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Tax Strategies Canada
Make sure you have made at least $2,500 in registered education savings plan contributions per child during 2010, since that is the new amount that entitles you to receive the 20-per-cent CESG (Canada Education Savings Grant) on, up from $2,000 in previous years. The $4,000 yearly RESP contribution limit has been eliminated, and the lifetime limit has been increased from $42,000 to $50,000 per child. And a total of $7,200 is for fifetime grant limit beneficiary. This amount corresponds to 18 times $400 which used to be the maximum annual grant allowed per beneficiary.
The basic personal amount that a person can make without paying any federal income tax was supposed to be $9,600 for the previous year, but the recent Economic Statement increased that to $$10,320 for the year 2010. You should delay receiving income beyond that until next year, when other tax brackets will be indexed higher.
Avoid purchasing mutual funds in non-registered accounts late in the year because you will be taxed on year-end distributions that include gains received by investors before you bought your units. Remember when you go to file your tax return that you must pay capital gains tax not only on the amounts recorded on T3 or T5 slips as part of distributions, but also on capital gains realized from your personal sale of funds in non-registered accounts during the year. Also, postpone making non-registered investments until the New Year if possible.
Delay selling profitable stocks or mutual funds held outside registered retirement savings plans until the New Year, to defer paying capital gains tax until 2011. Conversely, consider selling stocks or mutual funds in non-registered accounts that have gone down in value on or before Dec. 24. That will trigger capital losses, which must first be used to offset capital gains realized in 2010, and excess losses can be carried back against capital gains during the previous three years, or carried forward indefinitely against future capital gains.
If you have stocks that have increased in value, consider donating them to a charity before year’s end.
Under new rules, by doing so you will not have to pay tax on the capital gains, and you will receive a donation receipt for the full amount of the value of the securities.
If you have turned or will turn 71 this year, you must convert your RRSP into a registered retirement income fund or a life annuity by Dec. 31. That’s a change from the previous age limit of 69. However, you may make a final tax-deductible contribution to your RRSP before conversion. And you can make a contribution to a spousal RRSP until the end of February 2011 if the spouse is younger than 71.
A sole proprietor or member of a partnership should make purchases of equipment or supplies before year end. The same holds for appliances or furniture needed for a rental property. The cost of major capital items may then start being depreciated in 2010, although only at half the yearly depreciation rate during the year of purchase.
A number of investment expenses are deductible and should be paid by Dec. 31. These include interest on loans to invest in a business or an income-producing investment outside an RRSP, plus investment counsel fees, the cost of renting a safety deposit box, and accounting fees to calculate rental or investment income.
Pay professional or union dues, alimony or maintenance payments (depending on your agreement date), and 2010 moving expenses, by year end.
Keep and file any 2010 receipts that might be arriving with Christmas mail, such as from sports programs that qualify for the child fitness tax credit, and also round up public transit receipts for passes of at least one week in duration.
If you will have excess tax deductions or non-refundable tax credits in 2011, fill out form T1213 early in the year to have withholding taxes reduced on your regular paycheques. This will allow you to keep more money in your pocket during the year, instead of waiting to get it back as a tax refund in early 2012.
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Fri, Sep 28, 2012 -- 2:00 AM
The Green New DealAudio currently not available for this program.
The 2009 stimulus act shelled out $90 billion for clean energy. President Obama's administration said that would create 827,000 "job years" through 2012. That turns out to be a whopping $109,000 per job-year. Did that pan out? Was it worth it? Billions were allocated to modernize the electricity grid, improve energy efficiency of buildings, clean up nuclear waste and promote clean energy sources. Was that money well spent, or a boondoggle? The show features a conversation about the Recovery Act's impact on the energy and financial security of America. Guests include Michael Grunwald, senior national correspondent for Time and author of "The New New Deal."
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Far too many people in our community and across the nation are victims of domestic violence and while progress has been made to address the problem, it's clear that we still have a long way to go.
Nationally, nearly one in four women will experience domestic violence, according to the National Health Resource Center on Domestic Violence. On a daily basis, an average of three women in the U.S. die as a result of family violence. The Judiciary of Guam says domestic violence cases are the second most common type of offense it sees on an annual basis, behind only driving under the influence.
Local agencies and organizations that deal with domestic violence note that even with increases in cases, the numbers aren't necessarily reflective of more offenses being committed, but a higher rate of reporting.
This shows how far we've come in addressing the problem. For far too long, domestic violence was considered a private matter for families, often ignored by law enforcement. That's no longer the case. Police and other elements of the criminal justice system take this crime seriously, and more in the community recognize that domestic violence must be reported to the authorities.
This October marks the 25th anniversary of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, a time to remember the victims of this horrible crime, and to recognize those who work so hard to combat the problem. It's also a time to raise awareness by publicizing just how serious family violence is, here and across the United States.
Education truly is the key to reducing domestic violence. People need to know that it's not OK to abuse others, especially members of their families. The community also needs to know the importance of reporting this crime -- neither victims nor abusers can get the help they need if that doesn't happen.
President Obama put it perfectly in his declaration of Domestic Violence Awareness Month: "Each of us can promote healthy relationships, speak out when we see injustice in our communities, stand with survivors we know, and change attitudes that perpetuate the cycle of abuse. We must also ensure that survivors of domestic violence know they are not alone, and that there are resources available to them."
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Savings, Responsibility, and Opportunity in America
June 19, 2009
New America Foundation
1899 L Street, NW Suite 400
Washington, DC 20036
When President Clinton signed the welfare reform bill in 1996, he changed the moral debate over poverty by linking benefits to work. However, an opportunity was missed to create a new type of safety net that recognized not just the importance of income but having access to a stock of savings and assets as well. While much attention has been focused on income volatility, severe fluctuations in wealth and low asset holdings undermine the potential for economic mobility.
In his new paper, "Savings, Responsibility and Opportunity in America," NYU Sociologist Dalton Conley explores how our understanding of poverty, class, and mobility would be enhanced by expanding our focus from an individual's position in the labor market to include their ability to save and accumulate assets over the life course. This perspective has relevant implications for the transmission of economic status across generations and elevates the importance of identifying a set of promising policy proposals that help families increase their savings over the long term.
Please join us on June 19th for the release of "Savings, Responsibility and Opportunity in America," featuring its author, NYU Sociologist Dalton Conley, and commentary by Elizabeth Lower-Basch of the Center for Law and Social Policy, Scott Winship of the Economic Mobility Project, and Reid Cramer of the New America Foundation.
For more information and to sign up to attend the event, visit the New America Foundation Web site.
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| Quote #1
Although they never mention it, I owe the people who frequent the Hob. Gale told me that Greasy Sae, the old woman who serves up soup, started a collection to sponsor Peeta and me during the Games. It was supposed to be just a Hob thing, but a lot of other people heard about it and chipped in. I don't know exactly how much it was, and the price of any gift in the arena was exorbitant. But for all I know, it made the difference between my life and death. (1.22)
Katniss doesn't even know what she "owe[s] the people" of the Hob, but she knows it's something. The people of District 12 have so little to give, but they manage to give nonetheless. This is incredibly meaningful to Katniss. During their first Hunger Games she and Peeta depended on kindnesses that, while they appeared small, were "exorbitant" in cost.
| Quote #2
Instead he [Peeta] speaks in his simple, winning style about Thresh and Rue making it to the final eight, about how they both kept me alive – thereby keeping him alive – and about how this is a debt we can never repay. [...] "It can no way replace your losses, but as a token of our thanks we'd like for each of the tributes' families from District Eleven to receive one month of our winnings every year for the duration of our lives." (4.75)
As winners of the Games, both Peeta and Katniss make no secret of who they owe or how much. Here Peeta shows he's just as brave as Katniss by ignoring the rules in order to honor their debt. In another passage, Katniss explains exactly how brave Peeta's actions are, saying she can't even begin to guess at what their repercussions might be. In a way, it doesn't matter; Peeta has at least recognized and stated the debt they owe.
| Quote #3
I thought no one saw me sneak under the fence, but who knows? There are always eyes for hire. [...] Could there be surveillance cameras? (11.3)
It's hard to know whom to trust, either inside or outside the arena. Even when Katniss thinks nobody's watching her, she can't be sure. As she explains, "[t]here are always eyes for hire." If she puts her trust in the wrong person, it could result in her death. It's hard to be sure who she can count on to be loyal to her.
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Group hopes to persuade influential passengers to support New London to Vermont rail route
A slow train excursion along the Thames and Yantic rivers, through woods starting to turn brilliant colors and alongside major commercial facilities, could be a nice fall day off from work.
But this was a business trip.
Fifty business and college representatives and politicians boarded five historic passenger rail cars Thursday morning at Union Station in New London for a ride along the New England Central freight rail tracks, north to Norwich, Willimantic and points in Massachusetts and Vermont.
The Central Corridor Line Rail Coalition, the sponsoring organization, hoped passengers would note the economic and tourism potential of the proposed $150 million Central Corridor Rail Project, a plan to upgrade the existing New England Central Railroad tracks from New London to Brattleboro, Vt., to handle heavier freight traffic and add passenger rail cars.
The luxury of train travel of a different era hit passengers as soon as they stepped into the Congressional Car or the Pennsylvania Railroad president's own private car Thursday. Bennet Levin, owner of the President's Car, told his guests that this very car carried the body of Robert Kennedy home after he was assassinated in 1968.
The Congressional Car at the opposite end of the train served congressmen and senators on trips from Washington, D.C., to Boston, owners Bryan and Deborah Belliveau of Newington said. On Thursday, dining tables bore white tablecloths and vases of flowers, and silver trays beneath the windows held bowls of candy.
"This is the Central Corridor Express," Todd O'Donnell, co-owner of Union Station, jokingly told the crowd before they boarded the train. "We're going to be moseying up the trail pretty leisurely."
And mosey they did, enjoying views of the Thames River as the train approached Mohegan Sun casino at a pace of about 25 mph. The train slipped past the mostly vacant former Shipping Street industrial district in Norwich, a top city priority for redevelopment. Norwich Harbor was next, and the train slowed to a crawl as it approached the jagged rocks at the historic Uncas Leap area in Norwich.
Robert Mills, executive director of the Norwich Community Development Corp., told a short version of the legend of how the victorious Mohegan tribal warriors routed the Narragansett army and sent the fleeing foes careening over the cliff to the deadly, rocky gorge below.
The train continued north, paralleling busy Route 32 through Franklin, passing the former Franklin Mushroom Farm property — another potential benefactor of the plan to upgrade freight rail capacity along the tracks, proponents said.
Standing on the rear balcony of the President's Car, Charles Hunter, assistant vice president for RailAmerica Operations Support Group, talked with U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, Sprague First Selectman Cathy Osten — a state Senate candidate — and Tony Sheridan, president of the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut about the funding needed.
Hunter said the Central Corridor Rail Project would cost about $150 million and would tackle projects such as upgrading 110 miles of track and building train stations where necessary. Stations already are in place at some key stops, including New London and the new Norwich Transportation Center — although a pedestrian bridge would be needed over the narrow west branch of the Yantic River.
The project is nearly completed in the northern end of the route. The stretch from the Vermont-Massachusetts border to the Canadian border cost $85 million and used a combination of federal grants and New England Central Railroad matching funds.
Hunter said a similar combination could work for the Connecticut-Massachusetts portion of the track, with state support added. Supporters applied for a $10 million federal Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grant last year but did not receive funding.
The TIGER grant is among many programs embroiled in congressional funding battles, Courtney said. The House of Representatives "zeroed out" funding while the Senate kept the program intact, Courtney said.
Support from municipalities along the route and even from neighboring towns off the New England Central tracks is growing. The Groton Town Council added its interest in a passenger rail service expansion this week with a resolution in support of the Central Corridor Rail Coalition and Palmer Rail Coalition, two entities promoting the project.
Electric Boat has about 1,600 employees who live in the towns along the proposed New London-Norwich rail corridor, said Robert Hamilton, spokesman for EB.
Courtney said the funding request for TIGER grants would come through Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's office. State Sen. Andy Maynard, D-Stonington, co-chairman of the General Assembly's Transportation Committee, said he tacked a large map of the New England Central Corridor line on the wall in the committee's conference room in Hartford.
Specific legislation has not come before the committee, but Maynard said his own support for the project has grown.
"I was intrigued by the possibility a year ago," Maynard said. "Now I'm excited about making it a priority in our rail plan."
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to use in_mp3.dll in my self written program
I have written a program for managing songs (MP3s, WMAs, OGGs, WAVs, MIDIs etc.). Now, I will add a function for play songs. At beginng I would use the codecs from Windows MediaPlayer like a lot of other programs. But I don't like this codecs.
Is there I way to use the DLLs (e.g. in_mp3.dll) from Winamp? Is this allowed? Do anybody know how can I make this with Delphi5?
If I will be allowed to use the DLLs, I would be very happy!
With kind regards
PS: Sorry for my bad English!!!
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History of UNT
Founded in 1890 by Joshua C. Chilton, UNT started as the Texas Normal College and Teacher Training Institute on the second floor of a hardware store on the town square in Denton. The university grew over the years and changed its name six times along the way, with each change reflecting the growth in size, complexity and educational breadth. The Texas Legislature approved the final change from North Texas State University to the University of North Texas in 1988.
Alumni Appreciation Day
For more than 30 years, the university and many academic departments have set aside a day to recognize successful and dedicated alumni, inviting them back to campus for special events.
Boomer the cannon
Firing the cannon became a tradition in 1970. During football games, it can be heard following Mean Green touchdowns. The cannon, a scale replica of a model used in the U.S.-Mexican War, is also used at special campus events.
After a heated campus debate in 1902, the students chose green and white as the official school colors. According to a 1932 article in the Campus Chat student newspaper, green proponents believed that Mother Nature is kind to those who wear her colors.
In a 1922 campus election, students chose the eagle over the lion and the dragon as the mascot.
The Green Machine
The 1929 Ford Model A Tudor Sedan is driven at home football games, parades and other special occasions by the Talons spirit group. The vehicle was donated to UNT by an alumnus in 1974.
The tradition to ward off evil football spirits by lighting a large bonfire the night before the big game began in 1935.
The annual freshman parade became part of Homecoming in 1927, although Homecoming itself wasn’t associated with football until the mid-1930s. Upperclassmen later joined the tradition. The route has varied through the years but usually loops from campus to downtown Denton and back.
The first Honors Day, as it is currently practiced, began in 1951. Outstanding students, faculty and staff are recognized in an afternoon ceremony that often includes an outstanding alum as a guest speaker.
Lighting the clock tower green
After a UNT athletic team victory, special floodlights bathe the Hurley Administration Building’s McConnell Tower in a green light to signal the win to the campus and the community.
“Mean Green” moniker
The nickname dates from the late 1960s, when spontaneous chants from the stands for the football team’s defense inspired the athletic department to refer to the “Mean Green Defensive Unit” in a press release.
Mean Green Village
In the village — a growing tradition along with tailgating — various groups set up tents near Fouts Field before home football games. The pregame festivities include food, live music and an activities area for children.
Julia Smith, who played saxophone in the college band, composed the alma mater, which was adopted in 1922. Her tune written in 1919, “Glory to the Green and White,” features lyrics by Charles Langford. Alumnus Francis Stroup wrote the fight song, “Fight, North Texas,” in 1939 after the university held a fight song contest. He helped revise the lyrics after the name of the school changed to the University of North Texas.
University Day celebration
First held in 1961, when North Texas State College became North Texas State University, this anniversary party each spring includes games, music and food.
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Last week, we blogged about creating ads for your business, to be placed on websites through Google Adwords and similar programs. This week, we’re focusing on how to put these ads on your site.
There are many reasons to consider putting ads on your site. If you get a lot of traffic, it can be an easy way to earn some money on your site. Although you may not be bringing in a lot of money at first, the money will collect over time and, if your site is getting enough traffic, the amount of money you’re making from your site will improve.
The secret to using Adsense and other advertisement programs on your site is to do it tastefully. A couple of well-placed ads, placed so that they don’t interrupt the flow or usability of the website, won’t detract from your site. If you place too many ads, or if you place the ads in an intrusive way, you’ll not only make your site less user-friendly, you may create a spammy site (on accident) that will lower the level of confidence visitors have in you and your content.
There are several ways to customize ads to make them better fit on your site. You can specify the color and, in some cases, the font of the ads. There are several sizes available, meant to fit into regular ad sizes. Some content management programs (WordPress, for example) even have themes that have built-in ad spaces to make integration even easier. You can also customize what type of ads you display. Your options are text ads, image/rich ads, or a combination of the two. Through Adsense, you can block certain advertisers, ad categories or ad networks, giving you more of a say in what companies are showcased in your site’s ad spaces.
To sign up for Adsense, you will need to go through a quick website review process. Google wants to make sure that your website isn’t spam and that it doesn’t have questionable content. They also check to see how much traffic your site gets on a regular basis. After you’ve been approved (and most sites are), you’ll be able to set up your account and begin creating ads to go on your website.
Not every website is appropriate for Adsense or similar program. If you are running a professional or business website, don’t use ads. It takes away from the credibility of your business. The sites that see the most benefit from adsense are personal and informational websites.
What are the options to Adsense?
There are several different ad companies that provide services similar to Adsense. Some of the better options are ValueClick, BuySellAds, and Infolinks. There is also the option of selling ad space on your website on your own. Although selling ad space requires a lot more effort than placing ads through Adsense and similar programs, it does usually have a higher pay-off.
Your Turn: Have you used Adsense in your websites? Do you have any tips on how to implement it?
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http://www.modomediagroup.com/2010/12/adsense-for-your-website/
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1. Not sure what language this post was written in. Not English, not Hebrew. “Rabbeim” is not a word.Netanel Livni:
2. It is not true that Amoraim did not argue on Tannaim. R Elchanan Wasserman has a piece on it. Furthermore, R Yisrael from Shklov, in his introduction, cites the Gaon of Vilna that the phrase “chasuri michsera vehachi ke’tanni, [The Mishna] is missing [words] and this is what it should state,” means that the Amora is actually disagreeing with the Mishna. Thus we don’t find that the text of the Mishna is corrected. (Note: R Yosef Karo in Klale Gemara disagrees with this.)
3. Rishonim argued plenty on the Geonim. And plenty of Acharonim argue on Rishonim.
4. Those Acharonim that tend not to argue on Rishonim, it is not because they felt inferior. Rather because part of Halachic process is that certain poskim have been accepted on the masses. Shulhan Aruch went with Rif, Rosh, and Rambam, not because he thought they were better than others, rather because the masses were already following them. Often he disagrees with the Rambam, and still wrote his opinion in Shulhan Aruch. R Moshe Isserlis did the same. He only argues because in Eastern Europe, people were accustomed to Tosfos, Mordechi, Rabbenu Yerucham etc. Their method of accepting precedence, with regards to Halacha is the same. On the flip side, Maharshal, Shach, and other major Aharonim, decided halacha without precedence. To them, there was the decisions of Gemara, and that’s it. Rambam and Tosfos are only in the equation if they agree with Shach’s understanding of the Gemara. See Shach Choshen Mishpat 36:6 for a very revealing opinion on his method of precedence in halacha.
>It is a fundamental axiom that Rashi was on a higher plane than we are, both scholastically and spiritually.Myself:
I have looked and looked all around the great ikarim literature that exists and have not found this axiom anywhere. Please enlighten us from where this axiom appears (other than, of course, in your own judgement of what is proper)
>We must submit to Rashi, we must to Ramban, Rosh, Mordchai, et al, just as they submitted to the Amoraim and Tannaim that preceded them.
I must submit to God. I must submit to my own concience that God implanted in me. But to submit to Basar veDam?!? NEVER! THAT is avoda zarah.
>If we aren’t trembling before Rashi and his ba’alei pelugta, if we can see ourselves as judges of their acuity, as equals or, rachmana litzlan, as their betters in some ways, then we have detached ourselves from Torah and Yir’ah.
If we are not triying to understand what the rishonim ACTUALLY meant in their own historic/intellectual context. If we are not using all the tools at our disposal to understand them as great scholars who lived in a particular time and place and therefore need to be understood in the context of their intellectual era. If we transform them from great intellects into oracles. Then we dishonor them as scholars and as anshei emet.
>Such type of pedagogy is no longer in the realm of Torah, Kedushah and Mesorah. It is now merely Bible studies and its instructors merely purveyors of a scholastic discipline rising no more than Bertrand Russell’s triangle as chairman of a department of ethics.
Intellectual honesty, critical analysis, and historical context are the prerequisites to understanding. And understanding is the prerequisite to talmud Torah of any kind. A type of study that does not use the vastly superior tools that are available to us but were not available to previous generations. A type of study that is limited to the intellectual vistas of the past and ignores those of the present. Such a type of study can never be emet nor can it be a conduit of Kedushah into this world.
Amoraim do not argue with Tannoim, and Rishonim do not argue on Amoraim – in PISKEI HALACHAH. In non-halachic matters, and in explanations for the sources of piskei halachah, we do indeed find dispute. See Rav Shlomo Fisher in Derashos Beis Yishai for further elaboration. Rambam most certainly was not of the view that it is a “fundamental axiom” that earlier generations are scholastically on a higher level than later generations.
Furthermore, the Rishonim were never canonized vis-a-vis us in the way that the Gemara was canonized vis-a-vis the Rishonim. That is why Rav Moshe Feinstein explicitly states (Yoreh Deah 1:101) that he sometimes argues with the Rishonim – in halachah!
The article here is still somewhat ambiguous, but it seems to strongly say that it is unacceptable to say that Rashi interpreted Midrashim literally, or that on occasion his explanation was based on scientific information that is now obsolete. Since both these points were made by countless authorities from R. Moshe Abulafiah to Chassam Sofer to Rav Aryeh Carmell ztz”l, on what grounds does the writer state that this is unacceptable, that it contradicts the notion of mesorah, and that it results in “Torah minayin”?
I can't figure out by which criteria these comments were rejected.
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<urn:uuid:a009c404-978e-46f6-8f46-0e1f76cf88ce>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.rationalistjudaism.com/2012/03/more-rejected-comments.html?showComment=1332278718731
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Joined: 16 Mar 2004
|Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 12:50 pm Post subject: New Holographic Method for Lab-on-a-Chip Technologies
These images were taken from a video illustrating a new technique that uses a laser and holograms to precisely position clusters of numerous tiny particles within seconds, representing a potential new tool to analyze biological samples or create devices using "nanoassembly." The red dots are individual particles. (Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University)
Researchers at Purdue University have developed a technique that uses a laser and holograms to precisely position numerous tiny particles within seconds, representing a potential new tool to analyze biological samples or create devices using nanoassembly.
The technique, called rapid electrokinetic patterning, is a potential alternative to existing technologies because the patterns can be more quickly and easily changed, said mechanical engineering doctoral student Stuart J. Williams.
"It's potentially a very versatile tool," said Williams, who is working with doctoral student Aloke Kumar and Steven T. Wereley, an associate professor of mechanical engineering.
The research is based at the Birck Nanotechnology Center in Purdue's Discovery Park .
The students won a research award for their work in October during the 12th International Conference on Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences in San Diego . Four young researcher poster awards were selected out of more than 220 posters judged in the contest. Findings also have been recently published in two peer-reviewed journals, Lab on a Chip and Microfluidics and Nanofluidics.
The experimental device consists of two parallel electrodes made of indium tin oxide, a transparent and electrically conductive material. The parallel plates were spaced 50 micrometers, or millionths of a meter, apart, equivalent to two-thousandths of an inch or about the diameter of a human hair. A liquid sample containing fluorescent beads was injected between the two electrodes, a laser in the near infrared range of the spectrum was shined through one of the transparent electrodes and a small electrical voltage was applied between the two electrodes.
"We send holograms of various patterns through this and, because they are holograms, we can create different shapes, such as straight lines or L patterns," Kumar said.
The particles in the liquid sample automatically move to the location of the light and assume the shape of the hologram, meaning the method could be used to not only move particles and molecules to specific locations but also to create tiny electronic or mechanical features.
"It's a very dynamic system, so we can change this pattern quickly," Kumar said.
The light heats up the liquid sample slightly, changing its density and electrical properties. The electric field applied to the plates acts on these altered properties, causing the heated sample to circulate, much like heated air causes convection currents in the atmosphere, producing a donut-shaped "microfluidic vortex" of circulating liquid between the two plates.
This vortex enables the researchers to position the particles in the circulating liquid by moving the laser light.
"You could take one particle, a hundred particles or a thousand particles and move them anywhere you want in any shape that you want," Williams said. "If you have particles of two different types, you can sort one group out and keep the other behind. It's a versatile tool."
Separating particles is important for analyzing medical and environmental samples. The system could allow researchers to design sensor technologies that move particles to specific regions on an electronic chip for detection or analysis.
The technique overcomes limitations inherent in two existing methods for manipulating particles measured on the scale of nanometers, or billionths of a meter. One of those techniques, called optical trapping, uses a highly focused beam of light to capture and precisely position particles. That technique, however, is able to move only a small number of particles at a time.
The other technique, known as dielectrophoresis, uses electric fields generated from metallic circuits to move many particles at a time. Those circuit patterns, however, cannot be changed once they are created.
The new method is able to simultaneously position numerous particles and be changed at a moment's notice simply by changing the shape of the hologram or the position of the light.
"If you want to pattern individual particles on a massive scale using electrokinetic methods as precisely as we are doing it, it could take hours to days, where we are doing it in seconds," Williams said.
The method offers promise for future "lab-on-a-chip" technology, or using electronic chips to analyze biological samples for medical and environmental applications. Researchers are trying to develop such chips that have a "high throughput," or the ability to quickly detect numerous particles or molecules, such as proteins, using the smallest sample possible.
"For example, a single drop of blood contains millions of red blood cells and countless molecules," Williams said. "You always want to have the smallest sample possible so you don't generate waste and you don't have to use as many chemicals for processing the sample. You want to have a very efficient high throughput type of device."
So-called "optical tweezers" use light to position objects such as cells or molecules.
"You can't use mechanical tweezers to move things like molecules because they are too delicate and will be damaged by conventional tweezers," Kumar said. "That is why techniques like optical tweezing and dielectrophoresis are very popular."
The students also have designed an experiment containing one indium tin oxide plate and one gold plate, an important development because gold is often used in biomedical applications.
"It's a technique that you would likely use in sensors, but we also see definite potential ways in which you could use it to manufacture devices with nanoassembly," Wereley said. "But it's really too soon to talk about scaling this up in a manufacturing setting. We're just beginning to develop this technique."
The researchers recorded videos of the circulating particles to document the effect. A video showing the effect was selected as an outstanding entry during a meeting of the American Physical Society in November. The video can be accessed at http://ecommons.cornell.edu/handle/1813/11399 .
"This technique has not been done before," Williams said. "We can pattern light, we can pattern particles, we can pattern the vortex. No other tool can do all of these."
The researchers demonstrated how the method could be used to cause particles to stick permanently to a surface in a single crystalline layer, a structure that could be used in manufacturing. They used their technique to move fluorescent-dyed beads of polystyrene, latex and glass in sizes ranging from 50 nanometers to 3 micrometers.
Future work may involve using a less expensive light source, such as a common laser pointer, which could not be used to create intricate patterns but might be practical for manufacturing.
Source: Emil Venere http://www.purdue.edu/dp/Nanotechnology/news.php
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This summer the Olympics will be held in Beijing, a decision fraught with controversy since it was announced back in 2001. China's human-rights record is abysmal-from forced abortions, to persecuting Christians and other people of faith, to clamping down on free speech, to supporting a government that has committed genocide in Darfur.
The Olympic committee, back in 2001, said choosing Beijing would be a catalyst for change in China. It "may help to liberalize a country," said the committee's vice president, Thomas Bach of Germany. But that will not happen when, as the London Daily Mail puts it, you "kow tow" to the host country, and you tell athletes to keep quiet-which is exactly what is happening.
To comply with the international Olympic Charter, Britain's Olympic athletes are being forced to sign contracts promising they will not say anything about China's human-rights abuses. If they violate the contract, athletes will find themselves on a plane headed home. The contract could mean that an athlete "who witnesses someone being mistreated on the way to a stadium" could not talk to colleagues about it. And they would have to "exercise self-censorship" on blogs and e-mails.
And while U.S. athletes may speak freely-they cannot do so at any official Olympic venue or press conference. Come on.
Some have said this year's gagging of athletes is reminiscent of the Nazi salute British competitors gave at a soccer match in Berlin in 1938. "Imposing compulsory vows of silence is an affront to our athletes, and in China it will be viewed as acquiescence," said human-rights advocate Lord David Alton. He noted that "each year 8,000 executions take place in China, political and religious opinion is repressed, journalists jailed and the internet and overseas broadcasts heavily censored." Alton was dead-on when he said, "For our athletes to be told that they may not make any comment makes a mockery of our own country's belief in free speech."
Last August, International Olympic Committee Chairman Jacques Rogge said, "We stand for human rights, we stand for strict social values, but we are only a sports organization." Well, which is it? Are the Olympics a force that will "help liberalize a country" as Bach said earlier, or "only a sports organization"?
To carry on with the Games as if nothing is wrong in China is a serious blow to human rights and those who fight to uphold them.
Steven Spielberg recognized this and withdrew from his role as an artistic adviser to the Games' opening and closing ceremonies. According to the Wall Street Journal, Spielberg cited "China's connection to the government in Sudan and the controversy over Darfur." Good for Spielberg.
"About the only justification for participating in the Beijing Games is that it offers an opportunity to encourage more awareness about human rights," says Lord Alton.
The Games will go on. But to paraphrase Alton, the only justification for watching them will be for American viewers to raise the human-rights issue in letters-to-the-editor, speaking with lawmakers and Olympic sponsors, and shining a spotlight on Chinese repression.
Even if our athletes can not speak out — and I bet some will — we can. And we must.
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Hernán Cortés (1485–December 2, 1547) (who was known as Hernando or Fernando Cortés during his lifetime and signed all his letters Fernán Cortés) was the conquistador who conquered Mexico for Spain.
Due to several setbacks, Cortés did not arrive in the New World until 1506. He took part in the conquest of Hispaniola and Cuba and was granted a large estate of land and Indian slaves for his efforts. This was the encomienda that had worked so well in the conquest of the Canaries (eliminating the indigenous Guanches) but would prove devastating in the New World. The brutality of the Cuba campaign and the subsequent extinction of the Indian population from disease, overwork and despair would later influence Cortés's more careful treatment of the Mexicans as Captain-General of New Spain, making possible, ironically, the survival of so many "genotypically" full-blooded Indians, Indian tribes, and Indian languages in Mexico today.
Expeditions to Yucatán by Francisco Hernández de Córdoba in 1517 and Juan de Grijalva in 1518 had returned to Cuba with small amounts of gold, and tales of a more distant land where gold was said to be abundant. Cortés eagerly sold or mortgaged all his lands to buy ships and supplies and arranged with the Governor of Cuba, Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, another distant relative and his father-in-law, to lead an expedition, officially to explore and trade with the rumored new lands to the west. He was forbidden to colonize, but calling upon what law he had studied and his famous powers of persuasion, he tricked Governor Velázquez into inserting a clause about emergency measures that might have to be taken without prior authorization, "in the true interests of the realm". At the last minute, the Governor changed his mind, sensing that Cortés was too ambitious for his own good.
In 1519 Cortés fled Cuba with 11 ships, 500 men, and 15 horses. After short stops in Yucatán where there was little gold but the priceless gift of two translators, one "La Malinche" later made legendary even if not quite an Aztec princess sold into Mayan slavery, another a shipwrecked Spaniard who had also learned a Mayan dialect during seven years of slavery, Cortés landed his party in a location he named Veracruz ("True Cross") on March 4. By establishing a municipality, he could "reluctantly" proceed to claim land for king Charles V of Spain by popular mandate of the city magistrates he had appointed, his friends.
The local Totonac from Cempoala greeted him with gifts of food, feathers, gold – and women, who always had to be baptized before the eager Spanish soldiers were allowed to let them "fix supper for them" ("grind their corn"). He learned that the land was ruled by the great lord in the city of Tenochtitlán. Soon ambassadors from the Mexica/Aztec Emperor Moctezuma II arrived with additional gifts, apparently hoping to keep him at a distance by satisfying him with gold. It had the opposite effect, of course. Cortés learned that he was suspected of being Quetzalcoatl or an emissary of Quetzalcoatl, a legendary man-god who was predicted to one day return to reclaim his city in a One-Reed year on the cyclical calendar. (One-Reed was, in this particular 52-year "century", 1519, adding to the extraordinary luck of this conquistador.) Aided by the advice of his native translator, La Malinche, he took full advantage of the Quetzalcoatl myth, inflicting Moctezuma with what writer Octavio Paz described as "sacred vertigo".
