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TORONTO - It's a thing you notice about the people who came through the SARS crisis of 2003. Survivors, responders — they remember the outbreak in exquisite detail.
Malik Peiris, a Hong Kong microbiologist who helped find the virus responsible for the outbreak, was out for Valentine's Day with his wife when a contact from the World Health Organization called to talk about rumoured illnesses in China's Guangdong province.
Lena Stewart knows April 1, 2003 was a Tuesday, the day she worked a nursing shift at Toronto's North York General Hospital with a SARS-infected colleague and caught the virus that changed her life.
Dr. Donald Low, one of the leaders of Toronto's SARS response, recalls poring over patient charts at North York General throughout the Victoria Day weekend, recognizing with a welling sense of dread that a disease Ontario had declared licked a few days earlier was actually still spreading among health-care workers and hospital patients.
Ten years on, the six-month outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome — a name chosen deliberately for its acronym, SARS — is as etched in the memories of the people who lived through the crisis as it is in the annals of medical history. An incredible saga, SARS ended lives and decimated some afflicted families. It made some careers and destroyed others.
"Every day feels like it happened yesterday. Every moment of the day feels like it happened yesterday. You have the constant reminders — the pain, the shortness of breath," says Stewart, a former nurse who remains on disability leave.
SARS still saps Stewart's energy and haunts her sleep. She has reduced lung function, crushing fatigue and suffers from post traumatic stress disorder.
"Where I used to throw on laundry, go out to do groceries, come back, change loads over — you know, simple things like that —it's changed the whole way that I live," Stewart explains of the toll the disease took on her body and her psyche.
While many people who were infected recovered completely, a fair number in Toronto and in other outbreak settings suffer long-term physical consequences of the disease or of the treatments used, says Paula Gardner, a clinical psychologist at St. John's Rehab, now a division of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. Gardner, who has studied the long-term effects of the disease on Toronto SARS cases, says PTSD is not uncommon among SARS survivors, especially those who were health-care workers.
Globally, 20 per cent of confirmed SARS cases were health-care workers. In Canada, health-care workers made up 43 per cent of SARS cases.
SARS was ignited in southern China.
For weeks in late 2002 and early 2003, Internet rumours suggested something worrisome was happening in Guangdong, where restaurants served a dizzying array of exotic animals for diners who valued wild meat. Civet cats and other such delicacies were later identified as having served as conduits for a virus that originated in bats. But those pieces of the puzzle only fell into place later.
By early February, the WHO was getting concerned, having received an anonymous email about a mystery infectious disease that had already killed 100 people. Chinese authorities acknowledged an unexplained pneumonia outbreak but said it was subsiding. That proved to be untrue. And in the third week of February, SARS went global.
A Chinese doctor who had treated pneumonia patients travelled to Hong Kong, where he stayed in Room 911 of the Metropole Hotel. His stay was brief — he went from the hotel to a hospital and later died. But during his time in the Metropole, Liu Jianlun infected a dozen other guests. They took the virus into hospitals in Hong Kong and to Vietnam, Singapore, the United States, Ireland and Canada.
In fact, two Canadians were infected at the Metropole — a man who brought the disease to Vancouver and a woman who carried SARS in her lungs to Toronto. The Vancouver man was quickly isolated and did not spark an outbreak. But Toronto's luck was different.
The woman, Sui-chu Kwan, died at home on March 5, cared for by her family. On March 7, her son, Chi Kwai Tse, was brought to Scarborough Grace Hospital by ambulance. Despite the efforts of paramedics, he was struggling for breath. He died six days later.
Bruce Englund, an EMS supervisor, went to the Grace's emergency department that night, drawn by worried calls from the team that transported Tse. Englund contracted SARS that night. Now 61 and retired, the Pickering, Ont., man too has lasting health problems: chronic fatigue, frequent pneumonias, reduced stamina.
"You cut the lawn front and back? I'll cut the front lawn one day and the back lawn the next day. It just wears you out," he explains.
The March 7 event seeded SARS into the network of Toronto area hospitals. People infected at Scarborough Grace took the virus to other facilities, setting off a chain of transmission that was only broken four months later. But in early March, Toronto didn't even know there was a problem at hand, let alone that it was spreading in the city's hospitals.
On March 12, the WHO issued an extraordinary global alert, reporting cases of what it called atypical pneumonia in China, Hong Kong and the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi. It urged countries to treat similar cases with care and to report them to national authorities.
Two days later, Ontario's ministry of health announced the unnamed disease had claimed two lives in Toronto and two more people were infected. Authorities in British Columbia revealed a 55-year-old man, the second Canadian at the Metropole Hotel, had been hospitalized in Vancouver.
As the numbers of countries afflicted and the suspected cases mounted, science began to evolve in real time, in the public eye. Health authorities struggled to contain rapidly growing outbreaks in China, Hong Kong, Toronto, Hanoi, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand. The WHO jumped in to name the disease before headline writers came up with something inappropriate or stigmatizing that might stick.
They wanted something with an easy-to-say acronym like AIDS, says Dr. David Heymann, then chief of communicable diseases for WHO and now head of the Center for Global Health Security at Chatham House, home of the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London. The descriptives used to describe the syndrome — severe, acute (meaning quick onset), respiratory — fit the bill nicely, and the name was unveiled on March 16.
Meanwhile, the WHO quickly pulled together experts from around the world to help with the response, forming virtual networks to look for the causative agent — thought to be a virus — and where it came from in nature.
On March 19, the WHO announced two laboratories — one run by Peiris, the Hong Kong microbiologist and another at the Bernhard Nocht Institute in Hamburg, Germany — had detected particles of virus in samples taken from SARS patients. It would prove to be a hitherto unknown coronavirus.
"The spirit of collaboration in 2003 was enormous," says virologist Ron Fouchier, of Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Erasmus scientists proved the new virus was the one responsible for SARS.
Homing in on the virus so quickly was a huge accomplishment, but it didn't help hospitals trying to sort SARS patients from normal severe pneumonia cases that come into hospitals on a regular basis.
"We were really fishing for a needle without knowing the shape of the needle, basically," Peiris recalls.
There was no test, a problem that bedeviled hospitals and outbreak response teams throughout the outbreak. Diagnoses were made by symptoms and epidemiology — trying to determine if a possible case could have been exposed to the virus. "It was all clinical and epi," says Low. Blood tests to confirm infections came "later, much later." Patients were labelled "probable" and "suspect" cases, not the more standard "confirmed."
With time, doctors became more adept at diagnosing SARS cases. But mistakes were made. Unrecognized cases — not treated in isolation, by health-care workers in protective gear — sped the virus through the health-care system and seemingly out into the community. That was the nightmare scenario: that the outbreak would become so large cases could no longer be traced to the people who had infected them.
That would render a tool that was key to the response — quarantine — useless. Toronto and other affected places had ordered thousands of exposed people to sequester themselves at home to avoid spreading the disease if they were incubating it. But that wouldn't be workable if the outbreak evaded control.
Around Easter, it appeared Toronto had hit that tipping point. And the WHO took action. On April 23, it issued a travel advisory, warning the world to avoid Toronto. (The WHO had issued similar warnings earlier for Hong Kong and Guangdong and would use the tool throughout the outbreak.)
Hotels emptied, movie shoots fled and large conferences started to cancel. Municipal and provincial authorities reacted with outrage. Then mayor Mel Lastman angrily sputtered that he'd never heard of the World Health Organization. A week later, after a delegation travelled to Geneva to argue the city's case, the WHO lifted the Toronto travel advisory.
A decade later, Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, who was director general of the WHO during the crisis, still stands by the unprecedented decision to use travel advisories to try to contain spread of SARS.
"I am convinced that WHO travel advisories were a key to our success," says Brundtland, a former prime minister of Norway who is now a member of The Elders, an independent group of global leaders who work for peace and human rights.
There were points when it seemed the virus might not be controlled. The fear was that it would gain a permanent foothold among humans, spreading regularly like flu or measles or HIV. "It certainly seemed to be going from strength to strength," Peiris remembers.
But slowly, the combination of quarantining people exposed to the virus, isolating people sick with it and — most crucially — ensuring health-care workers had the protective gear to keep them from becoming infected began to pay off. Afflicted centres began to announce they had stopped transmission, including Toronto.
In mid-May, Ontario lifted its state of emergency, declaring SARS done. Health-care workers were told they no longer had to wear the respirators that protected their airways. Within days, sick hospital staff started arriving at emergency rooms for care. A second wave of infections was off and running.
"I really thought that when we had the second wave at North York (General Hospital), I was afraid it was out of the bag and that we were going to be chasing our tails and be finally remembered as the SARS epicentre for North America," Low recalls. "That was a very discouraging time."
Respirators went back on, containment efforts resumed and Toronto's response beat down the outbreak completely. On July 2, almost four months after SARS first entered a Toronto hospital, the WHO removed Toronto from the list of SARS-affected locations. And on July 9, the agency declared the outbreak over worldwide. The new disease was vanquished.
SARS claimed 44 lives in Canada. Globally, it is estimated that 916 people died, 11 per cent of the people who were infected. A total of 438 Canadians — a mix of probable and suspect cases — likely had SARS. The official WHO count only lists probable cases; its final tally suggests 8,422 people were infected with the disease.
After SARS was contained, some people dismissed the outbreak as overblown, saying it wasn't the threat the WHO, health officials and the media had suggested. But people like Low believe the world was lucky. SARS didn't transmit as well as viruses like measles or chickenpox. But there's no way to know whether it might have evolved to acquire greater spreading skills if it hadn't been driven out of people.
Says Low: "It was a very, very, very tough time and we were fortunate that it never really did mature into anything that had a high transmission rate." | <urn:uuid:7915317b-04f9-4d4d-8ba3-7371350aead4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theprovince.com/health/sars+memories+global+health+crisis+still+fresh+minds+players/8058165/story.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982038 | 2,525 | 2.171875 | 2 |
Ctrl2cap is a kernel-mode device driver that filters the system's keyboard class driver in order to convert caps-lock characters into control characters. People like myself that migrated to NT from UNIX are used to having the control key located where the caps-lock key is on the standard PC keyboard, so a utility like this is essential for our editing well-being.
Installation and Use
Install Ctrl2cap running the command "ctrl2cap /install" from the directory into which you've unzipped the Ctrl2cap files. To uninstall type "ctrl2cap /uninstall".
How Ctrl2cap Works
On NT 4 Ctrlcap is actually quite trivial. It simply attaches itself to the keyboard class driver so that it will catch keyboard read requests. For each request, it posts an I/O completion callback, at which point it takes a peek at the scancode that is being returned. If it happens to be a caps-lock, ctrl2cap changes it into a left-control.
On Win2K Ctrl2cap is a WDM filter driver that layers in the keyboard class device's stack above the keyboard class device. This is in contrast to the Win2K DDK's kbfiltr example that layers itself between the i8042 port device and the keyboard class device. I chose to layer on top of the keyboard class device for several reasons:
- It means that the Ctrl2cap IRP_MJ_READ interception and manipulation code is shared between the NT 4 and Win2K versions.
- I don't need to supply an INF file and have the user go through the Device Manager to install Ctrl2cap - I simply modify the appropriate Registry value (the keyboard class devices's HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class UpperFilters value).
The disadvantage of my approach is (and this an advantage or disadvantage depending on your point of view):
- Because I don't install with an INF file via the Device Manager, the user is not warned that the Ctrl2cap driver file is not digitally signed by Microsoft.
In this particular case, I felt that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. However, before you model a Win2K keyboard filter on Ctrl2cap I strongly suggest that you study the kbfiltr example from the Win2K DDK. Kbfiltr's interception point in the key input sequence makes it very easy for kbfiltr to inject keystrokes into the input stream.
For more information on writing filter drivers (drivers that attach themselves to other drivers so that they can see their input and/or output), here are sources to check out:
- The Windows NT and Windows 2000 DDK sample \src\storage\filter\diskperf
- The Windows 2000 DDK sample \src\input\kbfiltr
- "Examining the Windows NT File System," by Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell, Dr. Dobb's Journal, February 1997
- The accompanying file system filter driver, | <urn:uuid:1a443828-b180-49d8-ad09-bd79b8326572> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897578.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909487 | 620 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Muslim investors have filed an application with state regulators to form a new credit union in Houston that would target the Shia Muslim population in Austin, Houston and Dallas.
Jafari No-Interest Credit Union would not charge its members interest on loans or pay out interest to their members on deposit accounts. Islam prohibits Muslims from charging fellow Muslims interest on loans.
However, investors behind the credit union would have to submit a business plan to regulators to show how the financial institution would be solvent. Jafari would have to support its operations primarily from non-interest income in the form of various fees.
Fees, interest. Sharia finance is a sham.
Filed under: Alerts, Creeping Sharia, Immigration, Legal, Media, News, Politics, Religion, Sharia, Sharia Finance, Stealth Jihad Tagged: | Creeping Sharia, finance, Life, Media, Muslim, Politics, Random, Sharia | <urn:uuid:61ad6825-5a36-41d4-8630-61db87511923> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://creepingsharia.wordpress.com/2013/01/16/credit-union-for-muslims-launching-in-texas/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=fb311db3f8 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950784 | 183 | 1.78125 | 2 |
With President Obama's recent round of interviews, one item of health-care reform has been front and center: the health insurance mandate. In an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos Sunday, the president became slightly testy arguing
that requiring citizens to purchase health insurance was not a "tax" (Stephanopoulos suggested it was). This has sparked a round of debate on editorial pages and in the blogosphere that revolve around a handful of questions: is a health insurance mandate unconstitutional? Is it, in fact, a tax? And is it really a good idea?
- Very Simple: It's a Tax, and It's a Bad Idea The Washington Times editorial board simply compared language: "One of the
main health care bills under consideration calls the proposal a 'tax.'" This tax is punitive, they noted, and President Obama disapproved of it last year in a primary debate with Hillary Clinton. "There would ... be people potentially," he argued at the time,
"who are not covered and are actually hurt if they have a mandate
imposed on them."
- Let's Go Into Details ... It's Still a Tax The Business Insider's Joe Weisenthal didn't think the mandate a bad idea, but for him, the classification was clear:
It's true, we don't typically consider mandatory car insurance a tax--the reason we make it mandatory is ... to prevent insured drivers from getting screwed when a non-insured driver careens into them. So, you wanna use public roads and get a license? Then get yourself some insurance.
Obama pretends that the analogy can be extended here ... with the implication that if you're uninsured and have to go to the emergency room, the rest of us get screwed because we end up paying it. And this narrow example is similar to the car insurance ... But come on, that's not the real reason he wants everyone insured. He wants all healthy people insured to diversify the risk pool, and make the product (insurance) affordable to the ill or those somehow locked out of it. That is socialization and that is a tax.
- Tax or No, It's Unconstitutional Back in August, David Rivkin Jr. and Lee Casey argued in the Washington Post that forcing citizens to buy health insurance "would not pass muster even under the
most aggressive" interpretations of the Constitution's famous, all-purpose commerce clause. The insurance mandate, they continued, would not be regulating
activities "quintessentially economic," the precedent set in the Gonzales
v. Raich case involving the regulation of home-grown, personal-use marijuana. Nor would regulating through taxation solve the problem: "Congress cannot use its power to tax solely as a means of
controlling conduct that it could not otherwise reach through ... any other constitutional provision." Andrew Napolitano added last week in the Wall Street Journal that cases like United States v. Lopez, "invalidat[ing] a congressional ban on guns within 1,000 feet of public schools," displayed a precedent unfavorable to the Obama plan.
- It's Only Unconstitutional If You're a Former Bush Official In a Politico Arena discussion, law professor Timothy Jost noted Rivkin's and Casey's former Bush administration positions and said their argument was "not ... taken seriously by constitutional scholars." Citing a 1944 Supreme Court decision clearly recognizing insurance regulation as falling under the commerce clause, he contended that the only problem with the insurance mandate was the "absence of a clear precedent" for requiring insurance purchase. This did not strike him as an insurmountable legal barrier. He added that Napolitano's United States v. Lopez example dated from the Rhenquist days of the Supreme Court, and that with that justice's departure the court had not continued this trend.
- Tax or No, Unconstitutional or No, It Won't Work, asserted Jamie Court in the Washington Post. "In California, the car capital of America, the injustice of mandatory
insurance laws sparked one of the great voter revolts of modern history--and that still didn't solve the uninsured motorist problem." He outlined a series of steps that might mitigate the problem of mandatory insurance, but remained unenthusiastic about the proposal.
Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments
or send an email to the author at
hhorn at theatlantic dot com.
You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire. | <urn:uuid:fc50d733-f237-4f74-8cf8-92b71148fb68> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2009/09/is-mandatory-health-insurance-a-tax/26921/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954724 | 905 | 1.898438 | 2 |
A review of the basic guitar friendly keys seen in part 1, with an emphasis on arranging melodies for Finger-style guitar. (Gospel, Folk, Blues)
Various styles will be seen both as solo instrumental, and as accompaniment. New comers welcome, but with a knowledge of all basic chord shapes, and some finger style experience. Must understand how Tablature works.
November 6, 13, 20, 27, December 4, 11
Bertrand Laurence grew up in France listening to American acoustic guitar masters, and he came to the United States to study at Berklee College of Music. With four CDs of his own music featuring his fresh, "here and now" style, Bertrand has performed on a number of international stages including Montreal Jazz Festival, CAAS in Nashville, Boston Folk and Blues Festival, and Mercure Jazz and Blues Festival in France.
Bertrand teaches performance and song improvisation and coaches voice for actors at the Carriage House Stage and School in Providence, Rhode Island. Bertrand also teaches the technical, physical, and creative sides of guitar playing and the freedom in expressive exploration. | <urn:uuid:66bfdb41-bd3d-4555-a75e-7516221920ea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.clubpassim.org/school/fingerstyle-basics-and-beyond-part-ii | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953322 | 230 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Kongjian Yu, International ASLA, and one of China’s top landscape architects, spoke with ASLA about the environmental crisis facing China, and what landscape architects can do to limit adverse environmental change.
In this wide-ranging interview, Yu called landscape architecture a key ”ecological weapon” for battling China’s environmental problems.
Yu says: “Landscape architecture is now a tool for social justice and environmental stewardship. The battle should now go to China. When Olmsted invented this word and this profession, the major issue was social justice and the recreational needs of the American people. At that time, America was in a process of urbanization. Now, the same thing is happening in China, but more seriously, more severely, because of the environmental issues.” | <urn:uuid:59ddd64c-8b38-4b53-be9d-7d03e9b77541> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dirt.asla.org/2008/10/24/battling-chinas-environmental-problems/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941312 | 167 | 2.296875 | 2 |
I made my beer bread with some IPA beer my boyfriend made a few weeks ago. That was another reason I didn't get to this one in June. I was waiting for the beer to be ready. I don't particularly care for IPA beer because it has a lot of bitter hops in it, which of course, makes it bitter. For that reason, I wasn't sure how it would taste in this bread, but I decided to give it a try.
I also used Organic Montana Purple Barley grains that I found at the farmer's market. I loved the purple color of these grains so I thought it would be neat to use them in this bread.
Making Barley Malt
The process of malting barley begins by soaking the grains in water until the grains sprout. Soaking the barley grains makes them sweet tasting.
To sprout the grains, I put about 1/4 cup of grains in a pint-size mason jar, covered it with cheesecloth and secured it with a rubber band. Then I poured water over the grains, drained them and put the jar in a dark cabinet for a couple of days.
I rinsed and drained the grains a couple of times a day for about 2 days. It's very hot here so it didn't take long at all for the grains to sprout. As you can see by the photo below, these grains have really sprouted. If I was going to use these sprouts for regular flour, it would make the bread gummy, but for malted barley you want the grains to turn to starch so I thought this would work just fine.
The next step is to dry the grains. If you don't dry them before you try to grind them, it will clog your grinder.
To dry them, I placed the barley grains on a sheet pan and roasted them at 350 degrees for about 4 to 5 minutes.
According to Jeffrey Hamelman, this step does two things: It brings out the full nutty flavor of the barley, and it deactivates any enzymes that might otherwise interfere with dough fermentation. However, if you roast the grains too long, this will impart a bitter flavor. I definitely wanted to avoid that since I needed the barley to offset the bitter beer flavor.
After the barley had cooled, it was time to grind the grains into flour. I ground the grains using the bread flour setting on my WonderMill. This setting grinds it pretty fine. It almost looks like cocoa, but not quite as dark.
Beer Bread with Roasted Barley
The formula for the Beer Bread can be found on pages 141 - 142 of the book Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes by Jeffrey Hamelman.
Making the Poolish
The next step is to make the poolish. You actually make this the night before you bake the bread. You can either time the grains so that you grind them the day you want to bake the bread or grind them and put them in a container to keep until your ready to use them. I keep my malted barley in the freezer.
The poolish is made by adding the yeast to the water, then adding the flour and mixing until smooth.
Then cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it stand for 12 to 16 hours at about 70 degrees.
These days, it's hotter than 70 degrees in my house even with the air on so I was concerned about how the poolish would perform, but it seemed to be very happy. It rested on the counter for about 14 hours.
Making the Dough
Place all of the ingredients in the mixing bowl, including the ground barley and the poolish. I mixed the beer with the water and warmed it up a bit so that the temperature of the dough would reach the desired 75 degrees.
Mix all of the ingredients together. Add flour or water until the dough reaches a moderately loose hydration. I started out using my danish dough whisk for this step, then finished it using wet hands.
Let the dough bulk ferment for 2 hours.
Fold the dough after 1 hour of the bulk fermentation to help develop the gluten.
This is the dough after 2 hours of bulk fermentation.
Shaping the Dough
I shaped the first loaf as a round and placed it in my La Cloche to rise for an hour.
I formed the other loaf as a batard (torpedo shape) and placed it on parchment paper to proof for an hour or so.
After the batard had proofed, I scored it using my serrated knife.
Then baked it on a baking stone that had been preheated at 450 degrees. The loaf baked for about 40 minutes until it was golden brown. Then I removed it to a cooling rack to cool.
While the first loaf was baking, I soaked the La Cloche lid in water for about 15 minutes. Once the loaf in the la cloche had risen sufficiently.
I scored it into the pound pattern using a serrated knife.
Then I placed the loaf in the preheated 450 degrees oven. And put the lid on the la cloche.
I baked the loaf with the lid on for about 25 minutes, then removed the lid and baked it another 15 minutes without the lid so that the loaf would be crispy on the outside. I baked the loaf until it was golden brown and crispy.
Here is a picture of the crumb. It tasted pretty good especially toasted with cheese. I didn't take a picture of the toast, but we sure enjoyed it.
It also tastes good with peanut butter and homemade Rhubarb Orange Jam. I didn't take a picture of that either but my boyfriend enjoyed it. I sent the rest of this loaf home with him and froze the other one. We'll see how well it does in the freezer.
This Beer Bread has been YeastSpotted. Please visit Wild Yeast to view all of the lovely breads in the roundup.
The Mellow Bakers group was started by Paul at Yumarama. We’re baking breads from Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes by Jeffrey Hamelman. | <urn:uuid:2e27acb1-618d-4e39-8f31-c9da3863e121> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://breadmakingblog.breadexperience.com/2010/07/beer-bread-with-roasted-barley-mellow.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963009 | 1,262 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Pioneers of avant-garde video and performance, artist Nam June Paik and cellist Charlotte Moorman collaborated in Adelaide and Sydney during 1976 on an exhibition and series of more than 40 performances for Project 5. The exhibition included a selection of Paik’s famous video sculptures – constructions from TV sets that screened his experiments with synthesised video and feedback – and was accompanied by artistically and physically daring performances written by Paik and their contemporaries, including Jim McWilliams, Joseph Beuys, Yoko Ono and John Cage. They captured the attention of the media as Moorman performed naked with a cello carved from ice, swinging from a 12-metre trapeze, smothered in 13 kilograms of chocolate fudge, and suspended from balloons drifting above the Sydney Opera House forecourt.
Hailed as the ‘father of video art’ and the ‘Jeanne d’Arc of new music’, together Paik and Moorman fused music and sculpture, performance and video, challenging conventions and creating new sounds, images and experiences. Their exhibition in Australia was shown at the Art Gallery of South Australia in Adelaide and later the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, presenting newly created versions of Paik’s famous video sculptures TV Buddha
and Video Garden
and his sculptures created for Moorman, TV cello
, TV bed
and TV bra for living sculpture
At the time of their visit, Moorman and Paik had collaborated for over 10 years and together they presented a program of special recitals, performing Fluxus works composed by Paik and other collaborators. Special events were also staged by Moorman in both Adelaide and Sydney, including Ice music for Adelaide
, in which Moorman wore nothing but a wreath of flowers and played a 90-kilogram block of ice carved in the form of a cello, surrounded by radiators and spotlights, until the instrument melted. A daytime performance of Flying cello
in Adelaide’s Elder Park involved a highwire trapeze act conceived by Jim McWilliams. Mieko Shiomi’s Cello sonata
was another vertiginous performance by Moorman, who dangled her cello from a bamboo pole positioned at the top of the Adelaide Festival Theatre rooftop and then in Sydney from the roof of the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
An Easter performance of Jim McWilliams’ Chocolate cello
was performed at Coventry Gallery in Sydney, with Moorman and her cello smeared in 13 kilograms of fudge. For the finale of the visit, Moorman performed Jim McWilliams’ Sky kiss
above the Sydney Opera House forecourt. Dressed in a black leotard and white satin cape, she played Jimmy Webb’s Up, up and away
, suspended by helium balloons.
This text is an edited excerpt from the publication 40 Years: Kaldor Public Art Projects | <urn:uuid:9e413a9f-7d72-4756-9a60-067fea35e1c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kaldorartprojects.org.au/project-archive/charlotte-moorman-and-nam-june-paik-1976 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953001 | 604 | 1.914063 | 2 |
The article below is continued from Unrequited Love (Part 1): Crushin’ on or Crushed by You? Click here if you missed it.
In Part 1, my teenaged self confessed a long-time crush to a friend. Sometimes these situations can blossom into satisfying romantic relationships if both friends are harboring feelings for each other, but if the person who wants more (confessor) admits this to a desired friend who is uninterested (rejector), the two friends must deal with the resulting emotional fallout in their friendship.
The same researchers did a new follow-up study to uncover the specifics of how these friends behaved toward each other after the confessor had been rejected.1 It turns out that particular types of verbal and nonverbal behaviors in the friends’ interactions were indeed linked to whether or not the friendship ended.
Thus, would a confessor be left doggedly singing, “Hopelessly, I'll love you endlessly...but I won't give you up,” like in the Muse song “Endlessly,” or would a confessor take a more final cue from Garbage’s song “Cup of Coffee” with “No, of course we can’t be friends, not while I’m still this obsessed...this is how our story ends”?
One can’t force rejectors to change their feelings, just as confessors can’t simply turn off their ill-fated attraction. For anyone asking “What do I do now?” we present some helpful tips below.
Five Ways to Save Your Friendship after a Romantic Confession (for both rejectors and confessors):
- Verbally affirm that the friendship is important and you want to stay friends.
- Say that you are okay with the confession/rejection and you accept that the other person doesn’t feel the same.
- Return to your previous patterns of social contact sooner rather than later – this demonstrates acceptance of the outcome and you won’t appear to be avoiding the other.
- Talk about new romantic interests that you develop in other people. This way, the confessor takes pressure off the rejector, and the rejector avoids building false hope in the confessor.
- Decrease (or not increase) previous levels of flirting, innuendo, and touching.
Additionally, the confessor can avoid talking about how the rejector doesn’t feel the same and accept the rejector’s future romantic partners, while the rejector can show understanding for the confessor’s feelings.
A friendship is more likely to end if:
- The two friends avoid social contact with each other. (It’s hard to be friends with no contact, right?)
- The confessor complains about or doesn’t accept the rejector’s decision.
- The rejector suggests that mutual romantic feelings could develop someday or that a relationship isn’t possible because the rejector is already interested in someone else.
- The rejector tells others about the confessor’s feelings and the confessor finds out.
Let’s say Sam confesses his undeniable attraction to Pat. Pat, who has never had anything beyond platonic feelings for Sam, tries to let him down nicely with, “I’m sorry, Sam. I like someone else right now, but maybe someday I might feel the same.” Sam is hurt, of course, and can’t help bringing the subject up again and again. Feeling uncomfortable, Pat begins ignoring Sam’s calls and avoiding events that Sam might attend. Pat even asks their mutual friend, “Is Sam going to be there? I’ve felt really awkward around him since he told me he liked me.” This tidbit circulates among their group of friends, and Sam feels embarrassed and betrayed when he hears about it. Based on this research, Pat and Sam would have a slim chance of continuing their friendship in the future.
Readers should be aware that the above tips are just suggestions and that results may vary. Individual situations call for individual solutions.
So, what was my crush’s reply as I waited, heart palpitating, for his response? Well, I guess they call it a “crush” for a reason. Heartbreak is never, ever easy.
1Motley, M.T., Reeder, H., & Faulkner, L.J. (2008). Behaviors that determine the fate of friendships after unrequited romantic disclosures. In M.T. Motley (Ed.), Studies in Applied Interpersonal Communication (pp. 71-95). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Dr. Helen Lee Lin - Science of Relationships articles | Website/CV
Helen's past research has focused on potential problems in relationships, such as keeping secrets from a significant other. She is also interested in communication as well as the use and consumption of media in relationships, and is planning to work in applied contexts for her future projects. | <urn:uuid:0c581fe4-7920-4176-a1e7-40c2f338a819> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scienceofrelationships.com/home/2012/6/28/unrequited-love-part-2-of-2-stuck-between-friend-and-friendl.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940699 | 1,061 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Anthony Kroll, director of curriculum and instruction, speaks to staff and board members about Mundelein Consolidated High School District 120's plan to get a device in the hand of every student by 2015. (Dan Waters, Chicago Tribune)
Mundelein Consolidated High School District 120 announced at a recent board meeting its plan to get every student in the district a computing device by 2015.
Anthony Kroll, director of curriculum and instruction for the district, said students are learning through increasingly different methods, and putting a device in the hand of each student would be a good way to keep up with the times.
"Students collaborate, problem-solve and learn very differently than when we were in school," Kroll said. "[The initiative] gives a shot in the arm for enthusiasm and responsibility for students to take into their hands their own learning."
Kroll said last year about 18 area districts had a similar program in place, and that number climbed to 46 this year. Board Secretary Joanne Anderson said District 120's transition into the program will be aided because it will be able to discuss the initiative with these districts and get some insight into the process.
"We don't have to reinvent the wheel," Anderson said.
Lake Zurich Community Unit School District 95 is one of the districts that recently rolled out the so-called "1:1 device to student" initiative. District 95 approved the plan at the end of February, and officials estimate it will cost approximately $4 million over the course of a few years.
Kroll said while there are obviously costs incorporated with putting such a plan into place – such as technology infrastructure improvements to support the addition of about 2,200 devices – the benefits the district and students will see are worth the cost.
The district this year started by implementing a Google Apps pilot program that allows students to work simultaneously on the same document, said technology trainer Kathryn Serby. Thirteen teachers were included in the pilot, with six teachers implementing devices into classroom learning and seven others looking at how the program could potentially be used within their curriculum.
"We have some staff members out there who have really jumped on this and are implementing it, in my opinion, very well with their students," Serby said. "I think it's an exciting time to be an educator, and I'm excited to be a part of it."
Principal Lauren Fagel said the last survey the district did showed about 10 percent to 15 percent of students don't have access to a computer at home. But she said that number is misleading, because many kids have limited Internet connection or have to share the computers with family members.
"On paper, it looks like most of our kids have computers at home," Fagel said. "But in reality, many of them are dependent on coming to school and using our labs and our libraries to have fast Internet, a printer and that kind of thing."
Kroll said the district hopes to implement the initiative school-wide by 2015. This spring the technology committee will meet to review the plan and create the remaining framework for the initiative. Next school year the district hopes to implement a pilot program in a class and determine the response. | <urn:uuid:d77bb8e7-3b27-4094-a1cc-9d842e28f76a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-03-21/news/ct-tl-district-120-technology-initiative-20130321_1_students-technology-trainer-computers | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975859 | 649 | 2.359375 | 2 |
CORPUS CHRISTI — Some of Nueces County's most important buildings carry private insurance policies against wind- and hailstorms instead of those offered by the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association, the insurer of last resort for more than 255,000 property owners on the Texas Coast.
Getting wind- and hailstorm insurance has for decades been a challenge for property owners in the 14 coastal counties bordering the Gulf of Mexico known as Tier-1 counties and a small part of Harris County..
Although private insurance carriers do provide windstorm coverage in the 14 counties — 23 insurance groups were writing new policies that carried windstorm coverage at the beginning of last year — most homeowners and small structures are covered by the state's windstorm pool.
"It's all about the money," said Charlie Zahn, chairman of the Coastal Windstorm Insurance Task Force. "You take a $300 million facility with a three-quarter million premium and a home with a $500 to $2,000 premium, the company is not willing to gamble on that but they will on such a large premium."
Depending on the year, insurance companies may write more policies in Corpus Christi, for instance, to spread their risk in Texas, depending on the extent of the risk calculated based on actuary tables.
City Hall, on Leopard Street, is the nexus of city's operations and decision-making.
Should a windstorm damage the 162,000-square-foot building, the city would pay anywhere from $250,000 to $4 million after a named storm and $250,000 for hail or non-named windstorms, such as tornadoes, to make repairs, said Donna James-Spruce, the city's risk manager.
The city in 2006 dumped its Texas Windstorm Insurance Association policy in favor of a private policy because of concerns over the association's per-structure coverage limit, the price of the policy and deductible totals, she said.
"The primary drawback is TWIA would require us to buy a policy that carries a 2 percent or 5 percent deductible, per building," she said.
The association caps coverage for a structure at about $4.4 million, too low for many of the city's 400 structures that include wastewater plants, parks, the airport and the American Bank Center.
Instead, the buildings are insured against windstorms through several layers of commercial insurance programs brokered through McGriff, Seibels & Williams.
Taken as a whole, the city needs about $250 million to insure its buildings, James-Spruce said.
Nueces County Judge Loyd Neal said Thursday the county holds an $80 million wind- and hailstorm policy for the courthouse and jail that also may be used for other county buildings.
"The restrictions in the pool are too great," he said. "We pay a little more for our private policy, but our coverage is greater."
The county buys its insurance from a non-admitted company, also known as a surplus line insurer, or a company that is not regulated under state law and is not subject to Texas Department of Insurance oversight.
Such insurers, among them some of the world's largest insurance houses, receive greater flexibility in exchange for providing coverage needed by large, complex or high-risk entities, according to the department of insurance.
Because they are not regulated by the state, policies provided by non-admitted companies are not backed by the state's guaranty fund that pays claims in case the company becomes insolvent, according to the department.
Even school districts often must choose non-admitted carrier policies.
Participation in the windstorm pool is an annual decision for the Corpus Christi Independent School District, said Xavier Gonzalez, chief financial officer.
Whether to participate is a decision the school board takes up each year when it receives pricing proposals and chooses the best one based on the advice of district leadership.
Gonzalez said the district has 60 facilities and about $660 million in exposure.
They, like the city, insure through a combination of private policies.
A $500 million policy covers catastrophes and fire, not wind or hail storms, he said.
For windstorms, the district carries a $300 million blanket policy that is sufficient to pay damages estimated under models for a 500-year named storm, the worst case scenario, Gonzalez said.
Combined, the policies carry a $3.7 million annual premium, almost three-quarters of which is the named-storm coverage, he said.
"The premiums go up and down depending on the previous years' weather and changing actuary tables," Gonzalez said. "But with $660 million in property, we can't afford to take chances. We can argue about cutting it back, but we still have to have it."
A policy that size, he said, gives the district flexibility when rebuilding after a storm.
"Our facilities are spread out over a wide geographic area that, in event of a devastating storm, would probably see a shift in demographics," he said. "They key for us is the ability to leave some buildings, bring others up to speed or build new ones."
Liability limits for Texas Windstorm Insurance Association policies:
Governmental buildings and personal contents: $4.42 million
Commercial buildings and personal contents: $4.42 million
Dwellings, individually owned town houses and personal property: $1.77 million
Apartments, town houses or condominiums and personal property: $374,000
Source: Texas Windstorm Insurance Association | <urn:uuid:df56ce68-e93c-41fd-9f8d-7d2191ddbcb9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.caller.com/news/2012/jul/29/windstorm-coverage-a-costly-proposition-for/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960953 | 1,134 | 1.507813 | 2 |
- Plants for gardens
- Wollemi Pine
- Plant databases
- Plant conservation
- Pests & diseases
- Identifying plants
In the wild the trees grow to about 40 metres and their trunks can grow up to 1 metre in diameter.
