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Women Occupy Wall Street Calendar
For a complete calendar of OWS events, please see the official calendar.
Ambiguous Upsparkles: Stories from the Heart of the Park - a story-sharing session inspired by a series of discussions with V-Day's Eve Ensler. Stories are published in Eve's weekly column and will be read aloud the following week. Arrive ready to share! Sundays 5-7 pm. Meets at the middle of the East side steps, Liberty Square.
Divine Feminine Discussion Group - a safe discussion group for people who are female-bodied or female-identified, or who experience oppression as a woman. Meets at The Cube, then changes location.
OWS Anti-War - A working group focused on anti-war actions and education.
"Poccupy" POC (People of Color) - created in response to the lack of racial diversity at #OccupyWallStreet with the purpose of developing critical consciousness within the movement and extending its reach to include those most affected by the current crisis. It is open to all who identify as people of color. Sundays 3pm and Wednesdays 6:30pm. Meets by the red structure (South East side of Liberty Square).
WOW (Women Occupying Wall Street), the women's caucus - WOW exists to create a safe space for the empowerment of female-bodied and/or female-identified individuals, for community awareness, and for collective action on the issues that affect women most. The issues that affect females affect all of society. Meets at The Cube, then changes location.
CODEPINK also supports the acknowledgement of the intrinsic connection between the U.S. war policy and the U.S. economic system. We believe the U.S. Empire asserts its power through the U.S. military, the U.S. diplomatic corp, the U.S. intelligence/security system, and transnational corporations. We cannot create a new world without addressing all aspects of the empire. We are in deep solidarity with many movements that have converged through the Occupy Together movement. The 99% may not agree on all points, but we all know change must happen. We strongly encourage all people to join us in person in our local communities, and at our nation's capitol, as the best way to create nonviolent paradigm shifts. | <urn:uuid:4a999c63-cd8d-4ae6-b31d-2612e5273685> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.womensaynotowar.org/article.php?id=5992 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929754 | 479 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Balboa Park Standing at the tee pad of hole 15, a Frisbee player on Morley Field’s Disc Golf Course can’t see the basket he’s aiming for. It’s hidden in a thicket of trees 246 feet away. Players searching for their errant neon-colored discs amble down a hill, then up a slope, toward a chain-link fence and adjoining cinder-block wall. The fence and wall enclose a maintenance yard, and rising above the wall is a stack from which issues a deep, low roar.
Frisbee golfers familiar with the course know the basket is 15 feet below and just to the right of the stack. Serious players gauge the wind’s direction by checking the heat waves emanating from the top of the stack. Most people have no idea what’s burning inside.
Brandon L. and Eric Stanger, both 26 years old, often play the course. “Everybody’s always wondered, like, what’s coming out of it and if it is hazardous,” says Brandon. “It’s obviously heat and chemicals. You can see the waves coming off of it.”
“It’s used for burning something,” suggests an employee at the course’s pro shop. “Some people have said it’s used for burning eucalyptus trees, because sometimes if the wind blows in the right direction, it smells weird.”
At one time this southeast corner of Balboa Park was called the Arizona Landfill. Open between 1952 and 1974, the 139-acre landfill was one of three city-operated dumps. Approximately 90 percent of the landfill’s waste came from regular household trash; the other 10 percent came from construction demolition. A portion of the disc golf course — as well as the archery course, the city nursery, the outfield for the college-sized baseball field, and the walking/mountain-biking trail — sit atop an estimated 1.9 million tons of trash.
Decomposing trash creates landfill gas. The composition of landfill gas varies but is approximately 40 percent methane, 40 percent carbon dioxide, nitrogen, water vapor, and hundreds of trace gases. The trace gases originate from all sorts of sources, from PVC to concrete to decomposing plastics. If no gas-collection system is in place, over 90 percent of the methane, a greenhouse gas, is released into the environment.
Methane can also cause an explosion. In 1987, the City began grading the Arizona Landfill and extending a storm drain system. During the project, a laborer removed a piece of plywood that was covering a storm drain inlet. A short time later, he lit a cigarette. The spark ignited the accumulating gases, causing an explosion that left the worker with third-degree burns over 35 percent of his body.
Ray Purtee works for the City of San Diego’s Environmental Services Department. “In the late ’80s, new air pollution regulations weren’t allowing the methane to just waft out into the environment,” he says.
So in 1990, the City began installing a vacuum and flare system. The original plan called for 23 gas extraction wells to be spread throughout the old landfill, but after further testing, 51 more wells had to be installed.
Methane wells are made by drilling a hole into the landfill and inserting a perforated pipe. The pipes are then backfilled with gravel and sediment and are connected to an underground vacuum collection system that pumps the gases to the stack, called, in this case, a “shrouded flare.” An initial spark from a propane tank starts the combustion process.
Although primitive looking, the shrouded flare — an enclosed, insulated cylinder — is precisely engineered. The stack is 16 feet 2 inches tall and 5 feet 11 inches in diameter. “It’s that tall for a number of reasons,” says Purtee. “The height of the flame of combustion and what we call the ‘residence time.’ The residence time holds the landfill gas at 1600 degrees at a minimum of .3 seconds. That is how it is designed to destroy the constituents of the landfill gas.
“The manufacturer of the flare claims 99.5 percent destruction efficiency,” Purtee says, “so there is that .5 percent that is not being destroyed, and that .5 percent are the compounds considered toxic, like hydrogen sulfide, PVC monomer, and xylene. In high quantities you wouldn’t want to be breathing it, and it would be toxic.”
At the time the Arizona Landfill was open, people threw hazardous waste into their trashcans, things like paint, pesticides, and photochemicals. Depending on what’s buried in the landfill and what gases are being released, dioxin, among the most dangerous toxins, can be created in the stack and released into the air.
The flare system runs 24 hours a day, except for once a month when it’s shut down for maintenance. If a malfunction is detected, an automated system is alerted and places a call to Purtee’s cell phone.
Some landfills around the country, rather than flaring their methane, use it as an energy source, employing either gas-fired boilers, internal combustion engines, or gas-fired turbines. In San Diego, the City-owned Miramar Landfill and privately owned Sycamore Landfill both use methane to produce electricity in gas-fired turbines.
Mirat Gurol, a professor of environmental engineering at San Diego State University, is unsure of the overall benefit of using landfill gas as an energy source. “The gases can be collected and treated by methods such as activated carbon adsorption or washing of gases before or after burning. These are costly alternatives to flaring. Although methane has a heating value, typically old landfills do not generate sufficient concentrated gases to justify collecting the gases to produce energy.”
Purtee says the City and civic groups “have been looking at alternatives for this site for beneficial use of the landfill gases other than flaring it. This system will remain the system even if there would be another method to reuse some of the gas. We just have too much capital invested to throw this system away, and the amount of gas this site produces, though significant, is rather small in comparison to larger landfills like Miramar.” The City has spent “easily $1.5 million so far at this site, just in gas collection and flaring,” Purtee says. But he can think of uses for the electricity created by the methane, for instance, to light the nearby tennis courts. “There’s a huge lighting load at the tennis courts at night,” he says. | <urn:uuid:e293cc25-f562-4a9b-9ae3-5c7873961b11> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2008/apr/09/city-light-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931921 | 1,436 | 3 | 3 |
Get flash to fully experience Pearltrees
Adobe Flash provides support for adding closed captions to Flash (flv) video. The FLVPlaybackCaptioning control make it easy to attach TimedText (dfxp) format captions, and many of the built-in player skins include buttons to enable users to show and hide closed captions. Examples The following files are involved in creating a captioned Flash video using the FLVPlaybackCaptioning control:
Flash & The Quest for Accessibility – Part #1 Preamble The greater part of last year i was heads-down-busy developing the EventManager Game which i had the pleasure to build at Liip for Postfinance . EventManager is an educational but fun game, that approaches topics such as budgeting, financing and investing in a modern way (read: not boring you to death) . Today i want to talk to you about the new iteration of the game that we just released a couple of weeks ago. What is new you ask?
Flash Accessibility Overview Adobe Flash content can be viewed on nearly all computers. The Flash technology, in a general sense, may be one of the most widely available technologies used on the web. For developers, the ability to program one multimedia presentation that can be viewed the same on nearly all computers makes the technology very appealing. However, for individuals with disabilities, Flash can introduce unique accessibility problems.
Engaging experiences for all users Adobe® is an industry leader in accessibility and supports the creation of outstanding web experiences by encouraging web developers to produce rich, engaging content that is accessible to all. Featured Preparing InDesign Files for Accessibility | <urn:uuid:802175fa-408e-43e9-a1f9-509d9f17a767> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pearltrees.com/loaub/flash/id2827404 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911007 | 338 | 1.609375 | 2 |
It’s hard to believe now, but the red state/blue state maps only became a standard image in American politics in 2000, when it seemed to illustrate very vividly the sharp divides in the country, on politics, culture, even consumer habits. Many people, however, used the same data in more granular form to show that the story was more nuanced than that, both in 2000 and 2004. (UPDATED: And a new one for 2008.)
Now, in 2008, we have this great graphic from the New York Times, using data to tell a story, rather than simply provide a snapshot, of how the country has changed since 2004.
Compare this graphic, showing the counties in which Obama won more votes than Kerry (and the counties in which McCain won more votes than Bush), to the simpler red-blue map of the electoral votes won by each candidate.
If we were able to look even closer, we would be able to see how different issues and concerns may have influenced the decision to vote Democratic from county to county.
Who would be interested in that kind of data? Not just Democrats wanting to gloat, but also Republicans wanting to analyze where their party is and should go, policymakers trying to understand people’s concerns, community organizers trying to galvanize people, even private individuals wanting to understand their community and their country a little bit better.
Now that the election is over, we can really start thinking about what happens next, for our country and our world. More data, not just for data’s sake, but for more understanding. | <urn:uuid:c526ff9e-0f7d-4bfb-9443-574e2d0accc5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.myplaceinthecrowd.org/2008/11/06/one-last-election-related-post/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976312 | 321 | 2.546875 | 3 |
You can then either copy the files from one PC to the other or you can use Windows Easy Transfer (which is a part of Windows 7 in Accessories) or a commercial program. You could also copy the data to a thumb USB drive or CD/DVD and then copy off the thumb USB drive or CD/DVD on the new machine.
Most programs just transfer data and settings in Windows. You cannot just copy the programs like data as they make entries in the registry when they are installed that are required to run the programs. If you still have the original programs on the media they came on you could reinstall each on the new PC.
Laplink is the only program I know of that transfers. Laplink has a program called PCMover that will transfer your programs and data and settings. This program is available most places that sell software (programs) including computer stores, Wal-Mart, office supply stores and others.
The program can only be used to copy from one PC to another PC. You cannot use it again for another transfer. I have used the program for several years and it works well. You will first get your new PC set up, including any installation of Windows 7 that needs to be done.
Install PCMover on one machine and then on the other and the program normally includes a crossover USB cable to connect the PCs. The directions are good and lead you through and assume you are not a computer expert. It will transfer programs from previous versions of Windows (XP and Vista being the most common) to Windows 7. It does take a while to run the transfer depending on how much is on your old PC, but my experience is that it works well at transferring programs. I used it two years ago to move from my 32 bit PC running Windows XP to a 64 bit quad core processor PC running Windows 7 and it worked well.
Once you transfer everything I recommend you keep your old machine for a while in case you discover something did not transfer.
Send your questions to Dwight Watt at email@example.com. He teaches at a technical college in northwest Georgia and does consulting work for businesses and individuals. His website is dwightwatt.com. | <urn:uuid:f176e8c2-1645-4e12-97f5-4a325b5953f3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.catoosanews.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Column+by+Dwight+Watt-+How+do+I+move+my+programs+and+data+to+my+new+PC-%20&id=19251122&instance=news_special_coverage_right_column | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950838 | 450 | 1.703125 | 2 |
If union organising can succeed in an export processing zone (EPZ), it can succeed anywhere.
I have hit upon an important article, published in 2006, about successful unionisation in EPZs titled The Squeaky Wheel’s Dilemma.
The very fact that we hear so much about the EPZs of the world (did someone say Shenzhen?) tells us that they have the potential to be organised. It’s something of a paradox. The International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) bewails the state of Batam’s factories yet, relatively speaking, the island is a stronghold of membership. After hearing what McKay had to say, I am no longer surprised.
As human beings, we all want to find the silver bullet. The unmoveable object or the unstoppable force. Time and again it proves illusory or -more likely- creates an asymmetry which is soon rebalanced. Think of what happens in business: whenever a new, highly profitable, product is launched, the competitors are out with imitations to eat up market share, or they might even target the entire company for takeover. Unfortunately labour conditions can’t be fixed once and for all but require continued hard work to be secured and thereafter to be retained.
Labour in EPZs sounds outrageously inexpensive to a business considering relocating. Not only are wages lower but cost of regulatory compliance and risk of industrial unrest are lower too. In addition to being officially red-tape free zones, EPZs also prefer to employ mostly young, rural females in their first job.
The deck is stacked pretty solidly in favour of employers: Labour laws are weak or unenforceable, contracts are short-term, and the workers are migrants with no social ties to the place of work anyway. It’s all a little too good to be true, and it is.
McKay uses Cavite in the Philippines as his example. Despite all of these advantages, companies still require the assent of both the workforce and, moreover, the local authorities to continue their operations. Few will stare down a workforce that is prepared to strike. Also workers have the advantage of being voting residents of the local area, whose authorities can be lobbied into taking action about flagrant abuses. Lastly labour can access international support that can not only provide advice and resources but also place pressure on the company at various levels.
It’s not as dire as it seems. The very fact that we are hearing about Foxconn means that someone is taking an active interest in those workers’ rights and is getting some access to them. The problems are real but capable of improvement.
- McKay S The Squeaky Wheel’s Dilemma: New Forms of Labor Organizing in the Philippines, Labor Studies Journal, Vol. 30, No. 4 (Winter 2006): 41-63
- Anti-union strategies in sportswear supply chains 10 May 2011
- Worker resistance takes different forms in export zones 14 February 2011
- Succinct video about workers plight in LDCs 10 January 2011
- Garment workers left hung out to dry 5 January 2011 | <urn:uuid:700b76cf-221a-440d-8280-82a3242e7692> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fairforall.org/tag/free-trade-zone/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951623 | 649 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Where’s the proof?
When it comes to U.S. soybeans and farmers’ ability to meet customer demands, the proof is not “in the pudding.” It’s in the numbers.
Farmers in Illinois and across the country have proven once again that we can produce the quality and quantity of soybeans desired by international customers.
The United States exported 1.8 billion bushels of soy during the 2011-12 marketing year. While slightly less than the 2 billion bushels exported the year before, the numbers indicate a continued preference and demand for our soybeans. Included in the total were 1.3 billion bushels of whole soybeans, meal from more than 413 million bushels of soybeans and the oil from 131 million bushels of soybeans.
Here’s another number: U.S. soy exports for the year were valued at more than $23 billion.
Those are all pretty big numbers, especially the one with the dollar sign. Obviously, numbers and dollar signs are important – not only to Illinois farmers, but also to the people who live in our communities. Exporting soybeans and other ag products not only helps increase profits for local farmers, it also helps boost local economies.
On that note, it’s important to remember that farmers in our area play a very prominent role in the export market. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that, in any given year, between 44 and 54 percent of Illinois soybeans are exported. In 2010-11, Illinois ranked second nationally with soybean exports valued at more than $3.1 billion.
What many people don’t realize is the role soybeans play in foreign trade as a whole. Soybean export sales are seen as a positive for the U.S. in the highly competitive global trading arena. In Illinois, about one-fourth of the soybean crop is sold to China, which ranks third on the list of the state’s foreign trade partners after Canada and Mexico. China, by the way, is by far the biggest international customer of the U.S. soybean farmer, buying nearly 850 million bushels of U.S. soybeans in the most recent marketing year.
Customers use our soybeans to make livestock feeds, human foods, biodiesel and many other products. Foreign customers learn about our soybeans through programs we fund through our soy checkoff, which invests in efforts to increase international soy sales. The soy checkoff also works to assist foreign buyers with soybean purchases and keep them updated on the quality and condition of our crop.
Our international customers look for soybeans high in protein and oil. So the soy checkoff works with researchers to improve and maintain the amount of both of these components in our crop.
Our customers are also paying more and more attention to how we grow our crops. The production practices we use are important to many buyers. They’re looking for soybeans planted, grown, harvested and shipped in a sustainable manner.
I think the fact that U.S. soy exports remain at such a high level shows that U.S. and Illinois farmers are giving these customers what they want.
A key part of our ability to export soybeans is our transportation infrastructure. The Ohio, Mississippi and Illinois rivers provide an efficient avenue for Illinois soybeans to be sent to the Gulf of Mexico for shipping to Asia, the European Union and other overseas markets.
Our ability to continue meeting international soy demand hinges on the stability of our transportation system. And it’s in need of improvements. Unlike the drought of 2012, fixing our transportation system is a challenge we have some control over.
It’s hard to believe, but we’re not far away from planting season. It’s true – the calendar never takes a break. Right now, we’re busy preparing machinery and equipment. We’re also making final plans for the 2013 crop. Somehow I already have a great deal of confidence we’ll again grow what our customers need. Again, the proof will be in the numbers.
Sharon Covert is the USB secretary and a soybean farmer from Tiskilwa.
More Agriculture News
- It's spring, and sign-up times are here!
- Crop insurance and prevented planting
- Cream of the Crop photo contest for students
- Finders Keepers opens for business
- Schneider named agent of the year | <urn:uuid:60db948c-84db-4c64-b2b9-a2c79b5efde8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bcrnews.com/2013/01/04/wheres-the-proof/agqx6ny/?page=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933658 | 924 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Series: Routledge Research in Education
This book examines the implications of computer-generated learning for curriculum design, epistemology, and pedagogy, exploring the ways these technologies transform the relationship between knowledge and learning, and between teachers and students. It argues that these technologies and practices...
To Be Published September 19th 2013 by Routledge
How Learners are Shaping their Own Experiences
Rethinking Learning for a Digital Age addresses the complex and diverse experiences of learners in a world embedded with digital technologies. The text combines first-hand accounts from learners with extensive research and analysis, including a developmental model for effective e-learning, and a...
Published June 15th 2010 by Routledge | <urn:uuid:cb814554-e190-4f70-b72b-ea1c441331a7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.psypress.com/books/search/author/sara_de_freitas/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921466 | 142 | 2.296875 | 2 |
There will be a free presentation called "Mammoths of the Kenai Peninsula" from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on March 31 in rooms 108-109 at the Kenai River Campus Ward building.
Dick Reger, a well known Alaskan geologist, and Janet Klein, an expert in anthropology and history of the Kenai Peninsula and author of book titled "Kachemak Bay Communities, Their Histories, Their Mysteries" will discuss solving the puzzle of local geologic glacial history and will talk details of life during the Pleistocene.
AmeriCorps position offers great opportunity
There is an opening for a full-time family literacy coordinator/AmeriCorps member in the KRC Learning Center. The position begins this month and continues through March 2013. There a stipend of approximately $1,000 per month plus medical benefits and an award of $5,350 for financing higher education or paying student loans upon completion the assignment. The position requires a total of 1700 hours of service.
Duties include, but are not limited to, assisting the project director, training and monitoring volunteer tutors and assisting with community outreach.
"We have enjoyed having Americorp members as part of our Learning Center staff for the last 15 years," said Learning Center Programs Manager Diane Taylor.
"It seems to launch the person into other work where they continue to be engaged to give back to the community. The experience becomes a part of who they are and their efforts invariably help make the world a better place."
Application packets are available at the KRC Learning Center. For more information, call 262-0328.
KRC biology professor contributes to Scientific American magazine blog
Remember the mystery of last fall's strange orange goo that washed up on the beach at the village of Kivalina? It ended up being identified as a plant-parasitic fungus known as rust, which is harmless to humans and marine life. There was a remaining question however: what plant was the source of the fungal disease that produced the huge bloom of spores that rested on the surface of the water?
The subject was recently taken up by award-winning science journalist Jennifer Frazier in Scientific American's online magazine. She reported that the USDA Forest Service and the Canadian Forest Service made the identification of the plant parasite as Spruce-Labrador Tea Needle Rust , Chrysomyxa ledicola, a parasite of both spruce trees and a rhododendron -- a flowering woody shrub common to lower vegetation in conifer forests the world over -- called Labrador Tea.
KRC Biology Professor David Wartinbee also noticed orange goo on a lake surface last summer about 600 miles southeast of Kivalina while exploring the Twin Lakes area in his float plane. He noticed that along with the orange film on the water, the needles on nearby spruce trees were clearly poxed with something.
In the name of furthering science, Wartinbee e-mailed Frazier with his observations and photographs of the occurrence. Turns out that his reporting of the phenomenon ended up reinforcing Frazier's other data and he was quoted and his photographs appeared in her recent article on the subject.
This column is provided by Suzie Kendrick, Advancement Programs Manager at Kenai Peninsula College. | <urn:uuid:42740965-54a0-4313-9e17-dccb5a049698> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://peninsulaclarion.com/community/schools/2012-03-26/get-a-glimpse-into-the-pleistocene-period | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95975 | 676 | 1.617188 | 2 |
David J. Mulholland, Consultant, Law Enforcement Technology Specialist, and IACP LEIM Board Member
Cross-jurisdictional and cross-disciplinary events have become more significant in recent years. These events have enhanced the need for an effective means of on-scene communication and information exchange. In the Washington, D.C., area, law enforcement agencies and other disciplines recently participated in a military exercise at the Pentagon called Operation Gallant Fox II and in the dedication of the National World War II Memorial. Reliable and instantaneous communications was again tested, and the Capital Wireless Integrated Network (CapWIN) met the challenge.1
During the May 2004 Gallant Fox II incident response exercise at the Pentagon, CapWIN was deployed on the side in order to test its capabilities. Although CapWIN was not the primary tool for communications between participating agencies, valuable lessons were learned. Several law enforcement, transportation, and fire and EMS agencies used CapWIN to communicate with each other as the practical exercise unfolded. At one point there was a momentary radio communications failure, at which time CapWIN was used as a primary tool for communications between participating agencies.
Another lesson learned was that certain law enforcement-sensitive information had been posted to so-called public chat rooms that were accessible by fire and EMS and transportation personnel who had not been vetted to receive law enforcement-sensitive information. This emphasized the need to use invitation-only private chat rooms that allow specific vetted users to view sensitive information, such as the locations of and responses to bomb threats and suspicious packages and lookouts for suspicious persons.
CapWIN was also deployed during the daylong events surrounding the dedication of the National World War II Memorial on Memorial Day weekend. With more than 100,000 invited guests (to include tens of thousands of World War II veterans and numerous VIPS, dignitaries, and the president of the United States), the dedication activities involved numerous traffic closures, a high level of security precautions, and the expectation of numerous first aid and medical incidents. More than 30 law enforcement agencies from outside the city participated in the event. Primary law enforcement duties fell upon the U.S. Park Police, supplemented by the Metropolitan Police Department and numerous federal police agencies. The coordination of communications between the law enforcement agencies, Washington D.C., Fire and EMS, and the District Department of Transportation (DDOT), the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), and the Maryland State Highway Administration (MDSHA) was the perfect setting in which to test and showcase the capability of CapWIN in rapidly, efficiently, and effectively transmitting real-time information between agencies and disciplines.
Throughout the day, traffic incidents resulting in road closures or significant traffic delays occurred. Should there have been a need to quickly evacuate vehicular traffic, the knowledge of such closures and delays would have been valuable.
CapWIN staff assisted at the on-site emergency operations center and at the CapWIN offices to resolve technical issues as they arose throughout the day. The primary focus of the use of CapWIN during the dedication events was to show that information could be collected directly from the scene (specifically the on-site emergency operations center) and rapidly disseminated to other agencies without the need to transfer information through multiple dispatchers.
Under normal conditions, a lookout for a suspicious person may be telephoned from the reporting agency to other agencies. Unfortunately, from the time the information is relayed from the original reporting officer to a dispatcher and then to someone who places a call to another agency and then from a call taker to a dispatcher and finally from the dispatcher to the officer in the field, there are numerous possibilities for information distortion to occur. Additionally, the originating agency caller may not remember to include all the information for each individual phone call that must be made if passing a lookout along to multiple agencies.
Through the creation of incident sub-rooms inside CapWin's Memorial Dedication incident chat room, information was posted in real time as it came directly from the field. Information was posted to one of the following rooms:General incident room
Law enforcement room
Law enforcement sensitive room (law enforcement users had to be specifically invited to this private room)
Fire and medical emergencies room
Missing persons room
Traffic closures and incidents room
In the aftermath, CapWIN staff identified a few technical problems, mostly related to connectivity, and began developing solutions. The participating agencies will also meet to develop more lessons learned by focusing on the successes of the deployment and identifying ways to make CapWIN stronger. The initial goal of proving that CapWIN is a viable means for instant and reliable sharing of information between agencies was achieved.
For more information on CapWIN, please visit (www.capwin.org).
1 CapWIN is a partnership between the law enforcement, fire and rescue, emergency medical services, and transportation agencies in Washington, D.C., and suburban Maryland and Virginia. CapWIN enables secure and dedicated interoperable data communications between disparate agencies and disciplines during incident response and special events through the creation of incident chat rooms and instant messaging. CapWIN will also allow law enforcement agencies to query the wants and warrants and hot files of the D.C., Maryland, and Virginia law enforcement databases and NCIC. See George Ake and David J. Mullholland, "Expanding the Reach of Interoperable Data Communication," The Police Chief 71 (April 2004), 151-153, for details about CapWin. | <urn:uuid:2a2b3344-6043-453f-b720-07728bf5f2ec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=display_arch&article_id=343&issue_id=72004 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954791 | 1,097 | 1.945313 | 2 |
A group of concerned residents, along with an architect's family, wants to see Baltimore County keep the Loch Raven Library standing.
Bitten Norman, a Loch Raven resident, said she turned in an application to the Baltimore County Landmarks Preservation Commission last week.
"We're just waiting to hear if we'll be allowed to testify on behalf of the library because we've got so much documentation, research we've done on the building and information we've gotten from the architect's family," Norman said.
Last year, residents formed the Friends of Loch Raven Library, a community group to help support the library and hold community events like guest lectures.
In recent years, the small, one-room library has faced numerous closure threats. In 1993, officials closed the branch for five years.
Today, the library is open six days a week, with some reduced hours. Norman, however, said the neighborhood can support a full-service branch with expanded hours and said neighbors want to see the library expand into space used by the Baltimore County Health Department.
"That library is in constant use and doing a quick calculation, there's over 2,000 homes within walking distance of that library," Norman said, along with numerous apartment complexes.
A 2010 county-approved community plan for Hillendale recommended increasing staffing at the Loch Raven Library.
The library, opened in 1967, was designed by Robert Randall Fryer Sr., a Ruxton resident whose other projects included the Kraushaar Auditorum at Goucher College, the Church of the Redeemer in Baltimore and the Annapolis Yacht Club. Fryer passed away in 1995.
In a 1993 Baltimore Sun interview, Fryer, known for his Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired designs, discussed how he blended the wooded setting with the glass, steel and concrete of the library.
"I wanted to create an oasis in the woods, a place where people could enjoy the woods but that was in and of itself a different form," he told the paper. "I wanted to build in the woods without upsetting the woods."
In 1969, Norman pointed out, that design won an award from the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Baltimore and the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
"The use of stone and glass is reflected in all of his designs, so even though the library itself is just shy of 50 years old, it's still a very significant building," Norman said.
Residents have worried about the library being demolished, Norman said, a proposition both library officials and County Councilman David Marks have said is unlikely.
"There are no plans to demolish the library anytime soon but their concern is that this is always going to be an option," Marks said.
The landmarks commission can schedule a hearing and could issue a decision in about three months.
Final approval, however, rests with the County Council. Marks said he would "reserve judgment" until the landmarks commission forwards the application to him, but "I spent many Saturdays at that library as a kid, and think it is a very special and unique building." | <urn:uuid:b4797d27-dc92-4ade-aaa0-64ab495be292> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://towson.patch.com/articles/neighbors-aim-to-preserve-loch-raven-library | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97287 | 624 | 1.867188 | 2 |
(NEWARK, N.J.)—Young children who have cancer were smiling, thanks to the generosity of five National Junior Honor Society (NJHS) students from Alfred E. Zampella School (P.S. 27) in Jersey City stopped by Newark Beth Israel Medical Center to “Warm a Heart, Heal a Soul.”
Eighth grader Jesus Ross, one of the charter members of the National Junior Honor Society (NJHS) at P.S. 27, learned about a “Coins for Cancer” initiative that was highlighted in the NJHS magazine. That gave him an idea for a fund raiser. He shared his thoughts with fellow students and charter members of the honor society: Jenisa Esteras; Rose Mullaghy; Anh Ly; Jayde Onori.
Two weeks later, these five 7th and 8th grade students had raised $2,000 with significant help from the P.S. 27 student body. The proceeds were recently delivered to The Valerie Fund Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at Children’s Hospital of New Jersey (CHoNJ), which is located at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center. When they delivered their contribution, they also gave colorful fleece blankets to the pediatric patients.
The Valerie Fund Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Disorder at Children’s Hospital of New Jersey provides medical and psycho-social care at the time of diagnosis, during treatment and long-term care after the end of treatment. Board certified pediatric oncology physicians complemented by specialized pediatric oncology nurses, oncology nurse practitioners, social workers and child life specialists provide individualized care to all patients. The Valerie Fund is also home to one of nine state-designated sickle cell programs.
Photo credit: Peter Richter/Newark Beth Israel Medical Center
Here the students are pictured with patients, a parent, Alfred E. Zampella School P.S. 27 teachers. They are also flanked by: (far left) Wondwessen Bekele, MD, Associate Director in Pediatric Hemotology/Oncology (far left); Darrell K. Terry, Sr., MHA, FACHE – Chief Operating Officer, NBIMC & CHoNJ (dark suit); Karen McGinn, Chair of the National Junior Honor Society and a 6th grade Math Teacher Barbara Matos, Co-Chair of the National Junior Honor Society and the Social Studies/Language Arts teacher at P.S. 27.; (far right in white shirt and tie) Peri Kamalakar, MD, Director of Valerie Fund Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders, Pediatric Hematology/Oncology.
Join us on face book at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center and to register for our free on line E-Newsletter click here.
March 6, 2013
Kaylyn Kendall Dines
Public Relations and Marketing
[ top ] [ back to news index ] | <urn:uuid:c4e59a62-b3fa-4cc8-b644-739c0c7c40d2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.barnabashealth.org/hospitals/childrens_hospital/press/news/2013/zampella-school.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925186 | 611 | 1.65625 | 2 |
One Hundred Years of Solitude is not an easy book to tackle and we're sure you have questions! Chances are our literary guide, Gene Bell-Villada , has the answers!
Fellow Oprah's Book Club member dianabigs asked, "As I began to read One Hundred Years of Solitude , what struck me most in the very first page of the book the author makes mention of gypsies who set up their tents on the outskirts of Macondo always during the month of March. March is usually a month where we change season to spring. My question is, did the author use the symbol of a band of gypsies to signify that no matter where we come from or where we travel or end up in life, we are all like gypsies traveling from one place to another, from one relationship to another living out our salvation or damnation in one way or another?"
Gene Bell-Villada writes back, "Your question is fascinating. I can only offer my own interpretation: I think Gabriel García Márquez chose gypsies because they are an ancient people whose roots go back thousands of years, to India. The wise gypsy leader Melquiades writes his history in Sanskrit, the classic Hindu script that is among the oldest written languages in the world.
"Then there is the role of the gypsies within the novel. Here some explanation is necessary. One Hundred Years of Solitude is in some measure an ironic remake of the Renaissance chronicles of exploration and discovery (Columbus, Vespucci, and others). In those accounts, one reads of Europeans arriving in distant lands and engaging in contact and exchanges with 'the natives.' In this novel, however, things are reversed; it is the whites who are the 'natives,' while the explorers are the dark-skinned ones..."
Published on February 10, 2004 | <urn:uuid:ce0c4260-5717-4f56-bb25-ce2dc8aa0e69> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oprah.com/oprahsbookclub/One-Hundred-Years-of-Solitude-Questions-and-Answers | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948572 | 382 | 3.0625 | 3 |
Cerdic of Wessex
- See also Ceretic (disambiguation) for two kings with a similar name.
|Imaginary depiction of Cerdic from John Speed's 1611 "Saxon Heptarchy".|
|House||House of Wessex|
Cerdic was probably the first King of Anglo-Saxon Wessex from 519 to 534, cited by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as the founder of the kingdom of Wessex and ancestor of all its subsequent kings. (See House of Wessex family tree).
According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Cerdic landed in Hampshire in 495 with his son Cynric in five ships. He is said to have fought a British king named Natanleod at Netley Marsh in Hampshire and killed him thirteen years later (in 508) and to have fought at Cerdicesleag (Charford, Cerdic's Ford) in 519, after which he became first king of Wessex. The conquest of the Isle of Wight is also mentioned among his campaigns, and it was later given to his kinsmen, Stuf and Wihtgar (who had supposedly arrived with the West Saxons in 514). Cerdic is said to have died in 534 and was succeeded by his son Cynric.
The early history of Wessex in the Chronicle is clearly muddled and enters duplicate reports of events. David Dumville has suggested that Cerdic's true regnal dates are 538-554. Some scholars suggest that Cerdic was the Saxon leader defeated by the British at the Battle of Mount Badon, which was probably fought sometime between 490 and 518. This cannot be the case if Dumville is correct, and others assign this battle to Ælle or another Saxon leader.
