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Bakersfield Night Sky – March 6, 2010
By Nick Strobel
In the early evening sky look for Venus very low in the west up to about 30 minutes after sunset. The visibility time will increase to about 50 minutes after sunset by month’s end and Mercury will have joined Venus. Mars is the brightest thing in the eastern sky. At sunset it will already be about halfway up in East. By around 7 PM it will be higher in the southeast. The 7 PM is the time for people to make their Globe at Night observations described below. Above Mars will be the two bright stars of Gemini: Pollux (closest to Mars) and Castor (see the first chart below). For the past couple of months Mars has been drifting toward them as we passed by Mars in our faster orbit. By March 11th we will have moved far enough ahead of Mars that it will appear to stop its retrograde motion and then start heading back to dim Cancer for the rest of the month. To the right of Mars in the south about halfway up in the sky is Orion, the subject of the Globe at Night campaign. In Orion’s top left corner is the bright orange-red star, Betelgeuse, a supergiant that would swallow up all of the planets out to Jupiter if it were placed in our solar system at the Sun’s position. In the diagonal opposite (lower right) corner is bright Rigel, a blue giant putting out so much energy that if we orbited it at the same distance we orbit our Sun, the average temperature on the Earth would be over 6700º F. Extend the line made by Orion’s belt stars down left to the only object brighter than Mars, Sirius at the head of Canis Major, the big dog. Midway between Mars and Sirius is Procyon in Canis Minor. Leo is coming up low in the east, the “Sickle” part appears at the far left of the first chart.
Saturn will be visible low in the East by around 8 PM below Leo at the upper end of Virgo. In mid-March the waxing Moon will pass through the western sky in the evening. On March 20th, the crescent Moon will cover up part of the gorgeous Pleiades cluster. Such an event won’t occur again until 2023 for North America. See the second chart below. Early morning risers will have to be content with the third quarter Moon on Sunday morning, March 7th. It will be to the left of Antares in Scorpius. The following night it will be in Ophiuchus, that should be the thirteenth zodiac sign since the Sun spends more time in Ophiuchus than in Scorpius but either Ophiuchus didn’t have as good a PR agent as Scorpius or the astrologers didn’t like the number 13 (more likely), so Ophiuchus was left out of the zodiac. The pre-dawn chart below shows the annual path of the Sun through that part of the sky.
The fifth annual Globe at Night campaign is happening March 3rd to 16th. During that time thousands of people from around the world will be measuring the sky brightness using the stars of Orion as the measuring tool. By comparing the number of stars in Orion that you can see from your location with a set of standard brightness charts available on the Globe at Night website, you can help map the light-pollution levels worldwide. You will also need to know the latitude and longitude of your location. Bakersfield is at latitude +35.4º North and -119º West longitude, Tehachapi is +35.1 N, -118.4 W, Delano is +35.8 N, -119.2 W, Frazier Park is +34.8 N, -118.9 W, and Taft is +35.1 N, -119.4 W. After the Globe at Night campaign, come take a look at the truly dark sky of the Planetarium and explore the edge of the solar system with IBEX: Search for the Edge of the Solar System on March 18th at 7:30 PM. Tickets must be purchased from the BC Ticket Office before the show.
Want to see more of the
stars at night and save energy? Shield your lights so that the light
only goes down toward the ground. See www.darksky.org for how.
Director of the William M Thomas Planetarium at Bakersfield College
Author of the award-winning website www.astronomynotes.com
last updated: February 28, 2010
Webpage contact: Nick Strobel | <urn:uuid:9d830955-cd6a-48f8-90a6-9ac7e58ad622> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bakersfieldcollege.edu/planetarium/nightsky/mar0610.asp?c=Faculty | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930583 | 968 | 2.46875 | 2 |
Not sure where to start?
We’ll guide you to the right information.
Where Everybody Belongs
At St. David's Center, inclusion is not a practice or an educational strategy, it is a value. Learn how preschool children, like Jonathan, benefit when they have opportunities to play and learn side-by-side with children of all abilities. Watch video.
Play for All
St. David's Center opened the first toddler playground in Minnesota combining inclusive and natural play elements in September 2010. Learn more.
Importance of Early Intervention
Learn how preschool children with developmental challenges, like Joey and Drew, make gains faster thanks to intensive, targeted intervention early in life. Watch video.
St. David's Center proudly meets all of the Charity Review Council's Accountability Standards for non-profits. Charities that meet all standards are granted the use of the Council's "Meets Standards" seal which gives donors indication of a charity's commitment to accountable and ethical practices. Learn more.
What is St. David's Center?
With a 50-year history, St. David's Center has grown and changed based on community need. Learn more about the organization today and our goals for the future in this video overview.
Finding a Toy for Your Child with Special Needs
St. David's Center partnered with Creative Kidstuff to train their staff and develop a website to help you find the right toy for your child with special needs, develop their skills and show you the best way to play. Check it out.
"Tee Up for Tomorrow" Golf Tournament
Golf Hazeltine while supporting St. David's Center at our Inaugural Tee Up for Tomorrow Golf Tournament presented by the Minnesota Vikings and John Randle on Monday, July 15. Learn more.
St. David's Center for Child & Family Development | 3395 Plymouth Road Minnetonka, MN 55305 | (952) 939-0396
Serving Minneapolis and the Greater Twin Cities Metro | <urn:uuid:e29b4396-7fcd-435d-b97e-af16ad41ed94> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://stdavidscenter.org/employment/application | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.902393 | 405 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Hi, I usually stick to the Spirituality/Skepticism board, but I had a question for those of you who post often over here. I'm in the middle of a confrontation with someone who is basically completely ignorant of the scientific method. Among other things, this guy is claiming that evolution and much of cosmology is not science, its just a bunch of b.s. Currently, we have been discussing the nature of black holes and the singularities they are theoretically supposed to contain. I have tried my best, and cited many sources concerning singularities, but this guy refuses to listen. So I'm turning this over to the Space and Astronomy board, to help me out over here. I'm no scientist, I'm a philosopher. So on to my question: How do we know what we know about black holes? And what specifically makes scientists believe that black holes contain a singularity at their core? I know that has to do with Einstein's theory of general relativity, but I want to know if there have been any observations made that are highly supportive of the singularity theory. Thanks for your help.
When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.
Beyond your expectations, beyond your imagination: The Universe.
Posted 30 April 2008 - 01:37 PM
First of all, why even waste your time with this kind of individual?
Ok let's get started:
Since black holes are small (only a few to a few tens of kilometers in size), and light that would allow us to see them cannot escape, a black hole floating alone in space would be hard, if not impossible, to see. For instance, the photograph above shows the optical companion star to the (invisible) black hole candidate Cyg X-1.
However, if a black hole passes through a cloud of interstellar matter, or is close to another "normal" star, the black hole can matter into itself. As the matter falls or is pulled towards the black hole, it gains kinetic energy, heats up and is squeezed by tidal forces. The heating ionizes the atoms, and when the atoms reach a few million degrees Kelvin, they emit X-rays. The X-rays are sent off into space before the matter crosses the Schwarzschild radius and crashes into the singularity. Thus we can see this X-ray emission.
Binary X-ray sources are also places to find strong black hole candidates. A companion star is a perfect source of infalling material for a black hole. A also allows the calculation of the black hole candidate's mass. Once the mass is found, it can be determined if the candidate is a neutron star or a black hole, since neutron stars always have masses of about 1.5 times the mass of the sun. Another sign of the presence of a black hole is random variation of emitted X-rays. The infalling matter that emits X-rays does not fall into the black hole at a steady rate, but rather more sporadically, which causes an observable variation in X-ray intensity. Additionally, if the X-ray source is in a binary system, the X-rays will be periodically cut off as the source is eclipsed by the companion star. When looking for black hole candidates, all these things are taken into account. Many X-ray satellites have scanned the skies for X-ray sources that might be possible black hole candidates.
Cygnus X-1 is the longest known of the black hole candidates. It is a highly variable and irregular source with X-ray emission that flickers in hundredths of a second. An object cannot flicker faster than the time required for light to travel across the object. In a hundredth of a second, light travels 3000 kilometers. This is one fourth of Earth's diameter! So the region emitting the x-rays around Cygnus X-1 is rather small. Its companion star, HDE 226868 is a B0 supergiant with a surface temperature of about 31,000 K. Spectroscopic observations show that the spectral lines of HDE 226868 shift back and forth with a period of 5.6 days. From the mass-luminosity relation, the mass of this supergiant is calculated as 30 times the mass of the Sun. Cyg X-1 must have a mass of about 7 solar masses or else it would not exert enough gravitational pull to cause the wobble in the spectral lines of HDE 226868. Since 7 solar masses is too large to be a white dwarf or neutron star, it must be a black hole.
Loosely speaking, a black hole is a region of space that has so much mass concentrated in it that there is no way for a nearby object to escape its gravitational pull. Since our best theory of gravity at the moment is Einstein's general theory of relativity, we have to delve into some results of this theory to understand black holes in detail, but let's start of slow, by thinking about gravity under fairly simple circumstances.
Suppose that you are standing on the surface of a planet. You throw a rock straight up into the air. Assuming you don't throw it too hard, it will rise for a while, but eventually the acceleration due to the planet's gravity will make it start to fall down again. If you threw the rock hard enough, though, you could make it escape the planet's gravity entirely. It would keep on rising forever. The speed with which you need to throw the rock in order that it just barely escapes the planet's gravity is called the "escape velocity." As you would expect, the escape velocity depends on the mass of the planet: if the planet is extremely massive, then its gravity is very strong, and the escape velocity is high. A lighter planet would have a smaller escape velocity. The escape velocity also depends on how far you are from the planet's center: the closer you are, the higher the escape velocity. The Earth's escape velocity is 11.2 kilometers per second (about 25,000 m.p.h.), while the Moon's is only 2.4 kilometers per second (about 5300 m.p.h.).
Now imagine an object with such an enormous concentration of mass in such a small radius that its escape velocity was greater than the velocity of light. Then, since nothing can go faster than light, nothing can escape the object's gravitational field. Even a beam of light would be pulled back by gravity and would be unable to escape.
The idea of a mass concentration so dense that even light would be trapped goes all the way back to Laplace in the 18th century. Almost immediately after Einstein developed general relativity, Karl Schwarzschild discovered a mathematical solution to the equations of the theory that described such an object. It was only much later, with the work of such people as Oppenheimer, Volkoff, and Snyder in the 1930's, that people thought seriously about the possibility that such objects might actually exist in the Universe. (Yes, this is the same Oppenheimer who ran the Manhattan Project.) These researchers showed that when a sufficiently massive star runs out of fuel, it is unable to support itself against its own gravitational pull, and it should collapse into a black hole.
In general relativity, gravity is a manifestation of the curvature of spacetime. Massive objects distort space and time, so that the usual rules of geometry don't apply anymore. Near a black hole, this distortion of space is extremely severe and causes black holes to have some very strange properties. In particular, a black hole has something called an 'event horizon.' This is a spherical surface that marks the boundary of the black hole. You can pass in through the horizon, but you can't get back out. In fact, once you've crossed the horizon, you're doomed to move inexorably closer and closer to the 'singularity' at the center of the black hole.
You can think of the horizon as the place where the escape velocity equals the velocity of light. Outside of the horizon, the escape velocity is less than the speed of light, so if you fire your rockets hard enough, you can give yourself enough energy to get away. But if you find yourself inside the horizon, then no matter how powerful your rockets are, you can't escape.
According to general relativity, a black hole's mass is entirely compressed into a region with zero volume, which means its density and gravitational pull are infinite, and so is the curvature of space-time that it causes. These infinite values cause most physical equations, including those of general relativity, to stop working at the center of a black hole. So physicists call the zero-volume, infinitely dense region at the center of a black hole a singularity.
The singularity in a non-rotating, uncharged black hole is a point, in other words it has zero length, width, and height.
But there is an important uncertainty about this description: quantum mechanics is as well-supported by mathematics and experimental evidence as general relativity, and it does not allow objects to have zero size—so quantum mechanics says the center of a black hole is not a singularity but just a very large mass compressed into the smallest possible volume. At present we have no well-established theory that combines quantum mechanics and general relativity; and the most promising candidate, string theory, also does not allow objects to have zero size.
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. Eleanor Roosevelt
Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. Ralph Waldo Emerson
I aM tOrGo... I tAkE cArE oF tHe PlAcE wHiLe ThE mAsTeR iS aWaY...
Posted 01 May 2008 - 01:24 AM
I would like to add: it is technically impossible to know what happens inside a black hole without actually falling into one - but then you would not be able to send your observations to the outside world anyway. How does the quote go... "What goes on beneath the veil of the event horizon... decent people shouldn't think too much about that." Theoretically however, using general relativity, one can predict what SHOULD happen as something collapses within its own event horizon. General relativity is WAY outside of my league - special relativity anybody can understand, but the tensors and other crap involved in general I don't even want to think about. I have heard two different interpretations as to the interior of a black hole. One of my astronomy professors suggests that it could be technically possible that some unknown degeneracy pressure keeps a small nugget of matter of nonzero size from collapsing to infinity. However, I have also heard it stated that when gravity gets strong enough such that the escape velocity is greater than that of light, the warping of space and time is so extreme that space takes on a time-like quality: you cannot resist going inwards any more than you can resist going forward in time. As such, it is inevetable that anything within that volume would end up at the exact geometric center. I do not know enough about general relativity to give a better answer in this regard.
There is a great deal of honesty and integrity in saying we do not know everything. There is nothing wrong in saying that we use mathematical theories in trying to understand reality around us, but we really do not know.
And tell them they do not know all there is to know either, because if they claim they do then they are claiming they have the mind of God and to claim that is to claim that they are one of the damned, so they should carefully consider their next response.
You do not have to have an answer to every question to win a debate. Just take the high road of ethics and morality and stay there. You are then already standing at the finish line. | <urn:uuid:44511d77-dde9-46e2-9a24-ec3a715f0828> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=124821 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952534 | 2,431 | 2.71875 | 3 |
By FPA member Jeanne Gibson Sullivan, CFP®
Last Updated: May 21, 2012
What to Do with Teenagers (Financially Speaking)
Being the parent of a teenager may mean living a chaotic life in an emotionally charged household with headstrong young individuals who think they know everything. In the midst of this storm, there are important financial steps to take to keep your life calm.
- When Your Teenager Works
- Many teenagers have part time jobs. This is an excellent way for them to learn responsibility. Decide with your child up front what expenses their paycheck should cover. Help them understand the withholdings from their paycheck. Consider opening a Roth IRA for your child, maybe matching their contributions.
- Each phase of childhood brings new expenses. There are two big potential expenses with teenagers – a car and college. Make sure that expenditures for your children do not compromise your own retirement. Have candid conversations with your child regarding what the family can afford.
- Emergency fund – now it is more important than ever to make sure you have an adequate emergency fund to cover unexpected costs related to your teenager, even if you will have the teenager pay (speeding tickets, high school events, tutors) – teach the teenager to have an emergency fund also!
- Auto Insurance & Umbrella Coverage
- When your teenager gets their driver’s license, add them to your policy immediately. If they are driving the family car, they will be considered an “occasional driver”. If they have their own car, typically the car is still owned in the parent’s name, but the issues may be more complicated. Use the opportunity to check your coverage.
- An umbrella policy provides additional liability coverage for your home and your automobile and is essential coverage for all, especially important when you have teenage drivers in the family. Be sure the new driver is added to your umbrella policy, it may not be automatic.
- Estate Planning
- Establish Trusts. Hopefully by the time your child is a teenager you have amassed some savings and still have life insurance. If the worst were to happen and one or both parents pass away, be sure to have trusts in place to distribute money to them on your terms after you are gone. Provisions can be made so everything for their health, education, maintenance and welfare is provided while they are still young and the remainder can be distributed at an age specified by you, even spread out over several years. Without a trust, money could be distributed to them outright at age 21.
- Your named guardian may no longer apply when the child turns 18. A typical strategy for a family with young children is to name a guardian to take care of the children in the event something happens to both parents. In many states, when the child is 18 years old, they are legally considered “too old” to need a guardian.
- When your child turns 18, it may be advisable for them to have their own health care proxy. Without one, it may be difficult for a parent to obtain medical information about their children who are 18 or older if they are hospitalized for any reason.
- College Savings
- It is never too late to start saving for college. As your child gets closer to college age, it is important to be conservative with your college savings as you will need the money soon.
- Financial Aid
- The year before your child graduates from high school is the critical year for financial aid consideration (if your child graduates in the Spring of 2013, then 2012 is the base year). Familiarize yourself with the financial aid process, know what is countable (your income, your student’s income, non-retirement assets). If you know the schools where your child intends to apply, find out if they rely solely on FAFSA for financial aid determination or if you will also need to fill out the CSS Profile form and their deadlines. There may be some strategies you can implement to improve their financial aid eligibility, such as spending down a custodial account for the child’s expenses, such as camp or lessons (hopefully not speeding tickets!).
Best of luck navigating the teenage years!
FPA Member Jeanne Gibson Sullivan, CFP® is a financial planner and principal of Financially in Tune in Wakefield, MA and a parent of two teenage sons – a freshman in college and a high school junior. | <urn:uuid:6e8d3d4f-229b-4dca-bc59-cc4c2fb15e9f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fpanet.org/ToolsResources/TipoftheWeek/PastTips/FinancialPlanning/WhattoDowithTeenagersFinanciallySpeaking/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956823 | 900 | 2.1875 | 2 |
The New York Times' “Making It Last” column profiles baby boomer couples who have been together 25 years or more. The latest entry looks at Angelenos Alan Acosta and Tom Gratz. Acosta is a former Los Angeles Times editor who now is the director of strategic initiatives at the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center. They met in a Silver Lake bar in 1980 and were married in 2004 and again in 2008. Excerpt from the story:
Q: When did you finally make it legal?
Alan: In the summer of 2004, then San Francisco mayor, Gavin Newsom, was marrying same-sex couples and getting a lot of backlash, so we decided to do it for political reasons.
Tom: We took the morning off from work because we had an early appointment at City Hall. To be honest, neither of us thinks marriage is such a great thing – even for straight people – but this was more like adding our name to a petition. We had already been together for some 20 years at that point.
Alan: The state invalidated our marriage and everyone else’s. Then we got married again in 2008. Tom actually texted me the proposal.
Tom: Alan was always teasing me because I didn’t text. I say pick up the phone and have a conversation. So I thought it would be funny to text him, “Will you marry me?”
Alan: I was on the AIDS ride and as soon as I got it, I texted back, “YES!”
Q: How do you refer to each other?
Alan: “Husband,” but only ironically, like, “According to my husband ...”
Tom: If I think they won’t like hearing “husband” because they’re very conservative, I’ll use “other half” or “spouse.” I don’t want to offend someone. | <urn:uuid:c133d62d-37aa-49c7-b34a-5538d0563f53> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2012/12/la_gay_couple_with_media.php | 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 | 0.971918 | 407 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Lichfield Cathedral life captured in photographs
Lichfield Cathedral is being celebrated in a new exhibition created by a group of local volunteer photographers.
Lichfield Camera Club produced over 3,600 images capturing events at the cathedral over a 12-month period.
The Queen's visit and a live television broadcast at Christmas are included in the project, which began in April 2011.
Photographs are on display at the cathedral until 27 September and money generated from any sales will go towards its East End Appeal.
A member of the camera club, David Wain, said they had been "honoured" to be asked to carry out the task.
Mr Wain said: "It proved to be a challenging subject that put us all on a sharp learning curve.
"It was a joy and privilege to have access to the iconic place."
The Dean of Lichfield, the Very Reverend Adrian Dorber, said: "The cathedral's life is complicated, fascinating and incredibly varied.
"In thousands of beautiful images, Lichfield Camera Cub has sifted through to the heart of what the cathedral is about.
"It's a great achievement and I am delighted at what has been done."
The cathedral has set a target of £600,000 to complete the restoration of its famous Herkenrode stained glass windows.
It set up the East End Appeal two years ago to help raise the money. | <urn:uuid:f6d14eef-c801-4a3a-a0ce-ad305810da7a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-19385359 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970341 | 288 | 1.789063 | 2 |
The Dec. 19 ABC World News Tonight “A Closer Look” segment about Palestinian children injured in the clashes with Israelis is typical of many stories on this subject found in the mainstream media – it entirely ignores the Palestinian Authority’s role in the tragic phenomenon of children fighting and dying on the front lines. Aside from an original article in USA Today, and a derivative story in the New York Daily News, the secular Western media has been almost entirely silent on this aspect of the conflict.
While the ABC program with anchorman Peter Jennings, entitled “War Wounds: Mideast’s Young Martyrs,” purports to present the Palestinian perspective, it in fact omits the perspective of a key segment of the Palestinian population with a strong, albeit ignored, opinion on the matter – mothers who object to the PA policy of sending their children into the fighting.
According to a Dec. 8 USA Today article by Matthew Kalman, the Tulkarm Women’s Union, a trade-union group that advocates for women, sent a letter to PA Chairman Yasser Arafat stating:
We urge you to issue instructions to your police force to stop sending innocent children to their death.
In the article, a mother named Aisheh, who gives only her first name for fear of being condemned as a “traitor,” reveals that the PA is actually bringing children to the flashpoints. Aisheh, whose 17-year-old son was injured in the head by a rubber bullet, stated:
When school finishes, Palestinian Authority security cars go around collecting children from the streets and sending them to the killing fields.
Her husband, Abdelghani, adds that the PA intimidates those who speak out:
No one here dares to say publicly that he is against sending his own children to the front line. . . Some parents who have tried to protest have been condemned as fifth columnists [traitors] and threatened.
Indeed, in a front page editorial Oct. 27 in the PA official daily Al Hayat Al Jadida, editor-in-chief Harfez Bargutti wrote that parents who discourage their children from going to the clash points are:
destructive, abominable [individuals who] harm us more than the bullets of the occupation, because they constitute a fifth column.
He also calls their actions “one of the most severe transgressions."
Any broadcast supposedly reporting the Palestinian perspective on Palestinian child casualties in the clashes should have taken into account the internal conflict within Palestinian society between parents like Aisheh and Abdelghani and the official PA establishment, represented by figures like Bargutti and the Mufti of Jerusalem. Sheik Ikrima Sabri, the Arafat-appointed Mufti who is the top Palestinian Muslim cleric, was quoted in an Egyptian newspaper as saying: “The younger the martyr, the greater and the more I respect him” (Al-Ahram Al-Arabi, Oct. 28, translated by MEMRI). About the martyred children’s mothers, he adds: “They willingly sacrifice their offspring for the sake of freedom. It is a great display of the power of belief. The mother is participating in the great reward of the Jihad to liberate Al-Aqsa.” Not so, though, in the case of mothers of the Tulkarm Women’s Union, for example.
According to an Oct. 31 Associated Press report, Arafat himself called for children to wage war:
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Tuesday called for renewed resistance by young activists, "these children who throw the stones to defend Jerusalem, the Muslims and the holy places."
While the ABC reporter Gillian Findlay does challenge a Palestinian teacher about the value of school children honoring their injured classmates, asking if this only encourages “more children to go the streets,” she neither covers nor questions the fact that the PA actually brings children to the sites of fighting, denounces parents opposed to this policy, and lauds the death of children.
Also ignored is the ongoing education of Palestinian children to wage a “jihad” against Israel. For example, PA textbooks extol the value of martyrdom. In just one example, a literature reader for eighth graders quotes a jihad song: “Death calls and the sword will go crazy . . . Palestine, the youth will redeem you.” In The Guide to the Improvement of the Arabic Language, twelfth graders are requested to memorize the song of the “martyrs”: “I lift my spirit to my hands and send it to death / I swear on your life, I see my death, but I lengthen my stride to it.”
These lessons are reinforced by official PA television, which continuously demonizes Israel, and by actual martial training in summer camps, where children learn how to use guns and attack Israelis.
Given this context, it is particularly striking that Findlay only presents the opinion voiced by the Palestinian establishment – that Israel alone is responsible for the death of Palestinian children. “The doctors who spend so much time treating the children say if Israel would stop shooting the stone-throwers, parents would have an easier time keeping their kids at home,” she reports without challenging this illogical position. (In other words, if Israel would only stop shooting, then Palestinian children would ignore years of indoctrination by their media, religious leaders, school teachers, and summer camp advisors praising the merits of death in battle.) | <urn:uuid:d213a9f7-996a-4c84-8fdf-75f4351de507> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=3&x_outlet=1&x_article=31 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943079 | 1,145 | 1.507813 | 2 |
|Connect with Cooking Matters - Detroit!
Share Our Strength’s Cooking Matters™ empowers families with skills, knowledge and confidence to prepare healthy and affordable meals.
Share Our Strength’s Cooking Matters™ is a groundbreaking nutrition-education program that connects families with food by teaching them how to prepare healthy, tasty meals on a limited budget. Professional chefs and nutritionists volunteer their time and expertise to lead hands-on courses that show adults, teens and kids how to purchase and prepare nutritious foods in healthful, safe and tasty ways. This knowledge can mean the difference between feeding families just for one night, and making sure they never again have to worry about when their next meal will come.
With six specialized nutrition curricula, Cooking Matters takes a cooking-centered approach to nutrition and household budgeting. Each class includes hands-on meal preparation led by a chef who teaches participants that cooking healthy foods can be simple, enjoyable, delicious, and affordable. The courses cover basic nutrition, food safety, and food budgeting so that participants are able to plan and prepare low-cost nutritious meals for themselves and their families. In addition, Cooking Matters’ adult and teen participants receive groceries at each class session so that they can practice what they learned at home.
For more information about Cooking Matters, please visit www.cookingmatters.org/.
Cooking Matters makes seven curricula available to its local partners, including:
Offered in English and Spanish, teaches low-income adults about healthy meal preparation and sensible shopping on a limited budget.
An addenda to Cooking Matters for Adults, teaches people living with HIV and AIDS and their caretakers about healthy meal preparation and sensible shopping using recipes and information specific to their special nutritional needs.
An addenda to Cooking Matters for Adults, offers specialized information for adults living with diabetes.
Teaches children ages 8 to 12 about healthy eating and provides simple recipes children can prepare themselves.
Teaches teenagers how to make healthy food choices and prepare healthy meals and snacks
Brings school-age children and their families together to learn about healthy eating and the importance of family mealtime.
Cooking Matters® at the Store (formerly Shopping Matters) is an interactive grocery store tour that teaches low-income families to shop for healthy, affordable food as part of the No Kid Hungry campaign, working to connecting kids at risk of hunger in America with the healthy food they need every day. Cooking Matters at the Store is generously supported by Walmart and was made possible with support from the ConAgra Foods Foundation, both national sponsors of Cooking Matters. To learn more, click here.
Gleaners Community Food Bank and the American Culinary Federation Michigan Chefs de Cuisine are happy to announce a strategic partnership in Southeast Michigan. The Michigan Chefs de Cuisine (MCCA), through the American Culinary Federation Chef & Child Foundation, will provide certified and professional chef volunteers to help Gleaners Community Food Bank with educational outreach in Southeastern Michigan. Our partnership with the MCCA and the ACF Chef & Child Foundation will help reach families with food insecurity needs through Share our Strength’s No Kid Hungry, Cooking Matters, and Cooking Matters at the Store initiatives.
|Connect with MCCA!
Cooking Matters is always looking for chefs and nutritionists to volunteer as Cooking Matters™ class instructors. We also look for volunteers to help us manage CM classes (no cooking skills needed, just a passion for people and healthy eating!). For more info, please contact the Cooking Matters™ coordinator at 313-923-3535 ext 202 or email@example.com.
Is a free, guided grocery store tour that teaches low-income adults how to get the most nutrition for their food dollars.
Offers a similar hands-on learning experience but focuses more specifically on foods available in the WIC food package.
*During both Cooking Matters at the Store tours, participants practice key food shopping skills like buying fruits and vegetables on a budget, comparing unit prices, reading food labels, and identifying whole grain foods.
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Do you have a story of how Gleaners has benefited you or someone you know? We would love to hear from you!
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In a statement of a mere 700 words, Labour Party candidate Michael D. Higgins put creativity at the heart of his vision for society, citizenship and development. Higgins also is the former Irish Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht.
- The vision I am offering is of inclusive citizenship in a creative society, as we build a real Republic that makes us proud to be Irish in the world.
- Everyone has a contribution to make – whatever their religion, capacity, origin, orientation or income – and inclusion also means shared responsibility, to each other and to generations yet to come. As president, I would also promote a creative society, combining the best of tradition with the spark of innovation and opening up possibilities in every area of life from education to science to business.
- I would encourage creativity in practical ways, something I did as Ireland’s first minister for the arts in the 1990s, establishing TG4 and a network of local arts venues, and helping transform Irish film from an €11 million into a €186 million industry.
- I see the same potential today in creative industries from games development to artisan foods. However, creativity is, most importantly, a vital part of citizenship and needs to be supported from the ground up, in our communities and schools. As president, I would encourage access to art, music and self-development for every child.
Would that the 2012 United States presidential campaign season would include such a dialogue ...
What role does/should creativity play in engaging U.S. citizens in society? How does Michael D. Higgins' vision inspire you? Is there any connection between such a vision for a creative society and what is happening with #OccupyWallStreet? | <urn:uuid:d5681e3b-b0e2-4cc9-8260-aaaa98d3912d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://appliedimagination.blogspot.com/2011_10_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963975 | 346 | 1.96875 | 2 |
It is my understanding that during the Bejing Olympics the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) sent measuring cups and spoons to China. This was done because the Chinese could cook recipes from anywhere else in the world but not those from the US. The non-metric units of the US were a complete bafflement to the hosts, and when the Olympics were over, they just threw the cups and teaspoons away seeing them as useless.
I began cooking with metric about three years ago. It took me a while to understand that I needed a scale with a digital readout in grams. I realized that metric recipes generally use mass instead of volume for dry ingredients. The best chefs do this also. The surprising part was that because of the fact that 50 milliliters of water weights 50 grams, I could actually estimate using the mass of many liquids also. After I became used to using the digital scale and it’s tare function, I found cooking in metric vastly easier, quicker, and more enjoyable than it had been in imperial.
My father has been interested in cooking his entire life. He uses a software package to index his recipes. During a recent visit to his home, my father marinaded steaks and served them for supper. I had not tasted steaks made this way since I was a boy, and later asked for the marinade recipe by email. He sent me the recipe in imperial units as I would expect and then said he had included a metric version from the program so I would not have to convert it. Below is a reproduction of the metric recipe:
After I saw this I wrote my father an email, and asked if he had created this metric recipe as a joke. No, he assured me, it’s how it came out of the recipe program. I was just gobsmacked by the use of fractional values of centiliters, deciliters and milliliters. According to the metric recipe this would make one cup of marinade.
This strange metric usage made me think of a story told to me by a deceased family friend, known as Skeez, about his experiences in World War II. He talked about riding in troop trains across the US when he was in the military. He gushed and gushed about the great food the women would have prepared for them at each rail stop. Word had “gotten around” that the food at all the Utah stops was good—but don’t drink the coffee. Mormons are forbidden from drinking coffee, but when they were catering for the government, and were required to brew it, the coffee was not remotely as good as the food..
In fact, the coffee served by Mormons was so awful, that considerable speculation went into the method used to make it so completely unpalatable. Some argued that they reheated the same giant container of coffee over and over during the week, and just added more as it decreased in volume. Others thought they just re-used the coffee grounds and added new when it didn’t look black enough. For me “Mormons Making Coffee” was a metaphor for people trying to implement something about which they had only a very slight acquaintance or understanding, and no working knowledge. Like an American presiding over a cricket match.
Whoever programmed the recipe software my father owned, had proved to me that he was like a “Mormon Making Coffee,” but more specifically he was an American Using Metric. There could be no certainty how an American might imagine metric should be used in cooking, and as we see, anything could happen. The two hallmarks of the metric system which make it elegant for cooking, is that it can be implemented to whole value (integer) numbers and only a simple set of prefixes need to be used. It was clear that the confused, and nearly incomprehensible, American measurement vernacular had been imposed on the metric recipe. The use of 1 1/8, 2 1/2 and 1 1/4 with metric values was ultimate proof. As the saying goes, there is no crying in baseball, and no fractions in metric. Metric recipes generally use whole numbers and milliliters–only. And certainly not fractions. Generally spices are measured in volume as indicated, but not with fractional numbers. The brown sugar would be measured in grams. Let’s take this simple recipe and write it as I would have expected to see it.
Don’s Soy Sauce Marinade
125 mL LaChoy Soy Sauce
125 mL Orange Juice
30 mL Lemon Juice
12 grams (15 mL) Brown Sugar
30 mL Salad Oil
3 mL Pepper Sauce
1 Clove garlic, crushed
1.25 mL Black Pepper
Combine ingredients. Use to marinate beef, pork, or chicken before grilling or broiling. I usually put it in a Ziploc bag with the marinade for 2 to 4 hours before grilling…..for a little different flavor add 30 mL of Worcestershire sauce.
Yield 300 mL
This is the best I could do with this conversion. You will note that other than the black pepper, I was able to use whole numbers for the rest of the ingredients.
This episode in my life illustrates something I did not appreciate until a few years ago. Although the metric system is much simpler than the, bloated, and uncorrelated set of units used in the US today, metric should still be even simpler. There are metric prefixes that should be eliminated, which I call the prefix cluster around unity. More formally it’s Naughtin’s 4th law. Some prefixes with units, like the centimeter the centiliter, deciliter should be vanquished. The use of prefixes that are spaced by a factor of 1000 seems to work very well, and is about as simple as it gets for metric system implementation. In cooking, the milliliter is probably all you need for volume, the gram for mass, and the millimeter for distances, and that’s it—done!—nothing else to learn!
With a metric recipe and proper instructions—perhaps even Mormons could successfully make palatable coffee. But not if that metric recipe was created by imperial to metric conversion software, which had been written by American programmers. Without instruction in the metric system from childhood, and its mandatory and efficient adoption in the US, our software designers will probably continue to use metric in an obtuse manner, and continue to create the illusion that the metric system is complicated, when it’s a paragon of simplicity.
