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SHORT is GOOD: The value of the short film
I’m not going to argue about the pros & cons of short films, or why they’re better or worse than features for a career in filmmaking. It’s enough to say that they are different. I think Paul Harris put it best in his role as director of the St.Kilda Film Festival when he said
Short films serve a specific purpose and should not be seen as hybrids. I really get sick of the comment that short films inevitably lead to features as though you were arguing that marijuana leads to heroin.
What I DO want to do is highlight the value of short film as a unique art form.
Over the past few weeks I’ve been brushing up on this strange written form we call ‘blogging’, and it occurred to me that there’s a lot of similarities with filmmaking.
Just go with me here a moment on a little comparative study.
If feature films are like books, short films are like blog posts.
• INDEPENDENCE REIGNS
Anyone can write a blog. Not anyone can write a book. It’s the same with film.
Of course, the rules in both cases are changing, with publish-your-own-book sites popping up everywhere, and tips on making no-budget-features aplenty. But the fact remains in most cases: the shorter the film, the smaller the stakes.
With a short film, there are fewer dollars, fewer opinions, and more independence. What’s not to love about that?
• THERE’S GOOD AND BAD
Because everyone can make a blog post, many people do.
Because everyone can make make a short film, many people do.
Not everyone who blogs would call themselves a writer, nor does everyone who writes a blog post aspire to write a book.
Not everyone who makes a short film calls themself a filmmaker nor aspires to make a feature.
What this does mean in both cases is that there is more. More good. More bad.
And the flow-on effects speak for themselves.
For short film audiences:
One of the biggest challenges that video hosting sites like YouTube and Vimeo face is coping with SO much content. I love the freedom that this opens up, and the possibilities for so much sharing of moving image content, but there’s a whole lot of work to sift and sort if you’re interested in using that content. Especially if you’re looking for something of good quality.
For short film producers:
The competition is tougher, but we’re now thankfully less focused on the expensive tools, and more on the art and craft of storytelling, characters, narrative and general style.
• DIFFERENT AUDIENCES, DIFFERENT CONTEXTS
Books are great for holidays, while blogs are great for a quick read on the train. Likewise, it’s unlikely that you’d watch a feature film on a smart phone.
It all depends on who’s being asked and in what context.
I guess it makes sense that I’m highlighting the value of SHORT films, because at Campfire, that’s all we deal with – anything under 11 minutes. But there’s good reason for this. We have the very specific audience of students in schools.
The overwhelming feedback we get from schools is that short films are great, because they allow plenty of time to show, discuss and teach about a particular topic that’s raised. Why have YouTube done so well in schools, even with its old limit of 10minutes? Simple: length. There are no surprises that late last year they launched a “YouTube for Schools” feature.
There’s definitely a place for films of any length, including features, in schools.
For years, organisations like ATOM have been encouraging teachers of Media, English and a range of other subjects to consider film as text. What I’m suggesting here is that the film need not be just the TEXT – as a study in itself – but the MEDIUM by which topics are raised and discussed. There’s only so much time you can take up in the classroom when there’s a hungry curriculum to feed.
• IS SHORT, IS FUN
Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or Google+, the tools are out there to play around with short blog-type writing in whatever form you want. It’s the same with short film language.
Let’s face it. You can make a short film on the weekend, in a day, or even an hour. Make stuff with your mates, make it on your own. The beauty of the huge number of tools around is that anything and everything is up for grabs when it comes to what’s possible. Play. Experiment. Short films won’t take over your life… unless you want them to.
How much of that could you say about making a feature film?
• FURTHER READING
Mike Jones wrote a very thoughtful article about the downside of making a short in his piece, The Short Film is Dead. Incidentally, I think he makes some great points, and rounds off his argument with a case for web series. Yet to me, this all simply highlights the different and unique role that short films can play in the grand scheme of things.
And finally, I give the last word again to Paul Harris, who has a great response to what Mike Jones might have asked:
(6) What do you think are the great challenges that confront the filmmaker when making the leap from the short film to the feature?
I feel it’s an artificial problem. All filmmakers should continue to work in the short film arena as a means of revving up their creative batteries. Quite a few contemporary filmmakers occasionally venture into short-form projects and there should be more of it.
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Uniopt Pachleitner’s ‘Black Panther’ Headquarters
Do you like this article?
If you haven’t yet heard about the eyewear and jewelry company Uniopt Pachleitner Group, you’ll definitely know about them now. Their powerful and elegant headquarters in Graz, Austria, impresses with its futuristic appearance. GS Architects created a building that matches the company’s designs, mission and philosophy.
‘The Black Panther’, as it was called, is a sculpture-like building characterized by an ambitious design, which became reality with the use of a ventilated rain screen cladding system. Following the company’s functional and aesthetic requests, the architects also used the StoVerotec protective glass system. With its black finish, sharp edges and angles, this striking building definitely inspires creativity. But is it also ‘tranquil and beautiful’ as the company desired? What do you think? | <urn:uuid:a30b969f-0064-4ca3-8e61-c257145494b0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://luxedb.com/uniopt-pachleitner%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%98black-panther%E2%80%99-headquarters/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950068 | 203 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Russian punk rock group Pussy Riot jailed for singing anti-Putin song
18 August 2012
Three members of the Russian punk rock group Pussy Riot were sentenced to two years in jail yesterday for singing songs critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
They have been on trial in Moscow since July 30. They were charged with disorderly conduct and “disparaging the venerable traditions of the Russian Orthodox Church” for an unauthorized performance by Pussy Riot at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior (CCS) in Moscow on February 21 of this year. The group has a large number of members, who all wear masks when performing and try to keep their identities secret.
The three on trial, who have already been in jail for half a year, were Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina, and Yekaterina Samusevich. Two of them have small children.
A video of this performance and another one two days earlier at another Moscow church led to the current case. The women, who had come to the other church with electric guitars and amplifiers, were escorted out by security guards when they attempted to play.
The video, which soon appeared online, shows that Pussy Riot viewed its act as a political statement. The chorus to the song goes, “Mother of God, make Putin go away!” Shaped by postmodernist and feminist theories, the group’s outlook aligned it with many of the middle-class organizations active in the protest movement that began last December over the rigging of Russia’s parliamentary elections.
Two of the three women were arrested on March 3, the day before the presidential elections in which Vladimir Putin was elected to a third presidential term.
The procedures of the trial of the three members of the punk group were marked by crude violations of due process. During the hearings, the accused sat in a glass “aquarium,” as if they were a danger to society; communication with their lawyers was impeded. Almost all the witnesses for the defense were denied permission to testify, while people who were not even present during the event were admitted as witnesses for the prosecution. The court tried to forbid journalists from reporting witnesses’ testimony.
The prosecutor demanded that the women be sentenced to three years in prison. Justifying the court’s decision to impose a two-year term, Judge Marina Syrova said, “The girls’ actions were sacrilegious, blasphemous and broke the church’s rules.” She added the three were guilty of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred, an assertion calculated to anger Russian Orthodox believers.
Defense attorneys plan to appeal the verdict.
The trial is a deliberate attempt by Russian authorities to silence public opposition by imposing draconian punishments in trumped-up trials for public criticisms of Putin or the Russian Orthodox Church.
Many famous singers and performers—including Sting, Madonna, John Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono, and the groups Faith No More, Franz Ferdinand, and Red Hot Chili Peppers—have announced their support for Pussy Riot.
Under Russian law, the actions of Pussy Riot are not subject to criminal prosecution. The Cathedral of Christ the Savior (CCS) in actual fact does not belong to the Orthodox Church, but to the Moscow government. Each year, several hundred million rubles of public funds are devoted to its maintenance; the Orthodox Church only rents the building.
The trial gave various Western imperialist politicians the opportunity to hypocritically posture as friends of democracy while criticizing Putin. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose government has repeatedly insisted that Greece must impose unpopular austerity policies whatever the opinion of the Greek electorate and parliament, denounced the verdict. She called it “not in harmony with the European values of democracy and the rule of law to which Russia has pledged itself as a member of the Council of Europe.”
The Kremlin’s actions are not merely a signal to the protest movement that the authorities are prepared to resort to harsh repression against it, but have a broader political and ideological context. They are preparations for suppression of opposition in the working class and a further turn to the right on the part of Russia’s gangster oligarchy.
Incapable of fashioning any coherent argument for its legitimacy, the oligarchy that emerged from the liquidation of the USSR and the plundering of Soviet public assets is now moving towards an explicitly religious basis for its rule.
The pro-Kremlin mass media openly call for elimination of the separation of church and state. Larisa Pavlova, the church’s lawyer in the Pussy Riot trial, asserted that “the patriarch is not a mere citizen; he’s a person with sacred qualities.”
This position echoes that of the Church itself. Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, acting as chief representative of the Russian Orthodox Church, recently insisted that the courts should try cases “following moral law, which sometimes supersedes [secular] law.”
In a July 19 article on the Vzglyad web site, Alexander Razuvayev writes: “After the collapse of communism, an ideological vacuum formed in Russia. To a large extent, the collapse of communism itself was a result of the aggressive atheism that communism demanded. … Some pygmy European state might be able to get by without any ideology, but a large, complex social system like Russia cannot exist without ideology. Therefore, the Church in Russia must not be separate from the state. It must play approximately the same role as before 1917.”
The Kremlin's embrace of clericalism is also an attempt to obscure the immense wealth that has come into the hands of the Church as a result of its close ties with the state, under conditions in which the vast majority of the population struggles to make ends meet. This spring, for example, a scandal broke out when it became known that Russian Patriarch Kirill was wearing on his wrist a Breguet watch valued at €30,000.
More broadly, the Kremlin systematically appeals to the most unenlightened instincts and reactionary and nationalistic prejudices, trying to maintain the appearance of popular support for the ruling clique of business oligarchs and ex-KGB thugs.
President Vladimir Putin personally approved the arrest and trial of the young women, combining it with appeals to anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. When he arrived in London for the summer Olympics at the beginning of August, he declared that “if the girls had come to Israel and defiled something there… or had gone to the Caucasus and defiled some kind of sacred shrine of the Muslims, we could not have protected them.” After this statement, he hypocritically claimed that the girls need not be tried “so harshly.” | <urn:uuid:9173025f-3436-42a5-9179-36f9847fe990> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wsws.org/en/articles/2012/08/puss-a18.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970523 | 1,396 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Perceptions and what we really see...
As you read the following sentence quietly to yourself...count the number of F's you see.
Don't cheat! Just read it and see how many you can find...
FINISHED FILES ARE THE RE-
SULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIF-
IC STUDY COMBINED WITH
THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS.
Answer is one of the comments for this post...how did you do?
We think we see clearly and have all the answers...do we take the time in our lives to truly see what's in front of us? All around us? God is in all things we say, but we too often limit what that means! | <urn:uuid:34a4a03d-3bcf-4451-af93-25afab5059d8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tripthroughthewires.com/2011/08/perceptions-and-what-we-really-see.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944027 | 150 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Dr. Freedman, whose expertise is related to diseases involving the mouth, including autoimmune processes, presented a lecture on the effects of lupus and oral health. He began by informing the audience that there are three major categories of lesions that occur in the oral cavity of people with lupus:
There are two types of these lesions:
Therefore, the direct involvement of the oral cavity by lesions of lupus in the mouth may indicate active disease. The only way to reliably distinguish whether or not an oral lesion is associated with active disease is by means of a biopsy.
Oral lesions not associated with active disease occur in up to 40% of people with lupus and are usually a result of a reaction to a drug being used to treat lupus or another condition. They have a non-characteristic coloring of red or white - or both red and white - and are painless.
Oral lesions associated with active disease are usually red ulcers surrounded by a white halo and white radiating lines. These are the more typical “discoid” lesions and are only seen in people with active disease, and you should tell your physician as soon as you notice them. These types of lesions, which may or may not be painful, most often occur inside the cheeks, on the hard palate (roof of the mouth), and on the lower lip.
It is essential that you see your dentist and have an oral soft tissue exam regularly. This type of exam takes no longer than three minutes, and you should insist on receiving it during your routine cleaning. This way, your dentist can check for any lesions you may not even be aware you have (particularly if they are painless). Because the only way to reliably determine the true nature of oral lesions is to examine them under a microscope, you should—as mentioned earlier—get biopsies done for any lesions that your dentist may find.
Oral lesions may respond to treatment with topical or intralesional steroids, but antimalarial drugs may be necessary to treat resistant lesions. The control of active systemic disease will usually aid in the control of oral lesions, as well.
Sjogren’s Syndrome is a chronic, systemic autoimmune disease that targets the salivary glands (in the mouth) and lacrimal glands (in the eye). The involvement of these two glands results in dry mouth and dry eyes (sicca complex). There are two forms of SS:
People who have both lupus and SS tend to exhibit fewer systemic manifestations, particularly kidney involvement.
SS occurs in approximately 1-3% of the general population, but 20-30% of people with lupus. It is a multifaceted syndrome that is difficult to diagnose, and as a result, SS commonly remains either undiagnosed or is diagnosed years after the onset of symptoms. Early recognition is pivotal to prevent this delay in diagnosis, enable appropriate evaluation, and optimize therapeutic intervention. SS may precede lupus by many years; however, it most often occurs late in the course of lupus.
There are several laboratory findings that can detect SS:
About one-third to one-half of people with SS will experience a painless enlargement of a major salivary gland, and this manifestation of the disease is usually bilateral (will occur on both sides). The destruction of the salivary glands by antibodies causes profound oral dryness (xerostomia), which is the most debilitating oral symptom. Loss of saliva results in the loss of the antibacterial and antifungal capacities of saliva. Saliva keeps the oral soft tissue moist and healthy, and buffers the oral environment, helping to neutralize acids that cause dental caries (cavities). Destruction of the salivary glands inhibits that buffering effect. This causes multiple consequences for oral health, such as susceptibility to caries (decay) and oral fungal infections.
A normal tongue is covered by numerous tiny bumps (papillae) - everyone has those - but be aware of any white, red, or otherwise discolored spots or lesions. Also, the incidence of a shiny, red tongue is abnormal. Another consequence of dry mouth is angular cheilitis, which is the occurrence of sores in the corners of your mouth. These sores are actually caused by a fungal infection and need to be treated with an anti-fungal medication (usually in the form of a topical cream). It is important to note that there can be several other causes of angular cheilitis, such as iron deficiency and over closure of the mouth due to the loss of teeth.
There are several diagnostic tests used to detect SS in individuals.
The presence of dry eyes can be determined by:
To test for dry mouth you can:
SS cannot be cured, nor can the damage it causes be reversed, but it can be controlled. Dryness is treated symptomatically with sugar-free sialogogues (salivation stimulators like sugar-free gum or sucking candy), artificial saliva, and systematic pilocarpine or cevimeline, which are used to stimulate salivary flow. Treatment with systematic pilocarpine or cevimeline can have several side effects including sweating, urinary frequency, flushing, and gastrointestinal cramps. Additionally, topical antifungals are used to treat candidiasis.
Routine and preventative dental care and the use of fluoride treatments to prevent caries is crucial in people with SS; otherwise they may develop rampant decay requiring root canal therapy and crown placement on teeth. Patients who wear dentures may have difficulty keeping their dentures in place due to the poor suction caused by inadequate saliva. Dentures should be cleaned with 2% chlorhexidine (Peridex) and should not be worn overnight in order to prevent fungal infection. People with SS should try to avoid drugs that dry your mouth - such as anti-histamines, anti-depressants, and decongestants - when possible.
There are five common categories of drugs used to treat lupus:
Each of these treatments has the potential to cause oral complications; therefore, such problems should not automatically be assumed to be a direct result of lupus. There are three main categories of reactions to drugs:
Alteration in pigmentation of the lining of the mouth is a common side effect of antimalarial drugs. It manifests itself as an increase in pigmentation, and its most commonly occurs on the palate.
The following drugs most commonly cause oral reaction: NSAIDs and COX-2 inhibitors, antimalarial drugs, calcium channel blockers, ACE inhibitors, cholesterol lowering agents, rituximab, and cyclosporine. These reactions to medication can be classified in four categories:
Erythema multiforme (also known as “Stevens-Johnson Syndrome”) can occur as a reaction to any of the drugs listed above. This is a serious drug reaction, and experienced in a full-blown state can even be life-threatening. Stevens-Johnson Syndrome is an explosive disease, which can develop overnight. It reveals itself as crusting of the lips (usually symmetrical) and as painful ulcerations of the gums, lips, cheeks, tongue. Swollen glands, fever, and genital lesions may also occur. You should contact a doctor as soon as you realize you are having this reaction, or go straight to the emergency room.
Lichenoid drug reactions can be caused by NSAIDS, COX2-inhibitors, antimalarial drugs, calcium channel blockers, ACE inhibitors, or cholesterol lowering agents.
Drug induced gingival hyperplasia can be caused by cyclosporine and calcium channel blockers. Angioedema of the lip can be a secondary reaction to ACE-inhibitors. ACE-inhibitors are used to treat hypertension. This reaction can also be a result of anti-seizure medications and immunosuppressants (such as calcium channel blocker). It is important to note that you are more susceptible to gingival hyperplasia when your mouth is not clean; therefore, it is very important to have good oral hygiene.
Tongue swelling and lip swelling (angioedema) can be caused by rituximab and ACE- inhibitors. Swelling of the tongue is dangerous because it can compromise the airway, whereas swelling of the lip is rather common and not dangerous. Steroids can help moderate both of these reactions.
An opportunistic oral infection can express itself as a secondary effect of immunosuppressive medications (such as azathioprine, Cytoxan, methotrexate, and cyclosporine) and corticosteroids (such as prednisone). This secondary effect only occurs when the body’s immune system is suppressed in such a way that usually harmless organisms cause problems. Anyone taking steroids is susceptible, and there are two ways in which this kind of infection can be expressed. Herpes simplex virus infection occurs in 80-90% of the general public. Most people are unaware that they are infected with Herpes, which is a lifetime infection. Secondary herpetic eruptions occur in 20% of those who have been infected and are most commonly seen as fever blisters, sun sores, etc. Candidiasis—a fungal infection—can develop secondary to dry mouth, diabetes, and dentures. You should see an oral pathologist (a specialist in dental and cavity diseases, i.e., not a regular dentist), internist, or dermatologist – as appropriate - to evaluate and treat these oral complications.
In Dr. Freedman’s opinion, preventive antibiotic medication before dental treatment to prevent bacterial endocarditis is essential, since approximately half the people with lupus have heart valve abnormalities. In this light, antibiotics should be taken before any dental treatment that can cause bleeding. This includes regular cleanings, scaling, periodontal procedures, dental implant placement, root canal treatment, and extractions.
Summary by Caitlin Ahern | <urn:uuid:86c15396-4a6f-4601-9824-6d090ccb787b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hss.edu/conditions_oral-concerns-lupus.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94299 | 2,076 | 3.234375 | 3 |
"A central assumption of economics is that "tastes" (which include
what non-economists would call values and beliefs, as well as inter-
ests) can be taken as given and are not problematic. All that is inter-
esting in human behavior is how it changes in response to changes in
the costs and benefits of alternative courses of action. "
He did not believe that virtue was inculcated by prayer in schools.
It was habituated by practicing good manners, by being dependable, punctual and responsible day by day.
“Order exists because a system of beliefs and sentiments held by members of a society sets limits to what those members can do.”
In “The Moral Sense,” he brilliantly investigated the virtuous sentiments we are born with and how they are cultivated by habit. Wilson’s broken windows theory was promoted in an essay with George Kelling called “Character and Community.” Wilson and Kelling didn’t think of crime primarily as an individual choice. They saw it as something that emerged from the social psychology of a community. When neighborhoods feel disorganized and scary, crime increases.
Wilson was not a philosopher. He was a social scientist. He just understood that people are moral judgers and moral actors, and he reintegrated the vocabulary of character into discussions of everyday life. | <urn:uuid:fb8158c5-5a45-41f6-a05e-571fac115709> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thepoignantfrog.blogspot.com/2012/03/of-characterfeelingsinterior-monologue.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974719 | 283 | 3.3125 | 3 |
Panel Discussion: Supporting College Students with Asperger’s for Success
There is more to college life than academics. Intellectually, students who have autism spectrum disorder are often very bright and capable, but many may face a variety of “hidden challenges” that can undermine their ability to navigate a typical college campus and perform well in class.
This forum will discuss some of the challenges and academic support that these students might find necessary to participate in class, complete classwork and ultimately succeed in a college environment. College students will share their experiences. Sasha Yazdgerdi, Associate Clinical Director of United Methodist Family Services’ Charterhouse School and John Toscano, President of Commonwealth Autism Service will discuss the topic and answer questions from a live studio audience.
The panel discussion will be recorded live in our studio on May 15th and will air on Sunday, May 20th at 6:00 p.m. as a special WCVE Forum program on WCVE Public Radio. Soon after broadcast, the program will be added to our website so you can listen again or share the experience with your friends and family. | <urn:uuid:2781534c-f069-4336-b404-49802f1ef797> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ideastations.org/articles/panel-discussion-supporting-college-students-with-asperger-s-for-success-2012-05-09 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954734 | 227 | 2.046875 | 2 |
Aerojet Announces Successful Requalification of its Delta II AJ10-118K 2nd Stage Engine
Aerojet, a GenCorp (NYSE: GY) company, announced that its Delta II second stage engine, the AJ10-118K, successfully passed a requalification test of its ablative chamber at Aerojet’s J4 altitude simulation test facility in Sacramento.
The intent of the requalification program was to replace the asbestos insulator material with a readily-available and environmentally-friendly alternative. The three-burn hot fire test simulated a “test-like-you-fly” duty cycle configuration, qualifying the new engine configuration for flight. The altitude test was preceded by a successful sea-level test in November 2012.
“The Delta II is one of the most robust and reliable rocket engines ever flown,” said Aerojet Vice President of Space and Launch Systems Julie Van Kleeck. “This test represents another successful milestone in a program with a rich history of successful milestones and 100 percent mission success. Additionally, it verifies that the past design rigor put into this heritage technology meets and exceeds the scrutiny of modern day expectations for flight.”
Under contract to United Launch Alliance, Aerojet’s AJ10 has provided second-stage propulsion on 151 Delta II flights to date with a 100 percent success rate. The engine has helped deliver payloads for NASA’s space exploration efforts such as the Phoenix Mars Lander, Mars Polar Lander, Deep Impact, Kepler, NEAR Shoemaker and the Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, as well as the U.S. Air Force Global Positioning System Block IIR fleet.
The AJ10 second stage engine produces approximately 10,000 lbs. of thrust for orbital insertion. There are currently four flights in the near-term manifest for Delta II, two in 2014 and two in 2016.
Source : Aerojet
Jul 15 - 17, 2013 - San Jose, United States
Nov 5 - 6, 2013 - Washington, United States | <urn:uuid:ebb52517-742f-48f4-aac6-273f2ec2ff74> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.asdnews.com/news-48177/Aerojet_Announces_Successful_Requalification_of_its_Delta_II_AJ10-118K_2nd_Stage_Engine.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913358 | 424 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Iran’s nuclear weapons program must be shut down quickly – like the Nazis in 1936, a hard push now will stop them, while waiting until they have nukes condemns millions to death. As with the Nazis, the Europeans have abdicated and the task falls to the US.
The parallels with Nazi Germany are precise: the mullahs have undertaken to wipe Israel off the map and have covertly developed weapons to do this, in breach of international treaties. Here’s how it played out in 1935/6 (my ellipsis and emphasis):
(On March 16, 1935, Hitler announced that) Germany was going to reintroduce military conscription (compulsory enrollment) and build a new Army consisting of 36 divisions, totaling 550,000 men.
This was actually a flagrant violation of Part V of the Treaty of Versailles signed by Germany back in 1919 after its defeat in World War I. Breaking the Treaty was an affront to Germany’s former World War I enemies, France and England.
Everyone waited to see how they would respond to the news. Some of Hitler’s more cautious Army generals thought there might even be an immediate military attack by France. But absolutely nothing happened, except for a few diplomatic protests.
Hitler, for the first time in his career, had gambled against Germany’s old enemies and won…Hitler’s method of diplomacy in dealing with the gun-shy Western democracies was thus established. His original bombastic announcement was usually made on a Saturday to catch other governments off-guard. It came in the midst of an ongoing action, or after the fact, and was followed by a conciliatory speech full of reassuring promises.
Hitler’s next big move in the game of international diplomacy didn’t occur until a year later and it would be one of the biggest risks of his entire career. Beginning at dawn on Saturday, March 7, 1936, three battalions of the German Army crossed the bridges over the Rhine and entered into the industrial heartland of Germany known as the Rhineland. This demilitarized area included all territory west of the Rhine River extending to the French border as well as a portion east of the river including the cities of Cologne, Düsseldorf and Bonn. This demilitarized area included all territory west of the Rhine River extending to the French border as well as a portion east of the river including the cities of Cologne, Düsseldorf and Bonn.
At 10 a.m. that morning, Hitler’s Foreign Minister…summoned the ambassadors of France, Britain, and Italy, and handed them a lengthy memorandum stating that the German government had “…restored the full and unrestricted sovereignty of the Reich in the demilitarized zone of the Rhineland.”
Once again, the whole world waited to see how the French and British would react. German troops entering the Rhineland even had orders to scoot back across the Rhine bridges if the French Army attacked. But in France, the politicians were simply unable to convince their generals to act, and were also unable to get any British support for a military response. So they did nothing. The French Army, with its one hundred divisions, never budged against the 30,000 lightly armed German soldiers occupying the Rhineland, even though France and Britain were both obligated to preserve the demilitarized zone by the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Pact of mutual assistance.
This was another gross violation of the Treaty of Versailles.
So, then as now, the European powers appeased – Churchill is said to have called this “feeding the crocodile – in the hope that it will eat you last”. It did eat them last, in the worst war in history in which 55 million people died.
At that time the US was still in the great depression, isolationist, and not unreasonably felt that if the Europeans weren’t prepared to look after themselves, why should the US?
The Mullahs war will kill many more than 55 million people, turn much of the Middle East and Europe into an uninhabitable waste, and severely damage the world’s economy.
Europe is too weak to stop this, both militarily and morally, and so the task falls to the US and Israel, perhaps with the support of the Japanese and Australians. Subsequent posts will examine the tactical and strategic issues. | <urn:uuid:1e3e80aa-66eb-4292-8982-6469aec259f6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://depleteduranium.wordpress.com/2006/01/14/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976437 | 930 | 2.296875 | 2 |
Day Trippin': Visit Missouri's first state capitol
The Daily Guide - Waynesville, MO
Updated Jan. 29, 2013 @ 12:42 pm
Updated Jan. 29, 2013 @ 12:42 pm
» Social News
Check out how the state's government was formed and what life was like in the early 1800s. Visit St. Charles where Missouri's first state legislators managed state affairs. Allow the era of the 1800s to wrap its history around the visitor. "Rough hewn timbers and dark wood floors whisper the tales of the state's first legislature."
The upper floors of the Peck Brothers' General Store and residence served as Missouri's first capital from 1821 until the Jefferson City Capital was ready for use in 1826. St. Charles offered free meeting space if the city was chosen for legislation. The free space provided areas for both the Senate and the House, and smaller rooms for the governor and a committee room.
This Federal-style brick historic building at 200 S. Main St. took 10 years to restore. The building, at the end of Booneslick Road, consists of 11 rooms refurbished to the time when Missouri joined the Union.
The 10-block, two-hundred-year-old Frenchtown Historic Main Street, is Missouri's first and largest historic district. Saint Charles (twenty-five minutes from downtown St. Louis) is known for its historic architecture, specialty
"St. Charles shops" stores, antiques, parks, and various recreation areas. "Shop your way down Main Street. Savor the local St. Charles restaurants. When evening falls, take a carriage ride along the historic brick-paved streets in The Frenchtown District."
Visitors can enjoy a variety of businesses from antique and collectible shops and tea rooms to wineries and a micro brewery.
While in town, a visit to the Foundry Art Center at 520 N. Main may prove worthwhile. It includes a large exhibit area, Grand Hall, as well as adult and children's workshops. Or, visit the 1818 Shrine of St. Philippine Duchesne, Academy of the Sacred Heart. This was the first free school west of the Mississippi. Shrine and historic areas of the school are open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. located at 619 N. Second Street.
The Haviland Museum is located within the 1838 historic Newbill-McElhiney House. The Museum contains nearly a thousand pieces of fine Haviland China dating from the 1850s to the 1920s. Tours are available by appointment every day except Wednesday and Sunday. Tours are $4.50 per person.
And there is the Commemorative Air Force Museum at the St. Charles County Airport opened on Thursday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
"During WWII control of the skies was one of the main objectives of militaries around the globe. To honor those aviators and the aircraft built by the everyday citizens, the Commemorative Air Force was organized. These tours are perfect to the light historian, the educator, the student and anyone that wants to know, respect and remember those years labeled with War That Changed the World." The museum surrounds the visitors with artifacts, aircraft and ground-support vehicles.
A few other visitor ideas include Fast Lane Classic Cars at 427 Little Hills Blvd., Frenchtown Heritage Museum & Research Center at 1121 N. Second St., and the St. Charles County Heritage Museum at Heritage Park at 1630 Heritage Landing. | <urn:uuid:d8a2070a-f0bf-48bb-9dc4-b975134bf692> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.waynesvilledailyguide.com/article/20130129/NEWS/130128676/0/Health | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949337 | 726 | 2.09375 | 2 |
Your Favourite Photoshop Tutorials in One Place
Design a Nice Meteor Shower Scene
Under Photo Effect, Photoshop Tutorial
Many of you may wish to take a look at meteor shower. To capture such a scene, it may be very difficult, as it passes away instantaneously . You may wonder how to create a nice meteor shower scene in a quick way.
In this tutorial, it will show you the steps to Create this Manipulation with Tree Bark Texture and Brush Elements. Along the way, you will learn how you can apply layer masks to image adjustment layers to create this water color effect, as well as learning to blend texture and to use various elements to create great abstract effect.
Unique face mask is not easy to come up with, and usually originated from picture. If you would like to create a personal mask , you can use same sort of skill to create one for yourself. It can be used as a poster or decorate you like.
In this tutorial, we will be creating a photo montage of a demon destroying a city in photoshop. Firstly, you have to prepare some stock photos including explosion scene & human mainly. Then you can start the combination part and do some nice coloring adjustment. | <urn:uuid:c65efd24-e44b-4788-b635-ad0b2723befa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.photoshoplady.com/photoshop-tutorial/design-a-nice-meteor-shower-scene/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924807 | 247 | 1.625 | 2 |
About 15 new cases of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a disease of exclusion, are diagnosed each day in the United States. ALS impairs voluntary musculature, both in the extremities and the organs involved in speaking, swallowing, and breathing. Life expectancy averages two to five years after diagnosis. No cure yet exists, with one approved medication appearing to slow the disease process. The importance of supportive measures and palliative care to optimize quality of life
for patients with ALS is clear.
TO VIEW THIS AND OTHER CE/CME COURSES, CLICK HERE | <urn:uuid:2c6a3ad3-d62b-44d8-aa0d-cf9a3793fddc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.clinicianreviews.com/Article.aspx?ArticleId=10117 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925645 | 118 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Portland photographer Carlie Armstrong documents the artists' studios of local talents with her film camera and shares the results on her prolific blog …
It is fascinating to see how creative minds decorate the spaces in which they create, and how the interior design character of a space correlates with the artwork made there. For example, illustrator Evan B. Harris collects vintage artifacts for inspiration and does massive chalkboard drawings on his walls. Other artists prefer bright and cheery spaces, some with warm homey details, and others with large modern open spaces, depending on their process needs.
To see more fascinating artists' studios and their work, visit work.place.
Images: Carlie Armstrong for work.place | <urn:uuid:7626eb1f-a2e6-43fc-8af3-e12817cf578d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/studio-design-tours-at-workpla-154481?img_idx=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937243 | 141 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Nikki Haley (born January 20, 1972 in Lexington, South Carolina) has served as the conservative Republican governor of South Carolina, first elected to that office in 2010. Previously, from 2004 to 2010, she served as a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives. She was endorsed for governor by the former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, and won a difficult election.
Nikki Haley, one of the strongest fiscal conservatives in state government, was first elected to represent the 87th District in Lexington County in 2004, when, as a virtual unknown she beat the longest serving state legislator in a Republican primary. In 2008 Representative Haley was sent back to the statehouse with 83 percent of the vote – the highest percentage earned by any lawmaker facing a contested South Carolina election that year.
- 100% Pro-Life
- 100% Pro-2nd Amendment
- “A” rating from the conservative Club for Growth
- True fiscal conservative
- Supports traditional, family values and opposed to same-sex marriage
- Against Obamacare | <urn:uuid:a70af1c5-79b1-4faf-8068-88bb75063987> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.conservapedia.com/Nikki_Haley | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977019 | 208 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Welcome to the Adtholin Family page at Surname Finder. Our editors have compiled this checklist of genealogical resources, combining links to commercial databases along with user-contributed information and web sites for the Adtholin surname. As vital records, original documents, vintage photographs and surname-based DNA projects are discovered, this page is updated to offer the best list for researching Adtholin genealogy.
Completed by on
I. The Adtholin Family Tree
It is important to remember that there is no single Adtholin family tree, as last names were assigned to people for various reasons. We are often asked, How can I distinguish my Adtholin ancestor from others of the same name? and you might be surprised at the answer.
II. Adtholin Genealogy
Keep an open mind when searching through Adtholin records. Years ago many people were unable to read and write, thus a given ancestor's name could be spelled in a variety of ways depending on who recorded it. If you want to know How can I find where my Adtholin ancestor is buried?, then read this frequently asked question.
Vital records are essential for family history research because they were typically created at or near the time of the event, making the record more reliable. There are currently matching Adtholin records at Ancestry.com! Start exploring this online Adtholin family history resource today.
III. Origins of the Adtholin Surname
While some countries have limited historical records for last name assignments, you are most likely to only find general guidance on the origin and meaning of the Adtholin surname. Keep in mind that it was not unusual for a last name to be altered as an ancestor entered a new country.
IV. Adtholin DNA Projects
While DNA testing cannot conclusively tell you if two Adtholin ancestors were related, it can easily prove if they weren't. Be sure you understand what types of research issues each different DNA test can address before you spend any money. If you're not sure how DNA testing could aid your Adtholin research, read "Basics of DNA Family History Research".
