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In Multivariable Calculus today, I let my kids loose. We are starting our chapter on multiple integrals, and I generally start out just dryly explaining what integration in higher dimensions might look like. But today, I decided to scrap that and have my kids try to see if they could generalize things themselves and come up with an idea of what integration in multivariable calculus would look like.
It was awesome. They immediately picked up on the fact that it would give you (signed) volume. That was great. They realized the xy-plane was equivalent to the x-axis. With some prompting, they understood we weren’t integrating over a 1D line (like between x=2 and x=5 on the x-axis), but now on a 2D region. (Of course, a little later, I explained that they could integrate over a line, but they’d get an area.)
Here’s the final list we generated.
It was nice, because students were coming up with some pretty complicated ideas on their own. They were motivating things we were going to be learning. Nice.
After we went through this thought exercise, still not looking at a single equation, I then threw the following up on the board:
I wanted to see if they could use our discussion to suss out some information about the notation, and the meaning behind it. They actually got that the limits 2/4 correspond with y and the 0/3 correspond with the x. And that the region we’re integrating over is a rectangle. And the surface we’re using is . I mean, they got it.
I then showed them how to evaluate this double integral, briefly. I tried to get the why this works across to them, but we ran out of time and I slightly confused myself and got my explanation garbled. I promised that by the next class, I would fix things so they would totally get it.
Although not perfect (but good enough for me, for now), I whipped up this worksheet which I think attempts to make clear what is going on mathematically.
I strongly believe, however, that this will drive home the concept way better than I ever have done before. If you teach double integrals, this might come in handy.
PS. I, a la Silvanus P. Thompson in Calculus Made Easy, talk about dx and dy as “a little bit of x” and “a little bit of y.” So if you’re wondering what I’m looking for question 2 on p.2, I want students to say dy. Then the answer to A is . That’s the volume of one infinitely thin slice. Now for B, we have to add an infinity of these slices up, all the way from y=0 to y=2. Well, we know an integral sign is simply a fancy sign for summation, we so just have | <urn:uuid:57e94f66-3c72-449a-abcc-5d0ff2cc7e17> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://samjshah.com/2011/02/04/multiple-integrals-jigga-wha/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972094 | 613 | 2.609375 | 3 |
National Drug Intelligence Center
Figure 8. Federally recognized Native American reservations within the New England OCDETF Region.
Source: Bureau of Indian Affairs; U.S. Census Bureau.
|New England OCDETF Region Indian Country Fast Facts|
|States||Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont|
|Number of Reservations||10|
|Population on Reservations||2,514|
|Area (Square Miles)||330.58|
|Per Capita Income||$10,831-$27,261|
Source: U.S. Census Bureau.
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The abuse of diverted pharmaceuticals poses the greatest concern to officials on reservations in the region as a result of steadily increasing treatment admissions for pharmaceutical abuse among Native Americans in the area. Native American traffickers and independent dealers transport diverted pharmaceuticals, marijuana, and cocaine from nearby cities and Canada for distribution in the region's Native American communities. These traffickers typically transport multiple-tablet quantities of diverted pharmaceuticals, ounce quantities of marijuana, and gram quantities of cocaine to reservations in private vehicles.
Native American traffickers and independent dealers supply most illicit drugs available on reservations in the region. Most illicit drugs available on reservations in the region are transported and distributed by Native American traffickers and independent dealers, who obtain the drugs in cities near reservations. Many of these traffickers supply abusers on several reservations, transporting small quantities of diverted pharmaceuticals, multiounce quantities of commercial-grade marijuana, and gram quantities of cocaine to numerous Native American communities throughout the region. Additionally, some reservations in the region are experiencing a presence of local street gangs, such as Bloods, that are distributing illicit drugs at the retail level.
Some drug abusers engage in violent and property crime on reservations to support their drug habits. Law enforcement reporting indicates that drug abusers commit most routine criminal offenses on reservations in the New England Region. Abusers predominantly commit property crime, such as burglary and theft, to fund their addictions. However, abusers sometimes engage in violent crimes, primarily domestic assaults--the prevalence of violent crime (assaults, shootings, and homicides) on reservations in New England is low.
The limited number of correctional facilities in or near the region requires law enforcement to travel great distances to house offenders. A lack of correctional facilities to house offenders constrains law enforcement efforts on reservations throughout the region. Tribal officials report that they are generally required to transport offenders great distances for court appearances and housing, thereby leaving their areas unprotected for long periods of time.
Urban areas close to reservations serve as the primary source of illicit drugs available within Native American communities throughout the New England Region. Native American traffickers and independent dealers transport retail and some midlevel quantities of illicit drugs, primarily diverted pharmaceuticals, marijuana, and cocaine, to reservations from nearby cities. These traffickers commonly use private vehicles while transporting drugs to and between reservations.
Native American traffickers and independent dealers are the predominant illicit drug distributors on reservations throughout the region; they primarily distribute midlevel and retail-level quantities of diverted pharmaceuticals, marijuana, and cocaine. Native American traffickers and independent dealers commonly distribute diverted pharmaceuticals, commercial-grade marijuana, and cocaine on reservations throughout the region; they primarily distribute retail-level quantities of these drugs within Native American communities but occasionally distribute midlevel quantities to other traffickers. Native American traffickers typically use their residences as distribution sites, while independent dealers usually distribute illicit drugs from the homes of friends and acquaintances on reservations.
The abuse of diverted pharmaceuticals poses a significant threat to reservations in the region. OxyContin, Dilaudid, Percocet, and Vicodin are highly abused on Indian reservations. Most OxyContin pills seized on reservations are imprinted with the letters "CDN," indicating a Canada-based source. Independent drug dealers from Bangor, Calais, Houlton, and Portland (ME) generally smuggle diverted pharmaceuticals from Canada into the United States and distribute them to tribal members. Tribal members also obtain pharmaceuticals through doctor-shopping, fraudulent prescriptions, and theft.
The number of Native Americans reporting pharmaceutical drug abuse in the region is increasing at a faster rate than the number reporting abuse of any other illicit drug. TEDS data indicate that the percentage of American Indians reporting pharmaceutical drug abuse at the time of admission to publicly funded treatment facilities increased from 12.2 percent in 2002 to 29.4 percent in 2006, the latest year for which such data are available. Treatment admissions for marijuana, cocaine, and heroin have fluctuated over the past several years at relatively high levels. Methamphetamine-related treatment admissions are relatively low but have increased overall. (See Table 11.)
Table 11. Primary Illicit Drug Mentions by American Indians Seeking Treatment for Abuse in the New England Region, 2002-2006
Source: Treatment Episode Data Set 2006.
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End of page. | <urn:uuid:c38176c6-ce79-4387-ba43-a2c68443842c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.justice.gov/archive/ndic/pubs28/29239/nengland.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.900986 | 1,000 | 2.34375 | 2 |
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I heartily agree with "Off script" that cursive is a skill to be learned and used. It does develop the eye-hand coordination differently from keyboarding and texting. Any fine motor skill children develop is not wasted.
When my daughter was
Many years later, I had the opportunity to become acquainted with a number of new teachers from other states where cursive was not taught. Every one of them printed illegibly and had messy, easily forged printed signatures. Many found it difficult to read notes from parents or documents from our history.
All the young children I see take to a computer like ducks to water, and I do not think we would be neglecting their technology skills to teach them a different means of communication. | <urn:uuid:e65c0b8c-3164-45a4-baa6-feae6a20f599> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2012/122012/12072012/741026/printer_friendly | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978817 | 152 | 2.25 | 2 |
A third aspect of Monday's decision in Scott v. Harris has not received too much notice. It involves a methodological issue, and the mere mention of methodology is generally sufficient to make eyes glaze over. But it's important.
When a case presents multiple issues, as most do, is the court required to decide them in any particular order? Sometimes. In Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194, 201 (2001), the Supreme Court decided that in qualified immunity cases the court should decide first whether the plaintiff's allegations make out a constitutional violation and only afterward decide if that law was clearly established so as to hold the police officer or other official liable for damages. There is considerable grumbling on the Court about that rule.
Typically, the party asking the court for some kind of relief (plaintiff in a civil case, prosecution in a criminal case) must clear multiple hurdles before such relief can be ordered. If it is clear that the moving party cannot clear one hurdle, then the efficient way to proceed is to deny relief on that ground and not decide the other issues. Why waste resources deciding a difficult question when the outcome of the case is clear from an easy one?
The general rule is that no particular order of decision is required. A claim of ineffective assistance of counsel requires both deficient performance and resulting prejudice, but if there clearly is no prejudice a court need not decide whether counsel's performance was deficient. See Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 697 (1984). When an attorney comes up with a brilliant new argument for the first time on federal habeas corpus, that claim is typically both procedurally defaulted and barred by the retroactivity rule of Teague v. Lane, 489 U.S. 288 (1989). Procedural default is usually addressed first, but if that question involves difficult or unresolved questions of state procedure while the Teague issue is obvious, the case can be disposed of on the latter question without addressing the former. In cases under the deference standard of 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d), a federal habeas court may decide that the state court decision is correct, which necessarily means that it is "reasonable." See, e.g. Weeks v. Angelone, 528 U.S. 225, 237 (2000).
There are exceptions, however. First and foremost is jurisdiction. If the court has no jurisdiction of the case, then any decision it might render on any other question would be illegitimate, so the jurisdictional issue must be decided first, however difficult it may be. See Steel Co. v. Citizens for a Better Environment, 523 U.S. 83, 94-95 (1998). A less strict rule holds that nonconstitutional questions should be decided before constitutional ones where the constitutional question can thereby be avoided. See, e.g., Escambia County v. McMillan, 466 U.S. 48, 51 (1984) (per curiam); Ashwander v. TVA, 297 U.S. 288, 374 (1936) (Brandeis, J., concurring).
In Teague, the plurality stated that the question of whether a proposed rule would be "new" must be decided before the question of whether to make that rule. If the answer to the "new rule" question is "yes," the underlying question is not decided. See 489 U.S., at 316. The reasons given include avoiding advisory opinions and the Ashwander rule. Justice Stevens was unconvinced, see id., at 318-319, but the status of Teague as a threshold inquiry before the underlying question was confirmed in Caspari v. Bohlen, 510 U.S. 383, 389 (1994).
Although Teague's "threshold" requirement is unusual, it is generally consistent with both judicial efficiency and the Ashwander rule. Deciding that a rule has not yet been made is typically easier than deciding whether it should be made. As the Teague rule is a limitation on the remedy and not itself a constitutional requirement, decision on that basis is consistent with Ashwander.
The rule of Saucier v. Katz, however, is precisely the opposite of Teague. The question of whether a rule is "clearly established" for immunity purposes is much the same as whether it is "dictated by precedent" for Teague. Yet the Saucier rule requires that the more difficult constitutional question be tackled ahead of the typically easier remedial question.
Why the difference? The real reason seems to be a policy question of whether it is desirable to build the body of case law. In a state-prisoner federal habeas case, there has already been a court decision on the question in state court. A contrary decision in a lower federal court would create a conflict where none needs to be created. The Supreme Court can take the issue if it needs to by granting certiorari to the state court. If lower federal courts could establish a rule in one habeas case and apply it in subsequent habeas cases, this would allow lower federal courts to create precedents that are binding on state courts de facto, even though state courts have no legal obligation to follow them. See Arizonans for Official English v. Arizona, 520 U.S. 43, n. 11 (1997). (The AEDPA deference standard ameliorates this problem somewhat, and the "as determined by the Supreme Court" language was included in § 2254(d)(1) for precisely that reason, but it does not completely eliminate the problem.) In contrast, the typical § 1983 case involves a challenge to executive conduct that has not been the subject of a decision by any court. The Saucier Court appeared to be concerned that if cases where routinely thrown out on the ground that there was no "clearly established" law, there would be no way to establish that law.
In Brosseau v. Haugen, 543 U.S. 194 (2004) (per curiam), the Court brushed aside its own rule. It summarily decided the easy question ("The cases by no means 'clearly establish' that Brosseau's conduct [shooting Haugen] violated the Fourth Amendment") without deciding the more difficult question of whether there actually was a violation. Justice Breyer, joined by Justices Scalia and Ginsburg, called for a reexamination of Saucier. In Scott v. Harris (slip op. at 4 & n. 4), Justice Scalia's opinion for the Court notes the doubts about the rigid rule but says this order of proceeding happens to be the better way to go in this case.
Saucier's concern about a dearth of case law seems to be overblown. If a practice is widespread, the municipality can be found liable and has no immunity, see Leatherman v. Tarrant Co. Narcotics, 507 U.S. 163, 166 (1993), or an injunction can be sought by the ACLU et al. In the routine case, the shortest, cheapest route to decision is generally the best one. In § 1983 suits against police officers, that route is often to decide that the law is not "clearly established" that the conduct violated any right of the plaintiff. | <urn:uuid:2de6c79f-0b1c-42a5-8aeb-76e2dad45cbf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.crimeandconsequences.com/crimblog/2007/05/the-order-of-battle.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950353 | 1,503 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Kingston is a municipality located in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States, on the Susquehanna River opposite Wilkes Barre. Kingston was incorporated as a borough in 1858. Kingston has adopted a home rule charter which became effective in January 1976. It is part of the greater metropolitan area of the city of Wilkes-Barre. In 1900: 3,846 people lived here; in 1910: 6,449; and in 1940: 20,679 people lived here. The population was 13,855 at the 2000 census. | <urn:uuid:0c215cb7-1273-4a96-ace2-7c8fe8c4e084> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://openjurist.org/law/helicopter-crash-law/pennsylvania/kingston | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976169 | 112 | 2 | 2 |
Florida mug shots: Week in review
When children are teased, attacked and abused by their peers, the short and long-term effects can be detrimental. In some cases, bullying ends in tragedy. See some of the numbers behind bullying by clicking through this slideshow.
Shattered glass and stolen items outside a Family Dollar store Friday: a familiar scenario since the same thing happened Thursday. | <urn:uuid:6400f98a-2e8c-421c-9d62-5054c81af3a7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wesh.com/news/health/-/11788012/16858912/-/ox629f/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930683 | 77 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Q Things seemed to be going pretty well at work, and then we had a few layoffs. It's really shaken me up, and I'm trying to settle down again. What do you suggest?
A Accept your feelings, but do a reality check to help you move forward.The inner game
Layoffs are deeply unsettling for all affected, and it's not surprising that you're feeling stress from it. If you're having trouble coming to terms with the changes in your workplace, you may need to spend some time working through your emotions. Set aside some time to really focus on your feelings. Find a comfortable place, and take some deep breaths to get centered.
Identify the feelings you're experiencing, setting aside any sense of what you should or shouldn't be feeling. Let's go through some likely options. Anger is common, as is fear. Guilt, too, is not unusual for survivors of a layoff.
For each of the emotions you're feeling, dig a little deeper to understand them. If you're angry, what is causing your anger? Who do you blame for the layoffs?
If you're fearful, notice if you're afraid you might be next, or if, perhaps, it's concern over an additional workload that you may receive now that some of your colleagues are gone.
As an antidote to taking this personally, focus on understanding the business reasons for the layoff.
They may be purely financial -- the chosen route to cut costs. Or they may be more strategic in terms of having people with the right skills in the right numbers.
If information hasn't been shared, seek it out so that you can feel steadier.The outer game
Having understood your emotions, it's important to take action to release them. Getting them out in words in a safe way can be a great help. Try writing them out in a journal or a letter (that you never send). If you're not a writer, talk them out into a tape recorder. You can also find a friend or family member to vent to, but be careful not to burn the person out. Other creative outlets, such as drawing or music, can also provide relief.
Consider lessons for the future. If you determine that people were let go because their skill sets were obsolete, assess your own so that your risk doesn't increase. Accept opportunities for growth, and be a go-to person. Manage your attitude so that you're a positive force for the work environment.
When you start to feel anxious or angry, take some deep breaths and do a reality check. Is something bad happening at that moment?
If so, plan a reasoned response. However, it's more likely that you're reacting to the past or anticipating the future, neither of which is helpful.
All that said, I'm concerned that your angst over the layoffs is somewhat prolonged. If you find you can't get over it, and are perhaps drifting into depression, don't hesitate to talk to a professional. These issues can be just too much to figure out on your own.The last word
Focus on resolving your emotions and moving forward so that the past doesn't hold you back. | <urn:uuid:d2537750-2a46-4538-ba98-7e356174e497> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.startribune.com/business/181615871.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966652 | 646 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Cardiac arrhythmia is a medical term that refers to any of a group of conditions in which the electrical activity of your heart is irregular. This electrical activity may be slower or faster than normal.
Some arrhythmias are minor. They can take place in a normal, healthy heart. They can be regarded as normal. Other cardiac arrhythmias are serious, life- threatening medical emergencies that can cause cardiac arrest and sudden death.
There are several different kinds of cardiac arrhythmia. Some of these arrhythmias include:
§ Tachycardia is a cardiac arrhythmia where your resting heart rate is faster than 100 beats a minute.
§ Bradycardia is a cardiac arrhythmia where your resting heart rate is slower than 60 beats a minute.
§ Fibrillation is a serious form of cardiac arrhythmia. The muscle cells of your heart normally function together creating a single contraction when they are stimulated. Fibrillation is when your heart muscle begins a quivering motion caused by a disunity in contractile cell function.
There are other kinds of common cardiac arrhythmia. These include atrial, ventricular, atrial ventricular, functional arrhythmias, heart blocks and trigeminal rhythm (trigeminy).
One of the dangers of cardiac arrhythmia is that it can be silent and cause you no ill effects at all. When you are affected by cardiac arrhythmia, you may experience:
§ Dizziness or feeling light-headed
§ Chest discomfort
§ Shortness of breath
§ Weakness or fatigue
§ Pounding in the chest
The effects caused by cardiac arrhythmia like shortness of breath, pounding in your chest and dizziness or fainting may be serious enough to keep you or a loved one from being able to work. Cardiac arrhythmia may be the reason for you or your loved one’s disability.
You or your loved one may be looking for help if this is the case. You may be searching for financial help.
Where will that financial assistance come from? Who can you turn to? Who can and will help you?
Have you or your loved one applied for Social Security disability benefits or disability benefits from the Social Security Administration because of the disability caused by cardiac arrhythmia? Were you or your loved one denied by the Social Security Administration?
You or your loved one may be planning on appealing the denial by the Social Security Administration. If this is what you decide to do, here is something critical that you should know.
You may need an experienced disability attorney like the one you will find here to help and represent you in what can be a long and trying process. The reason that this is true is because people who have an established disability lawyer in their corner are approved more often than those people who are not represented by an attorney.
Do not hesitate. Do not wait. This may affect you or your loved one for the rest of your life. Contact the confident disability lawyer at Social Security Home, today. | <urn:uuid:76acd10a-1d18-4411-8022-d7c56f68f0ce> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.disabilitycasereview.com/disabilityblog/2010/11/24/cardiac-arrhythmia-and-receiving-social-security-disability-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925014 | 635 | 3.515625 | 4 |
Rome Celebrates the Vanquishing
of the Jews, 71 AD
In the year 70 AD Rome destroyed
the Jewish Temple at Jerusalem and crushed the revolt of the Jews in Palestine that had begun in 66. The residents of Jerusalem who survived the onslaught were scattered throughout Rome's Empire.
The Emperor Vespasion
Although the conflict lingered for another three years, the victory at Jerusalem
in 70 was significant enough to warrant a celebratory triumph in Rome the following
year. The festivities would also help solidify the reign of Vespasian, Rome's
new Emperor. Vespasian had commanded the Roman campaign against the Jews until
the death of Nero in 68. In the resulting chaos, Vespasian passed his command
to his son Titus and returned to Rome where he was declared Emperor late in
the year 69.
The triumph was a gala affair. Presided over by Vespasian and Titus,
it featured piles of booty, including gold relics taken from the destroyed
Jewish Temple, paraded through the streets. Floats depicting key
engagements of the war enthralled the cheering crowd. Thousands of hapless
prisoners were displayed. The highlight of the festival was the parading of
the leader of the Jewish resistance in chains as he was led to his death.
The following account of Vespasian's triumph in
Rome is provided to us by the Jewish historian, Josephus who was present
at the festivities. His description not only provides insight into this victory
celebration but also of the nature of other triumphs staged after a Roman
victory. We join his story in the early morning hours of the day of the festivities:
"During the hours of darkness the whole military force had been led out
in companies and battalions by its officers and had been drawn up - not, as usual,
near the gates of the palaces on the Palatine, but near the temple of Isis. For
Titus and Vespasian had spent the night there, and now, as dawn began to break,
they emerged, crowned in laurel wreaths and wearing the time-honored purple clothes,
and walked to the Octavian colonnade. There the Senate, the magistrates and those
of Equestrian status were waiting for their arrival.
A tribunal had been erected in front of the colonnade, with ivory chairs placed on it for them. As they walked forward to take their seats, all the soldiers raised an immediate cheer, paying abundant testimony to their valor, while Titus and Vespasian sat unarmed, dressed in silk garments and wearing their laurel wreaths. Vespasian acknowledged their acclaim, and, although they were keen to continue cheering, made a sign for silence. As all fell completely quiet, he rose, and, covering most of his head with a veil, made the traditional prayers. Titus followed him in doing likewise. . . Afterwards, donning the triumphal robes and sacrificing to the gods stationed at the gate, they sent the procession on its way through the theatres to give the crowds a better view.
In Rome, The Arch of Titus
celebrating the Roman
victory over the Jews still stands
It is impossible to do justice in the description of the number of things to be seen and to the magnificence of everything that met the eye, whether in skilled craftsmanship, staggering richness or natural rarity. For almost all the remarkable and valuable objects which have ever been collected, piece by piece, by prosperous people, were on that day massed together, affording a clear demonstration of the might of the Roman Empire. The quantities of silver, gold and ivory, worked into every conceivable form, were not like those usually carried in a triumph, but resembled, as it were, a running river of wealth. Purple cloth of extreme rarity was carried along, some of it fashioned by Babylonian skill into accurate pictorial representations. Translucent gems, embedded in diadems or other objects, were borne in such profusion as to dispel any idea that they were rare. . . In charge of each part of the procession was a number of men in purple and gold costumes, while those selected for the triumph itself wore choice clothes of astonishing richness. Even the prisoners were worth seeing - no disordered mob, but the variety and beauty of their clothes diverted the eye from the disfigurement of their injuries.
The greatest amazement was caused by the floats. Their size gave grounds for alarm about their stability, for many were three or four stories high, and in the richness of their manufacture they provided an astonishing and pleasurable sight. Many were covered in cloth of gold, and worked gold or ivory was fixed on all of them. The war was divided into various aspects and represented in many tableaux which gave a good indication of its character. Here was a fertile land being ravaged, here whole detachments of enemy being slaughtered, others -in flight and others being led off into captivity. Here were walls of colossal size being pounded down by siege-engines, here strongpoints being captured, and here well-defended fortifications overwhelmed. On one float the army could be seen pouring inside the walls, on another was a place running with blood. Others showed defenseless men raising their hands in entreaty, firebrands being hurled at temples or buildings falling on their owners. On yet others were depicted rivers, which, after the destruction and desolation, flowed no longer through tilled fields providing water for men and cattle, but through a land on fire from end to end. It was to such miseries that the Jews doomed themselves by the war. . . Standing on his individual float was the commander of each of the captured cities showing the way he had been taken prisoner. . .
The sack of Jerusalem depicted
on the Arch of Titus
Spoil in abundance was carried past. None of it compared with that taken from the Temple in Jerusalem, a golden table many stones in weight and a golden lamp stand, similarly made, which was quite unlike any object in daily use. A centre shaft rose from a base, and from the shaft thin branches or arms extended, in a pattern very like that of tridents, each wrought at its end into a lamp. There were seven of these lamps, thus emphasizing the honour paid by the Jews to the number seven. A tablet of the Jewish Law was carried last of all the spoil. After it came a large group carrying statues of victory, all of them made of ivory and gold. The procession was completed by Vespasian, and, behind him, Titus. Domitian rode on horseback wearing a beautiful uniform and on a mount that was wonderfully well worth seeing.
The procession ended up at the Temple of Jupiter on the Capitol, where the generals got down. They still had to wait for the traditional moment when the news was brought of the death of the enemy leader. In this case he was Simon, son of Giovas, who had passed in procession with the captives, and had been dragged under the lash, with his head in a noose, to a spot near the Forum. That is the traditional place at Rome for the execution of those condemned to death for war-crimes. When his end was announced and a general cheer had arisen, they started the sacrifices, and after completing them with the customary prayers, they retired to the palace. . .
For on that day the city of Rome made holiday for their victory in the war against the Jews, for the end of civil disorder, and for the rising expectations of peace and prosperity."
This eyewitness account appears in: Workman, B. K., They Saw it Happen in Classical Times (1965);
How To Cite This Article:
"Rome Celebrates the Vanquishing of the Jews, 70" EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (2008). | <urn:uuid:9131ece6-cd8f-41db-ada9-0054fd79a262> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://eyewitnesstohistory.com/rometriumph.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979702 | 1,637 | 3.453125 | 3 |
Parent Category: Society & Culture
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Cultures On The Edge is an online magazine published quarterly by a team of experienced web entrepreneurs, along with world-renown author Wade Davis and professional photographer Chris Rainier. Together we have molded our skills to present a dynamic online magazine that hopes to support cultural div... [ Read more
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The Race and Ethnicity Supplement was designed to evaluate new panels of questions on race and ethnicity and to compare the results with answers given using the current CPS questions that are routinely collected during the first month, face-to-face interview. [ Read more
Welcome to Cultures. This site is devoted to cultures, living and ancient, and the promotion of world communication and world peace. We are emphatically opposed to preemptive warfare and fervently believe that the United States cannot and should not go it alone in the world without its allies and fr... [ Read more | <urn:uuid:ea695793-c762-4573-a773-2837bf546692> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.superlinksdirectory.com/Society___Culture/?s=P&p=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914178 | 267 | 1.851563 | 2 |
Let's Move! Active Schools
Dominique Dawes, Co-Chair of the President's Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition
When I think back to my childhood years, I’m reminded of how fortunate I am to have grown up in a community that placed such a great emphasis on engaging in regular physical activity. I didn’t know it at the time, but when I was tumbling at the age of 6, I was doing more than just having a good time – I was also creating healthy habits that will benefit my health and well-being for a lifetime.
As co-chair for the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition, I’ve been able to witness how far our country has come in combating childhood obesity. Still, with almost one in three children in our nation considered overweight or obese, we must continue to do more to create early, positive experiences for kids in sports and physical activity.
Today, I’m thrilled to help introduce Let’s Move! Active Schools, a comprehensive program that empowers school champions, such as P.E. teachers, classroom teachers, principals, administrators, and even parents, to create active environments that enable all students to get moving AND reach their full potential.
Let’s Move! Active Schools is about creating enjoyable experiences for youth and integrating physical activity into their everyday lives. Schools have a great opportunity to encourage positive physical activity, and this program provides these schools with many customized resources to keep children active in five key areas:
- Physical education
- Physical activity during school
- Staff involvement
- Physical activity before and after school
- Family and community engagement
Integrating physical activity into everyday life not only develops healthier habits among youth, but has also shown to develop youth academically as well by increasing concentration and attention, improving attendance, and increasing overall academic performance. Everybody wins!
The quality of my life today would not be the same had I not been active as a child, and I know that is true for many of you, as well. So, let’s stand up for our nation’s youth, and let’s also dance, jump, kick and run for them; after all, we are all designed to move!
To learn more about the program, please to visit LetsMoveSchools.org. With the help of communities across the country, we can ensure that all youth are attending active schools. | <urn:uuid:bc66557c-19d9-4c7b-801c-e062c3a974dd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fitness.gov/blog-posts/dawes_lmas_blog.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963448 | 501 | 2.359375 | 2 |
A selection of articles related to derived character.
Original articles from our library related to the Derived Character. See Table of Contents for further available material (downloadable resources) on Derived Character.
- The Character of Magick
- I have a friend, her husband is morbidly obese through indulgent overeating. Whole roasts at night! She feels betrayed. My husband is unconscious in the hospital bed, as I sit here I feel incredibly alone and abandoned. I miss him, yet he is right there. A...
Paganism & Wicca >> Daily Life
- The Pagan Origins Of Christian Mythology
- The Judeo-Christian religions were founded in a region of the world where savior religions existed for thousands of years. Much of the symbolism and many of the stories in the Bible may be traced to earlier myths of the Persians, Egyptians, and other people...
Religions >> Christianity & Paganism
- Baba Yaga: A Demon or A Goddess?
- Growing up in Kiev, Ukraine, I loved reading and listening to fairy tales. These stories, filled with Slavic flavor, were opening up a new world for me, a world where one is to learn lessons and always to succeed, a world in which no matter how many hardships...
Deities & Heros >> Slavic
- An Essay on Sex and Sex Magick: Liber Conjunctus / Liber Two
- SEX Sex begins and ends at Conception. For those loving people who have chosen to so Conceive, the lustful Penetration, the willing Acceptance has its finale when Sperma conjuncts Ovum. The Fruit of this Union transforms the relationship that an individual...
Body Mysteries >> Sexuality
- The Doctrine of Signatures as fingerprint of the Divine
- Researching substances in laboratories is a modern way of trying to understand the universe. The various components of a subject are taken apart, isolated and carefully studied. This is contrary to the old days, where people would observe a complete plant,...
Earth Mysteries >> Herbalism
- Homeopathy - what's that?
- Homeopathy is a daring natural treatment, taking the view that true healing implies healing on all levels of existence by addressing and reinforcing the life force. In homeopathy healing means becoming free from anything that blocks inner peace, balance and...
Body Mysteries >> Homeopathy
- Wicca: It's Traditions and Concepts
- What is Wicca? | Wiccan Traditions | Wiccan Concepts What is Wicca? 'An it Harm None, Do what Thou Will' shall be the whole of the law. It's the rede that most Wiccan witches around the world bind themselves to. What exactly is Wicca? It's a religion based on...
Religions >> Paganism & Wicca
Derived Character is described in multiple online sources, as addition to our editors' articles, see section below for printable documents, Derived Character books and related discussion.
Suggested Pdf Resources
- FURTHER STUDIES BASED ON THE UNIQUELY DERIVED
- methods of selection of characters based on the uniquely derived character concept.
- THE SYNTHETIC THEORY OF EVOLUTION f35 Cladistics < derived
- f35 Cladistics < derived characters >. Taxa once touted as ancestral are really not ancestral, for a variety of empirical reasons.
- 1 Genetics and Evolution IB 201 06- Lecture 2 Reconstructing
- Synapmorphy: shared, derived character—informative for phylogenetic estimation.
Suggested News Resources
- Wilmington on Movies: The Rum Diary
- Depp also, of course, persuaded Thompson to publish the long-unpublished manuscript of “The Rum Diary,“ and godfathered this movie of it, and plays the Thompson-derived character in it.
Suggested Web Resources
- What is a derived character
- Among a given group of organisms, the shared derived characters are generally the less common characters.
- Cladistics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Apomorphy ("separate form") or derived state is a characteristic believed to have evolved within the tree.