Like other conifers, it bears cones (male and female - see sex life), which appear at the very tip of branches with adult phase leaves.
The bark is particularly unusual, looking very much like ‘chocolate crackles’ or bubbling chocolate, making it quite different from the bark of other related species.
The Wollemi has two types (or phases) of leaves. It does not have needles like pine trees in the northern hemisphere. Its young broad-based juvenile leaves are bright lime-green and grow in low light under the rainforest canopy. The adult leaves, which grow in much harsher conditions above the canopy, are tougher and a deeper bluish-green.
The leaves at the beginning and end of a growing season are shorter than those formed during the middle of the season, creating a diamond shaped pattern along the branch. The leaves also have an in-built system to help reduce water loss.
There are two types of branches on the Wollemi Pine:
Upright branches start from buds borne along the trunk, eventually maturing with foliage and a branching structure resembling the initial trunk, so that older trees develop a branched crown. Upright branches that develop from buds at the base of the trunk, referred to as coppicing, form a multi-trunked tree.
Young seedlings, from as early as one year old, can develop more than one upright branch - unlike Araucaria trees where additional upright branches develop only after the growing tip has been damaged or wounded. | <urn:uuid:2f4e64a5-fbe5-4e66-b777-ffdc5140e3dc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/plant_info/wollemi_pine/appearance | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958014 | 369 | 3.625 | 4 |
Understanding your IP position
Having a good grasp of your intellectual property is paramount for a project to be commercially successful.
Over the past five years we’ve worked with many organisations commercialising technology: from guys in garages to Fortune 100 companies, and from venture-backed start-ups to publicly funded research institutes. We’ve seen triumphant successes and dismal failures. Surprisingly for such a diverse data set, the starting point of both successful and unsuccessful commercialisation is remarkably consistent: it all starts by understanding your intellectual property (IP) position.
IP (in its broadest sense, not just patents but also confidential information, copyright, trademarks, know-how – all the IP rights) is fundamental to successful commercialisation. Despite this, many New Zealand organisations see IP as a secondary or even tertiary consideration. For example, companies will generally have a fixed asset register listing cars, desks and LCD monitors, but few have any record, let alone active management, of potentially high-value IP such as trade secrets, copyright, trademarks or inventions.
So what should New Zealand companies do? The solution is twofold.
Firstly, increase awareness and understanding of IP. You can’t make effective decisions about your intellectual property or leverage its value if you don’t understand what it is, how it works and which role it plays in your industry. Ask: how much innovation or IP do we have? How much are we creating on a daily basis? Is it being used? If it’s not being used, what is happening to it? What is our true spend on IP protection? Are we generating revenue or value from that IP?
Addressing these questions helps management take a measured view of how the business manages and utilises IP. If the conclusion is ‘We don’t’, then you need to connect to an advisor who can help answer these questions and develop a robust and commercially orientated, IP strategy for you.
Secondly, when your organisation does develop a great idea, invests in new R&D, files a patent or acquires a company it is critical to objectively assess the IP position of that idea, R&D, potential patent or company.
Assessing IP position provides three key insights.
Firstly, are you likely to receive broad and strong IP protection? This directly impacts on both the commercial potential of the idea and the commercialisation options available.
Secondly, do you have Freedom to Operate (FTO)? In other words are you likely to be sued if you use this technology? Unfortunately having your own patent does not automatically mean you have FTO – you can infringe someone else even if you have a patent on your technology.
In the third instance, does your IP provide invaluable market intelligence? Does it reveal the state of technology development in your market or industry – who is doing what, when were they doing it and where are they now?
It should generate a list of people working on what you are working on. These are your potential competitors, collaborators, strategic partners, co-developers, licensees and licensors. Easily available, such research would otherwise cost thousands of dollars and weeks of googling.
The combination of these factors provides critical early insights into whether a project is likely to be commercially successful. This leaves you better prepared to make a host of decisions – a strong IP position justifies greater investment, more aggressive expansion plans, more extensive protection and it makes strategies like licensing or IP sale viable. Conversely, a weak IP position might prompt you to redirect R&D, take a different strategy or even discontinue the initiative altogether to focus on other projects.
And a final word: in both cases it’s critical to seek independent and commercially relevant advice. In practice (and logically) this means your IP strategy should not be defined by the person filing your patents or trade marks.
If there’s one lesson, it’s this: IP is a critical business asset. Managing it properly is a prerequisite for every aspiring business.
Paul Adams is the CEO of EverEdge IP, New Zealand’s largest and most successful private sector technology and IP commercialisation firm. EverEdge IP won both the NZ International Business Award for Best Commercialisation of IP 2012 and Outstanding IP Leader Award 2012, China | <urn:uuid:65d04cb7-5b0a-4e97-a272-16860412838a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.idealog.co.nz/businessplan/position | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926841 | 879 | 1.726563 | 2 |
That's basically what I like best about the geology of the area I live in (Nevada in general, the Basin and Range even more broadly), and as I've probably mentioned before, I moved west primarily to get away from what I perceived as an overabundance of biology over geology (see Dana's AW#29 post for more on biology v. geology). I also moved west to return to the general area I grew up in. I've stayed here ever since, except for a brief sojourn in that northern state known as Alaska (Yes, it's a state. Some people Outside — here in the Lower 48 — don't actually know that.)
And so begins my short but sweet post for Accretionary Wedge #29 (almost too late for an entry due to winter weather, winter un-wellness, and winter work), a Wedge which is being hosted this month by Ann at Ann's Musings on Geology & Other Things. The questions? "What Geological features about the area you call 'home' do you love? and what do you not like?"
I love the mountains. (Note the trees and above-tree-line alpine terrain, a sometimes underated or underexplored feature of the Basin and Range.)
I love the valleys. (Note the hot springs in the foreground, a nice and warm geologic feature of the Basin and Range.)
I love viewing the mountains from the valleys. (Note the prominent range-front fault, one of the many fascinating geologic features of the Basin and Range).
I love viewing the mountains and valleys from the tops of mountains whenever possible. (Note that you are looking at the south end of one of those huge Nevada-style, mid-Tertiary calderas to the left of Mount Jefferson, the third highest mountain in Nevada, and also that you are looking at the place where that green helicopter pilot left me out all night many years ago in mid-October. Brr.)
If there's anything about the geology of Nevada and the Basin and Range that I don't like, it's that there is just too much of it for me to see it all!
This post has been brought to you by the Basin and Range of Nevada, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California, and Arizona (primarily Nevada in this particular case). Basin and Range also occurs in Mexico, and I've seen a patch of it up in the Yukon (with Artemisia!). [And I forgot Utah!] More on the Basin and Range here. More on the range-front fault shown above here.
Basin and Range! Yeah!! | <urn:uuid:d6395a0a-387e-45b1-b262-f713f012cf8e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://highway8a.blogspot.com/2010/11/i-can-see-for-miles.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959312 | 544 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Over the past several days, the US Department of Homeland Security has issued warnings against using Java due to newly discovered security weaknesses – today it’s been tipped that the Red October cyberespionage attacks may have had their own Java iterations. The two have not been put together by the Israeli IT security firm Seculert, the group that today suggests Red October was implemented not just via email downloads and USB sticks, but through web-based Java exploits as well. Could that and Homeland Security’s warning be timed both right here at this point in time together without any relation to one another?
Coincidences like this don’t just happen every day. According to Kaspersky Lab, the antivirus group that let loose the info on Red October earlier this week, it was mainly through Word and Excel documents that the security exploit was delivered, either via an email download or possibly through USB sticks plugged into host computers. Security researchers from Seculert assigned to analyze the command and control servers used in the Red October campaign have found a malicious Java applet made to exploit a Java vulnerability they say was patched all the way back in October of 2011.
What this means is that their targets were not computers that were brand new, patched and up to date, but older machines that for one reason or another hadn’t gotten with the program. Another fabulous reason to keep your computer up to date, that’s what this is. According to the Seculert blog where the Java connection announcement was made, “the JAR file of the Java exploit was compiled in February 2012, even though the patch for the vulnerability was available as of October 2011.”
These exploits appear to have been included in pages with the title “We Can Find All News!” The terms “news theme” and “NewsForYou” were also included in the code, this leading the team to believe that it was through a series of pages that suggested they’d be delivering the malicious project via harmless-seeming websites with “fake” news blasts galore. While it would seem strange that the US Department of Homeland Security would wait many, many months to deliver a warning against an attack like this, it is possible that, like the rest of us, they only found out about it here in 2013 – and they’ve not confirmed that this is the same attack, of course, but we shall see! | <urn:uuid:a3625a3d-de7c-44ba-aeea-6bbba01377ae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.slashgear.com/java-tipped-in-red-october-may-be-homeland-securitys-hang-up-15265398/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982616 | 500 | 2.21875 | 2 |
Saturday, August 13, 2011
The Cascade Massacre
Margaret Iman’s (1834-1924) story is writ in stone is a small, eponymous cemetery on the backside of Stevenson, a river town on the Washington side of the Columbia as she rips a gorge through the Cascades:
Born at Tippecanoe Co., Ind.
1852 Missouri to The Dalles on horse back
Carried motherless babe 500 miles
Took raft downriver to Cascades
1853 met and married Felix G. Iman
Survived Indian War of Mar. 26, 1856
Indians burned home
Had 16 children, 9 boys, 7 girls
Her husband, Felix Iman’s (1828-1902), slab is next to hers. Together they sketch a compelling pioneer story.1
Born DeKalb Co., Mo.
Arrived at Cascades by ox team in 1852
Married Margaret Windsor 1853
1854 built & owned steamer “Wasco”
1855 donation land claim of 323 acres
1858 worked on upper Cascades block house
Built & owned 2 sawmills
Built 1st school. For short time saloon owner.
Aside from a minor error, it hints at the enormous effort the Iman’s put into wresting a home from the forest. Frank, it happens, “was born 24 November 1828 in Monroe, Illinois,” according to “Iman Family Notes: ‘Margaret’ (A Windsor Perspective).”2 It wasn’t Frank who came from DeKalb Co., but rather Margaret, who left for Oregon from there.
It wasn’t an easy departure. Margaret, it turns out, was a runaway. She was born a Windsor, whose mother died when she was about ten years old and was subsequently raised by an archetypically cruel stepmother. By the time she was seventeen, her family was living in DeKalb Co., and by the time she was seventeen she’d decided she’d had it and ran away from home, joining a wagon train headed for Oregon. Her father went after her, dragged her back, and lost her again when he went looking for a river crossing. The second time he let her go. She was subsequently lost to the Windsor family until a descendant in Kansas put an add in the Ladies Home Companion in the 1920s asking if anyone knew what happened to her? One of Margaret’s children, Louis, chanced upon the magazine in a Vancouver, WA barber shop and his wife contacted the folks in Kansas.
The Indian War mentioned on her tombstone actually lasted longer than March 26, although not much. It’s frequently called the Cascade or Fort Rains Massacre and was part of a general Indian war of resistance to the white invaders known as the Cayuse War, of which, probably, the most famous incident was the euphonious Battle Of Seattle. The Imans played a not insignificant role in the events, and their interpretation of what happened differs considerably from the official record. According to James Windsor,3 who refers to the incident as the Yakima attack, the wrong Indians were punished. Sheridan claims4 that the Yakimas forced or coerced the local Cascade Indians into joining the attack, but the Iman’s claim otherwise. Sheridan left us a list of the settlers and soldiers killed in the uprising:
" I append a list of killed and wounded: Killed — George Griswold, shot in leg; B. W. Brown and wife, killed at the sawmill, bodies found stripped naked in Mill creek ; Jimmy Watkius, driving team at mill ; Henry Hagar, shot in Watkins' house, body burned ; Jake Kyle, German boy ; Jacob White, sawyer at mill ; Bonrbon, half-breed, died on the Maty going to The Dalles ; James Sinclair, of the H. B. Company, Walla Walla ; Dick Turpin, colored cook on steamer Alary; Norman Palmer, driving team at mill ; Calderwood, working at mill ; three United States soldiers, names unknown ; George Watkins, lived four days ; Jacob Roush, carpenter, lived six days. Wounded — Fletcher Murphy, arm; P. Snooks, boy, leg; J. Lindsay, shoulder; Jesse Kempton, shoulder; Tommy Price, thigh ; two .soldiers, U. S. Army ; H. Kyle, German ; Moffat, railroad hand; johnny Chance, leg; ]\I. Bailey, leg and arm; J. Algin, slightly'."5
Sheridan doesn’t supply us with a list of Indians hanged, but a loose sheet of paper in the Oregon Historical Society’s files offers these names: “Chief Chenoweth, Capt. Jo, Tecomcoc or Tecomeoc, Tsy, Sim-sasselas or Sim-Lasselas, Tumalth or Tunwalth (other spellings), Old Skien, Kenwake (sentenced but reprieved on scaffold), and 4 Finger Johnny.”6 In Margaret Iman’s oral memoirs she describes the hanging of the Indians: She recalled they were “hanged on a tree about one mile from where we lived. Some of them, when asked to talk, shook their heads and put the noose around their own necks. Others laughed at those who were hanging.”7
Felix Iman’s schooner, Wasco, also particpated in the repulse. Assigned the task of hauling troops from Portland to The Dalles, the Wasco came under fire from Indians collected where White Salmon is now, across the river from Hood River; but the river is sizable and their balls had no effect. The third steamer to ply the waters between Cascade Locks and The Dalles, she subsequently returned to her trade, albeit for a short period of time. By 1857 she was out of business on the river. A newspaper advertisement from, probably, the 1860s offered passage between Bellingham, WA and Seattle on the “fast and commodious” steamer Wasco for $1; although I can’t be sure it’s the same steamer Wasco.
We can’t reasonably expect Sheridan, who was responsible for the protection of the whites along the river, to admit to hanging the wrong people. Nonetheless, this long quote from James Windsor describes the Iman experience:
Windsor points to this quote to help clarify the situation [of the Indian attack of March 26, 1856]: “I read the settlers in Skamania Co. at the Cascades had been expecting an indian attack for some time. Some of the friendly local indians had been warning the settlers that unfriendly tribes were planning an imminent attack, and for this reason Felix decided to build a new house closer to the river in case the family had to escape by boat. The original Iman house had been farther back from the river by about a mile. Of course no one knew when the attack would come and all were suprised by it. The local indians who were hung had been on friendly terms to the white locals. Indian Jim was one of the ones hung, and he was a good friend of Felix. They were of the Cascade tribe. The motive behind the hangings was anger and racism. Quite a few of the white settlers had lost relatives besides homes in the attack and there was some kind of revenge wanted, and as the Yakimas had all returned back to their land, the Cascades were the only Indians to take revenge one, even though they were innocent. Of course most white people at that time did not like Indians and did not trust them, so of course most of the locals were none too squeamish to get rid of them. Margaret claimed she witnessed the hanging, or at least at some point she claimed to have seen them hanging. Felix was away at the time and when he returned a day or two later he was sorry to hear about the hangings and told the locals that those Indians were all innocent and it was wrong to hang them. At least that is how history has left the story for us. There were also some sordid details a few days after the Yakima attack. There was a friendly indian and his wife and children and they were travelling by boat on the Columbia River near Shepherd's Point. It is said that Samuel Hamilton with some other local men, but not Felix, captured these Indians and their children and raped the woman and then killed them all, children included, in a very cruel way, by strangling them and chopping off their heads. Lt. Philip Sheridan (he later to be famous in the Civil War) was there serving as the commander of the force that had chased off the Yakimas, and Sheridan claimed it was Hamilton and some others whom he named go after the two indians who were then found murdered shortly thereafter. But of course this was hushed up and Sheridan declined to press charges and consequently never spoken of again, so no one prosecuted Hamilton and the others, but it is a sordid story and a sad comment on the history of the area.”8
The sorry story in my research of similar graveyard histories is that it is always the same: the perpetrators rarely see punishment which instead is meted out to the handiest person. Blame is always collective.
1 I’ve covered most of this story in previous blogs, so it may seem familiar. To an extent, I’ve plagiarized myself. The new material primarily concerns the “massacre.”
2 James Windsor, Draft, Iman Family Notes (with footnotes and editing by Steve Iman)[http://www.imanfamily.net/skamania/windsor.html].
4 Mea culpa for not having noted the references for this information. A case of casually reading through the Net for other information, reading this, and filing it away in my memory bank only to not be able to find the source when I went looking again. You’d think I’d learn.
5 Philip Sheridan as recorded in History of the Pacific Northwest: Oregon and Washington.
6 OHS 929.379272; R 179 cem. Ramsey, D. G., Skamania Co. WA Burial Lists.7 Another lost reference. I searched and searched but have yet to refind this memoir online, but I know it’s there. Trust me.
8 James Windsor; Op Cit. | <urn:uuid:e0cc1371-9367-4917-8e60-e173a09074c6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bloggingadeadhorse-dmt.blogspot.com/2011/08/cascade-massacre.html?showComment=1315366521076 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974296 | 2,216 | 2.375 | 2 |
Physics World Buzzing: New Game-Changing Particle May Have Been Discovered At Tevatron Lab
April 6th, 2011
By Clara Moskowitz
In a development physicists are calling "huge," "tantalizing" and "unexpected," researchers have measured a signal that could herald a new kind of particle or force of nature.
But the finding is not yet conclusive, and leaves many researchers skeptical.
The discovery comes from an atom smasher called the Tevatron at the Fermilab physics laboratory in Batavia, Ill. Inside the accelerator there, particles are ramped up to near the speed of light as they race around a 4-mile ring. When two particles collide, they disintegrate into other exotic particles in a powerful outpouring of energy.
Scientists analyzed thousands of these collisions, and found a suspicious pattern in about 250 more cases than predicted. In these instances, the products of the collision between a proton and its antimatter partner, the antiproton, were different than expected.
"The whole physics world is buzzing with this result," physicist David Kawall of the University of Massachusetts Amherst told LiveScience.
The discovery, first reported in the New York Times, was announced online Tuesday when the researchers posted a preview version of their research paper on the preprint site ArXiv.org.
"This is huge — an unexpected discovery which could completely transform high-energy physics, and cosmology as well, as the two fields are joined at the hip," astrophysicist Michael S. Turner, director of the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics at The University of Chicago, wrote in an email to LiveScience. "But there is one big IF — if it holds up and is not explained by standard model physics."
Many researchers echoed that caveat — the discovery could be significant, but it's too soon to tell, because more data is required to confirm that the Tevatron's pattern is more than just a statistical anomaly.
"The statistical significance of the signal is interesting, but not compelling," said physicist Eugene W. Beier of the University of Pennsylvania. "The experimenters need more data. If the signal does hold up at the five standard deviation level, it is an indication of something beyond the range of what we expected."
The level of statistical significance in the data now is just over three standard deviations, which means that the chance of it being a random anomaly is less than 1 in 1,000. Thus, the finding is significant, and merits investigation, but is not conclusive, researchers say. If enough further measurements are made, and the pattern holds up to five standard deviations, more physicists would likely be convinced.
"I am not convinced," said Syracuse University physicist Sheldon Stone. "It relies on a detailed estimate of the backgrounds and small changes could wipe out the result."
Colliding matter and antimatter
The Tevatron has been colliding protons and antiprotons since the 1980s, and has made many significant findings already, including the 1995 discovery of the top quark, an exotic version of the fundamental particles that make up protons and neutrons.
"This tantalizing result from the CDF collaboration could certainly be game changing," said Gavin Salam, a physicist at the CERN research lab in Geneva. "If it is confirmed, it would be the first time that a new particle was observed in a collider experiment since the top quark was discovered at Fermilab in 1995."
In the new finding, scientists in the Tevatron's Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) experiment found that the particle collisions produced a higher-than-predicted incidence of a certain pattern of byproducts: one heavy particle called a W boson, and two jets of lightweight particles with a total energy that was unexpected.
The energy of the jets could indicate that they come from a never-before-seen subatomic particle, scientists say. One of the most avidly sought theoretical particles is the so-called Higgs boson, the particle thought to bestow mass on other particles. Yet the signal the Tevatron team found does not quite match what's expected for the Higgs.
"It would be nothing like a standard Higgs boson, as the production rate is far too high," said Rutgers University physicist Matt Strassler. "Beyond that, it is hard to say; we simply don't have enough information yet."
And because particles are tied to the forces of nature, the discovery could even indicate a fundamental force in addition to the known four: gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces.
"If this is in fact the first hint of new physics to be confirmed by other measurements with higher statistics, it would be very exciting," said physicist Jamie Nagle of the University of Colorado, Boulder. "Exactly how exciting depends on what new physics it turns out to be — which cannot be determined from these results alone."
The finding also could be a vindication for the Tevatron, which is set to close in September for budget reasons. While it was once the most powerful particle accelerator on the planet, it has recently been surpassed by the new Large Hadron Collider at CERN.
If the Tevatron's discovery represents a real event, and not a blip of statistics, it will likely also be seen in the LHC. Until then, many scientists say they will reserve judgment.
For now, though, the excitement certainly continues.
"I have spent the better part of the day discussing the viability of these results and possible explanations with colleagues from around the world," said Cornell University physicist Csaba Csaki.
"If it indeed turns out to be the signal of a new particle, it would be extremely important, potentially 'game-changing.' However at this point I would be extremely cautious about declaring the discovery of a new particle. While the result should definitely be taken seriously, a lot more work has to be done before this can be accepted as a fact." | <urn:uuid:b5ed6a23-48e3-4041-935f-97b3d3d4383e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.conservativerefocus.com/blog5.php/2011/04/06/physics-world-buzzing-new-game-changing-particle-may-have-been-discovered-at-tevatron-lab | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956535 | 1,242 | 2.640625 | 3 |
The University of Adelaide’s Waite Research Institute is hosting the next round in its Debate @ the Waite series on 15 March 2012 on the following hypothesis: ‘The future of the Australian wine industry will be based on technology, not tradition’.
What do you think about the future of Australia’s wine industry? Undoubtedly a major success story to date but facing challenges as are all of the world’s wine producers. We are at a fork in the road – which direction do we take? What are we doing right? What are we doing wrong? What should we do to change for the better? This is a fun and engaging approach to addressing some serious issues which we hope will give you food for thought!
Six experts in all areas of the wine industry will debate its future, how to overcome challenges facing the industry, and the best approaches to prosper in the long term.
Hurry! Seats are filling quickly!!!
Follow on Twitter at @WaiteResearch or #agchatoz
The team speakers for the affirmative are:
Professor Steve Tyerman, School of Agriculture, Food & Wine and Wine2030 committee, The University of Adelaide
Dr Dan Johnson, Managing Director, Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI)
Professor Vlad Jiranek, School of Agriculture, Food & Wine and Wine2030 committee, The University of Adelaide
The team speakers for the negative are:
Mr Brian Croser, Tapanappa winemaker and Wine2030 committee
Professor Barbara Santich, School of History & Politics and Wine2030, The University of Adelaide
Dr Sue Bastian, School of Agriculture, Food and Wine and Wine2030, The University of Adelaide
The University of Adelaide’s Wine2030 is pleased to support this event and five of the six speakers are members of Wine2030! A short bio on each is given below.
With this diverse, informed and revered line-up there will be some informative and lively debate. So come along and get involved!
When? 6:00pm – 8:30pm, Thursday 15 March 2012
Where? Lirra Lirra Cafe, Waite Road, Waite Campus, Urrbrae
Admission is free! Prior registration is essential as seats are limited. Go to http://debateatthewaite.eventbrite.com.au/
Free wine tasting and finger food provided
Bitesize bios of the speakers:
- Professor Steve Tyerman has expertise in nutrition, salinity and water use in plants and has been teaching viticulture at the University of Adelaide for many years. His current research is driven by the implications of climate change for viticulture.
- Dr Dan Johnson – the AWRI is a research, development and extension organisation owned and governed by the Australian wine industry. As well being the MD of the AWRI, Dan is Chairman of the Australian Wine Industry Technical Conference.
- Professor Vlad Jiranek is a microbiologist with experience in the US and NZ. He researches the characterisation of microorganisms used in fermentation – and the findings have led to changes in selection, optimisation and management of wine yeasts by the wine industry. Recently he has been looking at the genetic basis for the preferred attributes of wine yeast.
- Brian Croser is one of Australia’s most revered winemakers and leading exponents of terroir-driven wines. He was the founder and chief winemaker for Petaluma for 27 years, and later established Tapanappa Wines as well as a vineyard in Oregon, USA. He is an Officer of the Order of Australia for his contribution to research, education and services to the Australian wine industry.
- Professor Barbara Santich is an internationally acknowledged expert on food history. She teaches courses on food culture and history at the University of Adelaide. She has published several awarded texts; the forthcoming book is Bold Palates: Australia’s Gastronomic Heritage.
- Dr Sue Bastian is a researcher and senior lecturer in oenology and sensory studies. She also conducts industry sensory training, is an associate judge for several Australian wine shows, and has a small winemaking business in the Adelaide Hills. | <urn:uuid:4210ac86-b69d-403f-9818-80f0c9cf06a9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wine2030.wordpress.com/2012/03/13/wine2030-supports-the-debate-the-waite/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95259 | 866 | 1.632813 | 2 |
When produce packers rap
Posted: August 30th, 2007 - 6:53am by Brae Surgeoner
The UK's Register reports today that one of America's oldest grocers has sued two college students for licking its produce on YouTube.
According to the story, last week, The Great Atlantic & Pacific Company - A&P - slapped a $1 million lawsuit on former employees Mark and Matthew D'Avella, accusing the two of defaming the 147-year-old grocery chain in an online rap video called "Produce Paradise."
According to the suit - filed in New Jersey superior court and recently tracked down by an El Reg hack desperate for a good read - the video shows the brothers doing various disparaging and disgusting things inside the Califon, New Jersey A&P where they worked as shelf stockers before getting the sack six days ago. An A&P spokesperson is cited as saying that at least one customer is extremely miffed by the video, which has the rappers licking packaged produce and putting it back on the selling shelf - among other things.With their "Produce Paradise" video - available on YouTube as well as their personal website - the D'Avellas spend 4 minutes and 16 seconds rapping about, well, produce. Billing themselves as the "Fresh Beets," they lay down rhymes like "Produce. Produce. What you see is what you get, except the cut fruit, now that's some nasty s##t" and "Excuse me sir, where did this grow? B###h, do I look Mexican, I don't know." In addition to licking some fruits and vegetables, they seem to urinate on others. "But don't come up to me acting all rude because I won't be afraid to pee in your food," they chant. | <urn:uuid:8a7cbd9b-43df-44a9-84f2-bfaf319758c6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bites.ksu.edu/blog/139336/07/08/30/when-produce-packers-rap | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966039 | 374 | 1.570313 | 2 |
The Gates of Repentance
We'll return now to the pattern Rabbeinu Yonah established with the three
earlier of the "four types" and cite different kinds of slanderers. There'll
be six in all, but we'll concentrate on the first three here, whom we can in
fact refer to as "slanderers". Then we'll go on to speak next time of the
other three verbal abusers, if you will, whose traits will prove to be
offshoots of slander.
The first and most offensive type of slanderer is someone who finds faults in
others *that aren't there*, and perhaps insults them to their face.
Rabbeinu Yonah begins to go off on a short excursion now on *listening* to
slander and taking it to heart. "When you accept slander" he asserts," you
become a partner in crime with, and share the fate of the person who offered
it. Simply because people will say, ‘Since *he* accepted it, it must be
true’." The best thing to do when you come upon someone speaking against
others (if you can't come right out and discourage it) is to show by your
body language that you’re displeased. The message will get across, and all
the “fun” would be taken out of it.
Rabbeinu Yonah then makes a stunning statement about either offering or
listening to slander. He implies that anyone guilty of either would have to
be arrogant and contemptuous, for "truly humble people want others to be
respected, and they’re troubled when people are disparaged or shamed". That
should certainly give us pause, and make us consider how self-centered we are
so often, in fact. For there are few among us who don't enjoy "juicy tidbits
We return to slandering per se. While a second kind of slanderer certainly
speaks against others, he nonetheless avoids *lying* about them. But if you
demean someone based on something that's true about him or her you often do
more harm than lying about them. Simply because you’d have established your
"honesty", so *everything* you say about your victim will be taken to heart.
The truth be known, though, it's important to demean truly bad people, if
only to convince others not to do what they do. But some people, it seems,
stretch that a bit. It’s best to assume that, unless you know otherwise, as a
rule people are basically "all right". You might take a truly bad person
aside and speak to him or her directly. If that's too difficult, the next
best thing would be to speak to his or her rabbi, teacher, counselor,
And the third kind of slanderer not only demeans people-- he spreads rumors
about them all over the place (we refer to such people as “rumor mongers”).
As Rabbeinu Yonah puts it, it's just "impossible to estimate the damage done
by spreading rumors". Who knows who accepted the rumor and did something
harmful to the victim, and who knows how far that went? And aren't many of us
guilty of stirring up animosity within extended families by spreading rumors
about one member or another?
Lastly we're told that giving away secrets is a form of slander, too. Because
someone entrusted with a secret is expected to keep it to him- or herself and
to not betray a confidence. After all, isn't "keeping mum" about something
what a "secret" is all about? So when you divulge someone’s secret, you
Rabbeinu Yonah then offers us this sage advice for our *own* protection.
"Don't ever entrust your secret to a rumor-monger. For since he can't keep
his lips from spreading rumors, you can't depend on him to keep your secret,
even if you divulge it to him privately and in confidence."
The sensitive soul would want to take these words of Rabbeinu Yonah's to
heart. "It's the way of the upright to cover over others’ sins" he remarked,
"and to praise people for the good things about them." Would that we could
all live by that rule!
Subscribe to Spiritual Excellence and receive the class via e-mail. | <urn:uuid:e04e45eb-827e-4c8e-8aa3-a02a08827906> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.torah.org/learning/spiritual-excellence/classes/gor3-12.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958757 | 954 | 2.234375 | 2 |
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A bar with no beer is giving visitors a taste of times gone by in the Rossendale Valley in Lancashire.
Dandelion and Burdock and Blood Tonic are slightly unusual sounding drinks but then Mr Fitzpatrick¹s is no ordinary hostelry.
The black and white Victorian building situated in the old industrial town of Rawtenstall is Britain¹s last original temperance bar and non-alcoholic cordials rather than beers, wines and spirits have been on the menu here ever since it first opened 120 years ago.
Drinks are still made from the same recipes that the Fitzpatrick family used back in 1890 and owner Chris Law says that walking through the doors “feels like stepping back in time.”
There’s an impressive dark wood marble-topped bar with pottery casks and the walls are lined with shelves displaying not only cordials but an array of traditional confectionary as well as culinary and medicinal herbs.
“It’s only a tiny place”, Law points out, “but it’s still quite an experience and everyone who comes here loves it.”
Law was so taken with the bar that when it came up for sale in 2000 he jumped at the chance to run it. “My grandfather lived just around the corner and used to bring me to Mr Fitzpatrick’s on a Saturday morning when I was a child”, he reminisces. “We’d sit down and he’d have a Black Beer and Raisin and I’d have a Sarsaparilla. I used to be an engineer so I thought it would be a nice change to be in out of the cold!” he adds.
The Temperance movement began in the 1830’s at a time when alcoholism was rife and untaxed cheap ale and gin were blamed for driving the working classes into drunkenness. Joseph Livesey, a cheese-maker from Preston decided to take matters into his own hands by establishing a society under which a pledge was taken never to drink alcohol.
Temperance bars became the social outlet of the society and the focal point of many communities where locals gathered to sing songs and enjoy a tankard of cordial. By the 1880’s the bars graced every high street in the North of England and Mr Fitzpatrick’s was one of the most prominent names with a chain of establishments run by a herbalist family who had migrated from Dublin.
Law’s grandfather was a good friend of Malachi Fitzpatrick who ran the Rawstenstall bar for over half a century. Malachi, who was gifted one of his father’s temperance bars as a wedding present, was a pillar of the local community who never took a day off sick and was said to have looked about 50 even in his 90s.
“We can only think that this could have been attributed to the medicinal concoctions that go into Mr Fitzpatrick’s cordials” comments Law who says that while they are not cures, his drinks do contain ingredients known for their health- giving properties such as rosehip, nettle and sarsaparilla root.
All of Mr Fitzpatrick’s eight traditional cordials are created and bottled in a small room above the shop using natural ingredients bought in from as far afield as Jamaica. It’s not very hi-tech but it’s much more modern production process than the one that Law inherited he explains.
“The previous owners used to make the cordials in a tiny space in the bar and put them in old wine bottles people brought in. It was quite a slapdash operation and would probably not meet with EU regulations now!”
Law opted for traditional style bottles and labels, emblazoned with the temperance pledge of ‘Purity, Truth, Love’, and expanded production to allow for online sales. Mr Fitzpatrick’s also supplies about 20 local delis and on Sunday when the bar is closed Law sells the cordials at nearby farmer’s markets.
“I thought it would be easier than my previous job,” he admits. “That hasn’t actually turned out to be the case but it’s a bit of a bug and you just give it your all as Mr Fitzpatrick’s is so much a part of this community.”
Not surprisingly, the bar is not only popular with locals but also day-trippers and visitors from even further afield. “We had 36 Japanese students in here yesterday which was a bit of a squash,” says Law.
Rossendale, Lancs BB4 6QS
Tel: 01706 231836
Open Mon-Sat from 9.30am 4.30pm | <urn:uuid:38e5b115-2d9a-4f9b-b645-ae010f473ebc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.viamichelin.com/web/Gastronomy-magazine/Rossendale-_-Fitzpatrick_s_Rossendale-e0661823a095ba7c137fd5ae8065db8f-155291 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969473 | 1,012 | 1.5625 | 2 |
VIGIL book on NGOs -
NGOs, Activists and Foreign Funds
Page 5 of 41
4. Anyone can give or receive an award
One unique method by which these stalwarts conduct their self-promotional campaigns is to get one component of the coalition to confer awards on another component. This tactic is similar to that which is employed by the ´eminent historians´ club where Romila Thapar will make adulatory references to Irfan Habib and Irfan Habib will extol the works of S Gopal and so on. Hindus who lived through the trauma of Jayalalithaa unleashing demoniac forces which arrested and incarcerated the two venerable Acharyas of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham remember how barely a few months before she embarked on this asuric invasion, she had been awarded the title of ´Golden Star´ by some unknown and insignificant human rights organisation with roots in the Ukraine. Jayalalithaa celebrated the obscure (Christian?) and dubious award with a self-congratulatory orgy. There were street slogans on house walls, huge life-sized and larger-than-life posters of the lady, eulogizing her for receiving the human rights award. As I said, just about anyone can give or take an award; but when such awards are given to politicians it is usually given either expecting a favour involving use of political power or as an expression of gratitude for favours already bestowed.
5. The Indian Muslim Council (IMC) - USA
The IMC-USA, one of the member organisations of the Coalition against Genocide, since its birth in 2002, has been generous in this regard and very purposeful in the innumerable awards that it has given precisely with this objective - expecting or returning favours. The IMC-USA crowned Shrikumar Poddar with the (not surprising at all) Bahadur Shah Zafar award ´for promoting pluralism and community harmony in India´.6 Now this is weird; Shrikumar Poddar and other NRIs arebeing conferred awards by the IMC-USA for their work in India - ´promoting pluralism and community harmony in India, for selfless service towards the uplift of the poor and the oppressed classes in India, for selfless service towards the uplift of Muslims in India and for courageously serving India and India´s interests.´ One would have thought that such a gigantic task would involve a life-time´s dedication if even one small pocket in India has to yield expected results. And yet the IMC-USA is bestowing these awards to non-resident Indians residing in the US! As I said, just anyone can give and receive awards.
In October 2005, the IMC-USA, at its third annual convention in Detroit, conferred upon American Congressman John Conyers the Malik Al-Shabbazz award for ´his leadership in the field of human rights.´ Originality, it would seem, is not the forte of the IMC-USA too. Accepting the award, the American Congressman, living up to my generally poor opinion of the intelligence of the average American politician and completely in keeping with the new American policy of courting and wooing Muslims as a sop to soften them over what is happening in Iraq, Afghanistan and now Iran, made gratifying noises about the persecuted religious minorities in India. He is also reported to have congratulated the Muslims in India for fighting religious persecution ´adopting non-violence as the way to do so just as Gandhi and King had done.´ Conyers obviously hadn´t heard about the bloody vivisection of 1947 or about the genocide of Kashmiri Hindus by the Kashmiri Muslims in Jammu and Kashmir. Talk about ignorance being bliss or was the Congressman too singing for his supper?7 The award was bestowed upon the Congressman as a rewarding carrot for having moved a resolution in Congress in March of the same year to prevail upon the US State Department to deny Narendra Modi a visa to visit the USA. | <urn:uuid:73f716b7-dfc3-4630-a0b6-9d4047d90f75> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.vigilonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=935&Itemid=99999999&limit=1&limitstart=4 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964191 | 828 | 1.617188 | 2 |
In this unit, students are equipped with the French "survival skills" necessary to cope in various situations that are likely to arise in the real life of a Canadian teen. Many students have travelled or will travel to a Francophone milieu, either within Canada or abroad. Students work in
groups to complete survival challenges presented to them by a "video host", all the while demonstrating teamwork and team spirit. Throughout the unit, teams will accumulate points for completing challenges based on the themes of travel, food, and problem solving. Through the Info-survie boxes,
students will learn important language related to emergencies and technology. They will also discover some interesting differences between slang in Canada and in France.
