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Pit bull attacks infant
Early October 3 an 11-month old baby died after being mauled by the family’s pit bull mix. The newborn was drug from its crib and suffered fatal bite injuries that resulted in her death. The pit bull was immediately euthanized, but the effect of the baby’s death will forever disturb the life of single mom, Monique Hernandez. The mauling adds yet another statistic to the number of people killed by these animals each year. Since 2005 pit bulls have been the cause of death for over 88 people in the United States. This is equivalent to an American citizen being killed every 22 days by this over-aggressive breed. Historically, pit bulls were bred in order to display dominance and aggression towards other dogs. Pit bulls characteristics, including powerful jaw-strength, fatal bite style and high tolerance for pain, make it an all around dangerous breed.
Breeding pit bulls should be outlawed for the safety of all citizens.
Throughout history, pit bulls have been bred and raised for the purpose of fighting and being overly aggressive. As a result, the dogs often display extreme aggression and outrage. Mauling, attacking and physical assault is often an effect of this breed’s history. With such a violent past, these dogs are bound to cause harm. Pit bulls are no more suitable as a pet than a wild coyote would be.
Whether the dog has been a “family pet” for years, or has been trained to fight, the dogs’ actions cannot be predicted. Pit bulls have been known to have random, unexpected behavior, resulting in unpredicted, surprising attacks. Everyone is in danger when a pit bull is present, whether that be a passerby on the street, an animal control worker, or in the most recent case, an innocent baby napping in its crib. By taking this breed out of society, people would become more safe and secure.
Eliminating this dangerous breed would lessen the number of deaths per year. Why would citizens continue to allow something so harmful and threatening remain among us? We should not keep these monsters in our homes, on the streets or anywhere near human beings. Pit bulls take the lives of too many, yet continue to be bred and kept in homes across the United States.
As the top most dangerous dog breed known to man, pit bulls should be outlawed. These dogs astonishing behavior and aggressive nature causes harm to innocent humans. Banning the breed would make communities as a whole safer.
Last 5 posts in Opinion
- Online pirating becoming widely accepted - May 6th, 2013
- Teens increase chance of disease - May 6th, 2013
- Leggings not a threat to student focus - May 6th, 2013
- Less is more - May 6th, 2013
- Why parents should be involved in their children’s lives - May 6th, 2013 | <urn:uuid:053ddd94-f8dd-4eb7-a3a1-b3051b8521c4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.silverstreakonline.com/opinion/2011/10/10/pit-bull-attacks-infant/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965178 | 591 | 2.34375 | 2 |
Born: November 27, 1904 | Died: April 25, 1962 Primary Instrument: Violin
Eddie South - violin, bandleader (1904 - 1962)
Rarely mentioned now, the violin was an important part of Jazz during it's formative years! It was heard in the earliest New Orleans bands and was present in most all the new 'Dance' bands at the start of the 20th Century. In fact, violin sections continued to be a part of the jazz music scene right on up to the Swing Era.
Eddie South born on Nov 27, 1904, in Louisiana, MO, began his career in the 1920s. Due to his Classical Music training, (from Chicago Music College) he would probably have chosen to be a 'classical' musician, but, unfortunately, in those days the color of his skin precluded that option.
Starting in the early 1920s, South worked in such Chicago bands as Jimmy Wade's Syncopators, the Charlie Elgar Band, and Erskine Tate. In 1928, he traveled to Europe and studied at the Paris Conservatoire de Musique where he was deeply impressed with European music. He was even more impressed with the Gypsy melodies he heard on his visit to Budapest. Later, he would often delightfully weave those gypsy melodies into his jazz improvisations.
Returning to Chicago in 1931, South formed his own band The Alabamians that included the young bassist Milt Hinton. During his 1937 trip to Paris, South recorded with jazz greats Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli. However, he worked in relative obscurity for most of his life (mostly in the Chicago area, but also in Los Angeles, CA and New York, NY) known only to true Jazz aficionados.
Some critics feel that his 'formal' training caused his playing to be also somewhat 'formal' and lacking in a 'Swing' feeling. Still, his subtle musical interpretations earned him the sobriquet The Black Angel of the Violin.
In later years he recorded for Chess and Mercury, and also made a final set released by Trip. South's other early recordings (covering 1927-41) have been reissued on a pair of Classics CDs. One of the top violinists of the pre-bop era South was a brilliant technician who, were it not for the universal racism of the time, would probably have been a top classical violinist.
Eddie South died on Apr. 25, 1962 in Chicago, Illinois. | <urn:uuid:1bd76266-913c-4678-9a4b-cd6aa08b1e79> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://musicians.allaboutjazz.com/musician.php?id=4512 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984642 | 523 | 2.234375 | 2 |
Martin Edward FallasShaw (1875–1958), composerof 20th century school and church music, was the son of a church organist and a pianist. He was brought up in BelsizePark, and became organist at Emmanuel Church, Hampstead, in 1895.
During the 1890s Shaw worked with the theatre reformer Edward Gordon Craig, wrote incidental music for occasional plays and began working with Ralph Vaughan Williams on researching old tunes for the English Hymnal (1906),
Martin Shaw became a prolific arranger of choral music for schools and worked for the Board of Education as an inspector of music classes. He believed good English music needed to grow from English roots: folk-song and the Elizabethan masters, as in the music of Vaughan Williams and Holst.
While he worked to take English ‘national’ music to ordinary English people in theatres, schools, and churches, his greatest impact was on church music. From 1920-1924 he was organist at St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, and in ‘Songs of Praise’ (pub1925), his own work and that of Vaughan Williams and Dearmer replaced Victorian hymns with Tudor and folk-based ones. The Oxford Book of Carols (1928) consisted of the trio's choice of traditional religious songs plus new carols by English composers.
Martin Shaw retired to Suffolk, became an OBE in 1955, and fellow of the Royal College of Music shortly before his death in 1958.
11 – 16 Lissenden Mansions
Anthony Green (born September 30, 1939) artist,is a senior Royal Academician and one of the UK's most eminent and best loved narrative and figurative painters and printmakers. He is best known for paintings of his own middle-class domestic life, many of which have as their background the quirky interiors of his family flat in Lissenden Mansions.His career as an artist spans fifty years and his irregularly shaped paintings and sculptures (often autobiographical in subject matter) wonderful colour and skilful execution, have been enjoyed and admired by thousands of visitors to exhibitions and museums all over the world. | <urn:uuid:cade3695-390a-4ebd-af3d-2553478acf71> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lissendengardens.com/lissenden-centenary/famous-people/martin-shaw | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981137 | 456 | 2.1875 | 2 |
As human beings, we’re wired to be social creatures. Both in friendships and romantic relationships, we feel connected through our shared experience, creating a sense of fulfillment. When our relationships stop working the way we want them to, there are healthy ways to get them back on track. In therapy, we’ll look at both positive and negative attributes of your relationships, and together we’ll break down problematic patterns that may not be immediately apparent. Circumstances don’t have to stifle your generosity of spirit. Your relationships can and should help you thrive.
In my practice, I work with many gay, bi-sexual & lesbian persons, both individually and in couples, as well as with those who are questioning their sexual identity. I am very comfortable in working with this community, and I provide a gay-affirmative environment. Many of us who lived through the AIDS crisis and witnessed deaths of friends understand some of the unique challenges this community can face. I provide a trained, compassionate ear for those confronting a myriad of issues related to LGBTQ identity and relationships.
We sometimes isolate ourselves by fearing how others perceive us. We create this personal narrative—our mental self-portrait—from only a small portion of our life experiences on which we choose to focus. My job as your therapist is to help you reframe that narrative from a more accurate perspective. You will see how your actions affect your self-perception, and how refocusing your perspective can inspire positive feedback from your peers.
Have you ever thought: “If only my partner did this or that, I would be happy!” The truth is, we can only control our own conduct. Being part of a successful couple involves compromise; however, we never have to compromise who we are as individuals. Through couples counseling, we strike a balance between maintaining your personal identity while modifying each partner’s behavior to meet the needs of your relationship. Through therapy, couples will begin to feel more empathy for each other and reduce harmful blame. The result is a more loving and communicative environment in which to prosper.
In addition to my psychological training, my background in the creative arts gives me deep compassion for actors and other artists—both professionals and those who simply seek more creativity in their lives. Living authentically is the key to being a successful creative person, and building a life that is true to your belief system will strengthen your confidence and give you more energy.
Spirituality means many things to different people, and it is not always related to religion or God. You are the arbiter of your spirituality, and it is your choice whether or not you want to address it in therapy. It is my belief that the body, mind and spirit are all connected, and spiritual clients may find my background in meditation, breathing and guided imagery useful.
There is no timetable for overcoming grief, as most serious losses can never be reversed. It is important in dealing with grief to allow oneself to break down; otherwise, that pain gets stored inside and may emerge years later after causing problems along the way. In therapy, we can give your grief the time and space that it needs, without allowing it to take hold and control your life.
Depression is one of the most common complaints that presents in my practice. Depression presents with many faces. Some can’t get out of bed; others can’t get to bed. Some have bouts with anger; others have bouts with tears. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) defines depression as: “An illness that involves the body, mood, and thoughts. It affects the way a person eats and sleeps, the way one feels about oneself, and the way one thinks about things. A depressive disorder is not the same as a passing blue mood. It is not a sign of personal weakness or a condition that can be willed or wished away. People with a depressive illness cannot merely ‘pull themselves together’ and just get better. Without treatment, symptoms can last for weeks, months, or years. Appropriate treatment, however, can help most people who suffer from depression.”
While anxiety is a common problem, it is also one of the most easily treatable. Managing anxiety might mean practicing exercises that reduce symptoms, or it may mean picking your battles and working around problematic areas. It is important to know that anxiety itself often creates more anxiety, so if we can embrace our initial stress points, we can keep the anxious feelings from spreading.
People often recognize their difficulty with alcohol and drugs, though evaluating their level of difficulty and how it impacts their lives proves more difficult. I work with clients to help them gain a better understanding of their alcohol and drug use, including their ability to regulate its use, and, if needed, the form of treatment (cold turkey or reduction) that best suits the client. Understanding the role of an addiction can be helpful in other behavioral patterns like sexual compulsions, spending, computer/internet usage, eating, online porn, TV watching, work, etc.
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March 12, 2013
American Prospect: Five Lessons for Progressives From 100 Years of the Income Tax
The American Prospect: Five Lessons for Progressives From Our First Century of Income Taxes:
- Steeply graduated income tax rates can help societies do big things
- Progressive tax rates can do much more than raise significant amounts of revenue
- Progressive income tax rates don’t just happen. People have to battle for them
- Tax loopholes cost our society more than just tax revenue
- Just copying our progressive tax-rate past won’t ensure a progressive tax future
By learning the lessons from our income tax past, these and other progressive forces will have a better chance of pushing through the tax changes we need to allow our society to do big things in the century ahead.
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Lessons for progressives? Hah! Like they have ever learned from lessons.
Posted by: Woody | Mar 12, 2013 8:45:07 PM | <urn:uuid:5837549b-1488-4441-9f50-ec5fad7d47dd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2013/03/american-prospect-.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.901312 | 228 | 1.820313 | 2 |
As a multiplayer gamer for nearly 20 years, I’m inclined to agree with Edward Castronova that online games are a different animal from what game developers have been successful with in the past. It’s more about governance than game design. He said, “What you’re looking for in a sense is a mayor … for all these little communities.” Wouldn’t most guild/clan leaders be surprised to realize that their role in MMOGs is not what they think it is…building a killing machine to take down a dragon or enemy? They are really little burgermeisters or city council members who are responsible for the ordinances, norms, mores, learning and culture that propel the game story forward and make players want to be there. Most of the ones I know would hear that with jaw-dropping disbelief! :)
Drawing on the parallel to communities of practice (CoPs) in the real life world again, it’s obvious that CoPs in a large organization are a valuable way of organizing a business into villages of people around common interests or knowledge. MMOG gaming worlds mimic the closed worlds of large corporations. They reflect a sensibility similar to large Japanese companies in the 20th century–they are self-contained social and cultural worlds. Such organizations help people learn by social interaction, applications of technology and integrating thinking, all in service of doing things they care about.
I’m not a sociologist, but it seems obvious that this has the potential to be a more compelling organizational structure for knowledge workers than traditional top-down heirarchies. Successful MMOG game designers build with guilds/clans as an essential element of game life (and success) in mind. They provide them with tools and special features that let them manage their guilds in the way that best suits each guild within very broad guidelines. They use (freely given) customer knowledge to help improve the game and attract new players. Business leaders can learn from this model. | <urn:uuid:5544cfbe-cdb3-46c8-a572-cdb80f1f3b68> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dove-lane.com/blog/?p=30 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964369 | 410 | 1.75 | 2 |
ancestor worship, ritualized propitiation and invocation of dead kin. Ancestor worship is based on the belief that the spirits of the dead continue to dwell in the natural world and have the power to influence the fortune and fate of the living. Ancestor worship has been found in various parts of the world and in diverse cultures. It was a minor cult among the Romans (see manes). The practice reached its highest elaboration in W Africa and in the ancient Chinese veneration of ancestors. It is also well developed in the Japanese Shinto cult and among the peoples of Melanesia. See apotheosis; totem.
See J. G. Frazer, The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead (3 vol., 1913–24, repr. 1968).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
More on ancestor worship from Fact Monster:
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Religion: General | <urn:uuid:fb9093cf-3d60-48fe-ac59-50f58bcd3ddd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.factmonster.com/encyclopedia/society/ancestor-worship.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909582 | 202 | 2.9375 | 3 |
XML Document: Dissection
Excuse the unpleasant title of this XML lesson, but the name is suited for what we are about to do. In this lesson, we will be taking apart and analyzing each part of an XML document. Consider this an overview of the XML document, and do not be unsettled if you don't understand all that is discussed in this lesson. We will cover all these parts in greater detail throughout the tutorial.
Parts of an XML Document
An XML document is made up of a small group of building blocks. W3C wanted to keep XML simple, and judging by the relatively few components of an XML document, they seem to have succeeded. We have divided the components into sections and subsections.
- XML Declaration
- DTD Declaration
- Root Element (Document)
- Elements (Nested Elements)
- Element Attributes and Values
Webpage standards now recommend that an HTML document follow this form, so that they can be considered valid XML. Fun Fact: In an HTML file the root element is <html>.
The XML prolog is an optional piece of information that must come before the root element when used. There are two pieces that make up the prolog: the XML declaration and the Document Type Declaration (DTD).
The XML declaration states which version of XML you are using, while the DTD describes the rules your XML document must follow. If you are just dying to know more about the DTD and can't wait to read through the lessons as we have laid them out (we won't be offended), check out our XML DTD lesson.
XML Root Element (Document)
The root element, also referred to as the "document", dictates what kind of XML document it is. When creating an HTML file that is XML complaint, the root element will be <html>. The root element must be the first element in an XML document and there can only be one root element per file!
XML Element & Attributes
The meat of an XML document comes from the elements that are contained within the root element. Each element represents a different type of data that is being stored in the document. The element <p> might represent paragraph text, while the element <gif> may contain data for a GIF image.
Although not required, elements often have attributes that are associated with them. XML attributes are similar to HTML attributes in that they have a name:value relationship. An example attribute for an <img> element might be "src", which represents the source location of the image.
XML Element & Attribute Code:
<img src = "C:/MyDocs/Happy.gif"></img>
In addition to the information stored in the element itself (attributes), the bulk of data in XML usually appears between the opening and closing tag of an XML element. This is often referred to as the XML's "content". Below, we have an imaginary XML document that stores a story.
<title>The Truth About the Family</title>
<paragraph>Here's a story of a lovely lady who...</paragraph>
<paragraph>...they became the Brady Bunch...</paragraph>
Quick Learning Check:
Can you tell which element is the root element in the above XML code? If you thought <story>, then you were right on the money!
Download Tizag.com's XML Book
If you would rather download the PDF of this tutorial, check out our
XML eBook from the Tizag.com store.
Found Something Wrong in this Lesson?
Report a Bug or Comment on This Lesson - Your input is what keeps Tizag improving with time! | <urn:uuid:5a93b49f-cac0-43a7-a18a-39926fe3457d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tizag.com/xmlTutorial/xmldocumentparts.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.90638 | 752 | 3.96875 | 4 |
In the July Cruiser Corner column, Traffic Stop Survival, Part 2, there was reference to a U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the right of an officer to identify all individuals involved in the context of a lawful, investigative stop, which includes traffic stops. This generated a lot of interest and questions among officers around the country, and it was clear some clarification was needed. The challenge with a subject like this is the variation in state laws and this is especially true with the case of Hiibel v. Sixth Judicial District Court of Nevada, which can be found by visiting the link below.
Electronic Privacy Information Center
The Hiibel case can be a confusing case. This case had a narrow holding, meaning it was limited to the facts and circumstances of that particular case. Generally, under the Fourth Amendment, a person can refuse to give his name during a Terry stop. However, under the Hiibel decision, if that person is in a state that has a “stop and identify” statute on the books (the Hiibel case involved a man who refused to give his name in Nevada, a state that had such a “stop and identify” state statute), and that person refuses to identify himself upon request, he can be arrested for violating the state statute without being a violation of the Fourth Amendment.
Thus, Hiibel’s holding is limited to those states that have “stop and identify” statutes. At the time of the Hiibel decision (2004), 21 states had such statutes. They were Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Nevada, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont and Wisconsin. Only in states that have “stop and identify” statutes will officers be permitted to arrest persons for failing to provide identification. Bottom line: Check with your local legal advisor to determine the best course of action in these situations and what your options are. And, as always, articulate carefully the observations and actions that led up to a particular action in the field.
Special thanks to Laura Scarry of DeAno & Scarry for assisting in this clarification. | <urn:uuid:60721f19-9f27-4497-9589-90663f8d9afd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lawofficermagazine.com/print/9796 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955324 | 451 | 1.84375 | 2 |
The rhetoric of gays being a threat to families, etc. is too simplified and easy to interpret as right-wing paranoia. When you tell that to a gay guy... it sounds absurd. They think you mean it in the most literal sense, accusing them of planning to rape "NASCAR dads" in Wal-Mart parking lots while the family is getting out of the mini-van.<br><br>But I take the statement's meaning as "homsexuality's impact of on the balance of things". It's been my experience that most guys will do anything... they won't admit to it, but usually if they are comfortable enough (with the person, with the situation) they'll give something a try. And usually do it again. And again... <br><br>So that said... I'd say that what the religious-right means to say is that homosexuality is a threat to families because if the social taboo is lifted, a lot of guys wouldn't come back from a self-indulgent "phase". <br><br>The balance of power between sexes would shift... women would maybe get left behind... and the world would one day resemble "Lord of the Flies" meets "Peter Pan". That's what those books were about anyways... Gay society, aka a world without the stabilizing influence of women.<br><br>Further, I don't think it's coincidence that in the last 5 years we've seen a rise in anti-gay sentiment. I think that's largely due to the internet. Before the internet people were isolated in their sexuality. It wasn't so easy to read each other's thoughts, or exchange anonymous headless naked body picts. With the advent of the internet, I think a lot of guys that would never have been exposed to homosexuality have found it a lot easier to experiment or investigate it.<br><br>I'm gay and this stuff is obviously just my opinion... but I'm curious to see what others think.<br><br><br><br>--------------------<br>
Let me start with a cliché; I have several gay friends... <br><br>The one thing that made me chuckle because I've heard this type of thinking a number of times is when you said, <blockquote>"It's been my experience that most guys will do anything... they won't admit to it, but usually if they are comfortable enough (with the person, with the situation) they'll give something a try. And usually do it again. And again...</blockquote><br>Now, I swear I'm as tolerant as they come to anything, but this just isn't true for "most" heterosexual men. Sure, I'll try damn near anything with a pretty girl, multiple pretty girls, and maybe even an inanimate object or two (), but I'm not the least bit curious about men. Even as a younger man when the idea was new to me, and I thought I might be "missing out" on something, it was just unappealing. I certainly could have had my chances and no one would have known the better.<br><br>There are two gay people in particular that I have had this conversation with multiple times, and they both feel that the majority of people have at least a small gay tendency inside them (or at the very least a wild side) that they are repressing. I am certain that is true for some people, but I just don't think it is even close to a majority.<br><br>
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Saint Rostislav-Michael, Great Prince of Kiev, was the son of the Kievan Great Prince St Mstislav the Great (June 14), and the brother of holy Prince Vsevolod-Gabriel (February 11, April 22, and November 27). He was one of the great civil and churchly figures of the mid-twelfth century.
His name is connected with the fortification and rise of Smolensk, and both the Smolensk principality and the Smolensk diocese.
Up until the twelfth century the Smolensk land was part of the Kievan realm. The beginning of its political separation took place in the year 1125, when holy Prince Mstislav the Great, gave Smolensk to his son Rostislav (in Baptism Michael) as an inheritance from his father, the Kievan Great Prince Vladimir Monomakh. Thanks to the work and efforts of St Rostislav, the Smolensk principality, which he ruled for more than forty years, expanded and was built up with cities and villages, adorned with churches and monasteries, and became influential in Russian affairs.
St Rostislav founded the cities of Rostislavl, Mstislavl, Krichev, Propoisk, and Vasiliev among others. He was the forefather of the Smolensk princely dynasty.
In 1136 St Rostislav succeeded in establishing a separate Smolensk diocese. Its first bishop was Manuel, installed between March-May of 1136 by Metropolitan Michael of Kiev. Prince Rostislav issued an edict in the city of Smolensk assuring Bishop Manuel that he would provide him with whatever he needed. On September 30, 1150 St Rostislav also ceded Cathedral Hill at Smolensk to the Smolensk diocese, where the Dormition cathedral and other diocesan buildings stood.
Contemporaries thought highly of the church construction of Prince Rostislav. Even the sources that are inclined to report nothing more about it note that “this prince built the church of the Theotokos at Smolensk.” The Dormition cathedral, originally built by his grandfather, Vladimir Monomakh, in the year 1101 was rebuilt and expanded under Prince Rostislav. The rebuilt cathedral was consecrated by Bishop Manuel on the Feast of the Dormition, August 15, 1150. Prince Rostislav was a “builder of the Church” in a far wider sense: he endowed the Smolensk Dormition church of the Mother of God, and transformed it from a city cathedral into the ecclesiastical center of the vast Smolensk diocese.
Holy Prince Rostislav was the builder of the Smolensk Kremlin, and of the Savior cathedral at the Smyadynsk Boris and Gleb monastery, founded on the place of the murder of holy Prince Gleb (September 5). Later his son David, possibly fulfilling the wishes of his father, transferred the old wooden coffins of Sts Boris and Gleb from Kievan Vyshgorod to Smyadyn.
In the decade of the fifties of the twelfth century, St Rostislav was drawn into a prolonged struggle for Kiev, which involved representatives of the two strongest princely lines: the Olgovichi and the Monomakhovichi.
On the Monomakhovichi side the major contender to be Great Prince was Rostislav’s uncle, Yurii Dolgoruky. Rostislav, as Prince of Smolensk, was one of the most powerful rulers of the Russian land and had a decisive voice in military and diplomatic negotiations.
For everyone involved in the dispute, Rostislav was both a dangerous opponent and a desired ally, and he was at the center of events. This had a providential significance, since St Rostislav distinguished himself by his wisdom regarding the civil realm, by his strict sense of justice and unconditional obedience to elders, and by his deep respect for the Church and its hierarchy. For several generations he was the bearer of the “Russkaya Pravda” (“Russian Truth”) and of Russian propriety.
After the death of his brother Izyaslav (November 13, 1154), St Rostislav became Great Prince of Kiev, but he ruled Kiev at the same time with his uncle Vyacheslav Vladimirovich. After the latter’s death, Rostislav returned to Smolensk, ceding the Kiev princedom to his other uncle, Yurii Dolgoruky, and he removed himself from the bloodshed of the princely disputes. He occupied Kiev a second time on April 12, 1159 and he then remained Great Prince until his death (+ 1167). More than once, he had to defend his paternal inheritance with sword in hand.
The years of St Rostislav’s rule occurred during one of the most complicated periods in the history of the Russian Church. The elder brother of Rostislav, Izyaslav Mstislavich, a proponent of the autocephaly of the Russian Church, favored the erudite Russian monk Clement Smolyatich for Metropolitan, and wanted him to be made Metropolitan by a council of Russian bishops, without seeking the usual approval from the Patriarch of Constantinople. This occurred in the year 1147.
The Russian hierarchy basically supported Metropolitan Clement and Prince Izyaslav in their struggle for ecclesiastical independence from Constantinople, but several bishops headed by St Niphon of Novgorod (April 8), did not recognize the autocephaly of the Russian metropolitanate and shunned communion with it, having transformed their dioceses into independent ecclesial districts, pending the resolution of this question. Bishop Manuel of Smolensk also followed this course. St Rostislav understood the danger which lay hidden beneath the idea of Russian autocephaly for these times, which threatened the break-up of Rus. The constant fighting over Kiev among the princes might also lead to a similar fight over the Kievan See among numerous contenders, put forth by one princely group or another.
The premonitions of St Rostislav were fully justified. Yurii Dolgoruky, who remained loyal to Constantinople, occupied Kiev in the year 1154. He immediately banished Metropolitan Clement and petitioned Constantinople for a new Metropolitan. This was to be St Constantine (June 5), but he arrived in Rus only in the year 1156, six months before the death of Yurii Dolgoruky (+ May 15, 1157). Six months later, when St Rostislav’s nephew Mstislav Izyaslavich entered the city on December 22, 1157, St Constanine was obliged to flee Kiev, while the deposed Clement Smolyatich returned as Metropolitan. Then a time of disorder began in Russia, for there were two Metropolitans.
All the hierarchy and the clergy came under interdict: the Greek Metropolitan suspended the Russian supporters of Clement, and Clement suspended all the supporters of Constantine. To halt the scandal, St Rostislav and Mstislav decided to remove both Metropolitans and petition the Patriarch of Constantinople to appoint a new archpastor for the Russian metropolitan See.
But this compromise did not end the matter. Arriving in Kiev in the autumn of 1161, Metropolitan Theodore died in spring of the following year. Following the example of St Andrew Bogoliubsky (July 4), who supported his own fellow ascetic Bishop Theodore to be Metropolitan, St Rostislav put forth his own candidate, who turned out to be the much-suffering Clement Smolyatich.
The fact that the Great Prince had changed his attitude toward Metropolitan Clement, shows the influence of the Kiev Caves monastery, and in particular of Archimandrite Polycarp. Archimandrite Polycarp, who followed the traditions of the Caves (in 1165 he became head of the monastery), was personally very close to St Rostislav.
St Rostislav had the pious custom of inviting the igumen and twelve monks to his own table on the Saturdays and Sundays of Great Lent, and he served them himself. The prince more than once expressed the wish to be tonsured a monk at the monastery of Sts Anthony and Theodosius, and he even gave orders to build a cell for him.
The monks of the Caves, a tremendous spiritual influence in ancient Rus, encouraged the prince to think about the independence of the Russian Church. Moreover, during those years in Rus, there was suspicion regarding the Orthodoxy of the bishops which came from among the Greeks, because of the notorious “Dispute about the Fasts” (the “Leontian Heresy”). St Rostislav’s pious intent to obtain the blessing of the Patriarch of Constantinople for Metropolitan Clement came to naught. The Greeks believed that appointing a Metropolitan to the Kiev cathedra was one of their most important prerogatives. This served not only the ecclesiastical, but also the political interests of the Byzantine Empire.
In 1165 a new Greek Metropolitan arrived at Kiev, John IV, and St Rostislav accepted him out of humility and churchly obedience. The new Metropolitan, like his predecessor, governed the Russian Church for less than a year (+ 1166). The See of Kiev was again left vacant, and the Great Prince was deprived of the fatherly counsel and spiritual wisdom of a Metropolitan. His sole spiritual solace was the igumen Polycarp and the holy Elders of the Kiev Caves monastery and the Theodorov monastery at Kiev, which had been founded under his father.
Returning from a campaign against Novgorod in the spring of 1167, St Rostislav fell ill. When he reached Smolensk, where his son Roman was prince, relatives urged him to remain at Smolensk. But the Great Prince gave orders to take him to Kiev. “If I die along the way,” he declared, “put me in my father’s monastery of St Theodore. If God should heal me, through the prayers of His All-Pure Mother and St Theodosius, I shall take vows at the monastery of the Caves.”
God did not fulfill St Rostislav’s last wish to end his life as a monk of the holy monastery. The holy prince died on the way to Kiev on March 14, 1167. (In other historical sources the year is given as 1168). His body, in accord with his last wishes, was brought to the Kiev Theodosiev monastery. | <urn:uuid:414dbabe-c810-4b0d-8b4d-1e35db59c51f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://oca.org/saints/lives/2013/03/14/100802-right-believing-great-prince-rostislav-michael-the-prince-of-kie | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965534 | 2,240 | 2.953125 | 3 |
People of Northwest Public Radio
Sun July 15, 2012
Public Crisis Makes Athens A Tough Draw For Tourists
Originally published on Mon July 16, 2012 8:21 am
The Greek capital of Athens has suffered from an image problem since the debt crisis began more than two years ago. Media reports often show masked gangs throwing petrol bombs at Parliament or riot police dousing demonstrators with tear gas.
Many tourists are staying away as a result. Tourist arrivals to the city are down by between 20 and 40 percent, industry representatives say.
During a heat wave last week, Tobias Ejersbo watched the Greek honor guard change shifts at the monument of the unknown soldier outside Parliament in central Athens. The soldiers, in kilt-like fustanellas, marched and tapped their rifles on the ground in unison.
Ejersbo, a 22-year-old engineering student from Denmark, and his 53-year-old father, Jakob, were the only tourists standing at a spot better known for now as a site of anti-austerity protests.
"I mean, you can easily be the only people at a restaurant for a whole evening because there are only that many tourists," Ejersbo said. "And Greeks currently don't have that much money to spend on dining out."
The father and son are using a guidebook to see the Parthenon and the other usual sites, including the National Archaeological Museum.
The museum holds great treasures from antiquity, but it's an area with rundown buildings that are scarred by bad graffiti. At night, drug addicts line a nearby street.
Theodora Kappou would have taken the Danes on a happier tour.
"I always find something new in Athens," she said. "Sometimes it's a surprise for me too."
Kappou, a 43-year-old translator who speaks five languages, volunteers as a guide for This is My Athens, a free service that matches visitors with Athenians who take them on personalized tours. She gave one of her first tours to three young Spanish women.
"They said they expected Athens to be half-burned, with people going around the street asking for food or for money," Kappou said. "They thought we would show poverty or depression."
Instead, Kappou says, the women enjoyed a calm and resilient city. They ate dark Greek chocolate at neighborhood cafes and explored hidden city parks.
Kappou likes parks and botanical gardens; she often starts her tours of central Athens with a walk through the National Gardens near Parliament.
"There are some small lakes here with frogs and fish and everything," she said on a recent walk through the gardens. "That's very nice now in the summer." Cicadas chirped loudly, signaling the hot day.
From the gardens, she walks to a busy street named after a former king — Constantine — and to the artsy old neighborhood of Pangrati. It's near the Olympic Stadium.
She stops at a small, lush square named after Manos Hadjidakis, who won an Academy Award for his scoring of the movie Never on Sunday, starring Melina Mercouri.
Hadjidakis used to spend his evenings playing the piano with friends at a restaurant here called Mayemonos Avlos or The Enchanted Flute.
It's run by the family of an elegant former ballerina named Io Theofilou. She's 89-years-old, and has seen Athens suffer through starvation and two wars.
She sees the latest crisis — a manageable one, in her view — in the frowns of her customers.
"People no longer smile," she says, "and they no longer sing. We try to have music here every night."
Theofilou likes to sing "Adika Pigan ta Niata Mou," a song about lost youth. "My snow-white hair is no longer fit for kisses," she croons.
It's by Attik, an early 20th-century composer of romantic music. Though he's famous in Greece, few know him outside of the country.
Kappou takes visitors across town for a more recent local legend — Chez Lucien — a tiny French bistro known for gourmet food at austerity prices. It's run by Lucien Lescanne, a 56-year-old former computer engineer from Paris who loved cooking as a hobby.
Chez Lucien is a popular restaurant in Petralona, a central neighborhood of neoclassical buildings and outdoor cinemas. Athenians like it because it has good food at austerity prices. Chez Lucien is on a street lined by small cafes and taverns that are all packed on a hot summer night.
As diners at the French bistro eat creme brule, an Albanian clarinetist serenades them with a northern Greek folk song.
Kappou likes the detail. It's a little European moment, she says. And it reminds her that, despite a crisis of confidence, her city still has its surprises.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
Greece, of course, is another country stung by Europe's economic crisis. And through it all, the country's one-proud capital, Athens, has had an image problem. Television reports show masked gangs throwing petrol bombs at parliament or riot police dousing demonstrators with tear gas. That has caused many tourists to stay away, but one group of volunteers is trying to make Athens feel inviting again. Joanna Kakissis has the story.
JOANNA KAKISSIS, BYLINE: Tobias Ejersbo is watching the Greek honor guard change shifts near the monument of the unknown soldier outside parliament. The Danish engineering student has seen this spot on TV full of protesters. He wasn't scared away but others were. The number of tourists to Athens has dropped by at least 20 percent.
TOBIAS EJERSBO: You can easily be the only people at a restaurant for a whole evening.
KAKISSIS: Tobias and his father, Jacob, are using a guidebook to see sites like the National Archaeological Museum. It's an area with rundown buildings scarred by bad graffiti. And at night drug addicts line the nearby street.
THEODORA KAPPOU: My impression in this that...
KAKISSIS: Theodora Kappou would have gladly taken the Danes on a happier tour.
KAPPOU: I always find something new in Athens. It's sometimes a special prize for me too.
KAKISSIS: Theodora is a translator who volunteers as a guide for This is My Athens, a free service that matches visitors with Athenians who take them on personalized tours. She recently gave one of her first tours to three young Spanish women. She said they were skeptical.
KAPPOU: They said they expected Athens to be half-burned, with people going around the street asking for food or for money. And they thought that we would show poverty and depression.
KAKISSIS: But then they spent the day eating Greek dark chocolate at neighborhood cafes and exploring hidden city parks.
KAPPOU: You see that? It's (unintelligible) yes.
KAKISSIS: Theodora likes parks. She often starts her tours with a walk through the National Gardens near parliament.
KAPPOU: There are some small lakes here with frogs and fish and everything. That's very nice now in the summer.
(SOUNDBITE OF TRAFFIC)
KAKISSIS: Then she crosses a busy street to reach the artsy old neighborhood of Pangrati.
KAKISSIS: She walks to a small square named after Manos Hadjidakis, the Academy Award-winning composer. He played piano at a restaurant here called Mayevmeni Avli, the Enchanted Garden.
IO THEOFILOU: (Greek spoken)
KAKISSIS: It's run by an elegant former ballerina named Io Theofilou and her son. Io is 89 and she's seen Athens suffer through starvation and two wars. She sees the latest crisis in the frowns of her customers.
THEOFILOU: (Greek spoken)
KAKISSIS: People no longer smile, she says, and they no longer sing. We try to have music here every night.
THEOFILOU: (Singing in Greek)
KAKISSIS: Io likes to sing "Adika Pigan ta Niata Mou," a song about lost youth. It's by Attik, an early 20th century composer of romantic ballads.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHATTER)
KAKISSIS: Theodora goes across town for a more recent legend - Chez Lucien, a French bistro Athenians know for good food at austerity prices.
KAPPOU: (French spoken)
KAKISSIS: It's on a street of neoclassical buildings in Petralona, a lively neighborhood not far from the Acropolis.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
KAKISSIS: As bistro diners eat creme brule, a clarinetist from Albania serenades them with a Greek folk song. That makes Theodora smile. Her city may be having a crisis of confidence but it still has its surprises.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
KAKISSIS: For NPR News, I'm Joanna Kakissis in Athens. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio. | <urn:uuid:f58ec511-ced9-4828-85bc-4f486432ca6a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nwpr.org/post/public-crisis-makes-athens-tough-draw-tourists | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962221 | 2,000 | 1.804688 | 2 |
April 03, 2011
In 1972 comedian George Carlin famously delineated the “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television.” All seven words dealt with bodily parts or functions at a time when such things were simply not mentioned in polite company. If anything, Carlin was understating the case—back then, I don’t remember anyone on TV even suggesting that nipples existed, much less coming out and saying “tits.”
In the intervening decades, society has not only shed such taboos, it has actively embraced vulgarity. At least on cable TV, one is now allowed—in some cases encouraged—to not only say all seven of those words, but to use them in a single sentence while demonstrating them for the camera. These days we have reality shows about crippled midget meth-smoking stripper Satanist hermaphrodites with AIDS competing against similarly afflicted freaks for cash prizes, and it’s “all good”—even something worth celebrating.
Modern culture has disabused itself of the false notion that the human body and its various functions are unnatural or unspeakable. It has rid itself of most sexual hang-ups, but—since all societies define themselves primarily via taboos—in its stead it has erected a new and equally fraudulent idealized vision of humanity entirely unsupported by science, logic, or evidence. There’s a whole new set of dirty words that didn’t used to be dirty—all of them derogatory terms for people who aren’t white males—and a forbidden set of ideas which one must not permit to seep inside one’s head without risking censure, shunning, verbal abuse, career death, and possible assault.
“The new sacred cows come in new shapes and colors, but they’re still sacred and they’re still fat fucking cows.”
The new sacred cows come in new shapes and colors, but they’re still sacred and they’re still fat fucking cows. The taboos have switched from the sexual to the cultural, but shiver me timbers if they aren’t enforced with the same blind, vengeful, true-believer tenacity as the old taboos. Ironically, these taboos find their deepest roots among a presumably “edgy” demographic—but the detached, ironic smarm so endemic along the Left Bank is only a thin crust atop a molten core of inviolably sacred assumptions and risk-free sanctimony. There is a new prudery afoot, and it’s based entirely on a faulty, illogical, and unsustainable myth of universal human equality.
What follows are not seven dirty words, but seven dirty ideas one cannot espouse or even ponder on television without being kicked in the face by a velvet-covered steel-toed boot. Although others treat these ideas as if they were radioactive, carcinogenic, and poisonous, none of them seems remotely radical or extreme or offensive or controversial to me. Instead, they all seem supremely reasonable. But in a world where what’s deemed “politically incorrect” is so often factually correct, these seven big fat elephants are stinking up the whole room.
1. ALL MEN ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL.
Equality is a concept which nearly everyone believes but no one has bothered to prove. The unassailable notion of blank-slate cognitive and physical equality, despite all contrary evidence, is the fat stump rooted deep in the soil from which all the other modern taboo branches sprout. The sweetest fairy tale ever told is the one where God made everyone equal. It’s such a wholesomely peaceful notion, people will rip your head off your neck if you don’t submit completely to it. But if no two blades of grass are alike, how can any two humans be alike? If anyone thinks all men are created equal, they’ve obviously never been in a locker room or attended an interracial calculus class. All things being equal, there is no such thing as equality.
2. AT BEST, HUMANS SHARE AN EQUAL POTENTIAL TO BE ASSHOLES.
The main problem with “humanism” is that it fails to account for human nature. I look at the world and see a rainbow of people who all suck in different ways. I’ve met noble souls of all colors and screaming assholes of every hue. All tribes, nations, and individuals across this great planet share an equal ability to annoy and disappoint. Every culture, subculture, and counterculture is blindly self-justifying, and, when it achieves sufficient strength, it becomes rapaciously predatory. The best possible world religion, the only one with an outside chance of ensuring global harmony, would consist of a basic agreement that we can all be assholes.
3. IF YOU INSIST ALL HUMANS ARE EQUAL, THEN COUNT THEIR CORPSES EQUALLY.
We need to hear a little less about the fewer than 4,000 black American lynching victims and a little more about the 600,000 or so white peasants who died ostensibly to free them from slavery. A little less about black American slavery and a little more about colonial white indentured servitude and convict labor. A little less about the six million (give or take a few) Jews who perished in WWII and a little more about the 50-65 million other people killed in that war. A little less about white colonialism and a little more about the Mongols, the Moors, and Hannibal. For the sake of balance, let’s see some TV movies about communism’s 100-million-plus pile of cadavers. Let’s see some documentaries about slavery’s historical ubiquity and its persistence in Africa today. Let’s entirely ditch the concept that some dead bodies are more equal than others.
Copyright 2013 TakiMag.com and the author. This copy is for your personal, noncommercial use only. You can order reprints for distribution by contacting us at email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:77855019-9407-4d1e-925e-62a75b698ab8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://takimag.com/article/seven_ideas_you_can_never_discuss_on_television1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930865 | 1,267 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Stemmadenia littoralis (Apocynaceae) | Milky Way Tree, Lecheso (Dogbane Family) | Origin: Wet coastal forests of Central & South America
A small tree reaching only twenty five feet at maturity, Stemmadenia littoralis makes a perfect choice for a small garden. Here at our small garden we have three, two inside the Oak Grove, and one in front of the Administration Building. What most people think of as “blooming” plants, especially flowering trees, require a lot of sun to thrive, but the Stemmadenia does best in shade to part sun. In the shade, the dark green, glossy leaves grow larger and greener, and the blooms stay on the tree longer without wilting.
