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Last modified: 2013-01-19 by rob raeside
Keywords: italy | rose island | micronation |
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image located by George
9 April 2011
the free encyclopedia:
Rose Island was a short-lived micronation on a platform in the Adriatic Sea, seven miles off the coast of Rimini, Italy.
In 1964, Italian engineer Giorgio Rosa built the 400-meter-square platform, supported by nine strong pylons on the seabed. Reportedly, this platform eventually housed a restaurant, a bar, a night club, a souvenir shop, a post office, and perhaps a radio station.
The artificial island declared independence on 24 June 1968, under the Esperanto name "Insulo de la Rozoj". Stamps, currency, and a flag were produced.
The Italian government sent troops to crush the rebellion. Two carabinieri and two inspectors of finances landed on the "Isole delle Rose" and took over the just-born state. The platform's Council of Government sent a telegram to protest against the violation of its sovereignty, and the injury inflicted on local tourism by such a military occupation, but this was ignored. The island was destroyed by the Italian Navy.
Rose Island's flag was orange, with a white shield in the center bearing three red roses with green leaves and stems.
Gabriel Beecham, 8 April 2004
Having read the webpage at <www.imperial-collection.net>,
I very much doubt whether the micronation known as "Rose
Island" has ever even existed beyond imagination. I mean,
how could one engineer construct a platform on nine pylons, in
deep water eleven kilometres off the coast, without being stopped
by the Italian Navy in the first place?
Miles Li, 30 January 2005
But the Italian Navy stopped it. A bit too late, as apparently
the structure was already half erected and the seabed in that
spot is only a couple meters deep, that's why they chose that
location. There were also some stamps ("Cinderella"
stamps), with esperanto "country" name (Insulo de la
Rozoj, or Rozinsulo - I dont remember). The flag is new to me,
António Martins, 9 February 2005
Mr Rosa built the platform to establish there brothels and
casinos, outlawed in Italy.
Valerio Nisciroli, 15 August 2006
It should be added that Dr. Giorgio Rosa built this artificial
island 8 miles away from Rimini (in straight line) while Italy
(at that time) claimed only 3-mile wide stretch of territorial
waters as their own. The new country lasted 55 days since its
declaration of independence before it was blown-up by the Italian
Navy. It was only the second country, after Carthage, to be
totally wiped-out from the face of the Earth. Dr. Rosa argued
afterwards the stupidity of this action as the economy of the
Rimini region would benefit enormously from the tourist income,
simply because there was no hotel capacity on his island. And
there was nothing illegal planned for the island (well, maybe a
casino?). Esperantists from all over the world, from as far as
Lithuania, also lamented the demise of the new country, which
could be a significant tool to promote their beloved language.
Chrystian Kretowicz, 21 February 2008
This page offers additional information about the short-lived Esperantist
Republic of Rose Island, notably from a postal point of view:
http://www.cifr.it/forumarticolo1.html.. About half way down the page a
pennant is shown, apparently it was handed out to visitors by Mr Rosa.
It is an orange field, narrowly bordered white, in the centre the – rather small – coat of arms with the three roses (green stalks) in the white field, and vertically next to the hoist, in black letters, the name “L.T. INSULO DE LA ROZOJ”, no serifs.
Jan Mertens, 18 March 2011
image reported by Cai Zhenyuan
image by Chrystian Kretowicz, 21 February 2008
Esperanta Respubliko de la Insulo de la Rozoj - Repubblica
Esperantista dell'Isola delle Rose - The Esperantist Republic of
The Rose Island: The flag shown above and on Wikipedia, is
close, but not the real thing. It seems it was drawn by someone
for the <www.imperial-collection.net>
from the written description, with good intentions but wrong.
I have an image of the real emblem and the photo of the actual
pennant used on the island, from which I did reconstruct the
Chrystian Kretowicz, 21 February 2008
The rectangular Rose Island flag listed on the internet is an imaginative
rendering. I know, because I created it, based on a written description. I then
published it to the Wikipedia article about Rose Island - from whence it has
infected the internet. Unfortunately my rendering was based on a number of
incorrect assumptions. Rose Island's flag was in fact - as already noted - a
pennant. There is a black and white photograph of an original pennant in Fabio
Vacarezza's excellent article on Rose Island in the Cinderella Philatelist (UK)
magazine. The correct pennant design is shown here:
George Cruickshank, 9 April 2011 | <urn:uuid:c4197b73-c26b-4b69-b92d-ecd680e6ed93> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://crwflags.com/fotw/flags/it_rosei.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93904 | 1,218 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Junie B.’s Essential Survival Guide To School Book Review
Title: Junie B.’s Essential Survival Guide To School
Author: Barbara Park
Series: Junie B. Jones
Genres: Survival guide, diary, journal
Age range: First Graders
This is Junie B.’s hilarious guide on how to survive your first years at school. She says she wrote it with some help from Grampa Frank Miller. This survival guide/journal is based on Junie’s own experiences as someone who has been in school for over a year and a half!
Section 1: Getting Started
This section tells you all the things you need to know and buy before you go to school for the first time. It talks about backpacks and how much they can weigh, some of the feelings you may experience on your first day of school, what to wear, school supplies (boring and fun), what to say to the other kids in your class, etc.
Section 2: Getting There
Junie lists all the ways she can think of getting from home to school and back, and lets you know which method she likes best and which she detests, plus rules and etiquette for the school bus and carpools.
Section 3: Getting Bossed Around
This section gives descriptions of all the BOSSY people at school who will tell you what to do and when to do it, including the principal, the janitor, your teachers, the nurse, etc. Of course, Junie knows these people are paid to boss kids around at school, and you have to listen to them.
Section 4: Getting In Trouble
What Junie mainly talks about in this section is how to stay out of trouble, not how to get into it. She tells you about passing notes in class, calling other kids names, rules at school (and what she thinks of them, of course), etc.
Section 5: Getting Graded
Junie discusses homework, marks, tests and (gulp) report cards! She gives tons of illustrated examples in this section, so you are fully prepared for what some of this graded work will look like.
Section 6: Getting Smiley
This section is, as Junie says, “about new friends and other happy stuff.” She gives lots of good advice about not being nervous about meeting the new kids in your class – they’re all in the same boat as you, after all! There are other things Junie loves about school, and she tells you all about the bathroom, the water fountain and all the good smells at school.
The book comes with lots of space for you to write in your own thoughts about going to school for the first time, plus stickers at the back.
Other Guides & Journals: | <urn:uuid:1dfcca01-df10-44dd-ad6b-878a61cba30e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kidzworld.com/article/19048-junie-bs-essential-survival-guide-to-school-book-review | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960279 | 577 | 2.046875 | 2 |
Stunner. Despite the major tax increase passed in November, California revenues fell well below projections.
The Daily Dose reported:
California State Controller John Chiang has announced that total state revenue for the month of November 2012 fell $806.8 million, or 10.8%, below budget.
Democrats thought they could hammer “the rich” by convincing voters to pass Proposition 30 to create the highest state income tax in the nation. But it now appears that high income earners have already “voted with their feet” by moving themselves and their businesses out of state, resulting in over $1 billion shortfall in corporate and income taxes last month and the beginning of a new financial crisis.
Passage of Proposition 30 set off euphoria and expectations of higher spending for public employees. The California Teachers’ Association (CTA) trumpeted: “California students and working families won a clear victory today as voters clearly demonstrated their willingness to invest in our public schools and colleges and also rejected a deceptive ballot measure aimed at silencing educators, other workers and their unions.”
State bureaucrats immediately ramped up deficit spending far beyond the state’s $6 billion annual tax increase, with the Departments of Health Services and Developmental Services increasing this month’s spending by over $1 billion versus last year. The lower tax collection and higher spending drove the State’s deficit after the tax increase to $2.7 billion for the first 5 months of this fiscal year. | <urn:uuid:9b9b2e65-736c-418b-896b-e71e430110a9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/12/despite-major-tax-increases-california-revenues-in-freefall/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946736 | 306 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Software Upgrades and Installations | Stay Up-to-Date and Avoid Attacks
Even the newest software applications can become vulnerable to outside attackers over time. Hackers, phishing attempts, viruses…all become more sophisticated as time goes on. Constantly looking for ways to break past your security, invade your network and use it for their purposes.
Stealing confidential information, perhaps. Or using your network to run their scams for them. The point is, software must be kept up-to-date in order to protect your business.
This is why software providers release updates and new versions. Sometimes doing an update is as simple as a few clicks. Other times though – such as hundreds of computers which all need updating – it makes more sense to call in PlanetMagpie.
Why? Because our Support Team knows the fastest ways to deploy software throughout a business. Office 2007, specialized applications, even operating systems…we handle all of them. And we monitor new security alerts, in case we encounter them among our clients.
(For Windows Server patches, see our Windows Updates
Call PlanetMagpie Support at 408.541.5100
and ask for software upgrade help. If you aren't sure your applications are up-to-date, you may be open to attack. The risk is low…but it's there. | <urn:uuid:583df978-ab26-4745-8aa5-0993ba84024c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://planetmagpie.com/networksupport/supportservices/softwareupgrades.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941184 | 272 | 1.585938 | 2 |
NPR Poll Shows Long-Term Unemployed Desperate for Work
Out-of-Work Americans Struggling and Need Benefits
SOURCE: AP/ Matt Rourke
There’s never a good time to be involuntarily unemployed. But today’s conditions are among the worst in decades. For every new job created there are four people looking for work. With supply and demand this out of whack, it is not surprising that the average length of unemployment for a worker who loses his or her job is a little more than 10 months. But in the midst of this troubling scenario, House conservatives are proposing that the government should reduce the length of time people can collect unemployment insurance by 40 weeks.
A recent poll of the long-term unemployed, conducted by National Public Radio and The Kaiser Family Foundation, illustrates how disastrous being out of work in this economy can be, and the lengths people would be willing to go to find a new job:
- Seventy-four percent of the long-term unemployed have a negative outlook on their financial situation, and more than 60 percent are not confident they will be able to find a job that will provide them with the pay and benefits they need to get by.
- Only 22 percent of the long-term unemployed are currently receiving unemployment benefits. Among those who are, a full 94 percent think it is at least somewhat likely that their benefits will run out before they are able to find a new job. These fears are not unfounded. Among those who had previously received unemployment benefits but currently were not, 84 percent stopped getting them because they ran out.
- A majority of the unemployed would be willing to go to great lengths in order to find work. Eighty-seven percent would take an entry-level job in a different field, 68 percent would be willing to take a pay cut from their last job, and 44 percent would be willing to pack up and move to a new state if it meant that they would be able to find employment.
These findings echo what economists have been saying for some time now. The long-term unemployed are desperate to find work, their benefits are running out, and something needs to be done to assist them in this tough economy.
Nonetheless, conservative lawmakers such as Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) have argued that unemployment benefits discourage the unemployed from seeking work “because people are being paid even though they are not working.” This is not only a contradictory statement—because an individual must be actively seeking work in order to qualify for unemployment insurance—but it is also factually inaccurate according to recent research.
Jesse Rothstein, former chief economist at the Department of Labor and current professor of public policy and economics at UC Berkeley, recently released a paper that directly contradicts Sen. Kyl’s assertion. While some researchers have argued that extensions to unemployment insurance have contributed about 2.7 percentage points to the unemployment rate, Rothstein found that extending benefits to unemployed workers only raised the unemployment rate by approximately 0.3 percentage points. Less than half of this tiny effect was because people did not become re-employed, and there’s reason to believe that “the availability of extended benefits might have raised reemployment rates of displaced workers, by keeping them from abandoning their searches prematurely.”
Let’s be clear: Maintaining unemployment insurance doesn’t discourage a worker from finding employment again, and it can help some workers who are currently employed stay that way. Businesses cannot hire new workers unless there is demand for their services. People who are receiving unemployment insurance are more likely to spend the money they receive than save it, which means they are putting money back into local economies and supporting the jobs of their community members. For every $1 paid out in unemployment benefits, the economy grows by $2.
There are currently 13.3 million unemployed people looking for work in the United States, and 7.1 million are receiving unemployment insurance. A reduction in those benefits would not only spell further financial disaster to the individuals directly but would also further dampen the economic recovery of our nation as a whole.
Sarah Jane Glynn is a Policy Analyst at the Center for American Progress.
- Five Reasons to Continue Unemployment Benefits by Heather Boushey and Meghan Miller
- No Time to End Unemployment Benefits by Heather Boushey
- The Importance of Extending Both the Payroll Tax Cut and Emergency Unemployment Benefits: By the Numbers
- Our Economy Needs Help Now by Heather Boushey (The Hill)
- Animation: How Unemployment Insurance Helps the Economy by Heather Boushey
To speak with our experts on this topic, please contact:
Print: Katie Peters (economy, education, health care, gun-violence prevention)
202.741.6285 or firstname.lastname@example.org
Print: Anne Shoup (foreign policy and national security, energy, LGBT issues)
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202.478.6350 or firstname.lastname@example.org
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202.741.6277 or email@example.com
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202.483.2675 or email@example.com
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202.481.8119 or email@example.com | <urn:uuid:f62cfb31-7413-475b-b04f-694adc8a7e06> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/news/2011/12/12/10810/npr-poll-shows-long-term-unemployed-desperate-for-work/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956634 | 1,178 | 1.953125 | 2 |
Health benefits of blended fruit juice
A berry fruit juice blend that could lower the risk of cardiovascular disease has been created by scientists in France.
Polyphenols are found in foods as diverse as red wine, dark chocolate and green tea. Their beneficial effect on health is well known, with a diet rich in polyphenols correlating with a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease. This is because polyphenols increase the release of vasodilators (compounds that dilate blood vessels), such as nitric oxide, from endothelial cells that line the interior surface of blood vessels. 'Abnormality of this function is observed in most types of cardiovascular disease, such as hypertension, atherosclerosis and diabetes,' says Valérie Schini-Kerth, who led the team at the University of Strasbourg.
Wishing to promote a healthier option than alcohol or chocolate, the team worked with the Eckes-Granini Group of Neider-Olm, a fruit drink producer in Germany, to develop and test a variety of different fruit juice blends. Different fruits contain different polyphenols, which are often bitter tasting. For example, grapes contain a large amount of procyanidins, and anthocyanins give berries their dark red colour. The blends were tested for taste and their effect on the vasodilation of pig arteries in vitro.
The team found that the most effective blend with the least bitter flavour consisted of a base of grape juice (63 per cent), blended with apple, blueberry, strawberry, lingonberry, acerola and aronia. This blend did not have the highest overall polyphenol level, but the team saw that this particular fruit combination caused a greater increase in vasodilation than other blends. Schini-Kerth advises: 'Most of the juices you can buy in a supermarket have a very low level of biological activity. Buying fruit juices that provide something extra is an important message for consumers.'
Cristina Andrés-Lacueva, an expert in polyphenol bioactivity at the University of Barcelona, Spain, points out that the polyphenol profile of each blend was not tested so it could differ from that of the component fruits. She adds that 'the next step could be clinical in vivo studies with animals or humans'.
'The benefit to the cardiovascular system of a regular intake of such a fruit juice over a long period of time remains to be determined,' says Schini-Kerth.
C Auger et al, Food Funct., 2011, (DOI: 10.1039/c1fo10040h - This link will open in a new window) | <urn:uuid:5ce0fe46-2adb-4b24-8bd6-8c15917dcd90> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rsc.org/Education/EiC/issues/2011June/HealthBenefitsOfBlendedFruitJuice.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939848 | 547 | 2.484375 | 2 |
CHEMICAL BIOLOGY OF INSECT AND PLANT SIGNALING SYSTEMS
Location: Chemistry Research Unit
Title: Eavesdropping on plant volatiles by a specialist moth: significance of ratio and concentration
Submitted to: PLoS One
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: January 10, 2011
Publication Date: February 9, 2011
Citation: Cha, D.A., Linn Jr., C.E., Teal, P.E., Zhang, A., Roelofs, W.L., Loeb, G.M. 2011. Eavesdropping on plant volatiles by a specialist moth: significance of ratio and concentration. PLoS One. 6(2):1-8.
Interpretive Summary: Insects commonly use chemicals for communication both as pheromones and as a means for finding hosts. It is well known that plants, serving as hosts for many insect pests, give off different aromas due to release of different blends of chemicals depending on stage of development, whether or not they are damaged, environmental conditions or their variety. Scientists from Department of Entomology, New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, Cornell University, Geneva, New York, the Chemistry Research Unit, Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology, Agricultural Research Service, USDA-ARS, Gainesville, Florida, and the Invasive Insect Biocontrol and Behavior Laboratory, Plant Sciences Institute, USDA-ARS, Beltsville, Maryland have been studying how the grape Grape berry moth detects and responds to volatiles coming from grapes. They have discovered that grape plants release a suite of compounds common to many plant species but that specificity of the blend results from the ratio of key compounds in the blend. They also discovered that the moth can overcome significant variation in the ratio of some plant volatiles as well as large differences in concentrations of compounds in order to find the host plants. This dynamic ability to respond to different blends of attractants from hosts may be critical for insects to successfully find host plants for reproduction.
We investigated the role that the ratio and concentration of ubiquitous plant volatiles play in providing host specificity for the diet specialist grape berry moth Paralobesia viteana (Clemens) in the process of locating its primary host plant Vitis sp. In the first flight tunnel experiment, using a previously identified attractive blend with seven common but essential components (“optimized blend”), we found that doubling the amount of six compounds singly [(E)- & (Z)-linalool oxides, nonanal, decanal, ß-caryophyllene, or germacrene-D], while keeping the concentration of other compounds constant, significantly reduced female attraction (average 76% full and 59% partial upwind flight reduction) to the synthetic blends. However, doubling (E)-4,8-dimethyl 1,3,7-nonatriene had no effect on female response. In the second experiment, we manipulated the volatile profile more naturally by exposing clonal grapevines to Japanese beetle feeding. In the flight tunnel, foliar damage significantly reduced female landing on grape shoots by 72% and full upwind flight by 24%. The reduction was associated with two changes: (1) more than a two-fold increase in total amount of the seven essential volatile compounds, and (2) changes in their relative ratios. Compared to the optimized blend, synthetic blends mimicking the volatile ratio emitted by damaged grapevines resulted in an average of 87% and 32% reduction in full and partial upwind orientation, respectively, and the level of reduction was similar at both high and low doses. Taken together, these results demonstrate that the specificity of a ubiquitous volatile blend is determined, in part, by the ratio of key volatile compounds for this diet specialist. However, P. viteana was also able to accommodate significant variation in the ratio of some compounds as well as the concentration of the overall mixture. Such plasticity may be critical for phytophagous insects to successfully eavesdrop on variable host plant volatile signals. | <urn:uuid:c15964a2-982b-444d-bdfc-3e02164cb62a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/publications.htm?seq_no_115=264863 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936101 | 843 | 2.875 | 3 |
Earlier this week, the organization I head, America’s Voice, released a new report entitled, “The Power of the Latino Vote in America: They Tipped Elections in 2008; Where Will they be in 2010?”
The detailed findings highlight the many potential benefits – and potential perils – for both major political parties. The report tracks 40 races for 2010 in 12 states—29 U.S. House races, 8 U.S. Senate races and 3 gubernatorial races—and shows that Latino voter turn out as well as the candidates’ positions on immigration reform will a huge impact on the outcomes.
One finding is that Democrats have to deliver on their promises of change – on the economy and immigration – or risk a depressed base. To wit, just last week Mark DiCamillo of the highly-regarded Field Poll in California found that Senator Barbara Boxer’s reelection could be in serious jeopardy if Latino turnout is low this November.
Republicans also face a steep challenge when it comes to Latino voters, and we are seeing this play out as a virtual war within the party on immigration.
The way immigration has been handled by most Republicans has badly damaged the GOP brand. And while immigration is not the number one issue for most Latino voters, it is a defining issue. So much so that an overwhelming 87% of respondents in a 2009 Bendixen poll said they would not consider voting for a candidate who was in favor of forcing most of the undocumented population to leave the country and only 23% trusted congressional Republicans to “do the right thing on the immigration issue.” | <urn:uuid:a5fa0b26-db70-49db-a631-27ac1eaea4c7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://americasvoiceonline.org/blog/republicans_at_war_on_immigration_--_heres_why/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948987 | 326 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Charles D. Grear, ed. The Fate of Texas: The Civil War and the Lone Star State. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2008. 292 pp. $37.50 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-55728-883-7.
Reviewed by Angela F. Murphy (Texas State University - San Marcos)
Published on H-CivWar (October, 2009)
Commissioned by Matthew E. Mason
Texans and the Civil War
Charles D. Grear’s contribution to the Civil War in the West series of the University of Arkansas Press highlights some of the recent research into the role Texas played in the Civil War and, more prominently, into the ways in which the Civil War affected Texas society. Although the volume considers some matters of military strategy, most of the selections concentrate on the war’s impact on Texans, not only during the course of the war, but also during its aftermath up to present day. The collection complicates our view of the Civil War by taking some of the common questions and conclusions of Civil War historiography and applying them to Texas society. What did the soldiers fight for? How united were members of society in supporting the Confederate war effort? How did the wartime experience affect soldiers, women, slave-owners, non-slave-owning whites, and slaves? How did it influence relations between these various sectors of society? How has and should the war be remembered? These questions, when applied to Texas, highlight both the ways in which Texans dealt with the same concerns as other Confederate states and the ways in which Texas stood apart from the rest of the South.
The first chapter of the book, by Joseph G. Dawson III, emphasizes how Texas’s location on the Confederate frontier made its role in the war distinctive. Dawson’s selection helps to set the context for the rest of the collection by giving the reader an idea of how Texas figured into Confederate war strategy. He argues that Texas played a more prominent role in Jefferson Davis’s plans than most realize, pointing out the importance of coastline and border defense and the economic value of Texas cotton. Most interestingly, he draws attention to Henry Sibley’s 1861-62 New Mexico campaign to illustrate Jefferson Davis’s hopes that Texas could be a launching point for a strategy of westward expansion during the early part of the war. Few scholars have taken much note of this failed campaign, but Dawson convincingly argues that it holds more importance than has been acknowledged. After all, the South’s determination to spread slavery westward was a significant motivation for the war. Dawson asserts that it remained a goal after the outbreak of hostilities.
While the book leads with a chapter on military strategy, the rest of the selections concentrate on the way that the war affected Texans of various stripes. Two of the chapters make contributions to the growing scholarship on the character and motivations of ordinary soldiers who fought for the Confederacy. Richard Lowe investigates the family relationships of Texas soldiers in three Texas Civil War units as revealed in letters to and from home. Contrary to some scholarship that insists that many Confederate soldiers were distant patriarchs, Lowe discovered correspondence filled with expressions of intimacy and affection. Editor of the collection Grear also contributes a chapter on Texas soldiers, examining their motivations for joining the war. Grear discusses how the desire to protect home was a guiding force for many Confederates and points out that the question of motivation takes on a new dimension when applied to Texans, for one must ask not only why they fought but why they fought so far from home. He finds his answer in the unique nature of the Texas white population, which was made up primarily of emigrants from other areas. His research shows that many Texans who fought in the eastern theater were in fact migrants from the Southeast who had settled in East Texas. They fought for home, but it was for the hometowns they had left behind.
Other chapters consider how Texans on the home front dealt with the stresses of wartime conditions. Two of these entries consider the question of dissent, for the Texas population was deeply divided on secession and the war. Richard B. McCaslin contributes an essay on “The Great Hanging at Gainesville,” a mass lynching that took place in North Texas in which vigilantes hanged forty dissenters with the sanction of local authorities. McCaslin’s essay highlights the fact that wartime tensions brought violence not only on the battlefield but to the Texas frontier as the stresses of war provoked fractures between various segments of society, many of which were along class lines. Walter D. Kamphoefner also deals with the question of dissent, examining the Texas German community’s reaction to the war. Texas Germans were well known for their strong unionism and antipathy towards slavery, but Kamphoefner points out that recently historians have complicated that picture by highlighting German contributions to the Confederate cause. He cautions against an overcorrection of the narrative, however, insisting that the Unionist spirit was indeed predominant among Germans. Although some Germans fought for the Confederacy and many did not speak out against the war, he reminds us that nativism was rife during this era and that many immigrants did not vocalize their true opinions for fear of attracting additional hostility toward their community. Thus, just as McCaslin’s essay exposes class divisions in Texas, Kamphoefner points out how tensions along ethnic lines heightened during wartime.
In addition to stimulating class and ethnic divisions, the experience of war affected conceptions of gender and concerns about race in Texas. Angela Boswell contributes a chapter exploring how war transformed the lives of women in Colorado County. In particular, she examines financial transactions, legal documents, and wills in order to determine the extent to which women’s responsibilities and rights changed as a result of war. Her study reveals that as the war dragged on, women were forced into taking on more responsibility and that this led to a transformation in ideas about gender roles. She points out that it was not only the stress of having Union troops nearby that transformed women’s lives in the South. Lives were transformed far from the front as well because of the prolonged absence of men who left home to fight. Dale Baum highlights other stresses in Texas in his examination of the unique way in which the institution of slavery changed in Texas during the war. In his essay on slave refugees, Baum points out that Texas was unique among the Confederate states in that the number of slaves in the state grew during the war as slaveholders fled to the frontier with their chattel. Baum’s selection adds to our understanding of slavery in Texas by identifying the Texas regions where the slave population increased, pointing out that far more slaves came into Texas than has previously been recognized, and examining how the influx of slaves exacerbated both fears about race and tensions between slaveholders and the rest of the Texas population during the war.
A strength of this collection is that it also considers the aftermath of the war. A number of the above selections address the Reconstruction years in their discussions of wartime change in Texas, and two of the chapters deal specifically with the years after the war. Randolph B. Campbell contributes an essay on how veterans from Harrison County adapted to postwar Texas society and he notes that, contrary to other scholarship that indicates that Southern veterans were not very politically active, those in Harrison County did participate in politics in various venues. Carl H. Moneyhon takes a wider view of the Reconstruction years and considers the way in which Texas soldiers and leaders accepted the Confederate loss. Contesting the idea that Texans were more defiant during Reconstruction because they didn’t feel defeated so far from the main battlefields, Moneyhon asserts that Texans expressed humiliation and discouragement at the end of the war. He thus points to a need to find an alternative explanation for the excessive violence in Texas during the Reconstruction era, and McCaslin suggests that future studies focus more on the political situation in Texas following the war.
The final chapters of Grear’s collection contribute to the growing scholarship on the public memory of the Civil War. Confederate symbols have been objects of controversy in recent decades as Americans debate whether they are benign expressions of “heritage” or malignant expressions of “hate.” In Texas, such a controversy sprouted over statues of prominent Confederates erected on the University of Texas campus in Austin after World War I. Alexander Mendoza’s chapter on these monuments reveals the “Lost Cause” origins of these statues and illustrates how an understanding of how Confederate memorials came to be and what they were intended to represent can help to inform debates over such sites. Julie Holcomb’s chapter follows Mendoza’s with a discussion of how public historians in Texas can negotiate these types of controversies as they try to educate the public about the Civil War in Texas. The National Park Service has committed itself in recent years to presenting a balanced view of the Civil War, but the emotional connection that many Southerners, including many Texans, have to the era is a challenge that public historians have continually had to negotiate. Holcombe discusses these difficulties and makes some recommendations about how public historians can negotiate the rocky terrain of the Civil War in Texas.
Most studies of the Confederacy understandably have focused on the areas that saw most of the fighting and where Southerners endured Union occupation, but this book, and the series to which it belongs, indicates the way in which scholars are taking increasing interest in how the war affected frontier areas like Texas. Texans dealt with many of the same stresses endured in other parts of the South, but they also encountered unique challenges associated with their frontier location. In The Fate of Texas, Grear has put together a volume that reveals both of these aspects of the Texas experience. The contributors highlight both the distinctively Southern and the uniquely Texan experience of the Civil War and its aftermath in the state, and they ask questions and make conclusions that are sure to provoke future research into the way Texans both affected and were affected by the war.
If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the list discussion logs at: http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl.
Angela F. Murphy. Review of Grear, Charles D., ed., The Fate of Texas: The Civil War and the Lone Star State.
H-CivWar, H-Net Reviews.
|This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.| | <urn:uuid:721ce3ba-0c80-4a39-be34-9336527d9391> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=23530 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959359 | 2,151 | 2.9375 | 3 |
Welcome to the research page of Margaret Beck
For her home page, click here.
My primary interest is determining the nonlinear stability and large-time behavior of solutions to
dissipative PDEs, such as reaction-diffusion equations and viscous conservation laws. This includes studying
nonlinear waves such as traveling waves and spatially and/or temporally periodic patterns. I typically view these PDEs as
infinite-dimensional dynamical systems, and I analyze them using a variety of mathematical techniques,
for example invariant manifolds, similarity variables, geometric singular perturbation theory, and exponential dichotomies.
In much of my work, the main mathematical difficulty arises from the fact
that the linear operator lacks a so-called spectral gap. For example, the spectrum could be as in the above figure on the left,
where a zero
eigenvalue is embedded in the continuous spectrum. As a result, one cannot use standard spectral decomposition methods to separate
the solutions that decay from those that simply remain bounded. Furthermore,
estimates necessary for the related nonlinear analysis can become extremely delicate, as can the properties of associated bifurcations.
One particular topic I've been interested in recently is known as "metastability."
Roughly speaking, this refers to long transients in the dynamics. For example,
solutions could spend large periods of time near unstable states before
settling down to their stable, asymptotic limit. This is interesting
mathematically, because there are far fewer techniques available for analyzing
transient behaviors than there are for analyzing asymptotic behaviors. Also,
in real world systems, the transient time-scale may be so long that one will
never actually see the limiting behavior. Thus, metastability is important in
applications, as well. The type of behavior arises, for example, in the
two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equation.
The above picture on the right is of me in the Catalan town of Vic. It doesn't really have anything to do with my research. However
the statue, known as "Merma," is said to come alive during the festival of de Patron and chase the children while carrying a lash.
Occaisionally, while working on my research, I feel as if Merma is chasing me around in circles.
Publications and Preprints
"Metastability and rapid convergence to quasi-stationary bar states for the 2D Navier-Stokes Equations," with C. E. Wayne. Accepted for publication at Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh Sect. A. [.pdf]
"Nonlinear stability of time-periodic viscous shocks": This poster was presented at the conference
"Geometric Analysis, Elasticity and PDE" at Heriot-Watt University, June 23-27, 2008.
"A geometric analysis of traveling waves in a bioremediation model": This poster was presented at the
conferences "SIAM conference on Application of Dynamical Systems," in
Snowbird, UT, May 22-26, 2005, and "Connections for Women: Dynamical Systems" at MSRI, January 18-19, 2007.
Slides for talks
"Rapid convergence to quasi-stationary states in the 2D Navier-Stokes equation": Presentation for a 50 minute talk at the IMA. [.pdf]
"Nonlinear stability of semi-discrete shocks for two sided schemes":
Presentation for a half-hour long talk. [.pdf]
"Nonlinear convective stability of travelling fronts near Turing
and Hopf instabilities": Presentation for an hour long talk. [.pdf]
"Using global invariant manifolds to understand metastability in Burgers equation with small viscosity":
Persentation for an hour long talk. [.pdf]
"Nonlinear stability of time-periodic viscous shocks":
Presentation for an hour long talk.
"Snakes, ladders, and isolas of localised patterns":
This talk was presented at the SIAM student conference at the University of Oxford, April 25, 2008.
Oberwolfach report for the workshop I spoke at entitled "Dynamics of Patterns," organized by Wolf-Jürgen Beyn, Bernold Fiedler, and Björn Sandstede, in December 2012. | <urn:uuid:ef70116a-9f98-4367-9139-e1985ef06125> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ma.hw.ac.uk/~mb341/research.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914697 | 920 | 1.5 | 2 |
two levels of eco-living: individual and community
must be the change you wish to see in the world.
The main purpose of this site is to
explore means and tools for living as
sustainably and self-sufficiently as possible as the world enters a new
phase of dwindling fossil fuels and the
resultant rising energy
costs. Eco-living has two levels: the individual and the community.
At the individual level, eco-living means that we become as
self-sufficient as possible in terms of the necessities: food and energy dependency. This site explores
options for reducing our food dependency on distant
corporations. It also examines methods by which we can take
ourselves "off the grid" as much as possible--if not entirely.
At the community level, eco-living entails reverting back to a more
traditional way of life which includes weaning ourselves from our
complete dependence on sources far removed for everything we need for
survival and economic activity. For almost all of history--with the
anomalous exception of the last 100 years or so--smaller communities
were capable of producing the basic necessities of survival, especially
upon to do so by external events.
In most cases, they could grow their own food and maintain a certain
level of economic activity to ensure their member's survival. Over the
last century we have lost this ability. The 2005 movie by director Ron
Howard, Cinderella Man,
accurately depicts life during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Most
people, particularly city dwellers, found themselves as helpless as
newborns. Without employers to provide them with work, they spent the
years living from government check to check. They had become completely
dependent upon the state. Contrast that with the independence of
frontier communities just 80 years earlier which would have taken
such a depression in their stride.
A decreasing fossil fuel supply will most likely mean a slowdown in
economic activity as well a trend towards producing necessities such as
food locally or regionally instead of relying on suppliers a
away. However, the transition will neither be quick nor smooth. This
means that you need to prepare today to deal with possible shortages.
You can use the following links to go straight to the topics of most
you. The pages on Peak Oil are a good
start for putting everything into context with the "big picture".
Unlocking the Food Supply
The Tapeworm Economy Exposed
| Alt Energy | Transportation
Building | About | <urn:uuid:7eea9467-b7e7-4c8b-8145-5b915c4ba17b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.karavans.com/ecoliving.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931059 | 524 | 2.359375 | 2 |
Treat Your Stomach Exercises For Men as a Physical Asset
Your stomach is recognized as the apple of the eye for several people most especially in women. As the pot-bellied and obese man is not attractive for more female persons while the man who has tight and narrow-waisted abdomen with definitive muscles is always attractive. Stomach exercises only cannot make a person have a great flat stomach yet if you will do it with correct diet as well as cardio training, you will have that gorgeous body you had been longing for.
Men usually concentrate in toning their abdomen. Your abdominal muscles involve the muscles in rectus and transversus abdominis which is also called as abdominals. Moreover, to protect your abdomen with some internal organs, those muscles support in stabilizing your spine as you are standing and sitting upright. Strengthen your abdomen by means of resistance exercises. Utilize the weight of your body as resistance from your energy to flex the spine forward.
- Knee Lifts – this exercise will strengthen your stomach. It helps in flexing the bottom portion of a person’s spine so that he can draw his knees to his chest. Hang against a bar above enough to prevent your legs touching the floor. With no swinging, flex your knees then lift them going to your chest higher as you can. Carefully lower them going down. Repeat the procedure. You may also do knee lifts as you hold your body away from the ground among two horizontal bars.
- Plank – in this kind of exercise, your abdomen should contract persistently to hold the torso away from the ground in a specific time only. Lay your body facing down. Rest with your elbows as well as your toes. Put your toes around 6 inches away then place your elbows under your shoulders. Press the ground using your elbows to lift your upper torso and legs.
Maintain this position around 10 seconds. Work to improve your endurance slowly. Maintain your head and back up to your legs line up horizontally while performing this exercise. The front plank is recognized as a good example of stomach exercises for men over 50 years of age.
- Conflict Band Crunches – this type of exercise needs the resistance band. Stick the center of resistance band towards a sturdy item above your head. Stand apart from that object, grip the tips of resistance band using your hands then kneel. Within your knees, place your hands facing your chest as the band’s sideways crossing your ears. As you maintain the bands at your chest’s front portion, curve your head as well as your shoulders forward going to your knees so that the band will stretch. Gradually reverse back on your beginning position. Repeat the procedure.
- Sit-Ups – it is one example of flat stomach exercises for men at home. Lay using your back while your knees flexed and feet touches the floor. Let other person touch your ankles as it will maintain your feet touching the floor while performing this exercise. Place your hands crosswise in your chest. Elevate your shoulders upward then forward making your forearms meet your knees. Gradually lower your body back down. Repeat this exercise for several times.
- Planche – this exercise is typically ignored as form of stomach exercise for men. As it came from the yoga exercise, several men think that this exercise is only for women. On the other hand, this serves as efficient way in tightening your abdominal muscles thru stressing your muscles under the surface of your rectus abdominis muscles. Doing the planche position while maintaining it within 30 up to 60 seconds in every repetition.
Doing this exercise at least three or four times in each workout will serve as your warm-up as you will perform other forms of abdominal exercise whereas pre-exhausting your supporting muscles below. The reality that this exercise addresses the assistance musculature makes this one from the best form of exercises for stomach in men. To do this, lay down facing the ground. Put your hands while your palms down the ground below your shoulders. Press up like up position when you are doing push up. Maintain that position.
- Crunch – it is known as off-shoot from the conventional sit-up. As sit-up needs the muscles of your hip flexor while doing it, the crunch concentrates more about the stomach flexion. Crunches may causes you neck pain when you failed to do it properly, yet not putting your hands at the back of your head as you do the exercise lessens the possibility to get injury. It is one from the best abdominal exercises for male persons as it separates your rectus abdominis by means of flexion.
This exercise is done by means of laying with your back touches the floor while your knees flexed around 90 degrees. Elevate your feet away from the ground. Grip your arms crossways your chest assuming that you hug yourself. Use your abdominal muscles to curve your shoulders to your knees and try to reach your knees using your elbows. Lower then repeat the process. The bicycle crunch is known as the best lower stomach exercises for men.
- Roman Seat Sit-up – there are some persons who believe that this kind of stomach exercise may cause you an injury. On the other hand, there is some people who told that this exercise is the ideal stomach exercise for the reason that it efficiently lets men to include resistance thru holding the weight plate using your hands. It will trigger the greater need for energy within the muscles in your abdomen causing better pure strength instead of muscular endurance for the part of your body.
This kind of sit-up needs the Roman chair equipment. Sitting at the bench part of the apparatus, put your shins below the restraint. Lower your body backward and try to position your spin under horizontally to the ground. Utilize the muscles in your abdomen and stomach to curve your torso upward, doing the standard push-up.
These are all the abdominal exercise that you can do as you desire to have gorgeous body with six packs of abs. Combine the exercise with proper diet as well as cardio training so that you will achieve great results. Do it now and see the changes in you. | <urn:uuid:a018167d-b9a8-42fc-96ad-07ed383470a3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://iwantslimbelly.com/six-pack/get-your-six-packs-abs-through-stomach-exercises-for-men | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956484 | 1,248 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Thick haze hovered over eastern China on October 20, 2012. The haze stretched from Beijing southward, covering much of the coastal plain bordering Bo Hai and the Yellow Sea. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired this natural-color image the same day.
