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Press releases and News :: Commission launches initiative on sustainable management of marine and coastal areas
Commission launches initiative on sustainable management of marine and coastal areas
(13/03/2013) Today the Commission launched a proposal to improve the planning of maritime activities at sea and the management of coastal areas. The proposal – which takes the form of a draft directive – aims to establish a common European framework for maritime spatial planning and integrated coastal management in EU Member States, with a view to ensuring that the growth of maritime and coastal activities and the use of resources at sea and on coasts remain sustainable.
Human and economic activities such as offshore wind energy, submarine cable and pipeline routes, shipping, fishing and aquaculture are increasing in marine waters and coastal areas, but too little coordination can lead to competition for space and pressure on valuable resources. The proposed action will require Member States to map these activities in maritime spatial plans in order to make more efficient use of seas, and develop coastal management strategies that will coordinate measures across the different policy areas that apply to activities in coastal zones. Respecting the minimum requirements proposed by the Directive, Member States will need to ensure that their maritime planning and coastal management supports sustainable growth, while involving relevant stakeholders and cooperating with neighboring states.
Better coordination would bring benefits in areas such as, for example, the connection of offshore wind installations to energy grids on land, or work on infrastructure to protect coastlines against erosion and climate change that also affects activities in coastal waters.
Using a single instrument to balance all interests should also increase certainty for investors and reduce the administrative burden for national administrations and operators, while preserving ecosystem services. Currently, in some countries one needs to contact up to 8 administrative agencies before having the permit for an aquaculture site. With the one-stop-shop principle proposed in the Directive, such administrative complexity will be done away with and time and money will be saved. It is estimated that increased business certainty and reduced administrative burden will lead to economic benefits up to EUR 1.6 billion across the EU, particularly for SMEs. Studies have also shown that, for example, the acceleration of investments in wind-farm and aqua-farm activity would generate between EUR 60 million for an acceleration of 1 year to 600 million for an acceleration of 3 years by 2020. | <urn:uuid:a7bc4983-891d-42ea-b176-e71555a2cb37> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/newsroom/cf/mare/itemdetail.cfm?item_id=9877&subweb=347&lang=mt | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939604 | 460 | 2.140625 | 2 |
For additional lectionary resources on the assigned texts for Reformation Sunday, please see the Craft of Preaching articles.
The two stories of Matthew 22:34-46 conclude an entire narrative section focused on the Jerusalem leadership in confrontation with Jesus. The confrontations begin with the Jewish chief priests and elders questioning Jesus' authority (21:23-27). After questions brought to Jesus by Pharisees, Herodians, and Sadducees, a lawyer from the sect of the Pharisees asks a final question: "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" (22:36).
Jesus' answer fits well with his teaching on the Law or Torah across Matthew. Jesus has already demonstrated that right interpretation of the Torah must view all God's commands through the lens of the weightier matters of the Torah consisting of justice, mercy, and faithfulness (23:23). Jesus has cited Hosea 6:6 (Matthew 9:13 and 12:7), emphasizing mercy as central to reading and obeying the Torah. And he has highlighted love of neighbor as the pinnacle command of the Torah (5:43-48). So as readers of Matthew, we are not surprised by Jesus' citation of Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18 as the greatest of commands upon which "all the law and the prophets" hang (22:37-40).
In addition, Jesus' answer would not have been surprising to the Pharisees. Various Jewish writings of this general time period speak of a central Torah passage summing up the other commandments. Rabbi Akiva is recorded as saying that Leviticus 19:18 was the greatest principle of the Torah (b. Nedarim 9.4). It is plausible that the Pharisees were banking on Jesus mishandling or even denigrating the Torah in some way by his answer. We have evidence from Matthew that Jesus was accused of breaking the Sabbath laws (12:1-14). Though Matthew's Jesus emphasizes that he and his disciples are innocent of these accusations (12:7, 12), it is likely that the Pharisees, who were reputed to take great care with the Torah, would be suspicious of Jesus' teaching on it. Jesus' answer here would have given his opponents no cause to criticize his Torah interpretation.
This may seem a simple point, but it is one well worth considering as we preach Jesus to our congregations. It is not uncommon in contemporary American portrayals of Jesus to hear an emphasis on Jesus as one who "breaks the rules." Yet Matthew goes to lengths to show Jesus as one who not only rightly interprets the Torah but as one who commands adherence to even its finest points (cf. 5:17-20)! Jesus' greatest critique of the Pharisees is not their desire to keep the Torah in its smallest detail but their tendency to fall short on obedience to central values of the Torah (again, cf. 23:23).
The message of 22:34-40 emphasizes that the Torah is rightly understood when it is read through the central lens of love for God and love for neighbor (with even enemies considered neighbors; 5:43-44). While this truth is not difficult to understand or to preach, embodying love for God and love for others is the greatest of challenges. The sheer breadth of these two commands makes obedience to them a lifelong effort. In preaching this passage, the all-inclusive reach of these two commandments might be best coupled with some very practical exhortations and examples of love. One could look, for example, to Matthew 25:31-46 to hear what love for God and neighbor looks like in practical terms: showing care and hospitality to "the least of these."
After answering well each question brought by his opponents in Matthew 21-22, Jesus now turns the tables. He has his own question for the Pharisees, and his question--a riddle really--will silence his opponents (22:46). Jesus raises the Christological question, asking the Pharisees whose son the Messiah is (22:42). They give an expected answer: the son of David (a favorite Matthean title: e.g., 1:1; 12:23; 21:9).
Yet, while the answer given by the Pharisees is accurate in Matthew's perspective, it is not adequate. Jesus cites Psalm 110:1 (Matthew 22:44) and asks the Pharisees how it is that David could call his own son "Lord" in a text that clearly elevates this "Lord" to a place of vindication before his enemies. Jesus concludes with the riddle: "If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?" (22:45). Although no one in the story was able to answer Jesus (22:46), the reader of Matthew knows the key to the riddle. Matthew has defined the Messiah in Jesus, who is both a son of David by ancestry (1:1-17) and Lord, a name assigned to Jesus throughout Matthew's gospel (e.g., 7:22; 8:2, 25; 17:4; 20:30-31; 25:44). At least in some contexts in Matthew, the attribution of "Lord" to Jesus alludes to his identity as the embodiment of Yahweh (e.g., 3:3; cf. 1:23). The reader of Matthew knows that the riddle has a both/and answer. Jesus as Messiah is both David's son and David's Lord, since he is the Messiah and will be vindicated before and placed over his enemies at his resurrection (cf. 28:18).
The Pharisees give a monolithic answer to Jesus' messianic question. Yet Matthew's Christology is anything but monolithic. He draws on a Davidic portrait of the Messiah, as well as other Jewish themes and expectations, to provide a multifaceted picture of the Messiah defined in Jesus (e.g., Jesus as Lord; Jesus as wisdom in Matthew 11; etc.). Contemporary preaching on this text might do well to address our tendency toward a monolithic Christology that emphasizes only Jesus as God incarnate. While half of Jesus' riddle points in this direction, the other half firmly roots his role as Messiah in Jewish categories that we often miss in our reading of the Gospels. Do we help our congregations wrestle with the full humanity of Jesus? Do we portray Jesus as a truly Jewish Messiah, come to enact redemption for his people, Israel? One challenge of this passage may be to explore the rich and complex Christology that Matthew communicates. For as Matthew shows in Matthew 21-22, in the end the most important question to be asked is the question of who Jesus is. | <urn:uuid:9695e046-10bd-44bc-bc2c-eb189392f111> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=167 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961884 | 1,389 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Why Video Games are Art
by Marque Cornblatt
Minor spoiler alert for Assassin’s Creed 2 and Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2
Roger Ebert and his POV.
In 2005 Roger Ebert famously stated that video games are not art. After an outpouring of online reactions debating the topic and chipping away at his assertion, he then went on to clarify his stance that video games could not be “High” art, arguing that the agency (participation) of the viewer removed the creator’s authorship of the work, and therefore games would forever be “less than” other art forms. In fact, he asserts that interactivity helps to define games as more akin to sports than art. This clarification not only failed to support his original claim, but actually opened a door to deeper discussion of the meanings of art, authorship, audience and agency.
Ebert’s frame of reference is certainly well informed by his vast and deep knowledge of movies, film history and contemporary definitions of narrative. But his perspective is severely myopic and overlooks many aspects of the art debate which don’t deal with narrative. Part of his problem may be larger than his personal experience. A quick survey of critical writing on video games shows a relatively recent interest in the topic. In a field only 30 or so years old, the critical theory was at first slow to develop, and until a few years ago, most literature on the subject dealt almost exclusively with the concept of narrative as the way to dissect and study games. Considering that the game industry grew up in the shadow of movies and TV, it makes a certain amount of sense that narrative would be the obvious entry point for study, but pigeon-holing games as the younger sibling to traditional media does not address the full scope of meaning within games, and (as is the case with Ebert), can severely limit one’s ability to fully understand their impact on culture.
Art and narrative are not the same thing, and Ebert’s presumption that interactivity is a hindrance to artistic expression is flat-out wrong. There are many, many games that can be cited to argue this point, but I will limit my discussion to a few recent popular titles, including Assassin’s Creed II and Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 2. But first…
What is Art?
I can’t answer that. Neither can you. Truly nobody can. Ebert is no better suited to answer that than anyone else. To my knowledge there has never been an accurate or concise definition of the word art. It might be spelled with only three letters, but its a big word, covering a wide range of cultural ideas and concepts. From the earliest prehistoric cave paintings through to today’s battling robot performances, the concept of “what is art” has been stretched thin in an effort to accommodate an ever-growing palette of materials, processes and ideas. However for the sake of discussing this topic clearly, the idea of art has to be defined within this context.
One of the best analogies I even heard came from a professor at SFSU. She stated that the world of painting (art) could be viewed like a multi-layered wedding cake with a huge bottom cake layer supporting a stack of smaller layers with a tiny top layer. This cake represented the different kinds of painting, and how they fit into the definitions of high and low art. The bottom layer was populated by paintings of family and friends and pets – examples of personal artistic and creative expression, but perhaps not the kind of work that critics would care about. The middle cake layers represent work that is more focused and professionally driven, like student work or medical rendering, but is still unlikely to cause an art world stir. The top and final cake layer – the smallest one – is representative of the exclusive, rarefied (some might even say elitist) world of museums and galleries and the highly commodified art that fills those spaces. For all its simplification, the wedding cake analogy works quite well. It validates all of the cake layers as kinds of art, but understands that there are varying degrees of cultural value associated with each.
Historically, any new form of creative expression has faced resistance from the art-world status-quo. Video, new media and other cutting edge technologies have all faced resistance as “art” even as they were adopted into the artist’s toolkit. Consider that now we generally accept the ubiquitous wall-mounted flat panel LCD screen as a fixture in most museums and galleries, but it wasn’t that long ago when a monitor wouldn’t have been there at all, except perhaps as an extension of the wall text. Now, any contemporary gallery without a big LCD is considered woefully out of sync. The traditional resistance to video and digital media as legitimate art forms is all but extinguished.
It may have taken years or even generations for new technologies to be uniformly accepted as an art form, but in an age of increasingly fast change, these barriers and debates are occurring at a pace to match. Photography had it’s detractors and deniers for years, as did film and later video. Now these media are universally accepted as art genres. To be clear, not all photography, film and video is art, in fact most uses of these technologies are NOT art, but rather commercial and/or industrial. Each of these technologies are used for activities and purposes outside the world of art, but the growing acceptance that one can use these media to create art is undeniable. But just as most paint worldwide is used to cover walls and buildings or even portraits of family and pets, a small amount is still used to make fine art. The same can be stated for games. Most are not art, and don’t try to be. However some games transcend that definition because of the one aspect that overshadows many other qualities in the art/not art debate.
From my perspective with (holy shit) 11 years of professional art study, the best and only definition of art I’ve ever found to be personally useful is essentially the one of intent. Not the creator’s skill or experience or chosen genre, but their intent. One person picks up a brush and paints the exterior of a garage, another person uses that same brush to create a portrait. What determines if the garage or the portrait is art? The intent of the painter is often the best gauge. This does not mean that intent makes for great or even good art.
By contrast consider the Cloaca, by Wim Delvoye. It’s a series of industrial machines assembled into an assembly line, the purpose of which is to literally create shit. Feeding food into one end of the line causes it to be treated by several chemical reactions which simulate digestion, breaking the food down and extracting nutrients and energy as it moves from chamber to chamber. The remaining output which exits the far end of the machine is literal waste. This machine has been set up and operated throughout the world. It is made from industrial components and offers little in the way of aesthetics beyond an ever-growing pile of smelly shit. Yet this machine, which has been displayed in museums and galleries through the world is undeniably considered art, even “high” art. While I admit an affection for the cloaca, I personally feel that a lot of art, even the most well intended, is not very good. IMHO, most art IS shit, and not by design. Very little stands out as good, and even less as great. But this discussion is not about good vs bad art. It’s about art vs non-art. Either way, it is the creator’s intent that guides our response, and it’s that response that ultimately answers the question of art for each of us.
What is Video Game Art?
The debate “Is it art?” remains challenging when trying to come up with a blanket statement addressing whether games are/are not art. Because the answer is both yes and no. Game CAN be art, and most game are NOT art. The difficulty (or trap) is trying to define the tipping point, that specific moment, quality or feature that can be isolated and defined as the transcendent element that makes a thing art. Narrative isn’t it. As Ebert has pointed out, games, like interactivity in general, have qualities that conflict with traditional ideas of artistic expression as a fundamentally one-way exchange, in which the artist creates the painting, novel, play or symphony and the audience is a non-participating observer. By comparison, interactivity and games offer the audience an active role in the story or game, and allow the experience to be directed not by the artist, but increasingly by the audience. This notion of “agency” is at the heart of many critiques of video games. However in a world filled with interactive art populating museums and galleries worldwide, the agency debate is becoming increasingly irrelevant.
While games are quickly becoming a culturally dominant form of storytelling, as an industry it still lags far behind TV and film in terms of telling sophisticated, subtle narratives. Many games, if not most, struggle under the weight of too many disparate goals, and frequently the game narrative gets the shaft. Creating a game with a cohesive story which is also visually compelling and fun to play can be a real challenge, and it becomes easy to disregard games with flawed narratives, low res graphics or complex control schemes as NOT art. However, none of these qualities directly relate to the issue of games as art.
Let me repeat that: Graphic quality, narrative cohesion and cutting-edge interactivity do not directly contribute to the idea that a game is (or isn’t) art.
While relying on such qualities to frame the art debate can be helpful, just as often reliance on these features can be misleading, especially when faced with games that have little or none, like Tetris. So do non-narrative games have a bigger challenge to be taken seriously as art, or less? Flower, the DLC from Playstation is a great example of a game with no narrative, vague goals, and little inherent meaning, yet its beauty and subtle charm make it a title frequently referenced in this debate as an example of games as art. It elicits this reaction not because of story, cutting-edge visuals or gameplay – it doesn’t really have them. Rather, it is because of the reaction within the player that the game inspires – a peaceful, meditative transcendence that strips away many conventions of the game genre in favor of a pure aesthetic experience. The game transcends Ebert’s videogames-as-sports analogy by removing all qualities of narrative, points and scores, winning and losing. With these elements stripped, the experience becomes instead purely aesthetic and emotional.
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 vs. Assassin’s Creed II
A great game to dissect for this discussion is the recent Ubisoft release, Assassin’s Creed II. It embodies many hallmarks of excellent game creation and has specific elements that seem to pertain directly to this debate. The game takes place largely during the early Renaissance in Florence and Venice and follows the adventures of Ezio, an assassin whose story seems ripped right from the pages of art history. The locations are accurately and faithfully rendered and the game world is populated by real historical figures. The narrative takes full advantage of these features to present a game literally dripping with historical, artistic and cultural significance. One of Ezio’s patrons in the game is Lorenzo di Medici, whose murder Ezio helps prevent in a scene taken almost verbatim from historical records. Another character in the game, who provides our hero with information, secret weapons and even a ornithopter ride is none other than Leonardo da Vinci himself. Throughout the game, as Ezio gains wealth and prestige, he is tasked with building his villa into a palace. One mini-game actually involves collecting oil paintings from vendors throughout the game, including many recognisable works by Renaissance masters. All of these visual and narrative touches create a game of unique cultural significance.
Plus, Assassin’s Creed is fun. The game is beautiful on every level. Gameplay is accessible, satisfying and epic. The story spans years but never gets old. In short, this is a near perfect game in every way. I can’t think of any major criticism to lay on it. Yet when I filter this game through the “Is it art?” debate, the answer I come up with is no, this is not a work of “high” art (to use Ebert’s definition). It is a perfectly produced game, which showcases the creative talents of hundreds of people, and even luxuriates in historical and cultural relevancy. And as much as I love this game, it fails on a fundamental level to move me emotionally. To be sure, the game is filled with jaw-dropping beauty, and plenty of “whoa” moments, but none of those images or moments effect me on a deeper emotional level.
Using the wedding cake analogy, this game would be positioned near the highest point in the middle layer (an excellent piece of commercial art), but would fail to reside in the topmost layer. Would those who worked on the game agree? Probably not. From their perspective, Assassin’s Creed II likely represents a crowning achievement in creativity within the game industry, and they would be right in feeling so. But was their intent to create a deep emotional experience. I don’t think so. Their goal seems to be creating a fun, beautiful and culturally rich (and financially successful) game. And by that measure they have succeeded.
COD MW2 is another recent game worth discussing. It was notable as the single biggest release of any property in any entertainment history. Economically it dwarfed every movie opening weekend ever. Although most critics and gamers focused on the highly polished multi-player aspect of the game, this essay is limited to the single player campaign.
COD MW2 is a great example of a popcorn blockbuster – an ultraviolent wargame, with a narrative modeled on the contemporary world politics, but ratcheted up to a level that would give Tom Clancy vertigo. The single player campaign is one of the most emotionally intense experiences ever presented in a game. The game dev’s clearly learned a great deal from the release of the original MW, taking the best parts of the early game, and cutting out the filler. The result is a short, emotionally draining experience that plays less like a cohesive story, and more like a series of epic set-pieces and vignettes, loosely tied together by voice over narration that plays during load screens. This VO narration is confusing, the voices all sound alike, and it does little to move the story forward. I found myself tuning out these cutscenes instinctively because paying attention to them and trying to keep track of mostly faceless characters was diminishing the experience. By contrast the game itself, the levels and maps, were so expertly crafted and presented that almost every scene had moments where I had to pause the game simply to give myself time to take in and process everything I was seeing and experiencing. Many of these were just like the previously mentioned “Whoa” moments from AC2, perfectly executed moments that could only be seen and experienced within a game, like stunning locations, ultra-tense stealth missions and perfectly rendered fight scenes.
But more than a few of these moments went beyond the “whoa” factor and entered into a whole different realm, when the ideas themselves actually overshadowed the game’s rich presentation. Moments like defending suburban Virginia from invading foreign forces, emerging from a bunker in DC to see the Washington monument blown to pieces, and literally fighting room-to-room through the White House. (to any gamer who also played Fallout 3, seeing the destruction of DC in MW2 works as a kind of meta-prequel to Fallout’s crumbling DC wasteland and helped to imbue these scenes with emotional weight).
Finally there is a scene in MW2 surrounded by some controversy. Potentially disturbing enough that there is an option to skip it, the scene places the player squarely in the middle of a mass murder, not just another gunfight or battle, but as a participant in the wholesale slaughter of hundreds of innocent, unarmed civilians. The player can choose to hold their fire out of distaste for the task (as I tried to do), but the character is compelled to participate lest they blow their deep cover with the bad guys. Ultimately, the player feels trapped and guilty regardless of how their in-game character behaves. Playing through this level the gamer is ultimately forced to reconcile the real world context of violence that videogames usually ignore. This is not an easy task for the designers, and although the scene is still handled in a way that would seem juvenile on TV or film, I consider it a minor milestone that they succeed in eliciting a real, emotional response from me. I have personally killed dozens ( maybe hundreds) of thousands of digital enemies in 3+ decades of gaming, and I rarely if ever stopped to consider them as tangible or real people in any way. MW2, and this scene in particular, resonated with me in a way that forced me to reconsider that unexamined position. During this moment in the game, my heart raced, I had to stop, pause the game, and really consider whether my actions were moral.
Does my experience make MW2 art? Probably not by Ebert’s point of view, but maybe anyway. Does the game serve the same purpose that art serves? Yes, without question. It was one of the most moving and emotional experiences I have ever had with a piece of fictional media – or entertainment of any kind. Did the game creators intend to present such deeply resounding experiences? I think they did.
As crazy as it sounds, even to me, maybe COD MW2, an ultra-violent, commercial piece of interactive fiction, has actually achieved the status that Ebert so firmly rejects. Perhaps we are seeing one of the first of many games whose intent and execution lift them up into the top layer of the wedding cake. | <urn:uuid:7c1a84a6-0d8a-4bc1-9646-a6e15275fd72> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mediasapien.wordpress.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96498 | 3,761 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Learn Natural Building with SunDog School of Natural Building
The SunDog nine day workshop is designed to teach ordinary people the skills to build their own cob cottages, from the foundation to the roof. Our projects are small, most are under 200 square feet, and geared towards attaining a high level of completion in a short amount of time.
We’ll take you through an intensive, step by step, beginning to end, instructional course on how to: site/design, excavate, build a foundation, build the walls AND get the roof assembled on a small cob cottage.
This course, created by Bryan and Kirk, is the result of several years of experience teaching the “$1000 House” course at Cob Cottage Company.
“We’ve taken 3 weeks of instruction and condensed it into 9-days.”
- Complete Cob Cottage in 9 Days
- August 17-26 Point Arena, CA. Price $880
Get the full details at the SunDog Builders website and view more pictures of previous workshops.
He just put up a post with a slide show of pictures of his visit. He went to visit Ianto Evans and Linda Smiley in their home in Coquille, Oregon.
Ianto and Linda are two very influential cob building pioneers in North America, and authors of The Hand-Sculpted House, the number one go-to book for cob construction.
Be sure and watch his slide show and read his post as he covers a lot of good information on cob building and what he learned from his visit. Here is what Ziggy came away with from his visit: Continue Reading » | <urn:uuid:96d7e489-4efc-43ba-98ee-e78e8bbcbe76> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tinyhouseblog.com/tag/cob-cottage-company/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964882 | 342 | 1.601563 | 2 |
"Truth is the daughter of time, and I feel no shame in being her midwife."
Religious conspiracy, coded letters, a barely sane astronomer with a clairvoyant dwarf, allegations of heresy and witchcraft...at first glance Stuart Clark's new book really does sound like something from the Dan Brown school of writing. That's probably a little unfair on both authors, because in many ways this is the exact opposite of Brown's modus operandi; the real challenge here is picking out the parts of the story that aren't essentially true.
Clark, you see, is not a novelist who has decided to dip his toe into the world of astronomy, he's a PhD holding astrophysicist who specialises in science journalism, which goes a long way to explaining the historical veracity underlying The Sky's Dark Labyrinth.
It's personal confession time...I know this story quite well, enough to hold my own view on events and argue them in front of a real historian without blushing too much...and Clark's account is superb. The spat between Galileo and the Catholic church is infamous, with the general perception being that Galileo had the temerity to suggest the Earth orbits the Sun, and was promptly tried and imprisoned for his trouble. The truth, when you dig into it, is a little more complicated. Clark takes the main protagonists, Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler and Galileo Galilei, and skilfully picks apart three very different men with equally different ideas about how the universe works, against a vivid backdrop of southern Europe at a time of huge political and religious upheaval. Kepler, with his remarkable mathematical ability, tries to tease the data he needs from Tycho's private and closely guarded collection. Galileo turns the newly invented telescope towards the skies, and the church struggles to maintain their authority over a world in flux.
It's a well balanced and fair account, far removed from a naive religion versus science debate. The greatest astronomers in history have family problems, crises of faith, run out of money and even cast horoscopes on the side while the church does its best to research and adapt to new ideas without bringing the whole house of cards crashing down under the weight of its own logic.
It's one of the great true stories of human imagination and inspiration, a fascinatingly detailed history, and a cracking good read.
Oh, OK, I give up. What's a crap astronomical pun on "brilliant"?
A work of gravitational gravitas?
Suffice to say, great book.
As a bonus, it's the first part in a trilogy, the following parts covering Newton and Halley, then Einstein and Hubble, tying together four hundred years of cosmology. I can't wait for a TV series, ideally directed by Joss Whedon.
Published 1st of May 2011
The Sky's Dark Labyrinth
(Review based on an uncorrected proof supplied by the publisher) | <urn:uuid:76513216-9cf0-4dbe-a7e4-aecec995a356> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://coolsciencebooks.blogspot.com/2011/04/skys-dark-labyrinth.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949207 | 593 | 1.59375 | 2 |
National Robotics Engineering Center will design, build and deploy mining robots
By RBR Staff
January 09, 2013
PITTSBURGH—Carnegie Mellon University has signed a five-year master agreement with one of the world’s largest mining companies, London-based Anglo American PLC, to develop robotic technologies for mining.
CMU’s Robotics Institute (RI), through its National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC) and Field Robotics Center (FRC), will design, build and deploy mining robots, robotic tools and autonomous technologies in partnership with Anglo American’s Technology Development Group.
“We are excited that Anglo American selected CMU as its partner for developing innovative mining robotics,” said Tony Stentz, NREC director.
“This agreement will break new ground in mining technology,” said Dimi Apostolopoulos, principal investigator and senior systems scientist at NREC. “We will apply robotics to underground mining tasks that are perilous and extremely challenging for humans. Our robotic solutions will improve productivity through innovations in processes and technologies.”
The RI will build upon its track record of successful mining automation projects to develop advanced perception, electromechanical and robotic systems for Anglo American. It will partner with Anglo American engineers to put the NREC’s and FRC’s field-proven technologies to work in the company’s mining operations.
The immediate applications include robotic mining machinery, mine mapping and automated inspections. Anglo American and the RI also will explore other applications under this master agreement. “We will work hard to get production robotics in place as soon as possible,” Apostolopoulos said.
Automating the most difficult, costly and dangerous mining jobs will improve safety and increase the productivity and efficiency of Anglo American’s operations. Advances in robotics will allow the mining of hard-to-reach ore deposits that cannot be economically extracted under existing methods and mine layouts.
Anglo American’s master agreement with CMU is part of its strategic plan for advancing mining technologies. The company has worldwide operations, producing such commodities as iron ore, metallurgical coal, thermal coal, copper, nickel, platinum and diamonds.
“Working with top robotics experts is essential to our technology and innovation programs,” said Donovan Waller, who leads automation and remote control technology development for Anglo American. “Our agreement with Carnegie Mellon University will allow us to rapidly deploy new systems in our platinum mines and develop technologies that will shape our future operations.”
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From enabling astronauts to practice moon landings to aircraft crash testing to drop tests for Orion, NASA's gantry has come full circle.
The gantry, a 240-foot high, 400-foot-long, 265-foot-wide A-frame steel structure located at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., was built in 1963 and was used to model lunar gravity. Originally named the Lunar Landing Research Facility (LLRF), the gantry became operational in 1965 and allowed astronauts like Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin to train for Apollo 11's final 150 feet before landing on the moon.
Because the moon's gravity is only 1/6 as strong as Earth's, the gantry had a suspension system that supported 5/6 of the total weight of the Lunar Excursion Module Simulator (LEMS), the device the astronauts used to perform the tests. This supportive suspension system imitated the moon's gravitational environment. Additionally, many of the tests were conducted at night to recreate lighting conditions on the moon.
Image above: NASA's gantry is located at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. and was used to help train the original astronauts to land on the moon. Credit: NASA
Aircraft Crash Test Research
After the Apollo program concluded, a new purpose emerged for the gantry – aircraft crash testing. In 1972, the gantry was converted into the Impact Dynamics Research Facility (IDRF) and was used to investigate the crashworthiness of General Aviation (GA) aircraft and rotorcraft. The facility performed full-scale crash tests of GA aircraft and helicopters, system qualification tests of Army helicopters, vertical drop tests of Boeing 707 and composite fuselage sections and drop tests of the F-111 crew escape capsule.
The gantry was even used to complete a number of component tests in support of the Mars Sample Return Earth Entry Vehicle.
Image to right: General aviation airplanes provided crucial information to researchers during aircraft crash testing at the gantry. Credit: NASA
With features including a bridge and a 72-foot vertical drop tower, the gantry was able to support planes that weighed up to 30,000 pounds. Engineers lifted aircraft as high as 200 feet in the air and released them to determine how well the craft endured the crash. Data from the crash tests were used to define a typical acceleration for survivable crashes as well as to establish impact criteria for aircraft seats. The impact criteria are still used today as the Federal Aviation Administration standard for certification.
In 1985, the structure was named a National Historic Landmark based on its considerable contributions to the Apollo program.
Revitalized Space Mission
Recently, the gantry was returned to its work in space exploration: enabling engineers and astronauts to prepare for flight into space and the subsequent return to Earth. Orion, NASA's crew exploration vehicle, is part of the Constellation Program working to send astronauts back to the moon, to Mars and to various other locations in the solar system.
Engineers are currently conducting drop tests at the gantry in preparation for Orion's journey to the International Space Station by 2015 and to the moon by 2020.
Image to left: Engineers and technicians prepare to lift the Orion test article for a pendulum-swing drop test at the gantry. These tests are helping researchers determine the best technology for returning Orion to Earth. Credit: NASA
The gantry provides engineers and astronauts a means to prepare for Orion's return to Earth from such missions. With its new mission, the gantry also received a new name – the Landing and Impact Research (LandIR) Facility.
Although originally capable of supporting only 30,000 pounds, the new bridge can bear up to 64,000 pounds after the summer 2007 renovations. Other renovations include a new elevator, floor repairs and a parallel winch capability that allows an accurate adjustment of the pitch of the test article. The new parallel winch system increases the ability to accurately control impact pitch and pitching rotational rate. The gantry can also perform pendulum swings from as high as 200 feet with resultant velocities of over 70 miles per hour.
The gantry makes researching for the optimal landing alternative for NASA's first attempted, manned dry landing on Earth possible. Orion's return on land rather than water will facilitate reuse of the capsule. A water landing would make reuse difficult due to the corrosiveness of salt water.
The testing process involves lifting the test article by steel cables to a height between 40 and 60 feet and swinging it back to Earth. Although the airbags appear most promising, the gantry has the capability to perform different kinds of tests, including a retro rocket landing system and a scale-model, water landing test using a four-foot-deep circular pool. So far, three types of tests have been conducted in support of the Orion program, each progressing from the previous to more realistic features.
The first test consisted of dropping a boilerplate test article that was half the diameter of what Orion will be. For the second round of testing, engineers added a welded structure to the top, with a shape more comparable to Orion to examine the article's tendency to flip or remain upright.
Image above: The Orion test article lands at the base of the gantry from a pendulum-swing drop test. The test article currently uses airbags from two different vendors. As testing progresses, researchers will down-select to one vendor. Credit: NASA
The third round of testing employed two different sets of airbags to ease the landing of a flat-bottomed test article that was approximately half mass, or 7,000 pounds, with a full-scale 16.5-foot diameter test article.
The future Orion test article will have a curved underside, rather than the current flat one, and will use more lightweight airbags. These new characteristics are more similar to the design of the actual crew exploration vehicle. The testing will also involve more airbags than previous drop tests, which will further provide a more realistic outlook.
With over 41 tests completed in the first year of Orion drop testing and future testing in sight, the gantry is again serving a vital role in space exploration.
Image above: One option for Orion's return to earth involves performing a ground landing using airbags to ease the landing. Engineers at the gantry will next conduct drop tests on articles more similar to Orion's design. Credit: NASA | <urn:uuid:cef0a02c-fe50-4189-be30-c3f0557877b0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/news/factsheets/fs-2007-08-138-larc.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940974 | 1,291 | 3.953125 | 4 |
Middle School Shelter to Stay Open Until Sunday
Saucon Valley Middle School will continue to serve as a shelter for storm-weary local residents who lost power during Superstorm Sandy. The Saucon Valley Compost Center will also open for extended hours. Volunteers are needed at both locations.
A day after opening the Saucon Valley Middle School gym as a temporary shelter for local residents dealing with a days-long power outage, Saucon Valley School District superintendent Dr. Sandra Fellin announced that the school will remain open as a shelter until Sunday, Nov. 4 at 9pm.
The school's locker rooms and showers are also open during the daytime for the thousands of local residents who have been without power since Superstorm Sandy brought down trees and utility lines Monday night.
Fellin said Thursday that falling temperatures and the number of local residents still without heat prompted the decision to open part of the school as a shelter.
Friday night's low is forecast to be 36 degrees, and the low Saturday night is forecast to be 34 degrees.
In her Friday press release about extending the shelter's opening, Fellin reminded residents who want to take advantage of it that "the conditions are not optimal, but it is warm."
She said all displaced residents are welcome, but animals are not permitted, and she encouraged those who do not plan to make use of the facilities to tell others who might be in need of a warm place to stay
Anyone who plans to use the shelter should enter the middle school through Door 17, which is across from the baseball field.
Sleeping bags, pillows and blankets should be brought from home, since cots and beds aren't available.
Residents who plan to use the showers and the locker rooms should also bring their own toiletries and towels with them.
In other post-Sandy news, it was announced Friday that the Saucon Valley Compost Center will have extended hours on Saturday, Nov. 3, when it will be open from 9am to 5pm.
Next week the center will be open daily from 9am to 3pm for drop-off of brush and other debris.
The following items are accepted for drop-off:
- Small brush (up to 4 inches in diameter and 6 feet long)
- Hedge trimmings
- Garden plant residue
Logs, tree stumps, grass clippings, sod and commercial business materials are not accepted.
Lower Saucon Township announced Friday on its website that volunteers are needed to help staff the extended hours at the compost center.
If you are interested in volunteering, call the township at 610-865-3291 for more information.
The township also announced a need for volunteers for two or more hours per shift for the daytime warming station at the middle school, where local residents can warm up, enjoy coffee or tea and recharge electronic devices.
Anyone interested in volunteering at the school should contact Wally Zimpfer at 484-239-0768. | <urn:uuid:9f7f5088-15bd-4c34-84c5-17c4109c966e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hellertown.patch.com/articles/middle-school-shelter-to-stay-open-until-sunday | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946427 | 606 | 1.664063 | 2 |
It's amazing what can be done to preserve priceless works of art, with the process sometimes taking years to complete. Most recently Jackson Pollock's incredibly important painting "Mural" has arrived at the J. Paul Getty Museum
to be brought back to display condition. Pollock was (and still is) one of the most influential and important American artists, and restoring "Mural" is a major job for the Getty's conservation lab.
"Mural" is a shining example of how Pollock (1912-1956) transcended the traditional style of painting on an upright canvas by stretching it out on the floor and implementing his unique drip style. The piece was originally commissioned by art collector Peggy Guggenheim and is an impressive eight feet tall by twenty feet long, marking the very first large-scale painting to utilize Pollock's new drip method. With its trademark chaotic shapes and colors, the painting is widely considered to be an inspiration for many mid-20th century Abstract Expressionists and marks a turning point in Pollock's infamous career. It's "a stampede...[of] every animal in the American West, cows and horses and antelopes and buffaloes. Everything is charging across that goddamn surface," said Pollock of the painting.
According to the Getty, "Mural" has embarked on a two-year long study and conservation treatment, in collaboration with the University of Iowa Museum of Art (which was gifted with the painting in 1951 by Guggenheim). Studying the materials used and painting techniques will help them to figure out the best way to treat the many problems. Analyzing "Mural," from the type of paint to the method of its application, could give the museum some new insight into how Pollock worked. Due to paint drying different depending on whether it's overlapping wet or dry paint, the Getty may even find out whether or not Pollock actually painting it in a day (which is a legend that's been floating around "Mural" for years).
The painting apparently has a very obvious sag in the top middle, the weight of the canvas pulling down and placing stress at the edges, according to LA Times. It's thought that the sagging may have started when a new lining was added to help reinforce the canvas. Since the procedure commonly uses a wax adhesive, it just resulted in bringing added weight to the painting.
ďAll paintings require some conservation treatment over time, and Mural is no exception. Visually, its surface looks dull, so it will need to be cleaned. And although though the lining is structurally sound, some structural work also will be needed. At the very minimum, a new stretcher will be required to provide more adequate support for the painting, which is very heavy," says Yvonne Szafran, head of conservation at the Getty.
For more information visit Getty.edu | <urn:uuid:e952fb82-96da-4a7c-9066-3788f42921c9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.justluxe.com/lifestyle/arts/feature-1805231.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967062 | 588 | 3.328125 | 3 |
Jupiter and Saturn are social planets. They have a return period of 12 years and 29 years respectively and, therefore, spend a reasonable amount of time in each sign as they travel round the zodiac. Their movement has an effect on society. Their effect is bigger than one individual but it is still possible to integrate their message, something which is more questionable with the outer planets.
Diurnal, Masculine, Hot & Moist
Rules: Sagittarius and Pisces
Joy: eleventh house
Retrograde period: Jupiter is retrograde every year while in opposition to the Sun. The retrograde period begins just before it trines the Sun.
Traverses the zodiac in 11.86 years, around one year in each sign.
Data and Sources
Philosophy, religion, expansion, growth, abundance, inflation, exaggeration, wisdom, wealth, belief, confidence, vision, greed, uncles, education, the liver, long distance or mind expanding travel.
Everything you’re against can be restated in such a way that puts you in favour of something else, thus promoting abundance.
Jupiter is the principal which makes you look beyond the bottom of the garden. As you lift your eyes from focusing on the garden fence you notice what ever’s on the horizon and so your world expands. It the principle which extends your frame of reference. With it comes the ability to form concepts and make generalisations which give meaning to random events; abstract thinking. Things which make you feel as if you belong to something bigger than you. Jupiter makes its first return to its natal position about the age of 12 and it is about this age that a child will develop these conceptual faculties.
It shows where you find meaning and describes your faith and belief. Generally regarded as lucky, it can also just make everything so out of control that you can only wish for the spartan touch of Saturn to strip things down to essentials. It really is true that you make your own luck. Confidence breeds confidence both in yourself and in others.
Jupiter can be one of the parental significators but is more likely to be an uncle figure – offering patronage but not the more difficult aspects of parental responsibility. It could also be a adult who isn’t a teacher or parent who acts as a mentor figure.
