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Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is commonly known as the
Nation’s Report Card. It is the only nationally representative and
continuing assessment of what America’s students know and can do in various
subject areas. NAEP provides a common yardstick for measuring the progress of
students’ education across the country. While each state has its own unique
assessment, NAEP asks the same questions in every state – making state
comparisons possible. NAEP results are based on representative samples of
students. Scores for individual students or schools are not available.
NCLB requires all states that receive Title I funds to
participate in NAEP reading and mathematics assessments at fourth and eighth
grades. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in the U.S.
Department of Education is responsible by law for carrying out the NAEP
project. The National Assessment Governing Board, appointed by the Secretary of
Education, sets policy for NAEP and is responsible for developing the framework
and test specifications that serve as the blueprint for the assessments. The
NAEP assessment operations are carried out with the assistance from
State NAEP is administered in reading and mathematics during
the spring semester of odd number years. The most current NAEP data released
from NCES is NAEP 2011.
2011 Kansas State Results
2009 Kansas State Results
2007 Kansas State Results
Comparison of NAEP and Kansas assessment | <urn:uuid:0ca8f833-adeb-47ec-aa64-0a11167fc1ff> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://online.ksde.org/rcard/naep.aspx?org_no=D0444&rpt_type=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936557 | 311 | 3.8125 | 4 |
I love to grow things. In fact, I will try growing almost anything once. Indoors, outdoors, elegant, clunky, thorny – every plant has its virtues. I even accepted (against my better judgment) a Crown of Thorns plant (Euphorbia Milii) from my friend and fellow writer, Willem Lange. It was, I believe, a plant from his grandmother – and Will is older than I am. So it might be a 100-year old house plant.
It does have nice small reddish flowers (it blooms constantly), but it is tall and lanky and covered with dangerous thorns. I keep it on the deck in the summer where leaves and pine needles fall on it – but I’m afraid to go into the interior regions of this plant to clean them up now, as I might need a blood transfusion after doing the job.
I recently purchased an amaryllis kit at my favorite general store. Amaryllis plants are wonderful: they will produce anywhere from 3 to 9 lovely large lily-like blossoms. They are foolproof if you follow the directions. They come with a soil-like medium, a pot and the bulb.
Poinsettias always steal the show.
Just hydrate the disk of planting medium (generally coir, a sustainable alternative to peat moss made of shredded coconut fiber) and plant the amaryllis bulb. Half or more of the bulb should be above the soil line in the pot. I like to soak the roots in warm water for 15 minutes before planting to make them more flexible, though the directions don’t tell you to do that. Put on a sunny windowsill and wait.
Sometimes an amaryllis bulb will start growing immediately, other times it will sit and sulk for up to a month. (You might want to talk to it, giving it encouraging words if you’re in a hurry). Sometimes it will produce leaves, then flowers – but most commonly the flowers come first. Sometimes you will get just one stalk of flowers, other times 2 or even 3 in sequence. The more you pay for the bulb, generally, the more stems you will get.
Even easier than amaryllis are poinsettias. Every florist and grocery store has them for sale in full bloom right now, ready to adorn your table. Only the “flowers” are not really flowers. They are modified leaves called bracts, which surround an inconspicuous yellow flower in the middle of each cluster. You can get them in a wide variety of colors and shapes. Red is the classic color, and still my favorite, but they also come in pink, cream, striped, peach, cinnamon and more.
The key to happy poinsettias is to avoid overwatering them. Only water when the soil feels dry – and when the pot feels light when you pick it up. They do fine in the interior of the house – they don’t need direct sunlight, which may account, in part, for their popularity. You can save them from year to year but the production of the colorful bracts depends on having days of a certain length, which is best done in a greenhouse. And contrary to popular myth, the plants are not poisonous to cats – a University of Ohio team tested them. Poor test kitties, I’m sure they’re not tasty. (I do wonder how they got the cats to eat the poinsettias).
Paperwhite are another sure winner for the holidays, and a great gift for the gardener. These are generally sold as bulbs, not kits, so you have a little more work to do if you’d like these fragrant white blossoms. And it’s too late to get them blooming by Christmas. They generally take a month or more from planting to blooming (for me, anyway). But I shall buy some today, and get started.
Paperwhites are in the narcissus or daffodil family. To get them to bloom you will need a flat, wide dish that is an inch or two deep. Fill the dish with gravel or small stones. And although you can pick stones out of your driveway, white stones are available at garden centers in small bags and look much nicer. Simply arrange the bulbs shoulder-to shoulder in the gravel with at least half the bulb sticking up above the layer stones. Then add water until it just kisses the bottom of the bulbs. Do not, I repeat, do not fill the dish with too much water, as you can rot the bulbs.
You may need to tie up your paperwhites to keep them from flopping over when the leaves and flower stems get tall. And rotating the dish every few days keeps them from leaning toward the window grasping for more winter light. Paperwhites produce more than one blossom on each stem, and are really quite elegant. They are not re-useable, however. That’s right. After they bloom just throw them away because they are not hardy in New England.
Winter in New England can be bleak. I buy cut flowers at my local florist to keep on the table to brighten the room and remind me of summer. But a few good plants can tide me over during those times when the flowers I’ve bought have gone by, and before I get the next batch.
And as to that Crown of Thorns, writing this column inspired me to work on cleaning it up. I used the vacuum cleaner and it worked!
Visit www.henry.homeyer.com to read about Henry’s new children’s book, Wobar and the Quest for the Magic Calumet. It is a fantasy-adventure chapter book about a boy and a cougar. | <urn:uuid:eb6ef4c7-414e-4f26-b125-ae647049feb1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121216/GJCOMMUNITY_01/121219563/-1/fosLifestyles1105 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951372 | 1,210 | 1.640625 | 2 |
- Creative ways of fostering engagement, and ways of fostering creative engagement.
– Applications running on the mobile platform are uniquely positioned to assess health behavior and to support health-related decision making. The mHealth team works on three broad tasks:
First, we work to understand how physiological health characteristics (such as affect and stress) are best measured. We draw on the Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) class of data collection methods, meaning collection is frequent, in-situ, and as unobtrusive as possible. Where necessary, we develop new measures, for example the Photographic Affect Meter.
Second, we work to understand and encourage the role of social support in health decisions. We have done this by fostering emotional awareness and emotion sharing among out-patients, by building open- ended social awareness tools for health decision tracking, and more.
Third, we work to understand the relationship between in-application behavior, EMA measures, psychological measures such as self-efficacy, and actual health outcomes.
– The purpose of this research is to understand how mobile phones can be used to employ various forms of social interactions and interventions to encourage healthy behavior.Social influence has been shown to play an important role in persuasion and the motivation of behavior change; countless studies, both involving technology and not, have shown that individuals grouped with peers have better results in quitting drinking, quitting smoking, losing weight, exercising, and even surviving cancer.
Sustainable Design – IDL sustainable design projects focus on broad cultural understandings of sustainability and everyday practices. | <urn:uuid:7a98c3be-95b7-411f-adfb-6f29a34b75c1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://idl.cornell.edu/about/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936471 | 313 | 2.84375 | 3 |
I believe that, from the perspective of the C++ Standard, there is no difference between #include "xyz.h" and #include "xyz.cpp" if they both contain the same thing. In practice, an IDE might create the makefile (or other build script) such that "xyz.cpp" is compiled even when it should not be, possibly leading to redefinition errors.
SQLite's amalgamation is an example of an optimisation where the final source code is generated from the various header files and source files such that it becomes one big source file. This might be a better way than trying to develop by including (non-header) source files all over the place.
But it can.Quote:
It would be truly amazing of the Microsoft compiler if it can do that.
I cannot say for sure, but usually when compiling a Release, it is a pretty long process and many files are typically re-compiled, and during a Debug build, you do not use optimizations.Quote:
But is that to say every time a cpp file is changed, the whole project needs to be recompiled? Since that's the only way cross-file inlining can be done?
But I think the optimization is done at the linker stage, so perhaps only the linking stage needs to be redone.
For one thing, it is considered bad practice to include source files. Not that it is really such a bad thing if used like this, but anyway.Quote:
If that is the case... then what's the difference between that and including cpp files? (and keeping dummy header files for human reference, or include all headers before all cpp's?)
Secondly, the entire code base is completely re-compiled everytime, even if nothing has changed in those source files.
Thirdly, I guess there will be complications, such as global variables with internal linkage, and such. Probably much more.
Not sure what you are hinting at?Quote:
I thought one of the main advantages of using headers is that the project can be incrementally compiled.
I think we should not call it "linking" when we're talking of "inlining from all of the source code", because what really happens is that the compiler is doing the work in two or three steps. The first step involves reading and "understanding" the source code. The second step involves generating the actual binary code. In the case of "whole program optimization", you'd only spend a little bit of time parsing the code and making some intermediate form that can be used for producing the final binary. But certainly, some of the steps in the actual code generation step will involve quite a bit of "hard work" for the processor, compared to just linking together already compiled object files. But for a total build from scratch, I'd expect that it's not much difference. And as Elysia says, most development is done in debug builds, where very little time is spent on optimization. | <urn:uuid:2f3a7e6a-1591-4c19-b893-45b791782dd2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cboard.cprogramming.com/cplusplus-programming/108926-separating-files-classes-thier-implemenation-2-print.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949557 | 619 | 2.75 | 3 |
Christopher Marlowe (1564 - 1593) was an Elizabethan poet and playwright, considered by many to be second only to William Shakespeare as an Elizabethan tragedian. He is best known for The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, a play in which Doctor Faustus makes a deal with the Devil, exchanging his soul for knowledge and power.
Marlowe was born in Canterbury to John and Katherine Marlowe, and was baptized on February 26, 1564 at St George's, Canterbury, two months before the birth of Shakespeare. In 1580, he entered Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, on a scholarship awarded to students preparing for a career in the ministry. In school, Marlowe began writing plays. In 1587, he applied to do his Master of Arts. The University attempted to deny him on the grounds that he had been absent from the course previously, and associated with the seminary at Rheims, a hotbed of Catholic intrigue and propaganda against Queen Elizabeth. However, the Privy Council intervened, stating that he had been on government business, and approved his application. This incident has given rise to suggestions that he was engaged in espionage.
Before leaving Cambridge, Marlowe had already completed two plays, Tamburlaine and the tragedy of Dido, Queen of Carthage. He was one of the leading proponents of English drama at this time, employing devices such as blank verse, which would be built upon by his successors such as Shakespeare. Indeed, his play Tamburlaine the Great was so successful that he went on to write a sequel to it. Along with his plays, he wrote a number of poems, including a translation of the Amores by Ovid while still at university. Because of its lascivious subject matter and disregard for the proprieties of chastity and piety, this work was condemned and burned by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Besides his contribution to literature, Marlowe became known for his blasphemy and homosexuality. At a time when both were capital offences, this brought him into conflict with the authorities. He most likely avoided prison due to his government connections.
In 1593 he was arrested in connection to a collection of xenophobic libels published in London, attacking Protestant refugees from the Continent. His name had been discovered in notes confiscated from the home of author Thomas Kyd, listing Marlowe as the source for some of the libels.
On May 30, 1593, Marlowe met with three men involved with various illegal activities in addition to espionage, Nicholas Skeres, Ingram Frizer, and Robin Poley, at Mrs. Bull's lodging house in Deptford. Initially the meeting went well, with the men eating and socializing, however, an argument eventually broke out, supposedly about the bill. Frizer reportedly stabbed Marlowe between the eyes. Frizer was quickly pardoned after an inquest was held. Some historians theorize this was an assassination, suggesting more intricate motives involving Marlowe's underground activities or his role as a social and religious dissident.
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Christopher Marlow
- ↑ Richard Baines' report (MSS BL Harleian 6848, fos. 185-6) as cited in Honan, 'Christopher Marlowe: Poet and Spy' (Oxford 2005)
- ↑ In search of William Shakespeare: Christopher Marlowe
- ↑ Marlowe's end | <urn:uuid:cc1993f2-01ad-42c2-b228-baf85437048e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://conservapedia.com/Christopher_Marlowe | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984102 | 705 | 3.1875 | 3 |
The media are playing their familiar role. The Associated Press said the strike by the Israeli Defense Forces is "likely to escalate violence" and constituted "an enormous gamble by (Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon" that "risks triggering a dramatic escalation in bloodshed." Notice that Hamas attacks never risk an escalation in bloodshed, even though such attacks cause the shedding of blood. The AP offered an opinion in the place of reporting the news.
The media portrayed Yassin as nearly blind and in a wheelchair, not reporting that a sports accident at age 12 left him paralyzed and that his mind was clear enough to plan terrorist bombings while seated.
Numerous networks and newspapers call Yassin a "spiritual leader," though he frequently called for suicide terrorism as a religious obligation. What kind of credible religion exults in the death and dismemberment of children?
The biggest myth of all, often promoted by the media, is that Israel's strike makes the West a more likely target. Where have they been for the past decade? Have they forgotten Sept. 11, as well as other attacks on Western targets before and since?
The Bush administration properly noted that Israel has a right to defend itself, but White House spokesman Scott McClellan added the usual mumbo-jumbo about all parties needing to demonstrate "restraint." When have terrorists ever exercised restraint? All anti-terrorist parties should be going after these killers and liquidating them.
By taking out Yassin, Israel removed one of many heads from the terrorist hydra. Instead of recoiling in the face of criticism from the usual sources, Israel, the United States and those not suffering from spinelessness should take out as many of the rest of them as can be found and targeted. | <urn:uuid:ad7ad400-a347-4c88-97a7-1b2891c2c266> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://townhall.com/columnists/calthomas/2004/03/23/living_and_dying_by_the_sword/page/2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970245 | 350 | 1.765625 | 2 |
A traditional Christmas in England
Pre Christmas - The English like to celebrate Christmas well ahead of the actual day. Before the kids break up from school toddlers might visit Santa’s grotto in a local department store. Children at primary and secondary schools might hold Christmas bazaars. Kids at secondary schools normally have to go to church for the annual carol service. Adults meanwhile celebrate with the Christmas office party! That’s always good festive fun! There are Christmas lights in the main parts of most towns and these days some people like to decorate the front of their houses with Christmas lights. Meanwhile many retailers in England have been flogging Christmas goodies since October! The advent calendar is also a must for kids to open daily in December. Christmas markets are now very popular.
Category: England / Traditional Christmas / Christmas timeDownload full lesson for FREE | <urn:uuid:09d01bf7-c35d-46e6-8f3d-bf728d705333> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newsflashenglish.com/english-lessons/a-traditional-christmas-in-england | 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 | 0.943897 | 172 | 2.59375 | 3 |
A recent and stunning report by This American Life, in conjunction with Pro Publica, tells the story of a decades-old atrocity committed by government troops in the Guatemalan Civil War of the 1980s. The report describes the massacre at Dos Erres, a tiny village in rural Guatemala. This massacre was one of hundreds, if not thousands, committed by the Guatemalan military in an effort to deter the largely neutral rural population from supporting the rebel resistance to the military-backed government there. Through the application of some crafty CSI-type forensic work, including the use of DNA evidence, human rights activists were able to track down the victims of the massacre and bring the perpetrators of the horrendous act to justice, one of the first such prosecutions in Guatemalan history. But the prosecution of those responsible for the horrors at Dos Erres is not the first time that a representative of the Guatemalan military has been held accountable for atrocities committed during the civil war there. No, in the 1990s, a Guatemalan general was sued successfully in U.S. courts for his role in leading the army during the period when the worst abuses took place. Tragically, the U.S. Supreme Court may be poised to gut the law that makes this mode of redress available to victims of human rights abuses worldwide.
The case in which the reach of this law arises, Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, was before the Supreme Court this most recent term, and has received less attention than some other, more high profile cases presently before the court. One of the questions the case raises is whether corporations can be held responsible for violations of human rights norms. Of course, since corporations are "people" that enjoy First Amendment rights, at least according to the court as currently constituted, it would seem quite clear that they can be held responsible for human rights abuses. Indeed, since corporations that supported Nazi Germany were charged with, and found guilty of, human rights abuses for their participation in genocidal activities during World War II, one would think Kiobel would be a slam dunk. After oral argument before the court a second question came up: whether a centuries-old law, the Alien Tort Statute, should apply to acts carried out outside the territorial United States. The litigants were ordered to prepare briefs on this new issue and the case was pushed off to the court's October Term.
The Alien Tort Statute, a part of the law that created the federal court system in 1789, authorizes aliens to sue in U.S. courts for violations of the "law of nations": i.e., a term of art that encompasses generally accepted principles of international law. One of the original purposes of the law was to offer recourse to victims of piracy. Through the law, if a foreign ship owner tracked a pirated vessel to a U.S. port, the person who had commandeered the ship could be sued in the local federal court. In more recent times, the law has been utilized by victims of human rights abuses throughout the world to bring to justice those perpetrators of egregious human rights violations who attempt to take shelter in the U.S., and thus fall within the jurisdiction of the U.S. courts.
Take, for example, the case of Xuncaj v. Gramajo. In 1991, it came to the attention of human rights advocates that Hector Gramajo, a notorious Guatemalan general who was a military commander in the Guatemalan highlands where some of the worst abuses of the civil war took place, was a graduate student in residence at Harvard. Advocates quickly marshaled resources and found Guatemalan refugees residing in the U.S. who had lost family members to the acts of the Guatemalan military under his command. These refugees served Mr. Gramajo with a complaint under the Alien Tort Statute while he was in his graduation procession at Harvard, in full regalia. Mr. Gramajo chose not to defend himself in the lawsuit, and a default judgment was entered against him for nearly $50 million in damages.
Fast forward to 2012. The plaintiffs in Kiobel are citizens of Nigeria who sued several multi-national oil companies over human rights abuses carried out by the military there, allegedly in coordination with the defendant-corporations, to protect oil exploration and extraction in the country. The issue now before the Supreme Court in this case is whether Congress, in passing the Alien Tort Statute, meant it to apply to violations of international law that took place outside U.S. territory. Apparently, in the eyes of at least those members of the court who asked for the additional briefing on this question, Congress may have passed the statute to discourage acts of piracy from taking place in Boston Harbor.
That the nation's first Congress intended the Alien Tort Statute to apply to suits by foreign plaintiffs against foreign defendants, and that it should apply to acts occurring extraterritorially, can hardly be disputed.
The Judiciary Act of 1789, the statute where the ATS was originally found, established the federal court system, and laid out the jurisdiction of these new courts. In one section, the statute provides for suits between aliens and U.S. citizens. This is a form of "diversity jurisdiction" set forth in Article III of the Constitution. Another section establishes a second form of jurisdiction: i.e., suits by aliens for violations of international law. Nowhere does the statute say that such suits are limited to those against U.S. citizens only, or that the statute's reach was only to the U.S. borders. Indeed, an alien could sue a U.S. citizen in U.S. courts through diversity jurisdiction, regardless of the basis of the action; the addition of a second basis of jurisdiction, for the very same suit, would be redundant. At the same time, suits by aliens against aliens for acts that did not involve violations of generally accepted principles of international law would not raise important issues for which federal jurisdiction would be appropriate. Such cases would not find themselves in federal court, and rightly so.
At the same time, to the extent a defendant sued under the Alien Tort Statute is not found in the U.S., the statute would not grant jurisdiction over that defendant because a court could not obtain personal jurisdiction over him or her: i.e., the court would have no power over such a defendant.
Thus, the Alien Tort Statute has slim -- yet elegant -- contours. It was created to encompass a relatively narrow -- yet important -- class of cases: those by foreign victims of international law violations who find the perpetrators of those acts within U.S. territory and thus within the jurisdiction of the U.S. courts.
Those that argue that the Judiciary Act did not set up a second basis of jurisdiction -- of suits by aliens for violations of international law, regardless of who the defendant might be -- ignore the plain language of the statute. Suits by aliens against U.S. citizens come under the diversity jurisdiction of the federal courts, and suits by aliens for violations of international law were given a separate means of redress in those same courts.
As to extraterritoriality, i.e., the argument that the statute should not apply to acts taking place outside the U.S., it is hard to imagine that Congress was looking to prevent violations of international law committed on U.S. soil, or in its harbors. Indeed, the Judiciary Act of 1789 clearly applies extraterritorially, as several of its provisions explicitly extend the jurisdiction of the U.S. Courts to the "high seas."
If the Supreme Court takes an unprecedented and narrow view of the statute, it will mean that perpetrators of human rights abuses, like those that occurred in Dos Erres, who might seek shelter in the United States -- or tap into our institutions of higher education, as was the case with Mr. Gramajo -- will no longer have to worry that their victims can sue them in U.S. courts. This fundamental right, open to anyone around the world, and established in the early days of the republic, was designed to ensure that the U.S. would not serve as a safe harbor for international criminals. The Supreme Court should not close the court house doors to the victims of such criminals by foreclosing a right as old as the nation: that of victims of recognized violations of international law, such as acts of genocide, to sue international criminals in U.S. courts when those criminals seek shelter within our shores.
Congress created this right, and it has served to promote principals of international justice for over two centuries. The Supreme Court must not now render the statute worthless by gutting its most important, and most powerful, component.
Follow Ray Brescia on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rbrescia | <urn:uuid:c41f00cb-ff08-4475-aa9b-31e75fca3cd3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ray-brescia/kiobel-v-royal-dutch-petroleum_b_1616197.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965674 | 1,789 | 2.71875 | 3 |
With 500 days to go everyone here at the MMP is getting very excited about the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. In July 2012 medals will be won, records broken and stories of triumph and tragedy will be told — and here at Plus we are looking forward to revealing the mathematics behind them.
Rising like a giant pringle from the Olympic Park construction site, the Velodrome is the first of the 2012 London Olympic venues to be completed. With its sweeping curved roof and beautiful cedar clad exterior the Velodrome is a stunning building. But what most of the athletes are excited about is the elegant wooden cycle track enclosed inside, the medals that will be won, and the records that might be broken, in the summer of 2012.
As London is heading for the 2012 Olympics, it's not just athletes who are gearing up for action. Engineers, too, are working hard to produce the cutting-edge sporting equipment that guarantees record performances. If you're a tennis player, your most important piece of equipment is your racket. Over recent decades new materials have made tennis rackets ever bigger, lighter and more powerful. So what kind of science goes into designing new rackets?
England's performance in the World Cup last summer was thankfully overshadowed by the attention given to Paul the octopus, who was reported as making an unbroken series of correct predictions of match winners. David Spiegelhalter looks at Paul's performance in an attempt to answer the question that (briefly) gripped the world: was Paul psychic?
In many sports a particular tactical conundrum arises. The team captain has to choose the best order in which to use a group of players or set-plays in the face of unknown counter choices by the opposition. Do you want to field the strongest players first to raise morale or play them last to produce a late run for victory? John D. Barrow shows that randomness holds the answer.
Renowned cosmologist and mathematician John D. Barrow has turned his attention to rowing, with intriguing results. As others did before him, Barrow noticed that the force generated by a rower in a boat has two components: one drives the boat forward and one to the side. Since the sideways motion represents wasted effort, rowers should be positioned in the boat so that it is minimised. So what exactly is the ideal positioning of rowers, the ideal rig? | <urn:uuid:9ba5438f-b354-4cfe-862a-bf671b95700c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://plus.maths.org/content/category/tags/mathematics-sport?page=4 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962548 | 487 | 2.484375 | 2 |
On a scale of one to 10, how would you rate yourself on college preparedness? I’m sure most of you are giving yourself an 11 and can’t wait to start living the “college dream.” But, no matter how ready you think you are, when you actually start participating in the day-to-day of college life, those prepared feelings sometimes turn into feeling just plain scared. Before your arrival at school, you might want to consider how you will handle any ill feelings that arise before they turn into full blown homesickness.
Being homesick is nothing to be ashamed of, but it has to be dealt with. Trying to ignore feeling overwhelmed and missing the comforts of home isn’t healthy and, in the end, will negatively affect your college experience. As someone who has been there and done that, I can tell you with certainty that making a trip home every weekend is not the way to handle being homesick. In the short term, you will feel better, but in the long run, you will hurt any chance you have of making real friendships and memories at school.
Take pride in your school and be passionate about getting involved there. Bleed your school colors and get connected on campus by joining a club or participating in club sports. Make an effort to attend any campus event you can fit into your schedule. You can even try making a deal with yourself to stay on campus for a few weekends in a row and if you successfully meet your goal, you can reward yourself with a trip home. Most likely, by that time you will be having so much fun enjoying your new friends and activities that you probably won’t even want to leave.
The point is, you can’t be an active participant in your college experience if you aren’t there, so commit yourself to having a full, well-rounded college career. Enjoy every benefit your institution has to offer because these years will fly by before you know it. Trust me, you will soon be standing at the end of your four years looking back on positive and unforgettable memories. Don’t miss out! | <urn:uuid:89f45e4b-d2f2-4566-9a31-d7194d47c82b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nextstepu.com/plan-for-college/college-life/your-prescription-for-homesickness.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963923 | 436 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Israel and Lebanon - A History of the Conflict
With a UN ceasefire in place in the Lebanon attention now moves to finding a long lasting solution to the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. What is the background to the conflict and how can an understanding of the history of both sides help develop a resolution to the crisis? Dr Rob Johnson has written about the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict, terrorism and counter-terrorism. Length: 23 Minutes
History of the Holocaust
History of the Holocaust
The Science of Discworld - Professor Ian Stewart
The Science of Discworld series weaves together a Discworld story by Terry Pratchett which examines what happens when wizards meddle with history in a battle against the elves for the future of humanity, with scientific commentary by two University of Warwick researchers (mathematician and chaos theory expert Professor Ian Stewart and reproductive Biologist Dr Jack Cohen) on the evolution and development of the human mind, culture, language, art, and science. Professor Ian Stewart is a member
Patterns of migration - a problem or opportunity?
Does the UK's current immigration policy cause us problems or does it provide us with opportunities for economic growth? Are we experiencing a new immigration phenomenon or is the flow of people from country to country something that has always been with us? Professor Zig Layton-Henry, Politics and International Studies, is an expert in the patterns and policy of migration. Length: 22 minutes
A question of leadership
Ever since Tony Blair announced he was to stand down as party leader controversy has raged about both when he will go and who his successor will be. Whilst Gordon Brown has been the annointed heir for some time, there is some debate as to whether this is a desirable state of affairs for the Labour Party and challengers to Brown have begun to emerge. Professor Wynn Grant is an expert on British Politics and has examined the current leadership debate in the Labour Party. Length: 21 minutes
The history and uses of Aspirin
Professor Mike Stillings talks about the history and uses of Aspirin. Length: 20 minutes
Making history live through improvisational theatre
How improvisational theatre is providing a new insight into the history of capital punishment.
Poverty is not forever
Yesu Persaud is a leading Guyanese businessman and philanthropist. He is renowned for his support of human rights and democracy, and has also been honored for his outstanding contributions in business and Indian history and culture. Here, he talks about how helping people to help themselves is the most effective way of eradicating poverty.
What do Greta Garbo, Madonna and Napoleon have in common? Why Glamour, Darling!
Stephen Gundle from the Department of Film and Television Studies at Warwick has published the first ever history of Glamour. Here he demystifies the mystery behind one of mankinds most elusive concepts.
Professor Wyn Grant Discusses UK Election Politics
In the year of a General Election, Professor Wyn Grant from the Department of Politics and International Studies discusses the complexities of UK election politics
Warwick and Boston Partnership
Warwick's Professor Wyn Grant and Boston University's Professor Graham Wilson discuss Politics and the Financial Crisis along with the research collaboration and partnership between the two institutions.
Carlos Primo Braga
Carlos Primo Braga, Senior Adviser, The World Bank on the history of the world trade system and the issue of coherence amongst multilateral institutions
Is Democracy in Crisis? Lessons from the Greek Experience
This lecture will cover aspects of politics and policy in contemporary Greece in relation to recent developments in Europe. Costas Simitis, an alumnus of LSE, was prime minister of Greece from 1996-2004.
The Civil War as Photographed by Mathew Brady
This lesson asks students to visualize the Civil War by studying dozens of period photographs, and illustrates how the Civil War threatened the very purpose of the Constitution as stated in the Preamble. This lesson correlates to the National History Standards and the National Standards for Civics and Social Sciences. It also has cross-curricular connections with history, American studies, and language arts.
Meeting Standards with Our Documents
As an assessment activity at the end of a U.S. History survey course, provide students with copies of appropriate national, state and/or local curriculum standards and a list of all of the 100 Our Documents. Divide the class into groups of three or four and assign each group an equal number of the Our Documents. Ask students to conduct secondary research to correlate their Documents to the standards. Allow each group to present their findings orally to the class. The result will be a ready-made
Re-Writing the History of the Constitution: from the miraculous to the political
Was the US constitution the work of confident demigods and innovators or the handiwork of anxious political leaders who relied on longstanding Anglo-American political traditions to save a republican in crisis? Carol Berkin is presidential distinguished professor of history at Baruch College and The Graduate Centre, CUNY.
History in the Raw
This page discusses the importance of primary documents and uses them to illustrate historical concepts such as the subjective nature of written history, the intimate view of historical people's lives that primary documents can provide, and the importance of developing analytical skills when reconstructing history.
A Date Which Will Live in Infamy
This site shows the typewritten draft of the December 8, 1941, speech in which Franklin Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan. The draft shows Roosevelt's hand-written edits, including his change of the phrase a date which will live in world history to a date which will live in infamy. Students can also listen to the beginning of the speech.
The Russian Elections
After two terms in office, President Putin is constitutionally bound to step down in March 2008, but how stable will the succession be? Stephen Dalziel is executive director of the Russo-British Chamber of Commerce. Richard Sakwa is professor of Russian and European politics at the University of Kent.
Radical Regimes and Islamist Ideology in the 21st Century
The LSESU Tocqueville Society presents a public lecture by former United States Senator Rick Santorum on the challenges to the West posed by Islamic extremism and its alliances around the world. Mr. Santorum served as U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania from 1995 to 2007 and as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1991 to 1995. As a Senator, he was a champion of efforts to counter the threat of radical Islam, to protect victims of religious persecution, and to promote democracy and reli | <urn:uuid:b2f39de2-6e9e-4fe4-b706-01d9349dc623> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/xpert/scoreresults.php?keywords=Politics%20in%2060%20seconds.%20History%20and%20the%20st&start=4960&end=4980 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936346 | 1,335 | 2.234375 | 2 |
Photo of the Ishango bone from two different points of view.
The Ishango bone is a bone tool, dated to the Upper Paleolithic era. It is a dark brown length of bone, the fibula of a baboon, with a sharp piece of quartz affixed to one end, perhaps for engraving or writing. It was first thought to be a tally stick, as it has a series of tally marks carved in three columns running the length of the tool, but some scientists have suggested that the groupings of notches indicate a mathematical understanding that goes beyond counting.
The Ishango bone was found in 1960 by Belgian Jean de Heinzelin de Braucourt while exploring what was then the Belgian Congo. It was discovered in the African area of Ishango, which was centered near the headwaters of the Nile River at Lake Edward (now on the border between modern-day Uganda and Congo). The bone was found among the remains of a small community that fished, gathered, and grew crops in this area of Africa. The small settlement had been buried in a volcanic eruption.
The artifact was first estimated to have originated between 9,000 BC and 6,500 BC. However, the dating of the site where it was discovered was re-evaluated, and is now believed[who?] to be more than 20,000 years old.
The Ishango bone is on permanent exhibition at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels, Belgium.
Meaning of the Tally Marks
The three columns of asymmetrically grouped notches imply that the implement was more functional than decorative. The Ishango grouping may have been used to construct a numeral system.
The central column begins with three notches, and then doubles to 6 notches. The process is repeated for the number 4, which doubles to 8 notches, and then reversed for the number 10, which is halved to 5 notches. These numbers then, may not be purely random and instead suggest some understanding of the principle of multiplication and division by two. The bone may therefore have been used as a counting tool for simple mathematical procedures.
Furthermore, the number of notches on either side of the central column may indicate more counting prowess. The numbers on both the left and right column are all odd numbers (9, 11, 13, 17, 19 and 21). The numbers in the left column are all of the prime numbers between 10 and 20 (which form a prime quadruplet), while those in the right column consist of 10 + 1, 10 − 1, 20 + 1 and 20 − 1. The numbers on each side column add up to 60, with the numbers in the central column adding up to 48. Both of these numbers are multiples of 12, again suggesting an understanding of multiplication and division.
Alexander Marshack examined the Ishango bone microscopically, and concluded that it may represent a six-month lunar calendar. Claudia Zaslavsky has suggested that this may indicate that the creator of the tool was a woman, tracking the lunar phase in relation to the menstrual cycle.
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Webpages © 2001-2009
Blue Knight Productions | <urn:uuid:0aeba094-77d4-458f-ad73-20b27ee18925> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thelivingmoon.com/43ancients/02files/Ishango_Bone.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943683 | 749 | 3.671875 | 4 |
Final Solution is set against the closing years of Apartheid in South Africa. Tensions rise as the black townships become more empowered in a run-up to a national election in which Nelson Mandela is a viable candidate—and white separatists become more and more extreme in their response to threatened modes of superiority and power.
Early on, a white terrorist is captured by members of the black resistance. He is tortured, and then killed by being set afire while his captors beat and taunt him. The scene is graphic, and not for the faint of heart. "What makes people do that to each other?" cried my wife as we watched Final Solution together again for the first time in several years, this time in a Final Solution Special Edition 2-disc DVD release.
What, indeed? One of the special things about Final Solution Special Edition is that it doesn't just depict the effects of racial hatred, though it does that well enough. Instead, it dramatizes the true story of Gerrit Wolfaardt, a one-time extreme separatist whose hatred of blacks, Jews, and all who were not Afrikaaners ran deep and powerful. We spend enough time with Jan Ellis' portrayal of Wolfaardt to "get" what drives men (and women) to such violent lengths. As director Cristobal Krusen remarks in the disc's commentary track, it's the elimination of all middle ground: "hatred is always black and white."
Demonstrates the Power of Reconciliation
But the best thing about Final Solution Special Edition is the way in which it demonstrates the power of reconciliation—the ability of men (and women) to change not only their thinking and behavior, but their very hearts. There are two Wolfaardts that Ellis portrays here, though they are the same man, and the evolution of the Reconciler is as convincing as the evolution of the Racist. We see that both transformations are not something that happen overnight, but are the results of small seeds planted—of ideas found in the books we read, in the conversations we have with people we admire or despise, of the need we have to defend things we have rashly said, in the examples set by others.
As I noted in my original review of the film for Hollywood Jesus in 2002, the fictionalized setting of the story draws heavily upon improbable coincidences. In the film, a series of critical confrontations arise when a former separatist associate of Wolfaardt's is chased by an angry mob into the sanctuary of a township church—where Wolfaardt just happens to be preaching to a mixed-race congregation about the need for racial reconciliation. Among the congregation also happens to be a young black man, Moses Moremi, who was once the bloody victim of Wolfaardt's blind aggression. The pastor of the church, played by John Kani, also happens to have once been the assigned target of the one-time assassin Wolfaardt. Credibility is stretched taut, to be sure.
But as Jesus said, what is harder to believe: that a crippled man may rise and walk, or that his sins may be forgiven? Yes, writer/director Krusen invents a narrative that takes liberties with the "true story;" but as this Final Solution Special Edition DVD release demonstrates in its commentary track and bonus features, it also packages a greater truth in a fashion which, in some respects, downplays the horror of the actual facts. And Wolfaardt’s real-life story—which is more global and less local in scope—is no less powerful for playing out in a less cinematically-digestible fashion.
Film About South Africa Made in South Africa
I have to wonder what the reputation of Krusen's film is in its native South Africa. Yes, the filmmakers—including producer Gary Wheeler, (The List) who has also become a director of some accomplishment over the last decade—were all Americans; but the cast (which also includes notable names such as David Lee, Vusi Kenene, Regardt Van Den Bergh, and Marius Weyers) is entirely African, and the film was shot entirely on location in and around Cape Town. When I interviewed Jan Ellis about the film in 2002, he remarked on how unique it was that Krusen and Wheeler invested what they did in making not an American film set in South Africa, but a film that truly represented the reality of a South African story.