In many places, the haze was thick enough to completely hide the land or water surface below. A wide band of haze extended eastward over Bo Hai. In the west, isolated mountain peaks poked above the haze, which clogged valleys between the peaks.
Airborne particles are often measured in microns (also micrometers): one-millionth of a meter. Particles with diameters of 2.5 microns or smaller—about one-thirtieth the width of a human hair—are believed to pose the greatest health risks because they can lodge deeply in the lungs, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The U.S. Embassy in Beijing measures fine particles, known as PM2.5, and reports the measurements though the BeijingAir Twitter feed. On October 20, the same day that MODIS took this picture, reported air quality ratings ranged from “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups” to “Hazardous.”
In addition to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, another site, China Air Daily, provides satellite images, ground-based photos, PM2.5 readings, and other air quality readings for multiple cities in China. The ground-based photo of Beijing showed thick smog on October 20, consistent with the heavy haze in the MODIS image shown above. Developed in in response to a growing desire for more information on air quality, China Air Daily is a project of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at Asia Society.
- AirNow. (2011, December 9) Air Quality Index. Accessed October 22, 2012.
- U.S. Embassy in Beijing. (2012, October 22) BeijingAir. Accessed October 22, 2012.
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2012, July 19). Fine Particle Designations: Frequently Asked Questions. Accessed October 22, 2012.
- Zhu, C. (2012, October 17) A visual guide to Chinese air pollution. The Atlantic. Accessed October 23, 2012.
NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Caption by Michon Scott.
- Aqua - MODIS | <urn:uuid:988b9153-4804-4272-b635-305cb649630c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=79468 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932237 | 517 | 3.25 | 3 |
Rory Freedman, co-author of the popular Skinny Bitch vegan diet books took the challenge of eating vegan on a very low budget.
Although many say it’s impossible to do at the poverty level, Freedman purchased a week’s worth of grains, beans, fruits, vegetables and condiments for $33, the amount the average person on food stamps in California has to work with.
Freedman did this to raise awareness of the need for grocery stores to provide more meatless options at low cost so people of all income levels can eat healthy.
Her experiment coincides with the discussion of possibly reducing food stamp benefits under the Farm Bill that is being debated in Congress.
A diet in faux meats, grains, nuts, beans and vegetables could benefit food stamp recipients and taxpayers, as diets high in saturated fat and cholesterol like meat and dairy tend to raise the risk of costly diseases like diabetes, heart disease and obesity.
It’s not noted whether Freedman was able to purchase many organic items with her budget, which are generally more expensive and difficult to find in areas where greater poverty exist.
Photo: PR Photos
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- Green Leaf’s & Bananas iPad Giveaway For National Salad Month | <urn:uuid:eaeb6c31-b479-4419-9d73-43a4c4790d23> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://vegetarianstar.com/2012/06/19/skinny-bitch-rory-freedman-eats-vegan-on-food-stamp-budget/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940671 | 322 | 1.90625 | 2 |
Frozen food or partially frozen foods:
Require a longer cook time in a slow cooker than the recipe indicates for stovetop or oven. Using an instant read thermometer is recommended to ensure meat is cooked through and tender.
Can be cooked in a slow cooker, however, it is best to use the following guidelines: Add at least 1 cup of warm liquid to the stoneware before placing meat in the stoneware. Do not preheat the slow cooker. Cook recipes containing frozen meats for an additional 4 to 6 hours on Low, or an additional 2 hours on High. | <urn:uuid:68071629-4223-4869-926c-56d4671baeb8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.crockpot.co.uk/Hints.aspx?id=ct&fgid=180 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913657 | 119 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Local residents will continue to fight UGI compressor
Local residents should understand that the "wonderful benefits" Lillian Harris of UGI (Citizens Voice, 9/28) promises from a compressor station, metering station, storage tanks, and transmission tower located in West Wyoming are highly exaggerated. UGI themselves confirmed that such a station would employ only two full-time staff. The tenuous promise of "lower cost gas" is no recompense for the compromised health and home values of the thousands who live in West Wyoming, Kingston Township, and the downwind residents of Wyoming and Exeter. Neither are the contributions the gas companies give to politicians and local organizations, including our news media some of whom have exhibited considerable bias with regard to this issue.
Emissions from compressor stations are widely documented to cause acute and chronic health effects, including liver, kidney, and nervous system damage, a host of cancers and diminished home values. This June, The Times Tribune expounded on the cardiovascular and respiratory effects of excessive ground ozone produced by compressor stations in Pennsylvania. We cannot choose not to breathe the nitrous oxides and the poisonous VOC's nor to absorb them transdermally 24/7. For these reasons, legislators in New York State have protected their citizens by prohibiting the mining of their Marcellus Shale.
By denying UGI's request for a special exception, our zoning board upheld their mandate "to promote, protect, and facilitate ⦠the public health, safety, morals, and general welfare" and to control "pollution to the lowest level which is economically feasible." Representative Phyllis Mundy, the Luzerne County Council, and the borough councils of West Wyoming and Exeter also used their influence to protect us. UGI may not be folding up their tent, but neither are we. We will fight their appeal every step of the way with every available resource.
We understand the benefits of natural gas. We understand the desirability of energy independence. However neither of these goals trumps the health and welfare of human beings. Gas companies must be compelled to invest their prodigious profits into developing technology for safe and ethical extraction, storage, and transport of gas. Until they do so, they must be denied permits to process gas near human populations. | <urn:uuid:c97305f9-3886-40c6-bee1-bccefb52f945> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://citizensvoice.com/opinion/letters/local-residents-will-continue-to-fight-ugi-compressor-1.1383731 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94844 | 465 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Angina is pain or discomfort in the chest. It often has a squeezing or pressure-like feel. This discomfort can also be felt in the shoulders, arms, neck, jaws, or back. Anginal pain usually lasts for no more than 2-10 minutes. It is relieved by rest or nitroglycerin .
Types of angina include:
- Stable angina —Has a predictable pattern. You generally know what brings it on and relieves it. You may also know what the intensity will be.
—Is more unpredictable and/or severe. Chest pain may occur while resting or even sleeping (nocturnal angina). The discomfort may last longer and be more intense than that of stable angina.
- Unstable angina may be a sign that you are about to have a heart attack. It should be treated as an emergency.
- Variant or Prinzmetal's angina —Occurs when you are at rest. It most often occurs in the middle of the night. It can be quite severe.
Typical Angina Pain Areas
Copyright © Nucleus Medical Media, Inc.
Last reviewedSeptember 2012by Michael J. Fucci, DO
Please be aware that this information is provided to supplement the care provided by your physician. It is neither intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. CALL YOUR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER IMMEDIATELY IF YOU THINK YOU MAY HAVE A MEDICAL EMERGENCY. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider prior to starting any new treatment or with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. | <urn:uuid:588bca07-0a4a-4fc1-9384-27d488412159> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.skyridgemedcenter.com/health_library/detail.htm?id=130869 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926268 | 333 | 2.609375 | 3 |
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Iraq`s denials of any intent to push south beyond Kuwait has failed to calm raw nerves in the small oil sheikdoms along the Persian Gulf.
Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are considered easy pickings if the Iraqis decide to advance down the coast, and alarm in the region has increased.
Qatar`s news agency reported on Tuesday that Foreign Minister Mubarak Ali Khater had left for Jidda, Saudi Arabia, for an emergency meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council. The council is an economic and military alliance that binds Saudi Arabia and its smaller neighbors.
Heino Kopietz, a Middle East analyst for Control Risks, a London consulting company, said that if the Iraqis plan to attack, he ``would expect it within the next 24 to 36 hours.``
Kopietz said the first target could be the Saudi Arabian city of Dammam, south of the refinery center of Jubayl. Second would be Bahrain and the first blows would be struck from the air, he said.
The three small countries have a combined population of 2.3 million, most of them foreigners, with the United Arab Emirates the largest at 1.5 million.
The Emirates, seven sheikdoms that include Abu Dhabi and Dubai, would be high on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein`s punishment list. Along with Kuwait, it drove down world oil prices in the past year by pumping beyond assigned quotas.
In the war of words that preceded the Kuwaiti invasion, Hussein charged that overproduction by Kuwait and the Emirates had cost Baghdad $14 billion.
Pledges to cut production and drive up the price of oil, made at last month`s Geneva meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, failed to appease the Iraqi leader.
If the Iraqis attack, military analysts expect little resistance from the sheikdoms, whose leaders, beyond a prompt council denunciation of the invasion of fellow member Kuwait, have put up a nearly invisible profile.
But television in the Emirates reported extensively on the crisis Tuesday night, including segments on world nations joining the trade embargo against Iraq.
``They would be easy targets,`` said Don Kerr, an analyst for London`s International Institute of Strategic Studies. ``The gulf states don`t have the capacity to stop Hussein, and his army could advance at a pace that he chooses.``
For the Iraqi leader, the only military stumbling block could be Saudi resistance backed up by Western air and sea power, and the threat of Western air strikes against Iraq. In a large operation in the Gulf region, the Iraqis could also require seaborne supply convoys.
By themselves, ``the Saudis are well equipped -- fairly well trained but not very numerous,`` Kerr said. The Saudis have 200 combat aircraft against Hussein`s 500 or more.
``The facts are in the statistics,`` another analyst said. ``The larger air force ultimately wins.``
Kopietz, the Control Risks man, said that the sheikdoms have negligible air power, ``a couple of squadrons of 12 planes each.``
Hussein`s ambitions are well known in the gulf region, which together with Iran supplies more than 25 percent of the world`s oil.
The first goal of an expanded Iraq would be to take over stewardship of the region`s resources. Shortly after coming to power in 1979, the Iraqi strongman declared himself the ``protector of the Gulf.`` | <urn:uuid:04930d99-7804-4849-9692-c95d0d475d35> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1990-08-08/news/9002070923_1_small-oil-sheikdoms-iraqis-plan-emirates | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937658 | 715 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Welcome to Iceland
Iceland offers a wide choice of experiences for the traveller, regardless of when you visit the country. Every season has its own unique charm and there are always opportunities to experience new things, discover beauty and be mesmerized by the freshness and colours of nature. Every season will leave you with a host of unforgettable memories.
Established in 1944, the Republic of Iceland joined the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) in 1970 and signed a bilateral Free Trade Agreement with the European Communities in 1972. In 1994, Iceland became fully integrated into the European single market when it joined the European Economic Area (EEA).
Through the EEA Agreement, Iceland has already taken on a large part of the EU´s single market legislation. In fact, 22 of the 35 chapters of all EU legislation has more or less been incorporated into Icelandic legislation, and Iceland participates in various EU programmes
- Nordic Speaker Luncheon
- The Embassy is closed on May 20th
- Estonia offers Iceland facilities in Beijing
- Launch of Icelandic brand Daughter of Jón
- The Prime Ministers of Iceland and China issue a Joint State..
- Light and Shadows from the North - Caput tours China 18-24 M..
- TÖLT - Inspiration Islandpferd: Isländische Ausstellung im F.. | <urn:uuid:ea930637-4f8e-4f96-a5a1-2b478fced9d4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.iceland.is/iceland-abroad/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9262 | 272 | 1.625 | 2 |
If you experience shoddy AT&T reception inside your home or small office, you may be eligible for a free AT&T MicroCell device, according to what appears to be an internal document leaked to Engadget.
The MicroCell is a little box that plugs into your home internet connection and acts as short-range, personal AT&T cell tower of sorts. Sounds perfect, right? The kicker is that you normally have to buy the thing for $200 (starting this Sunday—it used to cost $150), which seems to just skate along the edges of outrageous if you already get lousy reception.
My AT&T phone, for instance, sits in front of a giant window all day long and I watch as the phone’s signal hovers between zero and one bar all day long. This is in the middle of Boston and happens whether I use my iPhone or any one of the other AT&T phones I’ve amassed over the years. The idea of paying AT&T $200 for a device that uses my own internet connection so I can make phone calls doesn’t really appeal to me, believe it or not.
Thankfully, it appears that the company will be sending out mailers to “the top 7.5% of 3G wireless customers identified as likely to experience poor in-building coverage at home or in small offices,” offering a free MicroCell device for their (our) trouble. I’ll be interested to see if I’m on this list or not.
From the looks of it, the free MicroCells will have to be picked up at AT&T retail locations and you’ll have to agree to stay on with AT&T for an entire year—this is regardless of your current cell phone contract. If you leave before the year is up, you’ll have to either return the MicroCell or pay $200 minus $16.67 per month for every month out of the year you’ve served.
It’s a step in the right direction, for sure. I’d guess that several people in AT&T’s troubled New York and San Francisco markets will be getting these mailers, and we’ll see how many customers in other parts of the country get them as well. The timing is certainly interesting, too. With the Verizon iPhone hitting the market in the next couple of weeks, this may be a preemptive strike by AT&T to try to minimize would-be defectors.
More on TIME.com: | <urn:uuid:19f08eec-eabd-441a-8572-7da4dc02e6ba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://techland.time.com/2011/01/21/poor-att-reception-you-might-get-a-free-signal-booster/print/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944408 | 527 | 1.570313 | 2 |
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United Way of Chester County’s Share the Warmth program was started in 2005 as a project designed to increase the number of residents who would receive much needed home winterization, during a time that promised higher fuel and food prices. That has not changed.
Food prices today are even higher, fuel prices continue to rise, and many in Chester County are being hit from all directions. Among those hit especially hard are our local seniors.
Seniors like Elizabeth, the 84 year old widow whose home in West Chester desperately needed window replacing. Elizabeth was running space heaters in order to stay warm and would often remain in her bedroom during the day because other parts of the house were just too cold.
Seniors like the Finnegan’s. The 79 year old couple who live on a limited, fixed income and are no longer able to stay on top of the repairs their old home needs. Some months the couple was forced to make a choice between paying for fuel or paying for groceries.
No one should have to choose between heat or medicine, food or fuel—but many do. Many seniors in our community are faced with potentially losing their home, often their life’s greatest investment, simply because they can not afford the costly repairs necessary to keep it warm and dry.
Good Neighbors replaced Elizabeth’s windows and her oil tank. They insulated her walls and repaired her roof. All for less than $3,000.
Good Works insulated the Finnegan’s home and replaced windows and an exterior door. By utilizing volunteer power to get the job done the agency sees an incredible return on their minimal monetary investment.
The dollars raised from the Share the Warmth program go directly toward helping the seniors who are facing the greatest risk. Last year the readers of the Daily Local raised nearly $30,000 to support this important program. We hope you will continue to support the partnership and the important work that happens because of your generosity.
Contributions to the Share the Warmth program can be addressed to: Share the Warmth, c/o Daily Local News, 250 N. Bradford Avenue, West Chester, PA 19382. Attention: Andy Hachadorian, Editor. | <urn:uuid:cab6a47a-605b-4239-a6e0-e527c09a6618> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailylocal.com/article/20121205/NEWS01/121209812/seniors-facing-tough-choices-find-help-with-their-homes | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962346 | 457 | 1.820313 | 2 |
The Evolution Of the Summer Olympics Logo Design From 1924 To 2016
The Olympics is coming to Great Britain London in summer 2012. The Olympics is the oldest worlds sporting event. The first Olympics took place 1986 in Greece. The logo design over the past century of the existence of the Olympics changed drastically as you can imagine. In the this post we are showcasing the evolution of Olympics logo from 1924 to 2016. | <urn:uuid:d39a38d3-b27d-40a9-a801-a29f410cb41e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://focusoncreative.com/the-evolution-of-the-summer-olympics-logo-design-from-1924-to-2016/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915329 | 80 | 1.84375 | 2 |
IBM scientists take image of atomic bonds
Ready for my close-up, mister DeMille
How’s this for a close-up: an image that can differentiate between the different chemical bonds in an individual molecule? That’s what IBM’s Zurich research lab is claiming in a paper published in Science.
The paywalled piece is titled with the pizazz typical of science papers – Bond-Order Discrimination by Atomic Force Microscopy – but it’s worth browsing because the image is so cool.
IBM's image of a nanographene molecule: the bonds at the centre involve more electrons and are shorter
than those at the edge. Image: IBM
Created with an atomic force microscope (AFM), the image shows a nanographene molecule and clearly visualises the bonds in the molecule, showing different lengths of bonds. The scientists say the imaging technique will help them characterise graphene, the wonderstuff of developments in electronics.
"This can increase basic understanding at the level of individual molecules ... in particular, the relaxation of bonds around defects in graphene as well as the changing of bonds in chemical reactions and in excited states were observed", IBM says.
To quote IBM scientist Leo Gross from its announcement: "We found two different contrast mechanisms to distinguish bonds. The first one is based on small differences in the force measured above the bonds. We expected this kind of contrast but it was a challenge to resolve.”
"The second contrast mechanism really came as a surprise: bonds appeared with different lengths in AFM measurements. With the help of ab initio calculations we found that the tilting of the carbon monoxide molecule at the tip apex is the cause of this contrast.”
The AFM uses a single carbon monoxide molecule as the sensing tip. The molecule oscillates above the sample to measure the forces between the CO molecule and the sample to create the image. ®
Update: The original version of this story identified the image as showing C60. That has now been corrected. IBM imaged both nanographene and C60 "buckyballs". There are more images on Flickr, here. | <urn:uuid:587226b5-71be-4158-a1ce-9bd18d8ff9ea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/09/16/image_of_molecular_bonds/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937326 | 442 | 3.046875 | 3 |
This week's book giveaway is in the General Computing forum. We're giving away four copies of Arduino in Action and have Martin Evans, Joshua Noble, and Jordan Hochenbaum on-line! See this thread for details.
I like to implement HttpSessionBindingListener in an object that needs to save itself when a session is invalidated. We have an on-line exam that does that if the user is dropped or logged off before finishing so the test can be resumed. Bill
-binding- is implemented by the object which will be set as session's attribute. it notifies this object when it is bound or unbound with a session. (valueBound/valueUnbound methods...). -attribute- is implemented by your servlet and throws an event when an object (attribute) is added, removed or replaced in session. so, what makes the difference is the "side" you want to be notified about the event - does your object has to "know" it was addedor removedfrom a session or does your session has to " know" anattribute was added/removed/replaced in it. | <urn:uuid:0f310d8b-71cc-471b-85f5-aed1628071c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.coderanch.com/t/356247/Servlets/java/Quick-HttpSessionBinding-HttpSessionAttribute-Listeners | 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 | 0.946414 | 230 | 2.359375 | 2 |
Thermaltake ISGC-400 CPU Cooler Reviewajmatson - May 24, 2009
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Unlike the tower design that the ISGC-300 uses, the ISGC-400 changes the direction of airflow to help keep the surrounding areas cooler, thus lowering temperatures overall. The ISGC-400 is comprised of an aluminum body with 33 aluminum sawtooth fins, which are designed to make the cool air intake smoother, which maximizes cooling performance. Attached to the fins are six copper heatpipes that start from the all-copper base. Since copper is a great conductor of heat, the base and pipes quickly whisk away the heat to the aluminum fins, where the fan takes care of the rest.
The fan that is included with the ISGC-400 cooler is the ISGC 12 fan, model number TTB122512LS. It is rated to push a maximum 58.3 CFM of air, all at a noise level of 16 dBA. The fan measures 120x25mm, and is rated at 12v for operation. The blades of the fan are designed to be like flower petals to decrease the noise created when operating, in conjunction with other features, such as the Hydro Dynamic Bearings. Thermaltake claims an airflow increase of up to 15 %, while decreasing noise by 3%. To also aid in cooling and noise during operation, there's a fan speed controller that gets connected to the power lead of the fan. This controller allows you to adjust the RPM of the fan from 800 to 1300 RPM.
Now let's mount the ISGC-400 and see how well it holds up. | <urn:uuid:906c34a4-3ab4-4421-95a8-8580e195c8f2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/thermaltake_isgc_400/2.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916289 | 341 | 1.695313 | 2 |
220 volts, 50Hz. European-style two-pin plugs are
German is the official language. English is also widely
spoken and understood.
German laws stipulates that all prices, menus and bills include
both tax and a service charge, so tipping is not necessary in
restaurants. Cleaning staff, hairdressers, taxi drivers etc.
appreciate small tips.
A visit to Germany should be trouble free, but take normal
precautions to avoid mugging, bag-snatching and pick-pocketing,
especially at airports and railway stations in the large
Visitors should carry passports with them at all times. Smoking
in public places such as bars and restaurants is illegal.
In Germany, business is conducted in a very formal manner. A
conservative, formal sense of dress is to be adhered to.
Punctuality is vital at all meetings and it is considered rude to
be late. Germans love titles; men are referred to as 'Herr' and
women as 'Frau', followed by their last names until otherwise
specified. Meetings are often purely business and may not occur
over lunches, which are generally more social. Shaking hands at the
beginning and end of the meeting is common. The exchange of
business cards is common but there is no accompanying ritual.
Decisions are often made behind closed doors. Business hours are
generally 9am to 6pm Monday to Friday with an hour taken over
The international access code for Germany is +49. The outgoing
code is 00 followed by the relevant country code (e.g. 0044 for the
United Kingdom). The city code for Berlin is (0)30. Note that
telephone numbers in Germany can range from four to nine digits.
There are surcharges on international calls made from hotels; it is
often cheaper to use public telephone boxes in post offices, which
use phone cards. The local mobile phone operators use GSM networks
and have roaming agreements with most international operators.
Internet cafes are available in the main towns.
Passengers arriving from non-EU countries can enter Germany
without paying duty on either 200 cigarettes, 100 cigarillos, 50
cigars, 250g smoking tobacco, or a proportional mix of these
products; 1 litre of spirits with 22% alcohol volume, 2 litres of
spirits or aperitifs made of wine or similar beverages with alcohol
content lower than 22%, sparkling, still or liqueur wines, or a
proportional mix of these; perfume up to 50g or 250ml eau de
toilette; 500g coffee; and other goods to the value of EUR175 for
personal consumption. Prohibited items include any poultry or pet
birds from poultry and derived products coming from Cambodia,
China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Laos, Pakistan, Thailand | <urn:uuid:e3553f88-38c1-49e9-ae2a-08861587c5da> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.justluxe.com/travel/447__hamburg-travel-guide-basics.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908198 | 603 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Marpa travelled to India from Tibet at great
personal peril across the Himalayas to
study with his principal teachers, Naropa
Marpa Chökyi Lodrö, was born in Lhodrak Chukhyer to a well-to-do family. He began studying at a young age and was wild and untamed compared to other children. Marpa first received training for three years at Mangkhar with Drokmi Shakya Yeshe and mastered the Sanskrit language. He decided to travel to India to study dharma with renowned Indian buddhist masters. Marpa returned home to Lhodrak and converted his entire inheritance into gold for his travel expenses and to make offerings to his Indian gurus for requested teachings.
Marpa set out on his journey to India. Arriving first in Nepal, he studied with Paindapa and Chitherpa, two famous students of Naropa.
Later, Paindapa accompanied Marpa to Pullahari, near Nalanda University, where Naropa taught. Marpa spent twelve years receiving abhishekas, instructions, and studying with Naropa and other great Indian gurus to whom Naropa sent him to study or receive instructions. At the end of twelve years, Marpa offered a ganachakra and sang his first song of realization to his guru, Naropa. Shortly after, he set forth on his journey back to Tibet, where he taught and continued his dharma activities.
Subsequently, Marpa traveled to India two more times and studied with Naropa and other great mahasiddhas of India. Of these, his main gurus were Naropa and Maitripa. In total, he traveled three times to India and four times to Nepal. On his third visit, Marpa went through an adventure in finding Naropa, because Naropa, having already entered into the tantric conduct, was nowhere to be found. However, with determination, trust, and devotion, Marpa managed to find Naropa and receive the final teachings and instructions from him. At that time, Naropa prophesied that a family lineage would not continue for Marpa, but that his lineage would be carried on by disciples—especially one with the appearance of a monk and the inner realization of Mahayana. This prophecy foretold of the arrival of Lord Gampopa.
Marpa now had received the full transmissions, so Naropa formally declared Marpa to be his dharma successor. Marpa brought the teachings and lineages of vajrayana and mahamudra back to Tibet.
Naropa in general had seven major disciples including Paindapa, Chitherpa, Shri Shantibhadra or Kukuripa, and Maitripa. His most well known disciple and lineage holder was the Marpa, the translator.
Upon his return to Tibet, Marpa spent many years translating Buddhist scriptures and contributed to the effort to bring the complete buddhadharma to Tibet. Many of his translations are part of the Kagyur and Tangyur.
Marpa continued to practice and give teachings, abhishekas, and transmissions to many students in Tibet. After his third visit to India, Mila Thöpaga or Milarepa became his disciple, who inherited his lineage in full. Marpa along with his wife, Dakmema and their sons lived in Lhodrak in the southern part of Tibet.
Marpa had numerous disciples. The four most outstanding students were known as the "Four Pillars:" 1) Ngok Chöku Dorje, who became the principal student to receive the transmissions and master the explanations of the Tantras, 2) Tsurtön Wanggi Dorje, who became the main student to receive the transmissions and master the practice of Phowa [transference of conciousness], 3) Meytön Chenpo, who became the primary student to receive the transmissions and master the practice of Ösal [luminosity], and 4) Milarepa, who became the principal student to receive the full transmissions and master the view, meditation, and conduct.
Marpa gave the full transmission of his lineage to Milarepa, who became his spiritual heir and continued the lineage of Naropa.
The principal student and lineage heir of Marpa was Milarepa.
|1st Karmapa - Düsum Khyenpa|
|2nd Karmapa - Karma Pakshi|
|3rd Karmapa - Rangjung Dorje|
|4th Karmapa - Rolpe Dorje|
|5th Karmapa - Deshin Shekpa|
|6th Karmapa - Thongwa Dönden|
|Bengar Jampal Sangpo|
|Goshir Paljor Dhöndrup|
|7th Karmapa - Chödrak Gyatso|
|8th Karmapa - Mikyö Dorje|
|9th Karmapa - Wangchuk Dorje|
|10th Karmapa - Chöying Dorje|
|11th Karmapa - Yeshe Dorje|
|Palchen Chökyi Dhondrup|
|12th Karmapa - Changchub Dorje|
|13th Karmapa - Dudul Dorje|
|Mipham Chödrup Gyatso|
|Pema Nyinje Wangpo|
|14th Karmapa - Thekchok Dorje|
|15th Karmapa - Khakyab Dorje|
|Pema Wangchok Gyalpo|
|Palden Khyentse Öser|
|16th Karmapa - Rangjung Rigpe Dorje|
|17th Karmapa - Ogyen Trinley Dorje| | <urn:uuid:0d060043-6625-48f8-b1c0-a2b75d61a5aa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kagyuoffice.org/kagyulineage.marpa.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957167 | 1,219 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Can We Teach Computers What “Truth” Means?
It’s harder than it sounds.
Courtesy of null0/Flickr
This article arises from Future Tense, a partnership of Slate, the New America Foundation, and Arizona State University. From Feb. 28 through March 2, Future Tense will be taking part in Emerge, an annual conference on ASU’s Tempe campus about what the future holds for humans. This year’s theme: the future of truth. Visit the Emerge website to learn more and to get your ticket.
I’d like to begin with two different ideas of truth. The first appears to be the simplest: “It is true that 1+1=2.” The second is from the beginning of the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” Now, these sound like quite different ideas about truth. But the process of trying to teach computers to understand truths like these—difficult for both notions—is revealing the ways in which they are similar.
The term artificial intelligence was coined in 1955 by a computer scientist named John McCarthy. Early on, McCarthy enunciated his key aim as the systematization of common sense knowledge. In 1959, he wrote: “[A] program has common sense if it automatically deduces for itself a sufficiently wide class of immediate consequences of anything it is told and what it already knows.” This has proven very difficult, primarily because it is difficult to encode, in a systematic fashion, what it means to say something is true.
Even “1+1=2” is less obvious than it seems at first. Beginning in the early part of the 20th century, mathematicians and philosophers, led at first by Bertrand Russell and Gottlob Frege and later by Ludwig Wittgenstein, Kurt Gödel, Alan Turing, and others, tried to see whether mathematical knowledge—facts like “1+1=2”—could be reduced to the laws of logic. (By logic, Frege meant “those laws of thought that transcend all particulars.” The most basic principle of logic is perhaps the conviction that nothing exists—it is possible to name a set that has no elements.) David Hilbert, the dean of mathematics at the dawn of the century, had thought that such a reduction was possible and posed it as a challenge.
But Hilbert was doomed to failure here. The reason for this, at a basic level, is self-reference. Sentences like “This sentence is false” turn out to pose a nasty set of technical challenges that make it impossible to fully express mathematical knowledge as a consequence of logical axioms—things that are held, on their face, to be true.
Gödel, an Austrian logician who would become a good friend of Albert Einstein’s after both of them settled in Princeton, proved this in a 1931 paper, whose consequences were later strengthened by Turing. Gödel’s incompleteness theorem says that in any sufficiently strong logical system (meaning one that is rich enough to express mathematics), it is impossible to prove that the axioms—the assumptions—of the system do not lead to a contradiction.
The importance of Gödel’s incompleteness theorems for artificial intelligence is something that remains hotly debated. One school of thought, as Ernest Nagel and James Newman wrote in 1956, holds that incompleteness means “that the resources of the human intellect have not been, and cannot be, fully formalized, and that new principles of demonstration forever await invention and discovery.” The other school of thought says, basically, “Don’t worry about it!” The best-known recent exponent of this school is Ray Kurzweil, who claims, without much evidence, that “there is an essential equivalence between a computer and the brain.”
Kurzweil’s overheated triumphalism aside (he seems determined to prove that careful thought is not necessary to be human by displaying a tremendous lack of care himself), this is not a question that we need to resolve to say something about what current progress in artificial intelligence is doing to the idea of truth. Even if Nagel and Newman are right and human intellect cannot be fully formalized, computer scientists have come a long way since John McCarthy first enunciated the aim of formalizing common sense.
Computer scientists have worked to come up with formal descriptions of the everyday world. Here is a short list, taken from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy of some of scenarios they’ve tried to encode:
The Baby Scenario, the Bus Ride Scenario, the Chess Board Scenario, the Ferryboat Connection Scenario, the Furniture Assembly Scenario, the Hiding Turkey Scenario, the Kitchen Sink Scenario, the Russian Turkey Scenario, the Stanford Murder Mystery, the Stockholm Delivery Scenario, the Stolen Car Scenario, the Stuffy Room Scenario, the Ticketed Car Scenario, the Walking Turkey Scenario, and the Yale Shooting Anomaly.
Let’s take the last of these—the Yale Shooting Anomaly, which aims to formally codify the fact that an unloaded shotgun, if loaded and then shot at a person, would kill the person. Classical logic dealt with things like “1+1=2” which are true, (or false, like 1=0) for all time. They were true, are true, and always will be true. It doesn’t allow for things to happen. But to encode common- sense knowledge, computer scientists need a way to allow for events to take place. They also need ways to encode spatial locations.
Some of this had been worked out in a rigorous but limited way, in what philosophers call modal logic, which was first enunciated by C.I. Lewis in 1918. But modal logic was too limited for computer scientists to use in semireal world systems. In the languages that computer scientists have come up with, as in the Yale Shooting Anomaly, they were unable to preclude the possibility that the shotgun would spontaneously unload itself. It’s not that computer scientists think that that will happen; it’s that they struggle to formalize how it can’t. (Since the Yale Shooting Anomaly was first stated in 1986, many solutions have been proposed, but it remains an area of research.)
A central challenge computer scientists face is what’s called the ramification problem: How to codify that fact that if I walk into a room, my shirt does, too. This is paralleled by the “frame problem,” first enunciated by McCarthy in 1969, which is the “problem of efficiently determining which things remain the same in a changing world.” These problems are considerably harder than careless cheerleaders like Kurzweil make them out to be.
The central result of logicians in the 20th century was that, in the end, it will always be necessary to extend your axioms—things you just assume to be true without proving them—if you are to extend your idea of truth. This brings us to our second idea about truth—that men are created equal and entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Thomas Jefferson’s insight (without getting into the abominable hypocrisy of the fact that slavery was legal at the time) was that these truths were not provable from some more basic system of logic, but must themselves be assumed.
The sense in which artificial intelligence research has eroded the distinction between such moral truths and mathematical truths is not a rigorous philosophical identification of the two, but just a sense that truths of the first sort are not as absolute as they seem (at the end the fights between logicians come down to opinion and taste) while truths of the second sort can be, grudgingly and with struggle, written down in a form that outwardly resembles the simpler-seeming truths of mathematics.
Konstantin Kakaes is a Schwartz fellow at the New America Foundation. Follow him on Twitter. | <urn:uuid:bbdae031-edd1-48b3-8f6f-ab3d827c60c4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/02/artificial_intelligence_can_we_teach_computers_what_truth_means.single.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962016 | 1,722 | 3.40625 | 3 |
The Food Safety Knowledge Area Guides were created to provide visually appealing and stimulating, condensed snapshots of the most important "basics" in each of the critical "Knowledge Areas." Managing the Physical Facility Design and Maintenance is on one side of the card and includes information on proper lighting in preparation and storage areas, obtaining equipment and supplies, ventilation, water supply and waste disposal, and plans for facility design and maintenance. The other side of the card covers Preventing and Controlling Pests and includes information on prevention and control, integrated pest management and primary pests. This is an excellent tool for trainers, a great tool to use to freshen up your knowledge while preparing for a certification exam. The Food Safety Knowledge Area Guides were created by Environmental Health Testing in collaboration with Steven Sklare, REHS/RS, CP-FS, LEHP an industry veteran with more than 26 years of experience in the field and in the classroom.
Design assistance by Royall Advertising Orlando, FL: www.royalladv.com
To place an order for Food Safety Knowledge Area Guides, please click here. | <urn:uuid:38386ade-0bd6-44b2-97b6-e626957d508a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nsf.org/training/educational_tools/kag_managing_design.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934281 | 220 | 2.15625 | 2 |
Tanya Davis – How To Be Alone
The Accurate Source To Find Quotes To People.”
If you are at first lonely, be patient.
If you’ve not been alone much, or if when you were, you weren’t okay with it, then just wait. You’ll find it’s fine to be alone once you’re embracing it.
We can start with the acceptable places, the bathroom, the coffee shop, the library, where you can stall and read the paper, where you can get your caffeine fix and sit and stay there. Where you can browse the stacks and smell the books; you’re not supposed to talk much anyway so it’s safe there.
There is also the gym, if you’re shy, you can hang out with yourself and mirrors, you can put headphones in.
Then there’s public transportation, because we all gotta go places.
And there’s prayer and mediation, no one will think less if your hanging with your breath seeking peace and salvation.
Start simple. Things you may have previously avoided based on your avoid being alone principles.
The lunch counter, where you will be surrounded by chow-downers, employees who only have an hour and their spouses work across town, and they, like you, will be alone.
Resist the urge to hang out with your cell phone.
When you are comfortable with eat lunch and run, take yourself out for dinner; a restaurant with linen and Silverware. You’re no less an intriguing a person when you are eating solo dessert and cleaning the whipped cream from the dish with your finger. In fact, some people at full tables will wish they were where you were.
Go to the movies. Where it’s dark and soothing, alone in your seat amidst a fleeting community.
And then take yourself out dancing, to a club where no one knows you, stand on the outside of the floor until the lights convince you more and more and the music shows you. Dance like no one’s watching because they’re probably not. And if they are, assume it is with best human intentions. The way bodies move genuinely to beats, is after all, gorgeous and affecting. Dance until you’re sweating. And beads of perspiration remind you of life’s best things, down your back, like a book of blessings.
Go to the woods alone, and the trees and squirrels will watch for you. Go to an unfamiliar city, roam the streets, they are always statues to talk to, and benches made for sitting gives strangers a shared existence if only for a minute, and these moments can be so uplifting and the conversation you get in by sitting alone on benches, might have never happened had you not been there by yourself. SOURCE: LYBIO.net. Copyrights: Tanya Davis
Society is afraid of alone though. Like lonely hearts are wasting away in basements. Like people must have problems if after a while nobody is dating them.
But lonely is a freedom that breathes easy and weightless, and lonely is healing if you make it.
You can stand swathed by groups and mobs or hands with your partner, look both further and farther in the endless quest for company.
But no one is in your head. And by the time you translate your thoughts an essence of them may be lost or perhaps it is just kept. Perhaps in the interest of loving oneself, perhaps all those “sappy slogans” from pre-school over to high school groaning, we’re tokens for holding the lonely at bay.
Cause if you’re happy in your head, then solitude is blessed, and alone is okay.
It’s okay if no one believes like you, all experience is unique, no one has the same synapses, can’t think like you, for this be relieved, keeps things interesting, life’s magic things in reach, and it doesn’t mean you aren’t connected, and the community is not present, just take the perspective you get from being one person in one head and feel the effects of it.
Take silence and respect it.
If you have an art that needs a practice, stop neglecting it, if your family doesn’t get you or a religious sect is not meant for you, don’t obsess about it.
You could be in an instant surrounded if you need it.
If your heart is bleeding, make the best of it.
There is heat in freezing, be a testament.
Tanya Davis – How To Be Alone. Go to the movies. Where it’s dark and soothing, alone in your seat amidst fleeting community. And then take yourself out dancing, to a club where no one knows you, stand on the outside of the floor until the lights convince you more and more and the music shows you. Dance like no ones watching because they are probably not. And if they are, assume it is with best human intentions. The way bodies move genuinely move to beats, after-all, is gorgeous and affecting. Complete Full Script, Dialogue, Remarks, Saying, Quotes, Words And Poem By Tanya Davis – How To Be Alone.
