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Freedom To Criticize Religion Is A Touchstone Of Free Expression
Muslims should ‘simply ignore the crazy provocations,’ Gilbert Achcar says. He thinks that those who engaged in violent protests against the ‘Innocence of Muslims’ video did exactly what the video’s production team were hoping for as a result of their provocation.
Gilbert Achcar grew up in Lebanon and teaches at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. Among his books are The Clash of Barbarisms, which came out in a second expanded edition in 2006; a book of dialogues with Noam Chomsky on the Middle East, Perilous Power: The Middle East and U.S. Foreign Policy (2nd edition in 2008); and most recently The Arabs and the Holocaust: The Arab-Israeli War of Narratives (2010). His next book analyzing the Arab upheaval will come out in the spring of 2013.
While Achcar strongly condemns Islamophobic hate material, he rejects any curtailment of free speech in the name of preventing blasphemy. ‘Freedom to criticize religion is a major touchstone of the right to free expression,’ he says in an interview with Farooq Sulehria for Pakistan’s Viewpoint Online.
Q: A decade after your book The Clash of Barbarisms, written in the aftermath of 9/11, it seems that the situation has only worsened. A caricature in an obscure newspaper, an immature video: anything can ignite a ‘clash of barbarisms’ disguised as a ‘clash of civilisations’. How would you analyse the ongoing wave of protests against the ‘Innocence of Muslims’ video in parts of the Muslim world?
Gilbert Achcar (GA): The clash of barbarisms that I analysed should not be seen through the lens of such incidents, but rather through much more serious issues such as Guantanamo, the invasion of Iraq, the torture at Abu Ghraib in Iraq, the increasing resort of the USA to extra-judicial killings, etc. Such events do indeed represent setbacks in the civilizing process.
The reactive barbarism found in the Muslim world is mostly incarnated by al-Qaida and other ultra-fundamentalist currents such as the Taliban (whatever goes under this umbrella) and exhibited in much more serious events than the recent demonstrations, such as the dreadful and endless sectarian killings in Iraq, for instance.
These antagonistic barbarisms feed off each other. Of course, the main culprits remain the most powerful: the world powers, the Western powers as well as Russia, which have created this dynamic of adverse barbarisms in the first place.
Q: In Pakistan, at least, the mainstream discourse is to point out Western, especially US, hypocrisy when it comes to freedom of expression. ‘Holocaust denial is a crime,’ is a common refrain. Your comment?
GA: First of all, let us set the record straight. Denying Holocaust is a punishable offence only in some Western countries, not in all of them. It is not liable for punishment in the USA itself. Holocaust deniers freely publish their insanities in the US. This fact is disregarded by all those who use the ban on Holocaust denial as an argument against the USA.
As a matter of fact, there are laws against hate speech in all Western countries, except the US where the First Amendment to the Constitution prohibits any restriction to free speech. In upholding this principle, the US Supreme Court went so far, in 1977, as defending the right of the American Nazi Party to march through the village of Skokie a substantial proportion ofwhose inhabitants were Jewish concentration camp survivors. True, there have been violations of this right, particularly for Muslims in the US in the wake of 9/11 and the subsequent surge of Islamophobia. But it remains always possible to fight back legally, and civil rights movements are active on such issues.
In Europe, when you feel you have been a victim of hate speech, you can resort to legal action. The question of Western double standard is usually raised with regard to Jews there, as it is much more difficult in Europe to articulate an anti-Jewish or anti-Semitic speech than an Islamophobic one. But this state of affairs owes to two factors.
The first is Europe’s sense of guilt with regard to the Jewish genocide perpetrated by Nazi Germany during the Second World War with much European complicity.
The second is that there are powerful Jewish institutions that react vigilantly against any gesture they deem anti-Semitic, often abusively by equating the critique of Israel with anti-Semitism. They are powerful, but note how they react. Not by holding violent demonstrations that would actually increase anti-Semitism, but by engaging in legal proceedings, publishing articles, and so on. Sometimes they even resort to what may be called intellectual terrorism in trying to intimidate critics of the Israeli state or Zionism with accusations of anti-Semitism.
This said, those who say that freedom of expression in the West is biased against Islam because it is less tolerant of anti-Jewish expression forget that the religion of the overwhelming majority in the West is not Judaism, but Christianity. When it comes to Christianity, Westerners are free to mock the Pope, Jesus Christ, or even God without fear of reprisals. Some of the major artistic and literary works in the West are satirical of Christianity or religion in general in ways that you can’t imagine nowadays when it comes to Islam in the Muslim world.
True, there are some Christian fundamentalist groups that can resort to violence every now and then against anti-religious works. But they are completely marginal. Their violence is punished by law and it never reaches the level of what has been done these last days in the name of religion, which is matched only by the violence of Jewish fundamentalist colonial settlers in Palestine. Moreover, one should not forget that freedom of expression in Europe – in the UK in particular – has been of much greater benefit to Islamic fundamentalists of all brands who sought a refuge there fleeing oppression in Muslim countries than it has to people committing provocations such as those we are discussing.
Anyone incensed by symbolic violence, such as the video in the US or cartoons in France, should retaliate with symbolic violence in the same way or with peaceful protest. Not through physical violence. Resorting to physical violence against a symbolic act is a sign of intellectual weakness. You remember how the Taliban destroyed the gigantic Buddhas in Bamyan. These Buddhas were a World Heritage Site. Did Buddhists react violently? In Egypt and Nigeria, Christians and churches have been repeatedly and bloodily attacked in recent months. Did you see violent demonstrations of Christians worldwide retaliating against Muslim countries? People appreciate the difference between the lunatic fringe that carries out attacks on Christians and the general Muslim population. Muslims should also realise that the violent Islamophobic lunatic fringe in Western countries is marginal, actually much more marginal than the violent Islamic fundamentalist lunatic fringe in Muslim countries.
Crazy provocations like the ‘Innocence of Muslims’ film or the burning of Korans by the crackpot Terry Jones are best ignored. They are so stupid that they don’t deserve any reaction at all. The greatest service one can render to these provocateurs is to respond wildly to their provocations. Agitators are successful when they are able to arouse the feelings of the targeted group. This is why some people rightly argue that the ban on Holocaust denial in France, for instance, is counter-productive. Due to that ban, French Holocaust deniers have become very famous in France, whereas hardly anybody knows the name of US Holocaust deniers in the USA. Had nobody reacted to Terry Jones’s damn-fool provocations, they would have remained unknown, as have thousands of such anti-Islamic utterances. Had nobody paid attention to him, he would not have carried on his dreadful farce. These lunatics have an Islamophobic agenda. Muslim political forces that react in the violent way that we have seen actually reinforce the very Islamophobia against which they protest.
Salman Rushdie’s kind of work falls into a different category, of course. It cannot be dismissed as rubbish. He is a major contemporary writer. However, his Satanic Verses are very innocuous indeed compared to satires of Christianity, or even Judaism for that matter, which are freely available in the West.
Q: Since the Salman Rushdie affair there have been the Danish cartoons, Geert Wilders’ film, and now the film produced in the US. Every time we see wild massive reactions. How do you explain that?
GA: The fact is, very obviously, that certain political forces exploit such events to agitate for their cause, as Khomeini did in the case of the Rushdie affair. He never read Salman Rushdie’s book, in the same way as most demonstrators against the anti-Islam film have not seen it. It is always the same story: some political forces exploit such occasions by stirring up the raw feelings of politically illiterate people in order to push their own political agenda. Fundamentalist forces have always seized upon such provocations. This is how they build their influence.
Q: In Pakistan, a common idea peddled by the government, Islamists and mainstream media is to demand worldwide UN legislation banning blasphemy? What do you think of this demand?
GA: I am hundred percent against it. The notion of blasphemy is a medieval notion. Those who make such a demand want to bring us back to the Middle Ages. If you want to prohibit criticism of religion, you will have to prohibit it for all religions. To implement a ban on blasphemy one will have to proscribe a huge number of works of literature, art and philosophy accumulated over many centuries in all languages, including Arabic of course. Such works are presently banned in the Arab world, but this is a testimony to the lack of freedom of expression.
The freedom to criticize religion is a major touchstone of the right to free expression. As long as a society does not tolerate this freedom, it has not achieved freedom of expression. It is a duty of all people committed to democratic freedoms to raise their voices against barbaric reactions to lunatic provocations. Capitulation to religious demagogy will entail a huge cost at all levels. Once set in motion this process of curtailment of free speech will have no limit. Who will decide what is blasphemous and what is not?
Q: The demonstrators in Pakistan targeted symbols of wealth (banks, cars, ATM machines) or Western culture (cinemas, theatres). Some people view these violent actions in the Muslim world as part of a wider political conflict between the West and the Muslim world. What is your opinion?
GA: I disagree. Violence can be understandable under certain circumstances when people are demonstrating against social and economic assaults on their livelihood or in protest against actual slaughter, massacres, invasions, or occupations perpetrated by Western powers, or the Zionist occupation in Palestine. And yet, the fact is that many real massacres committed by Western powers or Zionists did not lead to any comparable reactions. The truth is that the violence on display is above all a political exploitation by fundamentalists of a provocation for utterly reactionary purposes.
Q: The left in most of the Muslim countries is a small force and is often caught in a strange situation during such crises. While the left, in Pakistan for instance, condemns racist provocations, it advocates curtailment of free speech with regard to religion. What do you think of this attitude?
GA: We are reaping today the result of the left’s failure over many decades to raise the basic secular demand of separation of religion from state. Secularism – including freedom of belief, religion, and irreligion – is an elementary condition of democracy. It should be, therefore, an elementary part of any democratic project, let alone a left project. But most of the left in my part of the world, the Arab region, has capitulated on this issue.
For instance, in Egypt, large sections of the left, including the radical left, have all but dropped the term secularism from their vocabulary. Ironically, when the ‘Islamist’ Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan visited Egypt, he stated publicly that he stood for secularism, to the chagrin of the Muslim Brotherhood.
If the left wants to challenge the hegemony of Islamic forces and develop a counter-hegemonic movement in the political, social and cultural spheres, it must fight resolutely for secularism as well as against gender oppression – another fight from which many on the left also shy away in fear of ‘hurting the feelings’ of the believers. This is a self-defeating strategy. | <urn:uuid:8862f670-990b-45fe-ad97-31a6c74073e2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.zcommunications.org/freedom-to-criticize-religion-is-a-touchstone-of-free-expression-by-gilbert-achcar | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954243 | 2,618 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Home > BABE RUTH MAKES HIS MAJOR LEAGUE DEBUT...
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BABE RUTH MAKES HIS MAJOR LEAGUE DEBUT...
Item # 560772
July 12, 1914
SPRINGFIELD REPUBLICAN, Springfield, Massachusetts MA, July 12, 1914
* Babe Ruth makes his MLB debut
* Boston Red Sox
On page 5 at the top of the first column under "Baseball" are one column heads marking the major league debut of Babe Ruth with the Boston Red Sox. The heads include:
* Leonard To Rescue
* Saves Game For Red Sox
* Naps Tie Score In Seventh
* Ruth Does Well for Time, But Cleveland Crowds Him and Forces His Retirement
The summary of the game, which includes a mention of Ruth, reads, in part: "...Ruth formerly of Baltimore, made his debut as a local pitcher, and held Cleveland to five scattered hits in the first six innings.... Leonard finished the game for the Red Sox..."
Includes the box score and various statistics of the game. Great to have this account of Babe Ruth's debut in a Massachusetts newspaper from a town less than 100 miles from Boston.
Issue is somewhat pulpish causing some minor chipping and flaking in the margins, has a tear at the spine, plus two in the lower margin & one in the upper margin & masthead, all extending a bit into unrelated text and affecting each leaf but not the key content listed, has a bit of margin staining. | <urn:uuid:de5e10a7-4010-4046-a963-298c3b65d4d3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rarenewspapers.com/view/560772 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930247 | 320 | 2.34375 | 2 |
France has made a formal offer to host ITER, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor. Since the US dropped out of the fusion reactor project in 1998, the remaining partnersJapan, Europe, Russia and Canadahave been unable to come up with a site, in part because the host country has to pay a quarter of the construction costs. France's proposal to build the reactor at Cadarache in southern France, home to the research labs of France's Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), has been welcomed by the European partners. "This is one of the more rational choices we have made," says Michel Chatelier of the CEA's fusion department in Cadarache.
To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content. | <urn:uuid:a97de06d-925d-4aba-902a-69f3f33eaab9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg16722503.300-french-fusion.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948127 | 165 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Revising the Past, Complicating the Future:
The Yushukan War Museum in Modern Japanese History
In this three part series, we introduce historical museums in Japan and their role in public education. Following this introduction to peace museums, Ms. Nishino Rumiko, a founder of the Women’s Active Museum on War and Peace (WAM), introduces WAM’s activities and the 2000 Citizens Tribunal on the ‘comfort women’. The final article is by Mr. Kim Yeonghwan, the former associate director of Grassroots House Peace Museum who describes the peace and reconciliation programs that the Museum sponsors.
Both museums are privately funded and modest in size. One may perhaps call them micro museums, as their exhibition spaces are limited. What is noteworthy, however, is that both museums display artifacts that preserve memories of the victims of Japan’s colonialism and devastating atrocities during the Asia-Pacific War; that is, the war that began in 1931 when Imperial Japan invaded Manchuria, and ended with Japan’s defeat in 1945. The Women’s Active Museum is dedicated to the women forced into sexual slavery. The displays of the Grassroots House Peace Museum relate not only to the so-called comfort women, but also to Japanese atrocities in China, such as the Nanjing Massacre. Both museums often organize public forums to educate the public about the atrocities committed by the Japanese state during the war.
Women’s Active Museum on War and Peace
Grassroots House Peace Museum
The fact that these museums candidly address Japanese colonialism and wartime atrocities makes them by no means unique in Japan. From the late 1980s until the late 1990s, Japan witnessed the establishment of many such museums, both public and private, that more or less characterized Imperial Japan as a perpetrator of criminal wrongs. But the opinions expressed by these museums are not shared by all. Certainly, Japan has a number of war museums that either avoid questioning Japan’s war responsibility or actually glorify the sacrifices of the soldiers who fought for the Japanese empire.
According to one study, more than 220 museums in Japan deal, in whole or in part, with the wars that Japan fought between 1868 and 1945. The majority of these museums concern the Asia-Pacific War. The impressive number of diverse museums devoted to the Asia-Pacific War suggests that Japanese society has yet to achieve a consensus on the history and memory of the war. To put that matter more precisely, in recent years it has become more difficult and more controversial than in the immediate postwar years to build a consensus on the war among Japan’s residents.
In the past, the extremely strong anti-war sentiment that prevailed in Japanese society left little room for pro-Imperial revisionists to popularize their accounts among the public. Although strong anti-war sentiment still appears to be dominant, revisionist accounts that tend to whitewash wartime atrocities and colonialism have lately found a significant audience, particularly among Japanese youth. With revisionist claims gaining popularity, the ideological clash between museums that lament or condemn the war and those that exalt and glorify militarism arguably merits more attention than ever before. The struggle concerns not only the best way to expose the museum-going public to historical events; it is also, in a significant sense, a contest to refashion the conscience of a nation.
I would like to examine the changing role of the Yushukan War Museum, a symbol of Japan’s wartime militarism, in public education both during the war and the postwar, as well as its position within the broader context of Japanese museum culture.
Yushukan War Museum
II. Yushukan During the Asia-Pacific War
During the Asia-Pacific War, a culture of militarism prevailed in Japanese society. Many Japanese supported the war effort in Asia and the Pacific, and the popularity of the Yasukuni Shrine’s Yushukan War Museum reflected the social and political context of the time. The Yushukan War Museum originally opened to the public in 1882. After a devastating earthquake in Tokyo destroyed much of the museum 1923, a newly constructed Yushukan opened in 1932. Two years later, an additional building, the National Defense Hall, was added to the museum complex. Whereas Yushukan proper was essentially an ordinary war museum that displayed artifacts such as swords, military uniforms, and weapons captured from the empire’s military adversaries, the National Defense Hall was a hands-on amusement facility that enabled visitors to experience what modern warfare was like. The visitors were invited to sit in the cockpit of a bomber, operate a miniature tank with radio controls, and fire an air rifle at a target. The highlight of the Defense Hall was a “gas experience room” where visitors wore gas masks and were exposed to tear gas. Boy’s Club, a popular monthly magazine for children, described the Defense Hall as follows:
Inside the Defense Hall, new modern weapons, such as a tank, search light, machine gun and bomber, are exhibited. The display includes a huge panoramic diorama that depicts a future war and an impressive mechanical device that appears to drop bombs from the sky. Among all the exhibits, a particularly unique feature is the gas experience room. The room will be filled with a gas that irritates your eyes, causing a cascade of tears. When you enter the room wearing a gas mask, you will clearly learn the power of gas and the effect of a gas mask. .... Everyone enjoys the experiments in the Defense Hall, and it has become extremely popular [among children].
Indeed, the Yushukan complex was popular. Following Japan’s 1931 invasion of Manchuria, it received more than a half million visitors annually. Its popularity further increased after the war against China commenced in 1937. In 1938, more than 1.4 million people, including some 225,000 students, visited the museum complex, whereas in 1940 the museum welcomed nearly 1.9 million visitors, including 161,000 students.
III. Yushukan in the Postwar Years
After Japan’s defeat in 1945, the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers ordered the closing of the Yushukan War Museum, including the National Defense Hall. Only in 1961 did a limited number of exhibits begin to be displayed once more at the museum. In 1986, after a thorough restoration, the whole of the Yushukan War Museum was reopened to the public, though visitors were no longer able to don gas masks, fire air rifles, sit in the cockpit of a bomber, or drop simulated bombs on imagined foes. In 2002, the museum was again renovated and further expanded.
Zero fighter displayed in the Yushukan
The changes seem intended to make the museum more visually appealing to young visitors. Nevertheless, from its opening in July 2002 through May 2003, only 226,000 people visited the museum. The Yushukan War Museum has not regained its wartime popularity even to this day.
In the immediate postwar years, anti-war sentiment was particularly strong. Even sixty years after the end of war, anti-war feeling is still relatively strong in Japan. Throughout the postwar years, anti-war museums such as the Hiroshima Peace Museum and the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum achieved enormous popularity. In recent years, for example, more than 1.5 million people have visited the Hiroshima Peace Museum annually, while the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum welcomes approximately 1 million people every year.
The Hiroshima and Nagasaki museums were among the earliest anti-war museums in postwar Japan. In 1949 a modest exhibition of the effects of the atomic bomb opened in Hiroshima. In 1955, another atomic bomb museum opened in Nagasaki. In 1967, Maruki Iri and Toshi, artists who lost family members in the attack on Hiroshima, opened their anti-war art gallery in Saitama, exhibiting their murals commemorating the atomic bombings.
Maruki Gallery houses Hiroshima murals
Until the 1980s most anti-war museums focused on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Taken out of context, this emphasis may not seem to illustrate clearly a broad anti-war feeling on the part of the Japanese public. The full story is more complex, since other anti-war expressions in Japan have long displayed a national consciousness of Imperial Japan as an aggressor. In the 1950s, for example, the Japan-China Friendship Association (Nit-Chu Yuko Kyokai) excavated remains of the forced laborers who died in Hanaoka, sent them to the People’s Republic of China, and built a monument to remember the victims and atone for the atrocity.
Monument in Hanaoka to eternal peace
between Japan and China, erected 1966
In 1965, Park Kyong Sik, a Korean-born historian who moved to Japan in 1929 at the age of seven, published a monograph that examined the forced mobilization of Koreans--the first major study of Korean forced labor to become available in postwar Japan. Nevertheless, since the death of fishermen exposed to nuclear fallout at Bikini atoll in 1954, anti-nuclear activism largely prevailed in the nation. It was not until the 1970s that those who called attention to Japan’s wartime role as a perpetrator began to receive considerable notice from the public.
America’s war in Vietnam and Japan’s normalization with the People’s Republic of China in 1972 signaled what are arguably the two major turning points in the historiography and memory of the Asia-Pacific War. From the early 1970s, many more accounts by and about survivors of Japanese atrocities in China and Korea became available in Japan. This trend was echoed in museum presentations. It was in 1970 that the Marukis, the painters of the atomic-bomb murals, came to see themselves not only as victims of Hiroshima, but also as parties to Japan’s wartime aggression and colonialism. Although they had not enthusiastically supported the war effort in the 1930s and the 40s, the Marukis felt that they shared responsibility with Japan’s wartime leaders for the crimes committed by the Japanese state. In 1975, they completed “The Rape of Nanking,” a 13 by 26 foot mural that illustrates atrocities committed by the Japanese military in Nanjing in 1937-38. In the painting, the artists portrayed soldiers beheading a Chinese prisoner and raping women. Dead bodies and various body parts are strewn all over the painting. Students visit the Marukis’ gallery to learn the importance of peace, and the painting has a particularly strong impact on many young visitors.
Between the late 1980s and the mid-1990s, in the run up to the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Asia-Pacific War, museums that displayed the sufferings inflicted by Japanese militarism on peoples in Asia and the Pacific flourished. In 1988, a public museum that remembers both Japanese and non-Japanese victims of Japan’s chemical warfare was opened on Okuno Island in Hiroshima, where chemical weapons were produced during the war. In 1989, high school biology teacher Nishimori Shigeo opened Grass Roots House Peace Museum in Kochi. In 1992, Ritsumeikan University, a private university in Kyoto, erected the International Peace Museum, whose artifacts point to the responsibility of ordinary people for the Asia Pacific War; its featured displays include images of civilians on the home front reveling in the fall of Nanjing in December 1937.
Kyoto Museum for World Peace, Ritsumeikan University
In 1993, Saitama Prefecture opened the Saitama Prefecture Peace Museum. For many years in Nagasaki, a Protestant minister and city assembly man named Oka Masaharu advocated the importance of remembering the victims of Japanese colonialism and atrocities. After his death in 1994, city residents who shared his views succeeded in opening the Oka Masaharu Memorial Nagasaki Peace Museum. The displayed photographs and other materials are meant to remind visitors of the lives of forced laborers and sex slaves from China and Korea, as well as Japanese atrocities in China and other parts of Asia.
Oka Masaharu Memorial Nagasaki Peace Museum
In the mid and late 1990s, pro-Imperialist revisionists became more visible in Japanese society. The establishment of numerous peace museums was one stimulus that prompted revisionists to speak out aggressively and to combat the trend toward national self-criticism that they branded as masochistic and inimical to the cultivation of national pride among the youth. By the late 1990s, Japanese bookstores were stocked with revisionist accounts that glorified sacrifices made by Japanese soldiers, denied the wholesale atrocities in Nanjing, exaggerated the beneficial influence of Japan on its former colonies, and argued that “comfort women” were willing prostitutes rather than sex slaves.
By the late 1990s, the construction of public museums that critically evaluated Japan’s colonialism and aggression noticeably slowed, and most of the new museums that were established avoided controversies. A symbolic case was a dispute over the first national peace memorial, which was eventually named the Showa Hall (http://www.showakan.go.jp/).
The Ministry of Health and Welfare initially intended the memorial to commemorate only the 3.5 million Japanese war dead. However, the Communist and the Socialist parties urged that the memorial should acknowledge the devastations and destructions inflicted on other Asian countries by the Japanese empire. The resulting compromise is a facility that commemorates the suffering of all Japanese both during and immediately after the war and exhibits artifacts with as few explanations as possible to avoid any controversy. The museum library carefully balances its collection to present different perspectives of the Asia Pacific War, varying from arguments that the war contributed to liberating Asia to studies that detail and decry Japan’s wartime atrocities.
Although revisionist accounts of the war have gained popularity among youth in recent years, the Yushukan has yet to regain its wartime popularity. Indeed, the museum itself is aware that its perspective currently represents a challenge to, rather than an expression of, mainstream public opinion. The newly renovated Yushukan that opened in 2002 has two major goals: the first is to honor the war dead who sacrificed themselves for the state, and the second is to communicate an allegedly “true” history to counter the fact that Japanese education in the postwar era emphasized Japan’s wartime wrongdoings. The museum articulates the position that the “Greater East Asian War” contributed to liberating Asia and that the war was not an act of imperialist aggression.
To understand the politics of Yushukan, one needs to recognize a shared feeling among many veterans in postwar Japan. In 1988, for example, Kawano Kiichi established a small private museum to honor the memory of the 2,500 students at the Naval Preparatory Flying School who died while committing suicide attacks during the war. In the eyes of Kawano, who also attended the school, Japan’s postwar education has unfairly demonized all those who took up arms for Japan.
He has argued that many of the youth he called friends earnestly desired to serve and protect their homeland, but Japanese society in the postwar period has largely disregarded these noble sacrifices because Japan waged an aggressive war.
Perhaps the revisionist campaigns of the late 1990s were so successful because they appealed to those frustrated with the self-critical tone of postwar history education in Japan. Yushukan will no doubt continue to publicize its message of the revisionist perceptions through its exhibits. It would not be surprising if museums similar to Yushukan open in Japan in the near future. But museums that highlight Japanese colonialism and aggression could also be built in the future. Will the myriad museums, with their profoundly different messages, contribute to reconciliation in East Asia?
I would argue that they will. In order to accomplish reconciliation, it is urgent for Japanese society to continue candid discussion of the meaning of the Asia-Pacific War. These museums will continue to provide opportunities for visitors to realize that the need for building consensus is an urgent matter for Japan. Visitors would be wise to consider that the issues concerning the history and memory of the Asia-Pacific War have ramifications beyond Japan. To the extent that Japan fails to settle its history problems, it will continue to cause needless friction in its relations with neighboring countries and the United States.
Terabayashi Nobuaki, “‘Nihon no hakubutsukan ni okeru Meiji-ki iko no senso kankei shi tenji no genkyo to kokusai kankei ninshiki no kadai ni tsuite’ ni kansuru hakubutsukan ankêto chosa ichiran” (A Survey of Museum Exhibitions Regarding “Contemporary Exhibits of the History of Wars Since the Meiji Period in Japanese Museums and Their Perceptions of International Relations”). This report, funded by the Japanese government, was printed in 2004.
“The National Defense Hall: A Newly Opened Museum in Kudan Where You Can Learn Everything about Weapons,” Boy’s Club 21:6 (June 1934), p. 37.
Yasukuni jinja Yushukan, Yushukanshi (The History of the Yushukan), 1938, p. 477. Yasukuni jinja Yushukan, Yushukan (The Yushukan War Musuem), 1941, p. 23.
Ohara Yasuo, Yasukuni jinja Yushukan no sekai (The World of Yasukuni Shrine’s Yushukan War Museum), p. 96.
Toshifumi Murakami, “The Role which Peace Museums Should Play,” in Exhibiting Peace: The Proceedings of the Third International Conference of Peace Museums, ed. Ritsumeikan University, 1999, p. 50.
Hanaoka no chi Nit-Chu fusaisen yukohi o mamorukai (Association to Preserve the Hanaoka Monument in the Name of Friendship and Peace with China), Hanaoka jiken goju shunen kikanshi (A Booklet Commemorating the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Hanaoka Incident, pp. 191-209.
Park Kyong Sik, Chosenjin kyosei renko no kiroku (Record of Forced Mobilizations of Koreans), (Tokyo: Miraisha, 1965).
See, for example, Jon Junkerman, Hellfire: A Journey from Hiroshima (First Run Features, 1986), a 58 minutes DVD.
See, for example, Fujioka, Nobukatsu and Nishio Kanji, Kokumin no yudan (Negligence of the Nation), (Tokyo: PHP kenkyujo, 1996). Kobayashi Yoshinori, Sensoron (On War), (Tokyo: Gentosha, 1998).
Tanaka Nobumasa, Senso no kioku (Memory of the War), (Tokyo: Rokufu shuppan), pp. 246-95.
A leaflet titled “Invitation to the Society of the Friends of the Yushukan” (Yushukan tomo no kai no shiori), available at the Yushukan in 2003.
See a statement on the museum website here.
For other articles on Japan Focus on Japanese and East Asian museums and history education illuminating issues of war, peace and war atrocities, see:
Takashi Yoshida is assistant professor of history at Western Michigan University and author of The Making of the “Rape of Nanking”: History and Memory in Japan, China, and the United States. This article was written for Japan Focus. Posted on December 2, 2007. | <urn:uuid:e6407f3e-7c67-46f3-9586-df85d2b2279f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.japanfocus.org/-Takashi-YOSHIDA/2594?rand=1368987994&type=print&print=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942837 | 4,079 | 3.34375 | 3 |
Gettysburg Cyclorama painter Paul Philippoteaux “signed” his work by painting himself as an officer under a tree bearing a sword. This York, Pa., Daily Record/Sunday News photograph came soon after the refurbished painting was unveiled as part of the Gettysburg National Military Park Visitors Center opening in 2008. The restored Cyclorama in Gettysburg is part of a package of educational experiences at the Gettysburg National Military Park Visitors Center. But will ghost tours and a grand gambling casino detract from this user experience? Also of interest: ‘Ruh-row, Raggy’: Gettysburg ghost hunters find no trespassing signs and York County’s powwowwing past and Spooky old York incinerator now used as crematorium.
Some people apparently like their Gettysburg ghost tours and the prospect of gambling in the environs of the battlefield.
My York Sunday News column and associated blog post (Ghost tours, Part I) have attracted a brigade of commenters.
Many are in disagreement, to say the least.
“Seriously, if you don’t like the direction Gettysburg is heading stay away, it won’t hurt our feelings at all.”
That solves it. If you don’t like it, take your football and go home.
OK, as it turns out, my column came shortly before about 275 Civil War historians busted on the casino. James McPherson, Garry Wills and Edwin Bearss are among the signers speaking against the casino about a mile south of the South Cavalry Field.
Maybe they should stay away from Gettysburg, too?
Also of interest:
For a wealth of additional posts on the Civil War, see this blog’s Civil War category. | <urn:uuid:f2d8ba92-613b-4239-ae77-de8f4540912f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.yorkblog.com/yorktownsquare/2010/06/30/gettysburg-national-military-p/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92432 | 361 | 1.773438 | 2 |
The guide’s strategies and design principles will be further explored this week at NACTO’s conference, “Designing Cities: Leading the Way to World Class Streets,” being held at New York University’s Kimmel Center from Oct. 24 - 26. The conference features keynote addresses by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, among transportation leaders and thinkers from across the nation.
Other featured speakers include Bruce Katz, vice president, Brookings Institution; Andrew Altman, former chief executive, London Legacy Corp., 2012 Olympics; Jay L. Kriegel, former executive director, NYC2012.
A panel discussion on Friday will be moderated by Chris Hayes, host, MSNBC’s “UP w/Chris Hayes.” A panel on Thursday will be moderated by Tom Vanderbilt, journalist and author of the
best-selling book, "Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us)." | <urn:uuid:7011170b-c954-427d-9679-77897c46efa1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.masstransitmag.com/press_release/10819184/nacto-designing-cities-conference-includes-release-of-first-national-urban-street-design-guide?page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919038 | 206 | 1.507813 | 2 |
The United States Court of Federal Claims
(in case citations, Fed. Cl.
) is a United States federal court
The United States federal courts make up the judiciary branch of federal government of the United States organized under the United States Constitution and laws of the federal government.-Categories:...
that hears monetary claims against the U.S. government
The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...
. The court is established pursuant to Congress's authority under Article One of the United States Constitution
Article One of the United States Constitution describes the powers of Congress, the legislative branch of the federal government. The Article establishes the powers of and limitations on the Congress, consisting of a House of Representatives composed of Representatives, with each state gaining or...
. Unlike judges of courts established under Article Three of the United States Constitution
Article Three of the United States Constitution establishes the judicial branch of the federal government. The judicial branch comprises the Supreme Court of the United States and lower courts as created by Congress.-Section 1: Federal courts:...
, judges on the Court of Federal Claims do not have life tenure
A life tenure or service during good behaviour is a term of office that lasts for the office holder's lifetime , unless the office holder is removed from office for cause under extraordinary circumstances or chooses to resign.Judges and members of some upper chambers have life tenure...
(see Article I and Article III tribunals
In the United States, the American legal system includes both state courts and United States federal courts. The federal tribunals may be an Article III tribunal or another adjudicative body classified as an Article I or an Article IV tribunal...
). Instead they serve for 15-year terms and are eligible for reappointment. The sixteen judges of the court are nominated by the President
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Advice and consent is an English phrase frequently used in enacting formulae of bills and in other legal or constitutional contexts, describing a situation in which the executive branch of a government enacts something previously approved of by the legislative branch.-General:The expression is...
by the Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
The court house of the Court of Federal Claims is situated in the Howard T. Markey National Courts Building
The Howard T. Markey National Courts Building is a courthouse in Washington, D.C., which houses the United States Court of Federal Claims and the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit...
(on Madison Place
Madison Place is a one-block street located in northwest Washington, D.C., across from the White House. It forms the eastern border of Lafayette Square between Pennsylvania Avenue and H Street NW. Buildings on Madison Place include the Howard T...
across from the White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
) in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
The court was formed on October 1, 1982, as the United States Claims Court
(in case citations, Cl. Ct.
) and it is a successor to the trial division of the United States Court of Claims
The Court of Claims was a federal court that heard claims against the United States government. It was established in 1855 as the Court of Claims, renamed in 1948 to the United States Court of Claims , and abolished in 1982....
. The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act
The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 was enacted in the United States to reduce the potential financial liability of vaccine makers due to vaccine injury claims. The legislation was aimed at ensuring a stable market supply, and to provide cost-effective arbitration for vaccine...
of 1986 gave the court the authority to create an Office of Special Master
In law, a special master is an authority appointed by a judge to make sure that judicial orders are actually followed.In England, at common law, there were "Masters in Chancery," who acted in aid of the Equity Courts. There were also "Masters in Lunacy," who conducted inquiries of the same nature...
s to receive and hear certain vaccine injury cases, and the jurisdiction to review those cases. On October 28, 1992, the name of the court was changed to the United States Court of Federal Claims
The court has special jurisdiction
Jurisdiction is the practical authority granted to a formally constituted legal body or to a political leader to deal with and make pronouncements on legal matters and, by implication, to administer justice within a defined area of responsibility...
, spelled out in : it hears claims for money that arise from the United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...
, federal statutes
An Act of Congress is a statute enacted by government with a legislature named "Congress," such as the United States Congress or the Congress of the Philippines....
, executive regulations, or an express or implied in fact contract
An implied-in-fact contract is a contract agreed by non-verbal conduct, rather than by explicit words. As defined by the United States Supreme Court, it is "an agreement 'implied in fact'" as "founded upon a meeting of minds, which, although not embodied in an express contract, is inferred, as a...
with the United States Government, most notably under the Tucker Act
Through the Tucker Act , the United States government has waived its sovereign immunity with respect to certain lawsuits....
. The court has concurrent jurisdiction
Concurrent jurisdiction exists where two or more courts from different systems simultaneously have jurisdiction over a specific case. This situation leads to forum shopping, as parties will try to have their civil or criminal case heard in the court that they perceive will be most favorable to...
with U.S. district courts
The United States district courts are the general trial courts of the United States federal court system. Both civil and criminal cases are filed in the district court, which is a court of law, equity, and admiralty. There is a United States bankruptcy court associated with each United States...
, when the claim is for less than $10,000, by the provisions of . Claims have a statute of limitations
A statute of limitations is an enactment in a common law legal system that sets the maximum time after an event that legal proceedings based on that event may be initiated...
of six years from the time the claim first accrues . This limitation is strictly construed by the court.
The court has concurrent jurisdiction involving contracts with the federal government, where a contractor has the option of choosing between filing suit with the court or with the agency Board of Contract Appeals. The general rule is that a contractor may either 1) file suit within 90 days with the agency Board of Contract Appeals or 2) file suit within one year with the court. A contractor, however, must choose which forum in which to file; a contractor cannot file suit with both the agency Board and with the court. (However, in a case where a contractor has filed with the Board, and the Government challenges the timeliness of the filing — the 90-day limit is statutory and cannot be extended — the contractor can file with the court within the one-year period to protect its claims.)
Unlike district courts, which generally only have jurisdiction over disputes in their geographic district, the COFC has jurisdiction over disputes wherever they occur in the country. To accommodate litigants, judges on the court may hold trials at local courthouses near where the disputes arise.
All trials at the court are bench trial
A bench trial is a trial held before a judge sitting without a jury. The term is chiefly used in common law jurisdictions to describe exceptions from jury trial, as most other legal systems do not use juries to any great extent....
s, without juries. Because the court only hears cases against the Government, the United States is always the defendant in cases before the COFC.
The court receives a variety of claims against the government, including breach of contract
Breach of contract is a legal cause of action in which a binding agreement or bargained-for exchange is not honored by one or more of the parties to the contract by non-performance or interference with the other party's performance....
claims, illegal exaction claims, takings claims under the 5th Amendment
The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, protects against abuse of government authority in a legal procedure. Its guarantees stem from English common law which traces back to the Magna Carta in 1215...
, claims involving military pay
United States Military Pay is money paid to members in the United States Armed Forces. The amount of pay may vary by the member's rank, time in the military, location duty assignment, and by some special skills the member may have.-Pay versus Allowance:...
, claims for patent
In the United States, a patent provides its proprietor with the right to exclude others from utilizing the invention claimed in that patent. Should a person utilize that invention, without the permission of the patent proprietor, they may infringe that patent.More specifically, an infringement may...
and copyright infringement
Copyright infringement is the unauthorized or prohibited use of works under copyright, infringing the copyright holder's exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works.- "Piracy" :...
against the government, federal tax refund claims, and protests regarding contract bidding procedures.
Orders and judgments from the court are appealed to the united State Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which resides in the same building as the COFC.
The court also may hear congressional reference cases, which are cases referred to the court by either house of Congress. The judge serving as hearing officer renders a report as to the case's merits, which is reviewed by a panel of judges formed for that purpose. The report is forwarded back to the chamber of Congress requesting it.
Current judges include:
- Emily C. Hewitt
-Early life:Hewitt graduated from the Roland Park Country School in Baltimore, Maryland and earned an A.B. from Cornell University in 1966. She received an M.Phil. degree from the Union Theological Seminary in New York City in studies focusing on religion and education, and was ordained to the...
, Chief Judge
- Francis M. Allegra
Francis Marion Allegra is an American federal judge on the United States Court of Federal Claims.-Early life and education:Judge Allegra grew up in Cleveland and graduated from St. Edward High School in Lakewood, Ohio...
- Lawrence M. Baskir
- Lawrence J. Block
Lawrence J. Block is an American federal judge on the United States Court of Federal Claims who was confirmed on October 2, 2002.-Education and Experience:...
- Susan G. Braden
- Lynn J. Bush
- Edward J. Damich
- Nancy B. Firestone
- Marian Blank Horn
- Charles F. Lettow
- Christine Odell Cook Miller
- George W. Miller
- Margaret M. Sweeney
- Thomas C. Wheeler
- Mary Ellen Coster Williams
- Victor J. Wolski
- Eric G. Bruggink
- Bohdan A. Futey
- Robert H. Hodges, Jr.
- Lawrence S. Margolis
- James F. Merow
- Loren A. Smith
- John Paul Wiese
- Robert J. Yock
Judgments of the court may be appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
-Vacancies and pending nominations:-List of former judges:-Chief judges:Notwithstanding the foregoing, when the court was initially created, Congress had to resolve which chief judge of the predecessor courts would become the first chief judge... | <urn:uuid:f0359114-712b-48fc-8357-2877d5bb5f1d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/United_States_Court_of_Federal_Claims | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952947 | 2,697 | 3.765625 | 4 |
Originally posted at New Geography, and picked up by the National Post.
