raise public awareness.
How important is music? Can it help those who live in exile?
Music and the arts are very important for us artists and also for people who are in need. The Greeks of Asia Minor, our grandfathers who were forced to flee Smyrna [now Izmir in Turkey], took great comfort in their songs. Music is the legacy of all peoples. | <urn:uuid:28cc432a-8ead-49a7-92a2-e65184c9311b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://unhcr.org/45f177af4.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978029 | 1,264 | 1.960938 | 2 |
Year of publication
- 2011 (3) (remove)
- Disclosure, transparency, and market discipline (2011)
- The aim of this paper is to examine what has been the role of information provision to the market throughout the crisis. We consider two main sources of information to the market, financial statements and information provided by credit rating agencies. We examine how these sources of information work and the effectiveness of their disclosure process during the crisis. Contrary to the commonly held view, fair value accounting did not have a major impact on the crisis development and severity. However, the structure and lack of accountability of credit rating agencies had a profound impact on their incentives, which may have jeopardized the accuracy of the whole rating process. We claim that the crisis experience has changed the way we think about information as well as market discipline and discuss policy implications and proposals for regulation. JEL Classification: G01, G24, G28, M41, M48 Keywords: Mark-to-Market, Fair-Value Accounting, Credit Rating Agencies, Financial Crisis, Regulation, Financial Institutions, Banks
- On the role of the liquidity premium in the regulation of insurers (2011)
- Prepared by Christian Laux, Vienna University of Economics and Business & Center for Financial Studies (CFS) for the “Workshop on Liquidity Premium in Solvency II: Conceptual and Measurement Issues,” DNB Amsterdam, March 18, 2011. The insurance industry and the Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pension Supervisors (CEIOPS) propose to add a liquidity premium to the risk-free rate when discounting liabilities in times of financial turmoil. The objective is to counterbalance adverse effects on regulatory capital due to a decrease in asset values caused by illiquidity in a crisis. As I argue in this note, although the motive might be sensible, the proposal to add a liquidity premium when discounting liabilities is not the right approach to tackle the problem.
- Insuring non-verifiable losses (2011)
- Insurance contracts are often complex and difficult to verify outside the insurance relation. We show that standard one-period insurance policies with an upper limit and a deductible are the optimal incentive-compatible contracts in a competitive market with repeated interaction. Optimal group insurance policies involve a joint upper limit but individual deductibles and insurance brokers can play a role implementing such contracts for the group of clients. Our model provides new insights and predictions about the determinants of insurance. | <urn:uuid:4f42741b-0db3-47f4-8fe1-3f109f1d445e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://publikationen.stub.uni-frankfurt.de/solrsearch/index/search/searchtype/authorsearch/author/%22Christian+Laux%22/start/0/rows/10/yearfq/2011 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927105 | 502 | 1.867188 | 2 |
A delightful picture of old Rushden at the time of his childhood was placed before the members of Rushden Rotary Club, at their luncheon last Friday, by Mr. Walter Green, an old inhabitant of the town, who left about forty years ago and now resides at Knotting Green.
Mr. Green gave evidence of his marvellous memory and read from an article he had written about thirty years ago, telling of a walk through what are now some of Rushden’s principal streets but were then lanes very often over grown with weeds and briars.
He described how he had set out from “The Tan Yard,” where Messrs. Seamarks’ garage now stands, up a steep hill where the road was overgrown and one was likely to see stoats and rabbits, into some allotments which were known as Crabb’s. From there he went through the Making Close, through “Wheatsheaf Garden” to the toll gate near the Vestry Hall, and along Rectory-road past the little Wesleyan church which stood at the top of George-street.
Path to Higham
“There was no Queen-street, no Victoria-road, no railway just a pathway which led to Higham,” he said. He mentioned a beautiful field, now North-street, where the boys practised running and which sloped steeply down to Higham-road.
Mr. Green then told the true story of a local “character,” Dossie Brown, a pedlar, who lived in a hovel in Duck-street. He described how Dossie, with sheepskin over his shoulders and sacks on his feet, had walked out of the “Wagon and Horses” one Christmas Eve, befriended an old woman who lived in Little-street, and was found dead the next morning.
The vote of thanks was proposed by Rotarian F. J. Sharwood, C.C., who also recalled life in old Rushden.
Four water colour paintings by Mr. Green scenes from the days of his youth were auctioned for the R.A.F. Benevolent Fund and raised £5 15s.
The luncheon was at the Waverley Hotel, Rotarian J. J. Page (president) being in the chair.
Note: Walter was living in Griffith Street in 1901, born 1865, son of Wm Green founder of Grenson's | <urn:uuid:cf6e8ab2-7f5f-4e84-8fb7-a12224eb89be> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rushdenheritage.co.uk/people/green-walter-memories.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98854 | 511 | 1.53125 | 2 |
From CT4CT: Creative Tools for Critical Times
Trevor Paglen is an artist, writer, and experimental geographer working out of the Department of Geography at the University of California, Berkeley. His work involves deliberately blurring the lines between social science, contemporary art, and a host of even more obscure disciplines to construct unfamiliar, yet meticulously researched ways to interpret the world around us.
Bechtel Predator Drones
The Center for Tactical Magic and Trevor Paglen's Bechtel Predator Drones are remote controlled vehicles designed to distribute educational materials pertaining to the Bechtel Corporation's activities as a military contractor. The Center for Tactical Magic claims that Bechtel was responsible for building chemical production facilities in Iraq prior to the second U.S. invasion of Iraq and has been listed among 24 U.S. companies that supplied Iraq with weapons and/or weapon-making capabilities during the 1980's.
According to the Center for Tactical Magic:
"Bechtel Predator Drones" successfully targeted the Bechtel* corporate headquarters in San Francisco where employees and pedestrians alike experienced first-hand the effects of leafletting and unmanned predator drones. The combined forces of Trevor Paglen and the Center for Tactical Magic led to the development and deployment of two remote-controlled drones, each of which distributed three payloads: 1) short pamphlets detailing Bechtel's history of unsavory activities; 2) CD-ROMs designed to assist workers in installing viruses on their workstations; and 3) copies of the CIA Sabotage Manual - a small, government-authored comic book containing a series of useful sabotage techniques, the majority of which can be done in the workplace with simple objects. Over the course of the operation, the drones' pilots met resistance both by Bechtel security forces and by an undercover, camera-toting cop. Despite these minor imperial entanglements, the mission was successful.
Trevor Paglen and the Institute for Applied Autonomy's Terminal Air (2007) is a faux travel agency inspired by the CIA's secret extraordinary rendition flights that are used to transport suspected terrorists out of the United States for interrogation (and torture) in foreign countries.
According to the Institute for Applied Autonomy:
Terminal Air is a project that explores complex interconnections between government agencies and private contractors involved with the United States Central Intelligence Agency's extraordinary rendition program. Since the mid-90’s, the CIA has operated the extraordinary rendition program, in which suspected terrorists captured in Western nations are transported to secret locations for torture and interrogation. A thoroughly modern enterprise, the extraordinary rendition program is largely carried out using leased equipment and private contractors. These private charter planes often use civilian airports for refueling, making their movements subject to public record and visible to anyone who knows which tail numbers to look for. However, while these missions are carried out under the guise of protecting the American people, the nature of the program has thus far remained out of reach to both American and International law. With only the knowledge of what these planes have been used for in the past, human rights activists are left to view their movements as a vast “black box” and can only speculate whether any specific plane is currently carrying human cargo en-route to being tortured in a so-called CIA “dark prison”.
- Art Threat: Follow spies in the skies with Terminal Air
- Institute for Applied Autonomy: Terminal Air | <urn:uuid:15eac4db-c1d2-4839-a84b-415f11c9f30c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ct4ct.com/Trevor_Paglen | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929716 | 701 | 1.710938 | 2 |
In spite of the recent eruption of violence, there are reasons to be cheerful about Northern Ireland's future.
The crime-rate is lower than in most of the developed world. So is the murder-rate and, last year, there were fewer violent deaths here than at any time since before the Troubles.
More young people are going to university here and that holds the promise that, if we can build an inviting society, they will stay here and contribute to its growth.
Stormont may be a slow and ponderous system of government, but it is moving forward on some fronts.
Replacing the Housing Executive and rationalising councils are recent examples of processes that have at least been started.
The lurking menace is sectarian division which, like an unhealthy lifestyle, can stop us in our tracks and abruptly wreck everything. The flags protest (left) resembled a heart attack which took us by surprise after years of over-indulgence and dismissing the warning signs.
We must find ways of handling these divisive issues without feeding a culture of victory and defeat, which is the seedbed of conflict; a common strategy of flag-flying, not a model by which unionists enforce their will depending on who holds the majority. We have an opportunity to move forward this year. But first we have got to get ourselves into shape for the challenges ahead. | <urn:uuid:6744dd04-aa36-4e89-9482-51233a928343> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/columnists/liam-clarke/the-futures-bright-but-bigotrys-the-fly-in-our-ointment-29013122.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964876 | 273 | 1.554688 | 2 |
From the dairy to the highway, a plan to make fuel from waste
A Seattle energy company has a plan to turn manure into compressed natural gas to fuel trucks, selling it cheaper than diesel.
GRANGER, Yakima County — Dan DeRuyter knows his expensive digester that generates electricity from dairy manure is not paying off.
But he has new hope. A Seattle energy company has a plan to turn the manure into compressed natural gas to fuel trucks, selling it cheaper than diesel.
"You got $4 fuel and I can give you $2 fuel," said DeRuyter, co-owner of DeRuyter and Sons Dairy.
The idea may involve his neighbors, too. Promus Energy, a Seattle energy-development firm, is working with DeRuyter, as well as neighboring Cow Palace and Liberty Dairy, to convert biogas released when a digester chemically breaks down manure — in a process called anaerobic (without oxygen) digestion — into a form of natural gas.
The plan then is to sell it to nearby truck-fleet owners. They also want to build filling stations in the Lower Yakima Valley and perhaps Ellensburg. They believe it will work, said Dan Evans, president of Promus Energy.
"This is a project that pencils as profitable," Evans said.
They now are trying to recruit investors for construction, which will cost about $20 million if all three dairies participate. Evans is not expecting the owners to invest any money but they may, said DeRuyter and Adam Dolsen, co-owner of Cow Palace.
"It makes sense to be involved in it financially," Dolsen said, because dairy owners want to show they are trying to be part of the solution to groundwater pollution. "I think the compressed natural-gas thing will work out."
Environmental officials hope the proposal breathes new life into digesters, which are giant, concrete pits where chemical reactions remove odors and pathogens from manure and release a gas that can be either burned off or used to generate electricity.
Dairy owners have been bombarded with sales pitches for digesters for more than 10 years, Dolsen said. The problem is they're expensive. The state has eight so far, including at Werkhoven Dairy in Monroe. That's up from three digesters in 2008.
In 2006, DeRuyter spent $3.8 million from a combination of his own funds, grants and government loans to construct a digester, which to the naked eye looks like a covered concrete pit the size of a gymnasium.
It's connected to two buzzing generators that stand about four times the height of a man. Those in turn are connected to the region's power grid.
However, rates paid to DuRuyter by Pacific Power have dropped to 3.5 cents per kilowatt-hour, less than half what they were than when he started.
"To be honest with you, it's not a cash-flowing deal," he said. "I haven't got out of it what I hoped to get out of it."
Evans, of Promus, believes his plan will change DeRuyter's fortunes and make digesters more attractive to dairy owners by both harvesting the natural gas and adding equipment to make the leftover waste, which the dairy industry and regulators call "nutrients," more concentrated and easier for plants to use.
Cattle manure contains nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus that can both fertilize crops and contaminate groundwater if applied in excess. Numerous studies have shown that 20 percent of residential wells, relied upon for drinking water by thousands of rural Lower Yakima Valley residents, have nitrate levels higher than federal standards.
Officials with the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have said the dairies in Promus' project are among the likely contributors to the pollution. And the EPA has been working with the owners to draft legally binding management plans to clean up, while environmental advocacy groups have threatened to sue the dairies.
New purification plan
However, traditional digesters such as DeRuyter's don't get rid of those nutrients. Besides the gas, they leave behind a brown slurry that farmers must store in lagoons and apply to fields, as well as solid waste they turn into compost for livestock bedding.
With the help of Washington State University engineers, Promus is pitching a new way of purifying the liquid into a more concentrated form, which dairy owners could more easily afford to truck or pump to fields farther away.
That part has environmental officials interested, said Bill Dunbar, an EPA policy adviser in Seattle.
"Maybe that's the way to solve the problem," he said.
The EPA does not regulate digesters but has started a national program called AgStar that helps farmers share information about them.
"That's what our role has been, sort of the cheerleader," Dunbar said.
Making natural gas is the second part of Promus' idea.
Evans plans to scrub the fumes released by the digester into a cleaner form of methane, which yields more heat, similar to home-heating natural gas, and sell it to businesses that own trucks. He declined to name his potential clients.
If Evans can cultivate the market, his backers would start building in the spring. They would begin with new digesters at Cow Palace and Liberty Dairy, then install pipes to connect them to a central gas-scrubbing station, fueling stations and possibly a pipeline to run some of the methane to the nation's natural-gas network. They would begin operations a year later, he said.
Because of its abundance, Evans believes the United States is ready to embrace natural gas as a fuel of choice for transportation.
Many transit and refuse-hauling fleets use natural gas. So do Seattle taxis. And T. Boone Pickens, the petroleum tycoon who made his fortune through Dallas-based Mesa Petroleum, has created a company working on a similar project that has caught the attention of President Obama.
"This is a tectonic shift in the U.S. energy equation," Evans said. "We're at the front end of this tip."
But they aren't the first group of farmers to try it. They aren't even the first dairies.
A year ago, Fair Oaks Farms, a consortium of dairies in Fair Oaks, Ind., bought 42 new milk-delivery trucks that run on natural gas, building fuel stations in Fair Oaks and in Louisville, Ky., to expand their range.
They started by purchasing fuel for the trucks, but in October this year they began harnessing their own.
They spent more than $10 million, which they expect to earn back in fuel savings in fewer than five years, said Mark Stoermann, project manager for Fair Oaks Farms.
The area near Fair Oaks has six digesters, and five of them generate electricity, not natural gas.
Generally speaking, the Midwest, especially Wisconsin, has hundreds of digesters because farm owners usually find more profitable electrical contracts from utilities than in the Northwest, where relatively inexpensive hydropower is hard to beat on price.
All of Evans' ideas are just proposals, but state economic officials helped him with his homework.
The Department of Commerce put up $200,000 for a market study that found a lot of potential for the business, said Peter Moulden. For example, Hanford contract managers have discussed using renewable natural gas to power their shuttle van fleets, the 100-page study said.
The plan has plenty of "ifs" and potential pitfalls, Moulden said.
For one, persuading oil-addicted American drivers to switch to a new fuel is a tall order and natural-gas prices won't stay low forever, he suspects.
And whether dairy owners build the equipment themselves or Evans' investors pay for it, the proposal involves a lot of money and considerable risk. "How do you get over the initial hurdle of financing?" Moulden said.
That's the same question dairy owners have been asking of digesters all along. | <urn:uuid:ff480e64-056b-461b-96cd-4b6f7b1e326b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2019988269_dairyenergy26m.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969146 | 1,670 | 1.921875 | 2 |
Story location: http://archive.pressthink.org/2010/07/07/obj_persuasion.html
Wanted: Political blogger covering the conservative movement. Must be provocative and write with a strong point of view although not in a way that would reveal bias or offend any of your potential subjects. Social media a plus until it’s not. Must be completely transparent, unless that proves embarrassing to the newspaper. Send sanitized résumé, innocuous clips and nonpartisan references to The Washington Post.
— David Carr, New York Times, Outspoken Is Great, Till It’s Not
Sometimes we can only reach clarity by separating two things that have become tangled up with one another. Authoritative reporting and objectivity in journalism need to be disentangled, or the situation David Carr was satirizing will persist. These notes were written for Marcus Brauchli, the editor of the Washington Post, but anyone can read them. He’s the one who needs them.
A system of signs
The basic unit of journalism is the report, an account of what happened. The longer I’ve studied it (which is, uh… 25 years) the more I’ve come to see that “objectivity” as practiced by the American press is a form of persuasion. It tries to persuade all possible users of the account that the account can be trusted because it is unadorned.
Some specific ways in which it does this are: playing up facts gathered and playing down opinions; using constructions like “he said,” or “according to the Senate report” rather than “I think;” refusing to characterize what easily could be characterized; rehearsing rather than resolving disputes; betraying no position on controversial items, and so on. J-school students when they are taught to write in this style are often told not to use the word “I” and to lose the adjectives.
These are some of the signs of objectivity, which is a system of signs. But since the word “objectivity” has become a term of abuse, journalists who believe in this system now shy away from using that word. They may talk of the “tradition of non-partisan news coverage,” or put neutrality in place of objectivity. “No axe to grind.” “No vested interest.” “Straight reporting.” Different call letters, same station. Often (and I mean very often) they will concede a bit to the skeptics, “Of course no one can be totally objective…” and then re-affirm what they have always felt: “but I believe it’s important that we try to keep our opinions out of it.”
There is always more to it
Shifting about in these language games, journalists have kept objectivity more or less the same over the years: a system of signs meant to persuade us to accept an account of what happened because it appears to contain only what happened and not what the composer of the account feels about it. That’s why you should trust it: because it appears unadorned. The way we capture this in popular culture is by reference to Joe Friday: “Just the facts, Ma’am.”
That’s not to say that an account presented this way actually is pure fact. No way. There is no act of journalism that is not saturated with judgment. Even a photograph is framed by the picture taker. When I refer to “Just the facts” I simply mean: that is how the story asks to be understood, not… “that is all there is to it.” There is always more to it.
So objectivity is persuasion, the method is “just the facts, lose the adjectives,” and the outcome is supposed to be the user’s trust. Got it?
I’m there, you’re not, let me tell you about it
In my recent post, Fixing The Ideology Problem in Our Political Press, I said that the work of the journalist cannot be done without a commitment to the act of reporting, which means gathering information, talking to people who know, trying to verify and clarify what actually happened and to portray the range of views as they emerge from events.
A primary commitment to reporting distinguishes the work of the journalist. It is also bedrock for journalistic authority, which begins in the statement: “I’m there, you’re not, let me tell you about it.” Or: “I was at the Tea Party convention interviewing participants, you weren’t, let me tell you about it.” Or: “I investigated BP’s numbers for how many barrels a day were leaking into the Gulf, you were too busy living your life, so… let me tell you about it.”
Reporting can be trusted if it is cured of opinion. Reporting can be trusted if it is dusted with opinion. Or even completely interwoven with opinion. It can lead to conclusions. Or the conclusions can be left to others. It can be persuasive with or without the adjectives. The presence of the word “I” does not prevent an account from being trusted. It all depends. Persuasion is an art form, a skill. It is rhetoric, which comes in different styles. It doesn’t always succeed, and rarely succeeds on everyone. Reporting has authority because the reporter did the work. I checked it out, you didn’t, let me tell you about it.
If we saw objectivity — or the vow of neutrality — as a form of persuasion we would be in better shape for arguing about incidents like the resignation of reporter and blogger Dave Weigel from the Washington Post. For a bunch of things follow from this basic point.
Easing the strain
1. “Grounded in reporting” is far more important than “cured of opinion.” What editors and news executives should worry about is whether the news accounts delivered to users are well grounded in reporting. That’s the value added. That’s the sign of seriousness. That’s the journalism part. Original reporting and the discipline of verification—meaning, the account holds up under scrutiny—should be strict priorities. Whether the composer of the account has a view, comes to a conclusion, speaks with attitude (or declines these things) is far less important. Here, looser rules are better.
2. If objectivity is persuasion, it’s possible that its power to persuade can fade. This is particularly so because of what I said earlier: every act of journalism is saturated with judgment. By not disclosing such acts, “just the facts” sows the seeds of mistrust. All it takes is an accumulation of users who want to know where these judgments arise from. Ostensibly “objective” accounts will fail that test. Mistrust will rise. As the clamor grows, journalists may misidentify it as a demand for even more objectivity. Now you have something that looks a lot like a death spiral, at least for those users who are no longer persuaded. (In part because audience atomization has been overcome by the Internet.)
3. Disclosure sets the fairness bar higher. James Poniewozik of Time magazine was seeking an escape from that spiral when he said that reporters should disclose their political preferences:
Modern political journalism is based on the bogus concept of neutrality (that people can be steeped in campaigns yet not care who wins) and the legitimate ideal of fairness (that people can place intellectual integrity and rigor over their rooting interests). Voting and disclosing would expose the sham of neutrality—which few believe anyway—and compel opinion and news writers alike to prove, story by story, that fairness is possible anyway. Partisans, bloggers and media critics are toxically obsessed with ferreting out reporters’ preferences; treating them as shameful secrets only makes matters worse.
In this sense neutrality can hamper credibility because it masks the hard work of proving you can be fair despite the fact that you have your views.
4. The View from Nowhere may be harder to trust than “here’s where I’m coming from.” Objectivity is often seen as safer by self-styled traditionalists in the mainstream press. But I like to put the accent on what’s tendentious about it. So I make use of my own term, the View from Nowhere, to describe the ritualized uses of objectivity and suggest that there is something strained about them. Easing that strain is not impossible. It means shifting to a different rhetoric: “Here’s where I’m coming from,” sometimes called transparency. This is a different bid for trust. Instead of viewlessness, “You know where I stand; judge accordingly.”
5. In deciding what the rules should be, the wise newsroom will trade polarity for plurality. Lose the binary, news people! Instead of two rigid poles—neutrality or ideology, news or opinion, reporter or blogger, adults or kids—I recommend a range of approaches that permit journalists to report what they know, say what they think, develop a point of view in interaction with events, and bid for the trust of users who have many more sources available to them. A plurality of permissible styles recognizes that trust is a puzzle unsolvable by a single system of signs.
The View From Nowhere at Twilight Hour: A PressThink Series
This post is part of a series I’ve been writing at PressThink over the past two years. The series is about the fading light behind what I’ve called The View From Nowhere, a term I started using in 2003 and have developed further on Twitter. The series is also about what might replace this broken practice, and the vocabulary I have chosen for describing what’s wrong with it.
1. Audience Atomization Overcome: Why the Internet Weakens the Authority of the Press (January 12, 2009) Print.
In the age of mass media, the press was able to define the sphere of legitimate debate with relative ease because the people on the receiving end were atomized— connected “up” to Big Media but not across to each other. And now that authority is eroding. I will try to explain why.
2. He Said, She Said Journalism: Lame Formula in the Land of the Active User (April 12, 2009) Print.
Any good blogger, competing journalist or alert press critic can spot and publicize false balance and the lame acceptance of fact-free spin. Do users really want to be left helpless in sorting out who’s faking it more? The he said, she said form says they do, but I say decline has set in.
3. The Quest for Innocence and the Loss of Reality in Political Journalism (Feb 21, 2010) Print.
“The quest for innocence means the desire to be manifestly agenda-less and thus ‘prove’ in the way you describe things that journalism is not an ideological trade. But this can get in the way of describing things! What’s lost is that sense of reality Isaiah Berlin talked about…”
4. Clowns to the Left of Me, Jokers to the Right: On the Actual Ideology of the American Press (June 14, 2010) Print.
That it’s easy to describe the ideology of the press is a point on which the left, the right and the profession of journalism converge. I disagree. I think it’s tricky. So tricky, I’ve had to invent my own language for discussing it.
5. Fixing The Ideology Problem in Our Political Press: A Reply to The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder (June 22, 2010) Print.
“If your job is to make the case, win the negotiations, decide what the community should do, or maintain morale, that is one kind of work. If your job is to tell people what’s going on, and equip them to participate without illusions, that is a very different kind of work.”
6. Objectivity as a Form of Persuasion: A Few Notes for Marcus Brauchli (July 7, 2010) Print.
“Reporting can be trusted if it is cured of opinion. Reporting can be trusted if it is dusted with opinion. Or even completely interwoven with opinion. It can lead to conclusions. Or the conclusions can be left to others.”
If you read them all, you will know what I think is happening to political journalism as it struggles to find a new footing amid culture war, platform shift, and collapsing trust in the political class, of which journalists are a part. If you read them all, let me know what you think. | <urn:uuid:e1e33b62-cead-4e88-9424-c1d7f025682b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://archive.pressthink.org/2010/07/07/obj_persuasion_p.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953145 | 2,697 | 1.851563 | 2 |
President Obama has signed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which had already passed in both the House and the Senate, at an event at the Rose Garden.
The new law will give the FDA the power to regulate tobacco.
President Obama, who started smoking as a teenager and has struggled to quit, had long indicated that he planned to sign the bill when it reached his desk.
Earlier in June, the bill passed in the Senate 79 to 1, with Democratic Senator Kay Hagen of North Carolina voting against it. The House approved the bill by 307 to 97 just one day later.
The FDA will not be able to eliminate nicotine in cigarettes, but can lessen the amount used. The bill also will put massive restrictions on the way tobacco can be advertised and marketed. Outdoor tobacco advertising will not be allowed within 1,000 feet of schools and playgrounds, along with all brand sponsorship of sports and entertainment events. Ads will be limited to black-and-white text only in many publications, on billboards and at many stores. Point-of-sale advertising will be limited to adults-only facilities. Cigarette vending machines will only be allowed in locations restricted to adults. Retailers who sell to minors will be subject to federal enforcement and penalties. The bill also will ban candy flavorings, or any herb or spices, such as strawberry, orange, clove or cinnamon, and will block labels such “low tar” and “light.” Larger and more specific health warnings will now appear on the top third of the front and back of tobacco packages and the FDA will have the power to require graphic warning labels that cover half of the front and back. | <urn:uuid:fc6090cd-74e9-4ffd-b643-46dea62e2142> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.csdecisions.com/2009/06/23/obama-signs-fda-bill-into-law/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960833 | 341 | 2.15625 | 2 |
By North Shore Animal League America
Think dental care is only for people? Think again. Pet lovers who are dedicated to the care and lifelong well-being of their companion animals should include dental hygiene in their animals’ regular health and wellness routine.