V. Adtholin Family History
For most people, just about every aspect of their life has been influenced in some way by their ancestors. Look beyond the names and dates to understand how and why your Adtholin ancestors lived and strived to make a better life for their descendants. Our team of seasoned experts are here to help you learn about different aspects of genealogy. Reading "Learning About Women - The Invisible Ancestors" may help you think of some different tactics to compiling your Adtholin family history.
VI. Networking with Adtholin Researchers
One of the best ways to solve a genealogy problem is by enlisting the help of others through a message board query that is open to the public, allowing you to cast a wide net that can be accessed by anyone, around the world and around the clock --- at the same time, because it is a public forum, you will want to exercise caution in posting personal information or information about living persons. The article "Are Your Queries Getting Results?" provides some valuable tips for posting successful Adtholin queries.
You may also want to consider posting a query to the Community Message Boards at Genealogy Today to get assistance from other researchers on your most elusive Adtholin ancestors.
VII. Adtholin Achievements & Celebrities
VIII. Web Sites & Blogs with Adtholin Research
If you are having difficulty locating records for the last name of Adtholin, contact the folks at ProGenealogists for a free research estimate. You may also find it helpful to read, "When, Why and How to Hire a Professional Genealogist."
To have your web site/blog listed on this page, please submit a link to the user-contributed directory at Genealogy Today. Your web page will appear once its content has been reviewed by one of our editors.
IX. Upcoming Adtholin Family Reunions
Family reunions are an ideal time interview older relatives and other Adtholin family members; you may want to consider a roundtable where you can gather different groups together at different times such as siblings to discuss their parents and childhood memories, cousins, aunts and uncles to discuss the grandparent generation, etc. - the collective memory and stimulus of shared experience can yield considerable information. The article "Family Reunions Don't Always Turn Out as one has Pictured" may provide you with tips for hosting a successful Adtholin reunion.
Suggested use: Print a copy of this free research checklist, and keep track of the Adtholin genealogy resources that you visit. If your web browser does not print the date on the bottom, remember to record it manually. Today is 19/May/2013.
If you host the Adtholin blog or web page, please link to this surname-focused resource. Here's the HTML code for a basic link. Simply cut/paste this code on to your page. | <urn:uuid:56081232-7d4e-41d8-aab9-ecc7fcf2458a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.genealogytoday.com/surname/finder.mv?Surname=Adtholin | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943723 | 1,037 | 1.53125 | 2 |
What do you think about using XML to pass data between the server and the client?
This architecture is used on my current project and it works pretty well. Data is extracted from the db using its XML query functionality (supported by MS, Oracle and possibly others). There are no entity beans, only the session ones. All the methods of the session beans take as the parameter and return XML.
1. Client app requests data (eg person details). It calls Person.getPerson (ID)
2. Client app receives XML string containing all the relevant details about that person and populates its fields accordingly.
3. Client app updates the person details. It creates an XML string from the data in its fields and calls Person.updatePerson (xmlString) method.
- No entity beans and the performance problems associated with them
- Easy maintanability: If you want to add one more field to the form then you'll have to change the stored procedure that retreives the information and the client. No need to recompile the beans or the 'Data Objects'.
- Easy to represent complex tree-like structures with XML (eg master-detail).
- No need to write BMP Entitiy beans or initialise data objects from resultsets.
- Need to parse XML on the client which adds a little to the complexity of the client code
- The stored procedures' syntax is a bit convoluted in order for them to produce XML
- Business logic could be spread between the stored procs and the session beans, with most of it residing in the stored procs.
- Strong DB vendor tie-in
- Higher network bandwidth consumption
- Use of JAXB to automatically bind XML to java objects.
If done on the client side, then the XML received is parsed automatically. Potentially, could be used in the business objects tier instead.
Please let me know what's YOUR opinion on this approach.
Which object are you using to hold your XML? Is it java.lang.String? What is your opinion on using Document object instead?
I believe you are continuing from your old question D.R. Anyhow i am sure sooner or later xml-based architecture is going to be the de-facto standard for large enterprise applications. In this connection i suggest that a thorough study of XML-RPC is going to help a lot. though fallen from favour, the XML-RPC is going to solve a host of problems that are hard to solve using RMI. And i guess the speed it is going to bring about is definitely going to help. Now as far as passing around the XML is concerned, let's look into a few issues.
To pass XML as a document object we must be sure about the size of the object. perhaps the discussion in the other forum about stack-blowing has a few merits in this regard. but i suggest that a few benchmark tests be conducted in this regard.
I guess it is pretty easy to send XML as String objects. The only problem with such a transport is having an effecient parsing code on the client side. once we ARE using XML i guess it must be understood that we can develop efficient ways to write clients to parse XML.
Passing around as Document objects is generally quicker, since parsing String into Document will take a long time compared to object serialization / deserialization. However, the point about stack blowing (I made it in the other thread) is definitely one to bear in mind. If you pass a massive great XML tree around then it could blow up the stack on the VM, since the object will recursively serialize it's children which will serialize their children which wil...........you get the idea.
Default stack size is 128K. Increasing to 256K gets rid of the problem in most cases, but that's not the real point.
The real point is this. At what size of XML do I have to tell myself I'm being silly and passing too much information around the place? That's up to you based on what you're doing, but on the wire, XML is not that efficient in whatever format you choose to use it, beit String or Document.
Don't get me wrong, I like XML, **in it's place.** I just think it gets used too often without due consideration for the downsides.
In this situation I would keep things in Document format (assuming they aren't too big) but have a facade into my system, such that I can always write another facade to serve it up in a format more suitable for some other language. For instance, an EJB facade (you could even call them adapters, it depends how much work they do really) can return a Document object, but an HTTP facade would simply return content as MIME type text/xml over an HTTP stream which lets any other language which can talk TCP/IP and HTTP get at the data as well if you want to.
I designed and built a system like this and it works extremely well. I have major portal software, written in Java talking to the data access framework using EJB stateless session bean (Note singular, only need one.) and a whole stack of VB applications talking to the same framework using HTTP. Works very well.
So, go ahead and use XML, but consider how much data you want to pass all over the place, particularly if it goes over network links you can't control (I.e. the Internet.) :-)
This is a cool idea. Actually this is i think called 80-20 rule. Use 20% technology to solve 80% of the problems. I have worked on similar styled projects and have successfully deployed it for a bunch of companies. This is a good idea for a small scale development companies with shopping carts and order fullfillment processes. But if you are talking about developing something that has a scale and size of Amazon.com i dont think it would be a correct fit.
It actually scales horizontally very well. We just add more WebLogic servers to the cluster and it handles it extremely well.
Has anyone considered the loss of Object Orientedness of the application by using the above Development patternt? Say i want to add different types of users (persons) would i be then be limited for any reasons because of the above pattern. Would i need entity beans then? | <urn:uuid:7931933e-35fa-4d16-8d81-5b8cb146ffb9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theserverside.com/discussions/thread.tss?thread_id=7602 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941625 | 1,303 | 1.539063 | 2 |
In 2002, a year and a day after the attacks of September 11, Benjamin Netanyahu gave a marathon two-and-a-half-hour testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The upshot? That the U.S. should attack Iraq, "the sooner the better," as he put it. A choice excerpt:
…If you take out Saddam, Saddam’s regime, I guarantee you that it will have enormous positive reverberations on the region.
There is not question whatsoever that Saddam is seeking and is working and is advancing towards the development of nuclear weapons — no question whatsoever. And there is no question that once he acquires it, history shifts immediately.
If a preemptive action will be supported by a broad coalition of free countries in the United Nations, all the better. But if such support is not forthcoming, then the United States must be prepared to act without it.
Jim Lobe collected all these at his blog, where he gives them ample context. | <urn:uuid:bf0a9349-8929-4532-b5a0-026f08722039> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/09/20/what-bibi-said-in-the-run-up-to-iraq.print.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952799 | 204 | 1.507813 | 2 |
UN Agency Sees Biofuels Providing up to 25% of Global Energy; Sets Up International Bioenergy Platform
25 April 2006
Under the pressure of soaring oil prices and growing environmental constraints due to greenhouse gas emissions and global warming, momentum is gathering for a major international switch from fossil fuels to biofuels, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.
FAO’s focus on the issue lies more with the likely impact on small farmers and the implications for food security and rural development than on the larger geo-political and energy impacts.
The gradual move away from oil has begun. Over the next 15 to 20 years we may see biofuels providing a full 25 percent of the world’s energy needs. Oil at more than 70 dollars a barrel makes bioenergy potentially more competitive. Also, in the last decade global environmental concerns and energy consumption patterns have built up pressure to introduce more renewable energy into national energy plans and to reduce reliance on fossil fuels.—Alexander Müller, Assistant Director-General for the Sustainable Development Department, FAO
FAO’s interest in bioenergy stems from the positive impact that energy crops are expected to have on rural economies and from the opportunity offered countries to diversify their energy sources.
Farmers, particularly in tropical areas, are seeing new opportunities for increasing production and raising their incomes. But we also need to be careful. We need to plan. Competition for land between food and energy production needs to be converted to positive common benefits—Gustavo Best, FAO Senior Energy Coordinator
One hazard, according to FAO, is that large-scale promotion of bioenergy relying on intensive cash-crop monocultures could see the sector dominated by a few agri-energy giants without any significant gains for small farmers. But to date no comprehensive attempt has been made to address the welter of technical, policy and institutional problems involved.
In order to fill this gap, FAO has set up an International Bioenergy Platform (IBEP), to be officially presented at the United Nations in New York on May 9. The IBEP will provide expertise and advice for governments and private operators to formulate bioenergy policies and strategies. It will also help them develop the tools to quantify bioenergy resources and implications for sustainable development on a country-by-country basis.
It will further assist in the formulation of national bioenergy programs, drawing on FAO’s experience in promoting national, regional and global bioenergy development.
The aim is to help us grow both enough fuel and enough food, and make sure that everyone benefits in the process.—Alexander Müller
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Guitars and Rockets: Surprising Similarity Between
When the space shuttle lifts off its pad at Kennedy Space Center, the roar is unbelievable. Even miles away onlookers grab their seats and hold on tight. Sound waves penetrate flesh and shake bones.
Recently, country music star Clint Black recorded a public service message for NASA. According to Black, those launches remind him of something: himself.
"Did you know my guitar is like a rocket?" he asks.
Show-business exaggeration? No. It's scientific fact. Black's guitar is like a rocket.
"They both resonate," explains aerospace engineer Rodney Rocha of NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston.
"When you pick up an acoustic guitar," Black demonstrates, "one of the first things you'll notice is the body is basically an air chamber. The shape of the chamber is designed to be 'in tune' with the sound from the strings." He plucks the E string and the body of the guitar vibrates, producing "sympathetic" E-frequencies of its own.
"We call this 'resonance' and it's a big part of what makes a great guitar," says Black.
Resonance may be great for guitars, but "it can be disastrous for a spacecraft," notes Rocha.
"When the shuttle lifts off, the main engines roar so loudly that a person standing near the pad would be killed-not by the heat of the exhaust, but by the sound of the engines," he says. The engines "strum" the spacecraft with incredible force. Rumbling sound waves penetrate the shuttle and its cargo, seeking, probing, shaking.
"We cannot let these sounds [find] and over-excite a sympathetic resonance," says Rocha. If they do ... the sound is amplified, vibrations increase. Bolts can become unscrewed, covers ripped off, joints loosened.
"It could really shake up your mission," laughs Black.
The engines aren't the only source of sound. After liftoff, the rocket rips its way through the atmosphere en route to space. Rushing air creates strong aerodynamic noise, which rattles the ship. "You can hear this kind of noise by rolling down your car window while driving," Rocha says.
Even in space, the noises don't stop. Vibrations can ripple through a spaceship when it docks with another ship, or when it fires its maneuvering thrusters. With each bump or thrust, the rocket is strummed anew.
The goal of engineers, says Rocha, is to make sure these vibrations die out quickly, before they do any harm. In the language of musicians, "rocket designers must avoid sustain."
Guitars and the shuttle both have chambers. Credit: NASA
When Black strums his guitar, the sound lasts a long time. "That's the sustain," he explains. Long-lasting vibrations are encouraged by the fabric of the guitar itself. "Notice how the guitar is made of lightweight, flexible wood-a material that likes to vibrate," points out Black.
Rockets are made of stiffer, heavier materials, that damp resonances and reduce sustain. But that's not the only trick spacecraft designers use. Sometimes they modify the shape of the rocket, adding supports or filling in empty spots. The purpose: to detune the rocket from itself.
Detuning rockets isn't easy because, as instruments, they're much more complicated than guitars.
Consider this: A guitar is constructed from dozens of parts: tuning knobs, clamps, the sides and faces of the air chamber and, typically, six strings. The strings produce six fundamental frequencies: 82 Hz, 110 Hz, 147 Hz, 196 Hz, 247 Hz, 330 Hz corresponding to the open notes of E2, A2, D3, G3, B3, and E4.
A typical rocket, on the other hand, is made of thousands of parts. The space shuttle famously contains more than a million components. All these pieces vibrating together produce a cacophony of frequencies ranging from subsonic waves that only an elephant could hear to high-pitched whines akin to fingers scratching a blackboard.
Which frequencies might do the most damage? What parts of the spacecraft are most vulnerable to resonance? And how do you de-tune this complicated instrument?
To answer these questions, NASA engineers have developed "sound studios" for spacecraft. "These are huge chambers where we take pieces of our rockets and expose them to loud noises." Really loud. "One of our 165 decibel acoustic horns at JSC can make as much noise as a space shuttle main engine," he says.
By observing the response of "test articles" to the sounds, engineers can discover resonances and make changes to squelch them. "The most vulnerable articles tend to have low mass and lots of surface area-like a guitar," he notes.
Acoustic testing has been a regular part of rocket design since the Apollo program four decades ago. "In those days," says Rocha, "NASA engineers blasted sections of Saturn rockets with loud sounds in special laboratories. And when the space shuttle came along we tested its components in the same way."
Now NASA is preparing to build a new spaceship, the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) to carry astronauts back to the Moon and on to Mars. "I'm sure the CEV will get its turn in a sound chamber, too," says Rocha.
Who'd have guessed it? "Controlling your sound is just as important to rocket scientists as it is to musicians," marvels Black, strumming his guitar. If you listen carefully, you can hear the moonshot in the sustain.
MORE FROM SPACE.com | <urn:uuid:62040eeb-b54d-4595-a0d3-c3301fd8fd6d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.space.com/1729-guitars-rockets-surprising-similarity.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957179 | 1,197 | 3.21875 | 3 |
"The Buck Stops Here!"
When Obama was campaigning four years ago, it was pretty easy for him to blame all of America's problems on Republican President Bush, claiming that he'll make everything better for America if elected. After three and a half years in office, Obama still manages to blame others for America's problems. Now he's claiming that U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens' death wasn't his foreign policies' fault. He blames the anti-Islam movie and intolerance, even though evidence shows a much more complex cause.
Here in Israel we're already home from a full day at the synagogue after Yom Kippur and have already eaten. The words and tunes of the prayers are still ringing in my head. The prayers revolve around the Vidu'i, a systematic confessions of sins. It's a very long list and we repeat it quite a few times throughout the day. Now, you may wonder why we need to confess so many sins. Are we really such awful people, always sinning?
The clue is here:
"For the sin we committed before You.." (davka from Wikipedia)The emphasis by making the word "we" bold is the hint. Our confessions are in the plural. We are praying as a group, a people a nation, the Jewish People/Nation. G-d treats us as a group, even though we are individuals. We can't say "reward me, because I'm good and perfect. The others are guilty, but I'm not."
We're all in this together. It's forbidden to throw the blame on others.
Modern psychology teaches that the only person we can change is ourself. To make others better, we must make ourselves better. No, that doesn't mean that we should accept bad behavior from others. We have to make it clear that we don't accept it. We must be firm, strong and not be "enablers," providing others with excuses for their bad behavior aka sinning in the theological sense.
] A common theme of enabling in this latter sense is that third parties take responsibility, blame, or make accommodations for a person's harmful conduct (often with the best of intentions, or from fear or insecurity which inhibits action). The practical effect is that the person himself or herself does not have to do so, and is shielded from awareness of the harm it may do, and the need or pressure to change.By confessing in the plural we make it clear that we're all dependent on each other. We can't blame others. We must work together.
Yes, of course Barack Hussein Obama isn't Jewish. I didn't say he was. I just think that his general attitude is dangerous. | <urn:uuid:b13b8eed-d4d3-4833-9846-5b019f3ddc10> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2012/09/obamas-attitude-versus-jewish-vidui.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973379 | 556 | 1.9375 | 2 |
The gadfly is a character who often says things they don't necessarily believe in order to get a reaction. Maybe they have a hard time really expressing themselves. Or it could be they just like to watch others get flustered, confused or angry.
Usually they're not really bad people. They can be quite amusing as long as they're not going after you.
Which they probably won't, because the target is usually limited to characters the gadfly knows well or react strongly.
Compare The Tease
for overtly sexual examples. Compare Troll
for as a Real Life example for when this is a person on an internet forum. See also I Shall Taunt You
The name comes from the term social gadfly. The toper was Socrates, who said that like a gadfly he could be easily swatted, but that a government who does such thing pays too heavy a price. The gadfly would help improve politics by raising unpopular, controversial viewpoints for discussion.
This didn't work out so well for him. And now it generally refers to someone who simply causes trouble.
Needs a better description.
- Albireo in Mahou Sensei Negima, who is the only character that can reliably get a rise out of Evangeline. He's described as her 'natural enemy.'
- Yuichi in Kanon is fond of making bizarre and outrageous claims while maintaining a completely serious atmosphere in order to confuse all his love interests. Few manage to catch on and also recognize when he is and isn't serious.
- Half the time when Koizumi and Kyon talk, Koizumi will explain some theory to explain Haruhi and Kyon will start getting very involved in the conversation and thinking about it deeply. At which point he says that Just kidding, I made the whole thing up.
- Asuka Langley, due to her huge insecurities. Basically a big cry for attention in her case. Is also a jerkass.
- Hikaru and Kaoru in Ouran Highschool Host Club generally amuse themselves by baiting Tamaki and Haruhi. Tamaki is a bit of a buttmonkey, but Haruhi can hold her own. Often unintentionally.
- In Robert Heinlein's Rocket Ship Galileo, Dr. Cargraves does this when debating with his three teenage apprentices, to get them to question their own assumptions and realize the importance of being able to prove their assertions. His contrary position is that the Moon might not have a "far side", because no one has ever seen it (the book was written before spacecraft were sent to photograph the far side). | <urn:uuid:5d97e30a-48c0-446f-9ddc-1eb66ea777fd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/discussion.php?id=6cis1dta6i8l8mv1mtraju6o | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973871 | 535 | 1.617188 | 2 |
The two little boys lived in a mobile home with their two other siblings, their mom and their grandparents, barely scraping by in a Southern California town that enjoys its share of affluence.
On their first day of school, one a second-grader and the other in fourth grade, they carried generic backpacks. For that, they were razzed by the other kids. That night, the boys stayed up late with their mom, who used puffy paint to create Nike and Reebok logos on the backpacks.
The next day, they felt like a million bucks.
The second-grader was Gary Brown, who could not have gone to sleep in that mobile home imagining that someday he would have a million bucks. More than that, actually. After the Giants took Brown with the 24th pick of the 2010 draft, they signed him for $1.3 million.
As he prepares for his third full season as a professional, Brown wants this to be the year he lives out another fantasy and reaches the major leagues.
"I hope I can force the issue," he said as he sat at a table inside the Giants' clubhouse at Scottsdale Stadium on Monday and told his family's story to a reporter.
The setting is the eastern suburbs of Los Angeles, a region that produces many pro ballplayers. The weather affords them year-round access to the diamond, and the families who live in so many comfortable neighborhoods have the income to send their children to sports camps and scouting showcases.
"A lot of people think that because I'm from Southern California that I was a rich kid who had it all," Brown said. "That wasn't the case at all. I was just telling this story the other day: I was paying for stuff with rolls of pennies. You think, 'Yeah, it's money,' but when you're in school, you get made fun of for that."
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/giants/article/Gary-Brown-rising-from-modest-roots-4327643.php#ixzz2MgIGq18G
Gary Brown rising from modest roots
San Francisco Chronicle | Mar 5 | <urn:uuid:4134949a-a408-4d44-a166-1222cd33f479> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://prosportsdaily.com/articles/gary-brown-rising-from-modest-roots-236241.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985498 | 452 | 1.5 | 2 |
Virtual education is slowly transforming “old school” methodology and replacing it with computers, iPads and mobile devices. The minds behind education reform are gradually accepting the explosive growth of technology and realizing its benefits as it applies to the modern classroom.
Though many challenges still exist, advocates feel strongly about the forward progression of virtual education. In the wake of diploma mills and shady online institutions, the climate for change is challenging. But, proponents continue to make strides and “push the envelope” to prompt onlookers to open their minds to the possibilities of technology.
Virtual education includes online classes as well as blended onsite and online education. The blanket of virtual education also encompasses using technology to teach classroom lessons and cater to students’ interests. Advocates of online schooling propose that these programs can encourage kids to stay in school and help them to acquire their diplomas. Technology has also allowed education to meet student’s specific needs, and give participants the ability to study beyond the confines of the six-hour school day.
Many states are already in the process of reforming their education system and introducing online learning. Thirty U.S. states have full-time virtual schools and 225 exist in the U.S.
In Tennessee, the Virtual Instruction to Accentuate Learning (VITAL) program allows students to participate in online learning while connecting with an on-site facilitator. Though students frequent the on-site facility, they accomplish their work at their own pace. In yet another step forward, Tennessee lawmakers passed the Virtual Public Schools Act in 2011, which allows school boards to sponsor online learning institutions. The bill also defined teacher certification requirements and teacher-pupil ratios, a detail scheduled to be updated again this year.
Technology in Classrooms
With more than 80% of teenagers accessing cell phones, the education and technology industries have begun to form a tight bond. What once was restricted from the classroom has now been embraced and allowed for learning improvement and enhancement.
According to Chris Dede of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, technology is rapidly moving into school classrooms. He says, “They’ve [school districts] eliminated policies restricting using mobile devices for learning and they’re interested in developing mobile learning programs as fast as possible. We’re going from districts fearing it and blocking it off to welcoming it and making it a major part of their technology plan.”
According to some technology advocates, digital learning can benefit students by allowing them to learn at their own pace by adapting to a more customized approach. Each student can follow a curriculum tailored to their specific needs and move faster or slower depending on their grasp of the material. Online platforms can also take advantage of the internet and mobile computing, cloud technology and social media to enhance learning. Additionally, to shun the current criticism of virtual degree programs, digital education can work within the constructs of traditional curriculums while offering the full benefit of online learning.
Though online learning has many more mountains to climb and hurdles to jump, forward progress is evident throughout the U.S. Advocates continue to promote high-quality and well-researched studies so education reform can continue to expand and become a leading method of education for today’s modern student. | <urn:uuid:e9703eec-2d14-4dbb-b05e-b2590e600601> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.professionalintern.com/online-learning-an-influential-arm-of-education-reform | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953954 | 658 | 3.390625 | 3 |
KØHWY - May 31, 2000 |
Gordon L. 'Tex' Beneke |
Fort Worth, TX
Gordon Lee Beneke, born February 12, 1914, in Fort Worth, TX, professionally known as "Tex" Beneke was an American saxophonist, singer, and bandleader. His career is a history of associations with bandleader Glenn Miller and former musicians and singers who worked with Miller. He also solos on the recording the Glenn Miller orchestra made of their popular song, "In The Mood" and sings on another popular Glenn Miller recording, "Chattanooga Choo Choo".
Beneke started playing saxophone when he was nine, going from soprano to alto to tenor saxophones and staying with the latter. His first professional work was with bandleader Ben Young in 1935, but it was when he joined Miller three years later that his career hit its stride. Beneke says: "It seems that Gene Krupa had left the Goodman band and was forming his own first band. He was flying all over the country looking for new talent and he stopped at our ballroom one night [to listen to the Ben Young band]. [...] Gene wound up taking two or three of our boys with him back to New York. [Krupa] wanted to take [Beneke] but his sax section was already filled." Krupa knew that Glenn Miller was forming a band and recomended Beneke to Miller.
On August 1, 1939, Tex Beneke soloed on the recording the Glenn Miller band made of the Andy Razaf song, "In The Mood". Beneke appears with the Miller band in the films Sun Valley Serenade (1941) and Orchestra Wives (1942), both of which helped propel the singer/saxophonist to the top of the Metronome polls. Tex Beneke is listed in the personnel of the 1941 Metronome All-Star Band led by Benny Goodman. In 1942, Glenn Miller's orchestra won the first Gold Record for "Chattanooga Choo Choo", a song written by Harry Warren and Mack Gordon. The band first performed this song in the 1941 Twentieth Century Fox movie Sun Valley Serenade." Tex Beneke was the lead singer on this song with Paula Kelly and the Modernaires vocal group. "Chattanooga Choo Choo", catalogue number Bluebird 11230-B, was recorded by the Miller band at the Victor recording studios in Hollywood, California, May 7, 1941.
Beneke continued to perform under his own name with no official connection to Miller. He enjoyed less success in the early 1950s, partly because he was limited to smaller recording labels such as Coral Records and partly because of competition from other Miller alumni and imitators such as Jerry Gray, Ray Anthony and Ralph Flanagan. Singer Eydie Gorme sang with the Beneke band in 1950. Beneke appeared on "Cavalcade of Bands", a television show in 1950 on the DuMont television network.
In the latter part of that decade there was some revived interest in music of the swing era. Beneke joined a number of other leaders such as Larry Clinton and Glen Gray in making new high fidelity recordings of their earlier hits, often featuring many of the original musicians. Beneke and former Miller singers Ray Eberle, Paula Kelly, and The Modernaires first recorded the LP Reunion in Hi-Fi, which contained recreations of original Miller material. This album was followed by others featuring newer songs, some performed in the Miller style and others done in a more contemporary mode. The singer/saxophonist continued working in the coming decades, appearing periodically at Disneyland. He also made the rounds of various talk shows that had musical connections, including those hosted by Merv Griffin and Johnny Carson. His appearances on The Tonight Show sometimes included duos with fellow Miller veteran Al Klink who was by then a key member of the Tonight Show Band. Ray Eberle recovered from his earlier illness and resumed performing with Beneke and the Modernaires for a period in the early 1970s. In 1972, Beneke agreed to re-record some of his Miller vocals for Time-Life Records' set of big band recreations, The Swing Era, produced and conducted by yet another Miller alumnus, Billy May.
During the 1970s and 1980s, Beneke had a new band playing a style that resembled the classic Miller sound but with as much newer material as older. At one point he also toured with former Jimmy Dorsey vocalists Helen O'Connell and Bob Eberly Beneke suffered a stroke in the mid-1990s and was forced to give up the saxophone but continued to conduct and sing. He settled in Costa Mesa, California and remained active toward the end of that decade, mostly touring the U.S. West Coast and still playing in something resembling the Miller style. In 1998 he launched yet another tour paying tribute to the The Army Air Force Band. In 2000 Beneke died from respiratory failure at the age of 86. | <urn:uuid:e0fa9be0-ac77-454c-9a93-74bf1cb5d15d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.qcwa.org/k0hwy-sk.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978616 | 1,038 | 1.710938 | 2 |
This week's How-To is only going to apply to the lucky six or seven of you who've managed to already get your hands on a PlayStation Portable, the rest of you will just have keep this one in mind and come back to it when the PSP comes out here in the States in March. We're going to show you step-by-step how to get video clips on to your PSP without having to spring for any additional software.
When you format a Memory Stick Duo or Pro Duo stick in your Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP), you will get a new PSP folder, with sub-folders for "game", "music", "photos", and "savedata". But nothing for videos? What's up with that? Well, it turns out that you need to put MPEG-4 video files in their own special folder, one that's not in the PSP directory, but in the main root directory of the Memory Stick.
Just create a new folder in the root directory named MP_ROOT, and then make a folder called 100MNV01 in there. So your .MP4 files should go into E:\MP_ROOT\100MNV01, where E:\ is the drive letter of your Memory Stick. You also need a PC, as the converter software does not work with Macs. This MP_ROOT directory structure is directly cribbed from Sony's UX/VZ Clie PDA series, which also plays MPEG-4 videos. Sony does offer up Image Converter 2.1, but they charge 1000 yen (around $10) for it. We're going to show you how to do it for free.
First, we need to download 3GP Converter, currently in version 0.22 (2.7MB).
Unzip the 3GPC .ZIP file into a directory of your choice, and run setup.exe. You may see a bunch of weird characters, but don't worry, it's set to Japanese by default. Scroll down to the bottom of the 3GP Converter Setup window and select the English radio button, select Customized: MP4, for PSP (Direct, renamed) the then press Apply. This is the setting for conversion of video files to MPEG-4 format that can be played by the PSP, and renamed so your PSP recognizes it (such as M4V31337.MP4). Unfortunately, the PSP currently won't recognize file names such as TheUsualSuspects.MP4 or TheOCSeason2Episode4.MP4.
Now, the 3GP Converter program window is open (if not, you can double-click the 3GP_Converter.exe program to run it). Click the Select button to choose where you want your converted PSP MP4 video files to reside. We just chose C:\3GP_Converter.
The program may ask you to install QuickTime Authoring before being able to convert your video files. A simple click of the Do It Now button will suffice.
The drop down box is what level quality setting you want your MP4 video to have. All outputted videos will have QVGA (320x240) resolution. You can choose from 15 or 29.97 frames per second, with 29.97 fps being a lot smoother. The third item listed in the quality settings is the video bitrate, the higher the bitrate, the better quality your video will turn out, with the highest quality being 1500kbps. The QB# settings appear to be variable bit rate (VBR) settings, where the converter will use a higher bitrate when necessary. The QB4 setting is the lowest quality VBR option, and QB10 the highest quality VBR. Next is the options for audio, choose between Mono or Stereo. The last bitrate is for your audio quality, you can choose from 32kbps (lower quality) to 128kbps (highest quality). The higher quality setting you choose, the slower it will be to convert.
Now drag whatever file you want to convert into MPEG-4 format into the blank area of the program window. Here we chose a Shark Tale trailer, originally in DivX Pro HD format, to convert with the 'QVGA/29.97fps/1500kbps Stereo/128kbps' setting, the highest quality setting that 3GP supports. When the program is finished converting the video into MP4 format, the program will rename the file to something like M4V04895.MP4.
Now setup the USB connection (or take out your Memory Stick Pro Duo and stick in a reader) on your PSP to copy the video files over. The correct folder name for videos is E:\MP_ROOT\100MNV01 (where E: is the drive letter of your PSP). Copy your .MP4 video(s) over (the .THM files that 3GP Converter creates are not necessary for playback), and then disconnect the PSP USB connection by pressing the X button.
Scroll over to Video in your PSP menu and select it by pressing the O button. It should list your converted MP4, with title, date, and length of video. Press O again and it will start playing.
There are four screen display modes, which you can choose from by pressing the triangle button. Scroll up to Screen Mode (2nd from left on the top row) and use the O button to scroll between Normal, Zoom, Full Screen, and Original modes. Normal is fine for regular 4:3 show viewing, Zoom gives you a closer view of the center of the video, Full Screen is perfect for 16:9 widescreen videos, and Original looks like it displays the video in a 320x240 pixel format.
With the codec and video expertise of our favorite geek friend, Craig, we tried to convert a video into MPEG-4 format with a 480x272 resolution, which is the native resolution of the PSP LCD. A 480x272 video file should be of higher quality than a stretched 320x240 pixel picture, but unfortunately, all of our attempts failed, no matter what we tried. We would always end up with Incompatible Data or Corrupted Data displayed on our PSP, though it played perfectly on a Windows box.
We came up with the theory that as the PSP uses the same video format as their Clies, and since those play videos just fine Sony didn't want to put in the extra work involved to get native 480x272 resolution MPEG-4 support. We also guessed that any potential UMD movie titles would be shown in the full 480x272 resolution (just as games are in shown in the native screen resolution), but that Sony didn't want to have videos from Memory Sticks (potentially copyright infringing) to be competing with the UMD discs which they would be making money from. In effect, they crippled the video playback capability from Memory Sticks. This is of course, just speculation, but this is Sony that we're talking about here.
Using a Dell Inspiron 8600 laptop with a 2 GHz Intel Pentium M processor with 2GB of RAM, we processed a few video files for fun. It took 3GP Converter 1:40 for a 18.5MB .WMV (of the Pistons/Pacers fight) to be converted into .MP4 format, with an output file size of 19.8MB for QVGA/29.97fps/1500kbps Stereo/128kbps, the highest quality available. It took just 48 seconds when we dropped down the quality level to QVGA/15fps/216kbps Mono/32kbps, with a resulting filesize of 3.2MB. There is a noticabe difference in quality, with the lower video bitrate resulting in annoying pixilation (which we hate). If you can spare the space, definitely go for the higher quality.
We still think the holy grail of a portable video player is drag and drop support for all major video formats without any transcoding necessary. Converting video (just like converting MP3s to ATRAC in previous Sony music offerings) is just a pain and should be avoided if at all possible. This current way to put videos on the PSP is also a somewhat of a burden, as the process is more for the hacker type (and we mean hacker as in tinkerer).
Sony has released Image Converter 2.1 (available for 1000yen), which has an iTunes-like drag and drop functionality, converting videos, renaming it, and putting it in the correct directory. We have heard a few reports of the software bloating a video file on conversion (turning a 20MB file into 30MB or bigger for no reason). We have no first-hand experience yet with the Sony software, but the 3GP Converter is quite adequate in its own right, with a host of encoding quality options.
The converted videos using the QVGA/29.97fps/QB10 Stereo/64kbps mode (we assume QB10 is the highest quality variable bitrate mode, as QB4 video was loads worse) looks good in terms of video, but since the audio bitrate is half of the highest quality video's 128kbps, you do notice the difference in audio quality, with the 64kbps audio being more hollow sounding and tinny. The filesize of the QB10 setting was 14.2MB, offering a bit of filesize saving over the 19.8MB of the 1500kbps video quality setting.
We successfully converted Windows Media Player (WMV), MPEG-1/2, DivX, and XviD formats into PSP-capable MP4. Of the various formats we tried, only a Quicktime MOV file failed to be converted by 3GP Converter.
