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Feature: On tour with Darwin's ideas
Marking the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth and 150th anniversary of ‘On the Origin of Species’.
The Research Councils worked together on an exhibition that toured the UK throughout 2009 to show how Darwin’s ideas still influence contemporary research – from bioscience to robotics, economics, language and business practices. Professor Alan Thorpe, who leads on public engagement for Research Councils UK (RCUK), describes the project.
The aim of ‘Darwin Today’ was to bring Darwin out of the history books and to illustrate how the theory of natural selection affects many aspects of our daily lives. Rather than presenting separate aspects individually, the Research Councils worked together to show the pervasiveness of Darwin’s ideas across diverse areas of research and study.
We were particularly keen to reach people across the UK, beyond ‘the usual circuit’. Over the year, ‘Darwin Today’ was presented at 34 sites from the Isles of Scilly to Orkney, and from Belfast to Norwich. It is estimated that at least half a million people have had access to the exhibition over the year. Venues included: civic centres, a school, libraries, science centres, a cathedral and museums; with the exhibition typically staying for between 2 and 4 weeks.
Aimed at ‘all-ages’, ‘Darwin Today’ included posters, puzzles and games, including a computer game that challenged players to overcome selection pressures as a plant and pass on their genes to a next generation. It also provided a backdrop for informal talks, discussion meetings and other activities. These included a discussion evening on Darwin’s ideas and creationism at ‘Search’ in Gosport, an ‘insect safari’ and Darwin talk in the Isles of Scilly, and school visits at the Forum, Norwich.
Darwin Today was led by BBSRC for RCUK. Further details about a small spin-off exhibit on plant and crop evolution and online resources from ‘Darwin Today’ are available from www.bbsrc.ac.uk/events
RCUK is very grateful to all those who hosted the exhibition during the year.
Darwin Today images
Click on the thumbnails to view and download full-size images.
These images are protected by copyright law and may be used with acknowledgement.
tel: 01793 414695
fax: 01793 413382 | <urn:uuid:bc2c5470-b883-4521-852f-b4b75c3b81f4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/news/business-magazine/2010/winter/feature-darwin-today-tour.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942648 | 513 | 2.484375 | 2 |
6th Floor, L & C Annex
401 Church Street, Nashville, TN 37243
Questions? Ask Water Quality
Division of Water Pollution Control
Land Reclamation Section
Tim Eagle, Manager
Abandoned coal mines pose serious threats to public health, safety and welfare as well as degrade the environment. The programs of the Tennessee Land Reclamation Section accomplish three important things: (1) They remove dangerous health and safety hazards that threaten the citizens of Tennessee; (2) they improve the environment; and (3) they restore resources to make them available for economic development, recreation, and other uses. Problems typically addressed by the Land Reclamation Section include open or improperly filled mine shafts, dilapidated mine buildings and equipment, toxic mine refuse and drainage, landslides, mine fires, highwalls and subsidence. Tennessee Code Annotated (59-8-324) authorizes the Commissioner of the Department of Environment and Conservation or its employees to acquire or enter property for the purposes of reclaiming abandoned mines.
The Land Reclamation Section is responsible for reclaiming those mine sites that have been designated as "abandoned", meaning those sites which have been mined prior to surface mining laws, those sites with no reclamation bond, or those sites where there is no continuing obligation to the mine operator(s). Both appropriated state dollars and federal grant dollars from the U.S. Department of Interior's Office of Surface Mining (www.osmre.gov) are used to reclaim the sites. With an annual operating budget of approximately 1.4 million dollars, the Land Reclamation Section administers around 10 reclamation contracts each year.
Land Reclamation staff are responsible for identifying potential reclamation project sites, designing reclamation plans and specifications for those sites, awarding reclamation contracts, and inspecting the reclamation work as it progresses.
The Land Reclamation Section is also responsible for reclaiming those mine sites where reclamation bonds (posted by the mine operator) were collected by the State because of inadequate reclamation. Many of the mine sites where bond has been collected were mined in the early to mid-1970's. Even though most of these sites were partially reclaimed by the operator, many require extensive earthmoving and revegetation to stabilize them. The bonds that were collected are usually not sufficient to fully reclaim the sites; therefore each bond collection mine site is prioritized in order to address those which exhibit the most adverse mining effects. Bonds from stable sites may be applied to those needing work where the amount of the bond is inadequate to fully reclaim the site.
Even though money is appropriated each year from the bond fund for forfeiture reclamation projects, only the highest priority sites are reclaimed because the fund is limited. All unexpended dollars are returned to the fund at the end of the fiscal year for use on future projects.
Since its inception in 1981, the Tennessee Land Reclamation Section has reclaimed over 2,400 acres of abandoned mine lands and abated hundreds of hazards at a cost of $24.8 million dollars. Approximately 900 acres have been reclaimed using $7.7 million of state appropriated monies and matching funds, while 1,500 acres have been reclaimed with $17 million in federal grant dollars.
(move the mouse cursor over the image to see before and after pictures of this abandoned mine.)
During the summer of 2003, the Land Reclamation Section will have four active reclamation projects:
Bear Creek UWA 3 (Scott County), this 13 acre
project will eliminate a dangerous highwall and spoil embankment.
Bear Creek UWA 4 (Scott County), this 58 acre project will eliminate dangerous highwalls and surface mine pits at five different sites.
Wilder 10 (Putnam and Overton Counties), this project will regrade and vegetate 8 acres at four different sites.
Rattlesnake 2 (Sequatchie County), this project will construct a passive treatment system to treat acid mine drainage from an abandoned underground mine.
Joy Sanders (Grundy County) - Elimination of
a 40 foot vertical shaft and construction of a subsurface drain to
address a surface mine drainage problem.
Hamblin Landslide (Claiborne County) - Removal of a mine related landslide that threatens a Claiborne county residence.
Cox Valley (Cumberland County) - Backfilling of dangerous surface mine pits adjacent to a heavily traveled county road.
Farmer Hill 2 (Grundy County) - Backfilling a dangerous highwall and hazardous water filled pit adjacent to a local cemetery and reclamation of 172 acres of abandoned mine lands.
Mine Safety and Health Administration's Stay Out! Stay Alive! Campaign | <urn:uuid:e0957dd0-48ed-434e-8251-e1564f1ff408> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://state.tn.us/environment/wpc/programs/abandmine/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926158 | 960 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Edvard Munch, The Scream (1893)
In his diary in an entry headed, Nice 22 January 1892, Munch described his inspiration for the image:
One evening I was walking along a path, the city was on one side and the fjord below. I felt tired and ill. I stopped and looked out over the fjord—the sun was setting, and the clouds turning blood red. I sensed a scream passing through nature; it seemed to me that I heard the scream. I painted this picture, painted the clouds as actual blood. The color shrieked. This became The Scream. | <urn:uuid:a187af00-9ad2-4e53-a7a2-3d1ea32521a0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://showslow.tumblr.com/post/38019175129/edvard-munch-the-scream-1893-in-his-diary-in | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986895 | 128 | 2.640625 | 3 |
-By Serge Birault
Here's a little walktrough my last picture of SpongeBob SquarePants. Yes, I know, I'm to old for that. But I thought it was a good exercice for my students in Paris. As they don't have very good drawing skills, we just put some colors on picture I found on the internet. The goal of the exercice was to create good volumes with very cartoon shapes. We used Photoshop.
Step 1 : Here's the coloring for kids we use for the exercice. I don't own any right on this picture.
Step 2 : I choosed my ambient light. The sketch is on a multiply layer on the top.
Step 3 : I choosed the direct lights.
Step 4 : I did a solid swath of yellow. I choosed this yellow accordingly with the background color.
Step 5 : With the soft round brush and a very low opacity, I painted the darkest parts and the shadows. I decreased the opacity of the layer of the sketch.
Step 6 : I tried to find my middle tones. I added a little bit of red.
Step 7 : I started the eyes and the teeth on another layer. I don't use white but a very bright blue/green. I used the background color on the side of SpongeBob.
Step 8 : I did the eyes and the pupils and I tried to fix the contrast and the colors.
Step 9 : I used the eraser to define the edges. On another layer, I painted a hole and I duplicated it several times, changing the size each time.
Step 10 : I made him a little bit more reflective. I started the shirt.
Step 11 : The hands and the shorts.
Step 12 : I did the shoes first step. I added the retro light and a bit of shadow on the floor.
Step 13 : I painted the reflection on the floor. SpongeBob is finished.
Step 14 : Jellyfish first step. I created a lot of layers for the transparency and the reflections.
Step 15 : Last step : I added the tentacles.
It was a quite difficult exercice for my students. Working without any references wasn't easy for them. By the way, I was pretty happy of their pictures. Next year, we will try Patrick Star or Gary :) | <urn:uuid:1754206c-763b-427b-a61a-1c6d4ec753c6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2013/03/spongebob-squarepants-in-15-steps.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940458 | 478 | 2.234375 | 2 |
Few people ride the bus and it costs hundreds of tax payer dollars to run and operate daily. City Council members say Wave Transit has consistently lost money but it's something the city can't do without.
Wave Transit has fourteen routes, some downtown, some at UNCW, and lines going to Brunswick and Columbus counties.
That Columbus County route hasn't seen many passengers. According to Wave Transit numbers in the past seven months, only 300 people rode the Columbus County connector.
That's about one person per day.
"It's sort of the idea of build it and they will come, have the service and somebody will take it, But it looks like it's not happening," City Councilman Jim Quinn said.
Now Wave Transit is adding new stops to the route in Leland and Delco.
"This program was started in a county with high unemployment, Columbus, to provide service to a county with low unemployment, New Hanover, where the jobs are," Wave Transit Director Albert Eby said.
But is it the best use of your tax dollars? Wave Transit says including maintenance, driver salary and gas, it costs $52 per hour to run the bus. That's $400 per day. A hefty price tag for a day averaging only one passenger.
"Well, it's true that it doesn't make any money," Jim Quinn said.
"It doesn't make sense if you look at it necessary from an economic stand point, but we're just trying to utilize the system the best to our advantage the way that it's set up," Eby with Wave Transit said.
Councilman Jim Quinn says since Wave Transit's inception three years ago, the bus system has always lost money. But there's never been any talk to get rid of the transportation program.
"What's the alternative?" Quinn said, "There's a large section of our population that can't get where they want to go without it."
Wave Transit is considering adding new routes one to Wrightsville Beach. It will go before the Board of Alderman Monday. | <urn:uuid:be3a622e-6ed2-4725-b28c-c1411c04dc5d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wwaytv3.com/comment/reply/3218 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96992 | 421 | 1.90625 | 2 |
Plastic Cups vs Styrofoam Cups: Which is better?
Of plastic cups vs Styrofoam cups, which one is really the best to use? Styrofoam and plastic are close competitors in the market when it comes to disposable cups. It is best to distinguish first the differences between these products—from the cost to environmental effects—before you decide on buying them, especially in bulk. There are several differences of plastic cups vs Styrofoam cups to help you decide which one to purchase.
Plastic and Styrofoam are two types of disposable cups that are often more convenient to use than reusable ones. Plastic comes in different types that can be made personalized, just like clear plastic cups where you can put the logo of your company or write down party messages. However, plastic cups are only good for cold drinks; hot drinks should be served in Styrofoam cups. In terms of their decomposition, plastic cups melt away easily whereas Styrofoam cups are more resistant to heat.
When it comes to cost, plastic is less expensive than Styrofoam. The manufacturing and shipping of plastic is cheaper due to its lightness and additionally, it is cheaper to produce. On the other hand, Styrofoam cups can work double-purpose, since they can be used for both hot and cold drinks. It appears that while Styrofoam is more expensive, it is cost-effective as compared to plastic.
Styrofoam cups are better insulators than plastic ones. It is able to maintain the warmth or coldness of the drink because of the billions of gas bubbles trapped in it that hampers the conduction of heat. Plastic cups do not possess the same insulating properties thus they are not recommended for holding hot drinks.
The battle of plastic cups vs Styrofoam cups will ultimately boil down to the greatest consideration, Mother Earth. Plastic cups are usually designed for single use, but they can be recycled if they are still in good condition. On the bad side, about 135 pounds of greenhouse gases can be emitted by a single production of a plastic cup. Also, not all kinds of plastic can be recycled. Nonetheless, recycling centers are not able to keep up with the amount of plastics disposed daily which particularly makes thousands of tons of plastic landfills every year. Styrofoam cups cannot be recycled at all and adds more to landfill trash because it does not deteriorate. Benzene and other harmful chemicals are used in the production of Styrofoam that environmentalists claim it to be detrimental for the environment. Though plastic cups are not biodegradable either, some types are generally recyclable, which makes it a more environment-friendly choice.
With these considerations when choosing plastic cups vs Styrofoam cups, keep in mind of the usage of these cups and how you will be able to dispose them. Both are convenient to use, but they have preferences in terms of the temperatures of the drinks they will hold. They also deteriorate at far differences. The ultimate choice is up to you. | <urn:uuid:79cf519a-ae20-4d41-b42c-6f10d8c8660c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://clearplasticcups.net/plastic-cups-vs-styrofoam-cups-which-is-better | 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 | 0.947597 | 626 | 1.984375 | 2 |
February 11, 2009
In a poster presentation at CROI 2009 in Montreal, Canada, there's more sobering news on a serious HPV-related condition in men who have sex with men (MSM) that can lead to anal cancer. Unlike other diseases that have declined in incidence since the advent of HAART, such as CMV or KS, the appearance of this condition (caused by the human papillomavirus, or HPV) has continued to increase since the beginning of HAART. Incidence of anal cancer is 59-times higher among MSM and nearly 7-times higher in HIV-positive women. This reiterates and underscores the rise of cancers with infectious causes among people living with HIV.
Project Inform has reported on this condition from both the 2008 International Conference and 2008 ICAAC, and this California study by University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) and Stanford University continues to document data on the direct progression of HGAIN to anal cancer. HGAIN, or high-grade anal intraepithelial neoplasia, is a condition where surface skin cells of the anus show high-grade abnormalities which can directly develop into cancer. Medical records of UCSF patients who developed anal cancer from 1997 to 2007 were reviewed to check whether anal cancer had developed in the same place as cases of HGAIN. From a total caseload of 1,700 HIV-positive MSM, 65 cancers had been diagnosed, and 27 of them had enough documentation of the HGAIN/anal cancer relationship to inform this study.
Of those who progressed to anal cancer, the average age was about 50 (range 39-69) and average CD4 count was 241 (range 49-1,000). Prevalent HGAIN was first diagnosed on average about 4 years (range 4-139 months) before developing cancer. Although these averages may be useful guides, there's a wide range of ages and CD4 counts at which HGAIN and cancer were detected. Cancer was also diagnosed at a younger average age in HIV-positive MSM than for the general population.
Of particular importance are the data that show that more than half of the 27 (15) did not present with symptoms. Their cancers were detected through routine check-ups with their doctors. The procedures included digital rectal exams (DRE), of which 27 men showed an obvious abnormality, and high-resolution anoscopy (HRA), of which 3 men were solely detected for cancer.
Similar to high-grade cervical neoplasia and cancer, treating HGAIN with the established standard of care for cervical neoplasia could go far to help prevent men and women from developing anal cancer. However, more concrete data showing the relationship and progression from HGAIN to anal cancer is sadly absent.
So, given the paucity of this data linking HGAIN to anal cancer and the absence of the standards of care for screening and treating anal neoplasia and cancer, it's wise for people living with HIV to bridge these health conversations with their providers. Both men and women can discuss what's needed in order to screen for resolving these conditions before they advance to cancer.
The researchers stated that carefully controlled studies are needed to further evaluate the screening and treatment of HGAIN in HIV-positive MSM to prevent anal cancer. A great resource for information about these conditions is the website for the UCSF Anal Neoplasia Study. | <urn:uuid:0a17eec1-531b-41a7-a7ac-afc3736e0bd4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thebody.com/content/art50919.html?ts=pf | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968004 | 699 | 2.140625 | 2 |
Have you ever had to admit on a first date that, among your many compelling and marvelous qualities, you are also a relationship counselor? I have. While this announcement can provoke a range of interesting responses, one I have often remembered was:
“Really! How interesting. Does that make you any better at your own relationships?”
This particular guy wasn’t asking sarcastically; he was actually curious. I chuckled and stalled for time. On a gut level, I wanted to say yes…but was that true? I mean, wasn’t I on this date in the first place because my previous relationships had, well, ended? His question got me thinking: Is one person really any “better” at relationships than the next? Or, is it some natural dynamic or chemistry between two specific people that creates relationship success instead?
Various researchers have considered both frameworks, which are often called relationship aptitude and relationship compatibility.1 The aptitude perspective asks: How well do your individual qualities predict your future relationship outcomes regardless of which partner you choose? The compatibility perspective asks: How powerfully does the idiosyncratic match-up between your qualities and your partner’s impact the outcome of your relationship?
In my last article (“Does Romantic Compatibility Actually Matter?”), I discussed the surprisingly minimal impact of relationship compatibility. How does the relationship aptitude perspective stack up in comparison?
A little bit better, according to Finkel and colleagues1 (also see here). This research team evaluated research looking at individual traits, such as neuroticism, attachment style, and depression (or other mental health problems), as well as individual experiences, such as parental divorce/unhappy marriage or a history of childhood abuse. Interestingly, their analysis suggested that these aspects of personality and history do have some power to predict the outcome of your long-term relationships no matter who your partner is. In fact, they felt that “an enormous body of evidence supports this [relationship aptitude] view.”
One study from the late 1980s2 found that the neuroticism (emotional instability or the tendency to experience negative emotions) of husbands and wives, “Not only predicted their marital outcomes over forty-five years later, but this effect swamped the effects of almost all other individual characteristics that they had measured.” Two other studies from the 1990s3,4 found that going through a parental divorce doubled one’s risk for relationship difficulties. Further research links a secure attachment style to positive relationship outcomes.
After synthesizing related studies from the past three decades, Finkel and colleagues1 conclude with this advice: “With respect to [romantic] matching [based] on personality…finding a partner with a personality conducive to relationships is more likely to promote successful outcomes than finding a partner with a personality similar to one’s own.”
To put it another way, they are suggesting that certain combinations of traits create people who are likely to be “relationship smart.” Whether you give them a challenging friend, boss, neighbor, or romantic partner, a “relationship smart” person is likely to find a way to get along. This quality of relationship aptitude appears to be relatively stable, cutting across the person’s various dating relationships.
When you think about it, this relationship aptitude perspective makes an intriguing claim: finding someone with a sunny disposition, happily married parents, and an abuse-free past might make a lot of difference in whether your bond is fulfilling over the long-term. Just in case you or your spouse or partner lack this ideal “relationship aptitude” package, though, don’t sweat it—you’re not doomed. While these individual qualities do matter, their impact is small, accounting for less than 5-10% of ultimate relationship outcomes. Personality and history are not destiny—and thank goodness for that.
Interested in learning more about relationships? Click here for other topics on Science of Relationships. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get our articles delivered directly to your NewsFeed.
1Finkel, E. J., Eastwick, P. W., Karney, B. R., Reis, H. T., & Sprecher, S. (2012). Online dating: A critical analysis from the perspective of psychological science. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 13(1), 3–66.
2Kelly E. L., & Conley J. J. (1987). Personality and compatibility: A prospective analysis of marital stability and marital satisfaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 27–40.
3McLanahan S., & Sandefur G. (1994). Growing up with a single parent: What hurts, what helps? Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
4Simons R. L. (1996). Understanding differences between divorced and intact families: Stress, interaction, and child outcomes. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Melissa Schneider - Science Of Relationships articles | Website
Melissa is a couples counselor and writer interested in the dynamics of romantic relationships. She covers dating trends on her blog “Where Is This Going?” and is currently working on a collection of true stories about love and marriage in modern China. Follow her on Twitter @WhereIsThsGoing. | <urn:uuid:687414b1-c1a1-4fb6-9c37-a395a4a4cb16> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scienceofrelationships.com/home/2013/1/21/are-you-relationship-smart-enough.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931794 | 1,102 | 1.71875 | 2 |
GAWDY, Bassingbourne II (1560-1606), of West Harling, Norf.
Available from Boydell and Brewer
Family and Education
b. 1560, 1st s. of Bassingbourne Gawdy I of West Harling by his 1st w. Anne, and bro. of Philip. educ. I. Temple 1578. m. (1) Anne (d.1594), da. of Sir Charles Framlingham of Crow’s Hall, Debenham, Suff., 3s.; (2) Dorothy, da. of Nicholas Bacon of Redgrave, 2s. 3da. suc. fa. 1590. Kntd. 1597.
J.p. Norf. by 1591, q. 1596, sheriff 1593-4, 1601-2, commr. musters 1599, dep. lt. 1605.
As a young man, Gawdy became involved in the faction fights of Elizabethan Norfolk. His father had risen to importance at the expense of the Lovells, and Gawdy renewed a quarrel with Thomas Lovell of East Harling, the dispute extending to rivalry over county offices and religion. Gawdy and the Bacons supported the puritan faction when Lovell, a conservative, joined with the unpopular Sir Arthur Heveningham. In 1591 the puritans complained to Gawdy that Lovell had tried to prevent the appointment of a ‘precisian’ in religion as subsidy collector. This subsidy dispute in turn exacerbated a struggle between the two men over the musters, Lovell consistently refusing to send his men to serve in Gawdy’s company. A reorganisation of 1596 gave each a company of his own, but this arrangement was rescinded in 1599, when Gawdy became a commissioner for musters. Relations became so strained that Lovell was summoned before the Privy Council, who reminded him that Gawdy was ‘an especial honest and good commonwealth’s man’. Heveningham had supported Lovell over the musters, and it is therefore not surprising to find Gawdy backing Edward Flowerdew, who was carrying on a personal vendetta against Heveningham. These factions were reflected in the last two Elizabethan elections for knights of the shire. Up to 1597 no Gawdy had achieved a county seat, Gawdy himself having been content to be returned for Thetford, where his family had influence, and where his brother Philip had been returned in 1589. No doubt he could have had a Thetford seat again in 1597 had he wished: during the period since the 1593 election he had helped the mayor over a lawsuit and received a letter of thanks from the town. Instead he promoted Philip’s candidature at Thetford and that of his cousin Henry Gawdy and (Sir) John Townshend for the county seats. Sir Arthur Heveningham intended to stand, but did not risk an actual contest.
In the summer of 1600, when a new Parliament was expected, Gawdy aimed for the shire, canvassing the local landowners himself, while Philip canvassed in London. An unwise decision to pair with Sir Robert Mansell might have cost Gawdy the seat, as Nathaniel Bacon warned him. In November 1600 a dispute over the appointment of the sheriff weakened Heveningham’s position, and Richard Jenkinson, Henry Gawdy’s son-in-law, was picked instead. This strengthened the Gawdy faction so much that their opponents withdrew and Bassingbourne was returned, not with Mansell (with whom he was still paired three days before the election), but with Henry Gawdy, who took the junior seat.
Gawdy is not mentioned by name in the Elizabethan parliamentary journals. The burgesses for Thetford were included in a committee concerning cloth and kerseys (23 Mar. 1593), and in 1601 his position as knight for Norfolk made him eligible to attend committees concerning the reform of the penal laws (2 Nov.), the order of parliamentary business (3 Nov.), monopolies (23 Nov.), the payment of tithes in Norwich (27 Nov.) and the reform of the abuses of the clerk of the market (2 Dec.).
Throughout his adult life Gawdy kept up a regular correspondence with Philip, who was always ready to further his elder brother’s career. One of his letters, after Bassingbourne had been made sheriff for the first time, assured him that ‘my lord keeper’s aid and her Majesty’s own liking and commendation’ had been factors in the choice. Other useful friends were the Earl of Sussex and (Sir) Edward Coke, who in 1594 agreed to hold the assizes at Thetford for Gawdy’s convenience. Gawdy died 17 May 1606 and was buried at West Harling. By his will, signed on the day of his death, his son Framlingham, then 16, received a rich inheritance. Gawdy’s moveable goods, presumably including his 5,000 sheep, were valued at £2,312 3s.11d., and in addition he had acquired the Suffolk lands of Sir Charles Framlingham, his first wife’s father, and his own father’s lands near West Harling, including Bardwell Hall itself, which had at least 26 bedrooms and two galleries as well as the usual chambers and outhouses. Gawdy’s brother-in-law Edmund Bacon, and his uncle Anthony Gawdy, were to sell the manor of Brettenham to pay his debts and divide the surplus among his four younger children. The executors were Framlingham and Anthony Gawdy.
Vis. Norf. (Harl. Soc. xxxii), 126; Norf. Arch. xxvii. 354-6; A. H. Smith thesis, 103, 120-46; HMC 7th Rep. 522; HMC Gawdy, 73; D’Ewes, 507, 622, 624, 649, 654, 663; Neale, Commons, 58-60; Letters of Philip Gawdy (Roxburghe Club), 142 et passim; Add. 36989, f. 11; PCC 30 Huddleston.
Ref Volumes: 1558-1603
- 1. Did not serve for the full duration of the Parliament. | <urn:uuid:c2cebbc5-5444-4a28-8a01-0cbb8fe8258d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1558-1603/member/gawdy-bassingbourne-ii-1560-1606 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976249 | 1,340 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Tree advocates launch new guidebook making connection between trees and air qualityPosted by jkittrell on Dec 6, 2007 in Conservation, Forestry, News | Comments Off
LAS VEGAS—Shades of Green, a collaboration of tree experts, planners and educators, have developed the first free resource designed to increase awareness about the value of community trees in improving air quality.
Cleaner Air, Tree by Tree: A Best Management Practices and Guide for Urban Trees in Southern Nevada will be launched December 13 at two events.
“We wanted to create an easy-to-use resource guide for developers, planners and decision makers specifically tailored to Southern Nevada,†said Matt Koepnick, community forester with the Nevada Division of Forestry.
To emphasize the importance of trees to Nevada’s air quality, the group will launch the book December 13 at noon at the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension on 8050 S. Maryland Parkway. A tree planting ceremony will follow in front of UNLV’s William S. Boyd School of Law at 2:30. The tree planting ceremony is free and open to the public.
“We want to encourage our community leaders to use best practices for valuing trees in Nevada and participate in this tree planting to highlight our commitment to improving air quality,†Pete Anderson, State Forester.
The Nevada Division of Forestry, in partnership with the USDA Forest Service, is helping Clark County leverage the benefits of urban trees to reduce problems with air pollution, heat islands and runoff. Research shows that trees play an important role in improving air quality in even the most arid climates.
“We believe that providing proven benefits and techniques for managing urban trees in an easy-to-use format can have a powerful impact on air quality throughout the region,” said Susan Stead, urban forestry program coordinator with the Nevada Division of Forestry.
Shades of Green plans to make the guidebook available in areas with similar climates. Cleaner Air, Tree by Tree can be downloaded at the Nevada Division of Forestry’s Web site.
Contact Susan Stead at 775-684-2506 for more information. | <urn:uuid:e88d6619-b0a6-45b9-99ad-8d8f738b7982> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dcnr.nv.gov/2007/12/tree-advocates-launch-new-guidebook-making-connection-between-trees-and-air-quality/ | 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 | 0.902391 | 448 | 2.53125 | 3 |
What a great idea to give this kind of intel to a country that has worked with Iran over and over.
The Obama administration is leaving open the possibility of giving Moscow certain secret data on U.S. interceptor missiles due to help protect Europe from any Iranian missile strike.
A deal is being sought by Washington that could include classified data exchange because it is in the U.S. interest to enlist Russia and its radar stations in the missile-defense effort, a Pentagon spokeswoman said Tuesday in written replies to Reuters.
No decision has been made yet on whether the United States would offer data about the interceptors' "velocity at burnout," or VBO, said Air Force Lieutenant Colonel April Cunningham, the spokeswoman, but it is not being ruled out.
VBO is at the heart of what Russia wants as the price for its cooperation, said Riki Ellison, head of the private Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, who has close ties to missile defense and military officials.
READ IT ALL | <urn:uuid:dcded7c8-1e8a-4ccb-90cf-9987dfa10938> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.markedmanner.com/2012_03_11_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975182 | 203 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Political science is the academic field that systematically studies the activity of making and enforcing rules and the relations of power intrinsic to this process, or, put simply, how we decide “who gets what.” Since politics encompasses a wide range of institutions and human behavior, political science is a far-reaching discipline. Political activities ranging from the behavior of leaders to the public policy aspects of nuclear energy are covered in this field. Virtually every aspect of our lives is affected by politics, whether it be the voting behavior of our elected officials, war in some distant part of the world, the price of gasoline, or what we watch on television.
The Political Science program is designed to provide students with exposure to a broad range of topics within contemporary political science and train students in the techniques and theories used by political scientists to explore, describe, and explain political phenomena. All the major subfields of political science are offered in the major: American politics, comparative politics, international relations, political theory, public administration, and public law.
Political Science website
Visit the Political Science website at http://hilo.hawaii.edu/depts/politicalsci/.
Political Science majors are well prepared for entry into the job market in a wide variety of fields and for admission to law or other graduate programs. Political Science majors most often pursue careers in law, government, interest groups and (with supplementary coursework) journalism, teaching and business. Students majoring in other fields where they can anticipate interacting with government officials (for example in business) may benefit from the minor in Political Science.
By graduation, Political Science majors will be expected to have a firm understanding of the actors, institutions, and laws that influence how governmental policy is made. Students will be able to understand the relations of these actors and the outcomes of their relations on both a philosophical and practical level, and predict the ramifications of structural reforms to political systems. Students will be expected to analyze current and past political phenomena according to the theory and methods used by political scientists, and be able to express their analysis in coherent essays and research papers.
Political Science course offerings contribute to fulfilling the College's educational purpose of preparing students “to meet the demands of both profession and citizenship.”
The Political Science Department sponsors a number of hands-on activities to broaden and deepen the students' knowledge of political science. Among these are a variety of internship experiences in local, state, and federal agencies, as well as a spring internship in the office of a state legislator. In addition, those students interested in law school may find the Department's Mock Trial course useful.
The Department, along with our student organization, Hui Na Lahui Huipu (Model United Nations Club), sponsors a team that competes each April in the National Model United Nations in New York City. This competition, which meets in part at UN headquarters, draws 3,000 college students from some 200 universities and colleges from around the world. Team members must take POLS 345 to prepare them for the competition. They learn basic facts about the UN, rules of procedure, speech and caucusing skills, how to write resolutions and position papers, background on the country they will represent, and the foreign policy position of that country on some 30 assigned international issues. The UH Hilo Model United Nations team is the only one that competes in New York City from the state of Hawai‘i.
The Political Science Club serves the educational and social interests of students and provides leadership opportunities for club officers. Club members arrange activities and events that promote awareness of political issues .
Certain outstanding Political Science majors will be invited by the Political Science faculty to write a senior thesis, a research effort that will be assigned and guided by an individual faculty member. In addition, exceptional students may be invited to become members of the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo's Iota Iota chapter of the National Political Science Honor Society, Pi Sigma Alpha . | <urn:uuid:1bbe08d8-254d-43d3-b7e9-588e8850d281> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hilo.hawaii.edu/academics/politicalsci/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942271 | 800 | 2.3125 | 2 |
About the PRC
The primary mission of the PRC is to address the growing demand for well-trained field geologists by providing education and support to upper-level undergraduate students, graduate students, and professional geologists in modern methods of geological mapping and map-making in glaciated Precambrian terrains. The PRC is managed as a collaborative effort between two geosciences institutions at the University of Minnesota Duluth - the Natural Resources Research Institute and the Department of Geological Sciences. Training in field methods particularly suited to Precambrian terranes is provide through a variety of PRC programs including Precambrian summer field camp, professional workshops, graduate student advising, and various mapping and Precambrian geology courses offered at UMD. Instructors for these programs include a consortium of experienced Precambrian field geologists from the Natural Resources Research Institute and the Department of Geological Sciences, as well as from the Minnesota Geological Survey, from other academic and governmental institutions, and from private industry.
Check out a Powerpoint Presentation on the Goals and Objectives of the Precambrian Research Center
Upcoming PRC Events
March 4, 2013 - PRC Board of Advisors Meeting, PDAC convention, Toronto, ON
October 6-13, 2013 - Professional Workshop on Cu-Ni-PGE Deposits in the Lake Superior Region
October 13-20, 2012 - Professional Field Course on Mapping Mafic Layered Intrusions | <urn:uuid:0f2edff5-14ab-468c-8509-0a8b65897ba2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.d.umn.edu/prc/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918029 | 296 | 1.929688 | 2 |
Monica J. Price
Grand Canyon University
Professor: Randall Conley
March 2, 2011
When it comes to leadership and management, Coach K and Coach Knight are undeniably the two most respected and committed college basketball coaches in the United States. But the one thing that sets the two apart is their leadership styles. Coach Knight chooses to lead by intimidation and Coach K choice is to use positive reinforcement. Both leadership styles have produced great results with a win-win record at both colleges. Leadership is a process in which the leader has to influence their follower’s in order to achieve a set of common goals, and in these two cases it’s to win basketball games.
To become a great leader one must possess the traits needed to create the desire for the followers to take directions from the leader to meet the ultimate goal. Both coaches displayed a high level of drive, motivation, integrity, confidence, and task knowledge to which in return produced a high level of achievement.
When correlating the power bases to each coach, Coach K would have to be classified as having referent power in which he was a coach that was admired by his students, expert power whereas the students perceived their coach as competent and knowledgeable and reward power. With Coach K using reward power he simply used love, kindness and positive reinforcement saying things such as, “job well done”, or you can do this. Reward power is having the capacity to provide a reward to the students and for them encouraging words were their reward. Coach Knight tends to use legitimate and coercive power using intimidation to get his students to provide results of winning. He demands discipline on his court and if and when it’s not present the coach chooses to use punishment such as benching the student. Coach Knight was also known for dismissing the students from practice or threatening to revoke... [continues]
Cite This Essay
(2011, 04). A Tale of Two Coaches Part 1. StudyMode.com. Retrieved 04, 2011, from http://www.studymode.com/essays/A-Tale-Of-Two-Coaches-Part-659773.html
"A Tale of Two Coaches Part 1" StudyMode.com. 04 2011. 04 2011 <http://www.studymode.com/essays/A-Tale-Of-Two-Coaches-Part-659773.html>.
"A Tale of Two Coaches Part 1." StudyMode.com. 04, 2011. Accessed 04, 2011. http://www.studymode.com/essays/A-Tale-Of-Two-Coaches-Part-659773.html. | <urn:uuid:85995abf-2637-4669-b95b-619cb678b2c1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.studymode.com/essays/A-Tale-Of-Two-Coaches-Part-659773.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956227 | 550 | 2.796875 | 3 |
CA Internet Real Estate Restrictions - Release: 11-22-2004
Federal Court Declares California’s Online Real Estate Licensing Law Unconstitutional
Licensing Internet Publishers Violates First Amendment Rights
WEB RELEASE: November 22, 2004
Washington, D.C.—Late last week [NOTE TO EDITOR: on Thursday afternoon, November 18, 2004] a federal judge in Sacramento ruled in favor of web publisher ForSaleByOwner.com and the Institute for Justice in a First Amendment lawsuit challenging California’s demand that websites obtain a real estate broker’s license to publish real estate advertising and information. The court concluded that the law, which requires websites to obtain a license but specifically exempts newspapers that publish the same information, was “wholly arbitrary” and violated the First Amendment guarantees of free speech and freedom of the press.
“The First Amendment rights of Internet publishers have taken a big step forward,” said Steve Simpson, a senior attorney with the Institute for Justice, which represents ForSaleByOwner.com for free. “States will now think twice before concluding that the Internet is a second-class citizen to traditional media.”
The New York-based ForSaleByOwner.com filed suit challenging the law on May 14, 2003, in U.S. District Court in Sacramento. The law requires websites to spend years and thousands of dollars obtaining a real estate broker’s license simply because they allow individuals to advertise homes for sale on the Internet and they publish information of interest to buyers and sellers. In early 2001, the California Department of Real Estate began vigorously enforcing the licensing law against “for-sale-by-owner” and classified advertising websites that allow individuals to buy and sell homes without a real estate broker. The Department enforced the laws arbitrarily, requiring independent websites to get a license, while exempting newspapers and other print publications. The Department of Real Estate even said during the course of the lawsuit that websites cannot claim it is “easy” to buy and sell homes without a real estate broker or publish other information with which officials disagree.