While Cerdic's area of operation was, according to the Chronicle, in the area north of Southampton, there is also stronger archaeological evidence of early Anglo-Saxon activity in the area around Dorchester-on-Thames. This is the later location of the first West Saxon bishopric, in the first half of the seventh century, so it appears likely that the origins of the kingdom of Wessex are more complex than the version provided by the surviving traditions.
Some scholars have gone so far as to suggest that Cerdic is purely a legendary figure, and had no actual existence, but this is a minority view. However, the earliest source for Cerdic, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, was put together in the late ninth century; though it probably does record the extant tradition of the founding of Wessex, the intervening four hundred years mean that the account cannot be assumed to be accurate.
Descent from Cerdic became a necessary criterion for later kings of Wessex, and Egbert of Wessex, progenitor of the English royal house and subsequent rulers of England and Britain, claimed him as an ancestor.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle provides a pedigree tracing Cerdic's ancestry back to Wōden and the antediluvian patriarchs. However, Kenneth Sisam has shown that this pedigree resulted from a process of elaboration upon a root pedigree borrowed from the kings of Bernicia, and hence prior to Cerdic himself it has no historical basis.
Curiously, the name Cerdic is thought to be British – a form of the name Ceretic or Caradog (in Latin Caratacus) – rather than Germanic in origin. This may indicate that Cerdic was a native Briton, and that his dynasty became Anglicised over time. This view is supported by the non-Germanic names of some of his descendants including Ceawlin, Cedda and Caedwalla. Conversely some Welsh princely dynasties derive from early ancestors with Germanic names such as Tewdrig (Theodoric) and his father Teithfallt. This suggests that ethnicity was possibly not as important in the establishment of rulership within the proto-states of Post-Roman Britain as has been traditionally thought. Cerdic's father, Elesa, has been identified by some scholars with the Romano-Briton Elasius, the "chief of the region", met by Germanus of Auxerre.
J.N.L. Myres noted that when Cerdic and Cynric first appear in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in s.a. 495 they are described as ealdormen, which at that point in time was a fairly junior rank. Myres remarks that,
It is thus odd to find it used here to describe the leaders of what purports to be an independent band of invaders, who origins and authority are not otherwise specified. It looks very much as if a hint is being conveyed that Cerdic and his people owed their standing to having been already concerned with administrative affairs under Roman authority on this part of the Saxon Shore.
Furthermore, it is not until s.a. 519 that Cerdic and Cynric are recorded as "beginning to reign", suggesting that they ceased being dependent vassals or ealdormen and became independent kings in their own right.
Summing up, Myres believed that,
It is thus possible … to think of Cerdic as the head of a partly British noble family with extensive territorial interests at the western end of the Litus Saxonicum. As such he may well have been entrusted in the last days of Roman, or sub-Roman authority with its defence. He would then be what in later Anglo-Saxon terminology could be described as an ealdorman. … If such a dominant native family as that of Cerdic had already developed blood-relationships with existing Saxon and Jutish settlers at this end of the Saxon Shore, it could very well be tempted, once effective Roman authority had faded, to go further. It might have taken matters into its own hands and after eliminating any surviving pockets of resistance by competing British chieftains, such as the mysterious Natanleod of annal 508, it could 'begin to reign' without recognizing in future any superior authority.
Some would disagree with Myres, as Cerdic is reported to have landed in Hampshire. Some also would say that the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle proves that Cerdic was indeed a Saxon, however it does not prove that he had no Celtic blood.[who?] Some scholars believe it likely that his mother was a British Celt who left for the Continent, or perhaps a Continental Celt. Geoffrey Ashe postulates he may be a son of Riothamus.
Modern times
Cerdic was the primary antagonist of the 2004 film King Arthur. He and Cynric were depicted as Saxon invaders, and were killed, respectively, by Arthur and Lancelot at the Battle of Badon Hill (Mons Badonicus). Cerdic was portrayed by Stellan Skarsgård.
Rosemary Sutcliff makes him the half-British half-Saxon offspring of Hengest's daughter and the British king Vortigern in her Arthurian saga, an ally of Arthur's treacherous son and the unifier of the Saxons.
Cerdic's name may be commemorated in the name of the village of Chearsley, Buckinghamshire, which appears in the Domesday Book (1086) as Cerdeslai. This is assumed to be the place mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as Cerdicesleah, where King Cerdic and his son Cynric defeated the Britons in 527.
- British History Online, Victoria County History, North Charford with South Charford
- Sir Charles Oman (Oman, England Before the Conquest, 1910:244) found the Wessex annals in the Chronicle "meagre and inexplicable", "confused and suspicious"; Oman's speculation that events in the annals had been duplicated was taken up in detail by Kenneth Harrison (Harrison, "Early Wessex Annals in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" The English Historical Review 86 No. 340 (July 1971:527-533).
- Fletcher, Richard (1989). Who's Who in Roman Britain and Anglo-Saxon England. Shepheard-Walwyn. pp. 22–23. ISBN 0-85683-089-5.
- Hunter Blair, Peter (1960). An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England. Cambridge University Press. pp. 34–35.
- Campbell, John; John, Eric & Wormald, Patrick (1991). The Anglo-Saxons. Penguin Books. p. 26. ISBN 0-14-014395-5.
- Sisam, Kenneth, "Anglo-Saxon Royal Genealogies", Proceedings of the British Academy, vol. 39, pp. 287–348 (1953)
- Jackson, Kenneth (1953), Language and History in Early Britain. Edinburgh. pp. 554, 557, 613 and 680.
- Koch, J.T., (2006) Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, ISBN 1-85109-440-7, pp. 392–393.
- Grosjean, P., Analecta Bollandiana, 1957. Hagiographie Celtique pp. 158–226.
- Howorth, H.H., "The Beginnings of Wessex", The English Historical Review, Vol. 13, No. 52 (Oct., 1898), pp. 667–671
- Myres, J.N.L. (1989) The English Settlements. Oxford University Press, pp. 146–147
- Myres, Chapter 6 - for all preceeding comment.
- A pedigree depicting his legendary descent from Woden
- A pedigree depicting his suggested connection to Arthurian legend
- The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle which says he and his son arrived in Hampshire (at Cerdic's Ore)
Saxons arrive in southern Britain
|King of Wessex | <urn:uuid:8a0045ab-60d8-4a1b-8c7f-37f2ca7a3f73> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerdic_of_Wessex | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957713 | 2,085 | 3.0625 | 3 |
”Dashboards” as a concept recently became popular in the last 7 years. These dashboards are computer-based visual indications of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of metrics within an organization and are now used by Executives, Managers and Staff to track everyday activities to make better decisions. For example, a Manufacturing Operations dashboard would show such KPIs as Yield, Failure Paretos, Equipment utilization etc.
The evolution of dashboards is an interesting one and can be traced back as far the first century AD. For an interesting read on “data visualization” I would recommend Stephen Few’s book “Now You See It”. Historically Data Visualization has followed an interesting path:
-2nd century: first use of tables to organize numbers
-18th century: first graphs and charts were “invented” on paper
-1980s: first widespread use of visualizing data through Bar charts, line graphs, pie charts etc
The 1980s saw Data Visualization come into its own primarily because of high speed computers and rich graphics interfaces. What is happening now in the first part of the 21rst century is the ability to store massive amounts of data in a cheap fashion and being able to access that data conveniently through the internet. This has directly given rise to the use of Dashboards which can quickly aggregate and provide Users directly relevant KPIs out of these massive amounts of data.
The question for most users is: What are relevant KPIs that I need track? A good rule of thumb to understand your KPIs is to understand how your or your group’s performance is measured by the organization…if there is some raw data that supports that performance then a dashboard could be useful. IntraStage has developed multiple dashboard views for Test, Manufacturing, Quality and R&D environments. If you would like to contribute your views on what KPIs are relevant to your job, we would love to hear them…please comment on our LinkedIn Discussion post. | <urn:uuid:154acd0f-2269-4508-8a20-892c4c860529> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.intrastage.com/blog/?tag=dashboards | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952526 | 413 | 2.390625 | 2 |
- "Ackbar told us that the development research on the Mon Calamari cruisers was annexed by the Empire and is being kept in a vault on Carida. With this data, the Mon Calamari could build their massive capital ships, giving us a great advantage against Imperial Star Destroyers."
- ―Mon Mothma
After rescuing Mon Calamari slaves during the Raid over Corulag, alliance command was told that the plans for Mon Calamari Star Cruisers, which had been annexed by the empire, were being held at an imperial base on Carida. If the plans were recovered, the star cruisers could be used against Imperial Star Destroyers. However, a frontal attack against such a heavily guarded planet would be suicidal. Instead, the rebels opted for a smaller raid.
Mon Mothma put out a call for smugglers, saying there would be a paying mission, although not saying what the mission was. As expected, Han Solo and Chewbacca, who she had had previous experiences with, answered the call. After they demanded extra payment in return for damages to their ship during previous rebel operations, Mon Mothma said there would be no reason for the Millennium Falcon to leave the ground at all. Instead, the duo of smugglers were shipped on an imperial transport.
The battle Edit
- "You should be very familiar with that system because of your days in the Academy, but it is exceedingly difficult to get landing clearances for Imperial deserters there."
- ―Mon Mothma to Han Solo
After getting off the ship, Han Solo decided the most likely place for the designs was in a cargo area. However, it was well protected by Turbolaser towers, so they decided to take out a power generator, which was powering the towers.
After fighting through several stormtroopers and turrets, as well as destroying an imperial barracks and two imperial Edu A-34 officer academies, they arrived at several unmanned TIE Maulers. At Han's suggestion, Chewbacca commandeered one, and it was used to take out more imperial stormtroopers.
However, the way was blocked by 4 AT-STs. Han Suggested finding another vehicle to deal with the AT-STs. The answer was not far away: an unmanned AT-AT walker. Commandeering it, the AT-STs were destroyed, and the force moved on to the main street. A force of Stormtroopers and AT-STs were sent at the rebel walker, but were destroyed. The power generator, along with an uplink station, was destroyed.
Going the rest of the way on foot, the duo captured the plans, and decided to steal a transport to escape. However, enemy reinforcements arrived. Luckily, the smugglers avoided the imperials and escaped with the plans.
- "You've certainly earned this. The Mon Calamari will be able to restart their production facilities now. The Alliance would be happy to discuss the possibility of a longer-term relationship if you'd like further work..."
- ―Mon Mothma to Han Solo
The battle was a major victory for the rebels. Apart from causing damage to the Academy of Carida with absolutely no casualties, the rebels recaptured some very important schematics. They could now build capital ships to match the Imperial Navy.
However, Han Solo and Chewbacca decided to try and distance themselves as much as possible from the rebellion. In addition, the imperials had put together a massive naval force to try to capture Mon Calamari and destroy the shipyards before any more capital ships could be produced.
Behind the scenesEdit
- Star Wars: Empire at War (First appearance)
- Star Wars: Empire at War: Prima Official Game Guide (First identified as Smuggler's Raid on Carida)
- Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption: Prima Official Game Guide
Notes and referencesEdit | <urn:uuid:e3089e7c-9a83-406a-ac37-19417b416d1e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Smuggler's_Raid_on_Carida | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970026 | 809 | 1.554688 | 2 |
3.11 Japan Memorial Charity
- Remembrance of Earthquake and Tsunami -
This charity event is to commemorate the North-Eastern Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster that happened on March 11, 2011. We hope to support the affected to improve their living conditions, rebuild the area, and for each of us to remember the tragedy.
Thank you very much for your support in "3.11 Japan Memorial Charity with Japanese Tea Ceremony" on Sunday, March 25, 2012.
We welcomed many attendees to the ceremony (Hanami - cherry blossom cerebration) and collected warm donations from the guests and organizations, total of $1625.66, and benefitted the Japanese Disaster Relief Fund - Boston (JDRFB) to improve the conditions in still struggling Japan.
We have been much obliged to receive a review on this Charity Chakai from Professor Richard J. Samuels, who has been our friend for over 30 years. He was conferred upon the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star (Asahi-Juko Award) by the Japanese Government on November 7, 2011, in recognition of his significant contributions to scholarship about Japan and for promoting friendly relations between Japan and the United States of America.
"There have been many extraordinary efforts by people world-wide and here in the Boston area to help relieve the suffering in Tohoku and to show solidarity with the people of Japan after the March 11, 2011 disaster. It is with great admiration that I laud our neighbor and friend, Kyoko Wada, for adding to this effort by sharing a traditional Japanese tea ceremony with the community. In doing so, she shared more than just a moment of silence; the meditative nature and use of symbolism in Chado helps us to reflect on and remember the bitter and the sweet in life. I hope this will begin an annual commemoration as a way to remember the disaster and support recovery in the years to come."|
Professor Richard J. Samuels
Director, MIT Japan Program
Thank you for your contribution, with respect:
Urban Realty Boston,
Shiki Japanese Restaurant,
Mrs. Deborah Samuels' "My Japanese Table"
Blue Fin Restaurant (Porter Sq.),
Japan Village Mart,
and personal donations:
Mr. T. B.
Ms. A. G.
Ms. M. H. O.
Ms. K. T.
Ms. S. F. C.
We appreciate your consolation in helping the affected in Japan, also your interests in Japanese Tea Ceremony.
We look forward to welcoming you again soon. | <urn:uuid:78a14beb-3660-43b3-8f95-f8101289d586> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://web.mit.edu/chado/www/event/311/12/311.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944402 | 535 | 1.585938 | 2 |
GREECE-SYRIA: Emmad Saeed, “I know I’m not going to die, and that is a relief”
Saeed and his nephew
SKALOCHORI, 5 October 2012 (IRIN) - In the sleepy village of Skalochori on the Greek island of Lesbos, a group of 23 Syrian refugees are eating a hurried meal of donated fish and bread before a police van arrives to detain them.
Over the past two months, several islands
in this area of the Aegean have been receiving boatloads of migrants, many of them Syrians fleeing the armed conflict in their country.
This group, a large extended family, includes six women and four children, as well as 23-year-old Emmad Saeed*, a student in his final year of law school. He spoke to IRIN about how he and his family ended up on Lesbos.
“We live in a small village in north-east Syria, in Al-Hasakah Governorate. The area was calm, but [then] the Kurdish started arming themselves, and the regime started to bombard all of us. The regime is cruel, but the opposition is not fighting well. Most people support [the rebels], but they don’t want to lose their children, and when revolutionary forces enter a village, the regime bombards it. A bomb landed really close to our village.
“We used to have a good living in Syria. We had houses and cars. It was a nice life. There was no religious extremism or tension. No one cared what religion you were. Now the economy has deteriorated, and it’s very difficult for us to live.
“Just over a week ago, an Arab guy came to our village and said he was willing to take people to Europe for 2,500 euros each. We have a lot of relatives in Germany and Sweden, so we thought we’d go until the war was finished. We didn’t want to live in camps like animals.
“One night, he put us on a small bus with blacked-out windows, and we drove - we didn’t know where. He said ‘No questions’, and normally we wouldn’t accept that, but we just paid. It was a bumpy ride for over 30 hours, and we didn’t stop, even to use the toilets. It was very hard for the children.
“We arrived at a shore, and there was a rubber boat. We didn’t speak to the driver and he didn’t speak to us. The sea was a bit rough, and we were all seasick. After about five and a half hours, we landed on a rocky shore. The driver said, ‘Europe’, and we took our bags and he left. We made a small fire on the beach, and when it was morning we met a man and a woman and asked them where we were. They said, ‘This is Greece’, and that was a shock for us. We thought he’d take us to Italy.
“We’re not parasites. We’re educated, we know how to work. We just want safety. Greece can’t offer us anything, so we’ll go from here, but how we don’t know. We didn’t bring any documents because we were afraid the Syrian police would catch us and kill us. The important thing is that now the regime can’t reach us. I know I’m not going to die, and that is a relief. If it was a normal situation, I would be devastated; I didn’t want to leave Syria.”
*Not his real name | <urn:uuid:23910c82-e7e9-4278-88e8-a5cc1d1ea62c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.irinnews.org/Report/96464/GREECE-SYRIA-Emmad-Saeed-I-know-I-m-not-going-to-die-and-that-is-a-relief | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98488 | 793 | 1.75 | 2 |
POLITICIANS are using the future of the Electrolux plant as a political football after Duty Senator for Calare Matt Thistlethwaite yesterday accused member for Calare John Cobb of misleading his constituents and whipping up fear in response to a review underway at the Orange plant.
Mr Cobb claims the carbon tax is to blame for last week’s announcement by Electrolux management the Orange plant must prove it can compete with other plants around the world in order to secure contracts into the future.
However, Senator Thistlethwaite said Mr Cobb had not taken into account the Gillard government’s recent grant of $4.7 million from carbon price revenue to help Electrolux produce more energy-efficient refrigerators.
Yesterday, Electrolux management refused to be drawn into the argument, after their statement last week that the carbon tax grant was a separate issue.
Electrolux corporate communications manager Craig McCarthy said the organisation had a policy of not becoming embroiled in domestic politics in any country where it operates.
“We confirm the investment study wasn’t prompted by the introduction of the carbon tax and that Electrolux is very appreciative of the green tech grant recently awarded the Orange plant by Ausindustry,” he said.
Senator Thistlethwaite said the chief executive of Electrolux had also made it clear the company undertook regular reviews.
“They form part of the company’s internal investment decision processes and as such should not be taken as a sign the business is not viable,” he said.
However, Mr Cobb stuck by his comments.
“Effectively this grant is a one- off bribe and will not continue into the future,” he said.
“With Korean fridges already cheaper, and then you add the extra on for carbon tax, people will always go for the cheaper model,” he said. | <urn:uuid:3f7b3b07-2bb6-439c-a0f3-0b79f22fc691> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.centralwesterndaily.com.au/story/1302343/skinner-tour-shows-off-hospital-services/?src=rss | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961387 | 388 | 1.554688 | 2 |
MADISON, Alabama- It's a Wednesday morning at the Madison Public Library. Bouncing toddlers and their parents fill a side room, anxiously waiting for story time. Each chair at the library's computer bank is filled with people utilizing the free internet service. Meanwhile, at the main desk, patrons wait in line to check out the latest bestseller and a DVD of their favorite television series.
Business is booming at the Madison Public Library. So much so, according to Head Librarian Sarah Sledge, that she is working with city officials to determine how to expand to accommodate increasing demand.
"We're running out of space," Sledge said. "People don't have a place to sit down and our furniture is butting up against the walls. In the last two years, we've tried to maximize every amount of space and add shelves to where possible. Now, we have no more empty walls."
The Madison Library was built in 1997 when the city's population was just more than 20,000. Now, with more than 43,000 people living in Madison - 33,000 of who hold library cards - there's not enough room to meet demand for increased services.
The majority of the library's funding - 86 percent - comes from the city in the forms of a direct appropriation from the general fund and proceeds from a half mill library tax. Those two sources combine for more than $500,000 a year. The remainder of the funding comes from the state and county.
Since 2000, the library has seen a 600 percent increase in the number of people with library cards. The library's complete collection, including books, DVDs, videos and other items - totals more than 82,000 pieces. All of that is contained in 15,000 square feet, compared to the Madison County System's main branch's 100,000 square feet.
"And we do 75 percent of the traffic of the main branch, just in a lot less space," Sledge said.
In June, the Madison library had 25,265 people come through its doors. The first week of June alone saw Madison residents checking out more books and DVDs than any other single week in the library's history.
Sledge attributes the library's popularity to Madison's educated population and the diverse offerings available at the branch.
"Because of our tight space, we're constantly changing out items. Old ones are sold in our Friends of the Library Book Store and every time we sell an item, it makes room for something new."
Demand for popular items remains high, in spite of hard work by the librarians to anticipate trends. The erotic thriller 50 Shades of Grey, has a waiting list of more than 200 people.
"That means someone who's put on the list now has about an eight week wait," Sledge said.
The library host six children's story times per week, six adult book clubs, a junior reader program and is home to the county's largest teen reading program. More teenagers in Madison signed up for the library's summer program than at any other branch in the county and the twice weekly club meetings average about 28 young people.
"The come in for a club and leave with an armful of books," Sledge said. Other popular offerings include weekly craft classes for adults.
Sledge, who has been at the library since 2005, knows the solutions for the library's future won't come quickly and all those at the Madison branch will continue to make the best of the current situation.
"It's a really great problem to have," she said. "What we're seeing is the library turning into a civic and cultural center." | <urn:uuid:b12edee6-e175-418e-a668-7ad771b59478> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.al.com/breaking/2012/09/madison_library_bursting_at_th.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965784 | 740 | 1.820313 | 2 |
We all have a tale to tell about a particularly nasty restroom experience, but let’s face it; here in the West we have it pretty good. Why, Kohler just came out with the Numi toilet which warms your toes and plays music while you’re ensconced—an improvement on the tinkle-tinkle song your mom used to hum.
The reality for the rest of the world, however, is very different. Forty percent of the global population lacks clean and safe sanitation services. It’s a sorry fact that 2.6 billion people don’t have access to safe sanitation and 1.5 million children die each year from diarrheal disease—most of this preventable with proper sanitation, safe drinking water and improved hygiene.
Yesterday at the 2011 AfricaSan Conference in Rwanda, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced that it would fund $42 million worth of grants aimed at developing systems to capture and store waste and process it into reusable energy, fertilizer, and sanitized water.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation—partnering with USAID to improve water sanitation as part of the UN’s 2015 Millennium Development Goals—has thrown a challenge to universities around the world to come up with a cheap toilet—costing no more than five cents a day—which can turn waste into fuel and nutrients or recycle waste water into clean safe drinking water.
The solution must be a stand-alone unit without piped-in water, a sewer connection or outside electricity. The foundation and its partners are looking at cutting edge technologies which could potentially produce toilets that can empty, process and recycle waste without the use of any water at all.
The Reinventing the Toilet Challenge encompasses eight universities that will compete to find the best toilet technologies for needy populations. Among the ideas at play – a solar-powered toilet, a toilet which bakes fecal waste into biological charcoal, a toilet which microwaves human waste to produce enough electricity to sustain several households, and a toilet which can extract water from urine.
How would you design a cheap, clean and safe throne? Maybe Kohler has some ideas. | <urn:uuid:6f5018d8-24e5-4d8d-9657-3f628572e8ea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.ptc.com/2011/07/20/bill-gates-leads-the-way-in-toilet-technology/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930414 | 440 | 3.015625 | 3 |
This article or section is a stub. Please help Tolkien Gateway by expanding it.
Ephel Brandir (also called the Ephel) was a settlement of woodmen in Brethil. It lay upon the hill of Amon Obel, in the forest of Brethil, and is where Túrin was taken when he fell ill. It was ruled by Brandir son of Handir. | <urn:uuid:e82801fd-38d2-4125-9619-d96cde873b64> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Ephel_Brandir | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977157 | 81 | 1.90625 | 2 |
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Tetsu Yamazaki, Animal Photography
Ron Willbie, Animal Photography
Sally Anne Thompson, Animal Photography
The Large Munsterlander is a popular hunting dog and companion in Europe. He has strong natural instincts and a high level of endurance in the face of rough terrain and wet or cold conditions.
The Large Munsterlander is a multipurpose gun dog, great on both land and water. He is, however, a rare breed.
It would be a shame to get a Large Munsterlander if you don’t plan to hunt with him. It’s what he’s born to do, and his tracking, pointing and retrieving instincts are strong. In fact, most Large Munsterlander breeders will only place their pups in hunting homes. If you can meet his needs in this area and provide him with a large fenced yard and plenty of daily exercise, he can be a cheerful, gentle family companion. He’s highly trainable but needs gentle handling with positive reinforcement techniques.
Comb the coat frequently to prevent or remove mats and tangles. A bath every six weeks or is a good idea. In addition, trim the nails as needed, brush the teeth, and keep the ears clean and dry.
Last but not least, it should go without saying that a people-loving dog like the Large Munsterlander needs to live in the house. It’s an unhappy Large Munsterlander who is relegated to the backyard with little or no human companionship.
Other Quick Facts
The History of the Large Munsterlander
A relatively new breed, the Large Munsterlander originated in the German town of Munster in the early 20th century. Based on depictions in artwork, dogs of similar type date to the Middle Ages, but the Large Munsterlander was not formally recognized as a breed until 1919. His ancestor was the German Longhaired Pointer, which was crossed with various Spaniels. The result was the Large Munsterlander, which, for a time, was a popular hunting dog throughout Europe. The combination of the Great Depression and World War II nearly caused the breed’s demise but it was revived after the war.
The first Large Munsterlanders to come to America arrived in 1966. In the United States, the breed’s development is overseen by the Large Munsterlander Club of North America. The United Kennel Club recognized the breed in 2006.
Large Munsterlander Temperament and Personality
Like all Sporting dogs, the Large Munsterlander is inclined to be smart, biddable, and should be a quick learner. He’s highly trainable -- even at a young age -- but his sensitive nature calls for a light touch. Typically, that is all that’s needed for this calm and gentle dog. He has a good nose and will range pretty far out, but he’s not so independent that he won’t come when called. Hunters prize him for his versatility in the field (he’s great at everything from finding birds to tracking bigger game and he loves, loves, loves to retrieve). He also impresses with his cheerfulness as a family dog when the hunting day is done.
The Large Munsterlander may be calm and gentle, but he’s also lively and needs much more exercise than the average person is prepared to give. The Large Munsterlander Club of North America is serious about seeing that these dogs go to hunting homes and it is rare that one will be placed solely as a pet. If you are fortunate enough to acquire one, be prepared to spend your days hiking, running, bicycling, and taking him to a safely enclosed park where he can chase squirrels. Hip dysplasia and some other joint issues have been reported in the breed, though, so get the green light from your veterinarian before undertaking any strenuous exercise with this dog.
Start training your puppy the day you bring him home. Even at eight weeks old, he is capable of soaking up everything you can teach him. Don't wait until he is six months old to begin training, or you will have a more headstrong dog to deal with. If possible, get him into puppy kindergarten class by the time he is 10 to 12 weeks old, and socialize, socialize, socialize. However, be aware that many puppy training classes require certain vaccines (like kennel cough) to be up to date, and many veterinarians recommend limited exposure to other dogs and public places until puppy vaccines (including rabies, distemper and parvovirus) have been completed. In lieu of formal training, you can begin training your puppy at home and socializing him among family and friends until puppy vaccines are completed.
Talk to the breeder, describe exactly what you’re looking for in a dog, and ask for assistance in selecting a puppy. Breeders see the puppies daily and can make uncannily accurate recommendations once they know about your lifestyle and personality. Whatever you want from a Large Munsterlander, look for one whose parents have nice personalities and who has been well socialized from early puppyhood.
What You Need To Know About Large Munsterlander Health
All dogs have the potential to develop genetic health problems, just as all people have the potential to inherit disease. Run from any breeder who does not offer a health guarantee on puppies, who tells you that the breed has no known problems, or who keeps puppies isolated from the main part of the household for health reasons. A reputable breeder will be honest and open about health problems in the breed and the incidence with which they occur.
Large Munsterlanders are generally healthy. Conditions reported in the breed include cataracts, hip dysplasia, and osteochondrosis. The Large Munsterlander Club of North America certifies breeders and puppies and approves all breedings. For puppies to receive full registration, both parents must have been certified free of hip dysplasia. In addition, both parents must have qualified in a field test of natural hunting ability, must meet the breed standard, and must have normal temperament.
Careful breeders screen their breeding dogs for genetic disease and breed only the healthiest and best-looking specimens, but sometimes Mother Nature has other ideas. A puppy may develop one of these diseases despite good breeding practices. Advances in veterinary medicine mean that in most cases the dogs can still live a good life. If you’re getting a puppy, ask the breeder about the ages of the dogs in her lines and what are the most common causes of death.
Remember that after you’ve taken a new puppy into your home, you have the power to protect him from one of the most common health problems: obesity. Keeping a Large Munsterlander at an appropriate weight is one of the easiest ways to extend his life. Make the most of diet and exercise to help ensure a healthier dog for life.
The Basics of Large Munsterlander Grooming
The Large Munsterlander has a medium-long silky coat with feathering on the ears, chest, belly, legs, and tail. Plan on combing it out every time the dog has been in the field. The breed sheds moderately. Brush him two or three times a week to keep dead hair from settling on your floor, furniture, and clothing.
The rest is basic care. Trim the nails as needed, usually every week or two. Keep the ears clean and dry, and brush the teeth frequently with a vet-approved pet toothpaste for good overall health and fresh breath.
Choosing a Large Munsterlander Breeder
Put at least as much effort into researching your puppy as you would into choosing a new car or expensive appliance. It will save you money in the long run. Whether you want to go with a breeder or get your dog from a shelter or rescue, here are some things to keep in mind.
Finding a quality breeder is a great way to find the right puppy. A good breeder will match you with the right puppy, and will have done all the health certifications necessary to screen out as many problems as possible. He or she is more interested in placing pups in the right homes than making big bucks.
Look for more information about the Large Munsterlander and start your search for a good breeder on the website of the Large Munsterlander Club of North America.
Reputable breeders will welcome your questions about temperament, health clearances, and what the dogs are like to live with. They will come right back at you with questions of their own about what you’re looking for in a dog and what kind of life you plan to provide. A good breeder can tell you about the history of the breed, explain why one puppy is considered pet quality while another is not, and discuss what health problems affect the breed and the steps were taken to avoid them. A breeder should want to be a resource for you throughout your dog’s life.
Avoid breeders who only seem interested in how quickly they can unload a puppy on you and whether your credit card will clear. Breeders who offer puppies at one price “with papers” and at a lower price “without papers” are unethical. You should also remember that buying a puppy from an “instant pet” website leaves you no recourse if what you get isn't exactly what you expected.
Lots of reputable breeders have websites, so how can you tell who’s good and who’s not? Red flags include over availability, multiple litters on the premises, a choice of any puppy, and the ability to pay online with a credit card. Those things are convenient, but they are almost never associated with reputable breeders.
And before you decide to buy a puppy, consider whether an adult Large Munsterlander might better suit your needs and lifestyle. Puppies are loads of fun, but they require a lot of time and effort. An adult Large Munsterlander may already have some training and will probably be less active, destructive, and demanding than a puppy. With an adult dog, you know more about what you’re getting in terms of personality and health. If you are interested in acquiring an older dog instead of a puppy, ask breeders about purchasing a retired show dog or if they know of an adult dog who needs a new home.
Adopting a Dog From a Large Munsterlander Rescue or Shelter
The Large Munsterlander is a rare breed with a very involved breed club. Finding one through a breed-rescue group or in an animal shelter is highly unlikely. Nonetheless, the Large Munsterlander Club of North America keeps a waiting list of people who are interested in case one does need a home.
If you live in an area where hunting is a common activity, don’t overlook your local animal shelter. It’s unlikely but not impossible for a Large Munsterlander to be found in a shelter after losing his home to an owner’s death, in a divorce, or a changed economic situation.
Here are other ways to find a Large Munsterlander to adopt.
1. Use the Web
Sites like Petfinder.com and Adopt-a-Pet.com can have you searching for a Large Munsterlander in your area in no time flat. The site allows you to be very specific in your requests (housetraining status, for example) or very general (all the Large Munsterlanders available across the country). AnimalShelter can help you find animal rescue groups in your area. Also some local newspapers have “pets looking for homes” sections you can review.
Social media is another great way to find a dog. Post on your Facebook page that you are looking for a specific breed so that your entire community can be your eyes and ears.
2. Reach Out to Local Experts
Start talking with all the pet pros in your area about your desire for a Large Munsterlander. That includes vets, dog walkers, and groomers. When someone has to make the tough decision to give up a dog, that person will often ask her own trusted network for recommendations.
3. Talk to Breed Rescue
Most people who love Large Munsterlanders love all Large Munsterlanders. That’s why breed clubs have rescue organizations devoted to taking care of homeless dogs. Search online for Large Munsterlander rescues in your area.
The great thing about breed rescue groups is that they tend to be very upfront about any health conditions the dogs may have and are a valuable resource for advice. They also often offer fostering opportunities so, with training, you could bring a Large Munsterlander home for a trial to see what the experience is like.
4. Key Questions to Ask
You now know the things to discuss with a breeder, but there are also questions you should discuss with shelter or rescue group staff or volunteers before you bring home a pup. These include:
Wherever you acquire your Large Munsterlander, make sure you have a good contract with the seller, shelter, or rescue group that spells out responsibilities on both sides. Petfinder offers an Adopters Bill of Rights that helps you understand what you can consider normal and appropriate when you get a dog from a shelter. In states with “puppy lemon laws,” be sure you and the person you get the dog from both understand your rights and recourses.
Puppy or adult, a breeder purchase or a rescue, take your Large Munsterlander to your veterinarian soon after adoption. Your veterinarian will be able to spot problems and will work with you to set up a preventive regimen that will help you avoid many health issues.
Like this article? Have a point of view to share? Let us know!
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2D Quality and Overclocking
Is it possible for a graphics card to have poor 2D image quality when the PCB carefully follows the reference design? Sometimes, yes. Unfortunately, the picture in 1600x1200 resolution at 85Hz refresh rate could hardly be called good. Of course, it was not corrupt altogether, but the obvious “fuzziness” made it impossible to work comfortably in a word processor. Having reduced the refresh rate to 75Hz, we got a better image, but it became clear-cut only in 1280x1024. For your reference, the ASUS V9950 graphics card produced crystal-clear picture in all resolution, including 1800x1440@75Hz (the upper limit of the display). Again, the quality of 2D also depends a lot on a given display and graphics card.
