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There’s nothing like a towering wind turbine to inspire NIMBY sentiment from neighbors and city councils alike. Enter a striking new alternative energy concept by Mexican-born Agustin Otegui, who works with economies of a much smaller scale. He has conceived of a next-gen Nano Vent-Skin that sheathes structures in a shimmering solar weave studded with micro-turbines. The concept takes advantage of a structure’s maximum available surface space, and its modular composition allows it to retrofit our old buildings instead of pouring resources into new ones. Plus, the stunning superstructure incorporates micro-organisms to soak up C02.
In the past we’ve covered approaches to alternative energy that seek to synthesize solar with wind. It’s an exciting area to watch as technology improves and processes are streamlined, and Ostegui’s concept charts some innovative new territory.
The Nano Vent-Skin is a zero-emission material that takes a tri-partite approach towards energy efficiency. First, it soaks up sunlight via a photovoltaic layer, and transfers energy via nano-wires to storage units at the end of each panel. Second, its tiny turbines employ “polarized organisms” to create chemical reactions, generating power each time the turbine makes contact with the structure. Third, the organisms present in the inner skin of each turbine soak up C02.
At the core of the technology is an elaborate system of bio-engineered micro organisms which “have not been genetically altered; they work as a trained colony where each member has a specific task in this symbiotic process.” Ostegui even has plans for the system to be self-healing: “Every panel has a sensor on each corner with a material reservoir. When one of the turbines has a failure or breaks, a signal is sent through the nano-wires to the central system and building material (microorganisms) is sent through the central tube in order to regenerate this area with a self assembly process.”
Ostegui’s NVS may reside at the far end of future-forward thinking for now, but it presents some exciting concepts that may surface as science and technology work together to converge our existing energy systems. | <urn:uuid:a347e6b2-d1e7-4944-9a37-783f8903057a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://inhabitat.com/agustin-otegui-nano-vent-skin/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913991 | 470 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Those who pass the storefront will encounter a temporary wall of grey plywood fronting the street. A small gap between the walls serves as a pathway for customers to still access the staircase that leads to the store below.
On the way to the staircase, customers can see stacks of materials and temporary materials associated with the construction. The materials and workers are there to begin work on a $6.7 million project to replace the glass cube that began this week.
The impressive structure has become something of a New York City landmark since it was unveiled in May of 2006. A recent study found that it is one of the most photographed locations in the entire city.
Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs is said to have personally designed and even paid for the hollow glass structure that serves as the store's entrance. The latest renovations are not the first time the structure has been tweaked: Shortly before its unveiling in 2006, Jobs was said to have been unhappy with some of the materials used to construct the cube, and last-minute changes were made.
The all-glass design has even inspired other projects from Apple, including its megastore in Shanghai that opened last summer. Like the Fifth Avenue store, its entrance is a staircase enclosed in glass, though the one in China is a cylinder.
Apple's interest in glass will even extend to its planned 12,000-employee campus at its headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. When pitching the concept to the local city council, Jobs remarked that the building will look like a "spaceship."
"There's not a straight piece of glass in this building," he said. "We've used our experience in building retail buildings all over the world. We know how to make the biggest pieces of glass for architectural use."
Some of those experiences gained from the last five years since the Fifth Avenue store first opened will undoubtedly play a part as Apple partakes in its $6.7 million replacement of the iconic glass cube. In addition to the cube, Apple also plans to remove protective bollards, install new pavers around the perimeter, and remove and install surrounding water drains.
Photos of the construction currently underway are included below. Thanks to AppleInsider reader Ryan for the pictures. | <urn:uuid:701d31fc-95f7-4ace-ba5d-a5133f44c1d8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://forums.appleinsider.com/t/126458/photos-show-major-renovations-in-progress-at-apples-fifth-ave-store | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970934 | 451 | 1.75 | 2 |
It took several years of kayaking before I built up the nerve to kayak the west coast of Vancouver Island. Then in 2003 I was able to take an entire summer to kayak the coast and all five major sounds. It remains a highlight of my kayaking experiences, and affirms my belief (cultivated through many subsequent kayaking trips) that all areas of the coast can be safely navigated if attention is paid to a few simple safety rules.
The first and most basic rule, naturally, is to stay off the water when conditions are questionable. Determining what's safe and what's a risk can be made by following weather forecasts and a good basic knowledge of the prevailing weather conditions. Some of these conditions are touched on lightly below; considerably more detailed attention is paid to them in the various volumes of The Wild Coast series of coastal guide books. They are a recommended companion to this series of coastal atlases, not only for the safety information, but for the additional information on camping, history, geography, ecology and services in each region. More information on The Wild Coast series can be found at www.whitecap.ca or the companion website, www.thewildcoast.ca. Keep an eye on the latter for updates that will help keep these atlases current for years to come. This atlas generally mirrors the geographic area covered in Volume 1 of The Wild Coast. Cross-references have been added throughout the atlas; the prompt "WC 1-273" will direct you to the first volume of The Wild Coast series, and to page 273 for more information on this region.
When a mariner or kayaker builds up the confidence to travel the outer coast of Vancouver Island, it is an experience like no other. Each of the five major sounds has its own character, from the intricate passages of the Broken Group to the sand beaches of Kyuquot. But the greatest reward, in my mind, comes from travelling the outer coast. There is a raw wildness to places like Cape Scott and Brooks Peninsula that make them completely unique. 'While other coastal locations like the Gulf Islands have their charm, there is simply no comparison to the feeling of reaching a remote destination on the outer coast. There is also nothing quite like camping on a sprawling, perfect sand beach with no one else in sight. Add a parade of wildlife, including everything from humpback whales to tufted puffins, and you have the potential for a worldclass wilderness experience.
These best locations are, not surprisingly, the most difficult areas to reach, but the reward matches the effort. Many of these places can be reached only by kayak due to a barrier of offshore rocks and a lack of coastal access points by road, keeping exceptional kayaking locations such as Checleset Bay, the Mission Group and Cape Sutil rarely visited. They are all among my favourite destinations.
For those who aren't ready for the challenge of open water, the outer coast presents sheltered options in each of the five major sounds, all of which can be reached, in varying degrees of difficuky, by vehicle. The most accessible is Clayoquot with paved road access to Tofino. Barkley Sound and the Broken Group also have good access off Highway 4, either by Ucluelet or by a short stretch of logging road to Toquart Bay.
Farther afield is Nootka Sound, where road access leads through Gold River to reach Tahsis or Cougar Creek. A more difficult route is to Zeballos from Highway 19. Kyuquot is among the more remote of the sounds, with road access to Fair Harbour via a circuitous route of logging roads from Highway 19 that first passes through Zeballos. A more direct route by logging road is to a launch at Artlish River on Tahsish Inlet. Quatsino can be reached by road through Coal Harbour, Port Alice, or Winter Harbour. The latter provides good access to the outer north coast, though the road is famous for the toll it takes on tires.
The north limits of the island can best be reached only by a launch through the San Josef River into San Josef Bay, or from a launch at Port Hardy. The Cape Scott Trail provides foot access to the north coast, and the completion of the North Coast Trail will increase the hiking range to Shushartie Bay near Port Hardy. Keep track of updates at wwwthewildcoast.ca. | <urn:uuid:5253228b-399f-4dab-9397-0058ce2d56d1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.amazon.ca/Coastal-Recreation-Kayaking-Small-Atlas/dp/1552858650 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949559 | 911 | 1.679688 | 2 |
In the mid-to-late 1800's, roads were mostly considered the responsibility of the municipalities
through which they ran. Taxes
were collected to support them, but monies were poorly spent, and roads lacked proper maintenance. The rise of the bicycle
as a popular mode of transportation brought about public interest in roads, and the Good Roads movement
was started in various states. In 1891, New Jersey
became the first state to offer state aid to municipalities for the upkeep of their thoroughfares. It was not until the turn of the 20th century
, however, that the federal government
began to take an interest.
With the advent of the automobile, Americans found themselves blessed with an opportunity and an option they had never before considered -- interstate travel for tourism and pleasure without extensive time or money commitments. The first interstate "roads", however, were woefully unequipped for any sort of regular travel; most roads consisted of poorly paved, painfully undermaintained old wagon trails that ran unsafely through major cities and often found themselves subject to "relocation" by other cities attempting to bolster their own tourism. Adding to the poor-road issue was the rise of Rural Free Delivery from the United States Postal Service, which required passable roads to residents of the most remote locations.
The late 1910s and early 1920s saw the first attempts at organization of state and interstate highway maintenance. The American Automobile Association and the Automobile Club of Southern California were formed to advocate better roads in California and across the United States; "trail associations" attempted to maintain individual roads and begin the process of marking interstate highways. However, the lack of integration of these movements, as well as the lack of standardization of needs for individual roads, left many problems still unsolved across the country. The federal government established the American Association of State Highway Officials in 1924 to alleviate some of these problems. The AASHO was responsible for many of the standardizations we take for granted today: stable road paving, highway numbering, and suchlike.
At the end of the 1920s, though, with the country in a massive depression, thoughts turned from tourism to the need for money and food, and highway projects were all but set aside for a few years. In the 30s, though, a stroke of luck befell the concept of highway construction as President Franklin Roosevelt saw the advantages and job opportunities provided by a federal highway construction project. His idea was to build three north-south and three east-west toll superhighways to provide major thoroughfares for country-wide travel. A study conducted under the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1938 determined that travel would not be sufficient to support the construction and maintenance of these massive highway undertakings; however, it was proposed to expand existing roads into a 43000-kilometer interregional highway network, incorporating city beltways and bypasses into larger cities to alleviate potential congestion. This proposal was sent to Congress in 1939, but was held back by the threat of war; the president reserved the proposal for post-war economic boosting possibilities.
During World War II, the proposal was expanded several times, ultimately to include a total of 65000 kilometers of highway and numerous other considerations. This proposal was hotly debated among the states, with appropriate funding allocations and lack of state jurisdiction over the projects being major issues; funds were scarce to begin with, and most states felt that federalization of the project would impugn their own individual authorities. Finally, in 1944, the plan was passed with few of the proposed changes, save the actual mileage expansion.
By 1947, 60000 of the 65000 kilometers of highway had already been designated by the Public Roads Administration (sometimes called the Bureau of Public Roads - this designation bounced back and forth through the '40s and '50s), who were responsible for the implementation of the Federal-Aid Highway Act. Progress of actual construction, however, was exceedingly slow; funding was choked by states unwilling to divert monies from other needs, and many had trouble complying with the standards set by the act. The Korean War diverted more money from the project until, in 1952, Congress authorized a meager $25 million in matched funds for the entire nationwide project. By the time Eisenhower took office in 1953, a total of $955 million had been spent to complete a mere 10000 kilometers of highway.
Eisenhower's experiences with the German autobahn during World War II would influence him heavily during his foray as United States President. Although his first year in office was spent cleaning up the Korean War, he dove into 1954 with a massive fiscal overhaul of the highway program, throwing $175 million at the states in a 60/40 matching system. Funding was distributed based more heavily on population, potentially allowing the more-needed stretches of highway to be completed first. Believing this to be only the first step in a long, er, road to success, the president then planned address a conference of state governors, promoting a plan to spend $50 billion over the next 10 years on the interstate highway system. (Vice President Nixon actually gave the speech due to a death in Eisenhower's family.) His arguments included five major flaws in the outdated highway system that was currently in place: lack of safety, financial loss due to poor traffic handling, legal backups stemming from highway-related lawsuits, inefficient transportation of goods, and defensive inadequacies in the event of war (a hot topic with all the battles the US threw itself into in the surrounding decades). This speech managed to completely sell the governors attending the convention, who had originally intended to completely remove the federal government from highway building.
The president nominated a committee to develop a financial plan for the highway system, naming General Lucius Clay as the head of the new President's Advisory Committee on a National Highway Program. The committee yielded a plan to self-finance the program with issued bonds and an additional federal gas tax to pay off the plan over the course of 30 years. Most of the members of Congress objected to this deal, and the Senator Albert Gore, Sr., proposed a new plan which contained a method for spending the allotted money but deliberately lacked a financing method (the Ways and Means Committee of the House of Representatives was the only committee allowed to propose financial legislation). Both proposals failed miserably in the House and the Senate.
Representative George Fallon took over the proposal in the Ways and Means Committee in 1955, drafting a new proposal for minor tax increases to support the federal funding of the plan. He also renamed the highway system the "National System of Interstate and Defense Highways", which was officially adopted in 1956. Fallon's bill was ultimately defeated as well; however, his bill was revised and partnered with a proposal authored by Representative Hale Boggs, which was passed by the House and sent to the Senate. The Senate re-inserted much of the Gore-proposed funding program, leaving the 13-year timeline and the plan for distribution of funds set forth by the original Fallon bill; the financing mechanism set forth by the Boggs bill was left largely intact. The revised bill was passed in the Senate by a voice vote; House-Senate committee hearings resolved differences between the two passages of the bill, and was finally passed by the House and Senate and unceremoniously signed by the President at the end of June, 1956.
The final draft of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 allowed for 90% of all funding for the highway system to come from federal monies; it allowed for 66000 kilometers of roads to be built by 1975; it required any roads previously built to conform to a series of standards for interchanges, lane widths, and whatnot; and it set a standard numbering system for all roads within the system. Toll roads were accepted into the system if they met the standards set forth by the bill, and if bypassing those roads disrupted the continuity of the network. The numbering scheme and the new red, white and blue shields were unveiled in 1957.
In 1990, the Interstate Highway System was officially renamed the Dwight D. Eisenhower System of Interstate and Defense Highways, in honor of the president who played such a vital role in the planning and execution of the system.
Thank you to Ikura
for mentioning the Good Roads movement. | <urn:uuid:26760820-a416-47b1-b542-898d851677ea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://everything2.com/user/LadySun/writeups/The+rise+of+Interstate+Highways | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971963 | 1,677 | 3.765625 | 4 |
ABSTRACT: Vaccination remains the most cost-effective method for preventing infectious diseases. Key to vaccine design is the development of immunological memory, which is an essential property of the adaptive immune system. Bacterial polysaccharide conjugate vaccines are the gold standard currently used to confer protection of the host by inducing humoral immune responses against T-cell-independent antigens. Conjugate vaccines are effective, but we propose that local mucosal immune responses are likely to also play an important role in inducing immunity, and they have been less explored than systemic and adaptive immune responses. Adjuvants have been used to improve the immune response to vaccine antigens, however, no mucosal adjuvant has been licensed for human use. Here we describe the recent progress in the use of mucosal adjuvants to achieve significant immune responses against T-cell-independent antigens. We also introduce the idea that studying the mechanisms that induce cell sub-populations with strong immunological memory may facilitate the design of novel vaccine formulations, in particular in cases of B-cell unresponsiveness to thymus-independent stimuli.
Journal of Drug Targeting 05/2012; 20(6):502-8. · 2.70 Impact Factor | <urn:uuid:a77e44b5-9cfd-43f8-9873-c5e825d6811e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.researchgate.net/researcher/75942691_Elizabeth_Gonzalez/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916508 | 256 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Phyllis Schlafly is an all-around right-wing activist who has been around forever. You could say she was Tea Party before her time, railing against liberals and taxes and the UN's threat to US sovereignty. Her 2009 "How to Take Back America" conference was an amazing gathering at which health care reform was described as fascism, President Obama was described by Rep. Trent Franks as an "enemy of humanity," and attendees were encouraged to buy guns and ammo to defend themselves against impending tyranny.
But Schlafly’s real bread and butter is the hostility to feminism that fueled her campaign against the Equal Rights Amendment – and it was her anti-feminist schtick that she brought to George Washington University in D.C. last night. I use the word schtick because it’s hard to take seriously Schlafly’s caricature of feminists as anti-men, anti-marriage, anti-family, and anti-child-rearing, not to mention claims like these:
- “Feminists don’t have any role models of happiness.”
- “They don’t believe that women can be successful. You never hear the feminists talking about really successful women like Margaret Thatcher or Condaleeza Rice, they just don’t believe women can be successful…that’s why they hate Sarah Palin….”
What? Feminists don’t believe women can be successful? That didn’t ring true to the many GW students, women and men, who politely protested Schlafly’s appearance. During the Q&A, one challenged Schlafly directly, saying her mother is a feminist, a role model of happiness, and had instilled in her children a love of family. The student said Schlafly seemed to be having a 40-year old argument with quotes plucked from early feminist writers.
Schlafly did have her admirers. The young woman who introduced her said Schlafly had given her an example of how to stand up against the emerging “gender-interchangeable society.” Schlafly returned to that theme later, saying that feminists don’t want equality for women, they want “gender interchangeability.”
Schlafly reveled in the recent flap about Ann Romney never having to work outside the home, since she saw it as proof that feminists have no respect for mothers who choose to answer to a husband rather than a boss. But Schlafly was not on message with the Romney campaign’s claims that women have accounted for almost all job losses during the Obama administration. Schlafly, who repeatedly claimed that the Obama administration is utterly controlled by feminists, “proved” her case by saying that feminists had successfully demanded that most jobs created by federal stimulus funds went to women.
Schlafly touched on a few other issues, such as her opposition to marriage equality (though she seemed to say she didn’t think civil unions were worth fighting about). And she pushed the same theme being pushed by Ralph Reed and other strategists trying to build a broad electoral coalition: you can’t separate fiscal and social conservatism. She took a shot at Mitch Daniels for seeking a “truce” on social values, something she called “impossible.”
In the end, she told the young women, they should get married before having babies, and they should ignore feminists who might poison their attitude toward life by telling them that women are victims of the patriarchy. She derided the notion of a "glass ceiling" and denied that unequal pay is a problem. Men, she said, are willing to do dangerous jobs that women aren't, because "women like nice inside jobs with carpeted offices." American women, she said, are the most fortunate people who have ever lived. Why, in Africa, she said, some women have to wash their clothing in the river. “We have all these wonderful modern conveniences that men have invented for our pleasure.” | <urn:uuid:fb1cd68e-a704-43a7-aab8-f88dc893114c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pfaw.org/category/c3c4/c3?page=57 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981315 | 836 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Best Bully Sticks Spotlight on a Breed: Labradoodle
Standard - between 23-26 inches high and 45-77 pounds
Medium - approximately 18-21 inches high and 45-77 pounds
Miniature - ranges 14-17 inches high and 40-55 pounds
Coat: Their coat is curly or wavy and is 4-6 inches in length. There are three coat types:
1. Wool: does not shed, should be the most allergy friendly, feels similar to that of a pure bred Poodle and is usually tightly curled.
2. Fleece: minimal shedding, also allergy friendly, feels wonderfully soft and fleecy, and has loose curls.
3. Hair: light shedding, less allergy friendly, coarser texture, can be curly, short or long.
The wool and fleece coats do not have a dog odor.
Color: The coat comes in various colors: cream, gold, red, black, chocolate, apricot, cafe, silver, and chalk.
A slightly larger-built dog than their Poodle parents, the Labradoodle is a muscular and athletic animal that shows a pleasing blend of the two breeds. His muzzle and face are more refined than that of a purebred Labrador Retriever while his build is sturdier and his temperament more even than that of a Poodle. The length of the Labradoodle coat is roughly 4-6 inches and it can be either fall in a gentle wave or a relaxed curl.
Temperament: Labradoodle’s are highly social creature, affectionate and loyal by nature, friendly, non-aggressive, loveable, happy, relatively good watchdogs, and very tuned in to its human companions. It also tends to get along well with other canine companions, being less territorial than some breeds.
Like most Labrador Retrievers and Poodles, Labradoodles are generally friendly, energetic and good with families and children (although as with any dog the temperament may vary between individuals). Labradoodles also often display an affinity for water and the strong swimming ability present in both their parent breeds. Below is a fun video of Benny Bix, Australian Labradoodle and spokesdog for pawfun enjoying a game of fetch in the lake.
Doodle training has also proven to be a success. These dogs easily learn what is required of them for daily family life. Plus, they have also made their mark in the service dog arena becoming guide dogs for the blind and terrific therapy dogs.
A fairly large and athletic dog, the Labradoodle requires a moderate amount of exercise. While he is well-suited to either country or city living, be forewarned that this hybrid is happiest if he gets frequent lengthy walks or trips down to the dog park, particularly if he is a younger dog. In addition to his need for physical exercise, the Labradoodle also needs mental stimulation and social interaction - not a dog that tolerates being tied up and left to his own devices, the Labradoodle likes to do whatever his human is doing and his boredom and lack of exercise can result in vices, such as chewing or excessive barking.
Health: The Life expectancy for an Labradoodle is about 13-15 years. Since Labradoodles are a mixed breed or some might say hybrids. They are susceptible to health problems common to their parent breeds the Labrador and poodle. Your dog’s breeder should provide you with proof that such problems are not present in your Labradoodle’s family line.
Labradors are susceptible to hip dysplasia and other joint problems, eye problems such as progressive retinal atrophy, cataracts and retinal dysplasia.
Poodles, also generally very healthy, have been diagnosed with genetic disorders such as hip dysplasia, patellar luxations, progressive retinal atrophy, cataracts and seizures, among others.
Over the past couple of years, a number of Australian Labradoodles have also been found to suffer from Progressive retinal atrophy (PRA), an inherited disease that causes blindness, which occurs in both Miniature Poodles and Cocker Spaniels.
Sir Donald Campbell, who broke land speed records in the 1950s in Bluebird, was one of the first Labradoodle owners.
Golfer Tiger Woods has two Labradoodles named Yogi and Riley.
U.S Vice President Joe Biden owns a Labradoodle named Brother
Singer/songwriter Neil Young has a Labradoodle named Carl.
Actress Jennifer Aniston owns a Labradoodle, bought for her by former husband, Brad Pitt. | <urn:uuid:aca6cc46-fb5a-453a-a061-7c077e0a0426> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bestbullysticks.com/blog/category/spotlight-on-a-breed/page/29/?rid=blog | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957192 | 962 | 1.921875 | 2 |
How can Jesus say that God is "not the God of the dead" and Paul say that Jesus is "Lord of the dead?"
Almost any impersonal act can be brought to life and made precious and personal by an act of dedicating it to someone.
One aim of preaching is to build a people who think biblically.
If you want Christ to be with you, you must depend on him.
No church can remain fruitless if it soaks the seed of the Word in fervent, hungry prayer week after week.
John Piper narrates his start-of-the-day fight for faith.
We are unendingly restless until we take up Christ's yoke and learn from him.
Lotteries feed bad desires and lead to bad stewardship.
Being filled with the Spirit is parallel to getting drunk with wine.
Pastor John weighs the impact of the Metrodome opening near the church.
A commander's patient restraint complements his raw power to bring him more glory.
Is God behind the hardening of a person's heart?
Three suggestions for how to persevere and profit in prayer.
To be ruled by the Spirit is to be ruled by the love that the Father has for Jesus.
It is God who works in us to will our prayers, but we always experience it as our own resolve and decision.
Our love for one another should make us eager to help one another get to God.
We ought to seek to win people to Christ by giving valid reasons for the Bible’s claims about him.
Six essential truths about the gospel and the Scriptures that teach them.
Pastor John seeks feeback about the church newsletter and prayer for his upcoming trip to Cameroon.
A brief sketch on the life of Ralph Winter and his work with world missions.
Pastor John meditates and prays about his oldest son and their future.
If we cherish our citizenship in heaven above all earthly allegiances, we may be able to invite non-Americans to join us there.
In that terrible moment when we see ourselves standing guilty before the Almighty, nothing shines forth but the gospel of Jesus Christ.
You help your church grow when you enjoy the Lord on Sunday.
If any good discovery is made in ministry we should consider how to multiply its effects in other churches.
Emergency food aid is a stop-gap measure, not a solution to world hunger. But we should give it anyway.
Choose your heroes with extraordinary care, for greatness in the eyes of God is very different than greatness in the eyes of men.
Pastor John shares some thoughts about his first five years at Bethlehem before he goes on summer vacation.
Pastor John explains why he senses an unusual affection for the staff of Bethlehem.
We can be silent before majesty either because of its beauty or because of our blindness.
When you come to the cross you are given a glorious and satisfying quest: the quest for good deeds.
We need to know each other's battles so that we can fight for each other.
A summary of the perceived future of Bethlehem Baptist Church.
Consider the mystery that the entire universe and all the events in it serve to glorify Jesus Christ.
Too many people in the world steer clear of wheelchairs. Let it not be so with Christ's people.
The Power of Words and the Wonder of God, September 26-28
Two summer seminars for adults to grow in their understanding of Scripture and American society.
No ill befalls the saints except what God’s love permits, and even those "ills" won't conquer them.
The Bible, for Calvin, was above all a witness of God to the majesty of God. This led inevitably to what is the heart of Calvinism.
Is God completely truthful if he ordains lies?
The rising tide of prayer precedes the flood of God’s Spirit.
Small groups are essential to evangelism and nurture and leadership-building. You should consider leading one.
If your life is not deep in Christ alone, death will be a terrible thing.
Paul was willing to suffer in his service of the gospel. So should we.
There are quality things around your house that can be converted into capital for the cause of Christ.
Baptists owe a lot to Zwingli when it comes to our doctrine of the Lord’s Supper.
We can go above and beyond in giving to missions because we know Christ will take care of us.
Until Christ returns, worship, education, counseling, fellowship, money, marriage, leisure, family, and vocation all have a war-time emphasis.
If we are confident of greater and better things, we will have the freedom to live radically for Jesus.
A mind is not wasted when it is fully applied to the greatest challenge in the world.
The six remaining years of the 1980's are filled with exciting new potential for Bethlehem.
Can the church have any integrity unless the summons of Christ moves us to stratgize and sacrifice with dedication and joy?
If worship were optional Paul and Silas would not have been singing with bloody backs in the Philippian dungeon at midnight.
Eleven virtues of the Word of God, and seven ways to respond to it.
Results from a congregational survey concerning spiritual gifts.
The inspiration, preservation and preparation of people for missionary service requires a great movement of prayer. | <urn:uuid:1be280c6-3930-431e-990a-a02569836e53> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/recently-added.html?page=17 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948209 | 1,116 | 1.625 | 2 |
By The Real Food Moms, Jeannette Bessinger, CHHC and Tracee Yablon-Brenner, RD, CHHC, www.realfoodmoms.com
For your child’s body and brain to function at their best, it is important to provide a diet high in amino acids, the building blocks of protein. But since the body is unable to store excess amino acids it’s smart to split up your child’s protein supply—ideally among the three main meals and two snacks. By feeding meals high in protein throughout the day, you help the neurotransmitters in the brain function better, and stabilize blood glucose levels—preventing hyperglycemia and reactive hypoglycemia—blood sugar “ups” and “downs” that can affect some children’s ability to focus and/or settle down.
One cardinal nutrition rule is to stay away from simple carbohydrates, which break down into glucose and release too quickly into the blood stream. Sugar and high fructose corn syrup are a few examples of simple carbohydrates to avoid. Children are affected differently by sugar, however many studies suggest that sugar negatively affects behavior, impacting aggression, attention, hyperactivity, mood and proper mental function. It is best to replace sugary drinks and snacks with healthy high protein snacks like veggies with hummus or nut or sunflower butter; smoothies with whey or rice protein or nut butter; nuts, seeds, sliced hard boiled eggs, fresh fruit with nut or sunflower butter, yogurt with granola or with nuts and seeds and a dash of honey. When serving foods with added sugar, it’s best to keep it below 15 grams per 100 grams. Cereals should have 3-5 grams of sugar per serving, max, and it’s best to include protein with breakfast, e.g., hardboiled eggs or yogurt with nuts and seeds and a dash of honey. Incidentally, organic honey has many beneficial nutrients—in addition to being a taste treat!
Another essential is to remove synthetic food additives from your child’s diet. For a food additive to be allowed in the diet, it must be certified as “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS), which means it will not have a significant negative effect on health. Unfortunately we don’t know the long-term effects of ingesting chemicals on our nervous, immune, respiratory and endocrine systems. There are 24 synthetic food additives, and we are going to address the four major categories: artificial colors, artificial flavors, artificial preservatives, and artificial sweeteners.
Artificial colors have been embroiled in controversy for some time. A November 2007 study published in The Lancet stated that artificial colors in children’s diets contributed to hyperactive behavior. The UK’s Food Safety Agency released this statement on July 20, 2010: “An EU-wide health warning must now be put on any food or drink that still contains the colours that are thought to cause hyperactivity in some children. This is following the Southampton Study, commissioned by the Agency, which suggested a possible link between consumption of six food colours and hyperactivity in children. The colours are Tartrazine (E102), Quinoline Yellow (E104), Sunset Yellow (E110), Carmoisine (E122), Ponceau 4R (E124) and Allura Red (E129).” There had been a voluntary ban on food coloring in foods in the UK. In the United States, Blue No.1, Blue No. 2, Green No.3, Red No. 40, Red No. 3, Yellow No. 5 and Yellow No. 6 are still permitted in our foods and medicines. Some of these chemicals trigger histamine release and create allergic reactions like hives (uticaria). In the September 2010 issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry, Stevenson, et al., found strong evidence that histamine release affects hyperactivity levels in animal models and also influences frontal cortex dopamine release. In this study, there was improved behavior when artificial color was removed from the diet. The research underscores the importance of avoiding food and medicine with artificial colors. Moreover, most artificial colors are made of a mixture of coal tar. The International Agency for Research on Cancer says that products with 5% crude coal tar are considered a Group 1 carcinogen. How’s that for a reason to remove artificial color from your child’s diet?
Artificial flavors are also a concern, especially (MSG) monosodium glutamate, an amino acid from glutamic acid. MSG is used in commercial cooking to enhance the flavors of many common processed foods including canned soups, frozen dinners, seasoning mixtures, and fast foods. Many fermented products have naturally occurring glutamate, like Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce and steak sauces. Glutamate is also in many other additives like soy extracts, protein isolate, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, hydrolyzed soy protein, hydrolyzed yeast, and autolyzed yeast. MSG is not always easy to identify on a label. Be on the lookout for words like “spices” and “natural flavorings” on a food label, which means it might contain MSG. Two food additives, “disodium guanylate” and “disodium inosinate” are only used with MSG, so if they’re on the label, there’s a high likelihood that MSG is in that product.
Glutamic acid, which MSG is made from, is classified as an excitotoxin. However, it is considered to be GRAS by the FDA. Many people are affected by MSG, and children who have special needs are especially vulnerable since they might not be able to communicate their discomfort, which may manifest as a headache or nausea. Removing artificial flavors from your child’s diet is the safe way to go, and could help to reduce behavioral problems.
Artificial preservatives, such as butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) and butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) are being investigated for provoking chemical sensitivities. These preservatives have been associated with causing broncho spasm, rhinitis and more particularly in triggering hives (uticaria). Many studies on mice have shown that these preservatives cause learning deficits, difficult sleeping, developmental delays, aggression, decreased orientation reflex. Key reasons in removing artificial preservatives from the diet because that could also relieve behavioral symptoms such as aggression, hyperactivity, developmental delays.
Artificial sweeteners are much sweeter than table sugar, “sucrose,” and can interrupt neurotransmitter balance, which could make behavioral symptoms worse.
The following sweeteners have been tested for their safety through the Center for Science in the public interest. Aspartame which goes by Nutra-sweet, Natra-taste and Equal, is one that people who have Phenylketonuria (PKU) have to avoid because they can’t break down phenylalanine which can accumulate to toxic levels. Sorbitol, xylitol, mannitol, maltitol, lactitol, isomalt, erythritol, and hydrogenated starch hydrolysates are sugar alcohols that can cause stomach discomfort and diarrhea. Acessulfame known as Sunnet, Sweet One, and acessulfame potassium, should have more testing and should be avoided because rat studies found that it caused tumors, mostly benign but some malignant. Saccharin, which is Sweet n Low, may cause cancer. Stevia can’t be metabolized in our bodies which is why it has zero calories. More testing should be done on its safety. Sucralose, which is Splenda, is actually sugar chemically combined with chlorine…Buyer beware! Tagatose, a very new type of sugar made from milk sugar lactose, can cause digestive issues such as gas, bloating and nausea because it’s not well absorbed. It can be found in Diet Pepsi, Slurpees from 7-11, etc.
These are a few examples of why package label reading is essential in today’s world. Many of the sugar substitutes mentioned are found in gum, yogurts, baked goods, and drinks, including iced tea, soda and juices. It is safest to use natural forms of sweeteners. Some of the best include organic honey and turbinado sugar, which is raw sugar crystals formed by spinning the sugar in a centrifuge. The juice released is crystallized to keep the rich molasses color and flavor, and it’s less processed than conventional table sugar. Sucanat is the trademark name for the turbinado process.
Trans-fat is the end result of hydrogenation, the process in which hydrogen is added to liquid vegetable oil. Partially hydrogenated fats contain Trans-fat, and are less expensive and have a longer shelf life than standard fats. Trans-fats interfere with an enzyme called delta 6 desaturase, which is important in converting essential fatty acids Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids to the active form (ARA) arachidonic acid, (EPA) eicosapentaenoic acid, and (DHA) docosahexaenoic acid used by the brain. It is important to avoid Trans-fat and partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. A deficiency of 6 desaturase causes a deficiency of ARA, EPA and DHA, which are important for brain development, brain functioning, brain signaling and proper vision processing. Research has shown that children who have Autism, ADD, ADHD, dyslexia, and dyspraxia may have low levels of 6 desaturase so when they eat foods containing Trans-fat or partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, it can make these conditions worse (1). To increase the activity of the desaturase enzymes, it is important that the diet includes an adequate amount of vitamin B3, vitamin B6, vitamin C, magnesium and zinc which are available by eating local organic fruit, vegetables, whole grains, organic yogurt, and meat, nuts and seeds (2).
Including foods rich in Omega-3 fatty acids cannot be overemphasized. Some basic sources are wild Alaskan salmon, seaweed, eggs from hens fed a diet high in Omega-3’s, flaxseeds, pumpkin seeds, walnuts and algae. Caveat: To ensure food supplements are free of mercury, use either an algae-based or fish oil Omega-3 fatty acid supplement, which is third party-certified and molecularly distilled.
By purchasing organic-labeled products, you’re guaranteed that the foods you’re feeding your family are free of artificial color, flavor, preservatives, trans-fat and pesticides. Not all products have the USDA organic seal because certification is voluntary and expensive. So it’s important to read the labels carefully to know what you’re really buying. To have the USDA seal means a product is comprised of 95 percent organic ingredients. Foods that have at least 70 percent organic ingredients can use the phrase “made with organic ingredients” and list up to 3 ingredients. If the product has less than 70 percent organic ingredients the name of the organic ingredients can be included on the food label.
To get back to basics, incorporate the Real Food Moms three P’s: Plan, Purchase and Prepare real food! This takes a little organization, but you are ensuring delicious, unprocessed food for you and your family. You should definitely see some behavior and long-term health benefits for the entire family.
Get more from the Real Food Moms at their blog!
Stordy, B. Jacqueline. Dark adaptation, motor skills, docosahexaenoic acid, and dyslexia. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 71 (suppl), January 2000, pp. 323S-26S
Osmundsen H, Clouet P. Metabolic effects of omega-3 fatty acids. Biofactors 2000;13(1-4):5-8 2000. PMID:15800.
Republished from January 2011 | <urn:uuid:a2a807bc-6ad5-4d55-a7b1-a7c17c20b94a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://supportforspecialneeds.com/tag/brain-development/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935873 | 2,517 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Dueling Healthcare Proposals Submitted to Super Committee
House Democrats on the Energy and Commerce Committee, which includes healthcare, think it would be premature for the committee to eliminate the ACA. They don’t assign dollar amounts to the bill, but they do tug at the heart strings, noting that “many of the proposals to reduce spending would undermine programs essential to the health and financial security of lower-income and middle-class families.”
Republicans want the eligibility age addressed. They note that in 1965, average life expectancy was 70 years and there were five workers paying the benefits for each retiree. Today life expectancy is 79 years, Medicare spending has increased 13-fold, and only three workers pay the benefits for each retiree. Republicans want more cost-sharing, especially for high-income seniors.
Democrats contend that raising the Medicare eligibility age will lead to higher overall health spending. They see the prescription drugs and uncoordinated care as cost drivers for Medicare and have asked the super committee to focus on those areas. They also want the government to reinstitute the rebate that drug manufacturers used to pay in return for the large volume of patients they access through Medicare. They note that cost-sharing does nothing to control healthcare costs.
For Republicans, Medicaid is a significant cost driver that currently consumes 22% of state budgets. They want the super committee to revamp Medicaid by giving states more leeway to change the benefits offered and the program’s financing. Democrats want no part of blended rates or anything that threatens the federal dollars that flow to the states in support of Medicaid.
- CMS Seeks to 'Rapidly Reduce' Medicare Spending with $1B in Grants
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- Case Study: Advance Care Conversations
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- Tavenner Confirmed as CMS Administrator
- CMS Releases Hospital Pricing Data
- Hospital Pricing Data Dump Won't Hurt You, Yet
- Evidence-Based Practice and Nursing Research: Avoiding Confusion | <urn:uuid:b780fbc7-3f94-4cf7-8e93-73412c46be0e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/page-2/HEP-272287/Dueling-Healthcare-Proposals-Submitted-to-Super-Committee | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950752 | 438 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Bonnie and Clyde: The Ford V8 in which outlaws Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker went on their killing spree in Depression-era America so captivated Barrow that he wrote to Henry Ford praising the car’s performance. However it failed to prevent the pair being ambushed and gunned down in Texas on May 23 1934.
What anti-social motoring behaviour do you most hate?
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- Queue jumping
- Mobile phone use
- Middle lane hogging
- Forgetting to indicate
- Flashing headlights | <urn:uuid:1f818f29-ca00-4b6d-bfd1-6c61b597d230> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cars.uk.msn.com/best-of/photos.aspx?cp-documentid=147884400&page=17 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918289 | 129 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Virgin Atlantic lets passengers make calls from the sky
The airline has announced that it will become the first British airline to provide passengers the capability to make and receive phone calls during flights. Passengers also will be able to send and receive text messages, emails and have web access via GPRS.