In the lead up to the G20 conference, the security costs were projected to approach a billion dollars. As high as this number sounds, sources are now speculating that the total bill could be closer to $2 billion. Shocking as that number is, the costs incurred by local businesses may have exceeded that total.In addition to the physical damage to the hundreds of shops that were smashed in, there were major productivity losses during, and in the week before the conference. The most visible opportunity cost was the sharp decline in retail sales...(continue reading) | <urn:uuid:0bb93489-5b49-42f4-8b93-19e683ecdfbc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://stevelafleur.blogspot.com/2010/07/my-latest-post-at-new-geography.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983294 | 128 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Finnish Pronunciation Guide
By Dick Oakes
A a, D d, E e,
H h, I i, J j, K k, L l, M m, N n, O o, P p,
R r, S s, T t, U u, V v,
Y y, Ä ä, Ö ö
Finnish (or Suomi) is a Finno-Ugric language, bearing no resemblance to other existing languages, even those thought to be remotely related in Lapland, west of the Ural Mountains, and in Estonia and Hungary. It is spoken by over five million people. Finland is officially bilingual in Finnish and Swedish.
Finnish is mainly phonetic, with the pronounciation stress always on the first syllable of the word. The language has no articles, no genders, and no future tense.
Double letters represent long sounds which are pronounced about twice as long (or twice as slowly) as the corresponding short sounds of single letters. This is important to know because the length of the vowels can change the meaning of words. For example, vaja means "shed," vaaja means "wedge," and vajaa means "scant."
The letters b, c, f, q, w, x, and z are found only in words from foreign languages, and are pronounced as in the country of origin.
Letters not listed below are pronounced approximately as in English.
|A, a||- a as in father; a as in about|
|E, e||- e as in let|
|I, i||- i as in pin|
|O, o||- as in cord|
|U, u||- u as in full|
|Y, y||- ew as in view|
|Ä ä||- a as in hat|
|Ö, ö||- eu as in fleur|
|J, j||- y as in yes|
|R, r||- always slightly rolled (rr)|
|aa||- a as in father but longer|
|ä||- a as in hat but longer|
|ee||- e as in let but longer|
|ii||- i as in machine|
|uu||- u as in duke|
|DIPTHONGS: In Finnish, dipthongs usually occur in the first syllable of a word. The exceptions are those ending in the letter i, which can occur anywhere. In the first set, the accent is on the first letter; in the second, it is on the second letter.|
Copyright © 2011 by Dick Oakes | <urn:uuid:28c64e05-0df8-40c2-9731-324d172b636d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.phantomranch.net/folkdanc/alphabet/finnish.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934097 | 568 | 3.1875 | 3 |
My dearest Reader,
I apologize ahead of time, but will confess that this post will most likely not go beyond a few measly paragraphs. It has nothing to do with my being lazy, but the topic itself. The ever illusive history of the merkin. What, pray tell, is a merkin? Well, it's a wig. A *pubic* wig. And they've been around for a VERY long time. The merkin itself was believed to have made its appearance about 1450, according to the Oxford Companion to the Body. I have no doubt whatsoever that it was around much longer than that obviously if there is no documented proof of it, then one cannot readily say it. While The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language claims that the word "merkin" is a corruption of the word "malkin" (which in c.1400 meant 'mop' as well as 'lower class woman'), I am going to be a total snot and disagree based off of my own piecing together of bits of history pertaining to the merkin. Now before you snicker and wonder why the hell I would even spend any time researching a pubic wig, I assure you, I wasn't in the least bit interested in researching it. Seriously!!! It sort of...well...fell into my lap. Ehm. Bad pun, I know. But here's what I found on my own, as very little is known about the detailed history of the merkin.
The idea behind the merkin itself seems to have originated from prostitutes. And not for the kinky reasons you think. Merkins were mini wigs pieced together with goat hair, horse hair or human hair. Should I mention that most human hair for wigs of those times were taken from corpses? Nice thought. Unlike real pubic hair, the merkin could be removed, boiled or placed in an oven to kill lice and anything else living in it. Prostitutes who were forced to shave off their pubic hair due to pubic lice had to quickly cover that area up and I'm guessing that the Renaissance period, in particular, had something to do with it. People in that era found pubic baldness extremely funny, and well, a prostitute couldn't readily be seen as a dunce if she's to make money. Merkins also hid something even more sinister. Venereal disease. A good merkin would cover sores from syphilis and gonorrhea. Women who were being treated with mercury usually also suffered from pubic balding.
How were they attached? Now this, I don't know. I've tried digging that up but was unable to find any sources that would give me documented proof of how it was physically attached. I'm guessing it was tied into place and in turn made it look festive and decorative. Maybe ribbons (if the prostitute could afford them, that is).
So...getting back to me being a snot. I disagree with The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language based of the following: It's all about connecting dots and realizing that slang changes and the use of a word can arise from a different origin than expected. According to Groses's Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1795) the merkin was defined as "counterfeit hair for the monosyllable." (Monosyllable was Grose's reference to the woman's crotch, lol). Now right after his brief little definition of the merkin is an interesting addition that states, "See Bailey's Dictionary". So what did I do? I went over and looked into Bailey's Dictionary (the one published in 1675 which wasn't cleaned up in later additions) and found his definition of the Merkin. And guess what? It wasn't a pubic wig at all, but this: "A dangerous port in Cornwall called such from the many storms arising there." When I read that, I immediately thought, "Wait. What real connection does the merkin have to 'malkin' other than 'mop' and 'lower class woman?' How did they make this connection? They had no texts or documentation they used to make that connection and they even stated that as such. It's an assumption that merkin is a corruption of malkin. But here's the thing. It was noted in many texts back in the day that men who recognized a woman as wearing a merkin was dealing with a dangerous situation...meaning she was disease ridden and covering it up. And so this dangerous "port" where "storms arise" known as "Merkin" seems like a much bigger connection to the actual origin of the word merkin than "malkin." WOW. It's very possible I have stumbled upon something that has baffled scholars for decades...heh...that is if merkins were a subject of interest to great historical scholars...
Until next time,
Cheers and much love, | <urn:uuid:ce118db0-0067-49c4-a2f9-724aba783a40> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://delilahmarvelle.blogspot.com/2010/10/illusive-history-of-merkin.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983286 | 1,009 | 2.328125 | 2 |
- Prayer and Worship
- Beliefs and Teachings
- Issues and Action
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- About USCCB
1Again, one preparing for a voyage and about to traverse the wild waves
cries out to wood more unsound than the boat that bears him.a
2For the urge for profits devised this latter,
and Wisdom the artisan produced it.
3* But your providence, O Father! guides it,
for you have furnished even in the sea a road,
and through the waves a steady path,b
4Showing that you can save from any danger,
so that even one without skill may embark.c
5But you will that the products of your Wisdom be not idle;
therefore people trust their lives even to most frail wood,
and were safe crossing the waves on a raft.d
6For of old, when the proud giants were being destroyed,
the hope of the universe, who took refuge on a raft,*
left to the world a future for the human family, under the guidance of your hand.
7For blest is the wood through which righteousness comes about;
8but the handmade idol is accursed, and its maker as well:
he for having produced it, and the corruptible thing, because it was termed a god.e
9Equally odious to God are the evildoer and the evil deed;
10and the thing made will be punished with its maker.
11Therefore upon even the idols of the nations shall a judgment come,
since they became abominable among God’s works,
Snares for human souls
and a trap for the feet of the senseless.f
12For the source of wantonness is the devising of idols;
and their invention, a corruption of life.g
13For in the beginning they were not,
nor can they ever continue;h
14for from human emptiness they came into the world,
and therefore a sudden end is devised for them.
15* For a father, afflicted with untimely mourning,
made an image of the child so quickly taken from him,
And now honored as a god what once was dead
and handed down to his household mysteries and sacrifices.
16Then, in the course of time, the impious practice gained strength and was observed as law,
and graven things were worshiped by royal decrees.i
17People who lived so far away that they could not honor him in his presence
copied the appearance of the distant king
And made a public image of him they wished to honor,
out of zeal to flatter the absent one as though present.
18And to promote this observance among those to whom it was strange,
the artisan’s ambition provided a stimulus.
19For he, perhaps in his determination to please the ruler,
20And the masses, drawn by the charm of the workmanship,
soon took as an object of worship the one who shortly before was honored as a human being.k
21And this became a snare for the world,
that people enslaved to either grief or tyranny
conferred the incommunicable Name on stones and wood.
22Then it was not enough for them to err in their knowledge of God;l
but even though they live in a great war resulting from ignorance,
they call such evils peace.m
23For while they practice either child sacrifices or occult mysteries,
or frenzied carousing in exotic rites,n
24They no longer respect either lives or purity of marriage;
but they either waylay and kill each other, or aggrieve each other by adultery.
25And all is confusion—blood and murder, theft and guile,o
corruption, faithlessness, turmoil, perjury,
26Disturbance of good people, neglect of gratitude,
besmirching of souls, unnatural lust,
disorder in marriage, adultery and shamelessness.
27For the worship of infamous idols
is the reason and source and extreme of all evil.p
28For they either go mad with enjoyment, or prophesy lies,
or live lawlessly or lightly perjure themselves.q
29For as their trust is in lifeless idols,
they expect no harm when they have sworn falsely.
30But on both counts justice shall overtake them:
because they thought perversely of God by devoting themselves to idols,r
and because they deliberately swore false oaths, despising piety.*
31For it is not the might of those by whom they swear,
but the just retribution of sinners,
that ever follows upon the transgression of the wicked.*
* [14:3–6] The wooden ship mentioned in vv. 1–2 prompts a short meditation on the providence of God, who in fact has watched over boats in their dangerous courses. The wood as described in v. 7 became a favorite patristic type for the wood of the cross.
* [14:6] Noah.
* [14:19] Likeness: he made this more flattering than the reality.
* [14:30] Piety: the sanctity of oaths.
* [14:31] Perjury is a form of deceit which calls for punishment even though it be practiced in the name of a lifeless idol.
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Top 10 Content Mistakes Made On Amateur Websites
Once you have decided to embark on a journey to create your first website, there are a few things you should consider before creating your content. Most amateur website owners think they can just log into any website builder they want and start typing in whatever content they want. What they don't realize is that the simple mistakes made when creating their website can make visitors leave it as soon as they see it - and not want to come back. But this doesn't have to happen to you.
Before we begin, here is good Rule Of Thumb to always consider when creating content for your website: Do professional periodicals and magazines do this with their articles? If the answer is 'No', then chances are you probably shouldn't do it on your website either.
1) Centering All Your Text
Most people new to website design seem to want to center all of their text. Not only does this make for an unattractive website, but it is the hallmark of an amateur. According to extensive research done on website design, usability and user surfing behavior, visitors read web text from left to right. Knowing this, it only makes sense to align your text this way. There are a few exceptions, but for the most part you should avoid centering all your text.
2) Too Many Fonts
If you have seen all the unique fonts available in Word or other programs, you may think that using a lot of those fancy writing styles is a way to make your website more popular or impressive. The truth is quite the opposite. When a variety of different fonts are used on a website, it makes the page look messy, and even hard to read. Use fonts that are clear and easy to read, like Verdana (which is a common font used for web text). You can use different fonts for headers and sub-headers; but they should be consistent throughout your website.
3) Over Bolding
As you build your website, you may be tempted to try and make a lot of your content stand out by putting it in bold print. Avoid the temptation. If you really have a certain phrase or key sentence that you want to make stand out on your page, you can bold it. However, be aware that bolding a lot of sentences and words does nothing but lessen the overall impact of the bold type.
4) Over Capitalizing
In order to emphasize your website content, you may think it's best to capitalize many of the words you are typing. This is another nasty habit that many novices to web design get into. Putting your content in all capital letters is equal to yelling at those reading your page. This will annoy visitors, dilute your message and will likely send them away.
5) Over Enlarging All Your Fonts
Avoid the overuse of large fonts for the same reasons above. Enlarging too much (or even ALL) of you content dilutes your message and throws off your design. If you make the content text larger than the headers, you are really messing up your website.
6) Too Many Exclamation Marks!!!!
Order Now And Get A FREE Sushi Knife!!!!
People will feel like they are in a infomercial - enough said.
7) Too Many Font Colors
It's amazing how colorful you can make your website nowadays. If you have been doing typical store-based marketing, you may also equate all those bright and dazzling colors with signs used to get customers into a store. The Internet is different. When people bring up your website, it's the first, and often only, impression they will get of your company. If you have too many font colors on the screen, it will look cheap and amateurish, plus your marketing message will be hard to read and will send your prospects away.
8) Spinning Logo / Animation Images
For some reason, back in the 90's when web development was first coming out, everyone thought having lots of animation on your website was really cool. It only took a few years for web designers to figure out that this was not the case. Today, amateur web designers make the same mistake. Spinning logos and animation distract people from the most important thing about their website - the content. Over the years, advertising banners on peoples websites have had lots of animation put into them. They do this so they can do just that - get your attention AWAY from the content on the site to look at their ad!
9) Too Much Data to Load
While most website builders will allow you to add a lot of things to your web page, that doesn't mean you need all of them. If you overload your site with pictures, music, videos or other graphics that have long load times, you will send some users - especially those with slower connections, away.
10) Too Much Content
While you may have a lot to say about your company, most people don't want to read that much. They want to know who you are, what you do and if you can help them. Then they want to know how to contact you for that purpose. If they have to read a novel to find the information they need, they will probably go elsewhere.
Make sure to keep these ideas in mind when you log on to your Doodlekit website and create your own online masterpiece. | <urn:uuid:14385ad8-6c93-486d-82d9-22cac151859e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://doodlekit.com/blog/entry/32721/top-10-content-mistakes-made-on-amateur-websites | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954105 | 1,086 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Trail of The Ancients National Scenic Byway
An Ancient Trail to Modern-Day Discovery This federally designated National Scenic Byway circles through the ancient Puebloan (Anasazi) Country of southeastern Utah, providing opportunity to view archaeological, cultural and historic sites, as well as Natural Bridges National Monument.
An extension of this route continues into Colorado, to Mesa Verde and Canyons of the Ancients National Monument.
The byways program recommends five days to explore this area. Shorter and longer trips can also be enjoyable. Start at any point along the route. Major stops are listed below:
Hovenweep National Monument: Located on the Utah/Colorado border. Hovenweep is known for its square, oval, circular, and D-shaped towers. The park invites exploration among the ruins of a culture that thrived here hundreds of years ago.
Edge of the Cedars State Park and Museum: Located in Blanding. Here you can see an impressive Anasazi ruin restored at the site of a Puebloan surface village. It is distinct from the larger museums of Indian culture in the Four Corners states in that it offers the visitor an intimate look at the lifeway of the Ancient Puebloans. Visitors can walk the paths through the ruin and climb into the kiva via a ladder, just as the original residents did. Exceptionally rare and well-preserved artifacts are at the heart of the museum exhibits.
Butler Wash and Mule Canyon Indian ruins: These ruins are located along Highway 95, between Blanding and Natural Bridges National Monument. Butler Wash shelters a cliff dwelling that can be seen after a short hike. Mule Canyon Ruin is adjacent to the road and contains dwelling units, a reconstructed open kiva, and a partially reconstructed tower.
Natural Bridges National Monument: Located along Highway 95 west of Blanding. Here you can see three of the world's largest natural stone bridges. All are easily viewed from overlooks, or you can hike down into the canyon and walk under them. Several Ansasi ruins can be viewed within the monument.
Grand Gulch Primitive Area: A sprawling canyon system full of ancient structures and artifacts. It is located west of Highway 261, south of Natural Bridges. Some impressive ruins can be seen by day-hiking. To visit the most popular sites you need to backpack into the canyon. Three-day treks are popular and allow backpackers to make a loop. You'll have to backpack for two weeks or more if you want to really explore this area. Backpackers must obtain permits. Permits are not required for day hiking.
Valley of the Gods: As Highway 261 continues south it descends more than 1,000 feet down tight switchbacks called the Moki Dugway. At the base of the dugway a dirt road winds through the area known as Valley of the Gods. Sandstone monoliths here are reminiscent of Monument Valley. This route puts travelers on Hwy 163, between Bluff and Mexican Hat.
Gooseneck State Park: Located along Highway 261, south of the Moki Dugway. It offers striking views of gooseneck meanders on the San Jan River, some 1,000 feet below. Geologic strata are open for examination here, as you peer into the earth's skeleton.
Monument Valley Tribal Park: Located on the Utah/Arizona border along Highway 163. This is Navajo country and offers visitors a chance to experience modern Native American culture. Rock formations here are classic and have served as a backdrop for countless Western movies. There are also ancient Anasazi ruins scattered throughout this area.
Historic Community of Bluff: Located northeast of Monument Valley, along Highway 163, this is a historic community of turn of the 20th Century "Victorian" homes made from sandstone block. The community was settled by pioneers who traveled the incredibly difficult Hole in the Rock Trail. From Bluff, adventurers can float the San Juan River or explore several nearby ancient ruins and rock art panels.
Three Kiva Pueblo: A side trip over winding, gravel roads will take you to this restored Anasazi stie. It is located along Road 146, in Montezuma Creek Canyon, north of the Hovenweep Road.
Four Corners Monument: This is the only spot in the U.S. where four states share a common geographic point (Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado). It is located on Navajo land and is a Tribal Park.
For immediate information about Trail of the Ancients Scenic Byway:
|Back to top||Print this page||E-mail this page| | <urn:uuid:b0075287-79ba-4b9c-82ad-d2d0c1c338c0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.utah.com/byways/bicentennial.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94241 | 952 | 2.484375 | 2 |
The first medal-winner at the inaugural modern Olympics in 1896, was an American triple jumper, James B. Connolly. He was 27 years old and a freshman at Harvard University. He was the national record holder in the hop, step and jump. When the dean refused to allow him to join the 10-man contingent to Athens, Connolly withdrew from Harvard and sailed to Athens as a representative of the Suffolk Athletic Club.
When the team reached Athens, it got a rude shock — the Greek calendar was ahead of the Western calendar and the Games were scheduled to begin the very next morning and not 12 days later as the Americans had thought! Worse, Connolly realised that the triple jump was not the hop-step-and jump he was used to but the hop-hop-and-jump! He had not practised it since childhood. And there were no trials, only three jumps to decide the winner.
Connolly was the last competitor. He swaggered up to the starting point and tossed his cap a metre beyond the best effort of the other competitors. Then he shot down the run-up, hopped twice and jumped — and landed well beyond the cap. His effort of just under 13.5 m fell short of his personal best and the world record he set later that year, but it still outdistanced his nearest rival by more than a metre!
He was the first Olympic winner in 1500 years, but as there were no gold medals in those days, he got only a silver! | <urn:uuid:30ff7b4b-b3da-4dc0-9b51-7a81a80d4e70> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dimdima.com/Sports/show_sports_fitness.asp?q_aid=52&q_title=James%20B.%20Connolly | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988853 | 306 | 3.46875 | 3 |
There are these men in the forest. They have been called by the landlord to cut down tall trees that would fall across the road in a high wind storm after or during rain. They sing in a lilting Spanish while they work in the trees. Perhaps their songs are about women they have known or would like to know. They climb high into the branches, sometimes over a hundred feet off the ground, with a running chainsaw hanging from their belts, carefully belayed by the expensive climbing ropes, tossed over forks in the tops of the trees they are cutting. They step with great care onto long branches that are no thicker than a wrist.
These men have great awareness of the forest- and there is a kind of thoughtful approach they take, as one would approach a lovely woman for the first time. They are aware of dangers that even she herself doesn’t know. To move among the branches, defenses, and know which to take first, so that later, without conscious thought, one is not caught by what is unplanned.
Perhaps that is also what brings these men to the woods. Along with as heady and sharp a perfume as ever adorned a female human, “the talls” (Los Altos) bravely bleed stiff scent into the air as their conquerors take them, as a man takes a woman- to the surprise of both.
There are those who have long ago found trees to be phallic- yet I might suggest that these beings are as to the forest as hair is to us. Maybe that’s inaccurate also, as our human hair is not alive as it is grown from our bodies. These trees are living beings- and the men who take them know this- and are full of care, and respect, and technique- to do their work and stay as safe as they can- knowing full well, that there are those individuals who will fool them particularly when one is distracted-
Life can be lost this way- when distracted- when work with the sacred becomes routine, or mechanized. Such a slow death-life transformation we are undergoing from the willful ignorance of the corporate persons, who find their sustenance from a sole pursuit of unthinking and limited value games within the context of the whole.
Its so plain to see. The Apollo astronauts saw it- Not that our lives as human beings are a zero-sum game- yet we might just want to consider a bit more thoughtfully, not only the intrinsic nature of our being, and not only how we may be inhabiting it, but how we are perhaps literally compromising our own body- in (many times willful) ig-norance.
The ancient Greeks who declared that our world was made up of elementals were not so far wrong- yet instead of fire, air, water, and earth, we have vibrating strings and membranes. And now there is more and more confirmation of the Higgs field, that gives otherwise weightless particles mass, in concert with these vibrating energies.
Of course, we will have to continue to look more and more closely at the nature of Reality- and we will continue to find more and more to be aware of-
Yet there is a kind of orientation of awareness that we can embrace, that allows us access to this infinite unfolding. This awareness is other than finite- it must be infinite- as only the infinite can attend to the infinite- yet the good news is that each human being, each human interface is as capable of this infinite interface as was anyone through time. The recipe, the hackneyed recipe is ego-death.
©2011 Anthony S. Wright, Ph.D.c, All Rights Reserved. | <urn:uuid:79367710-b7a3-4b67-99ad-37b545590a51> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://attunement.biz/blog/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980505 | 749 | 1.84375 | 2 |
this I received a dispatch from General Fitz Lee stating that a brigade of the enemy's cavalry had crossed at Morton's Ford and moved down in the direction of my left. Supposing this to be the force which was annoying Johnson, I sent the dispatch to him with directions to attack this force and drive it off. He had been skirmishing with the enemy since the attack on his train, and on the reception of my order he immediately advanced and encountered a very heavy force of infantry with artillery.
This force, which proved to be the Third Corps of Meade's army (Major-General French's), and a part of the Sixth Corps (Major-General Sedgwick's), he succeeded in driving back some distance with considerable loss to the enemy. This force had come up on the road from Jacobs' Ford, which leads into the road from Bartlett's Mill to Locust Grove, and its advance had fired into Johnson's train of ambulances as they passed. The road Johnson moved on was through a densely wooded country, and there being no cavalry on his flank, the first notice he received of the enemy's approach was the fire into his ambulances. Johnson had to advance to the attack under great disadvantages-through thick woods and over rough ground. His division having nearly exhausted its ammunition, he sent to General Rodes at the time, I ordered him to send Doles' brigade, which wa sin reserve, to Johnson's assistance.
This affair closed at dark and was a very unexpected fight. Such was the nature of the country that I could not see any portion of the troops engaged. For the particulars I must therefore refer to the reports of the division and other commanders.
This affair reflects great credit both on the division and its commander, and developed the fact that the enemy had the whole or the greater part of his force n my front and on my flanks. I therefore determined to fall back across Mine Run, as the position I then held was very unfavorable either for attack or defense. Shortly after coming to this conclusion I received information from the commanding general that the enemy's whole force had moved up toward us, with directions to retire across the run for the purpose of taking a line farther back.
During the whole afternoon there had been skirmishing along Rodes' and Hays' fronts. I ordered all the ambulances of the other divisions to be placed under the orders of the chief surgeon of Johnson's division, and directed that all the wounded of that division should be carried to the rear. As soon as this was done that division was moved back across Mine Run on the road by Zoar Church, and then Rodes' and my won divisions were crossed over the same run at Rowe's Mill in succession. Before I moved back I gave notice to General Anderson, whose division had been sent to the rear of my right about dark, and requested him to move his division back also, which he did.
In going to the front in the day, I had observed that there was a good position on the west side of Mine Run, and this I determined to occupy until further orders were received from the commanding general. I directed General Rodes to place his troops in line on the hills on Mine run, extending from the turnpike to the Zoar Church road, General Johnston to rest his right on Rodes' left, and throw his own left a little back toward Zoar Church, putting Stafford's brigade at the church to protect the left and rear, and Hays to rest his left on Rodes' right and extend up the run.
53 R R-VOL XXIX, PT I | <urn:uuid:b3fa5246-b5cd-4234-9036-ee13b8c77adb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/sources/recordView.cfm?Content=048/0833 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.989442 | 735 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Bombardier Challenger 601-1A
Bombardier designed the original Challenger 601 with the primary goal of passenger comfort. It is unusually wide-bodied and can carry up to nineteen passengers in its 8.2 foot wide cabin, yet it has transcontinental range, and is able to complete nonstop flights between almost any two cities in the United States. The 601 series has improved immensely over the 600, with a more reliable flight system and increased maintainability. The 601-1A iteration signifies the use of General Electric CF43-1A engines and drag reducing winglets.
As previously mentioned, the cabin of this private jet is uncharacteristically large: its width is 8.2 feet, and its height is 6.1 feet. Cabin length is 28.3 feet. Passengers enjoy a quiet interior and well-lit cabin. It usually has a seating configuration that comfortably holds between eight and twelve people, but can be configured to carry as many as nineteen.
Two General Electric CF43-1A engines power the Challenger 601-1A, each flat rated to 70°F, meaning that the engines provide their full 8,650 pounds of thrust in temperatures up to 70°F. Performance drops slightly above the 70° mark, but they still perform well in temperatures over 90°F. The Challenger 601-1A can take off in 5,400 feet (at sea level) with an increased takeoff weight of 44,600 lbs. It can take five passengers up to 3,500 nautical miles nonstop.
The Challenger 601-1A can hit a top cruise speed of 459 ktas; however, it is more often used for long-range trips, where it cruises at 424 ktas. The aircraft cruises (long-range) at Mach .74. The cabin of the Challenger 601-1A is rated to 8.8 psi, meaning that it can maintain a sea-level cabin at 23,200 feet. Its performance is surprisingly high considering that the cabin is larger than most other jets.
The cockpit of this private jet contains dual digital Honeywell DFZ-800 flight guidance systems, Honeywell laser INS, dual Honeywell EDZ-800 EFIS, and dual digital Collins com/nav/ident radios.
While the Challenger 601 is a private jet well-suited for frequent cross-country trips under rigorous conditions, it fails to match the performance capabilities of the upgraded 601-1A. Refinements like a more advanced engine and the addition of winglets make the aircraft capable of transoceanic range while maintaining ample cabin space for which its predecessor is known. | <urn:uuid:5b056e4b-b383-4f48-86d9-d1836a28a3de> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jetadvisors.com/challenger-601-1a/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9328 | 537 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Dangers of Prenatal Diagnosis
Interview With Neonatologist Carlo Bellieni
SIENA, Italy, DEC. 23, 2004 (Zenit) - Far from offering or requesting prenatal diagnosis as a routine examination, people should use it with great care, warns a neonatologist.
Dr. Carlo Bellieni of the Santa Maria alle Scotte Polyclinic explains in this interview the risks of using -- or abusing -- prenatal diagnosis.
Q: What is prenatal diagnosis?
Bellieni: It is the way of knowing the fetus' health conditions. It can be done in an invasive way -- by extracting fetal material: blood, chorionic villi, amniotic fluid -- or in a non-invasive way.
In the latter case, it can be done by analyzing the maternal blood or carrying out instrumental examinations such as fetal ultrasounds. Chorionic villous sampling is usually done in the first trimester, while amniocentesis is carried out more frequently in the second trimester.
Q: In whose interest is it done?
Bellieni: Good question. Prenatal diagnosis is very useful to be able to determine a good number of fetal pathologies; many of these can be treated, some directly before birth. But prenatal diagnosis may also be used for selective purposes, recently also in the form of pre-implantation testing.
In this latter case it is carried out in in-vitro fertilization, before introducing the "ideal" embryos in the uterus. There are those who suggest that this testing can be done not only to determine major pathologies, but also secondary features, such as sex.
So a distinction must be made between a prenatal diagnosis done in the interest of all the individuals -- embryo-fetus and mother -- and one which, instead, considers only the interests of the one already born.
Q: Amniocentesis is an ever more widespread examination, yes?
Bellieni: In the 35 years since Jacobson and Barten referred to the first 56 cases of amniocentesis, the number of amniocenteses has increased progressively. Recently, endeavors are under way to overcome the need for invasive examinations in pregnancies, because of the risk of abortion that they entail.
Q: Is it an omissible risk?
Bellieni: A recent study by Seeds in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, of 2004, refers to an abortion rate of 0.6%.
Considering that in 2003 in Italy close to 100,000 amniocenteses were carried out, it turns out, according to this data, that more than 500 normal and wanted pregnancies did not end in birth because of this technique, with the consequent trauma for the woman. It is not an omissible fact, despite surgeons being extremely scrupulous and skillful.
Q: You have spoken on other occasions of the fetus' right to privacy. To what are you referring?
Bellieni: I understand that the fetus is an individual who has the right of non-interference in his innermost sphere. In 1998 the World Health Organization also recommended that prenatal diagnosis be carried out exclusively in the interest of the fetus, and not to satisfy the parents' curiosity.
Q: Do ultrasounds hold surprises in store?
Bellieni: We must be clear: Ultrasounds are absolutely safe and not harmful. Moreover, they can contribute useful information in the interest of the mother and the fetus. However, we must not trivialize them, as we must not trivialize anything in medicine.
In 2004 the Food and Drug Administration warned about the excess of videos recorded as "mementos." Many international studies recommend an ultrasound in the course of a pregnancy. In Italy and France the number is even higher than the three that are usually recommended.
Q: What would you say by way of conclusion?
Bellieni: That prenatal diagnosis is too often carried out in the ambit of already widespread anxiety over pregnancy, which stems for the concept of the "search for the perfect child," since the idea that the pregnancy might end in a way other than perfection is "simply not granted to women."
Invasive prenatal diagnosis is an instrument that must be used with care -- in the first place, knowing its risks and real indications, and not offering or requiring it as a routine examination; in the second place, knowing lamentably that it cannot give the yearned for certainty of the absence of fetal pathology, the pathologies that a pregnancy might entail being so many and of such a varied nature.
Pregnancy must be released from the grip of anxiety, and prenatal diagnosis must be given back its role as coadjutor of a mental and emotional process, and not as an obligation for social ends.
http://www.catholic.org CA, US
Catholic Online - Publisher, 661 869-1000
Abortion, Prenatal, Neonatologist, Birth, Baby
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- Prelate: Genetics Needs a Conscience | <urn:uuid:fa0b1038-c3a7-46b0-ab53-aa1996ac6ec2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.catholic.org/featured/headline.php?ID=1637 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926054 | 1,149 | 2.140625 | 2 |
While keeping the back as straight as possible, bend your knees, bend forward and grasp the bar using a medium (shoulder width) overhand grip. This will be the starting position of the exercise. Tip: If it is difficult to hold on to the bar with this grip, alternate your grip or use wrist straps.
While holding the bar, start the lift by pushing with your legs while simultaneously getting your torso to the upright position as you breathe out. In the upright position, stick your chest out and contract the back by bringing the shoulder blades back. Think of how the soldiers in the military look when they are in standing in attention.
Go back to the starting position by bending at the knees while simultaneously leaning the torso forward at the waist while keeping the back straight. When the weights on the bar touch the floor you are back at the starting position and ready to perform another repetition.
Perform the amount of repetitions prescribed in the program.
This is not an exercise to be taken lightly. If you have back issues, substitute it for a rowing motion instead.
If you have a healthy back, ensure perfect form and never round the back as this can cause back injury. Be cautious as well with the weight used; in case of doubt, use less weight rather than more.
Variations: Dumbbells can be used as well though I find the bar version easier to perform. | <urn:uuid:98561638-6e11-4894-afb9-b69e8e9dcfb2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bodybuilding.com/exercises/detail/print/name/barbell-deadlift/gender/Male | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939903 | 285 | 2.09375 | 2 |
School on the run
Project combines workouts with study
Darren Bernhardt, The StarPhoenixPublished: Monday, March 24, 2008
For kids struggling at school, learning can feel like running on a treadmill. For students in one City Park Collegiate classroom, it's a reality.
Teacher Allison Cameron has integrated treadmills and stationary bicycles into her Grade 8 class instruction. Instead of pencils, she supplies her students with antiperspirant sticks and a lot of encouragement.
During language arts, students do 20 minutes of cardiovascular exercise, getting their heart rates into an optimal zone while reading or watching a documentary. In math class, they head into the weight room for strength-training while thinking about an arithmetic problem posted by Cameron.
Teacher Allison Cameron encourages student Devon Nagy to integrate his studies with exercise at City Park Collegiate
SP Photo by Richard MarjanMore pictures: < Prev | Next >
Following the workouts every other day, students cool down with quiet time, such as reading or journal-writing. That is, once they've gone for water, changed clothes and coated their armpits in antiperspirant -- which "is supposed to go on before you exercise, not to mask the smell afterwards," Cameron reminded them on a recent afternoon. For the remainder of the day, the curriculum is as regular as a high-fibre dieter.
"It's pretty out there, but it works," said Cameron, who launched the program near the end of January.
Less than two months later, her students' attention has sharpened and they spend far more time on assignments without interruption. That alone is a victory as Cameron's students wrestle with a myriad of issues that threaten to derail their education.
City Park Collegiate offers alternative programming for those whose lives don't fit into a regular school setting for various reasons -- learning disabilities, domestic or personal issues. Many in Cameron's class suffer from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), which makes it hard for them to control their behavior and or pay attention. She has found 20 minutes of exercise have translated into two hours of sustained concentration from the students. That quality learning has compensated the loss of instruction time to the treadmills and bikes.
The benefits of exercise are well known but the traditional approaches "are designed to fail," Cameron said. "Kids who aren't athletically-inclined tend to shy away from it. On a track, the slower people get lapped and it can be damaging to their self-esteem. In this (program) no one knows who's slower or faster."
The concept is unique to Canada and modeled on the Learning Readiness Physical Education at Naperville Central high school west of Chicago. The LRPE is based on research indicating physically active students are more academically alert and experience enhanced brain development. In one semester last year, Naperville students involved in LRPE improved their reading and comprehension scores by 50 per cent more than students who took the literacy class alone. Those who took LRPE before math class increased their algebra readiness by an average of 20 per cent compared to a two per cent average improvement for other students.
Disciplinary problems decreased by 67 per cent and the use of Ritalin plummeted. The prescription drug, commonly used to treat ADHD, provides the same chemicals the body naturally produces through exercise. | <urn:uuid:1caa062d-3e27-41be-b05a-28f1fed87674> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www2.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/news/third_page/story.html?id=de39dbfd-3480-472e-9056-3a6230a58649 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96352 | 680 | 2.21875 | 2 |
The Library of Congress has registersed 1,300 local legacies which are the local events, community festivals, and other grassroots activities within each state that celebrate the cultural diversity and richness of its citizens. Here are found the Tennessee Local Legacies. The Library of Congress Local Legacies page provides more information about the project and provides links to every states’ local legacies.
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National Do Not Call Registry
Tennessee Do Not Call Program
Federal Trade Commission Consumer Complaint Form
State of Tennessee Consumer Affairs Division — File a Complaint
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Materials, including images, pamphlets, letters, maps, and more, from the diverse Library of Congress digital collections, on the contribubutions made by African Americans to the arts, education, industry, literature, politics, and other areas are found on this site.
Maintained by the Federal Trade Commission, with signifigant contributions from other federal agencies, this site provides tips from the federal government and the technology industry to help people guard against Internet fraud, secure their computers, and protect their personal information. Identity theft, phishing, wireless security, spam scams are among the topics covered. There is also a link to where a complaint can be filed with the FTC about Identity Theft and other Internet-related problems.
Submitted by Doris Dixon (Raleigh):
“The three forms used for filing individual federal income tax returns are Form 1040EZ, Form 1040A and Form 1040. If you are filing a federal income tax return on paper, use the simplest form you can. Using the simplest allowable form will reduce the chance of an error that may cost you money or delay the processing of your return.”
From the website: “The Guide to Law Online, prepared by the Law Library of Congress Public Services Division, is an annotated guide to sources of information on government and law available online. It includes selected links to useful and reliable sites for legal information.” | <urn:uuid:54ac936a-55d2-4702-aac2-f7b0ec6835f1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mplic.wordpress.com/2008/03/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915051 | 666 | 2.234375 | 2 |
Ingwansan is a 338 metres tall mountain located in the heart of Seoul. A short walk away from the nearest subway station, a brief 15 minute hike will see you encountering Buddhist temples, citywide vistas and a shamanist shrine to boot.
Be sure to pick up some kimbap (김밥 in Korean script) from one of the many small restaurants nearby to devour as a snack upon reaching the summit. Made of white rice and various other ingredients, wrapped together in dried laver seaweed, a kimbap is the perfect reward after a short and sharp climb.
Oh, and don't be surprised if you're offered a soju pick-me-up by one of Korea's numerous elderly hikers!
From Dongnimmum Subway station (Line 3), leave through Exit 2 and take an immediate left. Follow the winding road and you will, after 2-3 minutes walking, come across some steps on the right handside. Climb the steps and you'll find yourself at Ingwansan.
Google map: bit.ly/ziF6hT
The DMZ is the line of demarcation between North and South Korea on the 49th parallel. It is patrolled and managed by the South Korean and American forces on the South, with the North Koreans guarding the Northern side.
Tours are available with a number of travel companies, but I recommend arranging a trip with the US army travel corps at Yongsan. They run regular tours and their tours visit a number of sites not available to all operators. Prices include travel to and from the zone, lunch and all travel around the site, (which includes travel amongst an armed convoy at the DMZ).
The atmosphere at the DMZ is one of tension and palatable eeriness. Arriving as part of a convoy of buses, with armoured cars leading and tailing, you are taken to the central observation tower and to various sites of importance. A US Army spokesman explains their side of the story, which for me gave a personal insight into the propaganda of war, bearing in mind that the North will have its own version of events.
The highlight for me was the DMZ meeting hall, a UN-blue building which straddles the 49th parallel and has been the location for inter-Korean dialogue since the end of hostilities. North Korean guards, in tired looking uniforms, stare from their side of the line, with their South Korean counterparts assuming a more aggressive stance, (taken from the martial art of Tae Kwon Do), complete with US Army-issue Raybans.
A great full-day trip, and an essential one in my opinion. The reality of the situation, considering the two countries are technically still at war and the real and desperate poverty in the North, is worth reflecting on, as you arrive back in the modern metropolis of bustling Seoul.
It's a "secret" garden (biwon can be translated literally as secret garden) attached to Changdeog-gung palace in central Seoul. The garden used to be strictly off limits for the non-royals, but now it is open to the public to enjoy. The scenery is breathtaking all the year round, but in the autumn, the leaves turn to spectacular colours to the delight of visitors. The place is not too crowded if you time your visit well and can be a great place for quiet thoughts and reflections in the middle of one of the most hectic cities in the world.
www.lifeinkorea.com/Travel2/76; Underground (Subway) line 3, Anguk Station, exit 3, 5 minutes walking
Send your feedback or queries to email@example.com | <urn:uuid:04a5af7b-95a6-4e8e-8b47-39c7cdb846dd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/places/south-korea/seoul/tips/historic%20site | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944246 | 765 | 1.726563 | 2 |
These are some Elliots who have become famous for a variety of reasons through the centuries. You can also find a list on the Elliot Clan's Scottish website - click here.