Updated 2012-11-10 Fixed quantities in recipe. | <urn:uuid:7e9680ff-4d0e-453a-a017-f82b067b65fd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://themetricmaven.com/?p=133 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977174 | 1,362 | 1.898438 | 2 |
Transsphenoidal hypophysectomy in the clinically ...
|Title||Transsphenoidal hypophysectomy in the clinically normal dog|
|Author(s)||G. Lantz, S. Ihle, R. Nelson, W. Carlton, E. Feldman, C. Lothrop, G. Bottoms|
|Journal||American Journal of Veterinary Research|
|Abstract||Pituitary function and short-term clinical effects after transsphenoidal hypophysectomy were investigated in clinically normal dogs. In study I, 8 dogs were given polyionic fluids IV during the first 12 hours after surgery. In study II, 4 dogs were given polyionic fluids IV and glucocorticoid supplementation for 7 days. Pituitary function was assessed by evaluating basal ACTH concentrations and results of a growth hormone stimulation test before and 1 and 12 weeks after hypophysectomy, an ACTH stimulation test, a thyrotropin-releasing hormone-stimulation test, and a modified water deprivation/vasopressin response test before and 1, 4, 8, and 12 weeks after hypophysectomy. Gross and histologic evaluations of the surgery site, thyroid and adrenal glands, and skin were done at 12 weeks after surgery. Four dogs from study I died within 27 hours after hypophysectomy. Postmortem examinations of these dogs revealed liver and lung congestion compatible with circulatory collapse. None of the dogs in study II died. For the surviving dogs in both studies, diabetes insipidus developed immediately after hypophysectomy and resolved within 2 weeks. Hypernatremia also developed immediately after hypophysectomy and resolved by 1 week. Production of ACTH was evident at 1 and 12 weeks after hypophysectomy in all dogs, and results of ACTH stimulation tests after surgery were not notably different from results obtained before surgery. Results of thyrotropin-releasing hormone stimulation and growth hormone-stimulation tests supported the diagnosis of hypothyroidism and hyposomatotropism attributable to hypophysectomy. Histologic examination revealed thyroid atrophy, epidermal and dermal atrophy, and normal adrenal glands in all dogs and remnants of the hypophysis in 2 dogs from study I.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)|
Using APA 6th Edition citation style.
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Employment Background Check Guidelines:
Conducting background checks is both necessary and extremely risky — Business Management Daily, publisher of The HR Specialist and HR Specialist: Employment Law, has created this targeted report for employers and human resources professionals.
Employment Background Check Guidelines shows employers and HR professionals how to properly conduct reference/background checks, select third-party background firms and why screening candidates online on social networking sites is legally risky business.
Employers and HR professionals should make it their policy never to hire a candidate without an employment background check. Your organization could be held liable for “negligent hiring” or “failure to warn” should an employee turn violent on the job.
When conducting a job background check, make sure you comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which regulates not only credit background checks but also checking criminal records and driving records.
Employment Background Check Guidelines: #1
Make sure you comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) regulates how employers perform an employment background check on job applicants. Contrary to popular belief, this federal law doesn’t cover just credit background checks. It covers any background report, such as driving records and criminal records obtained from a “consumer reporting agency” (CRA).
Under the FCRA, you’re typically free to conduct an employment background check and use the information if you have a clear business interest, such as hiring, firing, reassigning or promoting someone.
Editor's Note: For more information on the Fair Credit Reporting Act, visit www.BusinessManagementDaily.com.
But you can’t run a job background check on a whim. You must receive the person’s written permission before obtaining the report.
Two trends now compel more employers to conduct an employment background check. First, terrorism threats and incidents of workplace violence have made companies more aware of the need for job background checks.
Second, “negligent hiring” lawsuits are on the rise. Companies have a “duty of care” to protect workers and customers from employees the company knew—or should have known—posed a security risk.
Learn about the FCRA notification rules you must follow before obtaining a consumer report on an applicant or employee, or withholding a job offer based on an employment background check, in Employment Background Check Guidelines.
Employment Background Check Guidelines: #2
Steer clear of negligent-hiring lawsuits
If you fail to do an employment background check on applicants for certain positions, you could make your organization vulnerable to a negligent-hiring lawsuit by any worker or customer who’s been hurt by a violent employee.
A number of court decisions have established the principle that an employer has a “duty of care” to protect workers, customers and clients from injury caused by an unfit employee who an employer knew (or reasonably could have been expected to know) posed a risk.
For an employer to be held liable for negligent hiring, the plaintiff must prove:
1. An employee intentionally injured a co-worker, customer or client
2. Few, if any, pre-employment checks were performed, and that if they had been, those checks would have likely revealed a worker’s propensity toward violent behavior; or
3. The employer, knowing a worker’s propensity toward violence, did not provide proper supervision and security.
Employment Background Check Guidelines: #3
Checking references: Legal safeguards
Contacting an applicant’s former employers is an essential step in conducting an employment background check.
Caution: Keep in mind that you can’t ask a reference any questions you are prohibited from asking an applicant. Restrict your inquiry to job-related issues.
You must also check information furnished by all candidates without discrimination against any group. Many employers have been snagged for making cursory checks of white applicants but probing more deeply in the case of minorities.
Employment Background Check Guidelines: #4
Background-checking firms: Sort out the best from the rest
Not too long ago, just a few dozen companies offered employment background check, credit background check and criminal check services. But the industry mushroomed in size and scope—though not necessarily quality—after post-9/11 security concerns and ethics scandals drove up the demand for increased background screening.
The result: Nearly 1,000 vendors are in the screening industry now, making it difficult to sort out the top tier from the fly-by-night firms. Many sell cheap but incomplete background checks in minutes. Too often, they simply restate old information bought from private data brokers with no guarantee the data are current or correct.
Follow the benchmarks for gauging background-screening providers in Employment Background Check Guidelines.
Employment Background Check Guidelines: #5
Screening candidates: To Google or not to Google?
HR professionals and managers increasingly use search engines and social networking sites (like Facebook) to dig beyond the typical résumé and cover letter. Many of the “red flags” uncovered include Web postings by the candidates themselves—postings that the person obviously didn’t expect job recruiters ever to see.
The problem: Googling candidates can carry certain legal risks.
What if you Google only minorities? What if you inadvertently view information about a different person with the same name? What if your search shows a picture of the person in a wheelchair? All scenarios could raise discrimination charges if you reject the candidate. Two tips to avoid such legal risks:
1. Make sure you’ve got the right person. Even relatively rare names are duplicated, and many tall tales exist in cyberspace. “The way to deal with that is to bring (the Google result) to the person’s attention,” says Joe Beachboard, an employment lawyer with Ogletree Deakins in California. “I would always give the person the opportunity to confirm or deny it.”
2. Be consistent with your searches. As with other recruiting tools, you shouldn’t discriminate when Googling based on the person’s race, age, gender or name (national origin bias). Realize that Googling may pull up photos, which means you may have to explain whether you considered the individual’s race/age/disability in your hiring decision.
Employment Background Check Guidelines: #6
How to protect yourself from Internet-related liability
When employers gather information about job candidates through websites such as Google, Facebook and Twitter, they expose themselves to discriminatory failure-to-hire lawsuits.
When it comes to discrimination, ignorance is often bliss. It’s impossible for an employer to discriminate based on information it does not have. Usually, employers take care not to ask applicants about their age, race, gender, disability or other protected characteristics. But viewing a candidate’s Facebook page may provide some of that information—and possibly much more. By accessing such information, the employer loses the ability to claim ignorance.
On the other hand, using the Internet in an employment background check can provide valuable information that the employer might not otherwise learn. Employers need to balance the risks and benefits.
Advice: Don’t consider the Web a reliable substitute for traditional hiring practices. A YouTube video may provide a glimpse of a candidate’s personality, but a face-to-face interview will probably reveal much more of a candidate’s true personality. Plus, it won’t expose your company to liability.
Employment Background Check Guidelines: #7
Should employment background checks include sex-offender registries?
Each state’s law is different. That means employers must check the rules before using sex-offender registry information. For instance, California law prohibits employers from searching for a job applicant’s name on the registry unless they can demonstrate they are doing so to protect a “person at risk.” But the law doesn’t clearly define “person at risk.”
Employers in most states can—and probably should—scan the registry if an applicant will work around children or the disabled on the job, or will work unsupervised in people’s homes.
Several states require employers to notify applicants if they plan on checking a sex-offender registry. Again, laws vary by state—a common regulation requires providing a public record to the applicant within a certain number of days.
Other convictions: Always check state law to see how you can use criminal convictions when making hiring decisions. Most states have a statewide criminal record database, which can be searched—usually for a fee. Call your local police department to find out which state agency handles criminal records in your state.
Employment Background Check Guidelines: #8
Prevent new type of lawsuit: Credit-check discrimination
If your organization uses credit background checks in the hiring process, you’d better have a sound business reason for doing so or you could face a new type of litigation: Minorities who’ve been turned down for jobs because of their credit history are arguing that employers are using credit checks as a way of illegally discriminating against minority applicants.
Credit background checks are becoming increasingly popular. Surveys by the Society for Human Resource Management found that 40% of employers were pulling credit reports as part of the screening process in 2010 (up from 35% in 2003).
Find out how to avoid “disparate impact” lawsuits and claim affirmative defense under Title VII in Employment Background Check Guidelines.
The bottom line: Credit background checks fill the employer’s psychological need to “do something” when hiring a person who will be responsible for handling money. But credit checks offer no guarantee of sorting out the “bad eggs” in hiring.
If you use credit background checks in your hiring process, make sure you can point to a clear business necessity.
Also, focus on other nondiscriminatory approaches that can vet candidates and prevent theft more effectively than credit background checks.
Employment Background Check Guidelines: #9
Refusing to hire former criminals: Is it race discrimination?
Stay away from across-the-board bans on hiring anyone with a criminal record. Consider each case individually.
The EEOC’s Compliance Manual on Race and Color Discrimination says employers must “be able to justify [banning hiring based on a conviction] as job-related and consistent with business necessity. This means that, with respect to conviction records, the employer must show that it considered the following three factors:
“1. The nature and gravity of the offense;
“2. The time that has passed since the conviction and/or completion of the sentence; and
“3. The nature of the job held or sought.
“A blanket exclusion of people convicted of any crime thus would not be job-related and consistent with business necessity.”
So, when faced with an applicant with a criminal record, evaluate the position for the risk that potential employees would pose. For example, jobs that allow access to customers’ homes may justify cleaner criminal records than jobs with limited public contact.
Also, take into account the nature of the offense and how it relates to the position. Barring applicants with traffic violations for a fast-food job is excessive, while barring applicants with violent convictions may be justified. | <urn:uuid:62d5ebfb-699a-4a7d-84a2-dae88a953af4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.businessmanagementdaily.com/glp/11661/Employment-Background-Check-Guidelines.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920505 | 2,343 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Fear of the inevitably ginormous fine she’d face after hanging onto a Chicago Public Library copy of The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde for 78 years too long kept one woman from bringing the overdue back to its proper place. But thanks to the library’s recent three-week amnesty period, the book has finally been returned.
To be fair, reports the Chicago Tribune, it wasn’t entirely the woman’s fault. It all started when her mom’s childhood friend checked out the copy of the 1911 edition in 1934 and never returned it. She even wrote her own name in the front of the book.
Somehow it ended up with her mother, and the daughter found it in her deceased mother’s belongings back in 1993. But since then, she’d been too scared of huge fines or even legal consequences for turning it in so late.
“When I heard about the amnesty, I thought, ‘This is it! This is my second chance,’” the woman said of the program, which ends on Sept. 7 and granted forgiveness of all overdue fines.
This isn’t any normal copy of the Wilde book — it was part of a 14-volume set of his writings printed in 1911, and only 480 copies of each set were ever printed. Back in 1917 when the CPL obtained its copy, the book was purchased for $27.50. That would be about $492.22 today.
If there’s ever a time to return a book 78 years late, it’s pretty wise to wait until a convenient amnesty period, eh? Especially since even an overdue Twilight DVD and book can get you put in the hoosegow these days.
The ballad of reading guilt [Chicago Tribune] | <urn:uuid:20898cdb-dfc1-41ad-922a-ad501de64a92> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://consumerist.com/2012/09/04/chicago-public-librarys-amnesty-period-prompts-woman-to-return-copy-of-dorian-gray-overdue-by-78-years/comment-page-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958482 | 372 | 1.882813 | 2 |
ISPs get flimsy self-help leaflet on net speed ads
'Up to' and 'unlimited' claims lightly poked
A so-called "Help Note" has been published this morning that offers guidance to advertisers when flogging broadband based on attractive speed claims.
However, the set of recommendations (12-page PDF/41KB) do not form a self-regulatory framework as some ISPs such as Virgin Media might have liked.
Instead the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said the guidelines should be regarded when its council is mulling over whether contentious "up to" speed claims in broadband ads comply with the relevant Advertising Code.
The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) and the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP) jointly penned the Use of speed claims in broadband advertising document, which was published today.
"CAP and BCAP guidance is intended to help advertisers, agencies and media owners interpret the Codes but is not a substitute for them," it noted.
"This Help Note reflects CAP and BCAP's intended effect of the Codes but neither constitutes new rules nor binds the ASA Council in the event of a complaint about a marketing communication that follows it."
If an ISP's ad fails to take into account the recommendations detailed in the Help Note then the ASA will step in and ask the advertiser to justify why it chose to flout the guidelines. But this happens only after complaints have been received.
The telco would also be required to demonstrate that, despite ignoring the Help Note, it hadn't misled the consumer.
"Where advertisers make a numerical speed claim to be understood by consumers as maximum speed of their service, they should be able to demonstrate that the speed is achievable for at least 10 per cent of the relevant customer base," reads the document under a "Policy" heading.
"This applies to a claim wherever it appears in the marketing communication and if the claim is a part of the name of the service," it added, before offering the following caveat:
"Marketers may, however, choose to round their maximum speed claims down to a figure that is more convenient for marketing purposes."
The ASA, it said, would "judge each [complaint] submission on a case-by-case basis".
Broadband speed testing varies due to a variety of different factors, said the Help Note, therefore the guideline does not "require a specific method or approach to gathering and processing" such data.
Advertisers are expected to consider "relevant factors" that can affect broadband speeds, including signal attenuation and traffic/network management.
Virgin Media, which in July this year called on the ASA to "bring about a rapid change in the way broadband services are being advertised", still managed to describe the Help Note as a "massive win for consumers".
Some customers may disagree with that enthusiastic response given that these are guidelines rather than set-in-stone rules, but arguably "up to" and "unlimited" broadband speed claims in ads will – from April 2012 – become that bit harder to use in British marketing campaigns.
"The new rules are a big step in the right direction and the greater transparency will ensure people can make more informed choices," said Virgin Media exec Jon James.
"ISPs will no longer be able to hide behind generic terms or catch-all claims which they simply cannot deliver. However there needs to be vigilant scrutiny to ensure this is genuinely applied to all marketing and that the spirit behind this demand for change is upheld, not just the minimum necessary is done to be acceptable."
He added that VM only advertises speeds that at least 90 per cent of the ISP's customers receive.
“Ofcom has shone a torch on this issue by publishing regular speed reports which have, together with pressure from the government, consumer groups and thousands of customers across the country, helped push for this critical change," said James. ® | <urn:uuid:fca43a78-8c6a-48c2-bfb2-da785ebad6b6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/09/29/broadband_advertising/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948828 | 794 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Abusive men who select partners mainly based on appearance are likely to be violent again after completing an abuser intervention program, according to a new University of Michigan study.
Fifty-nine percent of those who mentioned at least one physical trait as the reason for their attraction were violent again after the program, compared with 39 percent who did not mention physical traits as a reason.
"This finding is consistent with the notion that offenders who view their partners superficially will be less likely to end their violence," said Daniel Saunders, professor of social work and the study's lead author.
This type of offender was also more likely to mention their own needs as reasons they were attracted to their partners. They had histories of very severe forms for violence—throwing their partners and hitting them with objects.
This is the first study to ask men who abused an intimate partner the reasons they were attracted to that partner. Other research has found that abusers tend to choose women who are smaller in size than the average woman. Once in the relationship, abusers often try to make their partners very dependent on them.
The researchers used responses from 181 offenders during a program intake interview that asked "What attracted you to your partner?" Reports of violence after the program were based on police records and interviews with the men's partners.
The men often gave more than one reason for their attraction. Sixty-six percent of the total number of reasons given centered on their partners' physical traits, for example her "looks" or "smile"; 70 percent were for nonphysical traits, like communication style and being outgoing or caring.
Twenty percent of the reasons given by the men focused on their own needs, such as their need for acceptance and companionship. Much less often, reasons centered on what the men had in common with their partners (12 percent) or on their partners' needs (4 percent).
As the researchers expected, those whose attraction to their partner focused on their own needs scored higher on personality tests of emotional neediness. The violence history of these men was characterized by screaming, smashing objects and driving recklessly to frighten their partners.
Those who tended to mention nonphysical traits had lower scores on personality measures of antisocial traits and aggressiveness.
To the extent that partner selection by abusers is tied to their traits and behavior, this shifts the focus from asking "Why did she seek out a violent partner?" or "Why does she stay with him?" to asking "What is he looking for in a partner?"
The study, which is co-authored by U-M students Jennifer Kurko, Kirsten Barlow and Colleen Crane, appears in the September issue of the Journal of Interpersonal Violence. | <urn:uuid:76010a6b-6bab-4617-ae07-e2c4e4ed631d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.speroforum.com/a/61283/Abusive-men-likely-to-repeat-violence-if-attraction-to-women-is-superficial | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98737 | 546 | 1.929688 | 2 |
As my colleague Elisabeth Bumiller reported from Washington on Tuesday, it seems likely that the number of suicides by American soldiers will increase again this year. At the Pentagon, Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the Army vice chief of staff, said that as of Nov. 16, the Army had reported 140 suicides of active duty soldiers this year, the same number as in all of 2008. If that forecast proves accurate, this will be the fifth year in a row that suicides will have increased in the Army.
Those grim statistics naturally raise questions about the quality of mental health care offered to soldiers in an army fighting two wars. On Wednesday, National Public Radio reported that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist who was about to be deployed to work with troops in Afghanistan before he was charged with the shooting deaths of 12 fellow soldiers and a retired guardsman at Fort Hood, had received an evaluation that might have prevented him from finding work in his field outside the military.
According to NPR’s news blog, The Two-Way, the broadcaster obtained an official memo about then-Captain Hasan written in 2007 by the director of the psychiatric residency program at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he was trained.
The memo lists a number of serious concerns the program director had about about Capt. Hasan — including “a poor record of attendance” for training, test scores that were “lower than expected,” being “consistently late,” not seeing enough patients, allowing “a homicidal patient” to escape the emergency room, missing a night shift and then not responding to “numerous pages,” and “inappropriately discussing religious topics with his assigned patients.” Overall, the program director wrote, “he demonstrates a pattern of poor judgment and a lack of professionalism.”
NPR’s Daniel Zwerdling said that these concerns could have made Maj. Hasan unemployable in civilian life. Mr. Zwerdling reported:
NPR showed the memo to leading psychiatrists, who run large private medical programs. They said even if they were desperate to fill a vacancy, they would never hire a psychiatrist with an evaluation like Hasan’s. One said the memo warns, in effect, that Hassan could hurt his patients, not by shooting them, but by being a reckless therapist. | <urn:uuid:cc17aa44-4c87-4733-8ffc-f13034785fa0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/psychiatry/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975953 | 482 | 1.679688 | 2 |
The activation threshold of cells in the immune system is often tuned by cell surface molecules. Among these, Fc receptors expressed on various hematopoietic cells constitute critical elements for activating or down-modulating immune responses.
IgGFc receptors (FcγRs) were originally identified as B cell surface molecules. For more than 40 years, FcγRs have continued to attract the interest of many basic researchers and clinicians due to their intriguing IgG binding ability, which provides a critical link between the humoral and cellular branches of the immune system.
Several activating-type FcγRs, which associate with homodimeric Fc receptor common γ subunits, are crucial for the onset and exacerbation of inflammatory diseases. In contrast, a unique inhibitory FcγR, FcγRIIB, plays a critical role in keeping immune cells silent. Murine models for allergic responses and autoimmune diseases including RA illustrate the indispensable roles of activating-type FcγRs and the inhibitory FcγRIIB in the initiation and suppression of inflammation, respectively [1-5].
The ultimate goals of FcγR research are to accomplish our understanding of this molecular family and to delineate novel therapeutic strategies toward the conquest of allergic and autoimmune diseases, infectious diseases, immunodeficiency, transplantation-associated immune disorders, and malignant tumors. Although many lines of evidence indicate that a part of the intravenous Ig (IVIg)-mediated anti-inflammatory effects can be attributable to the blocking of activating-type FcγRs, recent studies have pointed out an indispensable role of FcγRIIB in therapeutic benefits of IVIg in several murine models of inflammatory diseases including RA . In this session, we will give a brief summary of recent knowledge on antibody biomedicine including IVIgto you, in light of exploiting FcγRs as potential therapeutic targets for various inflammatory diseases, along with the comparison withnon-FcγR-mediated mechanisms of IVIg. | <urn:uuid:ee80ab4c-d19f-4a35-83fd-94a3718e633b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://arthritis-research.com/content/14/S1/O17?fmt_view=mobile | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918312 | 418 | 2.296875 | 2 |
Lyon Air Museum
A Boeing B-17 Fortress Fuddy Duddy will fly near John Wayne Airport on Saturday, Feb. 11.
AIRBORNE ARTIFACT: While history buffs usually have a favorite type of memorabilia -- be it a particular type of phonograph from the '30s or a porcelain doll or funky metal lunch box -- we can all agree that seeing a memento actually do what it used to do is a thrilling thing indeed. And when that artifact just happens to be a mega machine sporting four propellers, each over 11 feet in diameter, well, watch the crowds gather. That's what is going to happen at John Wayne Airport on Saturday, Feb. 11 when the Boeing B-17 Flying Fuddy Duddy goes for lift-off. If you know your planes, you know the Fuddy Duddy is a big'n, and you know it played a major role in World War II. So look for both aviation fans and war history scholars to be on the ground looking up.
THE DUDDY'S DETAILS: The plane is normally based at the Lyon Air Museum in Santa Ana; the aviation institution calls the plane "the most powerful bird in the Lyon Air Museum's collection." It sports four 1,200 horsepower engines, in fact, so that is no understatement. This particular Fuddy Duddy has an interesting history -- well, probably like every WWII plane still in existence does, of course. It was a "VIP transport" in the Pacific during the war, and it went on to be featured in a Steve McQueen film. The exact time the plane'll take flight on Feb. 11th isn't listed, but the hours of the event are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Arrive early, we say, and stake your ground. Then, look up. | <urn:uuid:cc49c222-ea79-4f49-b895-dd5c6ed12f1f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nbcsandiego.com/blogs/worth-the-trip/The-Flying-Fuddy-Duddy-138336724.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935031 | 381 | 2.015625 | 2 |
Day 3: From Nairobi to Kigali to Kisoro
DAY 3: Today, we travelled from Nairobi to Kigali to Kisoro, arriving at the Traveller’s Rest Hotel by late eveningWe set off early so we could settle all custom issues with our equipment (we really wanted to return with it all!). We then took Kenyan Airlines (new plane with movies!) to Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, population roughly a million. We were met by our drivers Arun and John and drove through heavy rains to the Rwanda-Uganda border crossing near Kisoro. After a rather lengthy crossing, we then drove on to our final desitination – the Traveller’s Rest in Kisoro. Five quick things:
- Rwanda: Beautiful country known positively for its gorillas, green hills and beautiful lakes. What strikes you immediately is the deep terracotta of the soil, which covers the roads, and seeps up the foundations of the houses, combined with the deep green of the vegetation. It is known negatively, of course, for the horrible 1994 genocide that was launched from its capital. Rwanda is roughly the size of the US state of Maryland, or Wales in Great Britian and has a population of 11.4 million. It’s econony was devasted by the genocide but is recovering; a major source of its recovery is the tourist industry, centred on the famed mountain gorillas.
- Uganda: Known as the ‘pearl of Africa’ – it too is covered with hills and lakes. Like Rwanda it has the mountain gorillas. It is a completely land locked country. It shares Lake Victoria with Kenya and Tanzania.
- Crossing the Border: Rwanda was colinised by the Germans and Belgians, Uganda by the British. The result? As you cross the border between the two countries you switch sides of the road. Our drivers had left hand side drive, which was fine in Uganda, but meant that those in the passager side were left in the ‘middle of the road’ driving around Rwanda. Everyone seems to keep it straight, as we had no head on collisions.
- Kisoro: Located in the Mufumbiro Mountains which are part of the Virunga Mountain range. This range holds all the mountain gorillas and has the national parks Parc Des Volcans and Parc Des Virunga. This becomes important because so many of the Batwa songs are about the ‘Parcs.’ Kisoro is quite a small town, population 12,000. On a map we are about as far west and south in Uganda as you can go.
- Traveller’s Rest: We stayed at the Traveller’s Rest, a hotel famed for being a meeting place for gorilla observers. They write about this on their website: “In 1955 Travellers Rest was bought by Walter Baumgartel, and quickly became a meeting place for people interested in the mountain gorilla. Amongst them was ‘gorilla-woman” Dian Fossey, who said: “Walter’s hotel was an oasis to many scientists who came here before me.”. Fossey visited the hotel many, many times in the sixties, to do paperwork, to relax or to meet people. She defined the hotel as her “second home.”
The photo shows us ‘on the road’ between Rwanda and Uganda, about to climb the second mountain range, just as the rains hit. We arrived safely, obviously, but hydro-planed a little too often, a little too close to 1,000 foot drops. We are now in the heart of gorilla country, surrounded by trekkers who have come to see the beautiful silver back males. But we are here to record the Batwa tribes, who were displaced from their forest homes by the understandable desire to protect the mountain gorilla. Right sentiment, horribly executed, as we’ll discuss over the next few blogs. But we are safe at our hotel and eager to begin recording in the morning.
The Singing Wells Team | <urn:uuid:f5da2b3c-5a3f-451c-803d-770fd6f3c4a9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.singingwells.org/field-reports/singing-wells-kisoro/daily-blog-batwa/day-3-nairobi-to-kigali-to-kisoro/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969166 | 854 | 1.929688 | 2 |
Amber Martin is a resident of Rancho Santa Margarita, a business owner and is involved in giving back to the community. The Bell Tower Foundation asked her to share a little about herself with the community.
What organizations do you volunteer for?
Acts of Appreciation, Operation Help A Hero, Operation Homefront, Angel Tree, Fountain Valley Police Department (Explorer program), Boys Town, Operation Christmas Child and weekly visits with the elderly at a convalescent home.
How has volunteering enriched your life?
Volunteering has given me natural opportunities to teach my kids about needs in the community and around the world.
What should others know about volunteering?
Not only does it fulfill a valuable need in society, it’s also a great mood booster and it provides opportunities for parents to teach their children that life isn’t all about them.
What do you do when you're not volunteering?
Mother of five young children (ages 2-9), wife and owner of Martin Investment Properties, Inc., a real estate brokerage which does sales and residential property management.
What do you love most about your community?
I love that my community and city is very family friendly, beautiful, scenic, clean and safe. I also love all of the community events that help create that small town feeling and helps promote volunteerism.
What does "community" mean to you?
Being tightly connected with people who share common goals and beliefs.
What do you want to say to those thinking about how they can get involved in their community?
There are a lot of things that you can do which don’t require a large investment of your time. Even a 30 minute block of time can be put to good use.
Share a brief story about volunteering.
Volunteering and charity work is such a natural part of my family's lives that recently we saw a woman with her young child asking for a hand out. While I am hesitant about giving cash I do carry restaurant gift cards in my wallet in case we come across someone in need. My girls happened to spot this woman in need and they started arguing about who would get to run over and give this woman this food gift card. I love that my kids know that if you see someone in need, you don’t ask questions you just do something. They aren’t afraid to act and get involved.
What organizations do you know that have volunteer opportunities coming up?
Operation Help A Hero, Angel Tree, Acts of Appreciation
How have you benefitted from someone else volunteering in your community?
It’s given me more ideas of ways that I can get involved.
Tell us about someone who has inspired you by their generous gift of volunteering?
Most recently it was our good friend Nick Jordan who is the President of Wells of Life, which helps to build water wells in Uganda. He told my husband and I about the amazing work that they are doing and that challenged us to think globally. We decided as a family to raise funds to build a well and we recently accomplished our fundraising goal. We are so excited to one day take our children on a trip to visit our family well in a village in Uganda.
What incident made you realize that volunteering was worthwhile?
While I have volunteered from a very young age, it was the birth of my children that inspired me to be a role model for volunteering. My husband and I didn’t want our children to grow up with a spoiled and entitled attitude. We wanted them to realize how blessed they are to be living in such a wonderful city and country. By starting our kids volunteering at an early age it will hopefully become a natural part of their lives. They have helped out with Angel Tree, Operation Help A Hero, and at The Bell Tower Foundation booth during a few concerts in the park.
What was the defining moment in your journey as a volunteer?
Last year we invited friends to help us out at Saddleback Church with their Angel Tree program. Little did we know that these friends had been craving an opportunity and invitation to do volunteer work as a family. And it just so happened that Angel Tree had a significant meaning in the childhood of one of these friends. It was perfect!
The Bell Tower Foundation is a Volunteer Connection Hub bringing people and organizations together through volunteer opportunities. It believes that volunteerism enriches the lives of everyone—those who give and receive. Connect with The Bell Tower Foundation on Facebook at facebook.com/TheBellTowerFoundation or on its website at belltowerfoundation.org | <urn:uuid:bd2f3e04-9f9e-44d4-9b4f-6bef380d818b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ranchosantamargarita.patch.com/groups/volunteering/p/voluncheer-amber-martin | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971738 | 933 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Other key stories below: U.S. Solar industry reports record third-quarter growth; For Haiti, climate change is more present fear than horrible imagining
* Solar power generation to hit 20 billion kWh in 2015
BEIJING, Dec 15 (Reuters) – China has further revised up its solar power development target for 2015 by 50 percent from its previous plan, state media reported on Thursday.
The government has set a target for installed solar power generating capacity to reach 15 gigawatts by 2015 and wind power capacity to hit 100 GW, China National Radio reported, citing an announcement from the National Energy Administration.
The ambitious move may have been encouraged by a rapid increase in solar power installation in recent months after the government unified grid feed-in tariffs for solar projects for the first time in July, and offered a higher price for projects that would be put into operation before the year end.
China had doubled its 2015 solar power goal to 10 GW after the Japanese nuclear power crisis.
Installed solar power capacity at the end of 2010 was less than 1 GW in China, the world’s largest exporter of photovoltaic products and home to some of the industry’s top players, such as Trina Solar, JA Solar, Suntech Power and LDK Solar.
For a detailed analysis of China’s renewables strategy, see the recent post by Melanie Hart, CAP’s Policy Analyst on China Energy and Climate Policy “China’s New Plan for Solar Power Supremacy.” Here’s more from Reuters:
Annual solar power output will reach 20 billion kilowatt hours by 2015 and wind power output 190 billion kWh, China National Radio said in a text report posted on its website (www.cnr.cn).
Of the planned 100 GW wind power capacity in 2015, 5 GW will be built in the ocean, it said.
Solar power is a booming business in the U.S., with more domestic solar installations completed in the third quarter of this year than during all of 2009, according to a report released Wednesday by GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Assn.
“The U.S. solar industry is on a roll, with unprecedented growth in 2011,” said Rhone Resch, chief executive of the solar group. “Solar is now an economic force in dozens of states, creating jobs across America.” The Solar Energy Industries Assn. is the national trade group for the U.S. solar energy industry, and it has 1,100 member companies.
Some 449 megawatts of power were installed in various parts of the U.S. in the third quarter in a variety of projects that ranged in size from small residential systems to large, utility-scale facilities, the report said. One megawatt is the equivalent of 1 million watts of power.
For people in the UK, a weak deal at Durban on climate change may be disappointing, but it is not something that will affect their everyday life – at least not for some years to come.
In Haiti, though, hurricanes are becoming more frequent and unpredictable. In 2008, the summer before the earthquake, Haiti endured four tropical storms in a row. Our fourth largest city, Gonaives, was inundated for months.
It is not just the strength and frequency of rain, but the particular vulnerability of Haitian terrain. The same storms can pound the neighbouring Dominican Republic, or nearby Jamaica, and do far less damage. Haiti is almost completely denuded of trees, with less than 2% of its original forest cover still standing. So when storms hit, landslides almost invariably occur, as the topsoil has few tree roots binding it together and holding it in place.
Haiti has been progressively losing its lush woodland ever since 1804, when the country was forced to start chopping down its old growth mahogany forests to help pay the “reparations” imposed by its former French colonialists following independence….
It is not just excessive rain combined with poor forest cover that causes problems for the population, but the unpredictability of the rains. Some areas in the far north west of Haiti have been experiencing unseasonable droughts in recent years, causing pastures to dry up and crops to fail.
A Brazilian lawsuit that seeks to halt Transocean Ltd. (RIG) and Chevron Corp. (CVX) operations after an oil spill would reduce the country’s offshore drilling at a time when it wants to double output in ten years.
Federal prosecutors in Campos, in the oil region of Rio de Janeiro state, are suing both companies for 20 billion reais ($10.6 billion) in environmental and social damages and asked a court to suspend their operations, according to a statement yesterday. Chevron, based in San Ramon, California, and Transocean, based in Vernier, Switzerland, said they haven’t been notified and are cooperating with authorities.
The case imperils Brazil’s plan to boost crude output because Transocean operates 10 out of the 61 rigs working in the country and it would be hard to replace them in a tight market for oil equipment, said Judson Bailey, an analyst at Jefferies & Co Inc. Brazilian oil production growth has slowed after the country increased safety requirements following the spill at BP Plc’s Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico last year.
Just days before the three-year anniversary of the devastating dike failure at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston Fossil Plant, the Environmental Protection Agency still has little authority to regulate the storage of toxic coal ash produced as a byproduct of coal power.
A new report released Tuesday shows coal ash’s harmful environmental effects are more widespread than previously understood. Meanwhile, a bill proposed by a bipartisan coalition of coal-state senators would strip away the federal government’s power to do anything about it.
The new report from the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project identified 19 coal ash dump sites in nine states where heavy concentrations of arsenic, boron, manganese and other pollutants contaminate the groundwater nearby. At some of those sites, the EPA had noted only “potential” contamination, but when the EIP did its own tests, it found chemicals had leached into the ground. | <urn:uuid:a0a23859-b1b9-480f-881a-6eb5e8001cca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2011/12/15/389936/december-15-news-china-scales-up-solar-power-capacity-plan-50-to-15-gw-by-2015-keeps-wind-target-at-100-gw/?mobile=nc | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950685 | 1,294 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Friends on the Brain
Posted by Adam Benforado on October 27, 2011
Have a lot of friends on Facebook?