While some of the expedition wanted to get such gold as they could quickly by trade or theft and then return to Cuba, Cortés had seen the results of this sort of plunder and had plans to build a working empire of his own. He ordered all his fleet scuttled (not burned as legend has it), except for one small ship with which to communicate with Spain, effectively stranding the expedition in Mexico and ending all thoughts of loyalty to the Governor of Cuba. Cortés then led his band inland towards the fabled Tenochtitlán.
Cortés arrived at Tlaxcala, a small independent state within the empire's sphere of influence. The Tlaxcaltecas attacked his troops, but Spanish crossbows, broadswords, battle axes, horses, war dogs and firearms quickly won the battle. Cortés said that if the men of Tlaxcala would accept Christianity, become his allies and vassals to his lord, he would forgive their disrespect and overthrow their nemesis, Emperor Moctezuma. Cortés's "lord" was Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, to whom he made his case by letters, over the head of Velázquez, who, in turn, was trying to make a case over the head of Diego Colón, son of Christopher Columbus and thus Admiral of the Ocean Sea. Otherwise, Cortés threatened, he would kill everyone in their entire nation. The Tlaxcaltecas agreed; Cortés then continued his march with some 2,000 Tlaxcalteca warriors and perhaps as many more porters. He also purchased cotton armour, seeing how much more effective than chainmail it was against Indian arrows.
After Cortés arrived in Cholula, the second largest city of the Empire, La Malinche relayed a rumor that the locals planned to murder the Spaniards in their sleep. Although he did not know if this was true or not, Cortés ordered a preventive strike to serve as a lesson: the Spaniards seized and killed the local nobles, set fire to the city and killed an estimated 15,000 to 30,000 of the inhabitants. Cortés then sent a message ahead to Moctezuma that the lords of Cholula had treated him with disrespect and had to be punished, but if Moctezuma treated him with respect and gifts of gold, the Aztecs need not fear his wrath. Terror was one of his many powerful tools, though much of his military genius can be ascribed to La Malinche, who had her own motives for revenge.
When the Spaniards saw the island city of Tenochtitlán for the first time, from the ring of volcanoes around the Valley of Mexico, they asked each other if they were dreaming. Surely it was the most magnificent city in the world. How could God allow heathens such splendor? The expedition arrived in the Mexica-Aztec capital on November 8, 1519. Moctezuma welcomed Cortés to Tenochtitlán on the Great Causeway into the "Venice of the West", probably the largest city on earth, and many people mark this moment – when two high civilizations met after 40,000 years of isolation – as the true discovery of the New World. The two halves of the planet had found one another.
Moctezuma had the palace of his father Axayacatl prepared to house the Spanish and their Indian allies. Cortés asked for more gifts of gold as a vassal of Charles V. He also demanded that the two large idols be removed from the main temple pyramid in the city, the human blood scrubbed off, and shrines to the Virgin Mary and St. Christopher be set up in their place. All his demands were met. Cortés then seized Moctezuma in his own palace and made him his prisoner as insurance against Aztec revolt, and demanded an enormous ransom of gold, which was duly delivered.
After some weeks in Tenochtitlán, knowing their leader was in chains and having to feed not just a band of Spaniards but thousands of their Tlaxcalteca allies, the strain began to weigh on the city. At the worst possible moment, news from the coast reached Cortés that a much larger party of Spaniards had been sent by the Velázquez to arrest Cortés for insubordination. He left Tenochtitlán in the care of his trusted lieutenant Pedro de Alvarado, marched to the coast and defeated the Cuban expedition led by Pánfilo de Narváez. When Cortés told the defeated soldiers about the city of gold, Tenochtitlán, they agreed to join him. (Narváez lost an eye, but worse awaited this great loser of the conquest in Florida.)
The arduous trek back over the Sierra Madre Oriental began. Years later, when asked what the new land was like, Cortés crumpled up a piece of parchment, then spread it out: "Like this," he said.
Place of encounter of Mocetezuma Xocoyotzin and the Spanish Conquistador Hernan Cortes on the 8 day of November 1519
When Cortés returned to the palace, however, he found that Alvarado and his men had massacred the Aztec nobility and the survivors had elected a new emperor, Cuitláhuac. Cuitláhuac ordered his soldiers to besiege the palace housing the Spaniards and Moctezuma. Cortés ordered Moctezuma to speak to his people from a palace balcony and persuade them to let the Spanish return to the coast in peace. Moctezuma was jeered and stones were thrown at him injuring him badly, and Moctezuma died a few days later.
On the night of July 1, 1520, Cortés decided to try to break out by muffling the horses' hooves and carrying boards to fill in one of the causeways (which had been opened to prevent escape), but a woman saw them and alerted the city. The fighting was ferocious, and many of the Spaniards were hindered by having loaded themselves down with as much gold as they could carry. Cortés only survived because the Mexica-Aztecs wanted him alive to sacrifice to their god of war. Surely the offering of the heart of such a warrior would win back their god of war, Huitzilopochtli. The gap in the causeway, removed to prevent their escape, was so filled with bodies the fugitives just ran across. Over 400 Spaniards and some 2,000 Indian allies were killed, but Cortés, Alvarado and the most skilled of the men managed to fight their way out of Tenochtitlán and escape. The women survivors included La Malinche, ten conquistadors, Alvarado's lover and two of Moctezuma's daughters in Cortés's harem. (A third died, apparently leaving behind her infant by Cortés, the mysterious second "María" named in his will.) This major Aztec victory is still remembered as "La Noche Triste", the Night of Sorrow.
Cortés ordered his master shipwright, Martín López, a Basque who was arguably his most critical survivor, to build 12 brigantines for a siege of the city. Indian porters brought all the supplies stripped from the original fleet over the mountains from the coast, while Cortés and his allies secured all the towns around the Tenochtitlán lake system. The Mexica-Aztecs had been dominating other Aztec city-states for over a century, demanding ever more sacrificial victims and other tribute. Still, this phase of the campaign was arduous and brutal. The Tlaxcaltecas subsisted on the flesh of their massacred enemies while the "Christians" looked the other way, living on dogs and corn. Spanish foot soldiers helped kill Indians for their allies to "dress out", but also rescued many of the women Cortés planned to brand on the face as slaves. They hid the pretty ones in the bushes, sleeping with them during the night, and setting them free in the morning (or marrying them, now that their husbands had been devoured).
The siege of Tenochtitlán began at a time when smallpox struck with a vengeance. Cortés's Indian allies suffered as well, with an estimated 40% mortality, but the effect on morale in Tenochtitlán, as they began to starve as well, must have been horrendous. Still, they fought on long after a European city would have surrendered. Cortés genuinely wanted to spare the beautiful city, but with so many Mexica attacking them from the roofs, they were forced to pull houses down street by street. In the end, almost the entire city of Tenochtitlán was destroyed and some 120,000 to 240,000 Aztecs killed. The last Aztec emperor, Cuauhtémoc, surrendered to Cortés on August 13, 1521.
Cortés famously put Cuauhtémoc's feet to the fire to find the gold lost on La Noche Triste, but notarized testimony at his many subsequent trials (for murdering his legal wife, etc.) has abundant testimony from friends and enemies alike that this crime ruined Cortés. He never forgave himself and seems to have gone somewhat mad. He took off on a senseless, death-defying expedition through Guatemala to Honduras to punish a fellow Spaniard who had betrayed him, and with his departure all shadow of personal authority left Mexico. He became paranoid as well, having Cuauhtémoc hanged over the strong objections of his men. Perhaps he could no longer bear to see him limp from his disfigured feet.
When Cortés returned from Honduras, barely alive, he was greeted with joy by a desperate, lawless population. He served a term as Governor-General of "New Spain of the Ocean Sea" (as Juan de Grijalva had named Mexico before Cortés ever saw it), bringing stability and surprising civil rights to the country. But the Castilian bureaucrats began to arrive, undoing all his work, and he left with his eldest and favorite son, La Malinche's child Martín Cortés, to find China, eventually returning to Europe to fight in Italy with the same son, a mestizo. Cortés died in Castilleja de la Cuesta, Seville province, in 1547. Like Columbus, he died a wealthy but embittered man; he had not become the great Caesar of Charles V's Western Empire.
He left his many Indian and white children well cared for in his will, along with every one of their mothers. It is extremely difficult to characterize this particular conquistador – his unspeakable atrocities, the brilliant military strategies, his desperate maneuvers to keep the ruinous plantation economy out of Mexico, the rewards for his Tlaxcalteca allies along with the rehabilitation of the nobility (including a castle for Moctezuma's heirs in Spain that still stands), his respect for Indians as worthy adversaries and family members. In Mexico today he is condemned as a modern-day damnatio memoriae, Orwell's "Unperson", with only one statue – but half a million descendants, and one of the most remarkable stories in history.
Cortés told the Aztecs that he and his men "suffered from a disease of the heart which is only cured by gold." Pedro de Cieza de León was inspired to sail to Peru after seeing the Inca gold unloaded in Seville. "As long as I live I cannot get it out of my mind," he said. All of which perplexed – and, in the end, disgusted – the native peoples. The half-Inca historian, Waman Poma, portrayed an Indian asking a Spaniard: "Do you actually eat this gold?" And the Spaniard replies: "Yes, we certainly do!" The last of the great Incas, Manco himself, bitterly remarked, "Even if the snows of the Andes turned to gold still they would not be satisfied." Source unknown
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.
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The F-22 is the world’s most sophisticated operational fighter plane, and one of the most expensive. But due to an unexplained and potentially deadly problem that causes oxygen to drain out of the cockpit, pilots are refusing to be assigned to it.
Air Force General Mike Hostage admitted that a number of F-22 pilots are refusing to fly the stealth fighter until it is completely safe or have asked to be moved to different planes altogether. He did not specify how many out of a total of some 200 F-22 pilots refused, but claimed it was a "small number".
Usually, securing a seat on the most modern plane in the USAF is a hotly-contested competition reserved for the best pilots.
But the F-22 has been plagued by a persistent fault – a deficiency of oxygen in the cockpit, leading to hypoxia.
Hypoxia starts when the brain is starved of oxygen. It can cause dizziness, disorientation and blackouts and, potentially, loss of consciousness. But when operating a jet that flies at nearly twice the speed of sound, even a momentary lapse could prove disastrous.
The Air Force has documented a recent flight when the pilot became so disoriented he allowed the plane to descend so low it brushed the tops of trees before he managed to compose himself and gain height at the moment of contact.
The most alarming thing is that hypoxia has been reported for years, and not only have the engineers not found a solution, but they don’t even understand what is causing the problem – whether it’s a design flaw or the body’s response to flying conditions.
The Air Force grounded the jets for five months last year while it examined them. It allowed the planes back up in the air in September 2011. Since then, it admits there have been at least eight more incidents of in-flight hypoxia.
A highly-placed Air Force panel is currently holding weekly meetings to discuss progress.
General Mike Hostage has even promised to personally climb into the cockpit.
“I'm going to check out and fly the airplane so I can understand exactly what it is they're dealing with,” he said.
The oxygen problem is the latest debacle in the life of a plane that has come under a firestorm of criticism.
At $79 billion for less than 200 planes – the final F-22 rolled off the production line last year – the entire program has been dismissed as exorbitantly expensive.
Despite being introduced into the Air Force in 2005, the stealth jet has not seen any action. Designed for air-to-air combat against other latest-generation jets it’s had no place in the counter-insurgency and bombardment missions the US has conducted in the Middle East and Afghanistan.
Now, with the more versatile and modern F-35 scheduled for introduction in 2016, the F-22 risks becoming a niche failure that never saw its time come.
And that’s even if it gets cleared for take-off.
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August 23, 2004
Full and fair disclosure of the responsibilities of a purveyor of financial products is required to ensure that the consumer fully understands the nature of the relationship he is entering into. The SEC, NASD or other regulatory agency can not be expected to decide which business model is effective, but consumers expect the government to regulate this industry and ensure that they, consumers, are given the information needed to make a fully informed decision.
If a consumer goes into a car dealership to purchase a car, the consumer does not expect the sales person to make sure that the consumer gets the best car for their needs at the best possible price. However, this expectation does exist when buying financial products. The individual investor expects that the person selling the financial product is looking out for the investors best interest.
The current, arcane laws governing the disclosure and responsibility of Financial Advisors and Broker Dealers are not in concert with the expectations of todays consumer. In todays economic enviorment, the lines between the traditional broker-dealer and the financial advisors is, at best, blurry. Several factors contribute to this blurry line and confuse the individual investor.
1. The vast majority of broker dealers no longer call themselves Stock Brokers as they did 60 years ago. In their own marketing attempts to win customers, the broker dealers call themselves Investment Consultants, Personal Investment Adivsors, etc. This language is used specifically to leave the consumer with the impression that the primary services being rendered are investment advise and the sale of securities to match their financial needs. The true purpose of the broker dealer, either to give advise, sell securities or both, is not relevant. The fact is that the broker dealer is actively marketing the giving of advise to the consumer. This is no different than a Financial Advisor.
2. The primary reason that investors use full service brokerage firms broker-dealers today is the investment advice provided. With the ease of access to discount brokerage services, an investor who soley wanted trade execution would use one of the many discount brokerage services. By paying the much higher fees either commision or annual fee, the investor is implicitly choosing to pay for both the advice offered and trade execution. The traditional Financial Advisor is paid, among other things, to analyze the current portfolio and recommend specific actions to the client. The primary difference between the two roles is in the ancilary services provided - income tax analysis, insurance needs analysis, etc.
3. When an investor opens an account with a broker-dealer, the investor discusses their risk profile, investment experience and investment goals. These same concepts are discussed in the traditional Financial Planning relationship. Since both ask the same types of questions, the consumer is left with the impression that the answers provided will be used when providing investment advise. If the broker-dealers use this information to make appropriate recommendations, they are, in fact, providing advise. If the broker-dealer analyzes the investors current holdings and suggests changes, the broker-dealer is providing advise. The timing or type of payment is not relavent. The fact is that the advise is being sought and provided. Even the quarterly statements of most major broker-dealers give the impression of adivse. They show breakouts of asset classes, investment sizes, cost basis, etc. If the only role of the broker-dealer was to execute trades and recommend hot securities, this information would not be demanded by the customers of the firm, nor provided by the firm.
In summary, the financial advise landscape has changed dramatically over the last 60+ years since the Act was passed. The lines that differentiated the sale of securties and other financial instruments from the sale of financial advise have merged or been erased. The changes that have taken place have helped the consumer gain access to the financial markets in ways that could not be imagined when the original rules were enacted. At the same time, the consumer is more confused than ever because of this blurring of roles.
In any agreement, clear disclosure of what will be performed is essential. The rendering of financial advise, with all its complexities, is no exception. If the SEC and other regulatory agencies feel that the providing of advise is ancillary to the sale of a security and this proposal is passed, I feel that this should be disclosed to the consumer. A statement such as The adivse rendered by the sales person named below is strictly ancilary to the sale of a security and should not be considered in the best interest of the client should be required. All this statement does is clarify and reiterate to the consumer that they are NOT paying for investment advise but are really paying for the execution of a trade. The accurate disclosure of services to be rendered is a simple question. If the goal of the person being paid is to sell, that person should say so. If the goal of the person being paid to provide advise, that person should say so. If the service providor is unwilling or unable to clarify the services provided, the consumer has a right to know that as well.
The heart of the question, then, is the disclosure to the consumer and the responsibilities of the service provider. If the ultimate goal of the SEC is to protect consumers by ensuring the accuracy of information, then disclosure to the consumer must be made relating to the role of the service provider.
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Alcoa Fjardaal commissions $US32M pot repair shop
A 4,000 sq ft pot repair facility commissioned by Alcoa at its Fjardaal smelter in Iceland is capable of re-lining three pots simultaneously and has an estimated throughput of 2.5 pots per week.
Alcoa’s $US32M pot repair facility represents the final stage of development for the company’s Fjardaal smelter.
The plant’s 336 pots needs re-lining every five to seven years.
Iceland-based VHE is responsible for all pot repair shop operations, including relining pots and repairing pot shells. Sixty new jobs have been created on-site.
The facility was officially opened earlier this month by Iceland’s finance minister Oddny G Hardardottir and Jenne Sigurdsson, Alcoa Fjardaal’s CEO.
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Search articles from 1992 to the present.
Choosing the Perfect Christmas Tree
This article was published originally on 11/10/2000
The Christmas tree is a holiday tradition which began in Germany in the seventeenth century. German immigrants and Hessian soldiers hired by the British to fight the colonists during the American Revolution brought the tradition to the United States. Today, most Americans decorate their home with an artificial , live, or cut tree for the holiday season.
Good quality artificial trees are time-saving, clean, safe, and attractive. Yet, for many individuals (myself included) even the best quality artificial tree lacks the beauty, charm, and romance of a live or cut tree.
Container grown or balled and burlapped live trees can be used as Christmas trees during the holiday season and are then planted outdoors in the home landscape. Unfortunately, planting evergreen trees in mid-winter is often difficult because of our harsh winter weather. Many winter planted evergreens die. Good site preparation, plant selection and care of the live tree can dramatically improve its chances for survival. Small, healthy evergreens are the best choice for live Christmas trees. Small trees are less expensive, easier to handle, and are more likely to survive. Prepare the planting site for the tree before the ground freezes in the fall. Store the soil in a warm place and then spread straw and a tarp over the planting area to keep the soil from freezing. Once purchased, store the tree in a sheltered, cool location, such as a garage, shed, or porch. Make sure the soil ball is kept moist but does not freeze. The maximum stay indoors for an evergreen should be 7 to 10 days. Indoors, place the tree in a cool location and keep the soil ball moist. Shortly after Christmas, remove the tree from the house and place it in a cool, protected location. (Don t place the tree directly outdoors. A sudden, large drop in temperatures could injure the tree.) Plant the tree outdoors on a mild winter day.
A few decisions should be made before going out to buy a cut tree. Decide where you are going to place the tree. Also, decide on the type (Scotch pine, white pine, Fraser fir, Douglas fir, white spruce, etc.) and the size (height and width) of the tree you want.
Cut Christmas trees may be purchased from cut-your-own tree farms or as cut trees in a commercial lot. Trees cut and purchased at cut-your-own tree farms are obviously fresh. Carefully check trees at a commercial tree lot to insure the freshness of previously cut trees. Freshness can be determined with a few simple tests. Gently run your hand over a branch. The needles on a fresh tree will be pliable. Those on a dry tree will be brittle. Another test is to lift the tree by the trunk and lightly bounce the butt on the ground. Heavy needle drop indicates a dry tree. A fresh tree will drop only a few needles.
When looking for a tree select one that has a straight trunk. It will be much easier to set it upright in the stand. Check the diameter of the trunk to make sure it will fit in your stand. A tree with a bare side may be fine if you intend to place it in a corner or against a wall.
Once you get the tree home, place it in a cool, sheltered location. The storage site should protect the tree from sun and wind. Put the butt of the tree in a bucket of water. Saw off 1 inch of wood at the bottom of the trunk before bringing the tree indoors. A fresh cut helps facilitate water uptake. Place and secure the tree in its stand and fill the reservoir with water. Check the water supply as least twice a day and add water as needed. Promptly remove the tree when it begins to dry and drop needles.
Year of Publication:
IC-483(24) -- November 10, 2000
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PORT GIBSON, MS (WLBT) - Residents in Claiborne County who get their drinking water from the town of Port Gibson water supply are under a boil water alert.
It affects 4,263 customers.
Water system officials notified the Mississippi State Department of Health about the system wide loss in pressure due to control malfunctions.
People are advised to vigorously boil the water for one minute before drinking it.
©2010 WLBT. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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I am starting to go on Interviews. I was asked some questions I needed a mental refresher on. I guess I don’t use these on a day to day basis with my current company, so I fell out of habit with them. I also think that since I didn’t receive any formal training in CS, I don’t know much for keywords which could also be the problem. I understand the concepts, just not the actual verbs for each concept.
1. What is a primitive data type?
Char, Int, Floating Points, boolean and pointers would all be considered primitive data types.
2. Whats relationship between objects and classes?
Objects are the actual instance of each class. Objects can be created and destroyed, objects are living.
3. Whats an Interface?
A template of a class that needs to be implemented or inherited from, but without doing any work.
4. Whats an Abstract Class?
Same as an interface, but this class can do work within its methods.
5. Whats a static variable?
A variable that lives within the class, but it’s the same for every object of that class. So if it changes for one object, it will change for every object.
6. Whats a Race condition?
Where an output of “mostly” multi threaded programming is dependent upon the timing of the uncontrolled events.
7. What is a deadlock?
Where two competing actions are waiting for the other to finish.
Good Coders Code, Great Coders Reuse
If you have a difficult task to do, give it to a lazy man, he will find an easier way to do it.
A toothpaste factory had a problem: they sometimes shipped empty boxes, without the tube inside. This was due to the way the production line was set up, and people with experience in designing production lines will tell you how difficult it is to have everything happen with timings so precise that every single unit coming out of it is perfect 100% of the time. Small variations in the environment (which can’t be controlled in a cost-effective fashion) mean you must have quality assurance checks smartly distributed across the line so that customers all the way down the supermarket don’t get pissed off and buy someone else’s product instead.
Understanding how important that was, the CEO of the toothpaste factory got the top people in the company together and they decided to start a new project, in which they would hire an external engineering company to solve their empty boxes problem, as their engineering department was already too stretched to take on any extra effort. The project followed the usual process: budget and project sponsor allocated, RFP, third-parties selected, and six months (and $8 million) later they had a fantastic solution — on time, on budget, high quality and everyone in the project had a great time. They solved the problem by using some high-tech precision scales that would sound a bell and flash lights whenever a toothpaste box weighing less than it should. The line would stop, and someone had to walk over and yank the defective box out of it, pressing another button when done.
A while later, the CEO decides to have a look at the ROI of the project: amazing results! No empty boxes ever shipped out of the factory after the scales were put in place. Very few customer complaints, and they were gaining market share. “That’s some money well spent!” – he says, before looking closely at the other statistics in the report.
It turns out, the number of defects picked up by the scales was 0 after three weeks of production use. It should’ve been picking up at least a dozen a day, so maybe there was something wrong with the report. He filed a bug against it, and after some investigation, the engineers come back saying the report was actually correct. The scales really weren'’t picking up any defects, because all boxes that got to that point in the conveyor belt were good.
Puzzled, the CEO travels down to the factory, and walks up to the part of the line where the precision scales were installed. A few feet before it, there was a $20 desk fan, blowing the empty boxes out of the belt and into a bin. “Oh, that — one of the guys put it there ’cause he was tired of walking over every time the bell rang”, says one of the workers.
I am a firm advocate of the StackExchange network. It does good work and it allows us all to take less time to do something it took a bit longer several years ago. I have been following answers.startups.com for a while now and its one of my favorite StackExchange sites. I love startups and I am also attempting one right now for my self.
The problem I have with this site though is not the answers it gives, but with the answers it doesn’t give. I personally think the FAQ of the site needs to be updated and changed. They are closing too many questions that have to do with startups in one way or another.
Lets take for example, this question on pricing for a startup. Lets look at the FAQ to see where this falls under. The FAQ specifically states:
Topics include financing, hiring employees, renting an office, legal, marketing, sales, compensation plans, banking, payroll, benefits, and more. This is the place to come with specific questions or to seek specific advice from your peers.
The question here, is about pricing and sales of their particular startup. How am I going to sell this product better than what I currently sell it at? Yet, it was closed and proceeded to be voted on by three people who think they have read the FAQ thoroughly.
Lets take a look at another one. This one asking for tips on marketing. While a pretty general question, but if we look at the FAQ again. It falls under marketing. Again, it was closed by four people who think they have read the FAQ. The problem here is they haven’t. Things like marketing an application or startup is a pretty good question. I would personally love to market my start up differently if I only knew how.
One more, just to prove a point. This one asking what type of offer to provide new members of a company. This has to do with hiring an employee, but they say it is too localized. I ask them, when has a start up ever been started by just two people and adding the third on some time later? Have you ever heard of a start up that doesn’t do that? Definitely not me. (sarcastic) This person wanted to know if the offer they provided was sufficient enough. I would look at this question if I brought in a third person for my startup. I can then get a much better gauge at what to offer them. Therefore, I have used this question to help answer my question of hiring someone else. Not localized at all.
Now, lets look somewhere else. Everyone knows about YCombinator. At least everyone I talk to in the startup world. One of my friends actually got accepted to this latest group and just had his demo day. I personally asked him, what he thought the best part of YC was. He said it was the people. To know, he can post a question to any one of them about any part of his startup and get the advice needed. It didn’t matter what topic the question was on, he would get some honest and good feedback and even some help if he needed it. Sadly, that's not relevant here at answers.onstartups.com, even though they clearly state “seek specific advice from our peers” in their FAQ.
On the front page it self, I count 5 closed questions alone. That means, that this answer forum is throwing away 1/4th to 1/3rd of their user community. What person wants to see this site for the very first time, asks a question and then gets told its not on topic. I would be pushed away never to return.
I ask you answers.onstartups.com, what are you actually trying to accomplish? Are you trying to accomplish me coming to your site, because I don’t know anyone else to ask, and ask a question that I can get real answers to? Or are you trying to just have the business end of the startups answered?
I personally don’t think this site has a specific goal in mind and needs to reign in their moderators. They are pushing too many people away when they can’t even be that exclusive. One day, this site could be the Forrst for startups, but not today. Not while they have problems without specific goals in mind.
There is a problem with some of these Q&A sites. Its that there is no correct answer. Its not a programming site, where I can show you solid logic to back up my claims. Its advice. Advice on what we have done and what worked and what didn’t. I think that's the real problem with answers.onstartups.com. It expects logic, and not actual advice to be the correct answer.
When publishing a WPF application. I used the Click Once method as it seems to be the best and quickest way to auto update desktop applications.
Its like auto updating apps these days on phones and tablets, but this time its on a windows desktop.
So, I had implemented it and we have had users download our beta piece of software for it. The first problem I saw when errors started arriving was the line numbers weren’t being taken. So I knew it first, we weren’t publishing the .PDB files when we published via ClickOnce.
So we went searching and its sort of hidden away. But Right click on the Project –> Properties –> Publish Tab –> Application Files Button then Click Show All Files. You can then require that the PDBs get published with the app. It will show line numbers now in Errors and it will be much easier to see problems.
Now hear me out, before you go commenting like crazy or I stir a hornets nest saying something bad about Java.
We have this project at work that has consumed a year and a half of development time. Some developer in the very beginning decided to use Java JPA and Java webservices as the server side environment. So we went with it. After a while, we ran into Java JPA. For those .Net folks out there, its Java’s attempt at LINQ or the Entity framework. While its not bad, I seem to run across countless more problems with it than I ever would have with LINQ or Entity.
It generates tables poorly, it has problems with foreign keys and it doesn’t error out properly with good error codes or problems. Overall, it is just a poor attempt. Sort of reminds me when I started developing in highschool. Tons of concepts, bad design and crappy documentation.
I attempted to convince my colleagues to move over to .Net before it was too late, but sadly they thought we were already too far in.
If you would like some proof, well let me just show you. I received this error just now.
JPA table “sequence” does not exist.
What sort of error is that? Where does that come from and how would that even help me towards a solid solution? So I google it and find one thing on stackoverflow.
Sadly, the link http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8761448/jpa-table-sequence-does-not-exist doesn’t help much either.
At least in .Net they will both tell you the problem and suggest a fix in the comments of the error. Yes, thats right, they will suggest a fix. You should all write your frameworks that way. If you think an error is possible, help that poor coder along and give them solutions. JPA reminds me a lot of ESRI code.
Thats my Rant.
[class E] uses a non-entity [class E] as target entity in the relationship attribute [field
Busted in upon this error and didn’t find much for it online.
Its mainly caused because the Entity is not found in the persistance.xml document. You have to make sure its added.
When people you disagree with speak, listen to their ideas and try to ignore their words.
This month, I made made more bug fixes on UtopiaPimp. While the site is huge and collects a lot of data, the data is becoming much more manageable. Other than that, I have been working hard on my new idea sort of discussed in the last paragraph from the last income report. Its coming along nicely. The project it self will be ongoing for a while, but this part of it looks great and actually fully functional. I probably will be able to finish it up for version 1.0 by the end of this coming month.
Show Me The Money:
This month was still great in advertising and actually still getting better. To tell you the truth, this month was probably one of the best in the year.
- DemotivatedPosters.com - $5.35 – Ive never calculated the amount made per website so this is a small number to me. I hope to make more over time.
- DrinkingFor.com - $0.94 – With only 1k people visiting the site, I guess its not bad to make a buck from it.
- UtopiaPimp.com - $82.54 – With over 1k clicks on these ads, I don’t know why im not making more money. I should be making much more and must look into it. Have my clicks are from a button ad just center perfectly right on the screen. I wish Google Adsense had button ads, I think I would be making a lot more than I do at Project Wonderful.
- Project Wonderful - $88.84 – It was a large decrease from months before, and I definitely need to take a month and switch over to adsense and see what more I can make from there.
- AdSense - $129.00 – It was another jump up from months in the passed, but user stats are up on all the sites it is used on.
- MobFox - $13.00 – This is all thanks to my Roller Derby Penalty Timer. Its well over 1,200 downloads now and thats all thanks to it being pushed little by little in the Roller Derby Community.
- PostSecretCollection - $25.00 – Again surprised this month. The numbers just keep going up for selling PostSecret post cards. This site I made a while back allows people to print the postcards and have them mailed to them. I sell each card for $1.97. I made the price as cheap as possible. Paypal eats .40 cents and Postal Methods eats $1.46. That leaves just .11 cents per postcard I can donate towards Suicide Prevention.
- UltimaHosts.net – -$105.00 – With money made, comes expenditures. Here is the hosting company one. We sit on a 2 Core VM with 4 GBs of Ram. Most times the ram is also inching in at 3.7GBs used. So we need more Ram, but at this moment, all of my sites are running in good order.
Subtracting the costs to print, buy, mail, and host these projects, I made a profit of $150.29 this month! While it doesn’t pay my rent, it does pay for an extra few days of day care for my little baby girl!
I hope to fix just a few bugs that pop up with UtopiaPimp this month and maybe even get some time to update its User Interface. This will most definitely make my users extremely happy along with allowing me to grow UtopiaPimp even more. Ive been using the same UI since the start of Pimp in 2002. Its about time for an update.
Like all my other posts, I think short and to the point is the best way. We are all busy people, so no need in going into a long drawn out post.
Ive talked to several managers, CEOs and big wigs at my company about the best way to advance in a job. I decided to compile a list of the big hitters, the things that struck the most. This list was confirmed by many other managers and executives at a few more companies, so I figured after much research and insight, I would share it here.
Here is the Dirty List on How To Advance In Your Job.
Technical Excellence – Know your job. What is required of you. This is the only thing that takes time to figure out. You need to know what they want of you and do it. Plain and simple, Find out what is required of you and then master it.
Deep Understanding of Customer Domain – You need to know your customer. Know who your selling to, know who your making your product for and understand their needs and wants. When you know this, you can easily make their lives better. You can easily sell them more product.
Shown Leadership – You can be inspiring, motivating, consensus forming, challenging, a team builder, an accepter of responsibility and you can meet commitments. Thats how you show leadership. Thats how you succeed as a leader.
Ability to Work in a Team – You see team success as the path to individual success. You multiply your effectiveness through a team which you should fully understand. This reminds me of the famous quote “Don’t ask what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country” You are that team builder? Do you see the success that can be achieved if we all work together?
Ability to Translate Tech Skills into Business Skills – Can you take what you learned as a technical person and translate those into business wins? How to solve a problem is a tech skill, but can you move it into the business world?
Are You On The List? – No, not this list, but your managers list? Are you the go to person? Are you taking all the tasks that nobody wants? Do you see these tasks through as well? Can you handle doing a variety of things in order to earn your spot on the list your manager uses when picking someone for a new job. You need to be the person your managers and your bosses go to, to get something big done. You need to be on their list of people they trust will succeed at the job.
Something I always say when we need to complete something big, Lets Cowboy Up! Lets get on that list.
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The burn ban in Hutchinson County will continue.
During its regular meeting Tuesday, the Hutchinson County Commissioners Court voted to extend the burn ban for another 90 days.
County Fire Marshal Danny Richards told the court, “We are extremely vulnerable.” This item was unanimously agreed upon and was put into effect yesterday.
A burn ban was initially approved by the court in January of this year.
The ban prohibits the burning of trash and any type of burning in open pits. It will not affect farmers who do agricultural burning, but does restrict other types of outdoor burning.
In other business, the commissioners approved the interlocal agreement with the Panhandle Regional Planning Commission for the use of 9/11 information. The PRPC is a voluntary association of cities, counties, and special districts in the Texas Panhandle.
Established in 1969, the Planning Commission assists local governments in planning, developing, and implementing programs designed to improve the general health, safety, and welfare of the citizens in the Texas Panhandle.
Also at the meeting, County Extension Agent Kristy Synatschk announced that April 10-16 is National Volunteer Week. All regular agenda items such as payroll and reports were reviewed.
