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PICU clinicalsRegister Today!
This is a discussion on PICU clinicals in PICU Nursing / Pediatric, part of Critical Care Nursing ... This is my last semester of nursing school and I'll like to give a good impression to my clinical...by araujojr Feb 5, '09This is my last semester of nursing school and I'll like to give a good impression to my clinical instructor. I was assigned at PICU for one week. How should I prepare myself for the PICU, what types of skills should I review. I heard from other students that my clinical instructor is very tough and expects us to know our stuff. I'm worried because I have never been in a unit with little people !!!! The PICU is a whole different world HELP
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- Feb 5, '09 by janfrnKnow pediatric vital signs norms. Know your respiratory assessment inside and out. Review growth and development to be able to predict behaviour and reactions to illness. Review pediatric drug doses for commonly administered drugs in the PICU: epinephrine, morphine, fentanyl, ketamine, furosemide, antibiotics, acetaminophen; know the formula for calculating fluid maintenance. That should get you through. | <urn:uuid:4a04a856-b43a-40c6-bb8c-d1f2e5bac741> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://allnurses.com/picu-nursing-pediatric/picu-clinicals-368021.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930707 | 311 | 1.945313 | 2 |
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Categories: Children, Medical, Overseas Aid, [ View All ]
NGO Hand of Help Charity Profile
Hand of Help, Cambodia is a non-profit organization, working in first- aid and disseminating knowledge about common diseases in Cambodia. This organization was founded in April, 2009. With our help Cambodian people being victim of any disease could receive a qualified treatment and care service free of charge. We aim is to reduce to the minimum the deaths due to malaria, dengue fever, typhoid fever or any other virus.
Also we help people who was suffered from bite of snakes. We teach health officers how to use the antivenin and identify the snakes . We also print posts and organize seminars for local people.
To save people lives.
To ensure an ongoing supply of the most necessary vaccines to the impoverished
corners of Cambodia;
To construct urgent medical assistance posts in the furthest corners of Cambodia;
To gather funds to support the construction of new hospitals in various regions of Cambodia; | <urn:uuid:9664cf02-644f-4207-8577-f639c3fdf3f5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.charity-charities.org/Cambodia-charities/PreahSihanouk-1620528.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925146 | 212 | 1.976563 | 2 |
The state of your world - Contribute to the 2011 State of the World's Children Report
What is the state of your world? Contribute to the 2011 State of the World's Children - UNICEF's flagship publication!
• UNICEF is seeking quotes and essays from adolescents (10-19 years old)
The State of the World’s Children (SOWC) has been UNICEF’s flagship publication for 30 years, and every year it closely examines a key issue affecting children. The report is translated into several languages and read by thousands of people in governments, the United Nations, media and the general public. This year the report will focus on adolescents – like you!
The report will include statistics and information about the challenges and opportunities facing adolescents around the world. You can read more about previous editions of the SOWC at http://www.unicef.org/sowc/.
More info is also here | <urn:uuid:ec5e1b08-b330-4187-a029-7264cd037b8d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.unicef.org/ceecis/media_14562.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922819 | 196 | 2.078125 | 2 |
We all want our children to become sensitive adults. Learning to be sensitive begins early. You can help your child become more sensitive to those around her right now.
One way to teach sensitivity is to talk with your child about it. If she is good at playing ball, ask her how she would feel if she were the last one chosen for the team. Ask who is the last person chosen at her preschool or in her kindergarten class and see if she knows why. You’re helping her understand how other children feel who aren’t as athletic as she is.
Another way is to tell her a story and ask questions. You might talk about Amy riding in the car pool who had a birthday party and is talking about all of the kids who had such a great time. Ask her how she thinks Mary Beth, who also is in the car, might feel hearing about the party when she hadn’t been invited.
You make up the scenes. Or read the newspaper and talk about the stories you read. Or watch what is happening around you. Ask her about the little girl whose mommy got angry with her in the store. See how she thinks the little girl might have felt. Listen to her response, don’t judge her response, pay attention to what she is saying and remember she is learning from your conversation how to be a sensitive human being.
Cynthia Martin is the founder of the First Teacher program and now director of Parenting Matters Foundation. The foundation publishes newsletters for parents, caregivers and grandparents. Reach Martin at firstname.lastname@example.org or at 681-2250. | <urn:uuid:8ed43187-aae9-4a8e-90d3-e8a5e5ac76b2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://classified@sequimgazette.com/schools/article.exm/2011-01-05_teaching_sensitivity | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982199 | 331 | 3.171875 | 3 |
A sustainable airport group
Swedavia is a state-owned group that owns, operates and develops eleven airports across Sweden. Swedavia also owns Göteborg City Airport and is a minority owner in the company that operates the airport.
Our role is to create the access Sweden needs to facilitate travel, business and meetings – in Sweden, in Europe and around the world. Safe, satisfied passengers are the foundation of our business. Swedavia is a world leader in developing airports with the least possible environmental impact. The Group has revenue of approximately 5 billion Swedish kronor and 2,600 employees.
- We think beyond airports and want to make it easier for people to meet
- We are part of both national and international mass transit
- We carry out business development based on the needs of our passengers and other customers
2012 in brief
- A total of 32.4 million passengers flew via one of Swedavia’s airports in 2012, an increase of 2.7 per cent
- Net revenue totalled SEK 4,965 M (4,693)
- On June 29, Swedavia acquired buildings from SAS for SEK 1,775 M
- All ten airports in Sweden’s national basic infrastructure are certified by Airport Carbon Accreditation at the highest standard for climate work. Of the total 14 certified airports in Europe, ten are now operated by Swedavia
- Operating profit was SEK 831 M (781) | <urn:uuid:09419001-6ecf-4c98-9ef0-35b9a450c413> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.swedavia.com/about-swedavia/this-is-swedavia/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962465 | 294 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Last week, in The Bilingual Education Debate: Part I, we looked at the history of the bilingual education movement and several different approaches that teachers use to teach limited-English-speaking students. We hinted at some of the bilingual education issues that are the subject of today's heated debate...
In the heated controversy over bilingual education, the most determined opponents and proponents agree on one vital point: The ultimate goal of any approach is for students to become proficient in the English language.
A cornerstone of the case for bilingual education is the assertion, by well-known University of Southern California professor Stephen Krashen and others, that bilingual education is simply the most effective method for fostering the acquisition of English. The immersion approach, in which children who are not proficient in English are placed in the same classroom as native English-speaking children, is not effective by itself, Krashen and other linguistics researchers maintain. Based on their research, they assert that the quality -- not the quantity -- of English-language exposure is the primary factor in language acquisition. According to Krashen's research, the second-language input must be comprehensible in order for students to learn that language. And research by E. E. Garcia, for example, suggests that bilingual programs may serve as "a linguistic enrichment with possible cognitive advantages."
Children in "properly designed" bilingual education programs learn English quickly and meet grade-level standards in English and mathematics in three to five years, according to a 1987 study commissioned by the California Association for Bilingual Education (CABE). The report says that data from 25 schools in seven California districts dispute the claim that bilingual programs slow the acquisition of English and keep children out of the mainstream longer.
Yet other organizations, such as the Center for Equal Opportunity (CEO), oppose key aspects of many bilingual education programs. Describing many bilingual programs, the CEO states that "students who don't speak English are locked away in special programs that try to maintain native languages rather than teach English, often without their parents consent."
A CEO report titled "The Importance of Learning English," which included a survey of 600 Hispanic parents of school-age children, showed that 63 percent of Hispanic parents prefer that their children be taught English as soon as possible and 81.3 percent want their children to be taught academic subjects in English. Based on these results, Linda Chavez, president of CEO, has said English-immersion programs will better serve students than current bilingual programs.
Opponents of bilingual education programs often harken back to the early 1900s, when children of immigrants entered schools in large numbers and being raised in a bilingual home was seen as harming school success. At that time, children were discouraged from speaking their native language at school. English immersion was the order of the day, and critics of bilingualism maintain, students who did not speak English readily learned it and entered the educational mainstream.
In "The Politics of Bilingual Education Revisited," an article excerpted from her book The Failure of Bilingual Education, Dr. Rosalie Pedalino Porter takes a position opposing bilingual education and supporting a type of English-language immersion.
"I see a definite trend across the country toward replacing the failed bilingual education programs with special English-language instruction, giving these students the means to gain entry into the school community quickly and effectively instead of segregating them for years in separate classes," says Dr. Porter.
While some communities have replaced bilingual programs with programs that lean more toward English immersion, bilingual education continues to have support from the community and school officials in school districts such as Houston and San Francisco, according to James J. Lyons, executive director of the National Association for Bilingual Education, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group. But recent decisions in other districts in Massachusetts, California, and Connecticut show a tendency to allow schools to offer alternatives to bilingual education.
At the same time, California legislators in 1997 failed to pass a controversial bilingual education bill designed to make school districts more accountable for the performance of students with limited English proficiency. Some observers said that lack of action by the legislature is backfiring, fueling an ongoing petition drive for a state ballot measure to end bilingual education throughout California.
In a time of shrinking budgets and a scarcity of truly bilingual teachers, controversy over bilingual programs often focuses on how much the student learns in his native language and how long the student stays in a given program.
A recent plan to transform Denver's bilingual education program left school officials at odds with Hispanic community activists. School officials maintained the program was not reaching its goal -- to teach students English so they could succeed in mainstream classes. Officials said students who require bilingual education, including instruction in their native language, would still receive it under the proposed overhaul. However, introducing students to English faster and moving them into all-English classes after three years would be emphasized. About 20 percent of 64,000 students in the district have limited proficiency in English; most of those students are Spanish speaking.
Yet members of the Latino Education Coalition, an umbrella group of Denver-area Hispanic groups, said the problem in Denver was not with the program itself but with poor implementation and lack of support for the program. The proposed plan, coalition members said, would harm children by harming the bilingual program.
Last fall, the U.S. Education Department's office of civil rights further complicated the picture in Denver by declaring that the city's bilingual education program violated civil rights laws because its classes weren't as challenging as classes for general education students. The OCR dubbed the school district's plan to remedy the problem "insufficient" and threatened to hold back some or all of the city's $30 million a year in federal aid if the plan isn't changed to meet the regulators' requirements.
Research into bilingual programs presents its own problems. "Research on the effectiveness of bilingual education remains in dispute, because program evaluation studies -- featuring appropriate comparison groups and random assignment of subjects or controls for pre-existing differences -- are extremely difficult to design," states James Crawford, who has researched and written extensively about bilingual education. "Moreover, there is considerable variation among the pedagogies, schools, students, and communities being compared. While numerous studies have documented the benefits of bilingual programs, much of this research has faced methodological criticisms..."
Despite disagreements on the effectiveness of bilingual education, and conflicting interpretations of research on the subject, Crawford maintains that "a consensus of applied linguists recognizes that the following propositions have strong empirical support:
The debate goes on, with reason and emotion playing key roles. Some observers suggest that parents and educators don't yet have the information they need to make a good decision about bilingual programs. Debbie Reese in The Controversy Over Bilingual Education, suggests that "Further research will be necessary to determine which strategies are most effective in helping children from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds succeed in school."
A 1997 press release from a committee of the National Research Council states that political debates over how children with limited English skills should be taught actually hamper research and evaluation of programs designed to meet the needs of these children. The committee said using research to determine whether English-only or bilingual instruction is better doesn't work. Instead of selecting one instructional method for all students with limited English skills, the committee recommended that research focus on identifying a variety of educational approaches that work for children in their communities, based on local needs and available resources.
"In recent years, studies quickly have become politicized by advocacy groups selectively promoting research findings to support their positions," said Kenji Hakuta, committee chair and professor of education at Stanford University. "Rather than choosing a one-size-fits-all program, the key issue should be identifying those components, backed by solid research findings, that will work in a specific community."
Article by Sharon Cromwell
Copyright © 1998 Education World
LINKS TO BILNGUAL EDUCATION RESOURCES ON THE NET | <urn:uuid:db4e2ae0-3200-45ba-b9d7-dc24b8096883> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr049.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958701 | 1,608 | 3.34375 | 3 |
McKINLEY RELATIVE MARRIED.; Miss Mary Barber, Niece of the President's Widow, a Bride at Canton, Ohio.
CANTON, Ohio, Dec. 30 -- Miss Mary Barber, eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. M.C. Barbor, this evening became the wife of Major Ralph Hartzell. The ceremony was performed at the commodious old Saxton homestead, formerly the home of the McKinleys, now occupied by the Barbers, and was witnessed by Mrs. McKinley. | <urn:uuid:c43a3ef0-6507-49ce-b215-89fec2371fa3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9803E6DF1F3DEE32A25752C3A9649D946397D6CF | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963782 | 110 | 1.515625 | 2 |
First, what is a GTUG?
GTUGs are for developers who are interested in Google's developer technology; everything from the Android, App Engine, and Google Chrome platforms, to product APIs like the YouTube API and the Google Calendar API.A GTUG can take many forms -- from just a few people getting together to watch our latest video, to large gatherings with demos and tech talks, to events like code sprints and hackathons. However, at the core, GTUGs are focused on developers and technical content, and the core audience should be developers.
A GTUG is...
- Run by passionate individuals in the developer community
- A place to learn about Google's developer platforms and tools (developers.google.com)
- A place to see what local companies and developers are doing with these technologies
- Focused on developers and educational technical content
- Open to the public with a public membership
- A place to meet cool and smart people in tech :)
- Run by a corporation
- A place to hear a very salesy pitch at any time
- Focused on end users or consumer content
- A closed group
Everything check out? Okay then, onward!
Make sure you've checked the chapter list and see that no other chapters are in your area. (If there is one, great! Contact the organizer and join in the fun.)
- Decide on a short and catchy name. The de-facto standard that
ended up using is of the form <general location> GTUG. So if you
are located in Berlin Germany, it could be Berlin GTUG, or something
similar. The location doesn't have to be a city name, but, it should have a local meaning. For example, we have the Silicon Valley GTUG which has local meaning in the San Francisco Bay Area.
- As a general rule, you should not name your chapter after too large a region, like a state or country.
We're currently going through some changes in the program. During this time, we will not be accepting any new chapter applications. Please check back in December. Thanks!
Still have questions or feedback?
- Fill out a New Chapter Application and please include city and country for mapping purposes (it's pretty short, promise).
- In the meantime, check out the wiki for all the shared best practices and tips for running a user group.
Contact admin [at] gtugs [dot] org. | <urn:uuid:17bbca87-2786-42aa-9632-61857d753b6b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wiki.gtugs.org/so-you-want-to-start-a-gtug | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926098 | 509 | 1.570313 | 2 |
The Transportation Technology Center is a field test site for the railroad transportation industry, located in a remote site in the plains of central Colorado. It is probably the largest railway R&D center in the country, with over 48 miles of dedicated, looped track for developing and testing rolling stock, and for recreating accidents in order to understand their dynamics. It also has other test facilities used to develop new technologies related to the railway industry, including high-bay engineering buildings with vibration rigs, model railroads used for testing, engineering and metallurgical labs, and impact walls for full-scale crash tests. Emergency and hazardous spill response are also developed at the TTC. The TTC is owned and operated by the Association of American Railroads, a railway industry trade organization. The AAR also owns the Bureau of Explosives, an explosives transportation organization which operates at the Transportation Technology Center.
Transportation Technology Center | <urn:uuid:11a3c7e8-53ed-44fb-b424-c3a8fcba8519> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://clui.org/ludb/site/transportation-technology-center | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960636 | 181 | 2.390625 | 2 |
Donaldson Acoustics Company is Celebrating its 100th Anniversary
By: Thomas G. Dolan
The Donaldson Acoustics Company, Inc., based in Hauppauge, N.Y., with an additional office on Madison Avenue in New York City, was founded in 1906 and has grown into one of the largest interior contracting firms in the United States providing lath, plaster, ornamental plaster, spray-on fireproofing, acoustical and metal ceilings, drywall, carpentry and architectural millwork services. The company has long been in the forefront of northeast construction, and the New York City skyline especially reflects its long substantial history of producing great interior landscapes in magnificent structures.
The company has provided interior finishes on such prestigious structures as the Museum of Modern Art, Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Lipstick Building, JFK Terminals 1 and 4, Times Office Tower plus corporate headquarters for IBM, Morgan Stanley, Random House, CitiBank, Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers and many of the major hospitals, malls, hotels, schools and colleges built in the metropolitan area.
Robert Tanic Donaldson started the company a century ago in his New York City garage, doing lathing, plaster and ornamental plaster. His son, James Clements Donaldson Sr., a World War II veteran and Normandy invasion participant, with his son James Clements Donaldson Jr., took the business into Long Island and helped build more than 400 schools there in the post-war building boom period.
The founder’s youngest grandson, Duane Robert Donaldson (Bob), a Long Island University business graduate, started in the business in 1968. He returned the focus of the business to New York City in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and grew the annual volume 20-fold. In 1996 he became president, CEO and 100 percent stockholder. At age 55, he is still president and CEO, while his son, representing the fourth generation, Douglas Robert Donaldson, who will be 33 in May, is executive vice president and also part owner.
Donaldson says preparation, effort and passion for your people and your clients are the must-have ingredients for building a successful business. Good, solid management is the food for growth.
All management programs must be based on truth and undeniable facts. These programs must stand up to the tests of time. Once the field and the inside know that truth and fairness will support their positions, a camaraderie of purpose develops throughout the company. Once this purpose becomes the fabric of your company, hold on and prepare to improve your management skills because your company will take you to heights you only dreamed of, says President Donaldson.
He continues, "We do massive projects, in the range from $100,000 up to $25 million. We might be doing four to five projects of great magnitude at any one time, with the total annual number of projects about 50.” The range of employees at any one time ranges from 400 to 800, including subcontractors.
A key dynamic in the success of the company is managing so many projects of this size and complexity. The way he does it, Donaldson says, is through a strict compartmentalization of different disciplines. "We have a true separation of the estimating, sales, purchasing, operations, accounting and administration departments,” he explains. "This compartmentalization simplifies the manager’s ability to properly allocate responsibilities; probably the hardest goal to achieve in building a business structure.”
"Large job management structure is our forte,” Donaldson says. We spare no management investment. In addition to myself and/or my son overlooking the progress, usually an account executive with a project manager and assistant is allocated to a large project. Also, a field supervisor with a general foreman oversees the employee’s installation, constantly monitoring productions and quality. This is the hierarchy we maintain and how we coordinate size and complexity,” Donaldson says.
To keep landing these important jobs, Donaldson says, "We have to work day and night to please our clients. We have to deliver what we promise on time and do what we say we are going to do. That’s the only way to build trust. Once trust is built, your reputation develops and the securing of prestigious projects gets easier.”
On the other hand, Donaldson says, "One of the things we learned along the way is that we have to be cognizant of whom we’re doing business with. We don’t want to do business with just anybody.” Since, as a subcontractor, his main business is done with the general contractors and construction managers, he says, he wants to do business with those general contractors and construction managers "who are trying to deliver value to their customers.” If the builders do not maintain high standards, Donaldson continues, that will negatively impact his company. Also, he adds, "When I was younger, I was always trying to figure out what the competition was doing. Then I finally decided I should just focus on doing the best I could. Now my competition is trying to figure out what I do.
One might assume that with a company of Donaldson’s size, cash flow concerns are a non-issue. Not so, Donaldson says.
"Cash flow is critical and it must be managed proficiently or disaster is around the corner. For this reason we have monthly cash flow meeting managed by the executive vice president, with the CFO, head of operations and his staff in attendance.
"Though one of my basic business tenets is ‘great management makes great companies,’ you must sweat the details, especially with cash flow to be successful.”
Once a job is closed, the first priority in cash management is the proper negotiation of the contract language regarding timely payment, requisition process, retention, change order process and final payment.
"It’s your duty, he says, "to negotiate these items to the best of your ability and to your company’s benefit. Certainly a prompt payment schedule is desirable; however, a trade payment breakdown approval is mandatory. Retention reduction should always be reduced upon 50-percent completion of your project, and a diligent change order process is paramount. Finally, make sure your final payment is not held up due to unnecessary arcane restraints.”
Further mention should be made of the change order process. Donaldson says, "On large-scale projects, changes could number in the thousands of dollars, with impacts in the millions. All subcontractors have to control this process positively or else it could be financially disastrous. Make sure all changes are put in writing and a change order is processed within a certain number of days (at most, 60 days from receipt of bill by your client). Then this change order should be requisitioned as soon as approval is secured. This process is cumbersome at best, and all subs must concentrate on the process to make it as streamlined as possible. If you produce a quality product on time, you deserve to get paid on time.”
A company wanting to grow always must address new markets. Donaldson offers this advice: "[New markets] might be geographical or service oriented in nature. However, whatever new market you decide to address, make sure you’re more than properly capitalized, you have prepared, prepared and then prepared more, and you have the stomach and fortitude to handle problems you never prepared for.
"Markets should be aimed at supporting weaknesses in your existing markets. This will smooth out your economical journey.
"Construction is a hard, gut-wrenching business, but it’s my experience that if you fully support worthwhile people throughout the construction process, most will ultimately succeed and become leaders themselves and perpetuate the process.
"This feeling of inspiration and fulfillment as I watch these young dynamic leaders forge their path leaves me content in knowing that Donaldson Acoustics is in good hands for the next 100 years.” | <urn:uuid:672a10a7-0253-44c9-9a1e-d4958ac267bf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.awci.org/cd/archiveArticles.pl?id=547&acat=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957652 | 1,655 | 1.59375 | 2 |
If you have any public domain photographs of historical interest to donate, whether scanned or printed please contact the webmaster and your submission will be credited if it is displayed on this site.
"New Bedford Fifty Years Ago "
Recollections by Maude Mendall Nelson
The first edition was written in 1913 and this book has anecdotes from the era of her youth spent in New Bedford in the early 1860's to 1881. This is a rare copy of the very limited second edition published in 1921. | <urn:uuid:b8575167-dd1b-40ab-a81d-697703155b76> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.whalingcity.net/book_mmn_pt2_chpt_1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937477 | 101 | 1.882813 | 2 |
State Capitol News
Fri September 18, 2009
Ability to form corporations may be halted
By Howard Fischer
Phoenix, AZ – The problem is an outgrowth of the fight over the budget.
Lawmakers approved a plan to make the incorporating division of
the state Corporation Commission self funding: It could keep the
more than $200,000 a month it gathers in fees to run the
operation. But the provision was in the same bill as repeal of
the state property tax. And the only way Gov. Jan Brewer could
reject the repeal was to veto the entire bill. Brewer said
lawmakers could fix the problem in special session.
(There's no controversy about them whatsoever at all. They're the
same budgets. Everybody agrees that funding is not a problem. So,
we could go in, they could waive the rules, they could get it
done in a day.)
But House Speaker Kirk Adams said the commission could probably
wait until lawmakers return in January. And if not, Adams said
the governor could give the agency some stimulus funds. That
angered commission chair Kris Mayes.
(We don't need stimulus money. We just need authorizing language
that would allow us to use the money we're bringing in. I mean,
it seems ridiculous to use stimulus money when we have the money.
All we need is language that was in that budget bill that got
Mayes said if there's no action soon the processing of paperwork
to let corporations do business here will slow within days, and
eventually grind to a halt. For Arizona Public Radio this is | <urn:uuid:e6b23fe6-8ef1-4b09-ad74-a0fb3d72635e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://knau.org/post/ability-form-corporations-may-be-halted | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949231 | 330 | 1.554688 | 2 |
The Concept of Citation Indexing: Unique and Innovative Tool for Navigating the Research Literature
This essay was originally published in the Current Contents print editions January 3, 1994
This is my first Current Contents® (CC®) essay under the rubric of Citation Comments. As discussed in last week's CC, this new monthly feature will focus on the applications of the Institute for Scientific Information®'s (now Thomson Reuters) databases. 1 An appropriate topic to launch this new series is perhaps the most rudimentary — the basic concept of citation indexing.
To start, it is important to clarify the terminological distinction between "citation" and "reference". In his classic book Little Science, Big Science, Derek Price gave a clear definition of both terms. He said: "It seems to me a great pity to waste a good technical term by using the words citation and reference interchangeably. I therefore propose and adopt the convention that if Paper R contains a bibliographic footnote using and describing Paper C, then R contains a reference to C, and C has a citation from R. The number of references a paper has is measured by the number of items in its bibliography as endnotes, footnotes, etc., while the number of citations a paper has is found by looking it up [in a] citation index and seeing how many others papers mention it." 2 (p. 284)
In a nutshell, citations symbolize the conceptual association of scientific ideas as recognized by publishing research authors. 3 By the references they cite in their papers, authors make explicit linkages between their current research and prior work in the archive of scientific literature. These conceptual associations have been described by Robert Merton, Manfred Kochen, and other scholars as intellectual transactions, formal acknowledgments of "intellectual debt" to an earlier source of information. 4, 5 That is, explicit references imply that an author has found useful a particular published theory, method, or other finding.
Thomson Reuters databases index these intellectual transactions by listing both the cited and citing works. (That is, the cited work is a paper or book that has been mentioned in the references of other works, while the citing work is the one that contains the references.) The citation indexes were originally designed primarily for information retrieval. Mainly but not exclusively through citation connections, the databases enable you to navigate the literature in unique ways. As a result, you are able to locate relevant papers independent of language, title words, or author keywords. A variety of citation-based search strategies are available, including bibliographic coupling or linking of papers through shared references (Related Records®) 6, KeyWords Plus® ,7 8, and others.
Unique Advantages of Citation Indexes
The Thomson Reuters databases differ from traditional indexing and abstracting services in several ways. From the outset, the Science Citation Index®(SCI®), Social Sciences Citation Index® (SSCI®),and Arts & Humanities Citation Index® (A&HCI®) have been multidisciplinary. They cover virtually all disciplines whereas traditional services are limited to a single field.
The advantages of a multidisciplinary index can be exemplified by the work of Nobelist Harold C. Urey. Published in Science in 1962, "Lifelike forms in meteorites" described the chemical compounds they contained that were essential to the formation of life on earth under the right conditions. 9 This paper deserved to be indexed in a variety of single-discipline databases. But more importantly, citations to this paper have appeared in a large variety of journals in astrophysics, biology, cosmology, chemistry, earth sciences, geochemistry, and so on.
Thomson Reuters indexes are also comprehensive, providing complete coverage of all types of published source items--not just original research papers, review articles, and technical notes but also letters, corrections and retractions, editorials, and other items. Thomson Reuters studies have shown that these latter items are important, have substantial impact, and provide useful links to scientific issues and controversies.
As stated at the outset and perhaps most importantly, Thomson Reuters uniquely indexes the references cited by these source items. This gives you the ability to perform prospective as well as retrospective searches of the literature. Like other indexes, Thomson Reuters databases allow you to move back in time to locate previously published papers. But Thomson Reuters databases uniquely allow you to move forward in time—to determine who has subsequently cited an earlier work. Thus, by starting with a single paper or book, you can identify whatever additional papers have referred to it. And each retrieved paper, in turn, may provide a new list of references with which to continue the citation search.
Authoritative, Timely, In-Depth Access to the Literature
It is important to stress that the citation-based associations and connections within the literature are made by authors themselves. Traditional indexes typically rely on human subject specialists to categorize and describe papers, usually using controlled vocabularies or thesauri.
A potential drawback of the latter method is illustrated in my early experience in compiling a list of references on "general adaptation syndrome." Out of a sample of papers published in a five-year period, 23 had cited Hans Selye's primordial paper. 10 But even though all 23 were indexed in Index Medicus, not one was listed under the MeSH heading, "Adaptation."
Another shortcoming of human indexing is that there is an inevitable delay due to the time required to read or scan the papers and make subjective judgments about relevant descriptors. In short, timeliness is reduced. In contrast, citation indexing does not involve this type of analysis, which enables the SCI, SSCI, and A&HCI to be virtually concurrent with the literature.
In addition, due to the expense of human indexing, traditional indexes limit the number of terms. But in Thomson Reuters citation indexes, all cited references are indexed. Since the typical research paper today contains from 25 to 35 references, the resulting number of index entries is correspondingly high. Indeed, citing papers provide useful indexing "statements" or descriptors through the papers they cite.
Citations as Indexing Statements
Thanks to a suggestion by Chauncey Leake in the 1950s, I conducted a thorough analysis of review articles and their cited references. By doing what today would be called context analysis, I soon discovered that the sentences in the review articles were actually detailed, descriptive indexing statements about papers or books they cited.
Several years before ISI® (now Thomson Reuters) was founded, this basic notion was further developed with Robert L. Hayne when we both were at Smith, Kline and French Labs in the 1950s. Through large test samples, we concluded that the titles of papers cited in reviews and other articles were sufficient to add useful descriptive words and phrases to the citing paper. This was later confirmed in studies by A. J. Harley, as Irv Sher and I recently reported.11, 12
In 1990, ISI (now Thomson Reuters) was able to introduce this citation-based method of derivative (algorithmic) subject indexing, called KeyWords Plus®. 7, 8 In addition to title words, author-supplied keywords, and/or abstract words, KeyWords Plus supplies words and phrases to enhance these other descriptors and thereby retrievability. These KeyWords Plus terms are derived from the titles of cited papers, which have been algorithmically processed to identify the most-commonly recurring words and phrases.
In the space available, it is not possible to stress all the innovative advantages of citation indexing for information retrieval or to illustrate in detail the variety of search strategies it makes possible. While future Citation Comments will address these topics, it is perhaps more important to stress here why scientists should get into the habit of literature searching. One of the more obvious reasons is to avoid the unwitting duplication of research and the wasted time, effort, and funds this involves.
For example, in 1964, John Martyn, Aslib Research Department, London, showed how unintentional duplication is related to ignored or missed sources in the literature.13 He surveyed about 650 British scientists and asked if they had later discovered information in the literature they wished they had at the beginning of their projects. Twenty-two percent said yes and cited 245 specific instances. Of these, 18 percent involved unintentional research duplication. And in 43 percent of these instances, the researchers felt that time, money, or work was wasted.
I've always believed that authors should be held by journal editors to the same "due diligence" standards required of inventors by patent offices. That is, authors should formally assert and verify that their ideas are original and do not replicate discoveries already reported in the archives. Consequently, they should be required to acknowledge the "prior art" that directly or indirectly influenced their research.
In my opinion, the problem begins with teaching. Too few colleges require undergraduates to learn how to search the literature. But with proper mentoring, students should come to graduate schools already conditioned to do "prior art" searching—and practice these techniques throughout their careers, whether in academia or industry.
Dr. Eugene Garfield
Founder and Chairman Emeritus, ISI
1. Garfield E. From Current Comments® to Citation Comments: continuing a 31-year series of Current Contents® essays with a new focus. Current Contents (51/52):3-5, 20-27 December 1993.
2. Price D. J. D. Little science, big science...and beyond. New York: Columbia University Press, 1986. 301 p.
3. Small H. G. Cited documents as concept symbols. Soc. Stud. Sci. 8:327-40, 1978.
4. Merton R. K. Foreword. (Garfield E) Citation indexing—its theory and application in science, technology, and the humanities. Philadelphia: ISI Press®, 1983. p. vi.
5. Kochen M. How do we acknowledge intellectual debts? J. Doc. 43:54-64, 1987.
6. Garfield E. Announcing the SCI® Compact Disc Edition: CD-ROM gigabyte storage technology, novel software, and bibliographic coupling make desktop research and discovery a reality. Current Contents® (22):3-13, 30 May 1988. (Reprinted in: Essays of an information scientist: science literacy, policy, evaluation, and other essays. Philadelphia: ISI Press®, 1990. Vol. 11. p. 160-70.)
7. ---------- KeyWords Plus®: ISI®'s breakthrough retrieval method. Part 1. Expanding your searching power on Current Contents on Diskette®. Current Contents (32):5-9, 6 August 1990. (Reprinted in: Ibid., 1991. Vol. 13. p. 295-9.)
8. ----------KeyWords Plus takes you beyond title words. Part 2. Expanded journal coverage for Current Contents on Diskette includes social and behavioral sciences. Current Contents (33):5-9, 13 August 1990. (Reprinted in: Ibid., 1991. Vol. 13. p. 300-4.)
10. Selye H. General adaptation syndrome. J. Clin. Endocrinol. 6:117-230, 1946.
11. Gray W. A. & Harley A. J. Computer assisted indexing. Inform. Storage Retrieval 7:167-74, 1971.
12. Garfield E. & Sher I. H. KeyWords Plus—algorithmic derivative indexing. J. Amer. Soc. Inform. Sci. 44:298-9, 1993.
13. Martyn J. Unwitting duplication of research. New Sci. 21:338, 1964. | <urn:uuid:d44bb8e2-1d8d-48f6-a05d-261459c14e9e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thomsonreuters.com/products_services/science/free/essays/concept_of_citation_indexing/?view=Standard | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921166 | 2,413 | 2.671875 | 3 |
PART 1 of 3
February 28, 2012
[Note: From the book How to Survive Your Parents. Print, download and Kindle versions of book available through FHU website.]
One of the most dangerous things you can do to a child's mind is to mold his character. In fact, everything that is wrong with us stems from others' shaping influences on our minds in our formative years. If only we knew how to be ourselves, there could be no unsolvable problems. Conflicts have arisen and problems have appeared just from us not being ourselves. It is just that simple!
So the question arises, how did we forget to be ourselves? And the answer is: because of the pressure and the corruption of a childhood conditioning process—"culture," in other words. Culture is like a prevailing disease against which the individual must become uniquely immune if he is to survive. This may come as a surprise to you, but the hand that rocks the cradle also holds the key to the perpetuation of culture.
Children were not designed to be performing circus beasts, conditioned by trainers for the pleasure-taking of the system. They are little people whose rights and spiritual needs must be properly understood and fulfilled. Now, I am not saying that parents should give up disciplining their children. I am saying that parents should remember that children are people, not beasts. Children differ from the wild beasts in that they have souls; thus, different rules must apply in rearing them.
A different kind of love than that which brings children into the world is required if you are to bring up an emotionally stable family. Animal "love" merely pro-creates animal bodies, but Divine love breathes life into the souls which live in them.
Superhuman perception, energy and endurance are needed if you are to bear the outrages of other egos. Survive the ravages of your mother, your marriage-partner and your kids, and you will surely know the meaning of happiness. Just think of it this way: without mad bulls there would be no good matadors. The point is that un-less you learn to properly cope with the cruel stresses of life, you cannot grow in understanding.
It is the father's duty to lead his entire family to the Divine Source of their existence. Woman is only the source of the fallen, natural existence. Uncanny wisdom must be applied in dealing with her. Improperly regarded, she can be as lethal as a poisonous snake; loved and understood, she can be more precious than rubies.
The mother as lover and central figure in the home is a manipulator, seducer and destroyer, who knows not what she does.
Children depend on mother's warmth and charms to sustain their "rising fallen natures," which she gave them. But at a certain phase father is duty-bound to save them from her clammy, "loving" grasp. It is father who should be lover and center of family fascination, not mother. Everything should revolve around him; if it doesn't, God help you!
Unlike the lower animals, man has two natures which war with one another for ascendancy. This dual-nature must be considered in rearing children.
A body is born from a body, and a spirit from a spirit.
All newborn infants arrive through mothers by way of nature, conceived through fathers' inherent weakness for mothers. Sons of men are first natural creatures, but they can go on to mature into spiritual beings.
It is only through being sincerely committed to family life that married men discover truth more deeply, which enables them to conquer their weakness for women. Slowly but surely, men must outgrow their carnal need for female reassurance; they must learn to fail less with them. A failing man cannot become a woman's authority; nor can he implant his good father image in his male children, or set the stage for his female offspring to attract strong, noble men.
The process of becoming a really good parent is in itself a growing-up experience. As you correct your child, the naughty child in you is loved. Unfortunately, most parents have had little, if any, corrective love in their formative years. They bring with them into marriage the hell of their parents, and various childish, selfish cravings. More often than not, a man is just another child to his wife, competing with the baby for momma's affections—a spoiled brat, teasing his wife (the way he did his momma) to let him have his own way. When husbands and wives are immature, they are on the same emotional level as their children, so they are not only involved with their own childish intrigues with one another, but with their children's sniveling rivalry as well! So, everyone in the family continues to evolve madly and wildly against the Spirit, and there exists no referee, no modifying factor of Divine authority in the home. And that is what is behind all family tragedies.
It is the male ego-weakness, seeking love, which tempts the female to take over and become the power. Female domination sets little girls up to seek weak men (like their father), and male children to seek dominating wives (like their mothers), so that original sin perpetuates itself through succeeding generations of hell on this wretched earth.
Because of the duality of earth and heaven in their natures, children need two kinds of sustaining love:
First, they need sensual affection from mother. Second, they need the ultimate—‘agape,’ or Godly, fatherly—love to save them from the curse concealed in smother-love.
Father-love must override and correct excessive female doting. Mother's emotional love, if not eventually modified by father's emotionless love, overdevelops the child's prideful ego and eventually ruins the child who came into the world by the seduction of the father.
While female love may be the kind that makes the world go 'round, it is also the kind that destroys it. While sensuous love is needed for one phase of (animal) growth, it must be transcended to attain the next. In order to save his children from their mother, a man must first discover how to save himself from his wife.
Children need some kind of ego reassurance to help them physically mature toward the threshold of Reality. First a child grows in the ego way; later, he is supposed to develop humility. But most of us don't even know what that other way is. So we grow up—and then down—with a woman's loving help; we continue to perpetuate the misery of our "birth-wrong." For no apparent reason (because we are so unaware) we feel guilty, self-conscious and inferior.
Even if we do realize that mother's uncorrected, unloved spirit is operating behind the scenes, there is little we can do. Tradition has granted her—like it or not—the role of lover and despot. Women-libbers notwithstanding, motherhood is still looked upon with misguided worship in our culture. But it is actually a mysterious psychotic weakness that causes man to embrace evil in the woman, rather than the woman herself—which makes her into a devil.
