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Detailed Practice Notes written by our Professional Support Lawyers, guiding you through the key issues in each topic.
Practice and procedure - overviewJurisdiction in financial proceedings
The court has jurisdiction to entertain proceedings for financial provision under the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 (MCA 1973) and the corresponding provisions of the Civil Partnership Act 2004 (CPA 2004) if a petition for divorce or dissolution of civil partnership has been presented to that court. Other types of financial proceedings, including cohabitant claims, and claims under the Child Support Act 1991 are dealt with elsewhere in this service. In some circumstances proceedings may be transferred to a higher court or horizontally.
The duty of disclosure in financial proceedings
There is an absolute duty on parties and their advisors to disclose their assets in a full, frank, clear and up-to-date manner. This duty continues throughout proceedings: if a party knows that their financial situation has changed, they must inform the other party and the court at the earliest opportunity.
If a party does not give adequate disclosure, the court may well make costs orders against them. If they still refuse to provide the disclosure requested, the court is entitled to make adverse inferences against the non-disclosing party. Orders made against a backdrop of faulty disclosure can be set aside.
Procedural aspects of disclosure in financial proceedings
None of the above, of course, prevents a party refusing to produce documents which are properly privileged.
Compliance with and requests for disclosure must be time and costs proportionate.
Disclosure of documents is controlled by the Family Procedure Rules 2010 (FPR 2010) .
The first directions appointment (FDA) should represent a one window of opportunity of disclosure and the potential requirement as to expert and / or lay evidence must be considered to enable the court to give appropriate directions. If a party fails to make the request at the FDA they are not entitled to production of any further documents except in accordance with directions given or with permission of the court. If the court considers that the applicant could have and should have made the request at the FDA the request may be disallowed with costs.
Adducing expert evidence in financial proceedings
Consideration should be given to whether orders should be sought for expert evidence at first appointment. There are strict rules governing the use of expert evidence in proceedings with which practitioners must comply.
Joint instruction of experts in financial proceedings
Pt 25 of FPR 2010 and PD 25A set out in detail the provisions in relation to the joint instruction of experts in financial proceedings.
FPR 2010, PD 9A sets out the pre-application protocol in its annex. It is similar in form to the protocols set down for general civil litigation, involving a neutrally phrased first letter (the equivalent of a letter before action) and provisions for disclosure
The procedure for all applications in ancillary relief is set out in the FPR 2010 and includes provision in relation to:
the issue of proceedings in Form A
preparation, filing and service of financial statements in Form E/E1
special considerations in relation to Form E/E1 and pensions
provisions in relation to service of proceedings where a property adjustment order is sought
the issue of standard directions
procedure regarding the first appointment
Follow-up action after first appointment
The court will make orders at the first appointment, which should be attended to as soon as is reasonably practical. Typically, the parties will be expected to:
answer questionnaires and agree on the identity of experts within 28 days
have remaining evidence (expert or otherwise) ready within 56 days
Preparation for the financial dispute resolution appointment
Good practice suggests that all answers to questionnaires and relevant evidence should be ready not less than 21 days before the financial dispute resolution (FDR) appointment.
Conduct of the FDR
FPR 2010 set out the purpose of, and the court's powers at, the FDR.
Two important points arise:
practitioners should be completely clear about the basis on which negotiations are made: The case of Rose v Rose illustrates the difficulties of reaching agreement at FDR if parties are not completely on board
evidence of anything said or of any admission made will not be admissible in any subsequent part of the proceedings, except at the trial of a person for an offence committed at FDR or in the very unusual circumstances that there is a real danger to the welfare of a child.
Preparation of proposals for settlement
It is good practice to make any proposals for settlement in good time prior to the FDR to enable a response to be made and the issues narrowed.
Any without prejudice offers to settle and responses thereto must be filed with the court not less than seven days before the FDR.
Costs implications of proposals for settlement
If no proposals for settlement are forthcoming at the FDR, the judge may be unable to give a proper indication: the purpose of the FDR is frustrated and the party who has failed to produce a proposal may be at risk on costs.
Preparation for final hearing
The procedure at final hearing is set out in FPR 2010 .
FPR 2010, PD 27A which incorporates the Practice Direction: Family Proceedings : Court Bundles (Universal practice to be applied in all courts other that the family proceedings court, sets out in detail the material that should be prepared for the court. Its provisions are being enforced with greater vigour, with failure to comply resulting in costs penalties.
Action upon reaching agreement prior to final hearing
If agreement is reached prior to final hearing:
a consent order should be drawn up, and
the order should be submitted to the court together with a joint letter by both sets of solicitors and an application made (within that letter, rather than formally) to vacate the final hearing
Evidential issues for final hearing
At final hearing it is likely that each party’s position will be tested in oral evidence. Practitioners should ensure that their clients are fully apprised of the position and language adopted in Form E/E1 and other written evidence.
Two key directions setting out the pre-application protocol for applications for ancillary relief and the procedure in relation to the contents and filing of court bundles are set out in FPR 2010, PD 9A and PD 27A respectively.
To find out more about PSL Contact us or call 0207 400 2984 | <urn:uuid:5aca0f80-aa92-4929-97e3-81b19b843a14> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lexisweb.co.uk/sub-topics/practice-and-procedure | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930174 | 1,326 | 1.523438 | 2 |
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Which brings us to the final argument against a PCI Express -> AGP bridge, namely upstream performance (say it with me - real-time HTDV video editing). Here, the AGP bus can only offer a memory bandwidth of 266 MB/s, at least when using PCI Writes. However, when AGP Writes are used, the bus has the full memory bandwidth at its disposal, meaning 2.1 GB/s at AGP 8x and a full 4.2 GB/s in the case of NVIDIA's internal 16x AGP link. This changes nothing about the major disadvantage compared to PCI Express, namely that an upstream eats into the memory bandwidth available to the downstream. Additionally, there is no such thing as guaranteed bandwidth on the AGP bus, which can become a problem when using data streams such as video data (ta-dah!). For cases like this, the AGP 3.0 specification offers what's called the isochronous operation mode.
The question remains as to how well AGP writes function in practice - think compatibility here. Not all chipsets available in the market today support AGP writes. In that case, NVIDIA's HSI bridge would switch down to the slow PCI writes.
The long and short of it is that using an AGP graphics chip with an HSI bridge should have no negative impact on 3D games. Upstreams from the card to the system memory can also utilize the full bandwidth, thanks to AGP writes. Even if PCI writes are used for compatibility reasons, the system could still transfer an uncompressed HDTV stream in 1080i (240 MB/s) over such a solution. The HSI bridge would only run into trouble if there were simultaneous upstreams and downstreams competing for memory bandwidth. Seen from a realistic perspective, applications that would require such a scenario are exceedingly rare. With the exception of the real-time HDTV editing mentioned above, nothing really comes to mind.
Does that make "real" PCI Express devices unnecessary? Not really, since software will begin to take advantage of the higher memory bandwidth offered by the new system bus in the long run. It's a case of "If you build it, they will come!" For example, engineers are already working on a way to harness the concentrated floating-point power of modern graphics chips for other applications, effectively using the graphics chip as a co-processor. In such a scenario, the ability to read and write over the bus simultaneously would be of paramount importance to prevent delays. | <urn:uuid:e3e54c5e-a38c-42b0-ae1a-144b682fa81d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/future-promise-graphics,769-10.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938587 | 527 | 1.96875 | 2 |
"After Hiroshima And Nagasaki, There Was Fallujah."
By William Blum
07 April, 2010
Fatima Ahmed was born in Fallujah with deformities that include two heads
When did it begin, all this "We take your [call/problem/question] very seriously"? With answering-machine hell? As you wait endlessly, the company or government agency assures you that they take seriously whatever reason you're calling. What a kind and thoughtful world we live in.
The BBC reported last month that doctors in the Iraqi city of Fallujah are reporting a high level of birth defects, with some blaming weapons used by the United States during its fierce onslaughts of 2004 and subsequently, which left much of the city in ruins. "It was like an earthquake," a local engineer who was running for a national assembly seat told the Washington Post in 2005. "After Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there was Fallujah." Now, the level of heart defects among newborn babies is said to be 13 times higher than in Europe.
The BBC correspondent also saw children in the city who were suffering from paralysis or brain damage, and a photograph of one baby who was born with three heads. He added that he heard many times that officials in Fallujah had warned women that they should not have children. One doctor in the city had compared data about birth defects from before 2003 — when she saw about one case every two months — with the situation now, when she saw cases every day. "I've seen footage of babies born with an eye in the middle of the forehead, the nose on the forehead," she said.
A spokesman for the US military, Michael Kilpatrick, said it always took public health concerns "very seriously", but that "No studies to date have indicated environmental issues resulting in specific health issues." 1
One could fill many large volumes with the details of the environmental and human horrors the United States has brought to Fallujah and other parts of Iraq during seven years of using white phosphorous shells, depleted uranium, napalm, cluster bombs, neutron bombs, laser weapons, weapons using directed energy, weapons using high-powered microwave technology, and other marvelous inventions in the Pentagon's science-fiction arsenal ... the list of abominations and grotesque ways of dying is long, the wanton cruelty of American policy shocking. In November 2004, the US military targeted a Fallujah hospital "because the American military believed that it was the source of rumors about heavy casualties." 2 That's on a par with the classic line from the equally glorious American war in Vietnam: "We had to destroy the city to save it."
How can the world deal with such inhumane behavior? (And the above of course scarcely scratches the surface of the US international record.) For this the International Criminal Court (ICC) was founded in Rome in 1998 (entering into force July 1, 2002) under the aegis of the United Nations. The Court was established in The Hague, Netherlands to investigate and indict individuals, not states, for "The crime of genocide; Crimes against humanity; War crimes; or The crime of aggression." (Article 5 of the Rome Statute) From the very beginning, the United States was opposed to joining the ICC, and has never ratified it, because of the alleged danger of the Court using its powers to "frivolously" indict Americans.
So concerned about indictments were the American powers-that-be that the US went around the world using threats and bribes against countries to induce them to sign agreements pledging not to transfer to the Court US nationals accused of committing war crimes abroad. Just over 100 governments so far have succumbed to the pressure and signed an agreement. In 2002, Congress, under the Bush administration, passed the "American Service Members Protection Act", which called for "all means necessary and appropriate to bring about the release of any US or allied personnel being detained or imprisoned by ... the International Criminal Court." In the Netherlands it's widely and derisively known as the "Invasion of The Hague Act". 3 The law is still on the books.
Though American officials have often spoken of "frivolous" indictments — politically motivated prosecutions against US soldiers, civilian military contractors, and former officials — it's safe to say that what really worries them are "serious" indictments based on actual events. But they needn't worry. The mystique of "America the Virtuous" is apparently alive and well at the International Criminal Court, as it is, still, in most international organizations; indeed, amongst most people of the world. The ICC, in its first few years, under Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, an Argentine, dismissed many hundreds of petitions accusing the United States of war crimes, including 240 concerning the war in Iraq. The cases were turned down for lack of evidence, lack of jurisdiction, or because of the United States' ability to conduct its own investigations and trials. The fact that the US never actually used this ability was apparently not particularly significant to the Court. "Lack of jurisdiction" refers to the fact that the United States has not ratified the accord. On the face of it, this does seem rather odd. Can nations commit war crimes with impunity as long as they don't become part of a treaty banning war crimes? Hmmm. The possibilities are endless. A congressional study released in August, 2006 concluded that the ICC's chief prosecutor demonstrated "a reluctance to launch an investigation against the United States" based on allegations regarding its conduct in Iraq. 4 Sic transit gloria International Criminal Court.
As to the crime of aggression, the Court's statute specifies that the Court "shall exercise jurisdiction over the crime of aggression once a provision is adopted ... defining the crime and setting out the conditions under which the Court shall exercise jurisdiction with respect to this crime." In short, the crime of aggression is exempted from the Court's jurisdiction until "aggression" is defined. Writer Diana Johnstone has observed: "This is a specious argument since aggression has been quite clearly defined by U.N. General Assembly Resolution 3314 in 1974, which declared that: 'Aggression is the use of armed force by a State against the sovereignty, territorial integrity or political independence of another State', and listed seven specific examples," including:
The invasion or attack by the armed forces of a State of the territory of another State, or any military occupation, however temporary, resulting from such invasion or attack, or any annexation by the use of force of the territory of another State or part thereof; and
Bombardment by the armed forces of a State against the territory of another State or the use of any weapons by a State against the territory of another State.
The UN resolution also stated that: "No consideration of whatever nature, whether political, economic, military or otherwise, may serve as a justification for aggression."
The real reason that aggression remains outside the jurisdiction of the ICC is that the United States, which played a strong role in elaborating the Statute before refusing to ratify it, was adamantly opposed to its inclusion. It is not hard to see why. It may be noted that instances of "aggression", which are clearly factual, are much easier to identify than instances of "genocide", whose definition relies on assumptions of intention. 5
There will be a conference of the ICC in May, in Kampala, Uganda, in which the question of specifically defining "aggression" will be discussed. The United States is concerned about this discussion. Here is Stephen J. Rapp, US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues, speaking to the ICC member nations (111 have ratified thus far) in The Hague last November 19:
I would be remiss not to share with you my country's concerns about an issue pending before this body to which we attach particular importance: the definition of the crime of aggression, which is to be addressed at the Review Conference in Kampala next year. The United States has well-known views on the crime of aggression, which reflect the specific role and responsibilities entrusted to the Security Council by the UN Charter in responding to aggression or its threat, as well as concerns about the way the draft definition itself has been framed. Our view has been and remains that, should the Rome Statute be amended to include a defined crime of aggression, jurisdiction should follow a Security Council determination that aggression has occurred.
Do you all understand what Mr. Rapp is saying? That the United Nations Security Council should be the body that determines whether aggression has occurred. The same body in which the United States has the power of veto. To prevent the adoption of a definition of aggression that might stigmatize American foreign policy is likely the key reason the US will be attending the upcoming conference.
Nonetheless, the fact that the United States will be attending the conference may well be pointed out by some as another example of how the Obama administration foreign policy is an improvement over that of the Bush administration. But as with almost all such examples, it's a propaganda illusion. Like the cover of Newsweek magazine of March 8, written in very large type: "Victory at last: The emergence of a democratic Iraq". Even before the current Iraqi electoral farce — with winning candidates arrested or fleeing 6— this headline should have made one think of the interminable jokes Americans made during the Cold War about Pravda and Izvestia.
The forbidden "P" word
"Back now at 8:11 with one of our favorite families, the Duggars. Parents Jim Bob and Michelle became the proud parents of their 19th child back in December. This morning we have an exclusive first look at their daughter, Josie Brooklyn. She was born three and a half months premature, but we are happy to report both mom and baby are doing well." — Meredith Vieira, "The Today Show,", NBC, January 28, 2010
Wow, ain't that just real neat! Their 19th child! Wow, and mom and baby are doing so well!
Wow, the Duggars and their children were featured on a TV reality show called "19 Kids & Counting." Wow, just a newborn and already on a reality show! Pass me some more pizza.
Wow, if it was up to me, I would have had mom and/or Jim Bob sterilized after their third child. Wow. Or maybe after their second. Just tie their damn tubes or something!
"D.C. area's population is still blooming: Data shows brisk growth 163,000 gain in 2 years" — This is the Washington Post (March 24) exulting over the fact that the District of Columbia has undergone a sharp increase in population in recent years. Wow, the more the better for the city, right? We all love big crowds and jammed trains and waiting a long time for everything, don't we? In their online version of the same story, the Post headline was: "Washington area population rises faster than other regions". Wow, even better than I thought. We're winning the population contest! Is there a Super Bowl we can be invited to? Is everyone crazy?
Wow, people, we're suffocating in people, we're drowning in people. So much of importance, so much that we value and take pleasure in, is being choked to death by too many people. But no politician dares touch upon this. Rarely does the mainstream media do so. In fact, rarely does the alternative media do so. Population growth is a driving force behind carbon dioxide-emission increases, but it wasn't on the agenda at the international environment conference in Copenhagen last December or at any of the climate talks since then. It appears to be an idea that can not be entertained in polite society.
Imagine there were 25 million fewer cars on American roads. Imagine the effect on travel time, on air pollution, on accidents, on road rage, on finding a parking space. Imagine what we could build on the huge amount of space now devoted to parking lots.
There is overwhelming evidence that the UN's Millennium Development Goals will not be achieved if population growth is not curbed. These goals include eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality, combating HIV/AIDS, and ensuring environmental sustainability. A lot of the work of NGOs and other activists all over the world is nullified by population increases.
Many Marxists insist that there's no pressing need to control population if we just change the economic system — eliminate private ownership of the means of production, get rid of the profit motive, curtail all the unnecessary economic "growth", revise our economic priorities so as to run society on a rational, humane basis. Enough food is already produced in the world, they say, to cover the needs of everyone; it's the distribution of the food that's the problem. There's a lot to what they say, but I think the many serious problems caused by overpopulation — from food and water and transportation to housing, soil erosion, sanitation and much more will continue to plague the world as long as we continue inexorably toward a world of billions more vulnerable beings. ALL ELSE BEING EQUAL, imagine the quality of life in the United States with 100 million fewer people. Imagine Chinese society with an additional 400 million people. This is what the Chinese government estimates is what the result would be today if its one-child policy had not been adopted in the 1970s. 7
So I'm advocating a one- or a two-child per family maximum. This law would not be retroactive.
But I'm not advocating support of US foreign policy, even though it does its share of population control by killing people on a regular basis, currently at war against five countries.
All of you who are activists in any way, I urge you to not be afraid to mention the "P" word. Be inspired by Britain's Prince Philip who once said: "If I were reincarnated, I would wish to be returned to Earth as a killer virus to lower human population levels." 8
One final point. Everyone knows of the unspeakable sadness of losing a child. Do parents ever get over it? But when did you see this kind of grief over the loss of an embryo or fetus? Who mourns a fetus in the same personal way and to the same degree? That's why I have no hesitation in fully supporting abortion on demand. Abortion on demand will be an important part of population control in my brave new world.
My apartment is running out of space. Would anyone like some FBI files I received under the Freedom of Information Act?
Liberation News Service (the Associated Press of the left), late 1960s, early 1970s, about 800 pages.
Prairie Fire Organizing Committee, mid-1970s, about 1,000 pages. From their website:
"In 1974, the Weather Underground Organization published a book entitled 'Prairie Fire: The Politics of Revolutionary Anti-Imperialism.' Discussion groups sprang up around the country to discuss the book. In response, Prairie Fire formed in cities across the U.S."
BBC, March 4, 2010; Washington Post, December 3, 2005 ↩
New York Times, November 8, 2004 ↩
Christian Science Monitor, February 13, 2009 ↩
Washington Post, November 7, 2006 ↩
Diana Johnstone, Counterpunch, January 27/28, 2007 ↩
Washington Post, April 2, 2010 ↩
Associated Press, March 2, 2008 ↩
The Sunday Telegraph (Sydney, Australia), August 10, 2003 ↩
William Blum is the author of:
Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War 2
Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower
West-Bloc Dissident: A Cold War Memoir
Freeing the World to Death: Essays on the American Empire
Portions of the books can be read, and signed copies purchased, at www.killinghope.org
Previous Anti-Empire Reports can be read at this website | <urn:uuid:3db5d980-f57b-47fd-af7e-91cd05e7c3a4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.countercurrents.org/blum070410.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965045 | 3,278 | 1.703125 | 2 |
|G.Y. Rasputin was an obscure Siberian monk with great ambitions and a charismatic and hypnotic talent. He made his way to St. Petersburg in 1904, where he quickly gathered a large following with his “cures”. Empress Alexandra, desperate to heal her son’s hemophilia, had him brought to court. His treatment was evidently miraculous and the Empress was under his spell from that time until his murder twelve years later. He was seen by many as the cause of the imperial collapse. | <urn:uuid:50c4ba7e-c80f-4b35-9f52-8f1ffb18e0a2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.galleryhistoricalfigures.com/figuredetail.php?abvrname=GregRasputin | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.994441 | 107 | 2.125 | 2 |
The Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium had to euthanize an elderly Sumatran tiger Tuesday morning, according to the Tacoma News Tribune.
Bali, 14 1/2, had been treated for lymphoma and kidney disease for more than two years. The average lifespan of a Sumatran tiger is 10 to 12 years.
Bali is survived by mate Jaya, with whom he fathered two cubs, Bima and Mali.
Point Defiance now has four Sumatran tigers, Jaya, Malosi, Bima, and 3-month-old Dumai, as well as a 3-month-old Malayan tiger named Berani. | <urn:uuid:4c5acb29-0381-4abc-9467-b4e1205ee2ee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.king5.com/news/cities/tacoma/Elderly-Sumatran-tiger-euthanized-at-Point-Defiance-181179411.html?ref=prev | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969672 | 138 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Back in 2000, inspired by a desire to help those in need, Megan and Dennis Doyle of Minneapolis decided they wanted to do more than just volunteer or write a check. Instead, they took $30,000 of their own money and started a nonprofit called Hope for the City. The organization collects corporate overstock and distributes it to nonprofits in the Twin Cities, nationwide, and internationally to 26 developing countries. Today the nonprofit has a $900,000 operating budget and a 25,000-sq.-ft. warehouse to store the donated items and has distributed nearly $380 million of in-kind merchandise since its inception. "This makes us feel like we're a part of something a lot bigger than just the two of us," says Dennis, 54, who is CEO of a local commercial real estate firm.
The Doyles are not alone in their desire to give back. There are more than 1 million 501(c)(3) charities like theirs, up nearly 70% from the 614,000 that existed a decade ago, according to Tom Pollak, program director with the National Center for Charitable Statistics at the Urban Institute. Organizations dedicated to education, disaster relief, job development, the environment and AIDS are among today's "hot causes," says Phyllis McGrath, president of Philanthropy Management, a Fairfield, Conn., consulting firm that works with nonprofits nationwide.
Fueling this growth are several factors: baby boomers with a social-entrepreneurship mind-set and added time in their lives to give back to their communities, such tragic events as Sept. 11 and Hurricane Katrina, and greater numbers of wealthy individuals with the funds to launch their own nonprofits. But starting a nonprofit is a Herculean effort, requiring patience and determination.
It can take at least six months to a year and as much as 30 to 40 hours a week to get an organization off the ground, McGrath says. Hiring an attorney experienced with nonprofits to handle statewide and federal applications is key. The 501(c)(3) designation comes from the IRS, and nonprofits are expected to provide the government with such information as a mission statement, an idea of who will be assisted and by what methods, anticipated budget and board of directors, says Andrew Grumet, a lawyer representing nonprofits with the Manhattan firm Herrick, Feinstein, LLP. Accountants familiar with nonprofits can advise on how much of an investment can be made without affecting personal wealth. But even with the best of intentions, nonprofits have a high failure rate: only one-third survive beyond five years, says Stan Madden, director of the Center for Nonprofit Studies at the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.
The best approach is to start with a business plan. Research other organizations in the field to make sure there is no other group addressing the same cause. Consult with other charities to determine that there are constituents who can really use your services. As McGrath notes, "Consider a realistic and doable niche that your organization can uniquely fill."
That is just what Beth Shaw, 41, did. The owner of a $4 million company that trains yoga fitness instructors worldwide, Shaw used her knowledge of the market to launch Visionary Women in Fitness, which provides scholarships to underprivileged women so they can train to become instructors. With a budget of just $30,000, the nonprofit, based in Hermosa Beach, Calif., is able to help 15 to 20 women a year learn a skill that can get them an entry-level job.
"I have two homes and a successful business, and so many young women out there have nothing," says Shaw, who has donated $50,000 of her own money since she launched the charity in June 2004. "This was the time in my life to step up and start giving back."
Next Carving a Niche | <urn:uuid:531fde70-b0fe-457e-a62a-204ade308e81> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1717144_1717137_1716992,00.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966901 | 788 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Bugbee: A Teacher, Mentor And Soldier
03/23/11 7:50AM By Sylvia Bugbee Download MP3
(BUGBEE) Lieutenant Colonel Betty Bandel, born in Washington, D.C. in 1912, moved with her family to Tucson, Arizona in 1918. She graduated from the University of Arizona in 1933. Her first career - of three - was as a newspaper reporter and women's page editor for the Arizona Daily Star from 1935 to '42.
In the summer of 1942, as the United States was gearing up for war, the call went out to American women to support the war effort by joining the newly-formed Women's Auxiliary Army Corps. As Bandel later recalls, a fellow reporter came into the newsroom and said: "'Bandel, they're creating a women's army.' 'Who is?' I said. And she said, 'the United States.' And I said, 'Well, let's join.' So we walked down the street and did.'" When asked why, Bandel replied, "That's a funny question. What else would there have been for an unmarried woman except to be in the service one way or another? Everybody was in something. And so you naturally went in." Bandel would become the second-ranking officer in the Women's Army Corps during World War II, and head of the WAC Division of the Army Air Forces in 1943.
Betty joined the first female Officer Candidate School at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, in July of 1942. After graduating second in her class, she was commissioned a 1st Lieutenant, attained the rank of Captain late in 1942, and was promoted to Major in 1943. The Director of the WAC, Colonel Oveta Culp Hobby, chose Betty as her aide in Washington, where she became one of the primary designers of WAAC planning and policy. She accompanied Hobby to England with Eleanor Roosevelt in 1942, and in 1944 to Europe and North and West Africa. She was the first woman to attain the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Bandel's service ended in March 1946, and she was awarded the Legion of Merit. After the war, she joined the Department of English faculty at the University of Vermont in 1947, and remained there until her retirement in 1975. She was a renowned teacher and mentor to many undergraduates, some of whom followed her example and joined the armed forces.
Throughout her service in the WAC, letters home to her family revealed zest for, and amusement about, military life; and intense dedication to helping win the war. They also followed her development from awestruck recruit to a confident, mature woman, aware of her own worth and her contribution to the war effort. In a moving testimonial to her commitment, she writes in a 1943 letter that "...all I really care about, at this moment, is making the Corps to help the army to help the country win the war - and if Colonel Hobby tells me they need me most playing "Reveille" on the bugle at Fort Des Moines, I'll go, with never a second thought." | <urn:uuid:ca5f780d-17dd-4711-b519-f7ba47cef10f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.vpr.net/episode/50773/bugbee-teacher-mentor-soldier/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981248 | 632 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Thirteen genomic regions appear to influence the age at onset of menopause, according to a genetic study. These regions contain genes involved in DNA repair and immune responses, processes not previously linked to menopause.
The researchers - a large international team of collaborators - hope these findings will help to explain why some women experience menopause early, as well as providing insights into the genetic basis of menopause-related disorders, such as cardiovascular disease and breast cancer.
'Menopause is a process most women go through, yet we know very little about what governs the timing of this key event in a woman's life', said Dr Anna Murray, one of the senior researchers from the University of Exeter, UK. 'By finding out which genes control the timing of menopause we hope to be able understand why this happens very early to some women, reducing their chances of having children naturally'.
Menopause defines the period in which reproductive function in the ovaries ends, and occurs naturally in most women during their 50s. It is marked by a massive change in the regulation of certain hormones and most previous studies have focused on genes related to this process, in particular those involved in oestrogen regulation.
This study, published in Nature Genetics, looked at the genomes of 50,000 women of European descent who had experienced menopause between the ages of 40 and 60. In addition to confirming four previously identified genomic regions, 13 novel ones were identified that appear to influence the timing of menopause in these women. The location of DNA repair and immune response genes within these regions suggests, for the first time, the involvement of other biological processes in the onset of menopause.
Professor Kathryn Lunetta, one of the lead researchers from Boston University, USA, said: 'We hope that as a better understanding of the biological effects of these menopause-related [genomic regions] are uncovered, we will gain new insights into the connections between menopause and cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, osteoporosis and other traits related to ageing, and that this will provide avenues for prevention and treatment of these conditions'.
A similar large-scale study is underway in African-American women to determine whether the genetic risk factors are the same as those identified in women of European descent. | <urn:uuid:91d8424c-197f-4547-be5b-29ad991d3ac3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bionews.org.uk/page_120609.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955703 | 467 | 2.671875 | 3 |
If Washington’s defense community has achieved one thing over the past year, it’s spreading the message of how the fiscal cliff could desecrate the military. Sequestration cuts of $55 billion would jeopardize weapons contracts, furlough civilian staff, and imperil national security, defense hawks say.
One glaring casualty has gotten far less notice: the military’s $37 billion health account. In designing the trigger mechanism, members of Congress were careful to make sure that the men and women in uniform wouldn’t suffer because of the cuts—but not careful enough. Now, without a compromise on Capitol Hill during the lame-duck session, the deal the committee crafted would cause a rollback in health benefits for active-duty troops, veterans, and their families.
When lawmakers wrote the Budget Control Act (which set up the fiscal cliff), they gave President Obama the option, which he has already exercised, to exempt military-personnel accounts and the Veterans Affairs budget. Many observers believe, falsely, that these groups are safe: That exemption covers only troops’ paychecks, not their health benefits, which fall under another part of the Pentagon budget.
About 9 million active-duty soldiers, retirees, and families are enrolled in the military’s health care system, known as Tricare. While other massive federal health programs are largely shielded from the effects of sequestration—Medicare is limited to a 2 percent cut and Medicaid is completely exempted—discretionary spending for military health programs such as Tricare could see a 9.4 percent reduction in 2013 if the automatic cuts take effect. (The military’s Tricare for Life program, which covers Medicare co-pays and premiums for retirees over 65, is protected.)
Defense health accountants have never tried to absorb steep cuts on short notice. Steve Strobridge, director of government relations for the Military Officers Association of America, says that the cuts could rattle the entire Tricare system, from hospitals to doctors to drug coverage. “It could affect anything from mowing the lawn, to not having the formulary cover as many medications, to cutting physicians so it takes longer to get an appointment, to actually reducing what Tricare pays,” he says.
The Tricare cuts are an obvious political grenade: No one in Congress or the administration wants to be seen as breaking faith with the troops because of budget gridlock. Policymakers may try to snatch Tricare’s sequestered $3.3 billion from other defense accounts so they don’t have to face stories about active-duty troops and their family members getting cut off from lifesaving drugs. But it wouldn’t be easy to find that money when every account has been slashed by nearly 10 percent.
Pentagon Comptroller Robert Hale told the House Armed Services Committee in late September that it would be “very difficult, frankly,” to save the defense health account. “We can only do it through reprogramming, and you’ve got to find something to cut. And as I’ve learned painfully over the last four years, that’s very hard to do.” Instead, the military would probably be unable to pay its Tricare bills until the end of fiscal 2013, Hale said. “I’m not quite sure what our providers would do in that case.… We’d try to fix it in ’14.”
Todd Harrison of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments describes another unpleasant possibility: Health care providers could ration care. “You could have some sort of triage system where you say, ‘If this is something that can wait, a low priority, we’re not going to see you,’ and focus care on some of the highest-priority patients,” Harrison says. To fix the problem, Congress could amend the Budget Control Act to let Obama exempt defense health care, too. In that case, though, other defense accounts (which the sequester will already cut by 9.4 percent) would face a much steeper reduction than the 8.2 percent falloff in nondefense spending.
Still, even this option carries significant political risks. As the clock ticks down to the new year’s deadline, Obama is not likely to want to discuss how best to gouge other defense accounts further. And at every turn, the administration has insisted it will not plan for the looming cuts, rebuffing the GOP’s effort to make the White House spell out how it might mitigate the damage of sequestration. The White House says that members of Congress should spend their time and energy reaching a deficit deal so the cuts don’t take effect, instead of hashing out details in case of failure. Opening up last-minute heated political negotiations—even to something all sides would presumably want—could also start congressional turf wars over, say, what weapons systems in what districts might be slashed or delayed.
So Congress is unlikely to revisit the sequestration rules before the deadline. In other words, those deficit hawks worried about desecrating the military were closer to the mark than they knew.
This article appeared in print as "Collateral Damage."
This article appears in the Nov. 17, 2012, edition of National Journal. | <urn:uuid:0747ad33-8f84-4658-bcf8-13231e6d80eb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nationaljournal.com/magazine/think-our-troops-are-safe-from-sequestration-they-aren-t-20121115?mrefid=mostViewed | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957553 | 1,105 | 1.703125 | 2 |
This article was written entirely by hand in the margins of a book I’ve been trying to review for the last few months. The book is entitled Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future, by Robert B. Reich, former Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton. Remember those days? Probably not.
Currently he is Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at Cal Berkeley. My guess is that he is not well-known among architects—his books are comprised of dense fields of text and the only images are graphs and charts with numbers. Given the current challenges the profession is facing, I thought now would be an appropriate time to introduce him. Actually, it’s a pity his ideas—which by the way are not merely his alone—are circulating now when they could have been instrumental in preventing the current recession.
More after the break.
The reason it’s been so difficult to write a review is because every time I read a couple sentences I find myself getting so infuriated that I have to slam the book shut and go for a run. Not because he is wrong, but because I know he is right and the paradigms he narrates seem so obvious when presented on the page. The other night, one paragraph was enough to make me an insomniac. So, I have been absorbing this book one small piece at a time and it has been having a cumulative impact.
This article is not meant to be the final diagnosis of architecture’s problems. It is more a test to see if the particular conditions Reich describes apply to the business and culture of architecture. It is, in some ways, the book review I have been trying to write, but it is an indirect review as told through the specifics of the architectural sector. This sector, which is still trying to pull itself up after being knocked down, also happens to be intimately connected to the causes of the current recession. The culture of architecture, for its own internal logic, unwittingly exemplifies the economic and social divides that made our economy vulnerable to recession in the first place.
Architecture’s Concentration of Wealth
If more architects had better business models they would be able to pay their employees better. As it is now, architecture as an industry mirrors the economic and social divides that characterize the broader economy. The architecture industry is one of the clearest examples of the macro-economic division of capital that concentrates wealth at the top 5%.
The remaining 95% of the “workers” are fighting for scraps at the bottom with fewer and fewer in the comfortable, more stable middle range. In fact, according to Reich, the middle class does not really exist in a viable way anymore so it is more that the majority of workers are struggling to maintain the fantasy of the middle class.
Architecture’s Culture of Sacrifice
Architecture is notoriously exploitative of its workers. It relies on a culture, largely bred in school, of sacrifice (read: long hours and precarious job security) and suffering (read: low pay) for a lofty, noble cause: Architecture as culture’s highest calling and art form. In other words, suffering and sacrifice are compensated by the abstraction of supposed cultural superiority.
That’s just the way it is, as you have been told time and time again by the veterans who endured similar privation and penury when they were young. You, as the architectural worker, are asked to sacrifice your life, to receive low pay and possibly no benefits.
Once, a high-paid principal of a global firm advised me to try to live at all times as if I were receiving half of what my salary actually was. This well-meaning elder’s point was that I should be extremely frugal and save as much as possible to offset the economics of the profession always be prepared for future recessions. In other words, I should merely accept these conditions as givens and adjust as best I can. This may be sensible from his standpoint, but had I followed his advice I would not have been able to afford supporting myself, let alone my family.
This is another one of Reich’s points: when the majority of workers cannot afford to participate in the economy as stable consumers, the economy becomes unstable and vulnerable to the downward spiral of recession.
Architecture Wages Remain Flat
For the majority of workers in the architecture profession, wages have remained flat in relation to steady increases in the consumer price index and the cost of living. While many firms have gotten larger, more powerful, and their principles have become wealthier through mergers, acquisitions, and market expansion, workers have seen their financial potential and long-term security drop significantly over the long-term.
As Reich noted, for the average American, wages have been stagnant for thirty years. As he stated in a recent Huffington Post article:
“Today’s typical 30-year-old male (if he has a job) is earning the same as a 30-year-old male earned three decades ago, adjusted for inflation. (Although women are doing better than they did 30 years ago, their wages still trail men’s).
The bottom 90 percent of Americans now earn, on average, only about $280 more per year than they did thirty years ago. That’s less than a 1 percent gain over more than a third of a century. Families are doing somewhat better but that’s only because so many families now have to rely on two incomes.
But wait. The American economy is more than twice as large now as it was thirty years ago. So where did the money go? To the top. The richest 1 percent’s share of national GDP has doubled — from around 9 percent in 1977 to over 20 percent now. The richest one-tenth of 1 percent’s share has tripled. The 150,000 households that comprise the top one-tenth of one percent now earn as much as the bottom 120 million put together” (March 2, 2011).
Now, in the midst of recent history’s worst recession—yes, we are still in a recession—layoffs continue and the ones who remain are worked twice as hard to make up for a continuously shrinking labor pool. And for the favor of not being axed, those who remain in their Knoll chairs are expected to sacrifice even more than before.
Those fortunate enough to be hired in the recession are getting paid up to 30% less than before and find themselves having to be grateful to be in even more financially vulnerable circumstances while expectations for work hours increase exponentially. Even before the recession, workers were expected to put in long, free, hours of overtime. After all, you are taught from school onwards that working for free is a natural part of the learning curve. In fact, architecture is the only profession I can think of that has actually institutionalized free labor.
Meanwhile, principals and executives at large firms continue to draw large paychecks with no sacrifice. These few at the top keep everything for themselves while trying to convince those below that their sacrifices will pay off someday. The general thinking is that the pay-off can come once you open your own firm.
This is one reason there are so many firms cluttering the landscape: people occupying the lower levels feel compelled to break out on their own to reposition themselves as principals of their own firms. In order to do this, however, they must exploit other workers as “interns” because they cannot yet afford to pay a living wage (or any wage, for that matter). And so the cycle continues and more and more firms flood the market with more and more working class employees.
Architecture needs a re-boot and perhaps the recession is a good opportunity for that. Architecture must move beyond the project-shop mentality and evolve using viable, practical business knowledge. This is the only way to secure the long-term health of the profession as well as the position of high design. In other words, high design can thrive only when protected by an economics of value and fiscal sustainability.
Without developing new approaches to architecture as a business, architecture as a profession will continue to erode. It will reach a point where younger generations will not be able to sustain themselves in the profession. The sacrifices will simply be too daunting and unreasonable—if they aren’t already.
The Architectural Worker’s Union
Isn’t it interesting that there isn’t a union for architectural workers? Why not? Because we see ourselves not as workers but as designers, as creative, artistic, cultured, educated individuals who are beyond the petty concerns of the mere working class. If we look at the numbers, however, it becomes clear that the majority of these cultured, educated designers are in fact the working class. They are part of the new working class that was once the middle class. As Reich asserts, the middle class doesn’t really exist in real terms as it once did.
The business you are in treats you like a worker. You are viewed as such. You probably have an employee number. Your tax forms and pay slips look and behave the same as other workers. You receive wages or a salary and you are taxed. Your project manager looks at your numbers alongside the project budget, counting every click of your mouse and noting every time you glance at Facebook. You are part of a spreadsheet. S/he wants you to be more effective and faster. Most importantly, s/he wants you to be cheap.
You’ve probably noticed by now that besides there being extreme economic divides in offices there is also a status or class divide. There are a handful of licensed architects and legions of workers, Arch I’s, Arch II’s, Arch III’s, whatever a firm chooses to call them—Designers, Project Designers. Of course, if it was easy to get licensed then there wouldn’t be the same pool of cheap and free labor for offices who don’t want to pay too much.
The logic works the other way, too. If an office has more licensed people, or at least higher paid people, the better it can serve the public. They can also charge more for their services by showing clients they have valued professionals working on their projects. How much do you charge per hour? What are your hourly rates for different orders of problem solving? It’s worth paying more for professionals, right?
But this goes to another problem. Architects are prisoners of those who control most of the capital in the current economy. According to Reich this would be the top 1-5%. When all the wealth is concentrated at the top, the demand for architecture decreases because there are fewer potential clients. The wealthy actually consume less and hang on to most of their money—it does not circulate in the economy to create more demand.
The majority 95-99% of the population is in such a weakened state that they cannot mobilize enough resources to launch new architecture projects. What would happen if the economy were less lop-sided and the middle to low majority were in stronger positions? There would be more clients for architects, for one. But when the architectural profession is exploited by society, then the profession exploits its own members. This is part of the capitalist system. The profession, then, has to become stronger so that forces of competition do not grind it down and keep it down.
Is it good to have a demoralized, exploited workforce? Is it good to have an office that is extremely vulnerable to shifts in the economy? Is it desirable to be trapped in a cycle of dependence on specialized projects? Wouldn’t it be better if the architecture business were able to pay all of its workers salaries that lifted them out of debt and social vulnerability, salaries on par with their education? Wouldn’t it be good if firm leaders were trained not just in architecture but in business and economics? Wouldn’t it be nice if architecture, an industry so vital to community and culture, were able to economically perform on a par with its true value to society, on a par with other professions like medicine and law? It’s great that architects think so highly of themselves, see themselves as so superior and knowledgeable. Yet it would be good if the rest of society agreed with this assessment. Another way of putting this: if architects could be paid equivalent to how they regard their actual worth, they would all be millionaires. Or if not, at least they would be able to live comfortably.
Now that I have identified some of the problems, what are the solutions? For this you have to wait until next week where I will introduce some of the thinking by three of the profession’s top strategists and advisors. In Part 2, I will introduce you to the minds of Nancy Egan, Marjanne Pearson, and Paul Nakazawa. If you run a firm, or are fortunate enough to be working for one these days, you will want to know these names.
See. I’m not just making this stuff up. I’m actually talking to people who know more than I do. Firm leaders would do well to do the same in times like these.
The Indicator, a weekly column focusing on the culture, business and economics of architecture, is written by Guy Horton. The opinions expressed in The Indicator are Guy Horton’s alone and do not represent those of ArchDaily and it’s affiliates. Based in Los Angeles, he is a frequent contributor to Architectural Record, The Architect’s Newspaper and other publications. He also writes on architecture for The Huffington Post. Follow Guy on Twitter. | <urn:uuid:ad6b0232-fee3-44d5-920f-b7fe94ced364> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.archdaily.com/116844/the-indicator-the-next-architecture-part-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971205 | 2,807 | 1.664063 | 2 |
"This afternoon, I interviewed Tom Armitage. He’s a software designer who recently came to our attention because of a talk he gave recently, called "If Gamers Ran the World." In it, he puts forth the idea that in another 10 years, leaders who are the same age as Barack Obama or British Conservative Party leader David Cameron are now, will be children of the 1970s, and as such, more than likely the first leaders who grew up with video games as a core part of their way of interact with the world around them. What would that mean for how they would behave as leaders? A shorter version of this interview airs on the Jan 7th and 10th episode of Spark" — http://www.cbc.ca/spark/blog/2009/01/full_interview_tom_armitage.html
Also huffduffed as…
The Future of Gaming December 31, 2010
Video Games are seeping into nearly every part of our lives, and game designers are trying to seize the opportunity to imbue these games with newfound meaning and purpose. Brooke talks to game designers and futurists about where games are going and how they are shaping the future of collaboration.
Click HERE for the full version of Jane McGonigal’s Ted Talk Click HERE for the full version of Jesse Schell’s DICE talk.
Gamification: why shouldn’t life be a game? - Future Tense - ABC Radio National (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
There are lots of examples of how games and a sense of play can engage people. But as the barriers between the gaming world and the real world break down, does that mean we can use more aspects of gaming in our everyday lives? The idea of gamification—using game mechanics to make changes in the real world—is growing. But is it possible to turn everything into a game?
Robert Ashley wonders why he spends his free time playing videogames, asks random people on the street about it, talks to a researcher whose work attempts to harness the brain power wasted on gaming, gets to know an eccentric, forward-thinking game designer who lives sustainably with his family of four on $14,000 a year, and gets a first-hand account of what it’s like to work on terrible games (and what it’s like to get terrible reviews) from an anonymous game developer. | <urn:uuid:18558a3b-6ffc-4c5e-be12-3454383f16bc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://huffduffer.com/Preoccupations/1779 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962024 | 496 | 2.390625 | 2 |
North West England
Cities and towns
North West England has many major towns and cities. For others, see county listing.