- Evolution - A-Z - Shared derived characters
- Biologists distinguish three different types of character: homoplasy, shared derived character and ancestral character.
- What is Cladistics?
- Derived characters are advanced traits which only appear in some members of the group.
Great care has been taken to prepare the information on this page. Elements of the content come from factual and lexical knowledge databases, realmagick.com library and third-party sources. We appreciate your suggestions and comments on further improvements of the site.
Derived Character Topics
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imus cavite barangays | <urn:uuid:084cb09b-64c8-47da-b83a-26c1a28da502> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.realmagick.com/derived-character/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913418 | 1,028 | 2.109375 | 2 |
Synethesia Benefits Creative Thinking
UCSD researchers have found evidence that synesthesia — a neural condition in which the senses are jumbled and people can hear and taste words — has a physical basis, indicating that there is a genetic component to the condition.Written by Rebecca Horwitz
08 January 2012
Synesthetes experience words, colors and numbers as having sounds, tastes and colors. For example, the letter “B” could be seen as red in someone’s mind and “O” could be a white letter while the name Joyce could taste warm and savory.
Study co-author David Brang said the research team is looking at the evolutionary benefits of synesthesia that have allowed it to survive natural selection. It is a trait that is not inherently useful so it hasn’t been selected for evolution itself, but instead “tagged along” with another trait.
The researchers used a tool called the Diffusion Tensor Imaging to see the connections between different brain regions, and found that the brains of synesthetes are wired differently. Synesthetes’ brains have increased connections between the associated senses.
The visual images of these connections could help explain why some forms of synesthesia only move in one direction, such as seeing numbers evoke color but not seeing colors evoke numbers.
The images could also help scientists explore the theory that all humans have the neural mechanisms for synesthesia, but that it is suppressed in most people.
Studies have found that synesthesia is seven times more common in artistic and creative individuals, leading scientists to think that synesthetes are better at bridging different ideas.
Brang said that a person who evokes colors from sound could listen to a musical piece and then paint what she sees, and it may be able to intuitively have the same significance for people who do not have the ability to see the colors.
“Even though you and I may not have synesthesia, the association of some colors and some numbers or colors and sound may make sense to us,” Brang said. “If you were to look at a painting and see some dark purplish sphere somewhere would you feel comfortable associating that with a flute or a bassoon? Most people would think a bassoon, a deep dark color would flow with a deep dark sound versus a wavering line for a flute, maybe a yellow color for a flute.”
Currently, the researchers are trying to discover whether synesthesia is present in animals as well, or if it is present in humans only. | <urn:uuid:47d7694c-00a0-43b0-806d-46bface9932d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ucsdguardian.org/component/k2/item/25219-synethesia-benefits-creative-thinking | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964056 | 532 | 3.78125 | 4 |
Schoharie central school recently entered a contest for Samsung. The contest is called Solve for Tomorrow, and the prize is $1,000,000 worth of technology to schools all around the country.
Schools had to make a video that shows how science and math help the environment in your community. From there it is up to voters who can vote once a day with a registered email address.
Schoharie’s video is about the soil after the flood and how science and math helped to determine if the soil was good
to grow on again.
Schoharie County is known for their great land and agriculture. Many farms and local businesses that grow crops lost profit after the flood on Aug. 28 2011 because they were not allowed to grow on the land until the valley’s soil was tested for chemicals and oil.
Schoharie agriculture students actually showed themselves testing the soil in the video and then calculating the levels afterward. The technology is needed in this small local school and would benefit next year’s learning environment. With the technology Schoharie can start teaching skills that will help prepare the students for life outside of the small town.
Schoharie’s technology is outdated and if Schoharie wins they will put the technology to great use. So please click the link and vote for Schoharie High School. | <urn:uuid:11b9d5fe-b7ea-4311-a40c-2abac4dc38d0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.timesunion.com/highschool/category/videos-2/page/7/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965873 | 276 | 2.8125 | 3 |
The Sagtikos Manor was built in 1697, and expanded in 1772 and 1902. The estate served as headquarters for the British Army on Long Island for a brief time during the Revolutionary War. President George Washington stayed there during his tour of Long Island in 1790.
The manor house is furnished with original family pieces just as it was when the last owner moved out in 1963. Our costumed docents will guide you through the manor house where you can view furniture, accessories and architectural styles from the 1600’s to the middle 1900’s. Your tour will take you through the first and second floors where, among the many rooms, you will see the bedroom where President George Washington slept.
Sagtikos Manor Celebrates
NYS Museum Week
On Saturday, June 15 | <urn:uuid:ae6c7a20-6cf8-4d49-a7b9-671c882677d2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sagtikosmanor.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972452 | 166 | 1.953125 | 2 |
NYU’s summer school began in 1895, when seven members of the faculty, with the approval of the Chancellor, offered courses in mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, experimental psychology, and the theory and practice of teaching. The faculty members received no additional salary, only the tuition fees collected from students. The University Council officially took control in 1899 and the popularity of the program quickly grew to over 500 students, both men and women, by 1907. The program mostly attracted teachers who were interested in pedagogical courses.
|< Previous||Next >| | <urn:uuid:00dd941e-7680-43f1-b14d-35a18fcdfb7a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/arch/175/pages/summer.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975425 | 114 | 2.515625 | 3 |
What happened in the Gulf?
On April 20, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded off the coast of Louisiana, killing 11 people and injuring dozens more who worked on the rig. An oil rig is a very large structure that is designed to support the workers and equipment that are needed to drill wells beneath the ocean floor. The rig that exploded was about 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana. Some think that the explosion was caused by natural gas that escaped after they drilled a new well. But the government is still exploring exactly what happened in an effort to prevent similar disasters in the future.
After the initial explosion, the oil rig caught on fire and then toppled over, sinking into the ocean. As the rig sank, the pipe connected to the seabed broke. Almost immediately, oil started leaking into the ocean.
BP, a large oil company, leased the rig. The well was very deep—the drilling was taking place 5,000 feet below the surface and then another 13,000 feet beneath the seabed. (That depth is the equivalent of 10 Empire State Buildings stacked on top of each other.) Oil rigs like the one that exploded are some of the largest structures in the oceans. They are designed to pump oil or natural gas from deep below the seabed, process the fuel, and pipe the oil or gas to the shore. | <urn:uuid:52d4dd36-5685-4903-9416-dfc088c188d5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://web4.audubon.org/educate/kids/gulf/Kids-TheExplosion.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971939 | 274 | 3.609375 | 4 |
Published: March 23, 2012
On April 1, 2012, the United States will have the highest corporate tax rate in the developed world – an unenviable #1 ranking.
After slashing its corporate tax rates in 1986 to become more competitive, America has fallen behind as other countries have followed suit.
The U.S. combined statutory corporate tax rate currently stands at 39.2 percent. In contrast, the average combined statutory corporate tax rate in other OECD* countries is only 25.1 percent.
Higher tax rates:
Business Roundtable’s Taking Action for America is a plan to increase economic growth and job creation.
The time for comprehensive tax reform is now.
*Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
Business Roundtable (BRT) is an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies with over $6 trillion in annual revenues and more than 14 million employees. BRT member companies comprise nearly a third of the total value of the U.S. stock market and invest more than $150 billion annually in research and development – nearly half of all private U.S. R&D spending. Our companies pay $163 billion in dividends to shareholders and generate an estimated $420 billion in sales for small and medium-sized businesses annually.
BRT companies give nearly $9 billion a year in combined charitable contributions. | <urn:uuid:6634c278-8c76-4da2-9771-9a3cf8826364> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://businessroundtable.org/news-center/u.s.-corporate-tax-rate-the-march-toward-madness/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952921 | 276 | 1.992188 | 2 |
DUI drug treatment courts programs utilize the drug treatment courts model with impaired drivers. A DUI drug treatment courts is a distinct court docket dedicated to changing the behavior of the alcohol/drug dependant offenders arrested for Driving While Impaired (DWI). The goal of DUI drug treatment courts is to protect public safety by using the drug courts model to address the root cause of impaired driving, alcohol and other substance abuse. With the hard-core drinking driver as its primary target population, DUI drug treatment courts follow the Ten Key Components of Drug Courts and the Ten Guiding Principles of DWI Courts, as established by the National Association of Drug Courts Professionals and the National Drug Courts Institute. DUI drug treatment courts operate within a post- conviction model. The DUI drug courts team uses a team-oriented approach to systematically change participant behavior. Compliance with treatment and other court-mandated requirements is verified by frequent alcohol/drug testing, close community supervision, and interaction with the judge in non-adversarial court review hearings. During these review hearings the judge employs a science-based response to participant compliance (or non-compliance) in an effort to further the team’s goal to encourage pro-social, sober behaviors that will prevent DUI recidivism (Loeffler & Huddleston, 2003). DWI courts often enhance their close monitoring of offenders using home and field visits, as well as technological innovations such as Ignition Interlock devices and the SCRAM transdermal alcohol detection device (Harberts & Waters, 2006). | <urn:uuid:188072d6-c567-432d-b1fa-a8610d433907> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://court.nol.org/problem-solving/dui.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929468 | 312 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Improve designs earlier with accurate part selection.
Intuitively analyze and visualize circuit designs.
Rapidly layout and route printed circuit boards (PCBs).
Simplify the designs of NI hardware accessories.
Purchase the NI Multisim Student Edition for homework and design projects to better understand circuit theory and quickly design PCBs for student design. | <urn:uuid:d223dfd2-9401-42bc-9a55-eed6f2a37bf1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ni.com/multisim/buy/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919687 | 71 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Thu November 29, 2012
A Huge Pay Cut For Doctors Is Hiding In The Fiscal Cliff
Originally published on Thu November 29, 2012 9:53 am
Yesterday, in the Bronx, Chris Veres took his grandfather to see Dr. Bob Murrow. He was worried about his grandfather's heart. Dr. Murrow talked to the family and ordered a cardiogram, which came back normal.
It was a pretty routine visit. But what happens next for the doctor — getting paid by Medicare, the government-run health insurance program for the elderly — is suddenly sort of a big deal.
Included in the fiscal cliff is a 30 percent pay cut to doctors who treat Medicare patients. It's set to kick in on Jan. 1. Lawmakers from both parties say they want to prevent the cut. But the cut is part of a plan Congress put in place 15 years ago to contain healthcare costs, then proceeded to postpone again and again.
After he sees the patient, Dr. Murrow writes what he did on a form and then sends it to his billing guy, who turns the form into codes. The codes are what the doctor needs to get paid by Medicare.
First visit with a new patient is code #99204. That's worth $144.96. The cardiogram is worth another $17. That's a total of about $162.
Hundreds of thousands of doctors like Dr. Murrow bill for every service and procedure they provide for Medicare patients. And every year, they bill for more and more services and procedures.
So back in 1997, Congress said that if doctors' bills per patient increase beyond a certain rate, then Medicare would start paying a little less for each bill. There's a whole formula to figure it out. In 2002, the formula said fees for each procedure should be cut by 4 percent
"Doctors were somewhat grumpy about this," says Joseph Newhouse, who teaches Health Policy at Harvard University. "Some of them started to talk about, 'Well maybe we won't be happy about taking Medicare patients.'"
People on Medicare didn't like the sound of that. People in Congress didn't like to hear complaints from senior citizens, who vote in high numbers.
And then, the next year, 2003, same thing: The formula said cut doctor fees another 4 percent. People in Congress got very nervous about how their senior citizen constituents would react.
So instead, Congress passed a bill to ignore the formula that year. Instead, they raised doctors' fees. And then for the next year. And the next...
The formula is cumulative. So if you ignore a 4 percent cut two years in a row, the following year the formula will call for an 8 percent cut. And so on. The formula now says doctors' pay should be cut by 30 percent next year — which means that $160 Dr. Murrow made for treating Chris Veres's grandfather should, according to the formula, be only about $120.
Congress is very likely override the formula once again, and prevent doctors' pay from being cut next year. But Congress is much less likely to get rid of the formula altogether.
That's partly because projections of the long-term budget deficit assume that the formula will kick in eventually, and the federal government will spend less money paying doctors. Those projections — clearly based on a fiction — make the long-term deficit picture look brighter than it really is.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
Not as straightforward as it might seem. That applies to one other idea for health care savings. Part of the automatic cuts that will take place of Congress doesn't act by the end of the year is a huge pay cut for doctors who see Medicare patients. On January 1, Medicare is set to cut those payments by nearly 30 percent. It's actually part of plan Congress put in place 15 years ago, and then proceeded to postpone year after year.
Chana Joffe-Walt with our Planet Money team explains.
CHANA JOFFE-WALT, BYLINE: The way doctors get paid - the way a regular check-up or a surgery gets turned into money - most of us never see that side. And actually doctors don't really always understand that side. For instance, yesterday in the Bronx, in New York, Chris Veres took his grandfather to see Dr. Bob Murrow. And Veres told the doctor his grandfather has dementia, hasn't spoken a word to anyone for a year - and then just the other day...
CHRIS VERES: He actually held his hand to his chest. We asked him if his heart hurt, because he kept holding it. And he kept nodding yes. And now I'm almost sure that he's either got some kind of pain over there. So we just want to make sure everything is fine.
JOFFE-WALT: Dr. Morrow listens, asks a bunch of questions, the grandson answers them to the best of his ability. Dr. Morrow orders a cardiogram, leaves the room, comes back...
DR. BOB MORROW: You guys all dressed?
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: OK. You can come in.
MORROW: So the cardiogram is normal, OK. And so that's good.
JOFFE-WALT: But the doctor says the grandfather should still see a cardiologist. There's some more discussion and then it's over. Dr. Morrow and I stand in the hall as the patients leave the office. So what happens now?
MORROW: In what way?
JOFFE-WALT: With the money. How does the money work from here?
MORROW: Well, I fill out this form.
JOFFE-WALT: Dr. Morrow fills in what he did on the form and then sends it to his billing guy - a guy named Rocko Ungaro, who turns the form into codes, which get turned into money. First visit with a new patient: code number 99204.
ROCKO UNGARO: A hundred and 44 dollars and 96 cents.
JOFFE-WALT: And then there's the cardiogram.
UNGARO: With Medicare the payment is roughly around $17.
JOFFE-WALT: So about $160 for the whole thing. A very specific, very contested number. Hundreds of thousands of doctors, like Dr. Morrow, bill Medicare for everything they do - every service and procedure. And every year doctors bill for more and more things. So back in 1997, Congress said, look, if doctors keep sending more bills every year for visits and cardiograms, Medicare will pay less for things like visits and cardiograms. There will be a formula, keep costs in check. Professor Joseph Newhouse teaches health policy at Harvard University, and he says in 2002 the formula was clear: cut doctor fees by four percent.
JOSEPH NEWHOUSE: Doctors, of course, were somewhat grumpy about this. Some of them started to talk about maybe we won't be happy about taking Medicare patients.
JOFFE-WALT: People on Medicare didn't like the sound of that and people in Congress didn't like to hear their senior voters upset. And so the next year, in 2003, when the same thing happened - the formula said again to cut doctor fees...
NEWHOUSE: And the Congress said, ehh, we don't really want to go home and tell our constituents that - or have their doctors tell them that we cut their fees another four percent.
JOFFE-WALT: So instead ignore the formula, raise fees just a little bit, just this year, and then the next year and then the next. And the formula is cumulative, which means that right now the $160 Dr. Morrow made, the formula says it should be a lot less.
NEWHOUSE: If we were going to fix the whole thing and make up for all of the cuts that the formula said we should have made, we would cut his fee 30 percent.
JOFFE-WALT: Are we going to do that?
JOFFE-WALT: So why do we have the formula?
NEWHOUSE: I think the answer is that it allows us to pretend the deficit is less than it really is.
JOFFE-WALT: Because the deficit lives by this fiction too, that we will cut doctor fees by 30 percent, even though everyone knows that is very, very unlikely to actually happen. Chana Joffe-Walt, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | <urn:uuid:f02050f8-5245-4daa-9837-66835e4f4a2e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ripr.org/post/huge-pay-cut-doctors-hiding-fiscal-cliff | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969432 | 1,785 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Every day I see entrepreneurs trying to find that right balance between keeping their intellectual property confidential while sharing and promoting their business model with partners - especially investors - whose interest they so very much need to pique.
My bias generally falls strongly on the side of transparency - both because it is a virtue unto itself - and because it takes a lot of effort in our “post your business on the Internet for all to see” age to truly maintain confidentiality.
I have a more fundamental reason, however, why I generally advise entrepreneurs and investors not to worry all that much about confidentiality.
Supply and demand.
Quite simply, there are so incredibly few entrepreneurs out there with the “right stuff” to actually build profitable businesses.
And those that have it are on balance, either too busy, too rich, and/or my favorite - of the should be expected ethical type that 999 times out of 1,000 – that as opposed to the problem being someone of substance stealing a business idea, that the far more likely reality is a vast and unrelenting sea of apathy toward it.
Now, this does not mean that there is no place for confidentiality in modern business. But the reason why it is important is almost always more subtle than the fear of idea theft.
You see, for the vast majority of entrepreneurs without eight to nine-figure research and development budgets, the reason why confidentiality is important has to do with the under-appreciated context of mystique.
Oxford defines mystique as "a fascinating aura of mystery, awe, and power surrounding someone or something."
I would combine this definition with one of my favorite lessons from my long ago MBA marketing class – namely that in a modern marketplace there is zero difference between "actual" and "perceived" value.
So, in these contexts, the value of business confidentiality derives not so much from the threat of a nefarious competitor stealing an idea.
Rather, it is how the aura of confidentiality can bestow on a business that lovely element of mystique that draws people and resources to it, and does so in such a way that a nicely high perception of value follows.
And from this perception flow many wonderful things: brand equity, pricing power, and marketing effectiveness being chief among them.
Now for those who say that this is quite the cynical view of things, I would encourage them for the next seven days to not take in any entertainment media - no movies or television or Internet - nor to appreciate the lovely design of an iPad, and certainly to not gaze fondly on an elegantly dressed and coiffed woman or man.
In other words, to suffer for just one week like the terribly poor, extraordinarily unfortunate and very marketplace mystique - deprived people of North Korea must unconsciously suffer through every day of their lives.
And then come back and tell me that mystique doesn’t matter.
So appreciate mystique - that beautiful elixir of the modern marketplace – for its own sake as the incredible gift and blessing it is.
And you entrepreneurs understand how confidentiality and discretion, when utilized gracefully and not ham-handedly, can help create it.
As for investors, look for this “you know it when you see it” quality in entrepreneurs and business models to back. | <urn:uuid:6e85b581-42b8-431d-9c16-d5f0fb46fde6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.growthink.com/content/jennifer-lopez-and-nda | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948144 | 670 | 1.710938 | 2 |
He was responsible for the look, the lovingly detailed sets and interiors of two motion pictures starring MAE WEST.
• • "She Done Him Wrong" [produced during 1932] was the first motion picture assigned to Robert Usher who handled the Art Direction capably for Paramount Pictures. He was the Art Director for "Goin' to Town" as well.
• • It is the Art Director's job is to study each scene's storyboard and take each scene visually to another level. With his keen eye for atmosphere, Usher's design positioned objects in the background and along the edges of the scene that are not noticed perhaps upon first viewing, though they leave an impression and influence the emotional impact of a scene.
• • Born in Missouri on Wednesday, 27 February 1901, Robert Beneke Usher's silver screen career began with a solid-gold hit for Mae West in 1932, an auspicious launch indeed. Altogether he worked as Art Director for 47 motion pictures between 1932 — 1950 and was nominated for three Academy Awards in the category Best Art Direction. His final screen credit was "Vendetta" .
• • Robert Usher died in Tehama County, California on Monday, 23 July 1990. He was 89.
• • Happy Birthday, Mark! • •
• • Happy Birthday to Mae-maven and Canadian researcher R. Mark Desjardins. He was born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada on Tuesday, 27 February 1951. Readers have noticed the fascinating excerpts we have posted from time to time, with his kind permission, from his manuscript "In Search of Mae West," a carefully detailed magnum opus that will be released as soon as it's completed.
• • Mark covered the last Mae West Birthday Bash held at the home of Ramfis Diaz in Los Angeles on 17 August 2010. Here he is, handsomely posed in Hollywood surrounded by carefully preserved Mae memorabilia.
• • Enjoy your special day, Mark!
• • J. Merrill Holmes [21 July 1889 — 27 February 1950] • •
• • Every Bowery queen must have her consort — — and Mae West's costar was J. Merrill Holmes who portrayed Gus Jordan, the saloon keeper and ward heeler who keeps Lil in diamonds for the 1928 Broadway production of "Diamond Lil" at the Royale Theatre.
• • Born in Pennsylvania on 21 July 1889, John Merrill Holmes was featured in a few mainstage productions during the 1920s, most especially the well-regarded "What Price Glory" [1924 — 1925]; he took the role of Lieutenant Cunningham.
• • From 1930 — 1948, he was a character actor who appeared in more than two dozen motion pictures in Hollywood under the name Jack Holmes or Jack Merrill Holmes, usually in authority roles.
• • During the month of February he died — — on 27 February 1950 — — in his adopted city of Los Angeles, California. He was 60.
• • On Saturday, 27 February 1932 • •
• • The headline on Saturday, 27 February 1932: "Puppets to Act in Shows Today."
• • The Cornell Daily Sun announced the Mae West marionette show on the front page: Tatterman Marionettes will present plays in Willard Straight Theater. "Stringing Broadway" is adult entertainment. The puppets . . . poke good-humored fun at the contemporary world of politics, the theatre, and letters. A burlesque grand opera . . . A.A. Milne, Mae West, and Eugene O'Neill are on the program. . . .
• • "Stringing Broadway," with its chorus of "Glorified Girls," takes the professional revue for a ride, noted the Cornell Daily Sun.
• • Source: Cornell Daily Sun, page 1 story, Volume 52, Issue 106, published on Saturday, 27 February 1932.
• • On Thursday, 27 February 1936 • •
• • Joseph Breen wrote to Will Hays about Mae West and "KIondike Annie." His letter is dated for Thursday, 27 February 1936.
• • Newspapers were aware of the bickering and the chaos. The Los Angeles Herald printed a news story on page 4 about the censorship issues on 27 February 1936. It was never easy being Mae West.
• • On Sunday, 27 February 1938 • •
• • From Perth Australia, the newspapers echoed the after-shocks of "The Chase & Sanborn Hour" in December 1937: Mae West's un-Scriptural portrayal of Eve in a national broadcast has aroused the wrath of hundreds of American women and infuriated the clergy. They are shocked because, instead of the serpent tempting Eve, as the Book of Genesis records, Mae West tempted the serpent. The company that broadcast Mae as Eve has been besieged by angry resolutions from women's clubs.
• • "Applesauce! Horrible Blasphemy!" says Rev. Walsh • •
• • Rev. Maurice Walsh, of Battle Creek, Michigan, described Mae's Eve as "a travesty of Holy Scriptures." Walsh strongly objects to her referring to Eden's "Forbidden Fruit" as applesauce, the tempting item which women had fed men through the ages. ...
• • America's big Catholic League of Decency is also planning to reprimand her. . . .
• • Source: From Our Own Correspondent by Air in New York, Sunday Times (Perth, Australia) published on Sunday, 27 February 1938.
• • On Tuesday, 27 February 1979 • •
• • A piece of Mae memorabilia being sold is this $125 check Mae West signed on Tuesday, 27 February 1979. Made payable to her live-in lover Charles Krauser for "service" and drawn on West's account at the Hollywood office of the United California Bank in Hollywood, California, check number 11283 was written one year before the icon died.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "Don't diet! Curves may be dangerous on the highways, but they never hurt a woman."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article about generosity gave insight into the character of Mae West.
• • The Mail (in Adelaide, Australia) wrote: Mae West discovered a little eating place out towards San Fernando Valley. She found it much to her liking, and went there often. Now it comes out that recently the woman who operates the place was told to vacate, because of non-payment of a mortgage. Mae West found it out, paid off what was left, and handed the deeds to the woman.
• • "Why shouldn't I?" replied Mae. "I wanted to keep on eating there, didn't I?"
• • Source: Article: "Mae West's Generosity" printed in The Mail on page 2; published in Australia on Saturday, 24 July 1937
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2222nd blog post. Unlike many blogs, which draw upon reprinted content from a newspaper or a magazine and/ or summaries, links, or photos, the mainstay of this blog is its fresh material focused on the life and career of Mae West, herself an American original.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • filming in Hollywood in 1932 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWest | <urn:uuid:0fc198ad-1228-45be-9d08-7cef7b3c53e9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://maewest.blogspot.com/2012/02/mae-west-robert-usher.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959841 | 1,568 | 1.757813 | 2 |
help me/us all out here if anyone knows more.
been confused for over a decade until today. but as far as i can tell, "new media" means the equipment is available in metallic but not chrome. it's easy to be mislead when everybody says it like we all know, but probably nobody really does and they're just pretending. don't sweat it.
for instance, a toaster is available in metallic, but it is chrome, so it is clearly NOT "new media". digital cameras and hand-held camcorders usually come in brushed metal or titanium, so obviously, they do qualify. even cell phones that are equipped with cameras are generally silver, but never chrome. the term is misleading. you'd be right in thinking video and photos really ARE old technology, based on inventions that have been around for 100+ years . the "digital" stuff is actually far, far lower resolution and far, far higher priced than the analog predecessors. but this equipment was, for years, always heavy and painted black. not interesting. only recently did everything become exciting when it got a shiny new casing.
the real tricky part to making the extra conceptual leap that the phrase "new media" essentially indicates potential retail mark-up value. every era in art has its name. after impressionism, abstract impressionism, modernism, and post-modernism, we are now in silverism, which will be followed by shiny silverism. the term "new media" will be considered obsolete and un-hip, in favor of "new new media", meaning "shinier than ever".
back in dublin. arrived yesterday and had an intense day adjusting to the time change as well as gathering materials for the midi scrapyard challenge. the artbots exhibition is so cool! so many great projects and the artists are even more interesting.
never thought i’d write this here, but i’m loving dublin right now. it is different when you return to a place for a short visit… and there are so many familiar faces, friends very dear to us that we haven’t seen in a long time. tomorrow we start the exhibition and workshop bright and early at 10:30am for a gaggle of kids (normal hours are from 12 - 6.) it’s going to be a long day… | <urn:uuid:6090a273-4a3d-4111-8fbe-92ba70db72c4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rhizome.org/profiles/francishwang/?page=3&posts=18 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961625 | 480 | 1.828125 | 2 |
There are few foods as simple, delicious and complete as fresh seasonal corn on the cob. When it's really fresh, I'll even eat it raw. No boiling, no butter, no salt. It's perfectly sweet and tender right off the stalk.
Still, even perfection can get boring, and I recently began wondering what else I could do with fresh corn. I thought back to my days as the host of the Food Network's Cooking Live, when one of my guest chefs whipped up some corn soup and thickened it with pureed corn.
Of course, I'd known that any pureed vegetable will thicken a stew or soup. But corn has a secret ingredient -- Duh! -- cornstarch. I was astonished by the creaminess and thickness of my guest's soup.
This recipe was inspired by that soup. Creamed corn is thus named because it usually depends on cream for its creaminess. That's a problem for me for a couple of reasons. The cream not only makes the dish too rich, but it also tends to mask the flavor of the corn itself.
So I took a tip from my chef friend and used pureed corn to achieve a silky richness without any additional fat. Caramelized onions add great depth of flavor, while the chili's heat and lime juice's acidity balance the sweetness of the corn.
Don't hesitate to finish the dish with just about any herb in the garden these days. Corn plays nicely with almost all of them. | <urn:uuid:4e47062f-9b27-4629-a784-fcad651b3e13> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2012/08/08/2054568/use-pureed-corn-to-create-rich.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970396 | 304 | 1.585938 | 2 |
- NAME: Keokuk
- OCCUPATION: Political Leader
- BIRTH DATE: c. 1790
- DEATH DATE: c. 1848
- PLACE OF BIRTH: Rock Island, Illinois
- PLACE OF DEATH: Franklin County, Kansas
Best Known For
Sauk Indian politician Keokuk became chief by ceding Indian lands to win white support and by rallying opposition to his own tribe's resistance leaders.
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profile name: Keokuk profile occupation:
Sign in with Facebook to see how you and your friends are connected to famous icons. | <urn:uuid:399a6ef7-b33e-400c-906e-10085524ef08> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.biography.com/people/keokuk-40704 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91336 | 161 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Modern minimalist décor is very powerful when it is handled correctly. Contrary to what many think, this interior design style is not about leaving spaces empty, but about creating a room where everything has a function. Modern minimalist décor is, then, for people looking for organization amid the chaotic surroundings of life and modern society.
In order to be clear, let’s define ‘modern’ and ‘minimalist’.
‘Modern’ is not ‘contemporary’. ‘Contemporary’ is a time period, and ‘modern’ is a lifestyle. It is an attitude that cherishes technology and social contact; it simplifies life. It is sincere and eliminates the things that have no true meaning for you.
‘Minimalist’ can apply to ‘modern’ or other decoration styles. The minimalist movement in design started after WWII as a back-to-the-basics approach that considered simple living a more relaxed and comfortable way of existence.
When applied to ‘modern’, the minimalist approach works when it shows someone’s favorite colors and shapes in a dynamic and fun way. When interior designers in Seattle decorate in a modern minimalist style, she is creating a space to fit the owner’s way of life. Every single item will have a specific purpose and place. The designer will create a warm, practical and extremely welcoming atmosphere by using, or leaving out, color and texture.
Drama in modern minimalist décor is not achieved through strong color. Big elements like walls, furniture and floors will show white and neutral colors. The light is used to challenge the soft white walls, and the architectural characteristics of the space are exhibited.
In the same way, forget about heavy textures for this style. The basis for a hit modern minimalist décor is soft fabrics, leather furniture, shiny cabinets and floors, and linear and invisible moldings.
With clarity on the client’s needs, a professional designer will create a living and enchanting minimalist space. She will help the owner feel accomplished and relaxed in his or her life by getting rid of things that are not needed. The modern minimalist décor is a style that rejoices in clean lines and an open space. It is certainly a style that lets a person rebel against the dominating and rampant consumerism that has taken control over the world.
If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention www.amelydesigns.com as the original source.
Don’t Forget to Subscribe by RSS or Email: | <urn:uuid:7c4e8491-3133-41c0-a5ae-d034bf521cd6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://amelydesigns.com/blog/index.php/author/alison/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914042 | 569 | 1.695313 | 2 |
It Takes Many Villages to Make a World: The International Education and Resource Network (iEARN)
The borders of students' curriculum -- and classroom -- extend internationally.
Delegates attend the third annual International Youth Summit, in Puerto Rico, in 1999.
Credit: I*EARN U.S.A.
Giving our students a global exposure and enhancing their communication skills . . . will make a world of difference to their academic life and interest in the subject.
[From an iEARN teacher in Pakistan]
For this teacher, as for everyone involved in iEARN (the International Education and Resource Network), the objective is to prepare students to be motivated and active participants in their world.