An understanding of our origin in needed if we are to avert our prideful destiny—suffering, tragedy and death. The lie stands at the beginning of life as we know it, and false love brings us to the end; false love is part of the conspiracy of the lie.
Love is from a god, and for a god. Man's need of a woman makes the woman his god. Man that is born of woman is created in her image and her likeness, and is dependent on her reassuring, loving presence. This may very well be animal life—but it also happens to be the life that leads to spiritual death.
The guile that originates with woman is the world's most powerful and destructive hypnotic force. Any man who hopes to become a leader of men must be a female at heart. Watch the seductive powers of popular politicians as they fascinate, lie-love and bamboozle the masses for votes. Remember, love is from a god and for a god! Therein lies the secret of Satan's power.
The earthy, sustaining love which all prideful people need—not true love at all—is as vital to them as food. But, there must come a day when love will drive both the woman who provides it, and the man who receives it, into the common madness!
Ego-selfhood develops naturally from its relationship with mother; but a fatherly warmth is desperately needed to help every child transcend the death grasp of a female "god," earth-life giver—and life-taker. ("God" giveth and "God" taketh away!)
It is a very unusual child indeed who can survive his mother without a father's love. In search of love, children will sell their souls. A mother whose son had turned to homosexuality once told me of the time her son screamed with agony at his weak, unhearing, uncaring father, "I became a homosexual because I was looking for a father!"
Until he is saddled with the responsibility of raising a family, a man can avoid facing his weakness. But once "safely" inside the prison walls of family life, he sees who is really in charge. Up to that point he lives in a fool's paradise, dreaming that he is "into" something which he is not, assisted by his perverted helpmate/playmate.
Everyone despises a weak father, even those who pretend to love him (in order to use him). Because of his weakness he is unfaithful, and his children go astray, while his wife is driven to other men, seeking love she will never find. Soul mates outside marriage turn out to be cell mates. For "good behavior" there is "reprieve" from marriage—but never from the lower kind of hell.
Gentlemen of the Light, seek the ideal of which I speak, or else suffer the hell of a second fall—for living with a woman without true love is pure hell.
Observing the wreckage of your own and your children's lives should sober you and drive you to seek the answer. No wonder you feel guilty and responsible! Of course you wring your hands in desperation! Of course you long for an opportunity (that may never come) to do it over again!
Immaturity and selfishness in dealing with your family has caused you to miss the boat as far as your own spiritual development is concerned. But hold on! Don't despair! There is a way out. And it has something to do with looking at love in a different light!
Remember that need is the only kind of love a man has to give. And remember too, that love is for a god and from a god. Through your inherited but unholy need for ego support—look who has become your god now! (Or should I say, look at who are your gods.)
The only love a person can feel is need. And need is an anxiety which can be fulfilled in a right way or a wrong way. To need a woman is to be fulfilled in an infantile, dead-end, egocentric way: Good or bad, all love is need, but true love becomes a burning bush, a fire that is enduring and overwhelming. The fire in Moses' burning bush had its own (invisible) fuel source that was not the bush: it burned and was not consumed.
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Seek, then, that indwelling, eternal energy source. Fuel your love with life from within. A candle burns from the melted wax rising up the wick. Without wax, the wick burns out. Take heed therefore, that you do not burn yourself out living from the energies of your own love/hate and frustration. Alas, without "the fuel from within" you are bound to burn the energy of the wick itself. You burn yourself out; you burn out your family.
You came into this world with just so much life-force, and when that energy is spent, you find yourself at the end of your rope—and of your life. Be careful how you react: don't give your energy to sin, to false gods, in your hunger for approval and devotion.
(To be continued in Parts II and III.)
[NOTE: The antidote to becoming or remaining entangled in emotional love/hate, is learning to deal properly, i.e., without resentment, to pressure of any kind. My Be Still and Know meditation exercise shows you how to do this and helps you practice remaining in the proper state. You can try it before you buy it and, if you like it, purchase your own copy, at fhu.com or by calling 800-877-3227.]
Listen to Roy Masters LIVE call in radio show Monday to Friday from 9 PM to 11 PM Pacific on KDWN Radio in Las Vegas, NV.
© 2012 Roy Masters - All Rights Reserved
Roy Masters—who in his 80s continues to broadcast the longest-running counseling show in talk radio history, his internationally syndicated daily radio program Advice Line, grew up in pre-WWII England. He started his journey toward understanding human nature when as a teen he saw a stage hypnotist at a vaudeville show in Brighton. The hypnotist easily put volunteer subjects in a spell and made them do outlandish things, like dancing with a broom and forgetting their own names.
Puzzled by the hypnotist’s mysterious power, Roy distinctly remembers pondering the question: “Why can’t hypnotism be used to make people act sensibly, rather than foolishly?” Inspired by the idea of harnessing this baffling force for good, he later pursued the art of hypnotism and established a successful hypnotherapy practice.
After several years of practice, Masters made his central and pivotal discovery about the root of people’s emotional problems, addictions and complexes. He realized that people did not need hypnosis, because their core problem was that they are already hypnotized—not by a clever stage performer, but by the stresses, pressures and seductions of daily life.
He used his knowledge to discover a way to help us become de-hypnotized, and discovered that the root of the power of negative suggestion lay in our wrong emotional response, that of resentment. Masters’ remarkably effective exercise, a simple observation technique called Be Still and Know—is at the core of his unmatched track record in helping people overcome even the most serious mental-emotional problems, and is the centerpiece of a successful program within the U.S. military community (“Patriot Outreach”) that is helping thousands of military personnel and their families cope with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). | <urn:uuid:9b68d94a-cc81-4f93-9c24-9d74d89e325f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://newswithviews.com/Masters/roy111.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970305 | 3,084 | 1.882813 | 2 |
Use ‘Live Shell’ and Broadcast LiveOctober 18, 2011
Something for the video production and web video guys out there.
Japanese company Cerevo has revealed its ‘Live Shell’, a small device that you can attach to your camera so that you can broadcast straight to the web.
This could do great things for web video and live broadcasting.
The sweet thing is that you don’t even need a computer to do it – the device uses Wi-Fi (or another type of Internet connection) to stream the video to the internet, cutting out the middle-man.
The Live Shell is quite small being 68×120×26mm, and weighs just 106g which is cool. It connects to the Internet via Wi-Fi, a mobile router or Ethernet – again very handy.
The device comes with HDMI, USB and composite interfaces, and can stream live video in a resolution of 704×528 at 1.5Mbps.
Three batteries last for 3 hours from the start of streaming, but it comes with an AC adapter which means if you’re near a mains socket you can stream for much longer.
What you are filming and streaming live can be managed via the Cerevo website, or on your smartphone which is pretty awesome.
The footage streams via Ustream, where your viewers can then watch it live. I wrote a blog not so long ago about Bambuser, which lets you stream video to your Facebook wall or personal blog etc, so let’s hope soon your new Live Shell will work with your Bambuser, and let you stream web video wherever you want to, which would be ace.
Live Shell could be great if you want to stream what you’re filming live because now you can, and it’s not too hard to do. Let’s just hope it comes to England soon, as at the minute it’s only available for pre-order in Japan, but I think this could be really worth waiting for.
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One Degree Organics Sprouted Spelt Flour
Spelt is rich in protein, fiber, vitamins and minerals. Sprouting boosts key vitamins and minerals, and simplifies digestibility.
Make bread, cookies, and some new friends with sprouted flour made from this ancient healthy grain sourced from family farms.
"To be simple is to be great," a famous American essayist once wrote. He might easily have been describing the philosophy behind One Degree organic foods. We start with simple ingredients from family farmers who are devoted to the earth, the integrity of their crop, and your health. True sources, truly veganic.
When you add sustainability, transparency and consumer-empowering technology, what you get is an incredibly honest meal. And, if you can remember back to how good food once tasted before it became genetically modified, globally transported, showered in chemicals and hormones, processed, reprocessed and loudly marketed, you'll also rediscover some wonderful memories and long-lost flavors in every slice and spoonful.
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So You Want to Be a Game Designer, Part 1
For those who love video games, a career designing them may seem like a dream job. However, being a career video game designer isn't all just fun and games. Detail work and repetitive tasks are often part of the job as well. Being the world's biggest gamer isn't going to cut it, either. You'll also need things like imagination, formal training and experience with creating games, not just playing them.
In the tech industry, there are few careers with a cool factor equal to the title "game developer." For a whole host of gamers, making a living out of creating video games is akin to finding the holy grail, winning the lottery or becoming a renowned actor or musician.
For their legions of fans, the best game designers are nothing short of rock stars. While very few attain the personal success and following of someone like Will Wright, creator of "The Sims" and "Spore," the career offers opportunities to help create something that could possibly be played by millions of people.
However, just because a person enjoys playing video games does not mean that game design would be a good career fit.
"Thinking that 'Hey, I like playing games, so maybe I'd like making them' is sort of like saying, 'Hey, I really like taking baths, maybe I'd like to be a plumber. You might want to be a plumber, but it will be for very different reasons that you like to take a bath," Jesse Schell, game designer and author of The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses.
So, what does it take to become a game designer? Wright initially studied architecture at Louisiana Tech, moving to robotics and computers only after a try at mechanical engineering. Is a college degree necessary? What other personal characteristics and skills do design studios look for?
Wanted: A Hard Worker
Few jobs are as glamorous in reality as they might appear to outsiders. Although game design might seem as though it offers a work life filled with fun and games, in truth, it requires a great deal of dedication and hard work.
"The biggest misnomer is people think you just sit around and play video games all day, and it is actually a lot of hard work. It's much harder work than people think," David Hodgson, author of more than 70 gaming guides, told TechNewsWorld.
Anyone entering the field needs to be prepared for that reality of the job, Hodgson emphasized.
Other important characteristics: A game designer should be highly imaginative, a well-developed attenuation to detail and a love for minutiae and repetitive tasks.
"Having the ability to visualize and imagine all types of scenarios and outcomes for a character or being able to fully visualize or imagine what a world might be like is critical. You also need to be able to articulate those thoughts and able to convey those ideas. The perfectionist piece is also there -- being able to provide a high level of detail," Fiona Cherbak told TechNewsWorld. Cherbak is chair of the special interest group International Game Developers Association Women in Games and VP of marketing for GameRecruiter.
Strong planning and organizational skills and the ability to know when to scale back a design are also essential, according to Hodgson.
"That is incredibly important. There have been developers that have closed because they had grand schemes that they weren't able to fulfill. You need to be able to identify both your own limits as well as the limits of technologies. You also need to know how to meet milestones and stay on schedule," he said.
They also need to be team players and able to accept constructive criticism.
Another requirement a potential game designer needs, of course, is a little practical experience.
"Yes, you need to be a gamer," said Cherbak. "What type of gamer and how much you game can probably depend, but it's very difficult, if not impossible, to understand game design without being an experienced game player. The best game designers are people who invariably spend an awful lot of their time playing games."
In other words, the more experienced a gamer a person is, the more capable and skilled they will be as a game designer or game writer. The writer develops the plot, writing the characters' dialog and the branching storyline. The designer works hand in hand with the writer, coming in with game play -- essentially the systems and experiences that the player's character goes through.
"You don't just have one story," Cherbak explained. "You have many stories depending on the type of game it is, and so the game designer's job is to develop the game experience or game play that character will have depending on the choices that a gamer makes. Unless you've played a lot of games, it is very hard for you to begin to imagine [what] all the potential outcomes or systems might look like and understand the game play potential in that world."
People with good education and training but little first-hand experience may have a difficult time competing in the job market, according to Cherbak.
"[People] can try but the reality is that they will have a very tough time because they are not going to be knowledgeable enough about all the styles of game play that are possible. Unless you've played games heavily for say five, 10 or 15 years, if you haven't played a lot of games but want to be a game designer, you're not going to have the depth of practical knowledge or experience that someone who has been playing the games will have," she explained.
Prospective game designers should also have experience creating other types of games. Game designers need to be able to answer the question, "What do I want this game to be like," and then figure out how they can make that possible. It's something not everyone wants to do because it requires a lot of difficult thinking and experimenting, Schell advised.
"They should have an understanding of what it is truly like to create a game. A good way to get started is to explore making other kinds of games. Have you ever made a card game or a board game? Anybody can make those. Anyone can sit down and make a new card game in 30 minutes? If you don't enjoy doing that, you're probably not going to be too interested in making computer games," he said.
Getting In the Door
A degree with the words "game design" from a university or vocational school is not a must for those interested in the career. However, as with most professions, having the piece of paper attesting to a formal education in the field, or at least a similar field, is always helpful.
"Game designer is a tricky job. Some people have a programming background or one in art. Some have an archeology background. Designing a game is kind of like planning a party. You need to think about what would be fun and getting together the right people as well as a sense of the timing of things," Schell noted.
That said, however, potential employers place more emphasis on a prospective game designer's portfolio of games. There a two paths that can help someone break into the field, according to Hodgson.
"One of them is through the explosion of mobile gaming, specifically iPhone games. See what's working and what isn't working, and make your own version [of a game], but not too close to the original," he advised.
"Or, get together with a programmer and design a game. That's how the guys at 'Portal' got started. They were students with a concept for game that fires two holes. The seed for the game was very simple, and there are ways you can do that as well -- in a home brewed way," Hodgson continued.
The Internet is replete with both open source and proprietary game development tools and software development kits (SDKs) for various platforms, including the Xbox 360.
"You need to have an online presence. You can use existing mods like 'Fallout 3,'" Hodgson explained. One version of the game for PC includes a kit that allows the player to create his or her own content. "You can create an encampment, build a storyline for the characters ... If people are enjoying it, you'll catch the attention of people."
A more traditional route would typically involve finding an internship with a reputable studio while or after completing a formal education. Then seek full-time work with a studio.
A good roundabout way to enter the field is through a development firm's quality assurance department as a game tester.
"If you don't have or can't afford a formal education, you get in through the [game] test department," Hodgson explained. "You become the QA guy. Instead of lounging around eating Doritos, what you do when you can is you network with the more influential people at the studio. And then instead of being let go after every project is completed you're kept on and can work your way up to game designer from within." | <urn:uuid:8b834760-767d-4596-b4aa-43d63d1fef1a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.technewsworld.com/story/gaming/66418.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979441 | 1,858 | 2.46875 | 2 |
ABOVE: The former Marine Railway Station at
Dover's Western Docks is now a part of the Dover Cruise Terminal.
Port of Dover
Dover has been England's most convenient sea gateway to the
European continent since Roman times, and the Dover Harbour Board received its
charter from King James I in 1606. Today, ferries run between Dover and France
almost constantly, and the port's ferry terminals handle more than 1.8 million
trucks or lorries per year.
Dover has become increasingly popular as a cruise port, serving
more than 150,000 cruise passengers a year. The port, which is just under two hours
from London by train or car, has two adjacent cruise terminals at the Western Docks on
the edge of town:
Terminal 1 occupies the old Marine Railway Station (see
photo above), where ferry passengers once transferred from trains to Channel
Terminal 2 is a new building farther down the pier.
Both terminals have attractive waiting rooms, snack bars,
toilets, and other facilities for cruise passengers. They're within reasonable
walking distance of the town center, although passengers arriving or departing
via the Dover Priory railroad station (which is above the town) will need to
hire taxis. For train times, use the Britain's
National Rail Enquiries journey planner.
information on Dover's shipping and cruise facilities, see:
Port of Dover
Dover shore excursions | <urn:uuid:90aa4e41-5f32-4a27-b17a-5e4431b624cf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://europeforvisitors.com/cruises/reviews/port-of-dover.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93236 | 303 | 1.828125 | 2 |
The continuing saga of UN impunity
The United Nations is no stranger to scandal.
There are the wayward peacekeeping troops who take advantage of the vulnerable people they are supposed to be protecting and commit rape and sexual abuse. Think: Haiti, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Then there’s corruption, as happened in the Oil-for-Food Programme. While that programme was enacted in 1995 to stop Iraqi children from starving under international sanctions, it is better known for lining the pockets of UN officials.
And, finally, there are times when the UN, plain and simply, messes up. Like when the UN’s gross negligence apparently caused a cholera epidemic to sweep through Haiti starting in 2010.
That is the allegation of two legal organisations who have filed a complaint seeking damages on the part of more than 5,000 Haitians who suffered sickness or losses.
The lawsuit reflects what many Haitians believe and what several scientific studies support - that Nepalese peacekeepers who were not effectively screened for the disease imported it to the country and allowed it to spread through their improper disposal of sewage.
The recurring issue in all of these scandals is the inability to hold the UN accountable for its crimes and misdeeds. As the only organisation with the power to set international law, the UN is also, in fact, above the very laws it claims to represent.
It’s not supposed to be that way. True, the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations, signed in 1946, grants immunity from prosecution for UN employees in their host country. But it also highlights the importance of accountability for the UN, as a bulwark for human rights and the rule of law.
In criminal cases, it falls to the country of the accused UN employee to pursue charges.
Review and reimbursement
When it comes to civil claims, the UN tends to handle them at the local level. A UN helicopter blew the roof off of your grass hut? A UN truck ran over your cow? There’s a procedure for reviewing your claim and reimbursing you.
But some complaints are so large, and so expensive, they get sent back to the legal department at UN headquarters in New York. And the bigger the complaint, the more likely it is to disappear in the ether above the thirty-eighth floor of the Secretariat Building.
Here’s another example. Since 2005, 143 displaced Roma have been going after the UN Mission in Kosovo for failing to relocate them from UN-administered land that was known to contain poisonous lead.
The case has been tossed out of two European courts, even though in 2009 the Kosovo Human Rights Advisory Commission determined the admissibility of the complainants’ legal petition, which also charges gross negligence.
In Haiti, cholera victims have called on the UN to establish a “standing claims commission” to hear their case.
Such a commission is required under the Status of Forces Agreement the UN signs with every country where it sends peacekeepers.
And yet the UN cannot point to a single time in its 60 year history that such a commission has been formed.
The UN has been “studying” the Haitian complaint for nearly five months.
One problem, according to legal experts, is that the Haitian government refuses to back the claim of its citizens.
"We are not focused on blaming people here. We are focused on solving the situation," President Michel Martelly said when asked about the complaint recently.
Haiti's government depends largely on the UN for donations and the provision of many basic civil services. Given its dependence, Martelly’s reluctance to press the UN is perhaps not surprising. Nor is the fact that Haiti has been home to so many UN scandals.
That is also precisely why advocates say it is so important to give victims their day in court. They are asking the UN not only to pay damages to victims, but also apologise and help fix the country’s woefully inept water sanitation system.
"They promote human rights," explained Mario Joseph, a Haitian lawyer representing the victims, "[yet] they deny the rights of the Haitian people."
Benedict Moran contributed to this blog | <urn:uuid:985423f7-6fb4-4dc9-8043-74942f714878> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.aljazeera.com/blog/americas/continuing-saga-un-impunity | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954325 | 865 | 2.234375 | 2 |
Re: blood pressure what does it mean is that why i get dizzy
Not all of those b/p measures are normal. Bottom number is considered abnormal 90 and above. Important for taking the b/p is to take it at the same time every day for several days to get a good avg. Bp can be affected by a lot of things. I also get funny feelings in my head when mine is up, it feels like I'm buzzed. Some of your readings are normal, so I would just take the pressure every day at the same time: once in the am and once in the pm, for a week. Don't take it too much b/c the more you worry, and take it the more you can have an emotional effect on it. | <urn:uuid:70e14979-31d6-4994-a60e-3ad78d833a28> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.healthboards.com/boards/high-low-blood-pressure/675727-blood-pressure-what-does-mean-why-i-get-dizzy.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978341 | 157 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Tuesday, May 07, 2002
Kentucky A.M. report
Students present WTC memorial design
The Associated Press
FRANKFORT A salvaged facade from the World Trade Center is the focal point of a memorial design by Murray State University students.
Flanking the facade, stylized male and female forms ascend from shards of steel and other wreckage. Humanity rising from chaos, Termaine Shellman, one of the student designers, explained Monday as a model of the proposed memorial was unveiled at the Capitol.
Fourteen students of Edward Breathitt, artist in residence at Murray State, are to take the model to New York next week. It is to be housed at a New York fire station Engine 1, Ladder 24 whose crew raced to the World Trade Center Sept. 11.
Also being presented is Mr. Breathitt's sculpture of Mychal Judge, a Franciscan priest who was the engine company's chaplain. Father Judge was killed by falling debris while administering last rites to a firefighter.
In the memorial design, the trade center's crater would be turned into an underground museum and amphitheater.
Kentucky saw less tourism last year
SOMERSET Revenues from tourism dipped in 2001, due in part to a drop in business travel after Sept. 11, Tourism Development Secretary Ann Latta said Monday.
The tourism and travel industry was worth $8.7 billion to Kentucky's economy last year, Ms. Latta told a joint conference of state and local tourism agencies. The Tourism Development Cabinet calculated that it was a decline of 0.7 percent from 2000 after adjusting for inflation.
It doesn't sound like much to say we're down less than 1 percent, Ms. Latta said. But that represents nearly $60 million less into our economy.
A contributing factor was the sluggish national economy, Ms. Latta said.
Hotels and motels felt the effects, especially in Kentucky's urban areas. Rural areas, more dependent on auto-driven pleasure travel, were less affected.
The cabinet's calculation of tourism's effect on the economy included $768 million generated in state taxes and $138 million generated in local taxes. In addition, the government estimates that 160,200 Kentucky jobs are tourism-related.
Churchill Downs adding luxury suites
LOUISVILLE Less than 48 hours after the 128th Kentucky Derby, crews were beginning construction on 70 luxury suites at Churchill Downs.
Demolition to the two-story fire escape stairwell in the grandstand courtyard began Monday morning. It was the beginning of the $30 million first phase of what is expected to be a $130 million renovation of the track.
The first phase will include repairs to the twin spires and renovation of the grandstand and the first- and second-floor Jockey Club.
Phase one of the project should be completed next summer.
Churchill Downs' board of directors is expected to consider the funding of the $100 million second phase in June. The phase will include a teardown and reconstruction of a large section of the clubhouse.
The entire renovation project should be complete by the 2004 fall meet, according to a statement from the track.
Group would be river's protector
RICHMOND A new program will offer an alternative to some of the costly cleanup efforts that organizers say need to take place on the Kentucky River, which borders 57 cities.
The mission of Kentucky Riverkeeper is to preserve the river with awareness, protection and maintenance, said the program's executive director Heather Crawley. The program will also respond to citizen complaints and identify and solve pollution problems.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., president of Waterkeeper Alliance, a national organization, was at the program's kickoff Monday at Fort Boonesborough. Joining him was Backstreet Boys member Kevin Richardson, who is an Estill County native and founder of the Just Within Reach Environmental Foundation.
The program is a collaboration with Eastern Kentucky University's Center for Appalachian Studies. The Kentucky Riverkeeper will offer hands-on activities in a floating classroom, a boat EKU graduate Dustan McCoy, president of the Illinois-headquartered Brunswick Corp. Boat Group, donated to the project.
Cost of hail damage could set record
FRANKFORT Hail storms that damaged roofs and vehicles last week may turn into the largest insurance loss in Kentucky history, state officials said.
Hail that some reports said was as large as a softball pummeled homes and vehicles on April 28, primarily in Webster and Breckinridge counties, and on May 1 centered on the London-Laurel County area.
One insurer reported taking 800 auto damage claims in one day in London after the storm. The same company reported 4,200 claims after the April 28 storm.
Insurance Commissioner Janie Miller said there have been numerous reports of extraordinary service from insurance and claims agents. Help has been available for emergency lodging and processing of claims to get checks written quickly.
A state law, enacted in reaction to the 1998 hail storm around Bowling Green, should make it easier for consumers to get compensated for vehicles that are totaled from damage.
The law stipulates that if damage exceeds 75 percent of the value of the vehicle, but is still safe to drive and the owner intends to keep it, there is still a way to get a quick settlement check.
The owner must provide proof of the loss and get an inspection from the sheriff's office for $5. A county clerk can issue a new title stamped hail damage that will allow an insurance company to settle a claim.
Reds' home on time, on budget
Couple surprised by murky home title
Getting to races gets easier
Luken: City already on 'right path'
Umbrella weather all week
Indiana election a snoozer
Primaries: What's on the ballot
Tax issues before local voters today
Vote put off on life-center zoning
Beanbag victims paid for pain
Danielle Hater, 19, embodied courage
Melee photos could lead to arrests
Recreation center to be built
Reece's lawyer denounces suit
PULFER: Family ties
RADEL: Race relations
Some Good News
2 killed in 4-car accident
Aging facilities sprout problems
Breast cancer cases increasing in Ky.
Cheshire, Ohio no more
Colorado has latest mailbox bomb
Educators meet with government
Fire unit gains mascot
Jury hears tape in child-death case
Law to be deposed in abuse lawsuit
Many colleges still have openings
Robber's punishment is 5 years
Students stung in drug bust
Veterinarian charged with animal cruelty
Kentucky A.M. report
Tristate A.M. report | <urn:uuid:61f45aab-9092-4b95-9dd6-da700cffa314> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2002/05/07/loc_kentucky_a_m_report.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947061 | 1,381 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Spending cuts trump farm subsidies for many voters
WASHINGTON (AP) — Promoting farm subsidies was once a no-brainer for rural members of Congress seeking re-election. This year, it's a bit trickier.
As lawmakers wade cautiously into writing the next five-year farm bill, agribusiness and farmers' lobbyists are preparing for the worst. With little appetite for spending on Capitol Hill, subsidy cuts in the billions of dollars are on the table as rural voters also cry out for less government.
It doesn't help that farm business is booming.
"What's different this time is we have very strong commodity prices," says Roger Johnson, president of the National Farmers Union. "And that is generally not a really good time to write a farm bill because everyone who is projecting the future says, 'Oh, this is going to last forever.'"
Farm bills in 2002 and 2008 also were driven by rural election-year politics. Lawmakers, particularly in the Senate, curried favor with farm interests in their states by slipping their priorities into the bills. Taking care of everyone's needs ensured passage and subsidies remained almost untouched.
But this year, many of farmers' traditional allies are just as concerned, if not more concerned, about voters' calls for less spending.
Sen. Pat Roberts, senior Republican on the Senate Agriculture Committee and a veteran of many farm bills, says his constituents aren't asking about farm subsidies as much as they used to. He says he gets more questions about government regulations that farmers see as burdensome. Traditional farm issues and the impact of farm policy have gotten somewhat lost.
"I don't think most people who run for office realize there is still a significant farm vote," he says.
Nowhere was that more clear than in Iowa, where presidential candidates have wooed farm country for decades. Several of the contenders in the Iowa caucuses actually spoke out against subsidies for corn-based ethanol, a position unthinkable in the past.
Farm-state members have already said they will support eliminating some subsidies. Last fall, the heads of the House and Senate agriculture committees — Republican Rep. Frank Lucas of Oklahoma and Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan — negotiated a farm bill that cut $23 billion from agriculture and nutrition programs, hoping to piggyback it on the budget-cutting supercommittee's bill. When the supercommittee fizzled, so did their hopes for a speedy farm bill.
This year, they are starting over with more input from other agriculture committee members. But direct payments, a type of subsidy paid without regard to crop price or crop yield and costing taxpayers about $5 billion a year, are still a top target as the Senate Agriculture Committee opened hearings on the legislation Wednesday. That was cemented by President Barack Obama's call to eliminate them in his budget proposal Monday, which put forth a $32 billion cut in farm programs.
That's a strong contrast from 2008, when Obama supported the last farm bill while he was campaigning for president. That legislation was far more generous — even raising some subsidies — than the bill Congress is weighing this year.
Former President George W. Bush also played both sides. He signed a robust farm bill before the 2002 midterm election year but later called for cuts. In 2008, when he wasn't up for re-election, he vetoed the next farm bill. Republicans up for re-election in the House and Senate joined Democrats in overriding the veto.
Since then, farm country has seen much of that GOP support fade away. Many farm-state Democrats were swept out of Congress in the 2010 midterm elections, and several Republicans who eventually filled their seats on the House Agriculture Committee are more affiliated with the anti-spending tea party than they are with farm interests.
Unclear is how aggressively those conservatives will support farm subsidies — and, if they do, whether they will be able to persuade party leaders and other congressional conservatives to go along. House opposition is seen as the biggest obstacle to getting a farm bill done this year.
Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., one of the tea party conservatives on the agriculture panel, says he is telling constituents that direct payments will have to go. "Some folks say we want you to defend it to the end of the day, and I say that's not what's going to happen."
Huelskamp believes there should still be some sort of safety net for farmers when prices drop or crops are destroyed. But he says frustration over government regulation — labor and environmental laws in particular — is the top issue on farm voters' minds. People understand they will have to take a cut, he says.
No one envisions a farm bill that eliminates subsidies entirely. The compromise Stabenow and Lucas reached last year would have cut spending while creating a whole new subsidy to protect farmers when their revenue drops.
As they try to satisfy all sides, lawmakers and the Obama administration have also looked beyond subsidies to find savings. The Obama administration has appealed to the budget-conscious by trying to cut administrative costs at USDA and consolidating rural offices. At the hearing Wednesday, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack asked the senators to "consider two key themes — streamlining and flexibility."
"There are a lot of land mines and we just have to see how it plays out," says Minnesota Rep. Collin Peterson, the top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee. He warns that Congress shouldn't get too confident about cutting farm programs.
If the agriculture economy crashes, he says, "there isn't going to be any money to bail anybody out." | <urn:uuid:7ff2cdba-3edc-458f-8011-f2d17dbdb1d5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/spending-cuts-trump-farm-subsidies-many-voters | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970123 | 1,132 | 1.90625 | 2 |
Housing Starts Probably Rose in May: U.S. Economy Preview
The U.S. housing market in May probably managed to sustain recent gains, driven by low prices and borrowing costs, economists said before reports this week.
Home starts climbed 0.4 percent last month to a 720,000 annual pace, matching January as the fastest since October 2008, according to the median estimate of 64 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News before a Commerce Department report June 19. Sales of previously owned houses held near the highest level in almost two years, another report may show.
A drop in home prices and record-low mortgage rates are combining to underpin demand and prompt builders to take on new projects. The improvement comes as other parts of the economy, including manufacturing and consumer spending, are softening, which may give Federal Reserve policy makers reason to consider taking further action to spur growth when they meet this week.
“Housing seems to be the one thing that’s doing better in this economy,” said Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group in Pittsburgh.
The outcome of today’s election in Greece could determine whether the euro area crisis worsens. Heads of the Group of 20 nations, including President Barack Obama, are also gathering in Los Cabos, Mexico, as global markets look to Europe’s leaders for a clearer sign of the path forward.
A failure to stem the euro-area crisis would add to risks of a bigger slowdown in the U.S. economy. The Federal Open Market Committee, which sets the course of central bank policy, meets in Washington on June 19 and 20 to decide whether to take additional steps to boost growth.
Against the backdrop of the cooling global economy, cheaper properties, rising household incomes and low mortgage rates combined to push home affordability to an all-time high in the first quarter, according to the National Association of Realtors. The average rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage reached a record low of 3.67 percent in the first week of June, according to Freddie Mac.
The Washington-based National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo index of builder confidence, to be released tomorrow, is projected to ease after reaching a five-year high in May, according to the median forecast in a separate Bloomberg survey.
Investors are betting on further gains in housing. The Standard & Poor’s Supercomposite Homebuilding Index has climbed 28 percent this year, outpacing a 6.8 percent gain in the broader S&P 500.
Another reason for optimism on the housing front is that Americans are forming households faster than new homes are being built, said Douglas Yearley, chief executive officer of Toll Brothers Inc. (TOL), a luxury homebuilder based in Horsham, Pennsylvania.
“There is huge pent-up demand that has built over the last four years from this imbalance,” Yearley said at a June 14 conference. “It’s been seven years since this all began to turn down and you have people that are just ready to move on with their lives, take advantage of great interest rates.”
At the same time, three years after the end of the recession, a sustained real-estate rebound continues to prove elusive. More distressed properties are entering the market, adding to inventory and pushing down prices.
Foreclosure starts grew in May on an annual basis for the first time since January 2010 after loan servicers settled with states over faulty documentation, according to a report last week from data provider RealtyTrac Inc. Home seizures plunged 18 percent from a year earlier, the Irvine, California, company also reported, as banks seek alternatives to repossession.
Weak job gains and stock market volatility also have consumers apprehensive about taking on debt.
“Our forecast is still for growth, but we’re being conservative about it,” said Doug Duncan, chief economist at Washington-based Fannie Mae. “This will definitely be a year where we’ll see growth in the housing market.”
The number of previously owned homes sold in May probably dropped to a 4.56 million annual rate from 4.62 million the prior month, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. Purchases reached a 4.63 million pace in January, the fastest since May 2010. The National Association of Realtors will release the data on June 21.
The index of leading indicators rose 0.1 percent in May after declining the month prior, according to a median forecast of economists surveyed. The New York-based Conference Board’s figures will be released on June 21.
Another report the same day may show factories are feeling the effect of slowing demand in Europe. Manufacturing in the Philadelphia region stagnated this month, economists project before a Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia report. Its general economic index will rise to zero, the point between contraction and growth, after reaching an eight-month low of minus 5.8 in May, according to the median forecast of economists in the Bloomberg survey.
Bloomberg Table ============================================================= Release Period Prior Median Indicator Date Value Forecast ============================================================= NAHB Housing Index 6/18 June 29 28 Housing Starts ,000’s 6/19 May 717 720 Housing Starts MOM% 6/19 May 2.6% 0.4% Building Permits ,000’s 6/19 May 723 730 Building Permits MOM% 6/19 May -6.0% 1.0% Initial Claims ,000’s 6/21 16-Jun 386 383 Exist Homes Mlns 6/21 May 4.62 4.56 Exist Homes MOM% 6/21 May 3.4% -1.3% LEI MOM% 6/21 May -0.1% 0.1% Philly Fed Index 6/21 June -5.8 0.0 =============================================================
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christopher Wellisz at firstname.lastname@example.org | <urn:uuid:ff170e66-3041-4a23-807f-675bd1720428> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-16/beginning-home-construction-in-u-s-exceeded-forecasts-in-april?category=%2Fnews%2Fmostread | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942529 | 1,241 | 1.5 | 2 |
I am very new to Latin and am trying to learn it on my own, but I am very confused on how the chapters relate to the answer key in the back of the book. I am using the 6th edition and I can not find teh translation of the sententiae inthe back of the book anywhere. I do see answers but I do not see how they relate to what is in the chapter. Can anyone help?
For example, the sentence
13. Saepe nihil cogitas
I translate as, You often see nothing.
It seems like I am right, but when I goto the back I do not see an answer to question 13 on page 7.
Thanks in advance for the help. | <urn:uuid:f2ee4f19-1542-4960-9e63-a3e523af1206> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.textkit.com/greek-latin-forum/viewtopic.php?p=48276 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953458 | 148 | 2.15625 | 2 |
There is this proof:
M = (Q,S,R,f,g). where Q is the set of states, S input alphabet, R output alphabet, f state transition function Q X S => Q, g output funtion Q => R
Suppose that q1, q2 are two states in FSM.
Then q1 is k+1 equivalent to q2 if and only if:
1. q1 is k equivalent to q2, and
2. for every a in S, f(q1,a) is k equivalent to f(q2,a)
I know how to prove it. but I need to prove the converse of it. Thanks. | <urn:uuid:25a57e85-6c3e-41a8-97ea-ffa8a3f848e3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/208361/confusion-about-proving-equivalence-of-two-states-in-fsm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92612 | 146 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Drybrushing, is using a brush with just a little paint on it to brush lightly over a surface to highlight the surface texture.
Yup! The brush is normally dipped in a little bit of paint then brushed out on a newspaper or something similar to get rid of most of the paint. You then brush it on the intended surface which leaves little highlights of the color behind.
America is not at war. The military is at war. America is at the mall. | <urn:uuid:fad0320b-212d-4787-9a5a-2d888c11842a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hauntforum.com/showthread.php?p=633354 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940402 | 97 | 1.710938 | 2 |
In 1860, biographer James Parton concluded that Andrew Jackson was “a most law-defying, law obeying citizen.” Such a statement is obviously contradictory. Yet it accurately captures the essence of the famous, or infamous, Jackson. Without question, the seventh president was a man of contradictions. To this day, historians have been unable to arrive at accepted conclusions about his character or impact on the nation. Was he, as Robert Remini has argued across the pages of more than a dozen books, the great leader and symbol of a burgeoning mass democracy? Or was Jackson merely a vainglorious bully with no vision for the nation, reacting in response to his own sensitive pride, as Andrew Burstein and others have insisted?
There is much that one can look at in Jackson’s life when attempting to arrive at conclusions. In particular, his relationship with the law and Constitution offer a significant window into his worldview. Whether it was illegally declaring martial law in New Orleans, invading Spanish Florida and executing British citizens, removing federal deposits from the Bank of the United States, or questioning the Supreme Court’s authority in Worcester v. Georgia, Jackson acted in a manner that was at times distinctly illegal yet widely hailed by supporters as being in the nation’s best interest. And before we conclude that this support was partisan banter bestowed by his own Democratic Party, we must remember that historians and legal scholars to this day have wrestled with the larger ideological and constitutional meaning of Jackson’s beliefs and actions. One thing is certain: Jackson had no qualms about overstepping the law, even the Constitution, when he believed that the very survival of the nation required it. Moreover, this perspective remains at the heart of debate in a post-9/11 America. The essential question stands—can a leader violate the law in order to ultimately save it and the nation?