“Dental hygiene is as important to your pets’ overall health as nutrition and exercise,” said Dr. Mark Verdino, vice president and chief of veterinary staff at North Shore Animal League America, which operates a full-service Pet Dental Suite at its Pet Health Center in Port Washington, N.Y.
Poor dental hygiene can cause dental disease, which creates bacteria in the mouth. “Dental disease can cause numerous problems for your animals, including oral pain, halitosis, tooth loss and periodontal disease,” Verdino said. “It can even affect the heart, kidneys, intestinal tract and joints.”
In addition, a pet in dental pain is not a happy pet, and the pain can affect his/her ability to eat.
Preventative care is the first line of defense against dental disease. Verdino advises pet owners to take the following steps:
It’s important to brush your pets’ teeth as early as possible. Their adult teeth are in at about 6 to 9 months old, and that’s the best time to start a tooth-brushing regimen.
Avoid dental products containing Xylitol, as it is highly toxic to dogs and questionable for cats. NEVER use human toothpaste to clean pets’ teeth and gums.
Your pets should have annual dental checkups by their veterinarians.
Dental care for dogs and cats should never be neglected. However, since dental problems often develop gradually, it is easy to miss the signs (such as reluctance to eat or lack of activity) until there is a bad infection or serious cavity.
During a medical exam, your veterinarian will determine the status of your pet’s dental needs. If your pet needs more advanced dental care, a veterinarian will recommend the treatments needed and the approximate costs involved.
Remember, good dental hygiene can add years to your pet’s life—and prevent you from spending lots of money on treatments for complex problems related to dental disease.
North Shore Animal League America
Trackback from your site. | <urn:uuid:5c64bd31-ae72-4b51-ba43-df5cf3bed29a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nypress.com/dental-health-is-vital-to-your-pets-well-being/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946899 | 478 | 2.625 | 3 |
A great hike from the Johnston Ridge Observatory, across the pumice planes in the devastated area destroyed in the 1980 eruption, and p... more »art of the way up the mountain to beautiful Loowit Falls.
Mt. St. Helens is in Washington State. It's about sixty miles off highway five about 70 miles from Porland and about a hundred and fifty miles south of Seattle. It can be reached from the south, the west, and the northwest sides. Once a 9,700 ft cone-shaped stratovolcano, Mt. St. Helens erupted in 1980 sending an ash cloud thousands of feet high. the explosion blew off the top and north side of the mountain, and devastated the forests for miles. The mountain is now a national monument and a research site on the re-emergence of a forest from complete annihilation. Thirty years later, moss covers the ground as far as the eye can see, wildflowers bloom as tiny streams weave their way across the plains, and tiny trees and bushes sprout up from the soil in a reminder to us all that life will find a way.
The hike to Loowit Falls is an all day hike, 8.5 miles one way! Get started early and bring a headlamp just in case you get back during the evening. less « | <urn:uuid:4fc02a29-47ba-463e-acbf-e317844fbdfe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tripadvisor.com/Guide-g28968-i259-Washington.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93535 | 271 | 1.773438 | 2 |
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The Immaculate Conception is, according to Roman Catholic dogma, the conception of Mary, the mother of Jesus without any stain of original sin, in her mother's womb: the dogma thus says that, from the first moment of her existence, she was preserved by God from the lack of sanctifying grace that afflicts mankind, and that she was instead filled with divine grace. It is further believed that she lived a life completely free from sin. Her immaculate conception in the womb of her mother, by normal sexual intercourse (Christian tradition identifies her parents as Sts. Joachim and Anne), should not be confused with the doctrine of the virginal conception of her son Jesus.
The feast of the Immaculate Conception, celebrated on December 8, was established as a universal feast in 1476 by Pope Sixtus IV. He did not define the doctrine as a dogma, thus leaving Roman Catholics freedom to believe in it or not without being accused of heresy; this freedom was reiterated by the Council of Trent. The existence of the feast was a strong indication of the Church's belief in the Immaculate Conception, even before its 19th century definition as a dogma.
Now, the Roman Catholic tradition has a well established philosophy for the study of Immaculate Conception and the veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary via the field of Mariology with Pontifical schools such as the Marianum specifically devoted to this task
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||1 - 4 business days | <urn:uuid:1ff6cf9e-3797-4a4b-bb86-bd8b03565ccc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.picturesongold.com/products/infant-prague-medal-p66173.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.904703 | 674 | 1.59375 | 2 |
|Rehabilitation and training performance parameters, there are a variety of tools available to. Objectives for a patient or client Such a functional tool, the TRX Suspension Trainer has become very popular, not only in training, but now as part of the rehabilitation as well. The TRX Training uses gravity and the weight of the user to hundreds of exercises resembled erm. It is con UK Rpergewichtsübungen use suspension training for strength, balance, flexibility t Kernstabilit and develop simultaneously. The TRX Training was invented by Randy Hetrick, a former Navy SEAL, that he and his SEAL teammates to maintain health, w While widely used by a classic gym.Suspension Training bodyweight exercise allows the individual to perform strength, stability, and flexibility exercises supported in a suspended position using body weight for resistance.In TRX Training, the individual places their hands or feet into the Suspension Trainer that is connected to the suspended coach in which by a single anchor point, While the opposite end of the K Rpers in contact with the ground.”Everything All the Time Core Concept is the principle of TRX. This assumes that the training on the TRX and access to increased Hen muscle activity base rests. Au Addition to exercise on the TRX uses gravity and motion the K rpers the neuromuscular Ren on reactions changes in K rperlage generate. Other benefits include suspension training muscle activation as a basis for the shops ftsjahre each without treatment and can be completed in multiple planes and angles. studies were performed with adjunctive modalit th like Swiss ball and unstable conditions to the core muscle recruitment study (1, 2, 3, 4), but a review of the literature provides no peer reviewed studies of nuclear activation-specific suspension training validated. further studies are needed to provide evidence for the provide effectiveness of the TRX and a better amplifier ndnis the effective use of the TRX Training device in the physical therapy and performance training setting.
The TRX for sale Strength and flexibility training TRX easy to sell and can use Safely indoors or day outside the a soft area about 8 ‘x 6 “wide. Anchor points can go Ren shelves and Kraftger the chin-up bars and in the air, doors, gel Direction and branches of trees. Everything support bodyweight.
Anchoring the TRX Suspension Trainer
Adjusting Exercise Intensity
3 Principles of Suspension Training to adjust difficulty on the cheap trx Trainer
2. Pendulum Principle – Resistance based on position relative to the anchor point.
3. Stability Principle – Change in the size and position and body’s base of support. The wider the base, the more stability, the easier the exercise.
Six exercise positions relative to the TRX For Sale Trainer
Although there may be a variety of tools fit for the physical therapist, athletic training or personal training, the trx for sale Suspension System is the most fitable tool which is available which utilizes TRX Training to assist with building strength, keep balance, flexibility, mobility and injury prevention needs. It is durable of course can be used safely for clients with all ages with proper training. Workshops are available for the TRX For Sale Trainer and advised prior to implementing in the rehab or performance setting. Additional information can be found at cheaptrx2013.com | <urn:uuid:ff7ceede-b86e-4712-8bc4-cb2c3301031a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cheaptrx2013.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922567 | 690 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Continuing education in the Division of General Surgery at the University of Toronto is an increasingly large enterprise. The mandate of our program is to spark knowledge transfer in the varied areas of general surgery. New knowledge is being created at an ever increasing rate and it is a crucial challenge to help facilitate uptake of this knowledge by practicing surgeons.
We are fortunate to be closely associated with the Faculty of Medicine Continuing Education team. In association with this group, we are able to offer a wide range courses. These courses are specifically aimed at practicing surgeons but their appeal often extends along the continuum of surgical learners.
Courses of specific interest are:
• Update in General Surgery
• Update in Surgical Oncology
• Toronto Surgical Oncology rounds (TORSO)
• Trauma Course
In addition to these formal courses, the Division of General Surgery boasts a series of special initiatives and programs that are used to facilitate continuing education. Of particular interest are the evidence-based review in surgery and Best Practices in General Surgery (BPiGS).
Finally, University of Toronto faculty play a major role in the design and operation of educational offerings at Cancer Care Ontario
-Interprofessional Education (IPE) | <urn:uuid:9ccd8e8a-dc3e-4494-9ed9-db3ec5364354> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://generalsurgery.utoronto.ca/edu/ce.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936528 | 242 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Researches have found out that the plasmodium parasite or malaria can survive the effects of medical treatments of medicines. Young parasites of malaria have the ability to resist these effects. The only hope for malarian victims is the artemisinin medicines and the University of Melbourne has proven that these young parasites are not sensitive to its effect.
Professor Leann Tillet and Dr. Nectarios Klonis from the Department and Molecular Biology and Bio21 Institute, published an article to the journal PNAS about the study that they conducted. Professor Tilley made a scientific about how the plamosdium reacts to the drug.
Plasmodiums takes about two days to complete their maturity, but the artemisinin only stays on the blood for about a few hours. The juvenile parasite is 100 times more resistant to the drug compared to those who have already matured. This will lead to risks of having more juvenile parasites able to survive clinical progress.
Plasmodiums actually inhabits blood cells to fulfill its cycle of life. it does it by digesting the cell particulary the red pigment, hemoglobin. The medicine ingested reacts with hemoglobin causing the pigment to activate its ART killing properties to destroy the parasite.
Dr. Klonis also found out from their study that the juvenile parasite at first has no digestive system and that connects to the reason of why they have such high sensitivity towards the drugs that affects it. | <urn:uuid:f49dd495-369d-41aa-ab29-3c23c5a4db4d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fyinfodaily.com/amazing-facts/young-malarian-parasites-resists-medicines/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947237 | 293 | 3.5625 | 4 |
|Sergei Lyapunov. Selected Piano Works. Volume 1.|
|Elibron Classics, 2001, 117 pages|
Table of Contents Sample Pages
We recommend to print out sample pages to evaluate the quality of a reprint.
|Sergei Mikhailovich Lyapunov (1859 - 1924), list of works|
|The son of an important Russian astronomer, Sergei Lyapunov received his earliest piano lessons from his mother before turning to professionals. He studied under Tchaikovsky and Taneyev, but it was Balakirev who was to have the greatest influence on the burgeoning young composer. Already close friends, the two set out (alongside Lyadov) to collect Russian folksongs - a very early effort at ethnomusicological study. Though Balakirev knew that the timid Lyapunov was not suited to succeed him as music director at the Russian imperial chapel, he saw to it that the younger man was well looked after. Lyapunov, meanwhile, emerged as one of the greatest Russian composers of his generation; though his orchestral works betray the influence of Balakirev, his piano works manage to be strikingly original despite their deliberate echoes of Liszt.|
See items in:
Instrumental Solo: Piano | <urn:uuid:be656658-6b43-42c2-ad4e-3ae5eb7b3297> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://elibron.com/english/other/item_detail.phtml?msg_id=59191 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959009 | 271 | 1.742188 | 2 |
YES BANK: Human Capital Initiatives of a Startup in the Indian Banking Industry
ICMR HOME | Case Studies Collection
» Human Resource and Organization Behavior Case Studies
This case study was compiled from published sources, and is intended to be used as a basis for class discussion. It is not intended to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a management situation. Nor is it a primary information source.
Building a Strong Foundation
When Yes Bank was preparing to enter the market, many industry experts questioned the rationale of its decision to make so late an entry, especially when the Indian banking arena had so many established players. They pointed out that it was entering an already overcrowded market dominated by public sector banks such as the State Bank of India (SBI) and private banks such as ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank.
Sourcing Human Capital
Initially, the company relied heavily on employee referrals, consultants, and web-based hiring to source talent. The bank worked out its recruitment strategy with the help of consultants Kom Ferry, ABC Consultants, Planman Associates, and Emmay HR. Kapoor said, "As a start-up, the immediate deliverable of the HR team is to attract high quality talent and build a strong Yes culture based on the core values of the bank.
Creating a Strong Employer Brand
Retaining talented employees in the organization was also one of its main focuses because of the huge scarcity of talented employees in the financial services sector in India. It realized that in order to achieve its objective of being a preferred employer, it had to establish a strong employer brand.
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|Project Management||Short Case Studies||Cases in other Languages||Free Case Studies| | <urn:uuid:190b6ab2-2579-4b0a-ba9e-f4ab0b994dea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.icmrindia.org/casestudies/catalogue/Human%20Resource%20and%20Organization%20Behavior/YES%20BANK-HRM%20Case%20Study.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917548 | 462 | 1.671875 | 2 |
China is building a nationwide emergency management mechanism to counteract the crippling losses incurred from natural disasters such as floods, droughts, desertification, storms and general deterioration of ecological environment as a result of global warming.
According to the national action plan on climate change published Monday, the country's first global warming policy initiative, China will swiftly adopt sweeping measures ranging from laws, the economy, administration and technology which will combine to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and imbue the country with a flexible approach to climate change.
In July 2005, the State Council announced the formation of an Emergency Management Office to oversee the fledgling mechanism's implementation. Over the next five years, around three billion yuan (about US$400 million) will be invested to ensure an integrated top-down system covers both central and local governments. Furthermore, future evaluations of local officials will take construction and management quality of the mechanism.
When fully operational, the mechanism will be able to quickly mobilize the whole country to respond to floods, storms, hurricane, earthquakes and other disasters and minimize losses, observed Xu Guangjian, vice dean of the School of Public Administration under the Renmin University of China.
"To curb greenhouse effect is crucial to reducing global warming as well as disaster prevention and reduction," said Zhou Tianyong, vice director of the CPC Party School's Research Center.
In 2003, the Chinese government proposed a new way of industrialization based on the scientific concept of development, seeking to lower energy consumption, save resources and lower emissions. These aims will be the plinth of the emergency management mechanism," he added.
In terms of housing, China will encourage northern regions to use heat conservation materials, to make air-conditioners more environmentally friendly, and to develop central and cooling systems. For transportation, public transport is burgeoning in China with suburb railways and subways rapidly expanding. In order to ensure that this expansion proceeds smoothly, concepts such water, energy and electricity saving or recycling are being publicized.
The State Council recently published a notice which sets air-conditioning temperature limits for public buildings: no lower than 26 degrees Celsius in summer and no higher than 20 in winter. These rules apply to all state institutions, social organizations and enterprises with exceptions made for hospitals and certain other special cases.
(China.org.cn, translated by Li Shen June 8, 2007) | <urn:uuid:c407faf5-96fe-43ec-b1bb-8b5df5a52b9c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.china.org.cn/english/environment/213376.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925694 | 472 | 3.28125 | 3 |
It’s never too early or too late to start planning your financial future. But when it comes to financial planning, we all have different goals and objectives. Sound financial advice and the right investment strategy can determine how well you live today—and in the future. By following these six steps, you can begin building the foundation for a solid financial future:
Choosing a professional financial advisor is an important step in the financial planning process. A trusted financial advisor can offer you expert advice and help you create a personalized financial plan. When establishing a new relationship, it is important for you to understand the level of financial planning services that will be available to you.
Additionally, you and your advisor should discuss and agree upon:
Although it’s important to set realistic financial goals, it’s also important to dream a little. Consider ranking your goals and objectives by level of importance and setting reasonable timeframes for completion. Before determining if your goals and objectives are attainable, you will need to spend some time gathering your personal and financial data and assessing your current financial situation. Some common examples of personal financial goals and objectives include:
After you have identified your financial goals, the next step is to determine how to achieve them. Your financial advisor can help you analyze your finances, make specific recommendations and develop strategies to meet your short- and long-term financial goals. Any recommendations made by your advisor will factor in your timeframe, risk tolerance and investment goals.
This is where you plan for a face-to-face meeting with your financial advisor to discuss the analysis and recommendations made in Step 3. You should feel comfortable with the recommendations presented and confident in your ability to achieve your financial goals.
Achieving your financial goals requires putting into action the recommendations and strategies made in Step 4. Implementation is key to reaching your goals.
Financial planning is an on-going process. To ensure your financial plan continues to meet your needs, your financial advisor will conduct periodic reviews, assess your financial progress and recommend any necessary adjustments. | <urn:uuid:df757b5e-de37-4380-bad7-0b5073f6a36f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rbcds.com/RBC:dHfFnawWABEACSCsf2YAAACJ/personal-financial-planning-process.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9331 | 411 | 2.296875 | 2 |
The Four-Year Plan
As part of the major declaration process second-year students are required to submit to the Registrar a four-year plan of study. However, many advisers work with their students in the first or second semester to create a tentative four-year plan. Following is a list of questions you may want to have your advisees consider as they formulate their plan. 1. Does your course plan meet all the requirements for graduation as listed under "Academic Requirements" of the Grinnell College Academic Catalog? That is, does it meet the following requirements:
- Satisfactory completion of Tutorial?
- Satisfactory completion of a major?
- Completion of at least 124 credits?
- No more than 48 credits in any department?
- No more than 92 credits in any division?
- A maximum of 8 credits in practica courses?
- A maximum of 16 credits in other Music/Theater performance courses?
- Eight full-time college semesters?
- At least six semesters in residence at Grinnell?
2. Does your plan contain the elements of a liberal education, as described under "Education in the Liberal Arts" of the Grinnell College Academic Catalog? That is, does it include courses in all of the following areas:
- Improving your command of English prose?
- The study of a language other than your own?
- The study of mathematics to enhance quantitative reasoning skills?
- The study of the natural sciences?
- The study of human society?
- The study of creative expression?
3. Will your plan qualify you for induction into Phi Beta Kappa (assuming a high GPA, of course)? That is, does it meet the following requirements as listed under "Academic Requirements" of the Grinnell College Academic Catalog?
- At least three semesters' study of a modern foreign language OR two semesters' study of a classical language OR proficiency beyond such level as demonstrated by your educational history?
- Completion of Math 123-124 or 131 (calculus) OR completion of a higher-level math course?
- At least 12 credits of study in each of the three divisions with no more than 8 of the 12 divisional credits in one department?
- At least 4 credits of a laboratory science?
4. Does your plan include a broad selection of introductory (100-level) courses during the first and second years, while generally avoiding such courses during the third and fourth years? 5. How will you enhance your program of study? Have you considered choosing an interdisciplinary concentration under "Courses of Study" in the Grinnell College Academic Catalog to give structure to your courses outside the major? Will you choose to spend a semester doing off-campus study? Will you pursue a MAP or other independent study? Will you plan an internship? 6. What might life look like for you after graduation and what can you do now to enhance those experiences? Do you have a specific career path in mind? Do you expect to attend graduate or professional school? Or, in lieu of this, consider challenging your advisee to ponder and consider "Big Questions"* in the context of his/her four-year plan:
- Who do I really want to become?
- How do I work toward something when I don't even know what it is?
- What do I want the future to look like - for me, for others, for my planet?
- What constitutes meaningful work?
- What do I really want to learn?
- When do I feel most alive?
- Where can I be creative?
- Where do I want to put my stake in the ground and invest my life?
* from Big Questions, Worthy Dreams: Mentoring Young Adults in Their Search for Meaning Purpose and Faith, by Sharon Daloz Parks, 2000. A portion of the Four-Year Plan form is below. Copies of the form are available from the Academic Advising office, Rosenfield Center 3rd Floor. One form per student is also provided in each advising folder given to the First-Year Tutorial instructors.
|First Year Tutorial
Note: The purpose of this sheet is to assist the adviser and student in their planning of a program of courses well balanced in terms of divisions. Many times students are not aware that they are over-emphasizing a certain discipline. This worksheet may help to remind them that breadth is an important aspect of their education. | <urn:uuid:d484ee6a-3791-4a48-a0ab-69591f042f56> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.grinnell.edu/offices/studentaffairs/academic-advising/publications/advisers_handbook/4-yr-plan | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937619 | 915 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Zuk set himself up as Pound's dialectical flipside (Pound/Zuk, not Olson/Zuk is the real antinomy). But the Mallarmean extremism is not that different from Pound's aesthetic liminality. Wanting to be like Shakespeare : but being a sweet Shakespeare in a kind of muted Joseph Cornell music-box.
And this, a bit earlier:
Pound's attitude stemmed from a decisive technical problem or contradiction. His classicism/archaism, Nietzschean/pagan power-worship was applied as a literary weapon to chastise & excoriate failed (European) civilization. But the role of the Nietzschean avenger-prophet was deracinating : it uprooted Pound from his own American background. He was unable to draw on or benefit from the liberal-democratic alternative to the wasteland of decadent & war-ravaged Europe. So he ended up as zoo exhibit in Pisan cage & Washington nuthouse : fighting a war with the new democratic power which had already rendered his authoritarian allegiances irrelevant.
But then, where does that leave the "long poem"?
Olson, Zuk & WCW came up with their alternatives. Crane had already done something completely different.
I guess we part company in those final sentences, if in minor ways. The way I read it, LZ begins “A” so much under the spell of The Cantos that it’s not inaccurate to make an equation of it: “A” = Cantos – Social Credit + Marx. (& with a somewhat – but only somewhat – different range of cultural references brought into play.) He “comes up with” an alternative, or rather, grows into an alternative, rather late in the game – sometime in the 40s, I’d hazard – and it’s only after that point that the poem becomes something else altogether: a plotting of lived contingencies (including history) and historical recurrences upon a rigorously patterned formal armature. So I don’t think in the early “A” that LZ is seeking an alternative to EP at all, only trying to correct his political blindness with the “correct” way of thought.
Yes, Crane did something completely different in The Bridge (which I went back and re-read this afternoon); but isn’t there a certain authoritarianism lurking as well in that Shelleyan-Whitmanesque über-myth? It leaves me strangely unmoved (tho some of his clunkier circumlocutions resonate with the more otiose bits of The Prelude), and I wish I could see more of Joyce there – especially his sense of humor, which is after all the heart & soul of Ulysses. Crane reads to me like the kid who’s gotten fixated on Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, & can’t get past all that angst.
I wonder about Crane: Henry’s the first case I’ve happened upon in yonks of a living poet under 50 (right?) who’s actually found sustenance in Crane’s work. (Of course I’m living in a hurricane-ridden cave…) It’s certainly not the case of a “gateway” poet in the sense Kasey talks about (& here I think about all the 19-year-olds who are crazy about Cummings & Bukowski) – it takes a very special young writer to glom onto Crane’s wild, elegant, and rather difficult diction. But how many people out there are still reading Crane: reading him, that is, as a living poet to learn from, rather than someone to write an article about? | <urn:uuid:fd7f8d73-bc06-4a40-9c79-bdec64e73db6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kulturindustrie.blogspot.com/2005/08/more-grandipoiesis.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953184 | 778 | 1.546875 | 2 |
An early still life by Vija Celmins that has been hanging in its owners' kitchen for almost 50 years will go up for auction in May at Los Angeles Modern Auctions.
"Untitled (Knife and Dish)," an oil on canvas from 1964, is a plain-looking painting of a knife balanced on a small white plate against a large brown background, rendered in a simple palette from a rather head-on perspective. Other deadpan works made by Celmins that year, during her time in Venice Beach, now belong to museums, including “Heater” (at the Whitney), “Gun with Hand #1” (at MOMA) and “Eggs” (at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego).
Celmins once described this body of work to painter Chuck Close as a break with the emotional maelstrom of Abstract Expressionism that influenced her early on: “I decided to go back to looking at something outside of myself. I was going back to what I thought was this basic, stupid painting…. I don’t embellish anymore, I don’t compose, and I don’t jazz up the color.”
The couple who own the knife-and-dish image, who decline to be identified, say they bought the painting in 1964 for less than $100 from the artist. The auction house, which is increasingly known for contemporary art offerings as well as design and furniture, will offer the work in May with an estimate of $300,000 to $500,000.
Los Angeles Modern Auctions founder Peter Loughrey said another dealer tipped him off to the Celmins one day in early January. He made an appointment to see the owners the same day. “I had the painting in my hand with a signed [consignment] agreement an hour and a half later,” he said.
And yes, the painting shows a bit of its domestic history: Loughrey said it is now being cleaned to eliminate “some particulates and grease” on its surface, though he described the overall condition as "excellent."
Previews for the May 19 auction begin May 6 in the LAMA showroom at 16145 Hart Street in Van Nuys, and run daily 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. More on the art and design sale, as it shapes up, will be online at www.lamodernauctions.com. | <urn:uuid:c3ebb0ed-b13d-4e11-b67b-0405d4edc7a8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-cm-vija-celmins-painting-auction-20130131,0,3055676.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CultureMonster+%28Culture+Monster%29 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979078 | 506 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Chicago Politicians Adopt The Goldilocks Approach To Gun Control
by C D Michel
“This gun is too big.” “This gun is too small.” And to Chicago politicians, no gun is just right.
Chicago, IL --(Ammoland.com)- Today the City of Chicago released its roster of “unsafe handguns” that cannot be legally possessed in the City because they cannot be registered with the police as one part of obtaining a license to possess a gun, as required under the City’s new gun laws. CLICK TO SEE THE ROSTER
Getting a license to possess a gun could take up to 5 ½ months, at least initially, City Officials said.
Chicago’s new regulatory regime was adopted just days after the Supreme Court’s decision in McDonald v. Chicago. That ruling confirmed that the right to keep and bear arms is a fundamental individual right. The decision caused Chicago to abandon its gun ban law, and instead adopt a litany of gun regulations.