The release of both Invictus and District 9 in 2009, along with the re-release of Final Solution on DVD, gives me pause. A pivotal bar-room conversation in Final Solution regarding the role of sports in forming national identity invokes the entire inspired-by-a-true-story plot of Invictus—and why is it that the central character of District 9, Van Der Merwe, bears the surname of the actress who portrays Celeste Wolfaardt in Final Solution Special Edition, largely set in a sequestered township like the fictional District 9? These three films would make for a fairly mind-blowing triple feature.
Sadly, the legacy of Final Solution is not entirely well-served by this 2-disc Special Edition. The new behind-the-scenes mini-feature and interviews are welcome additions, but the included documentary film about Wolfaardt, From One Blood, shows its age and technical inferiority as a companion film—powerful as its content and message might be. Krusen and Wheeler's commentary also confirms the narrative weakness of scenes involving the conclusion of Moremi's story.
Original Closing Was Better
The audio remix strikes me as muddier than the original as well, with foreground dialogue too often sinking into ambient noise and the (excellent) soundtrack; and the filmmakers' commentary would have been better off remixed. At the film's re-cut conclusion, in which closing scenes, sans dialogue, now re-run under the closing narration, the editorial decision becomes not only poor but obvious. The original ending—with Kani's pastor looking out upon his colorful parish under the closing narration—made better sense of the central militant's monologue about Jesus' skin color.
For pure cinema, I have to recommend the original 1-disc issue of Final Solution. For its fuller exposition of the whole story behind Final Solution and its filming, though, the 2-disc Final Solution Special Edition is a valuable document in the history of Christian filmmaking. Particularly for fans of Final Solution, the material on Disc 2 is worth having—and you can always take your original disc and swap it out for Disc 1!
Final Solution Special Edition is rated R for "scenes of violence." Much of the mayhem is indeed intense. Under adult supervision, however, the material is very much suitable even for pre-teen audiences, given the reality of apartheid and its correlates in the world today.
Courtesy of the film's distributor, Greg screened a promotional copy of the Final Solution Special Edition.
Also in the interests of full disclosure, in recent years Greg has consulted on scripts for Cris Krusen, including the just-completed The Bill Collector, and is developing a screenplay with Krusen for W. John MacGregor’s novel West of the Gospel, due to be published later this year. | <urn:uuid:a8aba33c-c804-4c1f-994b-c087b70b17e6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.christiancinema.com/catalog/article_info.php?articles_id=7106 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959605 | 1,496 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Thanks to the heavy rains this spring and early summer, flower and vegetable gardens are growing quickly and full of color while lawns are lush and green. Lawns are being mowed more frequently and sometimes, due to all the rain, the grass can get pretty tall before folks are able to mow. The result is grass clippings ... lots and lots of grass clippings and general mowing debris.
The city of Marietta streets department reports excessive amounts of grass clippings in the street this year. Storm drains are getting plugged more frequently. The street sweeper has to move at a slower pace picking up grass from the street. Both increase the cost of maintenance decreasing available funds for general repairs and rebuilds to the city storm drain system.
To remedy the situation, the department reminds homeowners, businesses and their lawn service company to remove grass clippings from the street and other impervious areas such as sidewalks. Sometimes this is as easy as discharging it back onto the grass around the lawn's perimeter during the mowing process. Other situations require sweeping or blowing the grass to a better location.
If you decide to collect clippings and debris, these can be added to a backyard compost or taken to the Greenleaf Composting Facility. Participants are asked to stop by Greenleaf Landscaping on Muskingum Drive to make these arrangements before heading out to the Composting Facility on Ohio 821 just north of Marietta. This service is free to Marietta residents and business owners.
Another incentive to clean up after mowing: Al Miller, city of Marietta safety service director, reminds us that grass and debris cleaned from the streets by city workers may require the city to recoup the cost. Home or business owners may be billed for the cleanup.
If you are concerned with excessive grass and mowing debris along the street in your neighborhood or business area, you may contact Kathy Davis at the Washington Soil and Water Conservation, (740) 373-7113, ext. 229. Attempts to contact the landowner or business will be made to discuss options for cleanup.
Kathy Davis is with the Washington Soil and Water Conservation District. | <urn:uuid:af3bf97c-024e-4f59-853f-436e57fdeb3a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mariettatimes.com/page/content.detail/id/537628/Clean-up-after-mowing.html?nav=5006 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947195 | 447 | 1.90625 | 2 |
China yesterday issued a slew of lower-than-expected trade data for last month as weak foreign demand weighed on the world’s second-largest economy, underlining the fragility of its recovery.
The country’s trade surplus fell to US$19.6 billion, down 38.6 percent from October, according to the customs bureau.
Monthly exports rose 2.9 percent year-on-year to US$179.4 billion, while imports were flat at US$159.8 billion, it said in a statement.
Last month’s surplus is far below the median forecast of US$27.8 billion given by economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires. They also predicted a 9.6 percent expansion in exports and 1.9 percent increase in imports.
The disappointing figures suggested that drivers of a rebound in the Chinese economy were still weak, analysts said.
“The extremely weak exports data have thrown in one more piece of evidence about the fragility of the recovery,” Ren Xianfang (任現芳), a Beijing-based China economist with research firm IHS Global Insight, said in a note.
China’s economic growth — seen as a key factor in the world’s economic recovery — hit a more than three-year low of 7.4 percent in the third quarter.
However, recent data including industrial production, retail sales and fixed asset investment — a key gauge of infrastructure spending — have all shown improvement, fuelling optimism that the worst was over.
Nevertheless, economists said the rebound had largely been driven by infrastructure spending, which the government boosted to create an impression of prosperity during the five-yearly Chinese Communist Party congress last month.
“A rebound of the economy is just a matter of time, given that the destocking cycle which started in the final quarter of 2011 is nearing an end, but political factors have apparently contributed to a much earlier rebound,” Ren said
China’s export-dependent economy has been struggling in the face of sluggish overseas demand this year. In the first 11 months of the year, total trade increased just 5.8 percent year-on-year to US$3.5 trillion, with exports up 7.3 percent to US$1.8 trillion, according to the customs bureau.
Zhang Zhiwei (張智威), an economist with Nomura International in Hong Kong, pointed to the uncertain US fiscal situation for last month’s deceleration in exports growth from an increase of 11.6 percent in October.
“The export slowdown shows external demand faces uncertainty due to concerns over the fiscal cliff in the US,” he said.
Nonetheless, Zhang added that China’s growth was on track for strong recovery in the fourth quarter despite the slowdown in trade, as it is mostly “domestically driven.”
According to data the government released on Sunday, industrial production jumped 10.1 percent year-on-year last month, the third consecutive month of accelerating growth.
Retail sales, the main measure of consumer spending, rose 14.9 percent on year from 14.5 percent in October, while fixed asset investment was up 20.7 percent in the first 11 months of this year, unchanged from the January-October period. | <urn:uuid:33b8b453-9e34-4f4f-a79f-91be3cd37fa7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2012/12/11/2003549843 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952704 | 692 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Getting the Godfather: The FBI and Organized Crime
In 1963, mobster-turned-FBI-informant Joseph Valachi testified at a Senate hearing about inside details of a secret criminal group known as La Cosa Nostra. Valachi’s chilling testimony put the FBI in the forefront of a war on "organized crime."
FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had played down the importance of organized crime, but the mob’s influence became apparent when police discovered a secret meeting of gang leaders from across the country in New York in 1957. From the 1970s on, the FBI took down hundreds of organized crime figures and put crime kingpins behind bars.
Some of the FBI’s headline-grabbing cases:
- Joseph Pistone in 1976 became the first FBI agent to infiltrate organized crime. His work helped convict more than 100 criminals, and his story of six years underground became the movie "Donnie Brasco."
- In 1984, FBI agents broke up the "Pizza Connection," an international heroin ring run through U.S. pizza parlors.
- Armed with the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, which allowed the use of wiretap evidence, the FBI arrested the bosses of New York’s five major crime families in the Mafia Commission case in the late 1980s.
- Media favorite John Gotti — dubbed "Dapper Don" for his custom-made clothes — was finally convicted of murder and other felonies after the FBI planted "bugs" inside a social club that was Gotti’s headquarters. He died in prison in 2002. | <urn:uuid:9fa59655-2fce-4739-8c9c-b4329e044924> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newseum.org/exhibits-and-theaters/temporary-exhibits/g-men-and-journalists/organized-crime/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955773 | 335 | 2.40625 | 2 |
Teaching at a school for military families can be especially demanding.
Students have to adjust to a new school every few years as their parents move and teachers have to adjust to students moving in and out.
At Randolph Elementary at the Randolph Field Independent School District, teachers embrace the challenge.
Keri Robertson always knew she wanted to be a teacher.
"I never considered anything else," she said.
But it was in her third year teaching when she went to Japan that she discovered her love for teaching the children of military families.
"Service was always very, very important in my family. My brother is in the military and while I knew that wasn't the career path for me, I wanted to do something to serve military families," said Robertson.
"It's been a calling for me to work with their children and make sure they're getting everything they need. Changing schools is hard for children and when one of their parents is deployed school becomes the one constant in their life. We try to be their constant.," explained Robertson.
At a military school teachers focus on the academic needs of students as well as their emotional needs.
"Seeing children through a parent's deployment is tough, but how wonderful it is to celebrate their mom or dad's homecoming," explains Robertson.
She teaches her second graders by constantly asking questions.
"When you ask questions, the students have to explain their answers and that challenges them to learn and achieve at the very highest levels.
Each one of them is pushed and stretched as far as they can in my classroom
"The highest level of understanding is to be able to explain your thinking to someone else," said Robertson. | <urn:uuid:6eb953f9-5197-4022-b295-a2a387c7cb4e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kens5.com/on-tv/excel-awards/Keri-Robertson-wins-ExCEL-Award-for-Randolph-Field-Independent-School-District-138146728.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.99168 | 340 | 1.929688 | 2 |
Totem pole, Prospect Point, Stanley Park, Vancouver, British Columbia
Black and white image of a totem pole at Prospect Point in Stanley Park. Though totem poles are common to the Coastal First Nations of British Columbia, the three First Nations (Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh) who claim Stanley Park as their ancestral land were not represented in Stanley Park with this cultural art form until the summer of 2008.
Up until this time, totem poles produced by carvers of the Nuu-chah-nulth, from Vancouver Island's west coast, the Haida and Nisga'a of British Columbia's north coast, and most abundantly, the Kwakwaka'wakw of the north and northeaster coast of Vancouver Island were the only ones found in Stanley Park. The pole in this photograph was most likely producted by a carver from the Kwakwaka'wakw nation.
Totem pole with Thunderbird on top; wood sign in front of totem pole reads "PROSPECT POINT"; lookout shelter behind totem pole; two people in right of image and five people in left of image, looking over wooden fence; Lion's Gate Bridge and Coast Mountains in background. | <urn:uuid:7372501f-92fb-4f2e-b00e-881d99e565e2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jewishmuseum.ca/node/6544 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946832 | 259 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Do you know how to create cactus garden? No? So, your way is to the online flowers shop. There you may not only buy different plants and flowers, but you have the opportunity to learn, how to make a miniature garden at home! To create miniature cactus gardens you need a porous potting mix, suitable heavy containers and either heavy gloves or some sort of tool to handle the prickly cactus. Simple metal or wooden tongs work well, or you can fold a newspaper into a strip about 1" wide and long enough to wrap around the cactus and leave two tails to grab as a handle for moving the plant around. Any container can hold a cactus garden but the shallow containers seem to work best for the smaller specimens. Although plastic containers will work, the heavier clay or ceramic have more eye appeal.
Cactus gardens are meant to be seen and admired close up, so choose either an ornamental or neutral container. For soil, use special "cactus mixes" sold in online flowers shop or mix equal parts potting soil and builder's sand or perlite. The coarser the material is, the better the drainage. This is the most important point to remember when creating cacti gardens. Of course you need the star of the show, cacti.
Small cacti can be found in almost any online flowers shop or ordered from specialty cactus garden suppliers. Some cacti have other cacti grafted onto them, and range from the exotic to the extra-terrestrial looking. Think about these or graft your own cacti to take your cactus garden a notch above the ordinary.
Once you've gathered the container, plants and soil, you're ready to start. It's good to get an idea of the layout before actually starting to plant. If the container is going to be viewed from the front, taller plants go in the back. Or you could put tall plants in the center and work outward, placing small species at the edge and letting trailing ones spill over the rim of the pot.
Once you've put the cacti in place and gently tamped the soil around them, add a top dressing of pebbles. This layer is usually about 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick and is more than just cosmetic. The loose stone allows air circulation while providing additional support for the shallow rooted plants. As odd as it might seem, don't water your garden for at least a week after planting. This gives the roots a chance to adjust. Some folks only water their cactus garden when the weather has reported rain in Tuscon, Arizona. As cacti gardens go, a dish with a few examples and some pebbles can be kind of boring.
So if you want to be a little more creative with your cactus garden you can add bright pebbles or marbles, simulate water using a small mirror, add drift wood, small ceramic animals, tiny rodent skulls if you happen to find some or other decorative tidbits. If you have chosen to use grafted cacti, maybe a "crashed" model space ship will be just the thing!
So, isn't it interesting? You may embody your fantasy in your creation and then enjoy it! And it is the smallest part of information you may get online in the flowers shop!
And if you want to make present to your friend or your beloved men, you may just order an arrangement or a bouquet! But before doing it, read meanings of the flowers you want to present.
There are not only online flowers shops, but even online flowers and garden show with hundred of pictures which will evoke deep feelings from you. They can remind you of a time in the past or can awaken yearnings for the future. | <urn:uuid:a93eba3e-64ab-4886-be8f-c4af4921243a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.syl.com/travel/learnaboutflowersasmuchasyoucanvisitanonlineflowersshop.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922841 | 769 | 2.453125 | 2 |
Does "Indian" derive from Columbus's description of Native Americans as "una gente in Dios"?
Dear Straight Dope:
What's the truth about the origin of the term "American Indian"? Schoolchildren have long been taught that Columbus thought he had reached the Indies, and therefore called the inhabitants "Indians." But lately I've been hearing the story that: (a) The Indies weren't even called the Indies at the time, but Hindustan; (b) Columbus didn't call the locals "Indians" but referred to them as "una geste in Dios", meaning "a people in God"; (c) somehow this caused people in Spain to start using the term "Indians"; and (d) Europeans then started using the geographical term "Indies" through back-formation. This explanation sounds like wishful thinking to me, with (c) and (d) particularly hard to swallow. Yet I've seen this stated as fact on some Indian Web sites, and it's doubtless being taught as fact in some schoolrooms. Is it possible to find the truth in this matter?
The best way to determine the truth in cases like this, Steve, is to go to the source--in this case, Columbus's original letter, through which word of the new lands and their inhabitants was disseminated throughout Europe (see links below). In this letter Columbus repeatedly refers to India and Indians, and says nothing whatever about "a people in God."
First, let's get the supposed phrase right. The Spanish word for people is gente, not geste. Note that the supposed derivation requires Columbus to have made an error in spelling, since "in" in Spanish is en; the word in doesn't exist in the language. I'll have more to say on this point later.
Second, let's dispose of the notion that India was called something else at the time. The name, derived from the Indus River (from Sanskrit sindhu, "a river"), goes back to antiquity. Alexander the Great referred to the Indus (Indos), and to the region's inhabitants as Indikoi, as early as the third century B.C. The name passed from Greek into Latin and thence into other European languages, the earliest citation in English being in 893 A.D. by King Alfred the Great. At the time of Columbus's voyage, "India" or "the Indias/Indies" was often used to refer to all of south and east Asia. Columbus carried with him a passport from Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, written in Latin and dispatching him "toward the regions of India" (ab partes Indie) on their behalf. Martin Beheim's globe of 1492, which predated the voyage, clearly labels the region as "Indie." "Hindustan," also derived from the Indus River, is a much later term, not appearing in English until 1665. In any case, in Spanish that name is not Hindustan but Indostan.
Third, let's look at what Columbus actually said. The admiral wrote a letter, in Spanish, detailing his discoveries while off the Azores during his homeward voyage. He forwarded this to the royal court, then at Barcelona, shortly after his storm-driven arrival in Lisbon on March 4, 1493. The original manuscript has not survived, but a printed copy made shortly after its receipt has. In the first paragraph Columbus says "In 33 days I passed from the Canary Islands to the Indies" (en 33 días pasé de las islas de Canaria a las Indias). His first reference to the inhabitants comes in the second paragraph: "To the first [island] which I found I gave the name San Salvador . . . the Indians call it Guanahaní" (A la primera que yo hallé puse nombre San Salvador . . . los Indios la llaman Guanahaní). In all he makes six references to India or the Indies, and four to Indios. Nowhere in the letter does he use a phrase resembling una gente in Dios. He says little of the spiritual beliefs of the people--at one point he states, "These people practice no kind of idolatry; on the contrary they firmly believe that all strength and power, and in fact all good things are in heaven, and that I had come down from thence with these ships and sailors;" at another he says "they are very ready and favorably inclined" to be converted to Christianity--but that's about it.
Shortly after Columbus's arrival, a copy of the letter reached Rome, where it was translated into Latin, and printed in early May. This version rapidly became a "best seller" throughout western Europe, with no fewer than eleven editions being produced in Spain, Italy, France, Switzerland, and the Netherlands in 1493 alone. Of course, the fact that the news was circulated in Latin and not Spanish by itself pretty much puts paid to the supposed derivation. (The phrases corresponding to the ones quoted above are Tricesimotercio die postquam Gadibus discessi: in mare Indicû perueni and primeque earum: diui Saluatoris nomê imposui . . . Eam vero Indi Guanahanyn vocant.)
The only hint of plausibility in the story is that "in" is in fact in in Italian, and so might be the kind of slip one could expect the Genoa-born Columbus to make. However, oddly enough, Columbus almost never wrote in Italian (and then, not more than a phrase or two), writing even to his family and Genoese friends in Spanish. Born poor, he appears to have been virtually illiterate when he left Genoa as a young man, not learning to read and write until he settled in Portugal. According to Samuel Eliot Morison's Admiral of the Ocean Sea, "he wrote Castilian with Portuguese spellings, especially in the vowels, which prove he spoke Portuguese before he learned Castilian." And in Portuguese, "in" is em.
Actually, the land that Columbus most eagerly sought was not India itself, but "the noble island of Cipangu [Japan] . . . most fertile in gold, pearls, and precious stones." Who knows? If Columbus had managed to convince himself he had actually reached Japan, today Ohioans might well be rooting for the Cleveland Cipangans.
For an English translation of Columbus's letter:
For the Spanish text:
For the Latin text: | <urn:uuid:1b2ec883-2bda-4458-ae31-0abfadd44cbd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1966/does-indian-derive-from-columbuss-description-of-native-americans-as-una-gente-in-dios | 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 | 0.965217 | 1,357 | 3 | 3 |
updated 04:04 pm EDT, Wed May 9, 2012
Microsoft takes interest in 3D memory chip technology
Microsoft has joined the Hybrid Memory Cube Consortium. Fronted by Micron, Samsung, and IBM, the HMCC aims to create more efficient memory for high-performance computing and other similar applications, using increased bandwidth compared to what current memory architectures can provide.
The Hybrid Memory Cube joins vertical stacking called Through-Silicon Vias with 32 nanometer, high-K metal gate process technology and Micron's latest DRAM. Prototypes are said to run at 128GBps, about 10 times the bandwidth of current chips. The Consortium also claims a 90 percent reduction in footprint, and 70 percent higher energy efficiency.
Researchers expect the technology to be usable in a few years time, with a draft specification being finalized by the end of this year. | <urn:uuid:bebb4602-d30c-4b34-9f65-7a30e47c74e0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.electronista.com/articles/12/05/09/microsoft.takes.interest.in.3d.memory.chip.technology/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911377 | 174 | 2.078125 | 2 |
People love copying Apple’s products. It’s pretty much undeniable, and there are dozens of examples spanning practically Apple’s entire history. But it’s not just the iPhone and iPad today’s companies are ripping off: The MacBook Air is a prime target too!
We’ve already showed you what smartphones looked like before and after the iPhone, and what tablets looked like before and after the iPad. As shared by John Gruber on Daring Fireball, this is what laptops looked like before and after the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air!
Laptops Before the MacBook Air
Laptops After the MacBook Air
Pretty much speaks for itself. I wonder how things would be if Apple’s competitors actually tried to innovate rather than imitate? | <urn:uuid:bee92d71-9863-4619-9cff-b04c8b9ad356> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mactrast.com/2012/09/what-laptops-looked-like-before-and-after-the-macbook-air/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923725 | 161 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Taught by Tyler Mayo
Tyler Mayo has had a passion for food since his youth, and learned to make momos when he lived in Nepal. He was also a cook at an international school in England.
Tuesday, May 7, 6-8pm Full
This class meets at our Prospect Heights location
Momos are a type of dumpling commonly found in Nepal and Tibet, with variations reaching into China, India, and Mongolia. They combine the Northern Asian dumpling style with Southeast Asian spices. While the exact origin of the momo are disputed, there is one thing everyone can agree on: They are delicious!
In this class we will learn how to make these scrumptious treats. We’ll play with the dough to make it the perfect consistency, slow cook a tasty tomato dipping sauce and a cilantro sauce, and then learn two different ways of folding momos, stuffing them with two different fillings (one with meat, one vegetarian). And then, of course, we’ll eat them!
Notes & Posts
No notes or posts yet!
No pictures yet! | <urn:uuid:416b288f-a7cd-4ce5-94da-686388a2bb53> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://brooklynbrainery.com/courses/momo-making | 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 | 0.959795 | 228 | 1.984375 | 2 |
MARPLE – Natural Lands Trust announced it preserved a total of 134 acres in Chester and Delaware counties during the closing weeks of 2012.
“Preserving land can be one of the most fulfilling choices a landowner can make,” said Molly Morrison, president of Natural Lands Trust. “It is, however, rarely a simple decision and we are tremendously grateful to the landowners who chose conservation at the end of 2012.”
Among the projects completed in December were four land conservation easements, one outright purchase, and a land donation that the trust will add to one of its publicly accessible nature preserves.
“Land preservation has been a long-standing priority of Chester County citizens and we congratulate the Natural Lands Trust on this significant accomplishment,” said Chester County Commissioner Kathi Cozzone.
Commissioner Ryan Costello said he also commended the trust for its work and leadership.
“(The conservation is) consistent with what the county has historically done in preserving areas surrounding riparian buffers and historic props,” said Costello. “They’re welcome additions and we’re very pleased that they were able to participate in these conservation easement purchases.”
In Chester County, the trust acquired a conservation easement on 10 acres in West Pikeland. The property is owned by the Yellow Springs Foundation and now joins 83 acres of that parcel that have already been under conservation easement since 2000. The 10-acre easement was made possible by funding from the township.
The trust also finalized a conservation easement on 10 acres in East Brandywine, which contains the Bondsville Mill mansion, a barn, and wetlands, and is adjacent to East Brandywine’s Bondsville Mill Park. The easement on the property is part of a larger conservation effort to protect the historical site of the mid-19th century Bondsville Mill, a textile mill that operated for more than 110 years along Beaver Creek, which runs through the easement property.
The trust also finalized a 12-acre conservation easement in New Garden, located along the East Branch of White Clay Creek and identified as a “critical area” by the National Wild and Scenic Rivers program. The property is part of a planned trail that will one day connect the White Clay Creek Preserve with the township’s Laurel Woods Preserve.
The trust purchased 4.4 acres in Warwick, which it will transfer to French Creek State Park. Though small, the wooded property will allow improved access to the park from St. Peters Road. A long-standing, informal trail through the property was heavily-used by fire and safety personnel during last spring’s French Creek fire, and the purchase will enable park staff to establish a more formal point of access.
“I’m so happy that others will be able to enjoy this land,” said property owner Lee Henderson.
The Chester County Preservation Partnership Program; the Keystone Recreation, Park, and Conservation Fund administered by the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources; the Open Space Institute; the Virginia Cretella Mars Foundation; and Warwick Township provided support for the purchase.
Under a conservation easement, properties remain privately owned, but they are protected from future development in perpetuity.
Since its founding 60 years ago, Natural Lands Trust has preserved more than 100,000 acres, including 41 nature preserves totaling more than 21,000 acres and 20,000 acres on which it holds conservation easements.
For more information, visit www.natlands.org.
Follow Daily Local News staff reporter Sara Mosqueda-Fernandez on Twitter @DailyLocalSara. | <urn:uuid:a82bae80-f8ed-4fdd-8f91-d7b0e5342d59> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailylocal.com/article/20130123/NEWS01/130129794&template=printart | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938748 | 748 | 1.75 | 2 |
Can't Code? Squash a Few Bugs - page 3
See Resources for some Horrid Examples of how not to write bug reports. Gnome's Bugzilla Helper includes forms to help you include the correct information. You should include:
- Operating system and version
- Program name and version
- Whatever behavior makes you think it's a bug, and the steps you take to trigger it
- Any pertinent error messages
Sometimes that is all you need. If the developer needs more information they'll ask. Or you may get a request to move the bug report somewhere else. You might be told that it's not a bug, but the way the program was designed to operate. If that's the case you can always visit the developer's list for the program and nicely discuss your issue directly with the developers.
Solid state disks (SSDs) made a splash in consumer technology, and now the technology has its eyes on the enterprise storage market. Download this eBook to see what SSDs can do for your infrastructure and review the pros and cons of this potentially game-changing storage technology. | <urn:uuid:4be079e7-112d-4fa0-a9b8-f7d72ba507e7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/tutorials/6279/3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931744 | 222 | 1.953125 | 2 |
Creating Their Presentations
Today, we did an activity that I would have never thought I'd do with a group of Grade 1 and 2 students: we made Presentations on GoogleDocs. Since just before the March Break, we've been learning about feelings as part of a Character Education/literacy activity, so I thought it would be interesting for the students to create their own slideshows on "feelings." The students worked in partners to find appropriate images on Google Images, copy the links, and insert the pictures into their slideshows. Then they wrote sentences and/or captions about each of the feelings.
The activity itself does not seem that complicated, and it really wasn't, but it was the "searching" part of this activity that I was hesitant about. Our Board filters lots of Internet content, but when searching images, it's hard to know what's going to appear. Everything may not be appropriate. Can six- and seven-year-olds deal with this? Will they filter accordingly?
Today was the test, and my students did an outstanding job! The amazing part was sitting back and listening to them create their slideshows. They took this responsibility very seriously. They discussed what images to use, and they immediately let me know if they saw something inappropriate. The students also thought about the target audiences of this slideshow: their parents and the teacher. Even though some of the images were appropriate, I heard the students say that they wouldn't choose them because "Miss Dunsiger might not like them," or "this isn't something we do at school (fighting), so I shouldn't pick this picture." Wow! Today, all of the students showed me just how responsible they can be!
Below are the completed slideshows. I hope that you enjoy them! To help us with this feeling activity, I'd love if you would share what you do when you feel different ways. As I asked the students today: how can we behave our best even when we don't feel our best?
Thanks for your help with this activity! | <urn:uuid:5a2649ed-2a48-44fb-90db-adf01607cdc3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://avivadunsiger.blogspot.com/2011/03/anythings-possible.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985256 | 423 | 2.875 | 3 |
C.F. Møller’s winning design for a new student housing project at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense is a tower made up of three towers around a common shared space. Privacy and sight lines were high priorities and each of the 250 student rooms enjoys views and balcony. A cluster of rooms becomes a new family unit and is centered around a shared kitchen and living room. These clusters then are attached to a central commons and the heart of the building. The building’s design is a careful balance between privacy and community and will provide students with a healthy space in which to study and learn.
The 14-story tower will be built to meet the 2020 Danish low-energy building codes, and will include the use of a highly insulated and airtight building envelope, low-energy pre-fab concrete components, use of natural cross-ventilation, and extensive heat recovery from exhaust air, waste water, and showers. Passive design strategies like the building’s shape, orientation, adaptation to climatic conditions, daylighting, ceiling heights and structural thermal mass help reduce energy use. The balconies not only provide extra outdoor living space but also work to manage solar gain and help keep the rooms cool in the summer. Surrounding the building will be carefully designed and sustainable landscaping that provides a balance between maintained areas and nature. Urban gardening, spaces for stormwater runoff and infiltration, recreation and walkways are all designed to protect the soil and wildlife.
Construction is expected to begin in 2013 and be completed by 2015 on this new student housing project.
Images ©C.F. Møller | <urn:uuid:29c39cd3-c643-452c-b099-d6d2fa997084> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://inhabitat.com/c-f-moller-wins-competition-with-eco-student-residence-at-sdu-in-odense/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952486 | 329 | 2.328125 | 2 |
I was six when I first saw Gone with the Wind at a private screening in 1942.
World War II started in China in 1937, with the Japanese invasion – two years before the blitzkrieg, and four years before Pearl Harbor. By 1939, with hundreds of thousands Chinese killed and massacred, cities destroyed, properties looted and large areas under enemy occupation, a group in the government, attempting to salvage some protections for the populace and containment of the pillaging, signed a separate peace with Japan. They were mostly followers of the revolution that overthrew the Manchu in 1911. Starting out as passionate reformists, they looked to Europe and Japan for models to bring China out of the past. 25 years on, attaining power only sporadically, their dream of a modern China became refuse among the venalities, Western hegemony, and Japanese rapacity.
The “peace” government that got set up in the occupied capital of Nanjing, turned out to be but a subservient component of Japan’s “Great East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere”. Caught in the vortex of world events past their control, the people involved hunkered down, formed a safe enclave and lived inside guarded compounds. My father was killed before this happened. Our remaining family, close associates of the group in the government, moved to live in this protected enclosure through the war years.
It was a close-knit village. The children played in each other’s houses. We, boys, studied battles, armies and weapons; formed rival nations, and engaged in arms races. But, we were also safeguarded from war’s real horrors, a short time and distance away. I was not told what happened to my father.
Maybe it was a year before I saw GWTW that I first entertained death. An occasion of one servant shushing another led me to distinguish between the absence of a father being abroad, as I was told, and, the absence of a father dead, as I overheard. Came the movie, I watched the bombardments, the depot of wounded soldiers, the burning of Atlanta, with equanimity, but had to be carried out, scared, at the scene of the laid-out dead Mrs. O’Hara.
Still frame from the M-G-M film "Gone With the Wind" (1939)
Film showings at the government residence were almost weekly at that time. They were from the stock of Hollywood movies that Japanese detained that were awaiting openings in Shanghai cinemas in December 1941. The screenings were in a plush reception room fitted with a large screen. The more important officials sat on sofas in the center, younger and lesser ones on chairs around, and the children were sprawled on carpet close to the screen. I, being about the youngest, sat 10 feet away. By-passing the dialogs beyond my grasp, I happily entered into the stories through the pictures.
That premiere showing of GWTW was a big event. Many of the adults had read the novel in Chinese, and had been following the film’s production for years. There was a venison barbecue beforehand, which I conflated with the picnic at Twelve Oaks. Afterwards, people finely parsed the characters. Having run out in Part 1, I did not return for Part 2. But what was seen percolated inside me for a long time.
By 1944, movie showings dwindled. People were preoccupied and unnerved. That summer, my brothers and I were sent to a family friend’s unoccupied mansion in Shanghai, to be away from the Nanjing heat, and to be out of people’s hair. The house was well appointed, with extensive grounds, and was being kept at minimum staff. We had the run of the place. My older brothers, 12 and 9, took to reading the Chinese translation of Gone With the Wind. At dinner, they spoke of Scarlet and Ashley, and argued over the “butternut grey” of Confederate uniforms. It got quite beyond me, even as I tried to invoke the retained imageries from the film of two years past.
By myself, I wandered around the place. I spun the short-wave knob of a large Telefunken radio in the living-room, dilating and narrowing the green tuning-eye, listened to the insistent dit-dit-dahs of the Morse code, and war reports in unknown languages, catching: Normandy, Paris, Saipan… I folded the day’s newspaper into landing-boats and battleships, launched them in the half-filled pond, and scored hits with rocks. I peeked through cracks in the iron gates, and caught glimpse of a Japanese platoon trotting by. I fancied them to be in butternut-greys.
Sequence of still frames from M-G-M film "The Wizard of Oz" (1939)
Late summer, the daughter of the house passed through with a print of The Wizard of Oz as a treat for her young housebound guests. Dorothy, Scarecrow, and company had been familiars from my oldest brother’s pencil box since the beginning of memory. The summer room, draped for air-raids, was made into a cinema that afternoon. The movie, I thought, was mostly “kids’ stuff” – that is, until the scene of the rampaging blue flying monkeys. I had to walk out, again, terrified. They fearfully evoked the underlay of the “butternut” soldiers passing by the cracks of the gates.
Next year, the war ended. We all dispersed. Many of my friends’ parents were tried as collaborators and jailed; several, executed. We moved to our home in Shanghai, and laid low.
Then, compacted into three years in Shanghai, we were to see films of the ten best years of Hollywood. But, that’s another story. | <urn:uuid:b77c5b54-6630-4687-8e39-c828c0a85a97> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.valleyadvocate.com/article_print.cfm?aid=11422 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977356 | 1,237 | 2.203125 | 2 |
"This is the first expansion of regional high speed rail outside the Amtrak-owned Northeast Corridor," said President and CEO Joseph Boardman when Amtrak announced the FRA decision. "With our partners in Michigan, we will extend this 110 mph service from Kalamazoo to the state's central and eastern regions in the coming years."
Amtrak and the Illinois Department of Transportation are partnering with GE Transportation to use the company's Incremental Train Control System technology for similar plans on the Chicago-St. Louis corridor where federal regulations also require the high-speed rail train control safety technology.
Lorenzo Simonelli, president and CEO of GE Transportation, said, "GE Transportation has had a long partnership with Amtrak, and we are proud of the accomplishments we've had with this project and have finally achieved the approvals for 110 mph service. We look forward to deploying this technology further to ensure safe, reliable high-speed service. GE Transportation is committed to providing the latest technology and products to high speed rail programs worldwide as an essential part of sustainable infrastructure growth for many years to come."
The Amtrak 110 mph expansion service in western Michigan was a project that GE Transportation together with Amtrak, MDOT and FRA implemented beginning in 1995, and after successfully reaching milestones of 90 mph in 2002 and 95 mph in 2005, is now complete and successfully operating at 110 mph. Amtrak will operate eight daily passenger trains at 110 mph; three Norfolk Southern freight trains also operate through this section of track under ITCS control. | <urn:uuid:66b0f665-a715-4799-9f46-b36d16307b39> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rtands.com/index.php/cs/ge-signaling-system-guides-amtrak.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95883 | 301 | 1.554688 | 2 |
This award-winning dramatic special finds 10-year-old Tammy
traveling back in time to the first Christmas in Bethlehem and
witnessing the little stableboy's act of un selfish love when
he gives the Christ child his pet lamb. Tammy then realizes
how sharing presents with others is a way of sharing God's love
Loretta Swit stars in this touching and humorous Christmas
story. Beware the Herdmans! The nastiest, dirtiest kids you
could meet and they've decided they belong in this year's Christ
mas pageant. The town thinks they belong in the care of the
local police. But when the curtain goes up, a miracle begins!
Nestor, a delightful little donkey who was mocked by everyone
for his long ears, finds himself an outcast. Out in the cold,
snowy night, Nestor's mother dies trying to protect her baby.
In the Spring a cherub arrives to help Nestor assist Mary and
Joseph on their trip to Bethlehem.