Associated with abundance and wealth, caution is necessary as the best use of this principle comes with a dose of Saturn to ground the vision and focus that vision to a specific end.
Jupiter joys in the 11th house, the house of good fortune, in keeping with Jupiter’s role of greater benefic.
In Mundane Astrology:
The means of regulation – religion, law, and general philosophy; further education; publishing; generosity on an international stage – linked with nation’s finances; a nation’s opinion of itself.
Diurnal, Masculine, Cold & Dry
Rules: Capricorn and Aquarius
Joy: twelfth house
Retrograde period: Saturn is retrograde every year while in opposition to the Sun. The retrograde period begins just before it trines the Sun.
Traverses the zodiac in 29.46 years; around 2 1/2 years in a sign.
Data and Sources
Rules, duty, responsibility, fear, boundaries, delay, divisions, reality, restrictions, essentials, structure, authority, fathers, hierarchy, pessimism, time, control, learning things the hard way, reality, bones, death, age, cold.
Lessons are not given, they are taken.
If Jupiter is the principle of expansion, Saturn represents restriction. Where Jupiter reaches to the sky, Saturn demands that you attend to your responsibilities and duties. It is the rules of the game and the associated consequences of breaking them. As no one has yet fully transcribed this rule book, it’s very difficult to know what the rules are until you break them, hence the association with hard knocks. It’s finding out what’s right by finding out what’s wrong.
Saturn was for centuries the last known planet, symbolising the end of what we knew: the boundary. Fear comes with the unknown. The more uncomfortable aspects of Saturn come when boundaries are imposed upon us, whether of time or resources or when we don’t understand the rules fully. When we work with the principle of Saturn, we find structure but we must be careful not to let our creativity be stifled.
Where ever we find Saturn we find our weak spot. By sign and house position, its placement describes our fears and defence mechanisms which will be trigged by events in these areas. Most people try to protect these tender spots by attempting mastery of this area giving the paradox of great proficiency but with little natural confidence.
The death aspect of Saturn refers to absence of growth: Saturn has overcome Jupiter.
Saturn joys in the 12th, an area which shares Saturn’s qualities of understatedness.
In Mundane Astrology:
Controller or warden of the state; all those who wield authority or are deemed to be custodians of the nation’s heritage; those wearing uniforms to identify themselves as warders of the law. | <urn:uuid:a19098d2-79df-4788-9048-65e7cf05addd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.clairechandler.com/astrology/planets/social-planets/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931351 | 1,081 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Includes the testing of fecal, blood, tissues and skin specimens to diagnose and taxonomically identify human and animal-borne parasitic organisms and agents of medical and public health importance. These include over 40 species of protozoan (single-celled organisms), cysts and trophozoites, eggs and other stages of metazoans (multiple-celled parasites like roundworms, tapeworms, flukes, and other parasitic organisms) that may be found in biological specimens, e.g., fecal, blood, tissues, and skin. PCI uses state of the art technologies for staining, processing andidentifying parasitesin fecal samples presented via mailable kits or shipped as whole worms. STF (Streck Tissue Fixative) is utilized for preserving and transporting of collected fecal specimens that are subsequently concentrated, processed and stained in the laboratory. Optical microscopy is connected with a video camera, monitor and printer for identification and verification. Results for each parasite tested on blood, tissues, fecal, and skin specimens are quantified on a scale of 1 (light infection) to 4 (heavy infection).
Parasitology Center, Inc. is the only facility in the world working with Neuro-cutaneous Syndrome (NCS) which Dr. Amin recently described from patients experiencing dermatological abnormalities (elevated itchy skin sores that may develop into mucoid lesions) and neurological symptoms (movement, pin prick, or crawling sensations) usually caused by toxic dental materials. We provide a comprehensive and definitive diagnosis including blood bio-compatibility testing, among others, and design a management program for individual patients' rehabilitation. All patients fully complying with our 6-track protocol have invariably recovered. For moreinformation about NCS,see links to relevant articles on our home page. Please see our patientNCS testimonials
Participates in consultation, and other follow-up activities regarding the patient's condition, including treatment protocols, with the referring practitioner, upon request.Consultationwith patients are available pending their practitioner's authorization. Patient confidentiality and professional practice with practitioners and patients are strictly observed.
Includes (a) providing pratitioners with the most recent publications on the parasites that their patients may have and providing other information about these parasites when requested; (b) conducting educational seminars, continuing education courses, and conference presentations on human parasitic infections to medical practitioners and techonologists, public health professionals and workers in the health and allied fields. | <urn:uuid:593d64d4-0165-4683-a56c-e21417d22dcc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.parasitetesting.com/services.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913327 | 503 | 2.015625 | 2 |
Beginning with Gimp -- Starting tutorial for new users
Posted 31 October 2008 - 07:29 AM
Maybe you are using a very low resolution for your screen? You could try to temporary increase it so the window fits and you can resize it (I believe you do that from the same place you change the wallpaper, right-clicing at the the desktop).
In the case of GIMP, if the height of the window is made up by e.g. the toolbox and the tool options, you can split the window by dragging away from the bar where the tabs would appear (as seen in the tutorial). That would you could at least see all of the tool options.
Posted 03 November 2008 - 06:06 AM
Posted 03 November 2008 - 06:21 AM
Wall of text crits for....
Once i can get the time to read what looks like a book lol.
Ill take a look. It looks good though.
Nice result Jtj321 :P
DA Page - Check it out :DLeave a comment :P
Posted 03 November 2008 - 07:25 AM
Good job! Looks like you managed through it all, and did all the steps, including the thumbnail. :) This is of course just scratching the surface of GIMP, but depending on what you want with the program you should hopefully have some grip of the basics to continue from. I'm putting this up in the first post's "hall of fame", good job. :)
Working with the mouse is a matter of experience, as with all art tools. But quality of the mouse matters greatly for how good control you can have; best is probably a weighted laser mouse (so-called "game mice" works well). For even more power, gimp supports graphics tablets, which allows you to draw on a pad using a special pen, with pressure sensitivity and many other functions. Tablets range in price from <$100 to >$2000. Searching google for "wacom" is a good start if you want some examples of tablets well-supported in GIMP. It's perfectly possible to do good art with a mouse too though; it's just a matter of training.
Posted 04 November 2008 - 05:15 PM
Posted 05 November 2008 - 03:32 AM
Thanks for the comments (and welcome to GIMPtalk!), glad the tutorial helped you guys!
Thanks and welcome to GIMPtalk! Mouse quality does help to make steadier lines. It is not impossible though, and using the mouse to draw is a matter of experience -- the same way you start to learn any new tool. Ýou are used to draw with a pen, so the mouse is a very different experience in that regard. Most people feel it rather awkward at first.
However, it also depends on what you want to do with GIMP... For most photomanipulation, many forms of signatures or image effects etc you don't need high precision on your mouse or a high-grade computer. Experiment and look through some tutorials (there are hundreds here on GimpTalk, you can find long lists of them in our Official- and User-tutorial forums) that you think look fun to do.
Posted 06 November 2008 - 01:50 PM
Some nice art there, all possible to do in GIMP. Exactly how 'crappy' is this equipment of yours though? Could you give the specs of your computer?
Posted 06 November 2008 - 09:06 PM
Intel pentium 4 single core 2ghz(i think)
Around 500mb ram
Geforce 2 mx 100/200(really old)
Around 1 gb space left
Really crappy keyboard and mouse
really old monitor but lcd and 1024x764
very shit:(,so please help me griatch cos i want to draw amzing,i can do it on paper so i want tot do it on computer too....please:'(
Posted 06 November 2008 - 09:24 PM
Posted 06 November 2008 - 09:36 PM
Get a good optical mouse :) | <urn:uuid:1d7b07ca-88dc-4105-ad6d-9061e72252da> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gimptalk.com/index.php?/topic/34102-beginning-with-gimp-starting-tutorial-for-new-users/page__st__20__p__251224 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928124 | 844 | 1.9375 | 2 |
If you ask me how many variants of Unixes are there, then my obvious answer would be quite a few. Some of them being IRIX, IBM AIX, Sun Solaris, HP-UX, Sco Unix and of course the BSD variants - FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD.
But over the years, a relatively recent upstart called Linux has been successful in stealing the thunder from all the above Unix variants. Mainly because Unix has a history of being newbie unfriendly. It also helped that the GNU movement caught on the public's fancy and Linux being released under GPL made it unbeatable vis-a-vis the price. One of the most talked about drawback of Unix is that it is very hard to install by a relative neophyte. But recently interest has been generated in making at least some of the Unix variants more user friendly and many projects have come up which aim to create a better experience for the end user both in installing and using them.
One such project is PC-BSD. As the name indicates, it is a BSD variant and is based on FreeBSD. The aim of the developers of PC-BSD is to make it more user friendly and fit for the desktop. Where as FreeBSD is first and foremost a server operating system, PC-BSD is packaged to bring the legendary stability and security of FreeBSD to the desktop.
Recently, I downloaded the PC-BSD image from their website with an intention of trying out this Unix distribution. I booted my machine using the PC-BSD installation CD. And within a short time I was presented with a very beautiful and clean GUI installer. Actually, I found out that the PC-BSD developers have trodden the same path embraced by the Linux Live CD creators in that it first automatically detects and configures the interfaces and then puts the user in a fully usable desktop in this case the developers have used fluxbox (or is it blackbox?). And immediately after that, the graphical installer is started and the user is led through the installation process which, sans the partitioning, keyboard, locale and time configuration is really just copying all the files into the partition of ones choice. At the end of installation, I was placed into a fully configured KDE desktop system.
If you have read my past article named Effective partitioning - The how and why of it, you will find that I already had a primary partition which housed the FreeBSD OS. So I was not faced with the prospects of creating a separate partition and chose to install PC-BSD in this partition. I installed the OS on a Pentium IV 2.0 Ghz machine with 256 MB RAM and having on board sound and all the hardware interfaces were detected automatically by the installer.
PC-BSD comes with the latest version of KDE - ver 3.5. Underneath, it is the same FreeBSD operating system. But what makes PC-BSD stand out is the effort that has been put to make it user friendly. For one, the hard working developers have provided GUI widgets to accomplish almost all common system administration tasks like user creation, network configuration and installing and uninstalling programs.
Secondly, for installing and uninstalling software, PC-BSD has developed its own method which is similar to that found in Windows. That is, the software is packaged as a monolithic .pbi (pcbsd installer) file which has to be downloaded from their repository site. Once the .pbi file is downloaded, just double clicking on the file will open a GUI and guide the user through the installation process. Similarly, uninstalling is also a simple affair.
Advantages of PC-BSD
- A very easy to use GUI enabled installation process unlike the text installer found in FreeBSD.
- Is geared for the desktop user but with all the power, stability and security of FreeBSD. BTW, FreeBSD was around when Linux was not even born, which should give you a fair idea about this OS.
- Installing and uninstalling software is a point - and - click affair and will gladden the hearts of neophytes and Windows users alike.
- Bundles two FreeBSD kernels - a single processor kernel and a SMP enabled kernel. And the user can easily switch between the two (See system configuration dialog figure above).
- One drawback I found was the limited amount of software available on their site. But I consider that as a temporary phenomenon and is bound to change in the future as they continuously add more software.
- The GUI even though very clean and intutive at the present stage is not without its quirks. For example, I installed bash shell by the point and click method. But when I tried to change my default shell to bash from the User Manager widget (see figure above), the bash shell was not available for selection in the drop down box. And I had to do it the command line way. But I am sure such minor matters would be sorted out as more and more people try out PC-BSD.
- Also some people talk about the obvious blot in installing software using PC-BSD click and install method because there is some duplication of the common libraries used by the various software.
But seriously, for a person who has dedicated his full 80 GB hard disk or even half or quarter of that space for running PC-BSD, it is not a serious issue.
All in all, PC-BSD is an OS which has a bright future in the Desktop market provided the developers provide more variety of software or at least equivalent to those found in the FreeBSD ports. | <urn:uuid:41d4dd2a-c428-4608-bd0e-a6cf772844fb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aboutlinux.info/2006/02/pc-bsd-user-friendly-bsd-flavour.html?showComment=1139113620000 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956501 | 1,125 | 2.265625 | 2 |
Chester Bliss Bowles (April 5, 1901 - May 25, 1986) was a liberal Democratic American diplomat and politician from Connecticut.
Born in Springfield, Massachusetts, Bowles attended Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut, graduating in 1919, and the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale University, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in 1924. After working for a year as a reporter, Bowles became an advertising copywriter and later established the Benton and Bowles advertising agency with William Benton in 1929. Despite the Great Depression, by the mid-1930s Benton and Bowles was a multi-million dollar company. Bowles served as chairman of the board for the company from 1936, and by 1941 was making $250,000 per year.
Bowles sold his shares in the company in December 1941 for a substantial profit and attempted to join the Navy, but was rejected because of an ear problem. He then took a job with the state of Connecticut in the wartime rationing administration, later becoming state director of price administration. He was appointed by President Roosevelt in 1943 as administrator of the Office of Price Administration, and also served on the federal boards for War Production and Petroleum.
In 1946 he was appointed director of the Office of Economic Stabilization, and also ran an unsuccessful race for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in Connecticut. That year Bowles also was one of the American delegates to the first UNESCO conference in Paris. He served as special assistant to UN Secretary General Trygve Lie in 1947-8, and was International Chairman of the United Nations Children's Appeal from 1948-51.
Bowles was elected to the governorship of Connecticut in 1948, defeating James C. Shannon, and served one term, during which time he signed into law an end to segregation in the state national guard. During his term, Bowles was also active in improving education, mental health, housing and workmen's compensation. His liberal views and policies while governor are attributed by most as the main reason he lost his re-election bid in 1950.
He was appointed as U.S. Ambassador to India and Nepal by President Truman, serving from 1951-53. He then won a seat in the House of Representatives for Connecticut's second district, serving one term (1959-60). On more than one occasion he was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate.
Selected as a foreign policy adviser in 1960 to Senator John F. Kennedy, Bowles went on to act as chairman of the platform committee for the Democratic National Convention that year. President Kennedy appointed Bowles to the post of Undersecretary of State in 1961. In early December 1961 he was replaced by George Ball as Undersecretary, a consequence of his perceived failure to adequately fulfil his duties as an administrator in the Department of State, and his earlier leaking of his opposition to the Bay of Pigs Invasion. His removal was made part of a broader bureaucratic reshuffle, which became known as the 'Thanksgiving Day Massacre.' In December 1961 he was named the President's Special Representative and Adviser on African, Asian, and Latin American Affairs, and Ambassador at Large. Ostensibly the new position was a promotion, but as was recognised by all involved at the time, this improvised posting was intended to ease Bowles's removal from the Undersecretary's office. In July 1963 Bowles's was again made Ambassador to India, a position he would hold through the remainder of the Kennedy administration, and for the duration of Lyndon B. Johnson's presidency.
In March 1967, Bowles was formally petitioned for political asylum by Svetlana Alliluyeva, a writer and the only daughter of Joseph Stalin, which was then provided and arranged for her to leave India immediately for Switzerland, via Rome.
Bowles died at the age of 85 after suffering a stroke in Essex, Connecticut and is buried there in River View Cemetery. | <urn:uuid:8e821949-723c-4f87-bc97-3168f2a379e2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mysticgames.com/famouspeople/ChesterBlissBowles.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988052 | 795 | 1.9375 | 2 |
Footwear that rises to the ankle or higher; can be casual or dressy, practical or fashionable. Boots that are designed for protection from the elements may be made of a single, closely-stitched piece of leather, rubber, or other material to prevent the entry of water, mud or dirt. Other types of boots are sturdy in nature, intended for protection in wilderness or industrial settings. Fashionable boots for men and women may have all the variations seen in other shoe styles, including high heels, platforms, and lacings.
Kick back and relax in your own style with our incredible casual shoe selection! Are you looking for that perfect casual shoe for a morning stroll? Or comfortable, yet stylish, casual footwear to keep you going through your daily errands? Shop now for women's casual shoes, men's casual shoes or kids' casual shoes and kick back in your own casual style! Casual shoes can be worn on an everyday basis. Whether they're comfy boat shoes, or rubber gardening clogs, casual shoes are designed to coordinate with all your comfortable attire that gets you from day to day in your own style. Casual footwear is often characterized by design features which enhance comfort for the wearer. Most commonly, casual shoes are a perfect match with your favorite pair of jeans.
Rubber is a material that features elastic properties and can be natural or synthetic. It is used in a wide variety of products such as gloves, tires, and athletic shoes. Because of Rubber's high elasticity properties, a chemical process called vulcanization is usually employed to harden the material and make it more durable, less elastic and more resistant to chemicals. Vulcanized rubber offers good insulation and excellent shock absorption. | <urn:uuid:ca599f6a-a42e-46e4-a27e-c9627d5502f2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.shoebuy.com/size-11.5-black-rubber-mens-casual-boots.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943008 | 343 | 1.664063 | 2 |
When you first turn on your smartphone and you are taken through the setup process, you will undoubtedly be asked if you want to turn on location services. As you read the screen that talks about these location services, one that mentions GPS tracking, locations, and the accessing of information you may not want the world to know on a minute-by-minute basis, you may skip right over it, hoping to reconsider activating them later. And you know what, there is nothing wrong with that. But in case you do that, we figured you should probably know how to turn them back on, as many of the applications you use will be crippled if location services are not turned on.
While it’s always scary to see an application ask to use your current location, you have to remember that in most cases, they are doing it to improve your smartphone or app experience. With your location information, apps like Google Maps can correctly pin-point your location to then help you find traffic information, see nearby places, and most importantly, navigate you from one location to another. Beyond Maps, think about apps like Foursquare, Instagram, and Facebook, all of which use your location to tag photos or check you in at your favorite restaurant. Without location services enabled, it would be difficult if not impossible for them to do this.
1. From your home screen, enter your Settings menu.
*If running Jelly Bean, swipe your notification bar down, and tap the Settings icon. On a Samsung device, from your home screen you can tap Menu>Settings.
2. Scroll down to the “Personal” section.
3. Tap on “Location services” or “Location access” – whichever your phone shows.
4. From this screen, you can toggle on or off any of the location services your phone offers.
5. On most phones, that includes your carrier’s and Google’s location services, plus standalone GPS services.
Basics of Each Service:
- Carrier location services: When checked, it uses your carrier’s cell towers to help to pin-point your location. A number of people leave this option unchecked, though just as many if not more leave it checked.
- Google location services: This mostly uses WiFi signals to help determine your location. No need to turn these off.
- Standalone GPS services: This uses the GPS unit in your phone in order to determine your location.
There has long been talk of location services draining the battery of phones. As they are, at times, constantly looking for your location, that is somewhat true. However, as times have changed and technology has evolved, leaving location services on does less and less to decrease the life of your battery. Toggling on or off your location services now has more to do with privacy than anything. | <urn:uuid:d6bba8eb-b101-4fc8-8573-738e7f130969> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.droid-life.com/2013/01/30/how-to-enable-gps-and-other-location-services-beginners-guide/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949805 | 583 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Cold Weather and Horses
Winter in Michigan is usually cold with temperatures well below freezing for many days in a row
Extreme cold weather can be particularly dangerous to animals that live outdoors and the MSU Veterinary Teaching Hospital is reporting an increase in the number of animals presenting with starvation and exposure-related problems.
During the winter it is imperative that you monitor your horse’s body weight by putting your hand on them frequently! Furry coats make visual assessment of body condition impossible - the ONLY way you can assess your animals condition is by touch.
As temperatures continue to remain unusually cold, it is important to remember that your animals require MORE calories to maintain body temperature and body weight. Once an animal’s body condition has deteriorated it may no longer be strong enough to eat enough food to survive.
Remember older animals with poor dentition and young animals may require more feed, and be fed separately from other horses to ensure adequate intake.
Points to remember!
- The average inactive horse needs to eat 1.5 to 2 percent of its body weight in food per day to just maintain weight without any other energy demands. In the winter, the amount needed will increase as the demand to keep warm will increase the amount of energy the horse expends. This means that the average 1,000-pound horse in good condition needs at least 20 pounds of hay during normal weather and may need as much as 35 to 40 pounds of hay and grain products during cold weather. If your horse is considered underweight, the amount of feed needs to be calculated based on his ideal weight, NOT his current weight. While hay diets are ideal, certain animals will require grain, complete feeds or fat supplements to maintain body weight.
- Separate young, old or debilitated horses as the dominant horse will frequently eat most of the food provided, resulting in some horses being healthy and others facing malnutrition.
- Blankets and shelters will help decrease energy demands. However, remember a blanket hides the body condition so it is important to place your hands under the blanket and remove it at least every week or so to assess body condition.
- Old horses with poor dentition (teeth) may require complete pelleted feeds* that are easily broken down, as they may be unable to adequately chew fiber (hay). For the average horse that should weigh about 1000-pounds, at least one-third of a fifty-pound bag needs to be fed daily just to maintain the body weight, and more will be needed if severe energy demands are present.
*A complete pelleted feed is a product that contains at least 15-percent crude fiber and can be fed as the sole source of nutrition for horses. Horses that are routinely fed a complete pelleted feed are senior horses that are lacking teeth or have severe dental problems. A complete pelleted feed can also be used as part of the diet when hay is in short supply (a hay extender) or fed to horses that have certain digestive disorders.
- Water intake is also very important during the winter. Many horses will suffer from impaction colics due to inadequate water intake. Older horses may require the water to not only be frost free, but warmed due to older horses having sensitive teeth.
- Remember, during extremely cold weather, to provide extra (free choice) hay, as this will generate more energy and comfort than just increasing the grain (concentrate) portion of the diet. Just the physical aspect of moving and eating will make the horse more comfortable. The hay fermenting in the large intestinal tract will generate heat and finally, the horse will utilize the calories absorbed from the feed.
Body condition score- The body condition scoring (BCS) system is based on a 1 through 9 scale and is designed to assess a horse’s overall condition. Horses with a BCS less than a 4 are at increased risk of hypothermia and starvation, especially when the weather conditions cause an increase in energy demands just to maintain weight. If an individual is already thinner than desired (BCS < 4), they will not have adequate body mass (fat) to help with insulation from the cold or provide a supply of energy when the diet is lacking and demands are higher than expected.
To determine your horse’s BCS you must touch your horse, especially in the winter, as winter hair hides a horse’s true BCS, often until it is too late to successfully correct the weight loss. Feel over the ribs, neck, shoulder area, mid-spine, hips and tail head. If your horse’s ribs over the widest part of the barrel are easily felt with little or no tissue between the skin and ribs, the BCS is below 4. This horse is suffering from malnutrition and is at a high risk of hypothermia when the temperature drops, particularly if the wind chill is high and little to no shelter is available.
For more information on body condition and feeding horses during the winter, please contact your veterinarian. The website http://www.extension.org/ is also a very good site to visit for information on feeding, care and body condition scoring.
Dr. Judy Marteniuk,
Equine Medicine and Extension Veterinarian
Veterinary Teaching Hospital
Michigan State University
Dr. Elizabeth Carr
Equine Medicine and Critcal Care Clinician
Veterinary Teaching Hospital
Michigan State University | <urn:uuid:3d46a422-14b0-42e6-9ed1-c71b2c236c7b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.michiganhumane.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=11451&news_iv_ctrl=-1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95062 | 1,097 | 3.296875 | 3 |
A long time ago, I added the chart below to my food-stamps page, along with this paragraph:
“When China was admitted to the World Trade Organization in 2001, tariffs were lowered, and it became very profitable for American companies to relocate production to China’s sweatshops. Millions of American jobs were lost, and those former workers have piled up on the food-stamp rolls.”
Click chart to enlarge:
During the presidential campaign, when food-stamps were an issue, my food-stamps page got a good amount of traffic: 285,000 page views for the year. And I gave permission to other bloggers to publish my chart, which some of them did.
So, I’m taking at least partial credit for what I’m calling the China-WTO meme, which is that the economic back of the USA was broken on December 11, 2001. In case you haven’t noticed, it’s been nothing but economic/financial chaos since then.
And the meme is spreading. You can see it at the 14 minute mark of the video below when John McLaughlin gives “The Bummest Rap of the Year Award” to Bill Clinton:
“Okay, the bummest rap: The rap recited by Bill Clinton to a throng of Democratic Convention delegates that the Republican Party’s policies are responsible for the global economic crisis. Experts say the cause of the ongoing crisis is trade imbalances created by then-President Clinton about 20 years ago when he granted China most-favored-nation trading status and when he — and then negotiated World Trade Organization membership for China.”
However, China’s WTO status did not become official until after Republican George W. Bush was sworn into office. Bush was all for China joining the club, so while Clinton negotiated the deal, Bush permitted it to sail through. While Clinton did NAFTA and WTO, he couldn’t have done it without help from Gingrich and Bush. Destroying America is a bipartisan project. | <urn:uuid:06a1bf26-ee93-4707-ad5b-a1e1fc848c22> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.trivisonno.com/china-wto | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95829 | 425 | 1.65625 | 2 |
North America is being introduced to a counterfeit Holy Spirit. Its name is Kundalini. It has its own music, dance and mystical teachings. It introduces a counterfeit Holy Ghost. Kundalini Yoga is the king of all Yoga. Yoga is occult Hindu spiritualism. Yoga means union. It is a means to connect with the divine self.
Kundalini Yoga teaches the awakening of the Kundalini serpent through various means including chanting, meditation, music, drumming, and even dancing. The intention within Yoga is to get the Kundalini that resides at the base of the spine, according to them, to rise along the seven chakras within the body until transcending into an altered state of consciousness and oneness with the divine consciousness.
Chakra means “wheel, spinning, turning, rotating, or vibrating.” In Yoga they are known as “spiritual energy or force centers” capable of receiving and transmitting energy. There are seven chakra occult spiritual gateways known as the root, belly, solar plexus, heart, throat, third eye, and crown.
Read more: http://www.jonasclark.com/spiritual-warfare-prayer/churches-touching-occult-alternate-realities.html#ixzz1EnPSqLBB
Copyrights (c) Jonas Clark Ministries – Permission Only | <urn:uuid:67f895ec-577b-4717-b76d-da875321a642> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jonasclark.com/blog/spiritual-warfare/christian-yoga-holy-trance-music/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939941 | 290 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Although it's been pretty cold lately, at or slightly below our normal temperatures, I decided not to procrastinate and I started removing the potted bamboos from my temporary greenhouse. Last year I remember it being pretty warm when I did this, and it took at least an hour to get the pots out. Since it's above freezing but definitely not warm right now I'm not going to dawdle this year.
There are on the order of 50 pots in here this year, and I don't have a well-defined plan on where they're going to go, but too much thinking and I'll end up putting this off for another week -- I really don't want to do that.
So I just started pulling plants out and sticking them out of the way but nearby:
They're all marked with tags so I don't have to remember which are which -- some species are easy to ID, but some are pretty similar to others.
I didn't spend nearly as much time checking on the plants in here this winter as I did last year, so I don't know details of how the plants have done. There's a lot of green so I know they're in good shape for the most part, but only when I start pulling them out could I really see what's going on. My idea was to only empty part of the greenhouse today, leaving me some space for some cold-weather veggie starts.
That's what I'm trying to prevent: early shooting. Although I'm eager to see the shoots emerging, I want these plants to shoot at the right time. Early shoots are vulnerable to late freezes.
There's mole activity under some of the pots:
Plus I can see a couple of plants that don't look too good. For instance, this one, tucked in with all of the greenery:
That's a Chimonobambusa tumidissinoda, and it really took a hit. I knew it wasn't cold-hardy enough to take our temps here, hence the greenhouse stay. Getting it outside doesn't help much:
It's pretty much fried. The good news is that there are some green culms left, so it's not top-killed.
It will be interesting to see how this one bounces back. I'm going to have to find a better overwintering strategy for this one next year.
This other bamboo looked a little less-than-healthy too, back behind some other plants:
I had to move a few pots around to get it out:
It's Phyllostachys lithophila, a bamboo native to Taiwan. Rolled up leaves like this mean either the plant really needs some water, or the leaves have been damaged. Could be both in this case. I gave it some water and did see some of the leaves unfurl a bit, but I suspect most of these leaves will turn brown and fall off soon. The good news is the leaf buds are all fine, and starting to swell:
So this plant should leaf back out fully, which is exciting because it's got a really attractive form. I don't know what I'll do next year when it will probably be too tall for the greenhouse. I'll most likely have to lay it on the ground and tarp over it as I did with many other plants.
I'll use this space in the greenhouse to start some cold weather veggies: lettuce, spinach, kale, and similar. I'm thinking about building a little temporary raised bed in here too, or maybe planting some tomatoes in containers. If I decide to put some cold-weather crops in here I'll leave the greenhouse door open, but if I go with the tomatoes and other summer plants I'll close it back up and let it get hot and steamy in here again. I haven't decided what to do yet.
The only thing I do know is I still have half a greenhouse of potted bamboos to pull out sometime soon, and I need to figure out where to put them so they won't get in the way. Why do I have so many bamboos? | <urn:uuid:67f7f55e-0ae2-4d28-a6bd-f7a39676e2d4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.itsnotworkitsgardening.com/2011/03/starting-to-empty-greenhouse.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980981 | 844 | 1.585938 | 2 |
- THE MAGAZINE
The growing economies of China and India have provided a buffer to the downslide in the industry, though growth rates slowed in these economies as a result of global exposure. The Asian composites market, a bright spot in last five years, emerged in 2008 as the largest regional composites market (in terms of shipments), displacing North America. Rapid infrastructure and economic growth in China and India are driving the growth of the Asian composites market.
According to Lucintel, the decline in several market segments will continue in 2009 as recessionary forces fully take effect. The situation is expected to start improving by the end of 2009, with recovery taking place in 2010 as stimulus packages in major economies like the U.S., China and EU nations will bring back growth momentum to the global economy.
Visit www.lucintel.com for more information. | <urn:uuid:94c1a067-e0af-4260-a700-b76deb8ccf07> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ceramicindustry.com/articles/lucintel-releases-report-on-global-composites-industry-posted-9-3-09 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.906492 | 177 | 1.539063 | 2 |
A collective of bibliophiles talking about books. Book Fox (vulpes libris): small bibliovorous mammal of overactive imagination and uncommonly large bookshop expenses. Habitat: anywhere the rustle of pages can be heard.
Predicting the Next Catastrophe
If you don’t want to be reminded that mankind’s tenure on Planet Earth is extremely shaky and courtesy only of a combination of cosmic fluke, sheer bloody-mindedness and lack of a ‘Plan B’ – then this is not the book for you.
Our personable tour guide is Dr Florin Diacu , who is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Victoria, British Columbia and in Megadisasters he applies his mathematician’s brain to the subject of the catastrophes than the human race is heir to – earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, wandering asteroids, pandemics, climate change and even – just for for fun – global financial meltdown.
Dedicating one chapter to each subject he first gives us a quick jog-trot through their history and then examines the various and on-going attempts of scientists to predict and – in some cases prevent – them.
It’s a curate’s egg of a book which very nearly comes unstuck in the very first chapter, on tsunamis. I think – to use that famous editors’ phrase – his research was showing. Interesting though the subject of wave modelling doubtless is to many, in a book aimed squarely at ‘the common reader’ it slowed the narrative to a near standstill – and to very little point, as far as I could tell. Or perhaps I just wasn’t concentrating.
After that, however, things pick up considerably, although there’s a certain degree of uneveness in the quality of the individual chapters which I suspect is directly proportional to Dr Diacu’s personal interest in and knowledge of the subject. The standout chapter is unquestionably the one on cosmic impacts – about the very real possibility of the earth colliding with another celestial body like a comet or an asteroid. It came as no surprise at all to discover that his specialty is celestial mathematics – relating to the movement of heavenly bodies.
He’s good, too, on the people who have attempted to predict catastrophes over the years – the vulcanologists and storm-chasers (who all appear to be as mad as a box of frogs) the dogged eccentrics who were ridiculed by the scientific establishment, only to be proved right later and the unsung heroes – like the medical authorities in Ontario who stopped the spread of SARS in its tracks in 2003.
My favourite, though, is the story of John Michell, one of the founding fathers of seismology, who walked away from his professorship at Cambridge, married a nice girl and settled down to a long and peaceful life in a rectory in Yorkshire – in stark contrast to the litany of miserable fates of many of the other pioneers of catastrophe prediction and analysis.
Although it would have benefitted from some gentle editing (Dr Diacu is Romanian, and in places his grammatical construction is a little distracting) Megadisasters is on the whole a good, basic introduction to a fascinating subject, explaining complex ideas in a very straightforward way. Don’t read it if you’re looking for reassurance though – because in spite of the centuries of accumulated knowledge and some truly inspired flashes of insight – the human race is still more or less helpless in the face of catastrophe.
Oh, and by the way … watch the skies in 2036. Apophis is out there …
Oxford University Press. 2009. ISBN: 978-0-19-923778-4. 260pp. | <urn:uuid:0f75b36e-a51c-4753-b2d1-e38b0c4f7e11> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://vulpeslibris.wordpress.com/2010/08/12/megadisasters-by-florin-diacu/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946525 | 787 | 1.953125 | 2 |
Three young UC Davis researchers receive prestigious national grants to study schizophrenia
Each addressing the disease from different and unique perspectives, three young UC Davis researchers have received one of the most prestigious mental-health grants in the world to investigate one of the least understood and devastating psychiatric disorders: schizophrenia.
Stephanie L. Barrow, Melissa D. Bauman and Tara A. Niendam are among only 200 researchers worldwide selected from more than 1,000 applicants for the NARSAD Young Investigator Grants. The grants are distributed by the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, formerly known as the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD), the world's leading private philanthropy devoted to funding research on psychiatric disorders.
Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe and disabling brain disorder affecting about 1 percent of Americans today, according to the National Institutes of Mental Health. People with schizophrenia may hear voices other people don't hear, believe that people are reading their minds, controlling their thoughts, or plotting to harm them. People with schizophrenia are at high risk for suicide. Approximately one-third will attempt it and 1 in 10 eventually will take their lives.
The NARSAD Young Investigator Grants support early career investigators with grants of $60,000 over two years to pursue brain and behavior research in four main categories: basic research, new technologies, diagnostic tools/early intervention and next-generation therapies. The grants are among the most competitive in biomedical research, because of the great ability and career success of the applicants.
"The NARSAD Young Investigator Grants have led to groundbreaking and important new research that has improved the lives of people living with mental illness through enhanced treatments and therapies and a better understanding of the causes of mental illness," said Benita Shobe, president and chief executive officer of the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation.
Melissa D. Bauman, assistant adjunct professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, is examining prenatal risk factors for schizophrenia, particularly how the mother's immune system may impact fetal brain development. She will use an animal model to compare human and animal neuropathology as a potential pathway to identifying preventive or therapeutic strategies. Bauman's research is examining an emerging hypothesis in schizophrenia: That it is actually a neurodevelopmental disorder with origins in fetal development.
"It's a great honor to receive a NARSAD Young Investigator Award," Bauman said. "I think this is really an important area of research, and the support that's available through the young investigator program will allow us to make some important steps toward identifying prenatal risk factors for schizophrenia and other neurodevelopmental disorders," she said.
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), Tara A. Niendam, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral science, will examine the impact of age at onset on prefrontal cognitive dysfunction present at ascertainment, as well as the pattern of individual differences that occur in prefrontal functioning as a result of development over follow-up.
By identifying the age-related pattern of impairment in prefrontal cognitive functioning after the first episode of illness, her investigation will lend new insights on potential developmental mechanisms that contribute to the clinical and functional impairment associated with age at onset of the disease.
"Our research seeks to understand the brain-based mechanisms that contribute, not only to poor cognition in schizophrenia, but to the variety of clinical and functional outcomes in the illness," Niendam said. "We hope that understanding these mechanisms will help us develop targeted treatments for the impairments we see in individuals who struggle with the schizophrenia," she said.
Stephanie L. Barrow is a post-doctoral scholar at the UC Davis Center for Neuroscience. She is exploring the convergence of immune and genetic signaling pathways in autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia. The identification of a common neural pathway in both disorders as a result of genetic mutations and environmental exposures could have significant implications for the treatment of both disorders.
"These three young investigators highlight the fact that UC Davis is now one of the major centers in the nation investigating the underlying causes of schizophrenia," said Cameron Carter, UC Davis professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and psychology, and director of the UC Davis Center for Neuroscience and the UC Davis Imaging Research Center.
"The basic science projects of doctors Barrow and Bauman and the functional MRI study of patients by Dr. Niendam will shed new light on the mechanisms by which normal adolescent brain development goes awry in schizophrenia," Carter said. "This innovative research will provide us with novel ways of diagnosing the illness during its earliest phases and will identify new, promising treatments that will lead to better outcomes for patients with this common and disabling mental illness." | <urn:uuid:7404485c-891a-44f7-b0d7-2e24af3ddef5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/publish/news/cme/6912 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941212 | 936 | 2.546875 | 3 |
As the weeks and months go by, I am going to be doing a number of hands-on projects. OSH Park will be making boards for those projects available for those of you who want to build something. But it does no good to build something if you don't have power to power it. So the first item on the building agenda is a +5 volt and a +3.3 volt power supply which can deliver 0.8 Amps at each voltage. I also have a positive and negative power supply board in the works for the analog side of things.
I chose a linear supply because if they are sufficiently filtered, they are usually quieter than switching supplies. Power-supply noise rejection is at a maximum for most linear regulators below 200 Hz. I also decided on an adjustable supply so you can run the supplies a little "hot" if you like. Digital circuits usually perform better when run at the high end of their allowable range. I like 3.40 volts for the 3.3 volt supply and 5.15 volts for the +5 volt supply. The supplies can be adjusted plus and minus 1 volt (roughly) from nominal with the resistor values given in the parts list and schematic. Be sure to adjust them before you connect any semiconductor loads. Semiconductors do not like voltages that are TOO high. Of course, you can change the resistor values to suit whatever voltage you want. Be sure to change the other components accordingly. You can also use an LM317 instead of the LM1117 called out - but your power losses will be higher since the LM1117 is a low drop out (LDO) regulator, and the transformer has been called out accordingly. You can go to higher output voltages with the LM317. Check to see how that affects the amount of current you can draw and what transformer you will need. Likely, it will be less than the .8 Amps the LM1117 allows because of heat sinking limits even though the LM317 is rated at 1.5 Amps or about twice the current of the LM1117.