Here's a quick guide to convert parts of a DVD into MPEG-4. You can convert movies into MP4 format, but unfortunately, you will not be able to get a full movie to fit onto a 512MB Memory Stick unless you are willing to take a serious hit on video quality. What can work well is converting TV or anime episodes (30 minute or hour shows) from DVD, but any converting of clips 30 minutes or more will take quite a bit of time. First, decide what part of the DVD you want converted by previewing it in a standalone player or in a Windows DVD player. Write down the corresponding chapters which contain the episode or section you want.
You will need DVD Decrypter. After installing the program and running it, we will need to set the program to IFO Mode, select Mode, then IFO Mode.
You will now see the Input window with VTS and PGC sections. Below that is a checklist of Chapters on the DVD. Check off the chapters you wrote down earlier and then click on Stream Processing. For simplicity, we checked the video stream, one audio stream, and one subtitle stream. Now that we have selected all that we want to rip from the DVD, click on the DVD disc to Hard Drive icon. The time for the ripping process will depend on the speed of your DVD-ROM, but in the meantime, grab Auto Gordian Knot.
We will need Auto Gordian Knot (AG Knot) to convert DVD Decrypter's VOB file into AVI format. After installing the program and some associated programs, we can load it up. In Step 1, select file input, for Input File, put in the VOB file from DVD Decrypter. For output file, choose a filename and location to place it. Select the audio track from the drop down box, and choose subtitle if need. For the output size, choose Custom Size. We got a 166MB VOB file in our 4 minute, 30 second clip from Ali G's Indahouse from DVD Decrypter. So to be safe, we put in a 83MB output filesize, half the size of the original VOB, just to be safe. Then we clicked Advanced Settings and changed the Fixed Width to 320, as the PSP MPEG-4 video format is 320 pixels wide. Now click the Add Job button and the Start button (below Step 4). After conversion, use the above 3GP Converter guide to convert the AVI file from AG Knot into MP4.
Auto Gordian Knot turned the 4.5 minute clip into an 43.8MB AVI file. Using 3GP Converter, we converted the AVI file into a MPEG-4 file with a filesize of 54.7MB using the highest quality setting (QVGA/29.97fps/1500kbps Stereo/128kbps). Thus, if you had a 90 minute movie, and used the the same settings we did to convert to to AVI then to MP4, you would have the whole movie in 1100MB, which, unfortunately, is larger than the largest Memory Stick Duo currently available.
Using the lowest quality video setting (QVGA/15fps/216kbps Stereo/64kbps) produced a MP4 file of just 9.6MB, meaning 90 minutes of it would fit in around 192MB. Unfortunately, we can't stand the choppiness nor graininess. So we need to find a middle ground, the 29.97fps/768kbps mode produces a 30.2MB video (around 600MB for a 90 min movie). It's pretty good and the lowest quality that we would accept with our discerning eyes, but still too big to fit in a whole movie onto a 512MB stick, though it would fit fine for an hour long TV episode.
So we stepped it down a notch and tried 15fps and 384kbps, the highest video bitrate for 15fps. The converted MP4 was just 15MB, which would make a 90 minute movie 300MB, and thus fit on our 512MB Sandisk Duo card. The video is expectedly a bit choppy, but it's okay if you're not as nitpicky about video as we are. The audio quality (64kbps) is acceptable as well.
Depending on your video tastes and Memory Stick Duo capacity, you can squeeze an excellent hour of video (at 29.97fps) into a size under 512MB, or up to two hours using 15fps. Even though the conversion program converts files to 320x240 (a 4:3 screen size format), the PSP's screen modes can stretch that size out to a full widescreen while still looking good. We would have preferred a native 480x272 resolution support (which would have meant bigger MPEG-4 filesizes), the PSP still performs video brilliantly.
[Thanks, foomfoom for the link to the software] | <urn:uuid:3e537c2f-b591-4ef5-b830-705f6661af9b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.engadget.com/2004/12/21/how-to-get-videos-and-dvds-onto-your-sony-playstation-portable/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916668 | 3,032 | 1.648438 | 2 |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Environmental groups say they are asking the federal Environmental Protection Agency to require toxic chemical release reporting for the oil and gas industry.
The Environmental Integrity Project said Wednesday that it is joining with 16 other groups to call for the inclusion of oil and gas exploration in the EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory. The database contains reports on the disposal and release of more than 650 toxic chemicals from thousands of U.S. facilities. Oil and gas exploration is largely exempted.
The groups say the inclusion is needed because of the boom in hydraulic fracturing of natural gas, which injects water, sand and chemicals underground.
A spokesman for the oil industry group Energy In Depth says the EPA has looked at the issue a number of times and decided against inclusion.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) | <urn:uuid:6750adb7-edf2-4350-9e4e-9e88caee831e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2012/10/24/toxic-release-reports-sought-for-oil-gas-drilling/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942142 | 166 | 2.359375 | 2 |
Since graduating from the Richard Ivey School of Business's Certificate in Entrepreneurship program in 2006, Bill Hennessey has opened a number of ventures, including an online lobster company, a cleaning products packaging operation and an experiential marketing firm. In fact, he's a true dyed-in-the-wool entrepreneur having run his first "business" at the age of seven.
The Charlottetown native believes that his Ivey contacts are what keep him on the path to success since venturing off the island. "Everything stemmed from there. In fact one of the biggest customers for my lobster company was an Ivey grad who had heard about me through the alumni program."
For many people with entrepreneurial aspirations, building networks for success often starts with the company you keep in an MBA program. Whether entrepreneurship is in your DNA; a joint project triggers a serendipitous meeting of potential business partners; or an international junket sparks an entrepreneurial dream, MBA programs are changing their ways to offer a hotbed of networking opportunities for entrepreneurs.
Whatever the motive, the number of entrepreneurs in the MBA circuit is growing — so much so programs are dedicating extensive time, effort and resources into supporting entrepreneurship, says Stewart Thornhill, executive director, Pierre L. Morrissette Institute for Entrepreneurship at Ivey.
"I would say that up to one-half of applicants to our MBA program list entrepreneurship as a core area of interest. Fifteen years ago that was unheard of.
"Now it's a top ambition versus something a graduate accidentally falls into."
Mr. Thornhill doesn't credit the efforts of the schools so much as the fact that entrepreneurship has become "cool" in the minds of business hopefuls. "They're the rock stars these days. Some of the biggest shows on television like Dragons' Den and Shark Tank are about entrepreneurs."
One of the critical things that an MBA program can offer entrepreneurial types is a vast and supportive alumni network, he adds. "About one in six of our alumni is in an owner/leader president type position and either started their own companies or moved into the role. Having access to those business connections and leads is a great place for students to get a start."
More formalized alumni efforts include an Annual Venture Forum Event where entrepreneurs, investors and professionals connect to present pitches. Ivey is also working on referral programs with accelerator groups such as MaRS Commons in Toronto to help potential entrepreneurs get placed into important industry ecosystems. It has also established a network 60 "virtual" entrepreneurs-in-residence who serve as mentors.
Sometimes however it's the in-class connections that plant the seeds for an entrepreneurial venture. Ben Sparrow and Joshua Zoshi first connected during their studies at the Management of Technology MBA program at Simon Fraser University (SFU) Beedie School of Business. Eventually they reconnected to found Saltworks, a rapidly growing desalination company in Vancouver.
According to Mr. Zoshi who is co-founder and president, (Mr. Sparrow serves as the CEO), they were both well entrenched in their respective fields of software consulting and mechanical engineering when they came to the program. "We both thought an MBA would be useful to helping us transition to other industries."
It was three years after the fact that the two reconnected to take Mr. Sparrow's desalination prototype and start their own business. Since the business partnership took hold, Mr. Zoshi says he continues to appreciate the value of the SFU Alumni Association. "We've noticed there were a few emerging water technology and cleantech companies. The Association does a great job of keeping everyone in touch."
For Lisa Hryniw, owner and founder of Sendioso, an online gift certificate service in Edmonton, working with entrepreneurs during her MBA studies at the University of Alberta School of Business has given her the push she needed to venture on her own.
She claims that her MBA studies represented a turning point for her. "Being in the program helped tremendously in pursuing a budding penchant for entrepreneurship," she says. "It wasn't just the education; it was the networking. The encouragement from classmates was fantastic."
What really pushed her was a study tour that took a small group to Imperial College in London to study family business, innovation and entrepreneurship. "The stuff I learned and the people I talked to and the networking I did took me to the point where I could fully commit to this," she says. "I'm not sure I would have gotten here without that experience."
Ms. Hryniw also enjoys the fact that a good number of alumni do speaking engagements for the program. "They're really supportive and making those connections is so helpful, because they can serve as a referral to others you're not directly connected to."
Whatever form the path to entrepreneurship takes, the networking opportunities provided in MBA programs deliver lifelong value. "A lot us keep in touch to catch up and help each other when we have challenges," Mr. Hennessey says. "That's what has given me the confidence and helped to point in the right direction." | <urn:uuid:aa8e240e-3669-46b4-895d-4b74348254c3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theprovince.com/business/programs+build+entrepreneurs+bonds/7615807/story.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974448 | 1,041 | 1.523438 | 2 |
New laws which came into force last week, mean stores selling non-domestic knives will have to be licensed.
Original proposals also insisted stores across Scotland should be monitored using CCTV and all displays of knives should be banned and the weapons kept in locked cabinets instead.
But by the time the Bill came into effect on September 1 those tough provisions had been watered down and instead of a blanket Scotland-wide ban, it was left up to local authorities to decide. The SNP Government’s proposed Tobacco and Primary Medical Services (Scotland) Bill will lead to all tobacco products being banned from display in shops from 2011 onwards.
Labour’s justice spokesman Richard Baker said: “This is ridiculous. If cigarettes are deemed too dangerous to be put on display then knives should be dealt with in exactly the same way.
“I want to make sure children are protected but if it’s right for a packet of fags to be hidden away then surely it should be the same for a Rambo-knife.”
But a Scottish Government spokesman said it was correct to allow local authorities to decide on local conditions. | <urn:uuid:5c9410f2-edf5-45d5-b57a-d7c6c1f94be2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/125600/SNP-go-soft-on-selling-blades | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948567 | 229 | 1.6875 | 2 |
- Infowars - http://www.infowars.com -
Study: EPA-approved GMO insecticide responsible for killing off bees, contaminating entire food chain
Monday, April 9, 2012
Early last year, leaked documents obtained by a Colorado beekeeper exposed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency‘s (EPA) illegitimate approval of clothianidin, a highly-toxic pesticide manufactured by Bayer CropScience that the regulatory agency knew was capable of killing off bees (http://www.naturalnews.com/030921_EPA_pesticides.html).
Now, a new study out of Purdue University in Indiana has not only confirmed, once again, that clothianidin is killing off bees, but also that clothianidin’s toxicity is systemic throughout the entire food chain, which could one day lead to the catastrophic destruction of the food supply.
The study, which was published in the online journal PLoS ONE, investigated the various methods and routes by which a class of insecticides known as neonicotinoids, which includes clothianidin, are harming honey bees. They discovered that both clothianidin and thiamethoxam, another component of neonicotinoid insecticides, persist in “extremely high levels” in planter exhaust material produced during the planting of crops treated with these insecticides, which runs contrary to industry claims that the chemicals biodegrade and are not a threat.
The research team also found neonicotinoid compounds in soil, including in fields where the chemicals were not even sprayed, as well as on various plants and flowers visited by bees. Based on their analysis, the researchers involved with the study determined that bees actively transfer contaminated pollen from primarily neonicotinoid-treated corn crops, and bring it back to their hives. The bees also transfer neonicotinoid compounds to other plants and crops not treated with the chemicals, which shows just how persistent these chemicals truly are in the environment.
You can read the entire report for yourself at the following link:
“This research should nail the coffin lid shut on clothianidin,” said Laurel Hopwood, chairwoman of the Sierra Club‘sGenetic Engineering Action Team, who is petitioning the EPA to finally ban these chemicals after years of needless delay. “Despite numerous attempts by the beekeeping industry and conservation organizations to persuade the EPA to ban clothianidin, the EPA has failed to protect the food supply for the American people.”
Without bees, which are now dying off at an alarming rate due to exposure to clothianidin and various other insecticides and fungicides, one third or more of the food supply will be destroyed, including at least 100 varieties of fruits and vegetables that rely on bees for pollination. This is why Dr. Neil Carman, Ph.D., scientific advisor to Sierra Club, has put out a call for the EPA to immediately ban the use of clothianidin and the other neonicotinoid insecticides for the sake of protecting the food supply from irreversible destruction.
Sources for this article include:
Article printed from Infowars: http://www.infowars.com
URL to article: http://www.infowars.com/study-epa-approved-gmo-insecticide-responsible-for-killing-off-bees-contaminating-entire-food-chain/
Copyright © 2013 Infowars. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:2e2855ff-7171-43ba-811e-d5a1900bc199> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.infowars.com/study-epa-approved-gmo-insecticide-responsible-for-killing-off-bees-contaminating-entire-food-chain/print/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940046 | 722 | 1.882813 | 2 |
Getting started with CUDA
April 24, 2008 23 Comments
I’m starting the CUDA portion of my parallel programming investigations.
I started reading about CUDA in early 2007. Sixteen months later, I finally have a CUDA programming environment set up under Windows XP. (A glacial pace, I admit.) I’ll describe the steps that got me there.
I purchased an NX8600GTS graphics card for $130 from newegg.com in November of 2007. (You can get it now for $80.) This card uses the NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GPU that has 32 processing elements. I selected this card because it was a lot cheaper and smaller than a card with a full-blown 128-processor 8800 GPU. Size was important because I had to fit the card into an e-Machines T6412 PC with a small case. It also uses less power and the T6412 has a small 300W power supply. I installed the card in the PC, but I didn’t bother to load any of the packaged drivers because I would be using it as a computational coprocessor without any display attached. (You can use it as a combined coprocessor/display card, but the CUDA release notes say that CUDA-related run times would be limited to less than five seconds. I presume that’s to prevent losing control of your display if you enter an infinite loop.)
- CUDA Toolkit version 1.1 for Windows XP (x86 version)
- CUDA SDK version 1.1 for Windows XP (x86 version)
- NVIDIA Driver for Microsoft Windows XP with CUDA Support (169.21, x86 version)
The CUDA Toolkit has all the programming tools, such as the CUDA compiler (nvcc). The SDK contains a bunch of CUDA example programs. I installed both into their default directories. Then I installed the NVIDIA driver and restarted my PC. I figured that should do it.
The first thing I did with CUDA was to recompile and run the project found at
C:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\NVIDIA CUDA SDK\projects\deviceQuery
This project just queries the system and looks for any CUDA-enabled devices that exist. I double-clicked the deviceQuery.sln project file and the project appeared in my Visual C++ 2005 IDE. I selected the Debug configuration for Win32 and rebuilt it. Then I executed the program in the debugger. A console window appeared that said:
Cuda error in file 'deviceQuery.cu' in line 53 : initialization error.
Well, that’s not good. So I selected the emuDebug configuration, built it and ran it. This configuration uses a software emulation of a CUDA device instead of the actual hardware found on the graphics card. No errors this time and I got a list of the characteristics of the emulated CUDA device, but the first line of the console output was:
There is no device supporting CUDA.
I know the graphics card is in the PC, but maybe the NVIDIA driver is screwed-up. I opened the device manager and it reported that the NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS display adapter was working properly. I found some hints on installing the NVIDIA driver, and one of the things I hadn’t done was disable my virus protection during driver installation. So I uninstalled the NVIDIA driver, disabled my virus scanner, reinstalled the driver, restarted my PC, reopened the deviceQuery project, rebuilt the Debug configuration, re-ran it and got exactly the same error.
So I went to the CUDA forum for Windows XP to see if anyone else had experienced this problem. Sure enough, others had reported problems with CUDA not detecting their graphics card when it was not the primary display driver. But these posts were from September of 2007; could things have changed since then? I decided to play with my display and see if there was some software switch I could toggle to make my problems magically disappear. Right-clicking on my desktop, I opened the Display Properties window and noticed that the GeForce 8600 GTS was not attached to any display. What if I attached it, even though there is no physical display connected to the card? I right-clicked on the display icon for the 8600 and selected Attached, after which I clicked on the OK button for the Display Properties window.
Then I re-ran the deviceQuery program and I got the following result:
So now I’m ready to begin using CUDA. | <urn:uuid:31b858b2-239d-4e31-8ea4-69d044527e55> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://llpanorama.wordpress.com/2008/04/24/getting-started-with-cuda/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943302 | 944 | 1.851563 | 2 |
Today, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) delivered a speech on the Senate floor about the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. In the speech, he discussed his experience in Newtown over the past four days and proposed policies to reduce gun violence in America.
Blumenthal started the speech by describing his experience on Friday at the firehouse in Newtown.
"As the details mounted, I left Hartford to go to the firehouse in Newtown. I arrived there as a public official but what I saw was through the eyes of a parent. The firehouse in Sandy Hook is where the parents went to find out if their children were okay," Blumenthal said. "The way they found out was, their children appeared -- or they didn't. So after a while, some of the children came, and their parents took them home, and others did not. I will live forever with the sounds and sights of those parents -- the cries and sobbing, cries of grief and anguish."
In the middle of the speech, Blumenthal proposed policies to prevent future gun-related massacres.
"We need to do something to effectively ban assault weapons. I am talking about weapons that are not designed for self-defense or hunting, but rather for killing as many people as possible, as fast as possible. There is no reason that such weapons should be for sale in America today," Blumenthal said. "We need to do something to ban high-capacity magazines. Neither hunting nor self-defense requires 30-round clips. We need to do something to better prevent mentally ill people and criminals from having firearms. I don't know whether better laws could have prevented the shooter in Newton from getting his hands on the weapons he used. But we must look at what we can do to identify people with serious mental problems before it's too late. We should ensure that all firearm sales involve a background check, including guns that are not sold by licensed dealers -- and that those checks are thorough and comprehensive."
Blumenthal added, "Nothing here means that we should trample on the Second Amendment. The Supreme Court has spoken clearly in the Heller case that law-abiding Americans have a Constitutional right to own firearms, whether for self-protection, hunting, or competitive shooting. That is settled law."
Blumenthal ended the speech by committing to work in a bipartisan fashion to avoid future gun-related massacres.
"I will work with the President, and with my colleagues in the Senate, regardless of party or geography. I will work with any organization that is willing to engage in a thoughtful, constructive discussion about what steps to take to avoid tragedies like the Newtown shootings in the future," Blumenthal said. "I will work to find a solution to this crisis -- because it is a crisis -- and I will not be deterred by any organization or campaign that uses scare tactics or intimidation. Because there was nothing more frightening than looking into the eyes of the parents who lost their children last Friday -- that is any parent's worst nightmare."
Blumenthal concluded, "I know there are some who say that we can never do anything about the problem of gun violence, that we are so entrenched as a nation and so polarized as a political body, that we will just continue to wring our hands after every massacre but never take action. And yet, sometimes events happen that so horrify our country and our fellow citizens, that they change the nature of the discussion. They change the political ground under us. They are a tectonic shift. I believe that the massacre of these innocent children and their loving teachers in Newtown is such an event. Yesterday, some of my Senate colleagues had the courage to join this call for action and say publicly that we cannot go on as before. I want to thank particularly Senators Manchin and Warner. Their heroic stance is an invitation, and a challenge, to every other member of the Senate to join in a common effort, to find common ground -- and at long last do something to stop the killing." | <urn:uuid:ca8e713c-8eb8-40a8-b599-b16eb35e2309> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://votesmart.org/public-statement/757677/blumenthal-delivers-senate-floor-speech-on-school-shooting-in-newtown | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972682 | 812 | 1.953125 | 2 |
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The Needlearts: A Little Trivia and History
By: Maria Nerius, FaveCrafts.com Resident Craft Expert
We are adding the craft to your Craft Projects.
The project was added to your Craft Projects.
I’ve typed the word needlearts for around 20 years now and still my word check program wants me to change it to the needle arts. However needlearts spelled as one word is a highly respected category of art and craft and has been for generations. The needlearts includes work done by needle and by hand such as hand sewing, hand quilting, cross-stitch, needlepoint, crewel, embroidery, tapestry, knitting, hand smocking, crochet, tatting, lacemaking, needlepunch, rug punch, red work, stump work, bead embroidery, blackwork, needle felting, Hardanger, needleweaving, candlewicking, ribbon embroidery, and chicken scratch.
The first needles were made out of bone according to the history books, while the Native Americans used porcupine needles to stitch. Needles can be sharp used to cut through fabrics for quilting, hand smocking or embroidery. Others are blunt tipped as when used with cloth like Aida for cross-stitch, yarn for knitting or canvas for needlepoint or plastic canvas work. The traditional needle with a few exceptions has an eye to be threaded and the size of that eye will depend on what kind of materials you will be using. The smallest eye is for beading that barely allows for a single ply thread to pass through the eye, while the largest eye is for cording used making rugs and sewing sails.
The length of the needle has much to do with its intended use. Lei needles are some of the longest I’ve ever seen measuring up to 18” giving the person stringing the flowers and seeds lots of working room. Doll making needles can also be quite long allowing the doll maker to get from point A in the doll body to point B in the doll body with ease. Beading needles quite slim are often 2-3” long to let the beader line up many beads as possible before having to push the beads down the thread or wire. The diameter of the needle can vary to barely able to see without magnification to 1” for large stitch knitting. The folklore of needles states that the smaller the needle, the smaller the stitch you will naturally make.
The quality of a needle is seen in its strength and sharpness. To keep your needles sharp make sure to use a wool needle cushion, which will also help prevent a needle from rusting. Once a needle dulls it is time to recycle it and grab a new needle. A dull needle will snag, rip, and tear fabric and fibers. Needles are made of many materials today from metals to plastics. The easiest way to thread a needle is with a needle threading tool that is made of a thin wire loop that is pushed through the eye, thread placed within the loop, and then pulled back through the eye.
We enjoy many wonderful creative techniques thanks to what is considered a very common, ordinary tool… the needle. Yet, in many parts of the world a needle is still hard to come by and is considered a treasure as it allows the creation of clothing, blankets, and floor coverings. The most common stitch done with a needle? The straight stitch although there are hundreds of utilitarian and decorative stitches documented!
Cross-Stitch Recipe Book Cover: A pretty motif of cherries is an easy way to show off your stitching skills.
Christmas Tea Ornament Set: Tea pot, cup, and sugar bowl make this a delightful ornament set.
Egg Cup Pincushion: A colorful way to keep track of your needles and pins.
Related Products to Buy from CutRateCrafts.com - save 15-30% | <urn:uuid:d82f2a5f-2c6a-44fd-973b-adb6f1b1ea05> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.favecrafts.com/Needlecraft/Needlearts-Trivia-and-History/ct/3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946451 | 833 | 2.875 | 3 |
Northern Illinois University
The College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
announces a one-day professional development conference as part of the
"New Ideas" series
"Climate Change is a terrible problem, and it absolutely needs to be solved. It deserves to be a huge priority"
Whether you are a first-time New Ideas participant or a returning colleague, this professional development day will provide you with opportunities to explore new subjects, bring teaching resources to your classroom, and collaborate with others.
8:15 - 8:50 a.m. Check In and Registration, Holmes Student Center - Regency Room (Main floor)
8:50 - 9 a.m. Welcome - Regency Room
Mark Pietrowski, Associate Director, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences External Programming
9 - 10 a.m.
1A "Climate Change and Forests: A Guide for Educators"
David Goldblum, Associate Professor, Department of Geography
10:10 - 11:10 a.m.
2A "The Convergence of Renewable Energy Sources and Electric Vehicles"
Kevin Martin, Assistant Professor, Institute for the Study of the Environment, Sustainability, and Energy
2B "Supporting Drought Mitigation Policies in East Africa: Systems - Conflict Resolution - Policies"
Datu Buyung Agusdinata, Assistant Professor, Institute for the Study of the Environment, Sustainability, and Energy
11:20 a.m. - 12:20 p.m.
3A "Climate Change and the Impact on Water Quality in Mexico"
Melissa Lenczewski, Associate Professor, Department of Geology and Environmental Geosciences
3B "Climate Ethics: What Should We Do About Global Climate Change?"
Jason Hanna, Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy
12:30 - 1:15 p.m.
Networking Lunch - Blackhawk Annex (Ground level)
1:30 - 2:30 p.m.
4A "Incorporating Online Resources into the Classroom"
Melissa Burlingame, Program Coordinator, Institute for the Study of the Environment, Sustainability, and Energy
For an updated schedule, check our website at http://www.niu.edu/clasep/conferences/newideas
What teachers have said about past "New Ideas" programs:
"Finally a workshop right up my alley," Ellain Gallis, Waukegan High School.
"Lively speakers. I thought I knew a lot . . .wow was I surprised. I'm excited to return to my classrooms," E. Marie Schaver, Belvidere High School.
"The knowledge held by the speakers was terrific. I enjoyed their presentations," Merla Hammack, Sycamore Middle School.
"Excellent resources provided; knowledgeable presenters," Randy Harper, Maine West High School.
This program gives you an opportunity to meet with colleagues from other educational institutions, learn about successful teaching projects, and hear the latest findings from thought-provoking Northern Illinois University scholars. NIU professors and other professionals working in the academic disciplines will share new ideas to supplement your classroom curriculum.
Recertification - CPDUs: You will receive a certificate documenting six Continuing Professional Development Units for your participation. Northern Illinois University is an approved provider of professional development activities. This documentation will assist you in your individual recertification plans.
General Information: Enrollments are accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. If reservations exceed conference limits, a waiting list will be established. Late registrations will be accepted if space is available. Registration is confirmed by payment. If the conference must be canceled due to unforeseen circumstances, you will receive a full refund. All facilities are ADA approved.
Cancellations/Refunds: Requests for refunds are accepted if written notification is received by Outreach (see below) before 4:30 p.m. January 24 (refunds will be issued minus a $25 processing fee). No refunds issued for cancellations received after 4:30 pm, January 24. Substitutions of registrants may be made, without penalty, anytime prior to the program’s commencement.
Location: Holmes Student Center, DeKalb. NIU is in DeKalb, 65 miles west of Chicago (one mile north of I-88), 45 miles southeast of Rockford. A map will be sent with your confirmation.
Parking: A visitor's parking lot is located close to the Holmes Student Center. A campus map is sent with your confirmation plus you can mention the conference at the visitor parking lot to park for FREE.
Visit www.niu.edu/clasep for more information about our upcoming programs for 2013.
Four Easy Ways to Register: | <urn:uuid:2b3aba10-cce6-4de1-9b31-fe25e2960c53> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.niu.edu/CLASEP/conferences/newideas/nis020813/index.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909595 | 987 | 1.5625 | 2 |
What defines a female as being a princess and/or beautiful? 17 yr old blogger, Greta on tumblr, is a self-proclaimed feminist who believes that women should be whomever they want to be. Whether that is conservative or liberal, bold or demure, she encourages all women to not be afraid in expressing who and what they truly are to the world. As so, she is quite open about her beliefs and opinions about women, and even her own sexuality.
Also See: REAL LIFE DISNEY PRINCESSES
Recently, she has raised controversy by modifying pictures of Disney Princesses to be more modern and goth by portraying them with piercings, tattoos, band T-shirts and more. She is challenging society’s opinion of beauty. Is there only one definition, or is any woman who is brave enough to be herself, just that – beautiful?
Found via: geekologie.com | <urn:uuid:dae76c96-1b45-4d87-a569-78a6c19b5814> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.visualnews.com/2011/12/20/tatted-up-disney-princess/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961356 | 189 | 1.851563 | 2 |
The ancient kingdom of Armenia was the first country to become Christian, and it recognizes Gregory as its apostle. Armenia was a buffer state between the powerful empires of Rome and Parthia (Persia), and both of them sought to control it. Gregory was born about 257. When he was still an infant, his father assassinated the King of Parthia, and friends of the family carried Gregory away for protection to Caesarea in Cappadocia, where he was reared as a Christian. About 280 he returned to Armenia, where he was at first treated severely, but eventually by his preaching and example brought both King Tiridates and a majority of his people to the Christian faith. About 300, Gregory was consecrated the first bishop of Armenia. He died about 332. Armenian Christians to this day remember him with honor and gratitude.
Prayer (traditional language)
Almighty God, who willest to be glorified in thy saints, and didst raise up thy servant Gregory the Illuminator to be a light in the world, and to preach the Gospel to the people of Armenia: Shine, we pray thee, in our hearts, that we also in our generation may show forth thy praise, who hast called us out of darkness into thy marvelous light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Prayer (contemporary language)
Almighty God, whose will it is to be glorified in your saints, and who raised up your servant Gregory the Illuminator to be a light in the world, and to preach the Gospel to the people of Armenia: Shine, we pray, in our hearts, that we also in our generation may show forth your praise, who called us out of darkness into your marvelous light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Psalm 33:6-11 or 98:1-4 Acts 17:22-31 Matthew 5:11-16 (Ap) | <urn:uuid:fae69a35-6649-4ad6-9663-e79d005373a9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://elvis.rowan.edu/~kilroy/JEK/03/23.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970721 | 429 | 2.65625 | 3 |
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Additional Plant Details
Pests & Diseases - slugs, snails, leaf miners, caterpillars, powdery mildew, crown rot on mature plants.
Place of Origin - mountainous areas worldwide with the exception of Australia.
Toxicity: Harmful if eaten - These will give you an upset tummy, so please don't eat any of these.
Toxicity: May cause skin allergy or irritant - Having skin or eye contact with these plants could result in an allergic reaction, burning or rash.
Now is our busy spring period - orders are being packed 6 days a week, however please remember it may be 10 days before you RECEIVE your plants.
Orders can also be collected in person from our Nurseries, or some of our shows - just tell us during the checkout process.
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Customers who bought DELPHINIUM 'Guinevere' also bought these... | <urn:uuid:39c7f441-3d70-4c6d-8681-b232faa1b9d6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.burncoose.co.uk/site/plants.cfm?pl_id=1508&fromplants=pl_id%3D1500%26csssize%3Dlargest&csssize=large | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954364 | 312 | 1.5 | 2 |
Sara Teasdale, comp. (18841933). The Answering Voice: One Hundred Love Lyrics by Women. 1917.
I HAVE tried to bring together in this book the most beautiful love-lyrics written in English by women since the middle of the last century. During this period, for the first time in the history of English literature, the work of women has compared favorably with that of men; and in no other field have they done such noteworthy work as in poetry. Before this period, for reasons well known to the student of feminism, sincere love poems by women were very rare in England and America. With the exception of Lady Barnards Auld Robin Gray and a poem by Susanna Blamire, I have found nothing that seemed worthy of inclusion.
I want to acknowledge very gratefully my indebtedness for counsel and suggestions to Harriet Monroe, Jessie B. Rittenhouse, Louis Untermeyer, Henry L. Mencken, William Stanley Braithwaite, Thomas S. Jones, Jr., John Hall Wheelock, and Thomas B. Mosher. From my husband, Ernst B. Filsinger, I have received unfailing aid and encouragement. | <urn:uuid:c0c680c8-53b0-44d4-9ad7-bf1cc413e5df> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bartleby.com/292/1000.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95492 | 244 | 2.25 | 2 |
Jobless rates fall in less than half of U.S. states
WASHINGTON – Unemployment rates fell in less than half of U.S. states last month, as steady but slow hiring is making only gradual improvement in the job market.
The Labor Department said Friday that rates fell in 22 states in December and rose in 16. They were unchanged in 12.
The department's monthly report also shows that steady hiring nationwide in the past two years has lowered the unemployment rate in many parts of the country. The rate is now below 7 percent in 25 states. And some of the states hardest hit in the recession have seen solid gains.
If you have any technical difficulties, either with your username and password or with the payment options, please contact us by e-mail at firstname.lastname@example.org | <urn:uuid:4e628d8b-3593-4402-8c31-99b4b562e8fd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nwherald.com/2013/01/18/jobless-rates-fall-in-less-than-half-of-u-s-states/a8i3n2m/?list-comments=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970166 | 164 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Ellen Perlman was a GOVERNING staff writer and technology columnist.E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.org
Some day soon, a food-tasting event at New York's LaGuardia Airport might help fund the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's budget.
Not to worry: On-duty transit officials won't be doing the cooking. But a food tasting might be part of a multi-year deal for an advertising and sponsorship program that the authority recently signed. Short of money to operate and protect some of the nation's best-known and well-used bridges, airports, tunnels and transit systems--to say nothing of a heliport, marine terminal and several container terminals--the port authority "must identify new revenue sources to help defray rising costs," according to Chairman Anthony R. Coscia.
People make more than 450 million trips a year through the various transportation routes under the port authority's aegis. The firms that have signed on to work on the marketing plan are counting on advertisers and promoters to jump at the chance to wave their brands in front of that many eyes.
The marketing program won't take the traditional route of static billboard advertising. The possibilities for promoting goods or services range from product demonstrations to digital media and interactive signs to electronic kiosks. The firms putting together the overall program were selected in September, and they hadn't signed deals with any individual companies yet. The port authority is banking on generating enough sponsorship interest that there will be money not only to help defray security and operations but also to fund customer service enhancements and the transportation facilities themselves.
Governments are building the future. See it now. | <urn:uuid:85a34b07-27b9-4ba0-8481-1e26b717b2ac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.governing.com/topics/transportation-infrastructure/Bringing-Home-The-Bacon.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946995 | 338 | 1.695313 | 2 |
- Study at Deakin
- Campus life
- Industry and community
- About Deakin
Victoria’s Minister for Manufacturing, Exports and Trade, the Honourable Richard Dalla-Riva, has officially launched a new partnership between Deakin University and the Geelong Manufacturing Council (GMC).
GMC and Deakin University already have a long history of collaboration and cooperation however, along with the Victorian Government, the two organisations identified a need for targeted facilitation to connect local manufacturing businesses with the research facilities available at the Geelong Technology Precinct (GTP) on the Waurn Ponds campus.
“The Victorian Government is proud to be investing $800,000 to support the new GMC/Deakin University Industry Innovation Program,” Mr Dalla-Riva said.
“It is a key election commitment made by the Government that is now in place to benefit Geelong manufacturers.
“The program will link manufacturers to leading researchers from institutions such as the Institute for Technology Research and Innovation (ITRI), the School of Engineering, and the Australian Future Fibres Research and Innovation Centre (AFFRIC).
“As a result, manufacturing companies with limited R&D scope will have access to these established researchers who are global leaders in their field.