Final task: an impromptu challenge where students are given a scenario in teams, and are asked to devise a
mini-dialogue that demonstrates their survival skills in French. Students receive points for this challenge, which are added to the points they have been accumulating throughout the unit. A final group of survivors is named at the end.
Each Starter Kit contains the following: 30 Student
Books, 1 Teacher Resource Book, 1 CD, Languag and Strategy Cards, and 1 Storage/Carrying Case.
There is no Table of Contents available at this time.
There are no Instructor/Student Resources available at this time.
Bernard - Series Editor and Senior Author Biggar - Senior Author; FSL Publisher, Oxford University Press Canada
Please check back for the special features of this book. | <urn:uuid:fb153772-5b01-40de-b46f-e4fb0a382e3b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oupcanada.com/catalog/9780195422597.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935424 | 307 | 3.890625 | 4 |
It’s broken society everywhere!
“ Madam yahan pe subko tension hai. Koi khush nahin hai,” my auto driver tells me voluntarily. A few weeks ago, when an old friend told me that Mumbai is gone down the drain, there’s too much anger and conflict, in a pub off Piccadilly, I put it down to the usual middle class whingeing.
Somehow, I’m beginning to believe him. Okay, so Mumbai ain’t India. I know that as well as Rahul Gandhi does. London ain’t Newcastle, either. However, it is held up as this shining example of the new, growing, wannabe global power that India wants to be, the story Indian corporates, politicians, dignitaries and I are always telling westerners. And okay, I’m here in the middle of the rains, everyone’s grumpy.
Still, as usual, it’s the cabbies and auto-wallahs who have their hand on the pulse of a place. I dunno what it’s like in Delhi or Bangalore, but if I had to identify a single strand that stands out on this visit, it’s that I see absolutely no sign, on the ground, among the rich or the poor or middle class of this alleged prosperity we write about. All I see is almost hysterical greed and ambition, frustration , and increasing polarisation between different sections of the population.
Everyone’s not just unhappy, they’re living in a state of permanent anger, angst and stress. The polarisation between the haves and have-nots is beginning to burst out of its seams. So this is anecdotal. But in just one week, I’ve heard of at least three cases of randomised violence and armed attacks in the streets of Mumbai, in broad daylight. And this used to be a place a woman could travel alone at midnight. I don’t have the crime statistics, but I bet they’re stratospheric.
There’s an epidemic of dengue, malaria, and god knows what else, diseases that were eradicated 20 years ago which is killing off both the rich and the poor without discrimination. Neither the public health authorities, nor the medical and healthcare system is able to cope in any way. More on that next time.
Customer services, something I always claimed was way better in India than in London, is deteriorating to, as someone told me, ‘third world levels like where you live’ . Take telecoms, an example we use globally to show off India’s homegrown business success. ‘India’s telecoms industry can show the world how to do business,’ we tell the world. Now, that bane of the developed world., “please hold on, your call is important to us” , that too in an American accent, has arrived here with a vengeance. I didn’t realise that there’s a shortage of people in India, so everything has to be automated to total incompetence.
The rip-off culture has arrived too. Whether its clothes, property, eating out, movies , or basics, the prices are off the wall, even by sterling standards. The value for money culture, which gave the world the concept of sachets, something we again tell western corporations to learn from us, has given way to outrageous pricing. After all somebody is willing to be ripped off to assuage their wannabe aspirations.
Kids, no wonder they keep killing themselves at exam time, are under inhuman pressure to compete, succeed, and then what? Live a life of even more stress.
In the business sector, I thought, people should be fine. After all, those delicious growth and profit rates, all those economic indicators. But no. Everyone I meet is frustrated to killing point, working 18-hour days, hating every minute of it, but unable to get off the corporate treadmill. Of being seen as ‘successful’ . In one era, we Indians had to struggle for basic survival. Now, everyone has to struggle even harder to live with alleged prosperity.
The worst thing is, nobody seems to care. When I ask these questions, it’s met with a shrug. The middle class has too many problems of its own to be bothered about the poor, the poor are getting angrier and desperate, the rich, as always, don’t care. For a while now, ‘feel-good’ has been the holy grail of media and establishment. It’s almost a national conspiracy, let’s ignore the warts and bad things, focus only on those glitzy nightclubs and idolise success. I live in a society at the other end of the rainbow, where success is looked on with deep suspicion. Where the perils of affluence have turned full circle and come back to bite those societies in the tail so badly, that David Cameron had to coin a concept for it. ‘Broken Britain,’ he called it. You can argue with him, but he’s right. British society is pretty much broken, socially and economically.
‘Broken society’ is the only word that comes to mind to describe what I see around me, already and not after half a century. Okay, inclusive growth is a buzzword, but most people think it happens somewhere to tribals in Orissa. It’s happening right here, in the mega-cities that are supposed to lead the charge that will make India a world superpower.
What, exactly, is the purpose of all this economic growth if people are going to die of primitive diseases, and struggle even harder than previous generations did to survive? No politician or government can fix it. They tried that option in Britain , and look where it got them. It’s high time we stopped blindly celebrating success, and paid attention to what’s happening to people’s lives, and our society.
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Living and working across time zones and cultures | <urn:uuid:616b37fc-0a46-47dc-b3e0-2a445ae9ac75> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.economictimes.indiatimes.com/LettersfromLondon/entry/it-s-broken-society-everywhere | 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 | 0.946304 | 1,520 | 1.578125 | 2 |
There’s no disputing it has been a very disappointing summer so far in 2012 – with the wettest June for over a century followed up by a very wet start to July.
In fact, barring a warm and dry spell towards the end of May, the weather has been persistently dull and wet since April – which was also the wettest in records dating back to 1910.
Our weather here in the UK is complex and determined by many different factors, including the position of the jet stream.
This is the narrow band of fast moving winds which runs from west to east across the Atlantic high up in the atmosphere.
How does the jet stream affect UK weather?
Weather (or low pressure) systems bearing rain and unsettled conditions move across the Atlantic on a regular basis. The jet stream guides these systems, so its position is important for UK weather.
In summer, we would expect the jet stream to be north of the UK – dragging those weather systems away from our shores to give us relatively settled weather.
So far this year it has been to the south of the UK, guiding those systems straight to us. This is the position we’d normally expect the jet stream to be in during winter, when we are more accustomed to these wet conditions.
So why is the jet stream stuck so far south?
The jet stream, like our weather, is subject to natural variability – that is the random nature of our weather which means it is different from week, month or year to the next.
We expect it to move around and it has moved to the south of the UK in summertime many times before in the past. It has, however, been particularly persistent in holding that position this year – hence the prolonged unsettled weather.
This could be due to natural variability – a bad run of coincidence, if you will – but climate scientists are conducting ongoing research to see if there are other factors at play.
Changes in sea surface temperatures due to natural cycles may be playing a part, but there is more research to be done before anyone can establish how big a role they play.
Research has also suggested that reducing amounts of Arctic sea-ice could be affecting weather patterns, but more research needs to be done to confirm this link. Currently Arctic sea-ice is at a record low for this time of year.
Is climate change playing a role?
In the long term, most climate models project drier UK summers – but it is possible there could be other influences of a changing climate which could override that signal on shorter timescales.
If low levels of Arctic sea ice were found to be affecting the track of the jet stream, for example, this could be seen as linked to the warming of our climate – but this is currently an unknown.
The Met Office Hadley Centre, working with climate research centres around the world, is making strides in determining how the odds of extreme weather happening have been influenced by climate change.
However, it is very difficult to do this type of analysis with such highly variable rainfall events, so it may take many years before we could confirm how the odds of this summer’s wet weather happening have been altered by greenhouse gases.
We do know that the warmer air is, the more moisture it can hold. We have seen a global temperature increase of more than 0.7 deg C (since pre-industrial times) and this has led to an increase of about 4-5% in atmospheric moisture.
This means that when we do get unusual weather patterns such as we’re seeing now, it’s likely there will be more rainfall than the same patterns might have produced in the past. In short, it seems when it does rain, it is heavier.
Taking into account this effect, perhaps it’s not surprising new records like those for this April and June are being set. In fact, the wettest July and November in the records dating back to 1910 happened in 2009, making a total of four record wettest months in the past four years. If wet months occurred randomly, we would expect only one record to have been broken since 2006.
For temperature, April (2011), May (2008), July (2006), September (2006) are all recent warmest records. Again, this is much more frequent than would be expected if temperatures were not rising.
What about elsewhere in the world?
Looking at the bigger picture, the jet stream may be having an impact elsewhere in the northern hemisphere.
It is stuck in a persistent pattern of waves, with one of these ‘waves’ taking it to the south of the UK.
Figure shows upper level wind patterns in early July 2012, with the northern hemisphere jet stream marked with arrows.
The figure gives a picture of the upper level winds for the first week in July, but the wavy nature of the jet stream has been persistent throughout June.
Meanders of the jet north and south can be seen across the US, the Atlantic and into Europe.
While the wet weather in the UK has been under a southward meander of the jet stream, the recent Russian floods near the Black Sea appear to have been beneath the next trough to the east.
The US heat wave is also beneath a northward meander and a ridge of high pressure.
* This article has been written in collaboration with the Walker Institute for Climate System Research, University of Reading. | <urn:uuid:108ece91-99a8-4c62-b069-a865d4212113> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://metofficenews.wordpress.com/tag/climate-change/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969177 | 1,110 | 2.796875 | 3 |
I sat down with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta for a “This Week” interview and we discussed the growing threat from China. Read our exchange on the cyber threat from China and check out our complete conversation in the web-only video below to find out how concerned Panetta is about the Asian power’s aggression in the South China Sea.
TAPPER: So, you are headed to Asia, and you will be meeting with your Chinese counterpart in Singapore. You’ve said that we face the possibility of a cyber attack. This is one of the things you talked about last time with me, about how this was a very big, serious issue of concern for you. And you said it could be the equivalent of Pearl Harbor.
The Pentagon has acknowledged recently China is the biggest source of cyber attacks against this country, including stealing our military secrets. Newt Gingrich spoke about this threat on the campaign trail often. He said cyber attacks, cyber spying, are quote, “acts of war.” Do you agree? Are they acts of war, and how would the United States respond?
PANETTA: Well, there’s no question that if a cyber attack, you know, crippled our power grid in this country, took down our financial systems, took down our government systems, that that would constitute an act of war.
But what we’re involved with here is the effort to make sure that never happens. And in order to do that, we’ve got to engage. You know, I think it’s important for us to engage China in this effort. That’s one of the issues I raised when the minister of defense came here from China. How can we better engage on this issue, to share information and to ensure that those kinds of attacks never happen, because this is an area where the technology is developing quickly and where clearly it is becoming an adjunct in terms of any country that moves against another country militarily.
This is something we’ve got to pay attention to. And it’s not only with China. We’ve got to engage Russia. We’ve got to engage other countries in an effort to try to develop some kind of standards here that will assure us that just as we did in the nuclear area, we can take steps to prevent a mistake that could be very damaging to our security. | <urn:uuid:d7357b48-d5d2-427e-9b71-aaa9e82c8e26> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/05/leon-panetta-a-crippling-cyber-attack-would-be-act-of-war/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96563 | 491 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Life skills trainer Joe Lash talks to members of 180 Degrees in St. Paul, Minn. / Bre McGee, Gannett
ST. PAUL - Slouched in their seats, some with dark hooded sweatshirts pulled up over their heads, the teens do not appear to be all that interested in what Joe Lash is saying at first.
But all eyes are soon on the energetic speaker as he walks up and down the aisle, waving an actual mousetrap, urging them to stop doing the things that caused them to get caught in the trap of breaking the law.
"Stop hanging with the pack that's causing you to do negative behavior," Lash, a life skills trainer and facilitator with the YWCA of St. Paul, tells the group. "Brothers, if you want to stay free, you have got to take some drastic measures."
At this evening learning center in east St. Paul, run by a non-profit organization called 180 Degrees, boys ages 13-18 who have started down a path of misbehavior, truancy or low-level crime gather after school every weekday. They come for a meal, help with homework, field trips to the history museum or theater, lessons about life skills such as money management and applying for a job, and discussions about civics and morality.
It's part of a growing effort nationwide to deal with "crossover" youth, one of the newest buzzwords in social service and juvenile justice circles. The term refers to children or teenagers who cross over from the child welfare system to the juvenile delinquency system. They are already known to county social services because of abuse, neglect, domestic violence or mental health issues.
"What we've seen is there is a population of youth that are at one point or another in both systems, and that crossover population is really an even more at-risk group," said Dennis Mondoro, strategic community development officer for the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
Cities and counties across the USA, including Los Angeles County, Miami, New York City, Philadelphia, Denver, Broward County, Fla., and King County, Wash., are taking the approach of intervening early in the lives of these at-risk kids and providing services to get them back on a more positive track. The goal is to prevent them from ending up in long-term foster care, juvenile detention or eventually prison.
Research has shown that kids in the child welfare system are about 50% more likely to enter the juvenile justice system, said Miriam Aroni Krinsky, a lecturer at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Public Affairs.
"When they do, what we tend to see is they get arrested at younger ages. They tend to be treated more harshly," Krinsky said.
In many states, when that child enters the juvenile justice system, all the services available to foster kids shut down, and the system begins to view the children as simply bad kids, Krinksy said.
They often end up in juvenile detention, where they are subject to bad influences and often are more likely to commit worse crimes when they get out, Krinsky said.
"We tend to create a more hardened criminal," she said.
As a prosecutor in Florida handling both abuse and delinquency cases, Shay Bilchik saw how maltreatment during early childhood often seemed to be a precursor to juvenile delinquency.
Years later, Bilchik formed the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform at Georgetown University to focus on the issue. What researchers found is that in many cases, the two systems weren't aware of the child's involvement in the other. There were separate documents, court hearings and officials.
"Often times, we didn't even identify them," Bilchik said. "Even when we identified them, we didn't find the systems working together in a very coherent way."
With funding from the non-profit Casey Family Programs, the center created a model for how counties can better deal with crossover youth. A county creates a team that includes a family court judge, law enforcement, prosecutors, schools, community corrections and human services. They develop policies for identifying crossover youth, intervening early and working together to prevent them from ending up in more serious trouble. The idea is to "rally around this kid like a SWAT team," Bilchik said.
For counties, there's a financial incentive to reducing the number of children who end up being removed from their home and placed in a group home or detention facility. Out-of-home placement is one of the biggest costs for county social service agencies.
Officials in Stearns County in central Minnesota first heard about the concept early in 2011, just as they were seeing more 9- and 10-year-olds getting in trouble with the law.
"We began to see a large number of citations issued to our office for very young children," said Matt Engelking, chief of the juvenile division in the Stearns County Attorney's Office. Often the children, who were charged with low-level offenses, had previous mental health or child protection issues, he said.
A juvenile detention facility isn't the best place for such young children, who often are influenced by older, more sophisticated teens. And it wouldn't help address the more significant root issues of the problem, such as mental illness, Engelking said.
"The writing was on the walls for us to do something more proactive," he said.
180 Degrees declined to provide names of those in the St. Paul program, since they are juveniles. The program's organizers say the results have been positive.
Nikki Miller, alternative juvenile programs manager, said she's gotten calls or visits from graduates of the program who want to tell her how well they're doing.
"It lets us know that guys are being successful beyond the time they've been here," Miller said.
Marohn also reports for the St. Cloud (Minn.) Times
Copyright 2013 USATODAY.com
Read the original story: Intervention efforts try to save 'crossover' youths | <urn:uuid:ad5f1063-e445-48aa-a5db-b7cfa4d81fc4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.livingstondaily.com/usatoday/article/1973561 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968492 | 1,251 | 2.234375 | 2 |
Wales plans sprinkler law
The Welsh government has announced plans for all new and converted residential properties in Wales to be fitted with sprinkler systems.
A cost benefit analysis by BRE Global has calculated that this will save 36 lives and prevent an estimated 800 injuries between 2013 and 2022.
Environment minister John Griffiths said that regulations will be introduced in September 2013.
He added: “We must seek to prevent avoidable death and injury from house fires and need to accept that there is a cost to introducing sprinklers into new properties. These proposals are significant and important in taking forward fire safety. Wales will be at the forefront of reducing fire risk and cutting the number of avoidable deaths and injuries caused by fires in residential premises.”
According to UK fire statistics (2001 to 2010) there are an average of 2,168 fires, 17 deaths and 503 injuries in fires in Welsh homes every year.
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This article was published on 31/05/2012 (last updated on 01/06/2012). | <urn:uuid:bc44e5cd-eb3d-4f39-ae83-17f39ec0d2c0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theconstructionindex.co.uk/news/view/wales-plans-sprinkler-law | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925551 | 269 | 2.09375 | 2 |
In another blow to the City of Los Angeles’ attempt to cut costs and avoid more dust mitigation on the Owens Dry Lake, on Feb.5, the Kern County Superior Court denied the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s request to dismiss the lawsuit.
It was filed for repeated violations of orders issued by both the court and the Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District.
Judge Sidney P. Chapin ruled that the LADWP was subject to civil penalties and an injunction for its decision to withhold over $1.1 million dollars in Owens Lake air pollution control fees, according to a press release from the air pollution control district.
“The Court ordered LADWP to pay those fees to the District on Jan. 28 [and the] ruling clears the way for a trial later this year to determine the city’s liability and assess penalties, which could reach almost an additional $8 million.
“The LADWP’s decision to withhold payment of its fees corresponded to its opposition to installing additional air pollution control measures at Owens Lake. In November 2012, the California Air Resources Board rejected the LADWP’s appeal and approved the reasonableness and necessity for those measures,” the news release stated.
“Particulate air pollution is a danger to human health and the environment, and over the past year, LADWP’s water diversions have caused dust storms that violated the federal dust standard on 27 separate days resulting in the issuance of local health alerts.” | <urn:uuid:8d6ecd93-9cc8-4761-b4e0-47d29b66b77e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mammothtimes.com/print/9003?quicktabs_2=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936028 | 316 | 1.921875 | 2 |
Baptist women work together in social justice initiatives
After a five-year retirement, Thomasina needed to return to work. Yet, she lacked computer skills for today’s jobs. She soon got a fresh start at Women Mentoring Women, a six-week course designed to help equip unemployed and underemployed women.
Building relationships with 15 women, aged 30 to 65, over the six weeks, Dollie Hamlin, a director of the program, explained that the focus of the program was on helping participants “reinvent” themselves and learn “new ways of going after what the world has to offer.”
Held at St. John’s Baptist Church in Scotch Plains, N.J., the course gave Thomasina just what she needed. She mastered the art of applying for work online and landed a customer service job.
Cassandra grew up in a dysfunctional family where addictions were a way of life. In 2008 she entered a six-month residential transitional living program, The Next Door, in Nashville, Tenn., for women addicted to drugs or alcohol. A proud graduate and now an employee at the program, Cassandra said she is “giving back something that was freely given to me.”
“Once you get clean, your life will be overwhelmed with wonderful, beautiful things,” said the 29-year-old.
She has earned her high school GED and her drivers license. She is now married and hopes to adopt a child soon.
The Next Door program, led by Linda Leathers, has been so successful that additional programs have been opened in Knoxville and Chattanooga.
Tennessee WMU executive director–treasurer, Candy Phillips, said, “The Next Door is a wonderful example of missional women taking action in their local community to make positive change.”The Women Mentoring Women initiative and The Next Door program are two of six projects in North America receiving life-changing grant money from North American Baptist Women’s Union, one of seven Continental Unions that make up the women’s department of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA). Together, the seven Continental Unions represent women in 132 countries and 229 national Baptist women’s organizations.
The North American Union is comprised of 16 member bodies within the United States and Canada, with more than three million member women.
Saying three million women is “a lot of woman power,” newly elected NABWU president Moreen Sharp, extolled the “strength in numbers” in her acceptance speech at the NABWU assembly in Nashville in October 2012, a meeting that convenes once every five years. The 2012 meeting attracted 220 women, with one-third of attendees coming from Canada, including Sharp, who is NABWU’s first president from Western Canada.
Elected to a five-year term, Sharp encouraged attendees, “We are women with compassion, and we are a powerful force as we unite together.”
Much of NABWU’s focus is on resourcing and networking Baptist women who are touching the lives of women and children suffering injustices and disadvantage in our society. Individuals being reached include refugees to North America, youth at risk, people trapped in human trafficking and prostitution and others.
In her acceptance speech, Sharp noted that there are many Baptist women “out there” to whom God has given a passion to “do something.” Yet, many, while seeing a need, have no idea how to follow through and make a difference, she said.
“These women need resources and encouragement,” she said, emphasizing that networking among Christians is imperative in today’s disconnected society.
“Networking would allow [those who are working in particular ministries] to have others who can give input when they are stumped, encouragement when they are discouraged, or share prayer concerns that they may not feel free to share with others who don’t understand or are outside their particular area of ministry.
“Networking is a key initiative that needs to continue and grow ever stronger. As a North American organization, we have a unique place in networking women who are working towards bringing God’s heart and values to this world.”
Modern technology, including the possibility of online training and video-conferencing, allows for quicker and more far-reaching connections today than in the past.
“Technology is our friend. The potential is massive,” she said, as she discussed how women could sit in front of their computers and “be taught by those who have gone before them.”
Such connections have a strengthening effect, Sharp believes.
“The more connections we make between our member bodies, the stronger they all become. The stronger we all become,” she said.
The North American Baptist women also look beyond their own continent as they join with other Baptist women throughout the world in prayer during the Baptist Women’s World Day of Prayer every November. The five-year (2010-15) theme for the day of prayer is “In Step with the Spirit,” with the 2012 focus on joy.
“We are intricately linked with Baptist women from around the world,” explained Sharp.
Linked in prayer, some Baptist women have participated in the World Day of Prayer through a Facebook page. Others, on the other side of the world, walk for days for the opportunity to “pray with their sisters.” In some places, hundreds of women come together to pray; in other places, only two or three women gather in prayer.
The World Day of Prayer promotes an offering, with monies collected evenly divided between NABWU’s grant projects and BWA’s women’s department and international projects. One of the seven Continental Unions prepares the World Day of Prayer materials, with the 2012 resources being prepared by the Asian Union.
Additionally, because the Baptist World Alliance is a registered non-government agency at the United Nations (UN), the BWA women’s department sends representatives to the annual meeting of the UN Commission on the Status of Women in New York. NABWU was represented at the 56th session in late February/early March 2012 by Linda Weber, NABWU’s president from 2007-2012, along with several others. The primary theme was the empowerment of rural women and their role in eradicating poverty and hunger.
George Bullard, General Secretary of the North American Baptist Fellowship said, “NABWU is a vital missional movement among Baptists. We are all more effective in ministry because of the prophetic actions of women related to NABWU.”
In addition to Sharp, NABWU elected the following five officers at its October 2012 assembly in Nashville: Lisa Lohnes, vice-president, Baptist women’s day of prayer promotion, project grants, and prayer partners; Ruby Fulbright, vice-president, leadership and mentoring; Angelita Clifton, vice-president, communication and promotion; Stacey Benn, secretary; and Darlene McGilberry, treasurer (beginning in January 2013).
For more information about the North American Baptist Women’s Union, visit the website www.nabwu.org.
© 2013 Associated Baptist Press, Inc. | <urn:uuid:963a810c-4910-4b8c-858f-2d8fc2c45935> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://abpnews.com/culture/social-issues/item/7998-baptist-women-work-together-in-social-justice-initiatives | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962028 | 1,534 | 1.6875 | 2 |
PW-S School District, UWM collaborate on a unique, intern-led program intended to result in healthier employees, reduced health-care costs
If teachers in the Port Washington-Saukville School District seem to have a little more energy lately, it may have something to do with yoga on Mondays, in-line skating on Tuesdays and the occasional juice bar and nutrition education seminar.
Those are just a few of the offerings of the district’s new wellness program, a unique initiative that administrators hope will pay off for employees and taxpayers.
“The goals of this program are pretty simple — to have a healthier staff and to control our health insurance costs,” Director of Special Services Duane Woelfel said. “And it’s free, so it’s really a win-win program.”
Free because it is led by Ashley Block, a kinesiology student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee who, until she graduates in December, holds the title of the Port-Saukville School District’s health and wellness programming intern.
Block works in the district four days a week coordinating a host of programs for employees that, in addition to regular yoga classes and in-line skating outings, include bike trips, walks, art therapy sessions and therapeutic dance classes.
“We had more than 80 employees turn out for our kick-off walk,” Woelfel said.
Block is also working with area businesses like Port Washington State Bank to offer programs on topics that include financial health.
“Wellness is about so much more than just fitness and nutrition,” Woelfel said.
There are obvious benefits to having a healthier, happier, more productive staff, but the wellness program is also designed to have a direct impact on one of the district’s most significant costs — health insurance premiums.
The district recently switched its health insurance from WEA Trust to Humana, whose Vitality program allows members to earn wellness points that equate to discounts on merchandise for employees and reductions in premiums for employers. The district stands to save thousands of dollars on its premium if enough employees participate, and it’s Block’s job to help make sure the district gets credit for having active employees.
“Our insurance carrier has been very receptive to our wellness program,” Woelfel said.
The wellness program makes so much sense, administrators said, that they would like to be able to claim credit for carefully orchestrating the initiative, but they admit that wasn’t the case.
“It came about almost accidentally,” Thomas Jefferson Middle School Principal Arlan Galarowicz said. “I’d love to say this really took a lot of planning, but it didn’t. All it took was a conversation with a parent.”
Last year, Galarowicz was talking with Susan Cashin, whose son was a student at the middle school, when the topic of her career came up. It was an epiphany of sorts for both Cashin and Galarowicz.
As the interim assistant dean of student affairs in UWM’s College of Health Sciences, Cashin knows how important quality internship opportunities are for college students. And Galarowicz was part of an administrative team working to create a well-organized and comprehensive wellness program.
The initiative that was borne of this chance conversation is not only novel in the educational system, it’s been mutually beneficial to the district and UWM, administrators said.
“We’re trying to pioneer a new approach to wellness, and thus far it’s been a wonderful, coordinated effort,” Woelfel said.
Block’s internship will end in December, but she hopes the program will continue for the sake of everyone involved.
“This is really the start of something new for this district and UWM,” she said. “It’s such a worthwhile program that I’m really surprised other districts aren’t doing the same thing.”
Image Information: HEALTH TEACHER Joy Nirode led phy-ed teachers Colette Piontek (right) and Jill Sullivan on a recent in-line skating outing that is a regular part of the Port Washington-Saukville School District’s new employee wellness program. The program is coordinated by intern Ashley Block, who is studying kinesiology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Photos by Sam Arendt and Bill Schanen IV | <urn:uuid:ccd88ba1-c7bd-470c-9128-1cc9d7664bee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ozaukeepress.com/component/content/article/49-feature-1/3524-schools-hope-for-a-wellness-payback | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95364 | 943 | 1.84375 | 2 |
ANCHORAGE, Alaska—Alaska's U.S. senators pushed for the federal government to pave the way for drilling in the Arctic, at a Wednesday hearing held by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Commission's final report.
At the hearing, ranking Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski said it is possible to drill safely and responsibly, and that it's the government's duty to make sure that happens.
“The economies of states like Alaska and Louisiana indisputably depend on all three, and the loss of any one will lead to instability and hardship,” Murkowski said. “Americans require seafood, we love to vacation on the beach, we depend on oil -- it's a delicate balance, but a coexistence we have to sustain.”
Meanwhile, Sen. Mark Begich introduced three bills designed to promote what he calls safe and responsible oil and gas exploration in the Arctic.
Begich says the bills initiate comprehensive Arctic spill research planning. One requires oil transport from an onshore pipeline, while another would provide Alaska with revenues from offshore development -- a provision currently given to states along the Gulf of Mexico.
“We need to build the necessary infrastructure and do everything possible to prevent oil spills, but we also need to get moving on our oil and gas development to secure economic and national security,” Begich said in a statement.
Contact Jackie Bartz at firstname.lastname@example.org | <urn:uuid:d5c43b41-6f71-448c-9174-3e1fbdde42e0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.chicagotribune.com/topic/ktuu-alaska-senators-push-arctic-drilling-012611,0,7344864.story | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937014 | 302 | 1.976563 | 2 |
Civic body wants parking levy back
‘Otherwise MCDs will lose Rs 100 crore every year’
The North Delhi Municipal Corporation has demanded the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi to revoke the decision to stop collecting one-time parking fees from the newly-registered private vehicles and annual parking fees from commercial vehicles.
Standing committee chairman Yogender Chandolia has written to Lieutenant Governor Tejendra Khanna, requesting him to revoke the order otherwise it would cause revenue loss to the civic bodies.
Chandolia alleged that the Delhi government is misusing its powers to economically weaken the BJP-ruled municipal corporations by doing away with parking charges.
“It’s a political move and the three municipal corporations would incur a combined loss of around Rs 100 crore per year due to it,” Chandolia said.
The parking charges are collected by the transport department as per provisions of section 321 of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act and five per cent of the fee is paid to the transport department by the MCD as collection charges.
The parking charges were abolished citing reasons that the money accrued is not being used for the desired purpose of developing parking lots in the city, Chandolia said.
“The collection of parking fees was initiated on the proposal of the Congress-ruled unified MCD in 2006. But now the BJP rules in all three corporations,” he added
“The lieutenant governor has not been provided with facts about utilisation of
the parking fees for constructing new parking projects,” he said.
Chandolia said the unified MCD initiated the projects of developing parking at Q Block, Pitampura, Central Market Ashok Vihar, Kamla Nagar, Shastri Park, Sant Nagar, Rani Bagh, Lakkar Mandi, Padam Singh Marg, Karampura Commercial Complex and Qutab Road, where almost 5,000 cars could be parked. | <urn:uuid:e34df5cd-4a94-42ff-a00c-d623d81506ff> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.deccanherald.com/content/281173/civic-body-wants-parking-levy.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952413 | 392 | 1.5 | 2 |
Online reputation management
Protecting one’s online reputation – personal or professional – is extremely important in this day and age. The power of the Internet should never be underestimated. Dissatisfied customers, bitter co-workers and disgruntled employees alike have the potential to seriously damage one’s image on the web.
In order to protect one’s reputation, it is crucial to exercise self-control and censorship when posting content to the Internet. Social networks are an easy place to get carried away and share comments or opinions that might later be used against a person.
One should never forget that content published in an online platform such as Facebook, Twitter or blogs can be viewed by anyone: This means potential employers, recruiters and clients. Most networks are directly associated with one’s name and will come up in an online search.
Many forget that content posted online cannot only be found, but it has the potential to stay there permanently.
Personal censorship is an easy thing to control online. If it seems like something that could be potentially embarrassing or damaging to one’s reputation, it is probably best left unsaid. But what other people have to say about a person or business on the Internet is an entirely different and much more difficult situation to manage.
The beauty of the Internet – and its inherent danger – is that anyone has the power to post anything they want. This means that satisfied clients can rave about a business or its products, whereas cynics and disgruntled customers can just as easily blow off some steam in a blog or review.
Businesses should monitor such online conversations to find out what people are saying about them and to discover which issues need to be addressed. After determining which comments could turn into potential problems, the next step is to resolve them.
A common solution in dealing with online criticism is to simply delete the comments. Although this might be an easy short-term answer to the problem, it’s not always the best idea. In doing so, this conveys to the online community that a person or business has something to hide.
The best thing to do in this situation is to respond to the critical commentary in an apologetic and understanding manner. The customer is always right, and unfortunately, this translates to the social sphere as well. Most dissatisfied clients will appreciate the time and attention they received with a response to their issue, which may even lead them to remove the comment and gain a new perspective on the issue.
Another way to respond to negative online comments is through a blog. Creating a blog with one’s name in the URL will create favorable search engine result pages (SERPs) when people look up the name of a person or business. This will help to push some of the negative content down on the list of results and keep the blog at the top.
Blogs also give the receiver of negative commentary a chance to defend him or herself in a respectable and legitimate online platform. Frequently updating the blog will help the positive content to be viewed before the criticisms. Google responds well to fresh content, and by tagging keywords that are relevant to the issues that need to be resolved, the content of the blog will be more visible in search engine results.
Ideally, all potentially reputation-tarnishing issues online could be resolved via direct communication with the person or organization that originally posted the comment. However, there are unfortunately a lot of people out there who are bitter and quick to jump at the opportunity to criticize.
If a problem can be solved through an apology or explanation, this is the best way to handle it. When you’ve exhausted all other avenues, however, the best way to increase your positive presence online is to create new, engaging content.
Berline, Amanda. “How To Protect Your Online Reputation” Forbes.com http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/01/online-reputation-protect-leadership-careers-networking.html Accessed 10/17/11
Carracher, Jamie. “4 Ways to Protect the Reputation of Your Small Business Online” Mashable http://mashable.com/2011/10/15/protect-small-business-reputation-online/ Accessed 10/17/11
Weinberg, Tamar. “Manage Your Online Reputation” lifehacker http://lifehacker.com/357460/manage-your-online-reputation Accessed 10/17/11 | <urn:uuid:313f43f5-306e-49fb-a9f7-d5e102b345cc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.alecdifrawiproject.com/blog/2011/10/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938964 | 922 | 1.890625 | 2 |
The health reform summit last week was remarkable in many ways.
The more than seven hours of televised discussion of health care policy delivered the "little slice of heaven" that policy wonks like the Washington Post's Ezra Klein expected, but it also delivered something surprising. It "may have set the record for the most times 'polls' have been cited in one place in the history of the Republic," as Republican pollster Steve Lombardo put it.
It started with the first Republican speaker, Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander, who claimed that the Republicans "represent the views of a great number of the American people" -- expressed through "town hall meetings, through surveys" and through the recent off-year elections -- "that they oppose the health care bill that passed the Senate on Christmas Eve."
A chorus of Republicans throughout the day echoed Alexander's assertions. "The American people don't care for the bill," said House Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia. "I think that we've demonstrated in polling that they don't."
Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso expressed "great concerns" that summit participants were not "listening to the American people" given that "only one in three people in America support what is being proposed here."
Many referred to messages they had received from their constituents absent a specific reference to polls. Louisiana Rep. Charles Boustany, for example, referenced "town hall meetings, telephone calls, e-mails" in arguing that "the American people have spoken out very loudly and very clearly" and "want us to take a step back" from the bills passed by the House and Senate.
Sen. John McCain cited his constituents and all Americans "who overwhelmingly reject this proposal" and "want us to go back to the beginning."
But the most prolific Republican poll spinner was Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. "The American people," he advised, "if you average out all of the polls, are opposed to this bill by 55-37." Apparently unimpressed with the closer margins in the averages posted that day by RealClearPolitics (51 percent oppose, 40 percent favor) and my own site, Pollster.com (51 percent oppose, 42 percent favor), McConnell seems to have devised his own. According to the Associated Press, McConnell arrived at his own using "CNN, NPR and Quinnipiac polls taken at various times in January."
He did not stop there. McConnell also cited a USA Today/Gallup poll showing Americans "opposed to using the reconciliation device" by a 52 percent to 39 percent margin. And later that afternoon he used his concluding remarks to repeat both sets of numbers.
The Republicans were not alone in their polling punditry. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., kicked off his own remarks with a reference to the "interesting" results from a poll released last week by the Kaiser Family Foundation. "Fifty-eight percent of Americans," he said, "would be disappointed or angry if we did not do health care reform this year -- 58 percent. Across America, more than 60 percent of Republicans, Democrats and independents want us to reform the way health care works."
But the most extended discussion of polling by far ultimately came from the poll spinner-in-chief, as it were: President Obama. As he did with many subjects during the day, the president exercised his prerogative to get the last words on polling. Noting the comments from so many Republicans "about the polls and what they're hearing from their constituents," Obama delivered a lengthy rejoinder that was extraordinary, if only because it came not from a pollster but rather from the president of the United States.
"What's interesting," he said, "is actually when you poll people about the individual elements in each of these bills, they're all for them. So you ask them, do you want to prohibit pre-existing conditions? Yes, I'm for that. Do you want to make sure that everybody can get basic coverage that's affordable? Yes, I'm for that. Do you want to make sure that insurance companies can't take advantage of you and that you've got the ability, as Ron said, to fire an insurance company that's not doing a good job and hire one that is, but also, that you've got some basic consumer protections? Yes, we like that. So polls I think are important in taking a temperature of the public."