Overclocking, on the contrary, was quite enjoyable. Using additional cooling, we sped up the card to 480/940MHz. As all GeForce FX owners should know, these graphics cards work at different clock-rates in 2D and 3D modes. Our GPU did 2D at 300MHz. It was rumored on the Web that overclocking the GPU in this mode may bring artifacts into the picture. Well, they were right. We increased the frequency to 450MHz to find that if you move a window along the Desktop, it will get covered with stripes and speckles. Although in 3D the card worked fine at this frequency.
It’s rather hard to determine what’s wrong with the card: if these are some internal bugs of the GPU or RAMDAC, or bad design of the card’s PCB. Anyway, this problem does exist for many graphics cards.
Now a few words about the VIVO functions.
The VIVO functions of this graphics card work as they should do. After you install appropriate drivers and re-boot Windows, the Device Manager lists four new devices: nVidia WDM A/V Crossbar, nVidia WDM TV Audio Crossbar, nVidia WDM TVTuner and nVidia WDM Video Capture. From this point on, you can work with the TV-input in any software that knows to use it. The quality of video capture is quite average, as in any devices based on the Philips SAA7108 controller.
Testbed and Methods
ASUS V9950 graphics card had BIOS version 126.96.36.199, while Albatron GiGi GeForce FX5900 PV used version 188.8.131.52. Moreover, an NVIDIA representative once told us that all GeForce FX 5900 cards raised memory timings if you overclocked the graphics memory above 900MHz. It is of course done to ensure higher stability. So, we decided to check out how it tells on the performance and carried out a few extra tests at different frequencies. The testbed configuration remained the same:
- AMD Athlon XP 2600+ “Thoroughbred” (2.083GHz, 166MHz FSB) CPU;
- EPoX EP-8K3A+ mainboard;
- 512MB Corsair XMS3200 DDR SDRAM (2-2-5 1T, 166(333)MHz,);
- Maxtor DiamondMax Plus D740X (2MB buffer) HDD, 40GB capacity;
- Creative SoundBlaster Live! 1024 sound card;
- Microsoft Windows XP SP1;
- Drivers: VIA Hyperion 4-in-1 v.4.47, ATI Catalyst 3.5 (for ATI RADEON). NVIDIA Detonator 44.03 and 44.90 (for GiGi GeForce FX5900 PV). | <urn:uuid:9dfa6966-3908-455d-87ed-9ea78c7adac0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/graphics/display/albatron-fx5900_3.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.912925 | 765 | 1.859375 | 2 |
I'm having an issue with the implicitplot3d command in Maple 16. The sequence of commands I've listed below works just fine in Maple 15, but in Maple 16 I'm getting a problem. Sometimes no graph will display; other times, Maple may initially graph the surface correctly, but as soon as I rotate the graph, the surface disappears. Furthermore, the following strange things happen:
1) Re-executing the command after rotating does not redraw the image (still just get a blank set of axes, although grid-range has changed).
2) Changing the command so that there are different x-values (so as not to cause domain problems) does not seem to have any effect -- still get blank axes. Can't get the surface to draw again until I close Maple and restart it.
3) If I start the command so that there are no domain issues, I can draw and rotate the image with no issues.
Given that the graph displays with no issues in Maple 15, I'm trying to at least determine whether there is issue is with my Maple 16 configuration, whether Maple 16 has a bug, or whether something has changed with implicitplot3d in Maple 16 that I need to be aware of in order to get this command to work.
> implicitplot3d(sqrt(x)+y = 1, x = -1 .. 1, y = -1 .. 1, z = -1 .. 1, axes = boxed);
Thanks in advance, | <urn:uuid:93eb3b2e-f528-4fbc-a1bc-1cc8f4ca65c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mapleprimes.com/questions/138799-Implicitplot3d-Problem-In-Maple-16 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937913 | 305 | 1.726563 | 2 |
About IMMA > Press Office
Louise Bourgeois Gift to IMMA
Louise Bourgeois, one of the greatest and most influential artists of our time, has made a gift of one of her works to the Irish Museum of Modern Art. The work, Untitled, 2001, is one of the artist’s characteristic front-facing fabric heads, which is displayed in a glass vitrine. The head is one of a suite of seven, each unique, made from a soft pink material, originally one of Bourgeois’ jackets. The work, including the vitrine, measures just over 177 cms in height.
The gift has been made in recognition of the success of the Louise Bourgeois: Stitches in Time exhibition, which was organised by the Museum and was shown at IMMA from November 2003 to February 2004 to great popular and critical acclaim. The exhibition included three similar fabric heads. Sewn with a simplicity that belies their structural sophistication, Bourgeois’ heads are nevertheless uncannily lifelike – with open mouths, and eyes focussed directly on the viewer or deliberately glancing away. They are difficult works to confront; a difficulty compounded by the mute and resistant glass cases which encase them.
Stitches in Time was the largest exhibition of Bourgeois’ work ever staged in Ireland. In addition to the fabric heads, it also included a series of cell-like vitrines housing curious scenes of ecstasy and torture; a group of totemic figures, reinterpreting in fabric her early sculptures from the 1940s and ’50s, and a selection of graphic works. Following its showing at IMMA, the exhibition travelled to the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh; the CAC, Centro de Arte Contemporăneo de Malaga, Spain, and to the Miami Museum of Contemporary Art, USA. A hugely-popular catalogue, published by IMMA to accompany the exhibition, was reprinted twice due to popular demand and was translated into Spanish for the exhibition in Malaga.
Welcoming the gift IMMA Director, Enrique Juncosa, said, “This generous gift by Louise Bourgeois is a wonderful addition to IMMA’s sculpture collection. As one of the most important artists of our time, her works command prices which would be well beyond our acquisitions budget. We are all delighted that Louise’s generosity will allow the Irish public to enjoy her work on an ongoing basis. We hope to install the sculpture in the West Wing Galleries by the end of the year, alongside other newly-acquired works, such as James Coleman’s filmwork, Initials. The gift is also a tribute to the work of the Museum’s Exhibitions Department, which has managed to tour IMMA shows to Britain, Italy, Spain, Iceland and the US in the past year, and has further tours scheduled to Britain, France, Belgium, Portugal and the US over the coming months. The Bourgeois piece is the latest in a series of important acquisitions of sculptures by Michael Craig-Martin, Gary Hume, Cristina Iglesias and Alice Maher.”
Born in Paris in 1911, during the heyday of Cubism, Louise Bourgeois moved to New York in 1938, where she continues to live and work. Her career has spanned seven decades and several artistic movements, including Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism, all of which she engaged with, but none of which adequately contain or describe her work. Over this time she has built up a complex and beguiling body of work, primarily concerned with sculpture – created from an extraordinary array of materials – but also including drawing, painting, printmaking and installation. Autobiography and identity have been important influences on her practice, as have her family connections with furniture and tapestry making, still evident in her work. Bourgeois was the first woman artist to be given a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. One of her most celebrated projects was I Do, I Undo, I Redo, an installation comprising three nine-metre-high steel towers which she was commissioned to create for the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern to mark the opening of that museum in 2000.
For images and further information please contact Patrice Molloy or Daniela Sabatini at Tel: +353 1 612 9900; Email: email@example.com.
17 May 2005
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Irish Museum of Modern Art, Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, Dublin 8, Ireland
Tel: +353-1-6129900, Email: firstname.lastname@example.org | <urn:uuid:3fb53410-e33a-43ef-85b7-64949164bbe6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.imma.ie/en/print.cgi?id=page_75140.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96157 | 969 | 1.53125 | 2 |
On October 30, PAWS Wildlife Center received 40 water birds from the Ocean Shores area that had been blown ashore by recent windstorms on the coast. Most were extremely thin, and many had minor injuries or dirty feathers due to being tossed in the surf and lying on the rough sand of the beach.
PAWS staff and volunteers have been working diligently since the 30th to return the birds to good health and clean their feathers to restore their waterproofing. While some of the birds have succumbed to their injuries or emaciated condition, others have responded quite well. As of this writing, we had already released several loons and scoters.
Clockwise from upper right: Red-throated Loon, Surf Scoter, White-winged Scoter, Western Grebes, Northern Fulmar | <urn:uuid:cc43cf2e-746a-4347-852a-111025390134> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.paws.org/2010/11/wild-seabird-patients-in-care.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9851 | 162 | 2.140625 | 2 |
North Carolina 1861-1865
preface to volume four of the series,
NC Troops-A Roster 1861-1865
reads as follows:
"This volume is the fourth in a projected series of twelve volumes of a roster of North Carolinians who served in the Confederate and Union forces in the Civil War. Begun in February, 1961, the project to com-pile such a roster was an outgrowth of the work of the North Carolina Confederate Centennial Commission, its chairman, the late Colonel Hugh Dortch, and its executive secretary, Mr. Norman C. Larson. Dr. Louis H. Manarin, the editor of the first three volumes, was first a member of the Confederate Centennial Commission staff. At the" termination of that commission in June, 1965, the Roster Project was transferred to the State Department of Archives and History (which, under state government reorganization, became the Office of Archives and History of the State Department of Art, Culture and History), and Dr. Manarin remained at the head of the project through January, 1970, when he resigned to become state archivist of Virginia. Dr. Manarin was succeeded by Mr. Weymouth T. Jordan, Jr., in the post of editor of the North Carolina Roster Project, but he has continued his services to his native state both as an advisor to the Project staff and as the author of the unit histories which appear in this volume.
"To both Mr. Jordan and Dr. Manarin and to Secretary Grace J. Rohrer of the Department of Art, Culture and History, Dr. H. G. Jones, state historian and administrator of the Office of Archives and History, Mr. C. F. W. Coker, director of the Division of Archives and Records, and the staff of the Roster Project, I wish to express my appreciation for their efforts in making possible this memorial to those from Our state who participated in that great conflict.
January 31, 1973
James E. Holshouser, Jr.1
Governor of North Carolina
1. James E. Holshouser, Jr., Governor of North Carolina, General Robert E. Lee - THE WARTIME PAPERS OF ROBERT E. LEE - Edited by Clifford Dowdey and Louis Manarin - DaCapo Press 1012pp - Includes Notes, General Index, and Index of Addresses -
Derick S. Hartshorn-webmaster - © 2008
Last Modified: 04/30/2008 18:52:28 | <urn:uuid:99cdb4e6-2df7-4d25-a25b-db9e003d43e9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ncgenweb.us/catawba/military/NCMilOrg/epilogue.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944877 | 522 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Paxson, Travelers' Rest, 1805
Page 2 of 4
"Lewis and Clark's Camp at Traveler's Rest, Lolo Creek 1805"
by Edgar S. Paxson (1913)
Oil on linen, 5 ½' by 10'
Commissioned for the Missoula County Courthouse
Missoula County Art Collection, Missoula Art Museum
Photographed by Carl Basner
n September 9, 1805, the Corps of Discovery turned west from the Bitterroot River up the stream they dubbed "Travelers' Rest Creek," and stopped a mile or so above its mouth at a heavily used Indian campsite on its south bank. In this scene, Paxson portrays a meeting that took place the next afternoon.
George Drouillard, who is proficient in the common intertribal language of "signs or jesticulation," is introducing to Captain Lewis three Nez Perce Indians whom Private John Colter met while hunting somewhere up the creek.1 Lewis extends the universal open-handed gesture of welcome. Afterwards one of the Indians, perhaps the best-dressed man, with a buffalo robe draped over his arm, will consent to join the Corps as a guide. However, he will grow impatient with their delay in departure on the 11th, and go on by himself, assuring them it will take only six days to cross the mountains. (Actually it will take them almost twice that long!) The mounted man beyond the oxbow in Travelers' Rest Creek, at right, may be John Colter, leading one of the Indians’ fine horses to pasture with the Corps’ herd.
At Lewis’s right is Clark’s servant, York, dressed in blue as befitted a personal slave at that time. The Indian squatting at Lewis’s left hand is “Old Toby,” the Shoshone guide the captains had hired to lead them across the Bitterroot Mountains toward the Columbia River; he is displaying a map he has drawn for the captains with charcoal on deer skin. Behind Lewis, Captain Clark is apparently asking Sacagawea — who cradles her seven-month-old son, Jean Baptiste — and her husband, Toussaint Charbonneau, whether they understand the strangers’ language. The young Shoshone woman's averted gaze betrays her suspicion of these men from the Chopunnish nation, her peoples' enemies.
Sometime before leaving Pittsburgh in August of 1803, Lewis paid $20 — half of a captain’s monthly salary — for a “very active strong and docile” Newfoundland retriever he named Seaman. Paxson knew only that Lewis had a dog, but not its name, breed or appearance, since Lewis's eastern journal had only recently been rediscovered and was not published until 1916. He has compromised by depicting a typical Indian dog like the ones described elsewhere in the journals.
The Trail of Lewis and Clark, Volume 2
itled "Lewis and Clark in Camp on Traveller's[sic]-Rest (Lolo) Creek, Montana," the original oil painting, which Paxson created in about 1900 for Olin Wheeler's book, The Trail of Lewis and Clark4 , turned out to be a study for his 1913 mural (above). A few of the groupings and details are similar. Drouillard is introducing to Clark and Lewis the three Nez Perce he has just met. Old Toby wears a blue robe and carries a knife on his hip. At right is the captains' tent (of Civil War design); York is at its door. Sacagawea is seated nearby; 7-month-old Jean-Baptiste sits next to a Plains-Indian style cradleboard. At left foreground is one of the company's pack saddles.
eadgear worn by the Corps was one of the most problematic details in all 20th-century illustrations. Paxson's good friend and fellow Montanan, Charlie Russell, solved the problem for most of those who followed him by topping the captains with broad-brimmed hats turned up into tricorns. That had been the official military style throughout the Revolution, and it remained popular with some civilians for a while afterward. But fashion statements will not tolerate restraint, and new styles were adopted by the end of the 18th century in both military and civilian life. Nevertheless, in the absence of adequate research into the Jeffersonian era — and notwithstanding the testimony of those anonymous drawings that appeared in some early reprints of Gass's journal — the tricorn remained the hat of choice for artists until historian Robert Moore and artist Michael Haynes finally provided alternatives at the outset of the bicentennial observance.2 In these two murals Paxson ignored the cliche of the tricorn and instead chose a style that had first appeared in Canadian paintings after 1825, a trimmed fur cap with ear-flaps turned up, and a stiff, narrow bill.3 The enlisted men wear less formal hats of fur, resembling those often seen on late-19th-century paintings of mountain men; their G.I. hats, narrow-brimmed beaver-felt toppers with low crowns, were worn out and discarded by this time.
All members of the party were clad in buckskins and shod in moccasins from the time they left Fort Mandan. In the mural, details such as the generous lapels on the captains' coats are Paxson's compromises between the mountain-man look and military formality. All wore moccasins for the rest of the journey. It is not known for certain whether the captains still had boots to wear at this time, but they had other parts of their dress uniforms until at least the time they started home from Fort Clatsop.
--Joseph Mussulman; 2/05
1. It was the Corps' Shoshone guide, Old Toby, who first engaged the three strangers in conversation "by signs or jesticulation, the common language of all the Aborigines of North America, it is one understood by all of them and appears to be sufficiently copious to convey with a degree of certainty the outlines of what they wish to communicate." (Lewis, 10 September 1805.)
2. Robert J. Moore, Jr., and Michael Haynes, Lewis and Clark Tailor Made, Trail Worn; Army Life, Clothing, & Weapons of the Corps of Discovery (Helena, Montana: Farcountry Press, 2003), 166-85.
3. Michael Haynes, personal communication, February 24, 2005. Inexplicably, Paxson reverted to the tricorn for Lewis in his mural, "Lewis and Clark at Three Forks" (1912), for the Montana state capitol building.
4. Two volumes; New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1904.
This page funded in part by a grant from the Montana Cultural Trust. | <urn:uuid:203cb17f-1a89-4d74-a145-f1adfe2c0a17> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lewis-clark.org/content/content-article.asp?ArticleID=2226 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957336 | 1,436 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Power companies using a lot of nuclear energy have been shown as among America's cleanest by the Natural Resources Defence Council (NRDC) in recently published data.
|Exelon's Peach Bottom nuclear
power plant (Image: Exelon)
The annual Benchmarking Air Emissions
report uses publicly available data from the Energy Information Administration and Environmental Protection Agency to compile tables of the fuel use, power generation and emissions of the USA's top 100 power producers. The latest edition, based on 2008 performance, was compiled with the help of Ceres, Constellation Energy, Entergy and PSEG.
Companies using generation portfolios dominated by coal were the worst emitters per MWh generated, with Big Rivers Electric and NiSource topping the list with over 2400 lbs of carbon dioxide (CO2) per MWh.
By comparison companies with high proportions of nuclear like Exelon and PG&E emitted only 122 lbs and 32 lbs CO2 per MWh respectively. Using over 90% nuclear power means that Exelon ranked as the fifth-biggest generator and also the fifth-smallest CO2 polluter per unit of power produced.
Other clean mixes included large amounts of hydro, like the US Corps of Engineers - actually the 18th biggest power generator in the country but with virtually no carbon dioxide emissions due to its total reliance on hydro. The NRDC report only counts emissions at the source of generation, rather than life-cycle figures.
NextEra Energy (formerly Florida Power and Light) has a mix of about half gas-fired generation, about one quarter nuclear and the rest coal, oil and renewables. It emerged fourth on the list of big generators, but with a per-MWh emission of 646 lbs of CO2 that placed it 86th on the list of emitters.
Besides CO2 the report includes data on sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and mercury and carbon dioxide, which "are associated with significant environmental and public health problems, including acid deposition, global warming, fine particle air pollution, mercury disposition, nitrogen disposition, ozone smog and regional haze."
The NRDC has previously stated its belief that nuclear power "is not a solution" and the USA should instead focus on "the widest possible implementation of end-use efficiency improvements and policies to accelerate commercialization of clean flexible renewable energy technologies." It noted in the report that electricity is the largest sectoral contributor to CO2 emissions with 39% of total emissions. Coal provides about 48% of US electricity, nuclear about 20%, hydro 6% and other renewables 2% with the rest coming from a range of sources.
Focusing on the prospects for renewables and energy efficiency, the NRDC report includes outlook sections on each as well as for coal and natural gas. The prospects for nuclear power were omitted, as was representation of the consistently low costs of uranium in comparison to other fuels for power generation.
Nevertheless, the body said its report would help the companies make good business choices in future to prepare themselves for future environmental legislation - particularly controls on CO2.
Researched and written
by World Nuclear News | <urn:uuid:330a4a6c-c42c-46d6-b119-2fbcf08dfd45> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/EE_Nuclear_powers_to_top_of_the_table_0607101.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930308 | 632 | 3.296875 | 3 |
A public lecture by Eric Davis, Rutgers University
Eric Davis is a Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University. His research has involved the relationship between state power and historical memory in modern Iraq, the political economy of Egyptian industrialization as a case study of dependency theory, the impact of oil wealth on the state and culture in Arab oil-producing countries, the ideology and social bases of Islamic radical movements, and the comparison of Islamic and Jewish radical movements. His books include Memories of State: Politics, History and Collective Identity in Modern Iraq and Statecraft in the Middle East: Oil, Historical Memory and Popular Culture, with Nicolas Gavrielides. He is currently working on a two volume study of American Orientalism: Mapping America's Orient: The Middle East in American Political and Popular Culture, 1750-1914, 1914-2003.
This lecture is part of a colloquium held under the auspices of the Center for Near Eastern Studies, and conducted in conjunction with a graduate seminar on Islam and Political Regimes taught by Leonard Binder, Professor of Political Science. Each week the colloquium will consider the political regime in one Muslim country, focusing on state policy and the political forces associated with Islamic interests, organizations, and movements. The lectures will be open to the University community and will be held on Wednesday afternoons at 3:30 pm.
© 2013. The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:a1421066-5f30-4316-b396-9ef6ff92d650> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://international.ucla.edu/calendar/showevent.asp?eventid=5755 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921213 | 292 | 1.5625 | 2 |
•Don't Let the Hecklers Get You Down. In many games, some fan is shouting above the crowd for the batter to miss, or the pitcher to throw badly, or deriding the umpire's calls. Taking such spiteful criticism to heart will only ruin the player's pleasure in the game and his chance of winning. "Everywhere in life you run into people rooting for you to fail," said Liberthson. "Look at these professional athletes on the field and think about how the rival team is hoping they'll fall flat on their faces. Still, these men often manage to succeed. It's a good lesson for life: ignore unhelpful criticism if you are giving the game your best. You won't have a chance to win if you don't stop beating yourself and letting the hecklers beat you."
•You Can't Win By Yourself. Baseball is a team sport. Sure, some teams have high-paid 'hot shots,' but without nine players on each team and many support staff there is no game. The same is true of life: you can be the best at what you do, but if you're not surrounded by good, supportive people whom you treat well, your chances of enjoying the experience are zero.
"Life is hard, but at its core life is a game, a serious game. Maybe who wins or loses the game isn't as important as how a player feels about the job he's done as he walks off the field," Liberthson said. | <urn:uuid:202ee272-0c96-454a-b095-73420e3a707b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.denpubs.com/news/2011/apr/14/subscribe-to-the-zen-of-little-league/?page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981184 | 305 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Magnets in iPad 2 May Alter Settings on Brain Shunt Devices, University of Michigan Study
6/27/2012 7:50:14 AM
Researchers at the University of Michigan have found that the Apple iPad 2 can interfere with settings of magnetically programmable shunt devices, which are often used to treat children with hydrocephalus. The iPad 2 contains magnets that can change valve settings in the shunt if the tablet computer is held too close to the valve (within 2 inches). Such a change may result in shunt malfunction until the problem is recognized and the valve adjusted to the proper setting. Patients and their caregivers should monitor use of the tablet computer to ensure that no change is made to the valve settings. The results of this study can be found in the article "Programmable shunt valve affected by exposure to a tablet computer. Laboratory investigation," by Strahle and colleagues, published in the August 2012 issue of the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics and available online. | <urn:uuid:9b37b265-6359-4d9c-8f79-c61f18178f05> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.biospace.com/news_print.aspx?NewsEntityId=265193 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939583 | 199 | 2.359375 | 2 |
Play allows us to praise God, celebrate hope, APCE speakers say
February 8, 2013
With 10 exclamation points, Psalm 148 is a fitting piece of Scripture for this year’s Association of Presbyterian Church Educators (APCE) annual event — the theme of which is “Let us play.”
APCE is a professional organization for educators in the Reformed tradition in the United States and Canada. This year’s annual event runs Feb. 6-9.
“Young men and women alike, old and young together! Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his glory is above earth and heaven,” reads Psalm 148: 12-13.
It can be hard to celebrate and play in the midst of hurtful church politics or when grieving the loss of a friend, said the Rev. Michelle Thomas-Bush, associate pastor for youth and their families at Myers Park Presbyterian Church in North Carolina and worship leader for the event.
Thomas-Bush spoke of a mission trip to Costa Rica she led. One of the youth had been battling depression and had to be urged to go on the trip, then to join the group on a zip lining outing. When she finally let go and went on the zip line, she truly laughed.
“Sometimes there’s nothing you can do but play,” Thomas-Bush said Feb. 6. “You let down your guard. You play.
“Play is something that is hard to describe,” she said. “You know it when you’re in it.”
Some say play is a diversion, but play is actually an expression of life. It starts from birth, and we naturally respond to it — we are reminded of this on the first spring day of the year.
Holy playfulness is the conscious decision to believe that God desires a better world for us — and so we have to give praise. Play is a fitting response to God, who calls us as God’s own and gives us room to move in spite of who we are.
Play allows us to “connect to God in a deep, real and abundant way,” Thomas-Bush said.
Play also helps us see God anew, said the Rev. Jaco Hamman, professor of religion, psychology and culture at Vanderbilt Divinity School and the event’s keynote speaker.
“Playful people are people who know that they have not yet discovered God fully,” Hamman said.
Play is related to two theologies: promise and blessing, he said. Play helps us live healthy lives because it is a transformative blessing.
“A full life is impossible without play,” Hamman said. “If you are not playful — even if you are faithful — you may not have a full life.”
Play gives us hope — both require imagination. Play also creates space inside of us and allows for creativity and problem solving.
“Play teaches problem solving more than any other dynamic I know of,” Hamman said. | <urn:uuid:bcbc893f-bae2-4100-a617-bdc93241fe73> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pcusa.org/news/2013/2/8/holy-playfulness/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947553 | 643 | 2.203125 | 2 |
Richard Dawkins is not a shy man.
Edward Larson's research shows that most scientists today are not formally religious, but Dawkins is an in-your-face atheist in the witty British style: I want to persuade the reader, not just that the Darwinian world-view happens to be true, but that it is the only known theory that could, in principle, solve the mystery of our existence.
The title of this 1986 work, Dawkins's second book, refers to the Rev.
William Paley's 1802 work, Natural Theology, which argued that just as finding a watch would lead you to conclude that a watchmaker must exist, the complexity of living organisms proves that a Creator exists.
Not so, says Dawkins: "All appearances to the contrary, the only watchmaker in nature is the blind forces of physics, albeit deployed in a very special way...
it is the blind watchmaker." Dawkins is a hard-core scientist: he doesn't just tell you what is so, he shows you how to find out for yourself.
For this book, he wrote Biomorph, one of the first artificial life programs.
For more information about the title The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design, read the full description at Amazon.com, or see the following related books:
Recommend this page on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:
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Story Highlights•Virginia Tech survivors should expect emotional swings, Columbine survivor says
• Survivors need to talk and need gentle listeners, she says
• Even though life will never be the same, one day it will be OK, survivor says
By Mary Carter
Adjust font size:
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- As Kacey Ruegsegger Johnson got ready for bed Monday night, she planned an escape route from her Tuesday morning theology class at Denver Seminary. The 25-year-old Columbine survivor wanted to be ready.
"If somebody was to walk in that room shooting, where am I going to go?" she recalls thinking. In the wake of Monday's campus rampage at Virginia Tech, Johnson's emotion was understandable.
So she stayed home. "If I went I would just be nervous," she said. "When I'm in a situation like that -- that I'm scared of or it sparks a lot of memories for me -- I'm watching every person very intently that walks through the door. I think it's very normal for me to be feeling that way, but I just didn't want to have to explain anything or disrupt class."
Post-traumatic stress is a fact of life for Johnson, whose shoulder was shattered by a shotgun blast in the Columbine High School library morning eight years ago Friday. She still has physical scars -- she's on disability from her job as a nurse because of recurring pain from her injury. And she has emotional wounds as well -- she's susceptible to "triggers" -- sights or sounds that bring back vivid memories of gunfire, of sirens and helicopters.
She says Monday's survivors should expect an emotional roller coaster. "There's sadness and anger and confusion. ... So many different emotions, frustration ... Know that it's normal to change how you're feeling, to go back and forth between anger and acceptance and sadness," she said. "And it's OK that years down the road you might still have those feelings."
She hopes they will talk about those feelings. And she hopes their loved ones will listen. "It's very important to be able to express how they're feeling, without somebody doubting them," she said. "Their family is not going to understand because they didn't see the things that those kids saw. They did not see their peers lying there dead. They didn't see a gun pointed at their face."
She still has moments, when she hears a loud noise for example, that can take her back to that day at Columbine, crouching with her fingers in her ears in the school library. But the intensity is fading.
"I think it's always going to be normal that things trigger me," she says. "Each year it gets less and less."
In fact, she said, her first reaction after hearing of Monday's campus massacre at Virginia Tech wasn't fear.
"It was just sadness that there's other people going through the horrible thing that I've lived through," she said. "Knowing what they're experiencing and how awful it is."
Johnson's injuries were severe. Initially she was in critical condition from blood loss. She was hospitalized for two weeks.
After she knew she would survive, the fear kicked in. For a year, she said, "I didn't want to be in public. I didn't want anybody knowing my name. I was afraid -- from the post-traumatic stress -- that somebody was going to finish me off. To normal people that makes no sense, but to a victim of something like that -- to me -- it made perfect sense."
Counseling that summer helped "to get me back into the real world -- going to the grocery store or going to the movies," she said. She elected not to return to Columbine and instead graduated in 2000 from Denver Christian High School. Next came Arapahoe Community College and a nursing degree.
That choice was a direct result of Columbine as well. At the time of the shooting, she had planned to be a teacher. But afterward, she knew she couldn't work in a school. The nurses who got her through those first two weeks, and who continued to check on her as she recovered, inspired her.
"They had big impact on my recovery, so I wanted to be able to do that for somebody else," she said.
The lessons of Columbine, she said, have made her a better nurse.
"I feel like I have so much to give because of what I went through," Johnson said. "Especially with my cancer patients at the end of life, or with a new diagnosis. That's life-changing. Its completely different from my life-changing experience, but for people who are going through something like that, it was really helpful to have a nurse who had been through something traumatic."
Today Johnson lives in suburban Denver with her husband, Patrick, and their retrievers, Maggie and Penny. She's hoping that rest will take care of the problems she continues to have with her injured shoulder. She knows another shoulder replacement surgery lies ahead, but she's hoping rest can stave it off a while longer. When she returns to nursing, it'll probably be in an office rather than at bedside.
Eight years removed from that traumatic day at school, life is good, Johnson said, and she wants the Virginia Tech survivors to know that even though they may feel their world will never the same, one day they, too, will find a new equilibrium.
"I feel normal," she said. "It's a different kind of normal, but it's normal."
Eight years after her shooting, life feels normal for Kacey Ruegsegger Johnson, here with husband, Patrick, and dogs Penny, left, and Maggie.
HEALTH VIDEO LIBRARY | <urn:uuid:b2641db2-746a-4aba-bcf8-940c0e88bee1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/04/19/shooting.columbine.survivor/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98414 | 1,187 | 1.953125 | 2 |
[PT] posted about an exciting development from Cadsoft, the migration to XML based parts, schematics, and board layouts. The adoption of this open standard goes hand-in-hand with the open hardware initiatives people like [PT] have been pushing for.
Cadsoft Eagle is our go-to schematic and PCB software. We even have a tutorial which guides you through preparing your files for PCB manufacture. But the files containing parts libraries, schematics, and board layouts have always been binaries. A transition to XML means a lot of things. They will be easier to edit, and much friendlier for tracking changes using version control systems like SVN, CVS, Mercurial SCM, Git, etc. But immediately on our minds is the accessibility for hacking. Think of how easy XML parsing is in programs like Python. It should be snap to write scripts on a whim that will manipulate the XML files in any way imaginable. This doesn’t discount the value of Eagle, it extends the usability far beyond what any team of engineers at Cadsoft could produce by themselves. And for that, we say Bravo. | <urn:uuid:9d89c9c4-6f56-4060-948b-74817622ed50> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hackaday.com/2010/10/14/cadsoft-eagle-migrating-to-xml/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=18b5244a97 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929863 | 231 | 1.632813 | 2 |
For the past couple of weeks, when I get out of bed in the morning and step onto my left foot, it is sore. This lasts anywhere from a few minutes to up to an hour. This started the same day that I began to have lower back pain. I'm still dealing with the back pain- my doctor thinks it's a slipped disk and I have a follow-up appointment next week. But I'm wondering if the slipped disk could be causing the foot pain. It is on the same side that I'm starting to get nerve pains down my leg, and it started on the same morning. Or could it be something else?
Back problems can produce foot pain, if they are affecting your leg nerves.
Or, foot pain that's worst with the first step out of bed could be plantar fasciitis. The best treatment for that is stretching the heel and calf before you get out of bed in the morning. Icing also helps. Some people roll a water bottle under the foot in the morning.
See what helps. Do let the doctor who is treating the back pain know about the foot pain.
The Following User Says Thank You to janewhite1 For This Useful Post: Krista2882 (09-26-2011)
Well my ankles hurt and swell when I overuse them, but I don't know about back problems. I don't know if I'm still too young to know too much about them...
My mother, on the other hand, has two hernias on her back but her feet are fine.
Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
Foot problems can be caused by back pain. If it is related to the nerves, it all depends on which ones are affected. Each level of the lower back (L4, L5, S1, etc) has a different nerve root and location of back pain is important when discussing foot pain.
If the back isn't the issue, it most certainly can be from simply walking differently. The two areas of pain may be caused from alignment issues, compensation, etc. The only way to know this for sure is a thorough physical evaluation of your back and lower extremity. Nerve conduction or EMG testing may be helpful as well if a back injury is considered the probable cause.
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to j9879 For This Useful Post: kimberp (09-26-2011), Krista2882 (09-26-2011) | <urn:uuid:af869ee7-6dd5-4ec1-abfb-14d4cc4b8fcf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.healthboards.com/boards/foot-problems/870886-sore-foot-morning.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953152 | 540 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Pregnancy is the process of childbearing. Measured from the start of a woman's last normal menstrual period, or LMP, it usually lasts about 40 weeks, or roughly 9 calendar months.
A woman can learn if she is pregnant within a few weeks after an egg is fertilized during conception. Pregnancy tests check for rising levels of a specific hormone. Home pregnancy tests may be done on urine. Tests done at a lab may use urine or blood.