The NRA immediately announced that it was supporting a lawsuit to challenge the new laws, and CRPA Foundation announced its pledge of amicus support for the case. CLICK TO SEE THE RELEASE
Among other extreme things, the new laws that Chicago has adopted do the following:
- Effectively prohibits the transfer of a firearm within the city (other provisions establish exceptions for transfer to law enforcement officers and the transfer of firearms by inheritance).
- Defines “home” in such a way as to mean only the interior of a single-family dwelling (excluding such areas as attached garages or screened in porches).
- Prohibits the carrying or possession of a usable handgun outside one’s home (as narrowly defined in 8-20-010), including in one’s business or other property, or on other private property with the owner’s permission.
- Prohibits the carrying or possession of a usable “long gun” outside of a person’s home or fixed place of business (with an exception for lawful hunting). Thus, a person can possess a long gun at his or her business but not a handgun.
- Limits legal owners of firearms to possessing only one assembled and operable firearm within the home at a time.
- Prohibits the possession of “[a]ny laser sight accessory,” which (like a scope or illuminated “night sights) merely allows for more accurately placed shots under certain circumstances.
- Prohibits the transfer or acquisition of a firearm within the city, except through inheritance of the firearm.
- Forbid the exercise of the right to arms by adults aged 18 to 20 without the permission of a parent or legal guardian, who must in turn be eligible to possess a firearm to grant such permission.
- Prohibits the legal possession of an “unsafe” handgun, a vague concept that basically means whatever the superintendent of the Department of Police says it means. Grants virtually unlimited discretion upon the superintendent of the Department of the Police to compile a list of “unsafe handguns.”
- States that registered firearms must only be possessed at the premises to which they are registered, unless they are being lawfully transported (in which case they must be rendered unusable and unavailable for immediate use).
- Prohibits the operation of any venue (except one maintained by a governmental agency or where hunting is permitted) for the discharge of firearms within the city, including ranges and shooting galleries.
- Prohibits the discharge of any firearm within the city, except for self-defense or hunting.
These are just some of the new laws!
CalGunLaws.com is an online research resource designed primarily for use by attorneys and interested firearm owners. CalGunLaws.com strives to provide easy access to and facilitate understanding of the multitude of complex federal, state, and local firearm laws and ordinances, administrative and executive regulations, case law, and past and current litigation that defines the California firearms regulatory scheme in theory and practice. CalGunLaws.com is designed and organized to make it easy to research the law and to locate source materials and related information. | <urn:uuid:d741404a-6682-4e1e-826b-416aea81bb7b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ammoland.com/2010/07/chicago-politicians-adopt-the-goldilocks-approach-to-gun-control/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940463 | 861 | 1.53125 | 2 |
- Kardelen Ergin
Student- B. S. Chemistry,
Which one is tougher? Brain or Universe?
Both the brain and the universe is not yet discovered and explained fully. Which one do you think is harder to explain? It is said that the possible connections that the neurons in the brain can make has a larger numerical value than the particles in the universe. Yet also only 4% of the universe consists of matter we can observe, and the rest is full of question marks. Which side are you on? Do you think explaining the brain fully will come sooner or explaining the universe? | <urn:uuid:bf6c9207-f657-4e9a-9677-bb6b026a627b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ted.com/conversations/11708/which_one_is_tougher_brain_or.html?c=470938 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951014 | 122 | 2.03125 | 2 |
According to Wikipedia, the term luck - "is good fortune which occurs beyond one's control, without regard to one's will, intention or desired result."
Do you believe in "luck"? The month of March, with the celebration of St. Patrick's Day on March 17, brings the meaning of the word to the forefront.
St. Patrick's Day is customarily celebrated with parades, wearing green, and for some, a toast at the local pub in honor on Ireland's patron St. Patrick. A favorite iconic symbol of the day is the 3-leaf clover, the shamrock, which St. Patrick used to teach the Irish about the doctrine of the Holy Trinity (three divine persons in one God).
The 3-leaf clover also has a very lucky relative, the four-leaf clover - which, according to legend, brings about good luck if found accidentally. Each leaf of the four- leaf clover represents something wonderful - the first leaf - faith, the second leaf - hope, the third - love and the fourth - luck.
On St. Patty's Day, one often hears the term, "the luck of the Irish" professed. However, examining Ireland's turbulent history, with invasions, colonizations, famines and mass emigrations, one has to wonder about the "luck" part.
For it wasn't until the Irish did immigrate to America, especially during the gold rush years in the latter part of the 19th century, that some lucky Irish prospectors achieved extreme wealth. Hence, the actual origin of the term, "luck of the Irish."
While these prospectors may have been lucky, they also created their own luck.
So, this St. Patty's day, while true luck may
find you, why not begin creating your own luck setting personal and
professional goals and start "visualizing" abundance and that rainbow leading to your pot of gold?!
Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain
The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale
The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy
And visit SimplyDeliciousLiving.tv! | <urn:uuid:54f36c59-c076-448a-abb6-9d33fd96969c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.venturacountystar.com/vcstyle/2012/02/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938645 | 437 | 2.796875 | 3 |
|Birth: ||May 17, 1904|
|Death: ||Jan. 11, 1988|
John J. Williams, a longtime resident of Millsboro, was born May 17, 1904, in Frankford, DE. Before entering public service he established the Millsboro Feed Company. In 1924, he married Elsie Steele. In 1946, he served on the Millsboro Town Council. He had a passion for Delaware and American History, which he passed on through his family.
John was elected to the US Senate in 1946, defeating incumbent US Senator James M. Tunnell. During his terms, he served a Republican US Senator. Altogether, he served for 24 years (4 terms), from January 3, 1947 until December 31, 1970, when he resigned. John was Delaware's first four-term U.S. Senator. He served during the presidential administrations of Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon. John, was even considered a possible running mate for President Eisenhower in 1952, but removed himself from consideration. He was again considered for a spot on the Republican ticket in 1964 and as a possible replacement for Agnew in 1973. He announced in 1969 that he was retiring and would not seek a fifth term in the Senate.
During his public service on "Capital Hill," John was often called the "the Conscience of the Senate." On December 31, 1970, he resigned from the Senate just before the end of his term to allow US Senator William Roth Jr., to gain additional seniority in his new class of US Senators. He was a member of the Freemasons, the Rotary, and the Shriners. John passed away January 11, 1988, in Lewes, DE. He received a Methodist burial service and interment followed at Millsboro Cemetery in Millsboro, DE.
Bio by Roger Jones
Search Amazon for John Williams
Maintained by: Find A Grave
Originally Created by: Russ Pickett
Record added: May 21, 2003
Find A Grave Memorial# 7473088
Do you have a photo to add? Click here | <urn:uuid:d994a0e4-24fa-4da8-b8d3-ca53c557f82a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=7473088 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97582 | 428 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Wednesday, 2 November 2011
Living Aboard - Part 10: Children on Board
Just as you would do in a house, we keep our doors bolted shut. For summer days outside there are playpen barriers enclosing the front deck, but children must still never be left unsupervised while outside on a canal boat. Life jackets can be purchased from your nearest large chandlery and these may be of use to you if you have a mooring with a garden where the children can play, but we find them unnecessary for the daily walk to the shops or the car.
Victorian working boat families secured their children to the roof of the boat by tying them on whilst travelling. Some families create a modern version of this arrangement using toddler reins to secure the child. In this situation they must still never be left unattended. The adult crew must also remain aware of the dangers of overhanging tree branches, low bridges and mooring ropes being thrown about. I have occasionally seen hire boaters allow their children to stand and walk on the roof of a moving boat, but ours have strict instructions to remain seated! I would not recommend allowing young children to be on deck unsupervised while cruising.
Locks are particularly dangerous places because of the depth of the water and the strong currents below. I recommend repeating a set of simple rules to your children, which depending on their age could include 'stay close to a grown up' and 'hold hands when told to'. All children should be told to keep away from the edge and to never run beside a lock.
If your boat does not have a home mooring the website of your local borough council will help you to find children’s playgrounds while you are cruising. The home page should have a link to leisure facilities and playgrounds; parks and gardens can usually be found in this section.
For family life on board you may be looking for a boat to buy with two bedroom cabins. The Boatshed Grand Union website has a search facility to help you find second-hand canal boats for sale within your budget.
When you move aboard your boat your children will face the same challenges as you will, such as a lack of storage space, and limited electricity and water. But they will also enjoy the benefits of a way of life that is much closer to nature. My baby daughter's first word was, “Quack!”
I told her not to use fowl language.
This post is dedicated to my mother-in-law, who worries about the grandchildren on the water.
Disclosure: I wrote this post for the Boatshed Grand Union website. | <urn:uuid:a37011e8-a106-4871-b8bc-59f95fbffa70> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.narrowboatwife.com/2011/11/living-aboard-part-10-children-on-board.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962515 | 542 | 1.75 | 2 |
Continuing with its efforts to broaden and preserve traditions, the band played a major role in organizing the city’s first major musical celebration of the Día de la Candelaria this past February 2nd, bringing together over 20 local musicians to perform and share the most important holiday in Son Jarocho, the biggest celebration taking place in the colonial river port of Tlacotalpan Veracruz.
In 2011 Jarana Beat collaborated on New York’s first Encuentro de Soneros with members of legendary Son Jarocho groups, Los Cojolites and Los Utrera. A successful series of workshops and performances culminated in a night which gathered son jarocho groups from the whole northeast, and the fandango was one like New York had never seen before. All this while recording the production for a new collaborative project called “Sonando Sur”.
Since 2007, Jarana Beat has aimed to share the unknown sounds of Mexico, and present a new interpretation that melds roots, the traditional with the contemporary.
Aside from performances, Jarana Beat also offers provides profoundly researched, interactive educational programs that showcase the endless cultural traditions and expressions of Mexico. These include School Assemblies, Lecture Demonstrations, Residencies and Workshops. Each program has tailored versions suitable for grades K-12, as well as college/university audiences. Custom programs can also be developed.
BAMBA CON BOMBA – México Negro y el Caribe
Celebrating the rich cultural traditions and heritage of Mexican ancestry and the connections shared between our diverse Latino communities through original songs, interactive performances that explore the broad connections of the Caribbean from Mexico to Puerto Rico. Join us as we unite BAMBA, BOMBA, zapateado and piquetes through special interactive and dynamic performance, with Jarana Beat and Los Pleneros de la 21. | <urn:uuid:1338fc57-4907-464c-8442-36f484bba7ca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jaranabeat.com/projects/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908986 | 394 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Caravaggio, or more accurately Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (Milan 1571 - Porto Ercole 1610), was a legend even in his own lifetime. Celebrated by some for his naturalism and his revolutionary pictorial inventions, he was considered by others to have destroyed painting. Few other artists have attracted such controversial and contradictory interpretations right up to modern times and to the latest art historical research. The book offers a comprehensive new examination of the whole of Caravaggio's oeuvre with a catalogue raisonee of his works. Five introductory chapters analyse his artistic career from his training in Lombard Milan and his triumphal rise in papal Rome up to his dramatic final years in Naples, Malta and Sicily. The spotlight thereby falls upon the radical nature and innovative force of his art and its influence in all of Europe. Our understanding of Caravaggio's work has been substantially broadened in recent decades by major exhibitions, restoration campaigns, new attributions and archival discoveries. The new catalogue raisonee offers a detailed overview of Caravaggio's entire oeuvre on the basis of the latest research. All the paintings are documented in large-scale reproductions and spectacular detail illustrations that set new standards in their scope and quality. | <urn:uuid:62404390-a3c5-4d61-977c-63e3c7653877> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.amazon.co.uk/Caravaggio-Complete-Paintings-Sebastian-Schutze/dp/383650183X | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966865 | 262 | 2.625 | 3 |
Posted September 27, 2010 Atlanta, GA
Lisa Grovenstein, 404-894-8835
Tour of Campus Includes Aerospace Engineering
Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Maj. Gen. Charles Frank Bolden Jr. recently visited campus, meeting with Georgia Tech President G.P. “Bud” Peterson and Executive Vice President for Research Steve Cross.
Aerospace Engineering Chair Vigor Yang also provided an overview of the school, which receives approximately 30 percent of its research funding from NASA.
While on campus, Bolden had the opportunity to view NASA-funded research in the combustion lab and in the high-power electric propulsion lab, and to speak to Georgia Tech faculty and students about NASA’s future.
According to Yang, Bolden and NASA team members have been working effectively in advancing the nation's space missions and goals. Bolden’s emphasis on the importance of technology development will make NASA a major source of scientific and technological innovation, in addition to its primary function as an operational agency.
"Georgia Tech will benefit
significantly from such a move," concluded Yang. | <urn:uuid:4ebb81a3-a773-4ee8-b75e-738cf0f95f52> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gatech.edu/newsroom/release.html?nid=61239 | 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 | 0.94392 | 235 | 1.609375 | 2 |
The only response to the National Rifle Association's Wayne LaPierre remarks is to ignore them. They add nothing to the dialogue. The majority of Americans, I believe, feel the Bushmaster semi-automatic rifle has no place in our country.
The Bushmaster fires about three bullets a second. No hunter could use it, and it would be of little help as a self-protection tool. High-capacity magazines for this rifle and for any number of modern handguns are good for only one thing — killing of a prodigious scale.
Unfortunately, we have to leave sensible gun control policy to our politicians — a dicey situation at best.
There are things we can do immediately for our schools, things that do not need legislative action or a massive influx of cash, but things that will improve safety and will make parents feel a lot better:
Make sure all teachers and staff are trained and students drilled in proper crisis safety measures. It is clear that once the brave actions of the school principal and her colleagues alerted the building teachers and staff to implement their crisis training, they locked down their classrooms, pulled the shades, moved their kids to safe hiding places and stayed quiet until help arrived. This training and drilling saved lives.
Schools may need to upgrade classroom locks and the intercom system and develop an alert signal. Most schools already have a controlled and limited entry system in place. But those that don't need them immediately.
Kids are wonderful, resilient creatures. They are already experienced in fire drills and bus evacuation drills, so another drill won't faze them. After all, those of us who are old enough to remember those atomic bomb drills, when we all got under our desks, closed our eyes and wondered what it would feel like to be incinerated, managed to live though it. | <urn:uuid:12dafdba-fcec-48e4-9e35-7af08d837253> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.timesunion.com/opinion/article/Letter-Remarks-by-the-NRA-are-best-ignored-4168855.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966988 | 363 | 1.804688 | 2 |
At my company we often say that “privileged identities hold the keys to the IT kingdom.” After all, an admin who knows his organization’s privileged account passwords can access systems with highly sensitive data, install or remove applications and files, and change configuration settings virtually anywhere on the network – all while remaining anonymous to auditors and management.
It’s a message we’ve preached to the IT community for years, though I’ve often wondered if it falls on deaf ears. Now, our latest survey* reveals that a significant percentage of IT administrators (42%) – across diverse regions and industries – say they can indeed access any information in their networks at will, including their CEO’s private files. And, these IT professionals claim that they can do so without senior management ever realizing the extent of their access.
Here are the highlights of the survey:
- 78% of the technology professionals interviewed admitted they could walk out of the office taking highly sensitive information with them.
- 39% confirmed that that their management does not have the faintest idea what IT can and cannot access.
- Approximately one-third of respondents said they’d still be able to access sensitive information long after leaving the company.
You can download the full survey results on the Lieberman Software website.
While these figures may seem staggering, they’re exactly what I would expect. Here’s the analogy I use: Years ago, the most sensitive data in an organization was locked away in a filing cabinet accessible to one or two trusted key holders. Today, that data is “locked away” in a virtual filing cabinet, but few companies realize just how many people have keys to this cabinet. And as long as this practice persists, you can anticipate reading a lot more news stories about insider data breaches.
*The survey took place at Infosecurity Europe 2011 and RSA Conference 2011. Nearly 500 IT professionals participated anonymously. | <urn:uuid:3b407e85-e9b6-4539-bed1-8f382e9ca726> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.identityweek.com/it-admins-hold-more-power-than-management-realizes/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949402 | 400 | 1.664063 | 2 |
10 states leading in consumer debt
Americans may be working to reduce their debt, but in some states they're still carrying a heavy burden. These 10 show the highest revolving debt load per person.
MORE ON MSN MONEY
VIDEO ON MSN MONEY
My parents never owned a credit card. If they didn't have the money, they didn't buy it. They raised a family of 5 on small farm. They were poor, they remembered and went through the depression. They had huge gardens and canned for our food. If we didn't grow it we never ate it. We all worked as soon as we could. Dad, said often "If you don't work you don't eat". I live by that today, all of us kids grew up with a strong work ethic. None of us took welfare, we took second jobs, or more to meet the need. Today I have neighbors on welfare all around me in my life, I see them buying boats, going on vacations, buying bigger homes, that I couldn't afford, and yet they are using my tax dollar to do it. But I'm proud to be an American, but not any longer proud of America and where it is going....down the tubes. I have never taken a handout from the government and neither did my Dad and Mom. I say that with pride....a word many young today don't have, they have a "Take what I can get, when I can get it", attitude. I thank God that I always found work somehow to make ends meet. Sometimes doing haircuts, cooking, babysitting, etc. If we all lived within our means, no one would be in debt, including the government. I hate paying taxes with tons of bond issues that is going into something that should have been saved for. Its the taxes from the hard working Americans paying for the welfare of America. Its going to be worse yet with Obamacare. There, I got it off my chest, not that its going anywhere. Does anyone agree with me?
I'm better off now than I was (4) years ago because when the economy was good, I was a graduate student while paying off some of my loans. During the good times, I was always a student while learning and forging other workable skills. I don't wait to get hired anymore, I'm a contractor, I plan my days and my salary. I don't use credit cards and I don't own a home that I can not afford. My car is a 2009 and I will keep it until it falls apart.
I have faced the new reality. I don't buy the new stuff - everything will run its course and I can wait. If we in America will admit it, those that don't have jobs or can't find work are the same people that did not have jobs before when the economy was booming.
Its easy to ask "where are the jobs" but now you have to ask yourself if you have any employable skills. If you don't, you have no-one to blame but yourself and don't be afraid to jump ship when you hear that your position is going south. I jumped from banking and finance and have never regretted that, I downsized before I was made to and I live below my means - its noodles this month!
I'm saving to relocate so I am buying nothing until I leave the south and land on the west coast - close to Canada! Something just tells me that no matter who the next president is, America is going to explode at some point and I plan to be near the Canadian border when it does.
No shame in my game at all!
"As the economic recovery finally sets in for many Americans" ??? WTF!!!!!
I'm not sure what fantasy planet YOU live on, there KALI, but on THIS planet of reality 'many Americans' are broke, permanently out of work and in deep deep trouble in a COLLAPSING CONTRACTING and DEBT ridden economy. And guess what?? IT'S GETTING MUCH MUCH WORSE not better.
Then grow some brains and stop reacting so emotionally to articles like this. Sheesh! "What a bunch of Maroon's"!!!, to quote a famous line...
This artical is about PERSONAL debt, not the debt of the state.
Leave it to MSN!
Copyright © 2013 Microsoft. All rights reserved.
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Fundamental company data and historical chart data provided by Thomson Reuters (click for restrictions). Real-time quotes provided by BATS Exchange. Real-time index quotes and delayed quotes supplied by Interactive Data Real-Time Services. Fund summary, fund performance and dividend data provided by Morningstar Inc. Analyst recommendations provided by Zacks Investment Research. StockScouter data provided by Verus Analytics. IPO data provided by Hoover's Inc. Index membership data provided by SIX Financial Information. | <urn:uuid:4732b694-c5ad-4d04-9205-7dae9ab111aa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://money.msn.com/debt-management/10-states-leading-in-consumer-debt | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976436 | 1,017 | 1.648438 | 2 |
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a new warning about mixing drugs.
Patients should avoid using Prilosec with Plavix, officials said.
New data suggests when patients take both Prilosec for stomach acid and Plavix for anti-clotting, Plavix's ability to work may be reduced by half.
The drugs provide significant benefits, but patients at risk for heart attacks might not get the full effect of Plavix while taking Prilosec.
Plavix does not have anti-clotting effects without the help of liver enzymes, which can be blocked by prescription and over-the-counter Prilosec.
Studies showed similar results no matter what time of day the two drugs are taken, together or at different times, the FDA said in a news release today.
Patients who take Plavix and need acid relief need to talk with their doctors. Zantac, Pepcid, Axid and antacids do not inhibit the targeted liver enzyme and aren't expected to interfere with the anti-clotting activity of Plavix.
Plavix's manufacturers have agreed to continue studies to explore this and other drug interactions. | <urn:uuid:4e6d1526-da37-4ff3-be89-bd39a6c8e704> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://union-bulletin.com/news/2009/nov/19/fda-warns-against-mixing-prilosec-plavix/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944717 | 252 | 2.109375 | 2 |
Seacom suffers internet outage off African coast
Undersea cable provider Seacom has experienced a number of cable cuts off the northern coast of Egypt, which is affecting internet connectivity in Africa, Middle East and Asia, the company said in a statement on Friday morning.
“Multiple subsea cable cuts have been confirmed off the northern coast of Egypt in the Mediterranean Sea, which are impacting a number of cable systems in Africa, Middle East and Asia connecting to Europe,” Seacom said.
While the interruptions might continue for an undetermined time, the company is in the process of repairing the damage. “SEACOM is currently working to establish restoration options on alternative capacity across the Mediterranean Sea and also by adding further IP capacity in Asia.
“It is expected that it will take some hours to confirm options and arrange network re-routing. Seacom will contact customers directly to discuss restoration options,” they said in a statement posted on their website.
Soon after the initial announcement, Seacom released another statement saying that they have identified the problem. “SEACOM has identified restoration solutions and providers and is in the process of re-configuring the network and services to restore circuits. Definitive timing is not yet available, however we are targeting restoration within 12 hours or less. Communications to customers on their specific requirements are underway. We will update further within the hour,” it said.
Earlier this month, Seacom selected Ciena Corporation’s 6500 Packet-Optical Platform and OneControl Unified Management System for the upgrading of its submarine network across the Southern and Eastern African coastlines. That fell in line with Seacom’s focus on driving the development of the African internet and opening the broadband tap for African consumers.
This is not the first time that Seacom has been affected by undersea cable cuts - it suffered a similar outage in September last year. “SEACOM’s customers are currently experiencing a service affecting outage due to simultaneous fibre cuts on both South African backhaul providers’ networks,” it said at the time.
* For the latest update on the Seacom cable, which might only be repaired by 5 April, click here.
Charlie Fripp – Consumer Tech editor | <urn:uuid:4e514f45-7a15-4c78-b4b5-4f645f7b942a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.itnewsafrica.com/2013/03/seacom-suffers-internet-outage-off-african-coast/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947337 | 471 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Fin whales are the second largest animal in the world, only the blue whale is larger. Fin whales are capable of raising their entire body out of the water and falling back in, making a huge splash. They are long slender whales with a tapered head. Because they are so streamlined, they are very fast swimmers, traveling up to 45 kilometers per hour. When hunting, they swim on their right side so that their left side faces upward. That way, the lighter color on the right side of the head is less obvious to the prey they are hunting. | <urn:uuid:0a7a674c-cad3-4119-ac33-af76441137b2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://eol.org/pages/328573/overview | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960419 | 113 | 2.921875 | 3 |
China violence: Death penalty for Xinjiang attack
A court in China has sentenced an ethnic Uighur to death over a deadly attack in western Xinjiang last month.
The court in Kashgar said the man led a "terrorist" group that launched the attack in Yecheng county which killed 16 people.
The court said he has been spreading extremist religious ideology and that the crime was "explicitly cruel".
Eight of the attackers were shot dead by police, said a court statement.
The statement, published on the Xinjiang judiciary website, said the court on Monday found Abudukeremu Mamuti guilty of "organising and leading a terrorist group" and "intentional homicide".
It said Mamuti led a group of "members of a terrorist organisation" to launch the attack on a busy shopping street.
Uighurs and Xinjiang
- Uighurs are ethnically Turkic Muslims
- They make up about 45% of the region's population; 40% are Han Chinese
- China re-established control in 1949 after crushing short-lived state of East Turkestan
- Since then, large-scale immigration of Han Chinese
- Uighurs fear erosion of traditional culture
Armed with knives and hatchets, it said they killed 15 pedestrians and an auxiliary police officer.
Security has been high in Xinjiang since riots in 2009 between local Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese migrants.
Nearly 200 people were killed in that unrest - most of them Han, according to officials.
China blames groups with links to al-Qaeda for the unrest and says they want to separate Xinjiang from China.
However, exiled Uighur groups and human rights activists say China overstates the threat posed by militants in Xinjiang.
Muslim Uighurs make up about 45% of the population of Xinjiang. Some say waves of Han Chinese immigration and heavy-handed government policies have marginalised their culture and traditions. | <urn:uuid:9801cd51-2df0-4779-954f-bfa21b713396> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17520392 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954978 | 399 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Mott Community College is anxiously awaiting an announcement from President Barack Obama about a plan to substantially boost funding for community colleges in the nation.
Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, told the Chicago Tribune that in as soon as weeks "you will see a major announcement by the president on community colleges and job training and the rewriting of all the legislation related to job training and community ed. in the country -- but, most importantly, in the area of community colleges."
The proposal would enable community colleges to help five million more workers than they would be able to otherwise, Emanuel told the Chicago newspaper.
"We know that our political leaders have been pointing out the importance of community colleges for over a decade now," MCC Spokesman Michael Kelly said. "Community colleges are more important than ever because we are where career-focused education and re-training of a workforce happens."
He said community colleges have gotten a lot of compliments -- but without the funding to back it up.