Think that makes you special?
Well, researchers at University College London suggest that you might just be right.
According to a new study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Facebook users with the largest number of pals had greater brain density in areas of the brain associated with social perception and associative memory.
For anyone who has been following the debate over whether technology has been changing our brains, it’s worth a read, although the research doesn’t answer the question of whether the brain differences in the sample were an effect or a cause of individuals having more online friends.
An abstract of the paper appears below:
The increasing ubiquity of web-based social networking services is a striking feature of modern human society. The degree to which individuals participate in these networks varies substantially for reasons that are unclear. Here, we show a biological basis for such variability by demonstrating that quantitative variation in the number of friends an individual declares on a web-based social networking service reliably predicted grey matter density in the right superior temporal sulcus, left middle temporal gyrus and entorhinal cortex. Such regions have been previously implicated in social perception and associative memory, respectively. We further show that variability in the size of such online friendship networks was significantly correlated with the size of more intimate real-world social groups. However, the brain regions we identified were specifically associated with online social network size, whereas the grey matter density of the amygdala was correlated both with online and real-world social network sizes. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that the size of an individual’s online social network is closely linked to focal brain structure implicated in social cognition.
Related Situationist posts: | <urn:uuid:f20b6033-0b1d-4eff-bc76-060dff381575> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thesituationist.wordpress.com/2011/10/27/friends-on-the-brain/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=104f7cb3e5 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944633 | 366 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Brown, Charles F.
The following data is extracted from Illustrated History of the State of Idaho.
Charles Francis Brown is the owner of a fine ranch of one hundred and sixty acres on Camas prairie, near Grangeville, where, in addition to farming and stock raising, he owns and operates a sawmill, manufacturing a large amount of lumber. His well directed efforts are bringing to him a deserved success, and he is accounted one of the substantial citizens of the community. He claims Wisconsin as the state of his nativity, his birth having occurred in Monroe, Green County, on the 15th of November 1846. His parents were William G. and Clarissa (Bartley) Brown, the former a native of Missouri, and the latter of Ohio. They were married in Wisconsin and were numbered among the pioneer settlers of that state. In 1849 the father crossed the plains to California, attracted by the then recent discoveries of gold, and in his mining ventures met with success. He afterward returned to the east, but later again went to the Golden state. He was a man of ability and influence and held a number of public positions of honor and trust. He departed this life in 1898, at the age of eighty-three years, and his wife passed away in the spring of 1899, at the age of eighty-two years. They were the parents of nine children, four of whom are now living.
Charles F. Brown, the eighth of the family, was only a small boy when he accompanied his parents to California. He was educated in the public school at Dutch Flat, that state, and afterward engaged in mining. When a young man, however, he came to Camas prairie where he purchased eighty acres of land, to which he has since added until he now has a valuable tract of one hundred and sixty acres. He has erected thereon a desirable residence and has one of the most attractive and beautiful ranches in his section of the county. His land is mostly planted to timothy hay for the stock, and in his stock business he is meeting with signal success. Since coming to Idaho he has crossed his cattle until now the Hereford blood prevails. In 1892 he purchased his sawmill property. He has here a good water-power and a mill which turns out seven thousand feet of lumber daily. He has a large home demand for all the lumber he can manufacture, and this branch of his business therefore adds materially to his income.
In 1866 Mr. Brown was united in marriage to Miss Mary Lumis, and to them 'have been born four children: William G., who now assists his father in the mill; Jennie, wife of Harry Markham, a resident of Grangeville; Ada, wife of Charles Keller, whose home is in Cadiz. Wisconsin; and Udora, now deceased. The mother of this family was called to her final rest in 1873. She was a most faithful wife and a loving and indulgent mother and her loss was deeply felt by her family and many friends. Four years later, in 1877, Mr. Brown wedded Miss Almira Tuck, a native of Maine, and they now occupy their pleasant home on the ranch.
Mr. Brown has always been a loyal and devoted citizen of the republic, and when only seventeen years of age gave evidence of his patriotic spirit by enlisting, in 1864, in the Union army as a member of Company D, Seventh California Infantry. The regiment expected to be sent to the south, but was put on the border line between Mexico and Arizona in order to keep the Indians in subjection. Thus our subject participated in several Indian skirmishes. He remained in the army until he received an honorable discharge, in May 1866. He is a valued member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and in politics has been a stalwart Republican since attaining his majority. His time and attention are' closely given to his business interests, and his industry, enterprise and capable management are the important elements in his success.
Source: Illustrated History of the State of Idaho | <urn:uuid:29bcbbd7-8bf6-43d4-bc87-9f54ac9e97e6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.accessgenealogy.com/scripts/data/database.cgi?ArticleID=43718&report=SingleArticle&file=Data | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.990274 | 834 | 1.828125 | 2 |
An Ancient Holiday
The middle of winter has long been a time of celebration around the world. Centuries before the arrival of the man called Jesus, early Europeans celebrated light and birth in the darkest days of winter. Many peoples rejoiced during the winter solstice, when the worst of the winter was behind them and they could look forward to longer days and extended hours of sunlight.
In Scandinavia, the Norse celebrated Yule from December 21, the winter solstice, through January. In recognition of the return of the sun, fathers and sons would bring home large logs, which they would set on fire. The people would feast until the log burned out, which could take as many as 12 days. The Norse believed that each spark from the fire represented a new pig or calf that would be born during the coming year.
The end of December was a perfect time for celebration in most areas of Europe. At that time of year, most cattle were slaughtered so they would not have to be fed during the winter. For many, it was the only time of year when they had a supply of fresh meat. In addition, most wine and beer made during the year was finally fermented and ready for drinking.
In Germany, people honored the pagan god Oden during the mid-winter holiday. Germans were terrified of Oden, as they believed he made nocturnal flights through the sky to observe his people, and then decide who would prosper or perish. Because of his presence, many people chose to stay inside.
In Rome, where winters were not as harsh as those in the far north, Saturnalia—a holiday in honor of Saturn, the god of agriculture—was celebrated. Beginning in the week leading up to the winter solstice and continuing for a full month, Saturnalia was a hedonistic time, when food and drink were plentiful and the normal Roman social order was turned upside down. For a month, slaves would become masters. Peasants were in command of the city. Business and schools were closed so that everyone could join in the fun.
Also around the time of the winter solstice, Romans observed Juvenalia, a feast honoring the children of Rome. In addition, members of the upper classes often celebrated the birthday of Mithra, the god of the unconquerable sun, on December 25. It was believed that Mithra, an infant god, was born of a rock. For some Romans, Mithra’s birthday was the most sacred day of the year.
In the early years of Christianity, Easter was the main holiday; the birth of Jesus was not celebrated. In the fourth century, church officials decided to institute the birth of Jesus as a holiday. Unfortunately, the Bible does not mention date for his birth (a fact Puritans later pointed out in order to deny the legitimacy of the celebration). Although some evidence suggests that his birth may have occurred in the spring (why would shepherds be herding in the middle of winter?), Pope Julius I chose December 25. It is commonly believed that the church chose this date in an effort to adopt and absorb the traditions of the pagan Saturnalia festival. First called the Feast of the Nativity, the custom spread to Egypt by 432 and to England by the end of the sixth century. By the end of the eighth century, the celebration of Christmas had spread all the way to Scandinavia. Today, in the Greek and Russian orthodox churches, Christmas is celebrated 13 days after the 25th, which is also referred to as the Epiphany or Three Kings Day. This is the day it is believed that the three wise men finally found Jesus in the manger.
By holding Christmas at the same time as traditional winter solstice festivals, church leaders increased the chances that Christmas would be popularly embraced, but gave up the ability to dictate how it was celebrated. By the Middle Ages, Christianity had, for the most part, replaced pagan religion. On Christmas, believers attended church, then celebrated raucously in a drunken, carnival-like atmosphere similar to today’s Mardi Gras. Each year, a beggar or student would be crowned the “lord of misrule” and eager celebrants played the part of his subjects. The poor would go to the houses of the rich and demand their best food and drink. If owners failed to comply, their visitors would most likely terrorize them with mischief. Christmas became the time of year when the upper classes could repay their real or imagined “debt” to society by entertaining less fortunate citizens.
An Outlaw Christmas
In the early 17th century, a wave of religious reform changed the way Christmas was celebrated in Europe. When Oliver Cromwell and his Puritan forces took over England in 1645, they vowed to rid England of decadence and, as part of their effort, cancelled Christmas. By popular demand, Charles II was restored to the throne and, with him, came the return of the popular holiday.
The pilgrims, English separatists that came to America in 1620, were even more orthodox in their Puritan beliefs than Cromwell. As a result, Christmas was not a holiday in early America. From 1659 to 1681, the celebration of Christmas was actually outlawed in Boston. Anyone exhibiting the Christmas spirit was fined five shillings. By contrast, in the Jamestown settlement, Captain John Smith reported that Christmas was enjoyed by all and passed without incident.
After the American Revolution, English customs fell out of favor, including Christmas. In fact, Christmas wasn’t declared a federal holiday until June 26, 1870. | <urn:uuid:e1cdb8a3-40d1-4cd1-9113-8118660bc331> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://conservativeread.com/the-christmas-holidays-history/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984167 | 1,138 | 4.15625 | 4 |
I strongly suggest that if you ever stumble upon the opportunity to stand in the middle of a field while three Hangin’ Tree Cowdogs herd an ample population of cattle towards you, enveloping you into their horde, you take it.
We recently spent a morning at the cattle ranch belonging to Carol and Guy Maberry of Hilger, Montana. Replacing the traditional ranch hand is the Hangin’ Tree Cowdog, one of which can often accomplish the work of two people. Hangin’ Tree dogs are bred specifically to trail, find, and move herds of cattle. During our time with the Maberrys, we met their three primary working dogs (Rio, Pink, and Lucy), and had the good fortune of watching them in action.
Hangin’ Tree Cowdogs were founded and developed in Oklahoma in the 1980s by Gary Ericsson and his son, Choc. To yield the ultimate cowdog, the Ericssons utilized four breeds of dogs:
- 1/4th Kelpie, giving them endurance, toughness, short hair, and strong herding instinct
- 3/8th Border Collie, providing a dog that is a quick learner, an intense herder, and works the livestock by way of authoritative eye contact
- 1/8th Catahoula Leopard, bringing the ability to trail, find, and hold up cattle with their highly sensitive noses
- 1/4th Australian Shepherd, contributing agility and an innate ability to handle cattle (Only one Australian Shepherd was used in the line – “Black Bear” who won Idaho and Montana Stockdog Championships and ultimately sold for $20,000)
Hangin’ Tree Cowdogs are bred for endurance, intelligence, courageousness, loyalty, and their willingness and ability to perform grueling work under harsh conditions. Their coat is short and slick, an effective defense against bothersome stickers and burs while working in the field. They are able to work in both heat and cold; the development of a thick undercoat during the winter months serves to protect them from bitter temperatures. Their tails are docked to help avoid injury – some naturally, some surgically. Unlike other dog registration requirements, the Hangin’ Tree Cowdog Association bases registry on performance. Dogs must show a willingness to nip at both the heads and heels of cattle in order to be certified.
For me, the most notable trait that these dogs possess is the ability to control their impulses. Their genetics compel them to work the herd, moving them as directed by whistles or verbal commands provided by their handler or by their ingrained instincts. The concentration they maintain on the livestock is impassioned, unwavering, and palpable. Although many of their movements are self-directed based on experience, the handler will interject a command when needed. At times, it is necessary to get the dogs to cease driving the herd at all. From across the field, Guy can override their innate drive to push the herd with a simple “down,” and they will drop to the ground, quivering in anticipation of his next directive.
Back to the scene in which the dogs are driving the entire herd straight towards and around me. I’m a California girl, having become a resident of Montana only recently. Although I have experience working directly with animals for more years than I care to count, I found myself slightly nervous to have 30+ head of cattle moving directly towards us as Carol and I stood in the middle of the field. As Guy was directing the dogs, I glanced inconspicuously at Carol to pick up on any hints that we should start running for our lives, but there were none. As they passed, I could hear the beat of their hooves against the dry earth, strong enough to feel its pulse in my chest. I listened to the chorus of their grunts and puffs of protest. Shimmering strings of saliva fell from their muzzles to the dusty earth below. I could smell their musty, earthy, leathery scent.
After they passed and I caught my breath, I couldn’t wait for the dogs to bring them back my way again. | <urn:uuid:745e43f2-eeea-4848-a7bf-60ce18f23256> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cerebralcanine.com/?p=814 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970165 | 857 | 2.1875 | 2 |
versión On-line ISSN 0718-0764
CORREA, D.J.. Elimination of Hot Bands in a Natural Gas Reformer. Inf. tecnol. [online]. 2004, vol.15, n.3, pp. 91-96. ISSN 0718-0764. doi: 10.4067/S0718-07642004000300015.
The purpose of this study was to find the causes of formation of hot bands due to coke deposition in a natural gas reformer which caused the unit to go out of service, resulting in higher production costs. A literature study was made to determine the variables which affected the incidence of this problem, and to produce an index which quantified the formation of coke, named Obstruction Index. The impact of different variables was systematically analyzed and these variables were related to the evolution of the Obstruction Index, always taking into account the information from the industrial plant studied. All hypotheses were discarded except that relating to the presence of light hydrocarbons. It was determined that the problem of the hot bands did not originate within the reforming unit, but rather upstream of the process in the desulfurization unit
Palabras clave : gas reforming; hot bands; coke formation; Obstruction Index; steam reformer; desulfurization. | <urn:uuid:f453929a-f6be-437b-b5a9-b2ff9525059d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S0718-07642004000300015&lng=es&nrm=iso&tlng=en | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911428 | 276 | 2.234375 | 2 |
Human capacity-building plan for scaling up HIV/AIDS treatment
Challenge and goal
On 22 September 2003, the Director-General of WHO declared the “emergency expansion of training and capacity development for health professionals for delivering simplified, standardized antiretroviral treatment” to be a priority of the 3 by 5 Initiativei.
Globally, up to 100 000 people need to be trained for their contribution to achieving the 3 by 5 target– including those involved in managing and delivering antiretroviral treatment services, those working on testing and counselling and other entry points to antiretroviral treatment and the many community treatment supporters assisting people living with HIV/AIDS who are receiving medication. The challenge is enormous, and the impact of HIV/AIDS on the workforce is exacerbating the already difficult situation.
This document outlines a strategic plan for WHO to support the development, strengthening and sustaining of the workforce necessary to radically scale up and maintain antiretroviral treatment. The strategic approach is based on the understanding that achieving this goal critically depends on joint efforts between communities, countries and international organizations. It builds on the experience of successful capacity-building efforts and harnesses existing expertise to strengthen training capacity at the regional and country level in the context of an emergency response.
The proposed plan identifies five elements that are critical for building and sustaining human capacity for the 3 by 5 target at the point of service delivery:
- making available simple and appropriate training programmes on key competencies for antiretroviral therapy;
- designing country-specific approaches to training and human resource development;
- providing targeted technical assistance for rolling out training programmes;
- developing training certification and quality control mechanisms; and
- ensuring the availability of sufficient funds for implementing training.
The strategy outlines a set of action steps in each of these domains that together are expected to result in the necessary expansion of a skilled workforce at the country level. For each element, this document specifies what role partners can play and how countries can benefit from the proposed activities and services.
The plan proposes unprecedented global action for developing HIV/AIDS training and capacity. It can only be implemented by the combined effort of many partners. WHO is committed to drive this undertaking and invites countries and organizations to join.
The goal of the human capacity-building plan is to ensure the availability within countries of a sufficient number of appropriately qualified individuals for the emergency scale-up and maintenance of antiretroviral treatment services to 3 million people by the end of 2005ii. | <urn:uuid:2c128640-3415-4166-9c91-24bc29b518bf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.who.int/hiv/pub/imai/capacity_building/en/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927004 | 512 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Nissan announced the recall for repair about 835,000 cars in Japan, about 755,000 in U.S. and 355,000 in Europe by an electrical contact problem in the engine control system, according to documents sent to the Nipponese authorities.
In the Japanese case, there are involving nine models of various types produced between August 2003 and July 2006, including the compact Micra, Tiada and Cube.
The defect found corresponds to a manufacturing defect of a diode built into a contact of the motor control system, a situation which can cause malfunctions.
In Japan, 60 cases were reported, but authorities have not reported any accidents, according to data released by the Ministry of Transport.
Just a week ago, the other two Japanese groups and competitors, Nissan, Toyota and Honda announced the recall for repair another two million vehicles because of a brake fluid leak, months after Toyota had to do the same with other 10 million vehicles by various technical problems | <urn:uuid:d08c659d-53a3-462c-82d7-b5abc8cbcff4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.autopten.com/carsnews/cheapcars-67.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965752 | 198 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Slashing $3.3 million from the state's Drug and Alcohol Abuse Administration will not hurt any existing treatment programs but would doom plans to restore some programs that were eliminated last year, the agency's director said yesterday.
"None of you is losing a service," Director Howard R. Sampson said at a budget briefing for about 100 people who administer drug-treatment programs across the state. The meeting was held at the Spring Grove Hospital Center in Catonsville.
The cuts would mean the end of plans to restore funding for four detoxification programs that are run independently of hospitals; for the state prisons, which once ran a pre-release counseling program for drug addicts; and for a residential treatment center in Southern Maryland.
These were among the programs that fell victim in last year's round of budget cuts.
Mr. Sampson conceded that many addicts could get shut out of the treatment programs as a result of separate plans to terminate Medicaid coverage that is currently available to about 30,000 indigent and mostly single adults. Of these, several hundred are addicts who are trying to kick their habits with the help of programs.
Dr. Robert Brooner, director of an outpatient treatment program at the Francis Scott Key Medical Center in Baltimore, said 47 of the 280 addicts treated at his center are covered by the part of the Medicaid program that is to be reduced. While he vowed not to cut loose these patients, he said the program will have to reduce its rolls accordingly by rejecting similar patients in the future.
He said the loss of Medicaid revenue will probably force him to eliminate some people from the staff. And that, in turn, would force him to scale down the program even further -- to perhaps 210 patients.
"This is the worst time to try to reduce services," Dr. Brooner said, citing the growing drug problem and the rapid spread of the AIDS virus among intravenous drug users.
The planned cuts are part of the state's furious efforts to close its $450 million revenue shortfall. The state has already announced huge reductions in aid to local governments as well as to Medicaid recipients. | <urn:uuid:37e69101-d8a3-49b0-b608-177efb49e922> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1992-10-27/news/1992301147_1_medicaid-program-program-for-drug-cuts | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978268 | 424 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Behind the modern high towers on the Corniche in Maadi, at the foot of the Al-Moqattam hill, lies a slum that is the home to an ancient profession that goes back to the beginning of Egyptian culture.
Batn El-Baqara may look like an ordinary slum, part of the darker side of Cairo, but in reality the whole area is teeming with potters and potteries.
The pottery workshops still function as they have for millennia, the same objects and devices are being used and the kilns are still fueled by wood and rubble.
The workshops bring the silt, their raw material, from Aswan. The transformation from silt into clay takes several stages. First the silt is ground, after which it is dipped in large basins of water to moisten it. Then the silt is collected and rubbed thoroughly to soften it so it can be shaped. After this process the silt is transformed into wet pieces of clay.
Anwar, 48, has been a potter for years, longer than he can remember he says. His limbs move in perfect harmony as his legs keep the pottery wheel spinning as his hands shape a lump of clay. It seems his hands barely touch the raw clay, yet it turns magically into a real work of art, an action that appears to be easy, but in fact takes years of practice.
After the pots are shaped they are etched with different patterns, fired in the Dolab, an old-fashioned kiln, and finally they are coloured. Anwar feels he is fortunate to still work in his profession, as many of his peers had to abandon their work after they were expelled by the security forces from their old houses and workshops which were somewhere near Batn El-Baqara. Anwar used to have his own workshop in the old area, but after the move he was obliged to work for others.
The pottery that is manufactured is mainly for the tourism sector; most of the production is currently used for decorating tourist resorts and villas. Among Egyptians there is no longer a demand as before. ”People now prefer to buy plastic and Chinese materials over crockery,” said Mahmoud, a pottery workshop owner.
Seven years ago the government launched a project to resettle the original potters and new workshops were built for them. Mahmoud said that most of refused to swap their old workshops for the new ones though, because the new workshops were not as well made and it was too costly to get gas and electricity connected.
The name Batn El-Baqara means cow’s stomach in Arabic and the area gained the name because it looks like that on a map. Anwar has another opinion though: He thinks that the area was named that because it is a narrow and stuffy place that lies between two high hills and is crammed with many people and housing blocks.
Pottery, as Anwar said, is among the oldest professions, but it looks to be a dying trade. Business is declining due to economic factors, in particular the decline of tourism in Egypt after the revolution. In order for this ancient craft to survive it needs more support from both the government and buyers. | <urn:uuid:f44866d3-5ad2-4f75-a83d-0901104a07ec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2013/01/15/the-pottery-makers-of-al-moqattam/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98559 | 659 | 2.46875 | 2 |
Virtual Office Featured Article
January 15, 2013Internet-based Fax Services Keeps an Old Technology Relevant
By Tracey E. Schelmetic, TMCnet Contributor
While most of us have written off faxing as a technology that peaked around the time Flock of Seagulls had their first hit on the charts, it’s has been hard to get away from completely. While most tech-oriented companies shucked off the need for dedicated fax machines a decade or more ago, other organizations haven’t been so quick to eliminate the need for them.
Healthcare organizations still using paper reports and records, government entities that haven’t brought all their computer systems into the 21st century and businesses that deal with nations still catching up on technology are just three that come to mind. Any business that uses old records, old engineering drawings, rare documents or forms that have yet to be digitized may find themselves still at the mercy of faxing technology.
Luckily, the clunky desktop fax machine has largely disappeared, thanks to modern multi-function document machines that print, copy and scan. Filling in the gap are Internet-based faxed services that allow users to scan documents and then fax them through traditional means without ever touching shiny, curly paper or refilling paper trays.
Phone.com’s (News - Alert) Internet Fax is one of those services. By creating a Phone.com account, businesses and individuals can have fax technology at their disposal with no need for a physical fax machine, according to a recent company blog. With the click of a button you can upload documents from your computer (bmp, gif, jpg, pdf, txt, doc, xls and html) and send them to any fax number. Each fax has the option for a cover page, recipient's name, subject of the message, your name and a memo. The service then sends you a confirmation e-mail that your fax was received.
The service may also be used to receive incoming faxes. (You are assigned a fax number to use.) The incoming fax is converted into a PDF file and sent to your desired inbox for easy access. You can also have a fax forwarded to your email account for you to view, forward, and save on your computer.
So next time someone asks to fax something to you – or requests a fax in return – you needn’t drag out the clunky old fax unit that by now belongs in a technology museum. As with most other technologies today, it’s possible to leverage the Internet: all the positives, and none of the drawbacks.
To find out more about Phone.com and CEO Ari Rabban (News - Alert), visit the company at ITEXPO Miami. Taking place Jan. 29- Feb 1, in Miami, Florida, ITEXPO (News - Alert) is the only gathering where the community of communications and technology buyers, sellers, resellers, and manufacturers meet to forge relationships and close deals. Rabban is speaking during “ Customer Engagement and Loyalty: How Personalization Impacts a Call to Action” and “Mobile Virtual Agents/Assistants: Creating a Consistent Customer Experience.” For more information on ITEXPO, click here.
Edited by Amanda Ciccatelli
Phone.com Transforms Small Businesses Using VoIP and the Cloud : TMC podcast with Joel Maloff, vice president of Channel Development at Phone.com, about how to transform SMBs using VoIP and the cloud.
Changing the User Experience with HD Voice: There's lots of buzz about high definition voice, but what does it all really mean? TMCnet spoke with Alon Cohen, chief technology officer for Phone.com, a hosted IP-PBX and virtual office provider, about HD Voice and how and why it enhances the user experience. The podcast also features two examples showcasing the audio quality difference when using HD voice.
Related content you may also be interested in… | <urn:uuid:2e3a737f-578e-4aaf-ab8b-37809590bd2f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://virtual-office.tmcnet.com/articles/322850-internet-based-fax-services-keeps-an-old-technology.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928849 | 824 | 1.539063 | 2 |
|Written by Bill Hanks|
More and more individuals are taking their work with them to lunch, at breaks, and even home at night. Many individuals are afraid of losing their jobs or positions. They feel that, by going the extra mile, they are proving their value. This article takes a look at taking your work with you, without losing your mind.
In today's world, their are many tools that a person can use during their free time to keep up. Palm Pilots, Palm Treo, Blackberries, Cellphones, Laptops, and Thinkpads are just a few of the tools that employees can put to use.
Unless you are under a time constraint, try to leave your main body of work back at the office. Use your free time to update schedules, inventory your upcoming jobs, make contacts, setup appointments, review what you have done, double check or update accounts, and compose emails or letters.
Using this time to handle small tasks, frees up your time to addressing major issues , when you are back in the office. Many times an individual will get so engrossed in a job project, that he will neglect the smaller tasks that are just as important.
If you are going to work during your free time, try to handle tasks that are quick and simple to do. Many times you can get these small tasks taken care of and still have time for lunch or a break.
One thing that you don't want to over do is carry a ton of paperwork with you. It is too easy to lose, misplace or spoil. Again, if you must take something, take only one item and keep it clean.
Many individuals will use this time to make personal contacts with clients. That is because, they know that they are free during lunch, too. Schedules can be exchanged and future appointments can be made.
Let's face it. Nobody wants to spend all their free time working during this period. However, sometimes it must be done for various reasons. Always try to keep these tasks limited. This way you won't loose your mind. You will limit mistakes. One of the worst things, that an employee can do, is make a mistake on their own free time. You will end up getting depressed and resentful. | <urn:uuid:4c1e6432-1a77-4112-9932-809e940ec0e0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.firehow.com/200905141192/how-to-take-your-work-with-you.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974505 | 466 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
Birds of a Feather (2004)
References to this work on external resources.
Wikipedia in English
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0143035304, Paperback)
Jacqueline Winspear’s marvelous and inspired debut, Maisie Dobbs, won her fans from coast to coast and raised her intuitive, intelligent, and resourceful heroine to the ranks of literature’s favorite sleuths. Birds of a Feather finds Maisie Dobbs on another dangerously intriguing adventure in London "between the wars." It is the spring of 1930, and Maisie has been hired to find a runaway heiress. But what seems a simple case at the outset soon becomes increasingly complicated when three of the heiress’s old friends are found dead. Is there a connection between the woman’s mysterious disappearance and the murders? Who would want to kill three seemingly respectable young women? As Maisie investigates, she discovers that the answers lie in the unforgettable agony of the Great War.
(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 03 Jan 2013 12:55:04 -0500)
Maisie Dobbs is back and this time she has been hired to find a wealthy grocery magnate's daughter who has fled from home. What seems a simple case at first becomes complicated when Maisie learns of the recent violent deaths of three of the heiress's old friends. Is there a connection between her mysterious disappearance and the murders? Who would kill such charming young women? As Maisie investigates, she discovers that the answers to all her questions lie in the unforgettable agony of The Great War.
Is this you?
Become a LibraryThing Author. | <urn:uuid:8f31cf5d-f3a3-4820-9dd9-1f3774ef0eb3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.librarything.com/work/57680 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932258 | 361 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Insert Editing has been a staple tool in Post-production since before Columbus sailed out one August morning (ok, maybe not that long) and in FCP X it's better than ever. Following on from Part 1 of this series of articles, where I created an edit by appending clips to the timeline, I'm now going to begin inserting clips.
In the Event Library I've selected a clip to be inserted into the existing Appended edit. The clip is open in the Event browser.
Tip: I find list view to be particularly useful for this part of the workflow but there's no set rule on that.
In the filmstrip area, skim through the clip (move the mouse or use trackpad back and forth through it) to find the in point. Press I on the keyboard just as in FCP 7. Skim to the out point and pressing O to mark the out point completes the process.
If you want to play back the marked section of the clip, press /.
Tip: Looping playback is a useful feature during editing. To turn it on, go to View > Playback > Loop Playback or press Command-L.
Now that my clip is marked I'm going to navigate in the Project Timeline to the desired insert location between the first 2 clips in my edit. In FCP 7 the quickest method of doing this was to use the Up and Down arrow keys to move back or forward respectively, between edit points. The same is true for FCP X.
The timeline looks like this:
To insert edit the clip between the existing shots at the playhead position I can click on the Insert button or press W (similar to the yellow canvas button or pressing F9 in FCP 7).
FCP X still has a drag and drop workflow just like in FCP7, only less complex. FCP X, unlike FCP 7, will automatically apply an insert edit. There's no horizontal outlines or arrows in the timeline to worry about.
FCP 7 outlines.
In FCP X, inserting another clip further down the timeline can be done by simply dragging the clip over the edit point. When the edit point highlights, just drop the clip in.
Insert point highlight.
To split an existing shot in the timeline using an Insert Edit we can utilise the power of the Skim tool. Mark In and Out points in a new clip in the Event Browser using any method you've learned.
In the timeline, skim to the point where you want to insert your marked clip and press W.
Skim timeline placement (the red line).
The marked clip will now appear in the timeline at the Skimmer position and the original timeline clip will be split either side. In FCP 7 this could be done using the playhead position or marking an in point in the sequence. In FCP X the playhead can still be used to mark the desired edit point; however the Skimmer's position takes priority so be careful not to mix them up.
A split clip after an insert edit.
I'm really impressed with how quickly the Append and Insert Edit workflows in FCP X help me to work at great speeds. Keep practicing and you will be too, I'm sure.
Part 3 coming soon!
David Smith is Scotland's most qualified Apple and Adobe certified trainer. Having completed his education at Edinburgh College of Art's BAFTA winning Film School, David moved straight into TV production, first as a Vision Mixer then quickly becoming, at the age of just 24, a director of live TV studio productions. In 2001 he moved into Higher Education where he became a lecturer in TV Production, specializing in post-production and live studio production. During this time, and working with the support of the BBC, Channel 4 and independent production companies, David was instrumental in the design, development and implementation of industry-approved vocational courses across Scotland's Colleges. In 2006, after working closely with Apple Computers to create a unique multimedia studio for education at the Music and Media Centre in Perth, David became Scotland's first Apple-Certified Trainer for Pro Apps. This led on to David forming the first Apple Authorized Training Centre for Education, north of Manchester. In 2008 David made the move to full time training and joined the ranks at Academy Class, Ltd. where he continues to train industry professionals as a certified trainer across the Adobe Creative Suite and Apple Pro Apps range. | <urn:uuid:f6b2c6da-8f7d-4e2c-841b-b9c665512497> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.macprovideo.com/hub/final-cut/final-cut-pro-x-tutorial-creating-the-rough-cut-part-2-inserting-clips | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923252 | 902 | 1.8125 | 2 |
There was a time when the phrase "Stonewall" was more likely to conjure images of the Civil War than of Greenwich Village. Then again, perhaps the two aren't so far apart, though we can be thankful that our "culture war" has a far lower body count than the Civil War.
But there it stands, the Stonewall Inn at 53 Christopher St., enshrined in the National Register of Historic Places, right along so many Civil War battlefields.
As the National Park Service, caretaker of America's National Historic Landmarks, puts it: "Stonewall is nationally significant because it is associated with events that outstandingly represent the struggle for civil rights in America. The nominated site encompasses a several block area in Greenwich Village that was the location of a series of events, collectively known as Stonewall, that occurred between June 28 and July 3, 1969. Stonewall is regarded as the single most important event that led to the modern movement for gay and lesbian civil rights."
During those few days 40 years ago, patrons of this tiny gay bar decided that they had had their fill of institutionalized harassment and revolted. It was one police raid too many, leading to days of riots that put the city establishment on notice that the GLBT community -- with drag queens and other gender-nonconforming revolutionaries leading the first rally cry -- was no longer willing to acquiesce to bullying by the majority. As the New York Daily News headline offered at the time, "Homo Nest Raided, Queen Bees Are Stinging Mad."
Homophobic, but accurate.
From that article, published July 6, 1969, reporter Jerry Lisker wrote, in part, "The crowd began to get out of hand, eye witnesses said. Then, without warning, Queen Power exploded with all the fury of a gay atomic bomb. Queens, princesses and ladies-in-waiting began hurling anything they could get their polished, manicured fingernails on. Bobby pins, compacts, curlers, lipstick tubes and other femme fatale missiles were flying in the direction of the cops. The war was on. The lilies of the valley had become carnivorous jungle plants."
As the community comes together in Washington for Capital Pride, this 40th anniversary lends itself to the local theme, "Generations of Pride: Celebrate and Remember." And while the Stonewall Inn is more than 200 miles from D.C., the aura of Stonewall now belongs to the world's entire GLBT community. Just ask the crowd in New Delhi, India, for example, who used the Stonewall Riots as the theme of their Pride festivities in June 2008.
Larry Stansbury, involved with Capital Pride for decades, today serving as treasurer, was not as far away as India when the Stonewall Riots hit. He was a college student living in Richmond, Va.
"There were some blurbs in the Richmond Times-Dispatch," Stansbury says, recalling that the Richmond gay community, with a strong drag component, was aware of what was happening in Greenwich Village. "In the gay community -- it was a tightly knit community -- everybody knew someone from New York, had friends there.''
While the news traveled quickly, says Stansbury, the effect ''started hitting home'' later for a community that was overly familiar with police harassment.
"If the police came in, they were going to check your ID, rough-up some people. The drag queens always seemed to get roughed-up first. We've come a long way."
Only 34, Jessica McKinnon, serving as the chair of Capital Pride's Trans Pride Committee, wasn't yet alive when the Stonewall Riots heralded a turn in the push toward GLBT equality. Having moved to the United States from her native South Africa just nine years ago adds another layer of distance between her and Stonewall.
''I think it's particularly significant on the transgender side," says McKinnon, who identifies as transgender. She sees the LGBT movement as having come ''almost full circle'' since the days of Stonewall with all parts of the community together under one banner.