The new service will be available in all cabins of the airline's new Airbus A330-300 aircraft and refitted Boeing 747s.
It will target business travelers and be limited to just six users at a time.
"The service is intended for use in exceptional situations, when passengers need to send an SMS, make a quick call, or access an e-mail on a Blackberry," the airline said in a written statement.
By the end of 2012, the system will be available on nearly 20 Virgin Atlantic aircraft.
There will be some restrictions, however: Passengers can't use the service during take-off or landing or within about 250 miles from U.S. airspace.
For now, AeroMobile is available to customers with O2 and Vodafone network providers.
When in flight, international roaming costs will apply. Those will be set by the mobile provider.
Some industry analysts said having mobile service in-flight could worsen the cabin experience.
"At the very least, the airline will have to restrict times of day when passengers will be able to scream into their phones 'Can you hear me now?' at 40,000 feet, in order to not wake up fellow passengers on overnight flights," says George Hobica, president of AirfareWatchdog.com. "But you know what will happen--no one will listen. There will be screaming matches, glares, and probably fisticuffs."
Virgin Atlantic's chief operating officer Steve Griffiths told the U.K. Daily Mail: "We have listened to what customers want and connectivity in the air is always on the wish list."
USA TODAY is now using Facebook Comments on our stories and blog posts to provide an enhanced user experience. To post a comment, log into Facebook and then "Add" your comment. To report spam or abuse, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box. To find out more, read the FAQ and Conversation Guidelines. | <urn:uuid:0199ac63-68b0-4c8b-bb18-d92759028654> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://travel.usatoday.com/flights/post/2012/05/virgin-atlantic-lets-passengers-make-calls-from-the-sky/694128/1?csp=34travel | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931986 | 462 | 1.890625 | 2 |
Dating back to (circa) 1868, about 9,000 acres of land stretching north along the Pacific Ocean, and east along the Salinas River, was owned by the late David Jacks and James Bardin.
The land block breakup began in 1885, when the Bardin heirs sold 1,372 ½ acres to John Armstrong for farmland and grazing. About a year later, 1,450 acres were sold, then named the Sand Hill Ranch. Four hundred acres near the ocean were sold to the San Francisco Sand Company, which subsequently constructed a sand plant in 1906. Thus, a third of the large block of land had been parceled out.
In 1913, a land map designated the general area “Bardin”, but this designation was short-lived. Within two years, the area was known as “Locke-Paddon Colonies”, then “Paddonville”.
To find out how Marina developed and grew, read the full City of Marina History | <urn:uuid:bde91d47-97ce-498d-b567-1cd12fc68b20> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ci.marina.ca.us/index.aspx?NID=382 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975701 | 209 | 2.90625 | 3 |
rendered the wearer invisible. Gyges, the Lydian, is the person to whom Candaules showed his wife naked. According to Plato, Gyges descended into a chasm of the earth, where he found a brazen horse; opening the sides of the animal, he found the carcase of a man, from whose finger he drew off a brazen ring which rendered him invisible, and by means of this ring he entered into the king's chamber and murdered him.
“Why, did you think that you had Gyges ring. Or the herb that gives invisibility [fern-seed]?” Beaumont and Fletcher: Fair Maid of the Inn, i. 1.
Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894 | <urn:uuid:e70da0f3-a1eb-4dcb-b6b9-1b5dfe0381cc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.factmonster.com/dictionary/brewers/gyges-ring.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966226 | 161 | 2.8125 | 3 |
As a saxophone, piano and clarinet player, Ken Silver is a world-class musician; he has played for former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Vice President Al Gore and several times for President Bill Clinton, including a recent stint at a Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia event.
He is also a dedicated educator, serving as the principal of New Hope Solebury Lower Elementary School in Bucks County for the last eight years.
Dual careers -- and callings? Silver is part of a legion of professionals making book on multiple talents. Clocking in, clocking out is not their standard, going way beyond the 9-to-5 work day.
Often, the talents complement each other, coming from different perspectives but rounding out the person.
Silver's two greatest passions, besides his family, are music and education -- and he does them both well, says Howard Paull, a drummer who has worked with Silver.
Now a resident of Warrington, Silver, 62, studied music at Temple University, majoring in clarinet in the late 1960s. He went on to teach in the Abington School District while building his music career at night, finding the two callings "compatible."
After earning his graduate degree in education leadership, Silver became a principal in the Centennial School District at the age of 25.
A young principal by day, a musician at night, Silver said that his orchestra's bookings grew throughout the 1970s. His band played at countless social functions, corporate and charitable events. In 1980, Silver made a difficult choice and left education to pursue music full-time.
As an owner in the Entertainment Group, Silver partnered with Eddie Bruce and Joey Roberts to run large-scale events throughout the Philadelphia area. The Ken Silver Orchestra also traveled the country, playing up to 150 appearances per year.
Yet something was missing, according to the musician: All the events "began to lose meaning."
In 1999, almost 20 years after leaving education, Silver returned -- first teaching education courses at LaSalle University, and eventually making his way back to the public-school system, where he felt that he could make the most difference.
Stephen Young, principal of New Hope Solebury High School since 1994, says he believes that Silver's career in music has helped him in his role as an educator. In many ways, says Young, Silver is "always on stage" while at school: "His experience as a performer makes him comfortable with himself and, therefore, comfortable with students, faculty and staff."
It works both ways. Being passionate about education apparently furthers Silver's passion for music. He says that he is energized by his students, and carries that energy with him to all of his performances.
Paull has collaborated on drums, vocals and musical direction with Silver since 1968. And Paull is no stranger himself to having two positions: He maintains a second career in sales and marketing, and knows of other musicians also in the field of education -- but no one, he says, who "has taken it to the level that Ken has."
That level has presented Silver with opportunities he never imagined -- chatting with Al Gore in the back room of Har Zion Temple and watching President Bill Clinton tune Silver's saxophone in the "POTUS" waiting room at the Franklin Institute surrounded by Secret Service agents.
These days, Silver finds balance in being selective about his music, focusing on "sophisticated" and "non-amplified" music, often playing for long-time clients. He has moved away from performing the 75-plus Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, which he used to book on a yearly basis.
Now averaging 35 bookings per year, Silver also uses his musical talent to bring performing arts into his school.
Hoping to help "young people to be literate in reading, writing and technology and to develop a wide variety of talents in the performing arts," Silver says that he tries to maximize his students' exposure to multiple opportunities. "Then they can find their passions -- whatever they may be."
Education seems to run in the family. Silver's wife, Judith, is a guidance counselor in the Hatboro Horsham School District. His older son, Matthew, is a law student at Rutgers University/Camden, and his younger son, Jonathan, is still trying to convince his dad to head out West to make it big.
A literary agent in Los Angeles, the young Silver says he believes that his dad would be a huge hit at all of the Hollywood events.
That may be true, but Silver remains loyal to his roots. Notes band member Paull: "You can't walk two blocks in downtown Center City without someone coming over to Ken to say hello." | <urn:uuid:b277b954-3197-416b-99c6-1fa31611097c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jewishexponent.com/print/8443 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982644 | 974 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Chances are if you’re using Ubuntu you’re a 25-35 year old male living in either the USA or Mexico.
At least, those are the findings from the recently-conducted ‘Ubuntu User Survey 2012′.
With a response rate of over 17,000, the survey will help Ubuntu developers better understand their user base.
For example, people in Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries are more interested in buying a pre-loaded Ubuntu device than those in English-speaking countries. Such a stat would be useful to Canonical and/or hardware manufacturers interested in launching Ubuntu-toting hardware.
But what else has the survey revealed?
The ‘average’ age of Ubuntu users is around 25- 35 years old.
And, sticking to the statistics drawn from the survey, are almost certainly male. The number of women who answered the survey was a sub-4% – a figure that looks lower than, in reality, it likely is.
It’s good news for Ubuntu One. Despite the cloud-storage service being in competition with titans like Dropbox, over 40% of Ubuntu users make use of it. Quite how many opt into to a paid plan was not part of the remit.
Age breakdown of responses show that the younger you are the more likely (statistically) you are to use it, too.
From Ubuntu’s line-up of burgeoning multi-device future it was Ubuntu for Android (57.4%) that registered the strongest ‘intention to use’. Ubuntu on tablets a reasonable 49.4%, and Ubuntu TV a sizeable (45.7%).
Sounds good – but is there demand? Only a lowly 0.1% of those filling in the survey had bought Ubuntu pre-installed on a device. That’s a very small slice of users, and one that, on the surface, doesn’t exactly scream ‘money to be made’ at potential manufacturers.
So another question was asked: “how likely are you to buy a new device with Ubuntu on it?”. The results this time are encouraging: -
The question of ‘What Other Operating Systems Do You Use?’ threw up a stat I wasn’t expecting (although i’ve never really thought about it): 75% of Ubuntu users also use Windows.
Before the results I genuinely wouldn’t have expected the stat to be that high – I mean, it’s rare to hear a good word said about Windows in the Linux community – but, in reality, the more I think about it the more reasonable it sounds: people use Windows at work, on other devices, for gaming, family PC, etc.
That, and the majority of Ubuntu’s users don’t care about the mythical and philosophical arguments surrounding Linux Vs. Microsoft.
But there is still bully for the Linux-obsessed: over 50% of ‘buntu users also use Android, compared to a pale 13.5% who use Apple’s iOS – a positive sign for Canonical’s plan to marry Ubuntu with Android on mobile devices.
Only 4.2% of respondents said they use no other OS listed in the question. | <urn:uuid:324c5625-14e3-45c3-9ff1-6513797c8807> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/?p=54707 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938723 | 673 | 2.15625 | 2 |
In 1935 a simple demonstration in the Midlands of the reflection of radio waves from an overflying aircraft led to the development of a war-winning device - radar. This volume tells the story of a team of mainly young scientists and engineers who played a vital part in enabling Britain to outwit the onslaught of the Nazi bombers during World War II. It reveals how they fought the radar war-within-a-war, providing solutions to each new threat posed by the enemy. They were civilians working strictly under the Official Secrets Act for the whole of their wartime service. But ordinary civilians they were not; nor was the team they made up anything other than extraordinary in its combined brain power, its continual need for improvisation and its outright dedication to the changing needs of the services at home and overseas. This team was known successively by a number of titles until in November 1940 it acquired and retained the name by which it was best known throughout the war: TRE - the Telecommunications Research Establishment. | <urn:uuid:97b21530-08a3-4dfa-8020-caf62ab378bf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pioneers-Radar-Sir-Bernard-Lovell/dp/075092120X | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981091 | 196 | 2.96875 | 3 |
is the founder and musical leader of the Lil Rascals Brass Band. Corey hails from a well-known and respected New Orleans Jazz family. His Grandfather, drummer Chester Jones, played with many New Orleans greats . His Uncle, Benny Jones, also plays drums and leads the Treme Brass Band. Corey was influenced by New Orleans trombonist, Jim Robinson, Wendell Eugene, and
Freddie Lonzo. When Corey is not appearing with the Lil Rascals, he can be heard with
Kermit Ruffins and the Barbeque Swingers.
GREGORY VEALS - Trombone
as a child, Gregory was always excited to see the large school bands which paraded through his neighborhood during Mardi Gras. He began his musical career in high school when he made the John McDonogh Trojans Marching Band under the leadership of then Band Master Dewayne "Lil Doc" Pauline, whose father, Ernest "Doc" Pauline helped launch the careers of many fine New Orleans musicians among them Donald Harrison and Dr. Michael White. Gregory has a powerful tone and a sweet approach that makes him naturally New Orleans.
WILLIAM SMITH - Trumpet
was introduced at an early age to New Orleans jazz by his older sister, long time Jazz
Fest staff member, Dodie Smith-Simmons and brother in law, trumpeter, John "Kid"
Simmons who would take him nightly to the world famous preservation hall, where
Dodie was also employed. Inspired by the likes of Percy Humphery, Ernie Cagnoletti,
Kid Thomas Valentine, DeDe Pierce, and others, he developed a love for the trumpet. In
1975, William joined the Fairview Baptist Church Brass Band, founded by legendary
jazzman and author, Danny Barker. This band made yearly appearances and the Jazz and
Heritage Festival. Later, he organized his own band, the Jass Cats. William has played
and toured with the following brass bands “Doc” Pauline, Dejan's Olympia, Chosen
Few, Treme, Tornado, and the Pinstripe. As a member of the Lil Rascals Brass Band,
William has worked hard to maintain a connection to the roots of brass band music.
DEWON "Itchy" SCOTT - Trumpet & Drums
began playing in his Elementary School Kazoo band. Later in junior high school, he began studying the drums and played in the school's concert band which won superlative honors at the L.M.E.A.(Louisiana Music Educators Association) Festival. By High School, Dewon became interested in the trumpet. He is a valued member of the Rascals Band. He also plays with the New Birth and Treme Brass Bands. He also plays drums at Church.
JAMES DURANTE - Tenor Sax
was born in Memphis, Tn where he spent his early years hanging around the Music Clubs along historic Beal Street. There he was befriended by the musicians who gave him his first horn and lessons. When he was 20 years old, he left Memphis and headed for New Orleans. James' robust sounding horn and warm personality won the hearts of the Lil Rascals. When he is not playing with the Rascals, he can be heard with Buckwheat Zydeco.
TERRENCE and ELDRIDGE ANDREWS - Bass and Snare Drum
respectfully, are first cousins and are also from a musically rich family tree. Cousin James Andrews, leads his own New Orleans band, cousin Glenn Andrews, plays with the Rebirth Brass Band. Revert Andrews, Eldridge's brother, plays trombone with the Dirty Dozen. Their Great Uncle Jessie "Ooh Pooh Pah Do" Hill is a New Orleans legend and their cousin, the late great Louis Nelson, was one of the city's finest trombonist. Terrence and Eldridge got their musical start as young children when their Grandmother would take them to the French Quarter, she would also let them follow Tuba Fats and his Chosen Few.
JEFFREY HILLS - TUBA
a member of the Rascals Band, started learning music in a school concert band, led by Dr. Herman Jones. Young Jeff floats across the traditional jazz scenes in New Orleans, while taking the sousaphone to another level. While touring Europe, young Hills started grasping different sounds and styles of music. At the ripe age of 21, Jeffrey plays every Sunday night at the world renownnd Preservation Hall, where he performs with the Dejan's Olympia Brass Band. While in New Orleans, Jeffrey performs with several Brass Bands. The Lil Rascals Brass Band, The Jass Cats, and of course, Dejans Olympia. Jeffrey is absolutely the most energetic Sousophonist to hit the New Orleans scene since Anthony "Tuba Fats" Lacen, the Grandfather of the New Orleans traditional jazz tuba. | <urn:uuid:f2e3f1e6-ae1a-4f82-9421-69313d58d39d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.angelfire.com/la/LilRascals/RASCALSBIO.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972813 | 1,048 | 1.6875 | 2 |
A diverse network of community organizations shaped the fabric of life in Corinth during the years that George Holland was editor of the EMBA News. Each organization carried out its specialized mission and at the same time provided its members with a context for social discourse with other people who shared similar interests.
Holland’s photographs capture a community with numerous service-focused organizations. Organizations with service missions included the Corinth Emergency Squad, the Ladies Auxiliary of the Emergency Squad, the Hospital Auxiliary, the Corinth Fire Department, and the Ladies Auxiliary of the Corinth Fire Department. While some citizens joined civic groups with commercial interests, like the Corinth Rotary Club or the Corinth Grange, these groups also included community service as part of their missions.
These organizations provided both a sense of belonging and reinforced cultural norms and values, suggesting that Corinth possessed a healthy social network in these years. Membership in civic organizations enhanced an individual’s “social capital,” the personal resources that are gained from social connections and being part of a social network. Those who belonged had opportunities to gain useful information about Village and Town affairs, the operation of the school system, or county services available for children, the elderly, and families. Such information, which is often not available to an entire community, is typically shared informally through contacts with individuals in community clubs and activities. These organizations also provided a context where Hudson River Mill employees who worked in different parts of the paper mill, or worked on different shifts, might meet and exchange news about plant operations and personnel.
Men’s fraternal organizations, such as Corinth Lodge No. 987 of the Free and Accepted Masons and Corinth Lodge No, 174 of the International Order of Odd Fellows, could trace their origins to the 19th century. Hudson River Rebekah Lodge No. 61, whose origins also dated to the 19th century, provided Corinth women with the opportunity to join an organization whose purpose was to visit and care for the sick in the community, and to administer to the needs of families of I.O.O.F. members. The members of Corinth’s lodges enjoyed fraternity with each other while working to provide aid and financial assistance to the local community and throughout the region.
The Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts and Brownies were children’s organizations that offered instructional development and community service projects for young people. Corinth children had the opportunity to become involved in a short-term civics project each October by collecting money for UNICEF in specially designed orange milk cartons during their Halloween night rounds. They would return their coin-filled milk cartons to the Elementary School Cafeteria and then enjoy holiday treats with other kids from throughout the community.
The Holland photographs suggest that Corinth adults and children were socialized to both local and national cultural norms and values through participation in these organizations. Many of the clubs reinforced the value of service that was consistent with the political messages of the era that emphasized the responsibilities of citizens to others, and to the country as whole. Many of Corinth’s organizations also had roots in Christianity, and so their missions tended to reflect Christian principles.
Other groups socialized participants into cultural norms for gender. For example, the Girl Scouts taught domestic tasks and rewarded the knowledge of skills deemed culturally appropriate for females in the era, such as cooking, sewing, and domesticity. For adult women, the mission of Rebekah’s reinforced the role of women as caregivers, and women who belonged to the Fire Department and Emergency Squad auxiliaries provided a supporting role to the men directly engaged in rescue work. The service that Corinth women offered in these community’s organizations was a reflection of American gender roles in that era.
Shared interests and the desire for fraternity motivated people to join civic groups, yet community organizations during this period were often based on culturally prescribed notions of “interests.” The formal and informal barriers to membership and participation in civic organizations, based on categories such as gender that are evident in these photographs, reflected the social norms that were common in the larger culture at the time. | <urn:uuid:9485025f-466e-4e5b-bce6-ff46199c3759> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://corinthsocialhistoryproject.org/html/civicslessons.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969746 | 835 | 2.5 | 2 |
I returned home from my first day at Primary in shock. My only hope came from the disturbed looks I saw on some of the other teachers’ faces who had had a similar experience. Maybe all the students had a hard time settling down after vacation. I returned home the second week in total depression. Not once had I felt in control of my class. My homemade visual aids had not survived the rough handling; the boys had stood on chairs and tried to climb through the window; the girls had quarreled among themselves and with the boys.
My first impulse was to quit—no person could take eleven months of facing those eight-year-olds. But I had too much pride to give in. I had taught all my adult life—Sunday School, Relief Society, MIA, Seminary, college English—and I had never had a teaching failure. When my bishop asked me to take this assignment, he had said, “I feel that this work in Primary will open up new avenues of growth and development for you.” Well, it had done more than that! It was the most humbling, frustrating assignment I had ever had.
I slept little that night, and was irritable with my children the next day. I finally told my worries to my husband. He listened sympathetically and offered a very practical solution: that I should notify the parents about the behavior problem and send report cards home with the students each week. At first I didn’t want to do it because of pride. I didn’t mind the school class atmosphere as much as I did admitting my failure to others. I was desperate though; but as I made copies of some “class behavior” cards and tactfully talked to each mother, I realized that this would not be enough.
The unusualness of the reporting system did diminish in about a month, but during this “be quiet or else” period I had a chance to present my lessons, bear my testimony, plan a class party, and organize a service project for a widow. One of the previously noisy boys in the class told his neighbor: “Quit bothering me. Mother gives me a treat if I bring home a good report card.”
The weeks continued, some better than others, but none as disastrous as the first two. I found that constant variety—games, contests, films, and puppet stories in class, visits out of class, and frequent personal letters mailed to the students’ homes—all helped. By mid-year they had learned to respect me; and more important, I had learned to love them.
Then something happened to make me think again about the whole situation. I was giving a lot of time each week to my Primary assignment, but I gave much more to my own three preschoolers. They, too, were a trial, a joy, and a challenge. It seemed so good to have Sarah, our shy, bright, keen four-and-a-half-year-old finally enjoying a preschool nursery: (Nursery class held in the United States three or more times a week for children 4 years of age—prior to kindergarten which they begin at 5 years of age, and 1st grade at the age of 6.) How grateful I was to Sarah’s teacher, who had given her the extra love and attention she had needed to put her at ease. I was looking forward to the time when Clark, our rambunctious, two-and-a-half-year-old, could go to his own Sunday School class (this was pre-consolidation) and just leave me with Rachel, our year-old babbler, on Sunday mornings.
It thrilled me one Sunday when my husband came home from priesthood meeting and described the enthusiasm of our newly assigned home teachers. Brother Bowen had already asked him when they should come, what challenges our family needed, and what lessons we wanted presented to the children. You can tell he’s been a bishop, I thought. He really knows what home teaching is all about.
I tried to prepare the children, having them memorize the name of Brother Bowen, who had just moved into our ward, and explaining that he was a special friend who would come to our home to help us and teach us the things we needed to know to be good Church members.
But as it usually happens the children got a virus disease that next week. Sarah was not really sick, but she was very tired and irritable. She fell asleep on a soft chair right after dinner and when the doorbell rang, she ran with her brother to the door, still not fully awake. When Sarah faced Brother Bowen and his companion, total strangers to her, she ran sobbing from the room. Her father hurried to comfort her, leaving me and the two youngest to greet the astonished visitors.
“She was in a sound sleep when you rang,” I explained, embarrassed. “She hasn’t been well. Really, this is not very typical behavior.” Our new home teachers were kind and understanding that night, but I had so eagerly looked forward to this visit that I felt really disappointed.
I said nothing about it to Sarah until the Sunday before the next scheduled visit, when I pointed out that our home teacher was giving the opening prayer and that he’d visit us again. Thursday arrived and the doorbell rang at precisely seven. This time Clark and Rachel ran to the door; Sarah stayed behind in the kitchen.
“Jim, invite them in,” I whispered to my husband. “I’ll see if I can talk Sarah into coming.”
“Here, Sarah,” I said. “Why don’t you go show Brother Bowen and Pat the kite that you made in nursery school today?” I handed her the colorful triangle from the bulletin board.
“No, I don’t want to,” she said, setting it down. I’ll just stay here and color.”
“Please, come in with the family. You can sit on my lap.”
“No, I don’t want to.”
“Come with me,” I insisted, gently but firmly picking her up and carrying her into the living room where the others were already seated.
“Hi, Sarah, how are you tonight?” Brother Bowen greeted her warmly, extending his hand. She turned her head and buried it in my shoulder. “I have a special lesson for you and Clark tonight,” Brother Bowen continued cheerfully, sitting on the floor. “Come sit down by me and tell me what this is a picture of.”
“Curious, Sarah peeked out at the large picture of children sitting reverently that he pulled from a pile. I quickly slid to the floor, still holding her on my lap.
“Boy and girl,” spoke up Clark.
“That’s right, young man,” said Brother Bowen in delight. “And what are they doing?”
They’re standing on their heads,” answered Sarah mischievously.
“Folding arms,” answered Clark, folding his own.
“Great,” praised Brother Bowen. “And why are they being quiet? Whose house are they in?”
“In Santa Claus,” said Sarah, and I blushed at her deliberate wrong answers. She’s acting just like my Primary boys, I thought, deliberately giving all the wrong answers.
At the end of the lesson on reverence and the family prayer, Brother Bowen pulled a candy bar decorated with ribbons out of his pocket. “Here, Sarah. I brought you a little treat to share with your brother and sister.”
I saw the look of longing in Sarah’s eyes but she shook her head. “Give it to Clark,” she answered feeling delight in her defiance even though she wanted it.
“Thank you,” spoke up Clark, reaching out his hand.
“He’s really smart, isn’t he?” Brother Bowen commented to me.
“Yes, they all are,” I defensively replied. As the home teachers left and Jim took the children into the kitchen to divide the candy bar, I stood looking at the closed door, tears in my eyes. “Please God, don’t let him give up on her.” I prayed silently. “I know she has acted terribly, but she can be so good, so sweet. Please help him to be patient and loving with her.”
Suddenly those six little Primary faces, so naughty for the first four weeks, appeared in my mind. “Oh my,” I gasped in a sudden understanding of my stewardship. “How many of their mothers must have offered this same prayer just last September?” My determination to be patient and creative with those I teach has not faltered since. | <urn:uuid:b6f82582-ac71-445d-a233-003311adadbb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lds.org/liahona/1981/06/please-bless-my-childs-teacher?lang=eng | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986033 | 1,899 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Obama Order to Look at Reducing Regulatory Burden Moving Forward at DOE
Dec 9, 2011
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President Obama issued an executive order – back in January 2011 – calling for federal agencies to look for ways to reduce the burden of regulations, and the Department of Energy (DOE) this week asked for more input from interested parties on how to do so.
The President issued Executive Order 13563, Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review, on Jan. 18, 2011. EO 13563 specified that regulations should, while following existing law:
• be cost-justified (while recognizing that benefits may difficult to quantify)
• be tailored to impose the least burden (consistent with obtaining the objectives)
• select the regulatory approach that maximize benefits
• when feasible, specify performance objectives rather than specifying the behavior or manner of compliance
• identify and assess alternatives to direct regulation, including providing economic incentives or providing information
Section 1, General Principles of Regulation, paragraph (a) states that: "Our regulatory system must protect public health, welfare, safety, and our environment while promoting economic growth, innovation, competitiveness, and job creation. It must be based on the best available science. It must allow for public participation and an open exchange of ideas. It must promote predictability and reduce uncertainty. It must identify and use the best, most innovative, and least burdensome tools for achieving regulatory ends. It must take into account benefits and costs, both quantitative and qualitative. It must ensure that regulations are accessible, consistent, written in plain language, and easy to understand. It must measure, and seek to improve, the actual results of regulatory requirements."
To satisfy EO 13563 DOE previously asked for informational input from interested parties, then went through the process of developing a procedure by which to handle the review of the regulations. This week, in a notice the Federal Register, DOE asked for comments from interested parties to assist it in reviewing regulations to determine if any should be modified, streamlined, expanded, or repealed.
"The purpose of DOE’s review is to make the agency’s regulatory program more effective and less burdensome in achieving its regulatory objectives."
The Dec. 5, 2011, DOE call for input requests written comments on or before Jan. 4, 2012.
Back to Breaking News | <urn:uuid:1cc3b93f-5b4d-4422-b714-4e1700119e57> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.appliancemagazine.com/news_print.php?article=1540114&zone=0&first=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915686 | 473 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Sanford Levinson makes the case that the celebrated US constitution is actually totally whack. I tend to agree. For a lengthier exposition of Levinson’s views, see Cass Sunstein’s review of his new book which lays out the argument in some detail. Sunstein is pretty dubious, but I find his counterarguments unpersuasive, except on the point that Levinson’s calls for a “do-over” just seem utterly unrealistic.
Let me try, however, to locate a more policy-relevant point here. The United States semi-frequently finds itself in the business of trying to assist other countries in making transitions to democracy. Thanks to our country’s habit of Founder-worship, there’s a tendency to push American-ish political institutions on other nations. Empirical research (see George Tsebelis’ Veto Players for a summary of much of it), however, indicates that US-style proliferation of veto points makes democratic consolidation much more difficult. In the American context, an extremely large number of veto points serves, in essence, to impede progressive social reform, which is unfortunate. In young democracies without entrenched norms, however, it tends to simply encourage people to break the frequent deadlocks through extra-legal means — coups or paralyzing street violence. This has been a particular problem in Latin America where the US influence has been at its highest. | <urn:uuid:a501a6f0-ed8c-4bd4-aa83-337db83869b5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thinkprogress.org/yglesias/2006/10/17/178307/broken_constitution/?mobile=nc | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941334 | 295 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Cayce, SC (WLTX) - A recycling plant fire that lasted almost 48 hours is out, but now the City of Cayce is having to deal with the aftermath.
"We quickly knew that the fire was pretty large and that we needed assistance and we put that call out and the response was absolutely overwhelming," said Mayor Elise Partin.
On Friday, smoke filled the air from the fire at the World Wide Recycling plant in Cayce; now, only dust from a demolished building remains.
"Certainly these kinds of emergencies you take care of them first, peoples safety and that's what we did," said Partin. "We are still working with clean up, we are still working with DHEC, we are happy that there was no air quality issues of concern from DHEC. "
The potentially contaminated water from that fire will end up in the Congaree River. The city is having to borrow water from other cities as a precaution.
"We ask people to restrict their water to necessary uses right now and certainly nothing outside like watering lawns or washing cars until we get out plant back online. "
Dana Panas lives close to the recycling center and says she is concerned about the air quality but more about the water.
"It smelled like plastic really bad but since it rained last night I cant really smell it anymore, but I am just going drink bottled water for the next couple of days or a week or too and give them time to clean it up if there is any contaminated," said Panas.
She says the city handled the fire well.
"I am just happy that the city did take precautions and decided to use other cities water to keep people safe. "
The city hired a company out of Charlotte to handle the cleanup. Cayce Department of Public Safety is still investigating the cause of the fire. | <urn:uuid:449ca13f-d86b-46b4-ae17-5ec7f1523db7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wltx.com/news/article/192669/2/Cayce-Dealing-With-World-Wide-Recycling-Fire-Aftermath- | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978321 | 382 | 1.710938 | 2 |
"My son is a year old. When will he understand the meaning of the word 'no'"?
Q. My son turned 1 recently. While the house is childproofed, there are some things he should not be touching (nightlight, carbon monoxide tester, air filter) that are in electrical sockets he can reach. When he goes to touch these items I shout "no" and if he doesn't stop I remove him from the area and tell him he cannot touch that item (the problem is he pulls them out of the socket and then wants to touch the socket). He laughs and then goes right back for more. What do we need to do to be effective in stopping this behavior? At what point will he understand "no"?
A. It's time to alter your expectations with respect to your baby's ability to comply with your demand to not touch the outlets. Below are six parenting adages to keep in mind as you begin the process of guiding your baby and soon-to-be toddler to respond to your requests.
- You can't parent from an arm chair. Since you don't want your baby to touch outlets, every time he heads toward one you must be up off your feet, moving your child away. Say "no" with a horrified expression. Engage him in another activity.
- Your baby is curious about his environment. Electrical outlets hold lots of interest for little children. They're right at their eye level when on the floor. They stand out from the wall, sometimes with plugs poked in them, sometimes not. Outlets fascinate babies because they realize that the outlet, when connected to various objects, make things happen: lights go on, TVs play, vacuums make noise. Babies and toddlers are little scientists testing the cause and effect of various elements in their environment, outlets being one of them.
- That outlet is like a magnet, a target that he can't resist. Additionally, he realizes that moving toward it brings attention and a predictable response from you. It is very gratifying to a baby to carry out a predictable sequence of events. So the way you're responding is actually keeping his behavior going rather that stopping it.
- Your baby has no idea about the dangers of electrical outlets. Plus, he does not have the inner controls to stay away just because you say so. You must provide the control your baby lacks. Your job is to protect him when he goes in harm's way. In time, when he's between the ages of 3 and 5 years, the control you provide now will transfer from you to him. He'll gradually develop self-control.
- The interaction between you and him is a fun baby game. He can't resist the fun and satisfaction of setting the game plan in motion. He approaches the outlet, you predictably say "no," he keeps moving toward it, you remove him, and he moves toward it again, he laughs with the fun of it. Babies thrive on such games, so develop a similar game around safe -- rather than dangerous -- objects.
- Never leave your baby or soon-to-be toddler unattended, despite the fact that your house is baby-proofed. From now until he's 3 years old you can't let him out of your sight even for a second. He's on the go with no inner controls and he likes to make things happen.
© Copyright Meredith Corporation. All Rights Reserved. | <urn:uuid:9716c91e-3c64-43fb-9cef-824ece30bf8f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lhj.com/lhj/printableStory.jsp?storyid=/templatedata/lhj/story/data/ParentingExpertSayingNo_01222003.xml&catref=C284 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968967 | 701 | 2.984375 | 3 |
According to Wikipedia, influencer marketing is “a form of marketing that has emerged from a variety of recent practices and studies, in which focus is placed on specific key individuals (or types of individual) rather than the target market as a whole. It identifies the individuals that have influence over potential buyers, and orients marketing activities around these influencers.”
Key decision-makers operate within communities of influencers. Influencers may or may not be actual buyers, they are not always obvious, and typically are a neutral party – which is why they are such an invaluable asset as their potential to affect sales is immense.
We’ve all heard (and probably participated in) conversations about blogger relations, disclosure and transparency. Bloggers are just one class of influencers, though, so the first step in Influencer Marketing is seeking out and identifying those and other influencers.
At a recent PRSA St. Louis half-day event, Erin (Eschen) Maloney from Perficient explained that 92 percent of people trust recommendations of friends, family, word-of-mouth, above all forms of advertising, which is why influencers matter. She went on to say that 13.4 percent of U.S. adults create 80 percent of the content that influences people, and that is why we must find them.
An influencer must be credible. That doesn’t necessarily equate to a lot of followers, a high job role, frequent posts, or even being famous in real life. Influence cannot be reflected by a single metric, and influence does not equal popularity.
So how do you find the influencers that matter to your organization? Maloney advised that there is no one tool or score that can do this for you. You must roll-up your sleeves and dig-in. You can use Klout and Kred (she likes Kred better) as a beginning point, but you may also use Google, Twitter, WeFollow, Twellow, Alltop, LinkedIn groups, Facebook pages, Listorious, RSS feeds and more. (We here at BurrellesLuce prefer our Social Media Monitoring Solution, Engage121). This step is the core foundation of your program. It is time consuming and there is no substitute for hard work here.
Once you’ve identified key influencers who are active, relevant and timely, then what? You listen. Yes, you stop and listen for a while. It takes listening, Amanda Maksymiw says, to gain “a solid understanding on who they are and what they are interested in. Connect with them on the relevant social networks, subscribe to their newsletters or blogs, and absorb everything you can: the main point is to be quiet here and learn.” Only after this step, can you begin to engage with them.
Author and speaker Alexandra Levit was recently quoted as saying, “Uncovering the top influencers in one’s field requires old-fashioned research. Read the trades, go to industry events and, of course, check out Twitter, Facebook, etc. Then, gradually develop a relationship with the influencers by asking questions and citing their content.”
Those of us, who have a background in PR and media relations, know that building relationships takes time and effort. Do you have any tips to add? | <urn:uuid:1497b477-2c40-4fca-8b85-a124c5034ca4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.burrellesluce.com/freshideas/tag/klout/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948706 | 683 | 1.546875 | 2 |
The European Commission has requested the World Trade Organisation
(WTO) to set up formal consultations under its Dispute Settlement mechanism over the unfair Korean shipbuilding practices. This decision has been taken further to the failure to reach an amicable solution to this long-standing dispute by September 30, 2002. EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy said: "The lack of progress in our bilateral discussions so far has left us with no option but to take Korea to the WTO. I now call on Korea to swiftly settle this matter within the WTO consultations".
In these consultations, the European Commission will convey to Korea its view that the granting of subsidies to its shipbuilders has caused a damage to the EU shipbuilding industry and is therefore in violation of WTO Agreement on Subsidies. If these consultations fail to solve the dispute within 60 days from the request, the way ahead would be to request a WTO panel. | <urn:uuid:3a2318ff-b2a5-4d8b-924f-f6e8ae7acf75> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.marinelink.com/news/article/eu-takes-south-korea-to-wto/300827.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93803 | 180 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Fighting a Major Bush Fire
TWO AUSTRALIAN FIREFIGHTERS have been reported to have perished while fiighting a bush fire in the northeast region of Victoria in Wednesday afternoon. Nine News television is reporting:
The Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) firefighters were believed to have been killed near Harrietville, south of Bright, where a bushfire is currently burning out of control.
The Australian Workers Union Victorian branch has said two men died in the line of duty at a fire in the Ovens region today but authorities have not confirmed the information.
It is believed the men were on the western edge of the blaze at Pheasants Creek Track when a tree fell on their 4WD, Nine News reports.
Their identities have not yet been disclosed either.
Some of the CFA firefighters catch some Z's recently at the
bush fire that is expected to take several more weeks to extinguish.
(News Limited photo)
Since that early report, the government authorities have confirmed two fatalties, but are unable to identify them because the bodies are still behind the fire lines and have not yet been recovered. The AAP is reporting via SBS One:
Australian Workers Union Victorian secretary Cesar Melhem said two DSE firefighters had been killed.
"Our members have confirmed that two firefighters unfortunately lost their lives," Mr Melhem told AAP. Mr Melhem said the deaths were a shattering loss for the firefighters' families, their workmates, the union and all Victorians.
"These DSE firefighters work in the most horrific conditions imaginable, away from the big centres, out in the bush, and with very little recognition for their heroic contribution to this state," Mr Melhem said in a statement. "They have died heroes, which will be small comfort to those that grieve them."
The union said the identity of those who had died had not been confirmed.
"The priority at this stage will be to recover the bodies because they're still behind the fire lines and attend to the rest of the firefighters making sure all of the support has been provided to them," Mr Melhem said.
Update: The Herald Sun is now reporting that the fatalities have been identified, but not their names. Fifteen minutes ago they posted:
The Department of Sustainability and Environment officers were killed yesterday afternoon by a tree that fell on their vehicle. Authorities confirmed last night the victims were a man in his 30s from Corryong and a woman in her late teens from Tallandoon.
They were working around the remote Pheasant Creek Track at Selwyn, 170km north-east of Melbourne. Emergency services converged on the area last night, braving the fire, harsh terrain and the risk of of further falling trees.