- Blackburn (Lancashire)
- Carlisle (Cumbria)
- Chester (Cheshire)
- Lancaster (Lancashire)
- Liverpool (Merseyside)
- Manchester (Greater Manchester)
- Preston (Lancashire)
- Salford (Greater Manchester)
- Blackpool (Lancashire)
- Bolton (Greater Manchester)
- Formby (Merseyside)
- Runcorn (Cheshire)
- St Helens (Merseyside)
- Warrington (Cheshire)
- Widnes (Cheshire)
- Wigan (Greater Manchester)
The North West is an area of varied landscapes ranging from beaches to lakes and forests to cities. It consists of the counties of Lancashire, Cumbria and Cheshire as well as Greater Manchester and Merseyside. The area consisting of Manchester, Liverpool and Warrington is primarily an urban conurbation. Lancashire and Cumbria are primarily rural with a few large town and cities, and Cheshire is mainly flat agricultural land.
The North West shows a wide diversity in people and dialect: the most common dialects in the region are Scouse (from Liverpool), Lancastrian, Mancunian (also known as Manc) and the Cumberland dialect (Cumbria). There is also North West English, which is a combination of the above mainly spoken outside the accent areas. Most visitors will be hard-pressed to notice significant differences between the dialects but there are many to the trained ear. The people are generally friendly and do welcome tourists.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, the main industry in the North West was textiles, and there is still evidence of this (especially in South Lancashire), but today the textile industry has all but disappeared from the region, giving way for the chemical industry (especially in Cheshire and Merseyside), and defence (especially around Barrow-in-Furness). Many big national and international retailers are headquartered in the region.
Nine times out of ten, the regional weather is mild and overcast, with frequent heavy outbreaks of rain. Temperatures on some summer days can reach the mid 20s Celsius. The best advice is to wear layers (it's very rare to see a North Westerner without a jacket on).
Most international flights to the region arrive into Manchester (approx 9 miles from Manchester city centre), where most of the regions key tourist destinations can be reached from the airport railway station, with Manchester Piccadilly about 15 minutes away by train.
There are also low cost intra-European flights availiable from Liverpool (approx 7.5 miles from Liverpool city centre) and Blackpool (about 3 miles from Blackpool town centre).
The North West can be reached from other regions as follows
- North East - A1 then M62
- Yorkshire - M62
- Midlands - M6
- London and South East - M1 then M6
- Scotland - M74 then M6
- South West - M5 then M6
- South Wales - M48, then M5, then M6
- North Wales - A55
National Express and Megabus operate long distance coach services to the North West.
The rail backbone of the region is the West Coast Main Line connecting London to Glasgow via the North West, these trains are operated by Virgin Trains. The hub of all other long distance trains is Manchester Piccadilly, from where you can connect to regional trains (either directly or via Manchester Victoria).
Liverpool while not as well connected as Manchester still gets direct rail links from London, Birmingham, East Anglia and the North East.
Other cities with long distance rail links include Warrington, Chester, Wigan, Preston and Carlisle.
The North West is a small area and is easy to get around by car. It takes around three hours to travel from North to South and about two hours to travel East to West. There is a dense network of motorways and dual carriageway roads. However certain parts of the area are very densley populated, so traffic congestion is a common occurrance, especially between 7am and 9am and 4pm and 6pm. Also, as with everywhere else, the motorway frequently undergoes works, and accidents are an almost daily occurrance, so motorway can suffer congestion at any time.
Bus services are useful in rural areas where trains do not run, and for short journeys. They are cheap especially if "day tickets" are bought which allow travel all day in an area. There is also a place for buses within the major cities, as buses are fairly frequent. Bus travel can be slow owing to frequent stops and traffic congestion. Long distance coach services are infrequent in the North West apart from on the Liverpool-Manchester-Leeds route.
The North West benefits from a good network of commuter and rural trains, most trains within the region are operated by [www.northernrail.org Northern Rail]. While trains are not as quick as those seen in Europe, they are normally quicker than travelling by car, and some lines are quite scenic (especially outside urban areas). If you intend on travelling around the region, then a North West Rail Ranger offering unlimited travel within the region (costing either £54.00 for four days travel in any eight or £66.00 for a week) is worthwhile.
The North West is home to wide varied range of foods. If in the North try Cumberland Sauasage, Cumberland being a former county which is now part of Cumbria, or Lamb from the Lake District. The coastal regions are a source of great fish and cockles and muscles which can be easily bought from a local chippy or at source in the fishing ports of Morecambe and Heysham.
The North West is also home to Lancashire and Cheshire Cheese, both have a crumbly feel and mild flavour both of which can hold their own against other 'superior' cheeses.
If however you prefer something more filling then there is always Fish and Chips avialiable in all towns in the North West, which can be had with Curry Sauce or Mushy Peas. But then there is Lancashire Hot Pot a dish of sliced onions and potatoes etc...
But if you prefer something sweeter then there is only one answer. Blackpool Rock, or Kendal Mint Cake, or Eccles Cakes, or Bakewell Tart from Manchester, or Chorley Cakes.
This page was last edited at 15:23, on 21 March 2009 by Anonymous user(s) of Wikitravel. Based on work by Peter Fitzgerald, Clifford Mace, Jim Nicholson, Daniel Meadows, Wandering and Mark, Wikitravel user(s) Huttite, Exile and Episteme, Anonymous user(s) of Wikitravel and others. | <urn:uuid:b59eed2b-1289-45c9-b7ea-bd4d0d50e66c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://traveltips24.com/North_West_England.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939525 | 1,459 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Alan Balutis | Technology's advance is only speeding up
- By Alan Balutis
- Dec 06, 2007
A colleague has prepared a (very) brief history of human innovation ' tracing the past two centuries from the telegraph to genome mapping ' and noted that all has happened in less than 0.2 percent of human existence.
These last 40 years ' from the beginnings of the Internet through today ' make up even less time. And all this will be dwarfed in the next few years by a technology avalanche, with explosive growth in the four pillars of technology: storage, bandwidth, computing and information.
Over the last 25 years, I would point to Joseph Wright, former deputy director of management at the Office of Management and Budget and the driver of President Reagan's Reform '88 initiative, as a prophet before his time. If one can find the elusive documentation from that era, it's incredible to see how much under way now in terms of e-government initiatives, lines of business, infrastructure and systems consolidations, and the like had their roots in Wright's directives.
But the technology then had nowhere near the capability to enable such changes as exist today.
In our larger tech community, we just celebrated the 50th anniversary of the founding of Fairchild Semiconductor ' arguably the first tech start-up and the precursor to Intel. One of its eight founders was Gordon Moore, author of Moore's Law, a formula he came up with in the 1960s to predict how computer chips would double in capacity every year or two. His name and his law are intimately linked with everything that is amazing today about technology.
Finally, these last 25 years have marked a period of management reforms almost unrivaled in our nation's history. Two stand out: the Government Performance and Results Act and the Inspector General Act.
The first set the tone for all that followed in terms of focusing on outcomes and metrics. The second created a cadre of overseers and second- guessers who, if you believe their semiannual reports, have produced savings and cost avoidances that annually exceed the federal budget and ' if real ' would reduce the federal debt to close to zero. Worse, of late, we have seen dire consequences for those who dare to even question the worth, the work or the style of those who fill IG slots.Alan Balutis is a distinguished fellow and director of North American Public Sector Consulting for Cisco Systems' Internet Business Solutions Group. He is a former IT official at the Commerce and Health and Human Services departments and a founding member of the CIO Council. | <urn:uuid:f9adf437-f522-4c27-817e-d3d6bf269a71> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gcn.com/Articles/2007/12/06/Alan-Balutis--Technologys-advance-is-only-speeding-up.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959276 | 526 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Nintendo sure are paving a new way for the so called ‘self improvement games.’ We had the likes of Brain Academy which claimed to increase your brain power. Then we had the number of cooking games released which of course, teached you how to cook. Now Nintendo have released Art Academy which teaches users how to draw. Art’s a funny thing. You either have it or you don’t. Can Art Academy turn art novices into people that can draw a respectable looking piece of art?
On opening the game you’re greeted by some pleasant music that would probably be suited to Zelda’s Kakiro Village or your own village in games such as Animal Crossing. You’re mentor for the game is a bearded and predicatably artistic looking man known as Vince (an ode to Van Gough?)
You’re taken through the game in a series of tutorials starting from the very basics such as outlining to the more complicated concepts. It’s a good way of taking you through as it doesn’t rush you and teaches you just as a real art teacher probably would. It could have done with better pacing perhaps as it goes on through certain concepts a little longer than desired. I found that my drawings were never as good as the in game teachers however and whilst this is expected and normal, the game could have done with a bit of an error correction system. There were times when I wasn’t quite sure whether I was doing something correctly or not. I actually continued without doing what the game had asked and it still praised me for drawing ‘correctly.’
Responsively, the DS stylus acts just like a real art tool would. You’re presented with a variety of pencils ranging from HB to 2B and a choice of different brushes. The game is pressure sensitive and the harder you push down, the more bolder the overall result will be. It’s a nice realistic touch.
The game also gives you a large variety of colours from its pallete. You’re bound to find pretty much any colour you want. Rather than selecting them however, you’re made to mix them yourself and whilst this is probably implemented to promote an awareness of the colour pallete, some might find this method a little bit too inconvenient.
The menu’s and in game icons are nicely positioned. You’ll never find that they’ll get in your way when painting and they’ll dissapear when not needed.
Once you’ve finished the short tutorial section, you can go into the free paint option where you’re given a selection of pictures to try out your new found skills with although some might get bored quickly. Art afficionado’s might not find this game very useful as it teaches concepts that they probably already know.
Overall, Art Academy is another nice addition to Nintendo’s series of self help games. It’s nicely presented and the sound is pleasant. It is let down however by its quick tutorial mode and replayability that doesn’t do much to keep you playing the game.
+ Very pleasing presentation and sound
+Definately improves artistic ability
- Feels like a beginners only game and not for established artists
- You don’t know if you’re going wrong or not. | <urn:uuid:6e17a94d-1d2b-4534-bc24-494fccff7124> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wiids.co.uk/category/reviews/ds-reviews/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973604 | 697 | 1.601563 | 2 |
The time you’ll most likely see an earthquake is soon after another earthquake, even if it occurred hundreds of miles away, according to several studies. Now a paper in the 8 July PRL quantifies this idea by showing that the stronger an earthquake, the sooner there will be another one. A Spanish researcher uncovered this relationship by studying seismic data using mathematical tools from the physics of solids that were inspired by quantum theory. The paper concerns the statistical properties of earthquakes, so it does not provide a magic formula to predict where and when a quake will occur.
Combing through global seismic data, theorists have discovered in recent years that earthquakes tend to come in clusters–large numbers of events close in time–and that they follow a “self-similarity,” or “fractal,” principle: A cluster is most likely to occur soon after another cluster; a cluster of clusters after another cluster of clusters, and so on. If you plot thousands of events worldwide as dots on a timeline, the clustering that shows up on a year’s worth of data looks very similar to a decade’s worth of data where the dots represent clusters. The similarity extends to the century scale, if you again replace clusters with single dots. This is a bit like comparing the coastline of Africa with that of a tiny island–often the “roughness” of the coastline is similar, regardless of the scale of the map.
Álvaro Corral of the Autonomous University of Barcelona looked at seismic data in analogy with another case of self-similarity in nature, the critical magnetization of a metal. A metal becomes magnetic when clusters of atoms feel one another’s magnetic forces and align their magnetic moments in the same direction, like a collection of tiny arrows all adding up to one big arrow. If you heat them up, the arrows jiggle more and more, and at very high temperatures, they all point in random directions.
But at an intermediate, “Curie” temperature, they can still feel one another’s magnetism and form aligned clusters, although each cluster points in a random direction. At this special temperature, there are clusters and “superclusters” of all sizes. The configuration looks the same if you “zoom in” to the atomic scale or “zoom out” to the macroscopic scale. This self-similarity allows researchers to use a mathematical tool orignally from quantum theory called the renormalization group, the mathematical representation of the “zoom” operations.
Corral realized that the same tool could be applied to seismic data. Researchers knew that after a major quake, earthquakes are more likely in a wider region than that affected by aftershocks, but no one had quantified the relationship. Corral used renormalization to look at data from many time scales all at once. His model predicts that the stronger an earthquake, the sooner the next one will occur. He believes that a future, more complex model could show that the whole recent history matters, not just the last event.
However, he says, his model suggests no correlation with the likely magnitude of the next earthquake. “Earthquakes know when they will happen, but they don’t know what magnitude they are going to be,” he says. This notion contradicts the commonly held belief that a large earthquake today means a long wait before the next large earthquake.
Norman Sleep of Stanford University in California says the paper is a useful step in understanding earthquakes. The fact that earthquakes come in clusters has a physical explanation, he says: “A large earthquake can trigger another large earthquake on a nearby fault where the static stress increased.” | <urn:uuid:d79518ea-2aaa-4e3d-93a1-7008001d2aaa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://physics.aps.org/story/v16/st2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94437 | 769 | 3.8125 | 4 |
By Dr. Jim Pease, Emeritus
Extension Wildlife Specialist (ISU - Retired)
The prairie vole (Microtus orchrogaster) is that small brown blur that slips beneath your feet as you take a walk on your prairie during the growing season. They come from the Muridae, the largest family of mammals in the world: the family of over 1,100 species of mice, rats, voles, lemmings, hamsters, and gerbils. The genus, Microtus, means “small ear” and the species, orchrogaster, means “yellow belly”. So, this critter is a small-eared brown rodent with a buff colored underside! In fact, the ears are rounded and somewhat hidden in the longish dark brown fur. Small eyes, a short tail (usually only about 1-1.75 inches in length), and short legs combine to create a compact animal well-adapted to life low on the prairie.
Found in the central grasslands of North America, the prairie vole ranges from the prairie provinces of Canada south to Oklahoma, and from the eastern slopes of the Rockies east to the edge of the eastern deciduous forest. That places Iowa wholly within its range. However, of the 50+ specimens in our collection at ISU, none were from north central or northeastern counties in the state. It may be that early mammal collectors didn’t trap there. It is more likely, though, that the prairie vole is a creature of xeric prairies, few of which are found in those areas of the state.
The prairie vole and its cousin, the meadow vole (Microtus pennsylvanicus) are both “semi-fossorial”—that means they dig shallow tunnel systems in the top1-3 inches of sod. While those grass tunnels in your lawn that appear just after the snow melts are more likely the work of meadow voles, prairie voles also line their well-maintained runways with vegetation they clip with their sharp incisor teeth. Strict vegetarians, they may eat their own weight daily in grasses, sedges, leaves, seeds, nuts, bulbs, tubers, and twigs and store them in shallow underground “pantries” for later use.
A vole’s life is busy, short, and has a strong family component. Unlike many rodent species, the prairie vole seems to form strong pair bonds, with both parents participating in the raising of the young (usually 3-4 in a litter) and in maintaining the enlarged nest area, burrow, and runway system. Though not considered a colonial species, they may form small colonies of several family groups in one area, probably reflecting abundant food supplies. They do not wander far: home ranges may be as small as .1 acre in tallgrass prairie regions or up to about .3-.5 acres in the drier, shortgrass prairie areas of their range. Females are sexually mature at about 1 month of age and can, if food is not limiting, have a litter about every 3 weeks. Because they are active year round and can have litters at any time there is sufficient food, they are prone to population “spikes” and “crashes” on somewhat regular intervals. Densities have been published of 2-4 voles/acre in sparse, western prairies to well over 100/acre in dry tallgrass prairies.
Few voles, however, reach the ripe old age of one year. Mortality rates are high as they serve as an important food source for many predators. Skunks, foxes, coyotes, weasels, raccoons, bobcats, hawks, owls, and snakes all use voles as a primary food source. Shorttailed shrews often invite themselves for dinner through the tunnel system and dine on the resident voles themselves! Good thing, though: with a litter of 3-4 (up to 7) every 3 weeks or so and sexual maturity at one month, it’s easy to see how a vole population could rapidly get out of hand without predators to harvest some of the growth!
In Iowa, prairie voles are listed as “statewide” but are restricted to drier sites. Not a prairie purist, they have adapted to other dry grassland sites across the state, including railroad right-of-ways, cemeteries, pastures, and some lawns. Their cousin, the meadow vole, tends to prefer more mesic to wet grassland sites and is also statewide, has a slightly longer tail, and doesn’t have the adult prairie vole’s “yellow” belly. Neither is a household pest, restricting their living to outdoor areas only.
As you walk your prairies and other grassland areas this summer, be on the lookout for that dark brown blur below you feet. Bend down and peer into the quarter-sized tunnel system of the prairie vole! | <urn:uuid:2fdd7ccc-1b85-411b-bb4f-ef1a62f3b126> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.extension.iastate.edu/wildlife/CommonQuestions/PrairieVole.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953666 | 1,069 | 3.421875 | 3 |
Is there visual evidence of a woman speaking on a cell phone back in 1928? This is a question that has caused some controversy in recent months, and it’s about time somebody looked into it, with sober determination to get at the truth. I’m pleased to report that my investigation advances the effort to resolve this matter once and for all. Not only am I going to offer a second example of a time traveler caught on film, I’m going to identify both of them and explain what they are doing.
Regular readers have come to expect some serious journalism from me once in a while. This is where a waiting world learned of the 1972 zombie invasion of Hollywood. Here the public finally received confirmation that the twin towers were moved to New York from West LA, where they were originally built. I also published compelling evidence that UFO’s are responsible for San Diego having the nation’s best weather. You don’t have to thank me; I consider it part of my duty as a citizen.
Here is a single frame from the famous video from the 1928 opening of Charlie Chaplin’s 1928 movie “The Circus.” Folks have been debating whether or not this woman is speaking into a cell phone. Obviously this is ridiculous, since there were no cell towers in Hollywood in 1928. The truth? She’s speaking into a satellite telephone! We all know that UFO’s have been a fact of life for centuries. Satellite telephone technology has been in use among select human beings since at least the time of Ancient Egypt.
I am prepared to suggest an answer to what is really going on here. To begin with, let’s get one thing straight: this is not an isolated incident. For the first time anywhere, let me be the one to connect some very important dots for all of you. Our second example of time travel caught on film comes to us from Canada, in1940. This isn’t some video off of YouTube, either – it’s a photograph from the Bralorne Pioneer Museum in British Columbia, Canada.
OK, now take a look at the above image. Can you identify the time traveler? It’s worth noting that this photograph had been available for years as part of an exhibit “Their Past Lives Here” before anybody noticed the conspicuous guy from the future.
Who are these people? Why have they chosen to go back in time? It’s quite simple, really. A couple of intrepid, determined radio artists are doing everything they can to bring their listeners pristine examples of ancient recorded music! They go back in time to collect old discs and cylinders to bring back to the present for the entertainment of their listening audience. Let’s take a closer look at each image:
A careful look at the 1928 image strongly suggests that our first time traveler is not a woman at all! Scroll back up and take a look at the full image. Look at how big “her” feet are! It seems pretty obvious to me that, for whatever reason, Andy Senior felt the need to dress as a woman while talking on his satellite phone in Hollywood, back in 1928. He must have had his reasons. Maybe he felt the need to try to avoid being too conspicuous, which is more than we can say for the second time traveler, isn’t it?
Radiola is a weekly, two-hour podcast that features jazz and pop music from the 20′s and 30′s. Most, but not all of the music featured on this tremendous program comes from the “electrical era.” The sound quality of the recordings Andy presents is spectacular. It’s pretty obvious that he’s playing pristine copies of records he bought in Hollywood during trips back to the 1920′s and 1930′s, isn’t it? Incidentally, the Radiola shows offer subtle evidence that frequent time travel might be harmful to one’s health. That might explain how “Wake Up, Chill’un,” by Willard Robison and the Ipana Troubadours, was chosen as the show’s theme song.
The Antique Phonograph Music Program, on WFMU, is presented by Michael Cumella. In the color photo, Mac is explaining the fine points of acoustic recording without electricity to Nipper (the RCA Victor dog).
Mac clearly isn’t afraid of publicity, as proven by the nice article about his show from the Wall Street Journal.
The Antique Phonograph Music Program specializes in acoustic-era records and cylinders, played on original equipment. This is another brilliant program, where music from 100 years ago comes to life as if it had been recorded a few weeks ago – because, in fact, that’s how old some of the recordings really are!
It’s evident that Mac was caught on camera when he was visiting Canada to join the crowd at the famous cylinder record liquidation sale that was held in British Columbia in 1940. Once again, it’s not hard for a trained listener with a good ear to be able to tell that, although the recordings played on the Antique Phonograph Music Program are authentic, neither the cylinders, the discs, nor the record and cylinder players Mac uses are very old at all. On occasion Mac brings his son on to co-host the show. Rumor has it that, technically, Mac is younger than his son, the consequence of a birth control accident in a time machine. If true, this would be only the second documented case. (The first was Zaphod Beebrebrox.)
As one who appreciates the lively timelessness of good old recordings, here is one of my favorite spoken word pieces by Eddie Cantor, recorded at the very end of 1929. | <urn:uuid:a2445ed4-7d12-4108-9b38-21fb19abc7db> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://scottpearce.com/2011/02/19/time-travel-is-real/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967981 | 1,203 | 2.0625 | 2 |
■ The Birth of the Modern: World Society 1815-1830, by Paul Johnson: This 1992 book was included last year on the Kindle’s coming soon list, but it ultimately never made it into electronic format. It’s too bad; I’ve enjoyed the book in dead tree format, and would love to go back and luxuriate in it once again in electronic format. As Commentary noted in their review at the time of the book’s original publication:
Paul Johnson boldly argues in this vast and vastly rich book, “the matrix of the modern world was largely formed” in the years between the battles of Waterloo and New Orleans in 1815 and the overthrow of the restored French monarchy in 1830. According to Johnson,
modernity was conceived in the 1780′s. But the actual birth, delayed by the long, destructive gestation period formed by the Napoleonic wars, could begin in full measure only when peace came and the immense new resources in finance, management, science, and technology which were now available could be put to constructive purposes.
By then, thanks to steam power, the world’s first passenger railway (Manchester-Liverpool) was running, and nine daily newspapers were being published in London. The same new technology had spawned gunboat diplomacy after the shallow-draft steamer Diana penetrated 500 miles up the Irrawaddy River in 1825 to chase a fierce fleet of oar-driven Burmese imperial praus until their thousands of oarsmen were exhausted and the praus were sunk at leisure by the Diana’s guns, proving to one eyewitness that “the muscles and sinews of men could not hold out against the perseverance of the boiling kettle.”
■ Fatherland, by Robert Harris: The birth of the modern world in the early to mid-19th century gave man many blessings, but it also created the technology — and more importantly, the totalitarian worldview and the concept of “Start From Zero” — that unleashed newfound horrors a century later, as seen in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. But how similar where these two ideologies?
In Robert Harris’s best-selling alternative history book, first published in 1992, it’s 1964, Nazi Germany won World War II by getting to the atom bomb first, and a stalemate — a Cold War, if you will — exists between America and Germany. President Joseph P. Kennedy, who won the White House due to the appeasement with the Nazis he preached during World War II, is scheduled to fly into Germany to begin discussions leading to détente between America and an Evil Empire. Sound eerily familiar? As Orrin Judd wrote in a perceptive review of Harris’s book, Fatherland is a brilliant metaphor for the Cold War:
A nuclear balance of terror surely would have kept America from invading Europe and, after a suitable period of huffy pretense, there surely would have been a significant segment of public opinion, particularly in academic intellectual circles, advocating detente–just as has actually happened with both the USSR and Red China. And just as the Holocaust failed to draw the U. S. into WWII in the first place, and just as the millions of victims of Russian and Chinese communist oppression failed to deter rapproachments with those countries, it’s easy to believe that the “disappearance” of Europe’s Jews would have little impact on an American/German détente.
The story is engrossing enough on its own, but these speculations, and the subtle way in which they implicate the past sixty years of Western history, turn the book into a disturbing and subversive novel of ideas. Conservative historians–like Robert Conquest, Richard Pipes and Allan Bullock–have beaten their heads against a wall for years, demonstrating to an uncaring elite establishment how little the Soviet Union, Stalin and Communism differed from Nazi Germany, Hitler and Nazism. But this popular thriller makes the same points, and reveals the moral emptiness of our policy of détente, in a wonderfully imaginative way. What more can we ask of an author than that he entertain us and at the same time raise questions that trouble our souls?
Apparently, Fatherland was included in the early books rushed into Kindle format, and is still available on the Amazon UK site for British Kindle owners, but isn’t currently available in the States. Is it a case of Amazon or the publisher losing the electronic format licensing rights? Otherwise, what on earth is stopping Amazon from rectifying this?
■ Conversations with Tom Wolfe, Compiled and edited by Dorothy Scura: Think of this as the real-life Cliff’s Notes to Paddy Chayefsky’s 1976 film Network. Long before Wolfe became a best-selling novelist, he was first a working journalist, and then a master of long-form non-fiction. This collection of interviews, spanning Wolfe’s career from the 1960s through the publication of 1987’s Bonfire of the Vanities, is an excellent look at how mass media — the “overculture,” as James Lileks would say — functioned at the height of its power. (In the meantime, however, Wolfe’s 1982 anthology, The Purple Decades, is available on Kindle, and an excellent, cost-effective electronic compilation of the best of his original non-fiction.) | <urn:uuid:d0605da0-9898-409d-8f64-3c04330f3401> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2013/01/26/great-books-missing-in-kindle-format/2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952811 | 1,118 | 1.945313 | 2 |
- It should make us happy, but environmentalists are deeply
alarmed: Prozac, the anti-depression drug, is being taken in such large
quantities that it can now be found in Britain's drinking water.
- Environmentalists are calling for an urgent investigation
into the revelations, describing the build-up of the antidepressant as
'hidden mass medication'. The Environment Agency has revealed that Prozac
is building up both in river systems and groundwater used for drinking
- The government's chief environment watchdog recently
held a series of meetings with the pharmaceutical industry to discuss any
repercussions for human health or the ecosystem.
- The discovery raises fresh fears that GPs are overprescribing
Prozac, Britain's antidepressant of choice. In the decade up to 2001, overall
prescriptions of antidepressants rose from nine million to 24 million a
- A recent report by the Environment Agency concluded Prozac
could be potentially toxic in the water table and said the drug was a 'potential
- However, the precise quantity of Prozac in the nation's
water supplies remains unknown. The government's Drinking Water Inspectorate
(DWI) said Prozac was likely to be found in a considerably 'watered down'
form that was unlikely to pose a health risk.
- Dr Andy Croxford, the Environment's Agency's policy manager
for pesticides, told The Observer: 'We need to determine the effects of
this low-level, almost continuous discharge.'
- Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat's environment spokesman,
said the revelations exposed a failing by the government on an important
public health issue. He added that the public should be told if they were
inadvertently taking drugs like Prozac.
- 'This looks like a case of hidden mass medication upon
the unsuspecting public,' Baker said. 'It is alarming that there is no
monitoring of levels of Prozac and other pharmacy residues in our drinking
- Experts say that Prozac finds its way into rivers and
water systems from treated sewage water. Some believe the drugs could affect
their reproductive ability.
- European studies have also expressed disquiet over the
impact of pharmaceuticals building up in the environment, warning that
an effect on wildlife and human health 'cannot be excluded'.
- 'It is extremely unlikely that there is a risk, as such
drugs are excreted in very low concentrations,' a DWI spokesman said. 'Advanced
treatment processes installed for pesticide removal are effective in removing
drug residues,' he added.
- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
From Mary Sparrowdancer
- Once again, despite the concerns raised here, the "F"
word has been carefully omitted from the report and study.
- Prozac is a fluorinated pharmaceutical. It is a fluoride
compound. Among other things, fluoride is also known to be a thyroid toxin.
- When the thyroid is not functioning properly, one of
the symptoms can be depression.
- Someone has created a monster. We need to wake up and
recognize it - while we can still see and think.
- Mary Sparrowdancer | <urn:uuid:d1c036df-6961-4929-897c-0b82f7367ec0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rense.com/general56/hiddenmassmedication.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921175 | 653 | 2.640625 | 3 |
If you think being a gay Republican is a tough dichotomy to reconcile, try being a gay Muslim. In concept, the idea of being gay in a Muslim culture is terrifying. In reality, it could be much worse.
According to doctrine in the Muslim community, homosexuality is an act punishable by death. It's a non-negotiable that makes the religious right's mantra of ''hate the sin, not the sinner'' seem open-minded and generous. And as director Parvez Sharma shows in his documentary, A Jihad for Love, it's not a matter of whether to kill the homosexual, but how to kill the homosexual.
A Jihad for Love
Sharma examines what life is like for Muslims who try to reconcile their life as gay men or lesbians while still maintaining their faith. A gay Muslim himself, Sharma traveled to 12 countries and filmed in nine languages to get his footage. Perhaps more striking than any of the shots or stories captured is the sheer number of faces he must blur on screen. Even men living relatively open lives in Turkey are too afraid to be shown for fear that their families will be harmed back in Iran.
Yet for all the weight and importance of the subject, Sharma fails to truly capture his subject matter in a compelling manner. Having only the most cursory knowledge of the intersection of Islam and homosexuality before the film, I still felt like I gained little. The humanization of the issue fails because the people profiled never truly transcend their identifiers -- the lesbians, the Egyptian, the activist, and so on.
Because of this, most of the profiles are repetitive and mundane. Since many of the profiles are so short and many of the faces blurred, it's hard to connect with the person behind the story. The first man introduced is Muhsin Hendricks, an imam (or Islamic leader) in South Africa, the only one featured who could rightfully be called an activist. Hendricks is willing to debate on the radio, engage social workers in discussions about homosexuality, and put himself at risk for harsh retribution. As demonstrated by callers into a radio program, he's making enemies fast. And the reality is with him every day, chillingly captured when his young daughter says that if he is stoned to death she hopes the first rock kills him so he doesn't suffer long.
Next Sharma introduces Mazen, one of the Cairo 52 who were arrested in 2001 in Egypt and publicly tried for being gay. After a year in prison where he was attacked, beaten and raped, Mazen escaped to Paris where he now lives in exile. Mazen's tale, an update on such a well-known international story, brings an added sense of perspective to the film. Unfortunately, after this promising start, the stories begin to blur. Rather than build upon themselves and piece together as a whole, Sharma's subjects repeat the same points again and again.
Sharma does provide diversity in presenting in his stories: the lesbian couple living together in Turkey, the four gay men who escaped from Iran and are seeking asylum, the lesbian in a long-distance relationship who struggles every day with her religion and her desires. But they are little more than vignettes making the same points.
The most basic hand-held camera techniques are used to capture most of the footage, which include frequent close-ups on the people who are willing to show their faces and blurred images of the others. During these interviews, voice-overs to scenery shots are overused, including the popular ''landscape out a car window'' filler.
Only two stories are revisited by the end of the film, which creates a small level of connectivity to the documentary, but by then it's too late. Even watching two of the Iranians enter Canada and realize they're free after years of feeling hunted is limited in its cathartic release. Intellectually, it's a wonderful moment, but emotionally, it's as flat as the film it's captured on.
It's easy to want A Jihad for Love to be a great film that opens a world desperate for light. It's just hard to feel that anything is captured that couldn't have been done through a letter from the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission asking for money. As Imam Hendricks says, a jihad is a struggle. While Sharma struggles to capture his subjects with limited success, it's still a struggle that should be applauded for the effort. | <urn:uuid:f80b6e7c-33fa-4f94-9141-60863c07b6cd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.metroweekly.com/arts_entertainment/film.php?ak=3742 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966344 | 892 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Screen Time and Attention Difficulties
Researchers in Psychology at Iowa State University recently completed a study involving school-age and college-age participants in Iowa.
Their goal: To determine how the amount of screen time affects children’s attention skills in school.
As mentioned earlier in this blog, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no more than two hours of screen time each day for middle and high school children, and even less for younger children. The ISU study found that the average television and video gaming time was 4.26 hours per day. This is well above the recommended amount, but still below the national average.
When observing the classroom behaviors of these children, the researchers found that children who exceeded the recommended two hours of screen time per day were 1.5 to 2 times more likely to be above average in attention problems. Although many other factors contribute to attention difficulties, the investigators of this study feel that screen time may be a contributing factor for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children.
Although they don’t know exactly why increased screen time is associated with increased attention problems, researchers speculate that it could be due to the fast-paced, attention grabbing effects of television shows. Today, television shows change screens every one to two seconds, and include many more lights, camera and sound changes, and special effects than in the past. Children who get used to this action packed, attention-grabbing entertainment may have more difficulty concentrating in a classroom that doesn’t have all these special effects.
So, what can you do to limit your child’s tv time? Click here to find out more. | <urn:uuid:c04d9a77-d9e2-49d6-a45c-45cf7bcd1e93> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.extension.iastate.edu/scienceofparenting/2010/07/20/screen-time-and-attention-difficulties/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95545 | 334 | 3.328125 | 3 |
Sorry, no definitions found.
“Andreaes beeing there, one of them layde downe divers instruments of Iron which he had brought thither on his backe, and had much talke with his fellow concerning those Engines.”
“In such unequall choyses, Parents commonly are more blamewoorthy, then any imputation, to bee layde on the young Women, who gladdely would enjoy such as in heart they have elected: but that their Parents, looking through the glasse of greedie lucre, doe overthrow both their owne hopes, and the faire fortunes of their children together.”
“Well, where finding a verie great stone, which lay loose upon the brim of the Well, even as if it had beene layde there on purpose, shee cried out aloud, saying.”
“Fatinolo, and not Theobaldo, whom the two Brethren Inne-keepers maliced, about some idle suspition conceived, and having slaine him, layde his body at the doore of Aldobrandino, where by reason of Theobaldoes absence, it was generally reputed to be hee, and”
“This dumbe signe the Watch discerned not, but sitting downe by the Welles side, they layde downe their Billes and other weapons, tugging to draw up the rope, thinking the Bucket was fastened thereto, and full of water.”
“Ricciardo: which she hearing, and perfectly knowing him by his voyce; shee would have leapt out of the Bath, but shee could not, and to avoyde her crying out, he layde his hand on her mouth, saying.”
“These merry Laddes meant not to leave him so; but sitting one day in serious consultation, and a third man in their companie, named Nello; they all three layde their braines in steep, by what means to wash their mouths well, and Calandrino to bee at the cost thereof.”
“And when they came unto the place which God shewed him Abraham made an aulter there and dressed the wodd and bownde Isaac his sonne and layde him on the aulter above apon the wodd.”
“And Abraham toke the wodd of the sacrifyce and layde it upon Isaac his sonne and toke fyre in his hande and a knyfe.”
“They are brought vpon raftes made of goates skinnes blowne full of winde and bordes layde vpon them: and thereupon they lade their goods which are brought downe to Babylon, which being discharged they open their skinnes and carry them backe by Camels, to serue another time.”
‘layde’ hasn't been added to any lists yet.
Looking for tweets for layde. | <urn:uuid:85d87381-19e6-47d3-a5da-06958f87073e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wordnik.com/words/layde | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974842 | 642 | 2.78125 | 3 |
Badger cull campaigners lose Court of Appeal bid
BADGERS will be culled after campaigners lost their bid to stop the slaughter.
A challenge to the culls which will kill thousands of the animals reached the Court of Appeal yesterday.
But the Badger Trust failed to convince judges there that the proposals needed to be thrown out.
Afterwards, Patricia Hayden, vice-chairman of the Trust, said: "We are very disappointed. We don't know what the next step is, but we will not give up."
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The Trust was appealing against Mr Justice Ouseley's decision in July to uphold government plans for two pilot culls to tackle tuberculosis in cattle, one of which is in west Gloucestershire. It said killing badgers will make no meaningful contribution to tackling the disease and claimed the controversial scheme could lead to 10 culls each year with the prospect of 40,000 animals being "pointlessly killed" over the next four years.
Lord Justice Laws, Lord Justice Rimer and Lord Justice Sullivan heard the licences allowing the culls to start later this autumn would be issued under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992, which consolidated provisions from, among other things, the 1973 Badgers Act.
The issue was whether issuing licences for culling was within the 1992 Act powers, and consistent with the purpose for which Parliament, in 1973, gave the power to issue licences to kill badgers.
The Trust's case was that it was "plainly not" but the three judges unanimously rejected the appeal.
After the July ruling, which was welcomed by the the National Farmers Union, a spokesman for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said: "No one wants to cull badgers but last year bovine TB led to the slaughter of over 26,000 cattle, and to help eradicate the disease it needs to be tackled in badgers."
Cost of the cattle losses was estimated at £91million. | <urn:uuid:313eb389-3246-4bc9-a332-acfc9c4dd28e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/Badger-cull-campaigners-lose-Court-Appeal-bid/story-16880403-detail/story.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963069 | 533 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Rethinking the Way We Tax Charities and Those Who Give to Them
It is that time of year when we celebrate with family, remember all we have to be thankful for, and scramble to squeeze out those last few dollars of tax deductible charitable gifts. And that got me thinking about the tax treatment of charities and other non-profits.
It is surely true that we give for more than just the tax write-off. But that deduction is worth big money. In 2008, roughly 40 million taxpayers gave more than $170 billion in charitable donations, according to my Tax Policy Center colleague Joe Rosenberg. About $35 billion or more than 20 percent were non-cash gifts–nearly half in the form of stocks and other investments. And more than 90 percent of that stock came from those making more than $200,000.
The tax treatment of non-profits themselves is generous and complicated. And it is useful to keep in mind that the non-profit sector includes a wide range of organizations. Religious institutions, soup kitchens, symphony orchestras, universities, foundations, trade associations, and think tanks (including TPC’s parent organizations The Brookings Institution and The Urban Institute) are all organized under Section 501(c) of the Internal Revenue Code.
So are some secretive shell organizations that raise and contribute cash on behalf of political candidates and such commercial enterprises as the United States Olympic Committee, the NCAA and, yes, even the National Football League–which reported $8 billion in revenues in 2009.
While many of these non-profits may not accept tax deductible gifts, they still enjoy other tax benefits. They are exempt from federal, state, and local income taxes and in some cases from property and sales taxes. In Boston, for example, non-profit educational and medical institutions were exempt from paying an estimated $390 million in property taxes in 2011. This accounted for one-quarter of Beantown’s total property tax and more than 16 percent of its entire budget, according to Daphne Kenyon and Adam Langley.
Organizing as a non-profit has other advantages as well. For instance, while these entities must report some financial information, their Form 990 disclosures are far less informative than what public companies must report to their shareholders. This has proven to be especially valuable for a new class of campaign finance fronts that operate as non-profit affiliates of Super PACs such as the Republican-oriented Crossroads USA and the Democrat-oriented Priorities USA.
In an environment of severe budget constraint and at a time when policymakers are considering both budget and tax reform, is it time to rethink the role of charities and other non-profits?
Do we want to continue to grant special tax treatment to what are obviously commercial enterprises? Should the Tax Code be used as a tool to hide the names of mega-givers to political candidates or the activities of lobbyists?
Is the tax deduction, which disproportionately benefits high-income givers, the right approach? What about a tax credit or a cap on deductions—an idea that is getting new attention as an element of tax reform.
As government’s role as a social safety net shrinks, the role of non-profits will only grow. Yet, these organizations face their own severe financial problems. The challenge will be to find a way to continue to encourage people to support charities but in a way that is both fair and provides the biggest bang for the fiscal buck. | <urn:uuid:85992a72-90c4-48f8-adcc-e1eff48f8683> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://taxvox.taxpolicycenter.org/2011/12/27/rethinking-the-way-we-tax-charities-and-those-who-give-to-them/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960189 | 700 | 1.820313 | 2 |
213L Hammond Building
University Park, PA 16802
Workshops prepare attendees for "invention to venture"
Invention to Venture (I2V), a one-day workshop on the basics of technology commercialization and entrepreneurship, was hosted by the Penn State Entrepreneurs Network and the College of Engineering at University Park on Oct. 24, 2009.
The workshop, which was intended for undergraduate and graduate students, faculty/staff, and community members, included presentations focused on technology entrepreneurship, opportunity assessment, venture capital, marketing, intellectual property, business plans, and related topics.
Speakers at I2V included experts with national stature, local technology entrepreneurs, and a number of Penn State student startups. Gavin McIntyre (co-founder of Ecovative Design), Shabbir Dahod (CEO of TraceLink and venture partner with FirstMark Capital), Ujjwal Gupta (co-founder of Watermelon Express), and Pat McNamara (marketing guru) were some of the speakers at the conference.
Workshop participants explored technology entrepreneurship fundamentals, discovered how to turn an innovative product idea into a new technology venture, heard success stories, and networked with other participants and speakers at the conference.
Watermelon Express, a Penn State student startup and sponsor of the event, gave away standardized test preparation software to all participants free of cost.
The I2V workshop was held in cooperation with the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA) and sponsored by RatnerPrestia and the University Park Allocation Committee.
Following I2V, the College of Engineering and Smeal College of Business hosted the Advanced Invention to Venture (AI2V) workshop from Nov. 20-23, 2009, at University Park.
The intense four-day workshop was open to student teams, faculty, non-academic-affiliated venture teams, and corporate technologists who committed to starting a company and were striving to define and articulate the market value of their technology and the best strategy for commercialization.
Participants conducted critical and strategic thinking about their ventures with assigned mentors and coaches who are accomplished entrepreneurs in industry. AI2V instructors, coaches, and mentors helped participants to formulate plans to raise money, recruit team members, and further develop technology.
AI2V provided a more thorough review of the subject matter with hands-on exercises that made the materials pertinent to each participating team’s venture. Limited class size and hand-picked mentors and speakers provided startups a unique venture acceleration opportunity.
AI2V is a world-class venture accelerator workshop that has helped advance early-stage startups and shorten their time to market, with proven results. Participants have called it the single most important turning point for their startups.
AI2V was sponsored by Penn State in conjunction with the NCIIA.
To learn more about Invention to Venture, visit www.psu-i2v.com. Videos of the I2V conference talks are available at www.engr.psu.edu/i2v. To learn more about Advanced Invention to Venture, visit www.invention2venture.org/advancedi2v or contact Khanjan Mehta at firstname.lastname@example.org. | <urn:uuid:27e9df56-5c61-4c23-aff6-4f791393f12e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sedtapp.psu.edu/entrepreneurship/article.php?id=3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929853 | 665 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Non-traditional source countries of FDI play an increasingly important role, notably in developing host countries. This raises the question of whether the location choices differ systematically between traditional and non-traditional source countries. We perform Logit and Poisson Pseudo Maximum Likelihood estimations to assess the determinants of bilateral FDI flows. We find that economic geography variables are more relevant for FDI from non-traditional sources. The risk aversion of non-traditional investors is not consistently weaker than that of traditional investors. Resource abundance and superior technology in the host countries represent minor pull factors of FDI from non-traditional sources. | <urn:uuid:ed6fbb1e-5df0-4aa0-987b-b04070bc738b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.economics-ejournal.org/economics/journalarticles/2013-1/view | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.906877 | 123 | 1.726563 | 2 |
FREWSBURG - Daniel Gage of Frewsburg has helped his son to play out a video game scenario in real life.
During a recent interview with The Post-Journal, Gage offhandedly complained about his son spending too much time playing video games 10 times in just as many minutes.
It's a reasonable complaint to have, and many parents do. However, instead of forcefully limiting his son's time playing video games, Gage decided to bring his son's video game to life in his backyard.
Above, Daniel Gage enters the first bank on his way down the video game inspired sledding course built in his backyard.
P-J?photo by Remington?Whitcomb
Inspired by the game SSX Tricky, Gage built is son, also named Daniel Gage, a sledding course in the backyard complete with a starting ramp, banked turns, and red and blue colored snow.