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Design, Operate, Maintain (DOM), the term coined by industry analysts ARC Advisory Group, gives us a vocabulary to talk about some of the key concepts in asset management and in industrial maintenance, repair and, operation.
Indeed, industrial facility designers and those who operate and maintain those facilities need to work together closely if plant efficiency and business profitability are to improve over time. Communication between these various entities has been lacking, however. Modern enterprise resource planning tools (ERP), computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS), and CAD design packages are moving toward a point of integration that could facilitate greater communication between these disciplines.
Interestingly, many industries were in a better position to implement DOM concepts years ago than they are today. As early as the 1980s, growth in the number of process control and systems engineering firms indicated that more and more industries were outsourcing their plant engineering. Although in-house plant engineering departments gave an organization greater control over design and information standards, corporate “rightsizing” and a growing movement toward open standards and interoperable components made it possible to involve numerous outside vendors, ranging from industrial engineering firms, manufacturer representatives and system integrators in plant design. The in-house data created by a captive engineering department may not have been leveraged fully, but lack of communication between designers and the industries they serve seems only to have grown as outsourcing has become the trend. According to the Control System Integrators Association, the independent control systems integration market has grown to $12 billion by the turn of the millennium from a fraction of that 20 years before. More and more, technical data, drawings and specifications once developed and maintained in-house come from outside an industrial organization.
As gaps in communication between design and operations/maintenance have widened, consulting engineers often have been free to design simply to meet a particular capacity increase outcome. Design data is developed separately, often on different platforms, from those used by manufacturing operations and maintenance personnel who will live with the industrial design into the future. Currently, an ISO data standard for this information is being developed, and that standardization should at least allow in-house staff and outside design consultants to more seamlessly communicate and share data that leads to greater industrial efficiency. But even before this ISO 15926 standard is finalized, there is plenty that maintenance and plant operations professionals can do to make DOM a reality today.
The switch has just been thrown on a renovated production line at your process manufacturing facility. As pressures and temperatures start to come up to spec and product begins flowing, a head pressure problem develops in a critical compressor unit. Maintenance is dispatched to the site but quickly finds that it lacks the information to diagnose the problem. The necessary data, it turns out, is buried in a stack of CDs and binders left by the consulting design engineers. The lack of communication leads to unplanned downtime as the necessary information is located and the problem diagnosed.
Or, what about the maintenance engineer who finds that a new production line suffers from unplanned stoppages caused by the same design features as the line it replaced? Although data contained in years of maintenance records could have revealed that design changes are necessary, the system engineers did not have the ability to milk that data for meaningful information.
Figure 1: By giving engineers access to the maintenance history, repeated production problems caused by design errors can be avoided.
But not every problem is the fault of the industrial engineer. Imagine logging hundreds of hours on a design for a new mix-and-fill line, only to find out later that maintenance engineers had upsized several pumps on the line you are replacing – a change not included in the as-built information on the pre-existing line. You have spent tens of thousands of dollars to engineer a suboptimal system and now are faced with the prospect of asking your client to split the cost overrun caused by this miscommunication.
Technology can offer only a partial solution to the problems caused by inadequate communication between industrial designers, plant operators and maintenance managers. Integrated asset life-cycle management (ALM) tools that encompass all three disciplines will do so much good only if there is inadequate communication with an outside industrial designer who does not use the ALM tool. Even in-house departments can fail to work together effectively and mesh completely to optimize the DOM process. So regardless of what technology is available to members of the team, a proactive approach is probably the most important factor in implementing
DOM processes in your organization. Technology can only facilitate and standardize your proactive, cooperative approach, and in some cases, can automate parts of the DOM process. Here are three steps that can help you realize the benefits of DOM today.
Maintain a flexible, open IT system
Whether they are used by you or your consulting engineering firm, proprietary data standards are barriers to communication. If you keep your operation and maintenance information in an open, easily accessed format, you can import and export information in a controlled way and have public application program interfaces (APIs) to handle that export and import. If the asset information management solution you are using supports flexible and configurable import and export from standardized file formats such as Excel, XML, etc., you have an even better position.
To operate in a DOM modality, it will also be important to have an asset management system with a layered architecture. This will enable you to view information on projects as they are in the design phase and track them through construction and design. At each step of the process, different departments can view layers of a project that are relevant to them and provide feedback. This will give you the ability to start collecting information during a project and make sure you are getting the design that meets your needs. This early access to information will also allow you to work ahead in planning a preventive maintenance program and otherwise give you a head start for the day when the new production facility goes into operation.
Figure 2: With a layered architecture of your asset management system, you are in control of what and when information should be available to design/engineering and maintenance/operations. Both document management and asset management solutions can be configured to comply with your company standards. This puts you in control of the technical attributes and requirements regarding different pieces of equipment, and allows you to adopt the data to your system. The system provides dynamic links between information on assets, equipment and facilities.
Take control of your information
Information about your plants and assets is worth a great deal. You need that cumulative operation and maintenance history data to optimize your processes on an ongoing basis. If you are undertaking projects to improve your production capacity, you need to be able to share that information with the design engineers. To do this, you must agree on a format you and your designer can both use and that you are capable of exporting from your own systems.
Conversely, before work starts, agree with your design engineer on data formats and frequency of communication on the new design. Generate a list of each feature, component or piece of equipment you will need to manage on an ongoing basis. Determine what information you need about each item on the list, at what points in the project you need it, and how data must be structured to tie into your existing asset management system. Whether it is a series of Excel spreadsheets, an Access database or XML documents, you will want this data structured to allow it to be tied to information about your current operations and maintenance activities.
Agreeing in advance on how and when information will be exchanged can be a workaround to the fact that you and your designer are likely on different information platforms. The spreadsheet contents and/or tables your engineer provides will have to be mapped to fields in your existing system, but at least information will be flowing from design into your asset management systems.
Establish ongoing dialog
Just as information needs to flow from design into your asset management systems, data needs to flow from your maintenance and operational history into the design process. Actively solicit suggestions from your designer on exactly what data and data format will provide them with the necessary insight to optimize project results. In time, format will not matter as much because the ISO standard will allow ALM and engineering platforms to standardize on a data structure that can cross platforms transparently. But even when that technological barrier no longer exists, work habits will have to reflect DOM thinking.
The ideal DOM workflow involves a collaborative process in which maintenance and operational histories are freely available to design, and plans and specifications are freely available to operators and maintenance personnel even as a project is planned.
Imagine that a portion of your plant is being rebuilt, and the plans are integrated into your asset management system. If you see that new pumps and compressors are being planned to replace existing mechanicals, it may make sense to forego rebuilds or other maintenance on the equipment that is about to be decommissioned. Moreover, because you know the new specifications, you can begin ordering spare parts and other supplies for the equipment being installed even before it is even in place. And the day your new or rebuilt production facility goes live, you can have an excellent understanding of its inner workings.
Figure 3: The tree browser makes it easy to find the information that interests you. By presenting the design status to the maintenance planner, it allows preventive maintenance plans to be adjusted accordingly.
On some major infrastructure projects in which I have been involved, the project owner was in a position to establish a Web portal open to the design and contracting teams, and that portal became the medium through which a collaborative process took place. Whether your collaboration takes place internally with in-house departments or with outside designers, whether through an integrated ALM tool or through a patchwork of applications mapped together with lots of human intervention, a real-time collaborative environment is where DOM will ultimately take those who employ these concepts.
About the author:
Christian Klingspoor is a senior asset life-cycle management advisor for IFS AB. He has 20 years of experience in developing and implementing solutions for asset life-cycle management covering plant design, document management, maintenance management and process automation. He holds a B.S. in computer science and systems analysis, and came to IFS through the 1997 acquisition of IDOK, where he was responsible for developing that company’s plant design solution.
IFS, the global enterprise applications company, provides solutions that enable organizations to respond quickly to market changes, allowing resources to be used in a more agile way to achieve better business performance and competitive advantage. IFS was founded in 1983 and now has 2,600 employees worldwide. It has pioneered component-based enterprise resources planning (ERP) software with IFS Applications, now in its seventh generation. IFS’ component architecture provides solutions that are easier to implement, run and upgrade. IFS Applications is available in 54 countries, in 20 languages.
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- Alternative Therapies
- Blood, Heart and Circulation
- Bones and Muscles
- Brain and Nerves
- Child health
- Cosmetic Surgery
- Digestive System
- Disorders and Conditions
- Drugs Approvals and Trials
- Environmental Health
- Ear, Nose and Throat
- Eyes and Vision
- Female Reproductive
- Genetics and Birth Defects
- Geriatrics and Aging
- Immune System
- Kidneys and Urinary System
- Life style and Fitness
- Lungs and Breathing
- Male Reproductive
- Medical Breakthroughs
- Mental Health and Behavior
- Metabolic Problems
- Oral and Dental Health
- Pregnancy and Childbirth
- Public Health and Safety
- Skin, Hair and Nails
- Substance Abuse
- Surgery and Rehabilitation
Green Tea Shows Promise as Chemoprevention Agent for Oral Cancer, M. D. Anderson Study Finds
Green tea extract has shown promise as cancer prevention agent for oral cancer in patients with a pre-malignant condition known as oral leukoplakia, according to researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.
The study, published online in Cancer Prevention Research, is the first to examine green tea as a chemopreventative agent in this high-risk patient population. The researchers found that more than half of the oral leukoplakia patients who took the extract had a clinical response.
Long investigated in laboratory, epidemiological and clinical settings for several cancer types, green tea is rich in polyphenols, which have been known to inhibit carcinogenesis in preclinical models. Still, clinical results have been mixed.
"While still very early, and not definitive proof that green tea is an effective preventive agent, these results certainly encourage more study for patients at highest risk for oral cancer," said Vassiliki Papadimitrakopoulou, M.D., professor in M. D. Anderson's Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology, and the study's senior author. "The extract's lack of toxicity is attractive - in prevention trials, it's very important to remember that these are otherwise healthy individuals and we need to ensure that agents studied produce no harm."
In the Phase II dose-finding study, 41 M. D. Anderson oral leukoplakia patients were randomized between August 2002 and March 2008 to receive either green tea extract or placebo. Participants took the extract, an oral agent, for three months at one of three doses - 500 per meter squared of body mass (mg/m2); 750 mg/m2 or 1,000 mg/m2 - three times daily. To best assess biomarkers, participants also underwent a baseline and 12-week biopsy, an important component in the design of the study, the researchers say.
"Collecting oral tissue biopsies was essential in that it allowed us to learn that not only did the green tea extract appear to have benefit for some patients, but we pointed to anti-angiogenic effects as a potential mechanism of action," said Anne Tsao, M.D., assistant professor in the Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology, and the study's first author. "While preliminary because our patient population was so small, this gives us direction for further study."
Of those taking green tea at the two highest doses, 58.8% had a clinical response, compared with 36.4% in the lowest extract dose and 18.2% in the placebo arm. At an extended follow-up with a mean of 27.5 months, 15 participants had developed oral cancer, with a median time to disease development of 46.4 months.
Although not statistically significant, the green tea extract also improved histology and trended towards an improvement in a number of biomarkers that may play a vital role in predicting cancer development.
Another important finding, say the researchers, was that that the extract was well tolerated. Side effects, including insomnia and nervousness, were mostly seen in the high-dose group but produced no significant toxicity.
"While these are encouraging findings, much more research must be done before we can conclude that green tea may prevent oral or any other type of cancer. It's also important to remind people that this trial enrolled very few participants who, at the highest dose levels took the equivalent of eight cups of green tea three times a day," said Papadimitrakopoulo. "We need to further understand if green tea offers longer-term prevention effects for patients."
Papadimitrakopoulo and Tsao think that future studies with green tea in this high-risk population should focus on participants being exposed to the supplement for a longer time period. The researchers also stressed that the green tea extract studied in this trial was never sold over-the-counter and/or the Internet, both of which are not highly regulated. Rather, the compound was exclusively developed as a pharmaceutical.
According to the American Cancer Society, more than 35,720 are expected to be diagnosed with oral and/or pharynx cancer and the five year survival rate is less than 50%.
The study was funded by Ito En, the company that produced the green tea extract.
In addition to Papadimitrakopoulou and Tsao, other M. D. Anderson authors on the study include: Waun Ki Hong, M.D., professor and chair of the Division of Cancer Medicine; Jack Martin, D.D.S., professor in the Department of Dental Oncology; Li Mao, M.D., adjunct professor, and Xi Ming Tang, M.D., Ph.D., research scientist, both of the Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology; Adel El-Naggar, M.D., Ph.D., professor in the Department of Pathology; Iganacio Wistuba, M.D., professor in the Department of Pathology-Research; Kirk Culotta, Phar M.D., Department of Pharmacy pharmacology research; Ann Gillenwater, M.D., professor in the Department of Head and Neck Surgery; J. Jack Lee, Ph.D., professor, and Diane Liu, both of the Department of Biostatistics. Other authors include Yuko Sagesaka of Ito En, Ltd. 11/05/09
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To paraphrase German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, COBOL is dead. Or at least that's what some people in the IT world believe. It's a legacy language with relatively little new development taking place.
But the growth of the mainframe of late, combined with the staggering amount of COBOL running currently, has some experts are questioning whether the 800-pound gorilla is really dead. So Rockville, Md.-based Micro Focus International Ltd. decided to poke it with a stick to find out.
According to preliminary results of Micro Focus' survey of 750 mainframers in the U.S. and Canada, 41% name COBOL as a principal programming language by an approximate 25% margin over Java, the next most popular language. Preliminary results also find 52% of mainframe applications are still written in COBOL.
The survey also found the median age of the COBOL programmer is 45-49, leading to the belief that there will be a growing knowledge shortage of COBOL programmers in the next decade.
Which raises the question: If your son or daughter were enrolled in a computer science program, would you encourage him or her to take classes in COBOL?
As it happens, Mark Lillycrop, CEO of U.K.-based Arcati Research and Publishing, has a nephew that is a first-year computer science student, and he has been encouraging him to pursue mainframe skills.
"COBOL is like an invisible giant. There's reported to be 180 billion-200 billion lines of code out there, processing 75% of commercial business. Few companies are keen to throw away the hundreds or thousands of man-years that have been invested in mature, high-performance COBOL code. Instead, they are integrating and building bridges between COBOL, .NET and J2EE [Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition], using service-oriented architectures to preserve the strengths of the legacy code while benefiting from Web-oriented development tools," Lillycrop said.
Ron Kizior, assistant professor Loyola University Chicago School of Business, ISOM area, worked on the Micro Focus survey. According to Kizior, the aspect that surprised him the most was the small number of mainframe shops that had gone to the Web. He'd expected up to 40%, but the numbers showed only 10%.
Despite that small number, Lillycrop and Kizior said the ability to integrate COBOL with Web-oriented development tools would be the skill to have in the future.
"It's not enough to know COBOL; the real winners are those who understand how to integrate with newer technologies. Some of the more enlightened universities are trying to get to grips with this emerging requirement, and are bringing the necessary mainframe components back onto the syllabus," Lillycrop said.
Loyola University Chicago is offering workshops on COBOL integration with .NET this summer, according to Kizior. He said it's harder to convince university administrators to consider COBOL than it is to persuade students.
"COBOL gives you a better understanding of what programming is. It's like taking the classics. It gives you a well-rounded background," Kizior said.
COBOL will be at the center of the enterprise for many years to come, with a huge ongoing support requirement. According to Lillycrop, when the current population of 50-something COBOL specialists finally retire, people with the right combination of skills will be able to name their price.
Micro Focus said full results of the survey will be available in June.
Let us know what you think about the story; e-mail: Matt Stansberry, News Editor
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How to landscape with a theme
Whether you have a small landscape or large one any garden can be made into something really special by designing with a theme. Themes can pull together hardscapes and plants and transform any space into your own private vacation-land or retreat.
Themes can come in colors. Using a single color or family of colors will add cohesion to a landscape. Using white flowering plants and white décor can create sparkle in a shady garden. Bright colors can make a garden look festive and make a trip through the landscape an energizing experience. A garden with a soft blue and purple theme is likely to be restful and make for a gentle, stress-relieving landscape.
Designing after a location you love is another way to create landscaping with a theme. Ideal designs can be sculpted around English or cottage landscape designs. Western or Southwest themes can transform a bland garden into a place worthy of visiting. You can build an Asian, Japanese or Zen garden for beauty and tranquility. Or consider making your garden into a tropical paradise.
Other ways to create themes are to design your garden around a special event like a sculpture, a water garden or a natural rock or gnarled tree that already exists on your property.
Use your climate and property to blend into your theme. With care a tropical design can be created with bamboo structures, recycling water features and some of the showier drought-tolerant plants even in a hot, dry climate. Design a theme that integrates well with your house and its surroundings. By making your theme work with the environment where you live you can not only make your garden into something special, but keep costs and maintenance as low as possible.
Tropical Landscape Design
You can create a tropical-looking garden even if you don’t live in a tropical climate....
Tips on Building a Japanese Landscape Design
A Japanese-styled garden can be designed into landscapes with many different climates. Work with your...
Professional landscape, design and garden help
Sometimes it’s hard to figure out who you need to call for help with your...
Find free landscape software
Designing your own landscape can be fun and a great learning process. It helps to...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Amazon Carousel Widget
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A new study suggests that women who have masculine-sounding names are more likely to be appointed judges than their more femininely named peers.
The study examines the “Portia Hypothesis,” named after a famed Shakespearean heroine who disguises herself as a male lawyer. Using data from South Carolina voter rolls, the study looked at the percentage of men versus women with any given name (for example, a name given primarily to women was considered a very feminine name). Then, applying those findings, they determined how masculine or feminine the names of women judges in the state were.
Changing a girl’s name from something fairly feminine, like “Sue” (which is less masculine than the mean female voter’s name), to a more gender-ambiguous name, like “Kelly,” increases her probability of becoming a judge by roughly 5%. This effect may appear small, but it is highly nonlinear in nominal masculinity; changing a girl’s name from “Sue” to a predominantly male name, like “Cameron” (75% of those named “Cameron” in South Carolina’s voting population are male), increases her probability of becoming a judge by a factor of 3 (roughly). Moreover, changing a girl’s name from “Sue” to “Bruce” (99% of those named “Bruce” in South Carolina’s voting population are males) increases her probability of becoming a judge by a factor of 5 (roughly).
Apparently alarmed by the research findings, one of the authors — Bentley Coffey, an economist at Clemson University — told The Vancouver Sun that he and his wife, a lawyer, recently named their daughter “Collins.”
Biases against names associated with particular demographic groups have also been studied in an experimental setting. In a previous study, Marianne Bertrand and Sendhil Mullainathan sent identical résumés to employers, some with names that sounded white (“Emily”) and others with names that sounded black (“Lakisha”). They found that the fictional candidates with Caucasian-sounding names were much more likely to be invited for an interview.
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Printer friendly version
A practical guide to green products and services
15 May 2012
European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC)
A new report published today by the European Commission's in-house science service, the Joint Research Centre (JRC), provides key information for policy makers and business managers on how to assess the environmental impacts of products and services. It helps to pave the way towards a resource-efficient Europe and aims to help design more sustainable products, which are indispensable in a world of 7 billion people and limited resources.
The increasing world population and the way in which we produce and consume goods are placing unprecedented pressures on our environment. We need to engage in more sustainable production and consumption patterns if we are to address the resulting challenges, in particular climate change and the depletion of natural resources.
Life Cycle Thinking is key to making substantial improvements in the environmental performance of goods and services. This concept looks at the environmental impact of production, distribution and consumption activities from cradle to grave, quantifying the environmental impact of products from the extraction of natural resources to product recycling or waste disposal.
The International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD) was developed to provide guidance for greater consistency and quality assurance of Life Cycle Assessments. This new JRC report provides useful information that will help public administrations to use the ILCD as a technical reference for environment related policies, supporting them also for issuing tenders for service contracts. It supports business managers in developing greener, more efficient products and technologies by implementing Life Cycle Thinking in a structured and coherent manner. Finally, it helps policy makers and business actors to improve their environmental image and save money by implementing robust Life Cycle Assessments that will increase stakeholders' confidence and resource efficiency, and promote more environmentally friendly supply chains.
Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) helps to assess the sustainability of supply chains, use, and end-of-life management options for goods and services. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a structured scientific method, internationally standardised according to ISO 14040 and 14044 that facilitates the implementation of LCT.
This scientific method quantifies the resources consumed, emissions, and related environmental, health and resource depletion issues that are associated with any specific good or service. Some of the topics it addresses include climate change, summer smog, ecotoxicity, human cancer effects, material and energy resource depletion. It also quantifies functional performance in order to allow for direct comparisons with alternative options. Finally, it captures the full life cycle of the system, from the extraction of resources, through production, use, and recycling, up to the disposal of remaining waste.
Applications of LCA include ecolabelling, ecodesign, environmental and carbon footprinting, green procurement and waste management. It addresses strategic questions on the environmental impact of and potential improvements in the use of natural resources. It is used to steer the development of technology families (e.g. fuel cells) and to quantify the environmental performance of production sites and companies. Increasingly, this assessment is also employed to evaluate the environmental impact of policy options.
The 2011 Communication on a resource-efficient Europe, a flagship initiative under the Europe 2020 Strategy, takes these developments to the next stage, as it promotes taking a life-cycle approach to reducing the environmental impacts of resource use in the EU. This flagship initiative re-iterates the importance of using a consistent analytical approach.
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By Pamela Fayerman
My article about the gaffe made by mental health experts who mishandled a multimillion dollar donation offer to BC Children’s Hospital has resulted in changes meant to prevent a repeat incident. Hospitals and health care agencies not involved in the case are also revisiting their policies and practices to ensure they’re fully accountable to donors.
Theresa Kennedy, spokeswoman for the Provincial Health Services Authority, said a new policy has been put in place to ensure donors know where they stand at all times.
“Quite frankly, mental health has had little experience with donations like this, so there were no formal processes to do due diligence and proper follow up,” she said, adding now there is a firm procedure.
The donor in this case is Don James, CEO of Deeley Harley-Davidson Canada. The story about the controversy behind his donation has drawn a record level of readers to this blog. It’s a fascinating tale because, let’s face it, how often do we hear about cash-starved health care agencies turning down multimillion dollar donations? Or business moguls like James being given the kind of run-around he was? Or about world-leading medical authorities resigning from important hospitals, as what happened in this case?
Professionals in health care and fundraising have been keenly observing the story. It is, after all, like a ”what-not-to-do-in-health-care-philanthropy” type of case study.
As Ron Dumouchelle, CEO of the VGH/UBC Hospital Foundation said: “That kind of money doesn’t come around everyday.”
To recap, James offered $3.5 million (and as much as $5 million) to the Childrens Hospital attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) program in 2008. His offer stood over a three year period, but during that time, no one told him his gift wouldn’t be accepted. He was left dangling with no answers as to how – or – if his money would be used. He finally got fed up and took his donation elsewhere – to Lion’s Gate Hospital.
The debacle had serious ramifications for the hospital because it led, in part, to the departure of Dr. Margaret Weiss, one of the world’s foremost experts in pediatric and adult ADHD. Weiss, whose curriculum vitae is 30 pages long, was head of the hospital’s provincial ADHD program for the last decade. She had psychiatry privileges at Children’s for 20 years. Now she’s seeing patients in her home office while waiting to hear if she’ll get the job as head of an ADHD program at Lion’s Gate Hospital.
James wants his gift to be used for an all-ages ADHD treatment clinic so that children aren’t dropped as patients when they become adults. That’s what happens at Children’s Hospital which is why Weiss was so upset. Click here to read a brilliant interview with Weiss’s mother, the pioneer in ADHD research who inspired her daughter to pursue the same field. You’ll learn that many children with ADHD never “outgrow” the disorder. That’s why James wanted to make a donation to help extend services to kids and their families. That’s his goal at Lion’s Gate Hospital, but the first million dollars of the James donation will go towards construction of a new mental health building.
I asked PHSA to give me its latest perspective on the situation. This is the written statement issued by Leslie Arnold, president of BC Mental Health and Addiction Services:
“The Provincial Health Services Authority and its agencies appreciate the support and generosity our donors have shown us throughout the years. We value our relationship with donors, and look for ways to ensure their wishes are met. Unfortunately, there are rare occasions where we are unable to meet their wishes.
“Such was the case recently when Deeley Harley-Davidson Canada CEO, Don James, offered to donate to an adult ADHD program at BC Mental Health and Addiction Services (BCMHAS). While there were initial discussions with BCMHAS staff regarding the potential program, we were unable to accept the donation because there was not a long-term funding source to maintain the service beyond the initial donation and the Provincial Health Services Authority does not have a mandate to treat adults with ADHD.
“We regret we did not communicate our decision to Mr. James in a timely manner. We are reviewing the details of the situation to ensure we improve our communications and procedures for dealing with stakeholders and donors.
“An immediate action to result from this situation is that a policy has been implemented which states that all discussions with BCMHAS staff and potential donors will now be simultaneously directed to the BC Mental Health Foundation in addition to the President of BCMHAS.”
While Arnold’s statement is an acknowledgment of errors made, I’m not sure if the reference to “regret” is the same as an apology. More curious is the last paragraph which refers to the “new” policy stipulating that all discussions with donors must be directed to the foundation and to Arnold. In the case of the James donation, both Arnold and the foundation president were at meetings from the outset.
Dumouchelle, of the VGH and UBC Hospital Foundation, told me that after I broke the story, it reinforced the need for health professionals and others working in hospitals to communicate with their in-house fundraisers when donors contact them directly.
“Children’s Hospital Foundation did not appear to be in the loop. Ideally, it should have been. I’ve got to believe that if they were, it would have turned out differently,” he said.
Grateful patients often want to show appreciation to the doctors and hospitals who’ve treated them well. There’s no formal process and no insistence that doctors getting such offers direct the donors to foundations. But as we’ve seen in the James case, it makes perfect sense to bring the professional fundraisers into the tent as well.
Explains Dumouchelle: “We build good relationships and know how to make a business case. We play a good matchmaking role beween donors and doctors. We know how to structure donations and how to take tax and other matters into consideration.
Professional fundraisers employed by hospital foundations are good stewards for donors. They know how to recognize donors and to provide reports back to donors on how their money is being used, year after year, Dumouchelle notes.
But he also cautioned that there are times when donors want to give money to programs or causes which don’t match hospital priorities. He cited a recent example at VGH when a donor wanted to give $100,000 for a new piece of equipment not available here. The donor had been treated in the U.S. and was so impressed with the technology – and his positive outcome – that he thought VGH should have it.
However, procurement experts at VGH decided the equipment was not proven to be clinically better than existing tchnology so the donor was told the donation could not be used for that purpose.
“This is a donor we have a relationship with,” Dumouchelle said. “We didn’t alienate him.”
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But if you twist our arm and force us to pick one seminal computing moment from the '70s, it has to be the arrival of the Altair, one of the first personal computers. The Altair 8800 kits started shipping in December 1974, and then, a month later, the machine appeared on the cover of Popular Electronics. It introduced a new breed of computer to homes across the country, but it also inspired a generation of computer pioneers. In April 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded a new company just build a programming language for the Altair. They called it Microsoft.
Top image: wtpc6800/Wikipedia. Secondary image: Popular Electronics.
Since 2007, Wired.com’s This Day In Tech blog has reflected on important and entertaining events in the history of science and innovation, pursuing them chronologically for each day of the year. Hundreds of these essays have now been collected into a trivia book, Mad Science: Einstein’s Fridge, Dewar’s Flask, Mach’s Speed and 362 Other Inventions and Discoveries that Made Our World. It goes on sale Nov. 13, and is available for pre-order today at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other online book stores.
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Client BulletinsClient Bulletin #450
Gender Identity Will Become A Protected Class In Massachusetts
November 29, 2011
For a printer-friendly copy, click here.
The Massachusetts legislature has amended its state anti-discrimination law to prohibit discrimination based on gender identity in employment, insurance, housing, lending, credit and education. The legislation also expanded the state hate crimes law to cover gender identity. The law, entitled An Act Relative to Gender Identity, also referred to as the Transgender Equal Rights Bill, was signed into law by Governor Deval Patrick on November 23, 2011 and becomes effective on July 1, 2012.
Gender identity, as defined in the new law, refers to "a person's gender-related identity, appearance or behavior whether or not that gender-related identity, appearance or behavior is different from that traditionally associated with the person's physiology or assigned sex at birth." In order to qualify for protection from discrimination based upon gender identity, transgender individuals may demonstrate their gender-related identity with evidence including their medical history, care or treatment of their gender-related identity, a consistent assertion of their gender-related identity, or any other evidence that gender-related identity is part of his or her core identity.
As with members of all protected categories, covered employers are prohibited from refusing to hire, discharging or otherwise discriminating against transgender individuals in their compensation and in their terms, conditions, or privileges of employment. These employers are also forbidden from retaliating against any individual for taking certain actions, such as filing a complaint or objecting to prohibited acts of discrimination.
Despite the previous absence of a specific reference to gender identity or gender expression in the Massachusetts anti-discrimination statute, the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination had already recognized that transgender individuals could file complaints under the protected category of sex. Now that the Massachusetts legislature has evidenced a clear intent to protect transgender individuals, employers should take this opportunity to ensure their workplaces are compliant.
Employers are advised to instruct hiring managers and supervisors of the protections that will be extended to transgender individuals in the hiring process and in employment. In addition, employment documents, including applications and handbooks, should be updated to reflect that discrimination or retaliation based upon gender identity will not be tolerated; and employees should be reminded that everyone must be treated with respect and evaluated based upon their performance. Employers faced with issues that arise in the workplace concerning gender identity should consult experienced employment counsel for guidance as this area of the law continues to develop.
If you have questions regarding the new legislation or any other labor or employment matter, please contact any member of Constangy's Boston Office or the Constangy attorney of your choice.
Constangy, Brooks & Smith, LLP has counseled employers on labor and employment law matters, exclusively, since 1946. A "Go To" Law Firm in Corporate Counsel and Fortune Magazine, it represents Fortune 500 corporations and small companies across the country. Its attorneys are consistently rated as top lawyers in their practice areas by sources such as Chambers USA, Martindale-Hubbell, and Top One Hundred Labor Attorneys in the United States, and the firm is top-ranked by the U.S. News & World Report/Best Lawyers Best Law Firms survey. More than 130 lawyers partner with clients to provide cost-effective legal services and sound preventive advice to enhance the employer-employee relationship. Offices are located in Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin. For more information, visit www.constangy.com.
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By Bruce Burdett
The school nickname ‘Wildcats’ may be more appropriate for Westport than its authors had in mind.
They keep a low profile but feral cats are everywhere in Westport.
“Just north of Route 177 alone, I know of over 25 colonies of them, ” said Animal Control Officer Donna Lambert. These colonies range in size from a half dozen cats to 30 and more.
“And these are just the colonies I’ve been told about. There are certainly way more than that. And that is just one part of town,” she said. “It’s an absolutely huge problem in Westport and it is getting worse.”
Armed with a $1,000 Ronald Desrosiers grant, Ms. Lambert has set out to make what she admits is a small dent in an overwhelming situation.
Using human Havahart-type traps, she is capturing cats and sending them off to the vet.
The cats are checked for disease, spayed or neutered, given shots for rabies and distemper, de-wormed and given a nail trimming.
Homes are sought for those deemed adoptable. But others are in the trap-neuter-release (TNR) program are released back to the colonies where they were found. They can be identified by “ear-tipping” — the top of the let ear is removed.
It’s not ideal, Ms. Lambert admits, “but given the alternatives, it’s a win-win for the cats and for the people who live near them.”
The TNR program addresses what she says is a very real but mostly ignored public health issue.
“Left out there without rabies shots, they are a danger to people and pets,” she said. And after spaying/neutering they don’t impregnate pet house cass they encounter. “People talk about how fast rabbits reproduce — cats are every bit as prolific.” One cat produces kittens which produce kittens of their own — “from one can come hundreds.”
Treated cats are also “more calm and don’t mark or spray people’s property with that terrible scent.”
At best, the grant will enable her to provide this care for around 20 cats. “I am deeply appreciative of this money. I know it can’t stop the feral cat problem but it helps and I hope it calls attention to the situation.”
Ms. Lambert acknowledges that not everybody is happy with this solution. Critics say that reintroducing these top predators to the wild amounts to a death sentence for wild birds, chipmunks and other creatures by the thousand.
“I understand that concern and agree with it,” she said, but she says there really are few options.
“Westport has no shelter for cats — there is no place around that I can put them.” She always has a few at her own house awaiting adoption and she also has a small network of “foster homes” — people willing to take in cats temporarily while they await homes.
And while euthanizing is another option, “one I am not opposed to when it is called for,” she said that few veterinarians are willing to provide that service for feral cats by the carload.
“Most vets are increasingly reluctant,” she said. “They take an oath to try to save animals’ lives, not take them.”
Some of the colonies get a measure of care from volunteers, among them Habitat for Cats as well as people who have taken it upon themselves to feed a colony living nearby.