A few days before the summit, Gallup editor-in-chief Frank Newport proposed that it begin with a poll briefing, or as he put it, "a systematic review of where the people of the country stand on health care." Afterwards, Newport was encouraged that "voice of the American people is being interjected into the debate" but disappointed by the "puzzling or unknown origins" of some of the poll references.
In some ways, the summit's polling conversation mirrors the way pundits and partisans have talked about public opinion all along. We have certainly not suffered from a shortage of polls. According to its editor, Tom Silver, the nonpartisan Polling Report has published results of health policy questions asked (or tracked) 1,168 times since March 2009.
But rather than accept the often conflicting hopes, anxieties and preferences those polls measure, compounded by less-than-universal awareness of the policy details, partisans prefer to cherry-pick whatever number purports to show the "American people" on their side.
Unfortunately, the summit participants were no closer to a consensus on public opinion of health care reform than they were on the details of the legislation. | <urn:uuid:44e7dc48-542e-4717-8bdc-fd57e7afe7dc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nationaljournal.com/njonline/mp_20100226_2687.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977104 | 1,136 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Although classified as nonfiction and according to the afterward, is based on Ruth's own story, there is no way to tell if the stilted conversations in this book are from something Ruth said or wrote, or were made up by the author. When a publisher puts the words "story by Marybeth Lorbiecki" on the cover of the book, it makes it look suspiciously as if the author made things up. This was often done with children's biographies of yore, but nowadays teachers and librarians expect everything in a biography, even a picture book biography, to be based on fact and the sources named in the back of the book. It would have been more satisfactory if the author's note had been more specific about her source. Was it an audio or video of Ruth telling her story in 1982 at the Titanic Historical Society convention? Or was it from something written by Ruth?
Once the iceberg strikes the ship (which Ruth did NOT see), the writing improves greatly with descriptions so vivid you know this must be the tale of someone who saw it happen. | <urn:uuid:63e2d1c1-dc69-46d8-854b-092a2c1c1953> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.wendieold.com/2012_04_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983922 | 219 | 2.4375 | 2 |
Pierre DuhemArticle Free Pass
Pierre Duhem, (born June 10, 1861, Paris, Fr.—died Sept. 14, 1916, Cabrespine), French physicist, mathematician, and philosopher of science who emphasized a history of modern science based on evolutionary metaphysical concepts. He maintained that the role of theory in science is to systematize relationships rather than to interpret new phenomena.
Duhem studied at the Collège Stanislas and École Normale Supérieure before teaching at Lille and Rennes. As professor of theoretical physics at the University of Bordeaux (1894), he was also known for work in thermodynamics and hydrodynamics. Among his voluminous writings are Études sur Léonard de Vinci (1906–13; “Studies on Leonardo da Vinci”) and La Théorie physique, son objet et sa structure (1906; “Physical Theory, Its Aim and Structure”). In 1913 he began publication of Le Système du monde; Histoire des doctrines cosmologiques, de Platon à Copernic (1913–17; “The World System; History of Cosmological Doctrines from Plato to Copernicus”), which eventually comprehended 10 volumes; but only five were completed by the time of his death.
What made you want to look up "Pierre Duhem"? Please share what surprised you most... | <urn:uuid:1fe9ad23-c05b-4cde-b975-106a4ec74cee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/173206/Pierre-Duhem | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921488 | 303 | 2.703125 | 3 |
BNSF Railway, which operates rail yards in San Bernardino and several other Southern California communities, confirmed Wednesday the company will test liquefied natural gas fuel in a small number of locomotives later this year.
Even with just a few locomotives involved, company CEO Matthew K. Rose touted the planned tests as the beginning of a "potential transformational change" for the rail industry.
"While there are daunting technical and regulatory challenges still to be faced, the pilot project is an important first step that will allow BNSF to evaluate the technical and economic viability of liquefied natural gas in through-freight service, potentially reducing fuel costs and greenhouse gas emissions, thereby providing environmental and energy security benefits to our nation," Rose said in a statement posted on the company's website.
Rose's statement did not say where the tests will take place.
In San Bernardino, diesel emissions around the San Bernardino rail yard have been an issue for several years. The California Air Resources Board reported in 2008 that such pollution around the yard creates elevated cancer risks.
Regulators and BNSF, as well as Union Pacific, developed pollution-reduction plans for the San Bernardino and other California rail yards.
In the case of the San Bernardino yard, lower-emission engines, a $9million gate system for trucks entering the yard and other measures have reduced pollution 53percent
The Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice, an Inland Empire activist group and a frequent critic of BNSF, has installed air filtration systems at three schools near the San Bernardino yard.
"Since we know it's going to take time to reduce pollution around the rail yard, we're looking to reduce the exposure," said Penny Newman, the group's executive director.
Newman also said she doesn't trust reports that emissions from the San Bernardino yard have been cut by more than half since 2005.
That report is based on estimates, not measured observations, she said.
Kent said it's not fair to doubt estimates of improved air quality when the study that pointed to health dangers at the yard also relied on estimates.
"You can't pick and choose which ones you're going to use and not use," Kent said. | <urn:uuid:80ab1ee9-fa41-40ef-8471-354f3c14a244> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sbsun.com/california/ci_22731206/bnsf-railway-test-alternative-fuels | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967964 | 453 | 2.171875 | 2 |
A gripping and graphic story of murder!
Set against the sweeping backdrop of World War II, Rain Falls Like Mercy is a gripping depiction of a family and a country touched by the grand violence of war, the senseless violence of crime, and the intimate violence of the heart.
IN THE TRADITION OF TRUE CRIME narratives such as In Cold Blood, acclaimed author Jack Todd’s new novel grips the reader from the first page; and as it spans continents and generations of one family, its taut and shocking undercurrent of violence builds to a stunning crescendo. Todd’s first novel, Sun Going Down, which introduced the Paint family, won praise from reviewers and major authors such as Michael Korda and Michael Blake. His second novel, Come Again No More, recounted the Paints’ saga of triumph and tragedy through the Great Depression, inspiring the Ottawa Citizen to label Todd “a first-rate novelist with a tender heart.”
Rain Falls Like Mercy opens with the murder investigation of a young girl in Wyoming in mid- 1941. Tom Call, the young sheriff running the investigation, falls in love with Juanita, the wife of Eli Paint, whose son Leo and grandson Bobby Watson are on duty with the U.S. Navy. Almost overnight, the case is derailed by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, disrupting the lives of all involved. Bobby mans an antiaircraft gun during the attack. Tom joins the U.S. Air Force and is deployed to England to fly bombers, still trying to pursue his murder investigation. His suspicion falls on Pardo Bury, the psychotic son of a wealthy rancher in Wyoming.
As Pardo and Tom make their ways to their inevitable and shattering confrontation, Rain Falls Like Mercy displays Todd’s uncanny ability to zero in on his characters’ emotional lives while simultaneously painting a sweeping picture of the historical events that shape their destinies.
Rain Falls Like Mercy is the third edition in Jack Todd’s trilogy about the Paint family. You do not necessarily need to read the first two in order to enjoy this third book, but I suspect you will wish to do so after you read this one.
This story takes place in 1941 during World War II in a small Wyoming town where the murder investigation of a slain teen girl is underway.
The town sheriff, Tom Call, must forego his investigation when Pearl Harbour is bombed and he soon finds himself in the U.S. Air Force flying dangerous missions in England. Yet he still tries to unravel the circumstances of the murder investigation that awaits him at home and his sole suspect, Pardo Bury, the son of a very affluent and powerful businessman.
While Tom Call is embroiled in the war in England, Pardo Bury waits out his time a Texas jail for slicing a prostitute. The moment he is released, sets out on a new spree of violence, victimizing both men and women.
Part Western, part World War II, the story unfolds with intensity as Jack Todd holds nothing back in his graphic descriptions, strong language, and twisting plot. The reader embarks on a journey from the U.S. to England, Japan to Germany, and then back to the U.S., keeping us enthralled throughout. | <urn:uuid:4007d9ac-4569-4418-99b0-de8c9ddb80a1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://historicalnovelreview.blogspot.com/2011/12/rain-falls-like-mercy-by-jack-todd.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94495 | 667 | 1.890625 | 2 |
Nonnative Oysters in the Chesapeake Bay (2004)Ocean Studies Board
Each report is produced by a committee of experts selected by the Academy to address a particular statement of task and is subject to a rigorous, independent peer review; while the reports represent views of the committee, they also are endorsed by the Academy. Learn more on our expert consensus reports.
The native oyster species of the Chesapeake Bay has been depleted to less than one percent of its original population. As a result, the Chesapeake Bay states are looking for ways to revive the oyster industry. This report discusses the proposed plan to offset the dramatic decline of the Chesapeake Bay's native oysters by introducing disease-resistant, reproductive Suminoe oysters from Asia. It is recommended that the introduction be delayed until more is known about the environmental risks, even though carefully regulated cultivation of sterile Asian oysters in contained areas could help the local industry and researchers. It is also noted that even though oysters also consume some of the excess algae caused by pollution, it could take decades before there are enough of them to improve water quality.
- Although Option 1 is reversible in the sense that nonnative oysters could still be introduced at some time in the future, this option includes the risk of continued losses to the oyster industry and erosion of confidence in government action. One possible response to the latter is increased risk of a rogue introduction and the especially high hazards associated with unintentional cointroductions of disease organisms or nuisance species.
- Because of the lack of information on the biology and ecology of the Suminoe oyster, there is a high degree of uncertainty about the outcome of an introduction.
- If regulators enforce strict protocols for accountability and require collection of the biological, economic, and social information necessary to evaluate the risks and benefits of culturing or introducing the nonnative oyster, this management option could provide useful information to support decision analyses and risk assessments regarding the future use of nonnative oysters in the Chesapeake Bay.
- It is impossible, given the present state of knowledge, to predict whether the Suminoe oyster will be a boon or an ecological disaster in this sense.
- On the basis of existing information about oysters in general and the Suminoe oyster in particular, Option 3 direct introduction of reproductive Suminoe oysters would likely have a moderate to high chance of increasing the abundance of oysters in the Chesapeake Bay, particularly if it was done as a massive introduction, much as the Pacific oyster was introduced into France. To the extent that the introduction was successful, this action might reduce the likelihood of a rogue introduction.
- Option 1 no use of nonnative oysters is unlikely to result in significant changes in oyster abundance in the bay in the near term. This outcome has moderate uncertainty, owing to external events or actions that might favor the recovery of native oyster populations (e.g., favorable climate change or success in restoration efforts employing selectively bred, disease-resistant stocks).
- Option 2 has already received considerable scrutiny by the Chesapeake Bay Program and its member states and federal agencies. Limited field trials with triploid nonnative oysters have already been conducted in Virginia and outside the bay in North Carolina's coastal waters, and larger trials are in the advanced planning stages in both states. To a limited extent, the decision to introduce triploid Suminoe oysters has already been made.
- Option 2 sterile triploid aquaculture carried out with strict accountability and best management practices to minimize the risk of diploid escape would probably have little impact on total oyster abundance because even expanded aquaculture operations are unlikely to produce a volume of oysters at the scale of the natural populations in the Bay. Uncertainty associated with this action would be low.
- Regulatory and enforcement measures should be taken to reduce the risk of a rogue introduction.
- The committee concluded that quantitative risk assessments could not be conducted based on existing data but found that differences in the types of risks associated with each option could be described.
- The committee's review of case studies clearly indicates that greater ecological or economic harm typically arises from organisms that are inadvertently introduced with the foreign oyster.
- The existing regulatory and institutional framework was found to be inadequate for monitoring or overseeing the interjurisdictional aspects of open-water aquaculture or direct introduction of C. ariakensis.
- The irreversibility of introducing a reproductive nonnative oyster and the high level of uncertainty with regard to potential ecological hazards make Option 3 an imprudent course of action.
- The risks of proceeding with triploid aquaculture in a responsible manner, using best management practices, are low relative to some of the risks posed under the other management options. | <urn:uuid:73c5bf42-75d1-47db-9211-3be99fb128fe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dels.nas.edu/Report/Nonnative-Oysters-Chesapeake/10796 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939079 | 973 | 3.328125 | 3 |
DESPITE a very public US ban on selling arms to the RUC at the start of the 1980s, the force was secretly continuing to receive American-made weapons, confidential files reveal.
Not only was Northern Ireland’s police force able to evade the weapons ban imposed at the behest of Irish-American politicians, but it managed to acquire spying equipment so sensitive that it would have caused acute difficulties for President Ronald Reagan had the imports been made public.
Files released in Belfast under the 30-year-rule reveal that as well as Ruger weapons the RUC was supplied with surveillance apparatus “arguably more sensitive than guns”.
It is not entirely clear from the documents whether the US Government was aware of the shipments and tacitly approved of them or whether the UK was surreptitiously importing the weapons and kept American officials in the dark about the issue.
However, one former senior RUC officer told the News Letter that he believed the Reagan Administration was aware of the shipments but had “turned a blind eye to the issue” because of the US’s relationship with the UK.
The weapons ban had been introduced by Congress after allegations of sectarianism in the RUC.
However, a confidential 1981 memorandum to the Secretary of State released under the 30-year rule reveals that a ban orchestrated by Irish America because of allegations of sectarianism against the RUC was side-stepped to ensure that the arms requested by the Chief Constable were obtained.
The memo, prepared as officials decided how they would answer a written Parliamentary question from the UUP MP Willie Ross about the issue, said that the RUC had placed three orders for a total of 9,000 Ruger revolvers but that the Chief Constable subsequently decided that 6,000 would be sufficient.
The first order of 3,000 was delivered in mid-1979. But in July of that year the US government suspended export licences for arms for the RUC “pending a review of policy”.
By March 1981 the review had not yet been completed, leading to mounting anger among unionists in Northern Ireland and some mainland MPs as the police came under attack from the IRA.
In Parliament, one Tory MP raised the “irony” of the US government selling the Trident nuclear missile system to the UK but refusing to allow a UK police force to buy revolvers.
However, unknown publicly at the time, the force was continuing to receive the US-made weapons it had ordered from third-party suppliers, while the debate about the US arms embargo raged.
The memo to the secretary of state added: “In fact, despite the ban the RUC have continued to receive small supplies of Rugers from the UK agents with whom the contract was placed, and now await delivery of only 735 of these weapons.
“However, we have carefully avoided publishing information about arms supply in any detail because we are conscious that if it became known that the RUC is receiving arms and ammunition from the US including Rugers [underlined], despite the ban, attempts might be made in Congress to stop these supplies which the Reagan Administration might not be willing or able to counter.”
Another confidential March 1981 document reveals that during that financial year the RUC had received from the US — all via UK suppliers – 2,235 Ruger revolvers, 130 Smith and Weston pistols and more than 1.3 million rounds of various ammunition.
Another file reveals that to answer a Parliamentary question from MP John Farr would be “potentially embarrassing”, and not just because of the secret supply of US guns to the RUC.
The document said that to answer the question for a list of “arms and ammunition and other devices” supplied to the RUC from the US would “also reveal that they [the RUC] have received some US equipment for surveillance work which is arguably more sensitive than guns”.
“If these various supplies were stopped in future or spares became unattainable there would be serious damage to the RUC’s operations.”
The document goes on to list “direction-finding equipment, digital speech security radios, high power hand portables, test equipment and video equipment — time lapse recorders” as items received from the US, though it is not clear if this is the sensitive surveillance equipment to which the document earlier refers.
Files released last year by Dublin’s Department of Foreign Affairs under the Republic of Ireland’s 30-year rule showed that in 1979 the then US president Jimmy Carter had urged the US Speaker, Tip O’Neill, to end the embargo on arms sales to the RUC after a request by Margaret Thatcher.
But Mr O’Neill, a massively influential Irish-American figure, refused, arguing that to do so could bolster support for the IRA from the US. | <urn:uuid:1ce3a77e-d42f-4e0d-aa76-5cfb4b317f5a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/regional/ruc-secretly-received-us-guns-and-spy-gear-1-3382386 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978423 | 1,001 | 1.875 | 2 |
Defenses – License to Use
A patent gives the patentee the exclusive right to make, use or sell that product for a specified period of time. The patent holder can also extend these rights to others through a written licensing agreement. This is usually done in exchange for royalty payments or other consideration. If a licensee makes, sells or uses a patented product with permission of the patentee, he or she is not guilty of infringement.
However, patent holders do not have free reign to make their licenses unduly restrictive. If they do, courts can find them guilty of “misuse” – or extending the patent beyond its lawful scope. If the patent holder is found guilty of misuse a court can find the license agreement, or at least portions of it, null and void.
A finding of misuse is based on a very fact-specific inquiry. Some examples of a finding of inappropriate patent license restrictions are noted. The list is not meant to be exhaustive or conclusive.
- Requiring that unpatented goods be purchased and used along with the patented goods or processes;
- Prohibiting the licensor from producing or selling competing goods;
- Conditioning the granting of one license upon the acceptance of another license;
- Extending the license beyond the patent’s expiration date;
- Making a royalty payment based on the licensees’ total sales rather than sale of the patented item, unless both parties agree to such an arrangement;
- Controlling the price of the patented product after resale, except when the licensee also makes and uses the product;
- Imposing territorial restrictions beyond the initial sale; and
- Imposing market channel restrictions beyond initial sale.
Discrimination in Licensing
Sometimes patentee plaintiffs are restricted from offering different royalty rates to different licensees. The law in this area is very complex and much depends on the relative market position of the patentee and the licenses. It is advisable to have an experienced intellectual property attorney involved to give input as negotiations proceed, and to review all licensing agreements before they are executed. | <urn:uuid:a72b9477-b843-4614-a164-2f5c237eb72b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ip-contingency-lawyer.com/about-ip/defenses/license-to-use.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924163 | 421 | 2.34375 | 2 |
Guest Post: The Real 2013 Cliff
Submitted by John Aziz of Azizonomics blog,
There’s a much bigger cliff than the so-called fiscal cliff. The absolute worst result of the fiscal cliff would be a moderate uniform tax increase at a bad time, resulting in a moderate contraction. It is an obvious - but ultimately rather cosmetic - stumbling block on the so-called “road to recovery”.
The much bigger cliff stems from the fact that the so-called recovery itself is build on nothing but sand. This is a result of underlying systemic fragilities that have never been allowed to break. I have spent the last year and a half writing about this graph — the total debt in the economy as a proportion of the economy’s output:
This is the bubble that won’t go away. This is the zombified mess that the Federal Reserve won’t let dissolve (as happened regularly in the 19th century and early 20th century each time there was an unsustainable debt bubble). This is the shifting sand — preserved by the massive monetary stimulus programs — that the so-called recovery is built upon. During the 1980s and 1990s and 2000s cheap money pumped up the debt level in America. In 2008, the bubble burst, and the hyper-connective fragile financial system was set to burn. Then central banks around the world stepped in to “stabilise” (or as Nassim Taleb puts it, overstabilise) the financial system. The unsustainable reality of debt vastly exceeding income was put on life support.
A high pre-existing residual debt level makes growth challenging, as consumers and producers remain focussed on paying down the pre-existing debt load, they are drained by pre-existing debt service costs, and they are wary about taking on debt or investing in a weak and depressed environment. It’s a classic Catch-22. The only true panacea for the depression is growth, but the economy cannot grow because it is depressed and zombified. That’s where a crash comes in — the junk is liquidated, and clearing the field for new growth. That is what Schumpeter meant when he talked of “the work of depressions”, something that many mainstream economists still fail to grasp. (In fairness, a similar effect can probably be achieved without a depression through a very large scale debt relief program.)
Japan has been stuck in a deleveraging trap for twenty years, to no avail, all that has really occurred is that the private debt load has been transferred onto the central bank balance sheet — there has been very little net deleveraging) and while the Japanese central bank has completed round after round of quantitative easing — sustaining and preserving the past malinvestment and high debt load — the Japanese economy is still depressed.
That is the road America and most of the West are now on. And just as Japan’s bank stocks did multiple times even after the Japanese housing bubble burst, American banking stocks — even in spite of a year of fraud, abuse, mismanagement and uber-fragility — have been shooting up, up, up and away:
The zombie financial sector is the real cliff — as interconnective as ever, as corrupt as ever, and most importantly, nearly as leveraged as ever:
This is a reinflated bubble built on foundations sand. I don’t know which straw will break the illusion (middle eastern war? Hostility between China and Japan? Chinese real estate and subprime meltdown? Student debt? Eurozone? Natural disasters? Who knows…) but this bubble poses a far greater threat in 2013 than the fiscal shenanigans and the Boehner-Obama “Boner-Droner” snoozefest. | <urn:uuid:77777057-bf38-4dba-b628-b05521e5c485> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-12-31/guest-post-real-2013-cliff | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959957 | 778 | 2.125 | 2 |
Fun Classroom Activities
The 20 enjoyable, interactive classroom activities that are included will help your students understand the text in amusing ways. Fun Classroom Activities include group projects, games, critical thinking activities, brainstorming sessions, writing poems, drawing or sketching, and more that will allow your students to interact with each other, be creative, and ultimately grasp key concepts from the text by "doing" rather than simply studying.
1. A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words, Part One.
Create a conceptual drawing of Alicia.
2. Extra, Extra!
Write a tabloid style article in which Malcolm's infidelity is exposed.
3. If I Had a Billion Dollars...
If you had a billion dollars, how would you spend it? What would you do? Where would you go? What would you buy and why?
4. A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words, Part Two
Create a picture or concept of what any of the...
This section contains 518 words|
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) | <urn:uuid:561bcae7-4bea-4500-a2d2-f8b9a9e0e550> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bookrags.com/lessonplan/garden-of-shadows-dollanganger/funactivities.html | 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 | 0.945441 | 216 | 3.8125 | 4 |
Warner Bros. has declined to move forward with “The Imitation Game,” a World War II drama about legendary British cryptographer Alan Turing, a company spokeswoman told TheWrap on Friday.
The studio paid seven figures for Graham Moore’s spec script last fall, winning a feverish bidding war. However, this week it let its option expire, not wishing to commit further to the project.
The script, based on Andrew Hodges’ biography, “Alan Turing: The Enigma,” landed at the top of last year’s Black List. The film’s title refers to a game Turing created to test a machine’s ability to mimic human behavior.
J. Blakeson is still set to direct the project, which Nora Grossman and Ido Ostrowsky are producing.
There have been reports that Leonardo DiCaprio, a Warner Bros. favorite, would star as Turing, a man revered for breaking German codes but later persecuted for his homosexuality. However, DiCaprio has never actually committed.
CAA represents both Blakeson and Moore, meaning it will fall to the agency to sell the project elsewhere. | <urn:uuid:f54ca49c-cf3d-4f43-8ae7-eee58b19fb76> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thewrap.com/deal-central/column-post/warner-bros-passes-along-alan-turing-biopic-52586 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946041 | 244 | 1.5 | 2 |
Black History Month at the Brooklyn Collection
In observance of Black History Month, Brooklyn Public Library has created several webpages exploring different aspects of Black history in America. In tandem with that project, we've pulled together several of the Brooklyn Collections resources on the same subjects -- the Emancipation Proclamation, the Civil Rights struggle, and family legacies.
Slavery was abolished in New York state in 1827, making it a relative haven for runaways fleeing bondage in the southern states. Abolitionists like the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher and the congregants of his Plymouth Church raised money to free slaves through "auctions" that mimicked the cruel conditions under which human lives were traded for money. The church itself was a stop on the Underground Railroad.
At right is an article published in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle on February 6, 1860 describing a slave auction at Plymouth Church. Below is a portrait of Sally Marie Diggs, more famously known as "Pinky", who was freed by the Plymouth Church in 1860 (click here to read the bill of sale). For more information on abolitionist activity in Brooklyn in the years leading up to 1863's Emancipation Proclamation, visit our Brooklyn in the Civil War website.
Living and Working in Brooklyn
Throughout the mid-18th century, especially after the end of the Civil War, Black populations moved to the industrial centers of the North, and Brooklyn was no exception to this trend. City directory listings give us a unique statistical insight into what life was like for them here. Directory listings from 1863 show us what kinds of jobs Black Brooklynites held, and also show where Black populations settled. Church records from the A.M.E. Zion Church provide illumination into the religious and cultural life of Black residents establishing their own communities within the larger urban society.
This Google map plots addresses of Black Brooklyn citizens from the 1863 city directory.
View African American Brooklyn 1863-64 in a larger map
Read more about Brooklyn's Black populations during this period on our blog:
- A Black Church in Williamsburg
- What's in a Name?
- What's in a Name Part 2: Looking for a Community
- And They're Off! Part 2: the First Baptist Church of Sheepshead Bay
Civil Rights in Brooklyn
The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) is a national civil rights organization that played a pivotal role in securing rights for African Americans in the 20th century. Their Brooklyn chapter was especially active, organizing sit-ins, boycotts and demonstrations to demand equal treatment in schools, housing, and employment. Several members of Brooklyn CORE walked 237 miles for the historic March on Washington in 1963.
One of their more audacious plans was a "stall-in", during which hundreds of members' cars would strategically break down on roadways leading to the 1964 World's Fair grounds in Flushing Meadows, Queens, bringing the fair to a grinding halt. Although the controversial stall-in idea was largely abandoned after strong opposition from city officials and the National CORE office, many of Brooklyn CORE's actions were effective in raising awareness of persistent inequalities in New York City. One such was Brooklyn CORE's boycott and picketing campaign against unfair hiring practices of Ebinger's Bakery (pictured at right). As a direct result of CORE's efforts, African American and Puerto Rican workers were hired on as saleswomen at the bakeries. Our Civil Rights in Brooklyn Collection and Oral History contains much more information on Brooklyn CORE and other civil rights organizations in the borough, as well as interviews with original members.
Later in the 1960s, activists in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood began publishing a newsletter devoted to documenting injustices against African Americans and mobilizing readers to do take action. It's motto was "Agitate. Educate. Organize.", which it did through articles on topics ranging from police brutality to sickle cell anemia.
The Generation Preservation Project was created by librarian Philip Bond at BPL's Macon Branch in 2009. Working with photographer Niqui Carter, Bond invited neighborhood families into the library to sit for group portraits. The project celebrates the multiple generations of family in this community by providing the space and opportunity to capture a wonderful moment in time and preserve it for future generations to see. See a digital slideshow and learn more about the project here.
The Brooklyn Collection has a wide array of resources touching on Black history in our borough. Here are a few that can be accessed online; you can use our full range of resources by visiting the Brooklyn Collection in person.
- Black Brooklyn Renaissance Digital Collection finding aid
- Brooklyn in the Civil War Website
- Civil Rights in Brooklyn finding aid
- Civil Rights in Brooklyn Oral History finding aid
- Brooklyn Life: African Americans Historic Photo Gallery
- Digital Photography Slideshow: Jamel Shabazz's Prospect Park -- an Oasis in Brooklyn | <urn:uuid:8dcbb56f-e71c-41d5-a7fa-08146a5b45e5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bklynpubliclibrary.org/brooklyn-collection/black-history-month-brooklyn-collection | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944555 | 996 | 3.859375 | 4 |
The Occupy Wall Street movement has found legs. No less a person than Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, seems to be at least a bit on the side of the protesters, and labor unions are joining the demonstrations.
When asked during a hearing of the Joint Economic Committee on Wednesday what the protests “said” to him, Bernanke replied that people were “quite unhappy” with the state of the economy. In a C-SPAN video posted online by ThinkProgress, Bernanke said, “They blame, with some justification, the problems in the financial sector for getting us into this mess, and they’re dissatisfied with the policy response here in Washington. And at some level, I can’t blame them.”
When asked if he was taking the protests into account in how he addressed the country’s economic problems, he said he was taking into account the conditions the protesters objected to, not the protests themselves.
Meanwhile, unions are getting behind the nascent movement. The New York Times reported Thursday that union leaders have thrown their support to the protests, which address a number of issues that labor demonstrations have tried but failed to bring more before the public eye. According to the report, one AFL-CIO leader said that leaders have been hearing from members who wonder why organized labor has not been present at the demonstrations.
At a Wednesday march, unions were there in force: the Transport Workers Union, the Service Employees International Union, the United Federation of Teachers and the United Auto Workers all participated.
Occupy Wall Street demonstrators said that unions were welcome as another means of support for the protests. Michael Kazin, a historian at Georgetown University, was quoted saying, “Labor’s needed a way to excite younger people with their message. And to the extent that Occupy Wall Street’s ‘99% versus 1%’ theme goes along with what labor has been saying for a while, it’s a natural fit.” he said.
Kazin, who has written on populist and progressive movements, added, “The protests haven’t gotten much institutional presence, and if labor can help give them institutional presence, that can really help them.” | <urn:uuid:65d4ea9b-4ac4-4f29-a0df-a9e857d98649> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.advisorone.com/2011/10/06/bernanke-on-occupy-wall-street-protesters-cant-bla | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971735 | 461 | 1.523438 | 2 |
But, a Virginia doctor created the first automated ultrasound -- making it a simple one-shot process.
The program makes it simple for a doctor or ultrasound technician to get six vital views of a baby's heart from one simple 3-d picture.
Heart defects are the number one cause of death during the first year of life and often go undiagnosed.
"Most babies that are born with congenital heart disease are born to mothers without risk factors," says OB-GYN Dr. Alfred Abuhamad.
GE Healthcare has licensed the software for use in its 3-d and 4-d ultrasound systems.
It should be available to obstetricians within a year. | <urn:uuid:0a4de711-ee11-4f31-a992-71b71999204e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://arkansasmatters.com/fulltext?nxd_id=63838 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95201 | 140 | 2.578125 | 3 |
BioBob Menendez knows the struggles and the hopes of middle class New Jersey families because that’s where he comes from- and that’s who he still is today.
Born in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty, Bob grew up the son of immigrants - a seamstress and a carpenter - in a tenement building in Union City, New Jersey. Through hard work and sacrifice, Bob became the first in his family to go to college.
He entered public service as a 19-year old college student when Bob launched a successful petition drive to reform his local school board. That same commitment led him to take on his hometown’s powerful mayor when Bob saw him abusing the office for personal gain.
Bob stood up to the corrupt political establishment and led a coalition of reformers who cleaned up Union City. He took on the mayor and testified against him in court even though it meant wearing a bulletproof vest after being threatened.
•Bob was sworn into the U.S. Senate on January 18, 2006. Today, Senator Menendez serves on the U.S. Senate Committees on Finance; Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs; and Foreign Relations. Bob is also the Chairman of the Banking Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation and Community Development; and the Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps, and Global Narcotics Affairs.
•Senator Menendez led the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, preserving a Democratic majority in the last election despite the most difficult political environment for Democrats in a generation.
•Bob earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from St. Peter's College in Jersey City and his law degree from Rutgers University. He currently lives in North Bergen and has two great adult children, Alicia and Robert.
Bob Menendez was elected Mayor of his hometown, and went on to serve as a state legislator and in the United States House of Representatives.
Today, in the United States Senate, Bob Menendez is fighting back to improve life for New Jersey’s middle class and tackling the struggles they face everyday.
That’s why Bob helped increase financial aid to make a college education more affordable, he’s fighting to end tax loopholes that reward companies for shipping jobs overseas and supported stimulus programs that created tens of thousands of New Jersey jobs.
To fight back against the abuses of insurance companies and big banks, Bob voted for common-sense reforms that keep insurance companies from denying patients care because of pre-existing conditions, stop credit card companies from misleading customers, and prohibit those companies from charging excessive rate hikes.
At a time when the American Dream seems threatened, Bob Menendez’s life and record are reminders of the promise and potential our nation holds for those who work hard. He and his family overcame the challenges of making it into the middle class, an experience that shaped his values and serves as the motivation behind his tireless work to fight back for hard working families all across New Jersey. | <urn:uuid:fe4a345d-8e81-4613-aad9-677a4e8d0978> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ciclt.net/sn/pol/po_detail.aspx?P_ID=&ClientCode=masc&MemID=30001 | 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 | 0.970215 | 596 | 1.554688 | 2 |
CA Mortgage Overview
Keep Your Home California
Keep Your Home California is a federally funded program to help California homeowners struggling to pay their mortgages.
No other state in the union has seen the volume of home foreclosures that we have seen in the Golden State. Cities, like Riverside, Stockton and Vallejo, and entire regions, like the Central Valley and the Inland Empire, have been ravaged by the foreclosure crisis caused by risky lending. And while we have already lost half a million homes to foreclosure throughout California, the latest CRL research indicates that the crisis isn’t even halfway over.
But whether we are in times of comfort or times of crisis, CRL’s California office aims to protect the wallets and financial well-being of Californians. When it comes to mortgages and homeownership, that means everything from working to prevent unnecessary foreclosures to putting in place responsible lending practices. Another half-million homeowners in the Golden State are currently at risk of foreclosure. Policies that will help Californians maintain the dream of homeownership are as important as making sure that the path to homeownership remains clear.
- Community Foreclosure Mitigation Toolkit
- California's Foreclosure Process and Timelines - Frequently Asked Questions
- Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco: The Foreclosure Crisis in California | <urn:uuid:2b67165e-81c8-4a95-afdd-ef76df6eb7e3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.responsiblelending.org/california/ca-mortgage/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942787 | 268 | 1.890625 | 2 |
New Technique for Tissue Separation
Special Section Series Sponsored By Alcon
New Technique for Tissue Separation
Proportional reflux hydrodissection aids surgeon in traction retinal detachment procedures.
By Pravin U. Dugel, MD
Traction and traction/rhegmatogenous retinal detachments, particularly in patients with diabetes, are among the most challenging cases
vitreoretinal surgeons face. Newer surgical platforms and associated small-gauge instrumentation have improved the safety and efficiency with which we can perform the crucial maneuver of separating healthy retinal tissue from fibrous tissue for removal. I recently developed
a new technique for accomplishing this that takes advantage of a feature unique to the CONSTELLATION® Vision System (Alcon).
Leveraging Proportional Reflux
The technique relies on the CONSTELLATION® System's proportional reflux feature, so I call it “proportional reflux
hydrodissection.” Proportional reflux is a much more versatile tool than the pulse (or momentary) reflux that most
surgeons are familiar with. With pulse reflux, we can push a small bolus of fluid through the vitreous cutter port if we need to release tissue that has become incarcerated. With proportional reflux, however, still using the foot pedal, we can create as much fluid flow through the port as desired. Importantly, this takes place in a very controlled, graduated manner. Proportional reflux was designed to allow blood
and fluid to wash away from the retina and to clear the port, but it is also the key to the hydrodissection technique.
When I hydrodissect using proportional reflux, I place the vitrectomy probe port in between the normal retinal tissue and
the fibrous tissue, then infuse the right amount of fluid for the right amount of time to create a small space so I can remove
the fibrous tissue with the cutter. In my opinion, this is more efficient than using viscoelastic for separation or moving in and out of the eye with additional instruments.
Supporting Cast of Tools
I perform all of my surgeries with 25+™ instrumentation (Alcon). In my experience, these instruments help to maximize the stability of the surgical platform's fluidics more so than larger instruments. They are sufficiently rigid, and the size of the internal lumen and port opening for the vitrectomy probe are larger than they are for other 25-gauge instruments. In addition, the port is much closer
to the tip of the probe than it is with larger instruments. This means we can place the tip right down to the surface of the retina without bumping it in order to get between healthy and fibrous tissue. It also means we do not have to create as large a separation as we would if we were using larger instruments.
The 25+™ probe allows us to use the least amount of flow possible to accomplish our goals. This gives us a smaller what I have termed “sphere of influence.” What this means essentially is that with lower flow, we can remove tissue more accurately. Picture a bunch of M&Ms strewn on a table. Let's say only the red M&Ms represent fibrous tissue, and we only want to remove those. If we try to do it with a powerful vacuum cleaner, it won't work very well because the other M&Ms will also be picked up, which is analogous to inadvertently incarcerating healthy retinal tissue in the probe tip. However, if we use a straw instead, which has lower flow, we can more accurately remove only the M&Ms we choose. During retinal surgery, more accurate and selective tissue removal translates to safer tissue removal.
Figure 1. In many traction and traction/rhegmatogenous retinal detachment
cases, the new technique “proportional reflux hydrodissection”
can be used as the sole tissue separation maneuver. This approach
eliminates the need to use viscoelastic or to move in and out of the
eye with additional instruments.
Figure 2. The “proportional reflux hydrodissection” technique for separating
fibrous from healthy retinal tissue is made possible by several characteristics
of the CONSTELLATION® Vision System: the advanced proportional reflux
feature, the 25+™ vitrectomy probe and the ultra high cutting speed.