The species name “littoralis” refers to the fact that this plant comes from littoral or coastal-forests. Because of this, the trees are adapted to salty conditions and alkaline soil, two things that can make or break a plant here on Florida’s coasts. The common name “lecheso” refers to the milky latex that oozes from broken or cut leaves and stems. This latex contains poisonous compounds that can cause skin irritation in some people, and is a characteristic defense mechanism of the Apocynaceae family.
The flowers resemble white pinwheels two inches long and emit a pleasant fragrance. The tree does just fine in the ground but makes an excellent container specimen as well. It needs to be protected from frost, but the show of flowers, which goes on throughout the year, combined with the perfect layered form the branches take on without pruning, make it worth the hassle.
Text by David Troxell | <urn:uuid:f228efeb-ddf7-437f-bc0c-97ec20cf1ae1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://selby.org/news/whats-blooming-july-4-july-19-stemmadenia-littoralis-apocynaceae | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924175 | 364 | 3.34375 | 3 |
In addition to building muscle, weightlifting is also a prescription for self-esteem among breast cancer survivors, according to new research. Breast cancer survivors who lift weights regularly feel better about bodies and their appearance and are more satisfied with their intimate relationships compared with survivors who do not lift weights, according to a new study.
- Weight training boosts breast cancer survivors' body image and intimate relationship satisfactionTue, 3 Nov 2009, 15:44:14 EST
- Weightlifting does not appear to increase risk of arm swelling for breast cancer survivorsWed, 8 Dec 2010, 19:34:47 EST
- Extreme weight gain raises risk for recurrence among breast cancer survivorsTue, 5 Apr 2011, 8:36:27 EDT
- Sexual intimacy and breast cancer survivors: New researchMon, 10 Nov 2008, 5:28:41 EST
- Olive-oil enriched diet helps breast cancer survivors lose more weightThu, 3 Jun 2010, 1:35:00 EDT | <urn:uuid:d57b2d69-a7e9-4785-abfd-888187e658f6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://esciencenews.com/sources/science.daily/2009/11/09/weight.training.boosts.breast.cancer.survivors.body.image.and.intimate.relationship.satisfactio | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918458 | 194 | 2.0625 | 2 |
Six weeks after a 9.0 earthquake and devastating tsunami hit Japan, some missionaries that were previously removed from the Japan Tokyo and Japan Sendai Missions will return to areas now considered safe within those missions. These missionaries will be transferred in the near future, with other missionaries likely returning as conditions continue to improve.
Missionaries will return to areas located a significant distance from the region most affected by the earthquake and tsunami. Those returning to the Japan Tokyo Mission will be serving in areas to the south and west of Tokyo, while those returning to the Japan Sendai Mission will be located at the northern tip and western side of the island.
Just days after devastation hit the country, concerns over limited food, power shortages and the possibility of radiation leaks from damaged nuclear power plants prompted the Church to move missionaries from the two missions. Church leaders said the evacuation also helped lessen the burden of others in the areas of destruction by allowing all available resources to be directed toward residents.
Around 200 missionaries from the Tokyo and Sendai missions were evacuated 15 March to other missions in Japan safe distances from possible danger.
The Church continues to assist the people of Japan through monetary donations, supplies and service by its Japanese members. | <urn:uuid:bdc14ab8-cbfe-413b-be5c-7a7da0939bbb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/all-clear-missionaries-to-return-to-areas-of-japan-devastation | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964667 | 240 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Frauds, Swingers and the Odd Early Days of Credit Cards
As credit cards came into greater use in the late 1950s and early ’60s, the financial press closely followed their emergence, especially when the wrong sorts got access to them.
Consider, for example, Joseph Miraglia. In one month of orgiastic spending, Miraglia ran up a $10,000 bill entertaining himself across three countries, four girlfriends and one rhinestone-collared cocker spaniel. Miraglia was no scion: He was a clerk from the Lower East Side of Manhattan earning $73 a week. How did he get into the then-exclusive credit-card club?
In 1959, travel and entertainment charge cards, such as Diners Club, were just beginning to lose their ground to bank cards, such as BankAmericard. But the use of credit was still subject to very real technological and moral constraints. Miraglia nicely illustrated how both would soon change -- and foreshadowed some of the consequences.
His adventure began in September 1959, when he ducked into a fancy New York restaurant and saw a pile of Travel and Entertainment card applications for “men of responsibility.” He filled out the Hilton Hotels’ Carte Blanche paperwork, complete with his real pittance of a salary, and, to his surprise, received a card a few weeks later with a letter that said “this card is your key to every luxury Hilton has to offer.”
And indeed it was. Beginning with the Waldorf in New York, Miraglia hit Montreal, Las Vegas and Havana before running out of steam. He bought fur coats, fine wines, dogs, meals, suits and even silk shirts from the same tailor as Cary Grant. With only the cash he won at the craps tables and some checks he wrote against the card, he lived, as he said, “like a millionaire’s son.”
When the police caught up with him, he said simply, “I always wanted to see the world, and I like nice things.”
But while Miraglia could live the high life on his Carte Blanche card, he couldn’t live a normal life. A traveling businessman with a Carte Blanche could eat in a few swank restaurants, buy his wife or mistress a fur coat in an affiliated shop, and maybe get a suit from a neighborhood tailor who had a relationship with the hotel, but he couldn’t go to K- Mart. He couldn’t buy groceries. Only places that catered to the expense account took American Express (AXP), and for everything else, there was cash.
Although Miraglia could spend $10,000 to live like a millionaire, it would have been almost impossible for him to spend $10,000 to live like a middle-class person -- much less a working-class guy from a Lower East Side tenement.
As bank credit cards spread across the country, this problem would start to confront not just frauds like Miraglia but increasingly the law-abiding middle class. And while more stores accepted credit cards in the 1960s and ’70s, moral concerns about debt were slower to change -- it was as much attitudes as access that constrained the growth of credit cards.
A 1968 survey found that only 17 percent of Americans had credit cards, as opposed to the 62 percent who had gas cards. A 1971 study in the Journal of Marketing found that men who used credit cards were disproportionately affluent, urban and more likely to agree with statements like “I like to think I am a bit of a swinger.”
Hippies, Liquor, Credit
Those who didn’t use credit cards led more restrained lifestyles. Men without cards disproportionately believed that “hippies should be drafted,” that “liquor is a curse on American life” and that “a woman’s place is in the home.”
They were not only disproportionately poorer, they also saw the world differently. Their economic outlook was less optimistic. They didn’t believe in the benefits of investing in stock markets at nearly the same rate as those who had credit cards. They also were less likely to believe they would be executives in a few years or that their family incomes would go up.
The optimism that underpinned the credit expansion in the postwar period found its native expression in the credit card. Users embraced the good life, confident in a progressive future of prosperity -- and willingly borrowing from that better tomorrow today. The swingers embraced the new turbulent era and charged up the difference between what they had and what they thought they would be getting very soon. Those who lacked that optimism continued to find credit use “unwise.”
They may have had a point. Perhaps we would have been wise to use means other than credit cards to adapt to the swinging economic fortunes of that postwar world. And perhaps we would have been better off if the practical and moral impediments to widespread credit-card use hadn’t been quite so malleable. Because once you start using credit -- as a consumer or as a nation -- it’s hard to stop.
Miraglia was let off in 1959. The judge evidently considered his actions youthful indiscretions. But like much else surrounding postwar credit, his case portended things to come. In 1984, Miraglia perpetrated what the New York Times (NYT) called the “largest credit card counterfeiting ring ever encountered in the New York metropolitan era.”
He did a year and a half in federal prison. It’s unclear if his credit rating suffered.
(Louis Hyman is an assistant professor of history at Cornell University and the author of “Borrow: The American Way of Debt.” The opinions expressed are his own.)
Read more Echoes columns online.
To contact the writer of this post: Louis Hyman at firstname.lastname@example.org.
To contact the editor responsible for this post: Timothy Lavin at email@example.com | <urn:uuid:5ba032dc-a350-4d84-9031-4130652eaa04> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2012-05-24/frauds-swingers-and-the-odd-early-days-of-credit-cards.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980282 | 1,267 | 1.726563 | 2 |
The Oakland was a brand of automobile manufactured between 1907–1909 by the Oakland Motor Car Company of Pontiac, Michigan, (formerly a carriage-maker called Pontiac Buggy) and between 1909 and 1931 by the Oakland Motors Division of General Motors Corporation. Oakland's principal founder was Edward M. Murphy, who sold half the company to GM in January 1909; when Murphy died in the summer of 1909, GM acquired the remaining rights to Oakland.
Early history
As originally conceived and introduced, the first Oakland used a vertical two-cylinder engine that rotated counterclockwise. This design by Alanson Brush (inventor of the Brush Runabout) lasted one year and was replaced by a more standard 4-cylinder engine and sales increased to approximately 5,000 automobiles per year.
Within General Motors, Oakland was slotted above price leader Chevrolet and below the more premium Oldsmobile and Buick brand cars. In 1916, the company introduced a V8 engine, and Oakland initially flourished. By early 1920, however, production and quality control problems began to plague the division. In 1921, under new General Manager Fred Hannum, a consistent production schedule was underway and the quality of the cars improved. One marketing tactic was the employment of a quick-drying bright blue automotive lacquer by Duco (a DuPont brand product), leading to the slogan "True Blue Oakland".
General Motors "Companion Make" Program
General Motors pioneered the idea that consumers would aspire to buy up an automotive product ladder if a company met certain price points. As General Motors entered the 1920s, the product ladder started with the price-leading Chevrolet marque, and then progressed upward in price, power and appointments to Oakland, Oldsmobile, Buick and ultimately to the luxury Cadillac marque.
By the mid-1920s, a sizable price gap existed between Chevrolet and Oakland, and the difference between an Oldsmobile and a Buick was wider. There was also a product gap between Buick and Cadillac. To address this, General Motors authorized the introduction of four companion marques priced and designed to fill the gaps. Cadillac would introduce the LaSalle to fill the gap between Cadillac and Buick. Buick would introduce the Marquette to handle the upper end of the gap between Buick and Oldsmobile. Oldsmobile would introduce the Viking, which took care of the lower end of the same gap. This is often referred to as General Motors Companion Make Program.
Oakland's part in this plan was the 1926 Pontiac, a shorter wheelbase "light six" priced to sell at a 4 cylinder car's price point, but still above Chevrolet. Pontiac was the first of the companion marques introduced, and in its first year outsold the larger, heavier Oakland. By 1929, GM sold 163,000 more Pontiacs than Oaklands. The discontinuation of Oakland was announced in 1931 and Pontiac would be the only companion make to survive beyond 1940, or to survive its "parent" make.
- Clymer, Floyd. Treasury of Early American Automobiles, 1877-1925 (New York: Bonanza Books, 1950), p.166.
- Kimes, Beverly R., Editor.; Clark, Henry A. (1996) . The Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1945. Iola, Wisconsin: Kraus Publications. ISBN 0-87341-428-4. OCLC 34905743.
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Oakland vehicles|
- Pontiac Oakland Club International
- Image of the Oakland Motor Car Company Factory, 1907
- Chevrolet Oakland Club | <urn:uuid:8914cff2-54b7-4a47-b449-000b9932ba03> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.digplanet.com/wiki/Oakland_(automobile) | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930975 | 743 | 2.765625 | 3 |
To my mind the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being. I should be unwilling to take the life of a lamb for the sake of the human body. I hold that the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man.
-- Mahatma Gandhi
Today is India's independence day. Mahatma Gandhi played a key role in India's freedom struggle. The principles of ahimsa - nonviolence, initiated by Gandhi was the foundation for India's freedom struggle against the British.
Mahatma Gandhi led a very simple life. Gandhi ate simple vegetarian food. Gandhi not only worked for the welfare of human beings, but he also wanted all the living creatures across the world to be happy. To know more about Gandhi visit website1 and website2 .
October 2, Mahatma Gandhi's birthday, is also World Farm Animals Day . To know more about Gandhi's views on animals, visit website1 and website2
I sometimes feel that Mahatma Gandhi would have thrived on a vegan diet if he was alive, as you can find diary-free milk in India these days. I'm sure
there will be many vegans in India, if many diary alternatives such as rice milk, almond milk, soy butter, nut butters, vegan chocolates and vegan ice cream is widely available. | <urn:uuid:80ecd5f3-c09b-450b-b91d-c2b69b430e78> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://vegan-fare.blogspot.com/2008/08/indias-independence-day-and-mahatma.html?showComment=1219007100000 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95595 | 283 | 2.21875 | 2 |
What is character?
What makes character important?
Where do you find character?
How do you build a lasting character?
Posner and Kouzes the authors of “The Leadership Challenge” surveyed thousands of business and government executives to see what they thought were the most important ‘characteristics’ for a leader.
2. Vision – forward looking
Honesty ranks as the number one character trait that matters more than any other trait. How important do you think honesty is in America today? Do the top leaders act with impeccable honesty? Do leaders in the middle support and make honesty their #1 objective?
The honesty dilemma. Most people would say that being honest is the right thing to do, and at the same time have difficulty executing with honesty during the day. Why is that?
Is there some type of fear that is associated with being honest? What is it? Is it a cultural issue? Is it habit or bad habits that trap us in a web of twists and turns that take truth and mold it to fit in a better way the story we want to be told.
How important is it for a leader to be honest? How important is it for everyone to be honest?
A critical leadership trait is integrity. The word integrity comes from the Latin ‘Integritas’ which meant soundness. Going back in history to the height of the Roman armies the story goes that the soldiers would put on their leather armor and then would strike with their fist shouting ‘Integritas’ when they did. The sound of good solid leather was filled with integrity. Overtime the ritual became less important and as a result the Roman Army lost their integrity (‘Integritas’) – their soundness and began to lose their battles.
Leaders in today’s world also have to be filled with sound principles, sound action, sound reasoning and morally correct reasoning. Leaders need to be filled with integrity. The difficult today as it was with the Roman Army maintaining integrity is difficult when forces all around the leader attempt to reduce or remove integrity. When personal gain is at stake we too often seen leaders crumble and their integrity melt. As Lord Acton once said, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Leaders need to remain humble even as their power (assumed or otherwise) rises to ensure that their integrity is not compromised, once lost it is difficult to regain.
Posted in Humility, Leadership
Tagged corruption, history, Humility, Integritas, integrity, Leadership, leather armor, Lord Acton, power, roman armies
This will begin a series of short posts about the qualities of a leader. Granted it is not part of a coaching model but leadership and coaching have close ties in many areas. Jump on board and explore the qualities.
In 1948 General Omar Bradley defined leadership as “the art of influencing human behavior through ability to directly influence people and direct them toward a specific goal.” What I wanted to point out in the definition is that there are similarities between coaching and leadership as defined here.
In the world of coaching the coachee defines the path and the coach holds the coachee accountable to the goals. Bradley’s definition of leadership is other-directed (leader to follower) and in the world of the coach it is self-directed with the coach helping to ensure integrity in the process.
Elevate your skills, elevate who you are ….
“Wondrous is the strength of cheerfulness, and its power of endurance – the cheerful man will do more in the same time, will do it better, will preserve it longer, than the sad or sullen” Thomas Caryle
- Just a bit under the weather – will resume posting shortly.
“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience by which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.” Eleanor Roosevelt
- What fears have you faced and overcome?
- What have you learned when you confronted your fears?
- What can you do the next time you face a fear?
Posted in Attitude, Change, Encouragement, Goal seeking, Inspiration, Leadership
Tagged confidence, confront, experience, fear, overcome, Roosevelt
What are you telling yourself right now?
Are the words that you are speaking to yourself filled with hope and a better future?
Think about the words you use yourself – are they positive or negative?
You are better than you give yourself credit for.
“Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”
- John Wooden
You are awesomely unique
You are absolutely talented
You are on purpose
Van Gogh wrote, “I dream my painting and then I paint my dream”
What are you going to put on your canvas?
- When things just click
- When there is full engagement
- When the energy is fully spent and it feels good
- When there is absolute focus
- When there is connection between self and action
When do you encounter life? When there is harmony of self.
“How simple it is to see that all the worry in the world cannot control the future. How simple it is to see that we can only be happy now. And that there will never be a time when it is not now.” — Gerald Jampolsky
“A lifestyle is what you pay for; a life is what pays you.” — Thomas Leonard
“The more you recognize and express gratitude for the things you have, the more things you will have to express gratitude for.” Zig Ziglar
“I’ve learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.” — Maya Angelou
“Let’s be grateful for those who give us happiness; they are the charming gardeners who make our soul bloom.” Marcel Proust | <urn:uuid:0837ed63-d811-4550-8846-bddad93f0534> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://coachwithheart.wordpress.com/2008/11/page/2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956872 | 1,273 | 3.0625 | 3 |
The Northern New York Library Network was chartered by the New York State Regents in 1965 to facilitate cooperative services among libraries in northern New York and to improve library services within the region, which consists of Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Jefferson, Lewis, Oswego and St. Lawrence counties.
The Network is governed by a locally elected Board of Trustees, and functions under State law and State Education Department regulations. The Network’s Plan of Service provides a detailed overview of products and services available to member libraries.
The NNYLN is one of nine council's throughout the state.
Click the map to be linked to that region’s library resources council: | <urn:uuid:bc7d0f8c-57af-49ec-b248-358d93e04ce4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nnyln.org/about-us/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953944 | 138 | 1.75 | 2 |
Capital Inflows into Latin America: A Stop-Go Story?
This paper deals with Latin America's experience with capital flows during the last decade and a half. It concentrates on a number of issues of increasing interest among academics and international observers, including the effect of capital inflows on domestic savings, the way in which capital mobility affects the ability to engage in independent monetary policy, and the effectiveness of capital controls. It also addresses a number of policy dilemmas that have become topical in light of the recent East Asian currency crises, including questions related to capital account sustainability, the role of domestic banks in the intermediation of capital inflows, and the feasibility of fixed nominal exchange rates in a world of capital mobility. Latin America's experience with capital mobility should provide insights to scholars interested in other regions of the world. Indeed, during the last few years the Latin American countries have been a laboratory of sorts, where almost every possible approach towards capital mobility has been tried.
An NBER digest for this paper is available.
Published: Feldstein, M. (ed.) International Capital Flows, National Bureau of Economic Research Conference Report Series. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999. | <urn:uuid:a946db48-37bc-4044-bde6-588005f09be3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nber.org/papers/w6441 | 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 | 0.918519 | 240 | 1.945313 | 2 |
||This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. (March 2011)|
Hushing is an ancient and historic mining method using a flood or torrent of water to reveal mineral veins. The method was applied in several ways, both in prospecting for ores, and for their exploitation. Mineral veins are often hidden below soil and sub-soil, which must be stripped away to discover the ore veins. A flood of water is very effective in moving soil as well as working the ore deposits when combined with other methods such as fire-setting.
Hushing was used during the formation and expansion of the Roman Empire from the 1st century BC on to the end of the empire. It was also widely used later, and apparently survived until modern times where the cost of explosives was prohibitive. It was widely used in the United States, where it was known as "booming".
The method is well described by Pliny the Elder in Book XXXIII of his Naturalis Historia from the 1st century AD. He distinguishes the use of the method for prospecting for ore and use during mining itself. It was used during the Roman period for hydraulic mining of alluvial gold deposits, and in opencast vein mining, for removal of rock debris, created by mechanical attack and fire-setting. He describes how tanks and reservoirs are built near the suspected veins, filled with water from an aqueduct, and the water suddenly released from a sluice-gate onto the hillside below, scouring the soil away to reveal the bedrock and any veins occurring there.
The power behind a large release of water is very great, especially if it forms a single water wave, and is well known as a strong force in coastal erosion and river erosion. Such a wave could be created by a sluice gate covering one end of the reservoir, possibly a permanent fixture such as a swinging flap or a rising gate. The size of the tank controlled the height of the wave and its volume. Hushing was most effective when used on steep ground such as the brow of a hill or mountain, the force of falling water lessening as the slope becomes smaller. The rate of attack would be controlled by the water supply, and perhaps more difficult the higher the deposit to be cleared.
If veins of ore were found using the method, then hushing could also remove the rock debris created when attacking the veins. Pliny also describes the way hillsides could be undermined, and then collapsed to release the ore-bearing material. The Romans developed the method into a sophisticated way of extracting large alluvial gold deposits such as those at Las Medulas in northern Spain, and for hard rock gold veins such as those at Dolaucothi in Wales. The development of the mine at Dolaucothi shows the versatility of the method in finding and then exploiting ore deposits.
There are the remains of numerous tanks and reservoirs still to be seen at the site, one example being shown at right. It was a small tank built for prospection on the north side of the isolated opencast north of the main mine. It was presumably built to prospect the ground to one side of the opencast for traces of the gold-bearing veins extending to the north. It failed to find the veins here, so was abandoned. It probably precedes the construction of the 7 mile long aqueduct supplying the main site, and was fed by a small leat from a tributary of the river Cothi about a mile further north up the valley. The method could be applied to any ore type, and succeeded best in hilly terrain. The Romans were well experienced in building the long aqueducts needed to supply the large volumes of water needed by the method, and was probably directed by army engineers.
Earlier evidence
The earlier history of the method is obscure, although there is an intriguing reference by Strabo writing ca 25 BC in his Geographica, Book IV, Chapter 6, to gold extraction in the Val d'Aosta in the Alps. He describes the problem gold miners had with a local tribe because of the great volumes of water they had taken from the local river, reducing it to a trickle and so affecting the local farmers. Whether or not they used the water for hushing remains unknown, but it seems possible because the method requires large volumes of water to be operated. Later, when the Romans assumed control of the mining operations, the locals charged them for using the water. The tribe occupied the higher mountains and controlled the water sources, and had not yet been subdued by the Romans:
- The country of the Salassi has gold mines also, which in former times, when the Salassi were powerful, they kept possession of, just as they were also masters of the passes. The Durias River was of the greatest aid to them in their mining — I mean in washing the gold; and therefore, in making the water branch off to numerous places, they used to empty the common bed completely. But although this was helpful to the Salassi in their hunt for the gold, it distressed the people who farmed the plains below them, because their country was deprived of irrigation; for, since its bed was on favourable ground higher up, the river could give the country water. And for this reason both tribes were continually at war with each other. But after the Romans got the mastery, the Salassi were thrown out of their gold-works and country too; however, since they still held possession of the mountains, they sold water to the publicans who had contracted to work the gold mines; but on account of the greediness of the publicans. Salassi were always in disagreement with them too.
The historian Polybius, who lived from 220 to 170 BC was writing much earlier in The Histories (Book 34), and he records that gold mining in the Alpine region was so successful that the price of gold in Italy fell by a third during this period. From his description of large nuggets, and the find being made only two feet below the ground level, with deposits reaching down to 15 feet, it is likely to have been an alluvial deposit where water methods such as hushing would have been very effective. Modern attempts to identify the mines point to one especially large ancient gold mine at Bessa in Northern Italy. It appears to have been worked intensively in pre-Roman days and continued to expand with Roman involvement. The scale of the aqueducts there seems to support Strabo's comments.
Later examples
The technique appears to have been neglected through the medieval period, because Georgius Agricola, writing in the 15th century in his De re Metallica, does not mention hushing at all, although he does describe many other uses of water power, especially for washing ore and driving watermills. However, the technique was used on a large scale in the lead mines of northern Britain from at least Elizabethan times onwards. The method was described in some detail by Westgarth Forster in his book A Treatise on a Section of the Strata from Newcastle-upon-Tyne to the Mountain of Cross Fell in Cumberland (1809) and also in the 1842 Royal Commission on Children in Mines in relation to children being used in the lead mines of the Pennines.
The remnants of hush gullies are visible at many places in the Pennines and at other locations such as the extensive lead mines at Cwmystwyth in Ceredigion, Wales, and at the Stiperstones in Shropshire. Another notable example is the Great Dun Fell hush gully near Cross Fell, Cumbria, probably formed in Georgian era in the search for lead and silver. This gully is about 100 feet deep, carries a small stream, and is a prominent landmark on the bleak moors. The dams used to store the water are also often visible at the head of the stream.
Although the term "hushing" was not used in South West England, there is a reference to the technique being used at Tregardock in North Cornwall, where in around 1580 mine adventurers used the method to work a lead-silver deposit, although lives were lost in the attempt. Phil Newman, writing in 2011, states that there is possible archaeological evidence for use of the technique at two sites on Dartmoor in Devon, in the form of channels running downhill that apparently originate from contour-following leats, though he says research is needed for confirmation.
In south eastern Lancashire hushing was used to extract limestone from the glacial boulder clay so that it could be used to make lime for agriculture, mortar, plaster and limewash. Bennett notes leases of land for this purpose in the 17th and 18th centuries and remains can still be seen at sites like Shedden Clough. Hushing for limestone seems to have been limited to the eastern side of the Pennine ridge, between Burnley and the Cliviger Gorge, and probably occurred here because of the cost of obtaining supplies from further away, as well as the suitability of the boulder clay and the availability of water supplies.
The technique was also used during alluvial gold mining in Africa, at least until the 1930s, when it was described by Griffith in his book Alluvial Mining (2nd Ed, 1960). The water outlet could be controlled by an automatic system which allowed water to flow through the sluice gate when the overflow triggered a release mechanism.
See also
- Dartmoor tin-mining
- Derbyshire lead mining history
- Hydraulic mining
- Las Medulas
- Mining in Cornwall
- Placer mining
- Roman engineering
- Roman technology
- Roman mining
- Westgarth Forster
- "Methods used". Lead Mining. Durham Miner Project. Retrieved 2008-04-24.
- "Glossary". Retrieved 2008-04-24.
- Newman, Phil (2011). The Field Archaeology of Dartmoor. Swindon: English Heritage. p. 152. ISBN 978-1-84802-033-7.
- "Archaeology Alive, volume 11.". The Historic Environment Service, Cornwall County Council. p. 37. Retrieved 2008-04-24.
- Bennett, W. (1948) A History of Burnley Vol.2 p. 97.
- Oliver Davies, Roman Mines in Europe, Clarendon Press (Oxford), 1935.
- Jones G. D. B., I. J. Blakey, and E. C. F. MacPherson, Dolaucothi: the Roman aqueduct, Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies 19 (1960): 71-84 and plates III-V.
- Lewis, P. R. and G. D. B. Jones, The Dolaucothi gold mines, I: the surface evidence, The Antiquaries Journal, 49, no. 2 (1969): 244-72.
- Lewis, P. R. and G. D. B. Jones, Roman gold-mining in north-west Spain, Journal of Roman Studies 60 (1970): 169-85.
- Lewis, P. R., The Ogofau Roman gold mines at Dolaucothi, The National Trust Year Book 1976-77 (1977).
- Annels, A and Burnham, BC, The Dolaucothi Gold Mines, University of Wales, Cardiff, 3rd Ed (1995).
- Hodge, A.T. (2001). Roman Aqueducts & Water Supply, 2nd ed. London: Duckworth.
- Timberlake, S, Early leats and hushing remains: suggestions and disputes for roman mining and prospection for lead, Bulletin of the Peak District mines Historical Society, 15 (2004), 64 ff.
- Royal Commission on Children in Mines describes hushing in 1842
- Roman technology
- Hushing in Yorkshire mines
- Great Dun Fell hush gulley
- Hushing in Gunnerdale, Yorkshire
- Roman gold mine with numerous aqueducts
- Hushing as used at Cwmystwyth mine
- Remains of hushing systems in Wales by Timberlake
- Shedings at Shedden Clough
- Shedden Clough Hushings | <urn:uuid:5cb01221-850d-4db1-9729-a3f13d39ce98> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hushing | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968588 | 2,533 | 3.578125 | 4 |
Artisan Bread Making »
InstructionsHere's a variant of Peter's classic babka. Using a pumpkin sour dough as the base, the dough has no butter, so this is a bit lighter. Temper the chocolate as in the class video - this is critical. Use the Kranz twist to get a truly impressive bread!
Category: Food & Cooking
Type of item: Food
Sour dough pumpkin bread douch, chocolate chips, butter, pecans
What was your inspiration?
Peter's babka - both in Breadbaker's Apprentice and in the Craftsy Artisan Bread class - inspired me to find a lighter version of this wonderful bread!
What advice would you give someone starting this project?
I'm really happy about the way this bread held together. (The first time I made this is was delicious, but it unraveled). Peter's trick on tempering the chocolate was critical. The small amount of butter used with the chocolate helped the chocolate 'set' so the twist stayed together and bloomed. | <urn:uuid:45543944-fcfa-4430-80d9-6d2ffaabfe06> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.craftsy.com/project/view/free-range-pumpkin-chocolate-babka/80653 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91487 | 212 | 1.882813 | 2 |
DepEd pays tribute to teachers
“We know the tremendous amount of work you do each day and we salute you as our unsung heroes. Please do not give up on the Filipino children.”
This is the important message that Education Secretary Armin Luistro gave to the 10,000 teachers present during the grand celebration of the World Teachers’ Day today, October 5, at the PhilSports Arena (formerly ULTRA), as the Department of Education leads the nation in giving recognition to the nobility of purpose and profession that teachers stand for.
“This is the day that was allotted for all of us to remember our teachers fondly and to remind ourselves that teaching is a very challenging job that not everyone can do, because not everyone can multitask like teachers do,” Luistro stresses as he pays tribute to the teachers and the critical role they play in society.
Among the personalities who have taken their time off to personally salute the country’s teachers is Vice President Jejomar C. Binay. Commission on Higher Education Chairperson Patricia Licuanan and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority Director-General Joel Villanueva, along with members of the upper and lower houses and the cabinet.
Also joining the teachers from the National Capital Region, CaLaBaRZon, and Central Luzon are various teacher organizations.
“I hope that all the teachers present here realize this – that teaching is not just spouting scholarly knowledge. If it were, then it wouldn’t be so hard. Teaching is also parenting, counseling, advising, nurturing, understanding, forgiving, analyzing, distinguishing, classifying, adjusting, etcetera, etcetera – practically every verb in our language that speaks to the heart. In this day and age of high-speed technology and communications via computer – that is what we need – teachers with heart,” Luistro tells the teachers from the live audience.
One of the highlights of the celebration is a tribute to Teacher Carmen Pascual, now 91 years old, who dedicated 43 years of her life molding young minds and making a difference in her students’ lives. DepEd has learned about her after it received a letter from an 82-year-old publishing executive Teresa Alvina seeking the help of Luistro in finding her former high school teacher (Teacher Pascual) whom she wanted to thank 63 years later.
Indeed, teachers are most influential when they touch hearts at the same time that they teach minds, just like how Teacher Pascual did in Alvina’s life. As Luistro puts it, their story explains the very essence of the World Teachers’ Day celebration. “Even though we don’t really aspire to be treated as heroes by our students, we cannot deny that it feels good to be appreciated by them especially after slaving away at this oftentimes-thankless job.”
Artists and singers were also invited to render their performances in honor of the country’s dear teachers. These include Anne Curtis, Ogie Alcasid, Sam Milby, Sitti, Princess Velasco, Nanette Inventor, Sam Concepcion, Nyoy Volante, Jamie Rivera, Tippy dos Santos, Mike Chan, Joseph Valerio, Gerald Santos, and The Lamars. | <urn:uuid:cbe0e7f8-e4f6-4a29-93e3-c935c71a19e7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://deped.net/deped-pays-tribute-to-teachers.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948101 | 691 | 1.632813 | 2 |
|South Africa Table of Contents
Smuts's governing United Party and Malan's HNP went into the 1948 general election campaign on opposing platforms. The United Party based its platform on the report of the Native Laws Commission chaired by Judge Henry Fagan. The Fagan commission argued that because of the influx of Africans into the cities and because of the impoverishment of the African reserves, total segregation was impossible. Although it did not recommend social or political integration, the commission suggested that African labor should be stabilized in the cities, where the needs of industrial and commercial operations were greatest. The HNP's platform, based on a report by Paul Sauer, argued to the contrary, that only total separation of the races would prevent a move toward equality and the eventual overwhelming of white society by black.
The HNP stated that Africans should be viewed as only temporary dwellers in the cities and should be forced periodically to return to the countryside to meet the labor needs of farmers (primarily Afrikaners). In addition, the HNP platform declared that Africans should develop political bodies in "their true fatherland," the African reserves, and should have no form of parliamentary representation in South Africa.
Malan also called for the prohibition of mixed marriages, for the banning of black trade unions, and for stricter enforcement of job reservation. Running on this platform of apartheid, as it was termed for the first time, Malan and the HNP, benefiting from the weight given to rural electorates, defeated Smuts and the United Party. The HNP won a majority of the seats contested but only a minority of the votes cast. The HNP became the government and, renamed the National Party (NP), ruled South Africa until 1994.
Source: U.S. Library of Congress | <urn:uuid:45400a0c-e952-4d9d-a64f-029f580f6bfb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://countrystudies.us/south-africa/24.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970336 | 358 | 3.5 | 4 |
8 online hoaxes that caught everybody out
If there’s one way to get something talking about your product or creation, it’s to create a viral video. While it’s far, far easier said than done, that isn’t stopping more and more companies, brands, groups and people are creating campaigns or stories in an attempt to be the next big viral hit.
Creating something that people will talk about or will get shared is the aim for every viral campaign. However a strategy adapted by many is to manifest a situation or event to catch people’s attention and later associate that with the product or subject you’re promoting.
Sometimes we can spot that they’re immediately fake, other times they can result in arguments about whether it’s real or not and sometimes they can be so unbelievable, we just play along with it anyway since it’s either so impressive not to or that we want to believe it’s actually true.
Below are a number of examples of viral hoaxes that became incredibly popular due to their content before being revealed for their true purposes.
Early last year, a documentary-style video was uploaded onto Youtube which tackled the subject of Liquid Mountaineering. The principal behind the sport was that, provided you got the technique right, you could run on water for a brief period of time. To do this though, you needed footwear that was waterproof so that you wouldn’t sink immediately. This conveniently enough came from Hi-Tec waterproof runners which was briefly shown in the video.
The video gained 10,000,000 views and Hi-Tec denied having anything to do with its making. However a month later, they admitted that it was a hoax and that it was a viral campaign for their company. The company released a ‘making of’ video to show everyone how the advert was made.
Internet Explorer IQ test
The exception in this list as it doesn’t promote a company but it is a lesson not to believe everything you see or hear without question. Very recently, a fake company called AptiQuant, mailed out a press release with the headline, “Is Internet Explorer for the Dumb? A new study suggests exactly that.†In it, the release claimed that extensive research was carried out on the topic, where 100,000 people took an online IQ test to match their intelligence scores with the browser they used.
The story was quickly picked up by many news outlets including (deep breath now) CNN, NPR, CNET, London’s Daily Mail, The Telegraph, Forbes, Mashable, GlobalPost, Business Insider and BBC News.
The survey capitalised the fact that many people criticise Internet Explorer and use other browsers like Firefox and Chrome instead. The people responsible for the survey confirmed it was a lighthearted joke and released a statement saying “There is no company called AptiQuant, and [no] such survey was ever done†and did it “to create awareness about the incompatibilities of IE6 and how it is pulling back innovation.â€
Back in August 2010, a girl who decided to quit her job became viral by sending her colleagues a series of photos where she used a whiteboard to insult her (ex)boss who called her a HPOA (hot piece of ass) and exposed his addiction to Farmville.
The story originated from theChive.com, a site which uploads viral photos and videos daily. The story received 238,000 Facebook shares and 31,000 retweets and lead to the number of unique visits to the site jumping from 15,000 to 440,000 in an hour. Two days later, the website unveiled the hoax in the exact same way, revealing ‘Jenny’ to be Elyse Porterfield, an actress based in LA.
theChive.com was also responsible for other hoaxes such as a teenage girl accidently texting her father that she lost her virginity on the beach and that Donald Trump left a $10,000 tip for a $82.27 bill.
Building one of the largest waterslide, the test run was recorded where the participant landed perfectly into a kiddie’s pool. The video has received over 5.5 million views to this day.
The video was revealed to be a promotion Microsoft office Project 2007 in Germany and the its production involved, among other things, a stuntman, a lot of editing and a long piece of rope. The fact that people are still arguing on Youtube about its authenticness to this say says wonders (not about the video but more about the type of people who comment on Youtube).
Hacking video screens in Times Square
With an iPhone, a special transmitter attached on the top of said iPhone and a video repeater, two men transmit a video they recorded earlier onto numerous screens across Times square before hacking one of the main screens.
Receiving three million views (1.2 million were from the first four days it was uploaded) and picked up my many technology sites, the video was revealed to be part of a marketing campaign for the movie ‘Limitless’ staring Brandon Cooper and Robert De Niro. The only clue that it was linked to the film was the trailer playing before the last screen was hacked. Like any successful viral video, they also uploaded another video to show everyone how it was all done.
To promote its new show Miracles of Evolution, the BBC sent a camera crew along with ex-Monty Python member, Terry Jones to King George Island where they uncovered a colony of penguins who can fly.
The video was an April Fools day prank by the BBC to help promote the BBC iPlayer (although the Telegraph didn’t quite catch onto this writing that “BBC1 viewers will see the penguins not only take flight from the Antarctic wastes but fly thousands of miles to the Amazonian rainforests to find winter sun.â€)
Since it’s the in-vogue thing to do, the BBC also created a ‘making of’ video as well.
Extreme LED sheep
Shot at the hills of Wales, a group of sheep dog trainers, The Baa-Studs, did what they do best with sheep, bordier collies, LEDs and a camera to create a large number of LED displays. Showing the sheep in action both during the day and night, their range of tricks include becoming on large black sheep and white sheep, re-enacting a game of pong, recreating the Mona Lisa painting and a fireworks display.
The video amassed 15 million views to this day and was designed to promote Samsung and their LED TVs.
Harrods in London
During the Christmas season last year, Lloyd Hudson was fired from his job as Santa for drinking too much. Angry with this decision and after having a few drinks, he decided to take revenge on the store. Taking gaining control of the LED lights displayed outside the shop, Hudson made it spell that most festive of messages before being removed from the premises by the store’s security guards.Of course this never happened, Hudson never existed and the image shared by millions was photoshopped but that didn’t stop news outlets from reporting it as a genuine news. It didn’t harm Harrods though who confirmed that the story was a lighthearted joke and that their lights would stay the same as previous years. (A mention must go to the quote from the obligatory American tourist and the last comment made on poke.co.uk – who originally ran the story – about said qoute as a reason why this story was fake, a plausible theory if there ever was one) | <urn:uuid:63d9ae36-8106-48dc-9c9a-41160b9b6bba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.simplyzesty.com/advertising-and-marketing/8-online-hoaxes-that-caught-everybody-out/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972381 | 1,594 | 1.5625 | 2 |
The American Dream has been shared for generations—some call it an idea; others call it a reality. Many people come leaving behind former lives in search for better ones, not only for themselves but also for their children.
Jorge Adeler is one of those people. Businessman, optimist, entrepreneur and enthusiast are just a few ways to describe the Argentine immigrant.
“I learned to look for ways to make a living by using my imagination,” said Adeler. “That helped me envision opportunities as they crossed in front of me.”
At 27 years old, in 1975, Adeler moved to the United States with his wife and two young daughters after visualizing the direction Argentina was heading in as a nation and not liking what he saw. With only $450 in his pocket and unable to speak English, he faced a rough transition but took on the challenge with fierce and hopeful drive. Now a successful, internationally recognized jeweler, he has a story unlike any other.
“The price was high, but it was the best decision I’ve ever made,” he said. “I’m delighted here.”
THE ROAD TO SUCCESS was a difficult one for the self-taught master designer, but neither the challenge nor the fear of failure stopped him. Growing up in Mar del Plata, Argentina, Adeler helped his parents run their hotel and restaurant business. Consequently, he came to the U.S. with the intentions of continuing in the same business, but soon found it wasn’t for him.
Instead, Adeler decided to pursue his own business in the form of trade. He took out a credit line worth $1,000 with Woolworth to buy basic necessities, such as pocket knives, fishing hooks and light coats, before traveling to Argentina and setting up camp in a small village in the mountains of Córdoba to trade for stones. Upon return from his trades, he carved the stones into various types of shelving ornaments—or “something attractive,” as he described them, such as book ends and figurines. He then went around to local boutiques and stores offering his shelving ornaments for display in return for payments as they were sold.
“I had to make sure I made the money back before it came time to pay the credit back,” Adeler said.
Word spread quickly back in Argentina and after five years and 19 trips, Adeler had a loyal group of traders and craftsmen to do business with which allowed him to eventually afford his first gem. As he went following the “line of less resistance,” as he called it, he slowly made the transition from stones to jewelry.
It wasn’t long before Adeler opened his first jewelry store, selling mostly pendants and other small items in Ocean City, Md. As his business expanded, so did the number of stores. Within a few years, he had five jewelry stores in Ocean City under his operation.