Though bigger than ever, the feral cat problem is nothing new — “just something the town has long chosen to ignore,” Ms. Lambert said.
The town has long had a dog warden, dog officer or dog catcher, but that was pretty much the extent of it — “dogs, not cats or other pets.”
She says the her title “animal control officer” marks what she hopes is a turning point. She deals not only with dogs, but cats, ferrets, cockatiels, farm animals — whatever comes her way. She recently provided food and shelter for two goats that vanished from a Westport farm and turned up days later some four miles away.
She knew the town’s cat situation was bad but had no idea of the full extent of it, Ms. Lambert said.
“You think you have a handle on it and then you learn about another colony, and another and another.” Not long ago, she worked with a New Bedford-based group to tackle a large colony off Davis Road.
“The closer we looked, the bigger it got” — the count there climbed to 75 cats.
The cats come from a variety of sources, she says. Some are lost house cats, many more are abandoned.
A bad economy and a lack of options contribute to the numbers. People who are out of work and have no money to spare suddenly find themselves burdened by a litter of kittens. “They try to put them up for adoption but find out they have to pay money for each cat to do that — if they can even find a place willing to take them. So they let them go.”
Ms. Lambert said she hopes the town eventually steps in to address the problem to some extent. Werstport needs a shelter, or at least access to a regional shelter that deals with cats.
“With stay dogs I find, we have Forever Paws. With cats — nothing.”
Individuals can help as well.
Ms. Lambert is in the process of setting up a town fund through which people can make donations to Westport earmarked for animal care — that fund won Board of Selectmen approval last week.
And donations of old clean towels and dry cat food are a big help, she said — these are farmed out to the various cat foster homes.
To assist with these efforts or in any other way, call Ms. Lamber at 508-991-9391.
Add to favorites
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If you follow American politics, you know it can change in a blink of an eye.
In the last few weeks, as gasoline prices have continued to climb in the United States, President Obama has seen his poll numbers decline, suggesting a potential vulnerability in 2012.
But the news that Osama bin Laden has been killed -- on Obama's watch -- is most definitely a political game-changer and appears destined to impact the contours of the 2012 presidential race, as well as the emerging Republican field. Of course, the size of the impact is yet unknown and will be played out in the months ahead, especially with U.S. unemployment near 9%. The 2012 general election, after all, is more than 550 days away.
As NBC's Chuck Todd also mentioned, it could have an impact on the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan-Pakistan. Does it make the U.S. re-evaluate the mission there? Does it affect the troop draw-down that's scheduled to begin this summer?
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That’s the biggest users of the mobile airwaves.
The world’s congested mobile airwaves are being divided in a lopsided manner, with 1 percent of consumers generating half of all traffic. The top 10 percent of users, meanwhile, are consuming 90 percent of wireless bandwidth.
Arieso, a company in Newbury, England, that advises mobile operators in Europe, the United States and Africa, documented the statistical gap when it tracked 1.1 million customers of a European mobile operator during a 24-hour period in November. The gap between extreme users and the rest of the population is widening, according to Arieso. In 2009, the top 3 percent of heavy users generated 40 percent of network traffic. Now, Arieso said, these users pump out 70 percent of the traffic.
Arieso’s report didn’t identify what type of usage the 1% was engaging in, but Michael Flanagan, the chief technology officer, speculated that it’s a combination of people who are working on their laptops via a 3G network while traveling on business and those who have unlimited data plans and are watching a lot of videos.
Surprising fact (to me at least):
In countries like Sweden and Finland, smartphones now account for more than half of all mobile phones, Mr. Zarandy said. About 35 percent of Finns also use mobile laptop modems and dongles, or modems in a USB stick; one operator, Elisa, offers unlimited data plans for as little as 5 euros, or $6.40, a month. As a result, Finns consume on average 1 gigabyte of wireless data a month over an operator’s network, almost 10 times the European average.
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I tried planting the seeds a couple of years ago, and what I got was smaller and the skin was thick and tough, and as far as taste, you could tell it was some kind of squash, but didn't resemble the parent.
If the squash was an "heirloom" type to start with (the variety breeds "true" every year), and planted far enough away from any other squashes to prevent cross-pollination, the seeds can be planted the next spring. Just choose seeds from the best (biggest, sweetest, etc) squash(es) you get. (make sure the seeds haven't been cooked, first, as in softening the squash for easier cutting,,,)
As for roasting and eating the seeds -- Yes! They're just like any squash, and that includes pumpkins: The seeds are very edible after roasting. Add a little salt, and...yummy! :-D
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Lebanese troops clashed with Syrian rebels on the border between the two countries in what a security source told Reuters may have the first such incident between Lebanon's army and the rebels.
The clash occurred Sunday when a Lebanese border patrol spotted the rebel fighters along the border and the rebels opened fire to prevent the patrol from approaching, the Lebanese military source told Reuters. He said there were no casualties.
Although tensions have been high along various points of the Lebanon-Syria border, Sunday's incident may have been the first involving armed fighters.
The violence in Syria also spilled over to Turkey on Monday, as Turkey scrambled fighter jets after Syrian government forces bombed rebel positions in the frontier town of Ras al-Ain and stray shells flew into Turkish territory, Turkish security sources told Reuters.
Shells landed in the Turkish town of Ceylanpinar, which abuts Ras al-Ain, triggering panic, the sources told Reuters. It was not immediately clear whether the shells were fired by forces loyal to President Bashar Assad or by the rebels.
Osman Orsal / Reuters
A look back at the violence that has overtaken the country
The uprising against the Assad family’s four decades of rule began 20 months ago. Opposition activists say the fighting has resulted in the deaths of some 40,000 people, according to The Associated Press.
Syria: No chemical weapons plan
On Monday, Syria said that it would not use chemical weapons against its own people after the U.S. warned it would take action against any such escalation.
The statements came amid media reports, citing European and U.S. officials, that Syria's chemical weapons had been moved and could be prepared for use in response to dramatic gains by rebels fighting to topple Assad.
"Syria has stressed repeatedly that it will not use these types of weapons, if they were available, under any circumstances against its people," the foreign ministry said.
The opposition believe that Assad could turn to heavier weapons and some have suggested he might use chemical weapons.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had earlier warned that Washington would take action if Syria used the weapons.
"I am not going to telegraph any specifics what we do in the event of credible evidence that the Assad regime has resorted to using chemical weapons against their own people, but suffice to say, we are certainly planning to take action if that eventuality were to occur," she said during a visit to Prague Monday.
'Worst day in those people's lives'
On Sunday, opposition activists said that dozens were killed and wounded when government forces pounded rebel-held suburbs around Damascus with fighter jets and rockets.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights gave a preliminary death toll for Sunday's fighting of 140.
Machine guns operated by motorcycle brakes? Get a glimpse at the rebels fighting against Assad's forces in Syria's mountainous Jabal al-Zawiya area.
Activists said rocket fire struck towns close to the Damascus airport road, where rebels and the army had been locked in three days of clashes. Some described constant shelling, similar to carpet bombing, in towns like Beit Saham.
"It was frightening because it was the first time we heard continuous shelling. Really powerful explosions, one after the other, were shaking the area. I could see fire coming up from the town," said Samir al-Shami, from the opposition's Syrian Youth Union, speaking by Skype.
"This was the worst day in those people's lives," he added.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
More world stories from NBC News:
- North Korea pays tribute to Kim Jong Il's 'threadbare' parka
- ANALYSIS: Egyptians warn Morsi is no friend of US
- Bread and expired milk: School lunch scandal sparks outrage in China
- PhotoBlog: Building South Sudan from scratch
- ANALYSIS: UN Palestinian vote a personal victory for Abbas
- Fast cars go cheap as bubble bursts in 'China's Dubai'
- Experts: Antarctica, Greenland ice melting into sea
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Re: Sinning as a Christian = sinner?
It's an identifier Slug. Because of that, we don't use it to describe believers. Sinner is an identity. In Christ, we are Christians, not sinners.
There will be no liars there! But Abraham lied. However, he's not a liar. There will be no immoral person there. But David committed immorality, but he is not an "adulterer". There's a difference, IMO, in one who seeks to sin and one who seeks to avoid sin. One who seeks to sin is defined as a sinner. One who seeks to please Jesus is a Christian even if he does sin.
Paul called those undisciplined believers in Corinth saints. He spoke to them about their sin. But did he call them sinners?
"May the Lamb that was slain receive the just reward for His sufferings." A quote by Moravian missionary that sold himself (along with a friend) into slavery to reach those that the slave owner prevented from hearing the gospel.
May I live for Him and not for me.
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The influence of science on the human story
Scientific discoveries and theories build on the works and ideas of others - nothing happens in isolation. This is especially the case for those writing and developing the human story.
A timeline of scientific discovery
The 1800s to 1890s
1809 - Jean Baptiste de Lamarck (1744-1829). publishes ‘Philosophie Zoologique’
Lamarck was one of the first to propose a theory about evolution. He believed that as animals tried to fit into their environment, their efforts produced a bodily change that was then passed on to their offspring. While a popular theory at the time, it was later disproved by Darwin’s ideas about natural selection. One of the classic images used to describe Lamark’s theory of evolution is of the giraffe's neck. Giraffes needed to stretch their necks in order to reach food in taller trees. This effort resulted in longer necks, a feature passed on to the offspring.
1833 - Charles Lyell (1797-1875) and the ‘Principles of Geology’.
The work of Charles Lyell provided the foundation for the study of modern geology and an essential context to Darwin’s ideas about evolutionary change. The realisation that the world was older than previously thought did much to establish one of the significant beliefs formed in the 19th century- the antiquity of humans.
1859 - Charles Darwin (1809-1882) publishes ‘On the Origin of Species’.
Darwin was not the first to think of evolution, but he was the first to propose a sound scientific theory supported by a huge amount of evidence. Although he formulated his theory while acting as a naturalist on the HMS Beagle from 1831-1836, his concerns about the implications of releasing such a theory led him to delay its announcement for over 20 years. He may have delayed further if not alerted to the work of Alfred Wallace, another British naturalist who had independently come up with a theory on evolution by natural selection. Darwin and Wallace co-announced their theory to the Linnaean Society of London in 1858 and Darwin then published his work ‘On the Origin of Species’ the following year. This theory was widely misunderstood and mocked by a society which had been taught by the predominant religions of the day that species were created individually by God and unchangeable. Many decades would pass before the theory gained general acceptance. Darwin’s theory is still accepted today, although somewhat modified, and forms the basis of modern evolutionary theory.
1863 - Thomas Huxley (1825-1895) publishes ‘Evidence as to Man’s Place in Nature’ in defence of Darwin.
1871 - Darwin publishes ‘The Descent of Man’.
This publication, released in 1871, contained the detailed ideas regarding human evolution that Darwin had not discussed in ‘On the Origin of Species’. Although written without a single pre-human fossil as evidence, he predicted that humans originated in Africa. It would take over half a century before he would be proven correct.
‘In each great region of the world the living mammals are closely related to the extinct species of the same region. It is, therefore, probable that Africa was formerly inhabited by extinct apes closely allied to the gorilla and chimpanzee; and as these two species are now man’s nearest allies, it is somewhat more probable that our early progenitors lived on the African continent than elsewhere’.
The 1900s to 1940s
1900 - Rediscovery of Gregor Mendel’s breeding experiments (published in 1866) and the formation of the ‘Principles of Inheritance’.
The Austrian monk Gregor Mendel (1822-1884) discovered that hereditary particles (given the name ‘genes’ in 1909) pass traits from a parent to the offspring. The appearance of the offspring is determined by these genes, not by a ‘blending’ of characteristics as was believed. The work revealed to biologists how evolution worked at the molecular level and provided the scientific basis for variation that Darwin had been unable to explain. Darwin’s original theory could now be modified and adapted to fit in with this new evidence.
1942 - Julian Huxley publishes ‘The Modern Synthesis’.
Huxley’s work outlined the role of genetics and ecology in natural selection. He believed that these operated at the core of evolutionary change, an idea that became widely accepted.
1947 - American chemist Willard Libby introduced his work on carbon-14 dating
This discovery revolutionised science, particularly in the fields of human studies. It was first used to provide accurate dates of up to 40,000 years old on European sites. New techniques would soon be developed that worked on the same principles of radioactive decay in other elements and would prove to be more useful in dating older sites.
The 1950s to now
1953 - James Watson and Francis Crick reveal how genes are inherited with their discovery of the double helix shape of DNA.
1960s - Introduction of biochemistry to the field of human evolution
Prior to the 1960s, anthropologists believed that the common ancestor of humans and apes lived about 15 million years ago. This placed humans at a comfortable distance from their closest living relatives, and hence from the entire animal kingdom. The scientific advances in the 1960s would change all of this. Biochemists discovered that they were able to compare the molecules of apes and humans, providing a more accurate measurement of relatedness. The results showed that there were only very small differences between these molecules and that this reflected only a short amount of time since apes and humans diverged from a common ancestor.
The differences between the molecules are caused by mutations in DNA. Knowing the approximate rate at which mutations occur, scientists were able to calculate that the human-line split from the ape-line only five to seven million years ago. This created huge controversy at the time between biologists and anthropologists, a controversy which raged for over a decade before further studies supported the claims of the biochemists. Today no one doubts our close genetic relationship to the other living apes.
1980s - improved technology, such as CT scans, MRIs (magnetic resonance imaging) and DNA analysis, allows scientists to develop new methods of interpreting fossils. The study of human evolution has become a multi-disciplinary field.
2003 - completion of The Human Genome Project (with final papers published in 2006). This landmark project identified all the approximately 20,000-25,000 genes in human DNA and determined the sequences of the 3 billion chemical base pairs that make up the DNA. From an evolutionary perspective, this project helps identify what makes us human, how we are related to other organisms and what part of our DNA has changed or mutated over time.
2009 - first draft of the Neanderthal genome announced. Comparing the human and Neanderthal genomes with that of our closest living relative, the chimpanzee, may reveal which genes changed very recently giving modern humans an edge over Neanderthals.
2010 - publication of the first detailed analysis of the Neanderthal genome. Of key importance was the discovery that Europeans and Asians share 1-4% of their DNA with Neanderthals but Africans do not (previous studies on the mtDNA showed no signs of interbreeding between the species). This suggests modern humans and Neanderthals interbred after moderns left Africa and before they spread to Europe and Asia - the most likely location was the Levant, an area both species occupied about 80,000 years ago.
Fran Dorey , Exhibition Project Coordinator
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I can still remember sitting in a computer lab at the University of New Hampshire early in my college career — and two years before the Sept. 11 attacks — reading the first of what would turn out to be many mass emails about atrocities being committed against women in Afghanistan. The plight of Afghan women under the Taliban and other assorted Mujahideen groups running their country had become the cause du jour on campus, and with good cause. Some of the tales culled from Amnesty International reports were so terrible and heartbreaking they can never be forgotten.
I could not have then imagined the confluence of events that would finally free the women of Afghanistan from decades of rape, torture, murder, forced prostitution, or the public scarring, beatings and humiliation, all done with impunity throughout the 1990s. Likewise, as I’ve already written elsewhere, the country’s nascent experiment with global capitalism is beginning to change the way Afghan women look at themselves and their role in the world with a surprising alacrity.
I certainly never dreamed, even in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11 and the war that followed, that I would wake up one morning in March 2005 to learn that the democratically elected president of Afghanistan had just appointed the first female provincial governor in the country’s history. Even as we mourn every woman who was robbed of the privilege of seeing this day, the progress of recent years is astounding.
Nevertheless, this monumental event was not accompanied by any flurry of emails to my inbox. I saw no coverage of it on the morning news. In fact, if I hadn’t read the one paragraph blurb about the appointment on page A10 of the Boston Globe, I may never have even realized it had occurred.
The future governor in question, Habiba Sarobi, currently one of three female ministers in the government of Harmid Karzai, is, as should come as no surprise, a quite brave woman. When Karzai recently offered her a cushy ambassadorship outside of Afghanistan, she turned it down.
“I want to be inside the country at the service of my people,” she told the Associated Press, adding when her governor’s appointment was made public, “Today is a very good day for me. It is another important step toward women’s rights in Afghanistan.”
It’s quite a contrast held up alongside testimonies gathered by Amnesty International during the Taliban reign. Here’s one particularly heinous bit:
“They shot my father right in front of me,” a 15-year-old Kabul girl told Amnesty investigators in 1994. “He was a shop-keeper. It was nine o’clock at night. They came to our house and told him they had orders to kill him because he allowed me to go to school. The Mujahideen had already stopped me from going to school, but that was not enough. They then came and killed my father. I cannot describe what they did to me after killing my father…”
“One night about five months ago [June 1994], armed guards came to our house [in Farah]. There were six to seven of them. They forced us to go to a corner of the room while they got hold of my husband. They kept beating him violently, saying he had been teaching girls at the village school. We all shouted for mercy but they did not stop. They then stood him in front of me and my four small children. One of them aimed a Kalashnikov at his heart and shot him dead. The guard then said he was going to stay in the house and marry me.”
There are many more such stories, and they should not be forgotten. Women murdered for failing to cover their entire bodies; for being raped; for learning to read. Families wantonly slaughtered attempting to protect their teenage daughters and sisters from being violated or, worse, claimed permanently by middle-aged men. Many of the fundamentalists who participated in these crimes still walk the streets of Kabul, Jalalabad, and Kandahar. The culture war to free these women permanently is an ongoing battle and there is nothing those who prefer a return to the caveman days would like better than to see the civilized world take its eye off the ball again.
Life as a woman in Afghanistan, as organizations such as Amnesty International continue to point out, is far from perfect. Many women have been liberated from the Taliban, but still live in the shadows of a culture that demeans them and curtails their hopes and dreams as a matter of commonplace tradition. It is the example of brave women like Sarobi that will plants the seeds of the mental liberation that is such a necessary compliment to their physical liberation. As some journalists, most notably Ralph Peters, have pointed out, this change is not a perk of civilization, but a prerequisite. No country that oppresses half its population can hope to prosper in the modern world.
So what does Sarobi hope to use her governorship in the central Bamiyan province to do? Promote tourism. It might seem a faraway dream to many considering the long, rocky road ahead. But Sarobi has already proven her ability to overcome much greater odds. Let’s not forget her and the other women fighting to make sure the horrors Afghan women suffered during the 1990s never come back again. I never want to feel so helpless reading my email again.
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
H/T to National Review Online
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War Against Phishing Continues
But that victory, if it comes, will not be easily won.
Experts say that there is no one answer to the question of how to stop phishing.
Consumer education efforts have begun to show results, but 3 to 5 percent of recipients still fall for phishing scams.
Some technology vendors have introduced tools that help uncover fraudulent Web sites, but scammers always seem to be one step ahead with new tricks. And law enforcement officials have made a few high-profile arrests recently, but successful prosecutions of phishers remain rare.
In the end, it will likely be a combination of education, technology, legislation and law enforcement that ends up making a serious dent in the phishing industry.
Read the full story: War Against Phishing Continues
blog comments powered by Disqus
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Healthy diet, healthy teeth: how to eat your way to a brilliant smile and better oral health
By Claudia Cortadi, DDS
The holiday season is just around the corner, bringing with it a wide variety of opportunities to eat, drink and be merry. For many of us, Thanksgiving and Christmas are prime times to indulge in rich flavors and sweet treats; but in addition to the impact they can have on one’s waistline, fatty and sugary foods and beverages can also take a toll on oral health and hygiene – putting the body at risk for much more than just a few pounds’ worth of holiday weight-gain. Most people know that brushing and flossing are staples for a healthy oral hygiene regimen. But amidst the winter festivities this year, remember that a balanced diet can also be a major factor in overall oral health – and a critical ally in the fight to keep teeth, gums and the rest of the body strong, clean and disease-free.
When it comes to general health, a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, leafy greens, lean protein, whole grains and unsaturated fats is the best way to ensure balanced nutrition and energy on a daily basis; and conveniently enough, the same can be said for optimal oral health. However, as noted in Everyday Health, there are several key foods and nutrients that stand out when it comes to building strong teeth and preventing gum disease.
Smile-saving foods to add to your diet
When consumed on a regular basis, the following foods can help fortify teeth and gums with vital calcium, Vitamin C, cleansing and strengthening agents:
- Calcium-rich foods, including lowfat dairy, salmon, kale and broccoli, to strengthen bones and teeth and help prevent gum disease
- Vitamin C-rich foods, such as citrus fruits including kiwis, grapefruits and oranges, to prevent gingivitis
- Crunchy fruits and vegetables, including celery, apples and carrots, to help swipe away bacteria on teeth that can lead to plaque build-up
- Black tea, to aid in the suppression of cavity-causing bacteria
- Water, to help wash away bacteria and food remnants and thus prevent plaque build-up
By incorporating these foods into a daily regimen that also includes consistent brushing, flossing and dental office exams, most people can keep oral health issues at bay while simultaneously improving their overall fitness and physical well-being. As the holidays draw near (and with them, the temptation to eat sugary baked goods, rich meats and sweetened beverages), remember to maintain balance by adding crunchy veggies, healthy fruits and plenty of water to festive meals – and to brush, floss or rinse with water after every meal for added protection. Finally, once the holiday rush has passed, don’t forget to make an appointment with a qualified dental professional for a routine cleaning and exam. For more information, visit us online: www.ablantisdental.com.
- New medical research reinforces link between periodontal disease and overall systemic health
- Advanced screening tool boosts early detection, cure rate for HPV-induced oral cancers
- ‘Food Dude’ discusses healthy living for Friends
- NUTRITION AND YOU: Health benefits of herbs and spices
- Mediterranean diet discussion at Del Mar library on July 15
Short URL: http://www.delmartimes.net/?p=29395
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“The wand chooses the wizard… it’s not always clear why.”
I always imagined that all wands looked roughly the same, maybe slightly different colors, but certainly not all those different, carefully constructed, unique, designs. I think of them as more utilitarian. Though I see the appeal of a unique design for every witch and wizard, it seems impractical, especially since they only cost seven galleons and a unicorn hair can cost up to 10 galleons. It doesn’t seem to be good business for Ollivander.
I always assumed the Ministry of Magic subsidised the entire wand-making industry. Like, they seem pretty essential to how everything runs in the wizarding world - and think of all the money you save on healthcare if you just make sure Ollivander stays in business!
Don’t you think there must be a guild of wandmakers? Such a small interconnected group of highly valuable artisans must, over the years, have aggregated a trust from shared profits, taxes, patronage, and investments which they use to support wandmakers and their apprentices.
How could a wandmaker ever make it on his own? The cost of each wand might cover its materials, but definitely can’t net much of a salary for folks like Ollivander. He spends all year crafting new wands for the late summer rush of Hogwarts first-years, though of course he can never be sure if his stock, built up over a lifetime, will be able to accomodate every new wizard; surely none of his wands choose a particular wizard every so often, and he must refer the poor firstie to a colleague’s shop for another go. This particular distribution of sales also creates an incredibly front-loaded profit margin each fiscal year—a flood of capital is great for restocking inventory, but irregular cash flows terribly dangerous for sustaining his operating costs for the other eleven months of the year. Moreover, like farmers dependent on stable currency and the market value of their crops, the availability of supplies like dragon heartstrings and unicorn tail hairs are entirely dependent upon tiny vulnerable populations not available domestically. Ollivander is as helpless before and dependent upon the health of elm trees and the political situation in Romania as farmers are to rain.
This is why a support network is necessary. A guild puts wandmakers in a position to work toward mutual success: sharing resources instead of hoarding them; communicating about potential threats to their supply chain; setting a fixed price for wands, adjusted of course for inflation and production costs, regardless of relative affluence of the region; and incentivizing new members to set up shop in underserved areas instead of saturating the market in major wizarding cities.
Moreover, this guild will possess a trust, a set of funds built up over centuries and maintained by dedicated custodians within the guild leadership. These funds support wandmakers like Ollivander by subsidizing their operating costs; provide pensions to retirees; pay stipends to apprentices; and offer loans to wandmakers during difficult years.
I think that before the democratic ethos of the guild system
Wands used to be prohibitively expensive. They were analogous to swords, difficult to make and worth as much as modern cars or houses. A wandmaker might produce ten really good wands a year, and for those who could afford one, a wand was not a coming-of-age rite but a family heirloom. Old wizarding families likely had small collections of wands, and bestowed one to their firstborn or heir when the time was right. Those without family wands would have to save up for years in order to afford it—but of course, without a wand, one is restricted to lower-paying intellectual, service, or nonmagical vocations. Thus wands were held by and passed among established wizarding families, physical proof of the socio-genetic wizarding hierarchy which still plagues the modern wizarding world. Wands were not conduits for an individual’s talents but inherently valuable status symbols, powerful even if the wielder is not particularly good at magic.
Such a concentration of power—magical, cultural, political, and social—rewards the privileged few and disenfranchises the many. None but the heirs of wizarding families (and maybe their siblings if the family is rich with wands) can access magic; magical individuals born to non-wizarding families, non-heirs within wizarding families, families whose wands have been stolen or lost, and new wizarding families formed by marriages between non-heirs are all disempowered by this glass ceiling.
Wands held exclusively by the privileged few results in stability for the Wizarding world, as is always the case in societies with castes. This system protected the small and oft-persecuted wizarding population for centuries—yet discouraged innovation and retarded social change.
Then there was Ollivander.
The youngest in a long line of wandmakers, Ollivander grew up watching his father and grandfather and great-grandfather create exquisite wands for highborn customers ranging from the dismissive to the presumptuous. He witnessed their undeserved and unasked-for dependence on these privileged few—but he also listened. He heard what they whispered as their shop doors swung closed: “The wand chooses the wizard.”
What a radical statement. Wandmakers know that wands cannot be bought, traded, stolen, hoarded, or coerced away from their owners. Wands choose wizards. Wands intuit their rightful bearers, regardless of status, wealth, blood, and lineage. Wands reject the socio-genetic wizarding hierarchy; wands embrace muggleborns; wands don’t give a fig about who your daddy was. They forge with a singular wizard a bond that can only be broken by defeat in consensual single combat or death.
Ollivander learned from his ancestors that wands and the artisans who create them serve a higher cause than the market. So century and a half ago, talented and fearless and with his father’s blessing, he began to reshape the wizarding world to yield to that truth. He served the same few families all other wandmakers did, but at the same time, in pub cellars and dragon hatcheries and the kitchens of hawthorn foresters, he began spread his gospel. Across Europe and the world, wandmakers and the tradesmen who supply their workshops began to see their trades a little differently. They began to think it a little unfair that their neighbor, who’d been transfiguring frogs into teacups since she was three, would never be able to apprentice for a potionmaker since her parents could not afford a wand; that heirs had to marry as their parents dictated or else be disinherited, wandless and alone; that Muggles with magic would never enter into this robust world of wonder, healing, and flight.
And when enough people believed, when Ollivander amassed enough attention from people who mattered—people with money to invest and kids in need of wands—well, then he founded the Wandmakers Guild, and the wizarding world was forever changed.
Holy shit. I am so impressed.
- Posted 9 months ago
- Reblogged from geekerrific with
- 32,060 notes
- harry potter
- harry potter meta
- wizarding economy
- wand lore
- garrick ollivander
- fan theory
- so this happened.
- hank green
- the venn diagram between Harry Potter fans and scholars-in-training
In one conversation with an anonymous cable network, an exec said to us, “Crash Course would be PERFECT if you were a little less nuanced and stuck to topics that interest people. Like, you know, Hitler and sex.” (Direct quote.)
I’ve read tens of thousands of Crash Course comments. No one—NO ONE—has ever asked us to be less nuanced, or to stick to Hitler and sex. That’s what I love about nerdfighteria. Our community is deeply intellectually engaged, even when that means grappling with complexity and ambiguity.
Recently I’ve been reading a lot of editorials bemoaning the over-simplification of news - political reporting in particular. I guess when I think about it I agree with them, but generally speaking this isn’t something I experience in the communities in which I’m active. I regularly experience people like John and Hank cultivating more nuanced conversations amongstpeople. I don’t want to make us out to be ~special snowflakes~ because I reject the idea that this is something exclusive to Nerdfighteria, but I really do feel privileged to be involved in this community, and it makes me optimistic for the future.
Only in America can you rhyme “box” with “talk”.
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Blessed with the possibility of a love that transcends the socially constructed boundary of gender identity (masculine/feminine) and the biologically constructed boundary of sex (male/female), bisexual persons speak to a number of theological principles as no others can.
Reflecting a wide spectrum of religious traditions and spiritual paths -- including Buddhist, Hindu, 12-Step, Pagan, Indigenous, Christian, and Jewish -- more than 30 contributors speak about the intersections of their faith practice and their sexual orientation. Some write about struggles in their denomination to be "out" as bisexuals. Others find their capacity to love both woman and men rooted in their faith traditions. Still others create new prayers and rituals to widen the boundaries of their faith practice.
While there have been many anthologies devoted to the specific spiritual inheritance of heterosexual women, lesbians, and gay men, this is the first such anthology in which bisexual persons speak for themselves. Contributors share rich insights on achieving wholeness, balance, and integration, on reconciling transcendence and immanence, on sacred sexuality, crossing boundaries, and living fully in one's calling.
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User:Jonathan Cline/Notebook/Melaminometer/Project Considerations
- Melamine, cyanuric acid, and the related herbicide Atrazine has several decades of research due to the common industrial use of these chemicals. The project is assisted considerably by this foundation of research.
- Sufficient documentation of the enzymes, plasmids, and microbes has been found during initial project feasibility phase. This is good news.
- Industrial/commercial testing is geared towards reliability and quantification, without significant emphasis on cost or point of care use. Thus commercial testing/detection methods have different goals than this project. This project aims to be simple, low cost, and usable "at home", thus needs to solve different problems than industrial testing. This project can sacrifice some reliability of detection results for the higher priorities of those aims.
- This project is timely, as melamine contamination is featured nearly every day in the asian news headlines. This is an important problem which needs a timely solution.
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That is what President José Mujica of Uruguay accidently said about President Cristina Fernández of Argentina when he didn’t know the mike was live. The one-eyed man, by the way, is her late husband and former President of Argentina.
“Esta vieja es peor que el tuerto.” In Mexico, in this context, the use of vieja would not necessarily be an aspersion against President Fernández’s age, meaning instead something like “The wife is worse than the one-eye.” I am told, however, that in the Southern Cone it translates to something more like “hag.”
Uruguay is not happy with Argentina. The tension goes back a long way (Canadians should appreciate the psychology) but the recent imbroglios began with this. Short version: Argentine activists blockaded a bridge between Uruguay and Argentina in anger over a big paper mill a Finnish company was building in Uruguay.
President Mujica’s predecessor, Tabaré Vázquez, considered going to war over the blockade, but quickly realized ... well, take a listen:
So much for sending the Uruguayan army over the bridge. (Plus, well, even a successful action would have worked out about as well for Uruguay as Pearl Harbor did for Japan: you don’t get a country to reopen its roads to your commerce by attacking them.)
Ex-President Vázquez is telling the truth about the seriousness of the conflict over the Botnia paper mill. In 2006, the Uruguayans told the American government that the Argentines were “fascists” and asked the U.S. for help. “A brother slapping another in the face needs a big uncle to put a stop to it,” said the Uruguayans, although they feared that Argentina would cut off gas imports. (The U.S. tacitly supported Uruguay.) In April 2007, in the face of Argentine threats, Uruguayan newspapers revealed military contingency plans should the plant be attacked, although the Uruguayan military attache in Buenos Aires later contradicted those reports.
In November 2007, Vázquez ordered the mill to start operations, with the blockade still underway. But the Uruguayans feared the Argentine response, so they secretly asked for closer military relations with the U.S. and stepped up security around the plant.
Uruguayan fears notwithstanding, war was not going to happen — the U.S. embassy in Buenos Aires wrote: “There is absolutely no indication that GOA [Government of Argentina] is considering a military ‘solution’ to this dispute, and the GOA’s own military operational capacity is very limited. Any suggestions of a military ‘solution’ here actually brings about expressions of humor or disbelief. At the recent Embassy-hosted Veterans Day event, a military contact only barely jokingly said that as a matter of fact, right now, the GOU [Government of Uruguay] probably has more active and usable aircraft and other military assets than does the GOA.”
That said, it is ridiculous that Buenos Aires let the situation get so out of hand. With the plant running (and causing little pollution) the crisis passed, but the reverberations continued to mess up relations between the two countries. Argentina blocked Mercosur from funding a second frequency converter on the Uruguay-Brazil border. The converter would have let Uruguay import more electricity from Brazil ... freeing it from Argentine pressure. (As well as occasional power shortfalls: Uruguay wanted it for economic as well as political reasons. Tenders finally went out in 2011, without Mercosur money.)
Then the Argentines blocked joint dredging operations to maintain the Martín García canal, under the treaty governing the Rio de la Plata. The problem has kept big ships out of the Uruguayan port of Nueva Palmira. It looks like the dredging might finally happen, maybe.