The fertilized egg is called an embryo for the first 8 weeks. After that it is called a fetus or an unborn child. Its links to the mother appear quite early. The placenta, also known as the afterbirth, begins to form the moment the embryo attaches to the lining of the uterus. It grows inside the uterus, or womb, between the uterine wall and the developing child. The placenta is the channel through which oxygen, nutrients, drugs, hormones, and other substances pass from mother to her unborn child. Waste products from the fetus cross back through the placenta to the mother and are disposed of by the mother's kidneys.The umbilical cord links the unborn child to the placenta. The spot at which the umbilical cord connects to the unborn child will become its navel, or belly button
During the first trimester, growth and development of the unborn child inside the mother causes many changes to occur. A woman may notice: no period or a light periodblue lines under the skin over her breasts and abdomenwaistline expansionbreasts that grow largerprotruding nipples
Other common signs of early pregnancy in women include: nausea sometimes coupled with vomiting known as morning sicknessfood aversions and cravingsheartburn and indigestionfatiguetender breastscomplexion problemsa need to urinate oftenconstipationheadaches, dizziness, or faintness
In the unborn child: the heart begins to beatbones appear and the head, arms, fingers, legs, and toes formmajor organs and the nervous system formthe placenta formshair starts to grow20 buds for future teeth appear
By the end of the first trimester, the unborn child is about 4 inches long and weighs just a bit more than 1 ounce. While many pregnancies run into no trouble during this time, problems can occur: 10 in 1,000 pregnancies occur outside the womb. Usually the embryo finds a home in one of the fallopian tubes on its way to the uterus. This is known as an ectopic pregnancy.1 in 3 pregnancies ends in miscarriage, often in the early weeks
During the first trimester of pregnancy, monitoring may include: First month: full physical examination and testing. These tests include a Pap smear, blood tests, urinalysis, TB test, and others.Second month: weight and blood pressure and urine test for sugar and proteinThird month: height, weight, the baby's heartbeat, size, shape and height of the uterus
Planning for Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond. Second Edition, The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
What to Expect when You're Expecting, Eisenberg | <urn:uuid:357d75f6-3af3-4da1-819c-5edf18178edf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.activeforever.com/a-first-trimester-of-pregnancy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93457 | 640 | 3.4375 | 3 |
Posts tagged with 'Amazon'
Scaling can be tricky for consumer internet startups, especially when it comes to hardware and infrastructure.
Many startups have failed in part because they couldn't successfully scale effectively and sensibly.
Shoppers using an e-commerce site have two main ways of finding the exact product or service they want – the navigation bar and the search box.
While many sites have great navigation, there are plenty whose search options return some pretty poor results.
Bloggers can increase conversion rates for affiliate sales by using simple ‘buy it now’ buttons to product-related posts.
This tip comes from Al at the Self Made Minds blog (via ProBlogger) – he says he has managed to increase conversions by up to 100% by adding an Amazon-style ‘Buy Now’ button to his affiliate pages.
Internet shoppers in the US are reported to have spent around $733m (£355m) on 'Cyber Monday' - the biggest day of the online retail year.
Figures from comScore suggest Amazon and Wal-Mart attracted the most custom, while the overall number of people shopping online was up 38%.
However, the traffic also caused issues - some sites were operating up to 400% slower than usual while Yahoo's Merchant Solutions service buckled under the strain.
The mighty Economist has produced an editorial forecasting the death of the book following Amazon’s launch of its ebook reader, labelled Kindle.
It seems that Kindle Fever is in full swing, yet the mass consumer adoption of ebook readers seems thoroughly unfeasible in the short term, and I’m not convinced it is a likely scenario in the long term either.
Amazon has launched a beta version of its much-anticipated DRM-free music download store.
The etailing giant claims it will have the world's largest collection of DRM-free music downloads, with 2m songs available from over 180,000 artists.
However, it is not yet available in the UK.
Amazon has launched a range of widgets in a bid to boost the reach of its affiliate marketing programme.
The widgets can be used to display the etailer's products on blogs, social networks and other websites, earning members of the company's Associates programme up to 10% in referral fees.
Bob Chieffo published an excellent article last week on the importance of buttons on e-commerce sites in making it clear to the customer what they need to press next.
He points out, on Revenews, that many etailers allow too much room for confusion in the mind of the customer over what they need to do and press to make their purchase.
Multi-channel retailers are mounting a challenge to the online dominance of their pure-play rivals despite tending to offer a lower level of site functionality, according to research.
The study, by eDigitalResearch, which uses mystery shoppers to rate UK shopping websites, found Play.com and Amazon.com continued to generate the best overall response from consumers.
However, multi-channel players like Tesco, John Lewis and M&S were seen to have stronger customer service.
No surprises to see NBC heading over to Amazon’s Unbox online video service, following the content owner’s decision to ditch a deal with iTunes.
Amazon has catered for NBC’s variable pricing demands, with new shows likely to be priced more highly than older ones. Apple refused to budge on its fixed price policy, which appears to have been the dealbreaker. | <urn:uuid:8aa5e585-32df-44ef-9cc3-b41070dfcf4a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/tags/amazon?page=20 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949269 | 721 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Welcome to the Home page for CREATIVITY – A Social Ecological Approach. This site explores how we might redirect creativity towards a social ecological vision and explores all aspects of creativity and how it is applied. From Architects to Economists and whether it is about physical or social change, creativity comes into play. This site is an attempt at developing a set of building blocks for a new consciousness about creativity. The best place to start is with the ABOUT section which begins with a paper about Holistic Design Ecology. The purpose of this site is to share interests, disseminate work, ARTICLES and ideas in progress. The site is also intended as a public notice board for related events and texts. We will be reading various BOOKS and holding meetings and EVENTS where ideas can be shared and debated. We welcome your comments and ideas. If you would like to be part of the mailing list for our upcoming readings, events or simply to stay in touch please go to CONTACT US and send us an email. We won’t use your email address for anything else. There are more categories to see using the navigation system at the bottom of every page.
VIDEO : Teachin - Ecological Literacy – Victoria and Albert Museum, London http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LIXf3NcWbQ | <urn:uuid:fbd5a17c-6209-4368-a0b6-a0753a18e8bf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://holisticdesignecology.wordpress.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916112 | 271 | 2.125 | 2 |
The Missouri River, created by geological glacial action thousands of years ago, historically has served as a gateway to the west. First used by prehistoric Indians, it served successively fur trader, explorers, and homesteaders. Among the earliest Europeans using the river were the French, who competed with the Spanish and British for ownership of the area.
After buying the Louisiana Purchase from France in 1803, the U.S. set out to explore its new territory. The Lewis and Clark Expedition passed here in 1804 on its way to the headwaters of the Missouri (and eventually to the Pacific Ocean) and returned in 1806. The explorers camped near here. The first steamboat to pass this way was the Western Engineer in 1819. With the establishment of Nebraska Territory in 1854, steamboats hauled freight and passengers until replaced by railroads.
A major railroad bridge, constructed here by the Burlington in 1887, was replaced in 1977. The highway bridge was completed in 1939. Today the Corps of Engineers maintains a 9-foot channel to Sioux City, and the river, railroads, and highways combine to serve this agricultural heartland of America.
Department of Roads
Nebraska State Historical Society
Hwy. 159, east side of Rulo | <urn:uuid:94de178e-fd25-4cf4-84cc-1281b24cdd8b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nebraskahistory.org/publish/markers/texts/missouri_river.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963754 | 256 | 3.53125 | 4 |
Not to go all gloomy on a day when it's finally not cold and the sun is out and San Francisco was just named the happiest city in America, (based on things like the number of shopping centers and cultural events), but really: Let's not all jump up and down and celebrate. This is a very happy city for people who have money; it's becoming a very anxiety-filled city for everyone else.
I've gotten quite a few comments and emails from friends on our cover story this week, and most of them go something like this:
"Great story. Really scary. I hope they don't Ellis Act my building or I won't be able to stay here, either."
If you're a renter in San Francisco, and you've been here a while, and you're under rent control, chances are you're nervous about your future. Because if you get evicted, you're almost certainly leaving town. Maybe you can find a place in Oakland that's smaller than what you currently have at twice the price, or maybe you can't.
This is a city under immense pressure, and while the economically secure can happily go to shopping centers and see the Opera, I would say a majority of the current residents of San Francisco are more stressed about their future than they have been in years. And that doesn't seem to be addressed in the happiness calculus.
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- Because the mayor claims to - May 24, 2013 | <urn:uuid:76113cd1-6489-4426-ae1e-985f7e9881e9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www1.sfbg.com/politics/2013/02/06/happiest-city-some?page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97637 | 425 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Can I Conceive with a Tilted Uterus?
Perhaps the biggest concern for a woman with a tipped uterus is whether or not she will be able to have babies. The general answer to that is yes. As a rule, a tipped uterus does not cause problems in conception and often will right itself by the 10th to 12th week of pregnancy. It should not cause any difficulty for the pregnancy nor for the labor and delivery. If the uterus does not move back into a middle position, it is possible a miscarriage may occur; however, such an event is very rare.
Other Ways of Referring to It
There are a number of ways of referring to a tipped uterus, all meaning the same thing: the uterus is tipped backwards toward the back of the pelvis. The more common terms associated with this condition are:
· retroflexed uterus
· tilted uterus
· backward uterus
· retroverted uterus
· tilted womb
When medical professionals talk about this condition, they may use phrases such as:
· uterine retroversion
· uterine retroflexion
· retroversion of the uterus
· symptomatic uterine retroversion
· symptomatic uterine retroflexion
· uterine retrodisplacement
· reflexion of the uterus
What Happened? Why is My Uterus Tipped?
A woman is born with her uterus in a specific place in her body, in a certain position. A uterus may be tilted far forward toward the bladder. This is called an anteverted uterus. When the uterus is tilted backward toward the rectum, it is known as a retroverted (or any of the above noted names) uterus. About two-thirds of all tilted uteruses in women are anteverted, pointing toward the bladder. A retroverted uterus is a normal variation on the theme of tipped uteruses, not unlike comparing left-handed people to right-handed people.
Normal life cannot shift the position of the uterus. Sex will not change the position; however, the angle of the uterus can be shifted through the following conditions:
· Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID)
· Endometriosis or adenomyosis
· Uterine fibroid tumors
It Hurts to Make Love
Sex may be painful for women with a retroverted uterus, especially vaginal penetration. The pressure on the rectum and ligaments of the tailbone make penetration and thrusting uncomfortable for some women. A change in sexual positions as well as depth of thrusting can make a significant difference in such cases. Since the body of the retroverted uterus lies just at the end of the vagina, it can get hit during intercourse, kind of like a punching bag. This is even more likely in the event of adenomyosis, a type of endometriosis that is within the walls of the uterus itself. Pain can also occur during a bowel movement if a tilted uterus has adenomyosis or some other uterine problem. This is because the tipped uterus is lying against the rectum and it gets scraped by stool coming through the rectum.
If the pain is persistently painful, and/or periods are causing serious discomfort and pain, it is a good idea to see a gynecologist for a check-up. There is a chance there is an underlying condition that is exacerbating the issue. If endometriosis or PID is associated with the pain there is a risk of fertility issues due to scarring in the uterus and tubes. Endometriosis is generally found outside of the uterus, within the pelvic cavity.
Other Symptoms that can be Painful
Often, a tipped uterus is not problematic and some women do not experience any symptoms from it. However, if there are symptoms present, they are primarily pain during intercourse, called dyspareunia; and pain during menstruation, called dysmenorrhea. There are other symptoms that can accompany a tipped uterus that include:
· back pain during intercourse
· minor incontinence
· urinary tract infections
· fertility problems
· difficulty using tampons
UPLIFT - A New Procedure
As long as a woman is not experiencing any symptoms, there is no need to interfere. However, if she is experiencing symptoms, the physician may recommend repositioning the uterus using surgery. By suspending the uterus, pain during intercourse and menstruation can be reduced. The procedure used to reposition a tipped uterus from its backward facing position to a forward facing position is called the UPLIFT procedure and is a newer, improved, method of uterine suspension. Often, repositioning the uterus this way provides lasting pain relief in situations of painful sex and menstruation.
Read more about retroverted uterus and the effects of it in our article in this section. | <urn:uuid:26601558-28a9-4c10-a57f-0dce421549aa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.womens-health.co.uk/effects-of-tipped-uterus.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939244 | 975 | 2.453125 | 2 |
In 1996, with a gold Honda hatchback full of books and camping gear, I moved to New Mexico. That summer was my first working as an archaeologist, and afternoon rainstorms frequently interrupted our fieldwork near Coyote Canyon on the Navajo Nation. My boss at the time joked that I’d brought the rain with me from Virginia. I took for granted the storms that summer, and the next few summers after that.
Obviously, I am not a native of New Mexico. I don’t farm, and with my fieldwork days behind me, I don’t otherwise work on the land. My ancestors didn’t live here and mine are not deep, historical connections to the landscape.
But over the past 16 years, I’ve still managed to notice a few changes. The Rio Grande dries more often. Drought and bark beetles have conspired to kill off many conifer forests. Summertime forest fires are bigger.
Having witnessed just these few changes within less than two decades, I was excited to attend the 57th annual New Mexico Water Conference, which, this year, was titled “Hard Choices: Adapting Policy and Management to Water Scarcity.”
Water scarcity? Check. This summer, much of the state experienced “extreme drought” and stretches of New Mexico’s two largest rivers—the Rio Grande and the Pecos River—had run dry.
Even the drive to Las Cruces offered a lesson in adapting to water scarcity. At the end of August, the Rio Grande through Albuquerque was barely a trickle (and the city had to stop drawing water from the river for its drinking water project), the view of Elephant Butte Reservoir was relatively sandy, and pale green plants carpeted the muddy northern stretch of Caballo Reservoir.
At New Mexico State University, the conference was packed; panelists offered insight into issues like climate change projections for the Rio Grande, the impact of water scarcity on acequias, environmental protection and river restoration.
Then, in the afternoon, Sen. Tom Udall, D-NM, hosted a discussion, titled “Straight Talk,” among four former New Mexico state engineers. (The Office of the State Engineer oversees the state’s water resources.) Udall had invited John Hernandez, Eluid Martinez, Tom Turney and John D’Antonio to the conference as “truth tellers,” he said.
But it was clear after only a few moments that there would be no “straight talk” about New Mexico’s warmer, drier future. With the exception of Turney’s allusion to climate change and precipitation data, the conversation among the four engineers could have taken place in the 1990s, or perhaps even the 1960s.
D’Antonio, for instance, posed the question, “Where is the next visionary?” For a moment, I wondered if the conversation was headed in a new direction. When he referred to the San Juan-Chama project, my hopes fizzled.
Envisioned in the 1930s, that project pipes water from the San Juan River through diversions and tunnels into the Chama River and then the Rio Grande. A number of cities, including Santa Fe, have rights to that water.
Despite the fact that Albuquerque had just shut down its San Juan-Chama Drinking Water Project because of low river flows, D’Antonio pointed out that the project provides water from a renewable source and takes pressure off groundwater supplies.
The San Juan Chama Project is undoubtedly an amazing feat of engineering, planning and water rights wrangling. It’s also typical of 20th-century water management in New Mexico, which relies heavily on infrastructure—diversions, dams and reservoirs—paid for by the federal government.
And it’s not entirely clear that the federal government will continue water business as usual in the West. During his address, Michael Connor, commissioner of the US Bureau of Reclamation—which built most of the big water projects in the state—explained that water storage in reservoirs on the Rio Grande has plummeted.(Warmer temperatures mean more water evaporates from reservoirs. Also, when it’s warm, plants suck up more water—whether it’s cottonwoods in the bosque, alfalfa in the field or peonies in the yard.) Connor also spoke of decreasing groundwater supplies, population pressures and climate change. His talk was short on solutions, but at least he acknowledged the problems.
On the drive back from Las Cruces that night, I thought about how in the late ’90s, I worked on an archaeological crew that surveyed that stretch of desert along the Rio Grande between Truth or Consequences and Socorro. Wherever I worked in New Mexico, I fantasized about the lives of the people whose potsherds and flaked stones we spotted. What measures did they take to survive and thrive in an arid landscape? And how did they envision the future?
Those years surveying and excavating—also, scanning for water and wondering about food sources—taught me about New Mexico’s past. But they also affected how I think about sustainability and the future. Driving past twilight into darkness, when the creosote-covered rills were no longer visible out of the window, I continued to mull over D’Antonio’s question: Where are the visionaries?
Click to watch an archived webcast of New Mexico’s 57th annual water conference. | <urn:uuid:125132e0-c41b-4137-ba1e-71d5e07b82e1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sfreporter.com/santafe/article-6974-first-person-where-are-the-visionaries.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956809 | 1,156 | 2.46875 | 2 |
Britain's Oxford University Press announced "omnishambles" as the Oxford Dictionaries word of the year for Britain and "GIF" as the U.S. word of the year.
Fiona McPherson, one of the lexicographers on the judging panel for Oxford, said "omnishambles" was coined by satirical TV show "The Thick of It" and means "a situation that has been comprehensively mismanaged, and is characterized by a string of blunders and miscalculations."
"It was a word everyone liked, which seemed to sum up so many of the events over the last 366 days in a beautiful way. It's funny, it's quirky, and it has broken free of its fictional political beginnings, firstly by spilling over into real politics, and then into other contexts," McPherson said.
Meanwhile, the publisher announced "GIF," a verb meaning to create a GIF file -- an image file featuring looping animations -- of an event, as the world of the year for the United States.
DISCUSS AND COMMENT ON THIS STORY Reality TV World now offers Facebook Comments on our stories. To post a comment, log into Facebook and then 'Add' your comment. To report spam or abuse, click the 'X' in the upper right corner of the comment box. | <urn:uuid:ab3ea04f-816b-47ea-a23b-a3cd317a14d5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.realitytvworld.com/index/articles/story.php?s=1031734 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964967 | 279 | 1.875 | 2 |
Playing some spooky music is a good way to get your party guests in the Halloween mood. You could have a CD running in the background or you could crank up the sound and get everyone dancing!
Halloween party CDs with a collection of songs by various artists are cheap to buy and you can listen to them every Halloween. They usually feature pop hits commonly associated with Halloween, ghosts or ghouls, such as Ghostbusters, Thriller and The Time Warp, plus many others. Of course, you could download your favourites online and make your own unique compilation.
Another idea is to play creepy soundtracks from scary horror movies such as The Exorcist and The Omen.
For kids parties, CDs and MP3s are available with songs especially written for younger children, which you could use for musical games such as Musical Statues or Dead Lions (you could rename this Dead Witches or something similar). | <urn:uuid:ec0be461-c25c-4548-85ec-be7893f1be55> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.halloweenpartyideas.org/music/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958142 | 182 | 1.515625 | 2 |
April 20, 2006
Today in History: Crunden-Martin Asks for a Quote
Please advise us the lowest price you can make us on our order for ten car loads of Mason green jars, complete, with caps, packed one dozen in case, either delivered here, or f. o. b. cars your place, as you prefer. State terms and cash discount.
Crunden-Martin W. W. Co.
Fairmount's reply, couched as a price quote, will nevertheless be found by the Kentucky Court of Appeals (how did Kentucky get involved in this?) to be an offer. The case of Crunden-Martin Wooden Ware Co. v. Fairmount Glass Works is a casebook staple. The Crunden-Martin facility is a proposed National Historic Site -- you can see lots of pictures here. The "F" in a hexagon (above, right) was the Fairmount trademark. You can click on "continue reading" for the text of the decision.
Fairmount Glass Works v. Crunden-Martin Wooden Ware Co.
Court of Appeals of Kentucky
106 Ky. 659; 51 S.W. 196
May 24, 1899, Decided
On April 20, 1895, appellee wrote appellant the following letter:
“St. Louis, Mo., April 20, 1895. Gentlemen: Please advise us the lowest price you can make us on our order for ten car loads of Mason green jars, complete, with caps, packed one dozen in case, either delivered here, or f. o. b. cars your place, as you prefer. State terms and cash discount. Very truly, Crunden-Martin W. W. Co.”
To this letter appellant answered as follows:
“Fairmount, Ind., April 23, 1895. Crunden-Martin Wooden Ware Co., St. Louis, Mo. -- Gentlemen: Replying to your favor of April 20th, we quote you Mason fruit jars, complete, in one-dozen boxes, delivered in East St. Louis, Ill.: Pints, $ 4.50; quarts, $ 5.00; half gallons, $ 6.50 per gross, for immediate acceptance, and shipment not later than May 15, 1895; sixty days’ acceptance, or 2 off, cash in ten days. Yours truly, Fairmount Glass Works.
“Please note that we make all quotations and contracts subject to the contingencies of agencies or transportation, delays or accidents beyond our control.”
For reply thereto, appellee sent the following telegram on April 24, 1895:
“Fairmount Glass Works, Fairmount, Ind.: Your letter twenty-third received. Enter order ten car loads as per your quotation. Specifications mailed. Crunden-Martin W. W. Co.”
In response to this telegram, appellant sent the following:
“Fairmount, Ind., April 24, 1895. Crunden-Martin W. W. Co., St. Louis, Mo.: Impossible to book your order. Output all sold. See letter. Fairmount Glass Works.”
Appellee insists that, by its telegram sent in answer to the letter of April 23d, the contract was closed for the purchase of ten car loads of Mason fruit jars. Appellant insists that the contract was not closed by this telegram, and that it had the right to decline to fill the order at the time it sent its telegram of April 24th. This is the chief question in the case. The court below gave judgment in favor of appellee, and appellant has appealed, earnestly insisting that the judgment is erroneous.
We are referred to a number of authorities holding that a quotation of prices is not an offer to sell, in the sense that a completed contract will arise out of the giving of an order for merchandise in accordance with the proposed terms. There are a number of cases holding that the transaction is not completed until the order so made is accepted. 7 Am. & Eng. Enc. Law (2d Ed.), p. 138; Smith v. Gowdy, 8 Allen 566; Beaupre v. P. & N. A. Telegraph Co., 21 Minn. 155.
But each case must turn largely upon the language there used. In this case we think there was more than a quotation of prices, although appellant’s letter uses the word “quote” in stating the prices given. The true meaning of the correspondence must be determined by reading it as a whole. Appellee’s letter of April 20th, which began the transaction, did not ask for a quotation of prices. It reads: “Please advise us the lowest price you can make us on our order for ten car loads of Mason green jars. . . . State terms and cash discount.” From this appellant could not fail to understand that appellee wanted to know at what price it would sell it ten car loads of these jars; so when, in answer, it wrote: “We quote you Mason fruit jars . . . pints $ 4.50, quarts $ 5.00, half gallons $ 6.50 per gross, for immediate acceptance; . . . 2 off, cash in ten days,” -- it must be deemed as intending to give appellee the information it had asked for. We can hardly understand what was meant by the words “for immediate acceptance,” unless the latter was intended as a proposition to sell at these prices if accepted immediately. In construing every contract, the aim of the court is to arrive at the intention of the parties. In none of the cases to which we have been referred on behalf of appellant was there on the face of the correspondence any such expression of intention to make an offer to sell on the terms indicated.
In Fitzhugh v. Jones, 20 Va. 83, 6 Munf. 83, the use of the expression that the buyer should reply as soon as possible, in case he was disposed to accede to the terms offered, was held sufficient to show that there was a definite proposition, which was closed by the buyer’s acceptance. The expression in appellant’s letter, “for immediate acceptance,” taken in connection with appellee’s letter, in effect, at what price it would sell it the goods, is, it seems to us, much stronger evidence of a present offer, which, when accepted immediately closed the contract. Appellee’s letter was plainly an inquiry for the price and terms on which appellant would sell it the goods, and appellant’s answer to it was not a quotation of prices, but a definite offer to sell on the terms indicated, and could not be withdrawn after the terms had been accepted.
It will be observed that the telegram of acceptance refers to the specifications mailed. These specifications were contained in the following letter:
“St. Louis, Mo., April 24, 1895. Fairmount Glass Works Co., Fairmount. Ind. - - Gentlemen: We received your letter of 23d this morning, and telegraphed you in reply as follows: ‘Your letter 23d received. Enter order ten car loads as per your quotation. Specifications mailed,’ - - which we now confirm. We have accordingly entered this contract on our books for the ten cars Mason green jars, complete, with caps and rubbers, one dozen in case, delivered to us in East St. Louis, at $ 4.50 per gross for pint, $ 5.00 for quart, $ 6.50 for one-half gallon. Terms, sixty days’ acceptance, or 2 per cent, for cash in ten days, to be shipped not later than May 15, 1895. The jars and caps to be strictly first quality goods. You may ship the first car to us here assorted: Five gross pint, fifty-five gross quart, forty gross one-half gallon. Specifications for the remaining nine cars we will send later. Crunden-Martin W. W. Co.”
It is insisted for appellant that this was not an acceptance of the offer as made; that the stipulation, “The jars and caps to be strictly first-quality goods,” was not in their offer; and that, it not having been accepted as made, appellant is not bound. But it will be observed that appellant declined to furnish the goods before it got this letter, and in the correspondence with appellee it nowhere complained of these words as an addition to the contract. Quite a number of other letters passed, in which the refusal to deliver these goods was placed on other grounds, none of which have been sustained by the evidence. Appellee offers proof tending to show that these words, in the trade in which parties were engaged, conveyed the same meaning as the words used in appellant’s letter, and were only a different form of expressing the same idea. Appellant’s conduct would seem to confirm this evidence.
Appellant also insists that the contract was indefinite, because the quantity of each size of the jars was not fixed, that ten car loads is too indefinite a specification of the quantity sold, and that appellee had no right to accept the goods to be delivered on different days.
The proof shows that “ten car loads” is an expression used in the trade as equivalent to 1,000 gross, 100 gross being regarded a car load. The offer to sell the different sizes at different prices gave the purchaser the right to name the quantity of each size, and, the offer being to ship not later than May 15th, the buyer had the right to fix the time of delivery at any time before that. Sousely v. Burns’s Adm’r, 73 Ky. 87, 10 Bush 87; Williamson’s Heirs v. Johnston’s Heirs, 4 T.B. Mon. 253; Wheeler v. N. B. Railroad Co., 115 U.S. 29.
The petition, if defective, was cured by the judgment, which is fully sustained by the evidence.
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Old habits die hard: The clothes of yore interest young religious
Around the time Karen Lueck entered the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in 1967, the community had decided to forgo its traditional habit. “Many people who had worn the habit were glad to get out of it,” she says. “They felt it kept them on a pedestal, apart from the people.”
The order reconsidered the issue several times during the 1970s and eventually reached a compromise: A few sisters chose to wear a modified habit, and the vast majority—including Lueck—opted for simple, professional clothing. (All sisters wear the order’s medal and ring.)
But then almost three decades later, the habit question surfaced again—this time from Julia Walsh, the youngest member of the community, who joined in 2006 when she was 24.
“It’s a sensitive topic,” acknowledges Walsh, who teaches religion courses at Hales Franciscan High School in Chicago. “Some older sisters have a lot of pain about it. But it was important to me to ask if we could create room for members who want to wear a veil and habit to do so.”
“I said to someone, ‘Whoever would have thought we’d have to deal with this issue again?’ ” says Lueck. But as the community’s co-minister of incorporation, she worked closely with younger, newer members, and she knew she and the rest of the community “needed to listen to where this was coming from.”
About 30 sisters took part in a listening session in the motherhouse in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and they learned that visibility is a key consideration for Walsh and her fellow millennials. “I’ve chosen to be a sister because it’s countercultural and it’s a prophetic form of witness to the gospel,” says Walsh. While she primarily wants to be identified by her service and love, she wants more: “I want people who don’t know me to know I’m a sister, to gain some joy from knowing that young women religious exist.” (She’s in good company: Among the few young women choosing religious life today, the most popular orders are those that wear a habit.)
Sisters at the meeting concluded that the congregation’s constitution doesn’t say a member can’t wear religious garb. Buoyed by the discussion, Walsh headed out to Goodwill and “bought a bunch of brown clothes” in order to cultivate a more traditionally Franciscan appearance. She would still like to have a veil.
The handling of the habit issue was emblematic of how this community aims to deal with issues that potentially divide along generational lines. “It’s a lot of work—we have to communicate clearly and not make assumptions and remain loving in the midst of it all,” says Walsh. “We have a lot of good, honest discussion about our different perspectives and experiences.”
“The community was willing to talk about it, and that was huge,” says Lueck, who heard from a few sisters in other congregations that the FSPAs were “brave” to address the topic. Lueck acknowledges that it wasn’t easy. At one point she overheard an exasperated member say that younger sisters would eventually outgrow the desire to don the habit. Others were worried that restoring the habit would symbolize rolling back the clock.
“It’s not about taking us back,” says Lueck, who emphasizes that for millennials, seemingly “conservative” preferences for religious garb and eucharistic adoration co-exist with seemingly “progressive” ideas on social justice and community.
“Their ways of looking at things are very different. They’re having us ask questions maybe we haven’t asked ourselves in a while. Each generation loses some important things, depending upon what their focus has been. We need to be renewed by the next generation.”
This article appeared in the September 2011 issue of U.S. Catholic (Vol. 76, No. 9, page 27). | <urn:uuid:fb9d8523-a323-4c6f-a216-a2cc26f9d2f4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.uscatholic.org/life/2011/08/old-habits-die-hard-clothes-yore-interest-young-religious | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975738 | 902 | 1.84375 | 2 |
RICHMOND, VA - Today, Congressman Eric Cantor (VA-07) hosted a job creators forum with local business leaders at Virginia Commonwealth University. Moderated by Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling, the panel discussion with job creators focused on ways to create an environment to grow the economy and foster private sector job creation. Below are highlights of Congressman Cantor's remarks at the forum.
On Washington Partnering with Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs: “Start-up businesses, as we know, are disproportionately responsible for job creation. In fact, I think most people would say job creation comes from small businesses. The Kauffmann Foundation did a study about a year ago which demonstrated that it’s not just small businesses; it is the three to five year old small businesses that are disproportionality responsible for job creation. So if we know that to be the case, and if you take Fletcher [Mangum’s] statement that it’s not the government jobs we are after - it’s those jobs that are economically sustainable that we’re after - why wouldn’t we be tilting our policies towards making it more favorable for start-ups?...That’s exactly what the focus in Washington needs to be. We need to be looking at policies that help start-up entrepreneurs grow jobs.”
On Creating Economic Growth: “That's really what we are about, an incentive based economy where people don't have any hindrance, as far as government is concerned, to go about taking the risk and creating wealth. For too long the attitude from Washington has been - we have to seek revenues from wherever we can to fund this behemoth of a federal bureaucracy. And we have come to the point where we can't do it anymore. The more the government takes out of the private sector, the less incentive there is for small businesses to grow. We need that growth engine. The country won't be the country we know without that growth engine.”
On Securing Our Energy Future: “We believe firmly that in order to secure an energy future for the country you have to start with maximizing energy production here at home, and that includes fossil fuels. We have gotten into a pretty robust debate at the federal level about whether it is appropriate for us to continue to tap into our resources both on and off shore. I always like to say that the Virginia legislature and our Governor have led the way, because we are the only state on the East Coast that has said we want to see deep sea exploration off our coast, because not only does it help contribute to a national energy policy and our national security, it will also help promote jobs in the Commonwealth.”
On Regulatory Reform: “We know that the SBA has admitted that regulations are impacting $1.75 trillion worth of economic activity yearly. If that's not bad enough, in 2009, the number of new regulations coming down the pike from Washington were 184 new ones in the work place. That is why we in the House are committed to bringing to the floor a bill that will require congressional approval of any regulation coming out of a federal agency that negatively impacts the economy in a significant way. We just can't continue to have unintended consequences play out the way they have.”
On Bringing Down Corporate Tax Rates and Making America Competitive: "We are in a global economy, we have to realize that we are not just competing against North Carolina or Tennessee; we are competing against the world now. We have some really strong competitors in Asia, China, India and elsewhere. We have to take a look at ourselves and say we are Americans, but that isn't enough to attract businesses any more. If you ask CEOs that run businesses, they are going to question our tax laws, our regulatory environment, our litigation environment, as to whether we are still the best place to locate a business. We have to redouble our efforts and central to that is tax reform. That is why we are proposing to bring down and cut corporate tax rates to 25% so we can create more jobs. We are also looking at individual rates as well because many small businesses operate as pass through entities and we want equal incentive there so that entrepreneurs can begin to grow again. So with that I think you will see some activity throughout the rest of year on tax reform."
Watch The Entire Job Creators Forum HERE. | <urn:uuid:5c1cfbb5-4f3a-4bba-a5e7-8e31b17267ed> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://majorityleader.gov/newsroom/2011/05/congressman-cantor-remarks-at-job-creators-forum.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96998 | 896 | 1.640625 | 2 |
The Robinson Nebula was the name given by Subcommander T'Pol to a dark matter nebula first observed by her and Captain Jonathan Archer of the Enterprise NX-01. The nebula was named after Starfleet captain A.G. Robinson, an old friend of Captain Archer's who had recently died in a climbing accident.
Although Enterprise's sensors were unable to directly observe the nebula, Commander Charles Tucker was able to modify a series of spatial charges to spread metreon particles throughout the area. Archer and T'Pol were able to successfully use the charges to illuminate the nebula, becoming the first to directly observe a dark matter nebula. (ENT: "First Flight") | <urn:uuid:af5d7314-7dbb-49c5-a4b9-5025e904b9e9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Robinson_Nebula | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977672 | 137 | 2.6875 | 3 |
A lack of affordable housing in Fairfax County has spawned a black market for studio apartments and county officials are now scrambling to shut down the illegal apartment business without undermining the supply of cheaper housing.
Responding to a jump in demand for studio apartments, county residents have started building illegal studio apartments in their homes, renting them to people who, struggling with the recession, have been shunning the more expensive one- and two-bedroom apartments that dominate the local rental market.
But builders either aren't building studios or haven't finished the units, creating a shortage that has left some families homeless and others living illegally in other people's homes.
"The demand is high but the inventory is low," said Maggie Parker, spokeswoman for county developer Comstock Partners. "When the markets came back, the gates began to open and the money was in apartments. Everyone grew on a two-bed, two-bath plan for 30 years."