"I knew if I was going to get the boys away from the video games, I'd have to create something fast-paced and action-packed," said Gage. "If I did that, I knew I could beat the video games, and so far for the past five days they've spent more time outside than inside."
Gage's family only moved into their Frewsburg home last year.
Because of how little snow the area received, the family didn't realize how perfect of a sledding hill they possessed in their own backyard. However, with the recent influx of snow, Gage began experimenting with the sledding course, and the result has turned into the envy of all of his son's friends.
As happy as Gage is that his son is enjoying sledding outdoors, he says that building the course has done him wonders as well.
"About a year ago I had a stroke and lost most of my eyesight as a result," said Gage. "Building this course has given me lots of exercise and I'm feeling pretty good, as well."
In building the course, most of the construction was simply shoveling snow into the right places. However, the red and blue colored snow along the track took a bit of homemade Hollywood magic.
"We took waterbottles and filled them up with water and food coloring," said Gage. "We come out everyday and we spray down the track so it keeps its color. ... The kids really like it, because the colored track makes it look more like a video game."
"The (track) is really, really awesome," said the 13-year-old Gage, who attends Frewsburg Middle School. "I got to test it out while my dad was making it and the whole thing has been a lot of fun."
Both father and son said that as the winter progresses, they intend to keep the track well-maintained and possibly even build onto it as more snow becomes available.
"People have suggested that we find a way to get lights out here so the kids can play on it when it gets dark," said Gage. "We have friends who have said they have some portable lights available and wouldn't mind letting us use them. The course is becoming so popular amongst (my son's) friends that we might have no choice but to light up the track. ... It will be fun to see exactly how big we can make this. If it keeps the kids entertained through the whole winter, it will be well worth the work." | <urn:uuid:ca12d825-f8e9-4a24-b80d-f70b11b88f5e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.post-journal.com/page/content.detail/id/615536/The-Great-Outdoors.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985646 | 713 | 1.78125 | 2 |
O.K., just having a discussion about various speed brake systems and someone mentioned that they thought early 747's had the ability to extend the wing gear only, possibly as a speed brake. That immediately reminded me of something I had forgotten. Growing up not far from ORD in Chicago, in the early 70's, we lived under what was a fairly commonly used traffic pattern for certain runway configurations, so on some days, we would have lots of traffic passing over the house, including a pretty good amount of 747's. I remembered that is was fairly common to see them flying with the wing gear only extended. I have also seen photos of the gear handle on early 74's with a wing gear only postion. So my question is, does anyone know what the purpose was of operation with the wing gear only extended? Was it actually some type of speed brake device? As I said, I just remebered this and know I'm very curious.
I don't think so, because if you want speed brakes there's a speed brake lever in the cockpit for you to use. It is possible, however, to extend each gear individually by the alternate system. That's only for emergencies though.
The 'gear lever to off' before full flap retraction-which if not no an SOP is still good practice-was to ensure that if you did inadvertently drop the wing gear placing the lever 'off' (going through off) giving extra drag, you weren't clean and still had some high lift device deployed especially at heavy weights. Been there done that!
SMOC - thanks for the picture, brings back memories, and yes, we too had that configuration ( tho' not the 'tape' eng. instruments ) including the finger slicing bacon slicer blade that one had to move aside if performing an alternate gear raising procedure. It was there to stop the gear being raised if the trucks weren't level so that one didn't graunch the wheel well access by forcing an off centre gear up into the hole. ( I think ? memory ? ) If all was well the blade moved out of the way and let the gear handle go right up to the UP position.
I have no recollection of why we had the wing gear position, never used it. We had a procedure for landing with one wing gear not extended, but not a main gear. (IIRC)
Last edited by ExSp33db1rd; 30th Apr 2012 at 09:31.
The drag, at high speeds, on the nose gear assembly (with the gravel deflector) is such that the nose gear will not extend but the main gear will.
Perhaps but no pilot following the aircraft limitations will have experienced this as the max gear speed is 180 knots. In other words, all three gear always extend at the same time during normal operations on a gravel equipped 737. Sounds like a way to damage the nosegear deflector. | <urn:uuid:4ab05b53-d726-48f3-98f9-88673128a220> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pprune.org/tech-log/481720-early-747-wing-gear.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974661 | 593 | 1.9375 | 2 |
Table Of Contents
Cross Browser JavaGunther Birznieks <firstname.lastname@example.org>
Last Updated: June 29, 1998
The two flaws that seem to most pervade the consciousness of would-be Java programmers is that Java doesn't have performance and that Java has not stood the test of "Write Once, Run Anywhere" motto.
Performance has been getting better. At the same time Java virtual machines are getting embedded in a lot more OSes and Browsers. Unfortunately, this means that there are a lot of differences in how they were implemented and the bugs they pose.
Worse, not everyone in the browser community upgrades right away. The likelihood is still high that when someone visits your site, they may still be using Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator 3.x instead of the 4.x version. For an estimate of browser percentages, try looking at www.browserwatch.com.
It almost seems like a daunting and impossible task to write a decent Java applet that works on all these platforms. And to get information on the differences between browsers can be equally frustrating.
JavaSoft only really tracks bugs general to the JDK. It does not track Netscape or IE bugs. Not all IE or Netscape bugs get reported in their "official" databases. Other members of the Java Community have written snippets about various bugs and cross browser behavior, but usually only covering a single topic.
It is the goal of this site to focus on bringing all these "Cross Browser" sites together. Instead of just bringing bugs to light, this site also focuses on providing workarounds and sample source code to show how to get around these problems.
It is the intent of this site to provide knowledge about Cross Browser bugs and differences and more importantly, to provide a positive influence and encourage people to use Java in browsers by providing workarounds for those same issues.
General Cross Browser Differences
Cross Browser Bugs And Workarounds
Other Cross Browser Related Links
Web98 Cross Browser Java talk given at Web98 West in PowerPoint 95 Format (zipped).
Web98 Cross Browser Java talk in Adobe PDF Format. Use Adobe Acrobat to read this document.
There are many sources that have contributed to this site. Generally, if someone submits a bug or workaround to me, your name will go under the references/acknowledgements section for that bug.
The people who have contributed most directly to my efforts here are Peter Chines, Anthony Masiello, Joseph Ryan, Mark McDonald, Erik Ferlanti, and Selena Sol. | <urn:uuid:fb339691-43b0-4921-83d4-d4ea05fc9761> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gunther.web66.com/crossjava/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92107 | 527 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Among the well-known Belarusian natives are historical personalities, statesmen and cultural figures, prominent scholars, cosmonauts and athletes, distinguished diplomats, Hollywood film producers and Nobel Prize winners.
Euphrosyne of Polotsk (circa 1110 -1167)
First Belarusian, and according to some sources Eastern European enlightener. The Polotsk Princess was the first woman in Ancient Rus to have been canonized.
Francysk Skaryna (circa 1490 - circa 1551)
Belarusian humanist of the first half of the sixteenth century, enlightener, the first publisher in Eastern Europe.
Ivan Fyodorov (circa 1510 - circa 1583)
The first known Russian (Moscow) book publisher, a native of the Belarusian lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
Stanislaw August Poniatowski (1732-1798)
The last King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, one of the favorites of Russian Empress Catherine the Second.
Tadeusz Kosciuszko (1746 -1817)
A statesman and military leader. He is a national hero in Poland, the United States, an honorary citizen of France.
Michal Kleofas Oginski (1765-1833)
A composer and a poet, author of wonderful musical pieces such as the polonaise Farewell to the Fatherland.
Adam Mickiewicz (1798-1855)
A great Polish poet who devoted his masterpiece, Pan Tadeusz poem, to the Belarusian land.
Ignacy Domeyko (1802-1889)
A prominent geographer, geologist and explorer, national hero of Chile.
Mikhail Glinka (1804 - 1857)
The great Russian composer, founder of the Russian classical music. Belonged to the old Belarusian noble family.
Napoleon Orda (1807-1883)
A pianist, composer, artist. Author of more than 1,000 watercolor sketches of unique specimens of architecture, history and culture of Belarus and other countries.
Michael Marks (1859-1907)
A British businessman, co-founder of Marks & Spencer retail chain, the founder of first supermarkets.
Leon Bakst (1866-1924)
A painter, scene and costumer designer, a scene-painter for Diaghilev with the Ballets Russes.
Yakub Kolas (1882-1956)
Founder of the modern Belarusian literature and Belarusian literary language, People's Writer of Belarus.
Yanka Kupala (1882-1942)
Founder of the modern Belarusian literature and Belarusian literary language, People's Poet of Belarus.
Louis Burt Mayer (1885-1957)
American film producer, one of the founders of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Marc Chagall (1887-1985)
A graphic artist, master of monumental and applied arts, one of the leaders of the avante-garde movement of the twentieth century.
Chaim Soutine (1893-1943)
A painter, one of the main representatives of the School of Paris, an artistic movement in 1910-1920.
Pavel Osipovich Sukhoi (1895-1975)
An aircraft constructor and designer, one of the founders of jet and supersonic aircraft.
Andrei Andreyevich Gromyko (1909 - 1989) A prominent Soviet diplomat, statesman.
Isaac Asimov (1920-1992)
An American writer of popular science, biochemist, author of numerous popular science and science fiction works.
Vasil Bykov (1924-2003)
Belarusian writer and publicist, People's Writer of Belarus. The writer is well-known outside Belarus. His books have been translated into thirty-five languages.
Vladimir Semyonovich Korotkevich (1930-1984)
Belarusian writer. In his literary pursuits, Vladimir Korotkevich drew heavily on local lore and legends.
Zhores Ivanovich Alferov (born 1930)
Russian physicist, Nobel Prize winner 2000.
Piotr Ilyich Klimuk (born 1942)
First Belarusian cosmonaut, two-time Hero of the Soviet Union. He went to space three times (in 1973, 1975, and 1978).
Vladimir Vasilyevich Kovalyonok (born 1942)
Belarusian cosmonaut, two-time Hero of the Soviet Union. He went to space three times (in 1977, 1978, and 1981).
Olga Valentinovna Korbut (born 1955)
A legendary Belarusian gymnast, four-time Olympic champion. The world's best gymnast 1972.
Vitaly Venediktovich Shcherbo (born 1972)
Belarusian gymnast, six-time champion at the Olympic Games in Barcelona (1992). The athlete of the Decade (1991-2000).
Yulia Viktorovna Nesterenko (born 1979)
Belarusian athlete, 100m champion at the Olympic Games in Athens (2004).
The family belonging to the high nobility in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania of the sixteenth-eighteenth centuries dubbed by the contemporaries as the uncrowned kings. At their heyday the Radziwills owned vast assets in the territory of what is now Belarus and held highest state-administrative and military posts. They were known as patrons and collectors of fine art.
Figures on the Political Scene of Israel
Many politicians of Israel had Belarusian roots. Among them are first President of the State of Israel Chaim Weizmann (1874-1952); Prime Ministers of Israel and Nobel Peace Prize winners Menachem Begin (1913-1992) and Shimon Peres (born 1923), Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir (born 1915).
Pesnyary is Belarus's musical legend
By combining folk and pop music, Pesnyary gave rise to a whole new trend in music. With a career spanning over four decades, Pesnyary has earned quite a reputation abroad, and was the first band whose record sales gained a gold status.
Belarusians in the NHL
Belarusian ice hockey players Ruslan Salei, Mikhail Grabovsky, Andrei and Sergei Kostitsyns are idols in their home country. They also have their fan base in North America. They play for the NHL clubs (Colorado Avalanche, Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadians respectively). | <urn:uuid:6294bc3a-a791-4b28-9c59-01c607dc54cb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.belembassy.org/un/about_famous%20people.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918335 | 1,384 | 2.5625 | 3 |
The Wireless Smoke Detector is an accessory for your Halo home security system. In the event of the Smoke Detector picking up smoke particles in the air it will sound an audible alarm, as well as communicating wirelessly with your Halo Control Panel so that an emergency alert can be sent to your contacts. The Smoke Detector is a simple self-install and can be added to your Halo Starter Kit to improve the safety of your home.
Protect your property
The Smoke Detector uses an optical smoke density chamber to detect the presence of smoke particles in the background air. Initialising the sensor begins the process of self-calibration, whereby the sensor begins taking a series of readings, allowing it to acclimatise itself to the background environment. Once this process is complete, the sensor will continuously monitor for changes in the levels of particulates (smoke) in the environment, and trigger an alarm if necessary.
Easy to install, wireless safety for your home
The detector is easy to install, is battery operated and will work wirelessly to alert you in the event of a fire alarm, giving you more opportunity to raise the alarm and protect your property from potential damage and keep your family safe. | <urn:uuid:93d3242f-a432-4894-a187-c3a36d13c280> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.home-halo.co.uk/product/halo-104-smoke-detector | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922524 | 243 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Where We Work
Task Order I of the USAID | Health Policy Initiative (HPI) completed its work in Haiti in November 2007.
In Haiti, HPI worked to strengthen civil society's role in the policy arena, build public-private sector partnerships, and support government leadership in meeting the country's FP/RH needs and responding to the challenges of the HIV epidemic.
The primary focus of HPI's FP/RH activities was to reposition FP as a priority on the national agenda. In the area of HIV, HPI assisted the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief Team and the Ministry of Health in identifying and addressing key operational policy barriers hindering the scale-up and effectiveness of HIV programs.
HPI also strengthened the capacity of local government institutions to produce and use strategic information for budgeting and program planning; fostered the commitment and leadership of the public sector and faith-based organizations in combating HIV; improved the coordination and implementation of HIV programs; promoted the rights of orphans and vulnerable children and PLHIV; and worked to address gender inequities in the response to HIV.
MOH Plans Multisectoral HIV Response. With HPI's support, the MOH drafted and finalized the National Strategic Multisectoral Plan to Fight against HIV/AIDS, 2007–2011. The new plan will strengthen Haiti's response to the epidemic by coordinating the HIV-related activities of all sectors. | <urn:uuid:50a99fa0-8643-4af9-a139-c00365b38b6e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.healthpolicyinitiative.com/index.cfm?id=wherewework®ionCode=LAC&countryCode=HI | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927989 | 286 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Facebook starts going encrypted by default in North America
Only WE are allowed to spy on you ... bitch
Facebook is finally deploying secure browsing for its 1-billion-strong userbase over the coming weeks.
It confirmed the move on its developers' blog last week:
As announced last year, we are moving to HTTPS for all users. This week, we're starting to roll out HTTPS for all North America users and will be soon rolling out to the rest of the world.
Mark Zuckerberg's free-content ad network in fact confirmed to third party coders its intentions to move to HTTPS encryption by default in May 2011.
It appears that the shift has taken a while to be implemented, but then that's hardly surprising given the size of Facebook. It's apparently been working hard on enhancing performance to its load-balancing infrastructure to prepare for the move.
Eventually, users will probably notice that browsing pages on Facebook has slowed down a tad - but then that's the trade-off for a more secure connection.
It's been the trend in recent years for Silicon Valley web outfits to gingerly approach the concept of more secure browsing via HTTPS by first offering it to users as an opt-in option before shifting all of them over by default.
Google rolled out default end-to-end encryption to people who use the site to search for images, news and general webpages in October 2011, for example, preventing eavesdroppers from easily reading the traffic.
In the UK, Wikipedia's founder Jimmy Wales issued an empty threat to flick the switch on his website to HTTPS if the Home Secretary Theresa May's controversial draft communications data bill sees the light of day.
It remains unclear how spooks might successfully intercept traffic when websites transmit individual user sessions over encrypted SSL channels. For their part the UK's spooks claim they have no interest in what it said, only in who talks to who: but if all communication is on Facebook and the connections into Facebook are encrypted, they would presumably be left in the dark on that too. ® | <urn:uuid:a3756a90-f6bd-4877-adc4-b796e78d0d27> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/20/facebook_set_to_switch_to_https_by_default/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938236 | 414 | 1.570313 | 2 |
As GM finally begins to let journalists drive its Chevy Volt, the two-year-long trickle of bad news about the project is turning into a raging torrent. The latest bit of bashing: InsideLine claims that, in direct contradiction to GM’s hype, the Volt is in fact powered by its gasoline engine under certain circumstances.
At the heart of the Volt is the “Voltec” propulsion system and the heart of Voltec is the “4ET50″ electric drive unit that contains a pair of electric motors and a “multi-mode transaxle with continuously variable capacity.” This is how GM describes it:
“Unlike a conventional powertrain, there are no step gears within the unit, and no direct mechanical linkage from the engine, through the drive unit to the wheels.”
The 4ET50 is, however, in fact directly bolted to the 1.4-liter, four-cylinder Ecotec internal combustion engine. When the Volt’s lithium-ion battery pack runs down, clutches in the 4ET50 engage and the Ecotec engine is lashed to the generator to produce the electric power necessary to drive the car. However under certain circumstances — speeds near or above 70 mph — in fact the engine will directly drive the front wheels in conjunction with the electric motors.
As in the Prius, the Volt’s drivetrain includes a planetary gear set that acts as a transmission. The intricacies of planetary gears are many, but in rough terms each element (electric engines and internal combustion engine) of the Prius or Volt drivetrains are hooked up to different elements of the gear set. In the Volt, its Ecotec engine is clutched to the outer ring gear and as the car’s speed reaches the edge of efficiency for the electric motor, that ring is set from its normally rigid mounting in the 4ET50′s case and allowed to spin. That has the Ecotec driving the front wheels.
The Volt’s Vehicle Line Engineer Doug Park confirmed that there is, on occasion, a direct mechanical connection between the internal combustion engine and drive wheels in an interview with Norman Mayersohn of The New York Times. This isn’t idle speculation or educated inference, it’s an admitted fact.
It doesn’t take much work to discover that GM has directly concealed this reality from the public, by stating repeatedly that the Volt is powered by electricity at all times. GM even “corrected” reports that it was “considering” allowing the Volt (or its sister car, the Opel Ampera) to drive under gas power under certain circumstances. And its most recent press release calls Voltec a “pure electric” drivetrain with a gas range extender. The last thing GM needs going into its Volt launch is a credibility gap in its explanations of the Volt’s convoluted internals. | <urn:uuid:fb56144a-e5b5-4111-9ca5-d3ae827b91e1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2010/10/inside-line-gm-lied-volt-uses-ice-for-propulsion/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937223 | 605 | 1.664063 | 2 |
The first question most homeowners have about outfitting their homes for solar is, “How much will it cost?” Before an accurate number can be determined, many variables must be considered, including the location of the home, the orientation of the system and the amount of electric load that will be covered by the system, to name a few.
In the solar arena, the upfront costs have discouraged many homeowners from making the decision to install solar on their homes. Solar electric systems are expensive because they do something amazing: produce free, clean electricity for 25, 30 or even 40 years.
It turns out that solar electric systems nearly always pay for themselves and then some. Many homeowners would be sold if they could slowly buy into solar, starting with what they can afford today and supplementing when they are financially able, comfortable with the technology and satisfied with the results.
Solar Micro-Inverters Bring Scalability
What is missing from the solar scenario is a situation analogous to that of compact fluorescent light (CFL). When CFLs started making their way onto retail shelves, most of us did not go out and buy the new, more expensive bulbs to replace every incandescent bulb in the house. Instead, most people bought one bulb at a time for $15 or so, considering it a way to do just a bit more for the environment, to invest in future energy savings and to test the waters of the technology. As people became more comfortable with the technology, demand increased and costs went down; now, CFLs are quite common.
Until recently, small-scale solar was difficult due to limitations presented by the photovoltaic (PV) system’s inverter. The inverter converts the direct current (DC) power that a solar electric system produces into alternating current (AC) power that is serviceable to the grid. Commonly, solar electric systems string modules together prior to connecting them to the inverter, which requires system designers to begin with the end in mind when it comes to the maximum power limit the inverter can handle. This design limitation hinders the ability to add on to the system later and causes a decision-making dilemma for the potential solar customer because of cost.
The industry’s solution coincides with the advent of micro-inverter technology several years ago. Microinverters convert DC power to AC power for each module rather than an entire string of modules. Modules manufactured with micro-inverters (known in the industry as AC modules) allow for systems to become scalable, meaning they enable more solar modules to be added when the customer can afford them.
Yet most of the micro-inverter technology still did not adequately fulfill this need for a scalable system until the fall of 2012, when Helios unveiled the SolSimple Module, a revolutionary pairing of a PV module and a micro-inverter. Unlike other AC modules on the market, the SolSimple module produces AC power at the same voltage used in the home and has no exposed DC wiring, making it the only true AC module as defined by the National Electric Code.
The SolSimple Module allows, for the first time, a hasslefree and affordable way for homeowners to start with a small system and add to it at their convenience. SolSimple utilizes a connection system that is inexpensive, flexible and requires virtually no special design. Other micro-inverters require clunky trunk cables that are expensive, call for wire design and Solar Powered Carthave many parts (potential points of failure). These wire systems also change over time, making future expansion cumbersome and costly. SolSimple uses a HomeRun cable— a simple 12-gauge, stranded, three-wire cable that costs less than $2 per foot.
....Although Walmart and Sainsbury’s inhabit the upper reaches of their respective food chains, their energy needs pale in comparison to one of the most (pro)active adopters of solar power—the U.S. military. A story about a recently activated PV plant at the Marine Corps Recruiting Depot caught the Curator’s eye, since the MCRD is adjacent to my old stomping grounds in San Diego. The 1.7MW ground-mount system, built by Dynaelectric, is comprised of Helios Solar Works’ well-endowed 410-415W monocrystalline-silicon modules. The Milwaukee, WI-based PV manufacturer (no, that is not a typo) and CASM member (yeah, one of the SolarWorld-led gang involved in the U.S.-China “trade war” actions) makes a compelling argument that size does matter and backs it up with its “module comparison tool” available for download by request on the company website.
As for the MCRD project, “the cost savings and time savings associated with this installation are a testament to the economic benefits of large-format 9T6 Series panels,” according to Helios’ press release. “Installation data from Dynalectric confirmed savings expectations. Bob Riel, VP and division manager of Dynalectric San Diego, estimated that module installation labor alone was cut by 37%, racking material costs were cut by 12%, and racking labor reduced 11%. Mounting and grounding hardware was also reduced by nearly 40%. ‘We were able to get more power on the allocated land and save MCRD money simply by switching to a more powerful module. It is that simple,’ he said.”...
As the nation's trade deficit grows in the face of rising exports, critics say it's time for the U.S. to take a tougher stance on China and other trade- rule violators.
By Steve Minter
In a speech at the second Conference on the Renaissance of American Manufacturing March 27 in Washington, Gordon Brinser, the president of SolarWorld Industries America, posed this question: "How can the United States continue to benefit from an open global marketplace as the vastly different system of state-sponsored capitalism in China emerges as an economic power and increasingly targets our strategic industries?"
For SolarWorld, the question is not academic. The company is embroiled in a major trade dispute with China. SolarWorld is pitted not only against Chinese competitors but an array of U.S.-based interests that benefit from cheap Chinese products and accuse SolarWorld of standing in the way of increased adoption of solar products.
Brinser said it was time for the United States to adopt a "new game plan" for trade in the face of China's economic model "designed to gut and own our key industries."
...So the DOC ruling aims to level the playing field so U.S. and Chinese solar manufacturing firms can compete fairly. This would result in two benefits. First, it would slow, and hopefully reverse U.S. solar panel manufacturing decline. A recent NREL study found that U.S. solar manufacturers actually have a 5 percent cost advantage compared to similar Chinese solar products (not including unfair Chinese subsidies and dumping), so the tariff eliminates the biggest reason why this advantage isn’t playing out in the market. And second, it would increase the incentive for emerging solar technologies, new ideas, and more innovative firms to remain or enter the market. Entrepreneurs and firms are more likely to invest in real innovation if they can foresee potential profits from their risky investments. If China is undercutting the market unfairly, it significantly increases the risk of making these investments, effectively acting as a deterrent to innovation. In other words, by eliminating China’s unfair cost advantage, the tariff would encourage more innovation in the solar industry. This is important because innovation – and not subsidized Chinese solar PV – is what is needed to make solar cost-competitive with fossil fuels everywhere without subsidies. Thus the tariff ruling is potentially a big win in developing a cost-competitive and subsidy independent solar industry...
Written by Michael Eland, President of Eland Electric
First, it was steel. Then came paper. Now, unless the Obama administration acts, Wisconsin's solar manufacturing industry will be the next victim of China's efforts to undercut American manufacturers and destroy jobs.As the president of a company that installs solar systems in the Green Bay area, I have seen the impact of China's efforts first-hand. In the past, we had dozens of options to choose from when buying solar panels. Chinese companies were on the same playing field as the rest.
Today, the situation is quite different. The Chinese dominate the solar industry, representing more than half of the market. How did things change so quickly? The reason: China's tried and true practices of subsidies and dumping.
The Chinese national and provincial governments have provided subsidies at mind-boggling levels. Consider this: between 2002 and 2009, China provided its paper industry $33.1 billion in subsidies that were used to cripple Wisconsin's paper industry. In 2010 alone, the Energy Department estimates the Chinese solar industry got more than $30 billion. Moreover, Chinese CEOs admit they have been dumping their modules at prices they admit are unsustainable.
We are competitors by nature in Milwaukee, whether it's rooting on our small-market Milwaukee Brewers and Green Bay Packers or whether it's protecting our standards of living in a community that's second to none.
Helios, a Milwaukee-based solar panel manufacturing company, is competitive, too, and we deliver innovative world-class products. Lately, though, the American solar industry has been undermined by Chinese trade practices that are putting U.S. manufacturing jobs at risk.
At Helios, we believe American manufacturers certainly can compete with Chinese solar manufacturers. In fact, the U.S. Department of Energy found that, once you add in the cost of shipping, Chinese solar panels are actually more expensive to produce than American ones. However, we simply cannot compete with the Chinese government and Chinese manufacturers. It's not a pretty story.
From 2008 to 2010, China's exports of solar cells and panels to the United States jumped an astonishing 350%. How did China achieve this growth? The Chinese government was unfairly subsidizing its own solar companies to the tune of $34 billion, and Chinese manufacturers were dumping their products in the U.S. market.
A U.S. Senate report released in February outlined some of the impacts:
The U.S. trade deficit in environmental goods with China reached an all-time high in 2011. The U.S. went from a trade surplus in solar products in 2010 to a $1.6 billion deficit in 2011.
U.S. imports of solar cells and modules from China went up 135% in 2011.
European Union and Japanese exporters of environmental goods are also losing market share to China in global markets.
The results? A 40% collapse in prices in the past year forced 12 American plants to close or downsize during the past 18 months.
A Bright Beacon of Hope for Renewable Energy
..."We invite Helios customers to our manufacturing facility to watch their modules being assembled," advises General Manager Brent Brucker, who relishes the opportunity to answer questions for visitors, especially those who are curious about why Helios chose Milwaukee for its headquarters. "The first reason is that three of the company's founders are native Wisconsinites," he says, tallying Milwaukee's other attributes: It's a manufacturing city, people have a strong work ethic and show up at their jobs despite inclement weather; and the area is home to a significant number of skilled craftsmen.
The city also benefits from local manufacturing infastructure. "Within a short distance, we can have special glass and machinery built, as well as wire produced. This allows us to expand our support of the local economy and save on shipping," explains Brucker, who also credits the Wisconsin Department of Commerce's State Energy Program, which provided Helios with a $1.4 million clean energy loan.
One of the myths that Brucker enjoys dispelling is that Wisconsin doesn't receive enough sunshine to support the solar industry. "The most successful country in the global solar market is Germany, which gets the same amount of sun as Seattle and Alaska. Wisconsin gets more sun than either," he says.
Milwaukee-based high-efficiency monocrystalline PV module manufacturer, Helios Solar Works is the first founding member of the Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing (CASM), outside SolarWorld to declare itself a supporter of actions that will lead to duties being applied to solar cells and modules from China. Seven firms with manufacturing operations in the US were said to have formed CASM and petitioned US agencies to investigate module dumping allegations, though until now only SolarWorld, which has led the campaign, had declared involvement.
“We have supported these trade cases from the beginning, and we are pleased to publicly declare that support,” said Steve Ostrenga, chief executive officer of Helios Solar Works, headquarterd in Milwaukee.“Our country can’t afford to give up manufacturing jobs in growth industries to nations that engage in illegal and harmful trade practices.”
According to a statement from CASM, Helios Solar Works was forced to downsize its manufacturing operations as a result of dumped and subsidized Chinese imports of solar cells and modules.
New Hampshire, U.S.A. -- Helios Solar Works, a small solar panel manufacturer based in Milwaukee, Wisc., said Thursday that it is one of the seven companies that worked to file the original trade complaint against the price of solar panels coming in from China.
Until this week, SolarWorld was the lone public face for the Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing (CASM). The Department of Commerce is expected to announce its preliminary countervailing duty determination as early as March 19 just as the solar industry arrives at PV America-West, a three-day conference and exhibition in San Jose, Calif., that runs March 19-21. The result could impose stiff tariffs on panels coming in from China, and such a move would put severe financial pressure on the rest of the American solar industry that has often benefited from the low-cost panels. It would also make American-made modules more cost-competitive.
The remaining five companies in the seven-member coalition remain anonymous, and there is no requirement that their names ever be made public. However Helios Solar Works decided the timing was right, even as the tariff decision looms and as the rhetoric with the competing Coalition for American Solar Energy (CASE) intensifies.
Helios Solar Works of Milwaukee has been forced to cut jobs as it struggles to compete with imported solar panels from China that are the subject of an international trade dispute.
Helios opened its solar panel factory in the Menomonee River Valley one year ago and expanded to two production shifts by the summer. Its growth path was thwarted because of panels that were being sold in the United States at prices below the cost of production, Helios and a coalition of solar manufacturers contend.
The company is joining a solar industry effort to protest what they see as unfair trade practices, lining up behind SolarWorld, which led a coalition of solar companies that filed a complaint on the matter last year.
In December, the U.S. International Trade Commission voted unanimously that "there is a reasonable indication that a U.S. industry is materially injured by reason of imports of crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells and modules from China that are allegedly subsidized and sold in the United States at less than fair value." | <urn:uuid:298e6063-a638-40ce-9275-57d1f7a2e73b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.heliossolarworks.com/news/in-the-news/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957387 | 3,164 | 3.078125 | 3 |
What new can we learn from the Christmas story? But What Can I Give Him? presents the story of the birth of Jesus, but teaches ways we can apply it to our lives. From the shepherds we learn to share this story with others. The wisemen teach us to follow God and to give him gifts. This story answers the question of what can I give God at Christmas, telling of two very special gifts that please God.
As they travelled the distance To the manger, they came And knew this was the baby That the angels proclaimed. He was wrapped oh, so tightly, And in a manger he lay. They bowed down and worshipped Him, Then went on their way. A miracle from God! They had just seen His Son. They immediately knew They must tell everyone. God sent us His Son, And to give Him the glory, We must be like the shepherds And share this good story.
Laura Hamlet is a pastor’s wife and the mother of two grown children, and grandmother of one. She has taught school for sixteen years. She has a BA and Master’s Degree in education from the University of South Carolina. She is in charge of the children’s Christmas story every Christmas Eve at their church in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and is always searching for a unique way to present the story of Jesus’ birth to children. For that reason, this story was written.
I would definitely recommend this book and look forward to making it a Christmas tradition in my home. The rhyming and lyrical quality of the text makes the wording simple and easy to understand; but it's also a powerful presentation of the gospel. The art work is also beautiful. What WILL you give HIM this season?
Just in time for Christmas buying!! This is a treasure to give to children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and family friends. The colors are wonderful and the message enduring. There is no story that matches this one...oxymoron...simply profound. Excellent rendition!
What a great Christmas gift! Terrific colors! Great text! Delightful and inspiring! | <urn:uuid:644ec960-b7bc-49e2-82a1-7b44776f7e7b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bookstore.crossbooks.com/Products/SKU-000487248/But-What-Can-I-Give-Him.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966208 | 439 | 1.554688 | 2 |
A lot of character models, particularly those used in video game engines, have facial animation driven exclusively by a simplified facial bone structure. In this tutorial, you’ll be introduced to Reallusion’s G5 Game Bone, a simplified version of the conventional G5 Facial Bone which is optimized for use with game engines. You’ll also learn how you can import these facial bone models into iClone to create fast and detailed facial animations using iClone’s versatile facial animation tools.
Many character models out there contain minimal or no facial bones, and their facial animation is driven exclusively by blend shapes created in software such as Maya or zBrush. These blend shapes are then blended together using animation software. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how you can import your model in FBX format along with all its blend shapes into iClone by first bringing it into 3DXchange 5.4 and assigning different blend shape values to different expressions. After that, you’ll be able to utilize tools such as iClone’s real-time facial puppeteering as well as lip-syncing and muscle-based motion key editing.
Characters with the best potential for facial animation performance often contain both facial bones as well as a variety of blend shapes. While the bone structure maintains the structure of the facial shape, the blend shapes compliment these movements by providing more subtle detail to the lips and other areas of the face. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how you can combine both facial bones and blend shapes to create more detailed animations, and how you can import these special types of characters into iClone. You’ll also see an example of how you can map a tongue as an extended bone for a floppy tongue effect.
Version 5.4 brings iClone into a new era of facial animation. With the powerful new features, it allows you to lip-sync, and animate facial motions for any character. Its improved motion editing capabilities will help you animate easier thanks to its new bone settings. You will also be able to apply spring effects to multiple extended bones for natural ear, hair or tail movements. The Motion Modify in the Timeline also gives way to a variety of possible motions.
3DXchange 5.4 allows you to facial-animate any type of character, from bone-based, morph-based to bone/morph hybrids. You may now define facial movements with the intuitive Expression Editor including Head, Eye, Jaw, Lip-sync, Muscle, and even customize your own! In version 5.4, extended bones can be designated into groups with different types of spring for all kinds of performance needs. Moreover, with the one-click DAZ character import, you can fine-tune facial animations as you wish!
Butterfly and fly swarms. Just drag into scene, position and press play to use. Each swarm can be scaled to adjust area of coverage and each insect can be edited if necessary.
Howdy partner! I reckon you’ll want to take a gander at this swell pack which contains all kinds of elements from which you can put together a scene from the Old West in 19th century America. Immerse yourself in the adventure and wild atmosphere of the Old West, and recreate anything from a watering hole to a bustling trade town. A wide selection of unique buildings and props allows you to create the perfect setting for your western tale full of cowboys and six-shooters. Dust off those cowboy boots and get to work!
The Old Western Town pack also includes a variety of unique buildings like a saloon, a bank, and a bar. Each building contains a variety of individual elements such as roofs, walls, signs, window, etc. so that you can assemble and custom design your unique style of town! In addition, most decorations and props contain separate sub-props, so users can move, rotate, show, or hide the related objects according to their filming needs.
To see more about this pack, please go to:
Impressive. Very impressive.
A scene from my pet project.
I have to admit it. Every time I get fed up with it, AnimaTechnica releases an animated epiphany that redeems iClone.
The crew of the explorer ship Sojourner tries to intercept an asteroid on a collision course with Earth
Richard Myrie, Damien Valentine, Joseph Kwong, Jakechief, Anim8tor Cathy
Jesse Pringle, AnimaTechnica
I applaud the technology and cooperation between DAZ and Reallusion in bringing the Genesis generation of characters to both platforms. This type of partnership should be a win-win situation for creators and tool developers. The two companies deserve thanks from those of us who work on both platforms. However, having said that, I must also state that these are two of the ugliest characters I have ever seen. Frighteningly ugly! Perhaps the demo was hurried? Poor lighting? Maybe I’m too sober? I have no idea, but I actually gasped when I first saw them. Is “gaspingly ugly” even a term? Wow…
Complete your iClone and DAZ Production Pipeline
iClone users get the best of both worlds with dual-format sources straight from DAZ and iClone content. All DAZ content provided in these packs are 100% original assets with highly-detailed textures and maps that have been tested for use with iClone. Users will enjoy the benefits of both formats for if they wish to further edit Genesis Characters back in DAZ, or if they prefer to instantly start using this content with iClone’s powerful animating arsenal.
Genesis Anime Starter Bundle includes:
- Genesis Characters with Morphs
- 2 Characters Aiko and Hiro
- 1 Hair Base (Pure Hair Bubblegum)
- 5 Hairstyles
- 3 Large Weapons
- 1 Neo Stop
The Avatar Toolkit allows you to both create a super quick animation based on template expressions, or go into detail by separately animating each facial feature. In this tutorial, you’ll learn one of the fastest and easiest ways to create an exceptional animation by combining lip syncing, avatar component puppet, and direct body puppet. You’ll also pick up some tips on how to customize your monster’s lip sync so you can take full advantage of their morph-based facial animation support. | <urn:uuid:e8bf0f85-cbb6-42d4-8b9c-89a0c9854858> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cyberhermit.com/?cat=998 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915526 | 1,326 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Analysis: Girl child soldiers face new battles in civilian life
A billboard campaign in Sri Lanka highlighting the plight of girl child soldiers
JOHANNESBURG, 12 February 2013 (IRIN) - Girl child soldiers are often thought of only as “sex slaves”, a term that glosses over the complex roles many play within armed groups and in some national armies. This thinking contributes to their subsequent invisibility in the demobilization processes - in fact, girls are frequently the most challenging child soldiers to rehabilitate.
The broad categorization of girl soldiers as victims of sexual abuse obscures the fact that they are often highly valued militarily. While sexual abuse is believed to be widespread, girls’ vulnerability may vary, as attitudes toward women differ extensively across militias: In Colombia, the Marxist-leaning groups the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and National Liberation Army (ELN) treated female soldiers as equal to males, while right-wing paramilitary groups were known to embrace gender stereotypes.
Some have argued that disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programmes (DDR) are ill-equipped to address the needs of girls. DDR was designed for adult male combatants, and over the years has incorporated female combatants, followed by boy soldiers and then girls.
A January 2013 World Bank briefing, Children in Emergency and Crisis Situations, says: “The use of girls [by armed forces] has been confirmed in Colombia, DRC [Democratic Republic of Congo], East Timor, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Uganda and West Africa. There are some 12,500 in DRC. However, girls are generally less visible and up to now have hardly benefited from demobilization and reintegration programmes for child soldiers.”
“No one knows what has happened after a DDR process to the large majority of girls associated with the armed groups,” the briefing said.
About 40 percent of the hundreds of thousands of child soldiers scattered across the world’s conflicts today are thought to be girls, but the numbers of girls enrolling in child soldier DDR programmes dwindles to five percent or less.
Girls often conceal their association with armed groups, Richard Clarke, director of Child Soldiers International
, told IRIN. In traditional societies, enrolling in DDR could confirm a past that imperils their future: “In contexts of entrenched gender discrimination, and in situations where a girl’s ‘value’ is defined in terms of her purity and marriageability, the stigma attached to involvement in sexual activity, whether real or imputed, can result in exclusion and acute impoverishment,” he said.
Seeking gender equality
Then there is the uncomfortable reality that some conflicts may actually fast-track gender emancipation.
A 2012 report
by Tone Bleie of the University of Tromsø’s Centre for Peace Studies
(CPS) explores this issue. During Nepal’s civil war, when Maoists conscripted “one member per house”, some parents offered their daughters to spare “sons whom they considered as their life insurance.” Of the Maoists’ 23,610 combatants at the cessation of hostilities, 5,033 were female, and of them 988 were girls.
"Female combatants developed a new sense of pride and dignity due to personal sacrifices, military courage, feats in the battlefield and prospects of promotion in the ranks"
“Female combatants developed a new sense of pride and dignity due to personal sacrifices, military courage, feats in the battlefield and prospects of promotion in the ranks,” the report says.
In the wake of Nepal’s 2006 ceasefire, during the cantonment of Maoists rebels and the subsequent reintegration process, girls and women were returned “to [the] very low position of women in traditional Nepalese feudal society,” Desmond Molloy, a panellist at the International Research Group on Reintegration
at the CPS, told IRIN.
“Inter-cast marriage, and marriage in general, was encouraged in the cantonment. This is taboo in Nepali society and proved a major obstacle for reintegration of young girls back into society, especially when they have children, as many do. Further there is in [Nepal’s] society a perception of a promiscuous environment in the cantonment. So many young girls were viewed with suspicion by their families, rejected by their new in-laws or ostracized by the community,” Molloy said.
Abdul Hameed Omar, programme manager for the UN Development Programme’s Interagency Rehabilitation Programme
, told IRIN that acceptance of inter-cast marriages was particularly problematic. “Children have been denied birth certificates, and women have been denied their citizenship certificates. When the community knows that a woman has been part of the PLA [People’s Liberation Army], these women sometimes face a stigma,” he said.
He said attitudes of male Maoist ex-combatants “vary widely” but that “many voiced opinions that were not in line with their previous [gender equality] beliefs during the conflict. Other male ex-combatants who played traditionally female roles during the conflict, i.e., cooking or childcare, no longer feel that these are appropriate roles for men outside of the PLA.”
Loss of power
Many Colombian girl soldiers, who fought as equals to their male counterparts, struggled with the double standards of civilian life.
“For some girls, belonging to an illegal armed group gives them a sense of power and control that they may not otherwise experience living in a relatively conservative, ‘machista’ [chauvinist] society,” said Overcoming Lost Childhoods
, a Care International report about rehabilitating Colombian child soldiers.
By the end of Eritrea’s 30-year-long liberation war, in 1991, females comprised between 25 and 30 percent of combatants. The gender-equality ideals espoused by the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front’s (EPLF) had proved an attractive lure for female recruits, including some who were teenagers or younger.
"Many Eritrean female ex-fighters experienced the years of war as preferable to the time that came afterwards"
But “many Eritrean female ex-fighters experienced the years of war as preferable to the time that came afterwards… They had felt respected, equal and empowered, but this was all lost after the war when women were pushed towards traditional gender roles,” said the 2008 report Young Female Fighters in African Wars, Conflict and Its Consequences
Eritrea’s DDR programmes initially tailored economic opportunities for women to traditional gender roles - basket weaving, typing and embroidery - but this did not provide a sustainable livelihood. Training women in traditionally male trades also proved fruitless because society’s norms ultimately dictated who could get which jobs.
“Furthermore, female ex-fighters had a hard time getting married after the war as men usually claimed that these women had lost their femininity during the war. Many male ex-fighters also divorced their fighter wives for this reason and married civilian women,” the report said.
Girl soldiers’ versatility - they serve as combatants, spies, domestics, porters and “bush wives” - makes them highly valued among armed groups, which can also increase their difficulty reintegrating into civilian life.
Despite this, punishments for girls in northern Uganda, such as whipping or caning, were meted out for the smallest infractions, Linda Dale, director of Children/Youth as Peacebuilders
(CAP), told IRIN.
“There is a strong tendency to force a kind of passivity on girls while at the same time they are expected to be combatants. This duality, as well as the effect of sexual violence, makes their rehabilitation more complicated, in my view,” she said.
The length of captivity also differed between the sexes; average internment period for girls in northern Uganda was six to seven years, while boys faced about three years, Dale said. “Because of that, the effects of the experience, and therefore the need for more assistance in re-integration, will be higher. For example, many girl returnees are illiterate because they have been out of school so long.”
Shelly Whitman, executive director of the Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative
told IRIN that some girls can be seen as suffering from Stockholm syndrome, where captives develop a sympathetic association with their abusers.
“Girls were raped but then given to or chosen by a commander to be a ‘wife’. They are confused about their experiences, their guilt, their families’ expectations and religious beliefs. Additionally, many have children fathered by their captors. They are often rejected when they return home and viewed as non-marriageable material, damaged goods. With this kind of a homecoming, it creates confusion about your identity and your self-worth,” she said.
The assumptions and expectations of people operating DDR programmes may also affect girls’ reintegration.