Buenos Aires proceeded to add insult to injury by imposing import licenses on 6 percent of Uruguayan exports to Argentina. It also went after Uruguay as a putative tax haven and denied its national airline landing rights in Chubut. Then Argentina stalled on attempts to build a regasification plant to allow for LNG imports. (President Mujica announced on April 2 that a plant will go ahead “with or without Argentina.”)
The most recent insult was not aimed at Uruguay specifically, but angered Montevideo nonetheless: Argentina limited the amount of money that Argentines can take out of the country ... sucker-punching Uruguay’s tourism industry.
Uruguay tried to shoot back by delaying Néstor Kirchner’s attempt to become the first Secretary-General of the Union of South American Nations, but they failed. Kirchner took over the organization shortly before his death in 2010.
It has become about as dysfunctional a relationship as one can imagine between two democratic and culturally-similar neighboring states. Argentina fruitlessly and pointlessly bullies Uruguay; Uruguay impotently pokes back. Things will certainly not get any worse, but they also show no sign of getting better.
The next time a Canadian complains about relations with the U.S., point to the Southern Cone. It could be much much worse.
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Solar and wind electric generation systems are affordable and efficient, but there are a many areas of the U.S. where wind systems are not feasible, and few localized areas where solar systems are not feasible. A diesel powered generator with a large underground tank is reliable, but under adverse conditions the tank could run dry. Fortunately there are two systems capable of generating electric power with wood, a fuel readily available in most parts of the country.
Gasification is a process of burning wood or other solid biomass in a specialized
combustion vessel (basically an upside-down wood stove) that generates hydrogen
and carbon monoxide (CO) gases as by-products of the high temperature combustion.
The exhaust gases can then be used to fuel an internal combustion engine. Gasifiers
were used across Europe during WWII to power tractors, trucks and buses when
gasoline was not available. The return of gasoline after the war caused gasification
to drop off the radar. A group of American pioneers have revived the technology
and made great strides in bringing this lost technology back to the market.
All Power Labs in California sells do-it-yourself kits and complete gasifier systems, known as gasifier experimenter's kits (GEKs). GEKs have been used to power cars and generators, it is potentially a complete solution. GEKs are operating around the world. GEKs is an open source project, that is, the plans are free and users are encouraged to experiment and share their knowledge. The design and operation of the gasifier requires wood blocks/chips, pellets or similar sized fuel. Split firewood is not an option when operating on a small scale.
The other option is small scale steam. Steam engines powered the industrial
revolution and were in use well after the advent of petroleum products and
the electrical grid. Mike
Brown in Missouri manufactures a range of small scale
steam engines, from 1-to-20 horsepower.
Operating a steam engine requires specialized knowledge and skills, steam is dangerous in inexperienced hands. Mike Brown has a package of instructional materials for sale and will insist you do your homework before purchasing of one of his engines.
Steam engines require a boiler to generate the steam to drive the engine.
Boilers can be made from copper tubing and junkyard scrap for a few hundred
providing there is a metal worker in the neighborhood; plans and a how-to video
are available from Mike Brown. ASME-certified boilers are available in limited
Both systems will generate electricity when gasoline, diesel and propane fuels
are unavailable, the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing . These systems
are best suited for short term backup power or as a supplement to a solar/wind
system. Neither system is “off the shelf” ready, they both require
back yard engineering skills and American ingenuity Both systems require a
stock of wood or other solid fuel to operate for any extended time. They both
require tending and maintenance. Relying on steam or gasification for a year-round
supply of electricity for a retreat is unrealistic in most cases . Note however
that life in the future may become very unrealistic.
But will these systems power a retreat? If you had a 3 hp steam system the answer is yes. I did some rough calculations; in which I could be off by ±25%. I am assuming a battery bank for storage. A 3 hp system steaming for 6 hours per day for a month would generate approximately 400 KW. For comparison, 400 KW is less than one half of what the average American household uses in a month, but far more than most solar or wind systems will generate. We get by on less than 400 KW per month and the retreat is all electric, including hot water, range and refrigerator and I run many power tools in the shop. 400 KW is a huge amount of electricity in terms of the creature comforts it can provide. Under emergency conditions 100 KW/month would drive a well pump, laptop, lights, radios and cell phone chargers.[JWR Adds: Don't forget that when drawing DC power from a battery bank, that inversion to AC with a modern inverter is about 80% efficient in typical use, and they can be about 90% efficiency under optimal conditions. To understand the concepts of kilowatts and kilowatt hours (KWh), see Wikipedia.)
If oak were used for fuel it would take 13 cords of firewood per year (that is a lot of wood). At $225 per cord it would cost approximately $3,000 per year plus many hours of manual labor. This is not what the modern American considers convenience, but under lock-down conditions you may be the only one within 100 miles that is powered up after a week. Under emergency conditions you will be at home with enough time on your hands to stoke the fire every hour. I have not done a similar analysis of the gasifier. A gasifier is a very efficient use of biomass, I would expect you can achieve much the same results as a steam system. GEK users will be happy to share what they know.
Pros: Technically within the range of the do-it-yourselfer. Will power many internal combustion engines. Will burn chipped/blocked wood and forest scrap, walnut shells and more. Waste heat from the gasifier and IC engine can be used to heat water (which can be used to heat a home). The exhaust gas from the IC engine is water vapor and there is no smoke, the smoke has been converted to a combustible gas.
Cons: Requires small, consistent-sized fuel such as dry wood chips. Generates carbon monoxide (CO), a deadly gas although this gas can be used to fuel an outdoor stove. Cannot be installed within a living space (same with steam). Limited supply, however plans are free and a gasifier can be built with scrap steel and junkyard parts by any welder/metal worker.
Cost: Approximately $1,000-3,000 (not including engine, generator or storage batteries).
Pros: The most reliable and simple of backup systems. Quiet. Steam can be used for multiple purposes including space and water heating and making bio-fuels, including alcohol. Can be powered with both solid and liquid fuels.
Cons: Requires a good bit of self-study. Potentially hazardous. Limited source of supply for engines and boilers although both should last a lifetime and be worth their weight in silver should it come to that.
Cost: Approximately $7,000 for 3 hp engine and boiler (not including generator or storage batteries), the greater part of the cost for a manufactured boiler.
Steam engines are precision machines available in limited quantities. Cost aside, it could be months before you take delivery, but remember patience is a virtue. If time and money is of the essence then the GEK is the best bet; a team of garage mechanics could have a GEK up and running in a week. GEKs can be manufactured from plans without royalties, potentially a great business opportunity.
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EU privacy watchdog warns on transport monitoring
Privacy chief says plan (Hu)stinx
New systems planned by the European Commission to ease traffic problems across Europe do not adequately protect the privacy of travellers, according to the regulator set up to monitor the privacy implications of Commission actions.
The European Commission plans to create a framework within which it will be easier for governments and transport operators to set up EU-wide tracking and monitoring systems for transport.
European Data Protection Supervisor Peter Hustinx, who is responsible for regulating EU bodies' privacy practices, said that he had concerns about the proposals.
Though the systems are aimed at making transport more environmentally friendly and less time consuming, Hustinx said that they could be used to monitor individuals' movements across the continent.
"The deployment of ITS will support the development of applications for 'tracking and tracing' of goods and will allow for the deployment of location-based commercial and public services," said a formal opinion produced by Hustinx. "The use of location technologies is particularly intrusive from a privacy viewpoint as it allows for the tracking of drivers and for the collection of a wide variety of data relating to their driving habits."
"The processing of location data is a particularly sensitive matter involving the key issue of the freedom to move anonymously, and which requires the implementation of specific safeguards in order to prevent surveillance of individuals and misuse of the data," his opinion said.
The Commission has proposed a 'deployment plan' for intelligent transport systems (ITS) which aims to standardise data processing throughout Europe so that ITS can work across borders.
Hustinx, though, said that the plans do not take great enough account of individuals' need for privacy.
"The proposed legal framework is too broad and general to adequately address the privacy and data protection concerns raised by ITS deployment in the Member States," said the opinion. "It is not clear when the performance of ITS services will lead to the collection and processing of personal data, what are the specific purposes for which a data processing occurs, nor what is the legal basis that justifies such processing."
"Furthermore, the use of location technologies for ITS deployment raises the risk of developing services that are intrusive from a privacy viewpoint if they entail the collection and exchange of personal data," it said.
Hustinx's opinion also pointed out that the plans are not clear enough to create a consistent level of data protection across the EU in the transport systems.
"There is a risk that the lack of clarity of the proposed legal framework will create diversity in the implementation of ITS in Europe which will lead to different levels of data protection in Europe. The EDPS emphasizes the need for further harmonisation on these issues at EU level to clarify outstanding issues," it said.
"It is particularly crucial to identify who the data controllers will be in respect of the data processing performed, as they will bear the responsibility to ensure that privacy and data protection considerations are implemented at all levels of the chain of processing," said the opinion.
The Commission said that ITS would join up information from the road, water and air transport networks and that this would reduce congestion and the damaging effects transport has on the environment.
Copyright © 2009, OUT-LAW.com
OUT-LAW.COM is part of international law firm Pinsent Masons.
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To be clear, we believe that access to trial data is in the best interests of patients and medicines, and that study findings need to be communicated, whatever the outcome, for the benefit of the community at large. Some of the issues and examples highlighted in Dr Goldacre’s book Bad Pharma are clearly historical and have been addressed by the companies involved. However, we have always recognised that there is still a great deal more work to be done in this area.
The pharmaceutical industry has been and continues to be committed to addressing the issues in reporting clinical trial data. The ABPI is actively involved in playing a meaningful role in the discussion. However, clinical research is a truly global process and, in this context, the ABPI is working at European and International levels, and in partnership with all relevant stakeholders. You can read our full position here.
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pain, which is not at all uncommon since it's affects about 80-percent of us at some point in our lives. It can be a dull constant ache, a sharp piercing
Dr. Stephen Humbard at St. Vincent Family Clinic West wants to know if you're drinking enough water? Most of us aren't - so drink up. All of us need to replace the water our bodies lost just doing normal things like sweating and using the bathroom to prevent dehydration.
If you're physically active, have a fever or diarrhea or you're vomiting you'll need more water.
Here are tips to stay hydrated while you're exercising or otherwise physically active.
- Drink water before you're thirsty.
- Drink water during the activity.
- Drink several glasses of water after you're finished.
Here's something else: carry a water bottle with you. Get freezer-safe water bottles for ice-cold water all day long. Drink water instead of other beverages when eating out. And if you have to - add a squeeze of lemon or lime for flavor
Also at St. Vincent Family Clinic West, Dr. Stephen Humbard and Dr. Martha Rueda - are seeing people with colds and viral pharyngitis, which is inflammation of the pharynx. That's the part of the throat between the tonsils and the larynx. And it's the number one cause of a sore throat.
It can also cause a fever, joint pain or muscle aches - and tender or swollen lymph nodes in the neck. Throat lozenges or sprays can sometimes help. But swollen lymph nodes in the neck could be a sign of mononucleosis. See a doctor if you think you have swollen lymph nodes.
Dr. Russel Tarr at St. Vincent Family Clinic West saw at least one case of a viral bronchial infection this week. That patient - my friends - was me. Apparently many of us are having problems with a cough and congestion in the throat and chest. I tried to fight it off - but I couldn't. So the Dr. Tarr gave me an anti-biotic and a steroid pack. He tells me I’ll be good as new in a few days.
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Christina: The copy I have of this book is used and someone has written in the margins, around where Suleri is describing the pre-dawn feasts of Ramadan, that “food is significant.” At first this struck me as a particularly worthless thing to bother writing down, especially in a chapter about food, but in light of Suleri’s question--“What is it, after all, between food and the body?”—it seems somehow an appropriate attempt to synthesize Suleri’s vast and almost inapproachable weaving of memoir and metaphor in her own exploration of this question. “Food is significant” for Suleri not just in the context of fasting for Ramadan, but also in the dream of hiding her dead mother’s foot bone under her tongue or in thinking of conversations between sisters as meals—the multitude of ways are almost dizzying.
Michael writes that Suleri “tries to understand the passage of time” by “reducing that vast concept, which almost defies comprehension, to smaller, more easily appreciable units.” One of these units is food:
Food certainly gave us a way not simply of ordering a week or a day but of living inside histoy, measuring everything we remembered against a chronology of cooks. Just as Papa had his own yardstick—a word he loved---with which to measure history and would talk about the Ayub era, or the second martial law, or the Bhutto regime, so my sisters and I would place ourselves in time by remembering and naming cooks. ‘In the Qayuum days,’ we’d say, to give a distinctive flavor to a particular anecdote, or ‘in the Allah Ditta era.’ [p. 34]
Vinny: Susie brings up the theme of disembodiment, reminding me instantly of a passage in Suleri's Meatless Days in which she describes "kapura", or what she believes to be "sweetbreads... cooked with kidneys" (22). Recollecting a moment when her sister Tillat asks if she knows "what kapura are", Sara admits that "to be so probed around of the issue of [her] own nativity" irked her. But Tillat, with her "superior knowledge", corrects her: "Not sweetbread... they're testicles, that's what kapura really are."
Suleri, unable to accept this revelation, investigates further in hopes of reconciling not only the truth about kapura, but also her personal desire -- her need -- to "strip a food of its sauce and put it back into its bodily belongings". For Suleri, the idea that "a kapura, as naked meat, equals a testicle", underscores the tensions of her own self-disembodiment from Pakistani culture and her native history, calling into question all that Suleri thinks to be true. Suleri, in an attempt to salvage the remains of her original understanding of kapura, rummages "for the sweet realm of nomenclature", and asks some companions, "couldn't kapura on a lazy occasion also accomodate something like sweetbreads, which is just a nice way of saying that pancreas is not a pleasant word to eat?" Uninterested in "this finesse", someone responds, "Balls, darling, balls".
Last modified 21 April 2011
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Jan. 10, 2012 Like the human body, a digital device often suffers a few bruises and scratches within a lifetime. As in medicine, these injuries can be easily detected and repaired (or healed). At other times, however, a digital device may sustain hard-to-pinpoint nanoscale scratches, which can cause the device as a whole to malfunction.
In a paper published on Jan. 10, in Nature Nanotechnology, a team of researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass) propose a "repair-and-go" approach to fixing malfunctions caused by small-surface cracks on any digital device or part before it hits store shelves.
"Anything that's a machine with a surface is affected by these small-scale cracks," said Anna Balazs, Distinguished Professor of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering in Pitt's Swanson School of Engineering and coinvestigator on the project. "These are surfaces that play a role in almost anything, especially functionality."
The Pitt-UMass research team approach was inspired by the ability of white blood cells in the body to heal wounds on-site. Balazs and Pitt colleagues first came up with a theoretical "repair-and-go" method: A flexible microcapsule filled with a solution of nanoparticles would be applied to a damaged surface; it would then repair defects by releasing nanoparticles into them. Using nanoparticles and droplets of oil stabilized with a polymer surfactant -- compounds that lower the surface tension of a liquid -- the UMass team actualized the theory, showing that these microcapsules found the cracks and delivered the nanoparticle contents into them. Balazs proposes that manufacturers use this method as a last step in the building process.
"The repair-and-go method can extend the lifetime of any system or device," she said. "Additionally, it could be used as a repair method after a crack has been found."
Original research by Balazs and her team was published in ACS Nano and then reported on in Nature Nanotechnology's "News and Views" section in September 2010.
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
- Katrina Kratz, Amrit Narasimhan, Ravisubhash Tangirala, SungCheal Moon, Ravindra Revanur, Santanu Kundu, Hyun Suk Kim, Alfred J. Crosby, Thomas P. Russell, Todd Emrick, German Kolmakov, Anna C. Balazs. Probing and repairing damaged surfaces with nanoparticle-containing microcapsules. Nature Nanotechnology, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2011.235
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
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This article was originally distributed via PRWeb. PRWeb, WorldNow and this Site make no warranties or representations in connection therewith.
SOURCE: Kappa Alpha Theta
Kappa Alpha Theta's Sisters Supporting Sisters program, the first fraternity/sorority mental health initiative, receives award from the Association of Fraternity/Sorority Advisors.
Indianapolis, Ind. (PRWEB) December 07, 2012
Sisters Supporting Sisters, Kappa Alpha Theta’s mental health initiative, received the Excellence in Educational Programming Award from the Association of Fraternity/Sorority Advisors (AFA). The award recognizes a new and innovative program developed by a fraternity organization for its undergraduate or alumnae members.
According to a 2004 American College Health Association study, nearly 45 percent of college students have felt so depressed they found it difficult to function, but only 20 percent were likely to turn to a school counselor for help. Through partnerships Kappa Alpha Theta has developed with mental health professionals and organizations, Sisters Supporting Sisters is the first Greek initiative dedicated to promoting all aspects of mental health and wellness.
The program is designed to increase dialogue about and support for all aspects of mental health. Sisters Supporting Sisters creates a safe environment for members to discuss mental health issues, helps members recognize signs of mental health challenges, and supports members facing mental health challenges and disorders.
Kappa Alpha Theta, the first Greek-letter Fraternity known among women, has a reputation for innovation. Their alcohol-awareness program was honored by AFA in 1995, and their first-of-its-kind fire sprinkler initiative was recognized in 2000 by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA).
Kappa Alpha Theta, founded in 1870 at DePauw University (then Asbury College) in Greencastle, Ind., is the first Greek-letter fraternity for women. Fraternity headquarters, located in Indianapolis, supports 130 college chapters and 197 alumnae groups across the US and Canada. Membership totals more than 215,000.
AFA, headquartered in Ft .Collins, Colo., enhances the ability of college and university staff members to foster impactful fraternity/sorority experiences.
For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2012/12/prweb10203686.htm
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The space between your helmet and your goggles exposing your forehead while skiing. Extremely bad gorby gaps can show over an inch of forehead, and sometimes even have strands of hair falling over the person's goggles. Gorby gaps can be caused by a bad fall, or the person just not knowing any better. A good skiier can get a gorby gap and will be laughed at, but gorby gap is almost always seen on a Gorby.
"You just packed crap dude, you better fix your goggles you've got a gorby gap."
"Check out that poser with the huge gorby gap."
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This extraordinary work, first published in 1903, is even more relevant today. Du Bois declared that "the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line," the racial controversy that continues to haunt American society. This prophetic masterpiece began DuBois's lifelong crusade in his search for a solution, pleading for mutual respect and understanding as well the use of nonviolent methods to achieve racial equality. The Souls of Black Folk remains one of the most influential writings of our time.
With a dash of the Victorian and Enlightenment influences that peppered his impassioned yet formal prose, the book's largely autobiographical chapters take the reader through the momentous and moody maze of Afro-American life after the Emancipation Proclamation: from poverty, the neoslavery of the sharecropper, illiteracy, miseducation, and lynching, to the heights of humanity reached by the spiritual "sorrow songs" that birthed gospel and the blues. The most memorable passages are contained in "On Booker T. Washington and Others," where Du Bois criticizes his famous contemporary's rejection of higher education and accommodationist stance toward white racism: "Mr. Washington's programme practically accepts the alleged inferiority of the Negro races," he writes, further complaining that Washington's thinking "withdraws many of the high demands of Negroes as men and American citizens." The capstone of The Souls of Black Folk, though, is Du Bois' haunting, eloquent description of the concept of the black psyche's "double consciousness," which he described as "a peculiar sensation.... One ever feels this twoness--an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder." Thanks to W.E.B. Du Bois' commitment and foresight--and the intellectual excellence expressed in this timeless literary gem--black Americans can today look in the mirror and rejoice in their beautiful black, brown, and beige reflections. --Eugene Holley Jr.
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Saturday, 14 July 2007
Eric Fraser (1902-1983)
It has been observed that the content of this space has been excessively frivolous and ephemeral of late and that it is high time that some more elevated material be served up. Which brings us to the art and illustration of the great Eric Fraser. A man of true seriousness of purpose, Fraser created a vast body of work over a period of 60 years of commercial and editorial illustration. A model of diligence and dedication to his craft, nobody could accuse him of lacking gravitas. This is a small selection of his late work for Radio Times, the publication with which he was associated for 55 years. The image above shows just how expert he was at uniting disparate elements into a tightly structured composition. Images of urban industry and rural bliss are contrasted to illustrate the unifying influence of the BBC. Line and stipple are deployed with equal precision to enhance the narrative.
This was almost certainly Fraser’s last cover for Radio Times in March 1981 produced at the age of 79. He rises to the challenge of “Lord of the Rings” with a feast of rhythmic surface agitation and a sombre palette. Fantasy and mythology were always an inspiration to him. Below are 2 more examples from Radio Times that are not seen at their best due to the practice of printing the magazine on uniquely awful newsprint at a time when virtually everything else was on coated paper. Fraser’s skills were especially valued for providing visual form for radio drama. Classical and costume subjects were among his favourites. Also on view here is a passion for the power of profile and masterly manipulation of contrasting linear rhythms in the creation of form. Eric Fraser was one of the very best of a talented generation and there will be more to come in the future.
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List the top four things you love about your country.
Honestly, my first reaction to this prompt was that it would be far easier to list four things I hate about this country. I live in The United States of America. I’ve never lived anywhere else, so my perspective is very narrow. I have lived on both coasts and in the middle, so I probably have a broader perspective than some. OK, then, four things I love about this country:
I’m a big fan. The founding fathers constructed a document that sets forth the rules. While hardly infallible, as all the amendments testify, it is the foundation on which this country runs. It gives its citizens freedom. It tells us what is and what is not acceptable. It sets down what is expected from every American and it is a brilliant document. You should read it sometime.
Denizens of the United States come from every corner of the world. Outside of native Americans, not a single one of us is indigenous. We all have ancestors who got on a boat, or even a plane, and came here or were brought here. Whether you are a first generation American or fiftieth, we’re all descendants of foreigners. Time was, we welcomed everyone of every nationality to come over in search of a better life. I’d like to see that happen again.
Much like our inhabitants, the country itself is incredibly diverse. We have mountain ranges, deserts, plains, massive forests, places with omnipresent summers and persistent winters. No matter your personal definition of majestic landscape, you can probably find it here. Almost every geological feature on Earth is found somewhere in this country (although we do have a shocking dearth of fjords). The United States is simply beautiful. I’d highly recommend starting at once coast and driving to the other. You won’t believe the different views you will encounter from hour to hour.
The American Dream
I just wrote a post the other day about how the American dream–working for a better life for your children than your own–seems to be an elusive, mystical thing of the past, but it doesn’t have to be that way. To this day, immigrants like my grandparents come here in search of a better life than they have at home. The sheer number of possibilities present within our borders is still awe-inspiring. I’d like to see this country become a place where people from all over the world are welcomed to search for the American dream once again. I’d like the words printed on the Statue of Liberty to mean what they once did. I’d like to have an American dream myself.
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Microsoft to retire Messenger on March 15
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 09, 2013 (Xinhua via COMTEX) --
Microsoft on Wednesday
announced that its instant messaging service Messenger will be
officially shut down on March 15, reminding users to move to
Skype, the real-time Internet communication service it bought in
In an email to users titled "Important info about your
Messenger account," Microsoft said Messenger's more than 100
million users can migrate to Skype by signing in with their
Microsoft accounts and enjoy features like instant messaging,
video calling on cell phones and screen sharing.
Microsoft acquired the VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol)
service Skype in May 2011 for 8.5 billion U.S. dollars and planned
to gradually merge it into its every product, like Xbox and
Last November, the software giant announced it will move
Messenger's users to Skype in the first quarter of 2013 with the
exception of Chinese mainland where Messenger will continue to be
Microsoft's Messenger service is often referred as "MSN" as it
was first launched as "MSN messenger" in 1999.
In June 2009, on the 10th anniversary of Messenger's release,
Microsoft said the service attracted over 330 million active users
each month worldwide.
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
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Apple's iPhone is the most stolen smartphone in the UK (Reuters)
Children as young as six are falling prey to an epidemic of street crime whose victims are targeted for their smartphones, with Apple's iPhone the most frequently stolen model .
More than 10,000 phones are stolen every month in the UK, and two-thirds of victims are aged between 13 and 16, according to figures obtained under a Freedom of Information request.
More than 170 iPhones are stolen each day, with young people as young as six regularly affected, say police. Hertfordshire Police revealed that one victim was a three-year-old who had been given the phone as a toy.
In Nottinghamshire, the figures showed that of the 1,223 mobile phones stolen last year, 40 per cent of victims were aged under 21, while in Cheshire, 35 per cent of victims were in the same age group. In Hertfordshire, 32 per cent of victims were under 20, while in Cumbia, 28 per cent of victims were in the same age bracket.
Mobile phone thefts affecting 10- to 15-year-olds rose by 40 per cent in Humberside last year, while in Kent, the number of thefts from 16- to 20-year-olds increased by 30 per cent over the last three years.
- FOLLOW IBTIMES
Police have been posted outside schools in a drive to cut thefts, with local authorities even funding self-defence classes for primary school pupils to combat the menace.
Keith Hayward, professor of criminology at the University of Kent, told The Times: "Criminals steal only items that are desirable and that they can sell, and kids are easy targets. No one below the age of ten carried phones around ten years ago. Now it's a common occurrence.
"Parents give their children a mobile phone because they feel it will make them safe, but ironically it can lead to increasing victimisation."
More than 1 million children aged between 10 and 15 were victims of crime in 2011-12, according to the government's annual Crime Survey of England and Wales, a 4 per cent increase on the previous year. Just under half of those crimes involved theft of personal property.
Police are struggling to tackle the problem, the statistics show. In Hertfordshire, only 5 per cent of the 11,027 reported cases of mobile phone theft between 2009-11 resulted in charges being brought, with an offender cautioned in just 77 cases. In the same period in Thames Valley, crimes went undetected in 79 per cent of cases.
To report problems or to leave feedback about this article, e-mail:
To contact the editor, e-mail:
This article is copyrighted by IBTimes.co.uk, the business news leader
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Teenage professional sports-persons : fame and sacrifices
In this website, we will talk about the pros and cons of being a teenage professional swimmer. Swimming is a good way to exercise and is really good to our health. But will training too much cause bad effects to our health? Professionals need to spend a lot of time in training, but can the younger ones who are still at school keep up with their schoolwork? So in this project, we will include an interview with Aisling Haughhey- a teenage professional swimmer to understand more deeply about this situation.We chose this topic because some of our fellow schoolmates are swimmers who represent the school. We find that most of them can keep up their school work but some couldn't. We want to have a deeper understanding in this problem so we chose this topic. A professional swimmer can achieve a lot of prizes and glory when they win in competitions, but when they lose, they may feel disappointed and frustrated. Maybe in just one competition, participating in 5 or more minutes, they have spent a lot of time in training. It is very tiring for such age. On the other hand, they need to keep up with their school work and acadamic results. It would be a hard work for the teenages. Over excersice will make people tiring, without enough rest, it's hard to concentrate. Sometimes they need to participate in trainings or competitons, causing them need to skips lessons at school, making them can't follow up in school. It 's really hard to have a balance in both school and swimming.
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We’ve been writing about a power struggle between Anglos and Hispanics for control of Archuleta County. The county was formed in 1885, having formerly been a school district in Conejos County.
The first county commissioners were appointed by the Colorado governor, a temporary measure until the voters of Archuleta County could hold an election. That first election was held in the fall of 1886. Three members of the Hispanic crowd were elected. When the newly elected commissioners attempted to meet in January of 1887, an armed band of Anglos broke up the meeting.
A lot of violence took place at that time. That first meeting was held in a building on San Juan Street provided by one of the commissioners, C.D. Scase. Scase’s building was burned that night. In those years, a swinging bridge crossed the San Juan River near the Hot Spring. Old timers say a gang of Hispanics and a gang of Anglos, all wielding clubs, met in a free-for-all on that bridge.
The power struggle lasted for decades. People from Pagosa Springs accused the Archuleta family and their followers of voting on both sides of the Colorado/New Mexico border and paying taxes on neither side. It is a fair assumption that the Hispanics were attempting to move the county seat from Pagosa Springs to the community we today call Edith. Many of the election results from the Archuleta Precinct, Precinct 2, were contested. John Taylor, an Archuleta County school teacher of that time, left us this assessment of the situation. I quote Taylor:
“In the southern part of the county was a voting precinct known as the Archuleta precinct. Here over a hundred Mexicans from New Mexico were voted to hold their gang in power. All this enraged the settlers who were engaged in the cattle business. Chas. Loucks, E.T. Walker, Judd Hallett, Wm. Dyke, John Dowell, Jake Dowell, Robert Chambers, Charles Chambers, Maurice Willett, Siegel Brown, Frank Cooley, James and Doc Gilliland, John and James O’Neal, Mr. Whitaker, Judge Price and his two sons, and some 50 others including the writer organized the People’s Party of which I was elected chairman and we began a bitter four year fight to gain possession of the government of the county. The State Administration and the courts were against us.
Of the three precincts in the county, we carried Pagosa and Edith precincts with large majorities to gain which I and the above named men worked night and day, but 300 illegal votes polled under the supervision of the Archuleta brothers and Martinez defeated us. They worked to have me removed from the school and every one of their wives and children were with me. This gang even paid a Mexican to kill me. He met me on the bridge one night, knife in hand. I carried a walking stick with which I struck him on the head, he fell and rolled into the river, he swam and came out at the old bath house. I walked into the old court house, those commissioners were in session and I invited the man who planned the deed to come out and settle the matter in any manner he wished but he did not function although afterward he killed two men and a woman. Charley Johnson, Durango’s criminal lawyer, cleared him though each was a cold-blooded murder. More next week from John Taylor.
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What is a militant? What is the left? Leftists altogether could be defined as the international association of specialists in oppression. From racism to sexism to ageism to class oppression to looksism to homophobia and so forth, leftists study, quantify and aspire to own each different sort of oppression. A racial nationalist who presents him or herself as the only authority on the feelings, ideas and aspirations of black or latino people is one classic example of a leftist. A feminist academic who presents her or himself as the only authority on the feelings, ideas and aspirations of women is also a classic leftist.
As specialists in oppression, leftists are oriented towards noticing, intensifying and managing feelings of powerlessness. From welfare workers to unionists to national liberation armies, leftists seek to establish themselves as the sole representative of one or another type of oppression. They then sell the control of this oppression to the highest bidder. Professed feminists work in the child-service agencies which terrorize poor families by stealing their children.
The leftist militant derives their need for constant action from their cultivation of guilt. The need for action and the cultivation of guilt soon overwhelms any consciousness of the larger purpose of their action. Soon the domination of leftism, of guilt politics, becomes more important than any positive outcome of the activity.
Since the leftist specializes in particular oppressions, their focus is on spreading the awareness of the feelings of oppression. From christian twelve-step programs to maoist “criticism, self-criticism sessions”, leftist use a feeling of powerlessness as the driving force to increase their influence. By the same token, the leftist must make dishonesty, fear and irrationalism their main way operating. The gulags of Soviet “communism” are a good model of fully developed leftism. For the abolition of capitalism, militantism and moralism.
Produced by ASAN – http://www.webcom.com/maxang, firstname.lastname@example.org
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If the garden magazines, web pages and other
information sources are to be believed, the world is full of gardeners who
worry a lot about cause and effect. Most of them are busytoo busy
sometimes to do the things that they think they ought to do in the garden. This
is a frequent source of guilt, and since guilt has no place in the garden, it
needs to be dealt with. The following is a series of "What if" questions often
asked by anxious gardeners, with appropriate answers.
What if I dont do fall yard clean up?
Your little quarter acre will not look as tidy as your
neighbors yard, especially if he has paid a landscaper to take care of
his problem. Raking debris out of your beds helps prevent the obnoxious
microorganisms that lurk among the garden detritus and threaten the health of
your plants. Cutting down dead stalks of spent perennials and pulling out the
dead annuals saves you work in the spring, and caps the growing season rather
neatly. On the other hand, some of those stalks, such as those of Russian Blue
Sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia) add to winter interest in the garden. The
choice is up to you. If you are short of time, take fifteen minutes and lop off
everything that you think is ugly.
What if I dont rake my leaves?
This one is easy. If the layers of decomposing leaves
are lying on top of lawn grass for too long, the grass will die. This is fine
if you are trying to kill the grass in order to create a new garden bed.
However, if you value your lawn, get the leaves off it. They will decompose
wherever you put them, and they are much better off decomposing on a compost
pile, than on your expensive Zoysia grass.
What if I dont divide my perennials?
Dividing perennials before the first hard frost is a
wonderful idea, and gives you a head start on next spring. On the other hand,
spring is an equally good time to divide, and it is somewhat easier to do when
the relatively small perennial plants are emerging after their winter slumbers.
If you dont divide in spring or fall, eventually you will probably have a
problem. Many perennials start to die back in the center if they are not
divided regularly. This die-back effects both the looks and the health of the
plant. Even if an undivided plant does not seem to be suffering from a terminal
case of the uglies, eventually it will probably get too large for the allotted
space. I saw an enormous old hosta once that had probably never been divided.