"Especially significant for me, as chair of Capital Trans Pride, now an official event on the Capital Pride calendar, is that it really symbolizes that return to the LGBT community as a whole, as I think it originally was in the days of the Stonewall Riots." | <urn:uuid:5c20f400-daf2-4933-83db-0b5efe280d8a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://metroweekly.com/prideguide/?ak=4301 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974225 | 918 | 2.453125 | 2 |
Green energy's probably not the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a race track like Infineon. More like lots of cars using lots of gas…
"There's a certain irony involved with a facility that runs NASCAR and NHRA top fuel dragsters taking a green message to market but we think that the time is ripe."
Steve Page is the president and general manager of the Infineon Raceway. He says they'll be installing solar panels over the winter.
"The projection is that it will generate enough energy to satisfy 41% of the electrical energy loads that the raceway uses over the course of a year."
The installation is part of a sponsorship deal with Panasonic Corporation of North America. | <urn:uuid:4dae412a-ae2b-415b-a16f-06755f0bc10c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.capradio.org/155434 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947544 | 147 | 1.6875 | 2 |
There are no real progress because scientific ecoligy has not been integrated inside development program. Market and business have dominated the vision of development. Now this is changing. But to achieve this goal it is important to transform the key human ressources challenges. using the right people at the right places. Biologist and there systemic vision and multidisciplinary skills have to be formed to manage social, market and agronomic works.
Botanical, zoological and ecosystem knowledge must have the first places, it is on this fundations that human nutrition could be securized. Agroecology is not agronomy, investment should take time into account, and human behaviour would be adapted to natural efficiency. So technology would be adapted to soil ecology, human and animal ressources , and richness of population.
Field size and property rights, peace, and cooperative organisation are the best way to manage self controled action on agroecological system wich are commons. the more actors you have the more controls are done, see water distribution in the alpine swiss countryside. The next 20 years land use could be a rush for the richer against the poorer(see corea, china ou saoudi arabia in africa) , protecting the farmer against investor with land rights, high prices and investment is the first goal, the next target is improving there knowledge.
From the rainy contries to the driest the goal couldn't be achieve in the same time,
- Number of biomass produced per acre /year
- liter of water used to produce 1 daily portion for 1 human
- amount of fertilizer, pesticides, and energy used per acre/year
- work force and work time needed for producing 1 ton of cereales/year
- capital gain per acre/year
- index of education
- most common disease/year
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This thematic discussion is led by FAO and WFP in collaboration with “The World We Want”.
The consultation is facilitated by the Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)
All contributions received (DOC) | <urn:uuid:dcd04b49-aee2-443b-bec8-3ad06f7dd042> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/post2015/re-e-consultation-hunger-food-and-nutrition-security-21 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925669 | 481 | 1.976563 | 2 |
For those of you who will build a house, then you definitely need the help of an expert in home design. An architect will advise you about the model home will you wake up to provide architectural house plans. Architectural house plans is a set of construction or working drawing include all the construction specifications of the home such as dimensions, materials, layouts, installation methods and techniques. Architectural house plans will greatly assist you in optimizing the limited space you have.
You should think about the room in house. The best thing about a space saving style is that it allows you to live in a home that feels like it has more space than it really has. Plan all detail of your room and discuss it with the architect. After you deal about the architectural house plans, then select the inside features of the home like the flooring, paint, cabinets, etc. This can definitely be one of the most fun steps and is really a lot of fun for most anyone involved in home building.
Build homes with architectural house plans will help you in saving development costs. Because the material you’ll use to build your house has been planned in accordance with the budget. You also will not regret having a new home because your home has been designed either by an expert in home design. | <urn:uuid:73d1df88-dac1-47c3-8da1-98fd8b3d08b4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wicohome.org/architectural-house-plans-help-you-in-building-a-home/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959691 | 256 | 2.140625 | 2 |
The Saturday morning hosts, on the local radio station, were talking about childhood obesity. They rambled on about the usual “culprits”: lack of exercise and PE classes, vending machines, […]
Who hasn’t heard the expression
“CLEANLINESS IS NEXT TO GODLINESS”
at least a thousand of times?
Most people practice good hygiene. It is the healthy thing to do
and, it minimizes offending appearance and […]
You Are What You Eat
Have you seen the new T.V. commercial for Gatorade?
The sound bite is “Win From Within”.
When I saw the commercial, it triggered a memory of my […]
Are you planning to make any New Year resolutions this year?
How about the tried and true resolutions to … lose weight? … go to the gym? … starve yourself […]
Many of you have indicated an interest in the NUPRO monthly newsletter. Here is your copy of the current NUPRO newsletter. Many of our clients find it interesting.
This month, the […]
Here’s a term you may not have heard: “Chemcuisine”.
The first time we read the term, we were researching this article. On the site, Center for Science in the Public […]
“The body gets everything it needs to stay healthy from a balanced diet.” is the particular paradigm forming the basis for every argument you will ever hear against supplements.
Who among you believes you will suffer the indignity of
Failing health, Cancer, Diabetes, Stroke, Heart Attack or Cardiovascular disease?
Well, if you believe the statistics, about half of you will […] | <urn:uuid:1051edca-b783-44bf-aeff-3f266ed65e41> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nupro.net/articles/page/5/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909003 | 357 | 1.523438 | 2 |
“I played a song in my after-school dance class, a job that I had for five years [and] this song mentioned the name ‘Christ,’ ” says former Lemon Grove arts teacher Kathy Villalobos. “This name…seemed to bother an administrator, a clerk, and an after-school coordinator; subsequently, I lost my job a few days later.”
“Religious art and music should not be banished from our schools,” says attorney Karen Milam of the Pacific Justice Institute, which is appealing a recent San Diego County Superior Court decision dismissing Villalobos’s claim of wrongful discrimination because “[Villalobos] had not suffered as much as the Jews in Nazi Germany.”
The song in contention, “O Sifuni Mungu,” is mostly sung in Swahili. Villalobos claims the song — chosen for its danceable African rhythm — was the cause of her termination. The Lemon Grove School District maintains she was fired mainly due to missing a number of classes and district rescheduling.
“They are also on record as saying this is about insubordination,” says Villalobos. “I have never, ever in all the five years had one complaint or warning laid against me until someone heard the name of Christ in one of my songs.… They have offered me a ‘settlement,’ what I call ‘hush money,’ and they absolutely refuse to publicly admit what they did.” | <urn:uuid:e1a065e0-6ac0-4d96-817b-3187cd1ddeea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2009/oct/14/blurt2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979938 | 323 | 1.757813 | 2 |
History Of Herbal Medicine In Britain
By Linda Harrold DBTh. MURHP
The first recorded history of herbs in this country appeared with the advent of the Roman invasion in circa 50AD. They brought with them to this country a wealth of knowledge that had been gathered from the other great civilizations, including the Greeks and Egyptians. When they arrived in this country they found a land of forests and swamps but quickly changed the landscape with their road and building projects and so it is reasonable to suppose that these changes enabled a much wider range of plants to be grown .The Romans were an incredibly well organised race and even prior to their main invasion, had organised to send ahead parties to prepare for their future life here on this island ,including the sowing and planting of many herbs .They brought with them auxiliaries, soldiers from lands as far away as
Macedonia, Syria and Egypt and so herbal uses from those countries quickly found their way into our culture.
|Since man took his first steps on this planet, he has been sustained by the plant kingdom and continues to be so to this day. The history of herbal medicine has been well documented over the years, but without being aware of the context in which people were living their lives, our understanding of how herbs were used, is incomplete. Records of herbs and medicine are really the story of the growth of civilization. What soon becomes apparent though on closer examination, is the twin themes of power and persecution snaking their way through time, in a way that seems to resemble the double helix shape of man’s very DNA.
Knowledge is power. Persecution grows when the power groups forcibly suppress and deny information from the common man that he needs to be whole.
Just because the Romans were the first to make records, it would be wrong to assume that the native Celts were little more than savages. Their intellectual leaders, the Druids were immensely knowledgeable but we know from letters written by the Romans, that their culture forbade them to commit their teaching to writing. Instead they were expected to commit to memory all of the plants that were used in healing as well as the many surgical procedures that they performed, such as amputations, caesarean sections and even neurosurgery..
It was with the introduction of Christianity to this land , that herbal knowledge emerged again from the dark woods, and appeared again on paper. From approx 700AD monks gradually built monasteries and also hospitals to care for the sick. This necessitated the growing of herbs and thus the first Physick gardens appeared. Pilgrims and travellers were frequent visitors to the monasteries and therefore both the knowledge of how to use the herbs and the plants themselves were spread around the country. One of the first known herbals was The Leach Book of Bald. Leach means healer and the book was the work of a monk called Bald but actually written on his behalf by another monk named Cild.
In order to subjugate the natives and take total control of the country the Romans knew that the best way was to destroy the Druids and so the order went out to kill them. To justify their actions and to denigrate the Celts, they claimed that they indulged in human sacrifice and would put their victims into a large wicker man shaped object and burn them alive.
Although many Druids were murdered, those who escaped hid themselves away in the woods and their healing knowledge went underground and became fragmented.
So the control of Britain remained in the hands of the Romans until they returned to their home land in circa 450AD. This country then entered a period commonly referred to as the Dark Ages as nothing was recorded, although the healing knowledge of plants remained in the human consciousness.
By the 12th century, the Crusades saw the further spread of herbal knowledge and the trade in herbs and spices. It was also at this time that various plagues, which would last for centuries, began to spread around the country and the demand for remedies became insistent.
|Soutra Aisle in the Scottish borders, is believed to be one of the largest medieval hospitals in the country. Founded by King Malcolm the First of Scotland in 1164. It was sited in a remote spot but one that was in the vicinity of one of the few major routes into Scotland. Recent archaeology has revealed evidence of some herbs such as Henbane, Hemlock and Opium Poppy. Given the powerful actions of these herbs, it is thought that they were used as a form of anaesthetic for any surgical procedures that were carried out.
The manner of continuing to keep the herbal skills alive by passing on the knowledge by oral history is well demonstrated by the Physicians of Myddfai from Wales. Legend has it that the physician Rhiwallon was given his knowledge of herbs by his mother who was a lake fairy. Their teachings carried on for hundreds of years, with the death of the last known physician being in 1842. Common sense would suggest that some of this learning at least must have still been passed on to the present day. Their most important text is the Red Book of Hergest, which contained over 500 ways to use 200 different herbs.
From the 15th to the 17 th century, Witch hunts were commonplace and people were constantly on the lookout for even the slightest sign that someone was in “league with the devil” Of course the power to heal brought these people into that category and yet again those keepers of herbal knowledge were murdered.
||Herbal medicine was used by all, peasants to kings included. King Henry viii (born 1491) was a huge advocate of herbal medicine and as well as treatment from his own apothecaries, enjoyed making his own remedies. His charter of 1543 enshrined the rights of the herbalist to be able to practice. In yet another piece of irony, his dissolution of the monasteries meant that he actually ended up destroying the physick gardens that contained the very plants that he held dear to himself.
Although one of the first known herbals written in English, the Rosa Medicinae, was written in 1314 by
John of Gaddesden, the most well known ones started to appear from about 1500's. These included such works by Gerard, Banckes and Culpeper. It is these herbals that are the base on which herbal medicine continues to be practised today.
Although both physicians and apothecaries/herbalists worked side by side during these times ,albeit somewhat uneasily, the power was definitely in the hands of the Physicians.
For the common folk though, it was generally the so called wise woman who was responsible for the health of the locals with her wealth of knowledge about the healing properties of herbs. However, she had a somewhat precarious position.
By Victorian times although physicians were the ones with the power as far as healing was concerned, the poorer folks still preferred herbs and while it might seem obvious that it was because it was all they could afford, it was also normal for rich people to have at least one of their servants to be skilled in the use of herbs so that they had remedies to hand for any illness that should strike.
With the advent of World War I, the demand for medicine was huge, due to the enormous number of casualties, and herbs were widely used. Garlic and sphagnum moss were used in large quantities. Garlic was widely respected for its antiseptic properties, likewise Thyme, which was used in the form of essential oil. The garden designer, Gertrude Jekyll set aside a large plot of land just for the growing of Marigolds (Calendula), which was shipped to France to treat burns victims.
All continued well for some years. The second world war saw as in the previous one the need for large amounts of medicines. This though is where events took a sinister turn, in 1941 the Government found themselves in trouble with the pharmacy world for unwittingly having levied a double tax on them in the form of Stamp duty and also Purchase tax. When the illegality of this was pointed out to them, they didn’t want to refund the overpayments. As a way of placating the chemists, they introduced the 1941 Medicines Bill, which precluded the sale of herbs in anything but a dried state and there by delivering in one swift blow, the end to the practise of herbal medicine. The pharmacy world was delighted as herbalists had become a real thorn in their sides as so many people were using herbs in preference to the modern drugs.There was even a clause in the Bill that allowed chemists to investigate any herbalists premises and report them to the Pharmaceutical Society. In an incredible feat of timing, the Government got this Bill through Parliament in a matter of days, and even though there was a ground swell of protest, the government remained intractable.
is known as the father of medicine, it is fair to say that Hilda Leyel is the mother of modern herbal medicine.
In her book, The Truth About Herbs
,written in 1943, she says "My first intention when I left school was to be a doctor, and I started to train for that profession, but when I married at the age of seventeen my medical career was cut short." It is interesting though that her grandson, Peter Leyel, can confirm that his grandmother did in fact give up her pursuit of a medical career earlier to become an actress, joining the troupe of Sir Francis (Frank) Robert Benson
. Carl Leyel was Frank Benson's secretary, and Carl and Hilda married in 1900, as confirmed by her marriage certificate.
Hilda had a great love of botany, which
she attributes to Rev Edward Thring
and his daughter Sarah who took over Hilda's education after Thring's death. Thring was the headmaster of Uppingham School, Rutland where Hilda's father Edward Wauton was a housemaster. Other family influences came into play, her uncle Dr Dawtrey Drewitt,
a pathologist by profession, was also interested in zoology and botany. He was a fine artist and his water-colours were exhibited at the Royal Academy, he was also vice-chairman of the Chelsea Physic Garden
In 1927 she put that love into practise by opening a herbalists in Baker Street, which she named Culpeper’s
which was the beginning of the Society of Herbalists, later to become The Herb Society. Her original intention had been to merely sell herbs, mainly in cosmetic preparations and for tisanes, from clean and hygienic premises, but she had unknowingly tapped into the publics memory for herbal treatment and the shop soon became a magnet for large numbers of people wanting a return to the old ways. She quickly realised that as well as selling dried herbs for the self treatment of minor ailments, there was a need to prescribe individual prescriptions for those with more serious ailments. So she began to practise as a consultant herbalist. Her fame spread and with the number of rich and influential patients consulting her, herbal medicine was once again in vogue.
It seems bizarre to say the least, that at time when one would assume that the Government would be fully occupied with the war effort that they could invest so much in passing this legislation. When one considers how much the Drug companies interests are represented in the Commons and how much money is involved, then the situation can be viewed with much more clarity. Fortunately, Mrs Leyel was a resourceful character and discovered that if someone was a member of the Society of Herbalists, this allowed them to receive herbal treatment. Naturally, in the light of this discovery membership went up in the thousands virtually overnight.
By a strange juxtaposition of fate, 1941 saw the government appeal to the public to help grow and wild craft herbs for the war effort. In 1940, Whitechapel hospital alerted Kew Gardens that essential supplies of medicines were virtually depleted. Very quickly the Vegetable Drugs Committee was formed, comprising members of Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Kew, Pharmaceutical Society and herb growers. Lists of essential plants were drawn up and an assortment of organisations was approached for help to collect the herbs. The Woman’s Institute, WRVS, Scouts and Guides as well as school children were amongst those enlisted and cigarette cards carried pictures of various herbs to help with the identification. However these herbs were sold to botanical drug companies in order that they could be made into conventional medicines! Over 90% of which were made from Plant Material.
The desire for herbal medicine continued and eventually, in 1968, after much campaigning, a new Bill was passed, 1968 Medicines Act which allowed for the practice of herbal medicine, under which law herbalists are still protected today.
In 1994, the government decided under the guise of incoming European law, to once again pass a law banning herbal medicine. This time the public response was so overwhelmingly against it, that they quickly retreated. It was probably no coincidence that at the time, the drug companies were once again feeling the pressure from the public who were becoming disillusioned with modern drugs.
In yet another twist of fortune, chemists and scientists in Wales are today, 2008, examining the Myddfai text of Hergest, as they believe that it could provide the secrets to herbs whose active principles could be extracted to use in modern medicine!! The Text was written in the 13th century by
Rhiwallon of Myddfai.
||Now to the present day. We are in a strange place in many ways. At the end of the 1990`s it was the intention of the government that all medical herbalists should be state registered but that it was to be by self regulation The various herbal registers got together under the umbrella group of the European Herbal Practitioners Association in order that all aspects of the profession could be standardised. As anyone can set themselves up as a herbalist, it is a situation that those of us who are qualified, are broadly in agreement with. It is anticipated that this process, which has dragged on for some time, should be completed in the next year or so. However, at the same time, we find ourselves under constant attack by so called “quack busters” who seek to discredit the use of herbs and those who prescribe to them at every turn. As has been seen in earlier times, the drug companies are finding that the rise in natural treatments to be immense.
In an ideal world there would be respect from both sides of the divide. There is a time for orthodox treatments and a time for herbal ones and they shouldn't be mutually exclusive but in a world where money is power, unfortunately the orthodox world is unlikely to take that view.
Whilst at times it may be easy to feel discouraged by the constant persecution that the herbal healers may find themselves under, it is clear to see that the racial memory is so strong that no one , however strong and powerful they may be, will be able to eradicate it from our souls. You don't have to walk far down any city street to see a plant of some description forcing its way through somewhere in the concrete. No matter how badly we abuse it, Nature will never be subdued. | <urn:uuid:1c8a93ea-a924-475a-9325-5630fdb49f7b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.herbsociety.org.uk/hh-history-herbal-medicine-britain.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986692 | 3,120 | 3.03125 | 3 |
Historically Black College/University?
Common States of Residence
- Foreign countries
- New Jersey
- New York
Student Age Breakdown
Under 18: 0%
African American: 6%
Asian American: 9%
Native American: 0%
The campus is tolerable to those who are gay.
Most, if not all, campus organizations get involved in some political issue or another, whether locally or nationally. Issues involve everything from gay rights to abortion to discrimination. Temple University and its students have really become known for deep roots in the community.
The students at Temple come from different backgrounds financially. You will never hear anyone speak of the "rich kids" or anything like that-Temple students seem humble in their status.
Most Common Religions
There are a few Christian clubs and groups on campus that hold events. The Muslim Students Association is probably the largest religious club on campus.
Minority Clubs on Campus
There are several minority organizations on campus; for example, Black Student Union, Cambodian Association, and Hillel. All of these organizations have made their mark on the campus community and the people that they serve. | <urn:uuid:0609f893-92d6-498f-b18e-16cce7825c0a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://collegeprowler.com/temple-university/diversity/facts/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928175 | 237 | 2.171875 | 2 |
Modeling and Computation of Boundary-Layer Flows: Laminar, Turbulent and Transitional Boundary Layers in Incompressible Flows: Solutions Manual and Co
This book is an introduction to computational fluid dynamics with emphasis on the solution of the boundary-layer equations and the modeling and ... Show synopsis This book is an introduction to computational fluid dynamics with emphasis on the solution of the boundary-layer equations and the modeling and computation of boundary-layer flows. It also provides readers with a good understanding of the basic principles of fluid dynamics and numerical methods. A variety of readers, including undergraduate and graduate students, teachers or scientists working in aerodynamics or hydrodynamics will find the text interesting. The subjects covered in this book include laminar and, turbulent boundary layers and laminar--turbulent transition. The viscous--inviscid coupling between the boundary layer and the inviscid flow is also addressed. Two-dimensional and three-dimensional incompressible flows are considered. Physical and numerical aspects of boundary-layer flows are described in detail in 12 chapters. A large number of homework problems are included. | <urn:uuid:fe8c17a0-82d7-41f9-bc7f-a72000e43b5a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.alibris.com/booksearch?qwork=4412534&qcond=6&matches=18&qsort=p&cm_sp=2rec-_-RHS-_-p1-0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.912118 | 233 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Posted by School Run Mum on 16/11/2011. Tags: School Run Mum Parenting
I read an interesting piece in the Irish Independent this week about the educational benefits of traditional family board games. It caught my attention because we have recently had two birthday's in the house and a number of board games were given as presents. We've had great fun on an evening playing these games together as a family (rather than watching TV) and with most of the games being old favourites which we played ourselves as children (Connect 4, Guess Who, Operation), it's been a fun trip down memory lane also.
For Junior and Senior Infant level children, board games can help to teach many valuable skills, such as colour recognition, number recognition, counting skills, letter recognition, problem solving and the invaluable lessons of taking turns and understanding the rules of the game. Of course, the concept of 'It's not the winning, it's the taking part,' is a tricky one to accept and is a concept which my four-year-old is clearly struggling to come to terms with as demonstrated by his stomping off for a good sulk after losing at Snakes and Ladders. Oh dear.
makes some interesting observations about the current trend of shoppers returning to familiar brands and names of board games they remember from their own childhood, in place of expensive computer games - just another impact of the recession, and possibly not a bad one. As quoted in the article, "When money is tight, people turn to brands they know and trust. People pick things they remember from their childhood." It is also noted that there is 'a growing recognition that board games have qualities which set them apart from their console cousins.'
I couldn't agree more - even with the disputes about whose turn it is, and why you can't always win and constant reminders not to throw but roll the dice and even with the frustration of people leaning across the board and knocking counters out of the way, it's good old-fashioned family entertainment and, if nothing else, it brings you together and gets you talking, laughing and ahem, arguing. So much more fun than everyone sitting in mute silence in a corner of the room pressing buttons on the individual, hand-held console.
Many schools across the country have participated in the annual 'School Game Playing Day' where children take their favourite board game into school and the games are played in classroom. It's a great initiative and perhaps something which should be done more often than just once a year.
We will certainly be continuing to enjoy our family game night through the dark winter evenings, and if there are educational benefits to be gained from playing our board games, all the better.
Right, I'm going to practice my Twister moves - turns out I'm not quite as limber as I used to be. | <urn:uuid:d9d1ed37-81b8-4a2d-9574-38fbf032385d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.schooldays.ie/blogs/Board-Games-%20teaching-us-all-a-lesson | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982077 | 574 | 2.125 | 2 |
Officials Detail NCLB Test Flexibility for Students With Disabilities
States can start taking advantage of flexibility under the No Child Left Behind Act for some of their special education students this school year, but they will have to clear several hurdles to do so, the U.S. Department of Education announced May 10.
In April, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announced that 2 percent of students in special education who have “persistent academic disabilities” could be tested using modified assessments. The result, for some states, is that more of their students who are in special education will be deemed proficient under NCLB standards.
The Education Department already allows 1 percent of students with “severe cognitive disabilities” to be counted as proficient even if they take alternative assessments that are below grade level. The additional 2 percent is intended to allow for students who, even with the best instruction, still cannot meet grade-level standards,...
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- K-12 Teachers
- The International Educator, Multiple Locations
- Perspectives Charter Schools, Chicago, IL
- Director of School Support
- The Achievement Network, Multiple Locations
- Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum & Instruction
- Lake Forest School District 67 & 115, Lake Forest, IL
- Elementary Principal
- Forest Grove School District, Forest Grove, OR | <urn:uuid:3c047093-2be5-4d9f-b391-6154e2a9b4f6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2005/05/10/37spellings_web.h24.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939051 | 295 | 2.625 | 3 |
ASIA NEWS NETWORK
WE KNOW ASIA BETTER
Japan needs all-out efforts to avert economic downturn
Publication Date : 04-10-2012
Japan's economy has taken another turn for the worse.
The government and the Bank of Japan must step up their vigilance and make all-out efforts to revive economic growth.
The short-term quarterly survey of business sentiment compiled by the Bank of Japan in September showed the diffusion index for large manufacturers' current business conditions deteriorated for the first time in three quarters.
The so-called Tankan survey showed the index for large nonmanufacturers leveled off and a bleak outlook is ahead.
About 70 per cent of the more than 10,000 businesses surveyed had sent their responses by early September. Their answers did not fully factor in the effect of the recent chilling of Japan-China relations over the Senkaku Islands. If the survey was taken now, the results would probably have been even more grim.
Seiji Maehara, the new state minister for national policy, said at a news conference held after his appointment, "Fiscal and financial policy will be carried out steadily and seamlessly." The government must act quickly to prevent the economy from worsening.
The biggest concern is the stagnation of foreign demand. The European economic slowdown due to the sovereign debt crisis and slackening growth of China, which is a major exporter to Europe, have dealt a painful blow to Japan's exports and production.
Bold monetary easing vital
The government and the central bank have drawn up a scenario for economic growth recovery in which domestic demand is sustained by reconstruction projects from the March 11, 2011, disaster and subsidies for environmentally friendly vehicles, among other factors, before growth is led by foreign demand. This scenario seems to be coming off the rails.
As part of additional monetary easing measures, the central bank on September 19 decided to increase the amount in a reserve fund used to purchase government and corporate bonds by 10 trillion yen to 80 trillion yen. But it has already been proven that this step will not bring about such desired effects as a correction of the strong yen. Such a piecemeal policy approach is totally inadequate for dealing with the problem.
To prevent the yen from becoming even stronger and to underpin business activity, flexible market intervention depending on market trends and bold additional monetary easing measures will be required.
This week's Cabinet reshuffle is a prime chance for the government to rectify previous economic policy blunders.
Drop 'zero-nuclear' policy
To ensure a stable electricity supply, it is absolutely essential that nuclear reactors be restarted after they are confirmed to be safe to operate. It is indispensable that the government withdraw the policy of ending reliance on nuclear power generation--a policy that will accelerate the hollowing-out of industry and hamper nuclear power plant exports.
Democratic Party of Japan-led administrations have persisted with their avowed handout schemes, delaying the implementation of growth strategy policies for an exit from protracted deflation and low growth.
To enhance growth potential amid Japan's declining population, it will be necessary to create new jobs and make more use of women and senior citizens in the workforce.
Nursing care and medical treatment are promising fields where demand is expected to increase with the aging of the population. Regulations restricting new participation must be eased to encourage private business to enter these markets.
It is also essential to support research and development projects in such growth sectors as energy and the environment, and foster new industries that are internationally competitive. | <urn:uuid:7758af8e-6e99-419d-92ca-e55032cf6524> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.asianewsnet.net/news-37176.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949558 | 707 | 1.609375 | 2 |
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Answer: 58 degrees
it will be easy to explain if there is a figure.
so i will tell the steps.
just draw the figure and you can observe that two isosceles triangles are formed.
because their sides are nothing but circle radii.
and you can easily find the value of the other arc by using the known facts like sum of all angles of a triangle = 180.
If you are still finding it difficult to solve just drop me a mail. | <urn:uuid:a487af53-7e3e-4b2a-9411-646e0e5994ec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.algebra.com/algebra/homework/Circles/Circles.faq.question.390929.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923135 | 109 | 2.5 | 2 |
Obituary: Antoine Choueiri
"Choueiri was a modern day Colossus who, for nearly half a century, straddled the region’s media and advertising sectors."
March 9, 2010 2:55 by Siobhan Adams
Antoine Choueiri, the man widely regarded as the founding father and chief architect of the Middle East’s modern media industry, has died following a long battle with cancer.
He passed away on 9 March in his native Beirut.
As founder and chairman of the Choueiri Group, the Middle East’s largest media broker, he was a modern day Colossus who, for nearly half a century, straddled the region’s media and advertising sectors.
Throughout his lengthy career he attracted various monikers, such as ‘the Godfather’ of advertising, ‘Grandfather’ and ‘Media Mogul,’ In a rare interview, however, when asked how he described himself he simply replied: “Just a man from Lebanon.”
But such modesty belied his vast achievements. As a businessman he was hugely driven, possessed of great ingenuity and a shrewd strategist. He was also, say many, “exceptionally intellectual,” “very bullish,” and “a fighter.”
The man from Lebanon was born in Beirut on 3 August 1939, although his family roots are deep in The Cedars hillside town of Bcharre.
The eldest of three sons, Choueiri’s father was a railway mechanic.
Limited funds prevented his attending university, but a focused determination that was to become the hallmark of all his dealings saw the 15-year-old school-leaver enroll for night school. He studied accountancy and attained the highest qualification available in Lebanon at that time.
Pages: 1 2 | <urn:uuid:1a3b5ef9-72a1-4274-b0fc-3b0df04c355b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kippreport.com/article/obituary-antoine-choueiri/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979958 | 387 | 1.820313 | 2 |
As China’s once-in-a-decade leadership reshuffle has renewed hopes for reform, few are focusing on an aspect of state policy with the profoundest implications for China’s labor productivity and economic advancement: its education system.
Contra the popular view that China’s rise has something to do with the ability of Chinese kids outcompete American ones in standardized tests, I believe that the continuing emphasis on ideology in the humanities is China’s biggest Achilles heel. Moving up the global value chain is impossible without a dramatic overhaul of its current education system.
Education for Ideology, Not for Enlightening
Instead of cultivating independent minds, education is first and foremost a device for enforcing Party ideology to the young and impressionable minds. I was reminded of this by the recent news story of five poor boys in Guizhou who accidentally suffocated themselves as they lit a fire in a dumpster to keep warm, kicking up widespread comparisons in the Chinese blogosphere to Hans Christian Andersen‘s “The Little Match Girl,” which is still is taught in Chinese schools.
I learned this story in my grade school in China. Reading about the Guizhou tragedy, my mind rushed back to the key “lessons” from the story, which we were told to memorize for the final exam. Specifically, it was about the brutality and selfishness of capitalist society such that the protagonist’s very life depended exclusively on her commercial enterprise, and that capitalist class divisions promoted exploitation of poor workers like the little girl.
In terms of didactic story-telling in school, little has changed. Consider that this other story recently went viral throughout the Chinese blogosphere: an (as far as I can tell, apocryphal) account of the teaching of the Cinderella fairy tale in a Chinese first-grade classroom. After reading the Cinderella fairy tale aloud, instead of encouraging students to speak up their reactions, the teacher went on reading out the official “meaning” of the tale, signaling that it would be tested on the coming exam. The students took dictation, scrawling furious notes. This involved a lesson reflecting class struggles in the capitalistic world, with the stepmother symbolizing the selfish, heartless, evil ruling class and Cinderella standing for the innocent, loving, and impoverished working class.
One student raised his hand and asked, “Everything but the glass slipper had reverted to their original forms. What does that mean? ”
The teacher dismissed the question out of hand. “It won’t be on the exam. Don’t get distracted by minor point.”
Private Schools as an Alternative
I recently spoke with a senior executive in China’s private education industry about this phenomenon.
“The government worries that without the building of universal communist ideology, their control over the society will be significantly weakened,” she said. “Therefore, textbooks are heavily indoctrinated to serve the Party’s ideology.”
A mother of two kids in their teens, she cited this was a large factor influencing her choice to switch her children out of local schools controlled by the Chinese education bureaus to privately run international schools – an increasingly desirable option for Chinese parents who can afford it.
However, she also does not idealize the American system.
“Chinese schools excel in knowledge-based teaching. For some subjects during the early stages of schooling, this is very important,” she said. “However, Chinese schools pale miserably in comparison to a liberal arts approach adopted by most private schools when it comes to teaching how to learn, not just what to learn. And private schools emphasize collaboration.”
Her last point is critical. The current “gaokao” system – the country-wide college entrance exam that is almost the sole factor determining a student’s college placement – has created a cutthroat competitive learning environment. For many years leading into the “gaokao”, students are constantly tested and ranked on a narrow set of subjects, giving rise to incessant backstabbing and bitter competition. This has engendered a society bent on self-promotion, lacking almost entirely in any communitarian values that extend beyond the immediate family. This potent legacy persists into one’s adult life: suspicious zero-sum ethos pervades every work environment, limiting the potential of most collaboration.
So should “gaokao” be replaced by other means of selection such as essay writing? The executive offered her insights, “Any subjective standard will result in more unfairness in the society. I cannot think of more objective standards than tests. The question really should be what to test.”
Or perhaps what needs to be challenged is the definition of “good student.” If China can learn to part with its reliance on hard-and-fast answers to complex situations (re: the Cinderella story), then its future workers will be more equipped to deal with real-life situations in an increasingly global economy.
Brutal Costs to the Economy
Given the $20,000 to $30,000 per year price tag –let alone the foreign passport requirement – the more balanced liberal arts education offered by the international schools hardly provides a practical solution to the backward Chinese education system. But as China gets richer, international schools have already become the hot ticket to guaranteeing a promising future for one’s child. | <urn:uuid:b2737179-f59d-41be-afc5-78b3c7d65a63> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.forbes.com/sites/junhli/2012/12/01/chinas-achilles-heel-education-system/?commentId=comment_blogAndPostId/blog/comment/2426-53-18 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957469 | 1,120 | 2.296875 | 2 |
- August 14, 2009
- 55 Comments
You can’t eat whuffie, but it’s getting harder to eat without it, as Tara Hunt says in The Whuffie Factor. For the uninitiated, think of whuffie as an alternative to money – a reputation-based currency that started as a concept in a science fiction novel, now being applied to online business. Hunt’s interesting central thesis is that in order to successfully change social capital into market capital, company employees need to be authentic community members engaging in meaningful participation where their contributions often outweigh personal gains. | <urn:uuid:b7f766ed-0dd4-4084-8600-78bf4745583f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.briansolis.com/tag/julia-allison/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963117 | 123 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Rule 1001. Definitions That Apply to This Article
In this article:
(a) A “writing” consists of letters, words, numbers, or their equivalent set down in any form.
(b) A “recording” consists of letters, words, numbers, or their equivalent recorded in any manner.
(c) A “photograph” means a photographic image or its equivalent stored in any form.
(d) An “original” of a writing or recording means the writing or recording itself or any counterpart intended to have the same effect by the person who executed or issued it. For electronically stored information, “original” means any printout — or other output readable by sight — if it accurately reflects the information. An “original” of a photograph includes the negative or a print from it.
(e) A “duplicate” means a counterpart produced by a mechanical, photographic, chemical, electronic, or other equivalent process or technique that accurately reproduces the original.
(Pub. L. 93–595, §1, Jan. 2, 1975, 88 Stat. 1945; Apr. 26, 2011, eff. Dec. 1, 2011.)