On this page:
- First Earl of Minto
- Second Earl of Minto
- Third Earl of Minto
- Fourth Earl of Minto
- George Augustus Eliott, the 1st Baron Heathfield
Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound – 1st Earl of Minto (1751-1814)
Born Gilbert Elliot in Edinburgh, Scotland on 23 April 1751.He entered the law profession after leaving university. In 1771 he became an independent Whig MP for Morpeth. He was appointed to govern Corsica in 1794. In 1797 he assumed the additional names of Murray-Kynynmound and was created Baron Minto. He had only been a member of the Board of Control for a few months when he was appointed Governor-General of India at the end of 1806. During his time in India the British consolidated their power in the subcontinent and extended their influence into South East Asia. He governed with great success until 1813. In that year he was created Viscount Melgund and Earl of Minto. He died at Stevenage, England on 21 June 1814 and was buried in Westminster Abby.
The 2nd Earl (16 November 1782 - 31 July 1859) was the eldest son of the Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 1st Earl of Minto, and Anna Maria, daughter of Sir George Amyand, 1st Baronet. He was educated at Eton and St John's College, Cambridge.
He was returned to Parliament for Ashburton in 1806, a seat he held until 1807, and then represented Roxburghshire between 1812 and 1814. The latter year he succeeded his father in the earldom and took his seat in the House of Lords. From 1832 to 1834 he was Minister to Prussia. In 1835 he was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty under Lord Melbourne, a post he held until 1841, and later served as Lord Privy Seal under Lord John Russell from 1846 to 1852. He was admitted to Privy Council in 1832. His influence in the Whig party was partly because his daughter, Lady Frances, was the wife of Lord John Russell.
Lord Minto married Mary, daughter of Patrick Brydone, in 1806. They had at least five sons and five daughters. Their second son, the Hon. Sir Henry Elliot, was a diplomat, while their third son, Sir Charles Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, was an Admiral of the Fleet. Lady Minto died in July 1853. Lord Minto survived her by six years and died in July 1859, aged 75. He was succeeded in the earldom by his eldest son, William.
The 3rd Earl, 1722-1777, was a Scottish statesman, philosopher and poet. He served in the House of Commons and was a supporter of the policies of King George III in the American colonies.
The 4th Earl of Minto,Gilbert John Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound KG, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE, PC (London 9 July 1845 – 1 March 1914 Minto, Roxburghshire) was a British politician, Governor General of Canada, and Viceroy of India.
He was born in London, the son of William Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 3rd Earl of Minto, and Emma, daughter of General Sir Thomas Hislop, 1st Baronet. After completing his education at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge, he was commissioned Lieutenant in the Scots Guards in 1867, but left in 1870. He joined the 1st Roxburghshire Mounted Rifle Volunteer Corps as a Captain in 1872. In 1874, in the capacity of a newspaper correspondent, he witnessed the operations of the Carlists in Spain. He served with the Turkish army in the war with Russia in 1877 and served under Lord Roberts in the second Afghan War (1878 – 1879).
He acted as private secretary to Lord Roberts during his mission to the Cape in 1881, and was with the army occupying Egypt in 1882, thus furthering his military career and his experience of colonial administration. He was promoted Major in 1882. He was military secretary to Lord Lansdowne during Lansdowne's governor-generalship of Canada from 1883 to 1885, and lived in Canada with his wife, Mary Caroline Grey, sister of Lord Grey, Governor General from 1904 to 1911, whom he had married in Britain on 28 July 1883. When he was offered command of the North-West Mounted Police, he decided instead to pursue a political career in Britain.
Having succeeded to the earldom in 1891, he was named Governor General of Canada in 1898. Lord Minto, like his predecessors, travelled throughout the young country — he crossed Quebec, Ontario and western Canada, visiting former battlegrounds where he had served during the North-West Rebellion. He rode throughout western Canada with the North-West Mounted Police, and enjoyed the Quebec countryside on horseback.Lord Minto's convictions about the importance of preserving Canadian heritage led to the creation of the National Archives of Canada. He loved the outdoors, championed the conservation of natural resources and promoted the creation of national parks.
He was appointed honorary Lieutenant-Colonel of the Governor General's Foot Guards Regiment on 1 December 1898 and was subsequently appointed Honorary Colonel, a tradition that has continued with the post of Governors General to this day.
In 1905, he was appointed Viceroy and Governor-General of India, retiring in 1910. In this, he followed in the footsteps of his great-grandfather, the first Lord Minto.
For his lifetime of service, was made a Knight of the Garter.
In 1924, John Buchan, the author of The Thirty-None Steps and other novels, wrote Lord Minto: A Memoir about the 4th Earl. In the introduction to the book (wich can be read in full by clicking here), Buchan writes:
"In writing this Memoir I have had access to the journal and the private papers of Lord Minto, as well as to the official records of his administration inIndiaandCanada, and I have had the further advantage of talks and consultations with many of his friends. To these I would offer my sincere thanks, and I would gratefully acknowledge the kindness of Lady Hutton, who lent me some of the papers of her husband, the late Lieutenant-General Sir Edward Hutton, and the generosity of the executors of the late Lord Morley and Messrs. Macmillan & Co., who have permitted me to quote extracts from Lord Morley’s letters, both published and unpublished.
"The book owes a special debt to two collaborators. It was undertaken at the request of Lady Minto, who has given me such constant and invaluable help that in a real sense the book is her own. She not only arranged and analysed for me a formidable mass of documents, but from her intimate association with her husband’s work she was able to cast light on many obscure matters, and to reproduce for me the atmosphere of events, which cannot be recovered from the written or printed page. I have had, too, the use of her delightful Indian diary, which I wish could be given intact to the world, for in light and colour those words of an eye-witness are far superior to any Chronicle at second hand.
"The other is the late Arthur Elliot. He was my friend for many years, and only those who had the privilege of knowing that wise and gracious character can realize how much better this book would have been if he had lived to give it his kindly criticism. Throughout their lives the two brothers shared each other’s full confidence. Minto’s letters to him are the most revealing in the correspondence, and from him I received most of the material for the early chapters. My hope is that the Memoir in its final form may be such as he would have approved."
The complete text of the book, which includes a number of photographs of the 4th earl, can be found on the Project Gutenberg Australia website at http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks05/0500261h.html - the book can be freely downloaded from that page.
The 1st Baron Heathfield KB (25 December 1717 – 6 July 1790) was a British Army officer who took served in three major wars during the 18th century. He fought in the Seven Years War in Germany and in the British attacks on Belle Île and Cuba. He is most famous for his command of the successful defence of Gibraltar when he commanded the garrison during the Great Siege of Gibraltar, from 1779 to 1783 during the American War of Independence. Click here to read more information about the siege. Click here to read a more detailed biography of Barin Heathfield.
Click on the portrait to the right to view a larger version.
His image has been used on a Gibraltar banknote, shown below.
Boldly and Rightly
Chief Margaret Eliott
Margaret of Redheugh
Roxburghshire TD9 0SB
- Kilmore Celtic Festival
28 June 2013 - 30 June 2013
- Aberdeen Highland Games
06 July 2013
- Beechworth Highland Games
18 August 2013
- Elliot Clan Gathering in Scotland
30 August 2013 - 01 September 2013
- Gathering of the Clans
31 August 2013
- Braemar Gathering
07 September 2013
- St Andrews Day
30 November 2013
Book for Sale
The society has copies of the book "Clan", by David P. Elliot for sale for $18. If you would like to order it, please send us an email.
The story draws heavily on the Clan system in Scotland in a very turbulent period in The Borders. It includes both contemporary and historical information which will interest those who enjoy supernatural or historical or thriller genres.
David Elliot is 57, frustrated, out of work and has three failed marriages behind him. In 2007 he goes to the Borders of Scotland hoping that his ancestry will help him find some validation of his life. Accompanied by his daughter, son-in-law and his grandson Thomas, he finds that his bloodline leads his family into terrifying danger. 700 years of history threaten those he holds dearest, as myth and reality of “The Bloodiest Valley in Britain” combine.
The corruption of the rich and powerful meets legend as Good and Evil clash over the ancient Throne of Scotland and power in the modern world. William Wallace, Robert the Bruce, Border Reivers, creatures of supernatural horror and past heroes of the Elliot Clan are all involved, as the evil Lord William de Soulis actions his plan to assume power over an unsuspecting world.
All that stands against him is a family fighting desperately to protect a child. Their only weapon is their love of family… the power of their Clan. | <urn:uuid:f18f62d4-6dd4-4773-b3ed-e4fe0367733d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.elliotclanaustralia.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12&Itemid=15 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982167 | 2,302 | 2.21875 | 2 |
Disaster strikes in the Gulf, as the Houston Chronicle recently reported, with scientists desperately searching for the missing plume of oil initially predicted to be the size of one of the Great Lakes.
Today’s Washington Post similarly and appropriately asks (albeit, buried on p. A6), “Where has all the oil gone?”
Science’s study on this subject published yesterday solves much of the mystery (Abstract here). Despite predictions by numerous scientists that the purported 22-mile stretch of oil would not easily biodegrade, that microbes were not up to the job of ridding it, and that the Gulf’s natural resources were severely at threat, the reality is that the bacteria-based microorganisms are gobbling up the crude faster than anyone—including all the “experts”—thought possible.
Lead scientist Terry Hazen of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: “For the last three weeks, we haven’t been able to detect the deepwater plume at all” because “the bugs have degraded the oil.” (Link here).
This from the National Laboratory’s news release:
“Our findings, which provide the first data ever on microbial activity from a deepwater dispersed oil plume, suggest that a great potential for intrinsic bioremediation of oil plumes exists in the deep-sea,” Hazen says. “These findings also show that [oil-degrading microbes] play a significant role in controlling the ultimate fates and consequences of deep-sea oil plumes in the Gulf of Mexico.”
Hazen’s study may finally raise public awareness that oil spills nearly always trigger substantial microbial hydrocarbon degradation, a fact that is too frequently ignored in initial responses…Future strategies to deal with oil spills must fully integrate measures to harness the microbial capacity to remove hydrocarbons…
Is it possible Hazen’s study may also raise public awareness that too often experts, along with the media, get it very wrong, painting false, doom-and-gloom scenarios that can have serious and harmful consequences?
Just last week, scientists with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute published a peer-reviewed study claiming that a 22 mile long oil plume extending from the BP well shows few signs of dissipating and threatens the Gulf’s natural resources. (Link here).
The oil “is persisting for longer periods than we would have expected,” said Camilli, chief scientist on the two-week expedition, which measured the plume using a chemical-sniffing spectrometer that can identify microscopic oil components. “Many people speculated that subsurface oil droplets were being easily biodegraded. We found it was still there.’’
This is the same tune scientists at Woods Hole have been chanting since May. This excerpted from an oped then by marine biologist Chris Reddy:
Microbes can and will eat some of the oil, but they are picky eaters.
They need time to organize, they work slowly in the face of the oncoming damages and are pretty demanding about wanting “just right” conditions in which to chow down.
I often think of microbes in this situation as adolescents assigned an undesirable chore. First, it may take them to get them to actually start the job. Then they will do some things very well, some satisfactorily, and leave a lot of work undone.
Similarly, there is a lag before the microbes will start to make any appreciable dent on oil. Then they will begin consuming the oil compounds, starting with the ones that have shapes and sizes that are easiest for them to eat. Eventually they stall, leaving behind the larger and hard-to-digest compounds.
Two other factors about microbes. Consider our teenagers — hungry after performing their chores, they may want to eat hamburgers. What would happen if the teens were rewarded with 10,000 burgers? Some would be eaten but not all, and not all within an hour. Microbes in the Gulf face similar challenges.
Scientists caution that this is only a partial solution. It’s best used on sandy beaches and in salt marshes after the thickest oil has been removed by bulldozer and shovel. It has never been tried in deep water or open ocean… But microbes can’t do the whole job, said Chris Reddy, marine chemist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts.
“The idea that microbes can come in and clean house from A to Z is not likely,” he said. “What they can do — on their own time — is eat some compounds and play an important role in the cleanup.”
But Woods Hole marine scientists were not the only so called experts discrediting microbes as an effective way to remove the oil. Robert Carney, biological oceanographer at Louisiana State University, as reported by the National Geographic: “Microbes are not an oil-cleanup panacea…The sentimentality that bacteria turn everything into fish food and CO2 is total bull.”
Finally, this conclusion based on a National Science Foundation on-site study by John Kessler of Texas A&M, referring to a White House report:
These reports seem to indicate that about 25 percent of the spill has been recovered or removed, another 25 percent has been dispersed, and another 25 percent has been evaporated or dissolved. But the reality is that only 25 percent has been removed from the ocean - the rest is still out there. Just because the form of the material is now dissolved or dispersed doesn’t mean it isn’t in the ocean and doesn’t pose significant problems.
With so many scientists getting it wrong, it raises more questions about expert, even peer-reviewed, opinions that so directly impact policies, economies, ecologies, and people’s lives in such profound ways. | <urn:uuid:7a393689-2c70-41a8-8c11-63bbb2f12bad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.conservativeblog.org/amyridenour/2010/8/25/where-has-all-the-oil-gone.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96082 | 1,221 | 3.25 | 3 |
Last week, while in a training class, we came upon some tomatoes showing moldy clayxes and stems. Of course the question came up about the scoring guideline, for moldy stems on tomatoes and on cluster tomatoes.
The class and I thought it may go a few ways, for instance:
- Score the defect as serious damage, for all tomatoes.
- Score as a defect on cluster tomatoes only, since the attached stem is prominent
- Score as a defect on all tomatoes, against the decay tolerance
Wanting to be sure of the correct answer I looked up the scoring guide in the USDA’s inspection instruction manual. We were wrong on all counts. The USDA’s inspection instructions state to score as damage only, when the mold materially detracts from the appearance. This guideline applies to all tomatoes, including plum, grape and cherry tomatoes, but not for Cluster Tomatoes. We were all surprised.
But it gets crazier. If the mold is actually turning into decay, then the tomato is scored as decayed stems, but not against the decay tolerance, but against the tolerance for serious damage. OK, one would think decayed stems on cluster tomatoes would be scored this way too, as a serious damage defect. But no, moldy or decayed stems on cluster tomatoes is not scored as a defect at all.
I’m not sure of their reasoning, but if anyone has any ideas as to why, feel free to comment. I know a class full of people are wondering …why? | <urn:uuid:0f024523-cdfe-454c-9253-fe79a390ff0f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ipt.us.com/defect-identification/tomatoes-moldy-stems | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967076 | 312 | 2.421875 | 2 |
As long as at least 16 films qualify, there will be five nominees in the feature-length animation category.
The category has had only three nominees most years, but 2009 has been a prolific year for animation. The only previous year when there were five nominees came in 2002, when 17 animated films were submitted.
Submissions include a wide variety of styles, including the computer animation of such hits as "Up," ''Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" and "Monsters vs. Aliens"; the stop-motion animation of "Coraline," ''Fantastic Mr. Fox" and "Mary and Max"; and the hand-drawn animation of "The Princess and the Frog" and "Ponyo."
Other films submitted are "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel," ''Astro Boy," ''Battle for Terra," ''Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs," ''Disney's A Christmas Carol," ''The Dolphin — Story of a Dreamer," ''The Missing Lynx," ''9," ''Planet 51," ''The Secret of Kells," ''Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure" and "A Town Called Panic."
Some films have yet to complete a weeklong theatrical run in Los Angeles to qualify for the Oscars. Academy rules for the category also state that a "significant number of the major characters must be animated, and animation must figure in no less than 75 percent of the picture's running time." | <urn:uuid:50e3005b-63ca-4e5c-9edd-44171f15d7ad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nbcsandiego.com/entertainment/movies/Oscars_Get_Record_20_Animated_Submission-69791072.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962697 | 298 | 2.03125 | 2 |
74 countries around the world participate in Daylight Savings Time. Every spring (during Daylight Savings Time), people set their clocks ahead one hour, and every fall (during Standard Time) they set their clock behind one hour. Research shown that this common practice is pretty dangerous. The day every year that people move their clocks ahead by an hour reduces the amount of sleep that people have that night. Participants in a study lost an average of 40 minutes of sleep the night that the clock moves ahead. This day is also associated with more automobile accidents and more workplace injuries, particularly in the mining industry.
From year to year the number of fat cells in the adult human body never changes, regardless of the amount of weight you gain or lose!
This means that a person could up and decide to gain 300 pounds and take up sumo wrestling, but they would still have the same number of fat cells in their body. The only thing that changes is the amount of fat that is stored within each individual fat cell. There are small fluctuations in the amount of cells in the body at a given time, though. Each year, around 10 percent of a person’s fat cells die off and are replaced with new ones. Regardless, the maximum number of fat cells never changes throughout an adult human’s lifetime.
Though many find it romantic, the song “Every Breath You Take” by the Police was not intended to be a sentimental love ballad!
The song was actually written by Sting during a tumultuous divorce from his first wife, Frances Tomelty. Yes, the song is about love, but it’s quite a bit more sinister and ugly than most people realize. Sting himself explains, “I woke up in the middle of the night with that line in my head, sat down at the piano and had written it in half an hour. The tune itself is generic, an aggregate of hundreds of others, but the words are interesting. It sounds like a comforting love song. I didn't realize at the time how sinister it is. I think I was thinking of Big Brother, surveillance and control.” Since he wrote the tune during the collapse of his marriage, many speculate the song functioned as a vehicle by which to express feelings of jealousy and obsession over his lost lover, though the band has subsequently denied these rumors.
It worked! The monkey was able to think and act on his thoughts. This was a case in which an animal’s consciousness was able to be transferred to another animal’s body. While this research may have implications for the future treatment of paraplegic humans, the experiments were discontinued. | <urn:uuid:e0135b40-c74d-4d0f-9088-b71a82848f94> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.omg-facts.com/page/1172 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976642 | 536 | 2.4375 | 2 |
ABA Challenge focuses bakery energies
There is no lack of policy issues on which ABA is working to benefit the baking industry. Issues such as commodity volatility, nutrition labeling, workforce, proof box emissions, etc., are all front-of-mind in Washington and the states. However, I want to focus this month on an important initiative ABA recently launched–the ABA ENERGY STAR® Challenge.
Specifically, ABA is leading the baking industry to solve a key challenge–becoming more energy efficient. ABA recently signed an agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop and implement meaningful and measurable steps to reduce the industry’s energy usage in the next five years. The ABA ENERGY STAR Challenge is designed to accomplish this goal.
By partnering with the EPA, ABA hopes to reduce the industry’s energy usage by 10 percent over the next five years. ABA will be conducting a webinar Nov. 8 with EPA to outline the steps needed to achieve the targets of the ABA ENERGY STAR Challenge. ABA is looking for full participation by bakers and allied partners.
In addition to being good corporate stewards of the environment, lowering the electricity usage in bakeries will significantly reduce costs for bakers. Regardless of whether you are an independent baking company or corporate multi-bakery company, anything to reduce operating costs should be wholeheartedly embraced.
This summer I had the opportunity to visit a new bakery recently brought on line by a small family baking company. Not only was I impressed by the willingness of the family to take such a risk in the current economic climate, I was blown away by the substantial energy savings built into the new plant. By designing energy efficiency into the construction, layout and equipment purchases, they increased their capacity three-fold while reducing their energy footprint in excess of 50 percent over their original plant. They proactively addressed one of their top cost items and are poised for a substantial return on their investment.
At IBIE 2010, the industry for the first time recognized and celebrated the suppliers who are embracing sustainability, including energy efficiency, with the Best in Baking awards. We will be measuring progress on sustainability and the ABA ENERGY STAR Challenge at IBIE 2013.
I encourage every baker to work with their suppliers in order to step up to the plate and take the ABA ENERGY STAR Challenge.
Reprints and Licensing
© 2013 Penton Media Inc.
Acceptable Use Policy blog comments powered by Disqus | <urn:uuid:852bac0f-0233-41b3-b121-06ef159baca9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://baking-management.com/editor/bakery-focuses-energy-1111/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953628 | 514 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Andes water scarcity: Impact of population growth
As the Earth's surface warms, climate models predict that the amount of fresh water for human consumption will likely decrease in parts of the globe. While that prospect looms for many cities around the world, a new study finds a more imminent threat to water supplies of cities in the tropical Andes, such as Lima, Peru and Quito, Ecuador.
"Despite all the uncertainty of the future impact of climate change, the impact of population growth is much bigger," said Wouter Buytaert of Imperial College London, an environmental engineer and lead author of the study. This could mean harsher times ahead for millions including the 7.6 and 2.2 million inhabitants of the fast growing cities of Lima and Quito.
Some parts of the tropical Andes, a region along the northwestern coast of South America, already lack sufficient water to meet demand. To help policy makers combat this water scarcity, Buytaert and his colleague, Bert De Bièvre of the Consortium for the Sustainable Development of the Andean Ecoregion in Quito, Ecuador, compared the two main drivers of water depletion in that region — climate change and population growth.
The scientists used 19 climate models to project how climate change may affect urban water resources of the tropical Andes over the next 60 years. While the most pessimistic findings from models projected an average water depletion of up to 10 percent of current values, some optimistic outlooks estimated a 10 percent increase in water availability.
When the researchers separately modeled the impact of population growth, they found a drop of 38 to 62 percent in the amount of water available for each person. In their projections, the demand for more water as populations increase surpasses the amount of water lost through evaporation from warmer temperatures due to climate change.
Article continues at AGU
Peru Mountains image via Shutterstock | <urn:uuid:ef98a8aa-e446-4489-aa80-3d9f00f163f1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/44690 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921471 | 378 | 3.875 | 4 |
Use an International Vantage Point to
Gain a Better Understanding of Today’s Literacy
Using Italy as the backdrop to your learning,
Literacy Development challenges students to consider the major
components of literacy—including the important role of vocabulary.
All 5th year and graduate students are invited to take part
in this course, which explores the importance of student diversity
and the essence of reading comprehension.
One of the most effective ways to increase
vocabulary is through the study of word origin. Students will learn
the contributions of the Latin and the Greek language in creating
learning activities that enhance vocabulary using word origin. They
will also use technology to create a living journal of their
experiences in Rome to design an exemplar (thematic) unit of
- EDU 3220: Approaches, Materials, and Performance Evaluation in
Dates: July 9 – 24, 2013
Note: you must arrive in Rome on July 9 and depart Rome on
July 24. If you depart from New York, for most flights you must
leave the day before the arrival date.
- Application deadline: April 22, 2013*
*The Italy Literacy program is accepting
applications on a rolling basis. APPLY NOW!!
- Deposit deadline: May 13, 2013
Accommodations: You will stay in the St.
John’s Rome Campus dormitory. The campus is located in the Prati
neighborhood, rich in history and beautiful architecture, just
north of the Vatican in central Rome.
The facility is located on the Lepanto subway
line, just two streets from the building. While at Collegio
Leoniano you will be able to walk to the Vatican, or take a short
subway ride to the Piazza del Popolo, Piazza Navona, or the Castel
Our campus combines old-world architectural
elements with modern presentation technology. Classrooms are high
tech with presentation ability, a fully-wired computer lab with
printers for your use, a spacious meeting room, library and student
lounge. Our bilingual staff, including a resident director and
resident assistants will assist you with any needs.
Room accommodations include: two or three single
beds, wardrobes and desks per room, linens are provided for your
use for the duration of the program. Each room has an individual
air conditioning unit and wireless broadband internet access.
Showers, sinks and toilets are shared per residence floor.
Professors: Fran Guastello, Ed. D
Program Fee: $1,990 plus tuition (airfare NOT
*Tuition and airfare are in addition to the program fee. Please
check the tuition based on your school and how many credits you
choose to enroll in while abroad.
**Please also not that, at this time, graduate students are unable
to apply through the St. John's UIS system. Graduate students must
submit a completed paper application and
an approved course option form to the Office of Global Studies . Be sure to
have the course option signed by your dean or academic advisor to
ensure that you will receive credit toward your course of
* Classes are subject to appropriate enrollment. Although courses
may be offered we need to maintain a minimum number of students to
run summer courses. | <urn:uuid:3b09d594-5b9d-4f34-b502-ab4f33cd658e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://new.stjohns.edu/academics/international/globalstudies/programs/summer/italy_july/italy_education_literacy_development.stj | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908567 | 693 | 2.203125 | 2 |
Top of his class, Harvard Law. Universally acclaimed record in public and private practice. As an advocate before the Supreme Court, virtually peerless.
How do you smear a guy like that?
Supreme Court nominee John Roberts' glowing credentials temporarily stumped liberals and allied Democrats. But they quickly recovered. A blizzard of briefs, press releases, and media sound bites over the past two weeks gave shape to an emerging Democratic strategy: Paint Mr. Roberts as soft on civil rights.
The nominee holds a "rather cramped view of the Voting Rights Act," Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) said at a July 28 press briefing. Memos from Mr. Roberts' Justice Department years "certainly raise some questions in my mind about his commitment" to civil rights, the senator added.
Liberal groups quickly hopped aboard: "With every passing day, it is becoming clearer that John Roberts was one of the key lieutenants in the right-wing assault on civil-rights laws and precedents," said Ralph G. Neas, president of People for the American Way.
The central issue: the nominee's positions on Title IX, voting rights, busing, and affirmative action. In each case, Mr. Roberts has mainly favored "restrictive" interpretations that minimize federal meddling on issues of race and gender. Title IX, for example, bans sex discrimination in any education program receiving federal assistance.
In 1982, Mr. Roberts wrote that indirect aid (such as a student attending a school using a Pell grant) doesn't allow federal investigators to "rummage willy-nilly through institutions" to ensure blanket Title IX compliance. Other writings by Mr. Roberts show similarly conservative stands on race-based hiring quotas (he doesn't like them) and busing (which he called "intrusive" and "disruptive to the education of our children"). All of which is anathema to the left, which sees federal tinkering as the cure for America's past race and gender ills.
George Mason University law professor Nelson Lund isn't at all surprised that liberal Democrats like Mr. Kennedy would at least experiment with attacking the nominee on civil rights. "It's a standard liberal technique: Anybody who hasn't completely toed the line on the most extreme portions of the left-wing agenda is accused of being racist, or at least insensitive to minority concerns," he said. "It's one of their favorite tactics."
The tactic worked in 1987 when Democrats smeared appeals court nominee Robert Bork as an enemy of women and blacks. In 2002, they "borked" Mississippi Judge Charles Pickering by linking him with his state's racially difficult past-this though 81 Mississippians, including Democratic governors and black civil-rights leaders, wrote letters defending him as a champion of racial reconciliation.
A chief architect of both the Bork and Pickering defeats, Alliance for Justice president Nan Aron, now has Mr. Roberts in her sights. On Aug. 8, she issued a three-page brief detailing civil-rights infractions in the areas of voting, housing, corrections, abortion, sex discrimination, and affirmative action.
But at least two cases on Mr. Roberts' resume may torpedo her argument. In the 1996 Romer v. Evans case, he helped his firm perform pro bono work for a gay-rights group. The group sued to overturn a voter-passed initiative in Colorado banning anti-discrimination laws. In 1999, in Rice v. Cayetano, he argued on Hawaii's behalf in favor of restricting to people of native descent leadership of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.
Both Romer and Rice have lately caused some conservatives to rethink Mr. Roberts' presumed conservatism. Ironically, the cases may also make it hard for Democrats to pigeonhole him as a retrograde apparatchik of the right.
Mr. Lund, meanwhile, said he would be surprised if liberal Democrats succeeded in borking John Roberts. In the GOP-led Senate, "the politics aren't quite right for it. The senators are going to be reluctant to latch onto this kind of smear campaign because it isn't likely to result in a Roberts defeat. My guess is they won't see the risks as being worth the rewards." | <urn:uuid:144390a8-c97a-47b8-a36a-3e26f861b607> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.worldmag.com/2005/08/hard_target | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961073 | 867 | 1.859375 | 2 |
In 1377, John Wycliffe went on trial in London's St. Paul's Cathedral after arguing against the sale of indulgences, the worship of saints and the veneration of relics. He was never convicted as a heretic.
In 1473, the founder of modern astronomy, Nicolaus Copernicus, was born in Poland. His theory established the Sun as the centre of the planetary system.
In 1732, religious houses in New France were forbidden to shelter fugitives from justice.
In 1878, Thomas Edison was issued a U.S. patent for his phonograph, less than two months after he applied. In the autumn of 1877, Edison had successfully tested a crude cylinder phonograph that recorded his voice on a piece of tinfoil wrapped around a cylinder. He had shouted into the mouthpiece of the instrument the nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb." When he played back the recording, and a recognizable reproduction of his voice emerged, Edison was quoted as saying: "I was never so taken aback in my life." Before the patent was even granted, the Edison Speaking Phonograph Company had been formed to control the manufacture and exhibition of the instruments. However, the phonograph's commercial value at the time lay solely in its appeal as a novelty.
In 1889, Saskatchewan Metis leader Gabriel Dumont was pardoned by the federal government for his actions during the 1885 Northwest Rebellion led by Louis Riel.
In 1897, in Stoney Creek, Ont., Adelaide Hunter Hoodless formed the Women's Institute, a group that spread throughout the English-speaking world. Hoodless was jolted out of her comfortable middle-class existence when her infant son died after drinking impure milk. She became devoted to educating women for motherhood and household management. Hoodless also helped found the National Council of Women, the Victorian Order of Nurses and the national YWCA. She died in Toronto on her 53rd birthday in 1910.
In 1906, Michigan doctor William Kellogg formed the Battle Creek Cornflake Company to make a breakfast cereal he had developed for patients suffering from mental disorders.
In 1920, shareholders of the Grand Trunk Railway ratified its sale to the federal government. It became part of the Canadian National Railway system.
In 1930, the Quebec legislature rejected a bill to admit women to the practice of law.
In 1945, U.S. Marines landed on the Japanese-held island of Iwo Jima during the Second World War. The island was eventually taken on March 26 at a cost of more than 6,800 American lives.
In 1959, an agreement was signed by Britain, Turkey and Greece granting Cyprus its independence.
In 1960, Queen Elizabeth became the first reigning British monarch in more than a century to have a baby, Prince Andrew.
In 1968, the federal Liberal minority government lost a tax vote in the Commons. The Opposition Conservatives demanded, without success, that the government resign. On Feb. 28, the Liberals won a vote of confidence.
In 1970, Canada claimed jurisdiction over all waters of the Northwest Passage, and between the islands of the Arctic archipelago.
In 1974, the National Hockey League and World Hockey Association reached an out-of-court settlement in their litigation. The agreement, signed in Philadelphia, struck down the NHL's reserve clause, which bound a player to a team for life unless he was traded or released.
In 1983, Joe Clark resigned as Conservative leader, although he remained in control of the party until successor Brian Mulroney was chosen at a June convention.
In 1993, two British explorers became the first to cross the Antarctic on foot without outside support. Sir Ralph Fiennes and Dr. Michael Stroud dragged their supplies on sledges weighing 196 kilograms across more than 2,100 kilometres.
In 1997, Deng Xiaoping, China's paramount leader, died at 92. He was the architect of China's economic reforms in the 1980s, but also ordered the bloody 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square.
In 1998, 101 items belonging to the late Duke and Duchess of Windsor fetched $1.9 million at auction -- three times what Sotheby's had expected.
In 2001, the Canada-U.S. Automotive Agreement expired after 36 years. The 1965 Auto Pact provided a large measure of free trade in vehicles and parts between the two countries and was a major boost to the Canadian auto industry. It was allowed to lapse after the World Trade Organization ruled it violated international trade laws.
In 2001, film producer Stanley Kramer, whose works included "High Noon," "Judgement at Nuremberg" and "Inherit the Wind," died at age 87.
In 2003, an Iranian military plane carrying 302 members of the elite Revolutionary Guards crashed in the mountains of southeastern Iran, killing all onboard in Iran's worst aviation disaster.
In 2003, Mounir El Motassadeq, a 28-year-old Moroccan, was jailed for 15 years by a German court after being convicted of accessory to murder in the world's first trial over the Sept 11, 2001, attacks.
In 2004, a fierce blizzard forced Nova Scotia and P.E.I. to declare a state of emergency; Halifax received a record 95.5 cm of snow.
In 2007, Celia Franca, the founder of The National Ballet of Canada, died in Ottawa at the age of 85.
In 2007, Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean presented awards for military bravery to six soldiers who performed extraordinary deeds under fire in Afghanistan. It was the first time these decorations for military valour were awarded since they were created in 1994.
In 2008, the B.C. government introduced North America's first full-fledged carbon tax in an effort to curb greenhouse gases.
In 2008, Fidel Castro formally resigned as president of Cuba after 49 years, a year-and-a-half after temporarily relinquishing power to his brother Raoul. His resignation effectively ended the longest rule in the world for a head of government.
In 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama met Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Ottawa on his first foreign visit since becoming president. They outlined three main priorities of the bilateral relationship — working together to restore economic growth, a new initiative on environmental protection and a commitment to stabilize Afghanistan.
In 2010, Pope Benedict approved sainthood for Montreal's Brother Andre, the founder of St. Joseph's Oratory who was credited with miracle healings before his death in 1937. Formal canonization took place on Oct. 17 in Rome.
In 2010, all 64 young students, including 42 Canadian high school and university students, and crew aboard the Nova-Scotia-based tall ship, Concordia, were saved after the ship capsized on Feb. 17 about 550 km southeast of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
In 2010, Jon Montgomery, the fast-talking, energetic auctioneer and car salesman from Russell, Man., won the gold medal in the men's skeleton race at the Vancouver Olympics.
In 2010, Tiger Woods made his first public appearance since crashing his car in late 2009, which set off a tabloid scandal and revelations of rampant extramarital affairs. Reading a televised 13-and-a-half-minute statement, Woods apologized for cheating on his wife, but did not reveal the scope of his infidelity or when he would return to golf. | <urn:uuid:e227bcd8-5264-4b9a-ad8b-24199bbb68c4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theprovince.com/business/This+History/7960957/story.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973205 | 1,516 | 3.140625 | 3 |
RNAO EBR Submission on Pesticide Regulations
December 19, 2008
Senior Policy Advisor
Ministry of the Environment
Integrated Environmental Planning Division
Strategic Policy Branch
135 St. Clair Avenue West, Floor 11
Toronto Ontario M4V 1P5
Phone: (416) 314-5605 Fax: (416) 314-2976
Dear Mr. Bilyea:
The Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario is the professional association of Ontario's registered nurses. The Association has a mandate to speak out for healthy public policy, and strongly supports the direction the government has taken to protect the public from exposure to pesticides used for cosmetic purposes. RNAO urges that Cabinet proceed with the regulations so that Bill 64 on cosmetic pesticides will come into full force and be implemented in the spring of 2009. The draft pesticide regulations take a very important step in the right direction, and we recommend below points to make the regulations even more effective at protecting the health of Ontarians.
This is a Health Issue
There are many reasons to support this legislation and enact strong regulations, but the key reason for Ontario’s nurses is health. The government is absolutely correct in addressing cosmetic use of pesticides:
there is demonstrated risk associated with pesticide use with no countervailing health benefit from cosmetic uses;
the legislation expressly exempts uses that protect public health;
there is a very high risk of direct exposure, as lawn and garden use occur where people live and work and children play;
even if people take precautions to avoid pesticide use, they cannot avoid exposure from pesticides used in their vicinity;
lawns and gardens are the sites of very high use and misuse of pesticides, due to the lack of training of those applying pesticides – frequently homeowners; and
there exist effective and much safer alternatives to chemical pesticides.
The public has strong grounds for concerns and they are massively in favour of bans on the cosmetic use of pesticides. Provinces and municipalities regulate pesticides because they are not safe. Chemical pesticides are designed to interfere in biological processes, and it is thus not surprising that they have side effects on the environment and on exposed human populations, especially those most vulnerable. There are 1,600 pesticide poisonings alone reported inOntario per year, with over half being children under the age of six.[i] Lurking below the surface are the long-term effects of “normal” exposure. There are many epidemiological and toxicological studies linking a range of health problems to pesticide exposure. These problems include various cancers, birth defects, reproductive damage, neurological and developmental toxicity, immunotoxicity and endocrine disruption.[ii] [iii] [iv] [v] [vi] The risk to health comes not only from active ingredients, but also from so-called inert substances.[vii] [viii] [ix]
RNAO is particularly concerned that existing controls, through Canada’s national pesticide regulatory system, do not adequately protect vulnerable populations, such as small children, pregnant women and nursing mothers.[x] HealthCanada's Pest Management Regulatory Agency may register a pesticide if it is effective and if the PMRA decides that the risk to human health is "acceptable", based on data submitted by the registering company. The limitations of the testing process are well known:
1. It depends upon companies submitting all relevant data;
2. Ethics prevent testing from being done on humans, so lab tests are done on mature animals that are imperfect models for humans, particularly for humans at formative and vulnerable stages of their lives;
3. The lab tests are done on small numbers of animals, making it more difficult to predict rare effects in large exposed populations; and
4. Each pesticide is tested by itself, meaning that the interaction effects with the many other pollutants in the environment, as well as the combined effect of all, are not considered.
The PMRA is careful to warn users that pesticides are toxic.[xi] Indeed, that is their hallmark: they are very good at killing target species in very small concentrations. The problem is it is not possible to confine effects to target species.
Over and above the limits of the testing procedure in registration, there is the human factor in use. "Acceptable risk" assumes that users closely follow all the instructions and procedures to reduce risk (see the PMRA advice to home users: http://www.pmra-arla.gc.ca/english/consum/pesticidehome-e.html). Many users are unaware of or routinely disregard these requirements: they do not wear adequate protection when applying pesticides; they do not use correct concentrations or volumes; they apply at the wrong time (and frequency) and in the wrong weather (e.g., worsening the drift problem by spraying in high winds); they do not stop people and animals from entering sprayed areas at the highest risk times; and they do not safely store pesticides. Lawn and garden use of pesticides for cosmetic purposes can be much more intensive than agricultural use, simply because of poor and inexpert practices.
IInto this poisonous chemical soup walk our most vulnerable population – children. Children tend to get greater exposure whenever pesticides are released because of their behaviour and play. Their developing organs and tissues are more vulnerable to harm. Children are even exposed to pesticides in utero, when crucial physiological development occurs. And of course, children have a long time ahead of them to develop health problems from early pesticide exposures, and from synergistic and cumulative effects of these and other exposures.[xii] [xiii]
All of the above dictates the precautionary principle and policy approach, particularly when considering unnecessary pesticide uses without counterbalancing health benefits. Precaution is all the more important because detection of pesticide damage in individuals is difficult, as physicians, nurses and other health professionals are not generally well trained in recognizing pesticide poisoning. Furthermore, the effects of pesticide damage are often only apparent after many years. Thus, people do not receive early warning signs that would allow them to take action in time.
Other Reasons to Support Strong Pesticide Regulations
Though economic times are defining moments for society, and we ask Premier McGuinty to lead boldly. RNAO supports, in the strongest possible terms, the government initiative to ban cosmetic use of pesticides because it is the right thing to do to protect human health. Moreover, we also know that strong pesticide regulations will deliver a win-win situation in many other ways:
It protects environmental health (which is essential to protecting human health).
It is an upstream investment on the health of our population, saving down stream cost in cancer care and children’s disabilities related to pesticide exposure (e.g., birth defects, reproductive damage, neurological and developmental toxicity).
Experience in other jurisdictions shows that far from hurting the lawn care industry, employment and the number of businesses grows (e.g., in Halifax). This makes sense because there is a demand for increased services because safer, non-pesticide approaches are slightly more labour-intensive. Also more people seek the services of professional lawn care companies because non-pesticide approaches require different expertise than simply spraying pesticides.