His success came with his drive to go against the mainstream of popular demands. While most jewelry stores were selling turquoise stones, something Adeler couldn’t yet afford, he sold other gems that often caught the attention of those looking for something different. One of those out-of-the-ordinary stones was rhodochrosite, the pink national Argentine gemstone.
“When you have something you’re selling that would be much more different because it is something people aren’t looking for, I realized it has its virtues,” Adeler said. “You’ll always have customers searching for something original or different. I began my career doing something different than the rest of the industry.”
FROM THEN ON, Adeler focused on what no one else was selling, forcing him to be more creative and look into new ideas. With an overall goal to do what no one else was doing and present it in a way that would attract the minority of customers looking for something different, he stopped carrying designer pieces in his stores and began making all of his own.
“I placed goals for myself, from challenge to challenge,” Adeler said. “I make mistakes and I learn from them. I don’t have much fear of failure.”
By 1980, Adeler decided to combine his family-run businesses under one roof. Great Falls was the place he chose to call home for his business and family. “Great Falls ended up being one of the most fantastic communities I’ve ever lived in,” Adeler said.
Adeler Jewelry has provided services to 3,500 of the 7,000 households in Great Falls since it opened its doors over 30 years ago and continues to grow each year. Recently, Adeler won the 2012-2013 International Pearl Design Competition Designers Award as well as placing in the top competitors at the JCK “Jewelers Choice Awards.”
In recent months, the internationally recognized jeweler has received requests from various magazines to showcase his designs to Hollywood stylists and celebrities asking to wear his designs, including Sally Fields in the movie Lincoln this year.
Adeler is so appreciative of the opportunities he has been given to succeed in the country he calls “the dream land,” that he makes it a point to give back to the community as much as he can through various donations and volunteer work.
“We believe that if you don’t give back to the community, you break the rules in how society should be.”
His long list of community partnerships include everything from the Red Cross to various organizations benefiting diabetes, veterans and Inova Hospital, and he continues to reach out.
“I have so much to be grateful for,” Adeler said. “Every single day I have everything to be grateful for. Life has been extraordinary to us.” | <urn:uuid:04d3e1e7-5958-4302-b304-fef2a5f0765e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.centre-view.com/news/2012/dec/05/living-life-dream-land/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98489 | 1,248 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Throughout the University of Michigan Health System's history, gifts from generous alumni and friends like you have been vital to Michigan's becoming one of the world's premier educational institutions. Today your support remains more important than ever.
Through our donor recognition programs, we extend our gratitude to you for helping the Department of Internal Medicine within the University of Michigan Health System to fulfill its mission. Thank you!
What are the University Presidential Societies?
The Presidential Societies, named for former University of Michigan presidents, recognize donors who have made significant gifts to the University. .
Founded in 1961, the Presidents Club is the first tier of giving in the Presidential Societies.
Henry P. Tappan
Henry Philip Tappan, the first president of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, brought distinguished scholars to the University and urged them to conduct research as well as teach. The Tappan Society, created in 1978, is the second tier of giving in the Presidential Societies.
Harry B. Hutchins Society
Harry Burns Hutchins, University president from 1909 through 1920, was the first president to understand how Michigan alumni could be a significant political and financial resource for the University. The Hutchins Society, created in 1987, is the third tier of giving in the Presidential Societies.
Alexander G. Ruthven Society
Alexander Grant Ruthven, University president from 1929 through 1951, initiated a corporate organizational structure of deans, vice presidents, and registrars to carry out most administrative matters. The University's organizational structure today builds on Ruthven's achievement. The Ruthven Society, created in 1987, is the fourth tier of giving in the Presidential Societies.
James B. Angell Society
James Burrill Angell, University president from 1871 through 1909, was known for his engaging personality and his ability to negotiate effective compromises. He was the first president who actively promoted the enrollment of women students. The Angell Society, created in 1978, is the fifth tier of giving in the Presidential Societies.
Erastus O. Haven Society
Erastus Otis Haven, president of the University from 1863 through 1869, broadened the curriculum significantly. During his presidency, the country's first university hospital was established, providing medical students with the opportunity to work directly with patients. The Haven Society, created in 1997, is the sixth tier of giving in the Presidential Societies.
Marion L. Burton Society
Marion LeRoy Burton, president of the University from 1920 through 1925, developed a comprehensive building program for the Ann Arbor campus, with some of Michigan's most notable structures planned or constructed during his administration. The Burton Society, created in 1997, is the seventh tier of giving in the Presidential Societies.
Benefits of Presidential Societies Memberships:
- Subscription to Leaders & Best, the Office of University Development's donor publication
- An engraved memento
- Invitations to periodic Presidential Societies events
- An option to purchase a University recreational facilities user pass at staff/faculty rates
- Golfing privileges at Radrick Farms, the University's private golf course
- An opportunity to purchase post-season bowl game tickets
The John Monteith Legacy Society
John Monteith (1787-1868) was a founding father and president of the institution that became the University of Michigan. Monteith and other University founders had a vision for a great educational system that is shared today by members of the John Monteith Legacy Society. Donors who support the University with an estate plan gift provide the foundation for academic excellence in years to come. Through their generosity, Monteith Society members demonstrate so clearly how one generation can help the next.
Steps for Recognition
To be recognized in the John Monteith Legacy Society:
- Make a gift in any amount to the University of Michigan from your will, revocable trust, retirement plan, or other estate plan;
- Sign a John Monteith Legacy Society Statement of Intent; AND/OR
- Provide the University with a copy of that portion of your estate plan pertaining to the gift.
For more information:
If you would like to learn more about the creative ways to support the University of Michigan, including gifts that pay you an income for life or other ways to include the University in your estate plan, please contact us by email at email@example.com, or call us at our toll free number (866) 860-0026
University of Michigan
Office of Medical Development and Alumni Relations
1000 Oakbrook Drive, Suite 100
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-6794
Phone: (866) 860-0026 (toll free)
Fax: (734) 998-8821 | <urn:uuid:1f7a7b13-f38b-42b9-81cb-9cf635dd7f92> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.med.umich.edu/intmed/about/gift.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929342 | 968 | 1.710938 | 2 |
A French-led study has determined global warming has affected the ice cap on Mount Everest in the heart of the Himalayas.
The French Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change previously found global warming increased the average world temperature by 0.74 degrees Celsius during the last century. However, there is very little information about some parts of the planet, such as central Asia.
A new study by French researchers, in collaboration with Chinese, Russian and U.S. scientists, is said to prove recent warming has also affected the Mount Everest ice cap.
The research appeared in a recent issue of the journal Climate of the Past.
Copyright 2007 by United Press International
Explore further: Forest Service study finds urban trees removing fine particulate air pollution, saving lives | <urn:uuid:a7af2f40-3bf8-4bcc-9059-c79a68882a29> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://phys.org/news92339508.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940942 | 152 | 3.546875 | 4 |
The Tujia ethnic minority
In the Wuling Range of western Hunan and Hubei provinces, at elevations from 400 to 1,500 meters, dwell 5.72 million people called the Tujias. They live mainly in the Xiangxi Tujia-Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Exi Tujia-Miao Autonomous Prefecture and some counties in southeastern Hunan and western Hubei. In these areas, the climate is mild but rainy, and the land is well-forested.
The Youshui, Fengshui and Qingjiang rivers intersect there, and on the terraced mountainsides and in the green valleys grow rice, maize, wheat and potatoes. Cash crops include beets, ramie, cotton, tung oil, oil tea and tea, with oil tea and tung oil playing key commercial roles. Timber includes pine, China fir, cypress and the nanmu tree. The area is rich in rare medicinal herbs, minerals, aquatic products and giant salamanders.
About 20,000-30,000 people living in remote areas such as Longshan speak Tujia, a language which is similar to that spoken by the Yis and belongs to the Chinese-Tibetan language system. But the large majority has come to speak the Han and Miao languages, now that the Tujias have been largely assimilated. Their clothing and customs are very much like those of the Hans. Old Tujia ways survive only in remote area. | <urn:uuid:b950fc0e-ae30-4ab0-b4a3-1d9d39718bd0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/ljzg/3584/t17920.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940585 | 312 | 2.96875 | 3 |
Games for Eli and Zackary Started Tonight. Zackary Has No...Posted on the 02 November 2012 by Accidentalxpert
Zackary done wonderful. Took charge and played his little heart out. I watched the clock in anticipation to see what his response would be. Nadda nothing. Not a single jump, flinch or fingers stuck in his ears!!
Eli on the other hand was over whelmed and broke down. The coach started hollering plays and Eli froze and cried.
So, here's my issue with tonight.......It's the adults job to encourage children and teach them. Eli was in the game only a few seconds before he was benched. No second chances. At the end of the game we spoke with the coach and he informed us this age was to competitive to mess around with. In other words, they are there to win, not teach and build confidence? I am hoping a few more practices and games will build Eli's confidence and he will gain some self worth. Isn't that the purpose of games? This won't happen on a bench. I was reminded of a story a few years back and the video that went along with it and just wanted to come home and show it to Eli and share it with you all. Enjoy.
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Christmas Lance Armstrong Norway Terror Attacks Russia Occupy Wall Street Academy Awards Mitt Romney Rick Perry European Union Mali X-Factor China News Corp Amanda Knox Hurricane Sandy Lady Gaga John Galliano Samsung Thanksgiving Nuclear Energy Harry Potter Apple North Korea Climate Change True Blood Economy The Papacy Barack Obama Egypt Apps | <urn:uuid:83b97cde-c421-4c00-bee9-22ec63758fca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.paperblog.com/games-for-eli-and-zackary-started-tonight-zackary-has-no-342911/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959194 | 698 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Mayan temple damaged in tourist 'apocalypse' frenzy
- Published: 24/12/2012 at 01:32 PM
- Online news:
Tourists flocking to Guatemala for "end of the world" parties have damaged an ancient stone temple at Tikal, the largest archeological site and urban center of the Mayan civilization.
People wait for the beginning of the celebrations marking the end of the Mayan age, December 20, 2012 at the Tikal archaeological site, Peten departament, 560 kms north of Guatemala City. Temple II at Tikal was damaged as a result of an influx of tourists on Decemner 21. ©AFP PHOTO/Hector RETAMAL
"Sadly, many tourists climbed Temple II and caused damage," said Osvaldo Gomez, a technical adviser at the site, which is located some 550 kilometers (340 miles) north of Guatemala City.
"We are fine with the celebration, but (the tourists) should be more aware because this is a (UNESCO) World Heritage Site," he told local media.
Gomez did not specify what was done, although he did say it was forbidden to climb the stairs at the site and indicated that the damage was irreparable.
Temple II, which is about 38 meters (125 feet) high and faces the central Tikal plaza, is one of the site's best known structures.
Friday marked the end of an era that lasted 5,200 years, according to the Mayan "Long Count" calendar. Some believed the date also marked the end of the world as foretold by Mayan hieroglyphs.
More than 7,000 people visited Tikal on Friday to see native Mayan priests hold a colorful ceremony and light fires as the sun emerged to mark the new era.
Critics complained that the event was really for tourists and had little to do with the Mayans. About 42 percent of Guatemala's 14.3 million residents are native Mayans, and most live in poverty and endure discrimination.
The ancient Mayans reached their peak of power in Central America between the years 250 and 900 AD.
UNESCO declared Tikal a World Heritage Site in 1979.
About the author
- Writer: AFP Relax News
Position: News agency | <urn:uuid:1db6e2c7-1b00-42d9-83b4-6e1fd87533cf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bangkokpost.com/print/327727/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953544 | 462 | 2.21875 | 2 |
Jakarta Statement on the Private Sector
By the Ad Hoc Private Sector Group
Private sector companies and groups attending the Jakarta Conference warmly welcomed the opportunity afforded to them by the WHO for full participation in the ongoing health promotion discussions, with the central theme of building effective partnerships involving new players.
Evidence presented to the Conference outlining the "crisis of suffering" facing the populations of the world, clearly indicates the need for the private sector to play a full and responsible part in working with WHO and government, in both developed and developing countries, to meet the health challenges ahead.
Private sector companies and groups represented at Jakarta are committed to working with WHO, governments and NGOs to help inspire similar commitment from other responsible private sector companies and groups. We share the view that the issue of greater health expectancy is as important to companies and the communities they serve, as was the issue of the environment in the 1980s and early 1990s.
We further believe that best practice in the workplace involves a comprehensive and holistic approach to the promotion of physical, mental and emotional well-being for workforces and families. We are also fully aware of the continuing need for companies to be vigilant as to the health impact of their products and services, as well as to the way they are produced, delivered and marketed.
The private sector at large has spent billions of dollars over the last decade in health promotion programs, stimulated in part by the ground-breaking Ottawa Charter. However, for millions of people in both developed and developing countries the private sector's crucial contribution to health promotion is as wealth creators and job providers. The eradication of poverty through the provision of opportunities to work is a crucial, yet undervalued, contribution to health promotion provided by the private sector. Yet there is more to be done.
Our view is that health promotion programs in the corporate sector, whether philanthropic or commercial, will become more effective if they are delivered through practical, balanced and transparent partnerships.
Having taken the first steps in creating such partnerships during our time here in Jakarta, the private sector companies and groups would wish to maintain a regular dialogue with the new partners and WHO, leading to agree partnership protocols and commitments. General protocols for successful partnerships must include transparency, accountability, mutual benefit and ethics. Other protocols must be tailored to particular partnerships, such as commitment to the highest standards of professional and scientific practice.
The private sector seeks to ensure successful partnerships by reaching agreement on commitments to:
- Regular measurement of goals and objectives;
- Sharing fully and openly all information relevant, and wherever possible, sharing resources be they managerial, technological, training or financial;
- Maintaining open dialogue in the spirit of understanding with an aim to reach agreement on joint values, joint responsibilities and joint action plans;
- Open acknowledgement of the contribution of each partner, and the responsibilities of both new and old players in health promotion.
The Scope and Purpose Document prepared by WHO for the 4th International Conference, outlined the expected outcomes of the Jakarta meeting. We believe that our statement addresses directly many of those outcomes, particularly those regarding alliances and partnership principles.
Private sector companies and groups at Jakarta warmly welcome the Jakarta Declaration and commit themselves to participate fully in its implementation. | <urn:uuid:7d53b0da-556a-457e-b426-ba2b39684654> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.who.int/healthpromotion/conferences/previous/jakarta/statements/private_sector/en/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955943 | 650 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Silver Body Jewelry
There are many different kinds of body jewelry and you can get it in numerous different metals. It might be made of loads of materials this includes gold, silver, surgical steel, titanium, plastic, ivory, and numerous other mediums. Most body jewelry costing less than 5 to 10 dollars is plated, either with gold, silver, or steel. If you're considering purchasing a piece of gold body jewelry and it only costs some dollars, it is probable the item is only plated.
Body Jewelry in the past was usually gold or platinum. The price of these minerals has increased over the years due to increasing demand for cheaper alternatives that have been made. The customer can select from a variety such as glass, plastic, silver and titanium.
Body jewelry can be a bit more glamorous by adding stones to it. a few of the most expensive are diamonds, emeralds and sapphires for all the who can not afford to just have to get a few imitations elsewhere.
The only means this type of jewelery to stay in the body by piercing the skin. Does it suffering? Depending on where this will be placed, but some say it's love having your ear ready for a pair of earrings.
There are also some pieces of body jewelry that do not require drilling. Several clients opt the latter for fear of allergies and infections. The article of clothing can engage in, because the magnet is in each fixture. Examples of these are the clips of stomach or lip, chain shields and handcuffs jewelry. Most stores offer body jewelry this for free as part of the service. People who work here ensures that the materials used are sterilized to prevent infection. the who want the all you can purchase the material and then just follow the directions on the package.
Studies show that young people silver body jewelry shopping more sometimes. These are the people between the ages of 16 and 25 who are in the last year in high school at that university. It is cheap and affordable. There are even out some for the naval area and just under the nose that may seem unusual to the who are conservative, but is considered to be the "in thing."
Silver unlike gold can not make body jewelry or any accessory on its own. This is because the composing of this mineral is too soft. The only way is mixed with other alloys such as copper. This represents it bright and strong and can be cleaned easily with a single cloth.
If the client is tired of the patterns seen in the store, a few manufacturers may even out have a measure. This may cost a quick more for the tough work you put into it, but it's all superb when it turns to being above the rest.
Most wholesale body jewelers are a one stop resource for high quality titanium, tungsten, stainless steel, and sterling silver body jewelry. It could be a awesome idea to gift your girlfriend with gold or a silver body jewelry that she can adorn in her intimate body parts. Jewelry never goes out of style no matter how modern the world becomes. This is because even out the smallest accessory can assist the person stand out in the crowd, still if punctured or attached to clothing using a magnet.
Silver Body Jewelry | <urn:uuid:0202fae0-1041-4d62-bcfe-df0b83521dee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://shine.yahoo.com/fashion/silver-body-jewelry-062200581.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957366 | 657 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Had this tea last night at a puerh class held by the owner of Teance Fine Teas in Berkeley, California.
She outright refused to tell us its name, how it was processed, and why it was in such tiny bits in between the size of fannings and dust grade tea particles until we all tasted it. Looks like very finely sifted CTC tea (or coffee grounds) but what we were drinking was older than Cut Tear Curl manufacturing method’s spread into China. She did let on that animals were involved by asking “Are any of you vegan?” before pouring, and let on that some folks call it “Poo Air” based on its aroma, so it wasn’t a total mystery.
To clarify, many teas fall into the realm of non-vegan, and moreso than this one. Oftentimes there are bits of insects inside the leaves (I’ve found a live Walking Stick in a large retailer’s airtight tin of Bai Mu Dan that haad been sealed for over a year) and teas such as Oriental Beauty Oolong rely on herbivory and excretions by leafhoppers on the leaves to produce some of the inherent sweetness. If you’ve ever eaten an invertebrate in its entirety (insects, crustaceans, and mollusks are in the diet of most of the world’s cultures) you’ve consumed what’s in the animal’s gut as well and bear in mind that honey is basically bee puke, so try to put your squeemishness on hold for a moment.
Okay, flavor-wise this is a hard tea to put a rating on.
Elements of the flavor really demand a spectacularly high rating – tasting it really did have a “wow factor” both before and after learning what the heck it was we were putting in our mouths and swallowing. It blows away many puerh teas in terms of clean-yet-earthy taste, dense body, balance of body to liveliness, interesting tactile impression beyond simple astringency or thickness of body, range of expressed flavor, lasting quality in terms of possible number of rebrews, and length of aftertaste. However, I can certainly see this as a “love/hate” tea. If you dislike earthy tastes or can not stand the presence of any metallic, pepper, or wood notes you will not like this tea. Same goes if you only tolerate teas with a very short aftertaste.
If you like Indo-Pacific coffees – aged or monsooned coffees in particular – you may really enjoy this tea.
Winnie prepared this with a generous amount in a pair of gaiwans. I really have no point of reference to estimate the mass used… If it was equivalent to CTC, I’d say something like 8g per 150ml, but I got the impression it’s more like using fannings – more like 4g per 150ml. Brew time was intended at something like 10 seconds each infusion, but actual contact time ranged from 30 seconds to 3 minutes because of the time necessary to pour out through the tiny leaf bits (and then, if the pour was fast, it would take forever to go through the strainer). Water at about 95 degrees C was dispensed into a thermos that was used for each infusion, so temp probably started at about 85C and steadily declined to 70ishC until the water was refreshed.
Leaves are tiny little pellets. Hard and fibrous when dry – like sifted CTC. When wet, it’s possible with a bit of effort to squeeze/grind between fingernails into a semisolid.
Liquor is completely opaque, shiny dark dark dark red-brown in a wide, shallow 45ml cup. “Puerh is supposed to look like soy sauce when aged well enough,” Winnie said while pouring. I’ve had soy sauce and Turkish coffee less dark than this. Aroma is mellow woody base with a prune-like accent and tart&sweet aromatics of Balinese long pepper or Grains of Paradise. Blood-colored liquid sticks to the sides of a cup in a way that makes me think of oil… or the Venom Symbiote from Spiderman.
Surprisingly similar to two of the first four puerhs I ever had (young mini shou tuochas from Jingmai Shan) but a whole heck of a lot more complex. The whole tacky-thick body, light muddy yeast-like quality and feeling of “it tastes like a well-worn boot” very similar. This has a very slight astringency that balances the syrupy body a bit and goes well with the black peppercorn notes in the aftertaste. Coppery and malty like flavors provide a second tier on top of the woody flavor base. Very light aroma, but the nose while drinking presents notes of humus and damp leaf litter – very foresty. The afteraroma is mild again but has more going on with spiced bean notes (yes, this tea has notes of humus and hummus!), dried fruits like fig and raisins/prunes, clay, arbol chilies, toasted wheat bread crust, honey, barley, and oak bark.
What really sets this apart is the quantity of two effects I’ve only had in a handful of puerhs before and the presence of two effects I’ve never experienced in puerh before (only in aged, traditional oolongs).
First and foremost is the prevalence of the “Chen” note – an “antique” quality that arises out of the light camphor-like notes 20+ year sheng cha develop. As I’ve only had 12 teas that meet this criteria other than this one, it is a quality that really jumps to mind and this just rolls in it. The tea tastes like it has actually matured in character to a point where it has combined and produced tastes and sensations not possible in younger teas. This is not some hokey thing about “oooh, this tea is aged so it is gooood” either – it takes a certain amount of time for the oils, acid-sugar combinations, and fungi&bacteria byproducts to chemically interact based on ambient humidity and temperature fluctuations over years for a resulting change that affects the tea’s biochemistry at a level where the fundamentally acidic character of the leaves actually changes to a more alkaline state. Many, many people have tried replicating “chen” and was one of the drives to develop the wo dui style of manufacture, resulting in shou cha. Best anyone can do, though, is age in certain dramatic climate conditions with great effort.
Next is the perception created by drinking this of feeling sort of a swirling of energetics through the upper body and particularly the head. I tend to not buy into the concept of Qi, though I acknowledge the sensory effect of the supposed key physical points of qi in the body and of the loci where the chakras are purported to reside as well as the beneficial therapeutic effects of training in “energy movement” for physical and mental health… I just happen to have more faith in actual physiological connections within the body and chock bodily connections up to neural connections, hormone signalling, physical strain on connected groups, and psychosomatic reactions. However, it’s hard to figure into that the repeatable sensation of movement provided here. This is one of those rare teas that does invoke a significant, palpable feeling of motion along the deep tissue, skeletal, and nervous system corridors towards the head and swirling within. How can you feel something create a reeling effect in your head without affecting oxygen? Dunno what on earth to call this other than the tea’s “strong qi” despite my reservations about the existence of such a thing.
Then there’s the first quality I have yet to experience in a puerh – a “ripeness” I associate with aged and/or well-roasted oolongs. Like the phenolic sensation of biting into an almost-overripe apricot, plum or nectarine minus the actual fruit notes. The flavors associated with it are more spice notes of peppercorns, coriander, cinnamon, sage… just with that extra deep-chest “oomph” of ripe fruit. This really accentuates a beet note and he potent savory character of the tea.
Finally, this tea has heat to it in terms of spice. Not nearly as hot as actually eating a pepper, but it has a residual heat and even a bit of flavor that has me drawing similarities to Adobo and Chipotle Peppers. I’ve had puerh that exhibited some of these taste/aroma notes and some that draw perspiration after many cups, but this leaves the tingling heat of eating a steak that had been rubbed in powdered adobo, chipotle, paprika, and black pepper. That lingering spiciness stuck with me for well over half an hour after drinking… could’ve gone for an hour or more had I not had a different tea and dinner cutting it off. Funny thing is I was left with a strong desire for barbecue pork (I rarely touch pig) and got some pulled pork with mustard bbq sauce that mimicked the flavor and sensation.
Another interesting bit is the presence of flavor. It sort of pushes open the doors in your mouth in an effect somewhat similar to MSG, beets, or red meat. It’s a good example for most of the vocabulary I’ve adapted to my own use in my notes; It throws a bunch of tastes at you at once (“range” or what I call “horizontal complexity”) and then runs with a progression of flavors into the aftertaste (“depth” or “vertical complexity”) coupled with maintaining a steadfast predominant flavor (“static profile” or “baseline fidelity”) yet showing a shift of flavor and sensations in progressive infusions (“dynamic profile” or my infrequently used “realized complexity” when featured alongside steadfast character) and producing many, many infusions (a “durable” tea). It really covers all bases.
This tea is a truly unique experience, though you may have to muscle through a mental block against it to taste more than one cup. Really, if it were not for the generally mild aroma and the serious distinction I get of it being one of those teas you either love or you hate, I have no other reason to not score this a 100… I’m sure some would throw it to the very end of the other side of the spectrum, though. If you have the opportunity to taste this – the well aged version, not just this type of tea – you really should not pass it up. Kinda gives me a headache thinking of the fact I’m recommending people try a tea that has gone through both ends of a caterpillar, but there you have it. This excreted tea isn’t “shit” – it’s well harvested tea that was carefully processed then painstakingly turned and stirred whilst aging for decades then carefully introducing a single type of invertebrate in a controlled manner to eat the leaves, followed by hand-sorting the little pellets out of the tea mass and rested for more time still.
Remarkable in so many ways but still… Caterpillar droppings… | <urn:uuid:f524e8bb-ca9d-4bb6-9d52-e66d4ee7ccbe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://steepster.com/companies/teance?page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951754 | 2,443 | 1.53125 | 2 |
By combining people's life stories with analysis of medical and legal data in Brazil's urban centers, Princeton University anthropology professor Joa͂o Biehl and his research team are exploring how the country's constitutional right to health has played out in the courts and in patients' lives. Biehl has a deep commitment to people-centered scholarship and to mentoring his students and early-career scholars.
Photos by Torben Eskerod
Biehl explores consequences of Brazil's constitutional right to health
Posted January 14, 2013; 12:00 p.m.
In 2010, Edgar Lemos, a retired bus driver in Porto Alegre, Brazil, sued his government for failing to provide medication to treat his neurological disorder. It was his privilege to do so: Brazil and more than 100 other nations grant the right to health, which in Brazil has given rise to numerous lawsuits against the government for access to medicines of all kinds.
Princeton University anthropology professor João Biehl has documented the emergence of right-to-health litigation in that country over the past decade. Through visits to courtrooms and clinics to meet patients and record their stories, combined with rigorous evaluation of medical and legal data, Biehl, a native of Brazil, and his research team have created a detailed picture of who sues for treatment and why in this country of about 200 million people and an economy on the rise.
Biehl's work has helped dispel myths that Brazil's universal health care and judicial system are being largely misused by well-off individuals to gain access to expensive and unnecessary medications, and has led to a broader debate about social justice and access to medical technologies.
"Our goal was to produce a genuine understanding of the judicialization of the right to health," said Biehl, the Susan Dod Brown Professor of Anthropology and faculty associate at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He is also co-director of the Program in Global Health and Health Policy at Princeton.
"Database analyses are crucial," Biehl added, "but we also need to engage people's trajectories and life stories, and find ways of creatively bringing the complex evidence that we gather on the entanglement of biology, social environment and medicine to the public and to policymakers."
Laura Bannach Jardim (from left), chief of the Medical Genetics Service of Hospital de Clínicas of Porto Alegre, pictured with researchers Maira Graeff Burin and Kristiane Michelin-Tirelli, collaborated with Biehl on an ethnographic study of patients with rare genetic disorders who are filing lawsuits for access to high-cost enzyme replacement therapies.
Exploring entanglements and finding the connections between life stories and the underpinnings of society are fundamental to Biehl's work. His methods include not only ethnography — the written field studies or case reports that arise from anthropological research — but also visual storytelling through photography.
Biehl's education and career have emphasized a cross-disciplinary approach. He received undergraduate degrees in theology and journalism and a master's degree in philosophy from academic institutions in Brazil. He earned a doctorate in religion from the Graduate Theological Union in 1996 and a doctorate in anthropology from the University of California-Berkeley in 1999. Before joining the Princeton faculty in 2001, he was a National Institute of Mental Health postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University in the Department of Anthropology and the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine.
Biehl's far-reaching training is a boon for his students, who learn the importance of integrating disciplines and developing research skills in the field. Often, he enlists his students as assistant researchers, even as early as freshman year.
Applying an interdisciplinary approach
In studying right-to-health issues in Brazil, Biehl used a mixture of research methods to examine health-related lawsuits in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul. Using electronic registries, Biehl and his fellow researchers determined that health-related lawsuits against the state increased from roughly 1,000 in 2002 to more than 17,000 in 2009. Seventy-two percent of the lawsuits in 2009 were for access to medicines; the rest were for health-related items that ranged from baby formula to surgeries.
"Patients in growing numbers are not waiting for medical technologies to trickle down, but are demanding access now, even if one-by-one — one disease and one court case at a time," Biehl said.
State judges such as Denise Oliveira Cezar, shown here with Biehl, are called on to decide whether pharmaceutical companies conducting clinical trials in Brazil must provide medicines after successful trials.
Of 1,080 lawsuits the researchers chose randomly for closer scrutiny, the majority were brought by poor individuals who depended on the public system for obtaining both health care and legal representation. Most plaintiffs were older than 45 years, retired or unemployed, and represented by public defenders. They were, for the most part, chronically ill, Biehl stated.
Nearly two-thirds of the requested drugs were already on government formularies and should have been available to the plaintiffs, belying the misconception that the lawsuits were for pricey brand-name specialty drugs, Biehl said. He noted that this situation indicated significant problems at all administrative levels in the country's innovative yet struggling universal health care system. Almost all of the lawsuits were decided in favor of the plaintiff, Biehl said, with the judges citing the government's obligation under the constitution's provision of the right to health.
Biehl conducted the study with epidemiologist Joseph Amon, director of the Health and Human Rights Division of Human Rights Watch and a lecturer in Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs; physician Mariana Socal, a 2010 graduate of the Master in Public Policy Program at the Wilson School and a doctoral student in health systems at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; and Adriana Petryna, the Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor in Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania and Biehl's wife. The study was published in the June 2012 issue of the journal Health and Human Rights.
"The paper is part of the active debate about what the right to health means in Brazil and elsewhere," Amon said. "The whole question of whether social and economic rights can be decided in the courts — it hasn't been studied in this way."
Ingo Wolfgang Sarlet, professor of constitutional law at Porto Alegre's Pontifícia Universidade Católica (right), and Biehl created an archive of the evolving right-to-health jurisprudence in Brazil.
In addition to combing through medical and judicial records, the researchers conducted in-depth interviews with physicians, public defenders, judges, policymakers and patients. From these interviews, Biehl and his colleagues gained understanding of the complex and varied experiences of the plaintiffs, underscoring Biehl's conviction that social policies cannot be evaluated solely on technical and statistical approaches.
Biehl and Petryna explore these insights further as co-editors of the forthcoming book "When People Come First: Critical Studies in Global Health" (Princeton University Press, 2013). In it, they find fault with the trend toward evidence-based public health with its focus on randomized evaluations, statistical significance of results, cost-effectiveness, and a growing disregard for people-centered case studies and reflections.
"The focus on numbers should not come at the expense of the unpredictable social and hard-to-measure or unanticipated outcomes," Biehl said. "We have to use interdisciplinary and critical ways of assessing the design as well as the value of interventions for patients, for families, for communities."
To help emphasize the human story, Biehl enlisted Danish artist Torben Eskerod to capture images of the patient-plaintiffs engaged in access-to-medicines litigation. Eskerod documented Biehl's previous ethnographic work on Brazil's pioneering universal AIDS treatment policy in the award-winning book "Will to Live: AIDS Therapies and the Politics of Survival" (Princeton University Press, 2007), and Biehl's ethnography of what it is like to be mentally ill and abandoned by family and society in Brazil's big cities in "Vita: Life in a Zone of Social Abandonment" (University of California Press, 2005).
During a home visit, Biehl (second from right), anthropologist Adriana Petryna (far right) and research assistant Roberta Grudzinski (center) talked to 12-year old Alexandre, who suffers from an inherited metabolic disorder called mucopolysaccharidosis, and his mother, Cleonice Lima de Moura (far left). With the legal support of a patient association, the family won a court injunction forcing the federal government to begin providing the US $200,000-per year therapy.
Engaging with students by integrating teaching and research
As co-director of Princeton's Program in Global Health and Health Policy, Biehl oversees the education of juniors and seniors interested in exploring the causes and patterns of disease and impact of health interventions across societies. The interdisciplinary program weaves experiential learning and fieldwork into the curriculum, offering opportunities to conduct research in health policy, care and laboratory settings both in the United States and abroad.
In a conversation with Biehl in Porto Alegre in 2011, pensioner Edgar Lemos opened a box containing the drugs that make up his treatment regimen. The drug Lemos needed to treat his neurological disorder was not available in official drug formularies and with the help of the public defender's office he successfully sued the state to provide it.
Through Princeton's Grand Challenges Initiative, which tackles complex global problems through the integration of research and teaching, Biehl mentors undergraduates working on their senior theses in a variety of global and domestic settings. To date, 28 undergraduates in anthropology and other majors have conducted research through Biehl's project, the Future of Global AIDS Treatment and the Social Determinants of Health, in countries including Guatemala, Sierra Leone and South Africa.
Senior Courtney Crumpler has been working with Biehl since her freshman year. "With Professor Biehl's guidance, I was able to explore my own interests as well as participate in a team of researchers," said Crumpler, who is writing her thesis on nutritional aspects of the public health policy in Brazil. "He is a professor that really has the interests of undergraduates in mind."
Biehl is a dynamic classroom teacher, said senior Raphael Frankfurter, who is writing his thesis on the use of traditional healers in Sierra Leone. "He has this incredible ability to give a 60-person lecture the feeling of a small seminar," Frankfurter said. "He gets to know the personalities and interests and strengths of his students, even in large classes, and he integrates lectures with discussions."
The Public Defender's Office in Porto Alegre provides free legal assistance and is where the majority of the lawsuits requesting medicines from the state originate. Biehl and his research team carried out in-depth interviews with 30 patient-plaintiffs at the office.
In addition to teaching undergraduates, Biehl advises graduate students and postdoctoral researchers and is involved in the newly launched project on global health and medical anthropology that is being developed in partnership with the University of São Paulo and is funded by Princeton's Council for International Teaching and Research.
"Biehl has been an incredible mentor and supporter," said Joshua Franklin, a 2011 alumnus who worked with Biehl on the right-to-health litigation project and wrote his senior thesis on the topic. Franklin spent the past year as a Fulbright scholar in southern Brazil and has returned to Princeton to help organize the Princeton-University of São Paulo partnership. "Working with Professor Biehl enabled me to learn firsthand the research methods that are essential to my development as an anthropologist," Franklin said.
In developing academic and research projects, Biehl gains new insights that inspire fresh thinking.
"Social fields are in flux and that puts the pulse in academic disciplines too," Biehl said. "We must continue to challenge orthodoxies of all kinds and seek original ways to communicate the categories that are significant in human experience to the worlds of science, policy, jurisprudence and caregiving." | <urn:uuid:b3e207ad-2385-4202-9302-9ff736d1deba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S35/58/65Q64/index.xml?from=2003-02-01&to=2003-03-01 | 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 | 0.957502 | 2,526 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Political Group Ratings: by the HRC on gay rights
Source: HRC website
OnTheIssues.org interprets the 2005-2006 HRC scores as follows:
0% - 20%: opposes gay rights (approx. 207 members)
20% - 70%: mixed record on gay rights (approx. 84 members)
70%-100%: supports gay rights (approx. 177 members)
About the HRC (from their website, www.hrc.org):
The Human Rights Campaign represents a grassroots force of more than 700,000 members and supporters nationwide. As the largest national gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, HRC envisions an America where GLBT people are ensured of their basic equal rights, and can be open, honest and safe at home, at work and in the community.
Ever since its founding in 1980, HRC has led the way in promoting fairness for GLBT Americans. HRC is a bipartisan organization that works to advance equality based on sexual orientation and gender expression and identity. | <urn:uuid:47f225f8-20ec-4684-88e1-bd82f859dc31> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ontheissues.org/Notebook/Note_06n-HRC.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935698 | 209 | 2 | 2 |
Still looking for ideas on St. Patrick's Day and first day of spring with one being a legendary.
This story partly comes from how, in Ruby at least, you nearly always find a Heart Scale hiding in the landscape around couples. Happy Valentine's Day!
In Process: Mudkip
On Deck: Dunsparce/Qwilfish, Beedrill
Emerald entry: Luvdisc make the branches of Corsola their nests. There is a custom from long ago of giving a Luvdisc as a gift to express one's feelings of love.
The coral reefs of Hoenn made for one of the most diverse and colorful ecosystems in the world. There were many kinds of fish and fish Pokemon. There were both jellyfish and Tentacools. There were micro-bugs and the occasional Surskit. Even the reefs themselves, much of them were ordinary plants, but some of them were Corsolas. Hiding within these reefs were Luvdiscs, a Pokemon special to local traditions.
The small heart-shaped fish usually kept hidden, save for springtime mating rituals and the test of adulthood. The latter was a rite peculiar to the species. Most other Pokemon did not have such tests, but ancient traditions stated that a Luvdisc was not considered fully mature unless it could produce a whole Heart Scale and offer it to a loving human couple. Why this was so was buried in legend to the point of the Luvdiscs continuing it simply because it was always done that way.
And that was her mission when she had left the reefs a week ago.
She had been so excited when she’d finally shed a whole Scale that she’d crashed into a Clamperl trying to find her mother. It had not been pleased and she had been afraid for a bit that it would ruin her first Heart Scale. But she’d managed to get away and show off the Scale to her family and friends.
It was a lovely thing. Most of their scales were pink, but a few had an iridescent sheen to them, like a rainbow painted on a pink canvas. The iridescent ones were the only ones that could become a true Heart Scale. However, when they were shed, most of the scales had frayed edges or cracks. To shed a whole one, with clean edges and no dullness, that was something to be proud of. They were happy for her, but now she had to give it away.
But who knew that it would be so hard? She could see plenty of humans on the beach, but none she felt right in giving her scale away to. Maybe she was just being possessive. It was her first Scale, after all. And yet...
It was nearing the end of winter, as the days were becoming even with the nights and the air was warming little by little. Still, there were people walking along the shore. There were beachcombers carrying their woven baskets. There were joggers running up and down in daily routines. There were a few children, but that was in the afternoon and their parents weren’t around. There were surfers and swimmers, artists and anglers... but not many couples.
The young Luvdisc swam close to one couple she did see. It was a young man and young woman, he wearing waterproof pants that all the beachside anglers wore and she wearing a nice yellow dress that made her wary of getting too close to the water. For a minute, he had put down his fishing gear to help her balance on some rocks. The cold waves lapped against those rocks and teased at her black shoes.
Once she was as far out as she would go, she knelt down and tossed a berry into the water. “Luvdisc, Luvdisc, heart of the sea, will you prove my true love to me?”
The young Pokemon had heard that little rhyme several times over this week. The berry certainly smelled tempting, but she had been warned not to accept bribes from undeserving couples. And this pair didn’t seem right. There was a feeling of tension between the two that didn’t bode well for long-lasting love. He had put away his fishing for the moment, yes, but was annoyed because he had been doing well before the interruption. She had dressed up nicely for this, yes, but her attention wasn’t completely on him.
They were doomed to fall apart unless they changed themselves. They might be looking for a Heart Scale, but once their love failed, it would no longer mean anything special to them. With that in mind, the Luvdisc ignored them and swam off to find another couple.
The next pair she found was a pair of teenagers, both with red hair. They were playing around, kicking a soccer ball between each other and joking around. “No seriously, it’s an awesome Pokemon and would work great on your team,” the boy said, knocking the ball high into the air.
“But it stinks something horrible,” she replied, catching the ball with her knee, then kicking it back. “I don’t want one like that.”
“Aw come on. You’re not going to stand a chance in the League if you only use cute and pretty Pokemon.”
She stuck her tongue out at him. “What makes you think that, squirt?” Then she laughed.
He laughed back and shook his head.
They certainly loved each other, even if they weren’t that open about it. But they didn’t feel right either. Somewhere in her heart, the Luvdisc felt that this pair were actually cousins, and thus weren’t appropriate humans to offer her Scale to. So she left them and moved on.
How did she know how to judge the quality of love humans had for each other? She knew she could do it, but she didn’t know how. Legend had it that long ago, there was a holy man and holy woman who were deeply in love with each other, so much so that they had died at the same moment because they could not bear to live without the other. The older Luvdiscs had told her that a pair of trees had grown from their graves that were so intertwined that one could not tell which leaf came from which tree.
During their lifetime, the man and woman had seen many of their peers foolishly pursue false loves and unhappy marriages. They tried to show others the wonder and joy of true love, but human society wouldn’t pay attention. They then began leaving offerings on the sea, praying that the others would learn to be loyal, loving, and patient. The Luvdiscs living at the shore began eating the offerings, and then some way or another, they gained the ability to discern true love from false. To use that ability, they began rewarding true couples with a lovely Heart Scale.
It seemed such an odd story, even to her limited understanding. Why would the spirits decide to answer the couple’s prayers by giving the knowledge of true love to a lowly Pokemon like herself? There were far more beautiful and graceful fish in the sea, so why the Luvdisc? But even if she couldn’t answer those questions, she knew she had to follow tradition. It was her gift, and it was only right that she share it properly. Which meant waiting patiently to find the right couple for her Heart Scale.
