text stringlengths 213 24.6k | id stringlengths 47 47 | dump stringclasses 1
value | url stringlengths 14 499 | file_path stringlengths 138 138 | language stringclasses 1
value | language_score float64 0.9 1 | token_count int64 51 4.1k | score float64 1.5 5.06 | int_score int64 2 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
October 5, 2010
There may be a shortage of blog posts over the next two weeks because I am busy compiling the all new 2011 abc27 Weather Almanac. I know many folks who rely on this each year for weather data, interesting weather stories, and lots of other fun facts. It also makes a great stocking stuffer and will once again be out just before Christmas this year. I am very excited about this year's edition, but it is requiring a lot of my time that I will have to steal from here in the coming days. Therefore, I wanted to post a story today that will appear in the Almanac this year and give you a little taste of what's inside.
This story deals with the issue of urban heat islands and why big cities are often warmer than rural areas nearby. I hope you enjoy the read and I hope you pick up your copy of the 2011 abc27 Weather Almanac in a couple months when it's released. Enjoy!
Urban Heat Islands
Changes often occur in the landscape around urban areas as they develop. Infrastructures such as buildings, roads, and traffic lights replace open land and vegetation. Permeable and moist surfaces become impermeable and dry. These changes cause urban regions to become warmer than their rural surroundings, forming an "island" of higher temperatures within the landscape.
On a hot and sunny summer day, the sun can heat dry, exposed urban surfaces, such as roofs and pavement, to temperatures 50-90 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than the air. Shaded or moist surfaces, often in more rural locations, remain close to air temperatures. Urban heat islands at the surface are usually present both day and night, but tend to be strongest during the day when the sun is shining.
Heat islands not only occur at the surface, but can also form within the atmosphere. However, in contrast with their surface counterparts, atmospheric heat islands are often weak during the late morning and throughout the day and become more pronounced after sunset due to the slow release of heat from urban infrastructure. The annual mean air temperature of a city with 1 million people or more can be 1.8-5.4 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than its surroundings. On a clear, calm night, however, the temperatures difference can be as much as 22 degrees Fahrenheit.
The graph below shows how urban temperatures are typically lower at the urban-rural border than in dense downtown areas. It also shows how parks, open land, and bodies of water can create cooler areas within a city or town. | <urn:uuid:6085dd8c-05eb-4f1d-ad64-a57fdae24a14> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.abc27.com/story/13270022/2011-abc27-weather-almanac | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957603 | 512 | 3.265625 | 3 |
“We hope the community will come out to celebrate and support these students as they show off what they know,” said executive director Melissa Searcy. “We have had so much success this year. We see it every day, and we want everyone else to see it too. We want Walker County to be really proud of us because we belong to the community.”
Sixteen students will be participating in the show, which will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. at the EASI facility on Summerville Road.
The show will begin with a dedication ceremony of the program’s independent saddle in honor of former board member Kay Wilson.
The barn will be open for tours, and information will also be available on the next big undertaking at EASI — a sensory integration trail.
The program needs to raise $55,000 in 2013 for the construction of a covered arena and an eight station sensory trail in the back pasture of EASI.
“After a while, our students get tired of going around and around in a square. We would like to learn a skill and then go out on the trail to practice the skill,” Searcy said.
Searcy said the activities along the trail could be tailored to help students with a wide range of developmental challenges.
She added that there is a need in the area for alternative therapy for sensory processing disorders because it brings such dramatic results.
“With some of our students, I might not be able to get them to do a single thing on two legs. Put them on four legs, and all of a sudden we’re intrigued and engaged. For some students, we have to get their body occupied on the horse first and then we can start working on cognition,” Searcy said.
Proceeds from the upcoming Christmas Tour of Homes, sponsored each year by the Pilot Club of Jasper, will benefit EASI. | <urn:uuid:f1a9e4ee-0c53-47fe-b35b-50a5687724ed> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mountaineagle.com/pages/full_story/push?article-EASI+hosting+second+annual+student+horse+show+today%20&id=20867652&instance=main_article | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966692 | 399 | 1.796875 | 2 |
A Senate committee on Thursday approved legislation that gives the Energy secretary power to issue emergency orders for imminent cybersecurity threats to the electric grid.
The Energy and Natural Resources Committee was initially considering a similar measure that passed the House in June. Sponsored by Global Warming Chairman Edward Markey, D-Mass., that bill grants the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission -- not the Energy secretary -- the authority to issue emergency orders to protect the power grid if the president declares an imminent cybersecurity threat. The Senate's measure gives authority to FERC for risks that are not as imminent.
The point behind designating power to a single person rather than an agency like FERC is to help ensure a more rapid response.
he measure approved today is actually the cybersecurity title from a sweeping energy bill the Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved last year. The panel swapped the House language for the Senate's language with hopes it would have a better chance of passing the upper chamber.
"Both the House and the Senate developed thoughtful, and needed, cyber bills which address many of the same issues," said Bill Wicker, spokesman for Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M. "We think that the Senate's version is more likely to move more quickly on this side of the Capitol. And that is our main objective -- to have Congress act quickly on this critically important issue."
Moderate members from both parties doubt though that the Senate has the political will to pass such a bill.
"I don't see many things that can get bipartisan support yet this year," Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., said today.
While noting that cybersecurity is a serious issue that deserves consideration, Nelson said that "what seems to be driving most of the policy decisions over here is the outcome of this next election."
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., predicted no big measures will pass before November, noting that cybersecurity is a national security issue and thus qualifies.
The cybersecurity measure was one of 17 bills the energy committee approved today without a single Republican present. The GOP members wanted the panel to postpone the markup until after the August recess. Noting the dwindling legislative calendar, the majority decided to move forward now, Wicker said.
While taking issue with the procedural side of the markup and some of the other energy bills that passed today, Energy and Natural Resources ranking member Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, does not have any objections to the cybersecurity measure, her spokesman said.
Of the 17 bills approved today, six deal with energy and 11 with public lands. The energy bills include those that incentivize electric vehicle technology and solar energy, and one that creates a Supply Star program within the Energy Department. The program would incentivize the use of efficient supply chains by companies. | <urn:uuid:9987f40f-6b73-4ff9-9497-236713199b8f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2010/08/cyber-threat-bill-clears-senate-panel/47317/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95295 | 563 | 1.992188 | 2 |
Hi guys. I'm new to DIYDRONES!
Building a Quad and had some hangups with regards to Brushless Motor control. I've never really used an ESC to control a Motor before. I've never built a Quad before either, so forgive me if this sounds stupid.
I have included a design that I thought might work to control the Motors myself. It just uses a basic NPN FET and Pulse Width Modulation to supply power to the Motor.
Vcc will depend on the Motors I end up choosing. (I'm liking the Tiger MT2814 at the moment! But still shopping around) ... It is connected to a Motor terminal, while the other Motor terminal is hooked up to the Collector of my Transistor
GND is Ground. It is connected to the Emitter of my Transistor
PWM Pulse is a 500 Hz signal that will be outputted from my Arduino Uno R3. It is connected to the Base of my Transistor.
When the PWM signal is HIGH, circuit is closed, the Motor is ON. When the PWM signal is LOW, circuit is open, the Motor is OFF.
By playing with the Duty Cycle of my PWM Signal ... I should be able to get any change the 'Average' RPM of my Motor.
Diode is there to protect the Transistor from the Motor (Unlikely but can't hurt to be safe) and Resistor is there to pull down the 5V of my PWM Signal (coming from my Arduino UNO). I might not need the Resistor if I can find a Transistor with higher Base Voltage rating.
What does an ESC do differently? I've never used one before. This is how I was taught in School to 'fake' Analog inputs from Digital inputs.
What would an ESC do for me that this circuit doesn't do?
Thanks! I really appreciate your input!
If only it was that simple. Unfortunately your circuit will not be able to drive a brushless motor. The term "brushless DC motor" is a bit of a misnomer - these devices are in fact synchronous 3-phase AC motors with permanent magnet excitation. There's no DC involved at all.
ESCs provide a 3-phase drive from DC supply, and perform synchronisation and speed control. They are quite complex devices and relatively inexpensive for all that they do.
Upon closer examination of these Motors you are indeed correct. I completely missed the 3 'hot' connectors.
Oh I'm not looking to cheap out, I just thought I understood the concept and so I tried to get creative. I really wanted to understand what is all going on behind the scenes.
So pretty much the ESC is acting like an inverter then?
Yes, although you won't hear speed controllers referred to as inverters. Although a BLDC motor will follow a 3-phase AC signal at low rpm (open loop), once a load is applied and/or the speed increases, maintaining synchronisation requires a knowledge of rotor position. Back EMF is the most commonly used technique to estimate rotor position, probably because it requires minimal additional hardware.
Thanks! I think I'm getting closer to having a better understanding, I've read several articles on the internet but they just didn't click.
I know Back EMF varies with the load on the Motor; so for a constant load (e.g. Propeller) ... Let's say we're moving at a constant RPM (e.g. 3000 RPM) ... The Back EMF should be constant as long as the 'average' Voltage being applied to the Motor is constant right?
I'm just not seeing why Rotor position is important to know here. I guess my question is ... Why is this is closed loop control system and not an open loop control system.
Wow, you guys explain better than the articles I've been searching. Thank you!
Lastly, how exactly is the Back EMF being measured? All 3 leads are used to 'Pulse' the phases of the Motor ... Wouldn't the ESC require some feedback connection to know the Rotor's position?
All the ESCs I have seen have 3 terminals (one for each phase) ... How do I hook it up so that the Back EMF is monitored?
Or is all this done automatically?
Alrighty, that does make sense.
Now, I'm still a little confused on how the ESC 'controls' the Motor speed. I've done some reading and to help you better understand my question I made a sketch in Visio.
I would like to know ... When the Phases operate as they do below, is the Motor in Full Throttle (100%)?
How then does the diagram change for say 75% Throttle? I'm assuming that the ESC itself is always powered, and that for 75% duty cycle the ESC just uses PWM to power the individual phases for the appropriate time? | <urn:uuid:4a2313e4-d307-4f9e-bbe5-a45854a23761> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/can-i-get-away-without-using-an-esc-electrical-engineers-please?xg_source=activity | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95691 | 1,018 | 2.25 | 2 |
Gödel's incompleteness theorem
- Given any sufficiently powerful logical system (one that can prove simple arithmetical statements and cannot "prove" a contradiction), there exists at least one statement which is true within the system, but cannot be proven within it (i.e., derived as a theorem from the axioms of the system).
Another way of stating this is:
- No formal system (of the type described above) can be both complete and consistent.
This result has profound implications for mathematical logic in particular, and by extension all of mathematics. As with Einstein's theory of relativity, however, the theorem has been overgeneralized and used to support arguments in areas that have nothing to do with the type of logical systems addressed by the theorem.
Philosophy of intelligence
Many scholars have debated over what Gödel's incompleteness theorem implies about human intelligence. Much of the debate centers on whether the human mind is equivalent to a Turing machine — or, by the Church-Turing thesis, any finite machine at all. If it is, and if the machine is consistent, then Gödel's theorem would apply to it.
Some philosophers claim that Gödel's theorem conclusively prove that Artificial Intelligence is inherently impossible, because a purely program-based "intelligence" would be subject to Gödel's theorem whereas organic intelligence is not.
Others might take this argument one step further, claiming that intelligence cannot be a product of purely physical processes (such as evolution). Intelligence requires a special nonphysical "spark" of some sort. This is the premise of dualism.
Many of the anti-mechanistic arguments used to prove that minds are not Turing Machines point out that minds can prove anything. Yet these arguments are flawed because they do not claim that such minds are consistent. If minds are allowed to be inconsistent, then they conform to Gödel's theorem rather than violate it.
This does not prove that minds truly are Turing Machines, but it does demonstrate that it is still very much an open question in philosophy.
Application to God
This has been used as a proof of the nonexistence of God: "God is defined as being omniscient. But by the incompleteness theorem, there is a statement that is true, but which God doesn't know. Therefore, God is not omniscient. A being which is not omniscient is not God, therefore God does not exist."
This argument only works if it can be assumed that the mind of God behaves like a Turing Machine. As noted in the previous section, this is not known for human minds, let alone for a supernatural mind. Without this crucial assumption, it is far from clear that "God believes X" or "God knows X" is comparable to "X can be derived from axioms." | <urn:uuid:f9b41014-0406-4da7-bf06-2a5139595456> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wiki.ironchariots.org/index.php?title=G%C3%83%C2%B6del's_incompleteness_theorem&oldid=5531 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948355 | 578 | 3.375 | 3 |
It is but obvious that considering such a position in the company,
the CEO will earn way beyond his fellow colleagues.
If you ask how much does a CEO earn in a hour,
it would be different for the different industries.
It can be anywhere between $15 to $615 per hour that a CEO can work for.
Too many hours of work put in by the CEO does not mean that he earns more.
its stature matters in case of earnings too.
An established MNC will have to offer more whereas a businessman,
also a CEO of his own company earns just 5% of the same.
It depends on the value of the individual and the company. | <urn:uuid:2212ca5d-b72b-4991-be25-643aa7680ce2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pnphpbb.com/qna/How_much_do_you_make_achildren_place_a_hour-qna758683.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983432 | 140 | 1.859375 | 2 |
-- Posted Thursday, 24 January 2013 | | Disqus
By Bud Conrad, Chief Economist
The label "the fiscal cliff" evoked the fear that something terrible was about to happen if the previously legislated spending cuts and tax increases came into effect. From my point of view, our nation's deficits and debt are growing at an alarming rate and need to be cut back. The reason these laws were enacted was to offer markets some hope that we would eventually work toward eliminating our serious deficits. But the prevailing opinion that such drastic decreases in our deficit would slow our economy and bring recession created the impression that this "cliff" must be avoided.
The chart below indicates the size of our federal government's budget deficit. The blue bars reflect what would have happened if there were no legislative changes, and the harsh measures of tax increases and spending cuts occurred. The red bars reflects potential tax increases, the green spending cuts, and the purple is additional interest paid on the expanded debt as a result of bigger deficits. The cliff is seen in the rapid drop of the deficit in the first few years of the blue bars.
The result so far is that tax cuts have been extended for families making less than $450,000 per year (for individuals, it's $400,000). Spending cuts have been delayed for two months, and the debt ceiling will have to be raised at that time. Compared to last year's structure, the main result is a relatively modest increase of $650 billion in taxes on the rich. Spreading this over 10 years means that the budget is roughly $65 billion less per year because of the higher taxes. In essence, after all the political discussion and finger-pointing, the politicians did what I expected: they kicked the can down the road and made very little change compared to last year.
The next chart shows the same baseline blue bars with the rather large extension of Bush-era tax cuts to the lower-income households, plus some small additional spending items. Since the blue baseline includes the expectation of sequestering of spending, it is my expectation that the actual deficits could be higher when no cuts are made with some future exercise of government can-kicking. While this chart appears to have lower deficits than shown in the previous range of possible outcomes, the more accurate conclusion is that we are still facing huge deficits, and the politicians really achieved very little in managing our long-term deficit problem. When they get back to meddling, the final deficits could be a lot worse than this analysis.
After the markets closed on Friday, January 3 (when we were less likely to be watching), the Congressional Budget Office released an updated calculation on the size of the cost of the new legislation: it is now $600 billion worse than discussed. They left out the accounting for paying interest on the increased debt for the period of the calculation. I've included the interest-rate cost in the chart below where I estimated it as being larger in the later years of the chart. $600 billion turns out to be only a modest addition. It will turn out to be higher when rates rise.
Here are a few more details on what was decided:
• Employees will have up to $2,000 more taken out of their paychecks annually due to the expiration of the temporary payroll tax cut
• The estate tax will increase from 35% to 40%, with the first $5 million worth of property exempt from being taxed
• Capital gains and dividend tax rates will increase from 15% to 20% for higher-income earners
• Alternative Minimum Tax will be raised to affect only higher-income households
• Doctors will not see big cuts for treating Medicare patients
• Unemployed workers will receive extended benefits
It is also sad to report that Washington has been operating as business as usual, including extending many strange programs like support for NASCAR racetracks, rum import duties, and even special support for buildings in New York City near the World Trade Center. While deplorable, these items are small in the macro picture. One new emergency-spending measure that was not included is $60 billion for hurricane Sandy relief, which will surely be added to the deficit soon. The beat goes on, with the inevitable result that the deficit continues. Fiat currency systems have no built-in limit.
World markets applauded this relatively modest package, because it confirms the short-term positive results of government deficit spending. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 300 points the day after the crisis was "eliminated." That means that the Federal Reserve will back up the federal government with more QE to keep the government rolling for the time being. Another result should be further downgrading of the US government debt by the rating agencies. Can you see a progression over another cliff? Downgrading raises the interest rate required by investors on US Treasuries; that increases the cost and the deficit. See the purple in the above chart? It will get worse than the CBO is letting on when rates rise.
I had been trying to ignore the massive, blanketed coverage by our media of this political circus. I knew ahead of time what the result would be from this deficit-cliff exercise. When it comes to holding the line against more government deficits, spending, and taxing, our government is dysfunctional. This event is more seminal than the results indicate: we can expect the politicians to repeat this process in a couple of months, and so on until there is a major loss of confidence in the dollar. There will be no return to fiscal responsibility. My point is simply this: we are already beyond the point of ever returning to a sensible, balanced-budget system. We may be distracted by wars, some crazy or false-flag terrorist event, or by even a natural disaster, but the conclusion is already inevitable: The US dollar will be toast; Treasuries are a dangerous investment; interest rates will start rising; and even the massive Federal Reserve manipulation supported by the banking cartels will be unable to overcome that. We will likely start in a slow fashion this year and will escalate out of control in the decade ahead.
We need to understand the implications of this recent event, and – as this small step confirms – that promises of future fixes will be complete shams. Remember when President Johnson said that there would be no repercussions from removing silver coins from our currency? A silver quarter alone is now worth around $5.50. And that's not because silver is different; it's because dollars are heading into the toilet. Protect yourself!
In the long run, the fiscal-cliff deal should not be celebrated as if it were a positive event. It is far from balanced, considering the much bigger government-debt problems that we face as a nation. In essence, this action was an opportunity to take real measures to curb our deficits, but the action taken has drifted us further along the path of fiscal irresponsibility.
The American debt crisis has been generations in the making, and so won't be quickly turned around. But that doesn't mean that profit opportunities don't exist – quite the contrary. New regulations and laws always create dislocations that early actors can take advantage of. Learn more about the crisis and how to start positioning yourself for maximum profit today.
-- Posted Thursday, 24 January 2013 | Digg This Article | Source: GoldSeek.com | <urn:uuid:f8e06a06-a028-40d9-b4d4-3c3e23347fbf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1359061598.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964653 | 1,489 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Brussels Metro Map Changeover, April 2009
Here’s an interesting pair of photos from 2009 that show two in-car strip maps that co-existed on Metro trains in Brussels. Together, they show the changes in the system that were occurring with the opening of track between the Delacroix and Gare de l’Ouest stations.
Apart from a new look to the map, the system itself seems to have been overhauled completely, with the previous lines “1A” and “1B” becoming “5” and “6”, amongst lots of other changes. Note also the four languages used on the informational stickers: French, Dutch, English and German!
(Source: Daniel Sparing/Flickr) | <urn:uuid:1e390fd9-9734-43bd-917b-5d696952eafe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://transitmaps.tumblr.com/post/37844414799/brussels-changeover | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954224 | 162 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Ito T, et al. (2001) A comprehensive two-hybrid analysis to explore the yeast protein interactome. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 98(8):4569-74
Abstract: Protein-protein interactions play crucial roles in the execution of various biological functions. Accordingly, their comprehensive description would contribute considerably to the functional interpretation of fully sequenced genomes, which are flooded with novel genes of unpredictable functions. We previously developed a system to examine two-hybrid interactions in all possible combinations between the approximately 6,000 proteins of the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Here we have completed the comprehensive analysis using this system to identify 4,549 two-hybrid interactions among 3,278 proteins. Unexpectedly, these data do not largely overlap with those obtained by the other project [Uetz, P., et al. (2000) Nature (London) 403, 623-627] and hence have substantially expanded our knowledge on the protein interaction space or interactome of the yeast. Cumulative connection of these binary interactions generates a single huge network linking the vast majority of the proteins. Bioinformatics-aided selection of biologically relevant interactions highlights various intriguing subnetworks. They include, for instance, the one that had successfully foreseen the involvement of a novel protein in spindle pole body function as well as the one that may uncover a hitherto unidentified multiprotein complex potentially participating in the process of vesicular transport. Our data would thus significantly expand and improve the protein interaction map for the exploration of genome functions that eventually leads to thorough understanding of the cell as a molecular system.
|Status: Published||Type: Journal Article||PubMed ID: 11283351|
Topics addressed in this paper
Number of different genes curated to this paper: 2
- To find other papers on a gene and topic, click on the colored ball in the appropriate box.
- displays other papers with information about that topic for that gene.
- displays other papers in SGD that are associated with that topic.
The topic is addressed in these papers but does not describe a specific gene or chromosomal feature.
- To go to the Locus page for a gene, click on the gene name. | <urn:uuid:59f09d15-6f82-423b-8b77-f08e912c9ca3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://db.yeastgenome.org/cgi-bin/reference/reference.pl?pubmed=11283351 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.902666 | 455 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Keepers at Bristol Zoo have captured the moment a tiny baby pancake tortoise hatched from its shell.
The baby African pancake tortoise, born the size of a 50p coin, is one of two that hatched within weeks of each other in the Zoo’s Reptile House.
Keeper Adam Davis was on hand to photograph the moment the first tortoise pipped through its shell. He said: “It’s brilliant to witness the hatching of any reptile, and I was lucky enough to have my camera on hand to capture the moment this little female tortoise emerged into the world.”
It has been six years since Bristol Zoo hatched out any African pancake tortoises. Keepers incubated the eggs at a controlled temperature for 156 days before they hatched.
The tortoises are now being kept in a warm and humid environment to ensure smooth and proportional shell growth while they develop. They eat tiny pieces of dandelion and chicory leaves.Guests at the Zoo can see the pair on display in the breeding room of the Reptile House.
Another of Bristol Zoo tortoises, Eddie the Egyptian tortoise, is available for ‘virtual adoption’ by members of the public. For more information visit the Zoo’s website at www.bristolzoo.org.uk/virtual-adoptions.
Bristol Zoo Gardens
Bristol Zoo is open from 9am every day except Christmas Day.
Bristol Zoo Gardens is a conservation and education charity and relies on income from visitors and supporters to continue its important work.
Bristol Zoo is involved with more than 100 co-ordinated breeding programmes for threatened wildlife species.
Itemploys over 150 full and part-time staff to care for the animals and run a successful visitor attraction to support its conservation and education work.
Bristol Zoo supports – through finance and skill sharing - 15 projects in the UK and abroad that conserveand protectsome of the world’s most endangered species.
In 2011 Bristol Zoo celebrated its 175th birthday. Over that past 175 years, the Zoo has brought six generations of Bristolians closer to wildlife, helped save over 175 species from extinction, established over 30 field conservation and research programmes all over the world, showed 40 millionschool-aged children the wonder of nature and given more than 90 million visitors a wonderful day out.
In 2010 Bristol Zoo Gardens set up a Conservation Fund to raise vital funds to help care for threatened animals and plants – both in the Zoo and through the conservation work we do in the UK and around the world.
Bristol Zoo Gardens is a member of the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums. BIAZA represents more than 90 member collections and promotes the values of good zoos and aquariums. | <urn:uuid:a4b92598-7c10-44a0-bece-48482cce9e18> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bristolzoo.org.uk/baby-pancake-tortoise-hatches-at-bristol-zoo-150412 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932071 | 580 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Shop by Vehicle
International Customers, please review our international shipping policies for placing orders and to know more about Shipping, Payment, and Warranties.
Home> Headlight Assembly
Headlights are attached to the front of your vehicle to light the road at night and in hazardous weather conditions. The headlights in your car make driving safe for you and other road users. The headlight consists of 2 separate bulbs that produce high and low beams. They are available in different sizes. Your car's headlights must be properly aligned to avoid accidents. Driving at night will be difficult without a well-functioning headlight assembly.
Headlights are of two types: sealed beam headlight and composite headlight. Both vary in their construction. A sealed beam headlight has a filament, reflector, and lens combined in one unit. If any of these parts malfunction, you need to replace the headlight assembly as a whole. A composite headlight has the lens and bulb as separate units. Projector headlights, xenon headlights and sealed beam headlights are some of the headlights that are popular nowadays. If your car's headlight assembly is not functioning properly, you must check it at the earliest.
Headlight Assembly Best Sellers! Use Shop By Vehicle Above To Find Yours!