"We look forward to the plan," Kelly said. | <urn:uuid:e93cc5ef-ef50-45dc-a72d-9640e2080db2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.mlive.com/higher-education/2009/07/mott_community_college_joins_o.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972967 | 214 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Got this on Twitter this morning–Revolution Tools–and chuckled at the image…but then acknowledged in my mind how Twitter has indeed revolutionized my professional sharing and growing, and I began thinking of the revolution tools I now use in my classroom.
My learning space has changed dramatically since last year. I still have tables and chairs, but have added two futons, 6 beanbags, area rugs and scads of pillows (pillows which the kids, for the most part, don’t use, by the way.) What happens because of that change is not so different in my room–they’ve always worked together. My kids understand that learning is a social activity and I expect them to talk and work together most of the time. In fact, they also know that if they have a question, they should ask each other rather than me because they’ll get a different explanation and it might be a better one than I did for the class. But, this year, I’ve watched as the beanbags are the first seating choice they go for as they come in the door, and the groupings change regularly because of the kinds of seating available–so I see less clique-ishness and more openness to sitting with others.
Several years ago my classroom got iPods–and I love seeing kids use them as “Google in their pocket.” When I use some phrase or word that is uncommon, I always see three or four pull them from their pocket and immediately “google it.” I love hearing how they use them for homework. (Yes, my fifth graders take them home.) “Last night, I asked my Mom how to find the LCM and she said she didn’t remember and to wait til Dad got home–but I just googled it and then I could work the problem.” I’m still struggling with why they’re not an integral part of our classroom, as the kids still gravitate to the computers for both creation and word processing and I wonder if it’s because our iPods are 1st generation, without mics and cameras. (We just got mics for them and I’m curious to see how that will change the use.)
My kids’ use of wikis has evolved to some incredible sharing and working together outside of school on both wiki pages and wikimail. Their blogging is growing and showing the great writing skills they are developing, and they are growing their world awareness through activities like quad blogging and “buddy blogging.” The way we discuss books during literacy–using a fishbowl technique combined with Today’s Meet–engages all kids. They are able to multitask, listening to the featured conversation in the fishbowl while they use the backchannel for their questions and comments and I am able to see contributions from all kids–and know what they are thinking in class conversations. Their weekly book recommendations on our class literacy wiki is causing book conversations outside of class–and more shared reading and talking about the books.
While my instructional beliefs have not significantly changed, I have made a more conscious effort to make them more visible and to talk with them with my kids and parents. My own blogging and finding my voice has pushed me to do that! My kids can talk intelligently about what they like about learning in my classroom over others. And, the tools I have at my disposal have changed my practices somewhat.
I’ve always had kids read great books and talk about them face to face–but the backchannel, the wiki mail and the blogging and wikipages have allowed my students to do it without me and continue those conversations beyond the school day. I’ve always encouraged kids, if they don’t remember something we did in class, to try to figure things out as they do their homework–but using research skills and skillfully googling it is a life skill they are developing.
The many opportunities my kids have to write online for a real audience are helping them find their voice and realize they do have one that is heard. Read what India and Noa say about changing the world, or, read their letters to the Board of Supervisors about building a new library in their small town. (India’s letter) (Noa’s letter)
These are only two examples of my kids finding –and using–their voices to try to make a difference. They have found a confidence in their ideas and their thinking and they have trust they will be heard. The proof is in their clustrmaps and comments on their blogs and wikis. They competently express themselves for fifth graders, and do so quite eloquently often.
I remember when I was in the National Writing Project (in the summer of 1987, so it was almost 25 years ago) that I never really felt like I found my own voice in writing. I had a voice that I used in school board meetings, in our teacher’s association, in our early childhood conversations and in my school–but that was all face to face. It truly wasn’t until I began blogging and had people responding to my thinking that I realized my voice was important–that, as TELLIO said, “There is only one voice like yours with your history and your experience and your place in time.” That’s true for all of us–whether we be a child or adult.
Voice is a revolution in the waiting–it’s a revolution in the wings. Today’s tools give us ways to help our students find their voice. Providing ways for them to develop competence and confidence in their voice is crucial to them using that voice for change. It is our job as teachers to provide those opportunities and help encourage the next Thomas Jefferson or Patrick Henry or Ghandi.
Competence and confidence in one’s voice ARE tools of a revolution. | <urn:uuid:8d0957a4-e2de-481e-b957-f3a5dcf281d6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://coopcatalyst.wordpress.com/2011/12/18/revolution-tools/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=1241f9cf41 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973933 | 1,226 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/01/07/femtocells/
Scottish Highlands get blanket 3G coverage
... It's a teensy blanket though: El Reg compares femto offerings
Femtocells , which extend 3G networks using domestic broadband, have been around for a few years now, and while only one operator will take your money for one, the others will furnish you with one if you complain loudly enough. Now that most of the big UK providers each have their own gear, we thought we'd see whose tiny cell offers the biggest service.
With femtocells from Vodafone, Three and O2, even our Highland bureau can experience 20th Century connectivity - even if the majority of Scots can't. The boxes are tiny base stations connected to the network operator over domestic broadband, enabling customer to pay twice for a service it would be impossible to receive otherwise.
That's if the customers can get a box. Vodafone sells its new Sure Signal box at £100, but the other operators restrict distribution to disgruntled customers - threaten to leave and, if you're a good enough customer, they'll send you one gratis. EE wasn't able to get us a box to test - the company is still working on the technology though we understand it has boxes in the field - but we did get femtos from all the other UK operators.
The 2G signal is macro, the rest is all femto
A femtocell is a base station - a full 3G cellular base station - with enough intelligence to find itself an available frequency and secure connectivity back into the operator's network.
Finding a frequency means listening to the macro network for bands which aren't being used locally, something which took up to six hours on the first Sure Signal box from Vodafone but has improved markedly since then. All the boxes require one to register with a postcode, which speeds things up but isn't rigorously enforced, and phone numbers have to be registered too, with all the boxes supporting at least eight numbers.
In our experiments, the "Home Signal" box from Three booted most quickly, getting up and running within 10 minutes, though it also had trouble running in the same room as the other two - complaining of too much interference. Vodafone's Sure Signal wasn't far behind, being ready to go within 20 minutes. The laggard was O2's Boostbox, which took around an hour to indicate it was ready to route calls.
Three, Vodafone and O2: You can plug something else into the Vodafone socket, but irons aren't recommended
The Three box is, to our eyes, the most elegant, with a single LED showing solid green when operational, blinking green when a call is connected, and flashing red in coded patterns when something is wrong (such as three flashes to indicate the aforementioned interference). The other two boxes have separate lights for power, successful connection to the internet, successful handshake with the network operator, and phone connections, the combination of which can indicate any problem with the process.
Vodafone's box is very new. Using chips from Broadcom, it's built into a hefty plug and looks like a Powerline Networking box. Indeed, we had heard it would support Powerline Networking, but it seems that's not supported, yet so we plugged in an Ethernet cable just as we did for the other boxes.
O2's Boostbox is what one would expect from O2, looking more like something one should put on display than networking hardware designed to vanish into the background.
Enough aesthetics... Do they work?
The hardest part of the process is, without doubt, registering the phones you wish to use. That's done though an operator portal and requires you to log on and provide the serial number from the back of the femto along with the numbers to be registered, but the services clearly suffer from a lack of use. Vodafone's failed entirely when we tested, forcing us to speak to a human who managed the process manually.
Once they were set up, all three boxes work fine, routing calls and 3G internet connections without difficulty - but beyond the basics, performance did vary.
All the boxes were tested over the same broadband connection (a microwave link going to an ADSL connection at Claire's house ) which was clocking in at 4.8Mb/sec down and 370Kb/sec up with a ping of 50ms.
The ping was the biggest differentiator, which isn't surprising as 3G is known for its high latency. Having said that, O2 repeatedly achieved half the time of the other two, with a ping averaging 173ms compared to Vodafone's 373 and Three's 337.
But latency isn't everything, and O2's throughout of 2.5Mb/sec was put into the shade by Three, which achieved speeds nudging 4Mb/sec, with Vodafone falling between the two at around 3Mb/s.
Upload speeds were all around 300Kb/sec, most likely limited by the ADSL connection as 3G (HSPA) should be able to top that easily enough.
Three might have been fastest, but it also had the shortest range with calls dropping out around 40m despite having line of sight. O2's Boostbox managed 55m and Vodafone's new box was still routing calls at 70m when we hit a barbed-wire fence and a flock of disgruntled sheep, so testing was stopped - though the signal was starting to break down and would have dropped out very soon.
All three networks should be able to hand off calls onto the macro networks when one gets beyond the femtocell's range, even if the reverse isn't yet possible, but as the testing was done beyond the range of the macro networks (which is surely where most femtocells will be used) the calls just got dropped.
Tiny cells, evolving
We’ve been waiting for femtocells for a long time now, and while the idea of paying for the same bandwidth twice (once to the mobile company, once to one's broadband provider) seemed unlikely to succeed, the femtocells are multiplying and slipping slowly into a lot of homes.
Femtocell technology is also pushing into the macro network - self-configuring base stations don't need trained engineers to fit them, and smaller cells increase overall network capacity - but the domestic application never disappeared, it just seeped slowly outwards.
EE's reluctance to admit it has a femtocell offering is almost certainly down to its examination of the potential of LTE (4G) femtocells. In the USA, femtocells deployed by Sprint are open - they'll route calls made by any passing Sprint customer - something we'll likely see more of as internet bandwidth gets cheaper and operators develop more interesting business models.
Right now those models are very dull, with Vodafone charging £100 for the hardware and O2 and Three requiring domestic customers to complain bitterly in order to get one - and none of the operators offer any kind of discount to those paying for their own back haul.
But they should be, as femtocells can also forestall those pesky over-the-top players that have their eyes on voice revenues. Smartphone-touting customers who routinely using Wi-Fi at work and home will find VoIP services increasingly attractive, especially if the cellular coverage at either location isn't good, so one might imagine operators would push femtocells harder than they're doing at the moment, especially given that the hardware undoubtedly works. ® | <urn:uuid:cde0710c-10de-493b-8ad9-2ee45d72f4eb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/01/07/femtocells/print.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965751 | 1,583 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Parks / Saskatchewan
Albert National Park
The topography in the park
is a blend of uplands and lowlands that range
in altitude from 488 to 732 metres above sea
level. Glaciation has modified the landscape,
leaving rolling moraines on the uplands and
fine-grained lacustrine deposits in the lowland
areas “ eskers, the narrow sinuous ridges of
gravel and sand, and drumlins, smooth egg-shaped
hills created when the glacier moved up and
over deposits of debris smoothing and shaping
them. The entire area was under as much as 1600
metres of glacial ice during the three main
periods of ice advance, which dug out the beds
of some of the major lakes such as Waskesiu,
Crean and Kingsmere.
The cutting action of the
glacial meltwater is evident in the meandering
channel of the Spruce River, carved out by glaciers.
Blocks of ice that build up in large lakes and
are pushed onto land by high winds actually
push up some of the lake bed to form a low ridge
on the shore. The parkÆs Ice Push Ridge is a
good example of this present-day land shaping.
Nutrient-rich marshes form in poorly drained
areas where glaciers scooped out millions of
bowls that collect and hold meltwater and run-off. | <urn:uuid:f6c9875e-79fe-45dd-8dcf-377ea1ef2e31> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.greatcanadianparks.com/saskatchewan/palbert/page4.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91996 | 302 | 3.84375 | 4 |
We had our third annual Christmas Bird Count today. The weather was cold. It’s winter. But the rain and snow stopped by 8AM and there was no wind. Here is how Emigrant Lake looks when the wind is NOT blowing, a rare occurence in almost any season (click on image for full screen view):
Yes, those two figures in the tree are adult Bald Eagles. They were the only two for our count this year. Our team has the only large lake in the count circle so we need to get the eagles. These two were right in front of us.
The Ashland Count species total was 118, up from 112, last year and 107 in 2010, our inaugural year of modern-day counts here.
CLICK HERE FOR CHECKLIST OF BIRDS WE SAW IN OUR AREA AROUDN EMIGRANT LAKE, AND SOME LEWIS’S WOODPECKER PICS. | <urn:uuid:eaf2b1f4-a957-4995-8e09-deacbf860900> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://atowhee.wordpress.com/2012/12/27/ashland-christmas-count/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975207 | 197 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Hello, I'm new and I'm feeling a little guilty...
I'm really only joining to find out how someone would go about getting a book punlished; specifically a children's book. I searched, but I couldn't find anything that really outlined it. At the moment, I have absolutely no clue how to start the process and would appreciate finding out.
Welcome, anyway! After all, what are you going to do after getting it published? Sit on your... laurels? Go to "Markets for our Writing" and see if there is a useful thread, and go to "Open Discussions About Writing" and ask the question there. Good luck! I don't know the answer myself or I'd be more helpful.
On the other hand... isn't there a publication called Writer's Markets, or something like that? You also want to start crafting query letters. I believe there is a thread here somewhere on that also.
[This message has been edited by mikemunsil (edited May 17, 2005).]
Well, its not actually for me. Someone I know has written a few children's books, but doesn't have a clue how to publish it, and neither did I. I did, however, know of this forum so she asked if I'd search and ask around for how the publishing thing works.
Posts: 3 | Registered: May 2005
First of all, as with the publishing market for adult fiction, you're more likely to get a foot in the door if you have a good resume to impress the publisher with. That is ESPECIALLY true, I would think, of the HIGHLY COMPETETIVE picture book market. You build that resume by getting stories published in magazines.
There are quite a few out there--literary magazines for children. Check out cricket.com. Cricket publishes a whole range of literary magazines for children of different ages. Also, Highlights and others. Do a bit of searching around on the net.
Tell your friend to start selling some of those stories in a format like Cricket before even trying to sell to a book market. Make sure that whatever market he sells to he sells to one that wants first publishing rights and no more than a one year no-print window--meaning that you can't print your story anywhere else for a year. Most places want six months to a year. All other rights must stay with the author. Especially with stories like you describe he'll want to leave the door wide open for later development into a picture book. | <urn:uuid:957ceb68-d132-4f13-a182-9d8bc69f763b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hatrack.com/cgi-bin/ubbwriters/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=4;t=000179;p=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974343 | 518 | 1.640625 | 2 |
the bell ringing at Trinity.
The purpose was to draw attention to global warming warnings and the talks currently going on in Copenhagen.
It is recognised by many scientists that 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide is the safe upper limit in the atmosphere. Up until 200 years ago the number was 275 parts per million. The current level is 390 parts per million. Rev. Anja Guignion and Harold Harnden share the load at Colborne United. | <urn:uuid:0380e55d-a1af-4372-bc09-12503ce3aedc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cramahe-now.blogspot.com/2009/12/bells-were-ringing.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952343 | 92 | 2.046875 | 2 |
Orchard Toys The Game of Ladybirds Reviews
Product Type: Orchard Toys board games
Newest Review: ... game is for ages 3-7 years although I would say more 3-5 as my daughter is nearly 5 and the game is now getting a little too ... more
Price Comparison for Orchard Toys The Game of Ladybirds
The Game of Ladybirds
A very easy game that encourages counting skills. The 24 cards ar ...
Last Update 17.05.2013 22:33
Customer Orchard Toys The Game of Ladybirds Reviews (4)
by - written on 19/05/12 (Very useful, 42 readings)
At my daughters school they do what they call a Chatter Matters bags where they will bring home a different bag each week which will have games and activities in it all in line with a theme. My daughter brought home the ladybird bag and after playing this game she decided she loved it so we bought her it. The game is created by Orchard toys who make really fun yet educational games, I bought the game from Amazon as I have never seen any of these game in shops in the area and I found that Amazon seemed to be the cheapest on the internet at £5.99 with free delivery. The game comes in a sturdy cardboard box with pictures of ladybirds on the front, ... Read the complete review
by - written on 08/01/12 (Very useful, 75 readings)
Ladybirds is a game my son picked as a reward to aim for with some good behaviour over a set period. He picked it from the list that Orchard toys produce that is included in each toy and is then carefully studied by my son to decide what toy he would like next. The appeal of ladybirds for him was the brightly coloured creatures which are one of his favourite to find in the garden or on walks. The game contains 24 cards that are made from very robust recycled cardboard. The surfaces of which are wipe cleanable. As with all of these from Orchard toys we have been very impressed with how tough they are and have noticed no damage to the cards themselves in ... Read the complete review
by - written on 01/07/10 (Very useful, 37 readings)
Orchard Toys are rather well known by many as producing a wide variety of educational-based games for young children. The Game of Ladybirds is one of those games, and it's available from a lot of school suppliers as well as Amazon, who presently have it for sale at £6.40. I think that's a tiny bit pricy considering the limited contents, but it's a nice concept and a well made game so you might be more than happy to pay that price if this sounds like one for you. Inside the box you'll find a selection of thick, glossy playing cards. These are all very sturdy and easy to wipe-clean, the kind of game cards which will last for years rather than weeks. The ... Read the complete review
by - written on 16/02/12 (Very useful, 49 readings)
The Game of Ladybirds is made by Orchard toys that sell a great range of toys and games for children. All of their games are educational so are perfect to help children learn different things such and numbers and colours. I remember this game from my childhood as my sister used to have it and it was our favourite game. The game itself comes in a cardboard box and is brightly coloured with big red ladybirds on the front and some brightly green coloured leaves. You can have 2-4 players when playing the game and it's aimed at children ages 3-6 years. The game consists of brightly coloured cards which on one side have a large coloured leaf on and a few ladybirds. Some of the Read the complete review
Products Similar to Orchard Toys The Game of Ladyb ...
Orchard Pirate Snakes and Ladders & Ludo - Good take on a traditional game none
Orchard Toys Pop to the Shops - Good game None
Orchard Toys If you See a Crocodile - Great for young children, helps to teach structured playing and sportsmanship No good for older children, a little boring to play as an adult
Orchard Toys Chicken Out! - Fun matching game with a great twist Too few a cards
Orchard Toys Lunch Box Game - fantastic educational game none
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All these and are taken from reviews of the dooyooCommunity.
Challenging, fun, good quality
Challenges will run out eventually
|My First Operation|
great concept, well made
Easy to set up and play, good amount of pressure, wide variety of subjects
No answers given so can cause heated discussions!
|Million Pound Drop Board Game|
A fine idea in principle but alas....
badly built, shoddy workmanship,
|Special Edition Pink Scrabble|
Fun and does some good for charity at the same time.
|Monopoly Stock Exchange|
More interesting take on the original game
Complicated and long to play
|Cluedo Super Challenge Edition: Passport to Murder|
More challenging than the original
Takes a little while to pick up the rules!
|Hasbro Crocodile Chomp| | <urn:uuid:97658950-ab0b-4abf-9942-15e72e696f16> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/board-games/orchard-toys-the-game-of-ladybirds/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967229 | 1,076 | 1.523438 | 2 |
06-03-2012 01:54 PM - edited 06-04-2012 02:04 PM
The most important thing you need to do is take into consideration the size of tile you are wanting to install.
Figuring the amount:
- Measure the length of the backsplash area (the span of the countertops, stove top, and any intended overage).
- Then measure the average height (from the countertop to the bottom of the cabinets).
- Multiply the two numbers to get a square foot figure.
*example: a 10ft countertop length x 3ft of height between = 30sq/ft surface space . So - if you are dealing with 4inch x 4inch tiles you would need approximately 270 tiles (9 rows of 30 tiles).
- Other spaces can be measured the same way and added to the overall figure.
- Keep in mind that you may have to cut some larger tiles - which will produce a small amount of waste.
Hope this helps. | <urn:uuid:69be68fc-1469-4af7-a1c5-3aaccbd26ab0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://community.homedepot.com/t5/Install-Replace/How-do-you-measure-for-kitchen-backsplash/m-p/53211 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.90488 | 207 | 1.929688 | 2 |
Home / News
5. THE FIR TREE
Out in the woods stood a nice little Fir Tree. The place he had was a very good one: the sun shone on him: as to fresh air, there was enough of that, and round him grew many large-sized comrades, pines as well as firs. But the little Fir wanted so very much to be a grown-up tree.
He did not think of the warm sun and of the fresh air; he did not care for the little cottage children that ran about and prattled when they were in the woods looking for wild-strawberries. The children often came with a whole pitcher full of berries, or a long row of them threaded on a straw, and sat down near the young tree and said, "Oh, how pretty he is! What a nice little fir!" But this was what the Tree could not bear to hear.
At the end of a year he had shot up a good deal, and after another year he was another long bit taller; for with fir trees one can always tell by the shoots how many years old they are.
"Oh! Were I but such a high tree as the others are," sighed he. "Then I should be able to spread out my branches, and with the tops to look into the wide world! Then would the birds build nests among my branches: and when there was a breeze, I could bend with as much stateliness as the others!"
Neither the sunbeams, nor the birds, nor the red clouds which morning and evening sailed above him, gave the little Tree any pleasure.
In winter, when the snow lay glittering on the ground, a hare would often come leaping along, and jump right over the little Tree. Oh, that made him so angry! But two winters were past, and in the third the Tree was so large that the hare was obliged to go round it. "To grow and grow, to get older and be tall," thought the Tree--"that, after all, is the most delightful thing in the world!"
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For information about public domain texts appearing here, read the copyright information and disclaimer. | <urn:uuid:c2ba4932-548b-4ccf-862e-3fd68df0b19e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.literaturepage.com/read.php?titleid=andersen-fairy-tales&abspage=48&changecolor=5 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980024 | 515 | 2.234375 | 2 |
Review to be emailed:
Audience: 3rd Grade - 7th Grade
Can you imagine how you would feel if you were tricked into selling your most valuable baseball card by a mean collector? Griffin Bing had this happen to him and he is not about to stand still until he recaptures the card. He and two of his buddies, all misfits of some kind or other, try to recover the card, but must go through several challenges to do so. Griffin is known as 'The Man with a Plan' so through his various 'PLANS' you find out if he is able to retrieve the Babe Ruth baseball card which he found in an old dilapidated house that was being torn down.
Awards nominated: Bluestem Nominee 2012
Date read: 4/18/2011
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Copyright © 2004-2013 St. Charles Public Library. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:ff1e1a98-c96c-462e-835e-2a54c7687678> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://stcharleslibrary.org/ygtrt/email.asp?BookID=1574&returnURL=%2Fygtrt%2Fdefault.asp%3FCategory%3D24%26grs%3D0%26gre%3D9%26Page%3D219 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965615 | 224 | 1.804688 | 2 |
The Great Dark Age
It was The Time of Copy Pasta in which the sacred Book of Pasta, as it had come to be known, was transcribed by many into the tongues of the world. This was such an undertaking, that almost everyone not involved in preparing the fleet was used, from the making of the pages from rice and olive tree wood, the making of the ink by the milking of squid, to the transcribing itself. Millions of books were eventually produced for the effort, and were loaded onto the ships, now repaired, scrubbed clean (even the bilges), and ready to sail out into the world. A new breed of pirate had evolved in this time, more spiritual, more forthright, and far deadlier than before, regaled as they were in their new finery, replete with cutlass and pointy hat.
Elaine had worked tirelessly for the 10 years it took to prepare everything, co-ordinating the transcription in The Time of Copy Pasta, organising the refit of the pirate fleet, and formulating the plans for the second coming of pasta to the world. Many were the sacrifices made by Elaine, and big was the hardship, but by meditation, not to mention the consumption of every type of pasta in the book, she made it through, looking and feeling healthier than she had ever done. The same was true of most of the enlightened folk, as they endeavoured to make right what was wrong.
Thus The Time of Kneading drew near, when the preparation was finished and the spreading of pasta was to begin. A great assembly was called for all who could attend, and they did gather in the greatest meeting hall ever built. Millions attended to see pirate Elaine speak in what was to be the seminal speech of the year.
"Sistren and Brethren. Pirates and Midgets. Samurai. We, the enlightened ones, have worked hard these past years in preparation for this day. No longer shall we see the world suffer through the tyrannies and inequities of the antipasti. Long have we laboured by night and by day. Much is the pasta we have eaten, and many are the Holy Meals we have shared. Today is a new beginning. Today we start anew. Today we embrace The Art of Penne. Do not think of what you do, just react, for reaction without thinking is what is needed for Him to take us over and touch us. There are many here who agree that we must act, but do not fully agree with the methods, and for listening to me I say thank you, but I shall now show you all that we are both blessed and touched by Him," Elaine told the assembly.
Looking around from the very centre of the people, she asked everyone to close their eyes and empty their minds. Slowly, circle by circle, the people did so, and they were instantly filled with a peace so calm as to make them think they were flying. "Merge your mind with cosmic space, integrate your actions with myriad forms," suggested Elaine, as the assembled people began swaying slightly, when suddenly everyone heard a kind yet booming voice in their heads.
"HEAVEN AND EARTH COME FROM THE SAME NOODLE AS MYSELF. ALL APPENDAGES AND I BELONG TO ONE WHOLE." The room shook suddenly, as everyone felt a pressure against their person, and the entire assemblage shrunk by exactly 2.54 centimetres. He had not only touched them with His Noodly Appendages, but had showed them favour by pushing them towards midgethood. A cry of joy went up as the assembled people rejoiced that He had chosen to show Himself to them.
As the meeting came to a close, Elaine assigned ports for the enlightened to travel to, the details of which were already written and placed close to the pirate captains. When asked where she would be travelling to, Elaine replied, "If you want to climb a mountain, begin at the top. I shall be going to Pastador, the heart of the antipasti menace!" A hush followed as many realised how dangerous a part of the mission she had chosen for herself, and many offered to take her place, beseeching her not to risk her life so. "I would rather sink to the bottom of the sea for endless aeons than seek liberation through all the antipasti of the universe," replied Elaine, "I shall go with my fearless crew and spread word there myself, for to no other would I assign this most risky of missions. Go in peace, oh enlightened ones. RAmen!"