Notes of Advisory Committee on Proposed Rules
In an earlier day, when discovery and other related procedures were strictly limited, the misleading named “best evidence rule” afforded substantial guarantees against inaccuracies and fraud by its insistence upon production of original documents. The great enlargement of the scope of discovery and related procedures in recent times has measurably reduced the need for the rule. Nevertheless important areas of usefulness persist: discovery of documents outside the jurisdiction may require substantial outlay of time and money; the unanticipated document may not practically be discoverable; criminal cases have built-in limitations on discovery. Cleary and Strong, The Best Evidence Rule: An Evaluation in Context, 51 Iowa L.Rev. 825 (1966).
Paragraph (1). Traditionally the rule requiring the original centered upon accumulations of data and expressions affecting legal relations set forth in words and figures. This meant that the rule was one essentially related to writings. Present day techniques have expanded methods of storing data, yet the essential form which the information ultimately assumes for usable purposes is words and figures. Hence the considerations underlying the rule dictate its expansion to include computers, photographic systems, and other modern developments.
Paragraph (3). In most instances, what is an original will be self-evident and further refinement will be unnecessary. However, in some instances particularized definition is required. A carbon copy of a contract executed in duplicate becomes an original, as does a sales ticket carbon copy given to a customer. While strictly speaking the original of a photograph might be thought to be only the negative, practicality and common usage require that any print from the negative be regarded as an original. Similarly, practicality and usage confer the status of original upon any computer printout. Transport Indemnity Co. v. Seib, 178 Neb. 253, 132 N.W.2d 871 (1965).
Paragraph (4). The definition describes “copies” produced by methods possessing an accuracy which virtually eliminates the possibility of error. Copies thus produced are given the status of originals in large measure by Rule 1003, infra. Copies subsequently produced manually, whether handwritten or typed, are not within the definition. It should be noted that what is an original for some purposes may be a duplicate for others. Thus a bank's microfilm record of checks cleared is the original as a record. However, a print offered as a copy of a check whose contents are in controversy is a duplicate. This result is substantially consistent with 28 U.S.C. §1732(b). Compare 26 U.S.C. §7513(c), giving full status as originals to photographic reproductions of tax returns and other documents, made by authority of the Secretary of the Treasury, and 44 U.S.C. §399(a), giving original status to photographic copies in the National Archives.
Notes of Committee on the Judiciary, House Report No. 93–650
The Committee amended this Rule expressly to include “video tapes” in the definition of “photographs.”
Committee Notes on Rules—2011 Amendment
The language of Rule 1001 has been amended as part of the restyling of the Evidence Rules to make them more easily understood and to make style and terminology consistent throughout the rules. These changes are intended to be stylistic only. There is no intent to change any result in any ruling on evidence admissibility. | <urn:uuid:8e3859b8-2081-4df9-84bb-49e724028450> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/fre/rule_1001 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926066 | 958 | 3.03125 | 3 |
President Barack Obama’s big jobs speech last night was long on rhetoric and short on useful specifics. But then who expected anything different? Despite lofty pledges to “stop the political circus and actually do something to help the economy,” this is still the same president whose administration has prosecuted, harassed, or otherwise mistreated law-abiding businesses in the midst of an economic downturn.
Consider the federal government’s misguided lawsuit against Boeing. In April the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) charged the airline manufacturer with illegal actions “inherently destructive of the rights guaranteed employees” after Boeing decided to open a new production line for its 787 Dreamliner aircraft in South Carolina instead of building near its existing Dreamliner production facility in Washington state. According to the government’s theory of the case, Boeing opened up shop in right-to-work South Carolina in order to punish its unionized Washington workers for going out on strike.
Except there’s no evidence those union members have suffered any harm from Boeing’s decision—in fact, the company has been adding union jobs in the Evergreen State. Meanwhile, the 1,000 recently-hired workers in South Carolina will be unemployed if the government succeeds in forcing Boeing to “operate its second line of 787 Dreamliner aircraft assembly production in the State of Washington,” as the NLRB complaint demands. So much for putting people to work.
Then there’s the recent federal raid on the guitar manufacturer Gibson over allegations of illegally importing wood. "Can you imagine a federal agent saying, 'You're going to jail for five years' and what you do is sort wood in the factory?" Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz told The Wall Street Journal after the government's heavy-handed August 24 raid. "I think that's way over the top." Indeed it is. According to Gibson, the wood seized last month by federal agents had all been certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, a respected nonprofit environmental watchdog that promotes “sustainable forest management” around the world by providing its stamp of approval to legal products that meet “the highest social and environmental criteria.” The left-wing group GreenPeace recently recommended the FSC’s “rigorous third party certification system” as one of its “Solutions to Deforestation.” Wasn’t the White House going to encourage green jobs?
Not that Obama’s leading competitors have been looking much better. Among the low points in Wednesday night’s GOP presidential debate was the overwhelming support among the candidates for the creation of a massive fence along the entire U.S.-Mexico border. “The whole fence, 2,600 miles?” asked incredulous Telemundo host Jose Diaz-Balart, who was brought out to moderate the immigration segment in a strange and none-too-subtle act of broadcast tokenism by MSNBC. “Yes,” declared former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. “We got to have a fence.”
Not surprisingly, only libertarian Texas Rep. Ron Paul saw anything distasteful about a bunch of self-described limited-government conservatives endorsing such a sweeping act of federal power. “A barbed-wire fence with machine guns,” Paul said, “I don’t believe that’s what America is all about.”
It’s also worth contrasting today’s GOP hostility to immigration with the more libertarian attitudes of an earlier electoral season. In a memorable 1980 primary debate between Republicans Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, the two candidates not only agreed that America's immigration laws should be liberalized, they actually tried to outdo in each other in supporting a more open border. As Reagan put it:
Rather than talking about putting up a fence, why don’t we work out some recognition of our mutual problems [with Mexico]. Make it possible for them to come here legally with a work permit, and then while they’re working and earning here, they pay taxes here. And when they want to go back they can go back and they can cross—and open the border both ways.
But perhaps the ugliest moment in Wednesday’s debate came when Texas Gov. Rick Perry defended his state’s controversial record of 234 inmate executions over the past decade. “Have you struggled to sleep at night with the idea that any one of those might be innocent,” moderator Brian Williams asked. “No, sir. I’ve never struggled with that at all,” Perry declared.
So much for maintaining a healthy skepticism towards government power. Even George W. Bush, who is nobody’s idea of a pacifist, admitted during the 2000 presidential campaign that “some of the hardest moments since I’ve been the governor of the state of Texas is to deal with those [death penalty] cases.” Bush was right to take the matter so seriously. Of the last five death row exonerations from DNA evidence or other means around the country, three of those wrongly convicted men had been sentenced to die in Texas. It would be foolish to think they were the only innocent men who ever ended up on death row in the Lone Star State.
Yet as Reason Contributing Editor Radley Balko has observed, Perry has long refused to acknowledge even the possibility of error in his state’s death penalty regime, including in the controversial execution of Cameron Todd Willingham, a man now widely believed to have been innocent. “Perry was confronted with the possibility that the government over which he presided may have abused it’s most awesome and sacred power,” Balko wrote. “And instead of skepticism of government, he showed deference.... Instead of exposing and demanding accountability for a possibly historical government error, Perry used his own power to keep himself and his constituents ignorant, lest they begin to question whether government should have such power.”
Fourteen months remain in the 2012 campaign and a clear and depressing theme has already emerged: The era of big government is not over.
Damon W. Root is an associate editor at Reason magazine. | <urn:uuid:19fafd33-d463-4ae4-81f7-6b374611b45a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://reason.com/archives/2011/09/09/the-era-of-big-government-is-n/print | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962284 | 1,281 | 1.75 | 2 |
Europe said to ignore mass rape of women, children in Congo
Originally published in:
New Europe, the European Weekly, Issue : 803
A combination of racism, sexism and vested interests are preventing the European Union and US government acting effectively against the Congolese militia’s tactics of mass rape of women and children was the conclusion of a conference held in Brussels by the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE).
The plight of women and children is even worse than it was in Rwanda during the genocide according to speakers at the conference. They said the struggle and suffering of these women is invisible and must be addressed to prevent the long term results being devastating for the country.
Participants urged the EU to take notice that “this is not a battle by women for women, it is a battle for humanity by humanity.” MEP Renate Weber of Romania,) co-chair of the seminar and a member of the Development Committee in the European Parliament said: “This is an emergency! As we speak, women are systematically destroyed in DRC through dreadful sexual and psychological torture. The impunity of the perpetrators must be stopped. We have to act now because the future of a nation is at stake, the future of our own humanity is at stake!”
The seminar heard disturbing first hand examples from the director of the ground breaking Panzi Hospital in the DRC, Dr Denis Mukwege of the atrocities allegedly being perpetrated. Eve Ensler, author and playwright and founder of V-Day, a global movement that supports anti-violence organisations throughout the world also made a powerful contribution with her account of the crimes currently being carried out, participants said.
Ensler has just returned from the DRC, where she spent a month in North and South Kivu. The French presidency was represented by Jean-Bernard Bolvin, adviser to Rama Yade, French Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, who said the French presidency will help, but didn’t say how. MEP Sophie in’t Veld of the Netherlands), the other co-chair, said: “Until you hear the stories you have no idea how bad things are, it goes beyond anything you can imagine but we have to leave emotions aside and focus on action. The European Parliament can be instrumental in raising awareness; we cannot close our eyes to this anymore. Violence against women seems to be perceived by large sectors of society to be normal but this should no longer be considered as a women’s issue but a human rights issue.” The EU last year praised the government of Congo for conducting elections that were relatively free of trouble, but critics have said this has blinded Europe from taking action against continued atrocities. | <urn:uuid:3c66c528-bd3a-4098-bdf1-07e2cdf75bef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.vday.org/node/1154 | 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 | 0.967973 | 555 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Chatham Saw Mill is one of the oldest and largest saw mills in Asia. It is owned by the Forest Department. The mill is connected to Port Blair by a bridge. Chatham Saw Mill converts huge firewood into different sizes of timber and supplies to private and government departments at a reasonable price. It also processes ornamental species which is used in the manufacture of furniture and handicraft. It remains as a store-house of timber varieties such as Padauk, Gurjan, Marble, and Satin Wood. | <urn:uuid:742419fb-d61f-4d5b-8f19-640a12bcb12e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.india9.com/i9show/Chatham-Saw-Mill-19586.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971355 | 104 | 2.25 | 2 |
Photo by © manda_da_pandaaa
Satin - Breed Profile:
Appearance and coat descriptionThe Satin is large rabbit with a medium length body that tapers slightly from the hindquarters to the shoulders. The top line is a smooth curve that starts at the nape of the neck, rises gradually to a high point over the centre of the hips, and then falls in a smooth curve downward to the tail. The coat is silky, fine, thick, and soft to the touch. The undercoat is very dense. The hair has a unique ability to reflect light in a very special way, which makes it very shiny, satin-like, and adds richness to the colour. When a Satin's fur is brushed in the opposite direction, the hair should instantly return to a flat lay (its original position). Satins most often come in black, blue, white, chocolate, chinchilla, Siamese, and otter colourations. More colours can be recognized depending on the country (the USA or the UK). Grooming several times a week is necessary to keep the coat in good condition.
The weight is 8,5 to 11 pounds.
TemperamentSatin rabbits have very sweet and docile personalities, especially if you train them at an early age. Proper handling and care make them very calm and well-natured pets that all your family will fall in love with. Make sure that you provide the rabbit with a sufficient amount of daily exercise. Some individuals are very jumpy and can get destructive if bored or neglected. Small children should be supervised when they handle the rabbit.
Health and hutchSatins are generally robust and hardy rabbits that do not suffer from any breed specific health problems. The common issues include overgrown teeth, flystrike, mites, lice, fleas, diarrhoea and infections.
The hutch should be large enough so that the rabbit can move freely. If the cage has a wire bottom, make sure you provide the rabbit with a plank or sea grass mats to stand on so that its feet are not damaged from being on the wire all the time.
Other interesting factsThe Satin rabbit originated in the United States in the 1930s. It is named for the striking satin sheen of its coat. This unique shine is caused by a gene mutation that causes the guard hairs to be transparent, reflecting the light in an unusual way.
People are waiting to help. | <urn:uuid:ddaaf928-f53b-4607-a832-5c47ab1a48fb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mysmelly.com/content/small_animals/satin.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 | 0.94575 | 504 | 2.046875 | 2 |
Whenever a person talks about music bands, the points that instantly surface in a person’s thoughts are those bands that perform rock and roll as well as pop songs. Although this is entirely warranted considering that these are the basic styles associated with songs that are most favored, other kinds of music bands also are available as well as their existence can't be ignored. In the interest of comfort we all will start by talking about the much more common rock and roll as well as pop kind of bands, as well as follow up about the others subsequently.
Rock and roll music bands haven't actually gone away from flavor from the time they began flourishing within the latter half of the twentieth century. Springing up around the hippie time period, this preserved the actual impetus that the hippie motion didn't support. Symbolic of head knocking as well as terrific electric guitar play, rock and roll groups are normally found within almost every nook and cranny in the world as well as not a bit of Americanisation as many individuals would choose to believe. Metal audio is at the same time regarded as an alternative of rock and roll plus a distinct type of audio completely according to which team you question.
Music bands that perform pop audio have been in near levels of competition together with rock and roll artists with regard to recognition maps. Nevertheless, if perhaps we would've existed inside a planet in which all of us go by titles, pop audio groups would've taken the particular prize, because ‘pop’ is actually a brief form of ‘popular’. Pop songs artists tend to be somewhat diverse across the globe, however on an average possess a common attractiveness throughout ethnicities. Preferably, pop audio is one thing that offers to raise the person’s mood so it helps him or her loosen up following a tedious day. The key distinction between rock and roll as well as pop songs is the fact that rock and roll is really a significantly harder kind that is considered a means for individuals to carry out their particular aggravations.
Blues is another style of songs well-liked among music artists as well as their audience. Beginning someplace at the end of the nineteenth century, blues is actually a type that was previously indigenous to the particular African-American community within Sothern U. S. A, just before its reputation sky rocketed. The particular characteristic feature associated with blues audio is the fact that the song includes a large amount of tempo as well as flow. A significantly later variance of blues is actually called R&B, this means rhythm and blues, that is viewed as a popular kind when compared with blues these days.
Apart from these, there are also numerous music groups that perform jazz, classical music, country music as well as folk songs. The characteristics of the groups usually differ from region to region. | <urn:uuid:c40c906f-637a-4dfc-aeb2-31aec0a44029> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thehotteststatethemovie.com/article5.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983708 | 570 | 2.109375 | 2 |
An Interview with UNC President Molly Broad
An Interview with UNC President Molly Broad" The Technology Source, October 1998. Available online at http://ts.mivu.org/default.asp?show=article&id=1034. The article is reprinted here with permission of the publisher.
Molly Broad was inaugurated as the third president of the University of North Carolina General Administration this past spring. Previously Executive Vice President of the University of California State University System, Ms. Broad was a major player in the development of the California Virtual University (CVU).
James Morrison (JM): You are on record as advocating using information technology tools as a means to increase access to higher education, particularly at a time of rapidly changing workplace conditions. While some professors view technology as a means of enhancing learning, the largest percentage are not using these tools in their instruction at all. Why are you so bullish on using information technology tools in higher education?
Molly Broad (MB): In the past, we in administration felt it our duty to provide an environment in which faculty members could do what they do best; in effect, we insulated them from external forces. Now, suddenly faculty members are expected to know and do things we never expected them to before, and this is upsetting to them. But we are about to enter a period of dramatic growth in enrollment, due in part to the echo effect of the baby boom. Also, because of rapid change in the global economy, people in their forties and fifties will be pressed to gain additional university training in order to keep the job they have or obtain a better one. When this double-demand growth hits the academy and the faculty understand that sufficient resources are not going to be forthcoming from the government, I think they will begin to see the advantages of using information technology tools. These tools will enable the faculty to focus their time and energies in ways that maximize what they know, what they can contribute, what they can uniquely present to enlighten students.
Of course there are some other barrierscultural barriersthat may cause faculty members to be wary of incorporating technology tools into their instruction, and we need to address these.
JM: What are these barriers?
MB: One major barrier is the concept of intellectual property in a digital world. One aspect of this barrier is fair use in copyrighting. With digital communication, many people can access one copy simultaneously. What does fair use mean in this environment? What is the logical limit, and what are the implications if you are a publisher? These issues pertain not only to periodical articles and scholarly work, but also to course content. Educators whose views of publication were formed by the older processes may have problems adapting to the newer ones.
JM: The University of Virginia (UVA) is now marketing courses in several fields. Other institutions can purchase these courses and offer them through their own catalogue as their courses. As I understand it, the UVA professors who developed the courses and the University of Virginia share the revenues from this process. Do you see marketing courses like this as an emerging trend?
MB: What I see is an impending clash. A faculty member wants to develop software or a CD-ROM or a multimedia repository, which requires a considerable investment of equipment and human support services, equipment and services that are usually provided by the institution. In exchange for this investment, it is perfectly reasonable for the institution to share ownership of the rights. We need to develop intellectual property policies that are common across all campuses in the system, but will have features that distinctly reflect each campus' different mission.
JM: Another emerging trend is the increasing number of institutions now requiring computers for entering freshmen. Where do you stand on this issue?
MB: A personal computer linked to networks could be a marvelous vehicle for enriching our understanding and appreciation of the arts and humanities, and yet faculty in those disciplines have the most indigestion over this, and think about it as technology qua technology rather than as simply a machine that helps us do something, much the way we imagine a television or a refrigerator.
JM: The California Education Technology Initiative (CETI) that proposed a partnership between the California State University and several major corporations stirred a lot of controversy. What can you tell us about CETI and the value of such partnerships for higher education?
MB: I make a very significant distinction between course content, the intellectual assets that are at the core of the university, and what the California partnership is all about, which is access to the telecom infrastructure. I have been involved in significant discussions with major private sector organizations in which partnership discussions were underway, and I've drawn the line over who owns the intellectual property when the corporation wanted to own the property or when there were non-competition provisions. Such provisions are a compromise of academic values; we need to know where the line should be drawn. In the case of the telecom infrastructure, we are speaking of a commodity like electricity or water. It doesn't matter who provides it.
The California State system had fallen dramatically behind the curve in terms of investments in technology infrastructure to serve the needs of faculty and students, and it got worse when the recession hit California and major cuts were made in the budget. In the meantime, the university as a whole was involved in the development of an integrated technology strategy, and there was no way to implement this plan without the infrastructure. The judgement was made that an effective way of securing the resources necessary was to explore the possibility of a partnership with corporations that could construct the infrastructure, maintain and operate it, and deal with the question of obsolescence; building a telecommunications company was not something that seemed in the best interests of Cal State.
So we laid out our vision and invited around 150 corporations and narrowed it down to 16 or so, and I wrote to all the CEOs and said, "Here is our plan." We invited corporations that had an interest in joining us to come to what we called "discovery day," and for six months engaged in a highly interactive process where we said, "We're not going to choose how you should work together. Look around the room and see one another. We don't think any of you can do this on your own. If you think it makes sense for you to join together to do this, do it." And over the course of three months, they coalesced into groups of four or five corporations each, and this process ultimately led to the identification of one team. I left about that time, so I am not familiar with where the issue stands now.
JM: One concern faculty members have about virtual learning is the belief that online education does not have the same quality as classroom education. What do you think?
MB: This is a major issue, and if we don't resolve it within the academy, we will have lost more than our market niche. The British Open University (OU), for example, invests in high-quality, rigorous curriculum development, and it offers more undergraduate laboratory science credit than any other university in the United Kingdom. The faculty at OU never meet with students. They do design a marvelously rich curriculum and establish rigorous performance criteria. We need to follow their example, and let technology facilitate access to academic support services. When the standards are defined in this way, colleges and universities will have a much bigger role in an emerging market for educational services.
JM: Thank you, President Broad. I hope we can meet again soon to keep up with the rapid developments on the issues you have discussed.adventure gamesaction gamescard gamesmarble popper gamesmatch 3 gamespuzzle gamesmanagement gamesword gameshidden objects gameshidden object games | <urn:uuid:81c8d40a-8ae4-4a94-8f72-5c5d7cfb969d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://technologysource.org/article/view_from_the_top/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967107 | 1,556 | 2 | 2 |
Novelist and travel writer Tom Stone has released a new book entitled “Zeus: A Journey Through Greece in the Footsteps of a God” that traces the birth, death, rebirth, and eventual decline of the great Greek thunderer.
“Lusty, lightning-tempered, polyamorous Zeus was the most powerful and charismatic of the Greek gods, and the progenitor of some of the most enduring stories of world mythology. In Zeus, author Tom Stone takes readers on a 4,000-year journey through the god’s tumultuous life, from his origins as a sky god in the Russian steppes and his scandalous reign on Mt. Olympus to his approaching end in a palace storeroom in Christian Constantinople. Crossing the length and breadth of Greece, Stone and his Iranian wife explore the most significant sites in Greek myth, from mountaintops to subterranean caves, Olympus to Crete, and Mycenae to Macedonia. Along the way, he reveals how Zeus’s story grew from the soil of Greece and changed along with the country’s history, all with a brilliant mix of erudition and bravura storytelling.”
Some Pagans and Heathens, most notably Hrafknell at A Heathen’s World, wondered at the content of the book. Was it simply a travelogue with Zeus as the hook? Were there any deeper religious impulses in writing a work about the life of Zeus? In response to these questions Tom Stone has started his own blog, and essentially outs himself as a (qualified) polytheist.
“I followed up my comments in the Foreward by dropping very heavy hints along the way that for me, personally, the presence of the Greek deities in the Greek landscape was quite palpable (can’t say the same about LA!). And – more important – that a belief in them was not only preferable, but much more “realistic” than a belief in a single deity (except, perhaps, Mother Earth).”
Stone also unfavorably (to put it mildly) compares monotheism to polytheism.
“I believe that most monotheism is fundamentally ‘evil’ in the terrible ways that it attempts to impose its structures and strictures on great masses of people, espousing its glorious virtues with one hand and, with the other, attempting to eradicate all opposing beliefs (as the Christians tried to do with the Greek religion. – among others…). In contrast, polytheism and pantheism not only admit each individual’s (and community’s) personal relationship to the Ineffable, but their writings and oral traditions embrace not only the good but the bad in the way their deities manifest themselves.”
Stone’s religious mindset and opinions came about from twenty years of “rumination and research” after being being “haunted” by images and stories of Zeus at Crete. Opinions that Stone promises to further expand on at his new blog (which I look forward to reading). So “Zeus” is no mere travelogue, but a somewhat veiled religious pilgrimage, one that could open new doors of insight and discussion into the history and future of Western polytheism. | <urn:uuid:aa008499-52e2-4c09-8827-ca3cd49bc15f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wildhunt.org/2008/05/zeus-by-jove.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955706 | 677 | 1.867188 | 2 |
Vet med's big shift to more women
Veterinarian Carole Bolin prepares to inject a cow with the new vaccine for bovine leptospirosis.
Credit: Photo courtesy of Keith Weller. AVMA.
Women now dominate the field of veterinary medicine the result of a nearly 40-year trend that is likely to repeat itself in the fields of medicine and law.
That's the conclusion of a newly released study that found three factors that appear to be driving the change: the 1972 federal amendment that outlaws discrimination against female students; male applicants to graduate schools who appears to be deterred by a growing number of women enrolling; and the increasing number of women earning Bachelor's degrees in numbers that far exceed those of male graduates, says sociologist Anne E. Lincoln.
An assistant professor in the department of sociology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Lincoln is an expert on how occupations transition from being either male- or female-dominated.
Her study is the first of its kind to analyze the feminization of veterinary medicine from the perspective of examining the pool of applicant data to U.S. veterinary medical colleges from 1975 to 1995.
As of 2010, the veterinary profession is about 50 percent men and 50 percent women, as per the American Veterinary Medical Association, while enrollment in veterinary medical colleges is about 80 percent women.
Departure from convention; new methodology.
Conventional occupational research identifies a flip in the gender make-up of a profession by looking at the number of men and women who get hired into that profession, Lincoln said. The current study broke with that convention and instead measured the number of male and female applicants to veterinary medical colleges.
In looking at the applicants for each year, the study controlled for variables that could be a factor: class size, proportion of women on faculty, proportion of women in the classroom, increased tuition and declines in the profession's average salary. Lincoln found no evidence that any of those factors was statistically significant in explaining why more women than men are applying, she said.
By quantifying the number of men and women attempting to enter veterinary medical colleges the study could determine whether feminization is caused by gender bias in the acceptance process. Lincoln found no evidence of acceptance bias.
Study finds preemptive flight; challenges long-held notions about women.
"There was really only one variable where I found an effect, and that was the proportion of women already enrolled in vet med schools," Lincoln said. "So perhaps a young male student says he's going to visit a veterinary medical school, and when he sees a classroom with a lot of women he changes his choice of graduate school. That's what the findings indicate".
The study puts to rest the long-held notion that men are more concerned than women about the cost of tuition and salaries when choosing a professional field, as per Lincoln.
"There's always been this notion for any field that feminizes that women don't care about salaries because they have a husband's earnings to fall back on," Lincoln said. "But this study observed that men and women are equally affected by tuition and salaries, and that what's really driving feminization of the field is what I call 'preemptive flight' men not applying because of women's increasing enrollment. Also, fewer men than women are graduating with a Bachelor's degree, so they aren't applying because they don't have the prerequisites".
The U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics reports that for the academic year 1980-81, the number of men and women earning Bachelor's degrees was about the same, around 460,000. From that year on, however, the number of women earning a Bachelor's increased much faster than the number of men. For 2009-10, 811,000 women earned Bachelor's degrees, in comparison to 562,000 men.
First study of its kind to look at college applicant data.
Lincoln's findings are reported online in "The Shifting Supply of Men and Women to Occupations: Feminization in Veterinary Education" in the international journal Social Forces. For a link to the journal abstract and more information, see www.smuresearch.com.
The Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges made available data from its annual, confidential survey of all U.S. veterinary medical colleges for Lincoln to analyze.
The data represented the applications to each of the 27 veterinary medical colleges in existence in the United States from 1975 to 1995. After 1995, veterinary schools implemented substantially different application procedures, making comparisons between pre- and post-1995 data unviable for this study.
Title IX removed barriers to women in vet med
In 1960, the U.S. Census reported that the field of veterinary medicine was 98 percent male, Lincoln found. For the academic year 1969-70, the national average for veterinary medical college male enrollment was 89 percent.
Veterinary medicine began to shift after the 1972 passage of Title IX, the federal amendment that prohibits discrimination against female students. The amendment forever altered the way vet med colleges responded to female applicants, Lincoln said.
"I observed that after 1972, when the barriers to entry were dropped, women began enrolling in larger numbers," Lincoln said. "Male applicants dropped sharply after 1976, the first year that applicant statistics were collected".
Vet med shifts in 50 years from 98 percent male to 50-50
By 2008-09, the national average for veterinary medicine male enrollment had declined to 22.4 percent. Cornell University's enrollment, for example, is currently more than 80 percent female, as per the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges.
"It's really remarkable that in the past 50 years the pendulum has swung the other direction. Today it's 50-50," she said. "It takes time for the men to cycle out. But because the number of women enrolled has been greater than the number of men since 1984, there's been a wave of women entering the profession".
"That's why this study is really pushing the boundaries," Lincoln said. "This is an occupation that is changing even as I analyze it, so I can watch it as it's changing. Indications are that it will continue to shift even further toward women, beyond the current 50-50".
Feminization likely for law, medicine professions
The same phenomenon likely will be seen in coming years in the male-dominated fields of medicine and law, given the increasing numbers of women now entering those fields.
"We can use veterinary medicine as a predictor of what is going to happen in medicine and law," Lincoln said. "It may take 27 years for medicine and law to become gender-integrated. The pharmacist profession earlier experienced this 'occupational jostling.' It takes decades for a profession to feminize because an occupation that is mostly male is going to have generational turnover as the more senior practitioners retire".
Posted by: Kelly Source | <urn:uuid:ea826bbd-a88f-470a-afcb-caae0c1fd1f4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/11-2010/vet-meds-big-shift-to-more-women.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963377 | 1,409 | 2.09375 | 2 |
In this book, C. Stephen Evans, University Professor of Philosophy and Humanities at Baylor University, suggests that when it comes to natural theology, we ought to consider the signs that lie at the core of the various theistic arguments (e.g., cosmological, teleological, moral). So, for instance, we might consider the experience of cosmic wonder, beneficial order, moral accountability or the intrinsic worth of human beings.
Regarding these signs, Evans notes: “The nature of a sign … is to be a ‘pointer,’ something that directs our attention to some reality or fact and makes knowledge of that reality or fact possible.” That said, “these signs, like signs in general, do not point in a conclusive or compelling fashion.” He continues:
Signs have to be perceived, and once perceived must be “read.” Some signs are harder to read than others, or, one might say, easier to interpret in alternative ways, even if not all of the possible interpretations are equally plausible. The natural signs that point to God’s reality are signs that can be interpreted in more than one way and thus are sometimes misread and sometimes not even perceived as signs. They point to God but do not do so in a coercive manner. To function properly as pointers, they must be interpreted properly. It is for this reason that the theistic arguments, which are attempts to articulate these signs and develop them into inferential arguments, fail to be conclusive when they are considered as “proofs.”
From this, Evans draws two Pascalian principles: wide accessibility and easy resistibility. Regarding the former, Evans wants to say that the knowledge of God is not restricted, but widely available. Regarding the latter, that, despite the knowledge of God being unrestricted, it is not forced on people.
Here, Evans sounds a bit like David Brown who, in his God and Enchantment of Place, argues for a broad sacramentality. Brown notes: “But if God is truly generous, would we not expect to find him at work everywhere and in such a way that all human beings could not only respond to him, however implicitly, but also develop insights from which even Christians could learn?” Here, Brown, like Evans, advocates wide accessibility. And a bit further on, Brown advocates easy resistibility, even if implicitly. He notes:
So, for example, if the natural world is treated as an arena for ‘proving’ God’s existence, then once such proofs are undermined, retreat would seem inevitable. But the question remains why proof should be seen as the only way of experiencing the divine impact on our world. Instead of always functioning as an inference, there was the possibility that a divine structure is already implicit in certain forms of experience of the natural world, whether these be majesty, or beauty, or whatever. In other words, it would be a matter of an immanent given rather than of certain neutral features pointing instrumentally beyond themselves.
That said, I wonder if Evans’ project might be read as a sort of broad sacramentality? Either way, Evans provides a response to the recent demands of Brown’s critics for criteria. For Evans, signs “must be ‘read’” and “can be interpreted in more than one way and thus are sometimes misread and sometimes not even perceived as signs.”
Accepting Evans’ two principles, I would add a third: these signs are absolutely unrelenting (i.e., in pressing themselves upon us). In his Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin notes:
If, indeed, there were some in the past, and today not a few appear, who deny that God exists, yet willy-nilly they from time to time feel an inkling of what they desire not to believe …. Whence does this arise but from the vengeance of divine majesty, which strikes their consciences all the more violently the more they try to flee from it? … Although it may sometimes seem to vanish for a moment, it returns at once and rushes in with new force.
But what might this look like with regard to art? Jeremy Begbie, despite being one of Brown’s criteria critics, gives us some idea. He sounds, at times, quite a bit like Evans, explaining:
[Art] evokes multiple responses …. But no one could ever articulate it all. This is not to say that a piece of art can ‘mean anything,’ only that its range of resonances can never be exhaustively specified. As such, art can point to what is true of all our engagement with the world–the world always exceeds our grasp of it. There is a ‘generative excess’ in reality that calls forth and provokes all human inquiry…. Again, this does not amount to a knock-down proof of a Creator, but it is highly consonant with belief in a God who himself is generative excess, who lives as generous, excessive love, and who both creates and envelops his creation with this same love.
All too often “natural theology” conjures evidences, arguments and proofs, but here, by way of Evans, Brown, Calvin and Begbie, we have the beginnings of an imaginative natural theology, one that recognizes divine generosity in sign and sacrament.
Christopher R. Brewer is pursuing a PhD with David Brown and he is exploring the possibility of an imaginative natural theology. Along these lines, he is the founder and director of gospel through shared experience as well as the editor and publisher of Art that Tells the Story.
1. C. Stephen Evans, Natural Signs and Knowledge of God: A New Look at Theistic Arguments (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 2.
2. Evans, Natural Signs and Knowledge of God, 2.
4. Brown, God and Enchantment of Place, 8.
5. ibid., 21-22.
6. See, for example, Robert MacSwain and Taylor Worley, Theology, Aesthetics, and Culture: Responses to the Work of David Brown (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 7, 32, 40, 152.
7. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, vol. 1, ed., John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1960), 45.
8. Jeremy Begbie, “The Future: Looking to the Future: A Hopeful Subversion,” in For the Beauty of the Church: Casting a Vision for the Arts, ed., W. David O. Taylor (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2010), 173-174.
Image credit: Oxford University Press | <urn:uuid:ed4640d5-f2a0-4eb8-823a-3e3d89715c43> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.transpositions.co.uk/2013/01/signs-and-sacraments/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939248 | 1,396 | 2.4375 | 2 |
So I'm going to be taking some pictures of my friends tonight, we're going to be dressed up and going out. I asked before about blurry pictures using the preset portrat mode on my camera, and solidshot recommended using a 1/125 shutter speed for point and shoot. It's supposed to be very cloudy and we will be shooting pictures in the early evening. Aside from using the "cloudy" white balance and using shutter priority and setting the shutter to 1/125 is there any other settings I should utilize? What about shooting inside?
If your pictures are dark when setting it to 1/125sec expossure then chances are the camera can't set the lens to a wide enough (low numerical value) f-stop to allow for enough light to reach the sensor for a properly exposed picture.
The key is to keep the shutter speed at least equil to your focal length. So if your camera has a 35-140mm lens and your shooting a group shot at the widest angle the camera offers which would be 35mm in this case then try and keep the shutter speed at 1/35sec or faster... the higher the shutter speed the less likely your end results will come out blurred.
It's going to be tough to get some great shots inside of there isn't a whole lot of light. What you can try is putting the ISO as high as it'll go on the A610 which is ISO 400. Then try putting the shutter speed down to 1/60 but try to keep your hands very still. I suggested 1/125 because you more than likely shouldn't get any blurry pictures at that handheld with the A610.