She paused a moment to check the sky. The sun was starting to pass from its highest position. Wondering if she would meet that one human again, the young Luvdisc hurried on to the southern arm of the sheltered bay. The land was a bit higher here, with many grasses and reeds growing freely. There was a hardy oak tree by itself. Next to that tree, she was indeed there again.
This human was about the same age as the fisherman and his girlfriend, old enough to be on her own. She had tinted prescription glasses and long black hair, which was how the Luvdisc knew this was the same human. Every day this week, she had come out here to eat her lunch. And she shared, which was the main reason a handful of other fish were gathering.
Like before, she pulled out a chunk of bread and began tearing it into pieces. “I thank the sea for your protection, your life-giving abundance, and your unbiased ear. I thank you for listening to me.” She then tossed a handful of pieces into the water.
Normally, the Luvdisc ate algae and small pests that bothered the corals and Corsolas which made up her home. But such things were scarce in these shallow waters. She darted in and snatched a piece of bread before another fish could take it instead.
The woman noticed. She lay down and reached her hand into the water. Most of the fish scattered at this, but the Luvdisc remained. “Are you the same one I’ve been seeing all week? It’s early for you to be up here and you’re all by yourself.”
She swam up and sniffed at the woman’s hand, getting patted for the action. This young woman held a great love, she could tell, but was always alone and thus she couldn’t give away her Scale. It was reckless to judge true love just on one half of it.
“Of course, I’m all by myself too,” the woman said. “It wouldn’t be like that if I’d said something to him before he left. And now you go into the Trainer’s Fan Club and hear all sorts of talk about him. He could probably date anyone he wants now, so why would he think of returning to me? I knew he’d be good, but I didn’t expect him to get this popular with the Frontier.”
She felt sad for this human, since there wasn’t anything she could do about it. She could only reward truly loving couples. Frustrating, that the only love she could find worthy of her Scale couldn’t properly be judged because the man wasn’t around.
Someone else walked up to them, startling the Luvdisc into darting off towards the bottom. When she looked back, she saw the woman stand up and greet him warmly. Curious about this, she swam back up to listen better.
“I heard you like to eat lunch around here lately,” he said, obviously familiar with her. “I was in town and decided to drop by and see you. So what are you doing?”
“Oh, just feeding the fish. It’s relaxing, for the middle of the workday.”
This was the guy she’d been talking about all week. He had dark blue hair and light blue eyes, like the ocean against the sky (that’s how she put it yesterday). The Luvdisc wasn’t much of a judge on human beauty, but guessed that he might be attractive to others. And he held a great love for her as well, but was holding back on the issue. He didn’t want to ruin their friendship by trying to be something they weren’t.
If her Heart Scale could encourage them to take that risk, she’d gladly give it to them. She popped through the ocean surface and splashed around to make noise. But they were too intent on talking with each other to pay attention to her.
Well she’d spent all week waiting for them to appear together. She wasn’t about to let them slip away from her. The Luvdisc swam down to the bottom, then rushed upwards and jumped clear out of the water. With a clumsy flop, she landed on the ground.
“Oh dear,” the woman said, kneeling down to pick her up. “What was that for?”
He smiled in amusement. “Your pink friend is a bit enthusiastic, don’t you think?”
“She’s been here by herself all week. I’m not sure why.”
The air hit her gills and irritated them greatly. She found it difficult to move and to breathe, but she’d got their attention. Squirming until she could manage, she took her Heart Scale from underneath her fin and pressed it against the woman’s hand. She then found herself being gently placed back in the water. It was such a relief when she could shake the air out of her gills and fill them with water once again.
“Oh, she gave me a scale,” the woman said, surprised.
“Really? That’s odd. Poeple say the Luvdiscs only give them to certain people,” he stopped abruptly, not sure what to do.
“Yeah, that’s true.”
He was awkward for a moment longer, then opened his travel bag. “You know, I’ve got an extra Net Ball hanging around. Do you want to see if you can catch her? I know you haven’t had your own Pokemon in a while.”
The Luvdisc watched as he handed the blue Pokeball to her. What should she do? Should she go with them and see if the legends were right? Or did she go back to her school and be accepted as a fully mature member?
There was only seconds to decide. | <urn:uuid:f74ad4d2-f563-4a61-93bc-946e0cac9eae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.serebiiforums.com/showthread.php?337927-Pokedex-One-Shots-(PG)&s=369347a35e6273ee142500f66b52635d&p=9440938 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00076-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98973 | 2,857 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Latest update: February 22nd, 2013
The Or Hachaim is telling us that in the generation before the ultimate tikun olam, rectification of all sin and the arrival of Moshiach, we will face the strongest tests and challenges of impurity the world has ever seen. It will be a society consumed by the impurities of the 50th gate. In the final epic battle with the koach hatumah, Klal Yisrael will be come up against spiritual challenges like never before. And after winning these last battles and withstanding the temptations, the redemption will finally arrive.
The Ruzhiner Rebbe, z”tl, is quoted as saying over two centuries ago that in the generation before Moshiach one will have to climb the bare walls to remain a Jew who fears Heaven. We seem to be living in such times. In order to remain a good Jew, we have to climb the walls and separate ourselves as much as we can from general society.
So, these are our challenges. Severe challenges. Is it any wonder then that our generation is not on par spiritually with other generations?
However, we should never beat ourselves up when we experience spiritual downfalls. Rather, the following should be our approach toward failing spiritually.
Shlomo Hamelech tells us (Mishlei 24:16): “Ki sheva yipol tzaddik v’kam – A righteous person falls seven times but he gets up.”
Rav Yitzchok Hutner (in his book of collected letters, no. 128) received a letter from a student who was in a spiritual slump. In Rav Hutner’s reply he explained this verse. It is not a statement of the greatness of a person who is already a tzaddik—that he has the courage to rise up so many times repeatedly even after failures. Rather, it is telling us that by design, a tzaddik is someone who becomes righteous by never giving up, by experiencing the process of falling over and over again but eventually rising to the top. Rav Hutner writes emphatically:
“…A failing many of us suffer from is that when we consider the aspects of perfection of our sages, we focus on the ultimate level of their attainments….while omitting mention of the inner struggles that had previously raged within them. A listener would get the impression that these individuals came out of the hand of their Creator in full-blown form. Everyone is awed at the purity of speech of the Chofetz Chaim, zt”l, considering it a miraculous phenomenon. But who knows of the battles, struggles and obstacles, the slumps and regressions that the Chofetz Chaim encountered in his war with the yetzer hara?”
Allow me to quote from some meaningful lyrics sung by popular contemporary singer and composer, R’ Eytan Katz:
If you have transgressed, Don’t get yourself depressed, Just get up from the floor, That’s what Hashem requests.
The Midrash (Tanna D’Bei Eliyahu Rabbah 1:2) lists certain attributes of Hashem Yisbarach. One of those listed is that Hashem is sameach b’chelko-satisfied with His lot.
The Vilna Gaon explained that this refers to Klal Yisrael. No matter what level we are on, even in generations when we feel spiritually low, He is happy with us. Why? Because we still exist, because we are still observing His Torah, despite all the myriads of challenges and tests with which we are faced. Says the Vilna Gaon, perhaps a particular generation is not as spiritually great as a previous generation if measured by amounts. But we must factor in the level of resistance that a generation needs to traverse.
As we constantly work on ourselves and our ruchniyus, we must gain encouragement by understanding that even if we’re not as great as we may have hoped to be, we’re also not nearly as bad as we think we are and there is much within us to build upon.
We must never fall into the mistake of Shaul, of being “small in our own eyes” which leads to more and more smallness. We have to feel good about who we are in order to achieve anything.
And these are some of the happenings in this week’s haftorah.
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A popular children’s poet casts no spell when he recycles earlier material
The Wizard. By Jack Prelutsky. Illustrated by Brandon Dorman. HarperCollins/Greenwillow, 32 pp., $16.99. Ages 4–8.
By Janice Harayda
The Wizard is the only picture book that a bookstore clerk has ever tried to talk me out buying. I wish I had taken her advice.
You know that how critics say that there’s a curse of the Nobel that keeps writers from doing great work after they become laureates, which Gabriel García Marquez beat with Love in the Time of Cholera? Jack Prelutsky seems to suffer from a similar jinx. Two of his worst books have come out since the Poetry Foundation named him the children’s poet laureate of the U.S., a title unrelated to the honor conferred by the Library of Congress. Early in 2007 Prelutsky served up uninspired sports poems in Good Sports. Now there’s The Wizard, a picture book based on the time-honored literary principle that Maureen Dowd has described as: “Never sell once what you can sell twice.”
The Wizard consists of a brief rhyming poem about sorcery that first appeared in Prelutsky’s 1976 book, Nightmares: Poems to Trouble Your Sleep. A magician who might have been airlifted from Hogwarts to his gray stone tower in a suburbia turns a bullfrog into a flea and the flea in to mice. He then causes other transformations until he brings the frog back with a warning that departs from the iambic tetrameter used elsewhere: “Should you encounter a toad or lizard, / look closely … / it may be the work of the wizard.”
As those strained lines suggest, The Wizard is the kind of weak poem that works best in a collection that includes stronger ones. And it gets no help from the lurid, digitized pictures, long on a shrill lime green with silver glitter on the cover. “It’s so commercial,” protested the bookstore clerk who tried to talk me out of buying it. She was right: If the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders wore green and white instead of blue and white, they might choose the shades in this book.
There’s a place for honest commercialism in children’s literature – for, say good spin-offs television shows – but the illustrations for The Wizard are among the most pretentious I’ve seen in a picture book. Brandon Dorman scatters the pages with objects found in Dutch vanitas paintings — a skull, a clock, flickering candles. In art these are classic symbols of mortality and the flight of time. In this book they are just clichés.
Prelutsky has written many good books of children’s poetry, including Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant, that don’t pander as this one does to the marketplace. But he may have little incentive to do more of them: The Wizard was a No. 1 New York Times bestseller.
Best line / picture: None is a good as a typical line in Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant. But these two lines make clear that four-year-olds can understand iambic tetrameter: “He spies a bullfrog by the door / and, stooping, scoops it off the floor.”
Worst line / picture: The wizard has “a tangled beard that hangs from his skin.” But in nearly all of Dorman’s pictures, the beard is as smooth as satin.
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© 2008 Janice Harayda. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:4caf21a4-ff75-449f-8370-daf7a7e0524e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2008/04/05/jack-prelutsky%E2%80%99s-worst-book-the-magic-is-gone-in-%E2%80%98the-wizard%E2%80%99-illustrated-by-brandon-dorman/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=843d76250c | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950451 | 798 | 1.914063 | 2 |
Thanks to a link on R-bloggers, I was introduced to Luis Apiolaza’s blog, Quantum Forest, which covers data analyses and R comments he encounters in his research as a quantitative forester/geneticist. And he works at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, where I first taught from Bayesian Core in 2006. Which may be why he chose Bayesian Core as one of the three books he is currently reading to understand Bayesian statistics better. (The other two are Jim Albert’s Bayesian computation with R, and Bill Bolstad’s Introduction to Bayesian Statistics, which is not the one I reviewed recently.) Luis has just started the book but he mentions that “the book has managed to capture my interest”, which is real nice, and being annoyed by the self-contained label we put on the back cover. Which is a reaction I also got from some students when teaching the book for a week in Australia, as they thought they could take it without a probability background. Hopefully, we’ll manage to complete our revision before next summer!
Archive for forestry
Yesterday night, we started the Hierarchical Bayesian Methods in Ecology workshop by trading stories. Everyone involved in the programme discussed his/her favourite dataset and corresponding expectations from the course. I found the exchange most interesting, like the one we had two years ago in Gran Paradiso, because of the diversity of approaches to Statistics reflected by the exposition. However, a constant theme is the desire to compare and rank models (this term having different meanings for different students) and the understanding that hierarchical models are a superior way to handle heterogeneity and to gather strength from the whole dataset. A two-day workshop is certainly too short to meet students’ expectations and I hope I will manage to focus on the concepts rather than on the maths and computations…
As each time I come here, the efficiency of BIRS in handling the workshop and making everything smooth and running amazes me. Except for the library, I think it really compares with Oberwolfach in terms of environment and working facilities. (Oberwolfach offers the appeal of seclusion and the Black Forest, while BIRS is providing summits all around plus the range of facility of the Banff Centre and the occasional excitement of a bear crossing the campus or a cougar killing a deer on its outskirt…)
Today I am travelling from Paris to Banff, via Amsterdam and Calgary, to take part in the Hierarchical Bayesian Methods in Ecology two day workshop organised at BIRS by Devin Goodsman (University of Alberta), François Teste (University of Alberta), and myself. I am very excited both by the opportunity to meet young researchers in ecology and forestry, and by the prospect in spending a few days in the Rockies, hopefully with an opportunity to go hiking, scrambling and even climbing. (Plus the purely random crossing of Julien‘s trip in this area!) The slides will be mostly following those of the course I gave in Aosta, while using Introducing Monte Carlo Methods with R for R practicals: | <urn:uuid:ebecc2e8-07fb-464e-84c7-a7940b59af63> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://xianblog.wordpress.com/tag/forestry/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957843 | 638 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Delray's residents wait two years for a street to be cleared of debris
Published: July 27, 2011
That unenviable distinction now belongs to Milwaukee. But don't go cheering yourself hoarse. Detroit isn't far down the list, placing fourth. And, as was reported elsewhere when the data was released, if you look solely at Wayne County instead of the entire region, we're back atop the list as the most segregated place in America.
So there is much work to be done. And the Michigan Roundtable is doing its fair share of the heavy lifting.
Its most current effort to address the problem began back in late 2009 and early 2010, when the group hosted mock trials at area law schools to examine the issue of institutional housing discrimination. Focus was placed on the Federal Housing Administration and its discriminatory practices that were in place for much of the 20th century, from its endorsement of racially restrictive covenants that prevented minorities from buying homes in all-white neighborhoods to the agency's practice of "redlining," or refusing to insure mortgages in certain areas because of their racial makeup.
The purpose of these mock trials, Michigan Roundtable President Tom Costello tells News Hits, was to create a sort of road map. For us to figure a way out of the predicament that we are in, it is necessary to understand how we got here.
That was phase one of a three-tier effort the roundtable has dubbed its "Race to Equity Project."
The second phase, which is just now gearing up, involves the creation of a "Truth and Reconciliation Commission" that will further examine this region's history of housing discrimination and its ongoing effects.
Which brings us to the salient point of this particular Hit: Costello and crew are looking for volunteers to serve on the commission.
As a press release making the announcement points out: "Any resident of the Detroit metropolitan area can nominate any individual to serve as a commissioner. Nominations should be accompanied by a brief statement articulating who the nominee is and why she or he is being nominated. A selection panel will ensure that each nominee completes a full application."
If interested, you are also free to nominate yourself.
Before doing so, however, you need to ask yourself one very significant question: Are you willing to make a substantial commitment?
This isn't some fleeting project. Costello estimates that the commission will spend 18 to 24 months "delving deeply into the history of housing and race in the region and how it impacts those living here today. It will also examine what can be done to create a new regional culture in metro Detroit."
Working with members of the Housing Project Partnership — a group created by the Roundtable that includes the Fair Housing Center of Metro Detroit, MOSES, Fifth Third Bank, Transit Riders Untied, the Thomas M. Cooley Law School, University of Michigan School of Social Work, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Michigan Department of Education, the Michigan Suburbs Alliance and many more — a charter and mandate to guide the commission have been created. But once seated, commissioners will be in charge.
The plan is to select nine commissioners. Costello says the goal is to have the group be as diverse as possible — in terms of age, race, gender, perspective. Nominations will be accepted through Sept. 15. Members of the commission will be impaneled during a two-day conference scheduled to open Nov. 4 at Cobo Center.
Another thing to keep in mind: The goal of all this is to produce concrete results.
"We don't want a laundry list of things," Costello says. "And we don't want suggestions that are Pollyannaish."
"We are looking for nine individuals who are passionate and committed," he adds. The end result, it is hoped, will be a "plan for regional equity" that will help improve "opportunity for people who have been marginalized."
For additional information, visit the group's website at miroundtable.org. You can also contact the Roundtable's Freda G. Sampson at 313-870-1500 or by e-mail at email@example.com.
Editorial intern Aaron Mondry contributed to this week's News Hits, which is written by Curt Guyette. Contact the column at 313-202-8004 or at NewsHits@metrotimes.com.
> Email Curt Guyette | <urn:uuid:5bab991e-ac9b-4444-9bfa-21baca82e71c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://metrotimes.com/news/rubble-rousers-1.1180560?pgno=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960291 | 912 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Remarks at the 2011 B'nai B'rith International Policy Conference
Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism
Good afternoon. I am privileged to have joined this gathering not only as a representative of the United States Government, but also as a friend. I know personally the value of the work you do and I applaud you. As the oldest continually operating Jewish service organization in the world, B’nai B’rith has been a leading human rights organization since its founding in 1843, not only for the Jewish community, but worldwide. As an organization that first became involved in international issues because of the alarming increase of anti-Semitism in Romania in the 1870s, it is fitting that this – the first B’nai B’rith conference to ever be convened in Latin America – would herald those roots by presenting a conference entitled “Defending Israel and the Jewish World”. Regrettably, over 140 years after the founding of B’nai B’rith’s international arm, the Jewish community has the same concerns of rising anti-Semitism that they did in the 1870s. The only difference is that today we are concerned with rising anti-Semitism not only in Europe, but around the entire globe.
In the 21st century we are still facing rising anti-Semitism internationally and the shores of this continent are far from immune. In a recent survey undertaken by the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina, over 50% of the respondents acknowledged that there is discrimination against Jews. In Venezuela, government-affiliated media carry anti-Semitic expressions. And in Chile, Uruguay, and Brazil we have reports of anti-Semitic desecrations and harassment. These incidents tell us that anti-Semitism is not history, it is news. In addition, more than six decades after the end of the Second World War, anti-Semitism remains alive and well, and is evolving into new, contemporary forms of religious hatred, racism, and political, social, and cultural bigotry.
President Obama and Secretary Clinton have honored me with this appointment and have elevated my office and integrated it into the workings of all other parts of the State Department. I have been on the job for two years now – and I have seen six significant trends in anti-Semitism around the world all of which can also be found right here in Latin America:
Traditional forms of anti-Semitism are passed from one generation to the next, and sometimes updated to reflect current events. We are all familiar with hostile acts such as the defacing of property and the desecration of cemeteries with anti-Semitic graffiti. There are still some accusations of blood libel, which are morphing from the centuries-old accusations by the Catholic Church that Jews killed Christian children to use their blood for rituals, to accusations that Jews kidnap children to steal their organs. Conspiracy theories continue to have traction with some groups, such as supposed Jewish control of the U.S. media and the world banking system, or that Jews were involved in executing the September 11 attacks. The old Czarist forgery, “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” can be found in all corners of the world – from parts of the OSCE region to right here in South America.
This ‘old fashioned’ anti-Semitism is alive and well here in South America as well. On a visit to Chile, I saw swastikas spray-painted on university campuses. When I addressed a gathering of Jews from Latin America, Chileans who were present told me they feel uncomfortable wearing kippot and other outward symbols of Judaism. In April 2011, a host on state-run radio in Venezuela urged everyone to buy and read “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” Fortunately by May, that official was fired; a positive outcome.
Argentine Jews have told me that the unresolved 1992 and 1994 bombings of the Israeli Embassy and the AMIA Center and in Buenos Aires remains an open wound among their community. Jewish communities in the region have told me that the close association of some Latin American countries to a virulent anti-Semite and Holocaust denier like President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad leaves them unsettled.
A second phenomenon is Holocaust denial. It is being espoused by religious and political leaders, and is a standard on hateful websites and other media outlets. As the generation of Holocaust survivors and death camp liberators reaches their eighties and nineties, the window is closing on those able to provide live, eyewitness accounts. There is a heightened urgency to promote Holocaust education, create museums and memorials, and carry the memory and lessons of the Holocaust forward. In Ecuador the government is attempting to conquer Holocaust denial head on and to promote tolerance by training educators to teach all public high school students about human rights, the Holocaust, and recent genocides. They should be applauded for this proactive effort.
A third, disturbing trend is Holocaust glorification – Following a March 2011 commemoration in Latvia, a notorious neo-Nazi made blatantly anti-Semitic statements, including incitements to violence against Jews, on a television talk show. Holocaust glorification is especially virulent in Middle East media – some that is state owned and operated - calling for a new Holocaust to finish the job. This is occurring side-by-side with the growth of neo-Nazi groups. Truly bone-chilling.
A fourth concern is Holocaust relativism – where some governments, museums, academic research and the like are conflating the Holocaust with other terrible events that entailed great human suffering, like the Soviet regime. No one, least of all myself, wants to weigh atrocities against each other, but to group together these horrific chapters of history is not only historically inaccurate, it also misses opportunities to learn important lessons from each historic event even as we reflect on universal truths about the need to defend human rights and combat hatred in all of its forms. History must be precise – it must instruct, it must warn, and it must inspire us to learn the particular and universal values as we prepare to mend this fractured world. While we support and defend freedom of speech, when cartoons in the international press depict Israeli Foreign Minister Lieberman with half his face as Adolf Hilter, precision is lost and anti-Semitism is born – and civil society should reject this type of action.
The fifth trend is the increasing tendency of opposition to the policies of the State of Israel to cross the line into anti-Semitism. What I hear from our 194 diplomatic missions around the world, and from our close relationship with NGOs in the US and in other nations, is that this happens easily and often. I want to be clear – criticism of policies of the State of Israel is not anti-Semitism and, as Jews, we have to recognize that. But we record huge increases in anti-Semitic acts whenever there are hostilities in the Middle East. In Argentina, the Delegation of Jewish Argentine Associations attributed a 2009 spike in anti-Semitic acts almost exclusively to the conflict in the Gaza Strip. This form of anti-Semitism is more difficult for many to identify. But if all Jews are held responsible for the decisions of the sovereign State of Israel, when governments like Venezuela make anti-Israel statements that fail to distinguish between criticism of Israel and hostility towards the Jewish community.– this is not objecting to a policy – this is anti-Semitism. When all academics and experts from Israel are effectively banned or their conferences boycotted, or individual Jews are held responsible for Israeli policy – this is not objecting to a policy – this is anti-Semitism.
Our State Department uses Natan Sharansky’s “Three Ds” test for identifying when someone or a government crosses the line from criticizing Israeli policies into anti-Semitism: when Israel is demonized, when Israel is held to different standards than the rest of the countries, and when Israel is delegitimized. The U.S. is often one of the few “no” votes in international bodies where countries seem to have an obsession with singling out Israel for disproportionate condemnation. As leaders of Jewish communities you know that a single “no” vote is insufficient and outreach to other countries is essential.
The sixth trend is the growing nationalistic movements which target ‘the other’ – be they immigrants, or religious and ethnic minorities -- in the name of protecting the identity and ‘purity’ of their nation. When this fear or hatred of the ‘other’ occurs or when people try to find a scapegoat for the instability around them, it is rarely good for the Jews. The history of Europe, with pogroms, Nazism and ethnic cleansing provides sufficient evidence. And when government officials talk about protecting a country’s purity, we’ve seen that movie before.
The State Department monitors these trends and activities and reports on them in all 198 countries and territories – in two major annual reports: The International Religious Freedom report and the Human Rights report. I am now involved in developing a major training initiative for State Department employees so they can better monitor what is happening in their countries, and sensitize them to the various forms of anti-Semitism – this will make our annual reports more comprehensive, and allow us to do an even better job of monitoring and confronting anti-Semitism in all its forms. If we don’t chronicle it, if we don’t name it, we can’t fight it.
Of course, it isn’t enough to study and monitor these deeply troubling trends. It is critical that we act to reverse them. My approach to combating anti-Semitism is not just to preach to the choir, so to speak, but to join in partnership with non-Jews in condemning it – government, civil society, international institutions, business leaders, labor unions, and the media.
Not long ago, Secretary Clinton launched an initiative to strengthen civil society across the globe and she instructed all of us in the State Department and all our overseas posts to treat civil society as strategic partners. Partnering with opinion leaders from civil society as well as government -- as well as building bridges among ethnic and religious groups, is the way to change a culture – from fear and negative stereotyping to acceptance and understanding, from narrow mindedness to an embrace of diversity, from hate to tolerance.
Educating our young is a priority - they are our future; their values and opinions form at a very early age.
No government should produce materials that are intolerant of members of any religious, racial, or ethnic group, or teach such intolerance as part of its educational curriculum. A child is not born with hate. A child is taught to hate. The Department of State continues to focus on this important issue and express our concern to the governments using such hateful lessons and textbooks, calling Jews the children of apes and pigs or promoting the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
The United States through the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement provides training to foreign law enforcement officials, which covers crimes against vulnerable groups, including Jews, because these issues are of prominent concern to the U.S. We use old and new technologies to communicate with the public about human rights, tolerance and democracy. We strongly support the freedoms for all people to express their views, even distasteful ones, both offline and online – but we also work to promote tolerance and to eradicate ignorance. We are enhancing our cultural and educational exchanges to showcase our civil society organizations, and to learn from the successes of other countries in confronting and combating hate in all of its forms.
I want to mention two examples of efforts I am engaged in to combat certain forms of anti-Semitism I have mentioned.
To combat the Holocaust denial, I went with eight leading imams, two of which had been deniers, to Dachau and Auschwitz. My goal was to have them issue a statement condemning Holocaust denial.
When we arrived at Dachau, Germany’s first concentration camp, the imams were overcome with the pictures they saw and immediately went to the ground in prayer, at the sculpture commemorating the six million Jews exterminated. At that moment I knew I was watching history being made. All passers-by, tourists, docents, stopped in their tracks to witness this spontaneous prayer of these leading imams. And when we got to Auschwitz, it was overwhelming for them, and for some transformational. We were walking amidst ash and bone fragments from the 1.5 million Jews exterminated there – solely because of who they were. We were facing the fact that unfettered and unanswered hatred can indeed create an Auschwitz. All the imams had their own catharsis there, and together they produced a statement strongly condemning Holocaust denial and all other forms of anti-Semitism.
They are now urging colleagues and schools to join their statement. Some are planning to take their youth on the same trip, to become witness to history, to teach the power of hatred, and the power that condemnation can have to stop the hatred.
Also, my colleague Farah Pandith, the Special Representative to Muslim Communities, and I have launched a virtual campaign called “2011 Hours Against Hate.” We are asking young people around the world to pledge a number of hours to volunteer to help or serve a population different than their own. We ask them to work with people who may look different, or pray differently or live differently. For example, a young Jew might volunteer time to read books at a Muslim pre-school, or a Russian Orthodox at a Jewish clinic, or a Muslim at a Baha’i food pantry. To walk in another person’s shoes.
We are using Facebook (with such a huge user population, that if it were a country, it would be the third largest in the world,) and other social media to connect the youth globally, and to engage them to go beyond words, speeches, or even lectures – providing a vehicle to DO something to promote tolerance and practice mutual respect.
We began meeting with thousands of young people – students and young professionals – in Turkey, Azerbaijan, Spain, Lebanon, and Jordan – countries that in their histories celebrated Jews and Muslims co-existing and thriving together. They want to DO something. They expressed strong interest in the campaign – and we already have over 16,000 hours pledged. The Olympic Committee is trying to incorporate the Hours Against Hate campaign into the 2012 London Summer Games. And we really have just begun.
So while I fight anti-Semitism, I am also aware that hate is hate. Nothing justifies it – not economic instability, and not international events.
Together, we must confront and combat the many forms of hatred in our world today. Where there is hatred born of ignorance, we must teach and inspire. Where there is hatred born of blindness, we must expose people to a larger world of ideas and reach out, especially to youth, so they can see beyond their immediate circumstances. Where there is hatred whipped up by irresponsible leaders, we must call them out and answer as strongly as we can – and make their message totally unacceptable to all people of conscience.
When history records this chapter I hope it will reflect our efforts to build a peaceful, fair, just, free world where people defend universal human rights and dignity. This is not a vision to be dismissed as kumbaya or naïve idealism – it is a real goal that should never be far from our thoughts. It is a vision that inspired the birth of this organization over 165 years ago.
Since the beginning of humankind, hate has been around, but since then too, good people of all faiths and backgrounds have striven to combat it.
The Jewish tradition tells us that “you are not required to complete the task, but neither are you free to desist from it.” | <urn:uuid:be99e632-e71c-4efb-8422-df3b47e32274> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://m.state.gov/md178448.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960546 | 3,235 | 2.03125 | 2 |
Alexander the Great’s long-lost Greek descendants in Pakistan?
by James Mayfield (Chairman, European Heritage Library)
The Kalash tribe live on the Afghan-Pakistan border between the abstract regions of Nuristan and Chitral, a heavily tribal region both with adherents to the rigid Islam for which the area has become famous as well as traditional tribal religions. The remote territory is often called “Kafiristan” by scholars and locals due to their perceived adultertation of or apostacy from the dominant manifestation of Islam in north Pakistan (“kafir” is the Muslim and Arabic term for infidel). Many locals and scholars consider that the tribes of the region, including the Kalash, are all related as the “Nuristani” ethnic group of Nuristan province (meaning “Land of Light”). The term “Land of Light” likely refers to the ancient title employed by early Aryan, Iranian, and Tajik peoples as being the noble people borne of light. Some have claimed that the Nuristanis — and thus the Kalash — were called “People of Light” because of their adoption of the true of Islam, but this theory is rather fanciful considering that many (including the Kalash) are infidel polytheists. Others point to the historical legacy of Iranian Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism — emphasizing the timeless clash between darkness and light — as the etymology of the Land of Light.
The name of the tribe, Kalash, means “wearers of black,” although they wear an eclectic array of bright and dark colors, especially for festivals. There is common use of cowrie shells on dresses of women, a trait common among ancient or primitive peoples as an expression of wealth or clan affiliation. They are described as the only pagans in Pakistan and the surrounding Hindu Kush, since the Buddhists, Manichaeans, Jewish Khazar merchants, and Hindus had long been displaced or forcibly converted by the jihad of the Ghorid, Ghaznavid, Delhi/Lodi, Timurid, and Mughal sultanates since the 10th century. They have unique cultural professions and rituals of their own, such as winemaking (of course, forbidden or haraam in Islamic jurisprudence), elaborate sewing and textiles, and shoemaking. They have a strange ritual of sending teenage boys into the harsh forest terrain for nearly a year and, if they survive, they can have their way with any number of women during the duration of the ritual. Obviously, this is highly heterodox in comparison with the dominant moral and religious ethos of Pakistan, but it surely is not a notably Greek tradition either. There is little gender segregation unlike their Muslim neighbors, who eat, sleep, pray, and work separately. They have intense funeral and mourning rites in which women dance in circles, sacrifice goats and cattle, feast, and drink. They apparently seldom eat meat, in part derived from the inordinate expense of forfeiting livestock in this wickedly poor and desolate region. Alcohol is integral in their religious life, as it was in the Greek culture and cults of Dionysus as well pre-Islamic Iranian culture. They apparently reject eating or slaughtering chickens, even claiming that introducing poultry into Kalash society would intimate their extinction, and they have criticized Muslims for doing just that. The women wear headdresses, scarves, and veils, and the men often wear headcoverings, kufis (Islamic skullcaps), and Islamic-derived garb. Women remove their headscarves when in mourning, likely to signify emptiness and absence. It seems that, having been divorced from the hegemony suffered by adjacent tribes and equally divorced from their possible Greek roots (if indeed they are Greek), they are now in all respects their own sociocultural identity and heritage. Today numbering less than 4,000 by some estimates, deforestation, overdevelopment, terrorist attacks by Mujahidin against these kafirs, high mortality, and conversion make many presage that this society is close to extinction, and that the strictly Islamic qualities of Pakistan (especially the North West Frontier) stifle their independent cultural and religious survival. The danger that results from being among the only polytheist in a fervently conservative Muslim country like Pakistan perhaps suggests that there are far more Kalash than reported, many having either forgotten or abandoned their roots either with conversion to Islam or assimilation into the dominant social culture.
Classifying the Kalash is difficult because of the region’s legacy of demography exchange and foreign hegemony. Mixing, although uncommon because of the antagonism between the new invaders and their conquered subjects and the very remote geography of the Kalash people, further complicates defining these people as ethnic Greeks. Their blue and green eyes may simply be a result of rare and isolated recessive genes that have been known by geneticists to occur due to isolated genetic parentange and even inbreeding and mutation. Light eyes, sometimes present among Turks and Iranians but seldom among Greeks, are not enough to define them as Greeks or related to any European race. The vast majority of Greeks (even in Greece) tend to have very dark hair, brown or hazel eyes, and olive skin. It is difficult to describe them as being Greek when their genetic features are uncommon in Greece but more common in the local region among Pamirians and Tajiks.
Kalash foundation myths describe their progenitor and founder as a “horned-god” and an equestrian conquerer with demon horns. Alexander was sometimes depicted in writings, imagery, and numismatic evidence to have donned a dual-horned helmet with red tassels (although this is often highly exaggerated). This is significant in tracing their lineage to Alexander and his conquering army. Perhaps their claim of “descent” from Alexander the Great and “his army” originally referred to soldiers conscripted in Alexander’s campaign after his conquests in Iran, regardless of their race. The Kalash may mean that they descend from the political legacy of Alexander’s empire (as most of Eurasia did for many centuries) rather than descending from Alexander’s Greek settlers themselves.
One useful tool that some scholars have emphasized in determining the Greek ancestry of the Kalash is their religion. However, there is no appearance of Greek gods under different names. The location of the Kalash dictates that it could have been imported from other local cultures or merged to form a distinct Kalash tradition that has nothing to do with Greeks. There is firstly a great emphasis on dualism (light/good and darkness/evil) that is surely influenced by the Buddhist, Manichean, and Zoroastrian heritage of the region stretching from Tajikistan to Kashmir under Iranian hegemony. The Kalash apparently divide their worldview into a system of male and female realms, and gendered aspects of reality and life ruled over by gods and goddesses. The Kalash worship nature, animals, and spirits. None of these religious qualities seem to derive from original Greek religion of Alexander. No Zeus, Hera, Apollo, or Athena. No titans and Promethian myths. Of course, the Kalash as possible Greek settlers could easily have invented and adopted their own religion by drawing from eclectic local inspirations. Therefore, religion fails to be a good litmus for determining an Alexandrian and Greek link. The modern religious mysticism of the Kalash may simply be a blend of the Greco-Kushan Buddhist tradition and Zoroastrian/Manichean dualism that evolved into its own new form after the jihad of invading Muslim sultanates abolished Buddhism and destroyed nearly all temples and statues of the Buddha in India. There is much influence from the more core tenets of Hinduism or its Vedic predecessor that came to India in the 2nd millennium BCE via the Aryan invasion. Belief in Indra and emphasis on the bull/cow are present, revealing links with Iranian and Vedic tradition. The Kalash emphasis on fertility rites, nature, statues, and gendered gods is common to the Vedic, Hindu, Mahayana Buddhist, and Manichean traditions that dominated the region throughout history.
It would seem that the Kalash are simply yet another one of many unique and disparate tribes found throughout Central Asia, the Pamirs, and the Kush with what are abstractly described as “European” features. Many of these settled in the region with Alexander’s expansion, many with the Turkic and Hunnic conquest. Many are simply Iranians with recessive eye color genes who spread east via early Persian conquests. Almost certainly, they are not Greek or migrants from Europe, nor are any of the “white” tribes of Central & South Asia, the Pamirs, or the Hindu Kush. Blue eyes and light-brown hair in Tajikistan and the Tarim Basin of China does not translate to European immigration or invasion.
The imaginary Silk Road trade routes stretching from Constantinople to Kashmir and Damascus to Samarqand and China mean that an eclectic array of religions, languages, and small ethnic minorities traversed the vast Asian territory for millennia. Small Greek commercial and colonial communities were known to have settled and traded as far away as Afghanistan and thus the Pamir and Nuristani regions where the Kalash “Greeks” may live. But the dominant Greek cultural, political, religious, and linguistic legacy in the region only began with the world-conquerering campaigns of Alexander the Great.
In the 4th century BCE, Alexander the Great led the Greeks and Macedonians against Achemenid Persia, obliterating the Shah Darrius’ armies at Gaugamela before he was assassinated by his own satrap Bessus. By conquering Persia — the largest empire the world had ever known — Alexander subdued a realm including Egypt, the Levant (Arabia), Iran, Iraq, the Caucasus, Anatolia, Greece proper, Afghanistan, most of Central Asia (Sogdiana), and half of Pakistan to the Indus River before his armies were brutally repelled at India. After he died of debated causes, his empire immediately collapsed into independent warring monarchies dominated by ethnic Greek sovereigns who officially promoted the Greek language, culture, settlement, Greek education, and religion. The largest in Asia was the Seleucid kingdom. In 260BCE, the Seleucid satrap (governor) Diodotus broke off in Afghanistan to create the foundations of a resplendent Bactrian kingdom which would later become a focal point of the transmission of Buddhism to the world. Whilst the rest of the Alexandrian Greek successor states in east Asia would fall to the Iranian Parthians and other invading tribes, Greek Bactria (Afghanistan) would endure as an evident Greek legacy for centuries. Even after the remaining Greek monarchy had been destroyed and absorbed into the empire of the possibly blue-eyed and red-haired Buddhist Tocharians, the native Irano-Bactrian language of the succeeding Buddhist kings was written in the Greek alphabet. Foreign ethnic Greek travelers were able to communicate in Greek as late as 44AD and get a Greek-based education, 190 years after the ethnic Greek hegemonic minority ruling caste had been dismantled. The Greek cultural and religious legacy endured for centuries before being subsumed under the conquests of other cultures, especially the Parthian Iranians, eastern Huns (Hepthalites), and the Guptas.
There is no proof that the Kalash tribe analyzed in this article is in any way connected with this transmission of Greek culture and genetics. They were surely incorporated into the legacy of Alexander’s Greek conquests as the whole region was. Therefore, the Kalash’s myths of the horned-god Alexander most certainly means that the Kalash simply passed down oral tales of Alexander’s conquests in the region rather than implying any genetic connection to the Greeks or Europeans. It must also be remembered that much of his army, especially in Asia, was not Greek or European at all, but consisted of Iranian and other minorities. | <urn:uuid:3d6b1b87-5312-4076-b586-b4b79337dc1e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://missspite.tumblr.com/post/32790707021/deathsyndrome-alexander-the-greats | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961753 | 2,494 | 3.890625 | 4 |
If there is one thing I have learned about robots, it is that there is absolutely no pattern to them. Most robots are stupid and wander Randomly. For example, 50% of robot hits to my sites, ask for the robots.txt page and then go away never asking for anything else. Then they come back a week later, ask for the same thing and then go away, again. This happens over and over again for months. I have never figured it out. What are they doing? If they wanted to see if the website was really a web site, they could just Ping it. This would be much faster and much more efficient. They seldom visit another page and if they do, they ask for one other page every visit or so. Some come in and issue rapid-fire requests for every page in the website. How rude! You have to quit worrying so much about robots. It takes 6 months before they request enough pages to do you any good. I really quit thinking about them a long time ago. Build a lot of pages correctly and, if you have reciprocal links to them, the robots will find them someday.
Try this: Go to AltaVista and type into the search box link:YourSite.com (Leave off the www). This will list the reciprocal links to your web site. Try link:crownjewels.com and you get 136 links to it. Think about this now: The robots say to themselves, "Here is a site that must be popular or why would so many websites SIMILAR to it have it's link on their pages?" Remember that only SIMILAR sites with SIMILAR THEMES would probably have a link to your site. They give more importance to this than you submitting your link to them. Wouldn't you?
Go to heavily trafficked sites matching your web site's Themes and use AltaVista to find out how many reciprocal links they have. This will prove to you I am right.
Search engines are nothing more than reciprocal links to your site. The problem is, you are constantly having to fight for your positioning in the search query listings. Forget about that. Leave the fighting to people who are able to spend 24 hours a day trying to trick everybody. Quit trying to compete with the large organizations pouring millions into their marketing. Completely forget about Search Engines after submitting to them and go after the reciprocal links. The Search Engines will then believe you are a heavily visited site because you will be. You will now be getting the traffic you so richly deserve.
Search engine visitors to your site, are often-times not qualified visitors. Too many visitors pop into your home page for 2 seconds and then leave. You know how it is. We all do it when we are using the search engines. Either it wasn't the information we were looking for, or they had this huge graphic on this stupid portal page, which just took forever to load. These visitors shouldn't even count, but they get counted as 12-18 hits in your server logs. Hits are requests to the server. One page request can incur a lot of hits: requests to the page itself plus the graphics, each count as a hit.
Reciprocal links bring in qualified visitors. These are visitors who were already on a web site which had matching Themes to yours. They already have a good idea of what type of site you are. They will come into your site and actually stay awhile. These visitors should count as double credit, they are so good.