“This is censorship, pure and simple,” said Simpson. “The First Amendment guarantees that Americans may speak their minds and communicate information without the approval of government censors. Allowing licensing officials to make distinctions among publications cannot be permitted if speech is truly to be free.”
The court agreed, finding the State’s effort to distinguish between newspapers and independent websites “totally unpersuasive.” “[T]here appears to be no justification whatsoever for any distinction between the two mediums,” the court stated. “Even if a distinction was warranted in 1959, when the [newspaper exemption was passed], that does not mean that the same rationale for exempting newspapers remains viable in 2004, given the vast advances in technology that have occurred in the meantime.”
To the State’s claim that newspapers are somehow more trustworthy than websites, the court stated “while Defendants vaguely attempt to paint newspapers as geographically situated and relatively more stable than Internet companies, they have not established why this should require websites like FSBO’s to obtain a California broker’s license . . . when online services doing exactly the same thing are not subject to any licensing requirement so long as they are operated by a ‘newspaper.’ Defendants provide no reasonable explanation whatsoever for this requirement, let alone a compelling interest to justify it.”
Websites like ForSaleByOwner.com provide an enormous benefit to consumers, allowing them to save thousands of dollars in real estate commissions and to obtain essential information on home buying and selling.
As ForSaleByOwner.com President Damon Giglio stated, “ForSaleByOwner.com is founded on the enormous potential of the Internet to cut out the middle man and allow consumers to save lots of money by selling homes themselves. It’s great that the law is starting to catch up with technology.”
Chief Operating Officer Colby Sambrotto concurred: “There is absolutely no reason to prevent websites from doing what newspapers are allowed to do. By now, the states should understand that business on the Internet is a tremendous value that should be embraced, not shunned.”
This is an important case with broad implications for e-commerce. Information is more important to the economy than ever before, yet government remains a serious impediment to its free flow and the economic benefits it promises. States clamor to tax Internet businesses, they erect barriers to e-commerce, and they pass laws that favor local brick-and-mortar businesses at the expense of Internet competitors. These laws harm businesses and consumers, stifle innovation, and perpetuate wasteful and antiquated business practices.
The victory was especially important for the Institute for Justice because the court relied upon an earlier IJ victory to strike down California’s real estate licensing law. In that decision, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia held that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission could not require licensure of online and software publishers who offered opinions on commodities. This victory by the Institute for Justice was the first federal court case to extend First Amendment protections to Internet publishers. | <urn:uuid:62d9b491-2045-42df-aaf3-65a370a146dd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ij.org/ca-internet-real-estate-restrictions-release-11-22-2004 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940467 | 1,091 | 1.5 | 2 |
Summary: The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature's a best-seller for a reason: it brings literature to life for students -- helping to make them lifelong readers and better writers. Classic works from many periods and cultures exist alongside a diverse representation of today's authors. Support for students includes a dozen chapters of critical reading and writing, with plenty of sample close readings, writing assignments, and student papers. And, because everyone teac ...show morehes a little differently, there are lots of options for working with the literature, including in-depth chapters on major authors and case studies on individual works and themes that everyone can relate to. New to this edition are casebooks on short fiction and the natural world and a chapter created with Billy Collins. ...show lessEdition/Copyright: 9TH 12
More prices and sellers below. | <urn:uuid:5c897a58-75a5-4e96-ac92-0f6e890d1de8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.textbooks.com/Compact-Bedford-Introduction-to-Literature-Reading-Thinking-Writing-9th-Edition/9780312594343/Michael-Meyer.php?mppg=3 | 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 | 0.923469 | 166 | 2.828125 | 3 |
CAIRO, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- The Egyptian government said Sunday it was seeking input from the public on a new economic policy.
Prime Minister Hesham Kandil and other top officials said at a Cairo news conference the goal of the "societal dialogues" was to ensure all political and societal segments of Egypt have their say and make their views known.
Ashraf El-Arabi, minister of economic cooperation, said, "Our top economic priorities today are to achieve social justice, fight rising unemployment, end corruption, promote investments and revive the tourism sector."
The initiative comes amid continuing political tensions coupled with economic doldrums that Sunday sent the Egyptian pound to an 8-year low against the U.S. dollar and prompted the government to levy a new fee on foreign currency purchases.
"The new fee is curbing the demand on the U.S. dollar a little bit, but a lot of people are coming to buy it at any price," a Cairo bank manager told Ahram Online.
Kandil told reporters Cairo was set to resume talks with the International Monetary Fund next month on a $4.8 billion loan to tide the country over. Negotiations had been suspended amid a spurt of political violence over the new Egyptian constitution, the BBC said.
"We hope that there will not be any fundamental changes in our plan with the IMF because we will summon them in January so we resume discussions to go forward in the matter of the loan," Kandil said.
|Additional Business News Stories|
SAN ANTONIO, May 20 (UPI) --BP has take "a significant step" toward selling a California oil refinery and regional retail networks to Tesoro Corp. after getting U.S. federal approval.
WASHINGTON, May 20 (UPI) --Commercial space activities may soon utilize a NASA launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida that was designed for the Apollo space program. | <urn:uuid:528f8909-b76f-49f9-a50e-59820c246dfb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2012/12/30/Egypt-scrambles-to-bolster-economy/UPI-88271356889318/?spt=mps&or=5 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952314 | 395 | 1.53125 | 2 |
University Graduate Exercises
April 25, 2008
It is magnificent to stand before this Class of 2008. Graduates, you are remarkable women and men, and celebrating your accomplishments is one of the most rewarding experiences of being president of this great university.
I join Provost Sullivan, Dean Weiss and Dr. Smith in extending my warmest congratulations to you. And congratulations also to the families and friends who have supported you through years of advanced study at Michigan, and are here today to share your joy.
Your experiences at Michigan have been shaped by many people, none more important than the faculty. They have challenged you in numerous ways, leading you to new discoveries about your academic discipline and, hopefully, your inner self.
One of the great faculty members in the history of this institution was the philosopher John Dewey. The University of Michigan was his first stop after receiving his doctorate, and he spent a decade here shaping both students and ideas. I don’t want to scare our Ph.D. recipients today, but his starting teaching salary was $900 a year.
It was here where John Dewey met his wife, wrote his first book, gained a reputation as challenging but fair teacher, and rose through the ranks to chair the Department of Philosophy.
He also found time to ponder a question posed to him by the graduating class of 1890: What should I expect of a college education?
His answer had many facets, as you might expect. He stressed the importance and value of losing one’s provincialism and exploring different thoughts and cultures. Equally important, he said, is learning to set aside partisan ideas; he felt it essential to exercise patience before jumping to conclusions or taking sides. There is nothing weak, he said, in suspending judgment and collecting the facts.
But the most critical component of a higher education, he wrote, is to take all you have learned as a student and find ways to apply that knowledge to being an ethical human being. Without connecting your studies to the very essence of human nature—emphasis on human—your work as a student is simply a random collection of intellectual bits and pieces.
In 21st century terms, John Dewey would say your education should provide the tools to be open-minded, flexible, and interconnected with your fellow citizens.
Graduates, you leave here to join a world that needs you, and your intellect, more than ever. We are in dire need of great minds that are eager to collaborate and create, to develop solutions to problems that sometimes seem overwhelming—crises like disease, waste, and war.
Your studies here—the research, the teaching, the writing, the re-writing—have exposed you to myriad concepts. And if we have done our jobs as faculty and administrators, we have worked with you to appreciate the necessity of connecting those ideas in countless ways. As your classmate Sara Crider just reminded us, the knowledge you have obtained does not exist in a vacuum.
We need you to apply the thoughtfulness and ingenuity you have honed here at Michigan. Today you wear the academic hoods that represent the many schools and colleges of our University. This rainbow of Michigan academia is emblematic of the diversity of careers you will follow, the multitude of successes you will find, and the wealth of lives you will enhance.
Michigan alumni are known worldwide for their leadership and their ability to drive change. We expect nothing less of you, and look forward to your accomplishments—accomplishments that begin with today’s celebration.
Once again, congratulations! | <urn:uuid:a3aaf5d8-ed97-46a7-92a1-f7667bfd30ac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://president.umich.edu/speech/speeches/080425graduate.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97587 | 723 | 1.5 | 2 |
The article sums up his revealing analysis of how a Theme malware code integrates itself into your site, even down to the server level, through a twisting path of imaginative code. The code reminds me of insidious bombs featured in an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine called “Houdinis.” The bombs vanished in and out of subspace, each less than a meter from another one in a grid. At any time it could appear and explode if it detected movement near it, surprising and killing the victims. This code has the ability to activate, create trouble, then erase its path, making it tough to detect, test, and eliminate.
The article also offers some tips and WordPress Plugins for checking your site for security vulnerabilities, as well as possibly test a Theme before you become too invested in it. There is no one full-proof, one step thing you can do yet, though there are many working on some advanced site armor and prevention tools which I will cover in an upcoming article on WordCast.
In general, use the built-in auto update feature to upgrade WordPress immediately when a mandatory security update is released, and upgrade Themes and Plugins.
Remember, prevention is cheaper and easier than dealing with a hack after the fact.
We live in “interesting times,” and I dream of the day when those who dance with the dark put their creative energy, discipline and determination into projects of light, peace, and joy…and that good would pay better than bad.
- Good Reasons to Upgrade WordPress
- Fighting Registration Spam in WordPress
- Are You Risking Your Blog With an Unofficial or Vulnerable WordPress Theme?
- Protecting Your WordPress Blog
- WordPress Security Prevention, Reactions, and Scares
- WordPress Blogs and More Hacked by Google Redirects
- Warning: Fake WordPress Malicious Site
- Web Hacks, Worms, Infections, and Viruses: Is Your Blog Prepared?
- Firewalling and Hack Proofing Your WordPress Blog
- Old WordPress Versions Under Attack
- Prevention: Protecting Your Online and Internet Security | <urn:uuid:d66693ef-409c-40f5-8ba3-740ea5500a91> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2010/12/11/malware-found-in-wordpress-theme-protect-yourself-now/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=671450efa2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916644 | 434 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Between 1903 and 1969, scientists and other experts made hundreds of predictions in Popular Mechanics magazine about what the future would hold. Their forecasts ranged from ruefully funny to eerily prescient and optimistically utopian. Here are the very best of them, culled from hundreds of articles, complete with the original, visually stunning retro art. They will capture the imagination of futurists in the same way Jules Verne's writing did a century earlier. Every chapter features an introduction by astrophysics professor, science-fiction author, and former NASA advisor Gregory Benford.
PAST PREDICTIONS OF OUR FUTURE INCLUDE:
Skyscrapers so tall they'll have their own climate o Underground pneumatic tubes to replace garbage trucks o Rooftop lakes that serve as air conditioning systems o Clothes made from asbestos and aluminum o Mail sorted by robots and delivered by parachutes
Predictions abound as society guesses what the future will bring—but does today's world match the past's predictions? Nebula Award-winning sf author Benford (physics, Univ. of California; The Sunborn) and the editors of Popular Mechanics here examine that prospect by reviewing predictions printed in the magazine over the past century. The majority were wrong, as the title implies; Americans don't go to work in Jetson-like flying cars or eat food made from sawdust. However, many were correct; televisions are thin enough to hang on a wall like pictures (predicted in 1954). Other guesses were right but for the wrong reasons. Widespread use of video phone calls (predicted in the 1940s) was enabled by the Internet and Skype rather than videophones combining telephones with TV transmitters. VERDICT Benford provides an interesting tour of the future views of the past. Great fun for history of science/technology buffs.—William Baer, Georgia Inst. of Technology Lib., AtlantaMore Reviews and Recommendations
Predicting is a risky business, but for bystanders, faulty forecasts have the makings of great fun. For decades, for instance, the pundits of Popular Mechanics rolled out illustrated features about flying cars and buses, mail-sorting robots, and underground cities that piqued our youthful interest but didn't always achieve widespread fruition. All these utopian fancies and more reemerge in this refreshingly retro, delightfully rich collection of past predictions of our future. The illustrations alone are worth the price of the book. Every chapter features an introduction by scientist and science fiction writer Gregory Banford
|Book:||The Wonderful Future That Never Was: Flying Cars, Mail Delivery By Parachute, And Other Predictions From The Past|
|Author:||Gregory Benford Popular Mechanics Editors|
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BookAdda (www.bookadda.com) is a premier online book store in selling books online across India at the most competitive prices. BookAdda sells fiction, business, non fiction, literature, AIEEE, medical, engineering, computer book, etc. The books are delivered across India FREE of cost. | <urn:uuid:fe4dc3f1-4060-4044-9750-1b3f6ba05d52> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bookadda.com/books/wonderful-future-flying-cars-mail-gregory-benford-1588168220-9781588168221 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.900536 | 696 | 2.53125 | 3 |
In 2006, the energy intensity of the Chinese economy decreased by 1.7 percent, the firstdecrease in this measure since 2001 (Zhou et al., 2009). Although this was a significantachievement, the reduction was well below the trajectory needed to achieve the goal of a 20-percent reduction in energy intensity by 2010. In 2007, however, energy intensity declined by3.7 percent, and in 2008, it was reduced by 4.6 percent (Zhou et al., 2009). In the first quarter of2009, preliminary data indicate an even greater reduction (China View, 2009).Although the impact of the world economic crisis on energy intensity in China is difficult topredict, it now appears that China is likely to meet its 20-percent energy-intensity reductiontarget for 2010. Such savings represents a decrease of 1.5 billion metric tons of CO2 (Lin et al.,2007), a very large number by any measure. | <urn:uuid:c957a7dd-0052-4292-a057-2f3ea6584629> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://eetd.lbl.gov/node/49470 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95073 | 191 | 2.09375 | 2 |
“When it comes to the poaching of endangered species, elephants, tigers and rhinos tend to be in the limelight. But a new report sets out to plug the information gap on a different species that is imperiled by a tide of demand related to rising affluence in Asia: leopards,” Bettina Wassenerwrote in The Green Blog.
In India “an average of at least four leopards have been poached each week over the last 10 years,” she wrote. That adds up to more than 2,000 in one decade.
From the rise of a new private sector–and the billionaires that sustain and exploit it–to the beginning of a vast national identity database, articles in this series examine the messy and maddening road to progress in India.
This report on India from the journalists of The New York Times and a pool of talented writers in India and beyond provides unbiased, authoritative reporting on the country and its place in the world. India Ink also strives to be a virtual meeting point for discussion of this complex, fast-changing democracy – its politics, economy, culture and everyday life. | <urn:uuid:a3017f4d-b07b-425b-b422-0de7a9d2e70a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/01/ | 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 | 0.916837 | 233 | 2.265625 | 2 |
[LAC-TF] Entrevista a Bob Hinden sobre Seguridad IPv6
fgont at si6networks.com
Sat Feb 25 14:35:13 BRST 2012
En lo personal, tengo una visión algo distinta sobre la última
pregunta (*parte* de mi argumento estando descripto en
RSA 2012 talk to offer help understanding IPv6 security issues
Security professionals should begin learning about the emerging IPv6
protocol now or they may end up scrambling at the last minute to update
their security systems and networking equipment when it becomes
unequivocally necessary to support the protocol, according to an expert
speaking about IPv6 security issues at RSA Conference 2012.
In an interview with SearchSecurity.com, Hinden explains why IPv6
security issues can no longer be ignored, how IPv6 is most likely to be
exploited by attackers, and what security pros must do to secure their
networks in preparation for the IPv6 transition.
For security pros who may not be as familiar with the evolution of IPv6,
where are we today regarding deployment within the Internet
infrastructure? Are mandatory enterprise IPv6 deployments on the horizon?
Robert Hinden: Things have been moving a lot faster in the last couple
of years, since people figured out the IPv4 addresses were going to be
exhausted soon. That's what’s driving deployment now.
The purpose of my talk is to give a heads up to enterprises who haven't
been paying much attention. Enterprises, especially in North America,
have a lot of IPv4 addresses, and the point I wanted them to understand
is that IPv6 is built into a lot of the products they're running today.
They need to think about that even if they're not running it inside
their networks because there's the potential for unmonitored IPv6
network tunnels to be created that go outside their firewall, and
malware could use IPv6 for elicit communication. It's something security
pros in enterprises need to start paying attention to. Security pros
need to lead on IPv6.
As of now, what's the most likely timeline in which enterprises will be
forced to implement IPv6 to ensure connectivity with the rest of the
Hinden: I've been doing this for a long time and I've learned not to try
to make date predictions; it's hard to tell. But, I'm confident
enterprises need to be paying attention to IPv6 security, figuring out
what they're going to do, and not make this a fire drill. You don't want
to be in a situation where you aren't prepared to implement IPv6
securely if the [IPv4 address] exhaustion accelerates, and it's much
easier if it's done gradually.
As a whole, how capable are today's network security products at
handling IPv6 traffic?
Hinden: My impression is it's gotten much better in the last couple
years. One issue I see is customers of security companies aren't running
the more recent software for their products. If you're running something
that's several years old, it's not going to have these IPv6
capabilities. Some companies are reluctant to update for a variety of
reasons, but it's time to do this.
How mature are the IPv6 security features in the security products
offered by vendors today?
Hinden: It's hard for me to speak for all vendors, but certainly all the
major vendors have tools that are ready for production. They're not beta
anymore. This is newer code than the IPv4 code that's been around for 15
years, so there are going to be bumps and there will probably be
patches, but it's ready for production.
How much education is required for network security pros who haven't
dealt with securing IPv6 before?
Hinden: That's one of the big things that's missing today. The
protocols are here, the vendors have products they can run, but
enterprise staff needs to learn about IPv6, in general, and then about
the specific security differences and how to handle them. That's the
point of my talk at RSA, to raise awareness of this and encourage people
to start doing that.
For enterprise network security professionals going to RSA to learn
about IPv6 capabilities in security products, what should be the key
questions enterprises ask the vendors?
Hinden: As they go around the show floor, I think they should ask the
vendors not only what products they have, but also how they manage it.
Do you use the same management interface? How have you tested your
products? A good way to determine how mature a vendor's product is by
asking if they can run their products with IPv4 turned off. Though I
don't think most enterprises are going to do that for a long time.
What concerns you most about IPv6 security?
Hinden: It's twofold: One is that with the [IPv4 to IPv6] transition
solutions, it's possible to create unauthorized tunnels into the
enterprise. There are tunneling technologies included in Windows Vista
and Windows 7 that allow tunneling through a NAT; it's basically IPv6
under UDP under IPv4, making it possible to create a tunnel outside an
enterprise that may go unnoticed. A user may do this purposely or he or
she might turn on an application that creates an IPv6 tunnel – the "get
me back to my PC"-type products like to do this – and all of the sudden
you have this tunnel going through your NAT device. If that's your
firewall then you may have a tunnel going through it that you would
normally block. If you're not looking for it and you don't have any IPv6
rules set up on your firewall, you may not see things leaving your network.
The other is IPv6 as a covert channel for malware; malware that may use
IPv6 as a way of communicating inside the enterprise. If you're not
looking for this traffic, it could go host to host outside of the normal
protections an enterprise deploys. You can't stop what you can't see and
that's the message here. It's time for enterprises to start looking at
the security of IPv6, and make sure their security tools have IPv6
support in them now. You may have vendors that support it and you may
not have turned it on. It's time to [turn it on]. This is an issue you
don't want to have.
There are a number of transition mechanisms being employed to ensure
interoperability between IPv4 and IPv6 – dual-stack nodes, transition
and tunneling paradigms – but those mechanisms appear to be a key
security concern among experts. What's your take?
Hinden: Say you're trying to decide whether to let a particular protocol
through your firewall. You can't look at the same fixed place for the
relevant info as you would for IPv4. There's more surface area, if you
will, that needs to be examined. You need to have software security
tools that understand the different security mechanisms of IPv6 and know
how to parse them so you can look at the packet, find the relevant info
and apply your relevant rules to it. Conceptually it's easy – it's all
defined in the IPv6 RFCs – but you need to have special tools that can
do this. When you work with your vendors, make sure they know how to do
Some say widespread IP address scanning by attackers is not feasible
with IPv6, but others have said attackers will likely have success
exploiting known IPv6 distribution patterns or known ranges of assigned
addresses. What's your reaction?
Hinden: With standard addresses, the prefix will come from your ISP, and
then the rest is related to each device's MAC address. It's hard to
predict what MAC addresses are going to be used inside an enterprise. So
that's still really hard. With addresses that are manually assigned,
such as to routers on a subnet, if you assign those addresses
sequentially, it is easier for someone to guess what those addresses
would be. So as long as you think about the way you assign addresses and
don't assign them sequentially, then it's a lot harder to guess what the
e-mail: fgont at si6networks.com
PGP Fingerprint: 6666 31C6 D484 63B2 8FB1 E3C4 AE25 0D55 1D4E 7492
More information about the LACTF | <urn:uuid:7fd087bc-d8f0-4a71-943a-f3ea6547e37c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mail.lacnic.net/pipermail/lactf/2012-February/003937.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939207 | 1,848 | 1.625 | 2 |
Protesting against political and economic injustices, people around the world are finding the courage to speak out against corrupt regimes and powerful multinationals. First there was the Arab Spring, the Occupy Wall Street movement followed soon thereafter. Now, Russia is next.
There has been an unwritten rule in Russia for the past 12 years under Putin (and Medvedev), oligarchs (and the middle class) can grow and thrive as long as they stay out of politics and do not criticize the Kremlin. For the most part, the Russian people kept to this agreement. High commodity prices helped grow the Russian economy.1 From 2000 to 2008, wages grew an average 15 percent per year and, since 2008, they have continued to grow an average 1.3 percent. Middle class incomes rose 142 percent from 1999 to 2009.2 About one-third of Russia’s population is now considered part of the middle class.3
Despite the new wealth, many Russians are no longer happy with the status quo. Corruption has eroded much of the good will that accompanied the economic growth. The concept of private property is nonexistent in Russia, as property can be taken away and given to government cronies.4 Trumped up criminal charges are often brought against business owners, who are forced to pay bribes to the mafia to get their charges dropped or they are forced to face a corrupt court system.5 Every day Russians face corruption: paying to get their child into nursery, to receive an operation in a state hospital or to get admission into a prestigious state university.6
But this has not been enough to send Russians to the street. For decades if not centuries, Russians have been living under a corrupt regime, rife with human rights abuses.
Fallout of the Russian Elections
A series of events in fall 2011 precipitated a shift in Russia. Putin’s announcement that he would run again for the presidency, switching places with Medvedev was considered one of the major catalysts.7 Another catalyst was the blatant fraud exhibited in the December 2011 Parliamentary elections. Led by Putin, the United Russia Party gained 49.5 percent of the votes.8 Independent observers claimed that 15-20 percent of the United Russia Party votes were falsified.9
Many viewed the elections as a sham since real opposition parties were not allowed to run. Activists were harassed during the campaign season and opposition websites were attacked. Reports and videos of election fraud circulated on Russian websites.10 The three existing opposition parties (the United Russia, Communist, the Liberal Democrat Party, and “A Just Russia”) did gain seats, though they are not viewed as a real threat to Putin’s power. So even though United Russia lost seats, the comeback of Putin seemed like the last straw for many who do not want another 12 years.11
Following the elections, 1000 protesters were arrested, including a popular Russian blogger, Alexey Navalny. Putin has since backed off and has allowed the protests to continue. Navalny’s blog postings were instrumental in mobilizing young Russians to take the streets. On December 3rd, on estimated 50,000 Russians protested the elections and called for the ouster of Putin. Many of the protesters were middle class and elite members of society, but included people from all walks of life and social classes.12
The December 3rd protest was one of the first times where blogs influenced events on a national level, rather than just draw attention to local fraud and abuse.13 Organizers used Twitter and Facebook, though these tools are not wide-spread and are mainly used by Russian elites.14 The Internet though is used throughout Russia, with nearly 60 million Russians using it on a regular basis. Increasingly political debate is taking place over the Internet, rather than on other traditional media sources that are censored. Nonetheless, the majority of Russians, the older, poorer and more conservative sectors are not online and they tend to show up to Russian election en masse.15
Adept at social media himself, Medvedev announced over Facebook that he planned to create a commission to look into voter fraud, but little is expected to be unearthed by the commission.
A Russian Spring or a Russian Winter?
Analysts worldwide are not sure of the outcome of the protest movement. Putin has not allowed that much open criticism in the past nor has he allowed real, potential rivals to gain political power. Furthermore, Putin is interested in further weakening the opposition as he is examining Internet censorship systems.
The opposition movement does not yet have any real options to lead them. Mikhail D. Prokhorov, an oligarch and majority owner of the New Jersey Nets basketball franchise has announced his intention to run against Putin in the next presidential elections. While considered a legitimate candidate, his past involvement with the Kremlin and his dubious attainment of wealth through Yeltsin, who oversaw the privatization of nickel mines and smelting complex, does not make him very attractive. Prokhorov has not yet offered a political platform.16
For years, polls have shown that the overwhelming majority of Russians felt they did not have any ability to influence the political process. Many were dis-incentivized from participating and others never bothered. Many voted in the parliamentary elections for the first time, explaining the low percentages attained by United Russia, even with vote tampering and fraud.17
Russia’s problems though are deeper than poor leadership alternatives and political corruption. Pyotr Filippov, a Russian politician and former Head of the Social and Economic Policy Analytical Centre at the Presidential Administration notes the deeper problems plaguing Russian culture. He states that Russia’s civic infantilism, has led to a history of reliance on strong leaders. Strength is valued over knowledge of economics. This over-reliance on leadership and little faith in the system has led most Russians to give up on the political and economic situation.18
While the protests are certainly a first step to civic re-awakening. Many more steps are needed before real change will take place. For now, a Russian winter seems like the most likely prospect for the near future.
1 Iofee, Julie. “The Decembrists.” Foreign Policy. December 9, 2011.
2 Clover, Charles. “Russia’s middle class finds its feet.” Financial Times. December 12, 2011.
3 Kramer, Andrew and Herszehorn, David M. “Boosted by Putin, Russia’s Middle Class Turns on Him.” The New York Times. December 11, 2011.
4 Piontkovsky, Andrei. “The Russian Spring Has Begun.” The Wall Street Journal. December 14, 2011.
5 Zaostrovtsev, Andrei. “Privatisation, but no private property.” Open Democracy. November 17, 2011.
6 Filippov, Pyotr. “Is corruption in Russia’s DNA?” Open Democracy. November 16, 2011.
7 Kramer, Andrew and Herszehorn, David M. “Boosted by Putin, Russia’s Middle Class Turns on Him.” The New York Times. December 11, 2011.
8 Iofee, Julie. “The Decembrists.” Foreign Policy. December 9, 2011.
9 Piontkovsky, Andrei. “The Russian Spring Has Begun.” The Wall Street Journal. December 14, 2011.
10 Nocetti, Julian. “Russia’s virtual: the new reality?” Open Democracy. December 14, 2011.
11 Lipman, Maria. “Understanding Putin’s Setback.” Council on Foreign Relations, December 6, 2011.
12 Clover, Charles. “Russia’s middle class finds its feet.” Financial Times. December 12, 2011.
13 Nocetti, Julian. “Russia’s virtual: the new reality?” Open Democracy. December 14, 2011.
14 Iofee, Julie. “The Decembrists.” Foreign Policy. December 9, 2011.
15 Nocetti, Julian. “Russia’s virtual: the new reality?” Open Democracy. December 14, 2011.
16 Barry, Ellen and Kramer, Andrew, E. “Russian Mogul Joins the Race Against Putin.” The New York Times. December 12, 2011.
17 Iofee, Julie. “The Decembrists.” Foreign Policy. December 9, 2011.
18 Filippov, Pyotr. “Is corruption in Russia’s DNA?” Open Democracy. November 16, 2011. | <urn:uuid:8c16ed3b-ac67-48a0-8f4f-d5927da41e60> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.globalization101.org/ahead-of-us-a-russian-spring-or-a-russian-winter | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962153 | 1,795 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Search By State Standards
The 400th anniversary celebration of Santa Fe is a timely opportunity for teachers from around the country to study the complex history and culture of the area by investigating the historic sites of Santa Fe and surrounding Pueblos.
EDSITEment has partnered with Thinkfinity to help you find, save, and share even more free lesson plans and educational resources. Try it Now
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Special support for Edsitement is provided by Thinkfinity.org and Verizon | <urn:uuid:630d586d-9712-49fd-bf36-4e6070e7562b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://edsitement.neh.gov/websites/contested-homelands | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.901525 | 125 | 2.390625 | 2 |
Although the stock market took a significant plunge this past week following the election, this week's numbers show how southeastern Idaho is seeing an increase in commodity prices.
Local farmers have remained untouched by the drastic market dip felt nationwide. Wendy Swore has been a farmer for the past 16 years. Everything she grows, she sells to local markets and to General Mills.
Fortunately for her and other farmers across southeast idaho, this past week's significant stock market dip has not affected them at all. As a matter of fact, they have been seeing a demand in their crops.
"(In previous years) we would get several calls from people who wanted to go out and glean the potato field because they were hungry,” said Swore. "Or they would come by for corn and wouldn't have money to pay for their corn so we were giving a lot of produce away. And this year we had only like two people who could even think of any one who was in need of food."
The Dow plunged 430 points overnight after the election, and totaled with the S&P 500, that's more than a 3 percent drop.
One economist said this is unique to southeastern Idaho.
"One of the things we've experienced related to agriculture in southeastern Idaho is that it tends to be immune from economic downturns, even short-term worries or panics” said Dan Cravens of the Department of Labor. “Even when the stock market turns down, ag prices usually won't.”
Fast food chains such as McDonald's have been seeing a decrease in sales this past week, but economists are saying that's a good indicator that the local economy is actually doing better. The price of local grains and wheat have increased by about 10 percent this past week as well, which is due to people in the community having more money to spend.
"As far as commodities, the higher the prices, the better off we are because in your rural areas when you have income to our farmers increasing, they have more money to spend here locally," said Cravens.
Cravens said that unemployment in southeast Idaho is down to 6.1 percent. Power County is now down to 6.4 percent, down from 9.5 percent in the past year alone.
Swore put it in simpler terms: "They say if you've eaten today, hug a farmer." | <urn:uuid:4cff3a65-fcac-4c88-b15c-69c8787d815f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.localnews8.com/news/Local-farmers-see-greater-demand-for-crops/-/308662/17378978/-/kyq8vpz/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986335 | 484 | 1.6875 | 2 |
"Oh really, it's not too bad since they put the round-about up here on 43. It's a lot easier," said Daniel Dorris, Missouri Driver.
Dorris says some roads could use some work and the current conditions aren't good on his aging van.
"Make them smoother, a lot of these roads are rough. Like 96 has no shoulder on it," says Dorris.
That's exactly the type of feedback Missouri Department of Transportation officials are looking for as part of their "Missouri on the Move" initiative.
"We just want to contact as many of those 6 million customers and we want them to share with us what they see as key transportation needs," said Dan Salisbury, MoDOT Assistant Southwest District Engineer.
Missouri has 33,000 miles of roadway, which is more than Kansas and Illinois combined. That means MoDOT officials maintain the 7th largest highway system in the nation.
"We're doing a pretty darn good job on our busier roadways. Statewide, 88% are in smooth condition. In Southwest Missouri, 95% of our busier roadways are smooth," says Salisbury.
Drivers like Dorris say they're already noticing MoDOT's efforts.
"Now Kansas roads are a lot worse than Missouri roads, I think. Because once you leave Kansas and get into Missouri, Missouri roads are a lot smoother," says Dorris.
MoDOT officials say there is still time to give feedback by filling out a virtual form on their website. Officials will gather all the feedback until April and hope to release a strategic plan for upcoming road projects by early summer. To view their website, click here. | <urn:uuid:509c70e1-92d7-49c3-bda7-1e3ac431b077> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fourstateshomepage.com/fulltext-thanksgiving?nxd_id=378912 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977965 | 347 | 1.554688 | 2 |
U.N. OKs final 30 days for Syria observer force
Syria's U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari, left, thanks a member of the Chinese UN delegation as China's UN Ambassador Li Baodong, second from right, and Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin look on, after a Security Council meeting on the situation in Syria at the United Nations in New York, Thursday, July 19, 2012. / AP Photo/Kathy Willens
(AP) UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a resolution Friday extending the 300-strong U.N. observer force in Syria for a final 30 days but leaving open the possibility of an extension if the Syrian government stops using heavy weapons and the civil war's level of violence is reduced.
The resolution gives a possible lifeline to the unarmed observers who were sent to Syria three months ago to monitor a cease-fire, which has never taken place, and the implementation of international envoy Kofi Annan's six-point peace plan, which was been flouted by President Bashar Assad's government.
The council voted shortly after Russia's ambassador to France, Alexander Orlov, said he believes Assad is ready to step down "in a civilized way." The Syrian government immediately denied it, and the Russian Foreign Ministry said his statements were taken out of context and have been "wrongly interpreted."
The mandate of the observer force had been set to expire Friday. The observers suspended patrols in the face of escalating violence.
The force's future had been left in limbo by the Russian and Chinese vetoes of a Western-backed U.N. resolution Thursday aimed at pressuring Assad's government to end the escalating civil war by threatening sanctions if Assad's troops and heavy weapons were not withdrawn from populated areas in 10 days.
Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin had said he would veto the original British-drafted resolution on the observer mission and support a rival Pakistani text that would have extended the mission for 45 days, with the possibility of further renewals. But after closed-door consultations called by Pakistan, all 15 council members reached agreement on a revised British text.
The future of Assad has been a subject of intense debate, especially following this week's attack in Damascus that targeted his inner circle and killed his defense minister and the deputy defense minister, who was the president's brother-in-law.
Orlov, the Russian ambassador in Paris, said in an interview with Radio France Internationale that Assad's acceptance of an international agreement in June for a transition toward a more democratic regime, and his subsequent step of naming a representative to negotiate the transition, meant that he was prepared to give up leadership.
"Personally ... I think it will be difficult for him to stay in office, given everything that's happened," Orlov told RFI.
But in a subsequent interview with BFM TV, he backtracked on his personal assessment.
Asked if he thinks Assad's days are numbered, Orlov replied: "No, I don't think so. I say it's for Syrian people to determine that ... Is the regime coming to an end or not? It's not for me to say."
He also said he was misunderstood.
"If President Assad accepted this (agreement) that foresees a transition, it means that perhaps within himself he is ready to leave if that was the result of the negotiations. It's because of this that I called it a civilized departure," he told BFM.
Orlov noted in the original RFI interview that Assad accepted the final statement of the June 30 Geneva agreement for a transition "toward a more democratic regime" and then went the next step, naming a representative to negotiate the transition with the opposition. In essence, that meant that "he accepted to leave, but leave in a civilized way," the ambassador said.
Syrian TV quickly said the interview had been taken out of context.
Russian Embassy spokesman Sergei Parinov said the ambassador's statement was "incorrectly interpreted" by international media. Parinov told The Associated Press the ambassador just "restated" Russia's interpretation of Assad's response to the Geneva agreement.
Parinov said the ambassador's statement was not referring to any new information coming from the Assad regime on Friday.
The remarks by the ambassador appeared to be adding a new layer of interpretation to the Geneva agreement, which was based on a U.N.-brokered peace plan that Syria's president was party to. In fact, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov underlined at the time that the plan does not require Assad's ouster, saying there is "no attempt in the document to impose on the Syrian people any type of transitional process."
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In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ today is Vidovdan. On this day the Serbian people received their greatest victory through defeat.
This victory was made by a choice; a choice between a heavenly kingdom and an earthly kingdom. The poetic epic cycle of Kosovo reminds us of this choice.“The book itself preached to the Tsar:
‘Tsar of noble ancestry!
Which kingdom will you choose?
Will you choose the earthly kingdom?
Or will you choose the heavenly kingdom?
If you choose the earthly kingdom….
All the Turkish host will perish.
If you choose the heavenly kingdom….
All your army will perish,
And you, O Prince, will die with them.’
After the Tsar heard these words,
He pondered all sorts of thoughts:
‘Dear God, what shall I do and how shall I?
Which kingdom shall I choose?
Shall I choose the earthly kingdom?
Or shall I choose the heavenly kingdom?
The earthly kingdom lasts only a brief time,
But, the heavenly kingdom always and forever.’
So the Tsar chose the heavenly kingdom….