Another point of interest or caution: When you order a transformer, make sure it can deliver about 2X or more the AC current relative to the DC current you plan to use. This is because a capacitor input filter draws current from the line in pulses. Thus, the heating value (RMS) is higher than just feeding the AC current into a resistor. Let me illustrate that with the present supply. The two regulators are designed to draw .8 Amps apiece. That is 1.6 Amps total. The AC transformer should be rated at 3.2 Amps. But since we are using a center tapped design, the transformer need only be rated at 1/2 that. So a 12.6 volt transformer rated at 1.6 Amps or above (a 2 Amp rating is common and the transformer will run cooler) will allow full current output from both the +3.3 and +5 supplies. I used a 4 Amp-rated transformer since I plan to install 2 power supplies in the chassis I have - do watch out for ground loops since the supplies will have a common ground if you use one transformer for two supplies. But that is a subject for a whole 'nuther day.
I must add here a note of thanks to my local electronic parts supplier, Jaytronics . There is only one supplier of note in a town as small as mine and they are it. Jaytronics had some essential parts that helped me finish the project in a timely fashion. The counter guy, Andy Hanson, has been in the electronics business a long time. We got to talking about this and that and the price of solder came up. We both lamented that a pound of solder, which used to go for $10 for a one-pound roll, now runs $35. Fortunately, surface-mount parts (which is what I use mostly these days) take a lot less solder than plated through-holes.
You can read more about assembling the power supply and find the schematic, a parts list, and a printed circuit-board, parts-placement drawing so you can roll your own at Space-Time - Power Up .
M. Simon's e-mail can be found on the sidebar at Space-Time Productions .
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit. | <urn:uuid:d75b0648-0188-4249-a8c8-30105509cea1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ecnmag.com/print/blogs/2012/10/power?qt-recent_content=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943725 | 901 | 2.484375 | 2 |
Speaker Discusses Importance of Play
PASADENA, Calif. — David Elkind wants to play.
The Tufts University professor of child development will give a speech titled "The Disappearance of Play" at 7 p.m. on April 21, in Ramo Auditorium at the California Institute of Technology. Admission is free and is open to the general public. Elkind has written 13 books, including the upcoming No Time for Play: Growing Up Stressed Out, as well as The Hurried Child, All Grown Up and No Place to Go, and Miseducation. He is the author of more than 400 articles and book chapters, as well as several children's stories published in Jack and Jill magazine. In addition to appearing in academic texts and journals, his work has been published in Good Housekeeping and Boston Globe Magazine. He was profiled in People and Boston Magazine and is a contributing editor to Parents Magazine. He lectures throughout the United States, Canada, as well as and has appeared on The Today Show, The CBS Morning News, 20/20, Donahue, and The Oprah Winfrey Show.
The presentation is sponsored by the Child Educational Center, Caltech, and the Jet Propulsion Lab, and cosponsored by Bank of America, Chandler School, and Kidspace Children's Museum, in recognition of the National Association for the Education of Young Children's Week of the Young Child.
No tickets are required for the presentation, but attendees are advised to arrive early due to limited seating.
For more information, call the Caltech Ticket Office, (626) 395-4652.
MEDIA CONTACT: Jill Perry, Media Relations Director (626) 395-3226 email@example.com
Visit the Caltech media relations web site: http://pr.caltech.edu/media
Written by Jill Perry | <urn:uuid:8fb1bb8b-7581-47ab-9855-65ebdb8fb6a0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.caltech.edu/article/12513 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956048 | 384 | 2.25 | 2 |
Both AES Solar and NRG Energy Corp. are selling off some of their solar farms. AES Solar, a joint venture of AES Corp. (NYSE: AES) and Riverstone Holdings LLC, will sell roughly 117 megawatts of its European solar thermal plants. And NRG (NYSE: NRG) will sell off $350 million in some of its solar plants in the U.S. The news comes as both companies are poised to build gigantic new solar thermal plants in the Southwest U.S.
The sale was announced by Morgan Stanley Managing Director Ray Spitzley at a Beijing renewable energy conference, according to Dow Jones Newswires. Morgan Stanley is helping to coordinate the sales, but declined to comment on the sales.
“They tend to buy and sell projects on a regular basis,” said Standard & Poor’s equity analyst Christopher Muir. “They probably see a good price for those plants based on the current market.”
AES Solar will sell off roughly 117 megawatts of solar plants in Italy, Spain and elsewhere in Europe. And NRG will sell roughly $350 million of solar projects in the U.S.
“For them [i.e., NRG], that’s a fairly small amount. Their market cap is $3.5 billion. Their solar portfolio is quite small compared to the rest of their energy portfolio,” Muir said. AES’ market cap is even higher, at $10 billion, according to Muir.
Both power producing companies are always working to optimize their generating capacity, Muir said. These sales are a small percentage of their overall energy portfolio. For instance, NRG has about 25 gigawatts of overall power-producing capacity in its portfolio. Of that, 0.1 percent of its generating capacity is solar power, according to Muir.
Both companies are still interested in expanding their renewable energy portfolios, Muir said. AES recently reached an agreement with a Chinese investment company to expand its wind generation there, for example.
“Renewables are being built out, but it’s so small right now,” Muir said. “Eventually they’ll see them as revenue drivers.”
The interest is likely to continue as long as the credits are available and states continue to have renewable energy standards, he said.
Both companies are also still developing massive new solar projects in the Southwest, however. AES Solar recently agreed to purchase and develop the 709-megawatt Imperial Valley Solar Project in California. And NRG is developing a 392 megawatt solar thermal plant in California and purchased the 250-megawatt Agua Caliente Solar Farm that’s being developed in Arizona.
Image courtesy of NRG Energy Corp. | <urn:uuid:0d4c083e-b2f0-4451-a2ea-989f71e0dc8c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cleanenergyauthority.com/solar-energy-news/companies-selling-off-interest-in-solar-farms-040411/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954425 | 571 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Update: blog post suddenly went missing. RIP.
Clearly, growth is accelerating, at least when it comes to people downloading and using the free Waze Android and iOS apps.
In the infographic Waze put together to celebrate the new user base milestone, the company projects 70 million users by the end of 2013, slightly more than double the number of users it has today.
The infographic also reads “Crowdsouring works, together” at the bottom, which made me LOL.
Pay very little attention to the rest of the ‘stats’ in the infographic, which are meant to suggest Waze is pretty much single-handedly saving the world – or something.
That said, the very nature of Waze’s service does mean that it saves users a lot of valuable time, and looking at the sheer user numbers I would say people appreciate that and tell their friends.
Waze itself says its goal is to save every user about 5 minutes per day.
Looking at the average day of a TNW staffer, that would feel like an eternity to all of us here.
More importantly though, the end of 2012 also saw Waze starting to crank up the money machine: the startup launched its own ad platform, allowing advertisers to insert “location-guided” ads that users can see on their maps and search results when they navigate to their destination.
Yes, and before we forget: Apple was rumored to be in talks to acquire Waze, but no one really knows for sure except for the people who were or weren’t at the table. Don’t you think we’ve stopped digging, though.
Image credit: Thinkstock | <urn:uuid:40c1f34a-d77c-4122-8bde-a160fcffcc5f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/01/08/waze-ended-2012-with-34-million-users-and-expects-to-have-doubled-that-by-this-years-end/?fromcat=all | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970657 | 347 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Stretch your eyes for relief | Yoga and You
January 17, 2013 · Updated 3:29 PM
By Michael Szymanski
Subject: Dry eyes.
Practice: Anytime your eyes feel dry, gently close them and keep them closed. Then move them as if you’re looking up and to the far left. Hold them in this position for 15 seconds. Then look down and to the far right. Hold for 15 seconds. Then, look down and to the far left. Hold. Finally, look up and to the far right. And hold.
Theory: The body produces a natural lubricant called hyaluronic acid when you stretch connective tissue.
Tears, another natural lubricant produced by this practice, also soothe and cleanse the eyes. And if done gently, the stretch feels good too.
Note: If you are dehydrated, your lubricating ability is hampered. Drink a glass or two of water.
— Michael Szymanski has taught yoga classes at Bainbridge, Hansville, Kingston and Poulsbo studios for 15 years. Contact him at email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:9f5893d0-8731-4c05-89ff-c941e31780e7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.northkitsapherald.com/lifestyle/187373511.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91798 | 238 | 1.601563 | 2 |
fascination with wild and exotic animals unfortunately makes them popular
subjects for advertisers and the film and TV industry. Performing elephants and
"smiling" chimpanzees may grab our attention, but these animals are
not willing participants in the entertainment industry.
have extremely specialized needs. For example, elephants, big cats, and bears
are roaming animals who require a vast amount of space to explore and exercise.
When used for entertainment, these animals are subjected to intense confinement
and deprived of opportunities to express their natural behavior, which leads to
intense psychological—and often physical—distress. Bears and big cats become
neurotic and pace back and forth frantically in their cages, and elephants
develop painful and crippling foot conditions and arthritis.
chimpanzee "grin" so often seen in movies and on TV is actually a
grimace of fear, which they perform on command as a result of fear-based
training methods. In order to force young chimpanzees to perform, trainers physically
and psychologically abuse them, causing the animals to be constantly anxious
and fearful, always anticipating the trainer's next move. When primatologist
Sarah Baeckler conducted a 14-month undercover investigation of prominent
Hollywood training facility Amazing Animal Actors, she saw "a lot of
physical violence. A lot of punching and kicking, and the use of the 'ugly
stick,' a sawed-off broom handle, to beat the chimps" and "all kinds
of physical abuse to keep them paying attention and in line with the
animals can pose a danger to cast and crew, as in the case of Rocky, a
5-year-old grizzly bear who killed his trainer during the filming of a "promotional
video" at Randy Miller's Predators in Action animal facility.(2) After
learning of this incident, Virginia McKenna, star of the 1966 film Born
Free, remarked that "[t]he movie industry urgently needs to use its
technological and creative imagination to put an end to the use of live wild
animals in commercials and movies. Hollywood is a dream factory—this time the
dream has become a nightmare."(3) During the 2007 filming of the American
Humane Association (AHA)–monitored film Speed Racer, a child was treated by a medic and left with a
bruised arm after a 2-year-old chimpanzee bit him without warning.(4)
inappropriate use of wild animals in entertainment and advertising can cause
public misconceptions about the species. A survey of patrons at the Lincoln
Park Zoo found that those who thought that chimpanzees were not endangered
assumed so because the animals are commonly seen on TV and in movies.(5) And
a study conducted at Duke University revealed that the inappropriate portrayal
of chimpanzees in media is likely to hinder conservation efforts and distort
the public's perception of endangered animals.
familiar statement that scrolls up the screen at the end of a film is misleading
to audiences and filmmakers alike. The Denver-based group American Humane
Association (AHA), formed after a horse was deliberately thrown to his death
for the 1939 film Jesse James, is not adequately staffed to monitor
all productions effectively, nor does it have the authority to enforce its own
standards. It only has the power to grant any of six ratings, which range from
"Outstanding" to "Special Circumstances" to "Not
Monitored."(10) AHA is funded by the Screen Actors Guild, which means it
isn't a truly independent monitor. An AHA representative was on set in 2008
during the filming of Speed Racer when, "in an uncontrolled
impulse," a trainer hit a chimpanzee in full view of the representative,
who did not press for cruelty charges. (11)
bases its ratings only on the short period of time when animals are on the set—it
supervises animals only during filming, not when they are being trained for
films. In addition, the organization does not take into account animals' living
conditions or trainers' animal-related offenses or violations of the federal
Animal Welfare Act. For example, the aforementioned Predators in Action was
hired to provide the grizzly bear (who later mauled his trainer) for the movie Semi-Pro,
even though the company had been previously cited by the U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA) for Animal Welfare Act violations that included failing to
maintain structures and shelters in good repair, keeping a lion in a tiny
shelter box in the snow, and failing to provide animals with drinking water.
AHA allowed Evan Almighty producers to use Birds & Animals
Unlimited, an animal supplier warned repeatedly by the USDA for its failure to
comply with veterinary care, sheltering, and caging requirements. Furthermore,
no agency monitors separation of babies from their mothers, and AHA doesn't
take into consideration the disposal of animals after they are no longer of use
to the exhibitor.
human stars can be sure of securing a retirement after a career in movies.
Chimpanzees, for instance, can live to be 60 years old, but they stop being
useful to the entertainment industry when they are just a few years old, at
which point they become too strong and dangerous to be handled.(13) When trainers
can no longer manage great apes, they typically discard the animals at roadside
zoos or pseudo-sanctuaries. There, the animals may languish for decades in barren cages
or dank, depressing concrete cells. During an investigation of a pseudo-sanctuary, PETA found
a chimpanzee who reportedly had been used in the filming of the 2001 film The Planet of the Apes. The
chimpanzee, named Chubbs, was living in an underground cement pit that
resembled a dungeon and was strewn with rotten food and feces.
is no reason to use wild animals as actors when animation, blue screen,
computer-generated images, and other advanced technologies can produce
realistic substitutes. PETA advocates the use of these alternatives and
encourages entertainment-industry professionals to pledge not to use great apes
in their work. If you see a movie that features a wild animal, walk out and
tell the theater manager that you won't support the mistreatment of animals and
that you'd like a refund. Write to your local newspaper's film critic and
request that he or she mention in reviews whether or not a film features "performing"
wild animals. Educate critics about the training methods and cruel treatment
that wild animals endure off set as well as during the production of films and
television programs. If you see a television show or commercial that uses a wild
animal, call or write your local network affiliate representatives to alert
them to the objectionable content.
gives annual GOODY Awards to businesses whose advertisements depict animals in
a positive manner. We also give BADDY Awards to companies that advertise in
ways that disrespect animals. If you see a TV show, commercial, or film that
uses animals in an improper way or portrays animals disrespectfully, please contact PETA.
1) Rachel Abramowitz, "'Every Which Way But Abuse' Should Be Motto," Los Angeles Times 27 Aug. 2008.2) Associated Press, "Bear Trainer Distraught After Deadly Attack," 24 Apr. 2008. U.S. Federal News, "California Man Mauled to Death by Grizzly Bear Used in Hollywood Movies," 23 Apr 2008.3) Jeanette Walls, "PETA Not Monkeying Around With 'Speed Racer,'" MSNBC.com, 11 Jul. 2007.4) S.R. Ross et al., "Inappropriate Use and Portrayal of Chimpanzees," Science 314 (2008): 1487.5) David Carrigg, "Humane Group Probes Puppy Deaths," The Vancouver Province 16 Mar. 2007.6) CBSnews.com, "Horses Died on Set of Flicka," 24 Oct. 2006.7) Associated Press, "Second Horse Killed During 'Flicka' Filming," 29 Apr. 2005.8) James Bates and Ralph Frammolino, "Questions Raised About Group That Watches Out for Animals in Movies," Los Angeles Times 9 Feb. 2001.9) American Humane, Film and TV Unit, "Earning Our Disclaimer," 2009.10) American Humane, "Speed Racer," Movie Reviews 2008.11) Abramowitz.12) Associated Press, "Going Ape Over Movie Monkeys," 20 Mar. 2006.
Almost all of us grew up eating meat, wearing leather, and going to circuses and zoos. We never considered the impact of these actions on the animals involved. For whatever reason, you are now asking the question: Why should animals have rights? Read more. | <urn:uuid:719fc119-c222-4d73-a602-7595e374510c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.peta.org/issues/Animals-in-Entertainment/animal-actors-command-performances.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924491 | 1,846 | 2.640625 | 3 |
PPL Corp.'s decades-long campaign to push electric heat onto homeowners has set up the Lehigh Valley, and Lehigh County in particular, for a big shock.
When the Allentown utility's electricity rate increase takes effect Saturday, it will have a disproportionately large impact on this region, according to an analysis of U.S. Census data.
Thirty-seven percent of homes in Lehigh County have electric heat. No other populous U.S. county so far north relies as heavily on electricity for heating, outside the hydro-electricity-rich Pacific Northwest.
The figures aren't much different in other local PPL service areas, such as Northampton and Bucks counties, the analysis found.
PPL credits its marketing for the dependency. From the 1950s through the 1990s, PPL used a variety of ways to promote electric heat, such as advertising all-electric "Gold Medallion" and "Four Star" homes as simple, clean and cheap. The company offered discounts on monthly bills, though most have expired.
It also went as far as paying home builders to install electric heat instead of alternatives, such as oil and natural gas. By one account, it pumped $25 million into such efforts over a 12-year period.
"They took care of the builders," said Lou Tepes, president of the Lehigh Valley Builders Association. "What PPL was doing was going in and locking up the development."
PPL did so even though the consensus was -- and is -- that electric heat can be painfully expensive or simply ineffective in cold climates.
After PPL's 8 percent rate increase, the average residential customer with electric heat will pay $1,527 a year in electricity bills, according to the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission. That figure, however, includes those living in apartments; the actual expense for homeowners is significantly higher.
PPL's actions have been characterized, in numerous interviews and in a little-known lawsuit the company quietly settled out of court in 1997, as exploitative. Future homeowners after all, had yet to appear on the scene to defend their own interests.
For many, a new, mid-priced home with oil or gas wasn't an option. In the late 1980s, 85 percent of the region's new homes had electric heat. To this day, nearly all the homes in vast swaths of suburban townships, such as Upper and Lower Macungie, are electric. Converting to today's most popular heating source is out of the question. The mains and pipes for natural gas are missing, and the time to lay that infrastructure has long since passed.
Heat pumps called inefficient
In 1970, Richard Gober, an electrical engineer in the market for a new home in the Lehigh Valley, was in a unique position to witness PPL's marketing prowess.
The previous summer, the former Navy man who went to college on the G.I. Bill, worked as an intern for an electric utility in Delaware. There, he learned about various business divisions, one of which was supposed to sell electric heating to home builders.
"They said they couldn't give that stuff away," he recalled.
Gober chatted with a salesman at the Delaware utility during a coffee break. Nobody wanted it, he was told.
Even today, the federal government discourages heat pumps, one of the most common electric heating devices, in the North. They "operate very inefficiently at sub-freezing temperatures," a U.S. Department of Energy Web site warns.
Gober then moved to the Lehigh Valley for a manufacturing job. At first, he looked at apartments.
"I was amazed," he said. "I couldn't believe the amount of [electric] baseboard heat in this area."
Then he looked at single-family homes. "More of the same," he said.
Although aware of the drawbacks, Gober ended up buying a new home, in Whitehall Township, with electric baseboard heat. Little else was available. Plus, PPL made it sound so appealing.
Electric baseboards had some strong selling points at the time, said Douglas Krall, a strategic manager at PPL. To developers, they were easy and cheap to install, requiring no plumbing or ductwork. For homeowners, they were clean and virtually maintenance-free -- no small thing in an era when coal stoves were still commonplace.
What's more, according to Krall, PPL's historically low electric rates have made electric baseboards economically comparable to the alternatives. At the moment, at least, PPL's rates are 12 percent lower than the Pennsylvania average -- though that advantage is about to shrink later this week when PPL's rate increase takes effect.
Even so, Gober has felt compelled to do what he could to reduce his electricity bills. Over the years, he has replaced the windows, added insulation and installed digital thermostats.
Today, the electricity bills for his 1,800-square-foot home add up to roughly $1,700 a year.
How that compares to homes with oil or natural gas is difficult to say. Government and industry efforts to study the matter have been confounded. No two homes are exactly the same, either structurally or in their energy consumption. | <urn:uuid:fbcc0ffb-6220-4a0f-bcd6-6cfb785f806d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.mcall.com/2004-12-26/news/3566135_1_electric-heat-ppl-electrical-engineer | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976638 | 1,085 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Sunday color comics and some native greenery can make a gift festive while also being good for the environment.
ALBANY — When you think of Christmas green, likely you're imagining the trees and wreaths that mark the season. Of course, green for some is the cash they'll be spending on gifts and entertainment.
But there's another "green" in the holiday season — one that's friendlier to the environment we all have to share.
Julia Bowles with Keep Albany-Dougherty Beautiful notes that household waste tends to increase by 25 percent during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season, which means more material headed to landfills.
"That figure comes from the increase in trash that people throw away during the holidays," she said.
There are numerous ways that individuals can lessen the amount of household waste they generate during the holidays. Take the big Thanksgiving meal. Does it have to be that big? And what is being done with the leftovers and scraps? Are they headed to the landfill?
"A lot of us do buy more food than we really need," Bowles said. "A great thing to do with whatever is left out of your food waste is to compost it."
For a while, home compost stations were gaining popularity, but there appears to be some waning these days.
"We saw an increase six or seven years ago," Bowles said. "It's certainly an option that all of us should think about."
It can be a money-saver as well, since the material, once it is composted, can be used in gardens and flower beds when planting time comes around.
Another practice that helps — recycling, even something as simple as this newspaper once you've read it and clipped out coupons and stories you want to keep.
"Newspapers are easy," she said. "If you go to the grocery store and don't get plastic but ask for paper bags, The Albany Herald fits perfectly in that brown bag."
You might want to hold onto the color comics section, though. One of the tips Bowles has for cutting down on holiday waste is using the colorful comics page to wrap gifts instead of new wrapping paper. Gift wrap can be saved and reused with smaller gifts as well.
When recycling, it's important to separate your items into various groups, such as glass by color (clear, green and brown), cardboard, newspapers, plastic, aluminum and batteries.
"We don't mix the (types of) items because they each go to a different end-user," Bowles said.
While recycling can bring in some money, that's not the driving force behind doing it. "Recycling is a service," she said.
Residents of Albany have three spots where they can drop off recyclable items:
— 2521 Meredyth Drive, 8:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m. Mondays-Fridays and 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturdays;
— The rear area behind the Albany Civic Center, 8:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, and 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturdays;
— 210 Thornton Drive, 8:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m. Wednesdays and 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturdays.
At one time, KADB accepted live Christmas trees after the holiday season to be chipped into mulch, but that is now handled by the city.
"The city runs a truck that just picks up yard clippings," Bowles said. The clippings, including defrocked Christmas trees, are taken to the Dougherty landfill, where they are chipped for mulch. "That mulch is free to any citizen of Albany," she said. "You just have to go get it."
Much like the old three R's of school, KADB has its own Three R's and tips for cutting down holiday waste — Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
The less you purchase or bring home, the less waste you will generate. Reduce waste by:
— Giving gifts that require little packaging, such as gift certificates, tickets, music lessons, etc.;
— Planning meals wisely and buying only the amount of food you will need;
— Turning off or unplugging holiday lights during the day to reduce electricity needs;
— Capturing holiday memories with your own digital camera instead of a disposable one.
Before purchasing something, save money and storage room by checking to make sure something you have won't work just as well. Reuse what you have by:
— Wrapping gifts in recycled or reused wrapping paper or the funny papers;
— Giving rechargeable batteries and a battery charger with electronic gifts;
— Buying a containerized tree and planting it after the holidays;
— Composting leftover food scraps, leaves, and grass clippings;
— Donating unwanted presents to charity or having a yard sale.
Many things you might throw away can be used again. Maximize your recycling by:
— Recycling your cardboard boxes, magazines and junk mail;
— Showing holiday party guests where to put recyclables such as aluminum, glass and plastic;
— Checking labels to determine a gift's recyclability and whether it's made from recycled materials;
— Making a commitment to recycling year round at home and at work.
"I think it's incumbent on all of us to care for the environment," Bowles said. "It's not just something for the holidays. It's something our young people are going to have to live with forever and we need to start now." | <urn:uuid:cf8c308b-5314-48a8-8c13-c3620ecf0259> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.albanyherald.com/news/2011/nov/12/have-yourself-green-little-christmas/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961619 | 1,220 | 2.5 | 2 |
Career Programs & Information
While we cannot accommodate students requesting job shadow experiences we do offer some other great opportunities for students interested in pursuing a career in zoo animal care.
Career Discovery Programs
Sign up for one of our Keeper for a Day or Marine Biologist for a Day experiences.
Career Day - Saturday November 10, 2012
Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium hosts an annual Career Day each November for 6th grade through college students interested in pursuing a career working with animals in a zoo or aquarium facility. This event includes FREE admission for students. Students under 16 must be accompanied by a paying adult.Younger siblings and adults are required to pay the regular admission rate.
At Career Day, students may observe special animal presentations, find out what our zookeepers do to care for their animals, pick up free information and have opportunities to visit behind the scenes. Please note that there is no guarantee that students will be able to see all areas.
Download tentative activity schedule (pdf)
Check-in begins at 9:30 a.m. The Zoo closes at 4 p.m. Most activities and presentations take place between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. You do not need to pre-register for this event.
Volunteer - it's an adventure! Learn about our youth and adult volunteer opportunities.
Open to currently enrolled or recently graduated college or university students.
We recommend that you make your request at least two weeks before your deadline. Please contact the Education Department at (253) 404-3666 to place you request. | <urn:uuid:271798a7-4435-483f-a24e-f3d950db1cfd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pdza.org/career-information | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942429 | 322 | 1.65625 | 2 |
How do I find my PIN?
The best source for your PIN is your deed or tax bill, or other documents you may have from the purchase of your home. If you are not able to locate any of these documents, the Cook County Assessor's website can help you locate a PIN from an address.
Matches are not guaranteed, and there may be some addresses that are not available. In most cases the Assessor's office provides a photograph of the property, which can help verify the match of the address to the PIN.
I know I'm in a TIF, why doesn't it show up here?
The only TIF districts shown are those districts active for the current tax year. Sometimes a municipality passes an ordinance to establish a TIF but delays filing the ordinance or there is a problem with the ordinance and the TIF cannot be put on the tax rolls until that is corrected. Also, remember that Illinois taxes in arrears, meaning that the tax year that is current is the past calendar year, so a TIF that was just passed cannot immediately appear on the tax rolls.
Why aren't these percentages the same as on my tax bill?
The percentages on your tax bill do not reflect the incremental portion for the TIF because there is no tax rate for the TIF. The percentages viewed on this site show how tax dollars are distributed given that a portion of the money must go to the TIF under Illinois law.
For example, if the percentage for the TIF is 20%, the remaining 80% is distributed according to the percentages shown on your bill. The result of that calculation is what is shown on this site.
How can it be that so much of the money in my tax code is going to the TIF?
State law governing tax increment financing directs the Clerk to allocate all funds derived from the "incremental value" of the property to benefit the TIF, so the municipality can accomplish the goals of the TIF redevelopment plan. If the properties in question had a very low value at the inception of the TIF, or if they were exempt and had no taxable value at all as a result, all development constitutes an increase in the value. The tax revenue derived from that increased value represents the incremental taxes that flow to the TIF district.
Why would a TIF have exempt properties?
Municipalities struggling with blighted neighborhoods, or seeking to redevelop a large swath of land, may need to consolidate ownership so that redevelopment can occur. Often this is done through eminent domain or condemnation, but the municipality can acquire property through other means as well. While owned by the government the property can be declared exempt.
Where can I get more information about my TIF?
Contact your municipality. They created the TIF district and are responsible for its administration and budget. If you live in the City of Chicago, you can visit the city's new website to access reports and ordinances regarding TIFs in the city. For suburban municipalities, the information available on the web will vary. For a list of suburban municipalities and their websites, click here. Municipalities must file TIF annual reports for each of their TIF districts with the Illinois Comptroller. These are available for review at the Office of the State Comptroller. For more information, contact the Comptroller's Office. | <urn:uuid:d6219c0b-551e-4537-9009-6571f01e4abb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cookcountyclerk.com/tsd/tifs/Pages/TIFFAQs.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952552 | 677 | 1.546875 | 2 |
NEW SOUND ARTWORK BY ARTIST MAX NEUHAUS INAUGURATED AT DIA:BEACON, RIGGIO GALLERIES ON MAY 6, 2006
Newly commissioned work creates a zone of sound around the museum
Apr 18, 2006
Beacon, New York—Dia Art Foundation inaugurates a new sound work by artist Max Neuhaus on May 6, 2006, at Dia:Beacon, Riggio Galleries, the museum for its permanent collection located in the Hudson Valley. Commissioned for Dia:Beacon, Time Piece Beacon (2005) establishes a zone of sound around the perimeter of Dia’s facility. Tailored to the building and its surrounding environment, the work introduces an aural experience into the museum. Time Piece Beacon enters Dia’s collection alongside Neuhaus’s Times Square (1977), a sound work located on a pedestrian island at Broadway between 45th and 46th Streets in New York City, which was acquired in 2002.
Neuhaus premises his projects on a perception of space as a function of what we hear as well as what we see. He often exploits the specific characteristics of a given context as a foundation on which to create a new aural experience of that place. Drawing from the historic practice of using sound as a signal—such as the chimes of a clock announcing the time of day—the work introduces a “sound signal” in reverse: its subtle sound will be noticed by those within earshot when it disappears rather than when it begins. Initially inaudible, the sound will gradually emerge from the ambient noise in the museum environment and will suddenly stop. Its “signal” will be the silence left after its abrupt ending. In marking the hour with the cessation of sound, Time Piece Beacon creates a moment of stillness.
Dia’s first collaboration with Neuhaus was the reinstallation of Times Square. In May 2002 Dia worked with the Times Square Street Business Improvement District (BID), Christine Burgin, and MTA Arts for Transit to reinstate Neuhaus’s 1977 project, which had been deinstalled in 1992. With the acquisition of Time Piece Beacon, Dia maintains two of the twelve permanent sound works by Neuhaus currently active internationally.
Max Neuhaus has worked in the fields of contemporary art and music for more than forty years. Credited with being the first to extend sound as a primary medium into the field of contemporary art, his work has been exhibited internationally in museums and galleries, including exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris; and the Kunsthalle, Bern. In addition to Times Square, permanent sound works are installed in Graz, Austria; Geneva, Switzerland; Bern, Switzerland; Turin, Italy; Bordeaux, France; and Kassel, Germany, among other locations. Neuhaus’s work has also been included in Documenta 6 (1977) and 9 (1992), and the Venice Biennale (1999). Born in Beaumont, Texas in 1939, Neuhaus spent part of his early childhood in Fishkill, New York, and currently lives in Capri, Italy.
Dia:Beacon, Riggio Galleries
Dia:Beacon, Dia Art Foundation’s museum in the Hudson Valley, presents a distinguished collection of contemporary art from the 1960s to the present. Situated on the banks of the Hudson River in Beacon, New York, the museum occupies a former Nabisco box-printing facility, which was renovated by Dia with artist Robert Irwin and architect OpenOffice.
Dia:Beacon’s expansive galleries comprise 240,000 square feet of exhibition space illuminated by natural light. The museum houses works by a focused group of some of the most significant artists of the last half century, including Bernd and Hilla Becher, Joseph Beuys, Louise Bourgeois, John Chamberlain, Walter De Maria, Dan Flavin, Michael Heizer, Robert Irwin, Donald Judd, On Kawara, Imi Knoebel, Sol LeWitt, Agnes Martin, Bruce Nauman, Blinky Palermo, Gerhard Richter, Robert Ryman, Fred Sandback, Richard Serra, Robert Smithson, Andy Warhol, and Lawrence Weiner.
Programming at the museum includes a series of year-long temporary exhibitions as well as public programs designed to complement the collection and exhibitions, including monthly Gallery Talks, music performances by St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, Readings in Contemporary Literature, Community Free Days for neighboring counties and an education program that serves area students at all education levels.
Dia Art Foundation
Dia Art Foundation was founded in 1974. A nonprofit institution, Dia is internationally renowned for initiating, supporting, presenting, and preserving art projects. Dia presents public programs and its permanent collection of works from the 1960s through the present at Dia:Beacon, Riggio Galleries, in New York’s Hudson Valley. Dia has also proposed a plan to relocate its contemporary exhibition program in New York City to a new facility located at the future entrance to the High Line public park in downtown Manhattan. Additionally, the foundation maintains long-term, site-specific projects in the western United States, in New York City, and on Long Island.
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For additional information or materials contact:
Press Department, Dia Art Foundation, email@example.com or 212 293 5518 | <urn:uuid:077e216c-b7e4-4974-8a90-7975ca8e43dc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.diaart.org/exhibitions/pressrelease/91 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931141 | 1,155 | 1.5625 | 2 |
At last night’s press conference the President was exactly right when he said:
If we do not reform health care, your premiums and out-of-pocket costs will continue to skyrocket. …
Right now premiums for families that have health insurance have doubled over the last 10 years. They’ve gone up three times faster than wages. So what we know is that if the current trends continue, more and more families are going to lose health care, more and more families are going to be in a position where they keep their health care but it takes a bigger bite out of their budget, employers are going to put more and more of the costs on the employees or they’re just going to stop providing health care altogether. …
One of the things that doesn’t get talked about is the fact that when premiums are going up and the costs to employers are going up, that’s money that could be going into people’s wages and incomes. And over the last decade we basically saw middle-class families, their incomes and wages flatlined. Part of the reason is because health care costs are gobbling that up.
Most of the public and Congressional debate has been about the effect of pending health care reform on the federal budget. While this is incredibly important, it may be less important than the effect of this legislation on private health insurance premiums.
As a reminder, I agree with the President’s core problem definition. Rising per capita health care spending leads to (1) slower wage growth for those with private health insurance, as premiums eat up compensation growth; (2) an increasing number of uninsured who can’t afford the higher premiums; and (3) unsustainable spending trends for state and local governments.
I wrote in mid-May about why health spending continues to grow at an unsustainable rate. Sixty-two to 75 percent of long-term health cost growth is due to the higher costs of improved technology and the increased prevalence of third-party payment. Health care keeps getting more expensive primarily because we use more and better health care each year, and because most of it appears to be paid by someone else. We have to address these sources of cost growth to have any hope of solving the underlying problem.
The President once again correctly identified the core problem, and I compliment him for his emphasis on the need to reduce, or at least slow the growth of, private health insurance premiums. Unfortunately the House “Tri-Committee” bill and the Senate HELP Committee bill move in the opposite direction. They would cause private health insurance premiums to go up, increasing the crunch on wages and the difficulty the uninsured have in affording insurance. The House Tri-Committee bill and the Senate HELP Committee bill contain insurance mandates that would make private health insurance more expensive for most Americans, and would thus exacerbate the problems described by the President.
Two different kinds of mandates
These bills contain two fundamentally different kinds of mandates:
- “You must” mandates: Individuals and families are required to buy health insurance, and employers (over a certain size) are required to offer health insurance to their employees. Anyone not complying with such a mandate must pay a new tax.
- “Insurers may not” mandates: Insurers may not sell policies that do not cover pre-existing conditions, or that charge very different premiums to people with different health profiles based on age, gender, or health status. These are usually described as mandates that “insurers must sell policies that do X and Y and Z,” but economically it’s actually a prohibition on selling policies that do not contain X or Y or Z. The government is not requiring companies to sell insurance, but instead prohibiting them from selling insurance unless it meets certain conditions.
Today I want to focus on the latter type of mandates, which have received little attention in the recent legislative debate. Here are four versions of an “insurer may not” mandate:
- Mandated benefits - A health insurance plan may not deny reimbursement for mammograms for women meeting certain medical criteria, or for a 48-hour hospital stay after the birth of a baby. Slightly less politically attractive would be a mandate that health insurance plans may not deny reimbursement for chiropractic benefits or substance abuse.
- Community rating - A health insurance plan may not charge different prices to different customers.
- Guaranteed issue - A health plan may not deny coverage to any individual who applies, regardless of whether they have a pre-existing condition. Guaranteed issue would allow, for instance, a cancer patient to newly enroll in a health insurance plan to get reimbursement for medical treatment for his cancer.
- Any willing provider - A health insurance plan may not exclude particular hospitals or doctors from their network.
Benefit mandates are fairly straightforward. The big question is, why should the government be deciding which medical treatments your health insurance must cover? Does it make sense for the government to mandate specific medical care practices? You can tell from my framing of the question that I’m a “no” on benefit mandates. I don’t think that’s an appropriate role for government.
Each benefit mandate raises the price of health insurance a little bit. These increases accumulate.
Community rating and guaranteed issue usually provoke the most active debate because of their enormous distributional effects. They act as cross-subsidies from the healthy to the sick, or more precisely from those more likely to be healthy to those more likely to have higher health costs.
Here is a crash course in community rating and guaranteed issue. I will oversimplify to make it useful.
- Health care costs tend to be highly concentrated. Most people are fairly healthy and have low health costs. They occasionally get sick or injured, but on average they’re healthy. In a similar way, most houses don’t catch fire each year, but you buy homeowner’s insurance to protect against the small chance that yours will.
- Most of the health care spending is concentrated in a minority of the population who are frequently or permanently sick or injured. These people have predictably high health costs and therefore cost more to insure in a market without government distortion. Continuing the home/fire example, a house built next to an outdoor flamethrower testing facility will catch fire more often and have predictably higher costs. We would expect an insurer to charge a higher premium for such a home. And a house that is on fire has no risk – the costs/losses are certain. The minority of homes built near the flamethrower testing facility, and those that are already on fire, would account for a large majority of the total costs/losses.
- If a policy equalizes premiums between the usually healthy and the predictably sick, health insurance will become somewhat more expensive for most (usually healthy) people, and much less expensive for the minority who are predictably high cost. In some cases, a market without distortion won’t even sell insurance to someone who is predictably sick, just as an insurer won’t sell you insurance while your house is on fire. Assuming we want to help the person with cancer, if we do so by requiring companies to sell him insurance and to charge him the same premium as a healthy person, then the cancer victim can buy affordable insurance, cross-subsidized by a large number of relatively healthy people who will pay higher premiums.
- This is what community rating and guaranteed issue do. They make insurance available and much more affordable for those with predictably high health costs (e.g., someone with incurable cancer, or a sixty-year old man with a family history of heart disease), while raising premiums for most enrollees who are on average relatively healthy.
- It gets even trickier because some people who are predictably sick and need expensive medical care have inherited or random illnesses that are completely outside of their control, while others use a lot of medical care in part because of their behavior. While both types are high-cost and predictably ill, some people and policymakers come to very different judgments about whether the two cases should be treated the same. If you think someone with a family history of cancer should not be charged a higher premium than someone without, are you comfortable saying that insurance companies should charge smokers and non-smokers the same premiums? Should non-smokers subsidize the premiums of smokers? Does your answer change if the smoker already has lung cancer?
Because the House and Senate bills contain versions of community rating and guaranteed issue mandates, they would benefit those with predictably high costs. At the same time, the President wants to slow the growth of overall (total/average) private health insurance premiums, and we need to understand how much the mandates in these bills would exacerbate that problem.