Andrew Jackson’s fame came with the Battle of New Orleans in 1814 and 1815, where he demolished a seasoned British army with virtually no loss to his troops. The victory launched the general to national stardom and ultimately the presidency. Yet there were looming, constitutionally delicate issues that roiled beneath the surface of this victory, namely Jackson’s suspension of the writ of habeas corpus and declaration of martial law. The first was authorized by the Constitution, but the Supreme Court had determined that only Congress could suspend the privilege of the writ, which allowed a judge to “bring a body” before the court thus making it impossible for an arresting authority (the police or military) to hold a person indefinitely without filing charges. Jackson suspended the writ anyway, and went even further by imposing martial law, which canceled all civilian authority and placed the military in control. The act was wholly illegal. There existed no provision in the Constitution authorizing such an edict. The rub was that martial law saved New Orleans and the victory itself saved the nation’s pride. After several years of dismal military encounters during the War of 1812 and the burning of the nation’s capitol to the ground in the summer of 1814, no one, especially President Madison, was in the mood to investigate, let alone chastise, the victorious General Jackson’s illegal conduct. Thus Jackson walked away from the event with two abiding convictions: one, that victory and the nationalism generated by it protected his actions, even if illegal; and two, that he could do what he wanted if he deemed it in the nation’s best interest.Show Full EssayHide Full Essay
Jackson’s convictions came into play only three years later in 1818, when the indomitable general exceeded his orders to protect the Georgia frontier by crossing into Spanish Florida, where he invaded two towns and executed two British citizens for making war on the United States. Once again, Jackson’s actions were questionable, if not outright illegal. He essentially made war on Spain without congressional approval, overstepped his own boundaries as a commander, and summarily executed two men, which could very well have incited legal and military difficulties with Great Britain and Spain. However, Jackson’s conduct was once again seen by many, including himself, as a necessary defense of the nation. The Spanish had done nothing to stop the marauding Seminole Indians from crossing the border and attacking American farms. The general’s actions were therefore justified as national self-defense by Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, the sole member of President Monroe’s cabinet to support Jackson. Adams used the turmoil over the incident to convince Spain that they should sell Florida for a measly $5 million.
Unlike Jackson’s use of martial law in New Orleans, Congress debated Jackson’s rogue behavior in Florida, with Henry Clay announcing that the general was a “military chieftain” and dangerous to a young republic. Although legislators wrangled over the matter, nothing significant resulted except that Jackson became a more and more polarizing figure, particularly because of his political aspirations. When he ran for president in 1824, critics unleashed a torrent of abuse, much of it focused on his lawless ways. Jackson was forced to respond, and commented specifically on his violations of the Constitution. He noted that some in the nation believed him to be “a most dangerous and terrible man. . . . and that I can break, & trample under foot the constitution of the country, with as much unconcern & careless indifference, as would one of our backwoods hunters, if suddenly placed in Great Britain, break game laws.” He continued, “it has been my lot often to be placed in situations of a critical kind” that “imposed on me the necessity of Violating, or rather departing from, the constitution of the country; yet at no subsequent period has it produced to me a single pang, believing as I do now, & then did, that without it, security neither to myself or the great cause confided to me, could have been obtained.”
Jackson’s ideological conviction about the flexible nature of the law and Constitution in the face of dangers confronting the still-fledgling nation can be seen in many subsequent Jacksonian battles. When President Jackson confronted the Bank of the United States in 1832, he did so with the belief that it was a corrupt fiscal monster threatening the nation’s economic security. He not only vetoed the Bank’s recharter, which was within his right as chief executive, but went a step further by removing federal deposits even after Congress had deemed them safe. Jackson transferred one secretary of the treasury and fired another in order to secure the deposit removals. His actions were questionable, if not completely illegal, and the Senate censured him by making a notation in their journal. They didn’t attempt impeachment for lack of support.
Other legal conflicts surfaced. Jackson allegedly defied the Supreme Court over Worcester v. Georgia (1832), announcing, “John Marshall has made his decision now let him enforce it.” The case revolved around Georgia’s attempt to apply state laws to Cherokee lands. The Court had ruled against Georgia’s authority to do so and Jackson, dedicated to Indian removal, allegedly challenged Marshall. Although there is little evidence to support the above quotation, it certainly sounds like Jackson. Nonetheless, the case required nothing of Jackson and was ultimately settled out of court. The fact remained, however, that in this case and in McCulloch v. Maryland (1819), when it was ruled that the Bank of the United States was in fact constitutional, Jackson challenged the Court’s authority as the final arbiter. As president, Jackson believed that his authority to deem what was constitutional equaled the Supreme Court’s.
Jackson’s views regarding American Indians also challenged the law. Treaties were and continue to be legal agreements among sovereign nations. However, Jackson refused to believe that Native American tribes were sovereign and thus viewed Indian treaties as an absurdity. Ultimately, he forcibly removed a number of tribes, most notoriously the Cherokee, from their homes. The Trail of Tears is one of Jackson’s most infamous legacies. Yet even removal and issues of tribal sovereignty fit within a larger context of Jackson’s convictions regarding national security and state sovereignty. The general’s rise was due to his success as an Indian fighter on the frontier. He always, and to some extent legitimately, viewed American Indians as a serious threat to settlers. As president, Jackson understood the sentiment of southern states and their conception that states could not be erected within sovereign states such as Georgia. All of this, of course, revolved around the larger issue of Native American dispossession and who rightfully owned of the land. This ideological—and to some extent legal—issue remains unresolved.
A variety of other incidents in Jackson’s life and career expose the nature of his relationship with the law and Constitution: the fact that he was a lawyer who engaged in dueling; his actions during the Nullification Crisis; and his failure as president to follow federal guidelines concerning mail delivery of abolitionist propaganda. Most fit within his larger conception of duty, honor, and what was necessary for the sanctity of the Union. Jackson’s ideology remains as controversial now as it was in his own time. There are few easy answers. Yet this is what makes Jackson’s views and conduct so relevant today. When presented with Jackson’s history, students invariably split down the middle over whether he was justified in his conduct, regardless of legality. In this sense, Jackson continues to serve as an important source of reflection when considering how America should and should not act when it comes to matters of national security.
Matthew Warshauer is a professor of history at Central Connecticut State University and author of Andrew Jackson in Context (2009) and Andrew Jackson and the Politics of Martial Law: Nationalism, Civil Liberties, and Partisanship (2006).
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No subject makes an entrepreneur's blood pressure rise more than patent infringement. Having spent hundreds of thousands of dollars defending my patents, I've learned some valuable lessons. Let me share them with you.
If you own a patent and you become aware that someone else's new product or process is alarmingly similar to your own, chances are your patent is being infringed upon. That said, let's clear up some important misconceptions about infringement.
First, the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office can't take any action on your behalf regarding patent infringement. That's not its job. You, the patent holder, assume the full burden for stopping infringers and collecting any damages.
Once you file a patent application with the Patent Office, you are given the right to claim "patent pending" status on your product. However, your product can be copied legally--yes, legally--until the date you are awarded a patent. From that day on, any identical or strikingly similar manufactured product is infringing on your patent. Unfortunately, you cannot collect damages for infringement during the patent-pending period. That makes bringing your product to market tricky.
With that in mind, it's no secret why it's so important to keep your patent filing date confidential. If potential infringers know you just filed your patent, they probably also know it will take approximately two years to be issued. That gives them two years to copy your product before you can do anything about it. If they don't know when you filed, infringers may not risk the time and effort trying to knock off your product.
One solution to this patent-pending marketing problem is to determine the approximate issue date of your patent (and keep it confidential) and put your product on the market three to four months before then. An infringer will not want to spend time and money on production only to have to stop once your patent is issued.
Drawing The Battle Lines
So you've discovered an infringing product on the market. What do you do? First, gather as much information as you can about the infringer and the infringing product. Get names, addresses, correspondence, literature, manuals, advertisements, catalogues and anything else to prove your case. Also, take pictures of where the infringing product was found in the market, and purchase it if possible.
You also need to be on record as responding very promptly to a potential infringement. There are several ways to handle the situation, from fighting it out in court to giving up your patent altogether--for a fee. Write a letter to the infringing company requesting one of the following actions:
Request that the infringer buy your patent--either all or part--for a fee that covers past and future sales.
Ask the company to stop infringing and to pay you compensation for what they have sold.
Request that the infringer compensate you for what he or she has sold and that they offer you a licensing or royalty payment agreement on future sales.
Offer a business deal to the infringer in which he or she can continue to sell the product but in turn gives you rights to his or her patents or other products which may complement yours.
Send your letter by certified mail, return-receipt requested, and include a copy of your patent and, if possible, a sample of your product. The kind of response you get will give you insight into what strategy the infringer may take.
Acting promptly with a letter gives you the ability to recover damages for past infringement (assuming you claimed patent protection for your product) and reduces your chances of falling prey to the legal doctrines known as estoppel and laches. These provisions allow the infringer to argue that he or she should be able to continue to infringe because you did not show enough concern to act promptly. Infringers use this argument to get a reduction in the amount of damages they have to pay to the patent holder and to gain the right to continue to infringe in the future. This is another reason you have to police your market and act quickly when you see possible infringement.
The Lawsuit Route
A more serious recourse is to sue the infringer in federal court. If you win the lawsuit, you're awarded damages and a possible injunction, which will prevent the infringer from using your idea for the remaining life of the patent.
However, lawsuits have a big downside: Patent infringement lawsuits are lengthy and very expensive. Intellectual property attorney Bob Chiaviello of Baker & Botts in Dallas estimates the average cost of a patent infringement lawsuit for a simple case is around $300,000 for each side, even if the case settles before going to trial. If the suit goes to trial, costs average $600,000 per side. However, he warns, costs can run into the millions if your patent deals with complicated technology. Obviously, if the damages you'd collect are less than the legal fees, it would be foolish to pursue this option. Also, you need to make sure your infringer could pay such a judgment for damages. Otherwise, collection will be impossible.
Deciding whom to sue in a patent infringement lawsuit is not obvious. Most think they can sue only the manufacturer. The truth is you can also sue the retailer or ultimate purchaser of the infringing product. There are advantages to doing this. If retailers get sued, they will be less likely to buy knockoff products in the future because of the time and expense of lawsuits. Also, the Uniform Commercial Code requires the manufacturer of the infringing product to step in and defend or reimburse a retailer or ultimate purchaser if they are sued. Since your court costs will be less if you can sue in the state where you do business, suing an interstate retailer creates a big disadvantage for the manufacturer (if out of state), who then has to defend the retailer from a distance. This strategy also puts a damper on any future relationship the manufacturer might have with the retailer.
If you decide you can't avoid a lawsuit, be sure to request a jury trial. It's been shown that juries love patent holders because they're perceived as the little guys. Huge awards have been granted, especially to individual patent holders going up against big corporations. But courts are not awarding tripled damage amounts or attorney's fees to the patent holder as frequently as they used to. Only in cases where extreme and flagrant abuse can be proved will there be any chance for these awards.
More and more, patent infringement cases are being settled by arbitration, which is cheaper and faster than a traditional lawsuit. An arbitrator, who is usually a patent attorney or former judge, is an impartial person who will listen to each party in the dispute and help settle the matter. The arbitrator's fee can run from $2,000 to $20,000, and each side pays equal amounts. Although this is costly, it's less expensive--and less time consuming--than a lawsuit. Get a referral for an arbitration firm from your lawyer or insurance company.
Patent infringement is an awful experience any way you look at it. You'll feel betrayed and robbed. Unfortunately, until our laws are changed to better protect those with patents, this problem will not go away. Until something does change, your best defense is to be first in the market, with all your ducks lined up beforehand so you can hit the market hard and fast. | <urn:uuid:1c37e3e0-93ba-4faa-a5e7-5caa535eb275> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/printthis/14456.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955659 | 1,493 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Garry DeWeese (deweese@ucsu.Colorado.EDU)
Wed, 3 Apr 1996 08:44:28 -0700 (MST)
As was recently noted, Supernova 1987A is a good test case. While
conceivable that God would create with apparent age, it is much less clear
that he would create evidence of an object that never existed and an
event that never occurred. To paraphrase Einstein, "God may be subtle
but he is not malicious." Thus to defend God's creating evidence of
non-existent entities, one would have to claim God had a higher good he
was seeking, which could only have to do--at least indirectly--with our
beliefs about the age of the earth. In that case it seems we should take
the appearances as evidence, and not try to look for places where God
"forgot to cover his tracks." Or why should we assume that God created with
apparent age, which is obvious to all, but only reveals his "deception"
to the chosen few who are clever enough to find the tiny hints he left
lying around? On that model, how can we follow any consistent
hermeneutic? Perhaps God doesn't want us to believe the plain sense of
the text after all. Maybe Bultmann was right to find traces of mythology
in the resurrection account; perhaps Wellhausen was right to find hints of
multiple authorship in the use of different divine names...
What is comes to is a neo-gnostic position where only the illuminated are
in on the truth. | <urn:uuid:028509d0-0e64-496e-87bb-c1eb3b8b5512> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www2.asa3.org/archive/asa/199604/0048.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968992 | 336 | 2.140625 | 2 |
Nathaniel Kahn shares clips from his documentary My Architect, about his quest to understand his father, the legendary architect Louis Kahn. It’s a film with meaning to anyone who seeks to understand the relationship between art and love. (Recorded at TED2002, February 2002, in Monterey, California. Duration: 10:28.)
Watch Nathaniel Kahn’s talk from TED2002 on TED.com, where you can download this TEDTalk, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 400+ TEDTalks — including more talks about architecture.
Subscribe to the TED Blog >> | <urn:uuid:1849f37b-3a33-4abf-9e63-01fc495b9b09> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.ted.com/2009/04/06/my_father_my_ar/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967658 | 128 | 1.53125 | 2 |
So as I understand it database hardening is a process in which you remove the vulnerabilities that result from lax con-figuration options. This can sometimes compensate for exploitable vendor bugs.
Three main stages exist in hardening a database:
- Locking down access to resources that can be misused.
- Disabling functions that are not required.
- Principle of least authority or least privileges.
There is a wealth of information for "locking down" RDBMS environments to harden them against attacks. However these resources don’t provide enough context on current exploitations for databases (if you don’t know what types of attacks exist and which ones are popular, how do you know if your hardening measures are going to provide protection).
A bad way for me to begin learning hardening techniques would be to list as many database exploitations out there and learning how each and every one of them work, that could take... a very long time.
So I am wondering where I can begin, resources available and current trends etc. | <urn:uuid:11f4b8d8-9a00-407b-a7b3-d30fe73911dd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://security.stackexchange.com/questions/31204/database-hardening-techniques | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924274 | 215 | 2.0625 | 2 |
Education Show, Birmingham NEC - come and say hello to the MMP team!
Come and meet staff from the Millennium Mathematics Project, the organisation
behind Plus at the Education Show in Birmingham from March 22nd to the 24th. The MMP's stand is GG84 at the Birmingham NEC, so if you're visiting the show, come and say hello to Plus and the rest of the staff from the MMP.
Plus reported some time ago that the Secure Hash Algorithm SHA-1, on which the security of all electronic communication depends, came dangerously close to being cracked, thanks to the work of the Chinese mathematician Xiaoyun Wang (see The dangers of cracking hash).
Now the US National Institute of Standards and Technology is responding. This year it will launch a competition to find a new algorithm to replace SHA-1. Cryptographers sharpen your pencils!
Maths and science: Hugely important but poorly understood
A recent poll conducted in the US by Research!America showed that while US citizens feel that public understanding of maths and science is poor, they are well aware of its importance. The vast majority (85%) recognise that maths and science are very important, but over half (52%) feel that the US isn't performing as well as other nations in maths and science education. Maybe
surprisingly, 87% rate being a scientist as one of the most prestigious careers, yet 75% can't name a living scientist. Sixty-four percent don't think average Americans are knowledgeable about science, and 76% think it is very important that young people are encouraged to pursue scientific careers, and that more opportunities for these careers are created.
Most people questioned felt that scientific advances in the medical and health sector were the most important to society, but many recognised that research in this area depended on maths (56%) and other maths based fields including computer science (62%), physics (58%) and engineering (49%).
A huge majority (97%) recognised that science research is important to the US economy and 94% also saw that it can create jobs and higher incomes. Global issues also scored highly with 67% seeing scientific research as very important in addressing global warming and 61% in eliminating poverty and hunger around the world.
And, interestingly for Plus, 70% wanted more media coverage of science and research.
"To address today's unprecedented opportunities in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics workforce, we must retool our education system to educate our young people in math and science more effectively and nurture the innate abilities of all young people, regardless of gender or race, to enter a STEM field of study," concluded Arden Bement, the director of the US National Science
"Maybe surprisingly, 87% rate being a scientist as one of the most prestigious careers..."
Maybe (not surprisingly) the crux of the problem lies in the fact that in the United States no one considers "being a teacher" is prestigious.
Would you like to become a mathematician, or rather stick to being a woman? There are of course many people who are both, and very successful ones at that, but the fact remains that women are still under-represented in maths-based careers and degree courses. They are also twice as likely to drop out of maths-based careers as men. Now a new study suggests that this may be due to the strain a
maths environment puts on women's self-perception; a strain that works through unconscious gender stereotypes.
In an article published in the January issue of Psychological Science, psychologists Amy Kiefer of the University of California, San Francisco, and Denise Sekaquaptewa of the University of Michigan report on a study they carried out on undergraduates that were enrolled in an introductory calculus class. They rated women's implicit gender stereotypes, for example by checking if they
automatically associated "male" with maths ability, and their self-perception, for example by asking if they identified themselves as feminine. They then followed their performance independently of the maths ability they had displayed previously.
The researchers found that the worst performers were those that had strong implicit gender stereotypes and were likely to identify themselves as feminine. This may seem unsurprising, but the important point is that the women's stereotypes were unconscious: the majority of women taking part in the study had explicitly stated that they do not believe that men are better at maths than
Another interesting point is the extent to which under-performance seems to be linked to gender identification. The authors suggest that this may give some insight into the high drop-out rate of women in maths-based careers. Women may feel that to be in tune with their work environment, they need to distance themselves from feminine characteristics. And the more they value these
characteristics, the bigger the sacrifice that this involves, so that even women who are very good at what they do may come to leave their field.
It's sad to see how deep-seated women's stereotypes about their own abilities are, but there is hope. In recent decades women's participation in maths and science has increased drastically. There are many highly successful women mathematicians that can serve as role models. And once a critical mass has been reached, even the most ingrained stereotype can be overturned by experience.
Hi!, I am Sarah-Jane and I am an Intersex-46xx Woman. I have a phd in nuclear physics and have never had a problem with the three 'R's. I believe it is because we are indeed steretyped by a stereotypical society and because of this we are continually compartmentalised into believing what we can and can not do. As a feminist of the seventies I fought my family and socity to do what I wanted to
do and dd not take s*** from anyone. We all have to be who we know ourselves to be and then we can be honest with ourselves to give us the strength to achieve what we ourselves are inside of us. I only broke free when I realised the only one holding me back was me. This pi**** me off and gave me the strength form within to succeed. We are only held back by are inability to realise our own
Born: 22nd of April 1887 in Copenhagen, Denmark
Died: 22nd of Jan 1951 in Copenhagen, Denmark
Harald Bohr must be the only mathematician who came to fame through football: as a member of the Danish national team he won a silver medal at the 1908 Olympics in London. Although it's hard to imagine these days, back then you could still pursue a sports career in your spare time, and by the time Bohr took part in the Olympics, he had already spent four years doing a maths degree at the
University of Copenhagen. His sporting success gained him celebrity status in Denmark and when he defended his doctoral thesis after the games, the audience reportedly contained more football fans than mathematicians.
Eventually, though, his interest in maths gained the upper hand and he became a professor of mathematics at the Polytechnic Institute in Copenhagen in 1915, moving on to the University of Copenhagen in 1930. He was interested mainly in the application of analysis to number theory. Together with Edmund Landau he proved some major results about the Riemann zeta function, which lies at the heart
of the famous Riemann hypothesis. Although their work contributed two important steps towards its solution, no-one has yet been able to fill in the remaining details — the problem is still unsolved and bugs mathematicians to this day.
But if Bohr's name rings a bell in your brain, it's probably not because of his football stardom, or because of his own excellent contribution to maths, but because of his famous brother Niels. Niels Bohr won the 1922 Nobel Prize for physics for his insights into the structure of atoms and for his work on radiation, and was one of the founding fathers of quantum mechanics. Although Niels takes
most of the posthumous limelight, Harald's contribution to maths was nonetheless remarkable, gaining him international recognition as one of the most prominent Danish mathematicians of the twentieth century.
But Harald Bohr's life wasn't all maths. His generosity towards people in need, especially those fleeing the Nazi regime in Germany, gained him just as much international acclaim as his work.
You can read more about the brothers Bohr on the MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive:
Science in School - the best in science teaching and research
The third issue of the magazine Science in School is just out, and as usual is a fascinating read about all areas of science. Plus particularly enjoyed Richard West's reminiscences of discovering a comet, and the articles on the power behind the Sun and the advances of Muslim scientists during the Dark Ages in the West.
Science in School aims to promote inspiring science teaching across Europe. It's published quarterly, and you can either subscribe to the printed edition or read it free online at http://www.scienceinschool.org. | <urn:uuid:a5bf5305-2c13-4a1a-b79d-10b235a5de6e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://plus.maths.org/content/Blog/%22/latestnews/www.britishscienceassociation.org/%22/issue48/features/markowich/sites/all/modules/simpleswf/mediaplayer-html5/919778.polldaddy.com/s?page=84 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975542 | 1,821 | 2.078125 | 2 |
Even in China, David sometimes beats Goliath – though it’s sometimes hard to be sure.
This week, residents of Songjiang – a suburb of Shanghai which has gained fame around the world for having over 10,000 dead pigs floating in its water supply – found that though they could not vanquish the porcine invader, they had scared away an intruder from the corporate world. Shanghai Guoxuan High-Tech Power Energy company said it was abandoning plans for a battery factory in Songjiang, after residents protested on the streets and on the internet against it. Continue reading »
Meet the world’s newest would-be mining giant: the Ganzhou Rare Earth Group.
It has yet to make any sales, but if all goes according to plan for government officials in China’s poor southern province of Jiangxi, it could control about a third of the world’s supply of rare earths, elements which are crucial in the manufacture of electronics. Continue reading »
Recently there has been a lot of attention paid to an essay on tax reform by the head of the tax department at the Ministry of Finance in Beijing, which mentions two hot-button words: carbon, and tax.
But does this mean that China, the world’s biggest emitter of carbon, will adopt a serious carbon tax? According to Su Wei, director general of climate change at the powerful economic planning ministry, the answer is: probably not anytime soon. Continue reading »
The toxic smog that has descended on much of northern China this winter has had many astonishing side effects: pollution domes being built over sports facilities, fresh air sold in cans on the streets of Beijing, and fewer fireworks to celebrate Chinese New Year.
But what does the smog mean for China’s heavy industry? Even before “airpocalypse”, Beijing had announced proposals to cap emissions from high-polluting industries under the current five-year plan. This programme got a further boost this week, when the Ministry of Environmental Protection unveiled a new accelerated timetable for the changes. Continue reading » | <urn:uuid:2967a3ff-1ff3-4022-a50b-19c21237e6ac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/tag/china-environment/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954564 | 428 | 1.617188 | 2 |
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Active Tectonics: Studies in Geophysics
California Coast Ranges
Northwest of the Transverse Ranges, and reaching into the area near the Mendocino triple junction, are several low but rugged ranges interspersed with long intermontane valleys. The region constitutes the Coast Ranges. They break off sharply both at the shoreline on the west and with the topographically flat Great Valley on the east. Throughout the mountain belt, the ranges are uplifted and deformed as shown by warped young terraces and surfaces (Buchanan-Banks et al., 1978; Page, 1981). The Coast Ranges are also constructed of ancient rocks that have been involved in a complicated history through geologic time. For example, many of the older strata were formed at a convergent tectonic boundary between lithospheric plates coming in against the continent from Pacific regions. Many faults in such areas have moved again and again, and some may now be active, although it is difficult to document the timing of the most recent displacements owing to the paucity of young offset strata.
The stretch of the San Andreas Fault through the central Coast Ranges is straight and constitutes the near-surface boundary between the lithospheric plates. Activity along it is shown in two ways. First, it is the locus of continuous slow creep, and, second, from time to time noticeable earthquakes take place upon it, such as the Parkfield earthquake of 1966 (Brown et al., 1967). The reach of the fault subject to creep and frequent small earthquakes extends on northwestward from near the town of Parkfield into the San Francisco Bay area. This is the part of the fault system that is under close watch instrumentally by the U.S. Geological Survey. Seismographs and instruments of other types are monitoring the behavior of the walls on either side of the fault in a search for premonitory changes in strain, tilt, magnetism, electrical field, the depth and character of small earthquakes, and the gas contents and water levels in wells (Raleigh et al., 1982). When a major earthquake occurs along this segment of the San Andreas, geoscientists hope to have gathered many kinds of information pertinent to understanding when, where, and why the earthquake happened.
The Coalinga earthquake of May 1983 took place in the central California Coast Ranges, with its epicenter near their margin with the Great Valley and about 30 km from the San Andreas Fault (Eaton et al., 1983; Namson et al., 1983; Wentworth et al., 1983). Although the tectonic setting of the earthquake is still under study, it appears that relatively rigid crustal layers are deforming differently from those at depth. The occurrence of the earthquake at distance from the San Andreas Fault attests to the mobility of a broad belt near the lithospheric plate boundary and also that geologists have much to learn concerning its dynamics.
To the south of Parkfield the fault last ruptured during the Fort Tejon earthquake of 1857, one of the strongest earthquakes in California recorded history (Sieh, 1978a,b). This earthquake displaced ground features about 30 feet right laterally along the fault from the southernmost Coast Ranges, through the Big Bend region of the San Andreas Fault and the central Tranverse Ranges, to the vicinity of the city of San Bernardino.
Within the San Francisco Bay region elongate crustal blocks are separated by several major faults of the San Andreas transform system, such as the San Gregorio, San Andreas (proper), Hayward, and Calaveras (Crowell, 1976; Page, 1981, 1982). These faults are neither exactly parallel to each other nor to the direction of movement between the Pacific and North American lithospheric plates. Where the faults diverge or converge in map view, blocks between them may be either squeezed or stretched. Where they are stretched, the terrain sags to form valleys and sedimentary basins, and where squeezed, terrain rises to make mountains. San Francisco Bay itself may well owe its origin to the sagging of the block between the San Andreas and Hayward Faults so that ocean waters from the Pacific are able to flood eastward upon the continent. In this region, terrains between major faults are undergoing deformation as shown by out-of-place old-erosional surfaces—some have been much uplifted and dissected; others, such as marine terraces, are now depressed far below the levels where they were formed (Atwater et al., 1977). Soft mélanges of the ancient Franciscan Complex stand high and are prone to severe landsliding. The region as a whole is undergoing deformation, but deformation is even more concentrated along the major fault zones (Brabb and Hanna, 1981; Prescott et al., 1981).
North of San Francisco Bay several terrains between discontinuous active faults are recognized (Herd, 1978; Fox, 1983). Shear stress between the two lithospheric plates is apparently spread across a region running through broad lowlands near the city of Santa Rosa. The belt of displacements includes the San Andreas Fault on the west and extends well to the east into the high Coast Ranges, roughly on line northwestward from the active Calaveras and Concord Faults. This region is one where the active plate boundary is broad and diffuse and where crustal slices within it also show “porpoise structure.” Geologic mapping with an emphasis on documenting recent deformation is hampered in the northern California Coast Ranges by widespread dense forests and brush, steep terrain subject to landsliding, and the paucity of datable young rocks. | <urn:uuid:2c05e655-2d57-44b9-8ba7-9001fa3c75f3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=624&page=25 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942554 | 1,194 | 3.5625 | 4 |
Waxman Targets the Koch Brothers
What do the infamous Koch brothers have to do with the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, which, if approved, would run 1,661 miles from Alberta, Canada to Texas, carrying 900,000 barrels of oil from Canada's tar sands to US refineries? TransCanada has requested permission to build the pipeline, but Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) want more information about how project might also benefit the right-wing financiers and their energy conglomerate, Koch Industries. The pair sent a letter ot Republican leadership on the House Energy and Commerce Committee asking them to formally request more information. This comes in response to an article from SolveClimate that indicated that the Kochs could profit big time if the pipeline is approved.
The lawmakers wrote:
Publicly available information indicates that the company is involved in several aspects of Canadian tar sands development. Koch’s Pine Bend Refinery in Minnesota currently processes roughly 25% of the tar sands fuel imports to the United States. Koch owns Flint Hills Resources, LLP, in Calgary, Canada, which is “among Canada’s largest crude oil purchasers, shippers and exporters.” Flint Hills Resources also operates a crude oil terminal in Hardisty, Alberta, where the Keystone XL pipeline will begin. According to the Government of Alberta, Koch Industries has both proposed and producing tar sands projects in the province. The Oil Sands Developers Group also indicates that Koch is a tar sands project developer. Koch’s Corpus Christi refinery is positioned near the end of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline and would be a potential buyer for the tar sands crude shipped through the pipeline.
When Democratic staff for the Energy and Commerce Committee recently inquired about Koch Industries' connections to the proposed pipeline, however, the company's representatives told them the firm has "no financial interest" in the project. Waxman and Rush want the committee's Republican leadership to formally ask the company to provide any and all documents relating to the pipeline.
This comes as House Republicans attempt to advance a bill that would expedite the review process for the pipeline, forcing President Obama to make a decision by November 1, 2011. (The text of the bill makes it pretty clear that its authors want that answer to be a "yes.") The House energy and commerce committee is holding a hearing on the legislation today, where TransCanada's president, Alex Pourbaix, will testify.
The State Department recently granted more time for evaluation of the pipeline, as environmental groups, farmers and lawmakers from the region have expressed concerns about its potential environmental impacts. Those fears are justified; TransCanada's current pipeline has been plagued by leaks.
Republicans on the committee and Koch Industries have counter-attacked, with one Republican staffer calling Waxman's request a "transparently political stunt" in a comment to The Hill. Of course, it's no secret that drawing a Kochtopus connection is an easy way to draw attention to a subject. But it shouldn't distract from the many substantial concerns about the pipeline proposal with or without their involvement. | <urn:uuid:786c63e4-4c08-4433-8c9d-38723e331a08> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2011/05/will-kochs-benefit-proposed-tar-sands-pipeline | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945093 | 632 | 2.1875 | 2 |
When you are Deaf or hard of hearing, or even if you CAN hear, the hospital can be a confusing place. Additionally, staff may not have the resources or understand how to care for you in the best way possible. To keep it simple, everyone who may come into contact with you needs to be prepared for your visit. To do this, you need to smile, be a diplomatic and strong self advocate!
Here are some easy to implement ideas for you to suggest to your doctor and health care system!
1. Every chart should have patient identification.
A sticker that states:
“Deaf” or “Hard of Hearing”
If you want to provide more information, these may be helpful:
“Speech reads or Reads lips”
“Does NOT read lips”
“Interpreter needed” (and contact information if possible)
2. Make sure they know to arrange Pre and Post-surgery interpreters (for surgeries where you are awake, C-sections, for example, interpreters are needed for the whole process—before, during and after!)
* Let surgical center or hospital know in advance that you will need interpreters.
* If the surgical center or hospital is not sure where to get interpreters, let them know of reliable interpreter services in your area…through an agency or a direct recommendation.
* If you are not sure where to get help, contact the national Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (www.rid.org) or a local city or state Registry of Interpreters. Often, they are in the phone book under “Interpreters,” “Deaf services,” or other similar topic.
3. See if your hospital uses a color wristband ID—similar to the Allergy ID bands that say “Deaf” or “hard of hearing” instead of Penicillin allergy.
4. Check about possibly putting a yellow (or other color) sign on the wall behind them that states, for example, “Patient is Deaf.” Some people may have other preferences.
* A similar idea is a sign on the door to your room.
5. Make sure call buttons with the hospital operator and nursing stations say that you are Deaf or hard of hearing. Let them know how to best contact you!
* If family members or friends want to contact you, the operator or nursing station should have a way to notify you if someone is calling.
* Better yet, see if there is a way to transfer Teletypewriters (TTY) or even Video Relay calls (VRS) can come directly to you!
* Nursing and other staff need to be aware that if you push the “Call nurse” button, they don’t “answer” with “Can I help you?” through a speaker. They need to go into your room to find out more.
6. See if you can have them remove surgical masks (for a short period of time) or better, find out about clear masks for the operating room for surgical or other staff that need to talk with you.
7. The surgeon and anesthesiologist should not do the operation unless emergent. You need to understand the procedure clearly and sign any consents with a qualified interpreter. Make sure an interpreter or other accommodation is available before your surgery happens.
8. Be sure the Emergency Room is aware of interpreter contact information or who to contact when needed.
9. If you are admitted through the Emergency Room or from your doctor’s office, make sure the “floor” you are going to knows about needed interpreters or assistive devices. Let them know what works for you!
10. Work with their Information Technology department for innovative ideas that allow patients (Deaf or hearing!) to check themselves in, provide insurance and other necessary information, interpreter or other accommodations needed, and telephone field modifications so they can include TTY and/or video relay numbers. This can help you if you need to go to the hospital or Emergency Room again.
Where possible, you should inform the hospital of any needs in advance.
In summary, the entire system needs to know what to do when a Deaf or hard of hearing person is in the hospital. Until health care providers and patients work their way through the entire hospital system, what could happen and when, frequently, even health care providers don’t realize how many people come into contact with you! Often, they forget about switchboard operators, food services, transportation and others.
These suggestions help you, the hospital, your doctor, and even hearing patients when they enter the hospital. A happy client will only bring the health care system more business, make life easier for you and others, and provides the hospital with incentives to provide excellent patient safety and quality ratings! | <urn:uuid:29309e85-c35a-4f97-84cc-2b5e2db4d002> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://deafdoc.org/deaf-hard-of-hearing-community/families-and-individuals/the-emergency-room-or-hospital-some-helpful-tips/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929789 | 1,015 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Sink A NeedleScience brain teasers require understanding of the physical or biological world and the laws that govern it.
How can you sink a needle that is floating in a bowl of water without touching it, dropping anything on it, or shaking the bowl?
AnswerDish soap! The molecules in dish soap separate the water molecules from each other, and since the surface tension of the water is no longer as great, the needle sinks!
This experiment actually works, the trick is using some sewing thread to lower the needle onto the water.
See another brain teaser just like this one...
Or, just get a random brain teaser
If you become a registered user you can vote on this brain teaser, keep track of
which ones you have seen, and even make your own.
Back to Top | <urn:uuid:89a31a95-f76f-44a5-a767-230219d385ed> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.braingle.com/brainteasers/teaser.php?op=2&id=25647&comm=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925848 | 165 | 3.109375 | 3 |
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How to maintain quality and ethical standards while juggling multiple deadlines and content demands for print, mobile, web and tablet. This session will focus on what errors readers notice most — and that you should focus on the most — and will include a discussion on online ethics vs. print.
Do you think the journalists coming out of j-school have skills you missed? There's a way to catch up. Learn about the new multimedia, social and mobile tools and how to incorporate them into your current job and life to experiment, grow and show off your abilities without spending a lot of money or excessive time.
This session will focus on the design hub consolidation at Gannett, Tribune, Scripps and Hearst, with leaders from each organization discussing what they’ve learned, what has worked, what didn’t and what the future holds.
This session will discuss practical and inspirational strategies on how to brainstorm, especially on deadline and with limited resources. Presenters will discuss their techniques, previous successes and inspiration for the first half, then in the second half will offer a real-live brainstorming throw-down with suggestions from the audience (a.la. Who’s Line Is It Anyway?”) and panelists working through the topic to prepare an plethora of creative ideas.
Three ingredients make up responsive web design: flexible grid-based layout, flexible images and media, and media queries. But these three elements are just focused on layout and layout is not design. “Design is the method of putting form and content together.” (Paul Rand) In the context of designing and prototyping BostonGlobe.com, we’ll talk about how we applied this technique to present news content, how we created the reader-experience and how a responsive framework affects:
story packaging and presentation on the web
art direction and ad delivery
the creative process
We’ll show some of the code (what makes the grid flexible, the images responsive, media queries, etc) as well as the static prototypes. We will offer insight to the ‘design-velopment’ process of rapid prototyping in code and illustration. We’ll show the logic behind how the content reflows at different browser-width breakpoints. We’ll we’ll talk about using custom fonts and fallback plans to better tailor content to users’ varying contexts, and methods for testing a ‘device-agnostic’ layout across a relatively exhaustive list of devices.
by Dave Gray
Dave Gray is the Founder of XPLANE, the visual thinking company, and a Partner in the Dachis Group, a social business consultancy. Dave’s time is spent researching, sketching and writing on innovation, design, systems thinking, and creativity in business, as well asspeaking, coaching and delivering workshops to educators, corporate clients and the public.
His latest book, Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers details more than 80 tools and techniques used by the world’s leading innovators.
He is also a founding member of VizThink, an international community of Visual Thinkers.
The future’s bright for innovative news designers, you just have to be creative about reinventing your career path. Find out how from a panel of finalists from SND’s original “The Intern” competition. Five years ago they burst onto the scene as fresh-faced students hungry for their first internship. Today, they’re blazing trails at the country’s most influential media companies, running their own businesses and defining the jobs for the next generation.
Learn from the ground-breaking newsroom app teams at ProPublica and the Chicago Tribune in this survey course about how to get news apps in your newsroom. Learn how to gain the technology and skills needed to make for news apps and how to find allies in the newsrooms, corporate and IT to make it a success. There will be several projects dissected and a discussion of agile project management skills also.
by Len De Groot
Do you dream of creating interactive, data-rich maps? Learn the building blocks of data and GIS maps and how to join them online. See demonstrations of GeoCommons and MapPublisher — which allows you publish online and reuse in print. We'll cover some technical subjects (so be prepared to eat a little broccoli). This session is perfect those trying to find which size propeller hat to wear.
by Joy Mayer
The craft of journalism is too often driven by the journalists themselves — by their own standards of what is important and worthy. Designers have long been the people in newsrooms speaking up for the near-mythical “audience” — asking questions about how to make content accessible, whether the main points of a story are clear and how readers will be encouraged to act on the information they’re given.