Girl soldiers are often assumed to be “‘following along’, rather than girls who have been recruited and used, however informally, for military purposes… These assumptions have resulted in tens of thousands of girls being literally ‘invisible’ to DDR programmers, although the situation has improved somewhat in recent years,” said Clarke of Child Soldiers International.
"Boys with guns are easier to see and easier to fear"
Phillip Lancaster, former head of the DDR programme for the UN Organization Mission in DRC, told IRIN, “Boys with guns are easier to see and easier to fear.” DDR programmes might “ignore girls on the assumption that they don't present the same threat.”
“My own experience is that girls are often invisible to DDR programmes that draw narrow categories around the notion of combat,” he said. “It's tricky to avoid getting caught up in categories as soon as one starts trying to define parameters of qualification for DDR programmes, and most of the decisions tend to have a somewhat arbitrary flavour simply because of the complexity of the subject matter.
“Most of the Congolese armed groups… draw on local community resources… The definition of girl child soldier in this setting could, in theory, extend over all the young females in a community who were supporting, supplying, informing or directly fighting with a relevant armed group.” | <urn:uuid:2b01bb8e-e858-4213-bb21-d9905972d86f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.irinnews.org/report/97463/analysis-girl-child-soldiers-face-new-battles-in-civilian-life | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963911 | 2,195 | 2.3125 | 2 |
Amino Acid Formulas
Since proteins constitute the majority of tissues in the body and since these tissues are constantly in protein flux, proteins are degraded and synthesized within all tissues on a regular basis. Some of the amino acids that are degraded can be recycled by the liver and used again for other biosyntheses, but a significant portion of this protein cannot be replaced. Therefore it is essential to include amino acids in a health and well balanced diet. We carry a wide variety of amino acids to help you ensure that your most basic nutrition is well taken care of. | <urn:uuid:0434263a-61f5-45a0-b74b-3934d8a97a8c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.vitalizednutrition.com/categories/amino-acid-formulas-1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955197 | 114 | 2.203125 | 2 |
1. Watch short videos and do exercises in Lingual.net and Yolango (you have to sign in for the second one, but it's worth it).
2. Find an exchange to speak and write to. Some possible websites are Shared Talk and My Language Exchange.
3. Do an online course in Livemocha or Mango Languages.
4. Revise English grammar with comics here. Make comics yourself here or here.
5. Are you brave enough? Read and listen to stories here or here.
6. Test and learn vocabulary here: The Internet Picture Dictionary.
7. In the mood for playing? Then try these games at BBC and Wordpower. Play Scrambled Sentences here.
8. Would you like to practice your Writing skills? Try this website to create a fairy tale, make a poem here or visit this site to get general advice on writing, tools and games.
9. Want to go a step further? Learn what Proofreading is here.
10. Finally, why don't you go back and read old posts in this blog? I'm sure you didn't have time to check it all. Scroll down and try clicking on "Older Posts" to access what has been published all year. You can also look for posts in the "Topics" section on the left.
Enjoy your summer and good luck with English.
Some useful sites for you:
- Short interactive lesson here.
- Explanation + audio here.
- Drag and drop exercise here.
- BBC Grammar Challenge here (again!).
Hope you enjoy them.
Take care and have a nice weekend.
"On October 19, 1959, the Voice of America broadcast the first Special English program. It was an experiment. The goal was to communicate by radio in clear and simple English with people whose native language was not English. Special English programs quickly became some of the most popular on VOA. They still are. Special English continues to communicate with people who are not fluent in English. Over the years, its role has expanded. It helps people learn American English while they learn about American life and stay informed about world news and developments in science."
Why not give it a try? Click here to get started.
Hope you like it!
Do you remember the activities we did last week? You can do some more on the Internet. Try the following websites:
- Click here if you want to access an interactive site for children: you can read about getting ready for hospital, getting treated and getting around. Lots of vocabulary and fun activities!
- A similar interactive site for children here.
- General health vocabulary + images here and here.
- Would you like to have the transcriptions to the words read aloud? Healthy habits read aloud (karaoke style) here.
- An interactive tale about going to the doctor here.
- Conversations at the doctor's here.
- How to make an appointment here.
- A telephone conversation here.
Hope you enjoy!
Thanks for sharing the recipe with us, Cristina. Here it goes:
1/2 cup of dark cocoa
1/2 cup of boiled water
1 teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate
2 cups of sugar
2 ½ cups of flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
¾ cups of milk
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees
- Grease a cake recipient
- Put cocoa, boiled water, salt and bicarbonate in a little bowl
- In a separated bowl beat the eggs, butter with sugar, mix with flour and baking powder
- Mix all this with the cocoa
- Pour into prepared recipient
- Bake at 180 º C until a knife inserted in centre comes out clean, approximately for 30 minutes
- When the cake has room temperature, place cut in half horizontally and whip with dulce de leche.
- Put chocolate on the top and around the cake
- Put the cake into the fridge for one hour.
If you prefer you can add rhum to the dulce de leche and chopped walnut on the top
No more excuses!
Now you have YAKIToMe! A wonderful site that speaks back to you. All you have to do is:
- register (it's free)
- type (or copy and paste) a text and push the PLAY button.
- or upload a file (doc., pdf., txt.) and push the PLAY button.
- and listen! They will read your text aloud with a nice, understandable pronunciation.
Finally, if you want, you can also convert it into an audio file and take it with you in your mp3 player. Isn't it great?
Hope you make the most of it.
Today we'll revise modal verbs.
Some of you were asking for a sort of summary or table about modals. Here you can download a very complete one.
Do you prefer a complete lesson? Click here to access one.
Would you like to test yourself? Here and here you have some exercises. Also here and here.
Here is a site where you have lots of quizzes arranged by levels. Have an example to see if it's useful for you. Select the right word in each question, and finally click on "See how you did" to check your answers. Finally, you can also look at the transcript to read the lyrics of the song.
You can start by reading a general summary here.
IN, ON AT: Are you never sure about how to use IN, ON and AT? Here you have a very good explanation and an exercise. Would you like to try the BBC's Grammar Challenge to see how these prepositions are used to talk about TIME? Then click here.
MOVEMENT: You can read about prepositions of direction here and do an exercise too.
Do some more EXERCISES about prepositions of time and place here. You have more exercises here and here.
GAMES: Listen and pick the right picture in this game. Another game about prepositions here. A very nice interactive game here. Would you like to play basketball and practice your prepositions? Then go to this site to try.
No more excuses not to learn English: why don't you try Vaughan TV?
Click here and register (you will have to sign up for an account). You'll have access to lots of short English lessons on many different topics and with different teachers.
Remember: you can also try Vaughan Radio.
Both sites are updated on a regular basis. Keep visiting them from time to time!
Hope you have a wonderful Easter holiday. Take care.
We're nearly through unit 4 and ready to get started with unit 5. Today we'll mix content from both units:
- giving directions
- and party language
Can you guess what we're going to do? We're going to invite our classmates to a party at home. Click here to access the page and follow the instructions. Remember to include directions on how to get to your flat / house!
By the way... Who's cooking? (I can already imagine a person or two)
Try to match the following slogans with their corresponding products. Good luck!
“Coffee at its best”
"Probably the best lager in the world"
“The best a man can get"
"The happiest place on Earth"
"Be the best"
"The toughest job you'll ever love"
Carlin Black Label lager
“Keeps going and going and going."
“No battery is stronger longer."
Maxwell House coffee
“The lighter way to enjoy chocolate"
“The real thing"
Nescafé Gold Blend
“Your best bet for a fuller flavour"
“The most trusted name in news"
"Good to the last drop."
Would you like to listen to the explanations from the BBC? Then visit their Grammar Challenge page here.
If you prefer to read, click here to access a thorough explanation of the Present Perfect.
You can also do exercises here and here.
I know you are all looking forward to listening to Kool Keita again. Who is Kool Keita? The stylist we listened to in class the other day! Don't you remember? He spoke about what is HOT and what is not.
Listen again and feel free to explore other videos too. Click on the following links to access them:
- Fashion fundamentals.
- Fashion Dos and Don'ts.
- And your favourite: All about Shoes.
But remember! It's dangerous to become a fashion victim. | <urn:uuid:07ae57ab-9d45-4f0a-9858-a0c7a6391441> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://englishwithlaura2.blogspot.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924289 | 1,799 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Posted by ESC on September 06, 2005
In Reply to: Bells and whistles posted by Kanyaraj on September 06, 2005
: What is the origin of the phrase "With all the bells and whistles"?
Here is what was said previously. Anyone got a new take on this phrase?
bells and whistles ... noun phrase
In colloquial use in computing, additional facilities in a system, program, etc. which help to make it commercially attractive but are often not really essential; gimmicks.
An allusion to the old fairground organs, with their multiplicity of _bells_ and _whistles_; the _bells_ of a computer are actually a range of electronic bleeps.
There are more tha 600 microsystems on the market so it is hardly surprising that the manufacturers have taken to hanging a few bells and whistles on to their machines to get them noticed.
_Sunday Times_ 26 Aug. 1984, p. 49
From _The Oxford Dictionary of New Words_ | <urn:uuid:4e848826-1ab2-49a9-b055-d564c991ad75> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/43/messages/179.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958194 | 215 | 2.296875 | 2 |
The appliances are designed for virtual environments and run on any VMware certified hardware or Amazon cloud platforms.
Open source storage solutions specialist Gluster announced the
release of its Virtual Storage Appliances specifically designed for
virtual machine and cloud environments. The appliances are designed to
give small to medium-size businesses (SMBs) the ability to treat
physical storage as a virtualized, standardized, and scale-on-demand
pool in much the same way that they treat computing resources today,
improving storage economics in the process.
The VMware Virtual Storage Appliance integrates GlusterFS into a
virtual machine for deployment on any VMware certified hardware or
cloud platform. For Amazon Web Services (AWS), GlusterFS is packaged in
an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) for deployment on the AWS public cloud.
The appliances are Gluster storage servers that pool storage resources
under a global namespace with elastic volume management for data growth
and migration with no downtime.
"The interest in scale-out storage has significantly increased recently
as enterprises look for the most effective way to address scalability
and manageability in such highly dynamic environments as the cloud,"
said Terri McClure, a senior analyst at IT research firm Enterprise
Strategy Group. "Gluster's new offering is representative of the types
of major breakthroughs we're seeing in storage technology for VM and
cloud environments, delivering the scale-out architecture that is
needed in a highly responsive manner thanks to its software approach to
The software-only appliances are decoupled from hardware and virtualize
the underlying disk and memory resources in a unified global namespace.
With this feature, enterprises are able to deploy storage similar to
virtual machines and eliminate the need for expensive physical
monolithic storage systems, the company said. Additionally, storage is
centrally managed across a wide variety of workloads.
The Gluster AMI is available in multiple instance types from Amazon Web
Services. The flexibility of the AWS pay-as-you-go model combined with
the elastic scaling capabilities of Gluster is designed to allow
businesses the ability to only deploy and pay for what is needed when
needed. Gluster offers a fully Portable Operating System Interface for
Unix (POSIX) compatible interface that aggregates multiple Elastic
Block Storage (EBS) devices in a unified pool. This storage pool can be
accessed simultaneously by hundreds of clients and configured for high
"Over the past decade, enterprises have seen enormous gains as they
have migrated from proprietary, monolithic server architectures to
architectures that are virtualized, open source, standardized, and
commoditized. Virtualization technology is at the heart of cloud
computing, but unfortunately the storage side of the equation has not
kept pace with computing," said AB Periasamy, co-founder and CTO of
Gluster. "Gluster's new virtual storage appliances play a crucial role
in closing the server-storage virtualization gap and deliver a solution
that is tailor-made for cloud and VM environments."
Nathan Eddy is Associate Editor, Midmarket, at eWEEK.com. Before joining eWEEK.com, Nate was a writer with ChannelWeb and he served as an editor at FierceMarkets. He is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. | <urn:uuid:879b0c27-1e52-46b1-90e4-9da76f95913d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Midmarket/Gluster-Introduces-NAS-Virtual-Appliances-for-VMware-Amazon-Web-Services-148680/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921398 | 690 | 1.507813 | 2 |
You are here: PureEnergySystems.com
> News > March 6,
AOGFG Looking to Sell MW+ Power Rather than Inertial Generator Devices
Bobby Amarasingam has been very busy at the drawing board since last
Fall, using simulation software to find an optimal design to harvest rotational
inertial force. Now he has another prototype, and plans to make devices on the
megawatt level to sell power, rather than devices, for now.
Pure Energy Systems News
Seeing three videos posted to YouTube showing some earlier work of Bobby Amarsingam's this morning, I pinged him on Skype to ask about them, and ended up getting a fire hydrant update of information
As you regulars will know, Bobby is the inventor outside of Wells, England, who has been building devices in an attempt to harness the power of gravity and inertia.
In the past year, he has shifted his focus to using rotation as a way to increase inertia as a function of rotation speed, so that as you double the speed, you get 4x the amount of power. The faster you spin it, the more irrelevant the input power requirement becomes; but you also start having materials and bearings limitations at higher speeds.
I traveled to Wells last August to see one of his prototypes, which we had thought was looking very promising, but it turned out that the 10x+ overunity of that prototype was a function of measurement error, and that particular arrangement was not overunity at all.
Here's a video showing that device:
At around the same time of that disappointing news, he hooked up with some scientists who, while acknowledging the problems with his present design, believed in the core concept based on some success they personally had achieved from their own work, and who had some resources to bring to the table to help come up with an improved design. More than just the computer simulation capability they made available, their most valuable contribution has been intellectual, giving Bobby a regular training in the science and math involved.
As I have been receiving updates from Bobby, he has been telling me how impressed he has been with how much he
learns each time he talks to them. A couple of months ago, he said they had found 67 different working configurations, but they were trying to find the optimal design.
Now he has built another prototype, and he posted photos of it on his Facebook page.
He said that at a minimal rpm it produces 7 kW while consuming less than 500 watts, but that it is probably capable of 250 kW within its present engineering, hooked up with the right combination of driver motor and generator. But for practical reasons of present circumstances, he'll keep the demonstration to 7 kW, which is plenty to prove the technology for qualified groups.
He said he is still working out issue with synchronizing the output to be able to feed the input so it is fully-self-looped once coming up to a certain minimal speed.
I asked him about this video posted by user Eltimple of an earlier (~Summer 2011) prototype from Bristol
that was posted in the past few hours.
He said that it was overunity, but wasn't able to go very fast, being only a function of gravity (going faster caused centripetal forces to counteract gravitational forces), and thus was limited in how much power it could generate. "That's just a toy compared to what we have now."
The other two videos (1
| 2) uploaded by Eltimple are of a replication of the design from last Fall, which did not work. I'm not sure why someone went through the effort to do that, unless the video was shot back then and only recently uploaded.
Here's that second video:
Bobby has a spreadsheet that has all the equations and parameter options integrated into it. You can watch the input/output numbers change as you
modify variables such as the weight, the diameter of rotation, the rotation speed, etc.
For example, if you plug in: 2 kg with a pendulum radius of 6 cm spinning at 3000 rpm (there are four of these), with the main wheel radius of 0.4 m; the calculated power output comes to nearly 800
kW. That kind of power density is unmatched anywhere on the planet, as far as I know.
Generally speaking, according to this spreadsheet, in pretty much any combination, the inertial generator is smaller than the electrical generator that it turns to generate electricity. And there is no fuel requirement whatsoever. The energy comes from principles of inertia that modern science has not yet grasped.
For those of you, like me, who grapple with wondering how that could work, here is a little anecdote that might help you realize that there is something going on here that scientists will be having fun with probably for at least a century. Bobby said that when they were first running the inertial generator in the shop, before having the timing right, the other machines in the shops were vibrating -- not from the machine itself vibrating and inducing vibrations through the floor to the other equipment. The force seemed to be permeating from the device. But this issue was resolved after about a week.
The roll-out strategy for the technology will give them some time and lee-way to work through questions like this, by locating the devices away from human occupants.
Rather than sell the devices, AOGFG Company Ltd. plans to sell the power generated by the devices. And rather than deal with small outputs at first, they plan to start in the 1-10 Megawatt range. (They're looking for suppliers of 1-10 MW electrical generators, by the way.)
A device situated in a 10-foot shipping container, for example, could be located near a substation to provide power near the point of local use.
The price to the wholesaler would be around 1-2 pence (~cents) per kilowatt-hour, which is cheaper than nuclear power.
At first, they plan to limit distribution to Western Europe, where there is a strong impetus to adopt clean energy sources for carbon tax credits. They already have around 300 MW of production lined up from interested parties. They may
also consider some installations outside Europe, if there is a compelling reason, such as
something having to do with humanitarian causes.
Bobby expects that the first units could be ready for deployment within six months, following the alpha testing, fabrication, contracting, and permitting process that will be involved.
Then, once they have properly engineered and tested smaller devices, they can begin licensing the sale of those; but that will probably be 1-2 years away.
They are considering investment offers, but don't want to give away too much control of the company for this technology that could become as common as cell phones.
To illustrate the potential uses, a unit that weighs 2 tons could put out 96 MW. That is enough to power a 747 jumbo jet, replacing the 130 tons of weight from the present engines and
fuel. Plus, with the weight savings, you could even boost the power to enable faster flight. And it wouldn't have to stop to refuel.
Bobby is also working on a variation of this technology that provides constant acceleration in one
direction, though that is still on the drawing board.
I'm approaching my associates at North Point Charity about setting up a link specifically for Bobby's technology, in case people want to make a tax-free donation to that cause. Once enough funds are raised, the charity can choose to invest in Bobby's technology, with no strings attached, and as his technology does well, then that revenue can go toward helping other inventors. (I'm working on a story about NPC. Stay tuned for that.)
About the Inventor
I have found Bobby to be brilliant, humble, and very experienced in a wide range of disciplines: farming, day trader (stock broker, 5 years), market, flower shop, military, machine shop, etc. Not only has he worked in these areas, but he's innovated in each. He has started and ran businesses before.
He gave up a lot of wealth 2.5 years ago to pursue this idea full-time. People thought he was crazy. He was driving five very nice antique cars but sold them to finance this R&D.
Philosophically, he runs very deep. He's an old soul; no push-over; extremely courageous; not afraid to be going up against the very corrupt powers that be.
He has big plans about how to change the planet through humanitarian efforts from the
money raised from this project. As I interacted with some of the people we encountered while walking through town, it was clear that they look up to him and respect him.
Bobby's technology has moved in and out of the Top
5 Exotic Free Energy Technologies listing over the past year. But with this
latest development, I'm going to put it back in there in position 5. But once we
have independent validation of his device, then it will move up, possibly to
position 2 or even 1, depending on how those are looking at the time.
# # #
This story is also published at BeforeItsNews
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- Let professionals in the renewable energy sector know about the promise of | <urn:uuid:5df78fe8-daf7-44a6-9b15-4246ff25197c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pesn.com/2012/03/06/9602051_AOGFG_Looking_to_Sell_MW_Power_Rather_than_Inertial_Generator_Devices_Themselves/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972107 | 1,993 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Genetics of Taste Goes National with PBS!
Posted 3/22/2011 12:03 AM by Nicole Garneau | Comments
What a great year it has been for us in the Genetics of Taste
lab, and it seems others are taking notice. I returned to the
office to find a wonderful present from Rebecca Jacobson, a science
and technology reporter for PBS- an article about our study, the
citizen scientists involved, and cool quotes from some great taste
scientists! A very happy holiday indeed and a great jumping point
for the new year.
From PBS NEWSHOUR online...
Science & Technology Updated: Dec. 23, 2010,
11:57 a.m. ET
The Bitter Taste of Genetics
Cheek swabs, taste buds tests and tongues dyed blue -- it's all
part of an experiment on taste genetics at the Denver Museum of
Science and Nature. Reporter Rebecca Jacobson took a test drive
through the tasting process.
The Denver Museum of Science is running a volunteer-based
experiment on taste and genetics.
BY REBECCA JACOBSON
"I think we have a taster! Maybe even a
That's what the Denver Museum of Science and Nature's curator
of human health said, laughing, as I made a face. It was Thursday
afternoon, and Nicole Garneau, the curator, and Patty Drever, a
volunteer, had just swabbed my cheek and instructed me to lick a
piece of bitter paper. Imagine black coffee grounds mixed with raw
broccoli. To me, it tasted that bad.
To read more follow the link below...
From the Health Sciences Department at DMNS to you... Happy New
comments powered by | <urn:uuid:436f436f-a686-4b36-8338-5118ec585cb9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dmns.org/science/museum-blog/post/?nid=7697 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914878 | 364 | 1.9375 | 2 |
The blistering pace that has characterized Utah’s economy for the past few years has begun to cool, experts say. The national housing slump and high oil prices have both played a part in the slower pace, but the Beehive State remains at the head of the pack in significant areas such as home appreciation and job growth. Experts see the slowdown as part of the natural economic cycle and are cautiously optimistic that Utah will continue to attract companies looking to relocate, thus maintaining low unemployment and providing a stable local economy.
When the national housing market took a hit in 2007, Utah seemed unaffected at first. By the first of this year, however, home sales had dipped and the number of housing starts declined dramatically. In the first quarter of 2008, for example, home and condo sales in Utah were down 11 percent compared to the previous quarter while housing starts were down 60 percent.
Despite the negative number, that 11 percent decrease was an improvement over the fourth quarter of 2007, which showed a quarterly decrease of about 33 percent, according to the Utah Association of Realtors and it appears that picture will continue to brighten. In May, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight reported that Utah showed a 5.58 percent change in housing prices in the first quarter of 2008 – the second highest home price appreciation in the nation.
“The housing market is still a little sluggish. We anticipate it will stay that way probably through the summer, but the third or fourth quarter should improve some,” says David Mansell, president of the Utah Association of Realtors.
Like the housing trend, other national factors affect the local economy, says Kelly Matthews, executive vice president and economist for Wells Fargo. “The costs of food and energy are evident in terms of the Utah economy. We have not been immune. The Utah economy has slowed in its growth.”
Matthews is almost as optimistic as Mansell about the duration of the housing decline, saying that he thinks the market is “probably at least halfway and maybe more than halfway through the adjustment process. We’re not done yet. A lot of these homes are not sold yet [and] I think that home prices will still decline. I think by the end of this year we will have a significant reduction in the size of the housing overhang and, in fact, I think sometime this year we will actually start building a few more houses.”
As with the housing market in 2005 and 2006, the state’s unemployment and job growth rates accelerated at a record-setting pace. In the first half of this year, they’ve slowed down. The Department of Workforce Services estimated the April job growth at 2 percent while unemployment was at 3.1 percent. Experts say job growth will likely slow even more through the end of the year.
“I could clearly see us dipping to a point where we may have a 1 percent job growth on average for this year,” Matthews says, but also adds that “we will remain among the better-performing economies in the Western area.”
The retail sector also set records during the past few years, but had an unremarkable showing in 2008.
That’s not surprising, says Darrell Tate, an investment specialist with Commerce CRG, because new retail projects weren’t planned for this year. “This marked slowdown does not reflect the health of the market. Retailers are establishing their market position and the product [built in the past few years] is being absorbed.”
Vacancy and lease rates remain low, Tate says, indicating a healthy retail sector. Nevertheless, he does see retailers being less likely to expand in the current economic climate. “There’s virtually not a retailer we work with or have talked to that hasn’t expressed a more cautious approach,” he says.
Meanwhile, construction of City Creek Center in downtown Salt Lake and the remodeling of virtually all the major shopping malls in the Salt Lake Valley, except South Towne, point to a vigorous retail picture in coming years, Tate says.
Much more promising for the current economy is the manufacturing sector, which continues to draw new companies such as Procter & Gamble. The closure of La-Z-Boy’s Tremonton plant and the layoffs at West Jordan’s KraftMaid appear to be anomalies, says Mark Knold, chief economist with the Department of Workforce Services, “but it does show the vulnerability of manufacturing and does bring home the point that it is fragile. If the national [situation] does get worse, if the oil just pushes people too far, then one of the first places it’s going to show itself in Utah would be the manufacturing sector.”
Jeff Thredgold, Zions Bank economist, compares Utah’s economy to a car: “In the summer of 2006 it was going at about 80 mph. The summer of last year it was down to about 60 mph and right now it would be running about 25 mph.”
That may seem to be a snail’s pace, “but when you look at a U.S. economy that’s right on the edge of recession, that has slowed down to essentially zero mph, then that 25 mph pace doesn’t look quite so bad,” Thredgold says.
Within that speed limit, Utah’s economy has many green lights. Every market sector except construction has showed job growth, and even non-residential construction remains strong. Knold points to health care, which has had consistent growth of nothing less than 4 percent in the past decade, as one particularly vigorous sector. The education and government sectors have also been strong during this cycle of weakening economy, he says.
Another of Utah’s bright spots is exports, Thredgold says, and the natural gas, coal and oil exploration sectors are doing very well also.
In the residential investment market, the flippers of the past few years seem to have fled, but “investing in apartment buildings and multifamily right now may be the darling investment of our small economic downturn here,” says Kip Paul, a Commerce CRG investment specialist. “There are a lot of good reasons why they’re not only good right now but they’re going to get nothing but better from the investment perspective.”
The supply of apartments in the Salt Lake Valley has grown only about 1 percent annually, while the pool of renters has swelled, leading to the classic problem of high demand and low supply. As a result, rents have risen, Paul says. “And I don’t think anybody sees those variables or circumstances changing in a dramatic way that’s going to change the outlook of increasing rents. And as rents increase, that’s how you develop rapid equity in your apartment investments.”
Unfortunately for investors, the supply of multifamily properties for sale also is at a premium, Paul says. “We can sell them as fast as we can find them. It’s difficult to get current owners to become sellers. We definitely don’t have enough sellers for what we have as buyers.”
Slow But Steady
The number of firms looking to relocate or expand in Utah “has continued to be steady, if not increasing,” says Jeff Edwards, CEO of the Economic Development Corporation of Utah, “and the inquiries are from a diverse set of industries. There is expansion of manufacturing going on and it’s happening in areas where there needs to be a high value added and other concerns that won’t allow that process to be off-shored.”
Utah’s educated workforce, as well as the state’s increasing population and central location, are appealing factors to companies such as Sephora, West Liberty Foods and Nucor Steel, Edwards says. Moreover, those companies are locating throughout Utah, not just along the Wasatch Front.
“There are opportunities all over this state,” Edwards says. His examples: a new FedEx facility in Salina, Heritage Plastics in Millford and Charlotte Pipe in Cedar City as well as Oracle in West Jordan.
While several of the new companies have yet to open their doors, Utah’s job growth is half that of a year ago.
That’s not entirely a bad thing, Matthews points out. “The important thing for everybody to realize is that [there] is still growth,” he says. “That 2 percent in April still represented about 25,000 jobs greater than what was in Utah a year ago. Yes, we have slowed, but we continue to be in pretty good shape compared to some of our major competitive states, which are already flat or negative in terms of job growth performance.”
Overall, local economists are mixed in their predictions about Utah’s economy through the remainder of 2008.
Matthews remains the most optimistic. “I think we’re well on the way to adjustment in the housing sector, we’re fortunate that our job growth is positive even though it is slow, and I don’t think that Utah is facing anything that would remotely be a state recession,” he says. “If somebody smiles on us and crude oil prices should stabilize at this point and gradually ease, I think our economy in Utah nine months from now could be noticeably better.”
For Thredgold, the good news is comparative. “It’s an economy that’s slowing down, but one that still looks awfully good versus its neighbors and versus the rest of country,” he says.
Knold, on the other hand, balances positive factors such as the job growth against the higher prices of oil and food. “Consumers are the weak point here,” he says. “The more things that keep battering consumers as we go on through the rest of this year, the more it weakens the overall [economy.]” He projects Utah’s job growth will bottom out at 1 percent, but adds, “the odds could be worse than what I think. There are some real tough tea leaves out there.” | <urn:uuid:387647d6-7e89-4864-a20b-387a16447b4e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://utahbusiness.com/articles/view/holding_steady_moving_forward | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969341 | 2,123 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Did You Know …?
Your heart has two sides that are separated by an inner wall. The right side pumps blood to the lungs to pick up oxygen. Then, oxygen-rich blood returns from the lungs to the left side of the heart, and the left side pumps it to the body, says the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
Heed heart attack warning signs
Anyone who has chest pain that worsens over a five-minute period should call for emergency medical help, according to the American Heart Association (AHA).
Worsening chest pain, especially if accompanied by shortness of breath, weakness or lightheadedness, can be a sign of a heart attack. The more quickly a person having a heart attack is treated, the more likely the person is to survive without long-term complications, the AHA says.
Other symptoms of a heart attack include pain in the arms, back, neck, jaw or stomach. Not everyone having a heart attack experiences typical symptoms. The more signs and symptoms you have, the more likely that you are having a heart attack.
Heart disease levels vary widely across the country, with the highest rates of coronary heart disease, heart attack and angina found in Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia, according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Aspirin, cancer and your heart
Aspirin is often given early in the treatment of a heart attack, but generally not to cancer patients, because of fears of bleeding. A 2007 study in the journal Cancer, however, found that aspirin boosted the survival rate of cancer patients who had heart attacks.
An electrocardiogram (EKG) is a simple, painless test that your health care provider can use to find out if you have heart problems. An EKG shows the heart's rhythm. The test also can show if the heart is not receiving enough blood (ischemia) and can sometimes show if the heart is abnormally enlarged, says the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
Guidelines for women
New guidelines for preventing cardiovascular disease in women call for a long-term approach to reducing risk, the American Heart Association says. Among the new guidelines: All women should reduce saturated fat to less than 7 percent of total calories, and women who need to lose weight should exercise for 60 to 90 minutes most days of the week.
Type 2 diabetes increases the risk for heart disease, but having depression, as well, further boosts the risk, say researchers at Duke University. If you have diabetes and/or depression, work closely with your health care provider to help prevent heart disease.
Cardiac arrest occurs when the heart suddenly stops functioning, most often because of coronary heart disease. A person in cardiac arrest will not respond and will have stopped breathing. It's vital to have someone immediately call 911, get an AED (automated external defibrillator) if possible, and begin CPR immediately, the American Heart Association says.
Factors increase atherosclerosis risk
Atherosclerosis, frequently dubbed "hardening of the arteries," is the number one cause of death in the United States, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute says. The agency adds these factors can increase your risk of developing atherosclerosis:
- High blood levels of "bad" cholesterol and low levels of "good" cholesterol.
- High blood pressure.
- Having diabetes.
- Being overweight.
- Not getting enough exercise.
- Eating an unhealthy diet full of fat, cholesterol, sugar or salt.
- Getting older.
- Having a family history of heart disease, especially at an early age. | <urn:uuid:18be67cc-426a-4101-9f50-84d725e1dca7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ummchealth.com/Health_Care_Services/Heart/Adult/Did_You_Know_%E2%80%A6_.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.90135 | 761 | 2.890625 | 3 |
An overview of the 2008/09 financial year crime statistics report for North West province as presented to provincial stakeholders by North West MEC for Public Safety, Mr HD Yawa, MPL, Mmabatho Civic Centre
16 Oct 2009
Chairperson and members of the Portfolio Committee on Public Safety
Representatives of the House of Traditional leaders
Members of mayoral committees responsible for public safety
Head of the Department, Obakeng Mongale
Provincial Commissioner, Lesetja Beetha
Representatives of the business sector, church organisations, faith based organisations, labour, youth and women organisations, farmers, non-governmental organisations
Members of community policing forums
Members of the media
Ladies and gentlemen
In 2004, Cabinet set the target for reduction of contact crimes by between seven to 10 percent annually. This call was reiterated by the Honourable President Jacob Zuma during the state of the nation address delivered on 3 June 2009. This is a national target which is also applicable to all the provinces. There are six serious crime categories that will be discussed.
1. Contact crimes
The contact crimes are: murder, attempted murder, and assault to do grievous bodily harm, assault common, and robbery with aggravating circumstances, common robbery and sexual offences.
It must be noted that the Sexual Offences and Related Matters Act 32 of 2007 was implemented as from 17 December 2007. The statistics for sexual offences must be read with circumspection as the new act makes provision for new offences, for example: men can also be raped and the penetration of a range of body orifices are now grouped under sexual offences. This is the reason why sexual offences are excluded in this presentation from the category contact crimes.
For the financial year 2008/09 in comparison with the previous financial year 2007/08 the province succeeded to decrease the category contact crimes with one percent. The increases or decreases for the specific crimes are as follows:
* Murder: up by two percent
* Robbery with aggravating circumstances: up by eight percent
* Assault to do grievous bodily harm: none
* Attempted murder: down by two percent
* Common assault: down by two percent
* Common robbery: down by one percent
2. Contact related crimes
Arson and malicious damage to property are considered as contact related crimes. These crimes either flow from individual or collective behaviour:
* Malicious damage to property: none
* Arson: down by nine percent
3. Property related crimes
These crimes are:
* Burglary, residential (including attempts): up by five percent
* Burglary, business (including attempts): up by 13 percent
* Theft out or from motor vehicles (including attempts): up by three percent
* Stock theft: up by 12 percent
* Theft of motor vehicles or cycles (including attempts): down by seven percent
4. Crimes heavily dependent on police action for detection
These crimes are normally not reported to the police but are successes depending on police action and detection. An increase is viewed as positive police action.
These crimes are:
* Illegal possession of firearms and ammunition: up by two percent
* Drug related crimes: up by five percent.
* Driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs: down by eight percent.
5. Other serious crimes
Theft other, this is theft that is not associated with the other thefts within the different categories, fraud and shoplifting.
These crimes are:
* Fraud: up by 64 percent
* Shoplifting: up by seven percent
* Theft other: down by one percent
6. Sub categories of aggravated robbery
These crimes are included under robbery aggravating, but indicated separately for measuring purposes.
These crimes are:
* Bank robbery: up by eight percent
* House robbery: up by 20 percent
* Business robbery: up by 40 percent
* Car hijacking: down by one percent
* Truck hijacking: down by 17 percent
* Robbery of cash in transit: down by 70 percent
It must be noted that many of the business robberies are the so called informal business which are also owned by foreigners, who keep their money with them in the shops. The criminals then target these businesses for the money.
7. Sexual offences
As mentioned above, sexual offences are indicated separately and it increased with nine percent.
8. Trio crimes
Trio crimes are serious and violent crimes such as house robbery, business robbery and car hijacking.
* Carjacking is reduced by one percent, the province is number two compared to other provinces, while Western Cape reduced by 24.4 percent
* House robbery or robbery at residential premises did increase by 20.2 percent, but still compare to other provinces this province is number two. Number one is Gauteng with an increase of 11 percent.
* Robbery at non-residential premises (business robbery) increase by 39.6 percent, the province compared to other provinces is number three, while Gauteng is number one and KwaZulu-Natal in the second place.
9. Crime trends since 2004
Since 2004 and 2005 to 2008 and 2009 the total contact crime category was decreased with 28.4 percent.
Even though contact crimes have been reduced by one percent, I want to remind you that we should reduce it between seven to 10 percent. Property related crimes category has increased by six percent and we should reduce it by three percent. With regard to trio crimes we should work harder because this category instils fear in our communities as we are aware of where the hotspots are.
Having seen crime trend in five years I want to reiterate the call of our President Jacob Zuma and our Premier to pull up our sleeves in the fight against crime particularly that our province is hosting 2010 in Rustenburg as the host city.
Strategic focus area for interventions
* Effective visible policing by South African Police Services (SAPS) through interventions such as; Operation Festive which has commenced from 1 October 2009
* Effective social crime prevention by SAPS through 16 Days of activism
Then in 1996, government adopted the national crime prevention strategy (NCPS). The strategy provided a framework for a multi-dimensional approach to crime prevention. Amongst other things, the strategy provided a means by which government departments should integrate their approaches to problems of crime control and crime prevention.
In keeping with the approach outlined in the national crime prevention strategy, I am convinced that effective and efficient law enforcement and the provision of social crime prevention programs to reduce the occurrence of crime, coordinated at local government level will reduce the fear of contact and trio crimes.
The multi disciplinary approach coordinated by local government through structures such as community safety forum whereby all role players from justice, crime prevention and security cluster, community police forums, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), civil society, Business Against Crime should implement social crime prevention strategies such as street committees, neighbourhood watch, community patrols, campaigns of destroying markets for stolen goods, installing closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras and working in partnership with security companies will make us achieve our goals.
The work of fighting crime is becoming more complex and, therefore, more challenging. Criminals are becoming more organised and more sophisticated, it means that the work of fighting crime cannot only be left in the hands of the police, but it should be the responsibility of every one of us therefore I call upon you to become more organised and more sophisticated against criminals and take back our streets.
It is particularly a local level that the war against crime has to be won hence we value the involvement of all sections of our communities in determining appropriate interventions and support required for us to break the backbone of criminality.
As I handover to the police management to take us through the detailed presentation and hotspots that need all of our collective effort for us to win the war against crime, I wish to emphasise that the only people who should live in fear are the criminals because we’ll be taking the war to them for them to forever be on the back foot.
Ke a leboga.
Issued by: Department of Public Safety, North West Provincial Government
16 October 2009
Source: Department of Public Safety, North West Provincial Government (http://www.nwpg.gov.za/public_safety/PSdefault.html)
Issued by: North West Provincial Government
16 Oct 2009
[ Top ] | <urn:uuid:897413ad-34fd-4aae-b318-085a78fa38de> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.info.gov.za/speech/DynamicAction?pageid=461&tid=5194 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944855 | 1,712 | 1.945313 | 2 |
ALBANY, Ga. -- Earlier this year, a local hospital opened a fast-track facility for patients with minor illnesses or injuries.
So far, the system seems to be working well.
On March 1, Palmyra Medical Center opened an urgent care center in the hospital's emergency department to help get patients with less severe ailments out of the building quicker so that more time could be spent with those in more serious condition.
"The sicker patients get more time spent with doctors and get better care," explained Dr. Gloria Kayfan.
A patient's condition is initially evaluated on a level system, with Level 1 including the most severe issues such as cardiac arrest, and Level 5 being abrasions or other minor conditions. The urgent care facility at Palmyra focuses on Level 4 and 5 patients.
"This is to get people who don't need to spend a lot of time in the emergency room to be treated quicker," said Dawn Singleton, Palmyra's emergency center director.
Once a person goes to the emergency room, he or she goes through the triage area and their severity level is determined. They are then evaluated by a nurse and a mid-level provider -- a classification which includes nurse practitioners, physician assistants and certified registered nurses -- in one of the five exam rooms.
More than 90 percent of the patients seen at the center are discharged within an hour. Roughly 30-40 percent of Palmyra's patient population goes through the system.
Having the system in place not only means more time is spent on more severe cases, but more space is available at the emergency center to put those patients in.
"Prior to the fast-track system, we had non-emergent patients taking up the beds, so we didn't have the beds to put the sicker patients in," Kayfan said.
Patient care overall has also improved in the long-run.
"The quality of care we have given patients has improved," Kayfan said. "We have a lot more admissions, and total patient care overall has significantly improved.
"We've had an increased number of ambulances, and it has given providers more time with a patient."
On average, 100 patients are seen in the urgent care center each day. The average physician-to-bed time is eight minutes.
The urgent care center is open from 11 a.m.-11 p.m. throughout the week. | <urn:uuid:3aecedce-7dcb-4a5d-86ac-67f05073ff9f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.albanyherald.com/news/2010/may/23/palmyra-takes-on-urgent-care/?features | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97036 | 494 | 1.765625 | 2 |
The tyranny of health guilds is both harmful to our health and destructive of our rights. It’s time for it to end. Our right to access the healthcare we choose must be restored.
The inherent assumption behind licensing of medical practitioners is that people are too stupid to determine who is capable of helping them resolve their health problems. Are we really that stupid? Or is it a matter of small groups of people taking control over areas of commerce to create monopolies for themselves?
If I want to utilize a particular type of health practice, by what right does the government tell me that I can’t? Who has the right to presume to understand my needs better than I do myself?
Licenses to practice medicine and an array of other health-related services are the result of pressure from guilds. Guilds are, simply, organizations of the practitioners of any art, skill, or practice for the purpose of promoting and protecting their ability to pursue and profit from what they do. To that end, they may set rules for themselves. It’s how the original Hippocratic Oath came to be. However, the primary purpose of that oath is not as it’s generally understood. Its purpose was to assure that the members would behave in a manner that would bring no harm to their common interests.
It’s natural, in the promotion of one’s interests, to try to keep anyone not of your guild from performing the same service that you do. The guild’s rules, though, are not necessarily concerned with the interests of the people. The betterment of its members is the primary concern. Of course, they’ll use the excuse that people might be harmed if someone who isn’t of their guild performs that service—but surely the fact that they have a vested interest in saying so should be all the reason we need to discount the claim.
Things have now gone so far that a man who produces a website about diabetes and nutrition—a man who cured himself of diabetes through nutrition—is under threat by the state of North Carolina for practicing as a nutritionist without a license. Steve Cooksey produces Diabetes Warrior, where he clarifies that he’s neither a doctor nor a nutritionist. He offers information and advice, along with his own personal experience of curing diabetes with diet. Had he done what the folk who are licensed as dieticians say, he’d still be fat and diabetic. Obviously, the officially licensed dieticians are not providing the best information.
Why should Steve or anyone else be required to get a license to give advice? No one’s forcing anyone to follow it.
A huge number of people have beaten cancer by going to non-AMA approved and nonlicensed practitioners. Many have made their own plans to cure themselves by reading and doing what makes sense to them. Yet, the medical profession’s guild has managed to create laws that say no one but they may offer advice or treatment for cancer. Anyone who does is at risk of criminal prosecution for practicing medicine without a license.
And the people are at risk from the surgeries and toxic chemicals they use to treat cancer, while claiming that they know best. Yet, the FDA is constantly stopping any alternative cancer treatments, and prosecuting the practitioners. It matters not if they’ve saved lives. It matters not if people will die because their treatment is banned. It matters not how much proof exists for the efficacy of their treatments. The FDA says it isn’t approved, so it’s illegal. They have no concern for the destruction of lives that result—and neither do most of the officially licensed doctors who provide only toxic life-destroying treatments for cancer.
Certainly, if a practitioner misrepresents what he does. If he lies about his credentials or training, he should be prosecuted for criminal misconduct. The people have a right to be protected against that sort of criminal behavior.
Anyone who wants to utilize only the services of a particular guild can do so whether they’re licensed or not. If the guild cannot survive without the protection of government-granted licenses, then perhaps that guild should not survive.
Of course, the obvious example of such a guild likely dying a rapid death without the protection of government licensing is modern medicine. The travesties produced by them are without comparison in the history of humanity. The methods used to treat people are some of the most devastating practices ever known:
Parents are now often forced to let their children be vaccinated. People who want to try alternative treatments cannot gain access because they’re illegal. The licensed nutritionists are designing school food programs that destroy health. The average child is now chronically ill. Most people today probably have no idea how good health feels.
And the costs of this travesty are bankrupting us all! Because we have little choice, healthcare is a virtual monopoly. Like all monopolies, they price their products as high as they can. The result is healthcare that’s so costly the majority cannot access it and it literally threatens to bankrupt the country.
This is the disaster that’s been wrought by the tyranny of licensing health practitioners. It’s time for it to end, for this system is surely corrupted utterly. | <urn:uuid:359a247c-4e74-43e0-91c1-879afdf1a232> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gaia-health.com/gaia-blog/2012-04-25/time-to-end-the-tyranny-of-licenses-to-practice-medicine/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965844 | 1,075 | 1.578125 | 2 |
war effort against France was always hampered by a shortage
of cavalry. Pound for pound it was the equal of any, but
its lack of numbers was compounded by poor leadership and
indiscipline that wasted not only good opportunities, but
Heavy Cavalry Facings
were two distinct branches of British heavy cavalry
- the Household regiments and the heavy dragoons.