We have a lot of data on the effects of these types of insurance mandates, because there are today 50 state insurance markets with widely varying requirements. This serves as a natural experiment and allows health economists to tease out whether particular mandates are associated with, and probably cause, higher insurance premiums.
We had three economists from the Council of Economic Advisers study this (internally for the Bush White House) in 2004. They are Mark Showalter, William Congdon, and Amanda Kowalski. They turned their memo into a published paper, which you can access for free here, but only if you’re in an academic institution. For the rest of us, here is the original CEA memo from which this paper was derived.
Their memo analyzed the effect of State insurance mandates on the price of health insurance policies in the non-group (individual) market. Here are three conclusions relevant to the current debate:
- “Mandated benefits raise the expected price of an individual policy by approximately 0.4 percent per mandate.” For family policies the increase is approximately 0.5 percent per mandate. The typical state has about 20 mandates (with a range from 6 to 48) so a reduction from 20 to 10 mandates would imply a 4 percent decrease in price for individual policies, and a 5 percent decrease for family policies.
- “Community Rating” laws, which limit insurers’ ability to charge different prices to different customers, raise prices by 20.3 percent for individual policies and 27.3 percent for family policies.”
- “The difference in price for guaranteed issue laws is $113 [per month for an individual] (233 – 120), but only a single state in our sample has such a law (New Jersey).”
The House and Senate bills both require guaranteed issue, and they both require versions of “modified” community rating, with the specifics to be determined by the States. While neither bill creates new specific federal benefit mandates, they both create a government-appointed board with the ability to create such mandates. Thus the mandated benefits effect is there but indirect.
Anticipating some of the pushback:
- Yes, their regressions looked at the effects of State mandates, rather than national mandates, and on the individual market rather than the employer-based group market.
- It is hard to tell how national mandates would interact with the new exchanges for individual (non-group) purchase. While I will guess that the effects would be similar to those found in the CEA study, that’s just my guess.
- I am not aware of “any willing provider” mandates in the House or Senate bills, so those are not directly relevant.
I am not arguing that the numbers from the CEA memo directly translate into the same quantitative effects for either the House “Tri-Committee” bill, nor for the Senate HELP Committee bill. But the numbers are large enough that Congress needs to ask these same questions about the bills they are now considering.
You may think that community rating and guaranteed issue, which often go together, are fairer than allowing insurers to base premiums on expected risk. You may instead think that health insurance should be like homeowners or auto insurance, in which people with similar risks pool their resources and get charged similar premiums, and those with higher expected risks face higher premiums. This debate is value-driven and often quite intense, and I am not trying to resolve it here.
I am trying to draw your attention to a more basic analytic point. By including a guaranteed issue mandate, a mandate for modified community rating, and the ability for a new government-appointed body to create new benefit mandates, the House and Senate bills will cause total and average private health insurance premiums to increase.
How much? I cannot say precisely, because of the differences between CEA studied State mandates and because there are other interactive effects in this bill. But clearly these mandates will increase premiums, and if the numbers are comparable, the neighborhood is quite expensive: +4-5% higher premiums for another 10 benefit mandates, +20-27% for community rating, and New Jersey’s guaranteed issue is associated with 94% higher premiums compared to a similar State without guaranteed issue. Those are potentially astronomical premium increases that would make the problems the President describes far worse than under current law.
Debates and decisions about the equity effects of guaranteed issue and community rating mandates are why we elect Members of Congress. They will affect the predictably sick and the relatively healthy. These debates need to occur before Members vote on these bills. And Members need to understand the effects these mandates would have on private health insurance premiums. It would come as a harsh surprise if these bills became law and premiums for most Americans suddenly jumped 20%, 27%, or 94%.
Before voting on these bills Congress needs to ask both CBO and the HHS actuaries two simple questions:
- What would be the effects of the guaranteed issue and community rating mandates on average private health insurance premiums, in both the group and non-group markets?
- What would be the effects on average private health insurance premiums if the new government-appointed body were to add N more benefit mandates?
The answers to these questions are at least as important as the effect of these bills on the federal budget. | <urn:uuid:8643df22-751e-482d-a805-6df691b274ca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://keithhennessey.com/2009/07/23/higher-premiums/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96071 | 2,878 | 1.5625 | 2 |
The first mohel (sometimes pronounced moyel) was a 99-year-old ex-shepherd with no medical training whatsoever. There is no record of how he performed the procedure, but given that he was his own first subject, it is unlikely that Abraham used an anesthetic.
An Age-Old Tradition
Things have changed since then. Circumcision--known as brit milah or simply bris--is probably the best-known indication of Jewishness in a male (if not the most immediately visible!). It is also the oldest and one of the most widely followed of Jewish ritual practices. Abraham circumcised himself and his sons, Isaac and Ishmael; Zipporah circumcised Gershom, her first-born son. At first, like those estimable forebears, fathers (and apparently the occasional mother) would circumcise their own sons, with a stone knife, usually of flint.
Through all the upheaval of conquering Canaan, building the Temple, being sent into exile in Babylon, and returning and rebuilding the Temple, the Jews still practiced circumcision. Gradually, it became the province of specially trained men, called mohalim (plural for mohel), who were learned in the ritual elements surrounding the procedure (and probably no more ignorant of medicine than the average physician of the period).
By the period of the Second Temple, they were using iron knives, and reciting the blessings that are still used today. Initially, the bris was a family celebration, but with time it became a festivity that would involve the entire community. By the Middle Ages, the ceremony was usually performed in the synagogue, with the entire congregation's active participants in the festivities.
Today, the mohel is considerably better trained than his historical antecedents. Or hers, as the case may be, as the non-Orthodox movements now certify women physicians for the role of mohelet (the female form of mohel). Historically, there were women who acted as circumcisers in medieval Italy and perhaps at other times in history. Today, there are mohalot (plural of mohelet) in the Reform and Conservative movements.
A mohel is still trained in the ritual of circumcision according to the rules prescribed in classical rabbinic texts and subsequent law codes from the medieval period. However, today's mohel will also have been educated in modern surgical hygiene. The Reform movement in particular has taken an active interest in certifying mohalim who are doctors: they undergo training in the theology, history, and liturgy of the brit milah. An increasing number of Orthodox mohalim are also physicians.
Mohel Job #1: Health & Safety
Today's mohel will examine the baby to certify that he is healthy enough to undergo the procedure (unless a doctor has decided he cannot). If he is not, it must be postponed to a later date. As usual in matters of physical health, Judaism takes a cautious approach, and mohalim are generally more strict on this issue than doctors.
Mohel Job #2: Leading the Service
A bris always takes place during the day, usually in the morning, in the home or synagogue. The mohel will lead the ceremony, which is brief, and recite all the necessary prayers. It is preferable to have a minyan (a quorum of 10) present, but not essential; a bris can be performed by the mohel with no one but the father present.
Mohel Job #3: The Snip
The procedure itself is very brief. The mohel uses a magen or shield to protect the glans and guide the knife. He may use a silver probe to loosen the foreskin before beginning.
There are three phases to the procedure: me'ilah, the actual removal of the foreskin; p'riah, the tearing of the genital membrane underneath the foreskin back to the corona; and m'tzitzah--suction--the removal of blood and cleaning of the affected area.
In ancient tradition, the mohel would actually suck the blood away; this was believed to have a disinfectant effect. By the 19th century, with the advent of the germ theory of illness, Jews realized that it actually had the opposite effect. Today, a mohel will probably utilize a glass tube and a cotton swab. The mohel will put a sterile bandage on the incision and then the boy is dressed.
According to traditional Jewish law it is technically the responsibility of a father to circumcise his own sons. The mohel is merely his agent in this procedure. | <urn:uuid:da4667e4-bccf-4d5c-80b6-f7f0c250d829> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kveller.com/baby_and_toddler/Circumcision_/The-Mohel.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967746 | 948 | 3.15625 | 3 |
Most of the time the Sun is quiet, shining in space beaming out light and heat. But every eleven years it gets cranky – covered in dark spots and fiery eruptions. This is a time called solar maximum, or solar max for short.
The Sun, like all stars, is a big ball of plasma – mostly hydrogen and helium. Because the Sun is so big – 100 million times bigger than Earth – it has a lot of gravity. The gravity squeezes the plasma so hard that it gives off heat and light. Scientists call this nuclear fusion.
Nuclear fusion also makes magnetism, making the Sun a giant magnet in space.
As the Sun spins around in space, the magnetism inside the Sun becomes more and more twisted. After 11 years of twisting the magnetism begins to snap apart – like a rubber band that’s been twisted too much.
When the magnetism snaps, sunspots (dark patches) appear on the surface of the Sun. Prominences and flares are also common, which look like loops and tongues of fires erupting from the Sun.
Flares cause pieces of the Sun – called radiation – to blast into space.
Luckily, our planet has a strong magnetic barrier that protects us from this radiation. Sometimes the radiation causes satellites to turn off or cause electricity supplies to black out. It can also make beautiful lights in the night sky close to the North and South Poles, called aurora.
There are many telescopes and spacecraft watching the Sun. For example, the SOHO spacecraft has been doing it since 1995.
Another spacecraft called Genesis captured pieces of the Sun and brought them back to Earth.
In 2018, scientists will send a spacecraft called Solar Probe+ to travel into the Sun. They don’t expect it to return.
This article appeared in the January 2011 edition of Scientriffic. | <urn:uuid:f898e34d-5e55-42f5-af52-8d07f9eb2170> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.darrenosborne.com/2011/01/solar-max/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9275 | 383 | 3.90625 | 4 |
Network Security: When Should You Announce a Breach?
Security breaches are embarrassing, and sometimes they put others in danger. When should you break the code of silence and come clean about a compromise?
Drafting a customer notification policy is no easy task. The first and most obvious factor that must be weighed is the industry in which you operate. Some retail businesses, for example, may store peoples' addresses, phone numbers and credit card numbers. A total site compromise will likely mean that all customer information is leaked. Other compromises may only leak company secrets—something the customer couldn't care less about.
The health care industry has tons of government-mandated policies to comply with, so it's nearly a no-brainer: they disclose what they're told to. Businesses operating perhaps as a channel partner with a medical company may still maintain some private records, but not be subject to disclosure policies. These, and nearly every other type of business, needs to construct their own set of policies for notifying customers.
A few years back the Veteran's Administration lost millions of social security numbers when an employee lost a laptop. It immediately sent letters and e-mail to every present and former service member in the US. Multiple times, in fact, to give updates when new details were found. It wasn't a credit card number list or anything that could actually be dangerous, but nonetheless the organization immediately notified the press and then each customer individually.
When to Disclose?
Regardless of lost data, some proponents of full disclosure would like all companies to announce every little security incident. There are good arguments both for and against this concept, so we'll take the middle ground. Some security incidents probably should be disclosed to the public even when no data has been leaked, and others can probably be ignored.
"What? If no data was leaked, I don't need to tell anyone!"
What if it's discovered later that some vital customer information was in fact compromised? When making the dreaded "we lost your information" announcement, the impact is somewhat softened if you can refer to a past compromise which wasn't kept secret. By the time the discovery of lost information occurs, it's also likely that the attack vector has been identified and remediated. The public's view of the situation changes greatly when a company can say they know what happened, and that they have fixed the security hole.
There are four main types of compromise to consider when drafting a security disclosure policy.
Web site defacement. This is the most common, and most harmless type of security incident. If you're running an ISP, hosting company or university you likely have hundreds of defaced Web sites right now. A defacement means that somebody has taken advantage of a poorly-written Web application, and they were able to write data to a file. This normally takes the form of a "our group was here" type of message. This vulnerability can lead to other types of compromises!
User-level access. A user-level compromise means that someone has guessed a user's password, or that they were able to run a program via a vulnerable Web application. This isn't dangerous in itself, but it's much more difficult identify the breadth of the incident. The possibility that the attacker now has access to confidential information has greatly increased.
Root compromise. A root compromise on a Web server, for example, is dangerous. An attacker is able to read Web applications and discover where your database of customer information lives, and possibly some passwords as well. The compromised system will need to be reinstalled, and depending on its role, your entire site now requires an in-depth security audit.
Theft or physical compromise. Computer security isn't just about operating systems. Theft of a laptop or backup tapes is the most common way that data is lost. Physical security incidents can lead to, or even be motivated by an attempt at a computer system compromise. A homeless person found wandering around a restricted area probably doesn't need to be disclosed to the public, but most everything else does.
Often, the IT staff may discover a security incident, but fail to notify management. Management could also deem the issue unimportant and fail to notify upper management. Both of these situations need to be addressed in a disclosure policy document as well. It's more likely that the IT staff would be the ones hiding an incident because they feel personally responsible and ashamed when any type of incident occurs.
Even something as simple as a Web site defacement needs attention. It probably isn't worth a company-wide announcement, but the simple cases often turn into more complex ones once a proper investigation begins. A seemingly simple Web site defacement could have led to someone gaining user-level access to a Web server, and fan-out could have occurred from there.
Internal reporting procedures are highly company-dependent, but disclosure to the public should not be. Even when no data has been lost, a root-level compromise should always be disclosed to the public. California's new disclosure law seemed a bit harsh to some, but it is specific in that reporting only needs to occur when data is lost. We'd like to see all major security incidents reported, regardless of data loss. That information, along with the attack vector and resolution, would go a long way toward helping all sites become more secure. | <urn:uuid:0d7ef009-e4b6-41df-baab-37bfebe1ccf0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.enterprisenetworkingplanet.com/netsecur/article.php/3687276/Network-Security--When-Should-You-Announce-a-Breach.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966889 | 1,077 | 1.90625 | 2 |
Today in History – November 27, 1895 – The first gasoline-powered automobile race in the United States. The Duryea brothers – Charles and Frank – created their first gasoline-powered “horseless-carriage” in 1893. The Duryeas were bicycle mechanics who built their first car in a workshop located in a building in downtown Springfield, MA. in September 1893. It was built around a one-cylinder, gasoline engine and a three-speed transmission mounted on a used horse carriage, hitting a stop speed of 7.5 mph. In 1894, Frank developed a second car with a more powerful two-cylinder engine that he drove in America’s first automobile race on Thanksgiving Day, November 27, 1895 and ran a 54-mile course from down-town Chicago to Evanston, Il and back. Taking a little over 10 hours, Frank Duryea was the first to cross the finish line, averaging 7.3 miles per hour and winning a prize of $2,000 ($49,500 in today’s money).”
A few years later the first U.S. automobile show opened in Madison Square Graden, NYC. (See November 3 blog). Henry Ford’s development of mass production techniques in the automotive industry in 1913 made the automobile affordable to the general population.
The National Academy of Engineering named the automobile as the 2nd greatest invention of the twentieth century. Through continuous improvement and the ingenious application of new technology, the automobile reconfirmed and updated its status as a triumph of engineering throughout the 20th century.
The challenge today is to make automobiles and their impact on the environment sustainable for future generations. Hybrids and automobiles using alternate fuels such as solar, biofuels or hydrogen are promising directions for research and development. The solar car, human powered vehicle and supermileage vehicle engineering student competitions at universities today help students develop integrative design and team skills, as well as provide engaging examples for the next generation of engineering students. | <urn:uuid:95a5adf5-e3e7-4b1a-8d32-72af2176239e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.k-grayengineeringeducation.com/blog/index.php/2007/11/27/engineering-education-blog-americas-first-gas-powered-automobile-race/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954399 | 408 | 3.515625 | 4 |
According to a recent study, ambient LED lighting will significantly alter the look and feel of car interiors within the next few years – a trend that will affect the work of auto trim shops.
Researchers at Hamburg University in Germany and HELLA, a leading global supplier of automotive lighting, found that specific shades of ambient lighting placed throughout a vehicle’s cabin can affect the general mood and perceived comfort level of passengers.
The findings of this study and similar others have sparked increased interest among automakers in LED technology. Many hope to use ambient lighting’s mood-altering effects to strengthen brand awareness and improve customer satisfaction.
So many automakers are currently experimenting with LED technology that HELLA believes 12 percent of all vehicles in North and South America will come equipped with LED lighting by 2016. A press release issued by the automotive lighting company states:
Lighting is not a significant factor in the design of most passenger-car and commercial-vehicle interiors today, but HELLA predicts that the use of ambient LED lighting in North America will more than quadruple over the next five years.
“LED lighting technology provides designers with another important way to add value and improve the overall driving experience,” the HELLA executive [Dr. Herbert Wambsganss] pointed out. “It’s a key new ingredient in the interior design equation.” [...]
HELLA’s RGB/LIN technology achieves exact color and intensity control with HELLA’s proprietary LED module calibration, promoting perfect harmony throughout a vehicle’s interior. In addition, the company’s technology allows designers to place unique colors at specific locations throughout a car’s interior to further extend brand-design themes.
Specific LED interior lighting applications offered by HELLA include multi-color LED modules, RGB/LIN control with color-control, fabric backlighting that highlights patterns contained within cloth construction, LED overhead consoles and slim-line LED interior lighting. [more]
In other words, HELLA is positioning itself to sell LED technology to automakers interested in lighting everything from cup holders and consoles to door panels and fabrics.
If the trend catches on as HELLA predicts, auto trim shops can expect to begin handling the technology – if not to incorporate it in custom designs, then to repair interior elements already wired for it.
I, fore one, am excited by the emerging trend. I just hope that automakers and tuners don’t go overboard with the technology. When it comes to interior lighting, less is more. Otherwise, we might find ourselves driving around in glowing alien orbs. | <urn:uuid:ad40b0b2-1e97-443f-ab91-4d1a0b52834b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thehogring.com/2012/07/15/use-of-leds-to-rise-in-car-interiors-by-2016/ | 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 | 0.914458 | 530 | 1.578125 | 2 |
By Ed Brock
Nothing can make getting a bone scan fun, but for Tracy Chitwood the experience has become a little less tedious.
Chitwood, 34, of Hampton was at Southern Regional Medical Center in Riverdale last week and spent about 20 minutes under the hospital's new Siemens e.cam gamma camera. It was a big improvement over the camera's predecessor in SRMC's Nuclear Medicine Department.
"I stayed moving the whole time," said Chitwood, who is being treated for cancer. "And you can watch movies."
The gamma camera is one piece of updated technology at SRMC that is intended to make patient treatment there better and easier. It has been on the job since August, and in the next month cardiologists at the hospital will also begin using the new CALYSTO Series IV physiomonitoring and information system from Witt Biological of Melbourne, Fla.
Early detection of diseases such as cancer and heart disease is the primary purpose of the e.cam system. It can examine body organs on a molecular level and detect problems that are too small to be seen by other methods such as an X-ray.
Along with its ability to play DVD movies for patients undergoing treatment (Chitwood watched "Grumpier Old Men") the e.cam gamma camera has a wider table that is designed to accommodate all kinds of body types and can hold more weight. Patients can go through standing or sitting and special infrared sensors allow the camera to bring the detector surfaces as close as possible to the patient, thus enhancing whole body imaging.
"We are very excited about the addition of the e.cam to Nuclear Medicine," said Ingrid Hall, manager of the Nuclear Medicine Department. "Its flexibility can accommodate each patient and it reduces patient set-up time."
In the old model Chitwood had to be strapped in to assure she didn't roll off the table.
"I don't like to be tied," Chitwood said.
The new camera is "like something out of Star Trek," nuclear medicine technologist David Dix said.
"Most patients who've gone through it have loved it mainly for the DVD," Dix said. "It gives the impression of top rate equipment."
Even for patients like Melvin Lockhart of Forest Park who wasn't on the table long enough to watch a DVD the camera is "much easier," Lockhart said.
Other uses for the camera include thyroid tests, stress tests, checkups for organ transplant recipients and detecting an infection site.
"With its unique combination of image quality, patient versatility and unsurpassed functionality, we expect our new e.cam camera to significantly reduce examination time while improving patient outcomes," said Dr. Balu Mani, chair of diagnostic imaging at SRMC.
The CALYSTO system will be used during cardiac catheterization procedures in which a special dye is injected into a patient and tracked by X-rays to find the exact location of blockages and clots in arteries. That knowledge is used to determine the best treatment such as medicines, surgery, angioplasty or stents. The procedure is also used to detect problems with heart valves or heart rhythms.
CALYSTO will allow doctors to review patient information from a variety of sources during the catheterization procedure, including ultrasound and other test results, making the process "easier and faster" and thus more efficient, said Donna Waggoner, SRMC's director of Heart and Vascular Care.
"In the past, if a patient came into our emergency room and a physician wanted to know what the most recent Stress Echo showed, he or she would have to locate the videotape and/or report for that patient," Waggoner said. "With the multi-modality review capability (of CALYSTO) the physician can pull up the patient's record containing multiple reports within seconds. This time saved expedites the clinical decision making process while improving departmental productivity and efficiency." | <urn:uuid:51103fb8-9e97-47e5-90bb-0dde396bda3b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.news-daily.com/news/2004/jan/12/it039s-like-something-out-of-star-trek039/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958426 | 814 | 1.609375 | 2 |
"The thing about a district paying the fee is that they then have some skin in the game. And we are then able to leverage their dollars to raise more private dollars," Nash said.
Nationally, 80 percent of the group's funding comes from private donors, Nash said. The federal government accounts for 13 percent of all money, with local public entities making up the remaining 7 percent.
Many different people sponsor the program as well, Nash said. It's not a Republican or Democrat initiative. There aren't secret corporations sending in dollars to pull strings for nefarious means.
"Yesterday I was in the Senate Minority Leader's office, Mitch McConnell, and he said one thing he really admired about Teach For America is that we build champions on both sides of the aisle. So it's easy for him to go to bat for us," Nash said.
The program is in 36 states. Getting the go-ahead has been different in each one: Nash said legislation "sailed through" in Virginia, but there was some push back in Kentucky.
The Kentucky Education Association took a similar stance as the WVEA at first, Nash said. Eventually they agreed to allow the program into the state. It's in its second year in Kentucky now, with the KEA and others singing its praises.
"In Kentucky, after year one every principal who could hire more teachers did. And we've now grown from four districts to almost 16 districts," Nash said.
The program is not asking for any money from the state. Other states do fund the program, but Nash said that's because it works.
Right now, Teach for America is looking at "three or four southern counties" as potential placement locations. That would mean at most 15 to 20 teachers in the program's first year, Nash said. In Nash's opinion, the success of those participants would show superintendents and principals it's a worthwhile endeavor.
There's nothing in the bill or in law anywhere in the county that requires school systems to participate in the program, Nash said.
"The irony of all of this is we could go through the legislative process and every district in the state could say we actually don't want to hire any teachers," Nash said.
He doesn't anticipate that happening, but wanted to emphasize no one is forced to take on its teachers.
Tomblin continues to champion the program. Nash said he appreciates his support, and is optimistic the governor's bill will allow the group to enter the state on a broad scale.
Lee and others are fighting to make sure that doesn't happen. Friday afternoon Lee said Teach for America was still "a major sticking point" in negotiations.
The bill is currently before the Senate Education Committee. Although committee chairman Bob Plymale, D-Wayne, pledged to put the bill up for a vote Thursday, he canceled two meetings so stakeholders could discuss the bill further over the weekend.
After the second canceled meeting, Tomblin chief of staff Rob Alsop said there had been no agreement reached on the program.
Earlier in the week Lee thought the bill may have been changed so that Teach for America could not teach in elementary schools, and the its name was replaced with "national teacher corps." That's not enough, in his opinion.
The Senate Education Committee is expected to vote on the bill when it meets Tuesday. | <urn:uuid:9ca176e1-2025-4373-b469-cdf1c20d11bf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailymail.com/News/statenews/201303100170?page=2&build=cache | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977936 | 684 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Not infrequently, The New York Times supplements its regular offerings with a “special section,” a home for special content on special topics or special events-and for the advertisers who want to read about these topics! We will be reviewing these sections in this space.
Today: “The Business of Green.”
The section’s lead story, “Storm Over the Chamber,” concerns turmoil within the Chamber of Commerce. The accompanying photo illustration incorporates a picture of lightning courtesy of Getty Images and a picture of the Chamber of Commerce courtesy of the AP.
The second front-page article catalogues the difficulties of wind and solar energy, like still summer afternoons and passing clouds. In California, for example, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger hopes to meet 33 percent of the state’s energy needs from renewable sources–but this is challenging:
To hit the goal of 33 percent, there will be hours when California must run at about 50 percent renewable energy–mostly wind–to balance out the hours when the wind does not blow. That is hard, because the wind blows best at night, when demand is low, and already there are night hours when the system cannot use all the energy available, because there is so little demand.
The article provides readers with many examples and analogies. The current grid is “like a sheet cake in a flimsy box, which will hold together only as long as it is supported from many points”; “capacity” is an important concept because it describes situations like “stepping out of the shower and turning on the hair dryer without calling the electricity company to ask permission.” One 2003 night in wind-powered Texas, a cold front so exacerbated energy demands that electric clocks in the state began to run a quarter of a percent slow. “Had the slowdown lasted an hour,” the article notes, “Texas would have been nine seconds behind the rest of the world.”
But some purveyors of wind energy are heading out to sea with floating turbines. “Farther offshore,” we learn, “winds are stronger and more consistent, with no surface obstructions to slow the air down.”
Other articles explore a recession-induced energy surplus (“Can it last? And would that be a good thing?”), companies’ desire for government incentives to act greener, and the “profitable but unglamorous field [of] automating power, gas, and water meters.”
The eight-page section features one quarter-page ad, one junior-page ad, two ninth-page ads, one half-page ad and two full-page ads.
Follow Molly Fischer via RSS. | <urn:uuid:1e96e1e7-857f-4cde-964f-bc91ba2e29c8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://observer.com/2009/11/special-itimesi-the-business-of-green/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.912829 | 569 | 1.671875 | 2 |
The United States has reclaimed the No. 1 spot on a list of the world’s most powerful supercomputers, following falls to Japan and then China in a domain it had dominated for decades. Supercomputer mettle is an indicator of a nation’s economic and military prowess, according to researchers.
Sequoia, a brand new IBM machine, came in at 16.32 sustained petaflops, or quadrillion operations per second, on the supercomputing industry’s Top 500 list, the Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration announced on Monday. The agency, which maintains the system at California-based Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, is responsible for safeguarding the U.S. nuclear stockpile. The full list was expected to be revealed later in the day.
The Chinese Tianhe-1A system rose above America and Japan for the first time in November 2010 during the biannual competition. It placed second after Japan’s 10.51 petaflop K Computer last November, while Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Jaguar computer in Tennessee came in third at 1.75 petaflops.
The 96-rack Sequoia will model the aging of the nuclear stockpile in an unprecedented level of detail, both in support of nonproliferation activities and extending the life of certain weapons systems, according to Energy officials. The United States stopped nuclear explosive testing about 20 years ago.
“The underlying computing capabilities it provides give us increased confidence in the nation’s nuclear deterrent as the weapons stockpile changes under treaty agreements,” NNSA Administrator Thomas D’Agostino said in a statement. “Sequoia also represents continued American leadership in high performance computing.”
But obviously that leadership was interrupted and could be lost again, say experts.
As Newsweek’s Dan Lyons noted in November 2011, “whoever holds the lead in the field gains huge economic and military advantages.”
Wu Feng, a professor of computer science at Virginia Tech, told the publication, “I would almost guarantee that in five years [China] will have their cyber-infrastructure connected” into a single giant computer brain. “They could create a distributed supercomputer that is 100 times faster than anything we have in the United States," Feng said.
The United States, however, may have an ace up its sleeve -- a classified Defense Department system for hacking into secret codes.
James Bamford reports in Wired that the National Security Agency, a U.S. military component that specializes in cyberspying, “has created a supercomputer of almost unimaginable speed.”
“Cryptanalysis requires two major ingredients: super-fast computers to conduct brute-force attacks on encrypted messages and a massive number of those messages for the computers to analyze,” he writes. “The more messages from a given target, the more likely it is for the computers to detect telltale patterns.”
With the help of Oak Ridge lab, NSA is set on reaching exaflop speed, one quintillion operations per second by 2018, and eventually zettaflop (10 exponent 21) and yottaflop (10 exponent 24), according to Wired.
Back in unclassified territory: Sequoia is anticipated to offer a better understanding of the behavior of nuclear materials at extreme pressures and temperatures, Energy officials said.
Energy, Lawrence Livermore and IBM have developed three No. 1-ranked computer systems, including ASCI White, Blue Gene/L and now Sequoia. | <urn:uuid:9b0c3032-a06e-4005-b7a8-ba2bd0668046> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/cybersecurity-report/2012/06/us-beats-china-japan-regain-top-supercomputer-spot/56309/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933443 | 738 | 2.4375 | 2 |
According to the diet experts, the habit of consuming junk food among Indian is increasing day by day and have warned that this could lead to severe health conditions.
Deputy Programme Manager at the Food Standards and Safety Authority of India (FSSAI) Savvy Soumya Mishra said that just blaming the international chains of fast food to spoil the pattern of diet in India is not enough.
She said that fast food has penetrated to the rural markets also in different forms such as potato chips and soft-drinks and wished that some remedial measures should be taken regarding this.
“Potato chips and similar snacks are available even in remote villages, where you may not find a school or a ration shop. These things have more reach. There will be soft-drink bottles in places that may not have even clean drinking water. McDonald’s and Pizza Hut may not have reached there, but chips and soft drinks have, what a pity!” Mishra said.
She also laid emphasis on the importance of reducing children’s reach to such trans-fat-laden junk food and suggested that such eatable items should be banned in schools. | <urn:uuid:d940bd43-8e4b-4c3b-a2cb-23511129bd88> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://labsaints.com/indians-should-stop-excessive-consumption-of-junk-food-says-diet-experts/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964669 | 237 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Atlanta Premises Liability Lawyers
On a daily basis, people pass through many buildings. Property owners have a responsibility to take certain steps to guarantee that a premises is safe for visitors to pass through and does not pose any danger of injury, illness, or death to those visitors. However, if a property is not correctly maintained, or if it does not have signs that clearly caution visitors about dangers, visitors to the property are placed at risk of being involved in a personal injury accident or suffering exposure to chemicals and other dangers.
In Georgia, properties open to the public have to offer visitors conditions that are reasonably safe. If a hazardous condition exists, and a visitor sustains a serious or fatal injury in Atlanta, the property owner or the person in charge of maintaining it can be held liable for the victim's injury or a family's loss of a loved one.
There are a wide variety of conditions that may be present on a property that could cause a visitor to sustain a serious injury. These conditions include but are not limited to the following:
- Broken, uneven stairways: Staircases are the most common locations for slip-and-fall accidents. If a step is broken, a property owner has a legal responsibility to repair it in a timely fashion or to post warnings cautioning visitors regarding the dangerous condition in order to prevent a visitor from falling.
- Chemical/toxic exposure: Property owners are expected to clean up chemicals or toxins in order to prevent the air from containing dangerous fumes or water becoming contaminated. These substances should be transported, used, and stored properly.
- Criminal acts: If a premises has a documented history of dangerous criminal activity taking place, the property owner can be held liable if a visitor is injured during a crime. If a property owner knows that crimes are being committed on the property but does not add extra security measures to fix the dangerous situation, the property owner can be held accountable if a visitor suffers an injury.
- Poorly maintained elevators: If an elevator does not have regular and proper maintenance conducted, it may be unsafe. It could lose elevation suddenly, causing an accident, or it may not stop evenly at a floor stop, which may cause a visitor to trip and fall due to the gap between the floor and the elevator's doorway.
- Slippery or wet conditions: If a building's floors have been mopped or cleaned recently, or if it has rained, it is reasonable to conclude that the property may be slippery or wet. It is not acceptable, however, for a property owner not to notify visitors of the potentially dangerous conditions. If signs are not posted clearly in the affected area and visitors are not cautioned about the unsafe environment, an accident may occur.
There are many other situations that can cause an injury on a property. If you have been injured on an unsafe property, it may be in your best interest to consult with a personal injury lawyer in Georgia to learn more about what your legal options are. Premises liability cases are often difficult to prove, as the property owner must be found negligent in order to be held accountable. Having a highly skilled attorney fighting on your behalf can help ensure that you obtain the full and just compensation you need and deserve for your injuries and related losses.
The Atlanta premises liability attorneys at The Law Offices of Wayne Grant, P.C., have dedicated their practice to helping people who have been injured due to another person's negligence. We have a reputation of giving our clients quality legal representation. If you have been injured on someone else's property due to unsafe conditions you believe the owner was or should have been aware of, contact our law offices to schedule a free consultation with one of our attorneys. We can help you assess the validity of your claim and explain your legal rights. Call us toll-free at 866-249-5513. | <urn:uuid:4fe5da69-b918-4a8c-bc7c-4e81005324dd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.waynegrant.com/premises-liability.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953205 | 777 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) generally depend on their wings to get around. Just like their earth-bound cousins, unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), usually depend on wheels. But researchers in Drexel University's College of Engineering plan to change that by figuring out how to add dexterous hands and arms to the craft.
Paul Oh, a professor of engineering and head of Drexel's Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics Department, will use a grant from the National Science Foundation to examine the torques and reaction forces that are associated with applying robotic arms to UAVs. Other members of the research team include M. Ani Hsieh, James Tangorra, and Jin Kang. The work will be conducted in the Drexel Autonomous Systems Laboratory. The $649,999 National Science Foundation grant covers a period of three years.
To determine how adding limbs to a UAV will affect its performance during flight, researchers will retrofit an adjustable gantry system with robotic arms and hands.
(Source: Drexel University)
Most of the tasks UAVs currently perform are passive. During flight, they primarily do intelligence gathering, collecting video and other types of data for reconnaissance and surveillance. The National Science Foundation grant is for research into Mobile Manipulating UAVs, or UAVs that can perform tasks such as interacting with objects located near the ground or on it. Possible applications of UAVs with arms and hands include agricultural handling, repair of infrastructure, border inspection, and helping with recovery from disasters as assistants to human first responders.
"These types of aircraft will advance field service robotics for things like search and rescue and disaster mitigation," Oh said in a press release. "It could help with infrastructure repair; instead of hoisting someone up to a bridge, these robots might be equipped to fly up to the bridge and start welding."
Adding arms and hands, as well as using them in flight, to a flying machine could easily destabilize it. The team's research will therefore focus on how the forces and torque associated with the movements of limbs on a UAV will affect its performance, and how they can be designed to operate without crashing the UAV. Oh said this design problem has not been studied before.
To determine those effects, team members will start with an adjustable gantry system that is configured to mimic a UAV's typical lateral and longitudinal movements. They will retrofit the system with robotic arms and hands. Using the data gathered from this gantry system, the team will then build a working prototype. | <urn:uuid:845b6415-e79e-44cf-88d8-b729993b66ef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1386&doc_id=249584&f_src=designnews_section_1386_1386&piddl_msgorder= | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953376 | 520 | 3.1875 | 3 |
In an interesting turn of events, the Congressional Budget Office has declared that Social Security will run out of money by 2020.
For years there have been two interpretations on when Social Security will actually be bankrupt. Those who believe in government also believed in the Social Security Trust fund, and therefore believed that when the Social Security Administration started disbursing more funds than it takes in that it would simply liquidate the treasury bonds and keep the program solvent for decades to come. Originally the end date was 2043, but it was moved up to 2036 due to deteriorating economic conditions.
Those who are less likely to believe the promises of politicians have long said that the due date for the bankruptcy of Social Security is 2018, the day that revenues start to exceed expenditures, and that would be a bankruptcy because the alleged trust fund does not exist. When Great Depression Two started that was moved up to 2017, and then moved up even further. Currently expenditures and revenues are nearly equal and all it will take to break the system will be a small jump in expenditures or a small drop in revenues.
But for the Congressional Budget Office to predict disaster for Social Security in the year 2020 is a startling admission. These people are paid to believe that the trust fund exists, so if they are predicting that the trust fund will be depleted that soon the situation must be pretty dire indeed.
The economy is deteriorating at an accelerating pace, but most people do not notice it at this time. This one item of news should be sending up alarm flags across the country, especially since it involves one of the most active voting blocs. This really is big news about how advanced the decay of the United States economy really is, since even the Congressional Budget Office is admitting to it and even CNN is reporting it. | <urn:uuid:8110b3ea-6c8f-40c6-b863-5919f1712dfa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://aynrkey.blogspot.com/2012/02/social-security-default.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96858 | 357 | 2.234375 | 2 |
In the first part of this post, I discussed God’s view of homosexuality as a sin and the importance that Christians understand this. In this post, I would like to discuss the implications of that as it pertains to the way Christians should show godly love to homosexuals.
For some reason, many Christians today think that the only way to show love and support to the gay community is to somehow accept homosexuality as something that is perfectly normal, acceptable, and absent of any moral implication. The truth is that this is actually one of the most unloving possible responses one could have.
Imagine you had a daughter or friend who gets involved in a heterosexual relationship with a guy who is bad news. He has a criminal history, and you have noticed that he is very influential on your daughter/friend. She begins staying out extremely late, coming home drunk, and eventually gets caught committing some petty crime like shoplifting. Eventually this guys starts dealing drugs, and you find out that he has started involving your daughter/friend in his drug deals. It looks like this relationship is leading her on a path to punishment in prison or death on the street. What would your response be? How would you approach your reaction to this destructive, dysfunctional relationship with your daughter/friend? If we loved her like many Christians are “loving” homosexuals, then we would be loving her straight to prison or death. However, in reality, most people would advise her against this relationship and try to help her see the tragedy that lies in its path. We would do this, not because we hate her and don’t think she should be happy and live how she wants, but because we love her and do not want to see her life ruined.
How much more so should homosexuals be warned of the eternal consequences of the path that life takes! Homosexuality is a damning sin that leads to hell just like any other sin, and if we help homosexuals live in their deception that it is not a sin, then we are loving them straight to hell. Their damned souls are on our hands. How can they repent of something they do not view as a sin, and how can they view it as a sin, if we do not warn them? The way most Christians treat homosexuality now encourages homosexuals to stand self-righteously before God as the Pharisee in the parable of Luke 18 thanking God that he is not a swindler, unjust or adulterer, when he should be like the tax collector crying out, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner!”