Then the Turks mounted their attack against Lazar.
And the Serbian Prince perished,
Together with his entire army,
Seventy-seven thousand in number
And all was holy and honorable
And acceptable to the gracious God….”
Saint Nikolaj Velimirovic tells us that the mysterious book from Jerusalem that was presented to Knez Lazar is presented to each of us for our signature. Saint Nikolaj goes on to say “Along with this book there are always presented to us two sheets of paper to choose from. On one sheet is written: ‘The Heavenly Kingdom of Christ.’ On the other is written “The Earthly Kingdom of Herod, Pilate, and others whose name is Legion.’” We must each choose freely and consciously.
This is the same choice that confronted Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden when they choose to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The result of their choice was their separation from God.
Today’s Gospel reminds us of this choice when our Lord Jesus Christ says “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matthew 6:24)
What the Gospel is telling us is that when we make this choice we have to totally embrace the choice that we make. We cannot be half harted; as our Lord says in Revelation “So then because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue you out of my mouth.” (Revelation 3:16) A further explanation of this is given to us by Abba Isaiah of the desert fathers “As one eye cannot look heavenwards and the other eastwards, so the mind cannot combine cares for things of heaven with those of the earth.”
Saint Nikolaj Velimirovic describes those that choose an earthly kingdom in the following manner “They are afraid of the kingdom of heaven because they cannot see where it begins; but they cling to the earthly kingdom, because they cannot see where it ends…..Pleasure and its abyss are arrayed in the same garments.”
Saint Basil the Great speaks of the life that embraces the earthly kingdom in the following manner. “Wretched is the one who demands much; much demanding creates in life an insatiability of desire.”
The following question is put to us by our Lord regarding this choice that we have to make “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26)
If we make the choice of the heavenly kingdom our Lord tells us “Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life,” (Matthew 6:25) “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, What shall we be clothed? ….. for your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things.” (Matthew 6:31-32)
This is exactly what the Holy Knez Lazar did when he choose the heavenly kingdom. He sacrificed everything for the “Honorable Cross and Golden Freedom.” He embraced what our Lord said “whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.” (Matthew 16:25)
Today’s gospel reminds us of the rewards of this type of sacrifice when it says “But seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:33)
So, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ I ask that through the prayers of the Holy Knez Lazar and all the martyrs of Kosovo that you too may choose the heavenly kingdom and embrace the “Honorable Cross and Golden Freedom” as your holy ancestors did.
Delivered by Fr. Milan Medakovic at Holy Trinity Serbian Orthodox Church on Vidovdan 2009. | <urn:uuid:76585516-042a-4ba3-8eb3-0ac8253595cb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://frmilan.wordpress.com/2009/06/28/vidovdan-sermon/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935656 | 1,124 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Larry Metzger, Department Chair
email | 425-868-6191, ext. 660
download: history department highlights
The history department's goal is to teach citizenship. Courses promote cultural, historical, geographical and political literacy, so that students may become informed participants in a democratic society. Recognizing an increasingly global community, the curriculum stresses world history, the United States' evolving role in that history and how the nations are interrelated. Teachers connect the past with the present, and teach that history is always changing. Assignments and projects are designed to expand thinking, skills and knowledge.
Varied electives, including courses on genocide, the Vietnam War and comparative religion, enrich the curriculum. Leadership opportunities such as Associated Student Body, Student Government and the Master Planning Committee are available to students.
Learn more about Overlake's History program in the department highlights packet. | <urn:uuid:eb98f72d-37fd-49d9-80d5-ed8d5fb3c7a8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://overlake.org/academics/history.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 | 0.926397 | 180 | 2.40625 | 2 |
Outgoing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was in Iraq today on his 13th unannounced visit since the war started in 2003, ABC News has learned. It was an unusually secretive farewell tour of the nation that will almost certainly define his legacy.
The trip, laden with symbolism, is among the last stops in Rumsfeld's farewell tour, with just nine days left before former CIA Director Robert Gates assumes Rumsfeld's third-floor office in the Pentagon.
Reporters usually agree to keep Rumsfeld's trips to Iraq secret until he arrives on the ground, under standard Pentagon rules designed to avoid alerting insurgents. But this visit has remained undisclosed even after his arrival.
The trip comes weeks after President Bush announced a day after Election Day that he would replace Rumsfeld. In the election, public concern over the course of the Iraq war led voters to hand both houses of Congress to Democrats, who had remained in the minority for the vast majority of the president's tenure.
Rumsfeld's visit also comes just days after the bipartisan Iraq Study Group declared the situation in Iraq to be "grave and deteriorating" and recommended major changes in the war policies that Rumsfeld oversaw.
Rumsfeld addressed Pentagon employees with a catch in his throat this week. He said Americans would be mistaken to withdraw from Iraq immediately and that his worst day on the job was when he learned of the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal that tarnished the war effort.
"I wish I could say that everything we've done here has gone perfectly, but that's not how life works, regrettably," Rumsfeld told Defense Department employees.
At that meeting, a sometimes emotional Rumsfeld quoted a wounded service member he had met in a military hospital.
"He looked up and he said, 'If only the American people will give us the time, we can do this,'" Rumsfeld said. "We're getting it done. And it is a fact, it will take patience and it will take understanding."
Rumsfeld has been a polarizing figure in the United States and Iraq. One Iraqi told ABC News that "Rumsfeld failed in Iraq," but another said, "If his visit benefits Iraq, I welcome him."
Residents of a village north of Baghdad expressed their anger one day after an American air strike killed 17 people, including six women and five children. U.S. military officials said they were targeting al Qaeda militants who had fired on American troops.
Despite continued violence that included car bombs in the northern city of Mosul and the Iraqi Shiite holy city of Karbala, Rumsfeld could point to one hopeful sign today: Iraqi politicians are said to be close to a deal to share oil revenues among the nation's ethnic and religious groups, an agreement that could ease tensions between Shiite and Sunni Muslims and Iraqi Kurds. | <urn:uuid:880f2451-1f60-4525-81ec-cf6dc5a159ca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/IraqCoverage/story?id=2713447&page=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981032 | 581 | 1.765625 | 2 |
by David Templeton
" 'The Great Divide' ~ Impressively visual, with a massive drilling rig hovering over the tiny houses of the town, the play is performed with passion and a sense of urgency by a large student cast."
David Templeton, Bohemian
"Sonoma State University is doing something truly remarkable this school year. In a brilliantly conceived move combining numerous disciplines into one year-long package, SSU's department of theater arts and dance has launched its "Water Works" series, using the theatrical arts—with the help of the school's science and sociology departments—to explore various issues related to water. Education through entertainment—what a concept."
"The goal of much art is to inspire discussion and refection. Sonoma State's "Water Works" series is a brilliant example of how art and education can be a perfect fit."
KSRO CenterStage Oct. 25 - "The Great Divide"
KSRO CenterStage: Radio hosts David Wesley Page and Curtiss Kim interview Sonoma State University student actors Susan Cordero and Conner Pratt about "The Great Divide." Playwright Adam Chanzit rips the issue of hydraulic fracturing from the headlines for this theatrical thriller about a rural Colorado town balancing short term economic survival against long term water needs and health is this SSU Dept. of Theatre Arts & Dance stage production presented Nov. 1 to Nov. 10, 2012. Call 707-664-2353 or visit www.sonoma.edu/waterworks
Comcast Newsmakers -- October 2012
Dr. Claudia Luke speaks about SSU's Nature Preserves and particularlyabout WATERS, SSU's partnership with the Sonoma County Water Agency. | <urn:uuid:ccf13033-e18b-4105-95c4-0b70315af3eb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sonoma.edu/waterworks/about/press.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918378 | 348 | 1.5 | 2 |
Czech President Václav Klaus (picture above) says that the global financial crisis did not result from insufficient market regulation, but, on the contrary, from excessive government interventions and increasing public spending.
"What is now happening in the financial markets after long years of exceptionally solid economic growth around the world is nothing unusual. After years of growth there must necessarily be a decrease at some point," the president wrote.
He rejected that the pending recession can be "prevented by some sort of a global economy management," likening such ideas to the communist-era central planning.
Klaus concludes that the EU plans to better regulate the financial markets and reform the International Monetary Fund will not lead to a "new capitalism", as termed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, but will represent a return to an "old socialism."
(Thanks to Jack Helmuth.) | <urn:uuid:40b77269-8cf4-4c01-9beb-135cf06b5391> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2008/10/klaus-its-not-new-capitalism-its-old.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943717 | 175 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Keith Vaughan: Romanticism to Abstraction
Pallant House, Chichester 10 March to 10 June 2011
Keith Vaughan (1912-1977) was a self-taught British painter whose semi-abstract works are inspired by landscape and by his feelings for men. His colour schemes use the khaki, forest green and airforce blue that so suits the British countryside. His work is tough and attractive, quite free of the soft-centred whimsy that infects some British painting of the time. Wikipedia says: “Vaughan is also known for his journals, selections from which were published in 1966 and more extensively in 1989, after his death. A gay man troubled by his sexuality, much of what is known about him is through those journals. He was diagnosed with cancer in 1975 and committed suicide in 1977 in London, recording his last moments in his diary as the drugs overdose took effect.”
Lucian Freud Portraits
National Portrait Gallery, London to 27 May 2011
Freud (1922-2011, grandson of Sigmund) used to paint in thin glazes, but regrettably he moved away from his early meticulous style to a thicker impasto technique inspired by Francis Bacon. He is famous for his psychologically truthful portraits and merciless portrayals of naked human flesh. But I feel he was better at buildings than bodies. He was very good-looking when young and is estimated to have 40 children. Apart from some penetrating late self-portraits, I prefer his portrayals of whippets, rubber plants, trench coats and views from back windows. He and his brother Clement didn’t speak for years. | <urn:uuid:795696dd-8cd3-444c-b144-d83eef0accbb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wordcount-richmonde.blogspot.com/2012/03/art-shows-in-england-freud-and-vaughan.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.990526 | 340 | 1.84375 | 2 |
44:1 the country of Pathros. The Jews soon migrated throughout Egypt. Pathros was “Upper Egypt”—that is, southern Egypt. Noph (same as Memphis) was the capitol of “Lower Egypt,” including the Nile delta regions. Migdol and Tahpanhes were small towns in the latter area.
44:18 queen of heaven. The so-called “queen of heaven” was the chief goddess of the pagan pantheon, known by various names in the various nations, notably Ishtar in Babylon, but also Astarte, Ashtoreth, Venus and others. Both a fertility and military goddess, she was commonly worshipped, especially by pagan women, through sexual rites. King Josiah had, for a time, been able to stop these idolatrous practices, and now these apostate Jews were arguing that this had been the cause of their calamities. Strangely, even in Christian lands, there has been a modern revival of worship of the “goddess” among the feminists of the New Age movement, and even some evangelicals have begun to argue that God is our universal “mother” as well as heavenly Father. There is even a danger that Mary, the mother of Jesus, might be exalted in the minds of some to the status of deity.
44:30 I will give Pharaoh-hophra. This particular pharaoh, ruling at the time of this Jewish flight into Egypt, was later assassinated by his own enemies in the palace, with the resulting turmoil giving Nebuchadnezzar and his armies occasion and opportunity to invade and subjugate Egypt. See the similar prophecy in Jeremiah 43:8-13. Although there has been little secular confirmation of this invasion and captivity of Egypt by Babylon, there has been enough in recent years to confirm its basic historicity. See notes on Ezekiel 29, which predicts the same event. | <urn:uuid:43d54ed5-5632-411b-ad88-78769382a8cf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.icr.org/bible/jeremiah/44/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978714 | 395 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Aging security at Pantex plant, warn auditors
Auditors warn that security in the Pantex nuclear weapon disassembly plant has aged to the point where it may no longer function as intended.
An Energy Department office of inspector general report (.pdf) dated Jan. 29 notes that the Carson County, Texas facility places high-grade radioactive materials from nuclear weapons into two staging areas, Zone 4W and Zone 12. It's security in the former where auditors say they have concerns; the system there dates from the 1990s and had an expected useful lifetime of 20 years.
Until it's updated, "there is a potential security concern that elements of the system may no longer function as intended," auditors say.
National Nuclear Security Administration and Pantex officials say that should the system fail, they will need to add compensatory measures such as dispatching officers to assess areas where sensors no longer give a comprehensive picture. But, auditors say overreliance on compensatory measures were a factor in the July 28 penetration of the Y-12 National Security Complex grounds in Tennessee by three activists.
Auditors make no recommendations in the report, however, since the NNSA production office is aware of the problem and is taking actions to address it.
The report also notes that the facility exceeded in fiscals 2010 and 2011 its goal for nuclear weapon dismantlement by 26 percent and 10 percent, respectively. The NNSA says it will dismantle all nuclear weapons retired prior to fiscal 2009 by the end of fiscal 2022.
- download the report, OAS-L-13-06 (.pdf)
Energy OIG: Y-12 contractors negligent at best, cheaters at worst
Podonsky: NNSA security fixes often just temporary
Multiple failures permitted trespassers to penetrate Y-12 complex | <urn:uuid:2338e881-7cde-4afd-88fa-5b9a34dddb3f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fiercehomelandsecurity.com/story/aging-security-pantex-plant-warn-auditors/2013-02-07 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942549 | 365 | 1.609375 | 2 |
This is a demonstration of how to read an earned value graph. The black line represents the planned cumulative budget expenditures, the green line represents the actual expenditures, and the blue line represents the earned value. The project is ahead of schedule when the earned value line is above the planned budget line, and is under budget when the earned value line is above the actual budget line.
Move the mouse over the graph to see the relevant comparisons. Horizontal brackets indicate a schedule variance, while vertical ones indicate a budget variance.
You should note that at the end of week 1, the project is 4 days over budget, even though the expected amount of budget has been spent. This is because only 6 days worth of product was actually built. This makes the project .4 weeks (2 days, assuming 5 days per week) behind schedule (4 labor-days of work not completed / 2 labor-days per calendar day). Graphically, this is obvious because the blue earned-value line is below both the planned and actual lines.
At the end of week 2, the earned-value and actual expenditures lines are equal, indicating that the project is now on budget, and has improved to only one day (.2 weeks) behind schedule. Week 3 shows the project still on budget, but it has now slipped back to .4 weeks behind schedule.
After 4 weeks, the productivity (indicated by the slope of the earned-value line) has picked up, and the project is now on schedule and 4 labor-days under budget. This can be seen from the fact that the blue and black lines intersect, and both are above the green expenditures line. At the end of week 5, the blue line is above both of the others, indicating that the project is now both ahead of schedule and under budget. | <urn:uuid:fefd26b6-7fed-4e7f-875f-e9e4540026e1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://meterware.com/evdemo/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9416 | 364 | 3.09375 | 3 |
Students compete in skills contests
More than 400 students are squaring off against the clock and each other in Berks County.
Students from 15 career and technology centers are part of this year's Skills USA district competition.
It's taking place at Berks Career and Technology Center in Oley Township.
There are contests in 44 different fields, including health care, transportation and construction.
From here, students may progress to state and national competitions. Those will be held later this year.
Copyright 2012 WFMZ. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | <urn:uuid:6312fad9-cc9c-4819-a9ca-2c0b07feaddc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wfmz.com/news/Students-compete-in-skills-contests/-/121458/8185546/-/view/print/-/q8andkz/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948052 | 121 | 1.96875 | 2 |
Academic Law Centers
There’s no substitute for being on the front lines, showing that you can do the work.
The faculty of the three law centers at New England Law | Boston engineer critical real law, real life connections. Professors, researchers, and students come together through the legal centers to focus their study on the disciplines that most engage them and direct their work toward the issues in which they most want to invest.
The experience can greatly benefit the trajectory of a student's legal career. Center faculty teach courses that lay the foundation for collaborative research and outreach projects, and our law school centers address emerging needs across a broad spectrum of concerns.
Criminal justice reform, environmental advocacy, domestic violence, international human rights, war crimes, universal jurisdiction, corporate governance, e-commerce, and intellectual property protection are just a few of the areas in which New England Law students, professors, and alumni have moved beyond the walls of the classroom to make an impact on the real world.
New England Law Centers and Clinics brochure | <urn:uuid:70f3c503-6f33-4a93-bf10-ee388818942c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nesl.edu/experiential/centers.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93928 | 211 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Updated 1 p.m. Tuesday
It will be up to the town's traffic authority whether or not golf carts will be allowed to travel on town roads with posted speed limits not exceeding 25 mph.
The Stratford Town Council initially referred the proposal to the town's ordinance committee. However, at that body's meeting Monday it was announced the proposed legislation needs to be reviewed and ruled on by the town's traffic authority.
"According to state statue ... only the traffic authority of the town has the right to allow or not allow golf carts," said Councilman Craig Budnick (R-7).
The town website lists the following members of the traffic authority:
- Tom Moore, mayor's representative
- Maurice McCarthy, director of public works
- Gary Catalano, public works supervisor
- John Casey, town engineer
- Lt. Patrick Freer, Stratford Police Department
- Lt. Celeste Robitaille, SPD
- Capt. Michael Fernandes, SPD
And the purpose of the traffic authority, according to the website:
The Traffic Authority shall have the authority to provide for the regulation and use of streets and highways, including but not limited to the regulation of parking, speed and traffic, in accordance with the Connecticut General Statutes.
A motion to strike the golf cart proposal from the agenda passed unanimously. The proposed legislation is now in the hands of the traffic authority.
Original Article: Golf Cart Law on the Drawing Board Again [Poll]
Do you think allowing golf carts to travel on Stratford roads would benefit residents?
Published Jan. 11
Almost a year after it was stricken from a town committee's agenda, town officials are revisiting the idea of allowing golf carts on public roads.
"I've been contacted by numerous people in my district to bring it up," Councilman Chris Barnaby (R-1) told Stratford Patch Tuesday. Barnaby said he and his first district constituents have amassed a list of about 18 talking points in favor of permitting golf carts on town roads.
The proposed legislation was , when then-committee member Thomas Malloy said it would only affect a "precious few people" who own golf carts.
The discussion is made possible via that provides towns the option to pass regulations allowing the use of golf carts on town roads, with a few restrictions, including:
- Operation during daylight hours only
- Golf carts need to be equipped with a horn
- Golf carts need to be equipped with a flag visible to motorists
- No operation on streets with posted speed limits above 25 mph
- The operator must have a valid driver’s license
The proposed ordinance resurfaced Monday in the form of a Town Council agenda item sponsored by Barnaby. [The item, 8.1 ORDINANCE re: Golf Cart Travel on Public Roads (#12-01), can be read in full by clicking on the attached PDF in the photo gallery.] Before the Council meeting commenced, a group of Lordship residents spoke in support of the proposal.
Jefferson Street resident Chuck Vernazza said it would "add another dimension to the Lordship community." He said locals can use their golf carts to go to church, the beach or a nearby grocery store. Vernazza added golf carts are environmentally clean and do not go faster than 15 to 20 mph.
"I believe it would definitely help our community," Birch Street resident Jeff Trombly said. "I do a lot of walking. I don't see the point of jumping in the car and driving two blocks."
Trombly said allowing golf carts on town roads would also help senior citizens get around more safely.
Kathy Allagno, also of Jefferson Street, suggested that the ordinance include a route from the seawall to Short Beach to Long Beach. She said it would lessen the noise from cars along the seawall.
Good for the Whole Town?
"As I had seen it presented I didn't know you were limiting it to Lordship," said Sonja Devitt of Hilltop Drive. She argued that narrow streets in Stratford such as Whippoorwill Lane would be dangerous for golf carts to travel on. "I see a tragedy waiting to happen," she told the Council.
Barnaby said the ordinance could potentially only be applied to one community. He said the proposal is modeled after one that Old Saybrook has already adopted.
"I do agree it needs some work," he said. "I'm a huge proponent of safety."
Councilwoman Stephanie Philips (D-2) echoed Barnaby's safety concerns, saying "it needs a lot of careful thought." However, she said the ordinance needs to be applicable to the whole town, not just one community such as Lordship. Philips was recently replaced as the chairperson of the ordinance committee by fellow Council member Jim Connor (R-8).
Under the proposed law, the town would not be liable for any potential damages if a golf cart were to be involved in a crash with another vehicle or pedestrian, Barnaby said. He said insurance on the registered golf cart would cover the town's liability.
Another issue that remains to be addressed fully is how the law will be enforced by Stratford police, Philips said.
In the end, Council members voted that the proposal go back to the ordinance committee for further examination. It was recommended that the police department weigh in on the roads that would be applicable under the ordinance.
The ordinance committee meets on the last Monday of the month.
Editor's note: The original publication date of this article, Jan. 11, has been changed for layout purposes. | <urn:uuid:c0e72c3d-1d81-4cac-a366-80122318c302> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://stratford.patch.com/groups/politics-and-elections/p/golf-cart-law-on-the-drawing-board-again-poll | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969694 | 1,143 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Need for the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) has once again been revived with the Hyderabad twin blasts killing 16 people and injuring over 100 last Thursday evening, said reports.
The demand for the coordination agency after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack was postponed as several state governments were against the move owing to the fact that they felt it would violate their autonomy, since NCTC was empowered to search and arrest any person without informing local administration. .
NCTC´s demand was promulgated by P Chidambaram during his term as Union Home Minister and is now carried forward by his successor Sushil Kumar Shinde, who is talking to the state governments to persuade them in giving a nod to the anti-terror hub formation.
According to reports, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who was against the NCTC, has now realised the need for the same.
"She (Banerjee) is willing. But other chief ministers are opposing it. We have to hold talks with them also," Shinde was quoted as saying after a meeting with Banerjee on Monday. | <urn:uuid:d69fe56c-2653-4716-8387-8cbad99b8a17> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sify.com/news/nctc-need-revived-mamata-gives-her-nod-news-terrorism-nc0ly9fhhdb.html?ref=slideout | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.990048 | 229 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Oldest of three children born to a freedman Anglo-Saxon farmer. An adventurous seafaring man, Godric spent his youth in travel, both on land and sea, as a peddler and merchant mariner first along the coast of the British Isles, then throughout Europe. Sometime sailor, sometime ship’s captain, he lived a seafarer’s life of the day, and it was hardly a religious one. He was known to drink, fight, chase women, con customers, and in a contemporary manuscript, was referred to as a “pirate”. Converted upon visiting Lindisfarne during a voyage, and being touched by the life of Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne.
Pilgrim to Jerusalem and the holy lands, Saintiago de Compostela, the shrine of Saint Gaul in Provence, and to Rome, Italy. As a self-imposed austerity, and a way to always remember Christ’s lowering himself to become human, Godric never wore shoes, regardless of the season. He lived as a hermit in the holy lands, and worked in a hospital near Jerusalem. Hermit for nearly sixty years at Finchale, County Durham, England, first in a cave, then later in a more formal hermitage; he was led to its site by a vision of Saint Cuthbert. It was a rough life, living barefoot in a mud and wattle hut, wearing a hair shirt under a metal breastplate, standing in icy waters to control his lust, living for a while off berries and roots, and being badly beaten by Scottish raiders who strangely thought he had a hidden treasure.
Noted for his close familiarity with wild animals, his supernatural visions, his gift of prophecy, and ability to know of events occurring hundreds or thousands of miles away. Counseled Saint Aelred, Saint Robert of Newminster, Saint Thomas Beckett, and Pope Alexander III. Wrote poetry in Medieval English. The brief song Sainte nicholaes by Godric is one of the oldest in the English language, and is believed to be the earliest surviving example of lyric poetry. He was said to have received his songs, lyrics and music, complete during his miraculous visions.
- Book of Saints, by the Monks of Ramsgate
- Katherine Rabenstein
- Lives of the Saints, by Father Alban Butler
- Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
- “Saint Godric of Finchale“. Saints.SQPN.com. 12 May 2013. Web. 24 May 2013. <> | <urn:uuid:f2c52658-ac47-4b9b-9c3b-fc269c6db853> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://saints.sqpn.com/saint-godric-of-finchale/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973442 | 536 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Anja Mondragon (MAIEP/MBA '13) spent the summer in paradise working on an environmental conservation project in Belize.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "Inspires" Students
January 25, 2013
Those were just a few of the words that students from the Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies (NPTS) program used to describe United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's visit to the Monterey Institute on January 18, 2013.
"It is really inspirational and really encouraging," said NPTS student Sayaka Shingu, who will be interning at the United Nations this semester as part of the International Professional Service Semester (IPSS). "It made me realize we can be like him and work like him on really challenging but achievable goals."
Students from the NPTS program got to shake hands with His Excellency and be in a group photo with him before his address to a packed Irvine Auditorium.
"Honestly, it was incredible," said Sophie Manoukian (NPTS '13).
Manoukian will also be heading to the United Nations this semester for the IPSS program. She will be working in the WMD branch of the Office of Disarmament Affairs. She said the Secretary-General's speech gave her inspiration for her upcoming assignment.
"It made me want to research all my information on disarmament education so that I show up there well prepared," she said.
During his speech, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that the world needs the "skills and commitment" of Monterey Institute students to help in "advancing disarmament and nonproliferation."
"Not only does he visit the school I go to but he speaks so highly of the program I'm engaged in," said Jerry Davydov (NPTS '13). "It's truly honoring and truly reinforces my decision to come to the Monterey Institute and work with the Center for Nonproliferation Studies."
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Jennifer Cho (MACI '11) tells us how the Monterey Institute helped her become an interpreter for the U.S. Department of State. | <urn:uuid:52caea50-7efd-4cbe-9d23-ddfa9ad600c7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.miis.edu/student-life/world/stories/node/30518 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96199 | 447 | 1.570313 | 2 |
There are a ton of impressive applications of nanoparticles in medicine, especially cancer treatment, but MIT's new take on the process is pretty awesome. It uses two kinds of particles to do the job: one to find the tumors, the other to kick their ass.
Nanoparticles have already been used to make delivery of cancer drugs more efficient, but the use of these new scouting particles, which call the delivery particles to the site of the tumor, has increased the amount of medicine that reaches the tumors by a factor of 40 in trials.
The scouting cells (gold nanorods) work by entering the pores of tumors and heating up enough to cause a blood clotting reaction. Then the delivery particles attach themselves to an enzyme called Factor XIII, which is attracted to the site of the tumor during the clotting process.
Right now the process is still in its early phases. The research team admits that it needs to be simplified, especially because cancer patients are so prone to clotting all over their bodies, and the delivery particles will need a way to lock onto only the tumor clots. But still, even with all the challenges ahead, the idea that we're close to a cancer treatment that's forty times more efficient than what we have now is a pretty wonderful proposition. [Nature] | <urn:uuid:d7e9a6b9-19df-4817-a36c-9a4ef93a9894> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gizmodo.com/5813785/mits-new-nanoparticles-tag-team-cancer-cells?tag=nanoparticle | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957189 | 262 | 3.234375 | 3 |
Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vermont) plans to introduce legislation to Congress that will focus on combating phone fraud.
He expects it will receive widespread, bipartisan support, because everyone has constituents who are elderly.
Senior citizens are the main target for phone scams. Marcia Mason's received a few calls from strangers asking for money. The 81-year old said she never gave in.
"It makes me shiver a little bit to think that people are gullible enough to fall for that," said Mason.
Many pleas are coming from phone scammers in Jamaica.
"30,00 calls a day come out of Jamaica, targeted to seniors in the United States. Now a lot of those are targeted to the northeast because we have an aging population," said Mike Smith, president of FairPoint Communications.
In Vermont alone, they've swindled residents out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
"This is a practical step that needs to be taken," Rep. Welch said at a news conference. He added taking federal action against them is long overdue.
His new bill will create a special fraud-focused office in the Federal Trade Commission.
"It's information, coordination in a centralized place where people can go to get relevant information on what to do and how to do it," said Welch.
Bill Sorrell, Vermont's Attorney General strongly supports the idea. His office gets scam complaints from hundreds of Vermonters. | <urn:uuid:889a98af-0d18-4dda-bc83-2ab147518d76> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wptz.com/news/vermont-new-york/burlington/Vt-congressman-announces-fraud-fighting-bill/-/8869880/18312314/-/jw8ycoz/-/index.html?absolute=true | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965476 | 294 | 1.875 | 2 |
Russia, Tver Province Orthodox Confession Lists (FamilySearch Historical Records)Edit This Page
From FamilySearch Wiki
|This article describes a collection of historical records available at FamilySearch.org.|
Access the records: Russia, Tver Province Orthodox Church Confession Lists, 1728-1913 .
Title in the Language of the Records
Россия, Тверская губерния Списки Православное Исповедание
The form of confession lists was established in 1737. It includes the sequential number of the household, surname, given names of all children at least one year old, gender, ages, whether or not the person attended confession, and, if not, why the person did not attend (this is rarely noted).
Confessions were done at the time of Lent, the period of the liturgical year from Ash Wednesday to Easter. Children were taken to confession beginning in their seventh year. Russian Orthodox confession lists were sometimes interfiled with the church records of baptisms, marriages, or deaths.
For a list of records by localities and dates currently published in this collection, select the Browse.
This collection of church confessions for the Province of Tver includes the years 1728 to 1913.
Church confession lists were created and kept by priests to record the information related to their parishioner’s confessions.
These were considered an official record and are normally very reliable.
Citation for This Collection
The following citation refers to the original source of the data and images published on FamilySearch.org Historical Records. It may include the author, custodian, publisher and archive for the original records.
- Orthodox Church parishes. Russia, Tver confession lists. Russian Society of Historians and Archivists, Moscow, Russia.
Original records are also housed in various parishes throughout the Province of Tver, Russia.
|This image needs a translation.You can help by adding an English translation of the image. (Instructions)|
The key genealogical facts found on most confession records include:
- Number of males and females
- Complete names
How to Use the Record
To browse this collection, follow these links:
⇒Select "Browse through images" on the initial collection page
⇒ Select the Province (Губерния)
⇒ Select the District (Уезд)
⇒ Select the Year/Vol (Даты/Tом) which takes you to the images.
Look at the images one by one comparing the information with what you already know about your ancestors to determine which one is your ancestor. You may need to compare the information about more than one person to make this determination
Known Issues with This Collection
For a full list of all known issues associated with this collection see the attached Wiki article. If you encounter additional problems, please email them to firstname.lastname@example.org. Please include the full path to the link and a description of the problem in your e-mail. Your assistance will help ensure that future reworks will be considered.
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Citing FamilySearch Historical Collections
When you copy information from a record, you should also list where you found the information. This will help you or others to find the record again. It is also good to keep track of records where you did not find information, including the names of the people you looked for in the records.
A suggested format for keeping track of records that you have searched is found in the Wiki Article: How to Cite FamilySearch Collections.
Citation Example for a Record Found in This Collection
"Russia, Tver Confession Lists, 1728-1913," digital images, FamilySearch (https://.familysearch.org: accessed 20 March 2012), Москва > Клин1880 Vol. 17064
> images 5 or 21 images, entry number 26, Citation for This Collection | <urn:uuid:c2decb98-7e20-4544-8145-c4c9546d44a4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/index.php?title=Russia,_Tver_Province_Orthodox_Confession_Lists_(FamilySearch_Historical_Records)&oldid=1159796 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.910046 | 919 | 1.875 | 2 |
HOW UNCONDITIONAL IS OUR LOVE AND COMPASSION?
A SERMON DELIVERED AT
THE FEDERATED CHURCH OF ATHENS
20 JULY 1997
Frank L. Hoffman, Pastor
2 Samuel 7:1-17
How unconditional is our love and compassion?
Let's think very carefully about this before we answer.
Do you remember when David wanted to build the temple for the Lord, that the Lord said that he would not build it because of the blood he spilled, but that his son would, and that his kingdom would be everlasting (2 Samuel 7:1-17)?
At first David seemed very humbled by this promise, but then his pride came to the surface.
He had an affair with the wife of one of his most trusted soldiers, a foreigner, a Hittite, and when he found out that Bathsheba was pregnant, he had Uriah killed in order to try to cover up his sin from the public; but he could not hide it from the Lord. (2 Samuel 11:2-27).
And in the process of having Uriah killed, other innocent people were also killed.
The Lord had demonstrated His love and compassion towards David and his family to every generation to come, but did David return that love?
Obviously not in this case; thus, his love and compassion were limited.
And this is exactly the way the Lord responded to David. Listen to what He said to him (2 Samuel 12:1-5):
1. Then the Lord sent Nathan to David. And he came to him, and said, "There were two men in one city, the one rich and the other poor.
2. "The rich man had a great many flocks and herds.
3. "But the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb Which he bought and nourished; And it grew up together with him and his children. It would eat of his bread and drink of his cup and lie in his bosom, And was like a daughter to him.
4. "Now a traveler came to the rich man, And he was unwilling to take from his own flock or his own herd, To prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him; Rather he took the poor man's ewe lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him."
And note carefully how David responded.
5. Then David's anger burned greatly against the man, and he said to Nathan, "As the Lord lives, surely the man who has done this deserves to die.
David knew the truth about unlimited love and compassion, but he didn't practice it.
To have unlimited love and compassion means that we practice it always, not just sometimes, or even most of the time, but always, and we practice it toward every living being.
This poor man's lamb was a member of his own family, like his own daughter.
Obviously, he could look into her eyes and see her soul, just as we can with each other and with those animal members of our family.
He was not raising this lamb for food.
He loved her and cherished her, just as Uriah loved and cherished Bathsheba, which was the point of Nathanís story.
David acted as the rich man, who stole and killed.
The rich man had little or no love or compassion for his own sheep, or he could have understood how the poor man felt.
And neither did David consider how little he loved Uriah, for he allowed his lust to become greater, which is the same thing as the rich man's greed.
David didnít love his Uriah as himself (Leviticus 19:18).
And as we're looking at this example, I want us to realize that this lamb also loved, just as the rich man's lambs also wanted to love and be loved.
We have to be very hard of heart not to understand that both people and animals have the capacity for exhibiting unconditional love and compassion.
It's important for us to feel as this poor man felt, and as the lamb felt.
If we ever hope to have true and unconditional love and compassion, we cannot hide these feelings; we must nurture them.
This is something that David didnít fully grasp, for in verse 6 he says that the rich man must make restitution, fourfold, for the lamb that he killed.
This poor man loved that individual lamb as his daughter, he didnít want four other lambs. He mourned for the slain lamb.
Let's now move forward to Mark 6, and take a look at another example of sheep and people and love and compassion.
Let's start with verses 30-34.
30. And the apostles gathered together with Jesus; and they
reported to Him all that they had done and taught.
31. And He said to them, "Come away by yourselves to a lonely place and rest a while." (For there were many people coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.)
32. And they went away in the boat to a lonely place by themselves.
Have you ever felt like this?
Have you ever felt that so many people were crowding in on you, that you couldn't breathe, that it was too much, that you just needed a little space?
Have you ever experienced so many people making demands on you, that you couldn't handle it? I know I have.
We may sincerely want to help others, and be with them, but sometimes enough is enough, and we need our space, just as Jesus did.
But the key is: what is our over-all attitude?
Is it like Jesus'?
33. And the people saw them going, and many recognized them, and they ran there together on foot from all the cities, and got there ahead of them.
So much for being alone, but perhaps they did get a chance to eat while on the boat.
34. And when He went ashore, He saw a great multitude, and He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things.
This is the key.
Jesus' love and compassion were unconditional.
Even though He wanted to be alone for a while, He also understood why many of these people were following Him.
They were being taught of the Law and the rituals by the priests, but not of true love and compassion.
They had lost their hope, a hope that they saw in Jesus.
They needed love, and Jesus was offering it.
Even if they didn't fully believe, they still experienced His love and compassion, and wanted it.
Jesus looked into their eyes, and saw the yearning of their souls, and He could not turn away from them.
He loved this flock of people, as the poor man loved his ewe lamb.
He loved and felt compassion as each of us should, and as everyone really should.
Let's jump ahead to verses 53-56:
53. And when they had crossed over they came to land at Gennesaret, and moored to the shore.
54. And when they had come out of the boat, immediately the people recognized Him,
55. and ran about that whole country and began to carry about on their pallets those who were sick, to the place they heard He was.
56. And wherever He entered villages, or cities, or countryside, they were laying the sick in the market places, and entreating Him that they might just touch the fringe of His cloak; and as many as touched it were being cured.
These weren't even Hebrew people.
These were the same people who previously told Him to leave their country (Mark 5:17).