Along with the advanced proportional reflux feature and the smaller sphere of influence related to the 25+™ instrumentation, the CONSTELLATION® Vision System's
ultra high cutting speed is an advantage for proportional reflux hydrodissection. Using the probe to cut at 5,000 cpm, we can remove tissue without pulsatile traction,
which decreases our risk of retinal tears and tissue incarceration.1 All of these factors combined account for the success of the new technique. My colleagues and I have
conducted laboratory studies of these concepts, including the relationship between instrument gauge and tissue attraction, the results of which should be published soon.
Experience Allows Broader Application of Technique
When I first began using proportional reflux hydrodissection, I was applying it in 40-50% of my traction and traction/rhegmatogenous retinal detachment cases. As I
gained more experience, I was able to utilize it in more and more of these cases. Currently, I am completing nearly 80% of these procedures with proportional reflux hydrodissection as the sole tissue separation maneuver. When performing proportional reflux hydrodissection, it is important to remember that what goes into the port is also
what will be refluxed out. Therefore, to avoid reintroducing blood into the eye and clouding the view, it is best to aspirate clear fluid for a few seconds before initiating the reflux.
I attempt the technique now in every case. If I find it is not sufficient because of the severity of the patient's condition,I simply proceed how I would have without it, using
bimanual dissection and the necessary forceps, scissors or other instrumentation. I have been pleased with how I have been able to become more expert at using the technique
and how it improves each procedure without taking anything away. It requires very little extra time, and in terms of costs and resources, it is free.
View Dr. Dugel's proportional reflux hydrodissection online at www.visioncareprofessional.com/video/Proportional_Reflux_Hydrodissection.mov.
1. Rizzo S, et al. Comparative study of the standard 25-gauge vitrectomy system vs the new
ultra-high-speed vitrectomy system. Retina Today, September 2010.
CONSTELLATION® Vision System Indications for Use
The CONSTELLATION® Vision System is an ophthalmic microsurgical system that is indicated for both anterior segment (i.e., phacoemulsification and removal of cataracts)
and posterior segment (i.e., vitreoretinal) ophthalmic surgery.
Caution: Federal (USA) law restricts this device to sale by, or on the order of, a physician.
Warnings and Precautions:
• The disposables used in conjunction with Alcon instrument products constitute a complete surgical system. Use of disposables and handpieces other than those manufactured by Alcon may affect system performance and create potential hazards.
• Attach only Alcon supplied consumables to console and cassette luer fittings. Do not connect consumables to the patient's intravenous connections.
• Mismatch of consumable components and use of settings not specifically adjusted for a particular combination of consumable components may create a patient hazard.
• Vitreous traction has been known to create retinal tears and retinal detachments.
• The closed loop system of the CONSTELLATION® Vision System that adjusts IOP cannot replace the standard of care in judging IOP intraoperatively. If the surgeon believes that the IOP is not responding to the system settings and is dangerously high, this may represent a system failure. Note: To ensure proper IOP Compensation calibration, place
infusion tubing and infusion cannula on a sterile draped tray at mid-cassette level during the priming cycle.
• Leaking sclerotomy may lead to post operative hypotony.
• Important Safety Information: Warnings and Cautions: A complete listing is available in the CONSTELLATION® Vision System Operators Manual. To obtain a copy, please contact Alcon Customer Service.
Attention: Reference the Directions for Use for a complete
listing of indications, warnings, and precautions.
|Dr. Dugel is managing partner with Retinal Consultants of Arizona, Ltd., whose doctors serve patients in 26 communities throughout the state, and founder of
Spectra Eye Institute in Sun City. He is also a clinical associate professor at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine. Dr. Dugel is a consultant for Alcon Laboratories.|
Retinal Physician, Issue: October 2011 | <urn:uuid:bbb6c21e-2f4a-49bb-907e-bfb4ba2db964> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.retinalphysician.com/articleviewer.aspx?articleID=106244 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913843 | 1,898 | 1.890625 | 2 |
Canadian baby boomers are in denial about their health, according to the Heart and Stroke Foundation's annual report released Monday.
While almost 80 per cent of baby boomers said they would get a healthy rating from their doctors, 85 per cent said they were not eating enough vegetables and fruit and more than 40 per cent said they weren't getting enough exercise.
The online November poll of 800 baby boomers revealed they had other risk factors: about 30 per cent said they were often or always stressed, 21 per cent said they smoked and 12 per cent were heavy drinkers.
"When it comes to themselves ... sometimes people over-estimate what they're doing actually for the benefit of their own health," said Dr. Rober t Hegele, a cholesterol specialist and a University of Western Ontario professor of medicine.
"They maybe perceive themselves to be healthier than they really are."
People are living longer but their quality of life may not be good if they don't make some changes now, Hegele said.
"If a person say is left with a heart attack or a stroke and they are disabled, so then they live the last 10 years of their life with something that could have been prevented," he said. "So really this is just a wakeup call."
Hegele conducts genetic research for the foundation. But unlike genetic factors, lifestyle choices such as exercising can be changed. Many of the baby boomers in the survey didn't realize they could reduce their risk of heart disease and stroke by up to 80 per cent if they made healthier lifestyle choices.
Windsorite Andrea Grimes, 63, has lost 24 pounds in six months. She was always concerned with maintaining wellness but got to a point where she was ready to make some changes and had a workable plan.
She cut back on carbs and began to walk and cycle more. She's happy to have a waistline and feels better.
Unlike the heart and stroke poll, she said she thinks people know when they are not making healthy choices but they are busy or just not ready. She said scare tactics don't work.
"Do it not out of fear that maybe there's heart issues in the family or diabetes or emphysema, do it at a pace that it becomes a natural part of your life, like brushing your teeth," Grimes said. "Make subtle changes that work for you because that way you're not so disappointed."
Tom Porter, a Windsor lawyer who owns the Windsor Squash and Fitness Club, grew up interested in an active lifestyle but he said many people do not see exercise as part of their lives.
We tend to look for the quick fix, he said.
Porter used to keep fit by playing squash but at 59 he said it is tougher to keep weight off and he has to incorporate more exercise into his routine.
"It's one thing to live longer and I think generally people are living longer today but the other thing is your quality of life," Porter said. | <urn:uuid:4fdfcfff-dc90-4b7f-8aa1-3ab0976b2652> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.windsorstar.com/Boomers+denial+over+health/7918389/story.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985852 | 609 | 2.265625 | 2 |
Tillikum: the slave whale who chose to fight back
Orca whales 'in the wild' do not attack humans. But in aquariums, it is more common than we think
CALL HIM, just for now, Spartacus. He was two years when the slavers captured him in 1982 and hauled him off to the little town of Victoria, on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, in the far Canadian west. And there he met his fellow slaves, Nootka and Haida. Day after day in slave school they learned their tricks. Day after day, they did their act for the paying customers. And then, on February 20, 1991, in the tank operated by Sealand of the Pacific, the three struck back at their captors.
Okay, not Spartacus, but an orca whale - Tillikum, the one who drowned 40-year old Dawn Brancheau this week in the Shamu tank at SeaWorld, Orlando, after grabbing her by her pony-tail.
Tillikum was caught off Iceland. Nootka and Haida, both female, were seized in the Pacific. In fact Nootka was the third orca by that name to be bought by Sealand. The first two died within a year of their capture. At that time enslaved orcas had a life expectancy in captivity of anywhere from one to four years. These days they do a bit better. In wild waters, orcas live to be anywhere from 30 to 60.
By the time of the 1991 slave revolt Nootka III already had a couple of priors back in 1989 when she'd attacked trainers twice. Then on February 20, 1991, Keltie Byrne, a 20-year old marine biology student, champion swimmer and part-time trainer, slipped while she was riding on the head of one of the orcas. Tillikum, Nootka and Haida took turns in dragging her beyond reach of trainers trying to hook her out with long poles.
As Jason Hribal, author of the forthcoming Fear of the Animal Planet: The Hidden Story of Animal Resistance, reconstructed the episode on CounterPunch: "'The whale got her foot,' an audience member recalled, 'and pulled her in.' We do not know which orca it was that started it, but all three, Nootka, Haida, and Tillikum, took their turns dunking the screaming woman underwater.
"'She went up and down three times,' another visitor continued. The Sealand employees 'almost got her once with the hook pole, but they couldn't because the whales were moving so fast.' One trainer tossed out a floatation ring, but the whales would not let her grab it. In fact, the closer that such devices got to the young woman, the further out the whales pulled her into the pool. It took park officials two hours to recover her drowned body."
As is typical with theme parks in the business of exploiting animals, whether whales or elephants or some other captive breed, Sealand tried to pass off the disaster as a one-in-a-thousand mishap - sort of a bad-hair day for orcas.
The citizens of Victoria didn't see it that way. Many said the whales had understandably mutinied against their ghastly imprisonment and exploitation and should be freed. They started picketing Sealand. The company trotted out the usual story that captive orcas actually like being slaves, forced to work 365 days a year, and, if freed, would swiftly die.
What is meant here is that slave orcas are worth a lot of money up to a cool million each, which explains why Russia has now lifted its ban on orca trafficking.
There are actually quite detailed Canadian laws governing the export of wild creatures. Sealand, soon to go out of business, got the permits by saying the whales needed to be sent south to the US for "medical reasons". Sold to the SeaWorld empire, Tillikum was shipped off under cover of darkness to Orlando, Florida. Nootka followed, and died there in 1994 at the age of 13. Haida and her calf Ky ended up in SeaWorld, San Antonio. Haida died in 2001, but imparted the spirit of rebellion to Ky, who nearly killed his trainer in 2004.
SeaWorld got its start in the mid-1960s, founded by four UCLA grads planning to run an underwater restaurant and marine life exhibit. After various ups and downs, in the late 1980s the three SeaWorlds passed into the hands of the vast brewing conglomerate Annheuser-Busch which pumped millions into upgrades, finally selling the theme parks to the Blackstone Group for $2.7 billion in 2009.
So there's a lot riding on the slave orcas toiling away (according to a SeaWorld official, giving as many as eight performance per a day, 365 days a year) as the star attractions in each of the Shamu stadiums.
Tillikum's asset value is enhanced by his duties as a sperm donor. He's a breeding "stud" often kept in solitary, away from the other orcas. One of his long-distance partners was Kasatka, at the San Diego slave facility. Kasatka was also captured off Iceland at the age of two, in 1978, and bought by SeaWorld, and has seen service for the company in Ohio, Texas, Florida and California, making three efforts in San Diego to kill her trainer, in 1993, 1999 and 2006.
Her official SeaWorld bio refers chastely to the 1999 episode as "an incident" where she got "a bit aggressive", whereupon according to SeaWorld's press release - she was sent "for some additional training and behavior modification".
As Jason Hribal puts it, "In order to see the world from Kasatka's perspective, three facts need to be considered.
"First, there are no recorded incidences of orcas 'in the wild' attacking humans unprovoked. This is an institutional problem. Second, Kasatka and other performers have a long history of attacking trainers. Resistance in zoos and aquariums, in truth, is anything but unusual. Third, the zoological institutions themselves have to negotiate with their entertainers to extract labour and profit."
The animal performers have clout as negotiators, Hribal says, "and zoos have always (privately, at least) acknowledged this. Therefore, the next time you hear about an orca attack, don't dismiss it from above: 'Animals will be animals.' But instead, look from below: 'These creatures resist work, and can occasionally land a counterpunch or two of their own.'"
All the SeaWorld shows should be shut down, as should all kindred exhibits. If it's judged by an independent panel that the artificially bred orcas simply couldn't hack it in the wild blue yonder, let them laze around in their pools and toss them an occasional corporate executive, perhaps starting with slave-owner Pete Peterson, co-founder of Blackstone, a public pest who richly deserves an orca jaw clamped on his ankle.
For those who think the references to slavery are excessive, remember the words of Frederick Douglass, quoted by Hribal. Douglass often made direct comparisons between the treatment and use of other animals and that of himself. "When purchased, my old master probably thought as little of my advent, as he would have thought of the addition of a single pig to his stock! Like a wild young working animal, I am to be broken to the yoke of a bitter and life-long bondage. Indeed, I now saw, in my situation, several points of similarity with that of the oxen. They were property, so was I; they were to be broken, so was I; Covey was to break me, I was to break them; break and be broken - such is life."
Maybe, in the wake of Tillikum's lethal onslaught on poor Dawn Brancheau, lover of orcas, in Orlando this week, they taped his whale talk to his seven fellow prisoners. Maybe one day they'll decode them. I doubt there was contrition. He was probably pointing out that although the act of rebellion was entirely justified, the aesthetics of orca exploitation by humans were such that he'd actually upped his remaining profit potential - he's 30 now - for Blackstone.
As one entertainment consultant pointed out, attendance will probably go up for Shamu shows. Orcas after all are "killer whales" and the public needs to be reminded of this once in a while.
Jason Hribal's 'Fear of the Animal Planet: The Hidden Story of Animal Resistance' will be published by CounterPunch Books/AK Press this autumn. ·
Comments are now closed on this article | <urn:uuid:9df58b66-c216-48ff-a4dd-bace0239a093> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theweek.co.uk/law/animal-rights/16349/tillikum-slave-whale-who-chose-fight-back | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977775 | 1,817 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Résumé Mistakes That Can Cost You an Interview
By Haley Maple and Joel Ewusiak
Your ability to land an interview depends upon your ability to sell yourself through your résumé. Most likely, you have received some form of résumé writing training through your undergraduate or law school career services office. You know to use action words to demonstrate your skills and to provide standard education and experience information.
If your résumé contains minor typographical errors or other mistakes and reflects errors in your personal judgment, however, it is likely to end up in the “circular file.” This is especially true in today’s economy where the competition is stiff.
Even if your résumé appears to be “perfect,” you could damage your chances of landing an interview if you fail to account for special considerations when posting your résumé online and e-mailing it to potential employers.
Below is list of “don’ts” that will help you avoid costly résumé mistakes.
General résumé “don’ts”
- Don’t have any typos. This may seem obvious, but typographical errors in résumés are often cited as potential employers’ top pet peeve. Some interviewers will not interview a candidate who submits a résumé containing typographical errors. You may be a good writer and proofreader, but you can easily miss simple mistakes even after you draft, edit, and review your résumé multiple times. After you have finalized your résumé, step away from it for a day or two and look at it with fresh eyes. Always have at least one other person review it for typographical errors. Common mistakes include the misuse of “memoranda” versus “memorandum” and mismatched verb tense.
- Don’t make the font too small. Do not use a tiny font size to cram in as much information as possible that would cause your reader to use a magnifying glass to read your résumé. Instead, edit sharply. Include only relevant work and educational experience. Be as brief as possible, and do not use any font size smaller than 10 point. Consider moving your name and contact information to the header area of your résumé to free up space in the body.
- Don’t list your high school education. Prospective employers do not care where you went to high school. Including this information typically means that you have nothing better to add on your résumé and are simply filling white space. Replace high school history with more interesting information that is relevant to the person reviewing your résumé, including volunteer experience, language skills, bar affiliations, or more elaborate prior employment history descriptions. If listing your high school information is to demonstrate your connection to the city where a firm is located, make that point in your cover letter or through your address.
- Don’t exclude information that will cause an employer to question your résumé. If potential employers pause over noticeably excluded information in your résumé, they may jump to negative conclusions. For example, if you include your law school GPA, then include your undergraduate GPA. If your undergraduate GPA is something that you do not want to share, then you should not include your law school GPA. If you include one and not the other, potential employers may likely assume the worst about the excluded GPA.
- Don’t ruin your chances by listing an outdated address. New associates are a large investment, especially in today’s economy, and firms want to hire associates who will stay. Firms would prefer to avoid paying relocation expenses. If you are in transition, your résumé should reflect your current address and your expected future address (if you have one) near the firm. For example, if you are living in Washington, D.C., studying for the bar exam, and planning to move to Orlando, Florida, after taking the exam, then your résumé should list your current Washington, D.C., address and your Orlando address “as of September 1, 2010.” This is an honest way to let employers know that you plan on planting roots near the firm; do not lie about having a local address. You also can demonstrate your commitment to the town where a firm is located by publishing an article in a local bar association publication or becoming involved in the local community.
- Don’t undervalue your experience. Many new attorneys feel self-conscious about what they perceive as their lack of experience when applying for jobs. Don’t make this mistake. Instead, look more closely at your prior experiences. Even if you only have work experience in a few internships, these experiences likely are more relevant to a legal position than you realize. If your current legal experience is somewhat thin, try to work in some of the experience and skills that you’ve gained from volunteering for organizations, leading committees, or working in nonlegal related fields toward the top of your résumé. Emphasize writing and analytical skills that you’ve developed, demonstrate your ability to timely achieve goals while managing multiple tasks, and describe managerial and marketing experience. All of these skills translate to your first legal position.
- Don’t overstate your experience. Absolutely do not lie or stretch the truth on your résumé! It is simply wrong, and such actions could lead to a bar complaint. Additionally, the legal community is a small one, and potential employers might discover your mistruths through colleagues or a simple Internet search. Do not risk becoming stigmatized as a liar in the legal community where honesty is the most important commodity lawyers possess. Falsely increasing your GPA or lying on your résumé is simply not worth sacrificing your integrity and can haunt your entire career.
Online résumé “don’ts”
- Don’t allow your résumé to become stale. This “don’t” applies to any type of résumé, both in print and online. Often, professionals post their résumés on social networking sites or online job boards and never look at them again. If you do not regularly update your résumé, especially when it is posted online, you run the risk of potential employers coming across old or inconsistent information. Remember to update your online résumés when you acquire a new job skill or responsibility and when you are formally recognized for an accomplishment. You should update your résumés with new articles that you have authored, new professional or service memberships, new leadership positions, and awards.
- Don’t forget where you’ve posted your résumé. As there are many options available to online??? job seekers and online social networkers, it is hard to keep track of all the places in cyberspace that your résumé may be lurking. Keep track of your online résumés by creating list of which Web sites that you have posted them on and when.
- Don’t leave unwanted metadata available for discovery in your electronic résumé. Be sure that when you submit your résumé online or via e-mail that it is stripped of all metadata. Résumés are living documents, and potential employers should see the most current version and not one from years ago or one that shows an earlier draft errors.
- Don’t forget to tailor your online résumé to your target audience. Résumé banks or databases allow you to submit your résumé to a database that is typically used by large employers and career Web sites, such as Monster.com. As employers often search résumé banks using key terms, you should include job-specific keywords in your résumé.
- Consider posting your résumé on a personal Web page. Then you can provide potential employers with a direct link to your résumé online. You can display your résumé on your home page or include a link to a downloadable résumé. Be sure to keep the appearance and content of your Web page professional and attractive, and avoid unnecessary flash on your Web page. Do not include links to other Web sites on your résumé or your Web page as you cannot control whether links to external Web sites will always function properly or to what content they will lead.
- Don’t fail to follow instructions. Following this simple rule will save you from excluding yourself from the job pool because you did not submit your résumé in the proper format or with the proper information. Just as each position is different, each Web site is different and has different requirements for a submitting a résumé or applying for a job. Read all instructions, and alter your résumé accordingly before submitting it.
- Don’t assume that your résumé’s formatting will be preserved online. Résumés submitted online frequently contain formatting problems. To maintain the professional appearance of your résumé when submitting them online, consider composing a plain text version of your résumé without special characters and fonts. Prospective employers viewing your résumé might not know what causes formatting problems and could conclude that you are sloppy or careless.
- Don’t ignore the risks that come with posting your résumé online. Your address and phone number are probably on your résumé. Some job seekers also include their date of birth, driver’s license number, social security number, and taxpayer identification number. Consider eliminating this type of information from your online résumé because other persons might use this personal, identifying information to establish bank accounts and credit cards. You also might be placed on marketing or mailing lists. Also, you should not post your résumé online if you are not actively looking for a position. Your current employer could view your résumé and wonder whether you are unhappy with your current position and whether you are looking for another job while at work. This could jeopardize your current employment.
E-mailing résumé “don’ts”
- Don’t abandon formality in e-mails. All too often job seekers draft their e-mails as though they are sending an e-mail to their best friend instead of potential employers. Ensure that e-mails are properly drafted and have correct grammar and spelling. Make sure you use the appropriate salutation. Treat e-mails attaching your résumé just as you would traditional cover letters enclosing your résumé.
- Don’t say or do anything that you would not during an interview. Do not use e-mail as an opportunity to “show off” by pointing out typographical errors on firm Web sites or in job postings. It could offend and turn off potential employers. Be careful of the impression your e-mail could give. For example, do not send your e-mail at 3:00 a.m. or after a few glasses of wine. Potential employers will notice and may think that you are not taking the application process seriously and, in turn, will not take the position seriously.
- Don’t forget to use common courtesy when e-mailing your résumé. Whoever is receiving your e-mail is probably very busy. Make opening and reading e-mail as easy as possible to increase the odds that e-mail is read. Give your résumé an appropriate file name, and notify e-mail recipients of the attachment’s file format. Employers may not open the attachment if it appears in an unfamiliar file format or has an unusual name; they may assume such e-mail is spam or contains a virus. Subject lines of e-mail should state the position applied for, your name, and a description of the attachment, if any, unless employers have instructed otherwise.
Make no mistake: your résumé will be judged with scrutiny and researched thoroughly. Therefore, you are well served by taking your time in drafting your résumé, editing it sharply, keeping it current, and taking special care in distributing it via the Internet and e-mail. | <urn:uuid:1a5851fc-85ec-4651-9286-ce8e1bd61015> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.americanbar.org/publications/young_lawyer_home/young_lawyer_archive/yld_tyl_june10_resume.html | 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 | 0.902892 | 2,484 | 1.921875 | 2 |
John Adams Dix
Dix, John Adams, 1798–1879, American statesman, b. Boscawen, N.H. He served in the War of 1812, was later admitted to the bar, and practiced law in Cooperstown, N.Y. He held high state offices and served (1845–49) as Democratic U.S. senator from New York. In 1848 he ran for governor of New York on the Free-Soil ticket. President Buchanan appointed him secretary of the treasury in 1861, and in his two-month tenure of office, despite secession, he was able to secure loans. He was a major general in the Civil War and later (1866–69) minister to France. Dix was prominent in railroad affairs and became (1863) president of the Union Pacific, with T. C. Durant as vice president, and he was the long-time president of the Erie RR. Dix served as Republican governor of New York in 1873–74.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
More on John Adams Dix from Fact Monster:
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A hoo-ha ('hü-"hä
) is a noun meaning a “chortle or laugh: got a good hoo-ha out of that story” It can also be,”A fuss; a disturbance: “the subject of this last hoo-hah” (William Safire
This hyphenated phrase for a surprised exclamation or uproar may have come from a similar word brouhaha, but many authorities disagree. Others may understandably think it’s related to hooey as in, That's a bunch of hooey. A little older than hoo-ha, hooey was recorded first sometime around 1912 as slang for nonsense or rubbish.
Most etymologists say is in all probability it is derived from the Yiddish word hu-ha meaning an uproar or hullabaloo. Jonathan Green, in the Cassell Dictionary of Slang, puts forward it might come from a Russian slang term for the penis.
First recorded sometime during the early 1930s it’s commonly used in the sense of a commotion, a rumpus or a row. Earlier T.S. Eliot used the colloquialism for a disorderly outburst or tumult turning it onto a surreal slice of life as a brown study. He exploits the phrase as an image to convey the idea of a fit of anxiety making it very close in meaning to a case of the heebie-jeebies, a sense of the word that some say also shares its origins in Australian colloquial speech. Eliot expresses all the terror and fear of a relentless pursuit of hoo-ha's in his final chorus from Sweeney Agonistes(1926),page 126:
When you're alone in the middle of the night and
you wake in a sweat and a hell of a fright
When you're alone in the middle of the bed and
you wake like someone hit you on the head
You've had a cream of a nightmare dream and
you've got the hoo-ha's coming to you.
Hoo hoo hoo
You dreamt you waked up at seven o'clock and it's
foggy and it's damp and it's dawn and it's dark
And you wait for a knock and the turning of a lock
for you know the hangman's waiting for you.
And perhaps you're alive
And perhaps you're dead
Hoo ha ha
Hoo ha ha
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
You might be interested to know that this is a contemporary adaptation of the 'Hounds of Heaven
' theme; the Furies
will not only disturb, infers the poet, but much more than that they will hunt down to mete out punishment. The purposes of the play’s all-persuasive rhythm gain further significance. By expanding the phrase then repeating the pounding portentous rhythm, words contribute to supporting and escalating a looming menace of the hounding, audibly re-enacting the hunt; the pursuit of feet close in upon its prey. Hoo-has embody an almost sadistic pulse-beat of the hunter and the hunted.
And after all that hoo-ha, I can tell you no one knows for sure how hoo-ha originated though it first surfaced early in the 20th century. Synonyms for this slang word for commotion are : disturbance, disruption, commotion, turmoil, stir, flutter, hurly burly, to-do, and kerfuffle.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, 2000.
The Pocket Oxford Dictionary of Current English, Oxford University Press 1996.
World Wide Words: | <urn:uuid:bdbd31e4-d1c2-4bdc-9106-309d38e34f7d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://everything2.com/title/Hoo-ha | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922752 | 772 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Read My Lips
A colleague of mine, an older, distinguished gentleman, has this habit of trying to predict and finish my sentences.
For instance, when I start a conversation, he’ll interject these vocal micro-blips while I’m speaking, as if he was just about to say the exact same thing.
Me: “We were on the verge of closing the Colosco deal, but the hurdle rate was..”
Me: “um – a little higher than the buyer…”
Me: “uh, than the buyer was thinking, so our numbers were off a little..”
Me: “No, yeah – we didn’t close the deal after all.”
Honestly, it’s hard to concentrate on what I’m saying. It feels like I keep getting short-circuited throughout the conversation.
I don’t know if this is a display of solidarity, like “Hey! I was thinking the exact same thing!” Or, perhaps it’s nothing more than a subconscious tic that sets off when he gets excited. Either way, he’s a wonderful, supportive friend and mentor, therefore I don’t mind so much.
Then there’s, Dot, a sullen and entitled woman who was in my employ as a bookeeper for a time, and she would do the same thing. But with her it was clearly an issue of sucking up.
She would interrupt me, attempting to complete my sentences, but then her voice would trail off when she could see I was heading in a different direction.
Me: “Dot, that spreadsheet Sue reported yesterday didn’t…”
Dot: “didn’t have th-“
Me: “uh, didn’t have all the correct customer ac-“
Dot: “Customer acceptance rates to…”
Me: “No, Customer account numbers. Go fix it, please.”
She had no idea what I was going to say, and based on her lack of experience, she couldn’t possibly have predicted where my sentences were landing.
Dot was no doubt trying to kiss up and look smart at the same time, but it kind of had the opposite effect, and instead was simply annoying. The thing is, she constantly did this with me, but never with the rest of the office staff, whom she viewed as inferior. I suppose she was entirely oblivious to her own behavior.
Anyway, people sure can act strangely. But you were probably just about to say the same thing. | <urn:uuid:ea3fc196-670c-4ace-b57e-1c01faa9c548> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://shrinkingthecamel.com/2012/03/28/read-my-lips/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981825 | 561 | 1.546875 | 2 |
As I write this, the Dow-Jones Industrial Average is somewhere south of 8100, down 35% or more from its 2007 high and showing few signs of fatigue in its downward trek. General Motors hourly threatens to go bankrupt, credit markets are doing an imitation of the last Ice Age, and newspapers are running old pictures of soup lines during the Great Depression of the 1930s, I guess to get us used to what's coming. For such a young recession, it's already gotten plenty of publicity. But in all the finger-pointing about whose fault it was that we got into this mess, I have not read anyone who has addressed the question of what might be called economic and financial engineering, and the ethics associated with it.
I remember being surprised the first time I heard that a couple of our better electrical engineering graduates got high-paying jobs with a credit-card company, of all places. But I'm surprised no longer when I hear that present or former engineers often get hired by banks, brokerage firms, and other outfits that deal in highly technical and complex financial machinery. The attention to detail and problem-solving skills that engineers learn can be applied fruitfully to finance and securities trading as well as electronics, and the pay can be better, too. I call it "machinery" although in reality it's mostly software and rules devised by lawyers and technical types such as former engineers and physicists. But the complexity is there, and there is a good argument that such complexity played a significant role in the current recession.
From what little I do understand about the situation, when all sorts of home loans (the good, the bad, and the ugly) were bundled together by means of software-mediated deals, they sold like two-dollar Miley Cyrus concert tickets at a middle school full of teenage girls. To make things more complicated still, financial institutions started selling things called "credit default swaps," which were some sort of unregulated insurance against the eventuality of loans turning bad. My point is not to explain these things in all their gory details (which I couldn't even if I had to), but to show that computers and technical people who can keep track of these things, and figure out the rules by which they operated, played essential roles in this situation.
Before electronic computers became generally available, the most complex math a banker had to deal with was figuring out compound interest, and there were tables for that sort of thing. The complexity of a given financial deal was limited by, among other things, the labor it would take to figure it out. If somebody came up with some kind of security that came with a formula that would take three women punching calculators for three days to figure out, nobody would have bought it.
Not so today. If you took all the computers away from today's traders, the whole system would come to an instant halt, not only because computers are the medium of communication (so-called "electronic trading" is involved in virtually all transactions), but because a lot of trades are initiated by automatic triggers that write buy and sell orders based on electronically reported prices.
This is not to say that speculative booms and busts are possible only when you have engineer types and horribly complicated automated trading involved. The classic textbook example of a boom-and-bust phenomenon was the tulip-bulb mania of the early 1600s. Substitute tulip bulbs for bundled home mortgages, and you can see the same psychology at work: rising prices, a spreading perception that investing in tulip bulbs is a great way to make money fast, a few people made richer but only if they cash out early, and then alternate reality sets in: hey, we're only talking about tulip bulbs here! What's the big deal? And the crash follows, wiping out thousands of tulip-bulb plutocrats.
Engineers or technical people are not to blame for the mass psychology of crashes. But as they are often endowed with perhaps an above-average grasp of logic and what used to be called common sense, I would hope that they could serve as a kind of reality check or brake on things when matters really get out of hand. Of course, engineers working for a firm whose whole existence is based on complex derivatives or credit-default swaps or tulip-bulb futures, are not going to have long stable careers in such firms if they start questioning the fundamental assumptions on which the operation is based. On the other hand, it's looking like they won't have long stable careers anyway, now that many of the outfits are going broke.
I have no illusions that many of my readers are working in the financial industry. But if you ever happen to end up either working in it or dealing with it, remember that when a deal gets so complicated and computerized that even the people who are buying and selling it don't really understand it—then maybe it's too complicated. Complexity in the service of necessity is one thing, but complexity simply to confuse the buyer is wrong. And it looks like there were a lot of confused buyers out there who have lost faith in their vendors, to the detriment of the economy as a whole. | <urn:uuid:2fb43b40-767e-4d13-bb0e-e73d9faa348e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://engineeringethicsblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/ethics-of-financial-engineering.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9813 | 1,050 | 1.859375 | 2 |
|hemoglobin and HIV
Aug 11, 2012
hi I am from Singapore. I need to underwent a pre employment medical check up which consists of hemoglobin test.. I am still unsure of my HIV status.. However I had read alot articles even on thebody website that a low hemoglobin level means ur immune systems is weak which could be HIV positive.. Because I am pretty sure I do not lack of iron and no kidney illness... Is it true that a low hemoglobin result could be a indicator of HIV positive?? I am worried... Pls answer my question as soon as possible.. Appreciate!!
| Response from Dr. Young
I don't usually answer the "Do I have HIV?" questions on this forum- this is a space for people who are trying to make important decisions about their HIV medications. Please understand that.
There are a thousand things that can cause a low iron or hemoglobin level. HIV is only one of them. If you think that you might have HIV, the ONLY way to know this is to have a HIV test.
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Experts appearing on this page are independent and are solely responsible for editing and fact-checking their material. Neither TheBody.com nor any advertiser is the publisher or speaker of posted visitors' questions or the experts' material. | <urn:uuid:654f17f2-1f23-4f2b-902f-75a8188f4768> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thebody.com/Forums/AIDS/Meds/Q224117.html?ic=4003 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948632 | 337 | 1.945313 | 2 |
WASHINGTON — Climate change, it seems, is no longer a dirty phrase for Democrats to disavow.
President Barack Obama promised in his second inaugural address to respond to climate change, casting it as a moral obligation and warning that failing to take action "would betray our children and future generations." It’s not just a responsibility to his fellow Americans, Obama said Monday, but to "all posterity."
Persuading Americans that they should care about climate change _ or have a duty to do so _ is one thing. Actually doing something about the emissions that contribute to rising sea levels, sooty skies and melting Arctic sea ice is a far more complex task. Despite Obama’s pledges Monday, the White House was scant with details this week, saying only that it’s pursuing action under the existing regulatory framework.
Given that sweeping legislation to cap greenhouse gas emissions not only failed in his first administration, but also fell apart in a way that may have damaged the fortunes of future climate-related legislation, the White House has challenging work ahead. It must negotiate a polarized Congress, regional energy interests and pressure from big polluters and the influential energy sector.
The industry is bracing for a fight. Some groups, such as the National Association of Manufacturers, have challenged the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.
They’ll continue to argue that regulation of greenhouse gases should come from Congress, not the executive branch, said Ross Eisenberg, the vice president of energy and resources policy for the association. International emissions and the economic consequences of U.S. regulatory decisions need to be factored in, too, he said.
"If you put constraints on one economy, and other economies you’re competing with don’t have it, you’re constraining growth and putting an additional cost on the manufacturing process that your competitors don’t have," he said.
Congress has shown that it remains divided over what environmentalists say is one key indicator of how the second Obama administration will approach emissions. A majority of senators urged the president this week to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, which would bring oil to the United States from the Canadian tar sands. The administration has twice delayed a decision, which is pending environmental approval at the State Department. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., gave no indication Thursday in his confirmation hearing to become the next secretary of state how he’d move on the decision, but he said he’d make sure that climate change issues are taken into consideration.
Meanwhile, the governor of Nebraska signed off this week on the pipeline’s path through the state.
Yet those who favor action on climate change said they were hopeful, and they’ve been drawing up plans for the White House that they think match the rhetoric of the inaugural address. Obama’s re-election was the first step, said Bob Deans, a spokesman for the Natural Resources Defense Council. The next step, he and other environmentalists said, is for the president to act on his pledge.
"In November, the country went with the guy who said it’s a threat," Deans said. "Is that a mandate? I don’t know. But without question it’s a historic opportunity. And on Monday, the president showed he’s very serious about taking advantage of that opportunity."
The biggest step, major legislation that would have capped emissions and set up markets to trade pollution credits, failed in 2010 and is unlikely to be resurrected.
But there’s plenty more the administration could do without legislation, said the Clean Air Task Force, a nonprofit that’s dedicated to reducing air pollution. The task force wrote a letter to the president earlier this month saying the administration could work to curb methane emissions from the pipeline and production system, even as domestic oil and gas production booms.
They’d also like to see more attention to coal. Given recent projections that show the use of coal surging worldwide, even as older, inefficient plants close in the United States, the Clean Air Task Force would like some attention paid to developing the technology to capture carbon emissions from coal-fired plants.
Such technology also could be applied to natural gas, which in the United States is rapidly replacing coal. Although natural gas-fired power plants still produce greenhouse gas emissions, it’s at about half the rate of coal plants.
"To get serious about climate means getting serious about solving coal emissions, because they won’t disappear or be replaced," said John Thompson, the head of the Clean Air Task Force’s fossil transition team. "We need carbon capture in the United States, not just for coal, but for gas as well. When it comes to pathways for climate change, all paths have to lead to addressing coal and gas through carbon capture technology."
The most likely path in coming months, though, may be through the EPA’s regulatory authority. The administration is finalizing emission rules for new power plants; environmental groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council are calling for rules that would target existing plants.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney wouldn’t say this week whether the administration would move to regulate existing plants. The EPA administrator, Lisa Jackson, is stepping down, and the president hasn’t yet named a new leader for an agency that Republicans often target as overbearing.
"I can certainly confirm that the president intends to continue progress on the new national standard for harmful carbon pollution from new power plants, and to implement that standard," Carney said. "I can’t comment on any specific future actions that he might take, except that he has demonstrated in his record during his first term that we can, together, take action that is not only helpful to our environment, in that it addresses the issue of climate change."
Obama himself warned in his inaugural address that the path toward sustainable energy sources would be "long and sometimes difficult." His administration hasn’t tipped its hand when it comes to the Keystone pipeline, which, if approved, environmentalists would consider a failure to rein in future greenhouse gas emissions.
The pipeline’s rejection is one of the key goals of the Sierra Club, which said this week that for the first time in its 120-year history it would pursue a strategy of civil disobedience to oppose the pipeline. Obama’s mention of acts of civil disobedience in Selma, Ala., Seneca Falls, N.Y., and Manhattan’s Stonewall inspired their action, said the club’s executive director, Michael Brune.