This does not mean that we should pass our own judgment on homosexuals, nor does it mean we should be hateful of them. God does not desire that we persecute or oppress any sinner. What it does mean is that we should be lovingly honest in warning them about the eternal consequences of their sin according to God’s Word and tell them of the hope they have in Christ if they will repent of their sin and put their faith in Him. “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9, NASB). We have wonderful news to tell them! Jesus Christ offers forgiveness of all kinds of sin including homosexuality if one will repent and accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. That is what it means to show godly love. Let us not be guilty of having a part in the eternal damnation of homosexuals by trying to define love by the world’s standards. Instead, let us demonstrate God’s love by warning the world of its sin and pointing them to the only answer, Jesus Christ. | <urn:uuid:089393b8-a828-4f42-819c-1ef7a9a60920> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://studyingthetruth.blogspot.com/ | 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 | 0.9697 | 767 | 1.765625 | 2 |
I'm interested in planning and how one is able to take action and plan ahead at the same time. I could imagine one could make observations and project these into the future using past experiences. The reward system could then sort out favorable outcomes which one could aim for, taking the necessary steps.
However I don't know if this is really how the reward system works (I wasn't able to find resources especially for "future" reward) and I can also see difficulties in terms of interference with control of the current situation - planning would have to be handled as some sort of suppressed action.
So are there already cognitive models that try to explain planning and how planning and action could work in parallel (although interacting)? | <urn:uuid:77593708-7724-4044-b5b6-4a9576d99d23> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cogsci.stackexchange.com/questions/2069/are-there-already-models-for-planning-and-goal-directed-behaviour | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979385 | 143 | 1.992188 | 2 |
Does Genesis 4 Indicate that God Specifically Created Others Besides Adam and Eve?
If Adam and Eve were the only human beings that God miraculously created, where did all of the people come from who were of great concern to Cain? After God sentenced the murderous Cain to be “a fugitive and a vagabond” on the Earth (Genesis 4:12), recall that Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear” (4:13). Cain then said: “Surely You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground; I shall be hidden from Your face; I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me” (4:14, emp. added). God then responded to Cain, saying, “Therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him seven-fold.” So, “the Lord set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him” (4:15, emp. added). Do the references to “anyone” and “whoever” in these verses suggest that God specially created others besides Adam and Eve?
Before answering these questions, one must keep in mind that Genesis chapters 1-11 cover approximately the first 2,000-plus years of human history (Butt, 2002; cf. Lyons, 2002). The following 1,178 chapters of the Bible tell us about the next 2,000 years. Although the first 11 chapters of Genesis are undeniably literal, historical language (cf. Thompson, 2001), God chose to reveal to man only a few important facts about the first 2,000-plus years of man’s existence—and most of this revelation is about Creation, the Fall, and the Flood. What’s more, Genesis chapters 4-5 likely cover a period of more than 1,400 years. Thus, a lot of time can pass between events without the text specifically expressing exactly how many decades or centuries elapsed.
How much time elapsed in Genesis 4:2? Immediately following the announcement of Cain and Abel’s births (4:1-2), the text says, “Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground” (4:2). Most likely, at least 20 years had passed by this time, and it could be that several more decades had expired before Cain and Abel finally settled on their respective vocations. (How many people today do not settle on a profession until they are 35 or 40 years old?)
How much time transpired when the Bible says, “And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord” (4:3, emp. added)? How long was Cain angry with Abel before God spoke to Cain about his anger (4:6)? How long was it before Cain spoke with Abel (4:8)? (Have you ever known people, even family members, to hold-in feelings of resentment for years or decades?) Genesis 4:8 says, “It came to pass when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him” (emp. added). Again, we cannot know exactly how much time transpired between the conversation that Cain had with Abel and the day that he actually murdered Abel (4:8).
The fact is, Cain could have been 100 years old or more by the time he killed his brother. [Keep in mind that since the patriarchs often lived to be several hundred years old (e.g., Adam died at the age of 930), being 100 in that day, was somewhat comparable to being 20 today.] What’s more, Adam and Eve may have had 50 children or more by the time Cain killed Abel (cf. Genesis 5:4). They may have had 300 grandchildren by then. There could have been three or four generations of Adam’s descendants on Earth by the time God sentenced Cain to be “a fugitive and a vagabond.”
How many children, and possibly grandchildren, did Adam and Eve have when God said, “Whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold”? How many people had descended from Adam by the time God “set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him”? Who were the “whoever” and “anyone” that both God and Cain mentioned? They were the dozens, hundreds, or possibly thousands of people on Earth by that time—all of whom were descendants of Adam, “the first man” (1 Corinthians 15:45) and Eve, “the mother of all living” (Genesis 3:20). In no way does reason or inspired revelation forbid a literal interpretation of Genesis; on the contrary, it demands such.
Butt, Kyle (2002), “The Bible Says the Earth is Young,” Apologetics Press, http://www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=9&article=885.
Lyons, Eric (2002), “When Did Terah Beget Abraham?” Apologetics Press, http://www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=13&article=624.
Thompson, Bert (2001), “Genesis 1 thru 11—Mythical or Historical?” Apologetics Press, http://www.apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=11&article=451. | <urn:uuid:fad272ea-c924-48b6-9faa-b0c7acb7ecc6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.apologeticspress.com/APContent.aspx?category=13&article=4585&topic=168 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963781 | 1,175 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Contemporary film culture often ignores silent-movie masterpieces. Shamefully, the recent American Film Institute poll of the 100 best movies included only three. The Vatican's list is better. Among the silents it recommends is the 1926 science-fiction classic, Metropolis.
The film's breath-taking futuristic vision of a machine-dominated, authoritarian society has been imitated many times. Tall, geometric skyscrapers tower over tiny human beings who pointlessly scurry about in ant-sized airplanes, cars, and elevated railways. Inside the buildings, muscular workers in matching, drab uniforms and caps toil with almost military precision although it's never revealed what products are being manufactured. Their souls belong to their machines, and they seem to have no will beyond obedience to their masters.
Director Fritz Lang (M) and screenwriter Thea Von Harbou have constructed a dysutopian fantasy that isn't a literal prediction of what modern cities have become. But its images and story have often been interpreted as prophetic of the totalitarian nightmares of Nazism and communism. Recent borrowers of the film's style include last year's sci-fi extravaganza, The Fifth Element, and a much praised, MTV-promoted music video by Janet Jackson.
Metropolis is set in the year 2000 when society has been divided into two distinct classes: the laboring force, which lives and works beneath the city; and the rulers who reign in hedonistic luxury above. Master of all is Jon Fredersen (Alfred Abel) who issues orders from a huge, high-ceilinged, artdeco office.
His son, the spoiled Freder (Gustav Froelich), indulges himself in idleness until he encounters the charismatic Maria (Brigitte Helm), a worker's daughter. She has broken all Metropolis' laws and taken a group of poor children up to the rulers' dwellings.
“Look at them,” she tells Freder. “These are your brothers.”
Overwhelmed by her beauty and moral intensity, the young playboy is determined to find out more about her. For the first time in his life, he descends into the world of the machines, and when he sees workers being pushed to the breaking point, he has a vision of Moloch, the god of the Phoenicians and the Ammonites in the Old Testament, devouring human sacrifices. This is the beginning of a series of religious images used by the filmmakers to comment on the struggle between good and evil within the city.
One of the workers passes out at his machine, and Freder takes his place. Meanwhile, his father visits the inventor of Metropolis' machines, Rotwang (Rudolf Klein-Rogge), who has on his door a pentagram, often a sign of the devil.
The elder Frederson has two purposes. First, he wants to check on the progress of the robot Rotwang is building to replace all the human workers. Second, maps of an unknown, underground location have been discovered on workers believed to be planning a revolt. Rotwang identifies the place as the ancient Christian catacombs upon which the city was built, and he leads Frederson through them to where a workers' meeting is in progress.
Against a background of crosses and burning candles that looks like an altar, Maria is preaching a Christian message of non-violence, not armed revolt. She compares their situation to the building of the biblical Tower of Babel. Among her listeners is young Frederson.
His father orders Rotwang to create the robot in the image of Maria and program it to incite revolutionary violence so he can crush the workers. His stratagem succeeds, and the laborers begin to tear down their underground city. The elder Frederson celebrates “the world going to the devil.”
His son sets out to rescue the real Maria who has been kidnapped. He hopes she can persuade the workers to change their destructive ways. The filmmakers bring to life sculptures illustrating the Seven Deadly Sins to help interpret the action.
Metropolis's cautionary tale may seem more relevant to early 20th-century industrialism than to today's computer age, and its melodramatic devices sometimes seem dated. Nevertheless, the movie's expressionistic images and Christian symbolism give it a timeless meaning. With greater force than almost any other film, it communicates the horrors of a society where the production of material goods is more important than the human spirit.
Next week: Jean Renoir's La Grande Illusion.
Arts & Culture correspondent John Prizer writes from Los Angeles. | <urn:uuid:556d88fc-c24d-48dd-bf01-eb0eb64c3dcf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/silent_triumph_of_the_human_spirit/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951148 | 936 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Many LGBT youth can't picture what their lives might be like as openly gay adults. They can't imagine a future for themselves. So let's show them what our lives are like, let's show them what the future may hold in store for them.
Baltimore Orioles become fourth Major League Baseball team to give hope to LGBT youth
The Baltimore Orioles became the fourth Major League Baseball team to give hope to LGBT youth and join the It Gets Better Project. The San Francisco Giants, Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox also recently posted their videos in support.
Everyone deserves to be respected for who they are. I pledge to spread this message to my friends, family and neighbors. I'll speak up against hate and intolerance whenever I see it, at school and at work. I'll provide hope for lesbian, gay, bi, trans and other bullied teens by letting them know that "It Gets Better." | <urn:uuid:6505af4e-8943-466a-8a78-714c37a0c7d3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.itgetsbetter.org/blog/entry/baltimore-orioles-become-fourth-major-league-baseball-team-to-give-hope-to-/www.tudovaimelhorar.org | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975781 | 180 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Any baseball purist who loves the game wants to see it played on natural grass. The Toronto Blue Jays and Tampa Bay Rays are the only two teams in the Majors now playing on artificial turf.
Both teams play on AstroTurf. Thanks to a marketing agreement between the company and Major League Baseball, the Blue Jays were able to get an AstroTurf field installed virtually for free in 2010.
There was a great, albeit brief, buzz that Rogers Centre might get a natural grass surface by 2015. Paul Beeston suggested as much to the fans and the media at the State of the Franchise evening. The club's president and CEO later backed off that statement somewhat.
There simply isn't enough natural light getting into Rogers Centre to maintain a grass surface. Even if there was, having grass would reduce the multi-purpose versatility that makes Rogers Centre a viable entity.
The Argos, for instance, would have been pushed out if Rogers Centre had become a baseball-only natural grass facility. However, last week on TSN Drive with Dave Naylor, Argos president Chris Rudge revealed the Double-Blue will be staying at Rogers Centre and in fact, he was in the process of negotiating a new long-term lease agreement. So, if the Boatmen aren't going anywhere, neither is the turf.
There are a couple of stadia in the world where grass surfaces can be rolled in for sporting events and then moved back outside to get the nourishment of the sun and the rain.
As far as I could discern, though, there is only one indoor stadium with a "fixed roof" that has natural grass growing inside of it.
That would be the Forsyth Barr Stadium, in Dunedin, New Zealand. It opened on August 5 of 2011. It has a relatively light weight roof composed of ETFE, a transparent polymer (plastic). ETFA allows sunlight to pass through it and allows the grass inside to keep growing naturally.
You might think the grass surface would inhibit the stadium from being used for other events but that's not the case. They used a special blend of three types of rye grass and then drove 20 million nylon strands into the ground to the depth of 18cm.
Two centimetres of the nylon strands remained above the ground. The grass then grew up and twined itself around the nylon making it stronger and more tear resistant. That means the facility can host soccer and rugby, as well and concerts and trade shows.
This can't be applied to Toronto, though, unless it was an entirely new facility. You can't just suddenly put a plastic roof on Rogers Centre. Even though this stadium in New Zealand appears to be growing concern, there have still been cries to put in artificial turf anyway due to the cost of maintaining the grass.
It's pretty clear there won't be natural grass at Rogers Centre anytime soon. We'll probably have to wait for another generation to go by before Toronto gets a new ballpark; one the purists can embrace.
Too bad Canada bowed out in the first round again at the World Baseball Classic. But after that humiliating 14-4 defeat at the hands of Italy, Ernie Whitt's crew did our country proud against Mexico and the US on Saturday and Sunday. If Brandon Phillips hadn't made that tremendous diving play to rob Adam Loewen of a base-hit Sunday, we might be talking about the greatest victory in Canadian International baseball history.
I don't know if you caught it on TV, but when Justin Morneau of the Twins came up late in the US game, one of his teammates yelled to him something to the effect of "show the Blue Jays what you can still do" or something to that effect.
It was probably just a bit of baseball humour but it made me wonder if there is a mutual interest. Morneau had a solid tournament, is a strong left hand bat and is revered in this country. He's also in the final year of his contract. Just might be something to keep an eye on as the season unfolds. | <urn:uuid:bfa62a19-ea1f-4bd6-af55-bc55887c0c0e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www2.tsn.ca/mlb/teams/story/?id=417911&hubname=mlb-blue_jays | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974853 | 822 | 1.828125 | 2 |
More than ten years in planning and construction, the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas has become the success to emulate among symphony orchestras throughout the world, especially as many engage in building and rebuilding programs that include a pipe organ. Already, the success of the C. B. Fisk organ at the Meyerson has been the catalyst for concert hall organ projects in many places including Philadelphia, Seattle, Florida, Chicago, California, etc. The largest single chapter in the book is devoted to the organ and includes many photographs and telling interviews with its designers and builders.
448 pages, hardbound, 8.5 x 11 inches, 55 color photographs and many more in black & white.
Shulman's book places the Meyerson in its socio-political context, tracing its history back to the early 1970s, when financial collapse forced the Dallas symphony to suspend operations. Drawing on interviews with more than 100 individuals as well as documentary resources, her narrative shows how the orchestra's recovery process led to a spendid new hall. It is a tale of urban planning and reclamation, triumph over adversity, and unflagging commitment to the highest standards. With its combination of extraordinary acoustics, distinguished architecture, and a magnificent concert organ, the Meyerson has joined the ranks of the world's great halls.
Plans took shape during an economic boom, then faltered during the steep recession of the mid- 1980s. Financing was structured through a unique public/private partnership that has become a model for other communities around the United States. Three bond elections, the first of which failed, took place before the public sector's commitment was ensured. H. Ross Perot's signature donation of $10 million named the hall not for himself but for his friend and colleague Morton H. Meyerson. The hall's steering committee assigned equal authority to architect and acoustician, an unprecedented arrangement that led to heated arguments about visual vs. aural aesthetics. Delays in securing a site in Dallas' fledgling Arts District contributed to escalating costs, which in turn prompted political opponents of the project to level accusations of profligate spending and elitism.
The Meyerson Symphony Center: Building a Dream weaves together all these strands, relating this compelling story in the words of the people who made it happen. Shulman incorporates a wealth of information about city politics, a boom-to-bust economy, and the challenges of press and public relations, as well as significant new information about acoustics, architecture, and organ design.
"Who would have thought that a book about the building of a concert hall would read like a best- selling novel? It has drama, intrigue, suspense, larger-than-life protagonists, and even some humor. And there's a happy ending—vision and commitment triumph over mediocrity, and the result is one of the world's greatest concert halls."—Andrew Litton, Music Director, Dallas Symphony Orchestra
". . . a beautiful book, scholarly, detailed, accurate—and loving. The [author's affection for the subject] is subtle, but it gives the work its special quality and will tip the book from pure reference to invaluable document."—Patsy Swank
Laurie Shulman, B.A. from Syracuse University, M.A. and Ph.D. in historical musicology from Cornell, has had numerous articles published, including in The New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians and The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. She also provides annotations and compact disc liner notes for various symphonies around the country. She resides with her husband in Dallas. | <urn:uuid:a589f693-b895-4084-8366-884afef9962f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ohscatalog.org/meysymcenbui.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955937 | 743 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Meditations: “We Are Whole”
Also appropriate as Other Readings
We are whole, even in the broken places, even where it hurts.
We are whole, even in the broken places, the places where fear impedes our full engagement with life; where self-doubt corrupts our self-love; where shame makes our faces hot and our souls cold.
We are whole, even in those places where perfectionism blunts the joy of full immersion into person, place, activity; where “good enough” does not reside except in our silent longings; where our gaps must be fast-filled with substance, accomplishment, or frenzied activity lest they gape open and disgust.
We are whole where we would doubt our own goodness, richness, fullness and depth, where we would doubt our own significance, our own profoundness.
We are whole, even in our fragility; even where we feel fragmented, alone, insubstantial, insufficient.
We are whole, even as we are in process, even as we stumble, even as we pick ourselves up again, for we are whole. We are whole.
Copyright: The author has given Unitarian Universalist Association member congregations permission to reprint this piece for use in public worship. Any reprints must acknowledge the name of the author.
This work is made possible by the generosity of individual donors and congregations. Please consider making a donation today.
Last updated on Monday, March 25, 2013.
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The development of the west brought an ever-increasing number of settlers. When resources became depleted or despoiled, voices were raised to preserve the West’s scenic lands and their fragile environments. In 1864, Congress acted. Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias became the first parklands set aside by the federal government. They were initially granted to the state of California and later made part of the National Park Service when it was established by Congress in 1916. | <urn:uuid:4db297be-c882-4be9-a5bd-f896104d32d1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.visitthecapitol.gov/exhibitions/online/exhibition-archives/december-2008-march-2009/general-welfare/protecting-natural-resources.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983842 | 99 | 3.515625 | 4 |
As we age, we sometimes find surprises waiting for us in the mirror. Suddenly eyes become droopy. What used to be a single chin now becomes double. Jowls sagging and bags getting bigger on top of the wrinkles and other lines – mere indications of aging! Do you ever wonder how to exercise face muscles to get rid of these problems? While surgical procedures can come to mind quite easily if you have the money, plastic surgeries do not stop the aging process.
Surgery would require endless follow-up procedures. On the other hand, when you exercise face muscles, they become stronger and the skin will be toned. The good news is you can do these exercises at home without unnecessary expenses. Facial exercises involve voluntarily contracting facial muscles and employing resistance or using thumbs and fingers. Read on to learn more.
Pin-point the elongated part of your face and exercise it specifically. The muscles in the face will be elongated about half an inch at age of 55. Atrophy of the muscles and gravity are responsible for this. Talking, singing or laughing will not exercise facial muscles. They must be deliberately moved to plump them up. If your cheek bones are sagging even when you smile, raise them up by contracting repeatedly or push up lightly with the use of your fingers.
Eliminate the half-inch addition to the length of your forehead, under the chin and jaw line by moving each area specifically, turning to the left as far as you can and then reversing to the right. This will look very awkward but these will stop jowls from forming. You can tell it is working because you will feel slight pain, just like with normal exercise. Just don’t give up at the slightest discomfort. No pain, no gain – remember?
Sculpt and contour your face by massaging the affected area lightly with uniformed circular motions. This can diminish lines along the foreheads, around the eyes and the laugh lines. Also, perform upward motions from the base of your neck up towards the chin. Slightly raise your chin up while doing this. These are simple steps, but you will be amazed with the results as you witness your face gradually returning to a youthful appearance. It’s like turning back time.
Track your progress by taking photos before you do facial exercises. In addition, document the specific exercise that you are doing for each areas of the face. Your friends will notice. They will be intrigued with what you’ve done to your face. Let the facial exercise album do the explaining for you.
After learning how to exercise face muscles, you will notice how smooth and refreshed your skin looks. Expect to have a glowing face from increased oxygenation to the muscles. Watch the sagging and droopy muscles disappear as you look into the mirror. You’ll be proud that you were able to cut 10 or more years from your aging looks without going under the knife. Take this one step at a time, because it is highly addictive when you finally see all the positive results. | <urn:uuid:52a5e4e3-6d28-42b2-a40b-d9e66c6e9dc0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://waysandhow.com/how-to-exercise-face-muscles | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95546 | 620 | 1.609375 | 2 |
A SpaceX video shows the Grasshopper prototype rocket taking a 12-story leap toward full rocket reusability in a Dec. 17 test flight.
SpaceX's prototype Grasshopper rocket took one giant leap last week, rising to a 12-story height and settling back down safely on its landing legs at the company's Texas rocket test facility. Just for fun, the engineers let a dummy cowboy go along for the ride.
The Dec. 17 test flight at the pad in McGregor, Texas, was documented in a YouTube video released today — and discussed in a series of lighthearted tweets from SpaceX's billionaire founder, Elon Musk.
"To provide a little perspective on the size of Grasshopper, we added a 6-ft cowboy to the rocket. ... Then we took him for a ride," Musk wrote. So how did the cowboy fare? "No problemo," said Musk.
The 10-story-tall Grasshopper rocket is designed to take off and land vertically, as part of Musk's plan to develop a rocket capable of returning itself to a launch pad for rapid reusability. Today's vertical-takeoff launch systems generally rely upon expendable lower stages — although the space shuttle's solid rocket boosters could be recovered from the Atlantic Ocean and refurbished for reuse. If a rocket stage can return to its launch facility intact and ready to go again, that could significantly lower the cost of spaceflight. That's what Musk is shooting for.
SpaceX says the Grasshopper consists of a Falcon 9 rocket first stage, a Merlin 1D engine, four steel landing legs with hydraulic dampers, and a steel support structure. During the prototype's first flight test on Sept. 21, the Grasshopper rose 6 feet into the air. The second test, on Nov. 1, lasted 8 seconds and lifted the Grasshopper 17.7 feet (5.4 meters) off the pad. The company said last week's third test went for 29 seconds, during which the Grasshopper rose 131 feet (40 meters) into the air, hovered and landed safely back on the pad, using closed-loop thrust vector and throttle control.
A dummy cowboy is perched on SpaceX's Grasshopper rocket for a Dec. 17 test.
In addition to the Grasshopper, SpaceX is sending its Dragon capsules to resupply the International Space Station, working on a version of the Dragon that could carry astronauts into orbit sometime soon, and developing a Falcon Heavy rocket that could conceivably power flights to the moon. But Musk's long-range goal is even more ambitious: getting settlers to Mars. He has said Grasshopper-style rocket reusability is a key part of that long-term strategy.
"If it does works, it'll be pretty huge," he said last year during a speech at the National Press Club in Washington.
More on the commercial space race:
- SpaceShipTwo straps on its engine
- Golden Spike wants to fly you to the moon ... for $1.4 billion
- Blue Origin's spaceship prototype aces pad-escape test
- Gallery: Ten players in the commercial space race
- Cosmic Log archive on the new space race
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds. | <urn:uuid:b6f06bc8-82b6-415d-b5a0-5d56ada32d69> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/23/16114180-spacex-launches-its-grasshopper-rocket-on-12-story-high-hop-in-texas?lite | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945302 | 767 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Return to Mathematics Index
Robert Foote Disney Magnet School
4140 N. Marine Drive
Chicago IL 60613
Students will find the difference between theoretical and experimental
probability in three different experiments. This mini-teach is designed for
junior high students.
* A pair of dice for each student
* Ten or more colored marbles and a spinner (or bag)
* A standard deck of 52 cards.
Set up three stations with the materials mentioned above at each station. Give
students about twenty minutes for each activity. Blow a whistle or clap between
each activity and then have groups switch activities. The following is a
description of each activity:
1. Rolling Two Dice: Have each student roll two dice 20 times and record each
sum. When the experiment is completed, have each student come up with a group
probability by combining the individual experiments. Experimental probability
is the number of times a sum is rolled divided by the number of rolls (20).
2. Marbles in a Spinner: For this experiment, I used a spinner that allowed
one marble to land in a space on the spinner. You may do the same experiment
without the spinner using a bag and having students pick a marble out of the bag
20 times. Make sure you have different color marbles of different amounts so
you have different probabilities for each color. Compute experimental
probability by keeping track of how many of each color are picked or land in the
spinner. Experimental probability here is the number of the color picked
divided by the total marbles picked.
3. Card Trick: Have each student in the group pick a card from the deck,
shuffle the cards and pick another card five times. The student will pick a
total of five cards. To determine experimental probability, find the desired
outcome such as number of face cards, over the total numbers of cards drawn.
After all the experiments are performed and experimental probabilities are
found, compare them to the theoretical probabilities of each experiment. You
may determine how close the two are as fractions, decimals, and percents.
An easy performance assessment of this lesson would be to use the same
experiments with slight modifications such as adding one die,more marbles,or
changing the card events. You can thus assess student understanding of
probability using the experiments and have them compute them on their own by
writing up their own calculations from the experiment and comparing them to the | <urn:uuid:cd8a7d92-1698-45c3-810b-40dca3c08c21> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mypages.iit.edu/~smile/ma9507.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915812 | 524 | 4.0625 | 4 |
101st Airborne remembers Soldiers of Gander crash
December 14, 2011
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (Dec. 14, 2011) -- "Love is never wasted, love is never lost, love lives on and sees us through sorrow," said President Ronald Reagan during the Dec. 16, 1985 Fort Campbell memorial service held for the victims of Arrow Airlines flight 1285, which killed 248 "Screaming Eagle" Soldiers.
The Soldiers were returning from a deployment in the Sinai with the Multinational Force and Observers. After their plane refueled in Gander, Newfoundland, it crashed upon take-off, killing all aboard. The majority were from 3rd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault).
"Twenty-six years ago in 1985, though we did not know it at the time, we were experiencing the winning years of the Cold War," said Col. Dan Walrath, commander of the 101st's 2nd BCT, during the Gander Memorial Service held at Fort Campbell, Dec. 12. "This is a war that did not involve fighting or combat action and our Army was becoming involved in a new mission set, referred to as peace keeping. The United States had recently begun participation in the Multinational Force and Observers duty in Sinai, Egypt."
The MFO monitored Egypt and Israel's compliance to the terms of the Camp David Accords, a treaty that laid out the framework for peace between the two enemies. Since 1982, many nations have provided units from its military branches, the United States contributing the majority of forces. Even today these forces are deployed to the Sinai, a large triangular peninsula connecting the two nations. The Screaming Eagles sent 3rd Battalion in 1985.
"At the time, this duty was known as a real-world mission and a mission of significant importance to our country and the United Nations to maintain stability in a region that had only recently known violence and conflict," said Walrath. "Then as now, Strike Soldiers had fought where told and won where they fought."
Today's Strike Soldiers and leaders said they understand the value of the accomplishments made back then and can relate it to their mission in southern Afghanistan less than a year ago.
"It's very important to remember where we come from, where our history comes from and knowing they gave their best on a daily basis," said 1st Sgt. David Ward, the first sergeant of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Brigade Special Troops Battalion, who attended the ceremony. "They were on the front lines as we were on the front lines doing missions. I draw parallels to them -- how would I feel and react to a plane full of today's Soldiers going through a tragedy like they did. Knowing what the Soldiers of this brigade had done before us, how dare we not do our best on a daily basis."
A ceremonial wreath was laid by Walrath and Command Sgt. Maj. Alonzo Smith, Strike's command sergeant major, at the center of the memorial, which has the MFO insignia and names of the 248 fallen Soldiers etched into the monument. Strike Soldiers dressed in their formal attire to be a part of the service.
"I am honored, very much so, to be a part of this event and it's a privilege to honor our fallen comrades," said Sgt. 1st Class Rocio Picazarri with HHC, 2nd BSTB and a wreath holder for the ceremony. "We can never forget yesterday's Strike Soldiers. They're the ones who paved the way for us today."
Upon completion of the wreath laying and the playing of taps for the heroes of Sinai, family members, Soldiers and veterans paid their respects at the monument.
"Seeing the Soldiers here honor my brothers is real important because we can't forget these guys and we can't forget how hard it was on the families," said retired Sgt. 1st Class Joe Casper, formerly with 3rd Battalion, who was a part of the MFO in Sinai and had friends who was aboard flight 1285. "It was a real tragedy losing them, and a lot goes out to those Soldiers, but we must also remember it was so hard for the families."
Casper and former Sgt. Michael Sinko, who was a part of the MFO's first deployment to Sinai in 1982 and also served with 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, have attended the Fort Campbell ceremony for the last four-years and said they are pleased with the job the 101st does in honoring the Gander fallen.
"When we first started coming here for the memorial, there were very few people, but recently the attendance has really picked up and it warms my heart to see so many people with an understanding of who these 248 troops were," said Sinko. "This is so valuable to so many." | <urn:uuid:58caa752-4455-4797-9a2b-4f18f370dcf4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.army.mil/article/70884/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982289 | 1,004 | 1.75 | 2 |
Neohapsis is currently accepting applications for employment. For more information, please visit our website www.neohapsis.com or email firstname.lastname@example.org
From: Floyd Arguello (floyd.listsgmail.com)
Date: Tue Jan 29 2008 - 11:32:30 CST
Anders Norrbring wrote:
> Victor Duchovni skrev:
>> On Mon, Jan 28, 2008 at 07:53:02PM +0100, Anders Norrbring wrote:
>>> They block 25 to "protect their users against SPAM".
>> This makes no sense, most ISPs that block port 25 for customer IPs do so
>> only outbound. That protects the rest of the world (including to a small
>> extent their customers) from spam emanating from botnet machines. But
>> blocking of port 25 inbound to a customer IP is in no way an anti-spam
>> measure. It prevents one from running an MX host.
>> Are they really planning to block inbound connections to port 25? Or
>> are they just miscommunicating their intentions.
>> Perhaps they believe that inbound connections on port 25 are delivering
>> unwanted Hormel canned meat products.
> Actually their intention was to only block outbound, but they
> misconfigured, and it's "not easy to correct".. *sigh*
> Since they're HUGE (Telia), it's not easy for a customer to have them
> redo things.
I replied to this yesterday, but replied to sender and not list :P
Would the following work?
Setup a public server (outside of your ISP's network), and have that
accept incoming mail and forward it to the current mail server using
transport maps (specifying a different port):
Then configure your current server to listen on 587
127.0.0.1:587 inet n - n - - smtpd #using proper IP
Modify the mx record to point to the public server. | <urn:uuid:92f021a4-88b3-4bc4-98ee-710ea3bea7a0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://archives.neohapsis.com/archives/postfix/2008-01/1293.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.90359 | 432 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Perched on a cliff over looking the Varisian Gulf, the collection of crumbling buildings that once comprised the largest settlement on Devil's Elbow has long since fallen into disrepair. The recent impact having further damaged the buildings so that bits and pieces of the internal walls have collapsed. None of the buildings save the tower retain a complete roof. The stone-walled buildings themselves have weathered the passage of time rather well.
Many years ago, when Devil's Elbow was the lair of the siren Virashi, this site was the haunt of a will-o'wisp that had allied itself to the siren. Although the malevolent creature was slain by adventurers, the will-o'wisp's haunt sometimes manifests in the region. The undead echo isn't powerful enough to physically harm anyone, and it has never directly confronted anyone as a result, but the periodic sightings of the ghostly lights were enough to earn the island yet another legend.
Today, Witchlight is abandoned and ruined. The only structure with a roof and solid footing remaining is the old watchtower, the first and best-built structure on the entire island. Yet even it has suffered from the passage of time and the recent impact. | <urn:uuid:5ff670f9-b258-477c-a81f-cb47da20f995> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/seconddarkness/wikis/witchlight | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96519 | 248 | 1.609375 | 2 |
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How to behave before, during and after a job interview
An interview for a job in the media is often the culmination of weeks of hard work searching for opportunities, filling out application forms and waiting.
So it's important to make the best impression on the day.
You must prepare well, know about the competition, present yourself professionally and answer the questions you are asked.
The following tips are offered by media professionals who’ve had experience sitting on the other side of the interview table.
Interview picture courtesy of bpsusf and released under creative commons
Some tips were offered in a discussion on the Media Helping Media LinkedIn Group
1: Familiarise yourself with the output
Bob Doran media strategy consultant and trainer says you must prepare for your interview
"Make sure you're familiar with the programme, station, newspaper, or website concerned. Listen to, watch or read it regularly in the run-up to the interview. Or at least check it out on the Internet.
"As a programme editor interviewing applicants, I was amazed at how many said, "I don't actually listen to the programme".
"They never got very far. I reckoned that if they weren't familiar with the programme, they wouldn't be very good at working for it.
"And, most importantly, if they weren't smart enough to realise that knowledge of the programme would help them at the interview, they weren't smart enough to work for it."
Do your homework and know all about the output
2: Media awareness
Make sure you know all about the strengths and weaknesses of your prospective employer's main competition.
You will have to have a good knowledge of the local media scene.
Those on the other side of the interview table will be aware of the threats and opportunities they face and they will expect you to have some understanding of where they are succeeding and where they are falling behind.
They will expect you to know what they are up against.
Try to show where you can help your future employer establish a content differential and challenge the competition.
Ensure you have a good knowledge of the local media scene
3: Offer exciting ideas
You should always arrive at a job interview with at least three well thought through story ideas.
You will probably be asked what stories you would cover if you were working in the newsroom. That is not the time to stare at your hands and mumble.
You need to come out with some great, well thought through ideas including the necessary production elements.
Don't be worried about them picking up your ideas and running with them; it's a gamble you need to take and part of the process of showing the value you would bring to the media organisation.
Prepare at least three story ideas for the interview
4: Showcase your best work
"Don't forget your show-reel or cuttings. The editor needs to hear your voice/see you on screen and judge your writing style.
"This is your chance to show off your skills - so make sure you pick a short but powerful selection from your published work.
"If you want to refer them to an internet version - make sure it is appropriate for the editor to see and not a general site where you have included flippant comments for your friends - as I was sent recently!
Ensure you submit appropriate material
5: Prepare like a professional
Mustafa Eric a media development officer at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) says thinking through what you might be asked and preparing your answers in advance is crucial.
"Make sure to impress the interviewer with your knowledge and skills. As you get prepared for the interview you need to make a list of possible questions you will be asked and try to make ready your answers in a way that will bring out to surface what you do best.
"It will also depend very much on the type of reporting job you are applying for: Is it an all round journalism assignment for a community newspaper or will you be covering a certain beat for a broadcaster?
"Answering questions confidently helps, boasting around doesn't."
Think through what questions you might be asked in the interview
6: Stay positive and avoid any negatives
Never criticise your previous employer - it sends out bad signals.
If asked why you want to leave your current job have a positive but honest answer. Put bad experiences to the back of your mind and focus on the plus points of your intended move.
I have seen good candidates miss out on being appointed because they spent too much time bad mouthing their previous employer. It does you no favours.
When asked why you want to move be honest and straight but look to the future- and if you can't see a positive in joining your new employer don't turn up for the interview.
Focus on the future and don’t dwell on the past
7: Sit up and look smart
It seems obvious but many prospective employees fail to make the right impression because of the way they act during the interview. And it's not just about what you say.
Those interviewing you will be imagining you representing them and their brand. If you slouch and mumble, play with your hands and look at the floor it might work against you.
Also think through what you wear. You will be expected to turn up for the interview looking smart - it shows you have made an effort. You may never have to dress that smart again, but it will do no harm to dress properly for the interview.
You will want the interview panel to have a good impression of you
8: Make eye contact and listen
An interviewee who doesn't listen properly to the questions being asked is unlikely to progress.
The questions that will be put to you will have been carefully worked out and checked.
All the other candidates will probably be asked the same questions.
If you don't respond properly, and instead push the points you want to make, you could miss out.
Make sure you answer the questions you are asked
9: Don't be afraid to offer constructive criticism
You might be asked what you think of the media organisation's output. Don't just praise the good stuff.
Of course you should mention where they are doing well, but don't be afraid to point out where they could do better - and when you do, make it clear where you can help them improve in that area.
Those on the interview panel don't want to be praised. They are looking for the perfect hire to make their output better.
They will have discussed any programmes that are not up to scratch, and if you can touch on those points with positive suggestions you may well tick a few of their appointment criteria boxes.
Try not to come across as a yes man/woman
10: Interview for the next job
In my experience editors are seldom investing time and effort to hire for the current vacant position.
They will be looking for a candidate who will develop and grow.
Although it's important to convince them that you are the perfect candidate for the advertised post, you will also need to show them that you have ambition to develop and take on more responsibility if required.
Show your potential as an asset for the future
And finally say thanks
Even if you had a bad interview and it all went wrong it’s always good to thank the interview panel. And if you don’t get the job drop them a line thanking them for the experience.
You never know, you might have been an also-suitable candidate and you get a call back if the person selected drops out.
The author of this piece, David Brewer, is a journalist and media strategy consultant who set up and runs Media Helping Media. He delivers media strategy training and consultancy services worldwide. His business details are at Media Ideas International Ltd. He tweets @helpingmedia. | <urn:uuid:37de00be-f9b5-44ce-a678-d3eb1bc37dbd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mediahelpingmedia.org/training-resources/journalism-basics/667-tips-for-journalists-attending-job-interviews | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96318 | 1,625 | 1.890625 | 2 |
Struggling Japanese electronics maker Sharp Corp. plans to raise about 100 billion yen through a public stock offering to repay part of 200 billion yen in convertible debt due in September, sources close to the matter said Tuesday.
The Japanese government said Tuesday it will build a research facility for decommissioning reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in the town of Naraha, some 25 kilometers south of the crippled nuclear power plant.
Apple has issued an apology to Chinese consumers after government media attacked its repair policies for two weeks in a campaign that reeked of economic nationalism. A statement posted in Chinese to Apple's website on Monday said the complaints had prompted "deep reflection" and persuaded the company of the need to revamp its repair policies, boost communication with Chinese consumers and strengthen oversight of authorized resellers.
China, Japan and South Korea are inching ahead with talks for a free trade zone that would rival the European Union and North America in economic heft. Despite the achievement of setting aside their often acrimonious relations to begin negotiations, progress will be slow. An agreement to start talks took 10 years.
The U.S. has taken its first real swipe at China following accusations that the Beijing government is behind a widespread and systemic hacking campaign targeting U.S. businesses.Buried in a spending bill signed by President Barack Obama on Tuesday...
Japanese government regulators said Wednesday that for the first time they will conduct their own investigation into the country's nuclear crisis to address key unanswered questions. The March 2011 earthquake and tsunami cut power and destroyed vital cooling systems at the Fukushima Dai-chi nuclear plant, causing meltdowns at three of its reactors.
Websites and organizations run by North Korean defectors in South Korea say they have suffered cyberattacks, one week after computer systems at some South Korean banks and TV networks were widely disrupted.
Kansai Electric plans to use plutonium-uranium mixed oxide fuel, known as MOX, in so-called pluthermal power generation at its Takahama plant from around the fall of 2014, industry sources said Tuesday. The Osaka-based utility firm included the plan in its earlier application for government permission to raise household electricity rates, the sources said.