The Household troopers, which included the Life Guards
and Royal Horse Guards, were little used during the
early years of the Napoleonic Wars but some units
arrived in the Peninsular
War in 1812 and certainly made up for tardiness
with their heroics at Waterloo.
The heavy dragoons included seven regiments of Dragoon
Guards and six of Dragoons. Despite the addition of
the word guards there was little difference between
the two formations.
large men on large horses, the British heavies were
used as shock troops in battle. They would throw themselves
into the fray to bolster a weakening line, as at Waterloo,
or smash through the enemy formations and rout them.
1806, Britain had no real light cavalry and so the
duties expected of European hussars fell to the Light
Untrained in this role at home, the skills required
of light cavalry - patrolling, reconnaissance and
screening - had to be picked up while on active duty.
The best of the British units was the King's German
Legion, which performed excellent service in the Peninsula
and created history by breaking French infantry squares
at Garcia Hernandez.
became part of the British army after 1806, when
four Light Dragoon regiments - the 7th, 10th, 15th
and 18th - were styled hussars. | <urn:uuid:8ec21bb3-34b3-4d74-9440-ed92eefba1ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.napoleonguide.com/cavalry_britain.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961927 | 367 | 3.546875 | 4 |
Like everyone else, you hope to remain physically and financially independent your entire life. And you may well achieve this goal. Nonetheless, the future is not ours to see, so you’ll want to prepare yourself for as many contingencies as possible — one of which is the high cost of long-term care.
As you may know, long-term care primarily refers to nursing home expenses, but it also includes services provided in your own home. In either case, though, it could be expensive.
The national average rate for a private room in a nursing home was more than $87,000 per year in 2011, according to the 2011 MetLife Market Survey of Long-Term Care Costs. The same survey found that the average private-pay hourly rates for home health aides and homemaker companion services were $21 and $19, respectively.
With luck, of course, you won’t need to worry about these types of expenses. But consider this: People who reach age 65 have a 40 percent chance of entering a nursing home, according to a study by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. And about 10 percent of those who enter a nursing home will stay there five or more years.
Clearly, if you take no steps to prepare yourself for the potentially devastating costs of an extended nursing home stay, you could be jeopardizing the assets you’ve worked so hard to accumulate. Even worse, if you run through your money, you might end up creating a financial and emotional burden for your grown children.
Unfortunately, many people assume that a federal or state government program will help them pay for their long-term care expenses. However, Medicare pays only a small portion of nursing home costs, and to be eligible for Medicaid, you would likely have to divest yourself of most of your financial assets. Consequently, you’ll probably need to find another way to pay for long-term care.
Fortunately, there are investment or protection vehicles designed specifically to help you meet long-term care expenses. Your financial advisor can help you pick the option that’s most appropriate for your individual situation.
Having the ability to pay for long-term care is obviously important. But other issues may also enter the picture. For example, if you need to enter a nursing home, you may be suffering from a physical or mental disability that might prevent you from handling your own affairs.
This impairment could prove disastrous to your finances — which is why you can’t afford to take that type of chance. Instead, consult with your legal advisor to determine if you can benefit from a durable power of attorney — a document that lets you delegate your financial decisions to a relative, close friend or anyone else you might choose.
None of us like to think about spending time in a nursing home or needing round-the-clock care in our own homes. However, life is unpredictable. But even if you can’t avoid the need for long-term care, you can take steps to help reduce the financial strain it can cause you and your family.
• This article was written by Edward Jones for use by Ahwatukee Foothills Edward Jones Financial Advisor Kim DeVoss, CFP. Reach her at (480) 785-4751 or Kim.DeVoss@edwardjones.com. | <urn:uuid:c0954cb1-48c6-474d-a64f-837364f92934> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ahwatukee.com/money/article_ddba139c-8e3c-11e1-9d46-001a4bcf887a.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95671 | 682 | 1.773438 | 2 |
The drake who was bonded with Frick for several months before her eggs hatched hasn’t reappeared. That’s not unusual for Mallards, but as the smallest adult duck on the pond, she could use some help defending her offspring. She’s holding her own by staying away from all of the other ducks. When they approach, she quickly swims out of range and her nine day old tyke tags along behind her.
I heard a squawk near city hall and knew Frick was on her way to see me. Trailing her was one tiny duckling. That probably means the other four have been lost since I first saw them on June 21. Even this remaining one doesn’t seem to be flourishing. It didn’t nibble on the duck chow crumbs I threw to it. It’s the size of a 2-day-old but it’s about 8 days since it hatched.
As a first-time mother, Frick might not know how to care for youngsters yet. One of the tasks hen have is swimming her ducklings to nourishing food sources. There are plenty of them at the millpond this year. Small bays are filled with duckweed that’s small enough for the youngest ducklings to swallow and get the nutrition they need. Read all of Frick’s millpond adventures here.
I’m old enough to have had many losses in my life so I thought I might be able to help Frick deal with the destruction of her nest two days ago. In searching for her, I found her under the pine tree again on her old nest. I thought that was odd. I didn’t realize ducks would start laying eggs so quickly after losing a clutch. So I sat down on the raised flower bed’s edge where she was within reach and gave her a couple of handfuls of duck chow. She seemed appreciative to have the company and liked the vittles.
She took a couple of steps out of the nest to get closer to my hand. A tiny, dark head appeared below her. Then another and another. Well, I’ll be damned. Ducklings! Five of them! I didn’t think she had been nesting in that spot for 28 days and her eggs were so clean, they looked freshly laid when I photographed them just four days ago. It didn’t enter my mind that the broken eggs scattered around the nest were the remains of hatching instead of plunder.
Frick let the kids come right to me. I lifted up the little butterscotch babe, the only one that’s not marked like a typical Mallard. What a great surprise. It will be fun to watch these little ones grow up since it’s okay with mom if I’m around even if I have a tendency to write misleading blog posts. This is 2012Brood15. It’s not a contender for the grand prize, but a very happy addition.
|Drake(s)||Bonded to typical Mallard drake|
|DOB (estimate)||June 19|
|Pond Location||City Hall Entrance|
|1st Meeting||June 21 at the nest|
|Duckling Count||5 verified, four are typical coloration, one is butterscotch, June 21|
I saw the empty nest on June 19 with no sign of Frick and several broken eggs scattered. I thought a predator had destroyed the nest.
June 21: Frick was back in the nest which I thought was odd. I didn’t know ducks would renest so soon after their eggs were ruined. As I was hand feeding her, tiny heads started to pop out from underneath her. Babies! Five of them.
Posts including this brood: | <urn:uuid:e247918d-b658-4b06-9714-6c3a0b3c4a7b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.words4it.com/?tag=2012brood15 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980313 | 802 | 1.960938 | 2 |
When Barack Obama said in Roanoke, Virginia, recently that “if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own,” he wasn’t all wrong. In fact, he knows well someone whose life thus attests. This person is a man of mixed race who billed himself as black. Growing up in a very liberal state, he was surrounded by guilt-ridden white liberals who told him his flatulence smelled like roses. He benefited from scholarships granted on the basis of race and other types of affirmative action, and was elevated beyond his capacities despite being a marijuana-addled, mediocre student. He wrote a few things (poorly), but “his” magnum opus was penned by a talented terrorist friend whom, he has said, he barely knew. He then vied for public office, and won a state seat by running unopposed. But the best legs-up were yet to come. When he decided to run for the U.S. Senate, he had a prostrate media in his corner. And when he ran for the presidency, they cranked it up into high gear, making this nobody a household name and his nefarious past disappear.
But there’s a kicker here, too: Obama didn’t even get his you-didn’t-get-there-on-your-own speech on his own. It’s essentially the same speech that Elizabeth “Fauxcahontas” Warren gave in September 2011 when she said, “There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own — nobody.”
Warren also said, “You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for.”
Obama said, “Somebody invested in roads and bridges.”
Warren said, “You were safe in your factory because of police-forces and fire-forces that the rest of us paid for.”
Obama said, “There are some things, just like fighting fires, we don’t do on our own.”
And something else we don’t do on our own is burn down the economy. It takes millions of enablers who hear Obama say, “Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive” and don’t realize that the thing about that system allowing us to thrive is economic freedom. That system rewards individual initiative; that system doesn’t use a class-warfare pretext to justify reducing incentive. And “that” system is quickly ceasing to be “this” system because of redistributionist tendencies.
Now, since Obama saw fit to parrot Warren, to further refute his thesis I’ll parrot myself. As I wrote in a 2011 piece on Warren (I’ve replaced her name with Obama’s):
When you say “the rest of us paid for,” it implies that there are two opposing groups. The first is those who foot the bill; this is the proverbial “us,” membership in which is apparently denied to those above a certain income threshold. And when you are above it, you’re in the second group — the “them” — which, Obama’s commentary implies, comprises the subsidized.
Of course, this is utter nonsense. A rich person not only pays taxes like us, he pays through the nose. He, President Obama, pays more — far more — for the roads, education, police and fire forces than you do. In fact, while approximately 50 percent of lower-income Americans now pay no federal income tax, those earning more than one million dollars a year — only 0.2 percent of the population, mind you — shoulder 21 percent of the tax burden.
As for moving goods, by the way, a company pays thousands of dollars a year in fees and taxes for each commercial truck it fields. In fact, writes Dr. John C. Taylor, “Trucking firms contribute $12.1 billion of the total dollars going into the federal Highway Trust Fund, or about 30.6 percent of the total $39.5 billion.”
So the reality is that not only are the rich us, they’re the “usiest” part of us. And if there is a “them,” it’s the people in government who suck off the public teat.
I should add that a poor person also benefits from infrastructure — when he drives on roads or uses products shipped on them, for instance — despite paying precious little for it.
Of course, passion for a cause, such as concern for the poor, can blind one to truths that don’t seem to advance it. But, then again, is such concern what really drives the Left?
When pondering this, I think of an old leftist I knew casually when I was 19 or 20 years old. A man in his mid to late fifties, he looked perpetually tired — of life. He wasn’t exactly a grouch, but his mood always seemed as drab as a public-housing project. And with a head of hair gray enough to match his mood, he looked much like Vermont’s socialist Senator Bernie Sanders. In fact, I’ll call him Bernie.
Now, I don’t know how the subject arose, but one day Bernie started telling me about a documentary he saw. Said he, “You know, there were these two rams locking horns, and one won the contest. But he didn’t really win; if you looked closely, you could see that the other ram just slipped on a stone.”
The message of cynicism about competition was clear. But also obvious to me was that Bernie’s attitude toward it was just a way of dealing with what he perceived as his failures in this world. “No one’s really better than me. I just slipped on the stones of life!”
Ah, it’s sometimes hard to tolerate people being better than us, isn’t it, Mr. Mandelbaum? Bernie sure didn’t seem to like it. After all, when I defended free enterprise and pointed out to him that he was sure doing well under our system as evidenced by the vehicle he drove, he replied, “It’s not as nice as yours, though.” Now, this wasn’t really true. To the best of my recollection, he had a low-mileage SUV while I’d bought a hand-me-down Nissan Pulsar with 107,000 miles on it; only, as young guys are apt to do, I polished it up to look like a nice American car and not a communist drabmobile. But the point is this: Why was Bernie so focused on my supposedly having better wheels than he did? Because, as Winston Churchill said, socialism is the “gospel of envy.”
Leftists are consumed with envy — and money. As Peter Schweizer wrote when reporting on a study:
Setting up a computer game that allowed people to accumulate money, they [researchers] gave participants the option to spend some of their own money in order to take away more from someone else.
The result? Those who considered themselves "egalitarians" (i.e. Left of centre) were much more willing to give up some of their own money if it meant taking more money from someone else.
So is it really concern for the poor that drives leftists’ redistributionist tendencies?
The truth is that, among other things, leftists have big egos and cannot stand others being “better” than they are. This is one reason why so many leftists are like Friedrich Nietzsche, who expressed through his version of Zarathustra in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “If there were gods, how could I stand not to be a god! Therefore there are no gods.” And, when you don’t believe in anything beyond this world, it breeds a shallowness wherein the things of this world, such as money and possessions, are all you have in life and thus take on utmost importance. Then you say, “If there are the rich, how will I stand not to be rich! Therefore, there must be no rich.”
By the way, the very next Nietzsche line after the one above is, “Zarathustra teaches his disciples again about the power of envy.” But we already know. It is the power to destroy. | <urn:uuid:78175a88-a65b-4eb1-b55e-c3bb5cbf7f86> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thenewamerican.com/reviews/opinion/item/12118-where-obama-is-right-about-unearned-success | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977561 | 1,807 | 1.820313 | 2 |
|English as an additional language - where to start? - Diane||19/07/2010|
Please can anyone recommend a good, practical text book or resource to buy or scrounge to help out our new pupils who have English as an additional language? Our school has only recently started to work with pupils whose first language is not English. We want to be inclusive, but don’t really know where to start. Advice we have received about just dropping pupils in at the deep end seems crazy to me. We have a very limited budget and not much in the way of help from our LEA.
|Re:English as an additional langauge - where to start? - Christine||31/07/2010|
Good luck is all I can say! Our LEA supplies them with a dictionary - which many students don't bring to school because they don't want to stand out, so you may have to push in order to find out if our students have one. I insisted, where possible, one was kept in my room so they could be made to use it for their English lessons. Students hated using it though. They have such a tough time that all they want to do is learn enough English to 'pass' socially with their peers and unless their parents are able to push them at home to learn and support their fragile ego, they may well only appear to understand a lot of what goes on.
The only help I had with grammar was by going into a book shop and browsing their book shelves but it was geared to adults. But a search of the internet will eventually come up with something you can use.
Be sympathetic to them and their failings. It is extremely tiring to spend day after day in a world where you struggling to understand the simplest things and then to go home and learn vocabulary is physically demanding and mentally tiring on top of homework and their own need to belong somewhere less stressful such as their family culture for a few hours before the next demanding and tiring day. That's why interaction with other students is the best way for them to learn to speak the basics of English. Alas, not enough for them to function intellectually well in English though.
Check they understand the basics such as toilet, pencil, etc. Find a really supportive companion who will help them with this without embarrassing them and letting on how much help they need.
Keep it simple and get them to respond to grammatically simple questions in writing with simple, basic sentence structures. I used to zip round to the students and write simple questions in their books for them to work on alone. Where possible, provide the whole class with printed prompt questions (and differentiate if you can, or as I used to do with a Russian boy, nip to them and adapt, write on, simplify their worksheet before they begin).
Do as much group work with them as you can (with simple written prompts they can access as often as you can), so they can listen to the other students. Interaction is the best bet for learning. Give them simple sort cards for ideas so they see the vocabulary; if possible let them see teaching resources before a lesson and work through it with whoever the LEA is sending (if anyone) into your school.
Be aware they may not do the extra work or even the different work you prepare for them in the classroom because they are desperate not to stand out.
Attached is a sheet I did for an intelligent Japanese boy to accompany the class reading of Holes. There was no way that he could read the text with the class, so I made him this. (Nowadays I simply would not have the time to do it, but I thought I'd show you). It meant he could access the video we watched and attempt a version of the end task, and of course, have some idea of the text to help him follow classmates in group work. He did some in class at first but after a while he started taking it home and preparing for the lesson beforehand by reading his section of the text before the rest of the class read theirs. Sometimes, because he had a lot of support at home (and a super-dooper electronic dictionary/translator) he would take the actual text home before a group task on an aspect of it and work on the relevant section with his parents (but bear in mind not many parents have English themselves - this boy's family was unusual as they were only here to work temporarily in a Japanese owned factory).
This example won't at all help every EOSL student reading Holes as they may have a lot less English. It's a good idea for things like the GCSE anthologies and texts to prepare materials for a student. The poetry is a killer though - good luck with that. Go for a summary of the poem’s content, with highlighted key words, for a start. Sometimes you can copy a text and just highlight key words and phrases for them to concentrate on. It gives them an overview, but also English structures to look at and a few new words to learn without overwhelming them. Get them to talk back what they know in simple terms (and not just yes/no answers). If they won't talk, give them simple written sentences with missing words; such as Mr Yelnats was...... (if they need vocab., give them choices of words).
Remember that a complex sentence will lose them when they are struggling to acquire vocabulary, and the attached is quite complex: the boy had been having English lessons back in Japan; most of your students won't have had.
Search the internet using as many search terms as you can; both for general help; language help and help with literature texts. There's a fair tbit our there - but nowhere near as coherent or organised as it should be.
Tsh. All this waffle and actual little practical in the way of resources. Sorry. The sad fact is that you are trained and employed to teach English as a subject to English speakers and all your time is expected to be dedicated to that, so no-one realistically expects you to meet the very different needs of teaching a whole new language to a young person.
All you can do is support the child as best you can, in the short time that the student spends in your classroom by, hopefully, giving them some access to some of the lesson content and –most usefully of all – giving them easy access to as much interaction as they can get between themselves and their peers.
This site is nice: http://www.collaborativelearning.org/
It is about EOSL resources that the whole class uses so it promotes that vital social/work interaction; but the English stuff is excellent and goes up to GCSE literature texts. Look for graphic novels of lit texts top buy in too.
This (DFES booklet Access and Engagement in English PDF - DfES-0609-2002.pdf) has been produced and has ideas for tackling how to help: http://publications.education.gov.uk/default.aspx?PageFunction=downloadoptions&PageMode=publications&ProductId=DfES 0609 2002&
|Re:English as an additional langauge - where to start? - Diane||08/08/2010|
This is really useful practical advice and an excellent resource. Thanks very much for taking the time to help.
|Re:English as an additional langauge - where to start? - Marion||29/08/2010|
I teach ESL in Australia and we have some very good resources available to us. The best I have come across in "Beginning ESL - Support Material for Primary New Arrivals" by the Department of Education in Victoria, Australia.
It is available in CD form so would be cheap to post to you. Have a look at their other resources at the link below:
|Re:English as an additional langauge - where to start? - Tracey||01/10/2010|
Hello, I am also a teacher of EAL working in Hong Kong. I have found that Hounslow Authority to be an excellent resource. They sell booklets that are very very cheap at both Primary and Secondary level. You can get lots of advice about initial assessment and profiling from the booklet entitled Nassea EAL Assessment. There is also a textbook called Cambridge English for Schools and the website www.collaborativelearning.org. Finally, if you are new to EAL training I would consider doing the esl in the mainstream course. look on Naldic website for more information about EAL in the UK. If you want to learn more about Teaching Second Language Learners, I recommend Pauline Gibbons book Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning. It has plenty of tips and is a good resource. Hope this helps
|Re:English as an additional langauge - where to start? - G||01/10/2010|
|Why don't you use Fast Talk 1 a card game designed to help students learn to speak English etc. You can do a google search for it under "Fast Talk 1, game"|
|Re:English as an additional langauge - where to start? - Anne Fairhall||04/11/2010|
Can I be the second to recommend a visit to www.collaborativelearning.org ? It is hosted by an extremely experienced EAL teacher, Stuart Scott. Stuart also recommends English as an Additional Language by Liz Haslam et al, published by David Fulton and it's available from NATE, online at www.nate.org.uk Also, Stuart has just written a very useful article on the subject for the latest (October) issue of NATE Classroom magazine.
|Re:English as an additional langauge - where to start? - Stuart||11/11/2010|
|Thanks for the positive comments about the collaborative learning site. I have been neglecting English materials this year and concentrating on early years and science, but I do aim to get a lot more activities online soon and will be working with Teachit to make them available in editable format. We have a lot of activities still in paper format so if there are any topics you would like us to put on line, please contact me. The project's aim is to provide atrategies that you can adapt for your own texts.
Re a text book: I must recommend Pauline Gibbons - 'Bridging Discourses' 2006 which provides the best overview of what constitutes EAL friendly, language conscious methodology plus all the research that supports it. It is expensive, unfortunately, but even at the price (£35!) is excellent value.
|Re:English as an additional langauge - where to start? - Ali||17/11/2010|
A DVD of resources called 'Racing to English' written by Gordon Ward was recommended to me by an excellent LEA consultant. It is possible to find him by googling and the DVD contains a whole bunch of activities organised into a mini curriculum which is flexible to use.
I am using it for small group withdrawal after school - I appreciate that not everyone has that luxury of time but if you can run withdrawal groups this resource is great.
The use of picture dictionaries was also strongly recommended by our consultant so if anybody comes across a good picture dictionary that doesn't look as if it is directed at primary school children, I would be really grateful to hear about it: the Oxford Picture Dictionary is unfortunately in American English which makes it not that great.
|Re:English as an additional langauge - where to start? - IAN FRANCIS||27/11/2010|
|Excellent advice, just what I was going to say.
I taught English in mainstream schools for 10 years before going abroad to teach ESL, and it's a TOTALLY different ballgame.
TALK TALK TALK - the supportive friend, key vocabulary, time to sort out simple tasks and passages... ESL teaching takes TIME, which you don't have in the mainstream classroom. It hurts, I know, but they WILL pick up quicker than you imagine, and WILL survive. If they are there for a long time, lobby for specialist EAL help, or a GOOD TA... and good luck with that!
Analysing the pony and trap
The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
Themes, characters and devices
D.H. Lawrence Short stories
The quest for a cure – thinking skills and activities
Creative writing (KS3) | <urn:uuid:fbe6f4cb-225a-4fc3-aeda-3fb158c29cbb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.teachit.co.uk/index.php?forum_action=show_message&ID=65010&CurrMenu=67&Forum_Page=19 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970614 | 2,574 | 2.5 | 2 |
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Bin Laden cook, Ibrahim al Qosi, freed from Guantanamo Bay and returned to Sudan
WASHINGTON, DC - The United States has sent a Sudanese man, accused of guarding Osama bin Laden and helping him escape U.S. forces, back to Sudan after being held at Guantanamo Bay prison for over a decade, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.
Ibrahim al Qosi was sentenced to 14 years after pleading guilty in 2010 to conspiring with al Qaeda and providing material support to terrorism, the Pentagon said in a statement.
He completed his reduced, two-year sentence before his transfer took place, the statement said.
The Pentagon declined to say whether Qosi, described as a "cook and sometimes driver" for al Qaeda, had been freed in Sudan or held by the government there.
"We coordinated with the government of Sudan on appropriate security measures to mitigate any threat that he continues to pose," said Lieutenant Colonel Todd Breasseale, a Pentagon spokesman.
Qosi was alleged to have run the kitchen at bin Laden's Star of Jihad compound in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, and of having been part of an al Qaeda mortar crew.
He was accused of acting as a cook and bodyguard for the former al Qaeda leader, who was killed by U.S. forces in Pakistan last year, and helping him escape to the Tora Bora mountains of Afghanistan in 2001.
He was captured in Afghanistan in December 2001 and first charged in the Guantanamo court system known as military commissions in 2004.
U.S. efforts to resettle prisoners cleared for release from Guantanamo Bay, set up i n Cuba a fter the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, have been stymied by government refusals to allow any into the United States and by other restrictions imposed by Congress.
In April two members of China's Muslim Uighur minority became the first prisoners to leave Guantanamo Bay in more than 15 months. They were resettled in El Salvador.
(Reporting by Missy Ryan and David Alexander; Editing by Xavier Briand) | <urn:uuid:c0db631e-ae83-442c-853a-0282788bbcf0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/120711/bin-laden-cook-freed-guantanamo | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9767 | 424 | 1.625 | 2 |
About Puer Tea
The most famous tea from Yunnan is Puer. Yunnan also produces green tea, jasmine tea, and black tea. Yunnan province is in south west China and the origin of tea can be traced there. There are a number of trees in Yunnan that can be dated back more that 2000 years. The rain forests of Yunnan are rich in diversity, a majority of the flowers that we grow in the US can be traced back to Yunnan.
Yunnan began to process tea in the Three Kingdoms period (220-360). Allegedly, at this time Zhu Ge Liang from Sichuan, a clever tactician, encouraged the Yunnan people to cultivate tea to improve their lives. Still, Yunnan people call Zhu Ge Liang their tea god. He is still prayed to in the south of Yunnan where he conquered more that 2000 years ago. This is the area of Xichuanbanna and the six famous mountains. At the heart of Yunnan’s south west is the city of Puer, the base of the province’s ancient tea market, and from where “puer tea” derives its name. (The city Simao in 2007 changed its name to Puer, and should not be confused with the ancient city). From Puer city, tea was distributed to Tibet, and South East Asia on “tea horse trading roads.” The rough terrain of Yunnan demanded efficiently packed tea, so compressed cakes of tea were wrapped and tied into stacks of seven and enclosed into a bamboo shell. For this reason, certain puer cakes are commonly labled “Qi Zi Bing” or literally Seven Piece Cake. Carrying tea though the humid rain forest over the long, hard trading routes may have encouraged natural fermentation.
People collect puer tea for three main reasons, which include enjoyment of the tea, overall health benefits and the investment potential. It became popular outside of the traditional markets of Tibet and Mongolia, where for many years it was exchanged for horses, when it became sought after in Hong Kong for its health benefits, and for its mysterious quality of slow, natural fermentation, that causes it to improve with age. During the Cultural Revolution a lot of the old cakes were destroyed increasing the rareness of aged puer. In 1973, a process was invented to create fermented puer in about 60 days.
Now the popularity of puer has spread from Hong Kong and Guangzhou, to Taiwan, Beijing, Shanghai and South East Asia. The popularity of puer has even started to spread to the US and Europe. All puer tea starts out the same. The basic ingredient is called mao cha. Mao cha is harvested and allowed to dry in the sun. Yunnan is the only tea growing province in China that has a lot of high altitude sunshine and blue skies. One of the side affects of all this sunshine is some very large leaf tea plants.
All tea originated in Yunnan, but you might be surprised to know that the tea plants are called Camellia Sinesis Assamica. The reason is that when the British found the variety of tea growing in India they named it Assamica and believed that it was wild, but it had actually been planted along the old Silk Road that ran from Yunnan and Burma into Assam. Even though the origin issue has been cleared up, the ancient tea trees in Yunnan have kept the inaccurate name.
A lot of puer produced is said to be made from wild tea trees, but this is not the case. Wild tea trees are known to make people pretty sick sometimes, and what is called “wild” by puer makers is in fact old tea trees that have been cultivated, and are usually over a hundred years old. The age of the tree can be determined by measuring the trunk. Trees have very often been cut back drastically to increase yield, and more bushes are being planted at break neck speed. Planting tea is helpful to the the environment in Yunnan that has suffered from the burning of forests to plant sugar cane. Sugar, though a profitable short term crop, quickly depletes the mountain soil and erosion can quickly wear away the topsoil from whole mountain sides.
Harvesting and Making Puer Tea
The quality of the mao cha the most important factor in making puer. The ideal mao cha is two leaves and one bud. Farmers typically bring their mao cha to towns and villages where it is purchased by local buyers and sorted and then purchased by puer producers. Although relatively large areas may be favorite places for certain producers to buy their mao cha, the cultivation is done by small farmers. Since puer has become more popular, many farmers are cutting their old trees to create bushes which have a better yield, so the number of old trees is decreasing every year. Most commercial puer is a blend of mao cha from different areas and there are some producers that will reveal the areas in Yunnan where the mao cha originated. These kinds of details enhance the value of the tea over time, and we try to supply this information whenever we can. The tea grows in high mountain areas and the mao cha is brought now to the villages in the valley once a week to be sold. The process hasn’t changed for centuries.
There are two general types of puer: Shu (black, cooked) and Sheng (green, raw). The raw or sheng (green) puer is made from mao cha this is lightly steamed and pressed into cakes. It is the sheng puer that demonstrates the miracle of puer, slowly changing over time through a natural fermentation process until it becomes “cooked.” The microbes present in the mao cha that are not destroyed during sun drying work their magic and over 8 to 10 years until raw puer tea is transformed to cooked, green to black. It is the sheng that is most valuable over time and starts to reach is full maturity after around thirty years. Puer teas are elemental and mysteriously dark, fermented teas which are robust, earthy, rich and grounding. Puer is often a favorite tea of the truly dedicated tea drinker. This aged tea usually begins with a variety of leaf from exceptionally broad-leaved tea trees. This tea either left loose or compressed into cakes is then permitted to retain barely enough moisture content that the tea continues to ferment slowly over time. For this reason, puer is best stored open so that oxygen can continue to refine the tea.
Shu puer, or cooked/black puer is more complicated. In 1973, because of a shortage of old cakes caused by the destruction of all things old during the Cultural Revolution, a process was developed for uniformly speeding up the aging process. This process has been well guarded in the past but is relatively simple, but not without skill. Large piles of maocha are wetted and then covered with a large canvass cloth, creating a kind of composting effect. The water drains off as does some of the natural moisture through the weight of the pile. Inside of the pile heat is produced. The pile becomes a rich environment for microbes that thrive in the tea leaves of the Yunnan rain forest. The tea master’s skill comes into play when the pile needs to be turned. The turning needs to come at the right time, and there are clumps of growth that occur at the bottom of the heap and must be broken up and evenly distributed throughout the pile. When to turn and the attention paid to the details of turning are critical, so that the pile adds a pleasant fragrance to the tea. A poor level of skill turns the heap into an unkempt barnyard smell, flatteringly called ‘earthy’ in the West, and ‘old house smell’ in China. After the the tea is cooked it is sorted for grade, and then lightly steeped and pressed into cakes, bricks, etc.
Puer is separated into ten grades determined by leaf size, with the largest being tenth grade. In understanding about grades, it is wrong to assume that the 1st grade is the best grade for puer. There is only an incidental correlation between the grade of the puer and the quality of an individual cake. For example, some of the most sought after tea is made from maocha that is larger than tenth grade tea. It is always a question of taste. Of course if a lot of expensive buds are used in a cake, it will drive the price up, even if it is not considered a good candidate for aging. So don’t be strictly guided by the grade, think also about the uniformity and tightness of compression and the overall flavor achieved by the cake’s mao cha blend.
It used to be that the old government factories blended by just throwing maocha from the surrounding mountains all in together in a kind of random way. Now there are some companies that blend for a mixture of qualities that are associated with different growing areas for creating a well rounded cake, taking sweet maocha, and blending with fragrant maocha for example. There are also rumors about starters for cooking, like bread starters, and maocha that comes from some mythical place. Puer companies try to keep a tight lid on these trade secrets, and all of this secrecy has given puer a mythical reputation. However puer is magical in and of itself, without all of the hyperbole. It is a simple tea made by ancient peoples from ancient trees and bushes that has remarkable qualities.
Puer is famed for its health benefits and is consumed daily in the South of China, and in Southeast Asia by older Asians that are looking to maintain their health. The French are currently doing research on the affects of drinking puer with maintaining a healthy level of cholesterol. It is said to be helpful for digestive and metabolism problems.
Judging a Puer Cake’s Quality
When shopping for puer here are some very general guidelines. Look the cake over to see if the leaves are uniform through the cake, and pay attention to the compression of the cake; it should not be too tight, or too loose. Look at the color- for a cooked cake, it should be dark with red overtones; for a green cake the leaves should be dark green with silvery overtones. Smell it if you can, and leave it if it smells like a farmer’s sock. Don’t believe out of the ordinary claims, and don’t buy old puer unless you know someone that really knows what they are doing with puer. Remember that tea producers are country people, and like all country people they have a distinct distrust for outsiders, so claims of outsiders from Taiwan or Hong Kong, etc., claiming that their supervision of the country people has made the product more authentic, well, if you know country people you can fill in this thought. Buy from people that you have developed trust over time. There are many honest traders, and they have a long history in the market. | <urn:uuid:c25de0ca-191c-4342-8d49-8a40960c8aa4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sevencups.com/about-tea/puer-tea/ | 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 | 0.971623 | 2,270 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Welcome back to the Weekly Kids Co-op! Last week, there were more than 150 activities and ideas shared - so many fun things to do in the summer.
Here are a few of the amazing posts that remind me of what 'summer fun' means to kids:
Picklebum's shared their Printable Paper Rockets - what kid doesn't want to blow paper rockets off the end of a straw!!
Little Wonders' Days shared some Bouncing Bubbles and Bubble Science - who knew bubbles could bounce?!
Love, Play, Learn had a great time with their Beat the Heat Water Balloon Towel Toss!
And for all you stargazers, make sure to visit Teaching Stars to see their Conjunction Junction post of all the cool ways that the stars and planets will show up in the nighttime sky in July & August!
Enjoy another great round of ideas this week!
Link up, visit, leave a few comments & have fun! | <urn:uuid:4fbf6e2f-7bd4-4d1b-ba16-b06a2c06e975> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kcedventures.com/blog/weekly-kids-activities-fun-ideas-for-kids | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95722 | 196 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Stephen was arrested and brought before the council to explain why he was teaching what he was teaching. And he told them. Going all the way back to Abraham, He explained Christ through the Old Testament fathers. He showed them how the Hebrews rejected Moses, God, and His prophets. Then he turns it on the Jewish leaders. “As your fathers did, so do you.” He is accusing the religious leaders of opposing God!
They refused to hear Stephen, especially when he said he saw Jesus at the right hand of God. Their response: they took him out of the city to stone him. His response while being stoned, much like Jesus while he was being crucified. “Receive my spirit” and “don’t hold this against them.”
May we speak with the boldness of Stephen, and may we reflect Christ’s attitude just as Stephen did. | <urn:uuid:4ebc1114-77f4-40ca-9a5e-bd4991c13baf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aliveinpeace.org/enjoying-the-journey/923-thursday-may-17-2012-acts-7 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987867 | 188 | 2.125 | 2 |
Gorbachev and the End of the Cold War
Op-Ed, New Straits Times
April 5, 2006
Author: Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
Belfer Center Programs or Projects: International Security
This op-ed was reprinted in Beirut, Lebanon's The Daily Star on April 25, 2006, as "The Man Who Preferred a Soviet Whimper to a Dying Bang".
The Soviet collapse was due to the decline of communist ideology and economic failure. This would have happened even without Gorbachev, writes JOSEPH S. NYE.
EARLIER this month, Mikhail Gorbachev celebrated his 75th birthday with a concert and conference at his foundation in Moscow. Unfortunately, he is not popular with the Russian people who blame him for the loss of Soviet power.
But, as Gorbachev has replied to those who shout abuse at him: "Remember, I am the one who gave you the right to shout."
When he came to power in 1985, Gorbachev tried to discipline the Soviet people as a way to overcome economic stagnation. When discipline failed to solve the problem, he launched perestroika ("restructuring"). And when bureaucrats continually thwarted his orders, he used glasnost, or open discussion and democratisation. But once glasnost let people say what they thought, many people said: "We want out."
By December 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to exist.
Gorbachev's foreign policy, which he called "new thinking", also contributed to the Cold War's end. Gorbachev said that security was a game from which all could benefit through co-operation. Rather than try to build as many nuclear weapons as possible, he proclaimed a doctrine of "sufficiency", holding only a minimal number for protection.
He also believed that Soviet control over an empire in Eastern Europe was costing too much and providing too little benefit and that the invasion of Afghanistan had been a costly disaster.
By the summer of 1989, East Europeans were given more freedom. Gorbachev refused to sanction the use of force to put down demonstrations. By November, the Berlin Wall had fallen.
Some of these events stemmed from Gorbachev's miscalculations. After all, he wanted to reform communism, not replace it. But his reforms snowballed into a revolution driven from below rather than controlled from above. In trying to repair communism, he punched a hole in it. Like a hole in a dam, once pent-up pressure began to escape, it widened the opening and tore apart the system.
By contrast, if the Communist Party's Politburo had chosen one of Gorbachev’s hard-line competitors in 1985, it is plausible that the declining Soviet Union could have held on for another decade or so.
It did not have to collapse so quickly. Gorbachev's humanitarian tinkering contributed greatly to the timing.
But there were also deeper causes for the Soviet demise. One was the "soft" power of liberal ideas, whose spread was aided by the growth of transnational communications and contacts, while the demonstration effect of Western economic success gave them additional appeal.
In addition, the huge Soviet defence budget began to undermine other aspects of Soviet society. Healthcare deteriorated and the mortality rate increased (the only developed country where that occurred). Eventually, even the military became aware of the tremendous burden caused by imperial overstretch.
Ultimately, the deepest causes of the Soviet collapse were the decline of communist ideology and economic failure. This would have happened even without Gorbachev. In the early Cold War, communism and the Soviet Union had considerable soft power. Many communists led the resistance against fascism in Europe and many people believed that communism was the wave of the future.
But Soviet soft power was undercut by the exposure of Stalin's crimes in 1956 and by the repression in Hungary in 1956, Czechoslovakia in 1968, and Poland in 1981.
Although in theory communism aimed to establish a system of class justice, Lenin's heirs maintained domestic power through a brutal security apparatus involving lethal purges, gulags, broad censorship and ubiquitous informants. The net effect of these brutal measures was a general loss of faith in the system.
The Soviet economy's decline, meanwhile, reflected the diminished ability of central planning to respond to global economic change. Stalin had created a command economy that emphasised heavy manufacturing and smokestack industries, making it highly inflexible—all thumbs and no fingers.
As the economist Joseph Schumpeter pointed out, capitalism is "creative destruction", a way of responding flexibly to major waves of technological change. At the end of the 20th century, the major technological change of the third industrial revolution was the growing role of information as the scarcest resource in an economy.
The Soviet system was particularly inept at handling information. The deep secrecy of its political system meant that the flow of information was slow and cumbersome.
Economic globalisation created turmoil throughout the world at the end of the 20th century, but the Western market economies were able to reallocate labour to services, restructure their heavy industries and switch to computers. The Soviet Union could not keep up.
Indeed, when Gorbachev came to power in 1985, there were 50,000 personal computers in the Soviet Union; in the United States, there were 30 million. Four years later, there were about 400,000 personal computers in the Soviet Union, and 40 million in the US.
According to one Soviet economist, by the late 1980s, only eight per cent of Soviet industry was globally competitive. It is difficult for a country to remain a superpower when the world doesn’t want 92 per cent of what it produces.
The lessons for today are clear. While military power remains important, it is a mistake for any country to discount the role of economic power and soft power. But it is also a mistake to discount the importance of leaders with humanitarian values. The Soviet Union may have been doomed, but the world has Gorbachev to thank for the fact that the empire he oversaw ended without a bloody conflagration.
The writer is Distinguished Service Professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.
For more information about this publication please contact the Belfer Center Communications Office at 617-495-9858.
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A nearly 10-year-long effort by an Iowa school to support U.S. troops took on new meaning Monday in Panora.
Students and staff watched an American flag that has traveled around the world to them be raised into place at their school for the first time.
The flag is a gift back from soldiers for the school's ongoing effort to support our troops.
Students at Panorama High School in Panora have now been sending care packages to U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002.
Special education teacher Mary Merritt started the effort about 10 years ago.
"It is just a small token that we can do to help somebody to let them know they are not forgotten. I think that is the most important thing," said Merritt.
Merritt and her students along with help from community members have been putting together care packages for different bases in the war zone. They usually send the packages to a base where an Iowa soldier is stationed.
The school recently received a flag that was flown at the headquarters in Camp DehDadi, Afghanistan in 2011. It was sent by Army Commander Christopher Bensen as thanks for the care packages and messages of prayers and support.
"That was really nice. It is nice to know they do appreciate what we are doing," said student Emily Carstens.
The student's council decided the flag should first be raised at the school during the annual Veteran’s Day service. | <urn:uuid:9f8ae9ba-ee0f-410b-a003-54b3dfea8410> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kcci.com/news/central-iowa/Iowa-students-build-deep-connection-to-soldiers/-/9357080/17371552/-/h7sjcf/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984765 | 299 | 1.828125 | 2 |
As a Princeton professor in the 1990s, Ben Bernanke lectured Japanese officials for mishandling their economy.
Today, Tokyo's economic problems are more than academic for the Federal Reserve chairman. They are a window into his own situation as he stares at what could be a long period of slow growth, high unemployment and declining inflation in the U.S.
Mr. Bernanke is preparing for a potentially important policy speech Friday, when he could detail his thinking on the Fed's next steps at a conference sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston on monetary policy in a low-inflation environment. The conference is a reprise of a 1999 conference at which Mr. Bernanke and other academics took Japanese officials to task for failing to get their economy moving.
Buried in Mr. Bernanke's earlier writings on Japan are hints of how he is shaping the Fed's responses to today's slow recovery.
Just a few months ago, Fed officials were focused on how they would exit from their easy-money policies. Now, they are positioning themselves to do more to support growth.
High on the list of options: restarting a program of buying U.S. Treasury bonds to drive down long-term interest rates and boost growth, despite strong reservations among some colleagues. Fed officials also are debating how to make clear their commitment to preventing deflation, a state of falling prices that economists say can be even more debilitating than inflation. This is a task that puts them in the uncomfortable position of calling for more inflation.
Compare the U.S. and Japanese economies by inflation, interest rate, labor force growth and more.
Many Fed officials agreed at a policy meeting in September that if growth doesn't pick up and inflation remains low, "it would be appropriate to provide additional monetary policy accommodation," according to minutes of the meeting released by the Fed Tuesday.
Mr. Bernanke's mission, in part, is to make sure the U.S. stays off the path trod by Japan. Yet it's proving harder than he thought when he was offering advice to officials overseas.
Japan's stock market peaked in 1989 and its property bubble popped two years later. Since then, it has averaged annual growth of just 0.7%. Its national government debt has soared to more than 200% of its national output. And in seven of the past 10 years its consumer prices have fallen.
All this happened even though the Bank of Japan has held short-term interest rates at or near zero since 1999 and has taken other stimulative steps such as buying government bonds and short-term corporate debt.
"I remember once making a comment in a Federal Open Market Committee meeting that this seemed easier when I was advising other people how to do it than when I was involved in doing it myself," says Donald Kohn, who retired from his post as Fed vice chairman last month. The comment, he recalls, was met with nervous laughter by other officials.
Mr. Kohn says he took two lessons from Japan: Be aggressive about providing stimulus to the economy in the early stages of a downturn and avoid canceling it too soon.
Before becoming Fed chairman, Mr. Bernanke led a band of U.S. academics who argued that Japanese officials weren't doing enough to jolt their economy out of its torpor. In a 1999 paper, Mr. Bernanke lashed out at Japanese officials, saying their country's woes were the result of their own "self-induced" paralysis. Japan's responses to deflation, he charged in atypically blunt terms, were confused, inconsistent and too cautious.
Mr. Bernanke has since told others privately he regrets the tone of those attacks. But the lessons he drew have played a role in shaping the Fed's responses to the economy and could shape decisions in the weeks ahead.
Further Reading From Bernanke on Japan and Fighting Deflation
- "The BOJ should consider a policy of reflation before re-stabilizing at a low inflation rate primarily because of the economic benefits of such a policy. One benefit of reflation would be to ease some of the intense pressure on debtors and on the financial system more generally."
- "The FOMC will strongly resist deviations from price stability in the downward direction. Falling into deflation is not a significant risk for the United States at this time, but that is true in part because the public understands that the Federal Reserve will be vigilant and proactive in addressing significant further disinflation."
Mr. Bernanke urged Japan to commit to keeping interest rates low until it got more inflation, and he defended novel ideas like buying government bonds with the understanding that fiscal policy makers would use the money thus raised to finance tax cuts to boost consumer demand.
The analogy between the U.S. economy and Japan's isn't perfect. Japan has an older population, less-profitable banks that didn't get quick capital or attention from regulators after the property bust, low job-market turnover and many industries shielded from international competition.
Other differences: Japan is a big exporter, while the U.S. is a big net importer; Japan wasn't a big debtor to the rest of the world, as is the U.S.; and Japan has a high savings rate, so its deficits have been funded internally. While Japan has experienced many years of deflation, the U.S. hasn't had any in the modern era.