Why everything you learned in the newsroom will make you a better web designer
With digital news content being published on phones, tablets, and all sorts of other platforms, there’s an explosion of content on the web — and a serious need for experienced editorial designers to organize it all. The skills honed in newsrooms are more relevant than ever as readers demand better online experiences. Tito Bottitta & Mike Swartz will share stories and practical advice about how they learned this for themselves while launching Upstatement, their web design firm, and designing the new BostonGlobe.com website.
by Erin Polgreen and Michael Hogue
From the travel section to deep investigative reporting, news organizations around the country are using comics to engage audiences and tell stories that are immersive, personal, and deeply effective. Graphic journalism seamlessly blends storytelling with images in a way that even the best photographs can't do, and it's less expensive than most multimedia. During this session, we'll discuss best practices for creating graphic journalism with artists and editors working in the field. We'll talk about what works, what doesn't, and what tomorrow's biggest opportunities are.
This session will discuss new tools available that are allowing organizations to mirror both their print and digital projects. No longer shackled by 'Web-safe' fonts, @font-face, TypeKit and the Google Font API are allowing a breath of fresh air in our text voices. Panelists will discuss techniques, trends and what the future likes for fonts.
As cities increase their focus on improving the urban environment, how can journalism help citizens shape the community in which they live? Alissa Walker, an L.A. based writer who writes about architecture, design and urban issues, is experimenting with ways to use journalism to activate and empower local residents. This year, at the publication GOOD, Alissa helped launch GOOD LA, the first chapter of a new initiative called GOOD Local, which focuses on not only providing great local content, but also on giving readers the tools to take action for the causes they believe in, and provide real-life opportunities to engage with each other. In her role as editor, Alissa has created crowd-sourced projects, community events, and service opportunities that create impact on a local level and add value to the GOOD experience, producing more loyal and active readers. Journalists don’t need to work within the context of a publication to make the same impact in their cities. On a personal level, Alissa gave up her car a few years ago (Yes! In L.A.! It’s possible!) and uses tools like her personal blog, Facebook and Twitter to engage her readers around local public transit issues. This can include anything from taking photos of herself walking to prove that people walk in L.A., posting updates to Twitter about riding the bus, to organizing urban hikes and tours, and writing about biking in L.A. to help women feel safer about getting on a bike.
by Karl Gude
If you missed Karl in Denver, we’ve brought him back to expand on his ever-growing list of free online software for generating visualizations of all sorts: GIS maps, graphs, timelines, slideshows, animations, collages and the like. Also, if you don’t feel like buying the Adobe Suite, there is really good open-source software that can do layout and design, draw, manipulate photos, edit movies and more. Karl will help you sort through the mass of them and let you know the best ones to use to help visualize your stories by giving you an overview of the capabilities of each. Attendees are also welcome to share any free software that they like to use.
by Tim Harrower
An exciting close to the SND St. Louis conference with awards, fancy clothes, a dinner and a bunch of surprised, hosted by Tim Harrower.
29th September to 1st October 2011 | <urn:uuid:a65c8bc6-2792-4a5e-bead-7eb08e1f19c9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lanyrd.com/2011/sndstl/oct-01/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932257 | 1,822 | 1.75 | 2 |
Invisible gas which apparently knocks people unconscious.
Fred and George were planning to release Garrotting Gas in a corridor, but left school before they had a chance to carry out the plan. Ginny seized upon the idea as a diversion to keep Umbridge away from her office. NOTE: It seems highly unlikely that Fred and George would have released something which was actually deadly, so we assume that Garrotting Gas is non-lethal (OP32).
Cut ginger roots are used in Wit-Sharpening Potion.
Powdered horn is used as a potion ingredient (FB) | <urn:uuid:8972f5b4-8217-4cbd-a0e2-9e6b4cba7d77> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hp-lexicon.org/magic/potions/potions-g.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977145 | 119 | 1.921875 | 2 |
Looking for sample daycare menus is a great way to get started when developing a child's menu of your own at home daycare or preschool. If you are like most childcare providers, you will want to supply two main meals and one to two snacks a day, depending on how long your business hours are. If you are open until the early evening, such as 6:00 pm, a second snack may be necessary at about 3:00 pm or so. Breakfast and lunch are usually served at set times of the day, to avoid having to continually feed kids on different schedules according to when they arrive.
The first meal of the day is the most important. As children grow into adults, they should be in the practice of eating a healthy breakfast in order to prevent overeating later in the day. Typical of a daycare menu for breakfast is a grain, such as hot or cold cereal, pancakes or waffles. Along with that, fruit and a protein are good supplements. Apples and bananas are well-liked by children, as are cheese sticks and hard-boiled eggs. Serve your meal with milk, for additional protein and calcium, or a low-sugar juice.
Depending on the size of your daycare operation, you may choose to have several lunch options available for the kids. However, this can pose a problem if one item runs out and only some children are left eating something they don't want. Therefore, it is usually best to have the same lunch menu items for all kids. Remember the balance between starches/grains, protein and fruits and veggies. Great lunch ideas for kids include cheese or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese or chicken noodle soup. Fresh fruit or veggies or applesauce is a good accompaniment for most main dishes. Just be sure to watch out for nut allergies so everyone remains safe.
Serving two snacks a day doesn't have to be a difficult or expensive thing to do. Apple or celery slices with a side of peanut butter makes a good snack, as do hard-boiled eggs, crackers and chips, pudding cups and Jell-O. Serve your snacks with some juice, or make a fruit smoothie with bananas to fill the children up in the evening.
Some communities have daycare subsidy programs that will help supply food or money to pay for the food you provide the children. This is usually in exchange for following a certain menu, or staying within county-specified nutrition guidelines when making your own daycare menu. The benefit to this is that you save money, and parents can feel secure knowing you are serving their children healthy meals.
Daycare contracts outline the rules and policies of your daycare center. Not only do they explain what is expected on your part, but they also lay down some ground rules for the parents.
Interested in grants for daycare centers? While there are few options specifically geared toward daycare centers, you can still find grants as a new small business owner. | <urn:uuid:d424ea34-748c-4797-9484-8b95c5f31744> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.life123.com/career-money/new-business/daycare/sample-daycare-menus.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959212 | 613 | 2.078125 | 2 |
- Wednesday, 13 June 2012 11:18
Article Read: 745
Most Australian websites are fundamentally flawed because they have no capacity to generate new business or customers, according to marketing and Internet guru Aidan Montague.
Mr Montague, a 25 year veteran of technology and business solutions, has identified the seven fatal website mistakes that can contribute to a company's poor performance.
"With any website, function must come before fashion," Mr Montague said. "Companies spend thousands of dollars engaging graphic designers to design attractive websites but they don't generate a single sale or help convert one customer.
"The most important aspect of any website is what is happening 'behind the scenes' to drive new business, rather than a fancy front page. If there's no way of converting customers into a sale – there's no point in having a website at all. Unless you have a system for generating leads and your website acts as part of a wider traffic and conversion system – you are dead in the water," he said.
Mr Montague, chairman of Panorama Synergy, says the most common website mistakes include:
1. No lead generation capability
2. Too much emphasis on look and feel (at the expense of functionality)
3. Not building a list or database
4. No optimised selling system
5. No unique selling proposition
6. Too much reliance on search engine optimisation/free traffic
7. No adequate conversion measurement
Mr Montague has created a website to assist small and medium enterprises capitalise on converting unique website visits to confirmed leads and potential sales. He said online marketing could be broken down into three key areas:
1) Drive traffic
2) Convert traffic
3) Have a structured system to do both
"This is not about re-inventing the wheel – it's about common business sense," Mr Montague said. "Businesses need to recognise the potential for online marketing and ensuring they're doing everything possible to increase business traffic via an effective website offering.
"If their websites don't have a way to capture customer information – they're losing sales," he said. | <urn:uuid:3f524b96-d706-45ea-a271-c096ac387115> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.accomnews.com.au/industry/154-news-in-brief/1839-the-seven-fatal-website-mistakes | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94221 | 433 | 1.570313 | 2 |
By Chrisa Hickey, REDBOOK.
If you're a mom like I am, I bet your heart aches at the thought of a sick child who needs help. But some illnesses aren't outwardly apparent, and others are so misunderstood they seem downright scary. That's why, during National Children's Mental Health Awareness Week, I'd like you to meet my family.
It might help to first imagine that you have an 11-year-old son, and that he's sick. You're not sure what's wrong, but you know it's serious. Your pediatrician recommends you see a specialist, but when you call the only two in your area, neither one has an appointment available for eight weeks. When you finally get in to see the specialist, he puts your son in the hospital for two weeks of testing and observation, then diagnoses him with juvenile onset diabetes. You know the word, but you're not sure what the prognosis is or the treatment your son will need. The doctor recommends you relinquish your parental rights of your son to the state, as that is the only
By Chrisa Hickey, REDBOOK.Read More »from What It's like when Your Child is Mentally Ill
- Babble.com | Parenting – Wed, May 8, 2013 10:04 AM EDT
runaway momHave you ever wanted to run away from your family? I think many of us would say, "No! Never!" out loud to others, because that sounds so terrible, so selfish. But maybe some of us have had those feelings before. Feelings that well up from a deep and dark place within us that tell us that things would be better if we left. Run away, and don't look back.Read More »from Don't Judge Me: The Day I Considered Running Away from My Family
According to CNN, there are an increasing number of mothers who not only have those feelings, but who actually act on them. They run, or walk, away, and leave their families, their children, behind.
It's not an easy thing to talk about. If we are the mother having those feelings, it's not something that most of us would share with our best friends, or our families, our children, our husbands. Much less talk about to the world. And so my hands shake as I write these words, but I think it is important to share my story, because maybe in sharing, someone else will feel like they aren't so alone in the world.
There was a day when I wanted
- Babble.com | Parenting – Wed, May 8, 2013 9:41 AM EDT
There is no doubt that once you have kids, your stress level will go up. I know that I am more stressed and it's totally understandable. As a parent, you're now responsible for the lives of others. You have their nutrition, happiness, safety, education, and social life all in your hands and if you've got a perfectionist personality, it can get very stressful.Read More »from Critical Mass: Survey Says Having Three Kids is the Most Stressful
It certainly doesn't help that there is a lot of criticism that comes with parenting. We get it from experts, from friends, from family, and other moms. Everyone seems to have an opinion on how to "do it right" that it's no wonder that the stress just keeps piling on.
Related: 6 reasons sibling rivalry is actually good for kids
Parenting is quite an adjustment and with each new child added to the family, a new routine has to be found. That alone can be stressful, but I believe that it doesn't necessarily have to be that way. A survey that was released exclusively by TODAYMoms.com on Monday, asked more than 7,000
Bethenny is really big on reading to Bryn - and now there's another reason to spend a while turning pages with your little ones, other than the quality time:
A brand-new study shows that picture books without text can actually help toddlers develop more complex language skills than reading a book with words, since you're verbally interacting with what's on the page. Think: "What is the bear doing? Where is he going next?" The upshot: They're more prepared for school and to develop better reading skills, which is always a good thing!
We rounded up a few of our favorite illustration-heavy books - many of which have won big-deal awards - so you can reap the brain-building benefits for your babe!
Read More »from These Books Will Make Your Kid Smarter
- Disney Baby | Parenting – Tue, May 7, 2013 4:13 PM EDT
5 Reasons I LOVE Being an AuntI already knew that I loved babies - especially babies from my genetic pool - but man, you guys. I had no idea how much I'd love being an aunt. Of course it doesn't exactly compare to the primal love of a mother and child, but there's a very special and unique bond between an aunt and her nephew.Read More »from Pressure's Off! 5 Reasons Why I LOVE Being an Aunt
1. I get to experience all of the best parts of babyhood, namely the way they feel when they fall asleep on your chest - with those soft, deep breaths that can calm the most high-strung nerves. And the smiles and the laughs and the hugs and the OH MY GOODNESS YOU'RE SO CUTE I CAN'T STOP KISSING YOUs.
2. And then I get to hand him back, namely for the feedings and the poops and cries.
Related: 10 ways that unexpected motherhood changed me for the better
3. I get to do a two-baby test run without the commitment. Benjamin has shown me what an incredibly nurturing and helpful Big Brother my son will be, and it's been awesome practice for the living-with-two-kids lifestyle.
4. It gets my son
- Disney Baby | Parenting – Tue, May 7, 2013 4:12 PM EDT
If you've got a first-time mom to celebrate this Mother's Day, here are 10 Mother's Day gift ideas for the new mom to add to your shopping list this year. From the practical to the thoughtful, these new mom gifts will be sure to touch the heart of any new mom on her first Mother's Day this year. By Keiko Zoll
MORE ON DISNEY BABY
Read More »from From Practical to Pampering: 8 Mother's Day Gifts for New Moms
Image courtesy DCL
Last week, I wrote about our daily schedule for school days. I also wanted to share how we take our breaks from school on weekends and vacations.
Saturday is our family day. It's just a day of rest. We don't have to do jurisdictions; we don't do chores. The trash fills up in the trashcan. We may or may not empty them and nobody really has to do anything. It's a great day. Everybody loves Saturday!
Sometimes we'll sleep in and hang around the house. Other times, we might go for a picnic, a walk, or a bike ride. It just depends on what that Saturday is like. We typically try not to schedule things on our Saturdays and keep those as a family day, but of course you'll have weddings and other things that come up on the weekends.
Read More: Michelle Duggar's Spring Cleaning Secrets
Sunday seems to be a busier day. It's the day we go to church so we're up early getting everybodyRead More »from Michelle Duggar on Taking a Break
By Abigail Green for TheBump.comRead More »from The 5 Types of Moms We All Know
Thinkstock / The BumpWe all know we shouldn't compare ourselves to other moms. It's not right to judge or stereotype. Yeah, yeah… yeah. We also know we all do it and it can sometimes even serve a useful purpose. Who among us hasn't wanted to be a little more like that mom and a little less like that mom?
Here are five of the most common mom types I've encountered:
1. The By-the-Book Mom. This is generally but not always a first-time mom. She knows the recommended amount of sleep, food, dirty diapers and infant Tylenol a baby should have according to his age and weight. She knows exactly when the first teeth should appear and in what order. She can recognize cradle cap, RSV and Fifth Disease on sight. This mom is a font of useful knowledge, but should never be a substitute for your pediatrician. Also, she tends towards anxiety. Wonder why?
"Holy Crap! I'm a Mom!"
2. The Go-With-the-Flow Mom. This mom is the polar opposite of the By-the-Book Mom. She is very attuned to her
Courtesy of Parenting.comWe surveyed a few kids for their mother's day ideas and thoughts. We loved the charming things they had to say.
- Babble.com | Parenting – Tue, May 7, 2013 11:50 AM EDT
It seems as though everyone around me is repopulating the earth a'la Noah and the Ark - apparently kids come two-by-two. Basically all of my friends are working on, pregnant with, or already have their second child and I'm starting to wonder, "When will I be ready for another baby?" I've always wanted more than one child, so that isn't really the issue, more so that there are just so many things about having another child that seem totally overwhelming to me and like I would be starting all over again. So, I've decided to write out the pros and cons of this second baby business. I already did a post about some reasons I'm looking forward to having another baby, and now I've written up the flip side of the coin…reasons I don't really want another baby. - By Lauren Hartmann
MORE ON BABBLE
Read More »from One and Done: 7 Reasons Why I Don't Want to Have a Second Child
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- Pesto Chicken Burgers19 hours ago | <urn:uuid:c6767756-c8f2-415d-8b5b-52df292e4433> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://shine.yahoo.com/blogs/parenting/archive/9.html?.tsrc=attcf | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964229 | 2,324 | 1.773438 | 2 |
ASSOCIATES OF MAHATMA GANDHI > VINOBA BHAVE >MY DEAR PRANAV > Bhagvadgita - 1
30th December, 1990
My dear Pranav,
The Gita had a great influence on Vinoba. It has been commented upon by many people in India and abroad. Shankaracharya wrote his commentary on it. So did Lokmanya Tilak, Mahatma Gandhi and Vinoba. Each one interpreted it in his own way. The influence of the Gita on Vinoba was manifold.
Vinoba rated the Gita on par with his mother. In Marathi alone there are 65 translations of it. Vinoba's mother wanted to have one done by him. He could not complete it in her lifetime. He published his translation, in samashloki (the same meter) in 1931. He called it Gitai (Mother Gita). The most important part of it is its Introduction. Vinoba says," Gitai is like my mother. I am her child who does not know. She picks me up as and when I stumble and cry." Vinoba;s is the most simple and direct translation of the Gita giving the full rich meaning of the original. This is Gitai, the largest selling Marathi Book to date. It was not translated into any other languages till Vinoba's death. It is a standard text book in all his six ashrams and his students learned it in Marathi.
The second important book by Vinoba on the Gita is the Gita-Pravachane or (Talks on Gita). It has been translated into almost all the languages of India and in English. This a very lucid and logical interpretation of the Gita, with remarkable precision. It is a record of Pravachans (talks) Vinoba gave to jail mates in Dhule jail from February 1932 to June 1932, on every Sunday. It was taken down verbatim by Sane Guruji. It has a very remarkable, directly appealing and simple style of its own. Vinoba gives here his interpretation of the Gita. The most important concept he expounds in it is akarma (non-action). That is his personal contribution. Pranav, you must read this whole book when you can. It will make a lasting impression on you. It has changed the course of many lives in India. Both Gitai and Gita Pravachane were considered as finite works and Vinoba did not change them.
Vinoba's third book on the Gita is Gitai Shabdarth. (Literal meanings of words in the Gitai) is a compilation, where he has gone deep into the implications of many key words.
The last book on Gita is Gitai Chintanika. This is a remarkable book. It was continuously evolving. Vinoba used to create many new interpretations and ideas on the Gitai virtually every day. This was the book of a man who was continuously evolving, ever changing, yet essentially the same. From the viewpoint of the study of Vinoba as an individual this is an important book
So Pranav, you will eventually see Vinoba as fully immersed by the Gita. The Mahabhashya of Shankaracharya, the Gitarasya of Tilak, Aurobindo's commentary, the Jnaneshwari of jnandeva were all a staple diet for him. Still, he tackled the Gita in four different ways.
Gita is a veritable treasure-house of distilled wisdom from the Upanisads. It has influenced many lives. Vinoba's life was one illustrious example of that influence.
L. N. Godbole | <urn:uuid:4ce9896a-1802-4c42-a8e7-f3d12cfb8640> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mkgandhi.org/vinoba/pranav_bk/letter48.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973668 | 774 | 1.984375 | 2 |
Public Forum on Institutionalized Racism in Malaysia by HINDRAF and KL Chinese Assembly Hall Civil Rights Committee
Date: 17 January 2012
Time: 7.30 pm
Venue: KL Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall
The speakers are:
1) Mr.N.Ganesan - National Advisor to Hindraf
2) Dr. Kua Kia Soong - Director Suaram
3) Assoc. Prof. Dr. Azmi Sharom - Law Lecturer and Activist
Chaired by: Dr Lim Teck Ghee - Director, Centre for Policy Initiatives
Racism in Malaysia is developing into a subtle, pervasive and increasingly aggressive form of racism.
What started as a defensive affirmative action program is now fast degenerating into an aggressive form of institutionalized racism. This is sapping the potential of Malaysian society. The future on this trajectory is disastrous for all Malaysians. It will bring ruin to all of us.
The political, legal and administrative structures of our country – the anchors and sources of this institutionalization need to be fundamentally revamped. For this to happen, the public view of what is truly happening must become sharper. This is not an easy task - given the resources at hand for the beneficiaries of this racist system.
Public opinion must first be aligned with this developing reality, before any change can happen. With the kaleidoscope with which we all view Malaysia the perceived reality now, is not disturbing enough to galvanize people to action. This needs to be addressed.
HINDRAF and the Civil Rights Committee (CRC) of the KL & Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall are taking upon themselves to educate the public to address the needed paradigm shift . Together we embark on the first of a series of fora to highlight and educate about the structures and processes that entrench racism into our system, the impact to the nation and to the future of the nation if this is all left unchecked. And also to inform of some early stage activities in this respect.
This is the first time this topic is being broached in a public forum. We wish to push this topic into the foreground of political discourse in our country. – in its barest from. This is part of the campaign of HINDRAF and CRC to bring an end to racism in the country. We have been browbeaten to accept the status quo of this racist regime – but it only continues to reduce us as a people and as a nation. It is time we stood up and said no to institutional racism and begin the process of change.
We have an interesting evening planned at the forum. We invite all concerned Malaysians to attend this forum. At the forum besides what the panel of speakers plan to share, we also look forward to tapping the wisdom of the participants in the form of thoughts about attaining a racism free Malaysia.
A better, more honest name for BN
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Quantity of Soldiers—not Quality of Their Aim—Won Battles
Why did armies, during the American Revolution and at other times, fight with lines of men standing near each other? Why did they not simply fight from behind cover?
The use of linear formations in European army infantries was one element of what military historians have called the "Military Revolution," though they have disagreed on the period within early modern history—the Hundred Years' War (13371453), 15501660, or 16601720—during which the tactic became most significant.
In linear formations, infantry troops, armed beginning in the late 17th century with bayoneted flintlock muskets, marched in columns until they were ordered by commanders to form lines, usually three-to-five men in depth, and charge enemy targets while firing in unison. The tactic did not require skilled marksmanship or out-of-the-ordinary heroics, but relied instead on well-drilled and disciplined soldiers delivering massive amounts of firepower.
Line charges, especially when accompanied by artillery fire that arrived at enemy lines just as the advancing soldiers came into firing range, could be decisive in battle. Defending armies, arranged in similarly cohesive lines, could respond with corresponding volleys of ammunition and fend off larger forces. Army size was greatly increased due to the institutionalization of linear formations within a framework of centralized bureaucratic organization, as was the impact of the military on societies.
Historian Guy Chet has discredited a popular "Americanization thesis" that attributed colonists in militias during the late 17th and early 18th centuries with adopting guerrilla warfare tactics learned in battles with Indians as more appropriate than linear formations for fighting in wilderness terrains. Chet finds a lack of evidence for the claim and maintains that contrary to popular belief, the initial victories of American forces in the first battles of the War of Independence were not due to so-called American tactics, but from the failure of the British forces to adhere to established tactics and strategies.
While guerrilla warfare did break out in the backcountry of the South during the final year of the Revolutionary War, both sides for the most part engaged in battles fought according to tactics developed during the Military Revolution.
Clifford J. Rogers, ed., The Military Revolution Debate: Readings on the Military Transformation of Early Modern Europe. Boulder: Westview Press, 1995.
Jeremy Black, European Warfare, 16601815. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994.
Guy Chet, Conquering the American Wilderness: The Triumph of European Warfare in the Colonial Northeast. Amherst and Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2003. | <urn:uuid:dc508212-1048-4a58-b345-c9c2d5fef6ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/19436 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950752 | 536 | 3.828125 | 4 |
Social Shopping & Technology
In the study "Social Shopping: How Technology Is Reshaping the Consumer Experience in Apparel Retailing," we explore several emergent social interaction applications that are beginning to reshape the customer experience in the retail apparel industry. One of the major problems that online retailers face is that consumers typically visit retail websites for the express purpose of making a specific purchase, but do not engage in the "social shopping" activities that occur in physical stores, which historically lead to the greater purchasing practices. New social shopping applications have the potential to solve this problem by being able to re-create the inherently social aspects of real-world shopping and drive more typical mall purchasing behavior.
The timing for these applications may be just right as today's youth already show an apparently high level of comfort with technology and with sharing personal information online on existing social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace. This paper looks at four distinct types of social shopping applications in the apparel retail market. The first type, examples of which are often referred to as "virtual worlds," allows members to interact and shop within online re-creations of real physical spaces, such as streets and shopping malls. The second allows consumers to try on apparel merchandise and share the look with others without putting the clothes on their bodies or, in some cases, even stepping foot inside a store. The third type of application includes web communities that facilitate ratings and advice on apparel-related topics, thereby generating sales. Finally, we investigate weblogs that directly enable or influence apparel purchase. VIew "Social Shopping: How Technology is Reshaping the Customer Experience in Apparel Retailing" report. Project leaders: M. Eric Johnson, CDS Director; Aaron Cohn T'07 and Juliane Park T'07.
This report examines how augmented reality and social media, delivered on a mobile platform, are changing the physical shopping experience. "Bricks & Mobile: How Smartphone Technology is Transforming the Store Experience" was written by Neil Davis T’11 and Kathryn Malinick T’11 (shown below) under the direction of Professor M. Eric Johnson. | <urn:uuid:f23f2ca3-8f47-4232-8634-0e51a51c6213> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://digitalstrategies.tuck.dartmouth.edu/research/project-detail/social-shopping-technology/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93808 | 430 | 2.375 | 2 |
About Arapahoe Schools
- There are 2 K-12 schools in Arapahoe, WY, including 2 public schools. Arapahoe public schools belong to one districts, Fremont County School District #38.
- There are 1 Arapahoe elementary school, 1 Arapahoe middle school, 1 Arapahoe high school and 1 Arapahoe preschool school.
Contact Education.com with questions or feedback about SchoolFinder.
Please note, if you wish to speak to someone at the school, you must contact the school directly. | <urn:uuid:eb33dbd5-5ea1-4222-9c26-d2bca0d0bb97> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.education.com/schoolfinder/us/Wyoming/Arapahoe/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937189 | 120 | 1.882813 | 2 |
HARRISBURG, Pa. — A lawyer for eight families urged a federal judge on Friday to overturn a policy that requires the discussion of “intelligent design” in biology classes, saying it improperly promotes religion in schools.
But a lawyer for the school board defended the policy, explaining that it was intended to call attention to a new “science movement.”
The families’ attorney, Eric Rothschild, said the concept promotes the Bible’s view of creation by saying some features of organisms are so complex that they are best explained as the products of an intelligent agent rather than natural selection.
“Intelligent design became the label for the board’s desire to teach creationism,” Rothschild said in closing arguments.
Patrick Gillen, a lawyer for the Dover Area School Board, argued that the concept was intended to call attention to “a new, fledgling science movement.”
The policy requires students to hear a statement about intelligent design before ninth-grade biology lessons on evolution.
The statement says evolutionary theory is “not a fact” and has inexplicable “gaps.” It refers students to a controversial textbook, “Of Pandas and People,” for more information.
The school district’s policy “has the primary purpose and primary effect of advancing science education,” Gillen said.
Eight families are suing to end the practice, saying it violates the constitutional ban on the state establishment of religion.
Video: Debating design The lawyers wrapped up a six-week trial that featured expert witnesses for each side debating intelligent design’s scientific merits. Other witnesses clashed over whether creationism was discussed in school board meetings months before the curriculum changed in 2004.
Federal Judge John E. Jones III said he hoped to issue a ruling no later than January.
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Earlier Friday, the defense concluded its case with testimony from University of Idaho microbiology professor Scott Minnich, who supports discussing the concept in high school science classes.
Minnich said under cross-examination that articles supporting intelligent design are not found in the major peer-reviewed scientific journals because it is a minority view.
“To endorse intelligent design comes with risk because it’s a position against the consensus. Science is not a democratic process,” he said.
The plaintiffs are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State. The school district is being represented by the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Thomas More Law Center, which says that its mission is to defend the religious freedom of Christians.
The attorneys on either side of the case may appeal the judge's ruling it goes against them.
© 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | <urn:uuid:741d24d0-36ef-400e-8008-52f89a217883> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.today.com/id/9925264/ns/technology_and_science-science/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938428 | 702 | 1.804688 | 2 |
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - Visitors to America's national parks will encounter fewer rangers, find locked restrooms and visitors centers, and see trashcans emptied less often if 5 percent across-the-board cuts are enacted by sequestration.
A National Park Service internal memo obtained by The Associated Press compiles a list of cuts in services in parks from Cape Cod to Yosemite. It's the result of an order by Park Service Director John Jarvis in January that asked superintendents to show how they will absorb the funding cuts.
Most of the park system's $2.9 billion budget is for fixed costs such as salaries and utilities, so the $112 million in cuts would slash programs. Those on the block include invasive species eradication in Yosemite, student education at Gettysburg, and comfort stations on the Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi.
(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
|There are currently no active polls at this time.
Click here to view other polls on our site and past poll results. | <urn:uuid:bae1a2c1-9033-4fc7-bd7c-f83b00c30bf7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kxii.com/fox/home/headlines/APNewsBreak-National-park-cuts-detailed-in-memo-192546531.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926044 | 229 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Climate scientist links Arctic melting to U.S. weather fluctuations
Ask Jennifer Francis about Hurricane Sandy and she'll point north. Ask her about this summer's midwestern drought, she'll point north, all the way to the Arctic. She's linked Arctic ice melting with fluctuations in global weather.
David Robinson knows just about everything there is to know about climate change.
But starting a borrowed chainsaw is another thing altogether.
“Ahh, this doesn’t look good,” Robinson said as he struggles with the cord. “This isn’t going to start.”
But it does finally start, and he and his son set to carving up a giant oak tree that fell in his son’s yard during Hurricane Sandy. He says chainsaws are one of the most common sounds around this part of New Jersey these days.
“I grew up in New Jersey, and my over 50 years in this state, nothing had come close to this in terms of tree damage,” he said.
View a slideshow from this story at TheWorld.org.
But Robinson says things could have been much worse, despite the scores of deaths across the region and a price tag running into the tens of billions of dollars. If Sandy’s winds had been just twenty miles per hour stronger, he says, parts of New Jersey would’ve been without power for months.
“Your entire electric grid would have to be rebuilt. And quite likely you’d see an exodus, at least a temporary exodus, of people from the state.”
Robinson’s concern is more than that of the average New Jersey resident. He’s the state climatologist. And he says increasingly extreme weather all across the world is testing the ability for even the richest nations to recover.
Here in New Jersey he says the weather isn’t just breaking records, it’s blowing right past them.
“We’ve had 21 straight months of above average temps in New Jersey and the mid-Atlantic region,” Robinson said. “And then we’ve seen major storms. It was a year to the day before Sandy made landfall that central and northern New Jersey up into southern New England had an unprecedented October snowstorm.”
Climate scientists avoid blaming any single weather event like Sandy on global warming. But many say that climate change may well have played an important role in Sandy’s destruction, as well as other recent extreme weather events.
It’s not just that global warming is contributing to rising sea levels and warmer ocean temperatures off the northeast. There’s also growing evidence that weather in places across the United States is being affected by rapid warming far to the north, in the Arctic.
Climatologist Jennifer Francis of New Jersey’s Rutgers University says that warming in the Arctic may be altering the jet stream, which impacts weather patterns across the northern hemisphere.
The jet stream is largely created by temperature differences between the Arctic and areas farther south, Francis says.
“So if you warm the Arctic more than areas farther south, which is what’s happening, there’s no doubt about that, then the jet stream should be weaker, because the temperature difference is smaller,” she said. “And that’s exactly what we see.”
Francis pulls up a time-lapse animation of the jet stream’s waves on her computer. It starts out showing waves of air moving quickly across North America.
“But then there’s this period where the waves get much bigger," she said. “We’re moving toward an increased tendency for the jet stream to get into these big, wavy patterns that tend to move more slowly. ... So the weather that’s associated with them on the surface, either the storms or the high pressure areas, whatever it is, are going to stick around longer at a given location.”
That means a greater chance of ordinary weather becoming extreme events like last summer’s drought and heat wave in the American Midwest or last winter’s cold snap that killed more than 800 people in Europe.
“You can look at almost any extreme event of the type that I described,” Francis said. “Look at the atmospheric pattern that was associated with it, and almost every single time it’s because there was one of these big swings in the jet stream.”
Hurricane Sandy was no different. Cold Arctic air coming from one of these large dips in the jet stream to the west strengthened the storm, while a huge high pressure system to the north blocked Sandy’s movement over the Atlantic and drove it directly toward the east coast.
Francis co-authored a study on these kinds of changes in a peer reviewed journal last spring, before this summer’s record Arctic meltdown and before Sandy. But the science hasn’t yet been widely accepted.
Gavin Schmidt, with NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, is among the climate scientists who aren’t yet convinced of the connection between a warming Arctic and extreme weather events.
Schmidt says global weather is a particularly complicated system.
"We can find patterns in rich systems all the time," he said. "They lead us into lots of interesting pathways for research. But for every 20 patterns that we think we see in a very complicated noisy flow, only one of them is going to actually turn out to be something that is a robust thing that we can use for predictions.”
Schmidt says findings like Francis’s need to be plugged into climate models and compared to other results. He says it’s too early to know whether there’s really a cause and effect link between the warming Arctic and weird weather to the south.
But Schmidt says there is definitely “something funky” going on.
“We’re increasing the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere beyond what they’ve been naturally in 800,000 years, maybe millions of years," he said. "That’s a huge perturbation to the system. Everything in the system (is) being affected by that.”
But figuring out exactly how these complex systems are reacting to that disturbance takes time.
It’s a challenge Francis is well aware of as she walks along a beach down the road from her home near Buzzards Bay, in Massachusetts.
The area was spared from the deadly tidal surge that wiped out so much of New York and New Jersey, but Sandy still left its mark here. Francis points out a spot where the storm’s water came right up to the edge of a building near the shore.
Today, though, the same jet stream that shot Sandy into the east coast is bringing clear skies and unseasonably warm temperatures from the northwest.
“It’s the good weather side of the waves in the jet stream,” she said.
Francis spends an awful lot of time crunching data in the lab, but she says she’s also starting to see the impacts of what she’s studying right here where she lives.
“There’s a lot of realism to what’s happening today and I think I’m not the only one that’s sensing that,” she said. “This is something that’s happening before our very eyes. It’s not something that we don’t have to worry about for another generation or two. And the fact that there’s this link to a place that’s so far away and so different from here — you know, the Arctic, people don’t think of it being relevant to them. But in fact it really is.”
The trick for scientists like Francis is teasing out just how powerful those changes in the Arctic are becoming, and how likely they are to contribute to more events like Sandy — or worse — in the years ahead.
"PRI's "The World" is a one-hour, weekday radio news magazine offering a mix of news, features, interviews, and music from around the globe. "The World" is a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI and WGBH Boston. More about The World. | <urn:uuid:73d9336d-46a5-4608-84eb-79775bd43ac3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pri.org/stories/science/environment/climate-scientist-links-arctic-melting-to-u-s-weather-fluctuations-12137.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953344 | 1,736 | 2.96875 | 3 |
Effective treatments for facial brown spots
HOUSTON (KTRK) -- It's one of the most dreaded things to see in the mirror, brown spots or hyperpigmentation. Beauty experts say there are both over-the-counter and professional treatments that can help.
After a severe acne breakout, Fermande Saintilis started noticing unsightly brown spots on her face. Concerned, she headed to her dermatologist.
"I'm 30 years old and want to look fly, so I wanted them off," she said.
Her spots are known as hyperpigmentation, which are caused by an over production of melanin in the skin.
"You can have a brown spot after a pimple, you can have melasma, which are the brown patches on the face that women get with pregnancy. That's very, very common. And then you can get brown spots from years of sun abuse," said Dr. Health Woolery-Lloyd, creator of Specific Beauty.
It turns out Saintilis isn't the only one stressing over unsightly blotches. Studies now show hyperpigmentation will impact 90 percent of women at some point in their life.
"It's up there with acne and wrinkles as being one of the leading concerns among women," cosmetic chemist Ron Robinson said.
The best-known ingredient for zapping these trouble spots is also controversial.
"Although hydroquinone is an effective ingredient, it can be very irritating in certain patients, especially if you have sensitive skin," Dr. Woolery-Lloyd said .
"There are some studies in lab animals where it possibly has shown some carcinogenic effects. So there are a lot of regulatory groups that have been trying to ban this ingredient," Robinson said.
In 2006, the FDA proposed that hydroquinone products should not be available over-the-counter and recommended additional scientific studies. Consumer concern has led to a recent explosion in skin-lightening products.
"There are a lot of wonderful natural ingredients that are extremely effective at fading brown spots. So there's licorice, soy; even vitamin C can be helpful to fade brown spots," Dr. Woolery-Lloyd said.
No matter what you try, everyone agrees you should avoid products coming from overseas that could contain mercury. The FDA recommends you read ingredient lists carefully, avoiding those with terms like "mercury," "mercurous chloride" and "calomel."
As for Saintilis, she says a chemical peel has given her the confidence to put her best face forward, without any spots.
Dermatologists say while there are many effective treatments to lighten brown spots, including laser treatments, or microdermabrasion, the best defense is prevention. Wear sunscreen, with a minimum SPF of 15 everyday.
healthcheck, christi myers
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Most Viewed StoriesMost Viewed VideoMost Viewed Photos | <urn:uuid:abe516b0-0562-4339-abf1-8c80a719a38a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/health&id=8697422 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946652 | 764 | 1.757813 | 2 |
[November 8th 2007]
[Page 182, line 3] Irregular Horse In Captain Lionel Trotter’s The Life of John Nicholson (Thomas Nelson, London 1897), it is recorded that after realizing the need for a Movable Column to keep the Punjab quiet in 1857, John Nicholson’s first thought was to raise the levy of Multani Horse from the Derajat, and he offered to command it. Authority was given on May 15th to enlist 1,000, later raised to 2,000. In May 1857, the 10th Irregular Cavalry were at Nowshera, and the 55th Native Infantry were, according to Trotter, divided between Nowshera and Mardan, from which station the normal garrison, The Guides, had been withdrawn for the Mobile Column.
A settlement of fanatics on the right bank of the Indus about 50 miles east of Mardan had been the cause of a punitive expedition in 1853. In the official record the opinion is stated that it is due to these troublesome belligerent extremists that the 55th Native Infantry mutinied and broke open the magazine, as recorded in Roberts’s Forty One Years in India.