The plant had just about engulfed an entire city sidewalk slab.
What if I dont prune my shrubs at the right
Many people never prune their shrubs at all because
they are afraid that lightening will strike them if they do it at the wrong
time. This is a vile rumor started by manufacturers of pruning equipment. In
truth, the best time to prune your shrubs is whenever you have the time to do
it, but definitely sometime before they grow big enough to completely obscure
your house. If you prune a spring-flowering shrub thoroughly in late winter,
chances are you wont have much in the way of spring blossoms, regardless
of whether the shrub flowers on new or old wood. If you follow that practice
every year, eventually you will find yourself writing to a "Gardeners
Q&A" to ask why your flowering shrub never seems to produce blooms. As a
general rule, you should prune flowering shrubs right after they flower. If you
dont know whether the shrub in question flowers on new or old wood, focus
your pruning efforts on the branches that have just produced blossoms.
What if I dont get around to planting all my
You can plant spring bulbs right through December, as
long as the ground has not frozen hard. Keep the bulbs in a cool place such as
a garage or cellar until you can get to the chore. If January rolls around, and
you are still harboring unplanted tulips, daffodils and crocuses, the best
thing to do is plant them in large pots and put the pots outside. They will not
bloom as early as if you had planted them in the ground in a timely fashion,
but most of them will flower eventually. After the ground warms up in the
spring, place those pots full of emerging shoots in the empty spots in your
garden, or unpot them and plant the masses of soil and bulbs in the ground.
They will return in subsequent years as if you had never neglected them.
What if I never pay any attention to gardening
You will have something in common with about 98% of
the population. Not listening to gardening advice means that when you go out in
the garden, you will have to fall back on common sense. This is something you
should do anyway. After all, common sense is just like a really good perennial
plant; if you cultivate it and share it, it increases by leaps and bounds.
CHANGE IN THE GARDEN
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Last week, our children and youth as well as some of you participated in an intergenerational service and shared stories about the births of three individuals - - Buddha, Confucius, and Jesus. This week, I want to delve a little more deeply into the story of the birth of Jesus.
Before I get too far, though, let’s get a few things straight. We don’t have to take this story literally to take it seriously. Modern day biblical scholarship tells us the historical Jesus probably was most likely born in or near Nazareth, not Bethlehem. He was probably born in a house, not in a manger. I would say that the chances that he was born on December 25 are about 1 in 365. There were most likely no shepherds, magi, or little boys playing drums while cattle lowed. But the biblical writers of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke weren’t trying to write history. What were they trying to tell us? I think it’s like this…
Before, during, and after Jesus’s lifetime, the Jewish people were having a very difficult time. They were being violently oppressed and exploited by the Roman Empire. They were waiting for a leader, someone who would united the Jewish people and lead them in a military rebellion against their Roman oppressors. They didn’t use the word “leader” though. They used the title “anointed one.” Or in Hebrew, messiah. Or in Greek, christos. Someone who had been anointed by God to lead the Jewish people toward a better way of life.
But when Jesus came around, most people reacted the same way a lot of Republican primary voters are reacting to the current crop of presidential candidates - - “You’ve gotta be kidding me! Can’t we do any better than this?” After all, Jesus looked more like a homeless person than a future king - - probably because he was a homeless person - - and he talked more about love and forgiveness than the violent overthrow of the government. To put it bluntly, he wasn’t the kind of guy most people were expecting.
Many years after Jesus died, when the writers of the gospels of Luke and Matthew sat down to write his “backstory,” so to speak, they wrote these stories to make the point that the world sometimes doesn’t work in the way we expect it to work, that life sometimes surprises us, and that sometimes hope for our own lives and for our world comes in the most unlikely of times and the most unlikely of places and in the most unlikely of ways.
After all, nobody expected a savior to his people to be born to such poor parents in such humble beginnings. Nobody expected such an auspicious event to be announced to shepherds, people of the lowest stature in first century Jewish society. And nobody expected a baby, born during a time of oppression, exploitation, and violence, would grow up to practice and preach a gospel of love, justice, and peace. The biblical stories about Jesus’s birth are all about the reversals of expectations. More than reminding us of some literal truth about Jesus, their purpose is to remind us of that possibility in our own lives and in our own world.
As your minister, though, I know that even during the month of December, I can only make so many biblical references with Unitarian Universalists before your eyes start to glaze over so they look like the frosting on Christmas cookies. So let me tell another story, a much more recent story about much more recent events. It’s a bit of a convoluted story, but it begins like this…
In October 2007, a young man named Bradley Manning, originally from a small town in Oklahoma, joined the U.S. Army. He trained as an intelligence analyst and was eventually sent to Iraq in 2009. Manning, though, was a troubled young man in many ways. He didn’t support the U.S. military’s mission in Iraq. He also says he was harassed and bullied for being gay.
Within a few months of being sent to Iraq, Manning allegedly downloaded thousands of classified documents to his personal computer and eventually provided them to Wikileaks, an organization that publishes leaked documents on the Internet. Among the documents Manning allegedly provided to Wikileaks were 250,000 U.S. State Department cables, some of which documented both rampant corruption and opulent spending by government leaders in the northeastern African nation of Tunisia.
The spread of news within Tunisia about this rampant corruption and opulent spending was at least a contributing factor, if not a major factor, in the overthrow of that nation’s government in January 2011 - - less than a year ago, and the overthrow of the government of Tunisia was the beginning of what has come to be known as the Arab Spring, the
the popular uprisings in the Arab world that have so far toppled governments in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya during the past year.
In July of this year, staff at the Adbuster’s Foundation, a Canadian-based organization best known for its anti-consumerist magazine Adbusters, were inspired by the events of the Arab Spring, so much so that in a blog post, they proposed a peaceful occupation of Wall Street and suggested the establishment of a presidential commission “to separate money from politics.”
The blogpost went viral and led to the start of the “Occupy Wall Street” movement, which led to the start of the “Occupy Seattle” movement, which led even to the start of the “Occupy Federal Way” movement. The growing inequalities of wealth and the inequities of power in this country have been apparent to anybody paying attention for the past 30 years, but somewhat miraculously, people in this country are talking about it more than every before in the past 100 years.
Where will all of this lead?
Will the Arab Spring eventually lead to more democracy in the Middle East, more freedom, equality, and peace for millions of people, or will it lead to the rise of more Islamic fundamentalism in those countries and the oppression and exploitation of women?
I don’t know. I think it’s too soon to tell.
Will the “Occupy” protests in this country continue to sizzle and bring about needed limits on corporate power and the unjust influence of money on politics, or will the protests fizzle as protesters are evicted from parks and the weather turns cold?
I don’t know. I think it’s too soon to tell.
What’s my point in telling this convoluted story? It’s not to make Bradley Manning into any kind of a hero. I don’t think he is one. It’s not to point out how interconnected everything in the world is, though this is certainly true.
My point - - similar to the gospel writers’ point, I suppose - - is that despite how much we say we know about everything, despite how boringly predictable our lives and the world in which we live sometimes seems, I want to suggest that our lives and our world are a little less predictable than we imagine. To the very best of my knowledge, I don’t remember any predictions about anything like the Arab Spring or Occupy Wall Street. I especially don’t remember anybody making any predictions about the way all of this would happen.
To be fair, some of you may have questions about the way I’ve told this story. If Bradley Manning hadn’t been harassed for his sexual orientation, would he have leaked the secret documents? If he hadn’t leaked the secret documents, would the revolution in Tunisia and the rest of the Arab Spring still happened? If the Arab Spring hadn’t happened, would the Occupy Wall Street protests have occurred? I don’t know the answer to these questions either.
Here’s what I do know though…in ancient Greek, there are two words for time - - chronos and kairos. Chronos is regular, linear, predictable time. It’s the root of the English word “chronology.” Kairos, though, refers to special time. To use more traditional theological language, it’s when the power of the divine breaks into history to bring about something new and totally unexpected. To use less traditional language, it’s when the events of the universe, the events of history, the events of life, serendipitously conspire to bring about something totally new and totally unexpected in our lives, often in a totally unexpected way, and sometimes even something good.
What I want to suggest for your consideration this morning is that too often, I suspect most of us live our lives according to a chronos mentality rather than living with a kairos mentality.
The biblical stories of Jesus’ birth were originally written to inspire us toward a kairos mentality - - but in our 21st century culture these stories are usually not understood too literally, but even among skeptics, the stories have become so familiar to us that they’ve lost their power to jar and jolt us out of a chronos mentality. “That’s the way, it was supposed to happen!” we say when we hear a story about a baby being born in a manger growing up to change the world.
Many of the events of 2011 seem to help me think with more of kairos mentality, which is why I shared them with you this morning. Just to be clear, I’m not arguing for a world view in which divine providence pulls our strings like a master puppeteer, but as I said, a world view in which life sometimes serendipitously conspires to bring about something new and totally unexpected in our lives, often in a totally unexpected way.
But why is this important? What’s wrong with a chronos mentality? What’s so important about a kairos mentality? For me, it’s like this..
Albert Einstein once said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” I think there is a lot of wisdom in these words, but ultimately, I think Einstein was wrong.
Sometimes we do the same thing over and over again - - and we do the same thing over and over again because it’s the best thing we know how to do and because we’re doing it the best we can - - and we get the same results over and over again. Following Einstein’s thinking, we’re tempted to give in to despair and adopt the motto of unhappy people everywhere - - “I’m no good. My world is bleak. My future is hopeless.”
But we shouldn’t give in to that temptation because sometimes we do the same thing over again, and every once in a while, somehow, something different happens.
I think of the person who has been out of work for a long time and send outs hundreds or even thousands of resumes and is rejected time after time after time. Or even worse is not even rejected, but indifferently ignored, but one day life serendipitously conspires and the person is offered the job that he or she has always dreamed of.
I think of my wife’s best friend from high school and college. She was a bridesmaid in our wedding 15 years ago. She’s a wonderful, sensitive, funny, and beautiful woman but has been unlucky in her relationships. After being married and divorced once and having several unsuccessful relationships, she began to wonder if she would ever find somebody to love and who would love her. Then this past year, life serendipitously conspired and she did. She and her husband were married in November and she seems happier than she has ever been.
I think of everything [my wife] and I did to become parents. For about seven years we tried becoming parents by the old-fashioned way and by some of the new-fangled ways made possible by medical science. For seven years, none of our efforts were successful. Then we decided to adopt. We were told it would take about one year, but after one year, we were still childless. After two years, we were still childless. It was only after waiting nearly three years that life serendipitously conspired and we received a referral for a healthy 15-month-old boy from Medellin, Colombia. [my son]is five now, and [my wife] and I couldn’t be any happier with how our lives have turned out.
This past week, I had a conversation with Mark Miloscia. As some of you know, Mark represents Federal Way in the state legislature and is now running for state auditor. I like Mark because he has been one of the champion’s of campaign finance reform in our state, an issue that’s important to me. Every year for many years now, Mark has introduced a campaign finance reform bill, and it has failed, but will it always, or one day will life serendipitously conspire so that enough people realize everyone should have an equal voice in making important decisions about our country.
In Christian scripture, whenever anybody asks Jesus when the Kingdom of God will arrive, he says that nobody except God knows and one shouldn’t believe anybody who says he or she knows. Instead, Jesus says, always be ready for it.
I don’t interpret Jesus’ words to be a doomsday prediction about the end times but an expression of an existential truth about human existence - - that none of us knows when or where or how life is going to serendipitously conspire to bring about something new and different and unexpected in our lives but that we should live in anticipation, in preparation, in readiness, in openness to possibility.
I think the poet Emily Dickinson was saying much the same thing when she wrote, “Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door.”
One of the reasons I’m always excited when we welcome new members into this congregation is that I never know life is going to serendipitously conspire so that your participation in this congregation may lead to something totally unexpected and totally new in our shared lives together.
I recently read about a man who saw a woman stopped along the side of the road. The woman was trying to change the tire on her car and was having trouble. He stopped to help. After helping her, he got back in his car and kept on driving. A few miles down the road he had a heart attack. Then the same woman stopped her car, called for help, and performed CPR on him until an ambulance arrived, saving his life.
This morning we’re selling items in the Welcoming Room to raise funds for another microbank. If we’re able to fund another bank, that bank may be able to make a small loan to a woman trying to run her own business. Then that woman may be able to afford to send a child to school. Then that child may grow up to make an incredible contribution to his community, to her nation, or even to humanity as a whole, perhaps even doing something that will save the life of somebody in this congregation. Do I have any guarantees of that? Absolutely none at all. But as I’ve been saying, none of us knows when, where, or how life may serendipitously conspire to bring about something totally unexpected and totally new. The most any of us can do is be ready, play our part, and not refuse to do the something we can do.
My friends, not knowing when the dawn will come, let us open every door. Now and always, let us live with hope, courage, perseverance, patience, and faith in the goodness of things yet to come. Let us live in anticipation that somewhere, something incredible is waiting to happen, in our own lives and in the world. And if there is a time in any of our individual lives when our own hope wanes, when our own flame flickers, may it be renewed here in this religious community we share with one another.
So may it be. Amen.
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Designing your webpages for maximum effect
Designing your homepageThere are several important factors you must consider when designing your homepage. It is here that you should present the title of your website and let visitors know what the content is about as briefly as possible. Use short phrases and short paragraphs. Provide text links to your main website sections as the anchor point for your website navigation system.
Most search engines will index your homepage before they will index the other pages in your website. Therefore, it is critically important that you give a great deal of thought to the layout, content and function of this first screen. When you are creating a homepage you are setting the theme for your website. Here you should be presenting what visitors can expect to see carried out on every page within the site.
Webpage design and layout
ThemeUsing a theme for your website provides a convenient way of placing certain elements, in the same location, on each webpage. A website theme is important for establishing a continuity of content and building a rapport with the people who visit your website. Navbars, headers, footers, etc. should all appear in the same place on each page for the convenience of your visitors. That way, at a glance they can find what they are looking for and this will enhance the usability and credibility of your website.
Focal pointGroup items and blocks of information, that belong together, using white space so that the eye knows they are related. Strive to present your webpage layout consistently throughout the site. Each webpage should present the same appearance. Also, it is important to have the focal point and main elements in the same place on each page.
Use contrast to guide the visitor's eye around your webpages. For this technique to be effective, the contrast must be bold. Your text and graphics should stand out from the background as distinctly as possible. Place special emphasis on the focal point of your webpage design. Make the focal point of your webpage layout the dominant eye catcher.
AlignmentThe alignment of main elements and text in the webpage design is also very important. Choose one type of alignment and stick with it. That doesn't mean you have to align everything along the same line; it means things should be aligned uniformly on the page. Maintain a balanced webpage layout throughout your website as you proceed with your webpage design.
The perfect webpage design is one that blends into and compliments the overall theme of your website. Each page should be a representative part of your total website. The individual webpages that makeup your website should reflect the theme, navigation and focus of all the other pages. Also, a good website structure should have a central theme and provide a clean navigation system.
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In computing, virtualization means to create a virtual version of a device or resource, such as a server, storage device, network or even an operating system where the framework divides the resource into one or more execution environments. Even something as simple as partitioning a hard drive is considered virtualization because you take one drive and partition it to create two separate hard drives. Devices, applications and human users are able to interact with the virtual resource as if it were a real single logical resource. The term virtualization has become somewhat of a buzzword, and as a result the term is now associated with a number of computing technologies including the following:
- storage virtualization: the amalgamation of multiple network storage devices into what appears to be a single storage unit.
- server virtualization: the partitioning a physical server into smaller virtual servers.
- operating system-level virtualization: a type of server virtualization technology which works at the operating system (kernel) layer.
- network virtualization: using network resources through a logical segmentation of a single physical network.
- application virtualization
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M5239 Palmer/Pletsch »
InstructionsThis pattern was part of a pants fitting class by Janet Dapson using the Palmer/Pletsch fitting methods. The instruction sheet has all the info you need in order to follow fitting guidelines. I did NOT make a muslin first! I fit the pattern to me as directed in the instructions, with help of a fitting partner. Made changes on the pattern tissue, then cut my fashion fabric. My fashion fabric ...
Read full instructions »
Type of item: Clothing
Style: Traditional, Classic
Wool/Assorted Fiber blend with metalic thread
What was your inspiration?
Project for my first pant's fitting/making workshop with Janet Dapson. These pants are unlined.
What are you most proud of?
The fit, the appropriateness of fabric to pattern, and the finished inside seams. Apologize for the photography. My PC doesn't have a good photoshop program.
What advice would you give someone starting this project?
Follow the instructions. Try them off and on several times during pin fitting. don't get discouraged. One adjustment will cause another. Do one at a time and keep putting them on and off. Use a fitting buddy if you can find one. They don't need to know how to sew, they just need to look at your pattern and see if lines are hanging parallell or fabric is folding. Once you know where the fit issues are, you are instructed how to fix them. Take them off, rebaste and re-fit. Janet is a professional, licensed with Palmer/Pletch and I had these fitted 4-5 times before I could begin to sew them. They are not hard! They just take time.
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This author's articles
20 January 2009
How can parliaments on all levels contribute to the democratic control of European security policy? This question is the focus of the present report from RECON’s Work Package 6 on the foreign and security dimension of the EU. The report results from the workshop ‘Parliamentary Control of Foreign and Security Policy’, which was organized by the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt in December 2007.
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What We Do
Building healthy DoD Communities since 1978, the MX is responsible for developing medical design and construction policies, technical guidance, procedures, criteria, specifications and standards that integrate medically unique design, construction, and operational requirements.
The organization is mandatory for all Department of Defense Medical (DoDM) facilities, and is available on a reimbursable basis to provide support to other agencies. Summarized in a memorandum to all USACE Division and Center Commanders by BG Temple on 29 Nov 2005, he stated: "The Medical Facilities Mandatory Center of Expertise, acting in partnership with the Project Delivery Team, has leadership responsibility for design acquisition strategy and concept design development, with continued technical oversight and direction during final design and construction execution concerning medically unique aspects of the project."
In February 1976, the House Congressional Subcommittee on Military Installations become concerned with the cost of acquiring military health facilities, and subsequently directed the Department of Defense to undertake a study, whose prime purpose was to make recommendations, that if implemented, would hold down the costs of providing military healthcare facilities, and would at the same time provide an acceptable healthcare delivery capability.
The Department of Defense finalized their study in August 1977, and recognized the need for one single office to handle all medical facility design work assigned to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. That office was formed on 1 October 1978 and evolved into today's Medical Facilities Mandatory Center of Expertise and Standardization (MX), assigned to the U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville. Since its inception some 30 years ago, the MX has provided professional, multi-disciplinary, technical support services to more than 450 healthcare facilities, exceeding $10 billion of construction.
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Conference: Made in the GDR - Visual Culture in the Other Germany
Date: 4 April 2008
Location: 65-68 Park Place
From 1949 until 1990, the eastern part of today’s Germany constituted a separate state from that in the West; it had its own vibrant culture with distinct conditions of artistic production and reception. Amongst several research strengths of the German Department at Cardiff University is a focus on that culture and its historical context.
On 4 April 2008, the department is hosting a one-day conference on GDR visual culture. We look forward to welcoming speakers examining instances of film, painting, sculpture, monuments and graphics, created in the GDR. The term ‘visual culture’ is meant in a wide sense and could embrace such fields as architecture and design.
The conference will be interested in encouraging interdisciplinary discussion about how and why certain images were created in GDR culture and how they came to bear upon that culture in turn. Aspects for discussion include, but are not confined to:
- appropriations of literary culture in GDR visual culture
- relationships between the state’s cultural policy and the visual arts
- comparisons between different generations of visual artists in the GDR
- dialogues with West German visual culture and/or a common heritage
- reception of GDR visual culture after 1990
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If you had to pick one word to sum up education this year, "change" might suffice. From a new president at the University of Vermont, to new math requirements for high school graduates, even new foods in the school cafeteria, students, faculty and administrators faced change in 2012.
Even the state's education chief faced change, when Vermont lawmakers voted to make the commissioner's job a cabinet position. Armando Vilaseca would need to reapply for his job, now called secretary.
"I'm very interested in it. I enjoy this job," Vilaseca said.
And taking on a new job -- Thomas Sullivan became president of Vermont's only public university this year. His appointment was announced in February. He arrived to take the helm at UVM this summer.
But are Vermont's own high school graduates ready for UVM and other institutions of higher ed?
"It's critical that they have the skills that make them eligible for higher education," says Governor Peter Shumlin.
In an effort to boost college readiness, and improve math scores statewide, the governor and Vilaseca announced a plan that mandates algebra and geometry for all high school graduates in the state. They also want those courses taken in the first two years of high school. Until now, the requirements have varied district to district.
2012 also saw its fair share of controversy.
"The teachers agree to have a contract that does not call for automatic step increases when the contract expires that is a huge concession," said Darren Allen of the VTNEA during a strike this past year.
Teachers in the Rutland Southwest Supervisory Union hit the picket line, closing schools in five towns for two weeks. Like other contentious battles over school contracts this year, negotiations centered on pay increases, health insurance and working conditions. Strikes were averted in three other districts: Addison Rutland, Addison Northeast and Windham Northeast.
In Burlington, the issue of racism took center stage. Superintendent Jeanne Collins came under fire by some who said she didn't do enough to fix racial problems in the city's schools. Students had complained about racial slurs from other students and a lack of action from administrators.
"Now I feel strongly that it is really important that we move together and move forward as make this plan work. I hear the commitment of the board to make this plan work," Collins said.
Collins then offered up a five-part plan to address the problems.
Finally, when the new school year commenced this fall, students across the state faced more change -- not in the classroom, but the cafeteria.
"I had to see how many calories are in every meal, which there were really unlimited calories before," said David Horner with the Richmond School Food Service.
New rules from the USDA placed limits on calories, how much grain and protein kids can eat each week, and other requirements. They've meant challenges for school lunch preparers across Vermont.
It's been a year of both challenges -- and change -- in the Green Mountain State -- for all in education: our students, those who teach them and those who oversee Vermont policy.
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For fans of football and those aspiring to make it big in the sport, many football books by coaches offer tips and insider information about the game. Books written by coaches provide readers with real-life stories and knowledge gained from personal experience. Many of the great football books by coaches use the game as a metaphor to provide more than just information about football, as they extend the lessons the game teaches to life.
Tony Dungy, former coach of the Indianapolis Colts and Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the first African-American coach to win the Super Bowl, has written multiple books comparing the principles of football to succeeding in life. His book, Uncommon: Finding Your Path to Significance, encourages young men who wish to pursue a career in football to focus on more than the fame and money that comes with being a strong football player. Using his experience as a football coach, Dungy provides players with advice on developing character and a positive attitude in order to experience success in the game and in life. The book also contains religious references to illustrate many points.
Former coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes, Jim Tressel worked to redevelop Ohio State’s football program by instilling important principles into players. In his book, The Winners Manuel: For the Game of Life, Tressel introduces readers to the same principles he introduced to his players. As he reviews ten principles of success, Tressel shares stories from his time during and before becoming head coach at Ohio State. Taking the principles beyond football, Tressel provides advice for how readers can apply the principles in the book to find success in their own lives. For Ohio State football fans, the book also contains color photos and insight into Tressel’s time at Ohio State.
Jon Gruden, a Super Bowl winning NFL coach with experience coaching the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Oakland Raiders, offers advice to football players obtained through his days as a coach, player, and ESPN commentator. The book, Do You Love Football?!: Winning with Heart, Passion and Not Much Sleep is designed to help young football players remember the reason for playing the game. While many players are focused on money and fame, Gruden offers advice to redirect players to their heart and passion for the game. He encourages players to work hard and focus on the game.
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|The Owen went into production about mid 1941,
with about 50,000 produced by 1945. Although quite large and bulky, the
Owen was a first-class gun and very popular with those who used it, for
it stood up well to the hard conditions of jungle fighting and stoppages
were remarkably rare.
Its two outstanding features were the top mounted magazine -- a feature
rarely seen on submachine-guns since the Villar Perosa -- and the provision
of a separate bolt compartment inside the receiver so that the bolt was
isolated from its retracting handle by a small bulkhead, through which
passed the small diameter bolt. This ensured that dirt and mud did not
jam the bolt and it was highly successful, although expensive in terms
Two other unusual mechanical features: the ejector is built into
the magazine rather than into the gun body, and the barrel is rapidly removable
by pulling up on a spring-loaded plunger just ahead of the magazine housing.
The latter feature is necessary since, due to the method of assembly and
construction, the gun can only be dismantled by removing the barel and
then taking out the bolt and return spring in a forward direction.
|Comments by ron
cashman; December 05, 1999
|Hello Bert, wandering through your list of British weapons and noticed
the absence of perhaps the best close combat weapon of its time, the Owen
gun. (One shown here against bunker as my platoon prepared for a patrol
on Hill 355, Little Gibraltar). Being made and used by Australians it was
not well known, the Brits would give a case of Stens
for one;and our American comrades working alongside us felt the same once
they saw its capability. It was a back-yard invention of about 1942 used
in the many Australian conflicts from WW2 through to Vietnam.
|The Owen didn't freeze up in the winter either; the
working parts were so simple and loose fitting that just cradling it in
your arms when laying up on an ambush was sufficient to keep it working.
I did hear the odd complaint that the bullets weren't powerful enough to
penetrate the thick Chinese winter clothing. All I can say about that is,
nobody I ever fired at stood up for another burst; or kept running as the
case may have been.
Re your Burp-gun story (BK: email tale unfavorably comparing the
P41 cartridge with the parabellum),
one of our lads was hit with 29 slugs from one when the Nog decided not
to worry about his health; he lived.No vital organs of course, but gee
he was heavy to carry home!
Comments by 'Snow'
Dicker; February 23, 2000
I remember the Owen and a few of its faults, like bumping the butt
on the ground or catching the bolt knob on your webbing fired the gun and
caused a few casualties in the ranks, till their little nasties were overcome.
Also we found that the fire power and shape of the round-nosed bullet,
against people wearing quilted uniforms at about 100 metres was not a good
combination. Although it caused a lot of feathers to fly around, it did
not do the job asked of it. In the jungle against people wearing wet shirts,
it was a different story. I kept my Lee Enfield with me at all times.
Comment by sherro; Monday, June 26, 19100 at 02:30:02
I was quite interested to see the writeup on the 9mm OMC (Owen Machine
Carbine). We carried them for a very short time in Vietnam as the issue
weapon for forward scouts (called point scouts in the US Army).
After seeing first hand the (lack of positive) results of two people
shooting at two VC at 20' range and one of our own accidentally shot in
the back with one (2in penetration), as a forward scout I point blank refused
to carry one under threat of charges. Worn weaponry and ammo made in 1943
was a very poor combination for combat.
I was much happier carrying an SLR (Australian FAL) with a full mag
of tracer for serious social work. In Korea I certainly would have carried
an SMLE .303 over an Owen if given the choice. Bullet placement, not volume
of fire is everything.
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Profiles in Courage
Jul 16, 2012, Vol. 17, No. 41 • By WILLIAM KRISTOL
"Let us now praise famous men, and our fathers that begat us,” we are told. So we take this occasion to praise three admirable individuals who died in the past two weeks. Each of them was extraordinary in his or her own right, but each of them also exemplified the virtues of a remarkable generation.
Schwartz, Shamir, Cropsey
THE NEW YORK TIMES; NEWSCOM
Anna Schwartz, who died June 21 at age 96, was an economist who helped overturn the understanding of the causes of the Great Depression. Writing with her coauthor, Milton Friedman, she showed that government—in this case, the Federal Reserve—helped turn a business-cycle recession into a full-blown depression. More generally, her rigorous scholarship and careful analysis over the years exposed wishful policy-making and put facile punditry to shame—and bolstered the empirical case for limited government, free markets, and the rule of law.
Yitzhak Shamir, who died June 30 also at age 96, immigrated to Palestine in 1935. After first serving in the Zionist military organization, the Irgun Zvai Leumi, he led the militant Lohamei Herut Israel—Fighters for the Freedom of Israel—in the 1940s in the fight for Israel’s independence. His means were not always respectable, and he did what he judged necessary—though no more. Founders cannot always be fastidious, and statesmanship involves moral dilemmas. Shamir resolved those dilemmas in favor of the safety and well-being of the Jewish people in the land of Israel. Then, as foreign minister and prime minister 40 years later, he resisted pressure for concessions by Israel for the sake of a fanciful peace process—while opening wide the doors of Israel to massive immigration from Russia and elsewhere, immigration that has, as he foresaw, immensely strengthened the nation he served so selflessly and resolutely.
Joseph Cropsey, who died July 1 at age 92, was a professor of political philosophy at the University of Chicago and an early student and associate of the philosopher Leo Strauss. Convinced that Strauss had rediscovered the great tradition of political philosophy and reopened the possibility of seriously encountering the great thinkers of the past, he devoted himself to teaching alongside and working on behalf of Strauss, notably organizing the important volume of essays that he coedited with him, History of Political Philosophy. He also compiled his own lasting and distinguished body of scholarship on subjects ranging from Plato to Adam Smith.
Schwartz, Shamir, and Cropsey were by all accounts very impressive human beings: loving spouses and fine parents, good and loyal friends, dedicated and responsible colleagues, individuals of humane disposition and, as it happens, dry wit.
But what is most striking about all three of them is a certain intellectual, moral, and political toughness. They faced challenge and tragedy. They set out against strong currents, joined in the beginning by only a few colleagues, opposed in their various enterprises by large and powerful establishments and a complacent and dominant conventional wisdom. They resolutely faced the odds against them, they were disciplined and intelligent in pursuing their causes, they fought, they persevered, and, to a considerable degree, they prevailed—against all the powers that stood in their way, against all the temptations to go along and get along.
They were strong leaders. But they were strong enough to be willing to follow those they deemed worth following, men of the first rank whom they admired and thought had gotten it right. Joe Cropsey—a considerable scholar and thinker—was willing to serve as a junior partner to his teacher, Leo Strauss. Yitzhak Shamir—a forceful fighter and leader—was proud to serve as a lieutenant to his captains, Ze’ev Jabotinsky and Menachem Begin. Anna Schwartz—who had a more subtle understanding of the relationship of politics to economics than many of her colleagues—was happy to cede the spotlight to them.
What a group! What representatives of a departing generation! One looks up in admiration at their austere courage, their flinty strength, their determination to think seriously about the right path and then set out on it and stick to it—without any expectation of immediate reward or easy gratification.
Their lives remind us of the difference between success, however lauded, and true human achievement, and of the difference between mediocrity, however brilliant, and lasting distinction. And their lives remind us of the moral and intellectual conditions of freedom.
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Don't wait until a hurricane is bearing down on your area to make decisions about:
-- Where you will go if you evacuate. A hotel or a friend or relative on high ground are better choices than public shelters, which should be your last resort. If you must stay at a special-needs shelter, call your local emergency operations center now to register and arrange for evacuation. If your medical condition requires that you be hospitalized during a disaster, your doctor must make those arrangements in advance.
-- Who among out-of-town relatives will be the family information center. Use that person as a clearinghouse for other concerned relatives.
-- Where you will go if you take your pet. Most public shelters will not accept pets. Check ahead of time.
If you do take your pet, store in plastic a photo of you and your pet in case you are separated, as well as vaccination paperwork. Label the items with your name and your pet's name, including a carrier or crate large enough for your pet to move around. Some other important items:
-- ID collar and rabies tag/license and a leash.
-- Enough food and treats for two weeks, and food and water bowls.
-- Medications and care instructions in a waterproof container.
-- Newspapers, cat litter, scoop, plastic trash bags for handling waste.
-- A comfort item such as a favorite toy or blanket.
-- A manual can opener.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service www.scrippsnews.com)
Copyright 2010 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Ashley Jimenez, 8, checks out the art project gift she got, as Adamary Gallegos, 10, looks on. The chidren were at Roosevelt Elementary as part of Salinas High's Rotary Interact Club Christmas present drive for needy kids on Monday.
The smiles were hard to hide at Roosevelt Elementary School on Monday as enthusiastic teens from Salinas High's Rotary Interact Club manned several tables piled high with presents for children in need.
Nicole Hymovitz, a member of the club who was managing the list of kids, explained how the day works. Teachers in participating schools identify students in their classrooms who might appreciate a little help from Santa around the holidays, and what they might like to receive. After getting the wish lists, the club does the rest, working with a different school each year, buying the gifts, wrapping them all, and making sure as many children as possible receive what they're hoping for. Judging from the happy grins, and the mother who brought back homemade peanut butter cookies still warm from the oven for the volunteers, the teens succeeded in their goal of fulfilling some Christmas wishes.
- Jay Dunn
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| 0.968453
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Ted Landphair of Voice of America had an interesting story recently about a contest that is held (takes place) each year by the publishers of Webster’s New World Dictionary to pick a new word or term that became popular in the past year to put into their dictionary. This “word of the year” is voted on by the public selecting from among five choices.