The pair had been part of a major effort fighting the fire that has been burning in the Harrietville area for weeks, intermittently threatening communities.
The fire threat prevented emergency crews from getting to the pair. Officers did not get to the scene until 8.10pm. A coroner will head to the scene this morning.
They are the third and fourth Victorian firefighters to die this summer.
Firegeezer will update this story when warranted.
Hat tip: Darren V.
* * * * * * * | <urn:uuid:742397d8-d63c-4a19-bd4a-3c260cc5e3e1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://firegeezer.com/tag/australian-bush-fire/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979006 | 672 | 1.851563 | 2 |
Tests reveal norovirus outbreak on UNC Chapel Hill
Published: Tuesday, March 5, 2013 at 8:19 a.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, March 5, 2013 at 8:19 a.m.
HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. (AP) — Health officials in Orange County have confirmed an outbreak of norovirus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
A statement from the county health department says between Feb. 27 and March 1, approximately 85 students sought medical care for nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and/or fever.
An electronic survey was sent out to students seen by Campus Health Service in an effort to identify a possible common exposure, but the surveys revealed no common source.
As a preventative measure, Campus Dining and Campus Housing are utilizing additional disinfecting measures specifically to eliminate norovirus in facilities where students have been ill.
Individuals are urged to wash their hands and clean commonly touched surfaces with bleach- based cleaning supplies. Food handlers shouldn't work in food service until they're symptom-free for 72 hours. | <urn:uuid:4875a2a0-a2b9-493b-993c-ac0bf07affd7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.blueridgenow.com/article/20130305/WIRE/130309930/1018/frontpage?Title=Tests-reveal-norovirus-outbreak-on-UNC-Chapel-Hill | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962511 | 223 | 1.867188 | 2 |
Real Heroes Walk Away: Music sends powerful message for Woodville High Students in rap about dangers of alcohol
- From: Weekly Times Messenger
- September 20, 2012
A GROUP of Woodville High students have laid down the beats and written a rap to highlight the dangers of alcohol.
The students, who performed their song Find my own way in front of their peers this week, are known as the Multi-colts.
The program involving students in years 10-12 is among courses being run by western high schools to highlight the dangers of excessive alcohol consumption.
Year 10 student Aleks Jaksic said writing the rap had been a new experience.
"It was an innovative way to share our ideas on how to combat the issue of binge drinking," Aleks said.
"It was a strong and important message and young people pay more attention when the message comes from their peers.
"I've known a lot of people who have gotten themselves into trouble after drinking and it's important to me that the message gets through."
The students wrote the rap as part of a hip-hop program run with the help of city-based DaKlinic, which sells skate equipment and clothing.
The school has also run several alcohol-education programs with the assistance of emergency services, and non-government drug and alcohol education and advocacy groups the Sammy D Foundation and Drug Arm.
Woodville High counsellor Sandro Bracci said the projects aimed to build students' knowledge of the dangers of alcohol. "These programs are designed to build their self-esteem and give them the confidence to say 'no' and walk away when faced with the pressure to drink," Mr Bracci said.
St George College principal Dr George Panagopoulos said alcohol education programs had been ramped up in recent years.
"We start education programs with students as young as in Year 6 and 7 to educate them about the social impacts of alcohol," Mr Panagopoulos said.
"We think it is important to give them the information about alcohol before they are old enough to start drinking."
He said the school also focused on education for parents.
"We're running a course in October to give parents information about how to keep their children safe when they are around alcohol and going to parties."
Thebarton Senior College principal Kim Hebenstreit said alcohol education was a key component of health classes.
"I have noticed that in recent years parents are much more aware of the dangers of alcohol and are talking about it with their children," Mr Hebenstreit said. | <urn:uuid:39242a62-19e9-4757-bf43-d1ba03c2986e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.news.com.au/national-news/south-australia/real-heroes-walk-away-music-sends-powerful-message-for-woodville-high-students-in-rap-about-dangers-of-alcohol/story-fndo4dzn-1226478130156?from=public_rss | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976992 | 522 | 1.859375 | 2 |
Permanent Consequences of LCH
More recent advances in research and treatment of histiocytic disorders have provided a high survival rate for patients with this disease. At the same time, as more patients have been followed long-term, the risk for permanent consequences has become more obvious. It is now known that survivors can have significant consequences related to the disease and/or its treatment, sometimes following long-term remission. Most of these issues tend to be directly related to sites of original disease involvement and may affect quality of life. It is believed that more than half of patients will develop permanent consequences.
Also known as “late effects,” some consequences such as neurologic symptoms may not show up until 10 or more years after diagnosis, while other consequences such as diabetes insipidus can occur when histiocytosis is diagnosed, or even before. For this reason, “permanent consequences” has been suggested as a better term than “late effects.” Although some consequences such as tooth loss, bone defects, and scarring of the skin may be the result of surgical treatment, it is believed that the disease process itself is responsible for most of the effects.
Permanent consequences occur more often with multisystem patients but are also seen in patients with single-system disease at diagnosis. In one study, over 70% of multisystem LCH patients had one or more permanent consequences, compared to 24% of single-system patients. Children are more at risk to develop consequences because the disease can interfere with growth and development, and the consequences have a longer time to develop.
Some examples of permanent consequences include:
- Diabetes insipidus (DI)
- Stunted growth/failure to achieve sexual maturity
- Defects of bone/skull defects/facial asymmetry
- Loss of spinal height
- Loss of teeth/part of jawbone
- Bulging of the eyes
- Hearing loss
- Scarring of the skin
- Scarring of the liver
- Scarring of the lung
- Secondary cancers
- Neurologic/cerebellar problems, which can include:
- Poor coordination/difficulty walking
- Bad handwriting
- TremorAbnormal eye movements
- Difficulty with balance/unsteadiness/clumsiness
- Problems with speech and/or swallowing
- Loss of short-term and/or long-term memory
- Learning difficulty/poor school performance
- Difficulties with concentration/attention/processing
- Lower IQ score
- Organizational difficulties
- Behavior changes including aggression, eating disorders, depression, and difficulties with interpersonal relationships
The exact incidence of diabetes insipidus (DI) is not known, but it is believed to be in the range of 5% to 50% of LCH patients, depending on the location and extent of disease. The risk of developing DI in patients with multisystem LCH is 4 to 6 times greater than those with single-system disease. Patients with skull, facial, and/or eye bone lesions are at much higher risk of developing DI, and this risk is increased further if the disease remains active for a longer period or if it recurs. Although once established, diabetes insipidus cannot be cured, it can be successfully treated with a hormone called DDAVP.
Stunted growth is the most common endocrine abnormality and occurs in approximately 10% of children with histiocytosis. It was shown in one study to occur in 43% of patients who had diagnoses of both LCH and diabetes insipidus. Stunted growth can be successfully treated with daily injections of growth hormone, usually for as long as the child is growing. This treatment appears to be safe and effective and is not associated with an increased risk of disease reactivation.
Orthopedic problems from lesions of the spine, leg bones, and arm bones are one of the more common consequences and may be seen in 20% of patients. These problems include collapse of the vertebrae, instability of the spine that may lead to abnormal spinal curvature, decreased spinal height, fractured bones, and inequality of leg length. In addition, since the skull and facial bones are frequent sites of lesions, abnormalities and asymmetry of the face may occur. Some bone/facial abnormalities can be corrected by orthopedic or cosmetic surgery.
Dental problems with loss of teeth have been a significant problem for some patients, either directly related to disease affecting the jaw or related to aggressive surgery for jaw disease. The potential for restoration/cosmetic repair can be discussed with a knowledgeable physician. Residual eye bulging can affect one or both eyes. Hearing loss was found in one study to affect 16% of children treated for LCH. Of those with CT or MRI abnormalities of the mastoid, 59% had hearing loss. Inner ear involvement has been known to cause loss of balance. Hearing aids or surgically inserted electronic hearing devices (cochlear implants) may be necessary.
Liver disease may lead to scarring and destruction of the liver and, in rare cases, liver failure which may require transplantation. Lung disease is believed to occur in less than 10% of patients, causes scarring and damage of lung tissue, and can result in long-term poor lung function with a higher risk for infections, shortness of breath, and lung collapse. In cases of severe damage, a lung transplant may be necessary for survival. Permanent damage, however, is less common in children, whose lung tissue can more easily regenerate. Patients with a history of lung involvement may have a lifelong susceptibility to lung disease associated with cigarette smoking.
Patients with histiocytosis have a slightly higher chance of developing secondary cancers when compared to the unaffected population; secondary cancers could include leukemia, brain tumors, and cancer of the lung, liver, bone, lymph nodes, and eyes. It has not been determined whether this is caused by treatment or a genetic predisposition. Cancer can occur at the same time as histiocytosis or can occur years afterwards.
Neurologic problems with cognitive deficits, behavioral disturbances, and neuromotor dysfunction, also known as central nervous system (CNS) involvement, are reported to affect at least 10% of all LCH patients (19% of all multisystem patients). (For other histiocytic disorders, studies of greater numbers of patients are necessary to better define how often this occurs.) It is believed that this phenomenon is more frequently recognized now that more patients with histiocytosis are being followed long-term. It is characterized by symptoms in the brain that may not manifest until 10 or more years after initial diagnosis. Although this is usually seen on MRI scans, it may occur when there are no abnormal findings on MRI. The CNS complications can remain stable for years or can be progressive and become debilitating. No effective treatment has yet been developed; however, various forms of rehabilitation and teaching assistance can be helpful for these patients. These include assistance with learning and life skills; education about permanent consequences; teaching of repetition, reinforcement, and organizational skills; and placement of school/job accommodations. While the neurologic issues cannot be reversed, caregivers can provide tools that will help the patient increase his/her level of success.
In addition to compromised physical/cognitive function, histiocytosis survivors may experience quality-of-life issues such as anxiety/fear about possible relapse, sadness, anger, and depression. These feelings may be especially strong before followup visits, on illness-related anniversaries, or with onset of symptoms not related to the disease. For many people, these feelings will go away over time, while others may need psychological or psychiatric support. Finding a supportive network of other histiocytosis survivors can also be helpful.
- On-line: You can sign up to become a member of the Histiocytosis Association by creating a user name and password on our homepage. You will have the opportunity to sign up to receive our newsletters, and you will also receive important announcements regarding the latest information and research developments on the histiocytic disorders. Once registered, you may choose to participate in the Online Discussion Groups and interact with a large community of families and patients. The Association also maintains a Facebook page for families and patients with this disease.
- Local support: The hospital where you or your child is being treated may have a support group for survivors of histiocytic disorders, rare diseases in general, or even cancer. Establishing face-to-face relationships with others going through similar experiences can be helpful.
Because of the possible impact of permanent consequences on school/job performance, ability to lead an independent life, and overall quality of life, it is important that the patient be evaluated and followed long term, especially those with multisystem disease. Early recognition of any deficit will be important, so that appropriate rehabilitation and assistance can be planned and put into place.
After years of research and discussion among researchers, there are still considerable gaps in the understanding of histiocytosis and its neurological complications. Some authorities believe it is a process separate from disease activity, and others believe that early, effective therapy may prevent or reduce the complications.
In order to make further progress in this field, the Histiocyte Society has developed a clinical trial/study called LCH-IV which will open for registration in 2012. This includes new guidelines for diagnosis and treatment of CNS LCH, including repeated MRIs, standardized neurologic evaluation, and neuropsychological tests for all patients with CNS disease. The study will test whether longer therapy for active disease will reduce the rate of reactivation and development of complications. You may consult your health care provider to find out about possible treatment options.
If you are a histiocytosis survivor with permanent consequences, it will be important to educate yourself about available resources and stay updated about the latest research findings. This information will help you make informed decisions and play an active role in acquiring the best support and services available. In doing so, you will create the best chance for a successful outcome. | <urn:uuid:2c932d5e-b210-4fd6-8640-8d8e74bba36b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.histio.org/page.aspx?pid=883 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948089 | 2,073 | 2.5 | 2 |
Knit-Out & Crochet events were started in 1998 by the Craft Yarn Council of America (CYCA) with the help of volunteers to bring knitting, crocheting and yarn crafts to the public's attention. Now large and small groups and guilds nationwide are sponsoring Knit-Outs. Knit-Outs can be as informal as a group getting together in public to knit or crochet or large gatherings with a variety of activities. Interested in volunteering to teach or helping out at a Knit-Out & Crochet event? Contact Craft Yarn Council or see address below.
Yarn enthusiasts from around the country, novices along with seasoned knitters and crocheters, joined the throngs of Mall visitors over President's Weekend at the Knit-Out & Crochet 2009. Despite long lines at booths that lined the East and South corridors of the Mall, visitors waited patiently to see the latest in yarns, designs and accessories being exhibited and to take advantage of the giveaways. The Mall estimated that the crowd swelled to 50,000, which equals last year's attendance.
It's always difficult to say what were the biggest crowd pleasers. For first timers, it was the Learn to Knit/Crochet areas where volunteers from the Minnesota Knitters Guild taught them how to get started. Each received their first set of needles or a hook, along with yarn and instructions to take home.
Others crammed the demos to learn new techniques. Debbie Macomber fans were delighted to have an opportunity to meet her and to listen to her personal stories about knitting. Debbie also serves on the Board of Directors of Warm Up America! and urged knitters and crocheters to help the Foundation meet its goal of distributing 10,000 afghans in 2009. Debbie was also interviewed by Knitting Daily editor Sandi Wiseheart for the Authors' Forum, along with authors Edie Eckman, Margaret Radcliff and Judith Durant.
For the first time, there were Super Seminars, 2-hour classes with Annie Modesitt and Barbara VanElsen. People enjoyed these in-depth classes and an opportunity to get off the busy Mall floors. Area kids thronged the Krafty Kids booth, hosted by the Washburn County, WI 4-H knitting club. Of course, the stage in the Mall Rotunda was hopping throughout the two days.
Crowds gathered for three fashion shows hosted by Knit Simple Editor Carla Scott, Knitter's Rick Mondragon and Crochet Today editor Brett Bara. While the adult fashion show previewed more than 50 exquisite knitted and crocheted garments, it was the kids and dogs that stole the runway. Not to be outdone were the wonderful knitters and crocheters who shared their favorite projects during the Show & Share segment, hosted by Steven Berg from the Yarn Garage.
Thousands came to learn and to see what was new but they also came to be with other yarn enthusiasts. And they are asking for more spaces and places to just sit and knit and crochet. Increasing Knit-Out is becoming a meeting place.
To our amazing Steering Committee: Annette Bjorklund, Bonnie Johnson, Georgia Thometz, Louise deGeus, Pam Hodges, Patsy Fisk, Shelly Britton, Steven Berg and Terry Ann Porter, as well as to all the terrific volunteers who spent hours teaching people how to knit, crochet or answering questions, you are all wonderful. From all the members of Craft Yarn Council of America, our sincerest thanks for helping us to make this a year's Knit-Out the best ever.
/--Following are photo highlights Knit-Out 2009. --> | <urn:uuid:09451f8b-0f97-4a9b-8445-8a359a0cc5ad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://craftyarncouncil.com/knitoutandcrochet.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959324 | 757 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Asthma symptoms may vary during menstrual cycle: study
Researchers, whose findings appear in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, said spikes and dips in estrogen and other hormones likely affect the lungs and other physiological responses involved in breathing.
However, it's still unclear whether the results could improve doctors' treatment of women with asthma.
"Respiratory symptoms varied significantly during the menstrual cycle," wrote lead researcher Ferenc Macsali of Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen, Norway, and colleagues.
Other researchers said that while scientific studies have come to competing conclusions, anecdotal evidence does show variations for some patients during their menstrual cycles, which Samar Farha at the Cleveland Clinic described as "a very important cycle... with all the biological changes and physiological things that happen.
"(Some) asthmatics describe that just before their menses, they get a worsening of their symptoms," Farha, who studies asthma and other respiratory diseases but wasn't involved in the study, told Reuters Health.
The researchers surveyed close to 4,000 women in Northern Europe who had normal periods and weren't taking birth control pills. Along with other health and lifestyle questions, they asked women to report when their last period started, as well as whether they'd had any breathing-related problems in the past three days, such as wheezing or waking up with a coughing attack.
Just under eight percent of women in the study had been diagnosed with
Be the first to comment. | <urn:uuid:baab3fd8-4955-4962-87ef-fee7f5b4f60c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.financialexpress.com/news/asthma-symptoms-may-vary-during-menstrual-cycle-study/1041321 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97244 | 303 | 2.5625 | 3 |
European Union Stands Up for Infants
Just a week after a few members of Congress buckled to chemical industry interests and blocked language that would have banned BPA from baby bottles and sippy cups, the European Union is showing the courage to do the right thing for babies' health. Officials announced Friday (Nov. 26) that as of June of next year, baby bottles with -- you guessed it, BPA -- can no longer be sold in the 27 EU countries.
Yes, that's right, our Congress -- well no, not our entire congress, but a few key Republicans (including Richard Burr of North Carolina), decided to favor the interests of the American Chemistry Council's companies rather than the wellbeing of American infants. Those companies churn out billions of pounds of BPA a year, and they're determined to protect the bottom line - whatever the cost.
What led the Europeans to finalize this action plan for BPA? They cited data from recent studies that reaffirm BPA's potential to disrupt the immune system, stimulate tumor growth and interfere with proper development of young children. That same data is available on this side of the ocean, but that apparently doesn't matter to the Chemistry Council, or its friends in the US Senate, who blocked a deal to add the limited BPA ban to pending food safety legislation.
Environmental Working Group knows that reducing children's exposure to this plastics chemical is crucial to protecting the health of our young. EWG's Body Burden studies have found BPA in the umbilical cord blood of newborns -- proof that babies are being born pre-polluted with this toxic chemical. Do they really need any additional doses once they're born? We don't think so.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) has been tirelessly fighting to limit BPA exposure nationwide, but she couldn't overcome the chemical companies' resistance this time. But the fight is far from over.
"This action in the European Union just reinvigorates EWG's commitment to eliminate human exposure to BPA," said EWG President Ken Cook. | <urn:uuid:cb1b9b82-1bc4-488f-8106-9681ad8f081f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ewg.org/node/14505/related | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952647 | 421 | 2.296875 | 2 |
News tagged with food waste
Related topics: food
No matter how you slice it, cutting fruit into bite-sized pieces prompts children to eat more apples during lunchtime, according to a recent study by Cornell University researchers.
Health Apr 17, 2013 | not rated yet | 0
The green beans are fresh, the broccoli crunchy and the baby corn sweet, but having failed "cosmetic" tests of international supermarkets, the Kenyan-grown food was hurled out as waste.
Health Feb 19, 2013 | 5 / 5 (2) | 1
If you need any evidence of the impact of student research on life at American University's campus, look no further than something that's missing.
Health Jan 29, 2013 | 5 / 5 (2) | 0
Nutritionists at the University of Glasgow have served up a menu showing what a balanced diet over a week looks like.
Health Oct 03, 2012 | 5 / 5 (2) | 0
Now that communities across the state have dried out and are repairing damages from Tropical Storm Lee, a gardening expert in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences reminds backyard gardeners that fruits ...
Health Sep 22, 2011 | 5 / 5 (1) | 0 | <urn:uuid:ef40ff5f-7c27-42a1-bd84-8c1c1d007919> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://medicalxpress.com/tags/food+waste/sort/liverank/all/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939359 | 248 | 1.875 | 2 |
German Evangelical St. Paul's Congregation
As published in "The History of Racine and Kenosha Counties" (Chicago: 1879), p. 394
The German Evangelical St. Paul's Congregation owes is existence to a separation from
the First German Evangelical Lutheran Congregation, and was organized in March, 1873.
The cause of this schism dated back to the establishment of the latter congregation,
the founders of which, in their native country, belonged partly to the Evangelical and
partly to the Lutheran Church. The latter adherents, by their majority, obtained a
controlling power, which they enforced, both in the manner of conducting the religious
services and in general management of the church interests. Some fifteen Evangelical
members became desirous of the organization of an independent congregation, true to
their own principles. The majority of there substantially united, viz. A.
Kaltenschnee, C. Brach, George Hergen, Messrs. Reitenmeyer, Sr., and Jr., F. Miller,
and the Messrs. Bliss, Lattich, Rapp and Baumann. The first religious services were
held by the new congregation in the Court House. Rev. Lamprecht, of Chicago,
officiating. After the Church formed a connection with the Evangelical Synod of North
America, Rev. S. Weber was called as its first Pastor. In 1874, a house of worship and
parsonage were built on a lot previously purchased and located on Liberty Street. This
property became undesirable from the fact that the congregation was obliged to
contribute its share toward the construction of a dock on that part of the river
touching its ground. The Church was forced to solicit assistance, and the complete
outlay amounted to $3,500. The congregaion, at present, has a regular membership of
twenty-six families. The present Pastor, Rev. C. Kunzmann, conducts a Sunday school
attended by twenty children, also a day school, the object of which is religious
instruction and the preservation of the mother language (German). | <urn:uuid:e5624cac-f643-4363-85cf-041222b617a8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wiracin2/germanstpaul.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967947 | 448 | 2.625 | 3 |
SIMILAR BOOKS BY CATEGORY
LINK FROM YOUR SITE
26 pages (January 2006); 12.0MB download
Lamp Post Inc.; ISBN: LAMP-00007
The prophet Daniel is one of the most respected men in the Persian Empire…but he’s also one of the most envied, so much so that the other princes and advisors in the kingdom have conspired to get Daniel tossed into the lion’s den. Miraculously saved by his God, and waiting for the morning, he remembers the amazing prophecies delivered to him personally by the Hosts of Heaven. And after his release, God’s promises bring Daniel the rest and comfort he has longed for.
Adapted faithfully from the Biblical Book of Daniel in a fun cartoony style, DANIEL is a wonderful title for readers of all ages! | <urn:uuid:71f30460-15e2-4411-b78b-fba861638fab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wowio.com/users/product.asp?BookId=4526 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919116 | 181 | 1.515625 | 2 |
- By Fr. Peter
- 23 February, 2012
- Comments Off
A few weeks ago, I read part of Luke Timothy Johnson’s book Scripture and Discernment, which from the title would appear to be just the sort of treatment of discernment that a monk ought to welcome. I couldn’t agree with everything in the book, however, and indeed certain premises seemed rather problematic, especially what I took to be the privileging of ‘experience’ and the need to take experience into account when discerning what God is calling us to in our life of discipleship.
On the one hand, this sounds reasonable enough; indeed, St. Bernard, among others especially in the Cistercian tradition of spirituality, likes to ask us to examine our experience to see how it accords with the truths of faith.
But what, exactly is ‘experience’? It is not as easy to define as we might think, once we examine it. How do we interpret experience? We have a tendency, I think, to imagine that our experiences are somehow ‘pure’, not determined by social factors or the limits of our cultural formation, and that they are informative as such. But consider two people watching the same movie. One hates it, the other loves it. Did they not have something like the same experience? In terms of simple ‘data’, they surely did. But each interpreted this raw data through all kinds of personal filters. Which one’s experience is authentic? Perhaps in some sense both of them are, but surely they won’t be able to convince each other.
And when we turn this sort of analysis upon experiences that affect us more deeply than mere artistic preference, we run into major problems. Among the experiences that are challenging the Church at present would be those such as: experiencing a call to regularize same-sex unions; women and married men experiencing what they understand to be a call to the ministerial priesthood; or the experience of liturgy being dull and finding experimental liturgy or traditional liturgy to be exciting or more sacred. Whether and to what extent these experiences are predetermined by cultural factors and previous formation are questions that seem to be hard to ask in these cases.
In monastic discernment, one’s efforts in the early going involve slowing life down a bit and stepping back from interpreting experience too quickly. Discernment of spirits means learning to identify the often hidden wellsprings of our thoughts that move us to certain types of judgments about life that contribute to what we term ‘experience’. We discover frequently that experiences that we considered central and important to our spiritual development can appear quite problematic in retrospect, even if God used them at the time for His purposes. In lectio divina and in the liturgy, we learn to align our experiences with that of Jesus Christ and His Mystical Body, the Church, and thus to read experience ‘spiritually’, with a habituation to God’s ways of acting in our lives. This is painstaking and exacting work: we must renounce certain types of experiences, in fact. We even label certain experiences ‘temptation’, experiences of desires and thoughts that our spiritual seniors will identify as moving us away from God. Temptations usually appear under the guise of some good: otherwise we wouldn’t entertain them. But the inner life is full of illusions and wishful thinking; this is why we work to remold experience in the light of the solid food of good spiritual teaching. We put on the new nature by the renewal of our minds; we must be very reticent about calling the Church to change based on what may well be our old nature presenting itself in clever disguise.
After mentioning Johnson’s book at a community recreation, I was guided by one of the brothers to a debate between him and Eve Tushnet, an exchange that appeared in Commonweal and well worth reading. Tushnet makes my point more convincingly than I do. See it here. | <urn:uuid:151d4e9c-2bd3-4e3c-b367-b497b2c61014> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://chicagomonk.org/2012/02/23/experience-and-discernment/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959436 | 834 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Here’s a look at what you’ll be learning in this how to draw expressions first video lesson. To start off this series you will be covering the neutral expression. This is the default expression you will be using to modify and create all of the other expressions in this online drawing course.
We’ll keep this lesson a little light on instruction because you’ll just be going through and creating a face from the previous lessons on drawing the face. Here you can see the basic proportions of the face and if you need a quick refresher, here’s a list of how to get the different proportions:
Because this lesson is going to cover expressions, it’s not necessary to really get into detail with the individual features. Keep reminding yourself that the main goal here is to learn how to modify the features and learn how to draw facial expressions.
if you are unfamiliar with drawing these parts of the face you can view the full lessons for each section here:
This is how the finished neutral expression drawing looks. The eyes and mouth should remain in a neutral pose. This means that the eyelids and eyebrows are going to sit naturally on top of the eyeball. You will be modifying them in later lessons, but for now, think of them as being ‘at rest,’ without any modification done to them.
The other main feature here is the mouth, and to keep it simple it’s been drawn with an almost completely straight line. It does curve up a little at the corners of the mouth, and there is a little bit of shading at the corners to indicate the depth of the lips, but that’s about it for the mouth and lips.
In the next how to draw expressions video you’re going to be looking at how to draw a happy expression.
Return to the How to Draw Expressions Lessons Page | <urn:uuid:d1ce1d78-9f97-4ab8-a1b0-72e607ece61f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pencilkings.com/2011/12/17/how-to-draw-expressions-01-drawing-a-neutral-expression/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932019 | 385 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Your actions speak louder than words
Even with good compliance measures and safety systems in place many companies still see their safety performance fall short of their objectives—sometimes far short. In light of this frustrating phenomenon, many leading safety practitioners have adopted “behavior” as their watchword. Get employees to perform the “right” behaviors, the thinking goes, and you virtually ensure that safety improves. The difficulty has long been how to achieve the kind of sustained engagement that works with, not against, the employee, complements existing safety efforts, and produces long-term results. Used along with good engineering and administrative controls, behavior-based safety can be a powerful tool for achieving continuous improvement in safety performance.
Why focus on behavior? For years there has been a pervasive train of thought that divides accident and injury causation into one of two categories. The thinking is that an accident is either worker-related, meaning the incident was caused by individual choice or error, or facilities-related, meaning the cause was maintenance, equipment design, and so on. This thinking is evident in the many safety systems designed around one factor to the exclusion of the other. In actuality, this “either/or” causation is a false dichotomy. Exhaustive injury analysis that looks at a variety of organizations across industries over a period of several years will show that in the great majority of cases the cause of the injury lies in the interaction between the worker and the facility and/or procedures. The interaction of these factors—conditions, management systems, and what people do—is called the working interface.
Behavior-based safety (BBS) is concerned with assessing the working interface by using what people do, or their behavior, as the starting point for improving the whole system in which people work. Such a safety method looks at how the work is done, not because the worker is to be blamed, but because real safety improvement doesn’t happen by focusing on the way things are “supposed to be.” Real improvement happens by understanding and improving how things actually occur in the workplace. This means identifying and defining, in operational terms, the critical interfaces associated with how the equipment is used or how procedures affect risk. Behavior-based safety that focuses on the working interface allows organizations to pinpoint where they need to direct improvement resources in advance of any incident. Among the more than 1500 sites that have used this approach, improvement averages 25-45% in the first year, with improvements increasing in subsequent years.
Applied behavior analysis. In an organization that is stuck in the “false dichotomy” of either/or accident causation, you’ll often hear things such as “If only employees would listen, then they wouldn’t get hurt,” or “If only they would fix that equipment then we wouldn’t be having these injuries.” The BBS approach allows you to delve into the working interface to find out what is really going on. The tool that can help you understand this interaction is applied behavioral analysis.
Applied behavior analysis—also known as ABC analysis—works on the principle that antecedents set the stage for behavior and consequences encourage or discourage the repetition of the behavior. Do you answer the phone because it’s ringing (antecedent) or because there is someone on the line who you want to talk to (consequence)? What if every time the phone rings there were no one there—wouldn’t you stop answering the phone? Antecedents influence behavior to the degree that they predict consequences. However, many organizations spend considerable time and other resources on antecedents like signs, posters, and training, instead of identifying and fixing the consequences that support or discourage safe behavior. Successful BBS initiatives use applied behavior analysis to understand the data they collect on the working interface – and to map out how best to improve it.
Four key elements. In order to accurately measure and intervene in the working interface, BBS initiatives rely on four steps: identifying the critical safe behaviors, gathering data, ongoing feedback, and removing barriers.
Identifying critical behaviors – In this step, a steering team reviews a representative selection of the site’s incident reports looking for the behaviors critical to safe performance. It’s common for the team to discover 20-35 behaviors that are implicated in 90-95% of recent incidents. Wage-roll team members, who are most familiar with the daily risks of the job, will sometimes identify additional behaviors that may not be implicated in incident reports but that they know to be critical to worker safety. Committee members then define each of the identified behaviors in operational terms and categorize them for inclusion in a data sheet. Operational definitions might focus on areas like pinch-points, line-of-fire, eyes-on-path, and 3-point-contact on ladders or stairs or scaffolding.
Gathering data – Trained observers use the data sheet to measure the level of exposure to risk in the workplace. The operational definitions not only provide an objective measure of safe performance, they help foster a new common vocabulary for safety. While many sites train supervisors in behavior-based observation procedures, the observer corps at most sites is made up primarily of wage-roll personnel who perform regular observations of their peers, after which they provide performance feedback.
Providing ongoing feedback – After gathering data, observers have informal discussions with their co-workers about the safe and at-risk behaviors they observed. The observer points out the places were the employee was performing safely—providing success feedback—and tries to discover the reasons behind any observed at-risk behaviors. The observer records co-worker suggestions—without recording the employee’s name—and ideas about barriers to safe work. Data recorded in the observation is then analyzed by computer software. Posted reports and charts of workgroup performance provide additional ongoing feedback.
Removing barriers – Perhaps most critical to improving the working interface, barrier removal uses observation data to target those areas where workers are exposed to risk. The steering team uses the observers’ written comments to identify the number and kinds of remedies needed. Keeping in mind that the pool of exposure comprises three categories of behavior—enabled, non-enabled, and difficult—the BBS steering team can tailor interventions appropriately. In the case of enabled behaviors, or those that are easily within the control of the worker, the team may rely on ongoing feedback or training sessions to increase the occurrence of safe behavior. In the case of non-enabled, or those that are impossible for the worker to perform, and difficult, or those that require extra effort, the team will work with management to remove barriers in systems or equipment that are exposing workers to risk.
Roles for every level. Successful BBS initiatives engage all levels of the organization in safety support and success.
Front-line employees – In many organizations, BBS offers the first real opportunity for front-line employees to contribute to safety. Typically front-line employees are responsible for running the process, from conducting observations to running meetings to data analysis and action plan completion. Successful organizations ensure that key individuals have adequate training for their role. This training typically consists of interaction skills and behavior-based principles for observers and more specific time management and organization skills for team facilitators.
Supervisors and team leaders – Supervisors have the most influence over day-to-day activities that affect performance outcomes. While some sites do allow supervisors to conduct observations, most have supervisors take a supporting role, providing work coverage so employees can conduct observations, and assisting in barrier removal action plans. Some organizations are providing supervisors and team leaders with training in performance management skills to help them work with employees to meet overall safety objectives.
Senior leaders and managers – Research shows that one of the most critical factors in the success of BBS is leadership. Through what they choose to focus on and how they go about doing the things they do, leaders telegraph what’s really important to the organization. Typically not engaged in on-the-floor observations or barrier removal, senior leaders can still set the stage for BBS success by fostering a healthy organizational culture. Site managers can get more directly involved by becoming process champions or by helping with action plans to remove barriers to safe behavior. Many leaders and managers are also engaging in directed coaching that helps them leverage their actions for optimum effect throughout the organization.
Done well, BBS offers organizations a powerful tool for safety improvement by enabling site employees to measure and intervene in the working interface. While it offers many powerful benefits, BBS isn’t a silver bullet. It requires hard work, careful planning, and a balanced approach. But with good execution and the right tools, BBS can become an important part of your approach to overall safety excellence.
Spigener is the vice president of Behavioral Science Technology, Inc. (BST), and Fisher is BST’s managing editor. | <urn:uuid:ebcf5a2f-6ebd-45c7-ae4a-3ba79e4be907> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ecmweb.com/contractor/behavior-based-solution-safety-improvement-0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950778 | 1,821 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Khartoum Triumphant: Managing the Costs of Genocide in Darfur (Eric Reeves)
Khartoum Triumphant: Managing the Costs of Genocide in Darfur
Posted by www.sudanreeves.org on Dec 17, 2005 - 10:46 AM
The National Islamic Front is poised to renew its special place in history as a regime that has successfully deployed genocide as a tool of domestic political and security policy. It joins the Turkish government, which was responsible for the genocidal destruction of perhaps a million Armenians during World War I, and the Nigerian government, which during the late 1960s was responsible for the genocidal destruction of more than a million Ibo people in the Biafra region of southern Nigeria. But unlike the earlier Turkish and Nigerian regimes, the National Islamic Front has been successful in its genocidal efforts on multiple occasions, including its previous genocides in the Nuba Mountains (beginning in 1992) and in the southern oil regions (beginning in 1997). These are the ghastly precedents for current genocide in Darfur.
Moreover, unless there is a fundamental shift in the political, economic, and military circumstances presently obtaining in eastern Sudan--among the Beja and Rashaida peoples of Red Sea and Kassala Provinces--we may see “national security” yet again take the form of genocide. [....]
The National Islamic Front, which has disingenuously (if understandably) sought to rename itself the “National Congress Party,” is a regime that took power under circumstances, and with ambitions, that make a genocidal domestic security policy entirely intelligible. The NIF seized power by military coup in June 1989, deposing the elected government of the Umma Party’s Sadiq el-Mahdi. To be sure, Sadiq was hardly representative of Sudan as a whole, and had in many ways increased the brutal deployment of Arab muraheleen militia in southern Sudan, particularly in using slavery as a weapon of war (see Jok Madut Jok’s authoritative “War and Slavery in Sudan” [University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001]). But Sadiq had been elected, and political pressures, including from the rival Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), had brought a peace agreement in the north/south war to the brink of fruition.
It was precisely to stop this peace agreement that the NIF timed its military coup for June 30, 1989. The men responsible for this coup, and for deliberately aborting the nascent peace agreement, came to power with a ruthlessly determined Islamizing and Arabizing agenda. Very little has changed in the intervening 16 years, despite the wishful thinking of many who have tired of, or wish to avoid, the difficulties of confronting the NIF. To be sure, Hassan al-Turabi---mastermind of the coup, and certainly the most aggressive Islamicist---has been in many ways expediently sidelined by the NIF. But all other important coup participants remain in positions of supreme power, in particular President Omar el-Bashir and Vice President Ali Osman Taha. [....]
With only a distracted and irresolute international community as guarantor of the Machakos cornerstone agreement, and with self-determination the sine qua non of true peace in southern Sudan, the renewal of war in southern Sudan seems only a matter of time.
CHRONICLING KHARTOUM’S SUCCESS IN DARFUR
The most recent report from Human Rights Watch (“Entrenching Impunity: Government Responsibility for International Crimes in Darfur,” December 2005 at ) offers an extraordinarily well-researched account of the mechanics of genocide---of just how the NIF has organized the destruction of non-Arab or African tribal populations in Darfur. It also presents substantial new evidence for what has long been clear, but in this report is established beyond reasonable doubt: that senior NIF leadership has directly overseen Darfur’s genocidal destruction. [....]
HRW conclusions about NIF responsibility deserve extended citation. HRW asserts that Khartoum’s policy of human destruction in Darfur “was strategic and well-planned”:
“Since early 2003, the leadership in Khartoum has relied on civilian administration, the Sudanese military and Janjaweed militias to implement a counterinsurgency policy that deliberately and systematically targeted civilians in violation of international law. Ultimate responsibility for the creation and coordination of the policy lies in Khartoum, with the highest levels of the Sudanese leadership, including President Omar El Bashir, Vice-President Ali Osman Taha, and key national ministers and security chiefs.” [....]
INDICTMENT, BUT NO CONVICTION OR PUNISHMENT
Despite the thorough and authoritative nature of the indictment rendered by Human Rights Watch, the report fails on a number of counts. In these failures, we catch glimpses of the larger failure of the international community, and may discern something of the nature of Khartoum’s ultimate genocidal victory.
The HRW report offers no recommendations both adequate to the current acute security crisis and likely to be accepted by the parties exhorted. It is, of course, obligatory for such a human rights report to “recommend” that the Government of Sudan “suspend from official duty, investigate, and fully prosecute all civilian and military personnel [ ] implicated for individual or command responsibility for serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law in Darfur” (page 3). But as the very power of the HRW indictment of senior “Government of Sudan” officials makes compellingly clear, short of self-prosecution, this recommendation is simply boilerplate exhortation.