"We want him to follow up that speech by exercising his full authority as an executive," Brune said, "but also his full abilities as chief persuader."
Email: firstname.lastname@example.org; Twitter: @erikabolstad | <urn:uuid:f98ae19a-e2e3-4b5b-83a4-8a7d47ef2922> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.idahostatesman.com/2013/01/25/2426258/obama-sounds-strong-on-climate.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962407 | 1,411 | 2.078125 | 2 |
File Your Taxes with the Right Filing Status
If there is one thing to make sure you get right on your taxes, it’s your filing status. It can determine how much you pay (or save) in taxes. Plus, it’s one of the things that, if you get it wrong, will definitely land you in a dreaded audit.
(Find out what else will get you audited.)
Your filing status basically expresses how you wish to be treated by the IRS, and can determine which deductions and credits you are allowed to take, which forms you should fill out and more.
Don’t stay up at night fretting over this issue; everything you need to know has been compiled for you into a handy flow chart. Once you find out your filing status, you can read more about it here.
Two notes before you get started:
In the interest of keeping the chart simple and easy-to-use, this does not account for people who are not United States citizens. (If you are a resident alien, you might this article useful.)
Also, the IRS does not recognize same-sex marriages, even if they are legal under state law, so if you are in a same-sex marriage, you should file as a single on your federal return.
Read the rest of the article on LearnVest.com. | <urn:uuid:eb838c9a-8edc-43f7-ac59-929282806ee2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/file-your-taxes-with-the-right-filing-status.navId-323690.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94143 | 280 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Coca-Cola Amatil was formed following a major re-organisation in 1989 of Amatil Limited, one of Australia's oldest corporations. In 1989/1990 Coca-Cola Amatil sold it's interests in poultry, tobacco, communications and packaging, leading to a concentration on its core businesses of beverages and snack foods.
The involvement of Coca-Cola Amatil in the beverages industry dates back to 1964 with the company's acquisition of Shelleys and Marchant in Australia. In 1965, the company bought an interest in Coca-Cola Bottlers in Perth. A year later the company took control of the Perth operation, and acquired Coca-Cola Bottlers in Melbourne. Over the next 25 years, Amatil acquired Coca-Cola Bottlers in Geelong, Brisbane, Sydney, Newcastle and Port Macquarie.
In 1982 Amatil made its first beverages investment overseas with the acquisition of Coca-Cola bottling franchises in Vienna and Graz, Austria. In 1993 Coca-Cola Amatil sold its snack foods interests to United Biscuits and, as a result, now focuses entirely on beverages. Coca-Cola Amatil rapidly expanded its global business to include operations in many European and Asia-Pacific countries. In 1998 the European operations were established as a separate European Headquartered anchor bottler company (Coca-Cola Beverages Plc) and Coca-Cola Amatil now focuses exclusively on the Asia-Pacific region.
Today, Coca-Cola Amatil is a major Australian Multinational Company. It is the country's largest manufacturer and distributor of soft drinks and other alcohol-free beverages, and is the market leader in the industry.
With operations in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and South Korea, Coca-Cola Amatil is the largest bottler of Coca-Cola trademarked products in the Asia-Pacific region.
Today, there are seven bottling plants in Australia, all owned by CCA following the acquisition of the Northern Territory plant in 2005. These authorised Bottlers are supported in their marketing activities by Coca-Cola South Pacific, the local subsidiary of The Coca-Cola Company.
Visit CCA's website below: | <urn:uuid:5f735872-c3dd-4032-8154-f4d29e33c412> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.and.org.au/pages/coca-cola-amatil.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936963 | 449 | 1.601563 | 2 |
The Bali International Medical Centre Hospital (BIMC) have recently installed a sophisticated new CT Scanner (Computed Tomography) that can provide doctors with highly detailed 3-D images of the brain, heart, lungs, liver, and kidneys, which cannot be seen in the same detail by standard x-ray examinations.
The Siemens' state-of-the-art diagnostic CT scanner provides a 6-slice scan of the human body providing a wide range of clinical applications from 3D to perfusion imaging to CT fluoroscopy.
Providing medical professionals with a detailed view of a disease or injury site within the body, Doctors at BIMC are extremely excited about the time-critical non-invasive diagnostic ability this new piece of medical equipment provides doctors, particularly in accident and trauma cases.
As with the BIMC's existing advanced x-ray technology, the results of the new CT-scanner can be transmitted electronically allowing diagnostic and treatment conferences with leading hospitals around the world.
Another advantage of the new CT scan now in operation at BIMC is the reduced level of radiation exposure for the patient. Through the use of an "Ultra Fast Ceramic Detector" the smallest possible dose of radiation results in exceptional image quality. The equipment's highly efficient detector and the automated dose management system analyzes the smallest possible dose of radiation to result the best image quality based on the patient's size, weight and anatomy. This system has been proven to reduce the radiation dose to up 68% compared to a conventional CT scan.
Craig Beveridge, Managing Director of the BIMC said, "the new 6-slice CT-Scan machine at BIMC is represents the most advanced diagnostic equipment of its kind now in operation in Bali. Our team of medical specialists is convinced that the round-the-clock availability of advanced CT imagery will serve to enhance our shared vision of enhancing health and saving lives by providing a truly international standard of medical care in Bali."
Discovery Tours. Articles may be quoted and reproduced
if attributed to http://www.balidiscovery.com. | <urn:uuid:e24f13fa-6801-4414-809c-2dfa1ae9c198> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.balidiscovery.com/messages/message.asp?Id=4702 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911934 | 428 | 2.03125 | 2 |
Al-Kindi and the Mu‘tazila: Divine Attributes, Creation and Freedom
|Peter Adamson a1|
a1 Philosophy Department, King's College London, Strand, London WC2R 2LS, United Kingdom
The paper discusses al-Kindi's response to doctrines held by contemporary theologians of the Mu‘tazilite school: divine attributes, creation, and freedom. In the first section it is argued that, despite his broadly negative theology, al-Kindi recognizes a special kind of “essential” positive attribute belonging to God. The second section argues that al-Kindi agreed with the Mu‘tazila in holding that something may not yet exist but still be an object of God's knowledge and power (as the Mu‘tazila put it, that “non-being” is a “thing”). Also it presents a new parallel between al-Kindi and John Philoponus. The third section gives an interpretation of al-Kindi as a compatibilist, in other words as holding that humans may be free even though their actions are necessitated. In all three cases, it is argued, al-Kindi is close to the Mu‘tazilite point of view, though he departs from them in the arguments he gives for that point of view. | <urn:uuid:366f62d6-0980-40a9-b365-a609292adfe4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=144199 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913129 | 285 | 2.015625 | 2 |
CLIFF VANCURA/Durango Herald illustration
CLIFF VANCURA/Durango Herald illustration
Among the calls of condolences, family members who have lost a loved one often are disturbed by a far less welcome call: that of collection agencies seeking payment of the deceased’s past due debt.
While survivors legally are obligated to pay only if they co-signed on a loan, car payment, mortgage or other debt, that won’t stop the agencies from going after heirs.
“That’s standard operating procedure for collection agencies,” said Richard Emmett, a Durango estate attorney. “Credit companies are not going to tell them they’re not responsible for it. Quite often, people feel a moral responsibility and pay the debts.”
One ploy agencies use to guilt heirs into coughing up the money is to bargain with them and “discount” the debt by 40 to 60 percent. The agency tells the heirs that if they pay the remaining amount, the agency will leave them alone. And it can be very effective.
Emmett recommends heirs write the agency a letter documenting that they are not personally liable for the debt and not to contact them anymore. If the agency continues to contact the person, it is in violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
The act was established in 1978 to protect consumers from abusive debt-collection practices.
As baby boomers age, they are accruing more debt, and a good portion of people have no intention of paying it off before they die. Nearly 40 percent of seniors in a recent survey by CESI Debt Solutions said they had accumulated debt in their retirement years, and they had no plan to pay it off during their lifetime.
Heirs may not be liable for the debt, but the deceased’s debt doesn’t go away when they die, and heirs could be responsible for it should they take on the mortgage of a vacated home.
“There is no inheritance liability that they get unless they obligated themselves to it, but that doesn’t mean you get to wipe out the debt of the person who died,” said Sen. Ellen Roberts, a former estate attorney. “Just the fact that someone dies doesn’t erase the deceased’s responsibility to pay the bill.”
If someone wants to inherit the family home with a lien on it, the heir inherits that lien along with the home. The heir can refinance the home or, in some cases, keep making payments on the existing loan, said David Fountain, a mortgage consultant for Wells Fargo.
If no one wants to keep the home or pay the loan, the mortgage company will foreclose on the property.
“It won’t show up on a credit report, but if they want to keep the house or keep the equity in the house, then they’re going to be interested in making the payments so the home isn’t foreclosed upon,” Fountain said.
The deceased’s estate is responsible for paying off the person’s debt, and the bills have to be paid before any inheritance goes to heirs.
The estate goes into probate, and the executor of the estate – typically an attorney or an appointed family member – is responsible for collecting the deceased’s assets and making sure creditors are paid.
The executor typically will put a “Notice to Creditors” in the newspaper asking creditors to present their claims. If the executor already knows of the debt, he or she will contact the creditors and settle the claim directly. Creditors have until four months after the first “Notice to Creditors” is published in the paper or one year from the day of the person’s death, whichever comes first, said Geoffrey Craig, a Durango estate attorney.
If there is not enough money in the estate to pay off the creditors, the estate is considered insolvent. Creditors can try to settle for less money than they are owed, but the rest of the debt will disappear.
Regardless of heirs’ responsibility to pay, it still is a good idea for families to discuss what debt exists and who it belongs to so family members can ward off creditors and are not surprised to see a lien on the family home.
“I think it’s a conversation that families really do need to have, and as their members become older, it’s more important to have those conversations so people do understand the financial situation and what the options are,” said Julie Cooley, vice president of First National Bank of Durango’s Mortgage Department. | <urn:uuid:0d727a89-941f-4c27-a8c2-b2dd2a8a099a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.durangoherald.com/article/20130103/NEWS01/130109852/0/20120222/Until-debt-do-we-part | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964357 | 969 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Julia Ward Howe (May 27, 1819 – October 17, 1910) was a prominent American abolitionist, social activist, and poet, most famous as the author of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic".
Born Julia Ward in New York City, she was the fourth child of banker Samuel Ward and occasional poet Julia Rush Cutler. Among her siblings was Samuel Cutler Ward. Her father was a well-to-do banker. Her mother, granddaughter of William Greene (August 16, 1731 – November 30, 1809), Governor of Rhode Island and his wife Catharine Ray, died when Julia was five after having borne seven children by the age of 27.
Download the ebook of Modern Society by Julia Ward Howe, free in a variety of versions from gutenberg.org. | <urn:uuid:739a70b3-fb14-40b7-873f-45fc67d81bbf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jameslogancourier.org/index.php?blogid=1&archive=2012-5-27 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981221 | 160 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Centralized WLAN Platform Supports VPNs
July 29, 2002
AirWave's platform for wireless network management has received Open Platform for Security (OPSEC) certification from VPN leader Check Point Software.
Check Point Software Technologies of Redwood City, CA, has approved the AirWave Management Platform (AMP) as certified under its Open Platform for Security (OPSEC).
What does that mean exactly?
"Basically, Check Point is the biggest player in the VPN space, with an enormous customer base; this [announcement] allows us to extend [that VPN support] out to wireless networks," says Greg Murphy, president of AirWave Wireless of San Mateo, CA.
AirWave Management Platform provides centralized console control of all wireless network devices. The same interface is used for multiple vendor products, such as ORiNOCO or Cisco. Administrators can use it to see not just access points, but also all client systems. This lets them monitor for problems, centralizing trouble shooting as well."OPSEC means we're certified as interoperable with [Check Point's] platform," says Murphy. "We made sure our platform could talk with their VPNs using a management API that they provide.
"[We're the] only WLAN platform certified with Check Point," he adds. "This really gives us an opportunity to work with their customer base. A lot of them want to move existing wireline security solutions to their WLAN."
The AirWave platform runs on any low-cost or better Pentium-based server using a Linux operating system and controls a minimum of 500 access points with a low-end setup.
According to the OPSEC.com Web site, OPSEC support is already available in some Proxim Harmony access points and the Columbitech wireless suite. Other companies currently at work at OPSEC certified wireless solutions include Intel, 3Com, Agere/ORiNOCO, and Enterasys. Check Point claims to have over 300 OPSEC partners. The free software development kit with OPSEC API is available at the site.
Eric Griffith is the managing editor of 802.11 Planet. | <urn:uuid:5c3d20f6-c188-4789-b08c-dfc5e7f27ac9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/news/article.php/1434571/Centralized-WLAN-Platform-Supports-VPNs.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946512 | 434 | 1.515625 | 2 |
U.S. officials on Tuesday revised their description of the circumstances surrounding the killing of al-Qaida terror leader Osama bin Laden, as more details became available. As The new narrative says bin Laden resisted U.S. forces and was unarmed.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney gave reporters a revised narrative of Sunday’s events, supplied by the U.S. Defense Department.
In this version, U.S. forces were engaged in a firefight throughout the nearly 40-minute operation.
"On the first floor of bin Laden’s building, two al-Qaida couriers were killed, along with a woman who was killed in crossfire," said Carney. "Bin Laden and his family were found on the second and third floor of the building."
Carney said bin Laden resisted the invading U.S. forces, but was unarmed, contrary to earlier reports.
The information from the Pentagon backed away from earlier suggestions that bin Laden and others had used women as human shields during the fighting.
"Bin Laden and his family were found on the second and third floor of the building," he said. "There was concern that bin Laden would oppose the capture operation, and indeed, he did resist. In the room with bin Laden, a woman, bin Laden’s wife, rushed the U.S. assaulter and was shot in the leg, but not killed. Bin Laden was then shot and killed. He was not armed."
Carney did not explain what form bin Laden’s resistance took.
At Tuesday’s briefing, the president’s spokesman said officials are discussing whether to release a photograph of bin Laden after his death from bullet wounds to the chest and face. Carney called the photo "gruesome," and said the image could be inflammatory.
"Well, I will be candid in that there are sensitivities here, in terms of the appropriateness of releasing photographs of Osama bin Laden in the aftermath of this firefight," said the White House press secretary. "And we are making an evaluation about the need to do that."
When asked about Pakistan’s commitment to fighting terror, Carney said the United States and Pakistan have disagreements. But he praised the Islamabad government for its help.
"It is a complicated, but important relationship," said Jay Carney. "Pakistan is a partner, a key partner in the fight against al-Qaida and terrorism. They have been extremely helpful. And we look forward to cooperating into the future."
Earlier Tuesday, CIA Director Leon Panetta told Time magazine that the intelligence agency had ruled out working with Pakistan on the bin Laden operation. Officials were concerned that Pakistan might have jeopardized the mission by warning the terrorists.
Carney said Pakistan is a big country and that White House officials do not know who in the government might have known that bin Laden was in the compound.
The press secretary said the Obama administration hopes that information obtained from the compound will yield evidence of any planned attacks, information that will lead to other high-value targets or other terror networks, and information about how bin Laden was able to live in the suburban compound as long as he did.
Raw footage of the compound where Osama bin Laden was killed:
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and discuss them on our Facebook page. | <urn:uuid:1d3f0adf-86a1-4fe3-abed-82161d54bce2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.voanews.com/content/us-official-bin-ladens-death-will-lead-to-al-qaidas-demise-121155324/138895.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982963 | 678 | 1.71875 | 2 |
I don’t know if it was my own education that got me to this point in life, or whether my ability to make sense of things is in spite of it.
One of my pet dislikes (and it happens often enough) is being asked about an influential teacher who was important in my learning. The assumption is that every articulate, independent thinking person with some measure of success must have had someone who lit the fire, who made the learning in school come alive. And most people in education can name at least one such person. Many will cite that person as being the reason for taking up teaching as a career.
But not me. I can’t name one teacher who I would put above the crowd. Some were better than average, and a lot struggled to even remember who I was. I suppose I like to think that my teaching style and methodology is based on what that fictional teacher would have been like. But that does not automatically translate that I’ve become the “one teacher” for anyone else. Well, no one has told me that. A few ex-students have told me that they have fond memories of being in my class, but that’s about it. Yet I like to believe that I’ve been a successful teacher, and that I now have something worthwhile to bring to the table as a leader.
So, there is a bit of an unwritten assumption that as a student moves through the education system, they will invariably encounter their own “one teacher” who will flip the switch and light the pathway to educational success. There is also an assumption that following that educational pathway also equals learning. I read plenty of smart people who believe that the system as it currently exists is broken and needs radical re-thinking, that it can’t be fixed from within and that tinkering around the edges doesn’t really help the disengaged and disadvantaged. Technology really does challenge how learning can occur – but maybe the system limits those possibilities to just digitising age old pedagogies.
I don’t know. There are plenty of times when I’m not sure what to believe when it comes to learning within the paradigm of education.
But I do know this. Those of us who connect, put out our still-green ideas in blogs, tweets and comments, who have taken the time to explore and play in the many spaces of the web have an immense advantage over those who do not. The challenge is how do we move the spark of learning away from being dependent on one person provided by an institution, to being self provided. Learning how to learn has become a huge buzz phrase – and I sense many educators are a bit afraid of the concept of self motivated learners because in some ways it threatens the age old concept of teacher. But on the internet I get “taught” every day by people who freely offer opinions, advice and experiences of their own. They don’t have me as their “student”, and they don’t have the responsibility of “assessing” my learning, but I learn from them at my own pace as time permits and as my interest deepens.
So, what does that look like to kids at the primary school level?
All I can say is that I envy those of you who have strong beliefs about what exactly should be happening to education in this country, because there are times when I feel like I have no idea. Like the cliche says, the more I learn about anything, the more I realise how little I really know. | <urn:uuid:5631bf6c-e0ce-426f-8fed-2055c5ac8a52> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gwegner.edublogs.org/2012/04/14/the-one-teacher-who-sparked-learning-for-me/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9844 | 736 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Messenger - Vol. 2, No. 2, Page 19 Winter 1993 Wheelchair project ranks among best Flexibility and cost-savings are two benefits of a wheelchair conversion kit that four mechanical engineering students designed, built and tested. When attached to a mechanical wheelchair, the kit enables a person with only one functioning arm to operate the chair. Their year-long efforts earned Thomas Aukzemas, Delaware '91, Dennis Powers, Delaware '91, John Moore, Delaware '92, and Michael Wallace, Delaware '91, the best undergraduate project in the James F. Lincoln Arc Welding Foundation's pre-professional awards program. "We could put it on in about a half hour and when the hospital or nursing home didn't need it any longer, we could remove it," says Aukzemas of Wilmington, Del. The kit's versatility could eliminate the need for left-arm and right-arm chairs, which sell for as much as $2,000 or more, he says. Aukzemas says the kit would sell for about $500. | <urn:uuid:989b6d42-468a-4825-97e1-98b357ff801b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.udel.edu/PR/Messenger/93/2/46.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944564 | 219 | 1.820313 | 2 |
“It’s odd,” the warrior muses to himself. “I have met so many people who, at the first chance they get, try to show the worst of themselves. They hide their interior strength through aggressiveness and disguise the fear of solitude with an air of independence. They don’t believe in their own capacity but are always extolling their virtues to the four winds.”
The warrior reads these messages in many men and women he knows. He is never fooled by appearances and insists on remaining silent when others try to impress him. But he uses the opportunity to correct his flaws – since people are always a good mirror.
A warrior puts to good use every opportunity to teach himself and to admit his own contradictions.
Welcome to Share with Friends – Free Texts for a Free Internet
Hey, like this post? Why not share it?Tweet | <urn:uuid:45a25e80-2ea0-4b3e-8007-4e37474e9e9b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2009/06/29/accepting-paradoxes/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973466 | 183 | 1.804688 | 2 |
The student needed industry reports on hypermarkets such as Wal-mart. He was looking for Traci in particular.
Date: 04/28/10 Time: 8:00pm
Question: The student needed industry reports on hypermarkets such as Wal-mart. He was looking for Traci in particular.
Answer given to question: [I realized that this sounded familiar, and that this was the student that had emailed Traci on the 26th about SWOT information on Wal-Mart. I pulled up her blog entry and was able to use her response to walk him through the next few steps.]
We went to the computers and looked up the databases for BizMiner and S&P NetAdvantage. We went through pulling up industry reports for Wal-Mart and he felt comfortable in looking for different reports on his own. Then we went to Business Source Complete and I showed him some tips for using the database (Full Text, Peer Reviewed) and talked about some of the articles he might look for on there after he had pulled industry reports.
Asked By: Student
Is this for a class assignment: Yes
If for a class please enter:
Were you able to answer the question to your satisfaction: Yes
What is the subject term applicable t this question: business
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Even in a small space, growing your own food can be a rewarding money saver. Here's how to get started.
Five years ago, I couldn’t keep a bamboo plant alive – the roots actually molded. But today, I have an indoor herb garden and a few fruits and vegetables growing in a potted garden on my back porch.
Even in my modest space, the amount of herbs and vegetables I’ve grown has saved me some money. It doesn’t take much time, and it’s rewarding to watch the peppers and tomatoes bloom. And if a woman who couldn’t keep a bamboo plant alive can grow her own food, anyone can.
When you’re getting started, gardening – even in a small space – seems overwhelming. But it isn’t difficult once you get going. Here is the easiest and cheapest way to get started…
The first time I tried to garden, I just bought whatever plants looked good, stuck them in pots, and hoped for the best. Half the plants died – and the other half produced too much for me to handle.
Don’t make the same mistake. Before you start planting, map out these points:
If you want the most bang for your buck, follow this checklist:
Before you buy anything, see what you can borrow or get for free. For example, I had a friend who tried gardening and realized she had no time for it. She had several small tools and was happy to give them to me just to get them out of her garage. For more expensive equipment, talk to your neighbors about sharing the costs (and the tools).
Once you start shopping, you’ll find the best prices if you give yourself time to comparison shop. Start looking for gardening equipment early and check out these places for the best deals:
Before you start planting, save yourself a few headaches (and wasted money) by reading up on agriculture in your area. Different climates affect how plants grow and when they start producing. By knowing how to work with your climate and soil, you’ll have the best chance of producing tasty food for cheap. Check out these resources:
A friend recently sent me a picture with the subject line, “Help!” Piled on her kitchen table were about 40 cucumbers she didn’t know what to do with. Having too many fruits and vegetables doesn’t sound like a problem, but if you don’t use them up quickly, they’ll rot – and you’ll have wasted your time and money along with the food.
Plan what you’ll do with your harvest ahead of time. There are plenty of ways to use up produce – canning, freezing, and drying are popular. You can also give them out as gifts – last year, I gave out tomato gift bags. This is also a good time to search out new recipes with whatever you have too much of.
If you plan to can, check out these sites for simple how-to guides:
For freezing, check out:
And if you need to expand your recipe book, these are some of my favorite foodie blogs:
Let’s face it, we all have some free time we could pry away from the TV. And what better way to burn some calories than by gardening – and growing more calories.
Angela Colley is a writer for Money Talks News, a consumer/personal finance TV news feature that airs in about 80 cities as well as around the Web. This column first appeared in Money Talks News. | <urn:uuid:72799166-bdd6-41c9-9c66-8f545eb1fd44> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://m.csmonitor.com/Business/Saving-Money/2012/0830/Grow-your-own-food-five-simple-steps | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960339 | 739 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Worried About Which Breed Of Dog Is Best For Your Family? Find Some Answers Here
Ask ten experts how many breeds of dogs exist and you will get ten different answers. However, many estimate there are more than 300 breeds of dogs. Each is valued by someone or by a group of people. In fact, they exist because they were bred to have characteristics that make them well suited for specific tasks. Over thousands of years, dogs were bred to meet a variety of human needs.
Chihuahuas, Pekinese and Shih-Tzus are generally known as yoy breeds - very small types of dogs, often weighing less than ten pounds. The dogs were bred to be mainly companions rather than perform physical labor. These dogs were the basis of the phrase "lap" dogs as they were easily held in their owners' laps.
Dogs in the Hound group come in a wide variety of sizes and shapes, and were all originally bred to assist with hunting. Many hound types have an amazing sense of smell; others are best known for their stamina during the chase.
German shepards, Doberman pinchers, Rottweilers, Mastiffs, Giant Schnauzers and Boxers are just a few of the better known types of working dogs.
Working dogs have the size and strength that makes them well suited to guarding property and other intense physical tasks. They are well known for their extremely high intelligence and protective nature to their human companions.
Like the Hounds, dogs from the Sporting group were bred to assist with hunting. Alert and active by nature, sporting dogs fit in well with active owners. If you plan on adding any type of sporting dog to your family, keep in mind that these high-energy dogs need frequent exercise.
The dog breeds included in the Non-Sporting group vary greatly in appearance and abilities. Dalmatians, with their vast amount of stamina and energy, were set to run alongside carriages to guard the travelers inside. Later, firemen employed these unique dogs to guard fire wagons. Dalmatians are playful and loyal, and need human companionship.
Poodles were originally bred as work animals. These dogs are highly intelligent and one of the most trainable breeds. Some poodles are good guard dogs and some can be trained as hunters.
Terriers are known for their distinctive personalities. Bred to hunt vermin, terriers are instinctive, active diggers. Tenacious by nature, these lively dogs require owners willing to provide lots of physical and mental stimulation.
Sight hounds were bred to assist the hunter by virtue of their excellent eyesight. Instead of finding prey by scent, these lean hunters spot their quarry from a great distance. They have amazing stamina and energy and all members of this group need plenty of exercise.
Hopefully this information will help you to decide what breed of dog is right for bringing into your family. Whichever breed you decide on you need to remember that your dog will rely on you for everything from food and water, to shelter and exercise. In return for this you can expect lifelong devotion and love from your new best friend.
About the Author: Best Pet Health Information is a resource which will help you find infomation, hints and tips to keep your dog happy and healthy. http://www.best-pet-health.info Copyright © Best-Pet-Health.info. All rights reserved. This article may be reprinted in full so long as the resource box and the live links are included intact. | <urn:uuid:0092ae1a-4ee3-4db4-86e3-72266b122d18> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.roseindia.net/articles/family-find-some.page | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00076-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978633 | 721 | 2.40625 | 2 |
In a greatly disappointing move, the Obama Administration released their version of the Fiscal Year 2010 budget without bracketing the Hyde Amendment. The Hyde Amendment is a provision in the federal budget restricting federal Medicaid funding for abortion, except in the case of rape, incest, and danger to the life of the woman. It was first implemented in 1977, four years after the Supreme Court legalized abortion in Roe v. Wade. Congress has renewed the Hyde Amendment every year for the past 32 years. Currently, only 17 states use their own funds to cover all or most medically necessary abortions. Though bracketing the language would not have repealed it, it would have sent a strong signal of disapproval for these restrictions from the White House, a crucial step in beginning to undo this unjust policy.
What does this mean for Latinas?
- At a time of economic crisis and while the nation is struggling to reform its broken health care system, the White House has chosen to substitute ideology for reasonable healthcare policy.
- Latinas are disproportionately represented among Medicaid recipients. Nearly a quarter of women of reproductive age on Medicaid are Latinas. These women often use money that’s needed for rent, bills and food to pay for an abortion. They face greater economic hardship and even the risk of an unsafe, self-induced abortion.
- Politicians have created a two-tier system in the U.S.: women with private health insurance or private funds can access abortion, but poor women cannot. Poor Latinas are put at serious health risk by politicians who are blocking their access to legal abortion.
The National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health urges Congress to take steps to repeal the politically-motivated barriers to legal abortions for poor women. This is an opportunity for policy-makers to stand up on behalf of women and show leadership to the Latina community who supports reproductive justice for women on Medicaid. | <urn:uuid:55c33721-6cd9-46d2-bf44-bd853db68f68> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://latinainstitute.wordpress.com/2009/05/08/breaking-news-hyde-language-retained-in-fy2010-budget/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=a4d6f3de1a | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948124 | 377 | 2.875 | 3 |
It is critical to understand what nutrients your body requires to function properly. Do some research and start making changes to your diet. Read this article to find out more about nutrition and adopt a healthier diet.
Making smoothies is delicious and fun. If, however, you want to ramp up the nutritional content of your smoothie, try this tip. A little bit of omega-3 fatty acids, which are found in flax-seed oil, is a perfect addition to a smoothie or protein shake. Just including these things in small doses will increase the beneficial effects on your immune system, while also making a great tasting smoothie.
A vegetarian meal a few times a week can help you with your nutrition efforts. Eating this way will reduce your consumption of fats and help you stay healthy.
Stock your freezer with lots of frozen vegetables. Frozen vegetables are easy to incorporate into meals including stir fries and side dishes. If you use frozen vegetables instead of fresh ones (for this particular tactic), you needn’t worry about wasting money on food that spoils before you get a chance to eat it.
Along with exercising and eating right, you can maximize your results by ensuring you get plenty of restful sleep. Sleep is essential for repairing damage to muscles and getting the most from the healthy nutrients you consumed during the day.
Trying out healthy new recipes is a great way to keep your nutrition quest fun and interesting. You may find that you can whip up your own versions of healthy foods that you never expected to produce in your own kitchen. Making protein bars, for example, is just a matter of combining milk, peanut butter, and protein powder. Replace high carbohydrate foods with healthier low carbohydrate versions.
You might be eating out on your cheat day, but there are ways you can limit your fat and calorie consumption even at a restaurant. To help control portions, ask your waiter to package half of your meal up to take home with you for tomorrow’s lunch.
You can still eat tasty foods while keeping your cholesterol under control and making some healthy choices. If Italian food is big in your home, lasagna is still okay. Just make a couple alterations. Only use cheese that is low in fat and whole-grain noodles. Use ground turkey instead of ground beef and put in some spinach. If you make these small adjustments, your plate of lasagna will be a lot healthier for you.
Alcohol intake is a nutritional factor, believe it or not. You may have a healthy routine during the week, then throw it all away in a single night of binging. Thinking about going to happy hour? Think twice–one gin and tonic contains up to 140 calories! Now imagine that you’re taking in a few of these in one night. As with most things, learning to enjoy things in moderation will go a long way in building a healthier, happier you.
If your recipe allows for your choice of nut, choose almonds. Almonds are wonder nuts. These magic nuts contain protein, lower your cholesterol and promote blood cell health. They also tend to be less expensive than many other varieties.
Broccoli is a valuable vegetable to eat during the day. A single stalk of broccoli contains more than enough vitamin K for one day. Plus it contains enough vitamin C to last you for two days. It is important to eat broccoli, as it may help to reduce development of some types of cancer and aids in strengthening bone tissue. To boost nutrition, try making steamed broccoli instead of boiled or microwaved.
As stated earlier, good nutrition means a lot when it comes to your quality of life. It takes plenty of planning, monitoring, and patience, but it;s worth it for a better life.
“Make it Happen”
Master Trainer and Lifestyle Coach
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Bard College Steps Up for Free Speech
October 4, 2011
It always feels great to be able to share good news about free speech on campus. So I am very happy to report that Bard College in New York has taken the commendable step of clarifying its student conduct policies to affirm that the college is committed to students' right to free speech and expression.
Until this year, Bard was listed as "not rated" in FIRE's Spotlight database, a designation reserved for private institutions that make clear that they place other values above the right to free speech. Bard's "Community Standards of Behavior" formerly provided that
Everyone who lives, works, or studies at Bard is here by choice and, as part of that choice, must be committed to standards of behavior that emphasize caring, civility, and a respect for the personal dignity of others. ... When language or other expression is used to harm, to demean, or to incite violence, it has breached the standard of civility in communication on this campus. Conduct that deliberately causes embarrassment, discomfort, or injury to other individuals or to the community, as a whole, is explicitly not allowed.
FIRE felt that because of this clear statement, students enrolling at Bard would understand that they were giving up certain rights in exchange for enrollment—and as a result, Bard received our "not rated" designation. But over the years, we noticed a number of statements elsewhere in Bard's policies indicating that the college did value free speech, and we grew concerned that this apparent conflict might be confusing to students.
So in November 2010, we wrote to Bard President Leon Botstein asking him to clarify the status of Bard's commitment to free expression. The following month, I received a very thoughtful email from President Botstein, which stated that in response to our letter he had formed a committee—including a faculty member with significant First Amendment experience—to review the college's policies and recommend changes.
Too often, when confronted with inconsistencies in their policies, college administrators are defensive or argue that the policies which seem to restrict speech do not, in fact, restrict speech. Not so at Bard. Following the unusually open and thoughtful response from President Botstein, a number of policies were revised to clarify that Bard is, in fact, committed to its students' free speech rights.
Bard's 2011-2012 Community Standards of Behavior [.pdf] do not prohibit protected expression, instead affirming that "the Bard College community is committed to freedom of thought and speech." And a new "Free Speech Policy" [.pdf] addresses the status of offensive but protected speech at Bard, providing that
Speech or expression that is not prohibited, but is rude, lacking in respect, disruptive, or hateful is discouraged. The College may voice its disapproval of such expression through private communications, public condemnation, the organization of public forum and calls for more speech and open debate.
Colleges should not feel an obligation to denounce speech by students or faculty members that the institution disfavors. After all, the institution is not responsible for that speech, and it is unreasonable in the extreme to ascribe the speech of every individual student, faculty member, or invited speaker to the college itself. But if a college does wish to express that it disagrees with the speech of one of the members of its community, the approach that Bard has chosen not only protects students' rights, but is also more effective than censorship. Rather than driving supposedly bad or hateful ideas underground, it allows those ideas to fail in the marketplace of ideas.
The policy also makes clear that "the College defends the rights of free speech and expression, dissent and protest."
Despite its newly clear commitments to free speech, Bard still has a few policies on the books that are inconsistent with those commitments, such as a posting policy threatening disciplinary action for any postings intended to "embarrass" others. Compared to many other universities, these restrictions are relatively minor, but they are significant enough that Bard receives a "yellow light," rather than a "green light," rating from FIRE. Given President Botstein's obviously heartfelt commitment to free speech, we hope that the college will follow through with the few changes that would make it our next green-light school (and we will soon be sending them a friendly letter detailing how they can do that).
But perfect should not be the enemy of good, so today we simply want to commend Bard for stepping up and making clear that free speech is an important value to be protected at the college. Few other institutions or administrators would have responded with such thoughtfulness and open-mindedness, and the resulting changes to Bard's policies are very meaningful. Kudos to Bard and to its students, who now know that they can freely speak their minds. | <urn:uuid:4e091b83-acff-49cb-a1c2-6aa20e67cf10> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thefire.org/article/13654.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969407 | 964 | 1.78125 | 2 |
October 23, 2007|
In life there will always be times when we are affected by the actions of another person. When this happens, we often receive an apology. More often than not we say, “It’s alright,” or “ It’s okay,” and by saying this we are allowing, accepting, and giving permission for the behavior to happen again. When we say “thank you,” or “I accept your apology,” we are forced to sit in our feelings rather than ignore them.
There are many of us who feel that it is easier to brush off how we really feel than to express our discomfort with something that has happened to us. While this may initially seem like the best thing to do, what it really does is put us into an unending pattern of behavior; since we are not honest with another person, we continue the cycle of letting them overstep our emotional limits time and time again. By doing this we place ourselves in the position of victim. We can put an end to this karmic chain by first acknowledging to the other person that we accept their request for forgiveness; often a simple “thank you” is enough. To truly create a greater sense of harmony in our relationship, however, we need to gently, and with compassion, express our innermost concerns about what has transpired. By taking a deep breath and calling upon the deepest parts of our spirit, we can usually find the right words to say and verbalize them in a way that lets the other person recognize the consequences of what they have done.
If we can remember that our response to others is important, we can begin to realize that trust and forgiveness go hand in hand. And when we react in a way that engenders a greater amount of honesty and candor, we will establish a more positive and empowering way of being and interacting others
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The Rise of Industry
The origins of the Halifax date back to the Industrial Revolution, when small market towns across England were transformed into manufacturing centres. In Halifax, the textile industry dominated. People flocked from the countryside to work in the new mills and factories. Between 1801 and 1851, the population nearly trebled, rising from below 9,000 to above 25,000.
Workers leaving Dean Clough mills, early 20th century.
But the town was ill-prepared for this influx. Housing shortages led to severe over-crowding, squalor and disease. A solution was found with the newly emerging 'building societies'. Working men would club together to buy land and build themselves houses. Originally 'terminating' societies, they would disband once the last member had been housed. Then came the 'permanent' societies, where workers could save their money long-term in a common fund, for a guaranteed rate of interest. This cash would then be loaned on, to enable people build or buy houses. Societies could continue to operate for as long as their members desired.