And the objective is increasingly being met. Students in Belarus post their folktales on the Internet and in turn are treated to student interpretations of local stories from their own countries, providing a unique window into new cultures, customs, traditions, and beliefs. Middle school students in Australia research existing conditions about their wetlands, post them on the Internet as part of iEARN's Wetlands Project, and then reap the benefits of similar research done by students in Romania, Uganda, and the United States.
Students involved in a project to clear land mines not only study about the deadly remains of war, they are able to talk -- via email -- with experts in Mozambique and Afghanistan who do the clearing. The students also hear the stories of their peers across the world who must live with the land mines. And many then take the next step to raise money or write to policy makers to help end the horrible threat.
Romani Gypsy participants from Hungary contribute to the iEARN Indigenous Global Art Project.
Credit: I*EARN U.S.A.
Support Across Continents
iEARN is a network of teachers and students who use the Internet and email to carry out collaborative projects that embody activist teaching and learning. iEARN educators seek to prepare the youth of today for living in a multicultural and interdependent world that is being redefined every few years as technology and economics change.
In just twelve years of operation, iEARN has linked schools from Tucson, Arizona, to Paramaribo, Suriname, to Novosibirsk, Russia. iEARN works with approximately 350,000 students at 4,000 schools in more than ninety countries; twenty-nine languages are represented. Global projects are based on interactive discussions, in which students and teachers debate, research, and share opinions.
The projects run the gamut: global arts and music, city art videos, environmental action, the power of math, hunger, local birds, flowers and symbols, faces of war, indigenous peoples, the Holocaust and genocide, child labor, world religions, ending violence, international foods and cultural patterns, local history, solstice holidays, democracy in schools, and youth volunteerism and service.
A youth delegate from Cleveland visits with students at a local suburban Beijing school at the iEARN International Youth Summit in summer 2000.
Credit: I*EARN U.S.A.
The Importance of Collaboration
Through international collaboration, problems get solved. But the individual student benefits as well. We see heightened motivation in class. We see improved reading and writing skills. We see excited students taking one aspect of a project and expanding it to another that they created on their own.
But to create these motivated, internationally aware and connected students requires teachers with the technical skills and support to guide them. iEARN does not dictate what people should do but is a partner working with teachers, both new and experienced, to offer training, curriculum resources, inspiration, and human interaction around areas of mutual interest.
One of the central ideas behind the iEARN network is that by working together we can maximize our potential to enhance the quality of life on the planet. Every activity of iEARN stems from this vision. iEARN projects are intended to improve the health and well-being of the world through collaboration. All aspects, from curriculum projects to professional-development workshops, build on collaborative approaches.
For example, iEARN educators developed three- and five-day sets of workshops for a World Bank program called WorLD (World Links for Development). The workshops, titled "It Takes Many Villages to Make the World: Honoring People and Learning," emphasize community building, respect for others, and a focus on methods by which teachers can empower students to use technology to make a difference in their lives and the lives of the 6 billion inhabitants on the planet.
In the first session of the program, typical of the kinds of approaches used throughout, each participant learns a different skill, such as bookmarking on the Web, and then teaches that skill to another participant, creating a community of learners. They go on to learn about integrating curriculum into their classrooms, but the methods of learning remain collaborative, and the focus is on learning the technology for what it can accomplish with students.
Students from Sunnyside Elementary School, in Pullman, Washington, take part in a water-monitoring project through iEARN.
Credit: I*EARN USA
Technology Not an End in Itself
There is an ocean of difference between a workshop whose purpose is to familiarize teachers with a particular piece of software or hardware and one with the purpose of teaching how educators can prepare students to address racism or school conflict using technology. As educators, it is our responsibility to demonstrate how education can prepare students to address the issues facing the society in which they will be living.
Changing the focus of professional development to teaching and learning with a community purpose is only the first step. The next and ongoing component is interactive support when teachers return to their schools and their own computers. As the research of University of California at Irvine education professor Hank Becker and others has shown, less than 10 percent of teachers with access to the technology actually engage in collaborative projects.
Significant support is imperative. Toward this end, newly trained iEARN teachers are able immediately and meaningfully to interact online with peers through online support communities. To be sustainable, responsibility for this support structure is primarily in the hands of the teachers themselves.
It Won't Be Easy
But much more must be done, as is evidenced by complaints from students who move from a school in which global interaction is an integral part of the academic program to one in which it is not. Young men and women write back to us from college and say, "We're so disappointed. We got to college, and they don't even interact with native speakers in my Spanish class. In high school in iEARN, that's all we did."
The goal of iEARN is to have people go to the source in dealing with the problems we face -- locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally. If iEARN students learn when they are children that they can go directly to real people in China to learn about an issue, they will carry that knowledge with them to adulthood. They won't have to rely on a thirty-second sound bite when they hear about a crisis on the other side of the world. They will be encouraged to think collaboration, not confrontation.
People, languages, cultures, and social structures in this global environment are in constant interaction. It is our hope that an increase in collaboration will result in a lessening of ignorance about other cultures and realities and, therefore, result in a reduction in conflict. Our purpose as educators is to facilitate and nurture the powerful curiosity and natural enthusiasm for learning that all people have. | <urn:uuid:16c63da2-5267-4526-9d9f-8f0c827e5cd7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.edutopia.org/international-education-resource-network?page=2 | 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 | 0.950755 | 1,545 | 3.125 | 3 |
Dunmore Cave is located 10km from of Kilkenny City. History and geology blend here to give the visitor a unique learning experience. The cave has been known to man for many centuries and contains some of Ireland's finest calcite cave formations.
History and geology blend at Dunmore Cave to give an interesting and unique insight into this County Kilkenny landmark. Consisting of a series of chambers formed over millions of years, the cave contains some of the finest calcite formations found in any Irish cave. The cave has been known to man for many centuries and is first mentioned in the 9th century Irish Triads. The most interesting reference however, comes from the Annals which tells of a Viking massacre at the cave in the year 928 AD. Archaeological finds within the cave confirm Viking activity.
The visitor centre features an exhibition area, audio-visual presentation and the Cupcake Café tearoom which is open daily during the peak season. The audio-visual presentation covers four main topics aimed at all ages and interests: geology and evolution over 350 million years, animated formation of Dunmore Cave, ecology of the cave and its surrounds, and the myths and history of the cave. There is also an interactive Virtual Museum consisting of the several treasures found in the Cave including one of the most significant Viking finds in the country. Admission to Dunmore Cave is by guided tour only. The Cave is open all year round and has no wheelchair access but the visitor centre is fully accessible. | <urn:uuid:dc69291c-08ca-4310-a795-7ea969f7d2b9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ireland.com/en-us/what-is-available/natural-landscapes-and-sights/natural-landscapes/all/1-403 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966728 | 302 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Age-specific changes in the female-male mortality ratio related to the pattern of vaccinations: an observational study from rural Gambia.
Vaccine. 2006 May 29;24(22):4701-8. Epub 2006 Mar 31. PMID: 16621182
Bandim Health Project, Apartado 861, Bissau, Guinea-Bissau. firstname.lastname@example.org
BACKGROUND: According to studies from Guinea-Bissau and Senegal, live vaccines may reduce the female-male mortality ratio (MR) whereas inactivated vaccines increase this ratio. We used data from The Gambia to examine whether similar tendencies could be found in a different setting. SETTING: Forty villages in the Farafenni area in rural Gambia. SUBJECTS: A population of 17,000 was followed with demographic surveillance between 1998 and 2002; 537 children less than 5 years of age died in this period. METHODS: We used two vaccination surveys and community mortality data to examine, first, the female-male mortality ratio (MR) in the age groups in which DTP and MV are recommended and have a high coverage. Second, using vaccination cards seen post-mortem, we examined the distribution of live or inactivated vaccines as last vaccination in different age groups. Third, we examined the effect of DTP and MV administered simultaneously. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The female-male MR in different age groups and for different vaccines. RESULTS: Vaccination coverage was high for BCG, third dose of DTP (DTP3) and MV, reaching a level of 80-90% within a few months of the recommended age of vaccination. First, the female-male MR was 0.93 (0.63-1.38) in the first 2 months of life when children had received no vaccination or the combination of BCG, HBV and OPV. From 2 to 8 months of age, with DTP and HBV being the main vaccinations, the female-male MR was 1.28 (0.86-1.89). Between 9 and 17 months of age, with MV as the main vaccination, this ratio dropped to 0.73 (0.50-1.07), a significant inversion of the female-male MR (p=0.045). Second, using information from vaccination cards of dead children, boys who died at 2-4 months of age were more likely to have received live BCG and girls to have received inactivated DTP and HBV as last vaccination (p<0.001). At 5-8 months of age, essentially all dead children had received DTP as last vaccination and the female-male MR was 1.68 (0.96-2.93), whereas the MR was 0.70 (0.43-1.15) at 12-17 months of age when nearly all dead children had received MV (p=0.022). Third, compared with the general population of children who had received MV, dead children who had received MV were more likely to have received DTP3 simultaneously with MV (relative risk (RR)=5.59 (2.10-14.8)) or after MV (RR=2.61 (1.13-6.05)). CONCLUSION: Most children dying at a specific age had received the recommended vaccines. BCG and MV as last vaccination was associated with a low female-male MR, whereas DTP as last vaccination was associated with a high female-male MR. These trends are consistent with observations from other African countries. | <urn:uuid:cc52ecd9-d1b8-4741-9f9b-ec6d0931f276> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.greenmedinfo.com/article/vaccination-timing-and-co-administration-may-be-associated-increased-mortality | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966433 | 738 | 2.046875 | 2 |
Your lesson will take place in Rainbow Reef, the Learning Lab, and other exhibits.
Lesson extensions for before or after your visit
The following activities are designed for your class to enjoy before or after your museum visit. Familiarizing students with the lesson concepts can enrich your museum experience.
Encourage students to bring in an object from nature that interests them. Display the objects on a table or shelf. Add plants and/or class pets to the display. Provide magnifying glasses, and clipboards with paper and pencils for exploration and drawing.
Establish an area in the classroom where students can post their questions. Provide sticky notes, pencils, and chart paper for recording.
Choose questions from the Wonder Center to discuss as a class. Include students in establishing norms for the discussions. Some may be, “We will raise our hands when we want a turn,” “We will agree or disagree in a friendly way,” and "We will roll the ball to someone with a hand up for a turn." The goal is to give students a forum in which they can voice their theories rather than to arrive at correct answers.
Provide opportunities for discussions (either small group, whole-group, or one-on-one) that begin with open-ended questions such as, “What do you notice?”, “What did you discover?”, or What do you wonder?” Let the students guide the discussion. Document the conversations by transcribing or tape recording. The documentation can be used to plan future experiences, remind students of what they said, or to share students' thinking with parents.
- My Five Senses by Aliki
- The Other Way to Listen by Byrd Baylor
- One Small Square: Backyard by Donald M. Silver | <urn:uuid:12d5fde7-3597-4580-a8dd-e0728ed76823> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.museumofplay.org/education/school-programs/extensions/junior-garden-science-exploration | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921614 | 370 | 3.953125 | 4 |
Posted by: Matt Stansberry
DataCenter, energy efficiency, hosting, PG&E, PUE
Hosting and wholesale data center provider Fortune Data Centers walked away with a $900,000 check from Northern California energy utility Pacific Gas & Electric for making energy efficiency investments in its new San Jose data center.
Fortune opened the new data center for business in April, 2009, reclaiming a former manufacturing site. After phase I of construction, the 78,000 square foot facility has 43,000 square feet of IT space, and the company is claiming a PUE of 1.37, which if correct would mean that the facility’s data center mechanical infrastructure is highly efficient compared to the industry average of 2.0. See Mark Fontecchio’s article for more on evaluating public data center PUE claims.
The utility rebate came from PG&E’s High Tech-IT Facility program, which offers incentives for California data centers to reduce energy demand.
According to Fortune Data Centers CEO John Sheputis, the energy savings came from optimizing the cooling system and purchasing the most efficient uninterruptible power supply systems possible. Sheputis said the PG&E payments offset about half the cost of the premium for implementing high efficiency infrastructure.
PG&E engineers were very involved in the design and commissioning of the project. “PG&E has a commissioning agent to make sure you’ve installed the energy efficient devices and to make sure that it’s working,” Sheputis said. “They have to see the equipment operating. We get payments as the measures are brought online. They’re not allowed to just go around handing out checks.”
While $900,000 is a lot of cash, it’s not the largest data center utility rebate so far. NetApp scored $1.4 million from PG&E for its data center efficiency measures. Sheputis golfs with NetApp data center execs, and joked that “They’re dissing me for not getting as big a check as they did.” | <urn:uuid:b2faae7a-bc11-4374-a52c-4e09869553c2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/data-center-facilities/data-center-earns-nearly-1-million-in-utility-rebates-from-pge/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933303 | 437 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Dogs may be a man’s best friend, but boy can they be expensive sometimes. Factors which contribute towards the overall price tag of certain dogs can range from breed purity, overall rarity or whether they are the offspring of a prize-winning pooch. In our culture of celebrity worship, if a popular icon is photographed with a certain dog – that breed will indeed increase drastically in price overnight. Here is a list of the most expensive dog breeds.
Tibetan Mastiff – $3000
One of the most expensive dogs ever sold was a Tibetan Mastiff named Big Splash, who was sold for around one and a half million dollars. The Mastiff is dog with a loyal and calm mentality; often known as the gentle giant of the dog world.
Chow Chow – $4000
No, Chow Chow is not a dog food but a thoroughly cute-looking breed. The Chow Chows are known to be one of the oldest breeds of dogs, dating back 4,000 years. However – be careful, for if you do not train this dog properly you will have 70 pounds worth of problem on your hands.
Samoyed – $5000
The pure breed Samoyed dogs can carry a hefty price over around $10,000. However with such good characteristics, these dogs are heavily sought after. Also, it looks like they are smiling a lot of the time due to their black lips that curl upwards at the side of their mouths.
Pembroke Welsh Corgi – $1000
The most famous this about this breed of dog is that the English Royalty own a number of them, and has done so for around seven decades. Legend has it that these tiny dogs were ridden by fairies (according to folklore). Unfortunately when you buy one, the fairy is not included.
Cavalier King Charles Spaniel – $1000
This breed of dog is infamous for being great pets for people undergoing therapy due to their calm, sweet, gentle yet outgoing nature; apart from being completely adorable. No wonder they are fit for a King!
Rottweiler – $3000
You may think that Rottweilers are the dogs from hell, but you would be wrong. Rottweilers are some of the smartest dogs you can have and make extremely loyal pets.
Lowchen – $6000
The English translation from the German name Lowchen is ‘Little Lion’ due to its physical apperance and personality. Even though the Lowchen is small, people remark it has the heart of a lion.
Author: This article was compiled by the team at Invisible Fence® Brand, providers of electronic pet fences. | <urn:uuid:a1ebd555-a817-4dce-9a1e-25c46bfd2529> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://slices-of-life.com/tag/dog/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969766 | 544 | 1.523438 | 2 |
NCDOT to conduct blasting along I-73 in Guilford Co.
Work crews will begin blasting along Interstate 73 near High Point Road in Guilford County to prepare for the upcoming construction of a new interchange.
Weather permitting, the blasting will occur between 1-4 p.m. each weekday, beginning Feb. 1 and ending Feb. 5.
During the blasting, brief rolling roadblocks will be in effect. Law enforcement vehicles will pace traffic in each direction to create a buffer zone separating the traffic from the blasting location, so the work can safely occur.
Crews will inspect the interstate for rock and debris before allowing traffic to flow freely again. The rolling roadblocks are expected to last for no more than five minutes at a time.
The blasting is necessary to prepare for construction of the new High Point Road interchange with the Greensboro Western Loop. The blasts will break up the hard bedrock that is close to the surface. Once the rock is fractured into smaller pieces, it can be removed with trackhoes, and the road base can then be built.
The blasts will not emit more than a low popping sound and should not be felt at nearby homes or businesses. NCDOT reminds motorists to stay alert and use extreme caution in the area. | <urn:uuid:e8bbfbd7-0f82-4183-84f3-66858927b8ee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wxii12.com/news/local-news/piedmont/NCDOT-to-conduct-blasting-along-I-73-in-Guilford-Co/-/10703612/18341412/-/format/rsss_2.0/view/print/-/w18292z/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908504 | 258 | 1.65625 | 2 |
The Open States law-related data project now covers all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, according to a new post at Sunlight Foundation Blog.
Here is an updated description of Open States:
Open States is a collection of tools that make it possible for citizens to track what is happening in their state’s capitol by aggregating information from all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.
Using the site is simple: enter a U.S. address or select a state to start to research bills, [track bills,] review voting records, contact elected officials and more. [...]
There is a python client for the API. | <urn:uuid:6b9582e8-efc8-4201-81a2-d09b0f5c5c1f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://legalinformatics.wordpress.com/tag/apis/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.912313 | 144 | 2.015625 | 2 |
The Gregorian calendar has been in use since 1582. Among its features is a moderately complicated rule for leap years: if n mod 4 is 0, then n is a leap year. However, if n mod 100 is 0, then n is not a leap year, unless n is a multiple of 400.
In addition, we live in a world with timezones and regional differences in when countries go on and off daylight savings time, if they have such a system. As yet another example of Japanese rationality, Japan does not have a DST system.
Implementing date and time computations correctly can be very hard for computer programmers and is invariably a source of many hidden bugs that may take a long time to discover. Yesterday, a large amount of Sony’s Playstation 3 game consoles stopped working normally. This was later fixed. There was speculation the error was due to incorrect leap year handling. It wouldn’t be the first time this occurred if this was indeed the reason.
In a software company where I used to work, there would usually be massive troubles every time some country went on or off daylight savings time, or any other time calculation hit a sensitive spot. I’m fairly sure that the world’s software systems, including government, finance, insurance, health care, suffer untold billions of damage every year due to the complexity of the system. Maybe we should simplify it.
I suggest having “years” with 365 x 4 + 1 = 1461 days instead of the usual year for starters. This would move the leap year problem ahead until year 2100, when the next special rule comes in. By that time, software engineering technology should have improved enough that this should no longer be an issue, I hope. If not, we can invent another system by then. Let’s also scrap all daylight savings time everywhere. It’s easy to do and the savings would be huge. | <urn:uuid:4d1bed3e-cac0-46e8-b380-03ea79f9270f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.monomorphic.org/wordpress/gregorian-misery/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958356 | 395 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Gaza — One of 70-odd rockets fired from Gaza into Israel this week hit a chicken coop, critically wounding two Thai migrant workers, innocent bystanders in a deadly game of brinkmanship.
If it had killed children on the Israeli farm they work for, Israel and Gaza would probably be at war right now.
Gaza’s Islamist rulers, Hamas, know what a fine line they tread when they fire rockets at Israel: maybe they’ll explode in a field and draw a few targeted air strikes; or maybe they’ll hit a kindergarten and Israel will bombard the Gaza Strip, as it did in their lopsided three-week war at the turn of 2008-2009.
Over 1,300 Palestinian lives were lost and 13 Israelis died.
Since then, there has been a sporadic low-intensity conflict with its own codes and rules, looking almost choreographed at times in the predictability of strike, counter-strike, escalation, de-escalation and truce.
What was less predictable about the latest flare-up was that Hamas, which has been trying to curb attacks, would launch one of the biggest rocket barrages of the year just one day after the Emir of Qatar paid a landmark visit, happily celebrated in Gaza as the end of nearly six years of isolation.
The pro-Western Qatari leader, no gun-kissing militant, was the first head of state to visit Hamas since they seized power in the crowded enclave in 2007. He also donated a cool $400 million in reconstruction aid to help its 1.7 million people.
This might have prompted a reflective pause in the impoverished enclave running a skinny 40 km (25 miles) down the Mediterranean shore between Israel and Egypt.
Instead, a rain of Hamas rockets sent Israelis in southern towns and farms running for shelter. Hamas posted video of multiple rocket launchers firing at the “vampire, criminal” Zionist enemy they vow to drive out of the region.
“It was a calculated escalation,” said Khalil Abu Shammala of the Ad Ameer human rights group. “The rockets used were short range, though Hamas and other groups have rockets with ranges of 20 km and more. But they did not use them and that is evidence the escalation was calculated and limited.”
“As a resistance movement, Hamas feels embarrassed in front of its own members, so it attempts through these limited responses to prove it remains on the battlefield,” he said.
This is only a tactical necessity, he said. “Hamas strategy today is to win the recognition of the international community and to present itself as viable political entity.”
Analysts think Qatar, building up a leader’s role in the Sunni Muslim world and influence beyond the Gulf, hopes to tame Hamas, get it to reconcile with the Fatah movement of Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and perhaps advance the cause of Middle East peace.
This is a tall order: Abbas recognises Israel, Hamas does not; the major powers do not talk to Hamas; Abbas has not talked peace with Israel for two years. Small wonder that Middle East peace got scant mention in the third Obama-Romney presidential campaign debate. The “peace process” is dead on its feet.
But the gas-rich Gulf monarchy has deep pockets, and Hamas says it has time and stamina for a long game. The energy and confidence it displays contrasts with an air of fatigue in the camp of Abbas, after years of fruitless peace talks with Israel.
“Hamas is in its golden era as the other side is faltering,” said West Bank analyst Basim Al-Zubaidi.
Gaza consultant Omar Shaban says the Gaza Strip may be poor but the West Bank’s aid-inflated “cappuccino economy” is a hollow sham rotting Abbas’ Fatah movement from the inside.
“Deterioration happens gradually. You don’t see it. But Abbas is in bad shape while Hamas is in a good position.”
Shaban said Wednesday’s rocket barrage did not “violate the rules of the game” – a phrase Israeli strategists also employ.
“I believe restraint was part of the Qatari deal,” he said.
Analysts say Hamas aims to replace the creaking Palestine Liberation Organisation, headed by Abbas, and give a new face to the Palestinian movement: sober, incorruptible, Islamic, moderate; backed by Egypt and Qatar, and able to advance the Palestinian cause better than an exhausted Old Guard.
It wants to rid itself of the “terrorist” label which bars it from international conference halls. But it is also looking nervously over its shoulder at smaller militant groups primed to charge it with cowardice and betrayal if it stops shooting.
The movement, says Shaban, is creeping towards the diplomatic provisions of the Middle East Quartet – the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations – which demand renunciation of violence and acceptance of Israel.
“Hamas won’t go from a Big No to a Big Yes,” he said. “They are moving subtly. They do not want a state (just) in Gaza. They want to be perceived as a modern, sophisticated civil authority.”
ADJUSTING TO WIDER AIMS
Hamas’ Sunni Muslim leaders quit their headquarters in exile in Syria this year to end embarrassing ties to President Bashar al-Assad, as his forces battle and kill Syrian Sunni Muslims. Its leadership is in flux but analysts believe the Gaza faction led by ‘prime minister’ Ismail Haniyeh will trump the exiles.
Whether Haniyeh has loosened ties to Shi’ite Muslim backer Iran, Assad’s main ally, is unknown. Israel says Tehran, displeased with Hamas for abandoning Damascus, now funnels more of its money and arms to Hamas’ rival Islamic Jihad.
Haniyeh denies Hamas aims to declare a state in Gaza alone, saying it is the springboard to Palestinian statehood. “Gaza is the shortest road to Palestine. Gaza is the first step to liberate all of Palestine,” he said in a speech on Friday.
George Jaqman, a political analyst in the West Bank, said Hamas had taken a step towards international acceptance by advancing the idea of a long-term truce with Israel, with a Palestinian state on the 1967 Middle East war borders.
But Israel mistrusts such an idea. And there is no sign from Hamas of willingness to recognise Israel.
Egypt’s ruling Muslim Brotherhood led by President Mohamed Mursi, however, does recognise Israel and has promised to uphold their 1979 peace treaty. The Brotherhood, as spiritual father to Hamas, has great influence with the Palestinian group.
Mursi intervened on Wednesday to arrange a tacit ceasefire.
“The Muslim Brothers may work as an important force to tame Hamas rhetoric in relation to conflict with Israel,” said West Bank analyst Zubaidi. “I think two years from now we may see an Egyptian initiative whereby Hamas would be willing to discuss peace or truce or an understanding with Israel.”
By waiting patiently until the balance of power turns in their favour, Hamas can focus on its social, cultural, and religious agenda and keep up the spirit of armed resistance without going to war.
Asked if Hamas wants to replace the PLO, Hamas official Mustafa Assawaf said: “The coming stage is that of Hamas, especially amid the changes in the Arab region. Every stage has a leadership. Decades ago that leadership was owned by the PLO and I think the current stage should be led by Hamas.”
“Hamas is not in a hurry,” he said. “It relies on time and time looks to be on the side of Hamas.”
(Additional reporting by Crispian Balmer and Ali Sawafta; writing by Douglas Hamilton; editing by Philippa Fletcher) | <urn:uuid:c1925229-1af6-4d19-a071-2755bdb94d50> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://forward.com/articles/165009/hamas-brinkmanship-masks-quiet-confidence/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952353 | 1,663 | 1.664063 | 2 |
A Program For Mastering the York 50-lb Blob
by Bill Piche
The 50-lb York Blob is a test of pinch grip strength bar none. Grip legend Richard Sorin basically put this feat of grip strength on the map. At one time, there were only 3 men who had performed the feat. Rick Walker was one of the original KTA Program lab rats. Rick reasoned that if KTA worked for hand grippers why shouldn't the basic principles work for training for other grip feats? Rick wrote and published the original KTA Blob program back in 2004 and in recent years it has been unavailable. I used the original program to lift the 50-lb blob (2004) and after a few years and more experimentation I tweaked the program and wanted to make this effective program to lift the Blob available again to everyone. Hence, KTA Blob II was born!
Richard Sorin can be considered the "Father" of the 50lb York Blob Lift
There was a lot of discussion on the Gripboard on lifting the 50lb York Blob, the relation to hand size and also it's relation to height. It seemed only those with bigger hands and at least 6' in height had been able to perform the feat. Rick, being only 5'9" and 198lbs took this as a challenge and an opportunity to test KTA theory applied to lifting the Blob. The results? In a very short time, Rick was able to take his wide pinch strength to world class levels in both his hands. He was able to MASTER the 50-lb York Blob with BOTH hands. Much like Rick, I was able to do the same!
later (2011) after creating the KTA Blob II program, at 49 years old, 179lbs, and
5'9" with average size hands I lifted the 50lb York Blob again!
KTA Blob II is now available for everyone!
Here's just a small sample of the what you'll discover when
you claim your copy of The KTA BLOB II Program:
The Key Exercises to attain maximum Blob pinch strength
NINE video clips to
inspire and show you how!
KTA Theory full explained to help you understand why the program will work
Recovery techniques to help you complete the program
The Exact Cycles necessary to maximize your strength gains
The exact blue print to follow from start to post program
The KTA Blob II Ebook is now available for just $24.95!
Requirements: Windows 95/98/XP/Vista/Version 7, Windows Media Player 7.0 or above (Click here to download the FREE player).
Here's how you can get it:
PayPal (Credit Card)
1. You can purchase the E-book using your credit card through PayPal and you will be sent an email with a login to the download area. During the PayPal process you can specify a username/password so you can gain immediate access to the download area. You do NOT have to have a PayPal account to purchase the E-book.
2. Once you download the E-book to your computer hard drive, simply follow the instructions to the letter in the download area.
Note: The KTA Blob II E-book can only be viewed on one computer (the computer it is unlocked on) to protect the content and cannot be printed, copied, and must be read while sitting at your computer.
Yes, I want Lifting the Blob for just $24.95
Note: There are NO refunds and all sales are final. There will also be only one serial number provided per E-book. Additional serial numbers require an additional book purchase.
WARNING: The routines and techniques described in this E-book are intended only for healthy men and women. People with health problems should not follow the routines without a physician's approval. Before beginning any exercise or dietary program, always consult your doctor. By purchasing this book you have accepted the inherent risk associated with exercise, specifically exercise to improve grip strength. | <urn:uuid:15c8dbf5-b275-4be5-8f77-c2502a836344> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cyberpump.com/ktablob/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941473 | 838 | 1.617188 | 2 |
View Russian Blue Breeders
Go to Russian
Blue Retired Friends List
Russian Blue breed is a natural breed thought to have originated in
northern Russia. An old name for the cat is the Archangel Cat,
because it is thought to have come from the port city of Archangelsk.
Much of the Russian Blue's early history is not known.
The first Russian Blue cats were imported to England in 1890. World
War II nearly ended this breed's existence, like so many other
breeds in England, and Siamese had to be used to broaden the gene
pool. As a result, it took years of careful breeding to restore
the Russian Blue's plush coat. The first Russian Blue appeared
in the stud books of CFA in 1949, from cats who had been imported
to the United States in 1947, but no Russian Blue cat achieved a Grand
Champion title until fifteen years later.
Russian Blues are noted for its short, plush,
silvery blue coat, brilliant green eyes, and semi-foreign body
type with long legs and body. The Russian Blue personality is graceful and playful with a quiet, somewhat shy temperament. They are generally reserved
with strangers, but fiercely loyal with family.
Some Russian Blue kittens are born with "ghost
stripes", but these generally fade with age to
the familiar, solid silvery blue of adulthood.
The American and European types have come to
differ somewhat; traditional Scandanavian-type Russian Blue cats tend
to be larger and more heavily built than American Russian Blues.
Australian and New Zealand associations accept different colors
Associations: The Russian Blue breed is accepted
in all major cat registries, but only in the blue color. In ACFA, black Russians are accepted for championship status. In the
Australian Cat Federation (ACF) and New Zealand Cat Fancy (NZCF),
this breed is simply termed the "Russian" and is accepted
in blue, white, and black.
Books about the Russian Blue from amazon.com
Russian Blue Breed Information
Russian Blue Cat Clubs/Associations
Russian Blue Video:
Link missing? Is there a page you think ought to be
listed here that isn't? Is there a link here that is not working?
Let me know! Email the FBRL. | <urn:uuid:b3a1bf63-e339-4ee6-a988-0cc13ed1b700> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.breedlist.com/russian-blue-breeders.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921886 | 483 | 2.3125 | 2 |
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LinkAsia | Mar 11
Vietnam's Communist Party has stated its desire to change the country's constitution, written in 1992. Reformers hope it will address issues of pro...
Abortion is a controversial topic, perhaps nowhere more so than in Vietnam, where statistics suggest that abortion may be the most popular form of birth control. This has gotten Vietnamese public health authorities worried. But as our contributor in Hanoi, Nguyen Qui Duc tells us, no one knows what to do.
Nguyen Qui Duc:
This is not something new, nor is it hidden. The government's General Office for Population and Family Planning states here that, "on average each day, maternity clinics carry out 40 to 60 abortions."
By contrast a news website gives a different picture. Four months ago, it claims that in Hanoi alone, "besides the maternity clinics, there are thousands of abortion clinics, not including unauthorized and home clinics. It concludes that thousands of abortions are performed everyday in this city alone."
The family planning website reported on a national conference on sex and health education this past August. The theme was whether sex education was a way to effectively deal with the issue, or would it just encourage more sex. At the end of the conference, it was decided that:
"A lot of solutions were proposed, but none of the answers would be acceptable to society at large."