If you want, you could always put it in Manual mode. The A610 It allows you to sync the flash up to a shutter speed of 1/500. This way you could put the ISO low, put the aperture lower (you can put it from f/2.8 through f/8.0) and put the shutter speed up to 1/500 with flash.
Although I hate flash, I like working with natural light. | <urn:uuid:e3544f71-817a-4a15-95bc-e1bee2f49055> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://community.futuremark.com/forum/showthread.php?3350-Quick-question-about-point-and-shoot-a620 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955114 | 427 | 1.554688 | 2 |
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Retracing the Tea Horse Trade–the forgotten path
Publication Date : 07-01-2013
Explore Shu-he and the age-old exchange of horses and tea leaves between China and Tibet
In an effort to gather more information about the Tea Horse Trade, I drove out to the village of Shu-he. Here, a museum had been set up by a private company to commemorate the age-old exchange of horses and tea leaves between China and Tibet.
The museum displays were not too original. I was more impressed with the fact that a private real estate company actually organised the museum. This was probably part of the conditions for obtaining the rights to develop what had once been a sleepy community inscribed on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation World Heritage list.
Expectedly, development meant Korean and Italian restaurants clustered around a large pond. Staring at the shimmering surface in which the neon signs of the cafes were reflected, I was suddenly reminded that there was another pond somewhere in the village. I had seen it in my last visit to what was then a much more placid Shuhe.
And so, guided only by recollection, I went in search of this half-forgotten body of water.
As the shops thinned out, I sensed my surroundings become more pastoral and familiar. Finally, I saw again the blue-green pool bordered by willow trees. It was to drink deeply from pools like this that, long ago, weary caravans had stopped in a place as isolated as Shuhe.
Returning to Zhongdian and the museum proposal of my host, He, we decided that it was time to go on the Trade Road itself. We set off one fine cold morning, driving carefully along the winding highway. Everywhere I looked there were massive mountain walls. Down below was a foaming river. Every now and then, He pointed out an abandoned portion of the original road, now almost erased.
We stopped at a village which had once been an important resting station. I noted that some of the houses sported satellite dishes. Mr. He sought out a shop which specialised in the fashioning of covered wooden bowls. These were used for meals but also for special rites.
My hands caressed the highly polished surfaces and the exquisitely turned sides. Wares like these were what the trade had fostered. Master craftspersons became famous all throughout the road for the beauty of their wares. Their pieces were then carried to a larger market than what would have been available locally. Such a broad distribution network helped support very high standards of excellence.
With my friend Renzeng Cuomu acting as interpreter, I interviewed the lady who ran the bowl workshop. Resplendent in her traditional Tibetan attire with its rainbow-like apron, she patiently explained that it was getting harder to find young people who were willing to learn the craft. Likewise, plastic containers were eroding her customer base.
Fortunately, she sighed, there were still families who aspired to own at least one flawless bowl which would serve as the focal point of their daily meals.
Listening to this amiable woman, I whispered a silent prayer: Yes, may there always be those who appreciate the joy that craft brings to our existence.
He then showed me a hanging bridge which had figured prominently in the exploits of the famous Long March of Mao Zedong’s troops. I recalled seeing this same bridge replicated in one of the museums I had toured in Zhongdian. For it was at points like this that the trade road intersected with the mainstream history of the People’s Republic of China.
Even as Mao and his soldiers heroically conquered the cruel mountain ranges of the region, they were actually walking the very same paths on which traders had been quietly plodding for centuries.
We finally reached a research centre nestled in a tranquil valley. It amused me to note how its tangerine walls jostled for attention with eaves painted in all the hues of the prism. At these heights, nothing much grew and the mountains were monolithic in their unforgiving drabness. It made sense that people would take comfort in colour. Furniture, clothes, carpets would all be dipped in a riotous carnival-like palette, helping to warm us with the knowledge that we were human.
Viewing the many cabinets in the library filled with sacred texts wrapped in silk, I had a sense of other points of brightness in this fierce bleak world. I was reminded that along the perilous trails of the Tea Horse Road came not just commodities but mind-expanding philosophies to act as guides for the equally dangerous paths of life.
I noticed in a dark corner of a shuttered hall, discarded statues of Tibetan gods. Dusting one off, I saw how well carved it was. Though made from humble materials like clay, it was as expertly formed as any golden idol from the palaces of Lhasa. I was told that these statues had been made right in the study centre, at a time when it was still filled with monks.
An animated discussion ensued. Everyone agreed that this was one more craft which needed to be revived. I even suggested that Mr. He order from the good monks similar clay figures to be used for tableaux in his museum.
Later in the day, I discovered that, aside from spending their days contemplating scripture, the denisens of the study centre also ministered to the medical needs of the people from the nearby villages. I was shown the clinic where traditional herbs and potions were prescribed.
Someone suggested a consultation and I gamely agreed. A tall monk felt my pulse and studied my face for a long time. Then he proceeded to name some of my ailments which, thankfully, were not too serious. Having undergone a check-up before my trip, I knew that much of what I was being told coincided with what my own Harvard-trained physician had also observed.
It turned out that the tall monk was actually a brilliant inventor. After some prodding, he shyly showed us a grinding machine that he had set up using power generated from a stream. I watched amazed as he demonstrated how gushing water turned a wheel of paddles, which then moved a set of large stones that pulverised the herbal concoctions.
This was truly sustainable technology producing natural medicine! On the trip back, I thought about how inventions such as these would, in the past, have been circulated all throughout the Tea Horse Road, as people exchanged opinions about how to make our stay on earth a little more bearable.
That night, I woke up suddenly, unable to breathe. This choking feeling would repeatedly seize me, making it impossible to sleep. The next morning, still gasping and groggy, I was told that I had a serious case of altitude sickness. I was advised to leave immediately for the “lowlands.”
In a town as high up as Zhongdian, this meant going back to Lijiang, which was, at about 8,000 feet above sea level, still higher than Baguio. My insular tropicality had returned to claim me, reminding me that though I had grown fond of everything I was witnessing, I was really from somewhere else.
Quickly recuperating in what felt like an almost balmy Lijiang, I decided to visit the old Ma residence, one of the many owned by the grand merchant who had been He’s grandfather. Sitting in the silent courtyard, I pondered what this house—now a hotel—must have witnessed. What strange cargoes had been unloaded on these pavements? Had he and his brother played here too as children?
While discussing his museum over endless cups of steaming brew, I had outlined for Mr He a possible conceptual framework for his exhibits. I drew a series of concentric circles while expounding on how the influence of his beloved Tea Horse Trade radiated from Central Asia to the rest of the world.
I do not know if he was impressed by my suggestion. He did copy my drawing, and, after staring at it for a long time, smiled.
Leaving the former Ma residence, I too couldn’t help but grin. I had come to this place so unaware that among these mountain peaks a busy exchange between cultures was going on. I never found the answer to my questions about the possible conflicts when two proud nations came face to face. But I was happy to assert that the concentric circles I had described now included at least one shore-bound Filipino. | <urn:uuid:08486b50-ffb8-4dc1-bc47-5a7f608520c6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.asianewsnet.net/Retracing-the-Tea-Horse-Trade%E2%80%93the-forgotten-path-41055.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985752 | 1,768 | 2.234375 | 2 |
The proposed Early College High School is a joint effort between Solano Community College and Vacaville Unified School districts. Like similar programs around the nation, it would primarily target students who too often face barriers to earning a college degree, such poverty, language acquisition and the lack of college-educated role models within their families.
While the governing boards of both districts still must sign off on the plan, it isn't expected to meet strenuous objection.
After all, it's been in the works for two years.
As the proposal stands now, students initially would take classes at Will C. Wood High School and be bused to the SCC campus in north Vacaville for one or two college courses a day.
Each year, another 60 students would be added to the school, which ultimately will be housed on SCC's Vacaville campus. Taxpayers approved the money to build such a school last fall when he adopted the college's $348 million Measure Q bond.
What may come as a surprise is that early colleges aren't meant to take the place of programs that already cater to high-performing students, such as Advance Placement and International Baccalaureate classes. Students enrolled in those classes are
Instead, early colleges target low-income youth, English-language learners, students of color, those who would be the first in their family to go to college "and other young people underrepresented in higher education," according to the Early College High School Initiative, a public-private partnership that has been tracking data from such schools since 2002.
"Young people from middle-class and wealthy families are almost five times more likely to earn a two- or four-year college degree than those from low-income families," according to information on its website, www.earlycolleges.org. "For every 100 low-income students who start high school, only 65 will get a high school diploma and only 45 will enroll in college. Only 11 will complete a postsecondary degree. "
Early college high schools are a way to reach those students at a young age. Many programs include a component that encourages middle school students to stay on a track so that, as ninth-graders, they can enroll in early college.
Having classes on a college campus and being taught by college instructors helps students become familiar with an education system their families may have little personal knowledge of.
Students also have access to both high school and college support programs to help them if they struggle. And attending a small high school that promotes a culture of academic excellence can inspire a dedicated student to excel.
But the ability to accumulate up to 60 college credit hours -- at no cost to the student -- may be the most effective part of an early college high school experience.
Two U.S. Department of Education studies, the most recent in 2006, found that college students who managed to earn 20 or more credit hours by the end of their first year in school were far more likely to complete a degree than those who did not.
"It is all the more reason to begin the transition process in high school with expanded dual enrollment programs offering true postsecondary course work so that students enter higher education with a minimum of six additive credits to help them cross that 20-credit line," researchers stated in the report, "The Toolbox Revisited: Paths to Degree Completion from High School Through College." "Six is good, nine is better, and 12 is a guarantee of momentum."
The Vacaville-SCC program would let students earn as many as 60 credits, equivalent to an associate's degree. Those who earn the maximum would be eligible to go to a four-year university and complete a degree in half the time -- at half the cost.
The local program also plans to emphasize a science and math curriculum that could help students ultimately find jobs in the region's growing biotechnology field.
Assuming that the school boards approve the plan -- and they should -- eighth-graders throughout Vacaville will begin hearing about this program in April. Parents whose students might be good candidates for it are encouraged to watch for that information.
An Early College High School on the Solano Community College campus is welcome.
It gives Vacaville one more tool to meet the needs of all its students. | <urn:uuid:31b37297-09e6-4df6-877c-35886f1889fd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thereporter.com/editorials/ci_22560115/editorial-early-college-high-school-will-help-launch?source=rss | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972535 | 873 | 2.453125 | 2 |
NATIW is a Think Tank focusing on information systems and commu- nication technologies. It aims at anticipating technological evolution and identifying emerging needs and opportunities in the information society.
NATIW is a project of Nomades Ateliers, which has been active in the field of information technologies and communication since 1989. Nomades always promoted the broadening of competences through interdisciplinary exchange and knowledge sharing.
NATIW’s activity is targeted at professionals willing to position themselves ahead of the market as well as anyone interested in assessing the impact and potential of information technologies in their fields.
NATIW offers consulting services as well as workshops & seminars with experts from various fields ranging from computer science to economics, passing by architecture, humanities and communication.
NATIW’s workshops and seminars are aimed at professionals willing to consolidate their technological and strategical understanding of new technologies and learn more about their impact on the economy and society. | <urn:uuid:459787a8-c475-461c-876f-401a17e4dd35> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.natiw.ch/blog/index.php/?p=87 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948145 | 192 | 1.515625 | 2 |
The phrase “Yale athlete” sometimes elicits certain stereotypes: intellectual mediocrity, astounding connoisseurship of repulsively cheap beer and aversion to wearing anything but Boathouse jackets. And, as recent experience has shown, continuing selection as Rhodes Scholars.
While athletes may receive their share of mixed press, a quiet trend is emerging among Yalies who win the prestigious scholarship to pursue graduate study at Oxford — they play varsity sports.
In the past 15 years, six Eli athletes have won the award. In the past two years, two of the three winners have played at the varsity level. Only two Yale athletes, by comparison, won the award during the whole of the ’80s. The recent selection of Chris Wells ’04, a soccer player, for the scholarship marked the first time in Yale history that the only Rhodes winner has been a varsity athlete.
A legacy of athleticism
Though intellectualism is not typically associated with athleticism, physical prowess has been a key feature of the Rhodes Scholarship since its establishment following the death of Cecil Rhodes in 1902. In Rhodes’ will, he stipulated that future recipients of the award would have to satisfy four broad categories outlining his desire to recognize students who have demonstrated intellectual and social excellence.
The second category dictates that prospective Rhodes scholars should be evaluated based on the “energy to use one’s talents to the full, as exemplified by fondness for and success in sports.” In recent history, however, the majority of Rhodes scholars have not been varsity athletes.
Elliot Gerson, the American secretary to the Rhodes Scholarship trust, said Rhodes’ conception of athleticism differs from that of today.
“The English notions of the importance of athletics [at the time] reflected the ‘Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton’ mentality,” Gerson said, referring to a quote attributed to the Duke of Wellington about the famous English prep school.
“We are still guided by the terms of Cecil Rhodes’ will,” Gerson said.
He added that Rhodes’ idea of rigorous physical activity included sports like cricket.
Since the middle of the 20th century, Gerson said, the Rhodes Scholarship has reflected a much more liberal interpretation of the “physical vigor” clause of the will.
“We look for energy, ambition and vigor,” Gerson said. “But the most important criteria are intellectual and academic.”
Former varsity lacrosse captain Catherine Sharkey ’92 LAW ’97 said it is important for Rhodes Scholars to represent a variety of extracurricular pursuits.
“The Rhodes is trying to find people who are well-rounded and who put their energies seriously into whatever they do,” Sharkey, who won the Rhodes in 1991, said. She is now a professor at Columbia Law School.
Laura Shackelton, a 2002 Rhodes winner from Princeton University and the sister of former Yale men’s tennis captain Chris Shackelton ’02 and Jeff Shackelton ’05, agreed.
“Sports are taken more as a part of the entire picture,” she said. “There are so many different ways to have physical vigor.”
Shackelton was co-captain of the women’s varsity cross-country team and a member of the track team for the Tigers.
Despite the increasing liberalization of the application of the physical vigor clause, initial rounds of the Rhodes selection process sometimes reveal differing interpretations of the value of athletics compared to other extracurricular activities, said Mark Bauer, Yale’s assistant director of the Office of International Education and Fellowships programs.
“Athletics is probably something that still opens doors in certain states,” Bauer said. “There are bound to be some state chairmen who take the terms of the Rhodes more literally.”
He added that by the time the competition advances to later rounds, standardization of criteria eliminates preferences.
“Demonstrated success in athletic competition is a plus — a relatively small plus, but it’s still a plus,” Gerson said. “However, lack of demonstrated success in athletic competition is not a minus.”
He noted that he attributes the recent success of Yale athletes in winning the scholarship more to coincidence than systemic preferences within the selection committees.
Bauer said the ideal Rhodes candidate does not have to be an athlete at all.
“There was a student who came in and said something like ‘Look at me, I’m a poet, and I don’t have an athletic bone in my body, but I’ve got energy to burn,’ and you could really see it was true,” Bauer said. “That’s the kind of student that can take full advantage of the weirdly familiar yet maddeningly strange environment that Oxford is.”
‘The scholar-athlete is not dead’
For Wells, a freshman walk-on to the soccer team, his intellectual accomplishments would not have been possible without his varsity experience. Though Wells did not receive much playing time, he said his fight to avoid the cut prompted even more discipline.
“Athletics helps you learn how to place mind over body,” Wells said. “There were some really dark days when I had to look in the mirror and decide if soccer was something that I could just slough off, and I found that I couldn’t.”
Shackelton said that running helped her discover her passion for science.
“In cross-country, workouts were followed by distance runs where I could have in-depth conversations with my teammates and learn about what motivates them,” Shackelton said.
She went on to say, “The time commitment really takes its toll.”
Maintenance of academics must also contend with the long hours many athletes are required to put in. Gerson observed that notably few varsity athletes in schools where athletics is taken more seriously have been able to win the Rhodes Scholarship.
“The time problem for an Ivy League athlete is probably an order of magnitude less than a football player at a school like Notre Dame,” Gerson said. “We still get football players but not that many from Division I schools.”
Gerson added there was no reason why more Div. I athletes could not win in the future.
Though Sharkey, Wells and Shackelton attributed much of their success to the rigors of their athletic background, all were in favor of placing athletics on par with other extracurricular activities that require large inputs of personal time and energy in the Rhodes selection process.
“Athletics is largely comparable to a lot of other pursuits,” Wells said. “The committees are right to move away from Cecil Rhodes’ exact words about athletics and to recognize people’s energy in participating in whatever it is that they are doing.”
Bauer agrees but said that the intellectual achievements of athletes should not be discounted.
“The scholar-athlete is not dead,” Bauer said. | <urn:uuid:9d212020-8211-410c-93d8-ca7cc9e5edb0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2003/12/03/eli-athletes-on-the-rhodes-again/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970184 | 1,520 | 1.90625 | 2 |
|By PR Newswire||
|January 8, 2013 03:00 AM EST||
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., Jan. 8, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Garianno Lorenzo will be releasing cloning technology with results so identical it fooled a forensic scientist.
Garianno Lorenzo will be launching "Uncore Sound Alchemy" - a technology based venture. Garianno Lorenzo is releasing a new software/hardware that will allow the user to create original audio authorships of any living or deceased person. The first version of the software to be released will be available under selective limited license only, according to the developers. The buzz heard around programmers in-the-know is that the user would be able to capture into the hardware a short sampling of any live or recorded person's voice, the software would then create an algorithm of that person's human voice box - allowing the user of the software to type the words, statements, speeches or singing into the software that the user would like the sampled voice to say or sing. According to Garianno Lorenzo, it will produce a flawless composition of whatever that user typed, while eliminating static and background noise from the source sample.
Computerized beta tests of this software/hardware combination have produced a scientifically and mathematically identical clone of that human's voice according to sources. So identical, it's reported that it fooled forensic audio specialists, and was completely indiscernible to the human ear. Garianno Lorenzo explains that tests were done using voice samples of Michael Jackson & John Lennon to create a music duet of the two iconic legends singing a new song composition that neither had ever sang before, without infringing on any copyrighted statements, passages or phrases that the two artist had ever used before. "It was a completely new original authorship, sang flawlessly in their original voices for the first time ever, by these two singers, years after their deaths" stated Garianno Lorenzo.
According to Lorenzo, tests were also done using voice samples from several unnamed prominent high-profile deceased historical figures from the 1960's; forensic tests showed identical matches in their voices" said Lorenzo. He continued to state, "A conversation between two of these powerful men was created completely within the software, a conversation that never took place but mathematically matches their voices perfectly, and sounds to the human ear exactly like the two men did have this conversation. This software would allow the user to make anyone say or sing anything, without limitation".
Other software already exists in the marketplace, which does something remotely similar to what Lorenzo's passion project will do, but does not come close to the capability and possibilities of Lorenzo's software. Legendary film critic Roger Ebert, on the Oprah Winfrey Show demonstrated the existing technology, but Garianno Lorenzo promises that his new technology will go far beyond the capability of any current software in this realm, once released.
Garianno Lorenzo is working with Tolga Katas, and a team of programmers from around the globe, rumored to include legends like: John "Captain Crunch" Draper and Kevin Mitnick amongst others. This is the same Tolga Katas that had Steve Wozniak of Apple Computers on the board of his former company. Katas is known for pushing the envelope of innovation. Lorenzo has worked secretly on this technology, and has never issued a press release - until now.
Garianno Lorenzo believes that this type of technology is the future of the music and film industry. It reportedly gives the artist the ability to sing a duet of a completely new song with any deceased recording artist. Once released, this could open up creativity to limitless possibilities and it could destroy the laws of copyright infringement as currently written. Lorenzo states, "This is about the freedom of personal expression, our cherished first amendment".
Garianno Lorenzo confirms that the marketing name of the software, when released will be named FOE (Freedom Of Expression). Welcome to the brave new world, order.
PR Media Contact: Greg Wasserman: GWasserman@voiceclone.com
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- UK Targeted for Trojan Attacks | <urn:uuid:88cff963-8f42-4b15-a9d2-d4359f97ecd4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://uk.sys-con.com/node/2503645 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941629 | 1,001 | 1.789063 | 2 |
On Chesterton's conversion to the Catholic Faith:
"Nothing for years has given me so much joy. I have hardly ever entered a church without putting up a candle to Our Lady or to St. Joseph or St. Anthony for you. And both this year and last year in Lent I made a Novena for you. I know of many other people, better people far than I, who did the same. Many Masses were said for you and prayers all over England and Scotland in centres of Holiness. I will show you some day a letter from some Nuns on the subject. A great friend of mine, one of the greatest saints I have known, Sister Mary Annunciation of the Convent Orphanage, Upper Norwood, used always to pray for you...Well, all I have to say, Gilbert, is what I think I have already said to you, and what I have said not long ago in a printed book. That I was received into the Church on the Eve of Candlemas 1909, and it is perhaps the only act in my life which I am quite certain I have never regretted. Every day I live, the Church seems to me more and more wonderful; the Sacraments more and more solemn and sustaining; the voice of the Church, her liturgy, her rules, her discipline, her ritual, her decisions in matters of Faith and Morals more and more excellent and profoundly wise and true and right, and her children stamped with something that those outside Her are without. There I have found Truth and reality and everything outside Her is to me, compared with Her, as dust and shadow. Once more God bless you, and Frances. Please give her my love. In my prayers for you I have always added her name."
The above quote is from a good friend of GKC's, Maurice Baring (famously seen in the "Baring, Overbearing and Past-bearing" portrait with Chesterton and Belloc). It seems that we owe a great debt to Baring, and many others, for praying for Chesterton and therefore aiding his entrance into the Church. It's a humbling reminder: Christ meant it when He said, "Ask and you shall recieve, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you..." | <urn:uuid:6ffcac32-22f0-4ae8-8a8c-c361fa827981> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://chesterteens.blogspot.com/2009/06/who-prayed-for-chesterton.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979764 | 467 | 1.992188 | 2 |
From today’s editorials: Now that Albany will require private landowners to explain what they plan to do with their property before demolishing buildings, the city should honor the letter and spirit of its own law.
Bravo to Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings, who with little fanfare last week signed into law a Common Council ordinance that brings pause and order to a process that otherwise can lead to premature demolition of older and neglected buildings.
The law requires that before demolition permits can be issued, the Planning Board must review what would come of the spaces that would be left after buildings were razed.
So kudos is in order. But so, too, is caution.
The city itself has to abide by both the literal language and, we hope, the spirit of its new law. That’s more than speculative thinking, too, especially when $275,000 of the almost $1 million in federal stimulus money the city has at its disposal is intended to go toward demolition projects.
It’s the city’s view that razing about 10 dilapidated buildings in Arbor Hill, West Hill and the South End is the best way to help revive those neighborhoods.
Yet if ever there was a city that needs to think twice about building for the future by knocking down the past, it’s this one. And if ever there was a time for such reflection, it’s now — in the aftermath of some wise and overdue restrictions on demolition.
No doubt some of the 691 buildings on the city’s registry of vacant and abandoned structures are in such wretched disrepair that rehabilitation just isn’t practical.
Some of those buildings, in fact, may well be teetering close to an exemption from the new demolition restrictions because of the threat they’ve become to public safety.
Without the proper regulation, though, demolition can be more a means of the first resort than the last. It was the wide-ranging razing of buildings, too often without much thought as to what would come next, that undermined so many urban renewal projects across the country in the 1960s and 1970s.
It’s encouraging that city officials seem to realize that, even as they pursue a neighborhood development strategy that relies on more selective and concentrated instances of demolition.
Albany’s law requires the vision that’s been missing in places like Buffalo and Cleveland, where little alternative is seen to demolition projects massive enough to take down thousands of buildings. It’s hardly an impediment to thoughtful plans that combine demolition, where necessary, with stabilization and preservation efforts that make Albany as appealing as it is. Imagine what would have come of its Mansion, Center Square and Ten Broeck Triangle neighborhoods if demolition were regarded as the only way to save older cities.
Michael Yevoli, the city’s commissioner of development and planning, is right. Demolition is the easy way out. Albany can do better, even as it struggles to maintain neighborhoods that never should been allowed to decline as far as they have. | <urn:uuid:e07df6d7-71eb-448a-a689-4810834415ef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.timesunion.com/opinion/category/city-of-albany/page/3/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970813 | 628 | 1.734375 | 2 |
The New Orleans Times-Picayune on Thursday reported Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal will soon propose a plan to eliminate state taxes on personal income and corporate earnings.
The following statements from budget and tax experts at The Heartland Institute – a free-market think tank – may be used for attribution. For more comments, refer to the contact information below. To book a Heartland guest on your program, please contact Director of Communications Jim Lakely at firstname.lastname@example.org and 312/377-4000 or (cell) 312/731-9364.
“Gov. Jindal’s plan to eliminate Louisiana’s income and corporate taxes is one of the boldest tax reform plans that I have seen from a governor. Eliminating the state’s individual and corporate income tax would lead to the creation of more jobs and increased personal income that would translate into consumer spending.
“Gov. Jindal has it right, taxes should be made simple, transparent, and low. These reforms would make the Pelican State one of the most attractive places for jobs and high-quality workers in the country.”
“The devil is always in the details, which we don’t have. But on principle Jindal’s proposal looks great. Income taxes are very damaging, because people are taxed just because they earn a living, and then when they spend what’s left after paying income tax, they’re taxed again. Corporate taxes also harm individuals by harming the ability of businesses to create jobs or expand.
“Doing away with the income tax should leave most households better off, and doing away with the corporate tax should make Louisiana more attractive to businesses, which means more jobs and higher wages.”
“While Gov. Jindal's plan sounds fine on the surface – increasing incentives to individuals and businesses will always occur with tax eliminations – it is also a redistribution from the two lowest quintiles in income distribution to upper income earners.
“The sales tax is (along with excises) the most regressive of all taxes. He may want to keep it ‘low’ and ‘flat,’ but without other sources of revenue, 7 percent could easily become 12 percent. It will be levied on food and drugs at the snap of the legislators' fingers being (probably) the easiest tax to raise politically.
“Louisiana is one of the five poorest states in the Union – despite huge oil and gas reserves and other natural resources. It is also one of the most corrupt states in terms of interest-group rent seeking. Jindal is simply trying to make himself look better for 2016, at a huge cost to some of the poorest citizens of the United States (despite big welfare transfers).”
The Heartland Institute is a 29-year-old national nonprofit organization headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Its mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. For more information, visit our Web site or call 312/377-4000. | <urn:uuid:6037aeec-628e-4147-bfdd-ac1ab186277a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://heartland.org/press-releases/2013/01/10/heartland-institute-experts-react-gov-jindals-proposal-eliminate-state-inc?quicktabs_1=1 | 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 | 0.953028 | 625 | 1.734375 | 2 |
cable-stayed bridge, footbridge, pedestrian bridge, foot and cycle bridge, railway bridge, suspension bridge
Cable-Stayed Bridges of Europe
As per the update December, 2008, a great number of pictures of English, Welsh and Scottish bridges were legally uploaded from www.geograph.org.uk , with copyright. Therefore the difference in discovered/photographed numbers.
Follow these links to see the UK bridges:
Your comments and additions by e-mail, please: email@example.com
© 1997-2011, Per Wåhlin and named photographers, through Per Wåhlin, unless otherwise noted
This page was last updated in June, 2011 | <urn:uuid:043906f5-4eda-4fb8-9c99-5f6796d00c0e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pwpeics.se/united_kingdom.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923505 | 148 | 1.695313 | 2 |
DDT Ban Takes Effect[EPA press release - December 31, 1972]
The general use of the pesticide DDT will no longer be legal in the United States after today, ending nearly three decades of application during which time the once-popular chemical was used to control insect pests on crop and forest lands, around homes and gardens, and for industrial and commercial purposes.
An end to the continued domestic usage of the pesticide was decreed on June 14, 1972, when William D. Ruckelshaus, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, issued an order finally cancelling nearly all remaining Federal registrations of DDT products. Public health, quarantine, and a few minor crop uses were excepted, as well as export of the material.
The effective date of the EPA June cancellation action was delayed until the end of this year to permit an orderly transition to substitute pesticides, including the joint development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture of a special program to instruct farmers on safe use of substitutes.
The cancellation decision culminated three years of intensive governmental inquiries into the uses of DDT. As a result of this examination, Ruckelshaus said he was convinced that the continued massive use of DDT posed unacceptable risks to the environment and potential harm to human health.
Major legal challenges to the EPA cancellation of DDT are now pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi. The courts have not ruled as yet in either of these suits brought by pesticide manufacturers.
DDT was developed as the first of the modern insecticides early in World War II. It was initially used with great effect to combat malaria, typhus, and the other insect-borne human diseases among both military and civilian populations.
A persistent, broad-spectrum compound often termed the "miracle" pesticide, DDT came into wide agricultural and commercial usage in this country in the late 1940s. During the past 30 years, approximately 675,000 tons have been applied domestically. The peak year for use in the United States was 1959 when nearly 80 million pounds were applied. From that high point, usage declined steadily to about 13 million pounds in 1971, most of it applied to cotton.
The decline was attributed to a number of factors including increased insect resistance, development of more effective alternative pesticides, growing public and user concern over adverse environmental side effects--and governmental restriction on DDT use since 1969. | <urn:uuid:f8592ce9-7160-4382-b0e3-3ed0b120c54f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.epa.gov/history/topics/ddt/01.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961575 | 501 | 3.1875 | 3 |
To the Editor:
Concerning Paul Mulshine’s March 22 column, “A bad week for Al Gore, and for Exelon CEO,” on faults that exist with today’s commercial nuclear power generating systems:
The basic fuel in these systems today is a dangerous mix of uranium and plutonium-239, generating waste that will last thousands of years and requires very complex operating and storage procedures.
I understand that China, Russia and India are working on the development of reactors that utilize thorium as the basic fuel. The reason is that thorium is more efficient, has a half-life measured in the hundreds of years and can eliminate the chances of a catastrophic meltdown.
It’s also been reported that the United States has enough thorium to power the country for 1,000 years.
I first became aware of this option in an article in the January 2010 issue of Wired magazine. The article points out that thorium has been considered as an alternate fuel since the 1950s, but there doesn’t seem to be much discussion of it in the popular press.
Maybe the recent disaster in Japan will spark renewed interest in this alternative nuclear system. Maybe thorium should be Al Gore’s Plan B. | <urn:uuid:3ca18734-4d8f-483a-8901-b861a08416e1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nj.com/gloucester/voices/index.ssf/2011/03/if_we_keep_the_nukes_lets_chan.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95449 | 255 | 2.125 | 2 |
There is a big difference between store bought vegetables, maybe imported internationally, and growing a vegtable from scratch. There’s a connection to your own homegrown food that doesn’t exist when you buy your vegetables from the store.
Four years ago, I moved to the country from the New York City suburbs of New Jersey. My then-boyfriend-now-husband and I didn’t have tons of money to spend on a first home but we had some good luck. We focused on houses in towns we liked, with lots of property.
I’ve always liked to work outdoors, compliments of my dad.
The first two years I focused a lot on landscape clean-up. Three plus acres of (non-wooded) land is a lot for one person with a few garden tools.
Three years later we tilled our first garden ground- a small 8 X 20 foot plot (I have to constantly double check my measurements- I’m not good with them. I first wrote 5’ X 10’ and my husband filled in the extra 30 square feed). The garden was small, crowded, rocky and mildly successful.
We made beautiful butternut squash soup that year.
Last year, was our first big garden. We grew lots of things but were ultimately defeated by early blight (on the heirloom tomatoes) and squash bugs on, well, everything.
This year, I decided to document the process. During this long, extremely rewarding food cycle we’ll talk about how different growing your own is from buying veggies from a store (where it was shipped across states, possibly imported from other countries, sprayed with glosses and preservatives)- All of which have nothing to do with you.
Ultimately, something grown without sprays or chemicals in you yard or kitchen, picked then cooked the same day (or eaten raw!) is an incredibly rewarding journey.
Here’s the beginning. | <urn:uuid:d1ebe226-5328-47d9-99a5-54d0e95f7e8d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blackdirtgardener.tumblr.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974848 | 401 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Walking through Schloss Charlottenburg felt almost like stepping back in time. In my head, I could hear Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (neither had been composed when the Schloss was first erected) playing as Kings and Queens entertained their guests.
The rooms of the Schloss are beautifully and often sumptuously decorated, though much of the furniture was taken from the Stadtschloss after it was demolished in 1950.
Several of the rooms were decorated with elaborate wall hangings.
It was only by getting close to some that it was clear that they had been woven rather than painted.
Where the walls themselves weren’t the artwork, paintings of the former inhabitants and family members were often on display.
In one room, a dial connected to a weather vane on the roof of the Schloss indicated the wind direction.
The ceilings were also often elaborately decorated with frescos or carvings and from many hung beautiful chandeliers.
Throughout there was a clear Oriental influence in the choice of porcelain with blue and white china prevalent.
Nowhere was the Oriental influence more clear than in the Porcelain Cabinet (Porzellankabinett), a room with barely an inch free of ornamentation, either porcelain or gilding.
Following on from the Porcelain Cabinet was the Palace Chapel (Schlosskapelle) and these for me were the two most impressive rooms in the building.
Unfortunately, Schloss Charlottenburg was severely damaged during the war and due to a lack of funds for the restoration the first floor has been more plainly decorated.
It does however contain a wealth of portraits, statues, silverware and other objects of note so should not be missed.
The €15 I spent on the entrance fee and photo permit for Schloss Charlottenburg is the best money I’ve spent in Berlin. I was impressed by the building’s exterior and the Palace Gardens and Grounds but I found the interior breathtakingly beautiful. | <urn:uuid:5d0853d2-66f2-4e5c-b44e-16de78dc7d07> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://andberlin.com/tag/schloss-charlottenburg/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979556 | 425 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Iraq Sees Higher Oil Output in 2008
Iraq's oil minister said on Friday he expected his country's output to rise by as much as 400,000 barrels per day in 2008, reflecting improved security in the oil sector.
Hussain al-Shahristani also said Baghdad expected to sign contracts with oil firms to help develop its super giant oilfields that are already producing -- an opening long awaited by the industry -- by the end of the year.