Here were the choices for 2008, with the definitions:
- Overshare – telling people more than you intended to or wanted to, especially online (such as Facebook, Twitter, and other similar sites).
- Leisure sickness – the idea that some people feel better while they’re working and worse when they are on vacation (leisure means not working).
- Cyberchondriac – this is a variation on the word hypochondriac, who is someone who imagines that they are sick all the time. A cyberchondriac is someone who reads about some illness on the Internet and then thinks that they have it, too.
- Selective ignorance – this is when you ignore on purpose (intentionally, deliberately) certain information, such as your emails.
- Youthanasia – this is a variation of euthanasia, which is when someone is killed because they are very sick. Youthanasia is when you try to stay young longer than you should by getting plastic surgery on your face, skin, etc. to make you look younger.
So who won the contest? Overshare. I will try not to overshare in 2009.
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BOUNTIFUL — A major power plant renovation plan is on schedule for a July 1 startup, despite exceeding the budget by more than $1 million.
Allen Johnson, director of Bountiful City Light & Power Company, said new turbines for the utility’s power plant on 200 West are in place and officials are testing wires, motors and other components.
Officials wanted those tests done before actually testing the machines with natural gas.
“We’re in the twilight stage,” Johnson said of the project, which is now carrying an estimated price tag of $25.4 million. Initial estimates two years ago had placed the project between $22 million and $24 million.
The plan includes replacing five older engines at the plant with two natural gas-powered turbines, which are expected to reduce emissions and increase efficiency.
Before the new power generators can go online for the summer season, they will also require final inspection by the state, Johnson said. He said the plant has already obtained the necessary permits.
Johnson said the project has gone over cost because it cost more to remodel the old plant into the new facility than officials had estimated.
“We didn’t do a good job of projecting building costs,” Johnson said of the final price tag.
Major financing components for the renovation were put in place before the work even began.
In 2010, the council voted to issue $15.2 million in bonds to help provide financing for the project. The bond package is backed by new utility revenues, which went into effect Dec. 1, 2010.
The bond will provide a majority of the funding for the $25 million project.
The remaining portion will come from capital reserve funds, Johnson said.
Besides the turbines, work on the project has included removing two sections of the BCL&P building at 253 South and 200 West and replacing them with new buildings.
The new structure is tied into the remainder of the existing building on the corner of 300 South and 200 West.
As part of the project, an old lumber building on 200 South was demolished and a new dispatch and shop building was constructed at 200 South and 200 West. The result is a long building running north to south along 200 West.
City Planner Aric Jensen said efforts have been made to keep the long structure from looking like a fortress.
Bountiful is one of only two communities in Davis County to own its utility company. The other is Kaysville.
|
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| 0.965136
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Are You a Risky Drinker?
Alcoholism Only Small Part of U.S. Alcohol Abuse, Experts Say
What Is Risky Drinking? continued...
Safe drinking means not exceeding the recommended number of drinks. It isn't safe drinking if you drink to reach a certain effect, Schuckit says.
"A variety of things contribute to risky drinking," he notes. "One is the hollow leg -- the relative resistance to alcohol. People who are resistant to the effects of alcohol will drink more and hang out with people who drink more. So setting limits would control alcoholism."
At first, drinking makes a person feel good. After too much risky drinking, a person doesn't feel good until he or she has a drink.
"People say it doesn't feel good anymore, but I can't stop," Willenbring says. "At this point, people are not drinking to get high anymore. They are drinking to reduce stress. Once these changes occur, they may be permanent."
Current Treatment Inadequate
The health care system is failing people with drinking problems, Willenbring says.
"Only 24% of those who have ever had alcohol dependency seek treatment," he notes. "Only 12% of those who seek it ever receive any form of treatment. It is disconnected from mainstream health care. And reimbursement is almost impossible to obtain."
Even when people get treatment -- and can pay for it -- it's usually not good enough.
"Minimum standards for treatment of alcohol disorders are met only 11% of the time," he says. "That's the worst of all major causes of death in the U.S."
In fact, it's the worst treated of all major medical conditions, reports panelist Eric Goplerud, PhD, professor of health policy at George Washington University School of Public Health in Washington, D.C.
The findings come from a new study, released today, based on data from 64 health plans in 24 states covering 10 million Americans.
"The quality of care for alcohol disorders was 25th out of 25 conditions," Goplerud says. "Not only was alcohol treatment 25th nationally, it was 25th in every one of 12 communities looked at individually."
Goplerud notes that 8% of working people have an alcohol abuse disorder. But health plans report that only 1% of their members get diagnosed and receive alcohol-related services.
The findings, he says, aren't meant to put health care providers and payers in a bad light. They're meant to point the way to better care.
"The first couple of years we looked at diabetes care, health plans did a lousy job," Goplerud says. "It was the same thing with asthma and with heart disease. But they improved over time. We think the same thing will help with alcohol as people realize the quality of treatment for alcohol dependence has to get better."
How can treatment get better?
"Right now, treatment of alcoholism in this country is seen as something done via mutual support and self-help, not through health care," Goplerud says. "And there is substantial stigma. But we are only just now developing medical treatments that are as helpful as mutual support and self-help."
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Don’t Dump That Bait!
Keep invasive species from colonizing new waters
If you love fishing Missouri’s lakes, ponds and streams, protect your prey by destroying unused bait or throwing it in the trash—not in the water. This simple practice can keep invasive species from colonizing new waters, and wrecking your fishing experience in the future.
What’s so bad about non-native or non-local species? They are frequently larger, more aggressive and more fertile than local native species. Their habits can also be more destructive, and they often lack local predators or other natural controls.
The rusty crayfish is a good example of a species that became invasive when it was moved from its native Ohio River basin drainage, largely via bait buckets. The rusty crayfish is larger than most native Missouri crayfish, so it outcompetes them, and its size makes it unattractive prey for many fish. It also destroys the aquatic plant beds that serve as cover and food for other aquatic organisms, as well as nursery habitat for sport fish. In addition, rusty crayfish prey on fish eggs, further harming local fish populations. Other bait crayfish, including native Missouri species that are moved from one water body to another, have caused similar problems.
Biologists recognize “bait bucket introductions” as one of the most common means of spreading aquatic invaders. To remind yourself not to accidentally introduce an invasive species into your favorite fishing spot, ask for a “Don’t Dump Bait” sticker at your local bait dealer or marina.
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Oscars 2013: Short Animation "Paperman" Directed by Cornwall Native John Kahrs
Directed by Cornwall Native John Kahrs, the animated short "Paperman" gets an Oscars nod
By Marisa LaScala
This weekend, you might’ve had the chance to catch a program of Oscar-nominated animated shorts, either at the Jacob Burns Film Center or the Irvington Town Hall Theater. If so, then you were no doubt charmed by an almost-silent, nearly black-and-white short called “Paperman” — and just in time for that post-Valentine’s Day glow, too.
Actually, unlike most of the other shorts, it’s possible that you saw “Paperman” at a multiplex this past fall. The Disney short screened — to stunned audience expecting louder, video-game-inspired fare — in front of Wreck-It Ralph when it was in theaters. That’s where I first saw it, and the story — about a chance meeting on a train between a bored office drone and a woman with a little-bit-brighter shade of red lipstick — melted my cold heart a little.
I’ve mentioned before, but “Paperman” was directed by John Kahrs, who grew up in Cornwall. You might never know it, but this article — only tangentially about animation, but mostly about plane-building enthusiasts, having been printed in the Falco Builders Letter — actually highlights what a hidden enclave of animation talent in our area.
The writer of the article, Stephan Wilkinson, is also a Cornwall native. He mentions he was he was introduced to Kahrs through a mutual friend (and fellow plane builder) Carl Ludwig, who lived in the area. Ludwig, a NASA alum, worked on one of the first forays into computer-animation, Disney’s Tron, while he was at a small computer animation company based in Elmsford named MAGI. Blue Sky Studios — the studio behind those Ice Age movies — in the “Our Story” section of its Web site, notes that “MAGI is credited with some of the most memorable sequences in the film, including the classic light cycle sequence.”
Ludwig went on to co-found Blue Sky, which was located in Westchester before it decamped to Greenwich in 2009. According to Blue Sky history: “Ludwig [and his co-workers] developed proprietary software called CGI Studio that would become (and still is) perhaps the most advanced rendering software used in production.” Kahrs worked with Ludwig at Blue Sky before he was hired away by Pixar in 1997, basically working on all of their movies. And now Kahrs is an Oscar-nominated director.
So, next time someone tells you that all of the animation innovations happen out in California, you have to remind them that two industry titans have come from the 28-square-mile town of Cornwall.
You can read more about Kahrs on NYtimes.com and Collider.com, or watch “Paperman” — get ready for some romantic sighing — below.
Articles Editor Marisa LaScala joined Westchester Magazine in 2003, and ever since she's blown every paycheck at the Greenburgh Multiplex. She also staunchly defends Richard Kelly, doesn't mind spoiling the endings of trashy movies you're curious about but don't want to pay to see, wishes the Hold Steady would come and rock out Westchester, misses Arrested Development more than anyone can imagine, and still watches cartoons and Saturday Night Live. You can find more of her cultural criticism at www.popmatters.com, where she is a staff writer.
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The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has generated the enormous amount of 75 petabytes of physics data during the past three years, until today's February 14 maintenance shutdown. Computer engineers at CERN, the location of the world's very first web server, today announced that the CERN Data Centre has ...
CERN's LHC, which helped discover the Higgs boson particle, is shutting down for two years.
A recent study by NASA reveals that large parts of the dry Middle East region lost freshwater rapidly, almost the size of the Dead Sea, during the past decade. According to the researchers, nearly 60 percent of the loss is due to the growing demand of groundwater and the 2007 drought.
Our planet is going to encounter a large chunk of rock Feb. 15. A 130,000 metric ton asteroid 2012 DA14 that is about the size of a football field will pass within 17,200 miles of the Earth i.e., a remarkably close distance.
NASA's Spitzer and Hubble Space telescope have discovered a mysterious object that behaves like a strobe light.
The newly discovered metallic object was different from its red surroundings. This is not the first time that the rover is surprising us with such an unexpected discovery. Prior to this, it had found a 'Mars flower' that was actually a benign plastic from the rover itself. It also found small metall...
NASA's Super-TIGER balloon, a large science balloon, has set a record for the longest flight of its kind carrying an instrument that had the capacity to detect 50 million cosmic rays.
Scientists have created "living" crystals by using a blue-violet light.
Scientists from Cassini mission watched a massive storm that engulfed Saturn and fizzled when it ran into its own tail. This is the first time scientists have observed a massive storm consume itself in this way anywhere in the solar system.
A breakthrough discovery made by a Johns Hopkins earth scientist shows that the hole in the Antarctic ozone layer has triggered major alterations in the southern oceans, reports the official website. These changes can alter the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere and thereby have a severe impact on clim...
A cluster of ancient tapeworm eggs was discovered in 270-million-year-old fossilized shark feces, indicating that intestinal parasites in vertebrates are older than previously thought.
A team of scientists from Penn State have redefined the concept of habitable zones around a star. The habitable zone or the goldilocks zone is of a not-too-close, not-too-far distance from the parent star, but apt to sustain life.
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Posts Tagged ‘qualitative analysis’
Lately my boyfriend and I have been getting into cooking. Nothing terribly fancy just yet, but we’ve been cooking homemade meals every night for a couple months now.
Whenever we select a new recipe, I try to read a few reviews and get a sense of what worked and what didn’t from others. Maybe the peanut butter flavor was too overpowering. Sometimes others recommend cooking for a shorter period of time to prevent burning. And many times, I’m left on my own to guess what will taste best.
These recent experiments got me thinking about those of us in charge of building marketing mixes. For the vast majority of brands and companies, throwing all eggs into one basket is a bad idea. We know that, and we know that using just the right mix of channels and tactics is the key to success. Read the rest of this entry »
We keep hearing about “big data” lately. At least I do. Data is suddenly everywhere we turn, and more companies are popping up to help us collect and make sense of it.
A few years ago, big data was for IT or analysts or nerds. Marketers and PR folks are slowly jumping on the big data train, too, and companies that are learning to integrate and mine data for insights are getting ahead.
On a smaller scale, more and more we all need to understand how to find value in all of the data our consumers are producing each day (and data which results from our own work). It may not reach the scale of big data, but there are still hidden treasures hidden among news, tweets, check-ins, blog posts and Facebook pages. Read the rest of this entry »
My boyfriend was recently asked to help review a new Masters program plan for a local university. Part of this plan included success metrics like the following:
- Number of students enrolled in the program
- Feedback on courses and professors from students (through annual surveys)
- Number of students who find employment (upon graduation or within six months)
- Number of students who receive a promotion or other recognition (upon graduation or within one year)
While the first two are valuable metrics for other purposes (budgeting, curriculum building, etc.), I would not necessarily consider these to be success metrics. Read the rest of this entry »
Let’s get something straight: generalizations are not gospel. I’ve seen too many blog posts and articles lately which use broad generalizations to show how to be successful with social media, particularly Facebook.
For example, analyzing when your brand’s Facebook page community is most active (time of day, day of week) is incredibly valuable. This can help you time your own activities to catch the most people at the exact right time. But writing posts at noon because you read a blog post that says that’s when people are most active is lazy.
Studies like that look at Facebook brand pages across industries and categories. Their core consumers are likely vastly different, and each page likely has very different fan bases. Averaging these numbers doesn’t tell you anything for your own brand. It tells you the average time of day people across 30 different Facebook pages are most active. Read the rest of this entry »
I took a big step in recent weeks. On Saturday, July 2, I adopted a cat from PAWS. His name is Tucker, and he is ten-month old ball of energy who has already stolen my heart.
Because I am a first-time cat owner and a major nerd, I thought of a few ways I’d keep track of how well I’m doing. My family had cats growing up, but I don’t really know all the ins and outs of owning one myself. I wanted to make sure I had a way of tracking my success and his health and wellness in his new home.
I should tell you my goal was just to have a happy and healthy cat who seemed to tolerate me well enough. Read the rest of this entry »
Now that PR measurement (and social media measurement) have become buzzwords, I would hope that all of us are measuring at least to some extent. I know that it’s still going to be a while before every single campaign includes measurement, but it’s about time you start planning for it.
While it’s encouraging to know more folks are starting to think about it, sometimes measurement is just assumed, but not logically thought through. This only leads to last minute scrambling and lower quality work. Just like the best campaigns, the best and most accurate measurement requires planning.
If data collection and analysis is something you’ve never had to worry about before, working it into your schedule can mean a lot of guesswork. Take it from someone who knows, it will take more time than you might initially think. Read the rest of this entry »
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Reviewed by Ralph (age 10)
My opinion is that the book was good because when the dad made the monster disappear and the whole town cheered for the son and dad because they saved the town from the monster. I liked the part when the son was singing and the monster laughed so hard that he fell on his back. It was funny because the monster was so happy and then he just fell on his back. And I liked the illustrations because they made the monster look really scary and he ate cows and sheep. A lady said, “take all of your personal things and leave” because the monster would eat everything. If I was a monster I would only eat the people and the animals. The monster also destroyed the houses which was cool. I like the song the dad and son sang to the monster because it helped it relax and then he danced. His dance was funny because he was going crazy. The song was good because now the people know how to make the monster fall on his back and disappear.
I recommend the book to my friends and other people who like monsters. The monsters were big and scary and other kids will think it’s cool. It was a fast book to read. I also recommend this book to kids that like funny books and songs because it has songs, funny stuff, and jokes. One jokes was when the man was cutting the wood and he just made the axe disappear.
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“What is your job title?” asked Dan.
“Ritual Specialist, or RS in short,” said Paramesar, a man in mid fifties; short black curly hair spread over his head in a fashion as if it followed invisible fault lines.
“Are you a Hindu priest?”
“No, I am not a priest, I don’t work at temples.”
“So, what a Ritual Specialist or RS does?”
“Well, I conduct rituals for a fee.”
“You mean Hindu rituals?”
“Yes, all kind of Hindu rituals such as pooja or special prayer for any event or occasion, chanting Hindu hymns, singing Bhajans, celebrating various auspicious days according to Hindu calendar, all in the name of God for the good of people,” Paramesar was polite.
“That’s good to hear; what kind of training you received to become an RS?”
“Sanskrit is the Gods language and the original Hindu scriptures such as Upanishads, Vedic mantras, epic stories, poems, hymns, psalms etc., were written in Sanskrit, therefore understanding Sanskrit is very crucial; correct pronunciation of words, its meaning and interpretation is equally important; I learned all the mantras to conduct all kinds of rituals through several years of apprenticeship as a disciple under an eminent Hindu priest.” “The Hindu Bhajans or devotional songs were written in praise of God; the purpose of singing Bhajans is to attract and attain the focus of the devotees during the worship; therefore soft and soothing voice is necessary in maintaining the melody and rhythm in singing Bhajans,” Paramesar started singing a Bhajan in his sweet voice.
“So, it was more like home study for several years under the guidance of a Hindu priest.”
“Yes, something like that.”
“What else is important for a ritual?”
“In every ritual, participation of devotees under the guidance of RS is a must to reap the benefits of a ritual; the devotee shall participate with full belief whole-heartedly, after all the ritual is paid by the devotees for their own benefit.”
“Are you related to Juggernaut?”
“I am his brother.”
“Really, I don’t see that much similarity”
“It is all in beholder’s eyes.”
“True, what you both have in common?”
“We both love food.”
“Don’t we all love food?”
“Our love towards food is sacred.”
“We live to eat, that’s the purpose of our living; some of our RS brethren died young from overeating.”
“Forgive me for asking, can anybody can be trained as an RS or it is a family trade hand over from generation to generation?”
“Having a family member practicing as an RS is helpful but not a requirement or necessary to be an RS. Any person irrespective of age, gender, ethnicity or nationality can be trained as an RS; it is a lifelong profession that requires conformity, austerity and compliance to learn and practice the profession, shall I schedule for a ritual for your success?”
“Let’s do it on coming Saturday then.”
“I am afraid, I am booked for Saturday but Tuesday is equally a holy day to do pooja.”
“Sounds good to me, how shall I address you RS or Pundit?”
“I prefer RS to go with current Job titles.”
“Jai Sita Ram.”
“Jai Sita Ram.”
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> On Thu, May 17, 2001 at 09:47:56AM -0500, Steve Lord wrote:
> > I should also add here that the difference between what happens with XFS in
> > this scenario and what would happen with ext2 is that with ext2 you probabl
> > would not see the new file at all - or the old one, but it depends on what
> > got synced and what did not. The reason files show up with no data in xfs
> > is that the delayed allocation code which reserves space during a write cal
> > has to bump the inode size - this size is making it out to disk, however,
> > the allocation of real extents and the flush of the data is not. If delayed
> > allocation was not being used you would get a file with garbage read off
> > the disk, since the disk space would be allocated during the write call,
> > but the data would still not be written out into it.
> It would be nice if there was at least an mount option to truncate
> the files in this case to the size without the unwritten extent.
> The people here seem to object to the zeroes ("garbage") in the holes,
> and I guess they would be more happy with truncated files.
> [I realize that it's somewhat hard to implement as it would need to keep
> a list somewhere about files that are candidates for such truncation; similar
> to the delete-on-recovery list needed for close after unlink]
Hey, you have the code.... ;-)
I suspect a simpler method of doing this would be keep size extensions
to the file which are only delayed allocate in an in memory only inode
size, the size synced out to disk or recorded in transactions would
reflect where the last real extent was written out to. You do have to
be careful though, since it is legal to have a hole at the end of a file
it is only when you do delalloc writes that this in memory size would
differ from the on disk one. The end result would be that after recovery
the size would return to the last one pushed out to disk - which would
tend to represent where there was real data in the file not zeros.
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At a gathering earlier this month of the young professional group Emerge Tampa Bay, Jeff Huddleston, chief financial officer of the startup GO!BYKE, took his turn at the wireless mic and calmly challenged the guests of honor — Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn, City Councilman Mike Suarez and County Commissioner Mark Sharpe. Just what, he asked, are the city and the county doing about bike sharing?
“Not enough, and not soon enough,” the mayor responded, saying his administration was “absolutely behind” such an effort. He added, “I think somebody can make money off it.”
But can they? And will they even try in the Tampa Bay area?
Approximately 16 bike sharing systems have sprouted across the U.S. in the past few years in cities like Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Denver and Chicago, with another dozen on tap. Just last week Citigroup announced it would spend $41 million to sponsor New York City’s bicycle-share program, which Mayor Michael Bloomberg said will be the largest such system in the U.S. when it launches in July.
Bike sharing (not to be confused with bike rental) follows in the tracks of innovative businesses like Zipcar, the car sharing service in which members pay an annual fee plus per-hour charges to drive vehicles with no extra cost for gas, insurance or miles.
As Daniel Gross writes in his new book Better, Stronger, Faster: The Myth of American Decline and the Rise of a New Economy, the trend ties into the rising popularity of renting vs. owning in America.
Gross writes that “it has spurred the creation and growth of innovative business in a number of other realms — particularly those that cater to America’s cash-strapped, credit-wary youth.”
Although many of the bike sharing programs around the U.S. include some government involvement, entrepreneurs in both Tampa and St. Pete aren’t asking for any subsidies from the taxpayers.
This would not be the first bike-sharing go-round for either Tampa or St. Pete. Fifteen years ago, the Tampa Downtown Partnership began a “Borrow-a-Bike” program using 50 bikes from the Tampa Police Department’s cache of unclaimed stolen property. A week into the program, the “Orangecycles,” as they were called, had been stolen (again), and the program was history. In 2008, proponents of bike sharing in St. Petersburg attempted a program called Bike Green. Six months in, about 100 of those neon green bikes had been stolen, too.
Now one of Bike Green’s originators, Andrew Blikken, has formed a company called MyBike, which he says is geared toward being a “bike library” for St. Pete and the beaches. According to a proposal submitted to the city, the bicycles will be equipped with “smart boxes” so that they can be found remotely using an automated cell phone service that will alert the company to track the bikes using GPS. He says people would be able to check out bikes via the Internet or a mobile app.
Cheryl Stacks, bicycle-pedestrian coordinator in St. Pete, says that Blikken’s plan still needs more work, but that the city looks forward to signing a licensing agreement with him. She says the city has also had discussions with B-Cycle, a national bike sharing company that is now operating in 15 cities.
Blikken’s MyBike proposal calls for a user fee of $2 an hour, or $20 a month. Monthly subscribers would then pay $2 an hour after the first hour.
But there’s one hitch — startup money. Anyone got a spare million?
“I don’t know if you’ve ever done that,” says Blikken of the formidable prospect of raising that amount of cash. “It’s a challenge,” the Pilot Point, Texas native says, laughing. But starting a bike sharing business is something he’s been psyched to do since traveling to Copenhagen six years ago.
After his partnership with Bike Green folded, he shelved the bike sharing idea for a few years before attending DeVry University’s Keller Graduate School of Management in Tampa for his MBA, where, like Al Pacino in Godfather III, he got sucked back in. That’s where he met three classmates — Huddleston, Jon Perez and Sonya Suon — and they focused on a new plan.
But business differences emerged — Blikken wanted to concentrate on St. Pete and the beaches, with the other three opting to focus on Tampa/Hillsborough County — and they went their separate ways.
Blikken, 29, says he sometimes gets frustrated at not yet seeing his dream grow to fruition. But then he quickly cheers up, saying that he has three potential manufacturers “interested in partnering with us,” that he is scheduled to meet in the next few weeks.
Many of the details of St. Pete’s MyBike and Tampa’s GO!BYKE are similar.
Like Blikken, GO!BYKE CFO Jeff Huddleston says issues of funding have been an obstacle. He says some venture capitalists have expressed strong interest — but only after the city gives its official imprimatur.
He says Tampa city officials haven’t said outright that they’ll be on board if the company gets funding, but that’s the implication. In any case, Mayor Buckhorn told Huddleston after the Emerge Tampa Bay meeting that any city involvement would have to be delayed until after the Republican National Convention.
But when those conversations resume, Tampa officials should be heartened to know that Huddleston and his two business partners, Jon Perez and Sonya Suon, won’t be returning to them with hat in hand. They’re opting instead for angel investors to kickstart their service. (Calls to officials in both the Transportation and Parks and Recreation department in Tampa went unreturned.)
GO!BYKE’s program would work this way: Memberships would cost $15 a month. That would pay for the first 30 minutes free, and $2 for every 30 minutes after that, up to two hours. After that, it would be $10 an hour. You wouldn’t have to be a member to join, but would have to pay $2 for the first 30 minutes.
In addition, the company intends to have poster-sized ads on their bicycle kiosks and are looking to a large corporation to “co-brand” the bikes.
GO!BYKE execs frequently reference as an inspiration DecoBikes in Miami/Miami Beach, billed as the first privately funded city-wide bike sharing system in North America. In March DecoBike celebrated its first year in service, having logged nearly 720,000 rides.
GO!BYKE members speak reverently about Colby Reese, chief marketing officer for DecoBike, whom they’ve frequently consulted in preparing their business plan (Reese did not respond to CL’s call for comment).
Chief Operating Officer Jon Perez says the company would also pay Tampa for any loss of space, so that if metered parking spaces are used to house a kiosk (conceivably holding between 8 to 12 bikes), GO!BYKE would pay for the lost revenues.
GO!BYKE would track bikes using the same technology as Andrew Blikken. Their goals would be to have around 50 kiosks housing approximately 10-12 bikes each scattered around the city, hopefully spreading tenfold in the years to come. Customers would have to have a credit card or driver’s license showing them to be 18 years of age or older to legally use the system.
The leading Svengali of the bicycling movement in the Bay area, Swiftbud’s Alan Snel, tells CL he can’t comment specifically on GO!BYKE’s proposal because he hasn’t studied it. He does say that “cities across the country have embraced bike share programs because bicycles are practical and affordable ways of getting around urban centers and to and from such places as museums, restaurants and entertainment districts. It’s another reason why cities should invest in bicycle infrastructure because the proliferation of bike share programs show that there is public demand for practical bicycle use.”
GO!BYKE’s chief marketing officer, Sonya Suon, says the company hopes to work with local business owners and offer restaurant gift certificates to those who ride a certain amount of miles a month (which can be verified by their GPS system).
Karen Kress with the Downtown Tampa Partnership says her organization fully supports bike sharing, and has already mapped out a number of potential docking station locations. Kress is working on a grant that would help get a program working in downtown.
At the meeting where Huddleston publicly stated his dream of bike sharing in Tampa, Hillsborough Commissioner Mark Sharpe, a strong advocate for alternative transportation, remarked on the area’s dismal reputation for bike safety, and lashed out at those who designed the county as “being a bunch of old guys who don’t ride bikes.”
But is Tampa’s layout appropriate for such an ambitious program? The Downtown Partnership’s Karen Kress says she believes downtown Tampa is “surprisingly bikeable, with slower moving traffic, numerous bike lanes and off road trails,” and lots of destinations that would be easily reached via bike.
Andrew Blikken calls St. Petersburg a “perfect city” for bike sharing, “absolutely flawless in so many different ways.” The city’s bicycle-pedestrian coordinator agrees; Cheryl Stacks says the city’s revised bike ordinance, which allows for bike sharing, gives St. Pete “the foundation that Tampa and some other communities may not have at this time.”
But is the venture capital funding there? That’s the question on both sides of Tampa Bay, as it tries to reach parity with other U.S. cities that are creating the amenities that make them destination points for young professionals — amenities like bike sharing which, so far, the Bay area has lacked.
Adrian Wyllie was not mentioned. He is running for Governor.
Peter's new book is awaited with joy by lovers of poetry and his cool take…
Eeeeeeehhhh aaaahhhh, this is Sam Carollo, I am a legitimate business man, I resent the…
It is wonderful to see the KaBOOM! playground as a part of this transformation. I…
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Urquhart Castle activities over December
19 December 2012
This December, if you have eaten your fill of turkey and mince pies after Christmas and need to burn off some calories and get out of the house, how about coming to the spectacular setting of Urquhart Castle, nestled on the banks of Loch Ness?
On Thursday 27th December
, come along and learn the story of the true Braveheart, Andrew de Moray, an often unsung figure in the Wars of Independence.
Also on 1st and 2nd January
, 11:00 – 4:00 pm.
On Friday 28th December
, meet a Jacobite Soldier and hear his tale of attacking the castle and why the castle now lies in ruins. 11:00 – 4:00
On Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th December
, come to Knight School and join a Squire as he is being trained for knighthood. See if you have what it takes to be a knight and learn the chivalric code. Timings: 11.00 – 4.00
Macdonald, Lord of the Isles has come to attack the castle. A foot soldier will give an account of life in the castle and how they hope to defend it. 31st December
11:00 – 4:00 pm
Euan Fraser, Castle Manager said: “Urquhart Castle is situated in a stunning location overlooking the deep waters of Loch Ness.
“In the 14th century, it figured prominently in the Scots’ struggle for independence and came under the control of Robert the Bruce after he became King of Scots.
“With over 1,000 years of fascinating history, the castle makes for a great day out for all of the family who can also relax in the café and visit the shop with its local crafts.”
The events are included in the price of admission
Admission: Adult £7.40, Child £4.50, Concessions £5.90.
Admission free to Historic Scotland members.
Notes for editors:
- Historic Scotland is an executive agency of the Scottish Government charged with ensuring that our historic environment provides a strong foundation for a successful future for Scotland. The agency is fully accountable to Scottish Ministers and through them to the Scottish Parliament.
- The Year of Creative Scotland began on January 1, 2012 and will spotlight and celebrate Scotland’s cultural and creative strengths on a world stage. Through a dynamic and exciting year-long programme of activity celebrating our world-class events, festivals, culture and heritage, the year puts Scotland’s culture and creativity in the international spotlight with a focus on cultural tourism and developing the events industry and creative sector in Scotland. More information about the programme can be found at: www.visitscotland.com/creative
- The Year of Creative Scotland is a Scottish Government initiative led in partnership by EventScotland, VisitScotland, Creative Scotland and VOCAL. More information and resources to help businesses engage with Year of Creative Scotland are available at www.visitscotland.org/yearofcreativescotland-toolkit
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January 6, 2012 -- Join ASBMB members and other biochemistry and molecular biology faculty this March at one of two ASBMB sponsored NE regional workshops that will focus on developing a biochemistry and molecular biology concept inventory. The two workshops are scheduled for March 3, 2012 and March 10, 2012.
These workshops are part of a five year ASBMB initiative (funded by the NSF) that focuses on network building to create and disseminate validated assessment tools for the foundational core knowledge and skills required for biochemistry and molecular biology degrees, and to promote validated student-centered teaching approaches.
The three major objectives of this project are to 1) develop a set of core concepts and skills specific to the fields of biochemistry and molecular biology; 2) develop validated assessment tools that may be used to assess student learning and 3) create a central resource of pedagogical approaches based on cognition research that are useful to the community of biochemistry and molecular biology educators.
Workshop I - March 3, 2012, Moravian College, Bethlehem, PA. This workshop will be led by Dr. Hal White, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Section Editor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware. Workshop co-leaders are hosts are Dr. Shari Dunham and Dr. Steve Dunham at Moravian College. Learn more and register.
Workshop II - March 10, 2012, Northeastern University, Boston, MA. This workshop will be led and hosted by Dr. Carla Mattos and Dr. David Budil at Northeastern University. Learn more and register.
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There was a Wall Street Journal story on Saturday with David Gelernter who conceived the concept of Lifestreaming. It’s a great article and an interesting read where I came to learn several new things I never knew about him. More detail regarding the patent infringement lawsuits against Apple are covered which I touched upon in a recent video interview post about him. A new term he coins and goes into detail about is the notion of collections of Lifestreams in aggregate that he defines as a “Worldstream”.
From the article
Eventually business models based on streaming will dominate the Internet, he predicts. All the world’s data will be presented as a “worldstream,” some of it public, most of it proprietary, available only to authorized users. Web browsers will become stream browsers. Users will become comfortably accustomed to tracking and manipulating their digital objects as streams rather than as files in a file system. The stream will become a mirror of the unfolding story of their lives.
“I can visualize the worldstream,” says Mr. Gelernter, explaining its advantages. “I know what it looks like. I know what my chunk of it looks like. When I focus on my stuff, I get a stream that is a subset of the worldstream.
I too have often thought the business opportunities that could be built around the data generated by Lifestreaming. But we’re still in a phase of getting people to feel comfortable lifestreaming and developing methods to effectively tag and store the data. Facebook is trying to do this with the introduction of the timeline. They’re also trying to effectively catalog this detailed data with the development of the open graph. As lifestreaming and the resulting data becomes more ubiquitous, we should see these services start to come online. This could include vertical based lifestreams such as quantified self personal activity tracking (read paragraph 6 of this post)
In the article we also come to find out that David Gelernter and his son Daniel have created a new company. They’ve started to seek funding to create a product to bring Lifestreaming to the iPad.