Some homeowners in the county recognized the lack of cheaper apartments and capitalized on the unmet demand by building illegal apartments in their basements or elsewhere in their homes for profit. County officials have found entire families living in closets and crawl spaces that were converted into miniature apartments.
"We've encountered circumstances where there are three or more such 'apartments' carved out of a single family home, all of which is done without approval," said Donna Pesto, with the county's Department of Planning and Zoning.
Residents are not explicitly banned from having renters in their homes, but they are required to go through a permit process to ensure the spaces are safe and conditions are livable, a step many renting homeowners skip.
County officials have begun work on new rules for studio apartments that they say can be built by nonprofit groups and other organizations that serve low-income people. The new rules would require each studio to have its own kitchen and bathroom.
"We've got working-class people who don't have housing opportunities," said Supervisor John Cook, R-Braddock. "We need more units and we believe that there's a market for them."
The board is expected to take up the new rules in the spring. | <urn:uuid:17612337-db31-477f-905b-56ba7b9e28bb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://washingtonexaminer.com/fairfax-battles-black-market-for-studio-%0Aapartments/article/2522894 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980342 | 438 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Here’s a must-read for anybody interested the idea of real convergence. Bob Cringely over at pbs.org tells of a recent encounter with Ken Schaffer, inventor of the wireless microphone and friend to rock stars. Schaffer’s been up to something pretty cool, using pre-processing circuitry (like his wireless mikes) ahead of video streaming to produce an amazingly beautiful TV picture from a long, long way away.
If this was anybody else, we might think this a fantasy, but as Cringely explains, this is Ken Schaffer we’re talking about. Schaffer’s invention was really a necessity for him to watch Moscow television in the U.S. He has a residence there and is married to a Russian woman.
But what blew me away this week when I saw a demo of TV2ME in Schaffer’s cluttered New York apartment was the quality of the image. Sending live TV over the Internet is a very difficult thing to do, especially over distances like that from Moscow to New York. There are live TV feeds from Moscow available today, and they look terrible no matter how much bandwidth you have. But Schaffer’s feed, running at an average of 384 kilobits-per-second, looks like TV. When you change channels to any of the 60 or so on the Moscow cable system, it takes about 10 seconds to rebuffer, and then you have TV. Amazing!
Like his wireless mikes, Schaffer attributes the quality to how he preprocesses the video signal before it enters the MPEG-4 encoder chip. I don’t know what he does, but it seems to work.
This is the future of TV for people who will never be satisfied with Basic Cable. A couple years from now, it will be a huge driver of broadband sales to ethnic communities, allowing Grandma to watch her favorite soap operas from the old country. This and Tivo-like recording devices are going to change TV (right down to the business model) as we know it. Some people get this, some people don’t.
It isn’t cheap (around $5k right now), and that has the good folks over at Engadget poo-pooing the device. They also point to products by Sony and a start-up, Sling Media. But I’m with Bob on this one. Schaffer is THE MAN, and his wireless mikes used to sell for $4,400 back when the Rolling Stones first bought them. They go for about $300 today. The best predictor of future success, it seems to me, is PAST success.
It’s one worth watching. | <urn:uuid:81d1e57b-65f1-4ed5-abaa-a9da731d4772> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thepomoblog.com/index.php/2004/10/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959445 | 564 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Let’s think like emerging technology strategist Michell Zappa did when he put together a graphic based on what major technologies he sees — by “looking at emerging trends and research” — becoming mainstream in the next 25 to 30 years.
Without attempting to deep dive on any of these, let’s take a surface look at where we are and where we may or may not be in the near future with some of his predictions.
As always, please share your well-informed or knee-jerk responses and predictions in the comments or on Twitter @medcitynews.
Organ printing (2016)
Whether you call it organ printing, bio-printing, bio-manufacturing or computer-aided tissue engineering, it sounds a lot easier than it actually is.
Researchers have been using inkjet printers filled with cells instead of ink to manufacture organs that can be transplanted into humans. Dr. Anthony Atala, the director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, gave a fascinating TED talk last year in which he showed the audience a kidney that had been printed that day (but with a warning that it was an early, experimental prototype years away from functional and clinical use).
As Atala says, there are still many challenges to overcome before printing organs becomes standard practice, so the 2016 tag is pretty optimistic.
“In the future — maybe 50 years from now — we will be able to make very complex organs and bones, and very complex tissues,” Dr. Vladimir Mironov, researcher and associate professor at the Medical University of South Carolina, said in an interview with ABC News last year.
Synthetic blood (2018)
A molecule that can transfer oxygen throughout the body has been in high demand, especially in trauma and military settings, where blood is in short supply or isn’t readily available. The Department of Defense, for one, has doled out millions of dollars in grants for development efforts.
But it’s been a troublesome process. Safety concerns have kept companies including Northfield Laboratories and Biopure from winning U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval (and causing them to shut down). Researchers have trekked on, though. Numerous other companies including OPK Biotech and Arteriocyte are working on substitute blood products, and researchers are still coming up with new approaches.
A research team at Edinburgh University thinks its artificial red blood cells could be ready for clinical trials within the next two years, but that’s intended to be used only to hold patients over until real blood can be used, according to Wired.
Personalized medicine (2020)
Providing the right drug to the right patient at the right time. This one might not seem so far-fetched given that we’ve already reduced the cost of sequencing the human genome to about $1,000, seen FDA approvals of a few personalized medicines and companion diagnostic tests, and had many companies form (and raise serious cash) around the idea of personalized medicine.
But such a paradigm shift takes time and affects not only researchers, doctors and patients but also insurers and government regulators. As we continue to see researchers overcome the clinical barriers to personalized medicine, identify more biomarkers and develop more tests and therapeutics, issues with accuracy, affordability and policy will come into play.
Stem cell treatments (2026)
From blindness to cancer to lung disease to heart failure, stem cells are being applied in hundreds of clinical trials across the world. Last year, the FDA hit a big milestone when it approved HEMACORD, the first umbilical cord product for use in stem cell transplants.
In a nutshell, “extensive use of stem cells as therapy is still in its infancy,” wrote Dr. Stephen Schimpff, an author and professor of medicine and public policy, in a recent series of posts about the state of stem cells in medical research. See that series here: 1, 2 (the third installment is yet to be published).
Other interesting predictions
- Smart drugs that improve mental functions by 2019
- Gene therapy by 2030
- Hybrid-assisted limbs that are embedded in the wearer’s body by 2032
- Drugs that reverse or slow down aging by 2038
Click on the infographic to see it in its full version.
[Photo from wikia.com] | <urn:uuid:63fdc1ca-f539-44e5-89e4-360e040d5d1a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://medcitynews.com/2012/08/personalized-medicine-by-2020-this-and-other-predictions-on-the-future-of-healthcare-infographic/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943635 | 897 | 2.453125 | 2 |
This is a guest post from Anjan Ghosal, CEO of Diametriq, who describes the effects that the iPhone has had on the telecoms industry.
On Jun 29, 2012 Apple celebrated the fifth anniversary of the iPhone, a remarkable event indeed. In these few years, the iPhone has generated an astounding US$143 billion in revenue – more than the GDP of New Zealand! Today, the annual revenue for this single product surpasses that of Coca Cola Company and Microsoft!
But while we raise our glasses to celebrate this veritable milestone, let us not forget to dedicate a moment of silence to mark the obituary of telecoms (as we knew it!).
In the late 1990’s, if you chanced to visit CTIA or Mobile World Congress, the biggest booth (and after show parties) belonged to Nortel, Siemens, Lucent, Ericsson, Nokia, Alcatel. All of them falling over each other to woo mobile operators with bulging wallets. Those that did not have a booth ferried the high rollers to their rented mega yachts parked overlooking the bay at Cannes – something that would put Las Vegas to shame.
Well, those days are gone. Nortel is no more. Alcatel and Lucent merged and have never been profitable since. Nokia-Siemens are no different. Ericsson and Huawei are locked in fierce competition with no breakout in sight. The mega yachts and fancy booths have been consigned to history!
The telecoms world today belongs to Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft (with Skype, Microsoft is the largest telecom operator in the world). And all this can be traced to the advent of the iPhone.
The iPhone is responsible for morphing the phone from a mere voice communication tool to our window to the world. (From someone who has never owned an iPhone it is quite a compliment!). It has changed how we live life (when is the last time you bought a map, or looked something up in the Yellow Pages?) and spawned a new multi-billion dollar industry around mobile applications, a trend continued by the iPad.
It has given rise to new acronyms like – OTT – “Over the Top” – whereby third parties make millions leveraging the mobile networks infrastructure to deliver applications to your device, yet not having to share any of the revenue with them. The net result has been an explosive growth of data traffic on operator networks but with an inability to monetize that growth.
Technologies like wif data offload and Long Term Evolution (LTE) are a direct response of the impact of the iPhone (and its ilk). And it is not only having an impact on the data capacity of the networks, but also the underlying signaling capabilities. Operators and vendors have to adjust to the “new normal” and have discovered that for them, an Apple a day can be fatal. | <urn:uuid:c5f773d6-f45c-4096-8c0c-7b135f18db6a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lteconference.wordpress.com/2012/07/19/an-apple-a-day/ | 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 | 0.939825 | 596 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Jewish World Review Dec. 5, 2003/ 7 Kislev 5763
Richard Z. Chesnoff
A shared Holy Land is bum idea: Palestinians would soon overwhelm Israel
With the possible exception of Switzerland, multinational countries are flops. I'm not talking about melting pots like the United States, but lands where sectors of the population want their own national and/or religious identity.
Sharing control over the character of a nation is a guarantee of bloodshed down the road. Just consider Cyprus, Lebanon, Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Northern Ireland, to name a few. How much more so in the Holy Land.
The Palestinians, whose own nationalism is relatively recent, are the primary rejectionists of the Jewish state. At best, it's because they realize Israel is too strong to defeat - for now. That's where the binational idea comes in. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Then, with time and a soaring birthrate, you outnumber 'em and defeat 'em.
What's fascinating is that the idea is being broached by three distinct groups:
Some Palestinians are suggesting it for the same reason they always have suggested it: It's a sure way, ultimately, to eradicate the Jewish state.
Israeli left-wingers warn that it's going to happen unless Israel makes rapid concessions to the Palestinians and withdraws from Gaza and almost all the West Bank. At current rates, they warn, the Arab population of the areas Israel controls will outnumber the Jewish population by 2013.
A bloc of right-wing Israelis is calling for a binational state to include the West Bank and Gaza and granting Israeli citizenship to all Palestinians who want it. It would mean dismantling Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority, and it would preclude the formation of a Palestinian state.
Proponents of this idea argue that a system of cantons would limit Palestinian electoral power so that the Jews always would be in political control. That's just another formula for bloodshed.
The best answer: End the terrorism and negotiate a deal for two separate
states. If you can't beat 'em, make peace with 'em.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and in the media consider "must reading." Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here. | <urn:uuid:e8e325e9-8cd8-4355-ae1c-d5feb42df68a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jewishworldreview.com/richard/chesnoff120503.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93764 | 473 | 1.664063 | 2 |
|« Back to Article|
Rare, tiny fish receive big help in survival
By Matthew Tresaugue | June 23, 2012 | Updated: June 24, 2012 12:59am
Two species of rare minnows have the terrible luck of living only in the Brazos River.
The longest river in Texas is shackled by dams, siphoned for use by cities and farms and plagued by toxic golden algae, a combination that has spoiled most of the historical habitat for smalleye and sharpnose shiners.
So, when the state's worst drought in decades reduced the Upper Brazos to isolated pools last fall, Texas biologists took the unusual step of pulling thousands of the tiny fish from the water and moving them to a nearby hatchery for safety. The shiners returned to the river recently, ready to spawn after a year of no reproduction.
"These are short-lived minnows, so you cannot have two or three years of no spawning," said Kevin Mayes, a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department biologist. "What happens between now and August is critical."
The wicked dry spell put entire lines of plants and animals at risk across Texas. As the state grows warmer and drier, as climatologists predict, such dramas, often played out on small stages, like a prairie or pond, could become more common, officials said.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service now lists more than 90 species in Texas as endangered or threatened. Another 20 creatures, including the shiners, are candidates to receive special protection under the Endangered Species Act.
The 2- to 3-inch-long minnows are unlovely but important to the Brazos as the food of choice for many of the river's top predators, including gar, largemouth bass and channel catfish.
"When the Brazos is going well, these are the two most abundant species in the river," said Gene Wilde, a biology professor at Texas Tech University who has studied shiners since 1996. "If you take them out, nothing is going to replace them. There will be a void at the base of the food chain."
The shiners require running water over about 100 miles to reproduce. Their semibuoyant eggs drift dozens of miles while they hatch and grow into small fry. Without enough moving water, the spawn sink to the river bed and die.
Over the decades, new reservoirs on the Brazos have reduced the species' range from the entire river to the upper reaches.
"Before the reservoirs, they could follow the river down when the upper part went dry," Mayes said. "Now they can't. That fragmentation has had an effect on them."
With the Upper Brazos again going dry because of the drought and talk of a drier 2012, Wilde urged state biologists to collect as many shiners as possible from the river last September. They used a large net that required two people to hold to scoop the silvery fish from pools about 150 miles west of Fort Worth.
The rescued minnows then were sent to the state's fish hatchery near Possum Kingdom Lake. The holding tanks are used typically to produce sport fish, such as striped bass and rainbow trout.
Stocking lower basin
The human hand-holding ended in late May when the biologists returned the shiners to the river for spawning. This time, however, they stocked the minnows in the higher flows of the lower basin, where the fish have not been seen for a quarter-century.
Mayes and an aide transported about 700 ready-to-spawn fish to a crossing near Hearne, about 25 miles north of College Station. There, they carried the shiners from the hatchery truck to the river in buckets and an ice chest.
The hope is the fish re-establish themselves in the Lower Brazos and create a second distinct population because the upper basin often goes dry.
Wilde, meanwhile, took about 150 of each species to Texas Tech to study ways for the shiners to spawn in captivity.
"Right now, we have evidence of spawn" in the river, Wilde said. "Whether they will be as abundant as before, we won't know for at least another year."
Mayes is optimistic. With adequate flows, "I think they'll make it through this year," he said. "Near-term success will depend on how long this drought lasts." | <urn:uuid:4022b37c-7dbb-45b9-97fe-368a2b95fc26> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Rare-minnows-survive-drought-in-captivity-return-3658099.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96456 | 904 | 3.5 | 4 |
It’s a sign of success, I suppose, that one can Google “feminism Jane Eyre” and find websites willing to sell you a term paper on the subject. We’ve come a long way, baby. When I was in college and graduate school, we were just discovering what it meant to read a novel–even a novel by a woman–from a feminist point of view.
Then came, among other groundbreaking critical works, Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar’s The Madwoman in the Attic: the Woman Writer and the Nineteenth Century Literary Imagination (1979). The madwoman in the title appears in Charlotte Bronte’s evergreen 1847 novel Jane Eyre, becoming for Gilbert and Gubar a symbolic depiction of Victorian women as either uber-repressed angels or unseemly, passionate monsters. Madwoman, in turn, generated an industry of critiques, thus widening further the focus of feminist criticism.
IMDB describes the recently released film adaptation of Jane Eyre in simple, hardly feminist terms: “A mousy governess who softens the heart of her employer soon discovers that he’s hiding a terrible secret.” If that was all the novel, which details Jane’s maturation from her abusive childhood to her eventual employment as a governess and later marriage, offered, it would have long disappeared from memory, but its influence in literature and film–IMDB lists more than 20 worldwide film and TV adaptations, dating back to 1910!–stubbornly persists.
I have to confess: Jane Eyre had such a deep impact on me when I was young that I built a window seat in the first house I owned, imitating Jane’s at the start of the novel–where she admits, in the famous opening line, “There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.” While high school students have been known to moan when they are assigned the book, the novel not only enjoys continued popularity but a certain retro hipness. Today, you can purchase a t-shirt that reads “Jane Eyre is my homegirl,” a tote bag decorated with portraits of Charlotte and her sisters Emily (who wrote Wuthering Heights) and Anne (who wrote The Tenant of Wildfell Hall), a fridge magnet that declares, “I am the madwoman in the attic,” or even the more cryptic “I’m in ur attik, bein ur wife.”
What is driving Jane to her own psychic attic? Bronte looks at the problem from many angles: Without family, fortune, good looks or opportunity, Jane is trapped in survival mode. Yet she is intelligent and insightful, and having survived a horrific childhood she is tough and determined not to resign herself to a boring job or a loveless marriage.
For those who have never read the book, it’s important to know that it is narrated retrospectively by Jane herself, who at every turn shows her awareness of how it will all end. Here’s just a taste of her insights into the limits of her life as a governess in an isolated country house:
It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquility; they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it. Millions are condemned to a stiller doom than mine, and millions are in silent revolt against their lot. Nobody knows how many rebellions besides political rebellions ferment in the masses of life which people earth. Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a constraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex.
One thing I love about Jane Eyre is its ability to continue to draw readers into her plight—a skill needed more than ever today, at least among the college students I teach, who seem to take their freedoms for granted and who consider the Victorian age a distant planet, rather than the progenitor, in so many ways, of our own age. Jane Eyre provides just the right dose of irritation and revelation. Take, for instance, a comment written by a current student of mine, Megan Allen, on the class online discussion board:
In the beginning of Jane Eyre I couldn’t help but find Jane somewhat annoying … okay maybe really annoying. With lines like ‘I like to serve you, sir, and obey you in all that is right,’ and the fact that she falls in love with her ‘master,’ it’s easy to overlook the most important parts of Jane Eyre’s character and dwell on the scenes in which she plays the role of a vulnerable bystander. But I’ve realized as the novel progresses, she is not annoying at all. In fact, she learns to stand up for herself and, at a time when women were constantly told how insignificant their worth was compared to a man’s, this move away from helplessness proves very impressive.
So it concerns me that the newest film adaptation of Jane Eyre, while beautiful to watch and well-acted, rushes too quickly past the key elements that help define Jane’s consciousness-raising and oversimplifies the plot. The madwoman (and I’m not going to let on who that is if you don’t already know) barely makes an appearance, though her impact on Jane’s lot is as devastating as ever. Madness does seem to grab a distraught Jane from the opening moment of the film, as she escapes from Thornfield in screenwriter Moira Buffini’s restructuring of the story. But I got the sense that Buffini had speed-read Gilbert and Gubar’s analysis, catching the bit about madness but skipping a full understanding of the complex social forces that engender it. Charlotte Bronte’s nuanced insight into the competing pressures on a young woman without any apparent family, friends or prospects other than those she makes for herself—the choices she must face between duty and desire, independence and subservience—seems lost in the lovely fog of the moor.
This new version of Jane Eyre, in the end, is a watered down, much tampered-with reduction that turns it into a gothic romance. Director Cory Fukunaga claims, “I’ve spent a lot of time rereading the book and trying to feel out what Charlotte Brontë was feeling when she was writing it.” Sorry, Cory. I think you have to have walked a little in her boots to know that.
Jane Eyre movie poster courtesy of Focus Features. | <urn:uuid:a1793c31-48a8-402a-865d-57721ac01c8e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://msmagazine.com/blog/2011/04/11/jane-eyre-movie-star/comment-page-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972105 | 1,479 | 2.34375 | 2 |
I made these for the kids today before leaving for work. It was simple, quick and easy. The kids get to eat it as their afternoon snack and I get to eat them as my lunch. I made extra too so I can freeze some and have them ready when I need them next. I find it funny that we forget to freeze foods for the kids once they get beyond the solid food stage. I freeze these finger foods – meatballs, kebabs, patties etc.. so that when I need something I have them. In some cases, it is better to freeze fresh homemade food/snacks than buying processed frozen food.
Here’s the recipe:
3 medium sized Idaho Potatoes
2 cups cut broccoli florets
½ medium sized onion
¾ cups shredded parmesan cheese
1 cup bread crumbs
1) Boil/steam the broccoli and potatoes till they are cooked.
2) Dice the onion.
3) Mash the potatoes and broccoli. and add the diced onion.
4) Add the diced onion, parmesan cheese and the breadcrumbs
5) Make small round balls with the mixture.
6) Bake them for 15 minutes at 375F and broil them for 10 minutes. Broiling them will make the balls go brown.
I didn’t add any spices to these balls as the combination of these ingredients tasted delicious. | <urn:uuid:af6c983a-50ed-4a75-96a2-5ee4abdc043d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://yumkid.com/potato-broccolli-cheese-balls | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939398 | 289 | 1.601563 | 2 |
compiled by Columbian staff in 1989
An only-in-America, rags-to-riches tale is the story of Morris Wolf, a poor immigrant from Europe who worked hard and found success in Clark County.
Wolf was a penniless Polish immigrant who came to Vancouver in 1919 to open a one-pump gasoline station on lower Main Street. When he died here on May 14, 1981, he was chairman of the board of two businesses he had founded, as well as a third corporation, Wolf's Investment Co.
Wolf was born in Cheremonshno, Poland, on Dec. 20, 1897, and immigrated to New York City as a teen-ager. Speaking only Polish, some German and a little Hebrew, he worked at a box factory for $6 a week and saved enough money to head west to Portland.
In May 1919, Wolf sank his meager savings into a rundown gasoline station at Sixth and Main. America's love affair with the automobile was just beginning, and Wolf expanded and prospered.
Although his two sons, Martin and Les, took over the running of the business in the later years, Wolf never retired and continued as chairman of the board until his death. | <urn:uuid:9c17dc71-c9b4-4345-a248-a093e1a7661e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.columbian.com/history/profiles/wolf/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.989407 | 249 | 2.140625 | 2 |
Report: Tesco opens world’s first 'zero-carbon' supermarket
New York City Tesco Plc has opened what it claims to be the world’s first “zero-carbon” supermarket, according to the Cambridge News.
Located in Ramsey, England, the supermarket is built on a frame made from sustainable timber and has skylights calibrated to allow in natural lighting without raising the heat level. Vents control natural airflow to reduce energy, and the power the store does need is created by an on-site generator that runs on renewable sources such as spent vegetable oil, the report said.
Heating for the store is also provided by the generator, rainwater is used to flush the toilets and in the car wash, and gases, which have almost no impact on the environment, are used in the refrigerators.
There is also a rainwater collection system to provide water to flush toilets, as well as to be used in the on-site car wash. | <urn:uuid:fe5f5a67-b035-4f43-9266-a6ec48f40393> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://m.chainstoreage.com/article/report-tesco-opens-world%E2%80%99s-first-zero-carbon-supermarket?ad=store-planning-%2F-construction-%2F-facilities&device=mobile | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960987 | 202 | 2.125 | 2 |
[Ed. Note: Conservation activists have threatened to push for a global boycott on South African products sometime in April 2012 if the government does not immediately stop all trade in rhino horn.]
By Elise Daffue, Founder,
Stop Rhino Poaching
An account of the poaching incident at Borakalalo, South Africa.
Still alive after a week!
The trees around us were full of flies.
Apart from the vicious attack to his face and a gunshot wound to the head, the rhino also suffered two other injuries. In some incidents, poachers chop the upward facing eye - thought to be an act of superstition - and the spine of the rhino.
The gunshot wound.
This eye was blinded by the chop.
The single, deep chop to his spine with a lot of run-off down his sides.
For those of you that
haven't been there, I don’t think I can adequately describe what a rhino
crime scene feels or smells like. Nor do I have words for the thousands of
bloated flies that hold vigil in the trees all round you, lazy, almost tame,
waiting for their gap to feed on yet another victim of man's greed. This
morning’s trip to Borakalalo, just outside Brits in the North West Province
has left me shattered – a numbing cocktail of absolute horror and total
disbelief at the extent to which a human being can become so inhumane and
We could smell him long before we saw him, the bush so dense that even the chopper had battled to find him. Nothing I have ever experienced could have prepared me for what lay immobilized before us - for he could only be described as the still living carcass of a poached rhino.
Breathing through a writhing mass of maggots and blood, his exposed sinus passages wheezed and struggled. They had cut him deep, wide and quickly, after a single shot to the head which hit his spine and knocked him out – but didn’t kill him. That was last weekend, and today being Friday meant a week of agony beyond any comprehension.
Wildlife vet Dr Louis Greeff, his assistant Willem, helicopter pilot Pieter Breugem Jnr and the anti-poaching team tried to pull the weak and dehydrated bull to his feet. They tried numerous times, in different directions, letting him rest between each attempt just in case by some sheer miracle it would make a difference. He couldn't stand up. During one of these breaks Louis flushed the gunshot wound, guiding the plastic tube through which the disinfectant is administered all the way along a trajectory that ran deep into the rhinos head.
Louis then tackled the facial wounds, spraying the maggot fest
with I can’t remember what, causing a mass exodus from the sinuses that
resulted in a rapid die-off. Waves and waves still kept coming.
We had been thinking that maybe, just maybe, if the bull got up and could be walked down to the awaiting trailer, by some miracle he’d have the slightest hope of surviving.
The team did their best, but it was not to be.
Louis soon discovered that the rhino’s top lip was paralysed, all the nerves
to this area sliced out with his horns. The maggots were also to blame for
their share of the damage, having eaten out all the soft flesh and leaving
but bare shards of bone. Tucked under his loose top lip we found rolls of
fresh grass which he’d been unable to get into his mouth to chew. So for all
these excruciating attempts to eat, he'd been slowly starving away.
After talking to Eric and Rusty from North West Parks, what happened next was quick and final. Louis took a R1 rifle, aimed it dead centre at the rhino’s forehead and pulled the trigger.
The shock wave shook the bull's body only once. The emotional shock of experiencing his precise moment of death shook me entirely and instant tears flowed uncontrollably. Our small group had witnessed what could rate as one of the worst rhino poaching incidents to date.
I said goodbye to a rhino I had never known. I scratched behind his still warm ear on that soft spot that tame rhinos so enjoy. I stroked his face, rubbed his back and promised that no matter what we'll all keep on fighting.
Butterflies had been delicately fluttering around us, an ironic beauty to be found at most poaching scenes, attracted by the body salts of our now dead rhino. The vast swarm of patient flies took flight, dung beetles flew in, and as we walked away mother nature stepped in to claim him.
We are up against an army of savages who have sold their souls to the devil himself.
Borakalalo’s anti-poaching unit is active 24/7 and comprises
of specialized rangers for whom I have the deepest respect.
StopRhinoPoaching.com will continue to support these dedicated, fine men
with everything we can.
The long grass and thick bush cover gave the rhino ample hiding place in the reserve. He could quite easily have died days from now without ever having been seen.
To the best of my knowledge, there have been 9 cases of rhinos reviving after having had their horns hacked out. There could well have been more. Of these, I think only 3 have survived.
To Louis and team, and especially Louis
who had to face that final moment, my heartfelt thanks. Let's pray that we
never see anything on this scale of cruelty and brutality again.
To every person out there actively involved in this war, please keep fighting!
To the South African Government: until you catch a proper wake up our rhino will continue to fall. How difficult is it, really, to allocate additional law enforcement resources and put effective rhino protection strategies in place?? We are 5 YEARS into the poaching epidemic and it only gets WORSE!! The guys on the ground are working tirelessly, but be they rangers or investigators they are NOT being given the resources they need from the structures higher up. Mr President, respectfully, a species is being exterminated on your watch. | <urn:uuid:6809e1ef-3d04-4d7f-99f5-f6516c341ea6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://all-creatures.org/articles/ar-rhinos.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977162 | 1,304 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Marilyn French, the writer and feminist whose novel "The Women's Room" sold more than 20 million copies and transformed her into a leading figure in the women's movement, has died at 79.
French died of heart failure Saturday at a Manhattan hospital, said Carol Jenkins, a friend and president of New York's Women's Media Center.
Her 1977 first novel, "The Women's Room," transformed the college teacher into a feminist leader whose aim was "to change the entire social and economic structure of Western civilization, to make it a feminist world," she once said.
The landmark novel, which was translated into 20 languages, details the journey to independence of a 1950s housewife who gets divorced and goes to graduate school. The book mirrored aspects of French's own life experiences, including the rape of her daughter.
She was called anti-male after a character in the novel says: "All men are rapists, and that's all they are. They rape us with their eyes, their laws, and their codes."
"Those words came from a character, and she was not a man-hater, and never said that in her personal life," Jenkins said. "But she wanted men to accept their part in the domination of women."
Still, the novel "connected with millions of women who had no way before of claiming their anger and discontent," Jenkins said.
The male subjugation of women is the main theme of French's novels, essays, literary criticism and her four-volume, nonfictional "From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women."
A Brooklyn native, French graduated from Long Island's Hofstra University with a master's degree, studying philosophy and English literature. She taught there in the 1960s. After her divorce, she earned a doctorate from Harvard and was an English professor at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass.
A smoker, she survived a battle with esophageal cancer in 1992 that included a 10-day coma she described in "Season in Hell: A Memoir."
Her last novel is to be published this fall, and she was also working on a memoir.
French is survived by her son, Robert French, of East Brunswick, N.J., and daughter Jamie French, of Cambridge, Mass.
A memorial is planned for June in New York. | <urn:uuid:5290e234-6436-4f6d-8b1a-b80599a9b1c2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2009/may/05/us-obit-french-050509/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987021 | 478 | 1.929688 | 2 |
I'm not sure I want to start reading books about horrible teen-agers just yet. My son is a fresh teen-ager, turned 13 this summer. But he's still a good kid.
For those of you already trying to decide what size cage to purchase for your teen, you might want to read a Weston mom's account of how she handled her daughter.
Sue Scheff turned her ordeal into a book called "Wit's End: Advice and Resources for Saving Your Out-of-Control Teen." She also does parent consulting now, I guess you could say. In other words, she turned her trials as a parent into a career.
I sure hope my trials as a parent do not provide me such a rich experience that I will spend the rest of my life telling other parents how awful it was.
Apparently this Weston lady was a single mom in the 90s when her daughter "embraced disturbing friends, beliefs and behaviors.'' Ultimately, she sent her to a residential treatment facility, which made things worse, Scheff says.
Beyond writing a book about it, Scheff also founded Parents' Universal Resource Experts (P.U.R.E.), to help families who have at-risk kids. She's been on national TV news shows and in newspapers and on talk radio. She has a website here.
Like I said, I haven't read the book and am not sure I want to jinx myself by doing so. But if you're already suffering, it's another source of info. | <urn:uuid:3e24ee79-17de-4745-b5fb-e28f26f6fcd1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.trb.com/features/family/parenting/blog/2008/09/weston_mom_writes_a_book_about.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978933 | 312 | 1.640625 | 2 |
III: Degree Requirements and Graduation Procedures, and the Academic
in 1999, students in the College are given the option of electing
one or more academic minors offered by units within the College.
Note that electing to earn an academic minor is optional; it
is not a requirement; and note too that there is no limit on
the number of academic minors a student may elect. Departments
and programs in the College now have the option of creating academic
minors, and as such minors receive College approval they will
be listed with their requirements and other pertinent information
on the Student Academic Affairs website at
minors and their requirements appear in Chapter VI.
the opportunity exists for students to propose their own individual
concentration program, an individual minor is not allowed. An
academic minor will require no less than 15 credits of course
work, will show structure and coherence, and will contain some
upper-level courses. Students who declare and complete an approved
academic minor will receive a notation on their student transcript
but not on their diploma.
A.B. or B.S. student who wishes to complete an approved academic
minor must develop a plan for the minor in consultation with
the designated advisor, who must also approve it. The academic
minor is not an option available to students earning the B.G.S.
may not elect courses in an academic minor plan by the Pass/Fail
grading option, but must take academic minor courses for a grade,
either A-E or, in the case of Residential College courses, with
may not elect a concentration and an academic minor, or two academic
minors, offered by the same department or program, unless a specific
exemption to this policy is noted with the approval of the minor.
may not use more than one course to meet the requirements of
both a concentration plan and an academic minor, but one course
may overlap and count for both.
course may be used to satisfy the requirements of more than one
the academic minor has prerequisites, students taking courses
to meet the prerequisites to a concentration may also count those
courses as prerequisites to the academic minor.
Placement credits may not be used to meet the requirements of
an academic minor, but may be used to meet prerequisites to an
students electing an academic minor are required to meet the
area distribution requirement, courses elected to meet the requirements
of an academic minor also may be part of the student's area distribution
- A student
must earn an overall GPA of at least 2.0 in courses taken to
meet requirements of an academic minor, including any prerequisites.
- A course
or courses that are part of a student's academic minor may also
meet the Language Requirement, the Upper-Level Writing Requirement,
the Race & Ethnicity Requirement, or the Quantitative Reasoning
University of Michigan | College of LS&A | Student Academic Affairs | LS&A Bulletin Index
This page maintained by LS&A Academic Information and Publications, 1228 Angell Hall
Copyright © 2000 The Regents of the University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA +1 734 764-1817
Trademarks of the University of Michigan may not be electronically or otherwise altered or separated from this document or used for any non-University purpose. | <urn:uuid:9defcc38-604f-4f0b-a58f-e031ec4d361c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lsa.umich.edu/saa/publications/bulletin/archive/00-01/chapter3/minor.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.903948 | 697 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Start: 10/12/2012 14:00
The Corcoran Department of History invites all UVA history majors and undergradutes to attend our first in a series of talks by History Department Alums:
William Scanlan, Jr.
Our first speaker is William Scanlan, Jr., who earned a B.A. in History from UVA in 1963.
After studying law at the University of Texas and George Washington University, Bill served as a lawyer in the U.S. Army in Vietnam. Since then, he's been a partner of Schoenbaum, Curphy, and Scanlan, in San Antonio, TX.