This is the same place where Jesus left the man out of whom He had cast many demons, and had told to spread the good news of what had happened to him (Mark 5:18-20).
Even though the people had previously rejected the one who had the demons, it is obvious that they now accepted him and what he told them.
He had compassion on his people as Jesus had.
He wanted them to be healed as he had been healed.
And when the people sought out Jesus, as the Israelites did, He likewise felt the same kind of love and compassion for them.
He didn't question whether or not they fully believed in Him as the Son of God.
Simply because they believed in His healing ability, it was enough, and Jesus healed them.
Each of us really needs to consider who we are every day, even several times a day.
We need to ask ourselves, "Am I the person Jesus wants me to be?"
"Am I living up to the potential Jesus sees in me?"
"Do I love God as He loves me?"
"Do I love myself as God loves me?"
"Do I love others, all others, humans and non-humans, and feel compassion for them, as God loves and feels compassion for me?"
All these answers should be, "Yes!"
So if they're not, we need to work on our priorities.
We need to remove any hardness of heart we may have remaining.
Let me give you an example.
Have you ever driven along in your car, or walked along the side of the road, and noticed all the trash that unthinking people have thrown there?
And because thereís so much, we sometimes think itís overwhelming, and thus we do nothing.
And if no one ever did anything, it would soon become overwhelming.
But some caring people do pick up this trash, and they do it one piece at a time.
No one person can do it all.
But with each thing that each of us picks up, there is less left to look ugly.
And that's the way we are to be with our love and compassion.
We have to extend it one unselfish moment at a time.
None of us can do it all, but we can all do something.
We can all work on improving our sensitivity, by allowing ourselves to feel what others feel, even if it hurts.
For the hurt we feel is the process by which our hearts and souls are softened, that we can love even more, and be ever more sensitive and compassionate.
In God's eyes, each of us is as that little ewe lamb, and we need to share this love and compassion with everyone.
Your Comments are welcome
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Thank you for visiting all-creatures.org. | <urn:uuid:fa7f46d3-eaea-439f-b265-289571818835> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.all-creatures.org/sermons97/s20jul97.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00076-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986998 | 2,258 | 1.96875 | 2 |
ATLANTA -- Atlanta's airport has installed water refilling stations as part of its effort to cut down on the use of disposable water bottles.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the refilling stations on concourses A and T dispense filtered water. Similar stations already exist at some other major airports, including San Francisco International and Chicago's O'Hare and Midway airports.
They're part of a pilot program to encourage travelers to reuse bottles and reduce trash at the airport. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport plans to monitor the refilling stations to decide whether to install them at other locations.
Airport refilling stations are partly a result of security restrictions on liquids that took effect in 2006 and which keep passengers from taking bottles of water through security checkpoints. | <urn:uuid:a2db2c57-d103-4644-9464-49b6845ad096> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/georgia/article/262700/5/Atlanta-airport-adds-water-refilling-stations | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941019 | 158 | 2.015625 | 2 |
Oman: Perfect Lunar Eclipse
By staff - Thu Jun 16, 8:19 pm
Marwan Anwar Shuwaiki, Supervisor of the Astronomical Dome in PDO company and Member of the Arab Union for Space Sciences said that the lunar eclipse takes place when the full moon become very close to the climbing knot in its path round the earth. It will be behind the earth on the other side of the sun. The moon will be affected by the great shadow of the earth which will keep the moon obscured for about 100 minute from 23.22 pm this evening to 01.002 Thursday, local timing.
He added that this lunar eclipse will not be visible especially if we are observing it from crowded city.
He added that the eclipse will start when the moon enters the semi shadow at 21.24 pm, Muscat timing. The moon will enter the full shadow area at 22.23 pm, a complete dark areas from the shadow of the earth. At 23.22, the moon will be completely in the full shadow and will appear completely dark color. It will become darker when it comes at the middle of the shadow at 00.13, the peak of the eclipse. At this time the counter count for the eclipse will start.
As for moon sighting amateurs, they will be able to take rare pictures of the event even with their mobile cameras. | <urn:uuid:b032770f-0e42-4f77-999a-9a7a70fa5430> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://oneoman.com/2011/06/16/oman-perfect-lunar-eclipse/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.90738 | 276 | 2.078125 | 2 |
5 Ways To Fight Mobile Malware
A new Android Trojan reminds us of the growing threat to mobile devices. Follow these five simple security tips to protect your smartphones and tablets from mobile malware.
New smartphone malware emerges on a weekly--sometimes daily--basis of late, though most users have yet to take the threat as seriously as PC-based malware. But according to Robert Vamosi, senior analyst at device security company Mocana and author of When Gadgets Betray Us, we should be increasingly concerned about the threat of mobile malware.
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"There are more mobile devices today than there were PCs connected to the Internet in 1996," Vamosi said in an interview. "Cybercriminals are realizing that, unlike PCs, mobile devices aren't very well secured."
In addition to outright malware, there are other ways that mobile devices can put your secure information at risk. "Smartphone users should indeed have a certain level of concern, or at least a security conscious mindset, when it comes to mobile malware," according to Jeffrey Wilhelm, senior analyst at Symantec Security Response. "That said, there are still other threats facing mobile device users that are a bigger concern than mobile malware, namely the loss or theft of a device."
Just like a malware-infected phone, an unsecured device can be a serious liability if it's lost or stolen. A thief or ill-intentioned finder can access personal contacts, email, and--quite often--social networking accounts and even online banking resources.
Fortunately, there are some simple steps anyone can take to protect their phones and tablets from the growing threat of malware and the persistent threat of unsecured devices. Here are five easy steps you should take to secure your own devices, and share with the mobile users you know.
1. Lock Your Phone
This should seem like a pretty obvious tip, but clearly most people need a good reminder, since the majority of smartphone users don't lock their phones at all. Putting a simple passcode on your phone is the first step--and could be the only step required--in protecting a device when it goes missing. But if a ne'er-do-well gets his hands on a phone with no passcode, as Symantec's Wilhelm pointed out, that's as good as an invitation to identity theft.
2. Use Only Well-Known App Markets
The most significant security factor that should give Android users pause, said Vamosi of Mocana, is that "Android users can download apps from third-party sites not Google whereas iPhone users can only download from the App Store." So it's especially important to download apps from sources that are known for good security. | <urn:uuid:8f0a648d-80cc-4ffc-bc30-b41a50cf2562> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.informationweek.com/security/mobile/5-ways-to-fight-mobile-malware/231300069 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920329 | 604 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Recently, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper that Spain's short-term financing needs were "not so big," and that it wouldn't be the end of the world if Spain was to "pay a few percent more at a few bond auctions."
Herr Schaeuble knows better.
Checkmate Is Checkmate
It's true that Spain could finance itself at 7% for some months, but the reason it won't is the same reason behind early capitulation in chess. It doesn't matter if you're checkmated in two moves or in 20; checkmate is checkmate.
Modern countries don't actually pay the principal on their debt. They pay the interest, or "coupon," on their debt, and if they've been running serious deficits, attempt to run more balanced deficits going forward until the cumulative effect of mild inflation reduces the real debt burden.
Italy's problem is that there is so much legacy debt that has to be rolled over, mostly through the issuance of new debt, that paying out a 7% yield on that new debt is tantamount to paying off a credit card with 7% interest using a credit card with 12% interest. In that case, how do you pay off the card with the 12% interest rate? Italy's credit rating would only crumble further, because in the absence of inflation, its debt load would be increased. Checkmate in 20.
For Spain, the 7% threshold on 10-year sovereign debt is considered to be a psychological threshold; important, but survivable nonetheless. The purpose of this article is to disabuse investors of that notion.
The only way to cut through the spin that people like Herr Schaeuble and Mario Draghi depend on is to look at the numbers. Unfortunately, there are a lot of numbers to be taken into consideration, due to the sheer scale of the subject -- far more than most investors have time to pore over. Add to that diverging forecasts and political spin, and the real macro picture becomes increasingly obscured. This article, therefore, depends heavily on visual aids for clarity.
Click to enlarge images.
The BdE is, of course, the Banco de España -- the national central bank of Spain and supervisor of the Spanish banking system. Note how its adverse scenario projections are consistently rosier than the IMF's, despite the fact that they source the same data. The IMF itself has consistently low-balled projections from 2009 and has revised the European outlook lower yet again, which means that the adverse-scenario projections given in the above table are far too optimistic. Consider the following Table:
Out of a steady decline in GDP, Private Consumption, Public Consumption, Gross-Fixed Investment, and Construction Investment comes ... growth. Magical thinking at its finest, courtesy of the IMF.
This is why 7% yields matter.
Interest rate shock = profit shock, and due to the massive reallocation of Spanish lending from the property sector to the corporate sector, additional shocks to corporate profits will devastate the balance sheets of Spanish banks. As Herr Schaeuble is the German Finance Minister and not a bartender working a counter in Kreuzberg, I assume his "trust me, Spain is just fine" comments above are relying on domestic complacence, international illiteracy, or both. Observe what has happened to Spanish household finances even under the most optimistic of projections below:
Note that these figures are based on a Household Survey done in 2008. To account for both 2009 contraction and the onset of the European Sovereign Debt Crisis, we have to expand our survey. Here are the revised figures.
This table doesn't factor in the multiplier effects due cuts by the Spanish government when calculating the share of distressed households. What is the share of debt-at-risk at now? Pick a number.
The impairment loss quoted here is 73 billion euros -- in order for banks to recapitalize to a Tier 1 ratio of 4%. To put this in perspective, Bankia had a Tier 1 ratio of 4.1%. The recommendation of the European Banking Authority courtesy of 2011 EU Stress Tests is 9%, or 15.75% of Spanish GDP. The IMF is whistling past a graveyard.
That amount is increased by the decline in residential and corporate real estate prices:
What does the Spanish Property Sector look like?
Spanish banks are heavily exposed to the Property Sector (Real Estate plus Construction). How are those loans performing? The following table is included in the IMF's "Selected Financial Soundness Indicators." Spanish banks are unwinding as many of their Property Sector loans as possible, as quickly as possible, which the IMF naturally finds to be an indicator of sound banking.
However, the Spanish banks appear incapable of divesting themselves of these toxic loans quickly enough to keep up with the rate of default.
Meanwhile, provisioning for losses on these loans has collapsed, along with both credit and deposits, further lowering Tier 1 capital ratios.
If Spanish bank funding isn't going to Consumer Credit or the Property Sector, and isn't being used to improve Tier 1 capital ratios, where is it going? The first place is, of course, the Corporate Sector.
As we saw in Box Table 2, those loans are at risk due to the increase in 10-year sovereign bond spreads. Where did the rest of the money go? Those selfsame government bonds.
Checkmate in 7
Higher spreads = lower corporate profits = an increase in non-performing loans issued to the Corporate Sector = higher unemployment = lower tax revenues = missed targets = increased government cuts to reduce deficit = higher spreads. Checkmate in 7.
How much more money does Madrid need to finance itself? More than you think, in an imploding economy.
Is the death spiral even making an impact on the cost of government? If you've got five years or so to wait. Yet, as we can see here, government debt isn't Spain's problem.
According to Credit Suisse, the Spanish government must borrow €385 billion until the end of 2014 to cover its budget deficit and other needs such as bond redemptions. That is highly unlikely to happen, given the fact that Spain is about to be ejected from the bond markets.
Austerity in these circumstances is self-defeating. The problem is that Spanish banks are several multiples of Spanish GDP and that credit was lent badly at every turn. The Spanish banking sector cannot survive 7% yields for any length of time due to the composition of its balance sheets.
I would advise all but the shortest-term traders to be wary of financials, especially those with high exposures to Spain, such as Barclays (BCS) and Deutsche Bank (DB). U.S. banks with significant exposure to Spain include Bank of America (BAC), Morgan Stanley (MS), Goldman Sachs (GS), JPMorgan (JPM), and Citigroup (C). Investors may also want to initiate short positions in the iShares MSCI Spain Index (EWP).
Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. | <urn:uuid:b8e9ef5d-ba85-4b2d-961f-37cd9ff57202> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://seekingalpha.com/article/780281-why-is-7-such-a-scary-number | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960669 | 1,463 | 2.234375 | 2 |
Our children deserve to be protected at all cost! No parent should have to see a breaking news claiming that children have fallen victim by an unknown predator. Principals, Teachers, Counselors, Assistants, Secretaries, Cooks, Custodians, Parents that volunteer etc.. should all be safe while
WE WANT JUSTICE FOR BUDDY THE BASSET...Tell the District Attorney and Sheriff's Department know how you feel about - ANDREW DELGADO - and what punishment you feel he should receive after setting his 3 year old bassethound on fire. Suspect Andrew Delgado was arrested November 8th 2012 in
This could be any of our children, family or loved ones!
"The Grind," or whale slaughters, dates back to the 1500s and is a cultural tradition for the Faroese. Many people come from all over to watch whale hunters rush into the bay to slash and stab the whales until the surrounding waters turn red with their blood. Hundred's of pilot whales were
Bear baiting (also called bear baying) pits a declawed and defanged bear which is chained to a stake against hunting dogs that bark and bite at it while hundreds of people watch. Spectators consider this event entertainment and hunters consider this as a training regimen for their animals. As | <urn:uuid:f964303b-4f26-42f3-9a17-cdd456e175cb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.causes.com/profiles/116125472 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955651 | 266 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Due to Melting Arctic, Colder Winters Will Be Rule Rather Than Exception
Note from Dorothy: For vegetable gardeners in the Pacific Northwest, this is more bad news. We’ve been experiencing heavy cloud cover, abnormally cool weather and unusual winds – our growing season is weeks behind schedule. Tomato plants and their growers are becoming stressed. Recognition of the global climate disruption caused by the rapidly shrinking and thinning Arctic sea ice is making more people consider growing much of their produce in greenhouses.
OSLO, Jun 15 (IPS) – Last winter’s big snowfall and cold temperatures in the eastern United States and Europe were likely caused by the loss of Arctic sea ice, researchers concluded at the International Polar Year Oslo Science Conference in Norway last week.
Climate change has warmed the entire Arctic region, melting 2.5 million square kilometres of sea ice, and that, paradoxically, is producing colder and snowier winters for Europe, Asia and parts of North America.
“The exceptional cold and snowy winter of 2009-2010 in Europe, eastern Asia and eastern North America is connected to unique physical processes in the Arctic,” said James Overland of the NOAA/Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in the United States.
“In future, cold and snowy winters will be the rule rather than the exception” in these regions, Overland told IPS.
Scientists have been surprised by the rapid warming of the Arctic, where annual temperatures have increased two to three times faster than the global average. In one part of the Arctic, over the Barents and Karas Seas north of Scandinavia, average annual temperatures are now 10 degrees C higher than they were in 1990.
Overland explains the warming of the Arctic as the result of a combination of climate change, natural variability, loss of sea ice reflectivity, ocean heat storage and changing wind patterns, which has disrupted the stability of the Arctic climate system. In just 30 years, all that extra heat has shrunk the Arctic’s thick blanket of ice by 2.5 million square kilometres – an area equivalent to more than one quarter the size of the continental U.S.
The changes in the Arctic are now irreversible, he said.
“This is a very big change for the entire planet,” said David Barber, an Arctic climatologist at the University of Manitoba in Canada. The planet’s cold polar regions are crucial drivers of Earth’s weather and climate.
“It has been one million years, some think 14 million years, since the Arctic was ice-free,” Barber told the more than 2,300 researchers in Oslo at the largest-ever gathering of the polar-science community.
The International Polar Year (IPY), which just ended with the Oslo Science conference last weekend, involved more than 50,000 scientists from 60 countries conducting 30 months of unprecedented research at both poles. The last IPY was 50 years ago and led to the creation of the Antarctic Treaty to protect the southern polar region.
“Much of the remaining ice in the Beaufort Sea is rotten,” said Barber, who spent long periods on research icebreakers in the region. Such vessels can only break through ice a little over a metre thick but they were plowing through multi-year ice 14 metres thick, he said.
“We watched a piece of ice the size of Manhattan break up right before our eyes,” Barber said.
Although the ice recovers in winter and satellites recorded a full recovery this past winter, in reality much of it was a thin layer of ice on top of old rotten ice, he said. That explains the rapid decline already this year, a near-record low for May. At the end of the Arctic summer, the decline will likely come close to setting another new record, many here said.
Barber says an ice-free summer may be just three or four years away, when icebreakers will no longer be needed to navigate the region.
“The ice pack looks like Swiss cheese,” agreed Mark Serreze, a senior research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Boulder, Colorado.
“It is inescapable this will be another very low year (in terms of ice extent),” Serreze told IPS.
With ever more open water absorbing the sun’s heat, the Arctic Ocean is warming up, melting more ice in a positive feedback loop. A day of 24-hour summer sun in the Arctic puts more heat on the surface than a day in the tropics, said Overland. That extra heat in the ocean is gradually released into the lower atmosphere from October to January as the region re-freezes during the 24-hour nights.
Temperatures in January were -2C over the water, while the land was -25C, making conditions far windier and producing more snowfall than normal. Heavy snow on the remaining ice insulates it from the cold air, preventing it from thickening during the long winter.
“Sea ice is the key system in Arctic. It is just like a tropical forest…if the forest is cut down it affects the entire food web,” Barber said.
Not only does the loss of ice affect conditions locally but “what happens in the Arctic dictates some of what happens in the mid-latitudes,” he added.
This huge mass of warmer air over the Arctic in the late fall not only generates more wind and snow locally, several studies have now documented the impacts on global weather patterns.
The winter of 2005-6 was the coldest in 50 years in Japan and eastern Eurasia, reported Meiji Honda, a senior scientist with the Climate Diagnosis Group at Japan’s Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology. Honda’s studies show that the air over the Arctic was quite warm in the fall of 2005, which altered normal wind patterns, pushing the jet stream further south and bringing arctic cold to much of Eurasia and Japan. He also documented the same mechanism for the colder winters of 2007-8 and 2009-10, he told participants.
In eastern North America, the same conditions of 2007-8 produced increased precipitation and colder temperatures in the winter. As the sea ice declines, big impacts are likely to be seen in this region, said Sara Strey of the University of Illinois.
Another “wild card” in terms of effects from the Arctic warming is how much and how fast the region’s permafrost – permanently frozen landscape – that contains enormous amounts of carbon and methane will also melt.
“Things have to change in the Arctic but we don’t know what they will all be. That’s the scary part,” said Serreze.
“Our entire infrastructure is based on the status quo,” he said, namely a stable climate of the past 10,000 years. “Change is already here. We must start adapting now.”
- OneClimate.net: The Case for Limiting Temperature Rise to 1.5C
- OneClimate.net Reports Live from the Latest Climate Talks | <urn:uuid:e2c57b84-cfcb-4487-b85b-e34e2befddf8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://westcoastclimateequity.org/2010/06/28/due-to-melting-arctic-colder-winters-will-be-rule-rather-than-exception/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94195 | 1,470 | 3.1875 | 3 |
|Subject: 2-year-old starts head-banging during
Our 2 year old son just started head banging when
having a temper tantrum ... sometimes he will hit it so hard it hurts
and then he comes running to make it "all better". The temper
tantrums usually start when it is time to stop one activity due to
dinner or bedtime. I read the letter about temper tantrums and will
employ that method. What I am worried about is he is hurting himself ...
I thought after it hurt once he would not do it again but he seems to be
hitting harder sometimes. We are both very concerned with this behavior.
Katie and Rick
Thank you for writing and for seeking help with
this worrisome problem.
Head-banging, as I'm sure you know, is a young
child's way of expressing frustration and anger. Here are some
suggestions for minimizing his frustration in the situations you
(1) Be sure that he has some warning - such as
five minutes - that his activity will need to come to an end. A
two-year-old hard at play is in reality hard at work, and we all
know how difficult it can be to make a sudden shift from something we've
been concentrating on. If you can establish a new way of notifying him
that he will need to stop his activity in a few minutes - perhaps by
using a kitchen timer - that should be helpful. He will then feel that
you recognize the value of his activity and are demonstrating respect
for what is after all his job.
If you're comfortable with it, you might simply
let him choose the timing: "When you're finished with what you're
doing, come to the table." Then if everyone else starts dinner, he
may very well decide to join by himself. He will feel that he has some
say in the matter, which might make all the difference.
(2) Give some thought as to whether the new
activity proposed is unappealing to him for any reason. If he always
protests about dinner, for example, is it possible that he's just not
hungry yet? Perhaps a rescheduling of meal times might prevent the
difficulty. Have there been disturbing discussions at dinner lately that
might be postponed to a more suitable time? It's always best to prevent
tantrums, of course, than to have to figure out how to handle them.
(3) Before asking for him to stop an activity that
he's absorbed in, be sure that it's important enough to warrant this
interruption. In our society, we're led to think that the child should
make sacrifices to meet the parents' needs. It would be more fair and
avoid excessive frustration to interrupt him only when really necessary.
Ask yourself each time whether the interruption is really necessary. If
he's really not hungry, is it worth the effort to have him sit with you
(4) If you think he's feeling overcontrolled,
consider giving him a choice. Would he prefer to play or join you at the
table? Perhaps if you gave him a choice, he might choose to continue
playing the first few times, but once he understands that he has some
control over the situation, he might willingly join you at dinner.
(5) When you must interrupt his activity, try to
be as gentle, unrushed, and as close physically as you can be. If you're
right there with him, you can physically protect him from hitting his
head on anything dangerous. Instead of calling to him from a distance
and expecting him to stop right then and come to you (if this is what is
happening), go to him once the timer rings, and kneel down to his level.
Give him full eye contact and quietly let him know that it's time to
shift activities. Expressions of empathy will be important too:
"You're really having fun with that puzzle. Now it's time for
dinner." If he protests, pick him up as gently as possible and
carry him, while validating his feelings.
(6) You might also try a substitution of activity,
so that instead of simply having the frustration of ending one activity,
he is invited to start another one that he enjoys. When my son was
little, he would get fully absorbed in his activities, especially at a
playground. Because he also liked to run races, I would give him a few
minutes notice, and then invite him to race with me to the car. To help
your child to move on to dinnertime, perhaps you could have a favorite
toy waiting for him at the table.
The most important thing is to show respect -
respect for him as a whole person despite his size, and respect for his
play (his work). A toddler who is busily exploring the world around him
is truly involved in scientific investigation. It might be helpful,
then, to consider how you would handle things if you had a visiting
scientist over for dinner, and he was absorbed in his work when the meal
was ready. I think any of us in that situation would be respectful,
patient, understanding, and pleasant. Our children deserve nothing less. | <urn:uuid:ad316710-bf1f-4b55-b3b4-99d6286dc48b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://naturalchild.org/advice/q31.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981694 | 1,106 | 2.375 | 2 |
A few days ago T. Thorn Coyle wrote about her experience hosting a panel
on Pagans and Privilege at PantheaCon this year. Crystal Blanton, the editor of Shades of Faith: Minority Voices in Paganism, sat on the panel. These women are my heros! In print and in public they have started the conversation we have to have about racism in the magical communities.
Yesterday Nadireh Adeye posted an article titled “Being an Ally Versus Being a Nice Person”. It’s an expansion of a thought in her article “Shedding in Creation” in Shades of Faith, where she said, “I strongly believe it is every person’s responsibility to educate themselves and share what they know with those around them.”
Reading Shades of Faith is a good start on that education. At the Esoteric Book Conference in 2011 I sat at the booth where I was holding the launch party for The Woman Magician and read the anthology end to end. I had the dual experience of being triumphantly proud of having confronted sexism in the magical communities, and being deeply ashamed that I had not yet confronted racism in the magical communities or in myself.
Adeye says, “Being an ally means willing to be uncomfortable, being willing to be wrong…” I’ve been publically confronted about my lack of sensitivity around my own privilege as a European American. It’s hard not to react defensively in the heat of the moment, and I wish I had done better, but it’s important to stay with the conversation and not hide from those revelations. I found that there were people who rushed to my defense and that made me even more uncomfortable. It is important to confront privilege and people who have spoken up to me were brave, and right.
Adeye showed me the way to improving my responses: to educate myself and work to educate other people of privilege. This is exactly what woman feminists ask our male allies to do. So after EBC 2011 I spent two weeks on retreat reading a stack of books about “race”. Here are a few thing I took away from that study.
What is race?
Here is a pop quiz: how many races are there? Four – white, black, red, and yellow, right? Well, the “racial” sub-categories came from the cataloger Carl Linnaeus, who divided humans into Americanus, Asiaticus, Africanus, Europaeus. Today this system is called “Scientific Racism” and is discredited science. Here is what the NIH: says today: “…research reveals that Homo sapiens is one continuously variable, inter-breeding species. Ongoing investigation of human genetic variation has even led biologists and physical anthropologists to rethink traditional notions of human racial groups. The amount of genetic variation between these traditional classifications actually falls below the level that taxonomists use to designate subspecies, the taxonomic category for other species that corresponds to the designation of race in Homo sapiens.” Translation: there is only one human race, homo sapiens sapiens.
Why categorize humans into races?
Slavery isn’t new, but, says the United Nations, “The racial nature of this triangular trade between Africa, Europe and the Americas also sets it apart. The trade was supported by a racist ideology that saw white people as being the most perfectly developed and blacks as being at the bottom of the ladder.” Scientific racism was used to justify American slavery. It’s ugly, and it persists for the same reason, to perpetuate privilege.
What does slavery buy a country?
Economic dominance. Sven Beckert & Seth Rockman lay this out in How Slavery Led to Modern Capitalism: “The U.S. won its independence from Britain just as it was becoming possible to imagine a liberal alternative to the mercantilist policies of the colonial era. Those best situated to take advantage of these new opportunities — those who would soon be called “capitalists” — rarely started from scratch, but instead drew on wealth generated earlier in the robust Atlantic economy of slaves, sugar and tobacco.” The cotton gin arguably established America’s industrial dominance, an industry resting on free labor.
Slavery is in the past, right? We’re over it.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 overturned the Jim Crow “separate but equal” rules that perpetuated the black underclass, didn’t it? “The clock has been turned back on racial progress in America, though scarcely anyone seems to notice,” says civil rights lawyer Michelle Alexander. In The New Jim Crow she points to the mass incarceration of poor people of color as the latest incarnation of the cultural rules which continue to enforce the skin color caste system.
This was all before my time, I don’t see color.
Race exists as a social construct and impacts us all every day. It has a great influence on my life. When I walk into a room I may not be seen as a person, but instead as a woman. However, I am seen as a woman, not a woman of color. I have never thought that I wasn’t beautiful because of my skin or hair. I’ve never heard myself described as a member of an unwelcome group. Also, watching television, looking at pictures in the media, I notice that the new face of diversity is a black man and a white woman. This is great for me, less great for women whose relatives came here from Africa instead of Europe.
One retreat, one article, one moment spent in learning and reflection is a good start but not a place to rest. I have the privilege of putting down these thoughts and stepping back into a world where I can ignore the impact of race. If I choose to stick with the conversation and work toward being an ally, what can I do?
Talk about it.
Stand up, point to racism, don’t let it go by without confronting it. We’re going to get it wrong, make mistakes, and get called out for them. As Adeye says, we have to be willing to be uncomfortable. I’ve learned to sit with the discomfort instead of shying away; it’s a great teacher, it pushes me to be a better writer and a better person.
Listen with respect.
I learned this as a feminist, and it’s at least as important as an ally. When someone speaks about their experience it is never wrong. It is never about you. The experience I relate to most in Adeye’s work and the other people who contributed to Blanton’s anthology is the experience of being dismissed. As allies we can at least hear what is being said. Sometimes it is said with anger or pain. It’s hard not to respond defensively, but that is the ally’s task.
I’m glad to see this conversation surfacing in the magical communities. I hope it continues with gentleness and respect to create a space in which we are all seen and heard as we wish to be and can do the work we are called to do. | <urn:uuid:37dd0e64-63c5-40f5-9978-605d14af66a4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://brandywilliams.org/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96689 | 1,498 | 1.625 | 2 |
The following post appears courtesy of the Access to Justice Initiative
One of the cornerstones of the United States criminal justice system is the right to legal representation for criminal defendants. In the United States the right is confirmed by the federal Constitution, but many countries also guarantee this right to their citizens through their domestic laws.
Recognizing that criminal legal aid – or indigent defense – “is an essential element of a fair, humane and efficient criminal justice system that is based on the rule of law,” the United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (the UN Crime Commission) adopted the first international principles and guidelines on indigent defense at its recently concluded 21st session. The United Nations Principles and Guidelines on Access to Legal Aid in Criminal Justice Systems affirm the importance of legal aid at all stages of the criminal justice system.
Created in 1992 by the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the UN Crime Commission is the central body within the United Nations system dealing with crime prevention and criminal justice policy. It is one of the governing bodies of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The 40-member body, which includes the United States, met this past April in Vienna, Austria to consider 11 resolutions on issues such as combating violence against migrants and migrant smuggling, setting minimum standards for the treatment of prisoners, and criminal legal aid.
The United States was one of 16 co-sponsors of the UN Crime Commission resolution that adopted the United Nations Principles and Guidelines on Access to Legal Aid in Criminal Justice Systems. Although the document correctly recognizes that, “states employ different models for the provision of legal aid,” these comprehensive guidelines and principles can be effective tools in strengthening and growing existing criminal legal aid systems throughout the world.
The creation of the Access to Justice Initiative at the U.S. Department of Justice in March 2010 is a testament of the United States’ commitment to supporting indigent defense. The Access to Justice Initiative was launched to help ensure that basic legal services are available, affordable and accessible to everyone in this country regardless of status or income. A significant part of our work is directed at strengthening and supporting indigent defense. Because of this, a representative from the Access to Justice Initiative was invited to join the U.S. delegation to the UN Crime Commission to assist with negotiating this resolution.
The adoption of the United Nations Principles and Guidelines on Access to Legal Aid in Criminal Justice Systems is a significant milestone in the global development of fair and just systems of criminal justice. It will likely be submitted to the United Nations General Assembly for approval later this year.
For more information about the 21st session of the UN Crime Commission, please visit the U.S. Department of State’s blog entry: Strengthening the Rule of Law and Combating Crime. For more information on the U.S. Department of Justice Access to Justice Initiative, visit: www.justice.gov/atj. | <urn:uuid:714cb2c6-1be0-4796-9847-ddfa864fa2bc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.justice.gov/main/archives/2236 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932044 | 600 | 3.015625 | 3 |
Who Cares About the "First Bloke"?
The sexist media coverage of Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard as she campaigns for re-election.
In late June of this year, Julia Gillard ousted Australian Labor Party leader and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to become the nation's first woman PM. The impressive Gillard had a quick rise to power. She entered government in 1998, serving as the member of Parliament for a district in western Melbourne. By the time the Labor Party regained power in 2007, she had been made deputy leader, and just three years later replaced Rudd, who had lost the support of his own party. A few weeks after Gillard became PM, she announced that Australians will go to the polls to vote in this year's federal elections on Aug. 21. Federal campaigns Down Under are mercifully short—the party in power calls an election just six weeks in advance, sparing the Australian public the years-long campaigns we've come to expect in the United States.
But even with a truncated season for punditry, the Australian media have hit all the same sexist notes about Gillard that the American media played in their coverage of women in politics like Hillary Clinton, Elena Kagan, and Sarah Palin. Since she has become prime minister, the national conversation about this trailblazing woman has focused not just on Gillard's policies, but on her ring-less left hand, what on earth the function of a "first bloke" might be, and her childlessness. Most appallingly, critics have even implied that the relationship between Gillard and Rudd has sexual undertones.
This tired line of discussion about Gillard is compounded by Australians' traditional contempt toward high achievers—a national inferiority complex dubbed "tall poppy syndrome" (a reference to cutting the tallest poppy, or the most openly ambitious and successful person, down to size). As in the United States, there is a special level of censure reserved for ambitious and high-achieving women, who are perceived as having stepped outside the bounds, however subconsciously we might define them, of acceptable behavior for their gender.
At 48, Gillard is not married but in a long-term de facto relationship. Tim Mathieson, her partner, is a hairdresser; the pair met when he worked at her regular salon. Cue the pearl clutching: Mere days after the ouster of Rudd, cultural critic Bettina Arndt wondered, in the pages of the Sydney Morning Herald, whether Gillard living in sin was setting a bad example for the young women of Australia. Arndt observed that Australian women would rightly view Gillard as a role model and argued that Gillard should seriously consider getting hitched, as though rearranging her private life would somehow serve the public good. In response to such claims, Gillard noted that any decision to get married was not hers alone and said that "decisions in [her] personal life, [she]'ll make for personal reasons."
Once the question of Gillard's marital status was picked over, the media started wondering what would the partner of the PM—the "first bloke," as Gillard termed it—even do? Todd Palin experienced similar scrutiny when Sarah Palin was the vice presidential candidate, with writers chuckling about how Todd "was part of the First Wives Club." American pundits didn't know quite what to make of the "first dude," and their Australian counterparts are similarly confused. Gillard level-headedly set them straight, telling the Australianthat Mathieson "will do the kind of things that political partners have done," and referring to his particular interest in men's health.
As was the case with Elena Kagan's, Gillard's childlessness has attracted vitriol, though perhaps with Mathieson as tangible proof of her heterosexuality, Gillard was spared the rumors of lesbianism that dogged Kagan. Members of the conservative opposition party have said that Gillard's decision not to have children rendered her incapable of understanding how parents think. Bettina Arndt also weighed in on the issue of Gillard's childlessness, again accusing Gillard of setting a bad example that could endanger the reproductive prospects of women all over. "Most women want to have children—Gillard is an exception—and some miss out after wasting their primary reproductive years in a succession of live-in relationships that look hopeful but go nowhere, leaving them childless and partnerless as they hit 40," Arndt opined.
Finally, and perhaps most bizarrely, there's the fraught, pseudo-romantic relationship that must—must, because they're members of the opposite sex!—exist between Gillard and Rudd. Even though the pair ran the country together for nearly three years, once Gillard replaced Rudd, the narrative of a working relationship broke down and was replaced by one of a romantic relationship. Apparently, the story of a grown man and woman dissolving a partnership can only be told one way: As a "bitter divorce." Similarly, when it seemed likely a few weeks before the election that Rudd would go out to stump for Gillard, the papers simply couldn't help themselves, with the Sydney Morning Herald asking, "Gillard to get in bed with Rudd?"
Luckily, there are voices of reason; some influential commentators, including Germaine Greer and popular columnist Mia Friedman, have come to Gillard's defense, praising the graciousness with which she has handled the additional pressures that women leaders experience and the coolness she has shown in the face of particularly vile attacks. What's more, in some corners the sexist critiques of Gillard have spurred a fruitful conversation about the compatibility of motherhood and the highest level of political and corporate leadership—not unlike the conversation that sprung up around Kagan and previous women SCOTUS nominees Sonia Sotomayor and Harriet Miers, all three of whom are childless. Such conversations, which center on the question of whether motherhood and top-tier leadership positions are mutually exclusive, are essential on both sides of the Pacific.
The latest polls suggest that this fiery redhead might well, as the Australian media might put it, fail to seduce the Australian people; a Gillard win is far from guaranteed. But no matter how Australians vote on Saturday, and regardless of whether Australia is "ready" for a woman PM, one thing is certain: The Australian media are not ready to give up their gendered double standards or their dreadful double entendres.
Photograph of Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard by Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images. | <urn:uuid:9b2011ca-92fd-4782-8b6b-599bc4a9ed18> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2010/08/who_cares_about_the_first_bloke.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968797 | 1,336 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Literacy NY Greater Capital Region is looking to attract literacy volunteers to participate in our upcoming New Tutor Orientations throughout the Capital District.
LITERACY NEW YORK GREATER CAPITAL REGION ANNOUNCES TUTOR TRAINING SCHEDULE
Literacy New York Greater Capital Region (LNYGCR) has announced its winter Tutor Training schedule for interested volunteer tutors throughout the Capital Region.
Tutor Orientations, the first step in the training process, will take place at the Niskayuna Public Library on January 12, 2012; the Guilderland Public Library on January 14, 2012; the Saratoga Springs Public Library on January 19, 2012 and the Clifton Park-Halfmoon Public Library on January 25, 2012. Orientations are followed by 12 hours of specific tutor training, offering tutoring methods, materials and lesson planning ideas.