Traditional lawn care companies are very quick to adapt to new pesticide legislation by offering organic, non-toxic alternatives (e.g., Weed Man in Toronto, after opposing Toronto's pesticide bylaw).
Organic lawn care has been growing rapidly, showing both that there is an eager market for it and that supply responds rapidly to meet demand.
This is in synch with what the public wants: polling has consistently shown support for cosmetic pesticide bans at or above 70 per cent, which is very high.
Health and environment groups covering a broad spectrum support legislation with strong regulations banning cosmetic use of pesticides. The list is remarkably long, and includes in addition to RNAO, such key players such as the Canadian Cancer Society (Ontario Division), the Ontario College of Family Physicians, the Ontario Medical Association (Pediatrics Section), the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, the Learning Disabilities Association of Canada, the Ontario Public Health Association, Prevent Cancer Now, the Canadian Environmental Law Association, EcoJustice, Environmental Defence, the David Suzuki Foundation, Pesticide Free Ontario, the United Steelworkers, and the Organic Landscape Alliance.[xiv]
We ask Premier McGuinty to leave a long lasting legacy for Ontario by:
Do not weaken any measure of the proposed regulations, and approve the regulations in time for them to come into full effect in spring 2009.
Require specific percentage reductions in toxic pesticide use on golf courses and specialty turf, with a deadline for stopping all pesticide use in those settings. Do not exempt use on roughs and fairways. Until a phase out is realized, include a substantial buffer zone around water, playgrounds and residences for the safety and protection of children.
Tighten the list of restricted products (Schedule 7) and domestic products (Schedules 5 and 6) to include only the safest products.
Remove the exemption for the use of toxic pesticides on public work sidewalks, as safer and equally effective alternatives are available.
With warm regards,
Doris Grinspun, RN, MSN, PhD (c), O.Ont
Executive Director, RNAO | <urn:uuid:f2188bc7-bb57-4b31-ad23-76235bf16d2d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rnao.ca/policy/submissions/ebr-pesticide-regulations | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933693 | 1,889 | 2.0625 | 2 |
|Barked: Mon Aug 3, '09 10:49pm PST |
|We have a NAID and a SID (Siberian Indian Dog) with our 13 year old cat. We do not have a problem with our cat but racoons, squirrels, and other animals are potential targets.
We allow them to have squeek toys, tug ropes, stuffed animals, and other toys that could look like prey. Anything that runs triggers the prey drive. We felt we had to go beyond raising the dogs with the cat and place Bailey's pack rank higher then the dogs. We feel that NAIDs are more of a pack animal then most dogs and try to use this to our advantage. They want to fit in.
We have treat time almost daily with grilled chicken, sandwich meat, or any high value treat. Bailey is always given several treats first while the dogs wait. When he is done then both dogs get their treats at the same time. The higher ranking pack members are in front, go first and eat first. The dogs are lower then the cat but the dogs are equal to each other. Humans are above all animals. The dogs are not allowed to challenge Bailey. We continue to reinforce Bailey's higher rank in the pack as often as possible. It's for he own safety.
The dogs are not allowed to focus on or follow Bailey. When they were puppies they would try to chase Bailey if he started to run. The puppy would get pinned on their side immediately and then we bring the cat back and place him next to the dog and allowed the cat to walk away. The dogs must submit to the cat and they have to be gentle around him. We have not had to pin a dog for quite a while now.
Please check out the video on Kona's page of him during chewy time. Our cat calmly walks between Dewey and Kona. They give him plenty of room and Bailey is happy to be around everyone. Being gentle around the cat will get them a treat or praise and trust is earned over time. Keep the cat seperate if no one will be around. Especially in the beginning you should be present to stop any unwanted behavior. This may not have been the perfect method but it's working for us and we have a very happy home.
Other animals are not part of our pack and the dogs want to chase them. Leave it training works best here. We toss a treat on the ground and tell them to leave it. When they leave it and look back at us we give them a different treat (not the one we tossed). Use a leash if you have to but do not allow them to have the forbidden treat. Pick up the tossed treat and put it away or leave it will mean wait for later. Leave it must mean you cannot have it. Now if they see a squirrel we can tell them to leave it and they are pretty reliable especially if I tell them before they get too focused. If no one is there to tell them to leave it then they will chase it.
Our SID, Dewey, has the same father as Meeko. He is a very impressive hunter. The NAID and NAID hybrids are awesome dogs. We hope you enjoy your pack as much as we enjoy ours!
|my posts | my page | msg me | my family's posts | gift me | become pals|| [notify]| | <urn:uuid:82750a85-f819-4e2e-9290-6934498a1414> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dogster.com/forums/Native_american_indian_dog/thread/625557 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9784 | 694 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Volume 11, Number 11—November 2005
Books and Media
The AIDS Pandemic: Impact on Science and Society
Elsevier Academic Press, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and Boston, Massachusetts, 2005
Pages: 537; Price: US $84.95
As we enter the third decade of the AIDS pandemic, numerous texts explore the many aspects of AIDS and its consequences. Mayer and Pizer's premise is that AIDS has transformed many of the disciplines that it has touched. For the most part, this well-written volume supports their thesis. The authors, all established researchers, tackle many of the major issues, including virology, immunology, vaccines, microbicides, and sexually transmitted diseases, as well as the global impact of HIV/AIDS. Each chapter provides a well-referenced overview of its topic with many references as recent as 2003.
One of the real strengths of this book is a chapter on quantitative science that explores not only the history of HIV clinical trials, but also the design and importance of clinical trials in general. This chapter should be required reading for those considering clinical research in HIV. The chapters on Africa and Asia ably contrast the differences in these areas of highest prevalence. Another strength is the discussion of HIV in correctional facilities and the challenge of caring for this population, including their coexisting conditions and illicit drug use. Lastly, the discussion of the economics of AIDS is especially welcome in this era of efforts to increase access to drugs worldwide.
Overall, this book fills a valuable niche. A relatively concise text, it reviews many aspects of HIV with a focus on how each topic has evolved over the years. A few tables are small, but overall the diagrams and charts are clear and legible. This book would be of interest to infectious disease fellows, HIV caregivers, and those involved in public health and health policy. I heartily recommend this book and plan to keep it handy for future reference.
Suggested citation for this article: Stephens JL. The AIDS pandemic: impact on science and society [book review]. Emerg Infect Dis [serial on the Internet]. 2005 Nov [date cited]. http://dx.doi.org/10.3201/eid1111.050897
Comments to the Authors
Zombies—A Pop Culture Resource for Public Health Awareness | <urn:uuid:5f0b642e-9c67-4aca-892f-34da9854ae9a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/11/11/05-0897_article.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925884 | 470 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Over 8,000 websites created by students around the world who have participated in a ThinkQuest Competition.
Compete | FAQ | Contact Us
Lasers in Everyday Life
We want fellow students, as well as any other interested parties, to learn about the many different kinds of lasers and how they work. We also want them to realize the importance of lasers and how much you use them in your everyday life. The reason we picked this topic is because the value of knowing about lasers will affect us all now (and even more in the future) with the increasing number of inventions that incorporate lasers in innovative ways.
19 & under
Science & Technology > Technology > Inventions | <urn:uuid:db995250-a372-48bf-aef5-82552fcd1759> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thinkquest.org/pls/html/f?p=52300:100:3575426736308542::::P100_TEAM_ID:501572147 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942335 | 136 | 2.3125 | 2 |
The Immigration Debate: Legality or Justice?
By Lydia Lowe
Director, Chinese Progessive Association
Today’s misguided immigration debate centers on the question of legality.
Many argue that immigrants with legal status should have rights to government benefits and services, but the undocumented should not, because they are illegal. If our government already doesn’t have the money to adequately provide for our own citizens, the argument goes, how can we extend services to those who came here illegally? Immigration is out of control and can be solved with more border patrols and ID checks.
There are several major problems with this argument.
The Undocumented Give More Than They Take
Many politicians, talk show hosts, and voters are not aware that the undocumented are in fact ineligible for most government benefits. Welfare, unemployment, social security, SSI, job training programs, MassHealth, food stamps—all of these programs require legal residency, and many require five to ten years of contributing as a taxpayer before becoming eligible to receive benefits.
There are an estimated 6 to 8 million undocumented workers in the UStoday, doing jobs like farm labor or janitorial services that few domestic workers seek. The undocumented also pay taxes; researchers believe the majority of the undocumented pay federal, state, and local taxes. The average immigrant will pay $80,000 more in taxes than they use in government services over their lifetime. Since many undocumented workers must use false Social Security numbers to work, the Social Security Administration holds more than $400 billion in deductions from undocumented immigrants who will never reclaim these benefits.
The primary government benefits which the undocumented may receive are access to the public schools for their children and limited emergency medical services.
Our Government Has Money for War and Bank Bailouts
If immigrants and the undocumented are not eating up government revenues, then why are we constantly facing budget shortfalls? Isn’t the Social Security system going bankrupt and the unemployment trust fund running out of funds?
Factors like a larger aging population and the economic recession have combined to stress certain government accounts. Yet our tax dollars could provide adequate funds to cover our basic human needs if our government had its priorities straight. About 58 percent of our tax dollars goes to military expenditures, and we have spent trillions of dollars on the bank bailout.
The United States has only 6 percent of the world’s population but is responsible for about 45 percent of the world’s military expenditures—as much as the next ten countries combined! A 25 percent reduction in the military budget would free up $250 billion that could be redirected to human needs. Withdrawal fromIraqandAfghanistanwould result in $110 billion in savings in the first year.
The Global Economy Drives Increased Immigration
The undocumented are trying to earn a living and support their families.
As recently as 1970, nearly 70 percent of immigration to theUSwas from Europe andCanada, with only 8 percent fromMexico. When most immigrants were white, we did not have the same public outcry against immigration. Today, about three quarters of the immigrants, and of the undocumented, come from Asia orLatin America. The largest sector of the undocumented (about 57%) come from Mexico.
Why, and what happened to shift immigration patterns?
Changes in immigration law account for some of the shift. In 1965, the USchanged its system of immigration quotas from one that favored Great Britain, Ireland, and Germanyto one that equalized national quotas and favored family reunification and employment skills. At the time, this was an important step forward, and immigration from Asiaincreased significantly after 1965. But today, it is practically impossible for a Mexican national to get a green card, while an immigrant from New Zealand would have no wait at all, because national immigration quotas are the same regardless of a country’s size or need.
The biggest recent factor increasing immigration is globalization of the economy. As economic growth slowed andThird World nations claimed independence during the 1970s, corporate elites developed new strategies for growth. Raw materials, production, and sales are now coordinated across the globe to maximize profit.
New economic policies since the 1970s, centered on the ideas of free trade and small government, have served to develop the new global economy:
- Privatization and deregulation of core industries like telecommunications, utilities, and financial services;
- Union-busting and striker replacement;
- Cutting taxes for the wealthy and corporations and shifting the burden onto working families;
- An 80 percent reduction in federal service programs;
- Passage of free trade agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which opened up markets to benefit US-based corporations and set up zones along the US-Mexico border free of normal labor laws.
The same set of free trade and small government policies driving increased immigration, particularly fromLatin America, are allowing the runaway factories and financial speculation that cause joblessness and impoverishment of our communities here.
More Immigration Enforcement Hurts Us All
Will increased immigration enforcement solve our problems?
Between 1986 and 2002, the number of border enforcement agents tripled, the number of hours they patrolled grew eightfold, and the Border Patrol’s budget increased tenfold. During this same time, the number of undocumented immigrants continued to increase!
Proposals like the new Arizona law, which creates new systems of ID checks focused on anyone suspected of being undocumented, will lead to increased discrimination and civil rights violations against all immigrants and native-born people of color.
Recent studies of state government programs to increase immigration enforcement show that these crackdowns spent millions of dollars to create new bureaucracies, identified few if any undocumented benefit recipients, and prevented manyUScitizens and permanent residents from accessing their rightful benefits.
Proposals to crack down on the undocumented with new ID checks won’t solve the economic and political imbalance that brings the undocumented to the US. These crackdowns will only reinforce undocumented workers’ position as an underclass to be freely exploited, driving down conditions for all workers.
A Question of Law or Justice?
The recent preoccupation with legality and illegality distracts us from the real social question: what is the right thing to do?
Is it right that agribusiness can freely exploit Mexican nationals for cheap labor but that these working families are treated as criminals for trying to earn a living?
When many of our ancestors came to theUSfromChinaduring the period from 1882 until the 1940s, they came as “paper sons” with false documents because they were excluded from legal immigration by the Chinese Exclusion Act. They were all illegal immigrants. Were they criminals, or was the law unjust?
During the 1800s, theUSannexed half of theterritoryofMexico, now the American Southwest. Millions of Mexicans share family, social, cultural and economic ties on either side of the border. NAFTA allows big business to freely cross borders for its benefit, but the workers are punished.
Are they criminals, or is the law unfair and outdated?
Solidarity for Immigrant Rights
A fair and humane immigration policy should focus less on punishing immigrant workers and more on changing the laws to reflect today’s global realities.
Recently, an Arizona-based Chinese American politician named Barry Wong called for immigration checks to qualify for electricity, water, natural gas or telephone service! This extremist proposal would cause needless suffering and hurt the undocumented, permanent residents, and citizens alike.
As the national immigration debate unfolds, the Chinese community needs to better understand our own interests and stand in solidarity with other immigrants. CPA is working as a member of the Immigrant Worker Center Collaborative (IWCC) to increase immigrant workers’ solidarity across ethnic communities, and with other Asian American groups to increase our communities’ identification with and participation in the immigrant rights movement.
If you are interested in participating in immigrant rights activities, contact us at 617-357-4499. | <urn:uuid:30eb55dd-dc70-40ed-a6e1-17cd0eefe0ea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sampan.org/2012/02/3500/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953132 | 1,625 | 2.078125 | 2 |
- Basic environment tutorial: A tutorial that shows players how to create environments in the editor
- Basic in-game cut scene tutorial: A tutorial that shows players how to create their own cut scenes for the game in the editor
- Texture list: List of textures that can be applied to moon, planets, nebula’s etc in the game
- A Strategy Guide for the first 5 campaign scenarios for both races.
And the story goes…
In O.R.B players launch themselves into a dynamic world where two races are fighting over the territory they each thought was theirs. The Malus are a product of their planet’s harsh environment. Scarce water, extremely high temperatures and a volatile climate have created a rigidly disciplined culture based on strength and triumph over adversity. The Alyssians are an independent, self-sufficient and fatalistic race who have sacrificed their individualism for the greater cause of societal harmony and consider themselves democratic and egalitarian.
Two different races. One shared goal. And the battle intensifies even more when the two races realize they are not alone in their fight…
- Unparalleled 3D real-time strategic gaming action with full freedom of movement in space
- Two fully developed races each with their own single-player campaign and unique strategies
- One-of-a-kind dynamic universe depicting multiple solar systems alive with planets, moons, asteroid belts, complex orbits, debris fields and extraordinary spatial environments
- Epic fleet combat with a wide variety of vessels and specialized units including tactical ships, shock troops, various fighter types, multiple capital ship classes and support vessels
- Campaign editor and tools, complete with the ability to script your own scenarios, event triggers, campaigns and cut-scenes
- Explosive battles with up to four players in cooperative and head-to-head multiplayer mode | <urn:uuid:18e9566c-30ba-437a-858b-9bdbc5503b5a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://worthplaying.com/article/2002/11/27/news/7097/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932006 | 370 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Genetic diseases are disorders that are inherited by a person from his or her parents or are related to some type of spontaneous genetic change.
for searching the Internet and other reference sources
What Is Heredity?
Every person develops under the influence of a mix of genes inherited from his or her mother and father. These genes, or small parts of chromosomes, determine the architecture and activity of the entire body. They determine visible characteristics, such as eye color, skin color, and height, as well as traits that cannot be seen, such as the likelihood of certain diseases, the chemicals made by the body, and the functioning of body systems.
Normally, each cell in the body contains two copies of each gene: one that originally came from the egg of the mother and one from the sperm of the father. In many instances, these two copies are slightly different from each other. The result is a child who has some characteristics from the mother and some from the father, but who is never identical to either parent.
Because there are two copies, a gene that works normally usually can make up for one that has a defect. For example, a gene with a defect that causes a particular disease may be passed through generations of a family without causing illness. That is because the normal gene in the pair may work well enough to mask the defect. However, if a child inherits two genes with the defect, the child will develop the illness. This explains how a child with the disease can be born to parents without it.
What Causes Genetic Diseases?
Genetic disorders can be inherited, in which case people are born with them, even if they are not noticeable at first. Some disorders, however, are not inherited but develop spontaneously when disease-causing mutations * occur during cell division * . These also are genetic disorders, because they involve changes in the genes.
Some inherited genetic disorders, such as cystic fibrosis * and phenylketonuria * (PKU), are caused simply by the inheritance of genes that do not work properly. In other disorders, however, genetic and environmental factors seem to work together to cause changes in otherwise normal genes. For example, some forms of radiation or chemicals can cause cancer in people who are prone to be affected because of their genetic makeup.
* mutations (mu-TAY-shuns) are changes in a chromosome or a gene.
* cell division is the process by which a cell divides to form two daughter cells, each of which contains the same genetic material as the original cell.
* cystic fibrosis (SIS-tik fi-BRO-sis) is a genetic disorder of the body's mucus-producing glands. It mainly affects the respiratory and digestive systems of children and young adults.
* phenylketonuria (fen-ul-ke-ton-Uree-a), or PKU for short, is a genetic disorder of body chemistry that, if left untreated, causes mental retardation.
* genetics is the branch of science that deals with heredity and the ways in which genes control the development and maintenance of organisms.
How Are Diseases Inherited?
The beginning of modern genetics
Gregor Mendel (1822-1884) is considered the father of modern genetics * . Mendel was an Austrian monk. While growing peas in the monastery garden, Mendel noted that certain traits appeared in offspring in predictable patterns, and he began to understand the basic rules of inheritance. These rules are called Mendelian (men-DEL-ee-an) law.
Under Mendelian law, a dominant (DOM-i-nant) trait is one that appears even when the second copy of the gene for that trait is different. For example, for the seeds of Mendel's peas, "smooth" is dominant over "wrinkled." Thus, if a pea plant contains one gene for smooth and one for wrinkled, the seed will be smooth. Wrinkled is a recessive (re-SES-iv) trait, which is one that only appears when two copies of it are present.
Dominant and recessive genes
Normally, each person has two copies of every gene, one from the mother and one from the father. A physical feature or a disorder carried by genes can be either a dominant (G) or a recessive (g) trait. If the affected gene is dominant, a person with one or two copies of the gene will have the disorder. Therefore, a person with the patterns (GG) or (Gg) will be affected, but (gg) will not be affected by the disorder. Two copies of a dominant gene produce a much more serious form of the disorder.
If the affected gene is recessive, only a person with two copies of the gene will have the disorder. Therefore, a person with the pattern (gg) will be affected, but (GG) and (Gg) will not be affected by the disorder.
Autosomal and sex-linked traits
Of the 23 pairs of chromosomes in human cells, 22 are autosomes (AW-to-somes), or non-sex chromosomes. The other pair contains the two sex chromosomes, which determine a person's gender. Females have two X chromosomes (XX), and males have one X and one Y chromosome (XY). The reproductive cells, or eggs and sperm, each have only one set of 23 chromosomes. While an egg always carries an X chromosome, a sperm cell can carry either an X or a Y, so it is the sperm that determines gender.
A Genetic Glossary
- Cells: The units that comprise living beings. The human body is made of about 60 trillion cells.
- Nucleus: A membrane-bound structure inside cells that contains DNA.
- Chromosomes: DNA is packaged into units called chromosomes. Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes, for a total of 46.
- DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid): A double-stranded molecule, made of chemical bases called nucleotides, that contains the genetic code necessary to build a living being.
- Genes: Segments of DNA located on the chromosomes. Genes are the units of heredity. They help determine a person's characteristics, from eye color to how various chemicals work in the body.
- Genome: An animal's entire collection of genes. The human genome contains 50,000 to 100,000 genes.
Inherited genetic disorders that are carried on the sex chromosomes are referred to as sex-linked. Disorders carried on the other chromosomes are referred to as autosomal (aw-to-SOME-al). In general, autosomal disorders are likely to affect males and females equally, but sex-linked disorders usually affect males more often than females. This gender difference has to do with the fact that males have only one X chromosome. The X chromosome
What Are the Common Inheritance Patterns of Genetic Diseases?
Single-gene autosomal diseases
Most genetic disorders are caused by defective genes on the autosomes. If an autosomal genetic disorder is caused by a problem with a single gene, then the following rules of inheritance usually apply. There are exceptions to these rules, but they are useful guidelines for understanding inheritance. In an autosomal dominant disorder:
- It takes only one copy of the gene to cause the disorder. So if a child inherits the disease, at least one of the parents has the disease as well.
- It is possible for the gene to change by itself in the affected person. This change is called a mutation.
- Unaffected children of a parent with the disorder have unaffected children and grandchildren.
* carrier is a person who has one copy of the defective gene for a recessive disorder. Carriers are not affected by the disorder, but they can pass on the defective gene to their children.
In an autosomal recessive disorder:
- If two people without the disorder have a child with the disorder, both parents carry one copy of the abnormal gene.
- If a person with the disorder and a carrier * have a child, there is a fifty-fifty chance that the child will have the disorder. Any child without the disorder will be a carrier.
- If a person with the disorder and a noncarrier have children, all of the children will be carriers but will not have the disorder.
- If two people with the disorder have children, all of the children will have the disorder.
Single-gene sex-linked diseases
More than 150 disease traits are carried on the X chromosome. X-linked dominant disorders are rare. In an X-linked recessive disorder:
- Nearly all people with sex-linked disorders are male. The disorder is transmitted through the female, because a son's X chromosome always comes from his mother. She is unaffected, however, because she has a second X chromosome which usually contains a normal gene for the trait.
- A male with the disorder never transmits it to his sons, because a father passes his X chromosome only to his daughters.
- A son born to a female carrier has a fifty-fifty chance of having the disorder.
- All daughters of an affected male will be carriers.
Many disorders are exceptions to the Mendelian laws of inheritance. Genetic disorders caused by a combination of many genes are called multifactorial (mul-tee-fak-TOR-e-al) disorders. In addition, some disorders show reduced penetrance (PEN-e-trance), which means that a gene is not wholly dominant or recessive. For example, a person who has one recessive gene for a disorder might show milder symptoms of the disorder, but someone with two copies will have the full-blown disorder.
Other genetic disorders are caused by extra or missing chromosomes. In Down syndrome * , a person has three copies of chromosome 21, rather than the usual two copies. In a disease called cri du chat * , a piece of chromosome 5 is missing. In Turner syndrome * , which affects only girls, all or part of an X chromosome is missing. In most cases, chromosome disorders are not inherited. Instead, the problems occur for unknown reasons when the egg and sperm meet to form the embryo.
Spontaneous (new) genetic mutations
Particularly in the case of dominantly-inherited disorders, a child may be born with a condition despite the fact that neither parent has the disorder as would be expected. When this happens, it is usually because a spontaneous (or new) mutation in a gene or genes has occurred. The mutation may occur in a parent's egg or sperm cell, or it may occur after the egg has been fertilized and begins to develop into an embryo. This is frequently the case in achondroplasia (a-kon-dro-PLAY-zha), a form of dwarfism in which 90 percent of children born with the condition have unaffected parents. When this child grows up, the child will pass the gene on to his or her children according to the autosomal dominant inheritance pattern described above.
* Down syndrome is a genetic disorder that can cause mental retardation, shortness, and distinctive facial characteristics, as well as many other features.
* criduchat (kree-doo-SHA), French for "cat's cry," is a genetic disorder that can cause mental retardation, a small head, and a cat-like whine.
* Turner syndrome is a genetic disorder that can cause several physical abnormalities, including shortness, and lack of sexual development.
The Past and Future of Genetic Diseases
Mendel figured out the basic concepts of inheritance in the 1800s, before people knew that genes are the units of inheritance. It was not until 1953 that the structure of DNA was described. From the 1980s to the present, scientists' understanding of genes and how they work has grown at an incredibly rapid pace. Many disease-causing genes now have been identified, opening the door to research on ways to fix genetic defects. This field of science is referred to as gene therapy.
Genetic disorders can be treated in a number of ways. In some disorders, special diets are used to prevent the buildup in the body of compounds that are toxic to patients. In other disorders, the treatment involves blocking or rerouting chemical pathways. A third kind of treatment is new and controversial. It involves actually replacing defective genetic material with normal genetic material inside the cells. Researchers currently are looking for ways to do this. A variety of methods are being considered, including the use of microscopic "bullets" coated with genetic material and viruses to deliver normal genes to cells.
A fetus * can be tested for many genetic disorders before it is born. Tests for prenatal (before birth) diagnosis are done on samples taken from the tissue or fluid surrounding a fetus. The fetus's chromosomes then can be studied using a karyotype (KAR-e-o-type), which is a visual display of the chromosomes from cells viewed under a microscope. Newer techniques enable scientists and doctors to look directly at the DNA that makes up the genes contained in the chromosomes. Common prenatal tests include:
- Amniocentesis (am-nee-o-sen-TEE-sis): In amniocentesis, a needle is passed through the mother's belly into her uterus * to collect some of the fluid in which the fetus lives. This fluid, called amniotic fluid, contains cells from the fetus.
- Chorionic villus (kor-e-ON-ik VIL-us) sampling (CVS): CVS also involves collecting cells from the fetus with a needle. In this case, the cells are taken from the chorionic villi, which are structures in the uterus that are part of the placenta.
- Percutaneous umbilical (per-ku-TAY-ne-us um-BIL-i-kal) blood sampling (PUBS): In PUBS, fetal blood is taken from the umbilical cord * .
* fetus (FEE-tus) in humans is the developing offspring from nine weeks after conception until birth.
* uterus (U-ter-us), also called the womb, is the organ in a woman's body in which a fertilized egg develops into a fetus.
* umbilical cord (um-BIL-i-kal cord) is the flexible cord that connects a fetus at the navel with the placenta, the organ that allows for the exchange of oxygen, nutrients, and other substances between mother and fetus.
Inheritance Patterns of Some Genetic Diseases
|Autosomal dominant||Autosomal recessive||X-linked dominant||X-linked recessive||Multiple genes|
|Color blindness||Alzheimer's disease|
|Huntington's disease||Cystic fibrosis||Hemophilia||
(breast, colon, lung)
|Neurofibromatosis||Phenylketonuria (PKU)||Hunter's syndrome|
|Tay-Sachs disease||Rheumatoid arthritis|
Genetic testing and counseling
Geneticists believe that each person probably carries about 5 to 10 defective recessive genes. Thus, both potential parents may be worried about having a child with birth defects. If relatives have genetic disorders—or if ethnic or other background factors increase the risk of certain genetic diseases—parents-to-be may worry even more.
Many medical centers now offer genetic testing and genetic counseling. Parents and relatives can be tested to determine whether they carry genes for a variety of disorders. Using this information, a genetic counselor can help couples calculate genetic risks realistically, and inform them about the options they may have to increase the likelihood of having a healthy child.
concerns Increasingly, people will have the option to be tested to find out if they carry genes for genetic disorders. For example, women now can find out if their unborn children have certain genetic defects or if they themselves have genes that make them more likely to develop breast cancer. Already there is controversy about how this information should be used. Genetic testing can have far-reaching social, financial, and ethical effects. For example, a woman who thinks she will develop breast cancer might opt not to have children, or she might decide to have her breast tissue removed before cancer cells develop, or her insurance company might decide not to insure her because she is a high-risk client. With knowledge comes responsibility, and genetic testing surely will be at the forefront of debates about medical ethics in the twenty-first century.
Your Genes, Your Choices.
Washington, DC: American Association for the Advancement of Science,
1997. A clear introduction to the ethical, legal, and social issues
raised by genetic research. The full text of this book can be found on
the association's website.
Jackson, John F Genetics and You. Totowa, NJ: Humana Press, 1996. This book explains the basic principles of genetics, genetic counseling, and prenatal testing.
Punnett squares often are used to visualize the chances of inheriting a particular gene. Using G for a healthy gene and g for an affected recessive gene, the Punnett Square shows which offspring are likely to inherit two healthy genes, which offspring are likely to be carriers of the gene, and which are likely to have the disorder caused by the defective gene.
Alliance of Genetic Support Groups, 4301 Connecticut Avenue Northwest,
Number 404, Washington, DC 20008-2304. This national organization is an
alliance of support groups for people who have or who are at risk for
March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation, 1275 Mamaroneck Avenue, White Plains, NY 10605. This large, national organization provides
information about genetic birth defects.
U.S. National Human Genome Research Institute, 31 Center Drive, Building
31, Room 4B09, MSC 2152, Bethesda, MD 20892. This government institute
is home to the Human Genome Project, an international research effort
aimed at mapping the human genome.
U.S. National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of
Medicine, Building 38A, Room 8N805, Bethesda, MD 20894. This division of
the U.S. National Library of Medicine provides detailed information
about genes and genetic diseases.
World Health Organization (WHO), Avenue Appia 20, 1211 Geneva 27,
Switzerland. The World Health Organization posts an extensive list of
publications from its
Human Genetics Programme
at its website. | <urn:uuid:d0c56309-1103-4a04-90cd-20c71d055aca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.humanillnesses.com/original/Gas-Hep/Genetic-Diseases.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928373 | 3,844 | 3.8125 | 4 |
Neti Pots: Gross or Genius?
With cold and flu season here, we're praying that we can make it through the winter without getting one of those oh-so-fun sinus infections that make us feel like our heads are going to explode.
In terms of preventing sinus grief, we're heard a lot of buzz about neti pots lately. Even Bobby from "Cougar Town" mastered it (check out the funny clip here!
The idea of pouring a saline solution in one nostril and out the other doesn't sound like much fun, but after talking to Linda Dahl, MD, a New York City-based otolaryngologist (ear and throat doc), we're convinced that A) It doesn't have to make you feel like you snarfed a swimming pool, and B) It can be as easy and necessary as brushing your teeth.
"When your nose swells up and air can't get through, your sinuses turn into a swamp and bacteria grows," explains Dahl. "The lining of your sinuses is a filter. Whatever is in the air that's not going into your lungs is going in your nose. If you clean out that filter, it's going to function better."
According to Dahl, there are three categories of people to whom she would recommend a neti pot:
Anyone who gets chronic sinus infections or has bad allergies, those who tend to get (and stay) sick throughout the winter, and people who wake up acutely congested.
"The worst time to use it is when you already have a sinus infection and your sinuses are completely clogged," says Dahl. "At that point it can be uncomfortable and ineffective. If that's the case, take a decongestant first to open up the sinuses, then use the neti pot."
While the neti pots of old were tricky to use, new designs such as the $14.99 Waterpik SinuSense Neti Pot
(shown above) let you control the flow of water to prevent spills.
The other two keys to successfully executing the neti pot are to make sure the solution is correct (you must add salt -- but not too much or it will burn), and that the pot is at a 45 degree angle as you pour. Although many pots come with saline packets, if you're mixing your own solution, make sure it's 16 ounces of warm water to a quarter teaspoon of kosher or sea salt (not table salt!).
As long as you're using the right solution and form, you can safely use a neti pot several times a day, according to Dahl. And, in fact, you'll likely become a regular nose cleaner.
"Once people get over their fear of it and realize it doesn't have to be uncomfortable, most of my patients who start using it love it." | <urn:uuid:41bf20e2-2adc-43d5-b77a-8cfd67ccfb1c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.self.com/blogs/flash/2010/11/neti-pots-gross-or-genius.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968495 | 587 | 1.625 | 2 |
Shadows are a very important aspect of any photo manipulation. Just as it happens with lighting effects, if the shadows are used the right way, you can end up with a stunning image. In this tutorial I will show you a few techniques I use to create realistic shadows and lights with Photoshop
The first step will be only theory to help you understand how lights and shadows work and on the following steps I will show you how to actually create the shadows.
1) Light source and shadow angles.
Before even starting to do anything on you image, you must decide whether you need shadows or not. To guide yourself you must first identify the main light source.
You can see that the light source on the original image is on the top left side. On the manipulated image, the sky and the clouds are also illuminated on the top left side. You should always respect the direction of the light. You have to establish which elements of the image will serve as your guide to make the lights and shadows.
Below you have a similar case. But this time the light source comes from the right side and again the artist used as guide the highlights of the model’s body highlights when he/she made the manipulation.
Sometimes there are no reference points to help you identify where the main light source is but the existing shadows on the image can help you. Here you have an example.
The original image didn’t have the road sign, I added it with photoshop. Assuming I had no reference points to help me decide where the main light source is (in this case the sun), I made the shadow of the road sign using the shadows of the man and the girl as guide. I made it using pretty much the same angle and the same opacity. If the original shadows that you use as guide are blurred, you should apply Gaussian Blur to your shadows to make them look as close as possible to the existing original shadow.
That’s the basic theory. For short, you have to identify the light source in order to know how to create the shadows. On the next steps I will show you how to create the actual shadows from scratch. I will show you my personal technique but you can adapt them to your own style. There are different kinds of shadows and to make things easier for me to explain and for you to understand, I will give them different names.
A) Contact shadow
I will call this kind of shadow “contact shadow” because I don’t know the real name of it. This is a very important kind of shadow because it actually tells you that the object is sitting on the ground or really close to the surface. On the image below you have an example of a real shadow where you can clearly see this type of shadow.
Replicating this kind of shadows in photoshop is not difficult but it requires some practice. As example I took an image used on another tutorial that I made. I subtracted the model from its original background I put it over a new one to start working on the manipulation. As you can see it looks a bit dull, it is obvious that the shadows are missing and it looks like the model it’s floating in the air.
The way I create the shadows that you can see on the image below is this: I take a medium size brush (depends on the size of your manipulation) I set the brush Hardness to about 30% and the brush opacity to about 25%. Then, I start brushing the edges of the object that’s in contact with the ground. I brush the edges from the inside out, so to speak. See the image below for more details.
This is a before and after the so called contact shadow as I named it, I don’t know the technical name of it.
B) Soft Shadow
This kind of shadows are probably more important than the contact shadow because these are more visible and if you do it right, maybe you don’t even need the “contact shadows” explained above.
Here you have a bit more of freedom because you don’t have to be very precise. Just take a soft brush, set the strength to 20-45% and brush around the object that you’re working with. Keep in mind that as you move away from the object, the shadow must be less opaque because it fades away.
Take a look at the image below. I painted the shadows using a big soft brush with low opacity (20% or something like that). As you see, you cannot distinguish the shape of the girl in the shadow because it’s too blurry but it definitely adds realism to the scene. Also notice how the shadow is less intense as you get away from the body. This was all made with the mouse, not a tablet.
C) Cast shadows
If you want to create more realistic shadows in Photoshop, than you have to use another technique. As almost always in Photoshop, there are multiple ways of achieving the same result. Briefly, this technique consists in using the shape of your object to create the shadow.
One way to do it is to duplicate the layer and then reduce the lightness to 0. Then, you move the duplicated layer below the original one and rename it to shadow if you want.
I already made a quick video demo of how to make this kind of shadows. You can watch the tutorial here. After that, you use the distort tool to arrange the shadow as you like. You can apply Gaussian Blur if you want a blurry shadow and also adjust the opacity of the layer.
Then I applied some Gaussian Blur, reduced the opacity and used a Layer Mask and the Gradient tool to make the shadow fade away. Then, with the Distort tool (Ctrl+T or from Edit>Transform>Distort) I tilted it a bit.
The second way of achieving the same result as on the picture above is by using layer styles. I think it’s easier and quicker. I’ll show you a REALLY COOOL TIP that not many people know.
Just open the layer styles window (in my example the TOWER layer) and add Drop Shadow. The most important setting here is the Shadow Size. With Size, you control the amount of blur you want on your shadow.
Increase Opacity to 100% because you can lower it later if you want using the Opacity slider on the layers palette. I used high Distance values in this example so that I could see the entire shadow better but the Distance is not important.
Now comes the cool part. You can turn this drop-down shadow effect into a layer. Right click over the Drop Shadow effect layer on the Layers Palette and choose Create Layer.
That will create a new layer with the same Blend Mode and Opacity settings. You can do this with any effect. After that, flip the layer, reduce opacity of needed. Repeat the same as explained above in order to tilt it.
I think that’s pretty much all I could say about shadows. Let’s go with the lighting now. I will just show you a few techniques that I use to create realistic lights.
D) Casting lights
I want to show you how I created the light effects shown in the image below. It’s from a manipulation that I’m working on. I will write a full tutorial about it.
Making this kind of light effects in Photoshop is not difficult but you have to think a bit if you want to cast the light realistically. Blend modes are very important here. Don’t be afraid of making each light effect on it’s own layer and using different blend modes for each of them.
The first thing I created was the light source. I took a fairly big soft brush with yellow color and I painted a big dot. Then I went through all the available Blend Modes to see which one works best.
Keep in mind that blend modes work with luminosity values. If the light don’t look as you want it with any of the available blend modes, try using a darker, less saturated color. In this example I used a dark yellow to make the light glow.
Next I created the final glow using the Lens Flare filter from the menu Filter>Render>Lens Flare. I created a square selection, filled it with black on a new layer and I added the flare centered on that black square. Then I changed its color to yellow with the Hue/Saturation adjustment and I changed the layer’s blend mode to Screen to hide the black area of the square.
When the light source is made, you will have to replicate the light that comes from it on the other objects such as the ground or walls. The most common way of doing that is by hand using a soft brush and in this case the yellow color.
I found out that the Color Dodge, Vivid Light or Linear Dodge (Add) are the best blend modes for light effects but as I said, it depends on the colors and luminosity levels on your background. The realism of the light depends on where you place it.
As you can see on the image above, adding a light on the ground gives this manipulation even more realism. It was made using a big soft brush, yellow color and Color Dodge blend mode, than I used the Distort Tool (Ctrl+T) and I squeezed it horizontally. Even so, by adding another light on the wall on the left can make this even more realistic. So, as I said above, it’s about where you place the light.
To make the light on the wall I just duplicated the ground light and flipped it.
E) Surface Lights
Another way of making a different kind of light is actually using layer styles. This technique can be used when you have the light coming from one side of the object or from behind.
The technique consists of adding some Inner Shadow and using a Blend Mode that works well. Using the same blend mode not always works, you’ll have to try. The objective is to recreate the light on the edges of the object.
The color of the light depends on if you’re working on a daylight manipulation or night scene. If you use the Dodge or Vivid Light blend modes, you must use dark colors because these blend modes will make them look bright. It’s a trial and error process until you find a color with the right illumination value that works ok with a particular blend mode. Also, the effect doesn’t necessarily have to be very strong. Even a soft effect will change the look of your object.
I made a quick setup to illustrate what I just explained. It’s just a rough setup but that’s fine. Take a look at the image below. I applied an Inner Shadow with the settings shown in the image above.
Here you have another example on a manipulation by VinternnV from deviantART.
This techniques has it’s flaws. When using the inner shadow settings, you will often create this light effect on areas that you don’t want.
I usually increase the Distance setting and Change the angle to match the light source direction but even then you can have unwanted results. Increasing the Size setting, you will get a smoother effect but but usually only a thin “line of light” is needed for a good look. See image below for more details. I made the effect really extreme so that you can see better.
As you can see on the picture above there are some unwanted effects as result of applying the Inner Shadow to create the light. In this particular example it doesn’t look that bad but let’s imagine you don’t want to have the light effect on the area that I circled on the image above.
How do you get rid of that without affecting the areas that are ok? You can’t use the eraser tool because this is a layer style. I had a really hard time with this but I eventually found a way around it.