Vietnam has an official policy of two children per family, a way to control the population which stands now at about 88 million. But the problem seems to be with young people and lack of education, a generation gap, and old Confucian ethics keep the issue from going beyond superficial talk. Meanwhile, the Buddhist and Confucian respect for the dead means a lot of articles about the burial of aborted fetuses. One popular website ran this pictorial in May about a cemetery just outside the capital where 50 thousand fetuses are buried.
The story concludes with these statistics:
"Vietnam is one of 3 countries with the world's highest abortion rate, and most alarming is the fact that 20 percent of the people involved are under legal age. According to data from some Hanoi clinics, some women have had 4 abortions in a year. Most are performed on women under 25 year old. And on average each Vietnamese woman has had 2 to 3 abortions before marriage."
For LinkAsia, I'm Nguyen Qui Duc in Hanoi. | <urn:uuid:0c7aed02-2a5f-44b0-896d-3b0a9713ea54> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.linktv.org/videos/extremely-high-abortion-rates-cause-worry-in-vietnam-linkasia-92812 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962284 | 535 | 2.046875 | 2 |
Only 30 percent of the motor carriers that received subsidies from the Port of Los Angeles to purchase new trucks are on track to meet the port's minimum requirement for using the vehicles in port service.
As part of the port's clean-truck program, drayage companies that purchased 2007-model or newer clean-diesel trucks, or trucks powered by clean alternative fuels, were given an incentive payment of $20,000 per vehicle.
Since late 2008, some 100 motor carriers purchased 2,100 compliant trucks, costing the port $44 million in subsidy payments.
In order to keep the incentive money, motor carriers must use each clean truck for a minimum of 300 trips to the Port of Los Angeles per year, or about one trip each working day. Port statistics indicate that in the past motor carriers have averaged 1.8 trips per day per truck.
The port's fiscal year comes to a close on June 30. In a presentation to the harbor commission, John Holmes, director of operations, said only about 30 percent of the motor carriers receiving the $20,000 per-truck subsidy are on track to meet the 300-trip minimum.
Harbor truckers unable to meet the requirement blame the 15 percent drop in cargo volume this past year as the main culprit. They add that since they also serve the neighboring Port of Long Beach, and those trips don't count toward the minimum requirement, Los Angeles should make adjustments to the program.
The port staff in fact intends to recommend that the harbor commission consider several options for modifying the program's requirements so that motor carriers with good intentions are not penalized.
Holmes said the program has been successful in achieving its main goal, which was to ensure that there was sufficient drayage capacity in the harbor this past year as older trucks were banned under the terms of the clean-truck program.
On the other hand, some trucking companies accepting subsidy money made far fewer than 300 trips to the harbor, and almost 400 of the new trucks have yet to make a single trip to the marine terminals.
-- Contact Bill Mongelluzzo at email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:d4b510c0-1735-4836-a6c1-6df13c3ee040> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.joc.com/maritime-news/clean-trucks-missing-minimum-la-port_20100524.html?qt-webcasts_podcasts_whitepapers=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951316 | 441 | 1.914063 | 2 |
This change is in addition to my change "Help Plant 1000 Trees". I figure that in order to assure the health of the forest I want to plant, I need to help maintain the health of current local forest patches. My mission is to set out and pick up litter in the little neglected patches of forests that run through Nanaimo, areas that are littered by neighbours and nightly teenage strolls.
Yesterday we visited Bhat-Bhateni Super Store and stumbled upon a brand new environmental initiative.
Bhat-Bhateni is now encouraging shoppers to use re-usable plastic bags and is also selling re-usable branded bags. I quickly visited the Bhat-Bhateni web site and found their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) page which says:
I am thinking things might get a bit messy here in Vancouver over the coming weeks. The City of Vancouver employees are all on strike. That means garbage removal personnel, librarians, dog pound workers and summer camp staff to name a few. San Francisco East Bay workers have been on strike since July 02 and it sounds like it is getting messy down there.
I am particularly concerned about the dogs in the pound and the garbage lining the streets (we already have mice at my home and can only imagine what garbage piling up will do to the mouse population) This would be a good time to consider how to create less waste... anybody have any ideas? Thoughts to share about the strike?
for a complete listing of city services affected by job action click here
What kind of city do we want to live in during the garbage strike? What are you going to do? Just ignore the growing smelly pile of bags around your dumpster or refuge bin, as the crows spread junk over your alley?
Well, I finally am ready to share my photo of three months worth of garbage (Jan 1 - Mar 31) I'm not going to show the contents because ... well it's kinda nasty. I emptied a few ancient items from my cupboard, plus I went through many tissues during 2 week flu. The "clean" items were the plastic/cellophane packaging. But I am proud to report that for April, I'm almost at literally zero in my garbage. Much better than before ... avoiding those bags of junk food really helps the cause ... in more ways than one.
I've recently been to two presentations about zero waste where some of our elected officials, NGOs and local government employees were present. Some interesting things to that I learned : | <urn:uuid:df42f2c9-5add-4b98-9859-da3b7bf3e2c0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://changeeverything.ca/changes/tags/garbage | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963158 | 511 | 1.507813 | 2 |
This article explains about the process to read the analog voltage from pi. Read on to know more on this.
There are many ways to read many types of sensors without the help of ADC. By calculating the sensor as a resistor, which is used to fill up a capacitor, we can easily able to count how long it takes. The process which anybody adopts is by taking the advantage of the electronic property of both the resistor and capacitor.
It is found to be true that if a capacitor with no voltage is used and connected with some power by using resistor, then it is noticed that it would slowly charge up to a power voltage. Those sensors, which act like the resistors, can work with these techniques. Some sensors, which works like this are photocells, thermistors, flex sensor, force-sensitive resistors, and many more. The sensors which have pure analog output are not be used with this technique like IR distance sensors or analog accelerometers.
This process starts by using oscilloscope which shows what is going on in the digital pins. The pin with blue color indicates the starting point of Pi and it complete in about 4.5ms. In this the capacitor will act like the bucket and the resistor is acting like a thin pipe. | <urn:uuid:6ffe4cda-9ef4-4eb9-9cd1-e00a0e9a85fa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hackolog.com/2012/08/16/how-to-read-analog-voltage-from-pi/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956574 | 254 | 3.953125 | 4 |
Estrogen's Role in Breast Cancer Can Fluctuate
Experts explain how timing is everything, turning hormone into friend or foe of the disease
By Amanda Gardner
FRIDAY, April 15 (HealthDay News) -- Is estrogen breast cancer's friend or foe?
A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which analyzed data from the massive Women's Health Initiative, suggested the latter when it found a reduced risk of breast cancer in women who had been on short-term estrogen therapy.
This seemed to contradict years of cautions that estrogen therapy -- once widely prescribed as an antidote for the symptoms of menopause and to prevent chronic diseases -- fuels estrogen receptor-positive breast cancers.
In fact, this wily hormone can be both, according to an editorial in the April 10 issue of Cancer Prevention Research.
"Estrogen is bad at the right time, and estrogen is good at the right time," said editorial co-author V. Craig Jordan, considered the "father" of tamoxifen and other anti-estrogen treatments for breast cancer.
It's true, estrogen is necessary for cancer cells to grow and multiply, but when the cancer cells develop in an environment where estrogen hasn't been present for a while, they are killed off by an unexpected flood of the hormone, he explained.
A state of estrogen deprivation can come years after menopause, when production of estrogen naturally stops or even after a woman has been receiving anti-estrogen therapy for breast cancer.
In such a state of deprivation, Jordan said, "cells grow that are not independent of estrogen. They have learned to grow with just a little tickle of estrogen. They're hanging on with a sort of starvation diet.
"When they start to form tumors and we put back normal-dose estrogen, the cells see this as a death signal because they're suddenly given a massive concentration of high-octane fuel. It's a complete overdose. Like a starving person, you can't just say sit down and eat all you want at McDonald's because you'll kill them," added Jordan, who is scientific director of Georgetown University's Lombardi Cancer Center.
It's important to remember that estrogen-alone therapy is given only to women who have had a hysterectomy, as it can increase the risk of endometrial cancer. Women who still have a uterus are prescribed combined hormone replacement therapy (estrogen plus progestin), which does carry increased risks of breast cancer.
It's also important to note that breast cancer cells are not static.
Like bacteria, these cells "are somewhat of a moving target. They're changing and often reacting to their environment," said Dr. Jennifer Litton, an assistant professor of cancer medicine at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. "It's sort of a mini natural selection. If you expose it to one agent, it will mutate and find a way to resist that agent."
That's why many women become resistant to certain therapies and need alternatives that can outwit these constantly evolving cells.
The authors of the JAMA study concluded that women don't need to be concerned about an increased risk of breast cancer from short-term use of estrogen therapy.
Even so, family history and other risk factors need to be considered before starting a woman on hormone therapy.
But if you have a breast tumor, "estrogen should not be considered for treatment at all," said Jordan. "If they're postmenopausal, those women should either get tamoxifen or an aromatase inhibitor. That is the best treatment that you can give. It's absolutely rock solid."
On an experimental basis, doctors do have the authority to prescribe estrogen to treat women with metastatic breast cancer who have developed resistance to anti-hormone therapies, Jordan added.
The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more on treatments for breast cancer.SOURCES: V. Craig Jordan, Ph.D., scientific director, Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Georgetown University, Washington; D.C.; Jennifer Litton, M.D., assistant professor, cancer medicine, the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston; April 10, 2011, Cancer Prevention Research Related Articles
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Learn More About Sharp
Sharp HealthCare is San Diego's health care leader with seven hospitals, two medical groups and a health plan. Learn more about our San Diego hospitals, choose a Sharp-affiliated San Diego doctor or browse our comprehensive medical services.
Copyright © 2011 HealthDay. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:929522f8-70e7-4c62-b602-684d2576d7a8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sharp.com/news/health/newsArticle.cfm?articleID=27613&channelID=51 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93544 | 971 | 2.421875 | 2 |
Mickey Mantle Statue #2
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Frozen in time as if he'd just slugged one of his mammoth home runs, a bronze Mickey Mantle stands outside the third base entrance to RedHawks Field at Bricktown, Okahoma's triple-A minor league ballpark. The Hall of Fame baseball player -- star of the New York Yankees -- is nearly eight feet tall and weighs over a ton.
Mantle was born and raised in Oklahoma but really had no connection to Oklahoma City. A nearly identical Micky Mantle statue stands further north in his home town of Commerce, but the statue in Commerce depicts the switch-hitting Mantle batting right, while the one in Oklahoma City shows him batting left. Even though the statue in Oklahoma City predates the one in Commerce by 12 years, Mantle was already dead by the time it was unveiled. | <urn:uuid:0ef4c0e9-af62-4521-8fe6-2e4830d27893> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/25948 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977056 | 179 | 1.585938 | 2 |
ArtPlace America has announced the 54 recipients (out of over 1200 applicants) for its most recent round of creative placemaking grants. The $15.2 million in grants will support projects in 44 communities and a statewide project in Connecticut.
2 hours ago NRDC Switchboard Blog
The chief minister of the Indian state of Maharashtra (home to Mumbai) is pushing to rationalize the region's density controls, which had been prone to abuse by developers. Some fear the controls will result in more homogenous designs.
3 hours ago The Financial Times
From 2000-2011 the number of poor Americans living in the suburbs increased at a rate double that of the country's cities. The result is that more poor people now live in the suburbs than in cities. A new book examines this troubling trend.
4 hours ago The Atlantic Cities
Different contexts call for different approaches to inserting new transit stations into existing urban environments. From iconic statement to net-zero depot, Ron Nyren looks at 10 stations built recently in cities across the world.
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Chuck Wolfe champions the 'urban diary' tool as a universal means to understand the city around us.
6 hours ago Crosscut
Just seven months ago Hurricane Sandy damaged 94 percent of New Jersey's beaches and eroded dozens of miles of coastline in New York. As waterfront communities rush to rebuild before summer, some fear disastrous long-term consequences.
7 hours ago The New York Times
Forty years ago, Dade County officials sketched a vision for a paradigm shift away from highways and towards a multi-model transportation system for the area. Four decades onward, highway expansion is alive and well in Miami-Dade. What happened?
8 hours ago TransitMiami
In the quest to improve efficiency and effectiveness, "smart" technologies are helping cities become more intelligent machines. But a growing chorus fears the side effects of increased privatization, surveillance, and technological sophistication.
9 hours ago The Boston Globe
A Friday evening collision between two Metro-North trains near Fairfield, Conn. injured 60 people, 5 of them critically. It's not known when service will be restored along the busiest train line in the nation.
10 hours ago The New York Times
The replacement of retail establishments with restaurants in America’s urban centers has a demographic slant.
Yesterday Architect Magazine | <urn:uuid:e8b24d96-d1dc-4cf9-b7df-5a17bf4393a2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.planetizen.com/news/redirect_new.php?id=58011-0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917658 | 475 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Expeditions & surveys; Railroad surveys; Lightning Lake (Mont.)
"Lightning Lake is a very beautiful sheet of water, so called from the fact that during Captain Pope's expedition, while encamped here, one of those storms so fearfully violent in this country occurred, during which one of his party was...
Eastern Washington State College; Fieldhouse (Eastern Washington University); Eastern Washington University -- Buildings -- History
Photograph of the southern view of some of the Fine Arts complex of buildings located on the campus of Eastern Washington State College (currently Eastern Washington University). The Fieldhouse is in the background.
Grand Coulee Dam (Wash.);Hydroelectric power plants -- Washington (State);Dams -- United States -- Design and construction;Cofferdams -- Design and construction.
The preparation of the southern end of the dam site has had most of the loose rock removed, and the coffer dam complete. The work of removing soil and loose rock on the north end of the dam was still under way. | <urn:uuid:13415f30-3c0a-4b06-9e75-d7f11c9bc483> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://econtent.library.ewu.edu/cdm/search/searchterm/southern/mode/all/order/descri | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939717 | 210 | 2.0625 | 2 |
DHS awards NBAF utility plant contract
Construction of a utility plant for a controversial animal disease research federal laboratory in Kansas can start following the Feb. 21 award of an approximately $40 million contract to joint venture firm McCarthy Mortenson.
Homeland Security Department spokeswoman Nicole Stickel said in a Feb. 22 statement that the award, using $40 million in federal appropriations and an additional amount of money from the state of Kansas, is a modification of an existing contract with McCarthy Mortenson, which conducted site preparation activities for the $1.14 billion project, known as the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility.
NBAF is envisioned as an Animal Biosafety Level 4 (the most dangerous possible) and Biosafety Level 3-ag (an agriculture-specific level intermediate between BSL3 and BSL4) laboratory for the study of foreign animal and zoonotic diseases and a replacement for the existing Plum Island Animal Disease Center, which is located off of Long Island, N.Y. The PIADC facility will require $60 million to $90 million in capital improvements while NBAF is being built, according to DHS.
Lab project documents (.pdf) obtained by FierceHomelandSecurity through a Freedom of Information Act request indicate that Kansas contributed up to $1.14 million to the utility plant contract, an amount left over from an earlier $18.26 million gift to the federal government for site preparation. Kansas formally transferred in January 46 acres of land located near Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kan., to DHS for the project. Overall, Kansas has pledged $105 million, another $35 million in research funding, plus the land, to NBAF.
DHS estimates that construction of the 87,000 square foot utility plant will take about two-and-a-half years to complete.
An NBAF overview presentation delivered to the Office of Management and Budget during a Sept. 17 meeting by James Johnson, director of the office of national laboratories within the DHS Science and Technology Directorate, estimates construction of the entire project could be complete in 2019 with accreditation to occur more than a year later in 2020.
NBAF controversy has centered mostly on the possibility of animal diseases such as hoof-and-mouth disease escaping into the agricultural heartland. Johnson, in his presentation, notes that a January 2012 risk assessment based on a review of 65 percent complete design phase planning documents estimated the probability of an accidental release of foot-and-mouth-disease virus is .11 over 50 years.
A June 2012 National Research Council review of that risk assessment said DHS relied on "overly optimistic and unsupported estimates of human error rates, underestimates of infectious material available for release," in coming to its risk probability conclusion.
- read statements from the Kansas congressional delegation to the NBAF utilities contract | <urn:uuid:530bb6f5-b002-49a4-89e9-6aaed30e9f13> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fiercehomelandsecurity.com/story/dhs-awards-nbaf-utility-plant-contract/2013-02-24 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936058 | 572 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Asian Billionaires Now Outnumber Those In North America
March 4, 2013 by Ben Bullard
Chinese luxe finance magazine The Hurun Report revealed last week that more billionaires hail from Asia than from North America, a first since the publication was founded in 1999.
In Asia, 608 individuals have a net worth in excess of $1 billion (all figures are adjusted to U.S. dollars), followed by North America with 440 and Europe with 324.
The U.S. still has more billionaires — 409 — than any other country, followed distantly by China, whose 317 billionaires make up just more than half of all those throughout Asia. But Asia’s diverse and burgeoning economies have produced more newly rich individuals, nearly all of whom have made their own fortunes.
That’s a contrast with Europe — where a disproportionate amount of billionaires’ wealth is generational and inherited — and with North America, whose billionaires have found varying paths to fortune.
All of China’s billionaires have become wealthy in their own lifetimes through real estate transactions. Noting the trend reflects “the [Chinese] urbanization boom of the last generation,” Hurun reports seven of the world’s top 10 real estate billionaires reside either in Hong Kong or in China.
With 76 billionaires (every one of them self-made), Moscow is home to more than any other world city, including second-place New York, which has 70. Like the rest of Asia, a significant portion of Russia’s wealthiest residents have ties to real estate, along with manufacturing and energy.
Most European billionaires are either majority owners of industrial or retail concerns, or scions of luxury fashion brands: Louis Vuitton, Hermes, BMW and Patek Philippe, to sample a (very) few. Of the 31 billionaires worldwide whose wealth was made in luxury goods, only seven reside outside Europe. Two more brands — DeBeers and Cartier, both South African — deliver diamonds, a “luxury commodity” with close ties to the European luxury market. A third, the OCTEA mining group, is based in Israel.
Americans who top the list generated their money primarily through investments; technology, media and telecommunications; and the retail market. Berkshire Hathaway primary shareholder Warren Buffett remained the richest man in the United States (second worldwide), followed by Microsoft’s Bill Gates (fourth worldwide).
Mexican investor and diversified shareholder Carlos Slim remained the richest man in the world, with a personal fortune worth an estimated $66 billion.
The United States remains atop the billionaire list in another aspect: combined wealth. The 409 American billionaires on the Hurun list retain a total net worth of $1.712 trillion. Hurun did not disclose a researched figure for the combined wealth of billionaires in second-place China.
Chinese ambition fuels the publication’s interest in compiling the list, with Hurun Report Chairman and founder Rupert Hoogewerf noting that “China’s entrepreneurs want to see the global context of their recent success. This is why Hurun Report, a media headquartered in Shanghai, China, has set out on this quest to track down and rank the world’s billionaires.”
Interestingly, the publication freely admits it hasn’t succeeded in enumerating every billionaire worldwide, with Hoogewerf estimating there may be twice as many as were listed in this year’s Hurun Report list.
View the complete list as well as supporting statistics and billionaire demographics here. | <urn:uuid:58c57acd-f0d6-4749-b298-58ef3f363ea1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://personalliberty.com/2013/03/04/asian-billionaires-now-outnumber-those-in-north-america/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926267 | 721 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Reducing Modesty to Rules
Modesty is a legitimate virtue whether you are a Christian or not, but for modesty to be distinctly Christian, it must be rooted in the gospel of grace. Whenever I was asked about this topic and whenever I read about it, I found plenty of law but very little gospel. R.W. Glenn found the same thing, so we set out to write a short book that would grow out from the gospel and that would address both men and women and that would look beyond modest dress to modest behavior. That book is titled Modest. Here, from the book’s opening chapter, is how we explained what we wanted to accomplish and what we wanted to guard against:
When it comes to modesty we define the term too narrowly (our first mistake) and then surround ourselves with rules like "only this low," "at least this long," "never in this combination," and "never so tight that _______ shows." In fairly short order, the gospel is replaced with regulations. Indeed, in this particular area, the regulations become our gospel--a gospel of bondage rather than freedom.
The truth we are missing in all this mess is that the gospel of grace informs and gives shape to what it means to be modest.
Modesty without the gospel is prudishness. Modesty divorced from the gospel becomes the supposed benchmark of Christian maturity--perhaps especially for women--and a perch of self-righteous superiority from which to look down on others who "just don't get it." You may find yourself exclaiming disbelief about someone else's wardrobe: "Can't she see what she is (not) wearing?"
Modesty, apart from the gospel, becomes a self-made religion that can give some appearance of being the genuine article but that is in the end of no value (none!) in our battle with the sinful and inordinate desires of our hearts. If we reduce modesty to certain rules of dress, we are completely separating the concept of modesty from the person and work of Jesus Christ. As a result, we may have the appearance of godliness, but not a whole lot more. | <urn:uuid:e1f502e6-2a35-4f9f-81b9-6ea5215f1d3f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.challies.com/cruciform-press/reducing-modesty-to-rules?quicktabs_1=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964418 | 432 | 1.570313 | 2 |
For the crust: Whisk the flour with the sugar and salt in a large bowl. Toss 4 pieces of butter with the mixture to coat, and then use your fingers to rub the butter into the flour until the mixture is powdery and pale yellow. You should not see any obvious bits of butter, and the mixture should feel cool and dry to the touch. Work in the remaining butter in the same manner, but this time just until pieces are the size of large beans. Combine the water and vinegar in a liquid measure and drizzle it evenly over the flour mixture. Toss and stir the mixture with a rubber spatula until it comes together in a loose, shaggy dough. A large handful of dough should hold together when you squeeze it in your palm; if it does not, add another tablespoon or so of cold water and toss again.
Turn the dough onto a clean surface and shape into a rectangle with a short end toward you. Starting at the far end, press the heel of your hand into the dough and smear it away from you with short strokes. Continue pressing and smearing, working to the edge close to you. When all the dough has been worked, scrape and press it together in a mass and divide into 2 equal pieces. Shape pieces into disks and wrap each in plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to 2 days.
Roll one piece of dough into a 14-inch circle and center it in a 10-inch pie plate; trim the overhang to 1 inch and refrigerate.
For the filling: Peel, halve, and pit the peaches. Slice each half into 6 wedges and halve them crosswise. Toss fruit with the sugar, tapioca, lemon juice, vanilla, and mace in a large bowl. Set aside until the peaches get juicy, about 15 minutes.
Roll the other piece of dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/8-inch thick. Cut into 1-inch-wide strips to create the lattice topping for the pie. Brush the rim of the bottom crust with some of the egg wash. Pour the fruit into the crust. Lay 5 to 7 strips 1/2-inch apart in one direction. Fold back every other strip halfway, and lay another strip in the perpendicular direction. Lay the strips back down. Fold back the alternate strips and lay a strip 1/2-inch from the first. Continue the process until the lattice is created. When the lattice is finished, trim the ends so that they meet the inside edges of the pie shell, tucking the lattice pieces under as necessary to create a finished look.
Brush the lattice with the egg wash, taking care not to drip over the sides, and trim the overhang flush with the edge of the pie plate. Fold overhang of bottom crust up and over lattice's edge; crimp and flute the edges as desired. Refrigerate pie for 30 minutes.
Position a rack as low as possible in the oven and preheat to 400 degrees F. Bake the pie on an aluminum foil-lined baking sheet until the crust is deep golden brown and the filling is bubbly, about 1 hour and 25 minutes. About halfway through baking, loosely crimp foil around the edges of the pie to protect the crust from burning and rotate the baking sheet. Cool the pie on a rack before cutting. | <urn:uuid:fd458015-f4ef-41eb-ab0d-b8ec7b9f4591> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/recipes/lattice-top-georgia-peach-pie.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914485 | 696 | 1.679688 | 2 |
In the days when I felt really lonely and in fear,
I would sit in my room, looking out my window, to see my star so near.
In the total darkness, she would shine into my room,
filling my heart with the warmth and love that would cause even flowers to bloom.
Tears would immediately start rolling down my eyes,
for if it wasn’t for my star, I would have given up all my tries.
The presence of my star helps in erasing all my fears,
and I just pray that she will always be with me for everlasting years.
Not everyone might be as lucky as me for having a star as valuable as mine,
so I pray to God everyday to keep her safe and happy and to make sure that she is fine.
This star is so precious, she needed a name everyone could hear,
I named a star after you,
I called it my star, my angel, my Abeer.
This poem was written/submitted by Bushra. | <urn:uuid:68491929-a222-469e-ad32-9ae1facdc560> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.coolnsmart.com/poems/my-precious/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981926 | 214 | 1.640625 | 2 |
If Syria can develop a modern society that respects human rights, press freedom and that of minorities, the Christian minority there will not have to worry about its future, the President of The Lutheran World Federation (LWF), Bishop Dr Munib A. Younan has said.
Younan was speaking to journalists at the closing press conference of the LWF’s Council, its main governing body, from 9 to 14 June 2011 in Geneva.
The LWF president was asked about the “Arab awakening” in view of the fact that in places such as Syria, people’s calls for freedoms could result in more chaos and prolonged conflict and this could have consequences for Middle East Christians.
“First of all, I am not only concerned for Christians, I am concerned for every human being whether they be Syrian, Lebanese, Chilean, Korean, Palestinian or Israeli,” said Younan.
“We care that Syria will have a modern civil society that respects freedom of speech, human rights and respects the freedom of the press and the freedom of minorities. Once it becomes a modern civil society that makes economic and political reforms, then we do not have to worry about the Christians because every human being will be equal before the law.”
In his earlier plenary address to the LWF Council, the main governing body of the communion, Younan, the first Arab to lead the organisation, called for a continuing prophetic dialogue with other churches and faiths to address the suffering of humanity.
Younan told Council members, “All too often, religion has been part of the problem, dividing rather than uniting humanity. Our dialogue must work to bring us together to deal with the problems. Religion must be the driving force toward the solution, not the problem.”
The LWF president told the journalists, “As a communion we know you cannot live alone in the world.”
“We took a decision today on the Interfaith Harmony Week, which is a UN assembly resolution, where we are encouraging all of our churches to use the first week of February to dialogue with people of other faith in order to emphasise that religion is not the source of problems, but that is a driving source of solutions.”
To mark the first World Interfaith Harmony Week, the committee of Religious NGOs at the United Nations hosted an interfaith breakfast on 3 February 2011 in cooperation with the UN Department of Public Information.
© Peter Kenny is the former editor-in-chief of ENInews. He covered the LWF Council for Lutheran World Information, but has written this piece for Ekklesia. | <urn:uuid:42d0f6f6-3117-4dcb-8793-dd8b9a7cfabe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/print/14962 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956682 | 538 | 1.578125 | 2 |
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Taxes and democracy are two oft-maligned activities that Americans dearly depend on. "Indeed it has been said," noted Winston Churchill, "that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." He might just as easily have been talking about the responsibility of paying taxes.
Two years ago the Supreme Court's misguided Citizens United decision struck down long-standing Congressional limits on the political power of large corporations by vastly expanding the legal metaphor that "corporations are people." Now there is fresh evidence that corporate influence over Congress makes it easy for those same corporations to avoid their civic duty of paying taxes.
A new report identifies thirty Fortune 500 corporations that pay less in federal income taxes than they spend on federal lobbying.
You read that right. These companies - dubbed the "Dirty Thirty" - exploited loopholes in the tax code so aggressively that all but one of them enjoyed a negative tax rate over the three year period of the study, while together spending nearly half a billion dollars to lobby Congress on issues including tax policy. Instead of paying for the public structures such as roads, police and education which make their profits possible, they collected $10.6 billion in tax rebates from the federal government. Had these thirty companies paid the statutory 35 percent corporate tax rate, the Treasury would have collected an additional $67.9 billion.
Every dollar in taxes avoided by these Fortune 500 companies is a dollar that must be cut from public programs, added to the national debt, or paid in the form of higher taxes by ordinary taxpayers.
The companies in the Dirty Thirty include household names like General Electric, Verizon, Mattel, Wells Fargo, Dupont and FedEx. There's no avoiding how the story at each of these companies represents a mockery to both our tax system and our democracy. | <urn:uuid:11c11117-e086-4b50-86b4-6f4e3ad6d1ba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.youngphillypolitics.com/topics/campaign_contributions | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93862 | 543 | 1.625 | 2 |
When Benjamin Franklin flew his kite that stormy night, not only did he discover what would light up our houses, he may have also found the 21st centuries answer to non lethal personal protection. Whether we like it or not, as weapons advance, more and more technology is implemented. Taser International took a step back years ago and developed the original Taser, a design that has been modified and perfected. Today, nearly every law enforcement agency carries the newest model of the Taser, the X26. Since their implementation to Law Enforcement and Military personnel, Taser has designed Civilian versions of the X26, as well as a much more cost effective model for civilian use, the Taser C2. The Taser C2 can reach out and touch someone up to 15 feet away, with the help of a flashlight and laser sight integrated into the unit. Now our question is, how effective is this unit in the circumstances that may arise and is it really a better solution to more lethal alternatives?
The technologically advanced TASER C2 is designed specifically with your personal safety needs in mind. Utilizing the same technology as our proven law enforcement models, it offers incredible take down power and unparalleled protection right in the palm of your hand.
Taser C2 is an Electronic Control Device (ECD) that uses propelled wires to deliver an incapacitating pulse that overrides the sensory and motor functions of the nervous system. This powerful Neuro Muscular Incapacitation (NMI) technology can stop even the most aggressive individuals, including those under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol.
The C2 uses a replaceable cartridge containing inert, compressed nitrogen to fire two small probes that are attached to 15 foot (4.5 meter) insulated conductive wires. Energy is sent over the wires into the probes, which can penetrate up to two cumulative inches of clothing. The charge is transmitted between the two probes, jamming sensory and motor functions, and inhibiting muscular control. This NMI effect continues in 30-second cycles each time you press the trigger. The C2 can also be used as a direct contact stun device if necessary.
- 15 ft. (4.5 m) range allows you to stop an attacker before s/he gets to you
- 30 second electrical pulse allows you time to safely escape danger or keep an attacker down
- Bold laser sighting system helps you aim confidently and accurately
- Integrated LED light illuminates dark places to improve your line of vision
- Compact, lightweight design allows it to be easily and discreetly carried everywhere you go
- Long-lasting Lithium Power Magazine allows over 50 uses, ensuring you have power when you need it most
- Output characteristic:
- Wave form: Complex shaped pulse
- Pulse rate: 17 pulses per second (PPS) for 5 seconds, 12 PPS for 15 seconds, ½ second break, 17 PPS for 1.5 seconds, 8 PPS for remaining 8 seconds
- Pulse duration: 100 microseconds
- Peak open circuit voltage: 50,000 volts (V)
- Peak loaded voltage: 1,200 V
- Energy at capacitors:
- Nominal at main capacitors: 0.296 joules per pulse
- Delivered into load: 0.072 joules per pulse
- Current: 0.0021 amperes (A) (2 milliamperes average)
- Power Rating:
- Nominal at main capacitors: 5 watts
- Delivered into load: 1.2 watts
- Temperature Range: -4 °F [-20 °C] to 122 °F [50 °C]
- Relative humidity: 15% to 80%
- Housing: High impact polymer
- Power Source: Lithium Power Magazine (LPM) | <urn:uuid:56d98b31-8b5d-477e-be8d-2691552bbf5b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.techwarelabs.com/taser-c2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914867 | 778 | 1.882813 | 2 |
Wed December 5, 2012
Landslides And Climate Change: Lessons From Alaska For Seattle
Landslide season has begun. That's when we hear stories about houses sliding down Seattle's famously steep slopes. But according to geologist "Hig" Higman, landslide season is about to get even hairier.