I know which type of visitor I would rather have.
How do you get people to WANT to put your link on their web sites? Why would a similar site put a link to your site on theirs? Simple, you have similar Themes. You are similar, but not competition.
There is one very important lesson to be learned from this crazy robot behavior. You need to make the navigation in your web site so easy that a visitor can find any page within 2 clicks of your home page. One way of doing this is installing hidden DotLinks. Dotlinks are little periods that are linked to other pages which are not really noticeable on your page if you put it as a period. Although they are not easily seen by the human eye, they are a link that a robot can follow] in your web site. When you do this, robots can find your pages faster and more easily.
Giving the Robots What They Want
So how do you make the search engine robots give your site a better rating than all the other millions of websites trying to do the same thing? Simple, give them what they want. You can't trick them or make them think that you are better than you are. Think about a visit from the eyes of a robot. He finds a site, usually from links embedded in web pages, then loads the text from the first page.
He looks for the META tags and pulls out the keywords and description. If not there he takes the first 200 or so characters of text and uses them as a description.
The Title is extracted.
He extracts the pure text from the page (strips out the HTML coding). He takes out the common words leaving what he feels may be keywords. (Most do not do this last step.)
He now extracts the hyperlinks collating them into those that belong to this website and those that don't (He visits these later as this is how he finds new websites).
He may do the same with the email addresses.
He goes on to the next page and so on until he has visited all of the pages in your web site.
Now he stores all of this information.
He now knows how many pages you have, how many 'outside hyperlinks in your site', and can give your site a score based on how it is set up. These are the basics.
What do they do with the info? When someone comes to search a phrase or keyword, another search routine program takes over using the information the robot found. A person types in the keywords and the search program returns the 256,000 pages matching their keywords. BUT they also consider the following: How old is the website or how long has the engine known about it? How large is the website? Was it properly constructed? How many hyperlinks are there to outside websites?
VERY IMPORTANT! How many hyperlinks are located on other websites to this site. The older and better the website the more links to it.
These robots know when you are cheating. You can't trick them. It is so simple for the robot developer to incorporate code to negate the tricks. What about scoring keywords only once or twice per page or area like meta, title, etc? Is this page close in size to all the other portal pages? How many web pages in the same directory have the word "index" in them? Does this site have a lot of content? Is any text the same color as the background? Are there links to outside sites? Each page can be checked and compared against what the robot feels is a statistically normal page. These are computers you know.
You need a lot of pages with normal content. Instead of spending the time to make fake pages, give the real ones content. This will also give your visitors something to come back to. CONTENT.
Content has been reprinted with permission of the author.
First appeared in http://www.cyber-robotics.com
1999-2000 David Notestine, all rights remain with author.
Visit our Sign Shop | <urn:uuid:f77f7398-0b93-4f63-9456-1812f94a416f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.signmakershop.com/ppc/links/Articles/The_Truth_About_Search_engines_-_Part_2.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960742 | 1,543 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Well, I must say, I'm just gob smacked!
So, what does this mean? Can Byzantine Catholics commune at Orthodox celebrations of the Divine Liturgy? Can Orthodox commune with Catholics?
Has His All-Holiness simply declared victory?
06/19/2008 Munich (RISU) —In a recent interview with the German ecumenical journal Cyril and Methodius, the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church in Constantinople Bartholomew I invited Eastern Catholic Churches to return to Orthodoxy without breaking unity with Rome. He noted that "the Constantinople Mother-Church keeps the door open for all its sons and daughters." According to the Orthodox hierarch, the form of coexistence of the Byzantine Church and the Roman Church in the 1st century of Christianity should be used as a model of unity. This story was posted by KATH.net on 16 June 2008.
At the same time, the patriarch made positive remarks about the idea of "dual unity" proposed by the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Archbishop Lubomyr Husar). Patriarch Bartholomew I noted in particular that this model would help to overcome the schism between the Churches.
H/T: Josephus Flavius at Byzantine Texas whose own comments are worth repeating here:
I'm rather at a loss for what to say. The Orthodox response to this should be critical and swift. The "points of communion" idea has been mentioned as the article states by the UGCC, but also by the Melkites and Antiochian Orthodox. It was rejected on the ground that all or nothing is a less complicated and more theologically reasoned approach. Understanding that the Orthodox Church does not often speak una voce on the matter of ecumenical efforts could this in fact be the step-by-step methodology that will lead to reunion? I am in favor, but I am sure many are not (some vociferously so).
Unless noted other wise , everything posted here is © 2008 Gregory R Jensen. Print this post | <urn:uuid:d7e0e515-9d87-46c4-9dea-9a0ac55d18fd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://palamas.blogspot.com/2008/06/patriarch-of-constantinople-proposes.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961221 | 412 | 1.5625 | 2 |
In my opinion, the most important thing that drives this world is ‘feeling of importance’. I agree with you if you say that the world is people and people create and control things. This is absolutely right. But then, why does some one has to create, invent, or do something good or bad? A person gets his feeling of importance from doing that ’something’.
There is another interesting point here. Some people get their feeling of importance by doing nothing and by totally controlling their physical and mental needs. These people get their feeling of importance by demonstrating that they could live their lives happily even after sacrificing most of the physical things in this world.
Everyone in this world will be happy if everyone understands that everyone will have to have his or her feeling of importance. What will you say? | <urn:uuid:4330b5e1-c275-43fb-b051-dd6b20f22a6d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nandyala.org/?m=200505 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980188 | 167 | 1.960938 | 2 |
Popular Online Drawing Tools Posted by Mohideen under Web Design From http://www.techclickr.com 177 days ago Popular online drawing tools are used for designing art and photo layouts. These drawing tools are supporting lot of features which render the art prepared to an exquisite form and of a fairly high degree of quality. Tweet Visit Original Source Link Discuss Favorite Bury 3 Vote Who Voted Related Links Tell a Friend Mohideen shkhanal crunchyhub This story has no related links! You must login to tell this story to your friend(s). No account yet? Join now, it's simple and of course free! You must login to share this story to a group. No account yet? Join now, it's simple and of course free! | <urn:uuid:6c24b407-470b-421b-8e70-019e3daea0f3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.blokube.com/design/popular-online-drawing-tools/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913126 | 155 | 1.757813 | 2 |
It turns out Steve Jobs wasn't exaggerating all that much when he said it can take three years to get a cell tower approved in San Francisco.
Since the day Apple sold its first iPhone, AT&T, the exclusive American iPhone carrier, has been under fire for its spotty network coverage, particularly in San Francisco (but New Yorkers are also prone to iPhone reception beefing). The complaints got louder with the 3G phone and hardly abated with the release of iPhone 4.
A seemingly exasperated Jobs addressed the problem in a July 16 press conference. "When AT&T wants to add a cell tower in, oh, Texas or somewhere, it takes three weeks to get approval in a typical community. To get a cell phone tower in San Francisco, it takes something like three years," he said at the press event to discuss the iPhone 4's antenna issues two weeks ago.
AT&T has acknowledged shortcomings but only to say that it's spending a lot of money to increase its 3G coverage. The company said at the end of last year that it had spent $65 million from 2008 through the third quarter of 2009 on upgrading its 3G network in the San Francisco Bay Area. What AT&T hasn't said is why it's taken so long for iPhone users to see a noticeable change in their coverage quality.
So we decided to find out what the holdup is in CNET's hometown of San Francisco and why exactly some of our editors can't get reliable AT&T service in their living rooms. Other cities can be tricky, but ours can be uniquely difficult. Government red tape, tricky terrain, a heavy concentration of smartphone users, and yes, those NIMBY (not in my backyard) types all conspire to make the City by the Bay one tough place to improve cellular service.
City records for the past few years show that applications to build new wireless telecommunication stations (the city's term for cell sites) can take a few months or up to two years or longer before a final action, such as approval to build a new panel antenna is handed down by city officials.
And this drawn-out process is well-known in the industry. "San Francisco has one of the most complicated, burdensome, arcane processes in the country, without question," said Patrick Ryan, adjunct professor of telecommunications policy at University of Colorado, Boulder.
Ryan has worked with cities of all sizes on upgrading and building wireless networks, and he says San Francisco stands out because of the many hoops that carriers have to jump through to get even small panel antennas installed, much less giant cell towers.
Panel antennas--which measure about one foot by four feet and about 8 or 9 inches thick--are the only practical option wireless carriers have to bulk up their coverage in the city and county of San Francisco. The city does not allow cell towers to be built because the local government considers them an eyesore. So the best option for AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, and others is to build panel antennas onto existing structures--the penthouse of a tall building, the steeple of a church, a utility pole--typically in clumps of three to 12.
The neverending upgrade
Carriers have seen a dramatic rise in the amount of data flowing over their cellular networks in the past few years. That's mostly thanks to consumers' eager embrace of smartphones. More than 54 million smartphones were sold in the first three months of 2010 alone, according to research firm Gartner, accounting for an almost 50 percent jump from the same time period a year earlier.
And while people are doing more mobile e-mail checking and app downloading, they're also cutting the cord on landline phones. Landline usage has dropped 19 percent between 2000 and 2008, according to data compiled by the FCC. If people are not talking on landlines, then they are switching to VoIP or cell service.
All of that adds up to be a constant strain on 3G networks. So even though the city of San Francisco already has 709 cell sites, carriers have to continuously add more antennas to deal with the load.
The network is "never done," said James Peterson, deputy vice president of public affairs for AT&T in California. "We're continuously growing, adding, enhancing. That has to do with customers' usage--traffic on our data network has increased by a factor of five."
"In the Bay Area we have a heavy concentration of smartphone users, which is terrific," he said. "But that's not without its challenges. People used to talk on their phone and maybe check a stock or sports score. Now they're streaming video, full-length feature films."
The checklist just to have a complete application to build a cell antenna in a residential or non-industrial area and file it with the city's planning commission is fairly complicated. The fire department, public health department, building inspection, and in some cases, the city's Historic Commission, have to sign off.
And if the proposed group of antennas is in residential or non-industrial areas, the city's planning commission has "discretion," which means it gets to weigh a couple of factors before voting on whether it can be installed. The city's main concern about antennas? Aesthetics.
"We ask (carriers) to facade-mount them so they blend into the existing environment, on a building, on its parapet," said Jonas Ionin, a senior planner for the city of San Francisco.
The city wants antennas to be "not visible to the naked eye," he said. If city planners spot a potential problem with the proposed placement of an antenna, they will ask the carrier to make specific changes before they can proceed.
"And then the application sits until they have satisfied that," Ionin said. "If we have concerns with height of an antenna or location of proposed placement, we'll write a letter or call."
The process can drag out for a months or years, though the city says its goal is to move applications for antennas or any new wireless telecommunications facility fairly quickly. Looking at applications for conditional use permits to build panel antennas in San Francisco over the past three years shows some applications granted and processed in as little as five months--for example, NSA Wireless applied to add new antennas to a site in September of 2009 and was approved by February 2010.
But others have taken more than two years. An application was filed to install new antennas for Metro PCS's network on top of a Best Western hotel in the Japantown neighborhood in January 2008. The city didn't grant the conditional use permit until February 2010, San Francisco city records show.
Verizon applied in November 2006 to get three panel antennas installed on a mixed-use building in the West Portal neighborhood by disguising one as a faux vent and another on a chimney, along with a cabinet with cellular radio equipment behind the building. The application wasn't approved until May 2009.
Two and half years is not the norm, but it's also not that unusual, according to AT&T and others familiar with building networks in San Francisco. The city itself says it wants to move applications much quicker that that. "We strive for 90 days," Ionin of the planning department said.
Cities like San Francisco do have some motivation to move application for new cell sites quickly. The FCC decided late last year that for a new antenna to be installed on an existing structure, a "reasonable" time frame for a municipality to process and approve or deny a carrier's request is three months.
But because often carriers' applications are not complete--there are many documents, plans, and photos required--the reality, especially in San Francisco, is much longer than that.
San Francisco stands out in that regard compared with cities of similar size and smartphone adoption. In the city of New York, there are various agencies that require approval, like San Francisco, said Ryan of CU Boulder.
"Yet most (cell antenna) attachments to buildings don't require anywhere near the level of discretion and scrutiny required in San Francisco," he said. "Even in California, a very complex permit (granting) environment, most other larger cities don't have processes that are nearly as arcane or complicated as San Francisco."
It's 'not magic'
And it's not just that the city is overly thorough or picky about blocking sight lines. Sometimes it's the residents--the very people who are ostensibly using cellular networks.
Sometimes carriers will remove their application on their own when they run into too much community opposition, or when the process drags on and drags up the cost, planner Ionin said.
A recent example is T-Mobile's attempt to put a new antenna on the steeple of a church in the Mission District to fix what the carrier termed "an identifiable gap in coverage." But after just a few months of applying for the city permit, T-Mobile yanked its application in June because of fierce opposition from the church's neighbors. According to a letter from the carrier to the planning commission, T-Mobile did so in order "to promote harmonious relations and engender community goodwill."
Peterson of AT&T has seen similar uproar over some proposed cell antenna installations and meets with community members when they voice concerns over a new antenna site.
"What's the irony, I suppose, is that if you ask people in a room to raise their hand if they have a cell phone, really almost everyone including the people that are opposing it have one," Peterson said.
He says educating people is AT&T's goal so people know why new antennas need to be installed. A cell phone network is "not magic," he said. "It requires infrastructure, just like traffic signals require infrastructure."
Ryan believes San Francisco officials aren't being difficult on purpose but are trying to respond to its constituents' wishes. "I don't think there's anything nefarious about anything," he said. "The city has difficult policy choices to make. They want to keep it a beautiful place, but there's a tension between wanting to improve coverage, and doing it in a way that makes sense." | <urn:uuid:881468fb-6802-4062-88ff-86e9cc94d0b2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-20011857-260.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967142 | 2,071 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
The Ethiopean Amber
Image courtesy PNAS/ Matthias Svojtka
This is really neat: the American Museum of Natural History reports the discovery of a nice chunk of Cretaceous amber from Ethiopia. While pieces of the translucent golden fossilized tree resin are well known from other parts of the world, this is the first significant piece from Cretaceous Africa. It dates to about 95 million years old, at which point Africa was an island continent separated from South America by a narrow sea. The discovery is presented in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Resin is the sticky stuff that gets all over my hands when I gather fallen pine limbs for backyard campfires. You're probably familiar with its ability to trap insects and other organic material; it played a key role in that Spielberg movie. You know the one. It was an adaptation of a novel. Not Minority Report.
Chemical analysis reveals that the resin may be derived from a flowering tree, or angiosperm, similar to members of a living group related to legumes. The Cretaceous was the period when angiosperms really diversified, and many of the lines that wound up producing today's familiar flowers, trees, and fruits and vegetables popped up. If this resin was from such a tree, it would be great, but it may alternatively be from a previously unknown kind of conifer. Such a dense piece of an ancient ecosystem contains a wealth of information, so it is being examined by scientists from more than a dozen institutions around the world. So far, they've turned up 30 insects and spiders, as well as plant material, fungi, and bacteria. It's like sending a robotic probe back in time and having it bring back a terrarium's worth of critters to study.
As pretty as it is, this hunk of fossil resin probably won't make as big of a splash as, say, a big theropod. But what it reveals about the ecosystem in which the dinosaurs of ancient Ethopia lived is arguably of much greater value than the skeleton of one creature. While big dinosaurs amp up the imagination like a shot of adrenaline, pondering the complicated interactions of every member of the ecosystem gives a more sustained rush, a point Scott Sampson makes very nicely in Dinosaur Odyssey. It used to be common to plop dinosaurs into Mordor-like wastelands of fuming volcanos, maybe throwing the odd palm tree into the background. Thanks to discoveries like this, that lazy old image is just about dead. | <urn:uuid:c2a1bd43-7b72-486a-9c89-c14693b19fb7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://chasmosaurs.blogspot.com/2010/04/ethiopean-amber.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946716 | 526 | 3.09375 | 3 |
By CHRIS DUNCAN
AP Sports Writer
HOUSTON — Royce White may never make it in the NBA.
The Houston Rockets’ first-round draft pick might drift into anonymity as a role player, someone more familiar on the bench than on the court.
Yet no matter what path his career takes, he’s already built a legacy — as a fierce, outspoken advocate for the mentally ill and their legal rights in the workplace. In his case, that workplace is the highest level of professional basketball in the world.
White has general anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder and he’s finally back on the court after refusing to play for 2 1/2 months until he got special additions, or protocols, put in his contract to help him cope with his condition. The basis for White’s stand was the Americans with Disabilities Act, the federal law that requires employers to provide “reasonable accommodations” to employees with a physical or mental impairment.
White’s often contentious and very public dispute with his team culminated in late January with a unique (cut ‘written’) agreement that addresses White’s issues. White joined the Rockets’ developmental league affiliate two weeks ago to resume the career that got him all the attention in the first place.
“It was tough not being able to play,” White said, “but it was necessary.”
Lawyers say White’s campaign raises intriguing questions about how the ADA addresses mental illness in professional sports, and may provide a road map for other athletes to follow. Psychiatrists say White’s openness about his disorder has already helped lift the stigma of mental illness and may embolden other athletes to publicly acknowledge their afflictions.
In itself, an athlete dealing with mental illness is not a recent development.
Outfielder Jimmy Piersall famously coped with bipolar disorder in the 1950s, spending seven weeks in a mental hospital at one point. He returned to baseball, was twice named to the All-Star team and played in the majors until the late 1960s. Pitcher Zack Greinke almost quit baseball because of his social anxiety disorder, but learned to control it and was named the AL Cy Young award winner in 2009. Chicago Bears receiver Brandon Marshall has been named to four Pro Bowls despite an acknowledged borderline personality disorder. Retired NFL running back Ricky Williams won the Heisman Trophy at Texas and played 11 NFL seasons while dealing with social anxiety disorder.
The Rockets knew what they were getting when they selected White out of Iowa State with the 16th overall pick. White freely acknowledged his condition and issues in pre-draft interviews, including a fear of flying that triggered panic attacks. When he flew — or anticipated flying on the ride to the airport — his heart rate would speed up, he’d feel tingling in his extremities and he’d break into cold sweats.
After he was drafted, he flew to Las Vegas for the team’s summer-league games and to a rookie orientation in New York. As training camp approached, though, White began to have reservations about handling the demands of the NBA schedule. And it wasn’t just the intimidating itinerary of flights required during an NBA season. It was what White thought might happen if he didn’t address it promptly.
“If I’m stressed out, if I have an anxiety disorder that gets out of control,” he said in an interview in October, “how dangerous am I? So tackling it from the front is important. That’s what I kind of did, to take care of my own health first.”
He sat out the first week of training camp after asking for the special protocols, including permission to travel by bus on road trips. He also wanted an independent physician to have the final say about when he could play.
White argued that his mental illness was no different than a physical injury, and the law sees it the same way. But Alex Long, a University of Tennessee law professor who teaches disability law, said making “reasonable accommodations” for someone with a mental disorder is more challenging than providing for someone with a physical disability.
“In theory, the law treats both of those impairments the same way,” Long said. “If I’m in a wheelchair, it’s fairly easy for an employer to make modifications to the workplace. They can put in a ramp, they can widen the aisles or something like that.
“Mental impairments and what the employees are usually asking for, are basically changes to the rules and the normal ways of doing things,” Long said. “Those are the kinds of things that employers are particularly resistant to changing.”
The Rockets let White use a recreational vehicle and referred him to a prominent psychiatrist in Houston. Still, White left the team on Nov. 12 and called the team “inconsistent with their agreement to proactively create a healthy and successful relationship.”
The negotiations began again.
Marty Orlick, a San Francisco-based attorney who’s represented corporate clients in ADA cases, said the Rockets were obligated to provide accommodations, but didn’t have to allow an outside physician to determine White’s playing status. Orlick said White’s case could have “really significant” legal ramifications, even though it never ended up in a courtroom.
“Athletes should be treated the same way that any employee in any company should be treated,” Orlick said. “The fact they are high-profile celebrities, they’re still entitled to all the (ADA) protections.”
NBA Commissioner David Stern, in Houston last week for All-Star Weekend, said he was glad that White and the Rockets had reached an agreement, but said the publicity White generated — mostly via his Twitter account — probably delayed a resolution.
“We tend to deal with it in a quieter fashion than this one played out, as you might imagine,” Stern said.
One of White’s core arguments was that the NBA had no mental-health protocol and needs to draft one. Stern says the league has been handling situations involving the mental health of its players for years.
“The only thing that I sort of disagree with is that, when someone says, ‘Oh, this will be the first time that we’ve dealt with this situation,’” Stern said. “Of course it’s not.”
Three decades ago, the NBA did create an action plan when several players fell into illicit-drug use and addiction. In 1983, with Stern then working as the league’s executive vice president, the NBA and the players’ union crafted a policy that provides treatment and rehabilitation for players with substance-abuse issues.
Former NBA player John Lucas was right in the middle of what he calls the league’s “drug epidemic” with his own alcohol and cocaine abuse. He was one of the first players to acknowledge his addictions and turn to the NBA’s policy for help.
Like White, Lucas was a first-round pick by the Rockets. He now praises the NBA’s policy, considered revolutionary at the time.
“Back then, nobody knew what to do with me,” Lucas said. “Look where we’ve progressed. We don’t have those issues today.”
Lucas runs a well-known Houston-based program that provides substance-abuse counseling for athletes. He says he sees more players with mental illness than he did 10 or 20 years ago, and their symptoms are often minimized or untreated altogether.
“People don’t know what they’re dealing with, and it’s often just misdiagnosed as ADD (attention deficit disorder),” Lucas said. “Sometimes, other issues come up, and what happens then? The player is even more hesitant to come forward about it.”
Lucas already sees White’s agreement with the Rockets as “progress” for the league.
“Nobody knows how this is going to work,” Lucas said. “What has had to happen here is both sides had to find an approach that works. But in his case, if this is going to be your profession, then you have to find some solutions. And you can’t know what’s going to work until you try them.
“If anything, it’s made people aware of (mental illness),” Lucas said. “NBA players, we have lifelong issues, too. We’re no different than any other bozos on the bus. We just happen to play sports.”
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, about 26.2 percent of American adults meet criteria for a diagnosable mental disorder each year and, of those, about 18 percent have an anxiety disorder.
The Rockets haven’t commented publicly on White’s situation beyond written statements. Fans of the team are frustrated, believing that Houston wasted a first-round pick on a player who came with too much baggage.
But White also gets regular responses from Twitter followers who call him a hero and inspiration. Some admit they’re dealing with anxiety and other mental-health issues as well, and White is quick to respond, using hash tags like (hash)AnxietyTroopers and (hash)BeWell as personal signatures.
Toni Baum, a sports psychiatrist who has a private practice near Washington, D.C., and specializes in the treatment of athletes, said White’s openness is a pivotal step in lifting the stigma of mental illness in sports.
“It is something that, for them, amounts to a risk,” he said. “But what motivates them, I think, is they’re amazed by the help they’re able to get, once they put their story out there. Once they become convinced of that, I think they feel moved to share it with teammates and other people out there who might be suffering.”
Whether his basketball career ever pans out, White feels like he’s already made an impact on the cause that matters to him most.
“I think it’s all been real positive,” said White, who is currently assigned to the Rio Grande Valley Vipers in the NBA D-League. “I feel blessed and honored to be part of what has taken place the last two months, despite how tumultuous it might have seemed. It was a very progressive kind of thing and it needed to be done. And I appreciate the Rockets and the NBA being patient with such a new topic like mental health and now I’m moving forward.
“This isn’t the end or the beginning,” he said, “it’s just another piece and we’ll just try to do the best we can with it.” | <urn:uuid:bb392582-05d9-4396-b182-1eff0daca463> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hawaiitribune-herald.com/sections/sports/procollege/royce-white-trailblazer-mentally-ill.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972353 | 2,302 | 1.609375 | 2 |
This is a CD containing performances of great musicality. Ensemble Pan (or perhaps P.A.N. for Project Ars Nova referring to the fourteenth century polyphonic style, Ars Nova, as well as the mercurial mythological musical figure, Pan) has only half a dozen or so CDs to its credit. This one offers 16 short madrigals from fourteenth century Italy. It should add considerably to the group's standing and ought to be snapped up by all lovers of early vocal music and poetry. The performances are focused, full of humanity, expression and a blend of technical excellence and exuberant articulation.
Founded in the early 1980s at the Schola Cantorum in Basel (Switzerland) by Americans Laurie Monahan (mezzo soprano), Michael Collver (countertenor, corno muto), and Crawford Young (lute), it was joined in 1984 by Shira Kammen (bowed strings) and John Fleagle (tenor, medieval harp). Widespread recognition for the Ensemble first came at the Boston Early Music Festival three years later. These performances (which last barely three quarters of an hour) were actually recorded (by Deutsche Harmonia Mundi) in 1985; this CD is from 2010, though, and features Sterling Jones ("fidel", or vielle and rebec, organetto, lute) as well as Monahan, Collver and Young.
Madrigals from this period are highly distilled and intense works of art. Melody, tonality and phrasing are intricately conceived and meticulously crafted to communicate the passions of the texts. Ensemble PAN brings out every such nuance and stroke as faithfully as the current state of musicology knows how and as living performers should. They respect the music as it is, despite the fact that we know so little of Jacopo da Bologna (c.1340 - c.1386).
He came from Padua in northern Italy, a university town and center of artistic innovation, da Bologna flourished in the decades either side of 1350. Several of the madrigals here either refer to or allude more obliquely to Jacopo's life, events in his world and people active – in court circles, for example – during the long (and calamitous) fourteenth century in northern Italy. Actual connections (of conspirators and unfaithful seductresses to the texts in Lo lume vostro [tr.11] and Posando sopra un'acqua [tr.15]) remain conjecture, however plausible.
The approach which Ensemble PAN takes is one of treating the music, for all the clarity and directness of most of the equally mellifluous Italian poetry, as self-standing. Emotions are emotions, regardless of their origins. At the same time, there's a consistency, an informed steadiness to the singing and playing (the sequencing is well worked out and adds to our sense of the music's freshness), which serves to convey the passion of poet and composer.
Jacopo has a broader palette of emotive techniques, though: some of his refrains are downright sarcastic. "Plainer" humor is clearly important too. Ultimately, though, it's the singular thrust of texts celebrating the necessarily very human responses to events, trends, religious imperatives and equally human amorous stimuli which inspire Jacopo the most. The members of Ensemble PAN both have those responses to him; and at the same time perform in such a way that they're standing back from such reactions and are observing them emphatically and deliberately for and with us, listeners almost 650 years later.
This recording was made in the Musikakademie in Basel, which has an intimate acoustic well suited to the close, which is not to say closed, hue of these madrigals. It also aids the sense of transparency which Ensemble PAN obviously prizes. The booklet contains brief notes and the texts in Italian and Latin with German only translations. If this repertoire is even of passing interest to you, this is a CD to treasure. If you actively seek out madrigals and texts set in the Ars Nova style and/or the compositions of Jacopo da Bologna, it's a must.
Copyright © 2010 by Mark Sealey. | <urn:uuid:867b3894-e92a-430f-a7a7-b2cd3b21b129> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.classical.net/~music/recs/reviews/a/arm32306a.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962386 | 887 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Medical Marijuana: Good? Bad? You Decide.Bottom Highlights, Feature Story Thursday, April 28th, 2011
Three experts share their views on San Diego’s new ordinance
San Diego City Councilman, District 3
I support the use of marijuana for medical purposes. As someone who understands the critical importance of this medicine for many people, I felt it necessary to challenge the notion, held by many, that there is no place in our city for medical marijuana consumer cooperatives. California voters approved the Comp-assionate Use Act in 1996, and in the 15 years since its passage, I have been frustrated by the lack of conclusive legal direction on its implementation.
While state law permits patients to possess and use marijuana, federal law still considers it an illegal drug. This conflict between state and federal law and the lack of local rules on the topic have been challenging at least and detrimental to safe access at worst.
For San Diego, this meant marijuana outlets were raided by federal authorities and some faced enforcement actions by the City’s Neighborhood Code Compliance Department because their use was not addressed in city zoning policies.
San Diego recognized the need to address the zoning challenges being faced by medical marijuana consumer cooperatives. We were not alone. At the same time, municipalities across the state were using their land use codes to place moratoriums and to ban the cooperatives outright. Obviously, this resulted in a complete lack of safe access for legitimate patients in those areas. I knew we could do better for the patients in San Diego.
I felt it critical that we pass an ordinance to give guidance and clarity to operators and patients of cooperatives, as well as to communities and city regulators. The ordinances considered by the city council this spring reflected the input of the Medical Marijuana Task Force and the multiple public hearings with both the Land Use and Housing Committee and the Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee. It became clear through this process that concerns of some collective operators and patients differed significantly from some neighbors in various San Diego communities.
The ordinances that resulted from this long public process tried to strike a fair balance for all stakeholders. Along with many members of the public who testified before the city council and along with the city’s Code Monitoring Team, Community Planners Committee and some Planning Commissioners, I found elements of the ordinances excessively and unnecessarily restrictive. Thankfully, I was able to secure some common-sense amendments that strengthened the policy.
Instead of the proposed 1,000 feet separation requirement between medical marijuana cooperatives and uses such as schools, playgrounds, parks, libraries, churches, child care facilities and other youth-serving establishments, I secured a decreased distance restriction of 600 feet, making it consistent with regulations for businesses selling alcohol for consumption off-site. My colleagues also supported my recommendation that cooperatives be approved through a Process 3 Conditional Use Permit instead of the proposed Process 4, removing the potential to politicize an application to site a cooperative. These are reasonable recommendations that place medical marijuana consumer cooperatives in a context that is similar to other land uses in the city.
While the ordinances passed by the city council are the best that was possible given the positions of the individual council members, they are far from perfect. I remain concerned that the zoning restrictions in the ordinance place cooperatives out of the city’s central neighborhoods. This hurts the sickest patients the most because they are the ones who are unable to travel long distances for their medication. Ironically, cooperatives have been zoned out of some of the communities most supportive of them, including some neighborhoods in District 3.
Further, I am concerned that there is no grace period for existing cooperatives. It will take some time for any cooperative to go through the process of coming into compliance with the new regulations, and I’m concerned that there may be a gap in time between enforcement actions against existing cooperatives and the establishment of new ones under the new rules. This could lead to patients having to forgo their medicine or seek it from the black market.
Unfortunately, there was not enough support on the city council to amend the ordinances to address these issues.
I understand concerns about potentially crimping access to medical marijuana and believe that the implementation of the ordinances by the mayor will be critical to their success.
Though the approved ordinances fell short in some ways, I must disagree with those who say they amount to a ban. San Diego could have followed the lead of other cities and issued a moratorium or even an outright ban. Instead, we took input from hundreds of people at hours of public hearings and crafted a measure that provides a clear method for medical marijuana consumer cooperatives to operate legally. Given the lack of political consensus on this issue, I believe this is a significant first step.
Todd Gloria is a San Diego City Councilman, serving District 3. He voted in favor of the medical marijuana ordinance.
San Diego Area Liaison, Americans for Safe Access
In 1996, California voters approved Proposition 215, ensuring that qualified patients could legally use physician-approved medical cannabis. In 2003, the state legislature adopted Senate Bill 420 (SB 420), which attempted to clarify and further implement Proposition 215 in part by authorizing patients and primary caregivers to associate in order to collectively or cooperatively cultivate cannabis for medical purposes.
In 2008, the California Attorney General issued guidelines (AG Guidelines) which provided further clarification and acknowledged that a properly organized and operated collective or cooperative that dispenses medical marijuana through a storefront is legal under California law. The guidelines also stated that as such collectives could be organized to facilitate monetary transactions between members. This differentiated storefront distribution from caregivers cultivating medicine for their patients or groups of patients all participating in the cultivation effort both of which are also legal under the law and also described in the AG Guidelines.
In addition to Proposition 215, SB 420 and the 2008 AG Guidelines, California courts have upheld the legality of Medical Cannabis Dispensing Collectives (MCDC) under State law through a number of precedent setting cases.
In 2009, after years of hostility toward MCDCs including dozens of aggressive law enforcement raids, the City of San Diego finally took up their responsibility of implementing Proposition 215. In October of that year, the city formed the Medical Marijuana Task Force (MMTF), a committee of citizens representing the community at large who were tasked with researching the issue in depth and providing the council with specific land use and public safety recommendations for MCDCs. The task force successfully completed their job and provided the council with two reports. However, when the final ordinance was crafted and brought to the full council on March 28, 2011 for a vote, it was in stark contrast to the recommendations provided by the task force.
In the days leading up to the March vote, the task force issued a statement warning the ordinance as written did not reflect their views and urged the council members to bring it back in line with the community’s recommendations. The council refused to listen to the task force and the patient community and on April 12 held the second vote to approve the overly restrictive ordinance despite objections from the task force and the largest public opposition to an ordinance the city has seen in decades.
The ordinance as currently written forces all MCDCs currently operating in the city to shutter their doors. The displaced patients who wish to open under the new rules would have to apply for a Conditional Use Permit Process; a yearlong, expensive, permitting process, and find a location in a very limited number of far flung industrial areas of the city that are 600 feet away from schools, churches, parks, child care facilities, youth service facilities, libraries, playgrounds and other collectives.
The new ordinance did not create a compliance period for any of the more than 100 currently operating MCDCs and it completely zoned out access in areas of the city containing the highest population of patients.
Prior to the ordinance’s first reading on March 28, a coalition of over 20 local, state and national groups spearheaded by the San Diego Chapter of ASA and Canvass for a Cause, organized the “Stop the Ban” campaign, which resulted in arguably the largest letter-writing campaign in the city’s history. Throughout a period of five weeks leading up to the March 28 vote, the campaign collected and mailed in almost 4,000 letters to council members from San Diego residents in opposition to the ordinance, recommending specific amendments.
Following the month-long letter writing campaign, on March 28, the council heard over five hours of testimony from patients, lawyers, concerned citizens and members of their own task force all urging them to amend the ordinance. On April 12, the day of the final reading they heard hours of testimony once again. Despite the unprecedented public outcry, the council still passed this overly restrictive ordinance.
After having thoroughly exhausted all political options and left with little recourse, advocates staged a peaceful act of civil disobedience at City Hall, taking a principled and public stand against the new ordinance. Over the din of public outcry, the council approved the ordinance nonetheless.
As ASA and many MCDCs consider their legal options, litigation seems inevitable and imminent. In the meantime, the San Diego Chapter of ASA submitted a ballot proposal for the City’s Rules Committee to consider. The ASA proposal, if placed on the ballot, would give the people of San Diego an opportunity to decide for themselves on sensible regulations. If approved by the voters, the new proposal would replace the city’s current overly-restrictive ordinance with strict yet reasonable regulations for MCDCs to follow that address the concerns of our communities and place at the forefront the needs of the most vulnerable among us, the sick and dying patients who use this medicine daily.
AARON J. BYZAK
President, North Coastal Prevention Coalition
Are you a 21-year-old male who stutters? What about a 31-year-old female with Rosacea? Have whiplash? What about writers’ cramp? If you have any of these “serious” illnesses and love Doritos and long naps in the afternoon, have I got a treatment for you!
Of course I’m talking about one of the most heavily debated issues of our time – “medical marijuana” and its expanded availability at “medical marijuana dispensaries.”
I put “medical marijuana” in quotes because I have reservations about the legitimacy of marijuana as used for medicinal purposes. That is, I’ve seen very little empirical evidence to support the contention that the inhalation of THC-laden, unfiltered, burned plant matter into ones lungs is a legitimate medicinal treatment for many dozens of illnesses ranging from cancer to nightmares. Heresy, I know.
Don’t get me wrong – I have no objections if cancer and HIV/AIDS patients choose to smoke marijuana to provide palliative relief. I certainly don’t doubt that a drug that gets you high may provide some reprieve from the terrible symptoms of those diseases. As someone who has watched loved ones die from both cancer and AIDS, I empathize and don’t begrudge those who choose that course of action.
But what we are talking about is different. We’re talking about whether to allow store front drug dealers in our neighborhoods – people taking advantage of the community’s compassion and using the truly ill as human shields to add a veneer of legitimacy to their activities.
California has provided several mechanisms for those with legitimate illnesses to partake in a little weed if they so choose. Those mechanisms, Proposition 215 and Senate Bill 420 (SB 420), laid out the rules – so to speak – by which this can be accomplished. The problem is the misinterpretation (or misrepresentation, perhaps) of what those laws actually say, which has led to the expanded availability of marijuana through so-called “medical marijuana dispensaries.” To assess the legitimacy of these “pot shops,” let’s look at the law.
First, Proposition 215. Let’s put aside the ridiculous concept of popular vote being used to approve “medicine.” As much as I find this absurd, it’s the law. While some claim that Proposition 215 legalizes medical marijuana and provides the justification for marijuana dispensaries, the reality is much different. Proposition 215 did not legalize medical marijuana or OK dispensaries. Instead, it provides for an affirmative defense against prosecution for those patients who are authorized through a doctor’s recommendation to use marijuana for medicinal purposes.
In Proposition 215 and SB 420, the follow-up medical marijuana legislation, there is no mention of storefront dispensaries. In fact, then-Attorney General Jerry Brown’s guidelines relative to SB 420 were specific about the state’s approach to this issue (local regulatory control) and the likelihood that dispensaries were not operating in compliance with the law.
We believe current state laws provide ample opportunity for sick patients and their caregivers to cultivate marijuana necessary to provide relief, and if this were taking place, we would rarely hear or see anything about it. The reality is the current debate is motivated purely by the desire for profits. That is why we see full-page ads in our local papers for “discount doctor recommendations” and “free samples,” and dispensaries fighting for their right to stay in business.
While medical marijuana collectives are required to be operated as non-profit institutions, the reality is that we see from numerous busts of dispensaries that many are raking in high profits. For you non-profit world veterans, how often do you have hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash on hand, or socked away in a custom built vault in your $10,000 a month rental home?
That’s why in California 154 cities and 10 counties have enacted bans against medical marijuana dispensaries. We in the prevention community are generally in agreement that complete bans at these levels are more appropriate than regulation. We have seen regulation fail up and down the state. However, it appears that several cities and counties have opted to go that route.
While the City of San Diego’s recent ordinance is less than ideal from a prevention perspective, many of us are pleased at the somewhat restrictive nature of the ordinance. We know that the pro-marijuana crowd was perturbed by it. The success of the City of San Diego’s effort is contingent upon a robust enforcement mechanism. We hope that the City of San Diego is prepared to follow through.
One way or another, by pursuing regulation, the City of San Diego has accepted as legitimate a “medicine” that is questionable at best, and sends a dangerous message to our youth: Whether you have diabetes or constipation, just skateboard down to your friendly neighborhood store-front drug dealer – Now New and Legitimized! – for some relief.
Aaron J. Byzak, MBA, is the President of the North Coastal Prevention Coalition (NCPC)
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I feel like I've read a thread in these forums with nearly the same topic, but I think enough time has passed for some fresh ideas to pop up. I think the extreme popularity of Minecraft really ignited a lot of imaginations, and with games like Day Z finally rolling out, I don't think it'd be inaccurate to predict a sort of golden age for sandbox survival games.
I bring this up partly because I'm nearing the completion of my first project and have begun thinking about my next one: a virtual ecosystem set in prehistoric Africa, in which warring tribes compete for resources and land. A great deal of my time will be spent on simulating real flora and fauna of the savannah biome. I love animals, and I love the idea of evolution by natural selection. To be able to realistically model an animal's behavior as it interacts with other animals and its environment would fill me with incredible satisfaction, and I look forward to fully fleshing out this idea in the coming years.
The player would assume the role of a single tribesman (or woman) with the ability to switch control to any member of the same tribe as long as they are within close proximity. The goal would be to explore, survive, and expand. Likely in first person.
What simulation setting would most excite you? Dinosaurs? Alien worlds? Railroads? | <urn:uuid:c1f0317d-2e94-44ca-bf0f-a2d576e6ad21> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/forums/showthread.php?5217-Your-Dream-Simulation-or-Sandbox&p=143324&viewfull=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971227 | 276 | 1.578125 | 2 |
TALLAHASSEE, Fla.-Most teenagers have growing pains, but none probably compared to those of Tyrannosaurus rex as it ascended to adulthood more than 65 million years ago, according to a Florida State University researcher.
From around age 14 to 18, T. rex took on about 70 percent of its adult mass, growing from a 1-ton carnivorous lizard to a bone-crushing, 6-ton dinosaur eating machine with few rivals in the prehistoric kingdom, according to FSU biologist Gregory Erickson. At the peak of this spurt, T. rex grew more than 4.5 pounds a day.
Erickson and his team of paleontologists are the first to establish an accurate picture of how T. rex accelerated its growth over a relatively few years to become gargantuan while earlier, smaller relatives had much slower growth. The scientists did this by counting growth rings in the bones of T. rex and other members of its family and calculating the corresponding body size by measuring the circumference of the femur.
The research is featured as the cover story for the Aug. 12 edition of the journal Nature.
T. rex's growth rate is comparable to that of the modern day elephant. But while elephants have a lifespan of more than 70 years, T. rex lived no more than 30 years.