At Buy Auto Parts you can find a wide range of headlight assemblies for all car makes and models. We sell OEM replacements and premium aftermarket parts at affordable prices. All our car parts have been tested thoroughly and come with a warranty. You can view the parts that fit your vehicle by selecting the right year, make and model of your car from our online catalog. We provide free shipping on all purchases above US $50. If you have any questions regarding your car parts, call our toll-free number at 1-888-907-7225 or email us at firstname.lastname@example.org. | <urn:uuid:7687736a-ca9a-4bf8-8b4f-ecd6205dc8d8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.buyautoparts.com/head_light_assembly.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92127 | 382 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Gary M. Goldbaum, MD, MPH, Health Officer
he Snohomish Health District was created in 1959 under
Washington State Law (RCW 70.46) as the municipal corporation responsible for public
health in Snohomish County. A 15-member Board of Health
oversees the budget and policies of the Health District. All five Snohomish County
Council members sit on the Board of Health, together with ten city council members
or mayors representing the 20 incorporated cities and towns in the county. Public
meetings of the Board of Health are held monthly.
The Snohomish Health District provides a wide range of programs and services that
protect and promote the public health in many ways. We always focus on preventing
injury and disease.
Our Environmental Health Division
permits for all food vendors, public and semi-public swimming pools, on-site
septic systems, small public water systems, and solid waste disposal facilities.
Environmental health specialists regularly inspect food establishments, swimming
pools, and solid waste facilities, and help home owners keep their on-site septic
systems in good working order. Environmental health specialists also evaluate and
respond to complaints about garbage accumulations, failing septic systems, potential
toxins in the environment, contaminated wells, vermin, and other potential public
health risks. Health educators ensure that all food workers are educated about food
safety and have been issued food worker cards valid throughout Washington State.
The Communicable Disease Control Division
to prevent and control communicable disease in Snohomish County and the North Puget
Sound region through disease surveillance, outbreak response, education, vaccination,
disease contact investigation, and preparedness activities. Transmission of
communicable diseases, including food-borne illness, is controlled by prompt
reporting and extensive disease investigation to identify and contain outbreaks.
The Tuberculosis (TB) control program treats active TB cases and investigates case
contacts. The immunization clinic vaccinates all ages for protection against vaccine
preventable diseases. Travelers meet with nurses for in-depth counseling about
destination health risks, and appropriate vaccinations and medications to prevent
disease during travel. Other clinical services include perinatal hepatitis B
monitoring for hepatitis B positive women and infants and TB skin tests. The HIV/AIDS
program provides HIV counseling, testing, outreach education (including harm reduction
and prevention counseling), and referral services. Public health interventions and
health education for the community, providers, and hospitals are an essential part of
disease control efforts. The Division also coordinates activities to ensure that the
community is prepared for public health emergencies.
The Community Health Division
improving the health of families and children. The First Steps, Early Intervention,
Unintended Pregnancy Prevention, and Children with
Special Health Care Needs services support these aims. Home and clinic visits to
families with high-risk pregnancies and children help to ensure the best possible
environment for the critical time of early childhood. Some of these children and
families are also seen in the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Nutrition Program,
which is designed to improve the health of pregnant, breastfeeding and postpartum
women, infants and children up to age 5. The program offers nutrition counseling,
provides nutritious foods, promotes breastfeeding, and makes referrals to other
health care providers. The Tobacco Prevention and Control Program provides
community education, promotes tobacco use cessation, and assists with enforcement
of laws regarding smoke-free workplaces and tobacco sales to minors. The Oral
Health Program monitors the oral health status of the communities, advocates for
low cost preventive activities, shares information with the public for policy
change, and helps people find affordable and appropriate dental care.
The Health Statistics and Assessment Program
health data for Snohomish County and produces many reports and analyses that are
available on our website. The data identify patterns of diseases, injuries and
health behaviors, increase awareness of health needs, and help the community
prioritize prevention activities. Assessment also responds to specific requests
for data related to public health. As the local vital statistics registrar, we
issue certified copies of birth and death certificates.
In everything we do to protect and promote the health of the public and prevent
illness and injury, Snohomish Health District staff engage in partnerships with
other agencies in our community. Such community partnerships are essential to
the success of our mission. Together with community partners, we work to keep
the growing population of Snohomish County healthy by focusing on prevention.
ALWAYS WORKING FOR A SAFER AND HEALTHIER SNOHOMISH COUNTY | <urn:uuid:26fe7396-cd4d-4f09-86a8-195061235396> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.snohd.org/(X(1)A(mCJbJHqjzgEkAAAANWFlNTAwNTQtOGQyYy00YzVkLWE3NWQtYzY3ZGM5OTk5ODIy8GrVoqhc6yxYS-vrNVMG1yi09A01))/Shd_MA/AboutUs.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91778 | 972 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Posted Thursday, June 12, 2008, at 11:01 AM
The much-anticipated Boumediene decision by the Supreme Court is out—and on first, very quick read looks like a large victory for the Guantanamo detainees. Among other things, the court seems to conclude full habeas corpus hearings in the federal district court should proceed without delay. Here's one key excerpt (and more enlightened discussion no doubt to follow).
The Government argues petitioners must seek review of their CSRT determinations in the Court of Appeals before they can proceed with their habeas corpus actions in the District Court. As noted earlier, in other contexts and for prudential reasons this Court has required exhaustion of alternative remedies before a prisoner can seek federal habeas relief. ... The cases before us, however, do not involve detainees who have been held for a short period of time. ... Were that the case, or were it probable that the Court of Appeals could complete a prompt review of their applications, the case for requiring temporary abstention or exhaustion of alternative remedies would be much stronger. These qualifications no longer pertain here. In some of these cases six years have elapsed without the judicial oversight that habeas corpus or an adequate substitute demands. And there has been no showing that the Executive faces such onerous burdens that it cannot respond to habeas corpus actions. To require these detainees to complete [MCA] review before proceeding with their habeas corpus actions would be to require additional months, if not years, of delay. The first [MCA] review applications were filed over a year ago, but no decisions on the merits have been issued. While some delay in fashioning new procedures is unavoidable, the costs of delay can no longer be borne by those who are held in custody. The detainees in these cases are entitled to a prompt habeas corpus hearing. | <urn:uuid:16e425c0-3011-43d4-844c-1b60d4855384> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.slate.com/content/slate/blogs/convictions/2008/06/12/military_commissions_act_is_unconstitutional_suspension_of_writ.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952567 | 377 | 1.625 | 2 |
As part of our Literacy project on Plays, Flamingo Class are excited to present their very own performance of My Dad’s A Birdman on Wednesday and Thursday afternoon.
The Year 4 classroom has been a hive of activity for the past 13 days, as we developed our theatre project using skills learned across our curriculum. Every lesson has had a distinctly feathery theme! We invite you all to join us for a memorable performance…we’re ready for take off!
In our reading, we have been thinking about how we can infer how characters feel by the things that they say. We have used this difficult skill to help us create a fantastic play, using all our drama skills to bring the story to life!
But it hasn’t stopped with reading skills! We have been learning about persuasive writing so that we can create advertisements for our performance. In our dance lessons, we have choreographed original dances to represent moods and feelings as well as create images of birds in our audience’s mind. In order to create our set and props, we have used our art and design lessons. We even experimented with air resistance in science to see if we really could fly!
We can’t wait to show you our fantastic show. So Roll up! Roll up! | <urn:uuid:8fca5327-ee11-4a46-a0d4-382d1f8b28f6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://provoprimary.com/blog/category/year-4/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951398 | 264 | 2.546875 | 3 |
By RYAN SAGER
By now, you may have realized that you aren't always the most rational manager of your money. Chasing returns. Buying into bubbles. Selling into troughs. Keeping too much in cash or company stock. Heck, even if you keep a textbook, well-diversified portfolio of low-fee index funds, you've still probably felt tempted over the last month or so to buy Apple at $600. (You may turn out to be right in retrospect; that won't make it rational.)
To keep yourself in check, perhaps you've turned to a financial adviser. The majority of retail investors have. If so, a new study posted this month by the National Bureau of Economic Research has some bad news for you: Financial advisers not only fail to curb investors' worst habits, they actually tend to reinforce them -- especially when those habits generate fees for the advisers.
The study, by Harvard economist Sendhil Mullainathan, Markus Noeth of the University of Hamburg and Antoinette Schoar of the MIT Sloan School of Management, looks at the behavior of typical investment advisers available to the general public through their banks, independent brokerages or investment advisory firms (focusing on the market for those with less than $500,000 to invest). These advisers are typically paid on the fees and commissions they generate by selling stocks, mutual funds, insurance products and the like.
To see what kind of advice was doled out by these advisers in real-life situations, the study's authors hired and trained actors to make nearly 300 visits to Boston-area financial advisers over a five-month period in 2008. The actors were assigned to one of four fictional investment portfolios: 1) a returns-chasing portfolio, filled with holdings in sectors that had over-performed in recent years; 2) a portfolio heavily invested in company stock; 3) a diversified, low-fee stock/bond portfolio, and 4) an all-cash portfolio.
So, when the actors came into these offices, what happened? Basically, the advisers advised the dummy clients to do a whole lot of things that were in the advisers' interests, while making some adjustments based on just how much they thought the clients could be persuaded to do.
Most strikingly, the advisers nudged people in low-cost index funds toward high-fee actively managed funds -- blatantly making their clients worse off. Presented with the index-fund portfolio, the advisers recommended a change in strategy more than 85% of the time. Meanwhile, advisers largely encouraged returns-chasers to keep chasing returns. And they tried to nudge cash-only and company-stock investors toward active management, too, though they seemed to take things a bit slower with these clients (apparently inferring that they had a lower tolerance for risk).
While the researchers expected that they might find "catering" behavior -- that is, advisers telling clients to stay on their current course to avoid alienating them -- they largely found that the advisers were willing to recommend big changes fairly quickly (after giving the clients' original strategies a polite reception in their initial reaction).
So, should investors ditch financial advisers entirely? "I wouldn't say that people shouldn't use financial advisers," says Ms. Schoar of MIT. Many people, without an adviser, are too timid to enter the market at all, which isn't good for their financial health. The best advice in the experiment, she said, was given to those who came in without a strategy (that is, those with the cash-only portfolio). While the advice given to these clients wasn't perfect, it was relatively conservative and well-matched to a client's income, age, marital situation and perceived risk tolerance.
The most important thing, she said, was simply to understand how your financial adviser is getting paid. Some charge based on how much capital they're managing, and thus their incentives line up much better with their clients. Some even charge by the hour, which eliminates most conflicts of interest -- though it does leave the client with the vast majority of the work.
In the end, the quality of advice you get from a financial adviser is likely to be tied directly to your financial literacy -- and your willingness to hear advice that doesn't conform to your preconceptions. Individuals who are bad at making financial decisions might also be bad at picking advisers," says Ms. Schoar.
That certainly seems to be the case. A 2008 RAND study of investors' understanding of the roles of investment advisers and stock brokers found that investors have little understanding of how much responsibility either type of service provider has to them (advisers generally have a much greater duty to look out for their clients' interests) or of what types of fees they are paying. Nonetheless, the majority of investors were happy with their financial-service providers.
Just how bad is the gap between the quality of service and people's contentment? Well, despite the abysmal advice offered by the advisers surveyed in the Harvard-MIT study, the actors were willing to go back to 70% of the advisers they visited. This time with their own money. | <urn:uuid:5e185e94-edd1-4bcf-88db-e12437fa3000> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.smartmoney.com/invest/stocks/financial-advisers-flunk-undercover-sting-1333374512622/?link=SM_clm_sum | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97455 | 1,050 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) is one of the largest manufacturer of mining and construction equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, power generation and industrial turbines and diesel-electric locomotives. The company on account of its superior product portfolio and extensive distribution network, which serves 184 countries, is a leading player in several markets.
Over the past two decades, it has increased focus on developing economies as demand for mining, construction and power industries related products has shifted from developed to developing economies. As a result, in 2011, sales from outside the U.S. constituted 70% of the total sales of the company, up from 50% in 2001.
The mining industry related products at 39%, constitute the largest portion of Caterpillar’s (CAT) value, followed by power industry related products at 31% and construction industry related products at 21%, according to our analyses. The remaining portion of CAT’s value comes from loans and other financial services, offered by the company to promote sales of its industrial products.
We currently have a stock price estimate of $90 for the company, marginally above its current market price.
1) Mining business: CAT designs and manufactures a variety of surface and underground mining equipment and machinery. Post the Bucyrus acquisition in July 2011, CAT possesses the widest portfolio of mining equipment worldwide. However, with economic growth slowing in developing economies, sales growth has been hit in the mining segment of the company. In the third quarter of 2012, sales in the division declined 3% sequentially.
China, which is the world’s largest consumer of both iron ore and coal, has witnessed lower economic growth in 2012 compared to 2011. As a result, the demand for commodities has declined, weighing on their prices. Iron ore declined to a low of $100 per dry metric tonne in September 2012 from $180 a year ago. Though it has recovered to $120 per dry metric tonne since. Lower prices have pressured margins of mining companies, which in turn have lowered their investments. As a result, demand for mining machinery and equipment manufactured by CAT has suffered a negative impact.
We anticipate this softness in the global mining industry to remain in the near term.
However, CAT should continue to gain market share by leveraging its upgraded product portfolio from Bucyrus acquisition and its global dealer network.
2) Power business: CAT manufactures engines and turbines used in power generation, marine and petroleum industries and diesel-electric locomotives. This division’s product portfolio was enhanced significantly by acquisitions of Electro-Motive Diesel Inc. (EMD) in 2010 and MWM Holding in 2011. The latter is a supplier of natural gas and alternative-fuel engines, which is helping CAT capture the growing demand for natural gas powered engines.
3) Construction business: CAT manufactures loaders, tractors, excavators and other machinery used in infrastructure and building construction.
Over the past few months sales in construction as well as power business of CAT have declined due to weakness in global economy that has impacted investments in power generation and construction industries worldwide. Sales in construction and power business of CAT declined 8% and 4% respectively in the third quarter of 2012, on a sequential basis.
Factors That Support Caterpillar’s Current Valuation
However, over the long term sales and earnings of the company are poised for growth as increasing global population and urbanization and growing demand for energy will raise demand for products manufactured by CAT.
The rising world population and urbanization particularly in developing nations like China and India is raising demand for energy, which in turn is raising demand for engines and turbines used for power generation purposes, and these are manufactured by CAT. Mining equipment sales are also bound to rise as more coal needs will arise to feed power plants. Increasing spending on infrastructure and housing to support growing population will also benefit CAT by raising demand for its construction products.Notes: | <urn:uuid:37f48382-f23c-4d62-91b2-7341a96af4a0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.trefis.com/stock/cat/articles/160387/how-does-global-growth-drive-caterpillars-stock/2013-01-02?from=filmstrip%3Atop | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960776 | 799 | 1.546875 | 2 |
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows there are many high-paying healthcare occupations, so earning a master’s degree in healthcare may lead to a lucrative career. Several universities are now offering online MBA’s in health care management as well as other related healthcare graduate programs. We would encourage you to look at several of the schools below before taking a final decision, they are the best online healthcare graduate schools and have some very unique and respected degrees.
Masters in HealthCare Schools
University of Phoenix - University of Phoenix is the largest online university in the U.S. with over 400,000 students and growing. They have dedicated themselves to offering a very robust set of degrees and have quite a few graduate level degrees which could be of interest to anyone in health care. One of the most popular degree choices is their Masters in Healthcare Administration - MHA. We recommend that you take a look at this degree as you evaluate all of the programs that may enhance your career. The University of Phoenix is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and is a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.
Kaplan University - Kaplan University is a leader in online education and provides the experience and reputation that will help to propel your career in HealthCare forward. They offer an innovative Master of Healthcare Administration in their Healthcare and Management school along with other master's degrees in health care, nursing, and related fields. Kaplan University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission which is a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.
Walden University - Walden University is well respected in the field of health care and offers a great range of MHA and related programs. With Walden you will get the perfect blend of business, administration, and advanced healthcare training that can be applied to your next management position. We do recommend the Masters in Health Administration - MHA for the curriculum and graduation rates. Walden University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission which is a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.
Saint Leo University - Saint Leo University is another online school that specializes in graduate degree programs in a wide range of subject areas. They offer a Graduate Certificate in Health Care Management if you are looking for some quick credentials or you can get an excellent MBA in Healthcare Administration from Saint Leo. Both of these graduate programs should help make a difference as you explore new opportunities to advance your healthcare career. Saint Leo is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
Don't see the graduate school you are looking for? CLICK HERE to see a listing of all the colleges in your area.
Masters in Health Care Degree Options
There are many programs available to people that are looking to take the next step in their health care administration or management career. Given that there are so many choices, it seemed like a good idea to list some of the most common degrees and then explain a litt bit about each of them.
- MBA – Masters of Business Administration in Health Care
- MHA – Masters in Health Administration Programs
- MHA – Masters in Health Care Administration Programs
- MHSA – Masters in Health Services Administration Programs (MHSA)
- MPH – Masters in Public Health Programs
MBA – Masters in Business Administration in Health Care
This is one of those degrees that crosses over the boundaries between the traditional MBA and an MHA. You get all of the normal finance, accounting, and business fundamentals of an MBA but all delivered within the health care context. It’s a great degree and definitely in high demand if you are looking for an executive or managerial position in the field of health care.
MHA – Masters in Health Administration or Health Care Administration
This is the most common degree that people seeking a master’s in healthcare will pursue and with very good reason. This degree is highly focused on all aspects of health care including finance, research, communications, healthcare policies, quality control, operations, marketing, and much more. Since this degree is very focused, it is often a requirement to qualify for senior roles in the health care.
MHSA – Masters in Health Services Administration
This degree is very similar to an MHA but it is more focused on personal health services. It still has all of the organization, financing, marketing, and management classes. It then adds in the health care systems, managed care services, and emergency managmenet classes to really provide a good health care focus. A person graduating with an MHSA is likely to purse a career in health systems, hospital, clinic, or emergency services management
MPH – Masters in Public Health
This degree is more of a macro health services degree that prepares people for larger emergency management concerns like epidemics, protection of the water supply, pandemics, and other similar events. Like the MHSA, you still get a lot of the business fundamentals covered here before delving more deeply into the public health services courses. | <urn:uuid:d611fdda-6885-4485-bd52-19fc5c96024c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mastersinhealthcare.net/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957921 | 1,003 | 1.5625 | 2 |
OntarioArticle Free Pass
Ontario, city, San Bernardino county, southern California, U.S. It is situated in the Riverside–San Bernardino portion of the consolidated Los Angeles metropolitan area on the site of the Spanish colonial Rancho Cucamonga. Named for the province of Ontario in Canada, it was settled in 1882 by George and William Chaffey, who irrigated the land for citrus and vineyard cultivation and established a model agricultural community. After the arrival of the Santa Fe Railway in 1887, Ontario became a fruit-processing and shipping point; it remains an important regional distribution centre. The city’s industries manufacture electrical appliances, aircraft parts, steel, and plastics. An aggressive program of annexation in the 1990s increased Ontario’s size to 50 square miles (130 square km), making it the largest city in San Bernardino county and the focus of much of the area’s economic and demographic growth. Popular attractions include the Graber Olive House (1894) and the Ontario Museum of History and Art (1937), housed in the former city hall. Ontario International Airport serves the area east of Los Angeles. San Bernardino and Angeles national forests are nearby. Inc. city, 1891. Pop. (2000) 158,007; Riverside–San Bernardino–Ontario Metro Area, 3,254,821; (2010) 163,924; Riverside–San Bernardino–Ontario Metro Area, 4,224,851.
What made you want to look up "Ontario"? Please share what surprised you most... | <urn:uuid:4ce06064-4703-4866-8881-beca785af1bd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/429352/Ontario | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919155 | 318 | 2.859375 | 3 |
The Permit Process
A permit, when required, is a document, required by state law, granting legal permission to start construction. Permits are typically required for the following projects:
Step 1, The Permit Application Center
A visit or telephone call to the Permit Application Center will provide you with the resources and information necessary to make your project a success and to avoid potential problems which could cost you time and money. Be prepared to discuss your project with permit staff who will ask you questions such as “What are you planning to do?” and “Where are you planning to do it?” The permit staff will discuss the specific process for your project with you.
Step 2, Permit Application
A completed permit application is required prior to beginning the administrative process. You may pick up a permit application at the Permit Application Center or online. You’ll be asked to document “who” will perform the work and “what,” “where,” and “how” the work will be completed. Drawings, plans or other documentation of the proposed work may be required. You may be asked to pay for all or part of your permit fee at the time of application.
Step 3, The Review Process
During the review process, county staff will determine if your project is in compliance with the building code, the zoning ordinance, and other county or state ordinances and statutes. Use the links above or check with the Permit Application Center for the requirements for your project type. The length of the review process will depend on the type and complexity of the project. Many small residential applications can be processed in one day. Posted plan review timeframes are kept online.
Step 4, Permit Approval
When compliance with the code, zoning ordinances and other applicable statutes are determined, the permit application is approved. Once all final permit fees are paid, the permit is issued.
However, if the permit application is not approved or a review has failed, your permit application as submitted will be denied. When a permit application is denied, you must make the necessary corrections and resubmit the application. Staff will post deficiencies online for your convenience.
Step 5, Construction
During the entire construction phase, the permit must be placed in a window or other prominent place at the project site and a copy of the county-approved building plan and related documents must be maintained at the site.
Step 6, Inspections
Each major phase of construction must be inspected by a county inspector to make certain the work conforms to the code, the permit and the approved plans.
If an inspector finds that work does not conform to the approved plans, the inspector will fail the inspection and provide comments. Another inspection will be necessary before work is resumed.
The Herrity Building
12055 Government Center Parkway, 3rd Floor
Fairfax, Virginia 22035
Telephone: 703-222-0455, TTY 711, during business hours
Automated line: 703-222-2474
Inspection requests online
Step 7, Field Changes
Most changes will require a review and approval in the same manner as the original application. Please bring any proposed revisions or alterations to the attention of the permit staff before making changes in the field.
Step 8, Project Completion
When the project is completed and code compliance is determined, the inspector issues a final inspection. The final inspection marks the completion of your project and grants permission to occupy a building with the knowledge that it has met the minimum safety standards as required by code. | <urn:uuid:8bac092d-65a1-4236-897c-06782984cddb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dpwes/construction/permit_process.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.906619 | 731 | 2.515625 | 3 |
By now, many have heard of the comments uttered by National Organization for Marriage chairman John Eastman regarding Justice John Roberts’ adopted children and adoption in general.
The leader of a prominent anti-gay organization called Supreme Court Chief John Roberts’ decision to adopt children the “second-best option,” the AP reports.
“You’re looking at what is the best course societywide to get you the optimal result in the widest variety of cases. That often is not open to people in individual cases. Certainly adoption in families headed, like Chief Roberts’ family is, by a heterosexual couple, is by far the second-best option,” said John Eastman, chairman of the National Organization for Marriage.
Eastman was responding to a question about the Chief Justice’s position on the rights of same-sex couples. Roberts and his wife adopted two children, Jack and Josie, in 2000. Both children are now 12 years old.
No doubt there will be some claiming that we are making too much of Eastman’s statement or that it was a simple gaffe which takes needed attention away from the important subject of marriage equality
But attention over Eastman’s words are not a phony moral panic and to label his comment as a simple “gaffe” is trivializing its harm.
What Eastman did was to push a concept into the idea of family which has no business being there. Families should never be judged on a tier. They aren’t baked goods at the state fair to be given ribbons marking 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place.
Nor should it be implied that families exist in a caste system where the designated “gold standard” grabs all of the attention while other families who are not that “standard” are either hardly mentioned or downgraded.
When it comes to families, there is no such thing as a “second-best option,” except unfortunately in the head of Eastman and his organization which – I may point out – has never offered any new ideas of placing orphaned or foster children into any family households at all, including the two-parent heterosexual household it holds so dear.
Nor has NOM ever offered any solutions to the real problems facing families of all stripe such as poverty, unemployment, lack of decent health and education options, or lack of good housing.
Eastman and NOM are like charlatans from days of old who would roll into town after town masquerading as physicians while hawking a useless cure-all with flowery rhetoric and flashy bottles.
In this case, the cure-all seems to be keeping members from the gay community from getting married and keeping same-sex families in the background. And like those charlatans, Eastman and NOM talk a good game, but when you get past the rhetoric and the flash you realize that the cure-all cures nothing.
Keeping gays and lesbians from getting married and keeping same-sex families in the background has never improved the quality of life of any household. It has never saved a family’s mortgage nor gotten a family’s children into a decent college.
Keeping gays and lesbians from getting married and keeping same-sex families in the background has never paid overdue utility notices, rent, or medical bills.
What this rhetoric does is pits us against one another by fooling us into thinking that the love and support each family is capable of giving should be judged not by how much good it does but who is the giver.
The rhetoric places status above love, support, and the willingness to sacrifice – three qualities which all good families have in abundance.
Eastman and NOM’s rhetoric is a game, i.e. a vulgar exercise in passive-aggressive homophobia which cushions some from accepting the simple fact that maybe their disagreement with marriage equality has less to do with saving the family and more to do with their inability to deal with innate inaccuracies about the gay community and same-sex families.