Baghdad is currently pumping 2.3 million bpd of oil and expects to boost supply to between 2.6 million and 2.7 million bpd during 2008, Shahristani told Reuters at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
"We are increasing our production and all the increase will go to exports," he said.
"We expect the price to remain at the current level, perhaps slightly lower, during 2008. Perhaps between $70 and $80 (a barrel)."
Iraq's exports have risen largely because of more reliable flows through its pipeline to Turkey, which has been hit by sabotage and technical problems for much of the time since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
Baghdad is pumping Kirkuk crude from its northern fields to Turkey at a rate of around 480,000 bpd, a shipping source said on Thursday. Pumping had stopped last week due to a power cut.
While some in the industry are skeptical Iraq can sustain a regular flow of oil exports from the north, the Iraqi minister expected improved security to allow higher supplies.
"Although the infrastructure has been neglected for decades...in the oil industry we have managed to protect our pipelines. It's the electricity grid that keeps on being attacked by the insurgents," he said.
"There is a much improved environment for the security. We expect this to improve and allow us to increase our production and exports."
The minister said many oil companies had registered to be qualified to bid to help develop Iraq's oil industry.
"We are going to sign in the first quarter of 2008 technical support contracts -- bridging contracts for a year or two," he said.
"And we are going to go through the first bid round for the field developments -- these are the super-giant Iraqi fields, the brown fields -- we're going to sign contracts for the development of those fields by the end of 2008."
"We'll go through a second round of bids in 2009." | <urn:uuid:48d02bf0-214c-4173-b490-4919fb02a3cc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cnbc.com/id/22835852 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978701 | 495 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Date of this Version
A survey of Aktion airfield in Greece was carried out from 14 to 18 October 1996 initiated by the Flight Safety Division of the NATO E-3A Component Geilenkirchen (Germany) as an reaction to the accident of an AWACS-aircraft on 14. July 1996, initially caused by a bird strike event. The survey of Aktion airfield led to the conclusion that the bird strike risk is extremely high at this airfield. Reasons are:
· The geographical location of the airfield at the Adriatic coast which is a migratory pathway for many birds.
· The location of the airfield on a narrow peninsula surrounded by water on almost three sides.
· The natural biological richness of the region with a big number of aquatic habitats and agricultural land use etc.
· The natural richness of the airfield itself, being very attractive for many bird species, as there are good resting and feeding conditions.
These facts result in the presence of single birds and flocks of birds throughout the year. During spring and autumn migration the bird strike risk even increases. Against the passage of seasonal migrating birds no actions for altering the pathways are applicable. However, a consequent habitat management will prevent birds res ting and/or feeding on the airfield. As a result of the survey of Aktion airfield recommendations were made with the intention changing the bird species composition to smaller, less heavy species, and thus decreasing the risk of bird strikes causing damages. | <urn:uuid:7f558741-2b37-41c2-8b00-1d2ac3774a17> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/birdstrike1999/36/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93244 | 305 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Looking for Dark Chocolate? We have several to choose from. Please give us a call if you do not see what you are looking for.
A recent interview with the director of the prevention Research Center at Yale School of Medicine stated DARK CHOCOLATE is good for the cardiovascular system, according to Dr. David L. Katz. Katz led the "Growing Market For Gourmet and High Cocoa Content Chocolates" Studies conducted at the university indicated that in overweight adults, ingestion of both dark chocolate cocoa was proven to significantly improve cardiac risk factors such as insulin sensitivity, high blood pressure endothelial dysfunction.
He told attendees that dark chocolate has had more impressive effects on the cardiovascular system than even vitamins, soy and drugs. | <urn:uuid:cb5ed571-c17d-4d3a-8c96-d523480981ad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nationwidecandy.com/dark-chocolate-fx1-41.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947501 | 146 | 1.96875 | 2 |
The Black Cat (short story)
|"The Black Cat"|
|Author||Edgar Allan Poe|
Short story, Gothic Literature
|Publisher||The Saturday Evening Post|
|Media type||Print (periodical)|
|Publication date||August 19, 1843|
"The Black Cat" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe. It was first published in the August 19, 1843, edition of The Saturday Evening Post. It is a study of the psychology of guilt, often paired in analysis with Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart". In both, a murderer carefully conceals his crime and believes himself unassailable, but eventually breaks down and reveals himself, impelled by a nagging reminder of his guilt.
The story is presented as a first-person narrative using an unreliable narrator. He is a condemned man at the outset of the story. The narrator tells us that from an early age he has loved animals. He and his wife have many pets, including a large black cat named Pluto. This cat is especially fond of the narrator and vice versa. Their mutual friendship lasts for several years, until the narrator becomes an alcoholic. One night, after coming home intoxicated, he believes the cat is avoiding him. When he tries to seize it, the panicked cat bites the narrator, and in a fit of rage, he seizes the animal, pulls a pen-knife from his pocket, and deliberately gouges out the cat's eye.
From that moment onward, the cat flees in terror at his master's approach. At first, the narrator is remorseful and regrets his cruelty. "But this feeling soon gave place to irritation. And then came, as if to my final and irrevocable overthrow, the spirit of perverseness." He takes the cat out in the garden one morning and hangs it from a tree, where it dies. That very night, his house mysteriously catches fire, forcing the narrator, his wife and their servant to flee.
The next day, the narrator returns to the ruins of his home to find, imprinted on the single wall that survived the fire, the figure of a gigantic cat, hanging by its neck from a rope.
At first, this image terrifies the narrator, but gradually he determines a logical explanation for it, that someone outside had thrown the dead cat into the bedroom to wake him up during the fire, and begins to miss Pluto. Some time later, he finds a similar cat in a tavern. It is the same size and color as the original and is even missing an eye. The only difference is a large white patch on the animal's chest. The narrator takes it home, but soon begins to loathe, even fear the creature. After a time, the white patch of fur begins to take shape and, to the narrator, forms the shape of the gallows.
Then, one day when the narrator and his wife are visiting the cellar in their new home, the cat gets under its master's feet and nearly trips him down the stairs. In a fury, the man grabs an axe and tries to kill the cat but is stopped by his wife. Enraged, he kills her with the axe instead. To conceal her body he removes bricks from a protrusion in the wall, places her body there, and repairs the hole. A few days later, when the police show up at the house to investigate the wife's disappearance, they find nothing and the narrator goes free. The cat, which he intended to kill as well, has also gone missing.
On the last day of the investigation, the narrator accompanies the police into the cellar. They still find nothing. Then, completely confident in his own safety, the narrator comments on the sturdiness of the building and raps upon the wall he had built around his wife's body. A wailing sound fills the room. The alarmed police tear down the wall and find the wife's corpse, and on her head, to the horror of the narrator, is the screeching black cat. As he words it: "I had walled the monster up within the tomb!".
Publication history
"The Black Cat" was first published in the August 19, 1843, issue of The Saturday Evening Post. At the time, the publication was using the temporary title United States Saturday Post. Readers immediately responded favorably to the story, spawning parodies including Thomas Dunn English's "The Ghost of the Grey Tadpole". It was also collected in Tales (1845) by Edgar Allan Poe.
Like the narrator in Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart", the narrator of "The Black Cat" has questionable sanity. Near the beginning of the tale, the narrator says he would be "mad indeed" if he should expect a reader to believe the story, implying that he has already been accused of madness.
The extent to which the narrator claims to have loved his animals suggests mental instability in the form of having “too much of a good thing”. His partiality for animals substitutes “the paltry friendship and gossamer fidelity of mere Man”. Since the narrator’s wife shares his love of animals, he likely thinks of her as another pet, seeing as he distrusts and dislikes humans. Additionally, his failure to understand his excessive love of animals foreshadows his inability to explain his motives for his actions.
One of Poe's darkest tales, "The Black Cat" includes his strongest denouncement of alcohol. The narrator's perverse actions are brought on by his alcoholism, a "disease" and "fiend" which also destroys his personality. The use of the black cat evokes various superstitions, including the idea voiced by the narrator's wife that they are all witches in disguise. In Scottish and Irish mythology, the Cat Sìth is described as being a black cat with a white spot on its chest, not unlike the cat the narrator finds in the tavern. The titular cat is named Pluto after the Roman god of the Underworld.
Although Pluto is a neutral character at the beginning of the story, he becomes antagonistic in the narrator’s eyes once the narrator becomes an alcoholic. The alcohol pushes the narrator into fits of intemperance and violence, to the point at which everything angers him – Pluto in particular, who is always by his side, becomes the malevolent witch who haunts him even while avoiding his presence. When the narrator cuts Pluto’s eye from its socket, this can be seen as symbolic of self-inflicted partial blindness to his own vision of moral goodness.
The fire that destroys the narrator’s house symbolizes the narrator’s "almost complete moral disintegration". The only remainder is the impression of Pluto upon the wall, which represents his unforgivable and incorrigible sin.
From a rhetorician's standpoint, an effective scheme of omission that Poe employs is diazeugma, or using many verbs for one subject; it omits pronouns. Diazeugma emphasizes actions and makes the narrative swift and brief.
- Universal Pictures made two films titled The Black Cat, one in 1934, starring Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, and another in 1941, starring Lugosi and Basil Rathbone. Both films claimed to have been "suggested by" Poe's story, but neither bears any resemblance to the tale aside from the presence of a black cat. Elements of Poe's story were, however, used in the 1934 film Maniac.
- The middle segment of director Roger Corman's 1962 anthology film Tales of Terror combines the story of "The Black Cat" with that of another Poe tale, "The Cask of Amontillado." This version stars Peter Lorre as the main character (given the name Montresor Herringbone) and Vincent Price as Fortunato Luchresi.
- Writer/director Lucio Fulci's 1981 film The Black Cat is loosely based on Poe's tale. The 1990 film Two Evil Eyes presents two Poe tales, "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" and "The Black Cat." The former was written and directed by George A. Romero while the latter was written and directed by Dario Argento. This version stars Harvey Keitel in the lead role.
- "The Black Cat" is the eleventh episode of the second season of the television series Masters of Horror. The plot essentially retells the short story in a semi-autobiographical manner, with Poe himself undergoing a series of events involving a black cat which he used to inspire the story of the same name.
- In 1997, a compilation of Poe's work was released on a double CD entitled Closed on Account of Rabies, with various celebrities lending their voices to the tales. The Black Cat was read by avant-garde performer Diamanda Galás.
- "The Black Cat" was adapted and performed with "The Cask of Amontillado" as Poe, Times Two: Twin tales of mystery, murder...and mortar -- a double-bill of short, one-man plays written and performed by Greg Oliver Bodine. First produced in NYC at Manhattan Theatre Source in 2007, and again at WorkShop Theater Company in 2011. Part of the 2012 season at Cape May Stage in Cape May, NJ.
- "The Black Cat" was adapted into a 7-page comic strip in Yellowjack Comics #1 (1944).
- In 1970, Czech writer Ludvík Vaculík made many references to "A Descent into the Maelström" as well as "The Black Cat" in his novel The Guinea Pigs.
- In 1910–11 Futurist artist Gino Severini painted "The Black Cat" in direct reference to Poe's short story.
- Sept. 18, 1947, Mystery in the Air Radio Program with Peter Lorre as the Protagonist in The Black Cat. Note: eye is not gouged out. Instead the cat's ear is torn.
- Meyers, Jeffrey (1992). Edgar Allan Poe: his life and legacy. New York City: Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 137. ISBN 0-8154-1038-7. OCLC 44413785.
- Hart, James D. "The Black Cat". The Concise Oxford Companion to American Literature. Oxford UP, 1986. Oxford Reference Online. Accessed October 22, 2011.
- Quinn, Arthur Hobson (1998). Edgar Allan Poe: a critical biography. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 394. ISBN 0-8018-5730-9. OCLC 37300554.
- Sova, Dawn B. (2001). Edgar Allan Poe, A to Z: the essential reference to his life and work. New York City: Facts on File. p. 28. ISBN 0-8160-4161-X. OCLC 44885229.
- Cleman, John (2002). "Irresistible Impulses: Edgar Allan Poe and the Insanity Defense". In Harold Bloom. Edgar Allan Poe. New York City: Chelsea House Publishers. p. 73. ISBN 0-7910-6173-6. OCLC 48176842.
- Gargano, James W. "The Black Cat": Perverseness Reconsidered". Texas Studies in Literature and Language 2.2 (1960): 172-78.
- Cecil, L. Moffitt (December 1972). "Poe's Wine List". Poe Studies V (2): 42.
- Zimmerman, Brett. Edgar Allan Poe: Rhetoric and Style. Montreal: McGill-Queen's UP, 2005.
- Maniac - Cast, Reviews, Summary, and Awards - AllRovi
|Wikisource has original text related to this article:|
- Project Gutenberg: The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Volume 2
- Complete Text at E A Poe Society of Baltimore
- Full text on PoeStories.com with hyperlinked vocabulary words.
- The Poe Decoder: The Black Cat
- Free audio recording of "The Black Cat" from Librivox
- Illustration and description of Severini's painting.
- The Black Cat reading by Gerry Hay | <urn:uuid:0265d45d-b424-4209-a681-23b3e333ff83> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Cat_(short_story) | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945874 | 2,527 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Hampton Hills Metro Park in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park needs help with a native habitat restoration project that involves removing planting that are non-native and invasive. 9:00 am to 11:00 am.
Outdoor painting project
Cleveland Sight Center needs volunteers to help wire brush and paint the iron fence along East 101st St. and paint curbs with yellow safety paint from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm.
Fall Harvest and Cleanup
Cuyahoga County Board of Developmental Disabilities Spring Hill Farm in Seven Hills need volunteers to help with harvesting and clearing brush to expand the planting/growing area for next year. 10:00 am to 1:00 pm. Minimum age 18.
Santa's Hide A Way Hollow
Santa's Hide A Way Hollow is dedicated to working with seriously and terminally ill children and their families. Volunteers are needed to help with fall clean up including cutting/trimming trees and grass; indoor sweeping and window cleaning etc. Minimum age 16. 9 am to 12:00 pm and 1:00 to 3:00 pm.
Safety 4 Students/Love 4 Lots
Help improve the city of East Cleveland by beautifying vacant lots. Volunteers are needed to weed, trim, plant flowers, and pick up trash and recycling. We can pick a project area to suit the size of the group that signs up. 9:00 am to 12:00 pm and 1:00 to 4:00 pm.
Make a Difference Day | <urn:uuid:4a96a3b2-3c38-4c1c-9325-3d2ba1238bf0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wkyc.com/news/article/265763/454/Make-a-Difference-Day-Projects | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93017 | 305 | 1.734375 | 2 |
"High School and College Tutor - Math, Science, English"
...High school subjects that I've personally taught include algebra 1, geometry, algebra 2, trigonometry, calculus, biology, chemistry, physics, grammar, and composition. I've also taught college subjects, including advanced calculus, differential equations
, group theory, and several topics in physics (relativity, quantum mechanics, and classical mechanics)...
10+ subjects, including differential equations | <urn:uuid:0068f76f-e177-41d7-8a9c-84402571e349> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wyzant.com/Elizabeth_NJ_Differential_Equations_tutors.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949103 | 92 | 1.578125 | 2 |
In her first novel in 10 years, The Tell (Harper Perennial), Providence writer and educator Hester Kaplan tackles the familiar territory of marriage and relationships she has previously explored in the award-winning short story collection, The Edge of Marriage (1999), and her novel, Kinship Theory (2001). Kaplan expertly delves into the psychological underpinnings of her characters, and in The Tell her curiosity extends to many other topics: the fleeting nature of celebrity, the addictive pull of slot machines, the intensity and frustrations of inner-city teaching, and the effect of the architectural details in buildings upon those who live and work in them.
The novel is played out among a trio of characters that sometimes becomes a quartet. Owen and Mira live in a rambling East Side Victorian, and they befriend their new neighbor Wilton Deere, a wealthy has-been sitcom actor who has moved to Rhode Island to be closer to his daughter Anya, who is attending medical school at Brown. He hasn't seen Anya since she was five, but he's desperate to make amends to her while never revealing why he wouldn't see her for more than 17 years.
Owen teaches at a public high school that is on the verge of being closed; Mira has set up an art school in the Jewelry District for underprivileged youth and senior citizens. Both she and Owen remember Wilton from his sitcom and its reruns, and they are quickly seduced by his gifts of wine and mail-order steaks but even more by his ability to secure their confidences, one-on-one, and sometimes to use those bits of intimate knowledge to leverage an even tighter connection to one or the other of them.
In fact, though the title of the novel most obviously refers to a mannerism or gesture that gives away a person's mood or meaning, even when they are trying to hide it, as in a poker game or a police interrogation, Kaplan also quite cleverly uses that meaning through the twists and turns of the plot. She has Owen, Mira, and Wilton "telling" each other things from their pasts, as well as the feelings they have held onto surrounding certain pivotal events, and those "tells" disrupt Owen and Mira's relationship. Toward the end of the novel, Owen even blames himself for Wilton's disappearance because of lying to him about telling Anya something that Wilton had confided to him.
Though the reader knows that eventually everyone will have to "come clean" to each other and to themselves, Kaplan makes the reader's journey to that point worth every page. The Tell is filled with captivating subplots, with well-drawn supporting roles, including Owen's father and his new girlfriend, Owen's students and Mira's assistant, a friend of Owen's who runs a tutoring business, the high school librarian and her husband, and various "types" who show up at a fundraiser for Mira's art school.
THE AUTHOR examines unresolved emotions and past tragedies.
The buildings become additional characters, as Kaplan describes the nooks and crannies, the fusty furnishings, the looming portraits in Mira's inherited family home; the bare wood walls with their unframed snapshot pin-ups in Edward's Cape Cod cottage; the heraldic arches in the decaying high school. | <urn:uuid:ea07834e-504e-43c1-9035-218900ab7581> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://providence.thephoenix.com/arts/150600-hester-kaplans-the-tell-is-captivating/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980083 | 690 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Posted February 18, 2011 Atlanta, GA
Lisa Grovenstein, 404-894-8835
Peterson focuses comments on the university of the future
Georgia Institute of Technology President G.P. “Bud” Peterson will provide insights on how innovation will impact the next generation of young people during the “The University of the Future” panel discussion at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The annual meeting is scheduled for Feb. 17-21 in Washington, D.C.
The three-hour session, designed by Georgia Tech’s Parker H. Petit Distinguished Chair for Engineering in Medicine and Institute Professor Bob Nerem, will be moderated by Nerem and Jim Duderstadt, former president of the University of Michigan, and will include several other university presidents. It will focus on how universities must evolve to be relevant in the future, both to the education of young people and to the broader needs of society, while confronting challenges ranging from the accelerating pace of developments in science, engineering and technology to the ever-increasing global nature of higher education.
“Our role as educators is continually challenged and we will be judged by how well we can prepare our students to meet the evolving needs of the world around us,” said Peterson. “We have an opportunity to shape the future, not only of our institutions, but also for the generations of students who will pass through the doors of our institutions in the years to come.”
Two Georgia Tech faculty members will also make presentations at the AAAS conference. School of Chemistry and Biochemistry Professor Joseph W. Perry will present research on “Organic Photonic Materials for All-Optical Signal Processing.” The presentation, part of the seminar “Frontiers in Organic Materials for Information Processing, Energy and Sensors,” was organized by Perry and Chemistry and Biochemistry Professor Jean-Luc Bredas, along with a Northwestern University colleague. Julia Kubanek, a professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Biology, will also present “Warding off Disease on Coral Reefs: Antifungal Chemical Cues in Tropical Seaweeds,” part of the symposium “Chemically Speaking: How Organisms Talk to Each Other.”
In addition, six Georgia Tech faculty members will be honored as new AAAS Fellows at the meeting, including Gilda A. Barabino, associate chair for graduate studies and professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering; Stephen P. DeWeerth, professor of biomedical engineering at the Coulter Department, Don P. Giddens, dean of the College of Engineering and biomedical engineering professor in the Coulter Department; Joseph W. Perry, professor of physical, polymer and materials chemistry and optical science; Valerie Thomas, an associate professor of natural systems with a joint appointment in Georgia Tech’s H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering and the School of Public Policy in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts; and Zhuomin Zhang, professor of mechanical engineering.
The AAAS annual meeting, described as “the Olympics of science conferences,” features hundreds of top scientists, policy experts and leading educators from some 50 nations.
The Georgia Institute of Technology is one of the world's premier research universities. Ranked seventh among U.S. News & World Report's top public universities and the eighth best engineering and information technology university in the world by Shanghai Jiao Tong University's Academic Ranking of World Universities, Georgia Tech’s more than 20,000 students are enrolled in its Colleges of Architecture, Computing, Engineering, Liberal Arts, Management and Sciences. Tech is among the nation's top producers of women and minority engineers. The Institute offers research opportunities to both undergraduate and graduate students and is home to more than 100 interdisciplinary units plus the Georgia Tech Research Institute. | <urn:uuid:ac084150-4b5f-4d7f-957b-326b8e2d9c7b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gatech.edu/newsroom/release.html?nid=64354 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932091 | 796 | 2.171875 | 2 |
The storm is far from done. About 45 million people in 21 states were under some form of winter weather watch, warning or advisory.
"This storm is still a very active and dangerous storm, from Michigan into western New York and the mountains in New England are getting hit with very heavy snows, said Louis Uccellini, director of the National Weather Service.
The cold air associated with the system will linger on the East Coast through the weekend, he said.
But to the west, piling snow damaged buildings Tuesday in Kansas and Missouri.
In Shawnee, Kansas, the roof of a horse arena collapsed under the weight of snow Tuesday morning, CNN affiliate KSHB reported. It was one of several such collapses in the region because of the wet heavy snow, the station said.
No injuries were reported in those collapses, but a person died Monday in a roof collapse in hard-hit Woodward, Oklahoma, said Mayor Roscoe Hill.
Two other deaths came in Kansas on Monday in separate weather-related accidents on Interstate 70. One accident happened in Sherman County and the other in Ellis County, the Kansas National Guard said.
More than 56,000 customers in Kansas and Missouri were without power Tuesday afternoon, the Kansas National Guard said. The bulk of the outages -- 45,000 -- were in the Kansas City region straddling the border between Kansas and Missouri.
Most flights out of Kansas City International Airport were canceled.
Roads were still snow-covered, but improving, in northwestern Missouri, the state Department of Transportation said on Twitter. The agency continued to discourage travel. | <urn:uuid:daeedd75-7897-4f30-ba68-758726feb0ea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kitv.com/news/national/Storm-subsides-but-misery-not-over-yet/-/8905418/19084086/-/item/1/-/hxvw4mz/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963807 | 326 | 1.75 | 2 |
Have you ever run a Pub? You can add your pub history to the UK pub history site. You can contact the pub history site via my email : Kevan. There are over 10,500 images on the site and 45,000 pages of pub history which increases every day.
This is a local search engine of the UK Pub history site. You can search by surname, street address, or public house name. There are nearly 50,000 pages of pub history detail in this search engine; which is mainly historical. New pubs and additional detail is added every day, and the search engine updates weekly. If you are looking for a specific pub history listing, some of these can only be found in the sitemap - see the navigation bar on the left.
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HORNCHURCH, UPMINSTER AND CORBETS TAY.
Pigot's Essex 1832-3 Trade Directory
HORNCHURCH is a village and parish, in the liberty of Havering-atte-Bower; 14 miles from London, two from Romford, and situated about four miles and a half from the river Thames. It is a place unimportant to the commercial traveller, and to the curious stranger it possesses but little worth his detention.
The church is a venerable pile, with a handsome spire, about 170 feet in height, and from its elevated site may be seen at a very great distance. At the chancel end of the church is a piece of carved work of a bullock's head, the horns of which are gilt : the appearance of this figure is attempted to be accounted for by the custom, arising out of a charter granted by Henry II, which takes place every Christmas day, of wrestling for a boar's head; but why the head of the latter animal has obtained a preference over the former is not explained. The living is a vicarage, in the incumbency of the Rev. George Stacey. The parish of Hornchurch is rather extensive, containing about 6,500 acres of land, and a population, by the official returns for 1831, of 2,186 inhabitants; being an increase, in 30 years, of 855 persons.
UPMINSTER is a village and parish, in the hundred of Chafford, situated about one mile from Hornchurch. The church is a neat ancient building, with a spire, the greatest part of which is covered with ivy; there is, besides, a chapel for dissenters. The living of Upminster is a rectory, of which the Rev. John Rose Holden is the incumbent. In this vicinity are many elegant houses, diversified with beautiful plantations. 'Upminster Hall," the manor house, formerly belonging to the abbots of Waltham, is an old building, principally of timber; its situation commands extensive and delightful prospects. By the last returns (1831,) the number of inhabitants was 1,033.
CORBETS TAY is an inconsiderable hamlet to the parish of Upminster, and contiguous to the village. The few houses which are in the place are inhabited principally by the labouring class, and it does not contain anything worthy of notice.
POST OFFICE, HORNCHURCH, William Frost, Post Master. - Letters from ROMFORD arrive (by mail-cart) every morning at seven, and are despatched every evening at six.
COACHES. To LONDON, a coach (from Ockenden), calls at the Bull, every monring at half-past eight; goes through Romford, &c.
To SOUTH OCKENDON, a coach (from London), calls at the Bull, every evening at six.
Transcribed by CG
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales...., by John Marius Wilson. circa 1866
CORBETSTYE, a hamlet in Upminster parish, Essex; 4½ miles SE of Romford. It has a post-office under Romford. Pop., 177.
HORNCHURCH, a village, a parish, and a sub-district in Romford district, Essex. The village stands between the rivers Rom and Ingerbourne, 2 miles SE of Romford r. station; and has a post-office under Romford, London E. The parish also contains the hamlet of Havering-Well, extends to the Thames, and comprises 6,659 acres of land and 140 of water. The property is much subdivided; but most of the land belongs to New College, Oxford. Hornchurch Hall, Great Nelmes, Harrow Lodge, Ardley Lodge, Fair Kytes, Langtons, and Britons are chief residences. A priory, subordinate to the hospital of Monte Jovis, was founded here in the time of Henry II.; passed, by purchase, to William of Wykeham; and was given by him to New College, Oxford. Malting, brewing, iron-founding, agricultural-implement making, and the making of bricks, tiles, and drain-pipes, are carried on. A custom of wrestling for a boar's head on Christmas-day arose out of a charter granted by Henry II., and is still observed. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Rochester. Value, £740. Patron, New College, Oxford. The church is ancient; consists of nave, chancel, aisles, and porches, with turreted tower, and a neat spire 170 feet high; and contains some old brass inscriptions. Charities, £92 and two suites of alms-houses.
Transcribed by Noel Clark
Email Essex Pubs at: EssexPubmail | <urn:uuid:7b64b070-80ff-47d4-ba74-7506e0878a8b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pubshistory.com/EssexPubs/Directories/Hornchurch.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953134 | 1,186 | 1.601563 | 2 |
The term “shin splints”, also known formally as medial tibial stress syndrome, is the name commonly associated with the pain and tenderness that individuals get along the front and inner side of their lower legs.
Getting rid of shin splints COMPLETELY is information that is hard to come by because many experts say that the actual cause of this disorder is still unknown, although it is attributed to overuse among runners and basketball players as well as other sportsmen and women.
Experts state that too much force placed on the shin bones, muscles and ligaments of the lower leg during running and other activities that involve repetitive abrupt starts and stops may contribute to shin splints.
Okay, so you may already know this but why do these ‘so called’ experts also give out treatment advice that will only ever treat the symptoms of shin splints, or in the case of compression socks, make the condition more bearable and therefore neglect treating the root cause of the condition? It is common sense that in order to properly get rid of shin splints the actual cause must be treated. However, there is no denying one thing, and that is prevention is better than cure and this is why the use of certain exercises will help keep shin splints at bay.
Preventative Exercises for Shin Splints
There are certain exercises that can be performed that will help lower the occurrences of shin splints and also assist in the recovery process should you already have shin splints.
The specific exercises of which I am speaking are stretching and strengthening exercises for shin splints. These specific exercises involve the muscles located around the tibia.
Stretching the muscles behind the tibia can help in making these muscles more flexible in preparation for strenuous activities. If the muscles are more flexible, they will be able to function during strenuous activities much better and without the risk of early injury.
Some of these stretching exercises for shin splints include calf and shin stretches, which may be performed in various positions. Stretching the calf with the knee bent stretches only the gastrocnemius, the two-bellied calf muscle that does not cross the knee, while doing it with the knee straight stretches the gastrocnemius and the soleus, the other calf muscle that crosses the knee.
When performing stretching exercises, make sure that you hold the position for 30 seconds and then return to the resting position. The whole stretching exercise consists of 3 repetitions of holding the position for 30 seconds and brief (about 3-5 seconds) rest periods.
Strengthening exercises for shin splints can also assist in developing the ability of the muscles to withstand pressures applied on them. These exercises include toe and heel raises, walking on toes and walking on heels, and resistance exercises for the muscles along the front side of the tibia using elastic exercise bands.
Toe raises, walking on heels, and using elastic exercise bands can condition the muscles located in the front of the tibia, while heel raises and walking on toes strengthen the calf muscles (or the muscles located at the back of the tibia).
In performing toe and heel raises, the individual should be able to complete 10 repetitions of holding the position for 5-7 seconds and brief (about 3 seconds) rest periods. Meanwhile, when using elastic exercise bands, make sure that the resistance generated from the elastic band is strong enough for the muscle being strengthened. It should neither be too light, making it very easy for the individual to move the foot, nor too heavy, making it very stressful for the muscles.
As mentioned previously these stretching and strengthening exercises are not a way of eliminating shin splints rather a very beneficial way of reducing the number of times shin splints actually strike. Like the saying goes, “An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure.”
Earlier in this post I touched on the fact that suggested treatments for shin splints only treat the symptoms of shin splints and that if you wanted to get rid of them altogether then the cause of the problem must be found and treated. Well, I posted an article a while ago on this blog that goes into this subject in more detail and I highly recommend that you read it…the post is called ‘How to Get Rid Of Shin Splints Forever…and Not Only Until The Next Time!‘
Have a great shin splints free day
PS: If you are interested in learning more about stretching exercises for shin splints then this post is very popular with my visitors: ‘3 Shin Splint Stretches That Will Keep Your Splints at Bay’ | <urn:uuid:db673433-ee34-45f8-9bb0-fefdef85b1f8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://getridofshinsplints.org/2011/09/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950726 | 945 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Why Republicans Will Budge on Taxes
Don’t be surprised if Republicans blink in the second round of the fight over the federal deficit, giving in to allow at least some tax revenue raisers despite their unanimous opposition to taxes in the first round.
There’s a simple reason: If the congressional “supercommittee” is going to save $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years, taxes and defense can’t both be spared. That will leave the GOP with some difficult, party-dividing choices in coming months.
If taxes are off the table, the 12-member panel charged with identifying the deep cuts and savings won’t strike a deal. That will trigger automatic cuts, including 50% that must come from defense programs. Neither party seems keen on getting to that point in the process.
So, like it or not -- and they don’t -- Republicans will have to swallow tax hikes of one kind or another, or revenue raisers that some of them view as tax hikes. The party’s defense hawks will make that happen.
Any tax change is likely to be small but symbolic in the thrust and parry before next year’s elections. There just isn’t time for a bigger fight over taxes, which is what it would take for a major shot at overhauling the tax system.
The agreement won’t be easy to come by. These talks will go down to the wire, just as the first step in the process did when lawmakers had to raise the nation’s debt ceiling to keep the U.S. from defaulting on its obligations.
This time, though, the supercommittee created by the debt ceiling deal adds a wrinkle to the process: Seven votes are needed to send a proposal to Congress, and with six members of each party on the panel, just one vote can break the stalemate. It doesn’t have to be a Republican who switches, of course. But it seems unlikely that any panel Democrat would agree to an attempt to take both taxes and defense off the table. That would require every dollar of prescribed cuts to come from domestic programs. Some Republicans will be wary of that approach, too, as election season approaches.
So look for a deal, rather than the automatic cuts. Even if the entire $1.5 trillion can’t be agreed to before the final deadline, the committee will send something to the House and Senate because every dollar of cuts the members agree to is one less dollar that has to be cut equally from domestic and military programs.
The negotiations will play out quickly, given the compressed timetable that Congress established when it agreed to the committee approach. The panel must hold its first meeting by Sept. 16 and has until Nov. 23 to report its recommendations. That leaves just one month for Congress to vote, but even then its role will be limited. In the normal process, regular committees have a chance to make major changes before sending a bill to the floor, and all lawmakers have a chance to vote on amendments. In this case, though, the usually powerful chairmen of standing committees will be limited to providing suggestions to the supercommittee, and lawmakers can vote only up or down on the entire package, with no chance for adding amendments to address anything they don’t like.
Congress also has to deal with the federal budget for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1. Don’t look for a quick deal on that front, though. Instead, lawmakers are likely to use a series of continuing resolutions to fund programs at this year’s levels, at least until the debt panel finishes its work and determines which agencies will be subject to spending cuts under the 10-year plan.
There is a logjam of other legislation waiting to move. But the mood remains sour. Congress isn’t likely to get much else done this year. | <urn:uuid:c1ef5196-37e9-45e9-b957-e861317ea508> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kiplinger.com/article/taxes/T043-C012-S001-why-republicans-will-budge-on-taxes.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957801 | 799 | 1.640625 | 2 |
The year was 1985 and the federal courthouse in Hartford, Conn., was on the world stage.
One by one, members of a Puerto Rican independence group were brought before judges, accused of a brazen heist that netted $7.1 million and culminated years of anti-American attacks. So notorious were Los Macheteros, or the Machete Wielders, that then-U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese ordered machine-gun toting soldiers to guard the courthouse.
"They put on this big show, to make them look like terrorists," said James W. Bergenn, a partner in the Hartford office of Shipman & Goodwin who represented two of the defendants. "All of the lefty lawyers were dying to get involved in this case. There was nothing more exciting."
Fast-forward to this month. At the same courthouse, the lengthy drama moved one act closer to its conclusion in a much more sedate fashion. With minimal fanfare, one of the defendants who helped stage the 1983 robbery of the Wells Fargo armored car depot in West Hartford was sentenced to five years in prison.
At the hearing, Norberto Gonzalez-Claudio, now a 67-year-old grandfather, said he looks forward to putting his criminal past behind him. "Family is all that matters," Gonzalez said.