Madeline is filled with Christmas cheer but when a snowstorm
strikes, it looks as though she will spend Christmas cooking,
cleaning and caring for eleven sneezing friends. Madeline finds
the true spirit of Christmas - love and friendship - while reminding
us to never give up on our wishes.
This live action video for ages 3-10 features Broad way sensation
Jennifer Naimo and professional ventriloquist Randy Malick and
his puppet friends. Ten lively songs keep your child's full
attention, and manger animals and animated stories of the saints
add to the fun. This film is sure to spark a friendship between
your child and Jesus!
Page - More Christmas
Videos for Children
Find more Christmas videos
Resources for Catholic Educators | <urn:uuid:019bec14-5501-4a58-840f-931f589caaef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.silk.net/RelEd/christmasvideos2.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.905418 | 376 | 1.5 | 2 |
This morning there was an earthquake swarm in Katla volcano. This is the first earthquake swarm of the year 2012. This earthquake swarm is most likely created by an dike intrusion. Based on how dense the earthquake swarm appears to be. But that is often an sign of an dike intrusion in an volcano. How this earthquake swarm is going to evolve over the next few hours impossible to know for sure. That depends on what the magma is going to do that is creating this earthquake swarm.
The earthquakes can be seen on my geophone web page here (English). The geophone at Skeiðflöt is going to go up this week. So all activity in Katla volcano is going to appear more clearly following that. Sadly. No high resolution of the earthquakes that take place is not going to be available until I move back to Denmark. As my main earthquake computer is offline and is going to be so until that time.
I am going to post updates to this if anything more happens. But it might take a while as I am travelling today to Reykjavík area and tomorrow I am going to Skeiðflöt tomorrow. | <urn:uuid:1bdbbacc-ccf7-41fd-ba8e-fbdc2093b818> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jonfr.com/volcano/?p=2149 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974525 | 236 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Welcome to Children’s Credit Crisis.org. A recent study by Javelin Strategy and Research shows that one child in every classroom had one or more credit files using their Social Security number. Key findings include:
- The study discovered 5% of children had one or more credit reports using their social security number (SSN), and 54% of those children were victims of identity theft.
- Among those 5%, the children had on average $12,779 in fraudulent or wrongly assigned debt.
- While the study found that children were more likely to find problems in their credit histories as they aged, an astonishing 12% of those with problems were age 5 and under.
Fraudulent use of a child's information can wreak havoc on his or her financial future, potentially leading to the denial of credit, student loans, housing or employment at a time when that child may need it the most.
The mission of this site is to provide parents, governments and industry professionals a complete resource to understand and combat child identity theft.
Please let us know what else you would like to see on this website or if you are interested in becoming a sponsor.
- News - This blog posts on a range of issues related to child identity theft. It covers victim stories, new research, current events and trends in both attacks and legislation.
- Research – The latest research on child identity theft.
- Safety Tips – What parents must do to protect their children’s identities.
- Restoration – The steps required to restore your child’s identity should they become a victim.
- Resources – A list of resources on child identity protection. | <urn:uuid:b0a7a33d-e26b-46e0-aa03-07024b78510e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.childrenscreditcrisis.org/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962587 | 336 | 2.859375 | 3 |
This small paperback book is written and illustrated by Nola May. At $9.95 it is an affordable introduction to ´Indian´ style beaded earrings made with small glass beads. If that sounds like a sentence I´ve written before it is because this small book is published by Eagle Publishing who put out ´Delightful beaded Earring Designs´ by Jan Radford which I reviewed previously - and it is very similar in many ways to that book.... (2012) Complete Story
As with most Japanese metal coloring methods the techniques are metallurgically based rather than solution oriented; in the West we tend to use a myriad of coloring solutions and limited number of alloys; in Japan there are a limited number of coloring solutions and innumerable metal alloys which react differently in the same solution.... (1995) Complete Story
This is an example of a production project proposal involving the reproduction of two historically important buttons. This shows how the project is described in terms that allow the client to see what is involved in manufacturing. It is a sample of a description that allows the client a sense of the scope of the job.... (1990) Complete Story
Carpal tunnel syndrome is only one of many kinds of repetitive strain injuries (RSIs) and cumulative trauma disorders (CTDs). RSI, CTD and 'overuse syndrome' are reasonably interchangeable in meaning. Carpal tunnel syndrome is, however, the most.... (1999) Complete Story
Cast hinges are a very important part of much production jewelry work, partly because hinge assembly on such pieces is reduced to inserting the hinge pin and so provides a very fast linkage system ideal for cast objects. We are primarily speaking here of lost wax investment casting. If you look at any trade magazines you will find many examples of cast hinges in the advertisements....
(1997) Complete Story | <urn:uuid:7629dc94-b6d9-4079-b4ef-84e60f733a94> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/directory/library/source/41/195/author/6 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952074 | 372 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
"You May Now HUG the Bride"
I attended a wedding this weekend where it was evident that the wedding was truly an event to celebrate life, love and family. It was one of those weddings that I walked away from feeling the love and not just wondering "geez, that was a pretty pricey wedding to celebrate a sham of a relationship...well at least the food was good"(and don't judge me, you have been to those weddings too). I suppose the beauty in the wedding that I attended was the fact that the brides' parents are still madly in love with each other and have an amazing relationship with their adult children. I was in awe of the way that the mother of the bride lit up when she was looking at her daughter walk down the aisle and the way the father of the bride was overwhelmed with joy to gain a son-in-law. When most fathers only see their responsibility as footing the bill for a wedding, this father actually officiated the wedding so that he could play a larger part in the ceremony.
These types of relationships are completely nonexistent for some young people; they never get to see what it is like for the adults in their life to have a healthy, loving and supportive relationship with anyone. Since most of my childhood was in a single-parent home, I often wondered what it was like to have both parents at home or even both parents in the same room without some sort of disagreement or evil-eye stare. One of our responsibilities is to teach young people about healthy relationships but shouldn’t we also be modeling those healthy relationships? All too often I see an adult in a completely unhealthy relationship, and they just can’t understand why their children are in the same kind of relationship. Young people not only need to know the factors related to a healthy relationship, they need to see them in real life. As adults we have a responsibility to practice what we preach to our young people. We can’t be engaged in unhealthy behaviors with our own partners such as cheating, lying, controlling behavior or abuse, and then lecture to young people about how they should avoid these behaviors in their own relationships.
After attending this wedding, it gave me hope – hope that all young people will have adults in their life that have loving, supportive and healthy relationships that they can aspire to have with their own partners. When young people have the opportunity to see what a healthy relationship looks like, they will be more likely to emulate these behaviors with their own partners. The bride and groom at this wedding are lucky enough to have these relationships in their life and they know how much they are loved and supported by their parents. Of course, the bride will always be her daddy’s little girl so at the end of the ceremony the father of the bride couldn’t help to revise the traditional script by saying “you may now HUG the bride.”
by: Sarah Kershner, Project Coordinator for SC Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy | <urn:uuid:2c7aca28-5d21-4d6d-9e50-5e3bcea1fcfb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sccampaign.blogspot.jp/2012/09/you-may-now-hug-bride.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982923 | 613 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Bikes And Mass Transit A Good Combination
With the snapshot, he says it’s hard to tell how many SEPTA riders use bikes in combination with buses. He also says riding the Regional Rail system with a bike is difficult at times because they are allowed only on off-peak trains, but he hopes SEPTA can eventually devise a system to accommodate bikes on all trains.
Temple Ambler Adjunct Professor Michael Carroll says he tries to get people thinking about multi-modal corridors, where they have transportation choices to get where they want to go.
“If we’re always going to be dependent on one mode, whenever that mode doesn’t work we lose out. If we combine modes together whether it’s walking, biking, autos, transit into an integrated system, a problem in one mode doesn’t lead to sacrificing our access to things.”
He says the area people have access to expands dramatically if they can combine modes of transportation. The two professors appeared Thursday on the monthly Transportation Edition of the WNPV talk program Comment Please by Univest. | <urn:uuid:fd5ceacf-30bf-4ded-a532-50d3098407b4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wnpv1440.com/news/schools/4950-bikes-and-mass-transit-a-good-combination?fontstyle=f-larger | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944867 | 230 | 1.625 | 2 |
More or less? Disease control key to maintaining yields under climate change
21 June 2010
Oilseed rape disease losses are predicted to increase by a further £50M by 2050, under high CO2 emission scenarios. However, such losses, on untreated crops of winter oilseed rape, could be mitigated by effective control of the two main diseases; phoma stem canker and light leaf spot. Scientists from Rothamsted Research, an institute of BBSRC, SAC and the University of Vienna, have demonstrated that disease control can be aided by new disease forecasting systems (www.rothamsted.ac.uk/leafspot) and will mean that yields will actually increase due to better crop productivity under higher CO2.
© Rothamsted Research
In research published in the June issue of "Food Security", the scientists used disease and crop models to show that unlike the disease phoma stem canker, which had previously been predicted to become more severe under a range of climate change scenarios, light leaf spot, the disease associated with oilseed rape crops in northern England and Scotland, was predicted to decrease in severity in coming decades. Economic analysis indicated that this, coupled with increased yields from treated crops where diseases were effectively controlled, would be enough to offset increased losses from canker so that the net UK losses from climate change for untreated oilseed rape would be small.
Dr Neal Evans from Rothamsted Research explained "We weren't surprised by the outcome of this study since the results reflect what we know about the biology of these two plant pathogens. Phoma stem canker is a global disease which is actually most severe in hot, dry countries such as Australia so one would expect the disease to be favoured by global warming. In contrast, light leaf spot is favoured by cooler, moist conditions and so would not be expected to fair so well in the future". Professor Bruce Fitt added "These results can be used by industry and government to guide policy for adaptation to climate change, as a contribution to global food security".
Notes to editors
This paper, The impact of climate change on disease constraints on production of oilseed rape by Neal Evans, Michael Butterworth, Andreas Baierl, Mikhail Semenov, Jon West, Andrew Barnes, Dominic Moran and Bruce Fitt was published in the June 2010 issue of Food Security, Vol 2, Issue 2, 143-156 (DOI 10.1007/s12571-010-0058-3).
The research was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (the OREGIN project), the Sustainable Arable Link Programme (the PASSWORD, CORDISOR and CLIM-DIS projects) and the European Commission's Sixth Framework Programme, priority 5: 'Food Quality and Security' (ENDURE, 031499) with supplementary funding from the British Society for Plant Pathology.
About Rothamsted Research
Rothamsted Research is based in Hertfordshire and is one of the largest agricultural research institutes in the country. The mission of Rothamsted Research is to be recognised internationally as a primary source of first-class scientific research and new knowledge that addresses stakeholder requirements for innovative policies, products and practices to enhance the economic, environmental and societal value of agricultural land. The Applied Crop Science department is based at Broom's Barn, Higham, Bury St. Edmunds. North Wyke Research is located near Okehampton in Devon. Rothamsted Research is an institute of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council. www.rothamsted.ac.uk
BBSRC is the UK funding agency for research in the life sciences. Sponsored by Government, BBSRC annually invests around £470M in a wide range of research that makes a significant contribution to the quality of life in the UK and beyond and supports a number of important industrial stakeholders, including the agriculture, food, chemical, healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors.
BBSRC provides institute strategic research grants to the following:
- The Babraham Institute
- Institute for Animal Health
- Institute for Biological, Environmental and Rural Studies (Aberystwyth University)
- Institute of Food Research
- John Innes Centre
- The Genome Analysis Centre
- The Roslin Institute (University of Edinburgh)
- Rothamsted Research
The Institutes conduct long-term, mission-oriented research using specialist facilities. They have strong interactions with industry, Government departments and other end-users of their research.
Neal Evans, Rothamsted Research
Bruce Fitt, Rothamsted Research | <urn:uuid:256fa43e-a7b3-4f57-87bf-a0d62825d125> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/news/food-security/2010/100621-pr-more-or-less-disease-control.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933099 | 938 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Spielberg says "Lincoln" is no political football
NEW YORK |
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Steven Spielberg offered a cinematic vision of President Abraham Lincoln's battle to outlaw slavery in "Lincoln," which had a sneak preview that is already generating early buzz of awards for star Daniel Day-Lewis.
After a screening at the New York Film festival on Monday, Spielberg acknowledged the pressure of bringing to the big screen one of America's most revered political figures, and he side-stepped questions about its relevance to current politics ahead of the November 6 U.S. presidential elections.
To audience laughter, Spielberg said he had deliberately sought to avoid such entanglements by asking for a release date after the elections. "Lincoln" is due for limited release November 9 and timed for the Hollywood awards season.
"Don't let this political football play back and forth," the Oscar-winning director said he urged distributors, noting the "confusing" aspect in the film that shows how U.S. political parties back in Lincoln's time "traded political places over the last 150 years."
In contrast to today, the Republican party to which Lincoln belonged was founded by anti-slavery activists and Republicans were often tagged "radicals."
Two-time Oscar-winning actor Day-Lewis portrays Lincoln as a charismatic, gifted wordsmith and an often quietly determined, skilled politician who risked his popularity to gain enough votes to pass the 13th Amendment - which outlawed slavery - in the U.S. House of Representatives during the final months of 1865.
WILD APPLAUSE FOR DANIEL DAY-LEWIS
Irish-British actor Day-Lewis, along with Sally Field who plays his wife Mary Todd Lincoln, stood up to wild applause after the screening, where security was high and filmgoers waited nearly an hour for the movie to begin.
Spielberg described Day-Lewis as "the consummate artist" and praised his understated take on "the stature and momentous kind of humanity of Lincoln" and ability to remain true to history's account of Lincoln with a high-pitched, quavering yet commanding vocal tone.
He said historians would have criticized the film "had we done Lincoln the way Disneyland does it at Epcot center, with that low voice," he said.
The dialogue-heavy film offers an inside look at the often dry legislative process, and how Lincoln's push for the anti-slavery amendment could have jeopardized the end of the Civil War.
Without re-enacting much of Lincoln's famed speeches, the film plays up the importance of Secretary of State William Seward (David Strathairn) and liberal congressman Thaddeus Stevens - in another performance, by Tommy Lee Jones, already tipped as an awards contender.
The legislative scrutiny comes as U.S. lawmakers today are often criticized for being too polarized and holding up the legislative process.
Spielberg, 66, said the film was not quite finished but called it a "a journey for me unlike any other" in his career.
"We all really felt this was a high bar to reach," Spielberg said of the anticipation and detail required for the film that was shot entirely in Virginia.
In another departure from the history books, Field and screenplay writer Tony Kushner offer a sympathetic depiction of Lincoln's wife as a strong and supportive woman. In the past Todd has often been remembered as much for possible mental instability as being loyal to her husband's political policies.
"I see abundant evidence that she was immensely important in pushing him," Kushner said, noting the "unspeakable" losses she suffered, including losing several children before her own death, as well as a serious head injury that caused headaches.
"The idea that she was nuts, I think is unfair," he said.
(The story fixes Spielberg age to 65 from 66 and in sixth paragraph changes to read early months of 1865 instead of final months.)
(Editing by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Kenneth Barry)
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- Digg this | <urn:uuid:87be6f3d-4ea2-4224-a093-d58e7b3cf881> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/09/entertainment-us-lincoln-idUSBRE89819B20121009?feedType=RSS&feedName=entertainmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fentertainment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Entertainment%29 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976245 | 833 | 1.671875 | 2 |
A CBT case formulation is “…a hypothesis about the nature of the psychological difficulty (or difficulties) underlying the problems on the patient’s problem list” (Persons, 1989) explaining such problems in both Maintenance and Developmental terms and incorporating both cognitive and developmental factors.
It “guides and structures the course of treatment by unifying and prioritising symptoms, influencing the choice and timing of interventions, and predicting possible problems. The cognitive case formulation approach is open to disconfirmation, grounded in empirical research, parsimonious, and readily understandable by clients”
Case Formulation Modules are part of the Diploma’s self-directed learning components.
First of all, the Diploma contains a separate Case Formulation Module which provides a useful underpinning and support to these self-directed components, along with a number of illustrative examples and practice opportunities. It is highly advisable that the students attend this module as close to the beginning of their Diploma course as possible as the skills obtained in this training will be essential for completion of the individual problem-based case formulation sub-modules (see below).
As part of demonstration by students of understanding and evidencing of the practical application of taught CBT skills and theory, there are 14 case formulation sub-modules which are available for students to complete and submit to SDS tutors for assessment and feedback. These are all problem based and map onto a number of the taught modules in the Diploma.
There are two case formulations (per each Case Formulation Sub-Module) required to be completed by the student. The student will be provided with two case studies which will be the information source for the case formulations.
The formulations will need to be submitted in written diagrammatic form (typically one A4 diagram per case) along with a proposed treatment structure based on the formulation. These are then submitted by email to SDS tutors for feedback.
A simple pass/fail assessment is attached by the tutor to each submitted module. In the event of a “Pass”, the requisite allocated hours are added to the student’s accumulative log. In the event of a “Fail”, detailed feedback is provided along with the opportunity for up to three further submissions within the module fee. Qualitative feedback should be reflected on and incorporated into the student’s practice in both Pass and Fail instances.
Regular Price: £60 + VAT (£72).
This module must be completed within 2 months of the payment.
Case Formulation Sub-Module:
You can submit a post-course assignment (case formulation) that carries 4 CPD training hours (optional). | <urn:uuid:d8a63c62-ec50-433d-b3d8-fe2c8c41bdad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://skillsdevelopment.co.uk/case_formulation.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927647 | 545 | 1.875 | 2 |
If you’re like many of us, you don’t have a lot of money to buy stock images or hire a graphics designer. So that means you’re stuck using the free resources that come with PowerPoint. In previous posts, I’ve discussed ways to ungroup your clip art and create your own clip art. It only takes a few clicks to get from one image to the next.
Even with those free resources available, it’s still time-consuming to find the right clip art to use. So what I’m doing today is helping you get started by listing fifteen of my favorite clip art styles. These are the ones that I commonly use for my elearning courses.
About Clip Art Styles
As you search, you’ll notice that not all of the clip art belongs to a “style.” The reason I like to use clip art from the same style is because I can mix and match them and they’ll look like they belong together. It gives your course a much more professional and polished look.
I like to find styles that have a lot of variety. For example, I may not be interested in all of the clip art images in a particular style. However, by ungrouping them, I can create an assortment of assets like characters, props, and shapes. And since they’re all from the same style they’ll look like they go together.
In the example below, you can see how images from “style 148” provide characters, various props, and some shapes that I can use in my elearning courses.
Tips on Finding the Right Clip Art
Here’s a post that shows you how to create a consistent look for your courses. It covers some of what I’m talking about today. I also created a video that shares a few tips about how to search clip art. Those might come in handy.
Below are some of my favorite clip art styles. I’m fond of some because of the characters. However, some I like only because of their colors and shapes. For example, “style 1592” doesn’t have a lot of images, but here’s an example where I ungrouped one and used parts of the clip art to create a Flash intro screen demo in Quizmaker ‘09.
15 of My Favorite Clip Art Styles
Style 1366 (no longer available)
Style 1423 (no longer available)
Style 1426 (no longer available)
Style 1441 (no longer available)
Style 1445 (no longer available)
Update (6/8/10): Apparently some of the styles are no longer available. Here are some additional ones to replace the ones missing.
Sometimes it’s fun to just type in a style and see what comes up. For example, the clip art images in “Style 13” turned out to be lucky. They’ll work great in a future elearning course. Do you have any favorite clip art styles that you’d like to share? Add them to the comments section.
I’m hitting the road in a few days. Here are some of the places I’ll be. If you happen to be at these conferences, swing by the Articulate booth and say “Hi.”
- PowerPoint Live 2009: October 11-14 in Atlanta, GA. Tweet me if you’ll be there.
- Educause Conference 2009: November 3-5 in Denver, CO.
- DevLearn 2009: November 11-13 in San Jose, CA. | <urn:uuid:5c4966f1-74ed-4905-9d05-b71d177f378d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/15-interesting-clip-art-styles-for-your-e-learning-courses/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913251 | 755 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Send to a Friend
Why not make state and federal social welfare relationships one-on-one instead of collective?
When everything is reduced to essentials, there are people who receive individual welfare payments of one sort or another, and there are other people who are forced to make those payments through taxation.
As it stands, all the money is taken from one group, dumped into a pot, and then passed out to the other group.
If this is inevitable, why not simply save administrative money and assign one specific recipient to one or two or however many specific payers?
The payers would be required to visit the recipient once or twice a month and give them their money.
The net effect is the same, the bureaucracy shrinks, postage is saved, and at least the possibility of a relationship exists.
I wonder why they do not do it that way? | <urn:uuid:0c75bb83-9b2f-4450-b1d7-dd7f10828ad8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fluther.com/102913/why-not-make-state-and-federal-social-welfare-relationships-one-on-one-instead/send/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961226 | 177 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Great Britain Fugitive Ink Postage Stamp Colour Trials
For Sale: £85,000.00
This sheet features 6 ink trials for the 1840 1d Penny Black postage stamp.
reverse of the sheet is inscribed in pencil in an unknown hand
'1.9.1840. Ink and paper trials from Trial Plate D'. "D" is possibly a
reference to State 3 of the plate.
The trial stamps are on plain paper watermarked 'MORBEY SAUNDERS 1839'.
Handwritten notes have been added to the front of the sheet in ink and pencil by Joshua Bacon's son Perkins.
The sheet features three shades of blue on plain paper with three on paper dipped in 'Prussiate of Potash'.
examples of this sheet are in The Royal Philatelic Collection and the
R.M. Phillips Collection (Post Office Heritage). The one in The Royal
Philatelic Collection is annotated 'Mr. Bacon has abandoned the printing
in this colour'.
The Rainbow Trials
trials, also known as rainbow trials, tested the colour of the stamp.
Numerous tests were made to check the printing inks, cancellation inks
and an assortment of papers. Printed in blocks of twelve, the stamps
were made void by the removal of a corner (top right) and no corner | <urn:uuid:3f10c24d-71b5-4637-8ed2-f63afbf5cdcb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://store.paulfrasercollectibles.com/Great-Britain-Fugitive-Ink-Postage-Stamp-Colour-Tr-p/pt268.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924283 | 277 | 2.46875 | 2 |
The Grief Performance by Emily Kendal Frey
Grief: something we don't have scripted into our language, the something that still escapes all the words, but lives in the body.
I read Emily Kendal Frey's The Grief Performance in a space of what it means to know without thinking; that is, what it means to feel in the body without having the knowledge of the thing. I wonder what this new thinking and feeling will look like if we can no longer rely upon our old standard of argument to supplant argument or knowing in a cognitive, logical proof. What new thinker will emerge? I think Frey gives me this; instead of thinking anything to know it, she has me feeling my knowledge. The Grief Performance is exactly that, a performance, designed to make you feel an emotion not even capturable in old forms. Performances do not covey arguments, dialectics, enthymemes -- they don't convey anything, in fact. Performances bring the audience into characters, into the performance of emotions. I will never forget those words yelled by Stanley in anguish: "Stella, Stella!" More than the words, I remember that feeling in my skin and the desire in Stella -- the desire because she is desired -- and the fucked up love between them, in that moment of A Streetcar Named Desire. That was a performance. But Frey has to contend with her medium, because she is not writing a play or making a film.
She writes of Enterprise, Alabama in "I'm the scenery": "my left eye was swollen shut this morning / I can't feel anything for the town. / That's my memory of Enterprise, Alabama." She offers a fact: her left eye is swollen shut this morning. This immediately followed by how she can't feel anything for this town. I wonder about the correlation between feeling for this town and knowing this town. Frey makes the step here to undo how we might know Enterprise, Alabama through language as fact.
This raises a question for me: how do we know grief? Can we ever know it through thinking -- can we think grief? -- or is it something that must only be felt? This is Frey's performance to let us know grief without thinking it. She wants us to feel our knowing.
Section three, twenty-nine mediations on a "Mediation of Frost," and the ninth meditation reads, "Everybody has their own thing / that they yell into a well about." I sit with this mediation for a long time wondering about what it is I yell into a well about and what it means to acknowledge we have something, have something so profound, so outside of this and that articulation of pain, that we must, at some unknown point, yell into an empty, dark abyss, which echoes back to us our own words now unrecognizable in their iteration. This is one level. Imagining the scene made by these words, I am hit with the heavy grief of such a moment. I am hit with the ponderous weight of the feeling of these words. This is another level.
I might read "The History of Knives" as that piece that anchors the book. That seems the most obvious because its title bears the word "knives," and there is a knife on the front cover, and we are easily led to think that things bearing knives in this book are anchors or themes or hearts of the piece. I choose instead to read "Falun Dafa"... not as an anchor, because I don't believe there is an anchor. I don't believe Frey is operating on this organizing principle. I don't believe grief performed can be anchored anywhere. Instead I think Grief is never organized nor concerned with principles, and the performance, the performance of Grief is recursive and contingent and renewed in each piece. So I go to "Falun Dafa" because it performs a type of grief for me. Falun Dafa is an advanced practice of Buddhist mediation, which has everything to do with the cultivation of one's mind and thoughts. Frey begins this poem denouncing the premise upon which Buddhism is practiced "There is no / peace." The next lines out of self-control now and another disavowal:
I am eating
a small bad
pizza and I am
not going to stop
She violently partakes of the most ordinary of human desires in a recalcitrant effort to give the body what it wants. To purposefully not cultivate a Dafa body, or dafa mind, which is all about control and practice in order that you might gain an ultimate wisdom and harmony in life. Frey feels that tension, "there is no peace" and begins in that disharmony of desire, eating the pizza and not stopping. The last few lines finally commit the final act against Falun Dafa.
It is in these lines and lines like these ("there are three dead people in me," "here, body inside my body") that I feel Frey's performance most acutely, that we are embodied effects and inextricably contingent and always in relation to another. Our efforts to stable our minds, control our desires, and seek harmony in the universe are betrayed always, and always by what we seek outside of ourselves, and we make the sounds prayed into us: "we flip like fish. And settle in / for the grief performance."
Sitting lonely in this café now, my body wonders aloud about what it means to perform grief. As if I were to be frantically preparing for that play, which is "only the set of actors available that day." I am available now, so I sit feeling the grief of each of Frey's poems and wonder about performing them recursively for this café. To imitate an experience of grief, people might beat their heads; grovel on the ground; tear clothing, hair, and flesh; scream aloud; weep; stamp with the feet; lift the eyes. Frey's grief is quieter than this; it is a performance of the inner for the interior.
The Grief Performance by Emily Kendal Frey
Cleveland State University Poetry Center | <urn:uuid:1e5df179-e322-46d0-930c-27d989e7dbc8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bookslut.com/poetry/2012_05_018946.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96612 | 1,240 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Overland ParkArticle Free Pass
Overland Park, city, Johnson county, northeastern Kansas, U.S. Located on a low ridge that affords a broad view of the Missouri River valley, it is a southern suburb of Kansas City, near the Missouri border. Settled in 1906, it lies on the old Santa Fe Trail and was laid out as a stop on an interurban railway from Kansas City to Olathe; later it was the home of the first aviation school in the western United States. The city is now mainly residential, with several medical centres, and is the site of Johnson County Community College (1967). Inc. 1960. Pop. (2000) 149,080; (2010) 173,372.
What made you want to look up "Overland Park"? Please share what surprised you most... | <urn:uuid:85b0b228-9e1d-4049-bebb-3bcb7b7ae09c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/435961/Overland-Park | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957378 | 166 | 2.328125 | 2 |
State prone for mosquito season ripe with painful behemoth
Published: Tuesday, March 5, 2013 at 6:38 p.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, March 5, 2013 at 6:38 p.m.
When Tropical Storm Debby hit Florida last summer, the torrential waters unleashed a swarm of mosquitoes, among them the gallinipper — a big, biting mosquito that is native to Florida.
The storm also set up the perfect breeding ground for the mosquito to regenerate if Florida experiences heavy rainfall again this summer.
"The entire basis of mosquito populations of this type are weather-driven, and so if we end up with a tropical hurricane, that's what drives it," University of Florida entomologist Philip Kaufman said.
The gallinippers tend to congregate in low-lying areas containing still water, such as cattle pastures, Kaufman explained. They lay their eggs in soil, and the eggs can lie dormant for years until heavy waters effectively help hatch them.
"Because of the events last year, and the eggs laid, we can expect large numbers of these mosquitoes again," Kaufman said, adding that it will take "something like a tropical storm" for them to populate.
The gallinippers don't pose much of a threat to urban areas.
"Down near Paynes Prairie, you are more likely to have more numbers than Main Street Gainesville," Kaufman said.
They also have been more prevalent in Central and South Florida, even though they have lived throughout the state for hundreds of years, Kaufman said.
"When you read the historical accounts of the first European settlers in the Southeast and they talked about gigantic mosquitoes, this was one they were talking about," he said.
The gallinipper is big — with a wingspan of 6-7 millimeters — and colorful. Its bite also hurts.
"It is quite capable of biting through my shirt," Kaufman said. "We suggest people wear long-sleeve pants and shirts. Just doing that may not be enough for this type of mosquito; you're going to have use one of the insect repellants to dissuade them from landing."
And like most mosquitoes, the gallinippers are most active at dusk and dawn, Kaufman added. To help people better understand the breed, Kaufman and colleagues created a document on the IFAS website: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/in967.
‘Rough summer' possibly ahead
Whatever the mosquito type, locals could be destined for "a very rough summer," said Paul Myers, administrator for the Alachua County Health Department.
The area's mild winter spared mosquitoes from the hard freezes that would have killed many of them, he said, adding that major rainfall would amplify the problem. Two-thirds of the county's population lives in areas with mosquito spraying, but the rest lives in unincorporated Alachua County, where the County Commission has opted not to spray because of concerns about the cost and effectiveness of the treatment, as well as its environmental impacts, Myers said.
The county also has a surveillance program that detects cases of mosquito-borne illnesses such as West Nile virus, partly by checking with area physicians and veterinarians for suspected or confirmed cases of such diseases. It also checks county-maintained retention basins to determine if they have become mosquito breeding grounds and treats those that have.
Resurgent yellow fever mosquito
Meanwhile, Florida's most common backyard mosquito — a species known as the Asian tiger — appears to be facing evolutionary competition from the female yellow fever mosquito, according to a recent UF study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The yellow fever mosquito was introduced to the U.S., and the Southeast in particular, 500 years ago during the slave trade. When the Asian tiger mosquito landed in the Southeast via Texas in the mid-1980s, it reduced the yellow fever population, through the trickeries of courtship. The Asian tiger males rendered the yellow fever females sterile in a process called "satyrization," in which two different species mate but don't produce offspring and the male transmits a chemical to the female that sterilizes her.
But female yellow fever mosquitoes have begun to spurn the Asian tiger males.
"They seem to be recognizing what the wrong kind of male is," said Irka Bargielowski, a post doc at the Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory in Vero Beach who worked on the study. How exactly they do this is unknown and the subject of future study, Bargielowski said.
But the implications resonate with natural selection, said Dr. Philip Lounibos, an entomologist at the Vero Beach Lab and another author of the study.
"Since Darwin's time, sexual selection has been a very potent evolutionary force," Lounibos said. "(The mosquitoes) are going to use everything within their grasp to select for avoidance."
The practical consequence of a resurgence of yellow fever mosquitoes, however, might mean more transmission of dengue, a viral infection causing flu-like symptoms in humans. Lounibos said dengue has been problematic here only in the Florida Keys because of unsuccessful control efforts.
He said he suspects that dengue won't become an issue in other parts of the state, such as Jacksonville and Volusia County, where the resurgent yellow fever mosquito populations have been sighted.
Bargielowski said: "If you looked at other places in the world — maybe certain places in South America or in Asia where the two species are and dengue is endemic — then I think you could get a better outbreak. Obviously Florida is a nice study laboratory for us to work relatively safely."
Staff writer Morgan Watkins contributed to this story. Contact Kristine Crane at 338-3119 or email@example.com.
Reader comments posted to this article may be published in our print edition. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged. | <urn:uuid:a543a593-40a6-43b0-bd58-b15741f7e069> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gatorsports.com/article/20130305/ARTICLES/130309802/0/gatorstennis | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959364 | 1,239 | 2.6875 | 3 |
What is Frozen Custard?
An unknown food critic once said a frozen custard stand is 'where God gets His ice cream'. For thousands of frozen custard fans, this is probably not an exaggeration. Frozen custard is to regular ice cream what cream is to milk. Frozen custard is richer and creamier than standard ice cream because of a higher butterfat content, slower production time and less air blended into the mix. The result is almost like a frozen buttercream frosting, if such a thing were possible.
To understand the wonderful taste of frozen custard, one only has to look as far as the ingredients. In addition to only using the finest ingredients available, frozen custard contains at least 10% butterfat, as well as 1.4% egg yolk by weight. Egg yolks - the ingredient that separates frozen custard from regular ice cream – add a richer, fuller taste and an indescribably silky texture. It may look something like a soft scoop ice cream, but taste it and you'll immediately notice the difference.
One reason frozen custard is noticeably thicker than standard soft-serve ice cream is the churning process inside the freezer unit. The beaters inside the chamber of a frozen custard machine turn much more slowly than those in a soft-serve ice cream or frozen yogurt machine. This slow churning prevents excessive air from being mixed into the custard as it freezes. Standard ice cream beaters are designed to incorporate air into the product, a process called overrun. As the frozen custard solidifies, it falls into a waiting chest freezer for serving.
Another distinction is the way frozen custard is prepared. The volume of regular ice cream is almost doubled by the air whipped into it during production (called overrun). This volume of air, combined with the large size of the ice crystals formed, can result in a course texture.
Made fresh daily in front of customers in specially-crafted custard machines, a frozen custard mix is continuously fed into the freezing barrel and quickly frozen, resulting in a denser and smoother product that has 70% less overrun than regular ice cream. In contrast to regular ice cream which is served just above freezing, Bodacious Buckets frozen custard is served 18-20 degrees warmer, which allows for maximum flavor and doesn't freeze your taste buds.
Anyone who appreciates a super-premium product will be hooked on this stuff after just a few bites!
Frozen custard can be packed in dry ice for shipping, but is rarely offered on store shelves. The process of making frozen custard can be labor intensive and time-consuming, which works well for individual stands maintaining a limited supply, but not for a commercial production line. A typical frozen custard stand often limits its offerings to a few flavors - vanilla, chocolate and a featured flavor of the day. This practice allows each frozen custard machine to be dedicated to one flavor run, and the quality of the products can be maintained. Consumer demand for a variety of flavors would also make commercial frozen custard difficult to market.
Frozen custards stands are primarily found in the Midwest or Eastern Seaboard regions of the United States, but interest in this frozen treat has been growing in recent years. Other areas of the world may have a few entrepreneurs who have started their own frozen custard businesses or offer the treat through other outlets.
There is a lot of conflicting information concerning the history of frozen custard. Recipes for the custard mix can be traced back to the 1900s, but the commercial machines used to create frozen custard weren't invented until 1920 or so. The custard mix recipes also varied widely, although the basic ingredients of cream, sugar and egg yolks remained consistent. Some frozen custard recipes called for a boiled mixture, while others suggested using chilled ingredients and raw egg yolks.
With the advent of commercial freezer units designed specifically for frozen custard, a number of families in the eastern and Midwestern United States started their own ice cream stands during the 1930s and 1940s. Many of these early frozen custard stands have become local legends, still bearing the original family names. Much like its ice cream counterpart, frozen custard is served on cones or used as a base for milkshakes, floats, sundaes and blends.
The frozen custard mixture is stored in a refrigerated hopper before entering the freezing chamber, which keeps the temperature well below the recommended minimum. | <urn:uuid:231c6c69-cec0-4952-ab8f-2d51bfa447ec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bodaciousbuckets.com/Frozen_Custard_Facts.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944211 | 912 | 2.21875 | 2 |
Some 18 states implement what is called a "hurricane deductible" as part of insurance policies. While a normal deductible (i.e., the amount the homeowner must pay in the event of a loss, before the insurance kicks in) for property damage might be set at $2,000, the "hurricane deductible" says that if the event causing the loss is a "hurricane" then the deductible is instead set at a much higher level, such as $25,000.
here in PDF).