But even when speaking of recommendations to the UN Security Council, the African Union, the International Criminal Court, and to the US, the EU and Canada, HRW offers little more than exhortation to strengthen an AU force in Darfur that is radically inadequate to the critical security requirements of civilians and humanitarians. The AU has neither the resources nor the capacity to absorb resources urgently required for civilian and humanitarian protection. And recommending that the UN Security Council pass hortatory resolutions and move more expeditiously on targeted sanctions against the NIF genocidaires (per UN Security Council Resolution 1591) has a distinct air of irrelevance given the crisis on the ground. [....]
[Reeves's next point is worth emphasizing, since it runs counter to some widespread beliefs that are often well-meaning but entirely fallacious. Earlier this year there was a dispute in the UN Security Council about referring the Darfur atrocity to the International Criminal Court. This dispute received wide coverage, not least because it provided an opportunity to bash the Bush administration about its (characteristically extremist) hostility to the ICC; it also offered a welcome distraction from having to actually confront the Darfur problem itself. The ICC is in principle a worthy institution, but it is entirely irrelevant to the question of how to interfere with the ongoing process of ethnic cleansing, mass rape, and genocidal mass murder unfolding in Darfur. It has been evident from the start that referring Darfur to the ICC is a misplaced legalistic priority, and that the governments which supported this step have done so mostly as an alternative to taking serious action to stop the atrocity itself. --JW]
HRW recommends that the International Criminal Court “investigate and prosecute senior civilian officials at all levels of government, including President Omar El Bashir” (page 5). Without acknowledging the extraordinarily difficult context in which the ICC has been forced to operate by obdurate “senior [NIF] officials,” this recommendation risks distorting fundamental truths about the chances for justice via the ICC. So long as the NIF remains in power, there can and will be no prosecution---or even extradition---of those responsible for genocide. Indeed, the very existence of an ICC investigation creates incentives for the NIF to sustain prevailing levels of insecurity in Darfur as a means of hampering possible investigation, even as such insecurity is now the most powerful tool of human destruction.
This is of course an uncomfortable reality for HRW, which lobbied hard this past March for a UN Security Council referral of Darfur to the ICC. Indeed, HRW went so far as to argue that such referral would have a deterrent effect on the ground in Darfur, an argument thoroughly undermined by realities of the past several months. For of course those who have committed genocide are well aware of the fact, and are hardly to be deterred from future acts of ethnic violence, violations of international law, or obstructionism simply because of an ICC referral: having committed the ultimate crime---or at the very least what HRW euphemistically calls “ethnic cleansing”---what possible incentive is there for NIF officials to alter behavior in ways consistent with the “deterrent” effect HRW predicted?
The truth of the situation was recognized early on by ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo: investigation of the NIF would actually increase threats against both potential witnesses and humanitarian workers in Darfur. [....]
Given the NIF’s sense of impunity, despite overwhelming evidence of its culpability, it is disingenuous for HRW to call baldly for the ICC to “investigate and prosecute senior civilian officials at all levels of government”; indeed, this recommendation comports with the peculiarly disingenuous claim made twice by Juan Mendez, UN special advisor on the prevention of genocide, in his otherwise excellent October 2005 report to the Security Council: “it is in the self-interest of the Government of Sudan to cooperate with the ICC prosecution as a way of creating an atmosphere conducive to reconciliation” (Report of October 4, 2005, Paragraph 36).
It is not in the self-interest of genocidaires to cooperate in their own prosecution, and to suggest otherwise creates the impression of either dangerous naiveté or fear of speaking the truth. [....] The simple truth is that with control of the army and the security forces, members of the NIF will be extradited only when they have been removed from power (see my “Regime Change in Sudan,” The Washington Post, August 23, 2004).
THE ONGOING DESTRUCTION OF DARFUR
All reports make clear that insecurity and violence continue to escalate throughout Darfur. A grim, wide-ranging overview was recently provided by the UN Integrated Regional Information Networks (December 12, 2005). [....] Nor is there any end in sight: Khartoum’s genocidaires, the architects of this human destruction, have no incentive to halt the catastrophe, nor any significant fear of consequences. Those most powerful are those most culpable: what chance does justice have so long as power and guilt are simply obverses of one another in Sudan? [....]
Genocide in Darfur is fully the responsibility of the National Islamic Front. There are no domestic political forces that can presently wrest Darfur policy from the NIF. To equivocate on this point, to suggest that the NIF and the SPLM somehow share political responsibility going forward, represents a deep failure, or refusal, to understand why the genocide began and what has sustained it for more than two and a half years. Genocide began in Darfur as the instinctive response to threat by Khartoum’s entrenched security cabal; it can be ended only by an international willingness to oppose, with all necessary resources, this most vicious of instincts.
Northampton, MA 01063 | <urn:uuid:7fa2a0be-6727-43d0-92f5-9c7cc76dce6d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jeffweintraub.blogspot.com/2005/12/khartoum-triumphant-managing-costs-of.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942885 | 2,411 | 2 | 2 |
Employment is a vitally important subject among today’s disability community of Canada. More than ever, Canadians with disabilities are needing to find good jobs that supply the extra money they need in this sagging economy. Even more, people with disabilities (just like all people) need to feel a sense of accomplishment and purpose that comes from a career or even a part time job.
Many people who have disabilities would like to be employed.
Did you know that a lot of Canadians with disabilities are seeking employment? Others are searching for jobs that would be accessible to them and their unique needs. These individuals see the value in employment and need the extra income it provides. While there has been a slight increase in employment rates among individuals with disabilities in the past few years, some people are still unable to find work.
Employment of those with disabilities could help end the poverty-disability cycle.
Did you know that poverty can cause disability? Likewise, disability can cause poverty. Why? Because if a person doesn’t have adequate employment, its very likely he or she will also not have adequate income. Low incomes often do not make room for disability-related expenses; this only fosters greater disability. How can this cycle end?
One of the ways the poverty-disability cycle can end is by individuals with disabilities securing accessible employment. This will help ensure that these people have enough money for all their needs. This is just one of the reasons it is important for there to be plenty of employment opportunities for Canada’s disability community members.
Read more about the poverty-disability cycle at http://www.disabilityliving.ca/disability-canada-poverty-causes-disability/.
What does employment in the disability community of Canada look like right now? That is one of the questions Disability Living will be answering this week.
Disability Living will also be tackling subjects such as ideal jobs for people with certain disabilities, government funding for Canadians with disabilities wishing to return to work, discrimination in the workplace, and more. We will also feature success stories of Canadians with disabilities who have made a successful career despite limitations.
Are you a Canadian with a disability who is looking for work? Are you just wanting more information about the relationship between disability and employment?
If so, this week’s blog posts will be extremely helpful to you. Be sure and follow Disability Living’s posts about disability and employment to stay up-to-date on this crucial topic.
*Please note: All research for this article is compiled from direct and third party sources. Mention of programs, organizations and companies does not imply support of The National Benefit Authority. Pictures are for creative purposes only; they are not intended to sell or promote products for the NBA and belong to the accredited individual, organization or company.
Let’s Talk About It
Do you feel that Canadians with disabilities have adequate employment opportunities?
Do you think all the Canadians with disabilities who want employment are employed? Why do you think this is? | <urn:uuid:4c0f8ae4-4e57-48e7-a460-9ec798e13b11> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.disabilityliving.ca/disability-canada-employment-canadas-disability-community/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963687 | 620 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Motor coach halted at the semaphore traffic signals, at the corner of London Road and Beaconsfield Road, in 1929. Following the introduction of similar signals at the bottom of West Street in December 1927, Brighton Council decided in late 1928 to install them at Preston Circus. Controlled by the policeman in his central box, they came into use here in March, 1929.
Image Reference: JG_10a_127.tif
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This image is copyright and is made available for personal study only. Commercial reproduction in any media is prohibited without written authorisation.
High resolution images for commercial use are available. Please contact The Regency Society | <urn:uuid:74ba4b8c-5c32-4c52-98e8-90ccad505fe7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.regencysociety-jamesgray.com/volume10a/source/jg_10a_127.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91896 | 148 | 2.171875 | 2 |
Carmen® trees have a round, compact and dense growth habit. The trees are precocious in bearing and a first flower and subsequent crop has been observed on top works of only 6 months of age. Further, in a commercial planting on Westfalia’s Goedgelegen Estate (Mooketsi) an excellent first crop of 9kg/tree was harvested from 27 month old trees (on Dusa® rootstock). The cultivar is a consistent producer with a less pronounced alternate bearing pattern when compared to Hass. The characteristic of Carmen® that offers the biggest advantage over Hass is its season of maturity. Carmen® typically matures earlier than Hass and can extend the Hass harvesting season with up to four weeks. The cultivar also regularly produces an out-of-season flower and subsequent out-of-season crop that is ready for picking from November to December. Data collected at Westfalia Estate showed this crop to be as big as 40% of the normal season crop. Carmen® fruit are of the same shape (ovate/egg-shaped) and size (190g-305g) as Hass. The cultivar can withstand an extended period of low temperature storage (28 days at 5.5°C) as is needed for export via sea freight with no compromise on fruit quality. Carmen® fruit are of excellent eating quality and it also has processing potential (guacamole, evaluated by Westfalia Fruit Products).
An 8 ha high density planting of Carmen® on Dusa® rootstock was established on Goedgelegen Estate in 2007. The trees were planted at a 3m x 3m spacing resulting in 1111 trees/ha. The first crop was harvested in February 2010, amounting to 10ton/ha. Trees were allowed to develop and grow without any interference until Jan. 2009 (14 months old). By then, some of the trees had reached the recommended height of 2.2m (±70% of row width) and were topped. In order to avoid an abundance of shoots developing from the immediate area below the cut, Naphthalene Acetic Acid (NAA) was applied as an experiment (in PVA tree paint) to the cut surface and to an area of about 1-2cm below the cut (Figure 2). NAA is an auxin, which influences plant growth in many ways, including being responsible for apical dominance (suppression of lateral growth from lateral buds due to the presence of the terminal bud) in plants. When the terminal bud (shoot) is removed, apical dominance is broken and the lateral shoots will develop. In this case, NAA applied to the cut surface, re-instates apical dominance by replacing the auxins that were produced in high numbers in the terminal shoot, thereby inhibiting lateral bud development.
The figure on the left indicate Naphthalene Acetic Acid (NAA) was applied (in PVA tree paint) to the cut surface and to an area of about 1-2cm below the cut in Carmen®; The figure on the right indicate no NAA was applied; note three new shoots growing from below the cut.
By September 2009 (22 months old), the between – row areas had grown shut and regular pruning became necessary to maintain tree width and allow sufficient penetration of sunlight. The width of the trees is restricted to 2m in diameter. A stick of 1m in length is simply held against the stem of the tree and any growth extending past the length of the stick is removed. The plant growth regulator uniconazole (Sunny®) was also used to aid with vegetative growth control.
The biggest challenge with this planting will be to maintain the size of the tree by pruning regularly but without compromising the expected yield. It remains to be seen whether this high density planting will be manageable in the long term. | <urn:uuid:bf935f66-5e1e-4c33-ac21-9be70522eda8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.westfaliainfo.com/avocados/carmen/technical-update.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964678 | 790 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Patrick Deneen excerpts a decent-sized section of a recently published article of his entitled Democracy Wrongly Understood. It is so brilliant I’m tempted to just cut and paste the whole thing. Read it all. Link here.
Deneen’s basic point is that the US Federalist system (as in Federal power not he states rights’ understanding of Federalism) is of course a republic not a democracy. Madison, the main architect of The Constitution, feared the agglomeration of factionalism within the country. He argued for a powerful federal government that would be filled by disinterested parties who would rightly guide the nation. In that regard, that a whole mess of Americans can’t find the US on a map (“our adults isn’t learning” apparently) shouldn’t surprise us as the US republic is predicated on divide and dissipate dissent–it is built to create a fairly uneducated populace in other words.
For all of the differences between the Progressives and the Framers – and the differences are manifold, as many scholars eagerly point out (e.g., Pestritto, 2005) – there nevertheless exists this striking continuity: both the Founding and the Progressive Eras are dominated by thinkers who praise the rule of the electorate even as they seek to promote systemic governmental features that will minimize electoral influence in the name of good policy outcomes.
As Sanford Levinson has argued for a long time the US constitution is not democratic.
What requires more reflection are the deeper presuppositions of what constitutes “good policy” [of the sort consistently called upon by social scientists who study civic competence]. Good policy for the Founders and Progressives alike were policies that promoted the economic and political strength of the American republic and the attendant expansion of power in its private and public forms. For all their differences, what is strikingly similar about the thinkers of the Founding era and leading thinkers of the Progressive era were similar efforts to increase the “orbit” or scope of the national government concomitant with increases in the scale of the American economic order.
These patterns of similarity between The Progressives and The Founders (as well as Cold War Liberals and Conservatives) helps undercut arguments that the liberal (or progressive) are entirely foreign constructs. Particularly once Lincoln’s understanding of the republic/constitutional order becomes normative–over say a Calhoun’s.
I have to do some further thinking on this, but one thought that occurs to me is that a serious bug in Madison’s design was the assumption that there were ever dis-interested individuals. Charles Beard I think put that argument to bed in US history. The “corrosive political economics” of our age maybe attributable to this bug. The republican order does play off the intrinsic factionalism at the local level but among other things, with the failure of the Legislative Branch to be anything other than an attempt to get into The Executive these days and the politicization (on both sides liberal and conservative) of SCOTUS, we have a real problem. No one exists to check the factionalism at the federal level.
I think Deneen’s contribution is that (if I’m riffing correctly here) that this is not some European transplant from the left in the 20th century (a la Jonah Goldberg) but is there (at least in germinal form) from the get go.
Deneen’s analysis dovetails nicely with the book I’m currently reading Bounding Power: republican Security Theory from the Polis to the Global Village by Daniel Deudney. I’ve mentioned the book before, and I plan to do so more posts just on it, but a core argument of the text is that republican (little ‘r’) security theory goes through a series of emergent stages of development which are intertwined with material/technological contexts (i.e. it wasn’t just Marx would came up with this insight).
republics exist, for Deudney, between or perhaps bypassing the extremes of anarchy and hierarchy. [Hierarchy understood as domination not natural hierarchies, e.g. physiosphere to biosphere to noosphere].
The early republics–e.g. Sparta–were martial because they were fragile and vulnerable to attack. They either became too successful in war in which case they became imperial–see the shift of Greece from the Persian War to Alexander the Great’s Conquests or the evolution of the Roman republic to the Roman Empire–or they were unsuccessful and destroyed.
Madison feared democracy and (as Deneen points out) saw them as small scale state-level republics. See the failure of The Articles of Confederation. The creation of a federal republic which pushed up a complexified level of the “sphere of sovereignty” was a major achievement.
Deneen in the rest of his article argues for an alternate, localized, Aristotelian, more communitarian type notion of citizenship. That has its place to be sure I think, so long as we recall that (following Deudney’s insight) that frame was connected in part with technological-material constructs. We do not live in the plow and horse (or human chattel slavery) age. [Well sadly many do, but not in the contexts generally of people reading this blog]. In this technology age, any such micro-communities, need to be linked to each other through the internet, so the local and the global are not really particularly separate. In that sense, I wonder what education for republican order in a global age might look like? Deudney makes an argument for republican security theory applied to world setting (not a world government mind you) but I wonder what that would entail for those who are not part of that power holding class? De facto Deneenism? I need to think more on that one. | <urn:uuid:bd89d93e-6297-4f02-b386-1d08751456c0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://indistinctunion.wordpress.com/2008/12/21/patrick-deneen-on-democracy/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952678 | 1,230 | 2.203125 | 2 |
AP Business Writer
TOKYO (AP) -- Japan's government has suspended 35 projects included in a budget for reconstruction from the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami after criticism the spending was not directly related to recovery from the disasters.
As much as a fourth of the 11.7 trillion yen ($148 billion) budget had been earmarked for unrelated projects, including subsidies for a contact lens factory in another region and research whaling.
However, the 35 projects put on hold during a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda involved spending of only 16.8 billion yen ($210 million).
No specific reason was given for each project, though Noda and other officials have vowed to cut spending not directly for reconstruction. Many of the projects in the budget were included on the pretext they might aid Japan's economic revival.
"Some of the projects are being deferred to 2013," Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura told reporters in a regular briefing. "But Prime Minister Noda said the spending really must be committed to reconstruction."
Among the projects put on hold was a plan to boost the Japan "brand" through lecture tours, money earmarked to pay for Cabinet-sponsored discussions on "social inclusiveness," and quake-resistance renovations for various government ministries.
Minutes from a committee meeting held last month showed Cabinet ministers concluding that while projects unrelated to the disaster were legal, it would be better to focus spending on the disaster zone.
The committee adopted new guidelines this week requiring that reconstruction funds be disbursed through a special government account devoted to programs in the disaster area, which includes much of Japan's northeastern coast.
A notice on the website of the Reconstruction Ministry said the Finance Ministry and other government agencies would work to "strictly rectify" the budget, and may suspend other projects.
The government decided to boost spending on reconstruction from the 19 trillion yen ($237.5 billion) meant to be spent by the end of March 2015.
Progress on reconstruction has been hindered by a lack of local government staff and other experts, disagreements over how and whether to rebuild some towns obliterated by the tsunami, and the sheer scale of the destruction.
A report issued Tuesday showed only 47 percent of planned projects had begun work. About 60 percent of the 9.6 million tons of tsunami debris has been cleared, but only 11 percent of it processed. Reconstruction of fisheries and fishing ports and rehabilitation of farmland has also lagged.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Emma Watson revels in her post-"Potter" freedom at Cannes.
Conn. zoo officials don't know how this baby got born.
More cursing happens in Maryland than across the Potomac River.
An NFL player relieves himself of his feelings toward the IRS. | <urn:uuid:058f2e73-23e1-47f1-9582-df1c14254725> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wtop.com/220/3135522/Japan-suspends-dubious-reconstruction-projects | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965327 | 580 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Managing The Violence In The Fifty Fourth Massachusetts, in Battle Exhortation: The Rhetoric of Combat Leadership, Keith Yellin, University of South Carolina Press, 2008, pp. 94-101.
A controlled explosion. "All the discipline of drill, uniforms, codes of conduct are meant to ignite and yet contain the forces that can keep up this . . . wrath' of Civil War combat (p. 94). Can violent ardor be managed? Most readers of CWL are familiar with the film Glory. Fredrick Douglass and Governor John Andrew review the enthusiastic troops as they march through Boston and Colonel Shaw nods to his proud parents. During the war, there was the issue of arming the Negroes. Slaveholders worried about nighttime slave uprisings; slavery itself was viewed as a restraint upon savages. Northerners understood that it may be perfectly naturally for former slaves in blue uniforms may slip the shackles of military discipline. Had slavery crippled blacks? Would they be soldiers and not give in to docility or vengeance when faced with armed Southern soldiers?
Colonel Shaw reports in his letters and diary that General Montgomery let loose his black troops, former slaves, to loot and burn small towns in South Carolina. At dusk on July 18, 1863 the 54th Massachusetts was ordered into line of battle. In the film, special attention to devoted to the flags. Exactly two months, before the assault on Fort Wagner, Governor Andrew as he presented four flags to the regiment asked for manly character and manly zeal. Discretion and aggression required by the troops. On the banners were the words: liberty, loyalty, unity and the Latin phrase In hoc signo vinces (In this sign you will conquer). Andrew asked the troops to fight, win and return with dignity.
An eyewitness recalled Shaw's words to the troops before the assault began. 'Now I want you to prove yourselves men' and and reminded them that the eyes of thousands would look upon the night's work (p. 100).Of the failed assault by the 54th Massachusetts, The Atlantic Magazine that "the manhood of the colored races shines before many eyes that would not see." The Federal flag was set upon the ramparts and then carried back to the Union lines; the Massachusetts flag was sent upon the ramparts and was ripped from the staff by the Confederates. The staff was carried back to the Union lines were lost at Fort Wagner.
Image Source: Keith Rocco is among the best contemporary Civil War and Napoleonic War artists. | <urn:uuid:d9d33606-64f1-4d0a-a6de-975d358ec5c8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://civilwarlibrarian.blogspot.com/2008/12/cwl-controlling-violence-of-54th.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962461 | 515 | 2.859375 | 3 |
BOE trimming costs in tight budget year
No property tax increase proposed for FY ‘09
BY KERRI TESTEMENT
The Jackson County Board of Education has given an initial approval of its 2009 fiscal year budget for $92.4 million.
It’s a budget that doesn’t include a deficit or proposed property tax hike, but does foresee cuts in some departments from a previously-proposed budget.
The 2009 budget is a 9.9 percent increase from the 2008 budget of $83.2 million.
Jeff Sanchez, assistant superintendent for finance and information systems, said the board may adopt the final budget during the fall.
In the meantime, the board authorized the superintendent to seek bids for a $12 million Tax Anticipation Note (TAN) until the district receives finalized tax digest information to adopt the budget.
Sanchez told the board that the tighter economy is affecting the budgets of every family and business.
“We need to just hold the line on this one,” he said on Thursday.
Sanchez said the district is still looking for expenses to cut and determining funding priorities, should the projected county tax digest increase of five percent change.
“It’s also a year that we can catch our breath,” Sanchez said. “Instead of taking on new projects, we can sharpen the ones we’ve got.”
The school board initially looked at a budget during its retreat in May at Glen Ella Resort that topped $95.8 million and included a projected $2 million deficit.
Since then, the county school system has learned that its local fair share for the budget increased by $1.2 million, up to $7.2 million.
Sanchez said the school system “pulled out all of the stops” to trim costs when it learned about the additional costs for local taxpayers.
Some of those measures included trimming more than $2.1 million in technology projects, new vehicles and funding additional textbooks.
The county school system is considering a plan to swap textbooks among schools and order sets for classrooms, Sanchez said. Eventually, students may turn to instruction on the internet instead of textbooks for their studies, he added.
Board chairperson Kathy Wilbanks asked that all funding options for textbooks be considered.
“We’re certainly going to get what the kids need, but if we’re just buying a $125 textbook and they’re just sitting in the classroom, then there might be a better way,” Wilbanks said.
The district, however, is purchasing several new textbooks and related materials for science and math in various grades.
The county school system is also proposing buying five new buses, instead of seven. That move would save the district about $160,000.
Another cost-saving measure may include taking a second look at non-essential school field trips.
The Jackson County School System logged more than 40,000 miles last school year for non-essential field trips, excluding those for music and athletic programs.
The proposed budget estimates that diesel fuel for school buses will hit $4.50 a gallon. The school system recently paid $4.01 a gallon for diesel fuel.
Instruction is the top expense for the county school system. That figure is expected to rise seven percent from $40 million in the 2008 budget to $44 million in the 2009 budget.
Jackson County is planning to hire 36 additional teachers for the 2008-2009 school year. Gum Springs Elementary School will open in August.
Sanchez noted that within two years, the school system has also opened East Jackson Comprehensive High School and Kings Bridge Middle School. The district used to open a new school about every five years, he said.
For the next school year, the Jackson County School System will have more than 551 teachers, 159 paraprofessionals, 88 bus drivers, 77 custodian personnel, 36 administrators and 15 counselors among its staff totaling 1,027 employees.
More than 83 percent of the general fund budget includes salaries and benefits.
The Jackson County School System estimates it will receive $35.4 million in local funds and $32.8 million in state funds for the 2009 budget. Grant funds are anticipated at $23.3 million, along with a $1.1 million balance to start the budget on July 1.
The budget includes a projected ending balance of $504,438 on June 30, 2009.
The cost of educating a child in the county school system is expected to reach $12,457. Of that amount, $6,467 would be provided by local funds and $5,989 from the state. | <urn:uuid:d25d8b15-2d67-4092-b0f9-683f88c4ad4b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mainstreetnews.com/2008/06:11:08/J0611A.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9526 | 962 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Academic Support Services
Student Support Services
Dynamic Leadership Institute (DLI)
The Dynamic Leadership Institute, known to many as DLI, is designed to teach students
the interpersonal skills and knowledge needed to engage in various leadership roles
on campus, within the community and in their futures.
Each of the four phases allows students to view leadership from different perspectives and provides opportunities to examine and enhance their skills.
The program works in conjunction with students transferring from OCTC to WKU-O, so all students have the opportunity to complete all four phases.
• Phase 1 "Leadership Initiative" --- is designed to enhance participants’ basic leadership skills and abilities.
• Phase 2 "Leadership Exploration and Discovery" --- focuses on each individual’s exploration as a leader.
• Phase 3 "Leadership in Action" --- gives participants the opportunity to use the knowledge and skills learned in the first two phases and puts them into action.
• Phase 4 "Leadership in the Real World"
Volunteerism In Progress is an organization where students, faculty, and staff work together to make a difference in the community. VIP will organize multiple drives and volunteer opportunities during each semester. Each project will aid a different organization in the Owensboro area, giving students the chance to be involved with numerous community organizations.
Contact Hannah Thurman for more information.
firstname.lastname@example.org or (270) 684-9797
Start a student organization, contact:
Student Services Coordinator | <urn:uuid:ed52c674-40e1-4574-8fac-9519456d0f32> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wku.edu/owensboro/studentservices/studentorganizations.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913252 | 311 | 1.859375 | 2 |
Suggestions for slide 6 that reads in part:
Figure in Greek Mythology, sounds like Pig
True enough but in terms of a control language, the play Pygmalion by Shaw would have been the better reference.
I presume the reader/listener would get the sound similarity without prompting.
Sorry, read the slide deck and see the source code at: https://github.com/jeromatron/pygmalion/. | <urn:uuid:4302e388-fc57-43e3-b8ff-7c0a5111ae7a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tm.durusau.net/?cat=584 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.905847 | 91 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Updated: February 14, 2012
Satisfy your appetite for dark, dystopian romance with Hunger Game
The Hunger Games, the first book in a post-apocalyptic trilogy by author Suzanne Collins, grabbed readers’ attention when it was published in 2008 and hasn’t let go since. Grim and futuristic, it introduces sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, a competitor in a fight-to-the-death televised battle that pits teen against teen. The Hunger Games, which was followed by Catching Fire (2009) and Mockingjay (2010), became a publishing phenomenon that’s been translated into 26 different languages. Next up is a feature film (with a screenplay that’s also written by Collins) scheduled for release next month.
A Conversation with Suzanne Collins, author of The Hunger Games
Curious about the author of The Hunger Games? Learn more about Suzanne Collins, her inspirations and the link between reality television and her books in this interview from Scholastic, Inc.
Q: You weave action, adventure, mythology, sci-fi, romance and philosophy throughout The Hunger Games. What influenced the creation of The Hunger Games?
A: A significant influence would have to be the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. The myth tells how in punishment for past deeds, Athens periodically had to send seven youths and seven maidens to Crete, where they were thrown in the Labyrinth and devoured by the monstrous Minotaur.
Even as a kid, I could appreciate how ruthless this was. Crete was sending a very clear message: “Mess with us and we’ll do something worse than kill you. We’ll kill your children.” And the thing is, it was allowed; the parents sat by powerless to stop it. Theseus, who was the son of the king, volunteered to go. I guess in her own way, Katniss is a futuristic Theseus.
In keeping with the classical roots, I send my tributes into an updated version of the Roman gladiator games, which entails a ruthless government forcing people to fight to the death as popular entertainment. The world of Panem, particularly the Capitol, is loaded with Roman references. Panem itself comes from the expression “Panem et Circenses” which translates into “Bread and Circuses.”
The audiences for both the Roman games and reality TV are almost characters in themselves. They can respond with great enthusiasm or play a role in your elimination.
I was channel surfing between reality TV programming and actual war coverage when Katniss’s story came to me. One night I’m sitting there flipping around and on one channel there’s a group of young people competing for, I don’t know, money maybe? And on the next, there’s a group of young people fighting an actual war. And I was tired, and the lines began to blur in a very unsettling way, and I thought of this story.
Q: The Hunger Games is an annual televised event in which one boy and one girl form each of the twelve districts is forced to participate in a fight-to-the-death on live TV. What do you think the appeal of reality television is – to both kids and adults?
A: Well, they’re often set up as games and, like sporting events, there’s an interest in seeing who wins. The contestants are usually unknown, which makes them relatable. Sometimes they have very talented people performing.
Then there’s the voyeuristic thrill – watching people being humiliated or brought to tears, or suffering physically – which I find very disturbing. There’s also the potential for desensitizing the audience, so that when they see real tragedy playing out on say, the news, it doesn’t have the impact it should.
Q: The Hunger Games tackles issues like severe poverty, starvation, oppression and the effects of war among others. What drew you to such a serious subject matter?
A: That was probably my dad’s influence. He was career Air Force, a military specialist, a historian and a doctor of political science. When I was a kid, he was gone for a year in Vietnam. It was very important to him that we understood about certain aspects of life. So it wasn’t enough to visit a battlefield, we needed to know why the battle occurred, how it played out and the consequences. Fortunately, he had a gift for presenting history as a fascinating story. He also seemed to have a good sense of exactly how much a child could handle, which is quite a bit.
Q: Was The Hunger Games always planned as a trilogy?
A: Not necessarily. But once I’d thought through to the end of the first book, I realized that there was no way that the story was concluded. Katniss does something that would never go unpunished in her world. There would definitely be repercussions. And so the question of whether or not to continue with the series was answered for me.
Q: What do you hope readers will come away with when they read this trilogy?
A: Questions about how elements of the book might be relevant in their own lives. And, if they’re disturbing, what they might do about them.
In love with The Hunger Game and can’t get enough? Satisfy your craving with a selection of books with similar themes and ideas
| Hunger Game Read-Alikes Available @ Broward County Library:|
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Birthmarked, by Caragh M. O’Brien.
Teenage midwife Gaia Stone helps her mother deliver the three infants a month that the Enclave requires. But when her beloved mother is abducted by those she loyally serves, Gaia question what it all means and whether it’s worth it. More...
||Eve, by Anna Carey (available only in eBook)|
It’s the year 2032. A deadly virus has wiped out most of the world’s population. Eve is on the cusp of womanhood and about to find out what happens to the students of her all-girls school after graduation. Will she survive the treacherous journey to the New World that she now faces? More...
||Girl in the Arena, by Lise Haines|
As a neo-gladiator’s daughter, Lyn lives by the rules of the Gladiator Sports Association. Her mother has made a career out of marrying neo-gladiators, the post-modern warriors who fight to the death in televised blood sport matches. But when Lyn’s stepfather is killed by a talented young fighter and capture’s Lyn’s dowry bracelet, she may be forced to marry him… More...
||Graceling, by Kristin Cashor|
In her society, Katsa is one of the lucky few born with a rare skill called a “Grace.” She has the power to kill and struggles with the burden and consequences that ability brings her. But when she teams up with another fighter, Katsa has the power to seek redemption and save her country from a mysterious enemy. More...
||Matched, by Ally Condie|
In Cassia’s life there are no choices. From what you wear to who you wed, The Society makes the decisions for you. When Cassia turns 17, the Society picks her husband and she is “Matched” with her best friend Xander, the perfect choice in her eyes. But when her neighbor Ky’s face also keeps showing up on her match disk, dangerous and difficult questions arise. More...
||The Pledge, by Kimberly Derting|
In Charlaina “Charlie” Hart’s dark, dystopian world, the class system is based on the language that you speak. But Charlie has a secret gift that’s only revealed when she meets Max, a young man with a mystery of his own. More...
||Unwind, by Neal Shusterman|
In the future, teenagers can be chosen to have their lives “unwound” and their body parts transplanted to help others. But the donors are anything but willing, and three of them but do everything to escape this fate and survive intact. More...
||Wither, by Lauren DeStefano|
Modern science has drastically altered the human lifespan. Men die at twenty-five; women at the age of twenty. In this dark look at the future, young girls are kidnapped, married off and then used to repopulate the dying Earth. Can anyone escape? More... | <urn:uuid:4e307fed-af7c-46cb-85e7-13ec26a70989> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://broward.org/LIBRARY/SERVICES/ESPOTLIGHTS/Pages/ESpotlights02142012.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964143 | 1,796 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Ever wonder about your safety while stepping out on the side of a busy road to remove your mail from the mailbox? Spin Mail has created a simple solution by making it easy for you to turn your mailbox around to face you, without you having to step out near traffic.
Reed Holmes of Chester, NJ, was in the fifth grade when he decided to take on solving a perennial problem – the frequent loss of his family’s mailbox to passing snow plows – as his project for a class assignment on inventing. The result of his creative thinking was brilliantly simple and economical: a mounting bracket that uses an inclined turntable to allow the mailbox to be turned completely around, then automatically returns it to its original position.
When Reed and his dad Keith Holmes, co-owner of the popular Redwoods Grill and Bar in Chester, installed the first prototype on the family’s mailbox, they quickly recognized that the device provided an even more important safety benefit. The rotating bracket allowed them to get the mail without going into the street. They simply turned the mailbox around, removed the mail and released to swing back into its regular position facing the street.
And the newly installed SpinMail bracket also fulfilled its original purpose equally well. Since installing it, the family’s mailbox has survived three winters without any snow plow damage. | <urn:uuid:98a08d8f-77c5-497d-b0ff-6a143e6a6508> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.business-opportunities.biz/2013/02/03/spin-mail-the-mailbox-that-pivots/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968328 | 271 | 1.914063 | 2 |
Ovarian torsion is a condition in which an ovary twists or turns on
its supporting ligament, cutting off its blood supply. Women with this
condition have pain that begins suddenly and steadily gets worse.
Ovarian torsion can occur during pregnancy. It is most common
during the first trimester of pregnancy but may occur anytime during pregnancy.
Prompt surgical treatment of ovarian torsion is especially important during
pregnancy to prevent tissue death (necrosis) or preterm labor.
How this information was developed to help you make better health decisions. | <urn:uuid:1dc60b11-e5c4-4c1e-b70b-80e86ba9d983> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.peacehealth.org/xhtml/content/definition/sto167451.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9448 | 120 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Prosecutors in the Office of Military Commissions at Guantanamo Bay have informed some attorneys defending "war on terror" detainees that their clients could be removed from the indefinite detention list and eventually released from the prison facility if they agree to cooperate and testify against certain prisoners selected for prosecution before the tribunals, according to emails obtained by Truthout and interviews with a half-dozen military defense lawyers who were briefed about the discussions.
Prosecutors have also told the attorneys if detainees agree to this arrangement they would be eligible for transfer to a special communal camp, currently under consideration by Joint Task Force-Guantanamo officials, that would be designed specifically to house cooperating detainees where the conditions of their confinement would be greatly improved.
The military attorneys, who requested anonymity in order to openly discuss and share internal details they have learned about the prosecution of terrorism suspects before military commissions, added that previous chief prosecutors in the Office of Military Commissions had fiercely opposed providing detainees with incentives in exchange for their cooperation.
Capt. Edward White in the Office of Military Commissions, Office of the Chief Prosecutor is the government official attorneys were told to contact if they were interested in arranging meetings to discuss whether their clients wanted to cooperate with the prosecution, the military attorneys said.
The talks took place during the first week of February. According to an email written by a prosecutor in the Office of Military Commissions, Brig. Gen. Mark S. Martins, Guantanamo's chief prosecutor, has already put together a list of detainees he intends to prosecute, which he prioritized and made up of cases Martins strongly believes he can win. The identities of the detainees on that list is unknown.
There are still 171 detainees imprisoned at Guantanamo. More than half have already been cleared for release. Thirty-six are expected to face war crimes charges and the remainder were deemed by an Obama administration task force as being too dangerous to release or too difficult to prosecute because the evidence against them was obtained through torture.
Martins, who became chief prosecutor in October, has informed his staff, according to another email written by the same military prosecutor, that he is interested in obtaining information about detainees he intends to prosecute that will help the government secure convictions. The detainees who cooperate with the prosecution and show a willingness to testify against other prisoners, in a manner that "pleases" the government, would receive plea deals for the terrorist-related crimes they are accused of and could eventually be repatriated to another country.
"Proffer" sessions have already taken place between some defense attorneys and detainees, where the prisoners have discussed what evidence they can offer the prosecution for use in war crimes trials, the prosecutor's email says.
Reached for comment, Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Todd Breasseale told Truthout, "legal discussions that take place amongst members of the government's prosecution team are not appropriate for me to discuss."
But, he added, "It is well established in civilian as well as military criminal justice systems for suspects, accused persons, and other witnesses to provide testimony and cooperation to authorities."
"The prosecution and defense maintain an open dialog and every legal option remains a consideration for all individuals suspected or alleged to have committed crimes triable by military commission," Breasseale said.
As for the possibility of moving detainees to a special camp designated to house cooperating prisoners, Breasseale said he "won't discuss the security apparatus that surrounds either the detainees or those who work in and around Joint Task Force-Guantanamo Bay."
It appears that Martins' proposal was attractive to Majid Khan, a high-value prisoner, who was charged February 15 with conspiracy, murder and attempted murder and providing material support for terrorism in violation of the laws of war.
On Wednesday, according to a report published in the Washington Post, Khan, 31, a resident of Baltimore, accepted a plea deal and will cooperate and testify against other detainees in exchange for a reduced sentence that could result in his repatriation to Pakistan in four years.
Khan, who was held at CIA black site prisons in Europe and tortured before being transferred to Guantanamo in 2006, has already been moved out of Camp 7, the facility that houses about 13 other high-value prisoners. His is the first plea deal the government has reached with a high-value detainee. He is the only legal US resident held at Guantanamo.
Since being transferred to Guantanamo, Khan has twice attempted suicide by chewing through his arteries, The Washington Post reported, citing the transcript of a 2007 hearing released by the Department of Defense.
One of the guards at the high-value detainee camp where Khan was held had attended the same high school with him in Baltimore, although the two men did not know each other, according to military sources.