“By working together, GMC and Deakin will be better able to support local firms to innovate, and promote careers and skills development.”
Deakin University is recognised as a leader in successful world-class collaborative and contract research.
The GTP provides facilities for research aimed at industry co-operation and is home to approximately 230 researchers and 150 higher degree research students.
The GTP is home to ITRI and a number of commercial facilities which assist local businesses to identify, test, develop and implement new technologies to boost business outcomes.
It is devoted to research in advanced materials (including carbon fibre and other fibrous materials), composites, biomaterials, nanomaterials and intelligent systems.
The site’s 3,200 square metre proof of concept facility, launched in 2010, is used for industrial prototyping and provides tenancy for technology-oriented businesses.
Current industry partners co-located within the proof of concept facility include international leaders in materials, metals, carbon fibre, composites, logistics, biotechnology, IT and design.
Deakin is drawing significant support and attention from the international research community thanks to its expanding carbon fibre capacity and recent launch of the new carbon fibre hub (AFFRIC).
The University will soon be home to the Australian Carbon Fibre Research Facility, the only one of its type in Australia.
Mr Jackson Docherty, who has had extensive experience in innovation management, will be in charge of the project linking the University and the GMC.
His appointment will lead to the further development of the Geelong Manufacturing Council/Deakin University Industry Program and to facilitate the Geelong Industry Innovation Project (GIIP), by identifying and pursuing opportunities to create and manage partnerships with industry and Deakin University.
The core objective of this program is to bring benefit to the GMC member-base by strengthening the relationship between Deakin University and manufacturing businesses in the Geelong region to build and develop R&D activity in the sector and raise awareness and utilisation of innovation and its practical application to the manufacturing industry. | <urn:uuid:08f55884-1ed2-4270-8570-4c5730b10c81> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.deakin.edu.au/research/stories/2011/11/03/working-together | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933467 | 689 | 1.882813 | 2 |
In the first quarter, local farmers dredged the canals and prepared the ponds for the coming crop.
So far, 907 ha of freshwater area in the province were dedicated to farm grass carp, common carp, mud carp, and silver carp. Besides, new high-value species such as hybrid tilapia, snakehead fish, and hybrid black carp were also introduced in aquaculture.
In 2,046 ha of brackish-water area, local farmers stocked 135 million P15 black tiger prawn, 120,000 barramundi, 50,000 grouper, 200,000 tilapia and 50,000 Chinese black sleeper.
To date, the province 1,380 ha clam area has yielded 3,000 MT.
In the second quarter, all stocking will be abided by the crop schedule. The district is looking to promote disease prevention and control and increase the clam production to 12,000 MT.
Thai Binh Newspaper. | <urn:uuid:8fd751d0-5ac7-4fdc-9015-d85232ad2f3e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.vietfish.org/20120426100449705p49c82/tien-hai-thai-binh-stocks-black-tiger-prawn-and-harvests-clam.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919651 | 199 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Meet President Romney
Like many congressional races around the country, Montana’s Senate contest is being defined by previously unthinkable levels of outside spending.
The government prosecuted Tarek Mehanna because of what he wrote online in a case that raises fundamental questions about First Amendment rights in post-9/11 America.
Those who believe the former Massachusetts governor would become a moderate once in office are wrong.
The next president will face critical challenges, but Mitt Romney has offered no clear vision of America's role in the world. What can we learn from his team of advisers?
Why are anti-abortion legislators cutting essential funds for special-needs children? | <urn:uuid:d1717961-b204-450b-8b20-2a10616ce4c6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://prospect.org/magazine/issue/meet-president-romney | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961615 | 132 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area
Refine your view of the National Park Service's activity in this state or territory.
Former Corps of Engineers boat ramp now enjoyed by citizens.
Camp Nelson enlisted over 10,000 escaped slaves to fight for the Union in exchange for freedom while their families lived in the camp as refugees.
The resources of the river are boosting the economy along the Big Sandy Water Trail.
Modeled after urban settlements, the Pine Mountain Settlement School was designed to educate disadvantaged children as it strengthened local culture.
Historic farm buildings still used for agriculture, and a bed and breakfast joins the operation.
Come for an exciting climb or a peaceful hike through miles of scenic gorges and bluffs in Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area.
These numbers are just a sample of the National Park Service's work. Figures are for the fiscal year that ended 9/30/12. | <urn:uuid:ac52d812-0020-4a60-9da5-bc4fb5593418> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nps.gov/state/KY/index.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944879 | 186 | 2.625 | 3 |
Decisions, decisions, decisions…
If you struggle with making any of ‘em—from what to wear to work to whether or not to give love another shot—then today’s little happy life idea is for you!
My husband Gus and I can be pretty bad at making small decisions. It takes us 20 minutes to choose what to eat for lunch and 15 minutes to actually eat it. It takes us 45 minutes to pick a movie to watch, and Gus is asleep 10 minutes in. And our next vacation? My word, we’ll be debating the options until March. But I know we’re not alone.
With all the decision-making our modern world allows, sometimes we get so caught up in making the right choice that we paralyze ourselves from making any choice at all! In his book Paradox of Choice, author Barry Schwartz writes, “Choice no longer liberates, but debilitates.” What’s really behind all this? Well, I think that with all the information at our fingertips to help us make a perfect decision, we’re now terrified of now making the wrong one.
But here’s the thing. No matter how many pros & cons lists we make about a choice, sometimes it won’t work out. Sometimes the lunch place has stale bread, the movie stinks, the second date is a disaster and the job makes us miserable. And that’s okay! Becuase that’s how life works. We’re moving forward all the time. Like John W. Gardner once said, “Life is the art of drawing without an eraser.” No, you don’t have an eraser, but you have a huge, bright, empty piece of paper in front of you to draw in whatever direction you want to go next.
Try this: Give your brain’s decision department a break. Be bold! Imagine taking a permanent marker to draw your sign on the one piece of posterboard you have left. Just trust your gut, listen to your heart, and go for it. If you find yourself feeling along the way that it’s just not working out…redirect! There are very few decisions or mistakes in life that can’t be fixed. A wedding can be called off, and a called-off wedding can also be called right back on. Money can be mostly refunded, jobs can be quit, movies can be walked out of. And that piece of posterboard, it has a backside, too. Sure, maybe you end up with a little headache trying to fix it…but weren’t you giving yourself as much of a headache in struggling over the decision in the first place? Free yourself my making any choice at all, then see where it takes you next.
Gus and I have another trick that helps: We have an app called “The Decider” on our iPhones. And when we find ourselves torn between two great options, we declare, “Let’s let The Decider decide.” We type in the choices, watch the arrow spin, and see our future chosen for us. Really, it’s a relief. And so far, it’s worked out just fine.
Let’s not spend 30% of our lives debating what to do with the other 70%. What a waste of our spirit! Be fearless. Put the pencil to paper and just draw. Let your hand and heart guide you (or a Decider decide for you) and see how free you feel just making a choice so you can get back to living the brilliant art of your life again. | <urn:uuid:881db4cd-6eb9-44b6-a7ef-1fe86091e6ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thelifeoptimist.com/theblog/happiness-idea-toss-your-eraser/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932071 | 762 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Peace Through Badminton
In partnership with Peace and Sport, the BWF plans and implements projects to encourage peace and social cohesion through badminton.
In 2010, Peace and Sport and the BWF signed an MOU which defines shared goals in working together to support vulnerable youth in projects which promote peace through sport.
The BWF is working with Peace and Sport on three projects in three regions of the world:
Peace and Sport and the BWF work with NGOs, NOCs, government agencies, national badminton federations, the continental badminton federations and equipment suppliers to bring together the resources and people to fund and deliver three year projects.
The projects aim to provide structured social and educational activities together with badminton training and competition. The programmes target vulnerable youth in regions of the world and in communities that have been affected by natural disasters, war, severe economic circumstances and social unrest.
The model implemented is different for each project and each community. The underlying principle however is to encourage peace and social cohesion through structured badminton programmes and to use sport and education as a change agent in peoples lives.
Sport is a powerful tool for change and the projects aim to provide opportunities for the most vulnerable youth in targeted regions in these countries. | <urn:uuid:a01d1573-aacb-4646-8237-7af33e37cfe0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bwfbadminton.org/page.aspx?id=21672 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929853 | 257 | 2.46875 | 2 |
The more we exploit nature, the more our options are reduced, until we have only one: to fight for survival. Trekking gives you an opportunity to measure your instincts against the ruthlessness of nature.
And we are not talking about a morning walk through a forest glade. Hardcore trekking not only requires superb survival instincts in extreme conditions but calls for high quality accessories as well. And this is where Indians are stuck in knee-deep snow because in spite of our country having the toughest trekking destinations in the world, finding the correct gear is like searching for a needle in a haystack.
The Alps in Switzerland and Pentagonia in South America offer some really tricky trekking tracks, arguably some of the most hard-hitting. But compared to the Himalayas the highest point in the Alps lies only midway. Markha Valley in Ladakh, Satopanth in Garhwal and Zanskar Valley in the Ladakh region are some examples of trekking destinations that make the most seasoned trekkers think twice. But all of them have the same complaint-the lack of proper equipment.
Noted adventurer B.R.Sharma says, "The sheer diversity of the terrain can be surprisingly taxing to a trekker. He might come face to face with rocky terrains, rapids, forests and deserts. In these scenarios carrying the right gear can mean the difference between life and death."
Proper footwear is of paramount importance. Trekking boots by Salomon and Merell that can go up to $400 are not available in India. "They are waterproof, breathable, stable, offer excellent grip and balance.
The Indian varieties can't be trusted in extreme conditions and the worst part is that the only way for Indians to get these boots is to ask someone from the US to bring it with them. These are professional equipment and can be flaunted as well," explains seasoned adventurer Gaurav Kataria.
Extreme clothing from companies like North Face, Patagonia and Gore Tex are a rage with pro trekkers. They offer lifetime warranty and are custom made for the right outing. For example if you are going to Corbett National Park for a short trip, you would require clothing that is different from what is required for an extensive trek in the jungle. A jacket from North Face can set you back by $700. "
And it's justified because they give you superior protection and it's a lifetime investment. In India if I wear a Patagonia jacket I would hardly be noticed but abroad I would be making a style statement," says trekker and travel consultant Vivek Dewan. "Backpacks found in India are for school kids," retorts trekking consultant, Roon Buiya.
Tunnel tents are still rare in India though they provide the best protection. Indians still prefer the old school domed tents that are useless in windy and cold conditions. A good quality tunnel tent from North Face can cost a whopping $5000 compared to $150 for an Indian one. "Down filled sleeping bags that can handle temperatures below minus five degrees also have to be import. Indian sleeping bags are poly filled and are not up to the standard," says Anil Kumar of Zanskar Outdoor Equipment.
But there are people who are trying to make life easy for trekkers. Indian companies like Zanskar Outdoor Equipments and Hanyin Outdoors are dressing up adventurers in style. "Though they are not as high end as a North Face or Gore Tex, these companies are making a decent effort to carve out a niche in the market.
There are enough serious trekkers in India now and with better awareness they are going to wake up to the importance of having the correct equipment," says Sharma. So, next time you face the outdoors, remember to do it in style. | <urn:uuid:6a54ed3d-6a70-470a-a565-c09aba2de0fe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2007-02-18/news/27675725_1_trekking-survival-gear | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956848 | 775 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Although it looks much like a medium-sized tomato, the tree tomato is not a true tomato. Tasting somewhat like a tomato, it is usually eaten with sugar or boiled to make a popular and refreshing drink.
An extremely fast growing shrub to 20ft. Flowers are self-pollinating, and tree tomatoes may bear from seed in just over a year.
Although it does better in climates where the temperature stays above 50F, the tree tomato is subtropical and will bear fruit in cooler climates. Hardy to 25F.
Requires lots of water and good drainage--standing water will kill the plant in just a few days. Makes and excellent container plant in cold climates.
Propagation is usually by seed, but grafting is also possible. Seeds can sprout quickly and seedlings usually show vigorous growth.
Uses are similar to common tomato. Eaten fresh and often boiled or pureed to flavor drinks.
Native to the Andes mountains of Peru and Chile. Is now grown commercially in California an New Zealand. | <urn:uuid:6aade6b4-9936-471c-b62d-2dd0c8e804ce> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tradewindsfruit.com/content/tree-tomato.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924692 | 212 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Meet the largest species of parrot in the world
Monday 4 July 2005
On your next visit to London Zoo, make sure you see the largest species of parrot – the hyacinth macaw. Growing up to one metre in length, they look incredibly striking with their electric blue feathers and bright yellow skin surrounding their eyes
London Zoo is currently home to eight hyacinth macaws – three breeding pairs and two additional females. As the species mates for life, arrangements are being made so that one of the females can be exchanged with a male from another zoo – creating four pairs in the enclosure. Hyacinth macaws are generally very protective over their mate.
Native to South America, the hyacinth macaw typically resides in light wooded areas. The majority of the species reside in the seasonally flooded Pantanal region of Brazil and Bolivia. Feeding mainly on fatty and oily palm nuts, the hyacinth macaw uses its powerful beak to crack open hard nutshells.
The threats of habitat destruction and trapping for the illegal bird trade have critically reduced their wild population numbers to an estimated 3-5,000. The hyacinth macaws at London Zoo are part of a European breeding program to help conserve this amazing species. The Macaw Aviary, built in 1994, is large enough to allow the macaws to get plenty of exercise, which is an important factor in breeding success.
To replicate their natural diet, our hyacinth macaws are fed a mix of oily seeds and nuts including sunflower seeds, peanuts, macadamia, pecan and walnuts. They also enjoy small amounts of fruit, vegetables and animal protein.
Why not come and visit our resident hyacinth macaws and help us to conserve these and other endangered animals by supporting London Zoo. | <urn:uuid:008aa861-70d7-4169-97c9-23ae2261fc40> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.zsl.org/zsl-london-zoo/news/meet-the-largest-species-of-parrot-in-the-world,160,NS.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943444 | 368 | 3.40625 | 3 |
September 28, 2000
A Letter to Amichai
For Israelis your death was like the Americans losing Frost, the Russians losing Pasternak, the Spanish losing Lorca. Israel has no poet laureate, yet you were its laureate without portfolio. You stood apart in a country with army men as heroes. At the height of the country's military mythos, you cried out the fear of a young soldier: "I want to die in my own bed." Last Friday when you passed away at age 76 in Hadassah Hospital in your beloved Jerusalem, you almost got your wish.
In a contentious society, you were the point people agreed upon, one of the few Israelis both famous and cherished. Quietly, persistently, over five decades of prolific verse, you captured the country's heart.To what can be attributed this consistent affection? The answer lies in your poems: poems with eternal themes written in language so simple that anyone who can read can grasp it. People studied you in high school and kept on going. Every bookstore in the country has at least one of your 16 anthologies on its shelves, and they sell.
Your poetry is your autobiography.
The world hung heavy on you: "A man's soul is like/A train schedule/A precise and detailed schedule/of trains that will never run again." On your birthday you wrote: "Thirty-two times I put on the world/ And still it does not fit me.../I stand without camouflage before enemy eyes,/With obsolete maps in my hands/With growing opposition and amidst towers. Alone without recommendations/In the great wilderness." Your self description: "I am big and fat/For every pound of fat/I add a pound of sadness." And at forty: "If I were in Auschwitz/they wouldn't have sent me to work,/They would have burned me right away."
Born in Germany, you came to Israel as a child of 10. Although you shed the Diaspora, a tie to the world of your ancestors remained: "Grandfather, grandfather, Chief Rabbi of my life." You called yourself "a toy bear, big and hairy" for your children to play with, while "their longing for their future/And my longing for my childhood/ Pass by one another without meeting." When you were young "My mother baked the whole world for me/In sweet cakes." You searched doggedly for the link with your father: "And what did I learn from my father: to cry fully, to laugh out loud,/And to pray three times a day." Religion meant intimacy: "Yom Kippur without my father and without my mother/Is not Yom Kippur."
You are famous for your love poems: "You are beautiful, like prophesies,/ And sad, like those which come true." Even more famous for your death poems. The wars you served in cast a perpetual shadow: "People who left whole/Are brought home in the evening, like small change." About your son you wrote: "The first real/Big school outing/Is the outing from which/They never return." You said: "God has pity on children in kindergartens...But adults he pities not at all." And you lamented: "I have to kill my brother. My brother has to kill me." You called Jerusalem "the cradle city that rocks me," living there most of your life. You energized Israeli poetry with colloquial Hebrew, yet you wrote: "To talk now in this tired tongue,/Torn out of its sleep in the Bible."
Mortality was never far. Birth and death have "just a hyphen separating them. I hold on to the hyphen with all my being/As to a life raft, I live on it." This week the hyphen was finalized.
You were the lyre in the background of the State of Israel, the question mark that queried knowing there was no answer, the suitor beneath the cypress trees, the soldier, friend and father of soldiers, the immigrant Jew walking in the coppery heat of the Promised Land, the wandering Jew mourning lost continents and lost souls, the peace lover who said people were more important than stones. You resonated in a humble, confused, painful voice. You were a tentative prophet in a wilderness filled with too much certainty. People around the world read your poems in 33 languages. You were not lost in translation.
Numerous anthologies by Yehuda Amichai appear in English; one of the most comprehensive has recently been issued in paperback: Yehuda Amichai: A Life in Poetry 1948-1994 (translated by Benjamin and Barbara Harshav, Harper Perennial, 477 pp.) | <urn:uuid:498ce166-7812-4f8b-bccf-0f20b80122e6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jewishjournal.com/arts/article/a_letter_to_amichai_20000929 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96628 | 973 | 1.804688 | 2 |
There's something universally appealing about the concept of a 3D printer -- that concept being an automated system capable of turning computer code into real-world objects. I found myself forced to give a brief overview of the technology to AOL employees in our shared New York City office space after a particularly noisy initial run of MakerBot's Replicator. Reactions to such explanations tend to follow a fairly standard arc, beginning with wide-eyed wonder as one attempts to wrap their brain around the idea, followed almost immediately by a list of things they'd love to print out, given a chance. This is usually coupled with questions like "can it print food?" and "can I print a car?" Both of which speak to that larger, vitally important question: "can I print anything useful?" This, in turn, speaks to another important concern: "how long until it pays for itself?"
When we received an unexpected package from the folks at MakerBot last Friday, we realized it would afford us the opportunity to field some of these questions. Though, before opening the thing, we can tell you pretty confidently that, if you're looking for something that will "pay for itself," that answer won't come in a giant cardboard box with a MakerBot logo on the side. Some key questions are a little less straightforward, however, like whether or not this technology is ready for consumers -- or if it's still just the territory of enthusiasts.
MakerBot Replicator impressions: the dawning of 3D printers in every home?See all photos
The product housed inside the cardboard box may well be the best-equipped to answer that question. Sandwiched between several layers of cardboard, the Replicator represents, arguably, the most mainstream example of a consumer-facing 3D printer on the market today, clocking in it at a (relatively) reasonable $2,000. Sure, there are more inexpensive examples of the technology available for this purpose, but Brooklyn-based MakerBot has possibly done more than any company out there to help introduce 3D printing to the masses. Certainly, the Replicator marks a big step over its predecessor, the Thing-O-Matic, introducing dual-extrusion for two-colored printing and a much larger printing area, letting users create standalone objects roughly the size of a loaf of bread.
The product also marks a step toward mainstream adoption with the simple fact that it arrives mostly assembled, so customers don't need to be experienced craftspeople to put the thing together. That's not to say, of course, that no assembly or setup is required. In fact, the unboxing process itself is a bit of a to-do. MakerBot prominently positions the printer's setup guide at the top of the package, featuring a giant "READ ME BEFORE UNPACKING!" warning on the cover, courtesy of a tiny robot mascot. For those who are more digitally-minded, MakerBot also offers up a three-minute video on its site to take you through the steps. Indeed, the Replicator packaging is a delicate ecosystem. Don't force anything out and definitely don't pick the printer up with its threaded black cable, as tempting as that might be.
The unboxing process involves a lot of tiny compartments and several instances of moving the platform up and down to remove hidden cardboard boxes and plastic bags full of bolts, wrenches and the like. The actual hardware setup isn't really all that much more complicated than the unboxing. But, while the Replicator comes mostly assembled, there are still a number of things that have to be screwed, tightened, routed and attached. After all, there are a lot of moving parts here that can't really be shipped as a complete piece. The Stepstruder (a toolhead mounted on the gantry that heats up and expels plastic through two nozzles) needs to be bolted onto its platform, the rubber legs have to be added to the bottom of the printer to avoid involuntary movement and the plastic spools of ABS plastic (the plastic found in Lego) need to be mounted atop their holders, which are attached to the rear of the printer.
Even put together, the Replicator isn't all that slick. There's no doubt a conscious aesthetic decision at play here on the part of MakerBot. The raw presentation of the printer seems like an attempt to maintain a connection with the craft community the company was born out of. The printer's shell is made of an unfinished wood with some rough corners -- in fact, one of our editors managed to get a splinter from one of the sides during the setup process -- and the sides are held together with a number of visible screws. The majority of the Replicator's internal space is wide open, save for a build platform that can be adjusted up and down by turning a threaded screw and the gantry atop the space that houses the Stepstruder MK8, whose front is monopolized by a large pair of fans. There are large cutouts in the wood on the top and three of the four sides.
On the rear of the device, below the two spools, are ports for a USB connection and power, as well as the on / off switch (plus a little "Brooklyn" stamp, in case you were concerned about the product's origins). On the right side, just below the cutout, sits an SD card slot (the card itself ships with the printer), which is little more than a small slit in the wood. Adjacent to this, on the front of the device are a number of overly-sensitive buttons, configured into a square. There are four arrows and an "M" selection button in its center that, with the slightest brush, opens menus and starts prints. Directly to the left is a small LCD panel that is essential to interfacing with the machine -- it's also essential to setting it up.
The first time you fire up the Replicator, the display will take you through the FRE -- that's First Run Experience -- a series of step-by-step instructions it imparts one screen at a time (you can also access this later in the utilities menu). The script should take around 20 minutes, according to MakerBot's calculations. You navigate through the screens with the rubber buttons. A blinking red light in the center "M" button means it's waiting to be pressed, solid means its hard at work -- just sit tight.
The first step in the process is leveling the build platform -- contents in the box were almost certainly tussled during transit, and you've got to recalibrate things. Leveling the platform is a particularly important step -- after all, if things are off by mere fractions of an inch, it can screw prints up completely. The process essentially involves making sure that the nozzles are the proper distance from the platform by twisting a series of screws. You test this by sliding a piece of paper between the two -- if it can't slide in, they're too close. If it can be moved up and down, they're too far apart. It's a simple enough process, in theory, but there's a good chance you're going to find yourself performing it several times before things are just right. We ran through the leveling script no less than four times before we saw optimal results.
Next up, you'll be pulling the plastic filaments up from the spools, through two tubes and into holes at the top of the Stepstruder's head, holding it there for a few seconds, until the device's motor begins tugging at the strip. You'll have to put a bit more pressure on the filament than you'd expect, and the pulling motion of the motors is subtle enough that you might not notice it at first. Eventually, a thin string of plastic will emerge from the nozzle. In the case of our device, the plastic emerged with a green color, slowly turning black as it slid out like hot, plastic soft serve ice cream. On the other side, red plastic slowly lightened into white. The Replicator ships with a small plastic square its makers use to test the printer in order to make sure that everything is running well. In the case of ours, the square was red and green -- the plastic in our own spools, meanwhile, was white and black. The system needed to melt down and extrude the reminder of the last batch before moving on to the new spools.
It's this process, ultimately, that's at the center of the Replicator. A motor in the Stepstruder pulls the plastic from the spool, melting it down and extruding the contents. The configurations are created by the four-way movements of the gantry (left, right, front and back) and the up and down movement of the platform. Honestly, thinking of this like frozen yogurt isn't all that far off -- the Replicator creates solid objects by layering levels of thin plastic extrusions on top of themselves. The layered patterns are evident in final products in the ribbed consistency of their surface (some users go so far as to sand down the product after it's done printing). It's even more apparent in products in which the calibration is off, resulting in what looks to be a mess of hardened string.
This, unfortunately, is something we saw several times early on, with a veritable Island of Doctor Moreau full of failed, mutant plastic experiments. There's a lot of troubleshooting that needs to be done out of the box because, really, there's a lot that can go wrong here. Thankfully, MakerBot's got an extremely responsive email support team that has clearly heard it all. Judging from a number of videos we consulted online, we weren't the only ones having these sorts of issues. A lot of fine-tuning is required, which is certainly a major point against recommending such a device as a consumer product. As mentioned above, the initial run of the product was a loud one -- there was a good deal of grinding noises and foundation-shaking vibrations as the Replicator went to work. The result was a big mess of plastic that looked like the someone attempting to sew for the first time.
We re-leveled the platform and tried again, tightening the gap a bit from our first pass. Things looked slightly better, but the printer's jolts were fairly unnerving. After all, we'd see the Replicator in action a number of times, including right in front of us on the Engadget Show. Its process was always audible, but now it was running like a washing machine with a handful of rocks thrown in -- a rather unsettling experience. We tightened the bolts on the body in an attempt to subdue its violent oscillations, then downloaded the ReplicatorG software from MakerBot's site, installed it on our system and tethered the printer to our laptop with a USB cord.
Settings can be adjusted on the Replicator itself by way of the LCD, but the tiny display makes these things a bit of a chore. We turned the acceleration on and the "jerk" down, so things would be a little less aggressive -- it also dawned on us that the table we were running it on might not have been a stable enough foundation, itself quaking during printing. Like a number of factors, this level of vibration can throw the printing process off completely. MakerBot support assured us that some movement is a normal part of the process and even suggested we find a way to secure the device to the table to minimize shaking.
Before the Replicator begins printing, there's a bit of a waiting process. First, the platform itself heats (to a default 110 degrees Celsius), followed by the extruders (220 degrees Celsius by default). The extruders, naturally, melt the plastic down, while the heat from the platform plays a role in keeping the object in place as it's printed -- or, more precisely, the lattice work foundation that object is built on top of. Without the heat turned up enough, you again risk throwing the whole process off, particularly when the printer is vibrating wildly.
We ran through the process a few more times, tweaking things along the way and running into new issues as we progressed -- like when the demo cube we were printing was knocked off the platform by the Stepstruder itself, or when the nozzle pressed down too hard on an object, which melted at the heat and stuck to the toolhead. It took several frustrating trials, but we finally printed out an acceptable object -- a small, black and white checkerboard cube. It was time, naturally, to move onto bigger and better things -- and when your boss tells you he wants nothing more than a real-life Weighted Companion Cube from Portal 2, you begrudgingly concede.
Thankfully, printing out complicated objects doesn't require a mastery of CAD or other complex 3D modeling software. It's just a matter of going to MakerBot's Thingiverse site, finding something you like, downloading it as an .stl file and opening it up in the ReplicatorG software. The site has an impressive selection of open-source creations from enthusiasts and MakerBot employees -- it's really easy to get lost on there, as we found out during our testing. But Tim had clearly been obsessed with the idea of taking home his own piece of Aperture Science since the MakerBot team first showed us one back at CES. The one we saw back then was roughly the size of a soccer ball, but we figured we'd start with something a bit more modest at one inch cubed.
The ReplicatorG software is reasonably user-friendly. While not always immediately apparent how, you can easily make alterations to the object, including alternating nozzles to switch up its color for dual extruders. You can also export the project to an SD card to stick into the Replicator or, if you're already tethered, you can start printing directly from the software. Of course, if you're an experienced 3D modeler, you've got a lot more leeway -- in fact, you can, as promised, print pretty much anything your heart desires (within the material and spatial limits, naturally). The rest of us, however, are mostly beholden to the creativity of others. Thankfully, the community has been really hard at work designing some truly amazing stuff on that end.
The Companion Cube printed without a hitch in under 20 minutes, so we continued our pop culture bent, printing out an MST3K silhouette for the corner of a computer screen and a 3D statue of Mario flashing the "V" for victory. The larger the object, the more likely you are to run into an error. The Italian plumber, for example, started off perfectly, but began to degrade a bit as it went along, leading to a frayed bill of his cap and some messed up finger action -- nothing a few more tweaks to the calibration system couldn't help, no doubt. In all, he took about an hour and a half to print, including warm-up time. But it all sort of drives the same point home -- the Replicator is far from a plug-and-play 3D solution. It is, however, a lot closer to that dream than we've seen in the past.
Between the $2,000 price tag ($1,750 for the single extruder) -- plus around $50 per spool of ABS -- and the calibration / upkeep required to print, it's hard to recommend the Replicator to the casual consumer. And as far as that question of usefulness goes, it all depends on your definition of the term. A large percentage of the products on Thingiverse fall into the "toy" category, though, folks are coming up with novel uses every day. Say, for example, if the knob breaks off on your stove and you can't buy an exact replacement -- just print one up.
For the most part, however, the Replicator is really about novelty and the mere cool factor of having a product that can print out just about anything you can imagine. By those standards, this thing is downright amazing. All of those office workers who saw the printer in action were positively floored that such a thing can exist -- and there's really no question why. It's a truly awe-inspiring technology that has already begun to transform design industries, and the Replicator takes a big step toward making it a home-based technology. Casual consumers should wait for a future version. For tinkerers and hobbyists, however, it's $2,000 well-spent.
- MST3K silhouette
- Mario (posed)
- Companion Cube
- Crowd Sourced Abraham Lincoln
- Lucky Charms Cereal Sifter
- PIXAR's Luxo Jr.
- 3D Catan Terrain Pieces
- Fully Printable Padlock
- Dinosaur skull
Terrence O'Brien contributed to this report. | <urn:uuid:dcd61519-c7a1-4a46-ae86-cceda8d11707> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/01/makerbot-replicator-hands-on-the-dawning-of-3d-printers-in-ever/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961403 | 3,456 | 2 | 2 |
Bryan Fitzgerald wrote a story this morning about the puppy that fell off a cliff in Thacher Park. It’s a good news story and we’re happy the pup survived the 75-foot plunge with just a broken leg.
The story included this line: “The dog’s owner was walking Shiba in the Hales Cave area of the park without a leash,” attributed to Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple. Say what?
I think it’s cool when any dog is so well-trained that it can be walked without a leash. But a puppy? In an area with 75-foot cliffs?
When I take my dog for walks in the woods, he’s on a 20-feet long leash. It lets him romp around, but keeps him close enough so he can’t run for the hills if he catches the scent of God knows what. For those of you with more experience, can a six-month puppy be trusted in Thacher Park without a leash? | <urn:uuid:a1ac09f9-8584-47ec-b5c5-868c39151f33> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.timesunion.com/dogs/category/training/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938608 | 212 | 1.570313 | 2 |
On the last day of the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation State Convention, Elk Mound farmer Jim Holte was elected president of the state's largest farm organization.
After the convention was adjourned, the new board met and Holte was elected president. Holte hopped in his vehicle and drove back to Elk Mound.
"I went home for one day, got the cattle fed and spent the next couple days in the office (in Madison)," he explains. "It's a change in roles and it's busy, but I'm enjoying it."
Holte succeeds Waupun dairy farmer Bill Bruins who served as Farm Bureau president for nine years from 2003 to 2012. A year ago, Bruins said he would not seek re-election for a 10th year.
"Bill was very gracious to announce that early," Holte says. "It gave me time to think about it and consider running."
Holte farms on the Dunn County farm where he grew up. After graduating from University of Wisconsin-River Falls with a bachelor's degree in farm management and ag economics in 1975, he started dairy farming. He and his college sweetheart, Gayle, were married in 1976. Gayle is a clinical instructor in the Communication Sciences and Disorders Department at UW-Eau Claire. She supervises both undergraduate and graduate students who are preparing to be speech and language pathologists.
"I was in the dairy business until 1997 when we sold the cows and transitioned to beef," Holte explains. "We buy feeder cattle and feed them out. "
The 59 year old farms 460 acres, and at the time he was elected, he was feeding 400 Holstein and Black Angus steers. | <urn:uuid:8b07d050-9bd6-4b68-a96c-34b6af7745fe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://farmprogress.com/story-holte-settling-9-95281 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984537 | 344 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Brain Tumor vs Brain Cancer
Tumor (tumour) is defined as new growth (neoplasm). Brain tumors are new growth of the brain tissue or the covering of the brain. Tumors can be benign (harmless tumors) or malignant (cancer). If a tumor breach the covering and spreads in to other parts it is considered as cancer. Both benign and cancer tumors rarely produce the symptoms early. Usually the symptoms are due to the pressure effect and increased intra cranial pressure. Skull bone is limiting the space to grow. So any new growth will increase the intra cranial pressure. The symptoms may be headache, vomiting and numbness of the hand / leg or fits (depends on the site of the tumor). As these symptoms are non specific to the disease, the diagnosis needs the imaging techniques to diagnose.
CT or MRI is needed to identify the size and site of the tumor. Benign tumors are usually slow growing and usually need no treatment unless it compresses the brain matter. But brain cancer needs emergency intervention. It may be brain surgery, chemotherapy (drug therapy) or radio therapy. The type of the tumor will be confirmed when the tumor tissue taken by surgery and examined under microscopy.
Fortunately the occurring of brain tumor is considerably low. And most of the brain tumors are benign. The availability of the imaging techniques are helpful to diagnose the brain tumors.
• Brain tumors can be benign or malignant.
• Benign tumors are harmless, however they can cause damage by pressure effect or increased intra cranial pressure.
• Malignant tumors can be from brain tissue or secondary deposit (from other cancers)
• Benign tumors need no emergency treatment unless causing damage.
• Malignant tumors need emergency treatment. | <urn:uuid:6c475a59-4500-41a8-90a6-6187f9a77506> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-brain-tumor-and-vs-brain-cancer/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.903551 | 358 | 3.484375 | 3 |
The growth of interest in gardening in recent years has seen some newer gardens become established and an increased interest in restoring old ones. As a result touring gardens in Ireland is a rewarding experience, for both the casual and the passionate gardener.
Many of Ireland’s best gardens adjoin its castles and in particular its great houses and as a result are in wonderful and often very scenic locations. They were established at a time when people could afford to employ retinues of staff to maintain them. Those days are no more and although some are now in government ownership and managed (generally to a high standard) by various state agencies, other are still in private ownership and can require really heroic dedication to maintain. I only mention this so that when you are asked for payment to enter you pay up cheerfully!