For a storm like Sandy the invocation of the "hurricane deductible" is a decision with tens of billions of dollars in consequences, as losses were spread over hundreds of thousands of homes. Either individual homeowners would bear these costs (if the deductibles were invoked) or insurance companies would (if they were not). Given the massive stakes, not surprisingly in the immediate aftermath of the storm politicians were quick to act.
In New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a Republican, issued an executive order defining Sandy as a post-tropical cyclone, invoking the NHC re-categorization:
In light of the National Weather Service’s categorization of Sandy as a post-tropical storm, it shall be a violation of N.J.A.C. 11:2-42.7 for any insurer to apply a mandatory or optional hurricane deductible to the payment of claims for property damage attributable to Sandy.US Senator Charles Schumer, a Democrat, sent a letter to NOAA (the parent agency of the NHC) reminding them of the political consequences of their storm categorization. He expalined why to a local radio station:
A few years back, when politics-science issues were more fashionable, there might have been outrage from scientists and other observers at the idea of a US Senator "looking over the shoulder" of a federal science agency and telling it how to make a scientific judgment. But I digress.
Issues associated with the "hurricane deductible" likely played a role in NOAA's immediate reversal in setting up an assessment team to evaluate the agency's performanceon Sandy. NOAA initially established an assessment team, to be co-chaired by Mike Smith, a widely-respected and accomplished private sector meteorologist who has also been critical of NOAA at times in the past. Involving an outsider as co-chair made good sense from the standpoint of the credibility of the assessment. However, NOAA terminated the assessment almost as soon as it was created.
In his initial work on the assessment as co-chair, Smith had identified some key questions to investigate:
Immediately after the termination of the assessment, Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA), Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight, sent NOAA a letter asking for a range of specific details about the curious decision (letter here in PDF, the replies from NOAA are due back to Rep. Broun this Friday).
- Was there a decision not to call Sandy a "hurricane" regardless of its meteorological characteristics? If this decision was made, was it made Friday (October 26th) or Saturday morning? If so, who made the decision and why?
- Was this decision the reason hurricane warnings, in spite of a large and dangerous hurricane moving toward the coast, were never issued?
- Given that an obvious large and powerful hurricane was headed for the U.S. coast, why wasn't that decision reconsidered? For example, Barry Myers, the CEO of AccuWeather, urged (on the AccuWeather.com website) the immediate issuance of hurricane warnings about eight hours before landfall. Others also urged the lack of hurricane warnings to be reconsidered.
prompting Smith to write yesterday:
They are ignoring the elephant in the room. Was Sandy a hurricane at landfall?All of this still matters because the NHC still has not rendered a final determination on Sandy's actual status at landfall. Such determinations are always re-evaluated in the months after a hurricane season, when there is more time and a break from the pressures of an operational forecasting environment. The NHC explained this at the time it announced the re-categorization just before Sandy's landfall:
While I have every confidence in the scientists at NHC, can you imagine the consequences if they were to re-categorize Sandy as hurricane at landfall? The implications would be enormous and the political fallout immense.ALL OF THESE CONSIDERATIONS LEAD US TO CONCLUDE THAT THE MOST APPROPRIATE CLASSIFICATION AT ADVISORY TIME IS EXTRATROPICAL. HOWEVER...FOR CONTINUITY OF SERVICE NHC WILL CONTINUE TO ISSUE ADVISORIES THROUGH LANDFALL. A POST-STORM ANALYSIS WILL RE-EXAMINE THE TIMING OF EXTRATROPICAL TRANSITION.
We have here a situation where state and federal policy makers have already made judgments about what the science should say (for a longer list of state actions see this) yet the actual science is not yet completely in. This situation illustrates that the NHC is not well structured to play a key role in regulatory-type decision making. This is not the fault of NOAA of the NHC, but the policy makers who put NHC in such a position via policy. Accompanying the questions about Sandy's status at landfall is the messy prospect of NOAA appearing as if to cancel a partially-independent assessment for fear of the questions being asked, and replacing it with a plain-vanilla committee with a plain-vanilla mandate.
I have no opinion on (or much interest in, actually) the substantive judgment about whether Sandy should have triggered "hurricane deductibles" or not -- I have heard from experts arguments on both sides. The larger point that I am focused on is the process through which hurricane risks are translated into homeowner incentives as a case study in the institutional design of processes meant to bring science into policy making. Unfortunately, it appears that in this case weak policy design at the science-policy interface means that the role of science is far less than might have been hoped for, with political considerations instead driving the process. Worse still, NOAA faces the prospect of a scandal of some sorts based on its efforts to escape the political battles. All around, not good. | <urn:uuid:d532e44a-02b7-450b-a7a2-32c598ad0645> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rogerpielkejr.blogspot.jp/2012/12/science-politics-and-hurricane.html?showComment=1355440591390 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95524 | 1,291 | 2.0625 | 2 |
[The Christian life] is not a life which at first is fairly broad, and which as you go on becomes narrower and narrower. No! The gate itself, the very way of entering into this life, is a narrow one. … Too often the impression is given that to be a Christian is after all very little different from being a non-Christian, that you must not think of Christianity as a narrow life, but as something most attractive and wonderful and exciting, and that you come in in crowds. It is not so according to our Lord. The gospel of Jesus Christ is too honest to invite anybody in that way. It does not try to persuade us that it is something very easy, and that it is only later on that we shall begin to discover it is hard. The gospel of Jesus Christ openly and uncompromisingly announces itself as being something which starts with a narrow entrance, a strait gate. …
We are told at the very outset of this way of life, before we start on it, that if we would walk along it there are certain things which must be left outside, behind us. There is no room for them, because we
have to start by passing through a strait and narrow gate. I like to think of it as a turnstile. It is just like a turnstile that admits one person at a time and no more. And it is so narrow that there are certain things which you simply cannot take through with you. It is exclusive from the very beginning, and it is important that we should look at this sermon in order to see some of the things which must be left behind.
The first thing we leave behind is what is called worldliness. We leave behind the crowd, the way of the world. … The Christian way of life is not popular. … You cannot take the crowd with you into the Christian life; it inevitably involves a break.
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, ii, pp. 220-1 | <urn:uuid:0c02ece6-a265-471d-b0ca-d00e43f5921f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://godwordistruth.wordpress.com/tag/sermon-on-the-mount/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983424 | 403 | 1.984375 | 2 |
The ad says, "In 2009, the average turnout rate at West Bank settlements was 80%, it was only 57% in Tel-Aviv, Haifa and Beer Sheva. Don't let others decide for you. Go vote!"
With less than two weeks to go before Israel's general elections, Israel's Peace Now movement launched a get-out-the-vote drive aimed at urging Israelis to come to the polls on Election Day.
Shalom Achshav's new campaign takes advantage of Facebook and other social media. It features a series of posters and an interactive map that shows the vast gap between the voter turnout rate at West Bank settlements and at communities inside Israel.
Click on the image above to go to the interactive website. Hover your mouse to view voter turnout in each community.
The first poster in the series was released yesterday. It says that in the last elections, in 2009, the average turnout rate at West Bank settlements was 80%, but was only 57% in Tel-Aviv, Haifa and Beer Sheva, which are Israel's second, third and fourth largest cities. "Don't let others decide for you. Go vote!" says the ad.
The interactive map (currently available only in Hebrew) shows how the settlers, through high turnout rates, succeed at maximizing their political power. By placing your mouse over a community in Israel (in blue) or a West Bank settlement (in orange), you can view its turnout rate. You can also feed the name of an Israeli community or a West Bank settlement into the box on the right and view the voter turnout in that community. On its Facebook page, Peace Now pointed out that in Tel Aviv and Haifa alone, more than 250,000 registered voters did not go out to vote. That equals about ten out of the 120 Knesset's seats. | <urn:uuid:2f58e24a-37b6-460f-b7d5-0fe0ed65c0e1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://peacenow.org/entries/shalom_achshav_launches_get-out-the-vote_campaign | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962815 | 375 | 1.671875 | 2 |
SUKKUR: Members of the Hindu community from all across upper Sindh converged at Sadh Bello Temple, Sukkur, on Sunday to celebrate the Shiv Ratri festival.
“It is held to celebrate the birth anniversary of Shankar Bhagwan, also known as Bholey Nath and Shankar Mahadevan,” explained a grain seller, Pehlaj Das. He then went on to explain the origins of the festival. “According to Hindu mythology, Shankar Bhagwan, one of the Hindu gods who reigned over the place which is present-day Sri Lanka, became so pleased with the sincerity of Rawan’s worship, that he gave him his throne,” he explained. “He then lives the rest of his life in abstinence in a graveyard.”
At around 3:30am, Hindu community members arrived at the place of worship using a boat as the temple is located in the middle of River Indus. They chanted various slogans, including ‘Jay Baba Bankhandi Maharaj’ and ‘Jay Baba Bholey Nath’ [Long live the god]. After bathing in the river, the pilgrims performed arti pooja (fire worship). “Many of the pilgrims fast for half a day or 24 hours after worship,” Raju, the shrine’s caretaker, told The Express Tribune. Many of the pilgrims had brought food baskets while stalls selling food items, religious books had been set up in the temple.
According to Das, worshipping Shankar Bhagwan with a clean heart makes people prosperous. “A large number of people visit Sadh Bello, his temple, on this day and have their prayers answered,” he said. “I have been coming here since childhood and have had all my prayers answered.”
Another man, Satram Das, had come with his family to pay their respects at the temple. “This place is so peaceful that it allows us to forget our problems,” he explained. “It feels very good to be here,” said his wife, Sawatri Bai, to The Express Tribune. “The religion you belong to matters little – the important thing is that your heart should be pure.” Pointing to a child in the arms of her daughter-in law, she explained that she had asked for a grandson on her last visit to the temple and her wish had been fulfilled. “I have asked for peace and happiness for all of humanity,” she responded, when questioned about what she had wished for this year.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 11th, 2013. | <urn:uuid:4f4fd870-3290-45db-a18e-9cfd80a2b63b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tribune.com.pk/story/518863/hindu-community-gets-together-to-celebrate-shiv-ratri/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983588 | 556 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Lack of action hits regional tourism promotion policies
Posted Monday, April 30 2012 at 14:25
Efforts to harmonise tourism policies in the region have hit a snag, with member states remaining reluctant to implement proposed strategies.
According to a report tabled in the East African Community (EAC) Legislative Assembly last week, regional tourism interventions are being hampered by inadequate funding, bureaucracy, and unwillingness by partner states to prioritise them.
“We need to develop an over-arching tourism strategy for East Africa. Unfortunately, some partner states remain hesitant,” said Ms Safina Kwekwe, chairperson of the East Africa Legislative Assembly (EALA) committee on tourism.
East Africa receives about three million tourists annually, half of whom visit Kenya.
The sector is expected to create about 2.2 million jobs by 2018. According to the report, the region made $3.5 billion collectively from travel and tourism last year.
Ministry of Tourism statistics show that Kenya earned about Sh98 billion from tourism while Tanzania made about Sh104 billion in 2010.
Among the five partner states, Tanzania invests the most heavily in its tourism sector, which contributes about 16 per cent of its GDP.
Regionally, tourism contributes about 17.3 per cent of the community’s combined GDP.
Further, many natural resources that act as key tourist attractions are shared across borders, making it imperative to develop a regional strategy for the sector.
Cooperation in the sector is enshrined in Chapters 19 and 20 of the treaty establishing the community, where partner states agreed to develop a collective and coordinated approach to the promotion and marketing of tourism.
They also agreed to develop collective policies for conservation and sustainable utilisation of wildlife.
Many of the practical applications of the agreements are yet to see the light of day. There have been various efforts to harmonise tourism in East Africa.
In 2010, EALA passed the EAC Tourism and Wildlife Management Bill, meant to create a commission that would address issues facing the community’s wildlife and tourism industry.
Further, the piece of legislation would have streamlined tourism policies by eliminating overlapping and competing departments in the management of the sector at the national and regional levels.
However, the Bill is yet to become law as it is still awaiting approval by the Summit of the Heads of State.
The EAC’s strategic plan for 2011-2015 outlines the adoption of a regional approach to protect wildlife resources from illegal use and practices as one of the pillars of tourism development. | <urn:uuid:93a041f2-5acf-428e-8a1b-525e47314765> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nation.co.ke/Features/smartcompany/Lack+of+action+hits+regional+tourism+promotion+policies+++/-/1226/1396742/-/gaiva7/-/index.html?relative=true&title=Lack%20of%20action%20hits%20regional%20tourism%20promotion%20policies | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938535 | 518 | 1.71875 | 2 |
New (and Young) Orleans
Young alums make their mark in the wake of a national disaster
By Bill Walsh ’86
Photographs by Phyllis Graber Jensen
For many Americans, Hurricane Katrina’s devastation of New Orleans more than four years ago is a tired old story long since elbowed off the front pages by a historic presidential election, a flagging economy, and a two-front war overseas.
But for others — enthusiastic and committed twenty- and thirty-somethings — New Orleans is an alluring story of opportunity, a once-in-a-lifetime chance to plunge into the trenches of what may be the world’s largest urban renewal project.
So extensive was the devastation from the Aug. 29, 2005, disaster that New Orleans has been forced to reengineer and, in the process, fundamentally rethink its systems of public education, healthcare, housing, and flood control. Despite costly missteps and shifting priorities — and partly because of them — New Orleans has become a fascinating and unique open-air laboratory for experiments in how to rebuild a major American city from the ground up.
My former newspaper, The Times-Picayune, has called post-Katrina New Orleans “a beacon for young people.” In my own conversations with young Bates graduates drawn to that light, I’ve heard them talk about New Orleans as their opportunity to put degrees in urban planning, medicine, and education to work and, in the process, leave their imprint on one of the nation’s most beloved cities.
Post-Katrina New Orleans was just the sort of blank slate that Morgan Carter ’03 was looking for as she wrapped up a master’s degree in education from Stanford in 2007. She was less interested in teaching than in education reform, and among the reform initiatives percolating around the country in 2007, few were more tantalizing than what was happening in New Orleans.
The city’s public school system had long been plagued by high dropout rates, violence, and political scandal. The public schools had also become arguably the most racially segregated in the country after white New Orleanians, more than a generation ago, began steering their children into private parochial schools.
When Katrina flooded many of the city’s 222 schools and scattered tens of thousands of students across the country, reformers saw an opportunity to remake the entire public education system.
It was fertile ground for the explosive growth of charter schools, which give principals autonomy to design curriculum, hire and fire staff, and mete out discipline. Charter schools must meet achievement benchmarks, but how they do it is up to them. Carter conservatively estimates that 60 percent of New Orleans public school students are now enrolled in charter schools, the highest rate in the country.
“New Orleans was primed for a massive overhaul of the public school system,” says Carter, executive director of the Foundation for Science and Math Education, an organization that supports two public charter high schools. “It was obvious from the outset that New Orleans was the place to be in terms of education reform.”
The proliferation of charter schools in New Orleans has yielded impressive short-term results, Carter says, pointing to the decrease in the percentage of “academically unacceptable” public schools in the city from 63 percent to 32 percent.
Meg Kinney ’08 has also been part of the city’s charter school movement. At Bates, Kinney majored in American cultural studies, minored in education, and did an honors thesis on education policy. She had hoped to teach in Harlem after graduation with Teach For America. But TFA had such a need in New Orleans that she headed to the South for the first time in her life.
She was first assigned to a public school in LaPlace, about a half-hour outside the city. But when she saw an opening at a New Orleans charter school named after Bates alumnus and civil rights leader Benjamin Mays ’20, she leapt at it.
The difference in the two schools, she says, speaks to a new ethos taking root in the city’s school system. “The expectations at charter schools are higher. Our students are expected to be leaders starting now,” she says. “People are committed to putting in the time and everyone at the school believes the kids can succeed.”
Kinney has resources to buy supplies she lacked before. When she needs to talk to the school principal, she has his ear. School days are longer. And parents are required to come in one Saturday a month to see what their children are studying. Discipline is strict and strictly enforced.
Contrary to some predictions that parents would resist charter schools in their neighborhoods, many have embraced them as a welcome alternative to the failing schools otherwise available to them.
“All I hear is, ‘Thank you, thank you. We need this,’” says Kinney.
By the time Katrina hit in 2005, Maggie Merrill ’98 was gone from the city, having earned a master’s degree in public health from Tulane and taken a job in her home state of Washington. Watching the disaster unfold on television, she felt helpless seeing familiar streets flooded and friends’ homes washed away.
Then, just months after the storm, she found herself back in New Orleans as a student again. “It was the perfect place to be to do a Ph.D. in urban studies,” she says.
Her academic pursuits quickly gave way to more immediate and practical concerns after she was drafted to work in the mayor’s office, soon becoming policy director for New Orleans mayor C. Ray Nagin.
Suddenly, Merrill found herself pressing policymakers in Washington, D.C., and Baton Rouge, the state capital, for federal recovery assistance for the beleaguered city. She reviewed revised flood maps drawn up by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. She worked with the Office of Recovery on a soft second-loan program (a second mortgage whose payment is forgiven or deferred until resale of the property) to help residents purchase and rehabilitate flood-damaged homes.
Even before the flood waters from Katrina had receded, the mayor’s office became one of the most visible symbols of the failed public response to the storm, a dubious honor it continues to share with FEMA and other federal and state agencies. But Merrill says that many Americans don’t understand how deep Katrina’s destruction ran. It was about more than levees and flooding.
“The entire city government was wiped out and working off a cruise ship. No one was prepared for that scope,” Merrill says. “We’re getting criticism for a slow recovery. When you read about other major disasters, we’re talking 20 to 30 years before the infrastructure is completely rebuilt and cities fully recover.”
“Members of Congress felt like they appropriated billions of dollars and their job was done.”
Merrill also said that misconceptions about the complexity and enormity of the recovery even extend to the policymakers in Washington, who OK’d billions of dollars to remake the city. So great was concern that the money would be misspent that Congress added layers-upon-layers of checks and balances, resulting in a massive administrative bottleneck at the local level. In fact, only about 50 percent of the FEMA money earmarked to rebuild the area has gotten through to various city and parish governments, according to a Brookings Institution report.
Funds to rebuild public infrastructure, says Merrill, are even slower to arrive. “Members of Congress felt like they appropriated billions of dollars and their job was done,” she said. “The feeling is that the money has been put in place and it’s the responsibility of the state and local governments to take care of it. Well, it’s harder than you might think to navigate the bureaucracy.”
Nonetheless, Merrill notes, there have been dramatic improvements since the disaster. According to the Census Bureau, New Orleans is the fastest-growing city in America and the population in back to 76 percent of pre-Katrina levels. Some $8 billion in grants have gone to nearly 125,000 uninsured owners of homes badly damaged in the storm. And 90 percent of the people who received grants in Orleans Parish, even though they had the opportunity to take the money and leave, have opted to rebuild.
Despite people’s willingness to return, a persistent problem in post-Katrina New Orleans is the lack of adequate healthcare, especially for the half of the population that lacks insurance. The city’s major public medical center, Charity Hospital, remains closed, and though a $100 million federal grant has funded 91 community health clinics, it’s been hard to staff these clinics. That’s because many healthcare support workers are priced out of the city by the $733 average rent, despite cash bonuses to attract healthcare workers.
“When I came down for my interview, it was really appealing because the city was rebuilding, and there were opportunities for students you wouldn’t find anywhere else,” she says.
One of those opportunities has been at a community health clinic where medical students provide the primary care to low-income and usually uninsured patients. “People need so much help they will go see students,” she says.
And hospitals are so shorthanded that second-year medical students like Unger find themselves plunged into surgeries and trauma treatments that they normally wouldn’t see until much later.
Unger, like others who have come to post-Katrina New Orleans, acknowledged that the charming allure of the city also played a role in her decision to relocate. A New Hampshire native, she has three more years of medical school and is already thinking of applying for residencies in the area.
“I have absolutely fallen in love with New Orleans,” Unger said. “With all of the music and the food it is a completely different culture than I have ever been in.”
Morgan Carter, whose work with charter schools is aimed at nothing less than providing educational equity for all children, says that the enthusiasm of those who have come to take part in the rebuilding is infectious, and inspiring.
“It’s part of what keeps so many of us here,” says Carter. “There are so many folks in my age range who share a commitment to the city. They share a deep passion for the work they are doing. And there is so much opportunity to do good here.”
Bill Walsh ’86, a strategic adviser for AARP in Washington, D.C., is a former reporter for The Times-Picayune of New Orleans.
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New Form of Mad Cow Disease
An Articles Archives
Diet - Diseases - Enzymes - Exercise - Health - Herbs - Longevity - Medicine - Minerals - Natural Health - Nutrition - Stress - Vegan - Vegetarian - Vitamins
We began this archives as a means of assisting our visitors in answering many of their health and diet questions, and in encouraging them to take a pro-active part in their own health. We believe the articles and information contained herein are true, but are not presenting them as advice. We, personally, have found that a vegan diet has helped our own health, and simply wish to share with others the things we have found. Each of us must make our own decisions, for it's our own body. If you have a health problem, see your own physician.
Research in Italy Turns Up a New Form of Mad Cow Disease
February 17, 2004
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.
A new form of mad cow disease has been found in Italy, according to a study released yesterday, and scientists believe that it may be the cause of some cases of human brain-wasting disease.
While the strain has been found in only two Italian cows, both apparently healthy, scientists in Europe and the United States said it should provide new impetus in Washington for the Department of Agriculture to adopt the more sensitive rapid tests used in Europe because it may not show up in those used in the United States.
Along with the Italian study, there have been recent reports of unusual types of mad cow disease in France and Japan, and scientists say the discovery of new forms suggests that many cases of "sporadic" human disease - by far the most common kind, responsible for about 300 deaths a year in the United States - are not spontaneous at all, but come from eating animals.
The brain-destroying diseases involve prions – misfolded proteins that are believed somehow to induce other proteins to fold incorrectly, leaving patches of useless debris and holes that turn brains to sponge.
The study, by a team from universities in Turin, Verona, Brescia and Milan, was edited by Dr. Stanley B. Prusiner, who won a 1997 Nobel Prize for his prion work. It appears this week in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Two American experts not involved in the study said the findings were sobering. Dr. Pierluigi Gambetti, director of the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center at Case Western Reserve University, called the report "very convincing." Dr. Paul Brown, a prion expert at the National Institutes of Health, said it "opens the possibility of a second strain of the agent in circulation - and that's probably not good news."
Current American testing focuses only on finding the prion that causes bovine spongiform encephalopathy in cows and "variant" Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.
But the disease found in two aged dairy cows in Italy is so different that its discoverers gave it a new name, bovine amyloidotic spongiform encephalopathy, or BASE, because it forms amyloid plaques in the brain - round, dark clumps of sticky protein junk.
"We don't know if this disease is passed to humans," said Dr. Salvatore Monaco, a neurologist at the G. B. Rossi Polyclinic in Verona and an author of the study. "But it is very similar to a subtype that causes sporadic C.J.D. in humans."
In the past, some people with cases diagnosed as sporadic have said they ate squirrel brains, pig brains or raw meat, but no link to a different prion was established, said Dr. Michael C. Hansen, who studies prion diseases for Consumers Union. Recently, he said, a new prion strain closely related to a French strain of scrapie, a sheep disease, was found in a French cow.
Both the Italian cows, one 15 years old and one 11, appeared healthy. Their unusual strain was discovered only because Italy tests all cattle over 30 months old slaughtered for human food. By last August, it had tested 1.6 million and found 103 that tested positive for prions.
Finding a new strain in apparently healthy cattle "suggests that all surveillance should be like we do in Italy," Dr. Monaco said.
Many American prion experts concur. The United States now plans to test only 40,000 cows this year, focusing on those too sick to walk, and using an immunohistochemistry test that takes about eight days and is "much less sensitive, "Dr. Gambetti said, than tests used in Europe that take only hours.
Besides forming plaques, the strain differs in that it appears in much older cattle. Most cows with the well-known strain die before they are 10. Also, the new prions collect in different parts of the brain - the olfactory bulb and thalamus, rather than the brain stem. The two cows also had relatively fewer "holes."
Those characteristics resemble the ones found in about 30 percent of humans who have the sporadic form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
In the United States, about one person per million develops and dies of the sporadic form each year, meaning that there are usually about 300 cases in the country. (For unknown reasons, Italy has nearly two cases per million; Switzerland has about three.)
Only one person in the United States has had variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob, the human form of mad cow disease, which was first described in the 1990's and has killed about 150 Europeans; she grew up in Britain and was probably infected there.
Most sporadic cases are among the elderly, while in Britain the variant form struck many people under 30. Victims of both rapidly develop staggering, memory loss and dementia, fall into comas and die.
Dr. Brown said the discovery did not suggest that many humans were suffering from undiagnosed illness. If that was the case, he said, the number of sporadic cases found in Britain since 1994 should have shot up; they have not.
The sporadic form has been assumed to arise spontaneously because there has been no other obvious cause, said Dr. Laura Manuelidis, a Yale neuropathologist who studies the disease.
But human cases from several countries produce different symptoms when injected into susceptible mice, showing that there are several human strains.
Dr. Manuelidis is skeptical of the conventional wisdom that prions, which contain no DNA or RNA, can transmit infections. She believes that a slow-acting virus, not yet discovered, may be the cause.
To make her point that such infections may have been crossing species well before mad cows created a scandal in Britain a decade ago, she read from an old report she has posted on her office door.
It is from an 1883 issue of the Medical Veterinary Review: A veterinarian named Serraet from southwest France describes a cow he saw die of the symptoms of scrapie, which had then been known in sheep for 100 years: itching, nervousness, partial paralysis and, ultimately, coma.
Dr. Serraet ends with a suggestion: "I would advise the managers of cattle abattoirs to sell the meat only to lower-class butcher shops."
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
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Google's ultimate social network
You can have 10.000 friends on Twitter, you can have 5.000 on Facebook or you can be the most active Linkedin-member ever, but eventually it always comes down to Google.
With Google Profile you can now make your existing profile available for the world. In the Google search results a "profile results" section will appear when looking for a specific name. With a link to the profile page off course. The profile page has a url which ends with your profile name.
The feature is for now only available in the United States, therefore most Europeans will be able to make the page won't be able to verify it (has to be done through Knol).
However, you can edit your page so it can feature in the Google search results and have a url with your profile name in it. Check out www.google.com/profiles to learn more.
This action by Google is a fairly simple step for Google to make. A small step for Google, a big step for searchers so to say. And a very smart one. Those not interested in Social Networks will probably be interested in this feature since everybody wants to be found in Google. Most people won't see any objection to having this kind of profile page which you can edit yourself. A quick search in Twitter shows that in the first day many were editting their profile pages right away. Something that probably will continue in the forthcoming weeks.
The profile page will be a search tool as well. There are some elements which will help you rank better. For example, you can place links in your bio-box. These link don't have 'nofollow' on them but won't pass Pagerank. Besides that you can add a lot of links in the links-section.
If people start linking to the profile pages when writing about a specific person instead of Wikipedia it can even be more interesting than imagined.
One thing that will be interesting is how Google is going to handle the 'business' accounts. You can already see businesses making a profile, who will then popping up between persons in the results.
With this step Google also places itself 'above' the social networks. With that gaining even more authority. In my opinion Google made a very smart move with this feature. It's a simple move but it immediately sees its results.
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12 June 2013 / 13 June 2013 | <urn:uuid:295748b8-796a-4112-a6fd-4ec8de70d684> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.searchcowboys.com/google/506 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.907488 | 563 | 1.554688 | 2 |
to keep the passion alive in a relationship?
and passion in all relationships, particularly marriage......By Pierre
In many cultures love is typically a very complex emotion and
love between adults (unless it is a
platonic relationship) implies that there
will be both romance and (physical)
passion to some extent. Without the absence of one, it is not considered to be a wholesome relationship. In fact the
concept is so powerful in the western world that it might actually be responsible for the sad state of relationships today. Every one out of two
marriages in the United States ends up in divorce. Millions of
couples do not wish to marry or delay their marriages for as long as possible.
Millions of other couples are leading dull and unexciting
lives. Europe is supposedly
even worse with fewer couples opting to marry
or have children. (Related article: Women's
need for intimacy)
While it would be scandalous to say that the
institution of marriage may be falling apart (we will
be told by advocates of marriage about countless studies suggesting that married people are happier, ride the corporate ladder faster, blah blah...), it is definitely an issue that has gotten
the attention of the authorities. Reportedly the US Government is so
concerned that it wants to 'promote' marriage. The reason for this sad state of affairs is that the concept of love (with its implications that romance,
passion, friendship, emotional support (Emotional
intimacy), and of course the role of parents for their children) continues to emphasize that all this has to be achieved through
one person. Thus, how many times have we heard that the mother who is taking care of the kids is not the
passionate woman she used
to be in the bedroom. Or the husband is not your best friend any more. Or the wife is no longer attractive and there is no passion left.
While we do not think that Japan has the solution to all the problems of the world but it is helpful to look at the system in
still a very low rate of divorce (current estimate puts it at
half of United States though it has almost doubled during the
period 1991-2001). Joint families are very common and there are very few instances of
abuse/foster parents/single parents, etc.
However, adultery is far more common, though no one would ever admit it since there are not too many magazines doing surveys on infidelity.
(Related: How to
bond with a man?)
How do the Japanese handle the situation?
The Japanese society understands that romantic and
passionate love might not always be provided by the same person.
In fact, Japanese language has two separate words to distinguish between
passionate love ('seiai') and romantic love ('renai'). For centuries, men and
women have had very different ideas of what they want from each other but the
American society has refused to accept the reality and instead
keeps pushing us to love our partners - get everything that we want from one person even if that is not what the other person really wants. Japan
has taken a totally different view - it has clearly recognized the differences between romantic and
passionate love and admitted to the possibility
that both may not be received from the same person. Thus, for centuries, it has been accepted that in case there is something missing in a couple's
life, it is perfectly reasonable to accept that each partner has the right to go seek it elsewhere. This does not mean that the couple's relationship
is jeopardized or a divorce needs to be contemplated or the
couple should start fighting - something that happens almost immediately in the rest
of the world. In fact Japanese have a very mature attitude towards this - they respect the right of the other partner to have a level of privacy
that would allow him/her to go seek what is missing without necessarily sharing it with the rest of the world.
relationship in Japan)
The Japanese society has also put a system in place that allows both men and women to indulge in whatever is missing in their lives
- there are all kinds of institutions and providers of services and almost all of them have a level of privacy that the rest of the world
would envy (Related:
Carla Bruni is
polyamorous). More importantly, it is how the overall society treats these institutions and practices.
Are we suggesting that you should adopt these practices wherever you live? Maybe not! But this is what we would say - if there
is something missing in your life then you need to have a serious conversation with your partner and let her/him know if the
Japanese option is something that can be considered as a solution if she/he is either incapable/unwilling/uncomfortable with the idea.
and intimacy Must
haves in a partner Dating
to find the perfect partner?
to seduce men?
relationships for couples
Should I date platonic friend?
How to make
my boyfriend romantic
Why don't I like sex | <urn:uuid:7db4d4fa-ed3c-4a82-858b-523fc7c91b07> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mynippon.com/kuchi/loverhome.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958897 | 1,051 | 2 | 2 |
Parenthetically, it is interesting to note that a major impetus for
SI theory is intended to be a general theory of human intelligence. Its major application (besides educational research) has been in personnel selection and placement. Meeker (1969) examines its application to education.
The following example illustrates three closely related abilities that differ in terms of operation, content, and product. Evaluation of semantic units (EMU) is measured by the ideational fluency test in which individuals are asked to make judgements about concepts. For example: "Which of the following objects best satisfies the criteria, hard and round: an iron, a button, a tennis ball or a lightbulb? On the other hand, divergent production of semantic units (DMU) would require the person to list all items they can think of that are round and hard in a given time period. Divergent production of symbolic units (DSU) involves a different content category than DMU, namely words (e.g., "List all words that end in 'tion'). Divergent production of semantic relations (DMR) would involve the generation of ideas based upon relationships. An example test item for this ability would be providing the missing word for the sentence: "The fog is as ____ as sponge" (e.g., heavy, damp, full).
1. Reasoning and problem-solving skills (convergent and divergent operations) can be subdivided into 30 distinct abilities (6 products x 5 contents).
2. Memory operations can be subdivided into 30 different skills (6 products x 5 contents).
3. Decision-making skills (evaluation operations) can be subdivided into 30 distinct abilities (6 products x 5 contents).
4. Language-related skills (cognitive operations) can be subdivided into 30 distinct abilities (6 products x 5 contents).
Meeker, M.N. (1969). The Structure of Intellect.
Relevant Web Sites:
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Sierra's July/August 2004 Let's Talk book selection:
An online discussion guide
What it's about
This booklet provides an easy, sociable way to learn about air-pollution issues. With it you can hold a lively, informed discussion with the friends and neighbors in your Let's Talk group. You'll ask yourselves: How many people do you know who have breathing problems, and how has it affected their lives? How are kids and adults in communities across America harmed by polluted air? What is the Bush administration doing about these problems? How could today's technologies--along with enforcement of clean-air laws--clear America's air? The basic facts are all in the booklet. You bring the personal experiences. Who knows how the world would change if people all over the country had this fundamental conversation?
Where to get it
You can get the booklet free here.
About the authors
"Smokestacks, Impacts, and Talkbacks" was prepared by Sierra Club staff and volunteers, including Greg Casini, Lisa Renstrom, Steve Baru, Cal French, Kim Anderson, Steve Welter, and Rafael Reyes.
Discussion questions are in the booklet itself, along with interesting facts about:
- how air pollution is affecting children and adults in communities across America.
- how Bush administration policies are allowing major industries to keep on polluting—without installing up-to-date pollution controls.
- how today's technology, along with real enforcement of clean-air laws, could put America back on track to healthy air.
To learn more about the Sierra Club's clean-air program, click here.
Urge the Bush administration to protect our families from harmful mercury emissions. | <urn:uuid:66f3075e-7017-4e7b-9483-aa584c5c592f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/letstalk/july_2004/book.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927621 | 348 | 3.03125 | 3 |
Embark on the journey of a lifetime with Destination Hunter as your digital guide. Discover all that awaits you anywhere in the United States, Mexico, Canada, or the Caribbean Islands with just a few clicks of the mouse.
Our interactive map allows you to start by exploring the region of your choice. You can find out what kind of fun the sunny states of the West coast have to offer, or see if a bustling city in the East might be the perfect stopover on your next getaway.
Learn about the historical hotspots and best-kept secrets that are in store for you across America. Find the cultural heritage site or arts' venue that is sure to bring any vacation alive. Plan a visit to a natural wonder near you or plot a course to a landmark that is off the beaten path. You can even picture yourself in the action by viewing one of our stunning slideshows.
With Destination Hunter your fantasy adventure, no matter how big or small, becomes a real world experience. Happy travels!
When Christopher Columbus passed the archipelago east of Puerto Rico in the Caribbean Sea in 1493, he named it Santa Ursula y las Once Mil Virgenes, or Saint Ursula and Her 11,000 Virgins, Of these, the easternmost 60 islands, rocks, and cays comprise what are now known as the British Virgin Islands.
To describe Canada as a melting pot doesn't begin to do justice to the second largest country in the world. With a substantial aboriginal population, centuries of immigrants arriving from around the world and bilingual provinces, Canada offers a little bit of everything.
Mexico is among the richest Latin American countries in traditions, formed by the fusion of the Spanish culture—present in everything from architecture to language, from Talavera tile-making to the Catholic religion—layered on to the already complex, sophisticated and luxurious map of indigenous Mesoamerica. | <urn:uuid:66e90388-a7fa-48a9-8518-066bdf729b15> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/destination-hunter/north-america/united-states/south/tennessee/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914107 | 386 | 1.851563 | 2 |
Lindsay Rakers is a senior program associate for The Carter Center.