The guard, who was attached to a Maryland National Guard military intelligence unit, was handpicked for the job because of his close connection to Khan, said the military sources.
Guantanamo officials believed the guard, who worked at Camp 7 between September 2006 and March 2007, would be able to obtain intelligence from Khan about self-professed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and al-Qaeda's operations.
Mohammed's war crimes tribunal, along with the tribunals of other 9/11 co-conspirators, is expected to begin in the spring. Some of Khan's alleged terrorist activities were conducted under Mohammed's direction and its believed Khan will cooperate with the prosecution's case against Mohammed and perhaps even testify against the al-Qaeda leader.
Neither Khan's military attorney nor his civilian lawyer at the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York could be reached for comment. Khan's attorneys declined to comment on the plea deal when The Washington Post contacted them.
Breasseale told Truthout, "there is a well-defined procedure for pre-trial agreements between the government and an accused person," which he said is "identical to that used in courts-martial and comparable to that used in the federal system."
"Any agreement must be in writing and must be freely and voluntarily entered into by an accused," Breasseale said, adding, "I make no representation about any individual case."
Col. Morris Davis, the former Guantanamo chief prosecutor, said he was not "the least bit surprised" about the deal prosecutors struck with Khan.
"I predicted the Majid Khan deal a week ago when I saw the convening authority referred charges to trial less than a day after he got them from Martins where before it was weeks between charging and referral," Davis said in an interview with Truthout. "If there wasn't a deal they would have at least wanted to give the appearance of giving the case some thoughtful consideration before the convening authority acted."
When he was prosecuting detainees for war crimes, Davis had a strategy "for the order in which I wanted to arrange" them, which he said may be similar to the way in which Martins is handling the cases.
"Like ordinary organized crime cases, the prosecution usually wants to start at the bottom of the pyramid and cuts deals with the small fish and then work their way up the food chain to bag the big fish," said Davis, who resigned from his position in October 2007. "When I was [chief prosecutor] during the Bush administration, there were a number of obstructionists, like [Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence] Stephen Cambone, who had no interest in declassifying information for use in trials. They thought that if we can detain these guys indefinitely until the war on terror is over ... which is not in this lifetime ... then why expose intel to the light of day and risk an acquittal? Back then it wasn't a question of doing cases in a logical order, it was just a battle to try and get a case ... any case ... to a stage where we could get it to court."
"I suspect Martins is proceeding in a logical order and is interested in deals with low and mid-level detainees if they can help him shore up cases against the main players like [Khalid Sheikh Mohammed] and al-Nashiri," Davis added. "It probably helps that several more years have gone by and after a decade or more behind bars the detainees would welcome a chance to see light at the end of the tunnel."
Moreover, Davis said, "It's an election year and it helps the administration with critics on both sides to show some forward progress."
Still, Stephen Truitt, a habeas corpus attorney who represents Yemeni citizen Hani Abdullah, told Truthout, while plea deals and cooperation agreements "is certainly normal prosecutorial conduct, the fact that the reward is termination of illegal behavior, adds an ironic nuance of 'cooperate and I will no longer throw away the key to your jail.'" | <urn:uuid:e08d72f8-ff48-43c7-83e1-e764084703fe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://truth-out.org/news/item/6867 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978567 | 1,772 | 1.5 | 2 |
This morning’s New York Times has a long and prominently placed article about the 20th anniversary of the “First Superstring Revolution”. The Times has a long history of producing overhyped uncritical articles about string theory, for a classic example, see “Physicists Finally Find a Way to Test Superstring Theory”. This one does allow some critical voices to be heard, including Lawrence Krauss, who is quoted as describing string theory as a “colossal failure” (which is different than a miserable failure)
Krauss is also quoted as saying “We bemoan the fact that Einstein spent the last 30 years of his life on a fruitless quest, but we think it’s fine if a thousand theorists spend 30 years of their prime on the same quest.”
Witten is quoted extensively, but he doesn’t sound very optimistic these days, saying “It’s plausible that we will someday understand string theory”, and making the rather weird statement that string theory is “so vast, so rich you could say almost anything about it” (for instance that it is a colossal failure?). He also seems to have given up on the idea that there is some fundamental new symmetry underlying string theory, instead putting his hopes on the existence of some new principle for constructing space and time.
The article also says that few theorists will give up on string theory when supersymmetry is not found at the LHC, with Witten interpreting this not as evidence that string theory is wrong, just that unfortunately it will be harder to get experimental evidence for it than he had hoped. String theorists in general seem to have trouble getting their minds around the idea that it is even possible the theory is wrong. Jeff Harvey does admit that sometimes he wakes up thinking “What am I doing spending my whole career on something that can’t be tested experimentally?”, but the question of “What am I doing spending my whole career on a colossal failure?” doesn’t seem to keep him awake nights.
The article ends by quoting an exchange between Steve Shenker and my colleague Brian Greene. Shenker quotes Churchill, describing the state of research into string theory as “perhaps it is the end of the beginning”. Brian seems to be one of the few string theorists around willing to actually consider the idea that the theory might be wrong, arguing that if string theory is wrong, it would be good to know this soon so physics can move on. | <urn:uuid:cde25e9f-cdad-4854-8260-32cd1c1b6ebe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/archives/000119.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966063 | 522 | 1.921875 | 2 |
Our final film, THE JOB, a short horror film starring Paul Kite and Jay Heiselmann. Written and Directed by Matt London, Mark Kleback, Crys Moore, and Luis Palacios.
My midterm for ICM is a conversation game in which the user answers questions provided by a digital person (in this case, me). As the user selects her responses, the digital person’s attitude changes via shifting facial expressions. The more in line the user’s answers are with the digital person’s, the happier the digital person gets, and the less in line they are, the sadder and angrier the digital person gets.
I consider this the third evolution of my Escape the Cavern text game. In the first, I used keystrokes to navigate text strings, simulating rooms. In the second, I was able to utilize the same three keystrokes to move between strings. In this final installment, there are a number of components operating concurrently. I use a global variable that is reset after every question, so that the same keystrokes can be used in each question. I changed what each keystroke did from question to question, which allowed for less predictability. In addition, I use another variable to represent the digital person’s “feeling,” which goes up and down depending on the responses to individual questions.
Here’s a sample game:
The HappySadMaker has over 100 lines of dialogue and five endings.
Click here to play.
My code is below.
Here it is, the first step to our shoe painter.
Whenever I see that trickle of sludge oozing down the center of the subway tracks, I always think that there is something even more germ-ridden in a New York City subway station, the dirtiest in the world. It’s the touchscreen of a Metrocard machine. Can you imagine how many filthy people wipe their dirty fingers on those things every day?
I chose the Metrocard Machine because few devices are so needed and so reviled. When you watch people use a Metrocard machine, you can see the anger on their wrinkled brows. This little HAL9000 takes your money, gives you a flimsy piece of plastic, and assures you that you will get terrible service for your troubles.
Our assignment this week was to work with strings and text to create a program. I decided to make an old-fashioned text adventure game. Here’s the end result:
You have to scroll the black box to the top of the screen, then click on the gray square. This will allow you to input the commands to navigate the cavern.
I sort of felt like I was reinventing the wheel on this one. I developed the navigation structure from scratch. For my midterm, which will incorporate aspects of Escape the Cavern, I might try to turn my rooms from printlns into objects. Hopefully this will allow me to use the same keyStroke commands in each room, rather than having to make each option a unique Keystroke.
It was a lot of fun to watch the class play Escape the Cavern. Chris gave a great dramatic read, and the class was taken when some of my turns of phrase. My personal favorite is the monster’s “arboreal jaws.”
My code for escape the cavern is pasted below the cut.
Quick thoughts on the reading from this week:
Designers face many challenges when conveying the uses of their products to the users. Problems arise when it is difficult for users to interpret the functions of the product. One example used throughout the reading is a phone system that has 12 buttons but 25 functions. It’s nearly impossible to learn how to use the phone system because there is nothing intuitive about the buttons and their functions. In a car, on the other hand, there are over a hundred functions, but the method of activating each function is highly intuitive. For example, to turn a car to the right, turn the steering wheel to the right. Not only does the input mirror the output, but feedback is immediate. This is a valuable principle to follow when designing anything.
Maybe it’s because the recent death of Steve Jobs has put Apple in the public consciousness more than usual lately, but this chapter got me thinking about the difference between Apple packaging and Microsoft packaging.
Funny, right? Now, who is to say that Snow Leopard is superior to Vista? It’s possible that it’s not.
The Emotion and Design article had a lot of resonance with me. As I mentioned in an earlier post, there was a time when scientific instruments were things of great beauty, but that now they all look hideous. My brother argued this point with me in the comments, indicating that he thought his boxy, monochromatic computer tower was beautiful. There is something to be said for using something that is pretty. Moleskine notebooks are more satisfying to use than flimsy spiral notebooks, but why? The spiral’s tearability and disposability make it MORE functional. But the texture of the moleskine cover under your thumb feels good, and the authority the hardcover grants you makes you feel smarter, and more serious as a writer.
When I first conceived of my prismatic spray back in the first week, I never thought it would lead to something as dynamic as this. Check it out! I have mouseClick function that randomizes the color of individual lines, keystroke functions that adjust the direction and color of the spray. I’d say this is pretty cool. I utilized many of the skills we have learned this past month to create something pretty cool. Here’s the link and the code is pasted below the cut.
Presenting… my Stupid Pet Trick! My goal for this assignment was to play with the classical elements to create a puzzle, like something you’d find in The 5th Element or a role-playing game. You have to fill a glass of water to turn on a series of LEDs, and then light a candle, which is detected by a photocell, which lights another series of LEDs and opens the lid of my puzzle box.
I successfully accomplished the task of input, process, output. I feel good with my success. I had to temper my ambitions a little bit, but I just didn’t have the space or time to do everything I wanted to do. I love that the puzzle uses natural, elemental objects to perform computer functions.
I adopted some code from the servo tutorial, my old farmer game, and a photocell tutorial I found online.
Click below for my Arduino code: | <urn:uuid:9edf0a18-1d0b-4bab-a46b-768e06fd548e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://itp.nyu.edu/~mll331/themattlondonblog/?m=201110 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948991 | 1,378 | 1.804688 | 2 |
The New Literacy
It’s a formula. The first sentence is the thesis sentence. The next few sentences give reasons to support the thesis. The last sentence sums up what you already said and transitions into the next paragraph. Each of the following paragraphs is devoted to expanding upon the reasons to support the thesis. Each follows the same format. The last paragraph sums up and/or restates the thesis according to the formula. Repeat depending on the length of the assignment. (Even reading this paragraph is boring.)
“As a writer, it [the formula] offends me deeply,” says Professor Cathy N. Davidson of Duke University.
Me too. Especially when the formula frequently produces paragraphs like this one and hundreds just like it:
“Romeo and Juliet were star-crossed lovers. Their families didn’t like one another. They accidentally killed themselves. In the end their parents were sorry they were star-crossed.”
Davidson has written a new book, Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn. The book focuses on teaching writing in digital times. Davidson is a proponent of moving away from the old pre-technology literacy, including the dreaded 20-page research paper, into a new literacy that embraces short papers, websites, PowerPoint, and blogs.
I have no problem with high school or even college students abandoning the research paper. I stopped assigning it years ago, and as an administrator encouraged the English department to give it up too (with not a lot of success). It’s the rare student who can refine a topic, gather pertinent research, come to her own conclusions, and present the whole argument in clear, cogent, lengthy prose.
In addition, time management is always a problem. No matter how many weeks a teacher gives her students to complete the paper, no matter how carefully she monitors their progress, many will try to slap the paper together in the last few days. The time crunch leads to papers rife with ignorance, mechanical errors, cutting and pasting, and plagiarism, which now must be dealt with as a disciplinary issue. No thank you.
This is not to say that I believe we should abandon all formal writing and replace it with student blogs. Students can practice thinking and writing in shorter traditional formats. But as Matt Richtel notes in his excellent article in Education Life, choosing to have students write either traditional papers or blogs is another false dichotomy for which educators are famous. Students can actually do both, and teachers can choose from a panoply of formats. Still, even in my doctoral courses, I found that blogging is often more about self-expression and less about actually thought, the literary equivalent of the difference between “The Bachelor” and “Downton Abbey”. But it doesn’t have to be, Richtel notes. While blogs are “a platform that seems to encourage rambling exercises in personal expression,” [they] can also be well-crafted and meticulously researched,” he says. On her blog Davidson herself says, “My larger point is that ‘blogs vs term papers’ is a nonsensical binary. There are good and bad ways to use blogs just as there are good and bad ways to use term paper or any other assignments.“
One big advantage blogs have in teaching writing is that the audience is greatly increased from just the teacher to all of the students’ classmates and maybe beyond. In addition, blogging is interactive, and many students don’t trouble themselves to criticize gracefully. So publishing written work in any form is a strong impetus to revise and correct.
This is an interesting time to be teaching writing. So many choices, so many ideas. And the teacher doesn’t have to drag a 10-pound briefcase home every weekend filled with samples of sorry writing. | <urn:uuid:d99302c9-8068-41ce-a2c3-532ff6ac3f7e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.scholastic.com/practical_leadership/2012/01/the-new-literacy.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961678 | 804 | 2.359375 | 2 |
Page 1 of 2from The Collected Works
Henry VIII and
the First Totalitarian State —Part 2
The Closure of the Commonwealth
The idea of the commonwealth, as it became articulate during the sixteenth century, is the idea of the closed, secularized, autonomous polity. In order to understand the implications of the idea, we must briefly enumerate the various aspects of closure and secularization. By closure is meant jurisdictional independence from empire and papacy.
Jurisdictional independence from the empire could be formalized very simply through a declaration enunciating the principle of imperator in regno suo, which had become current in the Middle Ages.
The jurisdictional independence from the papacy was a more complicated matter. Here we have to distinguish between the autonomy of the Ecclesia Anglicana, achieved by submitting its canonical legislation to the consent of the king; and the actual secularization of spiritual power, achieved by transferring the infallible authority in matters of faith to the king in Parliament.
The first group of measures, advancing Anglicanism, means no more than a decentralization of church government according to national regions.
The second step, the schismatic break, destroys the institutions that embody the universality of the church; but the situation created by this measure did not differ substantially from the situation that existed in Christianity through the schism between Western and Eastern churches.
The third step, consummated through the Act for Submission of the Clergy (23 Henry VIII, c.19), of 1534, is a real attack on the church because it abolishes its self-government.
And only the fourth step [The Act of Supremacy] destroys the spiritual substance of the church by making the symbols of faith a matter of secular declaration. Only this fourth step establishes what today we call a totalitarian government. This last proposition, however, must be qualified by the reminder that the king and his advisers did not know what they were doing and that, when the consequences of totalitarianism began to show, the result was a formidable constitutional struggle.
Nevertheless, we must realize that the English development of the sixteenth century was not simply an assertion of national independence, and that it was considerably more than a "break with Rome." It entailed, indeed, the establishment of the first totalitarian government, foreshadowing the possibilities of a future when the creed promulgated by the government would have become anti-Christian.
From the numerous enactments that have a bearing on the closure of the commonwealth, we shall select only a few passages in which the idea of the autonomous polity receives explicit formulation.
The Act in Restraint of Appeals (24 Henry VIII, c. 12), of 1533, opens with the declaration:
The declaration of England as an empire, as we have indicated, does no more than resume the idea of the imperator in regno suo; the style of imperator had been claimed for the first time by Edward I in the thirteenth century.
In the Act in Restraint of Appeals it is the preliminary to the enactment that no appeal can lie from an English court, spiritual or temporal, to a foreign higher instance; and that no decision rendered by a foreign authority in contravention of this act can be enforced by an English court, and in particular not by English "prelates, pastors, ministers and curates." Behind this sudden concern about appeal to "foreign princes and potentates" lies the king's secret marriage with Anne Boleyn in January 1533. While the act cuts off the embarrassing appeals to Rome, it does not impair the spiritual substance of the Ecclesia Anglicana; the autonomy of the "Spirituality" remains untouched — barring of course the king's prodding for a favorable decision in his marital affairs. | <urn:uuid:6b04259e-1802-4661-8b6b-942220653556> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://voegelinview.com/from-The-Collected-Works/henry-viii-and-first-totalitarian-state-pt-2.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953754 | 776 | 3.3125 | 3 |
McCormick School of Engineering, Northwestern University
News from McCormick
McCormick Professor Explains the Popularity of Crowdfunding on Marketplace Money
Elizabeth Gerber offers four reasons why people participate in crowdfunding
Elizabeth Gerber, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, communications studies, and the Allen K. and Johnnie Cordell Breed Junior Professor of Design, was recently interviewed by American Public Media’s Marketplace Money about the phenomenon of crowdfunding.
Gerber identified four primary reasons why individuals support crowdfunding projects: a reward for giving, a connection to the people behind the project, the desire to be a part of the group, or the desire to support efforts analogous with their beliefs.
Gerber added she believes the allure of crowdfunding lies in the understanding that even after money is given, donors remain connected to the cause.
“What's interesting about crowdfunding is that when you give money, you're not just giving money and the exchange is over, the relationship lasts. So the content creator will keep you engaged in a way that you wouldn't otherwise,” Gerber said. | <urn:uuid:755645c3-3126-4e4a-be42-4ff48f4915cc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/news/articles/2013/01/elizabeth-gerber-explains-popularity-of-crowdfunding-on-marketplace.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946925 | 221 | 1.898438 | 2 |
- Course: Cold Appetizer, Main Course, Side Dish
- Skill Level: Moderate
- Cost: Inexpensive
- Favorited: 10 Times
Can be made ahead of time.
Today natural-food stores have begun to sell nigari, the coagulating agent used in making fresh tofu. So it is now possible for many cooks to make their own tofu from scratch. The process of making tofu is very simple, but requires a bit of patience. Homemade tofu has a sweet soybean aroma and flavor that is not often found in commercial versions. Try making your own!
Superior tofu is made with three important ingredients: superior-quality soybeans, which contain less fat than the beans raised to produce oil; clean spring water; and natural nigari, rather than a chemical coagulating agent. You can find these materials at natural-food stores.
Soak the soybeans in 4½ cups water (preferably spring water) for 8 hours in warm weather, or 20 hours in winter.
Dissolve the nigari in 6 tablespoons lukewarm spring water.
In a food processor, grind the soybeans with their soaking water for 2 minutes or until the beans are ground fine. In a large pot, bring 5 cups spring water to a boil. Add the ground soybeans to the pot, and bring the mixture almost to a boil over medium heat, stirring continuously with a wooden spatula. Immediately before the mixture comes to a boil, reduce the heat to low. Cook the beans for 8 minutes, stirring.
Strain the hot mixture through a strainer lined with finely woven cotton cloth. You may wish to wear clean rubber gloves for protection from the heat. Reserve the very nutritious pulp, called okara, for other preparations, but remember that you must use the pulp the same day, because it does not keep. Transfer the soy milk to the pot, and cook the soy milk over low heat, stirring continuously with the wooden spatula. When the temperature registers between 150 to 155 degrees F, remove the pot from the heat.
Add half of the nigari mixture to the soy milk, stirring with the spatula in a whirlpool pattern. Add the remaining nigari mixture, and this time stir gently, making a figure eight. Soon you will notice that the soy milk is beginning to coagulate. Cover the pot, and let it stand for 15 minutes.
Line a colander with a tightly woven cotton cloth, and set the colander over a bowl that can support it. With a soup ladle, gently transfer the coagulated soy milk to the cloth-lined colander. Fold the cloth over the top of the coagulated soy milk, and place a weight of about 1½ pounds on top. Let the tofu stand for 15 minutes. This process removes excess water and makes the tofu firm.
Place a large bowl in the sink, and fill it with cold water. Remove the weight from the tofu, unfold the cotton cloth, and gently transfer the tofu to the cold water. Gently run cold water from the tap into the bowl for 15 minutes, without letting the water hit the tofu directly.
Serve the tofu immediately as hiya-yakko, or store it in fresh cold water in the refrigerator.
Nutritional information is based on 7 servings. | <urn:uuid:390ef694-3fd0-4623-9cf6-ec197668bd0b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cookstr.com/recipes/firm-tofu-from-scratch | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92218 | 683 | 2.375 | 2 |
Superintendent Johnson last night gave the keynote address at the Boston Bar Association's Law Day Dinner. Below is an excerpt from her remarks:
Tonight, I am reminded that throughout our nation’s history, the work that you do and the work we carry out on a day-to-day basis has often intersected. So tonight, I’d like to say a little bit about how we got to this place, tell you how we are changing to create the kinds of schools that most of you attended and that each of you would choose for your own child - and then finally, I hope to end with a few thoughts about how together we can be the change we want to see for all of our community’s children. Our collective work in Boston is all the more significant because Boston’s history begins our nation’s history and our nation’s pursuit of educational opportunity for all of its children began with the first school - Boston Latin School, founded in 1635, and who this year celebrates it 375th anniversary. BLS was followed in 1647 by a decree that every town in the Commonwealth of 50 families or more should have an elementary school and every town of 100 families should establish a “Latin School.” The Mather elementary school opened in 1639, the English high school in 1821; and yet the universal free public education system that is a ubiquitous part of the fabric of our American democracy and the one we know today is one that has been sacrificed for and fought for.
Read the entire speech here. | <urn:uuid:d2c9f7a8-96e3-4547-8ed2-b8cd4b41709a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.allaboutbps.blogspot.com/2010/05/dr-johnson-speaks-at-boston-bar.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971143 | 317 | 2.109375 | 2 |
NEW YORK (AP) — St. John’s basketball coach Steve Lavin needs to take a different method in treating his prostate cancer, but doesn’t expect it to interfere with the upcoming season.
The 47-year-old Lavin, diagnosed with the disease last September, waited until April to announce his illness. He said then he was told he could delay treatment until after last basketball season, his first at St. John’s.
Now a new course of action is needed.
“After the most recent consultation, my doctors feel at this point that the active surveillance approach is off the table,” Lavin said Saturday to reporters at the Dribble for the Cure event on campus to support pediatric cancer research.
“So that narrows the treatment options to surgery or radiation. The advantage of early detection is that we have these options that can assist in leading to a cancer-free life.”
Lavin said he doesn’t expect to miss any practices, which begin on Oct. 14.
“I don’t think this will affect my coaching at all,” he said.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. | <urn:uuid:2d47f870-51fb-4659-a9d5-58c67b5428b3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/10/06/steve-lavin-to-have-different-prostate-cancer-treatment/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971126 | 245 | 1.515625 | 2 |
One Rear Toe On
The desired wait-for-release position of the dog is two front paws on the ground; two rear paws on the contact with the dog’s top line as level as possible. Having only one rear toe on is acceptable, but not the ideal. Although this position looks similar to “two on, two off”, the training concept for each is quite different (Two on two off is a front paw behavior and one rear toe on is a rear paw behavior). To help distinguish the two, the one rear toe on name was chosen.
The training methodology in the Clean Run article is correct and should result in a reliable contact behavior. However it has been observed that some dogs will not control their descent, going straight to the ground with all four feet and then stepping back onto the contact with a rear paw. This can result in a fault in some venues.
To avoid this behavior, remember to aim for the desired wait-for-release position. If the dog descends the plank intending to pause in this position rather than a stand on the ground he will work to control his momentum. In addition, do not spend much time at Step 3 where the dog is lured off and rewarded for stepping back. This step is intended to make the dog aware that contact with the plank with a rear foot is the important part of the behavior. As soon as he gets the concept, continue to progress through the steps. | <urn:uuid:a1145268-fa42-4686-9f04-03e82db01090> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.awesomepaws.us/?page_id=1809 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963873 | 294 | 2.1875 | 2 |
May 30th, 2006 | researchmaterial
Some of the fake news segments talked up success in the war in Iraq, or promoted the companies’ products.
Investigators from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are seeking information about stations across the country after a report produced by a campaign group detailed the extraordinary extent of the use of such items.
The report, by the non-profit group Centre for Media and Democracy, found that over a 10-month period at least 77 television stations were making use of the faux news broadcasts, known as Video News Releases (VNRs). Not one told viewers who had produced the items.
“We know we only had partial access to these VNRs and yet we found 77 stations using them,” said Diana Farsetta, one of the group’s researchers…
(This isn’t the first time, is it? I’m on the run today, but I want to follow up on this tonight…) | <urn:uuid:004f80e7-bfe1-4773-8c53-41f7a1ae53ef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=2600 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957672 | 202 | 2.078125 | 2 |
Seasoned observers took the wise cracks heard in the Supreme Court this week as a sign that the nine are doubting the wisdom of business methods patents. Sounds bland, but it's really quite provocative stuff. U.S. patent practice has evolved so that inventors win monopolies over ways of doing business, even when there's no tangible invention involved. That's likely to stop in short order. The court practically mocked the very idea of patenting creative ways of making a buck. What's extra intriguing, though, is that the Supreme Court went even further and threw into sharp relief the questionable thinking behind software patents, too.
On the business method patent front, the justices dug deep into their reserves of sarcasm to find non-digital work practices that common sense suggests rightly belong to no one. How about horse whispering?, asked a mischievous Antonin Scalia. Sonia Sotomayor asked the attorney for the petitioner -- the creator of a method for hedging energy costs based on the weather -- whether speed dating could earn a patent. Anthony Kennedy offered by the innovation of selling insurance based on risk. And Stephen Breyer asked the petitioner whether his "wonderful, really original method of teaching antitrust law [that] kept 80 percent of the students awake" was patentable. Maybe, answered the daring attorney. Nobody seemed to buy it.
But here's where software patents come in, and things quickly get complicated. The U.S. has been operating under what's called the machine-or-transformation test, where patent eligibility requires either a tangible invention or a change of some kind from state A to state B. No one quite understands exactly what either "machine" or "transformation" means when it comes to bits and bytes. Software, though, have been free-riding on the back of business method patents -- it is, the thinking goes, just ways of doing business embodied in code. That's how Amazon won a patent for 1-Click. But with methods patents out the window, we have to start judging the wisdom of software patents on its own merits. Chief Justice John Roberts' own line of questioning suggested that if business method patents go down, software patents -- hated by many, particularly those in the open source community -- might just go down with them.
Roberts was dubious about the U.S. Patent Office's claim that transferring a business method to a computer automagically makes the unpatentable patentable. "Instead of looking in the Yellow Pages," asked a doubting Roberts, "you look on the computer, and that makes all the difference to you?"
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(If there's one thing we know about comment trolls, it's that they're lazy) | <urn:uuid:d1d32523-651a-4104-8e6c-46a16a109570> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://prospect.org/article/supremes-question-wisdom-software-patents | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960034 | 557 | 1.804688 | 2 |
In show of force amid standoff with N.Korea, Obama makes symbolic visit to Cold War relic DMZ
OBSERVATION POST OUELLETTE, South Korea (AP) -- Razor-wire close to the border, President Barack Obama on Sunday paid his first visit to the tense zone separating North and South Korea amid new nuclear tensions. He told American troops stationed nearby they are protectors of "freedom's frontier."
Obama shook hands and spoke briefly in the dining hall at a U.S. military camp just outside the 2.5-mile-wide Demilitarized Zone, then walked into the heavily patrolled no-man's land to tour a small post where South Korean forces patrol just 100 yards from the demarcation line.
The president, positioned behind bulletproof glass, peered through binoculars across the line that has bisected the Korean peninsula for 60 years. He spent about 10 minutes at the observation post, looking first toward North Korea, then back to the South.
It was an unmistakable show of force to communist North Korea and its new leader at a time of diplomatic standoff. Obama underscored the Cold War symbolism by making the tour his first order of business ahead of a gathering of world leaders pledged to keep nuclear materials safe. Nuclear-armed North Korea will not attend.
The U.S. is threatening to cancel planned food aid to the North over its announcement that it will launch a long-range rocket next month, news that overshadows the gathering of world leaders committed to nuclear security that Obama will attend in Seoul. Obama was holding bilateral talks with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak later in the day, followed by a news conference.
Santorum tells supporters that pundits and numbers are wrong, GOP nomination hardly settled
GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) -- Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum vows to continue his campaign, despite an increasingly steep climb to the nomination.
Santorum won Saturday's GOP primary in Louisiana but didn't narrow the delegate gap. He's urging his supporters to stick with him even as much of the party establishment has coalesced around Romney's increasingly inevitable coronation.
Santorum seems unwilling to acknowledge it will take a dramatic change in momentum to deny Romney his turn as the Republican nominee.
Romney remains far ahead of Santorum, with 568 delegates to 273 delegates, according to The Associated Press' tally. Newt Gingrich follows with 135 and Ron Paul with 50.
None yet has reached the 1,144 delegates it will take to clinch the nomination, keeping Santorum's hopes alive for now.
US, Turkey and other allies looking into providing Syrian rebels with 'non-lethal' aid
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- Seeking to stem the violence in Syria, the U.S. and other key allies are considering providing Syrian rebels with communications help, medical aid and other "non-lethal" assistance.
President Barack Obama discussed the potential aid options Sunday in a lengthy private meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Both leaders are in Seoul, South Korea for a nuclear security summit.
Turkey has been a key U.S. partner in international efforts to quell violence in neighboring Syria and push President Bashar Assad to leave power. The United Nations estimates 8,000 people -- many civilian protesters -- have been killed in year-long clashes between forces loyal to Assad and opposition fighters.
Ben Rhodes, the White House deputy national security adviser for strategic communication, said Sunday that communications assistance could be critical to the opposition's efforts.
"It's important to the opposition as they're formulating their vision of an inclusive and democratic Syria to have the ability to communicate," Rhodes told reporters traveling with Obama.
SKorean officials say NKorea moves rocket to launch site in preparation for launch next month
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea has moved a long-range rocket to a northwestern site in preparation for a launch next month, South Korean officials said Sunday, as Pyongyang pushes ahead with a plan that Washington calls a cover for testing its long-range missile delivery system.
North Korea announced earlier this month that it would launch a satellite into space using a long-range rocket as part of celebrations marking the 100th anniversary of the April 15 birth of
late President Kim Il Sung. The United States has warned that the launch, slated for mid-April, would jeopardize a recent deal to ship U.S. food aid to the North in exchange for a moratorium on missile and nuclear tests.
The launch is expected to dominate sideline discussions by U.S. President Barack Obama and leaders from nearly 60 countries and international organizations who are gathering in Seoul this week for a two-day nuclear security summit.
Washington says North Korea's rocket launches are a cover to test delivery systems for long-range missiles it hopes to mount with nuclear weapons that could target Alaska and beyond.
Aide says former Vice President Dick Cheney had heart transplant
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Former Vice President Dick Cheney had a heart transplant Saturday, after five heart attacks over the past 25 years and countless medical procedures to keep him going. Cheney, 71, waited nearly two years for his new heart, the gift of an unknown donor.
An aide to Cheney disclosed the surgery after it was over, and said the ex-vice president was recovering at a Virginia hospital.
"Although the former vice president and his family do not know the identity of the donor, they will be forever grateful for this lifesaving gift," aide Kara Ahern said in a written statement that was authenticated by several of the Republican politician's close associates.
Cheney was recovering Saturday night at the intensive care unit of Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Va., after surgery earlier in the day.
More than 3,100 Americans currently are on the national waiting list for a heart transplant. Just over 2,300 heart transplants were performed last year, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. And 330 people died while waiting.
Pope chose Mexico's Catholic heartland for chance to say Mass in shadow of Christ monument
SILAO, Mexico (AP) -- Pope Benedict XVI urged Mexico's children to be messengers of peace, then prepared for the highlight of his visit to this violence-troubled country: Sunday's open-air Mass in the shadow of the Christ the King monument, one of the most important symbols of Mexican Catholicism.
Benedict wanted to come to Guanajuato state specifically to see and bless the statue, which Pope John Paul II always wanted to visit but never did, said the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi.
The 72-foot (22-meter) bronze monument of Christ with its outstretched arms serves as a potent reminder to Mexicans of the 1926-1929 Roman Catholic uprising against the government and its anti-clerical laws that prohibited public Masses like the one Benedict will celebrate before an estimated 350,000 people.
Guanajuato state was the site of some of the key battles of the Cristero War, so-called because its protagonists said they were fighting for Christ the King, and this region remains Mexico's most conservatively Catholic.
The statue "expresses an identity of the Mexican people that contains a whole history in relation to the testimony of faith and those who fought for religious freedom at the time," said Monsignor Victor Rene Rodriguez, secretary general of the Mexican bishops conference.
Attorneys for slain Fla. teen, neighborhood watch captain offer different takes on case
MIAMI (AP) -- Attorneys for the family of Trayvon Martin and the Florida neighborhood watch captain who fatally shot the unarmed teen joined the national chorus of voices calling Saturday for justice in the case.
As demonstrators took to the streets in major cities such as Washington and Chicago to voice outrage over Martin's death, an attorney for the Martin family told board members of the National Association of Black Journalists that federal and local officials have assured the family that the case is a priority.
Meanwhile, an attorney representing the neighborhood watch captain, 28-year-old George Zimmerman, broadly defended his client and said he believes evidence will show that Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law was properly applied.
Zimmerman has not been charged in the Feb. 26 shooting that has ignited racial tensions and raised questions about the Sanford police's handling of the case. Martin was black, and Zimmerman's father is white and his mother is Hispanic.
"Is George a racist? The answer is no, absolutely not. He's not a racist," attorney Craig Sonner said about his client. "The incident that transpired is not racially motivated or a hate crime in any way. It was self-defense."
Student shot to death on Mississippi State campus; suspects flee as campus is put under alert
STARKVILLE, Miss. (AP) -- A student was shot to death at a Mississippi State University residence hall late Saturday night, prompting campus-wide alerts as authorities searched for suspects who fled the scene.
University spokeswoman Maridith Geuder said police received a call about the shooting at Evans Hall around 10 p.m. Saturday. The victim was taken to a hospital where he subsequently died.
Three male suspects fled the building in a blue Crown Victoria. As of early Sunday, no arrests had been made and the campus remained under emergency conditions.
Shortly after the shooting, the university began sending a series of text message alerts to students. Geuder said a team of university officials and police was meeting early Sunday. The team is automatically convened in emergencies under a school policy.
The four-story Evans Hall holds about 300 male students and is located on the north side of campus. The campus of about 20,000 students is located in a rural area in the northeastern part of the state, about 125 miles northeast of Jackson.
Say Hello! to Pakistan's glamorous side as famous celebrity magazine launches in the country
ISLAMABAD (AP) -- Pakistan is better known for bombs than bombshells, militant compounds than opulent estates. A few enterprising Pakistanis hope to alter that perception with the launch of a local version of the well-known celebrity magazine Hello!
They plan to profile Pakistan's rich and famous: the dashing cricket players, voluptuous Bollywood stars and powerful politicians who dominate conversation in the country's ritziest private clubs and lowliest tea stalls. They also hope to discover musicians, fashion designers and other new talents who have yet to become household names.
"The side of Pakistan that is projected time and time again is negative," said Zahraa Saifullah, CEO of Hello! Pakistan. "There is a glamorous side of Pakistan, and we want to tap into that."
But celebrating the lives of Pakistan's most prosperous citizens is not without its critics in a country where much of the population lives in poverty. Advertising one's prosperity could be risky as well since kidnappings for ransom are on the rise and attracting attention from Islamist militants can mean death.
Wajahat Khan, a consulting editor at Hello! Pakistan, said they were cognizant of the sensitivity of publishing a glamour magazine in a conservative Muslim country where many people are struggling and planned to be "socially responsible and culturally aware."
Ohio State knocks off top seed Syracuse 77-70 to reach Final 4 for first time since 2007
BOSTON (AP) -- Ohio State coach Thad Matta sized up his team in the middle of the season and had it figured for an early loss when the NCAA tournament came around.
The final weekend of March Madness is next, and the Buckeyes will be there.
Jared Sullinger recovered from first-half foul trouble to score 19 points and grab seven rebounds, helping Ohio State beat top-seeded Syracuse 77-70 on Saturday to advance to the Final Four in New Orleans. The second-seeded Buckeyes will play the winner of Sunday's Midwest Regional final between North Carolina and Kansas.
"We're not going down to New Orleans for a vacation. It's a business trip," said Sullinger, who picked up his second foul 6 minutes into the game and did not return the rest of the half. "These guys have played without me before, so they know what they have to do."
Deshaun Thomas scored 14 with nine rebounds for Ohio State (31-7), which led by eight points with 59 seconds to play and held on after the Orange cut it to three. The Buckeyes made 13 of 14 free throws in the final 68 seconds and 31 of 42 from the line in all. | <urn:uuid:6c002058-6c0f-416a-839d-9826edf85a7a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.the-review.com/ap%20general%20news/2012/03/25/sunday-march-25-2012 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962979 | 2,567 | 1.671875 | 2 |
America's two leading field crops, corn and soybeans, yield more grain today than they did 75 years ago. But while corn has taken giant leaps forward in average bushels/acre, soybean yields have advanced in baby steps.
Between 1930 and 2003, average corn yields jumped nearly sevenfold, from 20.5 bu./acre to 142.2 bu./acre. In that same period, average soybean yields didn't quite triple, from 13 bu./acre to 33.4 bu./acre. National soybean yields have hovered around 40 bu./acre for about a decade.
Why the widening yield gap between corn and soybeans? There are many reasons, say Purdue University agronomists Jeff Volenec and Scott Jackson. Among them: genetic differences between the two crops and greater attention paid to corn research.
“We're looking at about a 0.4 bu./acre/year average increase for soybeans. For corn it's 1.5 bu./acre/year,” says Volenec, crop physiology professor. “Will soybeans equal the annual increase in corn yields in the near future? No. Can we improve on the 0.4 bu./acre/year? Yes.”
Collaborative research by crop geneticists, physiologists, agronomists and breeders could boost soybean yield potential, Volenec says. However, researchers aren't likely to increase average soybean yields more than a few tenths of a bushel in the next 10 years, and may never be able to place the oilseed on a similar yield growth track as corn.