Tags: Alone, Andrea Dorfman, Bravery, Community, Complete, Davis, Dialogue, Gorgeous Morning, How To Be Alone Poem, Loneliness, Manuscript, People Quotes And Saying, Poetry, Pop Songs, Quotes, Read, Read News Script, Read The News, Remarks, Sam MacDonald, Saying, Script, Solitude, Tanya, Tanya Davis, Tanya Davis How To Be Alone, Tanya Davis How To Be Alone Read, Tanya Davis How To Be Alone Script, Tanya Davis Poems, Text, Timothy Crabtree, Transcribed, Video, Videos, Webcam, Words. | <urn:uuid:9be29cc6-9c00-4dee-a51d-b0c442678c04> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lybio.net/tag/timothy-crabtree/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923418 | 1,234 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Nepotism, Cronyism and Business in the Arab World and Indonesia
Corruption is negative on countries’ macroeconomic performance, and detrimental to growth and investment, as many economists would attest. [Mauro, Paolo., 1995] Although academically distinct from corruption, nepotism and cronyism may have similar effects. Cronyism exists when four conditions are met: immediate return of favor, something of value exchanged, shared network membership (usually among friends), and at a third party’s expense. [Begley, Thomas M., Naresh Khatri and Eric W. K. Tsang, 2010] Nepotism is favoring kin above others, which is innate trait in human beings -but barred in developed democracies with anti-nepotism laws. [Kuznar, Lawrence A. and William Frederick., 2009]
In the Middle East, nepotism and cronyism are termed collectively as wasta. It is not the end in itself, but a means to achieve a desirable outcome, which is usually of monetary benefit. [Faisal, Abdulla and Mukhtar Abdella., 1993] Wasta is rampant in the daily life and is viewed negatively by Arab citizens themselves. Many hiring decisions are made only if a person is correctly connected. Unlike guanxi that is said to play a role in Chinese business competitiveness, wasta has an adverse role that results in poor economic performance as it harms its seeker, its granter, and the government. [Mohamed, Ahmed Amin and Hadia Hamdy., 2008] Wasta being pervasive, an international manager or investor must deeply understand the local context and the insider/outsider dichotomies essential in interpersonal connections. He needs intermediaries or third party ‘connected individuals’ first before eventually building his own relationships and trust networks over time. [Hutchings, Kate and David Weir., 2006]
Saudi Arabia, my case in point, is a monarchy whereby the king has absolute power over ministerial appointments and thus is the one who would choose royal family members to hold office. [Rice, Gillian., 2004] King Faysal (reigned 1964-1975) decreed that the royal family’s share in oil revenues not exceed an 18% stake. Between 1973-2005, that 18% equals USD$287 billion. [Rivlin, Paul., 2009] These arrangements, however, do not deter foreign investors from Saudi. The foreign investment law enacted in 2000 allows for 100% ownership of projects. [Rice, Gillian., 2004] Moreover, Saudi Arabia is ranked 12th of 183 economies in the ease of doing business where it only takes 5 days to set up one. [World Bank., 2012] Wasta may be viewed as normative more than unethical here. Although most Middle Eastern governments have anti-corruption agencies, many too do not have free media, and thus there is strict control against outward government or government linked corporations criticisms. [Izraeli, Dove., 1997] Saudi Arabia has been termed as a great paradox where it is both stable economically and politically thanks to these familial (and wasta, to an extent) ties but at the same time, its younger generation now ideally seeks for greater authority and autonomy, sooner. [Champion, Daryl., 2003] In the few studies done on wasta, recent ones suggest that wasta, is, in fact, a source of pride and prestige for both parties, is not a criminal frowned-upon act and that direct reciprocity is not a requirement. Wasta -a right and expectation to be demanded and received. [Barnett, Andy H., Bruce Yandle and George Naufal., 2011]
Contrast it now, with nepotism and cronyism in Indonesia. Vertical collectivist Indonesia ranked among the most corrupt countries by Transparency International. [Khatri, Naresh, Eric W. K. Tsang and Thomas M. Begley., 2009] Suharto’s 32 year reign saw billions of dollars being siphoned off by himself, his cronies and his family from almost all incoming Indonesian projects. Businesses even accounted for bribes as part of the costs of doing business there during his regime. [Renoe, Curtis E., 2002] Suharto was sworn in after Sukarno’s disastrous mismanagement of economy in Indonesia, which the former stepped in when inflation was 600%, and Indonesia had a huge foreign debt. The latter’s closed economy policies proved detrimental, and Suharto’s move was to open up the economy for foreign direct investments. Indeed, Suharto brought a period of sustained economic growth but gradually he protected certain industries and imposed sole-importer policies to only benefit himself and his Chinese cronies. [Robertson-Snape, Fiona.,1999] The 1966 era witnessed Chinese capitalism seeping into state rents and foreign investments, leaving the pribumis’ share out of that period of austerity. This concentrated ownership of large Indonesian corporations further exacerbates cronyism and corruption between Suharto’s family and the affluent Chinese cronies like Salim, Pangestu, Hasan, and Riady. [Brown, Rajeswary Ampalavanar., 2006]
Mid-1990s however, Suharto’s children were becoming more greedy for a position in the office that he was forced to undertake some poor microeconomic policies which put him at a discounted position to fend off heightened competition of the increasingly affluent Chinese by bringing them into his franchise system instead of fending them off. [McLeod, Ross H., 2006] May 1998 saw the demise of Suharto as president and the laws of 1999 opened the door for a system of representative and decentralized parliamentary government. [Robison, Richard., 2006] Over time, Indonesians demanded change and were willing to alter their perceptions, behavior, and the way they managed institutions in issues concerning corruption and cronyism. Thus in 2002, the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR) established, against the odds, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). [Schütte, Sofie Arjon., 2012] KPK’s most prominent anti-corruption effort would be the arrest of former deputy governor of the Central Bank, Bank Indonesia. Mr. Aulia Pohan misappropriated US $83 million Central Bank funds in 2003, and despite being favorably related with the presidential family, President Yudhoyono took a non-interventionist stand. [Tjiptoherijanto, Prijono., 2009]
Barnett, Andy H., Bruce Yandle and George Naufal. “Regulation, Trust, and Cronyism in Middle Eastern Societies: The Simple Economics of ‘Wasta’.” (Dec. 2011). http://www.pearlinitiative.org/tl_files/pearl/data/Wasta-2011.pdf
Begley, Thomas M., Naresh Khatri and Eric W. K. Tsang. “Networks and Cronyism: A Social Exchange Analysis.” Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Volume 27, (Apr., 2010), pp. 281-297.
Brown, Rajeswary Ampalavanar. “Indonesian Corporations, Cronyism, and Corruption.” Modern Asian Studies Journal, Volume 40, Issue 4, (Sep., 2006), pp. 953-992.
Champion, Daryl. “The Paradoxical Kingdom: Saudi Arabia and the Movement of Reform.” New York: Columbia University Press, (2003), pp. 10-193.
Faisal, Abdulla and Mukhtar Abdella. “A Methodological Analysis of Wasta: A Study in Saudi Arabia.” King Saud University Magazine, Journal 5, Literature Issue 1, (1993), pp. 243-268.
Hutchings, Kate and David Weir. “Guanxi and Wasta: A Comparison.” Thunderbird International Business Review, Volume 48, Issue 1, (Jan. – Feb., 2006), pp. 141-156.
Izraeli, Dove. “Business Ethics in the Middle East.” Journal of Business Ethics, Volume 16, Number 14, (Oct., 1997), pp. 1555-1560.
Khatri, Naresh, Eric W. K. Tsang and Thomas M. Begley “Cronyism: A Cross-Cultural Analysis.” Journal of International Business Studies, Volume 37, Number 1, (Jan., 2006), pp. 61-75.
Kuznar, Lawrence A. and William Frederick. “Stimulating the Effect of Nepotism on Political Risk Taking and Social Unrest.” NAACSOS (North American Association for Computational Social and Organizational Science) Annual Conference 2005, Notre Dame, (Jun. 2005), pp. 1-6.
Mauro, Paolo. “Corruption and Growth.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 110, Number 3, (Aug., 1995), pp. 681-712.
Mohamed, Ahmed Amin and Hadia Hamdy. “The Stigma of Wasta: The Effect of Wasta on Perceived Competence and Morality”. (Jan. 2008). http://mgt.guc.edu.eg/wpapers/005mohamed_hamdy2008.pdf
Renoe, Curtis E. “Institutionalized “Corruption”: Implications for Legal Reform in Indonesia and the Need to Make Haste Slowly.” Stanford Journal of East Asian Affairs, Volume 2, (Spring 2002), pp. 102-113.
Rice, Gillian. “Doing Business in Saudi Arabia.” Thunderbird International Business Review, Volume 46, Issue 1, (Jan. - Feb., 2004) pp. 59-84.
Rivlin, Paul. “Arab Economies in the Twenty-First Century.” New York: Cambridge University Press, (2009), pp. 218-239.
Robertson-Snape, Fiona. “Corruption, Collusion and Nepotism in Indonesia.” Third World Quarterly, Volume 20, Number 3, The New Politics of Corruption (Jun., 1999), pp. 589-602.
Robison, Richard. “Corruption, Collusion and Nepotism after Suharto: Indonesia’s Past or Future?” International Institute for Asian Studies Newsletter, Number 40, (Spring 2006), p. 13.
Schütte, Sofie Arjon. “Against the Odds: Anti-Corruption Reform in Indonesia.” Public Administration and Development Journal, Volume 32, Issue 1, (Jan., 2012), pp. 38-48. | <urn:uuid:04b206a2-2d37-470c-aca0-26c0890b4f5a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kahfiyy.tumblr.com/post/19347948659/bismillah | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.907766 | 2,247 | 2.09375 | 2 |
America's cities are on the front lines of the nation's growing health care crisis, struggling to provide services to a growing number of uninsured, while at the same time maintaining health coverage for its own employees, says a report released Monday.
Newark, which has seen two acute-care hospitals close this year alone, is one of 13 cities included in the report, which is likely to be used as a rallying cry for help to the new administration in Washington, D.C. City mayors want major health care reform to be a top priority of the new president, saying they will otherwise be forced to make cuts in other basic city services, such as police and fire protection, schools and parks.
"We're increasing our investment every year and it's taking away from other vital services," said Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco, which two years ago began offering universal health care to uninsured residents.
The report also points to the growing cost of providing health coverage to city employees, with premiums rising faster than workers' paychecks.
Newark has been affected by the closing this year of Columbus and Saint James hospitals, which has put a strain on city clinics that offer services ranging from pediatrics and infectious disease treatment to dental care, officials said.
"We're very stretched," said Maria Vizcarrondo, director of the city's Department of Child and Family Well-Being.
She said the city is looking for alternative funding sources to keep afloat a voucher program that helps residents who cannot afford their prescriptions.
Vizcarrondo believes part of the answer is creating more federally qualified health centers -- safety net facilities that treat the uninsured and underinsured -- because the city-run clinics are hard pressed to meet the needs of everyone who walks through the door.
Some appointment dates are now six months away, she said, noting staff has been downsized to meet city budgetary constraints. Newark will institute a sliding scale fee for those "who can afford to pay something," she added.
"We have to have the federal government and state government look at what is happening in communities like Newark," she said.
The report, which was issued by Families USA, a nonprofit, health care consumer organization, also calls for raising the eligibility levels for public programs like Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program, which it says will help "ease the burden that providing health care for the uninsured places on cities."
The entire report is available at familiesusa.org. | <urn:uuid:51f50e8e-2622-41c2-a0b7-9e58cd7cfa9b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nj.com/newark/index.ssf/2008/06/report_finds_newark_one_of_13.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973719 | 499 | 1.945313 | 2 |
Assemblyman Pete Lopez (R,C,I-Schoharie) today shared concern over impending state Board of Regents education reforms. While the Board plans to revamp the state’s secondary education curriculum, the Assemblyman is concerned that the Board’s proposal is not receiving the fullest possible discussion, both at the local level and in the State Capitol.
“With the budget deadline looming before us, the focus has been on school funding – not education reform. Working closely with the schools in my district, I learned about the Board’s proposed statewide reforms and I am concerned that my fellow lawmakers and the community as a whole are not aware of this important work. The Regents’ changes will affect an entire generation of students across the state,” said the assemblyman.
The Regents Reform Agenda focuses on nine strategic goals, all of which center on a new model of thinking - one that transitions from input-based assessments (course hours, course titles) to one that encompasses performance and outcome-based assessment (student preparedness for college, ability to compete in global economy and leadership skills). The nine strategic goals include:
- Teacher Preparation and Effectiveness;
- Curriculum and Professional Development;
- Improving Assessment;
- Transform the Field of School Leader Preparation;
- Expand Early Childhood Opportunities;
- Raise Graduation Rates for At-Risk Students;
- Replace Failing Schools;
- Building a P-20 Data System; and
- Transform the New York State Education Department (NYSED).
More specific reform proposals include increasing graduation requirements to include four years each of math and science, a “college and career ready” credit (such as a technical education course, a college-level course or an advanced or AP course), increasing the required passing scores on Regents exams, and requiring that students pass a second Regents exam in math. Furthermore, the board proposed to extend the school day and school year.
To give students greater flexibility with their education, the board also proposes to allow students to choose to replace one of their Regents exams with successful completion of certain technical assessment programs, give students the chance to earn course credit through integrated training programs and allow students to earn credit through demonstration of competency rather than seat time.
The board has outlined a schedule to implement its reform proposals, beginning this year and running through 2015. This year, the board will seek to implement training of Common Core Standards for ELA and math, implement and train school-based Inquiry Teams, and implement new performance evolutions for teachers and principals in ELA and math. In 2012, additional changes will be put into place and, in 2013, new curriculum models will be used for science, social studies and the arts.
Additionally, the Regents recommend a variety of other initiatives, including mandate relief, shared services, a call for “green” buildings, restructuring teacher pensions, and a comprehensive reorganization of school districts. Their proposals include increasing the role of BOCES programs, extending their services to charter schools, and consolidating BOCES and school administrative offices (similar to legislation which Assemblyman Lopez has introduced this year).
Assemblyman Lopez said, “Those who historically follow the Regents curriculum changes know that these changes generally remain in place for many years. I believe the process must be opened up more fully to give taxpayers, parents, educators and lawmakers the opportunity to be effective partners in offering our young people the best possible education.” | <urn:uuid:851a10a5-4202-4df0-b17e-3ed43aa6f219> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/Peter-D-Lopez/story/41705/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943246 | 720 | 1.679688 | 2 |
When Lewis and Clark ventured westward on their excursion, they settled much of the land in the Midwest. Over time, more settlers flocked to the area and communities began to spring up.
Although this was hundreds of years ago, Columbia still honors and represents its heritage in an old-fashioned manner but in a modern-day setting with new people.
The 34th Annual Heritage Festival and Craft Show is like a living, breathing history book. Visitors at the festival can relive traditional Missouri settlement in a similar way as pioneers once did.
Missouri history is presented through a simulated town of shopkeeps, craftsmen and local folks set in 1859 — with traditional tradesmen, artisans and re-enactors to take visitors back in time to the 19th century.
Last year, a Lewis and Clark replica outpost camp and Haskell Indian Nations Dancers were main features of the show.
Visitors gathered around for ghost stories as the sun sank and the moon grew tall.
Local craft artists and performers dressed in traditional attire from the 1800s while sharing their trade with others, and Native American dancers donned traditional tribal attire.
This year, attendees can expect the same historical-styled events. Live music (jazz, swing, cajun, folk and country), dancing and storytelling will fill the lineup. Shoppers can purchase handmade crafts and gifts from local artists.
Visitors to the Heritage Festival can also take a tour of the Historic Maplewood Home and the Walters-Boone County Historical Museum — two local sites rich in mid-Missouri history.
On Saturday evening of the festival, ghost stories will be told from 8 to 9:30 p.m. by the Mid-Missouri Organization of Storytellers.
The Heritage Festival is all about exploration and knowledge. Parents and children alike can delve into interesting historical facts and stories about Missouri while listening to live music and traditional food fare — and all for free. | <urn:uuid:925b789e-b737-4095-b9d9-2d23ce4daa92> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.columbiamissourian.com/a/139350/welcome-back-heritage-festival-draws-attendees-back-in-time/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945634 | 398 | 2.21875 | 2 |
The Minnesota House of Representatives will kick off the education portion of their “Reform 2.0” initiative as Representatives Andrea Kieffer and Branden Petersen present education reform bills on the House floor this week. Both bills are meant to improve Minnesota teachers by ensuring that Minnesota school districts are hiring and keeping effective teachers.
Representative Andrea Kieffer (R-Woodbury) sponsors House File 1770, which requires teacher candidates to pass the basic skills exam before being granted an initial teaching license.
“We all agree that we need to raise the bar for teacher candidates in order to solve the achievement gap,” Kieffer said. “Current law requires the basic skills test, but still allows teachers in the classroom even if they fail. This bill addresses concerns that teacher candidates should not be allowed into the classroom prior to passing the basic skills exam.”
The bill also requires teachers who completed their teacher preparation program outside Minnesota to pass the basic skills exam before being granted a Minnesota teaching license.
“The bill has received bi-partisan authorship in the House and Senate,” Kieffer said. “I look forward to continued bi-partisan progress as the legislation moves through the Senate and eventually to Governor Dayton’s desk.”
In an effort to keep effective teachers, Representative Branden Petersen (R-Andover) authored House File 1870, which would eliminate a Minnesota state statute that forces school districts to consider only seniority, and ignore performance, when unfortunate teacher layoffs (ULA) are required. This bill will allow school districts to consider a teacher’s subject matter, licensure fields and their effectiveness, along with seniority when facing personnel decisions.
House File 1870 would amend Minnesota Statutes 2010, sections 122A.40, subdivisions 1.5>10, 11; and 122A.41, subdivision 14 which mandate that school districts account only for teacher seniority in the case of unrequested leave of absence, discharge, and demotion decisions. Minnesota is one of only 11 states in the country that retains this work rule for teachers.
I believe this bill is an essential step in improving the performance of our teachers and school systems for the benefit of our students," said Petersen. "A question that must be asked in this discussion is, ‘How can ignoring a teacher’s performance during layoffs (ULA) benefit our students in the classroom?’ Considering the fact that we know teachers are the most important in-school factor relating to student learning, it is essential that we protect our highest performing teachers."
First Reform 2.0 Bills Pass the House
The House passed the first four bills of 2012 this year to kick off the jobs portion of the Reform 2.0 agenda. The bills focus on reforming Minnesota’s lawsuit system to streamline the process and rein in the costs of participating in lengthy and expensive lawsuits.
Lawsuit reform is one of the top concerns of 45 regional Chambers of Commerce and Trade Associations that together represent more than 58,000 employers in Minnesota. In addition to burdening businesses, unchecked lawsuit abuse is costing consumers billions of dollars nationwide in higher prices for consumer goods, higher insurance premiums, lost wages and lost productivity.
Video from the House Floor and detailed explanations of each bill are posted on the Reform 2.0 blog.
“LIFO” Reform Gains Steam
The push to end LIFO – the name given to so-called Last In/First Out policies that protect teachers with tenure seniority from layoffs – is growing.
The Duluth News Tribune and St. Paul Pioneer Press ran editorials last week pushing these and other education reforms. The bill to end LIFO received its first committee hearing this week and will have its second soon. You can track the bill – and all Reform 2.0 initiatives – on the Bill Tracker page of Reform2.mn
What Members Are Saying
Reform 2.0 will bring much needed common sense and competitiveness to government regulations. When a government is effective, it has the ability to save the taxpayers money. In Minnesota, our government is 20 years behind in streamlining government and the taxpayers are paying the price for that every day. Our reforms will reduce the size and cost of government, create much needed transparency in local government spending decisions, as well as equalize the pay and benefits between the private and public sector. More.
Many of our local businesses – the backbone of our economy – are having trouble creating jobs and investing in innovation. Businesses are hampered by fear of frivolous lawsuits and windfall verdicts that can lead to layoffs, decreased production, or shutdowns. These bills will serve to alleviate this anxiety, and I am hopeful that, just as has happened in other parts of the country, including the state of Texas, this lawsuit abuse reform will translate into more jobs and less expensive goods and services. More.
The Week Ahead
Property Tax and Local Tax Division will take up Rep. Greg Davids' property tax relief plan.
State Government Finance takes up Rep. Keith Downey's bill on state employee gainsharing.
Taxes takes up Rep. Jenifer Loon's Tax Reform Action Commission.
Jobs takes up Rep. Keith Downey's bill on the Angel Investor Tax Credit.
Visit the House website for a complete schedule of House activities.
From Representative Mike Benson, printed in the Rochester Post-Bulletin:
This session, Republicans in the Legislature have an agenda called Reform 2.0. It’s based on many ideas that were brought forward by Minnesotans at statewide listening sessions.
We’ve already heard many concerns opposing this type of change, but the status quo clearly isn't working.
In the past 20 years, Minnesota has gone from a leader in student reading score tests to the middle of the pack, and our achievement gap remains a problem. In an effort to give them the best education possible, don’t we owe it to our kids to reform our K-12 system and try some new ideas?
The House this week passed [four] lawsuit reform bills that will improve Minnesota's economic environment by making the lawsuit system more fair, swift and inline with competing states.
“Our reforms are the first step to creating a more competitive business climate that encourages businesses to stay and grow in Minnesota,” said Representative Doug Wardlow. “The reforms aim to improve fairness in litigation, leading to speedier resolutions, all the while decreasing costs and increasing financial certainty for businesses.”
The reforms include:
Senate File 530 lowers the prejudgment interest rate on awards and judgments from the current (and elevated) 10% flat rate to a market-driven rate with a floor of four percent.
Senate File 149 enacts class action lawsuit reforms, including the authorizing an appeal of right for the certification of a class action before expensive discovery costs are incurred. It also increases the conciliation court jurisdictional limit from $7,500 to $15,000 and raises the cap for consumer credit claims from $4,000 to $7,500.
Senate File 373 shortens Minnesota's general statute of limitations from six years (currently the longest in the country) to four years.
Senate File 429 requires courts to consider the reasonableness of attorney fees in relation to the amount of damages awarded, and the amount of damages sought compared to the amount of damages awarded.
In yesterday's Bemidji Pioneer, the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce laid out its top measures the Legislature can pass to grow jobs, including:
Advocate legal reform on a variety of fronts including reducing the statute of limitations, addressing class-action litigation statutes and rules, and modifying how attorney fees are awarded.
That is exactly what these [four] bills aim to do. They are just the first in a series of bills in the Reform 2.0 agenda aimed at getting Minnesota back to work with a long-term focus. | <urn:uuid:8e90640c-f272-481d-b490-e76219e55425> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mnhousegop.squarespace.com/reformblog/?currentPage=3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947296 | 1,629 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) there are protections in place regarding discipline and the disabled child. These protections prevent school officials from using discipline to limit or block a disabled students education. Behavioral incidents that are not related to the disability are actions that will involve the same discipline that is required by school policy. If the behavior is directly related to the disability of a student there are specific procedures that must be followed.
A child with a disability cannot be suspended from school for more than ten days because it would be considered a change in placement under the Individualized Education Program (IEP) developed for the child. Prior to recommending a change in placement of a disabled student due to behavior issues, the IEP team must meet and determine if the infraction is related to the disability. Behavioral issues related to drugs or weapons can initiate a placement into an alternative school by the school authorities. Disruptive behavior which is a direct result of a students disability must be addressed by a Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) which outlines the behavioral issues related to the disability. The BIP will outline how the behavioral problems will be addressed.
Disability related behavior problems can be disruptive to the classroom setting. Autistic children may disrupt with repetitive movement and those who have tourettes syndrom may make continuous sounds. Children with Attention Deficiet Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) will be unable to concentrate for long periods of time and may disrupt the class with outbursts. These behaviors are related to the disability and are not comparable to similar actions by non-disabled students. Support and partnership of parents and teachers are necessary for success. By remaining committed to the IEP developed for the student, the issues related to disability triggered behavior problems can be conquered. | <urn:uuid:9efd30bf-590c-4f7a-845a-b33b114802ca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.esceducation.org/discipline-and-the-disabled-child.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949355 | 352 | 3.515625 | 4 |
Bless our little food-loving hearts. We live in exciting culinary times.
There are good wines for less than 10 bucks, as well as restaurants with digital menus and well-versed beer sommeliers. There are supermarkets with gigantic produce sections stocked with everything from purple taters to tomatillos, tamarillos to tamarinds. Walking down the aisles can feel like a post-graduate produce exam.
Fresh fruits and vegetables have taken on a powerful menu role, often nosing out meat to take a larger percentage of space on the dinner plate. And those fresh ingredients play a prominent role in handcrafted "culinary cocktails," too, with produce used to infuse spirits or play a major part in the muddling mix.
Many folks seem more particular about the meat they eat. Small, high-end butcher shops are growing in number, selling grass-fed beef from Uruguay, haute haunches cut-to-order, and super-premium wagyu.
And more than ever, chefs and home cooks are incorporating ingredients gleaned from global cuisines. There are more local sources for specialty ingredients, as well as myriad online vendors that are happy to ship harder-to-find food stuffs to your doorstep.
That means deciphering menus and recipes has become increasingly challenging. What is a dusting of vadouvan, or a soup scented with piment d'espelette?
Here's a quiz to test your foodie quotient. The terms in the questions are garnered from menus and recipes I've seen over the past year, or collected from calls or e-mails from inquisitive readers. Find the answers below. (Note: There might be more than one correct answer.)
1) I made an Italian mousse-like dessert this year adorned with fresh berries. The recipe called for an ingredient called "saba." What is saba?
A. A hard green candy shaped like leaves and flavored with mint extract. It is available at stores that specialize in imported confections.
B. An unfermented syrup made primarily from the must of Trebbiano grapes.
C. A coarse raw sugar popular in Southern Italy that is used to make zabaglione.
2) What is a peppadew?
A. It is the brand name of a sweet piquant pepper grown in the Limpopo province of South Africa.
B. Something Costco sells refrigerated in sugar-vinegar brine stuffed with goat cheese.
C. A new hybridized variety of summer squash; it looks like a cross between a zucchini and a jalapeno.
3) I savored every bite of sunchoke in a luscious side dish prepared at a winery in Oregon's Willamette Valley. The sunchokes were caramelized along with shallots, garlic and fresh herbs. What is a sunchoke?
A. A Japanese vegetable that looks like a long gourd, but has a plum-like aroma.
B. Also called purslane, this lemony vegetable is often sautéed and scrambled with eggs. Generally, it's not available commercially.
C. The taste of this knobby vegetable is a blend of jicama and potato; its appearance is somewhat similar to ginger. Sometimes labeled "Jerusalem artichoke."
4) At Thomas Hill Organics Bistro in Paso Robles, I downed an irresistible starter that teamed grilled pita bread with two toppings; the bread arrived with a bowl of lemon yogurt and a bowl of dukka mixed with extra-virgin olive oil. What is dukka?
A. A dark vinegar-based mixture that tastes similar to balsamic vinegar.
B. A black sea salt from Hawaii that has been linked to spot weight loss.
C. An Egyptian concoction of nuts, spices and seeds; it is easy to make at home.
5) Several Orange County chefs use piment d'espelette in their cooking. Craig Strong, executive chef at Studio (Montage Laguna Beach), uses it with lobster. What is it?
A. It's a variety of chili that is cultivated in the French commune of Espelette, Pyrénées-Atlantiques (traditionally the northern territory of the Basque people); it is sold dried and coarsely ground.
B. A jarred pimento that is used to make Chicken Paprikash.
C. A wild mushroom with a mild flavor profile that is grown in the woods surrounding Espelette, Mexico.
6) Greg Daniels, executive chef-owner of Haven Gastropub in Orange, does some sous vide magic on lamb belly, then, to create a luscious crust, he adds vadouvan and finishes with high-heat roasting. What is vadouvan?
A. Vadouvan is the fat that is slowly rendered from legs of the Vado variety of ducks. It is incredible when used to fry potatoes.
B. Vadouvan is a ready-to-use mixture of spices that is a derivative of Indian curry blend with a French twist; onion, salt, shallots, cumin, turmeric, garlic, black mustard, cardamom, black pepper, fenugreek are among the ingredients.
C. Vadouvan is a mixture of finely diced carrot, celery and onion sautéed in butter.
7) What is sous vide?
A. The sous vide method essentially means "Cryovacking'" a dish or ingredient by placing it in a heavy plastic bag, then vacuum packing it. Sometimes it's cooked in the bag in a circulating "bath," but with other dishes, the pressure from the packing process is used to infuse flavor and/or change texture.
B. Thomas Keller (chef-owner French Laundry in the Napa Valley, Per Se in New York City) uses sous vide to turn slabs of watermelon from something that is wet and spongy into something super-duper crisp with apple like denseness; the flavor is heightened in the process.
C. Sous vide is a French cheese with a creamy texture and delicate flavor. It is best eaten before it becomes overripe and stinky.
8) What is ghost pepper?
A. Also known as the Cherry Bell chili, it is almost spherical with deep red skin and thick flesh.
B. Also known as Bhut Jolokia, this chili was certified in 2007 by the Guinness World Records as the world's hottest chili pepper, 10,000 times hotter than Tabasco sauce (since that time it lost that distinction to the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion chili).
C. A chili is so darn spicy-hot, only need an itty-bitty portion. Ghost Pepper Salt (kosher salt mixed with chocolate extract and ghost peppers) is a delicious way to give the ghost pepper a test drive. Add a little sprinkle (underline the word little) to an avocado sandwich or French fries.
1. B, sold at Surfas in Costa Mesa and online
2. A and B, sold at Sapphire Pantry, Laguna Beach, or stuffed with goat cheese at Costco
3. C, often available at Bristol Farms markets or supermarkets with large specialty produce sections
4. C, recipe below
5. A, sold at Savory Spice Shop, Corona del Mar and Costa Mesa
6. B, sold at Savory Spice Shop, Corona del Mar and Costa Mesa
7. A and B, home-style sous vide water bath "ovens" are sold at Sur La Table, the least expensive one is $329
8. C, sold at Savory Spice Shop, Corona del Mar and Costa Mesa
Recipe: Berries with Saba Sabayon
Recipe: Kale Salad with Dates, Almonds and Peppadews Stuffed with Goat Cheese
Recipe: Bacon Jam
Contact the writer: firstname.lastname@example.org | <urn:uuid:6308ff06-ff8a-4c53-adff-ed96e6135f36> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ocregister.com/articles/fat-383549-until-sold.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916608 | 1,674 | 1.851563 | 2 |
The history of the Moss family closely follows the history of Southern Illinois and particularly Jefferson County.Ransom was born in Louisa County, Virginia, May 7, 1798.He came to the Northwest Territory (now Illinois) via Tennessee and located in Jefferson County.He traveled along an old Indian trail and settled in Shiloh community in 1818 with his wife, Susan Charlotte Clark.They had two children, Lucillus (Lucius) C. and Susan.Charlotte died April 14, 1920 and her burial was the first Christian burial in Jefferson County.She is buried in the Old Shiloh cemetery.
Ransom took little Susan back to Tennessee to be with relatives and then returned to Illinois with his son.
Ransom courted and on July 6, 1821 married Anna Johnson, daughter of Lewis and Frankey Stone Johnson.This marriage by Uncle Billy Maxey, newly appointed Justice of the Peace, was the first recorded in Jefferson County.They had 8 children – Thomas Lewis, James Franklin, Amanda Caroline, William Harvey, John Riley, Elizabeth F., Nancy Jane, and Ransom Harvey.Ransom died August 2, 1835 at the age of 37, leaving Anna with 8 children.She next married a Mr. James Latham on March 18, 1838 and bore a son, Samuel K. Latham, from that marriage.After his death or “disappearance” which I believe actually happened, Anna finished raising her children alone.She was a strong and remarkable woman, loved and respected by all who knew her. Anna died October 21, 1890 at the age of 92 and is buried in Oakwood cemetery.At her death her descendents numbered two hundred, going down to the fifth generation.
The eldest child of Anna and Ransom was my great-great grandfather, Thomas L. Moss.He was born November 30, 1823 and was eleven years old when his father died.He took over the farming chores to help with raising the young family.
In 1842 Thomas married Miss Sarah Jane Brock of Jersey County and they started married life in a log cabin located ¼ mile east of his boyhood home log cabin.Many stories are told of his great strength, his untiring energy, his devotion to the Methodist Episcopal Church, and his unwavering support of the Republican Party.Although he started without money or land, by diligent labor and good management he accumulated 1,000 acres.
During the Civil War in 1861 he raised a company of men in Shiloh Township, drilled and trained them and they were mustered in and taken to the front by his younger brother, Captain John Riley Moss.Thomas stayed behind to tend to the farm and guaranteed every man who enlisted from Shiloh Township that their wife and children would not want for food, clothing or medical attention while they were gone.This company of men, Company C, Sixtieth Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, served valiantly in ten battles and in General Sherman’s March to the Sea.
Thomas L. Moss and his wife Sarah had 12 children. Seven children grew to adulthood and five died in infancy.The infants are buried in Old Shiloh cemetery. The children of Thomas and Sarah were Martha E., Thaddeus C., Mahala A., S. Rose, Joseph T., LaFayette B., Mazzeratta J., Walter D., Ella E., Elsah M., Thomas L. and possibly a 12th one which I was not able to confirm.
Their youngest son, Walter Douglas Moss, was my great grandfather.He was born October 19, 1857 at the old log cabin which had been rebuilt and enlarged by adding a two story structure of hand hewn boards just in front of the original structure.W.D. or “Doug” as he was known, grew to manhood on the old farm, receiving his academic learning in the primitive log school and his knowledge of farming and livestock from his father who was an expert in the vocation.W.D. met and married Mary Ellen Coleman, a native of Gibson County, Indiana on July 4, 1880.The wedding was held in the West Salem Church – 2 miles west of Mt. Vernon, Illinois.In 1883 they built a three-room house back in the field about 1 mile south of his grandfather Ransom’s log cabin.When completed, W.D. said his worldly possessions consisted of a few chickens, a cow and $10.00 in money.In 1891 W.D. purchased the Judge Tanner brick home and farm that later became the Methodist Children’s Home and Columbia Heights Subdivision.In 1896 they sold the “Brick House” and moved to Drivers – a town 5 miles west of Mt. Vernon on the L& N Railroad, where they purchased a 372-acre farm and he became Post Master and Depot Agent.The depot burned down and the L& N never replaced it.The Post Office was moved and so did all the people of this settlement.In 1898 W.D. traded the 372 acres to Capt. Watson for the Mt. Vernon Flour Mill, located on the L & N spur track at the southwest corner of 10th and Casey.(Howard and Casey Wholesale Grocer Co. later occupied the building.)After operating the mill a few years, he sold out his interest and bought in as a partner with John R. Piercy in a general store on the northeast corner of 9th and Broadway.They purchased this store from J. Hill Williams in 1901.In 1902 he sold out and purchased a grocery store from Tom Johnson on North 9th Street.(Where Hunt’s Restaurant and Stockton’s Barber Shop later located).This was known as Star Grocery and later as Moss Grocery for 16 years until the building was sold to Moco Monkey Grip, a tire patch manufacturer owned by his oldest son, Tony.
In 1902 W.D. bought and moved to the Judge Youngblood property at 121 North 12th.This property was bound on the East by 12th street, Harrison on the North, 13th on the West and an alley on the South.Only one other house was on this property, later occupied by Mrs. Harry (Pearl) Dodds.Still later this property held 3 apartments and a single family home including the duplex of Flossie Moss.All totaled, the Moss family owned at least a portion of this property over 90 years.
In 1920 W.D. bought the brick building at the corner of 11th and Main St. (this later became the location of Griggs Grocery) from Newby Bros.Two of his sons, Eddie B. and Moody returned from California and opened a butcher shop and grocery store where W.D. continued to clerk until about 1930 when he retired.
After the death of his wife in 1932 he traveled and enjoyed good health until he suffered a fatal heart attack October 8, 1936 and was buried beside his wife in the family plot at Oakwood cemetery.At his death, W.D. left 4 sons and a daughter (one son, Walter Dwight, having died in his youth) Tony I., Moody R., Eddie B., Mark H., and Mayme A. (Mrs. George Culli).
Eddie Bolin Moss (my grandfather), known as Ed. B. Moss affectionately called “Eddie B” by many of his host of friends, was born at the old “Brick House” on Christmas Day 1894.He was 8 years old when the family moved to 121 North 12th and spent his entire youth in this neighborhood.Eddie B was an ambitious boy and since his older brothers, Tony and Moody worked at the grocery store, he did most of the household chores --- feeding the livestock, driving the cows to and from the pasture (located where the Good Samaritan Hospital now stands), delivering milk, keeping the wood box full, drawing wash water, etc.For cash spending money he made and sold sandwiches to passengers on all of the L&N trains when they stopped for water.As he grew older, he handed over the chores to his younger brother, Mark, and took over the delivery of groceries in the one horse wagon.
On May 27, 1914 he married Anna Leota Koons, only child of Robert A. and Della Pearson Koons.In 1917 they bought and moved into the old “Bolin Place” at 2015 Broadway.In 1918 he sold the Bolin Place to Willard Plowman and bought his brother Moody’s modern bungalow at 117 N. 13th just across the street from Moco Monkey Grip Factory where he was employed.(It was built on part of the ground occupied by the W.D. Moss home.)
In 1919 Tony sold the Moco Company and the Mt. Vernon factory was closed so Eddie B. and Moody decided to sell out and move to California.Moody and his wife, Flossie (Firebaugh) drove their Dodge touring car over the primitive roads carrying their belongings, gas, oil, water (there were very few filling stations) and pitching their tent wherever night overtook them.Eddie B., his wife Leota and their son Bob Ed went by train.
By 1920 the Moss boys had explored California and when their father, W.D., bought the Newby Grocery building they decided to come back to Mt. Vernon and open a new modern Moss Meat Market and Grocery Store. In 1922, Ed bought the Gussie Ferguson two story frame home at 214 N. 12th and remodeled it into a two family dwelling, and except for a brief 5 year period (when they farmed a 60 acre farm with R.A. Koons) it was his and Leota’s home until their deaths in 1971.When he returned from farming, (having sold out his grocery stock and fixtures to brother Moody in 1932), Eddie B. became a lease broker and bought and sold oil leases and royalty during all of the years of the oil boom and later a real estate broker with Vol Richardson until failing health forced his retirement from the office, although he continued his activity and maintained his broker’s license until his death. Ed will long be remembered for his knowledge of the history of Jefferson County and for his life-long collections of pictures and artifacts pertaining to the early families, gatherings, buildings, and folklore which he so lovingly preserved.Ed and Leota, devoted in life for 57 years, both passed away in 1971 and are buried in the Moss family plot in Oakwood cemetery.
Bob Ed Moss (my father) was the only child of Ed B. and Leota Moss and the last branch (by Moss name) on my family tree.Only one other child was born to the offspring on the W.D. Moss family, George Oscar Culli II, only child of Dr. George Oscar and Mayme Moss Culli.He and his wife Faye (Easley) Culli retired to live on their ranch in Three Rivers, Texas.George passed away July 5, 1994.
Bob Ed Moss was born September 24, 1916 at the W.D. Moss at 121 North 12th and although there were many intervening moves, he and his wife Nina ended up living in the Ed B. Moss home at 214 N. 12th (just one block north) until Nina’s death in 1977 and Bob Ed’s in1994.Bob Ed married Nina Virginia Pittman October 14, 1934. They were the parents of three daughters – Jean Ellen Koike of Silver Spring, MD, Mary Jane Ohms of Washington, IL, and June Ann Adams of Desloge, MO.He was active in the furniture and appliance business from 1937 until his retirement in mid 1980’s. In the 40’s & 50’s he owned Home Town Furnishing Co. and Home Town Pianos & Organs in Mt. Vernon and Gibson Furniture Co. in Henderson, KY.After that, he spent 25 years as a Manufacturers Factory Representative, traveling all of Illinois and Indiana.
After Nina’s death, Bob Ed married Laverne Craggs on April 12, 1980.She died on October 14, 1989.