The solution is to convert the style (the inner shadow in this case) into a layer on its own, just like I explained when I talked about the shadows. I bet not many people uses that feature in Photoshop but it’s really useful for example when you want to use an effect that you already used. For example if you want to use two different drop shadow effects.
So, extend the effects layers, right click on the effect you want and select Create Layer. Doing that will automatically create a new clipping mask layer with the opacity and blend mode settings you set on the layer style. After that, you can create a layer mask and mask the areas you don’t want.
F) Global light
The last type of light effects is the global light which I create using the Lighting Effect filter. I apply this filter on almost all my manipulations as a final step. It’s an effect that will make 99% of your manipulations look better. This is a destructive filter, in other words, once you apply it it changes your image permanently and it cannot be undone. You can find the Lighting Filter on the menu Filter>Render>Lighting Effects.
But there is a way of applying this filter non-destructively, if you convert the layer into a Smart Object. You can convert a normal layer into a smart object from the layers palette. Right click the layer and choose “Convert to Smart Object“. Below you can see a few example of global light effects. Hover the mouse over the images to see the before and after.
That’s all about shadows and lighting. I hope you learned something. It’s all about practicing these techniques and experimenting by yourself. | <urn:uuid:e87f7e64-0301-4621-9b78-494b37c0fb6b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.psdbox.com/tutorials/manipulation-secrets-3-shading-and-lighting/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922278 | 2,837 | 2.328125 | 2 |
Autherine Lucy Foster
Autherine Lucy Foster became the first African-American student to enroll at UA in 1956. After she graduated from Miles College in 1952, she enrolled at the University as a graduate student in library science. Her brief stay on campus involved three days of tumultuous demonstrations. Foster was suspended and later expelled by the UA Board of Trustees.
In 1988, two professors invited Foster to speak at the University about the events that had occurred more than 30 years before. After her speech, faculty members persuaded the Board of Trustees to overturn her expulsion.
A year later, in 1989, Foster again enrolled at the University, where her daughter Grazia also was a student at the time. In 1992, mother and daughter graduated together — the former with a master’s degree in elementary education, the latter with a bachelor’s degree in corporate finance. A portrait of Autherine Lucy Foster now hangs in the Ferguson Center.
Foster helped open the door for UA to achieve record minority enrollment. | <urn:uuid:d71e61eb-1ae6-42e6-93aa-db6f650de51a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://malonehoodplaza.ua.edu/autherine-lucy-foster/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974389 | 209 | 2.3125 | 2 |
By Senators Harry Reid (D-NV) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY)
Op-Ed First published: Tuesday, April 18, 2006
As two senators on opposite sides of the abortion debate, we recognize that one side will not suddenly convince the other to drop its deeply held beliefs. And we believe that, while disagreeing, we can work together to find common ground.
We believe that it is necessary for all Americans to join together and embrace policies that will reduce the number of unintended pregnancies, decrease abortions and improve access to women's health care.
There is no question that the rate of unintended pregnancy is too high in the United States.
Half of the 6 million pregnancies each year in this country are unintended, and nearly half of these unplanned pregnancies end in abortion. It doesn't have to be this way.
Most of these unintended pregnancies -- and the resulting abortions -- can be prevented if we eliminate the barriers that prevent women from having access to affordable and effective contraception.
In the Senate, we have long championed the Prevention First Act. This legislation would help to reduce the rates of unintended pregnancy in our nation, decrease abortions and improve access to women's health care.
Our proposal includes common- ground, common-sense policies.
It makes family-planning services more accessible to low-income women. It improves awareness and understanding of emergency contraception, a poorly understood yet highly effective form of contraception.
It ensures that government-funded sex education programs provide medically accurate information about contraception.
It also ends insurance discrimination against women. Right now, many policies cover Viagra, but not prescription contraceptives. That is wrong, and our legislation will change it.
Ironically, those advocating the loudest for an outright ban on abortion are too often the same people who oppose prevention initiatives and instead support making contraception less accessible, particularly for low-income women who are more likely to have unplanned pregnancies.
For example, a recent analysis by the non-partisan Guttmacher Institute revealed that South Dakota is one of the most difficult states for low-income women to obtain contraceptives.
Unfortunately, the same hypocrisy applies when it comes to funding programs that support women who choose to carry their pregnancies to term.
President Bush and the Republican majority in Congress have promoted budget cuts for a wide range of programs that would provide critical supports for low-income pregnant women and their children. This includes cuts to maternal and child health programs, child care programs, the Community Services Block Grant and the Healthy Start program.
We agree that it makes the most sense to prevent unintended pregnancies in the first place -- and we believe we should also fund programs that support women who choose to carry their pregnancies to term and raise healthy children.
Our approach gives Americans on both sides of the abortion debate the opportunity to join together -- as we have done -- in the common goals of preventing unintended pregnancies, reducing abortions and supporting women and children's health and well-being.
As two senators who approach this issue from different positions, we have found that we can agree on a common ground that makes good sense and good policy.
We hope that the White House and our colleagues in Congress agree and will work with us to put prevention first. | <urn:uuid:dac4b7bd-3146-42b4-9caa-167a9c912b0b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://usliberals.about.com/od/healthcare/a/ReidClinOpEd.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947645 | 652 | 1.976563 | 2 |
Hanna Draws Nearer
The National Weather Service has issued a flash flood watch and wind advisory for Moore County in anticipation of Tropical Storm Hanna.
The flood watch and wind advisory go into effect at 11 p.m. Friday and will last into Saturday. Hanna was close to hurricane strength Friday afternoon with forecasts expecting landfall somewhere between Charleston, S.C., and Wilmington at about 2 a.m. Saturday
The county has partially opened its Emergency Operations Center (EOC), according to Public Safety Director Carlton Cole, but does not plan to open shelters.
The National Weather Service issued an advisory at about 3 p.m. saying that Hanna was strengthening.
"Aircraft recon is measuring hurricane force wind gusts northeast of the center of circulation," the advisory said.
The storm has been zig-zagging off the East Coast all day Friday. It turned west early morning and then turn east during the afternoon.
"It's kind of wobbling out there," Cole said. "The farther east it goes, the better it is for us. We're just going to have to continue to hope."
Areas to the east of U.S. 1 can expect wind gusts of 45 mph and up to six inches of rain. Areas to the west of U.S. 1 can expect wind gusts of 35-40 mph and about two inches of rain.
County Public Safety is not expecting widespread damage but some power outages are likely.
"It's moving fairly fast, so that eliminates some of the threat of flood," Cole said.
Progress Energy has crews in the area ready to respond to outages. It may be more difficult for crews to work during the middle of the night, but it's also less likely that customers will experience power outages.
"You never want to speculate on Mother Nature," said Andy Honeycutt, community relations manager for Progress Energy in Aberdeen. "We've been tracking the storm. Our forecasts are very good and we feel very confident in our expectations for the storm. We've probably got a good handle on what we expect, some sporadic outages. Should it be worse, we're prepared."
If residents do encounter flooding, they should not wade or drive into flood waters.
"You should not drive onto a flooded road or through floodwaters because you cannot tell the condition of the road," Cole said. "It takes less than a foot of water to float a car and just inches to knock a person off their feet."
Anyone with questions can call the EOC with questions at 947-6317.
Contact Matthew Moriarty at 693-2479 or by e-mail at email@example.com.
More like this story | <urn:uuid:c5900c76-7c47-4836-b168-717d17da3ca1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thepilot.com/news/2008/sep/05/hanna-draws-nearer/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97011 | 562 | 1.625 | 2 |
The archive contains materials related to the efforts at The Claremont Colleges to create a more sustainable campus, one that minimizes the colleges' impacts on resources and the environment. The creation of this collection was sparked by The Claremont Colleges Sustainability Initiative announced by The Claremont Colleges Council of Presidents in March 2007. Recognizing that many students, faculty, and staff were concerned about environmental sustainability, the Council of Presidents offered funding for a three-year pilot program in which teams of faculty, staff, and students could apply for grants. The funding would be used to implement projects that assess the colleges, assess environmental impacts, to recommend and implement measures to limit adverse environmental impacts, and evaluate the success of those measures.
The documents related to the establishment of The Claremont Colleges Sustainability Initiative and the documents and datasets produced by the funded teams constitute the initial core of this collection. These documents include the call for proposals, the proposals, flyers from events, final reports, presentation slides, presentation videos, and photographs. In addition to these core materials, this collection serves and will continue to serve as a repository for other materials related to campus sustainability created by faculty, staff, and students of The Claremont Colleges. The founders of this collection hope that the collection will be useful for future community members as they continue efforts to improve campus sustainability and that it will also provide source material for those seeking to understand the historical development of sustainability initiatives at The Claremont Colleges. | <urn:uuid:f9240bef-1372-4113-9772-d2df2e3bd411> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/csa | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953614 | 292 | 1.617188 | 2 |
A collection of news and information related to Asperger Syndrome published by this site and its partners.
Displaying items 1-12 of 114 » View southbendtribune.com items only1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next >
Middletown/ShorelineBridgeport resident Todd Zavorskas approached the Connecticut RollerGirls with an unusual sponsorship idea: instead of promoting a business, why not promote awareness of autism spectrum disorders? Autism Awareness Patch The Yankee Brutals will wear this...
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A 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old boyfriend arrested in the killing of her father in his Ellicott City home this month were indicted and charged as adults by a grand jury this week, according to court records. Morgan Arnold, a Mount Hebron High...
FX's new summer drama "The Bridge" has many common elements of contemporary thrillers: a sadistic serial killer, mismatched detectives and a desperate race against time. But "The Bridge" is distinguished by a hot-button issue that brings an edgy...
Morgan Lane Arnold, an emotionally frail 14-year-old freshman, navigated the hallways of her Howard County high school each day filled with anxiety, unable because of a learning disorder to decipher the social cues, jokes and emotions of her peers. Her...
Data entry is repetitive and hard to do well — that is, quickly and accurately. Shane Foley is great at it. The 21-year-old Ellicott City man works on two computer screens, eyeing images of handwritten sheets on one and clicking the information...
ReutersNEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women who take the epilepsy drug valproate during pregnancy are three times more likely to have a child with an autism spectrum disorder, suggests new research based on close to 700,000 babies born in Denmark. Previous studies...
On his own and as a member of Crosby, Stills & Nash (and sometimes Young), two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Stephen Stills has taken part in many a benefit concert over the last four decades, but usually his role has been that of rock singer...
WASHINGTON -- The gunman in the Newtown massacre fired 154 bullets from his Bushmaster military-style rifle in less than five minutes, killing 20 first-graders and six adults. He brought with him 10 large-capacity magazines, each holding up to 30 rounds,...
NEW HAVEN, Conn. - An arsenal of weapons including guns, a gun safe with shotgun shells, a bayonet and several swords were found in the home of the gunman who carried out the Newtown school shooting, according to search warrants released Thursday. ...
Jun 9, 2013 |Story| Hartford Courant
Jun 4, 2013 |Story| Reuters
May 24, 2013 |Story| Daily Pilot
May 23, 2013 |Story| Baltimore Sun
May 24, 2013 |Story| Los Angeles Times
May 19, 2013 |Story| McClatchy-Tribune
May 18, 2013 |Story| Baltimore Sun
Apr 28, 2013 |Story| Baltimore Sun
Apr 23, 2013 |Story| Reuters
Apr 8, 2013 |Story| Los Angeles Times
Mar 29, 2013 |Column| Orlando Sentinel
Mar 28, 2013 |Story| Los Angeles Times
Original site for Asperger Syndrome topic gallery. | <urn:uuid:a8e85db7-1d70-4f6c-8fe7-b8fe5afd722d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.southbendtribune.com/topic/health/behavioral-conditions/asperger-syndrome-HEBEC000011.topic?page=1&sortby=taxrankprof | 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 | 0.949024 | 777 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Glue beats gecko's sticking power
10 October 2008
The prospect of a 'Spider Man' suit which would allow the wearer to scale sheer walls has moved a step closer: a carbon nanotube-based material has smashed records for sticking power to a vertical surface, and it can be easily peeled away too.
A gecko's ability to climb walls and hang from ceilings relies on the millions of sub-microscopic branched hairs called setae on the animal's feet - resulting in powerful van der Waals forces being generated between the setae and the surface. Over the last six years, researchers have created a range of synthetic mimics of this system.
Top: Gecko's foot and setae; Bottom: Carbon nanotube glue
Now, Liangti Qu from the University of Dayton, Ohio, US, and colleagues have synthesised a new material, based on multi-walled carbon nanotubes, that sticks onto a smooth vertical surface with adhesive forces of around 100 Ncm-2 - almost 10 times more than a gecko's foot, and nearly three times greater than the best artificial 'gecko' material. 'A three centimetre square of the material could hold 150 kg,' says Liming Dai, one of the leaders of the research group. Yet the material can also easily be pulled away from a surface.
The key to the new material's properties lies in the structure of its nanotubes. They are grown under low pressure chemical vapour deposition in such a way that the exposed ends of the tubes are not aligned; rather they are floppy and entangled, like so many strands of spaghetti.
A bottle of cola suspended from a glass surface using the nanotube glue
When a patch of the material is pressed on to a vertical surface and a load attached to pull it downwards, the strands of 'spaghetti' are stretched so that they are aligned against the surface, significantly increasing the area of contact between the hairs and the substrate. But without the shear force downwards, the nanotubes have far less sticking power. When tugged in the normal plane (perpendicular to the vertical surface), they can be easily detached from the wall.
The material showed reduced, but still significant, adhesion on rough surfaces such as sandpaper. Possible applications, says Dai, include pads for a robot's feet to enable it to climb walls, or as a way of joining electronic components without the need for soldering. He says the modified nanotubes are no more expensive to produce than standard nanotubes, and that the price of these is falling as more industrial-scale production facilities emerge.
Stanislav Gorb of the Max-Planck Institute for Metals Research in Stuttgart, Germany, is an expert on biomaterials. He says that while he likes the study because of the way that carbon nanotubes have been modified to achieve novel properties, the system is not truly analogous to that of the gecko because a relatively large 'preload' is needed to obtain the adhesion: in other words, the patch of material must first be pressed with some force to the surface. 'The trick of the gecko and other animals is minimal load with strong adhesion,' Gorb points out.
Interesting? Spread the word using the 'tools' menu on the left.
L Qu et al, Science, 2008, 322, 238 (DOI: 10.1126/science.1159503)
Also of interest
18 February 2008
Surgeons and climbers could benefit from new materials inspired by gecko's feet
Researchers in the US have attempted to surpass nature and create a synthetic material that sticks to surfaces at the nanometre level.
Comment on this story at the Chemistry World blog
Read other posts and join in the discussion
External links will open in a new browser window | <urn:uuid:2e89e3ca-2a94-4ba0-9e1f-6dc6cd56f552> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2008/October/10100801.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933248 | 792 | 3.171875 | 3 |
Which is correct: "six or ten-day trip" or "six- or ten-day trip"?
Published: September 29, 2011
Q: Which is correct: “six or ten-day trip” or “six- or ten-day trip”?
A: The fact that you have at least one hyphen in the phrase means you’re already on the right track. First, let’s back up and look at why you need hyphens in a phrase like this.
The phrase “ten-day trip” includes a compound modifier, a group of words (ten-day) that modify a noun (trip). The individual words in compound modifiers rely on one another. If one stood alone with the noun, the sentence probably wouldn’t make sense or would change in meaning. That certainly applies here:
I’m going on a ten trip.
I’m going on a day trip.
Using a hyphen with compound modifiers that come before a noun clarifies meaning and makes the sentence easier to read.
You’re asking about a phrase that’s more complicated. It’s essentially saying this:
I’m going on either a six-day trip or a ten-day trip.
But that’s wordy. So, the choice to pare down is a good one. In cases like this, use a suspended hyphen to indicate each modifier’s connection to the noun:
I’m going on a six- or ten-day trip.
Make sure you include a space after the hyphen for the first modifier so it’s clearly suspended and not meant to connect two adjacent words.
Brandi Reissenweber teaches fiction writing and reading fiction at Gotham Writers' Workshop and authored the chapter on characterization in Gotham's Writing Fiction: The Practical Guide. Her work has been published in numerous journals, including Phoebe, North Dakota Quarterly and Rattapallax. She
was a James C. McCreight Fiction Fellow at the Wisconsin Institute for
Creative Writing and has taught fiction at New York University,
University of Wisconsin and University of Chicago. Currently, she is a
visiting professor at Illinois Wesleyan University.
Send your questions on the craft of creative writing to firstname.lastname@example.org. All of Brandi's other Ask The Writer columns are available to registered users. | <urn:uuid:aaef49c0-b70e-4bfe-a441-e6b785365bb1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.writermag.com/en/Columns/Ask%20The%20Writer/2011/09/Which%20is%20correct%20six%20or%20ten%20day%20trip%20or%20six%20or%20ten%20day%20trip.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921736 | 510 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Published December 10, 2010
Equality is about civility and how we should treat one anotherShawn Murinko, Contributing writer
This is my final column as a member of The Olympian's Diversity Panel, and what an experience it has been. Sharing my thoughts on issues for which I have strong convictions is an opportunity that a wordy and opinionated person, like me, can only dream of. In this process, I have learned that I am not the only one with a penchant for being outspoken. Online posters and readers at the ready with e-mail demonstrated an unwavering commitment to setting the record straight in an effort to set me straight. While some comments were affirming and supportive, the vast majority of them were not. I would be less than honest if I didn’t say some of these comments were hurtful — to be addressed as “Uncle Shawn” or likening my viewpoints to “cancer” in this society was something that I was not expecting when I agreed to write this column. Perhaps my surprise at the verbosity of some comes from an intrinsic naiveté. Ironically, even though I work in civil rights and social justice every day and see firsthand those who are denied equality, I still believe that our culture, as a whole, embraces and fosters it. I also believe that for all of our progress and for all the dreams that have been realized, hope for equality still remains elusive for some. An ideal turned into a political catchphrase hasn’t made a difference. Laws mandating equal treatment still remain words without tangible results that fully legitimize their existence. This reality stands in stark contrast to the very thing that equality itself demands – that we nurture it by allowing its evolutionary nature to propel it and its ideals forward. Some oversimplify our lack of progress toward equality as simply a difference of opinion, while others are more theatrical in their thinking and conjure up tales of conspiracies by the rich and powerful elite to oppress. Between these two extremes, I find myself somewhere strapped in the middle with increasing consternation as to how political ideology or affiliation has inserted itself into something which I unashamedly believe transcends partisan rancor. Both sides have uniformly cast the other as villains in an attempt to corner the market on their own version of morality which ultimately finds equality as one of its tenets. When this happens the seeming clarity of these ideals is lost leaving behind an environment where discrimination and intolerance thrive. Even more astounding, some have the audacity to believe such societal maladies don’t exist. For me, equality isn’t political; it’s about civility and how we should treat one another. It’s about sharing what we’ve been blessed with, without worry as to whether doing so will leave us with less. It’s also about acknowledging and honoring that which makes us different, all while embracing those things that bring us closer. You needn’t be a scholar or politician to live this out — just a good neighbor. And along the way, you also need to find a way to silence the sea of talking heads and embrace the vitally simple things you were likely taught as a 5-year-old. Are these ideas naive and oversimplified? I am proud to say “yes.” After all, I am absolutely convinced that John Lennon was spot on in his song, “Imagine,” when he sang: “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will be as one.” As for me, I hope to never wake from the dream of equality until the world, or at least my backyard, is one. Shawn Murinko, who works for the state of Washington as an ADA compliance officer, is a member of The Olympian’s Diversity Panel. Murinko, who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, can be reached at email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:bffae27a-8ac8-4e41-8c94-8e1d1c02161f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theolympian.com/2010/12/10/v-print/1469475/equality-is-about-civility-and.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973795 | 835 | 1.90625 | 2 |
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- All Balkan Countries
Although the law now allows Serbs to request the return of property confiscated by the Communists, their chances of getting back any of their long-lost paintings remain minimal.
|An Exhibition in Konak Knjeginje Ljubice from 2010. | Photo Courtesy of Network for restitution website|
“Everything changed overnight in faraway 1949,” recalls Maja Matic, a pensioner born into the elite society of the former Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
“After the war we lost everything,” she adds. “Instead of happiness and joy we became frightened. Seventeen unknown people moved in our house and took away our home, and from that day on we often went hungry,” Matic adds with a sigh.
Today she survives on a modest pension in an adapted cellar of a family home that used to be a gathering place for the Royal suite.
Speaking calmly but pensively about her grim memories, she says she still misses the things they took from her, both her family homes and the artworks that once decorated them: mostly paintings by Uros Predic, a family friend.
Having this in mind, one might think she would now be contemplating using Serbia’s newly adopted legislation on post-war confiscation to seek their return.
But she is not. Mainly because she cannot provide the documentation necessary for a restitution request for her lost paintings, she is only seeking the return of the houses and apartments taken from her family.
There is simply no way to prove that she is the rightful owner of the lost artworks that “might now be who knows where,” she says.
Even if she changes her mind and collects the requisite documents, there is no guarantee that the art will be returned.
The Agency for Restitution says such works may now be in public institutions, museums and other cultural institutions.
If so, even if their owners appear, they will only be compensated with money instead of the actual artworks.
The end of the Second World War brought an era of Soviet-style Communism to Yugoslavia.
The new authorities under Josip Broz Tito abolished the monarchy, banned alternative political parties and proclaimed a new classless society.
They started imposing their vision of social justice by proclaiming all property to be socially or state-owned.
After the regime confiscated all the royal property and lands, the private property of ordinary citizens was next in line.
After the fall of Communism, and especially after the fall of Slobodan Milosevic’s regime in 2000, dreams of regaining their lost property became more of a realistic ambition for many people.
Although restitution of seized assets was then announced as a goal, action gained momentum only recently.
After more than a decade of discussion, Serbia’s parliament finally adopted a law on returning confiscated property and compensation on September 26, 2011.
The law established a restitution agency, which took over jurisdiction from the former Directorate for Restitution, founded in 2006 to deal with church property alone.
The agency started working in March this year and has since begun returning seized property to those who can prove their right to it. But artworks aren’t mentioned in this process.
Meanwhile, people like Maja Matic, who were children at the time of the seizures, have only distant memories of these artworks, or remember family stories about them.
“We used to have valuable works of art; antiquities… a great deal of the paintings were gifts of Uros Predic who was a family friend,” says Matic who is now 74.
|Maja Matic | Photo byTanja Vrećo and S media portal|
“I have only two portraits left, of my mother and one of my grandfather, painted by Predic, and one print he gave us, although that was first intended for a monastery in Becej.”
She has little hope that she will ever see the rest ever again.
“I cannot ask for anything that was seized because I don’t have the necessary documentation. I don’t know what happened with the certificates, and, trust me, both of my parents didn’t think out that at the time. We were fighting for survival.”
The president of Vojvodina’s Association of Citizens for Restitution, Nikola Tanurdzic, gives legal advice to people on restitution matters.
He says the process of gathering documentation is the most problematic issue for people seeking their assets back.
“Documentation is required to prove ownership. When everybody started to speak about restitution 20 years ago, we urged people to begin collecting documents, but some of them still don’t understand that without papers they can’t request anything,” Tanurdzic says.
“Restitution of art belongs under restitution of movable objects. By law, the state will return only those works that are filed in the registry, where it is possible to follow the course of ownership,” adds lawyer Marko Perovic.
“Such registers exist, but the former owner who has no proof will not be able to reclaim the property and his request will be rejected,” he explains.
“A request for return of property must contain evidence of the legal right of the former owner and information of his ownership right and proof that he/she is the legal heir.”
One painting returned:
|The portrait of [scientist Mihajlo] Pupin was bequeathed to the church before World War II | Photo courtesy of Kovacica tourist organization|
So far, only one art painting has been returned to a former owner. This happened in 2009, in the first round of restitution, related to church property.
The parish of Idvor then reclaimed a painting that until then had been in the possession of the local community.
Fr Petar Ilic told Balkan Insight that the painting, also by Uros Predic, was taken from the church in the Seventies.
“The portrait of [scientist Mihajlo] Pupin was bequeathed to the church before World War II,” he recalls.
“When we had heard about the possibility of restitution we tried to collect the necessary documentation,” he says.
He explained that the clergy obtained all of the necessary papers from a provincial office, proving that the parish of Idvor was the rightful owner of the portrait.
“After handing over the documents we were invited to a public hearing with an attorney in the municipality of Kovacica and when we again reviewed the documentation the process was completed,” he continues.
“I would advise everyone to try to get back their works of art now, because if they don’t, they won’t have another chance later on.”
Much information missing:
In the meantime, even if requests including complete documentation appear, it’s open to question whether the owners will get back their artworks.
In theory, former owners will be eligible for compensation, where possible, financially, through government bonds.
These have a total value of 200 billion dinars (about 2 billion euro) and will be issued for this purpose at the end of 2014.
But artworks now deemed to be an integral part of the collections of museums and galleries, or other similar institutions, will not be returned, the restitution agency warns.
A large number of artworks are located in Palace of Serbia, the building of the Serbian government in Belgrade’s Nemanjina Street.
Others adorn the parliament building and the National Bank. But no hard information is available about whether citizens may realistically demand some of them back.
The authorities say they can answer this only if and when valid requests for them reach the Agency for Restitution.
“The agency keeps records of art works in state ownership, but we do not know if some of these were confiscated and so transferred into state ownership," Nebojsa Keseljevic told Balkan Insight.
Even the State Directorate for Property has no accurate information of how many confiscated works of art now lie in government facilities or public institutions.
“Having examined the register of declared seized property, it was determined that 122 applications contain art pieces taken from their owners after the war, but without any specifications delivered,” Mirjana Ristic Velickovic, from the Directorate, says.
According to Velickovic, the Directorate is awaiting receipt of the relevant documentation from the restitution agency, and will then make an analysis of whether, or what, artworks are in state facilities.
Restitution claims may be submitted until March 2014. If, after this two-year period, owners do not submit the documentation and request restitution, they lose all right to reclaiming their assets.
Matic is not going to bother. “Long ago I reconciled myself to the fact that our cultural treasure disappeared. Only memories remain,” she says.
This article is funded under the BICCED project, supported by the Swiss Cultural Programme.
The band from Bitola describe their approach to music as an irrational process of creating a ‘private folklore’ out of their impressions and dreams, and their latest album as a tonic for apathy and depression.
One needs to invest in new, strong mechanisms of content distribution. | <urn:uuid:ce8efda4-0b3d-472e-83b9-826b197295c9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/seized-art-stays-off-serbia-s-restitution-agenda | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963428 | 1,960 | 2.34375 | 2 |
The widening gulf between public and private data-release policies
NATHAN ROTHSCHILD made a killing with help from a pigeon bringing news of Wellington’s victory over Napoleon at Waterloo. Traders today use algorithms and high-speed networks to respond quickly to market-moving news. Their hunger to gain an edge is creating a split system for data releases. Government agencies are trying to ensure official data are available to everyone at the same time. But private providers are increasingly looking to stagger the release of proprietary numbers so they can charge more to high-speed traders who will pay handsomely for the zippiest feeds.
Regulators are watching. The New York Stock Exchange’s parent, NYSE Euronext, this month settled allegations by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it had fed market data to certain customers fractionally before sending it to everyone else. Such favouritism breaches a market-fairness rule known as Regulation NMS. The exchange will pay a mere $5m, but it will also have to make improvements to its compliance systems. The SEC is looking at other exchanges’ arrangements with super-fast traders.
Worries about the preferential treatment of such firms have also led to a tightening of the procedures for the 30-minute “lockups” before the release of widely watched employment data by America’s Department of Labour. During these periods reporters from accredited media organisations (some of which have big data-feed businesses) get an early look at the new number so they can prepare detailed articles to be distributed at the moment of official release. But fears have grown that some of them have been giving their data subscribers an early peek, through customised feeds that media groups have been allowed to install in the lockup room.
Carl Fillichio, an adviser to the department, testified in June that the rise of high-frequency trading had “strengthened the financial incentive to violate the terms of prerelease access for the purpose of providing non-public data to paid subscribers”. He listed numerous violations of security policies in recent years, including by one (unnamed) news group that installed a fibre-optic cable despite having been told repeatedly this was not allowed. Under a system to be introduced later this year, media groups that want to continue to use their own hardware and software will have to order it from approved suppliers, and have it shipped directly to the department and installed by its own IT people. Reporters will no longer be able to bring in anything that can be used as or turned into a transmitting device, including pens.
In stark contrast, dissemination of a twice-monthly consumer-sentiment index compiled by the University of Michigan is staggered by design. Under the terms of its contract with Thomson Reuters, its distribution partner, the index is released in three stages: to subscribers of Thomson’s “ultra low-latency” feed two seconds before 9:55am; to the firm’s desktop clients at 9:55am precisely; and to the public at 10am. The more who sign up for the costlier low-latency service, the better for both Thomson and the university. The contract for 2010, seen by The Economist, stated that Thomson was to pay the university an annual fee for co-branding and distribution rights, plus a “contingent fee” equal to 25% of any “qualifying” revenue generated by the service above that level. It is not known if the terms have since changed.
Financial-data firms do not break out their fees from such tiered offerings. Adam Honoré of Aite Group, a consultancy, says hard-charging trading firms will pay $10,000-15,000 per month for an early look at just one or two market-moving numbers. Not everyone is interested. Manoj Narang of Tradeworx argues that it is of more value to “a hedge fund with the conviction to bet big on it” than to high-frequency trading firms like his, for which “it’s all about doing a large number of different trades, each with a slightly better than 50% chance of making money.”
Staggering the release of private data is perfectly legal, as long as the suppliers and distributors of the information keep to the contract terms. But it has its problems. A well-placed source says Thomson has threatened legal action against television networks, including CNBC, that announce the Michigan number when it hits desktop terminals at 9.55am, five minutes before the official public release. (Thomson won’t confirm this.) Nor is it clear how many of Thomson’s desktop clients are aware that a group of high-speed traders are getting the number a couple of seconds before them, a lifetime in today’s markets. Bloomberg has been a bit warier than Thomson of embracing tiered releases for fear of alienating its desktop customers, who provide 80% of its revenues.
Technological advances will make it ever harder to define an “early” data release. In truth, the line has always been blurred. Decades ago, when reporters covering Labour Department numbers would rush to phone them in to news desks, those dialling numbers containing lots of high digits would complain of being at a disadvantage because they took longer to dial on old rotary phones. The difference between then and now is that today the gap is measured in milliseconds.
From the print edition: Finance and economics | <urn:uuid:b6c5ad48-b7b2-456d-b900-8c8c04bbc091> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.economist.com/node/21563350/print | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962546 | 1,129 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Mayankote Kelath Narayanan (born 1934) commonly referred to as M.K. Narayanan is the current Governor of Indian state West Bengal and was the National Security Advisor (NSA) to the Prime Minister of India until January 2010. He was appointed to this post on January 25, 2005, three weeks after the former NSA, J N Dixit died on January 3, 2005. He offered to resign on 30 November 2008 over the attacks in Mumbai that killed nearly 200 people, but his resignation was not accepted by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He has been heavily criticized in leading up to the Mumbai terrorist’s attacks of his preoccupation with Sri Lanka and the LTTE, instead of India's chief threat Kashmir insurgents and Pakistan.
M. K. Narayanan headed the Intelligence Bureau (IB) from 1987 to 1990, before heading the Joint Intelligence Committee. He became Chief of the IB again in 1991, before retiring in 1992. He was the Special Advisor for Internal Security to the Prime Minister of India since May 2004.
On 24th Jan 2010 he became the governor of West Bengal. He takes over from Gopalkrishna Gandhi who had a few run-ins with the CPM-ruled West Bengal on critical issues like violence in Nandigram and Singur | <urn:uuid:99dc19be-f958-4755-a373-f9bdd5f0614b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://imagindia.org/mk_narayanan.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987394 | 269 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development Vol 2 No 4 pp 250–253 2012
Microbiological quality of chlorinated water after storage in ceramic pots
Clair Null and Daniele Lantagne
Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, 1518 Clifton Road Northeast, Atlanta, GA 30329, USA
Sustainability Science Program, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Household water treatment with sodium hypochlorite has been shown to reduce self-reported diarrheal disease in developing countries. Reported hypochlorite use, time since treatment, total chlorine residual (TCR), and E. coli concentration results from 589 household surveys in rural Kenya were analyzed to quantify the effect of exceeding recommended 24 hour post-treatment water storage time in ceramic pots.
Exceeding storage time recommendations impacted treatment efficacy, as 87% of reported treaters with TCR ≥ 0.2 mg/L storing their water ≤ 24 hours met World Health Organization (WHO) E. coli guideline values, compared to 77% of reported treaters with TCR ≥ 0.2 mg/L storing water >24 hours (p = 0.024) and 7% of reported non-treaters. Implementing organizations face the trade-off between promoting treating water every 24 hours and accepting slightly compromised efficacy. | <urn:uuid:84f4ca5b-9485-439b-8aca-4629762ebc98> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.washplus.org/drinkingwaterupdates/2012/09/microbiological-quality-of-chlorinated-water-after-storage-in-ceramic-pots/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.902813 | 287 | 1.859375 | 2 |
The Phlebotomy certification exam is also called as phlebotomy board exams for some states. This examination is intended to be the screening process for phlebotomist who wants to become certified. From the training school that they attended, students will get a hold of what this exam is all about. Most of what they learn from the training school is applicable on this exam, including the human anatomy and physiology, medical terminologies, and other classroom subjects that are comprehensively discussed. Those who have work experience as phlebotomist are also allowed to take the phlebotomy board exam.
Get ahead before Taking the Phlebotomy Board Exam
Those who have attended a training school are ahead in terms of the classroom learning that they acquired compared to those who are working as non-certified phlebotomist. On the other hand, those who earn their knowledge through the actual work experience are ahead in terms of the hands-on experiences compared to the students. Thus, phlebotomist from training school will need to get the experience from the actual setting while the non-certified experienced phlebotomists might need to take review classes for the medical terminologies and other classroom-related subjects that are included in the written exam.
Phlebotomy students need to finish the whole course prior to taking the exam. Apart from the phlebotomy training course, there is an examination fee you need to pay to the American Society of Clinical Pathologists Board of Registry. The examination fee could go about $50 or higher depending on the program provider.
What to Expect from the Phlebotomy Board Exam
Phlebotomy board exam should be taken seriously, thus, preparation is needed. You can prepare for the exam by reviewing your lessons and searching for other study materials that may be relevant to the topic. Practice tests could also be taken but most of them that you can find online need to be purchased. Typically, the written exam is composed of set of multiple choice questions that you need to answer in specific period of time given by he facilitator.
Phlebotomy Board exam could be taken traditionally using pen and paper in the testing centers. It could also be taken using computer system but the venue is decided by the certification agency on a given schedule. The hands-on or practical exam that is a major part of the phlebotomy board exam will also be decided by the certification agency regarding the venue and schedule, usually with the hospitals or health care locations that are affiliated with them.
Related Phlebotomy Articles: | <urn:uuid:f19d0620-5eb3-4992-bbd1-12916f90abcf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://phlebotomistcertification.net/phlebotomy-board-exam/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972273 | 524 | 2.1875 | 2 |
Fossil Collectors’ Paradise
Most residents of Cincinnati are probably unaware that its local fossils can be viewed in museums all over the world.
Most residents of Cincinnati are probably unaware that its local fossils can be viewed in museums all over the world. Now Trammel Fossil Park in Sharonville offers Cincinnatians a unique opportunity to understand what all the attention is about.
The story of Trammel Park actually begins 440 million years ago when shallow seas covered North America during what is called the Ordovician Period. The bedrock underlying Cincinnati and the Tristate region was formed at this time and has been intensely studied for over 150 years because of its good exposure at the surface and its abundant and well preserved fossils. In fact, the layers of limestone and shale composing the bedrock serve as a scientific standard for comparison throughout North America and are called the “Cincinnatian Series.”
The next chapter in the park’s story involves local developer, R.L. Trammel, who was excavating land for the Sharonville Industrial Park and discovered its rich contents. Since natural exposure to Cincinnati’s fossils was better before urbanization, reforestation, and construction of dams along the Ohio River and its tributaries, exposure today is usually limited to road building sites and developments like that planned by Trammel.
Once news of Trammel’s find was out, scholars like David Meyer, professor of geology, began taking students there, so Meyer was
excited when Trammel decided to donate the last ten acres of the building site to Sharonville rather than develop it for business.
At that point Meyer offered to assist in development of a concept for a park on the site. He contacted Virginia Russell, associate professor and landscape architect in DAAP, to collaborate on a design. She devoted Site Systems, a spring quarter class, to the task, and 14 student design projects were subsequently presented to Sharonville’s mayor and city council. These set the stage for architect Ted Johansen’s final design.
Meyer’s work continued as he and his wife created signs for the park. In the interpretive section the signs explain the purpose of the park, the geological story of the site, the four geological formations exposed there, and the characteristics of the fossils. Meyer notes, “At Trammel we have four of the best Cincinnatian formations exposed; the Fairview formation, Miamitown shale, Bellevue limestone, and the Corryville formation. The strata were all named for sites within the inner city that are now only poorly exposed.”
What makes the park unique is not only the generosity of Trammel and the dedication of volunteers like McMicken’s Meyer but also the willingness of the city of Sharonville to allow visitors a special privilege. Guests may collect surface level fossils from the site so long as no digging is involved. The city has also agreed to allow the site to be periodically renewed by having the surface scraped.
Meyer is currently helping to develop in-place displays by exposing particularly interesting fossil-rich layers and protecting them under covered frames. Visitors can arrange to have the covers opened to allow close examination of the layers, but no digging is allowed.
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UC News | | <urn:uuid:74c9e655-db5f-4095-9c15-387abdf30691> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.uc.edu/profiles/profile.asp?id=6466 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958085 | 698 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Last December, with the winter chill descending rapidly upon Vancouver, I typed a new entry into my To Do list: “Buy photo gloves.” My fingers — aching from exposure to the cold, and from contact with the Leica’s metal body — were a gating factor in how long, and how comfortably, I could photograph on wintry streets. I reckoned that a pair of lightweight photography gloves were an essential purchase for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics in February. But before I had a chance to buy them, December’s promise of a bitter winter faded, and January entered the record books as the warmest in the history of Vancouver.
With precipitation levels low and the temperatures high, Vancouver’s cherry trees welcomed February with a display of delicate pink blossoms that, in years past, remained hidden until April. In marked contrast to most of the Northern Hemisphere, winter never fully arrived here, and spring has already sprung. It’s a glorious time to be in Vancouver, save for one nagging little fact — we’re hosting the winter Olympics.
The tragedy and travails of these Olympics are already legendary, and we haven’t even reached the mid-way point. But if you ever want to see the disparity between journalistic sensationalism and reality, you need only come to Vancouver. There is joy, happiness, and enthusiasm all around me. Each day, tens of thousands of people converge upon Vancouver’s many Olympic party venues — bathing in the sun’s unseasonable warmth and the camaraderie of others. Vancouver, at this moment, is the happiest place on earth. Sorry, Mr. Disney.
The discrepancy between this reality and the vitriolic reports filed by the ever-acrimonious British press would be laughable, were it not so costly. When a community invests $6 billion dollars to host the Olympics, they don’t want to read headlines such as, “Vancouver Games Continue Downhill Slide from Disaster to Calamity.” Such exaggerated dogma is, of course, a fabrication of a British press desperate for the success of London’s 2012 Olympics. By filing such scathing articles now, the Brits create a “baseline” upon which to compare London’s games when their own inevitable glitches and bumps manifest. For proof of pre-meditation, one needs only to look at another headline from the UK’s Guardian paper: “Vancouver Olympics Head for Disaster.” How does that headline prove pre-meditation? Because it was written two weeks prior to the start of the Olympics! At the Olympics, there are many more games played than just those that award gold medals. It will be interesting to watch, over the next couple of years, the extent to which such negative press damages Vancouver’s stellar image in the international arena.