The money taken by Los Macheteros has never been recovered. The group still exists today, but it's a much more low-key organization that has long since abandoned its violent ways. Lawyers who have represented its members say it's a far cry from the mid-1980s, when, for a lawyer who wanted national publicity, "this was the dream case of a lifetime," Bergenn said.
For decades, there has been division in Puerto Rico over its political relationship with the United States. Citizens of the U.S. territory were given the right to vote in 1917, but do not have representation in Congress. Some have called for statehood (as the majority did again in a non-binding November 6 referendum), while others have actively sought independence.
Los Macheteros were among those leading the charge for independence. The group made headlines for a series of terrorist actions against what it considered to be U.S. colonization. In 1979, there were two separate shooting attacks on buses filled with sailors stationed in the Caribbean. In all, three were killed and 12 injured. In 1981, the group infiltrated a Puerto Rican Air National Guard base and damaged 11 fighter jets, causing an estimated $45 million in damage.
The group then set its sights on Connecticut, where a complex robbery operation dubbed Aquila Blanca [White Eagle] was planned over a two-year period. The organizers identified the West Hartford armored car depot as the target. Millions of dollars were brought there each day in armored vehicles that made pickups at banks and businesses.
Victor Gerena, who had been a Wells Fargo driver for only a few months, was the inside man. FBI agents told the Hartford Courant at the time that the organizers found Gerena through his mother, who lived in Puerto Rico and was loyal to the nationalist cause. | <urn:uuid:46021683-31f8-4208-b360-02aef36dba47> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.law.com/jsp/pa/PubArticlePA.jsp?id=1202579541975&Sentencing_in_Armored_Car_Case_Puts_Spotlight_on_Puerto_Rican_Militant_Group | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984401 | 641 | 2.046875 | 2 |
Law professors vouch for Kagan on diversity
By Krissah Thompson
A growing number of prominent law professors are disputing the idea that Supreme Court Nominee Elena Kagan treated minorities unfairly while she was at dean of Harvard Law School. Randall Kennedy, a professor at the law school, wrote Tuesday on the Huffington Post that Kagan:
should be welcomed enthusiastically by those who are especially concerned with advancing the cause of racial justice in America. She is knowledgeable about the history of our nation's racial problems and committed to a vision of racial inclusiveness that reflects the best of our national traditions.
Kennedy has known Kagan for 25 years and said she was in one of the first classes he taught on race relations at the law school. He wrote her recommendation to clerk for Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court.
Long-time Harvard Professor Charles Ogletree also has staunchly defended Kagan's record. In an interview Tuesday, he said that Kagan made a point of coming to the annual barbecue he holds for new African American law students at the university. "After welcoming the entire student body, she would come and spend the day and engage each student in dialogue," he said. "There's never been a doubt in my mind about her commitment to diversity."
Kagan chose not to have the traditional chair as the dean at Harvard, Ogletree added. Instead, she became the first holder of the Charles Hamilton Houston Chair, which was created in honor of the late NAACP Litigation Director, who played a significant role in dismantling Jim Crow laws.
The defenses of Kagan's record were prompted by a blog posting by Duke University law professor Guy-Uriel Charles, who along with three other law professors -- Anupam Chander at the University of California at Davis, Angela Onwuachi-Willig at the University of Iowa and Luis Fuentes-Rohwer at Indiana University -- sent a letter to the White House questioning Kagan's record on diversity.
While Kagan led the school from 2003 to 2009, 29 faculty members were hired: Twenty-three were white men, five were white women and one was an Asian American woman. Ogletree emphasized that Kagan was influential but did not have the final say on those hires.
Another prominent African American law scholar, Derrick Bell, said that Kagan "is probably a good choice given the confirmation process." Bell, who was not at Harvard during Kagan's tenure, was the first tenured black law professor at Harvard and famously left the university in 1992 to protest the lack of women of color on the faculty.
May 12, 2010; 11:05 AM ET
Categories: 44 The Obama Presidency , Culture Wars , Supreme Court , The Courts
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The comments to this entry are closed. | <urn:uuid:1083f2d5-598a-4eda-a453-9e9d5b98d727> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2010/05/law-professors-vouch-for-kagan.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967796 | 721 | 1.5 | 2 |
- Girlie Girl culture starts well before girls enter kindergarten.*
My hope is that with the huge amount of press and fan fare that author Peggy Orenstein is receiving for her amazing book “Cinderella Ate My Daughter”, we will refresh a national conversation about what is going on with our girls and the bigger picture of marketing to kids. It is my firm belief that parents will soon start to see sexualization and limiting gender stereotypes as a social justice issue, and we will work together to turn this ship around.
Parent driven initiatives changed the way our nation thinks about and uses smoke detectors, seat belts, toxic toys, and flammable children’s apparel. The changes are now mainstays in our culture.
Parents of my generation grew up with the massive national efforts in the 1980′s of MADD – Mothers Against Drunk Driving. I think with a little more education on the subject, and direction on what to do once we know the facts, parents will join together and start to fight back against the marketers and media.
Childhood is at stake.
A quick note to you mothers of sons who think you are off the hook — pause and think about who your sons will (most likely) be dating and marrying. These daughters that are sexualized from birth – from birth – will be the women whom our sons marry, have children with, raise the next generation of girls….This affects ALL of us.
By the numbers:
Global revenue generated by the Disney Princess products increased from $300 million in 2000 to $4 billion in 2009.
Percentage of 8-12 year old girls who regularly used eyeliner doubled between 2008 and 2010.
Nearly half of girls between the ages of 6-9yo regularly use lipstick or lip gloss.
$40 million a month: Amount of money 8-12yo girls spend on beauty products. A month. Biggest influence on their purchases is not peers or media. It is their mothers.
Barbie was introduced in 1959 with a target audience of 9-12yo girls. Today’s target audience is 3-7yo.
Age at which children express “brand consciousness”: 24 months.
25% of teen girls have posted nude or semi-nude photos of themselves online.
41% of 15-17yo girls and 29% of boys say they have participated in bullying someone online.
12,000 Botox injections were given to teens aged 13-19yo in 2009.
43,000 teens under the age of 18 had their appearance surgically altered in 2008.
48% of girls in grades 3-12 polled in 2000 asserted the most popular girls in school were “very thin”. By 2006 that number had risen to 60%.
60% of girls in grades 9-12 surveyed in 2006 were attempting to lose weight; only 10% of these same girls were considered medically overweight.
Only 15% of students taking the AP computer science exam are female.
Stats are from Peggy Orenstein’s “Cinderella Ate My Daughter”. READ this book!
*Photo image is from Cozy’s Cuts For Kids. | <urn:uuid:8de1fecc-e282-4b44-808e-e00410e7e4fa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.pigtailpals.com/2011/01/the-new-girlie-girlhood-by-the-numbers | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954303 | 655 | 1.859375 | 2 |
Student loans have overtaken credit cards as the nation’s chief source of long term debt. To address this trend, the White House announced a new initiative Wednesday to reduce that burden. The initiative is one of several moves the president is making to boost the economy without the support of Congressional Republicans.
‘Make a big difference’
Education Secretary Arne Duncan discussed the initiative with reporters on Tuesday:
“These are real savings that will help graduates get started in their careers. These changes could make a big difference in the lives of current college students and recent graduates as they enter one of toughest job markets in recent memory.”
The initiative will allow borrowers to consolidate both federally guaranteed student loans and direct loans into one monthly payment. Also, the initiative will cap student loan payments at 10 percent of discretionary income. That is down a third from the previous cap of 15 percent. Also, any unpaid portion of the loan, interest or principle, will be forgiven after 20 years. Previously, that term was 25 years.
Accelerated ‘Pay As You Earn’
The program begins in January, and accelerates the “Pay As You Earn” policy, signed into law last year. Initially, the law did not take effect until July, 2014.
The move comes in response to a petition on the “We the People” forum on the White House website. The petition, asking the White House to forgive student loans, was signed by more than 30,000 Americans. “We the People” is a new addition to the website, and this is the first time the administration has acted in response to a petition on the site.
‘We can’t wait’
The move also is an attempt by the administration to address the down-turned economy with executive orders that do not require the approval of Congress. A White House statement said:
“The announcement is part of a series of executive actions to put Americans back to work and strengthen the economy, because we can’t wait for congressional Republicans to act.”
Congressional Republicans continue to block the passage of Obama’s $447 billion American Jobs Act. Other moves the president has announced this week are a program to help homeowners with out-of-control mortgage debt, and to require community health centers to hire military veterans.
But the new plan will not benefit every student loan borrower who could use it. It will only be available to those who have borrowed for the first time in 2008 or later. Further, to be eligible, borrowers also need to take out a new loan in 2012. The initiative also does nothing to address borrowers who are in default.
No cost to taxpayers
According to Domestic Policy Council Director Melody Barnes, the new program will not add a burden to taxpayers. The administration plans to pay for the program by encouraging borrowers with both federally guaranteed loans and direct loans to consolidate both into the Direct Loan program. In this way, the federal government gets the interest from both loans instead of just one.
Those interested in the program can call 1-800-4FEDAID or go to www.studentaid.ed.gov. | <urn:uuid:7d537ce2-d12c-4e19-8f9c-5c8d784d0afc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://personalmoneynetwork.com/moneyblog/2011/10/26/ease-student-loan/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956478 | 650 | 2.203125 | 2 |
Posted by randy albin, a resident of the Cuesta Park neighborhood, on Aug 2, 2012 at 2:56 pm
first, make health insurance affordable to pretty much everybody. obamacare? the whole health insurance debate is pretty difficult in the u.s.a. many patients and people have been helped at el camino hospital over the many years. make it a top-notch hospital for really good patient care in such a manner as to not bankrupt the patient
Posted by Old timer, a resident of the Blossom Valley neighborhood, on Aug 2, 2012 at 5:35 pm
Randy, when I was a young kid, back in the mid-20th century, healthcare was affordable.
Congressmen taxed income on the "rich" so much that nobody wanted to get a pay raise since all their extra pay would go to the IRS. Corporations counterattacked the IRS by offered tax-free benefits, such as "free" health insurance to recruit top talent.
Soon, everybody wanted "free" health insurance. Doctors charged more because the "wealthy" insurance companies could afford to pay it. Soon, malpractice lawyers smelled money and a doctor's malpractice insurance bills went sky high. Next, insurance companies took months to pay the doctors, so doctors had to hire more people to beg the insurance companies for the money owed them. The American Medical Association is a trade union (same as the Teamsters and Auto Workers) whose only goal was to make doctors wealthy. "Big Pharma" is the drug companies who charge exorbitant fees and only push drugs which can be patented, thus enriching the drug companies and their stockholders (i.e., you and me). The pill you pay $10 for sells in Tijuana for 12¢, and in Canada for 28¢. Your congressman (and his lobbyists) make this legal and mandatory.
Most health conditions are preventable and easily corrected through diet, exercise and nutrition. You can't patent good health practices, so there is no profit motives in it.
Posted by LovingMtnView, a resident of the Old Mountain View neighborhood, on Aug 12, 2012 at 7:55 pm LovingMtnView is a member (registered user) of Mountain View Online
Hey Old timer...
I did not realize that free health insurance was offered by corporations to employees to get around paying income taxes. That is really interesting and I'm going to read further on the subject.
I do understand why "The pill you pay $10 for sells in Tijuana for 12¢, and in Canada for 28¢." Big Pharma is a global operation and they look to recoup research expenses in the most optimal way possible. Mexico pays 0.12, because that is what they can afford. If they charge $5, then the pharma companies will make less revenue overall. Canada pays 28 cents, because they have nationalized health care and will only pay a certain amount. That leaves the United States that is so worried about being labeled with the McCarthy era Socialist label, that health care is privatized.
Unfortunately, the "free market" does not work very well when you have Big Pharma with monopolies on patented life saving drugs and the consumer/buyer of the product unable to refuse paying whatever it takes to save or extend their lives. Health care is not like buying a TV. You can't just walk away from a pill that will save your life and go find another. You may be in extreme pain or looking at the end of your life. Most likely, you will pay.
The US will go to a form of nationalized health care--it is just a matter of time. How we consume health care will be different than it is today, but by spending less on it means that we will be more innovative. That's what I love about this country...we will persevere! | <urn:uuid:c3924449-b755-42ab-986d-c8eb003d8458> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mv-voice.com/square/index.php?i=3&d=1&t=4632 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97151 | 788 | 1.632813 | 2 |
By Herndon Graddick, Special to CNN
Editor's note: Herndon Graddick is the president of Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.
(CNN) – This week, Jennifer Tyrrell and her family went to the headquarters of the Boy Scouts of America in Irving, Texas, to deliver a petition of 300,000 signatures asking the organization to end its ban on gay Scouts and gay Scout leaders.
The BSA's policy of "not granting membership to open or avowed homosexuals" is a travesty.
It led to the dismissal of Jennifer, who was the den leader of her own 7-year-old son's troop in Bridgeport, Ohio. By reaffirming its anti-gay policy this week, the BSA is telling the entire nation that maintaining its legacy of discrimination is more important to them than strengthening the bond between a mother and her son.
The BSA clearly has its priorities backwards. In spite of calls for change from its own board members, from high-profile Eagle Scouts and from Americans of all stripes, it refuses to budge. Other organizations, such as the Girl Scouts, 4-H clubs, the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and even the U.S. Armed Forces, have put an end to such discrimination.
It might not be easy for an organization to admit it is wrong. Especially since the BSA has had this policy for decades; it has even gone all the way to the Supreme Court to try to preserve it.
But just because you have a right to discriminate doesn't mean it is right to discriminate. | <urn:uuid:82acc9cc-5be8-4a03-98bd-d93f5ce2b00b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/2012/09/27/boy-scouts-end-discrimination-against-gays/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969888 | 326 | 2.0625 | 2 |
Server virtualization on the rise
Move your power around to save systems
Jim Tessier, Eaton Corporation
Eager to lower hardware spending, simplify management, and ensure continual uptime, businesses are rapidly implementing server virtualization in their data centers. In fact, nearly 50% of server workloads will be running on virtual machines by the end of 2012, according to analyst firm Gartner Inc.
Many organizations use virtualization management software to administer their virtual environments. Such systems provide centralized control over host servers, virtual machines, storage, and more.
At present, though, many users of virtualization management suites must employ a separate set of management tools to monitor their power infrastructure, weakening the productivity of their technicians and potentially delaying response times when problems occur. Intelligent power management solutions integrate closely with leading virtualization management products, enabling IT and facilities personnel to view, monitor, and administer not only physical and virtual servers but UPS, PDUs, and other power devices through one console.
They also enable virtualization management products to provide a comprehensive view of network and power-related alerts that spare administrators from having to watch for alarms in two or more different places, dramatically reducing the chances of serious issues going unnoticed.
Moreover, drawing on seamless integration with live migration systems, intelligent power management solutions can automatically and transparently move virtual machines from host servers impacted by a power outage to unaffected servers elsewhere on the network; they can even move virtual machines to co-located cloud data centers. As a result, businesses can weather even serious power outages without suffering data loss or application downtime.
Jim Tessier’s full article on power management is one of the topics in Plant Engineering’s Forecast issue, which will be published in mid-February. To receive the digital edition of Plant Engineering in time for the Forecast issue, which also will feature the 2011 Plant Engineering Salary Survey, subscribe here (it's free!). | <urn:uuid:cb545943-da37-4338-9b76-5f13d83bf3af> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.csemag.com/industry-news/codes-and-standards-updates/single-article/server-virtualization-on-the-rise/154a07a74e933eff1c840c5e610d5472.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.90844 | 390 | 1.65625 | 2 |
I always find it interesting through Twitter and blogs to take in the differences in approaches to parent engagement and as well taking in the discussions about involving parents in the dialogue about changes in education. From province to province there seems to be both similarities and differences in these conversations. I haven’t quite put my finger on why our approaches in Canada seem different from the United States, but I do sense a number of differences. A past post on The Daily Riff examined the same and created some interesting dialogue on this. You can read it here and explore further links.
I recently blogged on this question, “Where does a parent fit in effective change in education?”. On this post, I featured a blog post and an article from the United States. I sensed some shift in the conversation about the role and potential of parents in educational change south of us.
I have also become aware of the recent efforts of the BC Education Ministry to engage in the discussions about parent and community partnerships as part of their new education plan for province. The link to that part of the plan can be reviewed here.
Parent engagement is never an easy topic, but I think our provinces can still learn a lot from each other in this area — in and for education and students. I thought I would post here in hopes to provide a place to bring together some Canadian threads or “connective tissue” for sharing and learning in this area ahead. | <urn:uuid:f67e8c59-509a-425d-be96-63e321d6dcd7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://voiced.ca/?p=2240 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970258 | 292 | 1.945313 | 2 |
Three months of warfarin is the usual standard of care following bioprosthetic aortic valve replacement (AVR), although the supporting evidence base for this practice is limited. Now a large new registry study published in JAMA suggests that more prolonged warfarin therapy may be beneficial.
Danish researchers identified 4,075 patients who underwent bioprosthetic AVR. As expected, warfarin treatment between 30 and 90 days after AVR was associated with significant reductions in stroke, thromboembolic events and cardiovascular deaths compared with patients not taking warfarin. The benefits continued between 3 and 6 months, though the reduction in stroke was no longer statistically significant. The authors calculated that for every 23 patients not being treated with warfarin between 3 and 6 months, there was one additional cardiovascular death, at a cost of 1 bleeding complication requiring hospital admission for every 74 patients.
“With no randomized trials to guide the length of warfarin treatment, our results call for a review of guidelines in the field to consider an extension of the treatment to 6 months after surgery, especially in patients with an increased risk of cardiovascular death,” the authors wrote.
In an accompanying editorial, Shamir Mehta and Jeffrey Weitz write that, despite the limitations of an observational study, the results support a change in clinical practice in favor of prolonged warfarin therapy for as long as 6 months. They observe that the trial does not provide information about the possible role for the newer oral anticoagulants or about the role of adjunctive aspirin.
Here is the press release from JAMA:
Anticoagulation Treatment For Longer Than Three Months After Aortic Valve Replacement Associated With Decreased Risk of Cardiovascular Death
CHICAGO – Although current guidelines recommend 3 months of anticoagulation treatment after bioprosthetic aortic valve replacement surgery, a study that included more than 4,000 patients found that patients who had warfarin therapy continued between 3 and 6 months after surgery had a lower rate of cardiovascular death, according to a study in the November 28 issue of JAMA.
“Biological prostheses are preferred to mechanical valves for aortic valve replacement (AVR) surgery in elderly patients older than 65 years because of shorter life expectancy and lack of a need to use anticoagulation treatment in the long-term. Especially in these patients, the tradeoff between thromboembolic complications due to the valve implant and bleeding events as adverse effects from anticoagulation therapy must be balanced. Nevertheless, appropriate duration of anticoagulation treatment postoperatively is yet to be established because the risk of complications when the treatment is discontinued is unknown,” according to background information in the article. The current recommendation of 3 months of warfarin treatment after bioprosthetic AVR surgery is primarily based on results from 1 retrospective study with a limited number of events.
Charlotte Merie, M.D., of the Copenhagen University Hospital Gentofte, Copenhagen, Denmark and colleagues investigated whether discontinuation of warfarin treatment within prespecified periods after bioprosthetic AVR surgery was associated with increased risk of thromboembolic complications, cardiovascular death, and bleeding incidents. Through a search in the Danish National Patient Registry, 4,075 patients were identified who had bioprosthetic AVR surgery performed between January 1997 and December 2009. The researchers determined the incidence rate ratios (IRRs) of strokes, thromboembolic events, cardiovascular deaths, and bleeding incidents by discontinuing warfarin as opposed to continued treatment at 30 to 89 days, 90 to 179 days, 180 to 364 days, 365 to 729 days, and at least 730 days after surgery. Average age of the patients was 75 years; 41 percent were women.
Overall, 361 patients (8.9 percent) experienced a stroke, 615 (15.1 percent) had a thromboembolic event, and 364 (8.9 percent) encountered a bleeding incident after the date of surgery. During the observation period, 1,156 patients (28.4 percent) died, with 879 (76.0 percent) of these deaths related to cardiovascular disease. The IRRs for patients not treated with warfarin compared with those treated with warfarin were 2.46 for stroke; 2.93 for thromboembolic events; 2.32 for bleeding incidents; and 7.61for cardiovascular deaths within 30 to 89 days after surgery; and 3.51 for cardiovascular deaths within 90 to 179 days after surgery.
“Our study demonstrates that discontinuing warfarin therapy within the first 3 months after surgery is associated with a significant increase in the risk of stroke, thromboembolic complications, and cardiovascular death. The novelty of our study is the finding that discontinuing warfarin therapy within 90 to 179 days after surgery is associated with a significant increase in the risk of cardiovascular death,” the authors write.
“International guidelines on anticoagulation after a bioprosthetic AVR have been written with limited data on the appropriate duration of warfarin treatment after surgery. Consequently, our study challenges current guidelines on the duration of antithrombotic treatment after AVR surgery with biological valves by presenting results suggesting that these patients will gain from an additional 3 months of warfarin treatment in terms of reduced cardiovascular death without risking a significant increase in bleeding events.”
Editor’s Note: This work was supported by the Research Fund of the Department of Cardiology at Copenhagen University Hospital Gentofte, Gentofte, Denmark. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, etc. | <urn:uuid:fb44e4c6-296c-4ae4-a5b6-d0349698b441> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cardiobrief.org/tag/aortic-valve-replacement-surgery/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941278 | 1,178 | 1.632813 | 2 |
The unrest in Syria has left hundreds of thousands of Syrians internally displaced.
Thousands more have been forced to flee the country. Among them are Iraqi civilians who sought refuge in Syria after the US-led invasion of their country in 2003.
With the conflict worsenening in their adopted country, many have been forced to return to their homeland.
Al Jazeera's Omar al-Saleh reports from Baghdad, the Iraqi capital. | <urn:uuid:88706747-71ee-4bf7-96ad-f9f653e0978a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aljazeera.com/video/middleeast/2012/08/201281215148877448.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962977 | 86 | 2.015625 | 2 |
Wednesday, March 28, 2012 at 8:26PM
Self Players see themselves in their avatars and identify strongly with them. They are more likely to refer to their avatars in the first person, placing their own identities within the game and the game environment. The concept of the idealized self would be the strongest with this group and they would tend to see gaming as a means of reaffirming self-identity. Players in this group might focus on how attractive their avatars are and avoid avatars they find have too many inhuman characteristics or unattractive features, or who are too different from their own offline life identity. Socializing would be a means of connecting in relation to physical world lives, where they would share accurate information about their offline lives and personalities. Because of their strong personal attachment to their avatars, they are likely to be the group least aware of the limitations placed on them by in-game representations, especially in terms of the hypersexuality often associated with female avatars.
Role Players embrace the role-playing aspect of the game, creating a different identity and back story for their characters. They might see the avatars as part of their own identity but only in a minimal way because their primary goal is to create a new, alternative identity. They see their avatars as separate identities that they can take on or off, and the performance of these fictional characters is the primary attraction to the game, and especially to MMORPG gaming since they are likely to find others with similar interests there. These players would be more likely to discuss their avatars in the third person and often have long, detailed fictional back stories supporting their character’s identity and appearance. They would desire social interactions that allow for active role playing, where there is a clear line between themselves and their avatars, and the same is true for those they game with. This group is perhaps the most psychologically sophisticated of the three primary groups discussed because of the performance of identity inherent in role playing. They are also more comfortable with cyber-drag, as discussed in a previous chapter, because there is a long tradition of gender bending in all variations of role playing games.
Mastery Players do not necessarily see a connection between their identities and their avatars or create separate, fictional personalities or back-stories for their avatars. They are likely to be more interested in the game mechanics or in certain achievements, getting to a place where they demonstrate high levels of mastery over the game itself. They might be described as more “hardcore” gamers as it is the game they are most interested in engaging with rather than the social aspects of gaming, especially the social aspects of MMORPGs. Mastery Players are more likely to switch back and forth between first and third person pronouns as they describe their avatars because they are not aware of or do not care about the differentiation between self and avatar that is paramount to the other categories. For Mastery Players, the game is not a metaphor for life and in-game achievement is not symbolic of other aspects of their identity; the game is simply a game, an arena where mastery and status are achieved for the game itself.
Subcategories: The subcategories are combinations of each of the above groups: Mastery/Self, Role Play/Self, Mastery/Role Play.
Typology Breakdown: The largest group, by far, in the interview pool are Self Players. Of 28 interviews, 12 coded as Self Players, five Mastery, four Role Play, three Mastery/Role Play, three Mastery/Self, and one Role Play/Self. | <urn:uuid:d1eb820c-0042-46b1-9560-9a3fac36f969> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gameongirl.com/gamer-types/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977362 | 723 | 1.90625 | 2 |
President Barack Obama accepted his party's nomination for re-election on Thursday, telling the Democratic National Convention and Americans that only the voters in November have the power to secure the change he started.
In a tough speech that sounded now-familiar themes of his campaign, the president sought to show his supporters that their votes for him four years ago brought achievements that would be wiped out if Republican challenger Mitt Romney wins the election two months away.
"If you turn away now -- if you buy into the cynicism that the change we fought for isn't possible, well, change will not happen," Obama said, depicting a scenario in which special interests and conservative politicians run Washington and the country. "... Only you can make sure that doesn't happen. Only you have the power to move us forward."
Acknowledging the nation's hope has been tested since he first addressed the party conclave in 2004 as the keynote speaker, Obama urged Americans to look beyond the "trivial" nature of election campaigns to fully grasp the magnitude of the election.
"When all is said and done -- when you pick up that ballot to vote -- you will face the clearest choice of any time in a generation," he said. "Over the next few years, big decisions will be made in Washington, on jobs and the economy; taxes and deficits; energy and education; war and peace -- decisions that will have a huge impact on our lives and our children's lives for decades to come."
It is more than a choice between two candidates or parties, he said, calling it "a choice between two different paths for America, a choice between two fundamentally different visions for the future."
The Romney campaign responded by saying Obama continued to offer polices that haven't worked under his presidency, which has seen high unemployment, a sluggish economic recovery and rising federal deficits and debt.
"Americans will hold President Obama accountable for his record -- they know they're not better off and that it's time to change direction," the Romney campaign statement said.
CNN Chief Political Analyst Gloria Borger called Obama's speech "defiant at every single level," particularly its criticism of Romney's lack of experience on foreign policy, while CNN Senior Political Analyst David Gergen said Obama was "presidential" but offered little new in the way of specific promises.
Republican strategist Ari Fleischer, also a CNN contributor, said the speech contained the same themes and promises of the past four years." | <urn:uuid:b56f8179-28a4-4cb4-bad5-dd6cf2c47951> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kcci.com/news/politics/Obama-Election-a-choice-between-visions/-/9356970/16501306/-/hixrq3/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973347 | 494 | 1.554688 | 2 |
8th Air Force Museum undergoes name change
The 8th Air Force Museum at Barksdale Air Force Base has a new name and mission.
The museum was re-dedicated as the Barksdale Global Power Museum Tuesday morning as the next step to giving the museum a new direction.
The decision to change its name came six months ago when Air Force Global Strike Command officials and the history office decided it was time to refresh its purpose.
Amy Russell, director of the Barksdale Global Power Museum, said the renaming of the museum marks a new chapter in its role in the community.
“As we move forward, we will take with us the proud heritage of our past and use it as our guiding light for our future,” she said.
Russell, who came to Barksdale from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, said the changes will breathe new life into the museum. One of their main goals, Russell said, is to focus on new educational opportunities and offerings for the public.
“Before, I feel like if you’ve been to the museum once then you’ve seen the museum,” she said. “Our plan is to have rotating exhibits so every time you walk in, you will learn and see something new. I want to teach someone something new every time they walk through those doors.”
Russell said the museum atmosphere should achieve several things; make the 80-year-old feel nostalgic about what they are seeing, get the 10-year-old excited about joining the Air Force and please everybody in between. One of their main goals though is to bring an educational purpose back into the museum.
Col. Andrew Gebara, Commander of the 2nd Bomb Wing, said the newly named Barksdale Global Power Museum is one of 12 Air Force museums in the country and has been a popular educational and tourist destination in the community since 1979. Not only does the museum include artifacts of local military history, but aircrafts and displays from a wide variety of global power assets.
The museum has grown to include 28 aircrafts and 120 displays that attract more than 50,000 people per year, Gerbara said.
“Another way of saying that is it attracts a tourist population almost the size of Bossier City,” he said. “That is pretty impressive for our community.”
Gerbara added that the rebranding was a wise decision.
“This is a great opportunity for us to show what we can do,” he said. “The present becomes history very quickly and it’s important for us to keep that alive and not let it fade away.”
Terry Snook, President of the 8AF Museum Association, said the museum is a great asset to the civilian and military community.
“It really covers the history of the Air Force,” Snook said. “Many of the people that live in this area are here because of Barksdale. I am one of them.
The rebranding doesn’t stop with a new name. Though it will still offer a wide variety of displays, there are plans to emphasize and highlight the historical background of Barksdale.
New displays will focus on where it got its name, history of the base, the bombers and aircrafts stationed there, the heritage of the 2nd Bomb Wing and the future of Barksdale.
As reported previously by the Bossier Press-Tribune, the museum is also in the process of seeking a new $15 million facility.
The new museum site would include a 148,000 square feet building with meeting rooms, dining areas, classrooms, auditorium, and theater, in addition to fixed and hanging aircraft displays. Located near I-20 on the northern edge of the base, the museum would be more accessible to the public and lessen the restrictions it currently has at its location near a more security-tight area on base.
However, the new facility can not begin until the proposed gate on the north side of the base, connecting to I-20 and I-220, is approved. As the museum moves forward under a new name, Russell said it will still play an important role in the story of Barksdale Air Force Base.
“We want to showcase where we are and it’s really important for us to give civilians a place to see what our airmen do for them everyday,” she said.
For more information on the museum, visit www.8afmuseum.com | <urn:uuid:bb34d2d1-3c1a-4ada-b74e-9dad9befc563> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bossierpress.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8270:rebranding-a-legend&catid=27:military-news&Itemid=166 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962839 | 937 | 1.898438 | 2 |
Obama lets states opt out of 'No Child'
WASHINGTON (AP) – Nearly everyone agrees the fix needs fixing. The No Child Left Behind law that was supposed to improve American education has left schools grumbling at being labeled "failures" state officials fuming and complaints everywhere about required testing.
But President Obama's response on Friday — he's allowing states to opt out — is starting a new round of heated arguments.
There are questions about whether letting states bypass unpopular proficiency standards will help the nation's schoolchildren. And, even as states clamor to use the new waiver option, some lawmakers say Obama is inserting politics in what had been a bipartisan approach to education.
At the White House, the president said he was acting only because Congress wouldn't. He decried the state of U.S. education and called the "No Child" law — a signature legacy of President George W. Bush's presidency — an admirable but flawed effort that ended up hurting students instead of helping them.
Obama's announcement could fundamentally affect the education of tens of millions of children. It will allow states to scrap a key requirement that all children show they are proficient in reading and math by 2014 — if those states meet conditions such as imposing their own standards to prepare students for college and careers and setting evaluation standards for teachers and principals.
Kids will still have to take yearly tests in math and reading, although the administration says the emphasis will be more on measuring growth over time.
The impact on school kids could vary greatly depending on how states choose to reward or punish individual schools. Under No Child Left Behind, children who attend schools deemed failures after a set period of time are eligible for extra tutoring and school choice. Under the president's plan, it's up to states granted waivers to decide if they will use those same remedies.
A majority of states are expected to apply for waivers, which would be given to those that qualify early next year.
State officials have long complained that if they had more flexibility, they could implement positive changes. Now, they will have to step up and prove it.
"This is really going to change things because it really does put responsibility squarely on the states," said Amy Wilkins, a vice president at Education Trust, a nonprofit that seeks to raise achievement standards in schools.
Officials from Kentucky, Idaho, Wisconsin and Colorado were among those expressing support for the president's plan on Friday.
"I look forward to the federal government narrowing its role in education and allowing Tennessee the flexibility to abide by its own rigorous standards," Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, a Republican, said at the White House event.
But Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., who chairs the House Education Committee, wrote in an editorial Friday published in The Washington Examiner that the plan "could mean less transparency, new federal regulations and greater uncertainty for students, teachers, and state and local officials."
Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., the ranking member on the Senate committee that oversees education, said the president's action "clearly politicizes education policy, which traditionally has been a bipartisan issue that attracts support from both parties."
The president's plan is likely to feed the story line by Republicans that Obama is aggressively expanding the presidential footprint, particularly since some people might view it as unconstitutional to go around Congress to get around the law, said Frederick Hess director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute
"In pushing this way, the administration makes it likely that education is going to be much more of a partisan divide leading up to the 2012 election," Hess said.
During Thursday night's campaign debate in Orlando, Fla., the Republican presidential candidates echoed a common refrain about the federal government's role in education. Mitt Romney said, "One, education has to be held at the local and state level, not at the federal level." Said Rick Perry, "The federal government has no business telling the states how to educate our children."
Despite allowing states to do away with the approaching 2014 deadline, Obama insisted he was not weakening the law but rather helping states set higher standards. He said that the current law was forcing educators to teach to the test, give short shrift to subjects such as history and science and lower standards as a way of avoiding penalties and stigmas.
In delivering his remarks, the president took a shot at Congress, saying his executive action was needed only because lawmakers have not stepped in to improve the law.
"Congress hasn't been able to do it. So I will," Obama said. "Our kids only get one shot at a decent education."
Education Secretary Arne Duncan has said the plan would not undermine efforts in Congress because the waivers could serve as a bridge until Congress acts.
The law was approved with strong bipartisan support nearly a decade ago. But its popularity sank as disputes over money divided Congress, schools complained they were being labeled "failures" and questions arose over the testing and teacher-quality provisions.
"Higher standards are the right goal. Accountability is the right goal. Closing the achievement gap is the right goal. And we've got to stay focused on those goals," Obama said. "But experience has taught us that in its implementation, No Child Left Behind had some serious flaws that are hurting our children instead of helping them."
Critics say the law placed too much emphasis on standardized tests, raising the stakes so high for school districts that it may have driven some school officials to cheat.
Duncan has warned that 82 percent of schools next year could fail to reach proficiency requirements and thus be labeled failures, although some experts questioned the figure.
The law has been due for a rewrite since 2007. Obama and Duncan had asked Congress to overhaul it by the start of this school year but a growing ideological divide in Congress has complicated efforts to do so.
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