The house that once stood here is now gone, lost to fire in 1951, only the impressive entrance gates hinting at previous grandeur.
Thankfully the gardens survived. Designed by Edward Lutyens, and considered among his best gardens, they are surrounded by an earlier planned parkland.Read More
A 17th century garden little changed in 3 centuries, the gardens at Kilruddery House are of special interest to gardening historians, but you certainly don’t have to be one to enjoy them.
The house has been home to the same family for almost 4 centuries and is only open in May, June and September but it’s worth making an effort to see if you are here at the right time.Read More
If Kildare is the home of the horse in Ireland, this is it’s headquarters. With stallions, mares and foals to see and a museum celebrating the history of the horse in Ireland, its a must for any horse lover.
But a visit to the Irish National stud is not just about horses, there is also two beautiful gardens to see, the Japanese Garden and one which commemorates the patron saint of gardeners.Read More
This vast enclosed park in Dublin houses a Zoo, residences for the president of Ireland and the US ambassador as well as a herd of wild deer.
There are wide open green spaces, secluded glens, grounds for cricket, polo and other sports and a pretty good restaurant in the visitor centre. It’s a wonderful place to explore.Read More
Killykeen is a large forested area beside Lough Oughter in Co Cavan, which as well as good walks has an interesting ruined castle on an Island and a number of ancient megalithic structure, the largest of which is the Gartnanoul Court Tomb.
The park is in the care of Coillte, the Irish Forestry Board, and is also a popular area with anglers and bird watchers. Admission to Killykeen is free.Read More
This small garden is managed and staffed by the residents of Camphill, a movement composed of individuals, many with special needs, who live together in a mutually supportive environment.
Its a low key but lovely place, with an excellent restuarant and a small garden centre, also run by Camphill, alongside.Read More
The history of early Ireland is brought vividly to life here, through reconstructed buildings and re-enactments of the life and work of Irish people in the distant past.
Although there are no original historic structures here, the reconstructions are historically accurate and were made using the methods of the time, so they are a close as it gets.Read More
Tullynally has been home to the Pakenham family for more that 350 years, and still is.
It’s very much a living home but has changed relatively little over the years and its interior gives a wonderful glimpse into how life was lived, both upstairs and downstairs, in Ireland’s great houses.Read More
There are several very different gardens here, including the perfect kitchen garden growing vegetables and herbs for the famous Ballymaloe restuarant in Co Cork.
While adults may enjoy that one and the herb garden most, children will inevitably be drawn to the maze and the nearby magical shell house.Read More
Surprisingly located in suburban Dublin the Dillon garden is packed with unusual plants beautifully planted.
It’s possibly the most beautifully domestic garden in Dunlin, indeed Ireland, and is testimony to the slavish attention to detail of its owner, Helen Dillon. But it never looks laboured – there is the feeling when you are there that it ‘just happened’.Read More
In the ‘Garden of Ireland’, Co Wicklow, Mount Usher is a place of careful but informal planting in keeping with the surrounding countryside.
The relatively recent addition of an Avoca Hand Weavers store and café has made the gardens even more of a destination, and it would be very easy to spend the best part of a day here.Read More
Located in the wonderful Phoenix Park, Dublin Zoo is one of Ireland’s most popular visitor attractions and is a perennial kid’s favourite.
The zoo is involved in many international breeding programmes for endangered species, which means there are always baby animals to see. But despite all the exotic animals on show, a favourite spot for many is the Pets Corner, where domestic animals live.Read More | <urn:uuid:a2ae8194-d3c7-40ac-82b6-c29b577c4029> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dochara.com/ireland/places-to-visit/parks-gardens/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965648 | 1,091 | 1.921875 | 2 |
A reader has asked me to suggest some books on emotional age and trauma. I have written some blog entries on emotional age and trauma here:
- Lost Developmental Stages of Abused Children
- “Stuck” at a Younger Developmental Stage
- Emotional Age and Abuse
- Parenting for Adopted Child’s Emotional Age
I also wrote a more in-depth series on my personal blog about unmet needs and the lost stages of development due to trauma, which begins here. I used Doris Bryant’s book Beyond Integration: One Multiple's Journey as the source for each lost stage of development, in part because it is so thorough and in part because it rang so true for my own lost stages of development due to child abuse.
Not only do children have to endure the physical signs and scars of sexual abuse, children who are being, or have been sexually abused commonly exhibit many different behavioral signs as well. Often, out of fear children keep quiet about the abuse that is happening to them, which is why it is so important for parents to know not only the physical signs of sexual abuse to look out for, but the behavioral signs as well. If your child is acting out with the behaviors listed below, he or she just may be screaming out for help the only way that they know how.
April is National Poetry month in the United States, so it is entirely appropriate that today's guest blogger is poet Karen Belanger. She has been in adoption activism, reform, education, search & reunion for about 10 years now. She says that writing about her adoption experiences and speaking publicly has been extremely affective for her in healing the trauma of abuse and rejection by her adoptive parents. She has also published a book of poetry titled "Assembling Self", an adoptee journey in poetry while trying to find her roots. These are some of her poems.
MSN's Health Channel has a lengthy feature about the effect of trauma on attention. Though the story opens with a focus on an adopted child, it draws on multiple studies to look at the prevalence of trauma in America--much more widespread than you would have thought--and its impact on different parts of the brain. And the writer (co-author of "The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog and Other Stories from a Child Psychiatrist's Notebook: What Traumatized Children Can Teach Us About Loss, Love and Healing") contends that what many are calling hyperactivity is actually hypervigilance because children who have been subjected to trauma are then constantly on the alert for danger. But buried halfway through the story is a bombshell: Children suffering the effects of trauma have elevated levels of adrenaline and noradrenaline, which are further raised by the drugs usually prescribed for attention deficit problems. It's not the first story to challenge the convention wisdom on ADHD, and it likely won't be the last. | <urn:uuid:99375a74-d4ba-4fcc-9a51-209ba24547cc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ouradopt.com/category/trauma | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00076-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968326 | 591 | 2.21875 | 2 |
New terms are being used to better describe the kinds of deaths that can occur on wild horse gathers:
Acute condition death = animal that dies or is euthanized due to acute injuries or medical conditions brought about by the gather and removal process including those that occur during capture, sorting and holding at the gather site. This term will include animals that die for known or unknown reasons thought to be related to gather activities.
Chronic/pre-existing condition death = animal that dies or is euthanized for reasons related to chronic or pre-existing conditions such as body condition, lameness, serious physical defects, etc. This term will include animals that are euthanized for conditions not brought about by the gather activity. | <urn:uuid:1e30dfc2-bece-4809-b1a4-fb42c77d22cb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/fo/wfo/blm_programs/wild_horses_and_burros/Jackson_Mountains_Gather/gatreports/new_terms_for_deaths.print.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968967 | 146 | 2.8125 | 3 |
FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT
The role of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the
upgradation of technology, skills and managerial capabilities
is now well accepted. Additional investments, over and
above the investments possible with the available domestic
resources, help in providing much needed employment
The 2012 A.T. Kearney Foreign Direct Investment Confidence Index has ranked India second most attractive destination for FDI , an improvement from its third rank in the year 2010.
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows for the year 2012-13
Under the extant Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy, FDI upto 100 percent is allowed under the automatic route in most sectors/activities, except a few, where sectoral equity/entry route restrictions have been retained. FDI, under the automatic route, does not require any approval and only involves intimation to the Reserve Bank of India within 30 days of inward remittances and/or issue of shares to non-residents.
Amount of FDI inflows for the financial year 2012-13 for the month of December 2012 was US$ 1.1 billion. Amount of total FDI equity inflows into India (equity inflows + re-invested earnings + other capital) for the financial year 2012-13 (from April 2012 to December, 2012) was estimated at US$ 27.19 billion. Cumulative Amount of FDI Equity Inflows (excluding, amount remitted through RBI’s-NRI Schemes) (from April, 2000 to December, 2012) was recorded at US$ 187.80 billion.
Sector-wise distribution of FDI inflows
Top 10 Sectors attracting highest FDI inflows: During December 2012, top 10 Sectors attracting highest FDI inflows were: Services Sector (19 per cent), Construction development: Townships,housing, built-up infrastructure* (12 per cent), Telecommunications (7 per cent), Computer Software & Hardware (6 per cent), Drugs & Pharmaceuticals (5 per cent),Chemicals (other than Fertilizers) (5 per cent), Power (4 per cent), Automobile Industry (4 per cent), Metallurgical Industries (4 per cent), Hotel & Tourism (3 per cent).
*In line with the extant FDI policy, the Sectors “ Housing and Real Estates” &” Construction Activities” have been renamed as construction development: Townships, housing, built-up infrastructure and construction development projects and construction (Infrastructure) activities, respectively.
Country-wise distribution of FDI inflows
Top 10 Investing Countries: Top 10 investing countries during December 2012 were: Mauritius (38 per cent), Singapore (10 per cent),U.K (9 per cent), Japan (7 per cent), U.S.A (6 per cent),Netherlands (5 per cent), Cyprus (4 per cent), Germany (3 per cent), France (2 per cent), U.A.E (1 per cent).
Foreign Direct Investment Policy
India's foreign investment policy has been formulated
with a view to inviting and encouraging FDI into India.
The process of regulation and approval has been substantially
liberalised. FDI under automatic route is permitted
in most activities/sectors, except a few where prior
approval of the Government is required.
Government of India welcomes FDI in all sectors where
it is permitted, especially for development of infrastructure,
technological upgradation of Indian industry through
'greenfield' investments and in projects having the
potential of creating employment opportunities on a
large scale. Investment for setting up Special Economic
Zones (SEZs) and establishing manufacturing units are
Entry Routes for Investment
Procedure under Automatic Route
FDI in sectors/activities permitted under automatic
route does not require any prior approval either by
the Government or RBI. The investors are only required
to notify the Regional office concerned of RBI within
30 days of receipt of inward remittances and file the
required documents with that office within 30 days of
issue of shares to foreign investors.
Procedure under Government
FDI in activities not covered under the automatic route
require prior Government approval. Such proposals are
considered by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board
(FIPB), a Government body that offers single window
clearance for proposals on foreign investment in the
country that are not allowed access through the automatic
Government approval is required in the following cases:
Where a foreign investor has an existing joint venture/technology transfer / trademark agreement in the same field, prior to January 12, 2005, the proposal for fresh investment / technology transfer / collaboration / trademark agreement in a new joint venture would have to be under the Government approval route through FIPB.
In sectors with caps, including inter-alia defence
production, air transport services, ground handling
services, asset reconstruction companies, private
sector banking, broadcasting, commodity exchanges,
credit information companies, insurance, print media,
telecommunications and satellites, Government approval / FIPB
approval would be required in all cases where:
The control or ownership of an existing Indian
company, currently owned or controlled by resident
Indian citizens and Indian companies, which are
owned or controlled by resident Indian citizens,
is being transferred to a non-resident entity
as a consequence of transfer of shares and/or
fresh issue of shares.
These guidelines do not apply for sectors/activities
where there are no foreign investment caps, that is,
100% foreign investment is permitted under the automatic
Investment by way of Share Acquisition
A foreign investing company is entitled to acquire
the shares of an Indian company without obtaining
any prior permission of the FIPB subject to prescribed
parameters/ guidelines.If the acquisition of shares
directly or indirectly results in the acquisition
of a company listed on the stock exchange, it
would require the approval of the Security Exchange
Board of India.
New investment by an existing collaborator
A foreign investor with an existing venture or collaboration
(technical and financial) with an Indian partner in
particular field proposes to invest in another area,
such type of additional investment is subject to a prior
approval from the FIPB, wherein both the parties are
required to participate to demonstrate that the new
venture does not prejudice the old one.
General Permission of RBI under
Indian companies having foreign investment approval
through FIPB route do not require any further
clearance from RBI for receiving inward remittance
and issue of shares to the foreign investors.The
companies are required to notify the concerned
Regional office of the RBI of receipt of inward
remittances within 30 days of such receipt and
within 30 days of issue of shares to the foreign
investors or NRIs.
Participation by International
Equity participation by international financial institutions
such as ADB, IFC, CDC, DEG, etc., in domestic companies
is permitted through automatic route, subject to SEBI/RBI
regulations and sector specific cap on FDI.
Applications for all FDI cases, except Non-Resident
Indian (NRI) investments, Export Oriented Units (EOUs)
and for FDI in retail trading (single branded product)
should be submitted to the FIPB Unit, Department of
Economic Affairs (DEA), Ministry of Finance. The procedure
for filing FDI applications has been simplified through
e-filing facility launched by the DEA. For e-filing,
please see FIPB website at www.fipbindia.com .
Applications for NRI investment, EOU and for FDI in
single-brand retail trading should be submitted to Secretariat
for Industrial Assistance (SIA) in Department of Industrial
Policy & Promotion (DIPP). | <urn:uuid:57685c93-d023-40ee-a3e8-b32c99d1b790> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://indiainbusiness.nic.in/investment/for_dir_investment.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.901376 | 1,632 | 1.960938 | 2 |
On the Top of the World
Fifty-two years before the recent expedition to Antarctica (see page 22), a team of Columbia scientists took off in the opposite direction. They were led by a young geophysicist named Ken Hunkins.
During the summer of 1957, Hunkins and his colleagues lived on a square-mile chunk of ice that drifted for roughly three miles a day on the Arctic Ocean. The scientists slept in heated huts, ate food dropped by the U.S. Air Force, and spent the rest of the time making discoveries.
They lowered explosives into the ocean, set them off, and timed the echo to gauge the depth of the water. They also scooped muck from the seabed and extracted 15-foot-long cores of sediment and rock from the ocean floor.
“Examining the cores is like opening a book,” says Hunkins, now 81. “Each layer tells you something about geological history.” Those cores are still at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory — and so is Hunkins, who continues to do research, mostly on how winds affect the currents of Lake Champlain. His interest in the subject began during that trip to the Arctic, when he helped prove the existence of Ekman spirals, currents that are driven by winds.
A Kodak Retina captured an image of Hunkins, above, in 35mm Kodachrome. He stands beside a theodolite, a celestial navigation tool, and is wrapped in a fur coat that was purchased in an Alaskan village. As one of the first American researchers to explore the area, Hunkins felt certain he would find something new. In one of the cores, he discovered a previously unknown fossil that resembles a miniature conch shell. Paleontologists later named it Colus hunkinsi.
What else did they find? “Oh yeah, there was a rock formation,” he says, referring to a conical mountain submerged in the ocean halfway between the North Pole and Alaska. It is now called the Hunkins Seamount.
— Cindy Rodríguez | <urn:uuid:5e9679ff-098a-4c00-b2a8-669c6b2ad049> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.columbia.edu/cu/alumni/Magazine/Spring2009/finals.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962576 | 445 | 3.765625 | 4 |
Basic Facts About Pandas
Looked upon as the ambassador for all endangered species, the giant panda is a well-recognized symbol of international wildlife conservation. Giant pandas have black fur on their ears, around their eyes (eye patches), muzzle, legs and shoulders. Good tree climbers, pandas can also swim to escape predators. Pandas use an enlarged wrist bone that looks like a thumb to grasp objects like bamboo.
© Paiwei Wei / iStockphoto
Pandas eat bamboo. Since giant pandas have the digestive system of a carnivore, they do not have the ability to digest cellulose (plant matter) efficiently and thus derive little energy and little protein from consumption of bamboo. So, the average giant panda has to eat as much as 20 to 45 lbs (9-20 kg) of bamboo shoots a day. On occasion, giant pandas are also known to eat flowers, vines, tufted grasses, green corn, honey and rodents.
Today, an estimated 2,000 pandas are found in the wild. By the end of 2006, there were a reported 180 pandas in captivity on mainland China and about 20 in other countries.
Did You Know?
At birth, panda cubs typically weigh 4-8oz (100–200g) and measure around 6 inces (15cm) long.
Historically pandas lived in both mountainous and lowland regions of central-western and southwestern China. They are now found only in the mountains of central China, in Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces.
Giant pandas are found mostly in thick bamboo and coniferous forests (evergreens with seed cones) at 8,500 to 11,500 feet in elevation. They are generally solitary animals that spend most of their days feeding. However, they do communicate with each other once in a while through scent markings, calls and occasional meetings.
Unlike other bears, giant pandas do not hibernate. In the winter, they move to lower elevations to keep warm, while traveling to higher elevations in the summer to stay cool. They can be active at any time of the day or night.
Pandas do not have permanent homes but sleep at the bottom of trees under stumps and rock ledges.
Did You Know?
Pandas have evolved special features to help them eat their favorite food: strong jaws, large molars, and a "thumb" that helps them hold the bamboo while they eat!
Mating Season: March-May.
Gestation: 3-5 months.
Litter size: 1-2 cubs.
Cubs are born blind and helpless and if there are twins, only one cub survives. The cub's eyes open at six to eight weeks and it starts to move around at three months. Weaned at six months, the cub becomes independent after a year. They may, however, stay with their mothers for up to three years before they strike out on their own.
Height: 2.5 feet (.8m) at shoulders.
Length: 5 ft (1.5m) (with a 6 inch (.2m) tail).
Weight: Around 250 lbs (113 kg) (males); around 220 lbs (100 kg) (females).
Lifespan 20-30 years in captivity | <urn:uuid:8dc905e7-2dda-40cb-9f10-9b1204fac4f1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.defenders.org/panda/basic-facts | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951839 | 692 | 3.734375 | 4 |
The American Civil War was fought between the South (Confederate states) and the North (Union states). It lasted from 1861 to 1865 and was triggered by the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860. Learn more about the American Civil War, its causes, the people involved, and the aftermath.
Q: What was the American Civil War?
A: The American Civil War was a conflict between the United States government and eleven southern slave states. These eleven southern states declared their secession from the U.S. and formed the Confederate States of America, or “Confederacy”.
Q: When did the civil war take place? How long?
A: Hostilities began on April 12, 1861 with the attack on U.S. military installation by Confederate forces at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. The civil war lasted four years and ended in 1865.
Q: What were the main causes of the war?
A: The primary cause of the American Civil War was the slavery issue. About 43% of Southern families owned slaves and they viewed slaves as their property, and feared the idea of racial equality. As an institution, slavery was important to the agricultural economy of the South. In the North, there was an abolitionist movement by writers and social reformers who called for an end to slavery on religious and ethical grounds .
Another major economic point was tariffs, as the South despised the tariffs that hurt their economy while the North was for the tariffs that strengthened their industries. Abraham Lincoln was not liked by many in the South, as he claimed that anyone who supported secession, such as the South did, would be convicted of treason.
Q: What was the Confederacy?
A: The Confederacy was made up of eleven southern states that seceded from the United States. It was called the Confederacy as it used a confederate form of government rather than the federal public which was used in the rest of the United States. A confederacy has members that form a common form an association and coordinate certain activities together while maintaining their independence in other ways.
Q: Who were the abolitionists?
A: The abolitionists were a minority of American citizens who sought to abolish slavery. They were for equal rights for African-Americans and wanted to end the slave trade. Prominent abolitionists included: journalist William Lloyd Garrison; social reformer and writer Frederick Douglas, who was also an ex-slave; writers and thinkers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau and poet Walt Whitman. While many in the North opposed slavery and most Northern states had abolished slavery before the Civil War, most individuals in the North did not favor racial equality between the races and there was widespread segregation in the North.
Q: How many people were slaves in the United States during this period?
A: There were nearly 200,000 slaves in the United States during the American Civil War. These included African American men, women, and children of all ages and 95% of African-Americans lived in the South, making them one third of the population there.
Q: Who was Lincoln?
A: Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States from March of 1861 until his assassination in April of 1865. He led the country through the American Civil War and ended slavery. He sought to preserve the nation but his election triggered succession because he had been such an outspoken opponent of slavery during his campaign for the Presidency. He was a gifted public speaker and a figure who provoked fierce opinions on either side of the issues of his time.
Q: Who was General Lee?
A: General Robert Edward Lee was a United States Army officer and became the commanding general of the Confederate army during the American Civil War. When President Abraham Lincoln asked General Lee to join the Union forces in early 1861, Lee rejected the offer as he could not dishonor his home state of Virginia. Privately, he wrote letters condemning secession but was drawn into the conflict to protect his home state.
Q: Who was General Grant?
A: General Ulysses S. Grant was a military commander during the Civil War, as well as during the post-war Reconstruction periods. He defeated the Confederate military through aggressive campaigns and a strategy of “total war.” He and President Lincoln grew to become close friends as well as political allies. Later, he became the 18th President of the United States and served from 1869 to 1877.
Q: What were the three major battles of the war?
A: The first significant battle of the civil war was the First Battle of Bull Run, which the South carried. On April 6 and 7th, 1862, the battle of Shiloh was both the bloodiest single-day and two-day battle in American history. The Gettysburg battle led to the Union victory that ended General Lee’s belief that a single victory could defeat the Army of the Potomac.
Q: Were children involved in the war?
A: Children played a role in the American Civil War as more than 300 Northern Soldiers were under the age of thirteen. Many children lied about their age or used fake names to fight in the war as it seemed like an adventure in their eyes. Many boys became drummer boys who led the marching troops into battle. Boy soldiers were not even ten years of age but still received guns and gun powder. They were treated the same as the older soldiers as they were considered mature for signing up for their army.
Q: How were women involved?
A: When men went off to fight in the American Civil War, women took over their jobs back at home. Women who had once held clerk positions became government workers. They also became involved in the industrial business. Many women accompanied their husbands into battle by posing as male soldiers. Some women even took on dangerous spy missions.
Q: How many people died as a result?
A: The American Civil War was the deadliest war in American History. The war resulted in nearly 620,000 deaths. These included 260,000 Confederate deaths of which 93,000 were killed in combat. Union deaths totaled 360,000 deaths in which 110,000 were in combat. Disease caused the remaining deaths during the civil war.
Q: What is the Gettysburg Address?
A: The Gettysburg Address was a speech given by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. This speech was delivered on Thursday, November 19, 1863 nearly four and a half months after the Union armies had defeated the Confederacy at the Battle of Gettysburg.
Q: What was the aftermath of the war?
A: Reconstruction began during the war and continued until 1877. The war totaled billions of dollars and fed hatreds and intolerances. Nearly every battlefield in which civil war battles were fought now remains a national or state park.
Q: What are some movies and books to watch about the war?
A: There are several great films based on the American Civil War, such as Cold Mountain, Gone with the Wind, Gettysburg, and Glory. Recommended civil war literature includes Thunder at Gettysburg, Diary of a Drummer Boy, and Behind the Blue and Gray: The Soldier’s Life in the Civil War.
Black American Contributions to Union Intelligence
Life and Death in the Civil War
The American Civil War: Movies and TV
Written by Michael S. Atwood | <urn:uuid:46e02b5c-9594-4d59-bee3-00f492daa0e1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.costumesupercenter.com/csc_inc/html/static/btarticles/civilwarguideforkids.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.989398 | 1,497 | 3.984375 | 4 |
It's our weekly trip around the region. This week, we visit Penn Quarter in Northwest D.C. and Lake Arbor, Md.
Penn Quarter, D.C.
Nanette Paris has been living in Washington, D.C.'s Penn Quarter neighborhood for about ten years. The neighborhood's boundaries are roughly Pennsylvania Avenue NW to the south, 5th Street NW to the east and 11th Street NW to the west. The northern border of the neighborhood is New York and Massachusetts avenues NW.
Before the neighborhood went through the development of recent years, says Paris, "it was mainly considered downtown" and had yet to be called Penn Quarter.
"Many people think that [Penn Quarter] was a recently developed neighborhood, but it actually started in the early seventies," says Paris, who notes that back then, the area was relatively run-down. During that time, the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation was formed to revitalize the neighborhood between the White House and the Capitol, explains Paris.
"Its mission was to plan a mixed-use area that had residences, offices, theater, other entertainment venues, restaurants and retail," she says. Much of the Penn Quarter of today — the parks, public spaces and theaters — echoes the Pennsylvania Avenue plan of 1974.
The historic buildings tell a vivid history of the city's past. Near Paris's building, for example, the U.S. General Services Administration found "a treasure trove of artifacts" during construction of the complex that turned out to be some of the personal belongings of Clara Barton, a notable American humanitarian and nurse.
"Twenty boxes of newspapers, books, clothing, fabric" were discovered, Paris says. It turned out that the original building on the site held the Civil War-era Missing Soldiers Office. As the war ended, Barton took up the cause of connecting family members with information on the whereabouts of soldiers.
Other well-known buildings include the infamous Ford's Theater as well as the Patent Building, which now houses the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
"On my way to work I pass several different restaurants; I pass museums; I pass theaters, retail," Paris says. She loves the vibrancy, she says: the historical and the brand new.
Lake Arbor, Md.
Kevin Alexander was still single when he moved to the Lake Arbor community in Mitchellville, Md. 25 years ago. Since then, the 51-year-old got married, had children and became an active resident in his small, but robust community.
Lake Arbor is about 15 miles east of D.C., located just off of the Capital Beltway in Prince George's County. In 2010, the population was just under 10,000 residents, most of them African-American. Lake Arbor is an affluent community that has both young families and retirees.
An attraction for the community is the Lake Arbor Jazz Festival, which Alexander produces. This year was the third annual festival and it brought more than 8,000 music lovers to Lake Arbor.
In the past, residents and visitors also enjoyed the Lake Arbor Golf Club, which closed in 2010. Alexander hopes the golf course will reopen one day.
"It's a wonderful course. It was a challenging course, and right now it's just open space," Alexander says. "But the plan is for someone or a business or a golf course to come back in and operate it as a full-fledged golf course again."
Volunteerism is an important value in Lake Arbor, Alexander says, and he tries to impart that to newcomers.
"What you will find sometimes is new residents coming into the community not having the same passion for volunteerism unless they run into someone like me who can pull them aside and say, 'Here's what we're doing. Help us out,'" he says.
One of the top concerns for Lake Arbor residents is development, according to Alexander. Community members work together to ensure that whenever a structure, school or shopping center is built, it meets the standards of the neighborhood.
"The first thing that will get the residents up in arms is low-quality development," Alexander says. "This community is going on 30 years, and when you drive through you can see that the level of the quality of the homes is still there," he said.
It's not just the community's tennis courts, swimming pools and activities sponsored by the Lake Arbor Foundation that keep Alexander living in this neighborhood. He's also met a number of wonderful people there over the years.
"Friends from all walks of life live here in this community, and once you meet people and you have a network, then it's difficult to leave," he said. "I've had many opportunities to move to Northern Virginia or north of Baltimore, but I chose to stay here in Lake Arbor because of the community."
[Music: "No, Girl" by John Davis from Title Tracks / "Cruel Summer (Karaoke Version)" by The Karaoke Channel from The Karaoke Channel - In the Style of Bananarama - Vol. 2]
Explore previously featured neighborhoods on our Door to Door map:
This map shows previous Door to Door segments, and includes links to photos and show audio. The yellow marker represents neighborhoods featured in Washington, D.C., the blue represents neighborhoods in Maryland, and the red represents neighborhoods in Virginia. | <urn:uuid:2ea6d99d-c5aa-475c-92e4-f1328b126269> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wamu.org/programs/metro_connection/12/08/03/door_to_door_penn_quarter_dc_and_lake_arbor_md | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975536 | 1,097 | 2.15625 | 2 |
Importance of Keyword Research in Optimising Your Website and Getting Business
What Is Keyword Research?
Keyword research is the art of finding the keywords your potential customers are using on the search engines, then determining how to incorporate those keywords into your marketing strategy. Through keyword research you can determine what words your customers, and even your competitors, are using most. This gives you an advantage in picking out the keywords you should employ for best results.
Do You Need Keyword Research?
More than 20% of the world’s population uses the Internet, this number is steadily growing all the time. As far as the South African market is concerned, Africa has the fastest growing online population today, having increased a whopping 882% between 2000 and 2007.
The search engines (namely Google, having a market share greater than the combined weight of every other major search engine) dominate the online time of this steadily growing population and are therefore the most efficient way to tap this market.
What Does This Have To Do With Keywords?
More than just an assemblage of letters, keywords are complex designations, combinations of which make up the phrases that, concisely and accurately, describe your business to search engines and their users.
Keywords each have an array of statistics attached to them, through research and the right tools you can determine these statistics, and the relevance of each to your business goals. Thus working out the keywords that’ll work best for you.
For instance, optimising for a common term that broadly describes your business might mean targeting a widely searched-for term, but competition at that level will be cut-throat. Intensive keyword research can help you to prevent making such tactical blunders in your campaign by telling you the ‘supply and demand’ of chosen keywords.
In addition, broader terms are less likely to bring your website qualified traffic. Keyword research narrows your focus to target specific, and perhaps untapped, niche sectors of your market.
The ‘How?’ of Keyword Research
The biggest mistake you can make when building a list of keywords is making the assumption that you know what your customers are searching for. Chances are that without at least some keyword research you have no idea what words your target market is using to find you.
Doing the research might sound like a time-consuming and frustrating business, but honestly, you need to put in the effort to make sure your website is successful and profitable.
The keywords used by your clients and customers will be ever-changing, requiring regular research to make sure that your keyword list remains effective by keeping up with the trends of your users. This might require that you invest in either keyword research like that offered at Net Age, or a keyword research tool to help keep track of this vital aspect of your online business.
There are many keyword research tools you can find online and you can’t go wrong by investing in one of them.
Some examples of keyword research tools are seo book keyword tool, wordze, wordtracker, keyword elite, keyword intelligence, Google keyword tool and Google Adwords keyword tool.
There are a variety of other tools available if you just search around a bit.
Alternately, Net Age does employ dedicated keyword research staff, and offers keyword research as a service to all our customers. | <urn:uuid:c6e19e9f-f40e-4d5f-b57a-0fc0cfecdfb3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.netage.co.za/articles/resources/all/23-importance-of-keyword-research-in-optimising-your-website-and-getting-business | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928574 | 687 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Posted: Mar 4, 2013 12:07 PM by Elaine Sheridan
NBC News- The death of a 14-year-old girl who has become the poster child for banning caffeine-fueled energy drinks can't be blamed on the beverages, lawyers for the Monster Beverage Corp. said Monday.
Dan Callahan, a lawyer for Monster, said no blood tests were conducted to prove that Anais Fournier actually died of caffeine toxicity after drinking two 24-ounce Monster drinks in two days, and the girl had several preexisting conditions that predisposed her to the sudden cardiac arrhythmia that killed her in December 2011.
The company faces a wrongful death lawsuit filed last fall by the Maryland girl's parents, Wendy Crossland and Richard Fournier.
Doctors, coroners and other experts hired by Monster who analyzed the girl's medical records found "no connection" between Fournier's death and the drinks, Callahan said.
"There was no medical, scientific or factual evidence to support the medical examiner's conclusion of caffeine toxicity," Callahan said in a briefing with reporters Monday.
Bruce Goldfarb, a spokesman for the Maryland office of the chief medical examiner, Dr. David Fowler, said he couldn't comment because of the pending lawsuit. Dr. Ana Rubio conducted the autopsy, Goldfarb said.
Monster lawyers also said the firm's discovery process had found that Fournier drank coffee regularly and frequented Starbucks shops.
The autopsy report had concluded that Fournier died of "cardiac arrhythmia due to caffeine toxicity complicating mitral value regurgitation in the setting of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome," the lawsuit says. Fournier had been diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a connective tissue disease that can affect the heart.
At least 18 deaths and 150 injuries have been mentioned in connection with several brands of energy drinks since 2004, according to Food and Drug Administration records. However, those are only voluntary reports submitted by doctors, consumers and others and they have not been investigated, the FDA notes.
Monster has defended the safety of its products, noting that a 24-ounce energy drink contains 240 milligram of caffeine, compared with about 330 milligrams in a 16-ounce cup of Starbucks coffee. | <urn:uuid:2700ee3a-fc97-4bd3-a2af-df024cd3ade9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.koaa.com/news/monster-says-drink-didn-t-kill-girl/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970513 | 467 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Rudolphine TablesArticle Free Pass
Rudolphine Tables, Latin Tabulae Rudolphinae, planetary tables and star catalog published in 1627 by Johannes Kepler, based principally on the observations of Tycho Brahe. The best of the pretelescopic catalogs, it is accurate to a few minutes of arc and contains positions for 1,005 stars (increased by Kepler from Tycho’s 777) and tables and directions for locating the planets. It is the first catalog to include corrective factors for atmospheric refraction, and logarithmic tables. It was named for Rudolf II, Holy Roman emperor and patron of Kepler and Tycho.
What made you want to look up "Rudolphine Tables"? Please share what surprised you most... | <urn:uuid:da88dfa4-c6e9-45f5-9640-a15ed9d596f7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/512279/Rudolphine-Tables | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911522 | 159 | 3.25 | 3 |
These three sections give options to OCF 170-175. For the invitation to prayer (originally OCF 171, 2 options) there are five options on OCF 402, and these may be rendered “in similar words.” If a presider chooses similarity, so to speak, a good study of all these texts will be important. This is an adaptation that is less for the leader’s benefit, and more for the pastoral situation of the mourners and/or the deceased.Remember also that these are not prayers to God, but introductions that offer a limited explanation of what’s going on. It is more to direct the thoughts and prayers of the assembly to the important rituals that follow.
OCF 403 gives seven alternate texts for the Song of Farewell. With such a variety of good texts, I see no reason for a composer to strike out on his or her own with personally-composed texts. These given in OCF 403 have been neglected by composers of all sorts. I particularly like the imagery of number seven, which my friend Jerry Galipeau set wonderfully many years ago:
You shattered the gates of bronze and preached to the spirits in prison.
R. Deliver me, Lord, from the streets of darkness.
A light and a revelation to those confined in darkness. R.
“Redeemer, you have come,” they cried, the prisoners of silence. R.
Eternal rest, O Lord, and your perpetual light. R.
Sometime in the future, I hope to have time to set some or all of these texts. Perhaps some composers out there have already done so. If so, I’ll be pleased to link your manuscript or recording and offer some comments on the text. If not, I’ll eventually offer my own compositions and will welcome your comments.
OCF 404 offers three alternatives to the Prayer of Commendation (see OCF 175): one for a baptized person, and two for baptized children. | <urn:uuid:98eb3739-5b65-4737-9641-241d9a9d26cd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://catholicsensibility.wordpress.com/2011/01/19/ocf-402-404-final-commendation-and-farewell/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=20ee2ea151 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938062 | 416 | 1.578125 | 2 |
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Accrington school closed after ceiling collapse
8:00am Saturday 8th September 2012 in News
A SCHOOL is hoping to reopen next week after a ceiling of the Victorian building collapsed into a classroom.