[Page 182, line 5] John Lawrence was appointed in 1846 to the Council of Regency for the young Maharajah, the new ruler of the Punjab, under his brother, Sir Henry Lawrence, the Resident, when the latter was moved to Lucknow. John returned to India in 1864 as Governor General and was raised to the peerage in 1869.
During the uprising of 1857, according to Trotter, he was thought to be considering the possibility of withdrawing from Peshawar. Kipling writes:
‘Now it is written, in the history of the Mutiny that, on the 24th of July, “J.L.,” who had been arguing with Edwardes and Cotton against the retention of Peshawur, wrote to the Governor General of India saying:— “The Punjab will prove short work to the Mutineers when the Delhi army is destroyed.” It was the retention of Delhi not Peshawur, we are told, that “J.L.” set his heart on, in spite of Edwardes’ pleading.’[Page 182, line 9] swept off down south on 23 May 1857, John Nicholson was in pursuit with a force of cavalry and overtook the rebels and cut many of them down. They were not really going south, as Kipling says, but north, aiming to reach Swat, which was not within the frontier, or east, hoping to cross the Indus and find refuge in Kashmir. As the passage quoted in the headnote to this story shows, Kipling’s 1887 version of the story has the 55th being driven by Nicholson: ‘from Nowshera to Murdan and from Murdan to the hills of Swat.’
The Akhund and chiefs of Swat did not want such a disturbance in their country and the surviving rebels were herded eastwards to the Indus and eventually wiped out by the Hazara levy under Becher.
[When the reports of these fearful and complex events in distant and unpronouncable places reached the English newspapers, they were naturally a source of some alarm, but also a degree of bafflement: modern readers with an interest in less imperial curiosities of Victorian literature may recall Edward Lear's nonsense lines: 'who or why or where or what - is the Akond of Swat?']
[Page 183, line 11] across the border the border lay between British controlled territory and the independent tribes in Afghanistan.
Into our hills it was general policy for the border to be along the skirts of the hills. The rocky slopes were not, of course, suitable for cavalry—for which the tribes had a healthy respect.
[Page 183, line 17] Hindustani Regiment Said by an Afghan this simply means 'a regiment of the Indian Army'.
[Page 183, line 21] ran forward a little more the advance was slow, and though the far end of the pass was reached there were many counter-attacks, lasting in fact over a month and described in detail by Lord Roberts in his book. The British Commander of the force was severely wounded on November 20th.
[Page 184, line 6] Sheor Kot there is a place called Sheor Kot in the Bijnam District, about 60 miles north-east of Meerut, which was one of the centres of the mutiny, but that cannot be the place referred to, as this is 'over the Border'.
[Page 184, line 14] Government rifles It is said that this was where Lee Enfield rifles were first used in the hills. The stealing of rifles on the North West Frontier was quite a problem in itself. See the notes on "The Man who Was" (Life's Handicap) page 100, line 23).
[Page 185, line 30] mutilated the women of the tribes scoured the scene of an action, after the troops had withdrawn, with the object of loot and the mutilation of the dead and wounded. See the final verse of "The Young British Soldier":
When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,[Page 185, line 31] palaver A meeting, or parley. There were several occasions here when discussions were held with the enemy, both while fighting was going on and during intervals.
[Page 186, line 11] Gulla Kuta Mullah probably based on the Mullah of Kota, the religious leader of the fanatics.
[Page 187, line 21] a force in 1888 the Punjab Frontier Force consisted of: The Guides, both Cavalry and Infantry, four Regiments of Punjab Cavalry, four Batteries of Mountain Artillery, one Battery of Heavy Artillery, four Battalions of Sikh Infantry, five Battalions of Punjab Infantry, one Regiment of Gurkhas and one Battalion of Hazaras.
[Page 188, line 1] the wheat The valley of the Swat river is fertile. It is a snow-water river in the cold weather, which can be used for irrigation when not in flood.
[Page 188, line 31] clicking compass needles will perpetually swing unless checked by lifting them off their bearings by pressing a knob with the thumb.
[Page 189, line 2] Green Coats the Gurkhas are 'Rifle Battalions' and wear the dark green of the Rifle Brigade. The 4th and 5th Gurkhas were present at Ambela, as well as the Guides.
[Page 193, line 31] Marf karo the first word should be spelled muaf and the phrase would then mean 'Pardon'. Rahm means 'mercy' and Jan-bakhshi, 'Pardon for a capital offence'.
[Page 196, line 13] Rissala Cavalry.
[Page 197, line 27] sag dog.
[Page 198, line 26] cateran a Highland freebooter.
[Page 199, line 3] polyanthus a nice example of barrack vocabulary.
©Peter Havholm 2006 All rights reserved | <urn:uuid:989e5119-d0e5-4fc3-8f4d-33a04afcf02b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kipling.org.uk/rg_lostlegion_notes.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973338 | 1,504 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Photo Editing Tips and Tricks!
Photo editing is now so easy to do with the advent of digital technology and dslr's being able to take shots that can be transferred directly to a computer, and then simply using image editing software such as Photoshop and Photoshop plugins, to alter it.
The effects that can be now achieved by the average photographer editing a shot, is astounding bearing in mind the flexibility offered with Photoshop elements and Photoshop plugins, not to mention some other kinds of free photo editing software out there.
I remember years ago having to spend ages printing a picture from a negative, and still not being sure until I had the final result in my hands that it would have the desired effect. But not anymore. What often took me hours to achieve, now takes me a couple of minutes!
The Beauty of Digital Photo Editing
Got any pictures that are too dark/too light, or washed out? Took a great shot but then noticed one annoying little element in the corner of the frame that spoils the whole thing? Want to use
digital photography editing
for cropping to adjust the frame of the picture to add emphasis?
No problem. With today's editing solutions all of the above, and much, much more are possible.
...From Photo Editing to Sports Photography Tips...
Photo Editing Made Easy
Take a look at the photo I took on the left. The shot was originally under-exposed and the natural lighting that day certainly didn't help matters much.
I had expected it to be a nice sunny day, but instead was greeted by an overcast and gray sky.
I was aiming for spontaneous shots, and so didn't want to be bogged down with apertures and meter readings, and so wasn't paying too much attention to the things I should have been.
Most of the shots still came out well. But this shot would have been close to perfect had the lighting been right. So now for a bit of Photo Editing.
In Photoshop all I needed to do was alter the the color range with curves tool in the color drop-down. An exceptionally simple process doable in pretty much three clicks, what with the live preview tool also being available. You can see the results for yourself below. It made a huge difference as I'm sure you'll agree.
Photo Correction and Airbrushing
Although I'm not the biggest fan of what used to be called airbrushing, and what today is simply a tool on Photoshop, there are times where it does come in useful.
Take the same photo again for example. As you can see, on the cheek there are a couple of skin blemishes. To be honest, they are not too bad really, but they do detract from the overall aesthetics of the picture, due to their positioning and coloration.
So let's see what we can do by using the 'customize brush tool' when editing it.
Choosing the customize brush tool in Photoshop I then created a very diffused brush, with a fairly small radius.
Taking the color dropper from the tool bar, I then took a sample of the color from her cheek beside the blemishes, the color I would be changing the blemishes to.
Going back to my customized brush, I then made a couple of clicks around the blemished area with the pre-selected color.
The blemishes are gone, but the skin still looks natural, which is the effect I was looking for.
As you can see, the end result is much more striking and balanced, and I've turned what was a flawed shot into a really nice one, and it only took me three minutes (if even that).
Hopefully this will have given you a small taster as to what's truly possible with photo editing these days, and how easy it can be. To enhance one of your photos today and learn some easy to follow Photo editing tutorials, click a link below:
Altering Brightness and Contrast
Learn how to create the effect of Vignetting
Find out which free photo editing software is the best for your needs with these reviews...
Find out all about Learning Photography in Today's Digital age here...
Learn how to use Photography Lighting so you never have to edit a photo afterwards again!
Take some Digital Photography Tutorials Today here...
The Digital Photography Tips Tutorial Home Page | <urn:uuid:52c7cc7f-c688-425f-9ae5-faf2f73b43af> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.digital-photography-tips-tutorial.com/photo-editing.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96504 | 893 | 1.820313 | 2 |
By Jonnelle Marte
When they file their returns this year, some Americans will get a medical bill with their tax bill.
Starting next January, the Affordable Care Act mandates that every American have health coverage, and those who remain uninsured will pay a penalty. The extent to which one is eligible for federal subsidies to buy insurance, and the penalties for failing to comply with the mandate, will both be determined using one number: the adjusted income reported to the Internal Revenue Service this year. “So much of the Affordable Care Act is being implemented through the tax code,” says Kathy Pickering, executive director of the Tax Institute at H&R Block. And for many taxpayers, “their tax situation will factor into health-care decisions as well,” she says.
Jim Barber / Shutterstock.com Enlarge Image
The penalty, which was upheld as a tax by the Supreme Court in June, will vary per family based on their size and income. The fee starts at $95 per person next year, or 1% of household income above the minimum threshold for filing a tax return—whichever is greater. And the penalty is scheduled to increase each year to $695 per person in 2016, or 2.5% of income. (After that, the penalty will be adjusted each year for inflation.)
For a single person earning $50,000, the charge would start at $400 next year, estimates H&R Block. And for a family of four with two children and a household income of $100,000, foregoing insurance would add another $800 to their tax bill -- a sum that would be deducted from any refunds. (The penalty is cut in half for children.) The government will provide subsidies, which would cap how much families spend on insurance premiums to a portion of their income. These subsidies will be available to those earning incomes of up to 400% the poverty rate, which works out to roughly $45,000 for an individual, and $92,000 for a family of four. See H&R Block Health Care Estimator
To be sure, people who get health insurance through their employers or through a government program like Medicaid will not be impacted by the penalty. But those shopping for insurance on the individual market may still opt to pay the penalty, experts say. Annual health insurance premiums for people working at small firms averaged $5,600 for individuals and $15,200 for families in 2012, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. (Of course, the decision to remain uninsured could end up being far more expensive if individuals face unexpected medical emergencies.)
J.W. Marriott to Obama: Lower the tax rate
J.W. Marriott explains why the federal government needs to solve its spending problems, how much corporate taxes should be cut and why the U.S. is still a great place for business. Photo: AP
In order to avoid the penalty, taxpayers will need to buy the minimum amount of health insurance required under the health-care law. One way to meet that amount is to purchase a plan offered in the individual insurance exchanges being set up by health-care reform, where individuals or small-business employees can shop for health coverage—possibly with the help of federal subsidies. Levels of coverage will vary, and some plans will have to offer essential benefits including hospital, emergency, pediatric benefits and other services. Dental-only plans, for example, won’t be enough to avoid the penalty.
Tax preparers say clients are already asking questions about how health-care reform will impact their tax bills—and vice versa. At H&R Block, preparers are calculating what a taxpayer’s insurance costs might be by using their returns to estimate the federal subsidy they might receive. They’re also talking to families about what penalty they would have to pay over the years if they decide not to buy insurance. Mark Steber, chief tax officer for Jackson Hewitt Tax Service, says they are fielding questions from taxpayers on the penalty and how insurance subsidies will work, and that the firm is evaluating if it will add a health-care component to its tax prep services. | <urn:uuid:e4e4d549-e6e8-44ab-8e48-4e5bbd54ebe1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-taxman-is-now-playing-doctor-2013-02-05?link=MW_story_featstor | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967996 | 841 | 2.015625 | 2 |
Service Complex at Mount Pleasant
Research and Collections
The Detached Kitchen
The detached kitchen at Mount Pleasant was built at the same time as the Madisons’ dwelling house. Both the dwelling house and the kitchen have a stone-lined cellar that was used for storage. In both cases, the stone-lined cellar was likely dug after the house was built as the stone walls of the cellar are contained within the footprint of the structure. Within the cellar of the kitchen, two separate deposits were found that provide important information for the occupation history of the structure. The lowermost deposits contains a cache of six wine bottles, most of which bear the seals of James Madison, Sr. and date to the 1750s. The floor of the cellar (on which the bottle fragments were found) contains a sump that was likely used to collect groundwater. This deposit is capped by the remains of the west wall that collapsed soon after the Madisons left Mount Pleasant. This stone retaining wall was repaired with postholes and the partial cellar was backfilled to prevent further collapse. The structure continued to be occupied by an enslaved family until around 1800 when a fire consumed the house and the occupants’ possessions.
The accidental burning of the kitchen/slave quarter is attested to by the large collection of ceramics recovered from the uppermost deposits of the cellar hole. Over two dozen plates, tea bowls, and saucers were mended and provide an unparalled glimpse into the possessions of an enslaved family. In addition to the ceramics, archaeologists recovered jewelry including cuff links with paste gems, sewing thimbles and pins, buckles, and other personal possessions that were either slipped through the floorboards during occupation or were lost during the blaze.
During the late 18th century, the enslaved occupants of the kitchen used the adjacent cellar hole for the burnt main house as a trash pit. Archaeologists recovered a layer of hearth ash over a foot thick that contained a myriad of animal bone, floor sweepings (that were deposited into the hearth and then thrown out when hearth ash was removed), egg shell, fish bone, and burnt plant remains from cooking. The combination of recovering the family’s household possessions and their dietary remains provides an wealth of information in regard to enslaved family diet and possessions.
The Slave Quarter
To the south of the kitchen, archaeologists uncovered the remains of a post-in-ground structure or a structure whose framing members (studs) are set into the ground rather than on a sill. The use of post-in-ground construction was a much simpler method of building a structure and was a technique usually reserved for outbuildings or slave quarters. This construction technique contrasts with the frame structures of the kitchen and main house at Mount Pleasant. | <urn:uuid:b7007036-ebe5-463a-a807-7676ac93ccbc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.montpelier.org/research-and-collections/archaeology/archaeology-at-montpelier/colonial-years/mount-pleasant/service-complex | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972007 | 560 | 3.328125 | 3 |
The radicalization of Pakistan’s military
By Fareed Zakaria,
Whatever their strength, American troops will not determine success in Afghanistan. Nor will the newly formed Afghan National Army. As U.S. forces are gradually withdrawn over the next three years, it is Pakistan’s 600,000-strong army that will become the dominant military force in the region and will try to shape its future. But that military is undergoing a deep internal crisis of identity, its most serious since Pakistan’s founding in 1947. How it resolves this crisis will determine its future, the future of the Afghan war — and much else.
This week’s news that a Pakistani brigadier general has been arrested for his ties to a radical Islamist group, Hizb ut-Tahrir, is only the latest in series of events that have rocked that nation. In the past year, two senior Pakistani officials have been gunned down, one by his own security guard. Last month, well-armed militants attacked a key naval base in Karachi, an operation that required inside assistance. Also last month, a brave Pakistani journalist, Syed Saleem Shahzad, who detailed the growing extremist presence within the Pakistani military, was tortured and killed, almost certainly by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence directorate (which denied the allegation). And then there is the case of Osama bin Laden, who was for years comfortably ensconced in an army town.
Pakistan’s military has traditionally been seen as a secular and disciplined organization. But the evidence is now overwhelming that it has been infiltrated at all levels by violent Islamists, including Taliban and al-Qaeda sympathizers.
There is also strong evidence of a basic shift in the attitude of the Pakistani military. Last month, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, was invited to speak at the country’s National Defense University. Addressing a large gathering of officers, Haqqani asked the audience, “What is the principal national security threat to Pakistan?” He offered three categories: “from within [Pakistan],” “India,” and, “the United States.” A plurality voted for the third option.
The vote is consistent with a WikiLeaks document, a 2008 cable from Anne Patterson, the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, expressing shock at the rising levels of anti-Americanism in the next generation of leaders of Pakistan’s military elite. Last November, Dawn, a Pakistani newspaper, described a military briefing in which a senior military officer explained to a handful of top columnists that the Pakistani military viewed the United States as a hostile force trying to perpetuate a state of “controlled chaos” in Pakistan and determined to “denuclearize” the regime.
Islamist ideology is replacing strategy. For 60 years, Pakistan’s military has focused obsessively on its rivalry with India. Large elements within that military appear to be switching obsessions, and the United States is replacing India as the organizing principle around which Pakistan’s military understands its national security interests. If this happens, not only is the Afghan war lost but Pakistan itself is also lost. (It does not have that far to fall; it made its annual appearance this year on Foreign Policy magazine’s “Failed States” list, coming in 12th, above Yemen.)
Ambassador Haqqani explained to his audience, “If [the threat] really comes from the United States then we’ve already lost, ladies and gentlemen, because you can’t beat the United States in a military confrontation. . . . [L]et us be honest, we do not have the means to take on the one military power in the world that spends more on defense technology than the next 20 nations in the world. So that is where I think we sometimes end up having what I call an ‘emotional discussion.’ ” Haqqani was gently pointing out the incoherence of these attitudes, but they persist.
It’s more than emotional. It is an indication that radical Islamist ideas — with America as the great Satan — are now reflexive for many in Pakistan’s military.
After the bin Laden raid, Pakistan’s military dispatched Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani to Beijing to try to cozy up to the Chinese. “We have asked our Chinese brothers to please build a naval base at Gwadar,” said Chaudhary Ahmed Mukhtar, Pakistan’s defense minister, and Gillani returned claiming triumphantly that he had secured the deal. The Chinese, however, were too savvy to play this anti-American game and humiliated the Pakistanis by publicly contradicting the story.
Pakistan is drifting into a strategic black hole. Does the country really think its best path forward is as an adversary of the United States, currying favor with militants and becoming a vassal of China? Are its role models North Korea and Burma? Or does it want to crush the jihadist movements that are destroying the country, join the global economy, reform its society and become a real democracy? These are the questions Pakistan has to ask itself. The United States, for its part, having disbursed $20 billion in aid to Pakistan in the past decade — most of it to the military — needs to ask some questions of its own. | <urn:uuid:7d85c318-1388-49c9-8cfe-863835cc3f3a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-radicalization-of-pakistans-military/2011/06/22/AGbCBSgH_print.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965014 | 1,112 | 1.601563 | 2 |
The water that flows from Lake Taupo, rushes down the Waikato River at the Huka Falls which is one of the longest rivers in New Zealand. At the Huka Falls on the North Island of New Zealand, the Waikato River squeezes through a 20 meter wide gorge and over a 20 meter drop.Every second there is up to 250,000 cubic meters of water that roars through the gorge and ends up in a beautiful bluish green pool. The Waikato River is normally about 100 meters wide but narrows as it crosses over a hard volcanic ledge. This produces a mass volume of water in a small space which creates falls and rapids of fascinating beauty.There is a foot bridge at the top of the Huka Falls which gives tourists a prime position to view this incredible display of water from the Waikato River. After watching this amazing display at the Huka Falls, follow an easy one hour trail walk that starts where the river is still calm and wide.There are a few great vantage points where you can watch the Huka Falls and take some magnificent photographs. It is an amazing sight in New Zealand to see while vacationing on the South Island.Huka Falls along the Waikato River, Wairakei Park, near Taupo, North Island, New Zealand.
I photographed this photo with the digital SLR camera model Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II, aperture of f/6.3, exposure time of 1/100 sec. on ISO 100, as always I used a original Canon Lens, the focus lenght for this picture was 52mm.
Back to top of photo page. | <urn:uuid:5628a4e7-d04b-41bf-a973-a17c4282c557> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hickerphoto.com/picture/huka-falls-new-zealand-photo-30025.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920477 | 336 | 2.078125 | 2 |
ends preferences in California
CIR intervened in a case levied by liberal interest groups against the enforcement of Proposition 209, the California Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI). The CCRI, which won a majority vote in 1996 referendum, banned the use of race and gender preferences in state university admissions, employment, and contracting. After hearing arguments from CIR, the courts dismissed the challenge, dealing proponents of affirmative action a massive defeat.
Read what the National Association of Scholars said about CIR and Proposition 209.
Read the text of Proposition 209
Second-guessing the will of California's voters
The CCRI was the culmination of a trend against racial preferences in California. Beginning with the University of California Board of Regents' decision to abolish racial preferences on July 20, 1995, a number of regents and businessmen drafted Prop 209 and won placement on the November 1996 ballot.
Supporters of race preferences waged a massive counter-campaign, but California voted in Prop 209 by 54.7% to 45.3%. Some of the propositions opponents, preparing for the worst, were immediately ready with a suit against Governor Pete Wilson charging that the CCRI was unconstitutional.
On November 6, one day after the election, plaintiffs called the Coalition
for Economic Equity and represented by the ACLU filed suit in the Northern
District of California. Their case relied on an argument by Vikram D.
Amar and Evan H. Caminker that the lower courts should hold Prop 209 unconstitutional
in light of the precendent Washington v. Seattle School District No.1
(1982), which prevented a ballot measure that would ban busing for the
end of integration. They also filed a Notice of Related Case claiming
that their new brief is related to one assigned to Judge Thelton Henderson.
Wilson and the state filed an opposition that was denied on November 13
as Henderson took charge of the case.
The strategy of the supporters of race preferences paid off on November 27, when Judge Henderson issued a restraining order prohibiting the enforcement of Prop 209. CIR was among the firms that defended Wilson against the CEE and appealed what was seen as political decision.
The court promised that the decision would only stand until December, when it would be decided if Prop. 209 had to stopped by an injunction. On December 23, the injunction was filed on the grounds that Prop. 209, which banned all racial discrimination, was in violation of the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause. CIR joined the defendents in taking the case to the Court of Appeals.
Recovering the law
Prop. 209 went to the courts as reports surfaced that city and county governments were willfully refusing to enforce the change in California's constitution. The CEE argued that the anti-discriminatory effect of Prop. 209 was "facial" and that the initiative's impact was on constitutionally permissable "race- and gender-conscious programs narrowly tailored to eliminate discrimination."
Numerous firms and public-interest groups filed amicus briefs for the defendent, and on April 14, 1997, the Court of Appeals ruled that the CCRI was constitutional and the injunction had to cease. Later in the year the Supreme Court declined to view a petition by the ACLU and CEE, establishing Prop. 209 as the law of the land.
Read the decision by the Ninth Circuit to lift the injunction
What's happening now?
The constitutional amendment of Proposition 209 remains in place. Legal challenges and charges of violation still occur, and many organizations that opposed it during the trial maintain efforts to bring back race preferences.
Editorial. "Prop. 209 Opponents aren't giving up." San Jose Mercury News, November 18, 1996.
Michael S. Greve. "Prop.
209: A Graceful Exit for the Courts." The L.A. Times,
February 14, 1997.
Last revised: 24-Aug-2006 | <urn:uuid:caa644e1-b2fb-4044-9a16-0b6980bbc1a3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cir-usa.org/cases/prop209_info.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962632 | 791 | 2.546875 | 3 |
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Society of Physics Students
Recently, some political and educational groups have attempted to undermine the importance of teaching the concepts of biological and cosmological evolution, thereby rejecting the consensus of the scientific community. Ideas about the structure and evolution of the universe, including Earth and its life forms, are unifying concepts in science. The development of students' informed views about these concepts is essential to a knowledge of science. These concepts should therefore be included and emphasized as a part of science frameworks and curricula for all students.
The Society of Physics Students (SPS) recognizes that decisions about science education standards are the purview of state and local authorities; however, the position of SPS is that such decisions should involve education experience and scientific expertise, and be based on the body of research in science, pedagogy, and cognitive development. SPS encourages science educators and scientists to participate in the development of science education standards by involving themselves in the decision-making processes of state and local school boards.
Voices for Evolution
The third edition of Voices for Evolution can be purchased or downloaded at Lulu.com | <urn:uuid:d40660e7-f49d-4ce6-b278-0490472c35cb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ncse.com/media/voices/society-physics-students | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945551 | 227 | 3.3125 | 3 |
Honoring MLK starts with legendary speech | Events
Martin Luther King Jr., day is technically next Monday, Jan. 21, but Dr. King's birthday was actually Jan. 15, and to honor the civil rights legend Rev. Percy “Happy” Watkins delivered the groundbreaking “I Have a Dream” speech.
This is hardly the first time Watkins has given the speech: He said he started in 1986, when then-Gov. Booth Gardner was touring Washington and Lydia Sims, of the NAACP, approached Watkins about reading the speech.
“I asked if I could use the basement of (Calgary Baptist Church) to learn the speech,” Watkins said. “I locked myself in a room and memorized it.”
Watkins has traveled to Los Angeles, Portland and the Tri Cities – among other places – to deliver the speech. He said at one point he gave the speech 35 times within a two-week span.
Tuesday, Watkins delivered the speech at both Sacred Heart and Holy Family Medical Centers, and said no matter how many times he does his rendition of Dr. King's speech, it is still “always exciting.”
“Sometimes there's smiles, sometimes there are tears,” he said. “That's what makes it so exciting.”
Tuesday was just the start of the MLK celebration. Here is a rundown of more ways you can get involved honoring Dr. King's life:
- Wednesday, Jan. 16, 8:30 a.m.: Drum Majors for Justice - A Call to Action. Spokane Community College (1810 N Greene St) at the Lair-Student Center Auditorium in Building 6.
- Sunday, Jan. 20, 4 p.m.: Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Celebration. Includes guest speakers Freda Gandy - executive director for the MLK Family Outreach Center, and Ivan Bush - former executive director. This event will be at the Holy Temple Church (806 W Indiana Ave). Also, the Spokane Community Choir will be performing.
- Monday, Jan. 21, 11 a.m.: Annual Unity March. Participants will gather at the breezeway of the Spokane Convention Center (334 W. Spokane Falls Blvd).
For more information, call (509) 455-8722 or on Facebook. | <urn:uuid:5ffb6216-44a5-4694-a9bf-2d4749f6daf5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://southhill.kxly.com/news/events/85865-honoring-mlk-starts-legendary-speech | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933289 | 482 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Social kissing is a potential minefield and is usually dependent on situation, age, background, profession and your relationship.
As a general rule, don't kiss people you don't know. Don't kiss
colleagues. Do kiss close friends and dates.
The key is to make your actions clear to avoid embarrassing confusion. Usually it's right cheek first, but prepare to change direction at the last minute. Pull back decisively (but don't be too abrupt) if you are just giving one. Be cautious with those you are less familiar with - two might seem over the top.
If confusion occurs over one-kiss-or-two, take charge and go in for a second. Humour is useful in deflecting embarrassment over the meet-in-the-middle mix-up.
Just holding cheek against cheek feels insincere, but there is a fine line between an acceptable peck and an overly affectionate smacker. Cheek skin must make brief, light contact; sound effects, air kissing and saliva traces are to be avoided at all cost.
If you'd prefer to shake hands, be sure to hold yours out before any kissing manoeuvres begin but, if you're part of a group introduction, don't be the only non-kisser at the party. | <urn:uuid:0ed36af3-39f9-4aeb-995f-79f1744be814> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.debretts.com/etiquette/communication/face-to-face/social-kissing.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929581 | 263 | 2.5 | 2 |
"I'm a strength specialist who hates to exercise," Maynard said, when I called her to ask if she could recommend some at-home starting points for the vast majority of us who are exercise-phobes.
Sure, she exercises — she makes her living at it — but it doesn't mean she likes it. She likes the effects — the way it makes her feel. She works out because it gives her energy.
"I got tired of being tired," she explained. "Now, I have the energy of a 20-year-old."
What small steps can she suggest to let us try out her thesis that exercise will make us feel better?
"Start slow," said Maynard, issuing an exercise directive we all can love. "Lower expectations," she continued. Yes!
And, don't think about losing weight. Yes, again!
"If you focus on weight loss, you're going to become discouraged," she said. There will be plenty of time for that. Keep reminding yourself that this is about "getting more energy," she urged.
Maynard, who works in Bethesda, Md., suggests that exercise-haters start by utilizing movements that come naturally: sitting and standing up.
Using a straight-back chair, slowly sit, then stand.
"Do it until you feel a burn in your muscles," she said. Keep your back straight, chest facing forward and focus on the movement of your legs. Set a goal of 10 minutes at first.
If you feel unbalanced, Maynard suggests resting one hand against a wall, on a broom handle or on another chair.
Getting started is the hardest part, says Maynard. If you're reading this sitting down, stand up. Then sit down again, slowly. Then stand up.
Good start. The hardest part is behind you now.
Got a bite-size tip on diet, exercise, well-being? I want to hear from you at firstname.lastname@example.org. | <urn:uuid:2745f9ca-f4ad-4987-8457-84a42eed8cf0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wask.com/waskfm/lifestyle/personalfinance/sc-health-0706-bit-of-fitness-20110707,0,3963877.column | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981346 | 411 | 1.867188 | 2 |
Cox \ˈkäks\ (audio pronunciation) Herald Rea (born 1907),
American bacteriologist. Cox's areas of research include neurotropic virus diseases, rickettsial diseases, virus infections, and vaccines. In 1937 Frank MacFarlane Burnet, an Australian physician, reported his discovery with Mavis Freeman of the causative organism of Q fever. At about the same time Cox isolated this causative agent. The genus Coxiella
of bacteria created to contain the rickettsial agent (Coxiella burnetii
) was named after Cox and the species after Burnet. | <urn:uuid:c6c0ef8d-76a3-4bdf-ae5e-13244012cf43> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.merriam-webster.com/medical/coxiella | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937416 | 127 | 2.703125 | 3 |
In myths from northern Europe, a legendary smith used supernatural skills to make weapons and magical items. Known as Wayland in England, the smith appears in Norse* mythology as Volund and in German mythology as Wieland. According to some stories, he was lord of the elves.
The son of a giant and grandson of a mermaid, Wayland served as an apprentice to the wise craftsman Mimir. King Nidud, an evil king of Sweden, captured Wayland and forced the smith to work for him. To prevent Wayland from escaping, the king cut the tendons in his feet, making him lame. He also placed the smith on a remote island.
Wayland took revenge on King Nidud by killing his two young sons and raping his daughter. He crafted gold and jewel-studded drinking bowls from the boys' skulls and sent them to the king. Wayland escaped his island prison by flying away on magical wings (or in some versions a feathered robe), which he had crafted for himself.
supernatural related to forces beyond the normal world; magical or miraculous
English tradition associates Wayland with an ancient stone burial chamber in southern England known as Wayland's Smithy. Legend says that if a traveler ties a horse there, leaves some money, and goes away for a while, horseshoes will appear magically on the animal's hooves. See also NORSE MYTHOLOGY. | <urn:uuid:ac624472-bb4e-493b-b7e9-f325040613c2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Wa-Z/Wayland.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971332 | 293 | 3.21875 | 3 |
[EVA] Some stuff
robday at rph.health.wa.gov.au
Thu Feb 17 09:26:58 EST 2000
Jesse Smith <jdsmith at shell.servtech.com> wrote :
> 1. The stuff that has been called "primordial soup" did not have RNA
> in it, just an assortment of organic molecules.
We don't really know this in the context of Eva, but the statements by
Ritsuko seem to support this.
> 2. Slime molds aren't prokaryotes.
True. The previous poster should perhaps have likened Rei to a virus.
Considering the way she seems to infect so many fans, that may not be so far
from the truth ~_^.
> 3. This is another example of how Eva just doesn't stand up to
> scientific scutiny.
> A lot of times Eva will use nifty biological terminology because it
> sounds futuristic or complicated or whatever. As another example, in
> ep 20 they refer to Units 00 and 02 receiving damage above the
> Hayflict limit, and thus unable to repair themselves. In real life,
> the Hayflict limit is the number of times a cell can replicate before
> its chromosomes start to unravel, effectively. There's kinda-sorta a
> connection, but there's no way you could receive physical damage
> "beyond the Hayflict limit". It doesn't make any sense that way.
Not quite so. I can think of an easy way to make sense of this.
Suppose we have an entity capable of regenerating its organs rapidly and
accurately at will. Let us further suppose that is does this by the normal
method, cell division, as this is the way all other multicellular organisms
both grow and regenerate. Now, given these assumptions, what happens when
the entity sustains massive physical damage: it attempts to repair itself by
replicating and differentiating what cells it still possesses. If the damage
is great, these cells may have to be replicated many times to repair the
damage; perhaps so many times that their Hayflict limit is reached.
Ergo, the physical damage is "beyond the Hayflict limit", that is too great
to be repaired with the number of cell divisions available to the entity.
robday at cyllene.uwa.edu.au
Accept the possibility of all things,
and the certainty of none.
More information about the oldeva | <urn:uuid:3a62aae3-68bb-44e8-95a9-2eb88b27ef65> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://eva.onegeek.org/pipermail/oldeva/2000-February/034200.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947668 | 530 | 1.664063 | 2 |
EYE COLOR, HAIR COLOR...
Not everyone inherits a known cancer risk. But women who do—and know about it—can take steps to prevent cancer before it ever occurs.
Welcome to InheritedRisk.com, a place for people who want to learn more about Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer (HBOC) syndrome and get their questions answered.
HBOC increases the risk of breast and ovarian cancer, as well as some other cancers.
“Learning that I had a higher-than-average risk for cancer inspired me to change my life.” | <urn:uuid:542a5ee8-97d7-44cc-ab00-bdf6c7f13679> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.inheritedrisk.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944147 | 123 | 1.710938 | 2 |
WFUV Sports asks what the Brooklyn Cyclones and Staten Island Yankees do and don't do before, during, and after every game.
Minor League Baseball: How does it differ from the majors? For the eleventh consecutive year, WFUV goes behind the scenes with the Brooklyn Cyclones and Staten Island Yankees In the Short Season Single-A NY-Penn League, it's long bus rides, low pay, and 76 games in 80 days. This is our look at Life in the Minors: How the Other Half Lives.
Eric Mollo, Staten Island Yankees Beat Reporter
Whether it is eating a big breakfast, listening to a favorite song, or playing a game of Spades, every athlete goes through some type of routine before each game. The Baby Bombers do a variety of things and explain how it affects them not only physically, but mentally, which is vital when handling the pressures of playing ball in the Big Apple.
Every player spoke about their individualized pregame routines, and how vital it is to their performance on the field. They had rituals and habits for on-field warm ups, in the clubhouse, and even on bus rides. Taking a specific number of ground balls and swings before each game is important for second baseman Zach Wilson, and on long trips, center fielder Mason Williams gets his head set for game day by listening to his Ipod playlists. Eating well before each game was imperative to many players too. While it is tough with all the traveling these guys do, they still find a way to eat a filling meal.
Superstitions, however, did not affect these Yankees as much as I thought they would. Not one Yankee said he had a superstition, even though young professional ballplayers around the country usually believe in them. Even the smallest of superstitions, such as not stepping on the chalk line, had no affect on these players They felt that as long as they were going through their pre-game habits and routines, they would be able to showcase their best baseball. That’s exactly what they’ve been doing all season long.
Steve Simineri, Brooklyn Cyclones Beat Reporter
If you take superstitions or pre-game rituals lightly, then think again. Even though many superstitions and rituals seem bogus and lame, they are an integral part of a specific routine people develop, especially ballplayers.
For example I know if I'm playing baseball I like to eat a good meal and say a little prayer before the start of each game. Also I never step on the white lines on the field, a little superstition of mine.
In talking to the Cyclones I realized all ball players are similar and all try to have a specific routine to follow before every game. Even though these rituals may not have a direct impact on their performance, it sure does impact them mentally. They say baseball is 90 percent mental and what better way to prepare yourself than feeling good with nice food and some relaxing music before every game. | <urn:uuid:930b9e7f-2bdc-4497-b05a-7fdda4e05372> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wfuv.org/sports/one-one/110717/life-minors-chapter-4-baseball-superstitions-rituals-and-habits | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974651 | 607 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Leather: Leather is one of the nature's wonderful durable goods. The tanning process gives the leather resistance to wetting and keeps the leather supple. Leather's high tensile strength makes it a strong, flexible material. It will stretch and then return to retain shape. Leather breathes and will assume your body temperature rapidly as it allows air and water to pass through its structure. Leather is susceptible to three types of damage: stiffness and surface cracking caused by the drying out of the leather's natural oils, fiber discoloration as a result of accidental spills or sun exposure, and scuffing or tearing usually occurring from use.
Leather Care and Cleaning Tips:
Comprehensive Protection Plan makes it easier for you to maintain your furniture: however, regular care and cleaning will keep all your leather upholstered furniture looking new longer.
Once per week : Dust your furniture weekly or when you dust the other items in the room. You can lightly dampen a soft cloth with the Leather Softener/Cleaner and wipe the surface. One of the great benefits of leather is that you can fully remove the dust particles from the surface, making it ideal for dust-sensitive person.
Four times a year : Fully clean your furniture at least every six month. For furniture in high use rooms you should clean them every four months. It is important that you pay particular attention to clean all high usage and skin contact areas like: arms, seats, front railing, back cushions and inside backs.
After full cleanings or spot cleaning, apply the Leather Protection Cream/Softener/Cleaner to renew the original protection level. Be sure to reapply it to all high usage and skin contact areas.
These steps should take very little time and will make dramatic difference in the overall appearance of your leather furniture. It is our desire that you have a trouble-free, enjoyable experience with your leather furniture.'
Fabric: When you protect your new furniture investment with our Comprehensive Protection Plan / Upholstered Fabric Furniture Plan, you've taken the first step in keeping your upholstery looking beautiful! There are other steps you can take to keep both new and older upholstery looking their best. Steps to help minimize wear and prevent and remove common household stains. You'll find these important tips in Fabric Care and Cleaning Tips. It's our way of reminding you that we take your home furnishings investment seriously and we know you do too!
Fabric Care and Cleaning Tips:
Comprehensive Protection Plan makes it easier for you to maintain your furniture: however, regular care and cleaning will keep all your fabric upholstered furniture looking new longer.
Weekly vacuuming or light brushing helps to remove soil and prevents the embedding of dirt between the fibers. Rotate and turn your cushions after vacuuming to prevent excessive wear and soil patterns. Avoid placing newspapers on fabric since the ink could permanently stain the fabric. Avoid the use of dyes, acids, corrosives, paints, inks, nail polish and removers around your furniture. Never Remove cushion covers for dry cleaning or machine washing even though they have zippers. Keep upholstered furniture away from direct sunlight to avoid fading. Periodic cleaning by an authorized technician will ensure that gradual buildup of soil, perspiration and oils does not cause permanent damage and shorten the life of your fabric upholstered furniture.