Hig tells Ross about the dramatic coastal erosion he saw in southern Alaska and how that process might play out in Seattle and Washington state.
You can see a slideshow of Alaska's coastal erosion on Hig's website. He also took a 4,000 mile walk from Seattle to the Aleutian Islands with his wife, Erin McKittrick. She wrote about it in a book called "A Long Trek Home." She's working on a second book which includes an account of the autumn they spent on a remote Alaskan glacier with two very young children. | <urn:uuid:1b3e8037-ff2a-4ddf-914a-a1fc1c35eff5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kuow.org/post/landslides-and-climate-change-lessons-alaska-seattle?ft=1&f=166252232,166252252,166252445,166414759,166418412,166508370,166509573,166511683,166584661,166585210,166604377,166604688,166661465,166671070,166671754 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968545 | 177 | 2.4375 | 2 |
Changing the Way All Students Experience Education
Teaching SMART, a program of Girls Incorporated of Rapid City (South Dakota), a division of Youth & Family Services, is an equity-based, comprehensive three-year teacher professional development program designed to produce systemic change in the classroom by improving science education at the elementary school level. The mission of Teaching SMART is to encourage the performance and persistence of all students, particularly girls and minority youth, in elementary science. To achieve this end, Teaching SMART provides instruction and hands-on training for third through fifth grade teachers to increase their awareness of and comfort level in using equitable, hands-on inquiry, and exploration based approaches to teaching. The success of the program is based on its long-term commitment to educational renewal, which is accomplished through a comprehensive professional development training model.
What is Teaching SMART?Teaching SMART
Youth & Family Services 1920 N. Plaza Blvd. P.O. Box 2813 Rapid City, SD 57709-2813 Copyright © 2008 Youth & Family Services Inc. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:fafd9ba8-d609-449e-8231-37673d208d04> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.teachingsmart.org/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924306 | 218 | 2.40625 | 2 |
USU Student Organic Farm
Eggplants come in many different colors, shapes and sizes. Although we most often see the dark purple oblong ones, the eggplant was actually named for a white, egg-shaped variety. Each type has a little different texture and flavor and can range from very small to quite large. Generally, larger eggplants with more seeds are more bitter than smaller ones. Eggplants belong to the nightshade family and are related to tomatoes, sweet peppers, and potatoes. They grow similarly to tomatoes, hanging from a vine on a plant near the ground.
Inman, Elisabeth, "Eggplant" (2011). USU Student Organic Farm Newsletter. Paper 20. | <urn:uuid:fbba842f-2da9-4622-bd06-9a0550da16bc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/student_orgfarm/20/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911578 | 147 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Chronologies. Photographs by Richard Misrach. Fraenkel Gallery / D.A.P., San Francisco, 2005. 280 pp. Folio (15 x 12 in.). First edition. SIGNED on title page. Hardbound with photo-illustrated boards. Original acetate protector. 135 color illustrations
From the publisher:
Richard Misrach is among the most influential, prolific, and internationally recognized photographers working today. Best known for his epic ongoing project, Desert Cantos-an extensive and unique photographic exploration of place-Misrach consistently addresses political and social issues through the adaptation of different photographic strategies, even as he expands notions of traditional landscape practice, and builds a complex and poignant document of American culture. His subjects have included manmade floods and fires, military bombing ranges, mass graves of dead animals, sublime night skies, and details of paintings housed in the museums of the Southwest. In one recent series, On the Beach-which was inspired by Nevil Shute’s postapocalyptic novel of the 1950s-Misrach’s color photographs deal with the human figure seen at a distance on an unspecified beach or in the water, observed from an unsettling and difficult-to-identify point of view located high above.
Misrach’s newest publication, Chronologies is a compelling study of the photographer’s process over the past 30 years. Stripped of their original context, the photographs-presented in chronological order-illuminate how the photographer thinks and works. Through fits and starts, reiterations and detours, the work evolves and matures, weaving in and out of the series for which Misrach has become known. Side-by-side, classic images and never-before-seen pictures flesh out the photographer’s logic and complicate it at the same time. Ultimately, Chronologies is about time: The span of thirty years, the importance of time in each photograph, the chronology of a life within its time, and the book itself as a timepiece." | <urn:uuid:32786c3d-bc0f-4beb-bb27-679668b34462> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.photoeye.com/auctions/citation.cfm?id=6675 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935688 | 420 | 1.78125 | 2 |
The Santa Barbara Children’s Chorus is well under way with the nonprofit nondenominational music education and performing organization’s new Vocal Explorations classes in Santa Barbara and Carpinteria, which provides music training for singers ages 6 and 7.
The group’s Concert Chorus is holding rehearsals from 4 to 6 p.m. Mondays at the Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara, 1535 Santa Barbara St., and is gearing up for a number of concerts and caroling in December.
The All Schools Chorus, which puts Glee Clubs at local schools, rolled out in November to seven different Santa Barbara and Goleta schools, including Adams, Cleveland, Foothill, Franklin, Monroe and Roosevelt. If you attend one of those schools ask your music teacher about the Glee Club from Santa Barbara Children’s Chorus. Lots of great chances to sing!
The best news is, it’s not too late to join in the fun! The Children’s Chorus’ new open enrollment model means you can join at any point and pick the programs that best meet your timing and interest. With soccer season just ending, now is a great time to think about joining the chorus for January. Click here to register for a free introductory class.
With the All Schools Chorus starting up this month, your chances to have your child sing are now even closer to you, especially if you go to these participating schools: Adams, Cleveland, Foothill, Franklin, Hope, La Colina, Monroe or Roosevelt. Check with your local music teacher or after-school program for more information. All Glee Clubs will come togther for a huge concert in April.
The Santa Barbara Children’s Chorus wishes to thank the Santa Barbara Bowl Foundation and the Santa Barbara Unified School District for their support. Getting kids excited about singing and choirs is an important part of developing their creative talents. We hope to see you in one of our programs soon! | <urn:uuid:69b012a7-30ba-4d46-9ef1-a738beedcc77> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.noozhawk.com/article/santa_barbara_childrens_chorus_offers_open_enrollment_for_budding_singers/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920108 | 412 | 1.625 | 2 |
Carolyn “Marge” Dunbar Yancey, 89
First African-American woman on state Board of Regents
Carolyn "Marge" Dunbar Yancey, 89, community leader and educator, died at her Atlanta home in November after a prolonged illness.
Mrs. Yancey served on the Atlanta Board of Education for 16 years and was appointed to the State Board of Regents in 1985, the first African-American woman. She was also a member of the Auxiliary to the Atlanta Medical Association, better known as "The Doctors' Wives."
Mrs. Yancey was married to Dr. Asa Yancey, Sr., one of the first African Americans to graduate from Michigan Medical School, a professor emeritus of Emory University School of Medicine and former medical director of Hughes Spaulding Pavilion at Grady Memorial Hospital.
"We knew her as Marge, not Mrs. Asa Yancey," said The Rev. Dr. Norman Rates, Dean Emeritus of Sisters Chapel at Spelman College. "She was forward looking, bold and progressive - a woman who had self-confidence, courage, and conviction.
"Even though she possessed prestige and privilege, she served the least of these and would have been considered by the Apostle John as 'the Lady Elect,' " Rates said. Yancey worked simultaneously on three boards - Spelman College, Atlanta Public Schools, and Georgia Regents.___
Yancey was born February 10, 1921 to the late Henry Steward Dunbar and Annie Dye Dunbar in Detroit, MI. She graduated from Wayne State University in 1941 with a Bachelors degree in Education and Social Work. She married Dr. Yancey, Sr. on December 28, 1944. They moved from Tuskegee, Al., with their four children to southwest Atlanta in 1958.
Rose Palmer, a close associate, remembers Yancey as charming, gracious, lovely, and civic-minded. "Our parents were good friends, and when she moved to Atlanta, we became friends," said Palmer, a Niskey Lake resident and 1950 graduate of Smith College and a 1953 graduate of Stanford University's Graduate School of Management.
"Marge hosted my wedding rehearsal dinner at her home," Palmer said. "She was devoted and dedicated, very active, and served the community until her health declined.
"She bridged the gap during segregation. Working with The Blue Star Camp, she transcended race. She was also a good mother - all her children became successful," Palmer said.
Mrs. Yancey is survived by Dr. Asa G. Yancey, Sr., husband for 65 years; son, Dr. Arthur H. Yancey, II of Atlanta, GA; daughter Dr. Carolyn L. Yancey of Silver Spring, Md.; son, Dr. Asa G. Yancey Jr. of Denver, CO; and eight grandchildren.
Interment was at South-View Cemetery with Murray Brothers Funeral Home providing the arrangements. | <urn:uuid:65437587-321c-48e8-b6e3-2677aed75e21> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cascade.patch.com/articles/carolyn-marge-dunbar-yancey-89 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984141 | 624 | 1.992188 | 2 |
The video above was made last year, when Eldad and Audrey Hagar of Hope for Paws found a dog huddled amid some trash in South Los Angeles.
“She was just so defeated,” said Eldad Hagar, who captured the rescue on video. “…There seemed to be no hope there.”
As it turns out, and as you’ll see in the “after” video below, there was.
The Hagars, who estimate they’ve rescued more than 500 dogs through their organization, took the dog home and named her Fiona. They shaved off her grimy and matted fur, gave her a bath and, realizing she was blind, took her to a vet who told them it was possible that sight could be restored in one of her eyes.
A nationwide fundraising effort followed, and Fiona received a $4,000 eye surgery that replaced the lens in one of her eyes. Her other eye, badly damaged by glaucoma, had to be removed.
After that, Fiona — a poodle mix — was adopted and “is doing amazing,” Eldad says.
Eldad, 36, and his wife, Audrey, 37, are the founders of Hope For Paws, a Los Angeles-based animal rescue organization that takes in abused and neglected animals.
Hagar and his wife rescue several animals a week in the Los Angeles area, and often videotape the process. You can see some examples on their YouTube page.
Posted by jwoestendiek March 27th, 2012 under Muttsblog, videos.
Tags: adopt, adopted, after, animals, audrey hagar, before, blind, dog, dogs, eldad hagar, eyesight, facebook, fiona, fundraising, garbage, help for paws, los angeles, pets, poodle, rescue, restored, shelter, sight, transformation, trash, videos, youtube
Remember this video, from a story we told you about back in October? On his balcony in Lincolnshire, a British man was videotaped as he beat his dog. After the video was posted on Facebook, an angry mob formed outside his house.
The man survived the mob, and the dog survived the man.
The Staffordshire bull terrier was seized by authorities, and turned out to be blind and deaf, making the behavior of his owner, Jonathan Bloomfield, 37, all the more repugnant.
Bloomfield avoided a prison sentence, but magistrates in Grimsby banned him from having a dog for 15 years.
Whatever happened to the dog? A lot, and it’s all good.
Butch, as he was previously known, was taken in by the RSPCA, where he was renamed Dodger. The RSPCA, after realizing he was deaf and almost totally blind, contacted specialists at the Animal Health Trust in Newmarket to see if there was any chance that the 18-month-old dog’s sight could be restored.
“Dodger is the most adorable dog,” Claudia Hartley, the AHT’s head of small animal ophthalmology explained. “As soon as he arrived I fell in love with him and it wasn’t long before he’d work his charm on the rest of the vets and nurses here.”
Both his deafness and his blindness are believed to be congential. Dodger was apparently born with cataracts — something that, unlike his deafness, could be repaired. The AHT’s vets performed cataract surgery on Dodger’s right eye, with good results.
Dodger returned to the AHT last month to have his left-eye operated on and initial signs are very good, according to the East Anglian Daily Times.
The RSPCA has started the process of looking for a new home for Dodger.
“Although Dodger can now see, he is still completely deaf, and he’ll need a special owner who can understand his very specific needs,” said Kirstyn Gaunt, deputy manager at the RSPCA Block Fen Animal Centre, where he is now housed. “He has started to take on some basic sign language and he is a fast learner.”
Given the happy ending, we’ll end this post with a happier video:
Posted by jwoestendiek March 13th, 2012 under Muttsblog, videos.
Tags: abused, adoptable, adoption, animal cruelty, animal health trust, animal welfare, animals, beaten, blind, britain, butch, cataracts, congenital, cruelty to animals, deaf, dodger, dog, dogs, england, eyesight, facebook, grimsby, jonathan bloomfield, lincolnshire, mob, pets, recovery, rescue, restored, rspca, shelter, sight, staffordshire bull terrier, surgery, uk, video
What happens when your seeing-eye dog’s eyes stop seeing?
Michael Nelson is in the process of finding out. His guide dog Molly has cataracts, and trading her in for a new model — in his opinion, at this point — is out of the question.
As columnist Scott Sexton explained in Sunday’s Winston-Salem Journal, Mike and Molly have a relationship that runs deeper than guided and guider — the yellow Lab, in addition to helping him get around for the last 10 years, has become his roommate and best friend.
A few months ago, while visiting with friends at Green Street United Methodist Church, someone pointed out to Mike that Molly appeared to have cataracts.
Mike, whose income is limited to a disability check, wasn’t sure where to turn. When news about the predicament spread, his friends at the YMCA, where he goes regularly to exercise while Molly patiently waits, got together and opened a bank fund in hopes of raising enough to cover the cost of Molly’s surgery.
Donations to it included proceeds from an elementary school art sale, and more from friends he has met in church and on outings with his dog at Hanes Park. The largest came from an unidentified man in California, who heard of the situation from a friend and sent a check.
Enough has been accumulated to cover the surgery and Molly’s other vet bills.
Her latest examination determined that, while she has cataracts, they’re not yet to the point of requiring surgery. She will need the operation eventually, though — and Mike is thankful he’ll now be able to afford it.
“It makes you feel really good to know there are people out there with that kind of heart,” Nelson said. “There is so much bad out there, so much ignorance about being visually impaired.”
Mike says that, over the years, he and Molly have run into their share of merchants who ask them to leave their shops. “Having people come to my assistance and Molly’s assistance has restored some of the confidence I’d lost in people. I’m truly thankful.”
Mike, now 51, moved to Winston-Salem from Virginia in the 1970s to attend Piedmont Bible College. He worked at the YMCA as a student, and up until 1991.
He went blind in 1998 as a result of what doctors would diagnose as polyarteritis nodosa (PAN), a rare auto-immune disease that weakens blood vessels and arteries. “It happened without any warning,” he said. “I just woke up and I was blind.”
Mike got Molly from The Seeing Eye organization, the oldest existing guide-dog school in the world, based in Morristown, N.J. Two earlier dogs they’d supplied didn’t work out — the first had allergies and the second wasn’t up to the task. The third time, though, was a charm. Molly had the skills, and the two had an instant connection.
Molly has the run of his apartment and an impressive collection of dog toys — though she prefers toilet tissue rolls. Nelson regularly takes her to Hanes Park, where romps with other dogs.
She consorts with humans, too, despite it being discouraged by guide dog experts. ”Molly is so good with people, so friendly,” he said, that it can’t be avoided.
All of which simply proves — at least in the case of Mike and Molly — that even dogs raised to serve as eyes have a way of getting into the heart.
Posted by jwoestendiek February 20th, 2012 under Muttsblog, videos.
Tags: animals, assistance, best friend, blind, blindness, bond, cataracts, connection, dogs, fund raising, green street united methodist church, guide dog, guiding, hanes park, help, labrador, losing sight, michael and molly, michael nelson, mike and molly, molly, north carolina, pets, polyarteritis nodosa, seeing eye dog, service, sight, support, surgery, the seeing eye, veterinarian, veterinary, winston-salem, ymca
A Lab mix whose blindness is believed to have led to aggression toward other dogs, preventing her from being adoptable, heads to Las Vegas on tomorrow night’s episode of Dogtown for surgery that could restore her sight.
Dr. Patti Iampietro, of the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah, accompanies Lake, whose blindness was caused by cataracts, to Las Vegas for the surgery, performed by Michael Brinkman, a veterinary opthamologist.
Dogtown airs Friday at 10 p.m. on the National Geographic Channel
Brinkman was also a pioneer in devleoping glasses for dogs.
Posted by jwoestendiek January 14th, 2010 under Muttsblog, videos.
Tags: best friends, blind, cataracts, dogtown, glasses, glasses for dogs, kanab, labrador, lake, michael brinkman, mix, national geographic channel, opthamologist, retriever, sight, surgery, television, tv, utah, veterinary, video, vision | <urn:uuid:3291565b-fb38-474e-956b-96b7de60fb00> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ohmidog.com/tag/sight/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969289 | 2,159 | 1.929688 | 2 |
January 13, 2005
A Micro Solution to Macro Poverty
The outpouring of international charity for the victims of the Asian disasters is a clear sign that we humans are capable of enormous empathy
But the near-instant world reaction should go even farther. Now, the world's eyes are turned on an area of the globe where poverty, disease and underdevelopment cripple societies, whether the world is looking or not.
The fact is there are more than 1.2 billion people living on less than $1 per day. The task of riding the world of the scourge of grinding poverty was long thought to be a problem too massive, too overpowering for any organized effort to even attempt to solve.
However, in our world that today seems so destructive, so bitter and so sad, there is some good news. There is a highly effective worldwide anti-poverty program now operating that is called microcredit. This functions by creating small loans (some less than $50), primarily in Third World countries, with those loans targeted to the poorest of the poor.
By conventional banking standards, these loans could never be made, and the charge is, if made, would never be repaid. Today there are more than 3,000 microlending organizations and over 80 million of these loans have been made in over 65 countries, with an average repayment rate in excess of 90 percent.
More than 95 percent of these loans were made to women who in the past were chattels in a male dominant home, often beaten and badly abused. Now their empowerment and enhanced self-esteem resulting from this program have brought women prestige, power and respect in their families and in their communities.
Although these microlending programs vary from country to country, depending on local cultures, most have a basic group of five borrowers, each with their own idea of what they might make, repair or collect to have a salable product. Since there is usually joint responsibility for the loans, this creates a functioning support system. Payments on the loans are made weekly.
I have seen women proudly make their installments and recite a list of social objectives that are a part of the program.
Tikkun olam, heal the world, is an ethic of our people, and there is no greater contribution to the repair of the world than combating this disease of world poverty. Microcredit is receiving increasing recognition as an effective anti-poverty weapon. And last month, the United Nations proclaimed the year 2005 as the International Year of Micro Credit.
The organization in which I am deeply involved has a target of 5 million loans to be made within five years, which will reach 20 million people and raise 10 million out of poverty. A remarkable goal -- and we are on schedule.
I have visited microlending programs in China, Bangladesh, in Vietnam and, last month, in India. As an example of the work being done, I asked a woman in a village what microfinancing had done for her life.
She pulled me over to a tree and said that before she had taken her first loan, she lived under that tree for five years with no shelter whatsoever. She told me she used the loan to buy seeds and raise vegetables, which she sold. Then she took me to a tin-roofed hut and proudly showed me her home for herself and her family, which she had created from her business profits.
This remarkable program was created by professor Muhammad Yunus. He was teaching economics at a university in Bangladesh and visited a neighborhood village, where he saw a woman making reed baskets. He asked her how much she was earning, and she said five cents per day.
Amazed, he asked her why so little, and she replied that she bought the reeds from a man who required that she sell the completed baskets to him. Since he set both the buy and sell price, what she had left was five cents.
When Yunus asked her if she could sell the baskets herself, she replied yes, that is no problem. Then he asked her how much money she needed to be independent.
She said that she was one of 42 women working together and asked him to wait while she discussed it with her friends. She came back after a few minutes and said they needed $27 total for all 42 women to be independent.
Amazed, he gave her the money out of his pocket, came back a few weeks later and found her functioning very effectively and profitably. That was the inspiration for the creation of the Grameen (village in Bangali) Bank that today has more than 2 million borrowers and has made more than $4 billion in loans to the poorest of the poor.
A remarkable story about a remarkable man.
This work is a fulfilling experience at both the micro and the macro levels. The micro in that you are pulling people out of poverty one by one, totally changing the lives of these individuals and their families. Macro in that you are attacking a massive, worldwide problem that was once thought to be impossible to even approach.
A unique aspect of contributing to this cause is that the funds get used over and over. It is not like a normal charity, where no matter how wonderful it is, once the funds are given they are used, and there the chain stops without new funding.
But in microlending, the funds are repaid, then lent again and again. Thus, the programs have the potential and, in many sites around the world, are self-sustaining and need no further funding except for expansion purposes.
The images on our TV screens this past month should be a reminder of the awesome force of nature but also of the abiding poverty that afflicts too much of the world. There is no more appropriate and noble work than helping the poorest of the poor climb out of poverty and live happy, productive lives.
And there is no more effective way to do it on a personal level than microloans.
Richard Gunther is member of the board and former president of Americans for Peace Now, a member of the State of California's Commission on Aging and founding chair of the Israel Economic Development Task Force in Los Angeles. He is also a board member of The Jewish Journal. | <urn:uuid:a467a9b9-fbc1-4f63-8424-ed3edb15a530> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jewishjournal.com/opinion/article/a_micro_solution_to_macro_poverty_20050114 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980483 | 1,261 | 2.265625 | 2 |
Jeff LaHurd: Ken Thompson's legacy
Published: Friday, February 1, 2013 at 1:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, January 31, 2013 at 5:54 p.m.
If you came to Sarasota in the early 1920s and returned in 1950, you would have found that very little change had taken place. The real estate crash at the end of 1926, the Great Depression and World War II saw to that.
For a generation, growth had virtually stopped; we were still the Circus City, bustling with snowbirds in the winter months and dead slow during the summer time, aka mosquito season; we traveled to the keys across outmoded bridges to visit beaches which were void of high-rise buildings. St. Armands Circle had only a handful of businesses; City Hall was located in the antiquated Hover Arcade; the first Ringling Bridge was deteriorating; Bird Key was a small island with only the Worcester Mansion, Sarasota Bay lapped up to Gulfstream Avenue; all the roads and highways were two-lane and in need of repair; and worse, sewage emptied into the bay.
In effect we were still the Sarasota that John and Charles Ringling, Owen Burns, John Hamilton Gillespie and Bertha Palmer had left us -- yesterday's Sarasota.
The march to today's Sarasota began on Feb. 1, 1950, when Ken Thompson was sworn into office as city manager by Mayor John Fite Robertson. Thompson's 38-year tenure at the helm of city government saw the transformation of a sleepy town into the vibrant city we enjoy today, and he kept a tight grip on the city coffers.
An engineer by training, he was exactly what the city needed, a man with the wherewithal to oversee the infrastructure improvements so desperately needed to modernize. The commission that hired him and succeeding commissions got that and more. Thompson was considered by his peers to be brilliant and he remained steadfast in his vision of what Sarasota should become, a cultural Mecca.
Even a partial list of what transpired on his watch is impressive: Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, a new city hall, rerouting U.S. 41, rezoning downtown, the second Ringling Causeway, Island Park and Marina Jack, various beautification projects, road improvements throughout the city, Lido Beach restoration, the Farmers Market, the reclaimed waste-water system, the water treatment plant, the condominiums along Gulfstream Avenue, Bayfront Drive, the purchase and preservation of North Lido Beach; the list goes on. Perhaps Waldo Proffitt, former editor of the Herald-Tribune, summed it up best when he called Thompson the architect of Sarasota.
On Jan. 22, Mayor Suzanne Atwell proclaimed Feb. 1 to be Ken Thompson Day. To honor Thompson, the Friends of the Sarasota County History center are hosting a party at the History Center Museum, 701 N. Tamiami Trail from 6 to 8 p.m. today. The public is invited.
Jeff LaHurd is the author of multiple books on Sarasota's history. The latest is "The Rise of Sarasota: Ken Thompson and the Rebirth of Paradise."
This story appeared in print on page A11
Reader comments posted to this article may be published in our print edition. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged. | <urn:uuid:877b8601-80a8-4a48-b790-b4d4bd07e860> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20130201/COLUMNIST/302019998/0/ARCHIVES?Title=Jeff-LaHurd-Ken-Thompson-s-legacy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963819 | 698 | 1.617188 | 2 |
A little more than a week ago SophosLabs became aware of a resurgence of an attack against the education and hospitality industries. In at least one case the malware has shown up at a financial services company.
One thing important to note is that it has only been seen at moderate to small size organizations.
These criminals aren't targeting Walmart. They are after organizations with less investment in defensive counter-measures.
The goal of this Trojan is to target credit card processing and point of sale (PoS) equipment and make off with all of the card details.
It installs itself as a service in Windows and the filename is typically rdasrv.exe, while the service is called rdasrv.
More recent samples have changed their name to be A#######.exe, where the # is a random number.
SHA1 checksums we have seen include:
The malware is designed to circumvent the protections provided by being PCI/DSS compliant, namely that you don't store credit card numbers unless they are encrypted.
The malware scans through the memory of the infected host looking for track 1 and track 2 credit card data using Perl compatible regular expressions.
Track 1 and 2 data typically includes the card holder's name, account number, expiration date, CVV code and other discretionary information.
Once the information is scraped from memory it is written to disk in a file named data.txt or currentblock.txt.
The malware does not contain a method of exfiltration for the stolen card data, but in the instances we are aware of it was installed after remote access to the affected computers was already acquired.
Sophos detects the Trojan data stealer as Troj/Trackr-Gen. Considering the targeted nature of the threat it is not widespread, but we are seeing new variants every few days.Follow @chetwisniewski | <urn:uuid:d3f7667a-8697-4ce6-8dbf-dfd722a2ddf7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2011/11/30/targeted-attacks-steal-credit-cards-from-hospitality-and-educational-institutions/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924071 | 384 | 1.773438 | 2 |
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The Indiana Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division is dedicated to protecting consumers from unwanted telemarketing calls. Perpetrators of scams often use telemarketing as a tool to reach their victims. You can help deter unwanted and fraudulent calls and text messages by signing up for the Do Not Call list.
Governor Mitch Daniels signed House Enrolled Act 1273 into law May 13, 2011. It amends the Do Not Call law to clarify that wireless and VOIP telephone numbers can be registered on the Do Not Call list. The law became effective immediately. Under the new statute, in addition to your landline, you can register any wireless or VOIP telephone number associated with your residential address or a prepaid wireless number that is primarily used in Indiana. That means you can register your landline, your cell phone, your children's cell phones, your summer cabin's landline, etc.
The law imposes the same penalties on telemarketers who call or text a registered wireless or VOIP telephone number as it does for a registered landline.
To register your wireless, VOIP or prepaid wireless number click here.
All Indiana residents can register their home, wireless or VOIP telephone numbers on the state’s Do Not Call list at any time. The service is free and easy to use. The list is updated quarterly on the first of each January, April, July and October.
You can register any residential, wireless or VOIP telephone phone number listed in your name and associated with your residential address to the Do Not Call list 24 hours a day, seven days a week by calling 1.888.834.9969 or by using the online registration form.
If you'd like to verify your number is already on the Do Not Call list, click here.
Once your phone number has been added to the list there is no need to re-register. However, you will need to update your registration if your phone number or address changes.
Most telemarketers are forbidden from calling or texting numbers on the Do Not Call list. There are four types of telephone solicitors who are exempt from this law and may continue to contact you. These include charitable organizations (whose calls are made by volunteers or employees), newspapers (whose employees make their telephone calls) and licensed insurance and real estate agents. Indiana law does not allow companies with existing business relationships to make sales calls to you unless you have provided your permission to do so.
Technology enables telemarketers to dial numbers and deliver pre-recorded sales messages, known as robo calls. Indiana law prohibits this practice and requires a live phone operator to obtain permission before playing a pre-recorded message. Federal law makes it illegal to use automatic dialing equipment to call cell phone numbers. If you receive a call you suspect to be a robo call, even if your number is not on the Do Not Call list, you may file a complaint with the Attorney General’s Office. Exceptions include calls from school districts to students, parents, or employees and businesses advising employees of work schedules.
The new law provides that a "telephone sales call" includes a text message sent to your wireless telephone number. If your wireless telephone number is registered on the Do Not Call list, then a telemarketer may not send you a solicitation by text.
Indiana citizens may also register with the National Do Not Call list. For more information visit http://www.donotcall.gov/ or call 1.888.382.1222.
If you would like to revoke your registration, you may do so by clicking here.
The Attorney General’s Office is committed to ensuring Indiana’s Do Not Call law is enforced. If you are on the Do Not Call list and you get a call from a telemarketer after the relevant quarterly list update, you can report it by filing a complaint. You may also call 1.888.834.9969 to request a complaint form.
Please provide as much information as you can, including the name of the telemarketing company, the location from which they are calling, the name of the person calling the phone number and the product or service they called to sell.
Once you’ve completed the complaint form, mail it to:
Telephone Privacy Division
Office of the Indiana Attorney General
302 W. Washington St., 5th Floor
Indianapolis, IN 46204 | <urn:uuid:5165061e-2f96-4605-81a6-3bca9cc34b31> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.in.gov/attorneygeneral/2446.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923768 | 934 | 1.984375 | 2 |
WANTED: Healthy Sperm
The major cause of male infertility is failure to produce enough healthy sperm.
About one in six couples experiences difficulty to conceive. 50% of these cases points to sperm problem as the main reason.
While ejaculation troubles, spinal cord injury, erectile dysfunction, and diseases that affect the nervous system like diabetes contribute to the prevalence of male infertility, sperm problems remain to be its number one cause. They account for about 75% of all male infertility cases.
The average sperm count per ejaculation is 100 to 750 million. Out of that, only a few hundred can make it to a woman's fallopian tube where eggs are fertilized. Sperm count lower than this figure lessens the chances of conception. In addition, the quality of the sperm is another factor affecting conception rate.
Sperm problems can be caused by:
Antibodies that clump sperm into heavy clusters, thus prohibiting sperm movement
Sperm trapped inside the testicles
Sexually transmitted infections that damage tubules where sperm are stored
High temperature leading to reduced sperm production and poor quality sperm
Orchitis or the inflammation of one or both testicles, resulting in reduced sperm production
Varicoceles or enlarged veins around the testicles
Cancer drugs which damage sperm-producing cells
Vasectomy reversal's side effects which causes poor quality sperm
To improve the quality (sperm shape and structure), quantity (sperm count), and motility (sperm movement) of the sperm, both a healthy lifestyle and diet must be observed.
Here are some tips that ensure production of healthy sperm:
Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. Foods which are rich in antioxidants help improve sperm health.
Take a multivitamin. A daily dose of multivitamins can help provide zinc, folic acid, and selenium, which are the key nutrients for optimal sperm production and function.