But the similarities between the two economies are striking. Both countries went through stock and real-estate busts that severely damaged financial systems, Japan in the early 1990s and the U.S. in 2007 and 2008. Both saw unemployment rise and developed much slack in their economies.
Both ran up large budget deficits and pushed interest rates to zero. Both have important globally traded currencies that didn't dramatically weaken after their bubbles burst. That meant their exports didn't soar, as happened in some smaller economies after financial crises.
Mr. Bernanke's first significant brush with Japanese officials was in 1999. Consumer prices had started falling, and the Bank of Japan had already pushed short-term interest rates to near-zero.
Falling prices meant that real interest rates—nominal rates minus inflation—were rising. Household and business debts, in other words, were growing harder to pay off. Officials were stumped over what else the central bank should do, if anything.
It could purchase Japanese government bonds, the academics said—a money-pumping approach now called quantitative easing. But having just gained independence from the Ministry of Finance, Bank of Japan officials were reluctant to start funding the government. And buying bonds exposed the central bank to big losses if private investors starting shedding the investments.
At a conference at sponsored by the Boston Fed in Woodstock, Vt., that October, Kazuo Ueda, then a BOJ policy member, issued a warning to the largely American audience: "Do not put yourself into the position of zero rates," he said. "I tell you it will be a lot more painful than you can possibly imagine."
Mr. Bernanke shot back that Japanese policy makers might be making the same "extreme policy mistakes" Americans made in the 1930s—being too timid about reversing deflation. A few weeks later, in a blistering research paper, he said even though conventional tools were expended, there was plenty the Japanese could do to boost consumer demand, business spending and prices.
Among his suggestions: Cheapen the yen by selling it in the currency markets; or buy long-term debt from the Ministry of Finance to finance tax cuts, something he said was akin to just dropping money from a helicopter.
One objection at the time was that Japan's economic problems weren't the result of too little stimulus by the central bank but of structural problems in Japan's banking system and in protected industries.
Mr. Bernanke said structural problems didn't negate the need to find ways to push up consumer demand and business spending.
"Japanese monetary policy seems paralyzed, with a paralysis that is largely self-induced," he concluded. "Most striking is the apparent unwillingness of the monetary authorities to experiment, to try anything that isn't absolutely guaranteed to work."
Mr. Bernanke was particularly troubled by Japan's emerging deflation. He argued that Bank of Japan officials had to aggressively manage the public's expectations, because convincing households and businesses that deflation wouldn't persist would help to spur economic activity.
Mr. Bernanke felt that Japan's central bank needed to make a commitment to get inflation higher and keep policy accommodative until it increased. Among his proposals was a suggestion that the bank publicly adopt an inflation target of 3% to 4%.
Kunio Okina, a former Bank of Japan official whose research was attacked by the academics, says they didn't pay much attention to the risks associated with such measures. Their stance was that the BOJ "should jump with its eyes closed," Mr. Okina says. "There is a big difference between when they were having a carefree discussion about the BOJ's monetary policy and when it becomes a real problem to themselves."
While a Fed governor in the early 2000s, amid rising U.S. unemployment and worries about an unwelcome decline in inflation, Mr. Bernanke backed the Fed's push to keep rates low. The "painful experience of Japan" led the Fed to decide to act pre-emptively to head off deflation, Mr. Bernanke said earlier this year.
The Japanese, Mr. Bernanke and other academics felt, had been too quick to raise interest rates in 2000 when it looked as if their economy was recovering. Mr. Bernanke had a new idea. Japan, he suggested in a May 2003 speech, should adopt something called a "price-level target."
With an inflation target, the central bank would aim for, say, 1% inflation every year, no matter what happened the year before. With a price-level target, it would react to what happened before. If the price index undershot 1% growth one year, the central bank would play catch-up, targeting higher inflation the next. In Japan, he called for a "reflationary phase" of policy.
This approach, he said, would relieve the pressure Japanese debtors felt from high real interest rates, and also help break deflationary expectations. There was a risk of overshooting and getting too much inflation, but it was worth taking the chance, he said.
The U.S. central bank should consider a similar price-level target approach today, two presidents of regional Fed banks, William Dudley of New York and Charles Evans of Chicago, have said in the past few weeks. The idea came up at the Fed's last meeting, according to minutes released Tuesday.
Japan's experience remains a puzzle. Japanese policy makers over time tried many ideas the U.S. academics promoted. They pushed interest rates to zero and committed to keeping them there until deflation reversed. Ultimately the Bank of Japan tried quantitative easing, increasing its holdings of loans, securities and other assets by 42% between 2001 and 2006.
For a time, the policies seemed to get traction. Japan averaged annual growth of 2.4% from 2004 to 2007. A long spell of falling consumer prices showed signs of abating. But then came the global recession of 2008. Japan's economy contracted 5.2% in 2009, and deflation was back.
"I don't think any model would have predicted the degree of persistence of Japan's problems," says Mark Gertler, a New York University professor and former coauthor with Mr. Bernanke. "It is pretty hard to account for."
Japan's deflation has turned out to be the deepest mystery of all. Economists expected that a little deflation would turn into an ever-more-dangerous spiral: As consumer prices fell, the burdens of rising real interest rates could worsen, damaging the finances of banks, households and businesses and sinking the economy even deeper, as happened during the Great Depression.
They worried about a deflationary mentality, with one year's deflation cementing expectations of even more the next year. But it hasn't worked out that way. Rather than spiral, deflation in Japan has stuck at around 1% a year. It hasn't gotten severe but it has lasted much longer than expected. Surveys of economists show that expectations of future deflation have never really set in.
Toshihiko Fukui, who was governor of the Bank of Japan from 2003 to 2008 and adopted some of the easy-money policies Mr. Bernanke advocated, said the Fed chairman was "critical but honest" with Japan in his days as an academic. Mr. Fukui said his advice for Mr. Bernanke today is the same that Mr. Bernanke once gave him. "Have a decisive mind."—Megumi Fujikawa contributed to this article.
Write to Jon Hilsenrath at firstname.lastname@example.org | <urn:uuid:7464153c-5722-41df-a351-5ab1f14701d0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704518104575546084161525708.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977339 | 2,631 | 1.890625 | 2 |
Sun, 28 October 2007
EPISODE 31 SHOW NOTES
Genealogy Gems: Ultimate Research Strategies. Thanks to those of you who have bought the book. You guys are great.
A special little Halloween hello from Genealogy Gems.
Sad news: The This Week's Genealogy Gems Google Gadget has crashed. However, I will likely create a new custom gadget in the near future so I"ll keep you posted. To receive the code for the gadget just be sure to sign up for the free Genealogy Gems monthly newsletter because thatâs the email list I use to personally email you the code so you can install it on your iGoogle page. Newsletter Sign Up & Back issues
The website is evolving every day with new content, so be sure and visit regularly at www.genealogygems.tv In the Resources section you will find lots of great genealogy research strategies. Be sure to click on the Google Research Gems Link. I have a special gadget there that will provide you with a new Google tip every day. And youâll also find lots of other great tips that weâve talked about to make Google work harder for your genealogy research.
Please do let your research friends and your local genealogy society know about it as a resource for them too, even if they donât listen to the podcast.
The Irish Jig performed by the National Promenade Band in 1914 for Edison Records courtesy of University of Santa Barbara.
American Memory provides free and open access through the Internet to over 9 million items of written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience. These materials chronicle historical events, people, places, and ideas that continue to shape America.
Some of my other favorite areas of the Collections and Programs are:
Start by browsing the Biography and History listings.
The library website also offers RSS feeds and email Subscriptions on a variety of subjects.
The future: the library just signed a World Digital Library Agreement with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization pledging cooperative efforts to build a World Digital Library website.
World Digital Library at the Worlddigitallibrary.org. Video
GEM: Genealogy for the Next Generation
To get the attention of the next generation for genealogy I Simposonized myself.
Simpsonize Me! Itâs totally free, and really fun.
Mon, 22 October 2007
SHOW NOTES for Episode 30
Calling all Ladies: Notice a trend on the Genealogy Gems Listener Page? Only men have sent in photos! Come on ladies, you need to be represented! Email a photo of yourself listening to the podcast on your ipod or computer, or holding up something that you've found since listening to the podcast, or both.
Website News: New this week you will find a search box on the left side of the Genealogy Gems homepage under the navigation menu. I hope that you will use it and find it helpful in getting to where you want to go.
GEM: Interview with Ali Selim, Director of Sweet Land?
In episode 29 I told you about a wonderful movie that I saw recently called Sweet Land. It's a film about Norwegian immigrants in rural Minnesota following WWI. I feel so passionate about it not only because itâs about family history, but because it's such a rare thing to find a gem like this that you can watch with your entire family.
Aliâs Grandparents William and Sophie Niemeier of Minnesota.
This week I had a chance to talk to Ali Selim, award-winning director of Sweet Land, and we chatted about his immigrant parents, the power of memories and some of the terrific actors that he features in the film.
Ali Selim, Director
When you're done listening to the audio podcast, you can watch the Videocast below. Just double click on the Play button.
Sat, 13 October 2007
Video Cast: An interview with the award-winning director of the film Sweet Land, Ali Selim.
Sweet Land is a story about family history, focusing on Norwegian immigrants in Minnesota circa 1920. If you love historical fiction, and quiet thoughtful movies that you can watch with your entire family, then this is the videocast for you. Sweet Land is available on DVD, and the beautiful nostalic music soundtrack is available through . Take it from your friend, you'll love it.
P.S. Rather read? Try Sweet Land: New & Selected Stories
Sun, 7 October 2007
Episode 29 SHOW NOTES
I had the opportunity to talk with Anna Swayne of the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation recently. Listen as we walk through this emerging area of genealogy step-by-step and get a solid overview of how DNA testing can assist us in our family history research.
DNA & Genealogy by Colleen Fitzpatrick
USA TODAY article - SMGF's founder, James LeVoy Sorenson, was featured in a USA Today article in June. The article focuses on Mr. Sorenson's work in genetic genealogy as well as his other companies.
Free Genealogy Gems Newsletter: Send an email with your name, state or country and how you heard about the podcast, and I'll get the Oct issue out to you right away, and you"ll be all set to receive each monthly issue.
Check out what's new at the Genealogy Gems Website
Get Lisa's new book: Genealogy Gems: Ultimate Research Strategies from Season One of the Genealogy Gems Podcast. Packed with step-by-step instructions for everything covered in the first 20 episodes, and much more!
Tue, 2 October 2007
Episode 28 Show Notes
Now's the time to subscribe to the FREE Genealogy Gems Podcast Newsletter!
Logitech Webcam Not only can you send video emails super quick and easy, but you can select one of their animated characters that you supply the voice for.
Anytime you access Amazon through the links on my website and purchase any item on the Amazon site, you are supporting this podcast which I really appreciate! Thanks to you guys I was able this week to double my podcast storage space which means I can create longer podcasts and also publish videocasts for you. I hope you'll keep this in mind as we approach the holidays and you start doing your Christmas shopping. It's because of you that the Genealogy Gems Podcast, website and videocasts are possible. Thank you!
GEM: GENEALOGY "COLD CALLS?
My Lady of the Telephone was performed by Joseph A. Phillips and chorus for Edison Records in 1915
Interview with Carolyn Ender from Texas who has conducted dozens of cold call research calls.
1) Identify the person you want to call
2) Locate the Person's Phone Number
3) Plan ahead
Consider recording the conversation
4) Get up the ânerveâ? to call - Be prepared. Say to yourself: âI can do this. This is importantâ?. Remember, all they can do is say âno thank youâ?
5) Introduce Yourself - Immediately identify yourself with first & last name & town. Indicate any family connection. Indicate who referred you to them.
6) Where to Begin - Talk about the family line you are researching
7) Reluctant Relatives - Share what youâve learned. Share your own memories of a shared relative. Mention something of particular interest in the family tree that might pique their interest. Offer to mail them some information and call again once theyâve had a chance to look at it.
8) During the Call - Take notes during the phone call. Confirm information that you already have
9) When Thereâs No Answer - Leave a voice mail your name, number, why you are calling, & offer to call back.
10) Must Ask? Questions
11) Wrapping up the call - Thank them for their time. Ask for email address. Offer to give them your address and phone number.
12) Create Documentation Be sure to include the person's name, address, phone number and date of conversation.
14) Create a To Do List - Go through the notes you typed with a highlighter pen to mark items you will want to research further.
15) Follow-up Thank you card Birthday cards & Christmas card Follow up calls
GEM: Sweet Land
Click twice on the arrow to view movie clips
Tue, 25 September 2007
The First Genealogy Gems Videocast: The Socks to America.
This is the documentary spoof (or should I say "sockumentary") video about the immigration of the fictitious Sockish-Americans. Currently featured on Roots Television, the video is now available for FREE download onto your video ipod exclusively with this unique video podcast.
Now you can "Sock It To Yourself" anytime you like!
The Socks to America Mugs: Immigration Story & I'm A Genealogist
(Caution: Don't drink & watch the video at the same time as you will be in danger of laughing which causes spitting!)
Sat, 22 September 2007
EPISODE 27 SHOW NOTES
RE: WorldVitalRecords - All "Recently Added Databasesâ? on the site are offered for 10 days free when they are added.
A quick way to find keywords on a webpage such as the databases listed on World Vital Records is to use the âFind on this pageâ? Function of Internet Explorer:
RE: Judy Gorman's email: Socks to America Video
Sock it to Me! Express your Sockish-American side with Socks to America Posters and Mugs! They would make hillarious holiday presents for your fellow genealogists.
Many listeners burn the podcast to CD for listening away from their computer, and I think donating them to your local genealogy society after you are done with them is a great idea. Here is a link to an official Genealogy Gems Podcast CD Label. It's formatted specifically for CD Stomper Label System which I use to create all kinds of professional looking labels for CDs and DVDs.
Genealogy Societies are also welcome to use excerpts from my newsletter in their society newsletter when they include the following author credit "by Lisa L. Cooke, The Genealogy Gems Podcast at www.genealogygems.TV".
Mon, 10 September 2007
EPISODE 26 SHOW NOTES
I'll be at the Northern Utah Genealogy Jamboree in Ogden this Saturday September 15, 2007. Booth #302. (Listen to Episode 25)
Gem: Organizing Your Internet Favorite Bookmarks
A more comprehensive organization strategy:
Within the GENEALOGY folder you could have:
To Alphabetize Your Favorites:
And all your folders will snap back into alphabetical order.
Be sure and subscribe to the free Genealogy Gems Podcast Newsletter...Coming in the October edition: yet another way to use your iPod as a family history tool. Go to the Newsletter page and send an email to subscribe.
Announcing the premiere of the newest Genealogy Gems Production: The Socks to America. This video is a documentary spoof (a la Ken Burns) chronicling the immigration of the fictitious "Sockish" people (aka Sock Puppets). I invite Genealogists & Historians alike to sit back and enjoy a chuckle at our favorite pastime.
Wed, 5 September 2007
Book Announcement: Genealogy Gems: Ultimate Research Strategies from Season One of the Genealogy Gems Podcast is finished and available online through Lulu Publishing.
It is jammed packed with genealogical gems that you can use straight from the book, or as you listen along to the podcast at GenealogyGems.tv. It was really important to me that the book be able to stand alone as a resource tool in addition to being a companion manual to the first twenty episodes of the podcast. You will find everything written out in step-by-step instructions, plus lots of photos, as well as many things that I never got a chance to talk about on the podcast or include in the newsletter.
Lulu is very cool because you can preview several pages of the book. It's very safe and secure to order with them online. Shipping hint: When you're checking out the shipping will automatically show as Priority Mail. If youâre not in a huge hurry, use the drop down menu and select media mail - itâs much less expensive. It usually takes about a week to receive Media Mail.
I hope to see you at the Northern Utah Genealogy & Family Heritage Jamboree at the Marriott Hotel, in Ogden on Saturday, September 15, 2007. I will be in Booth 302 in the Exhibition Hall. Stop by and say hello. For more information or to register online visit the My Ancestors Found website.
Newspapers: The Genealogy database site World Vital Records is providing "increased access" to the collection of NewspaperArchive.com database. The first release of the NewspaperArchive.com data (40 million records ranging from 1759 to 1923) went up Aug. 27, 2007. And World Vital Records is giving 10 days of free access to these new additions BROWSE
Gem: Some newspapers carry a history section or a 'looking back' column where they run old articles. World Vital Records only had a sampling of years from the past newspapers that are digitized. But the columns like âTwice Told Talesâ? that can be found in more recent newspapers, may include articles about the family that the website didnât have the originals of. So donât dismiss those new issues â you may find some real gems!
To view a sample back issue of the newsletter CLICK HERE
To subscribe to the Genealogy Gems Podcast Newsletter CLICK HERE.
The newsletter is absolutely free. Just type the word SUBSCRIBE in the subject line of the email, & send your name, and how you first heard about the podcast. Youâll get the current issue and as a special bonus, an email giving you access to the This Week's Genealogy Gem? Google gadget. (see Episode 15) I know you'll enjoy it. So be sure to sign up today.
Mon, 27 August 2007
SHOW NOTES Episode 24
The National Archives and Records Administration has taken the leap and raised their record reproduction fees. The new fees don't become effective until October 1, 2007, so youâve go a window of opportunity to order records at the old lower prices.
KodakGallery - Create a Family History Calendar. Consider highlighting an ancestor each month. It would make a wonderful holiday gift. Save 25% off calendars with coupon code SCHOOLCAL at Kodak Gallery
My NEW book Genealogy Gems: Ultimate Research Strategies from Season One of the Genealogy Gems Podcast will be out VERY soon,. It will include step by step details from everything covered in Episodes 1 through 20. Check the website often for the official publish date.
Correction: The title of the book I mentioned in Episode 19 called Papa's Way is incorrect. The title of the book by Thyra Ferre Bjorn is Papa's Wife.
Hereâs another Swedish Book recommendation that I received from Anna-karin Shander who lives in Sweden and is host of Anna-Karinâs Genealogical Podcast. The book is called The Emigrants â The Emigrant Novels Book 1 by Wilhelm Moberg. ordered my copy. With Fall coming, doesnât it sound wonderful to curl up on the couch with some hot coffee and a novel called âThe Emigrantsâ?? The Emigrants by Wilhelm Moberg
GEMS: A Tour of Genealogy Gems TV
In Episode 24 I take you on a tour of the new videos on the Genealogy Gems TV webpage. Click on the VIDEOS button or on the Genealogy Gems TV icon in the top right corner of the home page to check out all the new videos.
Attention Podcast Listeners: Take a picture of yourself listening on your computer or listening to the podcast on your ipod and email it to me at email@example.com. You can make it funny, make it serious, you can hold up a sign saying that youâre listening to the show or what you think of it. Whatever you want to do is fine with me. Include your name and let me know in the email if itâs ok to use or not. You may find your photo on the upcoming Listeners page where I can show off my awesome audience. | <urn:uuid:0d2b6a9b-4b68-4570-9e8b-dfc04789c3f6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://genealogygemspodcast.com/webpage/page/14 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922165 | 3,439 | 1.5 | 2 |
(Photo: Al Azhar mosque in Cairo, 10 March 2010/Amr Abdallah Dalsh)
Egypt’s al-Azhar’s satellite channel that seeks to promote moderate Islam launched four language services to extend its reach to millions of Muslims worldwide, its designers said on Sunday.
Al-Azhar, one of the oldest seats of Sunni Islamic learning, will target viewers in English, French, Urdu and Pashto besides its now running Arabic programs, in a renewed effort to further U.S. President Barak Obama’s call for greater religious tolerance. The station was launched to coincide with Obama’s visit to Cairo in mid-2009 and his call for better ties between the Muslim world and the United States.
“There is a wide open market for religious moderation on the airwaves,” said Sheikh Khaled El Gendy, Azhar religious scholar and one of the channel’s content developers. “We are competing with voices of intolerance for the attention and loyalty of young people,” said Gendy, who hosts a live call-in program for viewers struggling with the interpretation of Islam to seek guidance. | <urn:uuid:c18f3c25-6107-4564-9f4b-238da98b4503> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/tag/egypt/page/8/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949632 | 242 | 1.671875 | 2 |
TOKYO - A new probe at Japan's crippled nuclear power plant has found fatal radiation levels and hardly any cooling water inside one of the reactors, renewing concerns about the plant's stability.
The operator of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant says an endoscopic examination Tuesday detected radiation levels up to 10 times the fatal dose inside the No. 2 reactor's contain chamber, suggesting challenges ahead in shutting down the facility.
The probe also found the containment vessel had cooling water up to only about 60 centimeters (2 feet) from the bottom, far below the 10 meters (yards) estimated when the government declared the plant's stability in December.
Plant workers also reported fresh leaks of contaminated water from a water treatment unit, some flowing into the ocean. | <urn:uuid:8e6ee3fd-8c46-43c6-90f4-d0834903ae04> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailybreeze.com/ci_20264502/fatal-radiation-levels-discovered-japans-crippled-nuke-plant?source=pkg | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923684 | 153 | 2.765625 | 3 |
The King's Speech, Tom Hooper's historical drama about King George VI overcoming a stutter on the eve of World War II, is one of the most acclaimed films of the year. It's received 12 Oscar nominations, and has won the approval of figures as diverse as Roger Ebert and Peggy Noonan. But should we trust its portrayal of history and the British monarchy?
In his latest column for Slate, Christopher Hitchens says that no, we should not. The King's Speech commits a number of grave factual errors, says Hitchens. For one thing, it depicts Winston Churchill as "a consistent friend of the stuttering prince," when in reality, Churchill "was--for as long as he dared--a consistent friend of conceited, spoiled, Hitler-sympathizing Edward VIII."
Perhaps more seriously, Hitchens goes on to note, the film glosses over the fact that King George VI and Queen Elizabeth--that's "Colin Firth and Helena Bonham Carter to you"--were staunch allies of Neville Chamberlain, the Prime Minister famous for ceding the Sudetenland to Hitler in 1938. Hitchens explains how George and Elizabeth sidestepped "ancient custom" by giving Chamberlain's appeasement their royal approval before Parliament could weigh in--the reverse of how it's always done in the U.K. According to one scholar, this was "the most unconstitutional act by a British Sovereign" in the twentieth century.
"Almost the entire moral capital" of Britain's royal family "is invested in the post-fabricated myth of its participation in 'Britain's finest hour,'" writes Hitchens. "In fact, had it been up to them, the finest hour would never have taken place." The essay is echt Hitchens--at once dense and entertaining, erudite and fascinating. Read it if you're interested in British history and the ways in which stories change on their way to the silver screen. King George may have had a stammer, but Hitchens doesn't miss a word. | <urn:uuid:433dc8c8-a417-4f8e-aa5a-27073528f8d0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2011/01/the-king-s-speech-glosses-over-the-whole-nazi-thing/17922/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951335 | 418 | 2.359375 | 2 |
Hirst’s butterfly works have withstood a lot of critique and hatred, not least from animal rights groups. It is admittedly disturbing, but labeling it ‘eco-art’ may raise an even bigger question mark, as it involves taking lives for aesthetic purposes. Curious also is the way in which Christie’s explains the work: “The highly complex composition is created entirely from thousands of dead butterfly wings (…) which glisten with glorious life.”
One can easily chose to see it in another way, as in Hirst drawing attention to all the beauty in the world and how we humans continue to pollute and ignore the problems right in front of us. Seeing as Hirst is quite greengaged himself, it’s hard to imagine his motives being foul.
The work clearly plays with contrasts and as with many things in life — the beauty undercuts the horror of what we see. Sadly, it’s a buyers world, and as far as art goes, the freakier and more provocative it is – the better and more successful it is likely to become. | <urn:uuid:53737b68-6db1-45a2-9bee-d8c138afc5ef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://inhabitat.com/art-made-from-thousands-of-butterfly-wings-sells-for-2-million/2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968476 | 227 | 1.882813 | 2 |
Producers located in Ellis and Navarro Counties will be able to participate
Source: USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service Texas office
State Conservationist Salvador Salinas announced May 8 the launch of a new Water Quality Initiative committed to improving impaired waterways in Texas. USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) will manage the initiative by making $2 million in financial assistance available to farmers, ranchers and forest landowners in the Chambers Creek watershed above Richland-Chambers Reservoir in the Trinity River Basin.
“The Water Quality Initiative will further NRCS’ partnership efforts to improve water quality using voluntary actions on private lands,” Salinas said. “This initiative is a focused approach in areas facing significant natural resource challenges. It bolsters the positive results of landscape conservation initiatives NRCS and its partners already have underway.”
The NRCS will work with their partners in this initiative, the Tarrant Regional Water District, Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, and the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as the Navarro and Ellis-Prairie Soil and Water Conservation Districts.
Through this effort, eligible producers in the watershed in Ellis and Navarro Counties will invest in voluntary conservation practices to help provide cleaner water for their neighbors and communities. Using funds from the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, NRCS will provide financial and technical assistance to producers for implementing conservation practices such as cover crops, filter strips and terraces in watersheds with impairments where federal investments can make a difference in improving water quality.
“American farmers are good stewards of the environment, especially when they have the tools they need to protect or improve fish and wildlife habitat and water quality,” said NRCS Chief Dave White. “We look forward to collaborating with producers in key watersheds to help them have a positive impact on streams with impaired water quality.”
The Chambers Creek watershed has been selected as an area for concentration because of turbidity, siltation, dissolved oxygen, and high nutrient levels. It has also been targeted because it has great potential for addressing the identified problems.
NRCS accepts applications for financial assistance on a continuous basis throughout the year. There will be two ranking periods for the Water Quality Initiative with the first ending on May 18 and the second on June 15, 2012. At the end of a ranking period, NRCS ranks all submitted proposals for funding consideration. This summer, NRCS will notify all applicants of the results of the rankings and begin developing contracts with selected applicants.
Interested parties can apply for assistance at the USDA NRCS Service Center in Corsicana for Navarro County residents or Waxahachie for those living in Ellis County. The address for the Corsicana field office is 4321 Highway 22 and the phone number is 90- 874-5131 ext 3. In Waxahachie, the office is located at 1822 FM 66, Suite 101 and the phone number is 972-937-2660 ext. 3. NRCS field personnel will gladly discuss your farming or ranching operation and objectives at your convenience to explain more about the program opportunities that may interest you. NRCS provides assistance to private landowners and operators free of charge and there is no obligation to participate in this program.
Since 1935, NRCS’ nationwide conservation delivery system works with private landowners to put conservation on the ground based on specific, local conservation needs, while accommodating state and national interests. For more information about the Water Quality Initiative and NRCS’ programs, initiatives and services in Texas, visit www.tx.nrcs.usda.gov.
A map of the selected watershed is available for download here: Chambers Creek above Richland-Chambers Reservoir (PDF; 421 Kb) | <urn:uuid:930b2b19-a97d-45c3-8ba9-fd0fc272a492> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tscra.org/news_blog/2012/05/08/nrcs-announces-water-quality-initiative-in-chambers-creek-watershed/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923182 | 790 | 2.328125 | 2 |
How on earth did I miss this one??
The United States has ended a 30-year tax subsidy for corn-based ethanol that cost taxpayers $6 billion annually, and ended a tariff on imported Brazilian ethanol.
Congress adjourned for the year on Friday, failing to extend the tax break that’s drawn a wide variety of critics on Capitol Hill, including Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. Critics also have included environmentalists, frozen food producers, ranchers and others.
The policies have helped shift millions of tons of corn from feedlots, dinner tables and other products into gas tanks.
Environmental group Friends of the Earth praised the move.
“The end of this giant subsidy for dirty corn ethanol is a win for taxpayers, the environment and people struggling to put food on their tables,” biofuels policy campaigner Michal Rosenoer said Friday.
The subsidy has provided the oil and agribusiness industries with 45 cents per gallon of ethanol blended into gasoline. By some estimates, Congress has awarded $45 billion in subsidies to the ethanol industry since 1980.
More at Detroit News | <urn:uuid:4159ef30-b0cb-40cd-b299-69f6fe9a2a4f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://climateadaptation.tumblr.com/post/14901017840/double-take-of-the-day-congress-ends-corn-ethanol | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934961 | 238 | 1.851563 | 2 |
Last week, two years after Washington, D.C., cops told Jerome Vorus to stop taking pictures of a traffic stop in Georgetown and to stop recording his encounter with them, the Metropolitan Police Department issued a general order against such illegal interference with citizens' exercise of their First Amendment rights. The order (PDF), part of an agreement settling a federal lawsuit Vorus filed last year with help from the American Civil Liberties Union of the Nation's Capital, "recognizes that members of the general public have a First Amendment right to video record, photograph, and/or audio record MPD members while MPD members are conducting official business or while acting in an official capacity in any public space, unless such recordings interfere with police activity." That was not the position taken by the cops who detained Vorus in July 2010, four of whom incorrectly informed him that he was breaking the law by photographing and recording police without permission from the department's public affairs office. To the contrary, Police Chief Cathy Lanier says in the new directive, "A bystander has the same right to take photographs or make recordings as a member of the media, as long as the bystander has a legal right to be present where he or she is located."
That right applies in "public settings" such as "parks, sidewalks, streets, and locations of public protests" as well as "an individual’s home or business, common areas of public and private facilities and buildings, and any other public or private facility at which the individual has a legal right to be present." If someone is legally taking pictures or making a recording, an officer may not "order that person to cease such activity," "demand that person's identification," "demand that the person state a reason why he or she is taking photographs or recording," "detain that person," "intentionally block or obstruct cameras or recording devices," or ""in any way threaten, intimidate or otherwise discourage an individual from recording [officers'] enforcement activities." Furthermore, "a person has the right to express criticism of the police activity being observed...so long as that expression does not jeopardize the safety of any member, suspect or bystander...and so long as that expression does not violate the law or incite others to violate the law."
The order also establishes procedures for police access to photographs or recordings that they have probable cause to believe include "evidence of criminal acts." Instead of handing over his device, a bystander can choose to transmit the files by email, for example. If the bystander declines to cooperate, the officer can seize the evidence without a warrant only in "exigent circumstances" and only with clearance from the watch commander. | <urn:uuid:3e534034-4665-4bb6-8c67-f9d91a99d29b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://reason.com/blog/2012/07/23/dc-police-officially-declare-photography | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964311 | 541 | 1.671875 | 2 |
There is no plant on Earth more condemned than marijuana. We’re talking about a living organism which governments have taken upon themselves to designate as an illegal substance. Despite no existing evidence of anyone ever dying of a marijuana overdose, possession of this plant is still illegal in many parts. Marijuana has been found to suppress cancer, reduce blood pressure, treat glaucoma, alleviate pain and even inhibit HIV. It is an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective. Can you understand more now why it’s illegal?
No Independent Study Has Ever Linked Marijuana To Psychosocial Problems
Cannabis is one of the most powerful healing plants on the planet. Dozens of studies have made pseudoscientific attempts to indicate that young people who use cannabis tend to experience psychological, social problems and mental decline. However, there is no evidence that marijuana use is directly linked with such problems, according to the results of a study published in The Lancet.
“Currently, there is no strong evidence that use of cannabis of itself causes psychological or social problems,” such as mental illness or school failure, lead study author Dr. John Macleod of the University of Birmingham in the UK told Reuters Health.
“There is a great deal of evidence that cannabis use is associated with these things, but this association could have several explanations,” he said, citing factors such as adversity in early life, which may itself be associated with cannabis use and psychosocial problems.
Macleod and his team reviewed 48 long-term studies, 16 of which provided the highest quality information about the association between illicit drug use reported by people 25 years old or younger and later psychological or social problems. Most of the drug-specific results involved cannabis use.
Cannabis use was not consistently associated with violent or antisocial behavior, or with psychological problems.
In another study, Scientists from King’s College, London, found occasional pot use could actually improve concentration levels.
The study, carried in the American Journal of Epidemiology, tested the mental function and memory of nearly 9,000 Britons at age 50 and found that those who had used illegal drugs as recently as in their 40s did just as well, or slightly better, on the tests than peers who had never used drugs.
‘Overall, at the population level, the results seem to suggest that past or even current illicit drug use is not necessarily associated with impaired cognitive functioning in early middle age,’ said lead researcher Dr Alex Dregan.
Dr Dregan’s team used data on 8,992 42-year-olds participating in a UK national health study, who were asked if they had ever used any of 12 illegal drugs. Then, at the age of 50, they took standard tests of memory, attention and other cognitive abilities.
Overall, the study found, there was no evidence that current or past drug users had poorer mental performance. In fact, when current and past users were lumped together, their test scores tended to be higher.
The Age of Deception is Ending
In 2003, the U.S. Government as represented by the Department of Health and Human Services filed for, and was awarded a patent on cannabinoids. The reason? Because research into cannabinoids allowed pharmaceutical companies to acquire practical knowledge on one of the most powerful antioxidants and neuroprotectants known to the natural world.
The U.S. Patent 6630507 was specifically initiated when researchers found that cannabinoids had specific antioxidant properties making them useful in the treatment and prophylaxis of wide variety of oxidation associated diseases, such as ischemic, age-related, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. The cannabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and HIV dementia. Nonpsychoactive cannabinoids, such as cannabidoil, are particularly advantageous to use because they avoid toxicity that is encountered with psychoactive cannabinoids at high doses useful in the method of the present invention.
In a historic and significant moment in American history, last November, Colorado became the first US state to legalize marijuana for recreational use. The impact of the decision could ripple across the entire country with vast opportunities to educate millions on the top health benefits of marijuana.
With the passage of I-502 in the 2012 Washington State election, marijuana also became legal in Washington–not just for medical use, but also for recreational use. Weed is still illegal as far as the United States government is concerned, but Washington and Colorado both have yet to figure out how that will work. It’s certain that this issue will continue to evolve and smooth out as time goes by, but the remaining states will eventually follow suit or be left behind with outdated laws.
Top Health Benefits
It’s no surprise that the United States has decreed that marijuana has no accepted medical use use and should remain classified as a highly dangerous drug like heroin. Accepting and promoting the powerful health benefits of marijuana would instantly cut huge profits geared towards cancer treatment and the U.S. would have to admit it imprisons the population for no cause. Nearly half of all drug arrests in the United States are for marijuana.
According to MarijuanaNews.com editor Richard Cowan, the answer is because it is a threat to cannabis prohibition “…there really is massive proof that the suppression of medical cannabis represents the greatest failure of the institutions of a free society, medicine, journalism, science, and our fundamental values,” Cowan notes.
Besides the top 10 health benefits below, findings published in the journal PLoS ONE, researchers have now have now discovered that marijuana-like chemicals trigger receptors on human immune cells that can directly inhibit a type of human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV) found in late-stage AIDS.
Recent studies have even shown it to be an effective atypical anti-psychotic in treating schizophrenia, a disease many other studies have inconsistently found it causing.
Cannabinoids, the active components of marijuana, inhibit tumor growth in laboratory animals and also kill cancer cells. Western governments have known this for a long time yet they continued to suppress the information so that cannabis prohibition and the profits generated by the drug industry proliferated.
THC that targets cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2 is similar in function to endocannabinoids, which are cannabinoids that are naturally produced in the body and activate these receptors. The researchers suggest that THC or other designer agents that activate these receptors might be used in a targeted fashion to treat lung cancer.
2. Tourette’s Syndrome
Tourette’s syndrome is a neurological condition characterized by uncontrollable facial grimaces, tics, and involuntary grunts, snorts and shouts.
Dr. Kirsten Mueller-Vahl of the Hanover Medical College in Germany led a team that investigated the effects of chemicals called cannabinols in 12 adult Tourette’s patients. A single dose of the cannabinol produced a significant reduction in symptoms for several hours compared to placebo, the researchers reported.
Marijuana is a muscle relaxant and has “antispasmodic” qualities that have proven to be a very effective treatment for seizures. There are actually countless cases of people suffering from seizures that have only been able to function better through the use of marijuana.
Since medicinal marijuana was legalized in California, doctors have reported that they have been able to treat more than 300,000 cases of migraines that conventional medicine couldn’t through marijuana.
Marijuana’s treatment of glaucoma has been one of the best documented. There isn’t a single valid study that exists that disproves marijuana’s very powerful and popular effects on glaucoma patients.
6. Multiple Sclerosis
Marijuana’s effects on multiple sclerosis patients became better documented when former talk-show host, Montel Williams began to use pot to treat his MS. Marijuana works to stop the neurological effects and muscle spasms that come from the fatal disease.
7. ADD and ADHD
A well documented USC study done about a year ago showed that marijuana is not only a perfect alternative for Ritalin but treats the disorder without any of the negative side effects of the pharmaceutical.
8. IBS and Crohn’s
Marijuana has shown that it can help with symptoms of the chronic diseases as it stops nausea, abdominal pain, and diarrhea.
Despite what you may have heard about marijuana’s effects on the brain, the Scripps Institute, in 2006, proved that the THC found in marijuana works to prevent Alzheimer’s by blocking the deposits in the brain that cause the disease.
10. Premenstrual Syndrome
Just like marijuana is used to treat IBS, it can be used to treat the cramps and discomfort that causes PMS symptoms. Using marijuana for PMS actually goes all the way back to Queen Victoria.
Mounting Evidence Suggests Raw Cannabis is Best
Cannabinoids can prevent cancer, reduce heart attacks by 66% and insulin dependent diabetes by 58%. Cannabis clinician Dr. William Courtney recommends drinking 4 – 8 ounces of raw flower and leaf juice from any Hemp plant, 5 mg of Cannabidiol (CBD) per kg of body weight, a salad of Hemp seed sprouts and 50 mg of THC taken in 5 daily doses.
Why raw? Heat destroys certain enzymes and nutrients in plants. Incorporating raw cannabis allows for a greater availability of those elements. Those who require large amounts of cannabinoids without the psychoactive effects need to look no further than raw cannabis. In this capacity, it can be used at 60 times more tolerance than if it were heated.
Raw cannabis is considered by many experts as a dietary essential. As a powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant, raw cannabis may be right u there with garlic and tumeric.
Marco Torres is a research specialist, writer and consumer advocate for healthy lifestyles. He holds degrees in Public Health and Environmental Science and is a professional speaker on topics such as disease prevention, environmental toxins and health policy.
- Who Is Trying To Patent Marijuana? (talesfromthelou.wordpress.com)
- Latest Studies on Marijuana and Health: Good news for Crohn’s Disease Sufferers (talesfromthelou.wordpress.com) | <urn:uuid:9db9288f-b4f8-40f4-8dd3-f5415b7e72e3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://talesfromthelou.wordpress.com/category/marijuana/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947533 | 2,140 | 2.46875 | 2 |
It's rare that communities like Edie have something in common with the Pittsburgh Parkway, but Saturday night was no ordinary evening.
Thousands of vehicles traveled the roads around Airesman Orchards to witness the creation of a new world record with fireworks in Lincoln Township.
The Pyrotechnic Artists club has held firework displays on the rolling hills of this farm for years. But this Memorial Day weekend, the club set out to create a record for the number of reports/salutes in one display.
The club discovered a Guinness World record didn't exist so they wanted to create one.
The Daily American published a variety of stories about the upcoming event and as excitement in the community grew, we started receiving calls asking for more details.
We realized this was going to be a big event and began wondering where everyone would park and find a place to see this historic event. Fortunately, neighboring farmer Mike Brendle stepped up and opened his fields to allow several hundred cars to park on his land.
As the night finally arrived, we decided the event was worthy of live video on our website, dailyamerican.com.
The club's president, Howard Fry of Elton, was more than gracious with our request and gave us front row seats, about 70 yards from the setup.
Despite the show starting about 30 minutes late, the show was spectacular. I was able to shoot the live video while reporter Phil Petrunak took photographs for the newspaper and online photo gallery.
The late start actually helped us out. Being in a rural field, we didn't know if the wireless Internet feed would have a strong enough signal for the website. About 20 minutes before the scheduled start time, we couldn't get the system online. But the fireworks gods were with us. By the time the sky lit up with colorful fireworks, the live video stream was up and broadcasting video across the Web.
For close to a half-hour, the sky was filled with a wide variety of shells, explosions and displays.
Howard said about 50 club members worked for several days setting up this grand show. It was a testament to the passion of the members who wanted to make a memorable show and they delivered. It wasn't about making a profit on another show, but delivering the best possible show for Somerset County.
The group set off 1,858 explosions in the finale and also close to 2,000 fireworks during the body of the show.
After it was over, the small, winding rural roads were filled with bumper-to-bumper traffic just like the Pittsburgh Parkway during rush hour. From on top of the mountain, you could see miles of small red taillights on vehicles waiting to make their way out of the countryside.
The club members stayed on the orchard's grounds through the weekend. Those who were in the area Sunday evening got to see another long show as each member was able to set off their own explosions.
"Never in my wildest fantasy did I think it was going to be that big," Fry said. "I can't say enough about the club members. They made it happen. It was remarkable." The news coverage informed the world about the club's efforts and Fry has been hearing from people from as far away as Europe who read about their efforts.
The only downside was that some spectators left trash on one neighbor's property and upset the homeowner. It doesn't make sense why people are so disrespectful to other people's property.
The show also created a little boost for the economy. Fry said some neighboring property owners charged for parking, rented port-a-potties and held yard sales. Also the event brought thousands of people to the area who probably dined at local restaurants before or after the show.
It will be several weeks until Guinness makes a ruling on Saturday's program, but in my mind it was a night to remember. If you didn't get a chance to see the show, go to dailyamerican.com and search for "world-record" to see 30 photos and the video of the show.
If you're interested in seeing more fireworks, you won't have to wait too long. On June 30 there will be at least two local shows planned for the Independence Day holiday. Allen Airesman will have another show at Airesman Orchards and Little Big Shots of Addison will be setting off the Daily American's show at the Somerset high school about dusk.
They may not set another world record, but the shows promise to be a great way to ring in the Fourth of July celebration.
(Brian Whipkey is the Daily American's editor. He can be contacted at firstname.lastname@example.org.) | <urn:uuid:cbdedd13-eaee-48d6-9f05-15f233b83d89> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailyamerican.com/opinion/columns/da-ot-one-for-the-record-books-20120531,0,4724325.column | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976129 | 954 | 1.523438 | 2 |
BLACKSBURG, Va., Oct. 23, 2008 – Needles are often equated with pain and discomfort; however, for a horse named Gypsy the tiny sharp objects brought about much needed relief as Dr. Mark Crisman, a professor in the Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences in the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech, administered acupuncture therapy.
Gypsy had an infection in her ankle and Crisman was using acupuncture -- along with traditional therapy -- to help strengthen her bones and immune system, and provide pain relief.
Acupuncture, which has its roots in eastern countries, is a technique of inserting and manipulating very fine needles into specific points on the body with the intention of relieving pain and other therapeutic purposes. This ancient practice has long been used among human patients and, over the past few decades, has gained popularity and recognition in veterinary medicine.
“Acupuncture has proven to be a safe and relatively painless treatment for a variety of illnesses in animals,” said Crisman who has been practicing the therapy for over a decade on equine patients and now teaches others who desire certification.
The Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital offers this therapy to both large and small animals. Conditions that respond well to acupuncture range from skin disorders to musculoskeletal issues to neurological problems.
"While pain and osteoarthritis are common conditions we treat with acupuncture in small animals,” said Dr. Bess Pierce, an associate professor in the Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences, who is leading the hospital’s community practice, “we certainly provide therapy for a multitude of problems."
Veterinarians who wish to practice acupuncture most undergo an additional training process. With the recent completion of her certification, Dr. Beverley Purswell, a professor in the Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences, brings the total of certified veterinary acupuncturists in the college to four.
"Acupuncture certainly does not replace traditional veterinary medicine," said Purswell who plans to use the therapy in her work in theriogenology, the specialized field of veterinary medicine that focuses on reproduction. "It can, however, compliment the therapies we already use."