Spot Cleaning: Know your fabric's cleanability codes for the type of cleaner to be used and always pretest in an inconspicuous spot.
Cleanability Codes: W, S, W/S and X
Code "W" Fabrics: Synthetic fibers (Acetate, Herculon, Nylon, Olefin, and Polyester). Use the foam only from water based cleaning agent such a mild soap or use non solvent upholstery cleaner.
Code "S" Fabrics: Cellulosic or protein fibers (cotton, Linen Rayon, Silk or Wool). Other "S" coded fabrics are Acrylic, Damask, Tapestry, Brocade, Denim, Velour, Chintz and Plaid (cotton/olefin blend). Spot clean using a mild water-free solvent or dry cleaning product.
Code "W/S" Fabrics: Spot clean with a mild solvent, upholstery shampoo or the foam a mild soap or detergent.
Code "X" Fabrics: Clean this type of fabric only by vacuuming or light brushing. Do not use water-based foam or solvent based cleaning agents of any kind.
WOOD: For its weight, wood is one of the strongest materials known to man. Wood is a natural product, and therefore, each piece is different and unique in depth, richness of texture and grain patterns. Quality wood furniture provides warmth and creates a rich, elegant ambiance while providing gentle comfort. If properly cared for, wood increases in value with age and develops its own patina or surface appearance of softness and mellowness.
Wood Care and Cleaning Tips:
|Moderate to serious damage of fine wood furniture requires the help of professional. For simple everyday wear try these remedies:|
Keep furniture away from heating and air conditioning sources to prevent loss of moisture in wood and out of direct sunlight to avoid bleaching of wood. To prevent gouging and scratching, use felt backing on lamps, ashtrays, and accessories. Always use place mats under plates and hot pads under serving dishes. Use coasters under hot and cold drinks. Do not set synthetics, rubber or plastics directly on wood finishes, since they might contain chemicals that will damage the finish. Do not place newspapers and magazines on wood surfaces, since the ink will bleed into the finish and eventually damage wood.
To remove cloudiness: Rub surface with cloth dipped in solution of 1 tablespoon of vinegar in a quart of water. Rub with grain until surface is completely dry. Follow with application of furniture oil or polish.
To remove water rings: Rub with a mixture of equal parts white vinegar and cooking oil, rubbing with the grain.
To remove heat marks: Coat area with mayonnaise and let stand for one hour, and then wipe off.
To remove burns: Rub affected area with finest grade steel wood rubbing lightly with the grain until all burnt material is smoothed off. Follow with application of furniture oil or polish.
To remove candle wax drippings: Scrape excess wax off gently. Apply warm (not hot) iron, over white cloth to absorb residue. Follow with application of furniture oil or polish.
To remove dents: Wipe dent with warm water. Apply a compress of paper soaked in warm water to swell the wood fibers. Let sit for 30 minutes, and then apply a warm (not hot) iron over cloth until dent is gone. Follow with application of furniture oil or polish. | <urn:uuid:cb820d93-9f8c-4093-8963-95b8a03021ee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://furnitureservices.com/menu/3.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917884 | 1,410 | 1.507813 | 2 |
USDA: Farm Real Estate Values Up 7%
Aug 04, 2011
The value of all farm real estate, which includes farm buildings as well as land, rose 6.8% over 2010 reaching an average value of $2,350 an acre, reports USDA. In its annual Land Values Summary, USDA said regional changes in the average value of farm real estate ranged from a 15.9% increase in the Corn Belt region to a 2% decline in the Southeast region. The highest farm real estate values remained in the Northeast region at $4,690 per acre. The Mountain region had the lowest farm real estate value, $923 per acre.
The USDA report said the value of U.S. cropland value increased by $260 per acre, 9.4%, to $3,030 per acre. Strongest gains were reported in the Northern Plains and Corn Belt regions where the average value of cropland increased 17.2% and 16%, respectively, from the previous year. However, in the Northeast and Southeast regions, cropland values decreased by 1.3% percent and 1.1%, respectively, USDA said.
Pasture values increased to $1,100 per acre or 1.9% above 2010. The Southeast region had the largest percentage decrease in pasture value, 8.4% below 2010. The Corn Belt and Northern Plains regions had the highest percentage increase, both 6.6% above 2010.which selling some of their current holdings and buying farmland in other states and other land types.
The values reported by USDA may seem muted compared to other surveys, but the USDA report is looking at values closer to the first of the year. That means the strong run-up in the value of Corn Belt cropland that's occurred since Jan. 1 is not fully reflected in this report.
USDA did report the value of Iowa cropland rose 23.9% -- the strongest increase for any state. Other Corn Belt states reported: North Dakota, up 19.5%; Illinois, up 18.4%; Nebraska, up 17.9%; South Dakota, up 16.0%; Minnesota, up 13.5%; Kansas, up 13%; Indiana, up 9.1%; Ohio, up 8.6%; Wisconsin, up 8.2%; Michigan, up 6.1%; and Missouri, up 5.9%. In the south, Louisiana reported a 9.4% increase; Texas, 7.1%; Arkansas, 6.5%; and Mississippi, 6.3%. Oklahoma reported a gain of 2.6%. Colorado rang in a 3.9% rise in cropland values, Wyoming, 6.1% and Montana, 3.6%. Alabama registered a decline of 2.1% in value of cropland while Georgia listed a 0.6% gain. Pennsylvania reported a decline of 1.8% and New York listed values as unchanged. Washington listed a 3.7% increase; Oregon reported cropland values remained unchanged and California listed a 1.1% increase.
Click here for the full report.
If interested in seeing a copy of LandOwner, just drop me an email at firstname.lastname@example.org or call 800-772-0023. | <urn:uuid:84433975-9868-42d5-b5aa-1ec98eb93f67> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.agweb.com/blog/Your_Precious_Land_217/usda_farm_real_estate_values_up_7/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.901024 | 662 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Anne (Hebrew, Hannah, grace; also spelled Ann, Anne, Anna) is the traditional name of the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
All our information concerning the names and lives of Sts. Joachim and Anne, the parents of Mary, is derived from apocryphal literature, the Gospel of the Nativity of Mary, the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew and the Protoevangelium of James. Though the earliest form of the latter, on which directly or indirectly the other two seem to be based, goes back to about A.D. 150, we can hardly accept as beyond doubt its various statements on its sole authority. In the Orient the Protoevangelium had great authority and portions of it were read on the feasts of Mary by the Greeks, Syrians, Copts, and Arabians. In the Occident, however, it was rejected by the Fathers of the Church until its contents were incorporated by Jacobus de Voragine in his “Golden Legend” in the thirteenth century. From that time on the story of Saint Anne spread over the West and was amply developed, until Saint Anne became one of the most popular saints also of the Latin Church.
The Protoevangelium gives the following account: In Nazareth there lived a rich and pious couple, Joachim and Hannah. They were childless. When on a feast day Joachim presented himself to offer sacrifice in the temple, he was repulsed by a certain Ruben, under the pretext that men without offspring were unworthy to be admitted. Whereupon Joachim, bowed down with grief, did not return home, but went into the mountains to make his plaint to God in solitude. Also Hannah, having learned the reason of the prolonged absence of her husband, cried to the Lord to take away from her the curse of sterility, promising to dedicate her child to the service of God. Their prayers were heard; an angel came to Hannah and said: “Hannah, the Lord has looked upon thy tears; thou shalt conceive and give birth and the fruit of thy womb shall be blessed by all the world”. The angel made the same promise to Joachim, who returned to his wife. Hannah gave birth to a daughter whom she called Miriam (Mary). Since this story is apparently a reproduction of the biblical account of the conception of Samuel, whose mother was also called Hannah, even the name of the mother of Mary seems to be doubtful.
The renowned Father John of Eck of Ingolstadt, in a sermon on Saint Anne (published at Paris in 1579), pretends to know even the names of the parents Saint Anne. He calls them Stollanus and Emerentia. He says that Saint Anne was born after Stollanus and Emerentia had been childless for twenty years; that Saint Joachim died soon after the presentation of Mary in the temple; that Saint Anne then married Cleophas, by whom she became the mother of Mary Cleophae (the wife of Alphaeus and mother of the Apostles James the Lesser, Simon and Judas, and of Joseph the Just); after the death of Cleophas she is said to have married Salomas, to whom she bore Maria Salomae (the wife of Zebedaeus and mother of the Apostles John and James the Greater). The same spurious legend is found in the writings of Gerson and of many others. There arose in the sixteenth century an animated controversy over the marriages of Saint Anne, in which Baronius and Bellarmine defended her monogamy. The Greek Menaea (25 July) call the parents of Saint Anne Mathan and Maria, and relate that Salome and Elizabeth, the mother of Saint John the Baptist, were daughters of two sisters of Saint Anne. According to Ephiphanius it was maintained even in the fourth century by some enthusiasts that Saint Anne conceived without the action of man. This error was revived in the West in the fifteenth century. (Anna concepit per osculum Joachimi.) In 1677 the Holy See condemned the error of Imperiali who taught that Saint Anne in the conception and birth of Mary remained virgin (Benedict XIV, De Festis, II, 9). In the Orient the cult of Saint Anne can be traced to the fourth century. Justinian I (died 565) had a church dedicated to her. The canon of the Greek Office of Saint Anne was composed by Saint Theophanes (died 817), but older parts of the Office are ascribed to Anatolius of Byzantium (d. 458). Her feast is celebrated in the East on the 25th day of July, which may be the day of the dedication of her first church at Constantinople or the anniversary of the arrival of her supposed relics in Constantinople (710). It is found in the oldest liturgical document of the Greek Church, the Calendar of Constantinople (first half of the eighth century). The Greeks keep a collective feast of Saint Joachim and Saint Anne on the 9th of September. In the Latin Church Saint Anne was not venerated, except, perhaps, in the south of France, before the thirteenth century. Her picture, painted in the eighth century, which was found lately in the church of Santa Maria Antiqua in Rome, owes its origin to Byzantine influence. Her feast, under the influence of the “Golden Legend”, is first found (26 July) in the thirteenth century, e.g. at Douai (in 1291), where a foot of Saint Anne was venerated (feast of translation, 16 September). It was introduced in England by Urban VI, 21 November 1378, from which time it spread all over the Western Church. It was extended to the universal Latin Church in 1584.
The supposed relics of Saint Anne were brought from the Holy Land to Constantinople in 710 and were still kept there in the church of Saint Sophia in 1333. The tradition of the church of Apt in southern France pretends that the body of Saint Anne was brought to Apt by Saint Lazarus, the friend of Christ, was hidden by Saint Auspicius (died 398), and found again during the reign of Charlemagne (feast, Monday after the octave of Easter); these relics were brought to a magnificent chapel in 1664 (feast, 4 May). The head of Saint Anne was kept at Mainz up to 1510, when it was stolen and brought to Düren in Rheinland. Saint Anne is the patroness of Brittany. Her miraculous picture (feast, 7 March) is venerated at Notre Dame d’Auray, Diocese of Vannes. Also in Canada, where she is the principal patron of the province of Quebec, the shrine of Saint Anne de Beaupré is well known. Saint Anne is patroness of women in labour; she is represented holding the Blessed Virgin Mary in her lap, who again carries on her arm the child Jesus. She is also patroness of miners, Christ being compared to gold, Mary to silver. | <urn:uuid:bddf48a9-a860-40c6-a883-85284abcafd2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://saints.sqpn.com/catholic-encyclopedia-saint-anne/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977232 | 1,459 | 2.859375 | 3 |
The superannuation industry is getting very excited about the prospect of a ‘wave’ of privatised infrastructure creating low risk assets for fund investment. NSW looks like it will privatise some generation assets as well as Port Botany and Port Kembla. The super industry wants more and appears to have union backing to turn state-owned enterprises (SOEs) into ‘mum and dad owned’ enterprises via super fund investments. Thus:
Signalling a shift in thinking on asset ownership, the ACTU has backed the campaign on the grounds that “social privatisations” can transfer government assets to the community using super funds that represent “mum and dad” owners.
There strike me as two issues here:
First, the issues of asset ownership and regulation are inseparable. Rohan Pitchford from ANU and I have done some research on this over the years. Regardless of ownership, key infrastructure assets often need regulation. But the underlying incentives that drive a privatised firm differ from those that drive a SOE. So privatisation is only desirable if the regulated privatised enterprise will operate in a way that raises economic surplus compared to a regulated SOE. Put simply, there is no point privatising something if overall it makes us worse off.
For example, consider emergency services provision (ambulance, fire service, etc). A for-profit service will have less incentive to keep ‘spare capacity’ than a government-owned service. Spare capacity is costly and the private owners pay that cost. But from a social perspective we may want the spare capacity as insurance against rare but calamitous events. Public servants and their political masters have strong incentives to avoid and respond to these types of events. So there is a trade off between a privatised service that may ‘under weight’ extreme events and a public service that may ‘over weight’ extreme events.
There are a number of factors that favour privatisation. For example, if there is already competition and private provision is working (not perfect, but working, as in the case of electricity generation) then privatisation is probably a good idea. If government interference is a problem then privatisation makes that interference harder (or at least improves transparency). Of course, there are factors pushing in the opposite direction particularly where cost minimising private owners create negative externalities for the rest of us.
So privatisation is not a simple solution – it just changes the problem. And having Mum and Dad owners via superannuation funds does not change the principle of profit maximisation that should drive the privatised firm.
Second, while privatised assets usually provide a stable revenue stream, privatisation crystallises some risks. This is well reflected in Kenneth Davidson’s article here. Davidson argues:
To reveal what is at stake, assume that, as state monopolies, these assets earn 5 per cent on capital for the government and would be expected to earn 10 per cent on capital for private investors.
This means that the assets worth $100 billion on the government’s books, would only be worth $50 billion to the private operators if the prices for the services remained the same. The government might get $100 billion for the assets if it allowed the new owners to double prices for the services.
This argument is really only a starting point. The real question is ‘why does the return to a privatised business have to be higher?’
Privatisation transfers risk from the tax payer to the private owners. The government can borrow at low rates because it has taxing powers. If a SOE gets into financial trouble then the government can fund it via tax income. The private owners do not have this option. So the increased return required of a privatised asset partly reflects a risk that was hidden and being borne by tax payers. Privatisation improves the transparency of the risks.
Further, a privatised asset faces sovereign risk. The SOE also faces sovereign risk but as the state owns the asset it does not need to be compensated for its own actions! Of course, sovereign risk may not be bad for society. State intervention may lower private profits but raise welfare. However, part of the increased return to a private owner reflects the sovereign risk being ‘crystallised’ by the privatisation process.
Finally, for regulated private assets, the allowed return is often set through a regulatory process. In the twenty or so years of Australian experience we have learnt a lot about regulating private utilities and the types of risk they should face and be compensated for. These are reflected in the regulated company’s allowed return. So, a simple comparison with the government borrowing rate, as Davidson does, is not very useful.
Overall, the superannuation industry needs to be careful what it wishes for. Privatisation comes with lots of regulatory strings attached. And simply privatising assets to create something for the funds to invest in would be bad public policy. But there are clearly some SOEs that should be privatised – and the NSW electricity generation assets are a good place to start. | <urn:uuid:fd5781e7-3f44-46e6-888e-9dca43db628e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://economics.com.au/?p=9143 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950687 | 1,042 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Gazette Editorial Board
$1.1 trillion. That’s the projected annual cost of caring for Americans with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia by 2050 if we don’t find ways to prevent or cure this growing menace. In case you have difficulty comprehending a trillion, consider:
l The annual direct and indirect costs of all types of cancer is about $230 billion — about one-fourth of a trillion, the National Institutes for Health reports.
l The 2012 budget for all the federal government’s operating costs will spend about $3.8 trillion with a projected deficit of about $1.33 trillion.
If just one disease will cost that much, it’s not affordable in any imaginable scenario.
Bill Thies believes Alzheimer’s will be defeated — some day. “When” is largely a matter of how much time and money can be invested in relentless research, the chief medical and scientific officer of the national Alzheimer’s Association told us Monday. For example, a clinical trial on a single drug can take two years and cost up to $100 million.
“The future will be dark. … It will bankrupt the health care system and our economy” if there’s no treatment or prevention breakthrough in the next several years, Thies warned.
About 5.4 million people in the United States — 1 of every 8 older Americans — already are living with Alzheimer’s. By 2050, the number will grow to 16 million unless checked. More than 69,000 Iowans have the disease and that’s expected to increase to 77,000 by 2025. Overall, it’s the nation’s sixth-leading cause of death and is rapidly moving up the list.
Some drugs treat symptoms, but don’t stop progression of the disease. Alzheimer’s is difficult to diagnose and the condition worsens over years, robbing the patient of memory and eventually all quality of life. It’s a devastating financial and emotional journey for family members and other caretakers. It’s a cruel irony of our longer life spans.
Theis’s warnings come with some hope, too. “There is some exciting research going on right now,” he said.
And there’s also a national strategy. Congress approved bipartisan legislation in May, creating a plan whose goals include prevention/treatment victory by 2025.
The legislation adds $50 million this year to the $450 million in annual research funding the federal government currently provides, then another $80 million in 2031. Seems like a bunch of new money. But keep in mind that cancer research has been receiving $6 billion a year, heart disease $4 billion. Thies figures it will take up to $2 billion a year to put Alzheimer’s research on the fast track to success. And private companies aren’t willing or able to cover that much investment.
So what’s our choice? Either pay now or pay a lot more later — especially in human misery.
n Comments: thegazette.com/category/opinion/editorial, firstname.lastname@example.org | <urn:uuid:a27b6e3d-1eda-44a1-b59a-5dc10beb2440> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thegazette.com/2012/08/08/alzheimers-find-a-breakthrough-or/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923366 | 661 | 2.625 | 3 |
The year was 1979 and hip-hop music burst onto the mainstream scene, causing ripples and waves around the music industry. Body-moving beats, catchy rhyming lyrics and energetic MCs gave the world a new musical genre that reflected the lifestyles and experiences of those living primarily in inner-cities, and quickly became a nearly universal language for Black and Latino youth.
The early music ranged from introspective reflections on economic and racial struggle to lighthearted dance music that brought people together to have a good time. Eventually, much of the music became more sexual in nature, and the male-dominated genre began to draw attention and come under fire for the sexually explicit nature of the songs.
In 1990, Miami-based rappers 2 Live Crew were sued and arrested for their album’s obscenity, and in 1992, the obscenity ruling was overruled. (The Supreme Court refused to hear the state’s appeal.) Basically, they won the legal right to be “as nasty as they wanna be,” and this groundbreaking court case changed not only hip-hop, but opened the doors for artists of all genres to be as sexually explicit in their music as they wanted to.
But was that necessarily a good thing? Are the often-degrading messages in the music by popular male rap artists good for women? How do women reconcile enjoying the enticing beats of catchy dance songs with the lyrics that usually come with them? I personally support free speech and freedom of expression, and I think it’s the responsibility of the consumer to decide whether or not to listen to such music. There have been female hip-hop artists, like Missy Elliott, who have made sexually overt, danceable music that wouldn’t be considered degrading. Some even consider her music empowering for women.
Many of the ladies I spoke with said that they focus primarily on beats not lyrics. Women generally feel disconnected from misogynistic lyrics and don’t feel the artists are talking about them, but about other women. Some women said they stopped listening to certain artists after digesting the lyrics to certain songs and finding they simply couldn’t stomach it anymore. Almost everyone said they never actually purchase the music, but will shake to it at the club or when it comes on the radio... if no one is around to judge them.
Cydnee thinks that women disconnect from the lyrics as a coping mechanism, because accepting or embracing the lyrics is accepting degradation. She says we do what we can to cope with the disrespect. Nathalie agrees, suggesting that women play dumb; she admits that she intentionally turns her brain off just to enjoy the music.
Ivy thinks of it as reclaiming her sexuality when she listens to and enjoys the hypersexual, sometimes degrading music. Kalyn argues that the music helps set the tone when she wants to get freaky with her husband.
Ivy thinks of it as “taking it back” or reclaiming her sexuality when she listens to and enjoys the hypersexual, sometimes degrading music. Brittney, on the other hand, asks, “How does ‘taking it back’ apply when it was never meant to be in our possession in the first place?” Alexia simply treats the music like something she knows is bad for her but dabbles in from time-to-time, like alcohol and junk food. Kalyn argues that, sometimes, the music helps set the tone when she wants to get freaky with her husband. Women agree that moderation is important and being consciously aware of the lyrics allows for them to remain uneffected, self-esteem and self-image wise.
Alicia flat out refuses to listen to it anymore, saying, “I stopped listening and couldn’t go back. I became sensitized and offended. I won’t condemn others who enjoy, but I refuse.” Like Alicia, I’ve come to a point when I simply cannot listen to much of the music without feeling my own negative reaction. I also acknowledge that there are some popular songs that will have me shaking it and dropping it low at the club with everyone else.
We have a choice, as stated earlier. We don’t have to listen to or purchase this music. We can also contextualize it. Henry Louis Gates Jr. testified on behalf of 2 Live Crew during their trial, asserting that their music simply contained Black English vernacular and reflected youthful sub-culture; it was art, he argued. I think most of us can separate the gratuitous lyrics from the entertainment factor. For the most part, we can enjoy a sexy song that makes us want to drop it low and get freaky with it without being forced to accept the complete degradation of women. There are alternatives out there, we just have to look for them.
Feminista Jones is a sex-positive Black feminist, social worker and blogger from New York City. She writes about gender, race, politics, mental health and sexuality at FeministaJones.com. Follow her on Twitter at @FeministaJones. | <urn:uuid:cde897e1-c6aa-4e6f-918f-7543fa51a81e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ebony.com/love-sex/dancefloor-misogyny-goes-wild-933 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970248 | 1,042 | 1.875 | 2 |
North Dakota crude oil production and imports from Canada exceed current pipeline capacity in the region, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Joseph T. Kelliher told a US Senate subcommittee on Sept. 3.
"Both domestic and Canadian crude oil production are increasing, exacerbating the competition for limited pipeline capacity. There have been additions to pipeline takeaway capacity in the region, not enough to limit constraints or accommodate future increases," he told the Senate Appropriations Committee's Energy and Water Subcommittee at a field hearing in Bismarck, ND.
FERC supports energy infrastructure development and has participated as a member of a crude oil market infrastructure task force which the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission initially convened in 2006 to investigate Rocky Mountain crude oil market dynamics, Kelliher continued. "However, the parties themselves must resolve who will commit to support the development of new infrastructure and who is willing to pay for it," he said.
The subcommittee's chairman, Byron L. Dorgan (D-ND), said that he convened the hearing because he wanted to determine what steps will need to be taken to transport and refine the increasing amount of crude being produced from the Bakken Shale formation in western North Dakota.
"With the current infrastructure, it is a challenge to transport the oil from wellhead to refineries, both in and out of state, without experiencing a bottleneck. As this new oil is produced, we need to make sure the transportation infrastructure exists so that future oil production is not limited," he said.
Williston Basin oil production within the state and imports from Canada already put pressure on pipeline capacity, Kelliher said. North Dakota's oil production rose from approximately 125,000 bbl a day in 2007 to 147,000 b/d in March 2008, a 17.5% increase, he noted. Existing pipelines are operating at full capacity, requiring that they apportion that capacity among shippers, he said.
Meanwhile, crude oil imports from Canada also have risen, according to Kelliher. Annual Alberta Basin oil production levels for 2007 published by the province's conservation board showed a 3% increase from 2006 to 1.86 million b/d, he said. "Significantly, Canadian imports are projected to reach 3.4 million b/d by 2017," he indicated.
He pointed out that imports from Canada currently comprise 20% of total US crude supplies and are the United States' largest foreign source. "We expect this trend to continue. These imports are reliable supplies from a friendly country and improve our energy security," Kelliher maintained.
"However, Canadian imports require space in the pipeline and can create bottlenecks in capacity that can limit the amount of crude oil that can be moved out of the North Dakota production region. Pipelines serving North Dakota are increasing their capacity; nevertheless, it is likely that with additional growth in North Dakota oil production and Canadian imports, the pipelines' proposed capacity increases still will not be adequate to transport North Dakota production without capacity prorationing among shippers seeking that capacity," he added.
Other scheduled witnesses at the hearing included Lynn D. Helms, director of the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources; Harold G. Hamm, chairman and chief executive of Continental Resources Inc. in Enid, Okla.; Kevin Hatfield, regional director for Enbridge Pipelines Inc.'s North Dakota system, and State Rep. Shirley Meyer (D-Dickinson), co-chair of the Task Force to Establish a North Dakota Refinery.
Contact Nick Snow at email@example.com | <urn:uuid:53aface4-45ab-4110-b5f4-3dfee30d1141> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ogj.com/articles/2008/09/nd-oil-pipeline-capacity-limited-as-production-imports-climb-kelliher-warns._printArticle.html | 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 | 0.955575 | 719 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Industry Prepares for New Energy Star Criteria
April 18, 2012
FEATURE ARTICLE | Codes & Standards, Energy Efficiency, Materials & Components
The fenestration industry is facing significant changes that will likely increase thermal performance standards by 30 percent to 40 percent within the next few years. Higher performance levels are demanded by the International Energy Conservation Code and the ICC 700 National Green Building Standard, and soon the Energy Star Windows, Doors & Skylight program.
The Environmental Protection Agency, which is now in charge of the Energy Star windows program, released its proposed changes to the performance criteria this past fall in the Version 6.0 Specification Framework Document. Seeking feedback from industry and other stakeholders in the program, EPA issued proposals for new window U-factors and solar heat gain requirements across the Energy Star climate zones (Table 1). It also highlighted potential additions to the program, including a maximum air leakage requirements and requirements for detailed installation instructions for qualified products. This article focuses on the window criteria, but the document also included new proposals for Energy Star doors and skylights.
Among the proposed changes, the biggest challenge by far for most window manufacturers is the Northern climate zone U-factor proposal set 0.25 and 0.27. Based on our analysis of double-hung windows in the National Fenestration Rating Council’s certified product directory in November 2011, almost 45 percent of participating manufacturers–active and inactive–would not qualify at 0.27, which we think is the likely target that will be used. Not all of those manufacturers sell into the Northern zone.
The second biggest concern is the timing of the Version 6.0 roll-out. The current Energy Star criteria, Version 5.0, took effect in 2010, less than two years ago. The new criteria were initially scheduled to take effect in 2013. EPA has pushed its timetable back somewhat, but many companies have said it is still too short for them to develop new products.
REACHING THE NEW U-FACTORS
For some manufacturers, it will be relatively simple to make the necessary changes but for some with older designs, it may require an entirely new window system. Based on work we have done using the Quanex Optimizer, we find even the best hollow-frame vinyl window systems will require either triple glazing or thermally-enhanced (foam filling) profiles to meet the requirement.
Some frame materials will struggle to accommodate the change for the Northern zone target. Already, there is almost no residential aluminum product sold in this part of the country.
We would expect that many manufacturers will try to avoid triples if possible due to increased liability that comes with two sets of edge seals, as well as the concerns of weight and hardware modifications.
Whether triples are needed would depend on how close a window is to meeting the new numbers. Warm edge spacers can have an impact on a U-factor between 0.01-0.02, depending on what the manufacturer is currently using. Triples can have as much as a 0.04 impact–even more if a surface 6 hardcoat is used. Doubles with surface 4 hardcoats can achieve equivalent to normal triples with two surfaces of low-E. Triples may, however, be the most cost effective solution for many.
U-factor requirements are changing for the other Energy Star climate zones too, but they should be less of a challenge for manufacturers. We think that the .30/.30 tax incentive for 2009 and 2010 that came out of the stimulus package drove 0.30 U-factor capability all over the country. Since no U-factor requirement outside the Northern zone is lower than 0.30, most companies are prepared to offer windows with that level of performance.
The Version 6.0 Energy Star criteria include some additional requirements for window manufacturers. First is an air infiltration rating requirement of less than or equal to 0.3 cfm/ft². That does not appear to be that challenging based on feedback EPA has received.
Another proposed addition is the requirement for installation instructions to be made readily available. That does not seem to be an issue for most manufacturers, and those companies that are AAMA-certified members or participating in the WDMA hallmark certification program have access to generic installation instructions.
Regardless of the Version 6 changes that take place, many companies are expressing concern about the cost and frequency of testing and a new verification program which will seek to verify up to 10 percent of the commercially-available certified products annually.
|In some Energy Star product categories, EPA recognizes a top-tier "Most Efficient" performance level. Some in the industry would like to see such a designation added for residential windows.|
HIGHER PERFORMANCE LEVELS
While the Version 6.0 U-factors may be a challenge for the industry, there are reasons to believe even more stringent numbers are inevitable for the future. At the current performance levels, the market is saturated with Energy Star-qualified windows and it is almost impossible to find a non-Energy Star-labeled product. (Ducker estimates more than 80 percent of the windows sold were Energy Star in 2011).
We think, in general, most of the window industry supports the idea of more than one level of performance to allow window companies that have superior performing products for differentiation. EPA has stated as far back as 2010 that a best in class tier might be created called “Most Efficient” under Energy Star for windows. Such a tier would be aimed at highlighting the 5 percent of products with the highest performance. In the comments from the Framework Proposal, a few large national manufacturers cited this as a good approach.
Differentiation in the current market is very difficult to maintain. We think that is why so many companies built R-5 products when the Department of Energy launched its R-5 volume purchase program. They may not have participated in the program, but we count 157 manufacturers that have R-5 or better in NFRC’s certified product directory. For these companies, it will be important to be able to show superior performance.
|A sidebar to this article examines the growing importance of the Energy Star Homes program and the opportunities it may provide to the window and door industry.|
If the government wants to maintain Energy Star’s reputation with consumers, it has to change to more aggressive targets for the base program or by adding a more aggressive tier like Most Efficient. More changes will come, so manufacturers not currently able to achieve at least a 0.25 U-factor should seek the counsel of trusted suppliers to find the right mix of glass, low-E coatings, gas fill, warm edge spacers and framing material to achieve optimal performance at the optimal cost.
Without overstating the obvious, the building and construction market has undergone some drastic changes over the past five years. Like a meteoric strike, the Great Recession forced many of us to adapt. Where there was once a flourishing sea of fish, only those manufacturers, distributors and dealers who found a way to grow legs remain–and, in some cases, are poised for continued prosperity. | <urn:uuid:00d17390-eab8-47f7-981c-965881a722ed> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.windowanddoor.com/article/may-2012/industry-prepares-new-energy-star-criteria | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946243 | 1,453 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Last night POYi award-winning photojournalist David Butow was our guest lecturer at the Space, speaking on the subject he has covered for much of this decade - China.
China's economy and culture have been rapidly changing over the last 10 years and David has been there to document those transformations every step of the way. During that time, he's made at least one annual trip to the Middle Kingdom.
David presented three photo essays for his IRIS Nights lecture. First, was the deadly Sichuan earthquake that struck the region in 2008.
Second, was his documentation of the Uighur people, an ethnic minority who live mainly in the Northwestern part of the country and who are largely of the Muslim faith. A Uighur uprising in 2009 threw the region into turmoil.
And lastly was David's look at China's trendy twenty-something culture. He explained that while the largely 'only-child' youth face desires, expectations and obstacles that are unique to their country, they are still essentially just like every other young person in the world.
At one point David asked the audience how many of them had recently visited China and was surprised to see how many hands shot up.
David took questions at the end of each of the three sections so the audience could discover more about each individual body of work. This was the first time IRIS Nights deviated from its format of a sole Q&A session.
Through David, we got a special window through to the many different faces that populate a country with a population of 1.3 billion people and growing.
We can't wait to see more photos from David documenting his future travels to China and elsewhere around the globe! Travel safe!
You could learn more about David's work on his official Website.
(All images © Unique for the Space) | <urn:uuid:e6d085c6-361c-4a61-89af-e7a317574c36> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.annenbergspaceforphotography.org/the-shot-blog/david-butow-brings-china-iris-nights?page=4 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977424 | 372 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Google+ is the hot ticket in town, trying to steal Facebook's lunch (and Twitter's too, if they can get it). The service is still in its early days, so confusion is likely inevitable.
Thankfully, Simon Laustsen has risen to the challenge and created some Google+ cheat sheets to make the latest in social networking a little friendlier. There's at least one typo (see if you can spot it!), but what matters is the information that he conveys.
The first cheat sheet explains text formatting, some of the basics of circles, how to send someone a private message and more.
The second tip sheet takes a closer look at circles, photo sharing, navigation and Chrome browser extensions that can be used for a better Google+ experience.
Is Twitter bad for your dating life? Statistics say "maybe."
Online dating site OKCupid has a spinoff that looks into the statistical data gleaned from all those lonely hearts, OKTrends. They continually churn out great insights that have the ring of truth, even though they're gleaned from a self-selecting group.
They did a blog post called "10 Charts About Sex," but the one that's getting the most attention around the Internet is the one answering "How long do your relationships usually last?" The chart pits people who use Twitter every day against everyone else, and while the arcs are similar, Twitter users are a bit behind everyone else throughout the age range listed on the chart, and it also holds across genders.
As many of my college science teachers would be quick to note, correlation does not mean causation, so is this just because people who use Twitter are less likely to be in long-term relationships? Or is something about feeling attached enough to Twitter to be doing it every day have a negative effect on your relationships? As OKTrends describes it, "Unfortunately, we have no way to tell who's dumping who here; whether the twitterati are more annoying or just more flighty than everyone else."
In an interesting marketing approach, the Foo Fighters performed their entire new album "Wasting Light" and put up a YouTube video of the performance. The video was shot in the Foo Fighters' Studio 606.
The Foos have done their best to get out the word however they can. They released a documentary on the history of the band "Back and Forth," which aired in theaters on April 5 along with a live, 3D performance of the album. The documentary later aired commercial-free on various cable channels on April 8.
They've also used viral videos, contests, secret shows, social media and more in order to promote "Wasting Light."
If you still haven't gotten your Foo fill, they're releasing an album of covers, "Medium Rare," as a limited-edition vinyl for Record Store Day tomorrow, April 16.
I had the chance to see the Foo Fighters live about a decade ago when they were on tour with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. While the Foo Fighters opened the show at Washington state music venue The Gorge, they ended up delivering the more memorable, energetic performance, including climbing the sound booth. It's fun to see them still energized a decade later. | <urn:uuid:4b6af275-d7b1-43e0-ae46-04dad1bfea6c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scpr.org/blogs/newmedia/tagged/social-media | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960725 | 655 | 1.976563 | 2 |
S.W. (Alex) Ng, Senior CAE Engineer - ASM Assembly Automation Ltd of Hong Kong.
ASM Assembly Automation Ltd of Hong Kong uses porous air bearings for the design and manufacture of its electronic-assembly and packaging equipment. Rather than rely on commercial bearings, the company manufactures its own to meet very specific operating requirements.
"The model interface between the air film and bearing surface has a non-standard boundary condition that involves a partial differential equation," explains S.W. (Alex) Ng, a senior CAE engineer. Ng tried to model this type of bearing with existing tools on hand but was unsuccessful because of the PDE that plays such an important role and yet is difficult to solve numerically.
He then searched for a package that could handle the job and finally found COMSOL Multiphysics, the only one that let him work with nonstandard boundary conditions. | <urn:uuid:d2bbad67-9f10-44fe-92f5-cfe3092e271a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.comsol.com/stories/ng_airbearing/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96105 | 184 | 1.5625 | 2 |
The head, tail and collar of the fish are too often overlooked. They end up in the bin or, at best, in the stock pot. We like to look to them for inspiration instead. We have made fish head cheese and braised the tail in a stew like a shank (idea ripped straight from Thomas Keller). The collars can be marinated and grilled (a common technique in Japanese cooking), smoked and deep fried or trimmed into chops (idea ripped straight from David Burke). Today we ask what else can be done with the odd bits of the fish, what classic dishes revolves around these pieces that require a little more love and attention? Historically dishes were designed to make the most out of every part of an ingredient. Waste was frowned upon. As society grew rich, it became fashionable to serve only the best pieces and discard the rest. These unwanted bits are now coming back into the limelight. They are exciting for cooks because using them allows us to stretch our skills and utilize our knowledge of food, technology and creativity to make them both delicious and appealing. A little knowledge of history and a touch of frugality catalyzes this approach to food. Take a look at what you are cooking with and what you are not using. Do some research and delve into the food to find some new potential we have not seen yet and then please share your explorations and discoveries. We learn better together. | <urn:uuid:5075166a-b975-4168-b127-5f319cee8069> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.ideasinfood.com/ideas_in_food/2011/12/madai-parts-pieces.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965524 | 285 | 2.03125 | 2 |
As many Americans continue to struggle to find unemployment, veterans are worse off.
The situation for young vets is even more challenging.
Younger vets who served following the Sept. 11 attacks face unique challenges in today's job market, but young or not, most veterans have one common hurdle to overcome -- writing the resume.
“It's still pretty competitive out there,” said Rick Larson, a veteran employment representative at the Wisconsin Job Center of La Crosse County.
Larson said young veterans just can't seem to catch a break.
“A lot of them are in the construction industry because they're young and healthy, and want that physical type labor, and that's been hit hardest by our recession,” said Larson.
Right now, the national unemployment rate is hovering around 8 percent.
The latest numbers show for vets ages 18-24 it was more than 20 percent last year.
Larson said from what he's seeing here in our area, things are getting better.
“I think a lot of them are going back to school when they come back, and there's been a push by employers to hire veterans,” said Larson.
Larson sees nearly 650 new vets come into the job center every year for help, and one thing is always a common factor.