One out of every five adults in The Capital District reads at or below the 5th grade level. Our volunteer tutors work with these adults to improve their reading, writing, math skills, and/or English speaking skills. Our adult learners have specific life goals; such as finding, retaining, or improving employment, passing the GED, getting a driver’s license, helping a child read, reading labels on prescription medicine, or passing the citizenship test.
“Last year 50 percent of LNYCGR students gained 1-2 grade levels and 5 out of every 6 students received their GED after working with our volunteer tutors” said Associate Director Sue Hensley- Cushing. “Tutor training and ongoing program support, provides volunteers with the knowledge and resources needed to help adults improve their lives, their families and their communities” added Hensley-Cushing.
Interested volunteers for Albany County should contact Sherry Haluska @ 518-452-3384; Saratoga County should contact Maria Lange @ 518-583-1232; Schenectady County should contact June O’Connor @ 518-452-3382, and Warren/Washington Counties should contact Lunette Dickey @793 7414.
LNYGCR is a nonprofit literacy organization dedicated to helping adults of all ages improve their lives and their communities by learning reading, writing, math and problem-solving skills. LNYGCR staff and volunteers provide assistance to adults seeking to achieve their personal and economic goals through improving their reading, writing, math, and English fluency skills. | <urn:uuid:83e782f0-63cf-4c46-9225-e2e521041828> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.timesunion.com/guilderland/literacy-ny-looking-for-volunteers-for-orientations-one-at-guilderland-public-library/1658/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920767 | 512 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Home - Lagos - Other Places - Map
The Glittering Harvest of the Past.
BY WENDY NAZAR
Blue Tunny, or Tuna, have been caught off the Algarve coast for over 6 centuries. A fully-grown Thunnus thynnus can be up to 3m in length, and occasionally a specimen of up to 5m has been caught.
These fish travel in schools in open surface waters, and are seldom found at a depth greater than 100m.
The Tuna head in from the open Atlantic to spawn in the Mediterranean during May and June. In July and August, they make the reverse journey. As they travel the same routes in and out at the same time every year, just off the southern shores of Europe, their capture became a special feature.
As early as the end of the 13th century Tuna fishing was declared a crown monopoly, and by the end of the 15th century was overtaking that of Whaling as the chief income of the fishermen of the Algarve. In 1485, the great quantity of Tuna caught caused many towns, such as Lagos, to arrange the salting of the profusion, so that the surplus could be exported.
It was one of the chief tasks of visiting crown ministers and officials to check that all was well with the great Tuna Net stations of the South. There were 6 working nets off Lagos alone in 1586, when Sir Francis Drake descended on the Algarve and destroyed as many of these Tuna stations as possible, in order to hinder the provisioning of the Armada.
The late 1960s saw only five nets still working, and the one off the Cape of Santa Maria, Faro, was only allowed to take the fish on the eastward journey. The rest, further east, off Livromento, Luz de Tavira, Medo das Cascas and Abóbora could also take the inferior tuna, heading west, that had already spawned.
The fish were caught in a special way, in immense funnel nets. The schools were guided into these nets, called "Almadrava", then easily transferred into small boats and taken ashore.
Drawing of "Harvesting the Tuna"
|Such an elaborate
apparatus for taking the Tuna consisted of over 6 miles of netting, occupying over two and
a half square miles of water surface, and using over 40 miles of cable. Hundreds of great
bower anchors fixed it to the sea floor, about 4 to 5 miles offshore. Thousands of cork
floats supported the upper edge, near the surface.
The expense of building and maintaining such a net was enormous, especially as they used to suffer as much as a 50% depreciation during the five-month season. The other seven months of the year, they required a large storehouse, called an "Armação".
The enormous fixed net had two arms, which arched away from each other, one seaward, and the other toward the shore. Each arm was between 3 to 10 Km in length, and reached down into the water for about 35m.
Swimming in, between them, the tuna entered a chamber, divided into three compartments. Two men were stationed in a small boat, outside the first chamber, to close it off with a net once a school of tuna had entered the trap. Another two men waited outside the second compartment to close that off, after the fish had passed them. This was then sealed with a double net, the outer layer blocking the way out, and the inner one now lying beneath the school. The inner one was then lifted, bringing the fish to the surface in a panic. On a platform, just above water level, groups of men were waiting to gaff them and the fish were hooked out of the trap into small boats waiting round the edge to take the catch ashore.
The remnants of this once important way of life of the "Royal Company of the Fishermen of the Kingdom of the Algarve" are now only found in place names such as Armação de Pêra, and in the ruins of the storage buildings similar to those still apparent at Boca do Rio.
|The 17th/18th century Armação at Boca do Rio|
Article and illustrations by kind permission of the
First published in Insight, June 1999, Volume 2, Issue 2 - the quarterly magazine of A.F.P.O.P. the Association of the Foreign Property Owners of Portugal.
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- Get Started
Last year we have introduced PF_RING DNA for implementing 0% CPU receive/transmission on commodity 1/10 Gbit network adapters. We considered DNA as a starting point, as it implemented high-speed RX/TX that was enough for most, but not all of you. This is because commodity adapters do not feature advanced packet balancing techniques as they rely on RSS, that has several limitations such as asymmetric flow balancing (i.e. the two direction of the same flow are spread onto two different cores) and inability to provide users a way to use their balancing function. Another limitation of DNA, again due to its nature that is close to the hardware, is that packets should be processed in sequence (i.e. in FIFO) whereas applications sometimes need to store packets and process them out of sequence (e.g. in case of fragmented packets, a given packet must be rebuilt with all fragments prior to process it).
Although zero-copy is often a buzzword as only a subset of packet management is really performed without copying any packets, at ntop we decided to see whether it was really possible implement zero-copy for all operations, including packet dispatching to threads and applications (including packet fan-out support), packet queuing, and forwarding across interfaces. This is what libzero is for: as its name says, we can do all these operations in zero-copy, with no performance penalty as you will still be able to reach line rate with minimal packet size (14.88 Mpps with 60+4 bytes packets).
Libzero opens up a new world of opportunities, as it enables developers to focus on their application leaving to the library the task of handling packet memory, prefetching memory to let your applications access packet payload at the same speed as counting packets. Now you can finally scale up applications, as you can for instance spawn several snort applications and, without changing a single line of its code, let each instance handle a coherent (across directions) set of packets, all at line rate. In a nutshell, the network is no longer the bottleneck nor the source of complexity.
The ball is on the software side again. You can find all details at the libzero home page. | <urn:uuid:b348b44e-e121-427d-9a0e-d83aeff899ea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ntop.org/pf_ring/say-hello-to-libzero/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957708 | 458 | 2.125 | 2 |
September 2008 was one of the bleakest months in American financial history.
The U.S. government seized mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The investment bank Lehman Brothers collapsed into bankruptcy, and the Federal Reserve pumped $85 billion into insurance giant AIG to keep it afloat.
Thirty-eight percent of Americans polled that month considered the economy in recession. Another 28% considered it a depression.
As investors sought a safe harbor for their money, Wayne County government was preparing one.
Beginning Oct. 1 of that year, what is known as Plan 6 allowed county employees, including numerous elected officials and their appointees, to transfer their retirement savings from a 401(k)-style account, which generally rises and falls with the market, to a classic defined-benefit pension plan guaranteed by county taxpayers.
The unpaid bill for the plan exploded, growing by more than $10 million a month in the two years after it was created. By September 2010, the unfunded bill stood at $601 million -- all of it guaranteed by county taxpayers.
Among those who took advantage were nine current commissioners as well as the former commission chairman, County Clerk Cathy Garrett and three employees who serve on the pension board.
"Everybody who was supposed to be watching the system was too busy saying, 'Me, too,' " said the county's former auditor general, Brendan Dunleavy.
Ficano, who earns about $154,000 yearly, didn't enroll himself. Instead he gets a $5 county match for every dollar he contributes to a 401(k)-style plan. The most he can contribute for matching purposes is 3% of his salary.
Ficano spokeswoman June West said the plan first was negotiated with members of the Sheriff's Office. The county traded higher pension costs for other wage and health care concessions that she said save $24 million annually.
After the union had the deal, Ficano offered it to his appointees. One high-ranking appointee who enrolled was Timothy Taylor, Ficano's former personnel director, who retired last year after 27 years with an annual pension of $117,000, according to data provided by the retirement system.
Former county Commission Chairman Edward Boike, D-Taylor, opened the plan up to commissioners and their appointees after Ficano offered it to his appointees.
"Why should we have anything less than the county executive had at the time?" Boike said Wednesday. "I was just looking at being equal with the county executive."
Boike retired in 2010 under Plan 6 but said it was no sweetheart deal. He put about $160,000 into the plan and must collect it for at least four years to get his money back.
"I'm about 2 1/2 years into it, so I'm hoping to live at least another two years," said Boike, 69.
Current commission Chairman Gary Woronchak also took the deal, but said it wasn't a sweetheart package.
"From my standpoint, I bought into a plan that was available," Woronchak said. "There was an advantage to buying into the plan, but it certainly wasn't a golden parachute by any stretch of the imagination."
Woronchak said he estimates he put $160,000 of 401(k) savings into the plan and is likely on track to receive a $30,000 annual pension.
Dunleavy, who now works as a personal financial adviser, said it's absolutely a sweetheart deal, noting Boike's four-year payback period.
"I'd have clients lined up a mile out my door if I could promise that," he said.
Plan 6 provides a benefit twice as large as some earlier plans did. Members contribute 4% of their salary and get a pension benefit equal to 2.5% of their annual pay for each year of work. Previous plans paid between 1% and 2% per year.
Under Plan 6, an employee who works 30 years could retire with a maximum benefit of 75% of final average pay. The final average pay sometimes is inflated with overtime and sick and vacation days that are cashed in close to retirement to maximize the lifetime pension benefit. | <urn:uuid:867dc6e2-bb11-4830-935e-c5264461f8c8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.freep.com/article/20120621/NEWS02/206210562/Wayne-County-pensions-Taxpayer-guaranteed-safe-harbor-created-market-crashed | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984483 | 863 | 1.570313 | 2 |
MARRAKECH: PART 1: LA KOUTOUBIA MOSQUE
Marrakech, the red city: even it’s name tastes exotic. To a “westerner” of Jade’s time, it was a remote and mysterious. The French made the city more accessible by constructing a decent road stretching from Rabat to Casablanca to Marrakech, the road that our heroine, Jade, traveled in her adventure, The Serpent’s Daughter. It was also a road that author, Edith Wharton, took in 1917. And, just as when Jade approached the city hidden behind tall palm gardens, the first sign of Marrakech was the imposing tower of Koutoubia Mosque.
This mosque, which means booksellers mosque, was surrounded by booksellers markets and a library. Constructed by Yakoub el-Mansour in the late 1100’s, it stands 70 meters (76.5 yards) tall, and is the tallest structure in Marrakech by decree. But height is not enough to make an impressive structure. Something about the desert-colored stone, the straight, unwavering walls strikes a note of defiance in its appearance. It demands to endure against the desert and to be noticed, not an easy task with the Atlas mountains in the background. Ms. Wharton wrote (In Morocco, 1920, page 106) “The Koutoubya would be magnificent anywhere: in this flat desert it is grand enough to face the Atlas.”
NEXT WEEK: THE RED CITY RAMPARTS | <urn:uuid:46eab22f-1f62-4b3e-866d-62414c7b6e70> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://suzannearruda.blogspot.com/2008_03_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944025 | 328 | 2.75 | 3 |
iPads and Other Tablets: New Mobile Options for Events and Trade Shows
By: Corbin Ball Associates
The iPad is the most recent in the long-running, game-changing innovations from Apple. The Mac brought the widespread use of the mouse to portable computing (1984); the iPod changed how we listened to music (2001); the iPhone revolutionized mobile phones (2007), the App Store is changing the software procurement model (2008), and the iPad (2010) will likely have similar long-term ramifications.
The iPad -- What is it?
iPads have been sprouting like mushrooms at events since the release last April. The iPad is a type of tablet computer with a touch-sensitive screen instead of a keyboard. It is sleek and light (1.5 pounds) and has a very high resolution 9.7 inch/24.5 centimetre screen. It has similar functionality of the iPhone but without standard phone capability. This larger screen size opens up a wealth of opportunities for meeting planners, exhibitors, attendees and others in our industry. It is a polished, intuitive way of accessing data and consuming media wherever you are.
Why is it important for events and tradeshows?
Our industry is a mobile one:
- We do business away from our offices and from our “large screen” computers on a regular basis.
- Most of us don’t carry around notebook computers at events for a number of reasons: weight, security, the inability to access easily while standing, etc
- We constantly need to manage a wide range of data at events. For lack of a better way until now, much of these data have been in the form of paper.
The iPad and the coming iPad clones represent new ways to access information. Light
weight, highly mobile, highly intuitive. The larger screen allow for bigger fonts, easier
readability and more real estate to display material in a page-like format. The navigation is
intuitive (with your fingers instead of a keyboard and mouse).
The iPad and its clones will fit the bill in many ways for events. Here are some of the ways this new format is developing:
Interactive conference programs:
Paper conference programs go out of date as soon as they are printed. They are heavy to carry around, difficult to use, and they usually end up in a landfill after the event. Mobile phone apps, although helpful, have limitations due to small screen size.
iPads open a new range of possibilities. Not only can the conference program be included, but also easy links for more information about the speakers, topics, session hand-outs and other events. Videos of the speakers with slides and transcriptions can be included after the event. Surveys of the presentations can be included as well. QuickMobile (www.quickmobile.com) is one of the web developers pioneering this full range of interactive iPad program options.
Course notes distribution:
Citing environmental concerns, paper session handouts and course notes have been dropped from many events, even though they can helpful to attendees for increasing retention. Sometimes, the notes are distributed in Adobe .PDF format either before or during the event for printout on demand. The iPad may be a perfect tool to use with this. Using an annotation tool such as iAnnotate (http://www.ajidev.com/iannotate) attendees can download all of the .PDF formatted handouts to their iPads in advance, make notes on them during the presentations using the annotation tool, and then store/share them digitally for future reference and easy retrieval.
One-on-one surveys happen routinely at events… in the exhibition booth or in the registration area to gain insight on attendee thoughts. Paper surveys, however, are laborious to tally. The iPad, with its larger format similar to a page, could be the perfect solution. This will allow the interviewer to collect the data as he or she would with paper and a clipboard, but capturing and tallying the data electronically in a much more efficient manner. The iPad could also be used with self-service survey kiosk as well. SurveyAnalytics (http://www.surveyanalytics.com) is among the many providing iPad survey applications for events.
Interactive exhibitor displays and information kiosks
With the iPad’s intuitive touch navigation, large high-resolution screen and full multi-media capabilities, it will be a natural for self-service information demos in a booth or elsewhere. If the attendees like the demo, they can electronically request more product information or even load the app and take it with them.
Attendees and exhibitors do not have to be tied to a particular area of the booth for demonstrations. High-resolution, multimedia presentations can be given anywhere due to the iPad’s great portability.
Lead exchange and qualification:
One good contact at a meeting or tradeshow can be worth the price of the entire meeting. The traditional bar-code reader employed at most large tradeshow needs to be replaced with simpler solutions. One step forward is Bartizan’s iLeads (www.bartizan.com). Instead of standing in line wait to pick up and return bar-code equipment, the exhibitors simply download the iPad app, and then they can enter a badge number on their iPad or iPhone. This will pull the contact information from the registration database. It then contains customizable qualification questions, survey questions and actions items. The larger iPad interface makes it easier and quicker to view the options instead of scrolling through iPhone screens. Both formats, however, have the advantage of portability. The bar-code scanner is booth-bound; these mobile alternatives can be used at receptions, coffee breaks, or anywhere at the event.
Lead tracking can also be tied into exhibit demos mentioned above. When attendees identify themselves via badge numbers or scans, topics based on their profile can be presented and/or specific interest areas chosen can be tracked.
Interactive exhibit guides and floor plans:
Traditional printed exhibition guides for large tradeshows can weigh several pounds; are expensive to print and ship; and go out date as soon as they are printed. Paper floor plans are difficult to navigate and of limited use, especially with larger shows.
The iPad and other tablet PCs as they become available, will provide a much more convenient and efficient way of navigating the exhibit hall. You will be able to search on an exhibitor name or product category to identify booths you wish to visit. Then, using the iPad’s location-aware GPS capabilities, you will be able to see exactly where you are in the exhibit hall floor plan and then identify from booth-to-booth the most efficient navigation steps to visit them. Mobile providers such as Sherpa Solutions (www.sherpa-solutions.com) are providing this functionality for mobile applications.
The GPS capabilities will also be useful in navigation in other parts of the venue and the neighbourhood around it as well.
Hotel sales and planner assistance:
iPads will also be a natural for hotel sales. A great example is eMarketing360’s (www.emarketing-360.com) eSaleskit which contains a hotel or venue’s property photos, floor plans, menus, videos and other assets in on the iPad making it convenient, portable tool for the exhibit booth or sales calls. Once the sale is made, the ePlannerToolkit provides the meeting planner with property details in both a web and iPad format containing property logos, floor plans, room capacities, photo gallery, menus, hotel forms (hotel fact sheet, guidelines, preferred vendors, exhibit forms, AV pricing, etc), area information, room information (photos/descriptions of accommodation types), hotel directory of contacts, and travel information, as a convenient iPad app immediately accessible to the planner at anytime.
The iPad, with is larger and quicker touch keyboard is being used by event bloggers on site and as a means to post on Twitter and other social networking tools. This will be a natural tool for audience members to post questions to speakers (either via a tweet stream, SMS, or other channel).
The iPad is leading the way, but there are many clones coming (more the 70 different tablets were show last week at the CES show in Las Vegas). There is great potential with these tools to assist with meetings and tradeshows. I have listed a few of them. What are some others with this exciting and rapidly changing new tool for events?
Corbin Ball, CMP, CSP is an independent 3rd-party analyst focusing on meetings and tradeshow technology. With 20 years of experience running international citywide technology meetings and shows, he now helps clients worldwide use technology to save time and improve productivity He can be contacted at his extensive web site: www.corbinball.com and followed on Twitter: www.twitter.com/corbinball. | <urn:uuid:557c2a3b-8f45-46fe-a11d-38b0803c19c3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.iccaworld.com/nlps/story.cfm?nlpage=356 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927518 | 1,829 | 1.703125 | 2 |
- Policy Resources
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Extending Rights to Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals and Transgender Americans
PSN on April 7, 2008 - 10:02am
Even as the "culture wars" supposedly rage, the reality is that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights are making slow and steady progress across the country. Gays and lesbians now have protection against workplace discrimination in states covering nearly half the U.S. population, rights for same sex partnerships and adoptions have made gains in at least ten states, and laws making violence or bullying against gays, lesbians, bisexual or transgender (GLBT) people a crime are increasingly being enacted.
While opposition to equality is still strong in many states, as this Dispatch will outline, GLBT rights are making significant advances, from the workplace to the schoolyard to the home.
Extending Equal Employment & Economic Rights
While the federal government has failed to pass any laws protecting gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender Americans against discrimination in the workplace or public accommodations, states have slowly but surely been expanding the map of legal protection.
As a map produced by the Human Rights Campaign details, states are making steady progress in extending non-discrimination laws protecting individuals based upon sexual orientation and gender identity:
- 12 states plus the District of Columbia ban discrimination against gays and lesbians AND ban discrimination based on gender identity/expression, while another 8 states ban discrimination just against gays and lesbians. Just last year, Colorado, Iowa and Oregon passed laws banning discrimination based upon sexual orientation gender identity.
- Over 43% of the American population live in states where discrimination against gays and lesbians is banned - and 30% of the population live in states that ban discrimination based on gender identity.
- In addition to these 20 state laws, about 100 municipalities in the remaining 30 states without non-discrimination laws have local non-discrimination laws, further extending the percentage of the population protected against employment and other forms of direct economic discrimination.
Beyond the 20 states with statewide anti-discrimination statutes, an additional 9 have an executive order or some kind of personnel regulations in place to prohibit discrimination against government employees based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity.
Same-Sex Relationship Protections
The role of families in providing for the welfare of all people cannot be understated, yet same-sex couples and their families have been systematically denied the benefits of marriage laws at the federal level.
Yet, despite the hot-button "culture war" debate, in the last decades we have seen a gradual erosion of the prejudice that has been the basis for withholding fundamental human rights from same-sex families. This positive trend will continue due to the fact younger voters are even more committed to equality. 44% of Americans ages 17 to 29 support full marriage rights for same-sex couples.
As a result, more states are taking steps to integrate these families into existing family law so that they too may benefit from the legal protections that other families take for granted: the right to make decisions on behalf of a spouse or child when it is necessary; rights to property jointly owned when a spouse or parent dies; and, rights of parental custody and visitation should a relationship dissolve.
While Massachusetts has provided marriage equality, and six states now extend all of the state level rights of marriage to same-sex couples (California, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, and Vermont), the majority of states have gone in the opposite direction.
Setbacks in Some States: Unfortunately, many states have enacted laws that specifically exclude same sex couples from the legal protections that opposite-sex headed families enjoy. 26 states have excluded same-sex couples from marriage laws in their state constitutions, and 19 others have passed laws to the same effect. Most troubling, in 17 of these states the law or amendment also prohibits conferring some or all of the rights of marriage to same-sex couples no matter the designation used - marriage, civil union, or domestic partnership.
While repealing these discriminatory laws should be a priority for progressive, for pro-family legislators who believe that the laws should protect all of the families in their state, there are other steps that can be taken and should not be ignored.
Extending Legal Protections to Same-Sex Couples: The protections of marriage and the social importance of the institution cannot be equaled, and where possible advocates are fighting for full equality, but families who lack legal protections still benefit whether these protections are given under a different name or given only in part.
- In the nine states with a marriage ban, but no prohibition on civil unions or domestic partnerships, all or some of the rights of marriage can still be extended to same-sex couples and their families. This has been the strategy used in California, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Vermont which all extend the rights of marriage under a different name, as well as Hawaii, Maine, and Washington which have conferred some but not all of these rights. Bills have been introduced in New Mexico and Arizona that follow this model. The New Mexico bill, sponsored by Rep. Mimi Stewart, passed the House earlier this year, but died in the Senate.
- Some states have extended health and other benefits to same-sex couples working for their states. New York and Arizona have recently enacted such policies.
- In addition, establishing domestic partner registries allows some couples to obtain benefits through private employers, regardless of a lack of legal rights under law. Currently thousands of private employers extend some spousal-like benefits to same-sex couples or domestic partners.
- Creative means can also be used to defeat laws and referenda that seek to prohibit the granting of marriage rights to same-sex couples. Very recently Arizona Rep. Krysten Sinema scored such a victory by attaching legal protections for domestic partners to such a referenda, effectively killing the bill.
Even in a conservative state like Utah, Salt Lake City has established a domestic partner registry and a state legislative attempt this year to shut it down was largely defeated, aside from forcing a cosmetic name change.
Protecting the Rights of GLBT Parents
Whether married or not, gays and lesbians face a range of discrimination in becoming parents, from adoption and foster care rules to how laws of parentage based on biological relation fail to adequately protect the parentage rights of same-sex couples. Where these laws are based upon marriage (as with stepparent adoption) and the state does not recognize same-sex marriage or its equivalent, families are left unprotected.
Unfortunately, Florida has a statute that prohibits gays and lesbians from adopting (which the Supreme Court declined to review, but which some legislators are determined to overturn). Nebraska, Michigan, Mississippi and Utah have policies barring same sex couples from adopting, and other state courts have often been reluctant to extend full parental rights to same-sex couples through adoption.
The tragedy is that the need for adopting children into caring families is so great. National numbers show that 518,000 children were in the foster care system in 2004. Over 119,000 foster children waiting to be adopted were not able to be placed with permanent families. With so many children without any family at all, those advocating the ban on gay adoption are advocating that more children live without the comforts and protections only a loving family can provide.
Taking Action to Expand Adoption Options: The only state without marriage or its equivalent that has specifically protected homosexuals from being denied the ability to adopt based on that reason alone is New York.
However, other states do allow certain forms of adoption that are particularly important to same-sex couples such as joint adoption and second parent adoption and some do not allow them. In order to protect same-sex headed families, states can follow a number of courses.
- States can explicitly prohibit discrimination in adoption procedures based upon sexual orientation as is done in New Jersey (Admin. Code 10:121C-4.1).
- States that lack such a procedure can establish second parent adoption where the legal rights of a parent need not be terminated for another person to adopt the child. Four states (California, Colorado, Connecticut and Vermont) authorize such second parent adoptions by statute and a number of other states have granted such rights through court proceedings.
- States that lack such a procedure can establish joint adoption for unmarried, co-habitating couples.
- Even more important, states can make sure that same-sex couples have explicit adoption rights analogous to the rights conferred in many states to stepparents, even though same-sex couples are not able to marry in those states.
States can and are modernizing adoption laws to accommodate all families in order to protect children from being at the mercy of laws that do not contemplate same-sex headed families.
State Hate Crimes Laws
The FBI reported 7,722 hate crimes in 2006, crimes that were the result of bias toward a particular race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity/national origin, or physical or mental disability. This number, however, dramatically under-represents the extent of hate violence across the US as less than 75% of police agencies participate in the hate crimes reporting program. Also, the number of victims cannot be truly quantified. Hate crimes attack communities, as well as individuals. As the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) points out, violent hate crimes are designed to "cause fear to a whole community...to 'send a message' that an individual and 'their kind' will not be tolerated."
According to the FBI's report, 52% of hate crimes were motivated by racism, 19% were motivated by religious prejudice, 15.5% were motivated by prejudice against people because of their sexual orientation, and almost 13% were caused by an ethnicity/national origin bias. Of the known offenders, almost 59% were white and over 20% were African-American. The offender's race was unknown for 13% of crimes and the rest were committed by individuals of various races.
State Action: According to the HRC, 32 states and D.C., have a law that addresses hate or bias crimes based on sexual orientation, with 11 states also address hate or bias crimes based on gender identity. In 2007, 17 states introduced laws to add protections against hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation and gender identity. However, only Oregon made substantive gains in 2007 with Senate Bill 2 by adding gender identity or expression to the state's hate crimes law which already applied to crimes motivated by a victim's sexual orientation.
In 2008, the level of activity continues. As Oklahomans for Equality point out, hate crimes legislation needs to, at least, have strong penalties, include at least sexual orientation and gender identity as categories, and make reporting of hate crimes to the FBI mandatory.
- Advocates are working hard in Massachusetts to pass HB 1722, sponsored by Rep. Carl Sciortino, which would add gender identity and expression to the state's non-discrimination and hate crimes laws.
- Lawmakers in Indiana, which is one of only 5 states without a hate crimes law, are moving HB 1076 to require training for law enforcement in identifying and responding to hate crimes, allow for civil actions for victims of hate crimes, and include sexual orientation and gender identity as protected categories.
- Despite five bills introduced this session in Oklahoma, and one meeting most of the above criteria, HB 2913, most the bills have been referred to the Rules Committee, which usually effectively kills a bill.
- In New York, lawmakers are considering three important bills: AB 4526, which would expand eligibility for those who receive awards under crime victims' compensation to include a domestic partner; AB 866, which would provide civil remedies for victims of bias-motivated violence committed because of a person's sexual orientation and gender identity or expression, and; AB 6584, which would, in part, add gender identity or expression to the categories covered by hate crimes.
- In New Jersey, as we wrote earlier this year, lawmakers enacted S2975 to include transgender persons to the state's hate crimes law.
As Indiana Equality points out, the justice system focuses on intent or motive and treats such premeditation very seriously. For instance, the distinction between murder and manslaughter is whether the aggressor intended to kill. Hate crimes are a similar act driven by the intent to discriminate and deserve their own place in the criminal code. While the act of violence in a hate crime may or may not be planned, the hate that fuels the violence is certainly preexisting as a direct reflection of the aggressor's biases and prejudices, thoughts and preconceptions.
Campus Equality and Safety
K-12 schools and college campuses are also receiving lawmakers' attention. A 2003 report from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force indicates that 20% of GLBT students on college campuses fear for their physical safety due to their perceived sexual orientation or gender identity and 51% concealed their sexual orientation or gender identity to avoid intimidation. To ensure a safe and welcoming environment for all students, lawmakers are introducing legislation to require that campuses develop policies to prohibit hate crimes and bullying.
As the HRC reports, 2007 saw 72 bills introduced to address campus issues. The results are a mixed bag, however. Of the three bills enacted to address anti-bullying, only one specifically included sexual orientation and gender identity as categories in anti-bullying legislation. Another bill in Utah prohibits students from joining GLBT clubs without parental consent. Recent state news, includes:
- The Michigan House has sent to the Senate HB 4091, which would require school districts and public school academies to adopt policies to prohibit harassment, bullying, or intimidation motivated by, among other things, sexual orientation and gender identity or expression.
- As part of its broad non-discrimination and hate crimes law enacted earlier this year (S2975), New Jersey will require schools to notify teachers and students of anti-bullying policies and creates a commission to study bullying at the state's schools and to make recommendations to future legislatures.
- Conservatives in California tried but failed to gather signatures to launch a ballot initiative to block a new law extending anti-discrimination protections to public school students based on their sexual orientation and gender identity.
Earlier this decade, it seemed the rightwing found a fail-safe campaign message by scapegoating GLBT Americans. Americans, however, largely through leadership by state lawmakers and advocates, are rejecting these wedge scapegoating tactics and are extending equality to GLBT individuals and families. Gains are being made in the workplace, at home, on campuses, and in the justice system. As pointed out earlier, the future is promising for GLBT equality as younger Americans by decisive margins support non-discrimination in everything from family relations to the workplace.
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In The News | <urn:uuid:a80f7a68-108a-4ef0-9af8-56ed3d8e59e8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://progressivestates.org/node/813/extending-rights-to-gays-lesbians-bisexuals-and-transgender-americans | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950763 | 2,998 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Cagan documents the struggle of Afro-Colombiano population in the midst of political unrest, environmental turmoil and the attempts to dislocate a population that struggles to maintain their traditional existence. This exhibit will be on display February 9 through March 3 with an opening reception February 18 from 12-2 p.m.
Cagan is a documentary photographer and activist, living in the Cleveland, OH, area, with over thirty years’ experience of photographing and exhibiting there and beyond. Major photographic projects have included: “Industrial Hostages,” a documentation of the effects of factory closings in Ohio in the late 70s and early 80s; work in Indochina in 1974; documentation of aspects of daily life in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Cuba, and “Working Ohio,” an extended portrait of working people in our area. His current major project is “El Chocó, Colombia: Struggle for Cultural and Environmental Survival” a documentation of that beautiful but threatened rain forest area and the special cultures that live there, also under great threat. | <urn:uuid:da3c7a14-9a4b-47d7-b5ed-172533ae462e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lonestar.edu/2320.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936405 | 219 | 2.21875 | 2 |
While solar panels and green roofs get a lot of the spotlight when it comes to greening buildings, the most cost-effective measures have always looked to improve efficiency first and foremost. Habitat Mag covered this topic today in an article on the importance of supers in the success of any greening measures a building may undertake. The major effort in this regard has been the 1,000 Green Supers training offered by the 32BJ Training Fund that has already “certified more than 1,500 union members in green operations and maintenance”. That’s great news for the urban environment of New York City as more green supers means energy savings and cleaner environments both inside and outside our buildings.
On the other side of the coin, a super’s efforts can be undermined by tenants who aren’t informed of what’s happening in their buildings and the role that they play in greening efforts. Solar One’s Whole Buildings program works to bring that information directly to tenants as well as to supers who may not have had the opportunity to do any training. Over the past 2 years, we have worked with dozens of buildings and thousands of tenants to help reduce energy use and the cost of operating buildings.
These types of programs are a great start, but with so many thousands of buildings in the City, there’s always more to do. If you’re a building owner looking to do energy retrofits, check out the New York City Energy Efficiency Corporation which might be able to help you finance your project and connect to other resources available to you. You can also look to programs such as “Green My Building” from Consolidate Energy Solutions. Because the cheapest energy, is the energy you don’t have to use. | <urn:uuid:9af64c83-8d91-49dc-8da4-5362fc5af5ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.solar1.org/author/j-paquette/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964808 | 360 | 2.203125 | 2 |
A MILLSTONE AROUND THE NECK
August 1, 1986 Issue
by Alfred Newberry
"Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believed in me, it were better for him that millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea." Matthew 18:6
In this passage the Lord indicated that it would be better for one to suffer a terrible form of capital punishment than to be guilty of this sin. The form of capital punishment that he referred to was practiced, according to Barnes, by the Greeks, Syrians, and Romans. The sin he referred to was causing a young Christian to sin. This is a serious sin, and it cannot be taken lightly in the Church. Certainly the Lord is not prescribing the death penalty as punishment for this sin, but rather is showing how wicked this sin really is.
THE METHOD OF EXECUTION
The method of execution was as follows. A millstone was tied around the criminal's neck with a rope, and he was thrown into the ocean, lake or river, A millstone was a large circular rock which was used to grind wheat and other grain into flour. The stone was turned around a shaft by either a man or by an animal such as an ox. The mills which were turned by animals were, of course, much larger than the human powered models. Barnes says the Greek word used in Matt 18:6 means a large stone from an animal powered grinding mill.
Those who have learned to swim, can easily understand the effect of having a large stone attacked to the neck. The head would be pulled straight down with the result being the person would find it impossible to swim. Death by drowning would occur within a few seconds as one struggled in a hysterical fashion to swim to the surface.
We have not discussed this method of execution in detail to horrify anyone, rather to give the reader the kind of understanding of this method of capital punishment that Jesus' hearers had. These people knew all about this method of execution and so the full weight of Jesus words was heavy on their minds. It is not our purpose to give anyone bad dreams about this form of execution, but our purpose is to ensure that we will not take lightly the serious nature of this sin. This was a terrible form of execution. It was a terrifying experience both for the person being executed and for his friends as they watched him fight the water struggling in vain to come up for air. In addition to this, his body was pulled to the bottom of the sea probably never to be seen again. This added to the intensity of the punishment since the family could not give the executed man a proper burial.
THE "SIN" IS CAUSING A YOUNG CHRISTIAN TO SIN.
The KJV (King James Version) rendering of Matt 18:6 is not properly understood by some people. Many people take this verse to mean "do not hurt the feelings" of a young Christian, but this is not the meaning. The ASV (American Standard Version) says, "whoso shall cause one of these little ones that believe on me to stumble, it is profitable for him that a great millstone should be hanged about his neck, that he should be sunk in the depth of the sea". The NIV (New International Version) says, "if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be frowned in the depths of the sea".
It is very clear that the sin Jesus describes is any action on the part of a Christian which would aid, encourage, influence, or cause a new Christian to sin. Causing a young Christian to sin is clearly a terrible sin that cannot be taken lightly. This is why Jesus said that a Christian would be better off being executed by the millstone than to be guilty of causing a new member of Christ's body to sin. The horror of being drowned with a millstone would last only a little while. Eternal punishment in a devil's hell will last for all eternity.
THE WAYS THE SIN IS COMMITTED
There are many ways that the sin of Matt 18:6 can be committed. The obvious way is to directly expose a young Christian to temptations and enticements causing him or her to sin. Sin, of course, is not limited just to immorality. There are many other things one might be guilty of which would cause a young Christian to sin. Other sins that a young Christian might be influenced to commit are quitting the Church, forsaking the assembly, accepting false doctrines, or falling to grow. Let us consider three ways in which one might cause a new Christian to commit these sins.
NEGLECT Everyone knows that physical parents must care for their children and that it is both a sin and a criminal offense for them to neglect these little ones. One of the reasons young Christians are spoken of as "babies" is that they must be cared for, they must be fed, and they must be protected from false doctrine. Just as a neglected human baby will die if not cared for, so a new Christian will fall away if not cared for by the other members. Phil 2:4 says, "not looking each of you to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others". This means that we Christian must take care of one another, it is commanded by God. This passage certainly applies to young Christians above all others.
EXAMPLE 1 Cor 8:10-12 says, "For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol's temple, won't he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ" (NIV). This principle has many applications. For example, a Christian who forsakes the assembly is by his example telling other young Christians that it is permissible to do so. In so doing he commits a double sin. He sins in forsaking the assembly, and he sins because he influences a brother to sin. If our example destroys our brother for whom Christ died, we would be better off drowned in the sea with a millstone pulling us down by our necks!