Eight years ago, the urine of 12-year-old Jude Ogwu was consistently red from blood. His father, chief of Aboh, a village in southeast Nigeria, took him to the hospital for treatment but received none. The hospital lacked medicine and the resources needed to treat Ogwu, who was suffering from schistosomiasis, a parasitic disease that damages internal organs.
Ogwu and his friends are particularly susceptible to schistosomiasis because they swim and play in a nearby stream where disease transmission occurs via snails.
With assistance from The Carter Center, Ogwu took his first dose of praziquantel, the medicine that treats and prevents schistosomiasis, when he entered primary school in 2005. Seven years later, when I visited Aboh last summer, I saw Ogwu take his annual dose. He said he feels better and no longer has bloody urine.
I have been traveling to Nigeria since 2005 and was there to witness schistosomiasis program implementation. Health education and drug distribution were to occur outside the local community center. As people gathered under tents, the police officers who had escorted us ran their sirens for several minutes. My Nigerian colleagues told me that this was to arouse curiosity and increase attendance. We keep careful records of who receives treatment; community members not attending the drug distribution would have to be visited in their homes or schools later.
A child is measured to determine correct dosing and then provided with Mectizan® (ivermectin, donated by Merck) to prevent river blindness and praziquantel to prevent and treat schistosomiasis (donated by Merck KGaA and distributed with support from Izumi Foundation).
We walked to the slow-moving, muddy stream that harbors schistosomiasis year-round. Local resident Patience Odogwu was cleaning beans when we arrived, scrubbing them with sand, then swirling them in the water. Children like Jude Ogwu are not the only ones at risk — the stream plays a role in the daily chores of all villagers. Aboh is fortunate in that it has a water pump in town that delivers clean, safe water. While a valuable resource, the pump’s capacity does not alleviate the need for people to go to the stream for chores like washing clothes, bathing, or scrubbing beans.
It was a privilege to watch the Aboh community take strides toward healthier lives during my visit. And I was reminded that we’ve accomplished much, but we still have more to do. | <urn:uuid:1e1578e9-8af2-43d5-91ff-a6649ef9584b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.cartercenter.org/2013/01/07/nigerian-village-prevents-treats-schistosomiasis/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976071 | 539 | 2.703125 | 3 |
To me the phrase
prohibited l’chatchila seems a bit confusing. Can someone explain what this means in plain and simple english?
(context: someone says "action X is prohibited l’chatchila")
"L'chatchila" means "from the outset", meaning that before one did action 'x' the halacha was that it was forbidden. However, if one was not familiar with that halacha and did action 'x' without knowing that there was a problem, then "b'di'eved" ("after the fact") the halacha might be different, meaning the consequences of what was done would change.
In practice this means that if one goes to their LOR and says "I did this, now what?", the Rabbi might say: "L'chatchila that was forbidden, but b'di'eved, since you didn't know, its not as big of a problem (or whatever the halacha b'di'eved is)".
For actual halachic examples this website gives one:
For actual questions of practical halacha always CYLOR.
L'chat'chila means, as HodofHod pointd out, "from the start". That is, when you're examining the permissibility of the action before doing it, you should consider it prohibited.
Now, as far as fulfilling a requirement by doing an action goes, we (very often) say that what is okay not l'chat'chila is also okay in a situation of difficulty, where one cannot easily fulfill the "l'chat'chila" method. For example, if it's required to stand while fulfilling some mitzva (command), but, after the fact (i.e., not l'chat'chila), one's considered to have fulfilled it even if he did so sitting, then we'd usually say that someone can, from the outset, sit while performing this act if standing would be difficult. Exactly what qualifies as "difficult" should be asked of a competent, orthodox rabbi.
So likely someone who says "prohibited l'chat'chila" is transferring that extra connotation from the realm of actively fulfilling commands to the realm of prohibitions, and means "prohibited except in a situation of difficulty" (where, again, "difficulty" would need to be assessed by a rabbi). But it'd be best to confirm that meaning with whoever is using the phrase.
|show 1 more comment| | <urn:uuid:671a3c5b-9d52-4082-ac57-219744cfeb70> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/10217/what-does-prohibited-lchatchila-mean/10225 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966596 | 519 | 2.578125 | 3 |
At the Elmer E. Rasmuson Wildlife Conservation Center
Each year hundreds of students (ranging from kindergarten through 12th grade) and teachers visit the Elmer E. Rasmuson Wildlife Conservation Center and the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Ranch. These workshops and field trips provide a new perspective that will help foster a passion for science and discovery and a commitment to care for the wildlife in the natural world. Below you find information about some of the different workshops and field trips available.
Grade School youth engage in a Macro Invertebrate study with Conservation Educators from the Lee and Penny Anderson Wildlife Conservation Education Program at Dupuyer Creek west of the Elmer E. Rasmuson Wildlife Conservation Center on the TRMR.
Project WET (Water Education for Teachers) is an international, interdisciplinary, water science and education program for formal and non-formal educators of K-12 students.
Since its inception in 1984, the program has attracted global interest. The goal of the Project WET program is to facilitate and promote the awareness, appreciation, knowledge, and stewardship of water resources through the development and dissemination of classroom ready teaching aids and the establishment of state and internationally sponsored Project WET programs.
Project WILD is a conservation and environmental education program especially designed for teachers of kindergarten through high school youth. Project WILD is co-sponsored by the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies and the Western Regional Environmental Education Council, Inc.
Project WILD About Elk is just one part of the Project WILD program. The TRM Ranch and the Boone and Crockett Education Program hosted a Project WILD about Elk workshop. Teachers learned what an elk is and where they live, about the history of elk, the future of elk, and much more.
BOONE AND CROCKETT CONSERVATION
The Conservation Education has available several modules relating to activities which can be conducted at the TRM Ranch. Some of the modules include:
GRIZZLY BEAR ECOLOGY ALONG THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN FRONT (7th - 12th Grade Unit - 3 days ) Day one and Day three are spent in the classroom. Day two will take the students to the TRM Ranch where they will learn about grizzly bear habitat, trapping for research and how radio telemetry is used as a management tool. Students learn about the physical characteristics of grizzly bears and be able to describe the similarities to and differences from black bears. They will also learn about grizzly bear behavior, habitat use, and food requirements.
LANDFORMS AND GEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN FRONT (5th - 9th Grade Unit - 3 days) Day one and Day three are spent in the classroom. Day two will take the students to the TRM Ranch where they will be stationed at an observation point and the group will discuss the geological history and the lay of the land. Students learn about plains, plateaus, and mountains, as well as rock layers, erosion, glacial landforms, and continental drift.
THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN FRONT ECOSYSTEM - ITS COMPONENTS, MANAGEMENT, AND FUTURE (8th - 12th Grade Unit - 3 days) Day one and Day three are spent in the classroom. Day two will take the students to the TRM Ranch where they learn about and use topographical maps and compasses. Discussion will also include the types of wildlife and plant life found in the area, abiotic components of the ecosystem, and how the land is being managed.
LANDSCAPE is a 28-minute video tape that was initially produced with the goal of providing the public with a balanced view about the complex and often controversial issue of grazing on public lands. After the initial screening, many teachers felt the video would make an excellent learning tool for the classroom. Therefore, a committee was formed with representatives from Agriculture in Montana Schools, Boone and Crockett Club, and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. The committee developed a guide for teachers to use with the Landscape video. Some of the key concepts explored in Landscape are:
Cooperation between people involved in livestock production and wildlife management
Different artists perceptions of the landscape of the West
Healthy habitat is key to healthy animals
Plants - a renewable resource
Changing the focus of management from livestock and wildlife to the land itself
LEOPOLD EDUCATION PROJECT
The Leopold Education Project (LEP) is an innovative, interdisciplinary, educational program based on the classic writings of the renowned conservationist, Aldo Leopold. The LEP was developed to teach the public about humanity's ties to the natural world and to provide leadership in the effort to conserve and protect the earth's natural resources.
The goal of LEP is to instill a love, a respect, and an admiration for the land, leading to an ecologically literate citizenry with an intense consciousness of the earth. | <urn:uuid:b31a4d6d-8b4a-44df-8989-df68c59b7d77> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.boone-crockett.org/educationPrograms/education_fieldtrips.asp?area=educationPrograms&ID=6080AFEF&se=1&te=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927913 | 1,016 | 3.390625 | 3 |
-- Catholic News Agency
Alaska Catholics Called To Embrace Additional Changes At Mass
ANCHORAGE, ALASKA, December 11 (CNA) .- On Sunday, Nov. 27, Roman Catholic parishes across the United States and much of the English-speaking world officially began using the newest translation of the Roman Missal - the sacred text for the Mass. In Alaska, those linguistic modifications were coupled with several posture changes for the faithful and other instructions regarding the celebration of Mass.
Most noticeable is that parishioners are now asked to kneel or sit immediately following the Lamb of God prayer and again after receiving Holy Communion.
The changes are two of several guidelines instituted in the Anchorage Archdiocese by Archbishop Roger Schwietz. Similar changes are being implemented in the Dioceses of Fairbanks and Juneau.
A Nov. 17 document sent to pastors and parish leaders across the Anchorage Archdiocese details many of the instructions.
The decision to ask the faithful to kneel or sit after receiving Holy Communion reverses a 2005 instruction by Archbishop Schwietz in which he asked the faithful to stand after Communion.
At that time, the decision was met with mixed reception and some confusion. A number of parishioners preferred to kneel in prayer after Communion and many visitors to Alaska were confused about the standing posture, which is not the norm in most of the rest of the United States.
Archbishop Schwietz said the decision to return to kneeling after Communion is an effort to bring Alaska into greater conformity with how the liturgy is celebrated across most of the United States.
"The other problem is that we have so many visitors to Alaska, especially in the summer," Archbishop Schwietz told the Catholic Anchor. "It is confusing for the visitors also. The three bishops from Alaska have been looking at the most common practices around the country to help reduce the confusion."
Another reason for the changes is to respect the elderly and others who find it difficult to stand for long periods, Archbishop Schwietz said.
It has been decided that each of the three dioceses within Alaska will have its own guidelines but that they will all be similar.
In addition to kneeling after the Lamb of God prayer and after receiving Communion, the faithful are also being asked to respect the simplicity and reverence of the Mass.
"For example, during the sign of peace, we are asking people to simply wish peace to one another in their vicinity so that it does not become a sort of timeout for the Mass with people wandering around," Archbishop Schwietz affirmed. "We want to retain the dignity of the Mass at that time."
In particular the instruction notes that the sign of peace should "be shared in a solemn manner" including a handshake, embrace, a slight bow or in the words, "Peace be with you."
"We also are asking that there not be additional rites added to the Mass," Archbishop Schwietz added.
He noted, for instance, that in some places there has been a desire to add some of the older prayers from the pre-Vatican II form of the Mass into the ordinary form of the Mass.
"The problem is that there is a specific exclusion of mixing the rites from the directives of the church," Archbishop Schwietz explained. "We are trying to remind people of that also."
"Basically, we are trying to put into practice three main principles of our tradition in the Latin rite," he said, "dignity, simplicity and unity. We want to have unity in which we can worship together without confusion, simplicity which the Roman rite is noted for without adding a lot of additions, and we want to preserve the dignity that is due the sacred moment of the church's worship."
Other elements in the recent instructions address items such as appropriate attire for Mass, noting that clothing is "an outward sign of reverence for this sacred gathering."
The instructions also urge parishes to provide instruction on the eucharistic fast, which the faithful should observe one hour before receiving Communion.
For the reception of the Holy Eucharist, the guidelines explain that those receiving the consecrated host on the tongue should do so with "mouth open, tongue outstretched and head still: not with the lips."
For those receiving Communion in the hand, the document states that the "dominant hand should be placed under the receiving hand with the palm open wide facing upwards." It also states that after receiving the Eucharist, the communicant should "consume it immediately" to avoid the risk of "dropping the host."
The document also explains the duties and preparations for deacons, lay liturgical ministers, lectors, altar servers, greeters and musicians during Mass.
In a section on the appropriate postures and actions while in the church building, the document states, "As the faithful enter or leave their pews, they should genuflect in the direction of the tabernacle (if the tabernacle is located in the sanctuary)."
Additionally, the document explains that before Mass, the faithful should "recollect themselves in preparation for the celebration and not disturb those already in prayer."
It further notes, "If the tabernacle is not in the sanctuary but in a separate chapel, the faithful, upon entering or leaving the sanctuary should bow towards the altar as a gesture of reverence to Christ."
Among other items addressed are the construction, treatment and care of the altar, and sacred vessels.
Printed with permission from the Catholic Anchor, newspaper for the Archdiocese of Anchorage, Alaska.
here to share this news story with a friend. | <urn:uuid:e34e8639-9057-4917-927e-969908dde068> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=116969 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96168 | 1,158 | 1.546875 | 2 |
As good stewards of the land, we embrace every opportunity to reduce the impact of our operation in the high alpine environment where we work and play. This unwavering commitment by Las Vegas Ski & Snowboard Resort and our parent company, Powdr Corporation, is to continually improve in reducing the carbon emissions produced at every stage of our operation.
The average global temperature increased by about 1 degree Fahrenheit over the 20th century.
The United States contains only 5% of the world's population, but contributes 22% of the world's carbon emissions.
Personal cars and trucks in the United States emit 20% of the United States' carbon emissions.
Between 20% and 25% of carbon emissions come from deforestation and land use change.
The ski area recently purchased 100% renewable energy for its city office utilizing Renewable Choice Energy (renewablechoice.com): This reduced carbon-emissions by 68,000 pounds.
This is the equivalent to:
Carbon sequestered annually by 10.4 acres of pine or fir forests.
Not consuming 5,492 gallons of gasoline.
Not burning 53,501 pounds of coal.
Not consuming 114 barrels of oil.
LVSSR employee shuttle bus - conserving carbon-emissions and gas by encouraging ride sharing to work.
Sawmill shuttle bus reduces traffic and congestion in upper Lee Canyon during peak periods.
For the long term, LVSSR will incorporate green building and development practices which are certified by The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Building Rating System.
Now proposed within the LVSSR Master Development Plan, the environmentally sustainable lodge and facilities will incorporate many green attributes such as recycled materials, state-of-the-art wastewater management, solar energy, natural lighting, radiant heating, trash recycling facilities and more.
The resort recently gained approval for a public transportation grant aimed at reducing congestion and emissions in this pristine area. LVSSR management is hopeful to receive funding in time for the 2012-2013 season this winter.
Recently, our "self contained" resort installed new power generators, resulting in more efficient fuel economy and significantly reduced emissions. These "tier 2" rated generators comply with the Environmental Protection Agency's highest emissions rating currently offered for engines of this size.
Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort installed a solar array:
Electricity hasn’t been installed to the mountain so the entire operation is powered with diesel generators. That’s a big carbon footprint annually from diesel fuel. We installed a solar array with battery storage primarily to allow us to run the server and office without using generators. This has been so successful that we increased the battery storage capacity. Our current plan is to maximize solar generating capacity, storage capacity and electricity needed.
In one month when we would have had to start the generators, instead we were able to run entirely off the electricity generated by our solar array. Last year in that same month we used over 700 gallons of diesel fuel to generate the power needed. By not using that much diesel fuel we stopped over 15,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere! Not to mention saving about $2,800 in diesel fuel costs.
New for the 2012/2013 ski season LVSSR purchased and installed Energy Star dishwashers and washable plates and utensils. This project made it possible for us to stop sending over 152,000 disposable plates, cups and utensils to the landfill every year.
Las Vegas Ski & Snowboard Resort is proud to host the annual Trash Day event every summer.
LVSSR's Mountain Patrol is proud to join LVSSR in being a part of Nevada's "Adopt a Highway Program". We conduct regular trash pick up events on State Route 156.
Replace regular incandescent light bulbs with a compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL) or a light emitting diode bulb (LED).
Uses 60% less energy than a regular bulb.
Use a clothesline instead of a dryer whenever possible.
You can save 700 pounds of carbon dioxide when you air dry your clothes for six months out of the year.
Unplug electronics from the wall when you are not using them.
Even when turned off, things like hairdryers, cell phone chargers and televisions use energy. In fact, the energy used to keep display clocks lit and memory chips working accounts for five percent of total domestic energy consumption and releases 18 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere every year.
Turn off the water while brushing your teeth.
Recycle at home.
Earth 911 can help you find recycling resources in your area.
Las Vegas Ski & Snowboard Resort is operated by Powdr Corporation, one of the leading mountain resort owners in the United States. Headquartered in Park City, Utah, Powdr Corp. currently owns and operates nine resorts including Park City Mountain Resort and Gorgoza Park in Park City, Utah, Killington Mountain Resort and Pico Resort in Killington, Vermont, Mt. Bachelor in Bend, Oregon, Boreal Resort and Soda Springs Resort, both at Donner Summit, California and Copper Mountain Resort in Colorado.
Powdr has significantly reduced the collective carbon footprint of their resorts. The EPA estimates that Powdr Resorts commitment to the environment has avoided over 360 million pounds of C02 emissions, which is equal to removing 32,065 passenger vehicles from the road or the CO2 emissions from the electricity use of 20,390 average American homes for a year.
Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort along with the other POWDR Corp Resorts has joined NSAA's Climate Challenge. The NSAA Climate Challenge is engaging ski areas across the country to take action and fight climate change. The Challenge will not only result in measurable, quantifiable results and benefits, it will also help participating ski areas make tangible progress each year to fight climate change while reducing utility bills, and convey results for the benefit of skiers and riders, ski areas, resort communities, and our planet. Thru the Challenge, LVSSR will continually set goals and measure the success of the goals each season to ensure we are honoring our commitments we have made. http://www.nsaa.org/nsaa/environment/ (NSAA Climate Challenge) | <urn:uuid:cc2991d6-7c9f-4c97-a3e2-0bf3c1685cf5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.skilasvegas.com/winter/mountain/green-initiatives | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.910836 | 1,274 | 1.992188 | 2 |
Whats stopping people from changing code in the client application as if people wanted to, they could easily just unpack all the class files and repackage them.
Basically nothing. In the past all sorts of compression, encryption, obfuscation etc. have been tried and were circumvented or broken by curious or malevolent people.
They can even build a new client that speaks the same protocol and run that against your server (if they can't hack your client due to your security measurements).
If you concern is safety and consitency, you must assume that clients are being hacked (or just buggy) and try to have all checks and game logic on server side, not in th access of the client. Only if all your logic is on teh eserver and the client is merely an input/output device you have some safety - but hackers will try to trick the server into unwanted actions by bogus input data thus you must check all input data not only on valid ranges but also if it is valid in the context of the clients state (whcih needs to be modeled/mirrored on the server side to some extend for this). | <urn:uuid:c3ac3b83-f0c2-4eba-aaba-d47be5dff72a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.java-gaming.org/index.php?topic=28151.msg254970 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960901 | 232 | 2.078125 | 2 |
The City's Administration Department is responsible for the overall administration and operation of City departments and City services and carries out the actions and polices of the Morganton City Council.
The Administration Department is comprised of the City Manager, Assistant City Manager, City Clerk and the Public Information Officer.
In 1998, the City Council named its first female City Manager, Sally Sandy. Sandy serves at the pleasure of the City Council and has responsibility for preparing the budget, directing day-to-day operations and directing the City's department heads.
The City Council-City Manager form of local government combines the political leadership of elected officials with the professional experience of an appointed local government administrator.
Under the Council-City Manager form, power is concentrated in the elected council, which hires a professional administrator – the City Manager - to implement the Council's policies.
City of Morganton Municipal Auditorium
CoMMA, the City of Morganton Municipal Auditorium, offers local residents and regional visitors a chance to see and hear Broadway shows and national concerts in their own backyard.
CoMMA's MainStage Season offers an excellent variety of shows at prices that are hard to beat. In the lobby, visitors can enjoy local art exhibits and view an original Ben Long Fresco "Sacred Dance and the Muses."
Compas Cable TV, Internet & Voice
Compas Cable TV, Internet & Voice Services is the City of Morganton's public cable system. Compas offers cable television, broadband Internet and digital home telephone services to Morganton residents at an extremely competitive price.
The Compas office is located in Morganton City Hall.
Responding to service issues and difficulties in the commercial cable service available, Morganton's City Council and Mayor Mel Cohen, fought for a city-owned system. Their goal was to provide quality service at a fair price.
Visit Compas' commercial web site at www.compascable.net to learn more about cable & high-speed Internet packages and rates.
Development & Design Services
The focus of the Department of Development & Design Services is to manage and encourage growth to maintain quality of life for Morganton's residents. All new residential, commercial and industrial development is reviewed within the Department to assure consistency in Morganton's managed growth plan and assure proper infrastructure services are available. The department is keenly focused on new economic development strategies to sustain the City into the future.
The Department is primarily responsible for: planning, building inspections, zoning enforcement, CDBG Administration, Urban Design, infrastructure inspections, and code enforcement. The Department is also responsible for developing new ordinances, transportation planning, annexations, urban redevelopment services, housing renovation, special projects such as the Catawba River Greenway and the Catawba Meadows Baseball Complex.
Department staff work with the many Morganton Boards and Commissions such as the Planning Commission, Board of Adjustment, Historic Preservation Commission, Community Appearance Commission and Redevelopment Commission. The Department works very closely with other Departments to coordinate new and existing development.
The Department has recently worked with the North Carolina Department of Transportation to eventually bring passenger rail service back to the western part of the state. Morganton is a planned stop on a line that will link Asheville to Raleigh via Salisbury. The city has just completed an historic renovation of its depot which will be reused for passenger rail service. The renovated depot has also stimulated redevelopment in the surrounding area.
The Plan lays out a vision for economic success that will influence future growth of our community.
Economic development strategies include:
- Grow Morganton's manufacturing and industrial base by supporting existing industries and attracting new industries to the area.
- Encourage diversification of Morganton's economic base by encouraging growth of existing small businesses and emerging businesses.
- Strengthen Morganton's reputation as a preferred location for business and their workforce. Focus on assets that will attract businesses in the technical, medical and research sectors.
- Grow Morganton and Burke County's tourism industry through investments in destination activities and programs, marketing, and supporting hospitality and tourism businesses.
- Strengthen Downtown Morganton as a destination for dining and entertainment. Diversify the downtown's retail base to include unique retail stores and galleries.
The City of Morganton Electric Department is constantly striving to provide reliable electric service. This includes maintaining the existing lines, building new lines, upgrading and advancing employee training, and providing a quick and efficient response to service calls.
Your hometown electric company is on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Electric crews respond immediately to after hour calls.
The Finance Department is responsible for the fiscal activities of the City. The department is divided into functional divisions including accounting/payroll, purchasing, budget, customer service/utility billing and payment processing, and tax billing and tax payment processing. Preparation of financial reports, investment of City funds, and management of debt issuances are other key departmental tasks.
The department strives to maintain the fiscal integrity of the City in accordance with City ordinances, State and Federal laws, and Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.
Human Resources Dept.
Greetings from our staff.
We want you to know that you are very important to us, whether you are a resident, an applicant seeking employment or an employee with a question. Our goal is to assist you competently, fairly and equitably while treating you with the dignity and respect we feel you deserve. - Cheryl Dellinger, Director of Human Resources
The Human Resources Department provides a wide range of services that include recruitment and selection, managing competitive pay and benefit programs, handling employee relations, developing training and organizational programs, coordinating a wellness program and helping to establish a friendly atmosphere in a safe and healthy environment.
The Human Resources staff takes great pride in being part of the City of Morganton team. As the City continues to be recognized as an "employer of choice," we strive to maintain our effective governmental leadership role in our state.
The City's Legal Department consists of the City Attorney and the City's paralegal. City Attorney Louis Vinay provides in-house legal counsel to the City Council and City Manager and Department staff.
The City attorney can answer questions and give direction to the City Council and department staff on issues concerning federal and state law, City ordinances, legal procedures for the City and matters relating to official duties.
The City Attorney is appointed by the City Council and serves at the Council's pleasure. The City Attorney must be a member of the State Bar of North Carolina in good standing.
The Morganton Main Street Office develops, oversees and coordinates community and economic development activities as they relate to the downtown district. Contact the Main Street Office for lease and sales rates, availability and development opportunities. Visit the Main Street website Available Properties page to see what space is available in Downtown Morganton.
Mailing: PO Box 1472, Morganton, NC 28680-1472
Parks and Recreation Dept.
Parks & Recreation Centers
Morganton's Parks and Recreation Dept. staff maintains more than 400 acres of land developed for recreational use. Residents and visitors have access to three recreation centers, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, a soccer complex, eleven parks, a skeet range, an extensive greenway system and Catawba Meadows Park, which alone covers more than 200 acres along the Catawba River!
Parks and Recreation staff are also responsible for organizing and managing the City's youth and adult sports leagues, yearly leisure activities as well as special events such as Morganton's Red, White and Bluegrass Festival.
Jump to ...Youth Athletics | Adult Athletics | Aquatics
Classes & Fitness | Senior Citizens | Recreation Events
Public Information Office
The Public Information Office is responsible for promoting and providing information about City Government and City Services to the citizens of Morganton. The PIO will also help citizens find answers to their questions about City government and services.
Joshua Harris, the City's Public Information Officer, communicates with residents and promotes City services and programs by:
- writing City press releases
- maintaining the City website
- publishing City Pride, the City newsletter
- producing informational videos and Public Services Announcements
- educating residents about programs such as the stormwater and air quality and water conservation
- creating documents and publications for City departments.
If you have a question and need help finding the answer, call 432-2516
We, the members of the Morganton Department of Public Safety, are committed to protect the lives, property, and Constitutional Rights of all residents and visitors of OUR community by providing professional law enforcement and fire protection services
Integrity: High ethical standards, honesty and fairness Professionalism: Individual excellence, education and training
Honor: Official dignity, repute, and esteem
Accountability: To take responsibility for all actions and decisions
Respect: Treating others as you would like to be treated
Equality: Fair, impartial, and equitable treatment of all people
The Morganton Department of Public Safety strives to be a leader in the delivery of public safety services, which combines law enforcement and fire protection. Our employees strive to be leaders in OUR community in name and deed, conducting themselves in a manner to which others will aspire.
Morganton's Public Works Department provides street maintenance, garbage pickup, recycling, cemeteries and grounds maintenance, city warehousing, equipment services and beautification projects throughout the city as well as caring for the Historic Burke County Courthouse lawn and landscaping.
Watch the News Herald and CoMPAS Cable for announcements or call the Department of Public Works at 438-5248 for scheduled services.
The City of Morganton provides back yard residential garbage collection and curbside yard waste services and convenience center recycling for $10.00 per residence per month. The City will provide additional services for bulk waste, appliances and other items on a user fee basis. The base fee is $25.00 per collection.
Only 6% of North Carolina Municipalities provide back yard collection. Approximately 68% of Municipalities charge user fees for residential garbage collection, average monthly fee $ 9.99/month.
As residents of Burke County, Citizens of Morganton residents pay disposal fees on their Burke County taxes.
Burke County does not charge the City of Morganton to dispose residential solid waste. However, Burke County does charge for the City of Morganton to dispose of bulk items in the County landfill.
The County also bans the disposal of white goods (appliances) and cardboard. Burke County accepts white goods for recycling. These fees and bans are to encourage recycling and discourage disposal. This is one of the reasons the City of Morganton charges a $25.00 fee for collection of these items.
No building materials, dirt, concrete, bricks or blocks, or refuse from building, remodeling, and repair operations or landscape work will be handled by City forces. All waste material of this nature shall be removed by the contractor, or in the event of his failure, by the owner of the property; provided, that the owner may make application to the sanitation superintendent and the superintendent may, if practical, remove the rubbish at the expense of the owner.
Construction and demolition debris is not residential waste and an additional disposal fee must be paid at the Burke County Landfill.
Leaf collection starts in October and continues as needed through January. The City Public Works Dept. currently collects leaves every two weeks during leaf season - October through January. After January, loose leaves will be collected for a $25.00 fee.
Residents should pile leaves as close to the road as possible without blocking the road or sidewalks.
The City will not provide leaf bags. Loose-leaf collection is much more efficient. Also, using loose-leaf collection saves money and eliminates unnecessary plastic bag waste.
The City of Morganton Studio is responsible for the City's video productions.
Chad Medford, Morganton's Studio Specialist, broadcasts live meetings such as the City Council and Planning and Zoning Commission meetings, and records events for broadcast such as the Morganton Christmas Parade and other city events.
The Studio Specialist also works with the City's Public Information Officer to produce Public Service Announcements and video projects used to promote the City and City Services.
DVDs of meetings and various City events are available by request for a fee.
The City of Morganton Water Resources Department is comprised of five divisions that maintain the water distribution and wastewater collection systems for the City of Morganton. Water Resources offers water to 38,000 residents in Morganton, parts of Burke County, Oak Hill and US 64/NC 18.
Grants and Loans
The City of Morganton offers grant/loan programs for the purposes of economic development and to stimulate economic activity.
- Commercial Street Participation
- CDBG Small Business Loan Program
- Development Incentive Grant
- Residential Street Participation
Loans are also available through Burke Development, Inc. (BDI). BDI is a nonprofit organization supported by private and public funding that is charged with accelerating economic growth in Burke County. BDI works with industry leaders, site selection consultants, government agencies and other entities to facilitate expansion and development strategies for existing businesses and recruit target industries to Burke County. | <urn:uuid:faa32f4a-61e4-4af7-9c50-dda16ed4301f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ci.morganton.nc.us/index.php/component/content/section/13 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930227 | 2,695 | 1.5 | 2 |
The 60th anniversary of the Amusement and Music Operators Association arrives on January 21. Every industry member should raise a glass of something fizzy to celebrate this outstanding organization. Over its life, AMOA has chalked up countless successes – but its greatest achievement has been to unify, modernize and professionalize the American operator.
Operators were born in the 1890s as “the last of the rugged individualists.” These self-made men and women flourished in a tough, gritty business. Coin-operated entertainment came into its own during the Great Depression, yet the 1930s also triggered changes that spelled the end of 100% rugged individualism. President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal started regulating everything in sight starting in 1933. By 1947, Congress began moving to bring the coin-operated amusements industry under federal control, too. Uncle Sam wanted jukeboxes subject to the U.S. Copyright Act.
In 1948, leading operators realized they could only survive by abandoning their go-it-alone mentality. Thus the original “MOA” was born – a reluctant beginning to what eventually became a hugely successful group.
Today’s operators remain rugged individualists in many ways, for good (multi-generation family businesses) and for ill (resistance to the inevitable, such as online entertainment). However, thanks chiefly to AMOA, today’s professional operator is a joiner – not a loner. He is a proud member of a well-run state and national association. He is an active marketer, allied with other progressive operators.
Increasingly, today’s operators are college-educated professionals, a growing number of whom received their post-graduate business educations through AMOA’s Notre Dame program.
Most importantly, the main reason today’s operator exists at all is because he has a voice in Washington, DC, in statehouses and in courtrooms – a voice that has successfully defended operators’ interests time and again. For a relatively small industry and association, AMOA has demonstrated a remarkable degree of influence. Its clout far exceeds its fighting weight.
Certain operators still pose as 100% rugged individualists, refusing to join AMOA or state associations. But these loners are steadily vanishing. Their day ended 60 years ago.
The charge has been leveled, probably since the day AMOA was founded, that it is a “good old boys club.” This charge is absolutely false. If anything, it is democratic to a fault. All 48 board members are true leaders, not rubber stamps. As for personal relationships, this industry is so small that everybody knows everybody. Friendships, mentoring and networking are vital ingredients of the association’s considerable charm.
AMOA’s ultra-democratic ethos does have a downside. Sometimes the association is too cautious, too slow to respond to events. Sometimes it is overly fond of “tradition” for tradition’s sake. But these are faults inherent in democracy itself, and hardly unique to AMOA. The association endures because it’s built on honesty, fair play and organizational integrity – what might be termed “the rule of bylaw.”
It’s far better to have an organization that moves slowly to build genuine consensus, than a dictatorship ramming “visionary” programs down members’ throats. Heavy-handed leadership may shine for a while, but it never lasts. AMOA might even deserve a share of the credit for the fact that AAMA and IALEI are also quite democratic. They appear to have followed the association’s lead.
We in the trade press sometimes find AMOA too guarded about releasing important information. (AMOA shares this trait with other trade groups and with individual operators, distributors and manufacturers.) If the association’s deliberations were more transparent, could it recruit more non-members? Possibly. Yet the fact remains that AMOA has a six-decade record of achievement. You can’t argue (well, not much,) with that kind of success.
Meanwhile, the Amusement and Music Operators Association remains the standard around which so much of the amusements industry can rally. AMOA provides invaluable leadership, comradeship, education and support to its members, and to the industry as a whole. Every AMOA officer, member and staffer – past and present – deserves a huge bouquet of congratulations. Happy 60th anniversary, AMOA. | <urn:uuid:1b3fd031-085b-42dc-9c18-85e34490e3ed> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.vendingtimes.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?nm=Vending+Features&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=32A1D1A8207E4F869A47C653EF024932 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956495 | 999 | 1.992188 | 2 |
USDA GAIN: Oilseeds, Cotton, Sugar, Grain and Feed
23 April 2012
INDIA: TOTAL OILSEEDS PSD
Assuming normal monsoon rains and favorable growing conditions, total oilseed production in MY 2012/13 (Oct-Sep) is likely to grow 3 percent to 36.3 million tons. With competition from summer planted coarse cereals and winter planted wheat, chickpea and lentils, prevailing market prices of soybean, rapeseed-mustard, and peanut in current season should encourage farmers to bring a larger area under production. Total oilseed production for current and previous year reflects revised estimates based on updated figure for planting from Indian Ministry of Agriculture.
Oilseed production in India is mostly rain-fed, and is an important source of livelihood for small and marginal farmers in the arid and semi-arid areas of the country. During the twelfth five-year plan period, the Government of India has provided, through its „National Mission on Oilseeds and Oil Palm (NMOOP),? various support and incentive programs for oilseed growers. NMOOP replaces the old Integrated Oilseeds, Oil Palm, Pulses and Maize Development program, which was under implementation in 14 major states for oilseeds and pulses, 15 for maize and 9 for oil palm. As agriculture is a state subject, the central-government program is likely to supplement efforts by state governments to enhance oilseed production and productivity.
Rising oilseed production is supporting oilseed consumption for both food and feed (comprising of seeds retained for sowing/re-sowing operation, feed and industrial usage). In the Union budget for fiscal (April-March) 2012/13, excise duty on all processed soya food products has been reduced to the merit rate of 6 percent, thus encouraging higher sales of soy-based food products for upcoming season. Growing utilization of soybeans for the manufacture of soy and soy-based food products, peanuts for direct table use and snack food purpose and rapeseed for curry, culinary and sauce preparations will likely increase food usage of oilseeds in MY 2012/13 to 1.9 million tons. Feed consumption of oilseeds will likely remain at 4.9 million tons in MY 2012/13, largely driven by cottonseed; forecast at 3 million tons.
India exports small to moderate quantities of Indian Hand Picked Select (HPS) peanuts, followed by sesame, small quantities of niger seed, safflower seed and rapeseed. Although the volume of Indian oilseed exports is relatively small, the total value is $800 to $850 million. Oilseeds can be imported into India without any quantitative restrictions, but high tariffs and complex phyto-sanitary regulations can limit imports.