Exercise Regularly. Adequate exercise is good for both reproductive and overall health. However, over-exercise can lead to changes in hormone levels and a drop in sperm quality.
Maintain healthy weight. Certain amount of body fats is needed to fuel production of reproductive hormones. Too much or lack of body fats can reduce sperm count and increase percentage of abnormal sperm.
Quit smoking and limit alcohol intake. Smoking can damage the sperm's DNA and may also cause low sperm count. Research shows that men who both smoke and drink alcohol have lower sperm counts and poorer sperm motility than those men who don't.
Stay away from illegal drugs. Marijuana decreases sperm density and motility while cocaine and opiates help trigger erectile dysfunction.
Avoid hot tubs. Heat is the number one enemy of sperm. To maximize the quality and quantity of your sperm, avoid hot tubs, saunas, and steam baths. Spending more than 30 minutes in water which temperature is 102 F (40 C) or above may lower your sperm count.
Reduce or manage stress. Stress disrupts production of hormones which are essential to produce sperm.
Detox regularly. As researches report that toxicity level of today's environment is much higher than hundred years ago, it is advised to have a regular detox. Toxins from workplace and household substances have some effects on sperm quantity and quality. Heavy metals used in industrial workplaces, pesticides, and chemicals in solvents are the ones most hazardous to sperm health.
To know more about natural means to increase men's semen volume, sperm count, and sexual response, visit http://www.sukraja.com | <urn:uuid:8b2f3e6a-d7dd-4368-a7fc-0946422593c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.india-herbs.com/result_newsletter.php?mode=full&date=102010§ion=4&link=1&imode=gen&lang_id=English&category=Health&fset=menfebnewses | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930121 | 731 | 2.484375 | 2 |
Harry Belafonte — known in different stages of his multifaceted career as a popular singer, civil rights activist and star of Broadway shows and Hollywood films — speaks at the Mondavi Center’s Jackson Hall at 8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 17. Born in Harlem to parents of Caribbean heritage, Belafonte became a sensation in the 1950s, when he recorded a series of enormously popular albums (famous for tunes like “The Banana Boat Song, ” also known as “Day-O”) and sold-out concerts at Carengie Hall.
In the 1960s, Belafonte became active in the civil rights movement, making personal appearances and also helping to finance rallies and other events. He also appeared on TV shows like “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.”
In later decades, Belafonte appeared on “Sesame Street”; ventured into the political fray, opposing the U.S. embargo of Cuba, opposing apartheid in South Africa and criticizing aspects of George W. Bush’s administration; and became involved with several documentary films.
Belafonte published his autobiography in 2011; he will turn 86 in March. His speaking appearance at the Mondavi Center will include a question-and-answer session moderated by Lorena Oropeza, associate professor of history at UCD.
Tickets are $35-$64 general, $17.50-$32 students, available at www.mondaviarts.org or 530-754-2787. | <urn:uuid:7dd79286-7f7b-44ea-b948-beccf469fd22> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.davisenterprise.com/arts/mondavi/harry-belafonte-to-speak-at-mondavi-center-on-jan-17/ | 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 | 0.96689 | 314 | 1.796875 | 2 |
I’m working on a project to try and distill the differences between canidate policy and reduce it to non-jargon, non-technical language and present it as a quiz driven by dilemmas. The users would respond to each dillemma by moving a slider. The slider captures not only alignment with a candidate, but allows for showing importance or strength of opinion. After making all the choices, the user reveals to themselves how aligned he or she is with both candidates.
For sources, I’m using almost exclusively the literature from straight from the campaigns.
I’ve run in to a couple of problems.
- How do I design questions for issues that are on one candidates agenda, but not the other’s?
- How do I account for other parties, such as the green party? | <urn:uuid:9de1804d-4312-4ce1-9fc1-597d565e76fe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://owenjohnson.info/post/32652715096/a-better-poll-for-the-presidential-election | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931129 | 171 | 1.734375 | 2 |
When performing a penetration test or higher-level security audit of SQL Server systems, there's one test that should not be skipped: the SQL Server password test. It may seem obvious, but many people overlook it.
Password testing can help determine how easily a malicious insider or external attacker can break into a database, and it can also help ensure SQL Server users are being responsible with their accounts. Furthermore, testing for password flaws is especially important with SQL Server authentication in mixed mode, which is less secure than other Windows authentication modes.
The first step of password testing is to determine which systems to test. While you may know your environment like the back of your hand, it doesn't hurt to ferret out servers that may have been forgotten or that someone else connected to the network without your knowledge.
In addition, SQLPing3 can scan for SQL Server instances that conventional port scanning might miss, and it can point out the systems that have blank sa passwords. SQLPing3 can also run dictionary attacks against SQL Server, which is as simple as loading your own user account and password lists.
While this is the most basic level of SQL Server discovery and password cracking, it's a great place to begin.
Another free tool, Cain & Abel, allows you to dump and crack SQL Server password hashes, as shown in Figure 2.
With Cain & Abel, you can insert your own hashes or connect to the database via ODBC and dump them all in one fell swoop for subsequent cracking.
My favorite new commercial SQL Server password cracker is Advanced SQL Password Recovery from Elcomsoft. With Advanced SQL Password Recovery, you can immediately recover passwords from SQL Server master.mdf files, as shown in Figure 3.
This may seem unreasonable or downright impossible since SQL Server systems are assumed to be locked down on the inside of the network. However, I often come across administrator-level passwords or find missing patches that, when exploited, allow for easy access to database servers with full rights. At that point, anything on the system is fair game.
It's important to remember that SQL Server password cracking shouldn't be taken lightly. Treat this as a formal security assessment, getting the approval of management and carefully planning things out -- you don't want to create trouble.
Still, there are a few downsides to password cracking to keep in mind:
- Password cracking can eat up valuable system resources including CPU time, memory and network bandwidth literally to the point of creating a denial-of-service attack on the system.
- Dictionary and brute-force attacks can take a lot of time -- something you may not have, especially if you can only test your systems during a certain window of time.
- Dictionary attacks are only as good as the dictionary you're using, so make sure you've got reliable dictionaries at your disposal. I have found the BlackKnight List to be the most comprehensive dictionary.
Finally -- and perhaps most importantly -- make sure you follow up on your findings. That may mean sharing your findings with management and your colleagues in IT, tweaking your password policy and spreading the word on security to show just how serious a business issue it is.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kevin Beaver, is an information
security consultant, keynote speaker and expert witness with Atlanta-based Principle Logic LLC.
Kevin specializes in performing independent security assessments. Kevin has authored/co-authored
seven books on information security, including Hacking For Dummies and Hacking Wireless Networks For Dummies (Wiley). He's also the creator of the
Security on Wheels information security
audio books and blog
providing security learning for IT professionals on the go. Kevin can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org.
This was first published in December 2009 | <urn:uuid:ab15a4b8-3bef-41cb-91d6-e74a99c9fa44> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://searchsqlserver.techtarget.com/tip/Password-cracking-tools-for-SQL-Server?track=NL+416&ad=550187&adg=301324&bucket=ETA | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940763 | 765 | 2.265625 | 2 |
New on the Web
PennSound: Free Poetry
The recording industry may not want anyone downloading music without paying for it, but a new project encourages downloading right to MP3 players and hard drives all the poetry a listener might want. And it’s all free for the asking.
PennSound—launched January 1—is a web-based archive (www.writing.upenn.edu/pennsound) for noncommercial distribution of the largest collection of poetry sound files on the Internet. PennSound offers a large variety of digital recordings of poems—currently 1,500 and fast growing—mostly as song-length singles.
“This has never been done before,” said Dr. Al Filreis, PennSound co-director, English professor and director of Penn’s Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing. “Most of the electronic sound files available to the public are of entire poetry recordings, 30 or more minutes long, with no tracking of individual cuts or poems. By right-clicking a PennSound link, a user can save a single poem and listen to it as a high-quality MP3 file. We believe philosophically that, since there is no significant profit to be gained by the sale of recorded poetry—unlike music—many, many more poets will continue to grant us permission to use their work.”
As part of the PennSound project, the Annenberg Rare Books and Manuscripts Library at Penn is developing a sophisticated cataloguing tool for the poetry sound files, enabling other libraries to collect the material and enabling teachers to add the MP3s to their online syllabi. The poetry sound files are retrievable both from a library catalog by authors’ names and via web search engines.
PennSound combines aspects of a library archive and a web music-download site. Basic bibliographic information is incorporated in each file so that a user downloads not only the sound but also key facts about the recording, including author, title, place and date of the recording, series, as well as copyright information.
“PennSound is as much about preservation as distribution,” said Dr. Charles Bernstein, English professor who, with Dr. Filreis, co-founded and co-directs the project. “Most poetry sound recordings are at risk of deteriorating if not converted or copied. The beauty of PennSound is that in the course of preserving these recordings, we are also making available a treasure trove of wonderful poetry performances that we believe will attract a whole new generation to poetry as a performance art.”
This is an ongoing project for producing and archiving new audio recordings from Penn and around the world, as well as preserving existing audio archives. The site provides as much documentation about individual recordings as possible with new files and new bibliographic information to be added.
Funding comes from private donors to the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing, which sponsors the project. PennSound works closely with the Electronic Poetry Center (http://epc.buffalo.edu) and UbuWeb (www.ubu.com) as well as Penn’s English Department and SAS Computing.
Almanac, Vol. 51, No. 19, February 1, 2005 | <urn:uuid:6ce6d376-2c79-4a69-b573-f0caa0045f24> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.upenn.edu/almanac/volumes/v51/n19/poet.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940323 | 665 | 2.078125 | 2 |
Passenger Service To and From Northern Europe - Scandinavian-American Line (1920s)
This 16-page brochure from Scandinavian-American Line is devoted to thier cabin service to and from Northern Europe. It contain information for passengers about their fleet and cabin accommodation. Second half of brochure (not uploaded) consists of two pages about the Countries of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark (Scandinavia), and Continental Tours from Copenhagen.
United Steamship Company of Copenhagen
SCANDINAVIAN - AMERICAN LINE
Royal Scandinavian and United States Mail Service
to and from NORTHERN EUROPE
Direct Passenger Service Between
NEW YORK to CHRISTIANSAND, OSLO, COPENHAGEN
Frequent Service to and from Canada
- Four Fast, Modern, Twin-Screw Passenger Steamers
- Regular Direct Communication between NORWAY and DENMARK with quick connections to and from SWEDEN, FINLAND, CERMANY, POLAND and other BALTIC COUNTRIES
- Through Bookings to and from All Principal Cities of Northern and Central Europe
Illustration of the Steamship Frederik VIII
Our Fleet of Steamships
No more popular passenger steamers sail the broad Atlantic than the splendid, modern twin-screw steamers of the Scandinavian-American Line maintaining a regular direct service between New York and Scandinavian ports.
"OSCAR II" "HELLIG OLAV" "UNITED STATES" each 515 feet long, 58 feet wide, 42 feet from keel to upper deck, built at the famous shipyards of Alexander Stephen & Sons, on the Clyde, and"FREDERIK VIII" 542 feet long, 62 feet wide, 42 feet from keel to upper deck, and built by the equally renowned Vulcan Ship Building Co. at Stettin.
|S.S. United States of the Scandinavian-American Line||S.S. Hellig Olav of the Scandinavian-American Line|
Designed and built expressly for the Scandinavian-American Line, these twin-screw steamers, constructed of steel throughout, are equipped with double cellular bottoms, watertight compartments and bilge keels to insure maximum steadiness at sea. Gyroscope compass, wireless, and every known contrivance for safety, speed and comfort, are equipment features.
The S.S. Oscar II of the Scandinavian-American Line
By any of these steamers, passengers can reach the Scandinavian countries and neighboring Baltic ports with unexcelled ease and convenience.
To Northern Europe by the Scandinavian-American Line
The Trip of Trips
In all the world, there are no lands like Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. The lands of charm, romance, and tradition; of hospitality; of scenic grandeur; of sports and pastimes of the great outdoors. To the traveler seeking an ideal vacation realm; to the seeker after health and vigor; to the lover of the picturesque; to the hunter and fisherman—to all of you, these beautiful countries of the North extend a hearty invitation.
And with the countless thousands who each year cross the Atlantic, the Scandinavian-American Line continues to grow in favor. Travelers select the steamers of this line because of their extreme steadiness, their comfortable accommodations and their high standard of service. And the route of this line grows in popularity as a preferable way to travel from New York to Europe.
Time of Voyage
The voyage occupies about 9 1/2, days, except on the steamer "Frederik VIII" which takes only 8 days, and it offers an attractive, quick, and comfortable way to travel, whether the ultimate destination be in Scandinavia or one of the adjacent continental countries.
Route and Passage
Scandinavian-American Line steamers sail from the Company's dock New York Harbor. (See Canadian agents for sailings from Canada.) The route takes the ships north of Scotland to CHRISTIANSAND, Norway, the first port of call. Then up the beautiful Oslo Fjord to OSLO, where sufficient time is allowed' to permit of short visits to the Norwegian Capital and it's environs.
Ladies Room, Second Cabin
(Tourists going to the North Cape to see the Midnight Sun, or to make the Fjord cruises, may stop over to see Southern Norway before proceeding.
Passengers booked to Bergen receive free transportation from Oslo, via the world-famed scenic Oslo-Bergen Highland Railway.
Fast and comfortable trips can be made from Oslo by railway to Gothenburg, Stockholm, and by steamer from Stockholm to Finnish points.)
And finally, our steamers make an overnight run from Oslo to COPENHAGEN, Denmark. This home port is the ideal connection for the principal cities of Europe, and particularly those in Germany, Poland and other Baltic countries.
For the sightseer on pleasure bent, and for the traveler who desires a combination of restful ease and rare enjoyment in his traveling, the facilities and superiority of this route are many, and time proven.
Route Map of SCANDINAVIAN-AMERICAN LINE
New York - Christiansand, Oslo, Copenhagen
OUR CABIN SERVICE
THE photographs reproduced on these pages show the difficulty of conceiving more perfect accommodations than those provided on our ships.
Ladies Room, First Cabin
"Frederik VIII" has First and Second Cabin Staterooms besides the unsurpassed Third Class. The First Cabin Staterooms (for one, two, three or four passengers) are situated amid-ship on the four upper decks, and there are also two attractive suites of sitting room, bedroom and bath.
The white and gold dining room, the charming music hall, ladies' saloon, library and writing room, a delightful veranda cafe, a dainty children's dining and play room, broad deck spaces for recreation and play, also a dark room for amateur photographers, round out the first cabin attractiveness of this popular ship.
The Second Cabin Staterooms (for two, three or four passengers) are pleasantly located on the upper and saloon decks, the ladies' saloons, writing rooms, lounges, smoking rooms, etc., being furnished in excellent taste.
Lobby, First Cabin - Frederik VIII
"Oscar II," "United States," and "Hellig Olav" have a One-Cabin Service in addition to the excellent Third Class. Each steamer has an attractive chambre-de-luxe on the promenade deck; staterooms of liberal size and well ventilated; two large cabin dining rooms, two attractive smoking rooms; charming and restful ladies' saloons, and a children's playroom equipped with miniature furniture and fittings.
A two berth, cabin stateroom on "Hellig Olav" and "United States"
Big roomy decks afford space for casual strolls, and for dancing to the music of an orchestra whose daily concerts are a delightful attraction.
The wireless telegraph service to all parts of the world makes possible a regularly published newspaper of the world's news, to supplement the ships' libraries.
Each steamer carries a physician and trained nurse; and the photographers' dark room, barber shops, and numerous baths, are but a few of the conveniences provided.
The choicest delicacies and staple foods, from the markets of Europe and America, prepared by skilled chefs, afford a cuisine unexcelled by even the finest hotels.
This result of forty years' experience in culinary service is the pride of the Scandinavian-American Line.
The Ships' Officers are experienced men, whose rare qualities as gentlemen and skilled navigators have done so much to win the friendship and confidence of many hundred thousands of travelers on our ships.
The Chief Steward's forces are schooled in courtesy, politeness, and the immaculate cleanliness that constitute our ideal of service. A trip on our steamers will give you a new conception of service—where the willingness and the ability to do are consummated in actual doing.
Smoking Room, First Cabin
This smoking room so conveniently located on the Upper Promenade Deck, is a favorite rendezvous throughout the voyage. Finished artistically in mahogany with paneling of root veneer and containing an inviting fireplace, the decorative scheme reflects the period of King Frederik the Sixth of Denmark. A number of fine oil paintings lend additional distinction to the general atmosphere of comfort and ease.
Dining Dining Saloon, First Cabin
The white and gold dining room on "Frederik VIII" is a beautiful proportioned room surmounted by a great dome, occupying the full birch in the modern baroque style, distinctive in design width of the ship. It is furnished in warm golden and decoration.
The dining rooms on the "United States," "Hellig Olav" and "Oscar II" are similar I magnificent saloons with striking artistic walls of polished oak. The general quality of elegance and the dainty table furnishings and porcelain combine to produce dining rooms of unusual attractiveness and beauty.
Music Hall, First Cabin
HE general design of this Music Hall is that of the Louis XVI period. Finished in American Cherry, with a concert grand piano and furniture of the same wood. The walls are paneled with charming scenes of Danish life, done in oil by famous artists.
This same Louis XVI treatment is carried out in the Ladies Saloon, finished in Jamaica rosewood, and in the Library and Writing Room, which is in polished mahogany. Music Hall, First Cabin
Private Suite Sitting Room, Frederik VIII
On the left, is shown, with the at the right.
|Chambre-de-luxe on "Oscar II"||The four berth room above is a second cabin stateroom on "Frederik VIII."|
Information on Brochure
- Date of Publication: Undated, believed to be mid-1920s
- Published by:Scandinavian-American Line, New York Agency Passenger Department
- Total Printed Pages: Unpaginated - 16 Pages - Outer Cover designed to be folded in half.
- Omitted from uploaded version: Information on tours to Norway, Sweden and Denmark. - 8 pages total | <urn:uuid:1a00ecd5-d132-437f-9146-bfd44046633b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gjenvick.com/HistoricalBrochures/Steamships-OceanLiners/ScandinavianAmericanLine/1920s-Brochure-PassengerService-NorthernEurope.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922344 | 2,136 | 1.695313 | 2 |
This scholarship aims to raise the hopes and aspirations of 7th and 8th grade students from low-income families. The most direct way to identify these students is to reach out to those who are eligible for free and reduced-price lunch.
College Bound is a state education program; therefore, schools may target eligible students (see OSPI’s Disclosure of Free and Reduced Price Information Agreement).
Broad, all-school efforts that encourage students to continue their education beyond high school also can include information about College Bound.
Typically, any discussion about college will cover ways to pay for college – loans, grants, scholarships, etc. By describing College Bound as one more option for students, you can spread the word about the program. | <urn:uuid:4dd7b56b-f945-448f-9bf0-975ba579fbc6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wsac.wa.gov/ProgramAdministration/FinancialAid/CollegeBound/Build/Promotion | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942181 | 149 | 2.015625 | 2 |
Aussie scientist Dr Sean O'Byrne chases top speed
- From: The Daily Telegraph
- December 08, 2012
A TOP Canberra scientist at the cutting edge of hypersonic air travel is working to make the dream of four-hour flights between Sydney and London a reality.
Hypersonic boffin Dr Sean O'Byrne will be awarded a $20,000 defence fellowship next week to help develop the "Spitfires of tomorrow".
But first Dr O'Bryne, from the University of NSW at the Australian Defence Force Academy, must overcome an essential problem - how to best burn fuel at mega-high speeds without compromising safety. He hopes using electrical pulses will allow him to speed up ignition and combustion enough to provide thrust to hypersonic aircraft - all while travelling at thousands of kilometres an hour.
"To get standard fuel to burn properly at very high speeds you have to break it down before it hits the air," he said. "These fundamental studies will increase our understanding of high-speed combustion processes, and will help in the design of the next generation of high-speed aircraft."
Scientists believe aircraft powered by so-called scramjets that process air and fuel at supersonic speeds may enable top speeds of between 15,000 and 29,000km/h provided suitable heat-resistant materials were also developed.
NASA's experimental X-43A scramjet aircraft clocked 7000km/h using hydrogen gas as fuel, and in June 2007, a joint US-Australian scramjet hit 12,250km/h over Woomera.
The potential for commercial air travel was underlined last year when European aerospace and defence giant EADS unveiled its own concept of a high-speed aircraft designed to fly at mach 4, which could get from Tokyo to Paris in just 2 1/2 hours. However, executives predicted it would not be in use until 2050.
The US military is also prominent in studying hypersonic technologies with the goal of being able to deploy fast air strikes around the globe.
Dr O'Byrne has already worked with US space agency NASA and also holds a patent for a laser-based speed sensor for use on commercial aircraft.
Dr O'Byrne will be presented with the 2012 Spitfire Association Memorial Defence Fellowship by Governor-General Quentin Bryce in Canberra on Tuesday.
travel top stories
By Kate Schneider, Travel Editor WHY do window shutters have to be open and seats upright upon landing? Is diet cola harder to pour in the skies? Here are 10 things you just have to know about air travel.
By Kate Schneider, Travel Editor FLIGHT attendants have revealed the type of passenger they're most likely to offer an upgrade to, and what NOT to do if you want to sit near the pointy end of the plane.
WHERE do you find the sexiest nationalities? Well not in Australia, according to a survey. Find out where the good looking really reside. | <urn:uuid:a8126958-af8e-4828-a687-272adff76b94> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mobile.news.com.au/travel/news/aussie-scientist-dr-sean-obyrne-chases-top-speed/story-e6frfq80-1226532457617 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94703 | 608 | 2.4375 | 2 |
Throughout its history, Cuernavaca has hosted countless famous guests because of its pleasant climate and relaxing lifestyle. Those who have called Cuernavaca home include the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortez and the 19th century Austrian emperor Maximilian and his wife Carlota.
When Cortez and his troops arrived in the central highlands, the Aztecs showed them how to escape Mexico City's winter chill by spending the colder months in a town about 40 miles / 60 kms south. It's name, Cuauhnahuac, meant 'place of great trees' in the native Nahuatl language. To the Spanish it sounded like 'cuerno de vaca', which in their native tongue means "cow's horn", and that's how we got Cuernavaca.
In Cuernavaca cultural events and fine cuisine are at a stone's throw from the Anders Languages® Residence: the Cuauhnáhuac Museum, Diego Rivera murals, the Palace of Cortez, the 400-year-old cathedral, the pyramids of Xochicalco, world famous restaurants, luxury stores and folk centers such as the local crafts market, the main square with its colorful vendors´ stands, and the narrow, winding streets lined with street merchants peddling everything imaginable.
For golfers, Cuernavaca offers two acclaimed golf courses located less than ten minutes from the residence.
Thanks to the central location of Cuernavaca, you can include several excursions during your weekends. Should you be interested in cultural and / or sightseeing activities, the Anders Languages® staff will gladly provide you with a broad choice of local points of interest to visit.
You can travel to these destinations individually or accompanied by your instructor and a guide-driver licensed by the Mexican National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).
- Xochicalco, the mountaintop ceremonial center of the Toltecs.
- The village and the pyramid of Tepoztlán, a historic Mexican village.
- Taxco, one of the best-preserved colonial cities in Mexico and a commercial center for silver crafts.
- Teotihuacan: an ancient capital of Mesoamerica and one of humanity's most important archaeological sites.
- Estacas, a summer resort.
- Tequesquitengo Lake.
- The caves of Cacahuamilpa, famous for their natural beauty.
- The colonial cities of Puebla, and Guanajuato.
- The pyramids of Tula.
- Mexico City with its historic city center, impressive cathedral, the world-renowned museum of anthropology and the Folk Ballet.
- Oaxaca and its pyramids of Monte Alban and Mitla.
- San Miguel de Allende: a picturesque colonial city.
- Acapulco comes as close to being all things to all people as any resort can...
If you feel like it, you can also register for extra language classes on Saturday morning or play golf at one of the 7 golf courses in the State of Morelos.
WHAT THEY SAY...
Name: Wendy H.
Company: New Mexico State University
This school is one of a kind... for the truly dedicated language student. You really do learn in one day what one week in another school provides. There is a tremendous blend of ability, knowledge and comfortable accommodations here. I can't recommend a better school or better environment in which to learn Spanish! | <urn:uuid:88c7501c-1128-42be-b5a1-fb01ab08dd13> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.anderslanguages.com/learn-spanish-french-dutch-portuguese-english-german-immersion/mexico-cuernavaca-details.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922283 | 717 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Lutein and Skin Health
Similar to our eyes, lutein is deposited throughout our skin through the lutein we consume.1 Research suggests 10 mg of lutein from food or dietary supplements, may play a role in maintaining healthy skin.2, 3, 4
A recent human clinical study showed 10 mg of lutein daily increased skin hydration, elasticity and skin lipid content.5 This is the first research to show improvement in skin health through lutein supplementation alone.
Skin is the largest organ of the human body. Along with our eyes, it is the only organ of the body constantly exposed to the environment. Skin is "assaulted" by
- Light (especially ultraviolet and visible wavelengths)
- Environmental pollutants
Such exposure can create reactive oxygen species, leading to cell-damaging free radicals within skin. The skin provides numerous functions. It acts as a barrier of protection for the internal organs. It regulates body temperature. It plays an important role in immunological response. Therefore, it is important to protect the skin. | <urn:uuid:68bbdaeb-ec37-4ecf-a27c-736a298030db> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://luteininfo.com/skin | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.912475 | 216 | 3.28125 | 3 |
Footnote enthralls with dramatic family dynamics
While the trials and tribulations of academia might not seem like the most enthralling subject in the world, Joseph Cedar’s Footnote makes them just that.
A sharp and merciless comedy, Footnote centers on the conflict between a father and son’s careers in academia — the father a bitter failure and his son a burgeoning success.
This contrast is emphasized from the film’s first scene, which sets the audience up for a dark comedy that questions the strength of family ties — an intentness that resulted in its nomination for best foreign language film at the 2012 Oscars.
Well-liked son and academic, Uriel Shkolnik has been recently admitted into the Israeli Academy of Sciences. In the moments preceding his speech at the institution’s welcoming ceremony, Uriel waits in the seat next to his sour father, Eliezer. Audiences can see from his trademark scowl that his life has not fulfilled his expectations; he is a man shunned by his colleagues, unrecognized for his minute studies of the Talmud, a Jewish text.
Though they sit so close to one another, the two are living in disparate worlds. The camera holds its focus on Eliezer even as Uriel gives his speech, and the viewer sees the mark of the seething father so used to being passed over. After all, his crowning achievement is having been footnoted, once, in his mentor’s book on Talmudic studies.
This stark contrast between the demeanor of father and son gives the viewer a hint of the tension to ensue.
Eliezer’s dream has always been the Israel Prize, the ultimate recognition of his academic pursuits, a feat he has failed to grasp throughout his career. His dream comes true, but his nomination is more complicated than expected; it is entrenched in the film’s central twist, a twist that polarizes father and son further.
These painstaking twists make Cedar’s film a comedic nightmare; the audience is invested in the stakes of Footnote, yet it cannot help but see the humor in things. Even in this bitter conflict, not everything is tragic. Cedar gives us a silver lining.
The plotlines fall equally between father and son, both with whom the audience can empathize, yet at once the viewer recognizes them as imperfect and even tiresome. The two leads play their roles rightly; they are fully flawed human beings that the viewer cannot help but want to understand.
Not to mention, Footnote contains a superb cast, offering exceptionally skilled performances. Specifically, in his role as the elder Shkolnik, Shlomo Bar-Aba hardly speaks, proving that actions really can speak louder than words. Even without much to say, the audience gets the full impression of his disappointment and the weight of his demeanor.
As Eliezer’s son, Lior Ashkenazi has a genial presence even while wrestling with the most harrowing ethical dilemma of his life. As a pair, they highlight the parallels and disparities between father and son.
But this film isn’t for everyone. Many viewers may be frustrated by the film’s evasive plot long before its climax. The humor is rather cut and dry though it is thoroughly enjoyable to those who have a more sardonic sense of humor. Meanwhile, those who enjoy a more straightforward, slapstick sense of humor may not find as much appeal in the film’s more acerbic comedic moments.
Furthermore, sound in Footnote becomes almost overwhelming through Amit Poznansky’s grandiose and unnecessarily dramatic score — a bombastic set that sometimes smothers the scenes themselves. Instead of taking away from the film’s subtlety, it would have been more effective to hear music that complemented it instead.
Still, if one can look past these minute flaws, Footnote is an engaging experience.
Besides the contrast between the two Shkolniks, the picture is a contrast in and of itself. The film opens with Poznansky’s dramatic overture, yet it ends with a poignant, dialogue-free sequence. In between, it’s full of playful transitions, frantic subtitles and striking chapter names.
At its heart is conflict — between Uriel and the Israel Prize committee and between father and son. And Cedar’s ambitious stylistic choices supplement an already powerful script.
Astute, comical and deeply sad, Footnote is based on a script that adamantly digs at the rigors and stuffiness of academia. The discord at its core pulls the viewer in, especially with the leads’ expert performances. All in all, Footnote is deserving of its Oscar nod. | <urn:uuid:ddb77903-d752-400c-ab9a-afa7d9a9282c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dailytrojan.com/2012/03/27/footnote-enthralls-with-dramatic-family-dynamics/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962944 | 1,009 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Friday, October 28, 2011
5:46 PM 29 October 1923, Mustafa Kemal ATATÜRK, Republic Day, Republic of Turkey, Turkish republic day, Turkish Republic marks its 88th anniversary 7 comments
Turkish Republic marks its 88th anniversary on October 29.
On 29 October 1923, Mustafa Kemal ATATÜRK declared that Turkey would be a republic and renamed it as the Republic of Turkey.
Turkey had effectively been a republic from April 23rd, 1920 (the establishment of Grand National Assembly of Turkey) but official recognition of this came only 3 years later. On 29 October 1923, the new name of the nation and its status as a republic was declared. After that, a vote occurred in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey and Ataturk was selected as the 1st president of the Republic of Turkey.
WISHING YOU A VERY HAPPY REPUBLIC DAY! | <urn:uuid:758af414-4534-460a-b4cc-70dec4c7f5b9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://antalya-magnificent-city.blogspot.com/2011/10/turkish-republic-to-mark-88th.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966857 | 189 | 2.875 | 3 |
Annually, the American Association of Medical Assistants recognizes the contributions medical assistants make to overall health care delivery effectiveness. This year, the Rasmussen College Mokena/Tinley Park campus will honor Medical Assistants with a variety of activities during Medical Assistants Recognition Week between October 15th and the 19th.
To kick off the week of activities, Rasmussen College, in partnership with Advocate’s Healthcare, Childhood Trauma and Treatment Program, will host Stewards of Children Training developed by Darkness to Light. Darkness to Light is a non-profit organization whose mission is to reduce the incidence of child sexual abuse by shifting the responsibility from children to adults. This is accomplished through an award winning media campaign which raises public awareness and directs adults to educational tools, which will teach them to prevent, recognize and react responsibly to child sexual abuse.