And unfortunately, as Eastman’s comments demonstrate, other families are becoming collateral damage in this passive-aggressive game. | <urn:uuid:16efe1b9-3268-4223-851b-5f391c9547b6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.alternet.org/speakeasy/alvinmcewen | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968339 | 856 | 1.6875 | 2 |
The Kentucky Mesonet is adding strategic weather and climate monitoring sites in Letcher and Harlan counties in eastern Kentucky.
The Kentucky Mesonet’s 60th station was installed last week in Whitesburg and the Kentucky Climate Center at WKU has reached an agreement to install a Mesonet station on Black Mountain in Harlan County at an elevation over 4,000 feet near the highest point in Kentucky.
“These are strategically located sites that will bring value to people throughout southeastern Kentucky and will provide a critical data point for meteorologists with the National Weather Service who provide weather forecasts for the region,” said Dr. Stuart Foster, director of the Mesonet and the Kentucky Climate Center.
Data from the Letcher County site, which was made possible through a partnership with the City of Whitesburg, is available online at the Kentucky Mesonet website.
The Mesonet stations collect real-time weather and climate data on temperature, precipitation, humidity, solar radiation, wind speed and direction. Data is packaged into observations and transmitted to the Kentucky Climate Center every five minutes, 24 hours per day, throughout the year.
“Because of the terrain and extensive forests, it is particularly difficult to identify viable observing sites in eastern Kentucky,” Dr. Foster said. “We depend greatly upon local officials and landowners who understand and support our efforts on behalf of the people of Kentucky.”
Stations in Muhlenberg and Simpson counties are expected to be complete by the end of the year, he said.
The Mesonet’s first station at the WKU farm in Warren County became operational in May 2007. The statewide automated environmental monitoring network supports a variety of needs across Kentucky in agriculture, education, emergency management, energy, engineering and construction, recreation, transportation, water supply management and weather forecasting.
Stations are located in Adair, Allen, Barren, Bath, Boone, Breathitt, Breckinridge, Bullitt, Caldwell, Calloway, Campbell, Carroll, Casey, Christian, Clark, Clinton, Crittenden, Cumberland, Fayette, Franklin, Fulton, Graves, Grayson, Hardin, Harrison, Hart, Henderson, Hopkins, Jackson, Johnson, Knott, Knox, LaRue, Lawrence, Letcher, Lewis, Lincoln, Logan, Madison, Marion, Marshall, Mason, McLean, McCreary, Meade, Mercer, Metcalfe, Morgan, Nicholas, Ohio, Oldham, Owen, Owsley, Pike, Rowan, Shelby, Taylor, Trigg, Union and Warren counties.
About the Kentucky Mesonet: State Climatologist Stuart Foster is director of the Kentucky Mesonet and the Kentucky Climate Center. Dr. Rezaul Mahmood, professor of Geography and Geology, is associate director of the Kentucky Mesonet and the Kentucky Climate Center. The Kentucky Mesonet staff includes meteorologists and staff with expertise in instrumentation, information technology, quality assurance, and education outreach. The Kentucky Mesonet also provides opportunities for WKU student employees and interns to work side-by-side with professional staff. Initial funding for the project was secured by U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell through a $2.9 million federal appropriation for the Kentucky Climate Center, part of WKU’s Applied Research and Technology Program.
Contact: Stuart Foster, (270) 745-5983. | <urn:uuid:d9f4f3d1-c494-4605-ab98-9d97ced3c1e1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wkunews.wordpress.com/2011/11/09/mesonet-letcher-harlan/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92238 | 696 | 2.453125 | 2 |
Eco Tech: Desalination plant in Australia will be powered entirely by renewable energy
Eco Factor: Water desalination plant in Western Australia will purchase renewable energy for power.
With the freshwater crisis looming large, specifically in places like Australia and Dubai, inventors have started looking for ways to convert seawater and make it potable. However, these desalination plants require a huge amount of energy, which mostly comes from non-renewable sources or use just a part of renewable energy.
To solve the crisis in Western Australia, a new $780 million plant is being constructed that will be able to produce about 20% of the requirements of fresh water. The noteworthy part doesn’t just end here, as the developers state that the plant will entirely be powered by renewable energy, which will be purchased from utilities generating energy from solar, wind and geothermal sources.
Construction is scheduled to commence sometime later this year, with completion scheduled for 2011. Several green groups, including the WA Conservation Council, will keep a keen eye on the energy being used to make sure that plant developers aren’t just making false claims. | <urn:uuid:4ea4bcab-7cae-437e-8c8f-df819e097938> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ecofriend.com/eco-tech-desalination-plant-in-australia-will-be-powered-entirely-by-renewable.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943499 | 232 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Posted: February 13, 2012
It’s your inheritance
So use it wellBy Wayne Farlow
Recent studies have found that more than two-thirds of the baby boomer generation will receive inheritances from parents and/or other family members. While many of these inheritance gifts will be small, almost 54 percent will likely receive gifts of $100,000 or more.
Often, the beneficiary has a difficult time treating their inheritance as their own. As a financial adviser, one of my primary responsibilities is helping clients to appreciate that an inheritance belongs to them and should be treated as well as, if not better than, any other financial assets that they possess.
Below are some common reasons why beneficiaries, often times, do not provide the appropriate care and attention to their inherited resources:
1. Guilt - Beneficiaries often feel guilty about their inheritance, sometimes believing that they are not worthy of the inheritance or feeling guilty that the grantor had not spent more of the funds on him/herself. It is important for beneficiaries to realize and accept that they would not have received these gifts had the deceased not wished them to have them. Many parents of baby boomers held the belief that it was their responsibility to leave an inheritance for their children. As the beneficiary, it is your responsibility to gratefully accept this generous gift and to use the inherited funds to make your life more financially abundant.
2. "I did not earn it" - Where a person may take full responsibility for the financial resources that they have earned, the fact that an inheritance is "unearned income" often accompanies a reluctance to treat these resources as carefully as earned income. The ramifications of this perspective will often take one of these directions for the beneficiary. Some people will endeavor to spend this "unearned" inheritance as quickly as possible. This often leads to extravagant purchases that are later regretted. The other common direction is to effectively ignore the inherited funds, without ever incorporating them into personal financial resources.
3. "Dad/Mom would not want me to change their investments" - In this scenario, the beneficiary will likely keep their inherited funds invested exactly as they were when inherited. The beneficiary often believes that the deceased would want the funds left in the same investments that they inherited. Even if the deceased was still an active and capable investor up until their death, the most appropriate way to honor their capable investment management would be to continue to have these funds actively managed in a style that meets your goals and objectives.
If you have inherited funds or expect to inherit funds in the future, it is important to honor this inheritance by treating the inherited funds as your savings. Unless the deceased's will contains specific instructions to the contrary, they would want you to treat these funds as respectfully as possible in enhancing your own financial abundance.
As the beneficiary, you and only you are responsible for inherited funds. You may be tempted to leave the inherited funds with the current brokerage firm that a parent or other relative may have used out of respect. Unless you know that you can trust and have a personal relationship with the deceased's broker, who can provide you with the full financial planning support that you require, it will be in your best interest to interview other financial professionals and find the person who is best suited to help you meet your family's financial goals.
If you have a financial plan, have your advisor incorporate the inheritance into the plan. This will likely allow you to expand your goals and objectives. If you do not already have a trusted financial advisor, consider getting a comprehensive financial plan, provided by a fee only Certified Financial Planner (CFP®). A comprehensive financial plan will include your life's goals and objectives and help you determine how your current savings, plus the inherited funds, can help you meet all of your financial goals.
If you are one of the fortunate baby boomers who either has or will receive a significant inheritance, use this wonderful gift as a tool to help you obtain the financial abundance that you desire and the deceased would have wanted for you.
Wayne Farlow is the founder of Financial Abundance, LLC, a Registered Investment Advisor firm. He is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®), focusing on Retirement Planning, Investment Management, Small Business Owner Planning and Sudden Wealth/Inheritance Planning. His book, “Financial Abundance Guide,” is available free at www.farlowfinancial.com . He can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org or at 303-554-0309. | <urn:uuid:6c17116d-2269-49eb-9dcd-1530367015a3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cobizmag.com/articles/its-your-inheritance | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975824 | 920 | 1.523438 | 2 |
The International Debt Problem: The Case of Argentina
DECEMBER 01, 1985 by MICHAEL ADAMSON
Michael Adamson is a graduate business student at Arizona State University.
The government of Raul Alfonsin inherited a nation burdened with massive economic problems when it was elected in December of 1983. Seven years of military rule had all but de stroyed a once growing economy under the machinations of the state. During the period of military rule, the government tremendously increased its foreign borrowing, from $8.3 billion in March, 1976 to $43.6 billion in December, 1983.
The Argentine situation is one example of a larger problem: the incurrence of debt worldwide by government. Since August 20, 1982, when Mexico announced that it could no longer meet its debt service payments, some 30 nations have re-negotiated terms on up to $100 billion of external debt. Argentina itself declared a moratorium on its debt principal late in 1982. Interest payments, which consume roughly two-thirds of Argentina’s annual export earnings, were refinanced in March, 1984 by a package deal involving the governments of Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Venezuela so that American commercial banks would not have to list their Argen tine assets as nonperforming. Today, the Alfonsin government quibbles with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over austerity programs which enable Argentina to borrow more money from the Fund. Because the strength of the dollar makes prices of imports to America relatively cheaper, the so-called “debt crisis” has abated temporarily. Yet the only solution to the problem—the market solution—has not been applied. When the relative value of the dollar falls (it is presently overvalued against most industrial-nation currencies), the debt problem will again become a major issue.
The idea behind many popular solutions to the sovereign debt problem (borrowing by government) is more government intervention in the form of continued capital flow through some IMF arrangement or similar mechanism until the debtor nation is “stable” enough economically to be able to accumulate sufficient dollars from the exportation of goods to meet its obligations. Such IMF-type austerity plans may avert the political repercussions to government of making the necessary adjustments to a market economy, but, through a misallocation of re sources, they exacerbate the problem in the long run.
A solution to the debt problem requires a market system based on the idea of private property rights. The approaches to the problem taken by the IMF are not producing, nor will they produce, an answer. IMF programs are matters of short-term adjustment, the goal of which is to buy time for nations to solve their economic woes. They are, in fact, a sort of protectionism which, in the end, subsidizes the interventionist policies of the debtor nations. They also rely on a macroeconomic approach by government to adjust such items as unfavorable balances of trade by fine-tuning monetary and fiscal policy in hopes of finding a way out of the woods, so to say. This assumes that the state is somehow capable of planning equitably and efficiently on behalf of millions of individuals it has deemed incapable of pursuing their own self-interest. Thus, many commentators have advocated an expansion of IMF quota limits, evidently unconcerned about the fact that it is individual taxpayers who must foot the bill for the programs of the IMF and World Bank.
Several nations, including South Korea and Taiwan, are servicing substantial debt requirements on the strength of relatively strong market economies. Yet, when a nation such as Argentina has a debt service problem as a result of intervention in the economy by the state, the IMF typically proposes a slower growth austerity program entailing exporting goods and accumulating dollars with which to service the debt. This so-called trade surplus is generally secured by restricting imports. By not regarding trade as a two-way exchange in which both parties benefit when it is done voluntarily, the individual is made to suffer as he becomes less well-off materially. As barriers around free trade are constructed, the problem grows.
The Growth of the Problem
Today’s debt problem in general can be traced to the reaction of interventionist governments to economic changes in the 1970s. The initiation of floating exchange rates in 1971 was followed by a decline in the relative value of the dollar, which facilitated the expansion of trade between the United States and many of the so-called developing nations. Governments, such as Argentina, financed this expansion largely by borrowing external funds. These increasing debt levels were expected to be serviced through continued economic growth.
The oil-importing developing nations adjusted to the OPEC oil price increases of 1973 by borrowing additional funds. These loans, made from “petrodollars” accumulating in American commercial banks, were considered to be of little risk, as economic growth and a weak dollar in creased export earnings from which the debt could be serviced. It should not surprise anyone, then, that from 1974-80, many governments used these borrowed funds to expand public expenditures and exports substantially at the expense of capital formation.
Real-interest rates turned sharply positive in 1978, as the governments of Western Europe, followed by the United States, began to adopt restrictive monetary policies to reduce inflation. In addition, terms of trade fell significantly from 1979-82, as recession was accompanied by a rise in protectionist trade measures. With oil prices increasing again in 1979, governments were strained to meet their debt service obligations and by 1982 the banking system was on the verge of financial collapse.
The Case of Argentina
The case of Argentina illustrates the distortions created by state interventionism in the market economy. From 1973-84, public expenditures expanded enormously. To finance this expansion, the government resorted to deficit spending. From 1973-82, these fiscal deficits averaged 5.2 per cent of gross domestic product (gdp). They were largely financed through borrowing abroad.
The growth of the state and the debts which it incurred eroded the base of real saving and private investment. The state was becoming the sole investor. However, the absence of a market test for the state allowed it to waste a large amount of resources on prestige and ill-considered projects, which was done flagrantly by the military government. Accounting was so poor that much of the debt was not even registered in the Central Bank. Mr. Alfonsin and his elected Radical Party inherited the world’s highest inflation rate and its third highest sovereign debt in 1983.
From 1976-79, the military tried certain steps to solve Argentina’s economic woes. Consumption of beef and grain was restricted, while exports of both were increased. Real wages fell as government fixed wages while the market determined prices. In response to the unpopularity of these policies, the government increased the money supply. Thousands of Argentines then converted their pesos into dollars or other currencies to move out of the country. Capital flight was extensive; some $11 billion was moved into foreign bank accounts. Roughly half of the proceeds from loans to Argentina were reinvested abroad and remain there because economic chaos continues at home. The gdp in 1983 was lower in real terms than it had been eight years earlier.
Mr. Alfonsin did not apply the market solution to the economy. Instead, he promised that the government would fight inflation and pull business and labor out of the recession with easy credit and real wage increases. Hundreds of state-owned companies (which composed roughly 60 per cent of industry in terms of output) were to be closed or sold and government spending was to be cut. The actual program was limited to price controls on selected consumer items and a week-long ban on the sale of beef. Despite efforts to peg wages to prices, prices have risen by as much as 30 per cent per month. In such an environment, investment is reduced in favor of consumption and economic development becomes impossible. Argentina’s once modern industrial structure is in danger of becoming obsolete.
Most recently, in June, 1985, the government announced new measures to fight inflation through a dramatic reduction in the budget deficit, mostly through new taxes and new tariffs. An indefinite freeze on prices and salaries is now in effect. A new currency, the austral, is being introduced, which it is hoped will be more stable than the peso, and will therefore draw out some of the estimated $4 billion worth of American dollars now being saved by Argentines in mattresses and other places. None of these measures is a move toward a free economy. As long as the government commands the economy, Argentina’s woes will continue, and with them the external debt problem.
Attempts by the Argentine government to manage the economy have resulted in a distorted allocation of resources and a reduced standard of living for the people. Intervention in the form of wage and price controls, tariffs, public borrowing and investing, and inflation have neglected the ultimate user, the consumer, and have restricted his right to peaceful action. The society has become more and more stratified, with various groups in conflict with each other. The nationalistic policies of the state have retarded economic growth and will lead to ever lower per capita standards of living. The whole question of the proper role of government has been totally forgotten.
As to the debt problem itself, there are only three ways out: 1) an internal adjustment economically and politically within Argentina entailing a return to the free market system, 2) an assumption of bad debt loss by the lending institutions if Argentina is unable to repay its loans, or 3) an assumption of risk on the part of the governments of creditor nations (and ultimately on their taxpayers). Only alternative one insures that the problem will not recur. Alternative three is the method being employed today by the IMF and other government agencies to prevent the political consequences of alternative two.
If there is a return to a free economy, individuals, by pursuing their own self-interest, will direct resources to the production of those goods and services demanded by consumers. As consumer demands are satisfied, the returns to investment (profits) insure an ever expanding economy. Through this process, savings can be set aside which will service and eventually repay the debt. As government, reduced to its proper function of protecting life and property, is removed from the economic scene, its need and ability to borrow will be eliminated. The individuals, whom the government is required to protect, will pay for this service with some form of taxation. Whether Argentina, or any nation, will ever have the political means to apply the economic solution, is beyond the scope of this article. There are only two alternatives: a free economy based on private property rights or a command economy in which the state exists at the expense of the individual. The latter leads to economic chaos and social instability. Only the former results in peace and prosperity. | <urn:uuid:53aac509-7e3e-4d98-9039-9cccabdb555f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fee.org/the_freeman/detail/the-international-debt-problem-the-case-of-argentina | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968242 | 2,185 | 2.75 | 3 |
Presidential candidate and president
Kennedy had nearly become Stevenson's vice presidential running mate in 1956. The charismatic young New Englander's near victory and his televised speech of concession (Estes Kefauver won the vice presidential nomination) brought him into some 40 million American homes. Overnight he had become one of the best-known political figures in the country. Already his campaign for the 1960 nomination had begun. One newspaperman called him a young man in a hurry. Kennedy felt that he had to redouble his efforts because of the widespread conviction that no Roman Catholic candidate could be elected president. He made his 1958 race for reelection to the Senate a test of his popularity in Massachusetts. His margin of victory was 874,608 votesthe largest ever in Massachusetts politics and the greatest of any senatorial candidate that year.
A steady stream of speeches and periodical profiles followed, with photographs of him and his wife appearing on many a magazine cover. Kennedy's carefully calculated pursuit of the presidency years before the first primary established a practice that became the norm for candidates seeking the nation's highest office. To transport him and his staff around the country, his father bought a 40-passenger Convair aircraft. His brothers Robert (Bobby, or Bob) and Edward (Teddy, or Ted) pitched in. After having graduated from Harvard University (1948) and from the University of Virginia Law School (1951), Bobby had embarked on a career as a Justice Department attorney and counsellor for congressional committees. Ted likewise had graduated from Harvard (1956) and from Virginia Law School (1959). Both men were astute campaigners.
In January 1960 John F. Kennedy formally announced his presidential candidacy. His chief rivals were the senators Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota and Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas. Kennedy knocked Humphrey out of the campaign and dealt the religious taboo against Roman Catholics a blow by winning the primary in Protestant West Virginia. He tackled the Catholic issue again, by avowing his belief in the separation of church and state in a televised speech before a group of Protestant ministers in Houston, Texas. Nominated on the first ballot, he balanced the Democratic ticket by choosing Johnson as his running mate. In his acceptance speech Kennedy declared, We stand today on the edge of a New Frontier. Thereafter the phrase New Frontier was associated with his presidential programs.
Another phrasethe Kennedy styleencapsulated the candidate's emerging identity. It was glamorous and elitist, an amalgam of his father's wealth, John Kennedy's charisma and easy wit, Jacqueline Kennedy's beauty and fashion sense (the suits and pillbox hats she wore became widely popular), the charm of their children and relatives, and the erudition of the Harvard advisers who surrounded him (called the best and brightest by author David Halberstam).
Kennedy won the general election, narrowly defeating the Republican candidate, Vice President Richard M. Nixon, by a margin of less than 120,000 out of some 70,000,000 votes cast. Many observers, then and since, believed vote fraud contributed to Kennedy's victory, especially in the critical state of Illinois, where Joe Kennedy enlisted the help of the ever-powerful Richard J. Daley, mayor of Chicago. Nixon had defended the Eisenhower record; Kennedy, whose slogan had been Let's get this country moving again, had deplored unemployment, the sluggish economy, the so-called missile gap (a presumed Soviet superiority over the United States in the number of nuclear-armed missiles), and the new communist government in Havana. A major factor in the campaign was a unique series of four televised debates between the two men; an estimated 85120 million Americans watched one or more of the debates. Both men showed a firm grasp of the issues, but Kennedy's poise in front of the camera, his tony Harvard accent, and his good looks (in contrast to Nixon's five o'clock shadow) convinced many viewers that he had won the debate. As president, Kennedy continued to exploit the new medium, sparkling in precedent-setting televised weekly press conferences.
He was the youngest man and the first Roman Catholic ever elected to the presidency of the United States. His administration lasted 1,037 days. From the onset he was concerned with foreign affairs. In his memorable inaugural address (see original text), he called upon Americans to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself. (See also primary source document: A Long Twilight Struggle.) He declared:
In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibilityI welcome it. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve itand the glow from that fire can truly light the world. And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for youask what you can do for your country.
The administration's first brush with foreign affairs was a disaster. In the last year of the Eisenhower presidency, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had equipped and trained a brigade of anticommunist Cuban exiles for an invasion of their homeland. The Joint Chiefs of Staff unanimously advised the new president that this force, once ashore, would spark a general uprising against the Cuban leader, Fidel Castro. But the Bay of Pigs invasion was a fiasco; every man on the beachhead was either killed or captured. Kennedy assumed sole responsibility for the setback. Privately he told his father that he would never again accept a Joint Chiefs recommendation without first challenging it.
The Soviet premier, Nikita Khrushchev, thought he had taken the young president's measure when the two leaders met in Vienna in June 1961. Khrushchev ordered a wall built between East and West Berlin and threatened to sign a separate peace treaty with East Germany. The president activated National Guard and reserve units, and Khrushchev backed down on his separate peace threat. Kennedy then made a dramatic visit to West Berlin, where he told a cheering crowd, Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is Ich bin ein [I am a] Berliner.' In October 1962 a buildup of Soviet short- and intermediate-range nuclear missiles was discovered in Cuba. Kennedy demanded that the missiles be dismantled; he ordered a quarantine of Cuba (see original text)in effect, a blockade that would stop Soviet ships from reaching that island. For 13 days nuclear war seemed near; then the Soviet premier announced that the offensive weapons would be withdrawn. (See Cuban missile crisis.) Ten months later Kennedy scored his greatest foreign triumph when Khrushchev and Prime Minister Harold Macmillan of Great Britain joined him in signing the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty. Yet Kennedy's commitment to combat the spread of communism led him to escalate American involvement in the conflict in Vietnam, where he sent not just supplies and financial assistance, as President Eisenhower had, but 15,000 military advisers as well.
Because of his slender victory in 1960, Kennedy approached Congress warily, and with good reason; Congress was largely indifferent to his legislative program. It approved his Alliance for Progress (Alianza) in Latin America and his Peace Corps, which won the enthusiastic endorsement of thousands of college students. But his two most cherished projects, massive income tax cuts and a sweeping civil rights measure, were not passed until after his death. (See primary source document: The American Promise to African Americans.) In May 1961 Kennedy committed the United States to land a man on the Moon by the end of the decade, and, while he would not live to see this achievement either, his advocacy of the space program contributed to the successful launch of the first American manned spaceflights.
He was an immensely popular president, at home and abroad. At times he seemed to be everywhere at once, encouraging better physical fitness, improving the morale of government workers, bringing brilliant advisers to the White House, and beautifying Washington, D.C. His wife joined him as an advocate for American culture. Their two young children, Caroline Bouvier and John F., Jr., were familiar throughout the country. The charm and optimism of the Kennedy family seemed contagious, sparking the idealism of a generation for whom the Kennedy White House became, in journalist Theodore White's famous analogy, Camelotthe magical court of Arthurian legend, which was celebrated in a popular Broadway musical of the early 1960s.
Joseph Kennedy, meanwhile, had been incapacitated in Hyannis Port by a stroke, but the other Kennedys were in and out of Washington. Robert Kennedy, as John's attorney general, was the second most powerful man in the country. He advised the president on all matters of foreign and domestic policy, national security, and political affairs.
In 1962 Ted Kennedy was elected to the president's former Senate seat in Massachusetts. Their sister Eunice's husband, Sargent Shriver, became director of the Peace Corps. Their sister Jean's husband, Stephen Smith, was preparing to manage the Democratic Party's 1964 presidential campaign. Another sister, Patricia, had married Peter Lawford, an English-born actor who served the family as an unofficial envoy to the entertainment world. All Americans knew who Rose, Jackie, Bobby, and Teddy were, and most could identify Bobby's wife as Ethel and Teddy's wife as Joan. But if the first family had become American royalty, its image of perfection would be tainted years later by allegations of marital infidelity by the president (most notably, an affair with motion-picture icon Marilyn Monroe) and of his association with members of organized crime. | <urn:uuid:2251c181-c94e-4cb0-8adc-d8b76bdd4b0d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.britannica.com/presidents/article-3868 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973357 | 1,970 | 3.21875 | 3 |
“It was a separate group with its own norms and its own values. Punk wasn’t a violent thing. It was mostly people just wanting to hang out together and have a laugh.” Jane Dambrauskas, 80s punk
What you wore was often much more than a simple fashion choice in the 1980s. The decade saw a burst of subcultures, with clothing, music and venue the distinctive ‘badges’ of the different urban tribes. Some were revivals of earlier subcultures, like rockabilly and mods, and others like goths and hip hop were completely new phenomena.