A forecast for higher peanut production in 2012/13 coupled with growing demand of Indian Hand Picked Select (HPS) peanuts in South-East Asian and other neighboring countries could raise Indian peanut exports to 500,000 tons in 2012/13, up 50,000 tons from the current year. Traditionally, Indonesia and Vietnam are among the largest importers of Indian peanuts followed by Asian, Middle East and European countries. Joint efforts of the Indian Oilseeds and Produce Export Promotion Council (IOPEPC) and Agriculture and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) to increase awareness of quality improvements in peanuts is not only lending support to peanut exports, but also helping exporters to focus on adopting international quality standards. IOPEPC is the authorized agency to issue quality certificates for shelling units and warehouses involved in exports, while APEDA certifies processing units.
Similarly, anticipating higher domestic production of sesame seed in 2012/13, exports are likely to grow 6 percent to 450,000 tons. South Korea is the largest importer of Indian sesame seeds followed by Vietnam, United States, China and Turkey.
Growing domestic consumption and larger crush of oilseeds in 2012/13 is expected to keep stocks relatively tight compared to current marketing year. Procurement of oilseeds by government agencies such as the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) is likely to be low as open market prices of major oilseeds in 2011/12 were higher than the government?s minimum support price. Even privately held stocks are likely to remain low.
INDIA: TOTAL OILMEALS PSD
An estimated 80 percent of the total oilseeds produced in country is usually crushed to produce oilmeal for food and feed use. However, depending on domestic production of oilseeds and export demand for oil meals, this proportion may vary. Anticipating a larger oilseed crush in 2012/13, the total oil meal production is likely to be higher at 17.3 million tons, up 2 percent over current marketing year (2011/12). Strong export demand of oilmeal in 2010/11 led to higher than expected crushing of oilseeds, drawing down stocks carried forward for current year and subsequently constraining availability for crushing in MY 2011/12.
Assuming no major animal disease outbreaks, total feed utilization in 2012/13 is forecast at 11.5 million tons, which includes 3.6 million tons of cottonseed meal (mostly used in livestock feed), 3.2 million tons of soybean meal, 2.4 million tons of rapeseed meal, 1.8 million tons of peanut meal, and 549,000 tons of other oil meals.
Lower availability of oilseeds for crushing into meals and high prices of animal feed in 2011/12 has constrained feed use to 11.3 million tons, down 800,000 tons over last year. Higher feed prices in the recent past have raised serious concern over the rising cost of meat, milk and eggs. While price increases may temporarily restrict demand, the expansion trend in the dairy, livestock and poultry sector will continue to fuel future demand for animal feed. India?s organized feed industry consumes soy meal, as well as peanut, sunflower seed, and rapeseed meals in feed formulations.
As soy meal is a rich source of protein, India?s traditional food industry is seeking ways to expand the market. Texturized soy protein (TSP), which is a defatted soy flour product, can be extruded into various shapes (chunks, flakes, nuggets, grains) and sizes and used as vegetarian substitute for meat. Defatted soy flour is used to fortify other food products (wheat flours, biscuits etc). Soybean meal is also best for extracting soya protein isolate (which usually has more than 90 percent protein content) and can be used for the manufacture of healthcare products.
In the Union budget for fiscal year 2012/13 (April-March), the Government of India has set aside special programs funds for the National Program for Mid-day Meal for School Children, the Integrated Child Development Service, the Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls, and various other schemes to provide protein rich nutritious food to women and infants. In the past, different state governments (Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat to name few) have also undertaken programs to increase the utilization of low-cost high-protein supplements derived from soybeans.
Assuming competitive prices and strong overseas demand for Indian oil meals, oil meal exports in 2012/13 are expected to rise to 5.5 million tons , marginally higher than the current year estimate of 5.4 million tons. Stabilizing exchange rate could further facilitate exports of Indian oil meal. Export data for first five months of MY 2011/12 indicate a 12 percent decline over the corresponding period in the previous year (Table 4) due to poor demand in the traditional importing countries (please refer to GAIN Report IN2030 for more details).
Indian rapeseed meal is increasingly marketed as an organic product. Other oil meals such as castor, linseed and mustard are sold as organic pesticides against nematodes and insects. Indian meal exporters have a competitive advantage in geographic proximity to major markets in Asia and the Middle East, and are able to ship higher protein content (48 percent in soybean meal) non-GMO products in small vessels. While there are no quantitative restrictions on oil meal imports, the 30.6 percent import duty and the ample domestic availability of cheaper feed materials discourage imports.
DOWNLOAD REPORT:- Download this report here | <urn:uuid:397bf2e2-a043-44c8-b11b-73d1e327ba55> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thecropsite.com/reports/?category=39&id=366 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927997 | 1,707 | 2.296875 | 2 |
Quick Tips: Exercising Safely With Arthritis
Exercise is one of the best things you can do to help prevent arthritis from getting worse. It can help keep your muscles strong and reduce joint pain and stiffness. And it can help you reach and stay at a healthy weight.
But you want to make sure that you don't hurt your joints when you exercise. Before you get started, ask your doctor what kind of activity would be good for you.
These tips can help you exercise safely:
Know when you have sore muscles and not joint pain. If your muscles are sore, you can safely exercise through the soreness. (You could exercise through joint pain too, but it's not safe to do so.)
If you have joint pain that lasts for more than a day after you exercise, you need to:
eMedicineHealth Medical Reference from Healthwise
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Get the latest treatment options
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- including 24 hour, pharmacies | <urn:uuid:7a0cc7bf-fdf1-4fc4-a2cd-0574ca3f8d8e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.emedicinehealth.com/quick_tips_exercising_safely_with_arthritis-health/article_em.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924417 | 256 | 2.28125 | 2 |
I have small breasts and I am concerned that I will not be able to breastfeed. Does breast size or shape make a difference? more
Health experts across the U.S. and worldwide recommend that babies be breastfed exclusively for their first six months but few mothers in the U.S. achieve that goal. One in three mothers (35 percent) breastfeed exclusively for three months, and only... more
Copyright ©2013 baby gooroo, inc. | <urn:uuid:9c2ab971-4366-428a-9618-7eafc5576179> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://babygooroo.com/category/breastfeeding/breastfeeding-common-problems/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955929 | 94 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Photo caption: The Living Roof, a 2.5 acre rooftop above the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park on November 5, 2009. Some say the new 'Calgreen' voluntary rating system clashes with the museum's LEED rating system. Robert Galbraith/Reuters/File
California continues to take the national lead in environmental protection. The California Building Standards Commission voted unanimously this week to approve the first statewide green building code.
Taking effect January 2011, the nation's first mandatory green building code – dubbed “CalGreen” – lays out specific constraints for newly constructed buildings. It requires builders to install plumbing that cuts indoor water use by as much as 20 percent, to divert 50 percent of construction waste from landfills to recycling, and to use low-pollutant paints, carpets, and floors. It also mandates inspection of energy systems to ensure that heaters, air conditioners, and other mechanical equipment are working efficiently. And for non-residential buildings, it requires the installation of water meters for different uses.
The code also allows local jurisdictions, from San Francisco to Los Angeles, to retain stricter green building standards, if they already exist, or to adopt stricter versions of the state code if they choose. It's the first state in the nation to mandate a green building code.
See the whole story at the Christian Science Monitor: www.csmonitor.com | <urn:uuid:15f2d368-53fb-41dc-aada-70fde0130b0d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kathysremodelingblog.com/california-adopts-first-statewide-green-building-code/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908415 | 284 | 3.15625 | 3 |
Implementing the Australian Curriculum: English in EQ schools
This newsletter is concerned solely with the Curriculum into the Classroom (C2C) program for implementing the Australian Curriculum in EQ schools (sometimes referred to as Scribbly Gum). Read more
Apologies to country members; this issue contains only information about events in the Brisbane area.
Some free PD in Brisbane
Brisbane after-school PD Tue 26 July
Members in the Brisbane area are reminded that an after-school PD presentation entitled “Great Fiction for Adolescent Readers” will be conducted by children’s literature consultant Joy Lawn at Brisbane Grammar School on Tuesday 26 July. Read more
AATE project on National Professional Standards for Teachers
Members should be aware that AITSL (Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership http://www.aitsl.edu.au/) released the National Professional Standards for Teachers in February this year.
ETAQ State Conference
This year’s State Conference, “English and Generation Next”, will be held at Lourdes Hill College at Hawthorne on Saturday 20 August. Hard copies of the full program, registration form and workshop selection form are included in a mailing due to arrive in the first week of Term 3 and electronic versions are available on the Events/State Conference Page of the ETAQ website at http://www.etaq.org.au/?page_id=308
In the end of term bustle, please don’t forget the following: Read more
ETAQ’s Annual State Conference will be held at Lourdes Hill College in the Brisbane suburb of Hawthorne on Saturday 20 August. The theme is “English and Generation Next”. Read more | <urn:uuid:af6131de-9406-43af-a1ac-32a38fb9f1a0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.etaq.org.au/?m=201107 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915748 | 359 | 1.640625 | 2 |
by Quin Hillyer
A spate of headlines a week ago involved a crucial legal battle between the U.S. Department of Justice (henceforth DoJ) and Florida concerning Florida’s efforts to update its voter rolls. Well, nineteen years ago, I was at Ground Zero of a legislative skirmish involving precisely the law over which DoJ and Florida are fighting.
First, let’s understand today’s battle. Florida wants to scrub from its voter lists the names of people not qualified to vote – people who have died (so nobody can vote fraudulently in their names), or people who have moved out of state, or people who never should have been registered at all because they are not U.S. citizens. This scrubbing of lists is essential for inoculating states against vote fraud.
One way to check rolls for non-citizens is to compare them to jury records. In Texas and North Carolina, hundreds of people who declined jury duty because they aren’t citizens nevertheless were found to be registered to vote – and many actually voted. And WBBH-TV in Fort Myers, Florida, found 87 people in just two counties who avoided jury duty this same way but who nonetheless voted there.
A federal law called the National Voter Registration Act, popularly called the “Motor Voter” law (because it requires states to offer voter registration at drivers’-license bureaus), has a provision in its Section 8 that requires states to clean their rolls. That’s what Florida was doing – but the Department of Homeland Security ignored Florida’s repeated requests for lists of documented aliens, terribly delaying the process. Florida finally found other sources of the information – but in the meantime, it wasn’t able to start correcting its rolls until several weeks ago. DoJ then sued Florida, claiming the Motor Voter law requires states to stop scrubbing their rolls within 90 days of an election – and Florida, with primaries in August, was now within the 90-day window. Never mind, of course, that the only reason Florida didn’t beat the 90-day deadline was because Homeland Security wouldn’t co-operate.
Florida, however, says DoJ is misreading the law anyway. As Hans von Spakovsky of the Heritage Foundation explained at National Review Online.
"[T]he 90-day rule does not apply to registrants being removed because they are not U.S. citizens. Noncitizens are not mentioned in Section 8 at all for the simple reason that Section 8 deals with the removal of formerly eligible voters who have become ineligible for various reasons. … Individuals who are not U.S. citizens were never eligible to be on the voter-registration list to begin with [and thus can be removed at any time]."
Von Spakovsky is right. Here’s how I know.
It goes back to the Clinton Administration’s very first big battle -- which wasn’t about health care, or energy taxes, or spending. The first battle involved the Motor Voter bill, which Democrats in Congress introduced on the very first legislative day in 1993, several weeks before Bill Clinton was inaugurated. Motor Voter was assigned to the House Administration Committee – and Louisiana Congressman Bob Livingston, the committee’s ranking Republican, had the job of deciding whether to object. I happened to be Livingston’s press secretary back then; Livingston told me a fight would take a massive public relations effort because the bill’s catchy nickname and broad media support had made it a popular initiative.
Livingston didn’t object to registration at drivers’-license bureaus, but he argued that other bill provisions (too numerous to list here) would promote vote fraud. Livingston’s legislative aide Tripp Funderburk had the brilliant idea to say that “Motor Voter” would better be described as “Auto Fraudo.” Using Tripp’s new catch-phrase, I started a media pushback, including a column in the Washington Times and many radio appearances for Livingston.
The pushback failed to kill the bill – but it did succeed in forcing acceptance of some anti-fraud provisions into the bill’s Section 8. Democrats didn’t strongly fight back against removing from the rolls those who were obviously ineligible, such as dead people and non-citizens. They objected to provisions we wanted that would allow states to scrub other categories of people from the rolls – such as those who had moved, but who otherwise would be eligible to vote somewhere else. The compromise we reached on the issue of otherwise eligible voters was the 90-day rule: Democrats were worried that people might be deprived of voting privileges just because of paperwork snafus when they changed addresses too close to an election.
Again, the 90-day rule was inserted in order to protect those particular voters’ rights – not to keep states from obvious, non-controversial list corrections involving dead people and non-citizens.
As a first-hand participant in shaping Motor Voter, I can say with assurance that Democrats and Republicans agreed back then that non-citizens shouldn’t vote. To do anything else would have been political suicide. Therefore, Florida and Von Spakovsky are right and DoJ is wrong – not as a matter of politics, but as a matter of fact.
But, as reported by whistleblowers J. Christian Adams and Christopher Coates DoJ official Julie Fernandes announced in late 2009 that the department would refuse to enforce Section 8’s anti-fraud provisions because “it has nothing to do with increasing turnout, and we are just not going to do it.”
Now that Florida is doing its job to enforce it anyway, DoJ is trying to stop the state’s efforts. DoJ’s endeavor is legally wrongheaded, and Florida is right to fight it.
Quin Hillyer is a Senior Fellow for The Center for Individual Freedom, a Senior Editor for the American Spectator magazine, and a Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mobile. He has won mainstream awards for journalistic excellence at the local, state, regional and national levels. He has been published professionally in well over 50 publications, including the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Houston Chronicle, the San Francisco Chronicle, Investors Business Daily, National Review, the Weekly Standard, Human Events, and The New Republic Online. He is a former editorial writer and columnist for the Washington Times, the Washington Examiner, the Mobile Register, and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, and a former Managing Editor of Gambit Weekly in New Orleans. He has appeared dozens of times as a television analyst in Washington DC, Alabama, Arkansas, and Louisiana, and as a guest many hundreds of times on national and local radio shows.
Click here to read the full bio on Quin Hillyer. | <urn:uuid:6ae8e9d4-e090-4ddd-abdb-41bc8dd2ac3d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.twelve23.org/quin_hillyer/view/1308/sunshine_state_fights_vote_fraud_darkness | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966712 | 1,413 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Wednesday, November 9th, 2011
The European Commission’s energy strategy for Europe requires that 20% of all energy consumed within the EU is from renewable sources by 2020. The Commission estimates that 12% of overall energy use should be supplied by offshore wind. Further, the Renewable Directives also require member (more…)
Friday, October 14th, 2011
Two U.S. energy companies attempting to build the nation’s first offshore wind farms reported progress on their plans at an industry conference this week, providing hope for an industry still trying to assert itself in the U.S. energy market.
Speaking at the American Wind Energy Association’s (more…)
Monday, August 8th, 2011
Offshore wind power as an industry is set to undergo intense growth over the next 10-20 years. The EWEA (European Wind Energy Association) has established targets of 40GW of offshore wind power production by the year 2020, and 150GW by 2030. This move towards a European grid represents a (more…)
Thursday, July 28th, 2011
The vast majority of new offshore wind turbines built in European waters this year have been installed in the UK, according to the European Wind Energy Association.
Of 108 new turbines installed off the European coast during the first half of 2011, 101 were built in the UK. (more…)
Wednesday, May 25th, 2011
New rule approved by Obama administration could speed up offshore wind projects by up to a year.
Identifying that it needs to speed up the regulatory process for permitting offshore wind farms, the U.S. Department of Interior announced last November that it would be streamlining the approval process for (more…)
Monday, May 23rd, 2011
Think of it as the Autobahn of wind power.
Critics of renewable energy often point out that the best place for wind farms is often the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately, the middle of nowhere is so-called because no one chooses to live there. And even more unfortunately, its the places where people live (more…)
Tuesday, May 17th, 2011
On May 14, the UK Guardian newspaper reported on a sweeping new carbon emissions deal crafted by the Committee on Climate Change, or CCC.
The deal is being put forth by UK Energy Secretary Chris Huhne, a Liberal Democrat and the CCC’s strongest backer, and opposed by none other than (more…)
Thursday, May 12th, 2011
Belgium, aside from being one-third of the BENELUX region, is known for their increased commitment to clean technologies. Numerous businesses and initiatives are starting to take shape along the ideologies associated with cleantech in the country and Belgium is exporting those initiatives and (more…)
Sunday, May 1st, 2011
A new report forecasts that offshore wind capacity worldwide will increase by a factor of 17 over the next six years, rising from 4.1 gigawatts of installed capacity today to a projected 70.1 gigawatts in 2017.
While European nations, including the United Kingdom and Denmark, continue to be the leaders in (more…)
Monday, April 25th, 2011
The Energy Technologies Institute has completed its third offshore wind energy project, has found that offshore wind energy costs could be cut 30% or more, and intends to build an innovative offshore wind demonstrator project this year.
The Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) recently (more…) | <urn:uuid:f5016502-9e69-45c7-a480-c78f13c22358> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.cleantechies.com/tag/offshore-wind/page/2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960418 | 698 | 2.09375 | 2 |
Front Page Titles (by Subject) PURGATORIO IV - The Divine Comedy, Vol. 2 (Purgatorio) (English only trans.)
PURGATORIO IV - Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy, Vol. 2 (Purgatorio) (English only trans.)
The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri. The Italian Text with a Translation in English Blank Verse and a Commentary by Courtney Langdon, vol. 2 (Purgatorio) (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1920).
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Antepurgatory. The First Ledge
Those who Neglected Repentance until Death
- Whene’er, because of pleasure or of pain
- received by any faculty of ours,
- our soul is wholly centered thereupon,
- it seems to heed no other faculty;
- and this is ’gainst that wrong belief which holds
- that one soul in us o’er another burns.
- Therefore, when anything is heard or seen,
- which toward it holds the soul intently turned,
- time passes by, and one perceives it not;
- since one thing is the faculty which harks,
- and that which holdeth all the soul another;
- this last is bound, as ’t were, the former free.
- Of this I real experience had, while hearing
- and wondering at that spirit; for the sun
- had climbed up fifty full degrees at least,
- though I had not perceived it, when we came
- to where those souls cried out to us together:
- “The place which you were asking for is here.”
- Oft doth a farmer, when the grapes grow dark,
- close up a wider opening in a hedge
- with but a little forkful of his thorns,
- than was the entrance there, through which my Leader,
- and I behind him, mounted all alone,
- when once the crowd had gone away from us.
- One climbs Sanlèo, and descends to Noli;
- one wins the summit of Bismàntova,
- helped solely by one’s feet; but one up here
- would have to fly; with the swift wings, I mean,
- and plumes of great desire, behind the Guide,
- who gave me hope and furnished me with light.
- As up within the cloven rock we climbed,
- its walls on each side closely hemmed us in,
- while under us the ground both feet and hands
- required. When on the high cliff’s upper edge
- we were, and out upon the open slope,
- “Which way, my Teacher, shall we go?” said I.
- And he to me: “Take thou no backward step;
- keep gaining ground behind me up the Mount,
- until some guide who knows appear to us.”
- So high the summit was, that it surpassed
- our sight, and steeper far the slope, than were
- a line from center to mid-quadrant drawn.
- Weary was I, when I began to speak:
- “O gentle Father, turn around, and see
- how I remain alone, unless thou stop!”
- “Draw thyself up, my son, as far as there!”
- he said, and somewhat higher pointed out
- a ledge on that side circling all the hill.
- His words so spurred me, that I forced myself
- to crawl behind him on my hands and knees,
- until the girding ledge was ’neath my feet.
- There both of us sat down, and faced the East,
- whence we had made the ascent; for looking back
- upon a traversed course is wont to help.
- First to the shores below I turned mine eyes;
- then raised them to the sun, and was amazed
- that we were smitten by it on our left.
- The Poet well perceived that I was gazing
- dumbfounded at the chariot of the light,
- which now was rising ’tween the North and us.
- “If Castor” said he then to me, “and Pollux
- were in the company of yonder mirror,
- which up and down in turn conducts its light,
- thou wouldst the Zodiac’s ruddy part behold
- revolving still more closely to the Bears,
- unless it issued from its ancient path.
- If thou wouldst understand how this can be,
- collect thy thoughts within thee, and imagine
- both Zion and this Mount so placed on earth,
- that both of them one sole horizon have,
- and different hemispheres; and thou wilt see
- how that the road which Phaëthon could not take,
- alas for him, must pass this Mount on one,
- while passing that one on the other side,
- if thine intelligence but clearly heed.”
- “Surely, my Teacher, never have I seen”
- said I, “as clearly as I now perceive,
- where once my mind appeared to be at fault,
- how the mid-circle of supernal motion,
- which in a certain art is called Equator,
- and ever ’tween the sun and winter stays,
- lies toward the North, for reasons giv’n by thee,
- as far on this side as the Hebrew people
- ever beheld it toward the heated parts.
- But, if it please thee, I would gladly know
- how far we have to go; because the Mount
- higher ascends than eyes of mine can rise.”
- “Such is this Mountain” said he then to me,
- “that, always hard to climb at first below,
- it pains one less, the higher one ascends.
- Hence, when so pleasant to thee it shall seem,
- that going up shall be to thee as easy
- as floating with the current in a boat,
- thou then shalt have attained this pathway’s end.
- Hope there to rest thee from thy breathless toil!
- No more I answer; this I know for truth.”
- When he had ended what he had to say,
- the voice of one near by cried out: “Perhaps,
- ere that shall happen, thou wilt need to sit!”
- On hearing this, we both of us turned round,
- and saw a massive boulder on our left,
- which neither I nor he had seen before.
- Thither we drew; and there some persons were,
- who lingered in the shade behind the rock,
- as one is wont to do through indolence.
- And one of them, who weary seemed to me,
- was sitting with his arms around his knees,
- and down between the latter held his face.
- “O my sweet Lord,” said I then, “turn thine eyes
- on yonder man, who shows himself to be
- more lazy than if sloth his sister were!”
- Then turning round toward us, and giving heed,
- he moved his face no more than o’er his thigh,
- and said: “Go up now, thou that active art!”
- I then knew who it was; nor did the strain,
- which quickened still my breath a little, hinder
- my going to him; yet, when at his side
- I was, he barely raised his head, and said:
- “Hast thou at last seen why it is the sun
- driveth his car o’er thy left shoulder here?”
- His lazy actions and his few short words
- impelled my lips to smile a little; then,
- “Belacqua,” I began, “I grieve for thee
- no more; but tell me why thou sittest here?
- Art waiting for a guide, or hast thou now
- merely resumed thy customary mood?”
- And he: “What, brother, is the use of climbing?
- The Bird of God who at the Gate is seated,
- would not allow me to approach the pangs.
- The sky must first turn round me here outside,
- as long as ever in my life it did,
- since I delayed good sighs until the end,
- unless before then I be helped by prayers
- arising from a heart that lives in grace;
- of what avail are those unheard in Heaven?”
- But now the Poet, climbing on ahead,
- was saying: “Come now on with me! Thou see’st
- that our meridian by the sun is touched,
- and that already from the Ganges’ banks
- Night covers up Morocco with her feet.” | <urn:uuid:274fe127-2f73-4574-b8c8-1c2c776179a3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=2310&chapter=219334&layout=html&Itemid=27 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968873 | 2,055 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Lake County Literacy Resource Guide
2013 Lake County Literacy Resource Guide
Why a Guide?
A taskforce of staff members from organizations who participated in the first annual Lake County Literacy Summit at the Waukegan Public Library in August 2012 are working together to create a comprehensive guide to Literacy resources and services in Lake County. The idea of the Summit was to help libraries, schools and literacy programs communicate and cooperate better so that all Lake County residents have access to programs and services that meet their Literacy needs.
Many organizations provide programming or services to Lake County residents in one or more of the areas of Family Literacy (including Early Literacy), Spanish Literacy or Adult Literacy. With so many options, it can be hard for someone to know where to go to get the help they need. The Literacy Resource Guide will contain detailed, up-to-date program information, such as times and locations of the programs as well as levels and eligibility. It will be the go to resource for people in Lake County to find the educational support they need, and it will help volunteers find programs that will maximize their skills and passions.
How can programs and services from my organization be included?
We would like to have your organization’s programs listed in the Guide. The link to the online Program Information form is available in the sidebar along with printable forms if you prefer.
Remember to fill out one form for each program. The Guide is designed to be used by individuals who want to join a program or receive a service. It highlights the programs and services not the organization.
Please feel free to share this webpage with organizations in your network, so that we can be sure their programs are represented as well.
What kinds of programs and services will be listed in the Guide?
A wide range of programs and services offered by schools, libraries and community organizations will be listed. A short list of examples follows:
- Children’s Story Time
- After school programs for kids
- Resources for parents of school children
- Parenting Classes
- Educational opportunities for adults where childcare or child education is provided
- All programs designed to improve Spanish language literacy skills (an effective strategy to prepare learners whose first language is Spanish for English language instruction, especially if they have little formal education)
- Spanish GED
- Adult Basic Education (ABE): Basic Skills in reading, writing and math
- GED: High school equivalency tests
- English as a Second Language (ESL)
- Computer Training
- Job Training
- Information Literacy
- Citizenship Classes
When and where will the Guide be available?
The Guide will be published on this site in August of 2013 and be available for download. We hope that it will be a great resource for librarians, educators, social workers and others who help refer Lake County residents to appropriate services.
If you have any questions about the 2013 Lake County Literacy Resource Guide project please contact one of the taskforce members listed below:
rrezek [at] fremontlibrary [dot] org
Adult Services Librarian
Fremont Public Library
rcope [at] icirr [dot] org
Uniting America AmeriCorps Fellow
HACES (Hispanic American Community Education and Services)
janderson [at] waukeganpl [dot] info
Adult Literacy Coordinator
Waukegan Public Library
wplintern [at] waukeganpl [dot] info
Literacy Resource Intern
Waukegan Public Library | <urn:uuid:633c79b2-5692-4d75-963a-eacf1e53d5c7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.waukeganpl.org/Lake-County-Literacy-Resource-Guide | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921216 | 729 | 2.875 | 3 |
SAVE ZIMBABWE FROM MUGABE
In elections this March, the people of Zimbabwe sent a clear message: Morgan Tsvangirai, not Robert Mugabe, should lead their government.|
Since then, through a campaign of violence, fraud, and intimidation, Mugabe's government has undermined any hope for a legitimate run-off on June 27. The MDC has, appropriately, withdrawn. But this is not a concession of victory -- it is an acknowledgement of reality.
Now, the world's eyes turn to the leaders of Southern Africa -- without whom even Mugabe cannot retain power. Please sign on to this message to Thabo Mbeki and other Southern African leaders, and Avaaz will deliver it this week in newspaper ads throughout the region (click the image on right to see a mock-up)!
Petition to Thabo Mbeki and other leaders of Southern Africa:
We call on you to hold an emergency meeting of Southern African leaders, to work by all means necessary for a legitimate Zimbabwean government that reflects the will of its people, and to decisively isolate those who stand in the way of a peaceful, democratic future for Zimbabwe.
201,330 people have endorsed the ad. Help us get to 250,000 | <urn:uuid:3e41824e-32dd-4753-9b6b-84f49d07e898> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_zimbabwe/97.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933162 | 258 | 1.632813 | 2 |
George B. Selden
|George B. Selden|
September 14, 1846|
Clarkson, New York, US
|Died||January 17, 1922
Rochester, New York, US
|Cause of death||Stroke (in late 1921)|
|Resting place||Mount Hope Cemetery, Rochester, New York|
|Education||University of Rochester (dropped out),
Yale University (Sheffield Scientific School and Yale Law School)
|Occupation||Businessman, inventor, lawyer|
|Known for||Inventing a version of the automobile|
|Board member of||Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers, Electric Vehicle Company, Selden Motor Vehicle Company, Selden Truck Sales Corporation|
|Spouse(s)||Clara Drake Selden, née Woodruff (1871-1922; his death)|
|Parents||Henry R. and Laura Anne Selden (née Baldwin)|
The idea of a horseless carriage was in the air during George's youth, but its practicality was uncertain. In 1859, his father, Judge Henry R. Selden, a prominent Republican attorney most noted for defending Susan B. Anthony, moved to Rochester, New York, where George briefly attended the University of Rochester before dropping out to enlist in the Sixth U.S. Cavalry, Union Army. This was not to the liking of his father who after pulling some strings and having some earnest discussions with his son managed to have him released from duty and enrolled in Yale. George did not do well at Yale in his law studies, preferring the technical studies offered by the Sheffield Scientific School, but did manage to finish his course of study and pass the New York bar 1871 and joined his father's practice.
He married shortly thereafter to Clara Drake Woodruff, by whom he had 4 children. He continued his hobby of inventing in a workshop in his father's basement, inventing a typewriter and a hoop making machine.
For a time, Selden represented photography pioneer George Eastman in patent matters.
The Selden patent
Inspired by the mammoth internal combustion engine invented by George Brayton displayed at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876, Selden began working on a smaller lighter version, succeeding by 1878, some eight years before the public introduction of the Benz Patent Motorwagen in Europe, in producing a one-cylinder, 400-pound version which featured an enclosed crankshaft with the help of Rochester machinist Frank H. Clement and his assistant William Gomm. He filed for a patent on May 8, 1879 (in a historical cross of people, the witness Selden chose was a local bank-teller, George Eastman, later to become famous for the Kodak camera). His application included not only the engine but its use in a 4 wheeled car. He then filed a series of amendments to his application which stretched out the legal process resulting in a delay of 16 years before the patent was granted on November 5, 1895.
Shortly thereafter the fledgling American auto industry began its first efforts and George Selden, despite never having gone into production with a working model of an automobile, had a credible claim to have patented an automobile in 1895. In 1899 he sold his patent rights to William C. Whitney, who proposed manufacturing electric-powered taxicabs as the Electric Vehicle Company, EVC, for a royalty of US$15 per car with a minimum annual payment of US$5,000. Whitney and Selden then worked together to collect royalties from other budding automobile manufacturers. He was initially successful, negotiating a 0.75% royalty on all cars sold by the Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers. He began his own car company in Rochester under the name Selden Motor Vehicle Company.
However, Henry Ford, owner of the Ford Motor Company, founded in Detroit, Michigan in 1903, and four other car makers resolved to contest the patent infringement suit filed by Selden and EVC. The legal fight lasted eight years, generating a case record of 14,000 pages. The case was heavily publicized in the newspapers of the day, and ended in a victory for Selden. In his decision, the judge wrote that the patent covered any automobile propelled by an engine powered by gasoline vapor. Posting a bond of US$350,000, Ford appealed, and on January 10, 1911 won his case based on an argument that the engine used in automobiles was not based on George Brayton's engine, the Brayton engine which Selden had improved, but on the Otto engine.
This stunning defeat, with only one year left to run on the patent, destroyed Selden's income stream. He focused production of his car company on trucks, renaming his company the Selden Truck Sales Corporation. It survived in that form until 1930 when it was purchased by the Bethlehem Truck Company. Selden suffered a stroke in late 1921 and died aged 75 on January 17, 1922. He was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester. It is estimated he received several hundred thousand dollars in royalties.
- The Wright brothers patent war, another vehicular technology patent lawsuit of the same time period
- George Brayton, inventor of the Brayton cycle engine
- Based on pages 184-199 of The Mayflower Murderer & Other Forgotten Firsts in American History, Peter F. Stevens, William Morrow, hardcover, 272 pages, ISBN 0-688-11818-6. Published simultaneously on Wikinfo.
- Flink, James J., The Automobile Age, MIT Press (1990), ISBN 0-262-56055-0
- The Selden Motor Wagon Photos of the vehicle, plus articles about the gestation of the patent and the lengthy lawsuit which followed. | <urn:uuid:66eec5ed-6d56-4830-ba94-a2052792744c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_B._Selden | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959273 | 1,207 | 2.515625 | 3 |
SUBSIM: The Web's #1 BBS for all submarine and naval simulations!
|06-15-2011, 07:41 PM||#1|
Join Date: Sep 2009
Oldest light bulb still burning after 110 years
An American town is preparing to celebrate a light bulb that has been glowing more-or-less continuously since 1901.
The four watt bulb, installed in a fire station in Livermore, California, has been declared the oldest known working light bulb by the Guinness Book of World Records.
The bulb was a gift from a businessman in 1901 and with the exception of a brief period in 1903, a week in 1937 and some power outages between then and 1976, the light has remained on.
Lynn Owens, the chairman of the town's light bulb centennial committee, said that the light's longevity has baffled scientists.
He said: "Nobody knows how it's possible. It is a 60 watt bulb and it's only turned on for about four watts but nobody knows why it keeps burning.
"We've had scientists from all over the country look at this light bulb. Of course nobody has ever been able to touch this it," he added.
"History is the lies that the victors agree on"- Napoleon
Link to my Mods | <urn:uuid:7e91db41-ab24-440d-b10f-c140eb31c226> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=184610 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95737 | 264 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Jewels are famous for their beauty and the proper place for them should, you would think, be out on display. It seems odd to hide them inside the workings of a watch. Nevertheless, we are told that this watch has five jewels inside it, this one seven or some other uneven number. All of these are fine watches, and the finest may have 23 jewels. These jewels are small, smooth scraps of ruby, diamond or sapphire.
A fine watch is a small miracle of delicate machinery. It has interlocking wheels of assorted sizes, hair thin springs and dozens of miniature parts all fitted together with infinitesimal bolts and screws. Special alloys that expand evenly are used for the metal parts to keep the delicate machinery in balance. But corundum jewels work best as pivots, bearings and other moving parts. These jewels are hard and very durable and normal changes in temperature fail to make them expand or contract. They are more depend able than the best alloys. This is why an expensive watch may have its dainty parts made of precious little jewels instead of metal. | <urn:uuid:7f1ec856-f237-4928-bc03-8750050cddc2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.youaskandy.com/questions-answers/29-ask-andy-1960/13025-why-do-they-put-jewels-inside-watches.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955445 | 222 | 2.296875 | 2 |
The public administration is one of the most sought fields of study today. The country is experiencing more and more phenomenon’s requiring for fast and effective actions to be taken. This leaves it in the hands of public administrators to view, optimize and bring about the policy that best suits that demands. Analysts in the field will never stop growing and this is so as the field requires ever more people to taken an active part and be a part of the whole process. This to take place will require you a public administration degree.
But where is best to acquire for a degree that can bring a better prospect of career in the long run? Master of Public Administration Courses is available here at this university. The university has developed a very good reputation of releasing some of the well-known people in the field. If you wish to be a part of the family all you need to do is sign in or register online. The courses come in two options and they are the regular classes and the online courses. Whichever you decide to take, make sure it is an informed decision you have thought through.
You may also be wondering what Public Administration Careers are available out there for you. The careers that you can look at rage widely. They range from directors, chief and manager of many fields from fire, banking, health care and even educational systems. There is practically no end to the many careers you can embrace and boost with a further degree of public administration. They are the reason why these fields are elaborated into a system, organized and funded by the government. If you wish to make a contribution to the society and give back with what you have, these degrees will bring you to a whole new level of societal participation. | <urn:uuid:268b69bf-e244-4594-b259-920a29451ba2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pearljournal.org/the-careers-of-public-administration-degree.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00076-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962571 | 345 | 2.1875 | 2 |
Home, Sweet Home (1914)
Home, Sweet Home
Film / Silent / Drama / Biography
Directed by D.W. Griffith
Cast: Lillian Gish and Henry B. Walthall
John Howard Payne leaves home and begins a career in the theater. Despite encouragement from his mother and his sweetheart, Payne begins to lead a life of dissolute habits, and this soon leads to ruin and misery. In deep despair, he thinks of better days, and writes a song that later provides inspiration to several others in their own times of need.
Directors: D.W. Griffith
Actors: Lillian Gish | <urn:uuid:1ef73015-ed1a-472e-a0c7-e3b9cbfb05d7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://matineeclassics.com/movies/1914/home_sweet_home/details/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948476 | 134 | 2.28125 | 2 |
Welcome to the Werbos World!