Biography Ransom MOSS
Written and submitted by Mary Jane (Moss) Ohms.
Oct 15, 2002
HOME Please send additions, corrections to Jefferson County Coordinator Cindy Ford © 2005-2012 by Cindy Ford All rights reserved | <urn:uuid:0c6d1859-3e54-4164-b438-fe13deb58cbf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~iljeffer/bios/moss.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983997 | 2,566 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Tricks for getting rid of troublesome stains, scratches
Wine on the sofa? Scratches on the table? Accidents happen. But with these tools and tips, you’ll be ready to spring into action.
Caring for an ailing sideboard or an injured ottoman is simple once you know the right techniques. I asked top specialists to share their tricks for keeping furnishings in peak condition. The panel: antique-furniture restorer Christophe Pourny; fabric professionals Ingrid Johnson from the Fashion Institute of Technology and Kathlyn Swantko from the FabricLink Network; and Jay Myers, from the tanning firm New World Leather. Here are their tricks for handling any furniture first-aid emergency.
Getting ink out When it comes to stains, permanent ink is in a category all its own. As any parent of small children knows, one of those pens in the wrong hands can seem like a violent weapon in the house! The damage from permanent ink, as the name implies, presents a special challenge. Amodex Ink & Stain Remover, a nontoxic formulation, is effective at removing ink from most hard surfaces and some fabrics (depending on their fiber content). Apply it to hard surfaces with a soft cloth, leaving it on stubborn stains overnight. For fabrics, use a cotton swab rather than a cloth to avoid smears, working from the back if possible to guard against abrasion; let fabrics dry between cleanings so you can check your progress.
For other types of damage, here’s a quick-fix cheat sheet:
Wood Stains: A white ring or a patch of white haze means that moisture is trapped beneath the finish. To draw out the moisture, immediately “mound table salt on the ring or haze,’’ Pourny says. Then place a terry-cloth towel on top and gently apply a warm (never hot) iron or a hair dryer on a low setting, checking your progress regularly, until the ring has disappeared.
Scratches: Apply shoe polish with a cotton swab, and buff with a soft cloth. If you can’t find a good color match, mix polishes until you get the right shade, Pourny says. “Shoe polish is totally reversible, so you never risk damage,’’ he says. No shoe polish? Use your kids’ crayons.
Wax spills: Let it cool until it hardens, and then freeze it by applying an ice cube in a plastic bag. Scrape off the wax gently with a rubber spatula or a butter knife. Polish away cloudiness with paste wax.
Alcohol spills: Since it can harm many finishes, act quickly by blotting (never rubbing). Dab any damage with a little ammonia.
Burns: Working in the direction of the grain, rub gently with extra-fine steel wool and ammonia. Follow up with paste wax. Deeper burns that have penetrated the finish and charred the wood are best left to a professional refinisher.
Fabric Red wine stains: Cover with table salt, Johnson says. Let sit until the wine has been wicked up. Vacuum, and repeat as necessary. Blot leftover stains with a cloth dampened with water and dishwashing liquid.
Oily stains: Mound with baking soda. When oil is absorbed, vacuum. Blot remaining stains with rubbing alcohol or dry-cleaning solvent, Swantko says.
Pulls: Never cut pulls, Johnson says. Use a fine crochet hook or a safety pin to tuck the straggler securely underneath other threads.
Tears: Although tears at seams appear to be a simple fix, Johnson says that these repairs are best left to an upholsterer with a commercial sewing machine. “No home machine can sew a seam strong enough,’’ she says.
Spilled drinks: Many fresh spills come up with repeated blotting with a damp cloth (use a white cloth to prevent dye transfer).
Wax: Let it harden, and freeze it with ice in a plastic bag. Pull up gently with tweezers. If colored wax leaves a stain on the fabric, blot with dry-cleaning solvent, rubbing alcohol, or a solution of equal parts white vinegar and water.
Leather Stains: Most leather upholstery is coated with stain resisters in the manufacturing process, but this wears off over time, leaving leather vulnerable. For stubborn stains, such as soil, Myers recommends blotting or gently rubbing with an all-purpose household cleaner.
Scratches: Apply saddle soap with a soft, damp cloth. While you’ll never get rid of the scratch completely, “the wax in the saddle soap may help the scratch or crack blend in a bit,’’ Myers says. “Don’t bother with touch-up kits or trying to camouflage scratches with colored markers. You can’t match the color, and the scratches will be even more noticeable,’’ he says.
Adapted from Martha Stewart Living. | <urn:uuid:311b9a6c-9880-4802-9d09-fabf39c22d29> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/house/articles/2011/08/11/tricks_for_getting_rid_of_troublesome_stains_scratches/?camp=pm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916174 | 1,053 | 1.601563 | 2 |
The national park service is reducing our fleet of gasoline-powered vehicles and is switching to hybrid or electric-powered vehicles. Photo by NPS.
Our modern society relies heavily on fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and
natural gas. Coal consists of hardened, organic remains of prehistoric
plants and animals that lived in swamps and wetlands. Oil products such
as gasoline are refined from liquid organic material that also started as
prehistoric plants and animals. It takes millions of years of decay under
heat and pressure to form these "fossil fuels." When coal, oil, and natural
gas are burned, the energy stored by plants from the sun is released.
Burning fossil fuels also releases greenhouse gases, which trap additional
heat in the atmosphere, causing changes in climate. Throughout
Earth´s history, changes in climate have occurred as a result of natural
processes. Today, Earth’s climate is warming. The warming is very likely
human-caused (not natural). Fossils provide a record of how organisms
responded to past climate changes. When climate changed outside of
their "comfort zone," plants and animals moved to areas with more favorable
climate, adapted to the changes, or went extinct.
All living things—including humans—will face these same options with
modern climate change: adjust where they live, adapt to the changes,
mitigate those changes, or face extinction. There are many ways for YOU
to take action to help reduce our impact on climate. For more information
about how national parks are responding to climate change and what
YOU can do to help, see www.nature.nps.gov/climatechange/index.cfm
Further learning: To see evidence of past climate change, go to a
park or museum near you and investigate what fossil plants and animals
lived in the area. Can you determine what environment those plants and
animals lived in? Compare that environment to what you see outside today.
How has the landscape changed? Do the same plants and animals
live there today? | <urn:uuid:970f8870-7ccc-4343-ac83-1d97da701160> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nature.nps.gov/geology/nationalfossilday/nfd_climate.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940096 | 427 | 4.15625 | 4 |
Sir William Priestley1859 - March 25, 1932
- Bradford East January 12, 1906 - December 14, 1918
First recorded, on May 1, 1906 New Spanish Tariffs. Commons
Last recorded, on July 4, 1918 VOTERS' LISTS, BRADFORD. Commons
Information presented on this page was prepared from the XML source files, together with information from the History of Parliament Trust, the work of Leigh Rayment and public sources. The means by which names are recognised means that errors may remain in the data presented. | <urn:uuid:7dc4fe2a-2d39-461e-838f-51ac40ca585c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/people/sir-william-priestley-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943666 | 113 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Several different types of essays fall under the category of personal essay. Even though personal essays are all about the author and incorporate their voice, it is important to still have essay structure and focus. Several things to remember when writing a personal essay is that there needs to be an introduction, body paragraphs expanding on the topic and a conclusion.
Let's talk about personal essays, now several different kind of essays can fall under personal essays. Maybe it's a narrative or your telling a story about something that happened to you or maybe it's your colleague essay where you have to communicate yourself in 500 words to somebody else. Maybe it's even a statement of belief like the M.P.R this I believe statements. All of those things add up to you talking about you. So let's talk about some pointers that I have for how to get that done effectively.
The first is, don't forget our structure. So even though personal essay is not going to be as rigid in structure as maybe an academic essay would be, you still want to have an introduction that sets some sort of purpose. Gives a reason for telling the story or kind of sets out what your going to say. A body that actually tells the story and then a conclusion that returns to that purpose and reminds the reader why we are doing this.
The next thing you want to make sure you do, is focus. Really horn in on what the point is here. Why are we telling this story, really go at it with some direction. And then finally and perhaps most important, make sure you include detail. Show don't just tell. So instead of talking about your car, talk about your bright red VW bug. Or instead of talking about your school, call it Hemsworth High School.
Other things that you can do to make your personal essays more effective, make sure you include dialogue. That really makes people jump off the page and really adds that showing and not telling. So for instance, if you are talking about your brother who's so very mean, rather than saying he's a super mean older brother, maybe give him a voice. Give him this voice "Who do you think you are sneaking late like that? Like I wouldn't notice. Do you think I'm dumb or something?" This makes him jump off the page a lot more than "I have a mean older brother" It really shows the reader what you're talking about. So, use dialogue.
Next, use your voice. Instead of saying, "I was extremely frighten" in a very proper way, if you talk like this say, "I was so freaked out I had to concentrate on not peeing my pants." Alright, we want your voice to come out here. And then in a personal essay, you also make sure you focus in on using first person. And sometimes in high school academic writing, we are trained out of that. But we are asking you to talk about you, so get used to using I, me, us, we, our. You can even use 'you' but use it sparingly because you do not want to assume to much about your reader. So hopefully this pointers will help you approach the personal essay a little easier. | <urn:uuid:ac164606-8575-420d-9118-c59c5d4d2709> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.brightstorm.com/english/writing/types-of-essays/personal-essay/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977249 | 652 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Are food service providers really to blame for human waste in the Tenderloin’s streets?
This much is clear: the lack of public restroom facilities in the Tenderloin is causing a stench. Fecal matter covers the streets, making it nearly impossible to walk without looking down to dodge the droppings. But what is less clear is who’s to blame.
In late February, SF Weekly, the Examiner and the Chronicle each ran stories accusing food service providers of not offering adequate bathroom facilities to accompany their operations – effectively saying that they were stuffing people with food, then giving them no place to go afterwards.
However, an investigation by the Public Press showed that the largest non-profit kitchens, which serve food more than three days a week to thousands of hungry people in the Tenderloin, also provide restroom facilities.
The problem is that they don’t stay open at night, and are closed during evenings and very early in the morning when the homeless need those most.
"If I want to go to a job interview, I have to go first thing in the morning, and when does Glide start serving? 8:30 or 9,” said Jim Rokas, an out-of-work contractor who sells the Street Sheet in front of City Hall. "Really, the only way to find a restroom before 7 a.m. is to buy yourself a cup of coffee at Starbucks,” something he and others in his situation are often forced to do —spending what little money they have just to relieve themselves.
In response to the high volume of human waste in the Tenderloin, the North of Market/Tenderloin Community Benefit District is working with meal providers to include extended bathroom hours as part of their city contract. Ideally, said the group’s interim director, Dina Hilliard, service center facilities would remain open until midnight or later.
“We feel it’s everyone’s task. But we’re not letting other agencies off the hook,” said Hilliard. “We’re trying to coordinate so it’s not a huge impact to provide services.”
Karl Robillard, the senior manager of communications and outreach at St. Anthony’s Foundation, on Golden Gate Avenue in the Tenderloin, defended his kitchen’s policy. “We provide facilities not only to current diners but to those that return a few hours later. We recognize there are times when you need to use a bathroom and a system of care is really important,” he said.
The facilities at St. Anthony’s were never intended to be used for dining, added Robillard. But now, what started out as an operation serving 300 meals a day, is providing more than 2,000. Open daily from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., the non-profit has increased the number of bathrooms and made them closer to the door, Robillard said, though he acknowledged there’s still much room for improvement.
“We want to be at the table with groups and non-profits offering bathrooms and advocating with people that can make that change.”
In the meantime, the only three free public facilities in the Tenderloin – which is home to the highest concentration of San Francisco’s estimated 6,500 homeless— are constantly broken, closed down or used for illicit activities.
Other challenges stand in the way as well. For starters, increasing toilet facilities means increasing the costs of hiring security personnel to guard them. For Hilliard, of the Market/Tenderloin Community Benefit District, one strategy to improve bathroom accessibility involves a “block schedule,” in which hours are coordinated between local service providers to make sure that one supervised restroom remains open at all times of the night. Her group has already agreed to spend $1,300 per month, most of it for security, to pay for a single bathroom at the S.F. Rescue Mission in the Tenderloin.
Another suggestion is to temporarily replace the ads that are displayed on the sides of the free-standing public restrooms with a map and list of other toilet facilities. Replacing ads would mean a loss in revenues for the city, but there would be other wide-reaching gains, said Hilliard.
“The overall benefits would serve the community, to know where the bathrooms are and hours,” she said. “I think the city could partner with us. This is an area where everyone has to compromise a little bit. If we really care about our homeless, we should respect them enough to give them a place to go to the bathroom in private.”
Help the Public Press benefit from a class-action settlement with manufacturers of LCD screens. Two minutes of your time could be worth more than $50 to us!
About the Author
Nina Frazier is a journalist who writes, reports and lives in the Tenderloin area. She covers issues in the Tenderloin on Loin Life (www.loinlife.wordpress.com) a blog dedicated to the neighborhood she started for a journalism class at San Francisco State University. Previously, she has reported for the San Mateo County Times and Salon.com. She has experience in photography, video, audio and multimedia production. Follow her on Twitter @NinaFrazier.
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- Bay Area | <urn:uuid:db264c44-17df-406f-a132-74396dce6a0c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sfpublicpress.org/news/2011-03/road-waste-are-food-service-providers-really-to-blame-for-feces-in-the-tenderloins-stre | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957154 | 1,245 | 1.859375 | 2 |
Deep inside a cave in Siberia's Altai Mountains, Christy Turner and his Russian colleagues may have found an answer to a question that has hounded him for more than three decades.
As a young anthropologist, Turner spent time in Alaska's Aleutian Islands in the 1970s, working at several archaeological sites and occasionally gazing westward toward Siberia.
"I thought, 'That's the place that Native Americans came from,' " he says now from his laboratory at Arizona State University in Tempe.
But why, he wondered then as he still wonders today, did it take them so long?
The Bering Land Bridge that the first Americans crossed into the New World from Siberia had been there for thousands of years before those first immigrants arrived, most likely around 12,000 years ago. Archaeological evidence suggests the bridge surfaced repeatedly for at least 40,000 years as seawater became trapped in glaciers during the last Ice Age.
North America was one of the last places on the planet to be populated by humans, and "there has to have been a series of things that kept people out of the New World until very, very late," Turner says.
The evidence he and his colleagues have uncovered, he says, suggests that one player in that drama may have been a most unlikely, and yet terrifying, villain.
Ancient hyenas were larger than their relatives found today in Asia and Africa, and even the modern hyena has a jaw so powerful it can crush the leg of a rhinoceros, Turner says. Modern hyenas tend to be fearless in the presence of humans, and they have been known to drag a human hunter from a tent in Africa and crush his bones like toothpicks.
Could it be that the human migration into the Americas was held up by a nasty beast that preyed on people in the darkness of night, forcing them to remain far south of the land bridge that would have taken them to a new world?
Turner is the first to admit he doesn't know the answer to that. Not enough evidence is in yet to draw any strong conclusions, so at this point this is all scientific theorizing. But the clues so far are tantalizing.
Turner made his first of many expeditions to Siberia in 1979, and as one of the pillars of anthropology in the United States, he has become good friends with many of his counterparts in the former Soviet Union. He has been able to share in their research, including the artifacts they have uncovered in the far North.
"In all of the excavations that my Russian colleagues have been doing across Siberia, they can find almost no human remains," he says. "That's very interesting because if you go anywhere else with an equally good climate, almost always you find a little bit of human bone here and there."
Farther south, at about the latitude of Mongolia, "there are hundreds and hundreds of [human] archaeological sites that go back 50,000 to 60,000 years ago," he says, but just a few degrees north and the sites are no older than 12,000 years.
Clues in Crushed Bones
So Turner began to suspect that perhaps hyenas, running in packs of 40 to 50, may have been intimidating enough to keep those early humans well south of the region where hyenas roamed in great numbers.
Part of the evidence comes from a remarkable cave that was occupied solely by hyenas for about 40,000 years. Turner, who is also a dental anthropologist, examined bones found in the cave and concluded that all of the animals in the cave were dragged there by hyenas. | <urn:uuid:f58033f2-9b49-4d36-b68f-09ebd7dd46bc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=97822&page=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985399 | 742 | 3.109375 | 3 |
It rose from a small industry, mainly for the rich in the country, about seventeen years ago to a popular service catering for 23 million people by the end of 2011 - thanks to a revolution in the communication sector.
But last week’s revelation by the government if proved correct, casts grave and worrying doubts about the telephony sector’s tax contribution to the economy.
According to the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority(TCRA), there were 23.804 million mobile phone subscribers in Tanzania at the end of 2011.
However, since one person very often has two or more network cards, this easily translates to more than 23 million subscribers in the country, comprising over 60 per cent of the total population.
In a survey conducted by this paper analyzing various data obtained from the TCRA website, by the end of last December the average revenue per user (ARPU) was Sh6,705 ($4.2) per month.
ARPU is a financial performance benchmark in the telecoms industry that measures the average monthly revenue generated per customer.
Originally used by telephone carriers, the term has been adapted to other telecoms industries and is now used by carriers providing services such as Internet connection, cable services, cellphone and pager services.
To put things in perspective, when Tanzanian customers click on the screens of their phones or the keyboard to text or make calls, mobile phone companies make about $1.17 billion (Sh1.85 trillion) a year - more earnings than those accruing from the mining sector - basing on the average benchmark revenue of Sh6,705 per user, as documented by TCRA in December, 2011.
This means that Tanzanians contribute an average of $97 million (Sh154 billion) per month as they compete to text, call and surf the Net on their mobile phones, making the industry the biggest by far in terms of turnover.
But, according to last week’s revelation by Communication, Science and Technology deputy minister January Makamba, despite raking in a staggering average of Sh1.85 trillion a year, in return mobile phone companies pay correspondingly far less taxes - casting grave doubts about whether the country is technologically well equipped to collect due revenue from the sector.
Contacted yesterday for comment on the matter, a Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) official said it was aware of increased public concerns about the low contribution of mobile phone operators in terms of taxes, contrary to the size and growth of the industry.
TRA acting director of taxpayers education Allan Kiula told The Guardian in an interview that TRA was working hard to ensure everybody and every corporate entity paid the required taxes in accordance with the law.
The statement from the national tax collector comes amid persistent accusations facing mobile telephone companies that their contribution to the national economy through taxes was very low by far compared to the contribution by mobile network operators in neighbouring countries, some of them with a smaller economy than Tanzania’s.
According to Makamba, who quoted statistics from TCRA, in 2010 mobile phone operators in the country earned about $1 billion but paid only $1.7 million in taxes
According to Makamba, in the same year (2010) taxes paid by mobile phone companies in Kenya - East African Community’s leading economy - were $78.3 million while Uganda, a smaller economy than Tanzania, got $31.3 million and Rwanda received $14million, more than seven times that what Tanzania realized during the same period.
The four biggest mobile phone markets in the continent are Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, and Ghana. Strategic investors in Africa’s mobile industry include South Africa’s MTN, India’s BhartiAirtel, France Telecom (via its Orange brand), Britain’s Vodafone and Luxembourg’s Millicom, which trades as Tigo.
World Bank figures in the Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic document rank Tanzania seventh in attracting telecoms investments, with $1.4 trillion (about Sh2, 240 trillion) injected mostly in the mobile telephony subsector between 1998 and 2008. The pack is led by South Africa, which attracted $18.1 trillion, followed by Nigeria and Kenya, with $12.7 trillion and $2.9 trillion, respectively.
“We get information from different people, including experts, on specific industries as well as the media, and we closely follow up to ensure the figures we work on to collect taxes are realistic,” noted Kiula
He added: “Basically TRA ensures all institutions and companies pay relevant taxes. This goes hand in hand with enhancing its staff to be able to handle different business transactions such as mobile phones and mining. It also involves exchange of information and provision of professional support.”
Kiula noted that his institution shares information with revenue authorities in neighbouring countries so as to reasonably compare the operational models and, where deemed necessary, emulates some areas of practice.
When asked on the often repeated claim that TRA and other relevant authorities governing the mobile phone industry rely sorely on figures provided by the operators in tax computation, Kiula said:
“Under the law governing income tax, large companies are allowed to assess themselves and provide data to TRA. However, TRA has powers to reassess the data in order to establish realistic statistics to be used as a basis for computing the payable taxes.”
Deputy minister Makamba said last week that at the moment the telecoms sector’s contribution to the country’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product) stood at 2.5 per cent, which was more than 50 per cent less than Uganda’s 5.2 per cent and Kenya’s 9 per cent.
Makamba said further that in 2011 the telecoms industry grew by about 22 per cent, making it the fastest growing sector, adding that the growth has been steady for the past 10 years. He said for a decade between 2001 and 2010 it grew at an average 11 per cent per a year while the GDP grew at 7 per cent.
He noted that based on the industry’s rate of growth and the cumulative investment in the same period of ten years, which amounted to Sh 2,563 billion, an average of Sh256 billion investment a year and increased penetration rate of 53 per cent, the industry’s contribution to the GDP should have been at least 5.3 per cent compared to the current 2.5 per cent.
His statement came only a few days after he had instructed TCRA to raise the matter with operators for the purpose of drawing up a workable solution to various difficulties being experienced by mobile phone subscribers, including the rate of dropped calls, failure to initiate calls, unsolicited short messages (sms) and customer care issues.
In early May, this year, TCRA floated a tender number AE-020/2010-11/C/04 for the design, development and installation of a telecommunication traffic monitoring system under a build, operate and transfer (BOT) system.
The tender, whose deadline for submission of bids expires on 14 June 2012, states the objective of the assignment as to develop a system that will monitor international and local calls.
It enlists the functions to be performed by the said system as measuring the quality of service (QoS), establishing telecommunication traffic volume (interconnect and international inbound/outbound), ability to measure revenue/carrier access, billing information and mobile money transaction, ability to track, detect and block bypass/fraud traffic, ability to detect SIM card profile, as well as the ability to detect terminal equipment identification details.
The document also states that in developing the system TCRA will partner with the private company under private-public partnerships (PPPs) in order to design, develop and install the telecommunication traffic monitoring system that will resolve the above problems.
Makamba gave the example of Ghana whose regulators deployed a similar system in 2010 to monitor just international calls traffic in and out of Ghana, and within a year (in 2011) the country increased its revenue collection from telecoms operators by $40 million. | <urn:uuid:fdad55b0-a18f-489b-94a8-23b46a8cdedc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ippmedia.com/frontend/index.php/oi.poc/ndexrtik/oi.poc/ti?l=42426 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952513 | 1,659 | 1.820313 | 2 |
12 stress-free days to Christmas
As the countdown to Christmas gathers pace, follow our food solutions and you'll sail through all the challenges of the season
1. There's a million things to do and you're already feeling wound-up!
2. You've got a long day of Christmas shopping in town.
Food solution: Pop a few high-fibre snacks in your bag - fresh fruit, banana loaf or a slice of wholemeal bread with peanut butter. And before you go, eat a fortified breakfast cereal to get your daily dose of B vitamins and folic acid.
3. It's the children's school play - they're over-excited and the play hypes them up even more!
Food solution: Avoid fizzy drinks and sweets to reduce their intake of artificial sweeteners, which have been associated with hyperactivity, and put healthy treats in their lunchbox. Kids often love unusual combinations - try fruit or veg with dips, satsuma segments with blackcurrant yogurt, carrots and pure fruit jam or celery and peanut butter.
4. With so much to do, you can't sleep.
Food solution: Base evening meals around carbs, such as pasta (like this Smoked trout & pea pasta) and potatoes, and avoid eating late. Tryptophan-rich foods, such as cauliflower, fish, milk and soya products, will help combat insomnia. | <urn:uuid:5483da33-bef9-4399-b6f7-66db5edac77f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/content/wellbeing/features/stressfree-xmas/1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953966 | 292 | 1.78125 | 2 |
In today's difficult job market, having fantastic follow up skills will set you apart from many other job seekers. Your ability to follow up in an appropriate and timely manner will show your interest and ability to take initiative. One of the best methods of following up after an interview is through the “thank you” letter.
Thank you letters are critical, not just after an interview, but during the job search process itself. You should be sending thank you/follow up letters for reasons such as:
- A contact provided you helpful insight or information about a company or position.
- Someone introduces you to a new contact.
- You visit a contact at work for an informational meeting.
- You have an interview.
- You meet someone at an event and want to develop a good relationship.
One of the biggest challenges is to know when to send a hard copy, hand written or e-mail thank you letter. In last month's Career Zone, we polled readers as to which method they used to follow up. Approximately 60% say they e-mail a thank you letter, 23% still mail a thank you letter and 17% say that it's an outdated practice.
Hard copy thank you letters are the most formal and are always appropriate after an interview. Handwritten notes are more personal and can be appropriate after an interview or for follow up. E-mail is appropriate if your contact has expressed that as his or her preferred method of communication. You can also use e-mail if you want to send a quick thank you to be followed up by hard copy or handwritten letter.
Following the guidelines below will help you have fantastic follow up after an interview or professional contact.
Bring a handful of blank notes or thank you cards and a packet of stamps with you on every interview. That way once you leave the interview you can quickly write your thank you notes to each individual and put them in the mail immediately. Be sure to take the business card and/or contact information of each person you meet during the interview process so that you can contact them directly.
Be specific about why you are interested in the position and company. Explain why you are a good fit and convey your interest.
If you walked away from the interview thinking you left something unresolved or did not fully answer a question, now is your chance to correct the situation. The thank you letter gives you another chance to make a good impression.
A generic thank you letter will not set you apart from the many other interviewees the hiring manager met with. Be sure to highlight a point or two from your interview that the person will likely remember, thus remembering you.
What were the key issues or skills that the hiring manager mentioned were critical for success in this position during the interview? Be sure to highlight how you can be successful in the role and exceeded those needs.
Remember, after an interview, thank you notes should be sent within 24 hours.
With the holidays approaching many people will be making resolutions to find that dream job. Your résumé and cover letter are the first impression you make on any recruiter and hiring manager. Next month we will begin a series on résumés that will get you noticed. So start to think about what you do and how you do it better than anyone else!
Want to see a sample of a general thank you letter? Click here to view. | <urn:uuid:99dc7aba-8134-4677-a34f-51d4af4c5480> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.drexel.edu/ia/alumrel/careerzone_2009_11.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943532 | 684 | 1.515625 | 2 |
By Maura Dolan,
Los Angeles Times
Even as Californians voted to maintain the death penalty, the nation’s support for capital punishment continued to wane in 2012, with relatively few states performing executions.
Only nine states executed inmates in 2012, and three-fourths of the executions occurred in Texas, Arizona, Oklahoma and Mississippi, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a monitoring group critical of capital punishment. Connecticut became the fifth state in five years to abolish capital punishment.
California, whose voters rejected a November ballot measure to repeal the death penalty, is not expected to resume executions for three years, according to Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye. Litigation has blocked executions in California for nearly seven years.
Despite its unused execution chamber, California’s death row, already the largest in the nation, continued to swell in 2012. Fourteen inmates were added, mostly from Los Angeles and Riverside counties.
Nationally, there were fewer than 80 new death sentences, the second-lowest number since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, the center said.
Florida led the country with 21 new death sentences. Following California were Texas, with nine, and Pennsylvania, with seven. Those four states accounted for almost 65% of the 2012 death sentences, the center said.
“The big picture is a declining use or less support for the death penalty,” said Richard Dieter, executive director of the death penalty center.
Even California’s vote on the death penalty contained some good news for foes of capital punishment. Nearly half the voters — 48% — favored repeal, despite the state’s long-standing support for capital punishment.
Dieter said capital sentences in the United States have dropped 75% since their high point in 1996, a trend he attributed to concerns about executing the innocent and the relatively high cost of administering capital punishment.
Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, which supports the death penalty, said the numbers show that the use of capital punishment has “plateaued.”
“A lot of people who would support the death penalty generally are weary of the battle and think it won’t actually be enforced,” Scheidegger said.
California’s death penalty supporters are mulling over the possibility of launching a ballot initiative that would speed up legal review of death sentences. “Probably the most important thing looking forward is to get the logjam broken,” Scheidegger said.
A federal judge in 2006 blocked executions after determining that the state’s method of execution posed risks that inmates could suffer inhumanely. | <urn:uuid:602193f0-ef5f-4a7f-ad4d-7926d61f4fc1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.postnewsgroup.com/publishedcontent/2013/01/04/support-for-death-penalty-declines/?wpmp_switcher=desktop | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954198 | 549 | 1.882813 | 2 |
Jovian Moons campaign BeginsEdit
Jovian secessionist attacks on United Nations Colonial Advisers on the moon Io led to three months of fighting between the Earth military and Jovian "Frieden" forces. Though this was not the first armed conflict in the Sol System, it was easily one of the bloodiest, and is generally considered to be the spark of increased friction and militarization that followed. The Jovian Moons campaign escalated tensions, as Earth's national governments, many of which sponsored colonies within the system, began fighting proxy wars off-planet. As these continued, tensions on Earth mounted, leading to a number of armed conflicts on Earth itself.
- Conflicts of particular historical importance included the Jovian Moons campaign, The Rain Forest Wars, and a series of clashes on Mars. As overpopulation and political unrest on Earth increased, a number of new political movements formed. The most noteworthy dissident movements of the period were the "Koslovics" and the "Frieden" movement.
- The Koslovics —supporters of neo-Communist hardliner Vladimir Koslov, sought a return to the glory days of Communism and the elimination of corporate and capitalist influence, particularly in orbital facilities and off world colonies.
- The Frieden movement was a resurgence of fascism, springing from anti-Koslovic sentiment that had taken root in the Jovian colonies (largely backed by Unified German Republic corporations, frequent targets of Koslovic "workers' crusades"). "Frieden" literally means "peace", in this case; they believed that peace could be achieved only once the "oppressors on Terra Firma" were eliminated. | <urn:uuid:29eeed95-0bfd-414f-944d-300f5c216dec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/2160 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939163 | 346 | 3.390625 | 3 |
|About this Recording
8.550581 - French Organ Music
French Organ Music
In addition to eight substantial organ sonatas, Alexandre Guilmant left a considerable number of shorter works, many of them characteristically crafted and all immensely idiomatic. Of these several have become favourites with both players and audiences. The Grand Choeur finds its composer at his ceremonial best, inspired by the Handelian style (as in his popular March on a theme of Handel.) A broadly sweeping triple-time lilt is sustained throughout the main thematic material, with a vivacity maintained even in the quieter episodes. The pedal writing is of particular interest and energy.
Founded on the rhythm of the traditional child's lullaby "Do, do, l'enfant do", Louis Vierne's Berceuse is the most celebrated of his 24 Pieces in Free Style for harmonium or organ. Dedicated to his daughter Collette, the piece unfolds tenderly - chordally and melodically by turn. The string and flute registers of the organ are to be used in alternation.
In its original form, the Prelude to Charpentier's Te Deum is scored for solo trumpet and orchestra, a medium which provides an effective organ solo. This noble music has achieved considerable fame by its use as an identifying signature-tune for the Eurovision network.
Three main motifs are deployed by Jean Langlais in his Trois Meditations, published in 1962. God the Father is represented by the undulating plainchant Pater Noster melody, God the Son by the delightfully evocative carol tune Noel Nouvelet and God the Holy Spirit by the expansive Pentecost hymn Veni, Creator Spiritus, heard in long notes, massively harmonised at each appearance. Pervading all three portions of this expressive and ingenious triptych is the theme from Bach's Fugue in E fiat 'pro organo pleno' from the end of the Clavierübung, Part III. In England, this subject is immediately recognisable as the opening of Croft's celebrated Hymn Tune "St. Anne", sung universally to Watts' paraphrase of Psalm 90 beginning "O God, our help in ages past". In France, what is consequently known in Britain as the St. Anne Fugue is known as the Trinity Fugue, because of its three sections, hence its important place in Langlais' Meditations. Each movement has precise instructions for registration, and every portion of the work after the first incorporates references to music already heard, thus representing in music the inclusive nature of the theological concept of the Sacred Trinity.
If Vierne's Berceuse represents the wistful, then his Epitaphe shows us something of the melancholy which pervaded his character. The C sharp minor tonality and the close harmony combine to yield a pervading pathos which never fails to make a profound impression on the hearer.
Born in Bordeaux, Joseph Bonnet, a pupil of the great Guilmant, achieved widespread fame as a brilliant recitalist, travelling the world from his home base at the Parisian church of St Eustache. His many organ solos serve to keep his name alive, and this delicious Romance sans Paroles is decidedly in the vein of w hat the late Sir Thomas Beecham would have referred to as a 'lollipop'.
Subtitled Four Paraphrases on Hymns to the Virgin, Maleingreau's Suite Mariale was written in 1935 during his period as a Professor at the Brussels Conservatoire, where he had been a student before the First World War. He was one of the first Belgian organists to play the complete Bach canon, and was an indefatigable champion of early music at a time when such propagation was less in demand than today. His musical style, though less individually developed than, say, that of Charles Tournemire, owes a similar debt to that of Cesar Franck. The four sections which form this glorious Suite are economic of texture and secure in utterance. Probably the most typical is the bustling Toccata which serves as a fine Finale.
Judging by the quality of his extensive output for solo organ, and by the increasingly regarded Symphonic Variations for cello and orchestra, the death of Leon Boëllmann at the very early age of 35 probably deprived French music of one of its most promising figures at the close of the last century. The Suite Gothique is his most famous single work, and its four movements encapsulate much of the essence of the French romantic style -massive antiphonal effects in the Introduction/Choral, light-hearted momentum in the Menuet Gothique, soaring melody in the Prière, and in the perpetuum mobile of the rumbustuous Toccata Boëllmann sets a striding pedal motto beneath manual parts of great brilliance.
It was this Stele which Vierne included in his final recital at Notre Dame, and after the playing of which he collapsed at the console, mortally ill. The musical language is much more sophisticated than in the earlier movements from the Pieces en style libre. In the Stele, the composer seems to pour his heart out on to the page in a much more intense way than does Ravel in a similar essay, his Pavane pour une infante defunte.
Affectionately dedicated to his father, Guilmant's Cantilene-Pastorale is a duet for oboe and flute registers, by turns antiphonal and simultaneous. Much of its colourlul effect is obtained by sustaining one timbre on one keyboard and 'thumbing down' to a lower manual to obtain the other (all with the right hand, the left being allotted the accompaniment).
Always popular in its own right, the Toccata from Widor's Fifth Organ Symphony achieved universal acclaim almost overnight exactly thirty years ago by virtue of its inclusion as the Postlude at the Wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Kent in York Minster. There are several different printed editions dating from the lifetime of the composer, who revised the metronome marking at least three times. The Toccata is distinguished as much by its melodic force as by the brilliance of the manual writing.
The Organ at Leeds Parish Church
Closely concerned with all the leading institutions for the organ and choral music, especially that for the Anglican liturgy, Simon Lindley is a long-serving Councillor of and Examiner to the Royal College of Organists, and Secretary of the Church Music Society. He has travelled the world in his capacity as a Special Commissioner of the Royal School of Church Music, and is a persuasive writer and speaker on matters musical.
Simon Lindley was born in London, the son of an Anglican priest and a writer, and educated at Magdalen College School, Oxford, and the Royal College of Music. He was Assistant Organist of St Albans Cathedral and Director of Music to St Albans School from 1970 to 1975, and also served for some time as Deputy Organist at Westminster Cathedral and accompanist to the BBC Chorus. In addition to his solo playing, he is widely regarded as one of Britain's leading exponents of the neglected arts of organ accompaniment and continuo playing.
Close the window | <urn:uuid:973e610d-e8b4-426d-b183-22205445dd53> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.naxos.com/mainsite/blurbs_reviews.asp?item_code=8.550581&catNum=550581&filetype=About%20this%20Recording&language=English | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961989 | 1,519 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Many people with Graves’ Disease have a gluten sensitivity problem. This not only can exacerbate their condition, but for those looking to restore their health back to normal through a natural treatment protocol it can make it difficult to accomplish this.
Gluten sensitivity is becoming more and more common. When I was diagnosed with Graves’ Disease and followed a natural treatment protocol, for the first 30 days of the protocol I avoided gluten-based foods. I recommend for my patients to do the same thing, and some people will need to avoid these foods for a longer period of time. And of course some people do need to avoid gluten-based foods on a permanent basis.
How To Determine If Someone With Graves’ Disease Is Allergic To Gluten
In order to determine whether someone with Graves’ Disease has a gluten sensitivity or intolerance, the proper testing needs to be performed. There are different types of tests which can do this, and chances are you will need to consult with a holistic doctor in order to receive the appropriate testing. What’s important to understand is that while many people who are sensitive to gluten react to it and have noticeable symptoms, not everyone will have overt symptoms.
So does this mean that I test every person for a gluten sensitivity? Actually, I usually don’t recommend for every new patient to obtain such testing. There are a few reasons for this. One reason is because such testing is expensive, and there are usually other tests I find to be more important than this which I recommend. A second reason for this is because regardless of the test results, I still have people avoid gluten for at least 30 days upon following a natural treatment protocol. I find that some people who are gluten sensitive or even intolerant can begin eating gluten again after restoring their digestive health. So for many people it actually makes sense to do this type of testing after they follow a natural treatment protocol. Of course different doctors will have different approaches, and so I don’t disagree with those doctors who recommend such testing for everyone immediately, as this is just the approach I take.
Should You Avoid Gluten For The Rest Of Your Life?
Some “experts” will recommend for anyone with a gluten sensitivity or intolerance to avoid gluten for the rest of their life. In fact, many will recommend that EVERYONE avoid gluten on a permanent basis, regardless of whether they are sensitive or not. Once again, some people will need to avoid gluten for as long as they live. But to tell every single person to avoid gluten for the rest of their life is in my opinion a little bit extreme.
When it comes to Graves’ Disease and other autoimmune conditions, some suggest that gluten is the primary factor causing the autoimmune response. Of course gluten will trigger an immune system response for someone who is allergic to it. This is the case with anything else someone is allergic to as well. Without question gluten can exacerbate Graves’ Disease, but this doesn’t mean that in most people with Graves’ Disease it’s the direct cause. While the focus these days seems to be on gluten because it is in many different foods and many people react negatively to it, one also can’t neglect other allergens as well.
This is why I not only have people with hyperthyroidism and Graves’ Disease avoid gluten-based foods while following a natural treatment protocol, but other common allergens as well. As I mentioned earlier, the only surefire way of ruling out such allergens is through the proper testing. For example, I’ve had patients who obtained an ELISA test and found out that they had some allergies to healthy, whole foods. Some people are allergic to certain nuts and seeds, which can potentially cause problems while following a natural treatment protocol. Some people are also allergic to poultry, and even certain fruits and vegetables. The point is, gluten is not the only thing people are allergic to, and therefore it’s not the only factor that can cause a condition such as Graves’ Disease to flare up.