The president of struggling Renesas Electronics Corp. said Thursday that the chipmaker is in talks with overseas companies on selling its loss-making mobile device chip operations as part of efforts to streamline its business.
Tokyo Metro Co., the larger of the two subway operators in Tokyo, said it will make mobile phone services available in trains on all its nine lines at noon Thursday. While cell phone services in trains have been progressively introduced since March last year, the remaining segments on Ginza and Marunouchi lines will go mobile friendly on Thursday.
Tokyo Electric is considering spending tens of billions of yen more to ensure the safety of its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant on Japan's northwest coast, which it is aiming to restart in fiscal 2013, sources familiar with the matter said Friday.
North Korea on Friday blamed South Korea and the United States for cyberattacks that temporarily shut down websites this week at a time of elevated tensions over the North's nuclear ambitions. Experts, however, indicated it could take months to determine what happened and one analyst suggested hackers in China were a more likely culprit.
A third-party panel concluded Wednesday that Tokyo Electric Power Co. did not intentionally provide erroneous information to a Diet-appointed committee tasked to investigate the 2011 accident at the utility's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
China offered on Tuesday to talk with the United States about cyber security amid an escalating war of words between the two sides on computer hacking, but suspicion is as deep in Beijing as it is in Washington about the accusations and counter-accusations.
Tens of thousands of Taiwanese have protested to demand that the government scrap a $10 billion nuclear power plant that is nearly complete and slated to begin operating in two years.
Cisco Systems plans to establish two network training centers in Myanmar, as global technology companies begin to move into one of the least-connected places on Earth. The announcement Thursday came on the heels of a USAID-sponsored delegation of executives from Cisco, Google, HP, Intel and Microsoft to the fast-opening country.
Sharp has decided to accept investment from South Korean rival Samsung as the struggling Japanese electronics maker seeks to rebuild its business. When the capital and business tie-up was announced on Wednesday evening, Sharp officials did not hold a press conference or contract-signing ceremony, repeating the lack of fanfare...
Technical consumer goods in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand continue to expand in the fourth consecutive quarter of 2012, making them the three fastest growing markets in the region with their robust growth of 15, 15 and 12 percent respectively in the full year of 2012.
None of Japan's nuclear power plants that have been halted since the nuclear crisis triggered by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami are likely to restart operations within the year as safety checks under new standards are not expected to be completed, a Kyodo News survey of utilities showed Sunday.
Chugoku Electric Power Co. and Electric Power Development Co. held a ceremony Friday to launch the construction of a prototype plant for a new coal-fired power generation method in Hiroshima Prefecture. Through trials due to begin in March 2017 at the facility on Osakikami Island, the two companies will seek to generate more power in a more eco-friendly way.
December is usually boom time for manufacturers and retailers as consumers shop and buy more than the usual month, thanks to the year-end festivities. Latest GfK report for Technical Consumer Goods in Singapore revealed record breaking sales for a number of key categories...
Japanese utility Chubu Electric Power Co. said Tuesday it will start its first overseas solar power generation project in Thailand, as part of efforts to expand profit by entering emerging foreign markets. Chubu Electric said it has acquired a 49 percent stake in Gunkul Powergen Co., the operator of six solar power plants in Thailand...
(Reuters) - India will launch its first mission to Mars this year, President Pranab Mukherjee said on Thursday, as the emerging Asian nation looks to play catch up in the global space race alongside the United States, Russia and its giant neighbor China.
Accusations by a U.S. computer security company that a secretive Chinese military unit is likely behind a series of hacking attacks are scientifically flawed and hence unreliable, China's Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.
The White House will tackle the theft of U.S. trade secrets on Wednesday with a new strategy to protect American companies from losing hundreds of billions of dollars in an area of growing concern in relations with China. | <urn:uuid:8ad8aa85-457d-444c-a811-45309563b497> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ecnmag.com/topics/asia?items_per_page=25&page=1&qt-most_popular=0&qt-recent_content=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960163 | 1,365 | 1.664063 | 2 |
For years I have enjoyed watching classic Christmas films during the holiday season. Among my favorite holiday films are “Scrooge” (the musical) and “It’s a Wonderful Life.” One day it hit me that these two classics were condemning greedy, conservative businessmen as villains. I find it more than ironic that modern conservatives claim Christmas as their own, and believe that there is a “war on Christmas” (however ubiquitous it might be!), yet the villains of so many Christmas films are greedy businessmen whose harshest lines sound strikingly like today’s Republican Party. Conservatives need to learn from these films. They both have powerful themes about self-awareness, making a difference by giving to others, and valuing people.
(I want to be clear that my comparison is not to say that business people are bad, that wealth is bad, or even that conservatives are bad; it is greed and anti-social behavior that are bad for society.)
In Scrooge, you have pre-conversion Ebenezer Scrooge, who cares about nothing but his own money. He has come to hate people, and would rather see the poor dead than help them. In “It’s a Wonderful Life, you have Mr. Potter, the greedy banker who cares only about accumulating more wealth, even at the expense of ordinary people. I think these two characters both personify modern conservatism. (Yes, I was tempted to add the Grinch.)
Why are Christmas villains so often conservative businessmen? I suppose nothing could be a better contrast to the message that Christ preached than someone who thinks only of their own needs. For a person who not only fails to consider the needs of others, but whose greed causes them to harm others for their own benefit, this is the ultimate antagonist to the message of giving that we celebrate at Christmas. These villains illustrate a powerful contrast to New Testament messages to loving your neighbor, give to the poor, the love of money is the root of all evil, don’t judge others, etc.
For roughly 70 years, there was a consensus about the role of government in the United States. From the Gilded Age to the Progressive Era and the Great Depression, our values about government intervention were recalibrated to embrace a balanced approach to the free market and the welfare state. While we embraced the power of markets, it was also widely recognized that there are winners and losers in the free market system, and we wanted a system that cared for those unable to care for themselves and minimized suffering. With the implementation of the New Deal and the Great Society programs, government was able to prevent millions of seniors, children, veterans, and the disabled and mentally ill from slipping into poverty.
But over the past 30 years, conservatives have united around several ideas that have destroyed the previous consensus about the role of government. First, conservatives have pushed the idea that welfare is evil, that it creates dependency, and requires hardworking people to pay into a system that redistributes their property to less deserving people. Second, they have made business their sole constituency. Virtually every policy they promote is in the service of the business community, which is sometimes counter to the interests of ordinary people (e.g., deregulation in finance, environmental protection, etc.). Third, they are anti-democratic. They obstruct legislation even when there is a clear majority vote; they realign election boundaries to their own benefit; and they change election rules to make it harder for people to vote—especially people that may not be voting for their party. As Republicans and their media outlet (Fox News) have used fear and anger to lead their followers into supportting their message, they have been allowed to dismantle important aspects of the 70-year consensus about the social safety net and the broader role of government. This has led to a number of negative outcomes that affect all of us, including massive inequality (to the level of some of the worst in the 3rd World), a Great Recession, crippling political polarization, and big business abuses of people and the environment.
Today’s conservatives need to spend some time this season thinking about the villains of Christmas. They need to look inward at how they have been led to believe things that are uncaring and insensitive, and have supported representatives who are steering our Nation in a direction that harms the most vulnerable in our society. Here are my favorite examples of Christmas villains.
From the film Scrooge: Trying to collect Christmas donations
Here’s the version from the book:
Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
“At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge,” said the gentleman, taking up a pen, “it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir.”
“Are there no prisons?” asked Scrooge.
“Plenty of prisons,” said the gentleman, laying down the pen again.
“And the Union workhouses?” demanded Scrooge. “Are they still in operation?”
“They are. Still,” returned the gentleman, “I wish I could say they were not.”
“The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?” said Scrooge.
“Both very busy, sir.”
“Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course,” said Scrooge. “I’m very glad to hear it.”
“Under the impression that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude,” returned the gentleman, “a few of us are endeavouring to raise a fund to buy the Poor some meat and drink, and means of warmth. We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices. What shall I put you down for?”
“Nothing!” replied Scrooge.
“You wish to be anonymous?”
“I wish to be left alone,” said Scrooge. “Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don’t make merry myself at Christmas, and I can’t afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned: they cost enough: and those who are badly off must go there.”
“Many can’t go there; and many would rather die.”
“If they would rather die,” said Scrooge, “they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population. … It’s enough for a man to understand his own business, and not to interfere with other people’s. Mine occupies me constantly. Good afternoon, gentlemen!”
Mr. Potter from “It’s a Wonderful Life”
Mr. Potter: Have you put any real pressure on these people of yours to pay those mortgages?
Mr. Bailey: Times are bad, Mr. Potter. A lot of these people are out of work.
Mr. Potter: Then foreclose!
Mr. Bailey: I can’t do that. These families have children.
Mr. Potter: They’re not my children.
Mr. Bailey: But they’re somebody’s children, Mr. Potter
Mr. Potter: Are you running a business or a charity ward? | <urn:uuid:99d98725-3154-4ee3-80f1-f3ed48a4fe2e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://speakingofdemocracy.com/2012/12/conservativechristmasvillians/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968093 | 1,607 | 2.40625 | 2 |
Volume 21, Issue 4 (December 1998)
Shear Strength Characteristics of Madinah Clay with Sand Compaction Piles
Shear strength characteristics of soft Madinah clay have been investigated from a series of consolidated undrained (CU) direct shear tests on specimens without and with circular sand drains of variable diameters. The investigation is conducted to study the shear strength behavior of soft Madinah clay in the presence of sand drains provided for the purpose of accelerating drainage and enhancing its response towards stabilization by preloading. The experimental shear strength test results have been compared with the theoretical values based on shear strength of clay-sand composite material derived from the shear properties of the individual materials. The shear strength parameters obtained from this study are expected to be of benefit and practical use for carrying out stability analysis of structures like embankments and foundations supported by clay and stabilized with vertical sand drains. Useful data were obtained showing a positive influence of the sand drain system on the enhancement of shear strength characteristics of soft Madinah clay. | <urn:uuid:006ea5ce-2915-442c-a8f3-9a6f81cc23e9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.astm.org/DIGITAL_LIBRARY/JOURNALS/GEOTECH/PAGES/GTJ11375J.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921654 | 212 | 2 | 2 |
You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘SEED containers’ tag.
Providing temporary relief for victims of hurricanes and earthquakes, SEED turns unused shipping containers into starter homes for emergency situations. The project was already underway when the recent tragedy hit Haiti, leading the group of Clemson University architecture professors (who’ve been developing it since the devastating Hurricane Katrina) to work to implement their plan sooner. Strong enough to withstand hurricanes or earthquakes, the containers make robust instant homes and guarantee some degree of safety from more activity, such as aftershocks.
Designed for living, the containers would arrive with strategic holes for light and air and would be outfitted with running water, a toilet and space for cooking. An unmodified container has 304 square feet of floor space (the size of many NYC apartments) and its flat roof expands its capabilities, being an excellent platform for gardening. To help jump-start the gardens and generate food quickly, each container would come with a 55-gallon drum already filled with dirt and plants.
Because Caribbean nations import more than they export, the region already has a surplus of unused shipping containers and constitutes a significant environmental impact. While the containers can be converted in just a few days and cost less than $5,000 to transform, it will probably take another six months before the project will ultimately be ready to implement. | <urn:uuid:d768b4ca-e829-4565-823a-9ef419d957dc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pondstonecommunications.wordpress.com/tag/seed-containers/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935338 | 278 | 2.4375 | 2 |
Two different Hudsonian Godwit nests. The top nest is the first nest we found during the summer of 2009
Okay, now for a test. Where, in this picture, is the godwit sitting on her nest? (see bottom of the post for the answer)
While godwit nests may be hard to find, thankfully, the same can't be said for some other species. Although we weren't specifically looking for other nests, the miles of walking we did in prime nesting real estate certainly turned up some pretty neat nests of many other species. Collectively, we found nests of all of the shorebirds that nest in Churchill (except Stilt Sandpiper and Wilson’s Snipe), which include Whimbrels (by far the most common nest we found), Short-billed Dowitcher, Lesser Yellowlegs, Dunlin, Least Sandpiper, Red-necked Phalarope, and American Golden Plover (Semipalmated Plovers also nest in Churchill, but they nest on the rocky beach areas, not near the sedge, so we didn't find those while looking for godwits).
Whimbrel nest. These were easy to find, partly because they were typically in very exposed locations, on the tops of the more barren hummocks.
Short-billed Dowitcher nest. These nests were typically in very similar places to godwit nests, hidden very well in at the base of a sedge tussock
Least Sandpiper nest. These were tiny (see my foot for reference)! These were a lot of fun to find, and were not usually as hidden as a godwit or a dowitcher, and on drier land. There was usually some overhanging cover.
Lesser Yellowlegs nest. We didn't find one of these until we went into the Boreal. This was in open boggy habitat. We found a second one later this day that was fairly exposed in a burn area
American Golden Plover nest. These were probably my favorite eggs, because of the pattern and contrast in the eggs. There was also quite a bit of variation between nests
This male American Golden Plover gave up trying to distract us from his nest and just plopped down right on his eggs. Same nest as above.
Red-necked Phalarope nest. This nest was fairly exposed, but what was neat here, is that the sedge the nest was built on was clearly woven into a shallow cup, unlike the other species, which just made a cup by clearing away material and stamping a nest site
Dunlin nest. We only ever found one of these, and it was hard to find. It was nestled very tightly into the top of a thick sedge tussock.
Now, don't get the impression that the only birds that nest in Churchill are shorebirds. While they may be some of the stars of the place, there are a lot of other cool birds that nest in the area. In addition to all the shorebird nests we found, we also found Savannah Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, Common Redpoll, Canada Goose (lots), Northern Pintail, Long-tailed Duck, Common Eider, Pacific Loon, Willow Ptarmigan, and Arctic Tern nests.
Willow Ptarmigan nest. This nest was just started, and nests typically contain many more eggs than this. I never did see a nest with more eggs in it.
Arctic Tern nest. If anyone has been near a tern nest, you can imagine that this pair of terns was not happy with our presence.
Long-tailed Duck nest. This nest was nested under a small spruce tree, and, compared to all the other waterfowl nests we saw, very well concealed.
Parasitic Jaeger nest. I have a hard time calling this a "nest" since there is absolutely no attempt at even a depression in the ground. This egg was just plopped right atop a hummock. Jaegers have some incredible distraction displays, and frankly can be a bit frightening when you don't know they're there.
Common Redpoll nest. I liked this nest in particular because it was lined with Willow Ptarmigan feathers.
And now, for the answer to the quiz, here is a close view of the female godwit on her nest. | <urn:uuid:354de7e2-6f79-400f-94cb-5ffb4420ca7c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.slybird.blogspot.com/2010/03/nest-searching.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 | 0.981892 | 906 | 2.25 | 2 |
Appeals Court: Power Companies Can Be Sued for Greenhouse Gas Emissions
NEW YORK, New York, September 23, 2009 (ENS) – In a historic ruling, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals has sided with states and private land trusts that sued large power companies to make them curb their greenhouse gas emissions.
A federal district court judge had dismissed their claims as being a political, not a judicial, issue.
But Monday, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the power companies can be sued in federal court because their carbon dioxide emissions are a public nuisance that contributes to rising temperatures and other damaging impacts, such as heat waves, smog episodes, droughts and forest fires.
The appellate court held that federal courts are empowered to limit damaging carbon dioxide emissions unless and until the legislative and executive branches regulate that pollution, either under the existing Clean Air Act or the comprehensive new energy and climate legislation now working its way through Congress.
Judge Sonia Sotomayor, originally a member of the three-judge Court of Appeals panel on this case, was elevated to the Supreme Court on August 8, 2009. The two remaining members of the panel, who are in agreement, decided the matter.
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal personally argued the case and Monday praised the decision reinstating Connecticut vs. AEP, a lawsuit filed by him and other state attorneys general seeking to compel the nation’s biggest greenhouse gas polluters to reduce their emissions.
“This ruling restoring our legal action breathes new life into our fight against greenhouse gas polluters and changes the legal landscape to impose responsibility where it belongs,” Blumenthal said.
“Our legal fight is against power companies that emit a huge share of our nation’s CO2 contamination, but it will set a precedent for all who threaten our planet with such pernicious pollution,” Blumenthal said. “This ruling vindicates our tenacious and tireless battle on behalf of a powerful coalition of states and environmental advocates – a battle that will now have its day in court.”
American Electric Power’s coal-fired John E. Amos power plant in Winfield, West Virginia (Photo by Tim Smith courtesy USACE)
The lawsuit targets American Electric Power, the Southern Company, the Tennessee Valley Authority, Xcel Energy Inc. and Cinergy Company. The five power companies own or operate 174 power plants in 20 states that emit some 650 million tons of CO2 each year.
That amounts to about a quarter of the American electric industry’s global warming emissions, and about 10 percent of the nation’s total CO2 pollution.
In 2004, two groups of plaintiffs, one consisting of eight states and New York City, and the other consisting of three land trusts, separately sued the same electric power corporations, seeking abatement of defendants’ ongoing contributions to the public nuisance of global warming.
New York District Court Judge Loretta Preska held that plaintiffs’ claims presented a political question that was not appropriate or proper for judicial consideration and dismissed their complaints.
But in the decision issued Monday, Appeals Court Judge Peter Hall wrote, “We hold that the district court erred in dismissing the complaints on political question grounds; that all of Plaintiffs have standing; that the federal common law of nuisance governs their claims; that Plaintiffs have stated claims under the federal common law of nuisance; that their claims are not displaced; and that TVA’s alternate grounds for dismissal are without merit. We therefore vacate the judgment of the district court and remand for further proceedings.”
As a result, the case will again be heard at the federal district court level.
“The court’s decision makes clear that the harms of global warming are real and need to be addressed today,” said Matt Pawa, lead attorney for the land trusts Open Space Institute and the Audubon Society of New Hampshire. “Power companies that release millions of tons of dangerous carbon pollution are not above the law.”
David Doniger, senior attorney and policy director for NRDC’s Climate Center, said, “The best way to fight global warming is for the Senate to pass comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation. However, the court’s decision guarantees that if the Congress fails to do its job, or blocks EPA from doing its job, the biggest power companies will still be held accountable in the federal courts.”
Blumenthal said, “Our battle is not against the EPA or the federal government, which we have won already, but rather against the polluters themselves under federal nuisance law.”
“Our goal is not money damages, but a change in company practices to stem the pollution and safeguard our environment and economy,” he said. “This lawsuit is comparable to our fight against Big Tobacco, without the money. In the end, this legal crusade can help save lives and our planet from global warming.”
“The eventual effects of CO2 pollution will be severe and significant – increasing asthma and heat-related illnesses, eroding shorelines, floods and other natural disasters, loss of forests and other precious resources. We must act, wisely and quickly, to stem global warming – and safeguard both our environment and economy. Time is not on our side.”
“If the defendants wish to do the right thing voluntarily, so much the better for them and our nation,” Blumenthal urged.
None of the defendant corporations has issued a public statement on the appeals court decision.
“This case is a critical milestone, allowing global warming cases to be decided by the courts, just as they decide complex water pollution, air pollution, and toxic dumping cases,” said California Attorney General Jerry Brown. “It’s highly significant that the federal court has affirmed the right of states to challenge the greenhouse gas emissions generated by coal-fired power plants. The time has now come for Congress to enact long overdue climate protection legislation.” | <urn:uuid:5b814e80-f7e2-4ae3-84cd-8ec5584793f1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sundancechannel.com/blog/2009/09/appeals-court-power-companies-can-be-sued-for-greenhouse-gas-emissions/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943236 | 1,236 | 2.25 | 2 |
Doing a doctorate isn't just about your thesis. If you're smart, you'll be laying the foundations for your future career
THINK back to when you were applying to university from school. Remember all the extracurricular activities you were encouraged to include, or invent, for your personal statement - captain of the netball team, Duke of Edinburgh silver award, grade 7 violin? What was the point? To help you stand out from all the other fresh-faced students trying to get on the same sought-after course as you.
It was the same shtick come the final year of your undergraduate degree, when you realised once again that the CV needed a bit of padding. Holding the record for the number of beers downed in one sitting is never going to impress employers, so you volunteer to be treasurer of the Biochem Society or throw yourself into student journalism.
Now you are doing a doctorate and guess what, same predicament. Whether you intend to stay in academia, work in industry or try what your careers service calls an "alternative career for scientists", these days simply having "PhD" after your name is not enough.
With a glut of both undergrads and postgrads, and a general shortage of jobs, you cannot afford to rest on your laurels. Extracurricular projects will not only give you something interesting to talk about in interviews, but will also bring additional transferable skills and show that you have a life outside the lab: they could make a difference between an offer and a "we'll keep your CV on file".
Over the next few pages New Scientist takes a look at what you need to be doing, whether a postdoc is your next move, or something completely different.
GOAL: academia forever
If you love your PhD, it's natural to set your sights on that elusive, high-flying academic career - in which case your safest bet is to publish at least one original research paper as a first author while still doing your doctorate.
"There's no substitute for publishing good papers," says Andrew Pontzen, an astrophysicist at the University of Oxford. However, if you don't quite manage it, strong references from your supervisor and others may act as a partial substitute when applying for your first postdoc beyond your research group. He stresses, though, that "sooner or later the papers have to come, and everything else becomes secondary in terms of establishing an academic career".
It's rare not to hit a few speed bumps during your PhD, so if getting published seems unlikely, it's important to discuss your concerns and options with your supervisor. And essential as it is, publishing papers shouldn't be the be-all and end-all, says Peter Dukes of the Medical Research Council (MRC). Formulating research questions, designing experiments and carrying them out methodically, before analysing and critiquing your work, are all fundamental parts of your PhD that must not be neglected. These skills will be crucial not only in your research career, but also vital for producing an intelligent and original thesis.
Talking about your work at conferences should also be high on the priority list, says Pontzen, "because this is how people get to learn about you and your papers". It's a great way to boost your profile and to meet useful connections for your post-PhD life. Dukes recommends doing fieldwork and short internships relevant to your research area. Visiting other research groups is also worthwhile. After all, who knows where that next job opening might come from?
Public outreach activities also come in handy in academic careers. Stand-up science comedy or demonstrating experiments at primary schools are unlikely to be instrumental in landing you that all-important first postdoc position, but they will provide you with a toolkit for tackling the growing emphasis on engagement and impact that you are likely to encounter later on in your career. As Steve Cross, head of public engagement at University College London, says, "Research institutions are starting to consider public engagement as one of the factors used to make hiring decisions."
Finally, once you've finished your PhD, it's worthwhile - and becoming increasingly common - to spend an extra six to 12 months with your research group. After the crazed months of thesis-writing, this will give you the time you need to finish a few last experiments, write that top-notch paper, and apply for the postdoc position of your dreams.
GOAL: crossing over into industry
Three years of meagre grants and long hours may have you yearning for the pay cheque and structured environment of industry. What are the skills you'll need to tunnel across?
"We look for technically able people who can see the relevance of their technical understanding in a broader context," says Andy Leonard, vice-president of BP Cambridge. He says BP doesn't count the number of papers an applicant has published; instead, recruiters look for evidence that candidates have acquired abilities such as teaching, coaching, leadership, coordination and presentation skills.
Looking for a job in science or technology? Take a look at the latest opportunities on Newscientistjobs.com.
If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.
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Only personal subscribers may leave comments on this article | <urn:uuid:cb4636cc-1216-4427-886b-771ed03a0f4f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21628952.600-going-the-extra-mile-during-your-phd.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959826 | 1,137 | 1.570313 | 2 |
LONDON (Reuters) - A woman's biological clock starts ticking in her late 20s, not her mid-30s, and male fertility also begins to wane with age, doctors said Tuesday.
In what is thought to be the first study to show a drop in female fertility below the age of 30, researchers in the United States and Italy said their results do not mean older couples will not be able to conceive, it just might take them longer.
"Although we noted a decline in female fertility in the late 20s, what we found was a decrease in the probability of becoming pregnant per menstrual cycle, not in the probability of eventually achieving a pregnancy," said Dr. David Dunson of the National Institute of Environmental Health Science in North Carolina.
Actresses and celebrities such as Susan Sarandon and Madonna have had children in their 40s but doctors have long known that female fertility begins its slow decline much earlier.
Dunson's research pushes it earlier still and shows it is not just a female problem. Men also suffer from a diminishing ability to procreate.
"Fertility for men is less affected by age, but shows significant decline by the late 30s," Dunson said.
The scientists studied 782 healthy Italian couples using natural methods of contraception to determine the impact of age on conception. Their research is published in the journal Human Reproduction.
The doctors estimated the chances of conceiving during the peak time, or fertile window, in the woman's monthly cycle for couples in three age groups: 19 to 26 years, 27 to 34 years, and 35 to 39 years.
The youngest women had a 50% chance of achieving a pregnancy in any one menstrual cycle. It fell to 40% for the 27- to 34-year-olds.
For women in their late 30s, it dropped to less than 30% and if their partner was 5 years older, the chances of conceiving slumped to about 20%.
"Nearly all pregnancies fell within the fertile window and, on average, the day-specific probability declined from the late 20s onwards being around twice as high for women aged 19 to 26 as for women aged 35 to 39," Dunson said in a statement.
"When we controlled for the age of women, we found that fertility was significantly reduced for men aged over 35," he added.
Even within each group the researchers found a lot of variation in conception among the healthy couples which could not be explained by age.
Infertility affects an estimated one in six couples. Forty percent of cases are due to a male factor and an equal share is due to a female problem. In some couples the infertility is unexplained or due to a joint problem.
Its all downhill a few months from now. | <urn:uuid:f902c83d-72e4-4a64-a157-ecab6fa7754c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gotapex.com/threads/43677-Biological-Clock-ticks-down-earlier | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977159 | 556 | 2.390625 | 2 |
Health Ranger investigates cyanide-producing Tifton grass on cattle ranch in Elgin, Texas
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Today I visited the ranch of Jerry Abel in Elgin, Texas, site of the mysterious death of 15 cattle after exposure to cyanide gas spontaneously produced by hybridized Bermuda - Tifton-85 forage grasses. This is a story with nationwide interest, having also been covered by CBS News and others (http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57459357/gm-grass-linked-to-texas...).
Along with Darrin McBreen from InfoWars.com, who was also present at the farm today, we spoke with Jerry and his wife about the bizarre events that have unfolded there.
There are some mysterious facts surrounding this incident, including the sudden disappearance of a document by Dr. Larry Redmon, entitled, "Potential Toxicity Issues with Tifton 85 Bermuda grass." Earlier this morning, that document was suddenly pulled from the Hays County Agriculture & Natural Resources web page. It originally appeared here: http://haysagriculture.blogspot.com/2012/06/potential-toxicity-issues...
As of this writing, that page now reads, "Sorry, the page you were looking for in this blog does not exist."
InfoWars researchers, however, were able to acquire this report from another source, and they provided it to NaturalNews. It states:
Recently, 15 head of Corriente roping calves died as a result of prussic acid poisoning in Bastrop cattle in a clean field of Tifton 85 bermudagrass. While this has never been reported before, results of analyses of rumen contents and the fresh forage confirmed death was due to prussic acid poisoning. Forage specialists and researchers here and the vet diagnostic lab at first denied the possibility of this. Even the researchers and breeders at USDA-ARS -- Tifton, GA, doubted the findings, but after multiple site visits, multiple forage analyses, and DNA analysis of plants from several fields from several environments across Texas, we can come to only one conclusion -- the death of the cattle was indeed due to prussic acid [cyanide gas] poisoning.
Three things are important to note in this statement:
1) This outbreak of cyanide gas producing grass has never been reported before. This is a first, at least in this report.
2) The cyanide gas produced by the grass did, indeed, kill the cattle.
3) This is happening on more than one farm. This report quotes a farm in Bastrop, Texas. The ranch I visited where other cattle perished is in Elgin, Texas. In Elgin, the rancher there told me that many other fields across the county tested positive for cyanide gas production.
Tifton-85 grass is not genetically engineered
There is all sorts of misinformation on this point all across the internet, and I will no doubt be accused of being an alien lizard Illuminati priest for daring to say something is not GMO, but from all the experts I read on this issue, Tifton-85 grass is not GMO.
It is a hybridized grass, not genetically engineered. There's a huge difference in this. Hybridization means the grass was cross-bred with another grass to produce a sterile new strain with desired traits. Genetic engineering, on the other hand, means inserting genetic material into the DNA of the plant, often from an insect or animal, in order to generate a completely artificial phenotype expression, such as generating pesticides in a corn crop.
I also posed this question to Jeffrey Smith: Is there any evidence that Tifton-85 grass is genetically engineered?
He responded, "I have not heard of any commercialized GM grass. So I doubt it's a GMO."
Other evidence pointing to the non-GMO status of this grass is that the owner of the ranch in question, Jerry Abel, told me he planted the Tifton grass somewhere between 15 and 18 years ago, and it's been baled every year since then, growing back on its own and basically just acting like a very boring field of forage for cattle.
If this is true, 15 years ago there was no GMO forage grass, so that would exclude GMOs from the original grasses put into the field. This doesn't exclude possible GMO contamination from outside the field, but it is at least evidence that GMOs were not originally put into the field.
Unless, of course, you believe Jerry Able is a secret government agent plotting to destroy the world with an experimental deadly gas crop. This idea is absurd, of course, and when I met Jerry Abel and his wife in person, they looked 100 percent like authentic Texas ranchers to me. No evidence of any cover-up, no conspiracy, no foul play whatsoever. Just an open field, some grass, a couple of ranchers, and a whole lot of grasshoppers.
Here's a summary of what I learned at the cyanide grass ranch in Elgin
• The Tifton-85 grass was planted in those fields 15 - 18 years ago, long before the experimental phase of GMO grasses.
• One of his fields tested negative for cyanide gas. Another field tested positive. Exact same grass, different results.
• Jerry Abel says he did not add any seeds to the field at any time.
• The only thing Mr. Abel added to the field -- and I believe this may be a possible answer to all this -- is chemical fertilizer. It is traditional in central Texas to spray chemical fertilizers on your hay fields once or twice a year.
Cyanide has been used in chemical fertilizers
According to Will Allen, author of The War on Bugs:
Cyanide products were widely promoted either as high-quality nitrogen fertilizers or as deadly pesticides. Cyano-gas has been used as a soil and grain-warehouse fumigant. Early advertisements lauded the effectiveness of this gas without defining the dangers. Other suppliers, such as the California Cyanide Company, also sold both ammonium cyanide fertilizer and cyanide gas. (http://www.naturalpedia.com/nitrogen_fertilizers.html)
This company, Wesfarmers Chemicals, Energy & Fertilisers, produces sodium cyanide in Australia: http://www.csbp.com.au/
In China, the Daesing Chemicals Co., Ltd. produces all the following:
- Potassium Cyanide
- Sodium Cyanide
- Sulfuric Acid / Sulphuric Acid
- Hyaluronic Acid
- Potassium Chloride fertilizer
Similarly, the XiAn YaXin Chemical Co., Ltd. produces sodium cyanide with the following description:
Molecular Formula: NaCN
Molecular weight: 49.01
Melting point: 563.7
NaCN - 98.0% min
NaOH - 0.5% max
Veterinarian says cyanide gas production from forage grass isn't uncommon
InfoWars.com investigators Darrin McBreen and Rob Jacobson met with Elgin veterinarian Gary Warner at the Elgin Veterinarian Hospital on Hwy 290 East. (http://www.elginveterinaryhospital.com/bov_staff.htm)
He told them that cyanide gas production from forage grasses is "nothing unusual," and he's heard many reports of other grasses over the years. However, he said that he had never heard of Tifton Bermuda grass producing cyanide gas, so that's a new one to him.
InfoWars (www.InfoWars.com) is also working on a report on this subject and may have that posted shortly.
Possible theories on what's happening here
After assessing the situation on site, talking to the rancher, reading up on these grasses and conducting additional research, I believe one possible explanation for these events is as follows:
The fertilizer that rancher Jerry Abel sprayed on his fields may have been contaminated with unusually high levels of cyanide, labeled as "nitrogen."
The plants simply metabolized and then off-gassed the cyanide. When consumed by the cows, it killed them.
Another possible theory is that last year's drought turned into this year's cyanide poisoning. The University of Wyoming writes: (http://www.uwyo.edu/ces/psas/smrr/prussic.html)
Prussic acid or hydrogen cyanide poisoning arises from the release of emulsin, which is found primarily in plant tissue of the sorghum family, and interaction with dhurrin, also found in these same crops. Damage to plants, such as freezing, trampling, chewing results in the interaction of these two plant compounds and the creation of hydrogen cyanide (HCN).
Probably the most common cause of prussic acid poisoning in sorghums is drought. Drought-stricken plants consist mainly of leaves. Animal poisoning can result from grazing or green chop feeding. Regrowth following drought can have deadly concentrations.
One more theory is that a GMO experiment on Bermuda grasses may have already caused genetic pollution that mutated the grass. This description of a GMO experiment that was ended in 2007 contains some interesting language: (http://www.reeis.usda.gov/web/crisprojectpages/0201085-molecular-impr...)
The purpose of this project is to reduce pesticide applications by developing transgenic turf and forage grasses, which produce insecticidal cry-proteins in their leaves. The transgenic grasses will also be evaluated for resistance to the insect pest fall armyworm. ...We propose to generate transgenic bermudagrass and seashore paspalum with stable expression of a synthetic Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) Berliner endotoxin gene that was previously shown to cause FAW toxicity and evaluate transgenic plants under field conditions for FAW resistance.
There is no evidence, however, that this experiment in Florida from 2007 has anything to do with Tifton-85 grass in Central Texas in 2012.
I don't claim to have all the answers here, but what I saw with my own two eyes at this ranch in Elgin, Texas was nothing out of the ordinary, and the most likely explanation for all this seems that the fertilizer contained extra cyanide, or that this was the result of last year's extreme drought in the region.
I know that some of the more imaginative readers on the 'net may have hoped that I would uncover some grand conspiracy behind the cyanide Tifton grass in Elgin, but as always, I can only report what I believe to be true and factual, and in this case there appears to be no GMO, no conspiracy, no secret experiments, and really nothing that amazing at all.
Thank goodness, because for a while, I was concerned that this might spread and we would be dealing with a runaway epidemic of cyanide-producing grass... "The Happening," where nature fights back against humanity. Because imagine: What would we do if the grass and the trees really did start producing poison gas that killed humans? We'd all be gone within days. | <urn:uuid:0354819f-78c4-4540-b75c-35c2485061fd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tucksprofessionalservices.com/article.php?ID=19602 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945018 | 2,354 | 2.296875 | 2 |
North Korea’s official government-controlled media announced that the country’s “Dear Leader,” Kim Jong-Il, (photo) died on Saturday at age 69 from “physical and mental overwork.” A teary-eyed TV anchorwoman claimed, “It is the biggest loss by the party … and it is our people and nation’s biggest sadness … [but we must] change our sadness to strength and overcome our difficulties.”
Those "difficulties" can be traced back to at least the assumption of power by Kim Il-Sung in 1945 as he established a Stalinist totalitarian system in the country and enforced it with iron rule until his death in 1994. His son, Kim Jong-Il assumed the mantle of dictator after having been groomed for the position for years prior to his father’s death.
A “cult of personality” was firmly established by the “Eternal President” (a title given to Kim Il-Sung at his funeral service) and extended by his son: Portraits of them hang in every building and every North Korean wears a Kim Il Sung lapel pin.
Click here to read the entire article. | <urn:uuid:e85ba1b9-9776-4838-8ac8-050a76f1cf1d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jbs.org/news/north-korean-dictator-kim-jong-il-dead-at-69 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968076 | 252 | 1.929688 | 2 |
04-08-2011, 10:45 AM #1
Research Shows Physically Active Moms Give Babies Head Start
Here's an article that is interesting!! Shows that physical activitiy is important and, with IC, you can certainly walk, etc. etc.
Labor of Love: New Research Shows Physically Active Moms-to-Be Give Babies a Head Start on Heart Health
Released: 4/7/2011 1:00 PM EDT
Source: Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB)
Newswise — WASHINGTON, April 7, 2011 – Moms-to-be long have been told by their doctors and baby-related books and websites that staying fit during pregnancy is good for both mother and child. When it was reported a couple of years back that exercising strengthens a fetus’ heart control, many pregnant women took heed and hit the ground running, literally. Some signed up for prenatal yoga classes; others found new ways to incorporate low-impact aerobic activities into their daily lives.
But, for those pregnant women out there who might not be feeling all that motivated, or anything but energized, new research being reported this week could tip the scales: It turns out that exercising during pregnancy might be the earliest intervention strategy available to you for improving your child’s heart health after birth.
“It is my hope that these findings will show that efforts focused on improving health need to start during pregnancy rather than in childhood,” says Linda E. May, an exercise physiologist and anatomist at Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences who has been heading up a series of studies on fetal heart development for the past four years. “Most of the focus today is on school-age children, but interventions should be focused long before that.”
A 2008 pilot study conducted by May and her collaborators at KCUMB and the Kansas City University of Medicine found that pregnant women who exercised at least 30 minutes three times a week had fetuses with lower heart rates – a sign of heart health – during the final weeks of development.
Now the team has revealed that the fetuses’ improved cardiovascular heart control is maintained one month after pregnancy, which indicates that mothers’ efforts to stay active have lasting effects. The study results are to be presented this week at the Experimental Biology 2011 annual meeting in Washington, D.C.
For expectant mothers like Kelli Gifford of Katy, Texas, the idea that an extra Zumba class or lap around the park could put her baby on a path to heart health puts an extra spring in her step.
“I had been regularly exercising many hours a week for years before I got pregnant and felt no need to change anything after I became pregnant,” said Gifford, who was not involved in the study. “Of course, I checked with my doctor and researched websites to make sure I wasn’t causing my baby any harm, but it seemed to be the consensus to keep doing what I was doing as long as I felt OK -- and I have! I feel great and haven’t been sick a day. It’s been really beneficial to both me and my baby, and I hope it helps both of us long-term as well.”
May’s research team’s latest investigation involved 61 moms-to-be and monitored maternal-fetal and infant heart function four times over the course of the study. The women’s aerobic activity levels ranged from power walking to running. Some of the more active participants also lifted weights and practiced yoga.
“The system that controls heart function is known to improve with regular aerobic exercise,” May says, “and improved heart control function is evidence of a healthy cardiovascular system and overall health. Not only did the mothers’ exercise help maintain and improve their own health, but it set their babies up for a healthier start.”