When it comes to photography (which, should you have forgotten, is the Raison d’être of this particular blog), truth has no meaning. Photography makes its own truth. Thumb through any issue of Vogue magazine, and just try to find a photograph in which “truth” has not been fabricated. For generations, photographers have found images of joy in a sea of misery, and images of misery in an outpouring of joy. Robert Capa and David “Chim” Seymour, when photographing the same war, could create two entirely different realities — where Capa found death, Chim found humanity. Life is full of nuances, to which we each respond differently. If everyone reacted to every moment and every story in the same way, the dullness would be insufferable.
As a photographer, I’m probably more emotionally wired with Chim’s view of the world, but it’s Robert Capa’s statement that “if your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough” that is my mantra. On the streets, my proximity to my subjects is much the same as if we were to engage in conversation. I’m close — earshot close. Which means I overhear some rather interesting discussions.
Case in point is a conversation I heard in the middle of Robson Square, site of British Columbia’s Olympic pavilion. The square, as always, was teeming with excitement. Bands played on two separate stages. People watched live coverage of sporting events on a giant outdoor screen. Daredevils, suspended by pulley from a wire high above the square, would zip from one tower to another. Skaters packed the ice rink and street performers were wowing audiences with all manner of spectacular feats. A pair of women, standing next to me, were engaged in conversation.
“This is the most exciting pavilion I’ve ever seen! I’m having so much fun.”
Her friend, nodding in agreement, said, “I hear British Columbia has a pavilion in some place called Robson Square.”
“British Columbia has a pavilion?” asked the first woman, wrinkling her nose, “That must really suck.”
On Monday, I was standing on some steps in a crowded plaza — hanging around in case an interesting shot materialized. I looked around me and noticed a couple of news crews. I fiddled with some settings on my camera, then looked up again — another couple of news crews had arrived. Like the birds in Bodega Bay, news crews kept flocking to where I stood. Cops began to converge, all conversing with unseen voices on their radios. Soon, I noticed undercover security personnel looking about and talking into their sleeves. More continued to come and, as they did, helicopters began to circle overhead. “Must be someone really big,” I thought to myself as the crowd continued to thicken.
A passerby, shuffling past, asked the news cameraman beside me, “Who’s coming? The Prime Minister?”
“No,” replied the cameraman, “Bilodeau!”
“Oh!” exclaimed the passerby, stopping on a dime, “Now THAT’S worth waiting for!”
Alexandre Bilodeau was a man who, 18 hours earlier, could have walked through this same plaza in a pink tutu and no one would have payed him any attention. That day, as the first Canadian to win a gold medal on home soil, he was a national hero. Fame is a curious thing.
My favorite conversational snippet occurred in one of the crowds, last Friday, as I waited for the Olympic torch to pass. I had my Leica at chin height, poised and ready to shoot. Beside me were two women — one holding up a small mauve-colored point-and-shoot camera; the other with a cell phone camera. The woman with the mauve camera nudged the woman to her left and, nodding her head in my direction, said “look at the crappy camera that guy has.” It made my day.
Perception and reality really are two different things… and that’s the moral of this story.
©2010 grEGORy simpson
If you find these photos enjoyable or the blog beneficial, please consider DONATING to this site’s continuing evolution.
Many photos from this blog are available for purchase from our gallery site, which you can access HERE. | <urn:uuid:a19550ca-daef-430f-845c-d7a6d758e6ac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ultrasomething.com/photography/2010/02/winter-olympics/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956533 | 1,562 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Net-Zero Energy Residential Test Facility is a High Tech Robotic Green Dinosaur
“We want to demonstrate that energy efficiency does not need to be at odds with a typical suburban neighborhood,” said NIST director and Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology Patrick Gallagher at the ribbon-cutting ceremony. “We think that by demonstrating that it’s possible to have the home design you want, with the energy efficiency you want, we’ll help speed the adoption of energy-efficient technologies and net-zero homes.”
It is designed by Betsy Pettit of Building Science Corporation, who are among the best in the business; BSC's Joseph Lstiburek and John Straube have been quoted in TreeHugger numerous times. There are a lot of really good things going on in this house, low tech stuff like advanced framing, cross ventilation in every room, sprinklers, heat recovery, properly designed overhangs over windows, a ton of insulation. There's green gizmo stuff like advanced controls, photovoltaics, solar thermal, ground source heat pumps with three different kinds of heat exchangers and more. Every architect and builder in North America should be studying the details; they are so thorough and complete, and nobody knows how to design a wall like these guys. (PDF here)
It even has a robotic family living in it. According to the Washington Post,
Scientists will track what happens with a simulated family of four. "To simulate the family, the showers, toilets, lights and appliances will actually be turned on and off by computers . . . located in the detached garage," says A. Hunter Fanney, chief of the building environment division. "The computers will send signals to every device in the home to control its operation. In the case of water [used in the showers, faucets and toilets], the computer will actually open and close the water valves to extract the correct amount of hot and cold water."
Little people-simulator heaters will lie in for real people in the bedrooms at night. Really.There is only one problem; As the NIST director noted,
We want to demonstrate that energy efficiency does not need to be at odds with a typical suburban neighborhood.
But as Jim Kunstler has noted, the typical suburban neighborhood is "the greatest misallocation of resources in the history of the world." This house is 2,709 square feet above grade. It's 86 feet wide. That's not even a typical suburban neighborhood any more; that's sprawl for the 1%. It is fundamentally designed for the automobile; the walkway even goes to the garage before it goes to the front door. This house is a demonstration project of every thing we have to STOP doing in the design of our houses.
To the left are related links to research that demonstrates conclusively that where you live matters to your energy consumption than what you live in; that all in, the greenest house in the tract suburb still performs worse than another in a denser, transit oriented community. Being Net Zero is meaningless if you can't even walk to the curb, let alone the mailbox or the grocery store.
What we have here is a high tech robotic dinosaur. | <urn:uuid:d51f3bc7-e2a4-4264-a5ad-b30705918330> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/net-zero-energy-test-house-opens-whats-wrong-picture.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952422 | 661 | 2.671875 | 3 |
How do I stop my dog from getting in the litter box?
Some dogs take on the very bad habit of getting into cat litter boxes. Here are some ways to stop it:
- Ask your veterinarian for a special product you can mix with your cat’s food to impart a very foul and bitter taste to your cat’s feces.
- Put the litter box in a room or elevated area that is only accessible to your cat.
- Use a covered litter box.
- Purchase a “citronella collar” for your dog. This is a humane training device that you control. Citronella collars work by spraying your dog’s face with a non-irritating, but distasteful, spray. They are available at many pet stores or can be ordered by your veterinarian.
Note: All content provided on HealthyPet.com, is meant for educational purposes only on health care and medical issues that may affect pets and should never be used to replace professional veterinary care from a licensed veterinarian. This site and its services do not constitute the practice of any veterinary medical health care advice, diagnosis or treatment. | <urn:uuid:0b501dcc-5c88-4d0b-96cd-ccaf160a32e6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.healthypet.com/Petcare/PetCareArticle.aspx?title=How_do_I_stop_my_dog_from_getting_in_the_litter | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921957 | 235 | 2.109375 | 2 |
The Trust was one of the first organisations to sponsor Trees in the Townscape, A Guide for Decision Makers, recognising the crucial role the document would have with those likely to make decisions about urban trees. The evidence for the contribution trees make to urban life has been building to a crescendo, including our recent publication on trees and air quality. In this latest Trees and Design Action Group (TDAG) guide, Trees in the Townscape sets out 12 action-oriented principles to maximise the economic, social and environmental returns. 34 case studies provide real-life examples of the principles in action, giving insight into best practice from all over England and further afield, including the US and Hong Kong!
Trees in the Townscape, and TDAG, have already been referenced in the Independent Panel on Forestry’s Final Report, in the surprisingly good section (given the Panel’s remit on forests) entitled “Trees in our neighbourhoods”.
This guide is the third publication by TDAG, a pioneering group of individuals, professionals and organisations from both the public and the private sectors who have come together to increase awareness of the role of trees in the built environment throughout the UK. The previous publications, No Trees No Future and The Canopy, are both also free to download. These should become part of the suite of documents used in good planning, indeed the London Plan already states “Boroughs should take … the work of the Trees and Design Action Group into account in producing LDF policies and determining planning applications.”
The evidence, guidance and best practice examples have been assembled – I’m now hoping these principles will soon become common practice.
Richard Barnes, Conservation Adviser | <urn:uuid:70dda7cc-404f-4b2c-8d0b-6eda14395126> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wtcampaigns.wordpress.com/2012/07/16/trees-in-the-townscape-12-guiding-principles-for-urban-trees/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925633 | 352 | 2.546875 | 3 |
I'll never forget the first time we took our daughter to the ER. I was terrified and completely unprepared. We'd received a call from her preschool saying that she'd fallen and hurt her arm, and the teachers advised us to take her to the ER immediately. As my husband and I drove to pick her up in silent terror, a million things ran through my head: Did she break her arm? Would she need stitches? How long would this ER visit last? Were we ready? Had I remembered our insurance card?
Fortunately, we discovered it was a simple case of nursemaid's elbow (a common condition in toddlers and preschoolers when the radius bone in the forearm slips out of place from the elbow joint), and were relieved to leave the hospital in just under an hour. We spent the bulk of our stay answering a variety of questions, many of which I found myself at a loss to answer. I vowed to be better prepared, should we ever need to make a return visit.
Many parents find themselves at a loss when faced with an ER visit. Where to go, what to bring, and so on often aren't considered until the last minute—when time is crucial. To save yourself added stress in an inherently unnerving situation, take a couple minutes to plan ahead. Here's an easy guide to get you started.
Where to Go
Do you know where your nearest ER or urgent care facility is? Make a note of where the facility is, how to get there, approximately how long the trip takes, and where you'll be able to park.
Be sure to also ask your pediatrician if she is affiliated with a local hospital and/or ER. She may be able to suggest the best place for you to go if faced with an emergency. If there is more than one ER available, ask your pediatrician which one is best prepared for pediatric emergencies, with trained pediatric emergency medicine specialists. | <urn:uuid:d476d6b1-6698-40bd-999d-e938ea62598c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.babyzone.com/baby/baby-health-and-safety/emergency-room-guide_66410 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979076 | 388 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Cargill, Iron Range company in deal over mining wasteby Bob Kelleher, Minnesota Public Radio
Duluth, Minn. — An Iron Range company that recovers iron from mining waste is going international through a new agreement with Cargill.
Magnetation Inc. is now expanding its first plant near Keewatin, where it recovers marketable iron ore from left behind iron mining tailings. The company starts this spring on a second plant near the town of Taconite.
Now, the agreement with Cargill could see Magnetation's patented Rev-3 separator at work in other old mining or ore processing sites.
Magnetation CEO Larry Lehtinen said the two companies will work together to choose locations.
"We're going to exclusively work with Cargill on an international front to build joint ventures," Lehtinen said.
Cargill Ferrous International Vice President Bob Mann said the new agreement could expand the process internationally.
"Virtually every iron mining operation around the world has some form of iron waste, or tailings," Mann said. "What we're in right now with Magnetation is a joint development agreement to explore some of those sites, based on, let's say, the quality of the waste that exists, where the Magnetation technology can best be used and then also how that is located in relation to the main consuming markets around the world."
Lehtinen said Cargill's support demonstrates the real commercial value the process holds for the iron industry worldwide. The parties did not disclose what Cargill pays for the deal. | <urn:uuid:0ebdcc00-83e2-40dc-93c8-58a529cbbbcf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/01/06/cargill-magnetation-in-deal-over-mining-waste?refid=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95233 | 327 | 1.773438 | 2 |
The Mexican government has been cracking down on the nation's powerful drug cartels, and violence is reverberating across Mexico. In the past week, police found some 60 people executed in Tijuana, the town just across the border from San Diego. The dead appear to be members of rival drug gangs.
"In all the years that I've been covering this, this is the worst wave of violence," says Vicente Calderon, a veteran TV reporter who has worked in Tijuana since the early 1980s.
For five days in a row, he was called in to cover another mass execution. One day, it was a dozen dead outside an elementary school. The next day's victims were found in vats of acid. On Saturday, police discovered a Ford Explorer loaded with five corpses in the back.
So far this year, more than 400 people have been killed in Tijuana in drug-related violence. There are so many unclaimed bodies at the morgue that officials there are looking to transfer some of the cadavers to another facility.
Mayor Jorge Ramos Hernandez says part of the problem in his city right now is that members of the local police have been working for years to help the cartels smuggle drugs into the United States. Ramos says he's cleaning out Tijuana's police force. He also called on the federal government to help his city combat the drug cartels. | <urn:uuid:d18d770c-a2d8-45e7-9ef6-2e96c373f8b0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://minnesota.publicradio.org/features/npr.php?id=95420496 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982973 | 279 | 1.945313 | 2 |
Aside from the occasional lactose intolerant, dairy products like milk, cheese, ice cream etc. haven’t seemed to pose a problem and are even often marketed as “healthy.” What you may not realize however, is that dairy can worsen the effects of seasonal allergies, not just influence lactose intolerance.
Seasonal allergies usually inflict their fury on those with overactive immune systems. An “allergen” makes its way into your respiratory tract and your body immediately goes onto the defense. By sneezing, coughing, and eyes watering, your body is trying its best to get rid of every trace of that allergen. This can pose quite a problem when spring time rolls around and pollen is everywhere and your nose feels like a leaky faucet that you’d sell your left leg to turn off.
How Does Dairy Effect Seasonal Allergies?
You dairy lovers out there who drink milk with every meal and have cheese on every sandwich, did you know that those pasteurized treats are only worsening your allergies?
Dairy products contain arachidonic acids which increase your body’s production of leukotrienes. Leukotrienes restrict the bronchial tubes and make it hard for air to pass through to your lungs. This reaction can bring on the production of phlegm and mucus which can only make your allergies worse.
Your immune system can also be weakened by dairy products. Weakened immune systems have the tendency to overreact to allergens like foods, pollen, dust, or pets and can worsen symptoms further. Additionally, dairy products contain high amounts of saturated fats, these can also weaken the immune system.
Test yourself. Although it might be difficult if you’re a regular dairy consumer, try going off of dairy for a week. This means eliminating all milk, cheese, ice cream, etc. from your diet. Simply push them to the back of the fridge and see if your allergy symptoms become alleviated. It’s quite possible that your allergies won’t vanish altogether, but more likely than not, your immune system will become stronger and you’ll notice a drastic drop in the rate at which your nose leaks.
Are you tired of fad diets, wrinkle creams, and rumors that talking on your cell phone at the gas station will lead to cancer? Well, so are we, so we’ve compiled a list of 25 simple, truthful, and fail-proof ways to be healthier.
1. Drink more water-you should be drinking half your body weight in ounces of water daily
2. Wear sunscreen-the number one cause of skin cancer is sun damage
3. Exercise-get out and be active for 30-60 minutes 3-5 times per week
4. Lift weights-no matter your gender, ethnicity, or age, weight lifting (whether it’s 2 pounds or 200) will increase your bone density
5. Eat family dinner-spending time with your family at the end of the day has been shown to improve mental health
6. Take a daily vitamin-you should be getting everything you need through your diet, but daily vitamins can’t be harmful and are a good safety net
7. Get more sleep-your body repairs and rejuvinates while you sleep, the more you sleep the more ready and able you’ll be to face the day
8. Watch less TV- the more often you engage your mind the less likely you’ll be to develop dimentia or alzheimer’s
9. Spend more time outside-wear sunscreen or a hat, but gardening, walking, hiking, playing in the sprinklers etc. has shown to improve your mood due to extra vitamin D exposure.
10. Cut out processed foods- the more processed food you eat the more likely it is that you’ll develop health issues like obesity and cardiovascular disease
11. Eat like the Greeks-a mediteranean diet has proven to be the healthiest because of how fresh and packed with nutrients it is
12. Eat your meals sitting down- sitting while eating improves digestion and helps you eat slower so you aren’t as likely to overeat
13. Don’t drink your calories-turn to water when you’re thirsty. Sugary drinks aren’t good for your teeth or your waistline.
14. Breakfast like a king, lunch like a commoner, dinner like a pauper-eating big breakfasts jumpstart metabolism and eating less at night will help you sleep better.
15. Focus on gratitude-counting your blessing allows you to pull your focus from the negative aspects of your life and lighten your outlook.
16. Be a picky eater-if you know that a food item is not going to be satisfying, don’t put it in your mouth
17. Eating right is better than supplementing-although supplements can be good dietary aids, it is always better to eat the whole versions of the supplements you’re taking
18. Sign up for an event-whether it be a race or just an organized walk. Having a goal will increase your motivation to get in shape ten fold.
19. Eat at home-when you cook at home you know exactly what’s being put into your meals and it is less expensive than constantly eating out and eating high-calorie meals.
20. Find a workout partner-you’re so much more likely to to get up and exercise when you have someone to do it with you. Push each other.
These tips and ideas are easy to incorporate into your daily health and fitness regimen and will help you lead a healthier and more fulfilled lifestyle. | <urn:uuid:a437e8a7-d069-4958-997d-4a1514d953a0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theglitch.ws/author/cassidy/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937909 | 1,189 | 2.84375 | 3 |
S.C. Department of Transportation workers are installing new school speed zone signs and lighting for the zone around Fairfield Central High School. Workers said the overhead signs and lights should be more visible to motorists than the current road signs. Students walking across Highway 321 from the Fairfield Central High School and Fairfield Middle School campuses now have added safety features. Freshly-painted pedestrian crosswalks and walk signals have been installed this summer. Bill Neely, Leon Jordan and Toby Johnson did painting work aimed at keeping students, faculty and staff save on the highly trafficked intersection.
Larger signage will help motorists observe the school zone speed limit.
These road signs are being replaced as part of the South Carolina Department of Transportation plan to improve highway safety. | <urn:uuid:57dd9188-d010-4362-b857-eb842f72ed8b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.heraldindependent.com/view/full_story/19746964/article-Lifting-safety-methods-higher | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946691 | 151 | 1.5625 | 2 |
IT is the prize that critics might covet, but the objects of their derision will hope to avoid.
Nominations are in for the Hatchet Job of the Year Award.
The prize will reward the most scathing book reviews of 2012 .
It offers recognition to those who might emulate the American critic Dorothy Parker, who famously said of a book by Benito Mussolini: "This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly; it should be thrown with great force."
And she concludes: "The world is as large and as wide as it ever was; it's just Rushdie who got small."
Charles said Amis served “stereotypes on a silver platter”, before adding that the work “has the grating tone of an episode of The Beverly Hillbillies sketched on the back of an envelope”.
Brown said it was “such a triumph that by now Bradford must be able to press the Command button and C for Copy simultaneously in his sleep”.
While good reviews are quickly forgotten, bad notices live long in the memory. They can lead to long drawn-out literary feuds, and very occasionally writers even come to blows over them.
"Never have I read such tosh. As for the first two chapters, we will let them pass, but the third, the fourth, the fifth, the sixth - merely the scratchings of pimples on the body of the bootboy at Claridges.”
And poor old Jane Austen was the chosen target of Mark Twain:
"Every time I read Pride and Prejudice I want to dig her up and hit her over the skull with her own shin bone."
Steady on there, Mark. | <urn:uuid:14c37c8d-ce84-4e02-8c80-d8b61fdd0ff6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/kim-bielenberg-books-that-should-be-thrown-with-great-force-and-the-hatchet-jobs-of-the-year-28956145.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970066 | 357 | 1.679688 | 2 |
President Barack Obama has repeated his opposition to right-to-work laws as the Republican-controlled Michigan Legislature moved toward adopting the union-curbing measure.
The Michigan House voted Thursday to approve a bill barring unions from collecting mandatory fees from non-members. The Senate also took up the bill, and Republican Gov. Rick Snyder endorsed it Thursday.
White House spokesman Matt Lehrich says Obama has long opposed right to work laws, “and he continues to oppose them now.”
The spokesman says Obama believes the economy “is stronger when workers get good wages and good benefits, and he opposes attempts to roll back their rights.”
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Obama opposes Michigan becoming right to work state.
Of course he does. | <urn:uuid:b746c538-3619-478a-a203-74f7e3c2b8e1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.narbosa.com/2012/12/obama-opposes-michigan-becoming-right.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974782 | 155 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Editor's Note: The following article was written by Christine Souza, assistant editor of the California Farm Bureau Federaton's Ag Alert newsletter.
With several large regional or statewide infrastructure projects in the planning stages, government eminent domain issues have surfaced for rural landowners in many parts of California. Public works under consideration range from water and flood-control projects to utility upgrades to major transportation projects such as California High Speed Rail, a statewide train system for which construction is slated to start in the Central Valley.
Agencies planning such projects may attempt to acquire land through eminent domain, the power of a public agency to take private property for a public use under the Fifth Amendment.
Third-generation farmer Samuel Curran of Madera describes his property as "ground zero" for high-speed rail. He is among landowners in the path of a 30-mile stretch of the initial construction segment known as Construction Package 1, from south of Madera to Fresno.
Curran's family has been farming and ranching on the property since the 1890s, producing everything from cattle and wheat to alfalfa and grapes. Curran said he hopes his grandchildren will be given the opportunity to farm the same land that his grandfather did many years ago.
But, he said, "The high-speed rail is going to come through and tear everything up."
The state is spending about $360 million to purchase hundreds of properties along the route, including part of Curran's farm, and may use eminent domain to do so. Central Valley landowners in the path of the rail line gathered at the Madera County Farm Bureau office last week to learn more about the eminent domain process, including how to protect their legal rights and ensure they are paid a fair price when private lands are taken for a public project.
Eminent-domain attorney Andrew Turner of Turner Law in San Mateo told the group that a first step for any landowner faced with a potential eminent domain situation is to speak with a qualified attorney. In providing landowners with an overview of eminent domain, he added that private property may not be taken for public use without just compensation.
"The government can take your property, but it must pay just compensation and it cannot pay anything less," Turner said. "Just compensation is the fair market value of the property being taken and is determined by a jury, unless (that) is waived by both the government and property owner. At the end of the day, the law is supposed to make you whole." | <urn:uuid:db8a972b-0551-439e-af14-a6890d6b38cc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dairyherd.com/dairy-news/Calif-farmers-learn-about-eminent-domain-process--194915711.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96705 | 502 | 1.796875 | 2 |
PRESENTATIONthe International Year of Forests
THE FILMYann Arthus-Bertrand's video
THE POSTERSfor all the schools in the world
THE EXHIBITIONthe most beautiful pictures of forests
GoodPlanet Foundation was founded in 2005 by Yann Arthus-Bertrand to raise public awareness on environmental issues and environmental protection and became a non profit organisation in June 2009 to undertake long-term actions.
The foundation encourages a way of life that respects the Earth and its inhabitants. It encourages each person to take action and offers realistic suggestions. Its universal message invites each individual to reflect on the planet’s evolution and its inhabitants and join the cause.
This website was created by the GoodPlanet Foundation to raise public awareness and educate people about the environment.
It was made possible thanks to GoodPlanet’s creative and dedicated team for providing content and images (Olivier Blond, Eric Boisteaux, Patrick Oudin and Bérénice Tardieu) and the Publicis Net team for its technical support.
The Yves Rocher Foundation – Institut de France was created at the initiative of Jacques Rocher, son of Yves Rocher, the man who created Botanical Beauty. The Yves Rocher Foundation helps direct local and global environmental conservation, solidarity-based and educational actions in over 50 countries. The Yves Rocher Foundation was created in 1991 and placed under the auspices of the Institut de France in 2001. It works for a "greener world" through 2 leading actions: the "Women of the Earth" Awards and the "Plant for the Planet” Programme.
The Global Environment Facility is now the main source of public funding for projects to improve the state of the planet’s environment. It gave away up to 9 billion dollars from its capital stocks in grants. It also raised over 40 billion dollars of co-funding for more than 2 700 projects in over 165 countries. Moreover, the IMF has put together a separate 250 million dollar budget and 750 million dollars of co-funding to support SFM/REDD+.
The Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) is a worldwide REDD+ partnership. The FCPF helps countries with tropical and subtropical forests to develop systems and policies for REDD+ and pays them according to their emission reduction results. The FCPF complements the UNFCCC negotiations on REDD+ by demonstrating how REDD+ can be applied at the country level.
Firmenich is the largest private company in the perfume and aroma industry. Founded in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1895, it has produced a long list of classic fine perfumes and aromas. Its passion for taste and fragrances is the key to its success. It is known for its creativity, its capacity for innovation and its exceptional understanding of the market’s trends. Every year, it invests about 10% of its revenue in research; this reflects its ongoing will to understand, share and sublimate the best nature has to offer.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) was created in 1972. It is the highest environmental authority within the United Nations system. The programme acts as a catalyst. It supports, instructs, facilitates and strives to promote the sensible use and the sustainable development of the world’s environment. To do this, UNEP works with many partners including United Nations agencies, international organisations, governments, non-governmental organisations, the private sector and civil society.
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For mailing : | <urn:uuid:ece10a04-3fb3-45be-b050-3c28f64ed6b3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.offorestsandmen.org/en | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.907668 | 1,300 | 1.960938 | 2 |
Slideshow Pictures: Baby Skin Care -- Bathing & Soothing Your Newborn's Skin
Reviewed by Kathy Empen, MD on Wednesday, August 17, 2011
More Slideshows from eMedicineHealth
Watch and learn from these additional pictures slideshows.
Healthy Baby Skin
Wrinkles, redness, dryness, and fuzz. Newborn skin is far from flawless but it usually doesn't mean something is wrong. Baby's skin is adjusting to life outside the womb. Most skin imperfections disappear over time. For example, premature babies sometimes have soft hair on their face and back. Late babies often have dry, peeling skin. Both should go away within a few weeks.
Baby Skin Is Sensitive
You likely don't need lotions or creams during baby's first month. When you do begin using skin care products, be sure to use only baby products. Baby skin is sensitive. Products formulated for adults may have dyes, fragrances, and cleansers that are too harsh for infant skin. In general, avoid using baby powders -- talc may cause lung problems, while cornstarch may aggravate a yeast diaper rash.
Stork Bites and Other Birthmarks
Immature blood vessels may cause small red patches called stork bites. They can be on the face or back of the neck. Crying may make them brighter but they usually disappear within a year. Birth can cause other small scratches or blood spots on your newborn that should heal in a couple of weeks. Other types of birthmarks may stay around longer or never go away. If you're concerned, talk to your pediatrician.
It's OK to Skip a Bath?
Babies don't need a daily bath. During the first few weeks, keeping baby clean during dirty diaper changes and doing sponge baths should do the trick. No full bath is needed until baby's about a month old. If they are younger than 1, they can be bathed just every 2-3 days. Bathing too often can dry the skin. Between baths keep baby's face and hands clean by wiping with a damp, warm washcloth or cotton balls.
Umbilical Cord Stump Care
Until baby's cord falls off, avoid getting it wet. If it gets dirty, clean with a baby wipe or rubbing alcohol. Instead of full baths, try sponge baths. Gather a basin of warm water and clean washcloth so you can keep one hand on the baby at all times. Lay a soft towel on a clear, stable surface for baby to lie on. Keep him warm by leaving him wrapped in a towel, only uncovering the part of baby you're washing. When the cord does fall off, there may be slight oozing of blood. Don't worry about this -- just keep the area clean with soap and water. Talk to your doctor if you see pus or redness of the skin around the stump area.
Avoiding Skin Problems at Bath Time
When baby's ready for full baths -- remember, his skin is soft and sensitive. You only need to fill the basin with 3-4 inches of water. Test water on the inside of your wrist to be sure it isn't too hot. Keep baby's skin hydrated by bathing in warm water for only three to five minutes. If using lotion, apply while baby is still wet, then pat dry instead of rubbing.
Once she's ready for baths and if she has hair, she’ll only need a shampoo once or twice a week. It's OK to gently wash her soft spots. Use a baby cleanser or baby shampoo. To avoid getting it in her eyes, cup your hand at her forehead to shield her face when rinsing. Or tilt her back a little so the water runs down her backside.
Wet and dirty diapers can irritate infant skin, causing diaper rash. Red and bumpy, it usually clears in a week. To help prevent diaper rash, check and change baby's diaper frequently. When changing a messy diaper, gently wipe baby clean and pat dry. Wipe girls front to back to avoid infections. If baby does get diaper rash, diaper cream can help. Also try letting baby go diaper-less for a bit to air out skin.
When to Call the Doctor
Babies get rashes. But call the doctor about a rash when there is itching, blisters form, skin is oozing or crusting, red or purplish dots appear all over, or baby has a fever. Eczema is the most common cause of itchy rashes in babies. But babies can also get contagious skin diseases. These may include: chickenpox; measles; hand, foot and mouth virus; herpes simplex (as seen here); scabies; and impetigo.
Laundry Tips for Baby Skin Care
Avoiding skin rashes will keep your baby smiling and happy: Use a gentle detergent to wash everything that touches your infant's skin, from bedding and blankets, to towels and even your own clothes. You'll cut down on the likelihood of baby developing irritated or itchy skin.
More Reading on Parenting | <urn:uuid:f9447123-5400-4f83-b7d0-01b7ae538055> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.emedicinehealth.com/slideshow_pictures_bathing_soothing_newborn_skin/article_em.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933701 | 1,058 | 2.46875 | 2 |
The Presidents Commission of the National Collegiate Athletic Association approved recommendations yesterday that would raise academic standards for freshman eligibility if approved by N.C.A.A. schools. The 44 presidents voted in Kansas City, Mo., to require that entering freshmen must have a 2.5 grade-point average on a scale of 4.0 in college preparatory courses to be eligible to play. The current rule, known as Proposition 48, requires a 2.0. average.
But the commission modified that recommendation by agreeing to have a sliding index tied to the other component of Proposition 48: test scores on college entrance examinations. The minimum Scholastic Aptitude Test score for eligibility now stands at 700. Under the presidents' proposal, a high school senior who scored 900 (out of a possible 1600) could be eligible with a grade-point average of 2.0. (AP) | <urn:uuid:9657fb9a-1655-432e-8661-cd2e7a82076a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nytimes.com/1991/06/27/sports/sports-people-colleges-change-in-eligibility.html?src=pm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938116 | 178 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Road to Recovery After A Schizophrenia DiagnosisA schizophrenia diagnosis can be traumatic. In order to start healing you need to grapple with the truth and accept that you have the condition. Years of denial will lead to lost opportunities, damaged physical and mental health. Denial is the norm. Often patients don't accept the diagnosis easily or willingly. The sooner you accept that you have schizophrenia, the easier your road to recovery will be.
The Only Real Failure is the Failure to Try
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With schizophrenia, know that some days getting out of bed will be a challenge. Trying can be as simple as waking up and facing the day. There is no rule book on how to live life with schizophrenia. You get to decide how you want to live your life. | <urn:uuid:29905f3e-9cbd-4870-9f82-43243a71ac4b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.healthcentral.com/schizophrenia/cf/slideshows/road-to-recovery-after-a-schizophrenia-diagnosis/the-only-real-failure-is-the-failure-to-try/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9443 | 160 | 1.921875 | 2 |
Talking Without Speaking
Nabokov once described a fictional play in a story of his as “essentially idiotic, even ideally idiotic, or, putting it another way, ideally constructed on the solid conventions of traditional dramaturgy.” We all know the kind of thing he is talking about. The lengthy, character-revealing speeches, the unannounced guests who throw everything into confusion, the “dramatic irony,” the “rising action,” the over-neat ordering of life into three brisk acts—these are the solid conventions that keep us away from the theater or that make us wish we’d stayed away when we do end up there.
Chekhov, whose plays hardly seem to coerce life at all, boldly broke ranks with this wearying regimentation. His characters long to express their innermost desires, to perform heroic actions, to think deep thoughts, to love, to work for the betterment of humanity, but instead they find themselves saying things like
Why did I go out to lunch? It was quite vile, that restaurant of yours, with its beastly music; and the table-cloths smelt of soap, too…Need one drink so much, Liona? Need one eat so much? Today at the restaurant you talked too much again, and it was all so pointless. About the seventies, about the decadents. And who to? Fancy talking about the decadents to the restaurant waiters!
This is Madame Ranevskaya vaguely berating her garrulous brother, Gaev, in Chekhov’s last play, The Cherry Orchard, an impressive but uneven production of which is playing at the Classic Stage Company in New York. It is a typical moment that showcases Chekhov’s greatest artistic discovery, one without which much of twentieth century literature would be unimaginable: that plays and stories could be made out of life’s dross, the anti-drama and non-events that comprise so much of day-to-day life for most people.
Dianne Wiest is magnificent as Madame Ranevskaya in the new production; she understands perfectly that she is playing a woman wearing herself out through a relentless, and futile, effort to seem cheerful. The brittleness of her good humor is apparent from the moment she appears on stage in the first act, when she returns to her country estate in the early hours of the morning after five spendthrift years in Paris. As we quickly learn, the estate will soon be going up for auction in order to pay the family’s debts. The son of a former serf, Yermolai Aleksyeevich Lopakhin, who is now a successful businessman, has come to welcome her —and to propose a plan. If the family cuts down their cherry orchard and uses the land to build summer cottages, says Lopakhin (played by the excellent John Turturro, who does a fine job of seesawing between savvy bravado and touching insecurity), they will generate enough income to repay their debts and save the family estate. Sensible advice, but Madame Ranevskaya and her brother Gaev (the brilliant, blustery Daniel Davis), hobbled by a distinctly aristocratic blend of vanity and nostalgia (“This orchard is actually mentioned in the Encyclopedia,” protests Gaev), spend the remainder of the play refusing to act on it.
The poster for the new production shows the faces of Wiest and Turturro, both of them sporting expressions of Rushmoresque grandeur and solemnity; and yet, although Ranevskaya and Lopakhin probably speak the most lines, the remarkable thing about The Cherry Orchard is the way in which every role seems equally weighted with emotional salience and complication. Chekhov is always reminding us that every person is the hero of his or her own personal narrative. One of the most memorable performances in the production is Alvin Epstein’s Fiers, the doddering 87-year-old manservant whose conversational non sequiturs, at once poignant and hilarious, subtly come to embody the characters’ broader failures of communication, the way in which they are all tired of what everyone else has to say, but still want to speak constantly themselves. Near the start, right after Lopakhin has laid out his plan, Fiers cannot help himself from interjecting, and the following exchange occurs:
FIERS. In the old days, forty or fifty years ago, the cherries were dried, preserved, marinaded, made into jam, and sometimes…
GAEV. Be quiet, Fiers.
FIERS. And sometimes, whole cartloads of dried cherries were sent to Moscow and Kharkov. The money they fetched! And the dried cherries in those days were soft, juicy, sweet, tasty…They knew how to do it then…they had a recipe…
RANEVSKAYA. And where is that recipe now?
FIERS. Forgotten. No one can remember it.
The lines may seem a bit limp on the page, but Epstein delivers them with such urgency and conviction that there were audible sighs from the audience when he spoke the words “Forgotten. No one can remember it.” It felt like an irreparable loss.
Virginia Woolf complained of a 1924 production of The Cherry Orchard that the actors performed in a way that “brought them into touch with the audience but destroyed their harmony with each other.” Something similar happens in the current production. Too often the actors deliver their speeches directly to the audience, when really they should be speaking to, or at, one another; it made them seem like actors, putting on a performance. At the start of act two, when the hapless clerk Epikhodov (played by the gratingly twee Michael Urie) mentions that he can’t make up his mind whether “to live or shoot myself” and therefore always carries a revolver, he flashes the audience a glimpse of the gun. The moment felt like pantomime, as though Urie were winking at us, acknowledging his character’s ridiculous melodramatic habit. It drew a laugh, but the knowing gesture obscured a deeper level of theatrical self-consciousness: namely, the way in which Epikhodov doesn’t recognize the degree to which his personality is a theatrical cliché and how little his talk of suicide impresses his immediate audience, the other characters in the play.
At the end of Gogol’s The Government Inspector, the corrupt, incompetent, and, by this stage, comprehensively humiliated provincial governor laments that “some scribbler will write a comedy about” how he has just been swindled by a lowly clerk from St. Petersburg. “That’s what hurts. He’ll put it all in. My position! My struggles! He’ll show no mercy. And everyone will laugh and clap…” At which point he turns to the audience and says, “What are you laughing at? You’re laughing at yourselves!”
Chekhov seems to remember this moment in The Cherry Orchard, when he has Lopakhin say to to Madame Ranevskaya that yesterday he saw a “very amusing” play at the theater. Ranevskaya, so immersed in her own problems, seems unable to credit the idea that other people might be capable of enjoying themselves. “I’m sure it wasn’t at all amusing,” she snaps at him. “Instead of going to see plays, you should take a good look at yourself. Just think of what a drab kind of life you lead, what a lot of nonsense you talk!” Although we laugh at Ranevskaya’s self-absorption, it is hard for the audience not to feel these words as a rebuke—a rebuke made all the more stinging by the fact that we are not explicitly acknowledged; our presence suddenly feels like a dirty secret. Chekhov is less venomous, more compassionate than Gogol, but his comedy stings us for the same reason: we are always laughing at ourselves.
December 20, 2011, 2 p.m. | <urn:uuid:c05637fd-f0b7-4921-8538-9c267496a8cb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2011/dec/20/talking-without-speaking/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96467 | 1,742 | 1.609375 | 2 |
While the specimen Joy Harsh, education curator with the Abilene Zoo brought Tuesday was only a baby, adult Skinks can grow up to two feet long and live for nearly 20 years.
Harsh says the Skink's oddly colored tongue serves as a warning and distraction for would be predators and even prey.
Watch the embedded video for more about the Blue Tongued Skinks, including whether or not they would be a perfect fit for your next family pet!
Connect With The Abilene Zoo:
9am to 5pm
$5 for Adults, $4 for Seniors
$2.50 for Children
Children under 3 are FREE
Click Here for more Pets 4u segments! | <urn:uuid:1a18006d-80a9-43fa-9e48-f059e400ca9b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bigcountryhomepage.com/fulltext?nxd_id=539122&nxd_237113_start=15 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931043 | 144 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Nuclear enrichment facilities in Iran may have been hit by another malware attack, according to Finnish security company F-Secure.
Researcher Mikko Hyppönen claimed that emails sent to him by a scientist working at the Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation (AEOI) indicated the hacker tool Metasploit was used in the attacks.
The malware shut down an automation network at the Natanz and Fordo facilities together with key Siemens hardware previously targeted in malware attacks there, according to the emails.
The worm also randomly played Thunderstruck by Australian rock band AC/DC on full volume at midnight on the infected computers, the unidentified scientist claimed.
Hyppönen was skeptical of the claims but said the source was genuine.
"We can't confirm any of the details. However, we can confirm that the researcher was sending and receiving emails from within the AEOI," he said.
Iran's controversial nuclear enrichment program, which Western nations fear will be used to create atomic weapons, has previously been set back by the Stuxnet malware in 2010, now believed to have been written and disseminated by US and Israeli security agencies.
The malware subverts industrial systems and includes a rootkit that targets the programmable logic controllers in Siemiens supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) monitoring devices.
Hyppönen said on Twitter that he had heard nothing further about the alleged worm attack.