In addition to Crisman, Pierce, and Purswell, Dr. Scott Pleasant, associate professor in the Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences, is also a certified acupuncturist. | <urn:uuid:ae2f0048-7f7e-4882-9e51-7580e18039ea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2008/10/2008-636.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944436 | 495 | 2.03125 | 2 |
The Civil Defence is a community based organisation, which is a back-up to the front line emergency services. Civil Defence members are drawn from all walks of life, with diversity in age, education, social background and physical abilities.
Mayo Civil Defence should be in a position to provide back up to the front line emergency services in the event of a major incident. The Civil Defence is in a position to provide water, search and recovery services together with other activities as required on lakes and rivers in the county. Mayo Civil Defence provides a first aid and ambulance service, stewarding and crowd control at local events. Civil Defence also provides safety cover for water based activities.
The Civil Defence also provides basic life-saving and occupational courses for schools and community organisations.
The year 2000 marked the 50th anniversary of the foundation of Civil Defence.
For more information, call (094) 902 44 44.
Phone: (094) 902 44 44.
Email: Mayo Civil Defence. | <urn:uuid:26a525e1-d836-4fc2-a48f-26be46b310d0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mayococo.ie/en/Services/CivilDefence/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936853 | 203 | 2.484375 | 2 |
Many chemicals today are known or suspected to be links to cancer, early puberty, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), obesity, autism, and other serious health issues. "As we look at protecting children's health, we need to look not just at nutrition, diet, and physical activity, but also exposure to chemicals," says Jason Rano, director of government affairs at the Environmental Working Group. The Safe Chemicals Act, which passed out of committee for the first time this year, would require chemical companies to prove that their products are safe. "In the U.S., we are a toxic dumping ground for unsafe products," says Katy Farber, founder of Non-Toxic Kids (Non-ToxicKids.net). "Many parents are exhausted by trying to keep up with what to avoid and what to do. The Safe Chemicals Act would shift the burden to where it belongs." Your family doesn't have to live like ascetics to minimize your children's exposure to chemical dangers; there are simple ways to reduce contact.
Arsenic is a known carcinogen that has been linked particularly to skin, bladder, kidney, and lung cancers. Certain foods contain organic and inorganic arsenic, and the latter usually raises the risk of cancer and other health problems. Both types of arsenic are found in apple and grape juice and in rice and rice products, which are contaminated by both naturally occurring arsenic and arsenic-containing pesticides that leach into the groundwater where it is grown. Arsenic is found in pressure-treated wood made or manufactured before 2003, when the industry agreed to stop using arsenic-treated wood for residential purposes.
How to Avoid
- The Food Drug Administration (FDA) has tested apple and grape juices and determined that they can be consumed in small amounts, but guidelines for an arsenic threshold have yet to be established. Instead of juice, parents can offer water, milk, and whole fruits.
- Consumer Reports advises parents to limit the amount of infant rice cereal to no more than one serving a day, on average, and to offer cereals that contain significantly lower arsenic levels (wheat, oatmeal, or corn grits). If you eat rice, you may be able to reduce exposure to inorganic arsenic by rinsing it thoroughly before cooking, using a ratio of six cups water to one cup rice for cooking, and draining excess water. If you remove rice from your diet, the FDA advises families to consume a variety of whole grains as part of a well-balanced diet.
- Daily rice drinks for children under age 5 are not recommended. If possible, avoid rice-based foods, such as rice milk and rice flour rice syrup.
- Avoid older pressure-treated wood, which might be found in sandboxes, playgrounds, swing sets, and decks. Pressure-treated wood can usually be identified by the numerous short slits cut into the surface.
"Because harmful chemicals such as arsenic enter children's bodies at such a higher rate relative to their body size, it is especially important to reduce their exposures," says Sonya Lunder, senior analyst at the Environmental Working Group.
Formaldehyde is a known carcinogen (it has been linked to nasal squamous cell cancer) and a skin irritant that can cause allergy-like reactions including watery, burning eyes and throats, stuffy noses, and skin rashes. Allergic skin rashes can occur as a result of contact with products that contain formaldehyde, which can also cause respiratory symptoms, headache, fatigue, and nausea. It is commonly used as an embalming fluid, but is also used to preserve a number of household products that contain a higher concentration of urea-formaldehyde (UF) resins. It can be found in pressed wood medium density fiberboard (MDF) furniture (used for drawer fronts, cabinets, and furniture tops), permanent press clothing and draperies, as a component of glues and adhesives, and in cleaning and beauty products, including some brands of baby wipes.
How to Avoid
- Avoid any furniture made of pressboard or MDF. If you do buy formaldehyde-treated furniture, get it well before you intend to use it and air it outside or in a well-ventilated garage or basement. Or use "exterior-grade" pressed wood products that contain a lower concentration of phenol-formaldehyde resins.
- Avoid household and personal care products that have these ingredients or materials: quaternium 15, bronopol (also written as 2-bromo-2-nitropropane-1,3-diol), diazolidinyl urea, DMDM hydantoin, imidazolidinyl urea, and sodium hydroxymethylglycinate.
Exposure to mercury impairs neurological development, and recent research has linked high levels of mercury to ADHD. Because neural development happens rapidly in pregnancy and early childhood, it is important to eliminate exposure where possible. Mercury enters the environment through air pollution and industrial waste. When mercury enters water, fish absorb it through their gills. For people, the primary exposure to mercury is from consuming shellfish and large, older, and predatory fish, which accumulate higher concentrations of mercury in their flesh. Older thermometers also contain mercury.
How to Avoid
- Eliminate large fish such as swordfish, shark, king mackerel, and tilefish from your family's diet. The American Pregnancy Association has a complete guide (americanpregnancy.org/pregnancyhealth/fishmercury.htm). Children, pregnant women, and women trying to conceive can have different amounts of tuna, depending on their weight. It's safe to eat other kind of fish, which are still a healthy source of protein and essential nutrients. "The omega-3-fatty acids in some fish can offset some of the mercury issues," Lunder says.
- Check advisories before consuming shellfish and seafood if you are unsure about their mercury content.
- If you have mercury-filled glass thermometers, replace them with newer models that do not contain mercury.
Bisphenol A (BPA) and Phthalates
Both BPA and phthalates are endocrine disrupters, products that mimic natural hormones and can affect reproductive development and health. BPA is linked to early puberty in girls and phthalates are linked to low testosterone and to male reproductive problems. BPA and phthalates are additives in plastics; BPA creates a rigid plastic and phthalates make plastic more flexible. Even though major manufacturers are no longer making baby bottles and children's drinking cups with BPA, it can still be found in the lining of food and beverage cans, in bottled formula, and even on shopping receipts. And even though three types of phthalates have been banned in toys for young children, they are still used to soften vinyl plastics (raincoats, backpacks, shower curtains, blow-up toys) and preserve scents (soaps, lotions, and perfumes).
How to Avoid
- Do not microwave food in plastic containers because they can release BPA and other harmful or unstudied additives into food.
- Avoid buying canned food or food storage containers unless they are marked "BPA-free."
- Look for children's raincoats and backpacks that are marked "PVC-free."
- Avoid personal care products for children with "fragrance" listed in the ingredients, which may indicate presence of phthalates. | <urn:uuid:8515b435-8e35-4ffc-9f2b-4b1c1ec1630e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.parents.com/parents/templates/story/printableStory.jsp?storyid=/templatedata/parents/story/data/1357328308901.xml&catref=cat7990021 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952671 | 1,537 | 3.359375 | 3 |
Namibia is an amazing country.
Video of Namibia
Namibia holidaysTake a Namibia holiday; this is African travel at its most varied! Flying in, driving yourself, or being guided: the choice is yours. A classic Namibian holiday might include sunrise on top of the world's highest dunes; a day relaxing in a hot mineral spring at the foot of the world's second-deepest canyon; a wildlife safari watching lion stalk huge herds of antelope – and an evening observing wild black rhino by moonlight.
You can meet a cheetah at close quarters, stroll through a petrified forest, marvel at ancient rock paintings and see footprints as old as a dinosaur – or as fresh and close as a leopard outside your tent. Namibia is a real travel adventure, like nowhere else on earth.
Namibia in contextOne of Africa’s newest countries, Namibia gained its independence from South Africa as late as 1990. Formerly known as South-West Africa, the country experienced a peaceful transition from years of foreign rule, first by Germany, then – after World War I – by South Africa. Today Namibia is a constitutional democracy with an entrenched Bill of Rights that provides for freedom of speech, press, assembly, association and religion. This is particularly important given the country’s diverse population, which includes the dominant Ovambo – who traditionally live in the fertile north – as well as the Damara, Herero, Himba and Bushmen people, and a considerable number of white Namibians.
Despite this diversity, Namibia’s population is tiny – only a little over two million people in a country that is larger than the UK and Germany combined, or twice the size of California. The reason is water – or lack of it. With permanent rivers only on its northern and southern boundaries, Namibia is exceedingly arid. For the most part, rain puts in a regular appearance only in the country’s more northerly regions, around December to March; further south and along the Namib coast, rain is increasingly rare, and may not fall from one year to the next. Temperatures, although similarly extreme in the desert, are more temperate elsewhere, with daytime averages around 25–35°C in the rainy season, cooling to 15–25°C in the winter months – and sometimes plummeting below zero at night. (To understand more about the weather, see Namibia’s climate statistics)
Namibia’s landscape is dominated by a central plateau, which is home to rolling hills and rich farmland. To the west, the land falls off in a dramatic escarpment down to the Namib Desert, which runs for 1,600km alongside the Atlantic Ocean, and is best known for the spectacular apricot-coloured dunes of Sossusvlei. To the east, the plateau slopes off more gradually, merging into the great sand sheet of the Kalahari Desert.
Where to go on holiday in NamibiaNamibia’s range of climate and tiny population make it an easy place to get away from it all. Even its key attractions are relatively undervisited, so you’re unlikely to encounter more than a handful of like-minded people as you seek out the dense herds of big game in Etosha National Park, or take in the show-stopping scenery of the Namib-Naukluft National Park. For something more offbeat, consider Damaraland, home to black rhino, elephant and other fascinating, desert-adapted wildlife. Then there are the vast, coastal wilderness of the Skeleton Coast, the rugged mountains of semi-desert Kaokoland, and Bushmanland – which are Namibia at its most remote.
If you can’t resist the thrill of adventure, then head for Namibia’s adrenalin capital, Swakopmund – where adventure activities abound, along with some exceptional excursions into the surrounding desert. Or combine adventure with the wilderness that is Fish River Canyon, a 500m-deep gouge in the landscape that makes a spectacular backdrop for hiking.
And if – like many Expert Africa clients – you are drawn back time and again to explore Namibia further, consider the more verdant Caprivi Strip, where you can combine a classic safari with boat trips on narrow waterways and perhaps add on a visit to Victoria Falls.
How to travel on a Namibian holidayTravel in Namibia is very easy – although how you travel around Namibia is at least as crucial as where you travel.
There's a choice of different ways to travel around Namibia, and you should address the various options early when you're planning a holiday. Whilst styles can be 'mixed and matched', the choice boils down to driving yourself between different areas; being driven around everywhere by a guide; or being flown around.
Self-drive holidays in NamibiaDriving yourself is by far the most popular way to visit Namibia on holiday. This isn't intrepid exploration; we'll arrange normal 2WD car hire for you (4WD is available, but is mostly unnecessary), with a full itinerary, detailed route maps, and all the information that you'll need to drive yourself around. Driving yourself is the most economical way to travel, giving you complete freedom to create your own Namibian adventure at your own pace.
Distances might appear daunting, but Namibian roads are usually good, straight and empty. Driving is a joy in Namibia; it's far easier than a self-drive trip around Europe. We will advise you from first-hand knowledge and pre-arrange your trip – you simply hop into your hire car and drive away! In more remote areas, you'll often stay at small camps and lodges. From there we'll arrange for specialist naturalist guides to walk with you, or guide you around difficult 4WD terrain in their vehicles.
Our self-drive trips are totally flexible, but it's best not to rush them; you'll enjoy them most if you stay at least 2–3 nights at most places. (See a typical self-drive safari, or a full list of ideas for Namibia holidays.)
Fly-in safaris to NamibiaFor those with limited time, or who don't want to drive themselves, flying around Namibia can be magical – albeit not the cheapest way to visit. Flying over Namibia's dramatic landscapes gives you a completely different perspective. You'll marvel at the size of the great Namib Desert, fly low over seal colonies and land at grass airstrips only a few miles from your camp.
Flying times vary from 30 minutes to a maximum of a few hours, and these trips can be almost as flexible as fly-drives. Choose where you stay from a selection of Namibia's top lodges, decide how long you stay at each, and then hop between them. (See a typical fly-in safari, or a full list of ideas for holidays to Namibia.) | <urn:uuid:ba0a80be-8e75-4bd1-810f-7a1a77e5fbc9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.expertafrica.com/namibia | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941229 | 1,456 | 2.453125 | 2 |
184 Kent Ave., Cass Gilberts Austin, Nichols & Company Warehouse in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Votes over, but debate continues about warehouse
By Tony Weiss
Not everyone in Williamsburg knows what the Austin, Nichols Warehouse is, but almost everyone has an opinion on it, just the same. Even those residents unaware that the City Council voted to overturn landmark status for the massive, white building were quick to interpret the controversy as a sign of familiar neighborhood woes overdevelopment, the loss of Williamsburgs historic character and the influence that money seems to buy.
Last week, the City Council voted twice to overturn landmark status for the Austin, Nichols Warehouse, the second time overriding Mayor Bloombergs veto. Initially, the councilmembers voted 43 yes and six no in favor of denying the landmarking. In overturning the mayors veto, the Council vote was 37 yes, eight no and two abstentions.
The Landmarks Preservation Commission had voted in September to designate the 90-year old warehouse as a city landmark.
I dont like the fact that theyre ripping down the buildings in the neighborhood that give it character, said local resident Joe Rush.
The City Councils decision comes a few months after it approved a massive rezoning for the North Brooklyn waterfront, which will allow developers to build apartment towers more than 30 stories tall, and which calls for the construction of a waterfront promenade.
Councilmember David Yassky, in whose district the warehouse is located, suggested that landmarking the warehouse would have been an impediment to the redevelopment and the transition from factories and warehouses to housing and parks. Yassky said an exception could be made for a truly beautiful building, but in this case, the building is, to me, not at all distinguished.
The warehouse currently houses a number of residents, though some have recently been moved out by the landlord for construction work. Ramon Sanchez and Veronica Velasquez have lived in the warehouse for a year and a half and were livid at Yasskys stance. He sold out the community, said Velasquez, referring to recent reports that Yassky has received sizable campaign donations from the Kestenbaum family, owners of the building.
Sanchez contested Yasskys assessment of the building. Its unlike any other building here, or in New York, for that matter, she said. Anyone who goes inside is overwhelmed by the structure.
The warehouse was built in 1914 for Austin, Nichols & Co., then the largest wholesale grocery business in the world. The architect, Cass Gilbert, designed some of New York Citys most famous landmarks, including the Woolworth Building on lower Broadway and the U.S. Customs House at 1 Bowling Green.
Its the work of a master, and its a great piece of architecture, said Landmarks Chairperson Robert Tierney of the Williamsburg warehouse.
The buildings white facade is now mottled by gray spots of concrete patchwork. Velasquez said her impression was that the landlords had skimped on maintenance to make the building less attractive as a landmark, and in anticipation of renovating it.
Tim OHeir, who lives across the street from the warehouse, disagrees. Though he describes himself as a conservationist, he declared, I dont think theres anything special about it, adding, Its a big concrete box.
However, many of the buildings neighbors have never registered its existence. Inga Rogers has lived and worked in the neighborhood for 10 years, and six months ago she opened the Mini Jakes childrens store a block away from the warehouse. However, she confessed that she had never paid attention to it. She suggested that whatevers done should be tasteful and in keeping with the feel of the neighborhood.
What the Kestenbaums are planning to do is a significant renovation, designed by Karl Fischer Architects, that will add several stories (reports vary between four and six), as well as altering the exterior, particularly the window pattern. Tierney said that, based on what the landmarks commission had seen, such a renovation would not have been approved. The windows are incredibly important to the design of the building, he said. You cant take the most important architectural feature and destroy it.
Simeon Bankoff, executive director of the Historic Districts Council, said the warehouse could still have been altered under the guidance of the landmarks commission. They couldve done what they do in Tribeca added interior courts, even a rooftop addition, Bankoff said. This is done on a daily basis.
Bankoff and Andrew Berman, director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, both expressed concern that the City Councils decision could set a dangerous precedent for historic preservation. Bankoff was particularly upset that Councilmember Alan Gerson voted to overturn the designation, given that he represents more landmarks than any other councilman. Gerson could not be reached for comment by press time.
Councilmember Christine Quinn also voted against landmarking the warehouse, though another Downtown councilmember, Margarita Lopez, voted in favor of landmarking it.
Not everyone in Williamsburg shared Bankoffs concerns about the future of historic preservation. If you put all your eggs into landmark status, it becomes absurd if thats the only way you can protect it, said Montgomery Knott, who was disappointed that nobody had been able to reach a compromise on the issue. For many others, landmark status was seen as a means to hold back the rapid developments sweeping through the neighborhood. One passerby hurriedly said the Councils decision was fine, as long as they dont build condos there. Told that condos were expected, he responded, It should be a landmark, then. | <urn:uuid:d026cf5c-6ad0-4d29-98d5-1d378ca5677a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thevillager.com/villager_137/votesoverbutdebate.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972865 | 1,156 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Cleantech Market Intelligence
Reading the Oil and Natural Gas Ratio Tea Leaves
One of the key energy trends that Pike Research has been tracking over the last few years is the rising volatility in the oil-gas price ratio. Measuring the difference between the price of a barrel of oil and an mmBtu of natural gas, the oil-gas ratio has held relatively constant over the last 25 years, with oil trading at 8 to 10 times the price of natural gas. While a barrel of oil’s relative energy density to an mmBtu of gas suggests that the ratio should really be about 6 to 1, oil trades at a premium due to global demand and its relative convenience as an energy carrier.
Beginning in 2009, that historical correlation started to disintegrate in the United States, due mostly to a combination of rising global crude prices in response to Middle East and North African geopolitical events and a surge in domestic production from unconventional shale gas.
As illustrated by the chart below, the ratio has reached 50 to 1 in recent months (touching as high as 52 to 1 in April 2012), more than five times the historical average:
As energy commodities, crude oil and natural gas should logically have a high degree of correlation. In reality, key market differences translate into diverging drivers. On one hand, oil is a global commodity with macro-level demand drivers, and its price is acutely sensitive to above-ground, geopolitical forces. Natural gas, on the other, is closely tied to regional markets with prices primarily driven by local forces.
The divergence is significant on many levels, but at the heart of this shift is a fundamental imbalance in energy markets that has yet to run its course.
Writing for the Wall Street Journal, Carolyn Cui explains:
“Customers who burn cheap U.S. natural gas as a fuel currently enjoy a competitive advantage, and buyers of other fuels have a rising incentive to try and switch. That may eventually narrow the gap again, but it could be a costly and time-consuming process.”
For clean energy, volatility in the oil-gas ratio points to a substantial shift in market dynamics, which even if short-lived, will have substantial implications for cleantech growth over the coming decade.
Consider that one of the key drivers behind the growth in the clean energy sector in recent years was a purported shortage of fossil fuels, specifically oil and gas. Facing the prospect of Peak Oil and predicted natural gas shortages across the United States just five years ago, stimulus dollars and public policy coalesced around clean energy. With a scarcity-propelled rise in fossil fuel prices and innovation across the clean energy landscape driving down costs, price parity for grid, fuel, and other applications seemed just around the corner.
While parity can be fleeting, it has been achieved in some applications; in others, a precipitous drop in natural gas prices across North America has raised significant barriers for still growing industries like landfill gas-to-energy (LFGTE), solar, and geothermal, that remain relatively expensive. As depicted by the sharp increase in the oil-gas ratio, this shift happened almost overnight, and in some instances, caught investors and project developers completely by surprise. In other applications, such as the use of LNG fuels in place of diesel for captive fleets, lower natural gas prices could actually benefit clean technologies such as biomethane production.
Although the ratio has fallen in recent months, it remains unclear whether a return to the status quo will lead to business as usual or a more permanent diversion will result in a significant paradigm shift. Some experts argue that current volatility is only a short-term anomaly and that forces will act to bring prices back into their long run equilibrium, while others question whether or not a stable long run relationship between crude oil prices and natural gas prices even existed in the first place.
Amid the uncertainty, many project developers appear to be taking a wait-and-see approach, especially U.S. policy will coalesce behind natural gas away from the traditional fossil juggernauts, coal and oil. In the first case, unfolding regulations from the EPA targeting coal plants suggest that this shift may be underway; in the latter, time will tell.
While my colleagues Dr. Kerry-Ann Adamson and Dexter Gauntlett and I have examined the natural gas phenomena and its impact on Smart Energy (see Natural Gas – Boon or Bane for Smart Energy?) as well as biogas (see Biogas and the Natural Gas Bonanza), the widening gap between relative prices is certainly worth monitoring. As Boon or Bane points out, however, it may still be too early to tell which technologies stand to benefit and which may suffer. | <urn:uuid:37a499b0-68eb-4b82-bb2a-ecb6400ff1b3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.navigantresearch.com/blog/reading-the-oil-and-natural-gas-ratio-tea-leaves | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945335 | 957 | 2.375 | 2 |
Carnegie Mellon University will celebrate the 30th anniversary of its pioneering Robotics Institute and commemorate the first National Robotics Week with special exhibits, lectures, and demonstrations April 15-16.
The Robotics Institute, founded in 1979, is the world's largest robotics research and education center with about 350 full- and part-time employees and a $55 million annual research budget. This week is National Robotics Week, which is aimed at increasing public awareness of the growing importance of robotic technology and the tremendous social and cultural impact that it will have on the future of the United States.
Adrien Treuille, assistant professor of computer science and robotics, will discuss "Next-Generation Interactive Simulation" as he presents the Teruko Yata Memorial Lecture on Thursday, April 15, in the Gates and Hillman centers on the Carnegie Mellon campus. Treuille specializes in developing real-time computer simulation techniques, including the Emmy-nominated Draft Track effect for NASCAR broadcasts and the Foldit online game to help scientists solve the protein-folding problem.
Also on Friday, the Robotics Institute's ChargeCar electric vehicle conversion project will display its electric test bed vehicle; and researchers will be displaying and demonstrating more than a dozen robots in the university's Planetary Robotics Center. | <urn:uuid:89a82516-7cf4-4d1a-b5e8-8b5613b7a761> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.drdobbs.com/robotics-institute-celebrates-30th-anniv/224400259 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.904446 | 253 | 2.484375 | 2 |
In the late 70's following the conversion of 13 railcoaches to one man operation, attention turned to the balloon fleet as a high capacity one person operated double decker was required. At this time, there was 2 balloons withdrawn and stored in Blundell Street Depot. Balloons 714 and 725 had been withdrawn in 1971 in need of major overhauls. Both trams still had their original interiors and were in a poor condition.
The first of these balloons (725) was stripped down to a shell and had its unique streamlined ends removed. The car had its underframe and body extended, new front entrances built, staircases relocated, the former centre entrance filled in and flat fronted ends installed. The tram was renumbered 761, fitted with a pantograph and reappeared in 1979 and was used all year round.
The second balloon (714) was rebuilt in a similar way except it kept its centre doors to be used as an exit to allow for better passenger flow. This tram re-entered service in 1982 and received the number 762. It is said that 762 is one of the best cars in the fleet and is the more reliable of the two cars.
Both cars now known as the 'people eaters' due to the fact they could clear a long queue by themselves, both trams were refurbished between 2000 and 2002.
The Jubilee trams are mainly used on the Fleetwood service and during the summer are also used on specials when spare. In 2008, 762 was named Stuart Pillar after the person who designed the Jubilee cars.
|Original Number||Current Number||Built||Status||livery||Notes|
|725||761||1979||in service||Wynsors world of shoes||modernised|
|714||762||1982||in service||Re:Blackpool Advert||Named Stuare Pillar| | <urn:uuid:762fc420-be50-4ad4-a45d-74bb6e191d13> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://webspace.webring.com/people/l3/303032/jubilee.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980549 | 389 | 1.695313 | 2 |
This is an interesting article with regard to incentives for low income people to buy homes. I think the most important part however is the last section with regard to "Pushing too Hard".
Homeownership bill: political currency
$400 million effort aimed at minorities delights industry
By Steve Kerch, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 3:41 PM ET Oct. 2, 2003
CHICAGO (CBS.MW) - Efforts to increase homeownership among minorities got a boost this week as the U.S. House of Representatives passed a $400 million bill that provides down-payment and closing-cost aid to 80,000 lower-income buyers over the next two years.
Dubbed the American Dream Downpayment Act, the measure authorizes grants averaging $5,000 for first-time buyers whose incomes are less than 80 percent of a local area's median. The House passed the Republican-sponsored bill on a voice vote; a companion bill is pending in the Senate.
The bill's sponsors estimate it could result in construction of 1,000 new homes and the creation of 2,500 jobs.
But the first spin-off is the political spin being put out by GOP leaders going out of their way to point out the benefits to minorities.
"African Americans and Latinos will benefit from the new legislation since it provides much needed money to assist residents in the purchasing of a home," said Pamela Mantis, Republican National Committee deputy press secretary. "The benefits of this bill will not only help new homeowners, but will also contribute to job creation, adding to the increased momentum of the nation's economic recovery."
U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Mel Martinez noted that President Bush asked Congress to fund the American Dream Downpayment Initiative as part of the administration's "Homeownership Challenge" to increase minority homeownership by 5.5 million families by 2010.
The initiative is certainly a noble one. Two-thirds of all American households own their own home, but the homeownership rate for African Americans and Hispanics is less than 50 percent. While that rate picked up throughout the 1990s expansion, the gap between minority and white homeownership remains large.
"Down payment and closing costs are the biggest hurdles to homeownership for many American families. By helping those struggling to meet these costs, we can give more families an opportunity to build assets, we can get more Americans into homes, we can create jobs, and we can boost local economies," said House Financial Services Committee Chairman Michael Oxley, R-Ohio
Last year, HUD released a report that concludes adding 5.5 million minority homeowners will stimulate an additional $256 billion in benefits to the U.S. housing sector. In addition, HUD created The Blueprint for the American Dream Partnership, a coalition involving every housing-industry segment to build broad support for the President's goal of increasing homeownership opportunities for minority families.
Realty industry climbs aboard
It was no surprise real-estate trade groups jumped on the Republican praisemobile. The National Association of Realtors added at least two Democratic proponents of the bill to its greeting card.
"Realtors applaud the Bush administration and (U.S.) Reps. Oxley,, Barney Frank, D-Mass., Bob Ney, R-Ohio and Maxine Waters, D-Calif., for their outstanding leadership and commitment to helping more families achieve the American dream of homeownership," NAR President Cathy Whatley said.
"Although our homeownership rate is at a record high, one out of seven American families still faces critical housing needs. The American Dream Downpayment Act is a tremendous program that would not only create thousands of housing opportunities but also help sustain the housing market, which has been the pillar of our economy."
The Mortgage Bankers Association of America heaped on more accolades, for the leadership of the House Financial Services Committee, the sponsor of the bill, Rep. Katherine Harris, R. Fla., and for Martinez.
"The ability to come up with a down payment and closing costs remains a challenging hurdle to many families," said Kurt Pfotenhauer, MBA's senior vice president of government affairs. "Today, thanks to this legislation, more families will be able to overcome this hurdle and enjoy homeownership."
Pushing too hard?
It is true that down payments and closing costs are an added barrier to homeownership. And providing some cash to strapped borrowers will no doubt convince some to dive into homeownership.
But the fact is that the private mortgage market has already been doing its best to make everybody a homeowner, with plenty of zero-down options and in many cases allowing closing costs to be rolled into mortgages themselves. And it may be we've already pushed the envelope too far. See previous Resident Authority.
Mortgage delinquencies, while not near the records of previous recessions, are still high by the standards of what should be economic recovery. And there is ample evidence that the delinquency and foreclosure rates on subprime loans -- the loans most likely to go to homebuyers on the margins of creditworthiness -- are massively higher.
The bottom line is that the issues involved in providing decent, affordable housing to lower-income Americans are much too complex to be solved by a $5,000 check. But you can bet they'll be plenty of them cut - if not to average Americans, then at least by the housing-industry lobbyists to all the politicians they are now fawning over.
Steve Kerch is the real estate editor of CBS.MarketWatch.com in Chicago.
CBS and the CBS "eye device" are registered trademarks of CBS Broadcasting, Inc.
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It ain't how much you know, it's what you do with what you do know! | <urn:uuid:6c7039d5-b825-4106-96b3-9666f32ca7b8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://deephousepage.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29694 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955296 | 1,242 | 1.765625 | 2 |
“If you don’t have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare the voters. If you don’t have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from. You make a big election about small things.” – Barack Obama
Hmmm. Is making an election all about a fake bird a small thing? I mean, Big Bird IS a “big” bird, after all, and therefore maybe not a small thing …
Maybe making the election about Big Bird DOESN’T make Barack Obama look like a complete lying hypocrite jackass?
I’m trying to figure out when Obama was more humiliated: after basically telling 70 million viewers that he was clearly not up to the job of being president in THE WORST DEBATE DEBACLE EVER or if it was after being told by Sesame Street to please PLEASE stop demagoguing Big Bird to try to make the election about ANYTHING ELSE other than his failed record.
Then again, a big bird, a debate watched by 70 million people in which a sitting president is utterly humiliated. A debate watched by 70 million people in which a sitting president is utterly humiliated, a big bird. Which is the big thing and which is the small thing? I just wish I could ask that Homer Simpson guy…
Here’s a compendium of articles on the latest example of Barack Obama being pathetic:
This is one angry bird. After President Barack Obama’s campaign released a commercial using the Sesame Street character to mock rival Mitt Romney, Big Bird’s parents at Sesame Workshop asked the president’s team to take it down. “Sesame Workshop is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization and we do not endorse candidates or participate in political campaigns,” the group wrote. “We have approved no campaign ads, and as is our general practice, have requested that the ad be taken down.”
“I just find it troubling that the president’s message, the president’s focus, 28 days before Election Day is Big Bird,” Madden said. “The governor is going to focus acutely on jobs and the economy and what he can do to create a better, more prosperous future for the American people,” he added. Still, Romney has yet to be pressed on how eliminating funding for PBS would have much of an effect on the deficit. “You would need to cut PBS more than 1,000 times to fill the hole in Romney’s debate promises,” an Obama campaign email pointed out, announcing its new spot. Both the Republican National Committee and the Romney campaign blasted out emails to reporters, with a reminder of what then Senator Obama said during his speech to the Democratic convention in 2008. “If you don’t have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare the voters. If you don’t have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from. You make a big election about small things,” Obama said.
Mitt Romney’s campaign is mocking President Barack Obama’s decision to release a campaign ad focused on the Republican candidate’s repeated suggestion that Big Bird shouldn’t receive public funding.
Kevin Madden, a senior Romney adviser, told reporters on board the candidate’s plane Tuesday the campaign isn’t taking the Obama’s latest offensive seriously. “Right now, you’ve got 23 million Americans struggling to find work. You’ve got household incomes going down. You’ve got a federal deficit, federal debt that’s over 16 trillion dollars,” Madden said. “I find it troubling that the president’s message, the president’s focus 28 days out from Election Day is Big Bird.”
POLITICO, John McCain Mocks Obama Big Bird Ad
Slamming a new Obama attack ad against Mitt Romney that features Big Bird, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said on Tuesday that it shows the president is out of ideas. “It may show a paucity of ideas and ways to criticize Mitt Romney,” McCain said on NBC’s “Today” show when asked about the Big Bird spot. “The fact is the economy is still in very bad shape, and obviously the American people are still in very difficult conditions, and the one thing President Obama can’t run on is his record.”
The Republican National Committee is pushing back against President Obama’s embrace of the Big Bird flap by quoting…. Obama. “If you don’t have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from. You make a big election about small things,” Obama said in 2008. “And you know what? It’s worked before.” It might work again. The Obama campaign’s production of a Big Bird ad, which is supposed to run on cable, is funny. But it’s small-bore stuff (although small-bore stuff can be good when it comes to talking about DC’s dysfunction). The RNC has responded with a graphic, featuring County von Count. It notes that in the past few days, Obama has invoked Big Bird 13 times but he has said next to nothing about Libya, where an ambassador was killed in a terrorist attack that his administration at first denied publicly while admitting it privately.
At the same time Team Obama released a childish ad hitting Mitt Romney for daring to consider removing multimillionaire, one-percenter Big Bird from the federal government welfare rolls, the Romney campaign released a devastating graphic that shows that since his debate debacle, Barack Obama has mention Big Bird and Elmo 13 times but has not mentioned Libya or his plan to fix the economy even once. A media that is obviously disappointed with Their Precious One’s debate performance and recent collapse in the polls, is not at all happy with this silly and stupid Big Bird attack. Politico criticized the ad as small ball, NBC News described it as “absurd,” and ABC’s Rick Klein seems confused by the desperate smallness of it:
POLITICO, Chicago Gets Serious…
…and by serious, we mean not at all serious. The Obama campaign is out this morning with a goofy video of the Big Bird variety, mocking Mitt Romney, as the president has put it, as going easy on Wall Street but heavy on Sesame Street. The campaign is calling this a TV spot, but did not, as officials there usually do, say where it’s airing, suggesting this is a video for media and YouTube consumption. As Alex noted yesterday when the Pew poll numbers came out, we’ve long warned – and been warned – about big swings in surveys in what has been a fairly stable race. But the sampling of surveys out there do suggest a real Romney bounce.
National Journal, Big Bird Featured In New Obama Ad
The Obama campaign is taking silly season in politics to a whole new level in a television ad released on Tuesday featuring the star of last Wednesday’s debate: Big Bird. “Bernie Madoff. Ken Lay. Dennis Kozlowski. Criminals. Gluttons of greed,” a grimacing narrator says. “And the evil genius who towered over them? One man has the guts to speak his name.” “Big Bird,” Mitt Romney is shown saying three separate times. “Big. Yellow. A menace to our economy,” the ad continues. “Mitt Romney knows it’s not Wall Street you have to worry about, it’s Sesame Street. … Mitt Romney. Taking on our enemies, no matter where they nest.”
New York Times, Obama Ad Features Someone Big, Yellow and Feathery
If President Obama loses the election next month, his ad makers may have a second career on “The Daily Show.” A new television ad by Mr. Obama’s campaign would fit right in on the sarcasm-laced comedy show. Or it could be an opening skit for “Saturday Night Live.”… The Republican National Committee responded within hours of the ad’s release, but apparently they didn’t think it was funny. In a release to reporters, a spokeswoman for the committee noted that Mr. Obama has mentioned “Big Bird” and Elmo” 13 times since Wednesday’s debate, but said the president has not talked about Libya or the economy.
The Columbus Dispatch, Big Bird Stars In New Obama Ad
Stomped in last week’s debate, caught up in an exchange of accusations about lying, and losing ground in the polls, the Obama campaign has resorted to a new adverstising tactic.
A week after Big Bird became an unlikely character in the 2012 presidential campaign when Mitt Romney uttered his name in the first debate, the Obama campaign has approved a new ad that uses the “Sesame Street” character to attack the Republican nominee’s plan to cut federal funding for PBS… “Four years ago, President Obama said that if you don’t have a record to run on, ‘you make a big election about small things,’” Romney campaign spokesman Ryan Williams said in an emailed statement to Yahoo News. “With 23 million people struggling for work, incomes falling, and gas prices soaring, Americans deserve more from their president.” On the “Today” show, Sen. John McCain—who lost to Obama in 2008—said the ad “may show a paucity of ideas and ways to criticize Mitt Romney.”
The Washington Post, Big Bird Nosedive
“Jumped the shark.” “A campaign in panic.” “Lost it.” “Shocking.” These are just as few of the reactions among the media to the latest, dumbest move by the Obama campaign, an ad so trivial and unpresidential it makes one wonder if an epidemic of tone deafness has descended over Chicago… Just the thing to get over an unpresidential, contentless debate performance by the incredible shrinking candidate, huh? The Republican National Committee couldn’t resist and won the battle of Sesame Street ads. Almost as intriguing as the lame ad was the near-uniform negative reaction among mainstream reporters and pundits of all stripes.
There’s only one thing that sticks out to me about this ad, though the casual viewer probably won’t notice it. Let’s look at that litany of Wall Street “criminals” and “gluttons of greed,” which later get juxtaposed with Big Bird. You have Bernie Madoff, Ken Lay and Dennis Kozlowski. So two CEOs prosecuted and convicted by George W. Bush’s Justice Department, and Madoff, whose son turned him in before Obama took office, in December 2008, and who pleaded guilty. So the Obama campaign could not fill a list of three Wall Street criminals that the Obama Justice Department actually sent to jail. Heck, they couldn’t fill a list of one!
I loved the Republican Response:
Just to complete the abject lying hypocrite trifecta, Obama also said:
“If you don’t have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare the voters. If you don’t have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from.”
Bain Capital. Shamus the dog. Mitt Romney is a vampire. Mitt Romney is an outsourcer. Mitt Romney is a tax cheat. Mitt Romney is a felon. Mitt Romney not only laid me off, but he murdered my wife. And of course after Romney mopped the floor with Obama’s face in front of 70 million people, Mitt Romney is a liar.
Yep. Obama pretty much concludes that Obama has absolutely no business being president, doesn’t he?
Tags: Big Bird, Debate, If you don't have a record to run on, If you don't have any fresh ideas, Sesame Street, Seseme Street, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from, then you use stale tactics to scare the voters, You make a big election about small things | <urn:uuid:fb096bc9-d8a9-4c58-9d18-4d4eda2df5ae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://startthinkingright.wordpress.com/2012/10/10/if-you-dont-have-a-record-to-run-on-you-make-an-election-about-small-things-obama-spends-week-trying-to-make-election-about-big-bird/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960992 | 2,592 | 1.601563 | 2 |
By Sabrina Tavernise and Ethan Bronner
Published: June 4, 2010
ISTANBUL — It was just getting light when the Turkish boat, packed with 546 activists, descended into chaos, and Mahmut Coskun, a Turkish doctor on board, was in the middle of it.
The crack of an Israeli sound grenade and a hail of rubber bullets from above were supposed to disperse activists, but instead set them in motion. And when three Israeli commandos slid down ropes out of helicopters to take over the ship, a crowd set upon them.
“They ran at them without pause or hesitation,”
Dr. Coskun recalled.
One soldier was stabbed and two were beaten. From that moment on, the attempted takeover turned into an armed assault, with angry Israeli commandos opening fire. Within an hour, the commandos had taken control of the ship, and nine Turks, including one who also had American citizenship, were dead.
Dozens of interviews in Israel and Turkey suggest that Israel’s decision to stop the flotilla at all costs collided with the intention of a small group of Islamic activists from Turkey, turning a raid on a ship of protesters in international waters into a bloodbath — and a major international event.
The activists had set sail precisely in hopes of forcing the world to focus on Israel’s blockade of Gaza, something they had sought in vain in the past. This time they succeeded.
The deaths at sea on Monday have created a diplomatic fiasco for Israel. Its assault has been fiercely condemned around the world and ruptured relations with its closest Muslim ally, Turkey. The Obama administration has watched as the ties between its two closest regional allies have unraveled. Meanwhile, the Palestinians of Gaza, often neglected in Middle East peace talks, have taken on new importance.
In truth, the chaos and deaths on the ship, known as the Mavi Marmara, the largest of a six-boat fleet, were not a result of lack of planning. It was clear for at least a month to both the Israeli government and the pro-Palestinian activists behind the flotilla that they were on a collision course. But both severely miscalculated.
Israel, increasingly on the defensive over its policy toward the Palestinians, understood that it faced a public relations battle it could not win: its military could easily stop the boats, but if civilians were harmed, it would be blamed. The Israelis believed that letting the flotilla through would open a new military corridor to Gaza, run by Hamas, that would include weapons and militants.
“We knew they were looking for a confrontation,” a senior military official said, speaking under military rules of anonymity. “We tried to make sure force was the last option. But we were not going to let them pass.”
For the past three years, in an effort to squeeze Hamas, which seeks Israel’s destruction, Israel has banned all but basic humanitarian aid and food from entering Gaza.
Israeli diplomats tried to persuade Turkish and other governments to stop the flotilla, while the military planned an operation if necessary.
Maj. Gen. Eitan Dangot, the Israeli who oversees civilian Palestinian issues in the West Bank and Gaza, met with the Turkish ambassador in Tel Aviv. But he was told the Turkish government could do nothing because the boat was sailing under the auspices of a private group.
A Turkish official said a discussion of the issue with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was expected in Washington this week, but the raid occurred before the meeting could take place. Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has been one of the world’s most vocal opponents of the blockade of Gaza, and though he did not support the flotilla directly, he did not work very hard to stop it.
In Israel, ideas on how to halt the boats — sabotage of propellers or engines, the use of ropes or chains — were examined, military officials say, but all were rejected as dangerous or impractical. Disabling a huge boat like the Mavi Marmara could lead to its sinking or to days of towing it to shore.
The best option, they asserted, was a takeover of the command of the boats, something Israel had done a year ago during an attempt by a smaller vessel. This time, though, because the lead boat was so large, the Israelis would have to descend by helicopter rather than approaching only by sea, costing them the element of surprise. Some American naval experts interviewed agreed that as long as Israel insisted on stopping the Mavi Marmara, its best option was a takeover.
But Israel, committed to enforcing a blockade, did not consider alternatives like searching the cargo before unloading it in Gaza — a decision that has prompted criticism that Israel was too quick to choose confrontation and fell into a trap set by the activists.
Israel’s inner cabinet of seven ministers approved the plan and the Israeli Navy Seal units began training for what they expected to be passive resistance. “We had in mind a sit-down, a linking of arms,” a military spokesman said.
That the military was expecting mainly passive resistance is being seen in Israel as an intelligence failure. It could be viewed as a strange assumption given that Israel’s defense minister, Ehud Barak, later characterized the Turkish group as a dangerous Islamic organization with terrorist links — a charge the organization rejects.
As the flotilla approached, the commandos were briefed not to react to spitting and curses and were trained to go on board carrying large paintball guns, instead of their usual automatic weapons, and pistols, to be used only as a last resort.
Plastic Bullets and Crisis
On the morning of the raid, confusion ruled. The first soldiers who rappelled down the ropes appeared disoriented and frightened, Dr. Coskun, the Turkish witness, said, slipping a bit on the dewy deck and calling out in English, which Dr. Coskun said few Turks understood.
Of the two ropes that were dropped simultaneously from the helicopter, one was grabbed by men on board the boat and tied to an antenna, Israeli officials said. The pilot released it to avoid being tethered to the boat, and the commandos then slid down only one rope, slowing the incursion and leaving them vulnerable.
Some of the activists, hearing the pop of the plastic bullets and the sound bomb, believed they were being shot, according to witnesses, including some wounded now in an Ankara hospital.
It was a small group of aggressive activists on the upper deck who overwhelmed the first soldiers, wrenching away their weapons and, according to Dr. Coskun and video images supplied by the Israeli military, beating them with wooden poles and metal rods that they had ripped or sawed off the side of the boat.
The confrontation pitted the powerful Israeli military, determined to have its way by enforcing its controversial blockade of Gaza, against a group of activists from a Turkish Islamic charity intent on breaking it. The group, Insani Yardim Vakfi, is known by its Turkish initials, I.H.H.
Around the same time, the five other boats in the flotilla were taken over by commandos with relatively little resistance, though some activists from those boats were later treated for wounds.