Videos from the exhibition | <urn:uuid:4fae63fb-ba3c-442d-9f18-ad441fb37b71> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/the80sareback/exhibition-overview-2/exhibition-themes/subcultures/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983582 | 136 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Click the picture above
to see a larger version
Show birthplace location
|Previous||(Alphabetically)||Next||Biographies index |
|Version for printing|
Yurii Sokolov was born in Labinskaya Stanitsa, a name of the town whose name means Cossack village. He graduated from Kiev Institute of Peoples Education in 1921 and then he taught in the Applied Mathematics Division of the Academy. NHis education was in the period of changing trends in the Ukraine. An effect of the Revolution of 1917 was that mathematics in the Ukraine was required to be more practical. Dmitry Grave, who had studied Jacobi's methods for the three body problem for his own Master's thesis, had become a leading researcher in algebra and number theory, but pressure to undertake more practical research led him to change to study mechanics and applied mathematics. He supervised Sokolov's research in the area of mechanics of particles and this was the topic of his doctorate which in many ways followed on from Grave's Master's thesis. Sokolov's first publication appeared in 1923.
From 1934 Sokolov taught at the Institute of Mathematics at the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. He also taught at several other higher educational institutions in Kiev.
Sokolov's main work was on the n-body problem, which he worked on for nearly 50 years and he summarised his contributions in the book Singular trajectories of a system of free material points (Russian) which was published in 1951. He also worked on functional equations and on such practical problems as the filtration of groundwater. Examples of papers where he makes practical applications to water flow are On the flow of ground water into a drainage ditch of trapezoidal section (Russian) (1951), Filtration without backwater from an unlined canal of trapezoidal section in homogeneous ground (Russian) (1952), On a problem of the theory of unsteady motion of ground water (Russian) (1953), On the theory of plane unsteady filtration of ground water (Russian) (1954), On an axially symmetric problem of the theory of unsteady motion of ground water (Russian) (1955). Other applications include On the determination of dynamic pull in shaft-lifting cables (Ukrainian) (1955) and On approximate solution of the basic equation of the dynamics of a hoisting cable (Ukrainian) (1955). Sokolov also published on celestial mechanics and hydromechanics.
One of the topics which will always be associated with Sokolov's name is his method for finding approximate solutions to differential and integral equations. The method which he introduced is now sometimes called 'the averaging method with functional corrections' or sometimes called 'the Sokolov method'. His methods were highly practical and useful in many applications to mathematical physics, but they were also studied with the highest degree of mathematical rigour. Examples of his papers on this topic are On a method of approximate solution of linear integral and differential equations (Ukrainian) (1955), Sur la méthode du moyennage des corrections fonctionnelles (Russian) (1957), Sur l'application de la méthode des corrections fonctionnelles moyennes aux équations intégrales non linéaires (Russian) (1957), On a method of approximate solution of systems of linear integral equations (Russian) (1961), On a method of approximate solution of systems of nonlinear integral equations with constant limits (Russian) (1963), and On sufficient tests for the convergence of the method of averaging of functional corrections (Russian) (1965).
His many papers in this area were brought together in the important book The method of averaging of functional corrections (1967) which he wrote at an elementary level. E L Albasiny, reviewing Sokolov's textbook, first formally describes the approximations from averaging of functional corrections. He then writes:-
The approximations may converge although Picard iteration diverges. This basic approach is developed by the author and applied to the approximate solution of Fredholm and Volterra-type integral equations of the second kind, to their nonlinear counterparts, to integral equations of mixed type, to linear and nonlinear one-dimensional boundary value problems, to initial-value problems in ordinary differential equations and to certain elliptic, hyperbolic and parabolic equations.
The first part of Sokolov's book discusses applications of his method to problems which can be modelled by linear integral equations with constant limits. He gives a number of different sufficient conditions for the approximations to converge and presents error estimates. The next three parts look first at problems which can be modelled by nonlinear integral equations with constant limits and then extend the analysis to the situation where the upper limit is variable. In the final part Sokolov examines applications of his method to integral equations of mixed type, then in a number of appendices he presents some generalisations of the method.
Sokolov died only a few months before his 75th birthday and only a few months short of completing 50 years of scientific work in the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences.
Article by: J J O'Connor and E F Robertson
Click on this link to see a list of the Glossary entries for this page
List of References (9 books/articles)|
|Mathematicians born in the same country|
Other Web sites
|Previous||(Alphabetically)||Next||Biographies index |
|History Topics || Societies, honours, etc.||Famous curves |
|Time lines||Birthplace maps||Chronology||Search Form |
|Glossary index||Quotations index||Poster index |
|Mathematicians of the day||Anniversaries for the year|
JOC/EFR © July 2007 |
School of Mathematics and Statistics|
University of St Andrews, Scotland
The URL of this page is:| | <urn:uuid:4559cee5-3e93-489a-aadc-6b49ab4325c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Sokolov.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931712 | 1,233 | 2.359375 | 2 |
“’….the first aspect is important, because capital here - quite unintentionally - reduces human labour, expenditure of energy, to a minimum. This will redound to the benefit of emancipated labour, and is the condition of its emancipation”.
2) There is an ever-increasing distinction between production time and labour time. As Paolo Virno writes in his ‘5th thesis on post-Fordism’,
” …Marx distinguishes between “labor time” and “production time” in chapters XII and XIII of the second book of the Capital. Think of the cycle of sowing and harvesting. The farm laborer works for a month (labor time); then a long interval follows for the growing of the grain (production time, but no longer labor time); and at last, the period of harvesting arrives (once again, labor time). In agriculture and other sectors, production is more extensive than labor activity, in the proper sense of the term; the latter makes up hardly a fraction of the overall cycle. The pairing of the terms “labor time”/”production time” is an extraordinarily pertinent conceptual tool for understanding post-Fordist reality, that is to say, the modern expression of the social working day. Beyond the examples from agriculture adopted by Marx, the disproportion between “production” and “labor” fits fairly well the situation described in “Fragment on Machines”; in other words, it fits a situation in which labor time presents itself as “miserable residue.”
The disproportion takes on two different forms. In the first place, it is revealed within every single working day of every single worker. The worker oversees and coordinates (labor time) the automatic system of machines (whose function defines production time); the worker’s activity often ends up being a sort of maintenance. It could be said that in the post-Fordist environment production time is interrupted only at intervals by labor time. While sowing is a necessary condition for the subsequent phase of the grain’s growth, the modern activity of overseeing and coordinating is placed, from beginning to end, alongside the automated process.
There is a second, and more radical, way of conceiving this disproportion. In post-Fordism “production time” includes non-labor time, during which social cooperation takes its root. Hence I define “production time” as that indissoluble unity of remunerated life and non-remunerated life, labor and non-labor, emerged social cooperation and Submerged social cooperation. “Labor time” is only one component, and not necessarily the most prominent one, of “production time” understood in this way. This evidence drives us to reformulate, in part or entirely, the theory of surplus-value. According to Marx, surplus-value springs from surplus-labor, that is, from the difference between necessary labor (which compensates the capitalist for the expense sustained in acquiring the labor power) and the entirety of the working day. So then, one would have to say that in the post-Fordist era, surplus-value is determined above all by the gap between production time which is not calculated as labor time and labor time in the true sense of the term. What matters is not only the disproportion, inherent in labor time, between necessary labor and surplus-labor, but also, and perhaps even more, the disproportion between production time (which includes non-labor, its own distinctive productivity) and labor time.”
Marx himself explicitly refers to this distinction between ‘production time’ and ‘labour time’ on p.668 of the Grundrisse,
“…until now it has been assumed that production time coincides with labour time. But now there take place, e.g. in agriculture, interruptions of work within the production process itself, before the product is finished. The same labour time may be applied and the duration of the production phase may differ, because work is interrupted. If the difference is only that the product in one case requires a longer working time in order to be finished than in another case, then no case at all is constituted, because it is then clear according to the general law that the product in which a greater quantity of labour is contained is of that much greater value, and if the reproduction is less frequent in a given period of time, then the reproduced value is all the greater. And 2 × 100 is just as much as 4 × 50. As with the total value, then, so with the surplus value. The question is constituted by the unequal duration required by different products, although the same amount of labour time (namely stored-up and living labour together) is employed upon them. The fixed capital here allegedly acts quite by itself, without human labour, like e.g. the seed entrusted to the earth’s womb. In so far as additional labour is required, this is to be deducted.”
And elsewhere, ” Labour no longer appears so much to be included within the production process; rather, the human being comes to relate more as watchman and regulator to the production process itself. (What holds for machinery holds likewise for the combination of human activities and the development of human intercourse.) No longer does the worker insert a modified natural thing [Naturgegenstand] as middle link between the object [Objekt] and himself; rather, he inserts the process of nature, transformed into an industrial process, as a means between himself and inorganic nature, mastering it. He steps to the side of the production process instead of being its chief actor. In this transformation, it is neither the direct human labour he himself performs, nor the time during which he works, but rather the appropriation of his own general productive power, his understanding of nature and his mastery over it by virtue of his presence as a social body – it is, in a word, the development of the social individual which appears as the great foundation-stone of production and of wealth. The theft of alien labour time, on which the present wealth is based, appears a miserable foundation in face of this new one, created by large-scale industry itself. As soon as labour in the direct form has ceased to be the great well-spring of wealth, labour time ceases and must cease to be its measure, and hence exchange value [must cease to be the measure] of use value.”
3) The process of communism - understood as the liberation from work requires the fullest development of this trend with labour time playing an increasingly smaller role in production time and the organic composition of capital gravitating to ever greater amounts of fixed over variable capital.
Marx writes, “…the development of fixed capital indicates in still another respect the degree of development of wealth generally, or of capital. The aim of production oriented directly towards use value, as well as of that directly oriented towards exchange value, is the product itself, destined for consumption. The part of production which is oriented towards the production of fixed capital does not produce direct objects of individual gratification, nor direct exchange values; at least not directly realizable exchange values. Hence, only when a certain degree of productivity has already been reached – so that a part of production time is sufficient for immediate production – can an increasingly large part be applied to the production of the means of production.”
One might suppose this point was reached with the first integrated circuits in the late 1950’s and the subsequent huge growth in computational power per dollar seen on an annual and/or bi-annual basis i.e. the observation of what later became known as ‘Moore’s Law’.
4) Within the existing system of social relations (i.e. within capitalism) these trends merely expel ever greater numbers of people from socially useful work (either rendering them unemployed, moved to precarious forms of temporary or part-time work or to affective low-paid ‘service’ jobs that previously did not exist) as opposed to diminishing the length of the working week and duration of one’s working life as was frequently envisaged in the 1950’s and 60’s.
5) This is now evident in the massively increased of unemployment we see in the countries of the Western Hemisphere. In the 1960s’s unemployment for the United Kingdom stood at 1.6% (now 8.2%), 4% for the United States (now 8.1%) and officially zero for the USSR. The European Union currently has a youth unemployment rate of 22.4% and global youth unemployment stands at 12.7%. This is not to say that industrial jobs have instead gone to China since the re-structuring of the mid-1970s as is commonly assumed.
Indeed it is a common misconception that the de-industrialisation of high-GDP countries such as the UK and the US can be blamed on the industrialisation of previously low-GDP countries such as China since the early 1970’s. Indeed between 1993 and 2006 China did not create any new jobs in manufacturing, with the total number of workers hovering constantly at around 110 million. This was in spite of the fact that the economy grew by over 300% in the period - with the country becoming a world leader in the manufacture and export of a vast array of products.
The number of people, as a percentage of the global population, engaged in industrial production has not increased since the early 1970s, with increased surplus and value since that period being the consequence of more efficient systems of production, automation and distribution - all of which minimise and will continue to minimise the total volume of human labour necessary to what will continue to be expanding production overall. The very nature of ‘(re)industrialising’ is to reduce to the bare minimum the human element within the production process, with greater investment being directed towards fixed as opposed to variable capital (wages). How precisely does this constitute a ‘plan’ for jobs?
8) While this tendency, for all variable capital to be tendentially superceded by fixed capital, is in Marx’s words, ‘a condition for the emanicipation of such labour’ and for post-capitalism itself, under capitalism it can only lead to the immiseration of the working population with fewer and fewer people able to insert themselves in the production process engage in wage labour, and given ever decreasing state spending on the reproduction of the working class outside of work (through the disintegration of collective unemployment benefit, public health insurance and so on) fewer and fewer people will thus be able to subsist. All of this in spite of unparalleled technological sophistication and abundance unknown in human history. As Marx writes,
“…the measure of wealth is then not any longer, in any way, labour time, but rather disposable time. Labour time as the measure of value posits wealth itself as founded on poverty, and disposable time as existing in and because of the antithesis to surplus labour time; or, the positing of an individual’s entire time as labour time, and his degradation therefore to mere worker, subsumption under labour. The most developed machinery thus forces the worker to work longer than the savage does, or than he himself did with the simplest, crudest tools.”
9) This vision, of the almost total elimination of labour time from the production process is already embryonic in accounts of the ‘Third Industrial Revolution’
“…many people will look at the factories of the future and shudder. They will not be full of grimy machines manned by men in oily overalls. Many will be squeaky clean—and almost deserted. Some carmakers already produce twice as many vehicles per employee as they did only a decade or so ago. Most jobs will not be on the factory floor but in the offices nearby, which will be full of designers, engineers, IT specialists, logistics experts, marketing staff and other professionals. The manufacturing jobs of the future will require more skills. Many dull, repetitive tasks will become obsolete: you no longer need riveters when a product has no rivets.”
As with the transition from the First to the Second Industrial Revolution during the 19th century these changes built on innovations such as solid freeform fabrication, 3D printing and ever more modular and digitized forms of production will lead to huge amounts of job losses without any possibility of absorbing those laid off. This happening in the context of already existant un(der)employment of a level not seen in Europe and North America since before the Second World War.
For some reason the Economist believes this will only lead to labour-saving (and therefore profit-maximising) innovations for capital without even contemplating the quite clear and dangerous consequences it would present for social cohesion and conflict at a most basic level (let alone the problems this presents for consumer demand given more and more people won’t be able to earn a wage to buy the increasing number of goods and services in circulation).
10) Complete Breakdown in Value - Marx writes in the Grundrisse,
“…the exchange of living labour for objectified labour – i.e. the positing of social labour in the form of the contradiction of capital and wage labour – is the ultimate development of the value-relation and of production resting on value. Its presupposition is – and remains – the mass of direct labour time, the quantity of labour employed, as the determinant factor in the production of wealth. But to the degree that large industry develops, the creation of real wealth comes to depend less on labour time and on the amount of labour employed than on the power of the agencies set in motion during labour time, whose ‘powerful effectiveness’ is itself in turn out of all proportion to the direct labour time spent on their production, but depends rather on the general state of science and on the progress of technology, or the application of this science to production…The surplus labour of the mass has ceased to be the condition for the development of general wealth, just as the non-labour of the few, for the development of the general powers of the human head. With that, production based on exchange value breaks down…Capital itself is the moving contradiction, [in] that it presses to reduce labour time to a minimum, while it posits labour time, on the other side, as sole measure and source of wealth. Hence it diminishes labour time in the necessary form so as to increase it in the superfluous form; hence posits the superfluous in growing measure as a condition – question of life or death – for the necessary. On the one side, then, it calls to life all the powers of science and of nature, as of social combination and of social intercourse, in order to make the creation of wealth independent (relatively) of the labour time employed on it. On the other side, it wants to use labour time as the measuring rod for the giant social forces thereby created, and to confine them within the limits required to maintain the already created value as value. Forces of production and social relations – two different sides of the development of the social individual – appear to capital as mere means, and are merely means for it to produce on its limited foundation.”
A sensible project sounds like the relationship between debt, technological innovation and value within post-Fordism. | <urn:uuid:8b07f460-020a-4bc7-8d9c-472792401dcc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://partitaimaginaria.tumblr.com/post/26734316478/some-propositions-from-the-grundrisse-on-development | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953396 | 3,173 | 2.28125 | 2 |
WASHINGTON, January 30 (RIA Novosti) The US Senate on Tuesday easily confirmed one of its own, Democratic Senator John Kerry, to be the next secretary of state and take over from Hillary Clinton who is stepping down after four years in the job.
Kerry was approved 94 to 3, with three Republican senators voting against him. Kerry voted “present” on his own confirmation.
A decorated Vietnam War veteran, Kerry was the 2004 Democratic nominee for US President, losing the election to the incumbent President George W. Bush.
Kerry acknowledged the deteriorating relationship between the United States and Russia during testimony last week to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, saying he was “confident” that relations with Russia can be improved.
“I would like to see if we can find some way to cooperate,” Kerry told the panel.
US President Barack Obama’s first choice to be the next secretary of state, United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice, withdrew her name from consideration after coming under fire for her comments shortly after the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
Rice blamed the deaths of US Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three other Americans on spontaneous protests that started over an anti-Muslim video that had gone viral. It was later determined that an attack by armed terrorists that apparently had nothing to do with the video lead to the deaths of the four Americans.
Kerry is set to be sworn in as the next US secretary of state later this week.
Add to blog
You may place this material on your blog by copying the link.
Image Galleries: New "Watercolors" Train Exhibition in the Moscow Metro
Infographics: The Origin of Geomagnetic Storms
Cartoons: Dreams of Space
The failure of the Islamist political parties who came to power in the dramatic events of the Arab Spring would allow the military to reenter the political arena. Political Islam was successful in the opposition, but it could fail in power, as the negative experience of Egypt and Iraq have shown. | <urn:uuid:9eae0234-b10e-4510-a02a-177c00d97f29> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.rian.ru/politics/20130130/179115989.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970985 | 423 | 1.867188 | 2 |
06/12/2012 - Development ministers from OECD and emerging economies met in London 4 - 5 December for the High Level Meeting of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC).
Despite development successes over the past 20 years and the progress of many emerging economies, the ministers noted that inequality is increasing in all countries and 1.4 billion people still live in absolute poverty.
Summarizing the outcomes, DAC Chair J. Brian Atwood stated, “This high-level meeting was a reflection of the changing world of development co-operation: DAC members and developing countries working in tandem with civil society, the private sector and other partners; strong support for a UN-led process for determining development goals; and innovative finance for development at a time of constrained budgets.”
Participants recommitted to working through the Global Partnership for Development in the lead up to the 2015 date set to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Through this partnership, DAC members and their developing country partners, civil society and the private sector will focus on post-2015 targets based on sustainability, human rights and quality of life.
In their discussions about the future of official development assistance (ODA) the ministers and agencies agreed that it must be directed to where it is most needed and can best catalyse other flows. They asked the DAC to work with the UN system together with the IMF and the World Bank on proposals for new measures of total official support for development, including defining what constitutes ODA.
The 2012 DAC High Level Meeting communiqué outlines the full range of the discussions and decisions.
For further information, journalists should contact Helen Fisher in the OECD’s media division or phone +33 1 45 24 80 97. | <urn:uuid:93e752fa-e268-43bb-a84a-393c9e00c082> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oecd.org/newsroom/ministerspledgetofinanceeffectivedevelopment.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922584 | 351 | 2.125 | 2 |
Taking Steps to Manage Acid Reflux Disease
Acid reflux disease (ARD), also known as gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), affects nearly 19 million Americans, and is characterized by heartburn occurring two or more days a week despite treatment and diet changes. Susan had lived with the symptoms of ARD for years until she went to her doctor and was diagnosed.
“I was busy and younger when my heartburn symptoms first occurred,” says Susan, a retired college professor and former clinical researcher from State College, Pennsylvania, who first experienced signs of ARD years ago. “I tried over-the-counter medications, such as antacids, which helped but not enough. I went to the doctor and he explained how acid reflux happens, and suggested that I should work to better manage my stress – which is hard for me.”
As time went on, it became harder and harder for Susan to ignore her heartburn symptoms. She began taking steps to better manage her heartburn symptoms, making several lifestyle changes, such as sleeping while propped up and trying to maintain a healthy body weight. Susan also tried to reduce her stress through such things like walking and other exercises.
“Working with my doctor, we were able to find a treatment plan that was right for me, which included taking the medication Dexilant,” Susan says. “I began taking Dexilant, and it helped relieve my heartburn symptoms. Each person’s experience with ARD is very personal, so the best thing to do if you have or think you might have acid reflux disease, is to speak with your doctor to find out more about the condition and what might be right for you.”
To help educate people like Susan who have ARD, Takeda Pharmaceuticals U.S.A., Inc., the makers of Dexilant (dexlansoprazole), partnered with celebrity chef Spike Mendelsohn on the “Don’t Let it Burn” campaign to raise awareness around ARD and the importance of finding ways to manage their symptoms, including diet and lifestyle changes. Lifestyle tips, music, heartburn-friendly recipes and more can all be found on DontLetitBurn.com.
“It is very important for patients to be proactive and understand that if they experience symptoms of heartburn frequently, they should reach out to their healthcare providers to find out if what they’re experiencing is acid reflux disease, and if so, what courses of action might be possible to manage this condition,” says David A. Peura, MD, Emeritus Professor of Medicine, University of Virginia School of Medicine. “When I work with ARD patients, we counsel diet and lifestyle modifications, but often for many patients, a medication is also needed to manage the symptoms. One treatment option I prescribe for my appropriate ARD patients is Dexilant because it can offer up to 24 hours of heartburn relief.”
To learn more, visit www.DontLetitBurn.com. You can also hear from celebrity chef Spike Mendelsohn, and get tips, helpful information and facts about acid reflux disease, including:
- Acid reflux disease can occur in both men and women, with varying severity of the disease among patients
- Lifestyle modifications are part of a treatment plan to help manage a patient’s acid reflux disease. Some include:
- Avoid common trigger foods, such as fried or fatty foods, citrus foods, onions, and tomato-based foods as well as alcohol, coffee and other caffeinated drinks, chocolate, peppermint and spearmint
- Maintain a healthy body weight
- Eat small, frequent meals rather than large amounts of food at one time
- Try not to wear tight-fitting clothing around your waist
- Elevate the head of your bed 6-8 inches
- Be smoke-free
About Dexilant (dexlansoprazole) 30 mg and 60 mg delayed release capsules
Persistent heartburn two or more days a week, despite treatment and diet changes, could be acid reflux disease (ARD). Prescription Dexilant capsules are used in adults for 4 weeks to treat heartburn related to ARD, for up to 8 weeks to heal acid-related damage to the lining of the esophagus (called erosive esophagitis or EE), and for up to 6 months to continue healing of EE and relief of heartburn. Individual results may vary. Most damage (erosions) heals in 4-8 weeks.
Important Safety Information
Dexilant may not be right for everyone. Do not take Dexilant if you are allergic to Dexilant or any of its ingredients. Serious allergic reactions have been reported. Tell your doctor if you get any of the following symptoms with Dexilant: rash, face swelling, throat tightness, or difficulty breathing. Symptom relief does not rule out other serious stomach conditions. People who are taking multiple daily doses of proton pump inhibitor (PPI) medicines for a long period of time may have an increased risk of fractures of the hip, wrist, or spine. Low magnesium levels can happen in some people who take a PPI medicine.
The most common side effects of Dexilant were diarrhea (4.8%), stomach pain (4.0%), nausea (2.9%), common cold (1.9%), vomiting (1.6%), and gas (1.6%). Dexilant and certain other medicines can affect each other. Before taking Dexilant, tell your doctor if you are taking ampicillin, atazanavir, digoxin, iron, ketoconazole, tacrolimus, or methotrexate. If you are taking Dexilant with warfarin, you may need to be monitored because serious risks could occur. Talk to your doctor or healthcare professional. Please see accompanying Prescribing Information for Dexilant.
You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.fda.gov/medwatch or call 1-800-FDA-1088. | <urn:uuid:5721965f-08e3-49d0-af80-92de0c061dee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pasconews.com/taking-steps-to-manage-acid-reflux-disease.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94856 | 1,264 | 2.421875 | 2 |
“Black Fridays" by Michael Sears (Putnam)
While the economy appears to be, we hope, rebounding, the financial thrillers thrive, illustrating how lives are devastated by careless greed. And greed, as we all know, never goes out of style, despite the economy.
Michael Sears, who spent more than 20 years on Wall Street, delivers a thoughtful, intricate cautionary tale in his impressive debut about greed, mismanaged money and the thrill that the unscrupulous get from cheating the unsuspecting.
Wall Street hotshot Jason Stafford never started out to be a criminal. A simple accounting error snowballed into a felony when his portfolio lost more than $500 million. Jason lost his career and spent two years in prison.
But Jason didn’t lose his soul or his sense of humor to either Wall Street or the prison system. Although he can’t legally handle accounts, Jason can take a two-week consulting job examining the trading records of a young broker who recently died in a mysterious boating accident. The high pay will help him regain custody of his 5-year-old autistic son from his alcoholic ex-wife who prefers to lock the boy away in his room.
But the consulting job isn’t simple as Jason finds too many discrepancies among several traders’ work and resistance from brokers who see him as an unscrupulous ex-con.
Sears does a first-rate job in “Black Fridays" juggling the complex plot, explaining the financial markets so a novice can understand the intricacies but also appealing to the sophisticated reader. Sears shows how a broker can become intoxicated with each aspect of trading. | <urn:uuid:4e43dc5e-a58b-4032-aec3-1cf1b6c6b2b2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bendbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121007/NEWS0107/210070321/1020 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967787 | 335 | 1.523438 | 2 |
CBST in Huffington Post for Role in Safety for All Communities Day
On Tuesday, May 24, the Anti-Violence Project and several other organizations came together to host Safety for All Communities Day, in order to change the culture that creates bias and violence.