The challenge for researchers continues to be cracking the unique genetic makeup of the soybean plant. | <urn:uuid:837c73fe-48c4-4793-9354-2d5fa82e4fc8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cornandsoybeandigest.com/soybean-yields-lag-behind-corn | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944994 | 352 | 3.34375 | 3 |
QR Codes in Learning & Education
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I’ve had some amazing discussions with some colleagues recently about QR Codes and how we can use them. When I got over the initial “huh?” response as to what they are, and they understood that the code can contain type of data, we started to get somewhere really quite quickly. So, this post is really to consolidate my previous posts and to make it slightly more graphical – images are often easier to follow. What is a QR Code? In my first post about the codes - – I quoted this definition of a QR Code:
I have written a couple of posts about QR codes in the past, Turn a paper based book into an interactive book with QR Codes and QR Treasure Hunt Generator! Get students using their mobile devices to move and to learn as well as teaching about them all summer in my class and workshops. Clearly, they are the new trend . I do believe they are catching on because they are so darn easy to create and make everything easier for teachers and our students.
I have been pondering how to use QR codes in the classroom . My favorite use being to tape QR codes into old textbooks to make them relevant. The code pictured below goes to a YouTube video with directions on how to do those math problems.
Popular in Japan, created by Denso-Wave of Toyota in 1994 4296 characters/code 1.25X1.25 or 32mmX32mm About QR Codes: Blended Learning with QR Codes Statistics: 1) 534 students from 24 colleges across USA were asked 80% has iPhone or Android 21.5% knows how to scan or likely to scan when they see a QR code Resource: QR codes on campuses 2) 500 people aged 18+ from accross social networks were surveyed 42% knew what QR codes were They saw them in magazines, stores, restaurants, museums Reasons to scan: get discount, more info on the product, curiosity Resource: Lab42: Who Uses QR Codes Resource: http://rack.0.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDEyLzA0LzI4LzA5XzUwXzUwXzEzNF9maWxl/3dab61e5
QR Codes (Quick Response Codes) are just barcodes. There is nothing fancy about them. Just like the grocery store clerk uses barcodes to look up the product and scan the price into the computer, your mobile device or computer can look up QR codes to:
Scannable bar codes may be just what you need to spark some student interest in your classroom - read on to learn how to use them to showcase your student work and give some life to your classroom's infographics. Last April ago I took a trip to Tokyo, Japan. One thing that really stood out to me there was the abundance of these scannable barcodes. These things were everywhere - flyers, posters, billboards, even in advertisements on the sides of commercial vans. Over the past few months, I've watched these codes gain popularity in the United States (If you're from another part of the world, I would love to hear about the trends you've seen - leave a comment). The world as we know it is becoming scannable. | <urn:uuid:440d97d6-7045-4698-b7b2-54482f6b355e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pearltrees.com/epaperservices/qr-codes-learning-education/id3878237 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962959 | 682 | 3.125 | 3 |
What does it say about America’s moral investments that corporations can buy out a government agency designed to protect us, sue media outlets for cutting into profits, and then claim that [pink slime] is, well, health food?
When the science-fiction film Soylent Green was released in 1973, critics celebrated everything about it except the premise. New York Times film critic A.H. Weiler declared that the movie’s twenty-first century setting was “occasionally frightening but…rarely convincingly real.” How could a population unwittingly eat and enjoy human remains in the form of the popular food product, Soylent Green? Unfortunately, the parallels between this sci-fi classic and modern corporate food production would cause Mr. Weiler to spit out his hamburger in disbelief.
In March 2012, ABC News led the media in breaking the story of a company, Beef Products Inc., that takes slaughterhouse byproducts, throws them in a centrifuge, and squeezes out the ground remains through a tube of ammonium hydroxide. Known to Beef Products Inc., as Lean Finely-Texturized Beef, the media quickly dubbed the product “pink slime,” or “soylent pink.” LFTB cannot be sold by itself directly to consumers, but is instead purchased by other companies to add to ground beef products such as hamburgers, hot dogs, and prepackaged ground beef. Few consumers knew about the existence of soylent pink, especially since meat products can legally contain up to 15% LFTB without a label stating so.
Outrage began to develop as people learned that LFTB was comprised of multiple animals’ offal, and thus necessitated chemical treatment to reduce the unusually high levels of bacteria present in such remains. When consumers realized that the government was planning to buy seven million pounds of the so-called “pink slime” for the school lunch program this year, the anger over soylent pink mushroomed. We were eating and feeding our children pulverized brain, organs, and fecal matter—and had no clue.
To be fair to the food corporations, Soylent Green and soylent pink differ in that the latter is probably not comprised of people—at least most of the time. Modern methods of meat processing, however, leave a lot to the imagination. Packaging for meat usually shows either a tranquil animal out in a field or a cartoon, not the more true-to-life assembly line in a slaughterhouse. Dr. Elizabeth Hagen, the USDA’s Under Secretary for Food Safety, corroborates this with her recent comment: “I don’t think your average consumer probably knows a lot about how food is produced.” Corporate food culture has separated consumers from the realities of meat production, and soylent pink was able to drift into the market largely without consumer detection. We were unwittingly enjoying it in the form of America’s most iconic foods, and before consumers knew what was in soylent pink and how it was made, people loved it. Fast food hamburgers, hot dogs, and most all processed beef products sold in cafeterias and grocery stores contained LFTB.
The same confusion over food origins plagues the citizens of New York in Soylent Green’s dystopian setting, where the majority of the population subsists solely on Soylent products of dubious composition. In the film, Soylent Corporation is the only provider of food for average citizens in a world of depleted resources, where no more natural food grows. Said to be derived from plankton, their new popular food is called Soylent Green. Since Soylent food is all that is available to everybody but the elite, in a poverty-stricken and hot-as-hell New York, riots abound and are squashed by police brutality when the supply of Soylent Green is exhausted at a rations distribution center. | <urn:uuid:1bd2a626-b454-4fd3-9767-342418bb52a7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sunrec.tumblr.com/post/33733140131/our-dystopian-food-supply | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960167 | 819 | 2.484375 | 2 |
SAVE The Bilby Fund co-founder Frank Manthey has appeared before a senate inquiry in Brisbane to give his thoughts on the protection of threatened Australian species.
Mr Manthey's submission to the inquiry, on behalf of the bilby fund, was among more than 170 from different organisations and individuals.
"The senate inquiry is being held to look at the impact of feral animals and what they are doing to our native species," he said.
"I talked about the disaster we have created in this great country and how, if we continue to sit back and do nothing, the next generation will never get the chance to see and enjoy what we all have taken for granted."
Mr Manthey called on the inquiry to regularly review submissions, and any recommendations it makes, to effectively monitor progress or the lack of it.
Among the threats to endangered species, he listed the increasing human population, climate change, vegetation clearing, weeds, reduced water quality and introduced predators.
"There are dishearteningly few examples of threats to an existing threatened species being mitigated to the extent that they no longer have a negative impact on that species," Mr Manthey said.
"In fact the only example I can describe is that of removing the harvest pressure on crocodiles and the associated population recovery that has occurred.
"All forms of governments over many years have needed to do more to address the feral animal explosion across Australia.
"However, this is an example where the problem is seen as so big and intractable that professionals have given up on the idea and now perceive those species impacted by cats, foxes and feral dogs as 'unrecoverable'. The lack of policy traction on the matter of feral cats is most particularly offensive as there are solutions that could be trialled." | <urn:uuid:21e6ce5c-7395-4ec1-9a13-7e979a512c00> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.qt.com.au/news/our-rarer-species-need-help-right-now/1769563/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970335 | 362 | 2.171875 | 2 |
MONTGOMERY - Cortney Tinnel had her fingers inside her fiance's mouth. She was poking around in there, too, gently jabbing at his teeth and gums.
That fiance, Elijah Thompson, wasn't resisting, but with a piece of plastic propping his mouth open, it's not like he had much choice.
Tinnel was working in the Dental Hygiene Clinic at Bridgemont Community and Technical College. She is studying to be a dental hygienist, and an aspiring dental hygienist needs patients to practice on.
"He was pretty tough to get in here," she said. "But he knows it's helping me out."
Each semester, the class of dental hygiene students at Bridgemont must work on a number of patients to fulfill their graduation requirements and to help the school remain accredited.
They often end up dragging in their family and friends for things like oral examinations, periodontal therapy and ultrasonic scaling. It's not required that their patients enjoy the experience, just that they're dentist's office-level comfortable and can put up with having free dental work.
It doesn't have to be this way, though.
The clinic is open to the public, and all services are free. Instead of using their friends and family to practice on so often, the students and faculty at the clinic would rather bring in more community members - people who need the care for free.
"No one provides truly free care but us," said Michelle Klenk, Bridgemont's chairwoman for dental hygiene. "And I don't think the patients who need this aren't out there, just that they don't know to come to us."
Students at the clinic can provide dental hygiene services - namely preventive care that can be difficult to afford without insurance but is key in a patient's dental health plan. | <urn:uuid:2fc82bf7-7b07-484b-936f-6bb9094db5bc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailymail.com/News/201212060246 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983998 | 383 | 1.890625 | 2 |
I have been really inspired by the Paralympics. Some of the background stories of these incredible athletes are testimonies of amazing courage and willpower. It’s possible to make comparisons to the children we serve who are born into poverty and struggle to break free from the chains that hold them down. Emilda’s story is no exception…
Posts Tagged ‘olympics’
With all the euphoria surrounding the Olympics, an in-depth analysis of every sport and its participants has been undertaken. We hear how the majority of British Olympians are public school graduates, how funding is divided amongst the sports and what barriers there are to the continuing growth of sports participation after the games.
As I mentioned last week, I am very excited about the Olympics. Even more so now that I have had the opportunity to see the GB Cycling Team speed through Richmond Park in the pursuit of a gold medal. I think part of my excitement for the Olympics is the inspiration that children are receiving through the efforts of the athletes.
I am very excited about the Olympics. There is something about seeing people using their talents, doing their best in an event that may well be over within minutes, if not seconds. Some have been training their whole lives for this opportunity. And now the time is here.
As we enter the year of the London Olympics much has been made of the legacy it will leave to the people of Britain. I guess the intention is to buck the trend of the ever-increasing waistlines that populate our offices, high streets and school playgrounds and become more active in general. As Britain moves on beyond the Olympics we’ll live healthier lives and ultimately live longer. | <urn:uuid:0373ac24-a6ee-4959-8db7-2a61d8d27a4c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.compassionuk.org/tag/olympics/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968642 | 342 | 1.84375 | 2 |
As the cardinals have zipped their mouths amid orders from the Vatican, the latter has likewise closed to the public the Sistine Chapel, in order to start sprucing it up for the necessary build works for the upcoming 25th papal conclave expected to unfold anytime this month.
Floorboards are slowly being put on top of the chapel's marble floors as protection. Earlier, it was reported the floorboards were needed to conceal anti-bugging devices, but Rev Thomas Rosica, a Vatican spokesman, denied this.
"They won't work if you put them there," Rev Rosica said, clarifying the jamming devices will be placed "more like a shield on an airplane" and installed high up on the walls.
After which, the stoves to be used to burn the ballots to communicate to the outside world the results of the papacy election will likewise be brought into the chapel, which is famous for its architecture and its frescoe decoration done by Renaissance artists, including Michelangelo, Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino, Pinturicchio and others.
Vatican did not specify as to how many days the construction works will last, but it is premised this is being facilitated since the time for the start of the papal conclave is already drawing near.
Tourists were immediately disappointed at the development.
"You can't visit the Vatican every year, or even every 10 years, when you're from Mumbai," Srini Kollpuba from Mumbai, India told Catholic Online.
"We are disappointed actually because this is an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
"It's a shame," Monika Fleischmann, an Italian tourist visiting Rome with her two sisters, said. "We are only here two days so there wasn't enough time to wait until it reopened. But, I guess a papal resignation hasn't happened for more than 600 years."
Named after Pope Sixtus IV, the Sistine Chapel accommodates nearly 10,000 tourists a day.
New Pope 2013: Vatican Tells Cardinals to Zip Mouths
New Pope 2013: Criteria of a Spiritual Leader
New Pope 2013: 266th Pope's New Wardrobe Already Awaits
New Pope 2013: Start of Conclave Delayed by 12 Late Cardinals, Talks on Corruption, Sex Issues
Papal Conclave 2013: Bogus Bishop Almost Entered Pre-Conclave Talks
To report problems or to leave feedback about this article, e-mail:
To contact the editor, e-mail: | <urn:uuid:4a695b86-b1fc-4004-9e15-6a114b7f8ec0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/443163/20130307/cardinals-zipped-mouths-amid-orders-vatican-latter.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959146 | 527 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Diplomatic attempts to halt uranium enrichment in Iran are sputtering. Genocide continues in Sudan's Darfur region. The Burmese military junta attacked pro-democracy demonstrators with apparent indifference to international opinion. And Castro's Cuba endures past his retirement despite four decades of embargo. To appear tough and effective against these foreign policy challenges, U.S. federal and state regulators are taking a hard line on economic sanctions compliance. Financial institutions are feeling the brunt, as their deep connections in global markets and their status as highly regulated entities offer authorities a lot of bang for their buck. The $80 million penalty paid by ABN AMRO in 2005-06 is merely the most high-profile example of the sanctions crackdown.
Indeed, attention is now shifting to insurers' and reinsurers' compliance with U.S. economic sanctions. Insurance, like other industries, has gone global, and the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has taken note. Insureds may reside in many countries, or, even if they do not, insured risks might arise anywhere on the globe. So, potential OFAC sanctions issues can arise in broad offerings with global policies territories and even in seemingly narrow, domestic markets. Also, cross-border business can play into tensions between U.S. requirements and other jurisdictions' laws.
Federal Economic Sanctions
Here are just a few examples of difficult economic sanctions issues that have surprised insurers or reinsurers:
- An Iranian citizen living in Los Angeles (who is not sanctioned by the United States) dies, having identified as his beneficiary a relative living in Tehran (who is a sanctioned person under U.S. law, and to whom U.S. companies therefore generally cannot send payments).
- Mechanical difficulties force an insured ship to take refuge at Port Sudan, where it requires repairs otherwise covered as sue-and-labor expense under an ocean marine policy before it can continue on course. Payments of repair and related expenses to Sudanese entities arguably violate U.S. laws.
- A U.S. citizen legally traveling in Iran is injured in a car accident and receives medical treatment in an Iranian hospital. Can the U.S.-based insurer, which promises global coverage, reimburse the Iranian hospital for covered services?
- While driving in Mexico, a U.S. individual causes a collision with a Cuban citizen, who sustains injury and property damage covered by the U.S. auto policy.
- A policyholder's goods are aboard an Iranian-registered vessel when a covered event occurs.
- A policyholder's bank account, to which claims should be paid, is co-owned by an individual living in Burma.
- An insured does substantial business with a company in which a Syrian businessman holds a stake, and this businessman has been identified by the U.S. government as a Specially Designated National (SDN).
These scenarios raise sanctions issues due to economic contacts with Cuba, Sudan, Iran, Burma or an SDN. Additionally, these difficult sanctions questions would arise regardless of whether a U.S. insurer directly, or a U.S. reinsurer indirectly, faced such a fact pattern. Indeed, both insurers and reinsurers are subject to U.S. sanctions rules to the extent they are organized under U.S. law, conduct business in the United States or with respect to the Cuba sanctions program only, are owned by a U.S. corporate parent. Therefore, for example, a European reinsurer with a U.S. corporate parent should take care not to do business linked to Cuba, even if it occurs without the U.S. parent's involvement.
OFAC asserts authority over insurance operations in the United States, notwithstanding the McCarran-Ferguson Act. The Supreme Court held in Garamendi v. American Insurance Association that McCarran-Ferguson applies only to the interstate commerce power of Congress and not to foreign policy. Insurers should expect no dispensation from OFAC where sanctions regulations and state law conflict on issues such as selective offering of policies, the cancellation of policies or a refusal to pay claims. Little, if any, guidance exists for insurers impacted by such conflicting regulatory regimes.
Reinsurers face additional risks. Because reinsurers are at least one contractual layer removed from policyholders, they have less ability in the first instance to manage OFAC-related risks. Reinsurance treaties may cause the greatest sanctions headaches, as reinsurers often agree to cover a "class of risks" without reviewing the cedent's individual policyholders, or even before individual policies in that class are written. OFAC adheres to the idea that U.S. reinsurers should simply write sanctions-based and geographic exclusions into reinsurance contracts, notwithstanding adverse commercial consequences.
Against this backdrop, maximum civil and criminal penalties for OFAC violations recently increased. Under most sanctions programs, a U.S. person could face a civil fine up to $250,000 or twice the value of the transaction at issue, whichever is greater—even if the person had no knowledge of the violation. Willful violations of the sanctions regulations could trigger criminal fines as high as $1 million and incarceration up to 20 years.
Conventional approaches to sanctions compliance can raise problems for direct insurers and reinsurers, but a good-faith effort to devise and implement a compliance program should be undertaken nonetheless. To the extent possible, insurers and reinsurers should screen a company's policyholders, beneficiaries and claims information for risks in sanctioned countries, which include Iran, Cuba, Sudan and, in some circumstances, Burma. They also should filter for SDNs—the individuals, organizations, businesses and even vessels identified by the U.S. government as involved in terrorism, narcotics trafficking or rogue governments. Underwriting questionnaires should be revised to solicit such information. Policies, claims payments and other transactions appearing to involve OFAC-sanctioned entities should be flagged for internal and external OFAC experts. Insurers and reinsurers need to navigate carefully when their legal obligations to pay claims may come into conflict with U.S. sanctions rules that prohibit direct and indirect payments to sanctioned entities.
On paper, OFAC does not require any compliance program but instead operates a strict liability regime: a company is liable for a violation even if it is unaware of business with a sanctioned entity. But practically, an interdiction policy sensitive to an insurer's or reinsurer's unique OFAC-related risk profile is a necessity if a company hopes to mitigate a sanctions-related penalty.
State Divestment Laws
State pension funds—either directly or through fund managers—are major investors in insurance and reinsurance companies and their corporate parents, whether in the United States or abroad. Thus, insurance companies should gauge their exposure to the raft of state divestment laws enacted in the past year. In 2007, 25 states adopted laws requiring state funds to divest from companies that do business in Sudan, Iran or other OFAC-sanctioned nations. Congress blessed this effort, adopting legislation to thwart constitutional challenges based in the Commerce or Supremacy Clauses. Already in 2008, over ten state legislatures are considering divestment bills.
Any U.S. or foreign insurance company that counts state pension funds among its investors should immediately take stock of its business relating to Sudan, Iran or other OFAC-sanctioned countries—especially if it insures or reinsures such business. Although there are no indications at this point that merely offering global coverage will run afoul of state divestment laws, this legislation is all quite new, and there is virtually no enforcement history to suggest its limits. At least one state, Illinois, allows divestment on the basis of a single OFAC penalty arising from a violation of the Sudan sanctions program, no matter how minor or inadvertent the violation. Further, aggressive interpretations by ambitious or publicity-driven state officials could subject insurance companies to substantial reputational harm, even if no penalty is assessed or no divestment is ultimately compelled. "Sensitive" investors may divest on the mere initiation of an investigation by state authorities.
With OFAC and individual states are increasingly focusing on insurance-related transactions, the stakes are rising for insurance companies, insurance executives, brokers, underwriters and claims handlers. As is evident from the examples cited above, OFAC-related risks might arise from even ordinary and well-intentioned, everyday insurance operations. The threat to an insurer's or reinsurer's finances and reputation is considerable. The threat of criminal penalties, while not large in most circumstances, nonetheless highlights the gravity of this exposure. Thus, assessing, avoiding and mitigating potentially sanctionable activity should become standard procedure for insurance companies, just as it is for those companies that intentionally participate in international business transactions closer to the border of transactions that OFAC and state legislation were intended to proscribe. | <urn:uuid:42e95eea-13ca-4dff-b0d6-ef64b327c072> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=a7dfe437-d9cd-4074-9da8-e43393893497 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942214 | 1,797 | 2.015625 | 2 |
On Wednesday morning the Washington Post's
Aaron Blake posted an infographic that was a perfect example of how one can use a graphic chart to influence the public in subtle ways, ways that we of the center right better start employing in our own efforts if we want to win over the public.
Blake's post, "Why People Hate Congress
," fits in well with President Obama's class warfare rhetoric as employed by his campaign to set different economic classes against each other in a desperate and cynically populist bid to get reelected next year. There is little of substance to Blake's post other than to fan the flames of the sort of hatred that he wants to see grow in order to aid Obama in 2012.
Blake also ended up having to pull the graphic off his The Fix blog post because it simply did not illustrate what he claimed it did in his story -- but that is another issue that we’ll deal with at the end of this report.
Blake begins his piece asking, "Want to know why Americans hate Congress?" He then goes on to claim it is in part because our elected representatives in Washington D.C. are members of the eeeevil rich.
The fact that members of Congress are getting richer (and 57 members come from the top 1 percent, according to USA Today) confirms what Americans suspect about the people who are running this country: that they don’t empathize with normal people.
Of course, with a dispassionate application of logic, having a few dollars more than the next guy does not ipso facto
make the richer guy so out of touch that he cannot empathize with anyone in a lower salary range. Only those filled with hate make this assumption. Empathy has nothing to do with class, money, or politics. It has to do with one's character.
Further there are plenty of members of Congress with the character to understand and have empathy with others. Then there are some that don't. People are people, rich or poor.
It is also telling that even Blake admits that Congress has always been filled with “the rich.” The founders were not groveling in poverty, after all. It often takes a person that has achieved a certain place in society to become elected. I mean, should they be elected, how can anyone expect “the poor” or even the lower middle class to afford to fund homes both in D.C. and back in their district? Who can afford to leave their family and business if half the year off more to fly off the D.C. to attend to government business? And with the costs of elections and the Byzantine election laws these days causing many candidates to self fund, it will only be natural that “the rich” end up being our representatives in Congress.
But special attention has to be paid to the graphic Blake used to illustrate his story. And what a masterwork of subtlety it is. Blake claimed that the illustration made by a well-known hate-the-rich researcher from California showed in graphic form the distribution of wealth among both chambers of Congress. The graphic depicts the "top 1%" and the "next 9%" in the color red. Then it uses blue to show the "following 10%" and the "bottom 80%." Notice what is going on? That's right, this graphic uses the color red to depict the eeevil rich. And what is the color red in politics these days? None other than the color the Old Media has assigned to the Republican Party.
This graphic is a great illustration of the way the left influences the emotions of the viewer toward their positions. George Scoville puts it perfectly
in his post about this graphic.
If you don’t make your living thinking strategically about political communications, this might not have jumped out at you. But this is a very clever and very deceptive messaging tactic. If Democrats... are going to use this type of tactic, then Republicans and pro-liberty advocacy organizations need to take a page from this playbook quickly. We certainly can’t rely on the media to apply the kind of scrutiny that pulls back the curtain for casual political observers.
Exactly right. We on the right don't think of this type of messaging often enough.
Then there is the rest of this story. In truth, the graphic that Blake claimed illustrated the riches of Congress directly, in fact did not. It actually meant to illustrate the wealth distribution of all Americans
as a percentage of Congress.
A little later on Wednesday morning, Aaron Blake removed the graphic and issued this mea culpa:
This post initially used a chart that included data that we and others misunderstood. It did not reflect the wealth of Congress, but instead the wealth of the country, described according to numbers of seats in Congress. The Fix regrets the error.
Ooops. I guess the facts were "too good to check for the good folks at the Washington Post
But wait. Don't get upset at Mr. Blake too quickly. After all, this graphic stirred the liberal heart. A quick glance makes viewers imagine that it is showing the number of eeevil
Republicans compared to the nice, poor Democrats in Congress. In fact, that is precisely the emotion that the graphic is intended to evoke. So, we can fault Mr. Blake for not looking close enough at the graphic to discern its statistical facts, but we cannot fault him for having instantly grasped the subliminal message it was intended to relay. The fact is, the graphic works beautifully.
These are the sort of tactics the left employs, folks. We'd best become hip to them fast. | <urn:uuid:fb304b6f-81c0-4781-9b2e-b5ea43c8b408> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2011/12/29/Washington-Post-Misunderstands-Chart--Plays-Class-Warfare | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967515 | 1,148 | 1.945313 | 2 |
Someone at Facebook must have failed anatomy.
The social network took down a photo of a woman in a bathtub who appeared to be exposing her breasts.
In reality, they were her elbows.
The photo was uploaded by Web magazine, “Theories of the Deep Understanding of Things,” to test how the social networks terms of service deal with pictures that are misleading.
The censored photo raised the question of whether the photo sharing website content policies are based on indecency, or the mere appearance of indecency.
The social network quickly took down the photo for violating its service terms.
The magazine wrote, “So here’s last night’s FB alertness test results: FB moderators can’t tell an elbow from a dangerous, filthy, uncanny and violent female breast.”
The magazine continued, “No questions were asked and the post is down. Imagine our surprise.”
The social networking site warned that users who continue to post photos which it deems inappropriate could lose their access to the site. The latest moderation mistake highlights Facebook’s well-meaning, but inconsistent, efforts to moderate so-called “graphic” content from the site.
Recently, Facebook was criticized when moderators blocked pictures of the Israeli bombardment of Gaza, while similar photos of Hamas rocket attacks were still available.
Facebook is moderated by employees in Morocco and other developing countries who are paid one dollar an hour through an online outsourcing company called oDesk.
A Moroccan former employee published a document, distributed to contractors, which revealed that the site informs its employees to delete all forms of sexual activity, even simulated activity where nothing explicit is shown.
Excessive blood and “crushed heads, limbs, etc.” are allowed as long as no insides are showing the employee said.
The oDesk staff members are instructed that the social networking site will not condone “slurs or racial comments of any kind.” Such comments are supposed to be deleted as soon as possible.
However, they may be allowed to stay online if the comments are made in a humorous or ironic way.
What do you think of Facebook’s mistake? | <urn:uuid:ee4a4dae-0f53-4439-916f-fbdd9d383b3d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cdn.inquisitr.com/413669/facebook-mistakes-elbows-for-breasts-in-bathtub-photo/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971505 | 450 | 1.625 | 2 |
There is no mystery to building a high performance house. You don't need unobtanium, you don't need the next greatest clever building material, and most of all you don't need to ask builders to reinvent their material stream and their business model. This is something we can do today.
I've mentioned the "Swedish wall system" numerous times as we've worked on the contest house. Its no mystery - we've shown how they build their houses in multiple posts here. So it is no big reveal to show how we are using this approach in the Lagom House. The principle is straight forward - deeper studs = more insulation. We are increasingly moving towards 2x6 studs in the US, so in the Lagom House we step up to 2x8s. This also gives us the opportunity to use staggered interior and exterior 2x4 studs as another step up of performance by eliminating the thermal bridge of the studs. Into this wall we will cram R30 roof insulation. It will need to be compressed slightly to fit, but its the best size readily available to fill the 2x8 studs. We top that wall off with a layer of foam insulation between the sheathing and the siding, again to break the thermal bridge and raise the total R value. Total estimated insulation value - R38.
Now this is not quite what is happening in Sweden. Their stud sizes are not the same as in the US and it appears they use something between a 2x6 and 2x8. Their insulation appears denser than our readily available batts. They omit the sheathing and instead are using a thick dense insulating board which appears to be able to take and hold nails from the siding. This along with heavy thick solid wood siding panels replaces the plywood sheathing that we use on our houses. This kind of panel is not available here, nor is heavy wood siding the norm. In its place we put readily available foam insulation panels over normal sheathing - nothing unexpected for the carpenters.
At the foundation we employ the "super" insulated slab on grade type system that is being used in Sweden. This is not used on every house there - again this is considered a step up from their normal slab on grade preparation. But the system of pre molded EPS foam forms is the same, and you can see how this is a progression of what they do on a daily basis. The perimeter grade beam is now separated from the floor slab yet still insulated. The entire slab now receives a thick layer of EPS foam below ensuring that the radiant heat goes into the home and not the soil. Considering the way we typically build foundations in the US, and how much effort and money goes into dumping concrete into a hole in the ground, I am very hopeful that some day we can redirect that effort and money towards a highly insulated slab as we see here.
How about frost and foundation heaving? This is always the concern and what has led the US to require footings extend below frost. Yet in Sweden where the winters are longer and more harsh than most of the US they build their houses without the foundations extending below frost depth. Why is that, and what are we missing? I had a conversation about this with an architect visiting from Norway where they use a similar technique. He said plainly that the ambient temperature of the earth below the frost line is much warmer than the winter air. This is well known - go down a few yards and the earth is about 50 deg, all year. Geothermal heating leverages this. Placing a home on top of the earth in fact shields the top layers of earth and permits that warmer ambient ground temperature to extend up to meet the house, and in fact prevents freezing of the earth directly under the foundation. Its plane and simple - the house insulates the earth from the cold and the natural temperature of the earth prevents freezing and heaving of the foundation. The house raises the frost line. The crushed stone bed that is laid as prep prevents wet soil and freezing from occurring directly below the slab, a well known principle even here.
But why not use SIPs, or ICFs, or straw bales, or any other number of promising building tech? Because 99% of the people building homes right now have never worked with any of that stuff. If they do it forces them to work with new suppliers that they have no track record with, it forces them to estimate time and schedule for work they have not done before and don't know how long it will take. It forces them to work with new subcontractors and learn new techniques. In the long run all these things are good, but in the short run it makes houses more expensive and greatly slows the distribution of energy efficient construction. What we are outlining here preserves all of the know how, the supply train, the business relationships, everything that is already in place. We already know how to do this, and we can begin building homes with near Passive House performance right now.
So there it is, a strategy for building high performance houses, TODAY. What are we waiting for?Continue reading "Contest House - taking the mystery out" | <urn:uuid:f38270a8-f69a-4e80-8ed9-749a2fdcc15e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.lamidesign.com/2010_01_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956319 | 1,050 | 1.65625 | 2 |
It also looked an interesting topic, as Robin Lane Fox explored how the intrepid seafarers of 8th century Greece - and we're talking 8th Century BC here - sailed the Mediterranean. As they travelled they encountered new sights which they wove into their myths of gods, monsters and heros.
It is certainly convincingly argued, with 120 pages of notes and references, and it is an example of a neglected art, the ability to continue a coherent, compelling and complex argument through several hundred pages.
And it does, so that you can follow the threads of evidence, discovering new civilisations, lost empires, strange Gods and for me, a whole new set of Greeks, the Euboeans. I should have been familiar with them, having sailed in those waters last year and indeed stayed on night at the top end of Euboea where was amazed by a giant marble bull.
But it is quite dense, lacking the rattling yarn pace of Tom's books. Pages are to be read slowly, with relatively small font and complicated arguments.
One problem is that Robin Lane Fox seems to be writing for two audiences, not just the average lay reader but also the experts in the field. And so every point must be answered and backed up by reams of archaeological facts. I also wondered who phrases like "...no specialist who has kept up with the subject would now contest it" are aimed at - not me for sure!
In the end I was glad I had read it, as it enriched my understanding of that time, and its central thesis seemed sound. As the Euboeans sailed the Mediterranean their heads filled with stories of heros and gods they understood the sights they saw through them. So fossils of giant bones were taken as evidence of the giants who battled with Zeus and the rest of the Gods.
By the end you not just understood the Euboeans, sailing across strange seas, encountering other civilisations like the Phoenicians, you understood how they thought. You could join them as they crossed the seas in night passages and imagine yourself in their heads as they tried to understand what they saw though the prism of their myths.
And that is a remarkable achievement - to bring the age of Homer back to life. Though I suspect that those already versed in the minutiae of ancient Greek history - like, indeed, Tom - would have gained a lot more from it than me. | <urn:uuid:bc6dedef-29ed-4a4f-8c1d-c210708298ae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://captainjpslog.blogspot.com/2010/02/book-review-travelling-heros.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978166 | 493 | 2.4375 | 2 |
This article originally appeared in Alternet:
Walk into any Ricky’s store, a beauty shop chain in New York, and you will find a shelf filled with Ahava products. For $28, you can buy mineral toning cleanser; for $22, Dead Sea liquid salt; and for $9, purifying mud soap. The products made by Ahava (which means “love” in Hebrew) seem innocent enough, perfectly enticing for anyone fond of beauty products.
But looks can be deceiving. As activists from the peace group CodePink’s Stolen Beauty campaign are fond of chanting at protests, Ahava can’t hide its “dirty side.”
For nearly two years, an international campaign spearheaded by Palestine solidarity activists has targeted Ahava and the various stores that carry its products, including Ricky’s, calling for a boycott. The boycott campaign has heated up recently, eliciting push-back from Jewish organizations around the country and a response from the CEO of Ahava.
While Ahava labels its products “made in Israel,” they are actually manufactured in a settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank in Palestine. According to the Stolen Beauty campaign, the company exploits Palestinian resources from the Dead Sea.
Under the Geneva Conventions, and various United Nations resolutions, all of Israel’s settlements–which house about 500,000 settlers–are illegal, as is excavating natural resources in an occupied area. Israel has occupied the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip since the 1967 Six-Day War. The settlements are widely seen as an obstacle to the creation of a viable and contiguous Palestinian state.
“[The boycott] is about a just peace for Israelis and Palestinians,” said Nancy Kricorian, CodePink’s coordinator for the Stolen Beauty campaign. “The situation on the ground there is dehumanizing and demoralizing and terrible.”
Ahava, which rakes in profits of nearly $150 million a year, according to a Dec. 2009 CNN report, is owned by entities deeply involved in Israel’s settlement project in the occupied West Bank. According to Who Profits? 37 percent of the company is owned by Mitzpe Shalem, an illegal settlement located in the eastern West Bank; another 37 percent by the private investment fund Hamashibr Holdings, which also is a major shareholder in two companies that export produce made in settlements; 18.5 perent by the U.S.-based Shamrock Holding, owned by the Roy E. Disney family of Walt Disney fame, and which is a shareholder in a company that manufactures electronic detection systems that are used on the West Bank separation barrier; and 7.5 percent by the West Bank settlement of Kalia.
In an interview, Kricorian acknowledged that Ahava is a huge target, and likened the Stolen Beauty campaign to a “game of whack-a-mole,” as new places where Ahava products are sold pop up frequently. But Kricorian says it isn’t just about hurting the company’s sales.
“A boycott campaign is strategic, and it’s a long-term thing,” she said. “It’s not just about hurting the company’s sales. It’s also about educating the public about, in this particular case, the company’s illegal practices and sullying the company’s name and reputation.”
The campaign to boycott Ahava, in both the United States and around the world, has racked up some important victories. In August 2009, activists successfully pressured Oxfam International to drop Sex and the City star Kristin Davis as a spokeswoman because she was also working with Ahava. In November 2009, the Dutch Foreign Ministry agreed to investigate Ahava’s manufacturing and labeling practices. Costco, a large U.S. retailer, was pressured into halting the sale of Ahava products at its stores in January 2010. The Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank, has included Ahava products in its boycott of settlement products campaign, confiscating and destroying products made in West Bank settlements. Recently, four activists in London were acquitted on charges of trespassing after direct actions in 2009 in which they locked themselves onto oil-filled drums inside an Ahava shop.
AHAVA did not respond to inquiries for comment.
The Stolen Beauty campaign, which began in the aftermath of the brutal Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip in 2008-’09, is part of the larger boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement that grew out of a 2005 call by a vast swathe of Palestinian civil society groups for BDS against Israel. Modeled on the anti-apartheid movement that targeted South Africa, the Palestinian-led BDS movement demands that Israel withdraw from the occupied Palestinian territories, implement equal rights for Palestinian citizens of Israel and recognize the “right of return” for Palestinian refugees and their descendants who fled or were expelled from Palestine during the 1947-’49 Arab-Israeli war.
“The BDS campaign has become the most effective, morally consistent, nonviolent form of solidarity with the colonized Palestinians against Israel’s apartheid and colonial rule,” Omar Barghouti, a founding member of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, wrote in an e-mail. “The Stolen Beauty Campaign against Ahava, led by our partner CodePink, is a truly inspiring BDS campaign, as it is creative, focused, well-researched and very effective in conveying the message across to and, more crucially, in mobilizing BDS action in a wider, more mainstream audience.”
The Israeli government has taken notice of the growing BDS movement. The Israeli Knesset recently passed a preliminary reading of anti-boycott legislation that would impose fines on Israeli activists promoting boycotts of Israel. A February 2010 report by the Reut Institute, an Israeli think-tank with close ties to Israel’s government, identified the BDS movement as an threat to the state.
In the United States, the BDS movement, and the campaign against Ahava, has also generated controversy. After a Washington, D.C.-based group protested in July 2010 against Ahava products being sold in Ulta, a beauty store, the Jewish Community Relations Committee of Greater Washington urged supporters to buy Ahava products.
Brooklyn’s Ricky’s shop has also become the epicenter of a dispute over the Boycott Ahava movement. After a July 9 protest outside the store led by CodePink’s Stolen Beauty and Brooklyn for Peace, which signed onto the campaign in May, a group of rabbis in Brooklyn drafted a letter in response, urging people to buy Ahava products and denouncing the campaign. The rabbis’ letter claimed that “CodePink ignores the history and legal status of Mizpeh Shalom” because it is located in “‘Area C’, a huge section of the West Bank over which Israel, again by joint agreement, was granted full control, except over Palestinian civilians.” (The Area C designation comes out of the 1993-era Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Area C incorporates all West Bank settlements.)
“Local Jewish leaders find the idea of a boycott of Israel to be a misguided and one-sided approach to a complex and deeply troubling conflict,” said Rabbi Andy Bachman, a signatory to the letter and a member of the liberal group J Street’s Rabbinic Cabinet. “The problem with a boycott is there’s one side that’s all right and another side that’s all wrong. If that’s what the boycotters think, then there really is nothing to discuss. But if not, then why not boycott Palestinian business for years of rejecting peace accords?”