In addition to his practice in trusts and estates, he's maintained a vigorous pro bono practice, most recently representing detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He maintains an active interest in military law, and in particular, in the problem of the use of torture by U.S. personnel.
Bill will speak in 211 Nau, on Friday, October 12th, at 2 pm.
A reception, with refreshments, will follow in 342 Nau. | <urn:uuid:180ffb48-07a1-4d0c-ba86-6d2f3822a7f1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://history.virginia.edu/event/2012/10/12 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950993 | 223 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Here is some advice for parents with kids who are not yet ready to handle all of the freedom they would like.
We have several ideas for you to enjoy bike-riding with your family this month.
State lawmakers ended their regular session Sunday after passing only a handful of major education-policy bills. The issue will be a focus of the special session, leaders said.
If you are sticking around town, we have a list of 15 boredom-busting ideas that will help keep your kids busy and entertained over the break.
The new law requires that new teachers receive training on how to recognize and prevent commercial sexual abuse and exploitation of minors.
Since the law passed in November, the state has made steps toward implementation.
Researchers from Seattle Children's Research Institute say positive thinking can be an effective tool to prevent depression in middle school students.
Local experts share their insights, experiences and advice for parents.
A high school student tells her story of living and learning with a disability. | <urn:uuid:f4389063-54cf-48c4-8f29-d357215a2619> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.seattleschild.com/our-schools/learn-about-learning | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95538 | 201 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Located just inside Barefoot Landing in North Myrtle Beach is a wondrous wildlife habitat and home to the largest crocodile in the United States. Utan, the King Croc resides at Alligator Adventure. There are eleven different animal exhibits; while it is known as the “Reptile Capital of the World” reptiles are not the only residents, river otters, beavers, tropical birds, zebras, tigers and other big cats and loveable lemurs.
There are over 800 alligators in residence, ranging in age and size from infants (eight inches long) to fifteen feet adults that weigh 500 to 1,000 pounds. In the “Serpentarium” are some of the world’s largest and deadliest snakes, the Green Anaconda (can reach lengths over 37 feet), Retriculated Python (almost as big as the Anaconda) and the King Cobra (largest, most intelligent snake). Two species of tortoises are on display, Galapagos and Aldabra; other than the shape of their heads these two species are identical in appearance. Industrious beavers and playful otters enjoy their lives here. Beavers have very poor eyesight and rely heavily on their other senses when building. Otters have two speeds according to Alligator Adventure, wide awake and fast asleep. The turtle yard houses rare and unusual frogs, lizards and turtles. These are a must see when visiting the park.
It can take up to two days to really see and enjoy all that Alligator Adventure has to offer, that is why the second day’s admission is free as long as you return within 7 days. Alligator Adventure is open year round; while the alligators do not eat year round there are two special demonstrations available for visitors. Live feedings occur from mid April until mid October. During the cooler months when they are not being fed there are live demonstrations and lectures on how to handle these ancient creatures. | <urn:uuid:d63d9de1-d282-404c-b633-6e291d05eed8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://myrtle-beachhotels.com/things_to_do/Alligator_Adventure/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951118 | 402 | 2.09375 | 2 |
Official Chinese media have hailed the successful test flight of China's first domestically-made jumbo air freighter.
Little details were released about the flight, made Saturday, but the test indicates China's ambitions to add a heavy freighter to its capabilities and match better against traditional air powers, Russia and the United States.
Other large air freighters already flying include the Russian-built Ilyushin Il-76, the U.S.-made Boeing C-17 Globemaster III and, largest of them all, the Antonov An-225 -- also Russian.
The four-engine Yun-20, or Transport-20, is a huge, multi-function airfreighter that can perform various long distance air transport tasks targeting cargo and passengers, the state-run Xinhua News Agency said.
"The successful maiden flight of the Y-20 is important in promoting China's economic and national defense buildup, as well as improving its emergency response and humanitarian aid abilities," the Ministry of National Defense said on its website.
The flight boosts China's presence as a global aircraft manufacturer as well as its military capabilities.
"A genuine strategic air power must possess a strong power projection capability, which is highly reliant on large aircraft, namely a strategic air freighter and a strategic bomber," said Wang Yanan, deputy editor in chief at Aerospace Knowledge magazine and a military analyst, in a China Daily report.
Late last year, a domestic order of 50 Chinese-built C919 commercial jets provided further evidence of China's growing stake in the aviation industry.
The C919 is China's answer to the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 -- a single-aisle, 168-seat, narrow-body commercial liner produced by Chinese state-run aircraft manufacturer Comac (Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China).
Little is known about the Y-20, with a China Daily report stating the aircraft is believed to have been developed by the Xi'an Aircraft Industry, a subsidiary of Aviation Industry Corp. of China, the major military aircraft manufacturer. | <urn:uuid:b521cb53-a237-4603-851e-70094cc6a0d2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kmbc.com/news/money/China-s-new-big-bird-of-the-sky/-/11663982/18315770/-/6vk6tr/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951985 | 414 | 2.109375 | 2 |
Mathematical proofs is the heart of mathematics. It is what separates mathematics from other fields. By stating logical deductions, a proof can demonstrate whether a statement is true or false including all possible cases without enumerating all possibilities.
People who have knowledge in mathematical proofs — not necessarily mathematicians — can read proofs written by others. They can tell whether the proof is valid or not.
Let us test your proof knowledge using the proof below. The proof is quite detailed to be able to accommodate non-mathematics majors. Don’t worry, the proof only requires knowledge of high school algebra.
Proof that 1 = 2
Let . Multiplying both sides by gives us
Adding to both sides results to
Subtracting both sides by ,
After simplifying the right hand side, the equation is
Factoring out results to
Dividing both sides by ,
which is what we want to prove.
Can you tell why the proof of one equals two is valid or not? | <urn:uuid:392260fc-1a5b-42ae-8794-5fa2551ae5a1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mathpalette.com/2012/10/one-equals-two-proof/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915908 | 206 | 3.734375 | 4 |
Liberal morality versus conservative morality: Understanding the difference can help you avoid arguments
Dr. Elisha Goldstein recently blogged about the political anxiety that some people are experiencing during this run-up to the 2008 presidential election (What do Barack Obama and Sarah Palin have to do with your mental health?). A quote from that post sets up the point I want to address:
In the past, I have literally seen people whose bodies are in knots and whose friendships and family relationships are completely strained due to an election. People become imbalanced, stress-out, irritable, and potentially aggressive to those who do not share their views.
In his post, Dr. Goldstein gives some useful tips about how to reduce politically-motivated stress once it has occurred. What I want to do here is to help people begin to understand why it is that people think differently on political issues in the first place, on the theory that when you have a better understanding of where the other side of the aisle is coming from, there is less need for you to feel tension in the first place.
Some of what makes political disagreements tense is the sense that many people have that those people who disagree with their own position "don't understand". They think that if they could just figure out a better way to communicate what makes their policies and politicians a superior choice over opponent policies and politicians that the "misguided" people they are speaking with would somehow come around to their way of thinking. The sense that the other side doesn't understand what is really important leads to immense frustration, and sometimes to anger and anxiety.
Ask someone who strongly identifies with one end of the partisan spectrum why someone might believe what people who identify with the other side of the spectrum believe, and she is likely to tell you that the only explanation can be because there is something wrong with them. What that difference is varies on the person speaking, but it is usually some variation on a small number of themes: "we're smart and they're stupid", "we are patriotic and they are disloyal". I've even seen some partisans claim that the other side has a mental illness that is causing them to believe deranged and unhealthy things (see Lyle Rossiter Jr, MD's book "The Liberal Mind", and also Joe Papantonio's video podcast, "The Republican Mental Illness". Both are prime examples of the irresponsible use of the diagnostic process as a weapon with which to stigmatize a political opponent.
In the last several presidential elections, though Republicans ultimately took the White House, the popular vote either went Democratic, or was split relatively evenly between supporters of the Republican candidate and the Democratic candidate. My point is that the country appears to be split, or polarized more or less evenly. In such a context, partisan cries that opponents are stupid or ill simply cannot be true. It's one thing to call a fringe group names, but really, when a group is so large as to be composed of roughly half the population of a huge nation, can any generalization really apply? Only a true believer (convinced of the superiority of their own position), or a manipulative propagandist (seeking to manipulate you for profit, in confidence-man fashion) would have you believe so.
A further important point to make is that the belief that more talking and a superior explanation will change minds on the other side is untrue. It doesn't doesn't work with regard to political arguments, just as it doesn't work for relationship partners who end up yelling at each other while trying to get their points across.
Everyone knows that liberals and conservatives think differently. However, not everyone knows why or how this is so. Political orientation is a complex thing and no single theory is likely to capture all of the nuances of individual positions. However, a partially useful way of thinking about it is going to be better than having no useful way of thinking about it.
The best recent partially useful explanation I've come across concerning how to psychologically characterize the differences between hardcore liberals and hardcore conservatives is due to Jonathan Haidt, an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia. In Haidt's view, the differences come down to a matter of the value systems that liberals and conservatives buy into. Such value systems are a matter of moral beliefs, and can, he believes, be best characterized by positions on five independent moral dimensions. These are:
- Harm/Care, which is the universal desire to minimize human suffering.
- Fairness/Reciprocity, which is more or less about a desire to see arguments and disputes handled fairly.
- Ingroup/Loyalty, which describes the desire to protect group membership (societal) boundaries.
- Authority/Respect, which concerns the desire to organize society into a hierarchy of social superiors and subordinates, with subordinates showing respect for the superior's superior position.
- Purity/Sanctity, which concerns the desire to maintain group membership in a pristine, pure, clean or proper state, and correspondingly, to reject from the group that which is dirty, impure, unclean and improper.
I strongly urge readers to read Haidt's recent and excellent article "What Makes People Vote Republican", from which I am drawing these moral dimensions. For those readers who don't wish to do this immediately, I will give a short summary of Haidt's basic ideas in the following paragraph.
According to Haidt, the first two moral dimensions (harm/care, and fairness/reciprocity) are universal, and heavily used by everyone in deciding what things are moral and what are not. However, the later three dimensions (ingroup/loyalty, authority/respect, and purity/sanctity) are far more important to conservative people than they are to liberal people.
While both groups think that suffering should be prevented and that members of a society or group should treat each other according to principles of fairness and respect, conservatives place much more emphasis on maintaining ingroup/outgroup boundaries than do liberals; they demand and expect that members within the groups will be arranged into hierarchies where some are in better positions (with higher status, more wealth, etc.) than others, and that all members within the society conform to their assigned positions within society without complaint.
Reading between the lines, Haidt is suggesting that the real difference between liberals and conservatives is that the two groups have very different understandings of what it means to be a society.
Conservatives think of society as a thing which is more important than the sum of its parts, and understand that it is the duty (and I don't use that word lightly) of all the individual parts of society to play out their assigned role, even if that role is not in the best interests of some of the parts. In other words, it is the duty of the individual to subordinate their own needs to the needs of the larger society. To do otherwise is to be selfish.
To illustrate this perspective, think of how the Mormon Church uses the image of a beehive as one of their emblems. They are suggesting that if everyone works together, the group can produce something sweet and good. In this view of society, individual self-expression is a disaster, as the hive will fall apart if all the bees do their own thing. That is the belief anyway; not necessarily the reality.
Liberals think of society as something that emerges from the parts, and which is never more healthy as a whole than the most downtrodden of those parts. Liberals believe the dictum that "all men are created equal" and this makes them be less enthralled with the idea of a rigid hierarchical organization for society. If all men are created equal, then the least advantaged members of society should have a realistic opportunity to climb upwards in society, and that it is society's duty (and I don't use that word lightly) to provide opportunities for the more disadvantaged members of society to make that climb possible. By helping the more disadvantaged members of society to get a leg up, liberals think that they will help society as a whole become better. This idea is expressed beautifully in the phrase, "A rising tide lifts up all boats".
Conservatives often think that liberals would like lazy people to get a free ride, but this is not the case. What liberals want is for motivated people to be able to climb upwards based on their merit and effort and not to be held down due to circumstances beyond their control, occurring on account of an accident of their birth. If all men are created equal, then discrimination or prejudice is morally unacceptable.
Conservatives often get upset when liberals seek to use tax dollars to expand opportunities (educational, healthcare, etc.) for various minorities. If Haidt is correct, conservatives get upset not because they are trying to be cruel, but because they believe that it is somewhat immoral for people to complain about their place within society. People who advocate for more than they have are whiners, who don't have the decency to just accept their lot in life. This resistance to social change is based on the self-sacrificing idea that loyalty to the group trumps loyalty to self, and reinforced, based on its association with religion, so as to be in line with what God wants. Resistance to societal change thus becomes a sacred duty and is based on an unimpeachable source of authority.
Where conservatives are coming from is not so much resisting all change, but rather resisting alterations to the basic values system they have inherited from their "pure" and "authoritative" religious or societal sources. So there is no problem with their desiring to change laws or rules that are perceived as being against or in opposition to core conservative values. Conservatives are fine with changing society when change is interpreted as undoing the "damage" that liberals have caused.
Another angle on illustrating this: From the conservative point of view, society is like a body, and liberals with their ideas about individual rights and self-expression and the right to be free from repression and abuse and the "tyranny of the majority" are like a cancer - a bunch of cells that don't want to do their assigned job, but instead are "growing" and in the process threaten to take the entire body down with it. It must be kept in mind that this is a weak analogy, for all its attractiveness to some. Conservatives think that society will end due to the changes that liberals advocate for, but society doesn't actually end when these changes occur. Society did not end when women received the right to vote, for instance. It did not end when Lincoln freed the slaves. But these sorts of past facts do not stop many conservatives from thinking that similar future changes will be the ruin of future society.
In our present moment in time, we have to look no further to see conservative resistance to societal change than the struggle for acceptance of homosexual marriage. There is a great resistance upon the part of most conservatives to the idea that homosexual individuals should be able to marry each other. This resistance is in spite of the fact that such status would provide important legal and financial safety benefits for the dependent children and surviving spouses of homosexual partners; all things that are in society's interests to promote, in the liberal view, so that such families can stay intact in the event of the death of a partner. If Haidt is correct, however, conservative resistance to homosexual marriage is not occurring because of any desire on the part of conservatives to be cruel, but rather because, largely on religious grounds, they find the very existence of homosexual behavior to be perverse and impure; a sign of the weakening of society; and possibly something that God will decide to punish all Americans for if allowed to occur. The solution is to hold firm in the face of the demand for change and acceptance, resisting it as strongly as possible. Hence the many recent amendments to state constitutions defining marriage as a union which may only exist between a man and a woman.
Viewed from a liberal perspective, gay marriage is an institution that will protect a class of citizens who have been unjustly and immorally discriminated against. Legalization of homosexual marriage will aid in the formal recognition of the rights and responsibilities of partnered gays and lesbians, some of whom have dependent children, and will serve as protection for widowed spouses and dependent children just as it does for heterosexual couples. It is a violation of the spirit of "all men are created equal" to allow this prejudice to continue. That conservatives cannot get past their beliefs to allow this injustice to be righted is why liberals sometimes describe them as cruel.
Fairness is not the same thing as Equality
If I've understood Haidt's work correctly, he is suggesting that liberals and conservatives have very different ideas about the nature of fairness. To liberals, fairness concerns boil down to equality concerns. In contrast, conservatives are more likely to view fairness complaints through the lens of the social status hierarchy If a subordinate and a superior both get sick and require medical care, but the superior status individual gets better access to medical care and recovers as a result, while the subordinate status individual gets sicker, this situation is entirely fair from the conservative perspective. Both individuals get the sort of care that their status allows them to access. The two individuals are not equal and should not have equal access to resources. To allow this to happen would be damaging to society. The same situation is not fair when viewed from the liberal perspective because of the liberal rejection of the relevance of social hierarchy in decisions that affect the distribution of critical resources such as medical care.
The ultimate point I want to make is this. If there is merit to the idea that conservatives and liberals go about thinking morally in very different ways, then it follows that 1) both sides are acting morally (according to the way they understand morality), 2) neither position is stupid, and neither position represents a mental illness, and 3) it isn't going to do much good to argue back and forth with one another, because it is unlikely that anything you say will cause the other person to radically adjust their basic moral beliefs. Particularly that last point is important. If it doesn't do much good to argue with a hardcore liberal person or with a hardcore conservative person you are confronted with, that kind of takes the pressure off, doesn't it? | <urn:uuid:bf2464da-95ba-4a96-8f4b-b1e28bb9b7ec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.vbhcs.org/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=18416&cn=117 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967127 | 2,908 | 1.890625 | 2 |
Flabbergasting news. Bill Gates – the world’s geek-in-chief, the buttoned-up billionaire founder of Microsoft – has a sense of humour. It’s a little hidden, to be sure. But when it’s revealed the shock of its presence is electrifying. And all the more so because the subject matter for his joke is deeply and famously tricky. I have asked him the same question his wife Melinda was asked when she guest-edited Today on Radio 4 over Christmas: Why are the Gates children (they have a son and two daughters) not allowed to own any products made by Microsoft’s greatest rival, Apple?
Melinda gave the corporate answer when pressed on whether the kids ask for iPods: “Of course they ask,” she admitted, “but they get Windows technology. The wealth from our family came from Microsoft. Why would we invest in a competitor?”
I expected a similar brush-off from Bill. She, after all, is meant to be the human side of the duo. So if she doesn’t play ball on this, he’s hardly going to. He is the programmer, the businessman, the man who thinks of cool as a function of air conditioning. He is one of the world’s richest men but nobody has ever suggested that he is one of the most entertaining.
So what a shock when he pauses for a moment and then delivers a passable straight-faced witticism: “It’s one area where we spoil them.”
Good one, Bill. Few teenagers think Microsoft stuff is better than Apple stuff and he knows that. But he also knows, or has learnt, that to fight this fact head on is to be, as a teenager would say, a loser.
Years ago I interviewed Bill Gates face to face for Today and it was a painful experience. His people were nervous. There were subjects that they wanted off limits. He looked distracted. He said little of interest. So last week when his press man – on the phone from Seattle – announced with ill-concealed pride, “Justin, I have you on speakerphone and I am sitting next to Bill,” I wasn’t expecting an easy half-hour.
I could not have been more wrong. He was a pleasure to speak to. He did not answer every question, but he baulked at none. There is more to Bill Gates than the socially awkward and defensive side that he often shows to the world.
He was particularly blunt on subjects I thought he would shy away from. On guns, for instance, in the wake of the awful school murders in Connecticut, he volunteered this: “I happen to prefer the UK to the US policy on guns.” In other words he wants an almost complete ban – he has none of the cultural closeness to guns that so many other Americans profess. Though he has no optimism that his fellow countrymen will heed him: “I don’t think there’ll be a dramatic change in this area.” And that, from a highly motivated can-do kind of guy, is a warning in itself.
In a world in which the foolish wealthy are only the flick of a button away, Bill Gates stands out. He has a nice house – quite a big house – but he is no playboy. He made his money through being very, very clever and very, very determined. And now he gives it away with the same degree of single-minded rigour.
In fact you could probably say that nothing much has changed Bill. Not the success, not the money. There is something authentic about his understated style, typified by the answer to my question about where his Dimbleby Lecture will start: “Well, I was lucky enough to work in technology and be quite successful…”
At 17, Gates had already written and sold his first computer program to his high school. He got into Harvard with one of the top scores in the application test. While he was there he co-founded Microsoft (with school friend Paul Allen) – so he left the university without bothering to take his degree. It did not hold him back. He was a billionaire at 31 – then one of the world’s richest men. And then in 1994, after the death of his mother, he became one of the world’s greatest philanthropists.
The Gates Foundation and all the work that has flowed from it came from a pretty humble start, at least by a billionaire’s standards. Bill’s father – looking for something to do after the death of his wife – began making his way through the sacks of begging letters that his wealthy son had piled up in a corner of his office. Some of the letters seemed genuine and moving. He gave them to Bill, and Bill wrote cheques.
Now the enterprise is a little bigger: $36 billion was the size of its endowment when last reported at the end of 2012. It’s the GDP of a medium-sized developing nation. It makes a difference.
But sometimes money is not enough. And that is where I start the serious conversation with Bill Gates and he responds for the first time to the nightmare events of the past month or so in Pakistan. The Gates Foundation is one of the biggest funders of the worldwide effort to wipe out polio. The results have been impressive, but there are three countries where it is still endemic and Pakistan is one of them. Tragically, a series of murderous attacks by Islamic militants on health workers has brought the Pakistan effort to a halt in several crucial areas. Little children will develop polio and die or be crippled as a result.
Bill Gates’s response is typical of the man. “I don’t want to underestimate what has happened,” he says. “The violence is a terrible thing. But it has to be overcome.” When I ask how, the question audibly frustrates him:
“You simply persevere. Because you know you are working on something of great importance. People still want to come and vaccinate those children. If we don’t keep pushing on polio then we will end up where we were when we started, with 400,000 children a year being paralysed.”
The details of how this can be done when Islamists stoke suspicions about the effects of vaccination, and when that doesn’t work simply kill the doctors, are for others to work out. Bill provides the engine of determination and cash.
His response reminded me of a story told by someone in the railway industry about Richard Branson when he first set up his train company. Faced with a timetabling problem Branson suggested that the trains might overtake each other. The junior staff looked at each other. Did he not know they were on tracks? Did he perhaps just not care?
The Islamic militants might have met their match in this bespectacled representative of the “great Satan”. He is not interested in failure. He wants his trains to overtake and he’ll leave the details to others. Someone on his staff once told me that the meetings with Bill when something has gone wrong can be brutal in the extreme. “Why have you killed these children? Why have you not tried harder?”
In our interview he was also willing to acknowledge for the first time in public that the calamity in Pakistan might have been inadvertently made worse by the actions of the US. I asked him about the CIA’s use of a fake vaccination programme to trap Osama Bin Laden. Had it been a mistake? That was a view taken by a number of senior US doctors and academics who wrote recently to the White House to protest.
Bill Gates knew about the letter and although he couches his answers in almost painfully cautious language, he made it clear that he agrees with its thrust. Asked directly whether the use of the fake vaccine programme had been a US mistake, he said: “It may have contributed to misunderstanding and confusion… Anything we can do to avoid confusion about the benefits of vaccination, we should do.”
I asked him again and again whether this was a direct criticism and he would not say that it was or that it was not, but it seems to me that his intervention is pretty clear. He doesn’t want a fight with the CIA, but he agrees with those who say that the fake vaccine programme was wrong.
Don’t expect these devilish details to be the subject of much attention in his lectures, though. Bill Gates has bought the right to the big picture. He will make the case – during his time in Britain – for the work on polio and malaria and other childhood diseases of the poorer world, to be redoubled in the years ahead. His goal is huge and genuinely transformative on the scale of the history of humankind: he wants to create the circumstances where children all over the world generally survive beyond the age of five. That, he says, is the key to a better world: “By lifting the burden of disease you are enabling countries to become self-sufficient and you enable parents to have fewer children.”
And in this battle Bill Gates – plainly and clearly and with none of the equivocation that surrounded our chat about Pakistan – comes down on the side of government aid. “The bulk of the money that helps the world’s poorest comes from the generosity of rich country tax-payers. There is no substitute for that.”
To be sure he wants to bolster it with more cash from his very wealthy friends but he makes no pretence that tax-payers could be off the hook, if real progress is to be made in his specialised field of preventing disease. The coalition government takes some flak for its continuing commitment to raising the level of foreign aid as a proportion of GDP. Bill Gates is firmly on the side of David Cameron and his ministers. His own money is not enough.
And we finish with another piece of praise for Britain. We are talking about the world economy and generally Gates is quite positive about the year ahead: “I think we face some headwinds but overall I am optimistic.” Does he think the politicians are getting in the way?“In the case of the US, yes!
“In the UK system when someone gets elected, for better or worse their plan gets put into place.” In America, Gates points out, the system of divided government has brought such executive power to a juddering halt. Americans are proud of their constitution: it’s striking to see one of the most personally successful Americans in history looking across the Atlantic and thinking Olde England does it better.
His children may never have iPods but Bill Gates, in all other areas, is a rational optimist with a pragmatic moderate take on the world. He is devoid of bombast and self-regard. A model multibillionaire.
Bill Gates is delivering The Richard Dimbleby Lecture 2013. Watch it on BBC1 on Tuesday at 10:35pm | <urn:uuid:09b4905c-dd88-45a7-86d6-5f3173d89990> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2013-01-29/bill-gates-on-why-us-politicians-get-in-the-way | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979528 | 2,299 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Combatting "Sitting Disease": November's Great Fitness Experiment
Posted Nov 01 2009 10:01pm
Never say you can't get in some exercise at the office!
It is with great pleasure that I announce the comeback of the Great Fitness Experiment in practice rather than just in name only: For the month of November I am launching a new GFE. Lest you think I'm crazy and have forgotten the occupied state of my womb (4 days until my official due date!), I will tell you that I took that into account in picking this GFE. Which means, of course, that if a 9-months pregnant chick can do it, you certainly can too! It is based around one small fitness tweak that can have huge results. What is it? Standing.
That's right, I'm doing an Experiment about standing. Before you laugh yourself silly, consider the research, courtesy of Women's Health Magazine: - Sitting down causes your body to shut down fat burning enzymes, reducing fat burnage by up to 50%. - For every two hours spent camped out on your butt, your risk of diabetes increases 7% - For every one hour on your backside, incidence of metabolic syndrome increases 26% - Sitting for extended periods of time has also been linked to increased risk of heart disease and depression. - Sitting for a long time is murder on your posture and can lead to all kinds of injuries due to weakened, imbalanced and inflexible muscles.
But, you say, I exercise! Every day, even! Unfortunately in our wired society, 30-60 minutes a day in the gym may not be enough to counteract the effect of playing potted plant for 8-10 hours a day, a number which sounds high until you actually count up all the time you spend sitting in front of the computer, the TV, at the table, in the car and on the floor because getting up when you can't bend at the waist is too much trouble (although that last one may just be me). Unless you have a very active job - like waitressing, construction work or hooking - then you probably spend way more time off your feet than on them.
In a recent study, Genevieve Healy, Ph.D., a research fellow at the Cancer Prevention Research Centre of the University of Queensland in Australia and her colleagues found:
"Regardless of how much moderate to vigorous exercise participants did, those who took more breaks from sitting throughout the day had slimmer waists, lower BMIs (body mass indexes), and healthier blood fat and blood sugar levels than those who sat the most. In an extensive study of 17,000 people, Canadian researchers drew an even more succinct conclusion: The longer you spend sitting each day, the more likely you are to die an early death—no matter how fit you are."
Come on, the researchers just broke out their trump card: sitting makes you dead! Ahem. Hyperbole aside, the fix for "sitting disease" and apparently all other modern travails is pretty simple. You have to up your incidental activity. The researchers call it NEAT for non-exercise activity thermogenesis because after conferences with booth girls, researchers love nothing more than a cute acronym. What that means for the rest of us is we have to find ways to move more.
The article suggests starting by making a commitment to stand up every half hour. I would add that maybe while you are on your feet, do a couple of jumping jacks or burpees. Not enough to get you all pit-stained before the big meeting but still plenty of fodder for your office mates to discuss behind your (well-toned) back. While I am not lucky enough to have physically present coworkers other than little people who already think everything I do is nuts, think of the fun you office people could have! You could swing at invisible bugs! You could make a sacrifice to the Purel gods in hopes of not catching swine flu! You could do a rain dance! Or a tap dance! Or the Single Ladies Dance (bonus points if you can get your coworkers to join in like on Glee)!! The options are endless really.
Okay fine, if you want more practical options the researchers add you can walk around whilst talking on the phone, suggest an outdoor jaunt when someone asks to talk to you, and the old sub-a-stability-ball-for-your-computer chair trick. (However, as someone whose job is done on a computer, I will tell you that the stability ball did not work well for me. It made my posture even worse and gave me terrible back pains.) Other ideas I thought of include standing up and walking to the kitchen or water cooler to get a drink of water, developing a trademark fidget or tic, using a stationary bike or treadmill while watching TV and - my personal dream - bumping up your computer desk to standing height and then buying one of those tall chairs so that you have the option of standing and surfing.
The Experiment For the month of November, I am simply going to stand more. That's it! To remind myself to stand up every 30 minutes, I've installed TimeLeft, a free customizable desktop timer (it even plays mp3s in case dings bother you). In addition, I'm going to make 5 conscious choices to move more every day. (And yes, rocking the baby counts!) Pretty simple! Who's in with me? What are your ideas for simple ways to add more incidental movement to your life? And just out of curiosity, has that stability ball trick worked for anybody??
PS> If anyone has any suggestions on how to go into labor those would be much appreciated too! | <urn:uuid:c99bddd8-9fcd-46e3-8d64-7e6a14fe5da8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wellsphere.com/exercise-article/combatting-sitting-disease-november-s-great-fitness-experiment/855001 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954039 | 1,165 | 2.078125 | 2 |
Entrance Hall and Reception Hall
The Entrance Hall, 24 feet wide and 28 feet long, replaces the small forecourt and porte-cochere that protected the mansion's original entrance. Four marble overdoor reliefs represent the arts of Music, Sculpture, Architecture, and Painting.
The Reception Hall was the major element of the 1975–77 addition to the Collection, built in a style combining reminiscences of Mansart's Grand Trianon at Versailles and elements of the Italian Baroque. This 16-foot-wide and 52-foot-long room provides a unique space for entertaining at seated dinners for up to 50 guests and receptions (in conjunction with the Entrance Hall) for up to 200 guests. The Garden, with its pool and changing seasonal plantings, can be seen through the hall's three large windows. | <urn:uuid:42bb14ca-356a-4036-9739-baaad46d56f3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.frick.org/support/entrance_and_reception | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.912867 | 178 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Innovative cooperation between water utilities ensures the water supply
New control system for the water community
Picca has developed a control system for a new water community in
Until now the utilities in Gislinge, Svinninge, Kundby, Stig-Bjergby, Jyderup Eastern, Mørkøv and Knabstrup are supplying water to the community, which consists of a total of 50 water utilities.
The extensive project and system is the first of its kind in the Danish water supply and is implemented in three phases. The first phase is completed and the second phase - expansion of existing utilities – will be implemented by next year. Then phase three begins, which is primarily an expansion of Svinninge Waterworks. When the system is fully operational, it is expected that the seven utilities will supply approximately 1.9 million cubic meters of clean water in drinking quality each year.
"The principle of the new system is almost the same as when consumers are provided with electricity. We have simply used the existing network and send more water through. The result is more fresh water, and that we can secure water supply to area residents and businesses. The infrastructure will now be adapted to the need, unlike earlier where capacity was the constraint on the amount of water that could be delivered", says director Jørgen Høj from the water community (Vandfællesskabet Nordvestsjælland A.m.b.a.).
It is Picca Automation A/S, which has delivered and implemented both hardware and software to the control system. Moreover, the company got the challenge of proving the benefits of cooperation among water utilities. The water utilities operate as independent entities that actually sell the water to the water community. But the water community ensures a more efficient operation of the utilities, better monitoring of the production and a greater supply security than the individual utility can offer.
Automatic control and wireless controllers
Nine gauge wells are scattered over an area of approximately
"We have entered the setpoints according to the existing capacity and known consumption through a period of time. In the new network, the water can run both in and out, and the former network can be used as a transport network. For example, the utility in Kundby was previously only associated with the network in Svinninge. Now the water flows from Kundby to the gauge well in Svinninge and from there on to a new gauge well and into the water community network", says Jørgen Høj and continues: "Hour by hour I adjust through a spreadsheet the number of cubic meters every utility has to supply. The values are sent via the GSM network to the gauge wells".
If the back-pressure is too large, the PLC governs the flow in the well down. The flow is regulated upward if the back-pressure begins to drop. If the level in the local cleanwater tank becomes too low, the transport valve closes before the utility’s own consumers will have a lack of water. This control system is wireless, because all utility controls also are equipped with the wireless GSM technology. If Kalundborg can not absorb the expected water amount, the pressure in the main supply will increase and the automatic control will lower the supply.
"We were quite comfortable with the choice of Picca Automation, especially when our adviser on the project, the engineering firm Rambøll, already knew the company and its solutions. The cooperation has gone well and there are only some small adjustments before the site is completely finished", concludes Jørgen Høj.
Mob.: +45 20 23 08 01
> Krüger A/S
> EnviDan A/S
> Arla Foods A.m.b.a.
> Københavns Kommune
> Nyborg Kommune
> Grindsted Vandværk I/S
> Grønlands Energiforsyning | <urn:uuid:26aa3fff-ac00-48dd-9710-4d1c1a385840> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.picca.dk/uk/Environment---Energy/Customers---cases/Vandf%C3%A6llesskabet.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9399 | 823 | 1.929688 | 2 |
Voters had the option to overturn strict abortion laws in the conservative Roman Catholic country of Portugal, but failed to do so because of low voter turnout. While 60% of voters did support allowing abortion up until the 10th week of pregnancy, Portugal's laws require that at least 50% of the population must vote in order for the process to be valid. For whatever reason, voter turnout was only around 44%, so the referendum will not pass. However, the Prime Minister is saying he's not going to be deterred by the turnout, and will instead create legislation legalizing early abortions.
I wonder if we'd ever get anything done if we had that sort of restriction on our own (American) election days. It would certainly at least prevent some of the issues we have now, though undoubtedly create others.
[Editor's note: Despite low voter turnout, Portugal's Socialist government said on Monday it would take immediate steps to decriminalise abortion after a referendum in which voters approved the liberalisation of one of Europe's most restrictive laws...