Congregation Beit Simchat Torah endorsed Safety for All Communities Day and hosted an information session and outreach training event . Then, CBST participated in outreach to West Village bars and businesses to help promote safety for all communities!
CBST got a shout-out in an article on the Huffington Post on the Anti-Violence Project and Safety for All Communities Day.
Click here to read the article. | <urn:uuid:d6fa3e60-ebc8-4b44-bdcd-8fee0da65a18> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cbst.org/index.php/About/News/CBST-in-Huffington-Post-for-Role-in-Safety-for-All-Communities-Day | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916854 | 134 | 1.601563 | 2 |
|Department of Public Information • News and Media Division • New York|
Secretary-General Says Countries Still Outside Test-Ban Treaty Failing to Meet
Responsibility; Those that Joined Have Wisely Chosen Security over Threats
Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks to the sixth ministerial meeting of the Parties to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, in New York, 27 September:
Today we continue an important tradition. We gather here as the United Nations General Assembly opens to show our resolve to see the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) enter into force. We do this because we are convinced the CTBT has a crucial role to play in building a safer, more secure and saner world.
It has been a year of noteworthy events in our efforts towards nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. In February, we marked the Treaty’s fifteenth anniversary. I used that occasion to visit the Preparatory Commission in Vienna, which I chaired in 1999 as my country’s delegate. I could see how far we had come — but I am determined to cross the finish line. Over the past year, Indonesia and Guatemala ratified the Treaty and Niue signed. I am heartened by these important steps.
At the same time, there are still eight States that must ratify the Treaty for it to enter into force. In order to advance the process, I wrote to each of these countries in June. I appealed to them to follow Indonesia’s example and accelerate their ratification process. I urged them to consider how adherence to this Treaty could enhance security, promote stability and build confidence throughout the world.
There is a direct link between ending nuclear testing and eradicating nuclear weapons. The cessation of nuclear tests will constrain the development of nuclear weapons. Today, I repeat my call to those eight States to ratify the CTBT. To countries that remain outside of this Treaty, I say: you are failing to live up to your responsibility as a member of the international community. Leaders have a standing offer from me to personally visit and answer any concerns or doubts they may have about the CTBT.
The vast majority of countries have endorsed the Treaty. To them I say: you have wisely chosen security over threats, peace over belligerence and the global good over a narrow vision of national interests. You are showing true leadership.
The norm against testing is strong. Countries that have made the decision to test nuclear weapons have provoked unified and principled opposition. But a non-binding norm is not enough. History teaches us that moratoriums can and will be broken. The CTBT must become universal law. In the meantime, I urge all States to refrain from the use of new nuclear weapon technologies or from any action that would defeat the object and purpose of the CTBT.
People of conscience around the world are part of a global movement to end nuclear testing. I especially commend the Provisional Technical Secretariat for training the next generation of experts. The Treaty’s entry into force would be a milestone in advancing the cause of nuclear disarmament.
I urge you to do everything possible to achieve a nuclear-weapon-free world where there is no threat of annihilation from these destructive weapons, where the terrible waste of resources used to create them becomes instead a productive investment in improving people’s lives, and where we are all safer, more prosperous and more secure. Thank you for your leadership.
* *** *For information media • not an official record | <urn:uuid:f1891a6f-7021-49b3-b336-43b47d69e99f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2012/sgsm14546.doc.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943321 | 716 | 1.921875 | 2 |
Jesus Bread - Historic Bread Baking
My mother has asked me to bake some bread for her Episcopal Church’s communion during the Christmas Mass. The Church is in (very) rural South Georgia, and only has 75 or so members all combined. (Episcopalians are kind of a rare breed down there). I am very honored to have been asked, because although this may be the smallest church in her town, it is by far the most worldly and savvy. These people travel to Israel, Rome, and all over.
So anyway, I am really looking to bake for them a bread that is as historically and anthropologically close to the bread that Jesus would have served at the last super. Even if you are not a Christian, or find that whole story ridiculous, I am looking for bread that would have been in that part of the world at that time. I don’t think AP flour was around. I know that Durum wheat was domesticated before the soft, red, spring, and winter wheat that we use in modern flours. Anyone got any tips?
These people are the Doctors and Judges of the town, and they will know B.S. if I try to pass off Turkish flat bread, or a whole wheat pita as bread from the last supper.
Thanks for you help guys. I LOVE this site!!! | <urn:uuid:17d3a410-5e83-4f19-be40-e0715be3bd12> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/4646/jesus-bread-historic-bread-baking&favtitle=Jesus%20Bread%20-%20Historic%20Bread%20Baking | 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 | 0.982936 | 275 | 2.046875 | 2 |
1. Ernil i Duremmen
Stars wheeled above Beleriand. In the deep hollows of the land strange creatures piped and sang. Orcs prowled on the marches of the land, and fell things issued forth from Angband, so that the elves who yet dwelled in Arda, refusing the call of the Powers, were grown timid and sought only hiding and safety.
In those times the Valar forsook Middle Earth, and the Moriquendi believed themselves abandoned to live as they might in a world over-ruled by Morgoth. But Orome, alone of the Powers, returned often to the woods of Beleriand and hunted the servants of Morgoth wherever they might be found. When the great horn Valaroma sounded in the shadows, and the hooves of Nahar, white steed of Orome, thundered and echoed amid the trees, then the Quendi would flee, but their hearts would be uplifted, for they knew no evil thing would dare come near.
Often in his journeys Orome would come to a glade of beech and birch trees in the wood of Nan Elmoth, where the slow river Celon broadened into a pool of such smoothness that to look into it was to look into the dance of stars above. There he would dismount and do off his helm, set Nahar to graze and sit at ease, plucking the white bells of bindweed and floating them in new constellations amid the reflected glory of the skies.
Now it came to pass that, on a time of bitter winds, Orome paused at Nan Elmoth as was his wont. The surface of the lake was stirred into greyness by the ferocity of the air, and rain lashed the leaves of the trees with a noise like the sea. A chaplet of white flowers, woven by an unskilled hand, lay in the centre of the clearing, and at once Orome was aware of eyes upon him.
He spun, and, beholding a leaf which trembled out of tune with the downpour, thrust his spear into the onlooker's hiding place. "Show yourself, trespasser!"
Bright steel slid glimmering through the shadows, until it passed narrowly between the watcher's hair and his cheek, and the light of the spearhead showed Orome his threat. It was a child.
Frozen with apprehension, the Valar quailed. Frozen with fear, the flat of the blade laid against his face, the child gazed up at Orome with wide green eyes, while rain slicked his long pale hair, silver as the cutting edge. For a long moment neither stirred, astonished at each other.
"You are bold to come so close," Orome exclaimed at last, "When the very warriors of your kind flee before me."
"My father said you hunt evil things," the boy replied fiercely, "And I am not evil."
Then Orome perceived that the child was wise. Drawing his spear
carefully away, he gentled his voice and put forth his hand, drawing the little one into the clearing. "And have you been hunting me?"
"You came here last year," the boy said, wiping the rain from his face with his sleeve. "I saw the light, but they would not let me come close, for they said Nan Elmoth was dangerous."
He had an uncertain look about him, as if he knew not whether it were allowed to criticize his elders to a god, "But I thought, 'how can it be dangerous if Tauron is there? Would it not be the safest place in the world?' So I waited until rumour of your horn was heard, and then I came here again."
"Yes, my lord."
"You have undoubtedly frightened your Naneth and Adar witless by this," Orome said, trying to recall how parents spoke to children. His sternness was unconvincing, for in truth he was charmed. "Was it well done?"
"I did not want to frighten them." The boy looked up and beheld Orome's face with eyes empty of all but awe, "But though I be punished, great Lord, it will be worth it."
He was perhaps - if the children of the Moriquendi grew no faster than those of Valinor - ten summers old, and Orome was moved by his frankness. "Did you wish a boon of me?"
"No, Lord," the elfling laced a wet braid through his fingers, discomforted, "I wished to look at you, and..." he fumbled in a bag by his side, "And I brought an apple for your horse."
Then Orome forgot for a time the high cares of the Powers and laughed aloud. At the sound the storm stilled in surprise, and clouds began to break overhead. "Never," he said, "Has Nahar received such a gift from the children of the Sindar. Come forth then and proffer it."
Bright shone Menelvagor between the cloud-wrack as the great horse bowed his huge head over the boy's hand. The breath of the horse blew back the child's hair like a storm. Very still between fear and joy the elfling stood poised, and the light of Nahar's mane was brilliant on his face.
Orome saw then that the child was soaked to the skin, and that he shivered, so pulling him close, he wrapped his cloak about the boy and gave him to drink from his flask, wherewith they were both strengthened. And there was silence for a while until the boy asked "Do the Valar not love us?"
"I know not what you mean."
"Do you only love the Quendi who came with you to Valinor? Is that why we are called 'the Forsaken' - because the Valar do not care about us any more?"
Then Orome was troubled in his heart and knew not how to answer, for oft he had wondered the same, and urged the other Powers to have regard for those who yet remained. "Always," he said at last, "Always are the minds of the Valar turned towards the Children of Illuvatar. It is for that reason we would see you all safe in a refuge we know we can protect."
"And let the Enemy have everything else?"
"These matters are too high for you, child," Orome said, wroth that the elfling seemed to see so clear what was in his mind. Since he could speak no further without betraying either himself or his fellows he rose and, gathering the child up, he placed him before himself upon Nahar. "Come, I will take you to your father."
They rode together through the long dusk as clouds gathered once more, grey and silver in the sky. But a short ride it was from Nan Elmoth to the spell-woven borders of Doriath, for the paces of the great horse were swift and long.
When Orome lifted the child to set him down the small hands clasped close about his own. "Why must you go? Why can you not come and dwell with us? Then we would not need to flee into the West. If you were with us we would be safe enough here."
"With us? Do you speak for all your people, little elfling?"
"I do, Lord, yes," the boy replied simply, loosing his hold, "For I am their prince."
Orome perceived upon the boy, then, the likeness of Olwe, King of the Teleri, as if the child were one of close kin. Before this forgotten scion of a royal house he felt once more the sundering of the Quendi as a thing ill done. "I will bear your words into the West, little Prince." he said heavily, "But I know not what will come of them."
Then the child patted Nahar on the neck, and bowing low in rustic courtesy, departed into the Hidden Realm.
Spurred by his words, Orome returned to Taniquetil and spoke impatiently with the other Powers, urging greater involvement in the deeds of Middle Earth. Yet in the end he could not sway their council. His visits to Arda became all the more frequent from that time, so that for many years orcs walked in fear in Beleriand.
The Prince of Doriath returned to his people. Touched by the power of Orome he grew tall and fair, almost as an elf of Valinor. But he built no hope upon his meeting with the Great One. Indeed, if he spoke of it at all, no record has come down to us from the ruin of his city.
Author's Note: The title should mean 'Prince of Tangled Shadows' if I have my Sindarin right.
This is a work of fan fiction, written because the author has an abiding love for the works of J R R Tolkien. The characters, settings, places, and languages used in this work are the property of the Tolkien Estate, Tolkien Enterprises, and possibly New Line Cinema, except for certain original characters who belong to the author of the said work. The author will not receive any money or other remuneration for presenting the work on this archive site. The work is the intellectual property of the author, is available solely for the enjoyment of Henneth Annûn Story Archive readers, and may not be copied or redistributed by any means without the explicit written consent of the author. | <urn:uuid:30e389db-15c9-4f2d-a684-00559a79eea4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://henneth-annun.net/stories/chapter_view.cfm?stid=915&spordinal=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982062 | 1,977 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Generalizability describes whether the results of individual studies and investigation samples can be applied to other studies and investigation samples. As part of meta-analysis (validity generalization) it makes a statement about the sample independence of the validity of a selection process.
Exists when research findings apply beyond the specific case examined.
Generalizability refers to the degree to which the findings from a study sample accurately represent what would have been found if the entire population had been studied.
in testing theory, inferring from "the score on a sample of behaviors to the average of all the observations that could be in the domain" (Cronbach, 1984). Note: Generalizability is a theoretical alternative to a true-score concept of error of measurement. "True-score theory speaks as if error variance were all of one kind. Generalizability theory recognizes that there are several kinds of errors and alternative universes of generalization" (Cronbach, 1984). See also error of measurement. | <urn:uuid:002a0155-dadd-446b-9823-81d05ef645d7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.metaglossary.com/terms/generalizability/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937597 | 200 | 3.171875 | 3 |
Originally Posted by MotherOf2Boys
I told her that I found this site that has a lot of good information about the benefits of BFing after 1 yr. She said thats perverse (sp?) and that she wouldnt have that. She is suppose to be calling me back later and I will read off a lot of the good information you girls posted. Any other tips? Well besides hitting her over the head with a pan?
First, it's not her place to "have that" or not. She isn't the decision maker this time around. Second, she's wrong. It's not perverse, it's actually normal. But our society has assigned breasts a different job from what they are meant to do, and won't believe anymore that it's ok for them to be used for their original purpose - meeting the nutrition and health and comfort needs of our children for two or more years.
Here is some info you might be interested in and might want to share with your mom. Even if she still doesn't come around, you know in your heart you are doing the work to look into the facts and just because she won't believe them, doesn't make them worthless.
World Health Organization:
" Breastfeeding is an unequalled way of providing ideal food for the healthy growth and development of infants; it is also an integral part of the reproductive process with important implications for the health of mothers
. A recent review of evidence has shown that, on a population basis, exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months is the optimal way of feeding infants. Thereafter infants should receive complementary foods with continued breastfeeding up to 2 years of age or beyond."http://www.who.int/child-adolescent-..._exclusive.htm
American Academy of Family Physicians:
"Breastfeeding should ideally continue beyond infancy, but this is currently not the cultural norm and requires ongoing support and encouragement. If the child is younger than two years of age, the child is at increased risk of illness if weaned. http://www.aafp.org/x6633.xml
You can also let your mom know that research is beginning to show the psychological benefits of nursing past one year & beyond -
According to Sally Kneidel in "Nursing Beyond One Year" (New Beginnings, Vol. 6 No. 4, July-August 1990, pp. 99-103.):
" One study that dealt specifically with babies nursed longer than a year showed a significant link between the duration of nursing and mothers' and teachers' ratings of social adjustment in six- to eight-year-old children (Ferguson et al, 1987). In the words of the researchers, 'There are statistically significant tendencies for conduct disorder scores to decline with increasing duration of breastfeeding.
And not only do the psychological benefits affect individual children, but the results of nursing longer show up in the behavior of adults!! Take a look at this site that shows the longer a nation nurses their babies, the lower their rates of violence are:
Cross-cultural research indicates a positive correlation between a culture's norm for duration of breastfeeding and its level of peacefulness. Breastfeeding also promotes development in the parts of the human brain that regulate emotions and help us solve problems non-violently. http://milkofhumankindness.org/ | <urn:uuid:2f336e75-29fb-4e7f-8ad9-4e9700476954> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mothering.com/community/t/350040/please-no-bashing/80 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959381 | 675 | 1.671875 | 2 |
According to a 2000 report published in American Psychologist, 26% of Americans felt "an impending nervous breakdown." Many say this is a feeling most people nowadays experience periodically. This seems frequently to be triggered by a divorce, a death, or financial and job stress. In addition to the feeling of going crazy, some of the symptoms include heart palpitations, chest pains, shortness of breath, uncontrollable crying, dizziness, disorientation, exhaustion. Unfortunately this condition is becoming more normal. We live in times when personal crisis are quite common. Such anxiety is a result of our separation from God. To cope with today's tumultuous world we must grow spiritually.
With a strong Orthodox faith we can better deal with this over stressed condition. This requires a faith that is more than the notion of "Faith Alone" preached in many Protestant churches. It is a faith that is linked with works, with our personal effort, working in cooperation with God's grace. It is a faith where we desire and have great zeal to be with God. It is faith of unbounded love of God.
The Orthodox way of life provides a time proven structure for developing such faith. With the ongoing practice of repentance and forgiveness it demands, one does not keep as much "stuff" bottled up inside. One who lives a true Orthodox way of life when faced with stressful uncertainties learns to call on God for help when faced with uncertainties. One who lives a life of repentance learns humility and is ever aware of their fallen and sinful condition, knowing they cannot cope with life's trials and tribulations alone. They know death is at the end of this earthly life, but beyond is what they hope for, eternal life in Paradise. They learn to seek forgiveness, to admit their weaknesses and know that God will help them. They participate in Confession and regularly partake of Communion, the true Blood and Body of Christ, by properly preparing themselves. They develop self-disciple through fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays as well as the special fasting periods like Great Lent. They have a daily prayer life and are able to communicate with God for help in times of need. They have a Spiritual Father for guidance and a spiritual family of believers whose love they can count on. They have developed a spiritual relationship with several saints, who now reside in heaven near the throne of God, who they also call on for help, especially Mary, the Mother of God. They are never alone.
Stress comes when we lose hope in a situation, become fearful, and do not have faith that we will be able to work through the difficulty we face. We only see our limitations and believe that all things are dependent on our own efforts which seem inadequate. We feel alone. We lose our vision of the spiritual aim of life. We no longer see the struggles of life as part of the ongoing development of our faith in God. We forget that God loves us no matter what and supports us by His promise of eternal life with Him if we only continue to act out of love for Him as well as others.
The Orthodox way of life is like an insurance policy against stress where we feel like we cannot cope. Like an insurance policy we have to remember to pay the premiums. In the Orthodox way of life, this involves prayer, fasting, worship and participation in the Sacraments. It is a life of repentance lived with a zeal, a desire, an intense love of God.
More on Orthodox Way of Life
1 day ago | <urn:uuid:07e61070-6d97-4c82-910c-8a93d8f2de54> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://orthodoxwayoflife.blogspot.com/2012/03/avoiding-nervous-breakdowns.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963628 | 706 | 1.679688 | 2 |
The Yagnopaveetham is a triple stranded sacred thread that is worn by those initiated into the Gayatri recital. The three strands represent the three sandhya rites that are to be performed when the sun rises, when the sun is at its zenith and when the sun sets. The rites are in adoration of the Hindu trinity (Trimurti): Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. The purpose of the rites is to invoke God to bless the initiated seeker to lead a good life at all times (past, present, and future), in all planes or regions (heaven, earth and netherworld).
The bearer of the yagnopaveetham is supposed to be engaged in the study of at least one Veda, with each strand representing one of the three Vedas, namely the Rig, Yajur and Saama Vedas of the Trayi Veda system (Atharva Veda was not included in the Trayi Veda system when it was in vogue).
A Brahmachari - vatu - wears one triple stranded sacred thread. In ancient times women also wore such sacred threads and performed sandhya rites. During subsequent periods, a married woman's privilege or responsibility of performing such rites was transferred to her husband. Since then, each married man has been expected to wear a pair of triple stranded sacred threads, one for himself and another representing that of his spouse. Thus he is expected to perform sandhya rites on behalf of both and share the benefits with his spouse. | <urn:uuid:2f815cf9-8f9d-4a19-93be-4e622c2cae03> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yagnopaveetham | 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 | 0.974575 | 315 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Yesterday, I stated where I disagreed with Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris – that they condemn faith because it causes harm, while I condemn it when it causes harm. As such, I focus my attention on beliefs and attitudes that actually cause harm.
One area of divergence that I wrote about yesterday concerns instances where beliefs built on faith are harmless or even beneficial to others. The other area of divergence exists when atheists adopt beliefs that make them a danger to others.
Today, I am going to use this opportunity to take another swipe at the idea that there exists a sharp distinction between ‘is’ and ‘ought’. This is a principle that is taken almost as gospel among atheists who study such issues and among many academic philosophers as well. The Scottish philosopher David Hume is thought to have ‘proved’ this about 300 years ago.
But his proof is nothing more than the claim, “I cannot conceive how it is possible.”
And how does this differ from the theist claim that, “I cannot conceive of how it is possible that something as complex as a human eye could have come into existence without a designer?”
At least the theist still puts all of his entities in the ‘is’ universe. The theist claims, “There is a God,” and “There are souls,” and “There is a continuation of consciousness after death.”
Yet, atheists reject this on the grounds that we have no evidence for these entities. These are strange entities that, their defenders claim, we can know nothing about through scientific observation and experiment. If we cannot study it, the atheist says, then we should do with it and stick to those things we can study.
Yet, these same people dismiss the idea of value as an intrinsic property – as something that God or nature has built into certain events or objects themselves – in part because of the same reasons. These are ‘strange entities’ and, as such, we should dismiss claims that they exist unless we absolutely need to postulate such entities to explain and predict what is in the universe.
Yet, these same people fail to contemplate the implications of what it means to say that there is an ‘is’/‘ought’ distinction.
It means going completely outside the whole of the ‘is’ universe and talking about something that is distinct and separate from it. It means, “I am going to say that there is more to reality than ‘is’ and ‘is not’. I am going to say that there is a third category. I will call this category ‘ought’, and I will hold that it is distinct and separate from ‘is’. And I will hold that this ‘ought’ universe describes whole and different types of relationships from ‘is’ relationships so that, even if we reach the very limits of science and come to know everything about the ‘is’ universe there is to know, this tells us nothing about what sits in the ‘ought’ category. Because no set of ‘is’ propositions can imply an ‘ought’ proposition. ‘Ought’ sits beyond science, beyond observation and experiment, beyond – even – all that ‘is’.”
And this is supposed to make the skeptical atheist – the one who denies the existence of Gods, souls, ghosts, intrinsic values, free will, heaven, and hell because they are just too weird - this is supposed to make the skeptic feel better?
I am baffled as to why, for 300 years, nobody has thought to approach Hume’s writings with the thought, “I do not care how inconceivable it is for you that ‘ought’ relationships might fit in the ‘is’ universe – it is far more conceivable than the idea that there is some other sort of relationship – something outside of ‘is’ relationships – that remains outside of our grasp even if we were to have complete and total knowledge of every fact in the real world.
Of the two views – the view that ‘ought’ is somehow linked to ‘is’, versus the view that ‘ought’ will allude even a person who knows every fact about the real world – I seriously hold that the second is the hardest to conceive.
We have one universe – the ‘is’ universe – the universe of fact. Something either ‘is’ or it ‘is not’. That which is not fact is fiction.
Hume said that we can find the wrongness of an object by turning our attention to our own sentiment.
Take any action allowed to be vicious: Willful murder, for instance. Examine it in all lights, and see if you can find that matter of fact, or real existence, which you call vice. In whichever way you take it, you find only certain passions, motives, volitions and thoughts. There is no other matter of fact in the case. The vice entirely escapes you, as long as you consider the object. You never can find it, till you turn your reflection into your own breast, and find a sentiment of disapprobation, which arises in you, towards this action.
However, what is it when we find when we turn our attention inward and look at our own sentiment. Don’t we find something that exists squarely and firmly in the ‘is’ universe? And if we use that sentiment to derive and ‘ought’ conclusion, are we not, then, deriving ‘ought’ from ‘is’?
Hume thinks so.
This is another surprise for me – that so many people who quote the above passage as if it is some form of gospel of moral philosophy fail to read past the period - into the very next sentence - where Hume writes,
Here is a matter of fact . . .
Here, according to Hume himself, we have an instance of inferring ‘value’ from ‘fact’ – an instance of inferring ‘ought’ from ‘is’. Because, Hume is doing nothing less than drawing an inference from a fact about having a sentiment to the value of willful murder.
Hume does not have any trouble deriving ‘ought’ from ‘is’. Hume is not saying that – to use a phrase that showed up in my inbox yesterday – “Ethics questions are not fact questions...”
Ethics questions are fact questions. It is just that those fact questions must include the fact of human sentiments.
Or, as Hume put it:
Here is a matter of fact, but it is the object of feeling, not of reason. It lies in yourself, not in the object. So that when you pronounce any action or character to be vicious, you mean nothing, but that from the constitution of your nature you have a feeling or sentiment of blame from the contemplation of it. (David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature).
I dispute Hume’s claim that it is possible to derive a moral ‘ought’ from the ‘is’ of a personal sentiment. Hume actually offered two formulae for deriving a moral ‘ought’ – this ‘personal sentiment’ formula, and a formula that derived ‘ought’ from a combination of four factors that were:
(1) Is pleasing to self (2) Is useful to self (3) Is pleasing to others (4) Is useful to others
From these ‘is’ statements it is possible to derive ‘ought,’ according to Hume, with the ‘ought’ being stronger according to the number and the degree to which these four factors apply.
This is what I turn into the formula, “Is such as to fulfill, directly (pleasing) or indirectly (useful), the desires of self and others,” giving precise definitions to the concepts of ‘desire’ (a mental state whereby the agent is disposed or make or keep true a proposition that is the object of the attitude), and ‘fulfull’ (a state of affairs in which the proposition that is the object of a desire is true).
However, this dispute is irrelevant to the point that I am making here.
My point here has to do with how odd it is that one should postulate a ‘value’ universe that is completely inaccessible to an individual who is fully aware of every fact there is to know – of an ‘ought’ relationship that is unavailable even to a person who knows absolutely every ‘is’ relationship there is to know.