"RAmen," echoed the people. The meeting was now over, and the real work was about to begin.
The journey was long and arduous as the crew did all they could to keep their spirits up. Much dried pasta and noodles had been packed, along with meatballs and fish balls, not to mention the large amount of grog. Many months it took to get to even the Cape of Good Hope, with many more to travel up Africa to the Gibraltar straits, and into the Mediterranean sea. Elaine did her best to maintain high spirits in her crew, but the more they saw of that state of the people whenever they were forced to anchor the ship off the coast and row ashore, the more depressed they became. Pirate Elaine ended up steering a course well clear of the coast, as she knew the effect it was having. She also knew that there were many other ships sailing for the places they anchored near, so was content in the fact that soon the mission would begin in earnest.
There were ships sent to every major and minor port on the coasts of Africa, the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Australasia, with specialist missions to find every enclave of enlightenment, few that they were. The work would be difficult, but using The Art of Penne should make it instinctual, not to mention allowing the enlightened to get closer to Him and His Divine Pastenance. The closer they were to their goal, the more they meditated, until they were able to be once again at peace with themselves and the sea.
The day came when the port of Pastador was spied from the crow's nest, and a hush took itself upon the crew. Captain Elaine was on deck with her spyglass, looking out towards the land, spying for a place to anchor that would be hidden from view. Suddenly she spotted it, and yelled, "Make for St. Pa Stasor's Point, and enter Linguini Cove, first mate Royston." This was obeyed, and the ship was steered towards the relative safety of the harbour. The currents were good, as if moved by an invisible force, and they were soon hidden from view of the mainland. Dropping anchor, they started unloading the crates and rowing them ashore. It took them a while, but that was finally done, and they made their plans to steal into the town at night.
As the moon rose, a procession of pirates lugging crates left the vicinity of the cove, with the captain and first mate heading towards the heart of the town, and hence the heart of antipastidom, and the crew heading to the eating and drinking establishments, not to mention the brothels and strip joints, those hallowed halls of learning. Each carried their fair share of copies of The Book of Pasta, distributing them in secret to the needy and the lost until they needed to come back to the cove for more. Many were not distributed, though, as they were being saved for those further inland.
As Elaine and Royston reached the heart of town, they were stopped dead in their tracks by the sight of a temple to Antipasti. Never before had anyone built a temple to pasta or the power of the FSM, yet here was this monstrosity in the heart of her beloved home! Before leaving the shadows, Elaine made sure that her robe hid her raiment properly, advising Royston to do the same. Across the town square did pirate Elaine walk, although her movements belied her purpose that night, for she stooped a little, and shuffled as she walked, appearing as if one of the antipasti faithful. This way did she gain entry past the lethargic guards of the temple, and passage to the inner sanctum. There the strongest adherents to the antipasti lay. This was the battle Elaine had prepared herself for all those years, as foretold to her by the FSM in a vision of her dressed in drab garb, as she was now, standing in a temple devoted to wasting away.
Standing there as she was, she attracted the attention of one of the priests who approached her, making the sign of the antipasti at her as if in welcome. "I come to seek your wisdom, sirs," said Elaine in as tired a voice as she could manage, "I have travelled many leagues to be here, and seek that which you can tell me."
The priest seemed puzzled by her language and intonation. "Have you, my dear?" he replied. "Tell me that which you seek, and I shall provide it for you." Clapping his hands lazily, he summoned a servant with a tray of antipasti, proffering it to Elaine.
"No," she said, refusing the proffered dish, "I do not partake of this filth." The priest stood back, aghast. Never before had he been spoken to this way. "I come preaching health and forgiveness from Him on high. I come with a gift," she said to him, reaching inside her robe and brandishing The Book of Pasta as if some form of talisman. Taking one quick look at the title of the book, realisation dawned upon him that this was not some joke, or indeed a cruel one. This was what their order had worked so hard to destroy all those years ago. By this stage, all the inhabitants of the room began to realise what was going on between their leader and the strange, drably-dressed woman. To see a woman in here was rare for them, as theirs was strictly a patriarchal society, the ways of the woman having been reduced to childrearing and housekeeping long ago.
Whispers were made, and word went out of what was happening inside the temple, and they had soon attracted quite an audience of lethargic onlookers, eager to see something different. The tension was palpable. "Let us take this outside," suggested Elaine, "I want more people to witness your downfall." Eagerly agreeing to this through his overconfidence, the high priest and all assembled moved from the inner sanctum towards the front doors to the temple, spilling out into the moonlit night. Many had gathered here as well; such a sight that had not been seen since the old days before the downfall and the dark times.
Elaine and the high priest made their way to the middle of the square, the crowd parting for them slowly. Looking round, Elaine saw that most of the faces were relatively young, the old being too weak to move much at all. A circle had opened in the middle of the square, allowing the two of them in as a hush fell upon the crowd. When the two were face to face in the stillness of the night, the Patriarch of antipasti expounded so-called virtues of antipasti to Elaine and the people, weaving his lies so very well. He mentioned the healing properties of the water used in cooking antipasti, stating that when watered down it became far more potent. The people ate these lies like so much antipasti, yet Elaine remained calm and passive throughout the tirade.
Elaine started clapping slowly, emphasising her disdain at his words, slowly building up to a speed unseen and unheard in these lands for many a year. A quiet and not-so-lethargic murmur ran through the crowd. Is this it? Is this the beginning of the end for the antipasti? she thought, moving her hands slowly but surely to the clasp on her cloak. Suddenly Elaine whipped her cloak from her body, revealing her regalia in its full splendour. The priests cowed on the ground at the sight of her magnificence and beauty, at last removed from its cover. "Hear me, you people of Pastador. Once I lived among you as one of you, and I was accepted. My father's family once lived here, but although my mother came from a different land many leagues away, and you were kind to her as any adherent of the One True Pastenance should be. Do you not recognise one of your own? A few gasps were heard from those brave enough to gaze upon her. Elaine removed her cutlass and a copy of The Book of Pasta from their places on her person, raising them towards Him in supplication.
"So I tell you, sistren and brethren, listen unto His teachings, for only through them does real wisdom flow. These are the words of Him to His people." The people began watching ever more closely. "Do you not remember Him saying to us, "I'd really rather you didn't build multimillion-dollar temples...when the money could be better spent ending poverty, curing diseases, living in peace, loving with passion and lowering the cost of cable"? Do you not remember the other commandments passed down to Captain Mosey on Mount Salsa? Remember to keep your mind alive and free without abiding in anything or anywhere." The throng was suddenly and thoroughly enlightened as to the meaning of those words, even the priests were in tears at the realisation of what they had done.
That night, in the square, a feast was made of the Most Holy Meal of spaghetti and meatballs. A sudden transformation occurred, as everyone suddenly felt their energy coming back after so long without any. The Holy Meal had cured them of their ills. A great pressure was felt my all present, too, as if they were being touched heavily, although i'm sure that you'll be unsurprised to hear that all present shrunk by exactly 2.54 centimetres that night. Many books were distributed by Elaine and her crew, and some began copying them straight away, ensuring that they would spread far and wide once again. All who looked upon Elaine that night fell in love with her totally. Such was the feeling spreading throughout everyone, that Elaine allowed a tear to roll down her perfect cheek before its glistening beauty fell from her chin to the floor below. It was at that very spot that an olive tree was planted in memory of that night, which continues to flourish and grow to this day.
Roland Deschain - Half prophet, half gunslinger, all Pastafarian!
"Since Alexander Pearce escaped, over 250 people have disappeared in the Tasmanian wilderness. No remains have ever been found." - Dying Breed | <urn:uuid:c95f57ee-0649-4cf4-9cca-c3976eae869f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.venganza.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=566542 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988703 | 3,073 | 2.09375 | 2 |
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World leaders, including some North Korea allies, condemn failed launch.
SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea's much-vaunted rocket launch ended in failure just seconds after lift-off on Friday morning, but the attempt quickly drew condemnation from the US and its allies, who maintain it was a test of the country's ballistic missile technology.
Hours after the Unha-3 rocket exploded and fell in pieces into the Yellow Sea, having covered only 100 kilometers, the regime conceded with unusual candor that its plan to launch a satellite had not gone well. "The earth observation satellite failed to enter its preset orbit," the state-run Korean Central News Agency said in a brief announcement. "Scientists, technicians and experts are now looking into the cause of the failure."
North Korea had ignored calls by the US, Japan and South Korea to abandon the launch, which was part of attempts to burnish the image of the regime's new leader, Kim Jong Un, on the eve of celebrations to mark the centenary of the birth of the state's founder - and Jong Un's grandfather - Kim Il Sung.
Space officials in Pyongyang then watched with embarrassment and, perhaps, fears for their futures, as the rocket exploded and broke into about 20 pieces 90 seconds or so into its flight.
More from GlobalPost: Next of Kim: What's ahead for North an South Korea
The North American aerospace defense command, NORAD, said it had tracked the missile after its launch at at 7:39 am local time. The first stage fell into the sea about 100 miles west of the South Korean capital Seoul. The remainder is believed to have broken up slightly later, also landing in the sea. NORAD said no debris had fallen on land or threatened populated areas.
Maj. Gen. Shin Won-sik, a South Korean defense ministry official said the rocket had exploded in midair between one and two minutes after it was launched from a site in Tongchang-ri on the country's northwest coast.
The White House said North Korea had violated UN security council resolutions banning it from developing long-range missile technology, adding that it risked even greater isolation. The UN security council is due to meet later today to discuss its response, which could include further, so far unspecified sanctions against the already impoverished state.
"Despite the failure of its attempted missile launch, North Korea's provocative action threatens regional security, violates international law and contravenes its own recent commitments," White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement. "While this action is not surprising given North Korea's pattern of aggressive behavior, any missile activity by North Korea is of concern to the international community."
Washington later confirmed it would suspend a deal struck in February in which the North agreed to stop its uranium enrichment and ballistic missile programs in exchange for 240,000 tons of US food aid.
G8 ministers meeting in Washington said in a statement: "Sharing the view that the launch undermines regional peace and stability, we call on [North Korea] to abstain from further launches using ballistic missile technology or other actions which aggravate the situation on the Korean peninsula.
"We are ready to consider, with others, taking measures responding to all activities of [North Korea] that violate UN security council resolutions, and calling for appropriate response by the United Nations security council."
Russia and China, however, urged the international community to respond with restraint. "We do not believe in new sanctions ... they will not do anything in terms of resolving the situation," the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said after talks with his Chinese counterpart.
More from GlobalPost: Chinese cars, made in Bulgaria
But Friday's ignominious launch has sparked speculation that the North Korean leadership, having witnessed a major propaganda operation go horribly wrong, will attempt to claw back its credibility with another show of provocation in the coming days and weeks.
There is little doubt that a successful launch would have strengthened the position of Kim Jong Un, who today was named as first chairman of the powerful National Defense Commission. That title alone is unlikely to quell persistent doubts about his experience and ability, however, just four months after he succeeded his father, Kim Jong Il, who is thought to have ordered the launch before he died of a heart attack last December.
South Korean president Lee Myung Bak convened an emergency security meeting after this morning's launch. His office said the government would continue to closely monitor its neighbor's actions.
Recent satellite images show the North may be preparing to conduct a third nuclear test at a site where similar tests were carried out in 2006 and 2009. A South Korean defense ministry official said the North was likely to stage military provocation targeting South. "The possibility of an additional long-range rocket launch or a nuclear test, as well as a military provocation to strengthen internal solidarity is very high," he said.
Kim Yun Tae, secretary general for the Seoul-based network for North Korean democracy and human rights, said he expected the regime to behave provocatively. "The North Koreans struck a deal on food aid in February and then launched a rocket, so it will be very difficult for them to engage now [that] the world can see they have broken their word," he said.
"The North Korean leadership needs to save face. The only option its has now is to do something militarily, since the military is by far the most organized section of North Korean society. It will involve something more spectacular than a rocket launch. It could mean shelling somewhere, as they did with Yeonpyeong island in 2010, or perhaps stepping up military maneuvers near the demilitarized zone [the heavily fortified border separating North and South Korea.]
"I can't say exactly what it will be, but it will be a grand gesture designed to capture the world's attention."
More from GlobalPost: Burma rebooted
Residents of Seoul, which had been on a high state of alert, seemed unperturbed by the launch itself, but urged their government and the international community to respond.
"I don't believe the rocket was for a satellite, but whether it was or not, the important thing is they tried to launch it," said Koo Hyung Joo, a 26-year-old student. "North Korea is a dangerous country, so there should be a strong response. An economic blockade may be one option." | <urn:uuid:cb8c6476-0b2c-4bd5-bf9c-a319e73dd194> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/120413/north-koreas-failed-rocket-brings-condemnation-embarrassme | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969405 | 1,302 | 1.90625 | 2 |
Q. I live in a 1,000 square foot house to which an addition was added several years ago. The bathroom and bedroom in the addition are always cold, as they are the rooms farthest from the furnace. There is a dirt crawl space under the house and the ducts run through there. How much heat is being lost in the crawl space on its way to the rooms in the addition? Is there anything we can do about this? M.M. Kittery.
A. There are at least four things you could do to increase the comfort level of the cold rooms in your addition. Completing any one of them will improve the situation; doing all four would produce the maximum result.
First, check with your furnace installer to insure that the heat ducts have been run to the addition correctly. If the builder didn't consult or hire an HVAC professional to extend the ducts to the addition, they may have been installed by someone with little experience about how to do it in the most efficient manner. Shortening the length of the runs or sizing the ducts differently might produce an immediate improvement in the delivery of warm air to the distant rooms.
Secondly, be aware that in many homes 25% of the conditioned air passing through heat ducts never makes it to the intended terminal point. It leaks out joints and holes in the ductwork. If leaky ducts pass through an unconditioned crawl space, warm air exiting the ductwork is completely wasted as the warmth is absorbed by the cold surroundings. Additionally, unsealed return air ducts can pick up mold spores, dust and dirt from areas through which they pass.
Although it can be a messy, unpleasant job--especially in a tight crawl space--sealing holes in the ductwork will pay big dividends. Do not use "duct tape" for this job. In testing, the adhesives in regular cloth-backed duct tape have been shown to fail soon after installation. Use either a liquid duct-sealing mastic material (sold in plastic tubs and applied by smearing it on with a hand or brush), or foil backed tape made specifically for this purpose. Both products are sold at home centers and HVAC supply distributors.
Third, to reduce heat loss as warm air is conveyed down the ductwork, apply insulation to the outside of the metal pipes. Regular fiberglass insulation taped or stapled around the ducts is one option. However, it is difficult to install so it stays in place. And, if there is moisture present in the crawl space, it could collect in the insulation.
An alternative would be one of the foil-backed reflective "bubble wrap" products on the market. One well-known brand is Reflectix.
This 5/16 inch thick, flexible material can be wrapped around ducts and taped or stapled to hold it in place. It should be noted that to achieve the claimed R-value for this type of product, spacers have to hold the insulation away from the pipe a certain distance. Again, working in a small crawl space can be difficult, dirty work. But insulating bare heat ducts is the type of job that pays off both in energy savings and increased comfort.
Finally, if the aforementioned upgrades don't produce satisfactory results, a duct booster fan can be cut into the duct run serving the addition. These small, round fans are inserted into a duct and wired to only switch on when the furnace runs. They deliver more conditioned air to where it is wanted, raising the temperature in the rooms where the duct ends. | <urn:uuid:b9571b00-0512-47c2-b764-e199886b1945> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mlive.com/homeandgarden/index.ssf/2008/12/insulate_ductwork_in_rooms_fur.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961594 | 730 | 1.882813 | 2 |
It's hard not to view the Oscar for Best Foreign Film awarded to Iran's "A Separation" as at least in part a political statement against war with that country. But there's no question that the film is a brilliant one, even close to a masterpiece. I just saw it last night and came away disturbed and deeply moved by the profound moral ambiguities it offered both about human relationships and life inside present-day Iran. It is also the first Iranian film to win an Oscar.
Which, considering the amazing quality of Iranian cinema over the decades, is an oversight rectified and long overdue.
For a suitable cinematic tradition, "A Separation" is best compared to the Italian social realism masterpieces of the early 1950s, such as Vittorio DeSica's "The Bicycle Thief." These were films which observed working-class characters grappling with simple yet profound moral conundrums. It was this co-existence of the high and low together which marked these films as the masterpieces they were and allowed them to stand the test of time.
"A Separation" lives in the same filmic tradition. The main characters are a young couple, and the wife is fed up with the dead-end life Iran has to offer and seeks to emigrate. The husband, however, is held back by an aging father suffering from Alzheimer's whom he cannot leave behind. This leaves the couple at a dead-end. The wife wants to leave with her family. Her husband will not. They have an 11-year-old daughter who is the sole obstacle holding the mother back from her plan.
The couple go to family court, where the judge refuses to grant her a divorce, saying her problem is "too small" to justify such a serious remedy. Out of frustration, the wife moves out of her home, telling her husband she plans to leave anyway. When she leaves his home, this starts a concatenation of small events which lead to the momentous ones that follow. The husband, without his wife to serve as caregiver for his father, needs to hire someone. He employs a poor, pious young woman who has a small daughter and is pregnant.
The new caregiver's first moral dilemma is whether, as a religious woman, she may clean the aged man's soiled clothing and body. The next day, the father, suffering from dementia, escapes from the home, and the woman's search to find him leads to a crucial, fateful incident.
After this, the woman, torn by her need to see a doctor about problems with her pregnancy, decides to leave the sleeping father at home tied to his bed (so he will not escape again). When the son returns home, he finds his father fallen off the bed, disconnected from his oxygen tank and near death. When the caregiver returns to work, the younger man fires her and also accuses her of stealing from him.
The woman - whose husband is an out-of-work cobbler deep in debt to his creditors - facing the loss of the job, protests against her firing and begs the man to take her back. He is so angry at the abuse his father suffered that he turns against her and pushes her out of his apartment. She falls and injures herself. From there, the plot works its way toward its climactic moments, in which the lives of every character are tested in moral fire. All are found wanting, though all act out of the best of motives (at times).
What is truly brilliant about the movie is that every character is basically a decent human being. Yet each one behaves in morally objectionable ways at one point or another. Each one acts out of love or devotion to his family, but such love leads each one to lie or cheat in ways that deeply harm others.
The film also teaches that, no matter how comfortable we each may be within our family, social or class milieu, our lives interact in ways we can never foresee with those of people with whom we could never conceive a relationship. The young couple are comfortable, fairly secular, well-educated middle-class people from good families, yet their lives strike up against those of a poor, religious working-class family in ways they would never have imagined. Tragedy ensues. The middle-class family causes it inadvertently. The working-class family ends up enduring the tragedy and tries to make the other family pay for its suffering.
At the conclusion, the young son is vindicated. But even this victory is Pyhrric because it comes at the expense of his own integrity and his failing relationship with his wife, and it damages irreparably his relationship with his scrupulously moral daughter, who watches her father's moral compromises with increasing incredulity.
While the adults in this film grapple with moral questions - their answers to which cause them to be found consistently wanting - it is the children who suffer most. The couple's daughter swings back and forth between father and mother. She wants her mother to reunite with her father, yet the former refuses. She wants her father to tell the truth about the harm he may have caused the poor caregiver, yet he won't.
The caregiver's little daughter is equally vulnerable and helpless in the face of her parents' plan to extort financial or penal penalties from the employer's family after the mother's tragedy. At the end of the film, when the crucial moment comes and the middle-class man is vindicated, both children, who had become friends, look at each other with a look that is indescribably baleful and utterly sad. No one has won; everyone has lost, but the children have lost most of all.
After watching the film, I was tempted to see it as a moral allegory for the insanity that currently reigns in relations between Iran and the West. Just like the couple in the film and the two separate families, who each act out of good motives, but whose obtuseness leads to tragedy, so Iran and its enemies seem hellbent on a confrontation that can only lead to tragedy for everyone involved. Of course, as with any great piece of art, this film shouldn't be confined to being a commentary on a single event. It is far larger than that.
But it's worth noting this statement from the film's writer and director, Asghar Farhadi, at the Oscar ceremony:
At this time, many Iranians all over the world are watching us, and I imagine them to be very happy. They are happy not just because of an important award or a film or a filmmaker. But because at a time when talk of war, intimidation and aggression is exchanged between politicians, the name of their country, Iran, is spoken here through her glorious culture, a rich and ancient culture that has been hidden under the heavy dust of politics. I proudly offer this award to the people of my country, a people who respect all cultures and civilizations and despise hostility and resentment.
He clearly meant the awards ceremony, if not the film itself, as a direct commentary on the mess we're in.
Though I know they won't, I hope every Israeli (it is playing in that country) and every key US foreign policy official sees this film. And then thinks about whether a country that produces such a beautifully subtle, touching and deeply troubling moral fable as this one should be bombed. How will bombs stand up to the moral acuity represented by this film? | <urn:uuid:d20d4a8f-1860-4fbd-bf89-c835af832bb0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://truth-out.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=6962&Itemid=228 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982373 | 1,520 | 1.726563 | 2 |
I had discovered Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia a few years ago. It started on January 15, 2001 and today it is a humungous collection. The best part of it besides it being absolutely FREE (in the truest sense of the term), is that it is a collaborative effort, which means you can also become an active contributor to this innovative project.
It is hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, which operates several other multilingual and free content projects, like Wiktionary, Wikibooks, Wikiquote, Wikisource, Wikispecies, Wikinews, Commons and Meta-Wiki.
Visit http://en.wikipedia.org/ for a Wikiexperience! | <urn:uuid:fab3d275-35c7-4b38-86e8-1b5f29c02661> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://soumyadipc.blogspot.com/2005/06/wikiexperience.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928953 | 142 | 1.632813 | 2 |
“Women make up half of our global society,” says Amani Al-Khatahtbeh, SAS’14, a CWGL student advocate. “It is impossible for a society to truly progress without promoting the rights of women.”
Photo caption: CWGL's 2012 United Nations Commission on the Status of Women Student Advocacy Training participants outside the Center's office. (Amani Al-Khatahtbeh featured top row, first left).
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- Building coalitions among women’s and social justice organizations for policy reform at the international and national levels
Named in honor of CWGL’s Founding Director, Charlotte Bunch, this fund supports initiatives that are of strategic significance in seizing important political opportunities for the advancement of women’s human rights globally. The fund may be utilized, for example, to organize strategic conversations among diverse players in the advocacy for women’s human rights; to finance research and/or writing on critical issues related to women’s human rights; or to support women human rights defenders. The fund is intended to have the flexibility to remain innovative and respond to fluid, diverse and evolving needs in the women’s global human rights movement
Thank you for your support of women’s human rights and social justice worldwide! | <urn:uuid:794a04f7-4ae8-47f2-ac17-ea0641051aca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cwgl.rutgers.edu/support-us | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926756 | 449 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Hansen to Australian PM: stop coal plants now
27 March 2008
The Hon Kevin Rudd, MP
Prime Minister of Australia
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, 2600
Dear Prime Minister,
Your leadership is needed on a matter concerning coal-fired power plants and carbon dioxide emission rates in your country, a matter with ramifications for life on our planet, including all species. Prospects for today's children, and especially the world's poor, hinge upon our success in stabilizing climate.
For the sake of identification, I am a United States citizen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Adjunct Professor at the Columbia University Earth Institute. I am a member of our National Academy of Sciences, have testified before our Senate and House of Representatives on many occasions, have advised our Vice President and Cabinet members on climate change and its relation to energy requirements, and have received numerous awards including the World Wildlife Fund's Duke of Edinburgh Conservation Medal from Prince Philip.
I write, however, as a private citizen, a resident of Kintnersville, Pennsylvania, USA. I was assisted in composing this letter by colleagues, including Australians, Americans, and Europeans, who commented upon a draft letter. Because of the urgency of the matter, I have not collected signatures, but your advisors will verify the authenticity of the science discussion.
I recognize that for years you have been a strong supporter of aggressive forward-looking actions to mitigate dangerous climate change. Also, since your election as Prime Minister of Australia, your government has been active in pressing the international community to take appropriate actions. We are now at a point that bold leadership is needed, leadership that could change the course of human history.
I have read and commend the Interim Report of Professor Ross Garnaut, submitted to your government. The conclusion that net carbon emissions must be cut to a fraction of current emissions must be stunning and sobering to policy-makers. Yet the science is unambiguous: if we burn most of the fossil fuels, releasing the CO2 to the air, we will assuredly destroy much of the fabric of life on the planet. Achievement of required near-zero net emissions by mid-century implies a track with substantial cuts of emissions by 2020. Aggressive near-term fostering of energy efficiency and climate friendly technologies is an imperative for mitigation of the looming climate crisis and optimization of the economic pathway to the eventual clean-energy world.
Global climate is near critical tipping points that could lead to loss of all summer sea ice in the Arctic with detrimental effects on wildlife, initiation of ice sheet disintegration in West Antarctica and Greenland with progressive, unstoppable global sea level rise, shifting of climatic zones with extermination of many animal and plant species, reduction of freshwater supplies for hundreds of millions of people, and a more intense hydrologic cycle with stronger droughts and forest fires, but also heavier rains and floods, and stronger storms driven by latent heat, including tropical storms, tornados and thunderstorms.