José Sócrates, the prime minister, said new legislation emulating the "best practices" of several European countries would be put before parliament as a matter of urgency. More here.] | <urn:uuid:96ff9796-e883-49c6-8c58-41b8f57918a9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://womensbioethics.blogspot.com/2007/02/portugal-fails-to-overturn-strict.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966619 | 249 | 2.09375 | 2 |
When I first noticed this stone row on the OS map I was told that the trees around it ruined the site, so I left visiting it for a later date. I then forgot all about it. I recently found out that the trees have been mainly cleared, which gave the green light for a trip to Cavan.
The row itself is very impressive. Four large stones, reaching up to 2m tall, align roughly northeast-southwest. At the southwest end there is a low rounded bouler and 5m from the northeast end there is a small rounded outcrop of bed rock.
The northern views from west around to northeast are quite extensive. The southern view is blocked by the high point of the hill (upon which incidentally is one of Ireland's rare vitrified forts).
There are two routes to these stones: a hard, steep one and a more gentle one. Guess which one I took! The hard route is indicated by a sign with a blue and white striped pole saying "Finn McCools Finders". The easier route is about 500m northeast of this on the same road and signposted "The Finger Stones".
Alignments or stone rows are groups of standing stones set in straight line. They can occur in any size group from two (usually refered to as a stone pair - see Boherboy (County Dublin)) to ten or more, although anything over four is exceptional (see Castlelanaght (County Cork)).
The function of these is a bit of a mystery, although many do seem to have significant astrological or geographical properties.
The stones making stone pairs often appear to be totally different in shape from each other, often hinting at a male and female partnership.
Click Thumbnail to View Full Size Image
This is an explanation of (and a bit of a disclaimer for) the coordinates I provide.
Where a GPS figure is given this is the master for all other coordinates. According to my Garmin these are quite accurate.
Where there is no GPS figure the 6 figure grid reference is master for the others. This may not be very accurate as it could have come from the OS maps and could have been read by eye. Consequently, all other cordinates are going to have inaccuracies.
The calculation of Longitude and Latitude uses an algorithm that is not 100% accurate. The long/lat figures are used as a basis for calculating the UTM & ITM coordinates. Consequently, UTM & ITM coordinates are slightly out.
UTM is a global coordinate system - Universal Transverse Mercator - that is at the core of the GPS system.
ITM is the new coordinate system - Irish Transverse Mercator - that is more accurate and more GPS friendly than the Irish Grid Reference system. This will be used on the next generation of Irish OS maps. | <urn:uuid:c8b08729-fd32-4356-945a-8388a85c0345> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.megalithomania.com/show/site/1553/finn_mccools_fingers_stone_row_or_alignment.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961271 | 579 | 2.125 | 2 |
How often did you participate in the following religious or faith-based activities in the last month? Witnessing/sharing your faith with friends (Baylor Religion Survey, Wave 2, 2007)
[Results weighted by WEIGHT]
The Baylor Department of Sociology received a three-year grant from the John M. Templeton Foundation, to conduct a nationally representative multi-year study of religious values, practices, and behaviors. Wave 2 of the Baylor Religion Survey was collected in 2007 and includes a deep selection of questions related to religious behaviors, beliefs and belonging. Special topic modules examine race and religion, and personality. | <urn:uuid:0fe97c0e-e001-48b2-8c79-1e32378a5ce7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thearda.com/quickstats/qs_66.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935463 | 124 | 1.539063 | 2 |
(a) Demonstrations. The term “demonstrations” includes demonstrations, picketing, speechmaking, marching, holding vigils or religious services, and all other like forms of conduct that involve the communication or expression of views or grievances, engaged in by one or more persons, the conduct of which is reasonably likely to attract a crowd or onlookers. This term does not include casual park use by visitors or tourists that is not reasonably likely to attract a crowd or onlookers.
(b) Permits and the small group permit exception. Demonstrations are allowed within park areas designated as available under paragraph (c)(2) of this section, when the superintendent has issued a permit for the activity, except that:
(1) Demonstrations involving 25 persons or fewer may be held without a permit within designated park areas, provided that:
(i) None of the reasons for denying a permit that are set out in paragraph (f) of this section are present;
(ii) The group is not merely an extension of another group already availing itself of the small group permit exception under this provision;
(iii) They will not unreasonably interfere with other permitted demonstrations and special events, or park program activities; and
(iv) Hand-carried signs may be used, but stages, platforms, or structures may not be used.
(2) While it is not mandatory, the organizer is requested to provide reasonable notice of the proposed event to the park superintendent, including whether there is any reason to believe that there may be an attempt to disrupt, protest, or prevent the activity.
(3) The 25-person maximum for the small group permit exception may be reduced for a designated available area, but only if:
(i) A written determination that a 25-person group cannot be reasonably physically accommodated within that area is approved by the regional director; and
(ii) The written determination is made available at the office of the superintendent and by public notice under § 1.7 of this chapter.
(4) In the event that two or more groups taking advantage of the small group permit exception seek to use the same designated available area at the same time, and the area cannot reasonably accommodate multiple occupancy, the superintendent will, whenever possible, direct the later-arriving group to relocate to another nearby designated available area.
(c) Designated available park areas.(1) Locations may be designated as available for demonstrations under this section, and for the sale or distribution of printed matter under § 2.52, only if these activities would not:
(i) Cause injury or damage to park resources;
(ii) Unreasonably impair the atmosphere of peace and tranquility maintained in wilderness, natural, historic, or commemorative zones;
(iii) Unreasonably interfere with interpretive, visitor service, or other program activities, or with the administrative activities of the National Park Service;
(iv) Substantially impair the operation of public use facilities or services of National Park Service concessioners, holders of commercial use authorizations, or contractors;
(v) Present a clear and present danger to the public health and safety; or
(vi) Be incompatible with the nature and traditional use of the particular park area involved.
(2) The superintendent must designate on a map, which must be available in the office of the superintendent and by public notice under § 1.7 of this chapter, the locations designated as available for demonstrations and the sale or distribution of printed matter.
(d) Application for permit. A permit application must provide:
(1) The name of the applicant or the name of the organization (if any);
(2) The date, time, duration, nature, and place of the proposed event;
(3) An estimate of the number of persons expected to attend;
(4) A statement of equipment and facilities to be used;
(5) Whether there is any reason to believe that there will be an attempt to disrupt, protest, or prevent the event; and
(6) Any other information required by the permit application form.
(e) The superintendant must not accept an application more than one year before the proposed event (including time required for set-up); applications received more than a year in advance will be returned to the applicant.
(f) Processing the application. The superintendent must issue a permit within ten days of receiving a complete and fully executed application unless:
(1) The superintendant has granted or will grant a prior application for a permit for the same time and place, and the activities authorized by that permit do not reasonably allow multiple occupancy of that particular area;
(2) It reasonably appears that the event will present a clear and present danger to public health or safety;
(3) The event is of such nature or duration that it cannot reasonably be accommodated in the particular location applied for, considering such things as damage to park resources or facilities, impairment of a protected area's atmosphere of peace and tranquility, interference with program activities, or impairment of public use facilities;
(4) The location applied for has not been designated as available under paragraph (c)(2) of this section;
(5) The application was submitted more than one year before the proposed event (including set-up); or
(6) The activity would constitute a violation of an applicable law or regulation.
(g) Written denial of permit. If a permit is denied, the superintendant will inform the applicant in writing of the denial and the reasons for it.
(h) Permit conditions. The permit may contain conditions reasonably consistent with the requirements of public health and safety, protection of park resources, and the use of the park area for the purposes for which it was established. It may also contain reasonable limitations on the equipment used and the time and area within which the event is allowed.
(i) Permit duration.(1) Permits may be issued for a maximum of 14 consecutive days.
(2) A permit may be extended for up to 14 days, but a new application must be submitted for each extension requested.
(3) The extension may be denied if another applicant has requested use of the same location and the location cannot reasonably accommodate multiple occupancy.
(j) Violation prohibited. Violation of these regulations or the terms of the permit is prohibited.
(k) Permit revocation, termination of small group exception.(1) The superintendent may revoke a permit for any violation of its terms and conditions.
(2) The superintendent may revoke a permit, or order a small group permit exception activity to cease, when any of the conditions listed in paragraph (f) of this section exist.
(3) The superintendent will make the revocation or order to cease in writing, with the reasons clearly set forth. In emergency circumstances the superintendent will make an immediate verbal revocation or order to cease, followed by written confirmation within 72 hours.
[75 FR 64153, Oct. 19, 2010]
Title 36 published on 2012-07-01
no entries appear in the Federal Register after this date.
This is a list of United States Code sections, Statutes at Large, Public Laws, and Presidential Documents, which provide rulemaking authority for this CFR Part. | <urn:uuid:71a5c229-2c86-48de-92fd-572832eca604> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/36/2.51 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923589 | 1,498 | 2.03125 | 2 |
Dear the creative class: the world is flat again.
“The New World of Work” is a video put together by e3unlimited in an effort to show how changes in technology have shifted the landscape of the working world.
“People are loyal to their skill, not their employer. Work was somewhere you went, now, it’s something you do”
In the pre-modern period, everyone was sure that the world was flat. This was, of course, until the Enlightenment, when Greek philosopher Pythagoras proposed that the world was a sphere, which was supported by Aristotle in 330 BC. Fast forward two-thousand plus years, and entertain this idea: the world is flat again. Now, I’m not arguing that the world is physically flat; I’m speaking metaphorically. I’m asking, how does conceptualizing the world as “flat” or “round” inform the way we relate to other countries and nations?
“Technology has flattened our world”
Think of one person making a sound. In a round world, sound must travel farther to reach the other side of the globe. In a flat world, sound travels faster, as the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. In a flat world, lines of communication streamline across the world in seconds.
We have the capacity to talk to people. To reach people across the globe instantly (“The number of text messages sent everyday exceeds the population of the planet. There were more texts sent last week than in the whole of 2006.”) Social Media sites (Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, etc.) are powerful communication tools. The irony of the present is that we live in an age where social conversation is so easily accessible, so readily available given the innovation of new media (the internet, T.V., Twitter, cell phones,Facebook, wordpress, etc.) yet, despite all the interfaces of digital communication, we’re saying nothing.
So, creative class: we have our work cut out for us: start thinking about how your work is going to affect the world. Start thinking about social change. Start thinking about your sound and its capacity to resonate across the world.
“The world of work is changing. Are you embracing it?” | <urn:uuid:390895b1-4c15-4bf3-a475-7aea7d2c5734> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://socialtimes.com/the-new-world-of-work_b37177 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937447 | 481 | 2.296875 | 2 |
Barry H. Landau has rubbed elbows with presidents, helped plan inaugurations, and claims one of the largest collections of Oval Office memorabilia outside museums and presidential libraries. His Manhattan apartment includes a collection of china from Thomas Jefferson's inauguration and a picture of himself kissing John F. Kennedy's dog Clipper.
Police say he tried to expand that collection by pilfering dozens of rare documents from the Maryland Historical Society on Saturday. Landau, whose connections reportedly bridge the Washington, New York and Hollywood elite, now sits in Central Booking and is being held without bail.
The artifacts police say he and 24-year-old Jason Savedoff tried to take during a Saturday of reviewing historical papers at the Monument Street nonprofit's archives include documents signed by Abraham Lincoln, presidential inaugural ball invitations and programs, a commemoration of the Statue of Liberty, and a commemoration of the Washington Monument.
The items range in value from $100,000 to $500,000, and are just four of the 60 documents police say the men planned to steal, meaning the total value could be in the millions.
The FBI is investigating the case with the Baltimore Police Department. The historical society declined to talk about the case, saying the investigation was continuing.
"We're working closely with law enforcement agencies on this, and I'm not at liberty right now to talk about the case any further than that," said Burt Kummerow, president of the Maryland Historical Society.
Read the full story at baltimoresun.com | <urn:uuid:2132d783-a354-43d9-9417-72b9e555aae1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/crime-scene/post/police-pair-tried-to-steal-historic-documents-worth-millions/2011/07/12/gIQAvtVTAI_blog.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948868 | 313 | 1.515625 | 2 |
What if the United States loses its unrivaled edge in invention? The country’s innovation capabilities have long been central to its competitive advantage. But the rate of innovative activity is increasing sharply in other countries, and some may worry that this is the greatest threat to America’s economic leadership.
I’m not convinced that the threat is real. Can you think of a single big innovation that has hit global markets recently that didn’t come from the United States or Europe? I asked that question at a panel discussion not long ago, as I’ve done a few times before. Usually no one comes up with a response. Last time, though, the moderator replied: “Yoga!” That got a laugh, because yoga doesn’t strike people as belonging in the same discussion as silicon chips and the human genome. But I had to concede the point. It is a hot business area, and it didn’t emanate from the West.
Then I considered the issue further. Perhaps the more important (and reassuring) question is this: Does it matter where an invention arises if an economy is world-class at harvesting its value?
Let’s think about yoga. The practice originated in ancient India, but today this global craze supports a huge industrial complex: instructors, studios, companies that sell DVDs and apps, incense producers, retreat operators, physical therapists for yoga-related injuries. What company is reaping the greatest yoga-related revenue worldwide? That would be lululemon athletica, based in Vancouver, which designs and sells yoga clothing and accessories. Founded in 1998, it now has annual revenues of more than $700 million and a market cap in excess of $9 billion.
Lululemon is engaged not in the core business of yoga—instruction—but in a related and nearby opportunity, which strategists call an adjacency. Inventions often create profit pools so large that their inventors can’t exploit them alone. And sometimes, as with yoga clothing, the most profitable opportunities lie in the adjacencies.
In the past, inventions and their adjacencies tended to be bound together in a region. In the new global economy, however, local actors don’t have much of a jump on the rest of the world. When we think about innovation as a driver of economies, this is an important point.
Sometimes societies are too anxious about the provenance of innovation. Name any big invention, and there’s a good chance that adjacencies are creating equally big profit opportunities for other players. No matter who is first to develop the mass consumer electric vehicle, for example, firms in other countries will have a chance to develop advanced batteries, charging stations, and so on. A blockbuster drug for cancer, wherever it was discovered, would create many economic possibilities for health care providers in America.
Companies with superior marketing and distribution capabilities and leaders who quickly recognize opportunities will be the ones that capture value from innovations. Many American firms have these advantages. And in the face of a jobs crisis and a stagnant economy, we as a planet should pray for the appearance of more breakthrough innovations, regardless of where they arise. Ultimately, the creation of jobs and wealth has more to do with harvesting the value of an innovation than with inventing it. | <urn:uuid:8c55974f-cee5-45b9-8307-d593eafabd1c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hbr.org/2012/04/celebrate-innovation-no-matter-where-it-occurs/ar/pr | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954457 | 684 | 2.328125 | 2 |
If parents can’t limit their children’s TV time, then they can at least try to improve what youngsters are watching.
That’s the if-you-can’t-beat-them-join-them approach that researchers in Seattle took in trying to address the issue of how much TV children, including toddlers, watch every day. Despite admonitions from experts and an emerging body of research that suggests children shouldn’t be watching more than two hours a day, the typical U.S. tot spends about four and a half hours parked in front of a television daily. Campaigns to reduce this screen time have clearly been only minimally successful.
So by shifting the focus away from how much youngsters watch and concentrating instead on what they’re seeing, the researchers report in the journal Pediatrics on their success in helping parents increase the time kids spent watching educational programming. The result? Better-behaved children.
“There is no question kids watch too much television at all ages,” says Dr. Dimitri Christakis, lead author and director of the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development at Seattle Children’s Research Institute. “Part of the message is not just about turning off the television but about changing the channel.”
Kids are sponges who absorb their surroundings; it’s how they learn to develop the proper behaviors and responses to social situations. And they are not only parroting their parents and other family members, but mimicking behaviors they see on television or in movies as well. So Christakis, who has conducted extensive research on the effects of screen time on child development, explored ways to influence what shows children watch so that they’re more apt to imitate quality conduct. “We’ve known for decades that kids imitate what they see on TV,” he says. “They imitate good behaviors and they imitate bad behaviors.”
In the study, he and his colleagues tracked 617 families with kids between the ages of 3 and 5. Half of the families agreed to go on a media “diet” and swap programming with more aggressive and violent content for educational, prosocial shows that encourage sharing, kindness and respect, like Dora the Explorer, which teaches how to resolve conflicts, and Sesame Street, which models tolerance for diversity. The other families did not change their children’s viewing choices.
To help parents in the first group to choose appropriate shows, they received a program guide that highlighted prosocial content and learned how to block out violent programming. (The parents were so delighted with the guidance that many asked to continue receiving program guides even after the study ended.) They were also urged to watch alongside their kids. The researchers tracked what the children watched and also measured their behavior with standard tests of aggressiveness and sharing responses six months and a year into the study.
At both testing periods, the children in the first group watched less aggressive programming than they did at the beginning of the study compared with children in the control group. Both groups of kids upped their screen time a bit, but the first group saw more quality programs while the control group spent even more time watching violent shows.
Six months after the study began, the children who increased their prosocial viewing acted less aggressively and showed more sharing and respectful behaviors compared with the control group. They were more apt to compromise and cooperate than children who didn’t change their viewing content, and the effects persisted for the entire year that the study lasted. “There is a connection between what children watch, not just in terms of violence but in terms of improved behavior,” says Christakis, who is also a professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington.
Who got the biggest boost in behavior? Low-income boys. “They derived the greatest benefit, which is interesting because they are most at risk of being victims and perpetrators of aggression,” he says.
Though the study didn’t attempt to reduce the amount of time children spent in front of screens, researchers were initially concerned that kids may end up actually watching more television than they would have outside of the study since their parents might have felt the educational programming was helpful for the children. In fact, the participants did spend slightly more time watching TV, but, says Christakis, while “they didn’t watch less … they didn’t watch more, which is reassuring.” As with many other aspects of child development, TV time is all about trade-offs. But at least these results suggest that even if children are spending time in front of the tube, it could be time that is helping them learn about positive ways to interact with others. | <urn:uuid:c0fa3d6a-23bb-4f7c-998f-1c0bcddfffd1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/18/better-tv-habits-can-lead-to-better-behavior-among-children/?iid=sci-category-mostpop2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97537 | 968 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Wrap 920AV: Movies and Music using Sunglasses
It's not uncommon to see a person walking around town wearing sunglasses on their face or headphones in their ears. But if that person is wearing the latest pair of Vuzix sunglasses, there may be more going on under those shades than meets the eye.
While the Vuzix Wrap 920AV looks like any normal eyewear product, it also doubles as a video player. In fact, it is the first pair of glasses to use "see-through" optic technology. What does that mean? Plug the Vuzix Wrap into any digital music player, portable DVD system, or laptop and it displays video and plays audio instantly. Now you can run errands while taking your favorite movies and television shows wherever you go.
Of course, walking around while watching video content doesn't seem like the safest thing in the world to do. In response to these concerns, Vuzix has also equipped their product with something called "quantum optics technology," allowing users to watch media while still being able to see obstacles in front of them. Think of it as having real-life "picture-in-picture". (Source: usatoday.com)
Another interesting feature: twin high-resolution display (640 x 480 pixels) supporting 3-D video. Imagine walking the streets of a major city and having a virtual tour guide tell you the background history of important landmarks as you pass them... all from a pair of sunglasses. (Source: gizmodo.com)
The Wrap 920AV is versatile, weighs less than 3 ounces and even comes with removable noise-isolating earphones. It can even be used along with prescription glasses.
The Wrap 920AV runs on battery power, with up to six hours of life per charge, depending on the application.
Those interested in the product will have to wait just a few more months to own one, as the release date is set for sometime in the spring. Early price estimates have yet to be disclosed.
Free guide: Windows 8 Cheat Sheet: Keyboard Shortcuts. Microsoft Windows has always had some fantastic time-saving keyboard shortcuts designed to make our lives easier. For example: CTRL-X will cut text or objects, and CTRL-V will paste them. (Of course, you can use your mouse to achieve the same thing, but it requires clicking and fumbling through menus, which can be a huge time waster if you cut and paste 50+ times a day). With Windows 8, Microsoft has added many new keyboard shortcuts to their operating system; unfortunately, it's a bit of a learning curve. That's where the Windows 8 keyboard shortcuts cheat sheet comes in! Simply download the guide and reference it when you need to. You'll save a ton of time using your keyboard, rather than reaching for the mouse and flipping through oodles of menus trying to find what you're looking for. Share and enjoy! Click here to download this guide now! Note: this guide is free, but registration is required; after that, you can select more ebooks and videos for download without registering again. If you have questions / problems with the registration form, please read this. | <urn:uuid:f50bd444-84fe-4da4-9cde-412fc554ae19> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.infopackets.com/news/gadgets/2009/20090119_wrap_920av_movies_and_music_using_sunglasses.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943242 | 651 | 1.539063 | 2 |
By Loretta Waldman, The Hartford Courant
SIMSBURY, Conn. At 79, Patricia Berberich is certainly old enough to have heard of Rosie the Riveter, but when it came to placing a face with the name, she admits her mind was blank.
So, when the woman dining with her one evening this spring at the McLean retirement home mentioned having been the model for artist Norman Rockwell's World War II-era heroine, Berberich politely excused herself to do a little research.
"My instinct was to get right to the Internet and look it up," she said. "Then I sent off to (the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass.) to get a poster so she could sign it."
Berberich was hardly the first to make that request of Rosie, whose real name is Mary Doyle Keefe. Since posing for Rockwell in 1942, she has signed countless posters and autographs.
The painting, for which Keefe posed twice and was paid $10, came to embody the can-do attitude of American women whose work helped win the war. It is arguably among the most recognizable images of World War II and transformed Keefe from a small-town switchboard operator into an American icon.
Keefe thinks of herself as an accidental celebrity and still gets a thrill out of telling her story of posing for Rockwell when she was a red-haired 19-year-old. She went on to graduate from college, work as a dental hygienist, marry and raise four children.
Now 85 and living in an apartment at the McLean Home, Keefe said the buzz surrounding her being Rosie began spreading soon after she moved there from New Hampshire two years ago to be closer to a daughter who lives in Granby.
"I got a kick out of it," said Berberich, a neighbor at McLean who dines with Keefe regularly. "I remember my classmates going off to war after graduation."
"It's quite an honor to be asked by Norman Rockwell to pose for a picture," added Marion Strindberg, another neighbor at the home. "It's generally known, but she just told a small group of us. She is very quiet about it. Word went around slowly."
Asked to recount the serendipitous events that led to her fateful encounter with Rockwell, Keefe recites a well-worn script she committed to memory long ago. She was living with her family in Arlington, Vt., at the time, not far from where Rockwell lived with his family and had a studio.
"The telephone office was in my mom's house, and he would come in to pay his bill," Keefe recalled. "He knew who I was and asked if I would sit for a picture. Gene Pelham, his photographer who moved from New York, would take a picture and Norman Rockwell would cut out what he wanted. You didn't sit there while he was painting the whole thing, which was good."
For the first sitting, Keefe wore a white blouse beneath her overalls and a pair of saddle shoes. The look, however, wasn't quite right, she said, so Rockwell had her pose a second time wearing a blue blouse and penny loafers
Keefe said she has received endless ribbing about the now famous image of a brawny working woman breaking for lunch with a ham sandwich in hand, pneumatic riveter on her lap and copy of Hitler's Mein Kampf underfoot. Her body looked nothing like that in real life, said Keefe, especially the muscular arms. Rockwell sent her a written apology.
"The kidding you took was all my fault, because I really thought you were the most beautiful woman I had ever seen," Rockwell wrote in the 1967 letter.
Rosie first appeared in 1943 on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post and, later, on war bond posters. Keefe said she didn't think of herself as special. Lots of townspeople posed for Rockwell during the 10 years he lived in Arlington, she said, including her uncle, who was in all four of the well-known Rockwell images popularly known as the "Four Freedoms".
Keefe's oldest son, Bill Keefe, recalls family trips to Arlington as a boy when his mother would walk down the street saying this or that person "was in such and such a painting by Rockwell."
"It was always a topic of conversation," he said. "It's part of the Keefe family legacy. We never had a problem coming up with a unique school project or something for show and tell."
But perhaps his proudest memory is of the Rockwell exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., about 10 years ago, to which his parents were invited and given a private tour. And in 2002, Mary Keefe and her late husband, Bob, were invited to New York by Sotheby's for an auction at which the Rosie the Riveter painting fetched $4.9 million, the world record for Rockwell's work at that time.
There, and at dozens of other events, Mary Keefe has gladly signed posters and given brief talks about her experience. She also has been a guest on national television, appearing on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Good Morning America during the 50th anniversary of D-Day.
At McLean, she keeps a lower profile, but even there can't escape attention.
To promote a Nov. 5 flu shot clinic for employees, Denise Yorio, a registered nurse and staff infection control practitioner, put up posters bearing Rosie's image and asked Keefe to autograph pictures. Nurses dressed up in "Rosie get-ups," she said, and rolled up their sleeves.
"We made it a big social event," Yorio said. "We've never done so many in such a short time."
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Conversation guidelines: USA TODAY welcomes your thoughts, stories and information related to this article. Please stay on topic and be respectful of others. Keep the conversation appropriate for interested readers across the map. | <urn:uuid:6a8eeec0-e00f-4c7a-8b9b-46505f6010f7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-11-18-rosie-riveter_N.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983881 | 1,295 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Elgar’s first published part-song dates from 1890 and marks the beginning of his association with the publishers Novello. It was a cautious and rather inauspicious start from their point of view; they offered no money to the composer, merely a hundred copies in lieu of copyright. When My Love Dwelt in a Northern Land
first appeared, it was said to be ‘crude, ill-written for the voice, laid out without knowledge of the capabilities of the human voice &c &c!’, as Elgar told his friend Jaeger many years later. Yet it is a fine song, despite a conventional setting. In the third verse the melody is given to Soprano and Tenor I, while the other parts sing the words to a repetitive, rhythmic motif – an ‘accompaniment’ device Elgar later used in two of his greatest songs, Death on the Hills
. One might also note in passing that Lang’s poem has the theme – popular in Victorian times and frequently used by Elgar – of youthful love, often unfulfilled and/or brought to an end by premature death.
from notes by Geoffrey Hodgkins © 1998 | <urn:uuid:1c6fc042-42ec-4721-9418-bd429eb56d6f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/tw.asp?w=W8245&t=GBAJY9801903&al=CDA67019&vw=dc | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96192 | 245 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Professor Tony Kouzarides
Our group is interested in defining the mechanisms by which chromatin modifications function to regulate cellular processes. Our attention is focused on a set of enzymes (acetylases, deacetylases, methylases and kinases), which regulate transcription by covalently modifying histones. We would like to understand what biological processes these enzymes control and the precise role of each modification on chromatin dynamics. In addition, a number of chromatin modifying enzymes have been implicated in the genesis of cancer so we are dissecting how these pathways missregulated in cancer cells.
Histones are very highly modified. Despite their abundance, we believe that more modifications are likely to exist on histones. This complexity is probably necessary because histones integrate many signalling pathways with biological processes involving DNA manipulation. We are taking a number of complementary approaches to characterise the function of chromatin modifications. We use yeast as a model system whenever possible to define pathways. We use human cells to characterise function in higher organisms and probe connections to cancer. Mechanistic analysis of modifications is carried out using recombinantly assembled nucleosomes that are modified at specific residues. | <urn:uuid:fe522a82-b235-4253-b8b8-21e08544391a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.path.cam.ac.uk/research/investigators/kouzarides/research.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930887 | 231 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Last month I was invited to a “Special Class at Perugina’s Legendary Chocolate School” that was being held at La Scuola di Eataly (the largest artisanal Italian food and wine marketplace in the world, located in New York City’s Flatiron District). And for those of you who are unaware, Perugina is known worldwide for its iconic Baci chocolate line. The class would include a little history mixed with a little chocolate making, topped with a little dessert tasting.
Eataly and chocolate? Say no more. I felt as if I had just won the coveted Golden Ticket from one of my favorite characters of all time, none other than Mr. Willy Wonka himself…well, his Italian brother, anyway. (Warning: If you have never seen the movie Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory, you may want to consider skipping this blog entry because the majority of it will not make the least bit of sense.)
“Oh, you can’t get out backwards. You’ve got to go forwards to go back…better to press on.” (See what I mean?)
I was fortunate—and honored—to be given a front row seat to all of the action. As soon as the class began, Francine Segan, an expert on the subject of chocolate who was trained at the legendary Perugina Scuola del Cioccolato in the heart of Italy (www.francinesegan.com ), took center stage. Full of knowledge, enthusiasm and personality, Francine entertained the audience with a number of fascinating nuggets of Italian chocolate history. A few highlights (that the hidden nerd in me jotted down): Italians were the first to wrap chocolate in paper; Italians were the first to consider chocolate a spice, which explains why they sprinkle or grate it on many dishes, such as boar and chili; and Casanova wrote in his memoirs, “Chocolate gets blood to all the right places.”
“So much time and so little to do. Wait a minute. Strike that. Reverse it.”
About 30 minutes later, Francine ended the history lesson in order for the food portion of the class to begin. Within seconds, each of us classmates were handed a beautifully sinful tray: a bowl of freshly-melted Perugina dark chocolate, a dish filled with Gianduia chocolate (whipped chocolate filling blended with finely chopped hazelnuts), a bowl of whole hazelnuts, complete with ground hazelnuts, two Baci chocolates…and a glass of Prosecco.
“Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker.”
Channeling my inner Veruca Salt, I tasted, then rolled, then dipped, then tasted, then sipped, all in the name of creating my take-home box of Baci confections. (Alright, if you’ve met me for more than one minute, you’re well aware that Veruca and I are polar opposites. If anything, I’m 85% Charlie Bucket, 10% Mike TeeVee [naturally, for our mutual love for television] and 5% Augustus Gloop [“Let me in, I’m starving!”]. However, Veruca is the character I secretly long to be in a selfish, egotistical and shallow world…where everyone loathes me, of course.)
When Perugina Playtime came to a close, I assumed that class was over. As I dabbed antibacterial gel on my left palm (Sidenote: a cookie dough-scented gel, nonetheless), Francine announced that it was time to taste our final treat: Baci Dessert Pasta.
“If you want to view paradise, simply look around and view it…”
My heart beating wildly, she explained how easy it is to create this simple Italian delicacy at home. I admit it took every fiber of my being to refrain from belting out Veruca’s infamous lyrics, “Don’t care how, I want it now!” But it was well worth the wait. This dish was a first for me, and while chocolate pasta may sound a little odd, trust me when I say it was, well, scrumdiddlyumptious.
“I never dreamed that I would climb over the moon in ecstasy, but nevertheless it’s there that I’m shortly about to be.”
The event had come to an end, so I took the necessary photos I needed for this blog, gathered my belongings and said my goodbyes and thank you’s to my gracious hosts: Francine, Jennifer Lionti from Colavita USA, Garima Pandey from the Bender Hammerling Group, and Federico Giorgio Marrano, Perugina Export Manager.
“Adieu, adieu, parting is such sweet sorrow.”
With my Perugina goody bag in hand (which included our homemade treats, a package of recipes, press materials and an apron), I headed to Caffe Lavazza in Eataly’s marketplace. Sipping on a skim cappuccino (come on, you knew it was coming!), I toyed with the idea of quoting lines from Willy Wonka throughout this blog.
“No, you’ll just come across as immature and unsophisticated,” stated my serious side. But as I headed home to New Jersey and cruised with an open sunroof on the upper level of the George Washington Bridge, I recalled the clever words spoken by a quirky, yet quite insightful individual:
“A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men.”
Baci Dessert Pasta:
½ pound spaghetti
12 Perugina Baci candies
Whipped cream or mascarpone cheese; hazelnut liqueur, such as Frangelico (optional)
1. Cook the pasta according to package directions. Drain.
2. Put 1 whole Baci in each of 4 coffee cups, wine glasses or dessert bowls. Divide the hot pasta among them and top each with 2 more coarsely crushed Baci.
3. Serve immediately, topped with a dollop of whipped cream or mascarpone cheese and a splash of hazelnut liqueur, if you like.
"Where is fancy bred, in the heart or in the head?"
"99...44...100 percent pure."
With Federico Giorgio Marrano
With Francine Segan | <urn:uuid:f9b30708-d43d-489d-9ab1-3169b143e1e5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eatitalian.com/blog/67792/ive-got-golden-italian-ticket | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942003 | 1,384 | 1.890625 | 2 |
International Internet Magazine. Baltic States news & analytics
Thursday, 23.05.2013, 21:58
Estonia mulls allowing double citizenship
Foreign minister raised the issue at the government meeting because the issue has repeatedly emerged in Estonia's foreign representations.
Namely the Constitution states that no one can be deprived of Estonian citizenship acquired by birth, but according to the citizenship law, a person who has acquired the citizenship of some other state too by birth, in addition to the Estonian citizenship, has to give up one citizenship when getting 18 years old. The first generation of these people become adults next year.
"I think that the clearest solution could be that if a person has Estonian citizenship by birth, he will keep it in any case, even when he has some other state's citizenship by birth, which comes from the origin of his mother or father or grandparents," said Paet.
Paet added that the majority of EU states accept double citizenship gained by birth and in Estonia it would not concern people who have acquired citizenship by naturalisation since that has been people's free will.