However, he confirmed the scientist quoted emailed him three times from the Iranian atomic energy organisation aeoi.org.ir domain, but has been quiet since.
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Middleton v. Mullica Township - 112 U.S. 433 (1884)
U.S. Supreme Court
Middleton v. Mullica Township, 112 U.S. 433 (1884)
Middleton v. Mullica Township
Argued October 17, 1884
Decided December 8, 1884
112 U.S. 433
IN ERROR TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED
STATES FOR THE DISTRICT OF NEW JERSEY
An act of the Legislature of New Jersey construed to the effect that it authorized certain township officers to execute bonds for the township to raise money for bounties to volunteers.
The facts are stated in the opinion of the Court.
MR. JUSTICE BRADLEY delivered the opinion of the Court.
This is an action of debt brought in the court below to recover
the amount of six bonds (or alleged bonds) of the Township of Mullica, in the County of Atlantic and State of New Jersey, one being for $500 and the others for $1,000 each. The declaration also contains the common money counts. A copy of the instruments sued on was annexed to the declaration, all being in the following form:
"United States of America, State of New Jersey"
"[Bond No. 146] Amount, $1,000"
"The Township of Mullica, County of Atlantic, acknowledge themselves indebted to Samuel Crowley in the sum of one thousand dollars, lawful money of the United States; which sum they promise to pay to the said Samuel Crowley, or to his order, two years after date hereof, with interest at the rate of six percent per annum, payable annually, the aforesaid sum of one thousand dollars having been borrowed of said Samuel Crowley, by order of said township committee, pursuant to a resolution passed January 1, 1864; interest payable at the State Bank at Camden."
"In witness whereof, the said township committee have caused this bond to be sealed with their seal, and attested by the signatures of their president and clerk, this 31st day of December, A.D. one thousand eight hundred and sixty-four."
"EDW'D T. MCKEAN, Clerk"
"TIMOTHY HENDERSON, President"
"[U.S. Revenue Stamp, 50 cents]"
By one series of counts (six in number) these instruments were severally declared on as the writings obligatory of the township, sealed with its seal, and made payable and delivered to Crowley, as agent of the township, to assist it in passing away and transferring the bonds to raise money thereon for its use and benefit. In another series of counts (also six in number), the instruments are severally declared on as orders of the township, made by its authorized agents, Henderson, president, and McKean, clerk, of the township committee, and made payable to Crowley, as the agent of the township, to pass them away and raise money on them for the township. All the
counts averred that Crowley endorsed and delivered the bonds or orders to the plaintiff. The defendant pleaded non est factum to the first six counts (those in which the instruments were declared on as bonds), and nil debet to the others, and the statute of limitations (of six years) to all of them.
At the trial, the plaintiff proved the execution of the bonds by Henderson, President, and McKean, clerk, of the township committee, and the endorsement of them by Crowley to the plaintiff, and also put in evidence a book, called the defendant's bond book, produced by the defendant on the call of the plaintiff, and having the following heading: "Issue of bonds by the Township of Mullica in pursuance of a resolution adopted January 1, 1864." At page 7 plaintiff read the following list of bonds:
Date of Bond Number Amount To whom issued When due
Dec. 31, 1864 145 $ 500 Samuel Crowley Dec. 31, 1866
" 146 1,000 ' "
" 147 1,000 ' "
" 148 1,000 ' "
" 149 1,000 ' "
" 150 1,000 ' "
To show that the bonds were executed by lawful authority, the plaintiff read two acts of the legislature of New Jersey. The first (approved March 4, 1864) was entitled
"An act to legalize certain acts of the township of Mullica, in the County of Atlantic, relative to raising money to pay bounty to volunteers and to provide for the payment of the same,"
and recited and enacted as follows:
"WHEREAS, the inhabitants of the Township of Mullica, in the County of Atlantic, did on the first day of January, Anno Domini eighteen hundred and sixty-four, vote to pay a bounty of two hundred and twenty-five dollars to each person volunteering to fill the quota of said township under the calls of the President of the United States (the said quota being thirty-four); and whereas, the said inhabitants having no authority, under the laws of the state, to offer said bounty or borrow money for the payment of the same; therefore "
"1. Be it enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey, that the said Township of Mullica be authorized to provide for the payment of said bounties the sum of seven thousand six hundred and fifty dollars, and the interest thereon, by the issuing of their bonds, or township orders, bearing interest at the rate of six percent per annum, and payable at such times as the township committee of said township may determine, provided that not less than fifteen hundred nor more than twenty-five hundred dollars shall be raised for the purpose of paying said bonds or orders in anyone year, including the interest thereon."
"3. And be it enacted, that the acts and doings of the township committee and of the inhabitants of the said Township of Mullica, mentioned in the first section of this act, to raise seven thousand six hundred and fifty dollars, and the interest thereon, to pay bounties to volunteers as aforesaid, to fill the quota of the said township, are valid in all respects, and binding upon the inhabitants and taxable property of said township."
The other act is not material to the case and need not be recited.
Upon the evidence thus presented, the court below ruled out the bonds and directed a verdict for the defendant, and the plaintiff excepted. The question raised by the bill of exceptions is whether this direction was erroneous, and this involves the question whether the officers who executed the bonds had any authority to do so. An examination of the organic laws of the State of New Jersey shows that the inhabitants of the several townships in the different counties are corporate bodies, being authorized at their annual or special town meetings,
"to vote, grant, and raise such sum or sums of money for the maintenance and support of the poor; the building and repairing of pounds; the opening, making, working, etc., roads; the destruction of noxious wild animals and birds; for running and ascertaining the lines, and prosecuting or defending the common rights, of such township, and for other necessary charges and legal objects and purposes thereof as are or shall be by law expressly
vested in the inhabitants of the several townships of this state by this or some other act of the legislature."
They are also authorized at their annual meetings, to elect a clerk, assessors, collectors, commissioners of appeal in matter of taxes, chosen freeholders to represent the township in the county board, surveyors of highways, overseers of the poor, constables, and a judge of election, and in addition to these officers, all having their appropriate duties to perform, they are also, by special provision, authorized
"to elect five judicious freeholders, resident within the township, who shall be denominated the township committee, a majority of whom shall be a quorum, and shall continue in office one year and until others are chosen in their stead, which committee shall have authority, and it is hereby rendered their duty, to examine, inspect, and report to the annual or other town meetings the accounts and vouchers of the township officers, and to superintend the expenditure of any moneys raised by tax for the use of the township, or which may arise from the balance of the accounts of any of the township officers."
Besides the duties here specified, the township committee is invested with certain other powers, such as, in certain cases, to fill vacancies in the other township offices caused by death, removal, refusal to serve, etc., and to call special town meetings when they may deem it necessary, but they have no general authority to act for the township. This must be conceded, and it is clearly shown by the cases cited by the counsel for the defendant.
At the same time, it must be admitted that in view of the peculiar functions and duties of the township committee, they are altogether the most appropriate officers of the township for the performance of such a duty as the issuing of township bonds, whenever such bonds are authorized to be issued, since the township itself has no permanent presiding officer, or head, but only a temporary chairman, called a moderator, who simply presides over the town meeting by which he is appointed. The question then arises, did the Act of March 4, 1864, give the township committed authority to issue the bonds in question? If the act is carefully examined it will be seen that it not only ratified the proceedings of the town meeting held on the 1st of
January, 1864, voting a bounty of $250 to each person volunteering to fill the quota of the township, but that it authorized the township to provide for the payment of said bounties by issuing its bonds at six percent interest, payable at such times as the township committee might determine. It ratified what had been resolved by the town meeting, and authorized the issue of township bonds to carry that resolution into effect. The question then arises, who were the proper persons to issue the bonds? The town meeting itself certainly could not do it. Is it not the plain inference of the statute that the bonds should be issued under the direction and supervision of the township committee, as they were to fix the time of payment, and were the only body which had the general superintendence of the township finances?
And here it is proper to notice that the proceedings of the town meeting on the first of January, 1864, were not given in evidence. Of course, the defendants had them in their possession, and could have produced them. We only know so much of said proceedings as is recited in the act of the legislature. It is possible that the town meeting, besides voting the bounties referred to in the act, directed the town meeting, besides voting the bounties referred to in the act, directed the township committee (as would be natural) to issue the obligations of the township for the purpose of raising the money requisite to pay such bounties. On this point, the bond book of the township may be entitled to Mullica in pursuance of a resolution adopted January 1, 1864;
and it enumerates in that category the bonds in question in this suit. That is to say, the township book declares and shows that the bonds in suit were issued in pursuance of a resolution adopted January 1, 1864, and this declaration stood there on the book from 1864, when the bonds were issued, until the trial of the suit in 1871. The resolution thus referred to must, of course, have been part and parcel of the proceedings relating to bounties to be paid to volunteers, which were ratified by the Act of March 4, 1864.
Taking all these things together, we are satisfied that, by the said act, which ratified the said proceedings, expressly including (as it does) "the acts and doings of the township committee,"
as well as of the inhabitants of the township, and authorizing the issue of bonds to carry out their intentions, with such time of payment as the township committee should determine, it was the intention of the legislature to authorize the execution and issue of such bonds by the township committee.
There can be little doubt that this conclusion is in accordance with the justice of the case. Money was raised on these bonds. The plaintiff testified that he purchased them for value of Crowley (the payee) and received them from Crowley, or Henderson, or McKean, he could not recollect which. Evidently the township officers were concerned in the transaction. At all events, the plaintiff purchased them and paid for them, and they were duly entered in the township bond book as bonds of the township, and there can be little doubt that the township reaped the benefit of the transaction. We have no doubt that they are the valid obligations of the township, and that the court below erred in ruling them out, and in directing a verdict for the defendant. They ought at least, to have been given to the jury under the evidence in the case.
The judgment of the circuit court is reversed, and the case is remanded, with directions to award a venire facias de novo. | <urn:uuid:4b29d0fe-5081-4aad-b687-3cd1d2a3cd5e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/112/433/case.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971314 | 2,703 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Remarks by Lakshmi Puri, Deputy Executive Director of UN Women at the Closing Plenary Session of the 2012 World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden, 31 August 2012.
[ Check against delivery ]
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a great pleasure for UN Women to be here and attend this most significant event on something that sustains life for all and that is so critical to all, and particularly to women – water.
As UN Women, I would to thank the Stockholm International Water Institute for inviting us and, more importantly, for making sure that this session, which brings this Week to a conclusion, includes a gender perspective. Because women are so intrinsically involved and affected by water and food security, I applaud the fact that much of the Conference was dedicated to exploring and establishing the symbiosis between gender equality and women’s empowerment, water security and food security.
I had the privilege of participating in panels and discussions and hearing practitioners from the ground speak on these issues, bring to life actual experiences, and report good practices and lessons learnt in making that connection.
Our meeting this week in Stockholm and our rich debates are taking place against the backdrop of severe droughts around the world. From the worst drought in 56 years in the Midwest of the United States, to the Karnataka’s drought in India, to the protracted drought in the Sahel region of West Africa, we have seen the very concrete consequences of the nexus between lack of water and food security.
We have also seen how, in our globalized world, something that happens in one corner of the world affects us all. The impact of the draught in the Midwest has already resulted in higher prices for corn and soybeans, two of the most important food crops worldwide. In the Sahel, 18.7 million people are facing food insecurity and more than 1 million children under the age of five are at risk of severe acute malnutrition. And women in this region carry the burden of feeding their families and of caring for the sick and the starving.
These events are a stark reminder of how the environmental dimension has direct economic and social consequences. They remind us of the critical linkages between these three dimensions and of the strong connection between water scarcity or availability, affordability and quality, and food security.
Today, I would like to highlight the importance of the gender perspective in looking at these connections. Women and girls – and the way they are impacted by access to water, or lack of it – constitute a large part of the picture, and most importantly a large part of the solution, in the nexus between water and food security. They are disproportionately impacted by the burden of food and water use and collection and production. At the same time, they are both the beneficiaries and enablers of food- and water-secure future.
I recently returned from the Rio+20 Conference, where, each in their own right, gender equality and women’s empowerment, water security and sustainable water management, and food security and agricultural development were identified as priorities for our sustainable future and for sustainable development.
The Rio+20 outcome document clearly stresses the commitment of the international community ‘to the progressive realization of access to safe and affordable drinking water and basic sanitation for all, as necessary for poverty eradication, women’s empowerment and protection of human health”.
The outcome document also reaffirms the commitment of the international community to ensuring women’s equal rights, access, participation and leadership in the economy, society and political decision-making. This is important because gender equality and women’s empowerment is not only a social issue; it is also an economic and environmental issue. It stresses the need to ensure women’s leadership and effective participation in sustainable development policies, programmes and decision-making at all levels. This includes of course water and food security.
Rio+20 further reiterated the importance of empowering rural women as critical agents for enhancing agricultural and rural development, food security and nutrition. Women’s access to productive and economic resources is also emphasized, which, as we know, is essential in the context of access to water. This provides a strong basis for accelerated action in these areas.
This connection, which is so clearly made in the Rio+20 outcome, must be carried forward. As we approach the deadline for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, a new set of goals will be launched – the Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs.
The three priorities of gender equality and women’s empowerment, water, and food security must be strongly interlinked in the goals that will cover each of these areas. In other words, the goal on water must have strong indicators and targets capturing the gender equality and women’s empowerment dimension. This is also true of the goal on food security and, in fact, of all other Sustainable Development Goal.
More specifically, a goal on water should balance three important dimensions: efficiency on water use, pollution reduction and protection of ecosystems. The issue of sustainable production and consumption patterns, which has been discussed in this Conference and so vividly discussed in posters outside, must also be captured.
The gender equality and women’s empowerment dimension must be reflected with gender targets and indicators on women’s full participation in water governance, the alleviation of their work burden and the availability of gender-sensitive infrastructures and services. Statistical challenges related to the availability of sex-disaggregated data and gender sensitive indicators on water, rather than detracting us from using meaningful indicators, should be used as a trigger for political demand for the regular collection and analysis of important data, such as those collected by time use surveys.
In this effort, we count on your support and on the support of Sweden, as a leader on water and on gender equality and women’s empowerment.
Water is used for a wide range of activities – all of which have a bearing on gender equality and women’s empowerment. In the household, it is used for drinking, cleaning, conservation, storage and preparation of crops and food. For instance in developing countries, most women’s survival strategies for lifting themselves and their families out of poverty through preparing and selling food takes place in the household.
Current estimates have shown that 70 percent of the world’s water is needed for agriculture, 20 percent for industry, and 10 percent for personal use. Of course, these dimensions are interrelated as agricultural and industrial use of water also affects personal and household use. Because women depend more on non-irrigated and rainfed agriculture and because they are not equally represented in the industry sector, water scarcity disproportionately affects women and jeopardizes the achievement of their human rights. Water is a human right and women’s rights are human rights.
The recently-issued 2012 MDG report points out that, while the MDG target on water has been largely met, 783 million people still remain without access to an improved source of drinking water. The gap between urban and rural areas remains wide, with the number of people in rural areas without an improved water source five times greater than in urban areas.
On reducing hunger, too, although strides have been made, about 800 million people remain hungry and we must prevent backsliding, which is likely due to food crises and increased food prices.
The lack of access to water often results in additional burden for women and girls. When water supplies are not readily accessible, it must be carried from its source and women and girls continue to bear the primary responsibility for water collection. The 2012 MDG Report highlights that, in Sub-Saharan Africa, 71 percent of the water collection burden falls on women and girls. This heavy burden is also the case in other parts of the world. Globally, it is estimated that women spend more than 200 million hours per day collecting water.
The linkages between water and food security are most significant in four ways:
Firstly, in gendered patterns of production: women dominate subsistence agriculture and unpaid water collection tasks while men dominate the cash crops. Women are involved both in irrigated and non-irrigated agriculture. However a larger number of women than men are engaged in rain-fed agriculture, which puts them in a more at risk of changing weather patterns. In addition, water rights are often related to land rights, which preclude women smallholder farmers from accessing irrigated water.
Secondly, in gender entitlement systems: looking at gender differences in the access and control over water and other productive resources, assets, services and opportunities for ensuring food and nutrition security. Due to pervasive gender norms and behaviors, women and girls have restricted access to productive resources, such as water, land, agricultural inputs, finance and credit, extension services and technology.
This, in turn, limits the efficiency of the agricultural sector to deliver food security for all. For instance, poor women, rural women, women in peri-urban areas, women farmers, have often been denied access to a water source due to social constructs, such as class, ethnicity and cultural constraints in the community. And it is often an issue of intersectional discrimination as well.
Thirdly, in the gendered division of labour, women and girls are the most overburdened with managing water, food and energy scarcity with their unpaid work, especially in developing countries. Entrenched gender roles mean that women and girls often bear the brunt of the associated hardships as growers and processors of food, responsible for the nutrition of their family, and water collectors.
They spend a disproportionate number of hours on labour-intensive, time-consuming and unpaid domestic tasks such as fetching water and firewood, washing clothes and dishes and preparing meals. This leads to their drudgery, reducing their opportunities to education, decent work, political engagement, and perpetuating the intergenerational transfer of poverty and disempowerment.
Finally, in gendered patterns of governance and leadership, which exclude women from policy making and management in the water and agricultural sectors. Although women carry most of the water related tasks, play a key role in food production, especially in subsistence farming and perform most of the unpaid care work, their participation in decision making processes on water and food management remains very low.
In 2012, women held less than 6 percent of all ministerial positions in the field of environment, natural resources and energy. This is why women’s equal representation in governance mechanisms must be a target of a new SDG on water.
The combined impacts of the recent economic and financial crises, volatile energy and food prices, and climate change, have exacerbated water and food scarcity and their detrimental impact on women and girls. Creating a water and food secure world requires putting women and girls at the center of water and food related policies, actions and financing.
Empowering women and girls fuels thriving economies and inclusive societies, spurring productivity and growth. I would like to highlight four urgent actions related to water that must be taken to unleash women’s potential and increase water and food security.
Firstly, we need to recognize that women are an important part of the solution. We need to recognize women as water resource managers, farmers and irrigators who contribute to ensuring sustainable food production and consumption, and safeguarding the environment and water resources within the households and communities. This must be done in laws, policies and through social awareness programmes in communities.
Secondly, we need to increase our efficiency in managing food and water resources, ensuring that women are empowered along the water and food supply chain, that their food production and water management roles are supported. This involves recognizing women as independent users of water and enabling women to access water rights, regardless of land ownership; supporting women’s food production systems and value chains, including in adaptation and mitigation of climate change; and alleviating women and girls’ unpaid work burden associated with water collection, food production and processing, and care work.
It has also been proven that improvements in infrastructure services— especially water and electricity and particularly for poor women in urban areas and rural women—can help free up women’s time spent on domestic and care work. Electrification in rural South Africa, for instance, has increased women’s labour force participation by about 9 percent. In Bangladesh, it has led to more leisure time for women and increased welfare. In Pakistan, putting water sources closer to the home was associated with increased time allocated to productive market work. In Tanzania, a survey found that girls’ school attendance was 25 percent higher for girls from homes located 15 minutes or less from a water source than in homes one hour or more away.
Thirdly, we need to address the multifaceted gender discriminations in accessing and controlling productive resources, such as water and land, assets and services. Evidence suggests that investing in women-owned food and agricultural enterprises could narrow the resource gap and increase agricultural yields. If women were to have equal access to agriculture services, including irrigation services, it is estimated that agricultural yields would increase by 15 to 20 percent, reducing the number of hungry people by 100 to 150 million.
For this, women must be provided with technical training on water management, irrigation, rainwater harvesting, other small holder irrigation technologies and rain-fed agriculture. For instance, in South Africa, Lesotho and Uganda, the women ministers for water are implementing affirmative action programmes in the water sector to train women for water and sanitation related careers, including science and engineering. At local level, women have found their voices and have now been trained to locate water sources in the village, decide on the location of facilities and repair pumps.
Water supply services must cover the needs of the poorer sections of the population by initiating reforms that make water affordable to poor families in rural, urban and peri-urban areas. It is indeed common knowledge that the poorest, the majority of whom are women, have less access to safe drinking water and pay more for their water usage. Access to land, extension services, credit and other productive resources is also key.
Fourthly, we need to leverage the voice, participation and influence of women in managing the sustainable use of water resources and food, and sharing benefits equally. Women must be recognized as important decision-makers in water governance. In all countries and at all levels, women should be members of water management institutions, such as water user organizations.
This involves reducing membership fees and broadening the mandate of irrigation schemes to acknowledge and include multiple water users. This will not help ensuring that gender perspectives are mainstreamed in all governance and decision making processes related to policy development, implementation and monitoring, service delivery, and financing on water and agriculture. This will only work with strong accountability frameworks that ensure that women’s agency in water and food governance is encouraged and facilitated.
Yesterday, the panel on global practices in promoting gender equality in the water sector emphasized the importance of an “ecosystem of policies” – an enabling environment, strong institutions, targeted programmes and special measures, human resource capacity-building, functioning systems and sectoral policies, including on energy. Action must be taken at the global, regional, national level and all actors must be involved. Women’s agency can be built through supporting women’s organizations, self-help groups and women’s cooperatives. This is a message not only to governments, but also to development partners and donors so that they prioritize it in their aid allocations.
It is crucial to address water security and their gender dimensions in national development plans, poverty reduction strategies, agricultural and rural development policies, and other development frameworks. Equitable water security needs to be a public policy priority. We need to catalyze alliance, knowledge sharing, commitment, innovations, actions and financing to address the nexus between food security and water from a gender perspective.
Women and girls are thirsty for available, accessible and affordable clean and safe water. We can no longer ruin their potential to become inspiring leaders, successful entrepreneurs or healthy mothers due to their heavy burden of fetching water.
While governments must prioritize women and girls in their national policies, the international community must prioritize gender equality and women’s empowerment in the new development agenda. Development can neither be sustainable nor inclusive if it does not free women and girls from carrying heavy water buckets every day.
As we move towards the 2013 international year for water cooperation, we need to catalyze alliance, knowledge sharing, commitment, innovations, actions and financing to address issues related to affordability, accessibility and availability of safe and sufficient water for all at all levels. UN Women will be a strong advocate for leveraging women’s voice and influence in water governance.
In conclusion, I would like to quote from the 2006 Human Development Report on water: “Throughout history water has confronted humanity with some of its greatest challenges.
Water is a source of life and a natural resource that sustains our environments and supports livelihoods – but it is also a source of risk and vulnerability. In the early 21st Century, prospects for human development are threatened by a deepening global water crisis. Debunking the myth that the crisis is the result of scarcity, this report argues that poverty, power and inequality are at the heart of the problem.”
And that is why gender equality and women’s empowerment must be the part of any blue revolution and any ‘second-generation’ green revolution that we are seeking to launch. | <urn:uuid:481a9743-ebf5-46fa-b35b-d55abda44078> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.unwomen.org/2012/08/gender-perspectives-on-water-and-food-security/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954456 | 3,534 | 2.203125 | 2 |
View the division's white paper, "Waste-to-Energy: A Renewable Energy Source from Municipal Solid Waste", which was delivered to several elected legislators on Capitol Hill.
The former technical division known as the Solid Waste Processing Division has voted to change its name to the Materials And Energy Recovery Division, or the “MER Division of ASME. The new Name was approved unanimously by the 6 member division Executive Committee on October 22, 2009.
It’s guiding principle is "Engineers for Sustainable Waste Management".
The objectives of the MER Division reflected in their bylaws are:
To encourage and foster research and development that will advance the practice of sustainable waste management in the U.S. and abroad; and improve processes for maximum recovery of materials and energy from solid wastes.
Collect, peer review, and disseminate accurate information on sustainable waste management and Materials and Energy Recovery from wastes through professional conferences.
Cooperate with other established professional organizations and groups in the development of codes and standards.
Establish and maintain liaison with universities, government, industry and environmental groups.
Promote proper management practices for the ultimate disposal of solid waste materials.
The MER Division's primary activities include co-sponsorship of its Annual North American Waste to Energy Conference (NAWTEC) and its supporting association with the Waste to Energy Research and Technology Council (WTERT) at Columbia University. | <urn:uuid:f07ff645-91f0-4eca-8a4e-e78fe296ff3c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://divisions.asme.org/MER/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944298 | 284 | 2.0625 | 2 |
"Sanjaya said, 'Having battled fiercely for five days, O king, the Brahmana (Drona) endued with great strength, fell and repaired to the region of Brahma. The fruits that arise from a study of the Vedas arise from a study of this Parva also. The great achievements of brave Kshatriyas have been described here. He who readeth or listeneth to the recitation of this Parva every day is freed from heinous sins and the most atrocious acts of his life. Brahmanas may always obtain herefrom the fruits
of sacrifices. From this, Kshatriyas may obtain victory in fierce battle. The other orders (Vaisyas and Sudras) may obtain desirable sons and grandsons and all objects of desire!'"
The end of Drona Parva. | <urn:uuid:a318ba54-8752-4172-94ad-e3460ddcef72> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07199.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918879 | 174 | 2.046875 | 2 |
NHTSA Electronic Stability Control Proposal Shows Promise
St. Petersburg, FL… American Trucking Associations said it was encouraged by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's proposed requirement for electronic stability control (ESC) on large trucks.
NHTSA's proposal would require trucks to use electronic stability control, which could prevent a significant number of large truck crashes.
“Safety is, and always has been, ATA’s highest calling,” ATA President and CEO Bill Graves said here during ATA's annual Leadership Meeting at the Vinoy Renaissance St. Petersburg Golf Club and Resort. “We're encouraged that NHTSA is looking at this important area of truck safety.
“Technology, whether it is ESC, roll stability control or electronic onboard recorders, can help our industry improve on its already impressive safety record,” Graves said.
ATA will closely examine NHTSA's proposal with an eye on providing strong, substantive comments to the agency's docket later this year. | <urn:uuid:1c95d6d5-70ff-415b-a1a9-cc1dc3e0ea6c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.movinout.com/archives/July%202012/article30.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938339 | 208 | 1.65625 | 2 |
We all know that New York's Lower East Side is where you go to hunt down the latest in art – maybe by tuned-in artists such as Austin Thomas. That assumption has been blown away by Thomas herself. In the latest incarnation of her Pocket Utopia space (an earlier one mattered on the Bushwick scene), Thomas is showing Old Master French engravings. She has got print expert Armin Kunz to bring in a 17th-century impression of Francis I of France, another of Louis XIV as a boy and any number of lavish, gorgeously pompous engravings showing notable artists of the Enlightenment. The pictures aren't masterpieces or rare – many are cheaper than works by emerging artists – but they provide a winning contrast to the usual LES fare. They also feel weirdly of a piece with it.
For a full visual survey of past Daily Pics visit blakegopnik.com/archive. | <urn:uuid:2b9c0828-3903-4960-a4fb-3c9dc0cde622> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/05/17/old-master-prints-at-pocket-utopia-are-the-daily-pic-by-blake-gopnik.html | 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 | 0.962507 | 187 | 1.554688 | 2 |
High School Drivers Safety
This program was started because fire department
personnel became very concerned with high school
aged drivers who were being seriously injured/killed
in what were preventable collisions.
Instructors teach students in all Mesa high schools
the consequences of poor decision making.
For program information/questions please call
Michele Long at 480-644-2294
Return to Fire and
Life Safety Education Page | <urn:uuid:941fe09c-b604-42db-8201-b3278936c120> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mesaaz.gov/fire/FLSE/HighSchoolDriverSafety.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969229 | 88 | 1.710938 | 2 |
1. Logs which are (currently) unarchived are referred to as redo log files. When these files get filled up, they are copied to a archive destination and are thus called archived (redo) log files.
2. Correction: a ts is not offline during a hot backup, it's in backup mode. Changes are logged in the redo log files.
Archived Logs are copies of the Redo logs.
When running in ArchiveLog mode the Archiver process archives the redo logs as they are filled and the new log grouup becomes active.
You will need these archives if the database crashes and you need to restore from the old backup. In that case you will need all the logs archived after the last backup was taken.
When the tablespace is in backup mode the changes are logged in the redo logs. It may be a good practice to Archive your active logs after the tablespaces are brought out of the backup mode. This way you make sure that the all the redo generated during the backup process is archived as well. | <urn:uuid:0cff76ee-2ae8-4d65-b7aa-810e43edec9d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dbasupport.com/forums/showthread.php?9470-OEM-v2.2-job-execution-error.&goto=nextoldest | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961686 | 219 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Harvard Business School Professor Richard S. Tedlow Joins the Computer History Museum as First Resident Scholar
Appointment Represents Major Step Toward Museum's Long-Term Goal of Establishing Permanent Research Center to Study the Impact of Computing
Mountain View, Calif.—January 21, 2009—
The Computer History Museum (CHM) today announced that Dr. Richard S. Tedlow of Harvard Business School has joined the Museum as its first resident scholar. Dr. Tedlow became a member of CHM’s Board of Trustees in May 2008. His additional role as resident scholar is a major step in CHM’s long-term plan to establish a permanent research center to support the study of computer history and impact of the information age on the human experience.
“Richard Tedlow is the nation’s pre-eminent business historian, and we are honored to be joined by someone of his stature, academic record and accomplishments as a historian. His residency adds tremendous prestige to the Museum’s efforts and bolsters CHM’s position as one of the world’s premier institutions for the study of computer history,” said John Hollar, the Museum’s President and CEO.
During his time at the Museum, Dr. Tedlow will represent the institution through written materials and public lectures. He will also collaborate with the Museum’s exhibitions team on content for the forthcoming permanent exhibit, “Computer History: The First 2,000 Years,” which will recount the technology, people and impact of the computer, one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century.
The Museum plans to leverage Dr. Tedlow’s residency to establish the policies, framework and financial model to create a permanent visiting scholars program and a fully developed research center to be housed at the Museum. Establishing a research center has been a pillar of CHM’s strategic plan from the Museum’s inception in Silicon Valley.
“I’m thrilled to work with the Computer History Museum as it instates its research center and grows its scholarly presence,” said Dr. Tedlow. “It’s our responsibility to keep the stories of our time alive for future generations, and the Computer History Museum takes this responsibility to record the important details of the computing age very seriously.”
To begin his role as resident scholar, Dr. Tedlow will present a business case at CHM on Intel’s decision in the 1980s to “sole-source” its 386 microprocessor. The lecture will take place on Monday, Jan. 26 at 7 p.m. Additionally, to encourage the interest of business history in teenagers, Dr. Tedlow will provide a similar learning experience for a younger audience on Wednesday, Feb. 4 at 6 p.m. Registration required, please visit CHM’s website for more details.
About Richard S. Tedlow
Dr. Richard S. Tedlow is the Class of 1949 Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, where he is a specialist in the history of business. Dr. Tedlow received his B.A. from Yale, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in history from Columbia. He has written many highly acclaimed books, including “Giants of Enterprise: Seven Business Innovators and the Empires They Built” (HarperBusiness, 2001), selected by BusinessWeek as one of the top ten business books of 2001, and most recently “Andy Grove: The Life and Times of an American” (Portfolio, 2006), which BusinessWeek also listed as one of the top ten business books of 2006.
About the Computer History Museum
The Computer History Museum (CHM) in Mountain View, Calif., is a nonprofit organization with a four decade history. The Museum is dedicated to the preservation and celebration of computer history, and is home to the largest international collection of computing artifacts in the world, encompassing computer hardware, software, documentation, ephemera, photographs and moving images.
CHM brings computer history to life through an acclaimed speaker series, dynamic website, onsite tours, as well as physical and online exhibits. Current exhibits include “Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine No. 2,” “Mastering the Game: A History of Computer Chess,” “Innovation in the Valley” – a look at Silicon Valley startups – and the unique “Visible Storage Gallery,” featuring over 600 key objects from the collection.
The signature “Computer History: The First 2,000 Years” exhibit will open in late 2010.
For more information, visit www.computerhistory.org or call (650) 810-1010.
Computer History Museum | <urn:uuid:471d1120-829a-4334-b97c-38589929d479> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.computerhistory.org/press/Tedlow-Resident-Scholar.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931139 | 984 | 1.773438 | 2 |
2002 Junior Olympics Track & Field
July 23-28, 2002
The 36th edition of USA Track & Field's Junior Olympics National Championships is scheduled for July 23-28 at Harry A. Burke (H.S.) Stadium in Omaha. It's something of a homecoming for the JO's as the Nebraska Association hosted this meet in Omaha in 1999. It's also an opportunity to see - and be a part of - the future of the World's #1 Track & Field Team!
The Junior Olympics program is part of the Verizon Youth Series. Verizon will again honor male and female athletes-of-the meet at this summer's national championships, including the Junior Nationals and Youth Athletics.
The JO National Championships attract more than 6,500 competitors each year, who submit more than 9,000 entries. It is the largest and most visible young athlete developmental program in the world. This year's meet will also serve as one of the primary selection competitions for the 2003 IAAF World Youth Athletics Track & Field Championships, which will take place in Sherbrooke, Canada. (Note: Athletes must also meet an IAAF qualifying standard to be eligible for the world competition.)
Competition age divisions and corresponding birth years are as follows: Bantam (1992-later) Midget (1990-1991) Youth (1988-1989) Intermediate (1986-1987) Young Men/Women (1984-1985; athletes born in 1983 are also eligible if they will still be 18 on July 29, 2002)
America's next generation of track and field stars will be competing this summer in Omaha. The future is now! Join USATF to be a part of it. | <urn:uuid:8cc531ce-bcaa-43bd-ba90-d9b108057fbc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.usatf.org/events/2002/JuniorOlympicsTrackAndField/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938512 | 339 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Light can make migraine pain worse. A new study of blind patients may help explain why. The finding could eventually lead to better treatments.
More than 1 in 10 people nationwide get recurring migraines—often described as a pulsing or throbbing in one area of the head. To discover how light can worsen the pain, NIH-funded scientists studied 20 blind patients who suffer from migraines.
Six of the volunteers couldn’t detect any light, either because their eyes were removed due to disease or because of damage to the optic nerves, which connect the eyes to the brain. The other 14 patients could
detect some light but couldn’t perceive images.
When the 14 patients were exposed to light, their migraine pain got worse. In contrast, light had no effect on the 6 volunteers who were totally blind. The scientists concluded that the optic nerve must play a key role in light-induced migraine.
The researchers then searched for the cells in the eye that might trigger the pain. They knew that the eye’s main light-detecting and image-producing cells were not responsible, because these cells were damaged in the 14 blind patients. Instead, the researchers focused on rare light-sensing cells that help maintain the sleep-wake cycle and help the eye’s pupil enlarge or shrink in response to light.
Animal studies showed that these rare cells carry light signals through the optic nerve and on to brain cells that transmit pain. The research suggests that non-image-forming eye cells may help trigger migraines.
“Clinically, this research sets the stage for identifying ways to block the pathway so that migraine patients can endure light without pain,” says lead researcher Dr. Rami Burstein of Harvard Medical School. | <urn:uuid:989830be-8d50-4f79-a9a0-2b013447cdb1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/2010/March/capsules.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950828 | 362 | 3.421875 | 3 |
By Sean Pendergast
By Sean Pendergast
By Sean Pendergast
By Jeff Balke
By Richard Connelly
By Jeff Balke
By Casey Michel
By Craig Hlavaty
After the terrorist attacks, Bush Intercontinental, Hobby Airport and Ellington Field were evacuated, and the dogs combed through them terminal by terminal. They checked the towers and examined unclaimed luggage. An Arab-looking man abandoned a car at Intercontinental, so they searched it. Another "suspicious person" left two terroristic threat letters in the bathroom at Hobby Airport, so they combed the terminal. A 911 caller said that Continental flight number 434 would not make it to New York, so the plane was evacuated and the dogs searched all 115 pieces of luggage, 60 cases of cargo and the bulkhead.
The dogs and their handlers have been working 12-hour days and volunteering on weekends -- yet they still can't answer every call. "Most of your bomb threats are a hoax anyway," says HPD dog handler Charlie Vaughn. "But we shouldn't turn down any calls."
The dogs are stationed five minutes away from Intercontinental. As part of the TSA's expansion effort, HPD hired three more handlers to permanently patrol Hobby Airport.
"Major events caused the program to be created," Robertson says. "Now another major event is causing the expansion."
All U.S. military dogs are trained at the 700-acre Lackland Air Force Base outside San Antonio. The day after the terrorist attacks, officials at Lackland doubled the bomb-detecting dog class size, extended the training day to nine hours and started working dogs six days a week. At the FAA's request, instructors expedited training and graduated the class in session three weeks early. That was the last scheduled course of the year, but FAA officials asked Master Sergeant John Pearce to certify another group of bomb dogs before Christmas.
Trexler told The Washington Post the FAA was so desperate for dogs, they would accept any breed -- even a pink poodle.
The one they bought was black.
A standard poodle named Danny passed the monthlong pretraining program, where he was taught to identify several different explosive odors. Exactly which explosives and how many is classified information, Pearce says.
In beige barracks located at the back of the base, trainers drilled Danny on each explosive; they let him smell baggies of powder wrapped in a brown paper towel, then hid the powder in desk drawers, nightstands, cabinets and couches.
"It's a shell game," Pearce says. "We keep moving it back and forth."
Once the poodle found an explosive 15 times in a row, he moved on to the next scent. Danny was trained to sit when he smelled an explosive, because if he barked or pawed at a bomb, it could detonate. After learning all the odors, the poodle practiced in a simulated parking lot filled with junked cars and on six permanently parked airplanes.
Inside the first Boeing 707's cabin, the orange upholstery is ripped, yellow foam spills out of the seat cushions, and the carpet is covered in dog hair. Here, the poodle was taught to methodically sniff seats in each aisle, air vents and overhead bins.
But a week into the 55-day dog-and-handler training, instructors reported that the poodle wasn't a stellar student.
"He was inconsistent," says trainer Rusty Smith. "He didn't work."
Unlike other dogs, Danny didn't get excited about sniffing through boxes of Burlington blankets, sheets and towels at the nearby warehouse. Danny would find eight explosives, then he would be tired and want to quit. On long searches, the poodle panted heavily, which made his nose less sensitive. Playing a game of fetch wasn't enough of a prize to keep Danny motivated to continue working. "He doesn't want it bad enough," Pearce says. Since they had already paid for him, trainers tried different techniques -- but soon they gave up.
Sixteen days into the program, Danny was dishonorably discharged. He's being put up for public adoption. Although they haven't ruled out the breed because of one unmotivated standard-bearer, poodles aren't on the current shopping list.
"Thank God," Smith says.
Over the years, the military has experimented with everything from Dobermans to dalmatians. After World War II, Army officials decided that German shepherds and Belgian Malinois (known as "super shepherds") were the breeds of choice because of their high endurance, energy and versatility. Most dogs training at Lackland are shepherds and Malinois, but the TSA also trains various sporting breeds such as springer spaniels, Labradors and golden retrievers. These dogs are innate hunters and mellow enough to hang out at busy airports.
The now discharged poodle was bought at Christmastime on the TSA's last shopping trip to Germany. Trying to produce pretty, show-quality dogs, American breeders bred hip problems and dysplasia into German shepherds. "The puppy mills inbred champions," Robertson says. So many trainers shop overseas where dogs are bred to work, not win Westminster.
Along with the poodle, the TSA purchased a pup named Arras. Pearce calls him a German hunting hound, which sounds far more ferocious than a tiny little terrier. Arras is barely bigger than Eddie on Frasier; he looks like a Yorkie with curly black hair and splashes of caramel.
"He's one of the first small breeds that we've actually messed with," Pearce says.