DISCOURAGEMENT Disgruntled Christians sometimes "unload" their gripes and complaints on young Christians. The writer has seen this over the years and has observed the following. Usually the disgruntled person is cowardly and selfish. He gives no thought to what sort of dreadful effect his complaining might have on the babe in Christ because his only desire is to vocalize his complaints, attack those he disagrees with, and gain the impressionable new convert to his side. The complainer normally talks about "they" as being guilty of displeasing him, but rarely will he name who "they" are. Never does the complainer encourage the new convert to listen to the other side of the story. (An honest person is happy for one to listen to both sides of the story.) Never does the disgruntled complainer separate his opinions from what is Bible teaching. He speaks of his own ideas and opinions as if they had been spoken by Christ himself. He leaves the impression that when the congregation goes against his opinions they have violated the Bible.
Of the offenses mentioned, the discouraging of a new Christian by a disgruntled complainer is the most inexcusable. It is the result of mindless selfishness and constitutes behavior of the worst sort. The leaders of every congregation are encouraged to take quick, direct, and forceful action against those who seek to so damage babes in Christ. Consider the following illustration. Suppose your friend buys a new car and one day finds a man beating it with a big hammer in a parking lot. He calls the police, and they find that the man is mad because his own car won't start so he is taking out his frustration on your friend's new car. We would all regard such behavior as mindlessly selfish as well as criminal. But, this criminal is no worse off than the Christian who beats" a new convert with the "hammer" of his own petty complaints thereby spiritually injuring or perhaps killing the babe in Christ. Such behavior cannot be tolerated!
Other OPA Article Links:
Alfred Newberry 1986 OPA Main Page Home | <urn:uuid:4c75abee-5ba7-44f4-a927-5a6dea9a3b7d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://newtestamentchurch.org/OPA/Articles/1986/09/a%20millstone.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977469 | 1,723 | 2.4375 | 2 |
I want to implement a QoS support for IPv6. It is a proposal, which is in discussion at the IETF.
For the implementation, I have to split the sending queue of IPv6 Packets into two queues. And also, I have to implement a packet classifier. I am sitting now 1 week over the 2.1.98 kernel and searching for the way, a IPv6 packet would take through the kernel of a linux software router.
I do not know, where the packets are inqueued into the IPv6 Sending Queue, and where they were dequeued by the devices. I need to know this, because I have to change the behaviour of this functions.
Can anybody help me ?
Does anybody know a (very good) description of the ipv6 implementation, their data structures, .... | <urn:uuid:dda4cf09-257c-43e7-abb4-a829a641cd88> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.linuxpourtous.com/LDP/LDP/khg/HyperNews/get/khg/269.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938265 | 171 | 1.992188 | 2 |
Texting while driving, by Flickr user ericathompsonEnlarge Photo
With all the attention distracted driving has been getting in recent months, it should come as no surprise that the AAA is prioritizing its legislative efforts this year to focus on that issue and a related one involving teen driver safety.
In fact, the AAA says their legislative agenda for 2012 includes advocating laws in every state banning texting while driving, full wireless bans for new teen drivers, and stiffer penalties and fines for drivers committing violations or crash while driving distracted.
AAA’s stand on texting while driving
In 2009, the AAA launched a national campaign to urge all states to ban texting while driving. In 2011, five states enacted such bans, thus raising the total number of states with texting bans to 35.
The AAA effort continues this year, and the organization fully expects that the remaining 15 states will at least consider laws prohibiting texting while driving sometime during 2012.
AAA’s stand on teen driver safety
Easing teens into driving via graduated driver licensing (GDL) has been proven to save teen lives and reduce crashes. Yet the AAA finds that nearly every state still has opportunities to improve these laws. Just six states currently have GDL systems that meet the AAA’s guidelines for nighttime and passenger limits and practice requirements: Delaware, Indiana, Michigan, New York, Oklahoma and West Virginia.
States can improve their existing GDL systems by raising the age and increasing the requirements for teens getting their driver’s license, banning novice drivers from use of wireless communication devices, and adding to or improving limits on number of passengers and driving at night for newly-licensed teens.
Other AAA safety priorities for 2012
While distracted driving and teen driver safety are at the top of the AAA’s priority list for 2012, the organization also will focus on improving the following laws:
But it’s more than laws that can help with both distracted driving and improve teen driver safety. In an earlier FamilyCarGuide story, we looked at how Ford’s MyKey system now allows parents to block all incoming texts and calls while their teens are driving. There are also tips on how to manage distracted driving that can help. | <urn:uuid:cb6db7ea-3744-4648-8ed0-d0858ca27995> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thecarconnection.com/news/1071902_distracted-driving-and-teen-driver-safety-aaas-big-push-in-2012 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949714 | 448 | 2.4375 | 2 |
Design and Development of Magical Mobile Updater for Automatic Information Synchronization
Source: Victoria University
Today wireless technologies have become more and more popular in the daily life, the most popular being in telecommunication and networking. Wireless technology has turned out to be convenient and widely uses as it is becoming an inexpensive option to replace fixed cables. There are many different wireless technologies around the world and they are implemented into different wireless devices for the daily use. In this paper, the state-of-art of Bluetooth technology is first reviewed. It aims to demonstrate use of Bluetooth wireless technology including its protocol and functionality by building an application to connect and communicate between wired and wireless devices. | <urn:uuid:38e09fd2-b794-4c91-8b9a-c9e27b97f537> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.techrepublic.com/whitepapers/design-and-development-of-magical-mobile-updater-for-automatic-information-synchronization/2556429?scname=bluetooth | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946693 | 135 | 2.421875 | 2 |
- Special Sections
- Public Notices
The theme for this year’s Ready Campaign promoting September as National Preparedness Month is “Resolve to Be Ready in 2012.” This public awareness drive encourages individuals and community leaders to make the resolution to take the necessary steps to be prepared for emergencies.
Preparedness is an individual responsibility. By being prepared as individuals, we free up valuable resources, including allowing our first responders to assist those who are in the greatest need.
Self-reliance extends to helping neighbors and friends who you might reach before emergency responders do. Some people might need extra help. Be ready to lend a hand to those in need.
The following preparedness tips are offered to assist families, businesses and communities.
Be sure to consider additional items to meet family members’ unique needs such as prescription medications and glasses, infant formula and diapers, pet food, extra water for your pet, leash and collar, books, games, puzzles or other activities for children and important family documents. Copies of insurance policies, identification and bank account records should be placed in a waterproof, portable container.
Be sure to ask how they will communicate with families during a crisis, if they store adequate food, water and other basic supplies and if they are prepared to provide shelter where they are and where they plan to go if they must evacuate.
Find out what kinds of disasters, both natural and man-made, are most likely to occur in your area and how you will be notified. Methods of getting your attention vary from community to community. One common method is to broadcast via emergency radio and TV broadcasts. You might hear a special siren, receive a telephone call or emergency workers might go door to door.
Lincoln Trail District Health Department works with local emergency partners throughout the district to prepare for emergencies through planning, training and exercise activities. This is done to make our response more efficient during the time of a disaster and, therefore, prepare our staff to better assist the residents of our counties.
The health department also sponsors Lincoln Trail Medical Reserve Corps. The Medical Reserve Corps is a group of local volunteers who want to become better prepared to help their communities. To join, please contact Fred Singleton at (270) 769-1601, ext. 1046 or firstname.lastname@example.org.
Each citizen also needs to do her or his part to prepare for emergencies. Go to www.ready.gov and www.homelandsecurity.ky.gov/community for more information about preparing yourself, your family and your home for potential disasters.
Donny Gill is a health educator at the Hardin County Health Department. He can be reached at email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:3b3124c2-3220-4fcd-a766-c155709af4c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thenewsenterprise.com/content/your-health-resolve-be-ready-month | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946369 | 559 | 2.203125 | 2 |
Repairing a leaky roof is a challenge under the best of circumstances. Just
pinpointing the leak's location often takes persistence, detective work and
a fair amount of luck.
When the leaky roof is also an apartment building's "backyard," as in the case of a rooftop terrace, repairs can be expensive and vexing for a building's owner.
"The tricky part is avoiding doing more work than is necessary," said Stephen Varone, director of operations of Rand Engineering in Manhattan.
In New York, he explained, most roof decks, or terrace floors, consist of layers of different materials. For example, he said, it is not uncommon for a roof deck in a high-rise residential building to be made of a substructure of steel topped by a concrete deck, which is topped by a waterproof membrane. This membrane is itself topped by wood decking or, more commonly, with a layer of sand or mortar, which is then topped with paving bricks or quarry tile.
"Leaks often aren't easy to find," Mr. Varone said. While water will sometimes leak from a hole or crack in the surface of a roof deck directly into the ceiling or wall of the apartment below, it more often moves around a bit before making its way out.
"A leak will take the path of least resistance," he said. "It might be coming right down through the concrete or it might be running along the supporting steel under the roof deck and then coming down somewhere else."
Regardless of where the water comes out, preventing it from entering in the first place will solve the problem. Just where the water is getting in, however, usually isn't easy to figure out.
"Normally, the first thing we do is a controlled flood test," Mr. Varone said. "We'll plug up any drains in the roof and use a hose to flood the area. Sometimes we'll put a colored dye in the water. Then we go downstairs and try to determine where the water is coming from."
While locating the entry point of a leak from its exit point is not always possible, the problem is magnified, Mr. Varone said, when the roof also serves as a terrace and is covered with tile or brick.
"The most difficult scenario is when you have old quarry tile set in mortar," Mr. Varone said. "It is often necessary to rip up the quarry tile to locate where the water is getting in."
Michael Ahearn, the owner of Seaboard Weatherproofing in Port Chester, NY, said another way to locate a leak was to use an infrared detector.
"The detector is used to find heat in the deck," Mr. Ahearn said. "Since water is liquid, its temperature changes more rapidly than the substrate it's worming its way through." The infrared detector would then detect a difference in temperature, which would translate to moisture.
In most cases, he said, the roof (or terrace) surface is divided into a grid with readings taken at every grid point.
Once the source of the leak is found, Mr. Ahearn said, the decision must be made to either repair the leak or replace the entire roof membrane.
"If you have a leak in a specific spot, we'll go to that spot first and pull up whatever topping is over the membrane," he said. "But if you don't see a hole or some sort of deterioration at that spot, it's kind of a crapshoot from there."
In fact, Mr. Ahearn said, in many cases it is necessary to remove all of the topping material—whether bricks, pavers, tile or even wood—to get down to the roof membrane.
"In most cases, if you're going to the trouble of tearing up the topping, you might as well replace the membrane," he said.
Roof membrane—that is, the waterproof covering typically applied on top of the concrete decking—can be either hot or cold liquid, which is basically squeegeed onto the surface, or "sheet goods" that are rolled out and stuck to the decking. (In some cases, the roof membrane is just laid on the concrete surface and held in place by the weight of whatever topping material is used.)
"The most common hot membranes are coal-tar-based materials, asphalt-based materials and rubberized asphalt," he said, explaining that in most cases, a layer of tar paper is sandwiched between two layers of hot liquid topping.
An alternative to hot liquid membranes is a relatively new liquid material that can be applied cold.
Steven Tingir, chief specification writer for Rand Engineering, said that one advantage of any liquid membrane material is that it can generally be applied in one continuous coating and, as a result, leaves no seams.
An added advantage of cold liquid roofing membranes, he said, is that the material can be used on almost any roof.
"If you have a wood roof, the Fire Department won't let you bring a kettle up to the roof," he said, referring to the machine used to melt hot-applied asphalt materials. "You have to put the kettle on the street and them pump the hot asphalt to the roof."
With a cold liquid, however, it is not necessary to use a kettle.
"Basically, you apply the membrane by pouring it on and spreading it out with a squeegee," Mr. Tingir said. "And once you distribute it, you unroll reinforcing fleece over it and then go over the fleece with a roller to make sure it absorbs the liquid." Once that is done, he said, another layer of liquid membrane is applied on top of the fleece material. It is also possible, Mr. Tingir said, to apply sheet membranes to the roof surface.
He said such materials, known as modified bitumen roofing membranes (basically asphalt treated with additives and reinforced with fiberglass or polyester), are rolled out and glued to the roof deck with material that acts as an adhesive. Particular attention must be paid to mixing the adhesive, Mr. Tingir said. "If the mixing is not done properly, problems may arise in adhering the membrane."
Another relatively new product, he said, is a roof membrane that already has the adhesive applied to it. "It's a peel-and-stick kind of thing," he said. "You prime the surface and then directly adhere the roll to the deck and go over it with a 75-pound roller."
Generally speaking, Mr. Tingir said, sheet roofing costs about $17 a square foot, including removal and disposal of the existing roofing material. Liquid roofing, on the other hand, costs about $20 a square foot.
To use a roof as a terrace, it is usually necessary to install yet another layer of material on top of the membrane.
Walter Sedovic, a preservation architect in Irvington, NY, said one option was to cover the membrane with "pavers."
"They're concrete, 2 feet by 2 feet, and they come in a variety of colors and styles," he said. The pavers, he said, are mounted on adjustable plastic pedestals—one at each corner of the block—which permit water to flow beneath them and follow the natural pitch of the roof.
Another option, he said, is bricks or pavers set in a two-inch layer of sand.
This will not drain as quickly as the pavers, but the sand keeps the terrace permeable, he said, adding that screens are installed around the perimeter of the area to prevent the sand from washing down the drain pipes.
Yet another possibility, Mr. Sedovic said, is to install quarry tiles—6 inch by 9 inch clay-fired tiles—in a bed of mortar instead of sand. With such a roof, he said, the top level of the quarry tiles have to mimic the pitch of the roof so that the water drains properly off the surface. "It's very important to build in an expansion joint every 15 to 20 feet," he said, explaining that such a joint allows the surface to expand and contract without cracking.
The most ecologically friendly roof surface material, Mr. Sedovic, is not man-made.
"My favorite system is a grass-roof system," he said. "Grass used to require about eight inches of dirt. But now there are systems that can be installed with as little as two inches of dirt."
While dirt and grass may not seem the best materials to use on a roof—or a terrace—grass could possibly triple the life of a roof.
"Grass roofs are absolutely stunning," Mr. Sedovic said. " And they don't need as much mowing as you might think."
From The New York Times, September 28, 2003.
More Capital Improvements articles | <urn:uuid:64e94fa6-60e5-4198-a201-2c45acaf2c27> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.randpc.com/improve/cis_roof_leak.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962433 | 1,838 | 1.664063 | 2 |
GUVECCI, Turkey — The Turkish government moved Wednesday to take control of a rapidly worsening humanitarian crisis along its border with Syria, cutting off unofficial supply routes, holding crisis talks with a Syrian envoy and dispatching Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to visit frontier villages where more than 8,000 Syrian refugees — about half of them children — are housed in makeshift camps.
With the Syrian military poised to continue its crackdown, even more refugees are expected to stream across the border in coming days, sparking worry about how Turkey will absorb a large and likely permanent population of Syrian dissidents.
Syrian refugees said that nothing short of regime change could persuade them to return.
"No, we won't go back. Anyone they catch, they'll execute," said Um Ahmed, a 34-year-old widow and mother of seven who'd crossed into Turkey four days ago. She used a pseudonym for fear of government retaliation against relatives still in Syria.
Um Ahmed said she knew better than to trust Syrian President Bashar Assad's recent pledge of amnesty for all opposition factions. She hails from a family of dissidents in the battered Syrian town of Jisr al Shughour, and her father and late husband were forced into exile in Iraq after participating in a doomed uprising in the 1980s, when Assad's notoriously iron-fisted father, Hafez Assad, was in power.
After Bashar Assad succeeded his father in an uncontested referendum in 2000, he offered amnesty to exiles such as Um Ahmed's clan, she said. Her husband moved the family back to Syria, where he was promptly arrested and imprisoned for four years. The family was stripped of citizenship, she said, and, without government-issued identification, couldn't work or enroll the children in school.
Her father remains exiled in the Iraqi city of Mosul and her husband died of a heart attack after his release from prison, said Um Ahmed, who's taken shelter with distant relatives in the Turkish border village of Guvecci.
Holding tight to her young son, Um Ahmed's eyes grew watery as she spoke of her family's suffering over three generations. Several teenage relatives who'd escaped with her also were present, silent and sullen about their uncertain futures.
Um Ahmed said that all of them would be killed or imprisoned if they attempted to return. She dismissed reports that some Syrians were fighting back with heavy weapons, a development that, if true, could lead to civil warfare like the uprisings in Libya and Yemen. She said she believed that only soldiers who'd defected were firing on the encroaching tanks.
"Everybody is scared, terrified for their families. Do you think people, families inside their houses, can face an army?" Um Ahmed said. "Everybody's trying to escape."
The surge of refugees leaves Turkey in a bind. Newly re-elected Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is on good terms with Assad. He's warned Assad repeatedly to choose reforms over violence, but hasn't advocated Assad's ouster. Turkish media reported that Erdogan was meeting late Wednesday with Assad's special envoy to find a resolution to the crisis.
After visiting the camps in southern villages, Davutoglu, the foreign minister, told journalists that Turkey won't shut its borders to the fleeing Syrians, saying the countries share a common destiny. However, he told the Anatolia news agency, "when this turns into a big wave, it also has the potential to become a regional and an international matter."
At least 8,142 Syrians already are in Turkey, according to official figures released Wednesday, and thousands more are massed along the border, reluctant to leave their livestock and other possessions to join the crowded camps, where the wait for a bathroom can last an hour or more.
Government aid workers have opened three camps and are building a fourth to accommodate the influx, which is made up primarily of women and children, though at least 1,921 men also have crossed the border. A relatively small number of refugees — 60, the government said — have been hospitalized, either for illness or gunshot wounds. The government refused to provide a more detailed breakdown of the reason for hospitalizations.
The Turkish government has barred journalists from entering the camps to speak to refugees, though some Syrians inside slip notes to reporters or give rushed interviews through the covered fences of the compound.
"They killed people, they killed animals, they destroyed houses and three mosques in the town!" Juma Mohamed Ali, a Syrian refugee, yelled through the bars of the Yayladagi camp's fence. He was referring to the Syrian military's siege last week on Jisr al Shughour, his hometown.
Dozens of children rallied in the Yayladagi camp Wednesday, chanting slogans against Assad's regime and yelling out "Erdogan!" in support of the Turkish premier. Authorities quickly dispersed the rally and shooed away journalists.
Turkish aid workers said refugees in the camps had round-the-clock hot water, three meals a day and access to medical and psychological help. But rumors of the crowded, prison-like conditions have made other families reluctant to cross into Turkey.
For the past week, sympathetic residents of Turkish border villages had used smuggling routes through hilly, wooded terrain to deliver food, water and medicine to the displaced families just yards away on the Syrian side.
But on Wednesday the Turkish military stepped up its presence in the area Wednesday, possibly in connection with the foreign minister's visit, and prevented residents from using the unofficial supply lines. Syrians who haven't yet crossed the border said they now faced a grim choice: starvation or open-ended exile in Turkey.
"We received food and supplies yesterday, but it's all gone now. We have nothing," a displaced Syrian who gave his name only as Mohamed said by telephone from his spot in the woods. He spoke quickly because his cell phone was dying and there was no electricity to recharge the battery.
(McClatchy special correspondent Ipek Yezdani contributed to this article from Yayladagi, Turkey.)
MORE FROM MCCLATCHY
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Historically, what America has said and what America has done world-wide are two different things (Thank God Columbus Lost his Way, Nov 15). For all the middle-class hype and hero worship of the US, we cannot ignore the fact that India is being courted and coerced at the same time. The question is, will India of the future be able to chart its course with an independent mind? Obama is erudite and charming, someone who is admired as an individual, but that doesn’t mean we lose sight of everything else.
India never figured in the to-do list of powerful foreign dignitaries till a few years ago. So it’s only natural that we Indians are still a bit awed and curious about the contents of Uncle Sam’s goodies/takeaway bag.
Jayanthy Subramaniam, Mumbai
For a change, our PM could have put his hand on Obama’s shoulder rather than the photo-op of the US president holding our PM in an ‘arm lock’.
Madhu R.D. Singh, Ambala
We are fascinated with America because it has got all that we yearn to see in India—discipline, national pride, systems, cleanliness, order, respect for merit and so many other values that create a civilised society. Thanks to our politicians, we still remain in that ‘chalega’ cesspool after 60 years of self-rule! I am eagerly looking forward to that one great leader who has the guts to tell us, ‘Folks, we have screwed up’!
Dr B. Sudhakar, Changanasserry, Kerala
We Indians are citizens of the world today because of American inventions and innovations. It is to their credit that they have shared their knowledge with the world. Has any other country done that kind of service to humanity?
S. Gopal Valluri, Bangalore
Obama’s only interest was pushing American kirana shops (with fancy names) and diluting the recently passed nuclear liability bill so that US mncs can have a free run like Union Carbide. I hope the upa will not fall into the trap.
N. Ramamurthy, Chennai
When Bill Gates visited India and threw cash everywhere, people thought he was donating so much to Indians. Later, the government, which had earlier issued a circular to all offices to have free software Linux installed in PCs, revised it and issued a circular for installing MS Office. The cost of MS Office software was about Rs 10,000 and more for every system. So how much did Gates spend and how much did he earn in India? What Obama is offering is also peanuts. Indians are going to be looted, and our rulers are going to aid him in that loot.
S. Gandhi, Chennai
Your last line, “a world bully tying up with a regional bully...” doesn’t stand up to facts on the ground. Has India bullied Bhutan, Nepal (despite its perception), Bangladesh, Myanmar? Paranoid Pakistan is another matter, its army and the isi cannot survive without these misconceptions.
Ravinder Sethi, Dallas
You can’t deny that Obama connected with India’s Gen-next extremely well. Our leadership can take a few lessons here, for Obama gave them a gameplan for the next 20 years.
George Olivera, Mysore
William Bissell of Fab India is happy about this marriage where the US would be the pitcher and India the catcher, similar to what US relations are with the rest of the world except for Israel where it is happy to be the catcher.
Kishore Dasmunshi, Calcutta
The US has a long history of exploiting countries to its advantage. We should remember that in US the S is in capitals and in ‘Us’ the ‘s’ is in lower case. The US will always thinks of itself first, then about ‘Us’.
Rajat Mehta, Chandigarh
Your piece will only lead to more misconceptions. Leaders are not always loved, and they do not care for what everyone thinks of them. They go and do what is right—this is true of America. Even Gandhi was hated and that is why someone shot him.
R. Srinivasan, Los Altos, US
We should have forced America to extradite Warren Anderson before signing any deals. That would have showed those brash US corporates that they can’t cross the law in India.
Padmabushan R., Hyderabad
I fail to understand your fixation with Arundhati Roy. Even on the Obama visit, you have to take her comment. How is she an expert, is she a social scientist, an authority on international relations, an economist? Give us a break.
Debjit, on e-mail
We are all Americans now.
Dinesh Kumar, Chandigarh
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Joseph Herman Hertz
Orthodox rabbi best known for his edition of the chumash.
Reprinted from The Jewish Religion: A Companion, published by Oxford University Press.
Joseph Herman Hertz was an Orthodox rabbi, communal leader, and author (1872-1946). Hertz was born in Romania but immigrated when young to America where he studied, obtaining his PhD. degree from Columbia University. He was the first rabbinic graduate of the Jewish Theological Seminary. Later he was greatly influenced by Solomon Schechter's ideas on the desirability of allowing the Jewish tradition to be open to the findings of modern scholarship.
Hertz served first as a rabbi in Syracuse, New York, and later as rabbi in South Africa, where he was a powerful advocate of human rights. In 1913 Hertz was appointed Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew congregations of the British Empire, a post he occupied for the rest of his life. Among his many political activities, Hertz, a deeply committed Zionist, was instrumental in frustrating the efforts of some leaders of the Anglo-Jewish community to prevent the Balfour Declaration being issued.
In his written works, Hertz defended Orthodox Judaism (of the moderate Anglo-Jewish type) against its detractors from outside and from within the Jewish camp. Hertz was never one to pull his punches, whether in his role of Chief Rabbi or in his writings. It was said of him that he preferred the peaceful way if no other was available.
His Affirmations of Judaism (Oxford, 1927) contains three sermons, entitled "The New Paths: Whither Do They Lead?," in which he attacked the thinking of the Liberal movement, an English version of radical Reform. His Book of Jewish Thoughts, of which many editions have been published, is an excellent anthology of writings on Jews and Judaism culled from both Jewish and non-Jewish works. His commentary to the prayer book is a superb devotional work in the modern spirit.
Hertz's best-known and most influential work is his Pentateuch and Haftorahs, written in collaboration with other Anglo-Jewish scholars. In his introduction to this work, Hertz defends his particular stance:
"Jewish and non-Jewish commentators-ancient, medieval and modern--have been freely drawn upon.'Accept the truth from whatever source it come,' is sound rabbinic doctrine-even if it be from the pages of a devout Christian expositor or of an iconoclastic Bible scholar, Jewish or non-Jewish. This does not affect the Jewish Traditional character of the work. My conviction that the criticism of the Pentateuch associated with the name of Wellhausen is a perversion of history and a desecration of religion, is unshaken; likewise, my refusal to eliminate the Divine either from history or from human life." | <urn:uuid:2258730d-540c-4524-8128-0309c0224b85> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.myjewishlearning.com/history/Modern_History/1700-1914/Denominationalism/Orthodox/Joseph_Herman_Hertz.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975089 | 585 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Retailers are getting increasingly worried about their prospects for the US holiday season. The early reports from the Thanksgiving weekend are mixed. Several major retailers have recently reported disappointing profits and downgraded their sales targets for the holiday season.
While economists will not doubt express surprise if sales turn sour, there is not much mystery as to why consumers are growing reluctant to spend. After increasing at an unprecedented rate for a decade, house prices have turned around and are now heading south. The prospect of declining house prices has made tens of millions of homeowners concerned about their financial prospects and far less anxious to engage in a holiday splurge.
They are right to be concerned. The basic facts are quite scary. As house prices soared, homeowners borrowed against their new equity almost as rapidly as it was created. The savings rate fell to almost zero in 2005 and has hovered near this level ever since. This is the lowest savings rate since the beginning of the Great Depression. Until the 1990s, the savings rate typically hovered near 8% of household income.
In the short-term, this consumption boom was good news for the economy. Soaring consumption, along with the surge in the housing sector, provided the fuel to lift the economy out of the recession and get employment growth on a positive path in 2003. The recovery never really took off, in the sense of providing solid wage growth for the bulk of the workforce, but it would certainly have been much weaker without the demand stimulated by the housing bubble.
However, any short-term benefits from the housing bubble came with a very substantial long-term cost. Citigroup and other major banks are now taking huge losses on complex financial instruments that they apparently did not understand. The parade of major financial institutions announcing multibillion-dollar write-downs of mortgage-related debt would be almost comical if it were not associated with the plight of millions of homeowners losing their homes.
And the worst is yet to come. House prices are dropping nationwide, and are falling at double-digit rates in some formerly hot markets. By virtually any measure - vacancy rates, the supply of unsold news homes, the number of existing homes for sale - the excess supply of homes for sale is at record levels. This means further downward pressure on prices, which is likely to cause the rate of price decline to accelerate in the months ahead. This means that the economists, analysts and other experts who are surprised by the extent of the problems in the subprime market will be even more surprised by an even bigger rash of write-downs six months or a year from now.
This continuing trend of declining house prices means that tens of millions of homeowners will soon find that they have little or no equity in their homes. The ratio of homeowners' equity to value stood at less than 52% at the end of the third quarter, an all-time low. This number, which measures the portion of a house that homeowners have paid off, was always near 70% until the last decade. With the bulk of the baby boom cohort now in their 50s or 60s, we would expect the ratio of equity to value to be at an all-time high, not an all-time low. Workers near retirement should be close to paying off their homes. The drop in the ratio of equity to value is especially striking since the enormous run-up in house prices over the last decade translated directly into equity for homeowners.
But homeowners listened to the experts and assumed that the good times would continue. They thought that their house prices would just keep appreciating indefinitely. This meant that they didn't have to save for retirement; their appreciating home prices would do the trick for them.
Now that reality has interceded and exposed the run-up in house prices as just a transitory bubble, it is not surprising that the holiday shopping season is not looking very good. Homeowners are beginning to realise that they are not as wealthy as they had expected to be. Tens of millions of families have to try to catch up with their savings plans in their remaining work years. The sooner they realise where they stand, the better chance they have to make up their lost savings. But increased saving by homeowners will not make the retailers happy. | <urn:uuid:d938d9f9-5593-4582-9651-13e484a5f271> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/nov/26/stealingchristmas | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98081 | 855 | 1.851563 | 2 |
Fri November 2, 2012
Some Economists Think Price Gouging Is Good
Originally published on Fri November 2, 2012 11:43 am
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
OK. So, it was really hard to get gas in the New York area yesterday. One very simple thing could be done that might change everything: drastically raise the price of gas. Now, if that happened, we would surely consider it price-gouging. But some economists think it would be a really good idea. Here's Zoe Chace of our Planet Money team.
MICHELLE MEDINA: So, everybody here's OK? You guys OK? All right. Yeah, we're still on line with him.
ZOE CHACE, BYLINE: The gas station on Union and 4th Avenue in Brooklyn was crazy, too: cars down the block, people with red gas containers crowded around the pumps. Michelle Medina was trying to organize the mayhem.
MEDINA: These are going to be for credit, this side for cash. Just remember, call me. I'll give you the gas, bring you back your change. OK?
CHACE: One thing nobody was asking: How much are you paying for your gas?
JOHN HANNA: I didn't even check the price. I don't care about the price right now. I care about - I need the gas for my kids.
CHACE: John Hanna drove three hours from Jersey looking for gas to power his generator. It's funny. You hear about the lines, the hours of waiting, the lack of power. But at a time like this, you don't hear about the price. Usually, when there's an incredible demand for something, the price of that thing goes up. That's not really happening here in New York. At this station, regular goes for about $3.80 a gallon. If gas station owners suddenly jacked up the price by a couple of bucks or more, they could get in trouble with the state. Looking at the lines of cars at this gas station, it seems like the gas should be worth more - at least to an economist it does.
MICHAEL MUNGER: I don't think $25 a gallon is unreasonable.
CHACE: I called Michael Munger. He's a professor at Duke, and he says the fastest way to fix the gas scarcity is to raise the price. Let the market work it out.
MUNGER: When prices go up, people buy less. Everyone who was waiting in line wanted to fill their tank. That means that there's not going to be enough gas for everybody.
CHACE: I saw one guy running down the block. He had six gas containers dangling from what looked like a swiffer. Not for sale, he yelled to me when I ran after him. If he had to shell out hundreds of dollars to fill up one container, he might not have taken so much gas with him. Of course, there's another way to get people to buy less gas at a time, even if they'd been waiting for hours.
RON FREEMAN: Cash only.
CHACE: Ron Freeman stalled out on Fourth Avenue.
How much you got?
FREEMAN: I got cash. I want $20 to get home, and I'm parking it and I'm not driving for the rest of the week.
CHACE: If you have to pay cash, the gas you get is limited to the money in your pocket. Four bucks a gallon seems a lot more expensive if you've only got $20 to spend. Zoe Chace, NPR News, New York.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio. | <urn:uuid:9f8dae66-e2f3-4bdd-b1ff-728d05f9bd42> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wmra.org/post/some-economists-think-price-gouging-good | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971428 | 788 | 2.171875 | 2 |
love books, especially in the winter! You can curl up with a hot cup and read,
read, read. Books make wonderful Christmas gifts. They tell a person
you appreciate their interests and want to support what they love. When
you're thinking of what to get your favorite artist, aspiring designer, color
enthusiast or do-it-yourself guru, try taking a look at some of these beauties.
For the fine arts painter:
Color Theory by Jose Parramon
This amazing book explains how color works in nature and gives examples of how color can be manipulated, mixed and juxtaposed. It talks about color harmonies, complements, contrasts and how to work with cool and warm hues.
For the total color-lover:
Color: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finaly
You can eat this book up; it's a rich and engaging look at color. The author brilliantly breaks the book into chapters by color, each dedicated to the history, lore and use of a particular color.
Black: The History of a Color by Michel Pastooureau
The author takes us from the very beginnings of our exploration of painting
when our ancestors turned to carbon for their pigment. This beautiful and
generous image-filled book takes us through the ages, up to current culture,
and how and why color still holds such power.
Blue: The History of a Color
“Pastoureau's text moves us through one fascinating area of activity to another. The jacket, cover and end papers of this luscious book are, appropriately, blue; its double-columned text breathes easily in the space of its pages. It is o well sewn it opens flat at any place. The fascinating, aptly chosen color plates, not confined to the title color, will please even those eyes denied the good luck of being blue.”
(Synopsis by William Gass, Los Angeles Times Book Review)
A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire by Amy Butler Greenfield
"Elusive, expensive and invested with powerful symbolism, red cloth became the prize possession of the wealthy and well-born," Greenfield writes in her intricate, fully researched and stylishly written history of Europe's centuries-long clamor for cochineal, a dye capable of producing the "brightest, strongest red the Old World had ever seen."
(Synopsis by Publisher's Weekly)
For those who love color interiors:
Color in Interior Design by John Pile
Create dazzling color schemes for any indoor space. You'll quickly sharpen your color skills, and open the door to a more rewarding and profitable career, with John F. Pile's Color in Interior Design. He takes the mystery out of working with color, showing readers how to plan color relationships step by step, and in an organized and systematic way. Reader also learn how prepare color schemes for interiors, make color charts, select materials, put together color samples, work with additive and subtractive color, understand the psychological impact of color and use color in functional spaces. This hands-on color-design tool packs illustrations by well-known professionals and a survey of color in historic interiors that guides readers through restoration and adaptive reuse projects.
The Color Scheme Bible: Inspirational Palettes for Designing Home Interiors by Anna Starmer
The author sifted through 16 million color possibilities to produce 200 combinations that would please any taste. There is a discussion on the color wheel and ideas on inspiration gathering. The book offers up palette choices that are separated into different hues. Starmer’s book is great resource for those laying down the color foundations for a new project.
Domino: The Book of Decorating: A Room-by-Room Guide to Creating a Home that Makes You Happy by Deborah Needleman, Sara Ruffin Costello and Dara Caponigro.
I picked up this book at Borders yesterday. They explain everything for you like a high-priced decorator would. The idea boards are truly inspiring. The authors truly show readers how to create a great room they will love.
Happy shopping, and we hope you have someone on your list who loves color as much as we do! | <urn:uuid:93fe083a-5b1f-4950-8ab0-dd2a593bbdd7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://colorbuzz.valsparblog.com/2008/12/books-on-color-for-christmas.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918982 | 883 | 1.945313 | 2 |
To Be Like Jesus
This post is grounded in my reading of Paul's letter to Titus this morning. Christians need to know they are secure in the grace of our loving Abba. You and I as children bought by the blood of the Lamb are in a state of grace. Grace does not fluctuate up and down like a thermometer. Rather grace is steady and sure for those in Christ Jesus (Romans 8.1)
Grace, however, does not mock God. The person who claims to love grace seeks to be like Jesus. You see the very reason God has granted us grace is so we can live with him, to have fellowship with him. The goal of grace is not merely the removal of guilt though. The goal of grace is to transform us into the image of his dear Son (2 Cor. 3.18).
Christian life, a grace filled life, aims to reproduce the character of Jesus himself. Christians love and honor their Father. We seek to make him proud. Christians never seek to take advantage of God's grace. No! If we do, we only reveal how little the we appreciate the cost of grace: the death of God's Son and our Brother!
Paul, the apostle of grace, tells us it is grace that is the foundation of all life that looks like Jesus. "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all people. It teaches us to say 'No' to ungodliness and worldly passions . . ." (Titus 2.11-12).
The Christian realizes she is saved by God's grace alone. She realizes she will never be good enough, go to church enough, witness enough to deserve God's grace. In fact only sinners receive God's amazing grace. Yet the Christian also has a burning desire to be like Jesus. We want to be holy. We want to live a life of mercy in service to the poor. We want to be sexually pure. We want to honor our Father for the gift he has given us.
To truly understand grace requires transformation in our hearts. The heart that only obeys God because it "has to" has not yet been penetrated by the leaven of grace. We seek to be like Jesus because we are thankful for the grace we have received at his expense. | <urn:uuid:bce65c68-b075-41b4-8d66-0dd4f61c1ca3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://stoned-campbelldisciple.blogspot.com/2006/08/to-be-like-jesus-this-post-is-grounded.html?showComment=1154908920000 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966387 | 465 | 1.539063 | 2 |
The environmental degradation has been a long time in the making, but the serious ramifications have caught up on us in a relatively short time. We are living at a time when the world is facing the greatest ecological crisis it has ever known.