And, what is even more bizarre, at least to me, is that a group of people who pride themselves on their skepticism and with doing away with false Gods, can look at the claim that there is a realm of ‘ought’ completely distinct from the realm of ‘is’ and say, “Yeah. Sure. What could be more obvious?”
Then, to add to this, to discover that many of these people hold in contempt those who adopt strange beliefs in Gods and ghosts – when, at least Gods are ghosts are still asserted to be a part of the ‘is’ universe. At least such people are not trying to invent a type of relationship separate and distinct from what ‘is’ – even if they are wrong about what those relationships are. | <urn:uuid:8d38a865-8c29-4354-b2f5-2dcffb3693b8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://atheistethicist.blogspot.com/2006/10/strangeness-of-ought.html?showComment=1162416300000 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96113 | 1,980 | 2.09375 | 2 |
What is a Box of Soap?
Once great leader of RedSpot, Chairman Jeff Gerstmann
When I was growing up a soap box was a small cardboard box in which soap was stored before use. These days you young whipper snappers stand on these cardboard boxes to give informal speeches or you find yourselves on the internet as an object of interest as decreed by by—decreed by who? According to the Democratic People's Republic (DPR) Soapbox's manifesto it is decided by "We" a mythical entity supposedly composed of GameSpot editors and writers but there is little evidence that this is the case. Indeed while now and then those around me would be highlighted and tied to the DPR Soapbox to preach their diatribe of choice neither they nor I knew exactly how they got there.
"All editorials are considered". This mythical We is a governmental entity with communistic systems of power. Even those two sentence blogs tagged accidentally as editorials were considered; for all blogs are created equal. But are they equally considered? What distinguished an editorial written by a mere plebeian and an editorial written by a +1 Orator of Distinction. An emblem; a rank; a bureaucratic medal.
While these Orators of Distinction distinctly orated there would be hundreds of others who orated just as distinctly. But even in a communistic society where all blogs are equal there was no room for all of them in spite of the quite noticeable fact that not all DPR Soapbox blogs are created equal—and nowhere in the DPR Soapbox manifesto does it claim as much. Indeed once you get that emblem you will be forever known as an Orator of Distinction, whether you orate distinctly or not. So long as you continue to contribute the odd editorial at least or until The Hague catches you and you become an Orator of Extinction. After the legitimate trial of course!
One can find on the DPR Soapbox blogs even more self serving, poorly researched, and poorly written than this one! An astounding statement, but one that rings true. One does wonder if those responsible for such blogs have always written in this way or through their permanent governmental position they have grown fat on fine wine and harlots and developed a bad case of gout in their typing fingers while beneath them their equals toil and sweat in the field trying their very best, their fingers nearly falling off, to win a place on the DPR Soapbox with high quality editorials that we all read, but We certainly do not.
But there is hope—or at least there was one. But because as with writing an editorial and having We not read it ends and does not begin with sadness I shall first talk of hope; for that is what must come before disappointment.
How to Climb the DPR Soapbox
Jeff Gerstmann demonstrates how RedSpot desalination works on the Irrigation Minister, Alex Navarro.
Unless there is a snake solid enough to support your weight in the DPR cardboard Soapbox then you will find that climbing one is a hard task indeed. Cardboard easily breaks; especially cardboard manufactured by the RedSpot Cardboard Monopoly. But as you can see from reading this very editorial I have climbed the cardboard box; but it was not easy. I will tell you of my story, and of the great nation of the Monkeys Writing Shakespeare Union where a man would not have the sweat of his brow licked off it by We.
As a small idealistic boy my father would sit me on his lap and tell me that if I worked hard, led a good, honest life free of deviancy I could have whatever I wanted. My father was an alcoholic so the fact that he had very little elated my fears that what he said was not true; I did all the work for him while he drank!
So I worked hard. I would churn out blog after blog on the blogofield. I cultivated a cult following and in one glorious moment of viral marketing I managed to a amass a blog to be proud of; it was a crop of seventy five comments and filled with the sort of content that one finds not in the goulash soup of the gulags made with grass and crickets, but in the gourmet treats that reside on We's banquet table itself.
But those who had the pleasure of viewing my blog through viral marketing tasted nothing but the dirtiest of flesh, and probably got a few viruses in the process; but we were not afforded soap to try and wash this sin from our own tainted flesh. We gave us nothing.
I could see my error; it was in the deviancy. I no longer hoped that blogs of a deviant nature would find their way onto the DPR Soapbox and thus started working on honest to God gaming editorials about GTA's technical failings and the like, but the harder I worked, and the more I sweated and the more We licked me the more I became disillusioned with the way the state of DPR Soapbox was run.
This is when in an act of rebellious protest I posted a blog pointing out the inherent homophobia of RedSpot after one instance of deviancy was erased from history by We's censorship department: Multinational Overpost Destruction Service (MODS). One Kevin-V replied, assuring me that because RedSpot had hired a homosexual it could not be homophobic. But few agreed with him, and there was a great disturbance in the great nation of DPR Soapbox. To silence this protest before anarchy took over We, or Kevin-V, gave me a DPR Soapbox emblem.
I was a fool! Until now I have stayed silent, but the emblem which I once held dear to my heart has become a symbol of my own hypocrisy. It has become a symbol of how We has oppressed the good citizens of DPR Soapbox for so long, and with the collapse of the great nation of DPR Soapbox I could not stay silent any longer. My brethren: they may have removed us from the public view, but amongst our peers we are not silent. We can fight. We must stand up: we must fight for all that we have done for DPR Soapbox!
We are one: whether you write only great editorials, or get a little lazy now and then, we must band together. Now is not the time to destroy ourselves: now is the time to destroy We.
Free Monkeys Writing Capitalist Manifestos
Greg Kasavin, the most well loved leader RedSpot has seen. They say he treated fellow countrymen as well as he treated his hair.
But brothers, sisters and all primates. There once was a great land. A land where those esteemed members of the elite were only of the elite through common consensus: not because they were equals! Indeed they were superior, and some of them were very superior indeed!
A virtual magazine that was open for anyone to apply for—in many ways like DPR Soapbox—bore wonderful fruits: exciting, informing and entertaining articles that were all quality checked on an individual basis, but it was a small country. Small enough for everything to be considered: and the fact that you know what you had written would be seen to and not be ignored by your superiors meant that, while still frustrating, rejection was not quite so empty. There was closure.
But this country had close ties to RedSpot, the land in which DPR Soapbox resides. I was told by my comrade monkeys in whispered and hushed voices that those who had a DPR Soapbox emblem could PM some of We (only one member of We was named making the total known members of We two) and point out writers they deemed worthy of DPR Soapbox accreditation. This sort of nepotism was not present in the nation of MWSU, but perhaps a necessity in the larger nation of DPRS.
Brothers, sisters, and apes. If you know of someone worthy of the DPR Soapbox do not merely offer consolatory comments on their worthy blog, but PM a member of We. If you can find one. Nepotism might be nasty, but perhaps given the size of RedSpot and DPR Soapbox it is necessary. Fight for those whose writing you like!
There is nothing wrong with a little viral marketing; especially when sent to those who work for a nation who likes ads of its own—oh yes, we will get to that in a moment.
And what of MWSU now? Alas it has sunk to the bottom of the ocean condemned forever to be trapped beneath the sea with no rapture for those who sunk with it.
All Nations under RedSpot Rule Unite As One
Halsey Minor and Shelby Bonnie: the only two known members of We.
It is not just us Soapboxians that have fallen victim to RedSpot's new anti-privatisation tyranny, but also those from the USSR (Union of Self-Served Reviewers), and let us not forget our brothers from Union who have been victims of RedSpot oppression for years and years. Genuine reform was promised years ago, but then Union was buried under tariffs and trade restrictions.
USSR has been swept under the rug; the rug of advertising. In the ghettos where citizens would once live in squalor every day writing original content that generated more clicks and advertising revenue for RedSpot now we found only ads themselves: we have been replaced by currency, and nothing more. We are but dollars to RedSpot, and though we have contributed to their wealth with no prize for ourselves but the opportunity of nourishing discourse, we have been forgotten and now find ourselves slowly being starved.
But they keep us barely alive on the smallest of rations hidden away in gulags where no one would think to look when searching for discourse. And DPR Soapboxians? We have it only marginally better off, relegated to a community tab that few will click on, and why should they? There is no mention of Orators of Distinction. Just a spotlight of the community; the sort of spotlight probably used to spot those trying to run across the border from DPR Soapbox to South Soapbox. No one wants to see these poor souls gunned down.
Today I saw a horrible sight. A blog starved to death. It lay all skin and bones on the land of DPR Soapbox. Yes, it was an Orator of Distinction, but it had not had one single nourishing comment. My brothers and sisters we must rise up—we must not let this happen to any other DPR Soapboxians. We must fight back. We must let RedSpot know that DPRS cannot be crushed so easily, that the USSR will not be trapped in concentration camps for ever—and if we fail? Then we must use our Union brothers as inspiration. They have survived on nothing for years; their existence may not be as full as our own at first glance, but they have shown us that survival in the spite of RedSpot oppression is possible. They have survived. We will survive.
They can take our DPR Soapbox land from us, they can cover the USSR with ads, but they cannot—they will not take our words. They will not silence us. | <urn:uuid:1fcdbc6f-50e2-45a7-9ff6-0f8093f0cdf7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://uk.gamespot.com/users/Foolz3h/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=m-100-25932885 | 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 | 0.978832 | 2,312 | 1.828125 | 2 |
We are all familiar with judgments that contain cutting comments, and which give one or other party to a dispute a pasting -- but not every day do we come across judgments about cutting and pasting, particularly when the object of the judge's attention is itself a judicial decision. And that's exactly what happened in Invalidity Application no.83707 in the name of Pass J Holdings Ltd in relation to trade mark registration no.2512671 in the name of Ben Spencer, Case O-427-11, a decision of Geoffrey Hobbs QC last November, sitting as an Appointed Person.
In May 2011 the mark was declared invalid. The trade mark proprietor appealed on various grounds, including serious procedural irregularity: it appeared that parts of the Hearing Officer’s decision had clearly been cut and pasted from an earlier Decision, resulting in the insertion of incorrect dates of registration of various marks, of the inclusion of names of persons having nothing to do with the matter and with reference to the wrong section of the Trade Marks Act 1994.
Setting aside the earlier decision and remitting the invalidity application to the Registrar to be heard by a different Hearing Officer, the Appointed Person observed that he had no power to award costs against the Registrar -- but that he would have awarded costs if he had such power [the Kat hears that the Registrar did the honourable thing and paid the parties' costs. presumably ex gratia]. The Appointed Person couldn't deal with the substantive grounds of appeal at this stage without usurping the function of the Registrar and depriving the parties of the opportunity to be heard by two levels of decision-taking, since there would have been no appeal against his decision.
The IPKat is not without sympathy for the Hearing Officer, since cutting and pasting has become a regular feature of the preparation of judicial decisions at all levels and it can be difficult for tired eyes and minds beset by déjà-vu to pick up cut-and-paste errors when proof-reading. Much the same can be said about articles submitted for publication, where evidence of inaccurate cutting and pasting is generally spotted by editors before a potentially embarrassing publication can result. Merpel wonders how often cut-and-paste errors don't get noticed at all but we are losing the skill of accurate reading.
Cut-and-paste or copy-and-paste here
Tips on better proof-reading here
A kat-pat goes to barrister Thomas Elias (Serle Court) for drawing the Kats' attention to this decision. | <urn:uuid:e9b648ab-39aa-4144-8254-c03c59da6152> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2012/01/when-cutting-and-pasting-is.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957932 | 514 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Last month, ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR reported that the Virginia State Corporation Commission authorized construction of the Virginia segments of the Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line (TrAIL). Now, the Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line Co. (TrAILCo), a subsidiary of Allegheny Energy Inc., reports that the project has cleared another regulatory hurdle with a motion passed by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission approving construction of a 1.2-mile segment of the transmission project in the state.
The 1.2-mile segment will extend south from the new 502 Junction substation in Greene County to the West Virginia border. The segment is the starting point of TrAIL, a 215-mile, 500-kilovolt project that will traverse parts of West Virginia and extend into Northern Virginia.
As requested by TrAILCo, the Pennsylvania Commission has deferred its decision on a proposed 36-mile segment of the line extending north from the 502 Junction substation into central Washington County. This section was designed to address local reliability issues. TrAILCo now will enter into a collaborative process to identify potential alternatives to resolve local reliability issues anticipated to occur in Washington County by 2009. The commission also approved a related settlement agreement between TrAILCo and Greene County that proposed the collaborative process.
TrAILCo will continue its preconstruction activities, such as right-of-way acquisition, permitting and engineering activities, in all three states. The construction phase will last about two and one-half years, with TrAIL targeted for completion by June 2011. | <urn:uuid:2f1449bc-d740-4982-a97b-2264844ae9b0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ecmag.com/section/systems/trans-allegheny-transmission-line-clears-another-hurdle | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931537 | 317 | 1.523438 | 2 |
By Dr. Marciene Mattleman
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Sonia Sanchez is Philadelphia’s Poet Laureate and Jane Golden is the creator of Philadelphia‘s unique Mural Arts program. They have joined their passions and talents for peace, using haiku poetry as the medium on murals in the inner city.
Haiku is a three line poem with 17 syllables written in a 5/7/5 syllable count. Students, residents, and visitors from around the world are invited to express their thoughts in a haiku, in a peace project online, a dedicated webpage at muralarts.org/peace.
Selected haiku will be featured in mini-murals in unexpected locations around Philadelphia and will serve as places to stop and reflect. The final mural will be completed in the fall, honoring Sanchez and all the selected contributors.
In a city with one of the highest homicide rates of the ten largest municipalities in the nation, helping people express themselves artistically with the purpose of bringing peace to their communities will hopefully bring positive change. | <urn:uuid:45011a30-9907-43dd-b89f-d0539dbf42f2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2012/05/29/expressing-peace-in-art-and-poetry/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947244 | 222 | 2.078125 | 2 |
December 11, 2012
That Holden Caulfield Kind of Crap: The Historicity of the Hall of Fame Debate
Most of our writers didn't enter the world sporting an @baseballprospectus.com address; with a few exceptions, they started out somewhere else. In an effort to up your reading pleasure while tipping our caps to some of the most illuminating work being done elsewhere on the internet, we'll be yielding the stage once a week to the best and brightest baseball writers, researchers and thinkers from outside of the BP umbrella. If you'd like to nominate a guest contributor (including yourself), please drop us a line.
The past changes all the time. I started following baseball in 1996, during what is now known as the “Steroid Era.” It wasn’t known that way at the time—if it had been, there might not have been a Steroid Era. But just a few years later, the term became widely recognized among fans and writers, with a general consensus that it peaked around the turn of the millennium. Through a mix of new evidence, analysis, and opinion, we got a de facto title for the latest chapter of baseball history.
The study of this phenomenon—how interpretations of the past appear, evolve, and compete—is called “historiography.” While the term is only common in academic writing, the concept is as ubiquitous as history itself: it’s hard to talk about the past (or even not to talk about the past) without considering how other people have done the same. With the current debate over the Hall of Fame ballot, the historiography of baseball has never been more relevant. The writers who are voting against Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens claim to be protecting history, but are instead revising it in an ahistorical way.
A Hall of Fame without Bonds and Clemens would be a radical departure from tradition. The Hall is filled with cheaters like Gaylord Perry, performance-enhancing-drug users like Hank Aaron, drug abusers like Mickey Mantle, and all-around-terrible people like Ty Cobb. The voting rules have always included requirements for “integrity, sportsmanship, [and] character,” but that wording has never prevented players of Bonds’ and Clemens’ caliber from getting a plaque. Nor has a vague suspicion of cheating precluded the induction of deserving players on the level of Jeff Bagwell.
Revising history can be a good thing: as new sources and analytical techniques develop, it’s important to apply them to the past as well as the present. Sabermetrics itself is revisionist. After developing better evaluation techniques in the 1980s, Bill James applied them as far back as the 19th century and found players who had been underrated for decades. Bert Byleven’s induction into the Hall is an example of historiography at work: though his historical record stayed the same, more and more writers voted for him as their interpretations of that record changed. Writers against Bonds and Clemens might argue that they are historical revisionists too, enforcing a new ethical standard that should have been in place since the beginning.
If that’s the case, then their focus should be on the whole of baseball history, not just the most recent part. Bonds’ and Clemens’ transgressions pale in comparison to those of the inductees who fought against racial integration, like Cobb and Kenesaw Mountain Landis. These writers should advocate for the removal of all players who set a bad example for children, like Mantle did with his alcoholism.
But the writers will never do that, because their case against steroid users has nothing to do with history and everything to do with their own nostalgia and insecurity. Just as the baseball establishment of the 1960s scrambled to find a way to keep Babe Ruth ahead of Roger Maris, it is now trying to find a way to keep Roger Maris ahead of Bonds and Mark McGwire. The naysayers are killing two birds with one stone: they’re assuring their inner child that Mantle and Mays are way better than the new cheaters, while assuring their outer adult that they’re mature enough to care about morality in sports.
In doing so, they’ve turned themselves into middle-aged Holden Caulfields trying to stop children from losing their innocence by pointing out all the phonies. “Things were better back then” doesn’t mean that things were better back in the ’60s, but rather that things were better when they were kids. It’s not a valid historical viewpoint.
In my opinion, the best baseball season ever was 1998, partly because of the home run chase and the Yankees’ 114 victories, but mostly because I was eight years old, and baseball will never be better than it was when I was eight years old. I was disappointed to learn that some of my favorite players had taken steroids, but I thought they were getting a raw deal from the executives who covered it up and from the media who should have seen it coming. I didn’t understand why there was moral outrage over the fact that Sammy Sosa cheated in a children’s game, but not over the fact that Sosa had to work as a child in order to support his family. The steroid scandal taught me that adults could be stupid too.
There is no point to me in visiting a Hall of Fame without the players who made me appreciate the history of baseball, and eventually history itself. Mark McGwire made me want to learn about Roger Maris. Roger Clemens got me interested in Walter Johnson. Barry Bonds led me to the sordid legacy of the sports media’s treatment of black players. They also taught me that people were flawed, and that learning from their mistakes was just as important as learning from their success. Without them, Cooperstown will be devoid of both nostalgia and history, and its selectively whitewashed interpretation of the past will become increasingly irrelevant. | <urn:uuid:dc47f508-a844-4406-9f27-b73ea62d76ba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=19129 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978968 | 1,241 | 1.648438 | 2 |
An often misunderstood management tool, restoration of native vegetation is likely to have a simplistic yet cost-effective interpretation on highway rights-of-way. Because the engineered roadsides, including slopes and holding ponds do not resemble the original soil profiles before construction; restoring, in the true sense of the word, is impossible. Yet we can aim for a simplified and functional version of what was there before disturbance. We can attain a semblance of an appropriate native plant community that fits the existing site and our need for safety. In most cases, the need for safety will limit us to an herbaceous seed mix of native grasses and wildflowers. Some basic steps are common in this process throughout the nation.
Step 1 - Site Analysis
a. Environment: Determine existing soil type, available moisture, slope aspect and angle. When specifying a seed and/or seedling list, match grasses and flowers to site conditions thoughtfully. Obviously the original soils are gone and the matching will be difficult.
b. Invasive plants: Especially note existing weeds on and off site that will compete with a new planting, and plan accordingly.
c. Context: Actvities on the other side of the ROW fence can affect your project. If the project is in a rural environment, note vegetation management on adjoining fields. If not controlled, those species can out compete your planting. Within the City Limits, note City parks, natural areas, and golf courses. A more natural design and materials will fit there. But within the formal developed city space, a formal design is appropriate to compliment our neighbors. Some horticultural plants, although traditionally used in these locations, have become invasive outside the city limits. Plants like Norway maple, Russian olive, and Tatarian honeysuckle are well-adapted disturbance plants and should be used as a last resort within the City, and never outside the City Limits.
Step 2 - Plant Species List
a. Refer to your state's map: First check your State's natural region map** to determine which plant communities are commonly adapted to your site.
b. Locate a comparable natural site: Visit the preserve. Find an inventory list of native grasses and forbs to be used as groundcover (such a list should be obtained from your Natural Heritage Program for that preserve). Observe the natural associations for clues.
c. Narrow a shopping list: Single out those that match the dry, mesic, or wet microclimates of the project site. More than one mix might be necessary. With plant species list in hand, check early for commercial availability. Aim for as much diversity as the project can afford. Every State has native grasses and forbs that will tolerate harsh roadside environments.
d. Remember native grasses: The result of planting native flowers only, is messy at best. Without their natural relationship with native grasses, the forbs compete with one another. The native grasses add fine texture, fall color, and a backdrop to show off the native wildflowers.
e. Write the specification as tightly as possible to get the result you want. Hold annual consultant and constractor workshops to familiarize bidders with your new methods.
Step 3 - Site Preparation****
a. Minimize disturbance: Disturb the site as little as possible after controlling invasive plants. Remember those invasives have likely added their seed to the soil seed bank. Any tillage will stir them to germinate. A simple method would be 1. mow and rake off dead vegetation, and 2. scruff soil with rake, harrow, but nothing deeper than 1/2 inch. Then plant.
b. Berm project topsoils: Project site soils will have been highly disturbed in the end. However, salvaging topsoils on site can be planned. Winnowing those soils along the edge of the project can be beneficial. These soil berms can prevent runoff better than silt fencing. Then these berms can be spread over the rights-of-way before seeding. This is less costly than importing soils later; especially when the seed bank of imported soils is unknown. Topping a project with weed-laden soils will not yield a success story.
c. Eradicate invasives: It has been proven that weeds that exist before a planting, will continue to plague the planting in the future. Before the bulldozers begin staging, control any noxious weeds found on the project. This small cost of time and effort will prevent the spread of weeds to other projects via construction equipment, as well as save money in roadside management later.
d. Prepare the planting bed: in the least disturbing way. This means minimal tillage, or shallow tillage at a maximum. Specialized seed drills , broadcasters and/or hydroseeders cause minimal disturbance.
Step 4 - Installation Basics
a. Research Seeding Rates: Native seed mixes are typically planted at the rate of 10-20 pounds per acre, usually the lower number. Seeding more will not insure success, but waste valuable seed instead.
b. Decide Seeding Method: Drill native grasses when possible to get appropriate seed-soil contact. By broadcasting forb seed over the top, seeded rows will not be so apparent. The broadcasted seed should be raked, rolled, and/or mulched in. (In some regions, or 1:1 slopes, hydromulching is preferred.) Water only if seasonal rains do not occur. Fertilization or compost only encourage weeds.
c. Accept variable Timing: Many projects do not allow us traditional optimum seeding times. The agricultural approach of spring and fall seedings has been blamed for many failures. Current observations find that most native seedings are successful when planted spring, summer, or fall. Apparently, the native seeds are adapted to germination when conditions match their needs.
Step 5 - Follow-Up
6 to 8 weeks after germination, mow, where possible, at a height of 6-8 inches to discourage shade of early weeds. Only spot spray invasive plants that emerge. Keep the public informed through local media and/or signage. Maintenance crews should understand the project so as to avoid inadvertent mowing. Better yet, invite their input during project planning. If local volunteers are included in the project, let them help with public relations. With an informed public, no one should be questioned about their maintenance work. And no unnecessary mowings should occurÉonly the safety strip along the pavement for which you have planned. Don't forget to add this planting site to your GIS system for future tracking and management. Finally, succession or change over time, will occur. Plan for it!
Highway corridors are often on the edge of woodlands, wetlands, or grasslands. Or they have created an edge to these plant communities. We can protect those natural areas and meet roadside safety needs by planting a transition zone. Since grasslands are early successional stages to each, maintaining native grasslands as transitions is a natural.
Below are sketches of a woodland, wetland, and grassland concept adjacent to the roadway with a grassland transition included. These grasslands pull duty as erosion control, revegetation and/or landscaping while allowing a safe recovery zone. Contact your State's Natural Heritage Program (experienced in local plant communities) or The Nature Conservancy (experienced in land management) to learn more about grasslands in your area.
WOODLAND EDGE - Here an herbaceous native seed mix can cover the entire site. This allows shrub and small tree seedlings to be planted or to migrate from the adjacent woods. Mowing once very 2-5 years will discourage encroachment by woodies into the clear zone.
WETLAND/ DITCH/HOLDING POND EDGES - A native grassland seed mix can cover all. However, a wet and wetter seed mixes with sedges might be used to border the existing wetland dependent on moisture availability. A shrub-car mix of shrubs and grasses could be added for esthetic and/or wildlife benefit.
GRASSLAND/ OPEN SPACE/ MOWED EDGES - Whether next to a meadow, pasture, or cropland, a native grass seed mix works as a transition here. You need a mix that will tolerate poor soils and full sun, similar to the conditions of a southern glade, shortgrass prairie, alpine meadow or desert grassland.
**STATE NATURAL VEGETATION MAPS serve as references for native plantings. This maps are often based on original surveyor notes at the time of European settlement.