How To Cure A Gluten Sensitivity Or Intolerance Problem
Some people wonder whether it is possible to cure their gluten sensitivity or intolerance problem. Some people can overcome this problem, but not everybody. For those who successfully overcome this problem they usually need to avoid all gluten-based foods for at least three months, and frequently longer than this. In addition to avoiding all gluten-based foods for a prolonged period of time, it is also important to eat well, and to avoid other common allergens. It also might be necessary to take certain nutritional supplements and herbs to help restore your digestive health. After this period some people can consume gluten-based foods again without a problem, although not everybody.
Sometimes a gluten-sensitivity or intolerance problem can’t be cured, but can managed by taking certain enzymes, such as those containing papain. Once again, not everyone will be able to eat gluten-based foods when doing this, but some people claim that taking these digestive enzymes before they eat gluten-based foods will allow them to tolerate these foods. | <urn:uuid:52ca913d-cdee-4abb-bce1-bbfb2801753c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aboutgrain.com/gluten-sensitivity-and-graves-disease/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965775 | 1,042 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Grasp control, and find the power to change
Every manufacturer has the same goal of creating a productive plant – and each faces the same hurdles to achieve it.
Bob Vavra, Content Manager
If it’s true that you can only manage what you can measure, it must also be true that you can only change what you can control. Measurement is finite; it is length and width, time and distance, heat and speed. Control is a much more abstract concept. Change is more difficult because control is more elusive. Yet the ability to grasp full control of your operation gives you the power to change.
So much of what happens in a modern manufacturing plant is absolutely controllable. Yet so much of the time spent discussing the various issues facing American manufacturing are based on things we just cannot control on a daily basis. Trade laws, energy prices, and Mother Nature are outside of your control. You cannot affect political discourse, global monetary policy, or whether your top supplier has had a disruption in service because of any of the above issues.
If you cannot control any of this, the good news is that they are also outside the control of your competitors.
So what’s left? Everything within the four walls of your plant. Everything that happens there, from energy consumption to maintenance strategy, from worker morale to worker safety, is all your responsibility, and it can all be changed. If you have control, congratulations–I’ll welcome your Top Plant nomination next year. And if there are still elusive areas where control has slipped away, this is a good time to get a firmer grasp on the rudder.
Gaining control is not a singular effort by a single plant manager, however. You have to gain the support of your staff and your top management. It’s nearly impossible to improve maintenance, for example, without the commitment of the line workers and the understanding of the front office about how such an effort will save money and improve productivity. The same equations of measurement and management and control and change apply in every department of your organization. The metrics may be different, but everyone is bound by the same basic laws.
And your competitors, whether in Boston, Berlin, Bangalore, or Bahrain, all face the same struggles. Their national rules on safety are different. Their tax structures may be more or less favorable. Their logistics, supply chains, and energy systems are all affected by terrain, transportation sophistication, and capital investment. Inside the four walls of these plants, however, it’s a very similar world. Every manufacturer has the same goal of creating a productive plant–and each faces the same hurdles to achieve it.
You, of course, have a slight edge in achieving these goals. You’re holding it.
This month we shared how one manufacturer grasped control of the manufacturing operation and grew it in the middle of a historic recession. Perhaps the most important part of NACCO Materials Handling Group’s recognition as the 2011 Top Plant recipient is that they seized control of their operation and changed it to meet the needs of their internal and external customers.
NACCO, a manufacturer of lift trucks, increased staff by 40% to fill needs in their growing business, and at the same time increased training for employees. New employees now receive 80 hours of training before being put into production. If you multiply that training by more than 200 new employees, you can see the commitment to training, and to people.
In your efforts to identify areas that need improvement, perhaps the most important point to be made is about people. People should not be controlled; they should be managed. Operational control is about making sure the parameters of your plant are understood. Management is about empowering the people to work effectively within those parameters. That includes, as NACCO showed us this month, giving them the training needed to get individually better at their jobs. This contributes to the entire operation getting better.
Improvement is change. Bettering your manufacturing plant each day, week, and month points you on the path to greater productivity, and greater operational excellence.
I believe it creates one greater benefit as well. When you control what happens inside the four walls of your operation by managing your processes and people effectively, you make all of those issues outside of your four walls irrelevant. That kind of control leads not just to change, but to success.
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These case studies provide examples of how knowledgeable solution providers have used technology, processes and people to create effective and successful implementations in real-world situations. Case studies can be completed by filling out a simple online form where you can outline the project title, abstract, and full story in 1500 words or less; upload photos, videos and a logo.
Click here to visit the Case Study Database and upload your case study. | <urn:uuid:edd75856-5ab2-4471-b440-2cf93786c241> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.controleng.com/single-article/grasp-control-and-find-the-power-to-change/f704cc0b439ea80ea3067c922d353712.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951191 | 1,037 | 1.609375 | 2 |
With Easter just a few days away, many families are tempted to include a real bunny in an Easter basket … but this is not the best idea, unless you are ready to make a 9 – 12 year commitment. While rabbits are cute and come in a variety of breeds just like dogs and cats, rabbits require a lot of special care.
Here are some facts you need to know before you get a rabbit:
- A rabbit’s bones can easily break, so they may not be the best pet for small children, as most rabbits do not like to be picked up
- Rabbits require Timothy hay daily to help digest their food. They also need a variety of fresh greens such as romaine, kale, parsley and carrot tops
- Rabbits need to be spayed or neutered, just like dogs and cats – they can have 20 – 40 babies a year!
- The average life-span for a rabbit is 9 – 12 years
- Rabbits need daily exercise and should not live their entire lives in a cage
If you have your heart set on getting a bunny, please adopt. The Humane Society of Broward County has several bunnies available for adoption and the fee is $20 and includes spay or neuter.
And to help you take care of that bunny, the shelter is having a FREE rabbit behavior seminar to help you learn how to properly care for your new family member. Click here for more information.
The shelter is located at 2070 Griffin Road and adoption hours are Monday - Saturday 10 - 6:30 and Sunday 10 - 5:30, however the shelter will be closed on Easter Sunday. For more information call the shelter at 954-989-3977 and press 3 for adoptions or visit www.humanebroward.com to see the pets available for adoption. | <urn:uuid:39ec1ba4-7beb-4728-a96d-3a886a60a2fe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.local10.com/thats-life/Think-before-you-give-a-real-bunny-for-Easter/-/1716786/19332510/-/14mutm7/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951063 | 373 | 2.21875 | 2 |
Bill Haley singing Rip It Up with some crazy swing dancing going on.
I entered the Army on October 12th of 1962 oblivious to the fact that the United States was at the brink of war with Russia. They kept us so busy with basic training that I never heard the Cuban missile crisis was happening at that time. I do remember when we marched that we sang this song:
I don’t know but I believe, I’ll be in Cuba by Christmas Eve.
We may never know all the details of what went on behind closed doors but some of the information has been released since it happened forty seven 47 years ago this next October. One wrong move or statement may have triggered a war between the United States and Russia. Eventually the two parties worked out an agreement where the United States would remove our missiles from Turkey in exchange for Russia removing their missiles from Cuba.
This is President John F. Kennedy making a statement on television during the Cuban missile crisis.
The following site gives a more in depth look at the situation during the Cuban missile crisis.
Jerry Lee Lewis singing Another Place Another Time. He could have been a star as a country singer but he was too well known as a rock and roll singer plus rock and roll showcases his piano playing more than country music does.
Fibber McGee and Molly was first broadcast in 1935 and became one of the most popular shows in old time radio history. Most of the programs took place at their home on 79 Wistful Vista but they did leave the home for shopping trips and other occasions.
The thing that I first noticed about the show is that they would have a stream of visitors coming to their house during the thirty minute show. It was never very long from the doorbell ringing for one visitor until another visitor was ringing the bell. It was uncanny how announcer Harlow Wilcox would come to their house about halfway into each show and started rambling on about how great a product Johnson Wax was. Instead of having a commercial break they weaved his spiels for Johnson Wax seamlessly into the shows.
The show is most famous for the closet that emptied from time to time when the door was opened making a cacaphony of loud noises until the last item hit the floor.
Marian Jordan’s playing Teeny was one of my favorite parts of the show. I particularly liked the Christmas program which they repeated many years of Teeny bringing her friends over to do their rendition of The Night Before Christmas.
Harold Perry did so well playing Fibber McGee’s friend Throckmorton Gildersleeve that he wound up having his own show named The Great Gildersleeve. He and Fibber didn’t get along too well but it made for great comedy. My favorite parts were when the two would try to find out what the other was giving them for Christmas so they would know how much to spend on the other. Peary and Jim Jordan who portrayed Fibber made for a great comedy team but they were too good to have on the same show for very long so Peary eventually left to start his own show.
A show that stands out is when the crowd sings a patriotic song at the end of the first show after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7 of 1941. Don Quinn did a great job of writing for the show and was a big part of the success of the show.
After listening to many Fibber McGee and Molly shows I still don’t know what Fibber did for a living. Not many people make a living staying at home and answering the door bell constantly and cracking jokes but somehow Fibber always found a way to pay the bills.
You can listen to 442 Fibber McGee and Molly shows at this site which will need to copied and pasted in a browser since link isn’t working : | <urn:uuid:b0a17e11-2222-44d6-8da6-342ca07b88d7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nostalgia049.wordpress.com/2009/04/17/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984381 | 782 | 1.53125 | 2 |
My grandmother, Shulamith Soloveitchik Meiselman, was an incredibly special person. She combined great warmth and caring with a keen intellect and a zest for life and a resolve to work on behalf of her people, whether as a volunteer involved in the student Zionist movement, as a leader and teacher in the start of the day school movement and as the matriarch of her family.
She was born into a family of great rabbis and scholars; if she had been born a boy, her path would have been clear. Having been born a girl, she had to find her way. She did so with great success in her public and private lives, and did so with wisdom and grace.
My grandmother was ahead of her time. She learned from her parents that her role in life was not only to be committed to family but also to be involved in her community, to help build its institutions, to be a teacher of her heritage and to be a citizen of the larger world. Her work in the area of Jewish education—starting schools and helping lead them, building a national organization to support teachers and teaching, and being a teacher herself— was the way that she helped live out these commitments and foster them in others. Late in her life, she finished a book, the work of over a decade, entitled The Soloveitchik Heritage: A Daughter’s Memoir, telling a story of the Jewish people through the story of her family.
Life was never boring with "Granny," as her 16 grandchildren lovingly called her. Granny's life tracked many of the important moments in Jewish history in the 20th century.
Her family left the shtetl in 1920 to escape Communist-controlled Russia. In her teenage years, Granny attended gymnasium in Warsaw. In Warsaw, she became involved in the student Zionist movement. At first she went to one meeting a week and soon, she found that every evening she was participating in meetings. She explains in her book that “I decided to act; I’d had enough. I changed schools and resolved not to remain indifferent to the problems facing the Jews of Poland. I found a Zionist youth organization which was part of a national student network dedicated to the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, based on economic, social, and political justice. I became very active and worked hard, with all the enthusiasm of my youth. Soon I was recognized as an important member and was elected to serve on the executive committee. My loneliness disappeared. I acquired new friends with whom I shared a dream to help establish a homeland for the Jewish people in the land of our forefathers.” Her first Zionist organization had no room for women in leadership so she went and helped build a different one. We have numerous photographs of Granny's student Zionist leadership group — a bunch of men, and my grandmother.
The other thing that stands out in the photographs from Warsaw is just how happy Granny looks. The years in Warsaw were good ones for her; she had a strong community around her, and she was feeling a growing sense of purpose and accomplishment in her work on behalf of Israel.
Granny's mother, Pesha Feinstein Soloveitckik, was a role model for her and instilled in her a love for Israel. Talking about her mother, Granny said, "She [Pesha] always talked about the land of Israel… we carried the values mother instilled in us… In fact, she was so happy when I won a trip to go to Israel [for my work on behalf of the Jewish National Fund].”
Granny came to New York with her parents and two youngest siblings just in time for the stock market crash. She studied at NYU in the mornings and worked in a factory in the afternoons. Times were so hard, that she couldn't afford to miss work in order to go to her own college graduation. Amazingly, five years after immigrating to the United States, Granny graduated with a BA in history. There were few jobs available. She moved to Boston and enrolled in graduate school and began teaching Hebrew School in Lowell. Thus began her 40-year career in Jewish education.
In addition to teaching at Jewish schools and being principal of a Jewish day school in Malden, Granny helped establish the Maimonides School. My grandmother used to tell us stories about the early days of Maimonides, of talking to people in the community to get their support for the school and of having many doors slammed in her face (because people were concerned that the new day school would make Jews stand out more, call into question their commitment to the United States and undermine their chances of getting ahead).
Maimonides was one of the first Jewish day schools started in this country. The model was unique: an Orthodox Jewish school which combined serious study of Jewish traditions, history and ancient texts with serious study of secular subjects. And boys and girls learned alongside one another, another unique aspect in the world of Orthodox Judaism.
Sitting at Granny's shabbat table, one could catch a glimpse of Granny's many passions and her core life values. Granny always had guests at her table. She prided herself in having an open door. Her home was a gathering place, much like her paternal home had been. Two kinds of discussions occurred at Granny's shabbat table. One was about history and politics. Granny's way of framing historical events as stories and providing her own eye witness accounts made such retellings come alive and feel palpable. Historical discussions often easily slid into present day political discussions. Granny did not shy away from sharing her views and she did not easily let anyone sit quietly by while these discussions were happening. There was no such thing as being a quiet observer at Granny's table. Being alive carried with it the responsibility to respond to what was happening in the surrounding world.
The other discussion was about the weekly Torah portion. Granny loved to talk about Torah, considering the narratives from many angles and inviting everyone else's opinions as well. While some might have grown tired of this conversation, Granny relished it as an opportunity to find new insights, to revisit and possibly shift past perspectives and to engage with others in Torah learning.
"Kol yisrael arevim zeh bazeh." This is a saying that had deep personal meaning to Granny. She cared about others and went to great lengths to help people, friends and strangers alike. We grandchildren experienced Granny's caring often. It was through the details of every day life that Granny continually expressed her love for us and taught us her most important lessons. And it is through the details of her life's actions that she continues to lead by example. | <urn:uuid:641e28d7-1908-4cf8-9586-aed5b2570eea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jwa.org/weremember/meiselman-shulamith | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988208 | 1,384 | 2.078125 | 2 |
|Action by the International Committee of the Red Cross in the Event of Breaches of International Humanitarian Law (International Committee of the Red Cross , 1981, 9 p.)|
Supervision remains one of the most difficult problems in public international law and particularly in international humanitarian law applicable in armed conflicts.¹ Despite the system provided for under the Geneva Conventions and their additional Protocols and in default of an authority superior to States, grave violations are frequently committed without punishment or even prosecution.
1By international humanitarian law applicable in armed conflicts the ICRC means international rules, established by treaties or custom, which are specifically intended to solve humanitarian problems directly arising from international or non-international armed conflicts and which, for humanitarian reasons, limit the right of parties to a conflict to use the methods and means of warfare of their choice or protect persons and property that are, or may be, affected by conflict. The expression international humanitarian law applicable in armed conflicts is often abbreviated to international humanitarian law or humanitarian law.
The role which the International Committee of the Red Cross has to play in the event of such violations is delicate.
Firstly, the ICRC may take action on its own initiative, especially when its delegates are directly confronted with violations.
Secondly, the ICRC often receives complaints, and is generally expected to transmit them or to approach the authorities responsible, or to publicly state an opinion concerning the alleged violations.
Thirdly, the ICRC is sometimes asked to conduct an investigation to establish the truth of an alleged breach, or simply to record that violations have been committed.
In all three cases the attitude to be adopted by the ICRC is determined essentially by one criterion, namely the interest of the victims whom its mandate requires it to protect and assist. Its specific role as a neutral intermediary between parties to a conflict and its duty to treat all the victims of armed conflicts without discrimination require the ICRC, when faced with actual or alleged violations of international humanitarian law, to react only after having carefully weighed all the consequences that its reaction may entail for the victims.
It must, moreover, be remembered that it is the States which are responsible for the respect of international law and, more particularly, of the treaties binding them. The Geneva Conventions even expressly require States not only to respect them but to ensure respect for them.1 The ICRC is not superior to the contracting parties and cannot assume a judicial power which has not been given to it and which, moreover, it has never wished to possess.
1See article I common to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 and article I, para. 1 of their additional Protocol I.
The foregoing considerations and also the sum of experience acquired led the ICRC to establish a number of rules for its own guidance. They are often ill-known outside the institution, and the purpose of this document is to enable readers to gain a better understanding of them.
This document does not deal, however, with the position adopted by the ICRC and its delegates when faced with violations of international law or humanitarian principles to the detriment of detainees whom they have to visit as part of the activities which the ICRCs mandate requires it to carry out in the event of internal disturbances or tensions within a given State. Since this type of activity is based on ad hoc agreements with governments, the problem has been tackled from a different angle and the ICRC follows specific guidelines in such situations. | <urn:uuid:684c6181-d82d-48cc-a6ac-0c38311d060d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nzdl.org/gsdlmod?e=d-00000-00---off-0aedl--00-0----0-10-0---0---0direct-10---4-------0-1l--11-en-50---20-preferences---00-0-1-00-0--4----0-0-11-10-0utfZz-8-10&a=d&c=aedl&cl=CL1.1&d=HASH01825c82d0e5d522af10c856.2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953507 | 689 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Neither given nor granted, democracy requires conflict, often violent confrontations, and challenges to the established political order. In Europe, Geoff Eley convincingly shows, democracy did not evolve orgainically out of a natural consensus, the achievement of prosperity, or the negative cement of the Cold War. Rather, it was painstakingly crafted, continually expanded, and doggedly defended by varying constellations of socialist, feminist, Communist, and other radical movements that originally blossomed in the later nineteenth century. Parties of the Left championed democracy in the revolutionary crisis after World War I, salvaged it against the threat of fascism, and renewed its growth after 1945. They organized civil societies rooted in egalitarian ideals which came from the very fiber of Europe's current democratic traditions. The trajectories of European democracy and the history of the European Left are thus inextricably bound together.
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Shipping Details: BookByte pays cash, not credit, and takes pride in speedy payment, often within one day of processing your textbook. They pay the shipping. | <urn:uuid:62857940-db2b-4a6e-ab7d-1fa7d736ae28> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.campusbooks.com/books/sell.php?isbn=9780195037845 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930808 | 238 | 2.390625 | 2 |
Sanmartino’s Veiled Christ is one of the greatest sculptures of all time. Since the eighteenth century, travellers of all levels of distinction have come to contemplate this artistic miracle, to be disconcerted and enraptured by it. One of its innumerable admirers was Antonio Canova, who tried to buy it during his stay in Naples, and legend has it that he swore he would have given ten years of his life to have been the sculptor of this incomparable marble.
Another example: in his travel memoirs the Marquis de Sade praised “the folds, the finesse of the veil […] the beauty, and the regularity of the overall proportions”. Matilde Serao wrote in great detail about the passion narrated by the features of the Christ, and Riccardo Muti chose the face of the Christ for the cover of his recording of the Mozart Requiem. The Argentine writer Hector Bianciotti spoke of his “Stendhal’s syndrome” at the sight of the marble veil, “folded, unfolded, reabsorbed into the cavities of an imprisoned voice, slight as gauze on the relief of the veins”. Recently, in an interview he gave for «Il Mattino», Adonis, one of the greatest contemporary poets, defined the Veiled Christ as “more beautiful than Michelangelo’s sculptures”.
The fame of the Veiled Christ is growing every day. A survey carried out during the seventeenth edition of the Galassia Gutenberg Book Fair (April 2006) raised it to the level of monument symbolising Naples. Lastly, in the spring of 2008, the Campania Regional Authority chose the photo of Sanmartino’s Christ for its publicity campaign aiming to give new impetus to the city’s image, severely damaged by the well-known refuse emergency. | <urn:uuid:e221226b-ce29-4eec-8379-a9ef0b08307c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.museosansevero.it/inglese/cappellasansevero/cristovelato/capolavoro.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957985 | 388 | 2.390625 | 2 |
Design, development and operation of superconducting system for LHD
ABSTRACT The Large Helical Device (LHID) of National Institute for Fusion Science (NIFS) is a heliotron-type experimental fusion device which has the capability of confining current-less and steady-state plasma. The primary feature on the engineering aspect of LHD is using superconducting coils for magnetic confinement: two pool boiling helical coils (H1, H2) and three pairs of forced-flow poloidal coils (IV, IS, OV) wound with cable-in-conduit conductors (CICC). The maximum magnetic field at plasma center is 3 T in the Phase I experiment and 4 T in Phase II, while its stored energy becomes 0.9 GJ and 1.6 GJ, respectively. These coils are connected to the power supplies by superconducting bus-lines with their nominal current of 31.3 kA. The construction of LHD started in 1991 and was completed by the end of 1997. During this period, extensive research and development were conducted to complete a large-scale superconducting system. The plasma experiment started on March 31, 1998 and four plasma experimental campaigns have been performed successfully in three years. The fifth cycle operation started in August 2001. The knowledge which has been acquired during the design, development, and operation of superconducting system for LHD, is summarized. | <urn:uuid:19ca7865-42b8-4da4-9da1-2c7c1b151d0d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.researchgate.net/publication/3964440_Design_development_and_operation_of_superconducting_system_for_LHD | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958943 | 292 | 2.625 | 3 |
GNU/Linux distributions and other UNIX and UNIX-like operating systems already offer a phletora of tools for installing software. These tools all rely on different package formats that enable users and administrators to quickly obtain additional functionality from their system.
The different GNU/Linux distributions put a lot of their effort into maintaining an updated and comprehensive list of ports/packages.
Sometimes, however, this great and respectable effort does not suffice,
and our user remains with the only option to install from the source packages provided by the developers.
Some optional and less frequently used feature might be needed, and must be compiled-in. A package might be unavailable yet from vendor or distributor, and maybe it never will. Whatever the reason is, sometimes fetching a source package and building it is the best way to proceed.
On the developers' side, the GNU autotools (autoconf, automake, libtool, ...) have done much to ensure portability of UNIX (and even non-UNIX) code, and on the users' side, the familiar procedure (./configure && make && make install), that can be run from the command line, is becoming a de-facto standard.
In order to further encourage developers to prepare their source packages in a standardized way, and in order to initiate new users into the mysteries (?) of source installation, a new GNU project has been launched: GNU Source Installer.
The goal of the project is not to hide all the details of source installation. Instead, they are presented in a way that can be more easily understood by new users, adding some features that might even be handy for the more experienced.
For example, what about a configuration window, where all package features and options (those that appear in ./configure --help) can be examined and tweaked, with tips containing the option comments? What about per package file consistency checks, package tracking and enhanced uninstallation? All this can be obtained without losing full control, and without having to design a new package format. The tarball released by the original developers sufficies, provided it honours some de-facto standards about UNIX package installations.
GNU Source Installer shows all commands it executes in the background, and comments them, so a new user should be able to slowly notice the patterns which develop during installation, and eventually gain more knowledge and confidence in UNIX commands in general.
Let us now follow the process of a new user, who tried to run a program, only to discover he needs the latest SDL_image library (this is just an arbitrary example, there is no particular reason that led me to mention this piece of software, other than the fact that it's a well-built source package).
He downloads the source package SDL_image-1.2.4.tar.gz and runs the GNU Source Installer.
At this point from the main window he chooses the Add button, and browses for his SDL_image-1.2.4.tar.gz package. Once selected, he then confirms with Ok.
The commands to uncompress and extract the source begin to appear in the information frame. As soon as the program detects a configure script generated with version 2.59 of Autoconf, it reports back to the user and presents a configuration window where all options, features and influential environment variables are shown and explained.
The user indulges for a moment with the pointer on --enable-maintainer-mode, and after a second the available information about the option pops up. The user sensibly decides he does not need that option, and tweaks some environment variables instead. His installation prefix of choice is /usr/local.
Finally he clicks Ok, and waits until the compilation phase completes. At this point, the program makes a test installation and discovers that it needs root privileges to install in /usr/local. So a login window appears, asking the user to perform a privileged login.
The installation then runs and completes; the installer re-compresses the resulting configured sources, and stores the archive for any eventual future use.
Satisfied, our user gets a message about the success of the operation, and selects the new package that just appeared in the list to inspect the installed files and statistics.
This example only describes the behaviour of the default options. There are a few other options that can be tweaked: the default installation prefix, whether to store the source or not, whether to strip the binaries, in which format the source code should be stored and so on. With the new user in mind these options have all been initially set to safe defaults.
There are other less evident features in GNU Source Installer; among these a lot of crosschecks that should ensure that the packages are and remain properly installed. However, for most details a fine manual exists.
Do all source package work equally well with this tool? No. For example, only packages where an autoconf-generated configure script is present get the nice configuration window. However there was an effort to provide nice 'fallbacks', which means that even a package containing just a simple Makefile, or a custom configure script could work (if they work as they are and do not require manual editing).
Some packages do not work at all because they use different installation conventions. Though if GNU Source Installer becomes widespread enough it may become another incentive for developers to build good standardized packages, and so further encourage the adoption of GNU autotools.
This project is still very new, so although most features are already fully functional, there has probably not been enough testing yet to suggest heavy use in a critical system. A good way to help the project become more stable is to use it for user-installations (for example, specifying /home/claudio/usr as a default prefix in the preferences), reporting eventual problems or bugs encountered.
The original author also welcomes additional developers, expecially people with a good background on at least one of Unix administration, m4, autoconf, Tcl, Tk, Expect, C, xlib. The project currently aims primarily at testing and fixing the existing code-base where needed. The future should see better handling of non-conforming packages, more intuitive and coherent behaviour for the administrative processes, an even better interface with autoconf-generated scripts, and could possibly also see an alternative implementation based on C and xlib.
For all links, contacts, and additional information, the resource is always the project home page, where the address of the maintainer is also available.
This article is Copyright (c) 2005 Claudio Fontana.
It is available for everyone to copy and redistribute it, with or without modifying it, either commercially or noncommercially, under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. | <urn:uuid:6d4f5a79-0762-4745-9ac3-d174251125d4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gnu.org/software/sourceinstall/article.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.907498 | 1,397 | 2.4375 | 2 |
The fraught politics facing Lagarde
To get an idea of the job facing the new head of the IMF, check out Patrick Wintour’s interview with Vince Cable, a UK cabinet minister who, perfectly sensibly, says that Greece is going to have to restructure its debts. Cable puts a positive spin on the idea: a “soft restructuring”, he says, with Greece staying in the euro zone, could lead to a closer political union.
Then, read the story of what happens when you so much as suggest such a thing to Jean-Claude Trichet, eurocrat-in-chief. Even if you’re from Luxembourg:
Jean-Claude Trichet, ECB president, walked out of a meeting hosted by Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg’s prime minister. According to people familiar with events at the meeting, Mr Trichet was angry at talk of a so-called “soft” restructuring that could involve an extension of Greek debt maturities.
I can see why Trichet is so opposed to such a policy. Central banks, by their nature, hate restructuring assets: granting debt forgiveness is fiscal policy, not monetary policy. But the ECB holds a lot of Greek debt, and it’s almost impossible to see how it could fob that debt off onto the European Financial Stability Facility or any other body in advance of any restructuring.
In any event, the politics here are extremely delicate — note that Cable’s view is still just Cable’s view, rather than being the official view of the UK government — and the managing director of the IMF is the key broker who can forge some kind of consensus on this fraught subject both within Europe and more globally.
That’s why Pierre Briançon is wrong when he complains of Christine Lagarde that she isn’t qualified for the job:
Lagarde, who has no academic training in economics or finance, doesn’t even seem to have a strong set of beliefs.
Right now, a strong set of beliefs is something we don’t want in an IMF managing director. The job involves delicate negotiations with very large egos: it requires toughness, to be sure, but certainly not ideology. In that respect, the fact that it’s impossible to place Lagarde into an ideological hole is a big point in her favor — as is the fact that she seems to get on very well with the likes of Angela Merkel as well as her compatriot Jean-Claude Trichet.
Besides, “no academic training in economics or finance” doesn’t sound so bad to me, given the alternative. | <urn:uuid:952b28ba-837b-4cea-9bb9-949a19c11fd5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2011/05/24/the-fraught-politics-facing-lagarde/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95345 | 556 | 1.679688 | 2 |
The Rocky Mountain Community Land Trust (RMCLT) was conceived in May 1996 during an affordable housing strategic planning retreat initiated by the Comprehensive Homeless Assistance Providers (CHAP), chaired by Conning Lorig, Administrator, Community Development, City of Colorado Springs. These concerned individuals wanted to create a mechanism to preserve long-term affordability in housing. Since that time, a broad-based community effort grew to create the RMCLT. The RMCLT was the City’s third designated Community Housing Development Organization (CHDO).
For the first year and one-half, RMCLT operated with all volunteers. The Board of Directors was elected and the Articles of Incorporation, By-Laws, and the ground lease were developed. During this time the volunteers and RMCLT Board were actively involved with the City in a demonstration project to build a strawbale house on a vacant lot in the Hill Side Neighborhood. After construction, the City approved the sale of the house to the RMCLT. The Land Trust retained ownership of the land and sold the improvements to a first time homebuyer using the land trust model. But this was just the beginning. With the desire to expand the Land Trust, the Board of Directors hired an executive director in February 1998. Our executive director began his fifteenth year with the Land Trust in 2012 and has been the catalyst for the Land Trust’s growth in terms of properties and recognition in the community as a fiscally strong and dynamic organization that gets things accomplished. The Land Trust is a not-for-profit organization that is constantly on the move—improving our community, one property at a time!
RMCLT’s focus has been on creating affordable home ownership opportunities by reducing the cost of acquisition for first time homebuyers. Since its inception, the RMCLT has successfully demonstrated that the land trust model can be used as a tool to promote home ownership and to effectively use public and private sector dollars in a long-term strategy to support affordable home ownership.
RMCLT uses a scattered site development strategy on selecting new properties for inclusion in our affordable housing inventory. This does two things. First, it allows families to select the neighborhood in which they want to live. This is important for them since they may want to live in a certain neighborhood due to job, school, family or friends. The second reason for using a scattered site approach in selecting properties is that it minimizes concentrations of low and moderate-income housing and avoids the stigma so often attached to affordable housing. We have partnered in house purchases from Briargate in the North to Widefield in the South, from neighborhoods in the East (Stetson Hills and Springs Ranch) to houses near Old Colorado City in the West. | <urn:uuid:0dc0e46a-e59d-457c-a414-3965784a4825> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rmclt.org/history | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970307 | 561 | 1.601563 | 2 |
ArtAsiaPacific has a feature essay on North Korea’s Mansudae Art Studio, which operates under the ‘special guidance’ of the country’s leader, Kim Jong-Il, and produces propaganda art–paintings, public sculptures–for the North Korean state. The studio also has international clients and a ready market in China, South Korea and Japan. But the most startling growth for the studio has been in Africa on projects like the one above: “The African Renaissance Monument,” a 164-feet tall bronze statue in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, to mark the 50th anniversary of Senegal’s independence from French colonial rule.
Angie Baeckner writes that the statue is “… taller than both the Statue of Liberty and Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro” and cost about $28 million–money Senegalese say the state does not have. Locals complain the work resemble the “… standard busts and statues of some European generals” and “Socialist Realism, a style that has nothing to do with any indigenous African culture.”
The North Koreans have also built and designed statues in Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Algeria, Benin, Chad, the DRC, Egypt, Togo and Zimbabwe.
H/T: Public Archive. | <urn:uuid:a1797b67-fd22-4592-8eae-1e84d8ea1016> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://africasacountry.com/2011/03/14/how-africa-subsidizes-north-korea/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.902354 | 283 | 2.328125 | 2 |
The American Institute of Architects – Flint and Flint Public Art Project announce the first annual Flat Lot Competition, a program to design and build a temporary summer pavilion in the central parking lot in downtown Flint.
Formerly occupied by a series of office buildings and storefronts along Saginaw Street, the full–block surface parking lot known as the Flat Lot has become a staging ground for parades, flower–plantings, car shows, road races, and almost every sort of public event that draws large crowds. The Flat Lot Competition seeks proposals to design and build an innovative temporary structure that provides shelter, shade, and seating for a wide range of public events, defines space within the lot, and demonstrates the capacity of contemporary architectural form–making to transform space and captivate the public imagination – all while occupying no more than eight parking spaces during normal business hours. The winner of the competition will receive $25,000 to realize their proposal.
A collaboration between AIA–Flint, Flint Public Art Project and the Downtown Development Authority, the Flat Lot Competition is modeled after the MoMA/PS1 Young Architects Program, which every year reinvents the former public school courtyard in Long Island City, Queens as a popular place for summer events and concerts.
The Flat Lot will be a new center and symbol for the city, an attraction for regional visitors, and a site that amplifies the many existing events that help define cultural life in Flint. | <urn:uuid:23472575-2640-4d4a-bb73-43c57ace2775> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bustler.net/index.php/description/flat_lot_competition/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948514 | 293 | 1.5 | 2 |
Home » Opinion » Editorials
Expanding Medicaid: Congress will keep its word!
Under Obamacare, states initially were forced to expand Medicaid eligibility to families earning as much as 133 percent of the federal poverty level. The Supreme Court struck down the mandate as unconstitutional, so the expansion is up to each state.
A majority of the House Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee concluded that expansion "would be a vehicle for bringing hundreds of millions of federal dollars into the state." It said also that the "Medicaid expansion and its federal financing/matching rate are enshrined in federal law. Changing either of these federal government obligations would require an Act of Congress."
Goodness, an act of Congress! Why, Congress's word is as good as... as.... hey, wait a second.
If your best argument is that Congress will keep its word, then you don't have an argument. No one - literally, to use a Bidenism - believes that Washington will enshrine into permanency a subsidy it already cannot afford to fund. The argument mocks itself. Those making it have let themselves become tools of the administration's propaganda machine. They are undermining New Hampshire's future fiscal stability for the sake of advancing the Obama administration's political goals. They should be stopped. Passing House Bill 271, to prohibit the state's expansion of Medicaid, would do that, for now. It's too bad the House hasn't the will to do it.
READER COMMENTS: 13
- Charles Arlinghaus: Don't believe hype on Medicaid expansion - 0
- Thomas Sowell: Common sense vs. the military's pursuit of political correctness - 0
- Diana Lacey: $50 million in personnel cuts would hurt NH - 26
- Jonah Goldberg: Freedom: the unfolding revolution - 4
- Deroy Murdock: Corruption aside, the IRS has too much Obamacare authority - 8
- Thomas Sowell: There's lots of bad economic thinking in the immigration debate - 0
- Roger Simon: The slacker who came in from the cold - 3
- Charles Krauthammer: Pushing the envelope, NSA-style - 4
- George Will: Slipping the Constitution's leash - 0
READER COMMENTS: 3
- House, Senate at standoff over vaccines, voter registration bill - 0
- Rochester parents called to court to answer for truant children - 0
- Exeter High teachers' resignations announced at meeting - 0
- Rochester woman under arrest in underage party - 0
- LeBron, Heat edge Spurs in OT, force Game 7 - 0
- Santos drives in three as Curve beat Fisher Cats in 10 - 0
- Large billboards grabbing attention on Route 101 in Epping - 2
- Pearl Street lot proposal involves student housing in Manchester - 3
- Manchester VFW posts fights to survive without poker cash - 2
Nashua couple's deaths called suspicious
Voter restrictions: Who will govern us?
Mother of drowned baby gets prison time | <urn:uuid:14ed4c79-b091-4089-953e-e167f9b8522f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.unionleader.com/article/20130320/OPINION01/130329989/0/NEWHAMPSHIRE05 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919343 | 611 | 1.625 | 2 |
In addition to protecting your eyes from accidents, early detection and treatment of eye problems is the best way to keep your healthy vision throughout your life.
By age 65, one in three Americans has some form of vision-impairing eye disease. Most do not know it because there are often no warning symptoms or they assume that poor sight is a natural part of growing older.
In many cases blindness is preventable. We offer information about eye disease to raise awareness of the facts of eye disease.
Some Eye Disease Facts
Glaucoma is one of the leading causes of blindness in the United States, and the most common cause of blindness among African Americans. More than three million people have glaucoma, but half do not realize it because there are often no warning symptoms.
Approximately 16 million people in the United States have diabetes and one-third of them do not know it. Diabetes is the leading cause of new blindness among adults and people with diabetes are 25 times more likely to become blind than people without it. By detecting and treating diabetic eye disease early through annual, dilated eye exams, people with diabetes can preserve their sight.
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of vision loss in people 65 years or older in the United States. It affects more than 10 million Americans according to the National Eye Institute. | <urn:uuid:a0aa11b6-59f3-48bd-b721-a308337fe1e1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eyecareamerica.org/eyecare/conditions/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961777 | 277 | 3.203125 | 3 |
In 2006, St. Edward’s University completed the John Brooks Williams Natural Science Center and their faculty moved from Fleck Hall into the new facility. At the time, the plans were to demolish Fleck Hall and build a new facility for the School of Education. Architect Arthur Andersson considered the proposal and advised the university to take a different approach. He felt the building was worth saving because it was a lasting, adaptable structure built with a consistent concrete grid. He then proposed a revamp of the building that would add modern touches, sustainable technology and expand it with a third floor on the roof.
The structurally sound building was given a south facing glass curtain wall and a new glazed third floor to house conference rooms and an intimate, executive dining room for St. Edward’s fundraisers. The two existing floors were converted into state-of-the-art classrooms and faculty office spaces, and feature an experimental classroom, a gallery space for presentations, and a lounge area with computer work stations. Materials were also responsibly re-used, which cut down costs and the use of new resources, and the new curtain wall floods the space with daylighting. Reopened then in 2007, the new Fleck Hall features cutting-edge design that taps into the energy and spirit of the original architecture while using sustainable practices. Although not as striking or beautiful as some of the other campus buildings, the renovation comes out better than expected and makes the most of what was available.
Images ©Andersson-Wise Architects | <urn:uuid:aac258ec-54d6-40f6-9d03-1bfbfff36ab8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://inhabitat.com/fleck-hall-andersson-wise-architects-revamp-an-old-science-building-instead-of-tearing-it-down/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00076-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966147 | 309 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Saving Student Notes
February 21, 2008
"I teach sophomores and seniors but I don't see the kids in eleventh grade. The eleventh grade material doesn't overlap mine at all. So, when I teach grammar skills to my tenth graders, I save the kids' note sheets and return them to the students in their senior year. Seeing their own writing on a familiar note sheet helps jog their memories. They also don't have to rewrite all those notes during their senior year! The kids laugh at their terrible sophomore handwriting and appreciate having those notes right at hand as we go over the old material and then build on it. " | <urn:uuid:c65eff35-0e54-4721-80b7-4701a9882c7b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nea.org/tools/tips/19007.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983481 | 132 | 2.296875 | 2 |
While the wake of Hurricane Sandy has citizens in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and beyond struggling to make sense of the destruction, lawmakers are also grappling with concerns over the potential of price-gouging by area businesses that would capitalize on disaster-driven consumerism. New Jerseys Attorney General announced on Friday that it has issued subpoenas to 65 businesses, part of an ongoing investigation into more than 500 consumer complaints regarding alleged price gouging. Yet, far from being the answer, these federal interventions are roadblocks to rebuilding.