At seven-thirty on a late February morning, Arras has already been fed and is sitting inside a pet carrier outside the barracks. It's 35 degrees, and the San Antonio winds are so strong that big rigs are being blown on around the road. About 500 dogs are at the base today, training for the Department of Defense and the TSA. It sounds like an enormous animal pound.
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Check out the hottest list of places and things to do around your city | <urn:uuid:713106b9-6adc-41dd-9ca4-5da29d61e22d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.houstonpress.com/2002-03-21/news/man-s-new-best-friend/2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965343 | 1,306 | 1.742188 | 2 |
To paraphrase Thomas Henry Huxley: How stupid of us not to have thought of that!
In what has to be one of the most elegant and simple experiments I've seen in a long time, Yann Hautier, Pascal Niklaus and Andy Hector tested a basic mechanism of why nutrient enrichment results in species loss. This is a critically important issue as it has been repeatedly shown that while adding nitrogen to plant communities causes increases in productivity, species go locally extinct. We may bare witness to local diversity declines because human activity has greatly increased nutrient deposition. This pattern has been observed for a couple of decades, but the exact mechanism has never been adequately tested, with some camps believing that enrichment increases below-ground competition for other resources that become limiting, or above ground for light.
As reveled in the most recent issue of Science, Hautier et al. performed an exceedingly simple experiment; they added light to the understory of plant communities with or without nitrogen additions. They made two compelling observations. First, when communities were enriched without elevated light, they lost about 3 of the 6 initial species compared to the control, while light addition in the enriched communities maintained the 6 member community (as did a light only treatment). The second result was that the light plus nitrogen treatment obtained much higher biomass than either the nitrogen or light only treatments, and in fact the light only treatment did not significantly increase productivity, meaning that the communities are not normally light-limited. Further, they failed to detect any elevated belowground competition for other resources.
These results reveal that nutrient enrichment causes diversity loss because increased plant size increases light competition and plants that grow taller with elevated nitrogen are better light competitors. An old problem solved with the right experiment.
Hautier, Y., Niklaus, P., & Hector, A. (2009). Competition for Light Causes Plant Biodiversity Loss After Eutrophication Science, 324 (5927), 636-638 DOI: 10.1126/science.1169640
Do people value rare species more than common ones? This is an important question for conservation because not only does valuation justify public funds being spent conserving rare species, but valuation can have negative implications as well. In what is called the ‘anthropogenic Allee effect’, increased valuation can increase species desirability –thus enhancing monetary value for exotic pets, building ecotourism lodges in sensitive habitats, or exotic tasty dishes (ah, The Freshman). In what is probably the most unique approach to assessing whether behavior is affected by the notion of species rarity, Angula and Courchamp, at the Université Paris Sud, used a web-based slideshow measure the amount of time people would wait to see a slideshow of rare versus common species.
Cleverly, they created a French website where visitors could select to view either a slideshow of common or rare species (and the links randomly changed positions on the site). The trick was that a download status bar appears and freezes near the end, and so Angula and Courchamp were able to measure how many visitors selected the rare species show and how long they waited until they gave up. Visitors were much more likely to select the rare species and to wait longer to see them.
I think that this study is extremely neat for two reasons. First it offers a novel way to quantify valuation, and second, it shows how the internet can be used to assess conservation issues in an efficient low-cost way.
Now will they please just show us the pictures of the cute, endangered species!
Plant communities dominated by exotics tend to be less diverse than plant communities dominated by natives. Apparently, few people have been curious enough to plan an experiment to try to further understand why this is the case. A recent paper in ecology letters Brian Wilsey and collaborators showed the results of an experiment designed to explore this. What they did is to create monocultures of a series of exotics and natives species, and mix cultures of exotics (a mix of 9 exotics, zero natives ) and mix cultures of natives (9 natives, zero exotics). They found that large exotics (plants with high aboveground biomass) tended to be even bigger when growing in mix cultures than in the monocultures, so big plants got bigger, which tend to reduce plant richness since it may displace other plants. On the other hand, for natives, small plants tended to get bigger, which is a mechanism for promoting biodiversity (communities may be more even). This research highlights the importance of understanding the mechanisms of plant coexistence and the fact that exotic species may behave very differently than native species.
Wilsey, B., Teaschner, T., Daneshgar, P., Isbell, F., & Polley, H. (2009). Biodiversity maintenance mechanisms differ between native and novel exotic-dominated communities Ecology Letters, 12 (5), 432-442 DOI: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2009.01298.x
According to a study recently published in Environmental Health Perspectives, climate change has increased the prevalence of West Nile Virus infections in the United States. In one of the largest surveys of West Nile Virus cases to date, the authors find a correlation between increasing temperature and rainfall and outbreaks of the mosquito-borne disease between 2001 and 2005. Because warming weather patterns and increasing rainfall are both projected to accelerate with global warming, the authors predict that climate change will exacerbate West Nile Virus outbreaks in the future.
In the study, Dr. Jonathan Soverow and his collaborators matched more than 16,000 confirmed West Nile cases in 17 states to local meteorological data.
Warmer temperatures had the greatest effect on outbreaks. By extending the length of the mosquito breeding season and decreasing the amount of time it takes mosquitoes to reach their adult, biting stage, warmer weather means more biting mosquitoes longer. Moreover, increasing temperature speeds multiplication of the virus within insects, so mosquitoes in warmer climates have a greater viral load, making them more likely to infect humans.
Increased precipitation was also correlated with higher rates of West Nile Virus infection. A single, heavy rainstorm resulting in two or more inches of rain increased infection rates by 33%, while smaller storms had less of an effect on infection rates. Heavier rainfall events can increase disease prevalence by creating pools of water in which mosquitoes can breed and by increasing humidity, which stimulates mosquitoes to bite and breed. Total weekly rainfall had a smaller but significant effect on West Nile Virus infections, with an increase of 0.75 inch of rain/week increasing the number of infections by about 5%.
Warmer, wetter weather patterns might expand the niches of the mosquito species that carry West Nile Virus. In California, for instance, several mosquito species carrying the West Nile Virus have extended their ranges into higher elevations and coastal areas as temperatures have warmed. Changing weather patterns might also affect certain species of birds that are reservoirs for West Nile Virus. For example, droughts can push bird populations into urban areas, making West Nile Virus outbreaks in human populations more likely.
Soverow, J.E., G.A. Wellenius, D.N. Fisman, and M.A. Mittleman. 2009. Infectious disease in a warming world: How weather influenced West Nile Virus in the United States (2001-2005). Environmental Health Perspectives. Online 16 March 2009 DOI: 10.1289/ehp.0800487
I realized, sometime not too long ago, that I really enjoy adding aesthetically pleasing details to my figures in scientific publications. All scientists look at hundreds of boring, monochromatic scatterplots, bar charts and ordination plots every month, so why not make them a little more appealing? If done right, the benefits are that people are more likely to remember your key figures and perhaps results, you can convey more information by incorporating imagery, and you may actually get a little joy out of preparing those figures. The downfalls are, if done poorly, they are distracting and publishing color figures is always costly for print editions.
Here are some examples of artistically augmented publication figures -but if you have other good examples, let me know and I'll add them: This is from a recent Ecology Letters from Crutsinger, Cadotte (me) and Sanders (2009), 12: 285-292, trying to explain how we partitioned arthropod diversity into spatial components.
This one is from Ellwood et al. (2009) in Ecology Letters 12: 277-284, which shows co-occurrence null histograms for patterns of arthropods at various hight locations on trees.
This one is from Crutsinger et al (2006) Science 313: 966-968 that displays patterns at differing trophic levels by juxtaposing photos of specific tropic members.
Finally, the use of drawings and images to illustrate phylogenetic trends in phenotypic evolution is particularly useful. Above are two examples, on the left is from Carlson et al. 2009 Evolution 63: 767-778, showing patterns of darter evolution; and on the right is from Oakley and Cunningham 2002 PNAS 99: 1426-1430, showing evolutionary pathways of compound eyes.
And here's one from Dolph Schluter (2000) American Naturalist 156: S4-S16, using drawings to illustrate how fish morphology corresponds to an abstracted index on the bottom axis.
Here are two from Joe Baily while working in Tom Whitham's Cottonwood Ecology Group that are effective ways to remind the reader what the treatments or dependent variables were (elk herbivory, leaf shape/genotype) and what the response variables were (bird predation, wood consumption by beavers). The left hand figure is from Baily & Whitham (2003) Oikos 101: 127-134 and the one on the right is from Baily et al. (2004) Ecology 85: 603-608. | <urn:uuid:7c580a6c-473a-4f62-82d0-236e6b1fe4be> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://evol-eco.blogspot.ca/2009_04_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934194 | 2,041 | 3.203125 | 3 |
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Chuck Fleischmann introduces the "Stop Green Initiative Abuse Act of 2011"
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Chuck Fleischmann introduced the “Stop Green Initiative Abuse Act of 2011” today. It will eliminate the Department of Energy’s Weatherization Assistance Program and save taxpayers $2.1 billion over the next ten years.
“I ran for Congress because I knew something had to be done about our crushing debt. I have worked since day one to balance our budget and stop the ‘tax, borrow, spend’ mentality that has dominated Washington for far too long. I am glad to introduce legislation to end the Weatherization Assistance Program in order to save billions of dollars. I am also glad the American people directly had a say in this process through the YouCut program. Together we can get our fiscal house in order and get our country back on the right track,” Fleischmann said.
The Department of Energy’s Weatherization Assistance Program was originally created in the 1970’s. However, other federal programs, such as the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), are already in place to assist low-income households in managing energy costs.
In December 2010, the Tennessee Comptroller General’s office released a review of the program citing that weatherization contractors had, in nearly half of the cases studied, failed to implement critically recommended measures to properly weatherize homes. The review also noted that funds for the program were used for other assistance measures that had nothing to do with weatherization.
The Office of the Inspector General at the Department of Energy also conducted a review of this program concluding that weatherization work on homes was poorly administered and led to potentially harmful effects for home inhabitants. The State of Delaware actually suspended their weatherization program due to “fraud and mismanagement”.
The Weatherization Assistance Program received the most votes from the American people during the week Congressman Fleischmann lead the YouCut effort. | <urn:uuid:84835e0e-e9e5-4983-ab99-fd19fd941b55> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fleischmann.house.gov/press-release/chuck-fleischmann-introduces-stop-green-initiative-abuse-act-2011 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961639 | 413 | 1.648438 | 2 |
A wing is a surface used to produce lift for flight through the air or another gaseous medium. The wing shape is usually an airfoil. The word originally referred only to the foremost limbs of birds, but has been extended to include the wings of insects (see insect wing), bats, pterosaurs, and aircraft.
A wing's aerodynamic quality is expressed as a Lift-to-drag ratio. The lift generated by a wing at a given speed and angle of attack can be 1-2 orders of magnitude greater than the drag. This means that a significantly smaller thrust force can be applied to propel the wing through the air in order to obtain a specified lift.
The science of wings is one of the principal applications of the science of aerodynamics. In order for a wing to produce lift it has to be at a positive angle to the airflow. In that case a low pressure region is generated on the upper surface of the wing which draws the air above the wing downwards towards what would otherwise be a void after the wing had passed. On the underside of the wing a high pressure region forms accelerating the air there downwards out of the path of the oncoming wing. The pressure difference between these two regions produces an upwards force on the wing, called lift.
The pressure differences, the acceleration of the air and the lift on the wing are intrinsically one mechanism. It is therefore possible to derive the value of one by calculating another. For example lift can be calculated by reference to the pressure differences or by calculating the energy used to accelerate the air. Both approaches will result in the same answer if done correctly. Debates over which mathematical approach is the more convenient can be wrongly perceived as differences of opinion about the principles of flight and often create unnecessary confusion in the mind of the layman.
For a more detailed coverage see lift (force).
A common misconception is that it is the shape of the wing that is essential to generate lift by having a longer path on the top rather than the underside. This is not the case, thin flat wings can produce lift efficiently and aircraft with cambered wings can fly inverted as long as the nose of the aircraft is pointed high enough so as to present the wing at a positive angle of attack to the airflow.
The common aerofoil shape of wings is due to a large number of factors many of them not at all related to aerodynamic issues, for example wings need strength and thus need to be thick enough to contain structural members. They also need room to contain items such as fuel, control mechanisms and retracted undercarriage. The primary aerodynamic input to the wing’s cross sectional shape is the need to keep the air flowing smoothly over the entire surface for the most efficient operation. In particular, there is a requirement to prevent the low-pressure gradient that accelerates the air down the back of the wing becoming too great and effectively “sucking” the air off the surface of the wing. If this happens the wing surface from that point backwards becomes substantially ineffective.
The shape chosen by the designer is a compromise dependent upon the intended operational ranges of airspeed, angles of attack and wing loadings. Usually aircraft wings have devices, such as flaps, which allow the pilot to modify shape and surface area of the wing to be able to change its operating characteristics in flight.
In 1948 Francis Rogallo invented the fully limp flexible wing which ushered new possibilities for aircraft. Near in time Domina Jalbert invented flexible un-sparred ram-air airfoiled thick wings. These two new branches of wings have been since extensively studied and applied in new branches of aircraft, especially altering the personal recreational aviation landscape.
The science of wings applies in other areas beyond conventional fixed-wing aircraft, including:
Structures with the same purpose as wings, but designed to operate in liquid media, are generally called fins or hydroplanes, with hydrodynamics as the governing science. Applications arise in craft such as hydrofoils and submarines. Sailing boats use both fins and wings. | <urn:uuid:1fd4c04e-c92a-4c78-8e82-9ef006b135c3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.reference.com/browse/burro-wing | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956621 | 823 | 4.25 | 4 |
I am a student who has become aware of an injustice done to a fellow Australian citizen. David Hicks, now 27 years of age, loved to travel. In 2001, David studied at an Islamic College and travelled through Kashmir before going to Afghanistan. Shortly afterwards, David was captured. The media have branded David a traitor and a terrorist, but his only standing conviction is for driving without a licence. Since December 2001, David has had just one contact with his family, that was a letter through The Red Cross. The conditions in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba are severely inhumane. Most of the detainees have no rights, they have not even been told the charges they are facing. A petition seeking habeas corpus was declined in a District Court in July, 2002. I intend to try and help the Hicks Family as best i can, you can too. thank you for taking to time to read my petition. I will endeavour to forward this petition to the appropiate authorities.
I would like to thank ipetitions for giving me this opportunity to voice my opinion on a subject i am strongly influenced by. If you wish to do the same, please visit http://www.ipetitions.com
The views expressed in this petition are solely those of the petition's sponsor and do not in any way reflect the views of iPetitions. iPetitions is solely a provider of technical services to the petition sponsor and cannot be held liable for any damages or injury or other harm arising from this petition. In the event no adequate sponsor is named, iPetitions will consider the individual account holder with which the petition was created as the lawful sponsor. | <urn:uuid:ed825581-0e61-46eb-b81e-2edee661ad7a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/innocence/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9734 | 331 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Norwich Bulletin - 4/25/2010
Do You Know Your Dogs And Cats?|
There are so many cat and dog characters that have been in books, comic strips, cartoons, movies, television and on stage, the I thought it would be fun to play Trivial Pursuit to see who knows their feline and canine stars. Now, no cheating allowed – see how much you can do on your own.
Feel free to email me your list when you are done or wait for the answers next week at the bottom of my column.
And now, going to the dogs:
- These two cats are in one of Disney’s best animated films. One has a penchant for talking in riddles and the disappearing, and the other is a little black and white kitten who refused to go down into a rabbit hole.
- Since her debut in 1977, Strawberry Shortcake is never seen without her little pink cat.
- These two sinister Siamese prowl as one and wreak havoc on a home and a pretty cocker spaniel.
- The sarcastic, lazy kitty who plays evil tricks on his owner and loves lasagna.
- Since 1945 this black and white tuxedo cat has been chasing poor little Tweetie bird all over the world.
- The twenty pound black cat who helps his human, amateur sleuth Temple Barr.
- The nasty cat belonging to the wicked Lady Tremaine in Cinderella.
- Dr. Seuss’ mischievous cat known best for his red and white striped hat.
- Since 1973 this cat has pushed over trash cans, romanced his Persian girlfriend and enjoys making Spike the Bulldog’s life miserable.
- The oversized, furry orange vegetarian cat who refused to eat Fieval.
- One of the first silent film cats, this black and white cat really seemed to interest movie goers.
- Shirley Rousseau Murphy’s trio of feline detectives that can communicate with humans.
- This kitty liked to insert meows into her sentence and adored children – but tended to be obsessed with her beauty while living in the neighborhood.
- This not so smart Manx has a habit of getting into trouble with a crazy Chihuahua named Ren.
- A novel by Paul Gallico having to do with a young girl and her cat, later turned into a Disney movie.
- One of my favorite book series involves two Siamese cats who help their mustached owner solve mysteries.
- The cat who shared his life with three “charmed” sisters.
- The witches cat from Bell, Book and Candle, often played by a Siamese.
- The vicious St. Bernard who caused fear and terror in a young boy in this Stephen King Novel.
- Two great dogs on two sides of the fence so to speak, when it came to befriending a little red fox, in this Disney animated tale.
- The big two headed boar hound that became famous from being Hagrid’s pet in the Harry Potter Series.
- A white dog from the planet Krypton that was shot to Earth by Jor-el and found by his original owner on Krypton, Clark Kent.
- The nurse dog of the children who end up following Peter Pan to never never land.
- The little terrier dog who belonged to Nick and Nora Charles from the Thin man series.
- The Rottweiler employee of the Hammerhead in the movie Barb Wire that was trained to go for the groin (ouch).
- The Great Dane in an ever popular movie, cartoon, and comic series.
- The “biggest and meanest dog in the USA” from the Soupy Sales show.
- Here’s a hard one – Donald Duck’s dog (and it is not Pluto).
- The vampire Pomeranian in the move Blade:Trinity.
- The dog who lived in the old west at a fort and watched over a boy named Rusty.
- The Golden Retriever Wonder Dog on Punky Brewster in 1984 and the cartoon series in
- Bart Simpson’s dog for one episode who ended up with the Springfield Police as a drug sniffing dog.
- A beautiful collie whose opening scene was her jumping over a fence.
- The Beagle owned by Captain Archer in Star Trek: Enterprise.
- The ghost dog with a jack o’lantern nose from the seasonal movie, “The Nightmare before Christmas.”
- The other Great Dane who lives with a family and appears in a daily comic strip
- Of course, we can’t forget the ever popular beagle from Peanuts
- The little dog that shared an adventure with Dorothy in the land of Oz.
And the combined cat and dog question is:
The name of the dog and cat from the Dilbert series.
Have fun – I sure did.
To top of page | <urn:uuid:e54c95cb-9cbe-4872-a3c9-128cbe02d148> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.listnow.com/helpingpaws/articles/article_541.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935248 | 1,028 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Methylene blue and isosulfan blue perform similarly in the sentinel node procedure.
Retrospective medical record review.
County hospital with surgical residency.
A total of 194 patients underwent the sentinel node procedure.
Sentinel node procedure with methylene blue or isosulfan blue.
Main Outcome Measures
The identification rate, number of sentinel nodes identified, clinicopathologic variables, adverse effects, and complications were compared between the 2 groups.
The sentinel node identification rate was similar between the 2 groups (99.1% with methylene blue and 100.0% with isosulfan blue). Slightly more sentinel nodes were identified using methylene blue (mean, 2.7 vs 2.1; P = .03). No allergic reactions were seen. Significantly more patients experienced a change in pulse oximetry readings, a wider range of pulse oximetry reduction, and a greater mean decrease in pulse oximetry readings with isosulfan blue than with methylene blue. No skin complications were seen in either group. A palpable mass occurred at the site of methylene blue injection in 8.2% of patients.
The sentinel node identification rate was similar with methylene blue and with isosulfan blue. Methylene blue has significant advantages with respect to product cost, absence of anaphylactic reactions, and lack of interference with pulse oximetry. However, awareness is necessary of the possibility of injection site mass after methylene blue injection. | <urn:uuid:8fbec7f2-5240-4af3-a333-ef1778ab9578> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://archsurg.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=406669 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91776 | 311 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Energy giant Shell Canada Energy plans to increase bitumen production at the Jackpine Mine site by 100,000 bpd, bringing mining production to a total of 300,000 bpd.
The expansion would include space for new mining and processing facilities along the east side of the Athabasca River, approximately 70 km north of Fort McMurray.
Interested individuals and groups are now invited to provide comments and questions to a joint review panel in Ottawa. The panel, which was created to assess the environmental effects of the proposed project, must receive all comments in writing by Aug. 3, in order to be considered. All comments received by the panel will be considered public and will be posted online.
Comments, both in French or English, can be sent by mail, email or fax to:
First-Nations communities along the St. Lawrence River are warning the federal government to get tough with firms that wish to transport nuclear waste via the waterway, despite new challenges created by the Tory government’s massive omnibus budget bill.
Bruce Power, Canada’s first privately-owned nuclear power generator located on Lake Huron, had applied to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) in 2010 to transport nuclear waste to a Swedish treatment facility. The waste would be shipped to Sweden via the St. Lawrence Seaway.
New information from the internationally respected coastal consulting firm W.F.Baird & Assoc.comes this very disturbing report that Lakes Michigan/Huron/Georgian Bay water levels based on many historic trends should be 50cm higher than they are right now. Baird agrees that climate is a factor but that the rate of erosion in the St Clair River that has lowered lake levels is ongoing and has likely increased very significantly.
Toronto, ON -- The Great Lakes Protection Act Alliance - representing six environmental groups - is delighted that Ontario Minister of the Environment Jim Bradley re-introduced the Great Lakes Protection Act today as the new government’s first legislative agenda item.
“We’re thrilled that the Great Lakes are a priority for the government,” said Sarah Winterton, Acting Executive Director, Environmental Defence. “Improving protection for the source of drinking water for 80 per cent of Ontarians and protecting our shorelines and beaches is the right thing to do, and we urge all parties to work together to pass a strong Act.”
The bill was first introduced June 6, 2012, but died on the order table when the legislature was prorogued. Next, the bill will be debated, and amendments considered by an all-party committee.
About five years ago, residents of Yarmouth and surrounding areas joined together and formed the Tricounty Watershed Protection Association to stop the pollution being caused by mink farms at the headwaters of the Meteghan, Sissaboo and Tusket rivers. The Department of Environment conducted water tests in 10 lakes and 75 kilometres of the Tusket River for three consecutive years. The final water test results concluded that the mink farms were the probable cause. The government cancelled further water tests and no action was taken, despite the protests from citizens and environmental groups.
“We know that the government isn’t looking out for our safety so we are turning to people throughout the province to let the public know what’s really going on,” said Don Bester with the Alberta Surface Rights Group. “Hundreds of spills happen every year and still this government does nothing. We had three major spills last month alone. How many more have to happen before the government finally acts?”
According to the Energy Resources Conservation Board in 2010 there were over 600 spills and leaks from energy related pipelines in Alberta. Two of the last three major spills were undetected by the company but instead, were reported by third parties.
In an Open Public Letter sent out on August 31, 2012 – the first-announced deadline for comments on their Report on International Great Lakes Study – the International Joint Commission (IJC) has stated:
“Due to strong public interest, the IJC has extended the deadline for written comment until September 30, 2012.” | <urn:uuid:0c2c0305-069c-4611-bc0b-a178d7b66fd2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sierraclub.ca/fr/related/91%2044%2020?page=5 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962407 | 848 | 1.851563 | 2 |
If you haven’t heard of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade negotiations, you’re not alone.
On Monday, the 13th round of the TPP negotiations began at the Bay Shore Hilton. These negotiations bring hundreds of government trade officials and trade lawyers to San Diego for a full week.
Sounds like a great deal for the hotel, but who else cares?
Here’s why it’s a big deal. Nine countries are formally members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership: Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, Peru, New Zealand, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam. On June 18, Mexico was invited to join the negotiations. Canada was invited on June 19.
Don’t get sidetracked by Brunei. If you include Canada and Mexico, which will become full-fledged, card-carrying members of the group this fall, TPP countries represent more than 640 million consumers, 40 percent of global trade and one-third of total world economic activity. They are also the destination markets for 40 percent of U.S. exports. That’s why these negotiations are significant.
TPP is a cutting-edge, next-generation trade negotiation. It reaches far beyond the WTO, the NAFTA, and even our most recent trade agreements with South Korea and Colombia. The U.S. Trade Representative’s Office calls TPP “an ambitious, 21st-century … agreement that will enhance trade and investment among the TPP partner countries, promote innovation, economic growth and development, and support the creation and retention of jobs.”
Here’s what USTR’s arcane language is trying to say. Reducing tariffs – the taxes on imports – is important. TPP is working to eliminate tariffs on 10,000 separate items. But for U.S. business, and especially for the high-tech businesses that thrive in San Diego, reducing tariffs is not what’s key to increasing exports over the next 20-40 years. The global economy is about speed and efficiency. We need to be able to move goods, services, people, ideas and capital across the border better and faster.
California food processors lose money every minute their products are tied up at ports and airports because of bureaucratic red tape.
California is a world leader in the production of intellectual property, including movies, music, computer programs, pharmaceutical products and know-how. Yet these businesses risk losing everything when they distribute to countries where industrial-strength illegal copying and piracy are the norm. The TPP negotiators intend to change that so creators and innovators are properly rewarded for their efforts.
Services are one of the fastest-growing sectors in the California economy. Think engineers, programmers, financial advisers and lawyers. The TPP agreement will make it easier to export services to fast-growing emerging markets where our know-how is in demand.
Negotiators will tackle issues never contemplated in earlier agreements including ways to protect and promote investment and digital technologies, and ensure that state-owned enterprises compete fairly with private companies.
If a product has components made in a handful of countries and final assembly is in yet another country, what is the “nationality” of that product? The TPP agreement will unscramble rules of origin to determine which goods are from which country.
The negotiations also cover government procurement, e-commerce, health standards for agricultural products and telecommunications. | <urn:uuid:b5e36751-4bb9-42d5-aec9-f6c9388decbb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/jul/04/trade-negotiations-tackle-next-generation-issues/?page=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945679 | 692 | 1.828125 | 2 |
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The New York Public Library Saved His Life
Pedro Munoz, a junior-high dropout and recovering addict, had never set foot in a Library until two years ago.
Now, Tompkins Square Library is his favorite spot in the city — the place that gave him the strength to turn his life around.
“The Library has saved my life. Without it, I would still be out there on the street,” says Munoz, who has been learning to read and write at free adult-literacy center at Tompkins Square Library.
“The Library has given me hope and confidence,” added Munoz, who is now inspired to go on to earn his high school diploma. “The Library is the most important place for me in the whole city.”
Munoz, who grew up in Manhattan, discovered the Library’s services in 2009 as he was struggling to become sober after decades of drug and alcohol abuse.
After hearing about the Library’s Centers for Reading and Writing, he got up the confidence to walk into the ornate Jefferson Market Library in Greenwich Village and was awestruck that the Library’s free services were available to anyone who needed them.
“It was like walking into a castle,” he recalled. “I had never even walked into a Library before. I didn’t feel comfortable.”
Since then, Munoz has attended classes twice a week at Tompkins Square Library and now views his library card as a badge of honor. “My library card is more important to me than a credit card,” he says. “It takes you places.”
For Munoz, the support he has found at the Library’s Centers for Reading and Writing, both from his teachers and fellow students, has also helped him stay on track.
“The Library helped me stay sober too,” said Munoz, who now looks forward to going back to his literacy classes all weekend. “I always say I can’t wait ’til Monday so I can come back and study,” he added. “It’s amazing what I can do now. There’s no stopping me.”
Read more about Pedro! | <urn:uuid:5107fc94-30fd-4cd1-b963-d3d6e3437ea9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nypl.org/blog/2011/05/12/new-york-public-library-saved-his-life | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97524 | 525 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Zadeh, Shahram Shakiba (2006) Haematology and Antibacterial Properties of Blood from Horseshoe Crabs (Carcinoscorpius Rotundicauda and Tachypleus Gigas). Masters thesis, Universiti Putra Malaysia.
Samples of adult Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda and Tachypleus gigas caught from Pulau Lumut, Selangor, were conditioned in the Hatchery Unit, Universiti Putra Malaysia and used for all the experiments. Haematological study of the C. rotundicauda and T. gigas was carried out by blood extraction through cardiac puncture. Light microscopy of blood from both species showed the existence of only one type of blood cell, granulocyte, circulating in their circulatory system. Blood cell count for C. rotundicauda and T. gigas were not significantly different (27,000 and 33,000 cells/mm3, respectively), but it was otherwise for the two sexes of C. rotundicauda. Blood cell measurements of both species revealed that the size of T. gigas blood cells were significantly larger than C. rotundicauda. Transmission electron microscopy of blood cells was carried out for normal and clotted blood of both species. Granulocytes contained of all the necessary organelles: a nucleus, Golgi apparatus, mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum, ribosome particles, vacuoles, and microtubles. Moreover two types of granules filled the cytoplasmic space, they were large and small granules. Intermediate stages of granules were observed in the cytoplasmic region especially near the Golgi apparatus. Light microscope photography of the degranulation process of granulocytes with one minute interval in both species exhibited similar pattern. Blood cells under un-sterile condition released their granules which are the main source of the immunologic material. Vacuoles with different sizes then filled the cytoplasmic space and at the same time cytoplasmic projections were formed. Antibacterial effect of horseshoe crabs (C. rotundicauda and T. gigas) fresh blood against Gram negative (E. coli and V. parahaemolyticus) and Gram positive bacteria (S. aureus, B. subtilis and B. cereus) were examined. Freshly extracted blood from both species was observed to inhibit the growth of E. coli, V. parahaemolyticus and B. cereus, while partial inhibition for S. aureus. On the other hand, B. subtilis growth was inhibited by C. rotunicauda fresh blood but only partial inhibition by T. gigas blood. These results showed that granular blood cells contained antibacterial compounds. Total RNA was extracted from the blood cells of these two species and complementary DNA was synthesized from it. Amplification of target antibacterial genes were carried out by using cDNA as template for both species. The purified PCR amplified DNA fragments of tachyplesin and tachycitin of C. rotundicauda and T. gigas were sequenced. The similarity of the putative genes of both species were analyzed and compared with the Genbank database using the BLAST program of the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). The amplified PCR fragments from C. rotundicauda and T. gigas analyzed by the program indicate 92% and 95% similarity to the tachycitin gene of T. tridentatus, respectively. While the similarity of the amplified PCR product from the BLAST program of NCBI for C. rotundicauda and T. gigas exhibit 91% and 93% similarity to the tachyplesin gene of T. tridentatus, respectively.
|Item Type:||Thesis (Masters)|
|Subject:||Crabs - Case studies|
|Chairman Supervisor:||Annie Christianus, PhD|
|Call Number:||FP 2006 41|
|Faculty or Institute:||Faculty of Agriculture|
|Deposited By:||INVALID USER|
|Deposited On:||21 Oct 2008 12:31|
|Last Modified:||27 May 2013 06:49|
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Frustrated. Disappointed. Hopeless. Skeptical.|
Whichever you choose, these emotions are enemies of people trying to lose weight—especially when you feel like you have done everything right. For many trying to shed pounds, the elation from that initial weight loss is brought to a screeching halt when the scale stops moving. But instead of viewing this as a setback, look for other ways to measure your progress besides the scale. After all, good health isn’t always measured in pounds.
Losing weight usually involves a relatively simple calorie equation: burn off more calories with daily activity than you consume through food. So what happens when these numbers indicate progress, but the scale doesn’t? Before the aggravation sets in, consider why this might be the case. If you’ve been hitting the gym on a regular basis, participating in both cardiovascular and strengthening exercises, then chances are good that you have shed some fat. But the scale might not indicate this because you have also been building lean muscle. Since muscle is dense (a small volume of muscle weighs more than the same volume of fat), the scale might not reflect your hard work.
2. Aside from weight, use other numerical signs of progress. When you first start your program, take measurements of your waist, arms, neck and hips. Even if you are not losing pounds, you very well may be losing inches all over your body as your figure slims down and tones up with muscles. Measuring your body is more reliable than the scale alone. Other numerical indicators include a reduction of blood pressure or cholesterol, heart rate, and body fat percentage.
3. Monitor how a healthy diet and regular exercise affects your energy levels. Not only will you be able to work out for longer intervals of time, but everyday chores will also become easier. Whether cutting the grass or simply walking up the stairs, these behaviors will come effortlessly. Think of all the daily activities you could use more energy for—grocery shopping, house cleaning, playing with your kids, and more. Pretty soon you’ll be training for your first 5K!
4. Lastly, be conscious of how you feel emotionally. You’ve been working hard to reach your goals. Hopefully, the hard work will come with a boost in self-esteem, confidence, and happiness. Are you beginning to feel more comfortable in your own body? Work to build a positive vocabulary to stay motivated.
Just because the scale has stopped moving doesn’t mean that you’ve hit a plateau in reaching your goals. Don’t give up out of frustration—all healthy behaviors are well worth the effort. Whether it’s better sleep at night or more energy throughout the day, start listening to the signs your body gives you that all of your hard work is paying off! | <urn:uuid:5cc10466-9497-4a6f-a88f-5d61af7bc51f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/motivation_articles.asp?id=487 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940319 | 582 | 2.25 | 2 |
Detox Your Body
Detox Your Body The Right Way
If you’ve been feeling quite weak or lazy, or maybe sluggish; if you’re having problems sleeping or you’re experiencing aches and pains, there’s a good chance that you need to detox your body.
Detoxification is a process that has been around for years. Though it has only become globally popular in the past few years, many of the world’s ancient cultures have been using detoxification as a way of achieving over-all good health. When you detox your body, you remove all the harmful toxins and chemicals that make you feel weak and sickly.
Detoxification cleanses the body by cleaning the blood, especially those found in the lover. Detox also helps clean all the other major organs and parts of the body that may be clogged with harmful toxins and chemicals.
Detoxification also helps improve organ function and helps push in more essential nutrients into the body.
It is important to undergo body detox at least once a year, especially since our present society and environment is surrounded by elements that carry toxins.
So, how do you begin to detox your body? Simple, by first minimizing your toxin load. This can be achieved if you stop drinking alcohol and smoking; and if you make significant changes in your diet. Instead of loading up on processed foods and meat, eat more fruits and vegetables.
In addition, you should also look for alternatives to chemically based household and personal care items. Organic or naturally made ones are highly suggested.
Try also not to stress out yourself. Learn to relax and de-stress by doing exercises like yoga.
When you’ve achieved all of the above, it is now time to choose the best body detox process for you. There are actually several ways that you can choose from:
- Water: Take in at least two quarts of water daily. Water is a good and effective cleanser that also helps prevent constipation. Therefore, it helps develop better bowel movement, which is one way of eliminating toxins in the body.
- Fiber diet: Eating a fiber rich diet will also help you detox your body. Examples of fiber rich foods include organic fruits and vegetables like broccoli and artichokes, and brown rice.
- Exercise. Exercising or working out is one of the most effective ways to detoxify your body. A one hour exercise every day will make you sweat out, thereby removing the toxins in your body.
- Going to the Spa o sauna is one way of eliminating toxins. Since your body will sweat out, it will release the toxins through your perspiration.
There are many other ways you can choose to detox your body. However, you should be decided and determined to follow the dos and don’ts if you really want your body detox to achieve positive results. | <urn:uuid:70008373-0d7a-4445-81b8-6814da1755d5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://whatisdetox.com/detox-your-body/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954001 | 587 | 2.09375 | 2 |
One of the most beautiful properties in Germany: A classic 1000-year-old Rhine Castle!
Location: The castle stands on a forested hill, rising several hundred feet above the river. The grounds are fenced and forest with more than 5000+ trees for a total of 138.000 square meters.Near the junction of the rivers Rhine and Moselle, south of Bonn, nestled in the serenely safe and peaceful countryside among small villages yet near large metropolitan centers like Cologne, Bonn, Düsseldorf and Frankfurt, which are all between 1 and 1,5 half hours away.
Access: Three international airports can be reached within 45 to 90 minutes by car. Since there is a private helipad, you can shorten the travel down to 10-15 minutes to any of those three airports. Germany is also the last country with no speedlimit on the Autobahn and if that is not enough, the famous Formula 1 racetrack "Nürburgring" is only 18 miles away. With a boat, you can easily travel up and down the Rhine and enjoy the beautiful landscape, which has been praised by poets like Lord Byron and Mark Twain.
Interior: With more than 30 rooms and 2.000m² of living area, the castle offers a maximum of luxury to the owners. It is a perfect location for hosting conferences, parties or setting up a corporate headquarter in the geographic heart of Europe. Eight apartments at the bottom of the hill are part of the property and can accomodate staff, house personnel or guests. Most of the rooms in the main building enjoy a stunning view on the Rhine river below, from the old tower the 360° view spans from Cologne in the north to Koblenz in the south.
Highlights: In the tower of the main building, there is a magnificent Chapel with vaulted ceiling, prizeless wall-sized 175 year old fresco paintings by the same artist who decorated the famous Dom of Cologne and even a working pipe organ. Just above the Chapel there is the Octagon, a bright meeting room for up to 50 people, huge vaulted stucco ceiling, an amazing river view and modern equipment for presentations. The whole castle has a bright, airy and cheerful ambiance and features cutting-edge amenities.
Please feel free to contact us for further information, we will be glad to arrange for pickup from the airport, overnight accomodation and even some laps on the Formula 1-racetrack "Nuerburgring". The brokerage fee is at 3,57% including V.A.T.. | <urn:uuid:22e5eba8-b9a7-4a9c-8d8e-580e4cbaefc2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sothebysrealty.com/vie/sales/detail/180-l-940-4000012258/ch%C3%A2teau-unique-en-son-genre-sur-le-rhin-other-rhineland-palatinate-rh-53498 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946791 | 539 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Why Scandinavian model is not ideal
LAST Saturday's articles ("Succeeding in Europe..." and "...Struggling in East Asia") highlighted the achievements in Europe, especially Scandinavian nations, in reversing declining birth rates, and East Asian countries' failure in that respect.
The first article reported on the generous handouts and incentives offered by the Scandinavian countries, such as long maternity and paternity leave. In contrast, the second article reported that handouts and incentives in East Asian countries are much less generous and more restrictive.
They gave an impression that the Scandinavian model works well, and that East Asian countries may have to follow suit to reverse declining birth rates.
We need to look a little deeper into what these Scandinavian nations have achieved. We should not take their birth statistics at face value. We also need to understand the negative impact their model has on their societies.
In his article "The end of marriage in Scandinavia", researcher Stanley Kurtz said "marriage is slowly dying in Scandinavia. A majority of children in Sweden and Norway are born out of wedlock. Sixty per cent of first-born children in Denmark have unmarried parents".
In Sweden, 55 per cent of babies are born out of wedlock. In contrast, it is 2 per cent in Japan.
Dr Kurtz further wrote: "The massive Swedish welfare state has largely displaced the family as provider. By guaranteeing jobs and income to every citizen (even children), the welfare state renders each individual independent. It's easier to divorce your spouse when the state will support you instead."
The Scandinavians' success in boosting birth rates not only comes with a huge fiscal burden, but also erosion in marriage and family institutions. For the Scandinavian model to work well - achieving close to 1.9 in total fertility rate in some years - acceptance of out-of-wedlock births and same-sex marriages are prerequisites.
Understanding these aspects would give us a better perspective of the direction we should pursue in our own Marriage and Parenthood Package, so that we do not blindly imitate any foreign model or scheme.
Ng Ya Ken | <urn:uuid:82efb99f-b4fe-4b0d-b7e2-345c4110342a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.straitstimes.com/st/print/788329 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942056 | 426 | 1.835938 | 2 |