6 MegaChallenges for the 21st Century
· Key Challenges To Basic Scientific Understanding:
1. What is Mind? (how to build/understand intelligence)
2. How does the Universe work? (Quantum physics...)
3. What is Life? (e.g., quantitative systems biotechnology)
For many years, I have been doing research, publishing papers, giving talks and doing what I can to help, addressing most
of the big “megachallenges” above. You can find many of my papers (and some citations to papers in press), and important papers of others, simply by clicking on the section or subsection you are looking for today. But I have also tried to understand these complex issues as a single whole, and
to see the larger patterns here; I have added a lot of text to serve as a kind of introduction or unification of the various strands.
The artwork is just a pictorial representation of the same six megachallenges.
2011: Click here to see my official bio at the National Science Foundation (NSF). This year, I have been awarded the Hebb Award,
Some general comments cutting across the megachallenges:
2011: Book chapter in press: Strategic Thinking for Leadership in Science and Technology, W. Bainbridge, Ed., Sage, 2011.
The six megachallenges fall into two big groups: (1) challenges to our objective, clear understanding of the foundations of our life and our world; and (2) challenges to protect and improve the future condition of humanity.
The second set of challenges calls us all to protect the future of humanity and life in general in three places – earth, outer space and inner space. These three challenges include everything. They are really just a kind of bookkeeping device, to focus our attention more clearly on the future of humanity in general.
Better understanding will be crucial to our ability to address the humanity challenges effectively. You can see that by looking at each of the six challenges, and seeing how strong the connections are between them. I have also discussed these connections in two global talks given in 2006 in South Korea arranged by the “State of the Future” Millennium Project of the United Nations system; click here to see the (1 meg) talk for futurists, or click here to see the (1 meg) talk for science policy people.
The views on this web page are my own personal views. (None of the organizations I work with would take such strong positions across all of the issues I discuss here!) These views are all very different from the standard conventional wisdoms which you would find in any of the hundreds of self-confident cultures which criss-cross the earth. But in fact – the conventional wisdoms all contradict each other. The more one probes deeply, and tries to resolve the contradictions, the more one ends up seeing things quite differently.
Richard Clark (U.S. National
Security advisor under
In addressing all six of these challenges – even the challenge of enhancing subjective human experience – I try to take a systematically rational approach. This means that I try to define a clear goal in each case, and work out a concrete strategy designed to maximize progress towards that goal. For example, I ask: how can we find a rational strategy to understand how the universe works better than we do today? If we push sheer logic to the limit, without any regard to conventional wisdom, where does it point to? How can we unify our understanding of how it all works? I like to believe that the resulting strategies are a lot more vigorous, focused and viable than the fuzzy, ineffective vision papers we see coming out of most of the policy community. Yet some policy makers, like bean counters, do more harm than good by going to the opposite extreme, when they apply “rationality” to the wrong goals or blind themselves to important aspects of human life. What kind of rationality do we really want, in making global policy decisions? Click here for my view…
Thank you very much for considering these views… and for thinking hard about the challenges which belong to all of us… | <urn:uuid:ab9cb6be-d984-4199-be73-cee1a604c5af> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.werbos.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939188 | 859 | 2.03125 | 2 |
You Dirty Dog!
Natural Tips for the Grooming Impaired
Dogs can get into the darnedest messes, but when they do, these head-to-toe grooming tips will make cleanup easier—on both sides of the tub.
Shedding. Every dog needs a good comb-out to remove dead hair. When possible, do this outside, to reduce dander or flyaway fur in the house. Use a tool suited to the dog’s coat from a pet store—a brush, comb or sawtoothed loop to get to the undercoat.
Matted fur. Dog hair can felt up faster than a wool sweater in hot water. Always comb the mat starting from the end. If it’s especially stubborn, cut the mat lengthwise to separate into two or three pieces before combing. Don’t cut the mat out entirely, which is as noticeable as cutting a wad of bubble gum out of a child’s hair. Move especially difficult mats into the tub and rub a conditioner into it (a show horse detangler works well).
Ears. Red, painful, inflamed ears or dark, tarry goo inside an ear means infection or ear mites; head to a local veterinarian for an appropriate salve or drops. “Breeds like the Maltese
or poodles get ear infections from moisture held in the ears by too much hair,” explains Diana Immordino, a master groomer with Animal General Hospital, in Port Saint Lucie, Florida. “A professional groomer can show how to gently and safely remove the excess, and advise if a drying powder is needed.”
Teeth. Dogs love chicken or liver-flavored toothpaste; using a tempting flavor makes maintaining sparkling clean teeth and a healthy mouth easy to achieve at home. Brushing several times a week will reduce or eliminate the need to sedate the dog for a more costly professional dental cleaning.
Feet. Make it a habit to keep fur trimmed even with the pads, so the dog isn’t slipping on long hair. Trim to make a nice, semicircular paw, as viewed from above. Cavalier King Charles spaniels are the exception to the round paw look.
Baths. Have towels and a gentle shampoo close by. Then bring in the pet and close the bathroom door; it’s easier than chasing a wet dog through the house.
Use conditioner for mats only—a dime-sized blob is enough—not for dog hair overall. Rub it into the mat and let it sit for 15 minutes before combing out the tangle.
Small or shorthaired dogs can take a dip in the bathtub, but large, and/or double-coated breeds are best bathed outdoors or in a special tub in the laundry room, to keep fur out of the drain. A spray attachment will help get water all the way to the skin for breeds like a Keeshond, Malamute or Siberian husky.
Bloodhounds, pugs, bulldogs and shar peis need extra care. “Separate the wrinkles, suds up, rinse thoroughly and be careful to dry between the folds,” says Immordino. “These breeds can develop yeast infections between the wrinkles.”
Have several towels ready and dry the dog’s entire body before opening the door, because most will bolt to shake themselves dry and rub on rugs and furniture. A hair dryer on the coolest setting can help if it’s kept away from the dog’s skin and the buzzing rush of air doesn’t cause anxiety.
Plucking. Harsh-coated, nonshedding dogs such as the Cairn terrier should not be bathed; strip their coat instead. “Plucking removes the soft, dead undercoat, allows a healthy, vibrant coat to grow and maintains a proper rough texture that repels dirt and water,” explains Patti McCully, a Cairn breeder in Arvada, Colorado. “Baths soften the coat and would eliminate this autoclean feature. Stripping doesn’t hurt the dog. There’s no stinky smell, either.”
Nails. If an owner is squeamish about cutting a dog’s nails too short, local rescue clinics often offer nail trims for a small donation. At home, use a handheld grinding tool with a dome safety feature from the hardware store, instead of grab-and-crunch clippers.
“The easiest way to do a dog’s nails is to have the dog do it himself, dragging its nails across a filing board,” counsels M. Shirley Chong, a clicker trainer in Grinnell, Iowa. “I teach people how to do this and it’s easy to train the dogs, because they enjoy it.” The trick is to put the board out of reach between supervised sessions (ShirleyChong.com/keepers/nailfile.html).
Finally, when the family dog is having a bad hair day and time is an issue, a professional can save the day. Mobile groomers make house calls, and regular grooming contributes to a sweet-smelling dog. | <urn:uuid:627401f2-eba3-49c9-8bcc-9e49fd190e29> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://naeastmichigan.com/na-pet-online-articles/napet/natural-tips-for-the-grooming-impaired | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908293 | 1,105 | 1.867188 | 2 |
Activist speaks to community about oil spill
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When Riki Ott, who has a doctorate in marine toxicolgy, heard of the oil spill in the Gulf, she thought of the Exxon-Valdez spill 20 years ago in Alaska.
Not again, she thought.
"You guys in the Gulf will be in the same position we were in," she said.
On Monday, Ott spoke to residents in Seadrift concerned with the oil spill caused by the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. The explosion happened April 20 and claimed the lives of 11 workers.
She said she remembers Exxon met with the Alaskan community she lived in to set their worries at ease.
"They said they wanted to make us whole and promised to help us financially," she said.
But that help never came.
That's why she is now on a mission to help those being affected on the Gulf coast.
"I want to help those who are in the same position now," she said.
The activist and marine toxicologist compared BP's attitude toward fishermen in the area, to the way Exxon treated the fishermen in Alaska.
After she heard of the oil rig explosion, she set off to New Orleans to get more information and to see for herself.
"The air smells like oil, and you can feel it in the back of your throat," she said after walking the shorelines around New Orleans.
She said children, the elderly and sea life would mostly be affected by the spill.
"Exxon told us not to worry, and that is what BP is telling fishermen, too," she said.
By not allowing media access to what is going on, people outside the affected areas will never fully know what is going on, she said.
People in the area have started to evacuate their homes, saying they are feeling sick and having respiratory problems, nose bleeds and burning eyes.
"All similar symptoms of the Exxon oil spill we had," she said.
"We are learning from our mistakes and should come up with plan B," she said. "It has been 20 years, and we fought and lost. Democracy has been hijacked by the oil corporations."
For people in Alaska, it was too little, too late, she said.
"Fishermen should act now and learn from the mistakes of 20 years ago," she added.
Fellow activist Diane Wilson said she was glad Ott made it to the area.
"Most people feel that there is a good chance the oil is going to make it here," she said.
People are fearful and have already seen oil hit the Texas coast, she noted.
So far, tar balls have been reported on Sargent and Crystal beaches, Wilson said.
Wilson said she was glad to have someone who has gone through the same experience, so those here have inside knowledge of what to expect.
People need to be educated at this point, she said.
"A lot of agencies and politicians are not coming forward with what's going on in the Gulf," she said.
"I am glad she is here," she said. | <urn:uuid:9101d39c-b88b-4af0-b105-a3eef2c7bd6f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news/2010/jul/12/aa_activists_071210_103446/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986539 | 659 | 2.078125 | 2 |
§ Sue Doughty
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how mach funding for environmental educational initiatives will be lost by schools following the end of the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme; and if he will replace such lost funding from his departmental budget.
§ Mr. Miliband
The Landfill Tax Credit Scheme (LTCS) has not ended, although two of the objects of the scheme were withdrawn in April 2003, those which concerned research and development, and education on sustainable waste management. Since April 2003 a number of projects in categories c and cc have continued to be financed by legacy funding through the Department for Environment,526W Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Welsh and Scottish Assemblies and the Northern Ireland Authorities but the current arrangements will cease at the end of March. The value of environmental education projects funded in calendar year 2003 under these categories is £71,300, although that amount may increase since claims can be made until April 2004. However, some types of education projects are currently, and will still be, eligible for funding under some of the remaining objects of the scheme, for example biodiversity.
As part of the sustainable waste delivery public expenditure programme established as a result of the reform of the LTCS, and managed by Defra, work will be taken forward on waste awareness. Therefore. my Department has no plans to increase the level of funding for environmental educational in schools. | <urn:uuid:7ab6db25-3443-405b-bb82-6d3a388f0928> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/written_answers/2004/jan/29/landfill-tax-credit | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960507 | 286 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Mark My Words!
By Mark Hasten with Peter Weisz
I was skeptical when I picked up the autobiography of Mark Hasten, Mark My Words! I had never heard of Hasten—proof, once again, that humility is alive and well. A person can achieve great things without making a big deal out of himself.
Not only was my initial skepticism about Hasten wrong, it was repeatedly wrong, for when I began the book I thought I had an easy handle on him. I thought I had encountered a survivor of World War II, and would read another book in what is by now a well-known and somewhat predictable genre: the Holocaust memoir.
It is certainly true that each survivor’s story is unique, and I never cease to be amazed by the fortitude, suffering and singular miracles manifest in each survivor’s tale. But, taken together, Holocaust memoirs project certain familiar guideposts. The beginning of Hasten’s memoir sets off in that direction and my skepticism said: OK, I’ll take one more World War II memoir for what it is.
How wrong I was.
Virtually each chapter in this book is a radical surprise. I mean, who would have jumped from an escape from the evil powers of World War II to the invention of Pringles? Or, going back even earlier, who would have jumped from World War II to the sinking of the Altalena? Or from a successful career in nursing homes to the abandonment thereof for a career in banking? On another level, who would have expected a jump from a struggling young couple too distracted by the exigencies of putting bread on the table to notice Yom Kippur to building Jewish day schools?
However you slice the life of Mark Hasten, it has touched all the major events of Jewish history in the last seventy years: Holocaust, Israel, fabulous economic growth, religious resurgence. It has touched a wide range of notable figures, from Menachem Begin to the Tosher Rebbe of Montreal to the governor of Indiana.
And these distinctions are not even what make the book great. That kudo is to be attributed to Hasten’s sober, dispassionate, lucid and utterly frank telling of his story and of the stories of the historic actors he has interfaced with. His objectivity spares no one, yet is kind. He has the ability to get inside a topic and see it from the protagonist’s perspective, and simultaneously to evaluate what he sees without blinking. He writes this way not only about others and events, but also about himself and those closest to him.
For example, we get a thorough analysis of the most controversial act at the time of Israel’s independence: the sinking of the Altalena. This was a ship that set sail from France to Palestine, laden with hard-to-gather weapons for the burgeoning Israeli battle with the Arabs for survival. The long and short of the story is that the ship (which arrived shortly after the State of Israel was declared) was sunk by agents of the new Israeli government, under orders from Ben-Gurion, carried out by Yitzhak Rabin.
The government apologists say the ship had to be sunk because it was commandeered by the forces of Menachem Begin, who was trying to sabotage the emergent Israeli government by insisting on an armed force of his own. The Irgun apologists say they had had no such intention, and that Ben-Gurion was insanely paranoid, to the point of endangering the new Israeli State by risking a civil war with Jews who merely wanted to offer weapons to soldiers (albeit ex-Irguniks) in the new Israeli army.
Hasten’s view tends closer to the latter, but he specifically disavows any special authority on the question by virtue of his having been on the Altalena himself. For years afterwards he researched the event. He spoke to the participants. Here is the conclusion that his rational, judicial temperament reached: Technical failures in communication between the vessel’s captain and Ben-Gurion’s people on the Tel Aviv shore signaled a major misreading by each party of the intentions of the other.
That rational temperament of Hasten—plus his incredibly dogged determination—led him to great creativity and many patents. Having left Israel, turned off by what he calls its socialist bent, he practically forced his way into an American university program in mechanical engineering, not even knowing English—not to mention not being able to afford the tuition.
Chapters in his book detail, in a very clear and accessible way, how he put his education to work in inventing the snack foods Bugles and Pringles.
Hasten moved on to nursing homes, a field he subsequently abandoned because he took his job seriously enough to be on call twenty-four hours a day, once even hiring a helicopter to rescue his residents during a storm that left them without electrical power. (On another occasion, he posed incognito as a dishwasher to pinpoint and eliminate operational inefficiencies in his nursing homes.)
He next moved into banking. Somehow, at each step of the way, he advanced his Jewish knowledge and commitment, aided by his wife, Ruth Anna, his children and the energetic Rabbi Ronald Gray, whom the Hastens brought to join them in Indianapolis.
The feeling one gets from this memoir is that Hasten has relished each of these stages, fully able to move to the next part of his life without regrets. One might think that a person who worked so hard to perfect his inventive skills as a mechanical engineer would regret leaving them behind by moving into business. However, Hasten found a way to build upon each of his skill sets as he took on a new challenge.
Indeed, one finishes this memoir stunned by the range of Hasten’s achievements but, even more, by the equanimity, the enthusiasm and the great capacity for objective analysis that generated each of them. Of special note is his objectivity in setting forth the potential problems in working closely with family (in his case, his brother Hart) in business.
Hasten worked locally and nationally, committed to his home city of Indianapolis—both to building a day school there and to serving on gubernatorial commissions to advance standards in his industry—and to Touro College, Herut and other national causes. In 2008, the OU awarded the Hastens its highest honor, the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Proof, once again, that Hitler’s greatest evil was not in denying the right to life, but in robbing the world of who knows how many contributions in countless fields. Mark Hasten is an exemplary model of what a survivor has accomplished. His book, in its enthusiasm and its dispassion, and in its brilliance at filling in context, is a joy to read.
Rabbi Hillel Goldberg, executive editor of the Intermountain Jewish News, is a contributing editor of Jewish Action and the author of the recently published Hallel Hakohen (Jerusalem, 2008), an unraveling of the elliptical commentary of the Vilna Gaon on the laws of mikvah. | <urn:uuid:ce1939e6-9c1b-4781-b771-a8bc431bcbf6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ou.org/jewish_action/12/2009/mark_my_words/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976725 | 1,475 | 1.75 | 2 |
Have you ever invested energy to explore how much time you spend chatting to colleagues, surfing the net, reading junk mail or making coffee every day, to mention just a few of the worst time consuming activities we indulge in each day? You do not have a shortage of time to carry out your crucial goal specific activities each day. All you have is a very poor system for utilising your available time as effectively and efficiently as possible, so that you can maximise your productivity.
Use an Activity Log
A study done in the US found that when people wrote down everything they did for seven days, their perception of how much free time they had doubled. Keeping a log will help you distinguish between time wasting activities and those that crucial goal specific activities which contribute to your success. It will also help you determine when your most productive times are during the day, so you can schedule your most (and least) taxing tasks accordingly.
Action Idea: Make yourself a blank schedule with each hour marked on a blank sheet of paper. Carry out this process for seven days, carefully noting how you are spending your time. After each hour passes, record exactly what you did. Do not analyse the data, just record it. After the seven days is up. Analyse the data and see how you are spending your time. Try to identify trends and see where you are wasting time.
Armed with this information, tackle the next week looking at each hour before it starts and ask yourself this question “Is the way I intend to invest the next hour, the most effective use of my time”. If it is keep doing things the way you are. If it is not then ask a different question “How can I improve on the next hour to improve the way I am utilising my time? Make asking this question a new habit and constantly look for ways to become more efficient.
Understanding the Terminology
Effectiveness – Knowing how to identify, prioritize and carry out the right activities each day.
Efficiency – Understanding how to leverage the maximum benefit from your available time, so that you can efficiently perform all the right activities each day.
Activity Management – Having a system to properly manage the right activities and leverage the maximum from your unique circumstances.
Self-Management – Create new routines or Daily Habits and then convert these into a success habit set.
Effective Planning – Stimulate effective work habits, through focus and planning.
Don’t just improve your Efficiency, Look at your Effectiveness first
The greatest challenge most people have, when they want to improve their time management skills, is that they only search for ways to become more efficient. i.e. ways to get more done in an hour. This means that they work very hard to learn a system, which makes them very efficient at taking what may be the wrong actions every day. The secret to learning a new time management system, is to first take a step back, where you explore the actions you are taking, namely your effectiveness and discover whether the actions you are taking are aligned with the results you want to achieve. Once you are certain that the actions you are taking are right, now you can invest time and effort to learn a system to make you more efficient at carrying out these activities.
The challenge most of us have, is that we are constantly trying to keep up with urgent (but not necessarily important) tasks throughout the day. This means that we spend most of our day spinning our wheels and achieving very little. To wrestle back control of your life you need to identify and prioritize the most important goal specific tasks, which you need to, complete each day and make a list of them. Once you have your list of activities necessary for success. Look at ways of developing new behaviours or daily routines to support you to carry out these crucial activities every day. These new habits would be things like planning your day the night before, setting specific time aside each day to carry out these crucial activities, reviewing your progress daily or exploring each hour before it starts and asking if this is the best use of your time.
Plan and Organise
There is a little saying that goes” for every minute spent organizing, an hour is earned.” Plan your day the night before and get a head start every day. The more organised you are each day; the easier it will be to utilise your time as efficiently and effectively as possible. When you are planning your day, you must clearly distinguish between urgent and important tasks, this way you become both effective and time efficient, as you get to ensure that the actions you are taking are aligned with the outcomes you want to achieve.
Remove the Overwhelm
Break really big overwhelming tasks down into bite size action steps, which can easily be accomplished. This makes the really big and overwhelming tasks easy to manage and complete and gives you a list of individual actions, you can readily take throughout the day. I have found that if I break my “To Do” list into lists, which contain no more than 5 items each, I more readily get a feeling of accomplishment, as I move from list to list during the day. Don’t forget to review your to do list every day during your evening review.
Technology has become both a time saver and unfortunately, if we allow a huge consumer of our time. The myriad of communication tools available, which include SMS, email, Facebook, Twitter and Skype etc. are major sources of distraction every day. The attention we divert to utilize these very valuable sources of information can negatively affect our concentration, attention, productivity and decision making abilities. Just like with your overall goal of managing your time, you must manage your usage of these tools as well.
Use your activity log exercise to reveal how much time you are spending on unnecessary time wasting things such as reading junk emails, sending and reading unnecessary SMS’s, Chatting to friends on Facebook, tweeting etc.
Tips to Manage Technology
Don’t leave your email open all day as this will distract your attention every time a new mail comes in.
Set aside two blocks of time, for example half an hour in the morning and half an hour in the evening to attend to email only.
Set a small block of time aside each day for social networking and be very disciplined in sticking to your allocated time.
Allocate the time for emails, social networking answering SMS,s during your daily planning exercise each evening.
Review how you have stuck to your time commitments each evening and make improvements where necessary.
If you are not sticking to your allotted time, put the necessary mental steps in place to stick to your allotted time the next day.
I am certain that you have enough time every day to achieve all the goals you set for yourself. All you need to do, to finally turn your available time into the success you want, is to first ensure that you are taking the right actions, build a success habit set to support you to take these actions, plan your time usage, review your activities daily and then just get off your butt and take action.
Hi my name is Andrew Horton; I am an inspirational Speaker, Master Teacher, Radio and TV Host, Global Traveler and Author. My area of focus is in the field of human behavior,expanded awareness and enlightenment. I travel the planet constantly researching, learning and seeking ways to unlock the mysteries of the human mind. I delve into the inner workings of the universe, always looking for ways to understand my role in making things better and contributing to the improvement of the human experience. Please visit my website to sign up for a daily inspirational message, by following this link Daily Inspirational Message. This is your daily call to action, a reminder to do things better each day. Visit my website at http://www.andrewhorton.co.za | <urn:uuid:9b5093f2-3b5d-48c1-900b-6151c5da67a6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/do-you-invest-or-consume-time | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951597 | 1,594 | 2.359375 | 2 |
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A turning-point moment in Staten Island’s past is pinned at the intersection of latitude 40.608391 and longitude -74.110681.
Seldom can a pivotal occurrence be tied so precisely to a specific geographic spot, but plug the numbers into an Internet map tool and the coordinates have a story to tell.
It is here that, in 1965, New York’s rampant builder Robert Moses, the most powerful municipal official never elected to public office, reached his high-water mark.
Nearly a half-century later, those metaphorical waters have visibly begun to recede. School playgrounds, paved wholesale by Moses, are slowly greening again. The notorious Fresh Kills landfill, built by Moses on the promise that it would be temporary — which turned out to be a calculated lie — is closed. The splendid Greenbelt Nature Center today sits athwart what would have been the middle of Moses’ Willowbrook Parkway.
Now, on the route of the unfinished Richmond Parkway, overpasses never used to carry traffic are being dismantled to make room for an extra traffic lane on the Staten Island Expressway.
Moses, who reshaped greater New York City with the assiduous whim of a child playing in a sandbox, had led his paving brigades charging up Todt Hill, building ramps for the northern leg of the Richmond Parkway, which was already well under way on Staten Island’s South Shore. Less than halfway up the hill, Moses suffered what was, at the time, a stunning and almost unthinkable defeat, an event that, for better or worse, suddenly and forever changed the arc of Staten Island’s history.
How this all came to be is a tale, some say, of urban vision run amok, of megalomania and political acquiescence, or perhaps cowardice; environmental carelessness and, ultimately, of the courage of a citizenry that finally had enough of it.
The wild, wooded hills that are the spine of Staten Island have always been central to the Island’s unique character. The 19th century Hudson River School artist Jasper Cropsey celebrated them in a famous painting. In 1843, the seminal environmentalist Henry David Thoreau rambled the ridgeline and remarked, to his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson, about the agreeable nature of the place and how the sea shore seemed so close by, when viewed from the hills.
Nearly three decades later the great landscape architect, Staten Islander Frederick Law Olmsted, proposed turning the string of steep, irregular hilltops into a miles-long park. The land, he noted, was “… totally unsuited, not to say impracticable, for roads for rapid travel.””
Olmsted, in 1871, could not have reckoned on the rapacious Moses and his mechanized army of road builders.
It was to these hills that Moses deployed his earth-movers and paving machines. With characteristic willful roughshod behavior that biographer Robert Caro described as “satanic,” Moses had clashed with a president, driven the Dodgers from Brooklyn, macadamized every public playground in the city, and tore whole communities apart with his projects. Now it was Staten Island’s turn.
Moses, the high priest of automobile travel (oddly he possessed neither a car nor a driver’s license) had vigorously encouraged urban sprawl, but seen to it that the overpasses on his parkways were kept too low to allow bus traffic. He gunned his bulldozers through the heart of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and from there built the imposing Verrazano-Narrows Bridge — with an arch deliberately too steep to accommodate a train --- to connect with his Staten Island Expressway, a coincidentally convenient route for garbage trucks heading for the Fresh Kills landfill, which he had duplicitously created on a tidal wetland.
Moses never hesitated to use the courts to help him take whatever private land he wanted. His highway schemes, with their attendant eminent domain confiscations, destroyed Staten Island’s quaint East Shore beach communities — only the names remain — and demolished the beloved Al Deppe’s, an enormously popular restaurant and amusement venue in modern-day New Springville.
The beach colonies stood in the way of Moses’ never-realized shoreline highway. Al Deppe’s was sacrificed because it had the misfortune of being in the planned path of his Richmond Parkway. It was on this road plan that Moses’ reach finally exceeded his grasp.
Had it been completed, the Richmond Parkway would have extended south from the Staten Island Expressway in the Sunnyside-Castleton Corners area, just west of what is now the Petrides educational complex, to the West Shore Expressway and the Outerbridge Crossing.
The highway would have cut across the wooded top of Todt Hill and plunged through the Boy Scouts’ Pouch Camp and the only glacial lake in New York City. It would have clipped and overshadowed what is now High Rock Park and sundered La Tourette Park, a sylvan place with a rich connection to the American Revolution.
Propelled by arrogance and buoyed by his past success and aura of invincibility, Moses, never reluctant to pick a fight in furtherance of his plans, learned too late that there were some political battles even he could not win.
His road-building troops were hard at work completing the southern end of the Richmond Parkway when New York City mayoral candidate John V. Lindsay, mindful of determined and growing public opposition to the road, suggested Moses realign the unbuilt northern leg to minimize its environmental and social effects. Moses disdainfully dismissed the idea and is said to have reminded Lindsay to not act as if he were already the mayor.
Then came the election in the fall of 1965. Now Lindsay was the mayor. Economic times were tough and New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, whose political base was not beholden to Moses, had wearied of Moses' high-handed methods. Moses’ stranglehold was broken and his dazzling transit across the political firmament of New York all but spent. Work on the Richmond Parkway and its western twin, the Willowbrook Parkway, halted, never to begin again.
Moses’ foes, and they were by then legion, hailed their victory. But as all victories do, this one came with a price. The bridge had opened the floodgates of change. Rural Staten Island quickly vanished as developers densely filled every vacant corner chock-a-block with houses, leaving barely enough room, even on the streets, to park all the cars. Had all the Moses roads been completed, it might only have made matters worse.---
An NYCTV video about the origins of New York City's great parks includes a segment on Robert Moses and the Staten Island Greenbelt. The Staten Island segment begins at 46:50 on the video's timeline
Nevertheless, for every jubilant highway foe there are others, many of whom must routinely commute from the South Shore neighborhoods, who lament the interrupted Moses parkways.
Still others are philosophical. Dr. Kenneth Saccaro, a Staten Island dentist and longtime environmentalist, admits to being ambivalent. Surrounded by forest lands he helped preserve, Saccaro mused. “It would have been a sin to destroy this beauty,” he said. “So I think that we put up with a little traffic.”
This brings us to that spot on the map, where Robert Moses was effectively stopped in his tracks. There the air is once again filled with the snort and roar of backhoes and the rumble of dump trucks, but only for a while. Soon, like the overpasses being demolished, they will be gone for good.
The pavement abruptly ends at a wall of graffiti-covered concrete barriers. Close behind rises the forest, a wild woodland threaded with popular hiking trails, part of the Staten Island Greenbelt. Not for nothing is it called Deer Park.
To get here the road builders first had to cut through hills of schist and gneiss and serpentine rock as they departed southward from the Staten Island Expressway. The rubble from their digging was carted to a place near the intersection of Rockland Avenue and Manor Road in Egbertville, where it was heaped high for what was intended to be the interchange of the Richmond and Willowbrook parkways.
That hill, which would have become one of the busiest and noisiest traffic spots on Staten Island, now rewards visitors with peaceful quietude and almost unbroken views of the surrounding treetops. It is ironically known as Moses Mountain. | <urn:uuid:b5d6b4e2-2307-413e-86a7-e3cf56dfe9ef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.silive.com/opinion/columns/index.ssf/2012/04/lost_highway_demolition_of_unu_1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967089 | 1,802 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Posts Tagged ‘Chouquettes’
In the world of grand opera there was no bigger star than Giulietta Silvana. At the Met—the old “Diamond Horseshoe” on 39th Street—even the sleepiest of men who’d been dragged to the opera by their culture-climbing wives woke up when “La Silvana” arrived center stage.
There was, of course, no shortage of men who swept through the stage door in their top hats and capes hoping to court “La Silvana.” The usual nightly contretemps between a Diva and her tenor? For “La Silvana”, this was just the opening salvo to a night of romance. Like a bee collecting pollen, she never settled on one flower. Reporter after reporter asked why, and to all she simply replied, “Show me a man of substance, and I will have sung my last Lucia.”
European suitors, many of them of royal lineage, also fell under her spell during visits to La Scala, the Palais Garnier, the Royal Opera House, and countless concert stages. Her great rival, Lily Pons, was green with envy at La Silvana’s independence from the grasp of one man.
At home, which was usually the best suite in the best hotel in whatever city she sang, she was tended to by a staff who doted on, and anticipated her every whim. Her private chef ensured that there would never be too much of her to squeeze into the corsets that costume designers inevitably built into her costumes; a private masseuse pounded every excess ounce of avoirdupois from her that the chef may have missed. What the chef and masseuse may have missed, her own notoriously steely discipline and focus nipped in the bud. She sailed around the world like a maharani: staff, clothes, jewels, and determination never far from her reach. If you find the theory that Great Divas are born Great Divas dubious, let La Silvana wipe away all doubts.
Still, if you were to observe closely, you’d notice some clues to the “real” La Silvana. At every meal, in any restaurant, even on the most luxurious ocean liner, she would rub the silverware with her napkin as if the cleanest was never clean enough. Then there was the locket: a large silver locket that never left her neck no matter the role or costume. She always held it when, as Tosca, she made her final plunge. No man, no maid, no costume designer could make her remove the locket. It was reported (but never confirmed) that she slept with it in her grasp.
Sadly, time—age—was unkind to La Silvana. Inevitably, her voice became heavy, her face matured, and she began to find herself shunted aside in favor of younger singers—both on stage and off.
Rather than linger on in the shadows, La Silvana did what she thought was expected of a Great Diva: she simply disappeared. Her whereabouts—even whether she was dead or alive—became one of the great mysteries of the Opera world.
However, after the recent death of Professor Carlos Bernberg—one of the world’s great scholars on twentieth century opera (and a notorious pack rat)—we are finally able to reveal what happened to La Silvana after she took her final bow. For, hidden amongst the boxes that defined the Professor’s living and working space lies the story of La Silvana’s Act II.
The story of her second act begins—by sheer coincidence—on a snowy Christmas Eve. Still awash in the rosy glow of music as he made his way from Carnegie Hall through the falling snow, Professor Bernberg, heeding the rumbles of his empty stomach, decided that a light, late supper was in order. Worried that Schrafft’s (his usual haunt) would be closed, he decided to try a small bistro he’d spied on his many trips through the neighborhood. Its warm glow always reminded him of Vienna, but its name always captured his fancy: “Lucia”. Not, “Lucia’s Place” or “Café Lucia”. Just “Lucia”.
He paused as he entered, for the restaurant was full and the boisterousness of the crowd left him with the impression that he was intruding on a private party. Through the smoky haze he could see a small staff of red-jacketed waiters clucking and bowing, and in the back, through a window cut in the wall, a cherub-cheeked man, white hair under a toque, fussing in the kitchen.
A short, slightly plump woman with silver hair grabbed both of his hands and greeted him like an old friend. She explained that while there were no individual tables available, if he didn’t mind, she could happily seat him with others. His initial reluctance was overruled by another rumble of his empty stomach, and he soon found himself seated at a large round table with seven other diners. Not so much seated as “tucked in”, as the plump, silver-haired matron who greeted him made sure his chair was pushed in and his “serviette” spread in his lap just so. While telling him about things to look for on the menu, she stood with a cloth and wiped his silverware.
Indicating the other people at the table, she allowed, “My friends will tell you that I am biased, but I think we have the best Veal Marengo in the world.” Nodding towards the kitchen she continued, “Franco is Piedmontese, so he knows just the right amount of white truffle to add.”
Well, given such salesmanship, and the agreement of his tablemates, how could the Professor not try the Veal Marengo?
After his meal—and a rather bracing glass of Cotes de Nuits – Villages—he patted his stomach in appreciation of the fine meal, and the happy conversation with the strangers at the table.
Insisting that he have something sweet with his coffee, the silver-haired matron delivered a small plate baring just a few simple, round pastries that were studded with nibs of sugar. They were hollow, and the nibs of sugar sweetened the toasted, egg-infused, pastry with little “pops” each time he took a bite.
The Professor pleaded with the silver-haired matron to know what they were.
“Ah, those? They are Chouquettes. I first had them on a Christmas Eve many moons ago in Vienna. A place much like this one. I was with my first love, my only true love. I had to plead with the baker for the recipe for I knew that I would want my love to have Chouquettes every Christmas Eve. I carried the recipe in my locket for many years. I always felt that I could conquer the world if I kept the recipe close to my heart.”
As she pointed to her large silver locket, the Professor looked her up and down while a wash of memories flooded him. “You are La Silvana!” he gasped.
“Ha!” she giggled. “La Silvana! I made her up like a child pretends to be a cowboy or an Indian. Would people have come to see Gertrude Silverman sing? I think not. So I became Giulietta Silvana. But all the fame and riches could never bring back my true love. He was lost in the Great War. After I stopped singing I opened this place so that every night I could re-live those dinners in Vienna. Some days, at my darkest, I imagine that the door will open, he’ll walk in, and we’ll be reunited forever.” Then, with a sigh, “But it is not to be.”
She smiled at the professor and said, “You’ll keep my secret, yes? Better for the world to think La Silvana just evaporated into thin air then for them to know she is now a dumpy, grey haired frau. So here I am, hiding in plain sight. Shhhh…” she teased, holding her finger over her lips if playing a game of Hide and Seek. As she made her request she offered the Professor one more Chouquette. He bit into it and as the sugar made little “pops” in his mouth, he knew almost as if he’d been placed under a spell, that he would never reveal the secret of La Silvana.
Want to make your own Chouquettes? Follow my recipe for Gougeres, but omit the cheese. Before baking, sprinkle with nib (pearl) sugar, or any large grain sugar.
Write to me at the email address below with any questions or thoughts you may have. Thanks!
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Tomorrow marks the 100th anniversary of the notorious Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire that trapped and killed 146 workers, most of them young immigrant women, on the upper floors of a New York City sweatshop. It's a time to honor and mourn the Triangle's victims, commemorate the tragedy's importance as a turning point in the history of the American labor movement, and reaffirm the crucial role of unions and regulatory bodies in advancing worker rights. Both are taking a beating in America's 21st-century iteration of the Gilded Age, as industrialists (hello, Koch brothers) paired with the craven politicians who do their bidding (greetings, Gov. Scott Walker, Sen. Scott Brown, et al.), take another pass at ridding our country of all those nasty laws that protect consumers and workers, and cut into their bottom line.Go read the whole thing.