The Roman emperor Diocletian imposed a maximum price for bread in 301 A.D. punishable by death. The result? Almost no bread for sale until he repealed the price decree. Nearly 2,000 years later similar laws are causing shortages in New York and New Jersey.Government-imposed price controls are making the disaster worse a week after Sandy hit shore.
New York State law makes it illegal for merchants to charge an unconscionably excessive price for goods that are vital and necessary for consumers, though the law never defines unconscionably excessive. New Jersey law is more specific. It makes it illegal for businesses to raise their prices more than 10 percent within 30 days of a declared state of emergency.
New Jersey Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa stated Anyone violating the law will find the penalties they face, far outweigh the profits of taking unfair advantage of their fellow New Jerseyans during a time of great need. Hes right. One gas station paid a $50,000 penalty for raising prices 16 percent during hurricane Irene. But much as the Roman threat of death couldnt force producers to bring products to the market, neither can New Jerseys excessive fines.
Gasoline may be more scarce than usual because power outages prevent stations from opening and some ports remain closed but the shortage of gas is caused by the price controls alone. Prices play important functions in communicating information about relative scarcities and incentivizing people to act appropriately.
High prices tell suppliers to bring more of a commodity to the distressed area. If gas prices in New York and New Jersey could rise high enough to reflect its true scarcity the profit incentive would induce more suppliers to redirect gas from other states to these areas. Instead, the federal government is scrambling to deliver 22 million gallons of gas itself since the price controls have destroyed the private incentive. But there is no reason to think the federal government is any more efficient at delivering gas than it is at delivering mail.
High prices play an important role on the demand side as well. As unpleasant as high prices are for consumers, those high prices ration the scarce gas to those who value it most highly. The prices communicate that people should use as little gas as possible and only those who value it most highly should use it.
When high prices are prohibited from serving their function the result is a shortage where there are more buyers than sellers. Buyers still compete with other buyers to try to get the scarce gas, but because price competition is illegal their competition takes less beneficial forms.
The main way potential buyers compete to get scarce gas is by getting in line first. Long lines, in some cases miles long, are common in the stricken areas of New York and New Jersey. Stories like Reggie Ridleys are common. Hes a janitor from Harlem and he has woken up three hours earlier than usualaround 5:30 a.m.to start looking for gasoline. Once, he was unable to find gasoline at all, so he had to park his car at a garage and take the subway to work... Ive been very tired. No sleep, he said. Every place I go, its been a long line, four- to five-blocks deep.
Unfortunately, efforts like Reggies dont make sellers any better off so it doesnt induce a greater supply like higher prices do. It also doesnt guarantee that gas goes to its most valuable uses. Instead, whoever is lucky enough to get to the front of the line at the right gas station gets it.
Governor Chris Christie has imposed a rationing scheme based on license plate numbers. Even numbered plates can get gas only on some days while odd numbered plates can get gas on other days. This may reduce lines but it does nothing to ensure that gas only goes to its highest valued uses.
Tony Kurasz was six cars from the pump when a Bayonne N.J. gas station ran out of gas after he waited in line for three hours on Saturday. The New York Times reports that it was the second time that day that a station ran out of gas while he waited. Kurasz complained, This is crazy. I remember the last time we went through this, in the 70s. Its strange to be back here again.
Its not a hurricane induced problem that Mr. Kurasz remembers. It was the near decade-long gasoline price controls of the 1970s that caused shortages, long lines, and bizarre rationing schemes based on license plate numbers. For thousands of years governments have imposed maximum price laws and the results have always been the sameshortages that leave consumers worse off. Its all the more cruel when this policy disaster comes after a natural one. Its time politicians learned from economics and history and let prices coordinate our use of scarce resources.
Benjamin Powell is a Senior Fellow at The Independent Institute, Director of the Free Market Institute at Texas Tech University, and former President of the Association of Private Enterprise Education. Dr. Powell received his Ph.D. in economics from George Mason University. He has been assistant professor of economics at San Jose State University, a fellow with the Mercatus Center's Global Prosperity Initiative, and a visiting research fellow with the American Institute for Economic Research. Benjamin is also the editor of Housing America: Building out of Crisis.
Full Biography and Recent Publications | <urn:uuid:6351d97d-59f8-4b98-9d9b-44ce2d922fe1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=3488 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964552 | 1,178 | 2.421875 | 2 |
Bridging the Rural Digital Divide Programme - Overview
Begun in 2003, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) implemented a strategic Programme entitled "Bridging the Rural Digital Divide". The programme highlighted innovative approaches to knowledge exchange that were taking advantage of new (at that time) digital technologies, and that were based on synergies between information management and communication for development. At the time this was referred to as "information and communication for development"(ICD).
- Increase the availability of information content related to rural areas in digital form.
- Develop innovative mechanisms and processes for information exchange and communication.
- Establish networks and communities of practice in information and communication for development and for exchange of information on agriculture and rural development.
The programme had a dedicated website (fao.org/rdd), and served as a basis for FAO's role as a founding partner of the e-Agriculture Community. The content of that website has since been moved here to the e-Agriculture Community platform by FAO. | <urn:uuid:12e9508b-ef9d-4698-8098-0909d2996356> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.e-agriculture.org/bridging-rural-digital-divide-programme-overview | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939524 | 215 | 2.984375 | 3 |
Filling Up the Afflictions of Christ: The Cost of Bringing the Gospel to the Nations in the Lives of William Tyndale, Adoniram Judson, and John Paton
By John Piper
Reviewed by Dr. Irv Busenitz
21.2 (Fall 2010) : 254-256
This is the fifth book in the popular series entitled “The Swans are not Silent.” The title of the collection is adapted from Eraclius’ comments at the retirement of St. Augustine in A.D. 430. As the successor to the esteemed Augustine, Eraclius observed: “The cricket chirps, the swan is silent.” Contending that the greatest voices of church history go on speaking, Piper contends, “if someone tells their story and gives them voice” (9). He powerfully bids his readers to drink from the reservoir of God’s faithfulness—in this case by recounting the trials endured and the trails blazed by three men from previous centuries.
Piper introduces this trilogy with a treatise on the role of suffering in the lives of Christ and the Apostles and then illustrated in the lives of these three men. He contends, “Afflictions are not merely the result of missionary fruitfulness, but also the means” (9-10). He adds: “God designs that the suffering of his ambassadors is one essential means in the triumphant spread of the Good News among all the peoples of the world…. Suffering and death to save others is not only the content but it is also the method of our mission” (14, 15).
Utilizing Col 1:24 as the scriptural foundation of his thoughts, Piper explains that “Paul’s sufferings fill up Christ’s afflictions not by adding anything to their worth, but by extending them to the people they were meant to save” (22). “Christ has prepared a love offering for the world by suffering and dying for sinners. It is full and lacking in nothing—except one thing, a personal presentation by Christ himself to the nations of the world. God’s answer to this lack is to call the people of Christ (people like Paul) to make a personal presentation to the afflictions of Christ to the world” (23).
The focus of Piper’s first biography is William Tyndale. Born in 1494, Tyndale was an avid learner, becoming fluent in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, German, French, Spanish, Italian, and English. From his love for the natural power of language grew a passion to translate the Scriptures into English so that “a boy that driveth the plow shall know more of the Scripture than [the Pope] dost” (30). Thus Tyndale was driven to uncover what lay hidden in the Latin Vulgate and thereby liberate the life-saving gospel of salvation by grace through faith alone (40-42). “Bible translation and Bible truth were inseparable for Tyndale, and in the end it was the truth—especially the truth of justification by faith alone—that ignited Britain with Reformed fire and then brought the death sentence to this Bible translator” (43).
Such passion led the British parliament in 1401 to make heresy punishable by burning at the stake. A few years later (1408), the Archbishop of Cantebury declared that translating the Scriptures into English or reading such translations were forbidden (43-44). Facing the heat of hatred, Tyndale fled in 1544 to the continent and went into hiding in Germany and the Netherlands.
Piper then turns his attention to the missionary endeavors of John G. Paton on the islands of New Hebrides. Known today as Vanuatu, this South Pacific country occupies a 450-mile stretch of islands between Hawaii and Australia. Known for their cannibalistic ways, the first missionaries were killed and eaten on November 20, 1839, only minutes after going ashore. Less than 20 years later (1858), Paton, together with his wife and infant son, landed on the island of Tanna. Within the year, his wife and son died of the fever, and by 1864, he was driven from the island.
Two years later, he and his second wife returned, this time to the island of Aniwa, where they labored together for the next 41 years. They learned the language, reduced it to writing, and translated the Scriptures. A hundred years later, over 90% of the Vanuatu population claimed to be Christian (56-58).
Paton went to New Hebrides against the wishes of his church elders. When told by one that he would be eaten by cannibals, he replied, “Mr. Dickson, you are advanced in years now, and … soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms; I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by Cannibals or by worms…” (58).
Piper attributed Paton’s great courage to his godly heritage (cf. Paton’s stirring tribute to his father, 70-72); his deep sense of divine calling—“Since none better qualified can be got, rise and offer yourself” (72); and his unshakeable confidence that the sovereign hand of a loving God controlled all adversities (74-78).
Lastly, Piper opens the biography of Adoniram Judson with the exclamation, “How few there are who die so hard” (85), noting that he was “a seed that fell into the ground and died again and again” (86).
After eighteen months of marriage, the 24-year old Judson sailed for India with his young wife. After a brief time with William Carey, they left for Burma— there to labor under the difficulties of discouragement, imprisonment, and diseases that would take the lives of his first two wives and seven of his thirteen children. Buoyed by the certainty of God’s sovereign providence in all of life, Judson remarked: “If I had not felt certain that every additional trial was ordered by infinite love and mercy, I could not have survived my accumulated sufferings” (87).
Judson entered Burma in 1813 and labored there until his death 38 years later. Though his nearly four decades were punctuated with numerous bouts of suffering and death, they were eventually rewarded with remarkable fruitfulness. Six years elapsed before there was a single convert, yet twenty years later thousands were requesting tracts and copies of his Burmese Bible translation (96-97). Since that time, thousands of congregations have been established and hundreds of thousands have come to faith in Jesus Christ.
Ultimately, this is a book about missions and about the men who sacrificed their lives to proclaim the Good News, “to fill up what was lacking in the afflictions of Christ.” Each of these men gave their all. Though the length of their lives varied—Tyndale died at forty-two; Paton at eighty-two; Judson at sixty-one—the fruit of their lives continues on. Indeed, “the swans are not silent.” | <urn:uuid:db1169d4-7932-498e-94c0-aab84537a0b0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tms.edu/JournalBookReview.aspx?ID=709 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971137 | 1,526 | 2.21875 | 2 |
Is high-frame-rate projection the future of filmmaking or an assault on the human brain? Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey — shot and projected at 48 frames per second, twice the traditional number — has drawn a lot of irritated muttering and heavy thoughts about the limits of perception and “the way our brains see things.” (Not to mention the way we emotionally experience things — the author of a fascinating piece posted today at Gizmodo cops to having had radically different reactions to the film after seeing it in both 48 and 24 FPS.) Some viewers have described the ultraclear picture as looking like an HD TV version of the film and others have noted that some scenes look like sped-up Benny Hill–esque outtakes.
But why does it all appear so odd, so abnormal? And is it actually? To find out, Vulture asked two experts: Marty Banks, a professor of optometry and vision science at Berkeley, who was sought out by Jackson before The Hobbit’s release to weigh in on a 48 FPS trailer for the film, and Rob Allison, an associate professor of computer science and engineering at York University in Toronto, who specializes in human perceptual responses and stereoscopic vision.
One of the major issues with the new frame-rate projection is how smooth it all looks. That’s because 48 FPS erases much of the blurring that occurs at 24 FPS. To perceive motion on a screen, our brains need a projection rate of at least fourteen frames per second — and the higher the frame rate, the smoother the motion seems. "We see continuously and smoothly, not in frames," notes Allison. "We don't perceive at 24 frames per second. We don't think at 24 frames per second. I've seen silly things on the Internet about how we think at 40 frames per second. But there is no perception limit."
The difference is psychological, not visual — there’s what we are accustomed to, and then there's the new. We’re used to making certain assumptions about what we see on a screen. "Colors are not as rich on TV sets or desktop monitors,” said Banks. “The motion is not as smooth. Brightness is not as great. We've adjusted to that, and we accept it. So when we see a projection that is closer to reality than what we are used to, our brains go, 'Whoa!' and we get this 'hyper-real' sensation. I think that's what's happening to people. Things look unusually sharp [in The Hobbit], and we're seeing something closer to reality.
"If people are frustrated, it's because this seems a violation of what has been considered normal," he continued. "Look at how people reacted when color was first introduced, or Hi-Definition, or Dolby sound. There were negative reactions to all of those at first, too. But now if you don't have them, you feel deprived."
“Think about what some of the reaction [to 48 FPS] has been. The characters look too sharp? You're too aware of the makeup and the wrinkles? Some of the sets look like sets? Of course they do. You've created a format where the viewer sees more of what is actually there. Filmmakers will have to learn to make sets better and makeup better. That probably happened when color was introduced, too."
Both Banks and Allison said that in the real world, we're presented with far more detail than what we get onscreen so the more we see films projected in 48 FPS, the more natural it will appear. "You become more attuned to things as you look at them," Allison said. "By your fourth or fifth high-frame-rate film, you’ll be used to it. This isn't about perception as much as expectation. If you've grown up playing video games at 60-frame rates, you’ll already know what to expect.” (Most modern video games use a 30 to 60 frame rate, although some go as high as 125 for action/adventure and racing. To see what frame rate your favorite game has, go here. Additionally, much TV is displayed at 60 FPS.)
One thing that could mitigate some of the negative audience response in the future is if filmmakers use a transitional system of sorts — variable frame rates within single movies: higher for action, back to 24 FPS for close-ups. “During the first scenes in The Hobbit,” he said, “with Bilbo and Frodo at the house in the Shire, there was a shallow depth of field, so it was fairly traditional. You probably didn't need a high frame rate there. But once you got to the Dwarves at Erebor and the people in Dale, the town nearby, that was a good time to get used to 48, because there was a lot of richness in those scenes to explore. And once you get to the attack of the dragon, the first big action scene, the 48 is useful, because there are lots of effects and it will heighten the experience. Plus, the dragon's cool. Who doesn't like a dragon?"
If there is an obvious problem with 48 FPS, Banks said, it’s still a subtle one — an element of depth distortion. Allison agreed. "One of the things 48 FPS can do for you is to allow less motion blur and make the details crisper," he said. "But some things that were meant to be blurry in the background are sharper, so it's a matter of adjusting for that. Some things that are fake look fake."
And what about some viewers’ complaints of headaches or motion sickness while watching The Hobbit? "People do get cinema sickness," Allison said. "People get flight simulator sickness. You can get sick on theme-park rides. And if you already have a headache, you might attribute it to the movie. But I don't think the movie will cause headaches. And if you have photo-induced epilepsy, you should actually be less susceptible watching a higher frame rate film because there is less flicker."
So the bottom line on the brave new world of 48 FPS movies? “It's an aesthetic question,” Allison said. “But perceptually, I think it's a win." Of course, the matter of "will we get used to it" and "will we want to get used to it" are two different things altogether. | <urn:uuid:456f9e7f-3171-4ab7-b7ba-7d19a7c83ab7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.vulture.com/2012/12/ask-an-expert-will-we-ever-get-used-to-the-hobbit-48fps-higher-frame-rate.html?test=true | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96727 | 1,334 | 2.640625 | 3 |
The Lantern of Fear - Page 2
The true origins of screen horror
Paul Philidor presented the prototype phantasmagoria show in 1789, in Berlin. His show included all the paraphernalia of the original seance plus a few additional and spectacular concepts, such as the quaint notion of having the entire seance room burst into flames. Unfortunately, an unsympathetic audience wrecked the show. However, two years later he emerged in Vienna, with an improved show, and enjoyed a run of over a year. In 1793, he took the show to Paris, when the French Revolution was in full flood. Here he attracted large audiences with his popular re-incarnations of martyred heroes. Only when he somewhat unwisely set about satirising Robespierre did the show close.
In 1797, when things had quietened down somewhat, the Phantasmagoria was born again in Paris, under the direction of the Belgian showman Robertson - the Spielberg of the phantom-show. His most atmospheric venue was the crumbling Convent des Capucines , which the audience were obliged to approach via a Gothic cemetery. Robertson introduced new effects - masks, ventriloquism, the projection of three dimensional figures and live actors and scripted scenes. He eventually took the show to Russia and Spain,and soon the concept spread to the U.S.A. and other parts of the World.
In 1801 Paul Philidor re-emerged in London under another name - Paul de Philipsthal, and presented his version of the Phantasmagoria at the Lyceum Theatre in the Strand, where it enjoyed a West End success on a par with that of the cinema, a century later. Indeed, although the phantasmagoria was an essentially live form of entertainment these shows also used projectors in ways which anticipated 20th century film-camera movements - the 'zoom', 'dissolve', the 'tracking-shot' and superimposition. | <urn:uuid:09f76b04-457d-4d3e-b9de-5abaff80c4f3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.grand-illusions.com/articles/lantern_of_fear/page02.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954122 | 409 | 2.203125 | 2 |
Life can be very complicated and the older you get the more complicated it can seem to become.
At least up until the time you either retire or the last of your children leave home!
I think that is why I enjoy reading anything that can explain something about life in a succinct and easy to understand way.
Below are some examples of these I have found around the internet. Some are old and you have probably seen before while others may be new and give you cause to smile.
* Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.
* Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.
* Never lick a steak knife.
* Never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests that you think she's pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment.
* People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.
* There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."
* There comes a time when you should stop expecting other people to make a big deal about your birthday. That time is age 22.
* When you are in a bad mood, everyone else is a terrible driver.
* Tell me what you need, and I'll tell you how to get along without it.
* Accept that some days you are the pigeon and some days the statue.
* Never argue with idiots. They drag you down to their level, then beat you with experience.
* If at first you don't succeed ...... skydiving isn't for you.
* The five most essential words for a healthy, vital relationship "I apologise" and "You are right."
* If you woke up breathing, congratulations! You have another chance!
* If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.
* Inside every older person is a younger person wondering what the hell happened.
* If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends?
* The hardness of the butter is proportional to the softness of the bread.
* Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.
* Your conscience may not keep you from doing wrong, but it sure keeps you from enjoying it.
* Middle age is when broadness of the mind and narrowness of the waist change places.
* Frustration is not having anyone to blame but yourself.
* "I am" is reportedly the shortest sentence in the English language. Could it be that "I do" is the longest?
* Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realise you’re wrong.
* I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap when I was younger.
* There is great need for a sarcasm font.
* How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?
* Map Quest really needs to start their directions on # 5. I’m pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighbourhood.
* Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.
* I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t at least kind of tired.
* Bad decisions make good stories.
* You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren’t going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.
* Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don’t want to have to restart my collection…again.
* I’m always slightly terrified when I exit out of Microsoft Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page technical report that I swear I did not make any changes to.
* I keep some people’s phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.
* I think the freezer deserves a light as well.
* I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.
* How many times is it appropriate to say “What?” before you just nod and smile because you still didn’t hear or understand a word they said?
* I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters!
* Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.
* Sometimes I’ll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.
* The first crotch guard, the “Cup,” was used in Hockey in 1874 and the first helmet was used in 1974. That means it only took 100 years for men to realize that their brain is also important.
* Why do you press harder on the buttons of a remote control when you know the batteries are dead? | <urn:uuid:5879019a-f28b-4c5b-b161-041d029ce87d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://stirling.inmycommunity.com.au/news-and-views/blogs/post/Some-life-tips-and-observations/1020/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967054 | 1,061 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Friday, 16. November 2012 - 2:23 am
Drinkaware has recently launched a competition encouraging budding young film-makers to create a short film which shows that if you are drinking, drink responsibly to have a good time this Christmas. It’s the ‘Why let the good times go bad?’ Christmas video competition.
Whether you’re an iPhone enthusiast or a dab hand with a professional camera, all applicants are invited to enter videos that emphasise our campaign tips such as, eating isn’t cheating and alternating alcoholic drinks with soft ones, to encourage young adults to keep the good times good by not drinking too much.
The winning entry will win £1,500 worth of Jessops vouchers and two runners up will receive £250 worth of Jessop vouchers. In addition to this, the lucky winner’s will also have their film featured as part of Drinkaware‘s Christmas ‘Why let good times go bad? campaign which challenges young adults’ attitudes and behaviour towards alcohol.
The ‘Why let good times go bad?’ campaign competition is available to all UK residents aged 18 years and over. Go to the Drinkaware website for more information on how to enter. The deadline for entries is December 2nd. | <urn:uuid:7b13979a-977a-4a9b-904a-115d287d029d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.promonews.tv/2012/11/16/drinkaware-why-let-the-good-times-go-bad-christmas-video-competition/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937956 | 261 | 1.59375 | 2 |
A draft analysis by state water board staff suggests California American Water could legally use Salinas Valley groundwater for its proposed desalination project under certain conditions, a finding which could play a key role in resolving a major potential obstacle.
The draft report, issued Dec. 21, concludes Cal Am's use of brackish water from shoreline slant wells north of Marina as source water for its proposed Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project desal plant was unlikely to result in "injury" to other Salinas Valley groundwater users despite a predicted lowering of groundwater levels within a two-mile radius of the wells.
The report finds the resulting desalinated product water would likely be "surplus" to the existing supply in the seawater-intruded area and as long as Cal Am returns any "incidental" fresh water to the basin in a way that avoids injury to other users, the water project "could proceed without violating other users' groundwater rights."
However, the report also finds it is "not possible to make definitive water rights statements at this time" because the project's details and aquifer conditions are unverified. It suggests that Cal Am be required to prove there would be no such negative impact and that any fresh water it extracted would be returned to the basin in the most beneficial way — perhaps via injection wells, percolation basins or the Castroville Seawater Intrusion Project. It points out that more information is needed to
Cal Am spokeswoman Catherine Bowie said the draft report is "consistent with our position on water rights" and "validates" Cal Am's legal briefings submitted to the state Public Utilities Commission in July including the conclusion that "no water right is needed to pump seawater."
"There are certainly areas in the report for which we will seek clarification," Bowie said, "and we agree ... that further technical study is needed in order to confirm there will be no impact to other pumpers in the basin. We believe our proposed slant test well will supply the additional information needed to resolve this issue."
The report calls for more specific information on:
· The depth of the proposed wells and the dune sand aquifer from which Cal Am has proposed to extract feeder water.
· The extent of the dune sand aquifer and its water quality and quantity.
· The extent and thickness of the Salinas Valley aquifer, and the extent of the 180-foot aquifer.
It recommends a series of test boring/wells designed to assess the hydrogeologic conditions at the site, and aquifer testing to determine the proposed pumping's potential effects on both the dune sand aquifer and the underlying 180-foot aquifer.
The data, according to the report, will form the basis for a plan that "avoids injury to other groundwater users and protects beneficial uses in the Basin."
Carmel Mayor Jason Burnett, vice president of the Monterey Peninsula Regional Water Authority, said the authority's technical advisory committee would review the draft report on Monday, and declined comment until then. The committee meets at 2 p.m. at Monterey City Hall.
Critics of Cal Am's proposed project have suggested that it faces lengthy delays, including virtually certain litigation, over the issue of Salinas Valley groundwater rights and the project's potential impact on seawater intrusion in the area. Some have urged the company to relocate feeder wells outside the basin.
Basin water users, led by agricultural interests, have argued use of the basin's water is managed through cooperative agreements that would be disrupted by the proposed project and lead to a costly adjudication process.
Marc Del Piero, a former state water board member and water law attorney, pointed out that the report is a "draft" relying largely on Cal Am's representations and is missing crucial information related to the Salinas Valley Water Project and its intent. Del Piero's Ag Land Trust successfully sued the Marina Coast Water District over the failed regional desal project and its environmental review, including the failure to address the water rights issue.
When the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District approved spending on pursuit of an alternative desal proposal, staff cited groundwater rights as the major potential impediment to timely implementation of Cal Am's project.
According to Michael Buckman, senior environmental scientist for the state Water Resources Control Board, water board staff is issuing the report to the public upon request, and is waiting to hear back from PUC officials before starting a noticed public comment period. He said a final report will be issued that includes public comments and responses, though there is no timeline for its completion, and a public workshop on the final report could also be scheduled.
The PUC requested the state water board's assistance in September in reviewing Cal Am's legal right to extract desal feeder water for the latest water supply project on the Peninsula, which is designed to provide a replacement source of water to offset a state-ordered cutback in pumping from the Carmel River that takes full effect at the start of 2017.
Meanwhile, public participation hearings on Cal Am's proposed project are set for next week in Monterey. Cal Am has been ordered by a PUC judge to provide an update of the project description, including a number of proposed changes and other key developments, during the hearings. The hearings will be held at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Wednesday at Monterey City Hall.
Jim Johnson can be reached at 753-6753 or email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:4d8ab049-9022-409b-82c5-52515014e231> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.montereyherald.com/local/ci_22307900/report-tapping-salinas-valley-groundwater-wont-injure-other%3Fsource=pkg.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950608 | 1,122 | 1.96875 | 2 |
Coherent (operating system)The Coherent operating system was introduced in 1983 by the now-defunct Mark Williams Company as one of the first Unix-like computer operating systems for IBM PC-compatible computers. Coherent was capable of running on most Intel-based PCs with 286, 386, and 486 processors and, like a true Unix, was capable of multitasking and of having multiple users. Coherent also had support for X11.
Coherent is sometimes mistakenly referred to as "Coherent Unix", which is incorrect. Coherent was based on the specifications of Unix Version 7, without reference to any of the Unix source code, either from Bell Labs or BSD. | <urn:uuid:0502d98f-bd28-4cad-bc99-9faef719c24a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.encyclopedia4u.com/c/coherent-operating-system-.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966761 | 139 | 3.078125 | 3 |
The U.S. government auction of wireless airwaves ended yesterday raising a record $19.59 billion, but winners of the valuable spectrum were not immediately identified. The winners of the hundreds of licenses are expected to be announced within days.
“This is spectrum that’s obviously … very valuable — will be critical to trying to provide additional wireless broadband services,” Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin told reporters after the auction ended.
The C block spectrum includes a requirement sought by Internet leader Google that would make it accessible to any device or software application.
Television broadcasts are moving from analog to digital signals in early 2009. The 700-megahertz spectrum that television has been using is valuable to phone companies and others because the signals can go long distances and penetrate thick walls.
One sticking point of the auction has been the sale of the D block. No company has met the minimum bid for this part of the spectrum. Under FCC rules, the winner of the D block would have to give police, firefighters and other public safety groups priority use during an emergence.
The FCC may decide to re-auction the D block airwaves and modify the rules and minimum price to make it more attractive to bidders. The FCC has declined to comment specifically on what it will do. | <urn:uuid:4fde9a47-8466-4214-a067-f7bf55aa2445> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://techcrunch.com/2008/03/19/airwave-auction-ends-winners-remain-unknown/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960321 | 264 | 2.0625 | 2 |
The future of green technology is algae-cultivating buildings, artificial trees, and lots of white roofs, according to the U.K.'s Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
The group on Thursday released a report that recommends governments fund research on geoengineering, or large-scale fixes for climate change. The report, a year in the making, is targeted at policymakers and is meant to inspire engineers to develop ways to cut greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.
As concern grows over climate change, a number of geoengineering ideas have been proposed, including placing mirrors in space to reflect sunlight or shooting sulfur particles into the stratosphere, which would also have a cooling effect.
However, in its analysis, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers found that most promising geoengineering techniques can be done on Earth. It argues that a handful of technologies be deployed at large scale, along with other strategies, to mitigate the effects of climate change.
At the top of the list are artificial trees, which are mechanical devices that can absorb carbon dioxide from the air faster than trees and then sequester that gas underground.
The institution's report refers to the research done by Columbia University Professor Klaus Lackner, who is researching the concept and materials to absorb large amounts of CO2. Also required are underground storage formations, such as depleted oil wells. At a cost of $20,000 per tree, the institution concludes that it's the most practical approach.
Cultivating algae to make liquid fuel is one of the most active areas of research in biofuels. The institution recommends that algae be incorporated into buildings so algae can be grown at a large scale.
Engineers envision that long plastic tubes, called photobioreactors, be integrated into building designs or retrofitted onto existing skyscrapers.
Algae would grow from pumped-in carbon dioxide and sunlight and be harvested for use either as a liquid fuel to run in a combined heat-and-power unit or turned into biochar, or charcoal used as a soil conditioner that also sequesters carbon from the air.
Finally, the institution says that buildings should be retrofitted with reflective roofs to deflect the sun's rays. In the past months, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu has publicly touted this relatively low-tech approach, which was studied in-depth at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory last year.
Although proposing billions of white roofs doesn't appear to be controversial, many other geoengineering ideas are. For example, scientists have warned about the environmental impact--or effectiveness--of "seeding" the ocean with iron to spur growth of plankton to sequester carbon.
In anticipation of a report on geoengineering from the U.K.'s Royal Society next week, watchdog ETC Group warned against unintended consequences from large-scale projects. "Even the most careful computer models won't be able to predict what will happen if an experiment is scaled-up and moved out of doors," the group said in a statement Friday. | <urn:uuid:cceb1d8e-04e7-4fde-a53e-792af1fe8eb5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10320198-54.html | 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 | 0.95184 | 602 | 3.734375 | 4 |
Generally, a mirror is used to make up or just dressed themselves. The mirror is framed with a unique accent, charming, classic or a modern twist, in accordance with the concept of our room. So the mirror can be a decorative alternative to your room.
In the interior, the mirror has an important role, if you have a room that is not too large, you can choose to mirror.
Because the mirrors give a unique character that is, reflect light, thus providing far-reaching effects on the room.
No wonder the mirror, always used to strengthen the character of the interior elements of a dwelling. The reason the mirror can reflect warmth, comfort architect room.
In a small room, mirrors can be used to manipulated a room. The tricks are used so that the room look more spacious, usually people take advantage of the simple furniture or built-in. Though the use of glass is much more effective for designing the interior of the narrow room.
Mirror size must also be considered, pairs according to the room size. If there are many items in the room or furniture, you should not apply as a whole, because it would seem more full and crowded. | <urn:uuid:c80a0d0c-8f09-4633-8544-f1d78b82e573> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cnideiquitos.blogspot.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943693 | 239 | 2.546875 | 3 |
It is almost impossible to overstate the importance of the long-awaited report on the UK skills market for IT professionals by the E-Skills National Training Organisation (NTO). This is the most comprehensive study of its kind and it will underpin efforts by the Government and industry to tackle IT skills shortages that can damage the use of IT in business.
The survey, the first in a series of annual reports, was designed to gather a detailed picture of the UK workforce. The long-term goal of the study is to align the supply of IT professionals to the demand from industry. Without a foundation of solid data, any attempt to equip IT professionals with the right skills for the future would be a shot in the dark.
The 85-page IT and Communications Professionals in the UK survey provides the first realistic picture of the UK's IT workforce. It covers job roles, gender and experience across industry sectors and regions of the UK.
The report also spotlights the hot IT skills in demand, and gives a breakdown of the job vacancies by industry and region.
And while much of its findings on the skills shortage will come as no surprise, it does uncover widespread complacency on key issues such as training and the perceived competency of information and communications technology (ICT) staff by their employers.
Nearly 4,000 organisations with five or more employees took part in the survey. The respondents were typically those responsible for IT within the organisation or for personnel activities.
"It is probably one of the biggest employer surveys for IT and telecoms," said Andrew Harvey Price, a member of the research team for E-Skills NTO. "You need to identify the demand side of industry [for the ICT workforce]. The big picture of this did not exist before."
However, the survey was conducted between December 2000 and February 2001 - before the economic downturn in the UK IT industry really took effect.
At that time there were some 908,000 ICT professionals working in the UK for 157,000 establishments. The public sector employed the largest number of IT staff, accounting for nearly one-quarter (24%) of the total of UK establishments employing five or more staff. It was followed in joint second place by sales and leisure and IT and telecommunications with 17% each.
But when other factors such as contractors are included in the league table the IT and telecoms sector leapt ahead of public services. It employed 39% of the ICT workforce - more than double the amount employed by the public sector (18%).
Financial services - widely regarded as the IT industry trailblazer - employed the fewest IT staff with 6% on these criteria.
The typical IT professional is male and works full time on a permanent contract. More than three-quarters (76%) of staff employed by respondents had three or more years' experience in their current roles.
But despite the well-documented gender imbalance there were regional pockets where the proportion of female IT staff was significantly higher. In Northern Ireland women accounted for nearly half (45%) of the ICT workforce while in the North East they made up 42% of IT professionals.
One in three IT staff (340,000) work in an internal operations role, followed by development (236,000) and customer services (110,000).
IT and telecoms businesses suffered most from the skills shortage, with one in four hit (26% and 27%) by shortages.
Vacancies within companies for ICT professionals were greatest in the development and internal operations functions. Together these two categories accounted for 18,000 vacancies - almost two-thirds of all vacancies.
A rump of employers (6%) admitted they had "hard-to-fill" vacancies for ICT staff. Posts for technicians/ engineers were the most common hard-to-fill vacancies.
IT staff proficiency
On a more controversial note, the survey asked employers to assess the proportion of their IT workforce they believed to be fully proficient. This judgement involved respondents looking at all the skills gaps in their organisations to evaluate whether the ICT staff could meet business objectives.
Overall, skills gaps existed in 42% of the companies taking part. So, two-fifths of UK organisations employing ICT professionals believe their ICT teams are not fully up to the job.
Almost three-quarters (71%) of establishments with gaps in ICT skills said they experienced disruptions to the operation and development of their business as a result of shortfalls in the proficiency of ICT staff.
However, on average employers said 85% of their staff were fully proficient in their current role. Harvey said this proficiency rating was high compared to other industries.
"The effect of not having proficient staff has some fairly horrific impacts," he said. These include delays in the development of new products and services (30%) and difficulty in meeting goals in customer service.
A lack of experience in new technologies was the main reason given by respondents for the lack of proficiency and was cited by two-thirds (67%) of establishments experiencing skills gaps. Few employers, however, were able to specify exactly what technical skills their IT staff lacked.
But what should be done to ease the skills shortage? Increased staff training is the answer to skill gaps, according to three out of four employers (74%). But there are different approaches to tackling the skills gaps between industry sectors.
IT and telecoms companies, for instance, were more likely to combat skills shortages by relocating work or changing work practices.
Crucially, though, employers seem to be paying lip service to the need for more training. Just under half (46%) of UK establishments employing IT staff did not have a formal training budget or plan. This adds up to more than 300,000 people working in 72,000 organisations.
Training arrangements were more likely to be formalised in companies with 250 or more staff. Here, 80% of companies had formalised training arrangements, compared to 49% of small employers.
The breadth and depth of the E-Skills NTO survey is a landmark for the IT workforce. It is the first serious attempt to understand the IT labour force and align the supply of skills with demand.
The data is already a year old but it will prove invaluable in launching a concerted attempt to tackle the skills shortage that can hamper the effective use of computers in business. Employers and the Government now have to begin the hard work.
This was first published in January 2002 | <urn:uuid:42624a92-1ca4-4ca0-a2f6-66c67dd9551c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.computerweekly.com/feature/Youre-one-in-900000 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973167 | 1,306 | 1.929688 | 2 |
Clutching a PlayStation video game controller with both hands, 10-year-old Seth E. Filkes deftly took command of a 68-pound, explosive-detecting robot Saturday at Jefferson Community College in Watertown.
It took the boy just a few minutes to figure out the controls. He used them to lower the robots arm to grasp a mock grenade on the floor. Then, extending the arm upward, he made the robot drop the device.
It really is a lot of fun because Im used to the PlayStation controller, Seth said of the simulation, one of many activities for youngsters at Super Science Saturday. Basically its left, right and forward. I want to make one of my own.
Soldiers in uniform from a Fort Drum bomb squad guided youths as they manipulated the robots. The high-tech machines are equipped with remote-controlled cameras, enabling their movements to be directed from long distances and seen with a laptop computer. Their mechanical arms rotate 360 degrees, and their claws can grip objects with 35 pounds of pressure.
As Peter W. Filkes watched the robot being operated by his son, a fifth-grader attending Indian River Central School, he offered words of encouragement.
He said his sons mind lights up when it comes to any engineering or science activity.
The dexterity it took him to pick that up is very amazing, Mr. Filkes said. He doesnt know these are used to pick up live bombs that could kill people; to him its just a robot that picks up things. Hes interested in the mechanics of it.
Saturdays event also showcased a giant exhibit depicting a human colon. Parents and their children looked at diseases lining its walls as they walked through the cavernous inflatable; among them were colon cancer, polyps and bowel inflammation. They learned that polyps, for example, are fleshy pieces of growth inside the colon that can be detected and excised by a doctor during a colonoscopy procedure. Outside the exhibit, children looked into microscopes to see real examples of infected cell tissue.
Standing at the entrance to this air-filled colon was a young woman dressed as an evil-looking purple pest. Maria V. Velez, a freshman studying biology and chemistry at JCC, was representing a giardia pathogen a harmful organism that can infect the digestive tract and cause stomach sickness and diarrhea.
The pathogen can be in drinking water, pools, rivers, uncooked food and changing tables for babies with diapers, said the 23-year-old student, who is also an active-duty soldier at Fort Drum. A native of Colombia, she immigrated to the U.S. four years ago to enlist in the military. She lauded the plethora of activities for children Saturday.
I love children, and this can teach them to be healthy, the aspiring pediatrician said. A lot of children dont wash their hands, and they can even get this by putting toys in their mouth.
Youngsters also had a chance to experience being strapped on a backboard by paramedics, simulating what it would be like to be transported after a serious back injury. JCC paramedic students Tracy D. Evans and Matthew T. Williams carefully hoisted up 7-year-old Marena J. Grenier as she lay strapped to the board. They counted to three out loud before setting her down on a stretcher with wheels.
Showing kids this takes the fear out of it for them, said Miss Evans, who is doing her volunteer hours for the paramedic program with the Thousand Islands Emergency Rescue Service in Clayton.
Other children spent much of their time creating floatable boats using plastic cups and aluminum foil, an activity hosted by students from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse. The goal of the experiment, freshman Benjamin Lee said, is to see how many washers the boats would hold before sinking to the bottom of a plastic tub filled with water.