At 2:30 p.m. Sunday in Room 101 of the Walter E Washington Convention Center in D.C., May will present her findings during a 30-minute talk before the American Association of Anatomists at the Experimental Biology 2011 meeting.
The research team’s work is funded by the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences and the Hoglund Brain Imaging Center at the University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC).
May’s collaborators include: Kathleen Gustafson, a research assistant professor at the Hoglund Brain Imaging Center at KUMC; Henry Yeh, a statistician at KUMC; Alan Glaros, a statistician at KCUMB; and Richard Suminski, an exercise physiologist at KCUMB.Would you like to talk with someone about your IC struggles? The ICN now offers personal coaching sessions that include myself, Julie Beyer RD on the diet and Diana Brady CNC on alternative medicines. http://www.icnsales.com/icn-personal-coaching/
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Going outside these days takes an extra layer or two and the same could be said for your pets. Just like we get cold so do our pets, but there are things you can do to help.
Officials with the Coulee Region Humane Society say most dogs will appreciate wearing a sweater this time of year.
It's also a good idea to carry a towel with you to wipe off their paws to protect them from chemicals that might be on the sidewalk, and shorten the walks when it gets too cold. "Use yourself as a guide, if you think it's far too cold out to be outside longer than a couple of minutes, your pet probably feels the same way too," says Liz Meil from the humane society.
Also, if you have an outdoor pet that needs to stay outside, Meil says it's important to make sure they always have a source of water. | <urn:uuid:096eb7f5-d25d-4df6-881f-b60960807a8f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.news8000.com/news/Keeping-pets-safe-in-cold-weather/-/326/17992688/-/nngdgu/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970161 | 178 | 1.945313 | 2 |
We must see to it that our pleasing of others always ministers to their good in some way, edifies them, adds something to their character, and makes them braver, truer, and happier. The world is full of discouraged people, and we have the power to say a hopeful word or do a kindness which will drive the discouragement from their hearts and move them again, with strength for brave, victorious, and songful living. Love is the greatest thing in the world. We are to see to it that everything we do and every influence of our life shall be for our neighbor's good. We are bound so to live that we shall do hurt to none, but shall edify---add something to the life of everyone.
Source: Daily Lives, Miracles, and Wisdom of the Saints and Fasting Calendar
Contributed by: boyznamedsue | <urn:uuid:2bf4dcd4-5075-4665-959b-723ece30e833> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.gaiam.com/quotes/authors/saint-alexandra-tsaritsa-and-new-martyer | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960506 | 177 | 1.515625 | 2 |
by Yukio Mishima [translated from the Japanese by Ivan Morris]
Having had more than a few otherwise-reliable people I know of vouch for either the greatness of Mishima in general or--more to the point--the greatness of The Temple of the Golden Pavilion in particular, I'm sorry to say that this frequently snooze-inducing work of his left me with only one pressing question at the end: how could such a great novelist take up such crowd pleasing topics as nihilism and the nature of evil and make it all seem so fucking boring? Probably more dull, heavyhanded, and overly mannered than bad per se, this fictionalized first-person account of the torching of a famous Buddhist temple in Kyoto in 1950 offers up some sporadically striking prose ("When I glanced at my shoulder, I saw that in the moonlight Father's hand had turned into that of a skeleton" ), some random weirdness (repeated references to a scene in which a woman squirts breast milk into a cup of her lover's tea), and some dialogue that could have been striking if it weren't so inauthentic as an example of spoken--as opposed to poetic--speech ("The world was immobile like a tombstone" ). Given the imagery, might I have appreciated the novel a bit more had I embraced its "poetic" side and read it that way instead of trying to slog through it like a normal novel? Yeah, maybe, but probably not enough to matter. For, despite a multivalent narrative that can easily be read as both the confession of a madman and a brick through the window of Japanese culture during World War II and the immediate postwar era, teenage narrator Mizoguchi, a religious acolyte and morbid psychopath, is so drab, unconvincing, and underwhelming a creation that his criminal musings ("Is evil nevertheless possible?" he likes to ask himself ) and sexual confessions ("I wonder whether I shall be believed when I say that during these days the vision of fire inspired me with nothing less than carnal lust. Yet was it not natural that, when my will to live depended entirely on fire, my lust, too, should have turned in that direction?" ) are more tiresome, banal, and at times ludicrous than anything else. In other words, for a teen nihilist, a Japanese Johnny Rotten he ain't. Whatever. | <urn:uuid:cc477986-a093-40eb-b16f-1ca2194a11c3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://caravanaderecuerdos.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-temple-of-golden-pavilion.html?showComment=1359574706769 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966686 | 490 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Oh, the cursed Titanic—we've all seen the movie—biggest unsinkable ship in the world making its maiden voyage across the Atlantic Ocean (spoiler alert) gets gutted by a glacier and sinks, forever ripping apart star-crossed lovers Leonardo DiCaprio
and Kate Winslet
, the former going on to star as a bloodthirsty plantation owner in this year's much-acclaimed Quentin Tarantino movie Django
But how much would you pay to set sail aboard a real-life version of the Titanic—recreated in the image of the original, right down to guest services and user experience?
Say hello to Australian billionaire Clive Palmer who this week announced that his company will build Titanic II—a ship constructed to the exact specifications (except three inches longer and with an adequate supply of lifeboats) as its doomed namesake.
2,600 lucky (?) guests and 900 crew members will set sail aboard the Titanic II from Southampton to New York sometime in 2016 in a journey meant to replicate the original experience—hopefully without the sinking, etc. Guests will even be issued 1920s-inspired costumes to wear on board—and there will be strictly no fraternizing between first class passengers and those in lower-class cabins. Yes! Just like the movie!
"It will really help you pretend you are in the movie," Palmer said at a press conference held in New York yesterday.
According to a report in Mashable, Palmer has already received offers as high as $1 million for a ticket to ride. How much would you pay to sail aboard the Titanic II? And would you really be able to sleep easy at night? | <urn:uuid:8cb73e1b-de9d-434d-aa4c-0b3e43ff43f3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.stylebistro.com/Movies+Film/articles/MVZdS1aclUH/How+Much+Pay+Set+Sail+Titanic+II | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96522 | 338 | 2.015625 | 2 |
Nendo has designed an air purifier that uses centrifugal force to move water.
The centrifugal force is created by water revolving in a tank that then draws the water into an upper chamber where a fan vaporizes the water into the air.
Water that isn't vaporized is caught by the sides of the compartment and returns to the tank.
"Angling the form meant that the intake and outtake vents are a distance from each other, creating ideal air convection."
Photos: Hiroshi Iwasaki | <urn:uuid:7c3acdac-b1d0-4e0d-aaa9-769d44bc978c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mocoloco.com/archives/026863.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+mocoloco%2FKGTY+%28MoCo+Loco%29 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942136 | 106 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Soul food is a variety of cuisine traditionally popular in African American culture. It is closely related to the cuisine of the Southern United States. The descriptive terminology may have originated in the mid-1960s, when soul was a common definer used to describe African-American culture (for example, soul music).
The term soul food became popular in the 1960s. The origins of soul food, however, are much older and can be traced back to Africa and to Europe, as well. Foods such as rice, sorghum (known by some Europeans as "guinea corn"), and okra — all common elements of West African cuisine — were introduced to the Americas as a result of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. They became dietary staples among enslaved Africans. They also comprise an important part of the cuisine of the American south, in general. Many culinary historians believe that in the beginning of the 14th century, around the time of early Euro-African exploration, European explorers brought their own food supplies and introduced them into local African diets. Foods such as corn and cassava from the Americas, turnips from Morocco, and cabbage from Portugal would play an important part in the history of African-American cooking.
When the Europeans began their African slave trade in the early 15th century, the diet of newly-enslaved Africans changed on the long journeys away from their homelands. It was during this time that some of the indigenous crops of Africa began showing up in the Americas.
European enslavers fed their captive workers as cheaply as possible, often with leftover/waste foods from the plantation, forcing slaves to make do with the ingredients at hand. In slave households, 'vegetables' consisted of the tops of turnips, beets, and dandelions. Soon, African-American slaves were cooking with new types of "greens": collards, kale, cress, mustard, and pokeweed. They also developed recipes which used lard, cornmeal, and offal; discarded cuts of meat such as pigs' feet, oxtail, ham hocks, pig ears, hog jowls, tripe, and skin. Cooks added onions, garlic, thyme, and bay leaf as flavor enhancers. Slave owners provided their slaves with the poor parts of the pig such as the small intestines: chitterlings were a dish of poor people in medieval England and the name was adopted by the African-Americans through their European slave owners to "chitlins". Some African-American slaves supplemented their meager diets by gardening small plots given to them for growing their own vegetables; many engaged in subsistence fishing and hunting, which yielded wild game for the table. Foods such as raccoon, squirrel, opossum, turtle, and rabbit were, until the 1950s, very common fare among the then still predominantly rural and Southern African-American population.
Native American cuisine
Southern Native American culture (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek) is the cornerstone of the American south's cuisine. From their cultures came one of the main staples of the Southern diet: corn (maize) – either ground into meal or limed with an alkaline salt to make hominy, in a Native American technology known as nixtamalization. Corn was used to make all kinds of dishes, from the familiar cornbread and grits, to liquors such as whiskey and moonshine (the former of which is still important to the Southern economy).
|“||To a far greater degree than anyone realizes, several of the most important food dishes that the Native Americans of the southeastern U.S.A live on today is the "soul food" eaten by both Black and White Southerners. Hominy, for example, is still eaten: Sofkee lives on as grits; cornbread [is] used by Southern cooks; Indian fritters -- variously known as "hoe cake" or "Johnny cake"; Indian boiled cornbread is present in Southern cuisine as "corn meal dumplings" and "hush puppies"; Southerners cook their beans and field peas by boiling them, as did the Native tribes; and, like the Native Americans, Southerners cured their meats and smoked it over hickory coals...||”|
—- Charles Hudson, The Southeastern Indians.
Native Americans of the U.S. south also supplemented their diets with meats derived from the hunting of native game. Venison was an important meat staple due to the abundance of white-tailed deer in the area. They also hunted rabbits, squirrels and opossums. Livestock, adopted from Europeans, in the form of hogs and cattle, were kept. When game or livestock was killed, the entire animal was used. Aside from the meat, it was not uncommon for them to eat organ meats such as liver, brains and intestines. This tradition remains today in hallmark dishes like chitterlings (commonly called chit'lins) which are fried small intestines of hogs, livermush (a common dish in the Carolinas made from hog liver), and pork brains and eggs. The fat of the animals, particularly hogs, was rendered and used for cooking and frying. Many of the early European settlers in the South learned Native American cooking methods, and so cultural diffusion was set in motion for the Southern dish.
Impoverished whites and blacks in the South prepared many of the same dishes stemming from the soul tradition, but styles of preparation sometimes varied. Certain techniques popular in soul and southern cuisines (e.g., frying meat, using all parts of the animal for consumption), are shared with ancient cultures all over the world, including Rome, Egypt, and China.
Because it was illegal in many states for enslaved Africans to learn to read or write, soul food recipes and cooking techniques tended to be passed along orally, until after Emancipation. The first soul food cookbook is attributed to Abby Fisher, entitled What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking and published in 1881. Good Things to Eat was published in 1911; the author, Rufus Estes, was a former slave who worked for the Pullman railway car service. Many other cookbooks were written by African Americans during that time, but as they were not widely distributed, most are now lost.
Since the mid-20th Century, many cookbooks highlighting soul food and African American foodways, compiled by African Americans, have been published and well received. Vertamae Grosvenor's Vibration Cooking, or the Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl, originally published in 1970, focused on South Carolina "Lowcountry"/Geechee/Gullah cooking. Its focus on spontaneity in the kitchen—cooking by "vibration" rather than precisely measuring ingredients, as well as "making do" with ingredients on hand—captured the essence of traditional African American cooking techniques. The simple, healthful, basic ingredients of lowcountry cuisine, like shrimp, oysters, crab, fresh produce, rice and sweet potatoes, made it a bestseller.
At the center of Black American food celebrations is the value of sharing. Therefore, African American cookbooks often have a common theme of family and family gatherings. Usher boards and Women's Day committees of various religious congregations large and small, and even public service and social welfare organizations such as the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) have produced cookbooks to fund their operations and charitable enterprises. The NCNW produced its first cookbook, The Historical Cookbook of the American Negro, in 1958, and revived the practice in 1993, producing a popular series of cookbooks featuring recipes by famous African Americans, among them: The Black Family Reunion Cookbook (1991), Celebrating Our Mothers' Kitchens: Treasured Memories and Tested Recipes (1994), and Mother Africa's Table: A Chronicle of Celebration (1998). The NCNW also recently reissued The Historical Cookbook.
Celebrated traditional Southern chef and author Edna Lewis wrote a series of books between 1972 and 2003, including A Taste of Country Cooking (Alfred A. Knopf, 1976) where she weaves stories of her childhood in Freetown, Virginia into her recipes for "real Southern food".
Another organization, the Chicago-based Real Men Charities, in existence since the 1980s, sponsors food-based charitable and educational programs and activities around the USA. As its primary annual, celebrity-studded fundraiser, Real Men Charities sponsors "Real Men Cook" events and programs in fifteen cities nationwide, where African American men gather to present their best recipes—some original, others handed down for generations—for charity. The event is timed to coincide roughly with Juneteenth and Father's Day and is promoted with the slogan "Every day is Family Day When Real Men Cook." In 2004, Real Men rolled out its Sweet Potato Pound Cake Mix in select food retailers in several cities, and published a cookbook in 2005 titled Real Men Cook: Rites, Rituals and Recipes for Living. Proceeds from these enterprises help fund the organization's varied operations and activities. And recently, Food Network personalities Pat and Gina Neely and Paula Deen have released cookbooks in the spirit of their restaurants and television franchises. A show based around former Ikette Robbie Montgomery and her soul food restaurant with clips of the food was shown on the OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network) at 9/8 c on Saturday nights.
Health concerns
Traditionally-prepared soul foods tend to be very high in starch, fat, sodium, cholesterol, and calories. In contemporary times, some traditional-style soul foods have been implicated in the abnormally high rates of high blood pressure (hypertension), diabetes, clogged arteries (atherosclerosis), stroke, and heart attack suffered by African-Americans – especially those living in the Southern and Central United States.
An important aspect of the preparation of soul food was the reuse of cooking lard. Because many cooks could not afford to buy new shortening to replace what they used, they would pour the liquefied cooking grease into a container. After cooling completely, the grease re-solidified and could be used again the next time the cook required lard.
With changing fashions and perceptions of "healthy" eating, some cooks may use preparation methods that differ from those of cooks who came before them: using liquid oil like vegetable oil or canola oil for frying and cooking; and, using smoked turkey instead of pork, for example. Changes in hog farming techniques have also resulted in drastically leaner pork, in the 21st and late 20th centuries. Some cooks have even adapted recipes to include vegetarian alternatives to traditional ingredients, including tofu and soy-based analogues. Critics and traditionalists have argued that attempts to make soul food healthier also make it less tasty, and even less culturally/ethnically authentic.
Isolated staples of a soul food diet do have pronounced health benefits. Collard and other greens are rich sources of several vitamins (including vitamin A, B6, folic acid or vitamin B9 and C), minerals (manganese, iron, calcium, and fiber, and small amounts of omega-3 fatty acids. They also contain a number of phytonutrients, which are thought to play a role in the prevention of ovarian and breast cancers. However, since traditional-style cooking of soul food vegetables requires high temperatures and/or long time periods, the water-soluble vitamins (e.g., Vitamins A and C) are either destroyed or leached out into the water in which it is cooked. Peas, rice, and legumes are excellent, inexpensive sources of protein; they also contain important vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Sweet potatoes are a tremendous source of beta carotene and trace minerals, and have come to be classified as an "anti-diabetic" food. Recent animal studies have shown that sweet potatoes, if consumed plain and in modest amounts (i.e., the opposite of how they are served in traditional soul food dishes), can stabilize blood sugar levels and lower insulin resistance.
Dishes and ingredients
See also
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- Frederick Douglass Opie,Hog and Hominy: Soul Food from Africa to America (Columbia University Press, 2008,), see chapter 1
- Frederick Douglass Opie, Hog and Hominy: Soul Food from Africa to America (Columbia University Press, 2008), chapter 2
- Frederick Douglass Opie, Hog and Hominy: Soul Food from Africa to America (Columbia University Press, 2008), Chapter 2
- Dragonwagon, Crescent (2007). The Cornbread Gospels. Workman Publishing. ISBN 0-7611-1916-7.
- Hudson, Charles (1976). "A Conquered People". The Southeastern Indians. The University of Tennessee Press. pp. 498–99. ISBN 0-87049-248-9.
- "Fried Dough History".
- Shelf, Angela. "African Vegetarian Recipes : The Ethnic Vegetarian". Enotalone.com. Retrieved 2009-06-20.
- Jonsson, Patrick (February 6, 2006). "Backstory: Southern discomfort food". The Christian Science Monitor. The Christian Science Publishing Society. Retrieved 2006-11-09.
- "Collard greens". WHFoods. 2006-05-04. Retrieved 2009-06-20.
- "Sweet potatoes". WHFoods. Retrieved 2009-06-20.
Further reading
- Huges, Marvalene H. Soul, Black Women, and Food. Ed. Carole Counihan and Penny van Esterik. New York: Routledge, 1997.
- Bowser, Pearl and Jean Eckstein, A Pinch of Soul, Avon, New York, 1970
- Counihan, Carol and Penny Van Esterik editors, Food and Culture, A Reader, Routledge, New York, 1997
- Harris, Jessica, The Welcome Table – African American Heritage Cooking, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1996
- Root, Waverley and Richard de Rochemont, Eating in America, A History, William Morrow, New York, 1976
- Glenn, Gwendolyn, "American Visions", Southern Secrets From Edna Lewis, February–March, 1997
- Puckett, Susan, "Restaurant and Institutions", Soul Food Revival, February 1, 1997
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As unique and spectacular as any Greek or Roman architecture, Maya architecture spans many thousands of years; yet, often the most dramatic and easily recognizable as Maya are the fantastic stepped pyramids from the Terminal Pre-classic period and beyond. Being based on the general Mesoamerican architectural traditions these pyramids relied on intricate carved stone in order to create a stair-step design. Each pyramid was dedicated to a deity whose shrine sat at its peak. During this "height" of Maya culture, the centers of their religious, commercial and bureaucratic power grew into incredible cities, including Chichen Itza, Tikal, and Uxmal. Through observation of the numerous consistent elements and stylistic distinctions, remnants of Maya architecture have become an important key to understanding the evolution of their ancient civilization.
With the decipherment of the Maya script it was discovered that the Maya were one of the few civilizations where artists attached their name to their work. The art of the Maya has been called the richest of the New World because of the great complexity of patterns and variety of media expressions. Limestone structures, faced with lime stucco, were the hallmark of ancient Maya architecture. Maya buildings were adorned with carved friezes and roof combs in stone and stucco. With large quantities of limestone and flint available, plaster and cement were easily produced. This allowed the Mayans to build impressive temples, with stepped pyramids. On the summits were thatched- roof temples. Evidence show that the early Maya architects were using the corbel vault principle, which is arch like structures with sides that extend inward until they meet at the top.
Another matchless feature of the Mayans was the use of colorful murals. It is also noted that most of the Maya cities were built by being divided into quaters by two avenues which cross-cut each other at right angles. Roofs were flat and made with cedar beams overlaid with mortar. The walls were plastered and painted with great gods and other mythological features.
Tombs were often encased within or beneath Mayan structures. Frequently new temples were built over existing structures. The Mayans also expressed themselves artistically. Their ceramics were made in a large variety of forms and decorated with complex scenes. The Mayans also designed works of art from flint, bone and shell, along with making decorated cotton textiles. Even metal was used for ceremonial purposes. Items made with metal include necklaces, bracelets and headresses.
It is evident that all of the structures built by the ancient Mayans were built in honor of the gods. Compounds were built with large open areas, from which all the citizens could view the religious ceremonies taking place on the platforms elevated above the city. On the other hand, the construction of the Castillo, seems to relate to the ancient Maya's obsession with the calendar. For example, each stairway in the temple has 91 steps, making a total of 364 steps in the four staircases, which, counting the platform at the top of the pyramid, equals the total number of days in the solar year. Even more so, each side of the pyramid has nine stepped terraces divided by a stairway, for a total of eighteen sections on each side, consequently, the number of months in the Mayan calendar. A honeycombed roofcomb towered above many structures, providing a base for painted plaster that was the Maya equivalent of the billboard. In addition to temples, most Maya sites had multi-roomed structures that probably served as royal palaces as well as centers for government affairs.
Historically significant events, such as accessions, the capture or sacrifice of royal victims and the completion of the twenty year katun cycle, were recorded on stone stelae and tablets. Without metal tools, beasts of burden, or even the wheel the Mayans were able to construct vast cities across a huge jungle landscape with an amazing degree of architectural perfection and variety. They were noted as well for elaborate and highly decorated ceremonial architecture, including temple-pyramids, palaces and observatories, all built without metal tools.
As Maya cities spread throughout the varied geography of Mesoamerica, site planning appears to have been minimal. Maya architecture tended to integrate a great degree of natural features, and their cities were built somewhat haphazardly as dictated by the topography of each independent location. For instance, some cities on the flat limestone plains of the northern Yucatan grew into great sprawling municipalities, while others built in the hills of Usumacinta utilized the natural loft of the topography to raise their towers and temples to impressive heights. However, some semblance of order, as required by any large city, still prevailed.
Classic Era Maya urban design could easily be described as the division of space by great monuments and causeways. Open public plazas were the gathering places for people and the focus of urban design, while interior space was entirely secondary. Only in the Late Post-Classic era did the great Maya cities develop into more fortress-like defensive structures that lacked, for the most part, the large and numerous plazas of the Classic.
At the onset of large-scale construction during the Classic Era, a predetermined axis was typically established in a cardinal direction. Depending on the location of natural resources such as fresh-water wells, or cenotes, the city grew by using sacbeob (causeways) to connect great plazas with the numerous platforms that created the sub-structure for nearly all Maya buildings. As more structures were added and existing structures re-built or remodeled, the great Maya cities seemed to take on an almost random identity that contrasted sharply with other great Mesoamerican cities such as Teotihuacan and its rigid grid-like construction.
At the heart of the Maya city were large plazas surrounded by the most important governmental and religious buildings, such as the royal acropolis, great pyramid temples and occasionally ball-courts. Though city layouts evolved as nature dictated, careful attention was placed on the directional orientation of temples and observatories so that they were constructed in accordance with Maya interpretation of the orbits of the heavenly bodies. Immediately outside of this ritual center were the structures of lesser nobles, smaller temples, and individual shrines; the less sacred and less important structures had a greater degree of privacy. Outside of the constantly evolving urban core were the less permanent and more modest homes of the common people.
A surprising aspect of the great Maya structures is their lack of many advanced technologies that would seem to be necessary for such constructions. Lacking metal tools, pulleys and maybe even the wheel, Maya architecture required one thing in abundance: manpower. Yet, beyond this enormous requirement, the remaining materials seem to have been readily available. All stone for Maya structures appears to have been taken from local quarries. They most often utilized limestone, which remained pliable enough to be worked with stone tools while being quarried, and only hardened once removed from its bed. In addition to the structural use of limestone, much of their mortar consisted of crushed, burnt, and mixed limestone that mimicked the properties of cement and was used just as widely for stucco finishing as it was for mortar. However, later improvements in quarrying techniques reduced the necessity for this limestone-stucco as their stones began to fit quite perfectly, yet it remained a crucial element in some post and lintel roofs. In the case of the common Maya houses, wooden poles, adobe, and thatch were the primary materials; however, instances of what appear to be common houses of limestone have been discovered as well. Also notable throughout Mayan architecture is the false arch, whose limitations kept their structures generally weighty rather than airy.
Ceremonial platforms were commonly limestone platforms of typically less than four meters in height where public ceremonies and religious rites were performed. Constructed in the fashion of a typical foundation platform, these were often accented by carved figures, altars and perhaps tzompantli, a stake used to display the heads of victims or defeated Mesoamerican ballgame opponents.
Palaces were large and often highly decorated, and usually sat close to the center of a city and housed the population's elite. Any exceedingly large royal palace, or one consisting of many chambers on different levels might be referred to as an acropolis. However, often these were one-story and consisted of many small chambers and typically at least one interior courtyard; these structures appear to take into account the needed functionality required of a residence, as well as the decoration required for their inhabitants stature.
E-groups are a classification given by Mayanists to certain structure complexes attested in quite a few Maya sites of the central and southern lowlands - Petén region. Complexes of this type consist of a stepped pyramid main structure, which appears without fail on the western side of a quadrilateral plaza or platform. It has been theorized that these E-groups are observatories due to the precise positioning of the sun through the small temples when viewed from the pyramid during the solstices and equinoxes. Other ideas seem to stem from the possible creation story told by the relief and artwork that adorns these structures.
Pyramids and Temples Often the most important religious temples sat atop the towering Maya pyramids, presumably as the closest place to the heavens. While recent discoveries point toward the extensive use of pyramids as tombs, the temples themselves seem to rarely, if ever, contain burials. Residing atop the pyramids, some of over two-hundred feet, such as that at El Mirador, the temples were impressive and decorated structures themselves. Commonly topped with a roof comb, or superficial grandiose wall, these temples might have served as a type of propaganda. As they were often the only structure in a Maya city to exceed the height of the surrounding jungle, the roof combs atop the temples were often carved with representations of rulers that could be seen from vast distances.
Observatories The Maya were keen astronomers and had mapped out the phases of celestial objects, especially the Moon and Venus. Many temples have doorways and other features aligning to celestial events. Round temples, often dedicated to Kukulcan, are perhaps those most often described as "observatories" by modern ruin tour-guides, but there is no evidence that they were so used exclusively, and temple pyramids of other shapes may well have been used for observation as well.
Ball Courts As an integral aspect of the Mesoamerican lifestyle, the courts for their ritual ball-game were constructed throughout the Maya realm and often on a grand scale. Enclosed on two sides by stepped ramps that led to ceremonial platforms or small temples, the ball court itself was of a capital "I" shape and could be found in all but the smallest of Maya cities.
The Maya were resourceful in harnessing energy, creating amazingly sophisticated works of art and engineering and sustaining a civilization for approximately 1,500 years. It has been shown that the Maya had attributes of the supernatural, and were masters of their environment. Their secret wisdom remains unknown, some people attributing it to extraterrestrials races, whose space ships are seen to this very day in Central and South America.
As with ancient Egyptian Pharaohs, Mayan rulers filled vast cities with sky high pyramids, ornate and lavish palaces personifying the power of the great kings and their connections to the gods, and astronomical observatories which helped them created their calendars and plan their lives.
The cause of the Mayan collapse came over decades with no one quite sure what happened. There is no one single explanation for this implosion, but some scholars seem to believe that environmental catastrophy lead to a full blown meltdown - lack of food and polluted water which produced malnutrition and disease.
As with all civilizations, we discover that their Gods - like those some people worship today our Gods - did not help - as they do not exist - only our own consciousness to guide us in the wastelands of realities.
Mayan archaeology is coming into it's Golden Age with the help of satellite imagery and photography. There are innumerable Mayan cities, temples, and settlements still to be discovered. We have learned that the Maya were an innovative, creative, and majestic people with their own particular taste for violence. The allure of the Maya is coming to the fore. Like the mystique of Egypt, people are drawn to the land of the Maya, each year. There is something they are guided to find, perhaps linked to major planetary grid points that awaken consciousness.
Could other attractions to the land of the Maya include:
Rosslyn Chapel - Cymatics - Music of the Cubes - Da Vinci Code
Maya art is considered by many to be the most sophisticated and beautiful of the ancient New World. The distinct style of Maya art that developed during the Preclassical period (1500 B.C. to 250 A.D.) has influences from the Olmec civilization. Other Mesoamerican civilizations, including Teotihuacan and the Toltecs, affected Maya art, which reached its zenith during the civilization's Classic period (c. 200 to 900 AD). The Maya are well known for their use of jade, obsidian and stucco.
Many pieces of Maya art are spiritual in nature, designed to appease or curry the favor of the gods. Most Maya art that survives today is in the form of funerary and ritual objects. The Maya did not have metal tools or potter's wheels, however they managed to create highly detailed and beautiful pieces of art. Most Maya art depicts gods, great rulers, legendary heroes, religious scenes and, occasionally, daily life. The focus of Maya art pieces is on human figures (whether gods or mortals). Animals and stylized designs were used as decoration on pottery and other objects. The Maya script, which could be considered an art form itself, is featured on most statues and carvings. Maya art takes many forms, from tiny pieces of carved obsidian to gigantic pyramids and stelae. The dominance of the Maya religion can be seen through all of these art forms; most objects have a spiritual or religious purpose.
The art of the Maya, as with every civilization, is a reflection of their lifestyle and culture. The art was composed of delineation and painting upon paper and plaster, carvings in wood and stone, clay and stucco models, and terra cotta figurines from molds. The technical process of metal working was also highly developed but as the resources were scarce, they only created ornaments in this media. Many of the great programs of Maya art, inscriptions, and architecture were commissioned by Mayan kings to memorialize themselves and ensure their place in history. The prevailing subject of their art is not anonymous priests and unnamed gods but rather men and women of power that serve to recreate the history of the people. The works are a reflection of the society and its interaction with surrounding people.
One of the greatest shows of Mayan artistic ability and culture is the hieroglyphic stairway located at Copan. The stairway is an iconographical complex composed of statues, figures, and ramps in addition to the central stairway which together port ray many elements of Mayan society. An alter is present as well as many pictorial references of sacrifice and their gods. More importantly than all the imagery captured with in this monument, however, is the history of the royal descent depicted in the heiroglyphs and various statues. The figurine of a seated captive is also representative of Mayan society as it depicts someone in the process of a bloodletting ceremony, which included the accession to kingship. This figure is of high rank as depicted by his expensive earrings and intricately woven hip cloth. The rope collar which would usually mark this man as a captive, reveals that he is involved in a bloodletting rite. His genitals are exposed as he is just about to draw blood for the ceremony.
One of the most common themes painted on Maya vases is the royal audience. The ahau, seated characteristically with legs folded, receives visitors. At times the names of the ahau and his visitors are given in glyphs. Most interesting are the details: clothing styles and decorative patterning, face painting, masks worn, gestures made and so forth. Many vases show vases as well as indicate the style of interior decor with its curtains, pillows, and thrones. Hats were of crucial importance to Maya social identity. Often the ahau receiving visitors wears a conical turban hat with a large flower in front of it and quetzal feathers behind; sometimes a hummingbird or fish is attached to the front of that large flower.
A presentation of quetzal feathers
The elements on the head of this dragon are supposedly instruments of self-sacrifice They are found at the base of the supernatural tree displayed as a "cross" on Palenque temples.
Many examples of Maya pottery survive today. Along with clay vessels, the Maya created many earthenware figures of humans and animals. Several examples of the Teotihuacan fresco technique of applying paint to a wet clay surface have been found at Maya sites, showing the influence that civilization had on Maya art. Most pieces of pottery were decorated with images of humans, animals , or mythological creatures. Many highly detailed clay figurines were made by the Maya, portraying humans and gods. These were made with molds and by hand. Many of these figures were buried with rulers, which is how they survived to the current day.
The Maya created a great number of scupltures, many of which can be seen at Maya sites and museums. A common form of Maya sculpture was the stele. These were large stone slabs covered with carvings. Many depict the rulers of the cities they were located in, and others show gods. The stelae almost always contained hieroglyphs, which have been critical to determining the significance and history of Maya sites. Other stone carvings include figurines, similar to the earthenware ones described earlier, and stone lintels which show scenes of blood sacrifice. The Maya used a great deal of jade in their art. Many stone carvings had jade inlays, and there were also ritual objects created from jade. It is remarkable that the Maya, who had no metal tools, created such intricate and beautiful objects from jade, a very hard and dense material. An excellent example is the death mask of Lord Pacal, ruler of Palenque. A life-size mask created for his corpse had "skin" made from jade and "eyes" made from mother-of-pearl and obsidian.
Due to the humid climate of Central America few Maya paintings have survived to the present day. Some murals have been discovered at Bonampak. The paintings at Bonampak were preserved when a layer of calcium carbonate covered the paintings, preventing moisture from destroying them. The murals, which date from 790, show scenes of nobility, battle, and sacrifice. At San Bartolo, murals were discovered in 2001. These paintings date from 100 A.D., and are the some of the oldest Maya paintings discovered. These paintings, which depict the Corn god myth, made scholars realize that the myth was older than previously believed.
List of Maya Archaeological Sites Wikipedia
Maya architecture Wikipedia
ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS INDEX
ALPHABETICAL INDEX OF ALL FILES
CRYSTALINKS HOME PAGE
PSYCHIC READING WITH ELLIE
2012 THE ALCHEMY OF TIME | <urn:uuid:32042dbd-eb90-4005-bc9c-6f6a522328ac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.crystalinks.com/mayanarch.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977951 | 4,047 | 3.875 | 4 |
To make it as realistic-looking as possible, Redett used skin from the boy's thigh for the shaft of the penis and tissue from his cheek lining to create the glans, or tip.
The boy's penis will grow at an average rate. "And even better than looking normal, it's going to function entirely normal," Redett said after the surgery.
If they had used tissue from the boy's forearm, the surgeons would have been able to reconstruct the shape, but not enable the penis to become erect.
"His male sexual hormones (would) be normal so he would have the urges and the sexual drives that any other young man would have, but he obviously couldn't perform," Gearhart said. "And that would be a terrible handicap for this child going forward as he becomes a young man."
By using the remaining organ that had contracted inside his body, the team was able to save some erectile tissue. Gearhart said this means the boy will not need an implant later to have a normal sex life and he should be able to father children.
Gearhart was most worried about sewing together the boy's small blood vessels -- one slip could cause unnecessary bleeding. But the surgery went smoothly, the team said, and they monitored him closely afterward for infections. In less than a week, the boy was out of the hospital and recovering across the street in a townhouse where his father was living temporarily.
Penile reconstruction surgery is most commonly performed after trauma, according to plastic surgeon Dr. Anthony Youn, who was not involved in the boy's case. But it is also performed after the organ is removed for cancer treatment, gangrene in the genital area, severe burns or necrotizing fasciitis, a flesh-eating bacterial infection. Similar surgery is done for gender reassignment surgeries. | <urn:uuid:394c9812-2a2a-4c0a-8d58-51b60a002e5a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ksbw.com/news/health/Surgeons-give-boy-chance-at-normal-life/-/2024/17675594/-/item/1/-/botmjr/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983762 | 372 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Moths & Butterflies
The country is reportedly expected to have 800 to 900 species of butterfly. Of these, 140 species have been catalogued with photographs in the Butterflies of Bhutan booklet published by the Royal Society for the Protection of Nature in 2007. These include some rare species such as the Blue Dake Euthalia durga and Blue Forester Lethe scandal. Internationally protected species such as the Bhutan Glory Bhutanitis lidderalii and Kaiser-i-Hind Teinopalpus imperialis are also known to occur in the country although they have not yet been photographically catalogued since they are rarely seen.
Bhutan harbors enormous number of butterflies owing her geographical setting. Very little is documented and photographed on subject.
So on this scale our doors are wide open for the enthusiast to explore our nature to photograph, enjoy live rare species, on the whole to showcase to the rest of the world, where habitats are dwindling for these elusive and beautiful creatures of mother earth.....
To view our exclusive Photo Gallery . | <urn:uuid:7f909e39-9361-4747-914d-46f85027c3bf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.birdinginbhutan.com/moths_butterflies.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922038 | 214 | 3.078125 | 3 |
Studied Homeopathic Remedies
- Classical Homeopathic Remedy
Diarrhea, or loose bowel movements, can occur for many reasons. Food poisoning and infections are the most common causes of acute diarrhea. Chronic diarrhea may be caused by ongoing illnesses of the digestive tract, such as inflammatory bowel disease and irritable bowel syndrome.
Appropriate treatment involves addressing the cause of the diarrhea, if possible. In many cases, however, all that can be done is to treat the symptoms.
Note: Prolonged or severe diarrhea can be dangerous, especially in small children and seniors. The greatest risk is severe dehydration. This can often be corrected through the use of special oral solutions, but in some cases intravenous fluids may be required.
Scientific Evaluations of Homeopathic Remedies for Diarrhea
Two trials investigating the treatment of childhood diarrhea with homeopathic remedies were performed in Leon, Nicaragua, and a third one was performed in Nepal, all by a single research group. Overall, the results suggest benefit with homeopathic treatment determined by classical homeopathic evaluation.
Traditional Homeopathic Treatments for Diarrhea
In classical homeopathy , there are many possible homeopathic treatments for diarrhea, to be chosen based on various specific details of the person seeking treatment.
When a child has diarrhea that is characterized by profuse, foul-smelling stools that are watery, gushing, and painless, and he has a great thirst for large quantities of cold water, then his condition may fit the symptom picture for the homeopathic remedy Podophyllum . He might also be fidgety and restless.
However, if a child is generally hot and desires cold drinks, and has colicky, slimy, foul-smelling diarrhea with green stools that look like green grass, her condition might fit the symptom picture for the homeopathic remedy Chamomilla .
When a child is restless, anxious, and fearful, feels much worse around midnight and has painful diarrhea with burning sensations, he may fit the symptom picture for homeopathic Arsenicum . Other characteristic symptoms include a red, sore anus, discomfort that is relieved by hot applications, and the complaint of feeling chilly, especially on his arms and legs.
Other Natural Options
For herbs, supplements, and other alternative treatments that may be useful for this condition, see the Diarrhea article.
For a thorough explanation of homeopathy, including dilution of therapies, see the Homeopathy Overview .
- Reviewer: EBSCO CAM Review Board
- Review Date: 07/2012 -
- Update Date: 07/25/2012 - | <urn:uuid:99b1f9fa-fda0-40fb-ae4b-679652a6f605> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://memorialhospitaljax.com/your-health/?/2010815782/Diarrhea | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937194 | 535 | 2.453125 | 2 |
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
The Colorado Avalanche Information Center has issued a backcountry avalanche warning for the Park Range and Elkhead Mountains in Northwest Colorado.
Dale Atkins of the CAIC said Wednesday afternoon that the danger is high at all elevations and all slopes, regardless of facing direction, in north Steamboat Springs and Craig.