Granted, a lot of development and disturbance have followed. However, using a reference that suggests the kinds of plant associations that tolerate the weather patterns and geology of your project is just another ecological insight into chosing hardy plant materials. When designing with native plants, cold hardiness zones are meaningless. Natural region maps are commonly available from your State's Natural Heritage Program. They can also suggest preserves you can visit that serve as references for your planting. Let the natural environment give you some insights about what grows where and with what other species. Every State is different. Delaware has two natural regions, California has twenty-two, and Wisconsin has eleven, per the Kuchler description of native plant communities. New descriptions are being developed.
Sample seed mixes for a hypothetical Wisconsin right-of-way, an overlook, in West Central Wisconsin lies in what once was oak savanna with grassland understory. A small prairie remnant is near the site. The inventory list for the preserved prairie is available from the Natural Heritage Program. Three site-specific seed mixes will be needed: a. dry conditions on the sandy slope or forest edge to the right, b. mesic conditions around the overlook parking lot which is partially mowed, and c. wet conditions in the ditch between the slope and pavement edgeÉ..all zones in need of a grassy solution for safety and stabilization.
Basic to a successful seed mix is knowing the plant species (or accessing someone who does) and species' range of tolerances. One seed mix cannot possibly fit all occasions. Site-specific solutions are encouraged. In this case, for example, Canada Wild Rye would tolerate all three microclimates and serve as a cool-season or immediate cover crop. Little bluestem would survive the dry and the mesic sites but not the wet ditch. And so on. Without that kind of site-matching, our use of native species will be unsuccessful. Site-matching is key to successful establishment. Although the species list in each mix should be as diverse as possible, availability and cost can shorten the shopping list quickly. Aim for a minimum of 10-15 in the beginning.
Ultimately aim for Iowa model mixes of over 100 plant species! Here are sample mixes that should thrive on our pretend project. Although these species are relatively common and available, obtain them from growers close to the project when available.
a. Dry Seed Mix (slope)
side oats grama
b. Mesic Seed Mix (lot)
purple prairie clover
c. Wet Seed Mix (ditch)
New England aster
****Native Seeding Specification Tips:
1. Eradicate weeds from planting site before planting.
2. Consider a line item for contractor to control weeds and clean equipment.
3. Plant as much diversity as possible, unless an adjacent native seed source exists.
4. Match site microclimates with
distinct seed mixes as much as practical.
5. Most native species will establish more
easily, if you specify a locally-grown or collected source.
6. Order native seed when the contract is let to prevent unwanted substitutions.
7. Limit bids to experienced contractors and approved vendors for these projects.
8. Separate the planting contract from the general contract for best timing.
9. Extend the establishment period to three years and include patience.
10. Learn appropriate seed test criteria and seeding rates to avoid waste.
NOTE: The native wildflower mixes contain both native grasses and native flowers/forbs. They naturally grow together. Each mix has a variety of seasonal colors and textures to please the traveling public. The mixtures are all perennial and will return for repeat performances. While the cover crop performs erosion control, the other plants will slowly establish. Patience might be specified here. A minimum of three years is needed to approach the visual goal of the project.
Table of Contents | Previous | Next
This page last modified on August 4, 2004 | <urn:uuid:532720bc-34b6-4702-970b-619914ee6822> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/docs/plants/roadsides/page05.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914917 | 2,590 | 3.265625 | 3 |
Black Saturday seared itself into the history books and the memories of many on 7 February 2009. The grieving, the slow recovery and the debates continue. Over millions of years, the world’s tallest flowering plants, the great Mountain Ash eucalypts of the forests of Victoria, have evolved as “fire weeds,” ensuring their survival by spreadng their seeds in ash beds open to the light previously shadowed by their towering canopies. They die to survive. Their cycles are much longer than ours. But their special relationship to the inevitability of devastating fires within the “fire flume” of the Victorian bush offers a tough but essential lesson for local communities and policy makers at both state and federal levels, as historian Tom Griffiths tells Peter Clarke.
This discussion is based on Tom Griffith’s article about the Black Saturday bushfires for Inside Story, We have still not lived long enough.
Peter Clarke is a Melbourne based broadcaster, writer and educator. He pioneered national talkback on Australian radio as the inaugural presenter of Offspring (now Life Matters) on ABC Radio National. Podcast theme created by Ivan Clarke, Pang Productions. | <urn:uuid:b40bb58d-1294-4bcb-a327-f1f11fc638d8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://inside.org.au/black-saturday-prehistory/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956617 | 238 | 2.953125 | 3 |
I want to thank my box making students for a great week.
In Pestalozzi's school, in the early 1800s, a teacher showed his students a picture of a ladder as he was trying to get his students to learn the word. A student asked if wouldn't it be better to go out to the shed where there was a real ladder to examine. The teacher, impatient to proceed through the lesson, was bothered by the interruption. Later, when the teacher tried to teach the word window, the student insisted they should study the real window which could be examined without even leaving the room. Exasperated, the teacher asked Pestalozzi about the child's remarks. Pestalozzi said that the child was right. Whenever possible, lessons should be drawn from reality and the real world experiences offered rather than from pretense and artifice.
This week I told my students about my dog Tappy and her inexplicable powers of extrasensory discernment. As demonstrated by Tappy, the range of available data to be drawn from our actual physical surroundings is profound. These days we watch children and adults glued to their hand-held digital devices, walking through physical reality, missing most of what that reality offers in real world knowledge as they fail to attune their bodies, minds and emotions to the insights available to them.
An article in the Atlantic, Is Google Making Us Stupid describes a narrowing of our range of perception as we become more attentive to what is offered on the internet and less attentive to so many other things. As we walk along, transfixed by our devices, we fail to learn from our surroundings and begin to resemble the zombies that our current media-crazed generation of youth loves so very much.
I have had woodworkers complain to me that I should be sticking to the subject of woodworking in the blog. All this talk about education bores them. And yet, those of us who actually engage in making real things, those of us who attempt to make things of useful beauty, also know the power of our making to transform. While educators are concerned with test scores and other disruptive statistical nonsense, we know that schools can be fundamentally reawakened by looking beyond the statistics to those activities that bring the power of learning to our own real hands. Whether we like it, or know it, or accept it or not, we are called to duty by experience as the front line in a revolution.
"Many, perhaps most, people never get anMake, fix and create...
opportunity to do dovetailing, but every
human being, man or woman, may acquire
from it the habit of doing well whatever
he/she is called upon to do."—Otto Salomon | <urn:uuid:0d068031-9443-48b1-9a47-e45f092e1c28> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wisdomofhands.blogspot.com/2011/07/learning-from-real-world.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973197 | 557 | 2.25 | 2 |
RateBeer Weekly Magazine > Craft Beer Introduction
How Beer Is Brewed
A SIMPLE INTRODUCTION TO BEER AND BREWING
December 9, 2004
Brewing, or the process of some yeast converting vegetable sugars to alcohol, is as ancient as these organisms themselves. Typical beer histories explain beer brewing as being 10,000 or more years old and when you’re talking about humans fermenting barley in Mesopotamian, that’s correct, but in order to explain the process of beer brewing, it’s important to point out even more ancient origins.
Alcohol is created when a yeast, a microscopic single-cell organism, comes into contact with plant sugars. These plant sugars can come from fruit, like the sweet sugars of grapes make wine, or from grains, as with beer. Most plants produce complex carbohydrates in abundance and sugars are simply simple or broken down complex carbohydrates like starches. When the yeast comes into contact with the sugars, it consumes sugars as an energy source and produces alcohol and carbon dioxide as waste.
You might then imagine that a beer was created before humans arrived on the face of the earth. The only ingredients needed would be some plant sugars, some water, and some yeast. Picture an ancient volcano oozing lava down its slopes and into a reedy bog lined with barley. The resultant boil converts some of the barley starch to sugars and the liquid is then inoculated by airborne yeasts. Those little yeasts go to town on the sugars and a lucky ancient invertebrate gets a taste of ambrosia. Wham! You got beer.
Despite the great ingenuity of brewers, the basic beer brewing process has remained essentially the same for not just thousands or tens of thousands of years but perhaps for ten million years. It consists of four basic steps.
1) Grain Processing – The brewer employs various methods for turning grain into a fermentable product. Here are the basics.
Germination – The grain is steeped in water and soaked to encourage sprouting. Sprouting releases a special enzyme that catalyzes or helps the conversion of complex carbohydrates into simple, fermentable sugars.
Kilning - The grain is dried and roasted. This kills the sprout and provides the grain with roasted grain flavors and color. Lighter colored beers are more lightly roasted. Darker beers are more darkly roasted.
Milling – The grain is cracked and the sprouts removed. This crushing allows the grain to be better exposed to the boiling water. This helps convert more sugars and more efficiently kill bacteria in the grain.
Mashing – Sugars are created from complex carbohydrates or starches in the grain by simply applying heat. Chemical bonds break and the resulting pieces are smaller, simple carbohydrates – sugars that can be fermented by the yeast.
2) Boiling – Hops and flavorings are added to this grain sugar and water mixture called wort (pronounced wert). Boiling helps to kill all bacteria in order to eliminate competition for the brewer’s yeast and, as part of the mashing process, to break down complex carbohydrates into smaller, simple carbohydrates – sugars – that are fermentable.
3) Pitching – The wort is cooled to a temperature perfect for the particular brewers yeast to enjoy a competitive advantage against any stray bacteria for the wort’s sugars. The yeast is then pitched and immediately begins to quickly reproduce. Pitching a yeast is a relatively new step in brewing. Ancient beers used wild, airborne yeasts to inoculate their wort.
4) Fermentation – The yeast’s biological process consumes sugars and produces carbon dioxide (CO2) and ethyl alcohol (EtOH or ethanol). Some of this CO2 is allowed to escape and some is used to carbonate the beer so that it’s bubbly.
That’s it! Beer brewing is ancient and consists of these four basic steps. To learn more about brewing beer, the history of beer, or the science of beer, I encourage you to tour a local microbrewery or get started with home brewing. You can find more information on these topics here at RateBeer.
For information on home brewing:
For a regional directory of brew pubs:
Anyone can submit an article to RateBeer. Send your edited, HTML formatted article to our Editor-In-Chief.
Other Stories By joet
Distributors: Cobranded Shelf Tags
Apr 17, 2009
Changes To The RateBeer Formula
Mar 31, 2009
May 5, 2005
The 10-Minute Beer Expert
Apr 14, 2005
RateBeer Beer News
Apr 7, 2005
RateBeer Beer News
Mar 11, 2005
What Is Craft Beer?
Apr 15, 2004
Aug 6, 2003
How Popular Is RateBeer.com?
Jun 5, 2003 | <urn:uuid:450bd2b5-2ba6-4ba7-bdfd-1c4c25b542f5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ratebeer.com/Story.asp?StoryID=400 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.900091 | 992 | 3.140625 | 3 |
Alexi Laiho of Children of Bodom
Alexi Laiho and the rest of the band Children of Bodom may be hard partiers, but theyʼre also hard workers. Thatʼs how theyʼve stayed on top of their game for over 15 years. Letʼs take a look back through the years and see how Children of Bodom became one of metalʼs most extreme bands.
The Early Years
It was way back in 1993 when a then-14 year old guitar player from Espoo, Finland named Alexi Laiho put together a band with drummer Jaska Raatikainen and other childhood friends. Originally called IneartheD, the band was made up of a group of teenagers who shared a love for death metal. In 1996, another schoolmate, Henkka Seppälä, took over on bass duties in the band, joined soon thereafter on keyboards by a local young jazz virtuoso pianist named Janne Wirman.
Recording demos and playing live, IneartheD faced the same challenges all young bands face: breaking out of their local scene. They decided to record a full-length album in 1997, and with the addition of Wirmanʼs talents, the bandʼs sound became much more unique. Getting signed to Spinefarm Records, the band changed their name to Children of Bodom to avoid a contract dispute, and the album Something Wild got a country-wide release in Finland.
The Bandʼs Name
As is appropriate for a band with as heavy a sound as CoB, they chose a name with an equal level of heaviness. In 1960, there was an infamous multiple homicide at Lake Bodom, where a group of teenagers were brutally murdered. The event had such an impact in the otherwise peaceful area of Finland that the band found it to be a perfect complement to their sound.
The band began getting recognition in Finland for their powerful, technically-oriented sound on the first album, and they were approached by the Nuclear Blast label to release the album throughout Europe. They began their first full tour of Europe in 1998, and then began recording again. Their second album, Hatebreeder, came out in 1999 and ended up topping the charts on many European countries. Their newfound success allowed Children of Bodom to take on shows in Japan, where they recorded a live album (Tokyo Warhearts) as well.
In fall of 2000, the band went back into the studio for a month and created the album Follow the Reaper, which included the bandʼs first huge hit song, “Everytime I Die”. At this stage, Alexi was starting to get recognized by international guitar publications as being one of the fastest and technically-minded young guitar gods to hit the scene, as well as getting lauded for his composing abilities (having composed the entire albumʼs music and lyrics).
Hate Crew Deathroll
Never standing still for long, Children of Bodom started writing new songs in 2002, and quickly went back into the studio to record their fourth album, Hate Crew Deathroll. Released in January 2003, this album was a major breakthrough for CoB, staying on top of the Finnish charts for weeks and resulting in the first gold album for the band. They were voted Band of the Year at the Finnish Metal Music Awards, and began their first world tour which lasted much of the next two years. Children of Bodomʼs fans quickly adopted the name in an ironic way, and to this day are known as the COBHC (Children of Bodom Hate Crew).
Unfortunately, in the midst of the tour, their former rhythm guitarist quit for personal reasons. Alexi invited guitarist Roope Latvala to join (first temporarily, then on a permanent basis), and that has been the lineup of Children of Bodom ever since.
The following year, the band quickly made an EP called “Trashed, Lost & Strungout” (featuring a very amusing parody cover of Britney Spearsʼ “Oops!... I Did It Again”), and then got a little more serious for their next full-length release Are You Dead Yet in 2005. Using simpler but heavier guitar riffs, the album became the bandʼs most commercially successful release to date.
With all of their success at the point, itʼs not surprising that Alexi and Children of Bodom began to finally get the recognition for their hard work. In 2006, Alexi was voted “Worldʼs Best Guitarist” by Metalhammer Magazine, and later that year, CoB had a spot on the Unholy Alliance Tour, hitting the road along with Slayer, Lamb of God, and other top-tier metal bands. The following year, the band played the Monsters of Rock festival, along with Ozzy and Megadeth.
Somehow, in between these giant gigs and tours, Children of Bodom created yet another studio album, Blooddrunk, which was released in 2008. Their sixth album was another hit, and in October of that year, they did a headlining tour of the US, and then more touring... and more touring. In fact, it wasnʼt until a year and a half later, in October 2009, that they finished playing to support the Blooddrunk album. In between these times, Alexi Laiho achieved one of the highest honors for a guitar player, being named "Best Metal Guitarist" by the readers of Guitar World.
Even while they worked to support Blooddrunk, Children of Bodom had time to put out a cover album (Skeletons in the Closet) that included songs originally done by a surprising variety of artists including Creedence Clearwater Revival, Pat Benetar, Kenny Rogers, Iron Maiden, and yes, Britney Spears.
Late in 2009, the band started work on their latest album, and at the beginning of 2011, they released the first single (“Was It Worth It?”) from the new album Relentless Reckless Forever, which was released in March 2011 by Universal Music.
Alexi, Children of Bodom and ESP
Weʼre proud to say that Alexi Laiho, Roope Latvala, and Henkka T. Blacksmith are all part of the ESP family. All three players have had ESP/LTD Signature series models released, and an entire series of Alexi Laiho guitars have been developed over the last seven years.
There are five current Alexi Laiho Signature Series models available: the ESP ALEXI BLACKY, the ESP ALEXI-SCYTHE, the LTD ALEXI-600-BLACKY, the LTD ALEXI-600- SCYTHE, and the LTD ALEXI-200. This variety allows for players of all levels to get into the Alexi Laiho look and feel, regardless of their budget.
See the Tour!
CHildren of Bodom is on the road right now, and ESP is proud to be a sponsor of their 15th anniversary tour. See below for tour dates, and visit www.cobhc.com for tickets and the most updated Bodom tour info!
February 4 - Pop's (Sauget, IL)
February 6 - Granada Theatre (Lawrence, KS)
February 7 - Gothic Theatre (Englewood, CO)
February 9 - House of Blues (Las Vegas, NV)
February 10 - The Complex (Salt Lake City, UT)
February 11 - Knitting Factory (Boise, ID)
February 13 - Yost Theatre (Santa Ana, CA)
February 14 - House of Blues (San Diego, CA)
February 15 - Marquee Theatre (Phoenix, AZ)
February 17 - Sunshine Theatre (Albuquerque, NM)
February 18 - Tricky Falls (El Paso, TX)
February 19 - The Pavilion (Lubbock, TX)
February 21 - Emo's East (Austin, TX)
February 22 - Warehouse Live (Houston, TX)
February 24 - Expo Five (Louisville, KY)
February 25 - Peabody's (Cleveland, OH)
February 26 - Sound Academy (Toronto, ON)
February 27 - Metropolis (Montreal, QC)
February 29 - Imperial (Quebec City, QC)
March 1 - Webster Theatre (Hartford, CT)
March 2 - The Paramount Theater (Huntington, NY)
March 3 - Starland Ballroom (Sayerville, NJ)
March 4 - Ram's Head Live (Baltimore, MD) | <urn:uuid:8a8984d0-de99-4b03-b943-10242ce343e0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.espguitars.com/news/spotlight-alexi.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962061 | 1,803 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Freedom of speech means freedom from interference, suppression or punitive action by the government—and nothing else. It does not mean the right to demand the financial support or the material means to express your views at the expense of other men who may not wish to support you. Freedom of speech includes the freedom not to agree, not to listen and not to support one’s own antagonists. A “right” does not include the material implementation of that right by other men; it includes only the freedom to earn that implementation by one’s own effort. Private citizens cannot use physical force or coercion; they cannot censor or suppress anyone’s views or publications. Only the government can do so. And censorship is a concept that pertains only to governmental action.
While people are clamoring about “economic rights,” the concept of political rights is vanishing. It is forgotten that the right of free speech means the freedom to advocate one’s views and to bear the possible consequences, including disagreement with others, opposition, unpopularity and lack of support. The political function of “the right of free speech” is to protect dissenters and unpopular minorities from forcible suppression—not to guarantee them the support, advantages and rewards of a popularity they have not gained.
The Bill of Rights reads: “Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press . . . .” It does not demand that private citizens provide a microphone for the man who advocates their destruction, or a passkey for the burglar who seeks to rob them, or a knife for the murderer who wants to cut their throats.
The communists and the Nazis are merely two variants of the same evil notion: collectivism. But both should be free to speak—evil ideas are dangerous only by default of men advocating better ideas.
The difference between an exchange of ideas and an exchange of blows is self-evident. The line of demarcation between freedom of speech and freedom of action is established by the ban on the initiation of physical force.
In regard to the lawsuit to prevent a Nazi group from marching in Skokie, Illinois:
What I challenge (and not only because of that particular case) is the interpretation of demonstrations and of other actions as so-called “symbolic speech.” When you lose the distinction between action and speech, you lose, eventually, the freedom of both. The Skokie case is a good illustration of that principle. There is no such thing as “symbolic speech.” You do not have the right to parade through the public streets or to obstruct public thoroughfares. You have the right of assembly, yes, on your own property, and on the property of your adherents or your friends. But nobody has the “right” to clog the streets. The streets are only for passage. The hippies, in the 60s, should have been forbidden to lie down on city pavements. (They used to lie down across a street and cause dreadful traffic snarls, in order to display their views, to attract attention, to register a protest.) If they were permitted to do it, the Nazis should be permitted as well. Properly, both should have been forbidden. They may speak, yes. They may not take action at whim on public property.
I want to state, for the record, my own view of what is called “hard-core” pornography. I regard it as unspeakably disgusting. I have not read any of the books or seen any of the current movies belonging to that category, and I do not intend ever to read or see them. The descriptions provided in legal cases, as well as the “modern” touches in “soft-core” productions, are sufficient grounds on which to form an opinion. The reason of my opinion is the opposite of the usual one: I do not regard sex as evil—I regard it as good, as one of the most important aspects of human life, too important to be made the subject of public anatomical display. But the issue here is not one’s view of sex. The issue is freedom of speech and of the press—i.e., the right to hold any view and to express it.
It is not very inspiring to fight for the freedom of the purveyors of pornography or their customers. But in the transition to statism, every infringement of human rights has begun with the suppression of a given right’s least attractive practitioners. In this case, the disgusting nature of the offenders makes it a good test of one’s loyalty to a principle.
Only one aspect of sex is a legitimate field for legislation: the protection of minors and of unconsenting adults. Apart from criminal actions (such as rape), this aspect includes the need to protect people from being confronted with sights they regard as loathsome. (A corollary of the freedom to see and hear, is the freedom not to look or listen.) Legal restraints on certain types of public displays, such as posters or window displays, are proper—but this is an issue of procedure, of etiquette, not of morality . . .
The rights of those who seek pornography would not be infringed by rules protecting the rights of those who find pornography offensive—e.g., sexually explicit posters may properly be forbidden in public places; warning signs, such as “For Adults Only,” may properly be required of private places which are open to the public. This protects the unconsenting, and has nothing to do with censorship, i.e., with prohibiting thought or speech. | <urn:uuid:ab43a15e-f176-431f-b5e8-662eedf6c5fc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/free_speech.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951723 | 1,164 | 3.265625 | 3 |
As TIGCC is a complex team project, various parts of it have been made by different authors:
ld-tigcc Copyright (C) 2002-2006 Sebastian Reichelt and Kevin Kofler, licensed under the GPL
Library & Documentation Copyright (C) 2000-2006 Zeljko Juric and contributors, licensed under the GPL with libgcc exception
IDE Copyright (C) 2000-2006 Sebastian Reichelt and contributors, licensed under the GPL
Some parts of the TIGCC package (
are modified parts from the GNU Compiler Collection and GNU BinUtils packages.
These parts are free software; you can redistribute them
and/or modify them under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
Parameter passing by register Copyright (C) 1998-2003 Fred Fish from Geek Gadgets; converted to GCC 3.0 and higher by Kevin Kofler.
Thomas Nussbaumer holds the copyright for the TIGCC Tools Suite, from which the compression feature was taken. It is licensed under the LGPL.
a68k (also included in the package) is a freeware assembler by Charlie Gibbs (it
is a somewhat modified Amiga version).
If you use any routine from this library in your program, put this fact in the documentation of your program;
If you use a routine in your assembly program which usage wasn't known to you before reading this documentation, put this fact in the documentation of your program.
I simply want that this documentation to become known to as many C and assembly programmers
Note that this is Zeljko's original license for the library. Zeljko has since approved its release under the GPL with the libgcc exception (allowing you to freely link the code with both GPLed and non-GPLed programs without restrictions). Still, we would appreciate being credited for our work. | <urn:uuid:21433548-ff10-4af1-8e71-4808acd17c2b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tigcc.ticalc.org/doc/copyright.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908651 | 409 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Monday, August 16, 2010
This issue was queried by an engineering student when he lost a campus placement interview hello when he lacked continuing to the easy English skills trouble for the job.
My secret to him is this: “You learned to speak English in the incorrect way, just now covet thousands of others who suffer used a fortune recently so so properties can speak English without hesitation.”
I can explain. Just am sure of your beyond when you at which in the third grade. How did you discover to speak in English? You got considering ( if you had gone to a top school school) word puzzles, vocabulary tests, spelling tests, flash cards shooting word pictures and how not. Yes all of them may godsend you to soar your English.
But might properties grow your English talking skill. No. Why? Since all these types of supplies arrangement sole amid specific words. They don’t assistance you to compile such phrases to fashion meaningful sentences.
Our brain is naturally produced to are sure in terms of ‘word groups’, and not in terms of specific words. That is as of the occurence who our conventional conversation revolves all over groups of words. We obviously not suppose and speak making the most of particular words.
Then again, our memory is enforced by an company of one underlying thought to another. You are required to suffer was reading something like the a multitude of memory improvement techniques. They all revolve nearly one obvious idea, commit Times to memory by linking precise bits of hints together.
But in school, we discover English in an unnatural way. By concentrating on particular expressions our brain loose the energy to link all the sayings together. Even grammar lessons wont make it easier for us to find out spoken English as grammar plan are a great deal more applicable to written talk pretty subsequently speech. We not figure of capitalization of the mostly letter of a sentence fundamental when we speak in English.
So how is the affirmative system of learning to speak in English? The most ideal technique is to discover English by linking idioms too crop up up and making the most of them as a template for your speech.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Language is often a barrier in the global wok-force today, especially within huge Multinational Corporations that have well established branches all across the globe. English, more often than not, is the language used to bridge this huge cultural divide. Yet how many of us can communicate our ideas comfortably in English? We often struggle to express ourselves in English as compared to a native English speaker. We struggle through interviews and Group Discussions trying to secure that dream job only to be rejected because we could not express what we really wanted to say.