One kid made a giant mass of cups covered in tinfoil, which held 46 washers, he said. Its nice for kids to get into science when theyre young because, as you get older, that curiosity dissipates. | <urn:uuid:12dfd84d-2e8e-41df-9002-0ca2f4eb9740> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://watertowndailytimes.com/article/20130210/NEWS03/702109881/1044 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973627 | 847 | 2.265625 | 2 |
More than 100 healthcare companies are rubbing their hands at the prospect of a major expansion of private, for-profit service provision in the National Health Service. They are also plotting to maximise their profits by sidestepping tax and VAT bills.
The ConDem coalition is encouraging Primary Care Trusts and Clinical Commissioning Groups to contract with “any qualified provider”, whilst enforcing the discipline of the market through the regulator Monitor.
Virgin Care, the medical part of Richard Branson’s empire, has already won £750m of NHS contracts. It provides specialist services, such as dermatology and retinal scanning, and in many areas has taken over running GP practices in partnership with doctors.
Competing with NHS services has always been problematic for companies which have to extract some of the income from the contracts they win in order to satisfy their shareholders.
The costs of services provided by the private sector companies are about £14 higher for every £100 relative to an NHS acute provider. So in order to be able to compete on price, either they pay their employees less, or the quality of the services they provide deteriorates, or both, as is more likely.
So now there’s a cunning plan afoot.
Last June the ConDems launched their Fair Playing Field Review into “matters that may be affecting the ability of different providers of NHS services to participate fully in improving patient care”. An interim discussion paper was published in November. It identified the following: “Corporation tax applies to private and some third sector providers, but not to public sector providers.”
You can almost see the grin on Branson’s face broadening.
So the companies – who no doubt ensured that this problem was noticed by Monitor’s reviewers - are now demanding the same status as tax-funded NHS service providers which pay neither corporation tax nor VAT.
It’s a no-brainer, surely.
Hang on, hang on, hang ON.
Hasn’t here just been a massive upsurge of anger against global corporations like Amazon and Starbucks that pay little or no tax on their operations in the
Do these companies really want to have their cake and eat it?
Indeed they do. And they must, if the for-profit model of production is to survive, as Paul Polman, chief executive Officer of Unilever, the world's third-largest consumer goods company, makes clear in advance of his visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos.
He and his fellow self-appointed masters of the economic universe will ensure that the debate at Davos focuses the attention of the world’s governments on “how the era of Western consumption can be better managed”.
“The structural changes that need to be made for society still haven’t been made," he says. "There has been a growing realisation that our present model of growth, while it has served us well for a long time, certainly has enormous shortcomings which are increasingly transparent.
“Individuals need to get used to lower pensions and welfare payments. Government needs to get used to lower spending levels, businesses need to get used to the costs that come with it and bear their part. Everybody has to chip in. People are realising in the West that our model is not a sustainable model.”
So by borrowing and twisting the language of “sustainability” they’ll be insisting that it isn’t possible to continue with a system where the state often accounts for well over 50% of economic activity. In the emerging economies, the government’s share of economic activity is nearer 20-30%, argues Polman.
as an “extreme example” of a state with too great a role in the economy he says: “No system is going to survive if
55-60% of the GDP is [coming from] the government.”
So there we have it. In a contracting economy, either there’s a 1) massive transfer of public sector services to a private sector freed from the burden of tax or 2) the system is doomed. We'd better make sure the second option is taken up and the system replaced by an economy that works for the majority. | <urn:uuid:f08ce384-3059-4fc8-a265-e8907d630541> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://aw2w.blogspot.com/2013/01/bonanza-for-private-sector-in-nhs-level.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967386 | 882 | 1.507813 | 2 |
1) Consider the following reaction involving 1.0g of powdered zinc. The rates, in order of fastest to slowest, are:
Zn(s) + 2HCl(aq) ->ZnCl2(aq) + H2(g)
(this was straight off the quiz, i made no adjustments)
oh my god my brain cells are burning!
what do 1,2,3 in the answers indicate?
sorry, dude... I may have had a B all year in chem last year... but I had no clue whatsoever of what I was actually doing...
well its a balanced equation... i am guessing it is the rate as to which the chemical reaction occurs ... so there has to be more to this problem like from a previous question?
This article contents is post by this website user, EduQnA.com doesn't promise its accuracy.
More Questions & Answers... | <urn:uuid:6be88efb-29dc-4dcd-aeec-e864c909fd9f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eduqna.com/Homework-Help/659-2-Homework-Help-7.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960822 | 189 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Editor's note: The Mint Museum of Craft + Design / Mint Museum of Art provided source material to Resource Library Magazine for the following article. If you have questions or comments regarding the source material, please contact the Mint Museum of Craft + Design / Mint Museum of Art directly through either this phone number or web address:
American Quilt Classics 1800 1980: The Charles and Fleur Bresler Collection
August 30 January 4, 2004
Fleur Bresler learned her lessons well. As a volunteer docent for the Division of Social History at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, she came under the wing of quilt scholar Doris Bowman, Curator of the Textiles Collection. Researching the printed chintzes, all-white quilts, glazed wool quilts and indigo resist fabrics in the Smithsonian collection introduced Fleur to the writings of textile and quilt historians Barbara Brackman, Florence Montgomery, Florence Pettit and Patsy Orlofsky. "That was my education and the impetus for my quilt collecting," stated Bresler. "It opened my eyes to the possibility of creating a small, representative group of quilts with historical significance." (right: Baltimore Album Quilt, c. 1852)
The result of a 20 year pursuit of her goal will be on display in the exhibition American Quilt Classics 1800 1980: The Charles and Fleur Bresler Collection at Charlotte, NC's Mint Museum of Craft + Design (MMC+D) August 30 through January 4, 2004. Sponsored by the museum's Founders' Circle, the exhibition presents a comprehensive visual primer to American quilt history.
"What Fleur Bresler achieved in building her focused collection is nothing short of amazing," stated MMC+D Curator Melissa Post. "The 37 quilts donated to the Mint and on display represent all but two of the known quilting styles throughout the history of American quilting. Even more impressive, very few gifts or collections come to a museum with the extent of research, provenance, condition reports and correspondence history that came with the Bresler Collection."
American Quilts Classics features white work, indigo resist and block-printed chintz from the late 18th and early 19th centuries; appliqué, stenciled, mosaic template-pieced and album quilts from the mid 1800s; log cabin, crazy and charm quilts from the late 19th century and a group of 20th century Amish pieced quilts. Ten of the thirty-seven quilts are smaller-sized quilts (doll, crib or child). Crib quilts are especially prized since few survived.
"The American quilt has been called the quintessential metaphor for the American experience," wrote quilt historian Merikay Waldvogel in the exhibition catalogue. "Layered, stitched, embellished and reworked, quilts reflect the cultural, aesthetic and artistic heritage of this country. Quilts have never been simple, utilitarian bedcovers. Too much time and imagination go into making a quilt for its purpose to overshadow its creative form."
Quilted bed covering and needlework traditions arrived in America with the first colonists. Each wave of immigrants would add to the development of the American Quilt along with new technologies for printing brighter fabrics at lower prices. By the mid 1800s, an American style had emerged distinct from British and European influences. Earlier quilt designs were revived and reworked while new patterns and layouts using contemporary fabrics and color schemes emerged. The Hexagon Mosaic quilt of 1830 became Grandmother's Flower Garden by 1930, while the Victorian Era crazy quilt became the Depression Era Scrap quilt.
"The structure and design of a quilt allows for innovation and experimentation," stated Waldvogel. "It is not unusual for a quilt to include several styles and techniques as well as stenciling, painting, embroidery or even beading."
During the Colonial Era, English textile manufacturers enjoyed a protected market in America. Chintz fabrics imported from India were popular in making whole cloth quilts. The Pillar Printed Chintz Quilt , c.1830 on display in the exhibition was likely made for a four-poster bed with matching canopy and bed hangings. In contrast, the Mosaic Quilt from the same time period, was made from thousands of tiny pieces of cloth cut from print and solid fabrics with a dazzling finished effect reminiscent of a mosaic tile display.
Appliqué quilts (fabric designs cut from colored cloth sewed or applied to a contrasting background fabric) were prevalent by the early 19th century. By mid 19th century, appliqué quilts with their sophisticated designs and precise needlework were highly prized. When given to brides, newborns and departing friends, they often contained names and dates, embroidered, inked or quilted onto the surface. The crib-size Medallion Quilt from the Bresler Collection is centered with one Pierced Rose block and contains the signature and date, "Grandmother, 1861."
Album quilts appeared in the 1840s at the same time autograph collecting came into fashion. Non-corosive ink allowed the inscription of sentimental messages, leaving written legacies on the quilts. Used as presentation pieces in honor of a friend's wedding, a minister's good works or a child's birth, album quilts were usually coordinated by one person with others contributing and signing the blocks. Baltimore Album Quilts are regarded as the epitome of mid 19th century quilts for their techniques, fabrics and pictorial images that may include Baltimore monuments, buildings, war heroes or prominent citizens. One of the most important of the Bresler Collection quilts is the Baltimore Album Quilt , c. 1852, made by Catherine Bell Hooper that was documented in Dr. William Dunton's seminal book Old Quilts in 1946.
By 1860 American styles had eclipsed British medallion and mosaic quilts using multiple blocks of equal size for both pieced and appliquéd quilts. Any geometric design was possible for pieced blocks. (right: Bricks Quilt, 1920)
The invention of the sewing machine and mass distribution of magazines such as Hearth and Home , featuring a monthly quilt pattern submitted by readers, inspired a quilting revival by the end of the 19th century. The Charm Quilt, in which no two patches in the quilt are cut from the same fabric, originated in the 1870s as low-cost calico prints became plentiful following the Civil War. Magazine readers would exchange the thousands of patches needed for one quilt through the mail. Even with a later revival in the 1930s, Charm Quilts remain a quilt that one does but once. The Bresler Collection Charm Quilt made by Ruthie Stubbs in 1880 features a wide variety of late 19th century prints including rust-colored madder prints, black-and-white mourning prints, conversation prints and Turkey Red calicos.
Log Cabin quilts and Crazy quilts both called for a foundation of waste cloth that was covered by odd shapes or strips of cloth. Victorian Crazy quilts became known as America's first art quilts, made of pieces of silk and velvet, embellished with embroidered birds, flowers and stars. The Bresler Collection Victorian Crazy Quilt contains many typical motifs -- fans, interlocking circles, owls, a butterfly, a trumpet lily and a small girl feeding a duck.
In 1911, Marie Webster, an inventive Marion, Indiana quilter, provided a modern look for American quilts with softer colors and naturalistic designs popularized by the Ladies Home Journal. Webster also revived the center medallion format and the elaborate quilting of the early 1800s by creating designs that harmonized with the Arts and Craft style of the early 1900s.
Quilt making surged in popularity during the Great Depression as much as a relief to the economic hard times. Manufacturers, hoping to jump start the ailing retail market, provided light, bright and cheery fabrics. The Postage Stamp Quilt on display in American Quilt Classics contains thousands of tiny pieces of cloth popular in the 1930s. (left: Phoebe Warner Quilt, 1930s)
The most unusual and mystifying quilt in the Bresler Collection, constructed in the 1930s, is the Phoebe Warner Quilt which surfaced in Connecticut with minimal information about its provenance. Antique quilt dealer Stella Rubin, acting on behalf of Fleur Bresler, recognized it at auction as a close copy of the famous 1803 appliqué quilt made by Sarah Warner Williams of New York City for her cousin Phoebe Warner that is a prize of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In place of the initials "PW" on the urn on the original quilt, the unknown quiltmaker embroidered the initials "EK", possibly her own.
While quilting declined significantly during World War II and the post war years, strikingly modern designs continued to be made by Amish quilters. The Amish Diamond in a Square , c.1928, on display is classic Lancaster, Pennsylvania quilt design.
Quiltmaking rebounded again following the popular and critical
reaction to the 1971 Whitney Museum of American Art exhibition Abstract
Design in American Quilts . Quilts gained in appreciation in their
new-found cultural context. Contemporary quilt design flourishes with
new technology employed (designing on a computer), new materials explored
and more artists using the medium as a vehicle for expression.
Read more articles and essays concerning this institutional source by visiting the sub-index page for the Mint Museum of Art / Mint Museum of Craft+Design in Resource Library Magazine.
Search for more articles and essays on American art in Resource Library. See America's Distinguished Artists for biographical information on historic artists.
This page was originally published in 2003 in Resource Library Magazine. Please see Resource Library's Overview section for more information.
Copyright 2012 Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc., an Arizona nonprofit corporation. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:a6a7c650-c389-42df-8179-3553bf7320d6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tfaoi.org/aa/3aa/3aa573.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950356 | 2,086 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Industrial group told oil business has bright future
Published: Tuesday, January 15, 2013 at 8:53 a.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, January 15, 2013 at 8:53 a.m.
Oil and gas is going to be the future. That is the message Chris John, president of LA Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association, told members of Bayou Industrial Group Monday at their monthly meeting.
The economic impact the Gulf of Mexico and Louisiana have on the oil and gas industry is huge, John said.
“Take a look at the Gulf of Mexico region. If it were a country, it would be the eighth-largest producer in the world,” he said. “Louisiana is the No. 1 refining area in the world.”
The energy reality is that the United States uses 20 million barrels of oil a day. Six million barrels of that is produced in Louisiana.
“Of the 6 million barrels, 30 percent of that is produced in the Gulf,” John said. “We have to depend on that area. It is a region very matured, and the infrastructure is there.”
Oil is a $70 billion business for Louisiana which supplies 3,020 of the workers in the industry, he said.
The Gulf also has about a half-million miles of pipeline running through it and Louisiana has 125 miles, John said.
The Gulf region also has a one-of-a-kind port system, including Lafourche’s Port Fourchon.
“When you look at the whole region, it is the strongest port system in the world. To put that in global context, no other region in the world has this oil standpoint,” John said.
He told the group he’s concerned about President Obama’s “schizophrenic” stance on the oil and gas industry. “One minute they are for it, and the next minute they are against it. The political standpoint creates uncertainty,” he said.
Hugh Caffery, president of Valentine Chemicals in Lockport and one of those in attendance, said he’s concerned that the “government doesn’t recognize our energy independence.”
South Louisiana’s production can “reduce energy costs throughout the economy. Energy will go down. When energy goes down, our country will flourish,” Caffery said.
The oil industry “affects the cost of many things like the cost of gas trucks used to bring supplies and even something as small as the price of a pen,” Caffery said.
The political reality of it is that the non-producing states have the most votes and Washington does not know what is at stake, John said.
“The energy fight in Washington, D.C., is not a partisan issue,” John said. “There are Democrats and Republicans that support it. It is more of a geological problem.
“We in south Louisiana grew up in this environment. We understand that it is important for jobs, families and the state,” he said. “ Others from out of state didn’t grow up in this same environment, so they don’t see it as important as we do,” John said.
The United States could become energy independent in as little as 15 years if the administration took the appropriate stance, John said.
But despite that set back, John said the industry has a bright future.
“Since 2007, there has been $8 billion dollars invested in the Gulf of Mexico. That was just from leasing property,” he said. “Last Wednesday at Fletcher Technical Community College, BP gave $4 million, and the state matched $4 million for a tech supply building.”
John said he, along with those at LA Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association, are in the beginning stages of planning a world center for the oil industry here.
“It will create a lot of economic development for Terrebonne and Lafourche, and those all around the world who want to get trained will have to come right here to Schreiver. It’s been a dream of ours and a dream of the industry. This area is going to lead that way because of the Gulf, technology and workforce trained in the area,” John said.
Staff Writer Sable LeFrere can be reached at 985-857-2204 or at sable.lefrere
Reader comments posted to this article may be published in our print edition. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged. | <urn:uuid:57942447-036f-4ce8-87bc-ad87a673a0bd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.houmatoday.com/article/20130115/ARTICLES/130119783/0/APP | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968853 | 979 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Opposition to the health reform law is almost an article of faith among Republicans. But if you look at this map, many GOP congressional districts have much to gain as the new heath care coverage rolls out.
The map charts the law’s coverage expansion by district. The legislation’s main provisions expand insurance coverage — increasing eligibility for Medicaid and providing federal tax credits to help people buy health insurance in new exchanges. You can see that Americans living in congressional districts represented by Republicans stand to benefit as much — if not more — than those in which a Democrat holds the seat.
The map looks at party control in the 233 congressional districts in which a greater-than-average share of people could benefit from the law — 142 are represented by Republicans compared with 91 by Democrats. The 15 districts expected to benefit the most are in California, Texas or Florida — states with a lot of votes but also a lot of uninsured people.
The law has become an election year target as well as a symbol of ideological differences between red and blue about the role of government.
Republicans cite many reasons to dislike the law that are unrelated to whether their constituents benefit from its coverage expansions and have been stating them forcefully. They argue strongly against its requirement that everyone obtain health insurance.
Democrats who favor the law do so on broader grounds, too, including support for the law’s consumer protections that would guarantee insurance access regardless of a pre-existing condition.
In the top two dozen districts — in Florida, California, Texas, Louisiana and North Carolina — a quarter or more of the nonelderly population could receive benefits from the expansion of Medicaid or new federal tax credits. This is largely the result of lack of access to employer-provided health insurance, which means large numbers of people are uninsured or trying to buy insurance on their own.
In these districts, only 42 percent of people younger than 65 had employer coverage in 2010 — far less than the nationwide average of 59 percent.
The Affordable Care Act expands the number of Americans insured in two ways. First, people with income below 138 percent of the poverty level, now about $32,000 for a family of four, will be eligible for Medicaid.
Second, those who buy insurance on their own and have income less than four times the poverty level, about $92,000 for a family of four, will be eligible for federal tax credits to subsidize their health insurance premiums.
This means that more than one in six Americans younger than 65 could have access to help with their health insurance costs as a result of the law. Red and blue congressional districts look remarkably similar here. Republican districts have, on average, an estimated 18 percent of the nonelderly people eligible for help with health insurance costs under the reform law. Democratic districts have about the same, 17 percent.
Ideological differences aside, this map shows that constituents in Republican and Democratic districts have an equal interest in the law’s insurance coverage expansions — its largest and most costly provision.
You might never know this from the debate we are likely to hear between now and the November election — whose results will be critical to whether or not this law, which has split the country, actually is implemented.
Larry Levitt is a senior vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation, Drew Altman is the president and CEO, and Gary Claxton is a vice president. | <urn:uuid:bb1f1371-a4de-4eb6-8db4-f490cf321653> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=9DC3E665-F129-4E44-8914-1339A7260A21 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971387 | 683 | 2.25 | 2 |
The answer might be Rent-A -Text.
Rent-A-Text is a textbook rental program devised by Follett Higher Education Group, one of two bookstore chains that dominate the college textbook market, including the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Follett’s competitor, Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, has also developed a program.
Both companies tested their systems at various colleges, community colleges and large universities during this school year.
Melissa M. Chelte, a 21-year-old junior majoring in biology at Bay Path College in Longmeadow, used to spend as much as $700 a semester on textbooks.
“That was before I discovered the Internet,” she said, adding that she now buys used textbooks online. It still costs her $200 to $300 a semester although she has to pay shipping costs.
Chelte says she’ll consider renting books for classes outside her major, books she figures she’ll never need again, either for more advanced courses or for after college.
At Springfield College, the average student spends $500 to $600 a semester on books, according to John L. Mailhot, vice president for administration and finance. “ All colleges are cognizant of the cost of attending college,” he said.
Elio A. DiStaola, director of campus relations for the Follett Higher Education Group, estimates his company’s seven-school test saved students as much as $2 million while it was still a pilot program. The company is only renting the most popular textbooks, like books used for “Introduction to Psychology” and other courses that nearly every collegian takes, DiStaola said.
“The books have to be used multiple times in order to keep everybody whole,” he explained.
Ashoke K. Ganguli, director of auxiliary services at the UMass, still encourages students to buy and sell used books, even though the rental will be available.
The hypothetical $100 textbook would cost $75 for a used version, Ganguli says. Students buying that used textbook could probably sell it back at the end of the semester for $50, giving them use of the book for a net cost of $25.
Renting a text costs $50, but the $50 is gone forever once the rental book is returned. “Used books are a much better deal,” Ganguli said.
First off, he contends, the rental contract requires that the book show only “normal wear-and-tear” or they will be penalized. Also, students must remember to turn in rented books at the end of the semester.
“If they don’t, then a bad debt will be generated, and it could be difficult for the student to deal with,” Ganguli said.
UMass students purchase used books at a rate of about 39 percent. At some other campuses, that rate can fall as low as 10 or 15 percent, Ganguli said.
DiStaola maintains that renting texts absolves students of the risk that the bookstore will not buy the book back.
Ganguli said he’d be able to buy more books if he was sure he’d be able to sell them again the next semester. He’s constantly trying to get UMass faculty to tell him which books they plan to use as soon as possible. That way he has time to make certain he buys back those books or, if needed, goes to the wholesale used book market for more copies.
DiStaola said there is widespread agreement in the textbook industry that the future is with e-readers and electronic copies of textbooks. But, that future is still not quite here yet, he said.
Chelte has used online math books, but says she wants paper books for most of her courses.
“Learning takes place in traditional, hardcover books,” said Ganguli. “You highlight it in yellow. That’s hard to do on a Kindle (wireless reading device).” | <urn:uuid:5faccfac-bb2a-44f4-9931-6d5177573277> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2010/05/rent-a-text_program_helps_west.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962138 | 849 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Canines for a Cure: How Man’s Best Friend Can Help Defeat Depression
Man’s best friend may be more important to your mental health than you might think. According to Ian Cook, MD, a psychiatrist and director of the Depression Research and Clinic Program at UCLA,
"Pets offer an unconditional love that can be very helpful to people with depression.” Simply petting a dog or being in their presence has been shown to reduce tension and hypertension in some individuals.
Dogs have the ability to show unconditional love for their caregivers, which is a quality that is very conducive to help a depressed person feel more accepted and appreciated. This is very helpful for depression victims who have complicated families or relationships, for a canine relationship is incredibly simple and mainly positive.
Having a dog also promotes being more active, for an active dog is a healthy and happy dog. Dog owners typically get more exercise, as they have to make sure their furry friends are getting enough exercise as well. Exercise has been shown to lift moods and increase the production of endorphins – a hormone that makes you feel happy.
Depression can also be very lonely and isolating. Having a dog can help combat those feelings of loneliness, as dogs are very dependent of their owner and are naturally very loyal to them. Having a dog at arms length is also beneficial for the medical benefits of touch. Science has proven that the soothing motion of petting a dog or cat has shown to lower your heart rate and reduce anxiety.
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- Walk NH | <urn:uuid:6e739c16-f06f-40bf-9990-2cf01b97e5fa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://unh.edu/healthyunh/blogs/2013/01/11/CanineCure | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96277 | 403 | 2.59375 | 3 |
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The worst catastrophes imaginableBy Samir Amin
In my previous article (Al-Ahram Weekly, 29 April-5 May), I defined the goals and means of Washington's hegemonic ambitions. While the simplistic economicist discourse of neo-liberalism holds that the globalisation of a deregulated market (that is to say, regulated unilaterally by capital) should spontaneously produce peace and democracy, the facts prove that US military hegemony is the necessary condition for the functioning of this system, ensuring as it does both its domination by the Triad (US-Canada, Western Europe and Japan), and the submission of Europe and Japan to America's strategic objectives.
To this vision of a unipolar world, I had opposed that of multipolar globalisation, the only strategy that would allow acceptable social development for the different regions of the world, and thereby the democratisation of societies and the reduction of motives for conflict. The US's strategic hegemony, I had concluded, is today the principal enemy of social progress, democracy and peace.
The reply the dominant forces brought to the crises that have occurred in rapid succession since 1990 and the chaos engendered by the establishment of the neo-liberal utopia reveal both the US's hegemonic goals and the dissolution of the European project.
The Gulf crisis had already revealed Washington's objectives. Secretly encouraging Saddam Hussein to invade Kuwait, the US turned the situation to its own benefit in order to establish a military protectorate over the petrol states of the region, with the blessing of Europe and the UN, domesticated for the occasion. The Iraqi regime's use of nerve gas against the Kurdish guerrilla movement, which had never bothered Western diplomatic circles before, was suddenly orchestrated by the media to justify the systematic destruction of Iraq.
Encouraged by this first success, the United States then became involved in European affairs, exploiting the Yugoslavian crises in a bid to achieve a variety of objectives, not least the surrender of the European Union. It is not my intention to disregard the principal responsibilities of the fragmented local ruling classes, all of which chose ethnic chauvinism as a means of reconstituting, to their profit, a "legitimacy" to replace that of Tito-ism, which had been based on social progress and the equality of nations. Ethnic cleansing was therefore practiced by all these ruling classes, in Croatia (through the expulsion of the Serbs, a majority in Krajina) as in Bosnia (by each of the three components of this absurd state -- for, if coexistence is possible in the "little Yugoslavia", why would it not be so in the large one?) and in Serbia (Kosovo). But we must admit that Europe threw oil on the fire by its almost immediate acceptance of Slovenia and Croatia's unilaterally proclaimed independence, without the imposition of any conditions in terms of respect for the rights of the minorities created by the explosion of Yugoslavia. This decision could only serve to encourage the criminal regimes in question. The point was made at the time, but the media abstained from any critical analysis of the policy inaugurated, it must be said, by Germany, but which an initially reticent France resisted no longer than two weeks. Subsequently, the media systematically applied double standards, mobilising all the means at its disposal to denounce massacres in one place while ignoring them in another.
The massacres in Kosovo and the provocation practiced by its "Liberation Army" (was it any better, at the outset, than the Basque ETA?) provided the pretext for the US's systematic intervention, already put to the test in Bosnia. This intervention is based on three principles: 1) the brutal replacement of the UN with NATO as the means of managing the international order; 2) the alignment of Europe with Washington's strategic objectives; 3) the adoption of military methods reinforcing American hegemony (no-risk bombing campaigns and the use of European troops for an eventual ground intervention).
The consequences of these choices are catastrophic at all levels. They have deprived the dominant discourse on democracy and people's rights of any scrap of credibility. They reveal that the real strategic goal, beyond Serbia, is Russia and China -- a fact that American strategists do not refrain from stating. NATO, now openly the tool of American expansionism, and no longer that of European defence, has thereby been able to put an end to illusions of "European autonomy", forcing the EU into a new alignment, even more severe than that imposed in the past under the pretext of the "Cold War".
The only option which would have had some meaning for Europe would have been to inscribe its construction within the perspective of a multipolar world. The margin of autonomy that this option defines would have allowed the invention of a socially valid project, in keeping with the best humanitarian and socialist European traditions. This option, of course, implied the recognition of the same margin of autonomy for Russia, China, and each of the large regions of the Third World. It also implied that the NATO page would be turned, once and for all, and replaced by the concept of a European defensive force, which could be integrated gradually at the rhythm of European political construction itself. It implied, furthermore, the conception of adequate modes of regulation at the European level, and at that of the world system, to replace the dominant forms: Bretton-Woods, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI). By choosing liberal globalisation, Europe has in fact renounced the use of its potential economic competitiveness, and been satisfied to navigate in the wake of Washington's ambitions, of which it has become the zealous servant.
The fact that the European states have chosen this path reveals the frailty of the European project itself, and even the fact that this project is only a subaltern priority on the scale of dominant political visions. Great Britain's fundamental option since 1945 has been to console itself for the loss of its imperial role by reliving it vicariously through the US. Germany, having given up the insane Nazi dream of world conquest, has chosen to limit its ambitions to the means at its disposal by reconstituting its traditional zone of influence in eastern and southeastern Europe, tailgating Washington's global hegemonic strategy. For somewhat similar reasons, Japan -- confronted with China, and even Korea -- has also inscribed its strictly regional expansionist ambitions within the same global American perspective.
Today, Blair and Schröder are, clearly, not only the most dangerous gravediggers of the traditions that were once the pride of the European left, but also the servile executors of America's anti-European project. Their association with Clinton in the so-called "Third Way" discourse must be the object of no illusions, for the new "Clinton doctrine" that has been announced aims -- after Yugoslavia -- "to turn on the East and the Middle East". Robert I Hunter, senior adviser at the Rand Corporation and US ambassador to NATO from 1993 to '98, recently wrote the following in the Washington Post (21 April), with respect to the Clinton doctrine and its application in Kosovo: "It is the gateway to areas of intense Western concern -- the Arab-Israeli conflict, Iraq and Iran, Afghanistan, the Caspian Sea and Transcaucasia. Stability in southeastern Europe must be a precursor to protecting Western interests and reducing threats from farther East." Again, the only question is that of protecting Western interests (such as oil and pipelines, or the flourishing of McDonald's -- see my previous article), not democracy or the rights of Kurds and Palestinians.
We must therefore expect a policy of systematic provocation in Russia and China. As for the Middle East, as it is clearly impossible to imagine the US bombing Israel to make it accept the Palestinian state and the return of refugees (the official motive for the intervention in Kosovo!), the use of force in Lebanon (where Hizbullah's "fanaticism" can serve as a pretext) and Syria (an "undemocratic" regime) will be the means of imposing the Pax Israeliana.
Can the European project be saved from this debacle? Things being what they are, the only means of climbing back up the slope that leads to the eradication of the European project implies that the political forces attached to it -- in France, Germany or Italy -- should rethink this project in terms of what is immediately possible -- in other words, in terms of a return to a more modest concept of a "Europe of nations", while waiting for the progressive ripening of cooperation. This in turn would imply a friendly -- and non-aggressive -- approach to Russia, China and the Third World and, in this framework, a revival of the UN's functions. Once again, this is not the option taken by the European governments, including the socialist majority. The priority given to the ultra-conservative management of a fictive single currency, the support for globalised liberalism and the US's hegemonic strategy are arrayed against the project of a multipolar world, and will lead to the worst catastrophes imaginable, for Europe and the rest of the world.
Translated from the French
by Pascale Ghazaleh | <urn:uuid:743bc968-a446-4095-b58f-f1fb2e8a7201> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/1999/428/op2.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946974 | 1,884 | 1.65625 | 2 |
British hurricane forecasters see 30 percent drop in 2012 activityby John Nelander
April 21 will be the 9th anniversary of the only tropical storm to form in the Atlantic in the month of April. Tropical Storm Ana began as a sub-tropical storm on April 20 to the west of Bermuda. It tracked southeast and transitioned into a 60 mph tropical storm, raising tropical storm warnings on the island. But it only brushed Bermuda with light rain before turning to the northeast and heading out to sea. Two were killed off the Florida coast when swells generated by Ana capsized a boat. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)
* * * * *
Expect 30 percent fewer named storms in 2012 compared with the most recent 10-year average, the British forecasting firm Tropical Storm Risk (TSR) said in its April outlook released Thursday.
Forecasters called for 12.5 named storms, 5.6 hurricanes and 2.6 major hurricanes. TSR forecasters do not round their results up or down. Their 2012 forecast compares to the 2002-2011 average of 15.7, 7.5 and 3.8. However, it’s close to the 62-year average of 10.7, 5.6 and 2.6.
“TSR’s two predictors are the forecast July-September trade wind speed over the Caribbean and tropical North Atlantic, and the forecast August-September 2012 sea surface temperatures in the tropical North Atlantic,” the company said in a news release.
The forecast also assumes that La Nina, the cool-water phenomenon in the tropical Pacific that influences weather in the Atlantic, will give way to neutral conditions. Some experts say that if an El Nino ( warmer Pacific water) develops, it could further limit tropical storm activity.
TSR, based in London, represents a consortium of climate forecasters, meteorologists, and insurance risk management experts. It releases Atlantic hurricane forecasts in April, May, August and December.
Last week, Colorado State University researchers Philip Klotzbach and William Gray published their 2012 forecast. They predicted 10 named storms, four hurricanes and 2 major hurricanes, slightly more than half of the 19 storms that formed in 2010 and 2011.
They attributed the scaled-down forecast to cooler Atlantic Ocean temperatures and a possible El Nino developing in the Pacific.
* * * * *
Leaves and flowers are coming out three to five weeks ahead of schedule, at least in Pennsylvania, according to AccuWeather blogger Jesse Ferrell. The normal variation is about a week.
He said readers had been suggesting that the mild winter fast-forwarded the calendar for trees and other plants in Pennsylvania and areas to the north. So he decided to take some pictures of plants he’d photographed last year and compare them. He published them on his blog Wednesday.
One set of photos shows a maple tree leafing out in his yard in State College, Pa., on March 17 — but covered with ice and snow and barely budding out on April 2, 2011. He also posted a picture of daffodils coming up on Feb. 14.
“I have no photos to compare that to because it’s never happened before,” he said.
* * * * *
Lake Okeechobee slipped below the 12-foot mark for the first time this year on Wednesday, according to the South Florida Water Management District. Wednesday’s 11.97-foot level compares to a historical average of 14.12 feet.
A month ago the lake was at 12.84 feet; a week ago, 12.32 feet; and a year ago it was at 11.58 feet. With a hot April sun and dry air parked over South Florida, evaporation has accelerated. By Thursday morning, the lake level was at 11.93 feet.
As of Thursday, the April rainfall deficit was up to about an inch at Palm Beach International Airport. And not much rain was in the forecast, although the forecasters at the National Weather Service in Miami said a few showers could wet Palm Beach as a weak front moves into the area. They put rain chances at 20 percent Thursday through Friday afternoon, increasing to 30 percent on Saturday.
Forecast maps at the SFWMD showed about 0.05 of an inch falling on parts of South Florida.
The cold front is expected to wash out over the area, but strong easterly winds could bring in occasional rain cells from the Atlantic. Gusts of up to 28 mph are in the forecast.
After that, expect more sunny and dry weather, with highs near 80 at the beach. | <urn:uuid:db837578-ee00-44b4-9e1f-2f1af0164578> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.palmbeachpost.com/weathermatters/2012/04/12/british-hurricane-forecasters-see-30-percent-drop-in-2012-activity/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950582 | 948 | 2.328125 | 2 |
Admit it: When you think of the Pekingese, the image of Cartman from South Park pops into your head: overweight, spoiled, selfish and ill-tempered. But people who dismiss the Peke as a useless fribble, the last living symbol of a decadent and now-dead empire, to them, the Pekingese has only one thing to say: “Respect my authority!”
This is a dog with character who thinks he’s much bigger than he is. Self-esteem is his middle name. His vigilant nature makes him a super watchdog, and his size makes him suited to any size home, from an apartment to a palace.
Is the Pekingese the Right Dog for You?
If you don’t mind living with a dog that will run your household with an iron paw, then the Pekingese is your breed. He is affectionate with family members, but independent enough that he doesn’t need constant attention. Toward strangers, his attitude ranges from aloof to affable, depending on the individual dog.
The Pekingese, who is meant to weigh no more than 14 pounds, will stroll regally through the park and play with toys indoors, but he’s essentially a low-activity dog. Exercise is good for him, though, so make sure he gets some activity daily. Resist the impulse to carry a Peke everywhere and pluck him out of trouble, and let him be a dog. He'll be happier and better-behaved for it.
While the bold but humorous nature of the Pekingese can make him a wonderful family companion under the right circumstances, he may not be the right breed for families with young children. Pekingese are small dogs and can be injured if play is too rough, or they may snap at a child if they're frightened.
Nor are Pekingese the most trainable of dogs. They are stubborn and see little reason to follow arbitrary rules—arbitrary to them, anyway. Because they tend to do as they please—that imperial heritage, no doubt—Pekes can be difficult to housetrain. That said, there are Pekingese who compete successfully in agility, rally and obedience trials. If you have a Peke that loves to show off, these sports can be a way of sneaking in some training and activity. Pekes with outgoing personalities are popular therapy dogs, spreading their special brand of Pekingese cheer to hospital patients and residents of nursing homes.
If you are looking for a dog with an easy-care coat, it’s safe to say that the Pekingese is not the right choice. Those imperious clouds of fur toddling around the show ring are the product of endless hours of grooming. For a pet, expect to spend at least an hour each week brushing the long double coat. Pet Pekingese can be kept clipped short, but that still means frequent professional grooming. Neglected coats become tangled and matted, which is painful and can lead to serious skin infections. Clean the wrinkle above the nose daily and keep it dry to prevent infection.
One last note: the Peke snores. But if you love the breed, the noise will likely become part of the background.
Pekingese puppies look like adorable little extraterrestrials, and it’s one of the reasons they are so popular. Cute puppies sell, and that makes the Peke a favorite of puppy mills and greedy, irresponsible breeders. Do your homework before buying one of these little dogs.
It goes without saying that the Pekingese, which was bred exclusively as a companion dog, needs to live in the house and never outdoors. With his flat face, the Pekingese is sensitive to high temperatures and can quickly succumb to heatstroke if he is not kept in air-conditioned surroundings.
6 Tips to Bring Home a Healthy Pekingese Puppy
- Don’t ever, ever, ever buy a puppy from a pet store. You’re more likely to get an unhealthy, unsocialized and difficult to housetrain puppy and will be supporting the cruelty of high-volume puppy mills.
- Finding a good breeder is more important than finding the right puppy. A good breeder will match you with the right puppy, and will without question have done all the health certifications necessary to screen out health problems as much as possible. Start by finding a breeder who is a member in good standing of the Pekingese Club of America, and who has agreed to abide by the PCA's Code of Ethics.
- Do not purchase a puppy from a breeder who cannot provide you with written documentation that the parents were cleared of health problems that affect the breed. Having the dogs "vet checked" is not a substitute for genetic health testing.
- Consider an adult dog from a shelter or a rescue group. Many of the health and behavior problems in Pekingese aren't apparent in puppyhood, but by adopting an older dog, most of them can be ruled out. In addition, Pekingese can live as long as 15 years, so an adult dog will still be a part of your family for a long time to come.
- Puppy or adult, take your Pekingese to your veterinarian soon after adoption. Your veterinarian will be able to spot visible problems, and will work with you to set up a preventive regimen that will help you avoid many health issues. Ask specifically about dental care, as most toy breeds suffer from dental problems, as well as tips on dealing with tear staining.
- Make sure you have a good contract with the seller, shelter or rescue group that spells out responsibilities on both sides. In states with “puppy lemon laws,” be sure you and the person you get the dog from both understand your rights and recourses.
Health Issues Common to Pekingese
All purebred dogs have the potential to develop genetic health problems, just as all people have the potential to inherit a particular disease. Run, don’t walk, from any breeder who does not offer a health guarantee on puppies, who tells you that the breed is 100 percent healthy and has no known problems, or who tells you that her puppies are isolated from the main part of the household for health reasons. A reputable breeder will be honest and open about health problems in the breed and the incidence with which they occur in her lines.
Pekingese have some health conditions that can be a concern, especially if you aren’t cautious about whom you buy from. They include brachycephalic airway syndrome, which causes breathing difficulty; intervertebral disc disease; eye diseases; early-onset heart murmurs; and syringomyelia.