"This includes the Steamboat Lake and the Mount Zirkel Wilderness Area, where very heavy snow fell (Tuesday)," Atkins said. "The instability is in the new snow and triggered releases are likely on steep slopes and gullies."
Avalanche observer Art Judson said he drove a route through the Elkheads west of Routt County Road 62 on Wednesday morning and was able to spot the courses of 24 medium and large avalanches that have come down since the snowstorm, which produced 18 to 30 inches of new snow in some places.
"Fracture lines varied from 2 to 6 feet deep with the deepest cutting into cornices on ridge tops," Judson said. "One fracture in the Saddle Mountain group was at least one-quarter of a mile wide, and another further north was more than one-half mile in width."
Elsewhere in the "Steamboat zone," including the Flat Tops, Atkins rates the avalanche danger as considerable above 8,000 feet and generally moderate below that elevation. | <urn:uuid:4d2f3e56-0a77-45b1-8e13-ac0cac1225e7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.steamboattoday.com/news/2005/feb/16/avalanche_danger_rated/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965205 | 275 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Colorectal cancer is a common malignancy in terms of new cases and deaths among men and women in the United States. The past fifty years have seen only marginal improvement in survival from this disease. This improvement is largely due to improved early diagnosis and surgical treatment. The importance of early diagnosis is reflected by the inverse relationship between survival and stage of diagnosis. Patients can expect a greater than 90% survival rate when the cancers are confined to the colon or rectum. This survival rate drops to 66% if the cancer has spread to surrounding tissues and to 8.5% if the primary carcinoma has metastasized. The majority of carcinomas, 57%, are diagnosed at the second and third stages where survival rates are dramatically reduced. As such, the problem of colon cancer remains an important, unmet medical need that demands a better understanding of the disease as well as improved diagnosis and treatment. Our long-term goal is to facilitate the development of new preventive measures for colon adenoma and carcinoma formation by understanding the earliest cellular perturbations leading to disease development.
Our areas of research are:
Gene Expression Profiles
APC and Retinoic Acid Biosynthesis in Cancer and Development
DNA Methylation in Cancer and Development
Zebrafish as a Model for Studying Intestinal Development and Differentiation | <urn:uuid:4177876f-229d-4558-b2b4-aa37bf45251f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.huntsmancancer.org/research/labs/jones-lab/research | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949136 | 269 | 2.40625 | 2 |
CHAPEL HILL, NC (AP) -- North Carolina university students are protesting against rising education costs they say are forcing them to borrow more, work more and causing some of their classmates to drop out.
About 20 students marched in Chapel Hill on Friday to the building where the University of North Carolina board earlier approved tuition and fee increases for next fall.
Student Laurel Ashton of Asheville says spiraling higher education costs mean she will have to spend more time working at a deli and a second job, and to take out more loans that will put her under financial stress after she graduates.
The protesters met with UNC system president Tom Ross, who said leaders are doing their best to keep college affordable in the face of state budget cuts.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) | <urn:uuid:7099c666-43a1-4fbc-b39d-6e081b4ff8ec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wwaytv3.com/2011/02/11/protesters-march-to-protest-unc-cost-increases | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960837 | 162 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Department of Dental Medicine
General Practice Residency
Clinical Training Sites:
Metropolitan Hospital Center
New York Medical College was founded in 1860 by a group of civic leaders that included poet and abolitionist William Cullen Bryant. New York Medical College was one of the first medical schools to establish a Department of Dentistry. The Medical College was the first medical school to own it's own teaching hospital, and was among the first to admit female students in 1863. In 1928, New York Medical College was the first medical school to establish a scholarship program specifically for minority students. It is now a University comprised of a School of Medicine, School of Health Sciences and Practice and Graduate School of Basic Medical Sciences. The New York Medical College Valhalla campus is one of four videoconference sites used by the Department of Dental Medicine.
Metropolitan Hospital is located on the upper east side of Manhattan, between 1st and 2nd Avenues and 97th - 99th Streets.
Westchester Medical Center is located on the campus of New York Medical College in Valhalla, NY in mid-Westchester County just north of NYC.
Phelps Memorial Hospital and Open Door Family Medical Centers are located in Mid- Westchester County with offices in Sleepy Hollow and Port Chester, New York.
CLINICAL TRAINING SITES:
Metropolitan Hospital Center opened in 1875 and is one of the oldest public hospitals in the country and is currently a 341 bed acute care community based facility. The Hospital has a dedicated staff of over 3,000 professional and skilled employees committed to serving the community. In addition to comprehensive inpatient services, MHC serves as the ' family doctor' to more than 320,000 ambulatory and emergency department patients annually. The Department of Dental Medicine is comprised of Divisions of General Dental Practice and Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. The department is located on the 2nd floor of the Ambulatory Care Pavilion of the Hospital and consists of departmental offices, 10 state of the art operatories, a surgical suite with recovery room, a reception area, waiting room, conference room, intra and extra oral Digital Radiography. In addition, an online computer network capable of accessing NYMC, the National Library of Medicine and the internet is within the Department. The New York Medical College Manhattan campus at Metropolitan Hospital is one of four videoconference sites used by the Department of Dental Medicine.
Westchester Medical Center was established as a regional tertiary care hospital for the entire lower Hudson Valley in 1971 when it began its affiliation with New York Medical College. Previously the institution functioned as a community hospital called Grasslands Hospital. As a tertiary care regional center; WMC serves a seven county area utilizing air transport to quickly transfer patients from all community hospitals within the seven county areas. The Department of Dental Medicine is comprised of Divisions of General Dental Practice and Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. The department is located on the 1st floor of the Macy Pavilion and consists of departmental offices, 5 state of the art operatories, a surgical suite with recovery room, a reception area, waiting room, conference room and intra/extra oral radiography. In addition, an online computer network capable of accessing NYMC, the National Library of Medicine and the internet is within the Department.
Phelps Memorial Hospital/ Open Door Family Medical Centers have a collaborative arrangement whereby Open Door provides the outpatient services and Phelps provides for services in Emergency Medicine, Operating Room, Inpatient and other Hospital Consultations. Phelps Memorial Hospital is a private, community based, suburban, acute care hospital with 235 beds on 69 acres overlooking the Hudson River in majestic Sleepy Hollow, New York. Open Door Family Medical Centers’ Port Chester outpatient office has an 8 state of the art operatory dental suite with digital radiography, a computerized practice management system, and an electronic dental record. Open Door is designated a level 3 patient centered medical home and provides comprehensive health care services to 40,000 patients with 170,000 visits. Phelps/ Open Door are one of four videoconference sites used by the Department of Dental Medicine.
The one year (second year optional) General Practice Residency program sponsored by New York Medical College maintains the accreditation status of Approval Without Reporting Requirements by the ADA Commission on Dental Accreditation. The program has three clinical training sites and fulfills the New York State requirements for licensure by PGY-1 training as well as the mandated 1 year post-doctoral year. The clinical training sites include Metropolitan Hospital, Westchester Medical Center and Phelps Memorial Hospital / Open Door Family Medical Centers. The program accepts 10 residents per academic year. At the time of interview, the resident can select either 1 of 3 positions at the Metropolitan Hospital Center clinical site, 1 of 3 positions at the Westchester Medical Center clinical site or 1 of 4 positions at the Phelps/ Open Door clinical site, as their assignment for training. Patient care is comprehensive and is kept within the concepts of general dental practice in both a hospital and ambulatory practice environment. The program is designed for post doctoral training and is not to be construed as an extension of undergraduate training. The program offers both didactic and clinical training in the disciplines of restorative dentistry, prosthodontics, periodontics, endodontics, children’s dentistry, oral and maxillofacial surgery, anesthesiology, inpatient care, medical assessment, pain/anxiety control, medically compromised and special needs. These disciplines will be experienced in the outpatient suites, inpatient floors, emergency medicine and medicine departments and operating room areas of our clinical training sites. The didactic portion of the program will occur both on and off site, and will include formal lectures and presentations, informal seminars and conferences, community activities, as well as videoconferencing and webinaring, within the New York Medical College University resource system.
Resident training occurs under the preceptorship of the attending Faculty staff, which is comprised of general practitioners as well as specialists.
The Standards for General Practice Residency of the American Dental Association are the underlying basis for the training program.
Required Application Materials:
Pass Application plus
2012-2013 General Dental Practice Resident Staff Assignments | <urn:uuid:207f7b42-96df-4f59-ba31-a30f40906cb4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nymc.edu/depthome/academic/dentistry/general_practice.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944367 | 1,269 | 2.1875 | 2 |
BFI Film Academy students visit Pinewood Studios
Over 100 budding young filmmakers take a tour of Pinewood Studios and learn from master craftsmen as part of the BFI Film Academy programme.
Don’t be frightened to start at the bottom
– executive producer Tony Waye advises BFI Film Academy participants
The BFI Film Academy regional programme is now in full swing, with 24 partners across England delivering film training courses to 16-19 year olds. Its aim is to give a diverse group of young people from all backgrounds the opportunity to be part of the UK’s future film industry by providing opportunities for talented and committed young people to develop new skills and build a career, no matter where they live or what their background.
During half-term, Pinewood Studios made it possible for over 100 participants from the programme to visit their premises, giving them access to the world’s leading studio facilities and a wealth of expertise from leading film industry experts. Pinewood Studios is a strategic partner of the BFI Film Academy and is providing both guidance on the programme and opportunities for the participants.
Speakers included multi-award winning professionals such as film production executive Tony Waye (known for his work on the Bond films For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, Tomorrow Never Dies, Casino Royale); production designer Stephen Scott (Indiana Jones and the Lost Crusade, Die Another Day, Hellboy); director of photography Robin Vidgeon (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Hellraiser, Memphis Belle); sound designer Glenn Freemantle (Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours, Shame, Marley); and Nigel Stone, CEO and creative director of the film and TV production company Platinum Films.
BFI Film Academy participants in the clubhouse at Pinewood Studios
Cinematographer Robin Vidgeon (Hellraiser) shares tricks of the trade
Posing on the world famous 007 Stage
Designs for Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy (2004)
Class of 2013: BFI Film Academy participants at Pinewood
During their visits, participants were given invaluable advice on how to develop their careers and the different types of jobs and paths they could pursue, with speakers sharing first-hand how they got to their positions.
Cinematographer Robin Vidgeon spoke about the importance of teamwork and understanding the roles of everyone who works on the shoot. “Having a sense of humour is a safety valve for working on a film set,” he advised. Meanwhile, Stephen Scott strongly encouraged anyone who wanted to work in production design to have their portfolios ready to show to potential employers. Tony Waye, talking from experience, advised his audience to start by finding work in local radio or television to get your foot in the door: “Get experience in any way you can and work your way up.”
In addition to these talks, participants spent some time exploring Pinewood and were taken around to see production facilities, the famed 007 stage, the unique underwater stage and tank (which is the largest in Europe), the purpose-built studios and brand new HD galleries for the production of all genres of TV and the production offices. They learned about apprenticeship opportunities with the studios and what support Pinewood offers to filmmakers in the early stages of their careers. | <urn:uuid:1f6589dc-d082-4cd3-9722-ec2dada157ec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/bfi-news/bfi-film-academy-students-visit-pinewood-studios | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939061 | 679 | 1.578125 | 2 |
This summer, President Bush's commission on reforming Social Security issued an interim report stating that the program will run out of money in just 15 years. The report warns that deep benefit cuts, tax increases, or the acceptance of massive federal debt are necessary—unless there is fundamental reform of the system.
According to a report by Henry Aaron of the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., Social Security as currently constituted offers individuals, on average, an amount of money that is just 10 percent above the line the U.S. government defines as "poverty." The report also points out that Social Security is an especially bad deal for women, blacks, Hispanics, and the poor in general. Social Security expert William Beach of the Heritage Foundation has found that many young black males working today will pay more into the system in their lifetimes than they will receive in benefits—a negative return.
Due primarily to the fact that it is a heavily urbanized state with a relatively high percentage of lower-wage workers, Michigan ranks 40th or below in expected Social Security returns among the 50 states. The lower returns—when compared with what, on average, a typical two-worker family could earn by investing that money—amounts to a net loss of almost $580,000 per family in retirement income.
For these reasons—and for many positive ones as well—it is gratifying to me, as a senior citizen, to know that America is approaching the day when it will pass a fundamental reform of Social Security; one that will probably allow people to own a portion of their payroll taxes now devoted to the program, and invest that portion on their own.
Many of my fellow senior citizens are worried about tampering with a government program that has been in place for most of their lives. But what must be said repeatedly and with no apology is that the system enacted in 1935 was always unsustainable under a particular circumstance: if the ratio of workers to retirees ever became so low that a reasonable level of benefits could no longer be maintained.
What many Americans still don't understand is that that ratio is being reached, and quickly. That's why the calls for reform are finally being heard. Social Security initially had over 50 people paying in per retiree. Today, that ratio is around 3:1 and will drop to 2:1 in the next few decades.
People are living much longer and retiring earlier, many even before Social Security starts paying them benefits. Retirement at age 55 is now a common, and growing, phenomenon. The only way people can retire early is if personal savings and pensions are available to sustain a desirable lifestyle in retirement, the more the better. Millions of Americans already have accumulated tax-sheltered assets in accounts such as IRAs and 401(k)s.
Unfortunately, low-income workers lack the discretionary income necessary to fund such accounts. A Social Security system that allows private investment would give these workers the leg up they need to retire with a nest egg big enough to live a comfortable lifestyle. By investing in government bonds over a working lifetime, a person can get a 3-4 percent return which, through the magic of compound interest, doubles monthly retirement income. A broader mix of stocks and bonds, with historical yields of 5-6 percent, effectively triples retirement income.
And here's something else most Americans don't know: Other countries have made precisely the same change America is contemplating. For example, Great Britain gives workers the option of placing a portion of their payroll taxes in a private investment account. More than two-thirds of British workers have chosen the private option. The result: Private pensions are generating a 10-percent real return on their pension investments. British pension funds are currently greater than the pension funds of the rest of the European countries combined.
But seniors should rest assured: No one is talking about "doing away with Social Security." No one is suggesting that the current level of benefits be reduced, nor are they proposing that the new reform be anything but voluntary. Should a partial privatization of Social Security occur, you will not be forced to participate.
But if you want the highest possible return on your investment of a lifetime of hard work, you should.
(Kent Davis, a retiree with over 35 years of managerial experience, is a senior policy advisor to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided the author and his affiliation are cited.) | <urn:uuid:64102454-cb9d-47a1-80fc-71e76064912d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mackinac.org/3792 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964513 | 901 | 2.328125 | 2 |
Jimmy Tatro's rise to fame might as well be a modern classic. A fraternity man with a penchant for making videos, Tatro's work started getting noticed after he capitalized on the “Sh*t ____ Say” franchise by making his own version, a YouTube phenomenon.
Legend has it that once YouTube stars hit their 15 minutes of fame, interest in them wanes as soon as a new viral hit can be found. Yet Tatro's fame didn't go anywhere – instead, he became a star among a majority college-aged, male audience. Even more impressive was that he was already known for making videos, not a small feat at his school the nearly 40,000 person University of Arizona. What makes Tatro special? And how does science help us understand him?
The belief that natural ability is a prerequisite to success has been turned on its head in the past decade. It started with David Allen's book Getting Things Done, in which he described a system of productivity that relied on performance as opposed to memory. Allen, through his own experience as a consultant, came to understand that the vast majority of employees spend more time trying to remember tasks than actually working on them. Allen proposed recording the tasks, which freed up the workers' minds and allowed them to focus on work. The book gained traction quickly, and eventually created a following that became known as the 'life hacker movement.' The movement was especially popular with the IT set; in fact, the name came from programming term used to describe various ways programmers organize their data.
One computer scientist in particular decided to put a new spin on the idea by making life hacking accessible for students. Cal Newport, then an MIT postdoc, had studied Computer Science at Dartmouth, where he struggled to keep his social life and grades at an equal high his first year. Frustrated with conventional strategies, Newport set out to debunk common myths, like the idea that there is a correlation between the amount of time spent studying for a test and the grade one eventually receives on it. Through interviewing Phi Beta Kappa recipients and top performers at colleges all over the nation, Newport came to realize that doing well had little to do with intelligence, and everything to do with the systems promoted by David Allen years earlier. Newport backed up many of his realizations with research; he used Professor Linda Caldwell's research from Penn State to explain why a supposedly average student was able to get into the University of Virginia with the prestigious Jefferson Scholarship. However, it wasn't until Newport stated that following your passion was a bad idea and that focusing on a single activity had more value than scattering your attention across your many 'passions' would be more beneficial in the long run that the critics came in swarms.
“My life right now is not easy,” Newport said on his blog in July 2009. “But … it’s not overwhelming. Like the well-trained marathoner … I’ve built up the required muscle mass to keep moving at a good pace.” Newport worked on improving his focus for five years prior to writing that entry. “I systematically increased the amount of time I would force myself to work continuously without a break,” he went on. “These thoughts all lead to a simple conclusion ... consider your own capacity for hard focus. Most important accomplishments boil down to this single, often overlooked ability.”
Consider how all this ties into Tatro's situation. A quick look at his YouTube channel followed by a Google search reveal that Tatro's rise to fame wasn't an accident. The success of his most famous video, “Shit Frat Guys Say,” didn't floor Tatro for a minute. “My freshman year ... I started composing all of the quotes for the video,” he told University of Central Florida's The Knight. “I had a feeling it would get pretty big just based off of how funny I knew that video would be, so I thought it would be a great opportunity to get my YouTube [sic] channel started.” Tatro's first channel, started in May 2010. He moved to his current channel, LifeAccordingToJimmy, in November 2011. At the time of writing, that's two years and two months of posting that got Tatro to where he is today. The “Shit Frat Guys Say” video was released in January 2012, after a year of quote hunting and, presumably, a few days of filming. Success in about two years doesn't sound like a difficult path, yet the story goes back even further. “I’ve pretty much been making videos my entire life,” Tatro went on. “They probably started when I was around 9 or 10... but I didn’t actually learn to start making quality videos until high school. I took a TV Production class and taught myself how to use Final Cut Pro.”
According to his current YouTube channel, Tatro is 20 years old at the time of writing. He's been focused on making videos for 11 years. Newport took notices of Jimmy Tatro's in other creative areas, and offered his own insight on creative fraternity brothers. “Performers like [Tatro]... are happy to spend their afternoons … dedicating hour after hour to painstakingly improving their technique, all the while remaining ambivalent toward praise.” Tatro even managed to focus on his technique during the regimented school day, giving him extra time each week to become good. People like Tatro are “content to let what they produce speak for itself — even if it takes a long time, and a lot of hard work, for their output to find a voice,” Newport added. But what made YouTube viewers hear Tatro's voice above everyone else's?
“Students are influenced … by those leaders whose views appeared representative of the student body than by those whose opinions were thought to be unrepresentative,” The Scientific American MIND reported in its latest issue. Tatro seemed to have reached the same conclusion as he went forward with “Shit Frat Guys Say.” “I had a feeling everyone would be able to relate to 'that guy',” Tatro told The College Town Life. “I love entertaining and making people laugh and saw this as an opportunity to do so to a wide audience.” Making a caricature of exaggerated Greek life stereotypes, Tatro paired with the satiric site Total Frat Move (TFM) to make his debut. A quick look at the TFM site gives one a solid idea of what the audience likes and doesn't like; good entries are given a thumbs up and a “nice move” while bland entries fall down in rank. Understanding what TFM viewers wanted could give Tatro a huge leg up when making his video; The Scientific American MIND seemed to agree: “A charismatic leader is an entrepreneur of identity. This person clarifies what we believe rather than telling people what they believe.”
Tatro didn't need to reinvent the frat boy stereotype or defend himself; instead, he could capitalize on his video-making skills, make the most of a stereotype, and give YouTube viewers exactly what they wanted to see. Eleven years of hard focus, one year of quote collection, and a movie deal later, Tatro seems to have his humor, and his audience, figured out. | <urn:uuid:ac5d4f83-0415-4ed1-bffd-a11caf092f53> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.policymic.com/articles/11319/shit-frat-guys-say-online-fratstar-jimmy-tatro-shows-the-hard-work-behind-instant-success/170752 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982837 | 1,521 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Wines made from the Pinot Blanc grape are known for their pear and mineral notes as well as moderate to high acidity. Lighter bodied Pinot Blanc goes well with seafood, while medium bodied examples work with lighter meats and sauces.
California Pinot Blanc is not appreciated as much as it should be. In California, Pinot Blanc has always taken a distant backseat to Chardonnay. Chalone and Au Bon Climat both make excellent wines from grape.
Like California, Pinot Blanc wine in Europe has generally been overshadowed by other varietals. The Alto Aldige wine region of Northern Italy does take the grape quite seriously. Additionally, the sparkling wine Cremant d’Alsace has a significant amount of Pinot Blanc in it. | <urn:uuid:a3c8c238-1b8b-4ecb-8e38-dee641f2daba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.calwineries.com/explore/varietals/pinot-blanc | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976496 | 159 | 1.75 | 2 |
15 March 2012. STM’s Legal Affairs Committee provides a short Summary Statement on Text and Data Mining (TDM) as well as a sample licence that can be used for a variety of TDM purposes (whether stand alone, project by project, or as part of a larger content subscription arrangement.
The Seminar run in conjunction with the Copyright Clearance Center and the participation of the PDR showed that TDM is rapidly becoming the norm for STM publishers using text and data mining to improve, add structure and enrich their content offerings. TDM involves a combination of resources from various stakeholders and in an optimised environment brings together large series of corpuses of standardised or normalised text and data.
The Seminar confirmed the view to participants that the complexity of stakeholder interests and commitments means that no one solution that is imposed externally can be effective, whether by way of national exceptions or otherwise: solutions must therefore be worked out by multi-stakeholder dialogues which respect stakeholders’ interests, are conducted in a transparent manner and aim at models that are simple and scalable. | <urn:uuid:d8f0f9c5-3e3a-4e15-81bc-36b45ee52ca7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.stm-assoc.org/text-and-data-mining-stm-statement-sample-licence/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936517 | 221 | 1.546875 | 2 |
The question seems intuitive. If humans were to live forever, wouldn’t they eventually become bored out of their minds? Let’s think about this for a second. Any activity, no matter how fun or engaging, ultimately comes to a point where it gets boring. That’s part of what it is to be human. Therefore, immortality is boring and pointless as any immortal life would eventually exhaust all possible sources of pleasure, value, and meaning, right? That depends on what you mean by “immortal life.”
Philosopher Bernard Williams makes his famous case against immortality by arguing, “The Don Juan in hell joke, that heaven’s prospects are tedious and the devil has the best tunes…serves to show up a real and (I suspect) a profound difficulty of providing a model of an unending, supposedly satisfying, state or activity that would not rightly prove boring to anyone who remained conscious of himself…boredom…would not just be a tiresome effect but a reaction almost perceptual in character to the poverty of one’s relation to the environment.1″
The problem with immortal life is that it provides an infinite amount of time for the individual. The individual has all of eternity at his fingertips, and yet what looks like a blessing is actually a curse, as Williams points out. The number of things from which the individual can draw meaning from, and experience satisfaction in, is finite and thus exhaustible, leaving the victim in a perpetual state of boredom after having drained all of the possible satisfaction from their environment. Imagine all the possible ways one can draw fulfillment from life—activities, relationships, emotions, challenges, academics, travel, etc. Suppose that all of these combined were calculated to a total of 100 trillion units of satisfaction; that still would not be enough to prevent a tedious life for the victim of immortality, for he or she will eventually suck dry all of these units at some point and then find nothing else from which to derive contentment.
I am not sure why Williams assumes that immortality must be lived within the same world in which we currently live and perceive. He, without reason, precludes any immortal life lived with God and takes for granted the idea that if there was immortality it would have to be lived just as normal, mortal life is lived now, yet extended infinitely into the future. Immortality is certainly tedious on that view. And yet, theistic beliefs regarding immortality seldom, if ever, include delineations of life eternal bereft of some divine figure. Immortality by itself is pointless, but an immortal life lived with, and in, the perfect presence of God cannot be pointless or tedious as God is the ultimate paradigm and source of meaning and joy and is inexhaustible, by definition. Therefore, the tedium of immortality is contingent upon whether or not there exists in the environment of the immortal life a source, or sources, that can provide an abundant life throughout its never-ending existence. Williams agrees with this but denies that such a thing exists; indeed, he thinks that any view to the contrary is absurd and far-fetched.
“Nothing less will do for eternity than something that makes boredom unthinkable. What could that be? Something that could be guaranteed to be at every moment utterly absorbing?2″
Could God be the answer to Williams’ question? If God exists, immortality does not need to be tedious. God can certainly “make boredom unthinkable”, not in the sense that He eradicates the possibility of boredom by removing the elements that make us human– namely our consciousness, will, and ability to tire of things, rather the possibility of boredom is very unlikely, maybe even impossible, in light of how captivating He is. God can also “guarantee to be at every moment utterly absorbing” in that, if humans were created to enjoy God, then finally being in a position to live in unbroken harmony with Him could be the key to a non-futile, eternal life. Theists understand that the only reason immortality is a good thing—it is meaningful rather than meaningless—is because of God. Eternal life, not in this world with all of its constraints and limited, pleasure-making, satisfaction-giving resources, but lived in the perfect presence of God–beholding Him and being captivated by Him, is the only way to make sense of immortality.
The Westminster Catechism puts it simply, yet profoundly:
“What is the chief end of man?
Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”
It is not unthinkable to see God in this way. If God is defined as a maximal being who interacts with the universe and immortal life is lived perfect relationship to Him, then the immortal life is not tedious, rather it is enjoyable. If God is such a thing as can substantiate and give satisfaction to an immortal life, then immortality need not be tedious. If God can be “enjoyed forever”, then Williams’ question is answered. What is that something (or someone) which has the ability to “make boredom unthinkable” and “guarantee to be at every moment utterly absorbing”? If anything, God seems like a good fit.
1. Williams, B. (1973) Problems of the Self: Philosophical Papers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press pp 94-95
2. Ibid pp 95 | <urn:uuid:1db52bc0-e8e2-4729-a8e2-ce58e8db2288> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.apologeticalliance.com/blog/2013/01/12/is-immortality-boring/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958909 | 1,114 | 1.992188 | 2 |
In 1962, Chester Dale donated a magnificent collection to the National Gallery of Art. From Impressionism to Modernism: The Chester Dale Collection is the first exhibition in 45 years to explore the important works of French 19th and early 20th-century (and American) paintings gifted by Dale. Some 85 works are on display, including works by Monet and Picasso.
Complementing the core exhibition, Ex Libris: Chester Dale illuminates the relationship the American banker and his wife Maude maintained with several leading contemporary artists of their day. The objects included here range from portraits to correspondence. Together the two exhibitions create a full look at one of America’s great collectors.
Both exhibitions run through July 2010 at the National Gallery of Art.
ABOVE: Eugene Boudin, The Beach at Villerville, 1864; oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection.
More selections From Impressionism to Modernism: The Chester Dale Collection follow. | <urn:uuid:df56c553-0872-4e56-8bd3-0a15d5ff4724> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.highsnobiety.com/2010/02/15/from-impressionism-to-modernism-the-chester-dale-collection/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944425 | 198 | 2.109375 | 2 |
In its flagship annual study charting progress in tackling poverty, the UN highlights Britain as a country where inequality has put a brake on development, and says there would need to be a complete reversal of the pro-rich bias of the 1980s to eradicate the legacy of Margaret Thatcher.
Its human development report (HDR) praises Labour for its efforts to tackle child poverty since 1997, but says a cash-strapped Mr Brown needs to go further in his coming budgets and contemplate politically sensitive tax rises to maintain the progress made in the past eight years.
"If the next 10 years did for the poor what the 1980s did for the rich, that would bring the UK within touching distance of the child poverty goals," the UN says.
The report singles out the UK and US as two wealthy countries where a growing gap between rich and poor has emerged in recent decades, leading to more child poverty and big discrepancies in health outcomes.
Overall, it says the world was making faltering progress towards meeting the millennium development goals (MDGs) set by every country in 2000. These include cutting by 50% the number of people living on less than $1 a day, reducing infant mortality by two-thirds and putting every child in school.
"There is little cause for celebration", it concludes. "Most [poor] countries are off track for most of the MDGs. Human development is faltering in some key areas, and deep inequalities are widening."
In the UK the incomes of the richest 10% rose by 3.7% a year on average from 1979 to 1990 compared with a 0.4% average increase for the poorest 10%. Taxes on top earners were cut from 83p to 60p in the first Conservative budget in 1979 and from 60p to 40p in 1988.
If the incomes of the poor rose by 3.7% and those of the rich rose by 0.4% until 2010, child poverty would be cut from 23% to 17%, the UN says.
It says Labour's untrumpeted tax and benefit changes since 1997 have resulted in the incomes of the poorest fifth of the population rising by 20%. However, the report says the government needs to do more to load the tax and benefits system in favour of the less well-off, make it easier for poor parents to find work, and make "fundamental changes to the underlying distribution of earnings and income".
A Treasury source said: "The government's reforms to the tax and benefit system, including measures such as the child tax credit, have played a pivotal role in lifting more than half a million children out of poverty. This shows the importance of a progressive approach if we are to rise to the challenges in this report."
The UN, using data provided by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the UK's leading independent thinktank on taxes and benefits, said there was a limit to what Mr Brown could do in budgets to meet the goal established by Tony Blair of cutting child poverty in half by 2010 and eradicating it within a generation.
"Meeting the 2010 target (of halving child poverty) will require more redistribution, a change in working and employment patterns among parents and more fundamental changes to the underlying distribution of earnings and incomes."
The HDR, published each year since 1990, concentrates on the problems of poor countries, but a central theme of the report is the negative impact of inequality in both high income and low income countries. It highlights how countries with low per capita incomes often do better than countries with higher incomes in meeting human development goals such as cutting infant mortality, because they pursue pro-poor policies.
Noting that the US has a worse infant mortality rate than Malaysia, the report says: "Some countries that spend substantially less than the United States have healthier populations. US public health indicators are marred by deep inequalities linked to income, health insurance coverage, race ethnicity, geography and - critically - access to care."
The report also criticises two of the leading developing countries, China and India, for failing to turn stronger growth into better health outcomes. | <urn:uuid:09d7730a-c4ae-4149-81a7-1c90d52482e6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/sep/08/socialexclusion.hearafrica05 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965217 | 825 | 3 | 3 |
WCF - Windows Communications Foundation - represents the vision of tying together all the "stuff" that you may have worked with in the past into a single, unified programmatic API / framework that will provide you, as a developer, the opportunity to build world-class enterprise distributed applications in a Service-Oriented way, and to do so more easily and with more robust qualities than ever before. That's the vision of WCF, and that's why you should be interested in it right now.
I've only met and talked with Juval briefly at a Tech-Ed, during a walk from one presentation to another, but he struck me instantly as the quiet, "Master Mechanic" type. And if you are getting ready to study Windows Communications Foundation (wikipedia) that's what you want.
If you aren't sure what I mean by that -- in my world there are basically two types of book authors - the Generalist, and the Master Mechanic. The Generalist is good at giving you broad-brush coverage of a subject, but they often don't get too much deeper than the basics. On the other hand, the Master Mechanic is someone who feels compelled to tear apart and completely analyze a programming subject or framework. They aren't comfortable just understanding "how it works" - they need to understand everything about how it works, down to the smallest detail, why it works, and why it was engineered that particular way.
You see this in Juval's whitepapers on MSDN, particularly the ones about Generics (which I highly recommend). And, you will certainly see it in this book. You can see the publisher information, table of contents, etc. here.
Programming WCF Services is not a "WCF Basics" book - its a WCF reference. It's brimming with example code and many of Juval's own "helper" classes, and much more. He provides guidance and techniques that go far beyond Microsoft's documentation for WCF and its classes. In addition, Juval notes in his Preface that Nicholas Paldino served as a technical advisor / editor. Anyone who knows Nick and his work, particularly in the C# MS newsgroup, will probably agree that, as an author, one is lucky indeed to have him help with your book. My point is: this book is very well-researched and technically accurate - probably more so than anything else you'll find on the subject.
Mr. Löwy, in his clear and concise writing style, will take you through the basics of Service definition, Hosting, transports, MetaData, bindings, and more as he lays out in great detail each and every facet of the WCF basics. Then he moves on to Callbacks, Transactions, Custom Synchronization, Duplex Proxies, and even more. Each section builds on the previous ones. Juval finishes up with an in-depth discussion of Service-Oriented Frameworks and a Publish-Subscribe service example. There is also downloadable code that accompanies the book, and a WCF Coding Standard appendix.
The bottom line is that this is a book for experts, or those whose goal is to be able to reach expert status with WCF. Windows Communication Foundation is indeed the next generation of SOA communication and service frameworks, and it unifies everything you may have worked with before - ASMX, WSE, MSMQ, EnterpriseServices, Remoting, Transactions, and transports -- all in one cohesive framework that is designed to be easy to learn, easy to use, and totally integrated under the .NET Platform. If you intend to write distributed SOA - oriented applications, you are definitely going to be writing them with WCF- so I'd advise that you get started with it sooner than later!
If you are a beginner, or just looking for the basics of WCF with some example code, this is probably not the best book to start out with - it is simply too technical. There are several other WCF books in the marketplace, and several more coming soon (one of which I am a technical editor for). If you are at the intermediate - to - advanced level with the .NET Framework, I can confidently state after my first reading of Programming WCF Services that it is highly unlikely you will ever see a more complete treatment of this new framework than Löwy's book- either now or in the forseeable future. O'Reilly calls this the "Rosetta Stone" of WCF. They may very well be right.
The book has a sticker price of $44.99, and the publisher also offers a Safari online version. Highly recommended to any programmer above the beginner level who wants to write Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) distributed applications and do it right. | <urn:uuid:85f6998e-5102-412f-8a99-7fc56e86c17b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nullskull.com/a/782/programming-wcf-services--juval-lwy-oreilly.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961082 | 981 | 1.882813 | 2 |
Excerpt of Breath and Bones by Susann Cokal
(Page 1 of 8)
Printer Friendly Excerpt
Breath and Bones
little book treats of delicate subjects,
and has been sent to you only by
It is not intended for indiscriminate reading,
but for your own private information.
To three generations of Familjeflickor
Altid med de bedste hensigter.
Beauty like hers is genius.
- Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Springs, or Hygiene:
26.2 miles from the western (narrow gauge) rail terminus at Harmsway,
with tracks presently being extended to the village itself.
It is halfway up the mountain and so situated as to promote respiratory
hygiene and health, with picturesque scenery on every side.
The hospital building was erected at a cost of $80,000 and is not equaled
by any other such institution in the West; thus for the last half-decade it has
rivaled the nearby gold mines in its contributions to the regions prosperity.
The visitor may enjoy the naturally carbonated spring waters or tour the
small but none the less distinguished gallery of paintings, privately owned and
free to the public on the first Monday of each month.
Of several good hotels, the Celestial is the best.
Frederick E. Shearer, The
Pacific Tourist, revised edition, 1892
The cemetery seemed to roll on for miles, its plinths and statues struggling through
the folds of a hillside thinly dusted white.
A strange situation for a house of art, the widow thought; but these
graves, like the mine tailings on the mountain below or the crenellated fortress
above, were nothing to her.
Two men met her at the fortress door.
One was tall and raw and bony, with a disturbing stripe of pink scalp
showing, as if he had been attacked by savages.
His hands, also, were knotted with scar tissue, white ridges and
mountains straining against the bones beneath.
The other man, just slightly shorter, wore silken gloves, as if to say
his own hands would do no more work on this earth; from his dark spectacles and
blank expression, she surmised that he was blind.
She did not ask their names, and they did not need to ask hers.
She already knew the tall man, knew he was of her native country. She
could speak as she wished, and he would translate.
"We are honored. "The
blind man spoke English, but quite clearly.
"Thank you for traveling all this way. "
"It was my husbands wish. "She
saw no need to pretend she was glad of itthough she was very glad finally to
be unburdening herself of the crate and its contents.
"Your drivers are opening the box now. "
The taller man translated for the blind one, then turned back to her.
"Would you like to see where it will hang?" he asked, and she
supposed she would.
There were four rooms to the gallery, each one feebly seeping light
through narrow windows. The first
two were crowded, with pictures hung nearly floor to ceiling and some of the
frames knocking against each other.
Excerpted from Breath and Bones© Susann Cokal. Published by Unbridled Books. All rights reserved | <urn:uuid:ce0b8e4f-268a-422a-90be-b911f4f18b76> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bookbrowse.com/excerpts/index.cfm?book_number=1783 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961316 | 727 | 1.554688 | 2 |
A historic recital will take place in Manchester today – when a 200-year-old hymn written by Beethoven is performed for what is believed to be the first time
A historic recital will take place in Manchester today – when a 200-year-old hymn written by Beethoven is performed for what is believed to be the first time.
The organ and choral work, thought to have been written around 1820, was discovered by Professor Barry Cooper, a professor at Manchester University’s music department.
Prof Cooper, one of the world’s leading experts on Beethoven, discovered the hymn while looking through a sketchbook belonging to the great German composer in Berlin.
It is an update of the 1,000-year-old Gregorian chant ‘Pange lingua’ and is thought to have been written alongside Beethoven’s early sketches of the Missa Solemnis – the composer’s famous Mass in D minor.
Prof Cooper said he was only able to identify the piece as the composer’s work because it was penned in his handwriting.
The discovery is the first known example of Beethoven using a ‘slow choral style’ – used in the 1825 masterpiece the opus 132 string quartet.
It is thought that, like the Mass, it was written for Archduke Rudolph of Austria for his coronation as Archbishop of Olmütz – now Olomouc in the Czech Republic – towards the end of Beethoven's life. But Prof Cooper said it was not certain that the organ harmonisation was ever performed - so today's recital of it, at Manchester University, will effectively be the first known performance of the work.
He added: "This piece is surprising because it doesn’t sound like Beethoven.
“If I hadn’t seen it in his own handwriting, complete with corrections, I wouldn’t have believed it was by him.”
A choir of 10, including the professor and his music students, will be accompanied by a student organist for the two-minute performance, which will take place at Manchester University's Martin Harris Centre, Bridgeford Street, at 2.30pm today.
Anyone is welcome to attend. | <urn:uuid:e26b1f50-27c3-468e-8a56-ff994559850e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/200-year-old-beethoven-hymn-to-be-played-for-first-801083 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975726 | 476 | 2.8125 | 3 |