Enter the Halifax
In December 1852, a small group of men gathered in the Old Cock Inn, Halifax. Their aim was to set up an investment and loan society, for the mutual benefit of local working people. Those with spare cash could invest it; others could then borrow, using the funds to acquire a house. Lenders would receive interest on their savings; borrowers would be charged it.
By Christmas that year, the Halifax Permanent Benefit Building Society was formally established.
The Oak Room at the Old Cock Inn.
Rules were drawn up, and a chairman, trustees and directors appointed. Office space was rented in the Old Market, and an announcement placed in the Halifax Guardian.
Amongst the founding fathers were John Fisher, a local bank manager; J.D.Taylor, a solicitor’s clerk; and Esau Hanson, a textile manufacturer. All three played a pivotal role in the Society's early history. Fisher was elected President, and Taylor named Secretary (a position he was to hold for nearly 50 years). Then, on 26th May 1853, Hanson became the very first person to be granted a mortgage by the Halifax. He borrowed £121 to buy land on St. John’s Lane. Coincidentally, this land now forms part of the Halifax’s head office site on Trinity Road.
First Halifax mortgage (detail) granted to Esau Hanson, May 1853.
The First Fifty Years
Business was brisk from the start. People queued at the Society’s office each Friday night, eager to join the new venture. By pledging themselves to its rules and paying regular subscriptions, investors and borrowers alike became members. Those unable to make regular payments could still save their cash, but as depositors rather than members; they would simply lodge ad hoc sums, as and when they could.
Within a year, the Society had 584 members, and a further 144 depositors. More than £9,000 had been lent, with another £2,000 agreed for homes being built.
Branch offices were opened at Sowerby Bridge, Thornton and Queenshead (Queensbury) in that first year. Others quickly followed, with one as far afield as Huddersfield by 1862.
The head office moved too, first to Waterhouse Street, and then to the corner of Crossley Street. Such was the Society's success that it was able to build grand new offices on Princess Street, moving there in 1873. This was to be home for the next 50 years.
First Halifax branch, Sowerby Bridge.
The Enoch Era
A giant in the history of the Halifax, Enoch Hill took over as Secretary in 1903. He was both President and Managing Director from 1928-1938. Hill had a profound influence on the development of the Society, and oversaw its dramatic expansion. In 1913, assets reached £3 million and the Halifax became the largest building society in the world. By 1927, assets had risen far higher to £27 million.
The 1920s brought a severe housing shortage, and a series of government-led national house building schemes. The role of the Halifax was pivotal, advancing money to developers at very low rates of interest. In all, the Society financed the building of some 14,000 homes - 60% of all the houses built under these schemes.
Expansion continued apace with a new head office on Commercial Street in 1921, and a London office in 1924. Offices in Glasgow and Edinburgh were opened four years later.
Hill’s biggest achievement was the 1928 merger of the Halifax Permanent with another local society, the Halifax Equitable Benefit Building Society. The new Halifax Building Society had assets of £47 million, and was five times the size of its nearest rival.
Enoch Hill, Secretary from 1903, President and General Manager 1928-1938.
From Building Society to Bank
The advent of computerisation in the 1960s heralded an era of rapid change and innovation. The business of the Halifax was transformed - accounts were handled electronically and filing systems automated. A state of the art head office was built at Trinity Road in 1973. Branches were modernised and revolutionary cash dispensers installed.
In 1986, new legislation allowed building societies to increase their range of financial services. The Halifax steadily diversified into personal banking, stock broking, insurance and estate agency.
The 1990s saw a period of mergers and acquisitions. The most notable of these were the 1995 merger with the Leeds Permanent Building Society, and the acquisition of Clerical Medical the following year.
Halifax computer room, 1971.
Conversion to plc status in 1997 meant changing every branch sign in the country.
February 1997 marked a turning point in the history of the Halifax. Its members voted overwhelmingly in favour of conversion to plc status. The subsequent flotation on 2nd June was the largest the Stock Market had seen; some 7.5 million shareholders were created at a stroke.
In January 2009, following unprecedented turbulence in the global banking market, HBOS plc was acquired by Lloyds TSB.
The new company, Lloyds Banking Group plc, immediately became the largest retail bank in the UK.
To find out more about the history of the Halifax and some of the companies it acquired, return to the Halifax family tree. | <urn:uuid:c5e92306-bc14-4d55-b226-2dafde08b345> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lloydsbankinggroup.com/about_us/company_heritage/Halifax_Heritage/halifax1.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975886 | 1,321 | 3.203125 | 3 |
By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Sept. 21 -- Shell Canada Ltd. plans to increase bitumen production at the Athabasca oil sands project (AOSP) in Alberta to 270,000-290,000 b/d by 2010. Its long-term target is to surpass 500,000 b/d.
During the next 3 years, debottlenecking at Muskeg River Mine north of Fort McMurray and the Scotford Upgrader near Edmonton will increase production to 180,000-200,000 b/d. Further expansions by 2010 will increase production to 270,000-290,000. The upgrader could be modified to process the heaviest product streams into lighter, crude blends, Shell said, and plans include mining on newly acquired leases. Expansion costs are estimated at $4.0 billion.
Shell is conducting talks with pipeline and infrastructure owners regarding associated capacity increases.
The AOSP is a joint venture of Shell 60%, Chevron Canada Ltd. 20%, and Western Oil Sands LP 20%. | <urn:uuid:889619df-401b-4be9-9c89-f6dc61026203> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ogj.com/articles/2004/09/shell-to-expand-athabasca-oil-sands-project._printArticle.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934405 | 209 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Salzburg Travel Tips
Salzburg's Altstadt (old town), on the south bank of the river, is a Baroque fiesta of churches, plazas, courtyards and fountains, oozing the waves of charm that you would expect from this Mozart mecca. Museums, houses, squares, chocolate bars and liqueurs are all part of one giant homage to Wolfgang.
Salzburg was built on mining, of both gold and salt, although salt (the so-called white gold) has always been more important. Salz is German for salt and Salzburg literally means 'Fortress of Salt'.
Written by William B, USA, October 2011
The Sound of Music walking tour led by Trudy Rollins visits all of the Salzburg sites that appear in the film. Trudy is a great guide and a source of lots of info about the film, the real Von Trapp ...
The Sound of Music is the seminal Julie Andrews musical that set the hills alive with music on this amazing adventure in Salzburg. Check out where this Oscar winning film was shot and see the ...
For those of you who are not familiar with the occasion, St. Philip’s Night, or “Philippinacht” is one of the more interesting traditions in Europe. It occurs the night of April 30 in Austria in ...
Written by John Reality, Cambodia, July 2012
Owing to its status as the birthplace of the great Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Salzburg has been playing host to influential classical music and drama festivals for more than a century. One of the most ...
Written by Sasha, March 2013
There’s so much to see in the Alps around Salzburg, from roaring rivers to snowy peaks, and plenty for outdoors enthusiasts, whatever the weather or season. Editor’s Note: This recommendation was ...
Want to share your own recommendation? | <urn:uuid:d7bac919-3b58-46a1-9342-1fe70a9ffc2e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.viator.com/Salzburg-recommendations/d451?page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937801 | 401 | 1.773438 | 2 |
- Where - Afghanistan (Asia)
- Website - www.sanayee.org.af
- Contact Person - Raz Mohammad Dalili
- Email - email@example.com
- Address - House No 37, Opposite Municipality Blocks (Sharwale Blocks), Kolola Poshta Main Road, Near Traffic Square, Kabul, Afghanistan
- Other - firstname.lastname@example.org
Areas of Expertise
Sanayee Development Organization (SDO) has expertise in a range of areas, including:
Main Aims and Objectives
SDO’s mission is to contribute to the emergence of a peaceful, developed and self-sustaining Afghan society through professional engagement in the sectors of peacebuilding, community health, education and community development.
SDO’s vision is of a peaceful, free and developed Afghanistan based upon (Islamic and good Afghan cultural) values. The population would live in peace, sustain themselves with dignity and be able to manage their own development, and that of the society in which they live, by being aware and responsible citizens.
SDO’s participatory and community-based approaches to development single out SDO as one of the leading peace and development agencies in Afghanistan. Given the strong commitment and diligence of SDO’s professional staff members, SDO has been able to implement complex and challenging rural development programs with a high standard of quality. In spite of all the challenges and difficulties in the areas SDO are working, SDO staff members perform their assigned tasks successfully, and work hard to contribute positively towards the organizational vision, goals and mission.
Upholding the Principles of Conflict Transformation
SDO works, in particular, to uphold the following principles:
- 1. Conflict should not be regarded as an isolated event that can be resolved or managed, but as an integral part of society’s on-going evolution and development;
- 4. Conflict transformation is a long-term, gradual and complex process, requiring sustained engagement and interaction;
- 5. Conflict transformation is not just an approach and set of techniques, but a way of thinking about and understanding conflict itself;
Where and with Whom
Sanayee Development Organization (SDO) is working in the following provinces of Afghanistan – Balkh, Ghor, Faryab, Heart, Farah, Parwan, Ghazni, Kandahar, Kabul, Badghis, Panjsher, Kapesa and Helmand.
Main Activities in the Field of Conflict Transformation
Sanayee Peace Building Department
SDO supports sustainable, community-driven approaches to peace-building. We focus on developing local grass roots structures to produce non-violent resolution of local conflicts, as well as promoting publications, events and sporting activities that encourage people-to-people connections and peaceful conflict transformation. SDO’s projects promote inter-ethnic dialogue, do-no-harm approaches, and awareness of issues affecting women and human rights. Furthermore, they improve relations among and within communities and with actors serving the community such as local authorities, schools and Madrasahs students, and teachers. SDO works within the framework of Islamic values and with a strong respect for local customs and traditions. SDO’s peace-building activities began in 1998 and involve projects in the provinces of Badghis, Balkh, Faryab, Ghazni, Ghor, Herat and Kabul. Community support for SDO activities in the fields of education, health and sustainable livelihoods have greatly aided the credibility and acceptance of its peace building activities and vice-versa.Peace Education Curriculum
Peace Education Curriculum is a positive tool for educating war-affected Afghan children and youth. The peace education curriculum is useful for raising the spirits and increasing the chance of success of children born and growing up in a state of war and violence. The curriculum helps them clear their minds of thoughts and acts of violence. Peace education curriculum is the product of six years of continuous efforts and hard work of SDO, with direct cooperation from Cooperation for Peace and Unity (CPAU).
In June 1999, close to 14,000 students in 70 schools for Afghan refugees in Peshawar, Pakistan as well as thousands of students inside Afghanistan received schooling based on the curricula of Peace Education. The content of the curriculum books were designed and implemented by peace education teachers with prior field experience. The peace education curriculum consist of a set series of books from grades one to twelve. Each book has 8 chapters with two class activities per chapter. The complete collection of grades one to twelve contains 96 chapters and 192 class activities; each chapter has missions, objectives, and points of concentration for teacher, class activities, evaluation, and summarization, home work in different forms and special graphics and pictures.
The aim of the peace education curriculum is to improve the peace awareness level among the students, and to enhance their motivation towards peace building, the elimination of violence, respecting human rights, establishing trust and cooperation with fellow peers, transmitting peace narratives to their families, reducing prejudice and discrimination, creating patriotic civic spirit and converting the culture of violence and war to a culture of peace. The objective is to help students learn these principles of peace building and practice them in their daily lives. Peace education curriculum promote a student-centered system through a series of planned activities and exercises. The activities recommended for a teacher in each chapter are complemented with recommended teaching methods.
With its strong origins in grassroots action, SDO firmly believes that activities for and by communities lie at the heart of sustainable social and economic development. SDO strengthens neighborhoods and communities by creating important spaces for community service, leadership and cooperation. SDO’s work creates transparent community-based structures and relationships that promote synergies for successfully addressing community needs. It further empowers communities by unleashing their own resources to improve livelihoods, social well-being, and human security. In doing so, it builds the capacity of communities to deal with their key project stages of needs identification, planning, management and monitoring. SDO’s projects involve a comprehensive array of local actors to empower communities, and are inclusive of youth, poor and vulnerable groups.
The strength of SDO lies in its important tool box of methodologies for community capacity building addressing organizational development, project cycle management, vocational training, mediation, peace-building and community development. In its approach, SDO works within a framework of Islamic values and strongly respects local customs. | <urn:uuid:39bfa05c-5a89-4cd6-a4f6-4f74ca37fc0f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.transconflict.com/gcct/gcct-members/asia/afghanistan/sanayee-development-organization/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938907 | 1,323 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Prion busting molecules
Newly developed self-illuminating polymers have been intentionally designed with the ability to home in on toxic prions and render them harmless, offering the potential to cure fatal nerve-destroying illnesses. This Swedish-Swiss study was supported in part by the LUPAS ('Luminescent polymers for in vivo imaging of amyloid signatures') project, which is backed with almost EUR 5 million under the Health Theme of the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). The findings were presented in The Journal of Biological Chemistry.
The research conducted here is truly groundbreaking. Researchers from Linköping University in Sweden, in cooperation with colleagues from the University Hospital of Zurich in Switzerland, said this is the first time anyone has been able to demonstrate the possibility of treating illnesses such as mad cow disease and Creutzfeldt-Jacobs with LCP molecules. They tested these luminescent conjugated polymers, or LCPs, on tissue sections infected with prions. The results indicate that the number of prions, as well as their toxicity and infectibility, decreased drastically.
'When we see this effect on prion infections, we believe the same approach could work on Alzheimer's disease as well,' says Peter Nilsson, a researcher in Bioorganic Chemistry funded by the European Research Council (ERC).
Prion disease is a group of progressive conditions that affect the brain and nervous system of humans and animals. Human prion diseases include sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, Kuru, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker syndrome, and fatal familial insomnia. Prion illnesses can be inherited, occur spontaneously or through infection, for example through infected meat — as was the case with mad cow disease.
'Based on these results, we can now customise entirely new molecules with potentially even better effect,' Dr Nilsson said.
Researchers want to go even further and test whether the molecules will function on fruit flies with an Alzheimer's-like nerve disorder. Alzheimer's is caused by what is known as amyloid plaque, which has a similar but slower course than prion diseases.
The EU-funded LUPAS project, meanwhile, sought to bridge the gap between diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer disease and prion diseases. At the beginning of the project the LUPAS team believed that by developing novel agents and methods for diagnostic imaging of amyloid plaque it would be possible to improve quality of diagnosis and facilitate monitoring and understanding of the disease progression.
The project gathered partners from a wide range of areas ranging from experts within organic synthetic chemistry, synthetic nano chemistry, amyloid structure, prion disease, Alzheimer’s disease, magnetic resonance imaging, multi-photon physics and hyper spectral imaging. They formed the critical mass of competences needed to reach towards the project’s ambitious goals.
LUPAS coordinator Professor Per Hammarstrom said at the launch of the project: 'The competence within the LUPAS consortium will undoubtedly bring forward novel tools for understanding the pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease and prionoses. Within the three-year timeframe of LUPAS we will develop these tools for use in disease models systems in vivo and on histolological ex vivo samples from humans. If successful it will take a few more years to apply this technology in the clinic.' | <urn:uuid:786cf1ce-0adc-45bf-9f62-ea61893d376f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_12_06_15_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=25233 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935215 | 698 | 3.1875 | 3 |
Laura J. Martin, MD
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, affects more than 12 million American adults.
The term COPD includes two types of lung conditions: emphysema and bronchitis.
Many people diagnosed with COPD have both emphysema and bronchitis. Together, the two reduce the amount of oxygen exchange in the lungs and thicken the lining of the airways. COPD is progressive and causes shortness of breath, wheezing, and chronic cough -- a persistent, phlegm-producing cough.
People with COPD can have varying abilities when it comes to breathing. Some may experience shortness of breath during moderate exercise. Others need oxygen just to walk across the room.
There are things people with COPD can do to improve their breathing. And for the most part, things like exercise, pulmonary rehabilitation, and smoking cessation can be very helpful, even for those with little lung capacity.
Long-term exposure to environmental pollutants can cause COPD but the main culprit, particularly in the U.S., is smoking. By the time someone gets COPD, their lungs are already damaged, but if they stop smoking, they can reduce future harm.
Neil MacIntyre, MD, a pulmonologist and professor of medicine at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., tells his patients it is critical that they stop smoking when they become short-winded.
“The first thing you have to do to get out of a hole is stop digging,” he says.
It is important to take medication, and if there are problems, patients should talk with their doctors, MacIntyre says.
Maintenance medications such as salmeterol and fluticasone don’t always start working immediately. It can take a week or two before a patient feels their breathing improve. This can be discouraging for some, but MacIntyre says not to give up.
If there is no improvement after a couple of weeks, people should talk with their doctor to make sure they are using medications correctly. Many of the drugs used for COPD can be challenging to use properly because they come in specialized inhalers.
People who are very sick with COPD use so much energy to breathe that they can have problems gaining weight, says Raed Dweik, MD, director of the pulmonary vascular program at Cleveland Clinic. They often need to eat enough to gain weight.
But if people are overweight, shedding excess pounds can improve their breathing. “It is two ends of the spectrum,” Dweik says. “For people who are overweight, it is like carrying something around that contributes to their shortness of breath.”
Like people with asthma and other lung conditions, COPD patients can be affected by things in the environment -- fumes, strong perfumes, pollen, dust, secondhand smoke, and construction sites. Dweik says these can exacerbate the disease, causing flare-ups and breathing problems.
Avoid bad air as much as possible. Using air filters in the house or air conditioning when allergens are prevalent can be helpful.
People with COPD have compromised lungs and can have a difficult time “shaking off” an infection, Dweik says. Common colds or the flu can sometimes progress to pneumonia more easily than for people without COPD.
Dweik recommends avoiding big crowds and people who are sick, calling a physician in the early stages of a cold or flu, and getting flu shots annually and pneumonia vaccinations about every five years.
MacIntyre says a lot of people with COPD also have sleep disorders such as sleep apnea or hypoventilation (breathing that is too slow or shallow). People who have this may be helped by using masks for continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy.
Signs of sleep problems to watch out for include feeling unusually tired all day, falling asleep during the day, morning headaches, and excessive snoring.
Everyone with COPD -- and, in particular, people who use oxygen or have shortness of breath when doing daily activities -- can benefit from pulmonary rehabilitation.
“People will learn some specific things they can do to help breathing,” Dweik says. “It won’t change their lung function, but it is designed to help them cope and make the best of it.”
Emil Olson,a 62-year-old from Sweet Ridge, Colo., went through pulmonary rehab to build up strength for a lung replacement surgery. With only about 10% of his lung functioning, he went through rehab for three months in order to walk six minutes on a treadmill (a requirement for the transplant).
Aside from walking on the treadmill, Olson exercised on a stationary bike. He used light weights to build his upper back muscles, which helps with breathing. Therapists taught him how to eat right and offered tips like not bending over when lifting objects to keep from compressing the lungs.
“I don’t think anyone expected me to stay alive long enough to get a transplant, but I did,” he says. “It’s amazing how much good you get out of 30 to 45 minutes of really limited exercise.”
There are two main exercises that are practiced in rehab to help people with COPD improve their breathing.
The first is pursed-lip breathing. Some people with COPD have particular difficulty breathing out. When this occurs, air gets built up in the lungs and the lungs can’t expand as well, Dweik says.
Pursed-lip breathing helps regulate this problem. To perform this, sit comfortably and inhale deeply through the nose. Purse lips (as though whistling) and breathe out three times longer than the in breath, but don’t force the air out. This technique can be used when shortness of breath occurs to regulate breathing patterns.
A second exercise is diaphragm breathing. This technique helps strengthen the diaphragm muscle so people use less energy when breathing. To perform the exercise, lie on the back with knees bent, one hand on the upper chest and another resting on the abdomen. When inhaling and exhaling, keep the chest as still as possible and use the stomach to breathe. This should be practiced for five to 10 minutes three times daily.
Though someone who can’t breathe well may not feel like exercising, it is one of the most important things people with COPD can do to improve their breathing and overall health.
Exercise doesn’t directly change a person’s lung function, but it improves muscle tone and cardiac function, MacIntyre says. This allows oxygen in the blood to be delivered more efficiently to the muscles and increases stamina.
“Patients with COPD have different degrees of ability,” Dweik says. “Even if they are progressed, they can still remain active -- the more the better -- but their activity has to be moderated by their capability.”
Dweik tells patients to be mindful of their limits and not push through when they can’t breathe. For people with “symptom-limited exercise” he recommends walking a couple of blocks until they get winded, stopping to rest, and walking more when they can. Eventually, a person may be able to walk farther with less shortness of breath.
The one daily treatment that is proven to prolong life for people with severe COPD is oxygen, Dweik says. Studies have borne this out. Two large clinical trials found that people with severe COPD may live twice as long as patients with severe COPD who don’t use oxygen.
Benefits aren’t proven for people with mild COPD.
Many patients don’t like it because it is inconvenient or looks unattractive, but when oxygen goes down, it strains and can damage the heart, Dweik says.
Four years ago, Olson had a right lung transplant. His odds of survival weren’t great -- he was extremely weak and just barely weighed enough to be viable for the operation -- but he chose to have the surgery anyway.
Three days after the transplant he was no longer using oxygen. By the time he left the hospital, he was walking a mile. He has no more symptoms of COPD and was around for the birth of his granddaughter. He has walked a 5k race and has plans to take part in three more this summer.
There are two main types of surgery performed on people with COPD. First is a lung transplant like Olson received. Second is lung volume reduction surgery where the damaged lung tissue is removed to make the lungs work more efficiently.
For Olson, the lung transplant was life-saving. But it is not for everyone. Dweik says it is a relatively rare surgery and only an option for certain people with COPD. There is a “transplant window - you can’t be too sick, but you have to be sick enough,” he says. A doctor can help determine if someone is eligible for surgery.
There are also risks involved in lung transplants. According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, patient survival rates are about 78% the first year after surgery, 63% after three years, and 51% five years out. Also, medications taken to reduce the risk of infection and rejection of the lung after surgery can suppress the immune system for the rest of the person’s life.
“I was given a one-in-10 or 1-in-20 odds of not being here after,” Olson says. “Compared to my quality of life at the time, there was no decision. It was a gimme.”
SOURCES:Raed Dweik, MD, director, pulmonary vascular program, Cleveland Clinic.Neil MacIntyre, MD, pulmonologist and professor of medicine, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N.C.Emil Olson,Sweet Ridge, Colo.National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute: "What is COPD?" "Long-term Oxygen Treatment in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: Recommendations for Future Research," "What are the Risks of a Lung Transplant?"Cleveland Clinic: "Diaphragmatic Breathing."
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We are on the cusp of something that might very well revolutionize the research world. But, no, it’s not a cure for cancer, an innovative approach to string theory or a comprehensive economic theory. Instead, it’s a proposed multi-billion dollar federal budget cut to research funding institutions that will directly impact universities.
These cuts — due to take effect Dec. 31, impacting such research funding entities as the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Health — could have serious implications for research innovations. Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston University, Northeastern University, Tufts University and University of Massachusetts, in conjunction with various Boston hospitals and medical centers, voiced this concern to Congress in a letter earlier this month.
“The effects of this drastic ‘reset’ of research support may drive a generation of young talent to other fields as they seek to establish reliable career paths,” they wrote.
Massachusetts institutions are expected to take a $3.1 billion hit over the course of the five-year sequestration caused by cuts. If these cuts take effect, these institutions are concerned that private entities will also refuse to fund research.
Mory Gharib, the vice provost for the California Institute of Technology, recalls that similar cuts were made in the 1980s. In fact, they were more major.
But what makes these 8% cuts more drastic is that they’ll have an effect “across the board,” he said.
“The notion of uncertainty is more damaging than the cuts themselves,” said Gharib, who is also Caltech’s Hans W. Liepmann Professor of Aeronautics and Professor of Bioinspired Engineering.
At Caltech, he said, these cuts will be especially acute because the school is small in size and takes part in niche areas of research. Most recently, members of Caltech manage Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which put the Curiosity rover on Mars. Gharib expressed concerns that the same kind of innovation might be threatened if the cuts take place.
Jillian Minahan, a 21-year-old senior at Fordham University from New Providence, N.J., hasn’t encountered budget issues yet. The university has subsidized her psychology research.
But she is aware that research funds don’t roll over to the next year. The school only gets a certain amount of funds to work with each cycle.
Caltech does part of its research planning every year. Planning — for example, hiring researchers, such as post-docs, and putting in orders for new equipment — is already frozen. But since the school can’t plan ahead and can’t be sure which programs and projects will suffer the most cuts, it needs to be cautious.
Rachel Wold, a 19-year-old University of Michigan sophomore from Lowell, Md., has already observed issues at her school.
“My professor has been having a hard time getting funding and grants,” she said. She is currently a volunteer researcher on her professor’s project because her professor can’t afford to offer a salary.
Her professor has also been unable to expand and hire a large staff due to lack of funds.
Although Wold doesn’t know if this specific situation can be attributed to the impending budget cuts, she said she worries about her professor’s research.
“She’s been trying to start her own lab. It’ll be harder for her,” Wold said.
“The cuts will limit innovations and job creation,” Gharib said. “We won’t get new treatments, new devices or a better understanding of diseases. Eventually we’ll pay the price.”
“Our hope is that we reach a compromise so we survive this fiscal cliff and don’t sustain long-term damage to [our] educational system,” he added.
And according to the letter to Congress, “Support for federal research funding helps to ensure our nation’s health, prosperity, and international competitiveness.”
But even besides having national consequences, these cuts will impact individual lives.
“Maybe I’ve just been fortunate,” Minahan said. But the cuts “may not be helpful when I’m going to graduate school and need grants.
As for Dean Wilhelmi, a 20-year-old University of Pennsylvania junior from Towson, Md., researching is not just a way to earn money.
“I enjoy doing research,” he said. “I would be concerned [if these cuts take place].”
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Creative Color Temperature and Raw Processing
Excerpted by permission from the forthcoming book, "The Creative Digital Darkroom" by Katrin Eismann and Sean Duggan (O'Reilly Media), available Dec. 15.
Color is the musical score of the image, and just as the musical score changes how you feel about a movie scene, the image’s color treatment will influence or, more fittingly said, will “tint” the viewer’s emotional response. The ability to experiment with image adjustment layers and creative color interpretations is a source of inspiration for me, and it is often surprising how the subtlest color adjustment can shift the emotional impact of an image.
We’ve all made the effort to wake before sunrise to take pictures in dawn’s golden hour or skipped dinner to shoot during dusk when the light is raking across the landscape. Although Photoshop can’t change the time of day in which you shot the image, it can influence the image’s color rendition to infer moods and emotions.
Neutral is highly overrated
In most cases the goal of processing digital files is to create color-neutral and well-exposed images, but in many cases neutral is simply not the best choice for an image. Take a look at the comparison in Figure 8-33, which shows how Katrin saw, and the camera recorded, the pre-sunrise shot of the Brooklyn Bridge, and then how a raw converter set to automatic sucked all the passion out of the scene. Adding creative color interpretations during raw processing is a very subjective and emotional progression that can be a welcome break from the dogma of neutral, picture-perfect image production.
Figure 8-33. Raw conversion, set to automatic, can suck the passion from a scene.
Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop Lightroom are tremendous tools to enhance the emotional aspect of images by letting you bend the rules of reality-bound image processing to create subtle and moody images. The advantage of doing creative work in Adobe Camera Raw or Photoshop Lightroom is you can rework and reinterpret the same image many times without ever degrading the original file. Additionally, the benefit of experimenting in the raw processor is that all the controls to influence color, contrast, and exposure are close at hand, enabling you to work very fluidly as you tweak one setting and then refine another.
Working Smart with Smart Objects
Before we dive into the world of creative color, always put on your water wings or life preserver to keep your head above the raw waters. In this case, we highly recommend working with Smart Objects, which in Photoshop CS3 with Adobe Camera Raw 4 (or later) is both an easy and convenient feature that gives you access to Adobe Camera Raw controls even after the image has been brought into Photoshop. | <urn:uuid:93923fad-77d5-44b0-816b-f99b6638b285> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ppmag.com/web-exclusives/2007/11/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.910474 | 574 | 1.914063 | 2 |
Back to all Grief Articles
The Loss of an Infant
No one expects an infant to die. Though you know this tragedy has occurred, you may have a difficult time accepting it.
Often, it is hard for parents to understand why their baby has died. You might find yourself wondering if you could have prevented your child’s death. You may believe that you caused the death or that your baby’s death is punishment for your past actions. These are normal reactions for parents. Grief is a physical, emotional and spiritual journey.
Fathers and mothers grieve differently. A mother’s grief might be more intense and last longer than that of other relatives. Realize that grandparents’ grief is often overlooked. As your parents, they grieve for you as well as for the loss of their grandchild.
As you grieve, understand that mourning has no prescribed length. Expect your grief to resurface on certain days, especially on birthdays, holidays or the anniversary of the death. You may feel a sense of loss and sadness, which will accompany you for the rest of your life. Here are some steps you can take to cope with these emotions.
COPING WITH YOUR GRIEF
- If necessary, speak with your doctor and ask questions so that you can understand the cause of your baby’s death.
- Create a support system. Many hospitals have support groups for parents whose infants have died. Organizations such as The Compassionate Friends, SIDS, Candlelighters and Share may be active in your community.
- Take good care of yourself. Try to eat properly and get plenty of rest and exercise. Help your spouse to do the same.
- Give yourself time to grieve for your baby before having or adopting another child. When the time is right for another child, he or she will be a special person, not a replacement.
- If you have other children, maintain open and honest communication with them. They may not fully understand how death can happen to an infant. They may also find it difficult to understand your need to grieve. Find other friends or family members who can pay special attention to your children.
— Adapted from an article by Nancy E. Crump, M.S., Certified Grief Counselor | <urn:uuid:5afdd792-7198-4a95-8e3c-93022fd7e3df> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.calfeefuneralservice.com/resources/articles_grief/loss_infant.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959117 | 471 | 2.5625 | 3 |
When two people are able to communicate we generally assume that they know the same language, and that is the key to understanding each other. This applies to the world of computing as well, where the set of standards are called protocols. During this article we plan to present in a nutshell the most common TCP/IP protocol types. We wonít get in-depth, so donít expect university course-style materialójust the basics.
Before we move on, let's fully grasp the concept of protocol and explain how more of those build up a structure called the OSI model. How are they important to us? Finally, we'll get into enumerating the popular TCP/IP protocols. These are the ones we need to be familiar with, since our applications and Internet surfing happens through them.
As mentioned earlier, in the simplest terms, a protocol is a set of rules and conventions that characterize some communication type. It defines specific elements like syntax, semantics, etc. It's the way that speaking and writing leads to understanding. If we were to throw together letters and words without any reason or order, no one would understand us.
TCP/IP is a suite of two protocol collections, TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) and IP (Internet Protocol). And that is why the TCP/IP is the most important protocol we can talk about when it comes to Internet-based communications. It is a prerequisite of the Internet. In a future article we will cover routing protocols (with the help of which routers work), VoIP protocols (telephones), and cellular phone protocols as well.
You may have already heard of the OSI Model or perhaps the TCP/IP Model. These two conceptually define and gather protocols of communications into layers. There are distinct differences between those two, but let's keep things simple. First, the OSI model has 7 layers, because it distinguishes the three top layers which are encapsulated together in the TCP/IP model. Aside from these, they're "mostly" akin.
We won't mess with the lower-layer protocols (such as physical and data link layers) because, from the perspective of the user, it does not matter what happens "inside" the little black box; the end result is what truly makes a difference. On the next pages we will become familiar with the most common and important protocols from the Internet/Network Layer (IP-v4, v6; IPSec), Transport Layer (TCP and UDP), and lots of application-specific protocols like HTTP, FTP, SMTP, POP3, IMAP, etc.
Now that we know the underlying foundation of protocol types, we can move on. | <urn:uuid:587862b7-c541-4ba9-930a-a30c04cc2ea4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.devshed.com/c/a/Administration/Understanding-TCPIP-Protocol-Types/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936483 | 544 | 4.0625 | 4 |
OFFICE OF SURFACE MINING RECLAMATION AND ENFORCEMENT
Library of COALEX Research Reports
COALEX Research Reports are the products of research and analysis conducted on specific issues relating to the regulation of Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977. The research is conducted in response to requests for information from State Regulatory Authorities, under a cooperative agreement between the Office of Surface Mining (OSM) and the Interstate Mining Compact Commission (IMCC).
COALEX refers to the Library of Surface Mining Materials maintained by OSM in LEXIS-NEXIS and is a major source for the research.
Each Report includes a list of resources which were sent as attachments to the individual who requested the research. To obtain a copy of the attachments or to obtain any additional information, contact Joyce Zweben Scall by phone at 202-686-9138 or by email at JZScall@aol.com.
COALEX STATE INQUIRY REPORT - 153
Sean Coleman, Esquire
Maryland Environmental Services
2020 Industrial Drive
Annapolis, Maryland 21401
TOPIC: 90-DAY ABATEMENT PERIOD - SETTING A "REASONABLE TIME" FOR ABATEMENT
INQUIRY: According to 30 CFR 843.12(b)(3) [COMAR 08.13.09.40(F)(2)(c)] the Notice of Violation (NOV) must set "a reasonable time for abatement". Please locate Interior Board of Land Appeals (IBLA) and Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) decisions which discuss the following questions: How much discretion is acceptable in setting the abatement period? How specific does the start date/end date information have to be?
SEARCH RESULTS: Using the COALEX Library in LEXIS, a number of Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) decisions were identified which discuss the adequacy of abatement information provided to operators in NOVs and the amount of time set for abating the violations. The identified opinions are discussed below. Copies of the opinions are attached.
Included, also, is a copy of an earlier report which discusses the extension of the 90-day abatement period for "good cause shown".
FADCO, INC. v OSM, Docket No. CH 9-29-R (1979).
In confirming the issuance of the cessation order (CO), the ALJ placed the onus for the CO on the operator stating that the "inspector set what would be a reasonable time at least initially to see what the company could do, and the inspector was never asked to extend the [abatement] time until after the time had run out."
OLD BEN COAL CO., 2 IBSMA 38, IBSMA 80-6 (1980).
In the NOV, the inspector failed to cite the proper CFR section "either by explicit reference or by description of the alleged violation." The Board reversed the ALJ decision, ruling that "The failure of an OSM inspector to set forth with reasonable specificity in a notice of violation the nature of the alleged violation and the required remedial action will result in a vacation of the notice."
MAUERSBERG COAL CO., 2 IBSMA 63, IBSMA 80-20 (1980). MAUERSBERG COAL CO. v OSM, Docket No. CH 0-51-R (1979).
An NOV was issued to the operator for mining off the permitted area. The abatement period was first set for 90 days and then changed 20 days. The ALJ ordered the abatement period extended "inasmuch as the abatement period granted was not reasonable to perform the remedial action." The Board reversed the ALJ's ruling finding that the application for temporary relief had failed to provide the required information and the applicant (Mauersberg) had failed to provide sufficient evidence.
ISLAND CREEK COAL CO., 2 IBSMA 125, IBSMA 80-23 (1980).
In this case, like in OLD BEN, above, the inspector cited the incorrect regulation in the NOV; however, here the description of the violation clearly referred to the proper section. The Board found that "A notice of violation containing an improper citation to the regulations is reasonably specific where the narrative description of the alleged violation accurately notifies the permittee of the nature of the alleged violation."
GRAFTON COAL CO., INC., 2 IBSMA 316, IBSMA 80-61 (1980).
"[I]t was [an] error for the Administrative Law Judge to vacate a notice of violation on his own motion on the grounds that it lacked reasonable specificity...when the parties expressed no confusion about the nature of the alleged violation." The ALJ's decision to vacate the NOV and CO were affirmed on other grounds.
RENFRO CONSTRUCTION CO., INC., 2 IBSMA 372, IBSMA 80-52 (1980).
"The basic purposes of an NOV are to inform the recipient of the nature and extent of circumstances at a surface coal mining and reclamation operation found to be in violation of OSM's regulatory standards, and to require certain action to eliminate those circumstances. The first purpose is served when the terms of the notice are sufficiently particular to guide the review process.... When a course of abatement action is prescribed in terms clearly related to an alleged violation, the second purpose is served. The greater OSM's precision in its composition of an NOV, the more likely it is that these criteria will be met; however, arguable ambiguities in the contents of an otherwise proper NOV do not invalidate OSM's enforcement action in the absence of a showing of actual prejudice to the recipient as a result of such ambiguities."
PHILLIPS COAL, INC. v OSM, Docket No. CH 9-213-R (1981).
The ALJ ruled that Phillips Coal was not prejudiced by the fact that the reclamation specialist had incorrectly cited "that section of the interim regulation [Phillips] had allegedly violated.