“They're poor at writing resumes,” said Larson. “They're poor at describing what they did in the military and describing in civilian terms so local employers can understand it. If local employers can't understand it then it’s going to go into the circular file. That's all there is to it.”
But it’s not just young vets struggling to find jobs.
Leonard Sbies of La Crosse has had six jobs since being discharged in 1986.
“Basically when you're mortars or artillery, there's nothing in civilian life there that qualifies you,” said Sbies.
Sbies is now looking for his seventh job.
While each time gets harder, he said veterans of any age shouldn't give up hope.
“Keep hunting,” said Sbies. “I know there's a job out there somewhere out there for me. I've just got to keep on trucking.”
Larson said while military job titles may not translate directly to a civilian job, they may provide transferable skills including leadership skills.
He also said another factor for vets struggling to find jobs could be businesses not knowing how to market job openings to vets.
If you are an unemployed vet looking for help, you can contact veteran services at the Wisconsin job center of La Crosse County. | <urn:uuid:3666c968-e3a5-4ded-a45b-d442e935fc9b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.news8000.com/news/Young-vets-struggling-to-find-jobs-despite-rebounding-economy/-/326/19055642/-/9w9wxnz/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968942 | 551 | 1.796875 | 2 |
I amself-taught(learning) C and need some basic help please. Using VC/C++ 6.0. When debugging, the return result is a number, such as 0, 1, 2, etc. Petzold says we never have to worry about what the numbers mean, just use the letter constants. He never says how we are to translate the numbers into constants though. What number, for example, does the parameter TA-BOTTOM equate to? How are we to find out in debugging?? In debugging, only the number shows. IDOK and IDCANCEL are simple, but somtimes the return value number and the equivalent predefined constant are not so easy to figure out.Sometimes I need to figure out what number TA-BOTTOM, for example, means. What basic fact am I missing here???
Many thanks for your answer. (I did look it up in MSDN andSearch, but no luck. It is like looking up a word in a dictionalry without knowing the first few letters.
Again, many thanks! | <urn:uuid:053bdad0-abb6-4e19-bbc7-a6d0df2de035> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cboard.cprogramming.com/windows-programming/47189-numerics-defines-constants.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928519 | 221 | 2.4375 | 2 |
In the western world, most of us are fortunate enough to have an abundance of food readily available, the worry about where our next meal is coming from doesn’t trouble most of us. And because of this abundance, we’ve lost sight of the fact that essentially food is fuel and that the purpose of eating is to provide our bodies with the tools they need for energy, functioning, building and maintenance. For many of us food is about pleasure, indulgence (and overindulgence) and we eat for a variety of different reasons, none of which relate to the idea of providing our bodies with quality fuel. We eat unconsciously, we use food to fill emotional voids or to be sociable and we fill our bodies with things that we all know aren’t good for us – in effect, rather than using food as essential fuel, we use it to inflict damage on ourselves.
Learn the essentials to maintaining a realistic nutrition plan that feeds your body and still allows room for fun.
Ever thought about the fact that you spend so much of your life at work? It does not matter what kind of work you do, from the retail environment, to the corporate office or doctor’s surgery, all work places can be enhanced by using essential oils. Physical, emotional and business health can be weakened if teams of people are working at levels that are taxing them. It is pretty hard to find nowadays, anyone working with a lighter workload than they had five years ago. I know myself; the demands of owning a business are enormous. However, with a little thought you can bring a relaxing yet productive environment into the workplace with the help of essential oils.
Picture this: you are at a networking event; there are 50 people in the room, including you. You are all there in the hope of expanding your business by meeting someone new or catching up with someone you’ve met before. You are all there to make an impression. How will you make yourself stand out in the minds and memories of everyone who meets you?
I wrote this book primarily for people to have for a quick reference to the emotional benefits of the essential oils. These recipes and ideas can be useful in business and in personal life. It has been designed so that you can open it at any page and get something relevant to your life at that moment. You may open at a page and find an essential oil compatible with an emotion that you are, or have been, experiencing. You could then take the opportunity to use that oil or combination of oils to re-balance yourself.
I have also incorporated ideas, on what I see as the influences and causes of imbalance in people’s lives. This comes from personal experience and through working with my clients. You may turn to a page where the topic may “push your buttons” emotionally, and from that you will derive whatever message or relevant information you require. Use the book as you wish. I have written it in simple language, and have strived to make it as user-friendly as possible. I hope you enjoy it, realise the benefits of essential oils and their subtle talents, and learn to start living again. | <urn:uuid:5f3f5b0f-cbe4-47b2-8e3c-7098b47cda18> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jenniferjefferies.com/portal/component/option,com_virtuemart/page,shop.browse/category_id,2/Itemid,67/vmcchk,1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969195 | 644 | 1.554688 | 2 |
The prominent Burmese Buddhist monk who helped lead the “Saffron Revolution,” Ashin Gambira – now known as Ko Nyi Nyi Lwin since he took off his robes – has released a letter accusing the military of using the Arakan community unrest for its own purposes.
Ko Ko Nyi Nyi Lwin is in poor health, since his release from prison in January 2012. Several international organizations have offered to pay his expenses if he will leave Burma for proper medical treatment, but he has refused, saying he fears he would not be allowed to return.
In an open letter reprinted below, he writes about the current conflict in Arakan State, the tensions between Muslim Rohingyas and Buddhist Rakhines, and his belief that the country’s military “is exacerbating the conflict in an attempt to retain its relevancy.”
The letter was first published on The Best Friend website (www.thebestfriend.org) on Aug. 29. The translation from Burmese to English was done by Ko Nyi Nyi Lwin (no relation to Gambira) in Tokyo.
“I feel very sorry after reading the latest news. I don’t feel so much surprised as angry, because I knew something like this would happen soon. One step leads to another. It is actually not so surprising for our country Myanmar, because neither people nor the politicians have good understanding.
The military relies on conflict to stay in power
“The violence between Rakhines and Rohingyas in Arakan State is an example of how dictatorships all over the world use and rely on conflicts to stay in power. If all people were united, a military dictatorship could not survive. Division and enmity in the minds of the people only keeps the military strong. Because of this, the military systematically uses division-and-rule policies on the grounds of nationality, religion, economic and education status, etc., to divide people, to keep the military ‘necessary’, relevant, and in power.
“So the Burmese people are kept separated in groups, each group for themselves, without unity or cooperation.
Everybody lives in fear and distrust of the other. Everyone sees the other with a suspicious mind. With this pressure, the people are defeated.
Nationalism is used to the keep the military system alive
“The new freedom fighter groups were organized under a wrong system of a Burma nationalist policy. These national revolution organization systems are a mistake. They produce suspicions and tensions between Burmese and their fellow landsman. Furthermore, it is slowly destroying the meaning of ‘union’ until the ‘union mind’ will disappear. This is the situation that the Burmese military uses to keep the military system necessary and alive.
The thirst for human rights
“We haven’t had human rights or true democracy in our country for over fifty years. For the last fifty years and five months, an old man hasn’t been able to get a taste of democracy, human rights, freedom, justice, or equality. Some people have not known any of these things their entire lives. This means we were so thirsty for human rights that we sometimes demanded them like fools.
“We are living in the 21st century now, in a time of globalization, but in our country the principles of human rights and democracy are terribly broken. So our understandings of dhamma, detta, peace, and human rights are very rough, and we are beaten, arrested, killed, and destroyed.
“Mr. Tomas Ojea Quintana, the UN Human Rights Commissioner, has said clearly that during the 2007 Saffron Revolution, crimes against humanity were committed.
“The illegal government acted against me with unjust laws and rules. I was sentenced by a judge to 68 years in prison. I lost my time, health, education, and freedom for the sake of my motherland. I spent nearly four years in prison.
Everyone around the world knew that the people and monks were marching nonviolently with love, dhamma, and peace, and we didn’t have as much as a nail with us. But we were broken down very violently, beaten, shot, and killed.
“The same people who were ruling Burma then are now presenting themselves to the world as a legal government.
They show themselves to be honest, polite, and clear. But nothing has changed in Myanmar, even in this changing period. The neo-military dictatorship has exploited and fostered a new national crisis, a religious conflict, the Rakhine-Rohingya conflict, for its own purposes.
“This is a very simple and effective strategy. It has happened several times in the past. There have been conflicts between Buddhist monks and Muslims before. They have been fighting each other, and the military dictatorship benefited from it. These clashes were encouraged by the military to keep the people separated.
“We had started a metta campaign in our country with slogans for peace and democracy. The campaign includes members of all religions. But now, the Rakhine and Rohingya have turned against each other violently in front of the world. Even some members of the democracy movement have followed the threat of politics by the military regime and have changed sides.
The rule of law
“I want to say one additional thing. We need to count from the beginning. We only needed to judge with the rule of law those three Rohingyas who raped a girl. Rohingyas or Rakhines, Burmans or Shan, everybody must obey the rule of law. Why encourage racism, why create a crisis? Why blame only Rohingyas and put all of the purnishment on all of them?
“In Bangladesh, in a minority village on the border with Myanmar, several people were robbed by Bengali groups. The Bangladeshi government took effective action against the robbers with the rule of law, and a crisis was averted.
“I feel sad to know that some Buddhist monks have joined demonstrations and campaigns against Rohingyas. We already previously kindled a fire of dhamma for everyone around the world to see in 2007. Do I need to explain in detail the meaning of the Buddha’s words, of metta, dhamma, peace, ahitha, thitthar, ageha, for everyone?
“As you know, my health is not so good, so I have been taking a rest lately. Actually, the past revolution experience was a very dark and hopeless situation inside the prison for me.
“I faced it, and survived this condition after I was released into the present political situation. I really want to write more about it. But I have to take care of my health first. In the future when I am better, I hope I can do it.
“Even writing this letter hurts my eyes and causes severe headaches. The deep pain inside my body is bad, but I needed to write and send this to you.”
Signed Ko Nyi Nyi Lwin | <urn:uuid:e6a622a4-8671-498b-adf1-ad038432e075> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/7895-former-monk-gambira-pens-open-letter-on-arakan-state.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973495 | 1,472 | 2 | 2 |
The Prime Minister has encouraged other countries to embrace China, in particular suggesting that the United States should take a softer approach, and noting that the rise of China presents great opportunities to Australia. I agree.
Recently I attended a public meeting at which a number of people spoke on China, including some people who would be regarded by China as dissidents. A common thread running through the speakers was that Australia should not be getting too close to China while its record on human rights and environmental protection remains as it is.
While we have different views to China on issues of this kind, avoiding getting close to China is not the way to affect China's position. It would not hurt China one iota for Australia to decline to deal with them. China needs nothing from us - we have no negotiating position whatsoever from which to pressure China to do anything it does not want to do. Yet by maintaining good relations with China we can maintain ongoing civil dialogue about areas of disagreement - dialog conducted through appropriate channels - that may be a factor in China eventually reconsidering its positions. This is the only way, realistically, that a country the size of Australia can hope to influence future policy in China. This may seem like a slow approach, and it is not as immediately satisfying as taking more direct action, but it is the only approach that is available to us.
As the Prime Minister says:
We seek to build on shared goals and not become obsessed by those things that make us different. By widening the circle of substance we are better able to deal openly and honestly with issues where we might disagree. | <urn:uuid:58a6c16a-c8e2-4695-bbe6-08c9c398afef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://yourvoice.troy.rollo.name/node/131 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974924 | 317 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Anserine tendinobursitis syndrome is a pain to the inner part of the leg, just below the knee joint. It is at a location where three tendons meet and connect to bone. The tendons connect three leg muscles to bone. The muscles include the sartorius, gracilis, and semitendinosus. There are also one or more bursae at this location. A bursa is a fluid-filled sac that decreases friction between bones and muscles.
When bursae become inflamed it is called
bursitis. When tendons become inflamed it is called
tendonitis. For this pain syndrome, the exact cause is unknown, but it may involve injury or inflammation to the tendons or bursae.
Three Tendons Insertion
Copyright © Nucleus Medical Media, Inc.
This may be a treatable condition. Contact your doctor if you think you may have this syndrome.
This condition is most commonly caused by repeated stress to the knee. This injury is common among runners. It is also common among people with conditions such as:
A direct injury to the knee can also cause this condition.
These factors increase your chance of this injury. Tell your doctor if you have any of these risk factors:
- Tear to meniscus
Change in running routine
- More miles
- Sudden increase in workout
- Tight hamstrings
- Flat feet
- Feet that roll inwards (overpronation)
If you have any of these symptoms do not assume it is due to this condition. These may be caused by other conditions. Tell your doctor if you have any of these:
- Pain to inside part of knee
- Knee tenderness
- Pain worsens with bending and straightening of knee
- Pain worsens with exercise
Your doctor will ask about your symptoms and medical history. A physical exam will be done. You will be asked to show exactly where you feel the pain. Often diagnosis is made by physical exam alone. Sometimes an
is performed to rule out other injuries.
Talk with your doctor about the best plan for you. Treatment options include the following:
You will be instructed to rest the affected knee until the pain goes away. You may also be advised to ice your knee 3-4 times a day to decrease the inflammation.
Nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) help with pain and inflammation. Your doctor will advise you which NSAID to take and how often. You may also receive a steroid injection directly into your knee to relieve pain and inflammation.
To help reduce your chance of developing anserine tendinobursitis, take the following steps:
- When increasing your workout or run, do so gradually.
- Stretch before and after your workout.
- Wear appropriate shoes for the specific activity and your feet.
Alvarez-Nemegyei, Jose MD, Canoso JJ. Evidence-Based Soft Tissue Rheumatology IV: Anserine Bursitis.
JCR: Journal of Clinical Rheumatology. 10(4):205-206, August 2004.
Calmbach WL, Hutchens M. Evaluating patients presenting with knee pain: part II differential diagnosis. American Academy of Family Physicians website. Available at:
http://www.aafp.org/afp/20030901/917.html. Accessed November 12, 2008.
Dixit S, Difiori JP, Burton M, Mines B. Management of patellofemoral pain syndrome. American Academy of Family Physicians website. Available at:
http://www.aafp.org/afp/20070115/194.html. Accessed November 12, 2008.
Uson J, Aguado P, Bernad M, et al. Pes anserinus tendino-bursitis: what are we talking about?.
Scand J Rheumatol. 2000;29(3):184-6.
Last reviewed [Under Medical Review] by Rosalyn Carson-DeWitt, MD
Please be aware that this information is provided to supplement the care provided by your physician. It is neither intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. CALL YOUR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER IMMEDIATELY IF YOU THINK YOU MAY HAVE A MEDICAL EMERGENCY. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider prior to starting any new treatment or with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
Copyright © EBSCO Publishing. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:fb6316ca-95d8-4088-8f5f-bf4d80e81b18> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.weisshospital.com/patients-and-visitors/education/health-library.aspx?chunkiid=445928 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.901142 | 951 | 3.1875 | 3 |
Wait! Before you get too into this article, you might want to check it out as it appears in our December Issue of Food & Drink Digital. If you like reading our website, you'll love flipping through our colorful, video-filled, interactive e-reader!
So, how great is this?
Philips recently unveiled its “Microbial Home,” a self-described far-future concept which includes ultra progressive elements like a diagnostic “apothecary” and a bio-digester island (a sort of “home version” of the compost processor used at Crave Brothers Farm, which would produce gas to power your home). Every sector of the concept home introduces some fascinating ideas, but the part we’re most interested in is the Urban Beehive, a sleek tinted glass pod that would ostensibly allow homeowners and restaurateurs to keep bees and reap their benefits in style.
“This is a sustainable, environmentally friendly product concept that has direct educational effects,” reads the copy for the concept. “The city benefits from the pollination, and humans benefit from the honey and the therapeutic value of observing these fascinating creatures in action. As global bee colonies are in decline, this design contributes to the preservation of the species and encourages the return of the urban bee.”
The beehive is designed to mount in a window, with an “entry tunnel” tube connecting the indoor beehive to an outdoor flowerbox meant to attract free-roaming bees. It’s even designed with a smoke activator to calm bees down before removing honey to use as you please. It’s perfect for a modern home looking for something more than a ho-hum ant farm, but we can’t help thinking about the applications a personal beehive could have at a restaurant.
Recent years have seen a major upswing of nature-friendly restaurants building their own herb gardens and casing farmer’s markets for fresh, local goods. What could a personal beehive add to that equation? The guarantee of being able to offer your customers fresh, sweet, local raw honey at any time as an ingredient in glazes or desserts, a condiment for brunch items, or an accompaniment to coffee and tea. Between the purported health benefits of local raw honey (it’s said to help cure everything from allergy symptoms to blood sugar issues) and the counterfeit corn syrup issues that are said to run rampant in the imported honey industry, being able to offer honey straight from the hive is a valuable commodity. Most urban restaurants don’t have the space for full-blown bee colonies, but this Urban Beehive could be just what the doctor ordered.
Yes, we know that this beehive – like the excellent larder and the rest of the Philips Microbial Home – is just a concept in the same way as the 1950s displayed robot-driven Homes of the Future. But unlike concepts of old, we have the technology right now to make at least some of these come true. If the ability to keep bees in our homes and restaurants is all that comes to fruition, we’ll be happy enough indeed. | <urn:uuid:7c2f1e7d-c5c0-4435-95b7-5f948e9c9e6a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fooddigital.com/hotels_restaurants/the-urban-beehive-opens-up-sweet-opportunities | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939963 | 656 | 1.875 | 2 |
apparently there is nothing that cannot happen today.
- mark twain
tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
- mary oliver
my favorite thing is to go where i've never been.
- diane arbus
you've gotta own your own days and
name 'em, each one of 'em, every one of 'em, or else the years go right by and none of 'em belong to you.
- herb gardner,
a thousand clowns
doubt is not a pleasant condition,
but certainty is absurd.
the world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.
- w. b. yeats
sounds travel through space long after their wave patterns have ceased to be detectable by the human ear: some cut right through the ionosphere and barrel on out into the cosmic heartland, while others bounce around, eventually being absorbed into the vibratory fields of earthly barriers, but in neither case does the energy succumb; it goes on forever - which is why we, each of us, should take pains to make sweet notes.
- tom robbins
enjoy your life. no curse hangs over you, nor did it ever. no devil chases after your soul. sing and dance and
- christopher pike
...feelings like disappointment, embarrassment, irritation, resentment, anger, jealousy and fear, instead of being bad news, are actually very clear moments that teach us where we're holding back. they teach us to lean in when we feel we'd rather collapse and back away. they're like messengers that show us, with terrifying clarity, exactly where we're stuck. this very moment is the perfect teacher, and, lucky for us, it's with us wherever we are.
- pema chodron
the relationship between commitment and doubt is by no means an antagonistic one. commitment is healthiest when it is not without doubt, but in spite of doubt.
- rollo may
we want to take it all in, for one last time, we want to eat the world with our eyes.
- margaret atwood
the same dream returned each night until i dared not to go to sleep and grew quite ill. i dreamed i had a child, and even in the dream i saw it was my life, and it was an idiot, and i ran away. but it always crept onto my lap again, clutched at my clothes. until i thought, if i could kiss it, whatever in it was my own, perhaps i could sleep. and i bent to its broken face, and it was horrible . . . but i kissed it. i think one must finally take one's life in one's arms.
- arthur miller, after the fall
i watched titanic when i got back home from the hospital, and cried. i knew that my IQ had been damaged.
- stephen king
they were nothing like the french people i had imagined. if anything, they were too kind, too generous and too knowledgeable in the fields of plumbing and electricity.
- david sedaris
sometimes you have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself.
- miles davis
to begin to understand the gorgeous fever that is consciousness, we must try to understand the senses and what they can tell us about the ravishing world we have the privilege to inhabit.
- diane ackerman
life is too precious to waste on fast reading; i bet neruda says something like that in his memoirs, but i haven't gotten to that part yet.
- teju cole
sticking with uncertainty is how we learn to relax in the midst of chaos, how we learn to be cool when the ground beneath us suddenly disappears.
- pema chodron
b e a u t i m u s e
everybody needs beauty ... places to play and pray in, where nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike.
- john muir
have compassion for all beings,
rich and poor alike;
each has their suffering.
some suffer too much,
others too little.
mother, who has an absolute belief that it is not the cards that one is dealt in life, it is how one plays them, is, by far, the highest card i was dealt.
- kay redfield jamison
if there is one thing i've learned in thirty years as a psychotherapist, it is this: if you can let your experience happen, it will release its knots and unfold, leading to a deeper, more grounded experience of yourself.
no matter how painful or scary your feelings appear to be, your willingness to engage with them draws forth your essential strength.
- john welwood
experience is a brutal teacher, but you learn. my God, do you learn.
- c. s. lewis
before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside, you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
- naomi shihab nye
confidence is ten percent hard work and ninety percent delusion.
- tina fey
our imagination flies; we are its shadow on the earth.
- vladimir nabokov
we must have the courage to allow a little disorder in our lives.
- ben weininger
one does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.
- carl jung
let me keep my mind on
which is my work,
which is mostly standing still
and learning to be
- mary oliver
to emphasize only the beautiful seems to me to be like a mathematical system that only concerns itself with positive numbers.
- paul klee
live purely. be quiet.
do your work with mastery.
like the moon, come out
from behind the clouds!
secretly, i wanted to look like
jimi hendrix, but i could never
quite pull it off.
- bryan ferry
no, it's not a very good story - its author was too busy listening to other voices to listen as closely as he should have to the one coming from inside.
- stephen king
it is in playing, and perhaps only in playing, that the child is free to be creative.
- d. w. winnicott
what a mess we are, i thought.
but this is where any hope of improvement begins -
acknowledging the mess.
- anne lamott
i think oprah expected me to cry or something. she asked me if i wanted a hug. i said, "get away from me, you loon. i'm english."
- lady sarah graham moon
choose your corner, pick away at it carefully, intensely and to the best of your ability - and that way, you may change the world.
- charles eames
YIN AND JUNG
who looks outside, dreams;
who looks inside, awakes.
everything that irritates us about others can lead us to a better understanding of ourselves.
when we must deal with problems, we instinctively resist trying the way that leads through obscurity and darkness. we wish to hear only of unequivocal results, and completely forget that these results can only be brought about when we have ventured into and emerged again from the darkness. but to penetrate the darkness we must summon all the powers of enlightenment that consciousness can offer.
- carl jung, the stages of life
the only advantage of not being too good a housekeeper is that your guests are so pleased to feel how very much better they are.
- eleanor roosevelt
the complexity of things - the things within things - just seems to be endless. i mean nothing is easy, nothing is simple.
- alice munro
art is the highest form of hope.
- gerhard richter
life is not easy for any of us. but what of that? we must have perseverance and, above all, confidence in ourselves. we must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.
- marie curie
in the matter of furnishing, i find a certain absence of ugliness far worse than ugliness.
love and work are the cornerstones of our humanness.
- sigmund freud
when you're arguing for an unpopular idea, there are three stages of truth: first, your opponents say it can't be true. next they say if it's true, it can't be very important. finally they say, well, we've known it all along.
- jonas salk
remember that you call on me today.
be near me, that i may remember you.
- shakespeare, julius caesar
you never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view - until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.
- spoken by atticus finch,
to kill a mockingbird
intense creative episodes are, in many instances, indistinguishable from hypomania.
- kay redfield jamison
here is the deepest secret
here is the root of the root
and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky
of a tree called life;
which grows higher than soul can hope or mind can hide.
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart.
i carry your heart.
i carry it in my heart.
- e. e. cummings
every day, every day i hear
enough to fill
a year of nights with wondering.
- denise levertov
hope begins in the dark,
the stubborn hope
that if you just show up
and try to do the right thing,
the dawn will come.
you wait and watch and work:
you don't give up.
- anne lamott
i try to lead as ordinary a life as i can. you can't get spoiled if you do your own ironing.
- meryl streep
1 . 2 0 . 0 9
What a day.
What a country.
MLK 1 2 3
a nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.
almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.
never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.
- martin luther king, jr.
labor to keep alive in your breast
that little spark of celestial fire, called conscience.
- george washington
if you hear a voice within you say
"you cannot paint," then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.
- vincent van gogh
certainly it's not just a visual experience - it's an emotional one.
in an informal way i have seen quite demented patients recognize and respond vividly to paintings and delight in painting at a time when they are scarcely responsive to words and disoriented and out of it. i think
that recognition of visual art can be very deep.
- oliver sacks
temper zeal with human kindness.
- robert jackson
i should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom i knew as well. unfortunately, i am confined to this theme by the narrowness of my experience.
- henry david thoreau
if your ship doesn't come in,
swim out to it.
- jonathan winters
i want to lead the victorian life, surrounded by exquisite clutter. | <urn:uuid:318e729d-e514-476c-8505-0df08702b8f1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.swoond.com/2007/11/golden-days.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952069 | 2,423 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
The son of Meyer Guggenheim and younger brother of Daniel Guggenheim and Solomon R. Guggenheim , he was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He settled in Denver and was a Republican senator for Colorado from 1907 to 1913. From 1919 to 1941 he was president of the American Smelting and Refining Company. He married Olga Hirsh. Their son died in 1922 just before he started college so they established the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, which gives grants to scholars and artists. The Guggenheims also donated money to various educational institutions.
The contents of this article is licensed from www.wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License. Click here to see the transparent copy and copyright details | <urn:uuid:2d41380f-8a69-41b6-ae02-e4d778434bf2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.all-science-fair-projects.com/science_fair_projects_encyclopedia/Simon_Guggenheim | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948262 | 156 | 2.640625 | 3 |
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DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Muslim extremists continued destroying the heritage of the ancient Malian city of Timbuktu on Monday, razing tombs and attacking the gate of a 600-year-old mosque, despite growing international outcry.
The International Criminal Court has described the destruction of the city's patrimony as a possible war crime, while UNESCO's committee on world heritage was holding a special session this week to address the pillaging of the site, one of the few cultural sites in sub-Saharan Africa that is listed by the agency.
The Islamic faction, known as Ansar Dine, or "Protectors of the Faith," seized control of Timbuktu last week after ousting the Tuareg rebel faction that had invaded northern Mali alongside Ansar Dine's soldiers three months ago. Over the weekend, fighters screaming "Allah Akbar" descended on the cemeteries holding the remains of Timbuktu's Sufi saints, and systematically began destroying the six most famous tombs.
Reached by telephone in an undisclosed location in northern Mali, a spokesman for the faction said they do not recognize either the United Nations or the world court.
"The only tribunal we recognize is the divine court of Shariah," said Ansar Dine spokesman Oumar Ould Hamaha.
"The destruction is a divine order," he said. "It's our Prophet who said that each time that someone builds something on top of a grave, it needs to be pulled back to the ground. We need to do this so that future generations don't get confused, and start venerating the saints as if they are God."
Among the tombs they destroyed is that of Sidi Mahmoudou, a saint who died in 955, according to the UNESCO website. In addition, on Monday they set upon one of the doors of the Sidi Yahya, a mosque built around 1400. Local legend held that the gate leading to the cemetery would only open on the final day at the end of time.
Local radio host Kader Kalil said that the members of Ansar Dine arrived at the mosque with shovels and pickaxes and yanked off the door, revealing a wall behind it. Kalil said that they explained they were doing so in order to disabuse people of the local legend and to teach them to put their whole faith in the Quran.
"Since my childhood, I have never seen the door on the western side of the mosque open. And I was born in 1947," said Kader, a longtime resident of the city. "When we were children, we were told that the door would only open at the end of time. These religious people want to go to the source, to show us that this is not true. .... Of course our population is not happy. The women, especially, are crying a lot."
Shamil Jeppie, who heads the Tombouctou Manuscripts Project at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, says that the destruction in Mali is analogous to the demolition of the Bamiyan Buddha in Afghanistan. The Wahabi interpretation of Islam that Ansar Dine — like the Taliban — espouses is a narrow version of the faith, and stands in contrast to what he says is the history of Islamic learning.
"It's a real loss for people in the town, in the region and on the continent," said Jeppie. "Timbuktu was a center of Islamic learning, a very significant center — there is lots of internal and external evidence of this. But Ansar Dine is ignorant of this. For them, there is only one book and it's the Quran. All this other (Islamic) learning is inconsequential to them," he said.
The U.N. cultural agency has called for an immediate halt to the destruction of the sacred tombs. Irina Bokova, who heads the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, reported in a statement issued Saturday that the centuries-old mausoleums of Sidi Mahmoud, Sidi Moctar and Alpha Moya had been destroyed. Meeting in St. Petersburg in Russia, UNESCO's World Heritage Committee, last week placed the mausoleums on its list of sites in danger due to earlier attacks by the Islamists, said UNESCO spokesman Rony Amelan.
On Sunday during a stop in Senegal, Fatou Bensouda, prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, said that the destruction of the city's patrimony constitutes "a possible war crime," according to private radio station RFM. And on Monday, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland condemned the destruction, telling reporters in Washington that the United States calls on all groups to enter into a ceasefire.
For years before the north of Mali became a base for an offshoot of al-Qaida, Timbuktu was a must-see for backpackers and package tour groups. Much of the city thrived on tourism, from young men who memorized the history of the tombs and details of the ancient manuscripts to in order to act as tour guides to the numerous hotels, nearly all of which are now shuttered.
Hamaha said he didn't care about the impact that their actions will have on tourism. "We are against tourism. They foster debauchery," he said.
Scholars held out hope that the Islamists would not also attack the city's 20,000-catalogued manuscripts, some dating as far back as the 12th century. Beyond the tombs, the manuscripts are considered to be the real treasure of the region and library owners have succeeded in spiriting some of the manuscripts out of the city, or else buried them in secure locations.
"We're talking about generations and generations of culture being destroyed," said New York-based Michael Covitt, chairman of the Malian Manuscript Foundation. "It's an outrage for the entire world."
Associated Press writers Rukmini Callimachi and Sadibou Marone contributed to this report from Dakar, Senegal. Baba Ahmed contributed from Bamako, Mali. | <urn:uuid:75cd8b02-6b39-477f-a389-7ee488610244> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-07-02/islamists-continue-destroying-timbuktu-heritage | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965497 | 1,265 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Authority in the Church
by Mark M. Mattison
As Steve Jones has written in The Multiple Pastor Model, the office of the one-man pastor h as no Scriptural support. Nowhere does the New Testament ever imply that one man is to have authority over a local congregation. On the contrary, the earliest churches enjoyed the ministries of multiple elders whose job it was to pastor the flock (cf. Acts 20:17,28; 1 Pet. 5:1,2).
We have noticed, however, a most unhealthy trend among some churches which have tried to implement this more Scriptural model. Many churches rightly eschew the one-man pastor and ordain multiple pastors of the body. However, the nature of the pastoral office and its authority remains unchanged. In fact some churches with multiple leaders are, paradoxically, even more authoritarian than ones with single leaders. The purpose of this article, then, is not to argue for the multiplicity of pastors within the local church. The multiplicity of pastors-elders will be assumed. The point of this article rather will be to argue against the traditional (worldly) view of authority in the church bound up in the concept of the church "office."
That might sound strange at first. After all, didn't Paul write to the Romans: "inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office"? (11:13, KJV). And in his first letter to Timothy did not Paul write of "the office" of a bishop" and "the office of a deacon" (1 Tim. 3:1,10,13, KJV)?
Those words certainly do appear in the King James Version of the Bible. But what is truly astonishing is how foreign to the Greek text those terms are. In the Romans text it is his diakonian, his ministry or "deaconship" which Paul magnifies. In 1 Timothy 3:1 it is episkopes, "an oversight," which is sought, which may or may not bear the traditional connotation of "church office." Most interesting of all is how the King James Version translates a single Greek verb, diakoneo ("to serve") with the clumsy phrase "use the office of a deacon" in 1 Timothy 3:10,13.
Are these mere semantics? Does it matter whether or not we regard elders and deacons as holding "offices"? I believe it matters insofar as it presupposes a worldly authority structure in which person dominates person. This type of authority has no Scriptural sanction.
"Obey Your Leaders"
But is not this type of authority implied in the New Testament's exhortation of believers to "obey" our leaders? "Obey your leaders and submit to them," wrote the author to the Hebrews, "for they are keeping watch over your souls and will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with sighing - for that would be harmful to you" (Heb. 13:17). We might note also the basic meaning of the term "bishop" (episkopos), which literally means "overseer."
At first blush this concept seems to create an immediate tension with the concept of diakonia, "deaconship" or "service" or "ministry." In fact these two terms, "deacon" and "bishop," evoke contradictory images. Yet we know that all elders are deacons (i.e., servants).Reference1 How can these two concepts be reconciled? How can the same people both rule and obey?
We believe the key to unraveling that tension is to be found in passages such as Matthew 20:25-28 and Mark 10:42-45. In these passages Jesus clearly points out that spiritual authority is exercised in an entirely different way from worldly authority. To rule or "oversee" the church means to serve the church. In the household of God, the concept of "oversight" is radically transformed and interpreted entirely in terms of "deaconship" or "ministry" or "service." Peter states this explicitly in 1 Peter 5:1-5. "I exhort the elders...to pastor the flock of God among you, exercising the oversight, not under compulsion but willingly" (vv. 1,2, my translation). Furthermore, they are not to exercise authority as "lords" but as "examples" (v. 3). " In the same way" younger Christians are to accept the authority of the elders (v. 5a); "and all of you must clothe yourselves with humility in your dealings with one another" (v. 5b, NRSV).
Note that key phrase in verse 5a, "in the same way," as well as the sentiment in the remainder of the verse and the context of the passage. Yes, younger Christians are to submit to the older and wiser Christians in the church; but the elders in turn submit and defer to the interests of others. Pastoral authority must not be taken out of the context of the mutual business of submitting and serving in the church.
The ramifications of this fact are far-reaching. It means that the elders are not the primary decision-makers in the church, contrary to much church practice. In the early church it was the Holy Spirit operating through the context of the entire body which made decisions on behalf of the church (cp. Acts 13:2,3; 15:22; 1 Cor. 1:10-15).
To illustrate this point we need look no further than Jesus' great disciplinary outline of Matthew 18:15-20. Of course it is the duty of any member of the body, not just a (serving) leader, to approach the one who has sinned; and in any case a member who has been sinned against must also approach the offender to reconcile (cp. also Luke 17:3,4). If reconciliation and/or repentance is not achieved, does the case then go to the elders? Not necessarily. A third and possibly fourth party is brought in, but Jesus doesn't indicate that the third or fourth parties need to be elders. If that effort is unsuccessful, does it then go to the elders? No. On the contrary, it goes straight to the entire church body for prayerful resolution.
Just where are the elders in all of this? If they truly are the "rulers" and decision-makers of the church, surely they would figure prominently in this passage. But they don't.
This is what most strongly implies that the oversight of the church is not an office but a function. Leaders lead by example and by submission. Elders are just that: older, wiser people in the church who are known and trusted and admired and imitated, whose opinions and insights and advice are sought, whose character and spirituality are beyond reproach. This pastoring is a role or function, but it is not an office invested with certain powers or policitical authority.
This has implications also for the titles that we tragically associate with church leaders - an association which should be precluded by Jesus' teaching in Matthew 23: 8-12:
"But you are not to be called 'Rabbi,' for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth 'father,' for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be called 'teacher,' for you have one Teacher, the Christ. The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted" (NIV).
Difficult words! How are they to be taken? Obviously Jesus wasn't teaching that there are no human fathers or teachers. Paul writes about human fathers in Ephesians 6:4 and pastors-teachers as gifts from God in Ephesians 4:11. The context of Matthew 23 - which is about the religious hypocrisy of the Pharisees - makes it abundantly clear that Jesus is talking about religious titles. Jesus' disciples are not to attach titles to their names, nor are they to use religious titles when addressing others. Why not? Because such titles set the leaders apart from and above the rest of the body, marking them out as greater.
Pastors who would prove that they aren't above their congregations would do well to heed Jesus' command and drop their titles altogether, eradicating them from the bulletins and letterhead and discouraging their use. "Hey Pastor Bob!" "Please don't use that title. I'm not to let anyone call me that, for we have one Pastor, the Christ."
Why isn't this commandment taken more seriously? Wasn't it spoken by the same Christ who said "Love one another"?
This is not to say that church leaders should not be respected and given honor in the body. On the contrary, they "are worthy of double honor" (1 Tim. 5:17,18, NIV). In fact it behooves all members of the body to speak respectfully to one another, and even more so to those who are older (1 Tim. 5:1,2). Mutual respect and honor is to be the rule of the day. With while showing deference and respect we must be careful not to reinforce a two-tiered caste system within the body, placing priestly power into the hands of a few.
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Maths Data handling Corsework
- Essay length: 4789 words
- Submitted: 10/02/2008
The first 200 words of this essay...
Maths Data Handling Coursework
The aim for this piece of coursework is to make 3 hypotheses as a core plan for my investigations, then process, analyse and interpret information from the data I have been provided with from the school shared area. I will do this by using my data handling skills and using computer software such as Microsoft Excel to help me.
The data I have been provided with contains information about the fitness of Year 7, 8, 9 and 10 pupils. This data consists of information such as bleep test performances in autumn and spring, cross country-Pe house run positions, and whether pupils are involved in rugby or rowing teams. There is also additional information showing what grade pupils are on at their musical instruments as well as a year 10 sports GCSE class data that shows information about pupils and their abilities in many exercises, mostly in circuit training.
Pe bleep test autumn
Pe bleep test spring
Pe house run position
Musical Instrument Level
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""Sarah. Sociology, Politics, Economics, Psychology. University Student.
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3D lighting and rendering
While I can't be too critical of Photoshop CS4 for not being the best UV editor, I have to be less forgiving of its bad rendering. With the integration of 3D in After Effects and a raytrace option for rendering, Adobe is clearly targeting professionals looking to incorporate 3D into their work. But renders in Photoshop are just not passable as professional-looking, and often the results look like something from the early 90s. As anyone in the 3D industry will tell you, ray tracing is the bare minimum involved in any decent renderer, and much research has been done in light simulation in the last 15 years. 3D render engines have incorporated the fruits of that research: HDRI, caustics, physical area lights, Fresnel reflections, global illumination, final gathering, ambient occlusion, etc. This is just the start of a long list of things missing from Photoshop's 3D rendering engine. A simple Cornell box rendering shows what's missing.