On Monday, October 15th from 6:00 - 8:30 p.m., participants are invited to take part in arming themselves with the necessary tools for helping children. Continuing education credits are available. This training is beneficial for professionals in the medical field, service agencies, education and justice studies.
Medical assistants are often at the forefront of identifying signs of concern. They are there to help protect children. In order to protect children, educating medical assistants in the signs of sexual abuse and positive ways to talk to children, up to age 18, can help us all.
This event is open to the public and CEUs, CPDUs and CDUs are available for a variety of professions. The registration fee is $25 payable to CTTP and can be paid the day of the event. Space is limited, so register today. To register, please call Laura Bailon at 815-534-3300.
The Rasmussen College Mokena/Tinley Park campus will also be sponsoring brown bag lunch and learns on the field of Medical Assisting and Autism Awareness during the week of October 15th. Rasmussen College will also sponsor a health fair. Please contact the campus for further details at 815-534-3300.
For more information on the Stewards of Children Training through Childhood Trauma and Treatment Program, click here.
For more information on Medical Assistant Recognition Week, please visit the American Association of Medical Assistants website. | <urn:uuid:5d721b34-ebbf-476a-8d6a-ad8181508f6c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/health-sciences/blog/Rasmussen-college-takes-part-in-medical-assistants-recognition-we/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948873 | 469 | 1.914063 | 2 |
Wouldn’t it be nice to sew just one last sundress, here at the tail-end of summer?
How about just a couple more?
How about 30 more? Thirty dresses is the goal of the Homemade Dress Drive for Haiti going on right now over at Art Projects for Kids, where Project HOPE Art is looking to collect a homemade dress for every single child in one orphanage in Port Au Prince.
Since it’s always warm (to put it mildly) in Haiti, sundresses are the preferred style. And to make the project even simpler, Oliver + S has given permission for the group to use their free downloadable sundress pattern. The pattern prints on ordinary computer paper in your home printer, and any of the sizes in the pattern are appropriate to sew for the orphanage.
If you’re not done sewing when you’ve made a sundress, the little girls would also like some underwear.
I don’t always have extra money for all the charitable donations that I’d like to give, but I do like to craft for charity. Whether you crochet tiny hats for for NICU babies or, like my girls and I, spend a couple of homeschool days sewing a thrifted sheet into sundresses in exactly their sizes for little girls in Haiti, or do something even more amazing on your own, crafting for a charitable cause is a helpful, hopeful activity to do.
To sew a dress for a little Haitian girl, please check out the Homemade Dress Drive for Haiti. | <urn:uuid:67a95236-4664-46c3-a0c4-8903df680f0f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://craftingagreenworld.com/2011/09/05/join-the-homemade-dress-drive-for-haitian-girls/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918468 | 317 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Far Flung and Well Fed is a classic collection of food writing -- lively, warm and rich with a sense of place and taste -- and deserves to join the works of A.J. Liebling, Elizabeth David, M.F.K. Fisher and Calvin Trillin on the bookshelf.
Celebrated journalist R.W. ("Johnny") Apple was a veteran political reporter, a New York Times bureau chief and an incisive and prolific writer. But the role he was most passionate about was food anthropologist.
Known both for his restless wide open mind and an appetite to match, Mr. Apple was also a culinary scholar: witty, wide-ranging and intensely knowledgeable about his subjects. Far Flung and Well Fed is the best of his food writing from America, England, Europe, Asia and Australia.
Each of the more than fifty essays recount extraordinary meals and little-known facts, of some of the world's most excellent foods -- from the origin of an ingredient in a dish, to its history, to the vivid personalities -- including Mr. Apple's wife, Betsey -- who cook, serve and eat those dishes. | <urn:uuid:faac583d-12af-44ce-9c00-e813f305037e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nytstore.com/Far-Flung-and-Well-Fed-The-Food-Writings-of-RW-Apple-Jr_p_5543.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954857 | 232 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Note: This page was developed from information found in a USDA, Soil Conservation Service (Now, Natural Resources Conservation Service) publication, "Conserving Soil", out of print.
Soil !!! Some call it dirt. But it is..... Soil !!! The essence of our being. The medium in which crops are grown to feed humans, as well as animals. One of our natural resources (soil, water, air, plant, animal).
Soil by volume, on the average consists of 45% mineral, 25% water, 25% air and 5% organic matter (both living and dead organisms). There are thousands of different soils throughout the world.
Five important factors influences the specific soil that develops.
Minerals and organic materials present during it's formation. Materials from volcanos, sediment transported by wind, water or glaciers or minerals left behind by drying lakes are good examples of parent materials.
Parent material is broken down into smaller pieces by a process called weathering. Cycles of freezing and thawing, wetting and drying, and the frequency of these occurrences coupled with average temperature and moisture levels of region play an important role in soil formation. These smaller pieces are known as (sand, silt and clay), clay being the smallest size.
Both plants and animals help to create a soil. As they die, organic matter incorporates with the weathered parent material and becomes part of the soil. Living animals such as moles, earthworms, bacteria, fungi and nematodes are all busy moving through or digesting food found in the soil. All of these actions mix and enrich the soil.
Topography is the hilliness, flatness, or amount of slope of the land. Soils vary with topography primarily because of the influence of moisture and erosion. In many areas, moist, poorly drained soils are located in low areas, and depressions of the land. In contract, soils in sloping areas can be drier and well drained. These soils tend to be moderately and well developed. Erosion can remove all or part of the topsoil and subsoil, leaving weakly developed soil.
It may take hundreds of years to form one inch of soil from parent material. Only the top few inches are productive in the sense of being able to sustain plant growth. This is why soil conservation is so important.
The result of all of these forces is soil that develops into layers known as horizons. The first or top 48 inches of these horizons and its' unique set of characteristic is used by soil scientist to classify and name a soil. Just as an oak tree is named due to its' unique characteristics, so is a soil. Contact our office for a copy of a soil survey that has maps and descriptions of all of the soils in Shawnee county or how to obtain one for soils in your area.
These horizons collectively are known as a soil profile. The thickness varies with location, and under disturbed conditions: heavy agriculture, building sites or severe erosion for example, not all horizons will be present.
The uppermost is called the organic horizon or O horizon. It consists of detritus, leaf litter and other organic material lying on the surface of the soil. This layer is dark because of the decomposition that is occurring. This layer is not present in cultivated fields.
Below is the A horizon or topsoil. Usually it is darker than lower layers, loose and crumbly with varying amounts of organic matter. In cultivated fields the plowed layer is topsoil. This is generally the most productive layer of the soil. This is the layer that soil conservation efforts are focused.
As water moves down through the topsoil, many soluble minerals and nutrients dissolve. The dissolved materials leach downward into lower horizons.
The next layer is the B horizon or subsoil. Subsoils are usually lighter in color, dense and low in organic matter. Most of the materials leached from the A horizon stops in this zone.
Still deeper is the C horizon. It is a transition area between soil and parent material. Partially disintegrated parent material and mineral particles may be found in this horizon.
At some point the C horizon will give up to the final horizon, bedrock.
Like more information for Shawnee County soils?
Like more information on soils in general?
Examples of soil conservation practices that will protect the soil.
In Urban Areas | <urn:uuid:ef1dc816-9739-4b3b-99fe-7819ca34dfc6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sccdistrict.com/soilpro.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938449 | 910 | 3.984375 | 4 |
BBC looks at ways audio engineers have retained classic sounds of objects. The shutter noise on a digital camera is entirely uneccessary. An ENV hydrogen-powered motorbike is silent, but an artificial roar warns "road users it is approaching." These "manufacturers of cars, phones and cameras are merely responding to their own archaic ideas of how things should sound."
About ten years ago, car doors no longer made the classic openning sound due new safety standards in car manufacturing that made parts of the car lighter and doors heavier. Instead of a clunk, car doors openned with a tinny sound. To make the car sound "more expensive ... dampeners were introduced into the door cavity to muffle the tinny effect and engineers altered the locking mechanism to make just the right sort of click." | <urn:uuid:8840eaf7-ccab-43f2-a7af-608e947433a5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rhizome.org/editorial/tags/advertising/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949789 | 162 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Holiday fundraising is all about timing. Schools, churches and youth sports groups can schedule their fundraisers to coincide with a time when most people’s spending increases.
Part One looked at Christmas tree and wreath sales as a way of raising funds for non-profit groups. Part Two, explored a common but profitable holiday fundraiser, catalog sales. In Part Three, we’ll see what it takes to throw a holiday carnival.
Carnival Event Fundraiser
A fundraising event like a holiday carnival can be labor intensive, so start with your volunteer base. Delegate responsibilities to the committee chairs. You’ll need someone in charge of ticket sales, decorations, advertising, entertainment, food, and so on.
A holiday carnival is a great place to also host a silent auction, bake sale, or large item raffle. These fundraising events within the event can draw large dollars.
Depending on your expected attendee volume, you may consider raffling a 4 day cruise, and MP3 player, a large screen TV, and such. Look to local businesses to help defer the cost of the large item or items. Begin selling raffle tickets as far in advance of the event as possible.
Along with raffle tickets, sell event tickets in advance and allow advance purchased tickets to be picked up at the “will call” table. Intersperse ticket sale tables throughout your event location.
I once helped organize a carnival event for our elementary school. We made use of the gym or multipurpose room, but also spread games throughout the hallways. This allowed each classroom to host a game like ring toss or face painting and spread the crowd out so we didn’t experience over crowding.
Cake walks at holiday carnivals are usually very successful. Since the baked goods are donated, you can receive greater profit from each item. Sell smaller items such as cookies and brownies at the bake sale, and use the larger items like whole cakes and pies at the cake walk.
If you have the space, look into using a large inflatable game like giant slides or obstacle courses. These can be rented for the day and are a large draw for younger children.
Use your imagination for planning your fundraising event. Consider how many people you might expect, as well as the age range. Tailor your games and events to appeal to the masses. Keep it fun and your carnival will be a huge success!
Last updated byat . | <urn:uuid:983320d4-2da3-4240-bc84-71389de17fa4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fundraiserhelp.com/holiday-fundraising-3.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943634 | 510 | 1.570313 | 2 |
When Colorado men's coach Tad Boyle finds a few extra minutes, he clicks on a college basketball website and scrolls down a list to check his team's RPI.
"You have to, because it's so important," Boyle said.
Like the weather, a team's RPI can change daily, which makes the computer-calculated power ranking maddening, interesting and, for many, perplexing.
But Boyle is right. It is important. Beginning with the 1980-81 season, the Rating Percentage Index has been among the metrics used by the NCAA Tournament selection committee for choosing at-large teams. Many analysts contend the weight given to the RPI ranks near the top among "tools" used by the committee, although the committee never acknowledges it.
Mike Bobinski, the tournament's selection committee chairman, may have hinted about the RPI's value during a recent media teleconference.
"Interestingly, we asked a statistician who works with the NCAA who is really, really sharp, to do sort of a comparison of all the major rankings that exist ... and compare those evaluations with performance in the tournament," Bobinski said. "We were all surprised to see that the RPI actually did end up with the highest level of predictive value and the highest correlation with ultimate success in the tournament."
Criticism of RPI won't go away, however. Detractors believe the formula, based on a team's wins and losses and the strength of its schedule and of its opponents' schedules, is too simple.
RPI doesn't account for scoring margins. A 15-point victory by Colorado State over UNLV, for example, counts the same as a one-point win. Injuries aren't factored in. Whether or not the game was a pressurized conference matchup is of no consequence.
"Archaic" and "outdated" are descriptions of RPI, which last was revised in 2004, when differences in home, road and neutral-site games were put into the equation. Home wins are worth 0.6 of a victory, while road wins are worth 1.4. Conversely, a home loss is weighted 1.4 on the negative side and a road loss only 0.6. Neutral-site games count 1.0 and 1.0.
With computers much more able to crunch sophisticated data than they were three decades ago, why not, critics say, adopt a formula that uses more data and considers more variables?
"Yes, yes, it's terrible that the RPI exists in 2013," wrote ESPN.com college basketball analyst and statistician John Gasaway.
Of course, no squawking is heard from teams with solid RPIs, such as Colorado and CSU, both of whom have been in the top 30 for much of the season. A top-30 ranking almost ensures an at-large invitation to the NCAA Tournament. Rankings higher can mean bubble trouble.
RPI applies to other sports too
The basic RPI formula is used by selection committees for nearly a dozen NCAA-sanctioned sports, including men's and women's lacrosse, men's and women's soccer, baseball and softball. But it all began with basketball.
Jim Van Valkenburg, then a member of what the NCAA called its "statistics service," gathered a group of analysts in 1980, which considered a dozen or so formulas to determine how each matrix reflected the performance of college basketball teams. A former Kansas City, Mo.-based Associated Press sports editor, Van Valkenburg rejected formulas that included scores and margin of victory because he felt they encouraged coaches to run up the score.
Factoring in adjustment of a team's games played at home or on the road, the basis for RPI is winning percentage: victories divided by total games. The formula is 25 percent for a team's winning percentage and winning percentage of that team's opponents' opponents and 50 percent for the winning percentage of that team's opponents.
It's as simple as that. Yes, it may seem strange that 75 percent of an RPI calculation has nothing to do with that team's performance on the court. But RPI and other computer-based power rankings have their supporters.
"I think the best yardstick," Wyoming coach Larry Shyatt said recently, "is to do away with all the pundits and analysts and all the people that have biases toward schools they went to and the leagues they play in, and to just look at the numbers. The numbers have no biases."
The NCAA began releasing its official RPI to the public via its website in 2006 on a weekly basis. Before 2006, a cottage industry emerged with statisticians offering subscriptions to publications and websites for those eager to see the "replicated" RPI rankings. Among the first to provide numbers was Jerry Palm, who majored in computer science at Purdue and was curious about what the RPI would be for a Boilermakers team that featured future national player of the year Glenn Robinson. He started CollegeRPI.com in 1996 after tracking numbers for 2½ years.
"The RPI isn't something that you'd want to bet with in Las Vegas," Palm said. "But I do think it's proven to be a helpful tool for the selection committee."
Committee chairman Bobinski said the selectors use about a dozen "tools," including RPI. "We have more data than any human can possibly digest," he said.
Power conference muscle
A common criticism of RPI is the formula's reliance on strength of schedule, which favors power conferences. CU's Boyle was an assistant coach at Missouri Valley Conference member Wichita State in 2005-06 when the MVC, a midmajor conference, was credited with "cracking the code" by getting four teams into the NCAA Tournament. Cracking the code meant beefing up the nonconference schedule of all league members to build a strong enough RPI that would hold up during conference action.
The Mountain West cracked the code, so to speak, last year by getting four NCAA Tournament bids, which the conference is expected to repeat this year.
"Our staff pays a great deal of attention to RPI and strength of schedule," said UNLV coach Dave Rice. "It's important for us to schedule as many tough nonconference opponents as we can without our team losing confidence. Our league has done a good job (of scheduling)."
Boyle made sure to toughen CU's nonconference schedule this season by adding a tournament in Charleston, S.C., and a game at Kansas.
"RPI is a moving target. For example, Colorado State having such a great year helps us, and we're even being helped by Air Force doing well," said Boyle, whose Buffs beat both Front Range teams. "In some regards with scheduling and RPI, you also have to get a little lucky."
The NCAA committee reiterates each year that it doesn't consider conference RPI and that data isn't provided to the selectors. The committee analyzes teams on their own merit, regardless of conference affiliation.
Those who view RPI as confusing have a lot of company. For such a simple formula, it sure causes a lot of head scratching. CU senior guard Sabatino Chen said he looks at the RPI numbers at least once a week. That doesn't mean he understands it.
"Honestly, I don't even know how they figure it," Chen said. "When I look at some teams' RPIs against ours, I really don't know why ours is so different." | <urn:uuid:44361589-115a-4d32-8525-2e6ae55451fa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.denverpost.com/colleges/ci_22757324/simple-yet-confusing-rpi-stands-ncaas-test-time?source=rss | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976974 | 1,538 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Activist Cyclists Call for 100% Renewables in 10 years (Video)
Image credit: Massachusetts Climate Summer
From bike tours promoting green living in Japan to the World Naked Bike Ride, there are plenty of opportunities to take a pedal-powered-trip, and promote your favorite cause at the same time. Now young folks in Massachusetts are gearing up to do just that - setting off on a 43 town tour this summer to push for effective climate action. And you can help, even if you can't go along for the ride. The Massachusetts Climate Summer is an initiative of Massachusetts Power Shift which is calling for a 100% shift to renewable energy in ten years. (Yeah, I know it's an ambitious target, but they are not alone in calling for such drastic climate action.)
The team will be partnering with local groups across the Commonwealth to raise public awareness about the severity of the climate crisis and urge action. They'll be canvassing door-to-door, raising awareness and distributing free CFL's to households. And don't worry if you can't go along for the ride—you can vote to fund the Massachusetts Climate Summer via the Brighter Planet Project Fund.
Not convinced? Check out this fun video. | <urn:uuid:b8969d18-1e1b-42d4-b6f4-6673f6f75d57> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.treehugger.com/bikes/activist-cyclists-call-for-100-renewables-in-10-years-video.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931971 | 247 | 2.015625 | 2 |
This is a really easy to do video game system with a LED screen.
I made it trying to keep it as tiny and cheap as possible.
It uses only one IC, a PIC16F628A and 9 bipolar transistors, has 4 buttons for control and a swich for turning it off.
It also has a tiny speaker for making some sounds.
The power is given by four ni-mh batteries, and the consume is so reduced and you will keep them charged for a long time.
Games: So far I have only programed three games but I gonna do more in the near future (see steps 9,10,11 and 12 for more info about the games).
I hope you like this instructable and make your own portable game system.
Ps: I am from Argentina so let me know for any grammar mistake.
Step 1: Stuff you need
It just use some electronic components, most of are them recycled.
Transistors: Use 9 transistors BC548 or similar.
Even 2N3904 can be used but their terminals are opposite, very careful when soldering if you choose these ones.
LEDs: they are at the forefront of this project. Only the four lower LEDs are RGB, the rest are common red LEDs.
If the light is different from the LEDs you can diffuse then using a sandpaper.
Switches: try to get good quality switches. I used switches from a monitor for the shoulder buttons and I bought the front ones.
9 - 1k ohm
4 - 220 ohm
4 - 10k ohm
1 - 560 ohm
1 - 100 uf
1 - 100 nf
Microcontroler: PIC 16F628A
Misc: An on/off switch, a piece of plastic, 8 screws, 8 spacers, 1 piezo transducer (the little speaker that looks like a coin). | <urn:uuid:d3f686a0-784f-430d-a600-96cf09143da9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.instructables.com/id/Portable-Led-Game-System/CFHE68AGKI1FSDK | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927657 | 398 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Among the many benefits of amassing savings, one of them is lower-stress moves. In a recent post, Larry MacDonald described the things that can go wrong when moving whether you choose to move your belongings yourself or hire movers.
The last time I moved, my wife and I deliberately chose closing dates to create an overlap period where we owned both houses. This was only possible because we had enough savings that we didn’t need the proceeds from the old house as a down payment on the new house.
An overlap period gives time for cleaning, painting, changing carpets, etc., at a leisurely pace. Other benefits are directly related to the problems Larry MacDonald described.
On same-day closings, if the delivery of keys for the new house is delayed by a few hours, you might be paying professional movers $100 per hour while they wait. With an overlap period, any delay in getting the keys may be a little disappointing, but it won’t affect a move of belongings, because the move is still a few weeks away.
If you choose to move yourself (with the help of friends and family), delays in getting moving vans can be accommodated more easily if you are able to simply delay the move by a day or two.
Now, you may be thinking that this last point makes little sense because people with significant savings wouldn’t bother to move their own stuff. But, this isn’t how savers think. People get to have savings by making choices that cost less.
Few people can afford to own two houses at once, even for just a week or two, but if you think you can handle the finances comfortably (even if something scuttles the closing of your old house), then it is a great way to reduce the stress of moving. | <urn:uuid:c4b34fe0-b992-4624-9f99-16bbad23c7c0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.michaeljamesonmoney.com/2008/05/low-stress-moving.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965509 | 370 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Sep 17 2012
Posted by CHLY News as _Archive |
Tune in to CHLY today (Monday, September 17, 2012) from 9am-10am for our broadcast of today’s Democracy Now! episode with special coverage of the one year anniversary of the Occupy Movement, which began with ‘Occupy Wall Street’, spurred-on by an ad from the creative minds at Vancouver, BC, magazine Adbusters.
If you read this post after-the-fact, and are interested in learning more, Democracy Now! and can be found at their website, http://democracynow.org/, with today’s and older shows available.
Listen to CHLY locally at 101.7fm, or stream online at http://chly.ca/listen.
EDIT: Democracy Now! also reports on Twitter releasing the “account details and message history of an Occupy Wall Street protester after a lengthy court dispute. Twitter had been ordered to provide tweets written by Malcolm Harris, a protester who was arrested with hundreds of others during the Occupy march across the Brooklyn Bridge, October 1st. Prosecutors say they subpoenaed the records to help refute protesters’ claims that police led them off the bridge’s pedestrian walkway. Twitter had sought to avoid the order, saying it ‘constitutes an undue burden and a violation of freedom of speech.’” | <urn:uuid:a1c97150-e10a-4305-a5a8-07c7ecfdd164> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://chly.ca/democracy-now-reports-today-on-the-1-year-anniversary-of-the-occupy-movement/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950041 | 287 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Hey, it's Rebecca Silbaugh again and I'm back for another batch of baking! This time around I'll be showing you a great way to use jelly rolls and some fleece for quick scarves. You can create many of these to give as gifts with just one jelly roll!
I don't know about you, but I live in the Snow Belt and it's cold here. I don't leave the house this time of year without a scarf on... so why not make it fun to show off your favorite fabrics?
Come on over to my blog (rubybluequilts.blogspot.com) for other ideas and tutorials, even yummy recipes!
* One Jelly Roll
* A minimum of 3/8 yard fleece for EACH scarf
* Matching thread if desired (I used an off white since there are so many colors in the fabrics)
* Usual sewing supplies (scissors, rotary cutter and mat, thread, etc.)
* Two rulers (I'll explain later)
Alright, let's bake! Also, keep in mind all stitching will use a 1/4" seam unless noted otherwise.
Choose 2 segments and lay them right sides together on the fleece a short distance from the selvage, and centered within the width of the fleece. Sew these together along the right edge starting and stopping your stitching even with the fabric edges. Backstitch (or use a locking stitch if your machine is equipped with one) at the beginning and end of each edge to secure the stitching. Trim back any loose threads once stitched on both the top and bottom.
A child's scarf is similar at the beginning and ending with 2 individual segments and a smaller block to alternate. Depending on the age and height of the child, I would suggest beginning with a standard of 4 groups of 2 individual segments and alternating with 3 pieced blocks. I would then adjust this to the specific child to determine if it needs to be lengthened or shortened.
Trim the edges of the scarf however you desire. The one shown in the pictures below was trimmed close on either side and left long for fringe on the ends. You can have fringe on all sides or just three sides if you prefer. Some can be longer, some shorter. It's up to you. If you wish to trim it close, I suggest leaving at least a 1/4" of fleece around each edge of fabric.
Depending on the size and length of scarves made, the total you can get out of one jelly roll varies. If you follow the suggested lengths I've provided above, you should be able to make 11 adult scarves OR 16 child scarves, OR a combination of the two. I have a few options below...
Claire got a traditional adult scarf using the techniques demonstrated. The ends have a small, thicker fringe and the sides are longer and cut thinner. | <urn:uuid:0f363caf-b8d4-47bd-8d06-01edeeb22784> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.modabakeshop.com/2011/01/sew-as-you-go-scarves.html?showComment=1295273694619 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929937 | 593 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Mai M. Phillips
CES Program Coordinator
Office: 364D Lapham
Phone: 414- 229-6170
Educational BackgroundB.S., Mathematics, University of Iowa
M.A., Environmental, Population, and Organismic Biology, University of Colorado
Ph.D., Plant Genetic Resources, University of Hawaii
Dr. Mai Morshidi Phillips was born and raised on the island of Borneo (Sarawak, Malaysia), one of the world’s greatest hot spots of biodiversity. Dr. Phillips came to the United States and earned a B.S. degree in mathematics at the University of Iowa and a M.A. in plant ecology at the University of Colorado. She then returned to Malaysia to work as an assistant professor of biology at Universiti Putra Malaysia, where she taught undergraduate general botany and zoology courses. In these courses, Dr. Phillips incorporated the conservation of genetic resources and initiated research on conservation of various fruit species native to Borneo. Dr. Phillips was the recipient of an East-West Center doctoral scholarship to pursue postgraduate studies at the University of Hawaii.
Dr. Phillips earned a Ph.D. in plant genetic resources, which focused on genetic conservation and molecular systematic of papaya (Carica papaya), a commercially important crop of the tropics, and its wild relatives. Her dissertation research encompassed not only the native range of Carica papaya as a species but its related wild species in the area of greatest diversity in Central America and the Andean region.
After completing her Ph.D., an opportunity to expand her academic career interests in conservation of plant genetic resources, molecular genetics, systematic and conservation biology of tropical biodiversity occurred when she was recruited by the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) to teach and conduct plant genetic research in Borneo.
In Borneo, Dr. Phillips' research focused on conservation biology and molecular genetics of endemic and economically important plants. She collaborated on a UNIMAS research grant to assess genetic variability in endemic hardwoods in tropical lowland rainforests and peat swamp wetlands to undergird conservation and restoration efforts underway in Borneo. Also, Dr. Phillips participated in a committee to advise federal and state planners on various policy matters including biodiversity conservation and the establishment of a biotechnology center in Sarawak.
Prior to joining the Conservation and Environmental Science (CES) Program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Dr. Phillips worked at the Global Environmental Management (GEM) Education Center at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point as a Senior Scientist. At GEM, she trained HIV/AIDS communities in Kenya on small garden systems to augment nutrition for HIV/AIDS patient undergoing Anti-Retroviral Treatment; worked on building sustainable agriculture and agroforestry of underserved and Native American communities in northern Wisconsin; studied the benefits of polyculture and companion planting (e.g. The Three Sister’s Garden) versus monoculture of Native American heirloom seeds of corn, beans and squash. She continues to focus her research on breeding poplars for phytoremediation of atrazine in Wisconsin, understanding the underlying genetic mechanisms of invasive species such as purple loosestrife and reed canary grass; genecology and plant genetic resources conservation in Borneo (Malaysia) and the Americas.
As the CES Program Coordinator, Dr. Phillips will be involved in student academic and career advising; CES program administration, development and assessment; community building; internship development, placement and supervision; and teaching. | <urn:uuid:7584c309-cb94-4241-be5e-bc2c0e2913df> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www4.uwm.edu/letsci/ces/faculty/phillips.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916704 | 736 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Disparities in care for blacks linked to segregation, unconscious bias
Black patients are less satisfied with care from doctors who show unintentional bias.
Highly segregated areas have disparities in lung cancer death rates, research shows.
By Kevin B. O’Reilly
Two studies published in January highlight the challenges blacks face in accessing equitable, quality health care.
In one study, primary care physicians found to have unconscious bias against blacks received lower marks from their African-American patients on measures of trust and communication skills. Another study found that racial segregation exacerbates disparities in lung cancer mortality.
More than 130 Denver-area primary care doctors and other health professionals such as nurse practitioners took psychological tests that measure implicit bias toward different racial and ethnic groups. Test takers were shown a series of faces, along with positive words such as “joy” and bad words such as “nasty.”
The speed with which the test taker associates the words with black or white faces demonstrates the existence and extent of their unconscious bias. The assessment, called the implicit association test, has been used in more than 700 studies in health care, psychology, market research and political science.
About two-thirds of the Denver doctors showed implicit bias against blacks, with 43 percent landing unconscious bias scores graded as moderate or strong, said the study, published January in Annals of Family Medicine. Then, nearly 3,000 of all the physicians’ patients were surveyed and asked to rate the doctors on items such as knowledge of the patient, patience, caring, how well they explained things and how much they helped with decision-making.
All of the patients, regardless of their race or ethnicity, gave their doctors generally good scores. On a 100-point scale, whites gave their doctors an average score of 82, compared with 80 for black patients.
But black patients cared for by doctors who demonstrated unconscious bias on the psychological testing gave those doctors much worse ratings, nearly five points lower on average. For example, physicians who showed strong bias on the testing got a grade about six points lower on a survey about interpersonal treatment that measures perceived friendliness and respect. More than 80 percent of the physicians were white, and the rest were Hispanic or black.
Previous studies have found that lower patient satisfaction scores are correlated with poorer outcomes on a wide range of metrics, such as medication adherence and hospital readmissions. There is still no proven way to combat the unconscious biases that can undermine some doctors’ relationships with black patients, said Irene V. Blair, PhD, lead author of the Denver study.
“We’re not at that point yet where we can say, ‘Here are the five steps to be unbiased,’ ” said Blair, associate professor in the Dept. of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Colorado Boulder. “It’s more about how to have better patient interactions generally, thinking about how to serve the needs of individual patients, open up communication, acknowledge the perspective of the patient and develop mutual respect.”
While Hispanic patients were the least satisfied with their care overall — grading doctors 78 out of 100, on average — there was no correlation between their physicians’ unconscious bias against Latinos and lower ratings. How unconscious bias affects physician relationships with Hispanic patients needs more study, Blair said. An Oct. 4, 2012, study in the Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health found that, surprisingly, more recent Hispanic immigrants with less English proficiency handed out higher care ratings than did more assimilated Latinos, black patients or white patients.
Segregation’s lasting legacy
If the persistence of unconscious bias poses a challenge for physicians struggling to connect with their minority patients, racial segregation appears to present a larger and deadlier quandary that extends well beyond the doctor’s office.
Researchers reviewed lung cancer mortality between 2003 and 2007 and compared it with racial segregation patterns in 1,251 U.S. counties. Overall, blacks have a higher lung cancer death rate than whites do, with 59 in 100,000 blacks dying of the disease compared with 52 in 100,000 whites. That disparity grows wider the more segregated a community is, said a study in January’s JAMA Surgery, formerly Archives of Surgery.
After accounting for smoking prevalence, income levels and other factors that could affect lung cancer mortality rates, researchers found that black patients in counties designated as highly segregated had a 26 percent higher lung cancer death rate — 62.9 in 100,000 — than did whites, who died at a rate of 50 in 100,000. In counties with low segregation, the death rates were virtually the same.
Poverty alone does not explain the tie between segregation and lung cancer mortality, said Awori J. Hayanga, MD, MPH, the study’s lead author.
“It is the lack of access, the deprivation, but also the intangible socio-cultural aspects of it,” said Dr. Hayanga, a heart and lung transplant fellow at the University of Pittsburgh. “One, you may not have the screening services. Two, if you do have screening services, do you have the specialists to see? Will the population dealing with this trust the system enough to go or is there a cultural barrier that stops them from going to that second phase of their care? It isn’t one thing — it’s a complex equation where enough things collude to make it happen.”