So far, Ricky’s has not budged, and continues to sell Ahava products. Dominick Costello, the president of the store, refused to comment.
The relentless targeting of Ahava hasn’t gone unnoticed by the company. A letter that has recently been circulated by Ahava to its business partners states that “our company and products have been the subject of unfortunate, ugly and clearly politically motivated smear attacks” that are being pushed by a “couple of small radical fringe organizations, which are part of a larger and more insidious campaign aimed against the State of Israel.”
The surge in attention to the boycott campaign is a sign that “we’ve gotten attention to issue of settlements like we never got before,” said Naomi Allen, an activist who sits on Brooklyn for Peace’s board and is involved in the group’s Israel/Palestine committee. Beginning this month, Brooklyn for Peace plans to hold protests outside the Ricky’s shop in Brooklyn on the last Tuesday of every month.
“This is not an argument that we’re going to lose, because [what's] right and international law are on our side,” Allen said. “The issue of Ahava is a clear-cut issue. There’s no excusing the fact that this is occupied territory which is being stolen from the rightful owners and exploited for profit that isn’t being shared with the rightful owners.” | <urn:uuid:3bf2a12b-3734-4e3d-9724-1f94faf0f804> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://alexbkane.wordpress.com/tag/israel/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957923 | 1,949 | 1.851563 | 2 |
Despite my father’s love of science fiction, that headline is probably not something he ever imagined one of his children saying.
This past Saturday, one misplaced mouse click in MMORPG EVE Online sent a lone Titan spaceship hurtling into enemy territory, triggering a cascade of alliances somewhat akin to the run-up to World War I, and resulting in one of the largest space battles ever seen in the history of the game. At its peak, the battle involved over 2800 ships and 3200 players, slowing the already-robust EVE servers to a mere 10% of their normal speed.
It’s difficult to explain EVE Online to folks, even if they’re already steeped in science fiction. (Arguably, this is part of its appeal.) EVE is an MMORPG that lets you build, buy, and fly ships in a vast area of space containing over 7500 star systems. Some of these systems are part of empires or alliances that make up the in-game storyline, while others are hoarded by alliances consisting of your fellow players. Unless you want to spend a lot of real money purchasing in-game resources and ships, you’ll need an alliance, or a very out-of-the-way spot, to mine for resources that will allow you to trade for ships or build the ships from scratch. (Well, build the shipyards, then the ships. Well, build the mining operation, then the shipyards, then the... etc.)
Although set in space, the mechanics of constructing fleets, flying spaceships, and fighting in space are treated very realistically. EVE has its own economy, one that heavily mirrors our own. (And just like our own, it can be crashed.) Building ships and resources takes a lot of time, and requires you to be savvy about supply chains and manufacturing infrastructures. This often becomes so complex that it requires you to track information in spreadsheets or databases outside of the game and before you know it, you’re literally running a corporation consisting entirely of in-game resources.
Space battles and tactics have to be planned out well in advance due to the physical realities of how such a battle would actually go. The physics of ballistic weapons versus energy weapons, speed versus defense, fleet formations, and being able to withstand constant bombardment are all key factors to consider. (Fans of Larry Niven’s “Known World” series will find a lot of parallels here.)
EVE Online takes a lot of time and personal investment, leading to in-game actions having a profound effect on the real lives of the players. When an alliance forms in-game, it tends to extend to all facets of your life. People at the top levels of powerful in-game alliances have found themselves subject to actual espionage and have had to weigh friendships against in-game politics.
EVE makes you work hard for what you get, prompting you to defend what you have in the game just as fiercely as you would defend what you have in real life. (To wit, it’s very much advised that you buy in-game insurance for your fleet. Because once your ship is gone, it’s gone for good.) With over 400,000 players contributing to this culture, what results is a snapshot of what it might actually look like if humanity was able to span the stars. In essence, it would be just as messy and difficult and rewarding as life on Earth is.
Which is why, every few years or so, real-life politics, rivalries, and human error coalesce into glorious, mind-bendingly massive, accidental space warfare like what occurred in EVE on January 26.
Essentially, there are two “Mega” coalitions in the game right now, the Clusterfuck Coalition (CFC) and the Honeybadger Coalition (HBC). A coalition is a group of alliances that band together. [...] The CFC’s core alliance is Goonswarm, which is based in and recruits out of your least favorite website, SomethingAwful!
Last night, a relatively small pirate alliance that controls a good bit of territory nearby Goon-land thought that the goons may try to attack them over a local moon; which holds mineral resources. They informed a fleet commander in Pandemic Legion that this may be happening, and PL set up to ambush goons.
What’s important to last night is that we chose to go with PL instead of goons, and we formed our own coalition; the HBC. Between PL’s ability to drop many of the most powerful ships in the game, and our ability to rush in with hundreds of support ships to back them up, it’s a potent force.
Goonswarm was indeed going to try and take that moon and were preparing to jump to it with their fleet using the biggest, best ship available in EVE Online: the Titan. Titans are extremely hard to come by and require massive amounts of time, resources, and territory to build. (Or, if you have a LOT of money and no free time, you can purchase a fully kitted one for around $7600.) Titans are basically floating fortresses and have the unique ability to transport entire fleets to other star systems via a technique called “bridging.”
The Pandemic Legion was expecting this attack and had set up ships to ambush the incoming fleet. What would have resulted would have been an exciting, if minor, fracas.
Except Goonswarm fleet commander “Dabigredboat” clicked “jump” instead of “bridge” in the menu and hurled his Titan alone into an enemy ambush. And what’s just as good as obtaining a status symbol like a Titan? Being the ones to destroy it.
Metafilter user “kyrademon” breaks down the events wonderfully succinctly:
3) When the people in the region realized the big expensive powerful spaceship was alone, they realized they had a chance of taking it out and called in all their buddies.
4) Their buddies then called all their buddies, who then called in all their buddies. As various alliances got activated and people saw a chance to settle old grudges, it became a massive pile-on.
5) Meanwhile, the big expensive powerful spaceship guy had called for reinforcements. By the time they showed up, however, they were outnumbered by the growing pile-on.
6) Big expensive spaceship guy, instead of giving up the battle as lost and taking a hurtful but survivable drubbing, said, “CALL IN OUR ENTIRE FLEET! TAKE IT TO THE LIMIT!”
And that’s just what happened (audio NSFW):
EVE Online is a game, but it’s also Serious Business. A lot of time, expense, and expertise goes into building fleets, alliances, and infrastructure. Whereas an MMORPG like World of Warcraft is more open, lower cost, and user-friendly, EVE’s complexity creates an actual real-world economic impact.
EVE players can purchase codes that grant an account more time to spend in-game, which they can then re-sell inside the game for ISK, the in-game currency. A few years ago, Jump On Contact calculated the real cost of each ship available in EVE Online, (alternate link if site is down) based on how much the time incurred would cost. The results were staggering:
While EVE ships start at $1 and top out around $100, the Titan dwarfs them all by requiring around $7600 of time/investment. Thanks to a single wrong click on Saturday night, that money is gone, and thousands more with it (at one point the estimated number reached $150,000.*) thanks to other players trying to prevent and/or hasten the loss of a $7600 ship!
*The battle report on this is still being tallied and a lot more detail can be found here.
The point of this recap is not to assign blame or engage in schadenfreude (well, okay, maybe a little bit of schadenfreude) but rather, to revel in the unique aspects of such an impressive event. What were you doing on Saturday night? Play that back in your head, except do so knowing that a massive space battle was occuring at the same time. A space battle kicked off entirely by accident. A space battle so big it could not be simulated, it had to be crafted and pushed forward by human ego, so big it cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and yet so small that you wouldn’t have known about it if you weren’t an EVE Online player. It’s beyond a microcosm. It’s downright microcosmic.
It is the year 2013 and these realities sit side by side with each other, but thanks to events like these it is increasingly hard to tell which one is supposed to be science fiction, and that is amazing.
Chris Lough is the production manager of Tor.com and didn’t so much write this article as translate it from EVE-speak. | <urn:uuid:afdc633a-c0f2-4cf9-986c-d36a6788ea0d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/01/eve-online-2800-spaceships-clash-costing-over-thousands-of-dollars/Frontpage_Partial%20(Tor.com%20Frontpage%20Partial%20-%20Blog%20and%20Stories) | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965154 | 1,895 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Genesee Land Trust now is protecting 627 acres of prime farm land in Sodus, Wayne County, and tributaries of Sodus Bay, the Rochester-based non-profit said Monday.
The development rights to the property, known as Alasa Farms, are held by Genesee Land Trust while the land is owned by Cracker Box Palace, a non-profit farm animal rescue and rehabilitation center.
Alasa Farms, overlooking Sodus Bay, possesses prime soils supporting a working farm, and habitat from woodlands to streams, marshes and is a migratory bird stop-over, officials said.
Genesee Land Trust received a $607,000 federal grant in May that helped with the project. Additional grant funding will allow the organization to preserve three other Wayne County farms, the agency said.
To date, it has partnered with the towns of Macedon, Walworth, Ontario and Williamson. In addition to the acreage in Sodus, Genesee Land Trust protects more than 1,971 acres in Wayne County.
(c) 2011 Rochester Business Journal. To obtain permission to reprint this article, call 585-546-8303 or e-mail email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:9b662fc8-aa5d-4e5e-b3ae-0b77abf174d7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rbj.net/article.asp?size=3&aID=186913 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934107 | 251 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Climate change bill of $1b for suburbs
WATERFRONT communities from Southbank to the Mornington Peninsula face a damage bill of more than $1 billion from severe storms and rising sea levels over the next 90 years, according to a confidential climate change report.
The report, by federal, state and local governments, warns that parts of Rosebud foreshore could be completely submerged by 2100 during coastal flooding, while residents around Elwood's canals face massive annual losses if government and local councils fail to act.
Maps from the report show a large section of Point Nepean Road would be regularly cut off during storms, while local residents and businesses would encounter frequent floods resulting from climate change.
Illustration: Matt Golding.
The research warns that riverfront properties at Southbank are at greatest risk from flooding, with the annual cost of damage expected to increase from about $3 million in 2011 to almost $20 million by 2100.
The annual cost of flooding in Elwood would rise from about $2.5 million in 2011 to $15 million by the end of the century, according to the report, which is based on data from Melbourne Water.
Mordialloc would also experience a sharp increase in flood damage without immediate government action.
Due to be released next February, the Port Phillip Coastal Adaption Pathways Program examined four vulnerable coastal areas and another flood-prone area in North Melbourne known as Arden-Macaulay. All four Melbourne councils involved with the research have been briefed on the findings.
The report, excerpts of which have been obtained by The Sunday Age, establishes a cost-benefit framework that will be used to shape planning decisions and infrastructure investment by governments.
While some owners of foreshore land in Queensland and New South Wales will be urged to implement a ''staged retreat'', councils in Melbourne's flood-prone areas will be advised to adapt to climate change challenges. The adaption option includes resilience to flooding and providing moderate protection from floods, according to a confidential document from Mornington Peninsula Shire Council.
At a private briefing in Rosebud on September 24, Mornington councillors and staff prepared a community response to the report.
''If somebody leaks this report in the next few weeks or the federal government releases it … we need to be able to reassure the community. If this got out, without the right information, it could upset people,'' a council officer told the meeting.
Another council officer at the meeting said: ''There is clearly a lot of concern amongst people engaged in coastal management issues that the media don't treat this issue well; they tend to jump to extreme positions and seek to divide the community.''
An audio recording of the meeting was accidentally placed on the council's website.
Yesterday, federal Climate Change Minister Greg Combet said scientific evidence had proved that climate change was real and posed significant risks for future generations.
''This is why we have also been working closely with state and local authorities to help start planning for climate change so we can adapt our infrastructure and minimise the economic impacts,'' Mr Combet said.
Estimates by the Climate Change Department from last year revealed that 247,600 coastal homes across Australia worth up to $63 billion were at risk of inundation from a sea level rise of 1.1 metres over the next century.
A recent study by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimated Australian sea levels would rise by 90 centimetres by 2100.
Municipal Association of Victoria chief executive Rob Spence said the long-term prospects for coastal property owners around Port Phillip Bay were more positive than in other states.
''Reassuringly for all five case study areas, even under the worst-possible scenarios modelled, the research confirms it is economically viable to occupy the areas,'' Mr Spence said.
He said the affected municipalities had already begun work to mitigate the impact of climate change.
In June, Victorian Planning Minister Matthew Guy introduced measures to counter coastal inundation, including a 20-centimetre floor-level rise in new houses in urban infill developments. | <urn:uuid:4ec52a4b-5784-40fe-a5cf-56ad6cef4f8e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/climate-change-bill-of-1b-for-suburbs-20121020-27yli.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954144 | 835 | 2.296875 | 2 |
The history of the hotel begins in 1771 in Calais, where upper-class British travellers on their way to Paris would arrive after crossing the Straits of Dover. There, an enterprising regional postmaster, Charles-Augustin Meurice (1739-1820), welcomed them to French shores, putting them up in his Calais coaching inn and arranging rides to Paris aboard his coach service. It was a 36-hour trip, and Charles-Augustin Meurice built a second coaching in Paris in 1817 to welcome the weary travellers upon arrival. The Hotel Le Meurice moved in 1835 to its present site, one of the most fashionable locales in the city, overlooking the historic Tuileries Garden.
Over the years, the Paris hotel developed a reputation for lavish entertainment, with dinners lasting from eight in the evening until eight the next morning. One guest recalled a luncheon where they only served hard-boiled eggs from the rarest birds, ranging from partridge eggs to swan eggs.
The hotel’s fame grew during the century. A newspaper clipping from 1855 mentions that Queen Victoria stayed at the Hotel Le Meurice while in Paris. Russian composer Peter llitch Tchaikovsky stayed at the Hotel Le Meurice when giving a concert nearby. Toward the end of the century, the hotel’s regular clients were the elite aristocracy. A limited liability company named the “Hôtel Meurice” was formed in 1898 to own and operate the hotel. Arthur Millon, who headed the new company, and his director, Mr. Schwenter, responded to the expectations of their privileged guests by providing luxurious facilities and by undertaking a major renovation of the property in 1905.
The extensive two-year renovation and enlargement gave the property its modern day appearance and amenities such as individual private baths. The renovation cost 8 million francs – a princely sum for the time. The investment clinched the hotel’s appeal to a privileged clientele, however.
During the renovation, the workers took in a stray dog, a greyhound. It was adopted by the hotel’s staff and thus became its mascot. A second greyhound was added to accompany the first, forming the emblem of the Hotel Le Meurice that is still the symbol throughout the hotel today.
The King of Spain, Alphonse XIII, was one of the first people to book rooms at the Hotel Le Meurice after the completed 1905-1907 renovation. He stayed regularly in Suite 106-8, bringing his own furniture. The King of Montenegro, the Prince de Galles, King George VI, French President Doumergue, the Sultan of Zanzibar, the Maharaja of Jaïpur, and the Grand Duchess of Russia also were regular guests of the hotel, which came to be called the Hôtel des Rois (Hotel of the Kings).
While dining on the 18th of October, 1908, King Alphonse XIII and his queen enjoyed this menu:
Turbotin au Champagne
Cassolettes de Queues d’Ecrevisse
Coeur de Filet de Boeuf La Vallière
Cailles aux Feuilles de Vigne
The crème de la crème of Parisian society would gather on the seventh floor of the hotel to dine in the Roof Garden restaurant, or to bask in the natural light streaming through the glass roof of the Louis XVI lounge. The hotel also organized theater performances inside the establishment, such as “Cyrano de Bergerac” in 1912.
During World War I, the hotel closed for several months and it served for a time as a hospital for wounded soldiers.
The 1920s to World War II
At the beginning of the 1920s, the Hotel Le Meurice’s international reputation sparkled. Media were impressed by the hotel’s elaborate Louis XVI décor. Mr. Schwenter advertised abroad, helping to develop tourism in France. He was rewarded in 1923 when he became Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, and in 1931, an Officier de la Légion d’Honneur. Picasso and his wife Olga Koklova selected the Hotel Le Meurice to host their wedding dinner. In 1925, there was no hesitation as to which hotel King Albert would choose. Stylish ads from the 1920s showed a conspicuously upper-crust clientele dining and dancing in the Meurice’s rooftop garden, overlooking the glamour of nighttime Paris.
A number of rulers have found comfort at the Hotel Le Meurice after leaving or being forced from their seats of power. In 1931, after Alphonse XIII was dethroned, he took refuge at Le Meurice under the name of the Duc de Tolède with all of the royal family. The Duke and Duchess of Windsor also retreated to Le Meurice. The King of Montenegro checked in after being chased from his kingdom, and the Shah of Iran was actually dethroned during his stay at the Hotel Le Meurice!
Until the 1950s, the Parisian press regularly chronicled the comings and goings of aristocracy from countries ranging from Austria to Zanzibar. Famous guests have included President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the Dukes and Duchesses of Windsor, Kent, York, and Marlborough; the Baron de Rothschild, Sir Anthony Eden; and the rulers of Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Greece, Iran, Italy, Serbia, Montenegro, Jordan, Romania, Russia, and Thailand.
During its long existence, the Hotel Le Meurice has known four major renovations: the first from 1905 to 1907, the second from 1947, the third in 1998 and the last one in 2007 with Philippe Starck. Each of these stages has represented a progress in the modernisation and the embellishment of the hotel.
After an extensive two-year renovation, completed in 2000, the Hotel Le Meurice is restored to its original splendor as a classic French Palace, and more than ever the Parisian pied à terre of the privileged. Today it is the Parisian home to a number of internationally known celebrities and performers who favor the rooftop suite with its panoramic views of Paris. It changed hands several times during the past three decades, and is today a member of the prestigious Dorchester Collection (owned by the Brunei Investment Agency), which includes The Beverly Hills Hotel, Principe di Savoia in Milan, The Dorchester in London, Plaza Athénée in Paris, 45 Park Lane in London, Coworth Park in Ascot and the New York Palace.
The Hotel Le Meurice has been around for over two centuries, and its current clientele as well as its historical patrons speak for its significance in Paris.
Because so many British travelers stayed at the Hotel Le Meurice where all the staff spoke English, by the 19th century the hotel was nicknamed “City of London.” English author W. M. Thackeray once wrote, “If you don’t speak a word of French, if you like English comfort, clean rooms, breakfast and maîtres d’hôtel; if in a foreign land, you want your fellow countrymen around you, your brown beer, your friend and your cognac - and your water - do not listen to any of the messengers but with your best British accent cry heartily: “Meurice! and immediately, someone will come forward to drive you straight to the rue de Rivoli.”
After the war
In 1947, the Hotel Le Meurice undertook another restoration, and, once again, attracted the international clientele that it had before the war.
In 1965, the Salon Louis XVI was transformed into the Salon des Quatre Saisons; its glass roof was replaced with a painted ceiling that represented the vault of heaven and four statues symbolizing the seasons were installed.
The Dalí anecdotes
One of the hotel’s most outrageous guests was the surrealist painter Salvador Dalí, who spent at least one month per year at the Hotel Le Meurice. His behaviour could also be surrealistic: once he demanded that a herd of sheep be brought to his room, and upon their arrival, Dalí took out his pistol and shot at them. Luckily, the gun was filled with blank bullets. Another time, he requested a horse. Yet another time, he asked the staff to capture flies for him in the Tuileries Garden, paying them five francs (around one euro) per fly.
Dalí was a regular at the Hotel Le Meurice. He became close to certain members of the staff, whom he would give autographed lithographs of his work as a Christmas tip.
Florence Jay Gould
In the 1970s, Florence Jay Gould (wife of railroad magnate and financier Jay Gould) lived at the Hotel Le Meurice and organized literary luncheons there. She created two literary prizes and developed the hotel’s reputation as a magnet for the literary set, which included André Gide, François Mauriac, and the young Roger Nimier. The hotel maintains its connection with leading writers today.
Artists, writers, musicians, and intellectuals who have stayed at the Hotel Le Meurice include Giorgio de Chirico, Rudyard Kipling, Walter Lippmann, Yehudi Menuhin, Liza Minnelli, Seiji Ozawa, Anne-Sophie Mutter, and Placido Domingo. Past guests also include film stars and directors such as Orson Welles, Franco Zeffirelli, Fernandel, Mike Todd, Eddie Fisher, Ginger Rogers, Yul Brynner, Elizabeth Taylor, and Richard Burton. The Meurice’s sumptuous décor has also been a setting for several films, including Mata Hari and Julia, directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Jane Fonda. The hotel’s salons have hosted many of high society’s celebrations, including Coco Chanel’s glittering receptions in the 1930s. Parisian houses of haute couture including Chanel and Guy Laroche have staged receptions and fashion shows in the Meurice’s salons.
Celebrity royals prefer the Hotel Le Meurice today, a testament to the hotel’s continued status as the accommodation of choice in the City of Lights. Its tradition of unsurpassed beauty, attention to detail, and excellent service sustains its popularity and prestige.
In 2007, the Hotel Le Meurice came to a new embellishment phase with famous French designer Philippe Starck who revamped the public areas.
In December 2008, Franka Holtmann asked Charles Jouffre, creator of the sumptuous drapes and hangings of the Grand Foyer at the Opera Garnier, to imagine a new and warmer atmosphere for Le Meurice’s guest rooms. Attentive to the desires of a discerning and cosmopolitan clientele, he brought a new touch to the specificities of a palace Hotel whose intention is clearly to do different. The hotel’s rooms take on the air of an elegant eighteenth-century home, where past and present meet with humour and glamour.
The Hotel Le Meurice has selected the iHome IH, iPod radio alarm with which to equip its 160 rooms and suites. Today a true ‘palace’ must be at the forefront of design and technology as well as comfort and splendour.
A hotel that epitomises luxury, elegance and tradition, Le Meurice offers impeccable service to its clients, perfectly blending classic with modern: an iHome is placed on the XVIIIth century style furniture of each of the rooms.
Le Meurice is the first hotel in France where guests can wake up to the sound of their favourite music on the iHome IH. The iPod has become an essential part of day-to-day life: at home, in the car, outdoors, on the plane, and now at the hotel. iHome enables guests at Le Meurice to create their own Parisian play-list and truly feel home away from home.
The iHome iH5 has multiple functions: mini stereo and wake up alarm! Compatible with all iPodÔ models (except the iPod Shuffle), the iH5 radio alarm/stereo’s lines has a pure and contemporary design, and has an infrared remote control.
When the iPod is plugged on to the socket of the iH5, its battery is automatically charged. Furthermore, the iH5 radio alarm/stereo can be programmed either for sleep or wake up, softly or dynamically, with the sound gradually higher or lower, all without affecting the alarm, or the user’s sound settings.
Should you wish to go for a run during your stay at Le Meurice, a pre-programmed iPod is available from the concierge and can be borrowed any time during the day. The iPod is loaded with fresh and energetic music perfect for the summer. Bon jogging! | <urn:uuid:dea95121-72d1-43cb-b2ba-4274186fde19> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lemeurice.com/history | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950055 | 2,738 | 2.1875 | 2 |
Last fall, scientists from the University of Minnesota returned from Kentucky with some 600 preserved brains and 439 boxes filled with memories. That's how the world-famous Nun Study of Alzheimer's disease came home to Minnesota, where it first began.
Dr. Kelvin Lim, the project's new lead scientist, knew it was a historic moment. But for him, nothing compared with meeting the nuns who are still alive. Now in their 90s or older, they've been part of this unique research project for more than 20 years. And even as their numbers have dwindled, he discovered, their commitment has not. As one sister recently told him: "This allows me an opportunity to teach even after I die."
Over the past two decades, the landmark study has led to a best-selling book, "Aging with Grace," and several important research findings: that those with well-developed language skills early in life were less likely to develop dementia later on, and that those with optimistic outlooks lived longer.
On Wednesday, the University of Minnesota is formally announcing the project's return from the University of Kentucky, where it wound up when the previous director took a new job, and a plan to breathe new life into the study with a sequel -- "Nun Study II" -- to study a fresh wave of recruits.
In a sense, the study has come full circle since it began, in 1986, with volunteers from a religious order in Mankato, the School Sisters of Notre Dame. Since then, it has made headlines around the world with insights on how lifestyle and personality traits are linked to people's risk of dementia.
"It's always been their mission to teach," Lim said of the Sisters of Notre Dame. "They view this science, and their contribution to science, as another way to teach others about aging, about dementia, about life."
Originally, more than 600 elderly nuns from across the country volunteered to let a former University of Minnesota scientist, Dr. David Snowdon, study them for clues to how aging affects the brain. Today, only 52 of the original volunteers are still alive, including six retired nuns in Mankato ages 93 to 102.
They turned their lives into open books and took batteries of tests.
As a final gesture, all agreed to donate their brains to science.
They were considered an ideal study group because they had so much in common: diet, lifestyles, backgrounds. By studying which ones went on to develop dementia, Snowdon hoped to learn what risk factors may be at play.
By the time Snowdon announced his retirement last year, he had amassed an extraordinary archive on the women's lives -- including baptismal certificates, autobiographical essays, family photos and MRI scans.
To scientists, it was "a gold mine," Lim said.
Today, the brains are carefully stored at one end of the University of Minnesota Medical School, the boxes of documents in another, in a climate-controlled chamber of the medical library.
In all, roughly half of the nuns developed some form of dementia by the time they died, says Dr. Karen SantaCruz, a University of Minnesota pathologist who is in charge of studying their brains.
Intriguingly, she says, about a dozen had signs of Alzheimer's in their brain tissue but no sign of dementia while they were alive. "It would be great if we could find something from that subset that might help protect people," she said.
Now, her team is painstakingly scanning thousands of tissue samples onto computers, so they can be studied by scientists anywhere in the world.
Professor Harry Orr, who is overseeing the study, says the next phase will be a higher-tech version of the first study, using genetic tests and high-tech imaging to study how the brain ages. Of course, that depends on the willingness of other nuns to volunteer.
That probably won't be a problem, says Sister Catherine Bertrand, provincial leader of the School Sisters of Notre Dame in Mankato. "My guess is there would be some folks who really would be interested," she said, adding that the nuns are "very proud" of the study.
"If we can contribute in some small way to the cure of something like Parkinson's or Alzheimer's ... we would certainly want to be a part of that," she said.
Lim, the scientific director, calls it a tremendous responsibility. "The sisters asked me, so what are you going to do next?" he recalled. "I said we're thinking really hard." And, he added, "Please pray for us."
ON THE WEB
Information about the Nun Study can be found at www.healthstudies.umn.edu/nunstudy .
(c) 2009, Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
Visit the Star Tribune Web edition on the World Wide Web at www.startribune.com
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
Explore further: H. pylori, smoking trends, and gastric cancer in US men | <urn:uuid:8da9ae98-eec9-4af4-8cd0-8614b6fab596> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://phys.org/news157228208.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972503 | 1,025 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Introductory Training for Station Operators and National Data Centres Managers is held in Vienna
The Provisional Technical Secretariat (PTS) held an introductory training course for International Monitoring System (IMS) station operators and National Data Centres (NDC) managers.
The training, which was a joint initiative of the International Monitoring System (IMS) and the International Data Centre (IDC) Divisions of the PTS, was attended by 50 participants from 38 Member States. The aim of the training was to familiarize station operators and NDC managers with the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) and the global verification regime that will monitor compliance with the Treaty.
The presentations and discussions focused on a range of themes, including political and legal aspects of the Treaty, CTBTO verification technologies, the Global Communication Infrastructure, network operation, data processing and archiving, as well as the cooperation between the IDC and the National Data Centres. The training also provided for the demonstration of specific equipment used at IMS stations.
In complementary training courses, NDC managers from seven least developed countries receive specialized training in Finland on the operation of National Data Centres. This part of the programme was sponsored by the Finnish Government in support of the PTS's activities in training NDC personnel. Ten station operators attend a five-day technical training programme in Austria focusing on the radionuclide monitoring technology with emphasis on manually operated radionuclide stations.
The PTS offers introductory training courses and specialized technical training opportunities for station operators and NDC staff on a regular basis. Future IMS/IDC training events are listed on the CTBTO public web site under "Opportunities". | <urn:uuid:ff126b51-005e-44f7-b743-1360f7609227> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ctbto.org/press-centre/highlights/2005/introductory-training-for-station-operators-and-national-data-centres-managers-is-held-in-vienna/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94265 | 345 | 1.523438 | 2 |
When Selemawit Tewelde helped organize a sit-in at the Philadelphia Board of Education last December, all she could do was give a speech while 11 of her fellow students risked arrest for occupying the building. "I wanted to do it so bad," she recalls, "but my mother, she wouldn't let me get arrested." It's not easy being an activist when you're only 16.
Tewelde got involved in the sit-in to protest plans to turn over 45 of the city's lowest-performing schools to Edison Schools Inc. or another for-profit company. The state took over Philadelphia's debt-ridden school system last winter, and officials want to see if a private firm can do a better job of repairing buildings, easing violence, and boosting test scores. The plan would be the nation's largest experiment in school privatization, and Tewelde's school, John Bartram High, is considered a likely candidate.
But the high school junior is not about to see her school privatized without a fight. Each Saturday morning, Tewelde takes the trolley downtown to the offices of the Philadelphia Student Union, a citywide organization of high schoolers. There she plans a weekly meeting that brings together student organizers from across the city. With Tewelde serving as "facilitator," the group discusses ways to fight privatization, planning teach-ins, protest marches, and acts of civil disobedience. On December 18, thousands of students walked out of classes to demonstrate their opposition to Edison and marched on City Hall wearing stickers that read, "I am not for sale. Say no to privatization."
With her confident demeanor, Tewelde shows up frequently on the evening news addressing crowds of protesters. "I'm always the type to speak up when I feel like something's going wrong," she says -- a quality she believes she inherited from her mother, Ahdega Tezre, an immigrant from Eritrea.
Tewelde cites a host of problems with privatization, especially given the questionable track record of Edison Schools nationwide (see "Reading, Writing and Revenue," May/June 2001). Her primary concern, however, involves accountability: If schools are privatized, administrators will answer to corporate shareholders instead of to students and parents. "It's hard to get the mayor to listen to me," she says. "How would this company listen to me?"
Tewelde says that increased funding, not privatization, is the best way to fix problems at troubled schools. Bartram has the honor of being on the National Register of Historic Places, but it's also crumbling. "The ceiling shouldn't be falling apart," says Tewelde. "We shouldn't have messed-up floors." She believes more funding is also needed to provide counseling and other services to address the causes of student violence, rather than relying on the metal detectors and surveillance cameras installed at Bartram.
Tewelde knows that she and other student activists are making a difference. As a consultant to the state during the Philadelphia takeover, Edison Schools was considered the most likely candidate to privatize the city's schools. But organized opposition has already caused officials to solicit interest from 32 other bidders, and Tewelde is confident that students can force the state to scrap its plans to privatize.
"A lot of students probably think, 'I don't care, since nobody's asking me how I feel about what's going on with this,'" she says. "That's how everything gets messed up. Young people start to feel powerless, but they're not. They're very powerful -- and they need to understand that." | <urn:uuid:b2f466df-93ae-41a4-a1a4-a2f013dbb23a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2002/05/class-activist | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977295 | 744 | 1.882813 | 2 |
Mechanical book: Tony Sargs Treasure Book
This colorful movable book contains adaptations of Rip Van Winkle, Treasure Island, and Alices Adventures in Wonderland by Tony Sarg, a German-American craftsman and illustrator best known for creating puppets for the Macys Thanksgiving Day parade in 1928 and the 1933 Chicago Worlds Fair.
Created by Tony Sarg (18821942)
Published by B. F. Jay
New York, NY, ca. 1942
Smithsonian Institution Libraries. PZ7.S24 To 1942
Wall Stories: Children's Wallpapers and Books
On view: October 3, 2008April 5, 2009
This exhibition will explore the relationship between wallpapers and books created for children through works from the permanent collection and the National Design Library. From their beginning in the 1870s, children's wallpapers have been strongly influenced by literature and popular culture. Works on view will include papers illustrated with nursery rhymes and designs inspired by works of fiction and adventure, such as Peter Rabbit, Alice in Wonderland, and Cinderella. The exhibition also will trace the evolution of children's books from instructional to fictional and include developments such as movable and pop-up books, which added an interactive element to children's reading.
Wall Stories: Childrens Wallpaper and Books is made possible in part by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State agency. Additional support is provided in part by Esme Usdan, Margery and Edgar Masinter, The Liman Foundation and The Walt Disney Company. | <urn:uuid:1e932635-7d95-4a15-8373-270c0cd91bcc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cooperhewitt.org/es/videos/cooper-hewitt-mechanical-book-alice-wonderland | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945882 | 314 | 2.140625 | 2 |
Concrete is composed by cement, aggregate (gravel), and water. Concrete crusher is used to crush natural stones into eligible aggregate or gravel. There are several crushers that can be used as concrete crusher. Jaw crusher, impact crusher, cone crusher, vsi crusher have their own special benefits. In common, we compose these crushers into a complete concrete crushing plant.
Mobile concrete crusher
According to the affect of crushing plot, we usually use mobile concrete crusher as concrete crusher. Mobile concrete crusher is also called protable concrete crusher. It advantages are following:
1. Flexible Maneuverability
2. Reduce the cost of transporting materials
3. High efficiency and direct working
4. Better adaptability and flexible layout
5. Reliable performance and easy maintenance
Concrete crusher plant
Aggregate is the stones that are cubic, but natural stones is big and anomalous, and need to be crushed into small pieces with cubic shape.
Concrete crushing plant
concrete crusherThe complete concrete crushing plant is consist of jaw crusher, impact crusher, cone crusher, vsi crusher, belt vonveyor and vibrating screen. Big stones evenly enter into the primary crusher for first crushing, usually it is jaw crusher, then go into the impact crusher or cone crusher for secondary crushing.
After secondary crushing, the stone enter into the vsi crusher for shapping. Aggregate through the vsi crusher mainly is cubic, then is screened out the suitable pieces. While the unsuitable stones return to the crusing plant.
Concrete crusher manufacturer
SBM is a manufacturer of concrete crusher in China, and exporte all kinds of concrete crusher to many countries, such as Indonesia, India, Philippines, Thailand, USA, Germany, Canana, and some African countries. Now, we has formed a complete production-chain that takes crushers and mills as the main products and vibrating screen, vibrating feeder, etc. as supplementary products. We have a professional after-sale service faculty to provide considerate and all-around-way service for the customers. Our products have taken up a considerable place in the world market. | <urn:uuid:beebf46e-697a-4df7-89b9-9e3b5c3732ad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://crusher.ezinemark.com/concrete-crusher-323486e34cb.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925881 | 463 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Perfect hard boiled eggs have fully cooked, evenly textured yolks and fully set but not rubbery whites.
Perfect hard boiled eggs are easy to make. I'd like to say there is a method, and there is, but it's so easy it feels like a trick.
To Make Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs:
- Place the eggs in a pan large enough to hold them without crowding in a single layer. To minimize cracking, you can prick a teeny hole in the end of each egg with a tack, if you want, but it isn't necessary.
- Cover the eggs with cool water—the eggs should have at least an inch of water above them.
- Bring the pot of water and eggs to a boil. A real boil with large bubbles coming up all over, not a little simmer with a few bubbles along the edges.
- Cover the pan, turn off the heat, and let the eggs sit for 14 minutes. Exactly.
- Meanwhile, prepare a large bowl of ice water.
- Drain the eggs and set them in a bowl of ice water.
- Peel and eat the eggs as soon as you can handle them for warm hard boiled eggs. Let them sit until cool (about 10 minutes) and chill for up to two days before using, if you like. | <urn:uuid:72beaa97-e53b-4f67-be13-2c43de43ae9b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://localfoods.about.com/od/preparationtips/qt/hardboiledegg.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955241 | 270 | 1.929688 | 2 |
WASHINGTON (AP) U.S. manufacturing grew for the first time in four months, buoyed by a jump in new orders. The increase was a hopeful sign that the economy is improving.The Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing managers, said Monday that its index of factory activity rose to 51.5. That's up from 49.6 in August.
A reading above 50 signals growth and below indicates contraction. The index had been below that threshold from June through August.
Stocks increased their gains after the report was released. The Dow Jones industrial average had been up roughly 100 points before the report came out. It jumped to 150 points up within 10 minutes of the release.
A measure of employment also increased, suggesting manufacturers added workers last month.
The increase could signal that manufacturing is picking up after a weakening this spring because of declining consumer demand and a drop in exports.
The improvement in the United States comes even as growth is slowing overseas. Europe's financial crisis has pushed many countries in the region into recession. Growth in emerging nations such as China and India has slowed.
China's manufacturing sector shrank in September, according to a survey by a Chinese trade group. But its measure of factory activity rose for the first time in four months, to 49.8, from 49.2.
The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of just 1.3 percent in the April-June quarter, down from a 2 percent growth rate in the January-March quarter.
Most economists expect growth will stay near or below 2 percent for the rest of this year. Growth at that pace is typically too weak to lower the unemployment rate.
Employers added 96,000 jobs in August, lower than July's total and far below the average of 226,000 a month in the first three months of the year. The unemployment rate dropped to 8.1 percent from 8.3 percent in July. But that was only because fewer people were looking for work. The government only counts people as unemployed if they are actively searching for jobs.
The government will release the September employment report on Friday. | <urn:uuid:53945198-d948-4a00-967a-9d2ae651690c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2012/oct/01/bc-us--economy-manufacturing-1st-ld-writethru350/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00076-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977709 | 433 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Master of Sustainability
From the local level to emerging global initiatives, sustainability principles are growing in importance and influence in all aspects of our society. Individuals and organizations are increasingly seeking to gain the knowledge and practical skills necessary to manage the complex challenges posed by sustainability. With the Master of Sustainability program, Chatham University is educating leaders to confront and address these challenges.