Feasible actions now could still point the world onto a course that minimizes climate change. Coal clearly emerges as central to the climate problem from the facts summarized in the attached Fossil Fuel Facts. [See note below] Coal caused fully half of the fossil fuel increase of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the air today, and on the long run coal has the potential to be an even greater source of CO2. Due to the dominant role of coal, solution to global warming must include phase-out of coal except for uses where the CO2 is captured and sequestered. Failing that, we cannot avoid large climate change, because a substantial fraction of the emitted CO2 will stay in the air more than 1000 years.
Yet there are plans for continuing mining of coal, export of coal, and construction of new coal-fired power plants around the world, including in Australia, plants that would have a lifetime of half a century or more. Your leadership in halting these plans could seed a transition that is needed to solve the global warming problem.
Choices among alternative energy sources - renewable energies, energy efficiency, nuclear power, fossil fuels with carbon capture - these are local matters. But decision to phase out coal use unless the CO2 is captured is a global imperative, if we are to preserve the wonders of nature, our coastlines, and our social and economic well being.
Although coal is the dominant issue, there are many important subsidiary ramifications, including the need for rapid transition from oil-fired energy utilities, industrial facilities and transport systems, to clean (solar, hydrogen, gas, wind, geothermal, hot rocks, tide) energy sources, as well as removal of barriers to increased energy efficiency.
If the West makes a firm commitment to this course, discussion with developing countries can be prompt. Given the potential of technology assistance, realization of adverse impacts of climate change, and leverage and increasing interdependence from global trade, success in cooperation of developed and developing worlds is feasible.
The western world has contributed most to fossil fuel CO2 in the air today, on a per capita basis. This is not an attempt to cast blame. It only recognizes the reality of the early industrial development in these countries, and points to a responsibility to lead in finding a solution to global warming.
A firm choice to halt building of coal-fired power plants that do not capture CO2 would be a major step toward solution of the global warming problem. Australia has strong interest in solving the climate problem. Citizens in the United States are stepping up to block one coal plant after another, and major changes can be anticipated after the upcoming national election.
If Australia halted construction of coal-fired power plants that do not capture and sequester the CO2, it could be a tipping point for the world. There is still time to find that tipping point, but just barely. I hope that you will give these considerations your attention in setting your national policies. You have the potential to influence the future of the planet.
Prime Minister Rudd, we cannot avert our eyes from the basic fossil fuel facts, or the consequences for life on our planet of ignoring these fossil fuel facts. If we continue to build coal-fired power plants without carbon capture, we will lock in future climate disasters associated with passing climate tipping points. We must solve the coal problem now.
For your information, I plan to send a similar letter to the Australian States Premiers.
I commend to you the following Australian climate, paleoclimate and Earth scientists to provide further elaboration of the science reported in my attached paper (Hansen et al., 2008):
Professor Barry Brook, Professor of climate change, University of Adelaide
Dr Andrew Glikson, Australian National University
Professor Janette Lindesay, Australian National University
Dr Graeme Pearman, Monash University
Dr Barrie Pittock, CSIRO
Dr Michael Raupach CSIRO
Professor Will Steffen, Australian National University
James E. Hansen
United States of America
[See original for additional documentation at: www.aussmc.org.au/documents/Hansen2008LetterToKevinRudd.pdf | <urn:uuid:b5cd6399-d86b-4e13-9aca-e19977d09fb1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.resilience.org/stories/2008-03-30/hansen-australian-pm-stop-coal-plants-now | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930448 | 1,451 | 1.953125 | 2 |
3 Reusable traps
3 one-season, controlled-release lures
Apple Maggots are a type of fruit fly that attack apples, blueberries, hawthorn, plums, pears and cherries. They cause extensive fruit damage that renders fruit useless. The fly is smaller than a housefly and appears throughout the summer. Most fruits are attacked by flies that lay their eggs during late spring to early summer.
The Apple Maggot trap and lure set have proven effective at reducing apple maggot damage. Flies are attracted by the lures and come to a sticky demise on the juicy-looking apple sphere.
Place traps in trees 1 or 2 weeks before bud break in early spring, and leave out until harvest time.
How Many Traps Do I Need?
For Monitoring: Use 3 traps in an orchard
For Control: Use 2 traps per dwarf tree, and 3 traps per large tree. | <urn:uuid:78d2791b-2555-48ee-83d6-152166f8a05b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.treehelp.com/apple-maggot-trap-set/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939578 | 188 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Though the oceans may seem endless, they are not infinitely resilient. Humans have impacted the oceans for millennia, but the past several centuries have seen a dramatic acceleration as we have industrialized our way of life, resulting in astonishing levels of pollution, even in uninhabited and remote areas.
Where once people thought waste could be dumped and absorbed by the seas with little lasting effect ("the solution to pollution is dilution" was one slogan), we now know that is not the case. As testament to this, one only has to observe the New Jersey-sized dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico - where agrichemicals washed in from the Mississippi River spawn algal blooms that choke off most marine life; or the massive Eastern and Western Pacific garbage patches, an interconnected, rotating pair of plastic trash concentrations in the North Pacific that kill marine mammals and birds who ingest or get tangled in the plastic; or the dead animals and tarry after-effects of the catastrophic oil spills in Prince William Sound, Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico, and numerous other places.
Physical contaminants such as plastic, agrichemicals, and oil aren’t the only form of pollution, however. Pollution can also include non-physical contaminants, such as noise. In large bodies of water, sound waves can carry with little attenuation (reduction) for miles. Sources of anthropogenic (human-generated) ocean noise include the use of explosives, oceanographic experiments, underwater construction, ship traffic, military active sonar, and airguns used for oil and gas exploration, drilling and shipping activities.
Such noise levels are increasing at an alarming rate, with some areas seeing a doubling of levels every decade for the past 60 years. Noise proliferation can pose a significant threat to marine ecosystems and a range of adverse effects in fish, marine mammals and other ocean creatures, from disturbance to injury and death. AWI and other interested groups are working to reduce ocean noise levels by urging nations to act together to protect marine living resources and ecosystems from the damaging effects of anthropogenic noise.
Common man-made physical pollutants that reach the ocean include pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers, detergents, oil, sewage, plastics, discarded fishing gear and other solid debris. Often, they are released far upstream. Many of these pollutants collect at the ocean's depths, where they are consumed by small marine organisms and introduced into the global food chain.
Solid waste like bags, foam, and other items dumped into the oceans from land or by ships at sea are frequently mistaken for prey and consumed by marine mammals, fish, and birds, often with fatal effects. Discarded fishing nets drift for years, ensnaring fish and mammals, leading to exhaustion, starvation, and slow death. | <urn:uuid:097d13d6-2c3d-40d0-952f-255278876668> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://awionline.org/content/pollution | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942623 | 555 | 3.984375 | 4 |
U.S. exporters of agricultural products say uncertainty surrounding the International Longshoremen’s Association Sept. 30 contract expiration is already slowing production and deliveries.
The Agriculture Transportation Coalition discussed the impact of a possible labor disruption in a statement accompanied by AgTC members’ statements about how a port shutdown would affect them.
Related webcast, to be presented on Sept. 12: The Industries Driving U.S. Trade - Agriculture
AgTC noted that several container ship lines have announced congestion surcharges of $1,000 per container or more that will take effect for all U.S. ports if East and Gulf Coast ports are closed by a labor dispute.
The coalition said the surcharges could price U.S. agricultural exports out of the market, and that even the prospect of surcharges is “already causing agriculture producers to slow production if they can, to hold back on export commitments. So the economic injury has already begun.”
AgTC said it hopes the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service will be able to help the ILA and the United States Maritime Alliance forge a contract agreement. Negotiations will resume next week under FMCS auspices.
The impact of the last major U.S. port shutdown, a lockout of West Coast dockworkers in 2002, was felt by agricultural exporters for years, AgTC said. It cited Japanese confectioners who turned to Turkey and other countries when California nuts and raisins were unavailable.
“The fact that the U.S. ag producer was not at fault, that it was a labor dispute, doesn’t always convince the foreign customer to return to us,” AgTC said. “So, once a por shuts down, the economic injury to the U.S. producer lingers long after the ports get back to work.”
Discover supply chain analysis tips for doing business and building lead gen with JOC—that you can start using today — when you download JOC Insights for FREE right now. | <urn:uuid:1b6e43d6-9f55-4ece-9bcd-6bca14a58ec1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.joc.com/maritime-news/international-freight-shipping/ag-exporters-say-port-strike-would-hurt_20120912.html?qt-webcasts_podcasts_whitepapers=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950352 | 416 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Time to revisit Guantanamo. Recently, 700 documents were released to Wikileaks providing “detainee assessments” of remaining and already released residents of the U.S. facility at Guantanamo. Very early in his term, President Obama issued multiple executive orders in January of 2009 ordering the closing Guantanamo Bay’s prison for enemy combatants within one year and a comprehensive review of detainee treatment policy. Now, over two years later Guantanamo remains open for business and active as ever as the facility prepares for military commissions to try one of the biggest names in terrorism, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who planned the September 11 attacks. Furthermore, President Obama recently signed another executive order in March which would establish a system permitting the indefinite detaining of prisoners deemed too dangerous to be released but for whom there is not enough evidence to try them even by shabby military commission standards.
But Mohammed’s story only begins to tell the deeper one of congressional blowback and political quagmires the President faced in trying to fulfill his inaugural promise. President Obama previously helmed the slow walk towards establishing a more fair treatment system for detainees following a number of groundbreaking Supreme Court cases (see http://projects.washingtonpost.com/guantanamo/timeline/ for an excellent timeline and briefing of the situation in Guantanamo), including attempting to try prisoners in federal courts. But as political wheels grinded, the issue has ended up not moving forward at all compared to two years ago. The Obama Administration pledged to try detainees in domestic courts according to the rule of law, but congressmen ever attached to their constituencies have fought it like the plague. Take Representative Frank Wolf, a Republican from Northern Virginia. When he discovered that the administration planned to deliver some of the 17 Chinese Uighurs to his district as part of the plan to decommission the Gitmo prison facility, he scolded the White House officials for the secrecy and refused to accept them because of concerns about their threat to America. The administration had already classified them as definite non-threats to American security interests.
The debacle followed with Congress pulling funding for any plan to close Guantanamo Bay and consequently try detainees in federal courts because of similar widespread concerns about the threat to constituencies. The one case that was tried in federal court, Ahmed Ghailani, almost ended in his complete acquittal because the threshold of evidence necessary to convict in federal courts is so high. Out of 285 charges, he was only found guilty of one.
It’s not all the president’s fault, or even the fault of bureaucratic grind. The American people are averse to the potential (but in reality abstract) threat of bringing detainees onto our soil. Certainly, there are problems with detainee threat assessment. One detainee released a few years ago was recently found fighting for the Libyan rebels against the Qaddafi regime. But the largest problem is the impact of a still-open, and information-leaking, Guantanamo prison facility. The release of detainee profiles is only aggravated by the death of Osama bin Laden. This is the fuel for the radical Islamic fire. With the release of critical documents that illuminate a legacy of prisoner maltreatment and even more importantly vast gaps in the full story of Guantanamo Bay, we are advertising the greatest flaws of America. These stories are our anti-COIN because they provide means for terrorist recruiters to win over the hearts and minds of young Arabs or at least proliferate an image of American brutality that will make diplomacy in the Middle East less friendly.
The President should commission a report that provides causality to these claims. The American people at large need to know that the threat to national security by keeping the facility open is severe. Representatives and Senators more specifically need to have the issue framed for them in a way that persuades a change of opinion on the continuation of Guantanamo. Only then can the executive order establishing a system for indefinite detention of prisoners with insufficient evidence to convict in even a military court, be overturned with positive consequences for America. | <urn:uuid:13d0358a-d10c-4626-9270-a61e8a6fe62c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://praemon.org/2011/05/03/gitmo-it%E2%80%99s-not-even-over-when-we-say-it%E2%80%99s-over/ | 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 | 0.960169 | 801 | 2.015625 | 2 |
Review of Space Chronicles
By Neil deGrasse Tyson
I’ve made it no secret that I love this guy. I dare someone to read this book or to listen to his podcast or watch any number of clips featuring Dr. Tyson and not get pumped up about science! He has a way of simultaneously communicating his enthusiasm regarding his discipline as well as his message that makes the information easy for anyone to digest.
I don’t know that my one sentence summary will do any justice here, but the primary message of the book is as follows: Without science [in this case NASA/space exploration] we fail. That is perhaps the lowest common denominator, at least my interpretation. Of course, he’s written a book based on that message so he goes a wee bit deeper than that.
We’re at a very interesting point in history, on many fronts. Personally, I would call it a tipping point, where if we continue down these paths we will eventually fail, sooner rather than later. And what’s sad is that on a majority of these factors, trends are negative. Our health, our education, our food, our economy, etc. Science is yet another element where we [the U.S. primarily] have completely fallen off the grid. Religion has taken hold in our schools and as a result the sciences have become political fodder.
One fact that’s harder for me to come to grips with is that most technological innovations and virtually all explorations can trace their origin to military, wartime, and government funded programs (not necessarily simultaneously, however). Think about it. The argument is that private enterprise can and will completely replace anything the government currently, or has supported. History has proven that is actually not true and there’s nothing to say it would change. As Dr. Tyson puts it, no corporation, no private entity will take the necessary measures, using space exploration as an example, with unmitigated risks. He says it’s expensive, it’s dangerous, with unknown risks virtually making the space frontier unmarketable.
Of course, I’m not advocating for more government; only submitting to the facts of history. That said, I would support increasing the NASA budget twenty-fold if that meant an equal cut from some other federal boondoggle. Do you know that the total NASA’s budgets for it’s entire existence (1958) is less than two years of Dept of Defense spending?
Chapter 30 is perhaps ten of the better pages I’ve read in any book. Dr. Tyson drops the gloves and goes bare-knuckle style on everything from religion, to government, to budgets. In it’s entirety, Space Chronicles is a non-partisan, objective look at how things are and how they sadly will be unless we realize the priority that emphasis on science and the space frontier should have. Needless to say, I highly recommend the read. | <urn:uuid:2676712c-5654-440a-bffc-66017908bf31> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jimicowan.tumblr.com/post/22348672445/review-of-space-chronicles | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953985 | 607 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Friday, May 28, 2010
Saved from the Sordid Axe
We had scarcely been two hours in Rome when we walked up to the Pincian hill, near our hotel. The sun was just set, but the western sky glowed beautifully. A great part of the city of modern Rome lay below us, and St. Peter's rose on the opposite side; and, for dear Sir George Beaumont's sake, I will mention that at no great distance from the dome of the church on the line of the glowing horizon was seen one of those broadtopped pines, looking like a little cloud in the sky, with a slender stalk to connect it with its native earth. I mention this because a friend of Mr. Robinson's whom we had just accidentally met told us that this very tree which I admired so much had been paid for by our dear friend, that it might stand as long as nature might allow.Letter of William Wordsworth to Mary and Dorothy Wordsworth (May 6, 1837):
The Monte Mario commands the most magnificent view of modern Rome, the Tiber, and the surrounding country. Upon this elevation I stood under the pine, redeemed by Sir G. Beaumont, of which I spoke in my former letter. I touched the bark of the magnificent tree, and I could almost have kissed it out of love for his memory.William Wordsworth, The Pine of Monte Mario at Rome, text with some notes from The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, ed. William Knight, Vol. VIII (London: Macmillan and Co., 1896), pp. 58-59:
[Sir George Beaumont told me that, when he first visited Italy, pine-trees of this species abounded, but that on his return thither, which was more than thirty years after, they had disappeared from many places where he had been accustomed to admire them, and had become rare all over the country, especially in and about Rome. Several Roman villas have within these few years passed into the hands of foreigners, who, I observed with pleasure, have taken care to plant this tree, which in course of years will become a great ornament to the city and to the general landscape. May I venture to add here, that having ascended the Monte Mario, I could not resist embracing the trunk of this interesting monument of my departed friend's feelings for the beauties of nature, and the power of that art which he loved so much, and in the practice of which he was so distinguished.—I.F.]"I.F." at the end of the introductory note stands for Isabella Fenwick, to whom Wordsworth dictated notes to some of his poems. According to Jared Curtis, The Fenwick Notes of William Wordsworth (Bristol: Bristol Classical Press, 1993; rev. electronic edition 2007), p. 356, this sonnet was written "between late November 1838 and 8 February 1839, perhaps in January 1839."
I saw far off the dark top of a Pine
Look like a cloud—a slender stem the tie
That bound it to its native earth—poised high
'Mid evening hues, along the horizon line,
Striving in peace each other to outshine.
But when I learned the Tree was living there,
Saved from the sordid axe by Beaumont's care,
Oh, what a gush of tenderness was mine!
The rescued Pine-tree, with its sky so bright
And cloud-like beauty, rich in thoughts of home,
Death-parted friends, and days too swift in flight,
Supplanted the whole majesty of Rome
(Then first apparent from the Pincian Height)
Crowned with St. Peter's everlasting Dome.
Within a couple of hours of my arrival at Rome, I saw from Monte Pincio the Pine tree as described in the Sonnet; and, while expressing admiration at the beauty of its appearance, I was told by an acquaintance of my fellow-traveller, who happened to join us at the moment, that a price had been paid for it by the late Sir G. Beaumont, upon condition that the proprietor should not act upon his known intention of cutting it down.—W.W. 1842.
Wordsworth's "fellow-traveller" was Henry Crabb Robinson (1775–1867). See his Diary, Reminiscences, and Correspondence, ed. Thomas Sadler, Vol. III (London: Macmillan and Co., 1869), pp. 116-117 (Reminiscences, April 26, 1837):
We entered Rome in good spirits. We were driven to the Europa, where, till we procured lodgings, we contented ourselves with two rooms on a third story. Before sunset we took a walk to my favorite haunt, the Pincian Hill, where I was accosted by my name. It was Theed, who informed us of the pine-tree referred to in Wordsworth's poem as the gift of Sir George Beaumont.Theed was the sculptor William Theed (1804-1891). The savior of the pine tree was painter and art patron Sir George Beaumont (1753–1827). Various guide books to Rome state that the pine tree survived, at least until the early 20th century (e.g. Baedeker, 1904).
I am indebted to Eric Thomson for most of the content of this post. | <urn:uuid:b8165cbb-4e54-405a-b686-542c614fbd1f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://laudatortemporisacti.blogspot.com/2010/05/saved-from-sordid-axe.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969533 | 1,140 | 2.078125 | 2 |
The Responsible Investment at Harvard Coalition (RI@Harvard) announed that it has received donations from over 375 student, alumni, and faculty donors totaling nearly $10,000 in just one month. The Fair Harvard Fund initiative aims to incentivize the Harvard Corporation to create a Social Choice Fund managed by the Harvard Management Company as part of the Harvard endowment, according to environmental, social and governance criteria. The following op-ed signifyingthe launch of the Fair Harvard Fund was first published in The Harvard Crimson on March 21, 2012.
Like many Harvard College seniors, the impending prospect of commencement has led us to reflect on the role Harvard has played in our lives. Through four wonderful years in Cambridge, we have been challenged and supported by exceptional professors and inspiring peers. As neurobiology, classics, and social studies concentrators we have found different academic homes, but we all agree Harvard has helped us grow intellectually and personally.
Graduation marks the end of our time as undergraduates, but it also signals the beginning of a lifelong relationship with Harvard as alumni. We humbly acknowledge the generosity of the 361 previous classes in enabling us to attend Harvard, as well as in supporting initiatives like financial aid and residential renovations, and we are forever grateful for it. Indeed, we look forward to receiving the first phone call asking us to pay it forward to a new generation of students.
However, we are concerned there is a disconnect between the principles that drive the research and education activities of Harvard University and those that motivate the investment strategies of the Harvard Management Company. We would hope that Harvard’s investments reflect its mission, “to assume responsibility for the consequences of personal actions ... to advance knowledge, to promote understanding, and to serve society.”
As others have noted, the $32 billion Harvard endowment has recently been linked to several problematic companies and asset pools. It is widely believed that Harvard has recently invested in HEI Hotels, Alpha Natural Resources, and Emergent Investments, which have actively pursued business practices publicly demonstrated as harmful to people and the environment. These are just a few recently identified companies, but given its investment history, it would be naive to think that Harvard does not invest in ethically problematic but financially lucrative sectors including weapons production, environmentally-degrading energy companies, and manufacturing companies paying poverty-level wages. While in recent history students have successfully lobbied the HMC to divest from countries and companies with practices that are anathema to the common values of our community, student protest of singular, publicly divulged investments will invariably have limited impact.
We instead hope to permanently establish a more responsible and transparent way to give back. To enable this, we are launching The Fair Harvard Fund. The Fair Harvard Fund seeks to motivate the Harvard Management Corporation to establish a Social Choice Fund to invest donations in alignment with established environmental, social, and governance criteria. All donations to the FHF will be held in escrow by a student and alumni coalition known as Responsible Investment at Harvard. The fund will be housed at the Cambridge Savings Bank, a locally owned Harvard Square bank, until the HMC creates a Social Choice Fund, at which point we will give the money to Harvard. If the HMC has not created a Social Choice fund by August 1, 2012, the money will be locally invested according to ESG criteria by the Responsible Endowments Coalition, a 501(c)3 non-profit, and responsibly managed until HMC creates such a fund. We hope to follow the success of alternatives such as Brown University’s Social Choice Fund in empowering alumni to be more involved in shaping the investment practices of their alma mater.
While the specific goal of the FHF is the creation of a Social Choice Fund, we recognize that there are other key changes that would allow Harvard to become a leader in socially responsible investment. In line with progress being made by peer institutions like Columbia University and other major investors like the $226 billion CalPERS Pension Fund, we support recommendations that promote investment transparency and strengthen institutional accountability.
In addition to its benefits for donors who seek investment in line with ethical principles, we believe a socially responsible investment option will be financially favorable for Harvard by guaranteeing higher donation rates from past and future alumni. We laud the fact that Senior Gift feeds into the Harvard College Fund, which is not invested, allowing graduating seniors to collectively support current and future students and circumventing concerns about investment practices. However, the donations we make to Harvard as alumni after contributing to the Senior Gift bear no such guarantee, and we cannot in good conscience donate our money blindly; creating the FHF will allow us and many others to continue donating after graduation.
The inscription on Dexter Gate, often invoked at commencement, reads, “Depart to better serve thy country and thy kind.” We hope to begin our lives as Harvard alumni in this spirit by simultaneously supporting our university and using our donations to serve rather than to harm others. We ask that you join us in donating to the Fair Harvard Fund at www.fairharvardfund.com. With your help, we can make a positive contribution to both our university and our world.
Written by: Athena L. Lao ’12 is a classics concentrator in Cabot House. Senan Ebrahim ’12 is a neurobiology concentrator in Quincy House. Lange P. Luntao ’12 is a social studies concentrator in Kirkland House. | <urn:uuid:2d39658b-28f3-4377-abd4-02d57f64c404> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.policymic.com/articles/7814/375-harvard-donors-petition-university-to-invest-responsibly | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949221 | 1,103 | 1.726563 | 2 |
MAX ANDERSON: Roy Lichtenstein created this painting of a woman for the 1964 World’s Fair in New York. Architect Philip Johnson designed one of the fair’s pavilions and invited leading contemporary artists to create works that would hang on the exterior of his building.
Michael Lobel, author of Image Duplicator: Roy Lichtenstein and the Emergence of Pop Art:
MICHAEL LOBEL: When you look at this painting, what you have to understand is that this was a study for a much larger painting. The mural on the façade of the pavilion was in fact 24 by 16 feet, so a large mural. The fair opened in the summer of 1964. As all the World’s Fairs were, this was a celebration of American culture, technological progress and innovation.
MAX ANDERSON: The 1964 World’s Fair featured many works of Pop Art—embracing the movement’s new, bold style and interest in commercial images. Initially, though, Americans struggled to come to terms with the new movement. Many considered advertisements and comic strips as not worthy of being artistic subjects.
MICHAEL LOBEL: In fact, in 1962, reviewing a show of Pop Art, the critic Max Kozloff writes, “the truth is: the art galleries are being invaded by the pinheaded and contemptible style of gum-chewers, bobby-soxers and worse, delinquents.” And this is an index. It shows us the real hostility that Pop was met by in the early 1960s when it first appeared on the art scene.
MAX ANDERSON: At first glance, Lichtenstein’s work may look simple and cartoonish. But as Michael Lobel explains, the artist possessed an extensive and sophisticated understanding of art history.
MICHAEL LOBEL: If you look at the window above the head of the female figure, you see the way in which Lichtenstein is very cleverly and knowingly straddling the world of mechanical reproduction and the kind of language of abstract painting. On the one hand, you see everything that distinguishes his language of pop art—the bold outlines, the screens of regularized dots, the reduced painterly palette, so on one hand, this looks like the way a reflection off a pane of glass would be depicted by a commercial artist or popular illustrator. But at the same time, he’s using these to make almost abstract shapes. In this way, Lichtenstein in his Pop Art is straddling these two worlds and bringing them together—what’s often called the high and low, or high art and popular culture. | <urn:uuid:9bea9687-23c7-490f-b873-609616a6d481> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://whitney.org/Education/ForTeachers/Collection/RoyLichtenstein/2002254/Audio | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952573 | 551 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Security-improving technologies which could be deployed now
Posted Oct 16, 2004 0:39 UTC (Sat) by tres
Parent article: Security-improving technologies which could be deployed now
A Warning to users of Gentoo: there seems to be a problem with using Position Independant Code with X windows. It manifests itself by emmiting the following error when trying to start X:
Duplicate symbol __i686.get_pc_thunk.bx in /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/fonts/libbitmap.a:bitmapmod.o
Also defined in /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/fonts/libbitmap.a
Fatal server error:
Module load failure
The steps to correct the problem are as follows:
USE="-hardened -pie -pic" emerge glibc
USE="-hardened -pie -pic" emerge gcc
USE="-hardened -pie -pic" emerge binutils
USE="-hardened -pie -pic" emerge xorg-x11
I don't know if they are all necessary or not and considering this old machine takes a couple of days to perform those steps I'm not looking into it very much. That problem bit me when I installed the system and again during an update; I have removed "hardened, pic, and pie" from the USE flags until a more detailed explanation of the problem can be found. I did notice that the "-fPIC" flag was enabled for SOME of the files in xorg even after turning it off in both the /etc/make.conf and on the command line as above but X works now and it didn't before. It must be overridden in the Makefiles within X.