"We now know that T. rex lived fast and died young," said Erickson.
Erickson and Peter Makovicky, dinosaur curator at The Field Museum and a coauthor of the study, will join with other team members at the Chicago museum on Wednesday to announce their findings. The museum is home to SueŽ [The Field Museum], the world's largest, oldest and most complete T. rex fossil, which was discovered in South Dakota in 1990.
Erickson has spent much of his career exploring how some dinosaurs got so big. The first dinosaurs to roam the Earth some 225 million years ago were about a yard long and weighed between 50 to 100 pounds, he said. The giants, such a T. rex and A. sarcophagus, came along about 150 million years later.
"Almost every child asks: 'How did dinosaurs get so big?' That has remained one of the great mysteries in paleontology," Erickson said. "Here we cracked the code for one family of dinosaurs, the Tyrannosauridae."
Like trees, dinosaur bones are marked by growth rings, with a new one developing every year. But there was one giant obstacle to counting the rings: Most of the big, meat-eating dinosaurs' bones remodeled themselves as they grew and become hollow, erasing much of the growth record.
A possible solution to this dilemma came to Erickson about four years ago while examining Sue. He noticed that Sue's rib bones were solid. Further investigation revealed that the fibula (a leg bone) and some hipbones were also solid and retained the full compliment of growth rings.
Erickson assembled a team of researchers from the American Museum of Natural History, The Field Museum, Canada's Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, Stanford University and the University of Iowa. They examined cross sections of bones from 20 Tyrannosaurs that ranged from 2 to 28 years of age and establish T. rex's accelerated growth rate during its teenage years.
The researchers verified their results by comparing the dinosaurs' growth rings to those of modern-day alligators and lizards, whose rings are similar.
Ten years ago such research may have been impossible, Erickson said. Museums wouldn't have allowed scientists to cut away at T. rex bones to examine growth rings because there were only a few good specimens. But a flurry of discoveries in the past decade - there are now more than 30 known T. rex specimens worldwide - have given museums a greater comfort level and allowed more invasive scientific research.
Source: Eurekalert & othersLast reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 21 Feb 2009
Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.
There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes.
-- Doctor Who | <urn:uuid:bb162716-5496-4820-9190-a1135aac2ca5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://psychcentral.com/news/archives/2004-08/fsu-gpt080904.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966864 | 856 | 3.265625 | 3 |
Feature: The Making Of The Sony PlayStation
Posted by Damien McFerran
Investigating the birth of a legend
It’s almost impossible to conceive it now but prior to the 32-bit PlayStation’s launch in 1994 there were real doubts over its chances in some sectors of the specialist press. Over 100 million hardware sales later, such pessimism seems woefully misplaced, but it’s easy to forget just how many hurdles Sony had to overcome to make a success of its first piece of video games hardware – and media scepticism was the least of those problems.
The PlayStation concept actually has its roots way back even before the 16-bit generation had hit the marketplace – 1988, to be precise. Always thinking a few steps ahead of its rivals, Nintendo was actively courting manufacturers to create some kind of expanded storage device for its Super NES console, which was in development and due to hit the market in just over a year. Sony – in conjunction with Dutch electronics giant Philips – was working on a new format called CD-ROM/XA, a new type of compact disc which allowed simultaneous access to audio, visual and computer data, making it thoroughly compatible with the medium of interactive entertainment. Because Sony was already being contracted to produce the SPC-700 sound processor for the SNES, Nintendo decided to enlist the electronics manufacturer’s assistance in producing a CD-ROM add-on for its 16-bit console.
For Sony, it was a dream come true. Having been instrumental in the production of the ill-fated MSX computer format, the firm never hid its desire to become a key player in the burgeoning video game business. Therefore, an alliance with what was unquestionably the biggest and most famous name in the industry would not only help elevate Sony’s standing, it would also enable the company to set the wheels in motion for its ultimate plan – to put its consumer electronics experience to good use and produce its own video game hardware. The industry was growing at an alarming rate thanks largely to Nintendo’s hugely successful NES and Game Boy systems, and Sony was keen to obtain a foothold in this lucrative business.
The initial agreement between the two firms was that Sony would produce a CD-ROM expansion for the existing SNES hardware and would have licence to produce games for that system. Later, it was supposed, Sony would be permitted to produce its own all-in-one machine – dubbed PlayStation – which would play both SNES carts and CD-ROM games. The format used by the SNES-based version of the PlayStation was called “Super Disc” and Sony made sure that it held the sole international licensing rights – in other words, it would profit handsomely from every single SNES CD-ROM title that was sold. It was a match made in heaven; Sony would instantly gain a potentially massive installed base of users overnight as the SNES was a dead cert to sell millions of units. SNES users would upgrade to the new CD-ROM add-on when they knew that Nintendo’s cutting-edge games would be coming to it, and Sony would make money on each software sale. What’s more, once the all-in-one PlayStation was launched, Sony would gain even more in the way of profits and become a key player in the video game industry. The man behind this audacious scheme was Ken Kutaragi, the engineer also responsible for producing the aforementioned SNES sound chip.
However, behind the scenes Nintendo was predictably far from happy with the proposed arrangement. It was very protective of its licensing structure, which allowed it to extract massive royalties from third-party publishers. Allowing Sony leverage in this sector would only damage Nintendo’s profitability; the Kyoto-based veteran reasoned that it should be making the majority of the profit on SNES CD sales, not Sony. The plan – if it came to fruition – would ultimately benefit Sony far more than Nintendo; the former would merely be using the latter as a way of getting a ready-made market share and would eventually become a determined rival as a result. Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi was famous for being particularly ruthless in his business practices, but what happened next is one of the most infamous double-crosses in the history of the video game industry.
It was at the 1991 Consumer Electronics Show – or CES as it was otherwise known – that Nintendo dropped the bombshell. Sony went to the event full of enthusiasm and on the first day proudly announced the details of its new alliance with Nintendo, as well as news of the “Super Disc” format and the impending development of the SNES-compatible PlayStation. Sony had less than 24 hours to soak up the palpable level of excitement generated by this press conference before Nintendo confirmed that it was in fact working with Philips on the SNES CD-ROM drive. Yamauchi had gone behind Sony’s back at the last minute to broker a deal with the Dutch company – a deal which was predictably skewed in Nintendo’s favour - leaving Sony publicly humiliated at the very moment it had expected to usher in a new era as a serious contender in the video gaming arena. At the time, Yamauchi and the rest of Nintendo’s top brass were suitably pleased with their skulduggery; such swift action had prevented Sony from taking a sizable bite out of their profits. As it happened, the planned Nintendo-Philips alliance resulted in little more than a handful of risible CDi-based Nintendo licences, and the abject failure of Sega’s Mega CD seemed to lend credence to the viewpoint that expanding existing consoles was mistake, so while Nintendo had protected its best interests by leaving Sony at the alter in such degrading fashion, it actually gained little else of note – aside from a dogged rival.
Yamauchi was famous for being particularly ruthless in his business practices, but what happened next is one of the most infamous double-crosses in the history of the video game industry
Sony had, by this point, poured a significant amount of cash into the proposed PlayStation concept. It had even moved as far as the prototype phase, with PC CD-ROM titles such as Trilobyte’s 7th Guest being mooted as possible launch games. Despite the tumultuous events of the 1991 CES, a deal was signed between Nintendo and Sony that would allow the latter to make its machine compatible with SNES CD-ROM titles – with the proviso that Nintendo would retain all software royalties. Although it was nothing more than a clever stalling tactic by Nintendo to keep Sony from entering the market on its own, this proposed alliance nevertheless kept the increasingly frustrated Kutaragi and his team busy. However, by 1992 it had become clear that such a union was going nowhere; Sony cut off communication with Nintendo and the company was painfully close to withdrawing from the video games arena for good.
Only Kutaragi’s intense resolve and determination prevented the PlayStation dream from ending in ’92. During a meeting with Sony president Norio Ohga in order to decide the future of the project, Kutaragi made bold claims about the kind of machine he had been developing. He argued that the 16-bit PlayStation – with its reliance on a union with the incumbent (not to mention untrustworthy) Nintendo – was a dead-end; the only option was to go it alone and create a brand new piece of hardware capable of shifting 3D graphics at a hitherto unprecedented rate. When Kutaragi’s ambitious proposal was greeted with derision from the Sony president, he presented another side to his argument – could Sony’s pride allow it to simply walk away when Nintendo had so blatantly abused its trust? By making the PlayStation project a success, the company would experience the sweet taste of revenge at the expense of its one-time ally.
Kutaragi’s speech hit a nerve and early in 1994 Sony confirmed that it was entering the video game arena with its own console, and even formed subsidiary Sony Computer Entertainment in order to oversee the new venture. Keen to differentiate this new project from its previous namesake, Sony branded it the “PlayStation-X” – which gave rise to the abbreviation PSX, which is still used even today — even though the X was later dropped when the console was officially launched. Early reports were impressive, with some developers confidently proclaiming that Sony’s console would blow away the competition. Despite the company’s wide entertainment portfolio – which included music label CBS Records and Hollywood studio Colombia Tri-Star – Sony boldly decided not to focus on the multimedia market, as its rivals Philips (with its CDi) and 3DO had done, to their great cost. Instead, the PlayStation was unashamedly proclaimed as a dedicated gaming machine, with SCE’s Director Akira Sato confidently stating that “If it’s not real-time, it’s not a game” – a thinly-veiled criticism of other CD-based consoles and their reliance on FMV titles that featured live actors but little interaction. The sheer power of the new system shocked other players in the industry; Sega of Japan president Hayao Nakayama was reportedly so furious when he read the almighty specs for the PlayStation that he personally visited Sega’s hardware division and gave them a stern talking to. His tirade would result in the Saturn – Sega’s entrant in the 32-bit console war — getting an additional video processor to boost its graphical muscle but this ironically would make the system harder to program for – an issue which had severe ramifications in the future.
When you take into account Sony’s position as one of the world’s foremost electronics manufacturers, it’s hardly surprising that the original PlayStation was a highly desirable piece of kit. Unmistakably a games console but showcasing a hint of mature design, the machine seemed to speak to those gamers who had cut their teeth on the likes of the NES, Mega Drive and SNES and were now ready to progress to an entirely different level of challenge. Everything from the two-pronged joypads to the removable memory card storage system seemed to drip sophistication. Sony later revealed the numerous hardware designs that had been considered before the final version was decided upon; this was the work of a company that was taking its entry into the video games market very seriously indeed. Kutaragi – and the entire project in general – had come under fire from high-level Sony executives who argued that video games were toys for children; therefore, one of PlayStation’s key aims was to challenge that view. As a result, the final design for the machine was sleek and serious, mimicking the appearance of a top-end piece of audio-visual equipment rather than a games-playing device.
However, while this posturing caught the attention of gamers the world over, some industry experts were less enthused, citing Sony’s poor track record in the industry up to that point. The company’s software publishing arm — Sony ImageSoft — had so far failed to generate any titles of note, pushing half-baked movie licences such as Cliffhanger and Last Action Hero onto store shelves to the complete indifference of the games-buying public. Indeed, software was one area in which Sony was at a distinct disadvantage. Sega and Nintendo had highly-talented internal development teams that traditionally produced the best software for their respective consoles, but Sony lacked this key feature — although it was at least attempting to rectify the issue by purchasing highly-rated UK code shop Psygnosis, which would go on to publish vital launch titles such as WipEout and Destruction Derby. Still, there was an overwhelming feeling that although Sony was perceived to be doing everything right, it would ultimately fall at the final hurdle; Sega and Nintendo would continue to fight it out, just as they had done during the previous format war. Sony didn’t know videogames, the critics cried. Thankfully, the firm managed to secure the assistance of a company that certainly did know something about the industry: Japanese arcade veteran Namco.
Pac-Man creator Namco was undergoing something of a resurgence thanks to the incredible impact made by its 3D coin-op Ridge Racer. A texture-mapped tour de force, the game was unquestionably a cutting edge piece of programming and had given its parent company the ability to leapfrog persistent rival Sega in arcades. When Namco revealed that it was porting its hugely successful racer to the PlayStation, it caused quite a stir. The notion that Sony’s new console could replicate an arcade title that cost thousands of dollars created astonishing levels of expectation, and this only increased when the first shots of PSX-based Ridge Racer were released to the public. Coded in an incredible six months, the game might not have been arcade-perfect but it did enough to cement Sony’s position as a key player, purely because it made Sega’s heavily-delayed in-house conversion of its Daytona USA coin-op look decidedly second-rate by comparison. Elsewhere, the PlayStation’s visual prowess was demonstrated by exquisite third-party titles such as Jumping Flash and Battle Arena Toshinden, the former being a ground-breaking (if shallow) 3D platformer and the latter a likeable (if uninspired) one-on-one brawler. Toshinden couldn’t hold a candle to Sega’s Virtua Fighter port when it came to gameplay, but it was nevertheless a fundamental game in Sony’s arsenal because it looked far, far better. From screenshots alone, it was clear that the PlayStation had the edge in terms of raw power.
The Japanese launch took place on December 3rd, 1994 – a handful of days after Sega had shifted a stunning 200,000 Saturn consoles on its first day of sale. Priced at ¥39,800 (around £250/$400) in today’s money) the PlayStation sold strongly, although the Japanese public seemed to gravitate towards Sega’s console more, possibly because Virtua Fighter — despite the slightly unimpressive Saturn conversion — was the country’s number one arcade title at the time. Both formats started out fairly evenly, but as the months rolled by Sony was able to deliver on its promises thanks to sterling releases from Namco, Konami and Capcom, while Sega’s in-house projects stalled. Ironically, Sony’s reliance on third party developers proved to be in its favour; because it needed outside assistance the company had made great efforts to get software support, while it could be argued that Sega – brimming with confidence over its own internal development talent – was less active in courting developers. Sony had made the PlayStation as accessible as possible for third parties, and it was reaping the benefits.
The technological gulf didn’t do the PlayStation any harm, either; titles such as WipEout looked gorgeous, with transparent textures and eye-popping lighting effects. Sega’s machine lacked both of these embellishments, and thanks to its complex dual-CPU setup, required the best coders to really get the most out of it. Many didn't bother to make the effort, and instead flocked to Sega's rival. Numerous third party studios were getting stuck into PlayStation game production, and a string of classic titles began to emerge. Tomb Raider (ironically a Saturn title before it was released on Sony’s platform), Tekken 2, Soul Blade, Ridge Racer Revolution and Resident Evil all contributed to the PlayStation’s wide and varied catalogue of titles.
Sony had made the PlayStation as accessible as possible for third parties, and it was reaping the benefits
The Western launches were equally successful, with Sony managing to undercut the retail price of Sega’s Saturn in both North America and Europe. In Europe especially Sony displayed a masterly grasp of how to market a games machine to a more mature audience; the company knew that those gamers which had grown up with the 8-bit and 16-bit consoles were gradually reaching adulthood and would therefore require more “grown-up” gaming experiences. While Sega and Nintendo focused on building recognisable mascots to appeal to youngsters, Sony released the PlayStation with a range of software that was unashamedly adult in tone. The aforementioned WipEout featured a soundtrack that showcased the talents of real recording artists, such as The Chemical Brothers and Leftfield, while visceral top-down shooter Loaded not only featured excessive gore and allusions to transvestism, but also enrolled the assistance of grebo-rock outfit Pop Will Eat Itself. One thing was clear – Sony wasn’t aiming for the Mario and Sonic audience with the PlayStation.
Sega’s challenge soon began to falter, and so Nintendo — the company that had double-crossed Sony a few years previously — became the next opponent. The firm responsible for such classics as Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda had been making confident noises about its cartridge-based Ultra 64 (AKA: N64) console for some time, and although it wouldn’t be ready until 1996, Nintendo went to great lengths to encourage gamers to hold off on buying a 32-bit machine. Sadly, the decision to stick with the expensive cartridge format would cost the firm the support of one of its most prized third party publishers: Square Soft. Although the highly anticipated Final Fantasy VII had been confirmed as an N64 release, Square eventually switched development over to Sony’s machine, citing the limited storage and high unit cost of cartridges. Final Fantasy VII was going to be the most epic game yet conceived, and it needed as much storage space as possible. Only CD-ROM could offer this, Square argued. Nintendo’s loss was of course Sony’s massive gain; published in 1997, Final Fantasy VII was a worldwide smash-hit, selling 10 million copies in the process. This success established the console as the leading platform of its generation and subsequent system exclusives such as Konami’s Metal Gear Solid and Polyphony Digital’s seminal Gran Turismo cemented this lofty status even further.
With both Sega and Nintendo subdued, Sony’s dominance was assured. So tight was the company’s grip on the marketplace that even the launch of Sega’s technically superior 128-bit Dreamcast in 1999 was unable to upset the status quo. With millions of units sold and a more powerful successor – the PlayStation 2 – waiting in the wings, 2000 saw Sony release a new iteration of its 32-bit console in the form of the PlayStation One, or PSOne for short. Smaller, sleeker and sexier, it boasted enhanced functionally which allowed it to link to mobile phones and even supported a fold-down LCD display, giving it a small degree of portability. The revision was a triumph and enabled the aging machine to remain relevant in a marketplace that was gradually leaving it behind in technological terms.
Sony ceased manufacturing the PlayStation in 2006, giving the console an impressive production lifespan of 11 years. During that time it redefined the world of video games, granting gamers their first legitimate taste of 3D visuals and making the oft-derided hobby a cool and relevant pastime. Of course, such activity earned Sony – and by association, its console – a fair degree of scorn also, but few would have the temerity to debate the PlayStation’s incredible influence on modern interactive entertainment. Without it, the gaming landscape today would be near-unrecognisable — and this very site wouldn't even exist.
The feature was originally printed in its entirety in Retro Gamer magazine, and is reproduced here with kind permission. | <urn:uuid:165b7a3c-2732-4ce0-ab01-987f34c909bf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pushsquare.com/news/2012/08/feature_the_making_of_the_sony_playstation | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972931 | 4,038 | 2.515625 | 3 |
- About Us
Filesystem in Userspace (FUSE) has long been one of my favorite features on Linux systems. Using FUSE modules, you can mount all sorts of innovative resources -- Gmail, your Flickr photos, a remote SSH server -- directly into your local machine's filesystem and use their contents exactly as if they were normal files. Now you can do the same thing on Mac OS X, courtesy of MacFUSE.
FUSE has never been limited to Linux, of course -- FreeBSD has had it for years. And it is OS X's BSD compatibility that enabled Google engineer Amit Singh to write the FUSE kernel extension and library he released in January.
At the MacFUSE project home page, you will find installer packages for the core MacFUSE utility and two FUSE filesystem modules: SpotlightFS and sshfs. The newest release of MacFUSE Core is 0.4.0, but for right now, I recommend that you download the previous release. Version 0.4.0 is too new to work with the user-friendly utilities you need to get started -- including the SpotlightFS 0.1.0 and sshfs 0.3.0 packages.
You can get to MacFUSE Core 0.3.0 through the Downloads tab at the MacFUSE page. The pull-down menu starts off set to Current Downloads -- select either All Downloads or Deprecated Downloads to see the older releases.
To get the most out of MacFUSE, you need to understand the difference between FUSE itself and the various FUSE filesystems. If it is not clear, you can get lost in all the terminology.
In a nutshell, FUSE is an application program interface (API). When you install the MacFUSE Core package, you are installing OS X system hooks to the FUSE API. To add any particular filesystem module (such as sshfs) requires installing its own package. The sshfs and SpotlightFS installers at the MacFUSE project are two such packages; MacFusion provides more of its own.
With MacFUSE Core installed, you can compile most existing FUSE filesystems from source. If you intend to take that route, be sure to scour the HOWTO on the project's wiki for hints before you start. For everyone else, the project-supplied SpotlightFS and sshfs packages are a simpler alternative.
SpotlightFS exploits features unique to OS X. It allows you to access that operating system's Spotlight integrated search capabilities as though they were part of the standard Mac filesystem. That means you can navigate to a SpotlightFS/foo folder from within any application and have instant access to all files and directories that turn up in a Spotlight search for foo.
As interesting as that is, I find sshfs considerably more useful on a daily basis. It works exactly like it does under Linux; you can use it to connect to any remote machine over SSH: other Macs, Linux PCs, even Web servers at paid hosting facilities. It is far easier to transfer files back and forth with drag-and-drop than with an FTP client, and far easier to manage and edit configuration files when you don't have to worry about synchronizing multiple copies.
The MacFUSE project's sshfs installer installs both an sshfs module and a simple GUI front end with which you can mount and unmount remote SSH servers. The downside of this front end is that it isn't "supported" -- meaning in this case that when it doesn't work, you are out of luck.
A better solution is MacFusion, an open source app designed to work with MacFUSE, but which is maintained by other developers. You can download an installer image from its project page. The latest version is 1.1.
MacFusion runs as a "menu extra" -- an icon in the top menu bar. It comes bundled with modules for sshfs and CurlFtpFS (for connecting to FTP servers). To connect, all you do is click on the MacFusion icon, move down to Quick Mount, and select FTP or SSH as appropriate. In the resulting pop-up dialog, you enter the address of the server you are connecting to, the username to connect with, and any optional details (such as starting directory). MacFusion will prompt you for a password, which you can optionally store in Keychain for faster access in the future.
Mounted servers appear in the Finder as network disks. They can be browsed, searched, and used just like any external drive. To disconnect, you just click on the Eject icon in Finder. MacFusion lets you store a list of favorite servers, and can check for updated versions of its software automatically.
Since the development of MacFUSE and MacFusion is not coordinated, you sometimes have to wait for both packages to be updated before reaping the benefits of new features. Such is the case right now, as MacFUSE 0.4.0 added support for custom volume icons (which look really cool), while MacFusion has yet to release an update that takes advantage of them.
Still, all things considered, that is a pretty minor inconvenience. MacFUSE and MacFusion together are simple, fast, and convenient. SSH-encrypted access to remote servers, transparently available to all applications? What more could you ask? | <urn:uuid:76fce1c5-8392-4f5d-bbf4-58524ddb2c58> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://archive09.linux.com/feature/114931 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914307 | 1,099 | 2.03125 | 2 |
3. We provide an innovative alternative to the traditional, laminated "film + hot-melt + non-cloth" product - a non-laminated film, both embossed and concave relief, which we believe is the real "Cloth-Like Outer Cover" for baby diapers. Less material, no adhesive, more environment-friendly;
4. We treat our effluents "in-house";
5. We are committed to reducing energy consumption through various initiatives and improvements;
6. Our focus is on the loss reduction in the whole process, producing more with less;
7. As an effort to reduce our footprint to a minimum, we help maintaining a 140 hectare area of Atlantic Rainforest, home of wild animals and an incredible biodiversity.
We understand that planet Earth demands a mature, responsible standpoint concerning our Environment protection policies. We believe that today's generation did not receive the world as a heritage from our parents, but borrowed from our children and grandchildren, so we could take care of it, and return an improved world to them.
That is why we make every effort to develop products that are environmentally correct. These are some of the actions we have been taking:
1. We develop ever-thinner films while maintaining their technical features;
2. We provide films and packaging that are manufactured from renewable plant resin, generating CO2 in the cane cultivation process; | <urn:uuid:59e3b034-d73e-4473-9f5b-756b8e32d461> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.prismapack.com.br/crbst_32.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930282 | 286 | 1.539063 | 2 |
1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Octavia
|←Octave||1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 19
|See also Octavia Minor and Claudia Octavia on Wikipedia, and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.|
OCTAVIA, the name of two princesses of the Augustan house. (1) Octavia, daughter of Gaius Octavius and sister of the emperor Augustus, was the wife of Gaius Marcellus, one of the bitterest enemies of Julius Caesar. In 41 B.C. her husband died, and she was married to Marcus Antonius, with the idea of bringing about a reconciliation between him and her brother. Her efforts were at first successful, but in 36 Antony left for the Parthian War and renewed his intrigue with Cleopatra. Though Octavia took out troops and money to him (35), he refused to see her and formally divorced her in 32, but she always protected his children, even those by Fulvia and Cleopatra. Her beauty and virtues are praised by all ancient authorities. By her first husband she was the mother of Marcus Marcellus (q.v.), who died in 23 B.C. (2) Octavia, daughter of the emperor Claudius, was the wife of Nero, by whom she was put to death. A Latin tragedy on her fate is attributed, though wrongly, to Seneca. | <urn:uuid:6d8c6117-b043-47dc-a6db-5cbfb2c1c848> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Octavia | 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 | 0.976298 | 302 | 2.984375 | 3 |
Audible Magic uses audio fingerprinting technology to identify the audio digital signature in any video file and then looks for matches against a database of copyrighted content.
MySpace said it maintains a database of fingerprints uploaded by content owners. The blocking of unauthorized clips is on a voluntary basis to prevent the exclusion of materials that companies want to be uploaded, such as those by a company’s marketing department.
The process of identifying the audio channel from a video clip is a lot easier than trying to match the video content.
While many MySpace users upload audio and video content, it’s not the prime reason for MySpace’s existence – it’s merely a by-product of having a social community site. So, if MySpace is making the effort to pre-screen upload video content, you’d think a site that is entirely devoted to video uploads, would have something similar in place, wouldn’t you?
MySpace’s move leapfrogs YouTube’s efforts to roll out the ability to identify and block videos uploaded by users without copyright permission. YouTube does not screen for copyright-protected videos during the uploading process. In a conference call, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said the company would roll out the system in stages soon, but gave no timeline.
YouTube is already feeling the heat. With MySpace taking a proactive step to prevent the uploading of unauthorized content, expect the heat dial to be turned up to “11″. | <urn:uuid:7700c595-6e56-4e8e-a6a7-76aeaa45c1fa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2007/02/if-myspace-can-block-copyrighted-videos-why-cant-youtube.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945775 | 303 | 1.875 | 2 |
Brussels,23 June 2009
New technologies, intelligent services and know-how for the security of citizens against the threats of terrorism, natural disasters and industrial accidents are featured online on the CORDIS FP7 Security Research Information Service, launched by the European Commission today, http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/security. The service brings news, interviews, events and highlights from the first European R&D; funding scheme with a specific focus on security research - the Seventh Research Framework Programme (FP7).
“Technology alone cannot guarantee security, but without it, we cannot have security. The goal of European security research is making Europe more secure for its citizens while increasing its industrial competitiveness”, explains Marco Malacarne, Head of the Security Research and Development Unit in the Commission’s Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry. “Through the funding of international collaboration between academia, industry and end-users, EU can stimulate synergies and help overcome market fragmentation in this area. At the same time, the overall societal dimension and preparedness is of highest importance at all stages including prevention, crisis and after crisis management.”
The new CORDIS service is the entry point to the first EU-funded projects from the FP7 budget for security research worth Euro 1 400 million (2007-2013). It offers story lines on the use of the EU research funding for the benefit of citizens and industry and for increased transport, energy, environment and health security.
One example is the Seamless Co-operation for Crisis (SECRICOM) project, which seeks to integrate the communication systems of the various emergency services into a seamless and secure system during crisis situations. With an EU contribution of nearly 3.6 million Euro the AMASS project is developing an autonomous maritime surveillance system, while COCAE is focusing on intelligent systems for detection of the “wrong” chemistry used in explosives. The European Software Defined Radio for wireless in joint security operations (EULER) project strengthens synergies with the European Defence Agency for overcoming barriers against interoperability for communication between different security agencies.
All 45 security research projects funded by the European Commission so far are featured on CORDIS with detailed factsheets on the challenges addressed by the research teams, organisations involved, the amount of EU research funding, as well as the start and end dates and contacts of project co-ordinators for interviews.
New Impetus from the Swedish Presidency
The CORDIS FP7 Security Research Information Service offers advance information on the Fourth Annual Security Research Conference which is organised by the Swedish Presidency in collaboration with the European Commission. It will gather in Stockholm on the 29th and 30th September more than 1 200 representatives from research, industry, European institutions, public authorities and other stake-holders. The event will showcase the achievements of EU-funded security research and debate its future in the context of the Stockholm Programme for a more secure and open Europe which is high on the Swedish Presidency Agenda (1 July - 31 December 2009).
New funding opportunities
In July the European Commission will launch the next round of EU funding for security research, worth 218 Million Euros. The CORDIS FP7 Security Research Information Service is the entry point for organizations interested in benefitting from it. The interactive website offers information, guidance for newcomers and partnership opportunities. It also provides access to the SEREN network, offering professional advice and co-ordination of transnational collaboration among the European security research community.
With the growing importance of security research on the EU agenda, the new CORDIS service will be useful not only for those interested to take part in EU-funded research, but for policy makers and all stakeholders of the European area for freedom, security and justice.
To visit the service: http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/security
For further information
CORDIS press relations
Contractor : Intrasoft International SA
Tel.: + 32 2 238 17 36
Fax: + 32 2 238 17 98 | <urn:uuid:00ae3c23-aa20-41ad-bef5-5a78e409e698> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cordis.europa.eu/press-service/20090404.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.903741 | 822 | 1.953125 | 2 |
Breast cancer does not discriminate, even men can fall victim. Although men are much less likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer it does happen. Males comprise about 1% of breast cancer diagnosis each year. According to the Susan G. Komen foundation for the cure, 2,140 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2011 and of those approximately 450 will die from the disease.
There have been a few male celebrities that have been open about their diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer and are helping to raise awareness about male breast cancer. | <urn:uuid:95759d37-e461-4ab5-9b55-30ca37d64e96> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://katsfm.com/tags/breast-cancer/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973969 | 108 | 2.328125 | 2 |
Research in Exercise Science
Developing the knowledge and skills necessary to conduct quality research in exercise science are prominent components of the Exercise Science and Sport Studies curriculum. Through courses, such as Kinesiology and Exercise Physiology, students develop a wide variety of laboratory skills and actively engage in the scientific method. Students also learn how to read disciplinary journals and communicate research findings clearly and concisely. The Research Methods and Research Seminar courses then allow students the opportunity to develop their own research proposal and, once approved by the CSB/SJU Institutional Review Board, conduct an undergraduate research project. See our student research. | <urn:uuid:5a71443e-f2ae-4eb8-96c0-96beec13fa7a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://csbsju.edu/Exercise-Science-and-Sport-Studies/Research-in-Exercise-Science.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926649 | 124 | 2.0625 | 2 |
FBI Investigates Mortgage Meltdown
MICHEL MARTIN, host:
I'm Michel Martin, and this is TELL ME MORE from NPR News.
I want to start by apologizing for my voice. I've still got a little bit of the laryngitis that kept me off the air Friday. I hope it's not too distracting. And, of course, I want to thank my colleague Lynn Neary for stepping in on very short notice.
Today, we're going to tell you about the new PBS documentary, "Prince Among Slaves." It tells the remarkable story of an African prince who was sold into slavery in 1788 and lived to regain his freedom nearly 40 years later. It premieres tonight. We're also going to tell you about the dark side of NFL glory for some former players. That's a bit later.
But first, the FBI is investigating mortgage fraud and other violations in connection with the home loans made to borrowers with less-than-perfect credit. The agency is probing 14 companies, including mortgage lenders and investment banks for possible accounting fraud, insider trading and other issues connected to subprime mortgage lending. The subprime crisis, of course, is being blamed for a record foreclosure rate, for turmoil in financial markets around the world, and for depriving minority communities, in particular, of hard-earned wealth.
Joining us to talk more about all of this is Wade Henderson. He's the president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights - he was kind enough to join me here in the studio - and Illinois' attorney general, Lisa Madigan. Thank you both so much for joining us today.
Mr. WADE HENDERSON (CEO, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights): Thank you.
Attorney General LISA MADIGAN (Illinois): Thank you, Michel.
MARTIN: Attorney General Madigan, how bad is the problem in your state?
Attorney General MADIGAN: The problem is horrendous, and it's not just in the state of Illinois. But the numbers are startling. So the numbers for last year just came in, and we see a 25 percent increase in foreclosures over 2006, with over 90,000 homes set to foreclose or are in foreclosure this past year. And that was up from about 72,000 the year before, where we'd already seen a substantial jump.
When you look at the numbers nationwide, it reveals a really chilling picture. Over 2.2 million homes will end up in foreclosure. So 2.2 million families will be displaced from their homes and really, you know, lose the piece of the American dream that they'd struggled so hard to achieve.
MARTIN: Mr. Henderson, advocates have been saying that the subprime issue is a particular problem for minority communities. Why would that be?
Mr. HENDERSON: Well, that's right, Michel. As you know, home ownership is the bedrock of the American dream, but for many Americans, that dream has become a nightmare. And for African-Americans and Latinos and other persons of color, the issue has taken on a stark reminder of the disparities that exist in American life, and particularly in gaining access to credit.
Roughly 30 percent more African-Americans and Latinos hold subprime loans than their white borrowers, even taking into account their credit history. So, in other words, individuals with similar histories, in fact, are treated differently by the system. And, in fact, it's because of a combination of fraud, rapacious greed and negligent oversight on the part of the federal government and the institutions looking at the banking industry.
MARTIN: Attorney General Madigan, do you agree with that?
Attorney General MADIGAN: I do. Numbers, again, are just horrific. And there have been some reports done recently that actually show that an African-American person earning more than $100,000 was more likely than a white person who earned less that $35,000 to be put into a high-cost loan. So probably some form of subprime loan. So clearly, there is discrimination going on. There has been steering going on. People who should've qualified for prime loans were put into these very risky subprime loans.
And ultimately, you know, we've seen it across the board. People were put into loans that they didn't understand, they couldn't afford, and then because of prepayment penalties, oftentimes they were unable to refinance. They were unable to get out of them. And it has had a much more devastating impact on the African-American and Latino communities than it has had on the white communities.
MARTIN: When we've talked to industry representatives about this, they say that this is either bad bets, this is either overly aggressive business practices, but this is not an intention to target particular communities. And they also say it's not in the industry's interest to foreclose on these loans, because then they're left with, as we can see, sort of losses that they then can't make up.
So what was the motivation here, Wade? And I'd also like to hear from you, attorney general, on this.
Mr. HENDERSON: Well, some of what you've said, Michel, is true. But at the same time, the industry does not take into account incentives that encourage lenders to put borrowers into higher-cost loans than in many instances they're required to take.
For example, there's something called a yield-spread premium that brokers will get, which is an additional incentive, financial incentive, for putting a lender in - or rather a borrower in a loan that is higher than he or she might otherwise pay. And that…
MARTIN: Because the profit's higher.
Mr. HENDERSON: Because the profit is higher. So there is a financial incentive, if you will, to steer some borrowers into higher-cost loans than they require.
MARTIN: And is it your view, Wade Henderson, that minorities were targeted for these loans, that this an intentional effort - on the part of some lenders, at least - to target minorities for these kinds of loans?
Mr. HENDERSON: Well, certainly on the part of some lenders. I mean, I don't want to indict the entire industry, but certainly, I think evidence will suggest that some lenders preyed on individuals in the African-American and Latino community. And let the buyer beware seemed to be the standard that was applied, even to the most important and complex transactions in an individual's life.
MARTIN: But do you - but what about that, though? I mean, people would argue that, you know, adults have to be mindful of the contracts they're signing. There are people who would say, look, it's your responsibility to beware of the terms.
Mr. HENDERSON: Well, they're right. But there's another problem. You know, conventional lenders - that is, banks - have frequently ignored their fiduciary responsibility to lend money and invest in communities with good credit and that, in fact, deserve those services. That, essentially, has abandoned many inner-city neighborhoods to high-cost lenders who might otherwise be distributed more evenly throughout society.
So I think this is a more sophisticated problem. There's a problem on the part of the conventional lenders. There are problems on the part of the federal regulators. But there's also clear evidence that there has been some fraud, some rapacious greed and some real targeting of inner-city communities because they've been easy prey for some of these high-cost lenders.
MARTIN: Attorney General?
Attorney General MADIGAN: You know, I would have to agree with Wade. Greed has fueled the vast majority of this. And so, you know, you asked the question about, well, shouldn't borrowers, you know, be aware of what they're doing? I have had hundreds of people come to our office once they realized that they were in one of these high-cost subprime loans, telling us, you know, that they did, in fact, ask. They asked the question, is this a fixed-rate loan? They were told yes, only to find out two or three years later it was, in fact, an adjustable rate loan.
I've had people tell us, you know, we told them that our income was only $2,000 a month, when, in fact, we find when we look at the documents it was written down as 7,000, $9,000 a month. So people were being put into loans in spite of the fact that they were being, you know, they were asking the questions, they were giving the correct information. And it is all because of the fact that the brokers and the lenders were receiving incentives, in large part because there was just this demand on Wall Street for these mortgage-backed securities.
And once the lender - once the borrower packages that loan, sells that loan, they receive an enormous amount of money. It gets moved on. They don't bear any responsibility on the back end when this loan goes into default and ultimately into foreclosure. So we've seen some real problems with the origination of these loans. And we know it's not just because people, you know, didn't ask the right questions, didn't provide the information. Oftentimes, they did, and the people who were putting the documents together were really defrauding them.
MARTIN: If you're just joining us, I'm talking about the mortgage crisis and allegations of predatory lending practices with Illinois' attorney general, Lisa Madigan, and Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Council on Civil Rights.
Attorney General, I understand that you attended Reverend Jesse Jackson's 11th Annual Wall Street Project's recent meetings, that you sat on a panel about this issue. Now, Reverend Jackson has said that, clearly, there's a regulatory problem here, that if you have a problem which is that widespread, there has to have been a regulatory failure somewhere. If so, where was it? Who should be held accountable for this?
Attorney General MADIGAN: Well, you know, again, they're really three areas to look at. There is a lot of blame - and legitimate blame, I think - being put on the feds and on the Federal Reserve in part, saying that they kept interest rates very low for a long period of time that drove this housing bubble, really. And then there's a lot of blame on the brokers and on the lenders, where there really was very lax regulation. And so nobody was paying attention when it was relatively well-known for a number of years that the lending standards had decreased, that they weren't actually looking at documentation. People were being put into stated income loans and things of that nature.
And then Wall Street. Again, you mentioned earlier that, you know, the FBI is now looking at a whole series of lenders. They're looking at what happened in terms of the securitization of these mortgages.
And so there's blame at various stages. But in terms of what Reverend Jackson is calling for, he's really looking at some form of like a Marshall Plan for people who are trapped in these loans. As I said, we're estimating over two million home owners will ultimately lose their homes. It is a crisis that obviously impacts the families who lose their homes, but it really will also have an impact on the communities where those homes are. Once you have a foreclosed home, you have a situation where all the other homes in that community decrease in value by about 1 percent. You erode the tax base. And so there has to be help. We have to find a way to restructure these loans…
Attorney General MADIGAN: …which is very doable, and make sure that people can stay in their homes and maintain their community.
MARTIN: Wade Henderson, last word for you.
Mr. HENDERSON: Yeah…
MARTIN: What policy prescriptions are you interested in? Because clearly, even if law enforcement does proceed down this road, that's a long process. It doesn't necessarily mean that there's any relief for the home owner. What are you looking for? We have about a minute left.
Mr. HENDERSON: Michel, two things are done - are needed. First, I think the Federal Reserve does deserve its share - a significant share - of the blame. And I think simply banning prepayment penalties that the attorney general has spoke about and yield-spread premiums would make a significant difference in future market transactions. For those who are facing foreclosure now, I think the most immediate need is to provide them relief in the event that they are forced into bankruptcy.
While I do think loan - voluntary loan modification programs like the Hope Now Alliance play very important roles, the truth is they're woefully inadequate. So people who face bankruptcy need relief. There is a bill that Congressman John Conyers and Steve Chabot, both Democrat and Republican in the House, and Senator Dick Durbin from Illinois have introduced to provide relief to those facing bankruptcy and Chapter 13. And we think that's the most significant and immediate step that Congress needs to take.
MARTIN: Attorney General, 30 seconds to you. Any further relief you think is required beyond sort of the criminal justice probe that we're talking about?
Attorney General MADIGAN: You made a great point, and obviously the wheels of justice turn slowly, and oftentimes too slowly for people. What we suggest is that people who are in subprime loans immediately contact either a HUD housing counselor or they contact an attorney general's office so that we can try to work on a modification. They have been very slow, but we've been pushing servicers to make sure that those are taking place, because we don't want to see people displaced. And yes, there are a lot of good ideas on Capitol Hill, but sometimes that process moves almost as fast as litigation.
MARTIN: All right. Thank you so much. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan joined us from her office. Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Council on Civil Rights joined us here in the studio in Washington. Thank you both so much for speaking with us today.
Attorney General MADIGAN: Thank you.
Mr. HENDERSON: Thank you.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio. | <urn:uuid:9c70544b-a91c-4767-81d5-4408702c2582> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18659099 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977899 | 3,020 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Study Shows Radiofrequency Ablation Highly Effective in Treating Kidney Tumors
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – A relatively new, minimally invasive treatment was 100 percent successful in eradicating small malignant kidney tumors in a study of more than 100 patients, report researchers from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.