The Master of Sustainability at Chatham University's School of Sustainability and the Environment (SSE) is a two-year, full-time cohort program offering an innovative and unique approach to the study of sustainability. By identifying and finding solutions to real-world sustainability challenges, our students develop an academically sound, yet professionally-oriented understanding of how to simultaneously improve economic development, social justice, and the biophysical environment.
The Master of Sustainability is a full-time, cohort-based program. Students are required to complete core coursework along with the cohort they join. To fulfill the requirements for the Master of Sustainability degree program, students must successfully complete a minimum of 41 hours total credit hours, which include:
- 20 hours of core courses
- 21 hours of elective courses that constitute an area of specialization. The area of specialization may be one of several predetermined by the program, or may be designed by the student and approved by the students advisor and the dean.
- students may take more electives
- students are NOT limited to electives listed in SUS
- up to six hours of thesis and/or internship credit may count towards the area of specialization
All students are required to complete a 200-400 hour experience of immersion into a professional setting or field-based research setting. Ideally, students will fulfill this requirement by working or conducting research 20-40 hours/week over a 10-week period during the summer following the first two semesters in the program. A hybrid experience is also possible if a student wants to, for example, conduct research for an organization in a professional setting.
All students are also required to participate in co-curricular activities. | <urn:uuid:bcf5b8ad-5e42-4c99-b0bc-88ad2689e97d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.chatham.edu/sse/programs/msus/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944656 | 424 | 1.53125 | 2 |
If this is Tuesday, it must be history. At least, that’s what PBS hopes viewers think as the service moves forward with plans to identify specific program genres with days of the week.
“People have had difficulty navigating through our schedule,” Kerger told TV critics gathered in Pasadena, Calif., for the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour, where PBS previewed content Jan. 4 and 5. “Being able to build destination nights and really build programs that link well together on a single night seems to be working out quite well.”
PBS says its move of Nova from Tuesday to Wednesday, its new science destination, has encouraged it to create more theme nights.
Monday: During the past year, airing a pair of Antique Roadshow episodes back-to-back pushed ratings up 33 percent, said John Wilson, PBS chief programming executive. So PBS hopes the Monday audience will grow even stronger this year when it pairs Roadshow with a new antiques-related reality series, Market Wars, from the same WGBH team headed by Marsha Bemko.
Tuesday: The night will become a beacon for history and public affairs programming, including both American Experience and Frontline. “We’re not going to actually devote an entire night to history . . . but there’s a great affinity, according to the research that we’ve done, between people who are interested in history and people who are interested in a series like Frontline,” Kerger said. “What we’re trying to do is really figure out how we can get people to watch and then focus on keeping them through the whole night.”
Wednesday: As a result of adding Nova to Nature last year, Kerger said, Wednesday night viewing is up 47 percent on average, or about 700,000 viewers. This year, PBS will add limited series to the science night at 10 p.m. Those short series this year will include America Revealed, a look at how the nation’s infrastructure provides food, transportation, electric power and goods to the country, and Inside Nature’s Giants, which examines the mysteries of large mammals.
Thursday and Saturdays: Except on rare occasions, as when a Ken Burns series comes sprawling, these two nights will be reserved for stations to allocate without common-carriage pleas or incentives from PBS. “One of the things that was really important to [station execs] was to make sure they had a place in primetime during the week that they would have access to,” Wilson said. “Thursday night remains that place. Thursday at 8 o’clock is truly a no-fly zone for national carriage.”
Friday: Last year, PBS began converting Friday nights from a stack of public affairs shows into a venue for arts programs. “We’re running 500 hours of arts programs a year, but they were put on the schedule on various nights,” Kerger said. “It just pained me that we would bring wonderful programs . . . and then people would have difficulty finding them because there wasn’t a regular destination. So we talked to the programmers of our stations around the country and settled on Friday night.
“That’s worked pretty well, so we are going to stick with Friday nights and see how this next year plays out.”
Sunday: The first hour of Sunday, which has benefited from a ratings surge for Masterpiece, will be the time for new genres and ideas, Kerger said. That includes the 10-part series, Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr., which premieres in March.
The idea of clustering a block of like programs is far from revolutionary. It’s been a strategy of commercial broadcasters for decades, and PBS increasingly is going with the flow.
“One of the things that has changed for us in the last year or two is we now have audience analysis tools that allow us to move these changes from the hypothetical,” said Wilson in an interview with Current. “We can now track the audience from Show A to Show B and from Minute 1 to Minute 2. That ability . . . has really allowed us not only to act on this theory but to demonstrate the results to our stations and ourselves.”
The hardest part about changing the schedule for PBS is persuading its member stations that the change will benefit them, Kerger said. “Remember, we’re not a network,” she said. “They have their own scheduling needs, particularly around local content and things they acquire, so we need to work with them to try to build out a schedule that makes sense.”
Although building genre nights is a priority, Wilson said he is also paying attention to how the schedule flows during the same time period across the week.
“We can look at things from that direction as well,” he said. “We also want an audience that comes in Sunday night to see a Masterpiece to know what else they can come back for later in the week.”
Plan to improve audience flow would push promotional spots deeper into PBS hours, May 2011
Q&A with PBS chief Paula Kerger: With projects on hold, PBS hunts for spendable cash, tweaks primetime schedule, May 2011.
Viewers say they want programs on regular days, 2006.
PBS.org displays local station schedules.
Copyright 2012 American University | <urn:uuid:8f48541d-13a3-4150-8a72-e335018179b7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.current.org/2012/01/next-pbs-tuesday-schedule-goes-for-the-flow/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961673 | 1,131 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Least Tern > Workshops > But not Least > Learning and Lobstering
But not Least...
I Don't Want to Think About That (and other Answers)
Good Answers are Hard To Come By: The Second Skill
In a classroom, there are two types of question: Teacher Questions and Kid Questions. Jamie Mckenzie and others have made excellent arguments for the necessity of purposeful Teacher Questions (I point you to McKenzie's From Now On article Framing Essential Questions). Framing good questions is hard work for a teacher, probably the hardest task faced by the technology integrator. On the other hand, questions come easily to children. There has been extensive research into the nature of good Questions and we cover this in our essay called Questioning: The First Skill. Yet what is the use of questions if answers go unheeded?
Answers are almost as important as Questions. They are the Second Skill. The teacher who guides students through the creation, location and communication of meaningful Answers is teaching them an invaluable life skill.
Answering Skills have not been the focus of research lately, perhaps because teachers attend to answers with an aniticipated "answer set." Anything close gets by in a teacher-centered classroom; answers are less important in themselves than as steps toward the next Question or the next Fact. Suprisingly, this is recorded on video at training sites( such as InTime) and recorded by educators (see Candy's Project). However, this doesn't mean that Answers are not important. An experienced teacher recognizes that:
Answers are hard work.
The collaboration process and the individual learning process can by stymied by poor answers. Let's take a look at some Poor Answers.
Poor Answers - The poorest answer is, of course, no answer; but here are some categories to which the teacher should be alert:
- Passive Avoidance : I don't know; I didn't do it; I don't want to think about that; I don't understand the question; You didn't teach us that yet; I don't see any pattern; I only know two of them.
- Irrelevant Avoidance: (laughter); a rude comment; a noise; an unrelated fact or observation.
- Lateral Arabesque : I agree with Robert; It's just what you said; It's the same as last time; Why don't you ask Robert?
- Ask Back Guesses : The red one? 10?
- Hesitant Guesses : I think maybe...; It could be...
- Question Confusion : Which angle do you mean?
- Knowledge Confusion : What's an adjective again? How do I know if it's a growing pattern?
- Attack : That's a dumb question; So what?; You don't know anything, What difference does it make? Why should I care?
Good Answers are risky business. It is important that teachers learn to recognize them as well:
- Review and Extend : If angle B is obtuse then segment AC must be the longest one; If it's a growing pattern then the next unit must be...; If the Mayor thought the Chinese were good merchants then...
- Agree/DisAgree with Reason : I agree with Robert because; Robert said that....but I think that...because.
- If...then 1-1 : If the pH is 7 then the water must be...; If the cloud has that shape then...
- Conclude Many-to-1: Based upon the evidence, I would say that...; All of these examples are the same in that they...; Betty's actions show that she is feeling...
- Extrapolate 1-to-Many : If this rock is limestone then the rocks at X are limestone; If the crayfish died because of the water temperature then lobsters die when the ocean temperature goes up; If more boys in our class wear sneakers then...
- Factual : The formula is...; The capital of Iran is...; The three types of Greek column are...
- Self-Directing Search : I don't know, but I can find the answer in...; I don't know but if I do X I can find out; I don't know but I will ask...
- Critical : I think we should be asking...; It would be better to ask...; That question is not relevant, how about this...
The Teacher Task
Both adults and children discern the difference between Good and Poor Answers. However, students at all grade levels display a tolerance for Poor Answers. This has as much to do with the social fabric of the classroom (pecking order, peer pressure) as with the quality and engagement of the academic experience. Thus, it is a Teacher Task to guide students toward the Good Answers. This is one reason for a clear set of Permissions that will discourage Poor Answers and encourage the risk-taking required of Good Answers. It is important that the teacher does not correct the answer or redirect the question to another student. Instead, the teacher should:
- Wait after asking question and before calling on a student
- Restate the question for the student or, better still, have a student from another area of the learning space restate it
- Review or guide students to necessary knowledge, even if this seems a side track (rarely is only one student confused or lacking knowledge)
- Prompt - Say, Try it again; That doesn't answer the question, try again; There are many good answers - try again; There is no one right answer to this one - give it a try
- Reinforce Good Answers by asking students to summarize or build upon them (not to restate)
With a watchful eye and ear tuned to Answers, the teacher can feel confident that her students will be guided toward a powerful learning product. The students will do the rest.
The Problem With Answers
Wait a second. A teacher can't be everywhere all the time, reading everything, hearing everything. There are going to be moments missed. Good questions will go unanswered. Good answers will be spurned, ignored or reduced to platitiudes. There will be plagiarism. Ask -› Answer. Students, especially students with poor answering skills, have learned that this is a successful learning process. They ask -> the teacher, a librarian, a book, a website, another student answers. This is not a process that encourages inquiry; it is an expectation that often results in the Information Trap. That is where Collaboration comes in. Teachers tend to think of collaboration in terms of shared input (answers) and shared ouput (products); it is more. A successful collaborative group is by nature a critical, attentive group. In a working collaboration, the process is this: Ask -› Many Answers. The question-answer process is complicated by the need to apply higher order thinking skills - filtering and assessment skills - to Many Answers before the product-building process can continue.
The success of a collaboration depends not only upon good questions and answers, but upon good attention to answers.
So the Teacher/Guide needs to model not only good Questioning and Answering, but also good Attending. All of which brings us to the third essential learning skill in the Filtering toolkit: Attending: I know what you mean but...(and other attentive comments).
E. Sky-McIlvain 5/22/04 | <urn:uuid:61eda8eb-aabd-4a2f-ab37-2cf6bdf3a228> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.leasttern.com/workshops/butnotleast/learningskills/Answers.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951863 | 1,530 | 2.78125 | 3 |
Madrid–Barcelona high-speed rail line
high-speed rail line
The Madrid–Barcelona high-speed rail line is a 621-kilometre (386 mi) standard gauge railway line inaugurated on 20 February 2008. Designed for speeds of 350 km/h (217 mph) and compatibility with neighbouring countries' rail systems, it connects the cities of Madrid and Barcelona in 2 hours 38 minutes, and continues to Figueres near the French border where there is an end-on connection to the LGV Perpignan–Figueres leading into France, and so to the European high speed network.
First stages
In 2003 construction of the first phase of a new standard gauge line from Madrid to the French border (Madrid–Zaragoza–Lleida) was completed and on 11 October of that year commercial service began. This service also stopped at Guadalajara–Yebes and Calatayud. The service began running at only 200 km/h (124 mph). On 19 May 2006, after two years of operation, speed was increased to 250 km/h (155 mph) when the Spanish ASFA signalling system was replaced with level 1 of the new European ETCS/ERTMS system. On 16 October 2006 the trains on this line increased their operating speed to 280 km/h (174 mph).
On 18 December 2006 the AVE started operating to Camp de Tarragona, and on 7 May 2007 the service increased its speed to the maximum allowable for the line, 300 km/h (186 mph). This puts Tarragona at 30 minutes from Lleida. The extension to Barcelona was delayed various times due to technical problems; the Ministerio de Formento having originally forecast the AVE's arrival in Barcelona by the end of 2007.
Complete operation
The complete line was opened February 2008. As of 2008, seventeen trains now run every day between the hours of 6 am and 9 pm, covering the distance between the two cities in just 2 hours 38 minutes, except for those stopping at all stations, which take 3 hours. Before the high-speed line was built, the journey between the two cities took more than six hours; and when the high speed line went only as far as Tarragona, 3 hours 45 minutes, operated with the Alvia service (120 series train), which continued on the conventional line to Barcelona, after a change of rail gauge.
It was originally forecast that, after reaching Barcelona in 2004, the line would run at 350 km/h (217 mph), the maximum capable speed of the new Siemens AVE trains which have replaced the Talgo Bombardier AVE S102, after the installation of level 2 of the ETCS/ERTMS. But on the AVE's first day of operating at 300 km/h (186 mph) to Tarragona the Minister of Public Works, Magdalena Álvarez, stated that the maximum commercial operating speeds of the AVE on all lines would be 300 km/h (186 mph). Still, in October 2011, the speed was raised to 310 km/h on parts of the railway.
It was forecast that the AVE will substantially replace air traffic on the Barcelona - Madrid route (in the same way that the Eurostar has on the London-Paris/London-Brussels routes and France's TGV has on the Paris-Lyon route). In fact, more than 80% of travellers between Madrid and Seville use the AVE, with fewer than 20% travelling by air. The route Madrid-Barcelona was in 2007 the world's busiest passenger air route with 971 scheduled flights per week (both directions). In order to compete with each other RENFE has made, and Iberia will make, changes to their fare structures, as well as changing services; Iberia plans to use smaller planes which will leave as soon as full, and a non-stop AVE service is available between the two cities.
There was criticism during the construction of the Madrid-Barcelona line. A critical report by the consulting firm KPMG, commissioned by ADIF (Administrador de Infraestructuras Ferroviarias) at the behest of the Ministry for Public Works (Ministerio de Fomento) on 23 June 2004, pointed to a lack of in-depth studies and over-hasty execution of works as the most important reasons for the problems that dogged construction of the AVE line. For example, during the construction of the AVE tunnel near Barcelona, a number of nearby buildings suffered damage from a sinkhole that appeared near a commuter rail station, damaging one of its platforms. The construction committee of Barcelona's famed Sagrada Familia church lobbied for a re-routing of the tunnel - it passes within metres of the massive church's foundations. It also passes equally near the UNESCO-recognized Casa Milà also designed by Antoni Gaudí.
Furthermore, until 2005 both Siemens and Talgo/Bombardier train sets failed to meet scheduled speed targets, although in a test run during the homologation tests of the new S102 trains of RENFE, a train-set Talgo 350 (AVE S-102) reached a speed of 365 km/h (227 mph) on the night of the 25/26 June 2006, and in July 2006 a Siemens Velaro train-set (AVE S-103) reached the highest top speed ever in Spain: 403.7 km/h (250.8 mph). At this time, it was a record for railed vehicles in Spain and a world record for unmodified commercial service trainsets, as the earlier TGV and ICE records were achieved with specially modified and shortened trainsets, and the 1996 Shinkansen record of 443 km/h (275 mph) was using a test (non-commercial) trainset.
Extension to France
Barcelona to Figueres
Originally planned to open in 2009, the extension to Figueres Vilafant railway station, via Girona, where there is an end-on connection with the LGV Perpignan-Figueres, opened on 7 January 2013. As of January 2013[update] there are eight trains a day running from Madrid, connecting at Figueres Vilafant with two TGV services to Paris. There have been delays in building a four kilometre tunnel in Girona, the first phase of which was finished in September 2010, and controversy over the route between Sants and Sagrera stations in Barcelona.
Figueres to Perpignan
This is an international high speed rail line between France and Spain. The line connects two cities on opposite sides of the border, Perpignan in Roussillon, France, and Figueres in Catalonia, Spain. It consists of a 44.4-kilometre (27.6 mi) line which crosses the French–Spanish border via the Perthus Tunnel, an 8.3-kilometre (5.2 mi) tunnel bored under the Perthus Pass. The line is open to high speed trains and freight. Construction was completed in February 2009, although services did not run until a station was built on the line at Figueres. As of 19 December 2010, there is TGV service from Paris to Figueres via Perpignan.
See also
- La Vanguardia, 18 December 2006[dead link]
- La Vanguardia, 7 May 2007[dead link]
- Madrid - Barcelona at 310 km/h with ETCS Level 2
- Juan Carlos Martín and Gustavo Nombela, "Microeconomic impacts of investments in high speed trains in Spain", Annals of Regional Science, vol. 41, no. 3, September 2007
- "Barcelona - Figueres high speed rail line to open on January 7". International Rail Journal. 10 December 2012. Retrieved 18 January 2012.
- "Railway Gazette: Girona tunnelling makes progress". Retrieved 23 September 2010.
- "Perpignan-Barcelona AVE to open in 2012 or .... 2020?". Today's railways Europe, Issue 140. August 2007. p. 10.
- "Perpignan-Figueras High-speed Rail Line". Structurae. Retrieved 30 January 2009.
- "Ouverture des ventes pour Paris Figueras". SNCF (in French). 22 November 2010. Retrieved 1 December 2010.[dead link]
Further reading
- Brunhouse, Jay (July 2009). "All Aboard » New high-speed Barcelona-Madrid". International Travel News. Retrieved 2 April 2013.
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Madrid-Barcelona high-speed rail line| | <urn:uuid:03583b06-98af-44b7-9de8-6c1cead46235> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madrid%e2%80%93Barcelona_high-speed_rail_line | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937545 | 1,824 | 1.875 | 2 |
This project will digitise and make available through the internet some 100,000 notarial records from the city of Riohacha, on the Caribbean coast of Colombia, and the peninsula of La Guajira. The understudied Guajira peninsula has significance for the history of Colombia, the Caribbean, Latin America, and the Atlantic World. Riohacha was founded in 1545 by Ambrosio Alfinger, an agent of the Welsers, an important German merchant family. In the XVI and XVII centuries the area’s rich pearl beds attracted English, Dutch, French and Spanish smugglers. Later La Guajira became an important cattle-producing area where large-scale ranchers created great wealth based upon slave labor. By the 18th century Riohacha had become the provincial capital. This region remained an important entrepôt for both legal and contraband trade in slaves, gold, and other commodities. The endangered records of Riohacha offer unique information on the economic and social history of the region and will contribute to scholarship on Latin American, the Atlantic world, the circum-Caribbean, slavery and borderlands studies.
The Notaria Primera (First Archive) holds materials that document the region’s rich commercial and social history. These include documents for the purchase and sale of public and private properties from both urban and rural settings; land petitions and adjudication of disputes over public and private lands; documents pertaining to the formation of merchant societies and to the commercial exchanges among Spaniards, foreigners, and indigenous Guajiros; slave sales and purchases, as well as manumission documents; wills and testaments of the most important families in the region which detail social and political alliances and the formation of wealth. The appreciation of the importance of archival collections as an important patrimony of the greater Caribbean is only now developing in Colombia, with some preservation efforts being made in Cartagena, Santa Marta and Valledupar. Other areas of Colombia, such as Riohacha, lack any archival organisation to preserve these precious, and rapidly disappearing, materials. The endangered notarial documents of Riohacha are the administrative responsibility of a public notary, but because they are public records, anyone can consult them.
The Riohacha documents are in a precarious condition. Local temperatures reach the high 90s and materials are stored on aluminium and iron shelving, which when exposed to the humidity produces an oxide that damages the documents. Humidity and fungus also threaten the integrity of the documents. An estimated 25-30% of the documents are beyond saving, but 70-75% could be digitised and, thus, preserved. Unfortunately, no Colombian agency is preserving these documents and the archive allows open access. “Old” documents have been discarded. The recent resurgence of paramilitary and government violence also threaten these documents.
Adding to the importance of these documents is the fact that Colombia still struggles with the legacy of slavery. Approximately one-fourth of the nation has African ancestry and yet their history has been largely ignored. Recently, there is a growing interest in Colombia’s multi-racial past and the Colombian Constitution requires inclusion of Afro-Colombian history in school curricula. The documents that will be rescued will enrich the national and regional narrative by capturing a multi-racial frontier society that included enslaved and free people of African descent as well as many other ethnic groups.
Copies of the records will be freely accessible through the internet on a website maintained by Vanderbilt University. Copies will also be deposited with the University of Cartagena, the archive of the Notaria Primera of Riohacha and with the British Library. | <urn:uuid:43c144fd-0509-4ee1-856e-35ab2455f33f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://eap.bl.uk/database/overview_project.a4d?projID=EAP503;r=5764 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930417 | 746 | 3.25 | 3 |
As inhabitants of the silicon age we're used to instant access to almost anything our hearts desire – or wallets can afford. International travel can be booked with a few keystrokes. Accommodation and almost anything else for a holiday, ditto.
Although bookings on Queenstown's iconic steam-powered vessel the TSS Earnslaw are often done the same way by holiday-makers from all over the world, the technology that powers this lovingly kept vessel is a throwback to another age. The age of steam.
The world's most famous steam-powered vessel, The Titanic, was launched in 1911, the same year as its lesser known counterpart, The Earnslaw. No doubt the nod to an era long past is part of the attraction that sees up to 1000 passengers a day boarding the almost century-old grand dame of Lake Wakatipu.
But however quaint steaming across a scenic lake may sound, steam requires coal, and generating energy from coal requires combustion in a furnace. That means someone has to manually shovel the coal.
I'm a big fan of the silicon age, but being the inquisitive type I wondered what it would be like to step back in time and be one of the people who powered the engine-room. Not content with wondering, I decided to volunteer as a coal shoveller to get a taste of the action.
Stepping up to the coal-face (pun unavoidable) on a 27-degree day, I am greeted by the extremely firm handshake of Dan Hamilton, a coal-stoker who has just completed a year's service. He tells me I am a bit nuts, but agrees it's a good idea to throw a bit of light on the job he admits is hard-yakka but one he didn't take long to fall in love with.
The heat of the engine room is a shock – but not unexpected, and is lessened if you stand beneath vents that pump in cool air. We're surrounded by engine wheels, huge pistons, beautiful hand-wrought gauges and other slickly oiled, strictly maintained, now arcane technology.
"There's a real sense of history here," Dan says. "You wouldn't believe the amount of oil we go through, but it's all about preventative maintenance. Everything here is irreplaceable – so if you screwed something up, you'd probably jump in the lake and hope you sank, because it'd be pretty hard to live with the consequences."
The chance for a screw-up is not slim. In explaining to me how the coal needs to be spread evenly across the furnace grate and how quickly pressure can be lost, I realise a finely balanced process is in constant effect.
I'm worried about slipping on loose coal and that my shovel will end up getting caught in a piston.
Dan's a big, strong guy – and I decide if that happens I'd rather risk it in the lake, so will go for the nearest exit.
He hasn't even mentioned the furnace yet but you can't escape its muted roar and the waves of heat it emanates – so as I'm nodding and trying to take in his crash-course explanation of how steam drives the ship, my eyes are constantly drawn to the bank of four doors behind him.
"It's not about chucking it in as fast as you can," he tells me when we get down to the nitty-gritty. "I'll open up and you can see."
He opens a furnace door. Searing heat belches out and you can see why visions of hell figure so prominently as a deterrent in Western religion. If Dante's inferno was as hot as this you wouldn't want to spend a split-second there – let alone an eternity.
Back in the real world Dan directs me on where to aim my shovel loads. "Three across the back and two in front." He's talking about aiming what I estimated to be a 15kg shovel load of coal through a 60cm circular hole across leaping flames and heat haze to land in an evenly spread layer across what would be an area about 2.5 metres square. We'll take two doors each. Even from a few steps back the heat is face-meltingly fierce.
"Don't even get your hands close."
I just nod. By this time bells are ringing, whistles are hooting and it's time to go. He stokes five shovel-loads through each of the four furnace doors to show me how it's done and the steam head quickly rises. "That'll get us a little way across."
I nod again, eager for my chance among the flames and din. I want to know a bit more than just the mechanics of stoking, so it's time for some questions. The work is physically hard and carried out in tight confines. Does everyone get on?
"They have to. You have to toe the line. There's a lot of stuff like clearing out the tubes and getting rid of clinker and emptying ash that if you don't do it right it makes the next guy's shift hell. Plus we like to have a good time, so you want to be able to have a laugh as well."I get the distinct feeling anyone who didn't fit in wouldn't last long.
Depending on the quality of the coal, 600 to 800kg of ash is produced every day. Dan rues the fact the Ohai coal mine closed down last year. The high quality coal meant less was required and it yielded far less ash than any other coal.
As we're working, tourists – mostly men over 55 who'd rather see the engine room at work than the breathtaking views from the deck – manoeuvre for photos. Do they ever feel like performing monkeys?
"Yeah, but it's part of the job. We're a tourist operation – so you can't let it bother you."
As if on cue, a large, bearded Scandinavian man calls down to us, asking in broken English if he can get a photo. We mug away then get down to business. I over-reach with my first shovel load. Its edge clangs just below the door and the coal lurches in to clumsily cover a front section of the grate. I was aiming for the back. My face is already red from the heat – so I don't think Dan notices my rookie embarrassment.
I carry on. New coal spills from the gravity-fed hopper as you scoop each shovel load out. The black lumps scatter across the floor, increasing my paranoia about slipping and throwing the shovel into the piston.
After four stokes we're across and we go up on deck for some fresh air while passengers disembark and board.
What I think is an Australian approaches us. With a distinct twang he asks us if it's hard work. Dan says it's not too bad. I think otherwise but hold my tongue. The Australian turns out to be a Kiwi who's father was a coal stoker on the Auckland to San Francisco route. He shakes our hands, saying we must be only a handful of people in the world to still be doing it fulltime. I blow my cover and tell him I'm a reporter seeing what it's like. He laughs and tells me more journos should get their hands dirty.
Back in the engine room for the return trip, and I'm all about technique. A flat to the floor scoop into the hopper followed with a balanced pull back means you're set up for a nice swing. Slitting your eyes against the heat and cutting the momentum of the swing before the shovel blade reaches the door means your coal fans out evenly and exactly where you want it.
I get lost in the rhythm and concentration.
In the lull I watch the lake's water-line. Chilled and crisp and chopped by small waves, it glides by at eye-level through a port hole.
I keep an eye on the valves and watch the massive pistons stroke. It's all pretty mesmerising, and before I know it we're back in Queenstown. I'm almost disappointed, but as I'm thrown a rag, pointed to a hose and start scrubbing my coal-blackened hands, I realise I've done exactly what the Kiwi/Australian ordered, and am happy with my day's work.
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Too often westerners, especially Americans speak of rights. The flip side to this is the reality of duty and responsibility. Both are needed.
The Holy Father speaks of the right of every person to hear the Gospel:
57. Like Christ during the time of His preaching, like the Twelve on the morning of Pentecost, the Church too sees before her an immense multitude of people who need the Gospel and have a right to it, for God “wants everyone to be saved and reach full knowledge of the truth.”[1 Tim 2:4]
He also speaks of the duty of the entire Church to preach it:
The Church is deeply aware of her duty to preach salvation to all. Knowing that the Gospel message is not reserved to a small group of the initiated, the privileged or the elect, but is destined for everyone, she shares Christ’s anguish at the sight of the wandering and exhausted crowds, “like sheep without a shepherd” and she often repeats His words: ”I feel sorry for all these people.”[Mt 9:36; 15:32] But the Church is also conscious of the fact that, if the preaching of the Gospel is to be effective, she must address her message to the heart of the multitudes, to communities of the faithful whose action can and must reach others.
Christianity is not a clique, or an enclave. The notion of a smaller, purer church goes against the very fabric of Christian duty. It might be that some of the people who receive preaching, baptism, and all are less than optimal in their words and actions. It doesn’t negate the Great Commission. Pope Paul VI doesn’t deny the need to care for the multitudes, those who are responsible for living the Christian life. Note the message is not for the mind, but for the heart. I would take that as less a kerygma aimed at emotions (affairs of the heart), and more a proclamation to the very core of human life (the innermost recesses). | <urn:uuid:aba99c98-c810-444c-887e-f1fd424e0d38> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://catholicsensibility.wordpress.com/2012/10/20/evangelii-nuntiandi-57-the-duty-to-preach-to-the-heart/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95731 | 425 | 2.25 | 2 |
NUI Galway Historian Awarded Humboldt Fellowship
Thursday, 2 December 2010
NUI Galway lecturer in History, Dr Róisín Healy, has recently been awarded a prestigious Research Fellowship by the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung, Bonn. The Fellowship, which is for Experienced Researchers, is funded by the German Government. Dr Healy lectures on nineteenth and twentieth century German and European history in NUI Galway. She will be on sabbatical leave throughout the Fellowship. During her stay in Germany, from January to June 2011, she will be affiliated to the Global and European Studies Institute at the University of Leipzig where she will research pre-First World War German/Polish relationships. Nineteenth-century Irish nationalists liked to claim that Ireland and Poland, which had been partitioned between Prussia, Russia, and Austria in the late eighteenth century, were the most oppressed nations of Europe. Drawing on sources in four languages (English, Irish, German and Polish), Dr Healy will investigate to what extent British colonial practice in Ireland, in matters such as land, religion and language, mirrored that of Prussia in the Polish provinces under its control (Posen and West Prussia) during the period 1795–1918. Humboldt Research Fellowships, which are highly competitive, are awarded to approximately 600 senior researchers annually. The awards are made solely on the basis of past research performance and future potential. In addition to receiving funding to undertake research in Germany, recipients of the Humboldt Fellowship become members of a global academic network of Humboldt Scholars that provides a life-long supportive framework for the scholarly activities of Humboldt Fellows. In receiving the award, Róisín becomes the newest member of Humboldt-Club na Gaillimhe, an association that includes former NUI Galway Humboldt Fellows and German scholars who have researched in NUI Galway, for at least a year, supported by the Humboldt Foundation. Previous NUI Galway Humboldt Fellows include Professors Peter McHugh (Biomedical Engineering), Michael O'Connell (Botany), Dáibhí Ó Cróinín (History); Emeritus Professors Martin Newell (Mathematics), Angela Savage (Chemistry) and John Shiel (Engineering); and the late Professor Anthony Moran (Microbiology). Professor Dáibhí Ó Cróinín a former NUI Galway Humboldt Fellow says: "In the world of international scholarship, the Humboldt Research fellowships are for the Humanities what the Max Planck fellowships are for the Sciences. Dr Healy's recent award is another feather in the cap for NUI Galway, and further international recognition for the first-class quality of our work in the University." | <urn:uuid:62c58c9c-f71b-4504-8728-8a82e8498904> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nuigalway.ie/about-us/news-and-events/news-archive/2010/december2010/nui-galway-historian-awarded-humboldt-fellowship-1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956099 | 594 | 2.015625 | 2 |
When modeling real world situations, we often use what's called inverse or indirect variation to describe a relation between two variables. Indirect variation is a relation in which the absolute value of one variable gets smaller while the other gets larger. Indirect variation and direct variation are important concepts to understand when learning equations and interpreting graphs.
Inverse variation or indirect variation, two different ways of saying the exact same thing and with this particular concept we're just going to jump right in it and take a look at it so y varies inversely as x. So what this actually mean is whenever that something varies it's always going to be by itself so this is y is equal to and inversely basically means instead of being on the same level, They're on opposite levels so we're going to divide for this okay y varies inversely as x we divide and with any variation problem we always need a constant.
Why this is called inversely is what happens is the bigger x gets, the smaller y gets and the smaller x gets the bigger y gets so there's an indirect inverse variation, they're opposite, whereas direct one gets bigger the other one gets bigger and inversely one gets bigger the other gets smaller, there's an opposite. | <urn:uuid:e1086185-ef04-461c-8c6b-5550c9f92a9f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.brightstorm.com/math/algebra-2/functions/indirect-variation/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95195 | 247 | 4.09375 | 4 |
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of the already underprivileged by visiting a disproportionate amount of society's environmental waste on them. Rather than seeking broad-based welfare improvements for the poor, as Rawls would, the environmental-justice movement seeks to improve environmental quality for the poor and to make decision-making processes and forums more inclusive of all members of society. A problem arises potentially when environmentalists place a higher priority on environmental justice than do the poor themselves.
The basic approaches of Western philosophy call for concern for welfare (utilitarianism), respect for rights (contractarianism), and respect for things that have "a good of their own" (Kantianism). The basic program of deep ecology is to take any or all of the basic ethical approaches and expand the set of entities that matter—that is, entities whose welfare counts, that have rights, and that have a good of their own—independently of human beliefs. For example, Peter Singer argues that society—in recognizing the relevance of welfare for ethnic minorities, women, children, and sentient beings—is already descending a slippery slope that must lead ultimately to respect for the welfare of all animals, plants, and even rocks. Singer is a utilitarian, but the slippery-slope argument can also be applied in ethical frameworks based on rights or intrinsic values.
The essential policy implications of deep ecology involve conscious and deliberate limitation of the impacts of human beings on the other entities that together make up the planet and life on it. Some would argue that Singer's slippery-slope argument is not entirely convincing. The hard work of legal craft and scholarship is directed to making the fine distinctions that protect society from slippery slopes, and history shows that society often has been able to stop or reverse itself. In application, deep ecology encounters two kinds of problems: the standard problems of the welfare, rights-based, and intrinsic-value approaches; and the special problems of grounding the expanded concern for nonhuman entities. What makes us think that humans are the only sentient species? And what about the welfare of nonsentient beings? Worthwhile exercise of rights would seem to require at least cognition, but some have argued that society could delegate to human specialists the responsibility of advocacy for noncognizant entities (for example, trees). Intrinsic value is something to be recognized by human beings; thus, broadening the category of things that have "a good of their own" requires that human beings see the light and so fails to provide a locus of value independent of human beliefs.
We have made a distinction between ethical approaches that attempt directly to value the consequences of actions and theories that seek to define valid pro- | <urn:uuid:05d89d5c-d9cc-4d3e-9ec4-c87998d9ceaa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=9589&page=81 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942155 | 574 | 3.125 | 3 |
There were signs all over Iloilo City when I was there – urging people to ask for receipts.
(Right next to those asking people to vote NO on the Reproductive Health Bill — making for an interesting political display of corruption and sex.)
Businesses had all sorts of clever incentives to encourage their customers to keep an eye out for their receipts — free goods, deductions from bills, or vouchers for subsequent purchases.
This is motivated by a desire to formalise the economy, reduce corruption — and ostensibly to increase city taxes.
Australia — model nation?
One thing I’ve discovered in my travels this year is that Australians are renowned for being uncorrupt, law-abiding citizens.
When I was in Ghana, a friend told me she wouldn’t move to Australia because “it would be too hard to do business.” In Greece I was told by a former Australian — with eyebrows suggestively raised — that it was “nice” to be able to negotiate directly with the person you are speaking to.
I guess this might be part of the reason I’m so oblivious to corruption. In Ghana I paid a bribe to a police officer without realising. The Philippines is renowned as one of the most corrupt countries in the world, and yet, despite doing business there I did not witness to any “unusual” interactions. In Indonesia I baulked at the tax rate, before I was told it was only a “special tax”, applicable only in “special” situations.
I just don’t get it
I just don’t.
I keep having faith in the rules. I just think — well, if you keep following them, you’ll get where you need to get to, eventually. Even where corruption is pervasive. With patience you’ll jump through all the hoops, pass all the red tape.
Except of course, in all those situations when you can’t.
When I was in India, I was told of a dedicated NGO worker who was building schools for disadvantaged kids, and had to pay $2,000 in bribes to extend his visa..
In the Philippines, I was told of a development project which received around $2,000 in funds. But these funds would not be released by the local government, unless a $200 “processing charge” was paid.
When I was in Mauritius, I was told of a lucrative exclusive mobile phone contract which was awarded, after a “gift” of several very luxurious cars was received.
C.K. Prahalad in his book Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid recounts story after story of agricultural workers, who were routinely exploited by the only purchasers they were able to access — middlemen who “weighed products incorrectly” and shifted purchasing prices at a moment’s notice.
What would you do?
I’d like to think I’d be a pillar of society in the face of corruption, just like this inspiring Acumen Fund project who stood his ground and refused to pay any bribe to a local government for his local development project.
But the reality is probably very different.
Would I want to stop working on a school project I was utterly dedicated to? Would I want my development project to stop? Would I want to be responsible for slowing cheap connectivity to Mauritius?
A friend in Nepal related a situation in his engineering work where a contractor had put a significant amount of pressure on him to approve sub-par work. His manager told my friend that he had no choice, he had to sign it off. If he didn’t, he might lose his job.
This reminded me of difficult situations I’d seen the engineers at my former workplace in.
Except in this case, my Nepali friend got paid (a significant sum) to sign it off.
A receipt is not enough
My friend in Mexico told me that I had no idea about how difficult it was to evade corruption. In Mexico she was labelled an evangelical for imploring her friends to stop encouraging corruption. They would laugh at her.
In theory, we all are on the side of my Mexican friend. Corruption reduces access to information — making business and general everyday life trickier. It takes even more power out of the hands of those who can least afford it.
But what would you do if your boss told you you would lose your job if you didn’t approve a set of shoddy documents?
And I’d been thinking it was enough to ask for a receipt. | <urn:uuid:7947d8e9-5e57-423a-800c-1a8be490881f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://moniquealfris.com/tag/indonesia/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98485 | 953 | 1.648438 | 2 |