The straw that breaks the camel's back hasn't fallen yet, and nobody really knows how far away it is. But we do know this: the world is in a very precarious position.
This section is where you can educate yourself on what the environmental degradation and ecological issues that we are facing really are.
The Global Warming Debate Misses The Point
The global warming debate focuses only on the question of whether it is man made or due to natural causes. But regardless of the answer to that question our culture is continuing to ravage the planet. If climate change is man made it is not enough just to prevent the temperature rising. Even if climate change is natural that doesn't excuse the rest of our destructive behaviours.
The human population has been growing exponentially since civilization began. Yet it is only now that is reaching crisis proportions. Not because the Earth can't handle the numbers but because we are killing off other life forms to make room for ourselves. The diversity of the ecosystem is threatened. The more we expand the more environmental degradation occurs.
Food needs good soil in which to grow. However our culture's totalitarian farming methods destroy the quality of the Earth's soil. It takes time for displaced soil to reform itself to a point where it can sustain life again. We are eroding soil faster than it is reforming. At this rate our farms will eventually cease to produce.
Deforestation threatens to turn the world into a desert and take away the all important carbon sink. As we produce more food surpluses and more people the need for living space and resources increases. The health of the planet and the good of the ecosystem is the last thing on the minds of those who raid forests for cash.
A Mass Extinction Is Underway
A human induced mass extinction is currently taking place. Estimates suggest around 200 species per day are being lost. The normal extinction rate is 1 species every 2 days. The last time there was an extinction of this magnitude was when the dinosaurs were wiped out. If this continues the survival of the human species is threatened.
Help spread the word by sharing this page on your favourite social networking sites. Thanks for your help!
Return from Environmental Degradation to Deep Ecology Hub | <urn:uuid:ae146479-64b1-4126-bb16-9de2a224e146> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.deep-ecology-hub.com/environmental-degradation.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946861 | 494 | 3.125 | 3 |
A mail carrier loads a truck to begin his deliveries. / Elaine Thompson, AP
A lawyer's claim that the U.S. Postal Service is immune from state and local traffic regulations has angered traffic officials who are now writing their own version of the post office creed.
"Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night, nor traffic lights stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed routes," writes George Hittner, general counsel for American Traffic Solutions (ATS), who rejected the lawyer's claim.
Jennifer Breslin, senior litigation counsel for the Postal Service, is attempting to get dismissed almost $700 in traffic tickets given to USPS employees in East Cleveland, claiming the service is immune from state and local regulations.
The tickets were received for running red lights in school zones, ATS reports.
"In providing mail service across the country, the Postal Service attempts to work within local and state laws and regulations, when feasible," Breslin wrote in response to a summons for payment. "However, as you are probably aware, the Postal Service enjoys federal immunity from state and local regulation."
The USPS Employee Safety Guide states employees will "receive no special privileges or rights as a postal driver."
David Van Allen, regional spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service, said in an interview that postal employees "are subject to obeying local traffic laws and ordinances just like any other citizen. However, the Postal Service cannot legally be billed for any traffic violation fines incurred by its employees."
He added that there is no legal system in place to transfer liability from the Postal Service to an employee, an issue because these tickets were the result of traffic cameras, not police stops with tickets handed to individuals.
American Traffic Solutions responded saying it was surprised to receive such a letter from USPS and provided a examples where postal workers were held accountable for breaking the law in high-profile cases.
"By attempting to hide behind an immunity claim, you are aiding and abetting your drivers in their blatant disregard for the traffic laws in East Cleveland, which have endangered other drivers, pedestrians and school children," Hittner said in a response to Breslin. "It is disturbing, to say the least, to think that the USPS would not only permit but actually assist its employees to avoid personal responsibility by attempting to shield them with an assertion of USPS immunity rather than transferring liability to them so they can be held personally responsible for their poor driving."
East Cleveland Mayor Gary Norton said he was bewildered by the news.
"I was unaware that the post office doesn't have to stop at red lights or obey the speed limit," he told Cleveland.com. "But since they are, I wish I'd get my mail faster."
Copyright 2013 USATODAY.com
Read the original story: Postal Service lawyer claims immunity from traffic laws | <urn:uuid:d9416a5f-ccf0-4f27-9221-aa121aec7bae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.portclintonnewsherald.com/usatoday/article/1885995?odyssey=mod_sectionstories | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970209 | 582 | 1.5 | 2 |
For the Love of Your Nerd Child
I have a nerd child. He is a monster that I have encouraged. He is inquisitive and hungry for knowledge. He is highly conversational, said his first word at 10 months of age, and never stopped talking. I quit tracking his list of baby words after approximately 15 months of age. Fortunately for him, he has a mama who panders to his knowledge quest. When he asked how rain is formed, I tried to explain in terms of particles. HAH! I didn’t really know the answer, and we were in the car so I tried the best possible answer. I explained that water particles get really excited and move around a lot and they need more room ’cause they’re bumping all around, “dancing”, and they move up into the atmosphere and then condense and fall back down as rain. He was tickled by the “dancing” particles explanation, and I made him “repeat after me, b-r-o-w-n-i-a-n motion.”
We often talk about chemistry, to the best of my biologist-brained ability. Hence, I have been searching for a child-friendly version of the periodic table. While my kids were visiting their father this weekend, I strolled through Barnes and Noble and stumbled upon a great little series of books, each one dedicated to a subject of science. The authors are Simon Basher and Dan Green. The characters and illustrations are whimsical and vibrant, I find them to be enjoyable to read myself! Each book also has a glossy poster, most importantly the Periodic Table book includes a periodic table poster. yay! I purchased Physics, Chemistry, and Periodic Table. If you are in search of material to feed to your nerd-monster, I highly recommend you search this series. | <urn:uuid:3bbded65-a710-4e25-aaec-8fca215dbd93> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fayezie.com/2010/08/09/for-the-love-of-your-nerd-child/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978385 | 388 | 1.632813 | 2 |
People seek shelter at local Red Cross shelters
Posted at: 10/29/2012 11:06 PM
By: Lynette Adams | WHEC.com
Some people have decided to spend the night in Red Cross shelters. Those who live along the lake don't have much choice.
In Webster, a good portion of Lake Road is closed. Heavy winds and rains toppled a huge tree, sending limbs and debris into the road. Peace officers cordoned off the road for the safety of motorists. They were not even letting residents through. The tree fell on power lines, knocking out power for dozens of homes.
Webster Police officers went door to door earlier during the day warning residents about the impending storm and advising them to leave. News10NBC was told not many took heed.
Karen Bingham, Webster Special Police, said, “It's a big area of concern and people need to realize that its better for then to be safe and be inconvenienced for a little while to be able to go home again.We're here all night as needed for whatever the Webster police and the residents need us for.”
RG&E crews were working on the power around 10:00pm. Peace Officers were prepared to evacuate homes. There is a Red Shelter not far away at Webster Recreation Center on Chiyoda Drive. | <urn:uuid:cd19ef19-a287-42b1-a425-7fb58999991a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.whec.com/news/stories/s2816647.shtml?cat=565 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970264 | 273 | 1.640625 | 2 |
PTSD Symptoms, Diagnosis, and Basic Information
By Matthew Tull, PhD, About.com Guide
- PTSD and the Military
- Anxiety Disorders and PTSD
- Other Disorders Associated with PTSD
- PTSD and Physical Health
What is PTSD?
Learn basic information on PTSD, including its symptoms, how it is diagnosed, myths, and how often it is seen in the general population.
- An Overview of PTSD
- The Fight or Flight Syndrome
- How Common is PTSD?
- Racial/Ethnic Differences in the Occurrence of PTSD
Symptoms of PTSD
Many different symptoms make up a PTSD diagnosis. In addition, PTSD can often be associated with other psychological symptoms, such as guilt.
- An Overview of PTSD Symptoms
- The Purpose of Anxiety
- Re-experiencing Symptoms
- Avoidance Symptoms
- Emotional Avoidance
- Emotional Numbing Symptoms
- Guilt and Survivor Guilt
- Hyperarousal Symptoms
- PTSD and the Brain
- The Experience of Anger in PTSD
- Sleep Problems in PTSD
What Causes PTSD?
Learn about the risk factors for and the types of traumatic events that often lead to the development of PTSD.
- An Overview of Traumatic Events Connected to PTSD
- Risk Factors for PTSD
- Reducing Risk for PTSD After a Traumatic Event
- Rates of PTSD Due to Sexual Assault
- Risk Factors For and Consequences of Sexual Assault
- What Symptoms Can Develop After a Rape?
- Rates of PTSD Following the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks
- The Long-Term Effect of the September 11th Terrorist Attacks
- Rates of PTSD in Firefighters
- PTSD From Community Violence
- The Psychological Effects of Hurricane Katrina
- The Effect of Hurricane Katrina among People with Mental Illness
- The Effect of Hurricane Katrina on Children
- The Effect of Hurricane Katrina on Displaced Students
- The Psychological Impact of the 2004 Tsunami
- Preventing School Violence: What Has Been Done Since Columbine
- Anxiety Sensitivity and PTSD
The Diagnosis of PTSD
A number of specific criteria must be met in order to receive a diagnosis of PTSD. Get information here on how a person becomes diagnosed with PTSD.
- How is PTSD Diagnosed?
- The Diagnosis Procedure: What to Expect
- Who Should You Meet With About Your PTSD?
- The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders
PTSD and the Family
PTSD can have a major impact on the family. Get information on how PTSD may influence family members.
- PTSD in Children
- PTSD Among Childhood Cancer Survivors and Their Parents
- The Effect of Trauma on Attachment
- Stress in Children of Iraq War Soldiers
- Risk for PTSD in Children After 9/11
- PTSD and Relationship Violence
PTSD and the Military
PTSD is quite common in military populations. Military soldiers are at heightened risk for PTSD due to combat exposure, and women in the military in particular may be at greater risk for sexual trauma.
- Overview of PTSD in the Military
- Information for Returning Veterans
- Traumatic Brain Injuries and Mental Health Problems in Veterans
- PTSD in Veterans From World War II On
- Consequences of Chronic PTSD in Vietnam Veterans
- PTSD in Veterans of Operation Iraqi and Enduring Freedom
- Vulnerability for PTSD in Veterans
- Military Sexual Trauma
- Military Sexual Trauma and the Iraq War
- Military Sexual Trauma in Men
- PTSD and Anger among Iraq and Afghanistan War Veterans
- Physical Health of Iraq and Afghanistan War Veterans
- The Relationship between a Veteran's Homecoming and Stress
- Smoking in Iraq and Afghanistan War Veterans
- Alcohol Abuse in Veterans
- Suicide in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom Veterans
- Suicide Hotline Just for Veterans
- Resources for Returning Veterans
- The Real Warriors Campaign: A Resource for Veterans
- Pain in OEF/OIF Veterans
Anxiety Disorders and PTSD
Anxiety disorders commonly co-occur with PTSD. Learn more about the rates of anxiety disorders among people with PTSD.
- PTSD and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
- PTSD and Social Anxiety Disorder
- PTSD and Acute Stress Disorder
Other Disorders Associated with PTSD
Besides anxiety disorders, a number of other difficulties often co-occur with PTSD, including depression and substance use disorders. Conditions that are often associated with PTSD are described in more detail here.
- Consequences of PTSD and Borderline Personality Disorder
- PTSD and Borderline Personality Disorder
- PTSD and Deliberate Self-Harm
- PTSD and Impulsive Behaviors
- PTSD and Depression
- PTSD and Dissociative Disorders
- PTSD and Drug and Alcohol Use
- PTSD and Psychotic Symptoms
- PTSD and Smoking
- PTSD and Suicide
- PTSD, Childhood Abuse, and Self-Harm in Adolescents
- PTSD, Trauma, and Eating Disorders
- Substance Use as Self-Medication
- PTSD and Anger
PTSD and Physical Health
People with PTSD have been found to be at greater risk for a number of physical health problems, such as heart disease, diabetes, and HIV/AIDS. Learn more about the role of PTSD in these problems.
- PTSD and Physical Health: An Overview
- PTSD and Diabetes
- PTSD and Heart Disease
- PTSD and HIV/AIDS
- PTSD and Obesity | <urn:uuid:4c5a60da-b7fb-43f0-8435-9212fbc1c19a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ptsd.about.com/od/ptsdbasics/u/PTSD_symptoms_diagnosis.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.902728 | 1,117 | 3.34375 | 3 |
Last night, a friend sent me a draft of the Pledge to America that the House Republicans will be releasing today. It rewards study.
Back in early August, I wrote a lengthy post entitled John Boehner’s Testing Time, arguing in some detail that we live in a critical time in which the ordinary rules of politics do not apply. In ordinary circumstances, we are condemned to a politics focused largely on patronage – in which political struggle revolves around finding the means to satisfy party constituents. In such circumstances, the dynamic I described in Soft Despotism, Democracy’s Drift pertains. Federal subsidies grow and grow, and with them come mandates binding the recipients – local and state governments, corporations, universities, and NGOs – in ways that gradually, steadily eliminate their freedom to maneuver and subvert political liberty.
In critical times – such as the moment in which we now live – it is possible to transcend the politics of patronage and ascend to a politics of principle. This is the imperative that the Tea Party is enforcing. What is needed, I added, is statesmanship – an effort by politicians equipped with a modicum of genius to unite a party around a set of principles. I then suggested that John Boehner and the Republican leadership in the House draft a new Contract with America like the one presented in 1994 by Newt Gingrich but improved in the following way. Newt’s Contract was a laundry list. I suggested that Boehner and his merry men ground their call in America’s first principles.
And that, I am very pleased to say, is what they have done with their Pledge to America. This document has three virtues. It gives the Republicans a platform on which to run in November; it reminds the American people of the manner in which we have departed from the principles enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and embodied in the Constitution, and it binds those elected to act on their pledge.
In politics, as Abraham Lincoln argued, public sentiment is everything. Our task is to reconfigure public sentiment in an enduring fashion by effecting a return to first principles – and that, thank God, is what John Boehner and the Republican leaderships are attempting to do.
SMITH > The GOP's "Pledge to America" | <urn:uuid:2033f589-e766-40a9-a5d7-0605079d1e21> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ricochet.com/main-feed/John-Boehner-Throws-Down-the-Gauntlet/(comment)/29040 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963147 | 452 | 1.648438 | 2 |
See also: IRC log
No regrets heard.
Vojtech: It's like current in for-each and viewport. It's the same type of thing.
Norm: I think you're right.
... I think for p:catch, we should just remove the word "output" which I think was Mohamed's suggestion.
Vojtech: It occurs in two places.
Proposal: Remove "output" from the discussion of the error port where it's an input not an output
<scribe> ACTION: Norm to write an erratum for the incorrect description of "error" as an output port in p:catch [recorded in http://www.w3.org/2011/06/09-xproc-minutes.html#action01]
Henry: I've made no progress yet, hope to have something ready for next week.
Norm: Alex looked at xml:id and XInclude
Alex; Yes. I was able to get xml:id working quite well. It relies on DOM mutation events which work successfully in browsers where its supported.
scribe: Unfortunately, webkit
browsers don't support the mutation events API.
... That's related to XInclude because it talks about maintaining references.
... XInclude itself also works quite well, with the exception that the base URI property isn't used properly in some browsers. But that's just a bug.
... If you programmatically change the base URI by adding/changing the xml:base attribute, that has no effect in some browsers. But it does work in Firefox.
... In some browsers, if you put XHTML script tags in, those scripts run. But in other browsers, e.g. IE9, then they don't. So there's no universal way to start the process.
... It might be possible to do this with extensions, but that's not standard browser behavior.
Alex: Is there anything to note about this in the spec? It should be said that xml:base is supposed to change the base URI.
Norm: Is it worth adding to the spec?
Alex: The browsers do support
xml:base, and HTML5 describes the right behavior, but it's not
clear what happens when you programmatically change the base
... You actually have to find and re-resolve the URIs on the elements.
Murray: Are you suggesting that if you didn't rely on base URIs, that is if you provide the fully qualified URIs, that generally the browsers do what they need to do except for recursive XIncludes?
Alex: No. I'm saying that Firefox
does the right thing. The other browsers I tested don't do the
right thing. But that's a bug and I've filed them.
... And the HTML5 spec says that what Firefox is doing is the right thing.
... What's not supported is programmatically changing the base URI to effect descendent attributes. For example, after an img src has been resolved, changing the base URI on an ancestor won't cause the img src to be recomputed.
Murray: Are there utilities for doing base URI resolution? Like a unix filter that will expand URIs and give you back the fully qualified URIs?
Alex: You could *write* one. There isn't a standard API in the browser to do this.
Norm: XProc has a step to do this.
Alex: Because we have the base
URI property, we can control it. What the host language does is
up to them and should be made clear.
... We should make it clear that the right semantic is that you resolve the URI against the base URI of the element and xml:base controls that.
... There's no magic.
... That's pretty much what the HTML5 spec says.
Further discussion of the behavior of the base URI
Some discussion of what it means, or should mean, to change the xml:base value after a document is ... yeah, is what? parsed? rendered?
<scribe> ACTION: Paul to put the discussion of dynamic changes to xml:base on the XML Core agenda [recorded in http://www.w3.org/2011/06/09-xproc-minutes.html#action02]
Henry: This was background to
Alex's concern in this area. Coming from a completely different
perspective, the members of the team were saying that they need
XInclude functionality without knowing it.
... It was really just as background.
... We'd had this discussion of whether XInclude should be int he profile we're hoping to sell to the browsers.
Murray: Years ago, I imagined a
world where you could use entities to pass along secret
messages. No one would rely in them so they wouldn't show up in
... But every now and then someone would read a document that used an entity to include a secret message.
... That's why I'd like to say something about these things in XProc.
... We need transclusion, we've always needed it. That's why we had entities in SGML. That's why Ted Nelson coined the term.
Some discussion of the future of entities.
Murray: The case that I care about from GRDDL wasn't handled because we didnt have XInclude in our profile.
Alex: That's true, that's part of the reason we got here.
Norm: I think we're trying to get
there. Can we get the browsers to support XInclude, can we do
... These are the sorts of questions we're trying to resolve.
Alex: It's clear that entities are dead in the browser.
More discussion about profiles in general and support for GRDDL
<scribe> ACTION: Norm to include an explicit mention of satisfying the GRDDL faithful rendition property in the appropriate profile [recorded in http://www.w3.org/2011/06/09-xproc-minutes.html#action03]
<Vojtech> Implementing GRDDL in XProc: https://community.emc.com/docs/DOC-10276
Some discussion of f2f meetings: TPAC is it for this year | <urn:uuid:b48a15ef-f9bb-426f-88b5-2f3455deffa1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.w3.org/XML/XProc/2011/06/09-minutes | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931528 | 1,301 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Reviews for Seven Natural Wonders of North America
Booklist Reviews 2009 March #1
Seven Wonders Series JRSS: Central & South America PID 3359627 JRSS: Africa PID 3359718 Copyright 2009 Booklist Reviews.
Booklist Reviews 2009 April #1
"Each book in the Seven Natural Wonders series takes seven noteworthy wonders in a certain area of the world and spotlights them in separate chapters. The text introduces each one from a historical perspective and beautiful color photographs offer inviting views, while maps, sidebars, and featured quotes add variety to the pages. North America takes readers to Dinosaur Provincial Park, Pacific Rim National Park, the redwood forests, Niagara Falls, the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone National Park, and the Paricutín Volcano. Apart from a photo caption that mistakenly identifies the city of Niagara Falls, Ontario, as Toronto, the book appears to be well researched. Back matter includes a time line, glossary, source notes, a selected bibliography, and lists of recommended books and Internet sites. The handsome volumes in this series offer useful information for school reports and an illuminating view of natural wonders worldwide."
Horn Book Guide Reviews 2009 Fall
From the rainforest of Canada's Pacific Rim National Park to the Paricutin volcano site in Mexico, this volume explores wondrous natural places in North America as well as the efforts to preserve them. The information is well organized, and the text is both detailed and accessible. Well-captioned photographs and maps plus relevant quotes and sidebars round out this polished work. Reading list, timeline, websites. Bib., glos., ind. Copyright 2009 Horn Book Guide Reviews.
Library Media Connection Reviews 2009 October
The authors take readers on a breath-taking tour of the worldÆs finest natural wonders. Through engaging text and exquisite photographs, readers experience the flora, fauna, and fantastic features of these global natural wonders. Well-researched and documented, this series provides scientific information about how the wonders formed as well as historical accounts of manÆs first encounters with them. Advice and activities for would-be tourists are highlighted, and readers will be inspired to go and see the real sites for themselves. The narrative is augmented by interesting sidebars, relevant quotes, and well-captioned photos and maps. After their journey, readers are encouraged to research and explore other places in order to choose their own eighth wonder. The books each provide a glossary and pronunciation guide, source notes, bibliography, suggested books and web sites, and a comprehensive index. Libraries need more nonfiction titles like these, which will be useful in both social studies and science classes and suitable for browsing. Highly Recommended. Michelle Glatt, Librarian, Chiddix Junior High School, Normal, Illinois ¬ 2009 Linworth Publishing, Inc.
School Library Journal Reviews 2009 May
Gr 4-7--The writing in these volumes flows, and the information and definitions are easily accessible. The full-color photographs fill the eye with their detail and color as they show the expanse of each area. How these wonders were formed is effortlessly described and often depicted. The aerial view of the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon is a great look at the way a river erodes land. Many entries include historical information and illustrations about the people who have lived near or discovered these wonders. The ancient Egyptians and the British explorer John Speke are included in the Nile River entry (Africa), and Central and South America mentions U.S. pilot James Angel for whom Angel Falls in Venezuela is named and the Pemn people, who have lived in the region for centuries and named the mountain Auyantepui, meaning "Devil's Mountain." The photographs can be exciting--a parachuting jumper leaping from the top of Angel Falls--or shocking--a strip of Amazon rain forest surrounded by bare red soil--but they are always attention-getting. A time line lists events related to each wonder, and readers are invited to select their own Eighth Wonder by using the list of books and Web sites included in the further reading. Great for reports and armchair traveling.--Frances E. Millhouser, formerly at Chantilly Regional Library, Fairfax County, VA [Page 129]. Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.
VOYA Reviews 2009 April
This husband-and-wife team produce fourteen volumes whose series formula is applied with unvarying consistency. Each precisely constructed book contains distinct chapters on seven spectacular natural features to be found in the designated region. The North American wonders in Seven Natural Wonders of North America include attractions such as Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon, as well as national parks such as Yellowstone that have multiple attractions. Six of the seven North American wonders are enduring features which have evolved on a geologic time scale, but one is fixed in historical time: the Mexican volcano Paracutín, which erupted between the years of 1943 and 1952. Six of the chapters of Seven Natural Wonders of Africa concern geographical features, ranging from the wet (Nile River and Victoria Falls) to the very dry Sahara Desert; however, the chapter on mountain gorillas highlights a zoological rather than a geological wonder. The main focus of the series is physical geography, with secondary emphases on biodiversity and human culture, rather like National Geographic magazine Each chapter opens with a full-page color photo and a simple large-scale map on facing pages. Additional glossy color photos (all from commercial stock image suppliers), and brief textual accompaniment follow. The text is geared to middle school readers and is broken up into many short segments and sidebars with large, colored fonts. Each book ends with a standard set of appendixes, including a time line, glossary and pronunciation guide, source notes, selected bibliography, further reading and Web sites, and index. In addition, there is a "Choose an Eighth Wonder" appendix, inviting further research These slender volumes are expensive, and similar content and images are readily available on the Internet and in other print resources. Nevertheless the series, advertised as offering "strong curriculum links to geography standards on places and regions," and aided by its attractive packaging, will be welcome in middle school and public libraries.--Walter Hogan 3Q 3P M J Copyright 2009 Voya Reviews. | <urn:uuid:ee78c145-e1c6-47fb-820b-27cdb5285ec7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sherloc.imcpl.org/enhancedContent.pl?contentType=ReviewDetail&isbn=9780822590699 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914183 | 1,266 | 1.914063 | 2 |
Paul Leonard goes for the dogs
Q: Legal rights for animals, huh? What are we talking about here: court-appointed attorneys for schnauzers who are forced to wear sweater vests? I mean, when I hear "legal rights," I'm picturing the animal as the plaintiff. Is that where we're going?
A: No. We are talking about, either via case law or legislation, redefining the status of animals to something between "property rights" (the current law) and "rights of personhood."
That would allow for the following examples: family courts deciding custody issues, i.e. what is in the best interest of the family pet instead of throwing the dog or cat into the property-division mix; allowing animals to become the beneficiaries of a testator's trust instead of extinguishing the life of a loved animal when the pet-guardian dies; and, recognizing the reality of emotional distress suffered by pet-guardians when the family pet is the victim of someone else's cruelty or destruction, instead of limiting damage awards to the "fair market value" of the "property."
The law needs to recognize that animals are not "owned" by anyone. Ownership of living things was eliminated when we eliminated slavery; animals are God's creatures; they deserve to be adopted by a "pet-guardian."
Q: That's a lot to chew on. Let's start here: "Ownership of living things was eliminated when we eliminated slavery?" Wow. Come on. You can't possibly believe that Lincoln had dogs in mind. I really think you need to back off that. It trivializes slavery.
A: That's not a legal theory. That's my personal view. No living thing, from my personal point of view, "owns" any other living thing. We are merely guardians of God's creatures, just as we are guardians of the environment.
The "slavery reference" was not meant to be communicated as a legal precedent. It was merely a way of making my point -- i.e. no ownership of living things. I don't have the slightest idea what was going through Honest Abe's mind.
Q: Political animal that I am, one thing that occurs to me about your position is that it might divide your natural constituency: pet owners. I would imagine that there are lots of perfectly decent pet owners out there who don't want any outside authority having any more power over how they treat their pets. I could imagine a movement of pet owners going in exactly the opposite direction: let's keep the lawyers and the courts out of this whole realm.
A: Quite the contrary. It is my feeling that most "good" pet-guardians understand that, unfortunately, many pet "owners" are not responsible people. Most also know that Ohio laws to protect animals are seriously lacking.
Many animal-friendly organizations will tell you that Ohio is near the bottom of the list when it comes to protection of animals.
We have a weak felony animal-cruelty law on the books; most prosecutors are not interested in spending time or resources on prosecuting animal neglect and cruelty cases.
We do not have a law on the books, like the one in North Carolina, which allows for private prosecutions in cruelty and neglect cases where the local district attorney is not interested, or does not have the time or resources.
And, all too often, law enforcement persons are not committed to enforcing laws already on the books. They too, will say that these cases are not a priority. But, when you remember that Jeffrey Dahmer began his gruesome tendencies by abusing animals and storing their parts in the refrigerator, these cases ought to be a priority for all police agencies.
Q: But your motivation doesn't really seem to be about a Dahmer situation. It seems to be about the animals themselves. Tell me the lowest sort of offense against an animal that you think should be aggressively prosecuted as a felony. Should people have the right to put "their" animals to rest without government oversight?
A: I believe that physical abuse or neglect of a companion animal should be aggressively prosecuted as a felony. The law should have graduated penalties for repeat offenders.
Plain and simple: abuse a companion animal and go to jail. Too many judges do not consider abuse or neglect of companion animals a serious offense. They should. There are too many studies out there that verify animal abuse as a first step toward family/spousal abuse.
We might be able to save some lives by treating animal abuse more seriously in the legal process.
Q: My guess is that a lot of people would respond by noting that the courts and the police seem to keep pretty busy trying to protect people. Aren't you concerned that your proposal would be time-consuming and expensive? Would a county the size of Montgomery, say, have to set up a special court, or to have days when a certain judge would only work on animal cases?
A: I've certainly heard that argument before. I believe however, that the perception of the extent of an additional caseload is much greater than the reality. The ALDF has a former president of the National District Attorneys Association on the board of directors. Like any other crime, he picks his spots. He looks for an opportunity to send a message. The good news is that these cases tend to get considerable publicity. The abusers usually get the message pretty quick, i.e. this jurisdiction will prosecute abusers.
A few good, high-profile prosecutions can accomplish a lot of good. In the civil area, there has been an explosion of law schools that now teach animal law, and lawyers who are practicing animal law -- more as a matter of principle as opposed to a means to generate income. I am one of those lawyers.
I, too, pick my spots. I'm looking for substantive cases that will change the law. I would argue that justice cannot be a matter of priorities; it has to be a matter of what's right, no matter the cost.
Q: I've been focusing my questions on the criminal side, but you started by talking more about divorce cases. You would, I gather, treat pets essentially like children, and make the issue custody. So, in a dispute, some professional would have to look into the situation and decide who is the more fit "custodian."
A: I do believe that most gains stand to be made in the civil arena. Of course, it will take a little judicial activism. Remember, we do not advocate that companion animals have the same status as children, albeit more and more Americans consider their companion animals as family members.
We just want them treated differently than the family television set. A guardian ad litem would not be necessary. Testimony under oath would be sufficient. The court will have to look at who can best spend the necessary time on the care and upkeep of companion animals; and which party to a divorce will have the financial ability to adequately care and feed their companion animals; and, of course, any evidence of abuse in a marriage should rule out guardianship of a companion animal.
Already, some states are providing for visitation arrangements with companion animals where both parties to a divorce are deemed equally capable to function as a responsible pet guardian.
Q: I suppose some people will wonder how far we are taking this. Goldfish? Or does the concept of "companion animal" rule out certain species?
A: The animal-friendly movement focuses on "companion animals" because that's where we are likely to have the best chance of rallying "political" support. The bond between people and their companion animals (traditionally defined in terms of dogs, cats, and, in some instances, birds) is strongest.
People can relate to their dog, cat or parrot, and, as I have previously said, often see them as something more than just a pet. It is my belief that criminal penalties should attach to all misconduct that fits the classification of neglect and/or cruelty -- no matter what animal we are talking about.
Life is precious. The expansion of legal rights in the civil arena, however, in order to be accepted as reasonable by voters and courts of law, must occur in small steps. Common sense must be the guide in order to avoid the "radical" label with respect to any new case law or statutory law enacted in this area.
Q: Yeah. Seems to me that, more and more, when people think of animal rights activists, they think of people who splash blood on people they don't like, or, at least, of vegetarians. I know you're not a blood-splasher. Are you a vegetarian?
A: No, I am not. I am however, very selective. For example, I would never eat veal because I have seen how young cows are held captive for the purpose of tenderizing the meat.
I will not eat Kentucky Fried Chicken because animal cruelty appears to be an acceptable culture in that corporation. I will not buy Iams products for my dogs because Iams is now owned by Procter & Gamble which has a reputation for engaging in cruel, animal-testing procedures.
I believe that the choice of diet is a personal matter and, in some cases, motivated by one's health concerns.
You don't have to be a vegan or vegetarian to advocate against cruelty and neglect. I am not a hunter either, but I understand the role of hunting in our nation's history, so I do not condemn those who choose to be hunters. In my opinion, however, hunting will never be a sport until the deer can shoot back.
I also find myself rooting for the bull when I see video of bullfights on television.
Q: I'd like to circle back to "judicial activism," since you used the phrase, and it's much in the news. I gather that you're saying that the courts need to start acting differently even if no laws are changed. Right?
A: Yes. Basic animal welfare law is ripe for some judicial activism. Usually, the law is often ahead of public opinion. In this particular area, the law seriously lags behind public opinion and common sense.
Not long ago I had a case in front of the court of appeals where I asked our judges to recognize that there are, in reality, two kinds of property under the law: "inanimate" property (couches and television sets) and "animate" property (animal life).
I argued that appellate court recognition of that common-sense approach to the issue of kinds of "property" would help force the Legislature to address the need for a reasonable expansion of legal rights for "animate property."
Unfortunately, there was an acknowledgement that although my arguments made sense, the court chose not to "make law" and directed me to the Legislature.
In my opinion, we have a better chance of achieving a reasonable expansion of legal rights for animals in the nation's court system. Legislatures are a dead-end.
This is not a politically popular issue with politicians. For the most part, they equate legal rights for animals with radical "tree-hugger" types. Moreover, the constituency that we are fighting for does not line the pockets of Ohio's politicians with money -- although, I have had four-legged clients who pay better than some two-legged clients!
Q: Hmmm. You say you can't build a potent political movement, even though pet owners number in the zillions, and many have their share of disposable income. So you want to use the courts as a back door. I can imagine that posture getting your organization some attention. I can't imagine much approval. Is the goal simply attention?
A: Absolutely not. The goal is progress -- changes in the law, regardless of how that can be achieved. The general belief, at least in our organization -- aldf -- is that the legislative process is slow, tedious, and money-driven.
Justice for animals is likely to be achieved in the courts without engaging in the "pay to play" game that is so much a part of today's legislative process. That is not to say that there are no animal-friendly groups working the halls of Congress and the legislatures. That is not the choice of the Animal Legal Defense Fund.
We are lawyers. We are better prepared to use the courts with the hope that our expertise can be utilized in that venue as opposed to lobbying Congress and the state legislatures.
Q: Last question: I don't know anything about the internal politics of the ALDF, but I'd have to guess that your identity as a former lieutenant governor of Ohio and your experience in the public eye are seen as assets to the organization. Will we be seeing you giving national media interviews and generally playing spokesman?
A: I doubt it. We have just created a "founder's division" so that our founder, Joyce Tischler, who has been the organization's executive director since the 1970s, can be relieved of personnel and management responsibilities, for the purpose of focusing on raising money and being the "voice" of the organization.
During my tenure as board chair, I will be doing some traveling and will focus on meeting with our major donors to emphasize our appreciation, talk about our successes and the challenges ahead, and hopefully raise some additional funds.
I will also assist in establishing animal law courses at American law schools that do not as yet offer courses.
Our goal is to raise a whole new generation of lawyers committed to "rocking the boat" a little, and using the legal system to improve upon animal rights. I have volunteered to teach a course at the first Ohio law school that agrees to add animal law to its curriculum.
We participate in moot court competition at Harvard and sponsor an animal law conference at Yale. I expect to play some kind of role at both of those events. This commitment has been the most rewarding service in my life.
Help feed tens of thousands of rescued animals every day with a simple click, at no cost to you. Visit
Help feed tens of thousands of rescued animals every day with a simple click, at no cost to you. Visit http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com | <urn:uuid:62095ac2-dd3f-4cab-8780-8e733dd70251> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://animalliberationfront.com/Practical/Shop--ToDo/Politics/PaulLeonardforDogs.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971413 | 2,914 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Sixteen counties found to be high risk for lead poisoning
by MBJ Staff
Published: October 11,2011
ACROSS MISSISSIPPI — As part of Lead Poisoning Prevention Month, and the Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH) reports from 2004-2009, approximately 197,917 children were screened for lead poisoning. Of these children 1,640 tested positive.
The children lived in 77 counties, with 16 of these Mississippi counties identified as being high-risk areas for lead poisoning. They are Adams, Coahoma, Forrest, Harrison, Hinds, Holmes, Humphreys, Jones, Lauderdale, Leflore, Pike, Sunflower, Tallahatchie, Warren, Washington and Yazoo.
Anyone can suffer from lead poisoning, but children are especially at risk since their bodies absorb lead more easily than those of adults. Children with lead poisoning represent 0.64 percent of all children under six who received a blood lead test. Even the unborn are at risk because pregnant mothers can pass lead to their growing babies.
Over time, even small amounts of lead can cause serious and permanent health problems such as brain and nervous system damage, lower IQ and learning disabilities, behavior problems and hearing damage. Eventually, high levels of lead in the body can lead to convulsions, comas and death.
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for National Geographic News
Disease outbreaks in humans are likely to increase as global climate change reshapes the world's ecosystems, a recent report suggests.
The report, "Climate Change Futures: Health, Ecological and Economic Dimensions," was jointly issued last month by Harvard Medical School's Center for Health and the Global Environment, reinsurance company Swiss Re, and the United Nations Development Program.
The editors project significant increases in human susceptibility to various diseases and present detailed scenarios for the rapid spread of malaria, West Nile virus, and Lyme disease.
Previous studies of the future affects of warming have predicted dire consequences, such as species loss, coastal flooding, severe weather, and decreased fresh water.