St Mary Magdalen’s RC Primary School in Accrington said the collapse, which left equipment and furnishings covered in thick black soot, prompted an emergency assessment as to the safety of the building.
The works and assessments at the Devonshire Street school meant the start of term has been delayed. St Mary Magdalen’s said after a ‘fraught few weeks’ replacing equipment and restructuring the roof, the school is ready to open on Monday.
The collapse of the roof during the weekend of August 11 and 12 and is thought to be due to faults in the structure of the building.
In an update posted for parents online, headteacher Karen Hardman said: “It was in no way due to any current building work but was found to be due to the Victorian fabric of the building. This could not have be foreseen, a question which was asked many times of the site engineer. At this point the question of the school opening on time was not in doubt.
“It was decided classrooms should safety checked and that this process would involve removing the ceiling tiles and insulation to see the Victorian structure underneath. It was then decided to insert further safety beams into all ceilings, even though they were sound.
“This has been a very fraught three weeks where safety of all has been the first concern. We have worked continuously with builders and consultants to push for the school opening as early as possible and causing the least disruption.”
Text messages were sent out to parents informing them of a delay to the start of term. However it is thought that ongoing work at the school may have interrupted the school’s electronic communications.
The school building is now said to have been rendered safe by removing the suspended ceiling and inserting new beams under existing ones. The school then needed to be cleaned out and new equipment ordered. | <urn:uuid:767df7b1-bb28-4cdb-a19a-2c4ceed2760f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/blackburndarwenhyndburnribble/9917904.Accrington_school_closed_after_ceiling_collapse/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983533 | 447 | 1.742188 | 2 |
National Concrete Canoe Competition"
Wisconsin "Badgers" Win Fifth National Title
"Badgers become five time concrete canoe champions," by Joan Buhrman of ASCE, Kelly Mawby of BASF, and Hannah Hickey of the University of Washington, June 16, 2007.
2007 NCCC Qualifiers
The 2007 NCCC marked the 20th anniversary of the national concrete canoe competition. As the overall winner of the competition, Badgers were invited to represent the United States at the 2007 Dutch Concrete Canoe Challenge that took place in the Netherlands on September 7-9, 2007. ASCE and ACI cosponsored the effort (announcement)!
United States Versus Netherlands (Performance Predictions)
UW came away with awards for best construction for their design report and general canoe construction; and, best innovation for use of lightweight environmentally sound concrete to achieve great stiffness and strength. In the races, the Badgers took first in all but the women's endurance which they did not place in.
A summary of the results for Wisconsin appears below.
Men's 200m 1st place
2007 NCCC Coverage
With an international bid at stake, the action was fierce. The first place overall winner in each of 18 Conference was invited to compete in the 2007 National Concrete Canoe Competition. In addition, if the first place regional winner finished in the top five overall in the 2006 National Competition (UW-Madison, Cal-Poly San Luis Obispo, Clemson, Berkeley, and Michigan Tech)... the second place team was also invited to compete at nationals. Three second-place qualifiers were established and the University of Washington elected to participate as the host of this year's competition... establishing the field at 22 (see below).
The two newcomers in 2007 brought the number of schools that have participated at the national level to 107. Point totals, spreadsheets, and statistics for the 2007 NCCC and all other national competitions can be found in "For the Record."
John Gilbert (left) and Andrea Barnes (right) covered the event for ConcreteCanoe.org.
Details on each team's performance including a description of their presentation, every question asked by the judges, commentary on their stint, photos of their final product, and more can be found via the links embedded in the final placements listed below. Other competition photos are available courtesy of ASCE. The University of Nevada-Reno posted a spreadsheet and the University of Wisconsin-Madison archived the top design reports.
Design reports (25% of score) and compliance certificates were due on May 11th. These were evaluated prior to the competition.
The final products (25% of score) were judged in Red Square on Thursday, June 14th. We photographed the canoes with as little clutter (participants, spectators, etc.) as possible to show exactly what each school had to offer.
Oral presentations (25% of score) were delivered in Kane Hall on Friday, June 15th. We attended all of them and documented every question posed to the teams by the judges.
Races (25% of score) were held June 16th on Lake Sammamish (see description below). We were there and provided blow by blow coverage.
Continuing their tradition of concrete dominance for the fifth year in a row, the University of Wisconsin-Madison captured the ‘America’s Cup of Civil Engineering’ at the American Society of Civil Engineers’ (ASCE) 20th Annual National Concrete Canoe Competition in Seattle. In the end, their technical skills, ingenuity and dedication propelled them to victory in their 19.11-foot-long, 179-pound, natural gray canoe that the team christened, "Descendent."
2nd - University of Florida
- Madison - Great Lakes (1st place overall;
1st in paper; 3rd in presentation; 4th
Excellence in Design Award - Cal Poly - San Luis Obispo
(for their inlay system)
Wisconsin versus Florida (A Comparison of Hull Designs)
2007 NCCC Website Links
A Career Fair was held in conjunction with the 2007 NCCC on Thursday, June 14th, from 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. on Red Square on the University of Washington Campus adjacent to the concrete canoes. Participants were encouraged to visit the sponsoring companies' booths to talk with them about job openings (bring paper copies of your resume!) and thank them for their support. They were looking for interns as well as full-time employees. Many of the companies had offices in multiple locations around the country not just in the Pacific Northwest.
2007 NCCC Race Site - Lake Sammamish
The University of Washington hosted the event and races were held at Sunset Beach on Lake Sammamish.
Physical Characteristics of Lake Sammamish and its Drainage Basin
2008 National Concrete Canoe Competition
The 2008 National Concrete Canoe Competition is scheduled for June 19-21, 2008 in Quebec, Canada. The competition will be hosted by Ecole de Technologies Superieur (ETS). | <urn:uuid:77ca455c-cb95-44fe-a41d-cf0e1bebb965> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.uah.edu/student_life/organizations/ASCE/2007Nationals/entrypoint2007.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969376 | 1,046 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Why do we say 'tearing about' meaning rushing around in a rather haphazard way. I can't find the expression in any dictionary or thesaurus and am not sure if I am spelling it correctly. Most concerned it could die out if parents don't continue to use it to chastise lively children! Any ideas?
closed as general reference by Kris, Bill Franke, MετάEd, Hellion, Robusto Dec 27 '12 at 13:43
This question is too basic; it can be definitively and permanently answered by a single link to a standard internet reference source designed specifically to find that type of information. See the FAQ for guidance on how to improve it.
The core meaning of the verb tear expresses forceful action. When people tear about, in the Oxford English Dictionary’s definition they ‘move with violence or impetuosity’. Such usage is colloquial, but it has a long history, being first recorded in the seventeenth century. | <urn:uuid:5bf41a2a-e0b2-4c3e-afa4-a30377de80fb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/95474/why-do-we-say-tearing-about | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91796 | 207 | 2.71875 | 3 |
>> Wednesday, June 2, 2010
If Evolution is supported by so many facts, then why does the latest gallop poll show that less than 40 percent of the American people believe in Evolution? In America, students learn Evolution in elementary school, junior high, high school, and even college. All of the public institutions and many private institutions still teach Evolution? But somehow they still haven't convinced the majority of the masses that it is true. Even though the Internet is dominated by Evolutionist propaganda, people are still not buying into this theory. People have said that Evolution is a fact for the longest time and now with Ardi, they are rethinking their theory. I thought it was already declared a fact?
according to Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary means "comparatively minor evolutionary change involving the accumulation of variations in populations usually below the species level" (2009)
Microevolution is the only type of evolution that happens today and even Creationist believe in Microevolution. The other type of evolution has never been observed happening. It is amazing to me that there still are so many supporters of evolution.
One major problem with the theory of evolution is that of irreducibly complex systems. According to Michael Behe, the author of Darwin's Black Box, an "irreducibly complex system" cannot be made by minute, consecutive changes of a previous system, since any change to remove a part of an "irreducibly complex system" will result in non-functionality (1996). This means that if one part is missing, the whole system will fail. The problem that challenges the theory of evolution is that an organism cannot evolve if it cannot live with one part missing. Michael Behe (1996) gives an example of a mousetrap as an irreducibly complex mechanism. The mousetrap has five basic parts to it: hammer, spring, catch, holding bar, and platform. If any one of these parts were missing, the whole mousetrap would fail to function.
The problem with the theory of Evolution is that we know more about science today than when Darwin was alive. The cell is way more complex than Darwin was aware of, and Darwin did not know about irreducibly complex systems like scientists do today.
Darwin might not even believe in his own theory if he was alive today.
Macroevolution is, according to Merriam Webster Online Dictionary, "evolution that results in relatively large and complex changes (as in species formation)" (2009). "Species formation" is referring to changes outside a species, e.g., a chicken evolving into a hamster. There is only one problem with macroevolution, and that is that there is no proof for it.
One of these problems is in the genetic code. The genetic code can change within the species from generation to generation, but it cannot have new information added to it. For instance, a person could take a wolf and pick out one trait like a black colored coat, and then breed it for several generations until all they would get are black wolf puppies. | <urn:uuid:c91dc348-87c0-4716-9c20-1a6ecb999322> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://greg-persuation.blogspot.com/2009/10/science-of-evolution.html | 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 | 0.964152 | 636 | 2.625 | 3 |
Differentiation Under the Integral Sign
Another question about “partial integrals” is when we can interchange integral and differential operations. Just like we found for continuity of partial integrals, this involves interchanging two limit processes.
Specifically, let’s again assume that is a function on the rectangle , and that is of bounded variation on and that the integral
exists for every . Further, assume that the partial derivative exists and is continuous throughout . Then the derivative of exists and is given by
Similar results hold where and are vector values, and where derivatives in terms of are replaced outside the integral by partial derivatives in terms of its components.
So, if and we can calculate the difference quotient:
where is some number between and that exists by the differential mean value theorem. Now to find the derivative, we take the limit of the difference quotient
as we take to approach , the number gets squeezed towards as well. Since we assumed to be continuous, the limit in the integrand will equal , as asserted. | <urn:uuid:9c378391-59be-43c3-96c2-efea1dede1fd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://unapologetic.wordpress.com/2010/01/13/differentiation-under-the-integral-sign/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=18b5244a97 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944812 | 211 | 2.421875 | 2 |
Students Computer Service
A more aggressive spam-filter is scanning all incoming mail. Hopefully this will result in most of unwatend mail to be marked with ***SPAM***. By creating a message filter you may put all messages marked with ***SPAM*** in it's own folder.
NB! Sometimes e-mails that you want may be marked as ***SPAM*** so you should always pay attention to the sender before you delete these e-mails.
In order to have all ***SPAM***-marked mail to go into it's own folder, you have to do some changes in webmail. Login at Webmail.umb.no and choose "Folders". Here you have to create a new folder (unless you want it to go to one of your existing folders).
Then go to "Options" and "Message filters". Choose "New" and change to these values:
- What to scan: Only unread messages
- Match: Subject
- Contains: SPAM
- Move to: INBOX.spam (or another folder of your choise)
The filter you just created will be shown as follows:
If you need to make changes to your filter, press "Edit". You may also delete the filter.
Updated: 22.10.10Printerfriendly version
Del med en venn: | <urn:uuid:4cd9dd48-e7e8-4f0e-b852-4aa806b1d377> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.umb.no/computer-service/article/spam-filter | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.903714 | 276 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Q: Do you have a diagram of how to layer long hair?
A: Actually, several of the articles we have on haircutting here at Hairfinder contain diagrams for creating many types of layered
hairstyles. These articles can be accessed here and will offer you much of what you need to know to create the layers you desire. I
highly recommend you review these articles as well as the information on how to layer hair I give you here.
There is a problem inherent in the question you ask. The problem is this: how you layer long hair
is largely dependent on the style you desire in the finished process. There is a long circle cut, in which the hair is cut to uniform
lengths so that if all the hairs were to stand straight out from the head it would form a circular halo of hair. There is the beveled cut
where the hair is layered, but long, so that the layers of the hair only appear along the lower 25% of the hair’s finished style.
There is also what is commonly referred to as a long-layered haircut.
In the long-layered haircut, the hair is raised to a 180-degree elevation – in other words,
completely vertical – and cut to a designated length. This designated length is chosen when beginning the cutting process. Because all
of the hair is raised to the vertical elevation, the layers on the top of the head will be shorter than the layers at the sides and
neck area. A good example of the long-layered cut is the classic hairstyle of the 1970s worn by Farrah Fawcett.
Designate the length of the cut by starting with a small segment of hair at the top of the head. In
the case of individuals with long fringe/bangs this length is usually determined by the length of the fringe, although those with
shorter fringe areas may want to have the layers at the top of the hair longer than their fringe for various reasons. This designated
length is going to be your stationary guide.
Once you’ve determined the length of your stationary guide, continue by bringing small segments of
the surrounding hair up to the stationary guide and cut the hairs to the same length. It’s much better and more accurate to start with
the stationary guide and work from front to back in the center of the head and then from side to side, alternating between left and
right and working front to back until all the hair has been cut.
There is a shortcut step that many women have used in performing this haircut. The trick has made
it possible to give a good-looking cut with minimal experience. Simply have the person whose hair is to be cut lie on a table or high
countertop with his or her head hanging over the end upside down. Make sure the head is completely vertical – albeit inverted – comb
the hair down and cut it off on a straight plane. It’s not practical for many people, but in cases where it can be done it will greatly
speed the cutting process. | <urn:uuid:3a2be25e-5297-4939-bd6c-51eda7126f77> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hairfinder.com/hair/howtolayerlonghair.htm | 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 | 0.959013 | 631 | 1.851563 | 2 |
ABC Uses Michelle Obama's NAACP Speech to Accuse Tea Party of Racism
ABC News on Monday used Michelle Obama's speech before the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to accuse the Tea Party movement of racism.
The news network prominently featured at its website a story with the headline "Michelle Obama Rouses NAACP Before Vote Condemning 'Racist' Elements of Tea Party."
The problem is the First Lady didn't talk about the Tea Party at her address to the NAACP Monday. She didn't even mention the group. NOT ONCE.
She was there to talk about childhood obesity.
Yet ABCNews.com chose to make its entire report on her speech about alleged racism in the Tea Party (photo courtesy AP, h/t NBer motherbelt):
First Lady Michelle Obama brought renewed energy to the NAACP today, delivering the keynote speech at the annual convention one day before the nation's largest civil rights group is expected to condemn what it calls racist elements in the Tea Party movement.
The nation's largest and oldest civil rights organization will vote on the resolution Tuesday during its annual convention in Kansas City, Mo.
In her speech, the first lady focused on the issue of childhood obesity and her "Let's Move" initiative, but outside of her remarks, anti-Tea Party activism has been a key focus of the gathering, which conservative leaders say is driven solely by a political agenda.
Tea Party members have used "racial epithets," have verbally abused black members of Congress and threatened them, and protestors have engaged in "explicitly racist behavior" and "displayed signs and posters intended to degrade people of color generally and President Barack Obama specifically," according to the proposed resolution.
"We're deeply concerned about elements that are trying to move the country back, trying to reverse progress that we've made," NAACP spokeswoman Leila McDowell told ABC News. "We are asking that the law-abiding members of the Tea Party repudiate those racist elements, that they recognize the historic and present racist elements that are within the Tea Party movement."
Next, the article promoted a rally being orchestrated against the movement:
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, in coordination with 170 other groups, including labor unions, is planning a protest march in Washington, D.C., Oct. 2 as the next step in building momentum against the Tea Party.
The "One Nation" march is designed as an antithesis to the Tea Party, and it's about "pulling America together and back to work," McDowell said.
"We see it as a threat to democracy. We see it as a threat to human rights. We certainly see it as a threat to civil rights," McDowell said, adding that the resolution will likely pass when it's voted upon Tuesday.
Supporters of the Tea Party movement have frequently faced charges of racism.
After listing some of the allegations of racism in the movement, and giving some print space to members that disagree with the accusations, author Huma Khan concluded:
The first lady's speech focused on childhood obesity and her "Let's Move" initiative designed to promote healthy living and eating for children.
NAACP leaders have individually taken on the Tea Party in the past, but the organization is now trying to build a bigger momentum against the Tea Party, which has emerged as a strong grassroots, albeit fragmented, force across the country.
"We have to close the enthusiasm gap," NAACP president Ben Jealous said in an interview with the Associated Press Friday. "The danger of the Tea Party is that people see them and think about periods in history when groups like them were much more powerful than they are now, and so a lot of what we spend energy doing is explaining to people what reality is, and that the reality is that the majority from 2008 still exists."
That's correct. Her speech DID focus on childhood obesity. But ABC News chose to focus its report on her speech on allegations of racism within the Tea Party.
Not only that, the article was prominently featured at the top of the front page of the news organization's website Tuesday: | <urn:uuid:b191840d-a807-4363-a4d1-4a52e2748923> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2010/07/13/abc-news-michelle-obama-rouses-naacp-vote-condemning-racist-elements-tea-party | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973706 | 837 | 2.015625 | 2 |
An English village is occupied by disguised German paratroopers as an advance post for a planned invasion.
Went The Day Well?
Review by David Stratton
Over the Whitsun weekend in May, 1942, the little English village of Bramley End is a peaceful backwater despite the fact that World War II is raging not all that far away. The class structure of the village is well and truly intact; Mrs. Fraser, MARIE LOHR, lives in the manor, but has taken in some kids evacuated from London; Oliver Wilsford, LESLIE BANKS, is also of the upper-class, and is rather fancied by Nora, VALERIE TAYLOR, the daughter of the vicar; Peggy, ELIZABETH ALLAN, a land-girl, that weekend is marrying a local man on leave from the Navy; and then there are the village post-mistress, Mrs. Collins, MURIEL GEORGE, Sims, the verger, Mervyn Johns, and others. All very peaceful - until, unexpectedly, an Army platoon of sixty men commanded by officers Basil Sydney and David Farrar arrive and establish themselves in the village; they're made welcome and billeted with the locals - but they're not British soldiers - they're Germans - part of a planned invasion.
Based on a story by Graham Greene and filmed in the spring of 1942, this astonishing film begins as the verger, Sims, addresses the audience to tell them the true story of 'the Battle of Bramley End' now that the war has been won - pretty optimistic in 1942 when the conflict had three more years to go. Scripted by John Dighton and Angus McPhail, the film - like the best of British wartime films - is in the documentary tradition and its Brazilian director, Alberto Cavalcanti, who had worked with the surrealists in Paris in the 20s, brings an outsider's view to this rigidly ordered community suddenly facing deadly danger. The film is, at times, astonishingly violent for the period, and its contention, that fifth columnists, or pro-German spies, would live in a little community like this was presumably intended as a warning to be vigilant. Above all, WENT THE DAY WELL? - the title comes from an anonymous poem - is a superb suspense yarn and one of the best British films of the 40s.
MARGARET: David, it's a beautiful piece of propaganda, isn't it, really?
DAVID: Yes. Yes.
MARGARET: Be vigilant, there could be spies in our midst. And what I like about it was this complete - you've got this British village with its tweeness and it's little class structure and the post mistress and...
DAVID: A wonderful character, the post mistress.
MARGARET: Yes. Contrasted with what is actually quite violent and I found the end quite confusing. , which British soldiers do you shoot at? The ones with the little twigs in their hair. But I think there is so - the efforts of the villagers to get word out that are constantly thwarted. They write on eggs and send it off with the post boy and then he has an accident and a car drives - they're just beautiful little moments, I think. No, I really, really enjoyed this and I love Nora ultimately getting back at the spy in their midst and you don't know whether she's getting back because of thwarted romance or because of patriotism...
DAVID: And having grown up in England during the war, knowing villages like that, and it's a very accurate depiction of life in a village like that, it's extraordinary to me that they would depict a fifth columnist in that kind of position and, of course, the actor playing him, Leslie Banks, was a very popular actor so this is a sort of big star name. He's the only star name in the film really. So interesting. I love this film. | <urn:uuid:165eca65-2748-41a1-b927-77adc8325e3d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.abc.net.au/atthemovies/txt/s3307844.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971808 | 823 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Job scams evolve with struggling economy
FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- A new form to an old scam has hit the Central Valley. Residents are now being offered to work from home, but it could cost them thousands.
A Fresno woman contacted Action News with a warning. She said she was offered hundreds of dollars to secret shop businesses here in the valley. But the Better Business Bureau said it's all a scam.
Pam Tamres said she just needed money to help keep up with her mounting bills. So when she received an offer through her email to become a well-paid mystery shopper, she jumped at the chance.
Following her job application, however, the red flags began popping up.
Tamres was laid off from a Fresno charter school last June, where she worked as an English teacher.
Since then, she's been pounding the virtual pavement for a job, along with the other roughly 16 percent of unemployed workers in the Fresno area.
A few weeks ago, Tamres received an email, she thought, or more so hoped was sent from above.
"I thought, whoa, 300 dollars for an hour and half worth of work," Tamres said. "First thing I thought was 'thanks God, you know?'"
After replying to the email a package arrived at her doorstep. Inside, it had detailed instructions on what was supposed to be her first assignment and what appear to be two postal cashier's checks. Each check was made out for $970.
The instructions required Tamres to cash the checks and wire most of the money to a person who is listed as a company supervisor. Tamers would have then kept $300 as income. "I could have used the $300 to pay some bills," she said.
This is where she wised up, though. Tamres took the so-called postal cashier's check to her bank in northwest Fresno, where a teller warned her of the scam. Tamres said the bank made a call and verified the checks were fake.
"Scammers tend to evolve with the times," said Vickie Sanders, the assistant director of business services for the Central California BBB. The BBB office receives complaints of similar scams several times a month.
"The scammers are very creative," Sanders said. "They know by giving you more detail, the more likely you are to believe them."
Fortunately for Tamres, she is diligent about the checks she cashes. And the detailed instructions didn't get to her. "I don't want anybody to take what looks like a valid postal money order and cash it, then end up in a financial mess," said Tamres.
The BBB said job hunters need to question all job offers. Be sure to check for a physical address for the company, even if it's for online work Sanders said. And a quick search online can uncover complaints, if any, have been failed against the company looking to hire.
scams, crimetracker, local, rick montanez
- Carstens Fire blamed on unattended campfire
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- Resources stretched thin as fires ignite around the Valley
- Special Olympics torch run through Fresno County
- Summer food programs offer meals to children
- Fresno looks for cost savings after Measure G fails
- FPD seize weapons from gang members
- Car Crashes into a Visalia Chipotle
- Man finds Reedley mother's stolen ashes
- Police identify Central Fresno murder suspect
- Smoke from fires may cause health risks
- Mandela's wife thanks world for 'love, generosity'
- Court: Arizona citizenship proof law illegal | <urn:uuid:1025b3c7-17fb-4546-8794-af2a389d4e51> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news/local&id=8539853 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976421 | 766 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Updated at 11:58 a.m.
Illinois' Supreme Court has ruled that a statewide construction program is constitutional. This reverses an appellate court ruling that threw the $31 billion-plan into doubt.
The appeals court's decision in January no doubt caused stress headaches for the governor, lawmakers and everyone with a job dependent on the construction plan. That court found that the bill violated a clause of the state Constitution that requires legislation be "confined to one subject."
But in the state Supreme Court's much anticipated final word on the legislation, all seven justices sided with Gov. Pat Quinn and the bipartisan leadership in the legislature, which endorsed the plan.
Justice Anne Burke wrote that "capital projects" - including those for roads, schools and bridges - is a "legitimate single subject." She wrote that the rest of the bill - including new taxes and expanded video gambling to pay for the projects - have a "natural and logical connection to that subject."
The suit was brought by Rocky Wirtz, owner of the Chicago Blackhawks and a liquor distribution company. Wirtz objected to the new taxes on liquor used to finance the construction projects, many of which are already in progress.
Previous post in Politics | <urn:uuid:51c0d87d-06d4-4376-b151-8a427c36e373> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wbez.org/story/supreme-court-rules-31-billion-capital-bill-88954 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963062 | 247 | 1.679688 | 2 |
When 8-year-old Sophia Tingley of Gig Harbor had her mom fill out a sweepstakes entry form in the back of a Costco-purchased Brain Quest workbook last summer, she really didn't think she would win.
That all changed recently when the Harbor Heights Elementary School third-grader found out she had won the Brain Quest Sweepstakes first prize $5,000 scholarship for college tuition.
The soft-spoken Tingley said she was amazed her name was picked, that she really did not think she would win.
Her mother, Amy, agreed.
"Well, I was excited. I got it as an email," she said, admitting her first reaction was that it was a scam.
Then she remembered her daughter having her fill out the entry form.
"She encouraged me to fill it out," she said.
Mother and daughter were both happy about the win.
"She was pretty excited," she said of her daughter's reaction to the good news. "That's very cool."
The sweepstakes is part of partnership between Brain Quest, a company that produces educational game and learning series, and the Chrysler automobile company. The two teamed up last year for a year-long marketing campaign featuring a 100-city road tour delivering educational activities and events to a select number of fundraising test drives.
"This comprehensive initiative partners two leaders in their respective industries who will execute hundreds of fundraising events for schools and students across the country, along with the opportunity to express our gratitude to teachers," said Chrysler President and CEO Saad Chehab in a press release from last year.
A grand prize winner was awarded a $20,000 scholarship. Tingley took the $5,000 first prize. Eighteen runners-up will get an Apple iPad2.
Tingley doesn't know where she wants to go to college yet, but she does know what she wants to be when she grows up.
"I want to be an artist," she said, adding she does some painting now when she has the chance.
Assuming Tingley goes to college, the scholarship money will be paid directly to whichever institution of higher learning she decides to attend.
Reporter Brett Davis can be reached at 253-358-4151 or by email at email@example.com. Follow him on Twitter @gateway_brett. | <urn:uuid:24271fa3-7b37-40ec-afa9-9b6638f1916a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thenewstribune.com/2013/02/21/2484103/harbor-heights-elementary-student.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987903 | 489 | 1.648438 | 2 |
What Flavor Is Linked To the 100-Point Score? (Hint: High Precision Tannin Measurment From Enologix.)
Tannin Measurements With A Precision Found Only In Medicine Are Sold by Enologix To Calculate 100-point Scores In Napa Valley.
Excepts from Journal of Association of Official Analytical Chemists
One important phenolic is Tannin. It is less important to say it is produced by grape seeds, than it is linked to the price of wine.
One comes to the importance of tannin when one tastes Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon with 90-plus-point scores. Nearly every one of these 90-point wines contains more Tannin than the average supermarket wine; which is more than 1,000 parts per million (ppm). It is there when one looks deep into the 1855 Classification of Bordeaux, again 1000 ppm break. Enologix analytics include Tannin; we use it o compute our core quality index which accounts for up to 80% of the variation in the 100-point score and winemakers blind tasting scores, too.
To stagger together through the sensory analysis of linking Tannin to taste, much less 100-point scores, suffice to say Tannin measurement must be highly accurate, and for several reasons. One must link Tannin to human taste, blind tastings, where differences of 10% are detectable my tasters. Winemakers must track Tannin over time to improve concentrations and tasting scores. One could quite easily lower one’s 100-point score using invalid mesurements. Bad science makes good winemaking impossible.
Tannin measurements must have a precision of the medical industry (Defined by chemists as Validity and Reliability). Changes of 10%, cannot be detected by a method with an Error of more than 10%. As change of 10% is the difference between 89- and 90-points.
Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC) documented the poor precision of the most widely used commercial tannin assay which were proposed for commercial winemaking, thereby creating the real possibility of quality control problems here in California. Five laboratories used this tannin method to assay bottled wines (n = 135) found in California supermarkets, with tannin concentrations of nominally 500 and 1000 parts per million. They compared their laboratories’ to the commercial results.
Journal of AOAC documented the poor precision. Reliability exceeded the +/-5% industry requirement by nominally 5 times (z-score based on 5% distribution). Coefficient of variation was +/-27%, making the standard deviation range 54% for Pinot Noir, 34% for Merlot, and 44% for Cabernet Sauvignon. Intralaboratory validity recovery was 55-63%. Interwinery validity was 71-178% of the mean for Pinot Noir, 81-144% for Merlot, and 83-164% for Cabernet Sauvignon. Range as a function of the mean was 89% for Pinot Noir, 55% for Merlot, and 67% for Cabernet Sauvignon. Expect intermethod validity to be nominally 50%, i.e., percent recovery to HPLC. These statistically significant errors were predicted by the literature. Winemakers using the measurements risk making wines that are relatively more tannic than the measurements report.
Laboratory Genius (Hint: It Is Precision.)
J AOAC Int. 2008 Sep-Oct;91(5):1090-4. Adams-Harbertson protein precipitation-based wine tannin method found invalid. Brooks L, McCloskey L, McKesson D, Sylvan M. Source LM Brooks Consulting, 979 Osos St, Suite C-l, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401, USA. firstname.lastname@example.org | <urn:uuid:1b5f33d5-c3fe-4510-9c74-15a6248a74c8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://enologix.com/CATALOG.html?id=C825B26E-0B31-0017F2D084EF | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.904072 | 818 | 2.140625 | 2 |
From this Sunday, September 7, you will be able to defend the
Amazon forest. It´s the beginning of a new web site, Globo
Amazônia, that will bring exclusive news content about the
region and an interactive map with real time information about
With this map, you can follow up on the deforestation and fires in the Brazilian Amazon, a huge area of 5,2 million square kilometers. And more: you will be able to protest against all this, while our news teams investigate these cases and ask proper authorities for solutions.
It´s very simple to use the map, which was especially developed to be used with Google's Orkut. Orkut's full version of this map (see here how to use it) allows users to protest against the destruction of the forest, invite friends to participate in the surveillance and get the latest news on the region.
Right now there are more than 1,900 fires in the Brazilian portion of the Amazon. The number is not an estimate or a projection, but real data based on satellite monitoring taking place at the very moment this text is written.
This information, previously accessible only to governmental specialists or environmentalists, is now at hand to any Internet user thanks to a new map of the region developed by Globo.com and Globo Television, the largest Brazilian network, after an idea born in the Fantástico TV show’s newsroom.
The map - called Amazônia.vc, or Amazon.you - is fed with the most recent satellite data provided by Brazil's National Institute for Space Research, known as Inpe. The data is updated up to six times a day, which means that it is possible to check up on a fire on the same day it is happening and, moreover, protest publicly against the destruction of the forest.
In Amazônia.vc, it is possible to see, all in one screen, the data of two systems used by the space research institute: the Fire Monitoring System and the System of Deforestation Detection in Real Time, known as Deter. The former receives information from European and American satellites that track the radiation emitted by the flames.
Deter, which is updated monthly, shows the deforested areas in the Amazon. Images captured by Terra, a satellite launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), go through a filter and are analyzed by a team of Brazilian researchers who register all the newly cleared locations. It is the most complete system of deforestation monitoring on the planet. “Brazil is an example to the world in this particular area”, said Dalton Valeriano, coordinator of the Amazon Program at the space research institute.
According to him, other countries also attempt to monitor their forests by satellite but none does it with the same frequency and precision as Brazil does. “Russia says it does it, but the international community regards their data with suspicion. India monitors by sampling, in specific points located every 10 kilometers. Australia also does something similar, but doesn’t have much forested area.”
The Amazon is the greatest rain forest in the world. There is no
region on the planet that can be compared to the Amazon in terms
of biodiversity and extension. But a quick look on the
interactive map shows a worrisome situation: there are dozens of
points indicating deforestation and fires, especially in its
southern and southeastern areas. Human actions have already
destroyed about 17% of the Amazon forest, or almost 730,000
“Although the pace of deforestation has slowed down in the past few years, the forest is still destroyed at a pace of 0.5% a year. If the Amazon keeps being disposed of like this, future generations will see nothing of it”, Valeriano warned.
“It is going to be interesting to know whether each of these clearings in the forest are legal or not”, says the coordinator while he browses through Amazônia.vc. Although the institute is able to identify the locations of deforestation and fire, researchers can't know if they are happening within the law.
That's exactly where Globo Amazônia journalists come in. They will elaborate features based on the information from satellites and on the users’ protests. The Globo Amazônia web page will also concentrate all the journalistic content related to the Amazon produced by Globo, making it the perfect place to get information on the region -- and to protest against its destruction. | <urn:uuid:ca72a364-a3ad-4400-a25b-07f4f6df65db> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.globoamazonia.com/Amazonia/0,,MRP751482-16052,00.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94017 | 925 | 2.4375 | 2 |
Independence from Britain in 1963 may have been the beginning of a new chapter for Kenya but this East African country has a human history that stretches back to prehistoric times.
Lying at the heart of a region from which modern humans emerged some 150 000 years ago, Kenya's history has been shaped not only by indigenous and migrating African ethnic groups but by European and Arabian traders, missionaries and colonisers as well. Jomo Kenyatta was the first leader of independent, post-colonial Kenya and his conciliatory rallying cry harambee - all pull together - became the national motto.
Today, Kenya boasts the largest and most advanced economy in East Africa. Agriculture accounts for 75% of the work force but it is the service industry, dominated by tourism, which contributes nearly two thirds of Kenya's GDP.
Kenya's predominantly young population (nearly 75% of Kenyans are under 30) is made up of many ethnic groups that include the famous Maasai. English and Swahili are the official languages (any attempts to speak Swahili will be warmly received by locals!) and the vast majority of Kenyans consider themselves Christian. About 10% of the population are Muslim, the majority living on Kenya's Indian Ocean coast.
Straddling the equator, Kenya is dominated by the Rift Valley, a raised region of lakes, hills and mountains that is the result of a 6 000km crack in the earth's crust. Dividing the flat coastal plains from the fertile shores of Lake Victoria, the rolling temperate grasslands of the central Rift Valley are home to huge numbers of animals and consequently Kenya's most famous parks and reserves.
Northern Kenya's hot and arid scrublands are home to wilder, more remote parks and a different set of animals while the Indian Ocean coast is a place of long sandy beaches, coral reefs and tropical islands.