The patients underwent CT-guided radiofrequency ablation (RFA) at Wake Forest Baptist for kidney tumors ranging in size from 0.6 cm to 8.8 cm. A total of 125 tumors in 104 patients were treated over the period 2000 to 2006. In all of the patients, a biopsy had confirmed the presence of renal cell carcinomas (RCC), a common type of renal malignancy.
Of 95 tumors that were smaller than 3.7 cm (about 1.5 in.), all were completely eradicated by a single treatment, along with 14 of the larger tumors. Seven more of the 16 remaining larger tumors were eradicated after a second treatment, for a total 93 percent success rate for all 125 tumors. The results, reported in the August issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology, were based on follow-up exams over an average of about 14 months.
“This is the largest treatment group to date of patients with biopsy-proven renal malignancies,” said Ronald J. Zagoria, M.D., a professor of radiology at Wake Forest Baptist, an associate in urologic surgery, and lead author on the study. “The results – a high cure rate and low complication rate – establish that at institutions with experience doing this procedure, this is an alternative method for treating small renal malignancies in patients who are not good surgical candidates.”
RFA uses a needle-like treatment probe, guided by computed tomography (CT) as it is inserted through the skin into the tumor. The probe’s high-frequency alternating current heats the tumor tissue and destroys it. The technique has been used successfully in liver tumors since the early 1990s and has more recently been adapted for treatment of RCC.
“Renal cell carcinomas that are smaller than 3.7 cm in diameter can be reliably and safely eradicated with percutaneous RFA,” Zagoria and his colleagues conclude in the report. “This result is regardless of the location or position of the RCC in the kidney.
Larger tumors can also be eradicated with percutaneous RFA, they say, but with the larger tumors the risk of incomplete tumor destruction increases substantially. The authors also note that larger tumors near the middle of the kidney may be more difficult to ablate, possibly because they are close to large blood vessels or the ureter.
RFA is an outpatient procedure in which the patient is sedated but conscious and a local anesthetic is used at the puncture site. In the study being reported, 101 of the 104 patients went home the same day, and three were hospitalized after the procedure – one for a planned treatment, another for treatment of bruising around the puncture, and a third for treatment of exacerbation of a heart condition.
A total of eight patients experienced complications, including temporary air pockets in the chest cavity, mild to severe pain after the procedure, pneumonia, and problems with their ureters. Generally, the report says, “this study shows that the procedure ... has a very low rate of complications.”
Standard treatment for RCC has been a removal of the affected kidney, along with adjoining blood vessels and lymph nodes, known as a “radical nephrectomy,” although newer minimally invasive techniques, such as laparoscopic surgery, have also been used successfully.
Zagoria cautioned that RFA is not recommended if patients are good surgical candidates who are healthy, younger, and have two normal kidneys, because long-term follow-up is lacking and therefore the durability of cure is not confirmed. (The average age of patients in the study was about 70, with a range of 30-89.) However, he said, “I think this is a big advance in treating renal tumors.”
The best candidates for RFA, he said, are patients with increased risk of complications from surgery and those with an hereditary condition that makes it likely they will require repeated treatments because of continual development of RCCs.
Zagoria’s co-authors on the report are Michael A. Traver, M.D., David M. Werle, M.D., Molly Perini, and Satoru Hayasaka, Ph.D., all with Wake Forest Baptist, and Peter E. Clark, M.D., now at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
# # #
Media contact: Mark Wright, firstname.lastname@example.org, (336) 716-3382; Karen Richardson, email@example.com, or Shannon Koontz, firstname.lastname@example.org, (336) 716-4587.
Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center is an academic health system comprised of North Carolina Baptist Hospital and Wake Forest University Health Sciences, which operates the university’s School of Medicine. The system comprises 1,154 acute care, psychiatric, rehabilitation and long-term care beds and is consistently ranked as one of “America’s Best Hospitals” by U.S. News & World Report.
Media Relations Contacts: | <urn:uuid:f6c73c4c-504c-436a-a139-8aef0a3688eb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wakehealth.edu/News-Releases/2007/Study_Shows_Radiofrequency_Ablation_Highly_Effective_in_Treating_Kidney_Tumors.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957451 | 1,137 | 2.078125 | 2 |
CONVERSATIONS ABOUT THE PAST
Board of Directors and Officers, LJPHS
history will describe how this project developed, and how
we hope it will develop in the future. See Participants for information on individual members of the
Society, or use the links under the picture above.
In 1993 two of Levi Jordan's descendants (Dorothy Cotton and Ginny Raska) and the archaeology director, Dr. Kenneth L. Brown, set up the "Levi Jordan Plantation Historical Society", a 501(c)3 tax-exempt non-profit corporation, to begin the process of interpreting the Jordan site to the public. Dorothy Cotton is the executrix of the estate which still owns the plantation, and she and her co-owners agreed to lease the plantation grounds, including the slave/tenant quarters and the main house, to the Society for 99 years. Therefore, while the site is still privately owned, it is controlled by the non-profit organization, and will be for the foreseeable future.
My role in this organization was to arrange for pro-bono legal work, and to serve as the organizations Secretary, researcher, and "expediter". I did not serve on the Board of Directors because we all agreed that it should be dominated by local, Brazoria County individuals the only "outsider" on the Board was the archaeology director. The job of the organization was to include (but not be limited to) planning any public interpretations that might take place including house restoration, museum building, doing public talks, fundraising, and similar activities. We all agreed that no substantive planning would take place (such as writing a mission statement, applying for National Register status, and so on) until the Board could expand to include people to represent the plantations African American ancestors. At that point we had not identified many of the African American descendants and had no idea who might be willing and able to be involved, and we needed to get community input as well as to identify people who might be interested in participating on a formal basis.
So, with this end in mind, I began to conduct interviews with people in the African American community. Some interviews went very well, and the comments they generated were very useful in establishing themes that will guide us later in planning a public interpretation. However, it proved to be extremely difficult to arrange appointments. Only one person ever directly said "no" to an interview request, but, although all of the people I contacted were unfailingly polite and gracious, many had some reason not to meet with me (such as not having time, busy schedule and illness). I kept sensing a wariness, a reluctance to share any candid opinion, or to tell me what they really thought about history in general or about this plantation. I knew that my job might be difficult because I was an outsider (in that I am urban, white, academic, and so on), but I kept sensing that these factors were only part of the reason for their apparent wariness. When we would start talking about racially charged issues, and about the shared aspects of our experiences as southerners in the late 20th century, people seemed to feel that I was sincere and basically trustworthy. I knew there was "something else" besides my being an outsider that was affecting the success of my interviews.
In the summer of 1994 I finally started to learn what this was, when I began to hear about other history-related community projects in which black participation had obviously been tokenized. One person mentioned a museum that had neglected to include blacks on its board, except on a token "advisory committee", and another mentioned a local history event in which blacks were asked to participate, but only after most of the plans had already been made. Some also noted that even though the other local plantation museum had attempted to develop some programming about African American history, it was evident that there was no intent to change the more general planter-class focus of the site (the blacks had been told they were "welcome" to do some kind of display, in an outbuilding on the site, and little or no funding was provided by the main facility).
I started to realized that it was not surprising that my naive requests for interviews and appeals for opinion were regarded with suspicion. It became obvious that interviews were not going to be a productive way of getting input from the African American community until members of the that community were fully empowered to act on any suggestions they might make. One encounter, in particular, clarified this situation. In the fall of 1994 I attempted to make an appointment to speak with an African-American woman who is a retired educator. This individual had obviously come across university researchers before, and stated emphatically that she would not meet with me until I had answered, in writing, the following questions:
"What will you actually do with the results of the interview? Will the [African American] community be able to put it to use, or will you just write a book and put it on a shelf somewhere?"
"What will the universitys [the University of Houston] role be in the process down the line? Will the archaeologist help plan the public interpretation, or will he simply pack up his trowel and move on?"
"What likelihood is there that anything will ever actually happen? And if it does, who will benefit from it the community or the university?"
I finally realized that these kinds of questions must have been on the minds of many of the people I attempted to interview, even if they didnt come right out and ask them. I did respond in writing to this person, of course, and decided to terminate the formal interview process. I then recommended that the existing three-person Board of Directors concentrate all their efforts on recruiting new members before any more planning, or talk of planning, took place. They readily agreed, and now, four years later, the Society has a much larger Board that includes several members of the African-American descendant community (including the person who asked the above questions!).
It is important to point out that the original three-member Board did not identify and select its new members. The first new member was selected by a local African American service organization whose membership includes several descendants of plantation residents, including the person most active in helping us recruit. That new Board member then helped us to find additional volunteers.
So, the formation and composition of the Levi Jordan Plantation Historical Society turned out to have a great deal to do with community perceptions of empowerment, voice and authority. I realized that I could interview as many people as I wanted to, but until African Americans were vested in the process, and empowered to make policy-level decisions, feedback from them would be extremely hard to obtain. Unless power was perceived to be held equally with white descendants and other community residents, nothing would ever "actually happen".
What mattered was power, not opinion.
About four years ago the expanded Board began to work together. Their first job was to write a formal Mission Statement. This statement was designed to be flexible while giving an overall direction for the organization. This Statement, in particular, embodies the both/and approach that the group agreed upon.
After writing the Mission Statement, and expanding it into a Long Range Plan with many specific ideas (educational programming, restoring the plantation house, and the like) the group realized that these two documents did not explicitly state the ideas that formed the basis of what the group is really all about. Therefore, the Long Range Plan now includes a Statement of Beliefs that outlines these ideas; together they are, in effect, an ideological statement about what the group believes. Every major decision about the content and focus of web site is reviewed by this group of people right now, it is the Society's most active public interpretation effort. We hope that will change as funds are raised to restore the house, build a museum, and other things.
Participants in this project hope that the work of the Levi Jordan Plantation Historical Society can provide opportunities for positive, meaningful communication between the various community groups who have a stake in the past, present, and future of this plantation, and of this community.
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‹ Carol McDavid 1998 | <urn:uuid:36fc45b8-bcc7-44d0-be94-f9a43d82f717> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.webarchaeology.com/html/about.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9766 | 1,721 | 2.125 | 2 |
Question of the Week
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When a tree looks good but just isn't growing, most people assume that they just aren't watering the tree enough, so they ramp up the irrigation. But a lack of water is likely not the issue, so more water won't help.
A tree that is not getting enough water will NOT look great, it will show signs of stress, such as yellow or brown leaves that dry up and drop off; limb die-back; and perhaps even borer damage and other secondary pest problems. And with last year's extreme heat and drought, followed by more hot temperatures and lack of rain this year, we do have a lot of trees across Central Texas that are showing drought-stress symptoms. Trees that aren't getting enough water also don't grow, but they look stressed, not healthy.
So the first thing that comes to mind in this situation, since the tree LOOKS good, is girdling roots. If a tree was grown in a container for too long before it was purchased, the roots will hit the sides of the container and begin to grow in a circle. And if this pattern isn't corrected before planting, the roots will continue to grow in a circle and will eventually choke the plant to death. I say eventually, because the entire process may take many years. And while the tree is slowly dying, it will look pretty good, it just won't grow, because the roots are all tangled up and woody and unable to take up any water or nutrients. So no matter how much you water the tree, it won't grow.
This is most noticeable when two trees have been planted at the same time, given the same amount of water and fertilizer, and treated the same in every way, but one looks the same today as it did several years ago, when it was first planted.
Other root issues may also lead to stunting. If you live in the Hill Country, with rocky limestone and virtually no soil, it could be that the planting hole you dug is simply a basin and the tree's roots can't penetrate into the rock surrounding them. The bottom line is, if the roots can't grow, the tree won't grow.
Unfortunately, the only way to confirm girdling and other root issues is to dig up the tree and inspect the roots, so most people choose to just leave the tree alone and live with its small stature. The bad news is, it may take a decade or more, but eventually, if the roots can't grow, the tree will die. | <urn:uuid:56c6949b-2479-4e9d-9b33-4056ea3615d1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://klru.org/ctg/question/My_tree_just_isn-t_growing._Why_not/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973659 | 521 | 3.265625 | 3 |
Voice of Witness, Inside This Place, Not Of It, provides a series of narratives based on interviews with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women. The book personalizes the background stories of women in prison, their experiences within walls, and their difficulties upon release.
The editing is graceful, light-handed, and almost invisible, making the stories ring true and fresh, as if the reader is sitting in the room with the speaker. Most of the time, the editors' hand is only seen in a helpful introductory paragraph, and the quality and sensitivity of the interviews themselves shines through the stories. There is something very genuine about some women's willingness to discuss the offense that brought them to prison, and others' reluctance to elaborate on the more difficult parts.
A few common themes emerge. So many of these stories begin with familial neglect and abuse, set in a general environment of deprivation and discrimination. The balance between being a product of one's environment and having personal responsibility for one's actions is delicate, but many of the interviewed women are very thoughtful and reflective, and provide a nuanced understanding of their actions in the context in which they were committed.
The two most alarming aspects of the narratives, for me, involved seldom-highlighted aspects of women's imprisonment. The first is the truly shoddy health care system. Shocking stories of giving birth while shackled and being separated from one's baby, receiving a mistaken HIV diagnosis that remained uncorrected for years (and treatment for it), having one's diabetes untreated and undiagnosed, callous carelessness about the possibility that an inmate might lose all her teeth, repeat themselves throughout the book.
The other aspect is the frequency with which sexual abuse by guards occurs in the prison environment. Many women report sex with guards under physical coercion or lack of choices, and for many of them, speaking up and complaining entails harsh retaliation and isolation from the prison staff as well as the inmates. Popular culture tends to focus on rape and sexual assault among inmates. It would appear that assault and exploitation on the part of staff requires much more serious and urgent attention.
The book also includes a series of great appendices, providing solid, readable information about topics such as the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), health care issues, and the incidence of prison rape. I can't recommend this enough as a great, honest window into lives seldom discussed publicly. | <urn:uuid:23c5a460-67cb-4b78-b97e-7268bab4aec5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://californiacorrectionscrisis.blogspot.com/2011/11/book-review-inside-this-place-not-of-it.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967232 | 483 | 1.734375 | 2 |
True, Christmas as a time of gift-giving among family and friends is indeed a 19th-century invention, but Peikoff gives us ideology rather than history when he says: "The freedom and prosperity of post Civil War America created the happiest nation in history. The result was the desire to celebrate, to revel in the goods and pleasures of life on earth. Christmas (which was not a federal holiday until 1870) became the leading American outlet for this feeling" (December 24, 2003).
What motivated bourgeois families to invent a new domestic ritual of Christmas was class struggle:
In the real world of New York, misrule came to a head at Christmastime. . . . [T]his season had traditionally been a time of carnival behavior, especially among those whom the knickerbockers considered "plebeians." Bands of roving youths, lubricated by alcohol, went about town making merry, making noise, and sometimes making trouble. Ritual usage sanctioned their practice of stopping at the houses of the well-to-do and demanding gifts of food and especially drink -- a form of trick-or-treat commonly known as "wassailing." After 1800, this Christmas misrule took on a nastier tone, as young and alienated working-class New Yorkers began to use wassailing as a form of rambling riot, sometimes invading people's homes and vandalizing their property. One particularly serious episode took place during the 1827 Christmas season; one newspaper reported it to have been the work of a mob that was not only "stimulated by drink" but also "enkindled by resentment." The newspaper warned its readers not "to wink at such excesses, merely because they occur at a season of festivity. A license of this description will soon turn festivals of joy, into regular periods of fear to the inhabitants, and will end in scenes of riot, intemperance, and bloodshed." . . .Ironically, the first professional police in New York City was established in 1828 in response to a violent Christmas riot.
Washington Irving and John Pintard were both nostalgic for the days when wassailing had been a more innocent practice, and both were concerned about the way Christmas had lately become a season of menace. Each, in his own way, engaged in an effort to reclaim the season. Irving wrote stories of idyllic English holiday celebrations (he did much of his research at the New-York Historical Society), and Pintard went about devising new seasonal rituals that were restricted to family and friends. His introduction of St. Nicholas at the Historical Society after 1804 was part of that effort.
And "The Night before Christmas," published in 1823, became its apotheosis. What these enduring verses accomplished was to address all the problems of elite New Yorkers at Christmastime. Using the raw material already devised out of Dutch tradition by John Pintard and Washington Irving, the poem transformed stern and dignified St. Nicholas into a jolly old elf, Santa Claus, a magical figure who brought only gifts, no punishments or threats. Just as important, the poem provided a simple and effective ceremony that enabled its readers to restrict the holiday to their own family, and to place at its heart the presentation of gifts to their children -- in a profoundly gratifying, ritual alternative to the rowdy street scene that was taking place outside. "The Night before Christmas" moved the Christmas gift exchange off the streets and into the house -- a secure domestic space in which there really was "nothing to dread." And don't forget that in real life, prosperous people did have something to dread -- after all, those wassailing plebeians might not be satisfied to remain outside.
"The Night before Christmas" contains a sly allusion to that possibility: for Santa Claus himself is a personage who breaks into people's houses in the middle of the night at Christmastime. But of course this particular housebreaker comes not to take but to give -- to wish goodwill without having received anything in return. "The Night before Christmas" raises the ever present threat -- the "dread" -- but only in order to defuse it, to offer jolly assurance that the well-being of the household will not be disturbed but only enhanced by this nocturnal holiday visitor. (Stephen Nissenbaum, "There Arose Such a Clatter: Who Really Wrote 'The Night before Christmas'? [And Why Does It Matter?]," Common-place: The Interactive Journal of Early American Life 1.2, January 2001) | <urn:uuid:da6da0ad-d4b7-4945-bcfb-3964a8e283e3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://montages.blogspot.com/2004/12/class-struggle-at-christmas.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973225 | 932 | 3.09375 | 3 |
Neglected but Pretty French Provincial Backwater
France is one of the most visited countries in the world, but there are many French regions that certainly do not feel that way. The truth is that the flow of visitors to France is very unevenly distributed – like the rain in Spain, say, or wealth in the US.
While Paris and much of coastal France are positively soaked, the appropriately named “Centre” region of France is the barren Extremadura of the country’s tourism map – or its inner-city Detroit.
Take Bourges, for example. Bourges has a handsome old town, one of the country’s (and therefore the world’s) most outstanding Gothic Cathedrals, and the famous Marais de Bourges (the reason why we had gone there in the first place) and much else.
Still, on a February week-end, while it was true that we were not the only tourists around, it was equally fair to say that we could not help noticing how we always seemed to run into the same people at different points of the “tourist trail” – to the point where we were on almost nodding acquaintance with an elderly Dutch couple. That could not happen to you in Paris.
This relative neglect of Bourges is actually a pity because there is quite a lot to see. Let’s start our walk at the Cathedral, in the centre of the Old Town.
Construction works on the church were probably started as early as the 12th century, which makes the Cathedral one of the earliest examples of Gothic architecture in the world. It is quite a massive building, far less graceful than Notre Dame de Paris, for example, and its walls – although supported by flying buttresses – are still quite thick, a timely reminder that medieval master builders were not so good at static calculations but rather proceeded by trial and error.
Leave the Cathedral square on its extreme northeastern corner – on the other side, diagonally opposite, from the archbishop’s gardens – through the narrow passage into the Promenade des Remparts.
The old city walls on your left hand side are proof that Bourges is one of the oldest urban settlements in France, already a proper town with city walls and a fortified centre when Caesar came here, saw – and almost lost the plot of his De Bello Gallico.
His Gallic enemy, the formidable Vercingetorix, had very successfully pursued a “scorched earth” policy, pushing the Roman army to the brink of starvation by destroying all towns and settlements in the area: all with the exception of Avaricum that is, as Bourges was called at the time, believing it to be unassailable due to its location, on a hill in the middle of swampy marshlands, and its strong fortifications.
Caesar, however, did in the end manage to conquer the town and to replenish the near-empty granaries of his army – perhaps the key turning point in the Gallic Wars.
Walk down to Rue Bourbonnoux and turn left in the direction of Place Gordaine with its handsome row of old merchant buildings from the golden age of Bourges in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Continue in a semi-circle around the edge of the Old Town past the Hotel des Echevins, the town’s 15th century City Hall …
… to the Palais Jacques Coeur, the former lodgings of the city’s most famous son, a medieval success story, not quite rags-to-riches but closer than you probably thought the Middle Ages could ever get (son-of-cloth-merchant to king’s-chief-consultant).
The truly fascinating thing about Jacques Coeur was that he was not just a provincial tradesman who became tremendously rich but an international wheeler dealer and a sort of (non-aristocratic) “shipping baron” whose trading empire was as much sea-based as land-based and who later assembled a fleet of ships for the Pope. They should make a movie about this guy!
I was nearly as amazed to find out that the Palais Jacques Coeur had been used as the court room for the trial against some of the 1848 revolutionaries including Raspail, Barbès and Louis Blanc. Even in the 18th century, it seemed that Bourges was still a city of note and national importance, worthy of such an important event.
Today, however, the national importance of Bourges is firmly in the past. The revolution of 1848 fought for freedom and democracy. The far more successful revolution of the 20th century for speed: fast roads, fast trains, even faster flights have shrunk formerly huge distances to a mere few hours.
But like all revolutions, this one, too, had winners and losers. Today, I can travel from Paris to Marseilles or Nice (by plane) in under an hour. The quickest route to Bourges takes me twice as long. If I get a direct connection, that is, of which there are none between 7:10 a.m. and noon. Going via Orleans, on weekends, can take me up to 3 and a half hours. By which time I can be half-way to New York!
So, Bourges, once a city of standing and national importance, has become nothing but simply another French provincial backwater, though a pretty one at that, with a lot for visitors (who are not in a particular hurry) to discover. | <urn:uuid:4430b48f-7088-4e47-a410-e74ea4a7da87> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://easyhiker.co.uk/bourges-pretty-french-provincial-backwater/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972663 | 1,144 | 2.09375 | 2 |
Even though Ford honcho Alan Mulally was seriously smitten by the company's Aussie Falcon G-Series, doubts about the car's future were presaged nearly a year-and-a-half ago as Ford built momentum behind the "One Ford" program. That initiative focused on the rationalization of platforms, so multiplel vehicles sold around the world could share underpinnings and save the Blue Oval some bucks. But with new fuel mileage requirements, the fate of the rear-wheel drive Falcon began to grow dark.
Things weren't helped at the Detroit Auto Show, were Mulally said "The best thing for Ford is to bring our scale and volume" to bear on the market and the balance sheet, and that manufacturers engaged in the complexities of different platforms for different markets, "can't compete with the global companies, and Ford's going to be a powerhouse globally."
The front-wheel drive Taurus platform is the one being mooted as the foundation of the next Falcon, and the idea of a FWD Falcon is practically Galilean heresy to Aussie enthusiasts. The popular sedan's redesign doesn't begin until next year in view of a 2014 market date so Mulally has a year to make a decision – and Aussies have a year to sway him. If the next Falcon is FWD, a compensation prize could be the Australian division helping to engineer the Mustang platform. Thanks to everyone for the tips! | <urn:uuid:b7fd817a-1fa6-4e4f-a253-601f114faf57> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.autoblog.com/2010/01/13/will-ford-discontinue-the-australian-made-falcon/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968383 | 290 | 1.539063 | 2 |
T Minus 1 Day in Florida
With the retirement of the Shuttles, NASA layoffs and a general lack of direction, it has been easy to believe that Washington does not care for spaceflight. Thanks to the Florida primary, for the last week Space has been an issue in the US. Newt Gingrich, with the audacity of hope, called for a Moonbase by the year 2021. Last week, Space an Issue For 2012? this blog suggested that Mitt Romney come up with a turnaround strategy. Along with a changing speed of light, this prediction has come true.
Friday a letter supporting Romney appeared signed by eight Space notables. These included Mike Griffin, former NASA administrator and architect of the Constellation Program. The list also included Eric Andersen, CEO of Space Adventures, astronauts Gene Cernan and Bob Crippen. In October 2010 Cernan, Neil Armstrong and Jim Lovell signed their own letter severely criticizing what has happened to NASA. Cernan has also called upon NASA administrator Charlie Bolden to resign.
Text of Letter from mittromney.com
"The U.S. space program is a strategic national asset, which makes critical contributions to our scientific knowledge, technological innovation, economic competitiveness, national security, and international leadership. We have watched with dismay as President Obama dismantled the structure that was guiding both the government and commercial space sectors, while providing no purpose or vision or mission. This failure of leadership has thrust the space program into disarray and triggered a dangerous erosion of our technical workforce and capabilities. In short, we have a space program unworthy of a great nation."
Newt Gingrich's call for a Moonbase ignited a debate about Space. The quick response, with experts on board, shows Mitt Romney's organizational skills. Unlike Gingrich, Romney has not yet offered a specific goal for Space. The competitiveness of this race has forced the Space issue into the open. Whatever the results of tomorrow's primary, whoever ends up in the White House, he will have a promise to keep. | <urn:uuid:964c5db9-a708-4f1d-b859-5d782f1c0acf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://riofriospacetime.blogspot.com/2012/01/t-minus-1-day-in-florida.html | 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 | 0.956263 | 410 | 1.984375 | 2 |
US proposal for Antarctic trip had Government officials at panic stations before last year's election
The National-led Government narrowly avoided a hugely embarrassing nuclear diplomacy quarrel after the United States proposed sailing a nuclear-powered ship into New Zealand's Ross Sea immediately before the general election.
New Zealand's Antarctic programme might have had to rely on a nuclear-powered icebreaker to supply its station at Scott Base before frantic lobbying by officials convinced the Americans to find an alternative ship.
The US proposal mortified New Zealand officials, and Foreign Minister Murray McCully had to step in to resolve the politically sensitive issue.
The US National Science Foundation planned to hire a Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker to cut a path for its supply ships to McMurdo Station in the Ross Dependency.
New Zealand has had a formal claim on the region since 1923. The Government does not have legal power to ban nuclear-powered ships from the Ross Sea, but has a strict anti-nuclear policy in the dependency.
Mr McCully was alerted to the US proposal by Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Mfat) officials.
On his orders, Mfat negotiated for several weeks and persuaded the foundation to use a non-nuclear ship.
Mr McCully told the Herald that a nuclear-powered ship in the dependency would have been "extremely unhelpful" to political relations.
"I think it's pretty clear that this would have been a sensitive issue for New Zealand and I'm delighted that the US ... was able to find an alternative approach.
"It would have been very unhelpful to have a nuclear-powered vessel involved. New Zealand enjoys a very constructive and co-operative relationship with the US in terms of our logistics pool."
The Government was particularly worried about the timing, with the US close to signing a contract for the Russian ship in the run-up to the general election in November.
The prospect of New Zealand supply ships depending on a nuclear-powered icebreaker heightened the Government's embarrassment.
One New Zealand official said that, as countries jostled for position at the mineral-rich continent, New Zealand would come under increasing pressure to rethink its anti-nuclear policy in the Ross Sea.
Mr McCully said he was unsure if the US or other nations would attempt to use a nuclear-powered ship for Antarctic trips in the future.
Russia had the largest fleet of icebreakers in the world - seven of them nuclear-powered - and was believed to be seeking a closer relationship with New Zealand on Antarctic projects.
The US has a small, ageing fleet of icebreakers and its Antarctic programme has depended on a Swedish ship, Oden, since 2006. But that ship was unavailable last year and the foundation ended up securing the 30-year-old diesel-powered Russian icebreaker Vladimir Ignatyuk.
The sophisticated icebreakers cost up to $1.2 billion to build and hundreds of millions to upgrade.
The floating port at McMurdo Sound was blocked by 10km of ice and an icebreaker took around two weeks to cut through it. The US container ship and tanker which travelled through the channel provided supplies to the largest community in Antarctica, McMurdo Station.
The Weekend Herald understands there was concern about the nuclear-powered icebreaker's potential voyage across the equator. Icebreakers are designed for cold weather operations, and a passage through tropical waters could complicate the cooling system for its nuclear technology. | <urn:uuid:c442fb41-f668-41e7-bd12-7bf73e0101a4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nzherald.co.nz/news/print.cfm?objectid=10840249 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975056 | 695 | 2.34375 | 2 |
tomamundsen wrote:Why follow one tradition? Because then you avoid the pitfall of picking and choosing what already accords with your own understanding and create a new form of YouDharma instead of BuddhaDharma.
The point is that the tradition anyone follows is actually the same tradition as everyone else's, it's just that their perspectives are different, and most Buddhist therefore see only one side of things, whereas there are many many sides to see. The point of of Ekayana is that there are no pitfalls, and that's why it's called the Supreme Vehicle, because it houses all truth-seekers and all of tradition regardless of different perspectives. In this way, I think that perspective--especially tradition perspective--is something we all must see past, in the end. To reach a path beyond perspective, and to walk directly upon the truth of things.
The Supreme Vehicle is what facilitates this end, and allows us to make our accomplishments. Not to say that differing traditions don't lead to accomplishment. What it says is, choosing the Supreme Vehicle is certainly not lesser than choosing to fix your perspective in one tradition. Pitfalls we find in our own practice does not come from tradition, any tradition or from teachings. Pitfalls come from our own mind, from our own perspectives. | <urn:uuid:f70c2103-e56d-46f1-b74d-666cec81375f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?p=122470 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961691 | 264 | 1.859375 | 2 |
|Governor Quinn Announces $21.7 Million Award to Create “Safe Routes to School”|
|News Releases - Civic News & Info|
|Written by Nafia Khan|
|Wednesday, 25 January 2012 10:25|
Program Supports Safety Instruction, Infrastructure Development and Encourages Alternative Modes of Transportation
SPRINGFIELD – January 24, 2012. Governor Pat Quinn today announced $21.7 million in Illinois Safe Routes to School grants to schools and communities across the state. The federally-funded program is designed to enable and encourage children to walk and bike to school safely.
“These projects enhance roads, sidewalks, and other infrastructure within communities, which is important in keeping both drivers and pedestrians safe,” Governor Quinn said. “Encouraging children to walk and bike to school not only makes school routes safer, but also improves the quality of life for Illinois residents by easing traffic congestion and reducing emissions.”
The 229 funded projects support sidewalk repair and equipment for police and crossing guards. The funding includes $1.5 million to assist communities with safety training, educational materials, and public service announcements encouraging safe walking and biking to school. This will help ensure a consistent statewide program and favorable outcomes from the Safe Routes to Schools projects.
“The Illinois Safe Routes to School grants help us build pedestrian-friendly roads and sidewalks while educating students and families on the importance of alternative forms of transportation and the benefits of an active lifestyle,” Illinois Transportation Secretary Ann Schneider said. “With these funds, we are also able to help communities implement projects aimed at lowering fuel consumption and air pollution.”
“This is exciting news for the entire state,” said Ron Burke, Executive Director of the Active Transportation Alliance, an advocacy organization that works to improve conditions for biking, walking and public transportation. “When we make bicycling and walking to school safer and more convenient, we are making our air cleaner and helping more kids get active and healthy.”
Illinois Safe Routes to School is a program of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration, designed to enable and encourage children, including those with disabilities, to walk and bicycle to school and encourage a healthy lifestyle from an early age. The program also facilitates projects and activities that will improve safety and reduce traffic, fuel consumption, and air pollution in the vicinity of primary and middle schools.
For more information about the Illinois Safe Routes to School Program and to view a list of funded projects, visit http://www.dot.il.gov/
# # #
Tags See All Tags | <urn:uuid:9ab05fd6-fdc6-4207-8e34-8f6c7feee536> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rcreader.com/news-releases/governor-quinn-announces-217-million-award-to-create-safe-routes-to-school/print/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944214 | 542 | 1.875 | 2 |
Controls a wide variety of fungal diseases.
Dilution rate - Mix 1.5g (1 level teaspoon) per litre of clean water.
Apply every 7 to 10 days. Spray foliage until run off occurs, making sure to spray leaves on both the upper and lower surfaces as complete coverage is required for effective control. Can be used all year round but especially effective in winter when fungal spores are most numerous.
Fungal disease in lawns. Apply at rate of 5 litres per 10m2.
800g/kg (80%) thiram in the form of water dispersible granules.
You can also dip your bulbs and tubers in solution to prevent rotting.
Registered Pursuant to the ACVM Act 1997 No P3056.
HSNO Approval code: HSR000738. | <urn:uuid:17e3e93a-24bd-42e5-b014-4ffe29339c4e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kiwicare.co.nz/garden/products/product-list/thiram-fungus-control/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.910043 | 174 | 1.945313 | 2 |
Demographic Structure And Asset Returns
AbstractThis paper investigates the association between population age structure, particularly the share of the population in the "prime saving years" (40 to 64), and the returns on stocks and bonds. The paper is motivated by recent claims that the aging of the "baby boom" cohort is a key factor in explaining the recent rise in asset values, and by predictions that asset prices will decline when this group reaches retirement age and begins to reduce its asset holdings. This paper begins by considering household age-asset accumulation profiles. Data from repeated cross sections of the Survey of Consumer Finances suggest that, whereas age-wealth profiles rise sharply when households are in their thirties and forties, they decline much more gradually when households are in their retirement years. When these data are used to generate "projected asset demands" based on the projected future age structure of the U.S. population, they do not show a sharp decline in asset demand between 2020 and 2050. The paper considers the historical relationship between demographic structure and real returns on Treasury bills, long-term government bonds, and corporate stock, using data from the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Although theoretical models generally suggest that equilibrium returns on financial assets will vary in response to changes in population age structure, it is difficult to find robust evidence of such relationships in the time series data. This is partly due to the limited power of statistical tests based on the few "effective degrees of freedom" in the historical record of age structure and asset returns. These results suggest caution in projecting large future changes in asset values on the basis of shifting demographics. Although the projected asset demand does display some correlation with the price-dividend ratio on corporate stocks, this does not portend a sharp prospective decline in asset values, because the projected asset demand variable does not fall in future decades. © 2001 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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Bibliographic InfoArticle provided by MIT Press in its journal The Review of Economics and Statistics.
Volume (Year): 83 (2001)
Issue (Month): 4 (November)
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Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services. | <urn:uuid:91142302-65f9-4605-8973-d392015f945c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ideas.repec.org/a/tpr/restat/v83y2001i4p565-584.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915081 | 839 | 2.140625 | 2 |
July 9, 2010: India recently commissioned two more Car Nicobar class FACs (fast attack craft). These 600 ton fast patrol boats are locally designed and built. Six are now in service, and four more will be completed in the next year. The ships have been a great success. With a top speed of 63 kilometers an hour, the Car Nicobars can stay at sea for about six days at a time (cruising at 22 kilometers an hour). The ships are very maneuverable because they use water jet propulsion.
Armament consists of a 30mm autocannon in a turret, two 12.7mm machine-guns and some shoulder fired anti-aircraft missiles. The crew of 49 live and work in air conditioned compartments. Each ship costs about $11 million, which is a very good price for a 48.9 meter/152 foot long coast guard vessel. India needs ships like this, because it has 7,500 kilometers of coastline to keep watch over. | <urn:uuid:21172c64-612e-4899-a00d-a417fb95ecda> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://strategypage.com/htmw/htsurf/articles/20100709.aspx?comments=Y | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961483 | 200 | 2.015625 | 2 |
"THAT'S FOR THE BIRDS!"
"That's for the birds!" the eagle quipped to himself.
He was offended by the intimidating verbal threats and the simple-minded brainwashing of the wrinkled old hen.
The young eagle prized his ability to solve problems. He valued his freedom and ability to reason. He had been taught that all problems have understandable causes and even relationship conflicts can be negotiated successfully, if they are analyzed in win-win contexts of mutual respect!
PROFESSIONAL LIBRARIAN'S CODE =
"ASSERT AND DEFEND YOUR VALUES WITHOUT FEAR!"
Return to: Eagle Allegory
Go to: Interactive Ideas | <urn:uuid:1f3fecda-a8af-4de9-8e4e-1795bf68adc7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://home.earthlink.net/~denmartin/eagle-birds.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960156 | 141 | 3 | 3 |
N.D. bans forced RFID chipping
Computer World | April 13, 2007
As expected, North Dakota has become the second state in the U.S. to ban the forced implanting of radio frequency identification (RFID) chips in people.
The two-sentence bill, passed by the state legislature, was signed into law by Gov. John Hoeven last Wednesday. Essentially, it forbids anyone from compelling someone else to have an RFID chip injected into their skin. The state follows in the steps of Wisconsin, which passed similar legislation last year.
"We need to strike a balance as we continue to develop this technology between what it can do and our civil liberties, our right to privacy," Hoeven said in an interview. He emphasized that the law doesn't prohibit voluntary chipping. Military personnel who want an RFID chip injected so they can be more easily tracked will still be allowed to get a chip. There are also potential uses for the technology in corrections or in monitoring animals, he noted.
Marlin Schneider, the state legislator who sponsored the Wisconsin law, said he is glad to see an antichipping legislation trend. However, such statutes don't go far enough to curb the ability of private sector retailers and manufacturers to "implant these things into everything we buy."
Ultimately, with RFID tagging systems, corporations "will be able to monitor everything we buy, everywhere we go and, perhaps as these technologies develop, everything we say."
But Michael Shamos, a professor who specializes in security issues at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, believes the law is too vague to do much good. For instance, it only addresses situations where a chip is injected, even though RFID tags can also be swallowed. And it doesn't clearly define what a forced implant really is; someone could make chipping a requirement for a financial reward.
"Suppose I offer to pay you $10,000 if you have an RFID [chip] implanted?" he asked. "Is that 'requiring' if it's totally voluntary on your part?"
The idea behind the law isn't bad, but "it looks hastily drawn and will have unpredictable consequences," said Shamos.
Infowars.com is Copyright 2007 Alex Jones | Fair Use Notice
"TerrorStorm is something that should be seen by everyone, no matter what their stance/affiliation/political bent. " - Rich Rosell, Digitally Obsessed UK
Get TerrorStorm on DVD today | <urn:uuid:6f32b3fa-992e-418c-9b74-67bb0e339987> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.infowars.com/articles/bb/rfid_nd_bans_forced_rfid_chipping.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958098 | 509 | 1.648438 | 2 |
There is a chance that the Plutocrat Romney could win. He is a man without a moral center.Ben wrote:Thanks Tilt.
That article looks interesting.
Actually, I was just listening to someone on the radio giving an analysis of the second Obama v Romney debate.
Review wrote:The Selfish Capitalist: origins of Affluenza
In this sequel to his Affluenza (2007), Oliver James argues that capitalism as practised recently in the richer English-speaking countries – that’s us – is making us miserable. ‘Affluenza’, a term coined in the late 1970s, is the pattern of chronic over-work, debt, anxiety and waste generated by our obsession with goods and income, and James traces its cause to economic policies.
He defines Selfish Capitalism as the neo-liberal Thatcherism adopted in the 1990s and finds that, depite the ‘trickle-down’ rhetoric, those policies made the rich very much richer while leaving the rest of us no better off financially and significantly worse off in other ways. Labour market deregulation undermined job security and held down real wages, the media joined business in successfully promoting perceptions of relative poverty even as real levels of consumption reached new highs, and debt increased enormously (in Australia, mortgages rose from 2.8 to 4.2 times average annual income between 1994 and 2004 while other personal debt tripled).
James is a clinical psychologist and he focuses on levels of ‘distress’ - basically unhappiness and mental illness. Others have presented similar arguments blaming unrestrained capitalism for social inequality, family breakdown, declining moral standards, teenage crime and many related problems. They may all be right. Convincingly untangling the causes and effects might be impossible – there are just too many factors to consider – but Oliver James does a good job, supporting clear arguments with good evidence.
Registered users: Bakmoon, Bhikkhu Pesala, Bing [Bot], convivium, cooran, Coyote, Crazy cloud, Dmytro, Exabot [Bot], Feathers, Google [Bot], kellievella, kmath, Majestic-12 [Bot], mettafuture, mikenz66, palchi, purple planet, thaijeppe | <urn:uuid:6cc5e2c4-48c2-45d2-9577-3f4d0c2c8ce4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?p=211731 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00076-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921919 | 466 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Their Eyes Were Watching God
[Nature]’s de strongest thing dat God ever made, now. Fact is it’s de onliest thing God every made.
Janie dislikes the business of running the store but loves that people sit on its porch and talk all day telling colorful, exaggerated stories. The men love teasing a man named Matt Bonner about his overworked, underfed, bad-tempered mule. They make jokes about how sorry the mule looks and needle Matt about how careless and cruel he is toward the animal. Despite Janie’s interest in these stories, Jody doesn’t allow her to sit outside, saying that she’s too good to interact with “trashy people.” But most annoying to Janie of all, Jody orders her to wear a head-rag because it makes him jealous to see other men look at her long hair, though he never reveals his motives to Janie.
One day, Matt Bonner’s mule runs away, and some of the townsmen find it outside the store. They irritate the mule for fun, and Janie mutters her disapproval of their cruelty. Unbeknownst to her, Jody is standing nearby and hears her complaint. He buys the mule for five dollars so that the poor beast can rest for once in his life. Everyone considers Jody’s liberation of the mule very noble, comparing it to Abraham Lincoln’s emancipation of northern slaves. The animal becomes a source of pride for the town and the subject of even more tall tales. After it dies, Jody convenes a mock funeral, which becomes a festive event for the entire town. But Jody refuses to allow Janie to attend, saying it would be improper for a woman of her status. After the funeral, vultures descend on the animal’s carcass.