From the article
The new venture, for which Mr. Gelernter is just beginning to seek funding, will focus on developing a lifestream product for the Apple iPad. “We like the pad,” he says. “A particular goal is to create a lifestream which aggregates the most popular social network streams, and includes email and stuff like that. It will generate revenues the way Twitter and Facebook do—by getting huge numbers of users, beginning at the place we know, Yale University undergraduates, who love glitzy new software. They tell their parents, who are big shots because their kids are students at Yale.” The new product will spread virally, forming a vast audience that can be sold to advertisers.
This is interesting. Entering the crowded world of lifestreaming apps and services will be very challenging at this stage of the game. I’m very curious to see what David Gelernter will bring to the table to distinguish this product from the rest of the pack. I look forward to monitoring this and bringing you more news as I discover it.
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|
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For Immediate Release
Contact: Ben Evans/NBB
WASHINGTON - More than 120 biodiesel leaders are visiting Washington this week to call on Congress to extend the expired biodiesel tax incentive and to urge the Obama Administration to quickly finalize the EPA's proposal to grow biodiesel volumes under the Renewable Fuel Standard next year.
"Washington's failure to act on these two issues has effectively halted the momentum our industry built last year in producing a record of nearly 1.1 billion gallons," said Anne Steckel, vice president of federal affairs at the National Biodiesel Board. "It is locking up millions of dollars in investments that could be creating jobs, purchasing equipment and feedstock, and driving economic growth."
Industry leaders will be meeting with White House officials and members of Congress Tuesday. They will specifically be calling for the Obama Administration to follow through with the EPA's proposal to increase the biodiesel volume requirement under the RFS to 1.28 billion gallons in 2013 - up from 1 billion gallons this year. Late last year, the Obama Administration delayed the decision.
"This is a proposal that has strong support from the EPA and USDA, and yet it has been caught up in a bureaucratic delay for nearly a year, without any explanation or justification," Steckel said. "It is blocking significant investment and hiring, so we are pleading with the Obama Administration to follow through with its 'all of the above' energy rhetoric by finalizing this proposal. It is something the Administration can do tomorrow, without waiting on Congress."
The Administration's delay on the RFS rule has come as Congress allowed the biodiesel tax incentive to expire on Dec. 31. The tax incentive has broad bipartisan support, and biodiesel leaders will be urging lawmakers on Capitol Hill to pass an extension as soon as possible.
"There is no magic bullet for fighting high gas prices, but we can chip away at the problem by diversifying our supplies through strong domestic energy policies like these," Steckel said. "We know these policies work."
Made from an increasingly diverse mix of resources such as recycled cooking oil, soybean oil and animal fats, biodiesel is a renewable, clean-burning diesel replacement that can be used in existing diesel engines. It the first and only commercial-scale fuel produced across the U.S. to meet the Environmental Protection Agency's definition as an Advanced Biofuel - meaning the EPA has determined that it reduces greenhouse gas emissions by more than 50 percent when compared with petroleum diesel. It is produced in nearly every state in the country and last year supported more than 39,000 jobs and $3.8 billion in GDP, according to a recent study conducted by Cardno ENTRIX, an international economics consulting firm. NBB is the U.S. biodiesel trade association.
# # # For more details visit biodiesel.org.
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District Courts in Michigan handle only misdemeanors from arraignment to sentencing.
Misdemeanors are crimes punishable by up to one year in the county jail and/or fines up to $1,000.00.
Arraignment is the first court procedure. A plea is entered by the defendant (guilty, innocent, stand mute) and a bond is set. The purpose of the bond is to insure that the defendant will appear in court on the designated court dates. In some cases the judge may set bond conditions, i.e., in a domestic violence case a no contact order with victim may be imposed.
Pretrial is a court procedure where the defendant or defendant's attorney meet with the prosecuting attorney to discuss the charges and try to reach a plea agreement. At this time a request can be made for a jury trial (the decision will be made by a jury) or a bench trial (the decision will be made by the judge) to be held.
All sentences are determined by the judge. These can be fines and costs, probation, incarceration (jail), driver license sanctions, and/or mandatory attendance of various programs. The program will be designated according to the needs of the individual and crime; i.e., a drug crime will require drug counseling, a domestic violence crime will require an anger management program.
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The first procedure is for the defendant to be arraigned. At this time a plea is entered and a bond is set. The purpose of the bond is to insure that the defendant will appear in court on the designated court dates. In some cases there may also be bond conditions set; i.e., in a domestic violence case a no contact order with victim.
In some cases a defendant may be able to enter a plea to a lesser charge. By doing this, the case would stay in district court for the District Judge to handle to completion. Non-serious offenses could be handled in this manner.
If a plea is not a viable option, a preliminary exam or sometimes called a probable cause hearing will be held. At this time two things are determined, (a) that a crime was committed and (b) there is probable cause to believe this defendant perpetrated this crime. Guilt or innocence is not determined. If the judge determines there is enough evidence to fulfill the requirement of both a & b, the judge will bind the case over (move the case) to circuit court in Mt. Clemens for further proceedings.
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Operating Under Influence of Liquor (OUIL)
First and second offences are adjudicated in a district court. Defendants who are determined guilty of alcohol related offenses are interviewed by a certified alcohol screening agent. The screening report is reviewed by the judge before he imposes sentence. Sentencing penalties can be fines and costs, incarceration (jail), vehicle immobilization, driver intervention program, alcohol rehab programs, counseling or any combination of these.
Third offenses are felonies and are handled in district court through preliminary exam.
Court appointed attorneys are appointed by the court for defendants who cannot afford to hire representation on their own. Repayment to the county for court appointed counsel is expected part of the sentence/probation.
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Patent Law Changes Could Hurt Small Inventors
Over the past several months, Congress has been discussing numerous changes to existing patent law.
While certain elements of the legislation will bring the U.S. patent system in line with much of the rest of the world by potentially simplifying the process of filing, granting and disputing patents, my concern is that the direction and consequences of this new legislative effort will unfairly impact smaller inventors, who may face increased financial and administrative burdens throughout the patenting process.
There are six major changes proposed by the House bill that could negatively impact the small inventor:
1. A switch from a first-to-invent system to a first-to-file system.
2. Substantial changes to patent infringement damages.
3. Introduction of a post-grant review/objection period.
4. Permission granted to third parties to submit art directly to examiners, providing them the ability to impact patent prosecution.
5. Substantial limitations on the selection of courts for patent litigation.
6. Early appeals in litigation matters.
Photo by jaylopez.
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Adding discharge line to soil stack
I'm adding a master bathroom onto my house and converting an old 3-piece bathroom to a powder room. One of the challenges has been figuring out how to add the the drain line from the addition into the original 4" soil stack, another has been how to re-work the powder room toilet and laundry discharge line back into the soil stack, and finally the close proximity of it all (which actually might be a blessing given the close quarters of the crawlspace).
The first photo shows a plumber's attempt at it; I cringed right off the bat at the sanitary tee turned on its side at the Fernco fitting. Then the use of 90* and 45* street fittings in an "S" (why not just use the 45* turned over?) to accept the upstairs portion of the soil stack at a 45* angle. And then the toilet/laundry drain just seems like a mess to me. And no cleanout. And no PVC primer.
Anyway, I took the day off from work yesterday and re-did it all as shown in the second photo below. I used a wye and a combo wye turned horizontally and back-to back-to accept the drain line from the bath addition and upstairs portion of the soil stack. I then used separate sanitary tees to tie in the 3" toilet line and 2" laundry drain line. Then I was able to put the upstairs soil stack run back to horizontal and tied back in with a 90* elbow and add a cleanout. I'm pretty happy with it....I think if I could change anything it would have been to use a 3" long sweep 90* on the toilet bend, but hopefully the short bend will be fine.
Any comments or feedback would be appreciated.
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Walking is one of the simplest ways to connect with your GO station.
The benefits of walking are great – not only does it save you time,
money, and improve your health, it’s also a sustainable method of
transportation that helps reduce your carbon footprint.
To find out how to access your station on foot, visit our website’s
Stations section and select your GO station. Many of our stations are
accessible from more than one location and direction. The station’s
street address may not show the shortest walking distance – that’s why
finding out about the local area can present the best route for you.
If you live within two kilometres of your GO station, try walking
just once or twice a week. Or, get a ride in the morning to your
station’s convenient kiss & ride and walk home in the evening to relax
and unwind after a long day.
Over 21% of people walk from home to their GO Bus stop or terminal.
About 65% of GO Bus customers outside downtown Toronto also walk to
their trip destination, with a further 30% transferring to another GO
service or to local transit.
Almost 10% of GO Train riders walk to their station.
Carpooling to GO is an economical, convenient and environmentally sustainable way to travel to your station. Carpooling to GO allows you to share the cost of driving and reduce parking hassles with designated parking. To learn more, please visit the Carpool to GO page.
We’re making it easier to combine biking and GO Transit travel by
offering new amenities and services to our customers.
To help put your plans in motion, here are a few links to cycle
Reserved bicycle parking at Burlington and Hamilton
GO Transit offers reserved bicycle parking spots at the Burlington and Hamilton GO Stations. A secured bicycle parking enclosure is available to customers who register for a reserved bike spot. Customers are issued a key fob that gives them access to the designated area for $50 per year.
To sign up for a reserved bicycle parking spot, please pick up an
application form at Union Station Customer Service, Burlington or
Hamilton GO Stations, or
download the form now.
For additional information on the reserved parking program,
email@example.com or call (416) 869-3200.
Bike racks on buses
Our entire bus fleet, including our highway and double decker
buses, is equipped with bike racks. This means that you can bring
your bike anywhere the GO Bus goes.
The racks are on the front bumper of the bus, and each one can
carry up to two bicycles. There is no extra charge to use the bike
racks. Availability is on a first come, first served basis. If the
rack is full, please wait for the next bus. Customers are
responsible for loading and unloading their own bikes.
Folding bicycles in proper carrying cases can be stored in the
underfloor luggage compartment (not all buses have one).
This cycle-friendly service lets our customers take their bikes
on our buses any time of day.
For more information, please download our
GO Bike by Bus brochure.
Bikes on trains
When can I take a bicycle onto a GO Train?
You may take a bicycle on any GO Train on a Saturday, Sunday, or
On weekdays, due to rush-hour crowding, you may not take them on
trains scheduled to arrive at Union Station between 6:30 and 9:30
a.m. or that leave Union Station between 3:30 and 6:30 p.m. Bicycles
are also prohibited inside Union Station during those times.
Bicycles are permitted on all other trains, including weekday
off-peak, and those travelling opposite to peak direction.
For example, you may bring your bicycle on trains travelling away
from Union Station in the morning peak period as long as you do not
board at Union Station. Similarly, you can bring your bicycle on
trains travelling towards Union Station in the afternoon peak period
as long as you get off the train before it arrives at Union.
What if, for example, I got on at Whitby GO Station
during the morning rush but got off at Rouge Hill station. Can I
bring my bike then?
No. During the morning rush, if you are travelling on a train
towards Union Station, you cannot bring your bicycle on any part of
the trip. The same applies if you are on a train that leaves Union
Station during the afternoon rush, regardless of where you get on.
Can I bring a folding bicycle onto a GO Train?
Folding bicycles are allowed on all GO Trains, including during
peak-period travel times and within Union Station at any time.
Can I bring an electric bicycle onto a GO Train?
Due to safety concerns, we only allow some e-bikes onto our GO
- display a manufacturer’s label
- meet federal motor vehicle safety regulations
- resemble a conventional pedal bike but with an
incorporated electric motor. Larger models that resemble mopeds
can present safety concerns on moving trains and are not
- follow the same rules as conventional bicycles, as outlined
Where should I put my bicycle on the train?
Four bicycles fit on each regular GO railcar, two just inside
each set of doors. Bicycles are not permitted in doorways next to
the washroom. These doorways are indicated with a “no bike” symbol.
Bicycles are not allowed on wheelchair-accessible train cars.
Bike shelters and lockers
You can leave your car at home because we’ve installed covered bicycle storage areas to provide better security and protection from the elements. We have bike shelters at most stations, and enclosed bicycle facilities at both Hamilton and Burlington GO Stations. We also have bike lockers at Eglinton, Exhibition, Guildwood, Finch Bus Terminal, Long Branch, Rouge Hill, and Scarborough GO Stations.
To see if your station has a bike rack, visit our Stations section.
For more information about the City of Toronto’s bicycle locker program, visit http://www.toronto.ca/cycling/locker.htm.
Bicycle Station at Union Station
The City of Toronto’s Bicycle Station at Union Station provides a
secure, indoor bicycle facility. It also functions as an information
centre where customers can get information on bicycling, walking,
and public transit in Toronto. For more information, please visit
City of Toronto’s web page.
Although every effort is made to monitor the bicycle parking
areas at our stations, complete uninterrupted observation is not
Here are some tips that will help secure your bike:
- Buy a good lock! The investment is worth it – even an
expensive lock will cost less than replacing your bicycle. Ask
your local bicycle store about what makes a good quality lock.
- Place your bicycle in the rack so that you can lock both your
frame and at least one wheel. Not only will this make your
bicycle less vulnerable to theft, it will also keep it more
upright and prevent accidental damage. If possible, bring an
extra cable lock so you can secure both wheels.
- Remove any easily removable parts such as lights, saddle bags
or panniers, and anything attached with a quick-release
mechanism. If you do have a quick-release on your seat post,
consider having it replaced with a bolt that can only be removed
by using a wrench, or take your seat with you when you lock up.
- Make your bike unique and identifiable with stickers or paint.
This will make it less attractive to steal.
- Record the serial number of your bicycle and register it with
your local police department. The serial number is unique to
your bicycle and is typically engraved in the frame, often
underneath the bottom bracket where your pedals attach.
- Do not leave your bicycle locked overnight at any GO station.
The City of Toronto has installed secure bicycle lockers at these GO stations: Eglinton, Exhibition, Guildwood, Finch Bus Terminal, Long Branch, Rouge Hill, and Scarborough. Lockers located at Kennedy Subway, and Scarborough Civic Centre are also close to GO stations and stops. For more information about the City of Toronto’s bicycle locker program, visit http://www.toronto.ca/cycling/locker.htm.
Paths and routes
GO makes it easier for you to explore the Greater Golden
Horseshoe by bike. You can learn more about combining bicycling and
transit travel by visiting the
Cycling rules of the road
- Always check maps to give you an idea how far and long you
will be travelling.
- Research the road conditions of the area or path where you
will be riding.
- Wear bright and reflective clothing, especially if you’re
planning to do any cycling on the road. Bring lights if you
think you might be out after dusk.
- Don’t forget to bring water, snacks, a cell phone, and maps.
- If you’re planning a trip that parallels a GO Transit route,
such as the Waterfront Trail that goes along the Lakeshore East
and Lakeshore West lines, you’ll have many opportunities to jump
back onto the GO Train if you get tired, encounter bad weather,
or have mechanical problems.
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UK small.biz gets free online training resource
All you can eat at the One Stop Shop
e-Skills UK has set up a website for small IT businesses. Called One Stop Shop, this is a a free, online directory of courses and training providers across the UK.
The site has information on tens of thousands of full and part-time courses, from public and private providers. It also offers a range of self-study courses, which comply with the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA), the national skills network for IT professionals.
Small businesses are often reluctant to get involved in training schemes. Many are wary of the time and costs involved, as well as the possibility of newly-trained staff leaving to join other companies.
However, e-Skills UK says that entrepreneurs should look at training as an investment, pointing to research which finds that half of IT firms believe their profits would be higher with skilled employees.
Terry Watts, of e-Skills UK, welcomed the new resource: "Small and medium sized businesses often struggle to identify the right type of IT training from the huge number of courses available."
"By cutting through the confusion, the One Stop Shop removes one of the barriers to companies investing in training and developing the skills of their workforce."
You can find out more here. ®
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|
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SALEM, Ore. -- Heavy rains from late October through March mark the rainy season in the Pacific Northwest, bringing the majority of yearly rainfall to the region from intense storms over the Pacific Ocean . Oregon has already experienced flooding in late November causing riverbanks to overflow and levees to be breached, resulting in millions of dollars in damages.
Dangerous or damaging floods don't always mean dramatic, rushing waters through the streets. Just a single inch of water can cause costly damage to homes and businesses. Only flood insurance offers financial protection from flooding.
Many homeowners and business owners think that because they aren't required to have flood insurance, they don't need it, or they think their insurance will cover flooding. Most insurance does not cover flooding - a separate flood insurance policy is necessary. People in the Pacific Northwest, no matter where they live, can and should get flood insurance...even if it is not required by their lender.
Flood insurance is affordable. In low- to moderate-risk areas, homeowners and renters can protect their property with lower-cost Preferred Risk Policies (PRPs) that start at just $112 a year.
Learn more about flood risk and flood insurance at www.FloodSmart.gov.
FEMA manages federal response and recovery efforts following any national incident, initiates mitigation activities and manages the National Flood Insurance Program. FEMA works closely with State and local emergency managers, law enforcement personnel, firefighters, and other first responders. FEMA became part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on March 1, 2003.
Disaster recovery assistance is available without regard to race, color, sex, religion, national origin, age, disability, economic status or retaliation. If you or someone you know has been discriminated against, you should call FEMA toll-free at 1-800-621-FEMA (3362) or contact your State Office of Equal Rights. If suspicious of any abuse of FEMA programs, please contact the fraud hotline at 1-800-323-8603.
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|
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|
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|
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How to make a great logo
We don’t just design great-looking logos. We design the right logo for you—and we do it with a clear, yet fun, methodology. Let’s walk through the process together, using the Zoyo logo as an example.
STEP 1: Establish a brand. Together, we need a base of understanding on which to base the logo. See our Services page for an explanation of our branding methodology.
STEP 2: Build a Creative Brief. This document lets our logo designers know what you want to achieve with the logo. It also lets you know how to decide which logo is right for you. Here’s an example of an “empty” creative brief… we fill it out together.
STEP 3: Let the designers go wild. They will come up with many ideas and present them in Round 1. Here is an example of the Round 1 logos for Zoyo. It’s a 3-page presentation with three different logos
STEP 4: Evaluate. All these logos are pretty good, aren’t they? They all could be used as company logos somewhere. So, how do you decide which one to go with? Some companies make this decision a very stressful process. We don’t. Some companies don’t know what to do next so they keep telling the designer to try different things. Not only is that a waste of time and energy. It’s a sure way to end up with a BAD logo.
Our methodology helps you end up with a good—even great—logo. What you really want is to be confident that the logo we choose is right for your organization. Take a deep breath. Remember we did our branding work before we started to come up with designs? Now is the time to go back to our brand blueprint and review what it says. Then look at the logo options and evaluate: which one most closely matches the brand?
Choose three logos you like.
Tell the designer to explore those three logos further. And we’re on to STEP 5.
STEP 5: More evaluations. They all look pretty good. We can imagine what each logo would look like in real life situations (coffee mug, business card). But which one? Again, go back to the branding blueprint. In this case, we chose the green flower-like image. We were sure the color and the design most closely resembled the brand we were trying to achieve.
We said good-bye to the wonderful orange and yellow box, and farewell to the wonderful, simple orange and yellow type treatment. Then we said, “Aloha!” to the green and gray plumeria-style design.
Still, we weren’t sure therelationships of the petals in this logo were exactly right. So the designer went back and tried some more variations on that one single theme.
STEP 6: An in-depth exploration of the selected motif.
We sat back and evaluated again. After looking at the variations, we decided the original logo was indeed best. It matched the brand positioning. It looked balanced. Bingo. Great logo—no sleepless nights, no overtime hours, no stress. We know we have what works for our company. We can approve it and move on!
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When I started to get interested to analog photography, I asked my father to give me his camera. I fell in love with her! The Ricoh KR-5 is considered by many to be a great starter camera for novices.
The Ricoh KR-5 is a standard 35mm SLR camera made by a Japanese company that is still in existence and currently produces digital cameras as well as office equipment. It was manufactured in 1975. The only electronic component in it is the exposure meter; users have to learn to manually set everything else. That so many people still use this film camera is a testament to the camera’s quality and durability. Once a photographer knows how to use this, it makes using other cameras easier.
It offers superb optics and outstanding mechanical performance and reliability. The KR-5 featured a built-in, through-the-lens, full aperture CdS exposure meter which measured the light coming through the lens, enabling the photographer to set the proper exposure for a given lighting condition. The correct exposure is obtained by setting the shutter speed and f-stop in the right combination for the type of film, subject, and lighting conditions.
The KR-5 was equipped with a Riconar 55mm f/2.2 standard lens made of 4 elements arranged in 4 groups. The camera had a mechanical metal focal plane shutter with speeds from 1/8 to 1/500th of a second.
Here are some photos:
Camera Type: 35 mm SLR
Film Format: 24 × 36 mm
Film Size and Capacity: 35 mm perforated film in 12, 20, 24 or 36 exposures.
Filter size: 52 mm screw-in type
Lens Mount: ‘’K" type bayonet with 65° rotating angle
Shutter: mechanically-controlled, vertical-travel, shutter with speeds from 1/8 to 1/500 second plus B (bulb); flash X sync was from 1/8 to 1/60th of a second
Viewfinder: Fixed eye-level pentaprism
Focusing screen: Diagonal Split-image spot in microprism-image band surrounded by Fresnel field
Exposure Meter: Two CdS photocells TTL full open metering for center-weighted average light reading coupled to shutter speeds, film speeds and f-stops.
Film Speed Range: ASA 12 ~ 3200 (DIN 12 ~ 36)
Exposure Meter Power Supply: Two 1.5V silver-oxide batteries
Flash Contact: "X’’ contact on hot shoe for cordless electronic flash unit
Exposure Counter: Additive, automatic resetting.
Dimensions: 139.9 (width) x 91.3 (height) x 48.0 (depth) mm (Body only)
The KR-5 is very easy to use. Just load the film, set the ISO, focus on your subject and adjusts the exposure by playing with the shutter speed and f-stop. That’s all!
The camera does not allow double exposures, but by rewinding the film, you can get some beautiful photos.
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Access to mainstream primary education environments: the case for pupils with an intellectual and/or a pervasive developmental disability
Flatman Watson, Sheelah (2009) Access to mainstream primary education environments: the case for pupils with an intellectual and/or a pervasive developmental disability. PhD thesis, National University of Ireland Maynooth.
This thesis is concerned with access to mainstream primary education environments and the differentiated geographies of children diagnosed with an intellectual and/or pervasive developmental disability prior to seeking enrolment. Historically, an ethos of care in segregated environments dominated service provision for this population. Through the first half of the 20th century a transition toward the inclusion of education in these segregated settings evolved and in the latter half of the century access to education in mainstream environments dominated policy development. The Education Act 1998 endorsed these developments and legislates for the right of all citizens to equality of access to mainstream educational environments. It lays down the right to supports for pupils with special education needs and affords parents the right of choice of placement for their child. In this thesis, Pierre Bourdieu‟s Theory of Practice is adapted and used to examine the capacity of the primary education system to meet these objectives through the provision of appropriate capitals at multiple levels. The research argues that appropriate cultural capital is not widely available to educators toward the provision of equal citizenship rights for these pupils and that inadequate investment in multiple forms of capital creates and maintains barriers to universal enrolment practices. It argues that appropriate capitals are not available to parents and their children to facilitate informed choice and positive enrolment practices to secure equality of access to placements. The thesis concludes that access to primary education spaces is resource sensitive and that a lack of pertinent capitals in the education system is a barrier to universal mainstream enrolment. The State and/or its agencies cater poorly for children with an intellectual and/or a pervasive developmental disability and their parents, which results in the continuing differentiated geographies of this population.
Repository Staff Only: item control page
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|— CDP —|
|West Maui Mountains in the distance|
|Maui County and the state of Hawaii|
|• Total||11.7 sq mi (30.2 km2)|
|• Land||9.3 sq mi (24.0 km2)|
|• Water||2.4 sq mi (6.2 km2)|
|Elevation||3 ft (1 m)|
|• Density||1,800/sq mi ( 690/km2)|
|Time zone||Hawaii-Aleutian (UTC-10)|
|GNIS feature ID||0361181|
Kīhei is located at (20.759122, −156.457228).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 11.7 square miles (30.2 km2), of which 9.3 square miles (24.0 km2) is land and 2.4 square miles (6.2 km2), or 20.44%, is water. It is considered to be the South Side of Maui, located on the leeward side of Haleakala. The climate is arid, receiving no more than 10 inches (250 mm) of rain per year.
As of the census of 2000, there were 16,749 people, 6,170 households, and 3,813 families residing in the CDP. The population density was 1,648.6 people per square mile (636.5/km2). There were 9,170 housing units at an average density of 902.6 per square mile (348.5/km2). The racial makeup of the CDP was 47.76% White, 6.74% African American, 0.48% Native American, 24.72% Asian, 7.85% Pacific Islander, 1.58% from other races, and 16.87% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.52% of the population.
There were 6,170 households out of which 32.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 45.7% were married couples living together, 10.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 38.2% were non-families. 25.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 4.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.70 and the average family size was 3.31.
In the CDP the population was spread out with 25.1% under the age of 18, 8.1% from 18 to 24, 36.2% from 25 to 44, 23.6% from 45 to 64, and 7.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females there were 103.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 103.3 males.
The median income for a household in the CDP was $46,215, and the median income for a family was $50,738. Males had a median income of $33,229 versus $26,881 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $21,591. About 7.0% of families and 10.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 8.8% of those under age 18 and 5.1% of those age 65 or over.
Several research facilities are located in Kihei, including the main offices for the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, seed operations by DEKALB Genetics Corporation and Monsanto Company, and the Maui Research and Technology Park, which is home to the Maui High Performance Computing Center (MHPCC), and the Pacific Disaster Center and is overseen by the Air Force Maui Optical and Supercomputing observatory (AMOS).
- "Profile of General Population and Housing Characteristics: 2010 Demographic Profile Data (DP-1): Kihei CDP, Hawaii". U.S. Census Bureau, American Factfinder. Retrieved December 28, 2011.
- "US Gazetteer files: 2010, 2000, and 1990". United States Census Bureau. 2011-02-12. Retrieved 2011-04-23.
- "Geographic Identifiers: 2010 Demographic Profile Data (G001): Kihei CDP, Hawaii". U.S. Census Bureau, American Factfinder. Retrieved December 28, 2011.
- "American FactFinder". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
- "NOAA Breaks Ground on New Facility at Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary Office in Kihei". www.publicaffairs.noaa.gov. Retrieved 2008-04-06.
- Monsanto - Hawaii > Farm Stations
- "Maui Research and Technology Park Tenants".]
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Kihei, Hawaii|
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Race to save the language of Jesus: Aramaic in danger of becoming extinct as number of speakers of ancient tongue plummets
- Language once widely used in Middle East but speakers are now scattered
- Aramaic is believed to have been used by Jesus and his disciples
- British linguist Geoffrey Khan developing database of recordings
By Sam Adams
Threatened: Aramaic, a language thought to have been used by Jesus Christ, is in danger of dying out. (Jesus is played here by Jim Caviezel, in 'The Passion of the Christ' 2003)
It is thought to have been spoken by Jesus Christ and his disciples more than 2,000 years ago.
But now Aramaic, an ancient language related to both Hebrew and Arabic, is threatened with extinction as the number of speakers worldwide has dwindled.
Linguist Professor Geoffrey Khan of the University of Cambridge, has launched a quest to record the language before it dies out by visiting the scattered communities where it is still used.
By recording some of the remaining native Aramaic speakers he hopes to preserve the language which is one of a number threatened with extinction worldwide.
The 3,000-year-old language was once common throughout the entire Middle East and was used for trade, government and divine worship from the
Holy Land to India and China.
As a key language used in Israel from 539 BC to 70 AD, experts believe it was likely to have been spoken by Jesus.
It is also the language of large sections of the biblical books of Daniel and Ezra, and is the main language of the Talmud (a key Jewish text).
Parts of the ancient Dead Sea scrolls were written in Aramaic. As Jesus died on the cross, he cried out in Aramaic, 'Elahi, Elahi, lema shabaqtani?' ('My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?').
But speakers are now scattered across the globe, with pockets even found in US cities such as Chicago where several thousands Assyrians live.
Prof Khan told Smithsonian.com that he felt his 'calling' to record the language after speaking to a Jew from Erbil, a northern Iraqi city.
'It completely blew my mind,' he said. 'To discover a living language through the lips of a living person, it was just incredibly exhilarating.'
Language: A first century AD burial box (ossuary) with an Aramaic inscription that reads 'James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.' The box dates to 63 AD the period in which Jesus lived
Ancient: The language is related to both Hebrew and Arabic. Pictured is a bilingual inscription (in Aramaic and Greek) from Kandahar, in Afghanistan
Ancient: A Christian pilgrim prays as a wooden cross is carried towards the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, where Aramaic was once widely used
Aramaic is not alone as an endangered language. Around Fifty to 90 percent of the roughly 7,000 languages currently spoken worldwide are expected to die out by the end of the century, reports Smithsonian.com.
There are a wide variety of different Aramaic dialects spoken worldwide - with the language still used by certain Eastern Christian churches, in the form of Syriac.
Work: Professor Geoffrey Khan is creating a database of the recordings he has made with speakers of Aramaic
Modern Aramaic is now spoken by many small, and often isolated communities of different Christian, Jewish, and Mandean ethnic groups of West Asia.
The most numerous of these are the Assyrians many of who speak Assyrian Neo-Aramaic and Chaldean Neo-Aramaic.
Its first speakers, the Arameans, were desert nomads, and the language has also been used by groups as diverse as Christians, Jews, Mandeans, Manicheans, Muslims, Samaritans, Zoroastrians and pagans.
The language lost its standing in the
Middle East in the 7th Century AD when Muslim Muslim armies from Arabia
conquered the area, establishing Arabic as the key tongue. Aramaic
survived in remote areas such as the Kurdish areas of Turkey, Iraq, Iran
of the current number of Aramaic speakers is thought to be around
half-a-million, although the modern version of the language Neo-Aramaic,
has dozens of different dialects - some of which have already died out,
Khan has published highly regarded works on previously undocumented
Aramaic dialects and is working on a web-based database of text and
audio recordings of the language.
He has travelled as far afield as the former Soviet republic of Georgia in search of its different dialects.
Ancient: Aramaic is related to Hebrew and Arabic. Here, a Rabbi studies part of the Dead Sea Scrolls which were part written in Aramaic
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Hyderabad: The Indian Council of Medical Research has cautioned people that
there is no known antidote for poisoning caused by bitter bottle gourd juice. Bottle
gourd, which is unusually bitter, contains certain chemicals that severely react with the
body causing internal bleeding and fluid loss from the organs. Bitter bottle gourd
poisoning requires hospitalisation in intensive care unit for four to 12 days.
The ICMR, which last year warned people against drinking bottle gourd juice if it is
bitter, has now made it clear that there is no specific antidote to treat bitter bottle
gourd poisoning. The medical treatment has to be based on the symptoms the patient
presents himself with.
The country’s premier medical research body now plans to take up research on the chemical
composition of bitter and normal bottle gourd and other members of the cucumber family,
besides studies on interaction between bottle gourd juice and other drugs. The need for
further research gains significance as bottle gourd has been hailed by Ayurveda
practitioners as a natural remedy for diabetes, high blood pressure, liver diseases and
Says Dr Abdul Khaliq, senior gastroenterologist at Care Hospital, “bitter bottle gourd
poisoning patients exhibit symptoms similar to those of burns and acute pancreatitis
cases. In medical terminology, we call it third space fluid loss. Fluid comes out of the
blood, blood pressure falls and there may be internal bleeding. In some cases, the
patient has to be put on ventilator. Usually, the patients recover within a few days”.
Dr Abdul Khaliq, who has conducted extensive research on bitter bottle gourd poisoning,
agrees that no antidote has thus far been found to treat the problem. “This is because
not much research has been done in this area. There is no diagnostic test to find out
bitter bottle gourd poisoning, and in the best way to deal with the problem is
prevention. Avoid bottle gourd juice if it is bitter”.
Bottle gourd is a member of cucumber family or cucurbitaceae. These vegetables develop
bitterness if the percentage of cucurbitacins, a type of poison, is high. Though bitter
gourd or karela is bitter, it gets the bitterness from momordicin. Cucurbitacins are
toxic tetracyclic triterpenoid compounds, which may even cause death.
According to the ICMR task force on bitter gourd poisoning, cucurbitacins are divided
into twelve categories. The bottle gourd contains the triterpenoid cucurbitacins B, D, G,
H and 22-deoxy cucurbitacin. Higher levels of cucurbitacin are triggered by environmental
stress, like high temperatures, wide temperature swings or too little water, uneven
watering practices, low soil fertility and low soil pH.
Word Of The Day - Improve Your Knowledge
Word of the Day
|Definition:||Equipment, such as clothing, tools, or instruments, used for a specific purpose or task.|
Quote of the Day
Every traveler has a home of his own, and he learns to appreciate it the more from his wandering.
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