Most famous for the wildebeest migration that moves through the Masai Mara and Serengeti ecosystem, Kenya's ban on hunting plus private and local community conservation initiatives have helped to safeguard one of Africa's most important populations of large animals. There are healthy numbers of the Big 5, abundant predators and plains game, and a long list of bird species. No wonder then that several Kenyan parks deliver the easiest game viewing in Africa! | <urn:uuid:a503dcda-52e0-4619-bfa2-372a0c31b9e8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.go2africa.com/location/226/about/kenya | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946069 | 471 | 3.125 | 3 |
Geomagic Spark: 3D scanning meets 3D CAD
It’s not easy to convert 3D scans into usable CAD models. Software that can do it is an excellent example of the iron triangle rule: Given the options of fast, good, and cheap, you can only have two. If you’re lucky.
Up until now, engineers and designers have been faced with a choice between cheap (or free) software that does an OK (sometimes good enough) job, given a lot of time and effort, or expensive software, that does a better job, pretty quickly.
Geomagic has just bent the iron triangle, with the introduction of Spark, a program that combines a live 3D scanning interface, robust 3D point and mesh editing capabilities, comprehensive modeling design, assembly modeling, and 2D drawing creation in one complete application. It is both fast, and very good.
But what about cheap? No. Spark is priced for professionals, not for hobbyists. Still, it costs less than half as much as it’s closest functional competitor, Rapidform XOR.
Geomagic understands computational geometry
Founded in 1996, Geomagic has a deep background in the mathematics required to handle point clouds, meshes, and NURBS surfaces. Geomagic Studio is their high-end solution for converting point clouds into CAD quality NURBS models.
Spark integrates the best of Geomagic Studio with one of the very best direct CAD programs: SpaceClaim. The result is one of those “why didn’t I think of that” products. It is easy enough to learn and use that engineers with little or no CAD background can get up to speed on it with little or no formal training. With some modest practice, an average user should be able to turn even a bad 3D scan into an accurate and manufacturable CAD model in a satisfyingly short period of time. (Let’s say, tens of minutes, rather than tens of hours.) Experienced CAD users may find themselves forever spoiled by Spark’s fluidity in creating and editing relatively complex models and assemblies.
The models produced by Spark are clean and accurate NURBS-based explicit (non-parametric) B-Rep solids. Every major MCAD system has the ability to consume and edit these models, either through direct editing, or feature recognition. If, perchance, you’re interested in sending Spark models out to CAE, CAM, or CMM (inspection) applications, the situation is even better: one of SpaceClaim’s core competencies (and most popular applications) is in model preparation/simplification for CAE, CAM, and CMM. Spark also inherets SpaceClaim’s facility with PMI (product and manufacturing information) editing and 3D printing.
It’s a workflow issue
Before Spark, the process of going from a 3D scan to a usable CAD model was often tedious, but never trivial (if you wanted good results.) You had to master separate scanning and CAD applications—both of which would typically have far more options (and complexity) than you really needed to get the job done. Spark may have more capabilities than some users will require, but there seems to be little penalty in terms of usability in having these capabilities.
The Mainstreaming of 3D scan-to-CAD
Timing is everything. A new generation of products is moving the entry point for professional grade 3D scanners down from the $30,000 to $100,000 range, to something a bit more sane. (Figure anywhere between $2,000 to $20,000, depending on your requirements.) At the same time, 3D printing has had a rebirth of interest, driven by low-cost products from companies such as MakerBot and FormLabs. And direct CAD is becoming widely accepted. This confluence of changes is moving scan-to-CAD into the mainstream.
In this context, Geomagic Spark makes a lot of sense. It provides professional-grade 3D scan-to-CAD (to print) capabilities, with great ease-of-use, and a sane price point. | <urn:uuid:aaece63c-a475-47d2-b339-3b0d2d2f8db4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.3dcadworld.com/geomagic-spark-3d-scanning-meets-3d-cad/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944488 | 868 | 1.585938 | 2 |
California’s Pinnacles National Monument Finally a Bona Fide National Park
Last week, President Obama elevated the lowly Pinnacles National Monument in California to a bona fide United States National Park. Pinnacles is going to the big show, and we’re here to cheer it on!
The 26,000 acre park is the smallest in the state, located between the 101 and 5 freeways. Most of its volcanic field, caves and pinnacles (the parks namesake) are best explored on foot says the rangers. In fact, it is the only option for most of the area as there are no roads connecting the parks east and west borders.
Read more about the park’s upgrade here.
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About the Author
Melissa Hennessey (@BlueMorphoBlog) is your standard Midwestern-would-be-vagabond with a penchant for all the little things that make travel even more excellent. Melissa has a day job she actually likes, and fills the rest of her day with writing, hot yoga and photo making. She travels as often as she can, usually with her fiancé. Unfortunately, their 3 cats don't care much for travel due to the lack of cat-centric hostel search website. | <urn:uuid:c6acb4ed-8e77-4fd4-82f6-3a70b92a3a2b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.vagabondish.com/californias-pinnacles-national-monument-finally-a-bona-fide-national-park/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957204 | 263 | 1.828125 | 2 |
How is a free faith expressed, organised and governed? How are diverse spiritualities and theologies made compatible? What might a religion based in reason and democracy offer today's world? This book will help the reader to understand the contemporary liberal religion of Unitarian Universalism in a historical and global context. Andrea Greenwood and Mark W. Harris challenge the view that the Unitarianism of New England is indigenous and the point from which the religion spread. Relationships between Polish radicals and the English Dissenters existed, and the English radicals profoundly influenced the Unitarianism of the nascent United States. Greenwood and Harris also explore the US identity as Unitarian Universalist since a 1961 merger, and its current relationship to international congregations, particularly in the context of twentieth century expansion into Asia.
Praise for An Introduction to the Unitarian and Universalist Traditions:
Their narrative elucidates the complex interrelationships among the many sources of both traditions, and provides a richly informative depiction of a Unitarian Universalism that is grounded in local traditions, but also the product of a continuing work of interaction and fusion among them. - Professor David M. Robinson, Oregon State University
The scope, the depth, and the detail of this work are all impressive. Greenwood and Harris explore both the roots and the fruits of Unitarian and Universalist ideas and institutions, combining great knowledge and a touch of audacity to range successfully from Nicaea to the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Second Life. - Rev Dr Gordon D. Gibson, President of the Unitarian Universalist Historical Society | <urn:uuid:73c8213e-9e76-49e8-834a-b9452752026b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.uuabookstore.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=1533 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909289 | 316 | 2.40625 | 2 |
Since Danny from Cyclists in the City blog and I first announced our intention to ride to Transport for London's 10 most dangerous junctions for cyclists we've been overwhelmed by the response. Not only have lots of you said that you will be there on the day but people have come forward to volunteer as marshals, to help plan the route, to take photos on the day and to carry a puncture repair kit (and know how to use it), just in case. It's all been a little overwhelming!
No room for safe space for bicycles on the Elephant and Castle...
The idea stemmed from a presentation that Transport for London made to the GLA about the changes currently being implemented on the northern junction of Blackfriars Bridge. Their designs - they argued - were not atypical of many other London junctions which they believed "worked well for cyclists". 2,500 cyclists who use these junctions every day clearly believed otherwise when they took to the bridge in protest.
TfL recently revealed which are London's 10 most dangerous junctions for cyclists; measured by volume of cyclists killed or seriously injured. The initial idea of our "top 10" ride was to see these places for ourselves, to record them, look at conditions on the ground and to experience what it feels like to be a vulnerable road user in these locations which supposedly "work well for cyclists".
Would you ride around Hyde Park corner on a bakfiets full of kids?
But people who have been living locally to some of these junctions and campaigning to have them changed for many years got in touch with us; over and over again they'd been told that making these dangerous, unpleasant corners of London more people friendly was just not possible because it would disrupt the "smooth flow of traffic". Some money has been spent on little cycling signs, or a splash of paint here or there, but nothing has been done to reduce the exposure to the source of danger. It's become clear that Transport for London has been putting vehicle journey times over and above the safety of pedestrians and cyclists all across London. It's not just Blackfriars, it's not just the Elephant and Castle, it's our entire city.
Danny, from Cyclists in the City, said: "It's abhorrent that in the 21st century we have junctions which are so poorly designed and aimed solely at squeezing as many vehicles through as possible; that casualties at these sites are almost seen as inevitable. Transport for London can't keep on encouraging people to walk and to cycle without addressing the serious issue of safety around these junctions first - it's completely irresponsible. These junctions are a hangover of 1960's style urban design; today they don't work for people who need to drive in central London, they don't work for people who use public transport and they are downright lethal for people on foot or on bike"
Parliament Square;, nice Abbey, nice Palaces of Democracy, nice bit of grass in the middle of six lanes of traffic with no pedestrian crossing to get to it..
This ride isn't a protest, though it's clear that there is a lot of anger amongst people on bikes with Transport for London and their inability to listen to people's safety concerns. It's not a race either; whether you're a fast cyclist or slow, young or old, you're all more than welcome. You'll meet other London cyclists, hear how people have been working together to change our streets for the better, and you'll even get to see some famous London landmarks along the way.
Waterloo. There's a reason why this junction is named after a famous battle you know...
We'll take photos of each junction and record the experience of riding these locations; we'll rate each junction for safety, comfort, air quality and cycle facilities and pass our findings directly to Transport for London - that way the next time the terrible and the inevitable happens at one of these junctions TfL can't say they weren't warned.
We'll be providing ride marshals who will be easily identifiable on the day who will lead the ride and help us through junctions safely; all you have to do is show up ready to pedal. We're now expecting over 100 people to come on a ride which was originally planned as a small tour by a group of friends. If you want to see safer streets for cycling too, we'd love to welcome you too.
Vauxhall Cross. There are no words to describe it. Just shocking.
Meet at St Mark's Church, The Oval, Kennington, SE11 4PW at 10.30AM for a prompt departure.
You'll see we will double back and forth across the city and the river Thames in order to visit all of the dangerous junctions. The ride takes place at the same time as the Lord Mayor's Show meaning much of the City will be closed; as such it is not possible to cross Blackfriars Bridge to visit Bank junction (one of the 10 on the list), but we will visit King's Cross where young cyclist Min Joo Lee was recently killed.
We'll be stopping for a little tea break on Hyde Park Corner roundabout around 12.15 (bring some refreshments to keep yourself going!) and will end at Look Mum No Hands! bicycle cafe on Old Street (map)for coffee an hour or two after that. We're praying for good weather, but pack your lights and your waterproofs just in case.
If you have further questions don't hesitate to get in touch via firstname.lastname@example.org | <urn:uuid:9c4b5e62-d738-4ab4-8593-4f68b9361a8d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ibikelondon.blogspot.com/2011/11/were-all-set-tour-of-tfls-10-most.html?showComment=1320963773757 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973781 | 1,138 | 1.507813 | 2 |
|465 hadith found in 'Military Expeditions led by the Prophet (pbuh) (Al-Maghaazi)' of Sahih Bukhari.|
| 312 || Narrated Hisham: That his father said, "The sword of Az-Zubair was decorated with silver." Hisham added, "The sword of 'Urwa was (also) decorated with silver. "
|| 313 || Narrated 'Urwa: On the day of (the battle) of Al-Yarmuk, the companions of Allah's Apostle said to Az-Zubair, "Will you attack the enemy so that we shall attack them with you?" Az-Zubair replied, "If I attack them, you people would not support me." They said, "No, we will support you." So Az-Zubair attacked them (i.e. Byzantine) and pierced through their lines, and went beyond them and none of his companions was with him. Then he returned and the enemy got hold of the bridle of his (horse) and struck him two blows (with the sword) on his shoulder. Between these two wounds there was a scar caused by a blow, he had received on the day of Badr (battle). When I was a child I used to play with those scars by putting my fingers in them. On that day (my brother) "Abdullah bin Az-Zubair was also with him and he was ten years old. Az-Zubair had carried him on a horse and let him to the care of some men.
|| 314 || Narrated Abu Talha: On the day of Badr, the Prophet ordered that the corpses of twenty four leaders of Quraish should be thrown into one of the dirty dry wells of Badr. (It was a habit of the Prophet that whenever he conquered some people, he used to stay at the battle-field for three nights. So, on the third day of the battle of Badr, he ordered that his she-camel be saddled, then he set out, and his companions followed him saying among themselves." "Definitely he (i.e. the Prophet) is proceeding for some great purpose." When he halted at the edge of the well, he addressed the corpses of the Quraish infidels by their names and their fathers' names, "O so-and-so, son of so-and-so and O so-and-so, son of so-and-so! Would it have pleased you if you had obeyed Allah and His Apostle? We have found true what our Lord promised us. Have you too found true what your Lord promised you? "'Umar said, "O Allah's Apostle! You are speaking to bodies that have no souls!" Allah's Apostle said, "By Him in Whose Hand Muhammad's soul is, you do not hear, what I say better than they do." (Qatada said, "Allah brought them to life (again) to let them hear him, to reprimand them and slight them and take revenge over them and caused them to feel remorseful and regretful.")
|| 315 || Narrated Ibn 'Abbas: regarding the Statement of Allah:--"Those who have changed Allah's Blessings for disbelief..." (14.28) The people meant here by Allah, are the infidels of Quraish. ('Amr, a sub-narrator said, "Those are (the infidels of) Quraish and Muhammad is Allah's Blessing. Regarding Allah's Statement:"..and have led their people Into the house of destruction? (14.29) Ibn 'Abbas said, "It means the Fire they will suffer from (after their death) on the day of Badr."
|| 316 || Narrated Hisham's father: It was mentioned before 'Aisha that Ibn 'Umar attributed the following statement to the Prophet "The dead person is punished in the grave because of the crying and lamentation Of his family." On that, 'Aisha said, "But Allah's Apostle said, 'The dead person is punished for his crimes and sins while his family cry over him then." She added, "And this is similar to the statement of Allah's Apostle when he stood by the (edge of the) well which contained the corpses of the pagans killed at Badr, 'They hear what I say.' She added, "But he said now they know very well what I used to tell them was the truth." 'Aisha then recited: 'You cannot make the dead hear.' (30.52) and 'You cannot make those who are in their Graves, hear you.' (35.22) that is, when they had taken their places in the (Hell) Fire.
|| 317 || Narrated Ibn Umar: The Prophet stood at the well of Badr (which contained the corpses of the pagans) and said, "Have you found true what your lord promised you?" Then he further said, "They now hear what I say." This was mentioned before 'Aisha and she said, "But the Prophet said, 'Now they know very well that what I used to tell them was the truth.' Then she recited (the Holy Verse):-- "You cannot make the dead hear... ...till the end of Verse)." (30.52)
|| 318 || Narrated Anas: Haritha was martyred on the day (of the battle) of Badr, and he was a young boy then. His mother came to the Prophet and said, "O Allah's Apostle! You know how dear Haritha is to me. If he is in Paradise, I shall remain patient, and hope for reward from Allah, but if it is not so, then you shall see what I do?" He said, "May Allah be merciful to you! Have you lost your senses? Do you think there is only one Paradise? There are many Paradises and your son is in the (most superior) Paradise of Al-Firdaus."
|| 319 || Narrated 'Ali: Allah's Apostle sent me, Abu Marthad and Az-Zubair, and all of us were riding horses, and said, "Go till you reach Raudat-Khakh where there is a pagan woman carrying a letter from Hatib bin Abi Balta' a to the pagans of Mecca." So we found her riding her camel at the place which Allah's Apostle had mentioned. We said (to her),"(Give us) the letter." She said, "I have no letter." Then we made her camel kneel down and we searched her, but we found no letter. Then we said, "Allah's Apostle had not told us a lie, certainly. Take out the letter, otherwise we will strip you naked." When she saw that we were determined, she put her hand below her waist belt, for she had tied her cloak round her waist, and she took out the letter, and we brought her to Allah's Apostle Then 'Umar said, "O Allah's Apostle! (This Hatib) has betrayed Allah, His Apostle and the believers! Let me cut off his neck!" The Prophet asked Hatib, "What made you do this?" Hatib said, "By Allah, I did not intend to give up my belief in Allah and His Apostle but I wanted to have some influence among the (Mecca) people so that through it, Allah might protect my family and property. There is none of your companions but has some of his relatives there through whom Allah protects his family and property." The Prophet said, "He has spoken the truth; do no say to him but good." 'Umar said, "He as betrayed Allah, His Apostle and the faithful believers. Let me cut off his neck!" The Prophet said, "Is he not one of the Badr warriors? May be Allah looked at the Badr warriors and said, 'Do whatever you like, as I have granted Paradise to you, or said, 'I have forgiven you."' On this, tears came out of Umar's eyes, and he said, "Allah and His Apostle know better."
|| 320 || Narrated Usaid: On the day of Badr, Allah's Apostle said to us, "When the enemy comes near to you, shoot at them but use your arrows sparingly (so that your arrows should not be wasted)."
|| 321 || Narrated Abu Usaid: On the day of (the battle of) Badr, Allah's Apostle said to us, "When your enemy comes near to you (i.e. overcome you by sheer number), shoot at them but use your arrows sparingly." | <urn:uuid:7c98cfdc-f288-432d-a086-015d31fcb9c1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.searchtruth.com/book_display.php?book=59&translator=1&start=28&number=312 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98265 | 1,806 | 2.21875 | 2 |
On Sunday, CQ Press released its annual list of America's most dangerous cities [PDF]. The study ranks cities by violent crimes per 100,000 residents, taking into account murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, and motor vehicle theft. According to the list, St. Louis is the most dangerous city in America. Meanwhile, Camden, New Jersey, which topped the list in 2009, has fallen to no. 2 this year. The top 10 also includes Detroit, Oakland, Cleveland, Gary, Indiana, and Flint, Michigan. The list has drawn a fair bit of criticism, however, from people who say that CQ's take on urban safety is oversimplified.
Many of These Are Perfectly Lovely Cities Gawker's Max Read points out that "a lot of the top 25 are pretty okay places! (Except for Washington, D.C., which is a horrible, horrible city.)" (Editor's note: The Wire is based in Washington, D.C. Sadface.) Read notes that "even Camden has a pretty nice aquarium. I mean: Ranking cities based on their crime rates is a pretty depressing and frankly sort of irresponsible way to think about cities, and crime, and urban living, and so forth! But let's not let that stop us from making lists, which, as we all know, is the best thing about being human."
New York Is What Number? At New York Magazine, Mike Vilensky marvels that "New York City is the 269th most dangerous place in the United States, though danger is perhaps all relative." Vilensky also notes that "Erica Van Ross, a rep for the St. Louis Police Department, called it 'irresponsible' to use crime data for the sole purpose of making listicles." (In fact, what Van Ross actually said is that "crime is based on a variety of factors. It's based on geography, it's based on poverty, it's based on the economy... That is not to say that urban cities don't have challenges, because we do... But it's that it's irresponsible to use the data in this way.")
St. Louis: We're Actually Getting Safer A report at St. Louis Public Radio notes that "the FBI has in the past said its crime numbers should not be used the way CQ Press does to develop the rankings. The U.S Conference of Mayors has also rejected the study's methodology. Kara Bowlin, a spokeswoman for Mayor Francis Slay said crime has gone down in the city each year since 2007." | <urn:uuid:ce5c9521-9d99-47e0-bbb8-fa53859e211b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2010/11/how-seriously-should-we-take-the-new-most-dangerous-cities-list/22173/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966162 | 520 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Motor Racing is a rarity among major sports -- It is not gender-segregated.
The most famous motor race in the world is the Indianapolis 500 which started in 1911. Janet Guthrie first broke the gender barrier in the Indy 500 in 1977.
The open wheel cars that race in the Indy 500 are part of the IndyCar Racing League (IRL). Women are well represented in this Saturday's October 2 final IRL race at Homestead-Miami Speedway Florida.
There are two American women -- Danica Patrick (Roscoe Illinois, # 7), racer-owner Sarah Fisher (American, # 67), two Latin American women -- Milka Duno (Venezuela, # 18), Ana Beatriz (Brazil, # 24), and one European - Simona de Silvestro (Switzerland, # 78), out of 26 drivers in the race.
Combined, Patrick (6), de Silvestro (14), Beatriz(21), and Fisher (26) turned in a better average finish (16.75) than their male counterparts (17.03) in the 33 car 2010 Indianapolis 500.
When you're not glued to this blog, you might find it fun to watch the IRL on your computer this Saturday October 2 starting at 6pm Eastern Standard Time. The Indy Lights race is at 3:45pm.
Live race viewing is free by signing up with IndyCarNation.
You can watch the race like traditional TV coverage, or set your "camera" at one part of the course, or even better follow two driver's progress with their on-board cameras. There are usually five drivers on-board cameras so it's fairly certain, you can be in the driver's seat with at least one of the women drivers in the 300 mile race.
"Indy" cars race in the Indianapolis 500 and can go 215 miles per hour at Homestead. They run about 40 miles per hour faster than the heavier NASCAR machines on the same tracks.
Danica Patrick, so far the only woman to win an IRL race is the most famous.
She has stretched herself thin this year competing in two major racing leagues --the IRL and NASCAR so her results have not been up to her own high expectations. Still, she has finished the fourth most laps on the IndyCar circuit this year and finished 2nd at Texas and drove to a 6th place in the NASCAR K & N Pro Series at Dover.
Owner-driver Sarah Fisher, the youngest woman at the age of 19 to compete in the Indy 500, holds the record for the fastest qualifying lap in the Indy 500 (229 mph).
She has recently released her book -- "99 Things Women Wish They knew Before Getting Behind The Wheel of Their Dream Job".
Ana Beatrix (Brazil) will be driving the no. 24 Roll Coater car.
Milka Duno, a certified Naval Engineer holding four master's degrees, won the Grand Prix of Miami at Homestead-Miami Speedway in February of 2004 - the first woman to win a major international sportscar race in North America.
In strong contention for rookie of the year honors, Simona de Silvestro (Switzerland) survived an horrific crash at Texas in which the rescue delayed an excruciating length of time in putting out the fire of Silvestro's number 78 machine. The crash and rescue and Simona's amazingly calm, cool response are on Youtube.
Another European has qualified first for the Firestone Indy Lights series Saturday 2 October at 3:45 ET, (the Triple AAA equivalent of major IRL) Pippa Mann (England) holds the pole position.
Pippa will be trying to win her second straight race even though she is recovering from a broken hand in an earlier season crash. | <urn:uuid:8cdb194d-d613-4d11-9ad4-cefe6111cdb3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.echidneofthesnakes.blogspot.com/2010/10/women-in-sports-six-women-racers-in-2.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931212 | 770 | 1.757813 | 2 |
In the 1950s and 60s “refrigerator” mothers, those who were seen, accurately or not, as cold and unloving were to blame for the mental fragility or illness of their children. Until far too recently, it was only a mother’s age, genetics, and health that were taken into consideration when evaluating whether a child would be born whole or not. Mothers are blamed for not bonding properly with their children, for being either too lax or too strict. And in the case of the most recent mass murder, we know that Nancy Lanza was a mother who was more than a bit of a kook, an end-of-the-world nut who stockpiled guns and taught her emotionally unstable son to shoot. She paid for her philosophy with her death.
But blaming mothers and by extension all women for the epidemic of young disaffected white males who have been responsible for mass shootings is more than a little simplistic. Yet that opinion is getting play, big time, anyway.
In a recent New York Times editorial, writer Christy Wampole actually writes: From the civil rights and feminist movements of the 1960s and onward, young men – and young white men in particular – have increasingly been asked to yield what they’d believed was securely theirs. This underlying fact, compounded by the backdrop of violent entertainment and easy access to weapons, creates the conditions for thousands of young men to consider their future prospects and decide they would rather destroy than create.
As though power were a finite object rather than a thing like love. Love, we know, is infinite. We do not have a certain allotment of it to go around and when we have used it up it is gone: mothers know this every time they add a child to their family; we all know this every time we make a new friend or fall for a new lover.
White men are not being asked to yield their power, they have not been asked to give up what is theirs. They have been asked, rather, to share. To share success, empowerment, advancement, education, civil rights, with their fellow humans: women.
The notion that women’s liberation has emasculated men is balderdash. That women gaining the vote, the right to work, the right to speak out without fear of being institutionalized (as was the case as recently as the early 20th century) is the reason why young white men pick up automatic weapons and kill men, women and children is fantastic. And far too easy.
There is more than enough blame to go around and laying it all on the backs of women is obscene.
Walpole writes: For women, things are looking up. We can vote, we can make more choices about our bodies than in decades past, we’ve made significant progress regarding fair pay, and more women are involved in American politics than ever before. The same can be said for minorities. However, because resources are limited, gains for women and minorities necessarily equal losses for white males. Even if this feels intuitively fair to many, including those white males who are happy to share resources for the greater benefit of the nation as a whole, it must feel absolutely distressing for those who are uncomfortable with change and who have a difficult time adjusting to the inevitable reordering of society.
But are things “looking up?” Really?
Clearly white men, even if they are no longer the majority, still wield enormous power: that was apparent during the last election cycle when they tried to put in place laws governing women’s bodies that were offensive beyond belief but still informed the national discussion. When judges can still say that young women didn’t fight “hard” enough against a rapist, when women and their children are still shot and killed by their mates and we call this “domestic violence,” softening its blow from the heinous to the more easily digestible, that doesn’t sound very positive to me. And we may be able to work but we still don’t earn equal pay for equal work. We are still relegated to the “mommy” track; we are still bumping up against glass ceiling after glass ceiling. And that is only middle class women. Poor women have made far fewer gains than their more affluent sisters.
Feminism has never been and will never be about taking rights away from men, about gaining rights at their expense. Rights, like power, are not finite. If everyone has them, everyone gains.
Why have young men chosen lives of sloth and violence while women increasingly, despite hardship, setbacks, misogyny, have gone on to grow and change, get educated, become everything they wish to be is a valid question for discussion. What has our society contributed to the culture of violence is another good question as is this: where do our “freedoms” bump up against the good of the culture? We abolished slavery, gave women the right to vote, instituted child labor laws, enhanced worker safety—all at the price of individual freedom but our society as a whole has gained. The freedom to oppress is no freedom at all.
But the truth is also that there have been “angry young men” since the 1950s when a group of male writers railed against traditional British societal norms. If the anger now is literal rather than literary then we need to address it. But not by assigning blame.
Wampole writes: Can you imagine being in the shoes of the one who feels his power slipping away? Who can find nothing stable to believe in? Who feels himself becoming unnecessary? That powerlessness and fear ties a dark knot in his stomach. As this knot thickens, a centripetal hatred moves inward toward the self as a centrifugal hatred is cast outward at others: his parents, his girlfriend, his boss, his classmates, society, life.
Classic. Men feel unnecessary because we have made them feel so. How then to explain the huge numbers of men who don’t feel that way at all? Who are gentle, loving, kind and good? Who willingly and happily search for women who are intelligent equals?
We do no one—not victim nor perpetrator—any good by blaming what some men feel they have lost on what some women may have gained. If young white men are angry, and yes, they seem to be, we might remind them that power lies in one’s own empowerment, that disaffection is both choice and symptom.
Several centuries ago women who ministered to the pregnant, sick and dying were hanged or drowned as witches. For hundreds of years onward they were held down, dismissed, made to feel second class. Our very recent “rise” is cause for celebration not damnation. We are not collectively to blame for men who rampage. And those who say we are are contributing nothing to the discussion. | <urn:uuid:78957a7a-5f3c-4e18-86b3-f5fe9c07cfb9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://middleagedfeminist.com/2012/12/18/are-women-responsible-for-the-powerlessness-of-men/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979935 | 1,415 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Friday, October 5, 2012
Regency vests and waistcoats
Since I write Regency-period historicals, I'm always on the lookout for tidbits of information about that era -- and how they relate to today's world. So I was intrigued to find out why a stylish modern man leaves the bottom button unfastened on his vest.
It's because the Prince of Wales, Britain's regent ruler during the 1810s and the reason the Regency period got its name, was ... well, let's just say he got pretty portly over the years. When his stylishly-tight clothing got to be uncomfortable, he'd unbutton something. Finally, he just started leaving the bottom button open all the time.
So when your guy gets dressed up in a three-piece suit, he's paying homage to a British ruler from two hundred years ago.
The illustration here is of George as a young man -- or perhaps the artist just knew how to flatter his patron.
Here's another interesting tidbit. In the US we call the third piece of a three-piece suit a vest, but in Britain, it's called a waistcoat. What Brits call a vest is what we American's call an undershirt. So you can imagine how silly it sounds to a British reader when an American author refers to leaving the lowest button of a vest unfastened. Sigh.
As playwright George Bernard Shaw once said, England and the United States are two countries "separated by the same language." And that brings up a question. Have you faced a situation where it was tough to make yourself understood -- or tough to get what the other person was talking about -- because of an oddity in the language? | <urn:uuid:bf1de41f-7303-479c-8111-7e5cb18ed26d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://leighmichaels.blogspot.com/2012/10/regency-vests-and-waistcoats.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970547 | 358 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Rurik DynastyArticle Free Pass
Rurik Dynasty, princes of Kievan Rus and, later, Muscovy who, according to tradition, were descendants of the Varangian prince Rurik, who had been invited by the people of Novgorod to rule that city (c. 862); the Rurik princes maintained their control over Kievan Rus and, later, Muscovy until 1598.
Rurik’s successor Oleg (d. 912) conquered Kiev (c. 882) and established control of the trade route extending from Novgorod, along the Dnieper River, to the Black Sea. Igor (allegedly Rurik’s son; reigned 912–945) and his successors—his wife, St. Olga (regent 945–969), and their son Svyatoslav (reigned 945–972)—further extended their territories; Svyatoslav’s son Vladimir I (St. Vladimir; reigned c. 980–1015) consolidated the dynasty’s rule.
Vladimir compiled the first Kievan Rus law code and introduced Christianity into the country. He also organized the Kievan Rus lands into a cohesive confederation by distributing the major cities among his sons; the eldest was to be grand prince of Kiev, and the brothers were to succeed each other, moving up the hierarchy of cities toward Kiev, filling vacancies left by the advancement or death of an elder brother. The youngest brother was to be succeeded as grand prince by his eldest nephew whose father had been a grand prince. This succession pattern was generally followed through the reigns of Svyatopolk (1015–19); Yaroslav the Wise (1019–54); his sons Izyaslav (1054–68; 1069–73; and 1077–78), Svyatoslav (1073–76), and Vsevolod (1078–93); and Svyatopolk II (son of Izyaslav; reigned 1093–1113).
The successions were accomplished, however, amid continual civil wars. In addition to the princes’ unwillingness to adhere to the pattern and readiness to seize their positions by force instead, the system was upset whenever a city rejected the prince designated to rule it. It was also undermined by the tendency of the princes to settle in regions they ruled rather than move from city to city to become the prince of Kiev.
In 1097 all the princes of Kievan Rus met at Lyubech (northwest of Chernigov) and decided to divide their lands into patrimonial estates. The succession for grand prince, however, continued to be based on the generation pattern; thus, Vladimir Monomakh succeeded his cousin Svyatopolk II as grand prince of Kiev. During his reign (1113–25) Vladimir tried to restore unity to the lands of Kievan Rus; and his sons (Mstislav, reigned 1125–32; Yaropolk, 1132–39; Vyacheslav, 1139; and Yury Dolgoruky, 1149–57) succeeded him eventually, though not without some troubles in the 1140s.
Nevertheless, distinct branches of the dynasty established their own rule in the major centres of the country outside Kiev—Halicz, Novgorod, and Suzdal. The princes of these regions vied with each other for control of Kiev; but when Andrew Bogolyubsky of Suzdal finally conquered and sacked the city (1169), he returned to Vladimir (a city in the Suzdal principality) and transferred the seat of the grand prince to Vladimir. Andrew Bogolyubsky’s brother Vsevolod III succeeded him as grand prince of Vladimir (reigned 1176–1212); Vsevolod was followed by his sons Yury (1212–38), Yaroslav (1238–46), and Svyatoslav (1246–47) and his grandson Andrew (1247–52).
Alexander Nevsky (1252–63) succeeded his brother Andrew; and Alexander’s brothers and sons succeeded him. Furthering the tendency toward fragmentation, however, none moved to Vladimir but remained in their regional seats and secured their local princely houses. Thus, Alexander’s brother Yaroslav (grand prince of Vladimir, 1264–71) founded the house of Tver, and Alexander’s son Daniel founded the house of Moscow.
After the Mongol invasion (1240) the Russian princes were obliged to seek a patent from the Mongol khan in order to rule as grand prince. Rivalry for the patent, as well as for leadership in the grand principality of Vladimir, developed among the princely houses, particularly those of Tver and Moscow. Gradually, the princes of Moscow became dominant, forming the grand principality of Moscow (Muscovy), which they ruled until their male line died out in 1598.
What made you want to look up "Rurik Dynasty"? Please share what surprised you most... | <urn:uuid:ade5ac2a-2c39-4788-9bd4-f3b48bd7e820> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/512998/Rurik-Dynasty | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965613 | 1,061 | 3.015625 | 3 |
The Others is an old fashioned ghost story along the lines of M. R. James and Henry James. This means the movie relies on atmosphere, fear of the unknown, and good writing as opposed to the gore, dismemberments, and very ugly monsters that form the backbone of most contemporary scary movies or movies about the supernatural. The Others is based on the simplest definition of supernatural- that which is above or beyond what one acknowledges to exist in the natural world. It is well to remember how horrifying is an event that we know cannot occur yet somehow does. Alejandro Amenabar wrote, directed and scored the film. This is an unusual feat and, in my opinion, Amenabar carries it off. The Others is rated PG 13; I presume that is for unpleasant themes and mildly scary sequences.
The story is set right after WWII and focuses on Grace, her two children, and the trio of servants who come to the house looking for work. The children have an unusual disease which makes them allergic to sunlight. Therefore the house, a large rambling structure secluded in misty countryside is shrouded in half lights, lantern light, soft lights that illuminate the middle of the room but leave the corners in rustling shadows. It is one of Graces rules, ostensibly to protect her children, that no door be left unlocked and that no door can be opened until the first door is shut. This, coupled with the darkness creates a frightening sense of claustrophobia and desperation. The cast is very small-another claustrophobic device; the characters and the viewer with them are forced to turn in upon themselves in their isolation creating, I think, a real mood of fear.
The movie relies on its two female leads and on the supporting effort of Alakina Mann as Anne. I dont think the movie would be nearly as effective without its two female protagonists. Physical, social and temperamental opposites, the characters, as portrayed by two skilled actresses, play off of each other faultlessly.