At the store, Jody and Janie argue. She accuses him of being no fun and he argues that he is just being responsible. Although she disagrees, she decides to hold her tongue. On the porch, meanwhile, Sam Watson (Pheoby’s husband) and Lige Moss hold a humorous philosophical debate. They argue about whether natural instinct or a learned sense of caution keeps men away from hot stoves. The good-spirited argument gets intense and Jody decides to join it, leaving his delivery boy Hezekiah Potts in charge of the store. The conversation shifts to a discussion of the Sinclair gas station in town but then becomes a playful performance of machismo and flirtation as several of the town’s women parade by. Janie is enjoying the fun when Jody orders her back in the store to wait on one of the women.
When Janie cannot find any pig’s feet for another customer, Jody grows angry and accuses her of incompetence. Instead of fighting back, Janie remains silent. But as time goes on, her resentment builds. She feels the spark go out of their sex life and the spirit of love leave their marriage. One day, seven years after they met, Jody slaps her after a disastrous dinner. Still, Janie doesn’t express her anger; she decides to maintain an exterior of silent respect while keeping her dreams and emotions inside.
But later that day, Janie goes to the store. There, she finds Tony Robbins’s wife begging Jody for a little meat for her family. Jody gives her a small piece and adds the cost to Tony’s account. The men on the porch mutter that they would never allow their wives to embarrass them like that, especially since her husband had spent so much money on her. Janie finally cannot resist speaking up, scolding the men and saying that they don’t know as much about women as they think they do. She points out that it is easy to act big and tough when women and chickens are the only things around to subdue. Jody tells her to be quiet and orders her to fetch him a checkerboard.
Chapter 6 serves two chief functions: it further explores Janie and Jody’s relationship, particularly his need for control, and it examines the strong sense of community in Eatonville, particularly the way language nurtures this sense of community. Both of these issues relate to Janie’s continuing quest to find herself and a sense of meaning and purpose. Initially drawn to Jody because of his ambition, and thinking that she would achieve her dreams through him, Janie learns, in this chapter, that Jody’s power only restricts her. On the other hand, by experiencing the richness of life in Eatonville, in particular the rich folk traditions of conversation, Janie begins to see how she might live the life that she so desires.
Jody continues to exert the same kind of control over Janie that he does in Chapter 5. It is important to note, however, that Jody is not an evil character. Indeed, there are no true antagonists in the book, and evil is not manifested in specific individuals. Jody doesn’t cause pain for its own sake; rather, pain results for Janie as a result of the way that Jody acts—according to the rules that make sense to him, misguided though they are. He is living the only way he knows how. In his heart, he does not intend to hurt people, but his unfailing belief in a social hierarchy dominated by wealthy males inevitably hurts those around him.
That Jody is not fundamentally evil manifests itself in the episode with Matt Bonner’s mule. Jody’s purchase of the animal is a tender moment: unbeknownst to Janie, he spares the animal in order to please her. It is a noble display of power both because it frees the mule from cruelty and because it is meant to please Janie. But even in moments such as this one, Jody’s relationship to Janie still operates according to an imbalanced power dynamic. Though this incident is not a matter of anger or ambition but rather tender kindness, he can demonstrate this kindness only by means of money. He is unable or unwilling to interact on equal terms with Janie; he uses his purchasing power to express his emotions.
Furthermore, we get the sense that perhaps Jody’s actions are not so noble. One can argue that he senses Janie slipping away from him and that he intends the act to woo her back under his dominion. Indeed, he is praised for his compassion, and the comparison to Lincoln only feeds Jody’s haughty sense of himself—the same egotism with which he first attracts Janie. In refusing to allow Janie to attend the mule’s funeral, Jody again prioritizes issues of decorum over Janie’s happiness; he would rather keep up the appearance of his wife as a perfect lady than indulge her emotions. The unromantic, commonplace descent of the vultures upon the mule’s carcass after the funeral seems to testify, if not to the shallowness of Jody’s motivations, then to his inability to express himself suitably.
Hurston again uses two different narrative devices to differentiate between the realm of Janie and Jody’s relationship and that of the community. The third-person omniscient narrator describes Janie’s life in the store: except for her outburst at the end, she remains silent, and the narrator tells us her story. But in the lengthy passages of dialogue, we are brought deeper into the world of the novel: instead of being told a story, we are actually being shown a world. As Henry Louis Gates Jr. points out in his essay “Their Eyes Were Watching God: Hurston and the Speakerly Text,” we experience the full richness of these conversations because the characters speak for themselves. Only rarely does the narrator interrupt to tell us something about the scene.
Sam Watson and Lige Moss’s conversation about the role of nature in the world strikes at the heart of the novel’s central theme: the relationship between humans and the world around them. The porch conversation is, in modern terms, a debate over nature versus nurture: whether we are as we are because of what we are born with (nature) or what we are taught (nurture). Sam Watson’s comment that “[God] made nature and nature made everything else” resonates throughout the novel, particularly at the climax, when all of the characters find themselves at the mercy of nature. Janie is attracted to these conversations because of the warm human connection that they offer and their organic, humorous approach to the questions that are at the center of her journey to the horizon. Her outburst at the end of the chapter represents an attempt to break out from Jody’s silencing control and join the world of the porch.
by Mike_Halk, September 25, 2012
reading this book will send you into a deep depression because after you finish you will realize you spent hours translating this book into real english in your head and then you gained absolutely nothing from it.
312 out of 449 people found this helpful12
by coco_woah, October 06, 2012
Theirs also a really good movie adaption of this book, we watched it in school. It's with Halle Berry as Jane Crawford.
18 out of 36 people found this helpful2
by chinchilla99999, January 29, 2013
abcdefg gummy bears are chasing me one is red one is blue one is trying to steal my shoe now im running 4 my life cuz the red one has a knife im running at full speed ahead but then i stop cuz i havent been fed i feel my energy bar depleting but then a turkey begins retreating he whines about his finga and then i prone walk since i havent unlocked ninja i barrel roll into the red teddy take his knife and get ready i stab his fluffeh gooey back and then prepare for the secret attack i drop it to the groung and get a predator missile to move a... Read more→
133 out of 202 people found this helpful1 | <urn:uuid:1e030fc0-bf9e-40b2-982d-15af207800ba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/eyes/section4.rhtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960597 | 2,127 | 1.984375 | 2 |
Some environmentalists said the new data show why the EPA should swiftly move to release a long-anticipated environmental assessment of dioxin, the first installment of which the agency plans to issue this month. EPA officials say they will issue a report addressing dioxin’s non-cancerous effects first and then later release a cancer-related report.
Some industry groups, including the American Chemistry Council, have urged the EPA to hold off issuing the report in what the trade association’s president and chief executive, Cal Dooley, has called “a piecemeal fashion.” Chemical manufacturers accounted for nearly 64 percent of total disposal of dioxins in 2010, though they reported a 7 percent decrease from 2009 to 2010.
There has been much industry opposition to EPA initiatives reducing pollution and toxics, including the cross-state air pollution standard. The EPA rule meant to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2012, was stayed by a court order, delaying their implementation. Groups including the National Mining Association and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers fought implementation, calling the rule overreach.
However, the New York Times reports how one coal-fired power plant has been able to install cleaner technology to meet state and EPA standards. Constellation Energy’s Vice President for Environmental Compliance Paul Allen explained they had ample time to update technology to meet new rules: ““When we started making plans for this project, we did it with the expectation that there would be a federal regime, and we still have that expectation.”
When coal and utilities last fought cleaning power plants, citing concerns about reliability, Allen similarly determined “It’s entirely possible to comply with these rules and remain a profitable company.” | <urn:uuid:2e3fe71b-0c90-4e93-ae72-5c357639cd55> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thinkprogress.org/climate/issue/?m=20120106&mobile=nc | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957905 | 351 | 2.515625 | 3 |
According to Matt Asay, both PHP and Perl are crashing the enterprise party and are rapidly closing the gap between themselves and some of the more traditional "enterprise-ish" tools out there (like Java or .NET).
While dynamic programming languages like PHP and Python dominate Web engineering, the signs that they are breaking Java and .Net's hold on the enterprise are less clear. Forrester recently reported that PHP claims the highest instance of open source use within enterprises, at 57 percent penetration. But it's also the case that the bulk of enterprise software spending goes to Java and .Net-based software. Who is winning?
He links to a graph from Indeed showing the trends in the job market with PHP and Python (two dynamic languages) shooting their way to the top.
No, Java and .Net aren't going away anytime soon. But then, neither are the dynamic programming languages, which are increasingly blessed "enterprise ready." This is good for enterprise software, and potentially very good for ActiveState, SugarCRM, and others who build their businesses on dynamic programming languages. | <urn:uuid:4e841ff0-7d2c-4da3-9125-2ad87b32711f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jobs.phpdeveloper.org/tag/indeed | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945098 | 221 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Parenting by iPad - good or bad?
November 11, 2011 (WPVI) -- My 9-year-old may never pick up a hardcover book again (other than his text books). He's discovered the iPad - or MY iPad. And I must admit it's a great device for reading books... even children's books. But when he's not reading, he's using the iPad for other things like watching movies or playing games.
Certainly the potential benefit of these high-tech gadgets is obvious. They can be powerful learning tools just as long as the content is age-appropriate and designed for learning.
But recently the iPad as a children's tool has come under some scrutiny. A Wake University psychology professor says interacting with such devices doesn't replace the one-on-one, face-to-face interaction with people. In fact, she says it could discourage young children from being conversational.
I've seen instances where the iPad is nothing more than an expensive toy for children... such as a family in a restaurant or on a airplane, trying to keep their youngster occupied by letting them play or stare quietly at the devices. And certainly my 9-year-old also has various hand-held video games and it does come in handy in keeping him busy in certain situations.
But at some point all parents - including me - have to ask themselves if they're somehow bribing our kids to be good with high-tech, flat-screen media.
Some parents say it's better than just sitting kids in front of a television set. Others say there's nothing wrong with it as long as there are limitations on its usage.
There are no easy answers when it comes to parenting by iPad. All kids are different and, whether we like it or not, these devices are ubiquitous in our society and will continue to be. So I'll remain vigilant in my search for educational apps, but even I can't turn away from Angry Birds from time to time.
rick williams parenting reports, parenting, rick williams
- Traffic stop turns violent, police shoot suspect
- A Nice Stretch
- WATCH: Action News Online
- Get the new 6abc StormTracker app
- 10-year-old Wilmington boy reported missing 14 min ago
- Mourning NJ doctor killed in murder-suicide
- Maple syrup used to vandalize Pottstown church 17 min ago
- Award-winning journalist Michael Hastings dies 26 min ago
- Paraplegic man castrated in SW Phila. attack
- Car carrier crashes into bridge in Whitemarsh Twp.
- Storms bring floods to the Jersey shore
- Police: Girl used in theft at Phila. nail salon
- Death investigation leads police to home of Patriots TE 52 min ago
- James, Heat push NBA Finals to Game 7 46 min ago
- Maple syrup used to vandalize Pottstown...
17 min ago
- Award-winning journalist Michael Hastings...
26 min ago | <urn:uuid:38c0ac57-a4a0-4cb6-8fb1-27213d59d9a5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/parenting&id=8428363 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956393 | 612 | 1.695313 | 2 |
In a recent Gallup poll, it was found that many Americans disagree with the President’s decisions on the top issues in the country. From jobs and the economy, to gun rights, the approval rate is sinking.
Out of the topics covered by the study, Obama was rated highest in National defense, and lowest in the federal budget deficit with 31% who approved and 65% who disapproved.
In addition to these topics, Gallup provides a little more behind the numbers shown in the latest polling.
If President Obama focuses on the economy in his fourth State of the Union address Tuesday night, as news reports indicate he will do, he will be dealing with an area in which the American public gives him relatively low performance ratings. The president’s 39% rating on handling the economy is essentially the same as the 38% from this time last year, although lower than the ratings of 45% and 44% he received just before and just after last November’s presidential election. Obama received his lowest rating on the economy (26%) in August 2011, in the aftermath of the debt ceiling fight in Washington. Obama earned his highest economic rating, 59%, in February 2009 — in the first measure after he took office. | <urn:uuid:72555d6a-3897-4c20-a255-6481b41d3c2e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.enumclaw.com/news/national-news/most-americans-disagree-with-obama-on-top-issues/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978579 | 248 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Potty Training Tips for Boys
Here are some great tips for potty training boys.
If you decide to teach you son to pee standing up, have him "sink the battle ship"
Use Potty Scotty toilet targets, toilet paper, cheerios, or even ice cubes colored with food coloring and have your child aim at the battle ship.
Change the color of the toilet water to blue by using cleaning tablets or food coloring. When he pees in it, he will see the color change to green.
Add a little shampoo to the water and it will create bubbles as he pees.
Let him pee outside - in the backyard, in the woods or even in the snow.
Have him practice aiming at something or writing in the snow.
Make sure that the toilet seat stays in the raised position when put there; injuries have been caused by falling seat.
|Need more potty training tips and advice on potty training problems or just general advice, check out all of our Potty Training Articles!| | <urn:uuid:351efded-b34c-48c5-a423-16db069791ca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pottyscotty.com/Potty-Training-Boys-Stand.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94625 | 212 | 2.53125 | 3 |
On Friday, Turner introduced the Tax and Education Assistance for Children (TEACH) Act of 2012, which aims to provide a tax credit of up to $5,000 per year to families.
“Every parent knows that one of the most important and most expensive responsibilities of parenthood is educating their children,” Turner said as he stood at the entrance of St. Margaret's School in Middle Village. “But the best education is not always in the public school system; one size does not fit all. People have their own choices and beliefs.”
Turner said that the TEACH Act will effectively eliminate or minimize the effects of what he calls a double taxation, which parents who choose to send their children to private schools face.
“When a parent chooses to send their child to a non-public school, they no longer use resources of the public school system, but are still responsible for paying taxes that go toward the public school,” he said. “And on top of that they have to pay for the tuition of the non-public school – in essence, double taxation.”
If passed, the TEACH Act will provide parents who send their children to non-public schools a tax credit of up to $5,000 per year, per family.
“It will not pay for this education, but will go a long way in helping the parents, relieving a tremendous burden,” Turner said.
The bill is already receiving praise from parents and school administrators.
“There are so many parents I meet with on a regular basis who would very much like to either keep their children in private school or send their children to private school but cannot afford to do that,” said Philip Franco, principal of St. Margaret's School. “It would be a wonderful opportunity for all faith-based or even private schools to benefit the parents especially during these times that are very difficult.”
Kelly Redmond, a Middle Village resident and parent of a first-grader at St. Margaret's, is behind the bill.
“Wanting to send our child to St. Margaret's, we've made many sacrifices,” she said. “I think it would be foolish to not take a really good look at this. I think it's a long time coming.”
Some administrators are also saying that the bill is a win-win because it will help non-public schools increase their enrollment by making tuition more affordable, while reducing class sizes in public schools.
The bill also has support from the Diocese of Brooklyn. “We hope that other representatives in Congress will also choose to support the TEACH Act and the many families that it will undoubtedly assist,” said Stefanie Gutierrez, spokesperson for the diocese.
Turner believes the bill will gain support in Congress.
“I have some confidence that with hard work it will be able to get through the House this year,” he said. “We need a lot of support to get this moving.”
He said he expects some opposition to the bill but is ready to start a dialogue.
If passed, the bill would qualify and help parents of over 75 private schools within Turner's ninth Congressional District, which covers parts of Queens and Brooklyn. | <urn:uuid:0fdabd5b-2f16-4872-9deb-a3cb1eff70e2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.queensledger.com/view/full_story/17772125/article-Turner-s-TEACH-Act-could-save-parents-thousands-?instance=lead_story_left_column | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979774 | 678 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Last week, deep snows to our north brought to a halt the first waves of migrating sandhill cranes winging through the Tri-State. The prehistoric birds gathered in and around Blue Grass Fish and Wildlife Area and verified that, despite ongoing winterlike weather, lengthening days mean breeding season is in the offing.
The cranes' long-distance yodels proclaim that they know what we only dare to hope: spring will soon spring.
Some folks also reported hordes of American robins in their yards over the past two weeks. Surely, they asked, the robins herald spring? Well, no. Robins never leave the Tri-State. Instead, the pair that nested in your yard has joined hundreds of their kind, flocking in search of their means of winter survival — berries.
Like most bug- or earthworm-eating birds, robins turn to berries for winter fat. Almost anyone who has American holly trees has witnessed firsthand the resulting drama.
Robins swoop in by the dozens — even hundreds — and, starting in the uppermost berried branches, pluck and gulp the fruits until their crops bulge full. As they retreat to digest the feast, they're replaced by others equally as voracious.
The to-and-fro flights generate more yard activity than virtually any other feeding frenzy backyard feeder hosts will likely witness. Depending on tree size and robin numbers, trees can go bare of berries in hours. Our two 35-foot, heavily laden trees lasted through only two days of frenetic feeding.
For robins, though, bare trees stand as stark symbols of what's to come. A bare tree means a now-extinguished food supply. So while ongoing winter represents a mere inconvenience for us, it's a matter of life and death for bug-eaters, turned wintertime-berry-eaters.
To help, consider a way to provide more berries next winter. Make plans now to plant your yard or garden with berry-producers that last late into winter, trees like crabapple, red cedar and American holly, or bushes like chokeberry, coralberry, nannyberry and winterberry.
We're far from the only ones hoping for spring. But for birds, the seasonal shift represents a crucial, life-giving change.
UPCOMING PROGRAM: Many birds that wintered south of here, some in the farthest reaches of South America, have already begun their journey north to their summer breeding grounds — here and points farther north.
Why do some birds migrate and others not? Where do migrants go? How do they find their way there — and back again?
To learn more, join us for Miracle of Migration at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Audubon State Park Museum. We'll answer those questions and then follow a bird from the Tri-State to and from its wintering grounds in South America exploring the obstacles it faces and how it survives. The program is free; no registration; seating first-come, first-served.
GREAT BACKYARD BIRD COUNT: The GBBC, the world's largest citizen science project, runs Friday through Feb. 21. Count on any of the four days or every day, in your backyard, neighborhood, schoolyard, church campus, business complex or park. Find out how to participate and report your totals online at http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc.
A lifelong area resident and backyard birder, Sharon Sorenson lives on a 3-acre certified backyard wildlife habitat and has more than 150 bird species on her yard list. She will share observations about birds in a biweekly column, and readers can contact her by e-mail at email@example.com | <urn:uuid:622f58fe-9673-44b6-be16-e5ab5c712b58> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.courierpress.com/news/2011/feb/13/bare-berry-trees-mean-life-or-death-for-birds-in/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933909 | 781 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Older criminals and layabouts refer to young teens who do their bidding as “crash test dummies.’’ That’s the phrase that Boston detectives heard after two young teenagers — ages 14 and 15 — were arrested in connection with separate murders in October, according to Police Commissioner Edward Davis.
Even by the callous standards of urban slang, the reference to crash dummies goes beyond the pale. It speaks to a willingness to reduce a vulnerable young person to nonhuman status. Even worse, it suggests that the purpose of such dehumanization is to transform a teen into a human weapon to be launched at will.
The Oct. 17 murder in the South End seems to fit the crash-dummy criterion. Raymond Concepcion, 15, has been charged with murder after police say he was identified as the person who fired several shots at a 22-year-old man in a stopped vehicle. Concepcion’s codefendants are ages 19 and 21. Earlier that week, Ernest Watkins IV, 14, was charged with the Oct. 6 stabbing death of a 39-year-old man near the Fields Corner T station. Police say that Watkins was one of several people who confronted the victim shortly after 1 a.m. Given the late hour and the victim’s criminal history — including a murder charge — it’s unlikely that all of the assailants who escaped were barely out of middle school.
In good neighborhoods, it would be odd to see young people in their early teens consorting with older teens or the 20-something crowd. But in dangerous neighborhoods of Boston, especially those with a lot of gang activity, the situation is common. Social scientists call it “cross-cohort socialization.’’ Others call it creepy.
University of Michigan sociologist David Harding documented the phenomenon in his 2010 book “Living the Drama,’’ a study of the conflict and culture of inner city boys in Boston. The author argues that the more violent the neighborhood, the greater the likelihood that young boys will “form intense friendships and interact more frequently with older peers’’ due to the need for protection and the limited opportunities for outside social contact.
Even by the callous standards of urban slang, the reference to crash dummies goes beyond the pale.
Harding found that 75 percent of his interview subjects from the Franklin Park and Roxbury Crossing neighborhoods — areas known for high levels of gang activity — reported older, unrelated males as part of their peer network. Not surprisingly, he also found that young boys who do not have regular contact with their fathers are especially susceptible to the influences of cross-cohort socialization.
Such findings deserve the careful attention of Boston’s public health and community center officials. Everyone can agree on the importance of recruiting responsible adult mentors for organizations such as Big Brothers and Boys Clubs. But what about the flip side? Too few groups are addressing the so-called “original gangsters’’ and older men who, according to Harding, steer the younger ones into gang life.
Emmett Folgert, director of the Dorchester Youth Collaborative, actively tries to identify and contact older gang members who undermine his center’s anti-violence work.
“We are competing with guys in jails who are advising these kids,’’ said Folgert. “It’s ridiculous.’’
But it’s not entirely fruitless. Occasionally, Folgert and his youth workers successfully convince older gang members to loosen their grip on the younger teens.
Such efforts might be more successful if the Legislature calibrated tough, enhanced penalties for any adult who commits a crime in a joint venture with a juvenile. In Massachusetts, juveniles as young as 14 who are charged with first- or second-degree murder must be tried in adult court. Lawmakers drew this hard line in 1996. The least they could do now is to target adult crime coaches before more juveniles graduate to murder.
City-run community centers should also revisit their policies. One of the suspects in the South End murder, 21-year-old Shakeem Johnson, was a regular at a Roxbury center. Daphne Griffin, Boston’s chief of human services, said staffers at community centers are careful to create age-specific programs to prevent younger teens from possible exposure to the influences of older gang members. But there are periods — especially open gym — when a wide range of ages are present. That’s when supervision needs to be tightened.
The October murders can be viewed as a sudden acceleration. Now the city needs to take greater safety measures or prepare for impact. | <urn:uuid:935b0281-9322-4f8f-bb17-b768fc3c53cf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2012/11/02/crash-dummies-collide-boston-streets/8FW9uh37TckCZ43rHsPiuJ/story.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959458 | 963 | 1.984375 | 2 |
Hairui, (1514－1587) also known Ruxian, or Gangfeng, was a uncorrupted minister in the Ming Dynasty. He was born in Qingshan and was assigned
The constructions of the tomb buidings are majestic. A memorial archway stands right at the front of the gate, with the words of “Justice of Hainan” engraved on it. Path to the tomb is making of granite and is of 100 meters long. Stones with the shapes of man, goat, horse, lion and tortoise stand at each side of the path. There are other three archways along the path too. | <urn:uuid:a6192762-722a-41ec-8641-f833497590af> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.chinatravel.com/haikou-attraction/hairui-tomb/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980389 | 137 | 2.5 | 2 |
A woman rests after an accident at Kraft Foods in Bad Fallingbostel, northern Germany, on Oct. 16. / Ingo Wagner, AFP/Getty Images
BERLIN (AP) - Some 1,400 people are returning to their homes in northern Germany, a day after they were evacuated when an accident at a factory caused a cloud of toxic gas.
Authorities said Tuesday that residents living around the Kraft Foods Germany factory in Bad Fallingbostel were allowed back in after emergency crews successfully emptied a tank in which some 6,340 gallons of nitric acid and highly concentrated sodium hydroxide were accidentally mixed.
The accident occurred Monday afternoon. No injuries were reported
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Read the original story: 1,400 Germans return home after chemical mishap | <urn:uuid:a9f88df3-92ef-442f-85b9-583d7008b782> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jacksonsun.com/usatoday/article/1635917?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cs | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948171 | 176 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Some friends and I were discussing whether we'll ever again have a president with a moustache or beard . We were divagating over this because as it happens 2013 marks the 100-year anniversary of the last facially enriched president, who left office that year. In came Woodrow Wilson, and ever since, we've had not a single moustache, of understanding or otherwise, in the Oval Office. Hardly even at the top of a ticket.
Why? Any theories out there? It could just be a coincidence of course. To begin with, not that many American males wear facial hair. Hard to get a handle on this, but here's one article reporting that 10 to 20 percent of men grow the facial grass. So maybe it's just that.
On the other hand, I think of senators, members of the House, governors...even among this group, almost nothing but razor-faces. Why? There must be something shifty looking about moustaches. It is true that villains often have moustaches, the very phrase "moustachioed villain" having entered the lexicon some years ago, with regard to...uh, Snidely Whiplash, or someone. (Actually, probably with the silent-film baddies on whom Whiplash was based; by the way, what a great name, Snidely Whiplash!)
As for beards, I suppose they must represent either slovinliness or some anti-establish bent. As luck would have it just last night I was watching the 1969 Dick van Dyke vehicle "Some Kind of Nut" on TCM last night, which is about a bank clerk who gets fired because he grows a beard. The hippies take up his cause and he sort of becomes one. Well, I'm not sure what happened. The movie--directed, incidentally, by Garson Kanin--wasn't very good and I turned it off.
Yes, that was 40 whatever years ago, but I'm not sure the beard's image has changed all that much. The exception is that really smart Jews can get away with it. Bernanke, Krugman. Somehow a beard is different if you're Jewish. I suppose there are good historical and cultural reasons for that.
Okay then, here's a little quiz for you:
1. Who was that president who left office in 1913?
2. Since then, two party standard bearers, both of them losers, have worn facial hair. Name them. one is easy, and one really hard, which even I didn't get.
3. Lincoln was the first president with facial hair. From him until this person who left in 1913, every president except two had either a beard or a moustache. Name those two.
And here are your answers. I'm sorry I don't have a cleverer way to do this. 1. William Howard Taft; 2, Thomas Dewey (1944 and 48, moustache) and Charles Evans Hughes (1916, beard). 3, Andrew Johnson and Wm McKinley.
Don't have an hour to watch President Obama pontificate on the future of national security? No worries! Watch the key moments from his speech in less than 250 seconds.
What’s so bad about the IRS investigating nonprofit applications? | <urn:uuid:191b04bd-9194-4514-b259-d4fdcc571a71> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/01/22/will-we-ever-have-a-hirsute-president-again.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974513 | 683 | 1.734375 | 2 |
This two minute time-lapsed video takes you from the UMFA to Spiral Jetty, typically a two-and-a-half hour drive.
This website was created to provide resources about Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty (1970) for viewers who may or may not have visited the earthwork in person. It serves as a companion to The Smithson Effect, an exhibition that explores Smithson's influence on contemporary artists since the 1990s, on view at the UMFA from March 10–July 3, 2011.
Robert Smithson's iconic earthwork, Spiral Jetty, takes the form of a 1,500-foot-long and approximately 15-foot-wide coil of basalt rocks that extends into Utah's Great Salt Lake, near Rozel Point. Smithson was one of a number of artists in the late 1960s and 1970s who moved out into the vast, open landscapes of the American West, putting the earth itself to use as an artistic medium. He chose the lake as the site of his monumental sculpture because he was drawn to the reddish hue of the water, caused by microorganisms that thrive in the highly saline environment.
Along with many other artists of his generation, Smithson abandoned the confines of the traditional artist's studio and the creation of discrete objects, favoring a site-specific approach to art, meaning that the work is physically bound to—or has a necessary and specific relationship to—a given site. Spiral Jetty is situated in a particular location—Great Salt Lake—but it is site-specific in other ways, too: the shape of the spiral, for instance, is echoed in the lake's salt crystals, which grow in a spiraling, crystalline formation.
For many years, audiences experienced Spiral Jetty primarily through photographs and Smithson's film, Spiral Jetty (1970). The earthwork was covered by the rising waters of the lake not long after it was built, and it remained submerged for much of its life, a ghostly form just visible beneath the water's surface. In the early 2000s Spiral Jetty reemerged, and the lake has now receded so far from the mainland that visitors can walk between the rings of the spiral if they choose. The ever-changing conditions of the lake and its surrounding landscape are part of what interested Smithson in the site for what would become his most famous work and a landmark of twentieth century art.
The Smithson Effect
on view March 10 through July 3, 2011
Events: Adult Programming
Robert Smithson in the UMFA's Permanent Collection
One on One: Jill Dawsey on Vik Muniz's Spiral Jetty after Robert Smithson
Dia Art Foundation
directions to Spiral Jetty
More about Robert Smithson | <urn:uuid:d0118847-0197-48ca-9566-df85e52f9ec8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://umfa.utah.edu/spiraljetty | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957008 | 561 | 2.328125 | 2 |
- About JAG
- JAG States
- Partners & Donors
- JAG Model
While Jobs for America’s Graduates has a strong presence in 33 states, every state and its students could benefit from a JAG program. Since its inception, one continual mission has been to grow the JAG organization and to offer services in states that do not currently offer a program. In 2009 South Dakota was one such state.
At the onset of the 2009-2010 school year JAG-South Dakota was piloted at Wagner Community School and Andes Central High School. For the first two years of the program the district superintendent from Wagner served as the CSA (director) of the program. There are now three JAG-South Dakota programs overseen by the South Dakota office of Indian Education which resides under the South Dakota Department of Education operating in the state. All three of the programs are active in districts which are located within American Indian Reservations. The Todd County High School program is located in the 2nd poorest county in the U.S. At Wagner Community School, JAG-South Dakota delivers the Multi-Year Program Application and two Middle School programs. The Jobs Specialists at Andes Central High School serve a portion of the 7th and 8th grade population as well as the high school population.
Programs under the Jobs for America’s Graduates umbrella are reviewed to ensure the programs are meeting outcomes and adhering to the JAG model. The JAG-South Dakota program had a mid-year review in March of 2012 and several outstanding performance and outcomes were noted by reviewers, including:
- The three school districts show total support for JAG-South Dakota and are funding the programs using school district funds. Administrators stated: “We see a difference in the attitude of the JAG participants; there is a sense of hope for the future that wasn’t there before”.
- All three school districts have extremely active Advisory Committees that are engaged in student selection and have regularly scheduled meetings including the District Superintendents.
- Both the Middle School and Multi-Year applications have a high rate of students returning to the JAG-South Dakota program at Wagner.
- The administration at both Wagner and Andes Central have attended the JAG National Training Seminar. Specialists at Wagner have also attended National Training Seminar. The Specialist at Andes Central, in her first year, will attend the 2012 NTS. The Specialist at Todd County will be on maternity leave this summer, and another staff member who has attended JAG training will replace the Specialist during that time.
- Four JAG Multi-Year program students from Wagner High School recently spoke at the National Indian Impacted Schools Association Annual Conference in Las Vegas and shared how the JAG program has helped them in being prepared for the future.
Currently the South Dakota Department of Education wishes to expand the number of JAG model programs in South Dakota and is searching for sources of funding to make this a reality. The outcomes mentioned above are incredibly encouraging for a fledgling program. JAG-South Dakota has had a very strong first few years and it’s exciting to have an additional state join the JAG National organization. | <urn:uuid:39deb7d7-898e-4aa0-b95c-d73b5e45a2f2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jag.org/node/165 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00076-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968178 | 657 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Impressionism and Open-Air Painting
From Corot to Van Gogh
The aim of this exhibition is to illustrate the development of oil painting in the open air, a technique which reached its height with Impressionism, yet originated almost a century before.
From the late 18thcentury, young landscape artists often practised during their period of training in Italy by painting small oil studies outdoors. Regarded by Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes (1750-1819) — a Neo-classical landscape artist and the father of plein air painting —as minor works when compared with compositions completed in the studio, yet essential to the learning process, these studies served as exercises for developing the expertise of both hand and eye.
Indirectly, the intention was that they would provide the landscape artist with a repertoire of motifs for future use in compositions for which he would be able to draw on visual memory rather than imagination. Whatever the case, open-air studies ultimately became restricted to the artist’s private working practice.
During the first half of the 19th century, the clear-cut distinction between landscapes painted out-of-doors and those executed in the studio began to break down. From the 1820s there was a greater degree of crossover between the two methods with a more careful finish evident in open-air oils and the use of motifs taken from nature in studio compositions. Artists such as Corot and Constable extended the practice of painting directly from nature to their work as a whole and the fashion for oil studies of this kind soon swept across most of Europe and the United States. At the same time, such studies gained increasing recognition and independence, particularly among the Barbizon School artists (Rousseau, Diaz de la Peña, Dupré and Daubigny among others), who frequented the Forest of Fontainebleau, sixty kilometres south of Paris. Some of these painters entered studies taken directly from nature alongside other, more finished works at official exhibitions.
In the 1860s, Monet, Sisley, Renoir, Bazille and Cézanne also began to frequent the Forest of Fontainebleau and subsequently took over from the artists of the Barbizon School. For these artists studio painting was second¬ary and the spontaneity and rapid execution hitherto characteristic of open¬air studies now became basic tenets of their art. In fact, those very studies made in the open air — at least the ones which traditionally served as aids to indoor production — became pointless since they themselves had become the focus of creative practice. Yet the apparent freedom inherent in working from nature was soon to become an obstacle to artistic creation. Indeed, in 1880 Monet himself declared that he had no other studio than that of nature yet around that time he began finishing his paintings in his atelier. With the appearance of the avant-garde movements at the beginning of the 20th century, working in the studio regained lost ground vis-à-vis working in the open air. However, prevalent among the plein-air painters was an Expressionist facet which turned landscape into a projection of the artist’s subjective desires.
The development of open-air painting is explored in seven rooms dedicated to motifs deeply rooted in its tradition. In each thematic space differ¬ent schools and styles are displayed with the aim of illustrating the continuity of the tradition of open-air painting and the changes which took place within it over time. | <urn:uuid:0c13fadb-a1ae-4316-940a-ee4103c4bb01> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.museothyssen.org/microsites/exposiciones/2013/airelibre/index_en.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97662 | 730 | 3.078125 | 3 |
Today I just had to use two laptop computers simultaneously, and switching back and forth was driving me insane. Then I remembered an old trick I used to pull back at my old job: the dual screen hack.
Most of you probably know it already, but just in case, here goes the explanation. You can connect two computers and simulate what would happen if you had two monitors instead: when the mouse leaves the screen in one computer, it “enters” the other computer on the opposite side of the screen. For example, if you have two laptops on your table and you move the mouse to the right, after reaching the border of the screen you see it coming out on the left side of the other computer.
The magic is done by using a remote desktop protocol like VNC, which lets you send keystrokes and mouse events, but discarding the framebuffer updates. That is, a program that connects to the remote desktop, but instead of showing you the remote screen, it monitors mouse movements locally and when the mouse reaches the screen limits, it captures the mouse and starts sending mouse events to the remote system. Similarly, when the mouse reaches the opposite limit on the remote system, it stops capturing the mouse so you can use it on the local system.
Since I use Linux my choice was x2vnc, the Linux cousin of the more famous Win2VNC, also by the same author. But unlike Win2VNC which is now actively maintained at SourceForge, x2vnc seems to have been abandoned.
x2vnc supports SSH tunneling, which is just perfect since VNC is a plaintext-only protocol and insecure by design. However there’s no easy way to tell x2vnc to which port to connect or which username to login as – it defaults always to the current local user and port 22.
I also had a problem with my other laptop, which had Windows 7. When the mouse cursor leaves the screen, it is “parked” to a corner of the screen so it doesn’t show (it’d be confusing to see two mouse cursors as you wouldn’t know which one is active). But the corner chosen by x2vnc is always the lower right corner, causing Windows 7 to hide all active windows… very annoying.
So I did what any other geek would do in my situation – branch it!
The patched code is now at Google Code. The new command line switches I added were:
-sshuser: Log in to the SSH tunnel using the given username.
-sshport: Connect to the given TCP port number instead of the SSH default (22).
-restingx and -restingy: Tell x2vnc where to park the mouse cursor. A value of 0 means left or top, a value of -1 means right or bottom. Then for example, -restingx 0 -restingy -1 means the top right corner of the screen.
Currently there’s only the source code but if I have the time I’ll upload a precompiled Debian package as well. Enjoy! | <urn:uuid:0bff3075-5fb0-424a-9fd7-0d969cf0d08f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://breakingcode.wordpress.com/2010/09/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93776 | 650 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Ten days after offering his first plan to legalize internet gambling in Illinois, Senator John Cullerton has revised his plan so that it envisions a substantially different sort of regulatory system. The older plan would have given the Illinois Lottery a near monopoly over the internet gambling market. Now, under the new bill, the Lottery would not compete at all.
Formerly, Illinois House Bill 4148 called for the Lottery to serve as both an operator and a regulator of an “internet gaming platform.” The revised bill no longer envisions that the Lottery would directly offer internet gambling opportunities to the public. But the Lottery would still be the regulatory agency for internet gambling, and it would still fulfill its duties by managing an internet gaming “platform.”
A newly created Division of Internet Gaming within the Lottery Department would license operators, called “internet gaming affiliates,” to participate in the platform.
Three classes of entities would be eligible to apply for licenses to become an affiliate of the Lottery’s internet gaming platform:
(i) Any person who holds a valid and unrevoked owners license issued pursuant to the Riverboat Gambling Act;
(ii) Any person who holds a valid and unrevoked organization license issued pursuant to the Illinois Horse Racing Act of 1975; and
(iii) Any person who holds a valid and unrevoked advance deposit wagering license issued pursuant to the Illinois Horse Racing Act of 1975.
Applicants would be required to pay a $5 million fee along with their application for licensure.
A summary look at the definitions found in the old and new bills demonstrates how significantly different the new version is. The old version envisioned a Lottery that directly offers internet wagering opportunities, whereas the new version envisions a Lottery that oversees a program in which licensed affiliates offer internet wagering opportunities.
- Old version of definition of internet gaming platform:
“Internet gaming platform” means an interactive set of related data networks that may be accessed by authorized participants for the purpose of wagering on internet games.
- New version of definition for internet gaming platform:
“Internet gaming platform” means an interactive set of related data networks that may be accessed by licensed internat gaming affiliates for the purpose of offering wagering on Internet games to authorized participants.
- Old version of definition of internet wagering:
“Internet wagering” means the placing of wagers with the Division using the Division’s internet gaming platform through which the Division may offer Internet games to persons who have established an Internet wagering account…
- New version of definition of internet wagering:
“Internet wagering” means the placing of wagers using the Division’s internet gaming platform through which licensed Internet gaming affiliates may offer internet games to persons who have established an Internet wagering account…
- The old version of HB 4148 did not conceptualize licensed internet gaming affiliates, but the new version supplies the following definition:
“Licensed internet gaming affiliate” means an individual who is licensed by the Division to offer wagering on Internet games to authorized participants using the Division’s Internet gaming platform.
- Finally, compare the duties of the Division of Internet Gaming under the old plan:
The Division of Internet Gaming is established within the Department of the Lottery, and is authorized to offer Internet wagering on Internet games on the Division’s Internet gaming platform…
- Duties of the Division of Internet gaming under the new plan:
The Division of Internet Gaming is established with the Department of the Lottery, and is authorized to establish an Internet gaming platform that may be accessed by licensed Internet gaming affiliates in order to offer wagering on Internet games….
The legislature has only one week left to approve the bill. Just last week the legislature enacted a bill related to brick-and-mortar gaming. Having those issues out of the way could make negotiating votes for the internet gambling bill easier. Or it could make the prospects of approving an internet gambling bill unlikely. One week will tell.
Click here for the new version of HB 4148 (filed May 25, 2012). | <urn:uuid:5cb7089c-a336-40b9-aed5-2b4c5652d70d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.forthebettorgood.com/2012/05/26/revisions-to-illinois-internet-gaming-bill-lottery-barred-as-operator-but-retains-regulatory-authority/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915843 | 868 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Also in North of Scotland Research Ethics Service:
Research Ethics Committees are the Committees convened to provide the independent advice to participants, researchers, funders, sponsors, employers, care organisations and professionals on the extent to which proposals for research studies comply with recognised ethical standards.
The purpose of a Research Ethics Committee in reviewing the proposed study is to protect the dignity, rights, safety and well being of all actual or potential research participants. It shares this role and responsibility with others, as described in the Research Governance arrangements.
The Committees will adhere to the current Governance Arrangements for NHS Research Ethics Committees in accordance with GAFREC Principles. The Committees are fully compliant with the International Committee on Harmonisation/Good Clinical Practise (ICH) guidelines for the conduct of trials involving the participation of human subjects as they relate to the responsibilities, composition, function, operations and records of an Independent Ethics Committee/ Independent Review Board (IEC/IRB).
On 1 April 2007, the Grampian Committees formally became the North of Scotland Research Ethics Service covering Grampian, Highlands and Islands, Orkney and Shetland. | <urn:uuid:009f58dc-fb97-48e6-a9c0-4bbc1e879656> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nhsgrampian.org/nhsgrampian/gra_display_simple_index.jsp?pContentID=2988&p_applic=CCC&p_service=Content.show | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911047 | 229 | 2.015625 | 2 |