The interior ministry has to compile an analysis by autumn to solve the legal conflict before April 1 next year when the first generation of people whom the law provision concerns get 18 years old. Initially there are a few thousands of such people. | <urn:uuid:a9ad5d68-a13d-4538-a40d-6d81c273d57f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/legislation/?doc=59356 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976296 | 271 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Official state cars are more than just a means of transport for a country’s presidents, prime ministers and royal families. They are an armoured automotive display of strength, of opulence and often a symbol of support for their own car industry. It’s not surprising that America opts for Cadillac, Germany takes Mercedes Benz and Sweden uses Volvo. Countries without a national car company tend to choose an executive car from a manufacturer that has one or more of its construction factories in their nation or other strong diplomatic ties.
It’s fascinating to see which vehicles are driven by our global leaders; some are a solid, hefty block of motoring metal but others are a bit more unusual or less stuffy. The following ten cars are a mixture of archetypal grandeur and off-beat bewilderment.
United States of America
Famously nicknamed ‘The Beast’; yes the vehicle that grounded itself in Ireland this May, is a six metre monster with its own air supply. A 6.5 L Diesel engine generates enough power to eventually haul this weighty car to 60 mph but at tank emptying rate of 8 mpg.
The Jaguar XJ is David Cameron’s Prime Ministerial chariot. Surprisingly voted as the Scottish Luxury Car of the Year ahead of rival BMW 5 series and the Audi A8, it’s reassuring to see an ‘English’ car still car of choice in our country. The XJ is a worthy champion with its 5 Litre V8 powerplant and a gorgeous body assembled in Birmingham.
Continuing the association of Russian car company, ZiL, with the line of their leaders including Gorbachev and Yeltsin is a revitalised model by Slava Sahakian which possesses a longer wheelbase and a more comfortable and spacious interior. While this is all well and good, the final model looks reassuringly traditional but a little bit drab. The ZiL company will celebrate its centenary in 2016.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recently auctioned off his 1977 Peugeot 504 saloon at a charity auction with proceeds to benefit a low-income housing cooperative. The money earned from the sale at international auction will be given to the Mehr Housing. Who would buy the vehicle remains open to debate.
Controversial Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, hit the headlines yet again when he agreed the delivery of 19 brand new executive Maserati Quattroportes despite hard financial times. The first Maserati Quattroporte initiated the prestigious line back in the 1960s when Prince Karim Aga Khan placed a special bespoke order.
People’s Republic of China
President Hu Jintao is not averse to technological advancements. His background is in the sciences; he graduated from the Water Conservancy Engineering Department and left university with an engineering degree. Supporting his motor industry Hu is chauffeured in a FAW Hongqi HQE V12 luxury vehicle. It made its first appearance at the President’s troop review for the People’s Republic of China National Day 60th anniversary celebration.
Sultanate of Brunei
Famous for their love of gold, the Sultan of Brunei and his son also have the largest collection of cars in the world. It’s not 20, 30 or even 100. The Sultan’s collection is approaching 5,000. Combining his predilection for gold and cars it’s only to be expected that he runs a gold plated Rolls Royce – seriously.
The Malaysian Prime Minister, Najib Razak, has access to one of the most affordable and value for money executive vehicles that money can buy. The Proton Waja (king) was sold as the Impian in this country until its replacement in 2008. PM Pazak drives an armoured long wheel base version of the Lotus engineered Waja.
Laura Chinchilla, president of Ecuador since February last year having garnered 47% of the vote, has an elegant V8 Lincoln Town Car as her state vehicle. The stretch limo version is the longest car in the western hemisphere at 5.5 metres.
Despite the end of Gaddafi and his long reign, his very own personally designed state car is a remarkable-looking machine and one of the sleekest. It was Gaddafi’s own concern over road safety that spawned his answer to the problem. The Saroukh el-Jamahiriya, or ‘Libyan Rocket’, is a five seater sports car with a 230 bhp V6 engine. According to insiders it’s supposed to be the ‘safest car produced anywhere’.
Author's Google+ Page | <urn:uuid:e35dae69-7f26-49f4-85fd-0aed69dc6d7c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.carrentals.co.uk/blog/all-the-presidents-cars.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94604 | 966 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Perform a Task Analysis
"Task analysis for instructional design is a process of analyzing and articulating the kind of learning that you expect the learners to know how to perform" (Jonassen, Tessmer, & Hannum, 1999, p.3). Instructional designers perform a task analysis in order to:
What Methodology Does a Task Analysis Support?
The process of task analysis emerged from the behaviorist era in an effort to describe the elemental behaviors involved in performing a task or job. Nevertheless, different methods of task analysis have indeed followed the paradigm shifts to cognitive psychology and onto constructivism. Ultimately, each methodology of instruction commands its own method of analysis, yet regardless of methodology, a task analysis is needed for an in-depth understanding of the learning that’s to take place (Jonassen, et al., 1999).
I Know One Method of Task Analysis. Can I Use It All the Time?
According to Jonassen, the answer is no. Too often instructional designers try to force-fit all learning situations into one or two methods with which they are most familiar. However, as different audiences require different instructional strategies, different contexts demand different task analysis methods. To determine the best method for your instruction, you must decide what kind of analysis to perform. In general, there are five kinds of task analyses:
Each of the five methods involves a different procedure for conducting a task analysis and also make different assumptions about the process of learning.
How Do I Perform a Task Analysis?
According to Jonassen, the task analysis process consists of five distinct functions:
What Formats Can I Use?
There are different formats to use based on the type of learning outcome. The following are the most prevalent: | <urn:uuid:b9b1b697-412d-4f5c-8922-31bf4f6b94cd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://classweb.gmu.edu/ndabbagh/Resources/IDKB/taskanalysis2.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914557 | 355 | 3.21875 | 3 |
To Your Health
March, 2011 (Vol. 05, Issue 03)
No Better Time to Exercise Than Now
By Editorial Staff
no time left in your busy day, week, month or year to make it happen. Regardless of how hectic your life is, here are four simple ways to ensure exercise doesn't drop off your daily To-Do List.
We've said it before, are saying it now and undoubtedly will say it again: When it comes to exercise, you have to find time, make time and save time or invariably, you'll have
Rise and Shine. With the exception of extra sleep, which is important for health in its own right, few things should beat out exercise first thing in the morning. Don't even consider it part of your To-Do List and you won't be tempted to prioritize something else and push your workout farther down the list. Start the day with exercise and you'll feel invigorated, if for no other reason than knowing you've gotten it done.
The World Is Your Gym. Too many people think that if they don't make it to the gym or hit the open road for a 5-mile run, they can't meet their exercise quota. Pure nonsense; after all, physical activity existed long before fitness clubs and fancy workout equipment did. Walk from work to lunch and back; take your dog for a jog; do push-ups with the kids; there are endless ways to stay active even during the busiest of days.
Two Is Better Than One. You want to go to the gym, but dread that it will consume precious hours of your time? Here's what you can do: Circuit train, which means working out different body parts one after the other with little or no rest. (Many gyms have an equipment "course" set up for this very purpose.) You can also "superset" exercises, combining biceps and triceps routines, for example. It will make for a more productive workout in less time.
Don't Go It Alone. If you're motivated to exercise on your own, great; but if you're one of the millions who struggle to stay the course (whether it's exercise, diet, quitting smoking, etc.), it's not cheating to recruit a little help. Schedule workouts with a friend or office acquaintance, join a walking or running club, or even pay for personal training sessions at your gym (or home, if you can afford it); whatever it takes to ensure exercise stays front and center. | <urn:uuid:78a2dff5-1863-403e-ae8b-f80759333b29> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.toyourhealth.com/mpacms/tyh/article.php?id=1411 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953537 | 511 | 2 | 2 |
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Tavern regular Laree from You Have To Be This Tall To Go On This Ride clearly isn’t, and neither am I.
Take a stroll over there and read, “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
What are your thoughts? Personally, it’s time Naughty Nazi Nancy’s constituents sent her into retirement. Perhaps she could be a useful idiot for Chris Matthews.
Today we remember the fallen men and women of our armed forces. Swearing an oath to protect the Constitution from enemies, both foreign and domestic, they gave their lives in popular, and unpopular wars. But it is not enough to remember them alone. Behind every fallen soldier is a wife, husband, parent, or child who has lost a loved one. Let us remember that for every soldier sent to war there are families left behind, too many of which are never whole again.
And thanks to the National Women’s History Museum, we are reminded why we celebrate Memorial Day in the first place. From NWHM:
Much of women’s history is missing from our public story. One more example — women were almost entirely responsible for the recognition of Memorial Day. Its origin was the Civil War and until recently, the day focused on the terrible War between the states that, at tremendous human cost, ended slavery.
Just weeks after the Civil War ended in April 1865, Ellen Call Long organized a women’s memorial society to reconcile embittered enemies. Usually named some variant of “women’s relief society,” groups sprang up in both the North and South that not only memorialized the dead, but also cared for the war’s disabled and its widows and orphans.
On June 22, 1865, women adopted these profound, forgiving, and future-oriented resolutions. The document read in part:
The object of this meeting is to initiate a Memorial Association…that shall perpetuate in an honorable manner the memory of the gallant dead…
In no invidious spirit do we come; the political storm that shook our country to its foundation, we hope, is passed… We are done with the [Confederate] cause…and are willing to do all that women can do to stem the tide of bitterness…and angry feelings… We will practice and teach forbearance and patience, which must finally bring peace and justice…
Our society has forgotten that women cleaned up the mess. They took the gruesome reality of approximately a half-million dead men, and by promoting cemeteries, led the way in turning blood and gore into something that encouraged serenity and reflection.
In our nation’s capital filled with museums, there is not one to remind us of the totality of the experience of American women. That is why NWHM needs you. Please emulate Ellen Call Long and others who understood that the past is an essential prologue to the future. Support us, “Right Here, Right Now!” by going to www.nwhm.org and sending a letter to your Members of Congress urging them to give women’s history a home in our nation’s capital by passing HR 1700.
To my mind the best way to honor our fallen soldiers is to exercise the freedoms for which they died, especially when the government tries to claim you no longer possess them.
Last week it was revealed to all police authorities and the American public that veterans were now considered terrorists. I have had some time to mull the thought over. I have gone from tears to just plain angry. I remain angry today.
I have capabilities that the United States Navy taught me. I have never once thought about using them against my own country or other Americans. There is something about honor and loyalty so deeply entrenched in my soul if I did that my guilt would be my undoing. The country would be one less veteran.
My duty remains to this country. I have never stopped serving my country. I work as a grassroots veterans advocate. I was the original driving force for the Tea Parties in Wichita, KS. And my work is not done.
I am extremely angry that a fraudulent and weak kneed administration would possibly consider me a terrorist without empirical evidence. There is absolutely no evidence that veterans have become members of militia. None would either….
I have only known duty to my country. I served with honor and a deep loyalty that 275 million Americans wouldn’t even consider doing nor understand. The truth is veterans generally gather together at American Legions, they ride with the American Legion Riders and there are the most incredibly brave ones who are members of The Patriot Guard. They remain ever faithful to a country that has deemed them to be terrorists.
Janet Napolitano attempted to apologize to veterans but it was hollow. It lacked true feeling. Her apology was as hollow as Obama’s when he attempted to apologize for his singular attack on veterans a few weeks back. Obama wouldn’t even meet with the veterans organizations, he left it to Pelosi. The great usurper has exposed his yellow under belly, he is nothing but a coward who has denigrated veterans.
I am more pissed off than ever because no one in DC can apologize to veterans and mean it. The hollowness rings loud and clear. And by the way I don’t accept their apologies…for they are not real, they are bogus.
Simply put the usurper and his administration HATE veterans, a word that doesn’t usually find its way into my vocabulary. The usurper’s administration are running scared of veterans because they are so anti-American while we remain American to the core. They are trying to keep us from organizing as a legitimate voice against their policies.
Well the asshats need to run scared. We stand up today supporting our Constitution, speaking out against a bunch of crooks in DC who are trampling on the very rights it endows to its citizens. Rights that I protected through my service.
After this action I am more certain than ever that the usurper in the White House must be impeached. Napolitano must be fired. Clean house at the Department of Defense because there are now evil agents working within the system to destroy the military. Off with all their heads I say!
Cross-posted at Oy…My Valve!
Because there are still many people who still don’t understand what is happening on the American street, because they cannot seem to grasp the enormity of the events of April 15th and the door that is being kicked down City Tavern is going to be hosting an extended meditation on Thomas Paine’s Common Sense.
The title infers that everything within should be obvious to anyone possessing the ability to engage in critical thinking. So let’s have a little common sense ourselves and keep moving forward. Tea Partiers carrying signs condemning Republicans and Democrats alike is the moment those of us in the Lagoon of the Unaffiliated have been waiting for all these years. Common sense seems to finally be getting through.
As a long and violent abuse of power is generally the means of calling the right of it in question, (and in matters too which might never have been thought of, had not the sufferers been aggravated into the inquiry,) and as the king of England [read: The Resident] hath undertaken in his own right, to support the parliament [read: Congress] in what he calls theirs, and as the good people of this country are grievously oppressed by the combination, they have an undoubted privilege to inquire into the pretensions of both, and equally to reject the usurpations of either.
The cause of America is, in a great measure, the cause of all mankind. Many circumstances have, and will arise, which are not local, but universal, and through which the principles of all lovers of mankind are affected, and in the event of which, their affections are interested. The laying a country desolate with fire and sword, declaring war against the natural rights of all mankind, and extirpating the defenders thereof from the face of the earth, is the concern of every man [and woman] to whom nature hath given the power of feeling.
These are the stakes. We are not speaking simply of government reform. We are speaking of reforming government for the sake of preserving human freedom. The Congress through legislation like S.773/778 and Harry Reid’s Green Energy bill, the stimulus, omnibus, and budget bills, are attempting to centralize government power in the hands of the Executive Branch. To my mind there is only one reason to do so: the supression and/or control of society. Americans aren’t taking to the streets simply because of taxes and government spending. They are out in the streets because after 8 years of government subverting our rights to privacy and expression, the new administration is working harder deeper faster longer to accelerate that process. And the Republican Party, with its transparent attempts to look like they are leading the opposition, is as big a part of the problem as the Democrat controlled government. One need only look at the last eight years to see that. Seeing signs from the 15th that said things like, “Republicans suck too!” tells me we are on the right track.
It’s time to stop standing by personal political agendas. There can only be one agenda for all Americans who love liberty: The protection and preservation of the constitutional republic. We can sort out the way forward once we stop the government’s Constitution crushing freight train of bullshit. We ain’t got time for that now. Now is the time to stand up against the corruption and smothering of freedom.
Today was the day of the Tax Day Tea Parties. Pretty tremendous knowing that Americans of all political persuasions decided to get up off their keesters and make their voices heard in the face of rampant political corruption.
Looks like we’re not the only ones calling for Americans to congress in an effort to address the federal government’s repeated failing to uphold its place under constitutional law.
The time has come for a non-violent, mass movement to either force the government to accept the constitutional restrictions on its power, or to reestablish one that will.
Get involved in the saving the republic. Thanks to Logistics Monster for posting the video. | <urn:uuid:6fda045c-713f-4f7a-822b-7ea3d79bc8e0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://citytavern.wordpress.com/category/uncategorized/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964518 | 2,132 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Three times a year, this extraordinary reference series provides biographical profiles of important persons of African heritage. Whether they are personalities from the news, selected 20th-century notables, or individuals who are not yet household names, these are the men and women who are changing today's world and shaping the world of tomorrow.
Each volume of Contemporary Black Biography contains at least 65 full-length biographies written in an easy-to-follow prose style, ranging from 2 to 4 pages each. Arranged alphabetically, entries are divided by subheads for quick scanning. Sections cover:
Contemporary Black Biography is not limited to coverage of only notable black Americans, nor is it restricted by a manufactured definition of "contemporary." Its multinational coverage spans this century and includes rising personalities as well as groundbreakers and newsmakers in a variety of fields.
In addition to all single volumes in print or electronic format, the first 46 volumes of Contemporary Black Biography are available as one rich text-only database consisting of 12,000 pages and 2,500 narrative biographical profiles. The database consists of original editorial content published from 1991-2004.
While Gale strives to replicate print content, some content may not be available due to rights restrictions.Call your Sales Rep for details.
Price: Sign In for price | <urn:uuid:ac8617ee-1de3-4606-bb37-78ba50acf3de> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gale.cengage.com/servlet/ItemDetailServlet?region=9&imprint=000&titleCode=CBBE&cf=e&type=4&id=240052 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915537 | 265 | 1.8125 | 2 |
The search engine giant's executive chairman told reporters in South Korea that Android entered development before Apple began work on its first iPhone, according to Reuters.
Apple's late co-founder Steve Jobs said in his authorised biography that he wanted to "destroy Android" because it is a "stolen product". He also vowed to "go thermonuclear war" on the platform and spend all of the company's resources if necessary.
Schmidt did not wish to respond to Jobs's comments directly, but offered a general perspective on the notion that Android was based on iOS.
"I've decided not to comment on what's been written on a book after his death," Schmidt said. "Steve is a fantastic human being and someone who I miss very dearly.
"As a general comment, I think most people would agree that Google is a great innovator and I would also point out that the Android effort started before the iPhone effort."
Android Inc. was founded by Andy Rubin in 2003. Google acquired the firm two years later and commissioned Rubin to develop an operating system. However, Apple launched its first iPhone in 2007. The first Android-powered handsets did not arrive until the following year.
Schmidt was originally a member of Apple's board of directors, leaving his post in 2009 as competition between the two firms heated up.
> Android OS 'most popular' with smartphone buyers | <urn:uuid:c181ebf4-b6e5-44c1-9565-1e68b1624dbb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.digitalspy.com/tech/news/a349845/android-started-before-iphone-says-googles-eric-schmidt.html?rss | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984773 | 280 | 1.921875 | 2 |
Cat Pose, Mountain Pose, the "ten core poses" (Standing Forward Fold, Standing Side Stretch, Dog Pose, Spread Leg Forward Fold, Bridge Pose, Reclining Leg Stretch, Locust Pose, Sage Twist, Hero Pose, Shoulder Stretches) and the Lotus are presented here. The other thirty-two poses I recommend can be found in my book.
Standing Forward Fold (Uttanasana)
Uttanasana has two lines of energy radiating outward from your center. Your hips will be in dog tilt, and the spinal column will be your primary line of energy. The idea is to elongate the spine outward through the crown of your head as you fold into the pose. This is the basic forward fold. Everything you learn here will be applicable to all forward folds. There are several excellent ways of practicing Uttanasana. The basic pose is shown here and two variations may be found in my book.
1 Stand in Tadasana (Mountain Pose) with your feet hip-width apart. Look down at your feet and check that they are parallel with one another, that the inner edge of each foot is pointing straight ahead, and that your toes are spread. Snuggle your feet into the floor. Wait until you are ready, then breathe in deeply.
As you exhale, slide your hands down your legs and fold forward from your
3 Relax. Do nothing Simply become thoroughly limp. Let go inside and surrender to the pose.
4 The idea here is to let go of all effort, all resistance to being in the pose, and simply to be thoroughly relaxed. Scan your body at a leisurely pace and mentally encourage your cells, nerves, muscles, and skin, everything, to relax and soften. Release every sense of holding on. Relax your belly, buttocks, back, shoulders, face. Allow your neck to soften, your head to dangle, and your arms to be limp. Especially elongate your core. Hang from your hips. Dangle. Let go, fall. Let go everywhere. Practice letting go. The more you let go and release tension, the better you'll get at it. Relax in this bent-over position. Consciously, deliberately surrender.
5 Especially feel where your spine is, your core, from coccyx to fontanel, and allow the spaces between vertebrae to expand. You'll feel your spine elongate as your core clarifies. Do this by letting go, releasing. You're letting go of tension, contracted energy, pain.
6 Orchestrate softness with a soft breath. Breathe smoothly in a relaxed strain-free manner.
7 If dangling from your hips is too intense, then either bend your knees or place your hands on your shins and brace yourself further up. Bending your legs will reduce strain considerably, and bracing yourself with your arms will prevent you from folding too far. Stay within your comfort zone. Find a place in which you can relax. Be farther up if necessary.
8 Continue letting go, over and over. Letting go is not something you do just once. As you relax inside and release every sense of tension, your muscles will become less hard, less contracted. Gradually they will soften, lengthen, and you'll find yourself folding deeper into the pose, effortlessly. From there, let go more. Continue letting go, and see what happens. Wherever the stretch is, be there mentally. Soothe any part of your body that is resisting the stretch, holding on due to fear, or unnecessarily tense and clenched. Coax all of yourself to soften and relax. You'll find yourself going deeper when your body is ready for a deeper stretch, not before. You have no say in the matter. This is what makes this technique so safe.
9 The only "control" is to stay in the pose long enough for a change to occur. Everything else is a let-go and surrender. Stay here as long as five minutes, but do not force yourself to stay longer than feels right. Come out of the pose when you have had enough. Later, it may feel appropriate to challenge your endurance edge by willingly staying in the pose even if you are experiencing some degree of discomfort This will be voluntary, however, and it will not feel as though you are attacking yourself. It will be attractive and pleasurable.
10 Occasionally, vary the distance between your feet. It is often easier to relax when your feet are farther apart.
11 To come out of the pose, bend your knees and slowly come down into a squatting position. Be here several breaths, then stand erect in Tadasana, Mountain Pose.
12 Close your eyes and practice standing perfectly still. Do not move a muscle. Don't even think. But don't hold yourself still, either. Relax yourself still. Be as relaxed as you can possibly be, and simply be aware of how you feel. Immerse your awareness in the natural rhythm of your breathing and experience your own unique feeling-tone. Enjoy this part.
Benefits: Standing Forward Fold or Uttanasana
Stretches entire backside of body, especially legs and lower back. Elongates spine. Increases flexibility. Massages internal organs, tones liver, spleen, kidneys. Increases blood circulation to legs, torso, and brain. Good pose to rest in after strenuous poses.
Cat Pose, Mountain Pose, Standing Forward Fold, Standing Side Stretch, Dog Pose, Spread Leg Forward Fold, Bridge Pose, Reclining Leg Stretch, Locust Pose, Sage Twist, Hero Pose, Shoulder Stretches, Lotus | <urn:uuid:52f434d3-ccba-4ed3-95a7-8d5724f332db> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.movingintostillness.com/book/asana_uttanasana.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93859 | 1,150 | 1.953125 | 2 |
Department of Basic Composition
Basic Composition Program Complaint Procedure (for Students)
All students in English 0890 and 0990 classes are bound by the same rules of conduct and responsibility as all other UVU students.
According to UVU Policy 541: Student Rights and Responsibilities, all students at UVU have the same academic responsibilities:
1. Each student is expected to take an active role in the learning process by meeting course requirements as specified in written syllabi.
2. Each student is expected to display appropriate conduct in classroom situations that will enhance the learning environment.
3. Faculty members have the right to establish classroom standards of behavior and attendance requirements. Students will be expected to meet these requirements and make contact with faculty members when unable to do so.
4. Each student is expected to maintain academic ethics and honesty in all its forms, including, but not limited to, cheating and plagiarism.
Taking an active role in the learning process also means that students have certain academic rights, including
• the right to competent, ethical and professional instruction,
• freedom from discrimination, and
• the right to appeal to an Academic Standards Committee for a grade change or withdrawal.
(To read the entire Student Rights and Responsibilities policy, go to http://www.uvu.edu/policies/officialpolicy/policies/show/policyid/172)
If you have complaints or concerns about your ENGH 0890 or ENGH 0990 teacher, please follow these steps:
Step 1. Reflect objectively on your concern or complaint and make sure it is truly a problem for which the teacher is responsible. If you are doing poorly in a class because of a hectic work schedule or because you have missed several class meetings, you need to take responsibility for those problems and work to resolve them. The Department Advisor, Lisa Williamson (LA 234a), may be able to assist you in resolving these kinds of problems. You should also remember that all formal complaints have consequences: if your allegations are unfounded, you could unfairly damage a teacher’s reputation, waste valuable campus resources and damage your own credibility.
Step 2. If, after careful reflection, you believe you have a valid complaint about the teacher of your Basic Composition class, you should set up an appointment to meet with your teacher privately to discuss your concerns. All complaints, grade appeals, or other concerns about a particular Basic Composition course should be discussed with the course instructor before you file a formal complaint with the Department.
Step 3. If discussion with your instructor fails to produce a resolution, you may choose to file a complaint with the Department Chair.
Written complaints should be submitted to Department Chair, Dr. Deborah Marrott, via email (firstname.lastname@example.org).
Provide the following information in your email:
a. Contact and Course Information
• Email address and/or phone number
• Date(s) you discussed your concerns with your instructor
• Grade on your most recent grade report
• Number of times you’ve been absent in this class
b. Explain your specific complaint or problems with the class and/or instructor. Be as specific as you can. Rather than saying, “The teacher is not fair,” describe specific incidents in which the instructor acted unfairly.
c. Propose solutions. What would you like done? How do you suggest we go about solving the problem? Again, be as specific and detailed as possible.
d. Provide evidence. If you have any paperwork you want us to use to evaluate the situation, please deliver it to Dr. Marrott in LA 234e. You could include your most recent grade printout, graded papers, tests, and other work, as well as syllabus, assignment instructions, or other handouts from the instructor—anything that will help you explain and document your concerns.
e. Wait for a resolution. After you have sent your formal complaint, the Department Chair will send you a preliminary email indicating that she has received your complaint.
Once the Department Chair has investigated your concerns and discussed the matter with the instructor, you will be contacted again with a resolution or an invitation to make an appointment for further discussion. A good faith effort will be made to resolve complaints within two weeks of your initial email.
If the above methods do not result in a satisfactory resolution, you may wish to contact the Associate Dean of University College, Dr. Maureen Andrade (email@example.com) or the UVU Student Ombudsman.
More information regarding the role of the campus Ombudsman is available on the Judicial Affairs website, or you may contact the Office of Judicial Affairs at 801-863-8665 or visit their office located in the Student Center, room SC 107.
*Note: Complaints regarding ENGL 1010 or ENGL 2010 should be directed to the Department of English and Literature. | <urn:uuid:07cf91c4-3c84-4159-b381-3d26fb97313d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.uvu.edu/basiccomp/about/policies.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934173 | 1,010 | 2.25 | 2 |
One gets an office; the other gets a cubicle. The one with the office earns a significant amount more.
Now, for the riddle: Which paralegal is female?
If you guessed the lower-paid cubicle dweller … you’re right. The age-old pay gap between men and women is, depressingly, as strong an institution as ever. In fact, The Washington Post recently called the pay gap “entrenched,” noting that white men currently make $2.09 more per hour than white women. And in 600 occupations surveyed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, men earn more than women in all but seven.
We tried to figure out when the pay gap actually begins: Is it at that first job? When women have children? Or is it at each step of the career ladder, when, as many have argued, women don’t ask for raises as often as men?
We have an interview to prove that all too often, it may be the simplest—and saddest—reason of all: sexism.
Read on for a Q&A with Anthony,* the young male paralegal from the riddle above, to find out why he’s coming out on top, and feels guilty about it.
How long have you been working at the law firm?
I’ve been there a little over a year—about 13 months. Caitlin*, the only other paralegal at the firm, started working there about eight months earlier than I did. She graduated in 2010 from Wesleyan, while I graduated a year later from Yale. Neither of us studied something particularly law-related. I was a Latin American Studies major.
Tell me a little bit about the seating arrangement.
All the lawyers and I have offices (mine’s obviously the smallest). Caitlin and the secretaries are in the cubicles. She’s the only person who’s not a secretary who’s in a cubicle. All of the secretaries are female, and there are no female lawyers in our office.
In terms of a legitimate work-related reason for my having the office and not her, I guess I do keep a lot of files? But the more probable reason is that the guy I replaced had the office, and when they hired me, they just put me in the office. They might not have moved her to the office and given me the cubicle because when the receptionist leaves at 5 p.m., Caitlin fills in as the relief receptionist. She goes up to the front desk and handles that.
When I got here, they mentioned training me to do that—but they never did.
How do you know that you’re making more money?
A few months in, Caitlin basically asked me outright at the end of the day when most people were gone. She knew that my predecessor (also a guy) had been making more than she was. I asked her the same question, and the number she told me was 15% lower than what I make.
Do you think your work is 15% more valuable to the firm?
I couldn’t say, honestly, since we do very different things, but I do work slightly longer hours—maybe nine hours compared to her eight hours. She definitely does more of the day-to-day copying and mailing, which is less thought-intensive, but no, I couldn’t definitively say that my work is 15% more valuable than hers.
Many people speculate that the pay gap comes about because men negotiate more. Did you negotiate your starting salary?
No, I did not—I was just so excited that someone actually wanted to hire me. But I also know (because I asked) that she didn’t negotiate hers, either.
I know for a fact that Caitlin hasn’t asked for a raise since learning that I make more than she does. The headhunter who hired me works in our office, and I went to ask her for advice, because I wanted to ask for a raise. She said I absolutely should go ahead and ask, and then told me that she wished Caitlin would ask, too, because she feels strongly that women need to ask for more money.
I’m going to ask for a 15% increase. While that seems like a lot, I’ve done the research and I’m definitely making less than the going rate for a paralegal.
What are your feelings about the differences between you and Caitlin?
I definitely feel a little bit guilty. I can’t really speak to the partners’ rationale, but I do think it’s unfair that I have an office and she doesn’t, and I’m automatically making more money even though I’ve been here for much less time.
I discussed the situation with one of the secretaries, and she tried to justify the gap between me and Caitlin, saying that I did a lot more at the firm and had more responsibility. That was news to me, so to speak … I don’t know if the secretary was just trying to be nice.
Caitlin and I have worked together for a fair amount of time now, so we have a definite rapport. I’ve encouraged her to ask for a raise before–maybe she has and I don’t know about it, but I seriously doubt it.
While sexism certainly seems as if it may be afoot in this situation, the story also drives home a more fixable point, should you find yourself in a similar position: Ask for more money! While solving the greater issue of sexism in your office certainly requires more than one person’s efforts, you can start to better your own situation by asking for a raise every year or every time your job significantly changes.
Also: Ask for more responsibility that will give you greater visibility in the firm. Often a raise will come after you’ve already proven you’re working beyond your job description.
If you know you’re getting paid less for the same or similar work as a co-worker, and you deserve more, you absolutely need to ask for a raise.
*Names have been changed.
*Editor’s note: This article has been slightly amended to clarify the author’s intentions. While LearnVest certainly believes you should always negotiate your salary when you start a new job, and studies have shown that many women do not, we know that sexism is still a rampant issue in many workplaces, which is why we chose to publish this story.
This story was originally published by LearnVest. | <urn:uuid:7aefe3a9-c17b-437e-911c-f6ec26137da1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.businessinsider.com/true-confession-i-get-paid-more-than-my-female-co-worker-2012-10 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979063 | 1,381 | 1.5625 | 2 |
I assume you're talking about this answer, where you quote Einstein as saying,Originally Posted by Sam5
"For if we measure the velocity of light at different places in the accelerated, gravitation-free system K’, employing clocks U of identical constitution, we obtain the same magnitude at all these places."
I don't see how that's different than what you yourself said here:
Identical clocks measure the speed of light as exactly c both on top of the mountains and at sea-level. Same as in the box, ain't it?Originally Posted by Sam5 | <urn:uuid:42761b10-7b41-4169-ac40-74b53755579f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cosmoquest.org/forum/showthread.php?8552-Twin-Paradox-Definitive-Proof-That-It-s-SR/page51&p=169210 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96279 | 119 | 2.296875 | 2 |
‘Punish’ the eunuchs, because they are ‘vulgar’
We are most likely to get angry and excited in our opposition to some idea when we ourselves are not quite certain of our own position, and are inwardly tempted to take the other side.
Apt words by Thomas Mann.
Life is hard for most Pakistani’s but for those of us who are different – whether by accident or by choice – survival is certainly an achievement. The transgender community of Multan realised this recently when the ASWJ demanded that their members be punished for spreading vulgarity in society.
So now, an entire community is to be ‘punished’ for the sins, maybe, of a few?
What gross generalisation.
Deviance can be defined as any behaviour that violates social norms, and is usually of sufficient severity to warrant disapproval from a major part of society. It can either be criminal or non-criminal. In their efforts to understand it, developed societies have ascertained a certain degree of tolerance towards non-criminal deviance.
There is a fair amount of consensus over the scientific worldview and individualism is the chief determinant of tolerance in any society. The question is whether it is a desirable goal in the context of the Pakistani society or not. Much as I hate neologism, the current trend of “tribalising” religious moral codes has set the society upon a course of rejection of all that doesn’t fit into our narrow criterion.
In order to comprehend the reaction of ASWJ, one must first try to understand what the ‘Transgender Association’ represents. The terms Hijra or Khusra have always been regarded as derogatory in our society. Without any knowledge of what subtypes comprise this group, they are stereotyped as unpleasant, undesirable, vulgar and a bit of a joke.
We completely disregard the fact that they include people born with gender anomalies. Majority of these people have no control over their behaviour and in a country like Pakistan where subjects like sex are taboo, many do not even give heed to their feelings.
While associating sexual promiscuity to the entire group is unfair, generalising them to be vulgar is downright inhumane.
When a society relegates particular groups to specific roles such as singing and dancing on celebratory occasions, I believe, it becomes condemnable by contemporary social standards.
According to the rulings of Islam, there are many examples where transgenders were protected. However, sexual promiscuity among the group was prohibited. So, the moral custodians of today who claim allegiance to the very tradition should reconsider their position on the subject because it seems that they are influenced by classical social attitudes rather than the doctrine.
Is it fair to judge them on the basis of gender?
Is it justified to deprive them of the rights that they deserve?
It’s time to think.
Follow Rafay on Twitter @mrafayzafar
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