The tie between segregation and lung cancer deaths “raises red flags,” said Rahn K. Bailey, MD, president of the National Medical Association., which promotes the interests of black physicians and patients.
“Unfortunately, I cannot say that it’s surprising,” said Dr. Bailey, chair of the Dept. of Psychiatry at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn. “In these segregated settings, it’s easier to channel resources in one direction and prevent them from going in another direction. Those are the types of unfortunate strategies, employed knowingly or not, that often are the culprits of disparities in health care outcomes for African-Americans.”
Dr. Hayanga and his co-authors argue for broader availability of lung cancer screening and treatment in highly segregated areas. Renewed efforts to integrate residential areas could save lives, they said.
+ Top Story
Our bodies naturally crave salt, a necessary nutrient, and research shows that we gravitate to the amount we need for our bodies to function properly. Salt deficiency has been linked to a host of health concerns, including insulin resistance, increased risk of heart attacks and reduced cognition.
A new report by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention shows that the teen birth rate for African Americans has declined by 60 percent between 1991 and 2011 – a rate 10 percent greater than the overall dip in teen birth rates.
American women spend more time taking care of their families, homes and jobs than themselves. With so much time invested in caring for others, women can overlook the importance of their own health. Yet, neglecting their own health needs can make it much harder for women to also take care of those they love.
With Spring finally upon us, now’s the time to evaluate those New Year’s Resolutions to get slim and trim or to make healthy lifestyle changes. Are you totally proud of yourselves for your progress, or trying to figure out what to do to get back on track in time for summer?
Many women know that getting a Pap test regularly from their health care provider is a good way to check for signs of cervical cancer, the second most common cancer in women worldwide. What they might not know is that a “normal” Pap result does not necessarily mean they are cancer-free.
When you’re done with spring cleaning, you may assume you’ve eliminated any allergy triggers that were lurking in your home. But the truth is, if you don’t clean the right way, you might be making the problem worse.
Sixty Temple physicians have been named to Philadelphia magazine’s annual “Top Doctors” list. Nominated by their professional peers, the physicians on the list practice at Temple University Hospital, Fox Chase Cancer Center and Jeanes Hospital.
Managing diabetes just got a little bit easier. For the first time in history J.D. Power and Associates, the premier market research firm, has reviewed blood glucose meters based on feedback and insights from nearly 3,000 people with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. | <urn:uuid:7638142f-1818-4321-97f6-20be9016283a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.philasun.com/news/3897/20/Sen-Hughes-recognizes-Breast-Cancer-Awareness-Month-Prevention-and-early-detection-are-key.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959828 | 1,739 | 2.9375 | 3 |
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So what’s the deal with HDFN?
This is sort of a intro to the disease and a less slapdash intro to pre-natal testing. I personally am not very excited by the prenatal part of it, but it’s important. I tried to do this assuming very limited knowledge of blood banking, but it is kind of an esoteric discipline so please ask if something I wrote has completely boggled you.
There’s two kinds, one is ABO HDFN, which is very mild and is the result of an ABO incompatibility between the mother and the baby. Most of the time, this isn’t even detected by physicians except in routine neonatal bloodbank testing.
The picture from my last post probably gave you a good idea of the other. IgG antibodies have the distinct ability to cross the placenta, so if the mother has any blood group antibodies of the IgG variety(usually from a transfusion or exposure in a previous pregnancy) and the baby happens to have the corresponding blood group antigen, it will end up destroying the baby’s blood cells (erythroblastosis fetalis). The hemolysis is at its peak at birth but will decline once the maternal antibodies in its circulation go down. The anemia may be severe enough that the baby will develop severe edema in utero (hydrops fetalis), or jaundice after it is born (icterus gravis neonatorum).
There’s… a lot of blood groups out there, which I won’t get into right now, but HDFN is usually a result of Rh antigens and happens in a huge spectrum of severities. Usually it is against the D which is the most immunogenic blood group antigen after ABO (which is also why we include it in a routine blood typing). Sometimes it is anti-c, which is part of the same blood group. Anti-K from the Kell group can also cause severe HDFN but is rare because most people don’t have a K antigen to react.
So that aside! Let’s talk about prenatal testing because no one wants their babies to get sick with this:
The way it happens here is that Canadian Blood Services will take two tubes from mom in her first trimester: one chemistry tube for serology testing so the baby doesn’t contract hepatitis/syphilis/HIV/rubella/varicella. The other, in EDTA, is used to determine her blood type and to do an antibody screen/ID to look for antibodies. This can go several ways:
If the screen is negative and she is D pos, then everyone is happy and we all move on with our lives.
If the screen is negative but she is D negative, then she gets a shot of this lovely product we call WinRho (AKA anti-D or RhIg).
WinRho is adminstered automatically at 28weeks where there is a spike in the risk of a bleed, even if we have no idea what the ABORh of the baby is. The mother might become immunized if the baby bleeds into her, and if it is D positive, any other pregnancies down the line may become very difficult for HDFN reasons.
The product itself is pooled anti-D from donors (but I think there is a manufactured product available) which will bind the baby’s cells before her lymphocytes can react to them, so she will not make her own antibodies. 300ug of WinRho can clear about 30mL of whole blood.
If she is D neg and is screen positive (anti-D or not), then this is considered a critical and her pregnancy is monitored by an obstetrics specialist the whole way through. She does NOT get WinRho if she is screen positive for anti-D because she is actively producing her own and doesn’t need more!
They will do a titration of her antibody to see what the level is. In short, doubling dilutions of the serum will be made and the inverse of the highest dilution that the antibody reacts is her titre:
This level actually does not matter because it is an arbitrary value anyways. A new blood draw will be made every month and titrated along side a re-test of the original. If the titre increases 4x from the original, this is considered a significant increase and suggests 1) the baby is bleeding into the mother and/or 2) the mother is actively mounting an immune response to it and the obstetrician will intervene.
And that’s the wonderful world of prenatal blood banking. Next: The much, much more exciting world of post-natal blood bank testing. | <urn:uuid:689b9b62-6f8d-452c-8709-052a2a368cf8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://statlab.tumblr.com/post/6545665324/lab-tests-prenatal-blood-banking | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946925 | 1,009 | 2.234375 | 2 |
Click on the thumbnail above to view the full-sized cartoon!
I’m easily entertained.
For the last few weeks, I’ve been experimenting, working on various projects that I want to try with the Girl Scouts this coming school year. You see, one of the moms said she and her daughter would only stay on if things were “interesting” this coming year. And yours truly took that as a challenge. Then I read through the badge and journey books and found them to be… boring. Sure there’s some interesting stuff in there, but it’s been presented as dull, dry, and devoid of fun. And for all of Girl Scouts emphasis on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math), there was danged little of it appearing in either book. So I started looking for ways to rewrite the books, ways that included doing more interesting activities. Like say, learning basic electronics by making LED throwies.
To be clear, I checked with people at our service unit and council to make sure I had leeway to do this. The girls do NOT have to earn any badges. They can do whatever activities they want. But anything we do that doesn’t comply with the badge guidelines can only count toward patches. What’s the difference between a badge and a patch? As I understand it, badges are approved by Girl Scouts USA, and the guidelines to earn them are in the Girl Guide books and Journey books. Patches are for any other activities the girls participate in. Badges go on the front of the sash or the vest. Patches go on the back.
Right now, I’m pulling together a list of projects the girls can do, some of which they can earn badges for and some of which they will earn patches for. Wherever possible, I’m shooting for badges. A lot of the badge requirements can be dressed up as a lot more fun than they’ve been presented. But if I come across a cool project or activity that we don’t have a badge for, and the girls want to do it, then we’re doing it. Because you know what? We don’t need no stinkin’ badges. They’re nice to have, but we don’t need them.
What we do need is to educate girls to be leaders, and to get them excited about STEM. So I’m doing all I can right now to make that happen. I’ll be sure to share the results with you as we go along | <urn:uuid:40519814-fe16-4445-ab62-fd4694a3dd22> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cynicalwoman.com/2012/07/23/acw-171-let-there-be-light/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966559 | 532 | 1.960938 | 2 |
Summer study-abroad programs open doors to global experiences
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Joe Featherall, a fifth-year mechanical engineering student, has always loved travel and automobiles. At RIT, he combined both of his loves through a series of co-op assignments in automotive engineering and participation in the College of Liberal Arts’ study-abroad program at the Speak and Write Institute in Marburg, Germany. He loved the region so much that he has accepted a position as an engineer with BMW’s facility in Munich following graduation this May.
“I was able to immerse myself in German culture and language and really experience the country as a resident instead of a tourist,” Featherall notes. “I also interacted with people from many nations and all walks of life and enjoyed hearing different views on politics, religion and the ways in which science and education are carried out in other countries.”
Featherall is just one of several hundred students who have participated in the study-abroad initiatives in Germany, Italy, Croatia and Japan over the last two decades. These efforts augment numerous additional study-abroad programs offered throughout the university as part of RIT’s growing initiatives in international education. Research shows that these experiences improve student retention and overall satisfaction with the university experience. Participants in the liberal arts program receive college credit, take courses at partner institutions and work with RIT faculty who spend the summer with their students.
“The overall immersion and interaction they receive would not be possible if we were teaching the courses at RIT,” says Vincent Serravallo, associate professor of sociology, who directs the summer program at RIT’s affiliate institution, the American College of Management and Technology in Dubrovnik.
The unique educational and research opportunities provided for both students and professors greatly enhance RIT’s efforts to increase real-world experience in all areas of curriculum.
“Students gain a greater understanding of numerous fields through observing how businesses operate in other nations, while professors can interact with foreign researchers to expand their own professional development,” adds Elisabetta D’Amanda, director of the RIT Italian program at the A Door to Italy Institute in Genoa.
D’Amanda is working with Malcolm Spaull, chair of RIT’s School of Film and Animation, to develop a course in film and photography which will run this summer. In addition, RIT students and faculty in the Japanese program participate in the Intensive Program in Japanese for Science and Technology at the Kanazawa Institute of Technology, which promotes international science education and research between foreign and Japanese students and faculty.
The college hopes to expand programs in participating countries and ultimately create initiatives in additional nations and regions of the world. | <urn:uuid:63cf5262-c554-4bb0-b515-a30222f39bcb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rit.edu/news/athenaeum_story.php?id=47643 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959277 | 571 | 1.78125 | 2 |
MONDAY, Nov. 19 (HealthDay News) -- An individual's personality can explain a substantial portion of their placebo analgesic response, according to a study published online Nov. 16 in Neuropsychopharmacology.
Marta Peciña, M.D., Ph.D., from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and colleagues examined the ability of personality traits to predict response to a placebo after an experimental pain challenge in 50 healthy volunteers.
The researchers found that ego-resiliency, altruism, and straightforwardness were positive predictors, and angry hostility was a negative predictor, which could together explain 25 percent of variance in the placebo analgesic response. People scoring above the median on a composite of these traits experienced greater placebo-induced activation of µ-opioid neurotransmission in regions including the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and the periaqueductal gray, which correlated with placebo-induced reductions in pain ratings. Reductions in cortisol levels were noted during administration of placebo, and correlated positively with decreases in pain ratings and endogenous opioid activation and negatively with angry hostility.
The results "suggest that simple trait measures easily deployable in the field could be utilized to reduce variability in clinical trials, but may also point to measures of individual resiliency in the face of aversive stimuli such as persistent pain and potentially other stressors," Peciña and colleagues conclude.
Copyright © 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
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Join the Doctors Lounge online medical community | <urn:uuid:987822f2-edea-4d78-9bdf-145a5dcc0925> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.doctorslounge.com/index.php/news/pb/33713 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908352 | 368 | 1.757813 | 2 |
The U.S. Navy expects cost growth on its largest shipbuilding project to continue, and will need to ask Congress next year for permission to pay the higher-than-planned-for bills.
“Will the Navy be asking for legislative relief from the cost cap of $600 million?” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., asked March 15 during a Navy budget hearing.
“Not this year, but I’m certain we will be asking next year,” replied Navy Secretary Ray Mabus.
Congress in 2008 capped the acquisition cost of the new nuclear aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) at $11.76 billion. The Government Accountability Office, however, has warned that — if uncontrolled — cost growth on the project could reach as much as $1 billion by 2015.
The admission by Mabus comes despite repeated assertions by the Navy and shipbuilder Huntington-Ingalls Industries (HII) that they are working to restrain the price rise on the ship, being built to the first new carrier design since the 1960s.
“This is the lead ship of the class,” Mabus told McCain. “You and I have discussed how much new technology was put on this previously, and how the risk went up, and how the downside of that risk came true.”
Speaking to reporters after his appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Mabus reiterated the challenges involved in keeping the ship within its budget.
“In the late ’90s, they were going to put new technology on three successive carriers,” he said. “In 2002, the defense secretary [Donald Rumsfeld] made the decision no, we’re going to put it on one, 78. That sent the risk sky high.
“That contract was supposed to be signed for that ship in 2006; it didn’t get signed until 2008,” Mabus said. “When the contract was signed, the ship was about 30 percent designed. That is no way to build a ship. There is no surprise that the cost has gone up.”
The Ford is designed with a host of new features, Mabus said.
“This is a brand new ship. It’s a new hull, it’s a new island, a new [aircraft] launch system, a new recovery system, a new electrical system, a new propulsion system. When you try to smush all that together in one ship, you raise the risk. And the downside of risk is cost growth.
“I think they attempted way too much on one major platform,” he added.
Mabus pledged that the situation will not be repeated on the next carrier, the John F. Kennedy (CVN 79).
“The one thing that we are absolutely committed to and the one thing that we will not go forward with on CVN 79 is that we will take the lessons learned here,” he told McCain. “We will have a firm price, and we will not come back to the Senate or Congress to ask for raising the cost cap on the John F. Kennedy, CVN-79.” | <urn:uuid:343a6e18-6327-4a97-9750-5de587417e88> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.defensenews.com/article/20120316/DEFREG02/303160003 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967892 | 664 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Title: Reading Women: How the Great Books of Feminism Changed My Life
Author: Stephanie Staal
Acquired: Won in an online giveaway.
One Sentence Summary: Can the great books of feminism help one working mother reconcile her idealized outlook on life from college to the experiences she has today?
One Sentence Review: Although I felt like I was not quite the right age group for Reading Women, I loved the analysis of feminists texts and want to go read even more of them.
If reading has always been a journey of imagination, a means of escape, it has also been, perhaps at least as importantly, a way of absorbing the intricate complexities of life and experience. To me, books are like magic: They inform the mind and transform the spirit.
When a book starts out with a statement like that one, I know it’s going to be a book that resonates with me. For Stephanie Staal, author of Reading Women, rereading the classic books of feminism creates a pathway for her as she struggles to reconcile her roles as wife, mother, and individual.
Staal originally read many of these books when she was a 19-year-old college student at Barnard College, a women’s college in New York City, taking Feminism 101. Fem Texts is a year-long course where students explore many of the major works of the feminist movement, from the first-wave feminists like Mary Wollenscraft to the second- and third-wave feminists of the ‘70s, ‘80s, and today. Struggling through the day-to-day obligations of being a wife and mother, Staal feels the limitless potential of her college self slipping away and decides to re-enroll in Fem Texts to see what the books can teach her now. Reading Women is a memoir and literary analysis of what the books have meant and continue to mean to women of today.
I think what I most appreciated about this book was how honest Staal was when approaching the idea of early feminists that women should “have it all” — a great career, motherhood, and total fulfillment. That promise — one that Staal herself counted on — is not always the case, and Reading Women does a good job of exploring the different ways that promise is kept and not kept for the women of today. I think that’s an important message.
But I also got the feeling about midway through Reading Women that I was in between the perfect ages for this book, and so while I enjoyed the analysis of great feminists texts and many of Staal’s anecdotes about them, I felt disconnected from the types of insights she was having. For each book Staal reads and discusses, she explores both her reaction to it as an idealistic college feminist and her reaction to it in the present as she tries to reconcile the different roles she is being asked to fill.
I’m not an idealistic college student anymore, nor am I married with a kid and trying to reconcile an identity I once had with what my life is now. I’m in some sort of middle phase between these two places, and so felt like Reading Women was just a couple steps ahead or behind me the entire way though. There are anecdotes about Staal’s life in this middle space, but they’re not the focus of the book. I suspect this disconnect makes this a book that I’m going to reread myself when I get to a time when my issues match Staal’s more closely.
In a lot of ways, I think that’s Staal’s point anyway — books mean things to use at different periods, they impact us a lot or not at all or in different ways depending on what we bring to them ourselves:
Since this is, at its heart, a book about rereading, my greatest hope is that others will be inspired to read — or reread — some or all of the books that have been mentioned on these pages and any I may have left out.
I’m not familiar with many of the books Staal focused on in this reading, but the book made me want to pick up so many of them — The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir, The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan, and A Room of One’s Own by Virgina Woolf, just to name a few — and give them a try to see what they might be able to teach me now.
If you have reviewed this book, please leave a link to the review in the comments and I will add your review to the main post. All I ask is for you to do the same to mine — thanks! | <urn:uuid:ca66806a-d204-4d4c-b44a-7c3a9ebd8854> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sophisticateddorkiness.com/2011/02/review-reading-women-by-stephanie-staal/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974796 | 976 | 1.796875 | 2 |
The solstice is caused by the sun's position in the sky and the amount of sunlight that spreads across the planet, a change incited by the degree of the tilt in the Earth's axis. Today the Earth will drink in more sun than any other day in the calendar year -- but scientists are quick to point out this doesn't mean today is the warmest day of the year.
However, with a high of 68 degrees in Portland today, it's clear that the Rose City is finally beginning to catch on to this summer thing. June has already seen record rainfall, but it seems that as the sun makes its slow journey upward in the sky, so too does the Portland area make its embattled trek toward the summer season.
Summer always means festivals in Portland, and while the Rose Festival had the misfortune of having to close on a few days due to rain, other festivals on the docket may not have to experience this same bad luck.
Some of the many festivals coming up to look out for include:
- Pedalpalooza 2010: June 10-27
- North American Organic Brewers Festival: June 25-27
- Mississippi Ave Street Fair: July 10
- Oregon Brewers Festival: July 22-25
- PDX Bridge Festival: July 23 - August 8
- PDX Pop Now!: July 30 - August 1
- The Bite of Oregon: August 6-8
10 day weather report and just revel in it. | <urn:uuid:0b4ee20c-7109-422c-8f02-a910f00fec44> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oregonlive.com/idahosportugal/index.ssf/2010/06/the_first_day_of_summer_portla.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973881 | 295 | 2.203125 | 2 |
Tiny aka Lisa Gray-Garcia is the cofounder (with her late mama, Dee) of POOR Magazine, a grassroots arts and media-justice organization in San Francisco. Tiny and Dee were houseless for much of Tiny’s childhood, evading various systems that threatened to institutionalize, exploit, and incarcerate them. They survived and fought back by remaining fiercely dedicated to each other, creating independent microbusinesses to make ends meet, becoming underground avant-garde art celebrities, and creating POOR Magazine to make silenced voices of poor and indigenous people heard through media and art. Tiny tells their story in her 2006 memoir, Criminal of Poverty: Growing up Homeless in America (City Lights).
Tiny has been a friend and mentor to me since 2007, when I invited her and four others from POOR to present at Making Money Make Change (MMMC), a yearly social-justice conference I helped organize for young people with wealth. My story, in brief, is that I was raised in a newly wealthy family, developed anti-capitalist politics while hitchhiking around the country in my teens, and began organizing other young rich kids with secret trust funds to give away their inheritances to revolutionary organizing and fight for social justice.
I was inspired by POOR’s work and vision. A poor-people-led organization with no paid staff and next to no traditional funding, POOR has a huge scope. Started as a print magazine, POOR now publishes content weekly at www.poormagazine.org. POOR’s members are educators, cultural workers, trainers, poets, journalists, performers, and media producers. In part because they refuse to yield to the demands of traditional funders and corporate media, POOR maintains a holistic and transformative vision. Their work exceeds traditional definitions of media justice to encompass a wide range of activism and organizing for poor people’s rights, as well as a commitment to community building, eldership, ritual and spirituality, and working for the global reclamation of poor people’s stolen land and resources.
My and Tiny’s relationship has thrived on recognizing the tensions and differences between our identities, in regards to class as well as race and gender. (I’m a white trans person and Tiny is a mixed-race, non-trans woman.) We’ve built trust by talking candidly about what it means to be rooted in our individual histories, communities, and relationships to systemic power while working for a shared vision of economic justice.
Since MMMC, we’ve had many conversations about reparations, funding revolutionary work beyond the nonprofit industrial complex, and how privileged radicals can leverage resources and power in support of movements led by poor people. In 2009, we collaborated with other members and allies of POOR to create Revolutionary Giving, a weekend-long strategy session held at POOR’s offices that focused on building movement dialogue around funding, reparations, and economic justice; about twenty fundraisers, activists, donors, students, and members of POOR participated.
The following offers a glimpse of our ongoing dialogue.
Tyrone: An important thing that defined the Revolutionary Giving session was that poor people were framing the conversation, not funders—so we were able to talk about the role that structural violence and histories of oppression play in funding dynamics. Those conversations don’t usually happen, because of how much is at stake—there’s often a silent imperative not to alienate donors by talking about oppression in a way that implicates them. POOR reframes the dynamic so that funders are responsible to grassroots organizers instead of the other way around.
Tiny: The way POOR thinks about funding is completely informed by our beliefs about poverty scholarship. It’s crucial to look at whose knowledge is considered valuable. Who knows how to best meet the needs of poor people and other marginalized communities—a wealthy funder with a master’s, or an indigena elder who’s been in poverty their whole life? Revolutionary giving is about recognizing that having wealth doesn’t qualify you to direct movements. And it doesn’t entitle you to keep that wealth—that’s what community reparations is about.
Tyrone: Can you talk more about community reparations?
Tiny: Community reparations means that decisions about how to help people in struggle are made by people in struggle—and that people with resources hear that knowledge and take action accordingly.
Reparations is about repairing a wrong—if you know your money comes from wrong-ass places, if you have an understanding of histories of oppression and stolen resources, then there should be no question that you’ll direct that money back towards the communities or movements that were harmed in the creation of that wealth.
One beautiful example is that one of the solidarity-board members at POOR is launching an effort to get land for [our] Homefulness [project]—because that’s where her reparations need to go, because her family made money on real-estate development and speculation.
Community reparations is a spectrum, it’s a way of life. It’s about not devaluing or criminalizing the choices poor people make, the things we do to survive. The way that we’ve managed to do so much of what we’ve done at POOR is through what I call “underground economic strategies”—i.e., beg, borrow, and steal. And that’s essentially how all us poor folks ever do anything—we use economic strategies that are criminalized. When poor people figure out how to do something outside of the norm, it’s criminalized—whereas if Dick Cheney figures out how to do something outside of a norm, it’s called a corporation.
So another level of community reparations would be giving money to underground economic strategists panhandling on the street, without tripping about what they’’re going to do with the money. A CEO of Chevron doesn’’t get questions about what they’’re doing with their money— – why should a panhandler?
Tyrone: It’s a powerful model to apply to philanthropy, because it shifts the focus away from outcomes—receiving grants is usually dependent on having the right language, the best application, the right kind of reporting—doing what funders want, basically.
Tiny: Exactly. At POOR, we refuse to talk in outcomes—how many poor people did you teach in 2009, how much did they learn, how many jobs did they get, how long did they stay in their housing, and all that crap.
Not only is that shit disrespectful, but it wastes a lot of time, a lot of energy, a lot of fucking trees, and a lot of people’s work that could be spent on actual solutions.
Tyrone: It feels like community reparations is more challenging to implement the larger the scale becomes—like the more privilege/power/resources people have, the more desperately we try to hold onto it.
And you can go to a session like Revolutionary Giving and be inspired by concepts like community reparations, but if you have certain kinds of privilege it’s easy to retreat back into a community that’s detached from people in struggle.
Tiny: That’s why we have deeper conversations about interdependence. How do you teach people to be connected to their fellow humans? How do you teach people to be not just in relation to each other—like, say hello to the panhandler or whatever—but to actually have a responsibility to caregiving?
The teaching of that is rooted in figuring out your relationship to the planet, to your fellow beings. And not just a cute fuzzy cat, but the mama with six kids who has no money. It requires a very intense level of non-selfishness . . . really feeling like you are responsible for your fellow human being.
There are so many people who have nothing who live that way. That’s a mindfuck for a lot of people raised in capitalism, that there are many people whose primary, most deeply held value is taking care of their family and community. That is the final, and probably the deepest, strain of community reparations.
Tyrone: That’s what inspires me most when I organize other privileged folks—seeing people act not from a sense of guilt or charity or even a tight political analysis, but from a feeling of being bound up with other people on the planet. The bigger goal is moving people towards community and interdependence—and understanding how that can be a form of wealth that offers more safety and security than individual power and resources. Getting to that place feels like a spiritual process in some ways.
Tiny: Exactly. At POOR, we root what we do in spirituality and love and ancestor worship. It’s not religious—it’s an understanding that everyone comes with different relationships to the earth and our spirits and our beings and our gods and our folks, and the bigger understanding that we’re all really invested in the care of each other.
Tyrone: At the Revolutionary Giving session, we talked about the idea of living with/caring for families of origin. You posed it as a challenge to privileged people: “Would you be willing to move back home as part of your commitment to revolutionary giving?” It was pretty challenging and provocative for people. Could you talk more about what this idea means to you?
Tiny: There are a few different threads to this. The first one is the concrete level: the tangible results of collective living—resource sharing, reducing consumption, and so on—are in themselves radical acts that challenge capitalism.
But the other thread, the deeper one, is about redesigning ways that people are in relationship with each other. At POOR, we believe that if we aim to transform the world and to caretake communities and movements, caretaking has to start with our roots—our family, if that’s possible. Instead of behaving like a twenty-first-century missionary activist, only taking action in communities that you aren’t a part of, or that are more oppressed than you, you also need to care for your own people. There’s a separation that results from a certain kind of activism; increasingly, the nonprofit industrial complex creates compartmentalization between our personal lives and our movement work. But justice in the world and justice in our families—we don’t see these things as separate. So to us, if you talk about community reparations, you need to also talk about how are you caregiving for the elders in your family.
Often it’s easier to say, “My family are Republicans, my family are capitalists, they told me to get out at eighteen, they have an attitude, my mom is a nightmare, my mom’s CRAZY.”
So fucking what. I caregave for a mom who had a horrible life, and from a western, Eurocentric perspective she wasconsidered crazy. She was extremely not user-friendly and not easy to deal with. And it’s in my deep structure as a person of color, as an indigenous person, that that doesn’t matter. It’s not an excuse or a reason to abandon her or to warehouse her.
Now, I know that this gets really touchy with folks. Especially folks who’ve had a lot of years of therapy. No, seriously—I want to call that out. In dominant culture, the support is not given for staying and caregiving. The support is given to leave, cut ties, and become independent. That’s really embedded in western psychotherapy, in Freudian and Jungian theory. And let’s be real about white folks—that’s a lot of where their knowledge comes from, especially folks with privilege.
Tyrone: I agree, and one of the things that inspires me about POOR is this commitment to approaching the work holistically, with so much respect and connection to elders, youth, ancestors, and community. I think it’s also important to talk about ways of building community outside of family of origin, which I see happening in healing ways within queer communities, and also within the incredibly diverse community that POOR is creating. I have a very close relationship with my family and feel grateful for that, but so many people have families that are abusive, or rejected them for being queer or different. What do these ideas mean in those contexts?
Tiny: That’s absolutely real—I don’t want to invalidate that. I pose it as a challenge partly for shock value, to make people think. In some ways it’s just a metaphor. Most people in the U.S. have been taught to relate to their families in this detached, capitalist paradigm that’s about individualism. How do you get people to think deeply about that in, like, two seconds? I pose it as a challenge because I want people to rethink this paradigm that pathologizes staying with and caretaking for family of origin—but the specific action people take is completely related to their particular situation.
Tyrone: As a poor people’s organization, how did POOR start teaching and training people with privilege, and how do you see that being connected to your work?
Tiny: Before there was a POOR Magazine, my mom and I made conceptual art—similar to stuff that Linda Montano or Yoko Ono were making. We started making art while living through houselessness.
The art world itself is privileged—in terms of who’s considered an artist and, most importantly, who’s supported in art making. We got to know lots of privileged trust-funder artists. There were a lot of folks who, although they appreciated the art that we were doing, saw no problem in the fact that we were never able to work in a gallery, never got grants, were never supported in the art that we were doing beyond this fetishized, marginalized “outsider art” reality.
But we met some really great cats as well. Evri Kwong is a Tibetan American artist who did the cover art for two of our magazines, just an amazingly beautiful guy in so many ways. We had an art auction when we were launching POOR and had no money, and Evri kicked down a $2,000 painting. And because he was a known artist, it sold. And that’s how POOR Magazine was finally published—through that relationship between folks with privilege and folks without it.
As POOR developed into an organization, suddenly people who weren’t poor wanted to help us—which raised questions about our vision and about poor-people leadership. A lot of the worst destructions in herstory have happened because of the idea of help; “help” is the root of colonization, the root of missionary work, right?
It was very important for help not to become missionary or hierarchical or—the worst thing of all—default leadership. This is a big risk in media production, because you need a particular skill set that often comes from having resources or formal education. Wh
en you talk in terms of media production, the “help” often becomes the leadership if you’re not being overt about what is valued as knowledge and what isn’t.
We had to create relationships with folks who had media-production skills because we needed to learn those skills. But in order to remain poor-people-led, we had to flip the notion of education, to redefine scholarship. The folks with formal education who were trying to help would need to be educated by the poverty scholars. The education that they already held from formal institutions of learning would need to be reframed as only one form of education, not the form of education.
We formed the Race, Poverty, and Media Justice Institute (RPMJ)—a project of POOR that creates seminars and trainings—to provide a forum for our poverty scholars to teach, and to have our knowledge honored and respected rather than colonized, stolen, borrowed from, and co-opted.
Tyrone: Could you describe what you mean by poverty scholarship?
Tiny: Poverty scholarship means valuing lived experience over formal education. It means that the people who are best equipped to report and teach about poverty, racism, police violence, etcetera, are the people who experience it. In most media production and academic work, there’s a voyeuristic aspect—to us, the primary source has to be someone who’s dealt with the issue firsthand. In other words, the person who’s usually the subject of media has to be the author, the broadcaster, the producer.
Tyrone: Will you talk about Homefulness, as a concrete example of the ways that POOR is working with the ideas of interdependence and community reparations?
Tiny: Homefulness is a project that we’re working towards, rooted in the landlessness (we don’t use “homelessness” anymore) of so many of our people. It’s a sweat-equity cohousing model, meaning that people [will] work in the community in exchange for living there. It includes gardens, microbusinesses, community spaces—it could be small, it could be large, but the idea is about moving off the grid of social-service management of poor people’s lives. It’s about creating healing and equity for landless, urban, indigena families. As a permanent solution to landlessness. | <urn:uuid:42c9d4db-e52f-4852-b566-0b26c088a69a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.enoughenough.org/tag/scarcity/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968602 | 3,695 | 1.742188 | 2 |