It was unions -- led by the International Ladies' Garment Workers (now Workers United) in league with the Women's Trade Union League -- that began harnessing public outrage in the wake of the fire to demand the regulations regarding worker health, well-being, and safety that protect many workers to this day, whether or not they belong to a union. Think workers' compensation, unemployment insurance, the 40-hour workweek, weekends, holidays, sick pay, employee benefits, and safety standards.
...And then think about how dangerously close America is to turning its back on Triangle's legacy because of this past decade's (mostly) Republican and corporate-led assault on regulatory bodies and policies. This is the very time when workers most need protection: As our country's recession deepens, unions have been eviscerated, and jobholders and job seekers have become more desperate. As one Harvard Business School lecturer memorably said about Harley Davidson's happy discovery that reducing the number of employees has actually contributed to soaring profits, "Because of high unemployment, management is using its leverage to get more hours out of workers."
Yet the public seems increasingly to hate, envy, and blame unions and unionized workers.
Posted by Melissa McEwan at Thursday, March 24, 2011
Nancy Goldstein's got a great piece in The American Prospect, "Preserving the Triangle Factory Fire's Lessons, 100 Years Later." An excerpt: | <urn:uuid:9b307812-2a35-47cd-b94e-f3ccfcbc89f8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.shakesville.com/2011/03/and-santayana-said-those-who-cannot.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946619 | 465 | 2.453125 | 2 |
|Year : 1967 | Volume
| Issue : 5 | Page : 175-180
Active systemic lesions in cases of suspected ocular tuberculosis
PN Srinivasa Rao1, K Shankar Bhat2
1 Department of Ophthalmology, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, India
2 Department of General Medicine, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, India
P N Srinivasa Rao
Department of Ophthalmology, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal
|How to cite this article:|
Srinivasa Rao P N, Bhat K S. Active systemic lesions in cases of suspected ocular tuberculosis. Indian J Ophthalmol 1967;15:175-80
|How to cite this URL:|
Srinivasa Rao P N, Bhat K S. Active systemic lesions in cases of suspected ocular tuberculosis. Indian J Ophthalmol [serial online] 1967 [cited 2013 May 24];15:175-80. Available from: http://www.ijo.in/text.asp?1967/15/5/175/38803
Tuberculosis can affect the eye in two ways:-(1) actual infection of the ocular tissue by the organism, (2) an allergy to tuberculous proteins. While it is conceded, that tuberculosis is an important and frequent cause of ocular diseases such as uveitis, the importance and frequency ascribed to it vary from clinic to clinic, according to various diagnostic criteria employed, the nutritional status of the region and the success of anti-tubercular measures. The problem is complicated due to several factors: (1) Inability to demonstrate bacilli in the available aqueous. (2) Lack of tissue for biopsy or culture. (3) The pleomorphic clinical symptomatology which may be simulated by a great variety of other infections. (4) Immunological tests such as Mantoux test have got little diagnostic value in an area where the test seems to be universally positive in the general public. Under the circumstances, the problem is reviewed here in reverse. Cases suspected of ocular tuberculous lesions were subjected to general medical survey by one of us (K.S.B.) to find out systemic active lesions if any.
| Review of Literature|| |
European investigators report a high incidence of systemic tuberculosis in patients with ocular tuberculosis. WERDENBERG (1938) reported that 60% of the ocular tuberculous patients at Davos showed calcified hylar nodes, 30% showed X-Ray evidences of old inactive infection in the lung fields, and the remaining 10% showed evidence of active systemic tuberculosis. WEGNER and ZINTZ (1951) reported severe pulmonary changes in 10% of 300 cases of frank ocular tuberculosis, and unmistakable tuberculous foci elsewhere in the body in 60%.
In an analysis of 306 patients with ocular tuberculosis LASCU GROSSU and NICULESCU (1956) found "antagonism" (severe ocular symptoms and slight or inactive pulmonary involvement) in 67% of the cases, parallism (severe ocular symptoms and severe active, pulmonary or systemic lesions) in 21 % and what they termed slight parallism in the remaining 12%.
For many years phlyctenular keratoconjunctivitis has been associated with tuberculosis. The positive dermal reaction is found in a percentage of cases varying from 60 to 100 with an average of 80%. The frequency with which clinical evidence of the presence of active tuberculosis, whether pulmonary or lymphatic can be obtained in phlyctenular subjects has varied widely with different observers. Thus Stalder (1926) as quoted by Duke Elder (1965) found lung lesions in 83% of the patients with phlyctenes in contrast to 6% in controls. SIWE (1935) diagnosed active pulmonary lesions in a considerable proportion of patients with phlyctenes depending on the age, varying from 75% in children under 4 years to 26°% o between 7 and 13. SORSBY (1942) and THYGESON (1951) found a relatively small percentage of active tuberculosis either in the lungs, lymphnodes, bones or joints (6%). But all observers are agreed that radiological evidence of past disease is very high. (72.2%, SORSBY-1942).
KONTAS K. A. (1958) found abnormalities of the fundus in 43 out of 318 patients (13%) with pulmonary tuberculosis.
PACYNSKA (1957) studied 500 patients with pulmonary tuberculosis and found only 2 cases of choroidal foci which can be considered definitely tuberculous.
The dominant role ascribed to tuberculosis in the etiology of uveitis has undergone considerable de-emphasis. In 1941, a report from the Wilmer Institute indicated tuberculosis to be the cause of 79% of all instances of uveitis. In 1944, this figure dropped to 52% and in 1953 to 22%. The present day concepts of the importance of tuberculous uveitis varies from a maximum of 75% to a minimum of only 10% (THEODORE and SCHLOSSMAN 1958).
THEODORE and SCHLOSSMAN (1958) concluded that the incidence of ocular tuberculosis is not proportional to the incidence of systemic disease. Ocular involvement rarely occurs in systemic tuberculosis unless there is miliary dissemination. In a study of 2000 Alaskan children, all of whom were affected with pulmonary or extra pulmonary tuberculosis, FRITZ, THYGESON and DURHAM (1951) failed to uncover a single instance of uveitis, tuberculous or otherwise.
The rarity of active ocular tuberculosis in sanatorium patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis is well known. AMSLER (1957) places this figure at less than 1%. In the Wilmer Institute series, active pulmonary lesions were only occasionally found in patients with ocular tuberculosis and in only approximately 507, were there inactive lesions in the lung fields or abnormal mediastinal changes attributable to tuberculosis.
THEODORE AND SCHLOSSMAN (1958) suggest that the lack of correlation of the eye complaints with systemic tuberculosis might indicate (1) that a long latent period occurs before the tubercle bacilli travel from the lung or any extra pulmonary source to the eye, (2) that the uvea is not an especially receptive site for, the tubercle bacilli and (3) that some other mechanism possibly allergic is responsible for uveal tuberculosis.
| Clinical Considerations|| |
The clinical manifestations of ocular tuberculosis are protean and are too familiar for detailed descriptions. Any and every part of the eye can be involved in either or both the two ways mentioned above, viz. infection and allergy to tuberculous proteins.
The methods available for the diagnosis of ocular tuberculosis are unsatisfactory. When all avenues have been explored, the final diagnosis is too often tentative and presumptive. The development of what is almost a specific therapy for localized tuberculosis has added the therapeutic trial test to the diagnostic armamentorium and usually makes it possible to confirm or reject a shaky presumptive diagnosis. The various approaches to the diagnosis are (1) clinical picture. (2) elimination of other probable etiological factors, (3) evidence of collateral tuberculous infection, (4) immunological evidence of a tuberculous infection and (5) the therapeutic trial test.
It is with the physical evidence of a collateral tuberculous infection that we are interested.
| Materials and Methods|| |
150 cases of suspected ocular manifestations of tuberculosis were collected from the records of Kasturba General Hospital which maintains the International System of record keeping. These cases were collected over a period of 4 years (May 1961 to December 1965). Only those cases that were regularly under observation and fully investigated and followed up have been taken for this study. The cases were of (1) phlyctenulosis, mostly recurrent (2) granuloma conjunctiva, (3) scleritis, (4) episcleritis, (5) sclerosing, keratitis, (6) deep interstitial keratitis, (7) granulomatous and non-granulomatous iridocyclitis, (8) generalised uveitis, (9) choroiditis, (10) optic neuritis, (11) recurrent vitreous haemorrhage, (12) extra ocular palsies.
The following investigations were done (1) Total W.B.C. count, (2) Difrential count, (3) E.S.R., (4) V.D.R.L. and Kahn's floculation test. (5) Urine for albumin, sugar and deposits, (6) Mantoux test. After these tests, if the tuberculous etiology was considered as a distinct possibility, they were further investigated as mentioned below. In this investigation if V.D.R.L. and Kahn's tests were positive, and a history of exposure was acknowledged, the cases were rejected. Similarly, if Mantous test were negative, the cases were rejected, since low degree cutaneous reactions are of neither positive nor negative value.-WOODS (1961).
The cases thus selected were subjected to a medical survey by a consulting physician. This included examination of all systems especially respiratory and glandular. Particular note was taken of cervical and axillary lymphnodes. In the history, a family history of close and constant contact with a tuberculous patient was enquired. A history of evening rise of temperature, sweating, loss of weight and loss of appetite were particularly noted. A chest X-Ray (postero anterior view) was taken as a routine and in many cases biopsy of the glands was done.
Finally if a systemic active focus was found, the patient was subjected to a therapeutic trial test consisting of streptomycin injection daily and isoniazid 100 mg three times a day for atleast one month. If both ocular and systemic clinical picture showed definite improvement, the case was taken as ocular tuberculosis associated with active systemic focus.
The following 3 cases emphasize the "benign" nature of the systemic tuberculosis.
| Case Reports|| |
1. Mrs. U.D., 30 years old, female came to the Hospital with a history of joint pain in multiple joints and high fever for 6 days. The case was investigated by a responsible physician. Chest X-ray was taken and E.S.R, was done. The disease was diagnosed as rheumatic fever. During the course of treatment, the patient developed sclerosing keratitis which was attributed to the rheumatic fever. When the ocular lesion tended to recur in spite of treatment for rheumatic fever, a second thought was given. A second "head to foot" examination was made with special attention to the possibility of systemic tuberculosis. That revealed matted glands in the left axilla. The biopsy showed tubercular adenitis. Anti-tuberculous treatment was given resulting in amelioration of her joint pains, fever, and ocular symptoms.
2. Shree K.V.A.-25 year old, Male, came to the Eye O.P.D. with pain in the right eye of 7 days duration. Sudden loss of vision, right eye-7 days. Headache-2 weeks. On examination, the right eye had only perception of light, right pupil showed ill-sustained reaction; fundus was normal. A diagnosis of retrobulbar neuritis was made. A lumbar puncture revealed C.S.F. under pressure, WBC 290/cmm, mostly lymphocytes, (Polymorphs 9%, lymphocytes 91%), total proteins 120 mg%, sugar 65 mg chlorides 750 mg%, Pandy's test positive and VDRL-negative. A diagnosis of tuberculosis was made, and antituberculous treatment improved the clinical picture fully. Later, the family physician of the patient revealed to us that the patient had loss of appetite, loss of weight, increased sweating, irregular fever for the last 6 months, and it was attributed to "Neurosis". Six months later, the mother of the patient (with whom he was living) submitted to the hospital for the treatment of glandular tuberculosis and tuberculosis of the spine.
3. K.M., 17 years old male, had a deep corneal opacity of 8 years duration. Its vascularity in the form of a loop and arborization interested the house-surgeon, who made a head to foot clinical examination of the patient. A hypopigmented patch was found over the back which was proved to be tuberculous in nature by biopsy. Both the corneal opacity and the hypopigmented patch over the back improved with anti-tuberculous line of treatment. (SRINIVAS RAO and SHANKAR BHATT-1962).
| Observations|| |
The observations are recorded in [Table - 1], some of which are illustrated in Plates 1-4.
| Discussion|| |
The incidence of systemic active lesion in cases of suspected ocular tuberculosis was 34 out of 150 (22.6%) and in 3 (2%), healed but gross lesions were found. Out of the 34, 21 proved to be glandular, 4 pulmonary, 4 progressive primary complex and 5 in other sites.
There would have been a higher percentage of incidence, if the examination had included more thorough investigations such as both anteroposterior and lateral views of the chest culture and animal inoculations of the gastric washings in suspicious cases. In addition, repeated clinical review of the remaining 116 cases with periodic X-Rays and ESR test would have probably revealed some more active lesions.
The incidence of glandular tuberculosis would also have been higher, had routine biopsy been done in all cases where glands were palpable.
In almost all cases the systemic lesion tended to be "benign" in the sense, we could have easily missed it, had we not looked for it.
The Kasturba General Hospital has about 640 patients of systemic tuberculosis in the list of regular treatment, yet none (except one) had any ocular symptoms attributable to tuberculosis. However, it has to be admitted that they were not regularly checked by ophthalmologists. Only in one case, the patient who had come for pulmonary, tuberculosis had an eye complaint (phlyctenule) attributed to tuberculosis.
The type of ocular lesions that were associated with systemic tuberculosis mostly were of phlyctenulosis. Thus, out of 42 cases of phlyctenulosis, 15 had systemic lesions, out of 17 of sclerosing keratitis, 11 had tuberculosis and out of 7 of recurrent vitreous haemorrhage, systemic lesions were found in 3. [Table - 1]. At least in these types of cases, it is a good plan to exclude the possibility of an active systemic focus. It is of interest to note that all the 4 progressive primary complex cases were associated with phlyctenulosis, and 3 out of the 4 were of an age less than 5 years. In spite of all the talk about granulomatous and non-granulomatous iridocyclitis, we were able to demonstrate systemic active focus in only one case out of 31 of iridocyclitis.
Another feature of this work is the eye findings have led to the detection of 4 insufficiently and irregularly treated cases of systemic tuberculosis.
Lastly the choroidal tubercles which are supposed to have some diagnostic significance were not recorded in this series, showing thereby that its value as a diagnostic aid in systemic tuberculosis is insignificant.
| References|| |
|1.||AMSLER M. (1955). In A. SORBY'S "Modern Trends in Ophthalmology", third serial, Butterworth, London, p. 137. |
|2.||AMSLER M. (1957), Acta Tuberc. Beig. 48, 89. |
|3.||DUKE-ELDER S. W. (1965). System of Ophthalmology, Vol. VIII, part 2. Henry Kinpton, London, pp. 833, 1028. |
|4.||FRITZ M. H., THYGESON P. and DURHAM D. G., (1951). Amer. J. Ophth. 34, 177. |
|5.||KONTAS K. A. (1958). Ophthalmologica, 135, 187. |
|6.||LASCU F., GROSSU E. and NICULESCUM. (1956). Oftamologia (Bucharest), 1, 31. |
|7.||PACYNSKA JULIA (1957). Klinika Oczna 27, 259. |
|8.||SIWE S. A. (1935) Acta Tubers. Scand. 8, 225. |
|9.||SORSBY A. P. (1942). Brit. J. Ophthal. 26, 159 & 189. |
|10.||SRINIVASA RAO R. N. and SHANKAR BRAT (1967) J. Indian Medical Assn. 48, 502. |
|11.||THEODORE F. H. and SCHLOSSMAN A. (1958). Ocular allergy. Williams and Wilkins Co. Baltimore 281, 314, 340. |
|12.||WEGNER W. and ZINTZ R. (1951). Klin, Mbl, Augenheilk 119, 350. |
|13.||WERDENBERG E. (1938), Klin Mbl. Augenheilk 101, 641. |
|14.||WOODS A. C. (1956), Endogenous Inflammations of Uveal Tract. Williams & Wilkins, BALTIMORE, p. 340-418. |
[Figure - 1], [Figure - 2], [Figure - 3], [Figure - 4]
[Table - 1] | <urn:uuid:7ce3fcc8-e16c-4d63-ac6c-de8c9d89435e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ijo.in/article.asp?issn=0301-4738;year=1967;volume=15;issue=5;spage=175;epage=180;aulast=Srinivasa | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934963 | 3,820 | 2.109375 | 2 |
A linocut is a form of relief print in which the artist cuts lines and shapes from a sheet of linoleum. Ink rolled onto the block adheres only to the surface, skipping over the areas which have been cut away. To print, the artist places paper over the inked surface and applies pressure by hand or with a printing press, thereby transferring the image to the paper.
Linoleum has no grain, so the artist can easily carve a mark which is fluid and supple.
Compare linocuts to woodcuts. | <urn:uuid:117f8f77-fbf7-4315-b83b-389a3a4fdfc3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://washingtonprintmakers.com/linocut-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946934 | 111 | 3.28125 | 3 |
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Does closing a elementary mean other schools will be over-packed? If you add more kids to classes that is less time the students get with the teacher if they need help. I think we need to think of the kids first. If a elementary is closed, what is the district going to do to ensure the kids get a good education. Also, if a elementary is closed and the kids go to other schools, is the school property going to be cluttered with mobile classrooms?
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Find searchable data, including public employee salaries, crime stats and more. | <urn:uuid:2b5e1cfe-5914-4b02-9c6c-4f72c526aa52> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kitsapsun.com/comments/reply/?target=61:370736&comment=557443 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911222 | 247 | 2.171875 | 2 |
The rise of TV cooking shows and culinary/nutrition content in magazines insures that Americans are constantly bombarded with pictures, ads and articles about food. Yet for all the focus on what we put in our mouths, people spend just over half an hour a day preparing it (half the time spent actually wolfing it down). Where we get our information also has changed. While mom is the primary source of cooking instruction, with more than three-fourths of English women saying they learned from their mums, mothers are supplanted by cookbooks, cooking shows and other media later on. Read on for more surprising stats about consumers and food.
View "How We Eat" data here. | <urn:uuid:212b3e23-765b-433f-bec1-28647d6e5e57> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/data-points-how-we-eat-142531?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+adweek%2Fadvertising-branding+%28Advertising+%26+Branding%29 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971174 | 139 | 2.140625 | 2 |
Founder and Executive Director, Global Press Institute (GPI)
The big idea
Since 2006 the nonprofit GPI has trained 133 women in 25 countries in journalism, hiring them to report for its online newswire (globalpressinstitute.org) and 35 major syndication partners, including UPI and the BBC. “The reporters not only earn a living wage,” Hegranes says, “they give their marginalized communities an international voice.”
Eight years ago, Hegranes, now 31, was in Nepal finishing her master’s thesis and reporting for U.S. newspapers. She learned Nepali but noticed that many foreign correspondents did not speak the language, and she worried that they missed crucial stories.
“Spending time with Pratima, the matriarch of a tiny village, I had a lightning-bolt moment,” Hegranes recalls. “Women like her had the trust of the community and access to sources and stories I would never have. If Pratima was given training and a credible, global platform, it would change her life and her community’s.”
Hegranes landed a job as a features writer at a San Francisco newspaper. But she couldn’t shake the notion of training indigenous women to be reporters—so she quit. “My friends and family thought I was crazy,” she says. Nevertheless, they helped her raise $30,000 to launch GPI. The first news desk opened in Chiapas, Mexico; the second, in Nepal.
For the first four years, Hegranes did all the training; now she supervises staffers in-country. Seventy percent of funding comes from foundations and 30 percent from individuals. “This year’s budget, $250,000, is our biggest,” she says.
GPI reporters have broken important stories. Last year, for example, Tara Bhattarai, raised in a Nepalese village, wrote about violence against people in intercaste marriages. Her reporting, which included unprecedented interviews with victims, led to the passage of Nepal’s first law against caste discrimination. Also in 2011, Gertrude Pswarayi of Zimbabwe won a prestigious journalism award after she revealed that women campaigning for the opposition were raped by government enforcers.
“I didn’t anticipate how GPI would change the status of these women,” Hegranes says. “Like the woman in Chiapas who was able to send her four children to school. Before, she was a servant; now people in her community thank her for her stories or say, ‘When are you going to interview me?’ We’re changing so many people’s lives.”
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Don’t miss out on MORE great articles like this one. Click here to sign up for our weekly newsletter! | <urn:uuid:cb25969a-0167-4c08-8a41-0f13731f2605> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.more.com/hire-calling-cristi-hegranes-global-press-institute?quicktabs_2=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963634 | 632 | 1.851563 | 2 |
This is a cabinet photo of the Brooklyn Excelsiors and Washington Nationals posing together prior to a game on September 18, 1866. The "Father of Baseball," Henry Chadwick, is also pictured sitting in the middle with a giant beard. Written on the back is:
"Taken at 3 p.m. Sept 18. 1866 on the White Lot./Nationals of Washington/Arthur P. Gorman/President/Excelsior of Brooklyn/Dr. Jones. Pres./Henry Chadwick sitting in front of Gorman. Sporting Editor N.Y. Mercury."It sold for $18,000.00.
This is just a beautiful Baseball trophy that was presented to the Brooklyn Resolutes team in 1888. They were a 19th century team that was a member of National Association of Base Ball Players, the first national baseball organization. It was presented by Herman H. Kiffe who was the proprietor of Kiffe Sporting Goods, which was located in Brooklyn, New York. It sold for $3,250.00. | <urn:uuid:1d5665d5-2442-4261-85cc-55b4d88ec3e0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dodgersblueheaven.com/2011/05/rea-not-just-vintage-but-historic-part_27.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969861 | 214 | 2.171875 | 2 |
The 'Elements of Vedic Astrology' is an excellent and most comprehensive book on the Parashari system of Vedic astrology written in English. It treats astrology in a most organised and scientific manner. The book deals elaborately with mathematical aspects of astrology. Two important dasha systems, the Vimshottari and the Yogini have been described. It enters into areas of research, like the vargas, the sub-planets, and the planetary states or avasthas. Three chapters are devoted to the all-important subject of the yogas which form the basis of many an astrological prediction. The Nabhasa yogas have been dealt with, and classfied, in a most innovative manner. Results of planets in various houses, signs, etc., have been described in great details. Several other subjects like planetary strengths, Balarishta, Arishta Bhanga, determination of longevity, medical astrology, horary astrology, annual horoscopy, planetary transits, Ashtakavarga, Muhurta and methods of matching charts for marriage purposes, etc., have all been dealt with lucidly. The book is profusely illustrated by example horoscopes.
A must for all beginners of Vedic astrology.
Charak was once associated with K.N. Rao, these books were produced during their association. The third edition adds a chapter on chart matching to an already excellent work. Charak's two-volume set is not only a teaching manual, it is also useful as an on-going reference. It is essentially the Parasara method boiled down into two books. Highly recommended.
Dr. K S Charak, MS (Surgery), FRCS (UK) is Head of the Surgery Department at the Indira Gandhi ESI Hospital, Jhilmil, Delhi, India. He is the Honorary Editor of the bi-monthly Vedic Astrology. Author of several books on Vedic astrology, his extensive work in the field of astrology has earned him international recognition. | <urn:uuid:7e6b0007-5f20-4961-8379-508c48ab22fd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://willyfogg.com/p3343718/elements_of_vedic_astrology_-2_vol-_set/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956493 | 427 | 1.734375 | 2 |
"People don't consider us as equal citizens. They beat us whenever they want," said Mol Chand, one of the teenage boys gathered at the temple. "We have no place to worship now."
It was the second time the Sri Krishna Ram temple has been attacked, and this time the mob didn't even bother to disguise their faces. The small temple, surrounded by a stone wall, is a tiny religious outpost in a dusty, hardscrabble neighborhood so far on the outskirts of the city that a sign on the main road wishes people leaving Karachi a good journey.
Local Muslim residents blamed people from a nearby ethnic Pashtun village for the attack, which took place in late September on the Day of Love for the Prophet, a national holiday declared by the government in response to an anti-Islam film made in the U.S. No one was seriously injured in the attack.
It was the latest in a rising tide of violence and discrimination against Hindus in this 95 percent Muslim country, where Islamic extremism is growing. Pakistan's Hindu community says it faces forced conversions of Hindu girls to Islam, a lack of legal recognition
The story of the Hindu population in Pakistan is one of long decline. During partition in 1947, the violent separation of Pakistan and India into separate countries, hundreds of thousands of Hindus opted to migrate to India where Hinduism is the dominant religion. Those that remained and their descendants now make up a tiny fraction of Pakistan's estimated 190 million citizens, and are mostly concentrated in Sindh province in the southern part of the country.
Signs of their former stature abound in Karachi, the capital of Sindh. At the 150-year-old Swami Narayan Temple along one of the city's main roads, thousands of Hindus gather during the year to celebrate major religious holidays. Hindus at the 200-year-old Laxmi Narain Temple scatter the ashes of their cremated loved ones in the waters of an inlet from the Arabian Ocean.
But there are also signs of how far the community has fallen. Residents in a city hungry for land have begun to build over Hindu cemeteries, the community's leaders say. Hindus helped build Karachi's port decades ago, but none work there now.
Estimates of the size of the Hindu population in Pakistan are all over the map—from 2.5 million or 10 million in Sindh province alone to 7 million across the country—a reflection of the fact that the country hasn't had a census since 1998.
It isn't just Hindus who are facing problems. Other minorities like Christians, the mystical Muslim branch of Sufis and the Ahmadi sect have found themselves under attack in Pakistan, where the rise of Muslim fundamentalists has sometimes unleashed a violent opposition against those who don't follow their strict religious tenets.
The discrimination has prompted some Hindus to leave for India, activists warn, though the extent is not known. Around 3,000 Hindus left this year, part of a migration that began four years ago, sparked by discrimination and a general rise in crime in Sindh, said DM Maharaj, who heads an organization to help Hindus called Pakistan Hindu Sabha.
He said he recently talked to a group of Hindus preparing to move to India from rural Sindh, complaining that they can't eat in Muslim restaurants or that Muslim officials turned them down for farming loans. Even during recent floods, they said Muslims did not want them staying in the same refugee camps.
Other Hindu figures such as provincial assembly member Pitamber Sewami deny there's a migration at all, in a reflection of how sensitive the issue is. Earlier this year, there were a string of reports in Pakistani media about Hindus leaving the country, sparking a flurry of promises by Pakistani officials to investigate.
In India, a Home office official said the Indian government noticed an upward trend of people coming from Pakistan but called reports of Pakistanis fleeing to India "exaggerated." He said he does not have exact figures on how many Pakistani Hindus have stayed in India after entering the country on tourist visas. The official spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the topic.
There's more of a consensus of the seriousness of the problem of forced conversion of Hindus.
Zohra Yusuf, the president of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan says the pattern goes like this: A Hindu girl goes missing and then resurfaces days or weeks later married to a Muslim boy. During court hearings to determine whether the conversion was voluntary, students from nearby Islamic schools called madrassas often flood the room, trying to intimidate the judges by chanting demands that the conversion be confirmed.
Maharaj says he's tried to intervene in roughly 100 cases of forced conversions but has only succeeded in returning a girl safely back to her family once. If a girl decides to renounce Islam and return to Hinduism, she could be signing a death warrant for herself and her family even if her conversion was forced.
The Hindu community has also been hurt by a lack of unity within its ranks. Hindu society within Pakistan and elsewhere has historically been divided by caste, a system of social stratification in which the lower castes are often seen as inferior. Members of the lower castes in Pakistan say it wasn't until two girls from a high-caste family were forcibly converted this year that high-caste Hindus took the issue seriously, although it's been happening for years.
"We always fight our war ourselves," said Bholoo Devjee, a Hindu activist from Karachi, speaking about the lower castes.
In recent months the government has begun to take the concerns of the Hindu community more seriously. In Sindh province, legislators proposed a law to prevent forced conversions in part by implementing a waiting period before a marriage between a Hindu and a Muslim can go forward, and there's discussion about proposing such a law on the national level as well.
In the case of the Sri Krishna Ram temple, law enforcement authorities opened a blasphemy case against the people who rampaged through the building. But residents here are skeptical that these developments signify any long-term improvement in their plight. Weeks after the incident no arrests have been made, and the Hindus complain that no high-ranking Hindu officials have come to visit them or help them get compensation.
Sunda Maharaj, the spiritual leader at the temple, which was first attacked in January 2011, said he and the other residents do not want to move to India. "We are Pakistani," he said.
But he would like more help from the government, specifically a checkpoint to stop people from getting close to the temple and money for the Hindus to buy weapons.
"Next time anyone comes we can kill them or die defending our temple," he said.
Follow Rebecca Santana on Twitter (at)ruskygal.
Associated Press writers Adil Jawad in Karachi and Nirmala George in New Delhi contributed to this report. | <urn:uuid:ea0cf508-e098-4d8a-ad9d-c595b1d3ee6f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.denverpost.com/arcade/ci_21954718/pakistans-minority-hindus-feel-under-attack | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968981 | 1,400 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Zambia, Africa’s top copper producer, has tightened its regulations on taxation of mining companies to boost compliance and revenue collection, the minister of mines said on Saturday.
President Michael Sata has expressed concerns that copper exporters are misrepresenting the amount of metal leaving the country. Data shows much of Zambia’s exported copper is destined for Switzerland, but little of it shows up in Swiss customs figures, raising questions about transparency.
Mines Minister Christopher Yaluma said that mining companies would now be required to provide information on tonnages, type and grade of ore mined, quantities and the end product.
Yaluma said mining companies would also be required to submit annual reports on the recovery percentages and efficiency of all mining and metallurgical processes.
“We have reviewed legislation in order to independently monitor the production and export of minerals and failure to comply will result in revocation of licences and other punitive measures,” he said in a statement.
Mining companies will also be compelled to provide details of the quantities of minerals sold and their average selling price, he added.
“Mineral production has been improving over the years but this improvement has not been matched with a corresponding increase in revenue to the government,” Yaluma said.
Vice President Guy Scott said in April that Zambia planned to tighten its grip on the government’s share of profits made at the country’s mines, boosting tax revenue.
Companies operating in Zambia include Glencore, Indian miner Vedanta and Canadian-listed First Quantum, Barrick Gold and Brazil’s Vale. | <urn:uuid:7d3f5c0f-06ee-4c87-9da3-3b66b29caa12> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.africa-times-news.com/2012/06/zambia-tightens-mine-tax-collection-regulations/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956818 | 330 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Assessment for Kurds in Syria
|Publisher||Minorities at Risk Project|
|Publication Date||30 March 2005|
|Cite as||Minorities at Risk Project, Assessment for Kurds in Syria, 30 March 2005, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/469f3ad71e.html [accessed 22 May 2013]|
|Disclaimer||This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.|
The Kurdish people of Syria exhibit some factors pointing towards organized wide spread rebellion or high level of violence. Most signiricant is the high level of restrictions faced by Kurds. Syria has an Arabization policy and does not allow Kurds to practice their cultural. The Kurdish language, holidays, marriage and right to organization are restricted. Also, the government during the 1980s forcefully relocated some of the Kurdish people to various areas of Syria. However, other than one incident of rebellion in the spring of 2004, Kurds have not employed violence. Overall, more factors weigh against violence. A large majority of Kurds in Syria are located in the northeast mountainous regions and some in the major cities. They are largely spread out and do not have high levels of cohesion. Unlike Kurds in neighboring Iraq and Turkey, Syrian Kurds do not have strong political organizations. The Syrian government, in power since the 1960s, has a strong system of oppression in place to keep its people under control.
When Bashar al-Assad came into power in 2000, he held talks about more openness and more democratic practices within the Syrian government. These efforts never stimulated any change in policy or practices towards Syrian Kurds. There has been support for reform in Syria but mainly from outside sources and activists abroad who are concerned with the Kurdish people as a whole. These efforts however have not made much progress on the ground. They are more concentrated on the treatment of Kurdish people in Turkey and Iraq because of the continuing conflicts in those countries.
Recently, in the spring of 2004, there was a riot of primarily Kurds in a northern town of Syria. This riot destroyed some business and infrastructure of the city. It was quickly and violently ended by Syrian troops, police and paramilitary.
The Kurds within Syria receive very little support from any part of the world or kindred groups abroad if any at all because of their lack of cohesion. More support and voice is given to the Kurds in Turkey and Iraq. The Syrian government actually supports the PKK (Kurdish rebels) in Turkey by hiring Syrian Kurds to fight the Turkish government.
The Kurdish people live mainly in the mountainous northeastern region of Syria bordering Turkey and Iraq (GROUPCON = 2). More recently some Kurdish have started moving into the larger cities to seek employment, but a large majority still live in the mountainous north-east. The main distinctions between the Kurdish people and the majority Sunni Muslims in Syria are language, cultural beliefs and holidays (CULDIFXX03 = 2). They share the same religious beliefs and general customs as the majority Sunni Muslims but they strongly consider themselves independent of Sunni Muslims. They also differ in religion from the Alawi political elite.
Within Syria, Kurds are disadvantaged in many ways. Successive governments have pursued forced Arabization policies. A majority of Kurdish people are considered non-citizens or some lower level form of citizen. They do not receive equal education, health services, right to organization, or the right to equal legal protection (POLIDFXX03 = 4). Also, they have lower levels of income, are not allowed to own land and are not located in professional positions or receive higher education (ECDIFXX03 = 4).
Throughout the 1980s there was a system of forced resettlement by the government and competition for land because of resources (DMCOMP80-99 = 1; DMEVIC80-86, 95-04 = 2). During the 1990s, the forced resettlement tapered off but the competition and disposition of their lands remains a steady issue. Between 1995 and 1999, the Kurdish area of Syria experienced a drought, causing some demographic stress. The drought exacerbated the steady, low-level migration to urban areas and external migration.
Kurdish grievances include equal legal protection under the Syrian constitution, better education and economic opportunities and the cessation of Arabization policies. This would allow them to speak their language and practice their cultural customs. Like Kurds in Iraq and Turkey, there is also some support for an independent Kurdistan.
The Kurdish people within Syria are not highly organization because of the mountainous region they live in and because they are so dispersed throughout the area. There is very little communication between different Kurdish tribal groups. The organizations that have formed restrict their activities to non-violent forms of political protest. Kurds in Syria have not suffered from intracommunal conflict in recent years.
The Syrian government's policies of Arabization and oppression of the Kurdish people are still in place. Other Arab groups live side by side with the Kurdish people, and there isn't much communal conflict between the groups. There has been little open protest or rebellion by the Kurdish people besides in the spring of 2004 when the Kurdish people rioted in a northern Syrian city after a soccer match (PROT02-03 = 2, PROT04 = 4). They destroyed a few businesses and city infrastructures but the riot was quickly squashed by government military, police and paramilitary forces. | <urn:uuid:2d7e5d1d-c46b-445f-bf9a-5ef674b3f1f1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.refworld.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/rwmain?page=category&category=COI&publisher=MARP&type=&coi=&docid=469f3ad71e&skip=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967966 | 1,124 | 2.625 | 3 |
Placenta Abruptio (cont.)
IN THIS ARTICLE
Although most cases of placenta abruptio cannot be directly prevented, you can avoid or treat factors that are known to greatly increase your risk of placental abruption.
Even during a healthy pregnancy, placenta abruptio is a possible complication. But you can optimize your fetus's and your ability to handle a medical complication by making healthy lifestyle choices and having regular prenatal checks throughout your pregnancy. For more information, see the topic Pregnancy.
During pregnancy, pay attention to symptoms or injuries that can be related to the placenta separating from the uterine wall (placenta abruptio). Call your health professional immediately if you are pregnant and you experience:
Coping with loss
Should your baby die as a result of placenta abruptio, allow yourself permission and time to grieve your loss. Your partner, children, and other family members may also need time to grieve.
Contacting a support group, reading about the experiences of other women, and talking to your doctor, friends, a counselor, or a member of the clergy may help you and your family deal with your loss. For more information, see the topic Grief and Grieving.
If you have plans to become pregnant after having had placenta abruptio, talk to your health professional ahead of time about maximizing your chances of a healthy pregnancy in the future.
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