This latest 140-page report offers a highly detailed examination of the impacts warming could have on human health and the associated economic consequences.
Floods and Droughts
According to the report, 3,000 African children die each day from malaria, and climate change is making the disease even more virulent.
Warming raises the biting and reproductive rates of mosquitoes and prolongs the breeding season. Warmer temperatures also shorten the time it takes for malaria parasites inside mosquitoes to reach full maturity.
"Global climate change is not the same all over the globe," said Richard V. Lee, professor of medicine at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Lee was not involved in the study.
Some areas will see increased rainfall, others more droughts, he said.
"We know that the range of mosquito [species] known to carry certain infections like malaria will expand as temperatures and rainfalls vary," he added.
Increased rain usually means increased mosquito breeding sites, although floods can sometimes wash the insects' eggs away.
SOURCES AND RELATED WEB SITES | <urn:uuid:76feb70f-c8ab-48ca-9738-23380f325628> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/12/1202_051202_warming_health.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94032 | 365 | 3.578125 | 4 |
Your NBDE Part I Score
Like Part I, the National Board Dental Examination Part II is scored on a scale of 49-99. A scaled score of 75 or above is considered a passing score. You will receive four individual scores for the subject areas covered, as well as one combined average score. These scaled scores are produced from your raw score (the total number of questions you answered correctly). The scaled scores can be easily converted into percentiles using information received with your score report.
You will receive your score report approximately 6-8 weeks after your exam date. The dean of your dental school will also receive a copy of your scores. Additional copies are available upon written request. | <urn:uuid:16863a02-9963-4933-8e78-e664084e784d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kaptest.com/NBDE/Explore-the-NBDE/NBDE-Part-I/your-score.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959251 | 139 | 1.546875 | 2 |
From a Creighton Student's Perspective
March 26, 2012
Sophomore, Accounting Major Spanish Minor
I think that in general, people do not truly appreciate the sacrifice Mary made to give up her livelihood for a new one. People looked down on her because she was pregnant outside of wedlock. Joseph too gave up his hopes and dreams in order to accept a new lifestyle with the news of Mary’s pregnancy. But because they both were devoted to their faith, they were able to make it through.
We must not be close-minded, and instead should be open to the call of God. While it can be easy to try and plan our lives, that is not how it is supposed to be done. We are supposed to live our lives according to God’s path and be ready to change if God throws a curve ball in our way.
My all-time favorite poem is by a man named Robert Frost entitled The Road Not Taken. It is a very popular poem, and describes how hard it can be to make choices. But when you make a hard choice that may go against the norm it can really make a big difference. I would highly recommend reading it through this poem today. Let us be mindful that each of us has multiple attributes that make us a special instrument of God to the community of believers in this world.
Collaborative Ministry Office Guestbook | <urn:uuid:70df7d04-ae5b-4f9c-868d-8deec8314d04> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/Students/2011-2012%20Reflections/s032612.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973006 | 282 | 2.015625 | 2 |
A ski-modified U.S. Air Force C-47 piloted by Lieutenant Colonel Joseph O. Fletcher of Oklahoma and Lieutenant Colonel William P. Benedict of California becomes the first aircraft to land on the North Pole. A moment later, Fletcher climbed out of the plane and walked to the exact geographic North Pole, probably the first person in history to do so.
In the early 20th century, American explorers Robert Peary and Dr. Frederick Cook, both claiming to have separately reached the North Pole by land, publicly disputed each other's claims. In 1911, Congress formally recognized Peary's claim. In recent years, further studies of the conflicting claims suggest that neither expedition reached the exact North Pole, but that Peary came far closer, falling perhaps 30 miles short. In 1952, Lieutenant Colonel Fletcher was the first person to undisputedly stand on the North Pole. Standing alongside Fletcher on the top of the world was Dr. Albert P. Crary, a scientist who in 1961 traveled to the South Pole by motorized vehicle, becoming the first person in history to have stood on both poles. | <urn:uuid:7ff3b41f-7ea7-4817-ba0d-08177f145876> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/fletcher-lands-on-the-north-pole | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957772 | 222 | 4.15625 | 4 |
Crowd Management and Civil Disobedience
by Sue Basko
Back in 2003, police in some major California counties and cities used this manual to learn how to respond to civil disobedience (an unlawful event with a demonstration), unlawful assemblies, and riots. The booklet is a little old, but it is still useful to see how these things are planned. Actually, this is golden, and anyone planning to run or participate in a big protest in California should read it.
Topics include chemical agents, dispersal orders, and use of force. The booklet also gives a very comprehensive list of Penal Code sections that are often used in crowd or riot situations, which includes the now infamous Lynching section.
Needless to say but I am saying it anyway, recent video out of the Oakland and San Francisco areas show police whacking people with bully clubs just because they can, and firing weapons at people who are standing around doing nothing. Someone sign them up for a course in crowd management, please. The West Coast is starting to look way too much like a scene out of a despot-run nation.
Protesters should also learn from these booklets that if they want to avoid turning demonstrations into meaningless "police vs protesters"dramas, they can actually conduct protests in such a way that they follow the law. Imagine that! Being peaceful and law-abiding does not give the same adrenaline rush as starting things on fire or laying down in traffic, but it might be more effective protest. It is normal boring people who are usually in positions of power to change things, so you may want to appeal to their sensibilities.
For more information about what police do in protest situations, please see:
Anonymous vs PERF, where you can download the PERF report.
This gives useful information on police best practices nationwide.
Oakland Police Crowd Dispersal Policy - This is a gem!
Detailed, comprehensive, well-written. A must-read for the protest planner. | <urn:uuid:a9199cd0-c02a-458b-ac83-9d8dec24841a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://occupylosangeles.org/?q=node/4727&page=7 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949531 | 402 | 1.789063 | 2 |
The Science Center is located at 2370 West Main Street in El Centro, Ca. Our office hours are from 7:30am to 4:00pm Phone: 760-353-2860 Fax: 760-352-6429
They are returning!!!
Two more El Centro Schools will enjoy the Mobile Learning Center
Wyland Foundation’s Clean Water Exhibit on Wheels Teaches Students Throughout the Nation that “Every Drop Counts”
The Wyland Foundation Mobile Learning Center (MLC) will be visiting two ECESD schools in 2013. Harding elementary will host the MLC on Wednesday, May 28th, and Lincoln will host on Thursday May 29th.
The Wyland Clean Water Mobile Learning Center is a 1,000-square foot, bio-diesel/solar powered exhibit on wheels that was designed by a unique team of educators, scientists, and conservationists representing top public, private, and non-profit organizations around the country to enlighten and teach the importance of conserving and respecting our precious water resources. Over 80 feet long and weighing 80 thousand pounds, it features a 40-person theatre with special effects, a running river, computer model simulations of lake regions, video microscopes and an urban watershed model (that actually rains!). Students will engage, play and experiment as they learn about river management estuaries, ocean runoff, environmental conservation and more.
What a great opportunity! Many thanks to the Wyland foundation!
Time Warner Cable and El Centro Elementary School District teamed up for the Connect a Million Minds project. See it all here!
A great big "THANK YOU" goes out to the Synopsys Outreach Foundation for their wonderfully generous donation of presentation boards to be used by our students when presenting their various Science Projects. Your support is greatly appreciated! | <urn:uuid:027e821e-9a8b-4c22-ad95-ddd708aa0b19> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ecesd.org/education/dept/dept.php?sectionid=325 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919538 | 374 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Sunday, the slightly less leftist Social Democrats wrenched control of the Iberian nation’s government from the ruling party. Caretaker Prime Minister José Sócrates conceded defeat Sunday in Portugal’s legislative elections and said he was resigning as Socialist Party leader. Observers attribute the “emphatic” victory of the Social Democrats over the Socialists to the electorate’s recognition (and reluctant acceptance) of the “grinding austerity program” mandated as part of the $114 billion bailout of that nation’s economy.
Monday, 06 June 2011 15:00
Socialists Out in Portugal; Austerity Measures InWritten by Joe Wolverton, II, J.D.
The bells pealing in the 800-year-old Lisbon Cathedral may have tolled the end (temporarily) of the Socialists Party's’ hold on the government of Portugal.
Though the requirement that the government tighten its belt will not be easy for a country whose citizens are addicted to legislative largesse, the belief that imposition of the fiscal proscriptions will improve the long-term prognosis for “one of western Europe’s poorest countries” was enough to propel the coterie of pro-austerity Portuguese political parties to victory, garnering about 80 percent of the vote.
Published election results reveal that the Social Democratic Party saw 105 of its members elected to the 230-seat Parliament. The Socialist Party placed with 73 seats. That works out to about 39 percent of the vote for the Social Democrats and 28 percent for the now-deposed Socialists.
Although hamstrung by a mere plurality, the Social Democratic Party will likely receive support for its economic policies from the Popular Party, a small group that won 24 seats in Sunday’s election.
The parliamentary partnership is described by the AP:
Together, the traditional allies have more than half the places in the new Parliament, allowing them a majority that provides a free run to introduce the laws and measures they want, though some measures may require constitutional changes that would take an extended period to adopt.
In light of the resignation of the Socialists’ leader, José Sócrates, the head of the Social Democrats, Pedro Passos Coelho, is expected to step into that role. Coehlo told the Associated Press that his government "will do everything in its power to overcome the great difficulties we face and also provide assurances that [Portugal] won't be a financial burden" on the already overburdened continent. He assured the throng of supporters gathered in Lisbon to celebrate the victory that he and his colleagues would work tirelessly to improve Portugal’s economic health, “restore market confidence,” and open a “window of hope” for his nation.
There is little doubt that the other 16 countries in the so-called “euro zone” are relieved to hear such optimistic talk from Lisbon’s newly elected leadership. The bloc is slouching toward the economic abyss as one after the other participant nation files for relief from the stultifying effects of decades of socialist, statist welfare programs.
Passos Coelho, the son of a doctor raised in the former Portuguese colony of Angola, is expected to serve as Prime Minister for four years. Prior to occupying that post, he has declared his intent to form a formidable coalition government, composed of parties committed to rescuing Portugal from crumbling under the weight of years of fiscal malfeasance.
Given the hypothesis forwarded by European media that the necessity of instituting the “austerity measures” demanded by the IMF and Europe in the terms of its propping up of the nation, it is remarkable that the ousted Socialists have “given their blessing to the debt-reduction conditions for receiving the bailout.” Perhaps this is a death-bed conversion to cost-cutting, but it seems that there are are likely other factors in the electoral equation that are as yet unknown or unreported.
As for the specific plan proposed by the Social Democrats, they intend to introduce 200 measures designed to stave off bankruptcy. These proposals include the intent to increase taxes, cut welfare payments, and remove the nearly impenetrable barriers protecting government workers that are common to other nations (Greece and Ireland) that have sought salvation from their euro-zone companions. This includes the ability to hire and fire government and union workers and decrease the collective bargaining power wielded by these powerful groups.
In what could be viewed as a cautionary tale for the United States where the Federal Reserve has created a sort of “euro zone” out of the 50 sovereign states, Coelho and his partisans will be hard pressed to breathe life into a country that has pursued a collective lifestyle of largesse and borrowing that has resulted in its need for intensive care.
Evidence of the economic distress includes an unemployment rate of 12.6 percent. Furthermore, the gross domestic product is predicted to shrink by at least four percent over the next two years.
As for its European creditors, they insist that if presented with any credible evidence that Portugal is violating the terms of the bailout agreement, they will not hesitate to deem the contract void and rescind their financing.
According to the terms of the agreement, Portugal committed to enacting the following programs:
1. a cut in the public sector wage bill by freezing wages and limiting job promotion
2. an increase in sales tax on items such as cars and tobacco
3. the privatization of stakes in national energy companies and the sale of national airline TAP Air Portugal
4. the reduction of the most generous state pensions and the freezing of others
5. a cut in the maximum length unemployment benefit can be paid to 18 months, from three years.
Not surprisingly, there is one political party that adamantly opposes the accession to these terms. The Portuguese Communist Party has “fought against the bailout demands but could potentially support the Socialists in Parliament against a right-of-center coalition.”
The contradictions and shifting alliances among these parties reveal that the bailout has less to do with partisan politics than with a programmed placement of an economic noose around the necks of all nations. The hand on the lever of this gallows is not socialist, communist, or conservative, but collectivist and globalist.
The AP reports that:
The Bank of Portugal has predicted that economic hardship will be "particularly severe" in coming years, with an "unprecedented" drop in family income.
Over the past decade Portugal recorded average annual growth below 1 percent. It took advantage of cheap loans as a member of the 17-nation eurozone to build up debt, which financed its western European lifestyle of welfare entitlements and job security.
While one by one the welfare states of Europe are forced to their knees to beg for relief from international bankers, there seems to be very little heed paid by Americans or their elected representatives to the steps being taken by our own Republic down the same path of economic servitude.
Photo of José Sócrates: AP Images
Login to post comments | <urn:uuid:749e932c-0d23-46ae-94b1-a40767ae0118> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thenewamerican.com/world-news/europe/item/8760-socialists-out-in-portugal-austerity-measures-in | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959685 | 1,456 | 1.578125 | 2 |
The Changing Face of the Police and the Death of the Fourth Amendment
by John W. Whitehead
by John W. Whitehead: Renewing
the Patriot Act: Who Will Protect Us From Our Government?
one of the most essential branches of English liberty is the freedom
of one’s house. A man’s house is his castle; and while he is quiet,
he is as well guarded as a prince in his castle. This writ, if it
should be declared legal, would totally annihilate this privilege.
Customhouse officers may enter our houses when they please; we are
commanded to permit their entry. Their menial servants may enter,
may break locks, bars, and everything in their way; and whether
they break through malice or revenge, no man, no court can inquire.
Bare suspicion without oath is sufficient."
~ James Otis
In early America,
citizens were considered equals with law enforcement officials.
Authorities were rarely permitted to enter one’s home without permission
or in a deceitful manner. And it was not uncommon for police officers
to be held personally liable for trespass when they wrongfully invaded
a citizen’s home. Unlike today, early Americans could resist arrest
when a police officer tried to restrain them without proper justification
or a warrant – which the police had to allow citizens to read before
arresting them. (Daring to dispute a warrant with a police official
today who is armed with high-tech military weapons and tasers would
be nothing short of suicidal.) This clear demand for a right to
privacy was not a byproduct of simpler times. Much like today, early
Americans dealt with problems such as petty thievery, murder and
attacks by foreign enemies. Rather, the demand for privacy stemmed
from a harbored suspicion of law enforcement officials and the unbridled
discretion they could abuse.
Amendment, which assures that "the right of the people
to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against
unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated,"
was included in the Bill of Rights in response to the oppressive
way British soldiers treated American colonists through their use
of "Writs of Assistance." These were court orders that
authorized British agents to conduct general searches of premises
for contraband. The exact nature of the materials being sought did
not have to be detailed, nor did their locations. The powerful new
court orders enabled government officials to inspect not only shops
and warehouses, but also private homes. These searches resulted
in the violation of many of the colonists’ rights and the
destruction of much of the colonists’ personal property. It quickly
became apparent to many colonists that their homes were no longer
patriot James Otis was Advocate-General when the legality of these
warrants came under question by the colonists. Called upon to defend
that legality, he promptly resigned his office. After living
through an age of oppressive policies under the British empire,
those of the founding generation, such as Otis, wanted to ensure
that Americans would never have to face intrusive government measures
forward 250 years and we seem to be right back where we started,
living in an era of oppressive government policies and a militarized
police whose unauthorized, forceful intrusions into our homes and
our lives have been increasingly condoned by the courts. In
fact, although the Fourth Amendment’s protections against unreasonable
searches and seizures go far beyond an actual police search of your
home, as I detail in my commentary, "Renewing the Patriot Act:
Who Will Protect Us from Our Government?" the passage of the
USA Patriot Act opened the door to other kinds of invasions, especially
unwarranted electronic intrusions into your most personal and private
transactions, including phone, mail, computer and medical records.
When added to this list of abuses, two recent court decisions –
one from the U.S. Supreme Court and the other from the Indiana Supreme
Court – both handed down in the same week, sound the death knell
for our Fourth Amendment rights.
In an 8-1 ruling
in Kentucky v. King, the U.S. Supreme Court effectively decimated
the Fourth Amendment by giving police more leeway to break into
homes or apartments without a warrant when in search of illegal
drugs which they suspect might be destroyed if notice were given.
In this particular case, police officers in pursuit of a suspect
they had seen engage in a drug deal in a parking lot followed him
into an apartment complex. Once there, the police followed the smell
of burning marijuana to an apartment where, after knocking and announcing
themselves, they promptly kicked the door in – allegedly on the
pretext that evidence of drugs might be destroyed. Despite the fact
that it turned out to be the wrong suspect, the wrong
apartment and a violation of every tenet that stands between us
and a police state, the Court sanctioned the warrantless raid, saying
that police had acted lawfully and that was all that mattered. Yet
as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the lone voice of dissent among
the justices, remarked, "How ‘secure’ do our homes remain if
police, armed with no warrant, can pound on doors at will and ...
In the second
case, the Indiana Supreme Court actually stepped beyond the constitutional
parameters of the case before them to broadly rule in Barnes
v. State that people don’t have the right to resist police officers
who enter their homes illegally. The court rationalized their 3-2
ruling legitimizing any unlawful police entry into a home as a "public
policy" decision. On its face, the case itself is relatively
straightforward: An Indiana woman called 911 during an argument
with her husband. When the police arrived, the man blocked and then
shoved an officer who tried to enter his home without a warrant.
Despite the fact that the wife told police her husband hadn’t hit
her, the man was shocked with a stun gun and arrested. Insisting
that it would be safer for all concerned to let police proceed even
with an illegal action and sort it out later in court with
a civil lawsuit, the court held that residents can’t resist police
who enter their home – whatever the reason. The problem, of course,
is that anything short of complete and utter acquiescence and compliance
constitutes resistance. Thus, even the supposedly protected act
of free speech – a simple "Wait, this is my home. What’s this
about?" – constitutes resistance.
Many are understandably
up in arms about these decisions, but the courts are not really
introducing anything new into our lives – they are merely reflecting
and reinforcing the reality of the age in which we live, and that
is one in which the citizen is subordinate to government and what
the "state" – be it the police, the schools or local or
federal agents – says goes.
While the courts
have been guilty of reinforcing this paradigm of abject compliance
to the state, it is also being taught in the schools, through zero
tolerance policies that punish all offenses equally and result in
young people being expelled for childish behavior. School districts
are increasingly teaming with law enforcement to create what some
are calling the "schoolhouse to jailhouse track" by imposing
a "double dose" of punishment: suspension or expulsion
from school, accompanied by an arrest by the police and a trip to
juvenile court. In this way, having failed to learn much in the
way of civic education and/or the Bill of Rights while in school,
young people are being browbeaten into believing that they have
no true rights and government authorities have total power and can
violate constitutional rights whenever they see fit.
average citizen really is helpless in the face of police equipped
with an array of weapons, including tasers, etc. The increasing
militarization of the police, the use of sophisticated weaponry
against Americans and the government’s increasing tendency to employ
military personnel domestically have taken a toll on more than just
our freedoms. They have seeped into our subconscious awareness of
life as we know it and colored our very understanding of freedom,
justice and democracy.
The role of
law enforcement, especially local police officers, has drastically
changed from when I was a child in the 1950s. The friendly local
sheriff in The
Andy Griffith Show has been shelved for the federal gun-toting
terrorist killers in popular television shows and movies. Some might
insist that the new face of law enforcement is warranted as a sign
of the times in which we live. Whereas we once feared nuclear attack
by Communist Russia, we now fear each other and the predators that
lurk in our midst – serial killers, drug pushers, home-grown and
imported terrorists, sexual perverts who prey on small children,
the list goes on. One thing is undeniable: armed police officers
have become a force to be reckoned with. And it’s not just local
law enforcement. As the federalization of law enforcement continues
to grow, more and more federal agents are armed. In fact, federal
agencies employ more than 100,000 full-time personnel authorized
to make arrests and carry firearms.
agencies such as the FBI are only a small portion of the armed federal
personnel. It seems as if almost everyone – from postal agents,
the Internal Revenue Service, the National Park Service and the
Environmental Protection Agency to agents of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service and the Army Corps of Engineers – is now carrying deadly
weapons. For instance, in Virginia, game wardens have been renamed
"conservation police officers" in an effort to clarify
their role as sworn law enforcement officers who are armed and able
to make arrests.
At all levels
(federal, local and state), through the use of fusion centers, information
sharing with the national intelligence agencies, and monetary grants
for weapons and training, the government and the police have joined
forces. In the process, the police have become a "standing"
or permanent army, one composed of full-time professional soldiers
who do not disband, which is exactly what the Founders feared. Those
who drafted the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights had an enormous
distrust of permanent armies. They knew that despotic governments
have used standing armies to control the people and impose tyranny.
James Madison, in a speech before the Constitutional Convention
in the summer of 1789, proclaimed: "A standing military force,
with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to
liberty. The means of defence against foreign danger, have been
always the instruments of tyranny at home." As predicted, these
very same "instruments of tyranny" are now often being
used to wage war against the American people. Thus, it would seem
that we have become the enemy.
In appearance, weapons and attitude, local law enforcement agencies
are increasingly being transformed into civilian branches of the
military. One clear distinction between local police and military
forces used to be the kinds of weapons at their disposal. With the
advent of modern police weaponry, that is no longer the case. Americans
would do well to remember that modern police weaponry was introduced
with a government guarantee of safety for the citizens. Police tasers,
stun guns and rubber bullets were brought into use by police departments
across America supposedly because these "non-lethal" weapons
would be safe. But the "non-lethal" label seems to have
caused police to feel justified in using these dangerous instruments
much more often and with less restraint – even against women and
children, and with some even causing death.
guns and rubber bullets might very well seem relatively harmless
in comparison to the arsenal of weapons now available to local law
enforcement, especially paramilitary units like Special Weapons
and Tactics, or SWAT, teams. Standard SWAT team weaponry includes
battering rams, ballistic shields, "flashbang" grenades,
smoke grenades, pepper spray and tear gas. Many squads are also
ferried to raid sites by military-issue armored personnel carriers.
Some units even have helicopters, while others boast grenade launchers,
tanks (with and without gun turrets), rappelling equipment and bayonets.
Then came the
"no-knock" raids. At first, no-knock raids were generally
employed only in situations where innocent lives were determined
to be at imminent risk. That changed in the early 1980s, when a
dramatic and unsettling rise in the use of these paramilitary units
in routine police work resulted in a militarization of American
civilian law enforcement. The government’s so-called "war on
drugs" also spurred a significant rise in the use of SWAT teams
for raids. In some jurisdictions, drug warrants are only served
by SWAT teams or similar paramilitary units and oftentimes are executed
with forced, unannounced entry into the home. Approximately 40,000
"no-knock raids are carried out each year, usually conducted
by teams of heavily armed paramilitary units dressed not as police
officers but as soldiers prepared for war. But as one retired police
officer warns: "One tends to throw caution to the wind when
wearing ‘commando-chic’ regalia, a bulletproof vest with the word
‘POLICE’ emblazoned on both sides, and when one is armed with high
has changed. And with that change, the way the government views
us, the way we view one another and the way we view and are viewed
by law enforcement have undergone dramatic transformations. We have
succeeded in forfeiting one of the principles that has been a hallmark
of American democracy – the idea that every person is innocent until
proven guilty. This is such a simple concept, yet it undergirds
some of our Constitution’s greatest protections, such as the right
to an attorney and a fair hearing, protection from unreasonable
searches and seizures and the right to privacy, among others.
We have also
witnessed a sea change in the way law enforcement views its role,
from one that considered itself a servant to the people to one that
sees itself as the long arm of an increasingly authoritarian government.
Where law enforcement officials once looked to us as their employers,
we now too often look to them as our wardens and jailers, as something
to fear – a notion they encourage. This mindset has been displayed
at SWAT team conventions held across the country. As one former
police chief said about a convention he attended: "Officers
at the conference were wearing these very disturbing shirts. On
the front, there were pictures of SWAT officers dressed in dark
uniforms, wearing helmets, and holding submachine guns. Below was
written: ‘We don’t do drive-by shootings.’ On the back, there was
a picture of a demolished house. Below was written: ‘We stop.’"
SWAT magazine also abounds in ads featuring soldiers in full
military garb and features articles such as "Polite, Professional,
and Prepared to Kill."
once there was a decided difference between the police and the military
and their uses domestically, that line continues to be not only
blurred but, when crossed, is actually sanctioned by the courts.
But the fact remains that the American police force is not
a branch of the military, nor is it a private security force for
the reigning political faction. It is an aggregation of the countless
local units that exist for a sole purpose: to serve and protect
the citizens of each and every American community.
militarization of the police did not occur suddenly, in a single
precinct. Nor can it be traced back to a single leader or event.
Rather, the pattern is so subtle that most American citizens have
hardly been aware of it. Little by little, police authority has
expanded, one weapon after another has been added to the police
arsenal, and one exception after another has been made to the standards
that have historically restrained police authority. Yet when analyzed
as a whole, this trend toward militarization is undeniable, and
when left unchecked, it amounts to nothing less than the end of
attorney and author John W. Whitehead [send
him mail] is founder and president of The
Rutherford Institute. He is the author of The
Change Manifesto (Sourcebooks).
© 2011 The Rutherford Institute
Best of John W. Whitehead | <urn:uuid:0e4987ef-4973-42e2-9457-1f406c676b96> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lewrockwell.com/whitehead/whitehead31.1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953575 | 3,525 | 2.859375 | 3 |
As we mention in our book, times were tough during the economic crises of the 70s, yet those conditions often sparked intense bursts of creativity. The fears raised by the ecology lobby about the world’s dwindling resources, compounded by the 1973 oil crisis, inspired designers to recycle inexpensive industrial materials in the home – a movement called high-tech. And the DIY way that punks created music and clothing cheaply out of any equipment or materials at their disposal thrived during the mid-1970s recession.
Punkettes in London shop Boy work the DIY look (© Sheila Rock)
Punk had much in common with Fluxus, a movement founded in New York in 1961 that made art out of discarded, throwaway materials. Its multidisciplinary approach, encompassing art, dance, film and music, helped to foster a cross-disciplinary art movement that thrived in run-down, recession-hit downtown Manhattan in the 70s.
Three of its prime movers – performance artist and composer Laurie Anderson, choreographer Trisha Brown and the late artist Gordon Matta-Clark – are the subject of the Barbican’s latest show, Laurie Anderson, Trisha Brown, Gordon Matta-Clark: Pioneers of the Downtown Scene, New York 1970s. Exploring their milieu in New York at a dismally low point in its history – the city was on the brink of bankruptcy, with high rates of crime and unemployment – it will show about 160 works including sculptures, drawings, films, live performances, posters and ephemera.
Why put on this show now? “With the UK going through the recession, people today are interested in the parallels between then and now,” says curator Lydia Yee. “The art produced in New York provides a welcome alternative to the overblown, glossy production values of the past decade – the art of Jeff Koons and Takashi Murakami.”
Frequently ephemeral, site-specific and collaboratively created, the downtown artists’ work differed from the recent pop art and minimalist movements, which favoured mechanical processes to make permanent pieces that could be sold in galleries. Broadly speaking, the community valued ideas and the exploration of creative processes over polished objects.
Laurie Anderson, circa 1978 (courtesy of the artist and Sean Kelly Gallery, New York © Laurie Anderson)
The early 1970s work of Anderson, who moved to New York in 1966, typified this multimedia approach. She moved restlessly between photography, text, sound and street performances engaging with the public. “My art wasn’t about hiding away in a studio,” she remembers. The Barbican will display her photographically recorded project, “Institutional Dream Series” (1972), which saw her sleep in public spaces, then record the location’s effect on her dreams.
Anderson remembers New York then as “dark, dangerous and broke” yet exhilarating: “It was like Paris in the 20s. I was part of a group of artists who worked on each other’s pieces, and boundaries between art forms were loose.”
The district south of Houston Street, soon nicknamed SoHo, had been zoned for manufacturing but factories had been moving out since the 1940s. The artists who colonised it took advantage of working and living in its disused factories for a very low rent, exhibiting work informally in these raw spaces.
Trisha Brown, Roof Piece, 1973 (courtesy Broadway 1602, New York © Babette Mangolte)
By the early 70s, Trisha Brown was a respected performance artist, having studied under the legendary Merce Cunningham. She dispensed with a stage, often performing on rooftops and car parks. She used untrained and trained dancers, invited audiences to participate and encouraged improvisation. In her topsy-turvy world, works appeared to defy gravity: in “Walking on the Wall” (1971), dancers (rigged to a track in the ceiling) pace along a wall as if it were the floor. This will be re-enacted by dancers in the Barbican’s lower-level, double-height gallery, which, says Yee, “echoes the scale of SoHo’s lofts”.“I was inventing choreography outside any existing system or venues for presenting it at that time,” recalls Brown. “SoHo’s urban landscape was ready-made for this.”
Gordon Matta-Clark, Open House, 1972 (courtesy Jane Crawford © Estate of Cosmos Andrew Sarchiapone)
Matta-Clark, who studied architecture, is regarded as the ringleader of this scene and many believe it died when he did, in 1978. In 1969, he had designed and built one of the area’s first alternative arts spaces, 98 Greene Street, for art collectors Holly and Horace Solomon. His own dramatic architectural interventions, which entailed cutting parts out of buildings, were political. They highlighted the “imprisonment” of the poor inside New York’s soulless “urban and suburban boxes” and reflected his desire to break down social and economic barriers. The most ambitious, entitled “Splitting” (1974), saw him bisect an entire building. A film of this will be screened at the Barbican.
The early 70s in the US were a time of highly organised political activism. Even so, according to Anderson, most downtown artists weren’t especially political. “We’d protested in the 60s. By the 70s the political beliefs of the counterculture were a given, we’d internalised them.”
But 1960s activism had bred certain attitudes: generosity, anti-materialism and a strong sense of communality. “There was huge camaraderie,” explains Anderson. “We helped each other with plumbing, hanging our shows or lending stuff like videotapes. We had no interest in money and thought those who did were idiots. It was a completely different world.”
Artist Derek Jarman was a pioneer of loft-living in London (estate of Derek Jarman, courtesy K Collins)
However, some believe the downtown scene is similar to today’s art communities in Brooklyn except that, as art historian RoseLee Goldberg, an original member of the downtown scene, says: “They’re paying $3,000 a month, we were paying $200.”
Laurie Anderson, Trisha Brown, Gordon Matta-Clark: Pioneers of the Downtown Scene, New York 1970s runs from March 3 to May 22 at the Barbican Centre, London | <urn:uuid:68190f25-5710-44d4-937b-123d45a2e257> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://flashinonthe70s.wordpress.com/page/2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967553 | 1,397 | 2.328125 | 2 |
Red River holding steady in Wahpeton-BreckenridgeWahpeton, ND (WDAY TV) - People in Wahpeton - Breckenridge are breathing a sigh of relief as the Red River crest isn't causing much concern. But with a lot of water south and a second crest looming later this month, city leaders aren't just sitting idle.
By: Travis Skonseng, WDAY
The Red River here in the Twin Towns is holding steady tonight, as you can see by the ruler. It shows the Red at about 15.7 feet. People here remain cautiously optimistic.
Homeowner John Viebrock looks around his Breckenridge backyard. He's happy the crest has come.
JOHN VIEBROCK – Homeowner: “We really didn't get a sudden fast crest which is not a lot of fun you know living in this town.”
But by no means is it gone. If the Red River goes much higher in the days ahead, crews may have to build a levee on his property. The posts show where it might go.
“If they have to do it, they have to do it.”
“There are a lot of scenarios, but at this point very comfortable. It's a good fight.”
Breckenridge has built up most of its permanent levees to 22.5 feet, but there are still low spots. In Wahpeton, crews are monitoring a second crest.
“There's a little anxiety.”
The city may need to add clay to only one mile of levee, near the golf course.
“The volume of water moving through town right now is impressive.”
Plenty of sandbags are ready to go. In fact, Wahpeton only has one spot near the Kidder Recreational Area with sandbags. The city has three thousand on hand, Breckenridge 15 thousand.
“We continue to be vigilant. The longer the water stays at that elevated level, the more propensity there is for something to go wrong.”
“Unless we get one deluge of rain, which would be four to five inches covering the whole area, that would give me concern.”
Homeowners like Viebrock are holding out hope for the best, but of course, preparing for the worst. Like years past.
“Yeah we've been fortunate.”
Police are patrolling these bridges every hour, looking for any jams. If the Red goes to 16 feet, volunteer firefighters would team up to patrol dikes. Crews may start positioning equipment just to be safe. | <urn:uuid:d6158f65-7d83-4d45-b6f7-d1a4f735c15d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wday.com/event/article/id/45744/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965804 | 551 | 1.75 | 2 |
May 14, 2010 | 10
As store-based distribution of genetic health tests remains stalled pending federal review, genetic ancestry tests are also drawing widespread concern from experts.
A task force report commissioned by the American Society for Human Genetics and led by Charmaine Royal of the Institute for Genomic Sciences & Policy at Duke University has called for better research and reporting in both academic and public genetic ancestry tests.
Some 40 companies currently offer personal genetic ancestry tests, but results and interpretations are troublingly variable, the task force found. "The very concept of ‘ancestry’ is subject to misunderstanding in both the general and scientific communities," the task force members wrote.
Scientists who research population histories have trouble sorting out definitive answers about geographic origins and ancient migrations—and they generally work with larger, more statistically weighty samples rather than with data from a single individual. Although databases of reference genetic sequences are growing rapidly, many of the major studies have been done from the Human Genetic Diversity Panel, with only about 1,100 genetic samples from across the globe, which means that even much of the vetted academic work on human ancestry is still far from conclusive.
For most individuals, genetic ancestry tests hold the promise of pinpointing where their ancestors came from. Unfortunately, science has not yet caught up to this expected—and sometimes promised—level of precision. The estimates of geographic ancestral origins are based on basal "ancestral" populations from, for instance, Northern Europe, Asia, Africa or North America. However, as the task force report authors pointed out, most of these genetic population maps are actually based on best estimates of original populations, because "we do not have the ability to sample ancestral populations." Instead, proxy populations have been used, including the Yoruba people of western Africa to represent most African-American ancestry. So even if an individual’s ancestors did hail from somewhere in western Africa, if their particular lineage (as captured in their sample) does not match up with reference sequences, some tests will turn up with no family tie.
The variety of testing methods—based on mtDNA, Y chromosome markers and autosomal DNA variants—and analyses can produce results with vastly different interpretations. Scans for haploid genetic markers can indicate a common paternal ancestor, but "they reflect only a fraction of any person’s total genetic ancestry," the authors noted. And even autosomal marker scans, which "represent a much greater proportion of genome history," still miss large portions of ancestral code because as ancestors become more distant, fewer of their genetic indicators remain, decreasing the odds that they will be found in a DNA test, Royal and colleagues reported.
With all of these big unknowns, even with the best statistics, "rarely can definitive conclusions about ancestry be made beyond the assessment of whether putative close relatives are or are not related," such as in a paternity test. So any link to specific historical figures uncovered by genetic ancestry testing, whether it is Queen Elizabeth I or Ghengis Khan, is "merely speculative."
Margin of error and statistical uncertainty are expected and usually accounted for in assessing results in an academic setting. But for results on an individual ancestry test, "interpretation often is key," the report authors noted, "because the information that is presented might have direct psychosocial and other implications for the individual." Individual and even political decisions (such as claiming rights to heritage or even citizenship) are increasingly based on genetic ancestry findings, but legal precedents have yet to be consistent in interpreting these results. The task force called for greater standardization in analysis methods but also in reporting, so that ancestry results would be delivered—and perhaps interpreted—with the proper amount of essential uncertainty.
As sales of genetic tests for health and medical profiles in brick-and-mortar stores remain in limbo pending review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, both those tests and genetic ancestry tests remain available for the public to purchase online.
The report authors were confident, however, that the field would continue to grow in both popular participation and scientific significance, making an impact on how people view ancestry, geography and race. It could eventually "dispel the notion of race in humans." Or it could just prompt more people to ask their doctors what their newfound ancestral identities mean for their chances of getting hypertension (a use of these tests the authors did not support).
The report was published May 14 in The American Journal of Human Genetics.
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