On the main boat, live gunfire began when reinforcements descended — Israel says when the fourth commando saw an activist pointing his comrade’s gun — and terrifying scenes of panicked chaos unfolded on all levels of the Mavi Marmara for nearly an hour. Video taken from its surveillance cameras reveals jerky images of passengers dragging the wounded down staircases. A woman in a head scarf carried a stretcher soaked in blood.
“They are using live ammunition,” said a man standing in front of a camera. “We cannot protect ourselves.”
Ismail Yesildal, who was shot in the back as he stood on the lower deck away from the fighting, said doctors were overwhelmed with the wounded. By the end of the confrontation — around 5:08 a.m., according to the surveillance video — two dozen people were hurt.
“I saw wounded people everywhere,” he said. “People were panicked. There was helplessness in their faces.”
A week earlier, assuming everything was under control in stopping the flotilla heading to Gaza, Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel left for what he expected to be a very satisfying overseas trip.
He started in Paris to take part in celebrations of Israel’s acceptance to the club of rich countries, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a significant triumph for Israel.
From Paris, Mr. Netanyahu was off to Canada and ultimately to Washington for a meeting with President Obama that a top Israeli official said was expected to be a “hug fest.”
Mr. Netanyahu was sleeping in the government guesthouse in Ottawa early Monday when he was awakened with news of the raid.
His aides joined him at 3 a.m. to discuss how to save the crucial Obama meeting. In Washington, Mr. Netanyahu was also due to meet the Turkish foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, in a bid to steady that relationship as well.
But the crisis deepened, and Mr. Netanyahu flew home, while Mr. Davutoglu seethed over the raid. He flew to New York to push for a strong condemnation of Israel in the United Nations Security Council, but was thwarted by the United States, which watered down the language. By the time he reached Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s office on Tuesday morning, Turkey was in danger of breaking off diplomatic relations with Israel.
“We’ve had bad times with Russia, we’ve had bad times with Greece, but no state in Turkey’s history has ever killed our citizens with their army intentionally,” said a Turkish official who asked not to be named because of diplomatic protocol.
According to the Turkish official, Mrs. Clinton asked how the United States could help, and Mr. Davutoglu demanded the immediate and unconditional release of all the activists, most of whom were then still in Israeli custody. Several hours later, Israel announced just that, and Turkey sent six planes to Tel Aviv, declining Israel’s offer to send the activists back. A Turkish doctor was also sent to monitor the wounded.
“You just killed our people, how can I trust you?” Mr. Davutoglu asked Mr. Barak by phone, according to the Turkish official.
In Istanbul, the activists had come home and Dr. Coskun was remembering the raid. He was bitter that commandos had not let him help a bleeding man, instead delivering occasional kicks, he said, and forcing the passengers to lie face down on the deck, handcuffed, for hours.
He was also angry at the young men who fought the commandos. He rebuked one of them for bragging about having beaten an Israeli.
“I told him, just because you wanted to flex your muscles and drag three soldiers down, nine people ended up dead.”
But most of all he was stunned that the Israelis had used their guns on the activists.
“We expected them to come on board the ship, and to take us hostage, but we never thought they would use live bullets to do it,” he said. | <urn:uuid:3d9ea52d-3358-4501-9eff-3ebddeedfb73> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://flotillamassacrepassengers.wordpress.com/category/turkey/ismail-yesildal/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978584 | 2,338 | 1.617188 | 2 |
A non-profit news model that might work
MinnPost, a scrappy news start-up in Minnesota, is beginning to show how to run a sustainable non-profit venture without depending on major philanthropic support.
And it is doing so in two ways: First, by keeping costs low. Second, by raising money almost continuously through such diversified initiatives as advertising, NPR-style user contributions and even an annual gala featuring organic-vodka martinis.
In other words, the highly regarded Minnesota news site is the antithesis of such large-scale journalism projects as Pro Publica, Texas Tribune and Bay Citizen, which at this writing all rely on multimillion-dollar endowments from wealthy individuals and institutions.
MinnPost not only started life without a multimillion-dollar nest egg but also is committed to fully supporting its ongoing operations without major philanthropic donations by 2012, says Joel Kramer, a former editor of the Minneapolis Star Tribune who launched the site in 2007.
As of the end of 2009, Kramer was about halfway to his goal of achieving philanthropic independence. Even if MinnPost makes it, Kramer won’t rule out taking charitable donations to pilot additional projects at an operation already providing thoughtful and high-caliber coverage of news, issues, politics and culture in the Twin Cities and beyond.
Kramer’s quest for philanthropic independence is a matter of necessity, because MinnPost since 2007 has raised just $1.1 million in seed funding from multiple sources. Bequests range from $455,ooo from the Knight Foundation to a grant of $60,000 from a Minnesota foundation.
Compare its modest endowment to the substantial resources enjoyed by these notable non-profit news ventures:
:: Pro Publica has a cornerstone commitment of $10 million per year from a single benefactor for three years that is renewable at $10 million annually in subsequent years. Pro Publica, which recently earned its first Pulitzer Prize, got $1 million last year from the Knight Foundation just to look for more money.
:: Texas Tribune was launched last year with a $5 million grubstake from a handful of wealthy patrons in the Lone Star State. Like MinnPost, Texas Trib hopes to diversify away from big-ticket grants. In the meantime, however, it is operating on a comfortable cushion.
:: Bay Citizen got a $5 million jumpstart last year from San Francisco financier Warren Hellman. Even though the venture won’t publish its first story until May 26, Bay Citizen is in full fund-raising mode and recently leased stylish offices in downtown San Francisco.
But things are different at MinnPost, where low overhead is a way of life.
Although Kramer and his wife, Laurie, have worked tirelessly on the project since they launched it in 2007, neither ever has drawn a dime of pay. Their commitment, which includes personal donations in excess of $120,000, contrasts to the hefty six-figure salaries paid at Pro Publica, where editor Paul Steiger makes $570,000 per year; the Bay Citizen, where CEO Lisa Frazier earns $400,000 annually, and Texas Trib, where editor Evan Smith gets $315,000 a year.
With an operating budget of $1.2 million in 2009, MinnPost employed a staff of 18 (including the unpaid Kramers) and four-dozen freelancers, according to its annual report. By contrast, the Pro Publica payroll in 2009 was budgeted at $9 million for a staff of 37, plus a few short-term interns and fellows.
Setting aside freelancers in both cases, the average budget allocation per full-timer was $66,667 at MinnPost, which would include pay, benefits, office space, expenses and more. That compares with an the average of $243,243 allocated for each head at the New York-based Pro Publica. Subtract pay for freelancers at MinnPost and the average budget allocation for each full-time staffer drops at the Minnesota shop.
Lacking a hefty endowment to underwrite its operations, raising money also is a way of life at MinnPost.
The good news is that MinnPost is making headway toward Kramer’s “stated goal” of breaking even on “basic operations” without foundation support by 2012. The bad news is that he is only about halfway there. Considering the dicey economic environment in which he launched the site, that’s respectable progress. But it also means Kramer has a way to go.
MinnPost’s highly diversified revenue stream includes selling advertisements, soliciting sponsorships, collecting pledges from some 1,700 individuals, syndicating content, consulting and even organizing an annual gala called MinnRoast, where local dignitaries tonight will be spoofed before a 700-person audience put in the proper frame of mind by the aforementioned martinis.
In 2008, the first full year of operation for MinnPost, the above activities raised $577,ooo, or 37.9%, of the organization’s $1.5 million operating budget. Last year, according to its annual report, MinnPost raised $675,000 in earned revenues, or 55.7% of an operating budget that was trimmed to $1.2 million in light of the expectation that income would be lower because of the recession.
Thus, MinnPost moved in 2009 to the point that more than half of its operation was funded without support from institutions and large individual bequests. However, that still meant MinnPost had to dip into its modest $1.1 million nest egg to cover its budget shortfalls.
If MinnPost can’t achieve philanthropic independence by 2012, it either will have to seek additional foundation funding, curtail operations or both. For the moment, however, Kramer’s plan seems to be on track. You’ve got to hope he makes it. | <urn:uuid:09e83246-f622-4aaf-ae3e-aac89f606101> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2010/04/non-profit-news-model-that-might-work.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9588 | 1,233 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Office of the Director
The Director's office is responsible for strengthening and expanding relationships with its network of collaborators, with governmental and non-governmental partners and with funding agencies in order to influence cancer control policy development through the provision of a reliable evidence-base. In this context, the close cooperation with WHO Headquarters and with WHO Regional Offices is important, as are the working relationships with current and potential Participating States.
Four Groups are located within the Director's Office: Communications (COM), Education and Training (ETR), Laboratory Services and Biobank (LSB), and the Gambia Hepatitis Intervention Study (GHIS). The first three Groups have a wide range of activities that are relevant across the Agency. | <urn:uuid:7118d999-9f17-4ad2-a74b-9553f1e74a82> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.iarc.fr/en/office-dir/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949362 | 145 | 1.867188 | 2 |
2010 Academy of Achievement Summit
The following morning, the Fellows met a series of exceptional speakers in the first symposium session of the Summit, held in an elegant and intimate meeting room of the Willard. The first speaker, Jacqueline Novogratz, is a prime example of the concept of social entrepreneurship. Founder and CEO of the Acumen Fund, she has channeled philanthropic contributions into self-sustaining enterprises that provide essential services to some of the poorest people on earth. Ms. Novogratz illustrated her address with vivid anecdotes of her experiences, from Africa to South Asia.
The Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union, Anthony Romero, engaged the Fellows in a passionate discussion of the importance of civil liberties in the atmosphere of heightened security prompted by the war on terror. He fielded students' questions.
The Summit also heard from the Director of the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation, Sonal Shah. The Indian-born economist is President Obama's liaison to social entrepreneurs and the nonprofit sector. David Rubenstein, who served as a domestic policy aide to President Jimmy Carter before founding The Carlyle Group, the private equity firm with interests in every sector of the economy, emphasized the importance of building on one's early accomplishments, rather than resting on one's laurels. The final speaker of the morning was a member of President Obama's Cabinet, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist.
The discussion of finance and government continued over lunch at the Willard, where the Fellows heard from the Director of the National Economic Council and Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers. A former president of Harvard, his alma mater, Summers delivered a summary of current national economic issues, as well as educational issue dear to his heart, the importance of the mathematical study of probability.
In the afternoon session, the Director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Francis Collins, and the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, engaged in a lively discussion of the federal government's role in medical research. Dr. Collins, a pioneer of genetic medicine, is now responsible for allocating the $31 billion the government appropriates for health research. Dr. Fauci, long a leader in the struggle against HIV-AIDS, touched on the current state of this effort. Both men stressed the need for transparency in medical research, which they weighed against the privacy concerns that arise from the collection of genetic and medical data.
The physician scientists were followed by former Secretary of State Colin Powell. As a young infantry officer in Vietnam, as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the 1991 Gulf War, and as Secretary of State at the onset of current conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, he has had a unique insight into the most crucial episodes of our history. A central figure in American foreign policy and national security for nearly 30 years, General Powell gave the Fellows the benefit of his incomparable perspective on world events, as well as that of his own inspiring life story.
Another participant with a unique insight into America's wars, past and present, was journalist and author Rick Atkinson. Recipient of multiple Pulitzer Prizes for reportage, and for his multi-volume account of the American army in World War II, he is also author of the most acclaimed account of the every day life of combat soldiers in Iraq.
Struggles of another kind were addressed by the last speaker of the afternoon, Andy Stern, President of America's fastest growing labor union, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). He received an enthusiastic reception for his discussion of SEIU's work on behalf of some of the least visible workers in the American economy, and of SEIU's influential role in the landmark health care legislation -- the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act -- that had passed the House of Representatives the previous Sunday. | <urn:uuid:a71dfcbe-fee4-448f-8e3c-bb68ac0f25a5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nyu.edu/reynolds/news_events_resources/dcsummit2010_2.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961744 | 794 | 1.664063 | 2 |
atomicity; data typing; e-Business; model checking; process and communication protocols
Model checking is a promising technique for the verification of complex software systems. As the use of the Internet for conducting e-business extends the reach of many organizations, well-designed software becomes the foundation of reliable implementation of e-business processes. These distributed, electronic methods of conducting transactions place reliance on the control structures embedded in the transaction processes. Deficiencies in control structures of processes that support e-business can lead to loss of physical assets, digital assets, money, and consumer confidence. Yet, assessing the reliability of e-business processes is complex and time-consuming. This paper explicates how model-checking technology can aid in the design and assurance of e-business processes in complex digital environments. Specifically, we demonstrate how model checking can be used to verify e-business requirements concerning money atomicity, goods atomicity, valid receipt, and communication-link failure. These requirements are fundamental to many e-business applications. Model checking can be used to test a broad range of systems requirements— not only for system designers, but also for auditors and security specialists. Systems that are examined by auditors need to have adequate controls built in prior to implementation and will need adequate auditing after implementation to ensure that none of the processes have been corrupted. Model checkers may also provide value in examining the processes of highly integrated applications as found in enterprise resource planning systems.
(c) 2005 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.; | <urn:uuid:2d7cd3b5-cbb9-449c-ab3e-1e4a7bf5b399> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/IR/id/1370/rec/3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915061 | 358 | 2.109375 | 2 |
In the end, what goes around comes around. In this case, the loss of a child led to a gain for a community. The Hanleys serve as reminders of why we give in the first place, either at Christmas or throughout the year. And why we should give. Indeed, why we must.
Children who have to navigate the harsh reality of homelessness on top of poverty often fall through our already porous safety nets and disproportionately drop out of school and then, too often, drop into the prison pipeline.
"Something that I've learned from my mentor is always pay things forward, not necessarily with money, but with actions and deeds. You're not alone. You're not the only one out there in a bad situation. Beat the odds and you'll succeed."
Paying for education is often said to be an investment in the future, but an investment is only as good as the return you get on it. Doing some homework before you finalize your course of study may be the key.
Studies imply that more than 80 percent of dropouts would have stayed in school if they believed it was more relevant to real life. Learning how to run a small business can help kids see how their core classes aren't just cruel tortures from adults.
There is a musician whose work might be missing from your iPods: David "Honeyboy" Edwards. He was a blues icon who passed away in August at the age of 95, but his friends are working tirelessly to preserve his legacy.
There's something troubling about the use of the word "relationship" that excludes all relationships but romantic ones. All other adult relationships aren't just excluded in the wording; they're absent from the studies.
Weary headed and recovering from the flu, I walked into a foundation meeting. Clad in business suits and briefcases, the board was to interview me for the final round of a prestigious college scholarship. | <urn:uuid:8a60e7e5-469f-4e55-86da-2fd2b71ca8f3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/scholarship/1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979021 | 389 | 1.664063 | 2 |
What happened in Tiananmen Square in the spring of 1989? Why did the university students decide to protest? What and who were they protesting against? Why did the government allow them to occupy the centre of Beijing for almost two months? How much responsibility did the government have in the repression? What role did the army play? Were the Communist Party's senior officials for or against the students' demands? Why were the 10,000 deaths reported by an American news channel considered correct for so many years? What have we learned from Tiananmen?
How artists lived under the Franco regime, the Chinese student revolt which unravelled into the tragic events in Tiananmen Square, the fall of the Berlin wall and classical music's place in contemporary society are but a few of the focal points of Leonora Milà: The Intuitively Talented. This documentary zooms in on the artistic career and life of Leonora Milà, a vastly talented pianist and composer who performed in the Palau de la Música Catalana at the age of six and London's Royal Albert Hall at thirteen. Milà is also remembered as becoming the first Spanish artist to perform in the People's Republic of China, in 1979, and the first female composer to premiere a ballet in St Petersburg, in 1994; a work based on the 15th century chivalric romance Tirant lo Blanc.
Love, war, erotica, hatred and passion are the basic ingredients of this ballet inspired by the 15th century chivalric novel Tirant lo Blanc. The composer Leonora Milà and the Russian dancer and choreographer Iuri Petukhov are co-authors of the spectacular production which had its première in Saint Petersburg and was filmed by the cinema director Antoni Ribas. The work of the St. Petersburg State Ballet company earned the praise of critics and audience alike for their fine performance of the Tirant lo Blanc. Thanks to this success they performed during five consecutive years at the Mussorgsky Theatre and at the Gran Teatre del Liceu of Barcelona as well. Now you will have the opportunity to enjoy a magnificent performance of this ballet again, thanks to a fully-restored DVD copy released for the first time. | <urn:uuid:df54c163-1631-428c-85cc-1fd838d7a4cd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.elfarblau.com/productes_dvd.php?lang=en | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965769 | 453 | 2.6875 | 3 |
|The rocks as Rock City are huge sandstone concretions.
In an area about the size of two football fields, 200 rocks--some as large as houses--dot the landscape. There is no other place in the world where there are so many concretions of such giant size.
Owned by a local non-profit corporation, the site is operated as a public park. Open 9AM to 5 PM daily, May 1 to September 1. Admission is $3. /adult and $. 50/child.
Geologists are in general agreement these concretions were formed millions of years ago of Dakota Sandstone, which was deposited when an Inland Sea covered areas of Kansas.
Select a thumbnail to see a larger version:
|At one time, the surface of
the land was higher than it is now, and the rock occupying this space was
a sandstone, where individual grains of sand were poorly cemented together.
Underground waters containing dissolved calcium carbonate circulated through
the porous rock with ease and in doing so deposited calcium carbonate in
the open spaces between the sand grains, thereby cementing them together.
Instead of proceeding evenly, the precipitation of this natural cement began
at a number of scattered points where, perhaps, a fossil or an
extra large grain of sand served as a nucleus. It continued outward in all directions from these centers. The result was the formation of a number of spherical bodies of tightly cemented sand grains scattered from the sandstone mass.
Had the cementation continued long enough, the spheres would have grown together and the huge rock would have become a homogenous mass. But before this could take place, erosion by wind, rain, wash and running water began to lower the surface. Of course, the loosely cemented sand was the easiest to carry away, so it went first. The concretions resisted the erosive activity, so were uncovered and left lying on top of the present surface.
There are other examples of these phenomena throughout the world, but none are as unique or large as here.
Rock City is owned and operated as a park by Rock City, Inc., a local non-profit corporation. It is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, May 1 to September 1. A small admission fee is charged and used to maintain the park and offset its operating costs. Further information about Rock City can be obtained from Rock City, Inc., 1051 Ivy Road, Minneapolis, Kansas 67467 (785.392.2577). | <urn:uuid:fb5bb9bf-6090-4386-83e8-28a556fa9b7e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.washburn.edu/cas/art/cyoho/archive/KStravel/rockcity/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962974 | 521 | 2.484375 | 2 |
yield: Makes about five gallons, which should fill 53 twelve-ounce bottles.
Makes about five gallons, which should fill 53 twelve-ounce bottles.
- 12 to 18 pounds of grade-A honey
- 4 1/2 gallons of tap or bottled water
- 8 grams (1/4 ounce) of freeze-dried wine, champagne, or dedicated mead yeast
Note on equipment:
Making mead requires essentially the same basic kit necessary to brew beer at home: primary and secondary plastic-bucket fermenters with air locks and spigots, transfer hosing, a bottle-filler tube, heavy bottles, bottle caps, bottle capper, and a bottle brush and washer. You should be able to find these items for approximately $70 total (excluding the bottles) through a home-brewing supplier, such as The Home Brewery. Bottles cost from $6 to $20 per dozen, depending on style. You might instead buy a couple of cases of beer in returnable bottles, drink the beer, and after sanitizing them! reuse those bottles, for the cost of the deposit.
All your equipment must be sanitized or sterilized before use. Ordinary unscented household bleach does the job fine. Put all the equipment (including the lid and stirring spoons) into the fermentation bucket, fill with water, and add 2 teaspoons of unscented bleach. Let it sit for 30 minutes. Drain the water through the spigot, rinse everything in hot water, and allow to air-dry.
Bring the 4 1/2 gallons of water to a boil. Well water, by the way, should be avoided because of potentially high levels of strong tasting minerals like iron. Boiling should remove harsh chlorine from municipal tap water. If you don't own a pot large enough to hold five gallons of water, boil as much as possible. You will add the remaining water to the fermenter later.
Once the water reaches a boil, remove it from the heat and stir in all of the honey. Do not boil the honey, as it reduces the aromatic quality of the finished mead.
While the honey dissolves in the water, put a cup of lukewarm (90 to 100°F) water into a clean bowl. Sprinkle in the yeast and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. When the honey has been fully dissolved in the water and the pot is cool to the touch (not over 80°F), pour the honey-water into the fermentation bucket and stir in the yeast mixture. Note: Cooling the honey-water should take about half an hour. This process can be accelerated with a so-called sink bath, that is, repeatedly immersing the pot in cold water in a sink or basin.
If you have not already added the full 4 1/2 gallons of water, top it off with the balance in bottled water (or tap water if you're confident of its quality).
Seal the bucket and allow the mixture to ferment for two weeks to one month. The progress of fermentation can judged by monitoring the carbon-dioxide bubbles escaping from the air lock: When they drop to one bubble every sixty seconds, fermentation has nearly concluded. Note that is only an issue during this primary fermentation; secondary fermentation has more to do with aging and mellowing and hence is more flexible. When primary fermentation has subsided, siphon the mead over to your secondary fermentation bucket and seal it. Allow one to four months aging time. Do not open the fermenter, as this risks contaminating the mead.
When you decide it has matured enough (and the mead has cleared), you will want to siphon it into sterilized bottles and cap them. Follow the same procedure as you would for home-brewed beer. My book Beer for Dummies has a detailed guide in its Chapter Ten, or consult the web site of the American Homebrewers Association.
Keep in mind that this is a recipe for still (i.e., non-carbonated) mead.
Mead typically improves with age, so the longer you can wait to open the bottles, the better.add your own note | <urn:uuid:1af54e59-e1b3-49db-a6cc-168f0f41e358> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Basic-Mead-201058 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935953 | 858 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Two common ornamental plant diseases which occur during our South Florida winter are guava rust (Puccinia psidii) and downy mildew (Plasmopara viburni). We typically associate fungal diseases with wet and warm conditions, but there are a few pathogens which thrive in our “cooler” winter periods and do fine with just a misting of water.
Downy mildew attacks stressed Awabuki (commonly referred to as mirror-leaf viburnum), a variety of sweet viburnum (Viburnum odoratissimum). This species can be recognized by the green-pepper fragrance when you crush its leaves as well as the big dark green, shiny leaves.
During the winter, downy mildew will move in on weak plants and cause spotting (light green to reddish-brown), yellowing and defoliation. This is a minor disease usually, but it may cause extensive defoliation. Once the hotter days of late spring arrive, the disease tends to dissipate. A key point in control is removal of fallen infected leaves. Get those out of your landscape and do not mix them in with the compost! Make sure the sprinkler system is not directly hitting the foliage as the water will disperse the spores and the disease will consume more of your hedge.
If you feel you need to apply a fungicide, try products labeled for ornamentals, such as Mancozeb or phosphoric-acid based products which are available to homeowners. These products should be reapplied every 10 to 14 days as a preventive. A fairly recent group of fungicides products contain strobililurins and are available to professional landscape maintenance applicators. Fewer applications are needed with these compounds, but they are a little pricey.
Puccinia psidii goes by the name of guava rust and is evident by the rusty-colored spores on new growing tips and young leaves. It is found on Simpson’s stopper (Myrcianthes fragrans), Eugenia species, bottlebrush (previously Callistemon now Melaleuca spp.), pimenta dioca (allspice) and rose-apple (Syzygium jambos). One of those Latin names should have made you perk up — melaleuca. Yes, this pathogen attacks our unwanted and overly aggressive invasive punk tree (Melaleuca quinquenervia).
Although this pathogen doesn’t seem to slow the melaleuca too much, it causes some dieback as it does with our woody ornamentals in the Myrtaceae family. This fungus appears to be producing new strains which attack plant species it was not known to attack in the past.
Usually we welcome anything that will slow the growth of some of these shrubs. Maybe the rust disease could be considered beneficial, say a fungal pruning disease? If you feel it has gone too far, you may consider fungicides labelled for ornamentals and rust control, such as certain propicanozole and triadimefon products. Or just wait until the heat of summer arrives — already, it seems, here in mid-May — and the this rust pathogen will become less active.
Doug Caldwell, Ph.D., is the commercial landscape horticulture extension agent and landscape entomologist with the University of Florida Collier County Extension Service. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.org; phone: 353-4244, ext. 203. For updates on Southwest Florida Horticulture, visit: collier.ifas.ufl.edu. | <urn:uuid:bb3cb8a8-f6bd-4550-9917-0d4de95ec7d4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2009/may/22/even-winter-weather-cant-stop-plant-fabric-disease/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936403 | 741 | 2.984375 | 3 |
Antibiotics do not technically cause a resistance, but can allow it to happen by creating a situation where an already existing variant can flourish. More and more organisms develop resistance to more and more drugs.
Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most common causes of community-acquired and healthcare associated infections. The introduction of new classes of antibiotics usually has been followed by the emergence of resistance in S. aureus. After the initial success of penicillin in treating S. aureus infections, penicillin-resistant S. aureus became a major threat in hospitals and nurseries in the 1950s, requiring the use of methicillin and related drugs for treatment of S. aureus infections. In the 1980s, methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) emerged and became widespread in many hospitals, leading to the increasing use of vancomycin. The first clinical isolated case of S. aureus with reduced susceptibility to vancomycin was reported from Japan.
A survey performed by the Environmental Diagnostics Laboratory of Clearwater, FL reported that Staphylococcus aureus is also a part of an indoor environment’s bacterial flora. These bacteria are isolated both from air and surfaces during routine investigations of indoor environmental quality. They may be categorized as environmental or clinical based on their source. In either case, the existing environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity, natural mutagens etc. play an important role in the survival and virulence of these microorganisms. For example, the remediation of existing microorganisms in an indoor environment often leaves behind a small portion of biological debris. Depending upon the viability and stress of the microorganisms, some of them may regenerate and multiply to become part of the existing micro flora of that environment. Therefore, continuous surveillance is essential to monitor these infectious particles from the health and hygiene point of view in and around closed structures (home, offices, etc.).
Antibiotics do not technically cause a resistance, but can allow it to happen by creating a situation where an already existing variant can flourish. More and more organisms develop resistance to more and more drugs. A patient can develop a drug-resistant infection either by contracting a resistant bug to begin with, or by having a resistant microbe emerge in the body once antibiotic treatment begins. Drug-resistant infections increase risk of death, and are often associated with prolonged hospital stays and complications. In order to study the bacterial resistance power against antibiotics it is necessary to have the knowledge of the genetic diversity of the microorganism and the environmental conditions apart from other physical and biological factors.
The MRSA infection is initiated on a host depending upon their exposure to the particular strain of the Staphylococcus aureus which is typically antibiotic resistant. The resistance of microorganisms, including viruses, bacteria, and fungi, to antibiotics has become a concern around the world, in recent years. The increased prevalence of antibiotic resistance may be the outcome of evolution as well as man made activities. Bacterial resistance to antibiotics and other drugs is inevitable and MRSA is just one example of why it is important to understand the nature and existence of these disease-causing organisms. The management of controlling, spreading and prevention of MRSA related infections can be facilitated by knowing the existence of these entities in our surroundings.
A regular qualitative and quantitative microbiological evaluation of a building is recommended in order to know the existence of antimicrobial resistant microorganisms (like MRSA) in various places including healthcare settings, work places, offices, residences, and other habitations.
The Environmental Diagnostics Laboratory (EDLab) at Pure Air Control Services performs a wide array of microorganisms (bacteria and fungi) including organisms such as Staphylococcus aureus and Legionella pneumophila EDLab scientists identify microorganisms by using various lab techniques. Some common analysis performed by EDLab to identify microbial conditions include Bio-Scan and Spore Trap analysis, mycological culturable analysis of air/bulk/surface/swab/liquid environmental samples among many others. The type of sampling and analysis performed is determined by project specifications project requirements or individual needs.
For additional information you can contact Dr. Rajiv Sahay, Director, EDLab, Pure Air Control Services, www.pureaircontrols.com 1-800-422-7873 ext 303.
About Pure Air Control Services, Inc.
Alan Wozniak founded Pure Air Control Services, Inc. in 1984 as a small mechanical contracting firm. Today, the firm sets the industry standard for indoor environmental quality diagnosis and remediation.
Pure Air Control Services nationally performed IAQ services include: Building Sciences Evaluation; Building Health Check; an AIHA accredited Environmental Microbiology Laboratory; Environmental Project Management; and Mold Remediation Services, among other indoor environmental services.
The company’s expanding client roster includes the FAA, Walt Disney World, General Services Administration (GSA); Allstate Insurance; CBRE, Carrier Air Conditioning; NAVFAC, DOT, USACE, US Army, and many other Fortune 500 companies, school boards, and city, state, and county governments, making Pure Air Control Services the reliable industry leader.
For more information on Pure Air Control Services, Inc. please contact Alan Wozniak or Cy Garner at (800) 422-7873 ext 802 or 804 respectively, or visit www.pureaircontrols.com. | <urn:uuid:e02c6f80-d986-4b95-a960-b4c95c78218b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.transworldnews.com/1093401/c15/mrsa-a-hidden-common-cause-of-infection | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918965 | 1,113 | 3.703125 | 4 |
Sets sights on combating Third World poverty
Elizabeth Doney Havre Daily News firstname.lastname@example.org
A Montana State University- Northern student, Karissa Hanson, 22, from Melstone will be competing in the Miss Montana Scholarship Program, a state beauty pageant that begins on June 14. The competition will be held in Glendive and the winner will go on to represent the state of Montana in the national Miss America Beauty Pageant. Hanson is a nursing student at MSU-N who dedicates her summers to an orphanage in Haiti, a third world country located south of Florida. “I have just always wanted to work in an orphanage, ever since I was 10 or 12,” Hanson said. “I just decided finally that I was going to go and found an orphanage online, made arrangements and went.” Hanson first traveled to Haiti in the Summer of 2005 for six weeks and again in the Spring of 2006 for three months. “It was obviously poverty-stricken with the annual income of $200 a year,” Hanson said. “There’s tons of homelessness and a lot of HIV. As volunteers, we pretty much just played with kids we were there to love them. We even took care of premature babies, ones that were sick and needed extra care. The first time I was there, we cared for a baby that was 2 pounds and the second time, one that weighed 3 pounds. It made me realize how much I took for granted all that I have.” Hanson’s entry into the beauty competition was spurred by her grandmother from Corvallis, Astrid Morris, who decided her granddaughter had everything it took to win Miss Montana the looks, the talent and the platform, if not great height. It took some convincing from Hanson’s sister, Amber Gilbe of Havre, but soon, plans were underway and Hanson was entered into the state competition to vie for the Miss Montana crown, which includes a guaranteed $600 scholarship for each contestant and chances to earn additional money. Hanson attended a workshop in Billings this past weekend to learn the details involved in competing in the beauty and scholarship program. She will travel to Glendive for Pageant Week June 10 through 17. The beauty competition begins on June 14 with a theme “On the Town.” The first afternoon will be spent meeting the host families who will house the women for the week. Contestants will also participate in an introductory “tea party.” The preliminary competition will take place Thursday and Friday. The top 10 finalists will go to the final competition, where one will be awarded the crown on Saturday night. Fun excursions are planned for the week including activities with a “little sister,” second grade students that each contestant will spend time mentoring during the competition. Miss Montana contestants are also allowed to choose their own clothing. Hanson said she will wear an evening gown purchased from Blushing Brides of Havre and a swimsuit while participating in the event, and a business suit to attend event functions. “I want to use this opportunity in the Miss Montana scholarship program to promote the cause of fighting poverty in Third World countries,” Hanson said. “Having been to Haiti, and seeing the poverty and hopelessness there, I want to go back and help change that. While I am still here in the States, I want to help raise awareness for the poverty in Haiti. My plan is to go back as a nurse and to eventually open an orphanage with health care access.” Hanson’s parents are David and Lark Hanson of Melstone. | <urn:uuid:127d1525-5ffc-43f5-baa7-05261301df8a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.havredailynews.com/cms/news/story-148318.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980217 | 751 | 1.507813 | 2 |
In 2005 Hurricane Katrina flooded 80 percent of New Orleans. Now, five years later West Virginia University students will travel to the city to discover for themselves how the city is rebounding and rebuilding.
WVU’s Center for Black Culture & Research sponsors a spring trip every year that takes students to sites that are important to African-American culture.
This year the CBC&R Research Study Tour will travel to New Orleans, La., from March 20-24 over spring break to observe the beauty, history and artistic culture that still exists in this magnificent city.
Like previous years, students will be encouraged to blog about their experiences while on the study tour. Marjorie Fuller, the director of the WVU Center for Black Culture & Research, said that blogging is an opportunity for students to express their feelings in writing while the experiences are still fresh in their minds.
The students, joined by faculty and staff, are selected based on their interest in the topic and how the trip matches their research goals. Fuller expanded the number of attendees from 12 to 20 because there were so many outstanding candidates who deserved the experience this year.
Through open dialogue and discussion with students from Dillard University, Xavier University of Louisiana, and Southern University at New Orleans, the WVU research tour group will have the opportunity to see and hear firsthand how the Black community and New Orleans culture have been affected in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
“Traveling to cultural centers awakens interest in a way other learning experiences do not,” Fuller said. “With face to face interaction students are better able to understand their heritage.”
In previous years the students traveled to the Gullah Islands in South Carolina where they were able to observe a dying culture before it is lost forever; the South to follow the life of Martin Luther King Jr. as he brought the country forward in civil rights; and Harlem, a cultural haven for African Americans in New York City.
“The group will explore and investigate the social, economic and political state of New Orleans, but the lasting impact of the trip will be seen through each individuals’ unique life experiences and perspectives,” Fuller said.
Upon their return, a reception will be held for the students and faculty to share their experiences on the trip and discuss the impact made on their lives. The reception will involve a Q & A session as well as a viewing of the film shot by one of the students on the tour.
CONTACT: University Relations/News
Follow @WVUToday on Twitter. | <urn:uuid:b6e13920-fdbb-46eb-a449-9db322d2f8d3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wvutoday.wvu.edu/n/2011/3/16/wvu-students-travel-to-new-orleans-to-explore-the-legacy-of-city-s-african-american-cultural-heritage | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951005 | 519 | 2.375 | 2 |
Statement by Mr. Alain Juppé, Ministre d’Etat, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs
I welcome this evening’s adoption by the UN General Assembly of the resolution on Syria.
137 States, including all those that voted in favor of Morocco’s draft resolution at the Security Council on February 4, are lending massive and unequivocal support to the Syrian people, the Arab League and the only initiative that will allow Syria to peacefully resolve the crisis.
For 11 months now, the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people have been brutally crushed. Today, the international community is demanding that the Damascus regime put an end to the massacres, that it uphold its international commitments and that it implement the Arab League’s political transition plan.
France believes that this marks a new step toward ending the suffering of the Syrian people. Together with our partners, we will do everything possible in all forums to ensure the full implementation of this resolution. The first meeting in Tunis of the Friends of Syria group will be devoted to this concern.
Following the deadlock at the Security Council as a result of the veto, everyone must draw the consequences of this exemplary mobilization by the United Nations.
Learn more on Syria. | <urn:uuid:5115f881-7988-4b8b-8273-3213d582eb9e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.franceonu.org/france-at-the-united-nations/un-express-922/article/unga-adoption-of-a-resolution-on | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914086 | 251 | 1.65625 | 2 |
The Ministry of the Interior will present a plan redefining poverty by the middle of next year so that more people would have access to social welfare, the ministry’s top official said yesterday
Minister of the Interior Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) said that government support to low-income households was inadequate, with an increasing number of people joining the ranks of the so-called “new poor” who do not qualify for the government’s social welfare programs.
The “new poor” are defined as people with working skills who are in dire financial straits because they have lost their jobs, he said.
One of the ministry’s tasks will be to find a way to define poverty so that the “new poor” will also be covered by government subsidy programs for low-income families, said the minister, who assumed office on Sept. 10.
The ministry defines the low-income population as people whose monthly income falls below the minimum cost of living standard set by the government.
The minimum cost of living currently stands at NT$9,829 in all cities and counties except Taipei City and County, Kaohsiung City, Kinmen and Matsu.
In Taipei City, it is NT$14,558, in Taipei County NT$10,792, in Kaohsiung City NT$11,309, and in Kinmen and Matsu NT$7,400.
Ministry statistics showed that the low-income population rose to 241,237 in the second quarter of the year, an increase of more than 17,300 from the previous quarter.
This represented 1.29 percent of the total population, the highest in recorded history, the ministry said.
Asked about the nation’s falling birth rate, Jiang said that rather than offering incentives for people to have more children, he would try to determine why they were reluctant to do so.
“Subsidies are not the right solution to this problem,” he said.
Ministry statistics showed that the number of newborns last year was 196,486, dropping below 200,000 for the first time.
A US research survey published last month showed that Taiwan has the world’s lowest fertility rate, with an average of one child per woman, with the rate still declining.
The survey by the Population Reference Bureau in Washington showed that Taiwan registered only eight births per 1,000 population this year, the lowest in the world. | <urn:uuid:c1b65204-1d69-4144-93c4-ccc7462f5f92> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2009/09/30/2003454803 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956638 | 518 | 1.945313 | 2 |
This bit of food allergy dining etiquette is my new favorite thing.
Very often I order a dish saying I want it, “plain.” And then that dish comes distinctly NOT plain i.e. sauced, dressed, with non-ordered and completely contaminated fries. Sigh. (Here's a rant about that very thing.)
I always wonder what went wrong?
How did plain not mean plain?
Executive Chef Cliff Saladin at the Sheraton Tarrytown explained that from his perspective and in his experience, very often servers will interpret “plain” to mean what THEY think it means not what YOU think it means.
What to do?
Chef Cliff suggests saying “Only”.
For example, “I’d like a burger with lettuce tomato and onion only.”
I tried it that night and everything arrived just as it should have and as I requested: a grilled chicken breast with polenta and some tomato sauce on the side. Only.
Here's a picture:
This is my new favorite tip. I can’t wait to try it out at more places.
If you try it, let me know if it works for you. | <urn:uuid:e3453e48-662c-4d8b-9fde-eece89276a48> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://allergicgirl.blogspot.com/2008/11/not-plain-but-only.html?showComment=1226763660000 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967657 | 251 | 1.601563 | 2 |
President Obama is way down in the polls. The only politicians with lower approval ratings are those in Congress, which may explain why Obama is blaming them for "holding back this country."
President Obama’s sharpening his rhetoric about his GOP congressional opponents. In his weekly Saturday Internet and radio address he said that lawmakers could learn something from the average Americans he’s met during his recent three day listening/political tour through the Midwest.
The nation would be better off if its leaders showed the same discipline, integrity, and responsibility that citizens outside Washington “demonstrate in their lives every single day”, said Obama.
If they did so these unnamed DC reprobates could do things right now to help the economy, such as pass a road construction bill, or extend a reduction in the payroll tax that funds Social Security, or approve trade pacts with other countries, said the president. (He was referring there to proposals he’s been pushing for weeks.)
“These are common-sense ideas, ideas that have been supported by both Democrats and Republicans. The one thing holding them back is politics. The only thing preventing us from passing these bills is the refusal by some in Congress to put country ahead of party. That’s the problem we have right now. That’s what’s holding this country back,” said Obama in his weekly address. | <urn:uuid:586925ee-6c50-44aa-accf-3a2620052f8c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://m.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/The-Vote/2011/0820/Why-Obama-is-pumping-up-his-rhetoric | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973262 | 285 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Fredericktown Ferry’s future in question
In this September 2010 photo, Larry Rutherford of LaBelle prepares to welcome a passenger aboard the Fredericktown Ferry at the Fredericktown side of the Monongahela River.
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FREDERICKTOWN – The Ferry Boat Frederick, whose usefulness has been overshadowed by a new bridge over the Monongahela River, is once again facing a permanent dry docking.
Commissioners in Fayette and Washington counties, which share the vessel’s operating costs, have recently been in discussions about the future of the historic boat, whose ridership has been reduced by more than half since the state Turnpike Commission last year opened a new Mon-Fayette Expressway bridge connecting nearby Centerville and Brownsville, Washington County Commissioner Harlan Shober said.
“It’s hard to put money into something when it’s not making money,” Shober said Monday. “We’ll have to be making a decision one way or another, shortly.”
An effort uniting five Mon Valley communities in the area known as the River Town Program will hold a meeting a 6 p.m. Thursday at the Fredericktown fire hall to outline its proposal for rescuing the ferry, said Dennis Slagle, a businessman in that village.
“It’s not going to be the typical ‘save the ferry’ thing,” said Slagle, who declined to discuss the details of the plan until the meeting Thursday.
The community in East Bethlehem Township has been home to a ferry for nearly two centuries, with the steel one now in operation dating to 1948 and put into local operation in 1973.
An average of nearly 200 vehicles relied on the ferry daily before the bridge opened in July – mostly drivers going to and from their jobs at State Correctional Institution-Fayette in LaBelle.
The ridership since has dropped to about 90 vehicles a day, Shober said, with each motorist being charged $2 to cross the river. The two counties pay an equal share of the ferry’s nearly $200,000 annual operating costs.
The counties had been approved for a nearly $1 million grant to overhaul the ferry, but they likely have missed the deadline to use the money, Shober said.
Both counties scrapped a plan to eliminate the ferry in 2009 on the heels of numerous complaints from the public. At the same time, local business owners organized an annual ferry boat festival to help turn the boat into a tourist attraction.
“The importance of it to the local community is something you don’t want to lose sight of,” Shober said.
Medical center opening June 3, despite snag with insurer (1370)
Briefs: West Greene hires football coach (1164)
Cecil election as proxy war (1057)
Rogge praises wrestling’s changes (786)
Stanford’s Appel prepares for draft a second time (725) | <urn:uuid:b22d2c00-a4ba-4221-8219-8f3c70fea252> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.observer-reporter.com/article/20130218/NEWS01/130219248/0/sports05 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942387 | 623 | 1.710938 | 2 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Twenty top U.S. Air Force generals are due to discuss cyber warfare in a November meeting aimed at clarifying the service's role in this new and increasingly important arena of military conflict.
The four-star generals prepared for the event with a day of meetings last month at U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, where they and some three-star generals were briefed on the rapidly changing nature of the cyber threat and U.S. capabilities.
Major General Earl Matthews told the Air Force Association conference last month that a high-level meeting was needed because "not all four stars can talk as eloquently about cyber as they can about air and space power."
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta last week warned that foreign actors were targeting U.S. computer systems that control chemical, electricity and water plant, as well as those that guide the nation's critical transportation networks.
He said the U.S. military could act pre-emptively if it detects an imminent threat of cyber attack.
U.S. military officials have been more outspoken in recent months about U.S. efforts to develop offensive cyber weapons, but few details have emerged.
At next month's meeting at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, the Air Force's top brass will discuss the service's current mission and cyber capabilities, future staffing and funding needs, and how to organize the work.
Lieutenant General Michael Basla, who became the Air Force's chief information officer in June, has said the gathering will be used to "articulate the Air Force's cyberspace vision" and lay the groundwork to accomplish that vision.
Matthews said cyber threats and capabilities have resulted in a significant shift in the Air Force, akin to the introduction of aircraft over a century ago, and innovative cyber technologies would be a game-changer in future conflicts.
General Mark Welsh, the Air Force's new chief of staff, last month told reporters that he planned to restrain spending for cyber operations until the Pentagon more clearly spelled out its requirements for new "cyber warriors."
(Reporting By Andrea Shalal-Esa; Editing by Mohammad Zargham) | <urn:uuid:7d4eacdd-ce22-4b6a-ac81-55c284c0b887> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wncy.com/news/articles/2012/oct/19/top-brass-to-discuss-us-air-force-role-in-cyber-warfare/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950906 | 441 | 1.703125 | 2 |