Not all of these conditions can be tested for. At a minimum, ask the breeder to show evidence that both of a puppy’s parents have an OFA cardiac clearance and certification from the Canine Eye Registry Foundation that the eyes are healthy.
Pet Insurance for Pekingese
Pet insurance for Pekingese costs more than for mixed breed dogs. This is because Pekingese are more likely than mixed breed dogs to make claims for hereditary conditions that are expensive to treat.
Embrace pet insurance plans offer full coverage for all breed-specific conditions (excluding those that are pre-existing) to which Pekingese are susceptible. The best time to get pet insurance for your Pekingese is when he’s a healthy puppy. You can’t predict what will happen in the future, and pet insurance is the one thing you can’t get when you need it the most. | <urn:uuid:4238559b-7da7-4cc0-8b12-c4243b0c1f0d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.embracepetinsurance.com/dog-breeds/pekingese | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95617 | 1,584 | 1.835938 | 2 |
MY, WHAT BIG LEAVES YOU HAVE — The anthurium is an indoor that will lend a tropical feel to a covered patio. You can use houseplants outside, but keep them in shady spots. Photo by Connie Oswald Stofko.
WILLIAMSVILLE — Staycations have become popular in recent years, and for good reason. Our summers have been sunny and warm, even hot, but not as muggy as many vacation locales. Why travel, when it is so lovely at home?
Still, you may want to give your backyard an exotic touch and make it feel like a backyard oasis.
Try these plant suggestions from the folks at Mischler’s Florist and Greenhouses, located at 118 South Forest Road in Williamsville. You can visit them at their booth at Plantasia, from 10 a.m. – 9 p.m. Thursday – Saturday, March 21 – 23 and from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Sunday, March 24 at the Fairgrounds event center and exposition hall, 5820 South Park Ave., Hamburg.
First, try indoor plants. I mention these first because we’re all antsy for anything having to do with gardening. Indoor plants are something you can put your hands on right now.
Two flowering indoor plants are anthurium and peace lilies. In the summer, you can move the plants outdoors.
Warning: Don’t put these indoor plants in the sun. I made this mistake once ,and the edges of the leaves quickly turned brown.
When I think of the word “tropical,” I think of sandy beaches and lots of sun. But these indoor plants don’t grow on the beach. Their natural habitat is in a tropical forest, under a canopy of leaves, explained Frank Mischler, president of Mischler’s.
When it’s warm enough to move these tropical plants outside, find protected, shady spots for them, such as on a patio under an awning, in a breezeway or in an enclosed porch.
It’s best to gradually get them accustomed to being outdoors, according to Mischler. The drying wind can give them windburn.
You can group several indoor plants in a larger container to take outside, added Dan Meyer, greenhouse associate. Combining several plants can make a nice grouping and you won’t have to water a large pot as often as you have to water a small pot. You can use common indoor plants that you may already have.
When you bring your plants back inside for the fall, make sure you look them over for insects and diseases, Meyer suggested. Look on the undersides of the leaves, as well as on tops of the leaves.
If you see something that looks like it might be a problem and don’t know what to do, remove an affected leaf, pop it into a plastic bag, seal the bag and take it into Mischler’s. Their experts can help you identify what the problem is and make sure you buy the right product, if you need to use a product at all. Sometimes, all you have to do is pluck off the affected leaves. Mischler’s experts can advise customers on the right course of action.
Another plant that can add a tropical flair to your garden is the aptly-named elephant ear. These plants grow outside in part-sun to sun. The bulb needs to be brought indoors for the winter.
These plants will take up some room in your garden, said Mark Yadon, vice president at Mischler’s. The Thailand Giant grows to be 10 feet across, while more upright varieties such as Coffee Cups and Black Magic will spread about 3 feet.
However, elephant ears doesn’t have to be the only plant in that spot; you can grow things underneath, Yadon said.
You can grow banana trees in Western New York, but you have to bring them in during the winter. You’ll be able to buy them at Mischler’s in May. The plants you buy will be 4 – 6 feet tall and can grow 6 – 8 feet more, in one year.
“They’re fairly rapid growers,” Mischler said. If the leaves get yellow or blemished, cut the leaf off and another will grow rapidly to take its place, Meyer added.
Strong winds could rip the leaves, so you should try to find a protected spot for the banana tree. You probably won’t get fruit because you have to take it inside for the winter.
How do you keep a 12-foot tall plant inside your house, over the winter? You don’t. The banana tree will send out shoots, called pups at the bottom of the plant, Yadon said. When it’s time to bring the plant inside, cut the main stalk off completely, about 4 inches off the ground. The short pups are what you’ll nurture, over the winter.
Two colorful flowers that like sun are the mandevilla and the hibiscus. You can find them at Mischler’s, in May.
Mandevilla is very viney, Meyer said. It will climb up anything: a trellis, the supports of a patio, the branches of a tree or a string.
The mandevilla doesn’t like wet feet, so keep it in well-drained soil. In Western New York, it’s an annual, Mischler said. In the winter, you can bring it inside and keep it in a bright window.
The hibiscus has two varieties, the perennial and tropical.
The perennial can be planted outside, in the ground. It will winter over. It can get huge, 10-inch blossoms the size of dinner plates. The plant blooms late in the season.
The tropical hibiscus should be left in its pot because you need to bring it inside for the winter. The flowers get to be 4 or 5 inches across. It blooms throughout the summer.
Use these plants in your landscape, to create a tropical feeling for your backyard oasis.
Connie Oswald Stofko is the publisher of Buffalo-NiagaraGardening.com
, the online gardening magazine for Western New York. Email Connie@BuffaloNiagaraGardening.com. | <urn:uuid:0cf49553-d024-4c96-aff0-22e7f6fa842b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.springvillejournal.com/weekly_features_columns/517-Gardening__More_Tropical_plants_create_an_island_of_oasis.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939375 | 1,341 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Sen. Asks Google, Apple to Control Their Peeping Tom Planes
For users of high-tech mapping technologies, the more detail the better. However, if a person happens to be caught in the sights of a drone photographer, it's likely a different story. "If an object or person is in plain sight from a vantage point that is the public domain, it is not illegal to watch or take pictures," noted law professor Joel Reidenberg. That includes objects or persons inside a building.
Google and Apple are bent on a mission to provide the world -- or at least users of their respective technologies -- with digital images of every place on this planet. Using their systems is the only way many people can see for themselves what everyday life is like in faraway places.
However, as these companies set about mapping local communities, they are capturing actual people as they go about their everyday activities -- and publishing those images.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., has taken exception, and has sent a written request to both Apple and Google that they put safeguards in place to protect privacy as they deploy their so-called "military-grade spy planes."
The high-resolution 3D mapping technology being used is strong enough to see through windows, catch sunbathers in their backyards, and record images that are as small as 4 inches, Schumer pointed out.
Schumer is asking the companies to provide notification to communities being mapped, as well as to blur photos of individuals, give property owners the right to opt out from the mapping of their property, and work with law enforcement to blur sensitive infrastructure details.
Schumer's office did not respond to our request for further details.
It is unclear what recourse Schumer has if Apple and Google decline to make these accommodations -- or, perhaps more likely, hesitate and hedge with their responses.
What Google and Apple are doing is not against the law, Joel R. Reidenberg, a professor at Fordham University School of Law, told TechNewsWorld. Passing a law to make their activities illegal would be complicated, as it could easily butt up against the First Amendment.
"If an object or person is in plain sight from a vantage point that is the public domain, it is not illegal to watch or take pictures," he said. That includes objects or persons inside a building.
The typical example is a house with a picture window and the shades up, said Reidenberg. "Someone standing on a public street can watch to see what is happening in the house, take pictures, and even sell those pictures."
The problem is that Google's and Apple's use of technology is greatly expanding the concept of public domain, he continued. For example, someone who lives in a New York City apartment on the 35th floor might not worry too much about drawing her shades. Still, she could be photographed -- legally -- in her home by one of Google's or Apple's drones.
There are some nuances to the law, Reidenberg added, but nothing that would dramatically change the story line.
Several states have so-called "Peeping Tom" laws that make it illegal to photo someone in a state of undress when they are in their private homes. However, the planes used by Apple and Google would have be to shown to be specifically targeting an individual to violate such a statute, he said.
It is also possible some tort rules might apply -- such as an unwarranted intrusion into private space. However, "it would be difficult for an individual to bring such a suit," Reidenberg said.
Reasonable Expectation of Privacy
In general, consumers can't claim to have a reasonable expectation of privacy from another private sector company, he added. "That is a standard that is applicable to the government only."
What is ironic is that while the government would have a hard time legally taking such pictures, it could buy them from Apple or Google and use them in prosecution, Reidenberg pointed out.
Public Perception Backlash
The only club Schumer and other like-minded officials have -- at least, the only one that can easily be wielded -- is the fear of negative publicity, David Johnson, principal with Strategic Vision, told TechNewsWorld.
Publicized examples of the "right" cases -- such as someone in a penthouse apartment photographed, or detailed photographs of a sensitive power plant or other piece of infrastructure -- could easily lead to public outcry, he said.
The timing is ripe for such as story to get traction, Johnson added. "The summer time is when we see certain stories take off that wouldn't necessarily last more than one or two days in the news cycle in the fall."
Apple and Google did not respond to our requests to comment for this story. | <urn:uuid:3c02a700-a1fb-4e23-8735-ee8fdfe5bc2c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/75436.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966487 | 970 | 1.976563 | 2 |
Remembering the Fallen: Montgomery's VA Center Hosts Memorial Day Services
For many people Memorial Day is an extra day off and time to spend with friends and family, but some local veterans say too many people are forgetting the true meaning behind the holiday.
The Central Alabama Veterans Health Care System hosted its annual Memorial Day services at
About 100 Veterans, families and friends gathered outside the VA Center to remember the men and women who died in military service. Some veterans say in many ways the American flag is treated the same as Memorial Day, it’s taken for granted.
“Red, white and blue, it just makes chills run up and down your spine when you see it flying,” said William “Sky” King, a retired member of the Air National Guard.
"Sky," as his friends call him, was honored to walk the wreath during the wreath ceremony and place it under Old Glory. It was part of the National Moment of Remembrance, a time set aside to honor Memorial Day across the nation at 3:00 p.m. King has been serving the public for more than 40 years, serving his country as an Air National Guardsmen, and as a police officer in both Birmingham and Montgomery.
“The deepest thing to me is the ones that gave it all, those are the ones that can’t be here today so we're here for them,” King said.
“This is the least we can do for those who have fallen,” said Edgar L. Smith III, a
Smith says his comrades fought for the ability to watch
While the seasoned veterans like King and Smith say they will continue to honor the fallen, they say it's the younger men and women that will keep
“Military has been in my blood, I'm a third generation guy,” said Marion Brock III of
Standing alongside his father, Marion Brock IV says he wants to continuing passing family torch to serve the country.
“All the men in my family have been serving, it feels great and I want to continue that tradition,” Brock IV said.
There were more than 30 veterans at the VA's Memorial Day service. Men and women stood up to represent Operation Enduring Freedom, the Vietnam War, the Korean War and World War II. | <urn:uuid:3b82efa5-584b-46cd-a815-51be1cd51a56> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.waka.com/news/montgomery-news/Remembering-the-Fallen-Montgomerys-VA-Center-Hosts-Memorial-Day-Services-155190085.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975688 | 476 | 1.71875 | 2 |
VISP is a creative process that visualize computer viruses and
spam as part of an
Machfeld (aka Sabine Maier &
Michael Mastrototaro) asked me to collaborate to this project.
Similar to a biological virus the art project will mutate during the process.
In this regard, one can see the result of this video projection and net
installation as mutation examples.
From 13th October to 2nd November 2005 the results were presented on
Machfeld project server as well as in the medien.KUNSTLABOR,
I created for online and "physical" exhibition two software
pieces built with Processing (see below), both pieces visualize data extracted
(and analysed) from a huge amount of emails recived on a normal mailbox.
The visualization approach was unformal and not scientific on purpose.
MAILBOX: clusters of VIrus and SPam are
visualized as cubes displaying identify code, VISP type, the date of first
detection and mail subject as a kind of grey scale barecode. One characteristic
of medien.KUNSTLABOR is that it keeps artists server ,like an exhibition
itself, in a grid of cells made of steal and glass. MAILBOX should reflect
this genius loci too.
NANO is a cellular automata visualizing
virus as red dots and spam clusters as circles, clicking on the applet informations
will be displayed. Press "n" key to visualize more recent VISP
or "o" for the older data. During the exhibition time both pieces
ran on a single that I set up with "found hardware". MAILBOX and
NANO was just a little part of VISP project, other works were:
IMAP Gallery - The virtually generated accumulation of unpopular spam
and computer viruses serve as row material for the artistic output [...]
IVI (Interactive Virus Installation) - [...] the medium video will be
extended by the support of image recognition [...]. Substrate of the emotional
level is the visual rapresentation of viruses [...].
GROW (the invisible) - "Don't disclose your identity - particulary
when you want to spread a computer virus"[...]
Actually my favorite one: the text "I LOVE YOU" (built with
special jelly) were colonized by two different kind of bacteria.
Concept and artistic direction by Sabine Maier & Michael Mastrototaro.
IVI programming by Hubert Hausegger.
Database & Evalutation by Markus Reisenhofen.
Visualization by Alessandro Capozzo.
Very special thanks to Franz Xaver. | <urn:uuid:fbd783b4-7ae9-4d8f-a2cb-f71e56576b23> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.abstract-codex.net/visp/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.902074 | 556 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Take your career to the next level!
There are many career opportunities in the human services field, in a variety of areas:
- Developmentally disabled care, including day programs and institutional daycare.
- Elderly care, including nursing homes, senior centers and rehabilitation programs.
- Health care, including hospitals, nutrition and wellness.
- Addiction services, such as drug and alcohol, eating disorders and sexual addictions.
- Environmental services, such as housing, public service and park and recreational programs.
- Educational services in daycare, schools, colleges and universities.
- Income transfer services such as youth corps and job training.
- Criminal justice, which includes law enforcement, jails, halfway houses and legal advocacy.
- Family services, which include domestic violence and abuse, shelters, family crisis and marriage preparation and counseling services.
- Mental health care, including institutions, crisis centers, halfway houses and legal advocacy.
Human services graduates work in a variety of roles:
- Outreach worker – provides access to people with problems, refers to appropriate services and does follow-up
- Broker – helps people access existing services and ensure that the services relate to the client
- Advocate – fights for services, policies, rules, regulations, and laws on behalf of the client
- Evaluator – assess client or community needs and problems in many settings
- Teacher/educator- performs a range of activities planned primarily to change behavior, ranging from coaching and counseling to casework, psychotherapy, and behavior therapy
- Mobilizer – helps to get new resources for clients and communities
- Consultant – works with other professionals and agencies regarding their handling of problems, needs and programs
- Community planner – works with community boards and committees to assure that community development enhances positive mental health and self-actualization, or at least minimizes emotional stress on people
- Caregiver – provides service for persons who need ongoing support of some kind, such as financial assistance, day care, social support and 24-hour care
- Data manager – performs all aspects of data handling, gathering, tabulating, analyzing, synthesizing, program evaluation, and planning
- Administrator- carries out activities that are primarily agency or institution-oriented rather than client or community oriented | <urn:uuid:f8872d74-a3ad-4f69-bd79-6390785cc6e7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.uwosh.edu/llce/cnl/programs/bs-hslo/careers | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945206 | 462 | 2.390625 | 2 |
The Women’s Electoral Lobby was formed just prior to the 1972 election.
These notes were written by the Women’s Electoral Lobby.
The Women’s Electoral Lobby (WEL) was formed in 1972 just prior to a Federal election. WEL’s first survey of political candidates revealed a gross lack of knowledge or even interest in the many issues affecting women in Australia.
Further surveys gained public notoriety and encouraged the formation of branches in all capital and many regional cities. Since then, winning government has often been attributed to the women’s vote. Over the years, WEL has continued to provide well researched submissions to both sides of the political fence on a
range of issues, from economics and employment, to health and human relationships. WEL policies have been based on the assumption of women’s right to choose and to control her own destiny; WEL’s approach has been to demand that right be entrenched into legislation, and embedded in political, economic and social structures.
Vision and Mission
The Women’s Electoral Lobby in Australia is an organisation dedicated to creating a society where women’s participation and potential are unrestricted, acknowledged and respected, and where women and men share equally in society’s responsibilities and rewards.
WEL believes in the strength of women working together. WEL asserts that women’s knowledge, skills and experiences are essential to a well functioning society, and that improving women’s lives improves society as a whole. In pursuing a feminist future, WEL respects and values diversity among women. (adopted 1996).
The policies of WEL are based on the premise that a just society must recognise that women’s rights, responsibilities, contributions and needs are of equal value with men’s, though not necessarily identical. Economic, technological, scientific, social development and achievement must be pursed in ways that give the goals of justice for all the highest priority. WEL policies are directed to two basic ends:
- redressing resistant and persistent inequities in the current position of women in Australian society;
- ensuring that women can make an equal contribution to its future development.
There are WEL organisations in every State and Territory, and in some regional centres as well. Each organisation operates within its own state jurisdiction but in addition, a National Office based in Canberra ensures communication and co-ordination among WEL organisations and acts as the prime voice on Federal issues. This office has been funded by the Prime Minister’s department for many years in recognition of the legitimate role WEL plays in representing the views of Australian women. The National Co-ordinator reports to a National Management Committee, comprising representatives from each major organisation around Australia. WEL Australia is an incorporated body.
WEL membership includes all sides of the political spectrum and all age ranges.
Since its inception in 1972, WEL has represented the views of Australian women to governments at all levels through many letters and submissions, and has contributed to women’s education and civic development through regular conferences, seminars and workshops, and to wider community understanding of issues through print and electronic media.
WEL Policies Relating to Abortion
WEL supports the well-established ethical principle that decisions ought to be made by those most affected by them. Presently in Australia, it is doctors who control the decision about pregnancy termination. This interferes with a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body. WEL rejects the view that society must somehow be protected from women’s actions by making the medical profession or the judiciary responsible for such decisions. On the contrary, WEL asserts that women are perfectly capable of making morally sound decisions and that research indicates the best outcome is achieved if women are in control of the decision about pregnancy termination.
WEL Policy on Women’s Health
WEL sees the issue of abortion in the context of women’s health. WEL agrees with the World Health Organisation definition that health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well being and not merely the absence of disease of infirmity. To meet this definition of health for women, WEL asserts that:
- all health services should be reviewed to ensure they accept the social model of health, that health care, contraceptive care and any other service must be available to all regardless of their ability to pay;
- specific women-run health services must be available and broad principles of gender equity in delivery, priorities, research and service must be intrinsic to the entire health care system.
WEL Policy on Abortion
In order to achieve the above definition of health for women, WEL believes that:
- safe, legal abortion should be one of the choices available to women faced with unwanted pregnancy;
- no woman should be forced, either by laws or pressure from others, to continue an unwanted pregnancy nor to obtain an abortion against her will;
- these views are shared by the majority of Australian women.
Women will decide whether or not to continue their pregnancies in the light of their own religious and/or moral values. It is appropriate they do so. People who are opposed to abortion regardless of circumstances are entitled to their view. They have no right to impose that view on others, however.
The right of choice is fundamental to a democratic society. The right of choice assumes the control of one’s body. Without it a woman becomes subject to the beliefs and demands of others. It is a basic right of a woman to choose when and if she will bear a child. Equality is impossible without control of fertility. There is no perfect contraceptive. For some women, it is not easily available; for some it is a health hazard; for some it is too expensive; for some the chosen method fails. WEL therefore affirms that:
- every woman has the right to choose when and if she will bear a child;
- all references to abortion be removed from the criminal codes of the States and Territories of Australia, thereby ensuring that abortion is regulated, as are all other medical services, under health care legislation;
- support services should be available to all women, those seeking abortion and those wishing to continue pregnancies.
While demanding the right of access to safe, legal abortion, WEL acknowledges that:
- contraception is preferable to abortion;
- there is no perfect contraception;
- reliance on abortion alone is not a responsible method of planned
- early abortion is preferable to late abortion;
- skilled, legal abortion is preferable to unsafe, illegal abortion.
Abortion will always be with us.
Abortion is a world-wide phenomenon and has been used as a primary method of birth control for all of human history. The World Health Organisation estimates that one in three pregnancies is deliberately terminated world-wide. Many of these abortions are carried out in unsafe circumstances and lead to substantial rates of death and injury to women.
Major changes in rates of abortion only occur when reliable contraception becomes available.
Moves in the last century in the United Kingdom to restrict access to abortion were based both on a concern for the welfare of women at a time when abortion was a dangerous intervention, and an attempt at the same time to control women’s sexuality. Access to legal abortion was denied but this only forced women into illegal and unsafe services, leading to injury and death.
Abortion today is the second most common therapeutic surgical procedure in Australia. Yet it remains marginalised by health services, and is not formally part of some medical curricula.
Abortion recognised by International Organisations.
WEL asserts that women’s right to choose abortion is implied in several articles of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Article 12 requires signatories to ensure “access to health care services, including those related to family planning”. There can be no doubt that abortion is related to family planning.
The United Nations International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo, 1994) recognised abortion as a major public health issue and governments agreed to take action to reduce the harm caused.
The UN Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995) confirmed this approach. Along with many other Governments, Australia agreed to “Consider reviewing laws containing punitive measures against women who have undergone illegal abortions” (par 107k). WEL has urged the Government to act on this undertaking by removing abortion from all criminal codes in Australia.
Public Support for Abortion
The right of access to abortion enjoys a high level of community support which has risen since the mid 1980s. In 1994, 85% approved abortion if the woman’s life were endangered; 70% accepted abortion as a right if the woman is not married and does not want to marry; 67% supported abortion in circumstances of low income where a family cannot afford more children. In all cases, these rates of approval were significantly up from ten years previously, showing increasing community acceptance of the need for abortion services.
In 1980, a survey conducted by the Women’s Weekly magazine asserted that “The Voice of the Australian Women says: Abortion should be freely available”.Their survey showed 94% of women were in favour of abortion being available. Sixteen per cent of the women surveyed said they had had an abortion, and contrary to popular belief, the majority of women said they suffered no after effects. WEL sent a copy of the magazine to all Victorian State politicians, pointing out the strength of women’s support for safe, legal abortion services.
Based on statistics like these, WEL urged politicians to accept the following messages:
- women must have the right to choose;
- abortion is practised and always has been;
- abortion is widely accepted in the Australian community;
- a pro-choice stand will not jeopardise their seat.
History of Wel’s Activities Related to Abortion
Birth Control Policy
By 1975, WEL had an established policy on birth control (family planning). WEL called for establishment of clinics separate from existing medical services, staffed by specially trained personnel. The policy recommended clinics should offer a full range of contraceptive advice and services, including abortion referral, and be publicly funded. Sex education was an integral part of the policy.
Birth Control Clinic in Warrnambool
In 1977, a WEL group submitted a request to the Warrnambool City Council for establishment of a Birth Control Clinic. Drawing upon the 1968 UN Declaration on Population and Family Planning which stated “Family planning is a basic human right”, the submission noted the lack of local services to inform and counsel women about pregnancy and contraception, and argued that such services should be freely available.
The Monbulk (Victoria) Election
In March 1982, The Right to Choose Coalition (WEL, the Union of Australian Women, and the YWCA) nominated Dr Bertram Wainer to stand for the Victorian seat of Monbulk, in order to allow electors a means of expressing opposition to a Right to Life candidate, Mrs Jean Langworthy. The result clearly showed that people supported pro-choice policies: Dr Wainer achieved nearly four times as many primary votes as Mrs Langworthy, and the Right to Life movement failed to control the direction of preferences.
In 1986, WEL recommended that Federal funds be directed to teaching health and human relationships courses in all Australian schools, and to extending family planning services (particularly in isolated areas and among non English speaking background Australians). WEL also recommended that termination of pregnancy be considered as any other medical procedure and called for the repeal of all state and territory laws restricting abortion. WEL called for continuation of Medicare funding of abortion.
Access to Abortion Services
In 1988, WEL made a submission to the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, pointing out that Australia appears to be the only country in the world where abortion law differs in different parts of the country. WEL argued that while judicial interpretation of the law has liberalised access in some states, restrictive statutes remain. Access to safe abortion is therefore unequal and sporadic enforcement of statutory laws causes uncertainty and fear. Because most abortions are conducted in special clinics and these are generally located in capital cities, women from rural and remote areas lack equal access to services.
National Policy on Women’s Health
Also in 1988, WEL submitted a response to the Discussion Paper on a National Policy on Women’s Health to the Special Consultant to the Minister for Community Services and Health. While endorsing the Discussion Paper’s recommendations, WEL called for more emphasis on acknowledgement of the health risks associated with motherhood, especially for those who are geographically or socially isolated. It recommended tied funding be used to expand the role of Infant and Maternal Health Centres into “Neighbourhood Health Centres”.
A submission was also made by the Right To Choose Coalition, representing WEL, the Union of Australian Women and the YWCA of Melbourne. This submission asserted that it is vital to a woman’s health during her reproductive years to have the choice of abortion if she does not wish to continue a pregnancy. It pointed out that legislation banning abortion does not prevent women from terminating pregnancies but causes them to resort to illegal and unsafe abortion. It recommended:
- immediate removal of abortion from criminal codes;
- funding for birth control information services;
- funding to train teachers in health and human relationships courses;
- guarantees of continued Medicare funding of abortions; and
- immediate entry of the abortificant RU 486 for research purposes.
On a number of occasions, there have been attempts to restrict access to abortions by removing their funding from Medicare. In 1979, the Lusher Bill was defeated after a concerted campaign by WEL in conjunction with a coalition of other interested women’s groups. Again in 1990, Alisdair Webster (Liberal NSW) sought to introduce a bill to abolish Medicare funding for abortions. WEL lobbied vigorously to ensure this bill did not proceed, on the basis that its intent was not to prohibit abortion but to prevent poor women having access to a safe medical procedure and having to resort instead to backyard abortion. WEL pointed out that no legislation has ever prevented desperate women from terminating unwanted pregnancies.
Review of Services
Last year, WEL supported all the recommendations of the Review of Services for the Termination of Pregnancy in Australia (National Health and Medical Rese arch Council Draft Consultation Document, October 1995) but added the need to ensure abortion was finally removed from criminal codes by recommending “That all State and Territory Governments be strongly encouraged to remove sections referring to abortion from their respective Crimes Acts immediately”. This is made all the more urgent given current efforts to arrive at a National Model Criminal Code by the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General. Their latest Discussion Paper on “Non Fatal Offences Against the Person” includes a section on Abortion, thus continuing the assumption that abortion should remain on the criminal code. | <urn:uuid:d771313c-b662-4cad-b2d4-93ae79b9e5b7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://australianpolitics.com/2001/03/19/womens-electoral-lobby.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953135 | 3,052 | 2.25 | 2 |
WASHINGTON — African-Americans in the South are shunning city life for the suburbs at the highest levels in decades, rapidly integrating large metropolitan areas that were historically divided between inner-city blacks and suburban whites.
Census figures also show that Hispanic population growth for the first time outpaced that of blacks and whites in most of the South, adding to the region's racial and ethnic mix.
"All of this will shake up the politics," said Lance deHaven-Smith, a political science professor at Florida State University in Tallahassee. Because the South is a critical region for Republicans in presidential elections, "all the Democrats have to do is pick up a couple Southern states, and Republicans are in trouble."
The share of blacks in large metropolitan areas who opted to live in the suburbs climbed to 58 percent in the South, compared to 41 percent for the rest of the U.S., according to census estimates. That's up from 52 percent in 2000 and represents the highest share of suburban blacks in the South since the Civil Rights Act passed in the 1960s.
[Go to al.com/census for interactive maps of Census 2010 results
for Alabama, as well as the latest stories on the Census.]
The South also had major gains in neighborhood integration between blacks and whites. Thirty-two of the region's 38 largest metro areas made such gains since 2000, according to a commonly used demographic index. The measure, known as the segregation index, tracks the degree to which racial groups are evenly spread between neighborhoods. Topping the list were rapidly diversifying metros in central Florida, as well in Georgia, Texas and Tennessee.
Among the new black suburbanites are Ray Taylor, 34, and his wife, Marcia, 33. Four years ago, they moved from Atlanta to the northern suburb of Alpharetta, Ga., about 20 miles away, seeking better schools and a wider range of community activities. They now have two small children, ages 4 and 1.
Taylor, a political independent who voted for Democrat Barack Obama in 2008, said he also liked having more exposure to people of different racial and political backgrounds. Compared with Atlanta, Alpharetta has a broader mix of whites and Hispanics and tends to lean more Republican.
"We wanted to be close enough to access the city and have the best of both worlds," he said.
Census figures also show that Hispanics contributed more to population gains than blacks in 13 of the 16 Southern states over the last decade, compared with seven states for Hispanics from 1990-2000. It was a clear sign of the shift under way for a region in which African-Americans have been the dominant minority group dating back to slavery.
In all, Hispanics accounted for roughly 45 percent of population gains in the South over the last decade, compared with about 22 percent for whites and 19 percent for blacks.
"It's clear that black growth continues to locate in the suburban South, leading to declines in their historic segregation," said William Frey, a demographer at Brookings Institution who did a broad analysis of the census data. "This new dispersed growth of blacks, coupled with the new waves of Hispanic growth, are changing the region's longstanding 'black-white' image and heralding the beginning of a more diverse region."
The latest race figures offer a hint of some of the coming political wrangling in fast-growing parts of the South, where Hispanic immigration as well as an influx of blacks from the North — two minority groups which tend to lean Democratic — have the potential to shift historic voting trends.
Next year, the South will be the site for the GOP National Convention in Tampa, Fla., and the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., both states Obama carried in 2008 due partly to a large minority turnout. Both Charlotte and Tampa last year became cities in which whites now make up less than 50 percent of the population.
—In the South, white children in Maryland and Mississippi became a numerical minority for the first time this past decade, joining Texas and the District of Columbia; Florida and Georgia are expected to follow.
—Metropolitan areas in the South showing some of the biggest advances in black-white residential integration included Tampa, Orlando and Lakeland in central Florida; Atlanta; Louisville, Ky.; and Houston. Their segregation levels all fell in the middle range. Metro areas in the West also had substantial changes with generally lower levels of segregation, while segregation in the Midwest and Northeast declined somewhat but was typically higher than average.
—The South is the second most racially and ethnically diverse U.S. region after the West. Roughly 61 percent of its population is white, 19 percent black and 15 percent Hispanic. That's compared with a national breakdown of 65 percent white, roughly 12 percent black and 16 percent Hispanic.
—Hispanics in large metro areas in the South were more likely to live in suburbs — about 60 percent, compared with 56 percent for the rest of the nation.
DeHaven-Smith said the higher levels of black residential integration could make it harder for states to maintain majority black districts when they redraw political boundaries in the coming months. He also noted Florida's demographic changes, with the central part of the state now becoming a presidential battleground due to an influx of non-Cuban Hispanics who are turning the Republican-leaning area more Democratic.
Florida will pick up two new House seats — which means two more electoral college votes beginning in 2012 — based on its population growth over the last decade.
"It's a narrowly balanced, very polarized state, with the shifts occurring mostly in central Florida," deHaven-Smith said. | <urn:uuid:a9f43a88-df33-4627-ba6f-7f95d001eb41> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.al.com/wire/2011/03/census_more_blacks_in_south_mo.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960497 | 1,142 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Web edition: April 6, 2006
There can't be many people who have missed the national "Got Milk?" ads of the past decade. This whimsical campaign for U.S. dairies has featured some 200 celebrities, athletes, and musicians sporting exaggerated milk mustaches. The Milk Processor Education Program has said its goal in the ads has been to show that consuming milk is cool (not just for babies any more) and healthy. The cited benefits include strengthening bones and teeth, lowering blood pressure, and limiting weight gain.
However, increasing the consumption of milk by teens and adults has proven an uphill battle, particularly among people who haveor suspect they havelactose intolerance.
Beginning around age 2, as much as three-quarters of people around the world lose their ability to produce ample lactase. That's the enzyme needed to break down lactose, the primary sugar in milk.
When these lactose-intolerant individuals consume dairy products, most of milk's sugar will pass largely undigested through the upper gastrointestinal tract and into the colon. That's not good because there, normal, gut-dwelling microbes will feast on the sugar and belch out hydrogen and other gases. Indeed, researchers test for lactose intolerance by measuring hydrogen in a person's breath after a meal.
When a person with intolerance consumes too much milk or cheese, a host of unpleasant symptoms can arise: chiefly nausea, cramps, flatulence, and diarrhea.
As many as 50 million people in the United States are considered lactose intolerant, with certain ethnic groups disproportionately affected. Some 80 percent of African Americans and Native Americans have the condition, as do more than 90 percent of Asian Americans. In contrast, only about 10 percent of adults with a Northern-European heritage have trouble breaking down lactose.
However, a new analysis in the Journal of Nutrition finds that even people with confirmed lactose intolerance can usually drink at least a cup of milk without symptomsespecially if that milk is consumed with a meal. The finding didn't surprise human nutritionist Dennis A. Savaiano of Purdue University, the study's lead author. Indeed, it dovetailed with results from a host of clinical studies carried out by his team over more than a decade.
These data reinforce that people with lactose intolerance can safely digest more dairy than they think they can, says Savaiano, a lactose-intolerant Italian-American. Indeed, the researcher regularly drinks milk with breakfast and dinner and downs additional dairy foods most days during lunch. The trick is to consume them in moderation, he says.
Few people need to shun milk, one of the diet's richest sources of calcium, says Savaiano. He points out that this mineral remains woefully deficient in most adults' diets.
Despite the recommendation that people age 6 and older consume between 1,000 and 1,500 milligrams of calcium daily, few adults do so.
Theresa Nicklas of the Department of Agriculture's Children's Nutrition Research Center in Houston has been studying the problem. At a biology meeting last year, she and her colleagues reported that in Bogalusa, La., 80 percent of a population of adults consume no more than two servings of milk or other dairy foods per day. About half of the study participants consumed one serving or less. Considering that a cup of milk has only 300 mg of calcium, few people were deriving much of the mineral from dairy sources.
Other foods containing calcium don't fill the mineral gap for most people. Broccoli is a calcium-rich vegetable, but a typical serving of that has only 50 milligrams. The same amount of the mineral is present in a serving of enriched orange juice. A cup of soybeans or baked beans delivers more calciumbut still only half as much as a serving of milk does.
It's because milk and other dairy products are such rich calcium sources that most nutritionists advocate consuming low-fat dairy products on a daily basis.
The Purdue researchers almost 2 decades ago began pursuing ways to help lactose-intolerant individuals cope with dairy foods. The team's original ideas included keeping portion sizes small and eating them along with foods to slow the passage of milk sugar through the gut.
However, notes Savaiano, along the way his group and others found that many people who know they're lactose intolerantor think they areare reluctant to consume dairy products at all. This is despite the fact that when tested, few people can tell the differencein terms of symptomsbetween foods free of lactose and those with a moderate amount.
Since most such studies have been small, the Purdue group decided to pool results from a host of experiments in which people were given a food with or without lactose and asked to record any gastrointestinal symptoms. In these trials, neither the participants nor researchers knew who got lactose-containing meals until after the tests had been completed.
Although a scan of the published record for potentially applicable studies turned up 1,553 possible candidates, independent reviewers dismissed most of them as containing either potential biases or major deficiencies in their design or data reports. In the end, Savaiano says, "I was surprised" at the small number of quality studies available for analysis. Just 21 met the criteria for inclusion.
In the April Journal of Nutrition, Savaiano's team reports that among people diagnosed with lactose intolerance, the severity of symptoms is no worse after downing a cup of milkor other food with an equivalent amount of lactosethan after ingesting a lactosefree food or drink. "This included perceived severity of abdominal bloating, abdominal pain, degree of loose stools or diarrhea and flatulence," the team reports.
Although dose can make a big difference in whether symptoms appear, the researchers couldn't gauge how big a difference from these studies because most had administered about the same amount of lactose.
Savaiano's team first reported its findings a year ago at a small symposium entitled Calcium-Related Chronic Diseases in Ethnic MinoritiesCan Dairy Consumption Reduce Health Disparities? At the same meeting, Molly E. Reusser of Academic Network in Portland, Ore., and David A. McCarron of the University of California, Davis reviewed data on hypertension. They noted that blacks have far higher rates of high blood pressure than do whites. This major risk factor for heart disease currently afflicts at least 42 percent of all African American adults, more than 9 million people.
One diet that has proven effective at lowering blood pressure, especially in black adults, is known as DASH, for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. Although media attention has focused on the fruit-and-vegetable component of the regimen, Reusser and McCarron argue that this emphasis has been "both misplaced and misleading." Why? The dietary elements that probably decreased blood pressure most were vitamin D and several minerals, including calcium, say the two researchers. A second study has also linked these nutrients and lowered blood pressure, they note.
Further analyses of the DASH study show that among several diets tested, one also cut two additional heart-disease risk factors, blood concentrations of folate and homocysteine. That diet, containing three daily servings of dairy foods, was the only one that "produced favorable changes" in the study participants, report Reusser and McCarron.
Robert P. Heaney of Creighton University noted at the 2005 symposium that at least when it comes to building bone, blacks tend to use calcium more efficiently than white people do. In other words, African Americans build stronger bones with smaller inputs of the mineral. However, since bone is far from the only tissue that benefits from calcium, even black people with healthy bones can't assume they're getting sufficient calcium. Indeed, said Heaney, a system within a black person's body that protects bones even when calcium intake is low may actually increase that individual's risk of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes
daily calcium intake
|06 months||400 mg|
|612 months||600 mg|
|15 years||800 mg|
|610 years||1,200 mg|
|1124 years||1,2001,500 mg|
|1950 years||1,000 mg|
|51 years and up||1,500 mg|
Inst. of Medicine
Robert P. Heaney
Creighton University Medical Center
601 North 30th Street
Omaha, NE 68131
Children's Nutrition Research Center
1100 Bates Street
Houston, TX 77030
Dennis A. Savaiano
700 W. State Street
West Lafayette, IN 47907-2059
National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse
2 Information Way
Bethesda, MD 20892-3570
Milk Processor Education Program
1250 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20005
USDA Food Pyramid
USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion
3101 Park Center Drive, Rm. 1034
Alexandria, VA 22302-1594
Web site: [Go to]
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Vesa, T.H., R.A. Korpela, and T. Sahi. 1996. Tolerance to small amounts of lactose in lactose maldigesters. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 64(August):197-201. Available at [Go to]. | <urn:uuid:3b2a2dfc-f678-464e-9056-908da8bf6a68> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/7210/description/Defusing_the_Dairy_Dilemma | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924267 | 2,455 | 2.890625 | 3 |