Note: Adding --verbose (-v) to emerge will print the options that the package will be emerged with and yes "hardened, pic, and pie" were confirmed to be off before I started and -fPIC was still in a few files.
to post comments) | <urn:uuid:890fb8b9-4f03-42d7-81a3-0808a7adda06> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lwn.net/Articles/106798/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.912523 | 432 | 1.640625 | 2 |
THE REVISED SCHOOL CODE (EXCERPT)
Act 451 of 1976
380.12 Loss of organization and dissolution of school district; attachment of disorganized district to organized school districts; distribution of property; taxation; bonded indebtedness; duties of board of trustees; audit; payment of discrepancy.
(1) A school district shall lose its organization if there are not enough persons in the district qualified under the law to hold district offices or who will accept the offices. Under either condition, the intermediate school board of the intermediate school district to which the district is constituent shall declare the district dissolved and immediately shall attach the territory, in whole or in part, to other organized school districts and make an equitable distribution of the money, property, and other material belonging to the district among the districts to which the territory is attached.
(2) The property of the disorganized district is subject to all increases in the constitutional limitation on taxes which have been voted by the school electors of the district to which it is attached. The disorganized district shall receive a credit in the amount of a levy remaining to be paid on an outstanding debt in the disorganized district, which shall be paid until debt is retired. The disorganized district shall pay an amount equal to the amount levied for debt retirement by the district to which it is attached not to exceed 5 mills on the state equalized valuation in the disorganized district. All other taxes levied for the purposes of the combined school district, including taxes for the retirement of bonded indebtedness, shall be spread over the entire area of the combined district.
(3) A disorganized district having a bonded indebtedness shall be attached in whole to another school district by the intermediate school board. The identity of the district is not lost because of the attachment, and its territory remains as separate assessing unit for the purpose of the bonded indebtedness until the indebtedness is retired or refunded. The board of the district to which the disorganized district is attached shall constitute the board of trustees for the disorganized district having the bonded indebtedness. Its officers shall be the officers for the disorganized district. The board of the district to which the disorganized district is attached shall certify the levy of taxes for bonded indebtedness in the name of the disorganized district, shall not commingle the debt retirement funds of the disorganized district with those of the district to which it is attached, and shall do all things relative to the bonded indebtedness required by law and by the terms under which the issuance and sale of the bonds were originally authorized. All other taxes levied for the purposes of the combined school district, including taxes levied for the retirement of bonded indebtedness, shall be spread over the entire area of the combined school district.
(4) Upon the attachment of a disorganized district to another school district, the intermediate school board shall audit the assets and liabilities of the disorganized district. If a considerable discrepancy is found, the intermediate school board shall order the receiving district to pay the discrepancy. The disorganized district shall repay that amount from moneys available including voted millage within a time to be determined by the intermediate school board.
History: 1976, Act 451, Imd. Eff. Jan. 13, 1977
Popular Name: Act 451
© 2009 Legislative Council, State of Michigan | <urn:uuid:1960fe78-25ad-4b17-a622-13036752e4d7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://legislature.mi.gov/(S(irefyoud0uscqjid4rbcnt3i))/mileg.aspx?page=GetMCLDocument&objectname=mcl-380-12 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960278 | 669 | 2.25 | 2 |
While solar energy proponents, skeptics and pundits were debating the renewable energy source’s future, solar became mainstream.
ABOVE: U.S. Solar 2011 Year in Review in One Graphic via GreenTechMedia.
2011 will likely be judged as the year solar energy came of age, as examples of solar and wind energy developments last year are too numerous to list. Below are a few highlights.
- U.S. Photovoltaic Solar energy installations grew from 152 megawatts of power installed in the first quarter of 2010 to 776 megawatts in the fourth quarter of 2011. Year over year increases were 887 megawatts in 2010 to 1,855 megawatts in 2011 or a growth rate of 209%.
- Solar energy attracted massive investments from big money investors such as Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, KKR, MetLife and John Hancock. These well-known investors claim solid 15% returns from their solar investments. “A solar power project with a long-term sales agreement could be viewed as a machine that generates revenue,” said Marty Klepper, an attorney at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP, which helped arrange a solar deal for Buffett. “It’s an attractive investment for any firm, not just those in energy.”
- General Electric, already a major player in wind energy, broke ground on a $400 million solar panel manufacturing plant in Aurora, Colorado, which will be the largest solar panel manufacturing plant in the nation. GE will be competing with First Solar in CdTe thin film solar technology that has already established the world’s lowest manufacturing cost for solar panels. The entry of GE into thin film can only mean even lower prices for solar and more widespread adoption for residential, commercial and utility scale projects.
- Solar PV panel prices decreased 50% in 2011, resulting in an average 20% drop in total installation costs. The rapid price decline caused business failures for manufacturers introducing new technology and for non-cost competitive companies.
- Solar electric energy grew in all market segments including residential, solar and utility scale.
- California reached a total of one gigawatt of residential solar power. California homeowners’ roofs now generate power equal to one nuclear power plant.
- “With 30-year Treasuries yielding about 3.4 percent, investors are seeking safe places to park their money for years at a higher return. Solar energy fits the bill, with predictable cash flows guaranteed by contract for two decades or more. Those deals may be even more lucrative because many were signed before the cost of solar panels plunged 50 percent last year.”
- Dan Reicher, executive director of Stanford University’s center for energy policy and finance in California, said, “The beauty of solar is once you make the capital investment, you’ve got free fuel and very low operating costs.”
- Renewable energy is cheap today. The following are some key quotes from Climate Progress’s report on the solar market:
The road ahead for solar and wind now seems clear. Prices are falling dramatically; leading financial institutions and manufactures have accepted solar and wind as mainstream industries; the use of fossil fuels continues to decline in energy production; electric power from coal in the U.S. has dropped from 50% to less than 40%; plans for more than 100 new coal fired power plants have been cancelled as retirement of older coal fired facilities has increased; the economics of solar and wind have made renewable energy the fuel of choice.
The transition from mining and burning coal and uranium for electric power to harnessing the free fuel of solar and wind will take a few years to complete, but the outcome is inevitable. Solar and wind will win. | <urn:uuid:4e041077-1b64-4e68-9943-148855174d80> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gosolaraz.tumblr.com/tagged/year-in-review | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944962 | 766 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Jewellers & Silversmiths
47 & 49 High Street Bedford
Photograph provided by Richard Stoodley
When John Bull died in 1870 his two sons decided to pull down the original premises and build the elaborate premises oat 49 High Street, Bedford. The building featured a large projected clock which was adorned by a golden bull. The original bull is now in the museum collection. However, it was such a popular site on Bedford High Street that a fibre-glass replica was built, and can still be seen today.
Here is our Keeper of Social History, Lydia Saul talking about John Bull.
Here is an interview with Richard Stoodley who's father began as apprentice at John Bull in the 1920's and became manager during the 1930's.
Richard describes how his father used to collect the water the gold was washed in and give this to the people of Bedford who believed it had healing properties.
The Higgins Art Gallery & Museum, Bedford | <urn:uuid:dd3985c0-d647-4bab-9fbf-0e994e3a0f7a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bedfordhighstreet.blogspot.com/2011/05/john-bull.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977093 | 194 | 2.28125 | 2 |
The 30-deg. intercept angle met the proper approach course intercept standards required by FAA procedures; however the “129 radial” phraseology is more typically used as part of an ATC instruction related to VORs. The Topeka VOR was located 5 mi. northeast of the airport. The TOP VOR 129 radial was parallel to the localizer back course, but 5.5 nm northeast of it.
Investigators said the Topeka VOR and the TOP 129 radial were not used to define the final approach portion of the localizer back course 31 procedure, but the VOR is used as part of the missed approach procedure. Radar data showed that upon the pilot accepting the approach clearance, the airplane continued on the 340-deg. heading across the localizer back course. The airplane then turned to approximately 309 deg., the inbound heading for the back course localizer procedure on reaching the vicinity of the TOP VOR 129 radial and well north of the final approach course for the localizer.
At that time, the controller noted the pilot's apparent deviation from the localizer procedure and instructed him to fly a heading of 280 deg. “to intercept the 129 radial for the back course.” The heading took the airplane back to the correct final approach course. The pilot intercepted the correct course at POACH, the final approach fix for the approach located 3.9 nm from the runway. The airplane at that time was at 2,900 ft. MSL. The published crossing altitude at POACH was 2,200 ft. The pilot executed the missed approach shortly afterward.
The Safety Board had yet to issue a determination of probable cause as we went to press. Certainly, decision-making, workload considerations and airplane handling will all be factors — in short, all the elements of airmanship regardless of how we define it. | <urn:uuid:60b50850-8f14-4ea1-9d02-06fc8441db38> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/BC_01_01_2013_p56-524136.xml&p=6 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95281 | 373 | 2.015625 | 2 |
|Other names||"the Fair"|
|Titles||Prince of Dol Amroth|
|Birth||T.A. 2955 |
|Rule||T.A. 3010 - Fo.A. 34|
|Death||Fo.A. 34 (aged 100)|
|House||House of Dol Amroth|
|Siblings||Ivriniel and Finduilas|
|Children||Elphir, Erchirion, Amrothos and Lothíriel|
|By Ardamir. (Help; more articles)|
- "That is a fair lord and a great captain of men. If Gondor has such men still in these days of fading, great must have been its glory in the days of its rising."
- ― Legolas, The Last Debate
Imrahil was the twenty-second Prince of Dol Amroth.
Imrahil was the son of Adrahil II. He had two older sisters, Ivriniel and Finduilas. After his father's death, he became Prince in T.A. 3010. Imrahil had four children: Elphir, Erchirion, Amrothos and Lothíriel.
War of the Ring
On 13 March, as Southrons harrassed Faramir, Imrahil and his knights, with Gandalf, formed a sortie, and Imrahil himself saved his sister-son from his pursuers. Faramir received a poisonous wound, and Denethor fell to madness. Being the highest ranking officer in Gondor fit for battle, Imrahil took command, and quickly passed it on to Gandalf.
Two days later, the Battle of the Pelennor Fields raged before the city. Imrahil ventured outside the city, and witnessed the funeral procession of Théoden. He recognized that Éowyn still lived (though she lie an inch from death), and brought her to the Houses of Healing.
Because Éomer and his riders were outnumbered, Imrahil rode into battle, together with Húrin the Tall, Forlong of Lossarnach and Hirluin the Fair, and they were soon joined by Aragorn who landed at Harlond. Imrahil continued East, driving the frightened Variags and orcs away.
Imrahil survived the battle unscathed, and together with Éomer and Aragorn he came to the gates of Minas Tirith. Imrahil recognized that Aragorn was the rightful King, but he agreed that it was wise for Aragorn to wait to enter the city, because he knew Denethor was strong-willed and proud.
When Imrahil learned that Denethor was dead and Faramir dying, he suggested that Aragorn be summoned, remembering that the Kings of old were great healers. Aragorn came at Gandalf's request to heal the wounded Faramir, Éowyn, and Merry, but he declared that Prince Imrahil should rule the City until Faramir awoke, in effect granting Imrahil the position of Steward.
During the debate of the Captains of the West, Gandalf proposed that they march to the Morannon to distract Sauron's attention from Frodo the Ring-bearer. Imrahil said that he would follow his liege Aragorn, but since Minas Tirith was under his command the Prince advised that some should remain to defend the City. In the end it was decided that an army of 7,000 would ride forth. Imrahil laughed at the thought.
The Host of the West left Minas Tirith on 18 March. Bypassing Minas Morgul and marching North, the heralds announced the coming of King Elessar at Imrahil's advice. When Sauron's forces emerged from the Black Gate on March 25, Imrahil stood on the front line with his men. They fought the Battle of the Morannon until the One Ring was destroyed.
Prince Imrahil was present at the celebrations of the field of Cormallen, and the coronation of Aragorn as King Elessar, and rode with the funeral procession of King Théoden to Rohan, remaining in Edoras after the King's burial on August 10. Imrahil and Éomer became great friends, and in Fo.A. 2 Éomer wed Imrahil's daughter Lothíriel.
After the War of the Ring, Prince Imrahil and his nephew Faramir, Prince of Ithilien, were King Elessar's chief commanders. Imrahil was also part of the Great Council of Gondor, and remained an advisor of the King.
The second element -hil (also seen in the name Adrahil) perhaps is related to the Westron ending -kil (cf. banakil, Tarkil) meaning possibly "person" or "man", and perhaps ultimately related to Elvish "follower" (KHIL).[source?]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Peoples of Middle-earth, "The Heirs of Elendil", The Line of Dol Amroth, p. 221
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King, "Minas Tirith"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King, "The Battle of the Pelennor Fields"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King, "The Last Debate"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 244, (undated, written circa 1963)
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Appendix E
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Lost Road and Other Writings, "Part Three: The Etymologies", p. 364
- ↑ Carl F. Hostetter, Patrick Wynne, "An Adunaic Dictionary", published in Vinyar Tengwar 25 (September 1992)
|22nd Prince of Dol Amroth
T.A. 3010 - Fo.A. 34 | <urn:uuid:2c0786ac-0d7e-40da-85e9-c38cb3e4f9c0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=Imrahil&oldid=192029 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933315 | 1,361 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Fourth-grade teachers at Lookout Mountain Elementary School in Chattanooga, Tenn., have implemented an informal writing program, EarthWrite, which they say encourages wonder and inspiration in the outdoors. According to teachers Susan Frankenberg and Cindy Jayne, the response of their students to EarthWrite is nothing short of remarkable...
Read more about EarthWrite at: http://www.youroutdoorfamily.com.…Continue
Posted on June 9, 2012 at 8:30am
Posted on April 29, 2012 at 10:23am
“Hands-on experience at the critical time, not systematic knowledge, is what counts in the making of a naturalist. Better to…Continue
Posted on March 22, 2012 at 10:23am
The Tennessee Aquarium recently hosted author, blogger and naturalist David Mizejewski – the voice of the National Wildlife Federation – in Chattanooga to promote the benefits of outdoor play and environment-based activities such as the aquarium’s Spring Break Keeper Kids program.…
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 6:47am | <urn:uuid:b689906f-a5ac-41e0-8fd0-c596a84190cd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://childrenandnature.ning.com/profile/JenniVeal?xg_source=activity | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934604 | 217 | 2.1875 | 2 |
News News of Radio Prague
- The Civic Democrats have said that if Czechs vote to join the European Union in a forthcoming referendum, it should be followed by a second referendum on the planned new EU constitution.
- A large demonstration against government cutbacks will be held in the centre of Prague in the week after the EU referendum, union leaders said on Monday.
- Three Czech environmental organisations have filed a complaint against a motorway planned for north Bohemia with the European Commission.
Civic Democrats for second referendum on EU constitution
The opposition Civic Democrats have said that if Czechs vote to join the European Union in a forthcoming referendum, it should be followed by a second referendum on the planned new EU constitution. Deputy leader Jan Zahradil said on Monday the Civic Democrats would recommend voting against the EU constitution in a referendum, if they considered it excessively federalist. The EU's first constitution is currently being debated by the European Convention. The Czech Republic will join the union next May if voters say "yes" on June 13 and 14.
Workers to demonstrate in Prague against government cutbacks
The week after the referendum a large demonstration against cutbacks announced by the government will be held in the centre of Prague, trade union leaders said on Monday. Groups representing teachers, doctors and other health workers have threatened strike action if the planned cutbacks go ahead. Meanwhile, farmers are to stage a protest in the north Moravian city of Olomouc on Wednesday. They say bad weather and low prices for their produce have left many farmers on the verge of bankruptcy.
Environmentalists take motorway complaint to European Commission
Three Czech environmental organisations have filed a complaint against a planned motorway with the European Commission. The groups say the D8 motorway could cause serious damage to the environment in the Krusne hory mountains in north Bohemia. For their part, police in the region have called for the motorway to be built as soon as possible in order to deal with severe traffic delays.
Jakes collapses at trial of other former communist official
Former top communist Milos Jakes collapsed in a Prague court on Monday while giving evidence at the trial of another party official. Mr Jakes, secretary-general of the Communist Party from 1985 to 1989, was testifying in the case of Karel Hoffman, accused of treason for his part in the silencing of radio broadcasts during the 1968 Soviet-led invasion. Mr Hoffman's trial follows the acquittal last September of Mr Jakes and former prime minister Jozef Lenart on charges related to the 1968 invasion.
Police recommend charges against TV journalist over fracas
Police have recommended that the state attorney file charges against Czech TV journalist Marek Wollner for attacking the public broadcaster's former general director, Jiri Balvin. The alleged incident occurred after a TV awards show in February. Mr Wollner is currently suspended from appearing on Czech TV.
Man charged with shooting driver who caught him stealing diesel
Police have arrested a man who they suspect of shooting dead a lorry driver when the driver caught him stealing diesel from his truck. The incident occurred in Luzne u Rakovnika, central Bohemia, on Thursday and the suspect was arrested a day later. The truck driver, who was 30, had apparently had diesel stolen from his truck on several occasions.
Tuesday should be sunny in most parts of the country, with the possibility of some rain or storms. The maximum temperature will be 28 degrees Celsius. | <urn:uuid:732c1610-85fd-4956-bf93-a4129aaeedb8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.radio.cz/en/section/news/news-of-radio-prague-830 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967057 | 704 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Losing your job can give you a heart attack – quite literally.
Duke University researchers have found that unemployment significantly raises the risk of a heart attack. And that risk goes up with each job loss and with increasing time spent unemployed, according to a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
In fact, one job loss raised the risk of a heart attack by 35 percent, while four job losses raised the risk by 63 percent. The unemployed were at greatest risk of a heart attack within the year following a layoff or firing.
“Looking at a lifetime of exposure to a social stressor such as unemployment – the number of times a person has lost a job or the amount of time they’re without a job – there’s an independent association with heart attacks,” says the study’s lead author Matthew E. Dupre, an assistant professor of at Duke and a senior fellow at the university’s Center for the Study of Aging.
Dupre says he and his colleagues were somewhat surprised by their results, since they took into account known and suspected risk factors, like high blood pressure and loss of health insurance.
“The fact that the associations remained largely unchanged despite accounting for more than a dozen suspected risk factors was somewhat unexpected,” he says. “Changes in income, health insurance, health behaviors, physical health status, and the like had little impact on the risks related to unemployment. Instead, we found that the risks associated with multiple job losses were of the magnitude of other established risk factors, such as smoking, hypertension, and diabetes.”
For the new study, the researchers scrutinized the health and work histories of 13,451 adults aged 51 to 64. Detailed histories covered a full 18 years, during which study volunteers suffered a total of 1061 heart attacks.
At the outset, 14 percent of the volunteers were unemployed. During the course of the study 69.7 percent lost one or more jobs.
Heart experts said that the study adds to the mounting evidence that certain kinds of stressors can ramp up the risk of a cardiovascular event.
“This is adding to what we know with regards to the triggers of cardiovascular events,” says Dr. John Schindler, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. “Many years ago we thought of this as a random process. Now we see there are real triggers, whether environmental or perceived stress.”
Recent studies have turned up numerous emotional triggers, including frustration, depression, and anxiety, Schindler says. “And all of those go along with unemployment,” he adds.
So, what is it about job loss that might raise the risk of a heart attack?
“There are likely multiple mechanisms which link significant socioeconomic stress, including becoming unemployed, to an increased risk of cardiovascular events,” says Dr. Eliot Corday Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine and Science at the University of California, Los Angeles, Eliot Corday Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine and Science at the University of California, Los Angeles, and co-director of the UCLA preventive cardiology program. “These include sustained activation of the part of the nervous system involved with stress and stress-related hormones, decrements in heart healthy behaviors, avoiding preventive health visits and measures, and not seeking prompt medical attention when there are early warning signs.”
What the study shows, experts say, is that you need to pay extra attention to your heart in times of stress, such as job loss.
“My conclusion is that we should always be focused on our hearts since cardiovascular disease is potentially such a potentially deadly disease,” Schindler says. “But since we’re at greater risk the first year we lose a job, at that time we should be even more diligent about cardiovascular health.”
Future research could examine whether emotional support could help reduce risk.
“Whether the cardiovascular risk related to unemployment and multiple job losses could also be reduced by psychological support or enhanced social resources will require further study,” Fonarow says.
More from NBCNews.com health: | <urn:uuid:d90a75d6-2f8a-476b-bf15-aba88d1c8a47> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/19/15285074-losing-your-job-increases-heart-attack-risk?chromedomain=todayhealth | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96062 | 852 | 2.25 | 2 |
As we grow up, we also learn that there is a good reason for changing our behaviour (mask) depending on situation we are in. I suppose, it is one of the talents of human race for which we can only be grateful for, as there is no way we will make it through without it. In the same body we are many different people with different missions to accomplish: to be a respected and inspirational leader at work, loving husband and dad at home, fun and supportive as a friend in the pub, or to be honest to ourselves…..
|Masks - picture source|
On one side it is quite obvious that the ability to switch between our masks makes us more or less skilled in what we do; successful; happy….?!? Nevertheless it is the same, switching between our masks what makes us exhausted, and making us to burn out.
How often we wish to bring our real "I" into conversation but being aware of potential damage we all back off (most of the time, anyway). Some might say that makes us civilised. Switching different modes throughout the day can also be seen as creative way of living our lives, where our personalities get a chance to exercise what they are best in. We all want a job which will be fun and fulfilling our expectations. While reality of our success is different we will always do our best to get closer and closer to our dream job (even if we don’t know what it is).
Taking emotional labour such as costumers' facing staff as an example, there is a monotone list of dos and donts no matter what organisation you are in. And just to make it worse, every employer will tell you to leave your private life at home (although few are starting to realise that actually caring about people makes sense in the long run and that “H” in “HR” means something too).
The point I am trying to make is that it is not the matter of our choice but rather survival technique which brings us to learn how to wear different masks in different situations. Going even more philosophical we could say that we are all trying to survive by wearing as many masks as necessary while praying for this being as few as possible.
So what is my ultimate goal? The ideal would be waking up as Peter, making business with others as Peter, meeting friends and family as Peter and most of all being appreciated by all for being no one else than Peter.
I know I should probably wake up now…right?
…..I am just saying.
I am asking then. Is Mask a Must? and How good are we actually in hiding our real "I"? | <urn:uuid:01b3da66-f655-40d7-9e04-4d9d3190bb3f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hrbeginner.blogspot.com/2011/03/mask-is-must-or-is-it.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977461 | 542 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Scales and mealybugs are common insect pests on houseplants. They are a real nuisance and have an interesting life cycle. The stage that hatches from an egg is called the nymph. Scale and mealybug nymphs are tiny, 1/32 1/16 inches long, and they start out with legs and antennae. They molt in a week or so, shedding their legs and antennae and park themselves in one spot by inserting their mouth like a siphon into the host plant. They will spend their lives drinking the plants fluids through this straw-like mouthpart. Mealybugs begin to form their protective covering after their first molt. It is a sticky, waxy, cottony-like substance that protects them from predators and the elements. Scale insects form a similar protective covering, but theirs is more like a shell, usually smooth in appearance. Often scale insects look like part of the plant and the best way to tell if the bumps you see are indeed scales is to scrape them gently with a fingernail or dull knife. If the shell comes off, you know its a scale. If you end up scraping off part of the plant tissue, then it was some sort of warty bump or natural part of the plant. Eventually, the males will mature and form wings so they can fly short distances to find females, but the female scales never move after their first molt. Mealybugs move very slowly, if at all. During that first stage, the nymphs are called crawlers, and this is when they are the most vulnerable. Soon they form the protective covering that protects them from predators and insecticides. We've been getting calls lately from people whose plants are infested with scales or mealybugs. Often the first way you notice you have a problem is you see shiny patches on the floor beneath your plant or on the lower leaves of the plant. Some of the most frequently infested houseplants are the smooth-leaved plants such as schefflera, weeping fig, citrus and spider plant. When you see these shiny, sticky patches look up, and chances are youll find scales or mealybugs. These insects drink the plant fluids, which they then excrete in the form of a sticky, sweet honeydew which drips onto any surface below. Sometimes you will see black fuzz growing on these sticky patches, but that is no problem. It is sooty mold that feeds on the sugar content of the honeydew. Once the honeydew is gone, the sooty mold will be gone, too. Both scales and mealybugs are very difficult to completely control. Their protective coverings help them resist gentle washings and, even if you resort to using insecticides, they are quite resistant to them. When an infestation is severe, I usually ask the person how valuable is the plant. Often the best solution is to start over, either with a brand new plant, or with cuttings taken from the original plant which are carefully cleaned of any lingering pests. I realize this may not be the easy answer people are hoping for, but it is the most practical. | <urn:uuid:001563f9-b729-4e5a-9b2e-b6ff211dba95> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.denpubs.com/news/2008/jan/19/common-houseplant-pests/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957332 | 644 | 3.53125 | 4 |
Legislative body: That is what the United States Senate and House of Representatives are. The legislators who make up this body are now trying to pay for the debts that their predecessors created.