"The wording contained in the notice of violation served its notice-giving function to applicant concerning the offending diversion ditch, as well as informing applicant of precisely what had to be done to remedy its shortcoming."
ISLAND CREEK COAL CO. v OSM, Docket Nos. NX 9-106-R, NX 0-35-P (1981).
"Upon reviewing that wording employed in the pertinent notice of violation, and bearing in mind that at least one of applicant's employees accompanied the OSM reclamation specialist during all stages of this extended inspection, I find that the wording used to describe [the violations] did set forth with reasonable specificity the nature of the violations, the remedial action required, the periods of time established for abatement, and a reasonable description of those portions of that surface coal mining operation to which the notice applied."
MOUNTAIN ENTERPRISES COAL CO. v OSM, Docket Nos. CH 1-88-R, CH 1-109-R (1981).
In the initial NOV, the inspector gave the operator two months to abate the violation. Two days later, the inspector issued a modification providing six stages of reclamation; however, the inspector allowed only 10 days for each area. The ALJ vacated the CO based on these violations stating that "It appears that the inspector and the Office of Surface Mining have assumed the position that any length of time the inspector feels is reasonable to abate a violation, even if it is less than the 30 days given by the Act to appeal, is not only lawful and appropriate but justified under the Act. This concept appears to exist even if the inspector knows that the remedial action of the kind suggested is impossible during the time allotted.... I therefore find that the actions of the inspector...were premature, unreasonable, arbitrary, and capricious and outside the intention of the Act."
TURNER BROTHERS INC. v OSM, 102 IBLA 111, IBLA 86-378 (1988). TURNER BROTHERS INC. v OSM, Docket No. TU 5-31-R (1986).]
"A notice of violation must inform a party of the specific nature of the legal standard for which he is being cited, the specific conditions at the minesite which has been found to constitute a violation, and the specific manner by which the condition may be abated. Similarly a cessation order must inform a party of the particular legal standard at issue and the condition at the minesite which violates the standard. Arguable ambiguities in the contents of an otherwise proper NOV do not invalidate an enforcement action in the absence of a showing of actual prejudice to the recipient."
Research conducted by: Joyce Zweben Scall | <urn:uuid:da67a492-c8ef-40eb-8d49-828f68a187c4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.osmre.gov/topic/coalex/COALEX153.shtm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923625 | 1,849 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Via Andrew Sullivan, here is a fascinating study (pdf) in academic psychology that appears to show the presence of a fairly distinct Northwest personality. The researchers ranked the 50 states plus DC according to the presence of each of five personality traits: extraversion; agreeableness; conscientiousness; neuroticism; and openness.
Northwest states are among the most open and least neurotic places you can find, but we are also among the least extraverted. Not surprisingly, Oregon and Washington perform almost identically on every measure. More interesting, perhaps, is that Alaska, Idaho, and Montana are also very similar in some respects (though quite different in some others).
First, the bad news. If you’re looking for extraverts, you’ve come to the wrong place. Oregon is the most extraverted state in the region, but it ranks only an unfriendly 44th most extraverted. Remember, this is the state who’s governor famously said: “Come visit us again and again… But, for heaven’s sake, don’t come here to live.”
Meanwhile, Idaho is 46th for extraversion while Washington is 48th, and Alaska is 49th. Montana, partially in the Northwest, is 43rd. To find a comparably chilly reception, you’d have to visit the New Hampshire-Vermont region (50th and 47th, respectively) or the Maryland-Virginia cluster (45th and 51st).
The good news is that the Northwest is not a neurotic place. Washington is the 46th least neurotic state in the union, followed by Alaska at 47th, and Oregon at 48th. (Idaho and Montana rank 32rd and 39th, respectively.) To get any less neurotic, you’d have to move to South Dakota (49th), Colorado (50th), or Utah (51st).
The other nice thing about the Northwest is our openness. Oregon is the 3rd most open state in the nation while Washington is 5th. (Only New York, Massachusetts, and DC are comparably open.) But move away from the urban Northwest and the openness appears to fall off: Montana is 16th; Idaho is 30th; and Alaska is 49th.
When it comes to conscientiousness, we’re fair to middlin’, but we’re similar to one another. Washington (25th) is the most conscientious state in the region followed by Idaho (26th), Montana (29th), and Oregon (31st). Alaska, however, ranks 51st; it’s the least conscientious state in the country.
We’re about average on agreeableness too, but we’re not as internally similar. Oregon (18th) is a bit more agreeable than Washington (22nd), but both states are a lot more agreeable than Idaho (39th), Montana (42nd), or Alaska (51st), which is the least agreeable state.
Anyway, interesting stuff I thought. Oh, and it’s worth remembering that these five personality traits are part of a widely used model in psychology and that they have specific clinical meanings. Here’s what the Wikipedia entry has to say about them:
- Openness – appreciation for art, emotion, adventure, curiosity and variety of experience.
- Conscientiousness – a tendency to show self-discipline, act dutifully, and aim for achievement; planned rather than spontaneous behavior.
- Extraversion – energy, positive emotions, surgency and the tendency to seek stimulation and the company of others.
- Agreeableness – a tendency to be compassionate and cooperative rather than suspicious and antagonistic towards others.
- Neuroticism – a tendency to experience unpleasant emotions easily, such as anger, anxiety, depression, or vulnerability; sometimes called emotional instability.
Image is of the old redwood signs that used to grace Oregon’s borders, “welcoming” travelers—and reminding them to keep on moving. | <urn:uuid:e6daba6c-378c-4f59-a7ec-f98a28ab428d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://daily.sightline.org/2009/04/14/a-northwest-personality/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941279 | 835 | 1.898438 | 2 |
|Allergies are on the rise, study shows.|
A recent UK study involving 1,600 participants asked about allergies and the associated symptoms people felt:
- 58 percent said they had an allergy to dust mites
- 45 percent had an allergy to household pets
- 31 percent had an allergy to mold
- 30 percent said they had an allergy to chemicals found in everyday cleaning products
Millions of people seek medical help to control their allergies and while the home used to be seen as a safe haven, now it has become a source for indoor air pollutants and allergens as well.
Symptoms of household allergies include sneezing, congestion, headaches and others similar to a cold.
Many people report the strongest symptoms when in the bedroom – mattresses and pillows house millions of dust mites, so this does not come as a surprise.
Source: The Co-operative Magazine
Cleaner air helps control allergen levels in the home
For people suffering form allergie sin the home, regular cleaning, source control and washing linens is a must to control the amount of allergens.
|AllerAir's AirMedic Series and|
AirMedic+ Series provide allergen,
particle and chemical control.
Another option is to use an air purifier in the bedroom to clean the air even further.
AllerAir has designed portable room air cleaners for allergies and asthma with activated carbon and HEPA filters.
The activated carbon removes odors, chemicals and gases, while the HEPA filter traps dust and particles.
Opt for additional UV germicidal filtration to neutralize bacteria, viruses and mold as well.
Contact us for more information. | <urn:uuid:2aba1ded-d6bb-45a0-af1d-d3056f0e3a99> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://allerair.blogspot.com/2011/11/allergies-at-home-keep-rising.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937602 | 348 | 2.34375 | 2 |
WHEN Chinderah fisherman John Brinsmead went fishing recently, he didn't expect to come face to face with big Mangrove Jack.
When he felt a big fish tugging on the line, he thought it was a Trevally.
It turned out to be a record weight Mangrove Jack weighing in at 12.2kg.
"It was quite a surprise," he said.
When he did a bit of research on the species online, he came across Toby Piddocke, a PhD student from the National Marine Science Centre.
Mr Piddocke is studying fish in the North Coast and was interested in 'Jack.'
"It's an iconic species on the north coast," he said.
"This is the southern end of its distribution.
"This well studied tropical fish has not been researched on the southern end, so I'm tagging Mangrove Jacks with electronic tags to monitor their behaviour."
Acoustic receivers have been placed in the rivers for the research and Mr Piddocke has tagged 49 to date.
"I'm aiming for 50," he said.
"They are a very shy fish, so not easy to spot or tag.
"Not many people catch them on line."
But it's just as well Mr Brinsmead caught the fish 'online,' as he is able to help Mr Piddocke with his research.
The study is funded by the NSW Recreational Fishing Trust using fishing licence money. | <urn:uuid:0033db81-2844-49d3-9f77-5aa84d51fdaf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mydailynews.com.au/news/whopper-mangrove-jack-snared-by-unsuspecting-tweed/1743367/ | 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 | 0.981705 | 309 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Edinburgh Council’s Active Travel Action Plan [ATAP], incorporating the Cycling Action Plan, has been finalised and agreed by the Council’s Transport Committee.
Links to the Active Travel Action Plan – and to the important accompanying Report to the Transport Committee – can be found on our ATAP downloads page. More background to the development of ATAP can be found in our July 21 news item.
The plan’s core objective is “to increase the numbers of people in Edinburgh walking and cycling, both as a means of transport and for leisure.”
The plan’s headline cycling targets are…
- By 2020, 15% of journeys to work will be by bike [currently around 5%-6%]
- By 2020, 10% of all journeys will be by bike [currently around 2%]
- By 2020, the risk of death or serious injury on a cycling trip will be cut by 50%
The cycling section of the plan envisages…
- A Family Network – mainly offroad and on quiet streets – and suitable for use by a 12-year-old cyclist. This will link all parts of the city with important destinations such as the city centre, the Botanics, canal, etc.
- A Cycle Friendly City – the aim being “to make travel by bike anywhere in the city convenient and attractive” for day-to-day cyclists such as commuters and shoppers. This aim will be developed through two initiatives – a programme of upgrades on main roads and a series of area-wide improvements [starting with the already announced south-central Edinburgh corridor - see Spokes Bulletin 105].
Some of the more exciting promises in the plan include…
- By April 2014, implement 13 major missing Family Network links, including early action on Innocent connection to Meadows, Roseburn to Princes St, North Edinburgh path to Botanics (east and west) and (many people will be delighted!) A90 route to Queensferry and Forth Bridge. Other of these links by 2014 include Meadows to North Edinburgh via city centre, Portobello to Leith to North Edinburgh, Union Canal to North Edinburgh paths. Outline designs for all these routes by April 2011.
- By April 2014, complete the first area package (south-central Edinburgh) including a Quality Bike Corridor (by end 2011) from the city centre to Newington to Kings Buildings and the Royal Infirmary, plus widespread 20mph limits, parking, promotion, etc. The likely second area will be west from the city centre, followed possibly by the North East.
- By April 2013, upgrade main road cyclist provision on sections of the A1, A7, A701, A772, A702, A70, A71, A8 and A90.
- By Dec 2012, prepare plans for new main road cyclist provision on sections of A90, Portobello Rd, Colinton Rd, Morningside Rd, Comiston Rd, Easter Rd.
- Review car parking permissions in all cycle lanes.
- Revise maintenance rules to ensure by April 2011 ‘regular programmed maintenance of lines and coloured surfacing‘ for onroad bus and cycle facilities.
- Exempt cyclists from all suitable 1-ways and road closures.
- Bike parking – several commitments for residential and public bike parking, with date timescales, including city centre bike parking to be upgraded by Sept 2011.
- By Sept 2011, install one or more public display bike counters – as used in several European cities as a promotional measure.
- A range of cycle training and promotional initiatives, including all primary school children to receive training by 2016/7.
- And many more initiatives … see the Plan, including its detailed appendices.
The biggest uncertainty over the plan is the level of funding and staffing in future years. These issues are not discussed in the plan itself, but in the Committee Report. The council is hopeful that if funding continues at its current 2010/11 level then much or all of the above can be achieved in the planned timescales. However, much of the current funding is from government sources, whose future awaits the outcome of this autumn’s Spending Review. The committee report, for example, states, “Any withdrawal of the Scottish Government’s CWSS funding is likely to have serious implications for the potential to implement the ATAP. Targets, especially the ambitious cycling targets, are unlikely to be met in this scenario.” In terms of staffing the plan is looking to working with other agencies to boost existing effort.
Whilst Spokes is delighted at the emergence of the plan and much of its content, and will work to support its implementation, not all our ideas have been included. For example…
- We suggested some coverage of funding and staffing in the plan itself, rather than leaving it all to the committee report as has been done. In the present climate that is understandable, but it leaves future resourcing less clearcut than is ideal, and will require lobbying every year during the council’s budget preparation. It will probably depend even more on the lead set (or not set) by the Scottish Government each year in terms of cycling and dedicated cycle funding.
- We are very disappointed that there is no mention of some critical city centre main roads, particularly Princes Street, but also the heavily trafficked Picardy Place, and other central-area tramline-affected areas such as Leith Walk. These surely are absolutely essential as part of the cycle-friendly city (if not the family network) – as was highlighted in the recent Spokes public meeting and survey – yet they are not mentioned. Nor is there any reference to the twice-promised consultation on the future of Princes Street [see public meeting reports 23.3.10 - Transport Convener Cllr Mackenzie and 19.11.09 - Transport Head Marshall Poulton].
- We had hoped for commitment to the piloting of at least one on-road physically segregated route. This is not included – although the plan several times states that these will be considered, for example where the family network has to use main road connections.
Finally – we urge Spokes members and other readers not to sit back just because there is a Cycle Action Plan. Sitting back is the surest way to get the plan pigeonholed and eventually lost in a filing cabinet. Rather – use the Plan in your lobbying of councillors! Perhaps most important of all – help us to ensure that the money is there. This means lobbying your MSPs in the run up to this Autumn’s Spending Review, then the Scottish Budget this winter – and again in advance of the May 2011 Holyrood elections. | <urn:uuid:4a3378a5-8284-42b1-99f6-bfaa12e67144> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.spokes.org.uk/wordpress/2010/09/cec-active-travel-action-plan/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950074 | 1,376 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Aug. 8, 2010 Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology have unraveled the mystery of why human embryonic stem (ES) cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells undergo programmed cell death (apoptosis) when cultured in isolation. By unlocking the potential of cell therapy techniques, the discovery promises new hope to sufferers of debilitating degenerative diseases.
Cell dissociation, a technique for isolating cells in procedures such as subcloning, poses one of the greatest obstacles to effective stem cell research due to its damaging effects on human ES cells. 99% of human ES cells cultured in this way are destroyed by an extensive apoptotic response that is curiously absent in mouse ES cells. Earlier research by the researchers uncovered that inhibition of a protein known as the Rho-associated kinase (ROCK) reduced this rate of cell death by 30%, yet fundamental questions remained about the mechanisms involved.
To answer these questions, the researchers applied live-cell imaging to the earliest phase of dissociation in human and mouse ES cells. Results revealed a striking contrast: whereas the mouse ES cells hardly moved, the human ES cells skittered about in a so-called "death dance," immediately sprouting finger-shaped bulges, known as blebs, which grew until the cells burst and died. The researchers traced this early-onset blebbing, whose duration and severity exceeded anything ever before observed, to the hyperactivation of myosin, a type of protein responsible for cell motility.
Contrary to expectation, the researchers went on demonstrate that it is this myosin hyperactivation, mediated by activation of the ROCK kinase, which is the direct cause of apoptosis in dissociated human ES cells, and not the blebbing itself. Further implicated in this process is the inhibition of another protein known for its role in cell motility, Rac, which together with ROCK activation strongly promotes myosin hyperactivation leading to cell death.
Reported in the journal Cell Stem Cell, these results provide a first ever comprehensive elucidation of mechanisms underlying dissociation-induced apoptosis in human ES cells. While vastly improving the efficiency of colony formation in dissociation culture, the findings also promise safer and more effective cellular therapy treatments for a range of debilitating degenerative diseases.
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
- Masatoshi Ohgushi, Michiru Matsumura, Mototsugu Eiraku, Kazuhiro Murakami, Toshihiro Aramaki, Ayaka Nishiyama, Keiko Muguruma, Tokushige Nakano, Hidetaka Suga, Morio Ueno. Molecular Pathway and Cell State Responsible for Dissociation-Induced Apoptosis in Human Pluripotent Stem Cells. Cell Stem Cell, 2010; 7 (2): 225 DOI: 10.1016/j.stem.2010.06.018
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead. | <urn:uuid:4490b8e1-b7b4-45b6-8ada-187513a300ac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100806125558.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917167 | 610 | 3.015625 | 3 |
The Ultimate Field Trip
An Astronaut's View of Earth
by Kathryn D. Sullivan, Ph.D.
Namib Desert [STS035-602-024]
The cloud bank that often hugs the coast of southwest Africa never drops rain on the Namib
Desert. But this coastal fog, produced by the temperature inversion
over the cold Benguela Current, frequently does penetrate the
valleys between the dunes. Recent studies indicate that tiny
flora and fauna have adapted to this "wet desert" by
developing mechanisms for retrieving their water supply from the
fog. Lacking such mechanisms, human beings have died of thirst
on this mountain-backed desert. Some of them were hunting for
diamonds deposited in these sands by geological processes that
remain a mystery. Their bones, the bones of shipwrecked sailors,
or more likely, the spars of their ships gave rise to the name
"Skeleton Coast." The skeletons may even have been
those of whales washed ashore. But it was not the rib-like dunes
that evoked the name; this portion of the coast of Africa was
called the Skeleton Coast long before such synoptic views as this
Why does someone who is nearing the end of 9 years of professional
preparation as a marine geologist turn away from the sea for a
Government aerospace job? In my case, it was because the job
was offered by NASA and held the almost incredible possibility
of getting to see our home planet from space with my own eyes.
In my mind, this was an opportunity no self-respecting Earth
scientist and explorer could pass up, so all the complex questions
usually involved in a major career change seemed quite simple.
After 13 years and two flights (or 209 revolutions and 4.8 million
miles), the wisdom of my course change is confirmed.
Kathy Sullivan's Hometown [STS039-89-062]
If you know your geography, you can track waterways and highways, parks and
airports, mountain peaks and city streets to locate your hometown
in a view from the Space Shuttle. In this color infrared view
of the Los Angeles Basin, you can follow the San Diego Freeway
from the Naval Station at Long Beach, past Los Angeles International
Airport and Marina del Rey, through the Santa Monica Mountains,
to the Ventura Freeway just south of the Sepulveda Dam Recreation
Area (the reddish patch in the San Fernando Valley); turn left
and go past Tarzana to the intersection with Topanga Canyon Blvd.;
this is the place our astronaut author calls home: Woodland Hills,
My role as a Mission Specialist aboard the Space Shuttle
gives me two exciting avenues for exploration on each mission.
On the one hand, I conduct experiments or observations on behalf
of a large team of scientists and engineers on the ground, in
essence serving as their hands, eyes, and ears in orbit. In many
respects I become part of the investigating team, sharing with
them the excitement of the science and the challenge of planning
and executing a complex mission. There's also a great responsibility
here, however, since space flights are unique and expensive scientific
opportunities. When an event or observation occurs only once
during a flight, the procedure must be done correctly the firstand
onlytime. A tremendous amount of training and preparation
is devoted to ensuring that all our procedures are correct and
that we are proficient at performing them. We also train ourselves
to get the job done on orbit even if one or two things have gone
wrong; you can't give up easily in the space business.
Well-Known Peninsula [STS51C-44-026]
You don't have to be a good geography student to recognize Florida in this astronauts'
view of their launch site. Cape Canaveral is the spit on the
Atlantic coast. Straight inland from it, within the central chain
of lakes, is Disney World. And on the Gulf side of the state
is Tampa Bay. The lakes are hollowed-out low spots in the limestone
that was laid down beneath an ancient sea. Such sinkholes in
this "karst" topography continue to open up, occasionally
swallowing houses. The chain of lakes culminates in the huge
Lake Okeechobee. You can see a large agricultural area (Florida
oranges?) just to the south of it. The surrounding Everglades
(where the alligators roam) lead us to Miami in the foreground.
The second avenue of exploration is quite different from
the first. Instead of the tremendous professional satisfaction
I get from succeeding at the formal tasks specified in my flight
plan, this one returns much more personal pleasure and insight.
I'm referring, of course, to the experience that originally
motivated me to apply to NASA: looking out my "office"
window at the Earth below.
Earth Sciences and Image Analysis
Earth Observations and Imaging Newsletter | <urn:uuid:52f86fc2-9fbf-48c4-9245-20df39dfe44e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/newsletter/uft/uft1.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928127 | 1,053 | 3.015625 | 3 |
NORTH LEVEL DISTRICT INTERNAL DRAINAGE BOARD
Fraud and Corruption Policy
One of the basic principles of public sector organisations is the proper use of public funds. It is
therefore important that all those working in the public sector are aware of the risk of wrongdoing and
the means of enforcing the rules against it. The aim of this document is to set out a policy and
response plan for the organisation for suspected or detected irregularities.
The Board is committed to a culture of honesty, openness and fairness. It is therefore also committed
to the elimination of any fraud and corruption and to the rigorous investigation of any such cases and
the punishment of those involved.
The Board actively encourages anyone having reasonable suspicion of irregularities to report them. It
is also the policy of the Board that no employee should suffer as a result of reporting reasonably held
The Board will always seek to recover fully all losses from those responsible in proven cases of fraud
or corruption including all costs incurred in the pursuit of action against them.
There is no offence in law of Fraud but the term encompasses criminal offences involving the use of
deception to obtain some benefit or to be to the detriment of some person or organisation.
Corruption, in its broadest sense, involves the taking of decisions for inappropriate reasons – e.g.
awarding a contract to a friend, appointing employees for personal reasons, or the giving or accepting
of gifts as an inducement to take some course of action on behalf of the organisation.
The Audit Commission defines Fraud as – “the intentional distortion of financial statements or other
records by persons internal or external to the authority which is carried out to conceal the
misappropriation of assets or otherwise for gain”.
Corruption is defined by the Commission as – “the offering, giving, soliciting or acceptance of an
inducement or reward which may influence the action of any person”.
DISCOVERY OF FINANCIAL IRREGULARITIES
Financial irregularities can come to light in a number of ways. They are usually discovered as a result
• Manual & Craft employees or Office Staff becoming aware of or suspecting that management
controls are not being complied with
• Routine work, or Audit testing
• Information (tip-off) from a third party, internal or external to the organisation.
Any allegation, but particularly an anonymous one, should be treated with caution and discretion,
because what appears to be suspicious circumstances may have a reasonable explanation. There is
also a risk that some reports may be malicious.
Under no circumstances should information about any suspected irregularity, be passed to a third
party or to the media without the express authority of the Chief Executive or Internal Auditor.
RESPONSIBILITY OF EMPLOYEES
Employees who are aware of, or suspect that a financial irregularity is taking place, or has taken place,
have a duty to report their suspicions, since by doing nothing they may be implicating themselves.
Employees who may feel uncomfortable referring suspicions to line managers are encouraged to
contact a senior Board Member or the Internal Auditor. If these reporting lines are unacceptable to an
employee, an alternative is available in the Board’s “Whistle Blowing Procedure”.
If an employee suspects that a financial irregularity of any type has occurred or is in progress, they
should immediately inform their line manager. The only exception to this rule is where the employee
suspects that the line manager might be involved in the irregularity. In that event, the employee should
advise the Chief Executive, Internal Auditor or a Senior Board Member.
Employees must not attempt to investigate suspected irregularities themselves, or discuss their
suspicions other than with more senior managers in accordance with the guidance above.
Examples of the types of financial irregularity that might be suspected are: -
• Theft or abuse of Board property or funds
• Deception or falsification of records (e.g. fraudulent time or expense claims)
RESPONSIBILITIES OF MANAGERS
It is Management’s responsibility to maintain system controls to ensure that the Board’s resources are
properly applied in the manner, on the activities, and within the limits approved. This includes
responsibility for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.
Where a manager receives a report from an employee or other party of a suspected financial
irregularity, they should immediately inform the Chief Executive, who in turn will notify the duly
appointed Internal Auditor.
Line Managers should not themselves attempt to undertake any detailed investigation of the possible
irregularity and should not discuss their suspicions or those reported to them, other than with the Chief
Executive and the Internal Auditor.
In cases of suspected irregularities, it is often necessary to suspend a suspect from duty. Before an
employee is suspended, advice should be sought from the Chief Executive. The purpose of
suspension is to prevent any suggestion of a suspect having the opportunity to continue with the act
complained of, falsify or destroy records, influence witnesses, etc. Suspension is not a punishment
nor does it imply any fault or guilt on the part of the employee concerned.
Upon receiving a report of suspected financial irregularity, the Internal Auditor will launch an
investigation and a record will be made in the Board’s Fraud Log. The Log will record all reported
suspicions including those dismissed as unsubstantiated, minor or otherwise not investigated. It will
also contain details of actions taken and conclusions reached. Significant matters will be reported to
the Board and the Chairman will be updated on the situation.
The Internal Auditor will confer with the Chief Executive to agree the action plan to be adopted in the
light of the particular circumstances.
When a prima facie case of fraud or corruption has been established, the following procedure will
apply regarding referral to the Police: -
• Minor cases of Misappropriation of Cash, etc.
In minor cases of suspected fraud and/or cash misappropriation by employees, as soon as
reasonable evidence has been acquired and speedy action is considered imperative in order to
prove fraud, the Internal Auditor may call in the Police without reference to other officers. He will
however advise the Chief Executive as soon as practicable afterwards.
• Major and More Complex Frauds:
The Internal Auditor will discuss the case with the Chief Executive, and consultation with the Police
will normally be approved.
Depending upon Police advice, the case will be reviewed by the above officers who will decide if it
should be referred officially to the Police for investigation. If it is decided to do so the Chief
Executive will authorise the official complaint and notify the Chairman of the Board.
Following the official report to the Police, any further investigations by the Internal Auditor that are
considered necessary, will be planned and executed in close co-operation with the Police, with the
Chief Executive and Chairman of the Board being kept informed.
The circumstances of the particular case will dictate when the Police and external auditors are
informed, but it is recommended that the Police should be informed when: -
• There is evidence of an irregularity which needs to be confirmed by witness interview if criminal
prosecution is contemplated;
• Interview of the suspect is desirable to confirm the evidence of records;
• A prima facie case of fraud has been established but the perpetrator could not be identified.
INVOLVING THE POLICE
Internal Auditors and Chief Executives may be reluctant to involve the Police in the belief that: -
• They are only interested if the alleged criminal offence is greater than a specific monetary value
• They will not be interested because of the potential complexity of the issues involved which render
little chance of a successful prosecution
• The organisation prefers to deal with such incidents internally, avoiding publicity but implementing
dismissal and recovery through civil action
• The Police will want hard evidence before they will pursue investigations, but when it is provided
they advise that the rules of evidence have not been complied with.
Protracted internal investigations often unnecessarily delay involving the Police, thereby diminishing
the value of co-operation with them. However, properly organised investigations, conducted by
individuals with an inside working knowledge of the organisation, will be of great assistance to any
subsequent Police enquiry, and management should therefore not be discouraged from liaising with
the Police as soon as the issues are identified.
Chief Executive 01733 270333
GP Internal Audit Services 07957 977614 | <urn:uuid:f6346021-0a83-4119-bb79-9ef835548572> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.northlevelidb.org/administration/procedures/fraud-and-corruption | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935164 | 1,778 | 1.914063 | 2 |
A Celebration of Our History
April 22 -- October 29, 2000
"Always remember that we were innocent..." --written in a final letter to her sons
Rosenberg and her husband Julius, a former engineer for the Army Signal Corps,
were convicted of providing atomic information to the Soviet Union--a case that
incited controversy among Americans who believed that the 1950s Cold War made
a fair trial impossible. During sentencing, the trial judge noted that Julius
was "the prime mover in this conspiracy," but that Ethel also was guilty:
"Instead of deterring him from pursuing his ignoble cause, she encouraged
and assisted [him].She was a full-fledged partner in his crime."
Numerous appeals--including those from Ethel herself, from the Pope and from the Rosenbergs' two sons--were written to President Eisenhower to commute their death sentence. Yet the President wrote "application denied" on February 11, 1953, and four months later, Ethel and Julius were executed in the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison.
According to a Special Report published in U.S. News & World Report, October 18, 1999, documents from the recently-opened KGB archives now confirm that Julius gave atomic secrets to Moscow. Ethel was "little more than a witness."
LETTER from Ethel Rosenberg to President Eisenhower begging for clemency,
POSTER depicts a photo of the Rosenberg children with their own letter to President Eisenhower
-- On loan from the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library-Museum, Abilene KS
"The Electric Chair Can't Kill the Doubts in the Rosenberg Case"
-- On loan from Special Collections, Michigan State University Libraries, East Lansing MI
(facsimile) of a cross-section of the atomic bomb, used by the prosecution in
the Rosenberg trial
MUGSHOT PHOTOS of Ethel Rosenberg
-- On loan from the National Archives Northeast Region, New York NY
(facsimile), Government Exhibit 33 produced by the prosecution to represent
the recognition signal supposedly devised by the Rosenbergs for the exchange
of atomic secrets between David Greenglass (Rosenberg's brother-in-law) and
--On loan from the National Archives Northeast Region, New York NY
|Return to the "From Fifties to Feminism, 1950-1990" index page|
the story--NEXT... ."Into the 21st Century, 1990 onward"
|From Colony to Country, 1600-1800||"From Prairie to Polls, 1870-1920"|
|From Growth to Civil War, 1800-1870||"From Jazz to War 1920-1950"|
|View an alphabetical list of all 106 women included in American Women! with links to photos and biographies for selected women|
|View a Thank You to over 100 lenders to Ameican Women!|
|Return to American Women! index page|
|Return to Hoover Library-Museum virtual exhibits page|
|Return to Hoover Library-Museum main index page| | <urn:uuid:26592366-06da-4230-a1da-dfd3492f7fb8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hoover.archives.gov/exhibits/AmericanWomen/fities-feminism/rosenberg.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927066 | 628 | 2.796875 | 3 |
In case you haven’t noticed, they are all around us! I even have one living in my house. Why should we be concerned about this? Because if you watch the Olympics you’ll see that the women athletes seem to be doing much better than the men. Fact: Women have won 53 percent of all U.S. medals this year. They comprise 44.4 percent of the athletes at this year’s Olympics, up from 26 percent just a few years ago.
As of this writing women outscore men 18-10 in U.S. gold medals. I couldn’t help but notice how many more people are watching women’s beach volleyball. Even I found it fascinating.
There is an explanation. As you perhaps know, I spend a great deal of time at my local gym. As a matter of fact on my last visit I actually burned off 23.5 calories, according to the computer on the machine that I was using. When I look over to the exercise room all I see are women kickboxing, practicing karate, and otherwise getting themselves into fantastic shape.
We now have women on the police force, in the fire department, Army, Navy, and even flying airplanes. My dentist is a woman and the doctor who operated on my wrists also was of the female gender. What next? Perhaps the presidency?
I watched the 20/20 news show one evening and learned that there are women billionaires now; one in particular was Lynn Tilton, who owns more companies than any woman in the United States — 75 at last count. Not that it matters, but she is a hot, single, 51-year-old entrepreneur. There are 10 more besides her just in the United States. (By way of disclosure, I have yet to reach my first billion).
I can’t help but notice all of the women with beautiful athletic legs jogging on Old Cutler Road each morning as I drive to work. (Hey, it’s better than talking on my cell phone or texting.)
Women seem to be surpassing men in the brains department as well. My own daughter is an accomplished attorney. That never would’ve happened in my day. At home, when my grandchildren come to visit I occasionally have a difference of opinion with my wife. The grandkids usually tell me to listen to her because she is smarter. At one time my wife and I argued about who was really in charge in my family. We decided to let our own grown children decide.
When the question was put before them they replied, “Mom of course. Why do you bother to ask?” My wife insists that I was really in charge because I made one decision in our 50 years of marriage that she disapproved of — installing tile flooring in my living room rather than carpeting. Yippee!
There was a time when I actually was the “man of the house.” That was before I attempted to do a simple thing like change a toilet seat in our bathroom. The bolts holding it were rusty so I simply tapped on one of them with a hammer and chisel in an attempt to break it loose. Instead the entire toilet split in half and dumped water all over our house. She screamed, “Why didn’t you call a plumber?”
How embarrassing would it be for a self-righteous male to call a plumber to replace a toilet seat? My smart —s lawyer/daughter suggested that I leave the house while my wife called the plumber. When I returned I could say,
“Why did you have to call a plumber? I could have done that myself!”
Short URL: http://www.communitynewspapers.com/?p=45018
Comments are closed | <urn:uuid:9ff85dae-c720-4539-a777-d93ea84c41ac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mobile.communitynewspapers.com/cutlerbay/if-you-havent-noticed-women-are-taking-over/comment-page-1/?wpmp_switcher=mobile | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98009 | 781 | 1.53125 | 2 |
(A WHO report shows that 3,35,805…)
NEW DELHI: It's not HIV/AIDS or any other disease which is the leading killer of productive youth across the globe but road accidents. A World Health Organization (WHO) report shows that 3,35,805 people in the 15-29 years age group succumb to road accident injuries annually and it's no different in India. At least 30% of road fatalities here are in this age group of 15-25.
The latest WHO data reveals that road traffic injuries is the second major reason of fatalities for people in the 5-14 age bracket globally and it's the third major reason of deaths in the 30-44 age group. The worst indicator of road fatalities is that more than half of the road traffic casualties are in the wage earning age group.
The detailed age profile of accident victims other than drivers during 2011 in India reveals that people in the 25-65 years age accounted for the largest share of 51.9% of total road accident casualties, followed by the age group 15-24 years with a share of 30.3%.
"The loss of the main earning member can be disastrous, leading to fall in income of the household and lower living standards," the latest report of road accidents in India compiled by the road transport and highways ministry said.
While India struggles to put a check on the number of fatalities, experts feel that the country can learn from others' experiences. Dr Etienne Krug, director of violence and injury prevention of WHO, said, "Countries which have made progress have done so with political will at the highest levels of government and a sustained focus on what works. Measures include identifying a lead agency for road safety; developing a comprehensive road safety strategy; and implementing concrete measures related to roads, vehicles and people's behavior. Responding to emergencies following a crash and ensuring justice for victims and their families are also key."
Experiences around the world have shown that after passing a motorcycle helmet law and strict enforcement, deaths from motor cycle accidents decreased by 30% in Malaysia and 21% in Thailand. Unfortunately, in India many states don't have helmet law applicable for all two-wheeler drivers and pillion riders.
Similarly, seat-belts have saved more lives than any other road safety intervention. After passage/ enforcement of seat belt law in UK, there was 35% reduction in hospital admissions and in Australia, car occupants' deaths dropped by 26%.
The other major intervention across the world has been strict enforcement of speed. For every 1km/hr increase in speed, there is a 3% increase in crash risk and a 5% increase in fatal crash risk.
WHO data from across the world also showed that separating traffic by creating exclusive motorcycle lanes reduced collisions and injuries. In Malaysia, there was a 39% reduction in crashes after this was tried. | <urn:uuid:d497df84-f741-49fe-a296-b939314cb4bf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-11-20/india/35227209_1_road-accidents-road-fatalities-road-safety | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963151 | 578 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in an interview Tuesday the U.S. may return to Benghazi — the site of the first death of a U.S. ambassador in a generation — if security conditions improve there.
“Whether or when we go back will depend upon the security situation, and what kind of a, you know, security support diplomats would have,” Clinton told Fox News’ Greta van Susteren when asked if the U.S. would return to Benghazi, where four Americans died in a Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens.
(PHOTOS: Hillary Clinton’s life, career)
According to a transcript provided by Fox News, Clinton said it was important for the U.S. to return to Benghazi, which was the starting point for much of the Libyan revolution that overthrew Muammar Qadhafi in 2011.
“This was the heart of the Libyan revolution,” Clinton said. “We knew that there were dangerous people in and around Benghazi. We also knew that there were a lot of loose weapons. And part of what we were doing there was trying to get leads on recovering those loose weapons. And we knew that there were smuggling routes that could go into Egypt, into Sinai, threaten Israel. So there were very important reasons why we were there, not just the State Department, but other government agencies.”
(Also on POLITICO: Clinton still deflecting 2016 questions)
Clinton also continued to condemn Congress for refusing to increase funding for diplomatic security.
“It’s not all a question of money,” she said. “I am the first to say that. You know, you have to have the right people and the right job, making the right decisions. But money is a factor. And ever since the Bush administration, our requests for security monies from Congress have not been met. So you’ve had to make priority decisions. And it’s been difficult. So I am determined to leave the State Department safer and stronger when I walk out the door. And I know that John Kerry will just pick up the ball and run with it.”
The Senate confirmed Kerry as Clinton’s successor earlier Tuesday in a 94-3 vote. | <urn:uuid:3fc54f52-5451-4088-a627-24cd8fb02537> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=E9613D89-3B55-4F90-A4E7-7E2E6622F8FA | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972397 | 474 | 1.59375 | 2 |