Nicole Kidman is perfect as Grace, upper class, authoritative, but with an underlying stress and tension that is apparent in her every movement. Fionnula Flanagan is wonderful as the housekeeper Mrs. Mills. She is subservient but with a hint of slyness and superiority, as if she knows what is making Grace so nervous and is amused by it. In one of the first scenes of the movie, Grace is interviewing Mrs. Mills and telling her what she expects from a housekeeper. Grace is polite but very firm-this is after all an upper class woman in the late 1940s; she feels no need to address a servant as anything like an equal. However, with all her yes maams and of course madams, it is obvious that Mrs. Mills has no sense of inferiority and somehow even feels herself to be superior to her employer. We the audience cannot help but wonder what she knows and what exactly is the truth of the increasingly strange incidents involving Grace and her children.
The progression of the plot depends in a large degree on the daughter Anne, very believably portrayed by Alakina Mann. Anne terrorizes her little brother and is not played as a completely sympathetic character -- a welcome relief from the saintly, overly precious children one usually encounters in movies. Annes rebellion against her mother is quite realistic -- its just set in a haunted house. Just as understandable is Graces exasperation and punishment of the less likeable child and her obvious love for the younger, sweeter Nicholas. Anne sees people no one else can see or will admit to seeing; she tells family secrets to Mrs. Mills, she is determined to discover the truth behind the odd events in the household.
The supernatural elements of the movie are, for the most part, subtle and inferred -- curtains left open which, according to Grace, could be fatal to the children, hints and innuendoes from Mrs. Mills, unexplained sightings. The movie depends, to some degree, on the very subtlety of these incidents to create an atmosphere of suspense and dread. In one scene, a piano plays in a room that is supposed to be locked and empty; unless youve heard something like that for yourself, it is hard to imagine how terrifying it can be.
Eric Sykes, as Mr. Tuttle, a sort of gardener and general dogsbody, is avuncular and believable; I was floored to find that hes a respected director, writer and actor of long standing on the British stage and screen. Lydia, the third servant, is competently portrayed by Elaine Cassidy. Both of the children in this movie are believable as children of their era. They have none of the affectations of the child actor being cute, which so often mar a movie.
One sequence that jars and doesn't seem to add much to the movie, is the return of Graces husband, played by Christopher Eccleston. I presume the sequence is to add more mystery to the plot and, in a way, it did. Since Mr. Eccelstons haircut is quite reminiscent of another period, I inaccurately thought Id found a clue to the familys past.
An interesting element of the movie is Graces devout Roman Catholicism. This is not a negative in the movie, as it is in so many others, but it raises some interesting questions as events unfold and as the viewer discovers more about the past. These questions are not directly addressed, and I imagine many viewers wont give them a second thought, but they are a powerful undercurrent of the movie.
I do not particularly care for the movies official website. Obviously, it was designed to recreate the atmosphere of the movie itself. However, when I look at a site of this type, I would prefer more information and less misty still shots. There was no screen biography or even the names of either of the child actors who play a central role in the movie, for example. There were also a lot of video interviews which were slow to download and probably impossible for those with older computers or slow connections.
This is an excellent movie with a great cast and story, but there are those who require a lot more action and gore to find a movie frightening or even interesting. Such people will not like this movie at all. It has an almost British talkiness. The action moves at a slow pace and, honestly, the plot does seem to meander a bit, which does not lessen my enjoyment but could annoy those used to a tighter, more event filled story. The isolation of the house, supposedly in the Channel Islands but actually in Spain, plays its part in contributing to atmosphere. The Others is an old fashioned haunted house movie, and you either like that sort of story or you dont.
[Andrea S. Garrett]
The Others website is worth visiting.
To hear music from the movie go here.
Sites about cast members include:
Director: Alejandro Amenabar
Nicole Kidman (Grace)
Mrs. Mills: Fionnula Flanagan (Mrs. Mills)
Eric Sykes (Mr. Tuttle) | <urn:uuid:c2c59317-04f0-400e-beba-b1be3fa465c2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://greenmanreview.com/film/film_others.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971565 | 1,450 | 1.515625 | 2 |
The Groom of the Stool was a male servant in the household of an English monarch who, among other duties, “preside[d] over the office of royal excretion,” that is, he had the task of cleaning the monarch’s anus after defecation. In the early years of Henry VIII’s reign, the title was awarded to minions of the King, court companions who spent time with him in the Privy chamber.
These were the sons of noblemen or important members of the gentry. In time they came to act as virtual personal secretaries to the King, carrying out a variety of administrative tasks within his private rooms. The position was an especially prized one, as it allowed one unobstructed access to the King’s attention. Despite being the official bum-wiper of the king, the Groom of the Stool had a very high social standing.
A whipping boy, in the 1600s and 1700s, was a young boy who was assigned to a young prince and was punished when the prince misbehaved or fell behind in his schooling.
Whipping boys were established in the English court during the monarchies of the 15th century and 16th century. They were created because the idea of the Divine Right of Kings, which stated that kings were appointed by God, and implied that no one but the king was worthy of punishing the king’s son. Since the king was rarely around to punish his son when necessary, tutors to the young prince found it extremely difficult to enforce rules or learning. Whipping boys were generally of high birth, and were educated with the prince since birth. Due to the fact that the prince and whipping boy grew up together since birth, they usually formed an emotional bond. The strong bond that developed between a prince and his whipping boy dramatically increased the effectiveness of using a whipping boy as a form of punishment for a prince. The idea of the whipping boys was that seeing a friend being whipped or beaten for something that he had done wrong would be likely to ensure that the prince would not make the same mistake again.
Fulling is a step in woollen clothmaking which involves the cleansing of cloth (particularly wool) to eliminate oils, dirt, and other impurities, and making it thicker. In days gone by, the fullers were often slaves. In Roman times, fulling was conducted by slaves standing ankle deep in tubs of human urine and cloth. Urine was so important to the fulling business that urine was taxed. Urine, known as ‘wash’, was a source of ammonium salts and assisted in cleansing and whitening the cloth. By the medieval period, fuller’s earth had been introduced for use in the process which ameliorated the process and removed the need for urine.
In Britain, the crime of snatching a body was only a misdemeanor and so was punishable by a small fine only. This led to a huge industry in body snatching in order to provide corpses to the blossoming medical schools of Europe. One method the body-snatchers used was to dig at the head end of a recent burial, digging with a wooden spade (quieter than metal). When they reached the coffin (in London the graves were quite shallow), they broke open the coffin, put a rope around the corpse and dragged it out. They were often careful not to steal anything such as jewelry or clothes as this would cause them to be liable to a felony charge. During 1827 and 1828, some Edinburgh resurrectionists including Burke and Hare changed their tactics from grave-robbing to murder, as they were paid more for very fresh corpses. Their activities, and those of the London Burkers who imitated them, resulted in the passage of the Anatomy Act 1832. This allowed unclaimed bodies and those donated by relatives to be used for the study of anatomy. This effectively ended the body snatching business.
A dog whipper was a church official charged with removing unruly dogs from a church or church grounds during services. In some areas of Europe during the 16th to 19th centuries it was not uncommon for household dogs to accompany – or at least follow – their owners to church services. If these animals became disruptive it was the job of the dog whipper to remove them from the church, allowing the service to continue in peace. Dog whippers were usually provided with a whip (hence the title) or a pair of large wooden tongs with which to remove the animals. They were generally paid for their services, and records of payments to the local dog whipper exist in old parish account books in many English churches.
Toad doctors were practitioners of a specific tradition of medicinal folk magic, operating in western England until the end of the 19th century. Their main concern was healing scrofula (then called “the King’s Evil,” a skin disease), though they were also believed to cure other ailments including those resulting from witchcraft. They cured the sick by placing a live toad, or the leg of one, in a muslin bag and hanging it around the sick person’s neck. Needless to say this job would also require growing or gathering up a large collection of toads, and in the case of doctors who used just the leg, chopping their legs off to give to their patient.
A Knocker-up was a profession in England and Ireland that started during and lasted well into the Industrial Revolution, before alarm clocks were affordable or reliable. A knocker-up’s job was to rouse sleeping people so they could get to work on time. The knocker-up often used a long and light stick (often bamboo) to reach windows on higher floors. In return, the knocker-up would be paid a few pence a week for this job. The knocker-up would not leave a client’s window until they were assured the client had been awoken. This all leads to the obvious question: who knocks up the knocker-up?
A tosher was someone who scavenges in the sewers, especially in London during the Victorian period. The toshers decided to cut out the middle man and it was a common sight in 19th Century Wapping for whole families to whip off a manhole cover and go down into the sewers, where they would find rich pickings. As most toshers would reek of the sewers, they were not popular with the neighbors. Similarly, the mudlarks were people who would dredge the banks of the Thames in the early morning when the tide was out. They would have to wade through unprocessed sewerage and even sometimes dead bodies in order to find little treasures to sell. In a kind of weird twist, this is now the popular hobby of some middle class Londoners who travel the banks to clean up trash.
We have all heard of the court Jester – the fool who was permitted to insult the king without losing his head – as long as it made the king laugh. It was a job that came with accolades and with fear. It is also a job unlike any existent today. How many families do you know that employ a private “comedian” so to speak? But, while the job did vanish from history for hundreds of years, as recently as 1999 one Kingdom (Tonga) has appointed an official jester. In a bizarre (and very amusing) twist, the man appointed happened to also be the government’s financial advisor. He was later embroiled in a financial scandal. The American jester to the Tongan court was Jesse Bogdonoff and he is pictured above. | <urn:uuid:b34f2fab-4a3a-4f06-97fe-4c6103c3eed0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://1001archives.blogspot.com/2011/07/stangest-jobs-in-history.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988759 | 1,575 | 4 | 4 |
Euro Millions is a European lottery that takes place twice a week, on Tuesday and Friday evenings. Whereas national lotteries are generally limited to the residents of one particular country, the Euro Millions lottery pools the stakes of the participating European countries. This obviously makes the prizes a great deal larger than in national lotteries even in normal circumstances. But because the main prize pool is “rolled over” to the next draw if there is no jackpot winner, prizes can - after a few weeks without a winner - be as high as 190 million Euros.
There are nine countries currently participating in EuroMillions. In alphabetical order, these are Austria, Belgium, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. This makes EuroMillions one of the biggest lotteries in the world - and certainly one of the most exciting!
At Euro-Millions.com we pride ourselves on bringing You the very latest Euromillions Results, updated within minutes of each draw taking place. Our team of writers work through the night to ensure that all results posted are checked and double checked for accuracy.
As prize amounts are announced across Europe we publish them in the Euromillions Result page with prize breakdowns available in multiple currencies.
Today's estimated jackpot is:
The Last EuroMillions Jackpot was: £61,122,965
View the latest Euromillions Results and prize breakdown for: Tuesday 21st May 2013
The history of Euro Millions began in 1994. Originally, the idea had been to launch this new Euro Lottery at around the same time as a single European currency, but as often happens, bureaucracy, politics and other miscellaneous factors meant that the plan was delayed a number of times before coming to fruition some ten years later.
The first Euro Millions lottery draw took place on Friday 13th February, 2004. It was originally presented by three major lottery organisers: Camelot in the United Kingdom who run the UK National Lottery, Francaise des Jeux in France and the Loterias y Apuestas des Estad in Spain. The first jackpot was worth 15 million Euros. The biggest euromillions winners are listed here. | <urn:uuid:4cb1c33f-4156-4ea7-9c80-dcd2bc063b5d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.euro-millions.com/?(none) | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946865 | 450 | 1.679688 | 2 |
A new study gives encouraging news for pregnant women afraid of getting the flu: it’s safe to get vaccinated.
The comprehensive study from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health found no evidence that vaccination increases the risk of losing a fetus, and may prevent some deaths.
Pregnant women have five times the risk of severe illness if they catch the flu with the Norwegian research showing that contracting the flu during a pregnancy makes fetal death more likely.
The flu vaccine has long been considered safe for pregnant women and their fetus. U.S. health officials began recommending flu shots for them more than five decades ago, following a higher death rate in pregnant women during a flu pandemic in the late 1950s.
But the study is perhaps the largest look at the safety and value of flu vaccination during pregnancy, experts say.
"This is the kind of information we need to provide our patients when discussing that flu vaccine is important for everyone, particularly for pregnant women," said Dr. Geeta Swamy, a researcher who studies vaccines and pregnant women at Duke University Medical Center.
This information is especially important for Latinas, who in general, whether pregnant or not, are less likely to get vaccinated.
While statistics are not yet available for this year, during the last flu season only 39 percent of Latino adults received the flu shot, compared to 49 percent of non-Hispanic whites.
With the early and intense flu season outbreak spread nationwide, a U.S. obstetricians group this week reminded members that it's not too late for their pregnant patients to get vaccinated.
The study was released on Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine. Over the course of two years, the study pregnancies in Norway in 2009 and 2010 during an international epidemic of a new swine flu strain.
Before 2009, pregnant women in Norway were not routinely advised to get flu shots. But during the pandemic, vaccinations against the new strain were recommended for those in their second or third trimester.
The study focused on more than 113,000 pregnancies. Of those, 492 ended in the death of the fetus. The researchers calculated that the risk of fetal death was nearly twice as high for women who weren't vaccinated as it was in vaccinated mothers.
U.S. flu vaccination rates for pregnant women grew in the wake of the 2009 swine flu pandemic, from less than 15 percent to about 50 percent. But health officials say those rates need to be higher to protect newborns as well. Infants can't be vaccinated until 6 months, but studies have shown they pick up some protection if their mothers got the annual shot, experts say.
Because some drugs and vaccines can be harmful to a fetus, there is a long-standing concern about giving any medicine to a pregnant woman, experts acknowledged. But this study should ease any worries about the flu shot, said Dr. Denise Jamieson of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"The vaccine is safe," she said.
Based on reporting by The Associated Press. | <urn:uuid:15bb9027-9a35-4c87-8251-2d094552c121> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/health/2013/01/17/flu-vaccine-encouraged-in-pregnant-women-new-study-shows/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969714 | 614 | 3.125 | 3 |
An interview with Prof. Dr. Frank van Harmelen of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Faculty of Sciences, Department of Artificial Intelligence
Source: www.oryon.nl, November 2003
Let's start with the most obvious question: what does the semantic web actually entail?
Van Harmelen: 'To provide you with a clear explanation, we should look at the limitations of the current world-wide web. On the one hand, the world-wide web is a huge success - ten years ago, nobody would have foreseen that would have such a great influence on our daily lives. However, at the same time it has a number of major limitations. Currently the web is very useful if you are able to read English or another language and able to comprehend images and photographs. People are well equipped for this task, but for computers this is another matter entirely. Computers are completely unable to handle the current web, at least as far as its content is concerned. And for this reason, computers are of very little use to us when we are looking for information on the web. In this sense computers provide us with extremely limited support. The only thing your expensive PC does, is retrieve information from a single location, move it to another location and display it on your screen. However, we are left to our own devices when it comes to understand, combine, interpret, select, evaluate etc. this information. Computers are unable to assist us in this task, because they simply do not comprehend what is said in those pages.
So how does this relate to the semantic web? Well, the idea behind the semantic web is that we can try to expand the current web by providing additional information that enables computers to actually comprehend the content of web pages. This is not to say that we should forget about or dump the current web. The semantic web will be an expansion, an extra layer on top of the existing world-wide web. In actual practice, this means that we will have to adapt part of the content of the current pages in such a way that these pages become intelligible to computers. And that is what we are currently actively involved in'
How should we imagine the semantic web?
Van Harmelen: 'A number of specific languages have been developed that are intelligible to computers and can explain to them what a particular website is exactly about, and in a much richer way. For instance, in such a language you can indicate that there is such a thing as the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, that there exists a person named Frank van Harmelen and that there is a relation between the two that can be defined as 'works for'. In addition, you can indicate that there is also a 'building', that this building 'is part of' the Vrije Universiteit, and that Frank van Harmelen 'works in' this building. Naturally, you will have to define all these relations. After all, the relation between the building and me is fundamentally different from the relation between the university and the building. However, if you define all this in one of those languages and go on to find people who 'work for' the Vrije Universiteit or 'work in' that particular building, the computer will understand what you are looking for, because you have taught it as much in advance. In this way, the computer would be able to provide you with much better support in your search for information'.
So the entire system stands or falls with the way in which you offer this information to your computer?
Van Harmelen: 'Yes, exactly. Let me give you another example: if you search for Frank van Harmelen's work address, you may not be able to find it because I have been too lazy or stupid to include it on my website. However, if the computer knows that I work at the Vrije Universiteit and it knows the address, it may be able to deduct which address it should provide on the basis of this information. However, you need to provide the computer with the necessary information first. This means that everything will depend on the quality of what we call the ontology. An ontology is a set of definitions that explains the concepts and relations between these concepts'.
In other words, the quality of the ontology will determine the quality of the support that your computer can offer you.
Van Harmelen: 'Precisely. You can regard ontologies as structured ways of representing the meaning of words for a particular domain. Let's return to the example I gave you just now. You will have to explain to your computer what a university is, what an employee is, what the relation between the two is, how this relation takes shape in the actual world, etc. We refer to this type of information as metadata. And that is what we need to create the semantic web. Without this metadata, there can be no semantic web'.
And where will all this metadata come from?
Van Harmelen: 'That is the question I am asked the most during presentations (smiles). It does not result from the pens or keyboards of individual users. If we look at the origin of the world-wide web, of, say, the first hundred thousand pages, we can say that these were manually written by people who sat behind their computer and created web pages and HTML. However, for a long time this has no longer been the case. We don't get 3 billion pages on the world-wide web just like that. They are generated from databases written with or by specific programs, etc. In the future, these databases and applications will not just generate HTML, but metadata as well. An easy example of this is Amazon.com. This website is actually a reverse database. All information is stored in the database, and the database is converted into HTML pages, which enables us to read and understand the information. The same information can also be represented in another language that computers can understand. And in this way, my personal shopping agent would be able to assist me during my search for books or music that match my predefined personal preferences. That in itself already is a single source of metadata. Another important source is formed by specialised applications that are able to superficially understand natural languages, e.g. English or Dutch, and distil metadata from them. These types of applications already exist, and companies are already making money out of them. So, to a large extent, metadata will be generated automatically or semi-automatically'.
But of course this metadata should be standardised so it can be exchanged and be of use.
Van Harmelen: 'You have just touched on an important topic. For instance, if you are using the term 'employee', and someone else is talking about a 'staff member', the computer would have to know the same concept is concerned in both cases. When it searches for 'employee', it should know that it must also include 'staff member' in the search query. That is precisely the efficiency we want to achieve with the semantic web. The current search engines are - maybe this is putting it a little dramatically - mainly engaged in character matching. Sure, they are a bit cleverer than that, but basically all they do is compare digits and letters. Ontologies will change all this. Not only will they define that I am an employee of the Vrije Universiteit, they will also define the concept of 'employee' and the relation with other concepts. However, this also means that when somebody else uses the word 'employee', he or she must refer to the same type of ontology and that the two ontologies should have to be linked. Only then will the computer be able to understand that two identical concepts are concerned. To do all this, you will indeed need standardised languages for metadata'.
Aren't computers able to identify such links by themselves? Is the technology still insufficiently advanced in this respect?
Van Harmelen: 'That is currently a hot research topic. This has already been proven possible in a number of experiments in carefully selected test domains, but it is not yet possible in the proliferation of the world-wide web. However, I expect a completely new commercial market to develop around this technology. Some companies are already offering ontologies. For instance, they provide large commercial ontologies with terms such as 'employer', 'employee', 'product', 'address', 'price', etc. These terms are interrelated, and you can link to these terms if you pay for this service. Moreover, these companies will make sure their ontology is linked to other ontologies. In this way, you will be provided with a kind of semantic service that allows users to find information on your pages in a much quicker and easier way'
What will the regular Internet surfer notice of all these changes? It seems to be a back-office operation mainly. Which concrete changes will take place for regular internauts?
Van Harmelen: 'A large part of the semantic web's will depend on it remaining invisible.. All the technology we have been talking about is indeed beneath the surface. The only thing you will notice when you surf the Internet, is that the quality of the results of your search engine will have improved. The current search engines are very good at recalling: everything that can be found, will be found. However, the search engines do not provide such good results where precision is concerned. Apart from the required information, they will also come up with a lot of other stuff that you have no use for. I am turning this into a bit of a caricature, but it can still be said that the precision still needs to be considerably improved. Of course, the way in which information is provided will change as well. For instance, if I enter my name in one of the search engines currently available, I will be presented with two types of results: results concerning me and my scientific work, but also results relating to the Dutch village of Harmelen. The problem is that the search engine does not make any distinction and presents a mishmash of this information. As the semantic web evolves, search engines will have to be capable of determining that two type of hits are concerned and that they have to be displayed separately, or ask the user what he or she is looking for: the person Frank van Harmelen or the village of Harmelen'.
So Internet searches will be simplified. Are there any other benefits?
Van Harmelen: 'An important topic that I haven't touched upon so far, is personalisation. If you and I browse to a website, we will both get to see the same thing. This, however, is not an ideal situation, because you and I have different interests. Let's return to the example of Amazon.com. Wouldn't it be in the interest of this company to show us different pages, based on our personal preferences? Personalisation can be even taken so far that it will drastically reduce the flow of information. After all, things that you are not interested in do not have to be presented to you.
How many people are currently involved in the development of the semantic web?
Van Harmelen: 'W3C is really just a small circle of people. There are many members, but the size of W3C's staff is limited. On a global scale, a few dozen people are involved, but they are also engaged in activities that are unrelated to the semantic web. The real work is done by people who are employees of the members of W3C. In workgroups centred around the semantic web you will find people from companies such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Sun, Nokia, etc. Although these may not be the most likely names, quite a lot of these companies will benefit from the development of the semantic web. Hewlett-Packard, for instance, sees opportunities in using the semantic web through their printers. Each printer would become a kind of self-describing device: each printer is assigned its own profile, written in a special language for the semantic web. And do you know what will happen? You walk into a building, a convention hall, for instance, and all the printers will make themselves known to your laptop or PDA. So when you want to print a page, your laptop or PDA will already be aware of the location of each printer and which printer is best suited to your specific task. A company such as Nokia, on the other hand, hopes to make all sorts of services available through their mobile phones. So it is logical that these companies would like to be involved in the development of the semantic web. Nobody wants to miss out'.
So what about the Googles, Altavistas and Yahoos of this world? To what extent are they involved in the development of the semantic web
Van Harmelen: 'I recently spoke to some people from Google, and I was surprised to find them, shall we say, politely expectant. They were very well aware of the latest developments, but informed me that they would prefer to wait and see which way the wind blows. However, at the same time I noticed they are already experimenting with certain semantic aspects. Do you know the Open Directory? It is a project involving volunteers who manually categorise web pages. Currently Google already uses links to this gigantic database for a large number of search results. At the bottom of the page you will find a hyperlink to the category that the specific search result belongs to. In this way you can search for other results in the same category. So although Google doesn't want to admit it, it is already using semantic support. That's because it is something they simply can't do without. The popularity of a search engine is still determined by the quality of the search results'.
Are there any other practical applications?
Van Harmelen: 'W3C has developed an ontology that describes device capabilities. This ontology will teach the computer, say, the things a phone can do, what a printer is capable of and so on, and which information can be exchanged by these devices. There are also large ontologies for very specific industries. For instance, the biomedical sector already uses a relatively large number of comprehensive and well-structured ontologies with medical terms. The car industry is also at an advanced stage in this respect. Daimler-Chrysler is even an active participant in W3C workgroups. However, these are applications that regular Internet users aren't likely to come across that quickly. For the time being, the semantic web is mainly found in the business-to-business sector'.
When can we expect the first practical applications for regular Internet users, or consumers if you will?
Van Harmelen: 'Currently numerous small semantic web 'islands' are evolving within these specific industries. In the long term, I see these islands connecting, and that is when you will really get a semantic web. Consumers will not take any notice of the semantic web until then. What I do see happening in the near future, and this is an area Philips is very active in, is the creation of ontologies for media content provision. Let me give you an example. There are many websites that offer you an online television guide. These websites can only be read by people. A media content ontology will allow your computer or PDA to read such pages, match their content against your preferences and to draw your attention to other interesting programs that are broadcast that same week. In this framework I can also imagine that ontologies will be created for musical or movie genres. The only thing that will be needed from you is an indication of the genre or sub-genre you are interested in. The computer will do the rest. I expect such applications to arrive in just a few years time'.
Finally, a difficult question: when do you expect a major breakthrough of the semantic web?
Van Harmelen: 'That is indeed a very difficult question. It is quite hard to predict the future, and even more so where the IT industry is concerned. It so happens that I recently discussed about this with Tim Berners-Lee, the architect of the world-wide web, and he used the metaphor of a bobsleigh. Initially you will have to set the bobsleigh in motion, but once it begins to gather speed, you will still have to hurry to get in if you don't want it to leave without you. As far as the semantic web is concerned, we are still in the pushing phase. We must convince the industry of the value of the semantic web. That said, there is no question in my mind that the semantic web will arrive. Tim Berners-Lee also regards the semantic web as the next major step in the history of the world-wide web. However, I'll be a bit more concrete than that. Let us say that I would be really disappointed if no visible applications of the semantic web would become available to regular Internet users in two or three years time. And in this respect I am particularly thinking of the e-commerce industry. To my mind, this industry can benefit the most from personalisation. It will take some more time to convert the entire web into a semantic web. But it will happen. | <urn:uuid:0aca4faa-562e-453f-91c2-53832ae0384c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rna-project.org/rna.en/rna.en/i000421.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955947 | 3,536 | 2.671875 | 3 |
If you have been following my series of articles on ‘how to write a novel’ you’ll know I’m writing a short novel, a ‘novella’ about a love-hate relationship between a young Englishman, Nick and a young American, Lily from New England. Last week Nick got dismissed from his job as assistant gardener by Terrance, the Lord of the Manor.
If you have been following my story, you will know it’s about Nick, who went travelling in a camper van, after his parents were killed in a car accident. He met Lily, an American and formed a love-hate relationship. He is now working as an assistant gardener for Terrance Knight, the Lord of the Manor.
If you’re following my blogs about writing a novel, you will know that the story I’m writing is about Nick and Lily. Nick’s parents were killed in a car accident while on holiday in America. He took to the road in a campervan and met Lily, a brash American. They are opposites but attracted to one another and so have a love-hate relationship.
If you’re following my story about Nick and Lily, you’ll know that they have a love-hate relationship. Nick is typically English and Lily is American and almost his opposite. I need humorous dialogue between Nick and Lily, but I can’t think of any. Is it writer’s block? Do I need to be inspired? Maybe, I am approaching the problem wrongly.
If you’re following my story about Nick and Lily and their love-hate relationship, you will know that they went to visit Victoria, Lily’s friend from university. Mr Knight is the Lord of the Manor and Nick has a job working for him as an assistant gardener. The comedy must come in the dialogue between the characters and most of all in the dialogue between Nick and Lily. I need an event to trigger some dialogue.
If you have followed my blog about writing fiction, then you know the story so far. Nick lives in Birmingham, England in his late parents house, near the airport. His parents were killed in a horrible accident while on holiday in America and Nick is now traumatised by those events. He travelled to America to bring his parents home and now hates all things American. He travels around England in a campervan until he meets Lily, a young American woman and forms a love-hate relationship. (more…) | <urn:uuid:0e15874e-322b-46a3-b70b-a56324080199> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mike10613.wordpress.com/tag/camper-van/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981945 | 521 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Which, if you've seen it, means this is pretty darn bad!
A study whose results were recently released found that seagulls - those playful winged scamps that flich food from us at the beach - have played an interesting role in the spread of resistant bacteria throughout the globe. Here's a tidbit from the study's author:
" . . . the resistance factors identified in the seagull feces match ones that cause highly resistant infections in humans — not only in hospitals, but in everyday life, where the route of infection is often unclear."
So there, and I have now added seagulls to a list of creatures - including skunks, rabid badgers, and dragons - that I take pains to avoid. | <urn:uuid:b82302bf-4962-4f49-a651-16291099842a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.microbeworld.org/index.php?option=com_jlibrary&view=article&id=7483 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972005 | 153 | 1.890625 | 2 |
The cold, clear freshwater of Lake Superior offers outstanding visibility for divers. Though there isn’t much to look at in the way of plant and animal life—the cold waters make for a pretty sterile-looking environment—the waters provide plenty of entertainment in the form of interesting underwater geologic formations and shipwrecks.
Ships have been running aground for well over a hundred years around the Keweenaw Peninsula, a navigational hazard if there ever was one. Within the 103-square-mile Keweenaw Underwater Preserve, divers can explore the Tioga, a freighter that ran aground near Eagle River in 1919, and the City of St. Joseph, which met its fate north of Eagle Harbor in 1942. Both ships lie in less than 40 feet of water, with large sections of the hull, deck machinery, and other artifacts clearly visible.
One of the Upper Peninsula’s oldest shipwrecks, the John Jacob Astor, lies just offshore from Copper Harbor, near the Fort Wilkins State Park Lighthouse Overlook. An Underwater Trail marks the location of the rudder, anchor, and other remnants of the Astor, which sank in 1844. For more information, contact the Michigan Underwater Preserve Council (800/970-8717, www.michiganpreserves.org).
by Laura Martone from Moon Michigan, 3rd Edition, © Avalon Travel | <urn:uuid:9cea4224-39d2-4f69-ae7c-eb16f5a4ca42> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://moon.com/destinations/michigan/michigan-s-upper-peninsula/the-western-upper-peninsula/the-keweenaw-peninsula/recreation/diving | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918966 | 294 | 3.109375 | 3 |
Margolin, Winer & Evens LLP (MWE) of Garden City, New York, created the Long Island College Accounting Challenge as a way to encourage Long Island accounting students to become more aware of the professional opportunities available.
Using a quiz show format, the competition for senior accounting students from local universities provides bragging rights for the winning team, and shows them that accountants can have fun. The third competition was held earlier this month.
Each team has four senior accounting students who have taken the core classes of ethics, auditing, accounting, and tax. The questions come from Becker CPA Review, which is one of the sponsors of the event.
“We also have two partners, a tax partner and a quality control partner, serve as judges on the spot to determine if an answer is complete and accurate,” Tracey Segarra, director of marketing, told AccountingWEB.
The competition already is generating a lot of interest, with local universities showing up to watch. Competing universities have increased from four to five this year. Molloy College came to watch last year's event and asked to be included. The other four schools are C.W. Post, Adelphi University, New York Institute of Technology (NYIT), and The State University of New York (SUNY) at Old Westbury.
The College Accounting Challenge also is a recruiting tool for participating schools, and organizers are considering plans to hold the competition at different schools each year to give them an opportunity to showcase their campus. This year's event was held at Adelphi University.
“I think it has been very solid press for us. We are already known but it has highlighted our presence in Long Island. It automatically puts us on the map. It is good public relations and highlights the firm,” said Robert Micera, MWE director of human resources.
“One of the people that participated has since come to work with us,” said Segarra. “It has helped as a recruiting tool and getting people to know the firm. We are the second largest firm on Long Island. It helps to differentiate us. It shows we are an innovative firm. We hope to video the event and upload it to YouTube.”
Micera told AccountingWEB that schools are "coming out of the woodwork" to participate. "It is celebrating working and living on Long Island. We are active in our community and this is a great way to do something fun and interesting for the college students,” he said. | <urn:uuid:5809706d-496b-42bb-878a-6fd86c7d7b10> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.accountingweb.com/print/205071 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97256 | 523 | 1.53125 | 2 |
When Michael Jordan came up to try for a sixth free throw after having made five straight free throws, the announcer commented that the law of averages would be working against Jordan (Barron's AP Statistics Review, 1st Edition, p. 314, Question #6)
1. What did the announcer mean? Was this a correct interpretation
of probability? Explain.
2. Jordan makes 90% of his free throws.
a. What is the probability that he will make six straight free throws?
b. That he will make five straight free throws and then miss the next?
c. That he will make the next free thrown given that he has made the
last five in a row?
3. Describe how you could use a random number table to set up a simulation
to analyze the situation the announcer was commenting on.
4. If Jordan shoots six times from the free throw line, what are the mean and standard deviation for the number of shots he is expected to make?
5. If Jordan makes only 35 out of 40 free throws during the playoffs,
is this sufficient evidence that the probability of his making a free throw
is really below .90? Explain in excruciating detail.
6. Explain carefully how you would assign random digits to simulate
the outcome of the situations below.
a. P(rain) = .4
b. P(rain ) = .43
c. P(rain) = .377
7. On a certain day the blood bank needs 4 donors with type O blood. How many donors, on average, would they have to see to get exactly four donors with type O blood, assuming that 45% of the population has type O blood? (Use the random number table. Show which line you started at and mark appropriately.)
8. Suppose it took the blood bank 12 donors to find 4 with type O blood.
This surprised the director since it usually doesn’t take that many donors.
Could this have occurred by random chance or were people with type O blood
particularly stingy on that day? Use the results from problem 7 to
find the probability it takes 12 or more donors to get 4 with type O blood.
9. Last year I bought a string of 6 Christmas lights (6 lights was all
I could afford...). Unfortunately, my little string of 6 lights stopped
working after only 9 days. Did I get a defective string, or could
this have occurred by random chance? The manufacturer says that all
six light bulbs on a string stop working if one or more bulbs born out
and that the probability that any individual bulb burns out is 0.1.
a. Design and conduct a simulation (do 20 runs) to estimate the probability that a string of six bulbs will go out.
b. Calculate the theoretical probability that all bulbs will work. ___________
Calculate the theoretical probability that at least one bulb doesn’t work. __________
10. In many countries, it is desirable to have sons. Therefore, couples are inclined to keep having children until they get a son. Some countries, however, would like to discourage this practice. In an alternate universe, suppose the government of a country established a policy that says families are allowed to have children until they get a boy, and then they must stop, even if this is their only child. Design and conduct a simulation (do 20 runs) to answer the following, assuming that births are equally likely to result in boys and girls.
a. What is the average number of children per family?_____________ Average number of girls? ________
b. If this policy is practiced, will overpopulated countries continue to grow?
c. A certain couple was determined to have a son. This couple had produced three girls without a boy. How likely is it to take 4 or more children before having a boy?
d. What type of distribution does this simulation model? ________________
Use the appropriate cdf (cumulative density function) on your calculator
to find the exact theoretical probability for the question in part c. | <urn:uuid:9e871a09-b9e7-4da9-a3cb-2b6ebbf765d0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lhs.logan.k12.ut.us/~jsmart/simulation.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957551 | 841 | 3.03125 | 3 |