When the bills came due, instead of raising funds to pay these debts, they skimmed money from commitments and programs and passed some onto the states. Now we are at a point where borrowing money is an obvious and foolish thing to do, so instead of the legislators taking legislative responsibility for their own mess, they have decided to take from anyone they can as long as it is not themselves or those who support their re-election.
This attitude of “someone else can deal with this later” is what has caused the meltdown we are now in. Own up to your responsibility, people. The problem is inside the Beltway around Washington, D.C., not outside.
— PAUL FREEMAN | <urn:uuid:5d4ff675-868a-429d-a906-7614c5704f77> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nwfdailynews.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/letter-take-responsibility-1.94601 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975695 | 183 | 1.554688 | 2 |
The World is Not Enough?
May 12, 2011
Religious people remain astounded by the notion that the world wasn't made for us. Why isn't the world a world enough?
Believers still search the world and scan the skies for signs of a creator's loving hand. But they keep seeing things that aren't really there.
There is a peculiar kind of deception causing the problem here. There's plenty to see out there in nature -- and religion makes people see way too much that isn't really there. Religious people earnestly want to see signs of design, and so they do manage to "see" those signs in their ignorance.
Religion is full of this kind of ignorance responsible for seeing illusions of design. It is rampant in contemporary denials of natural evolution. It is rampant in theological demands that only a God could cause the big bang origin of our universe. But an illustration of this illusion doesn't require intricacies of genetics or cosmology -- just an easier example can illustrate what is going on here in believers' minds.
Let’s hear from William Leitch, Presbyterian minister and the president of Queen’s College in Canada. He admired science and astronomy, and he published some natural theology himself. His popular book was called God’s Glory in the Heavens, or, Contributions to Theology and it was published in 1862. Leitch talks about how the observation of the strange paths of comets in the sky helped to destroy Medieval astronomy and its theological dogma that heavenly bodies track perfect orderly circles. But Leitch knew very little about comets. He still thought that he could perceive God’s hand in comets:
“The constitution of comets viewed in connexion with the arrangement of the solar system strikingly illustrates the wisdom of God. Were comets not composed of such attenuated matter, the stability of the solar system would be destroyed and life would soon be impossible on our globe. The stability depends on all the principal bodies being confined nearly to one plane but the comets move in every possible plane and hence if they were possessed of a planetary density they would fatally disturb the equilibrium of the system. The motion of comets would interfere similarly with the regular motion of the planets did they move in the same plane and when we consider the thousands of comets that are constantly sweeping across the solar system the chance of collision would be by no means inconsiderable.” (pp. 173)
Well, we know better. We don’t observe many large comets now threatening Earth because the big comets had mostly crashed into Earth and the other planets billions of years ago when the solar system was younger. There still are plenty of comets out there, and the rare collision with Earth is capable of destroying most life including our species. We happen to now flourish on the Earth during a period of relative calm in the astronomical neighborhood, but that calm could end at any moment. The idea that God took a hand in designing the paths of comets so carefully to protect humanity now just looks silly. Only ignorance of the solar system's real history could permit any "observation" of its careful design.
So many things about the world or our whole universe still look like "signs" of a creator's careful hand to faithful believers. But it's only "faith goggles" that are doing the work, not any sort of genuine knowledge. Don't let any believer tell you about any "evidence" for God; its not even a debatable matter.
#1 Bruce Gorton on Friday May 13, 2011 at 2:05am
The world is not enough, but its such a perfect place to start…
#2 Pau (Guest) on Friday May 13, 2011 at 3:03am
Gorton, do you really find earth a perfect place? I rather see it as a place full of errors, disgraces and suffering. Whoever made it, sure was a blunderer!
#3 Bruce Gorton on Friday May 13, 2011 at 3:07am
Its a Bond reference.
#4 Eric Charles on Friday May 13, 2011 at 5:30pm
The irony is that Leitch is right about almost all of what he said. In fact, life as we know it would not work out well if the comets had planetary density, etc. He is just wrong about the explanation for such a fortuitous set of circumstances. We have fortuitous circumstances now, because (as John points out) really bad stuff (from the perspective of life) happened for millennia. He is also wrong that really bad stuff won’t happen at some point in the future. So, this is another case in which the descriptive content of the theological observations is correct, its just that the explanation doesn’t hold up.
#5 gray1 on Friday May 13, 2011 at 9:05pm
Apparently there are the heavens and then there are the heavens, and never the twain shall meet. | <urn:uuid:14c3c860-397b-48b0-b34e-7294db4a7de0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.centerforinquiry.net/blogs/show/the_world_is_not_enough/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965959 | 1,021 | 2.28125 | 2 |
Oil Spill News
An oil spill occurs when a vehicle, vessel, pipeline or drilling rig releases petroleum products into the environment uncontrollably. The first major oil spill on record happened when the Thomas W. Lawson schooner became beached in the Isles of Scilly in 1907, spilling 58,000 barrels of paraffin oil into the sea.
Oil spills can pose grave dangers to surrounding ecosystems. As oil floats on water, it blocks sunlight from getting through to plants and other wildlife below. The substance is also toxic and nullifies the waterproofing and insulating properties of feathers and fur, allowing it to kill animals via poisoning or hypothermia. And oil spills can impede private and commercial fishing, too, spurring economic problems.
Humans have taken a variety of measures to clean up oil spills, but a perfect method has yet to be found. A common first step is to set up floating booms to contain the loose oil, and then pump it up for storage. Chemical dispersants can break up oil into smaller, dispersible droplets, although they can also make oil more toxic. When oil spills reach shorelines, standard cleaning procedures involve a combination of manpower, construction equipment and vacuums. (Photo: Shutterstock) | <urn:uuid:4b6b93f7-8eb8-44d4-9996-f555960a1ca3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mnn.com/eco-glossary/oil-spill?page=5 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930043 | 252 | 3.734375 | 4 |
There are a wide range of illegal activities which occur on the Internet. Illegal activity is divided into two different types:
- Criminally illegal activity which is investigated and prosecuted by Law Enforcement Agencies
- Civil illegal activity which can be prosecuted by a wide range of civilian bodies.
INHOPE focusses on responding to criminally illegal content and activity.
To achieve an understanding of what we can do to address this, it is worthwhile highlighting the different types of illegal content commonly found on the Internet. Click in the links below for more information:-
To report suspected child sexual abuse images on the internet click here | <urn:uuid:9796d943-c8e5-4341-8873-0ba3be7d39df> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.inhope.org/gns/internet-concerns/overview-of-the-problem/illegal-content.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949493 | 124 | 1.671875 | 2 |
By SANDY SHORE, Associated Press
The price of oil rose Wednesday on new concerns about possible supply disruptions in the Middle East after Israel launched airstrikes in Gaza.
Benchmark oil rose 94 cents to finish at $86.32 per barrel in New York. Brent crude, used to price international varieties of oil, rose $1.14 to $108.48 per barrel in London.
Israeli leaders said the airstrikes, which killed a Hamas military commander, were the start of a broad operation in response to days of heavy rocket fire from militants in the neighboring Palestinian territory.
Meanwhile global economic issues and the "fiscal cliff" in the U.S. are still in focus. Unless President Barack Obama and Congress reach a compromise, a series of expiring tax cuts and broad spending cuts will take effect in January, seriously impacting the world's largest economy.
Elsewhere official figures showed industrial production dropped 2.5 percent in September in the 17 countries that use the euro as currency. It was the largest monthly decline since January 2009.
Slower economic growth means less demand for energy products such as gasoline, heating oil and natural gas.
"The market is really kind of torn right now on the next direction," Price Futures Group oil analyst Phil Flynn said. "Everyone is waiting around to see if we're going to go over the 'fiscal cliff.'"
At the pump, the national average for gasoline was virtually unchanged at $3.44 per gallon, according to AAA, Wright Express and the Oil Price Information Service. That's about 34 cents less than a month ago and nearly 3 cents more than a year ago.
Among other energy futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange:
— Heating oil rose 2.74 cents to end at $2.9882 per gallon.
— Gasoline futures rose 2.52 cents to end at $2.679 per gallon.
— Natural gas rose 2.1 cents to end at $3.76 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | <urn:uuid:87e9f484-8be6-481e-a075-f7978103fc44> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2012/11/14/oil-falls-as-iea-predicts-demand-growth-will-slow | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931405 | 433 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Ten inspiring black men in Detroit are set to receive a total of $200,000 to further their work in the city.
Black Male Engagement (BME), a project of the Knight and Open Society Foundations with branches in Detroit and Philadelphia, announced its Leadership Award grant winners Monday. Twenty men, 10 in Detroit and 10 in Philadelphia, will receive grants from $5,000 to $40,000 for community projects.
BME (pronounced "be me") launched in August. The initiative offers support and positive reinforcement to black men who are active in their communities, as well as a social network for these men to discuss ideas and experiences. Some 1,065 Detroiters have shared their stories through videos on the organization's website.
Detroit's leadership award winners include a mentor, a lawyer, former prisoners who now teach literacy and media skills, an LGBT rights activist, entrepreneurs, and one Comeback Kid.
"The 10 BME winners and broader community exemplify Knight Foundation's vision for an informed and engaged Detroit: leaders who make it easier for others to lead," said Rishi Jaitly, Detroit project director for the foundation, in an email to HuffPost.
"There is no cavalry coming to save the day in black communities in America. The answers we're looking for reside right within the hearts, hands and heads of community residents," said Shawn Dove, campaign manager of the Open Society Foundation's Campaign for Black Male Achievement, in a release. "BME recognizes black men and boys as assets to the community, not as problems to be solved, and we're thrilled to be a partner in this strategy."
Detroit's BME winners already may be familiar local figures thanks to their community work. Now, with funding up to $40,000, they'll be able to significantly raise the profiles of their new projects and the communities they serve.
Check out the Detroit BME winners and watch their video statements below. For the Philadelphia winners, head here.
Knight Foundation supports transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts. We believe that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org. | <urn:uuid:58e00f73-3db0-48bf-9898-913378f548b1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://knightfoundation.org/press-room/press-mention/black-male-engagements-detroit-grant-winners-annou/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954772 | 453 | 1.5625 | 2 |
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Battersea and the snow dogs
Our canine residents have been making the most of Britain's blizzard by leaving lots of pawprints in the snow which is currently covering our three sites.
- 21 January 2013
- Battersea Dogs & Cats Home
Many of the 450 dogs at Battersea have had their first taste of snow today, such as six month old Staffordshire Bull Terrier cross Hudson (pictured), who arrived at the Home as his owners could no longer care for him. Like Hudson, many of our dogs being walked will be wrapped up in handmade knitted pullovers sent in by the charity’s supporters to help keep them warm.
We have been caring for dogs and cats for over 151 years and take in around 9,000 animals a year. We're working hard to keep all of our dogs and cats warm in the big freeze by ensuring that there are lots of warm blankets in kennels. The smallest dogs are given the warmest kennels and dogs who are recovering in the clinic have special heaters to keep them warm. Battersea cats have heated beds to curl up on in the cattery and our volunteers are spending time with the animals keeping them active or cuddling them.
We're reminding people to take extra care of their pets during the cold weather and offering the following advice:
- If your dog has a fine coat, for example a Greyhound or Staffordshire Bull Terrier, put a dog coat on them when you take them out to help keep them warm.
- Salt and grit from roads and pavements can get in-between your dog’s paws so at the end of a walk, make sure you clean their paws.
- Even though you might love the snow, it can be a new and strange thing for your dog so make sure you take it slowly with them if they are not used to it.
- If your dog gets wet and muddy out on a walk, make sure you dry it off when you get home.
- If you can’t take your dog out for a walk or it doesn’t want to go out in the snow, make sure you provide it with plenty of stimulating games to play indoors.
- In snowy conditions visibility can be reduced, so make sure your dog has good recall as it won’t be as easy to see where it is.
- If your dog has long hair, check their paws regularly when out on walks to make sure there's no snow compacted between their toes and dry them properly when you get home.
Carlton Spears, Battersea Operations Manager says: “Some dogs love playing in the snow but not all of our four-legged friends enjoy it. Here at Battersea we take extra care when taking our dogs out and about and it’s important to be extra vigilant with your pets this time of year as like us, they can feel the chill." | <urn:uuid:c3fbea21-85c6-4dd2-84e2-86023139f9c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.battersea.org.uk/about_us/whats_new/battersea_snow.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962021 | 619 | 2.078125 | 2 |
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FEATURE ARTICLE - MAY/JUNE 2007
The Case for Electric Bicycles
Save on the expense of a second car and curb your emissions with the latest generation of "human-electric hybrid" bikes.
Andrew Gondzur of St. Louis, Missouri, used to ride his bike about four times a year—until last month, when he found himself choosing his bike instead of his car to run errands at least three times a week. What changed? Andrew installed a kit that added a rechargeable electric motor to his old bike. He still usually pedals his bike, but with a twist of the handlebar, he can get a bit of motorized help.
“I can go farther and faster than I would if I were just pedaling,” he says, which is why Andrew now takes his bike, not his car, to the post office, the library, his children’s schools, and the grocery store. “Why take 5,000 pounds of car and burn expensive gas to get one thing you forgot at the supermarket? Now I leave my car at home.”
If, like most Americans, you find yourself hopping in your car to drive down the street and around the corner, consider one alternative: “zooming” your way there instead on a quiet and speedy pedal assisted electric bike. Though you may balk at regularly biking more than a mile or two, summer is the perfect time to consider a bike with a little electric “oomph”—a green alternative to driving that doesn’t require you to travel entirely on your own foot or pedal power.
Consumers looking to leave the car at home—or forego a second car—can now find a new generation of “person-assisted” electrified conventional bikes and recumbant bikes (where the rider reclines while pedaling). These vehicles offer a transportation solution that’s far preferable to going by car: they save gas money, run quietly, reduce pollution and global warming emissions—and riding them is fun.
Is it Right for You?
Curious if an electric bike might be a good solution for you? Try taking a transportation audit, noting over a single week how many times you jump into your car to go only a few miles roundtrip. If you’re like most Americans, 40 percent of all car trips are less than two miles away, according to the League of American Bicyclists, and many of these trips may be bikeable.
Hopping into the car for these short trips to work, the playground, and the supermarket may not seem like a decision with a big impact, but all of those car miles add up. Cars emit the heat-trapping greenhouse gases that cause climate change, as well as pollutants such as nitrogen oxide, sulfur oxide, and ground-level ozone, which contribute to acid rain, smog, and health problems. In fact, short trips by car can actually be more polluting per mile than long trips, because pollution is highest in the first few minutes of driving, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation. Cutting a four mile trip out of your schedule each weekday can reduce your global warming pollution by more than 1,200 pounds a year, estimates Environmental Defense.
And as gas prices continue to rise, the cost of short trips by car is steep—just fueling a round-trip commute to a job five miles away every weekday for a year can cost $300 or more just for fuel, not including parking fees and any additional fuel used for after-work errands and weekend driving.
How They Work
Motorized bikes, sometimes called “power- assisted vehicles,” “human-electric hybrids,” or “pedelecs” (for “pedal electric” cycles) combine the driver’s pedaling with a motorized assist from a rechargeable electric battery, which can be plugged into any standard outlet. This is in contrast to mopeds or motorcycles, which run on gas and have combustion engines like those in cars, and also in contrast to other types of electric bikes and scooters that run entirely on electricity without any pedal power from the rider.
These vehicles often look just like conventional bikes, and some are even converted from conventional bikes. The motor is sometimes attached to the frame, or in some cases hidden away discretely within the frame.
With some pedaled e-bikes, the rider turns the electric assistance on or off using a toggle or a twist of the handlebar, and can choose an entirely electric ride, an entirely pedaled ride, or a ride combining electric with pedal power.
With a “pedelec,” on the other hand, the rider just gets on, pedals, and switches gears when needed, as if riding a standard non-electric bike. A computerized sensor combines force from the battery seamlessly with the rider’s own pedal power, and gives the biggest “push” when the rider needs it most: usually in kicking off initially and in surmounting hills. At higher speeds, when the rider’s own pedaling has the bike cruising at a fast and steady pace, the battery-powered motor’s contribution can drop out almost to zero. With most human-electric hybrid cycles, you can also choose to ride the bicycles as a regular non-electric bike for extra exercise.
For all types, the motor and battery itself can add a little bit of weight to the bike, around 20 pounds—roughly comparable to adding a couple of textbooks to your backpack.
Electric bikes can go anywhere from 20–50 miles between charges. They are generally classified by law as “low-speed electric bicycles,” because they tend to go about 20–25 miles an hour. They don’t require a license plate or vehicle insurance in most states, but check the rules for where you live. And because they’re electric rather than combustion-powered, a trip on these motorized bikes is quiet—quiet enough to hear the birds singing on the way to wherever you’re going.
Drivers of these vehicles value the motorized boost that helps them more easily pedal up daunting hills, get home with groceries or other heavy loads, pedal a small child to school in a child seat or wheeled trailer, and commute to work in dress clothes without breaking a sweat. And for short trips, riding an electric bike can be faster than driving a car, especially because you won’t get stuck in traffic or can head for the bike rack by the door rather than driving around seeking parking. And drivers of motorized bikes still get exercise from pedaling, albeit with a little electric help—so these bikes offer more exercise than driving that’s a little less strenuous than pedaling a conventional bike.
Greener Than a Second Car
Compared to taking a car or some other gas-powered vehicle, these human-powered vehicles with electric assist travel completely clean, with no carbon dioxide emissions or other pollutants.
Even when you factor in the pollution that might have been used to generate the energy to charge your vehicle, electric bikes are only one-tenth as polluting as driving a car the same distance, according to Electric-Bikes.com.
Many users of motorized bikes also find that they save a bundle on gas and parking—offsetting the cost of the vehicle over time. And in some families, an electric bike can make it unnecessary to purchase a second car and the associated insurance, easily a $10-20,000 savings.
Hauling Stuff on Your Bike
Sometimes the “luggage problem” of getting heavy things home by bike can be so daunting that would-be riders choose cars instead. Having the capacity for an electric assist from a motorized bicycle can help to address that problem. In addition to side baskets or saddle bags, you can also find bike attachments designed to haul the extra-heavy weight of furniture, instruments, and even construction supplies—like the “Sports Utility Bike” accessories from XtraCycle.
The scooters and bikes available today vary in quality, warns Chip Gribben at ScooterWerks, an electric bike and scooter repair shop in Laurel, Maryland. He encourages customers to purchase electric bikes at retail stores that will service them. If you buy online, choose a company that guarantees it will provide spare parts if the bike needs repairs.
Also, customers who shop with both people and the planet in mind may have trouble learning much about how some of these bikes were manufactured, says Tish Kashani, the screening manager for Green America’s Green Business Network™. “I hope in time that more and more manufacturers of ‘green bikes’ will provide their customers with information about where the products are made and under what conditions,” she says. “Then these vehicles will truly be a win-win-win—for the pocketbook, for people, and for the planet.”
For the Future
Electric bikes hold out the prospect of helping get cars off the road and reducing emissions, pollution, and gas use. In addition to the financial and environmental benefits, electric bike owners are quick to add that riding these vehicles is fun—and they get “thumbs up” and other encouragement from neighbors as they go by.
Andrew Gondzur says his children don’t miss carpool—they’re thrilled to be taken to school in a rolling trailer on the back of his motorized bike. “They love it,” he says. “They sit back there and yell, ‘faster! faster!’”
Leading Motorized Bike and Conversion Kit Retailers:
• Currie Technologies, "IZIP" bikes, 818/734-8123.
• Dimension Edge, retro-fit kit for any bike, 800/652-8495.
• Gaiam/Real Goods, "Urban Mover" bikes, 877/989-6321.
• Lightfoot Cycles, 406/821-4750.
• Scooter Commuter, "Ebiko" bike, 301/512-0340.
• Schwinn, "Continental," "GSE," and "Campus" bikes, 800/666-8813.
Solar Charger Retailers:
You will need to discuss the specifications of a particular bike battery to finda solar charger with a re-charge time that's consistent with your needs and the sunlight where you live.
• Gaiam/Real Goods, Custom solar chargers, 877/989-6321.
• Cycle Safe, Solar bike lockers, 888/950-6531.
• Solar-Shell, Solar bike lockers, 800/245-3723.
• E-V Sunny Solar, Solar bike wheels, 800/567-9926.
• Better World Club, The green alternative to AAA, providing the nation's only 24-hour roadside assistance service for bicycles, as well as cars. 866/238-1137.
• Xtra Cycle, Offers accessories for turning your bike, electric or otherwise, into a cargo hauler. , 888/537-1401. | <urn:uuid:ca793322-85ef-4452-8598-6299361a0e2a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.greenamerica.org/livinggreen/ElectricBikes.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948137 | 2,354 | 2.4375 | 2 |
ABU DHABI // The war against Somali piracy must be fought on two fronts: battling the country's pirates, and feeding its people.
That was the view of envoys from seven countries whose citizens have been held by Somali pirates.
The diplomats from Italy, the Seychelles, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Tanzania and Thailand were in Abu Dhabi yesterday to discuss ways to end piracy.
They broadly agreed the keys were military action, restoring law and order, and increasing aid.
"Yes, we must get rid of the bases of pirates to avoid attacks but the international community cannot rely only on a military option," said Giorgio Starace, the Italian Ambassador to the UAE.
"There must be economic and social change linked to Somalia's recovery. Aid is not only for times of emergency. We need more engagement."
Somali pirates cost governments and the shipping industry up to US$6.9 billion (Dh25.35bn) last year, the advocacy group One Earth Future Foundation says.
The diplomats mapped out a range of measures to cooperate against piracy.
Pirate attacks and ransom demands are common off Somalia's coast because of its proximity to the Gulf of Aden, a shipping route through which 20 per cent of world trade passes.
This week, the European Union Naval Force conducted its first operation to destroy pirate equipment on the Somali coast, with the support of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia. Until Tuesday, such operations were restricted to the waters off Somalia.
During yesterday's conference in Abu Dhabi, the ambassadors said tracing the money trail to find out where ransom funds were channelled was imperative.
"Somali pirates have become a destructive force because they have a safe haven," said Mohamed Gello, the Kenyan Ambassador. "They can attack ships and take these back toward the shore because the land is available to them.
"You deny them that opportunity and that is the solution to stop them. The answers lie in maintaining military pressure to reduce piracy and speed up the process of stability."
Mohamed Juma, the Tanzanian ambassador, said pirate attacks harmed tourism, with the number of luxury cruise ships falling from 20 vessels in 2006 to none last year. There have also been pirate attacks on oil rigs off Tanzania, Mr Juma said.
Tanzania has amended its laws to allow the prosecution on its soil of pirates captured in international waters. It is awaiting the UN's Security Council's sanction to launch a special court for prosecuting arrested pirates.
Law and order must be restored to Somalia, Mr Juma said.
"The Somali youth for 20 years have known nothing more than disorder. The institution of government must be made strong," he said.
Piracy also severely hit tourism and fishing in Seychelles, said Dick Esparon, that country's ambassador. There are now specially designated fishing zones patrolled by foreign security guards and Seychelles officers, he said.
Hussein Mohamed, the charge d'affaires of Somalia, said the average citizen there was hurt by food shortages and high prices.
Mr Mohamed said the families of hostages should know "the Somali people and its government are against such unlawful and illegal acts, which endanger people's lives". | <urn:uuid:f96bc6a8-ae2e-4740-9569-54edd24041ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/anti-piracy-war-must-be-fought-on-two-fronts | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963789 | 665 | 1.867188 | 2 |
The People's New Testament, B.W. Johnson, , at sacred-texts.com
co2 13:0SUMMARY.--Severity Threatened to All Who Do Not Repent. He Will Display the Apostolic Power. Exhorted to Self-Examination; and to Reformation Before He Comes. Closing Admonitions. Benediction.
2 Corinthians 13:1
This is the third time I am coming. See notes on Co2 12:14.
In the mouth of two or three witnesses. Every case of disorderly conduct will be taken cognizance of, but the trials will be strictly legal. Two or three witnesses will establish a charge.
I have said beforehand, etc. The Revision makes the meaning plain. As he told them, when there the second time, so now he writes that when he comes again he will not spare offenders.
Since ye seek a proof, etc. Since some denied his apostleship, he would give a proof of the might of Christ through him.
For though he was crucified through weakness. Christ submitted himself unto death, voluntarily choosing the weakness of mortality. He "emptied himself" (Phi 2:7-8). But by the power of God he was raised from death to life. So it shall be with us. His life is reproduced in us. Those who suffer and die with him shall live with him through the Divine power.
2 Corinthians 13:5
Examine yourselves. Let there be self-examination. See whether you are in Christ.
Know ye not, etc. Christ must dwell in them unless they are reprobate. If Christ is in them it will be seen in the power of a Christian life.
I trust ye shall know, etc. Christ is in those who are not reprobates, but the power of Christ (Co2 13:3), that he will display when he comes, will show that he is not reprobate.
Now I pray, etc. If they should do evil, Paul's display of power would show that he was not a reprobate (Co2 13:6), but he prays that their freedom from evil may leave him without that proof. The next verses show that he desires only to promote the truth.
2 Corinthians 13:10
Therefore I write these things, etc. He writes in order that he may not have to use sharpness when he comes, or the power which God has given for upbuilding, not for destruction.
2 Corinthians 13:11
Finally, brethren, farewell. This verse contains a parting admonition.
Salute one another, etc. See notes on Rom 16:16, and Co1 16:20.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, etc. This verse contains the apostolic benediction. Observe the three blessings pronounced, grace, love, communion; and the three sources invoked, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. | <urn:uuid:e81b6238-073b-4f23-8c79-bf391a80eb94> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/cmt/pnt/co2013.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00076-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942037 | 611 | 1.523438 | 2 |