A Maxwell Render Cornell box.
Notice how the light falls off exponentially in the corners and the leaking of the color onto the other walls.
The Photoshop CS4 raytrace
There isn't much comparison between the two images. Sure, Maxwell render took 15 times longer to complete, but Photoshop's took two minutes, even at 512x512 pixels. That's slow compared to something like Mental Ray or Cinema 4D's render engine. As it stands, Photoshop's raytrace is the worst of both worlds: pokey and unrealistic.
Adobe has two big problems on their hands with 3D.
to make renders realistic and fast.
to bring 3D to the masses without forcing them to deal with esoteric settings
like photon exponents.
To put it simply, there are two approaches in 3D renderers: aim for speed or ease of use. A renderer, like Pixar's Renderman, is fast and efficient, but it's so incredibly difficult to use that every box should come with a technical director. As with Mental Ray, you turn the realism on in steps and configure many obscure settings. A renderer like Maxwell takes the opposite approach: just simulate light and forget about confusing terms or bad results. Maxwell has every modern render technique rolled in by default, and the results (when they come) are amazing. Photoshop needs something in the middle, and that's easier said than done.
As basic as the 3D controls are in Photoshop CS4, it already has the difficult terminology, so now is an important time to solve this problem. Not many graphic designers know what the refractive index of diamond is, and there it is in the 3D Palettes. Even the material nodes—glossiness, reflectivity, shininess and specular values are confusing—even by 3D renderer standards. If any other modern rendering engine was incorporated into Photoshop, designers could use HDR images to light scenes, instead of having to muck around with fake lights.
Mental Ray spherical HDR image is the only source of light in this render. It's
not perfect, but the setup time was 10 seconds. Render time: two minutes, even
with caustics and refraction.
Using HDRI maps would also mean that users could paint their lights onto their scene or download studio lighting rigs. They could simulate a sky by setting actual details.
Let people deal with light brightness in watts and real-world size units like other 3D packages, and give them lots of presets. All the techniques for making an easy, modern lighting and rendering system are staring Adobe in the face. Instead, they are forcing their users to do what people did 15 years ago: fake it with bad tools. Having a few Adobe engineers whip up a quality CGI engine is too much to ask, so I would recommend that they license better 3D tech. There's no shame in admitting that your render engine is beyond repair—it took years for Alias to admit that Maya's raytracer was a problem and ended up licensing Mental Ray. Photoshop could be an amazing 3D tool, but this is the main thing standing in the way. I want to be as impressed by the rendering in Photoshop as I am with the 3D painting tools. | <urn:uuid:ac97abed-32bc-4e39-ba1a-b12861bdd8f8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://arstechnica.com/apple/2008/10/adobe-cs4-review/8/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954503 | 865 | 1.945313 | 2 |
After getting clobbered during the recession, last year things were finally starting to perk up for the airline industry. According to the Air Transport Association, during the third quarter of 2010, a $506 ticket was pulling in a $33 profit. That might not seem like much, but it easily outstrips the scant profits the industry made over its last dismal decade.
That fledgling recovery has already hit a roadblock though. Thanks in part to instability in the Middle East, jet fuel prices are on the rise -- up about 50% from this time last year. Because of the rising fuel bill, that same $506 ticket would make a fraction of the profit today that it did last year (see chart for details). If the route is longer, the relative fuel costs will be substantially higher, and if you fly coach to a popular destination (that’s competitively priced), the airline might actually be losing money on the ticket.
The bottom line? Look for ticket price increases and watch out for the extra charges that make up the difference. Hello, baggage fees…
The journey begins at the Los Angeles International Airport on a Delta Boeing 757-200, and ends in New York’s LaGuardia on an Airbus A319.
Shown above is the approximate cost of that flight to the airline, calculated by MCR Federal’s Joakim Karlsson. Karlsson generated estimates using Federal Aviation Administration-reported taxi and flight times and industry averages for boarding times. The costs reflect standard prices for crew labor, fuel and maintenance.
In all, the total price-tag for the airline comes to $17,752. Not cheap. Flying the plane, though, is only about half the cost of actually running an airline, Karlsson says. (See interactive graphic for full breakdown of costs.) | <urn:uuid:1541f512-2782-4b09-9ed5-c427b3f19aae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/storysupplement/airline_costs/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932961 | 370 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Arudy (2 234 inhabitants, altitude 140m) is a cradle of prehistory. The first men in the valley lived in caves and left traces of their passage (paintings, objects, arts). This village was also a center for marble extraction. Beautiful old houses with inscritpions and architectural decorations allow themselves to discover through circuits arrow.
The museum presents the history and archeology of the region and an exhibition on the Parc National des Pyrénées and Ossau marble. | <urn:uuid:e9b5fb41-f143-4438-8c96-592bae0ed0cd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.valleedossau-tourisme.com/valle-de-ossau/presentacion-de-los-pueblos/arudy/index.html?L=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94197 | 102 | 2.171875 | 2 |
Sex Education for Young Tweens
It is much easier to have the birds-and-bees talk with a tween who is young enough to respond with interest instead of embarrassment. Linda and Richard Eyre, the authors of
Diagrams can help your child better visualize what you are explaining. You can print out drawings from
By describing how men and women participate in the miracle of creating a baby before peers have convinced him that sex is dirty, you will have a much more receptive audience. If your child has already turned eight, consider choosing another special time, such as when he is exactly eight and one half, on the solstice, or on some other special occasion.
Begin by explaining that sex is personal and private, and many people are offended if bad words are used because they consider sex to be sacred. State that he needs to be considerate of other people's feelings.Basic Words and Concepts
How much technical vocabulary and detail you use depends on your child's level of understanding. If your child doesn't know the correct terms for the genitals, this is the time to explain that boys have a penis and testicles, which start producing millions of tiny sperm at puberty. Sperm are kind of like seeds, but they have tiny tails and can swim. Girls have sex organs inside their bodies beneath their stomachs and a small opening between their legs that leads into a tunnel called the vagina. The vagina connects to a sex organ that releases a new tiny egg every month.
Sometimes when a man is feeling very loving toward a woman, his penis gets longer and harder until it is the perfect shape to fit inside a woman's vagina. When he puts his penis into her vagina, the sperm come out and swim toward her egg. If one of the man's sperm gets inside a woman's egg, a baby is created. The baby grows inside the mother's body in a place called the uterus until it's ready to be born, and then it comes out through the opening between the woman's legs.Changes to Expect During Puberty
Explain that as boys turn into men they get more hair on their arms, legs, faces, and around their penis and anus. Their voices deepen. Their sweat glands start to work, so they perspire a lot. Many get pimples on their faces. Their testicles wrinkle and darken in color, and their penises grow and have erections.
Meanwhile, girls grow more hair on their arms and legs, anus, and in the pubic area. The area around their nipples wrinkles and darkens and then they grow breasts. Their breasts will fill up with milk when they have a baby so they can feed it. Every month their bodies build a special sort of nest inside to hold a baby. The nest is made of blood and tissue. Every month their bodies produce an egg, too. If no sperm joins with the egg to make a baby, the nest isn't needed and the body spends about five days releasing the blood and tissue. When it comes out through the vagina, it is called “having a menstrual period.” Even though there is blood, this is not painful. It is messy, though, so girls wear a sanitary napkin to catch the blood.
Don't wait to let your tween learn about sexuality in health class, which typically takes place in fifth grade. If a girl begins her period before then, she may suffer the trauma of thinking she is dying when she discovers menstrual blood. Boys are often fearful about their physical changes, too. | <urn:uuid:7179e0dc-ed98-4e6f-b3a8-73d26468ae6c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.netplaces.com/tweens/the-birds-and-the-bees/sex-education-for-young-tweens.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967582 | 719 | 2.875 | 3 |
Eight Benefits Of Cross-Training
If you ask 10 other runners to name a benefit of cross-training, at least 8 of them will mention injury prevention. But although injury prevention is by far the most widely recognized benefit of cross-training among runners, it's hardly the only one.
If you ask 10 other runners to name a benefit of cross-training, at least 8 of them will mention injury prevention. But although injury prevention is by far the most widely recognized benefit of cross-training among runners, it's hardly the only one. Runners can also use cross-training to rehabilitate injuries, improve fitness, promote recovery, enhance motivation, rejuvenate the mind and body during breaks from formal training, enjoy competing in other endurance sports, and even stay fit through pregnancy. Related to the benefit of injury prevention, cross-training can also prolong your running career.
The good news is that you don't have to do eight different kinds of cross-training to get these eight distinct benefits (seven if you're male). You can enjoy them all by supplementing your running with a little strength training, flexibility training, and endurance cross-training (for instance, bicycling or swimming). Each of these three forms of cross-training has its own relationship to the benefits I've just mentioned, but there's plenty of overlap.
Benefit #1: Injury Prevention
Overuse injuries are the curse of the running life, a never-ending epidemic among pavement (and trail) pounders everywhere. Nevertheless, injuries aren't inevitable. Most overuse injuries can be prevented or at least prevented from returning. (More than half of running injuries are actually reinjuries.) Most of them can be blamed on four factors.1. Inadequate recovery (when your body doesn't fully recover from one run to the next)2. Biomechanical irregularities (such as overpronation and leg-length discrepancy)3. Muscular imbalances caused by running itself (tight hamstrings and weak quadriceps, for example)4. Improper or worn-out footwearCross-training can't help you with your footwear choices, but it can address the other three factors.If you're a beginning runner who hasn't yet developed strength and flexibility imbalances, you can get big benefits from endurance cross-training. Your ankles, knees, and lower back aren't used to the repetitive impact of running, so you can use walking, elliptical machines, and other low-impact conditioning tools to improve endurance without beating up your most vulnerable joints, muscles, and connective tissues. You can gradually mix in some running once you've established a base of fitness (and lost some weight, if that's an issue).
Endurance cross-training can therefore help you ease into the sport, if you're a new runner, by reducing the amount of impact your body absorbs. And if you're a veteran runner, it helps you stay in the sport. It isn't uncommon for longtime runners to lose so much knee cartilage through repetitive impact that they develop osteoarthritis and are forced to hang up their shoes. By mixing in some weight lifting and swimming today, you just might spare yourself the frustration of only being able to swim and lift weights in the future.
Benefit #2: Rehabilitation
When an overuse injury does develop, cross-training comes to the rescue in two ways: by helping runners maintain fitness despite being forced to run less or not at all and by correcting the cause of the injury.
Of course, your immediate goal with any injury is to resume normal training as soon as possible. But if you can't resume normal training immediately, your best option is to adopt a modified training program that allows you to maintain running-specific fitness without exacerbating your injury or prolonging the recovery process. The best alternatives are water running, elliptical training, bicycling, and inline skating, because they closely simulate the action and demands of running. If you can approximate the volume and perhaps the intensity of your running workouts, you should be able to maintain your conditioning. If you've been laid up for a while and you sense that your running fitness is in rapid decline, these cross-training activities should at the very least begin to reverse that process.
Benefit #3: Greater Running Fitness
There are many worthy motivations to run, but the desire to run faster is the most fundamental. Even if you're slower than most runners and you don't get too caught up in your race times, you still pay attention to them, and establishing a new personal best still gives you satisfaction.
Cross-training is a very reliable means to become a faster runner. To make an absolute statement might be going too far, but I think it's safe to say that almost every runner can run faster by cross-training appropriately than by running only. There are three main ways in which supplemental training outside the discipline of running can enhance one's running ability. Specifically, it can:
- Enhance a runner's efficiency.
- Increase a runner's power.
- Increase the amount of time a runner is able to spend training without accumulating fatigue or getting injured.
Better efficiency, more strength and power, and greater training volume without additional breakdown--these are the ways in which cross-training directly boosts running fitness. But I should mention that all of the other reasons to cross-train discussed in this chapter have a beneficial, if indirect, impact on performance. I mentioned, for example, that cross-training can reduce injuries. This allows you to train more consistently, and that, of course, makes you better prepared to race. Using cross-training for active recovery (reason number 4, discussed below) can enhance your recovery between key workouts, so you perform better in your key workouts, get a more powerful training effect from them, and again achieve a higher level of fitness by race day. And so forth.
Benefit #4: Active Recovery
It is an irrefutable but too often overlooked fact that workouts help you achieve athletic conditioning only when followed by rest and recovery-promoting activities. (Obviously, nutrition and hydration play major roles in recovery, but I want to keep our discussion focused on exercise.)
Periods of outright rest are, of course, essential, but the runner who performs active-recovery workouts between most pairs of key workouts will become fitter than the runner who does not, provided he or she has gradually worked toward being able to handle the frequency of training involved. While the runner who does not perform active-recovery workouts gets more rest than the runner who does, it's actually the latter who gets more recovery. Again, this is primarily because the 2 hours immediately following a workout are far more valuable to most adaptive processes (including our example of glycogen storage) than are the hours following those first 2. It may be counterintuitive, but it's true nevertheless that in the context of a rigorous training program, light workouts accelerate recovery beyond what happens during outright rest by just slightly increasing the body's need for recovery.
Your key workouts--that is, your high-intensity workouts and your extra-long workouts--are the most important to your running performance, so those should almost always be runs. When you're injured, you should perform cross-training workouts that match your intended run workouts in duration, structure, and intensity. But if you can run, you will be best served to make all of your key workouts runs and all of your endurance cross-training workouts active-recovery sessions.
Benefit #5: Enhanced Motivation
No matter how much passion you have for running, if you do it often enough or with excessive repetition of routes and routines, it will become boring. Most humans are stimulated by variety and turned off by monotony. Cross-training helps you maintain your enthusiasm for your sport, making it possible to train harder and more consistently and ultimately to perform better in races.
Anything you can do to increase your motivation for training is worth doing. In other words, a given training decision does not have to be justified by a purely physical rationale to be a good decision. If doing more cross-training and less running makes the training process more enjoyable, do it! Likewise, if you just don't feel like running today, but you would be perfectly happy to ski cross-country instead, then ski! You'll still end up in a better place than the runner who doesn't cross-train and can choose only, on such days, between running with a bad attitude and doing nothing at all.
Benefit #6: Rejuvenation
No tree can bear fruit in all seasons, and no runner can train hard throughout the entire calendar. That's just the way nature made us. If you want to run better next year than you did this year, you must give your body and mind a break from formal training after the final race. Coaches call this period of rest and play the transition phase of the training cycle, and every smart runner takes it as seriously (if one can take rest and play seriously) as he or she does any other phase of training.
A good off-season transition phase (which usually coincides with winter) should begin with about 2 weeks of complete rest. Fourteen exertion-free days are just enough to allow your body to achieve a deep recovery from the recently completed training cycle and to restore your hunger to run, but not so much that you seriously compromise your fitness.
After resting for 2 weeks, you should allow yourself between 2 and 8 more weeks of informal training in which you do whatever you want. Play basketball or ice hockey, do yoga, swim, lift weights--and run as little or as much (within reason) as you see fit. Your first priority should simply be to enjoy yourself. As long as you do some form of workout each day and get a cardiovascular, strength, and flexibility benefit from the activity or group of activities you pursue, there's no wrong way to approach the transition phase.
Benefit #7: Enjoying Other Sports
Endurance is a highly transferable capacity. The strong heart and good lungs that serve you so well as a runner could serve you equally well in swimming, bicycling, skating, cross-country skiing, and other endurance sports. Yet endurance is also highly task-specific, because the only way to develop efficiency in a given activity is to perform that activity often. So while a trained runner would undoubtedly perform better on a bicycle than a couch potato would, that runner wouldn't fare so well against a trained cyclist.
Genetic individuality is also a factor. Because various muscular, neurological, and metabolic characteristics of your body are the way they are, you may never be as good a cyclist as you are a runner no matter how much cycling you do. On the other hand, you could merely dabble in cycling and discover that you are even better suited to that sport than you are to running.
You never know until you try. And I'm here to suggest that you do try if you have the least bit of curiosity about what it might be like to compete in another endurance sport. You might really enjoy the experience and do well, and if you do it right, training for and competing in a second endurance sport could help you enjoy running more and even run better.
Benefit #8: Fit Pregnancy
In the not-too-distant past, exercising throughout pregnancy and soon after childbirth was considered dangerous, and motherhood was considered to be a career-ending decision for competitive female athletes. These notions were, of course, based on presumption rather than observation, and they have since gone the way of the notion that women lacked the strength and stamina to run a marathon.
Cross-training can help pregnant and postpartum runners in a couple of ways. Running becomes difficult for some women during the last several weeks of pregnancy, and high-intensity running becomes impossible for most women during this period. Staying aerobically fit is as simple as substituting nonimpact endurance activities for running. You may wish to make this transition even in the absence of discomfort during running, just in case. There's really no downside to doing so.
I hope I've made a convincing case for making the transition to a cross-training based program. It's a tough sell to many runners, because it's running that we love to do most. But your love of running can be the very thing that motivates you to begin cross-training once you realize how much this approach can benefit your running health, fitness, and performance. | <urn:uuid:9ddbd6b4-64a4-40b8-b257-2c23949a02ea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.runnersworld.com/print/25270 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968742 | 2,559 | 2.15625 | 2 |
The Department of Health and Environmental Control says it can be trusted to oversee a $2.2 billion coal-fired electric power plant Santee Cooper wants to build in Florence County.
But the agency’s past difficulties overseeing Santee Cooper’s coal plants have raised loud objections from conservationists and some doctors about whether DHEC would be a good a watchdog for health and the environment when it comes to Santee Cooper.
For more than a decade, Santee Cooper sent “massive” illegal amounts of pollutants into the air at its Winyah coal plant in Georgetown County, according to federal documents. DHEC was in charge of oversight but didn’t stop the pollution.
And, in late 2002, Santee Cooper began a major expansion of its Cross Station coal plant in Berkeley County without DHEC’s knowledge or permission.
Santee Cooper, without admitting wrongdoing in either of the two incidents, paid a $2 million fine in 2004 after state and federal regulators sued. As part of the settlement, Santee Cooper agreed to upgrade pollution-control devices at its four coal-fired plants, at an expected cost of $100 million.
“These two events indicate a total lack of vigilance on DHEC’s part,” said Ben Gregg, executive director of the S.C. Wildlife Federation, who has been publicly critical of the proposed Florence County plant.
But The State has learned new details about those two violations that could raise more questions about DHEC and its watchdog role:
DHEC discovered the Cross Station plant expansion only by accident — not through a regular inspection process that would normally turn up problems. An off-duty DHEC employee who was boating on Lake Moultrie saw construction along the shore that had been going on for months, federal and state regulators confirmed recently.
The cost of upgrading pollution control devices at Santee Cooper’s coal plants has ballooned to $428 million from $100 million, according to the utility’s latest annual report. And Santee Cooper might have to close either or both of its aging Jefferies or Grainger plants, in Berkeley and Horry counties, said DHEC air quality bureau chief Myra Reece.
DHEC officials would have discovered the unauthorized construction at the Cross Station plant at some point and taken action, Reece said.
And DHEC officials say they knew the EPA was investigating illegal emissions from the Winyah plant and so they didn’t take action themselves.
But Gregg said the two incidents cause him to wonder just how carefully DHEC is looking at Santee Cooper’s plans for a new plant.
“Ideally, you should have a public agency that puts public health above all else,” Gregg said. “DHEC’s other missions really cloud the public health purpose of the agency.”
Gregg and others say that, perhaps especially when it comes to Santee Cooper, DHEC has three incompatible missions: overseeing pollution releases, protecting public health — and promoting economic development.
INTO THE SKY
DHEC commissioner Earl Hunter said his agency always balances its missions. Public health is first, he said.
However, with the proposed plant, those missions collide.
If the plant isn’t built, Santee Cooper contends, there won’t be enough electricity for the Pee Dee’s future needs — to power schools and homes and attract future industry.
Santee Cooper and its allies gave impassioned pleas for the coal plant during a recent public hearing in Pamplico, about 10 miles from where the plant would be built. Two busloads full of supporters came to the meeting, sporting green shirts and buttons backing the facility. About 500 people attended, many of them saying the plant would create jobs and help the local economy.
The 2,700-acre plant, to be built 25 miles southeast of Florence, would be huge.
Its smokestack would be 650 feet tall — 95 feet taller than the Washington Monument.
It would consume 4 million tons of coal a year in two giant coal furnaces that would produce 1,320 megawatts of electricity. That’s enough to power 300,000 to 500,000 homes and perhaps hundreds of new businesses.
But what it would release into the air, even with pollution controls, is causing a stir statewide.
Each year, the smokestack would release 9 million tons of atmosphere-warming carbon dioxide, at least 93 pounds of potentially nerve-damaging mercury and thousands of tons of other pollutants. The smokestack would release pollutants high enough to be caught by upper wind currents.
Those protesting the coal plant include state and national environmental groups, some area doctors and residents and 10 attorneys general from other states. They fear winds will carry the pollution their way.
The sticking point, they say, is that coal pollutes — a lot.
And, they say, Santee Cooper’s request comes at a time when many U.S. utilities are deciding against building coal plants. Santee Cooper itself is touting the virtues of nuclear power as it advocates for a nuclear plant it wants to build with SCE&G north of Columbia.
“Nuclear is the right choice for us,” said SCE&G spokesman Eric Boomhower. “The fact that it is a clean energy source makes it the right choice for us.”
Santee Cooper alone in the state is pushing to build a coal plant. Progress Energy has a moratorium on them; Duke and SCE&G have no plans for more.
The nuclear plant Santee Cooper wants to build north of Columbia would go on line in 2017 at the earliest, the utility said; the coal plant could begin meeting demand as early as 2013.
Santee Cooper says its pollution-control technology at the coal plant would be top-grade, capturing nearly everything that’s dangerous. The technology includes large “scrubbers” for sulfur dioxide and “baghouses” for mercury. In all, Santee Cooper plans to spend close to $1 billion — about half the cost of the plant — on pollution control.
Although today’s plants remove most pollutants from coal, Santee Cooper’s four plants burn so much — 9.8 million tons last year — that they still release thousands of tons of toxics annually, according to DHEC emissions reports. But there is no pollution control device for carbon dioxide.
Florence pediatrician Weaver Whitehead said, despite the filtering, the pollution released each year will make many people sick. There will be an increase in everything from doctors’ office visits to hospital admissions, he predicted.
“I care for many families in that area and know of several fragile asthmatics who will likely be affected by that plant’s dirty air,” he said.
INTO THE WATERS
Sulfur dioxide and dusty particle pollution can cause or aggravate breathing problems. Mercury causes nerve and brain damage.
But mercury is what has people most concerned.
South Carolinians can get mercury poisoning by eating mercury-laced fish, mostly from slow-moving creeks and rivers.
More than a decade of testing has shown that mercury has rendered some types of fish in all or part of 57 S.C. waterways unsafe to eat except in small amounts. Many scientists think the higher mercury readings come mostly from power plants and other industrial sources, inside and outside the state, and are compounded by the rivers’ chemical compositions.
The Wildlife Federation’s Gregg said DHEC is “schizophrenic.” Its health division warns people about mercury dangers from fish, and its air-quality permitting division is letting Santee Cooper emit mercury.
“Something is wrong with DHEC,” Gregg said.
Last year at a public hearing, Gregg criticized DHEC for not testing humans, especially near Pamplico, for blood mercury levels. People, many poor and without health care, have been left on their own to consult a doctor if they think they have a problem.
In July, after public criticism from Gregg and others, DHEC announced it would do mercury testing not just on fish but on people. “DHEC should have done the testing without being criticized,” Gregg said.
The agency hasn’t said how extensive the testing will be. Hunter said DHEC still is formulating the study’s dimensions.
Much thought has to be put into medical studies involving humans, Hunter said. Studies must have control groups, and participants must answer extensive questions. The different possible sources for mercury add to the study’s complexity, he said.
“We are trying to move as quickly as we can,” Hunter said.
Late last year, DHEC issued a preliminary air permit for Santee Cooper’s proposed plant and is reviewing specific emission limits. It may be months before officials issue a final permit. Federal officials will study water quality issues separately.
Local residents are watching.
In the Pee Dee — in Pamplico, Johnsonville, Kingstree, Lake City and along the I-95 corridor — people love to fish.
Randy Stone, a 61-year-old Johnsonville resident who for years regularly ate local fish, has suffered what his doctor says are symptoms of mercury poisoning: dizziness, hair loss and the inability to concentrate.
“We need jobs, but I don’t think they should build the plant unless they can deal with the mercury,” Stone said.
Terry Cook, 43, lives next to the plant site. She has eaten area fish all her life.
“They can build it with far less mercury than they are” proposing to put out, Cook said in May of the plant.
In late September, Cook seemed prophetic.
DHEC officials lowered the proposed mercury release ceiling to 93 pounds from Santee Cooper’s latest suggestion of 114 pounds, saying they had analyzed other coal plants and done new projections.
Critics say that’s not enough.
IS IT NEEDED?
Economic development is a key reason many want the plant.
Santee Cooper says its customers — and the state — need the plant. The utility wants permission to build a 1,320-megawatt plant but says it will build a 660-megawatt unit and decide later about expanding.
“We have to furnish power when somebody wants it,” said Santee Cooper chief financial officer Bill McCall. He said the utility is required by law to do so. It has to be ready for energy-hungry companies like Google, which recently bought land in Berkeley County, he said. The company plans to invest $600 million and create 200 jobs.
What DHEC decides on air and water discharges for the plant is important. DHEC is the only major outside regulator of Santee Cooper. State law exempts the utility, a state agency, from the oversight of the state Public Service Commission, which regulates other utilities in South Carolina. But unlike the PSC, DHEC does not study the need for a plant.
Ralph Thomas, who directs the SC Power Team — an industry recruitment alliance of Santee Cooper and the 20 electric cooperatives it supplies — said without Santee Cooper, many industries couldn’t have come to the state.
In the past 20 years, Thomas said, Santee Cooper has provided low-cost electricity to more than 600 new and expanding businesses that represent $6.7 billion in investment and 39,000 jobs.
“The availability of electricity is a crucial resource to economic development,” Thomas said.
The plant even could help offset some 2,000 jobs lost in recent years when textile plants closed, said Pamplico Mayor Gene Gainey.
“This will help generate more industry,” he said, adding that more than 1,100 area residents last year signed a petition supporting the plant. “I don’t believe Santee Cooper would do anything to harm the community.”
Gainey said the plant also would bring more than $200 million in nearby road and bridge improvements.
Only one Pee Dee politician is openly opposing the plant — Stephen Wukela, the newly elected Democratic mayor of Florence, the Pee Dee’s largest city.
“As a trade-off for the lungs of our children, they propose giving us jobs,” Wukela said.
Most S.C. politicians are silent.
But U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis, R-Greenville, has been critical. He has said coal plants use the sky as a low-cost trash dump.
DHEC FOCUSED ON EMISSIONS
Some environmentalists think the potential dangers call for drastic measures.
Dana Beach’s South Carolina Coastal Conservation League is spending $100,000 in grant money on a consultant to study the need for a plant, especially in a slow economy.
Synapse Energy Economics of Cambridge, Mass., is expected to report this fall. The firm also will look at whether conservation or renewable energy sources, such as solar power, would offset the need for coal-generated electricity. Another area of study is whether the current economic slowdown will lessen the projected need for electricity.
Santee Cooper has agreed to cooperate.
Beach said he hopes the study — more wide-ranging than what DHEC is doing — will show the plant is not needed or could be significantly scaled back.
But the study is nonbinding on Santee Cooper.
DHEC, meanwhile, is focused on emissions, Hunter said.
“Our main job is to make sure if they are going to build it, that they have the very best (pollution) control technology, that air quality standards are met,” he said.
Federal officials are expected to do some evaluation of alternatives during the water-permitting process, DHEC officials said.
Hunter stressed DHEC has made no decisions and will consider all facts and laws.
“We have to be able to justify what we do,” he said.
Some who favor the plant worry DHEC’s oversight won’t be assertive enough.
Tom Smith of Pamplico once was a Democratic state senator from Florence County. Now, he is staff attorney to the 30,000-member, six-county Pee Dee Electric Cooperative served by Santee Cooper. DHEC perhaps has to balance too much, Smith said.
“You have to wonder if DHEC is up to the task,” he said.
Reach Fretwell at (803) 771-8537. Reach Monk at (803) 771-8344. | <urn:uuid:2c9ea93f-2fb3-4444-9554-3be6990b270c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thestate.com/2008/11/19/594774/how-dhecs-oversight-of-coal-plants.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95363 | 3,069 | 1.929688 | 2 |
A US National Academy of Sciences panel made a remarkable recommendation last month, remarkable not for its content but that it had to be made at all. In the report, Science and technology in the national interest: ensuring the best presidential and federal advisory committee science and technology appointments
, the panel recommends: “When a federal advisory committee requires scientific or technical proficiency, persons nominated to provide that expertise should be selected on the basis of their scientific and technical knowledge and credentials. It is inappropriate to ask them to provide nonrelevant information, such as voting record, political-party affiliation, or position on particular policies.” The panel apparently felt compelled to make this recommendation after reports that scientists under consideration for advisory board appointments were being questioned about their political views by the Bush administration.
Concern over the politicisation of US science policy has been growing over the past 4 years. More than 5000 scientists have signed a statement sponsored by the Union of Concerned Scientists calling for the Bush administration to halt its misuse of science. Numerous examples of such abuse have been cited. Even public-health messages have been spun to advance the administration's political views. In 2002, for example, content on the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's website was changed to discourage the use of condoms and promote abstinence, the policy favoured by the Bush administration. Instructions on proper condom use were removed and condom failure rates were emphasised. In 2002, a breast cancer fact sheet on the National Cancer Institute's (NCI) website that had reported accurately that current scientific evidence did not indicate a link between induced abortion and breast cancer vanished and in its place appeared an analysis that, in keeping with the views of the administration's antiabortion supporters, gave greater weight to the arguments favouring a link. Political pressure has been used to alter scientific reports by government agencies on everything from the environment, to occupational health, to racial disparities in health care. These attempts have backfired embarrassing the administration and, sadly, seriously undermining the credibility of US agencies at home and abroad. In the case of the NCI website, after protests from scientists and members of Congress, the NCI held a workshop, which led to a new fact sheet that concluded again that the evidence did not indicate an association between abortion and breast cancer risk.
The administration has no doubt pleased its supporters by putting its spin on science. But in doing so it has alienated top scientists who will be needed in the next 4 years. The administration would do well to heed the NAS panel's advice. The problems facing the USA and the world are increasingly complex, and officials will need the advice of scientists chosen for their expertise not their politics. | <urn:uuid:0ba7e4a3-19d6-4422-afb8-a803b6630f55> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(04)17522-3/fulltext | 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 | 0.965287 | 531 | 1.976563 | 2 |
What the debate over women-in-combat looked like in 1990
- By Eleanor Barkhorn
- The Atlantic
- January 24, 2013
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has decided to lift the U.S. military's ban on women in combat. This puts an end to a decades-old controversy about the role of women in the military. Back in 1990, Charles C. Moscos—a late Northwestern University professor who, among other things, helped draft the military's now-defunct "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy—described how servicemembers felt about the combat ban, in a piece called "Army Women." Here's the relevant excerpt:
The various arguments for and against women in combat are complex, and the issues involved are not subject to easy empirical resolution. Whether the propensity of most males to be more aggressive than most females is due mainly to body chemistry or to cultural conditioning is a matter of controversy; so is whether male bonding is chemical or cultural. There are social realities that need be considered, however. We should not forget, for example, that combat troops live, bathe, and sleep together for days and weeks on end. No institution in American society forces men and women into such unrelentingly close contact. That women could be killed or captured in war is a specter raised by those who oppose letting women into combat units. Is this really an issue? Female police officers have died in the line of duty without raising any particular outcry. On the touchy matter of prisoners of war, we have seen at least a symbolic change. In 1988 President Ronald Reagan signed an executive order revising the Code of Conduct for POWs. What formerly began with "I am an American fighting man" was changed to the gender-neutral and less bellicose "I am an American." | <urn:uuid:0f9717fb-3c0c-4094-9057-7d0550a5f77e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.govexec.com/defense/2013/01/what-debate-over-women-combat-looked-1990/60846/?oref=dropdown | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962695 | 370 | 2.28125 | 2 |
Sputum stain for mycobacteria is a laboratory test performed on a sample of the patient’s sputum (phlegm). It is also known as an acid-fast bacillus stain (AFB) or a tuberculosis (TB) smear. The test is commonly ordered by a doctor to find out if a patient has tuberculosis (TB) or another type of mycobacterial infection.
Checking your sputum is the best way to find out if you have TB. If you are already taking medication for TB or another mycobacterial infection, the test is also the best way to find out if your medication is working.
Sputum will first be collected by either you or your physician.
Your doctor will order this test if a mycobacterial infection is suspected.
Mycobacteria are a type of microorganism with nearly 100 known species. The most common type, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, causes TB. The general symptoms of TB include:
- coughing up blood or mucus
- lack of appetite, weight loss
- weakness, fatigue
- fever, chills, night sweats
Another relatively common type, Mycobacterium leprae, causes leprosy. Symptoms of leprosy include:
Except for the two microorganisms that cause TB and leprosy, most mycobacteria live in the water and soil everywhere in the world. These are called nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM).
NTM are found in city water, bayous, rivers, hot tubs, swimming pools, yard soil, and even in our food. Their tough, waxy cell wall makes them resistant to antibacterial agents.
Although NTM are everywhere, most people are not affected. However, people with immunity problems, such as AIDS, are vulnerable to infection. Some people can have an infection with no symptoms at all. Other people have infections that cause lung symptoms similar to TB.
Medicines can treat these infections, but it often takes more than one medicine to cure them.
The patient’s sputum specimen is spread on a microscope slide. A staining dye is added to the cells of the specimen, and then washed in an acid solution. The cells are then examined under a microscope.
If the cells retain the stain, this confirms the presence of mycobacterium. Most mycobacteria are known to be acid-fast, which means they hold onto the dye when washed in an acid solution.
Another test, called a culture, may be done. The sputum specimen is placed into a culture (nutrient) medium and allowed to grow at room temperature for several days. This makes it possible to see a greater number of bacteria cells in order to confirm results.
If you are very sick, you may already be in the hospital. If so, the bedside nurse will help you cough up sputum to send to the laboratory for the test. If you have trouble coughing up sputum on your own, the nurse may have you breathe steam.
If you are sick at home, you will need to collect the sputum sample yourself.
Keep in mind, however, that sputum from deep inside your lungs isn’t the same as saliva. Sputum is mucus, and is usually colored and thick in consistency, especially when there is an infection in the lungs. Saliva comes from your mouth and is clear-colored and thin.
Plan to collect sputum the first thing in the morning. This makes the test more accurate. Do not eat or drink anything in the morning before collecting your sample. Your doctor will provide a sample cup, which is sterile. Don’t open the cup until you are ready to collect the sample.
To collect a sputum sample:
- Brush your teeth and rinse your mouth (don’t use antiseptic mouthwash).
- Take a couple of long, deep breaths.
- Breathe deeply again and cough hard until sputum comes up.
- Spit out the sputum into the sample cup.
- Keep coughing up sputum until the cup is filled to the marker (approximately one teaspoon).
- Screw on the cup lid and wash and dry the outside of it.
- Write your name and the date on the cup label.
Take the sample to the clinic or laboratory, as instructed. The sample can be refrigerated for up to 24 hours, if needed. Do not freeze it or store it at room temperature.
If you can’t cough up sputum, try breathing the steam from boiling water, or take a hot, steamy shower. The sputum must come from deep inside your lungs for the test to be accurate.
If you still cannot cough up sputum, your doctor will do a bronchoscopy to collect sputum directly from your lungs.
The night before the test, drink lots of fluids, such as water or tea. This will help your body make more sputum overnight. Collecting your sputum in the morning makes the test more accurate. More bacteria are present first thing in the morning.
Bronchoscopy is a simple procedure that takes about 30 to 60 minutes. It is often done in the doctor’s office, and the patient usually remains awake.
Do not to take medicines that thin your blood the day before your bronchoscopy. These medicines include aspirin, Motrin, Advil, and Aleve. You may take Tylenol if needed for pain. You will also be asked not to eat or drink anything the night before the procedure.
Bronchoscopy is performed as follows:
- A local anesthetic will be sprayed into your nose and throat to numb them.
- You might be given a sedative to help you relax, or medication to put you to sleep.
- General anesthesia is not usually needed for bronchoscopy.
- The bronchoscope is a soft, small-circumference tube with a light and magnifying glass on the end. The doctor feeds the scope through your nose or mouth, and into your lungs.
- Using the magnifying glass, the doctor can see into the lungs and use the scope to remove a sample of your sputum.
- A nurse will attend you during and after the procedure until you are fully awake.
- For safety, you should have someone else drive you home.
There are no risks in collecting a sputum sample yourself. You might feel light-headed when coughing deeply. Rare risks of bronchoscopy include allergic reactions to sedatives, infection, bleeding, pneumothorax (tearing in the lung, which results in a little air being released between the lung and chest wall, and usually fixes itself), bronchial spasms (a sudden clenching of the muscles in the bronchioles), and irregular heart rhythms.
If your test results are normal (negative), this means no mycobacterial organisms were found.
If the test is abnormal, it means the stain is positive for one of the following organisms:
- Mycobacterium tuberculosis
- Mycobacterium leprae
- nontuberculous bacteria
- other acid-fast bacteria
Your doctor will advise you about your test outcome, and the best course of treatment, if needed. | <urn:uuid:a2160321-0dca-41d5-8dd3-faa51af51c00> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.healthline.com/health/sputum-stain-for-mycobacteria | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93728 | 1,539 | 3.296875 | 3 |