So what do we do? We Change.. | <urn:uuid:88a12b91-2176-46c5-bbd2-62bd7c383c32> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://change-language.blogspot.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964439 | 570 | 2.40625 | 2 |
The Internal Revenue Service issued a warning for a tax preparation fraud involving phony credits based on stimulus packages. Hucksters are apparently targeting the elderly and tricking them into taking tax credits geared toward college students.
South Florida Caribbean News reports the fraudsters are tricking people into claiming the American Opportunity Tax Credit, which is meant to help students defray costs of higher learning. Those pushing the scams are promising big tax returns for people who don’t qualify, then pocketing preparation fees and leaving victims to pick up the mess.
If you’re using a tax pro that you’ve never worked with before who produces mind-blowing results, be sure to talk through your return with him so you understand why you’re getting your refund. Also, make sure he signs your return so he’ll be on the hook if the IRS decides to investigate.
Tax Scam Warning: Beware of Phony Refund Schemes [South Florida Caribbean News]
Previously: IRS Warns Against Tax Scams | <urn:uuid:7ca694b1-77a0-405e-b585-6e2c90d42a2a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://consumerist.com/2012/03/05/watch-out-for-tax-scams-pushing-false-stimulus-credits/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935146 | 209 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Definition from Nolo’s Plain-English Law Dictionary
A shorthand reference to the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which declares African Americans to be citizens entitled to a series of rights previously reserved to white men. Among the rights conferred by Section 1981 are the right to sue or be sued in court, to give evidence in a lawsuit, to purchase property, and to make and enforce contracts, which courts have interpreted to prohibit racial discrimination in employment.
Definition provided by Nolo’s Plain-English Law Dictionary.
August 19, 2010, 5:24 pm | <urn:uuid:2fc8d2a9-44fc-458f-b6c1-ec828c2889e4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/section_1981 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926437 | 116 | 3.4375 | 3 |
Camp Wing/ Duxbury Stockade, Duxbury, Massachusetts
A safe and supportive community for boys and girls ages seven to seventh grade to develop healthy social behaviors and have fun. Through engaging fun daily activities such as instructional swim, sports, challenge course, climbing wall, technology classes, and exciting theme days, campers learn how to set and achieve goals, gain new skills and get to be active during the summer while developing healthy relationships with peers and adults. Staff members serve as mentors and run activities that appeal to campers of all interests. Additional activities include nature programs, boating, archery, art, drama, teambuilding games and various team and individual sports.
Camp Wing /Duxbury Stockade is located 35 miles south of Boston in Duxbury Massachusetts on 220 acres of woodlands and ponds. The unique facilities, including a reproduction colonial fort, provide ideal summer housing.
Camp Mitton, Brewster Massachusetts
Camp Mitton provides a small family-style environment teaching boys and girls ages 7 to 7th grade healthy ways to cope with stressful situations. Mitton is an intentionally smaller family-style camp which serves young people who will benefit from more individualized attention. The program serves youth ages 7 to 12 many of whom are in crisis due to homelessness or prolonged abuse or neglect. Through the patient coaching from highly trained staff, kids at Mitton learn to cope with their feelings of frustration in positive ways and learn to feel safe in building healthy relationships with those around them. Through water sports, outdoor pursuits, therapeutic creative arts, technology education and daily chances to reflect in cabin meetings, young people attending Mitton learn to communicate more effectively and develop a renewed sense of trust and the ability to see themselves as capable and empowered.
Mitton is located in Brewster Massachusetts on Cape Cod - approximately 85 miles south of Boston. Surrounded on two sides by water and covered with beautiful woodlands Mitton provides a beautiful environment for boating, swimming and exploring Cape Cod. | <urn:uuid:0eefc0a3-8ccf-4c3d-b6e8-ecb152834cf2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://crossroads4kids.org/index.cfm/page/Summer-Programs-Offerings/pid/10519 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957566 | 402 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Happiness needs no cause. It is your simple nature, you are intrinsically happy. No cause, no purpose, no goal is needed. Life is in itself enough. It needs nothing else to complete it. It is complete! It is entire! It is already what it has to be. So there is no purpose in existence and no goal in existence. Existence is a sheer dance.
It is your right to be happy and yet you create your own un-happiness by wanting things. Wanting is the source of per-petual restlessness. If you do not get the thing you wanted, you are disappointed. And if you get, you want more and more of it and become unhappy.
There is a problem with your concept of enjoyment. You need an object to enjoy, and then you depend on that object. You search for an object, and you work hard to obtain that object; then you are disappointed, because no object has the capacity to give you enjoyment. | <urn:uuid:c177f5db-5e56-4e0f-92ed-02363c04c691> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://quotes2enrich.tumblr.com/tagged/Happiness | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967106 | 201 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Dancer Trisha MacCubbin of Whitehall is American-born, of Irish and German descent. Instead of taking up step-dancing or the polka, however, MacCubbin was called to a different cultural tradition, rooted in the Middle East.
Since she fell in love with Middle Eastern music in a mid-1970s adult education class, MacCubbin has used the veils, tapestry vests, pantaloons, and a mastery of the rich, exotic movement of Danse Orientale to create her dance persona, Tahya (pronounced Ta-HAY-a).
Tahya may be a familiar name to patrons of The Beirut (the Allentown restaurant where Tahya danced for 10 years), as well as The Elias Sweet Spoon and The Aladdin, also in Allentown. She has been an active performer and our most visible local advocate for Middle Eastern folk arts since she moved here in 1983.
The group she founded in 1984, Troupe Bannat Tahya, will perform at 3 p.m. today at Broughal Middle School in Bethlehem with accompaniment by Avram Pengas and the Noga Group of New York City. They will present a variety of ethnic dances, including a Moroccan folk dance and a Persian Court dance.
Until now, media coverage of her work has been light, because her largest venues have been at Mayfair in Allentown and Musikfest in Bethlehem, where Tahya's coverage has been eclipsed by previews of larger acts. Outnumbered 600 to one by the musical acts surrounding her, Tahya has performed to loyal audiences at Musikfest for 12 of its 13 years.
"Performing at the universities is always a highlight, but it has been very exciting and satisfying to perform at Musikfest," MacCubbin said. "When they moved the Volksplatz site from the sunken plaza in front of the bandstand and created that big tent with 800 seats, it was really exciting to see that I had such a following that the tent was filled. And they have come back, year after year."
Of equal importance in Tahya's career has been her work as an advocate for the rich cultural heritage intrinsic to Danse Orientale, an art form a notch above the entertainment that people refer to as "belly dancing." So it's not surprising when she refers to another career highlight as a time when a woman came up to her and asked her to do a special performance for her husband's retirement. "The woman said to me, `It's really considered an art form, isn't it?` " MacCubbin remembers. `And I just thought, I can't believe it. I am finally getting the message out there. That made me really feel good."
MacCubbin also treasures the opportunity she received through Musikfest a few years ago to perform with world music composer/performer David Amram. "I felt like Cinderella at the ball. Then the clock struck midnight and it all disappeared," MacCubbin said. "It was magical."
It was through her association with Amram that she met Pengas, whose Noga Group will perform at the Lehigh University Cultural Affairs-sponsored program today. Pengas is known for his "quicksilver fingers" on the bouzouki and guitar. The Noga Group, which also includes Nick Mandoukos on oud, Elias Sarkar on violin, and Edmund Joseph and Seido Salifoski on dumbek, will perform popular Israeli hits, Arabic melodies, Persian and Turkish rhythms, Armenian dances and traditional Yiddish songs. Joining the concert are special guest dancers Omar (of Bucks County) featured dancer Aszmara (of New York City).
Troupe Bannat Tahya, with special guests, Omar, Aszmara, and Avram Pengas and the Noga Group, will perform at 3 p.m. today at Broughal Middle School, Brodhead and Packer avenues, Bethlehem. General admission is $10, students and seniors $8 and Lehigh University students $6. 758-4739. | <urn:uuid:7e2f31ed-08c4-43ff-80de-620ec842fbdb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.mcall.com/1996-10-20/entertainment/3122798_1_special-performance-belly-dancing-musikfest | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97219 | 851 | 1.546875 | 2 |
ALIN announced as co-winners of the UNESCO-IPDC Prize for Rural Communication
A woman reading a Baobab magazine outside the Kyuso Maarifa center in Kyuso, Kenya on May 27, 2011. Photo: Gates Foundation
The Kenyan Arid Lands Information Network and the Nepal Forum of Environmental Journalists have both been awarded this prize in recognition of their innovative and commendable efforts in developing rural communication.
The UNESCO-IPDC Prize for Rural Communication was established in 1985 to reward pioneering activities which contribute to improving communication in rural communities, in particular in developing countries.
The award ceremony is taking place on 22 March 2012 at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris during the 28th session of the IPDC Council.
The two laureates will share a prize of 20,000 US Dollars for their worthy contributions to rural communication. James Nguo Impwi, Regional Director of ALIN and Raghu Mainali, director of NEFEJ, will attend the ceremony to receive the prize.
The ALIN is an NGO with a mission to improve the livelihoods of arid lands communities in East Africa by promoting and facilitating access to information and knowledge exchange between communities in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.
This is achieved through community-based Maarifa centres (knowledge community centres) via a range of channels that include: Web portals, mobile phone platforms, workshops, exchange visits and regular publications. ALIN’s activities focus on small-scale sustainable agriculture, climate change adaptation, natural resource management and other community livelihood issues.
The Nepal Forum of Environmental Journalists (NEFEJ) is an NGO established in 1986 in order to promote environmental journalism in Nepal. The organisations overarching goal as stated by Raghu Mainali, director of NEFEJ is “To create a vibrant and sustainable community media sector in Nepal." Throughout its 25-year long journey, NEFEJ has been actively engaged in raising public awareness of sustainable development through the use of various forms of media, in particular community radio. In 1997 NEFEJ created the first community radio in Nepal, Radio Sagarmatha, marking a breakthrough in NEFEJ's struggle to promote community radio in the country. Its efforts included providing assistance to other community radio stations which were later established in the country. With this aim, it launched the Community Radio Support Centre (CRSC).
- Video: An introduction to the Maarifa centres
- Article: The many possibilities of ICTs in African agriculture [Farming Matters | March 2011]
Text: Ellen Naughton | <urn:uuid:b542039f-0b8d-4119-83af-3b886c2d5d2c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.agriculturesnetwork.org/news/alin-unesco-ipdc-prize-winner | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942183 | 519 | 2.078125 | 2 |
About once a month, we get an email from a researcher, journalist, policymaker, or student asking us a simple question: how many musicians are there in the United States? Given FMC’s work with musicians, it makes sense that they ask us, but our answer is the same for everyone:
there is no reliable way to measure the real size of the US musician population.
In a on the Artist Revenue Streams site, we outlined the particular challanges associated with estimating the size of the musician population in the United States.
First, what do we mean when we use the word “musician”? Are we just talking about performers and recording artists, or does the definition also include composers and songwriters? How about music teachers? Many musicians play multiple roles simultaneously (songwriter + recording artist + performer), but there are also creators who specialize in one role (composers who do not perform, or performers who do not compose, for example) so the parameters are important.
Second, there’s an issue with how music creators define themselves. While lumping performers and composers together into a category called “musicians” is convenient for referencing this creative class, it is sometimes inaccurate. For instance, many composers and songwriters don’t identify as musicians, but as writers. Some professional singers consider themselves performers or recording artists, but not musicians.
Third, how do we decide who is actually part of this population? In 2010, when we started to draft the research protocol for the Artist Revenue Streams project, we spent a lot of time thinking about how to define the population of study, a necessary step in any research project. For many populations, there are commonly-understood criteria, or demographic characteristics, or certifications that make this sorting process relatively easy. But unlike – say – doctors or lawyers, there are no formal exams for musicians to pass, nor accrediting organizations to join.
Fourth, how do we define a “professional” musician? There are hundreds of thousands of people in this country who enjoy writing songs, playing music, releasing recordings or uploading a self-made video once in a while. Many may consider themselves musicians or composers. But when doing research on the earning capacity of the musician population, it’s important to devise a way to identify those who are making a living from music. The question for us was, what should determine “professionalism”? Should it be based on workweek hours, career lifespan, music degrees, a minimum number of recording or composing credits, education, income from music, label affiliation, union membership, or a combination of these things?
The post on the Artist Revenue streams website details the challenges, the process by which we assessed the data sources on musician population, and the method we eventually adopted to define our population of study.
This post is one of many outcomes of the Artist Revenue Streams project, which provides a data-driven snapshot of the income streams on which musicians and composers are relying presently, and how they are changing over time. It has been added to a list of data memos that have been released since January 2012, which also includes a deep look at jazz musicians, how income from sound recordings has changed, whether radio airplay matters, the impact of conservatory and music industry training, the effect of teammates and time allocation, with more to come. We encourage you to dig deeper into these reports to get a better understanding of musicians’ earning capacity and their sources of income in the 21st century.
(image via Shutterstock) | <urn:uuid:537862c5-68b5-4059-a0fc-3138f931a060> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://futureofmusic.org/blog/2012/06/20/how-many-musicians-are-there | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956845 | 735 | 2.953125 | 3 |
- Prayer and Worship
- Beliefs and Teachings
- Issues and Action
- Catholic Giving
- About USCCB
Birth and Adoption of Moses. 1Now a man* of the house of Levi married a Levite woman,a 2and the woman conceived and bore a son. Seeing what a fine child he was, she hid him for three months.b 3But when she could no longer hide him, she took a papyrus basket,* daubed it with bitumen and pitch, and putting the child in it, placed it among the reeds on the bank of the Nile. 4His sister stationed herself at a distance to find out what would happen to him.
5Then Pharaoh’s daughter came down to bathe at the Nile, while her attendants walked along the bank of the Nile. Noticing the basket among the reeds, she sent her handmaid to fetch it. 6On opening it, she looked, and there was a baby boy crying! She was moved with pity for him and said, “It is one of the Hebrews’ children.” 7Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and summon a Hebrew woman to nurse the child for you?” 8Pharaoh’s daughter answered her, “Go.” So the young woman went and called the child’s own mother. 9Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse him for me, and I will pay your wages.”* So the woman took the child and nursed him. 10When the child grew,* she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son.c She named him Moses; for she said, “I drew him out of the water.”
Moses’ Flight to Midian. 11d On one occasion, after Moses had grown up,* when he had gone out to his kinsmen and witnessed their forced labor, he saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his own kinsmen. 12Looking about and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13The next day he went out again, and now two Hebrews were fighting! So he asked the culprit, “Why are you striking your companion?” 14But he replied, “Who has appointed you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses became afraid and thought, “The affair must certainly be known.” 15When Pharaoh heard of the affair, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to the land of Midian.* e There he sat down by a well.
16Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock. 17But shepherds came and drove them away. So Moses rose up in their defense and watered their flock. 18When they returned to their father Reuel,* he said to them, “How is it you have returned so soon today?” 19They answered, “An Egyptian* delivered us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock!” 20“Where is he?” he asked his daughters. “Why did you leave the man there? Invite him to have something to eat.” 21Moses agreed to stay with him, and the man gave Moses his daughter Zipporah in marriage. 22She conceived and bore a son, whom he named Gershom;* for he said, “I am a stranger residing in a foreign land.”f
The Burning Bush. 23A long time passed, during which the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned under their bondage and cried out, and from their bondage their cry for help went up to God.g 24God heard their moaning and God was mindful of his covenanth with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. 25God saw the Israelites, and God knew….*
* [2:3] Basket: the same Hebrew word is used in Gn 6:14 and throughout the flood narrative for Noah’s ark, but nowhere else in the Bible. Here, however, the “ark” or “chest” was made of papyrus stalks. Presumably the allusion to Genesis is intentional. Just as Noah and his family were preserved safe from the threatening waters of the flood in the ark he built, so now Moses is preserved from the threatening waters of the Nile in the ark prepared by his mother. Among the reeds: the Hebrew noun for “reed” is overwhelmingly used in the phrase “Reed Sea,” traditionally translated “Red Sea.”
* [2:9] And I will pay your wages: the idea that the child’s mother will be paid for nursing her child—and by Pharaoh’s own daughter—heightens the narrative’s irony.
* [2:10] When the child grew: while v. 9 implies that the boy’s mother cared for him as long as he needed to be nursed (presumably, between two and four years), the same verb appears in v. 11 to describe the attainment of adulthood. And he became her son: Pharaoh’s daughter adopts Moses, thus adding to the irony of the account. The king of Egypt had ordered the killing of all the sons of the Hebrews, and one now becomes the son of his own daughter! Moses: in Hebrew, mosheh. There is a play on words here: Hebrew mosheh echoes meshithihu (“I drew him out”). However, the name Moses actually has nothing to do with that Hebrew verb, but is probably derived from Egyptian “beloved” or “has been born,” preserved in such Pharaonic names as Thutmoses (meaning approximately “Beloved of the god Thoth” or “The god Thoth is born, has given birth to [the child]”). The original meaning of Moses’ name was no longer remembered (if it was Egyptian, it may have contained an Egyptian divine element as well, perhaps the name of the Nile god Hapi), and a secondary explanation was derived from this story (or gave rise to it, if the drawing from the water of the Nile was intended to foreshadow the Israelites’ escape from Egypt through the Red Sea).
* [2:11] After Moses had grown up: cf. 7:7, where Moses is said to be eighty years old at the time of his mission to Pharaoh. Striking: probably in the sense of “flogging”; in v. 12, however, the same verb is used in the sense of “killing.”
* [2:15] Land of Midian: the territory under the control of a confederation made up, according to Nm 31:8, of five Midianite tribes. According to Gn 25:1–2, Midian was a son of Abraham by Keturah. In view of the extreme hostility in later periods between Israel and Midian (cf. Nm 31; Jgs 6–8), the relationship is striking, as is the account here in Exodus of good relations between Moses and no less than a Midianite priest.
* [2:19] An Egyptian: Moses was probably wearing Egyptian dress, or spoke Egyptian to Reuel’s daughters.
* [2:22] Gershom: the name is explained unscientifically as if it came from the Hebrew word ger, “sojourner, resident alien,” and the Hebrew word sham, “there.” Stranger residing: Hebrew ger, one who seeks and finds shelter and a home away from his or her own people or land.
* [2:25] God knew: in response to the people’s cry, God, mindful of the covenant, looks on their plight and acknowledges firsthand the depth of their suffering (see 3:7). In vv. 23–25, traditionally attributed to the Priestly writer, God is mentioned five times, in contrast to the rest of chaps. 1–2, where God is rarely mentioned. These verses serve as a fitting transition to Moses’ call in chap. 3.
By accepting this message, you will be leaving the website of the
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. This link is provided
solely for the user's convenience. By providing this link, the United
States Conference of Catholic Bishops assumes no responsibility for,
nor does it necessarily endorse, the website, its content, or | <urn:uuid:04f75109-ba54-4fce-add7-3c28b0b59754> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://usccb.org/bible/scripture.cfm?bcv=02002015 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979849 | 1,840 | 3.484375 | 3 |
More people trust websites for health care information and advice, according to a study by Makovsky Health
On the website Vitals.com, people can read and write reviews about 870,000 doctors and thousands of insurance plans. They can also submit symptoms and then search for the type of doctor who can treat them. Visitors get feedback from others who have had surgeries and other procedures to compare rest times and side effects. The site started almost five years ago and has more than 11 million visitors a month.
“There are certain places in life where you have to go from a novice to an expert really fast, and the world of medicine is like that. There are not many tour guides,” says Mitch Rothschild, CEO of Vitals.com. He says more people are getting suggestions about doctors, procedures and the costs of insurance online, adding to the “Yelpification” of the health-care industry. “You can go online and know if a restaurant is good or if a hotel is good. But why not a doctor?”
More people are using websites like Vitals.com to help them with health-care decisions. The buzzword for this emerging online business is called telehealth or telemedicine. The industry includes web services that provide reviews and pricing information as well as connect patients with doctors. It also assists larger, established health-care providers communicate with their patients digitally. For example, a service called RelayHealth allows patients to directly email their doctors with questions, request appointments or get prescription refills.
For consumers, having healthcare information at their fingertips is often more convenient and engaging than waiting to hear from a doctor. According to a 2012 study by the New York-based consulting firm Makovsky Health and Kelton, 90 percent of adults use personal computers to research health information online. Most point to WebMD and Wikipedia as trusted sources for medical information. “Whether they want guidance for an informed conversation with their doctor or the support of a larger community coping with the same illness, consumers seek trusted sources for health information,” said Gil Bashe, executive vice president of Makovsky Health.
A growing number of Illinois residents who go without or can't afford health insurance use telehealth to bargain shop. In July, Illinois implemented Medicaid changes that increased copayments, limited prescriptions and payments to pharmacies while decreasing services such as preventative dental screenings for adults.
In September, the unemployment rate in Illinois swelled to 8.8 percent, a percentage point higher than the national rate, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nearly 17 percent of Illinois’s workforce is classified as underemployed--people who have low-paying hourly jobs with no insurance or have stopped looking for work. For these people, comparing prices for out-of-pocket health-care services online is often a necessity.
Touré McCluskey is the founder of OkCopay.com, a website that prices medical services in Chicago and Milwaukee. He says the site attracts 25 to 35-year olds who are unemployed, have jobs that have gaps in insurance or have no insurance at all. “In downtown Chicago someone could go to a hospital that will charge them $2,300 for a MRI or could walk down the street and pay $350 for the same test,” said McCluskey. He worked in pricing, strategy and marketing at Eli Lilly Co. before launching OkCopay last year.
Consumers also can search through cosmetic and dental surgeons, dermatologists and urgent care centers using search tools on McCluskey’s site and compare prices on services based on ZIP codes. He plans to expand OkCopay.com throughout the Midwest. “Twenty years ago consumer products in health care weren’t needed. But now there is a lot more information for people to sift through,” said McCluskey. “The consumer empowerment trend is a lot more prevalent in health care because the financial risks to the consumer are greater.”
Telehealth is not without its drawbacks. There’s a lack of common standards and concerns about security, privacy and medical liability. Government agencies, which account for 60 percent of health care spending, also have been slow to reimburse patients for many telehealth services. For example, Medicaid and Medicare will only cover technologies and procedures that are “reasonable and necessary,” and usually require face-to-face doctor appointments.
“Payment has always been a struggle when it comes to telemedicine,” says Ben Forstag, spokesman for the American Telemedicine Association in Washington D.C., which has 5,000 members. He says many elderly patients or those who live farther from specialists often use the web to meet with doctors via Skype or other online videoconferencing services. “Medicare is often reluctant, but other government organizations are being more open. Private insurers see the advantages of expanding to include telemedicine because it broadens their customer base,” Forstag said.
A 2009 study by the U.S. Department of Commerce noted that if the telehealth industry could overcome these barriers, it could balloon to $1.8 billion by 2013, growing 56 percent per year after that. “Telemedicine used to be a lot of smaller companies but much of the growth is due to international players like Siemens and Bayer and that makes it a win-win for providers and customers,” says Forstag. For example, health-care giant Bayer offers videoconferencing to doctors that can monitor vital signs, scheduling and other at-home care for patients.
Jason Gorevic, CEO of Teladoc.com, says that telehealth websites are a solution for a shortage of primary care physicians across the U.S. “There are downstream effects of a massive primary care physician shortage and our website gives people high-speed access and alleviate cost pressures,” he said.
For $38, people can log on to Teledoc.com at anytime and make an appointment with a doctor in their state who will contact them within the half hour. Consultations take place via video conferencing or phone for non-emergency medical issues including colds and flu, allergies, pink eye and ear infections. If needed, doctors can prescribe medicines. Gorevic sees the website as a cyber urgent care center. “A younger patient may be more apt to use our video conference features, but older patients still suffer from a lot of these relatively minor conditions where people end up going to the emergency room,” he said.
Teledoc.com started in 2002 and now has 4 million members nationwide. Many of the doctors are licensed in multiple states and Gorevic says the website follows hospital-required security and privacy laws. The website has doctors with more than 500 licenses. He says the majority of his members are businesses from small operations to Fortune 50 companies that offer the service as a complement to traditional insurance.
“The telehealth industry breaks down time of day and geographical barriers,” he said. | <urn:uuid:340d249b-bfa1-4315-b996-1e2cd0ba91a7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=209633 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961057 | 1,456 | 2.4375 | 2 |
The request could not be completed due to a conflict with the current state of the resource. This code is only allowed in situations where it is expected that the user might be able to resolve the conflict and resubmit the request. The response body SHOULD include enough information for the user to recognize the source of the conflict. Ideally, the response entity would include enough information for the user or user agent to fix the problem; however, that may not be possible and is not required.
Conflicts are most likely to occur in response to a PUT request. If versioning is being used and the entity being PUT includes changes to a resource which conflict with those made by an earlier (third-party) request, the server MAY use the 409 response to indicate that it can't complete the request. In this case, the response entity SHOULD contain a list of the differences between the two versions in a format defined by the response Content-Type. | <urn:uuid:8b29a169-7056-4530-9faf-dba33fc9907d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.freesoft.org/CIE/RFC/2068/99.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962004 | 190 | 2 | 2 |
When asked a simple yes or no question — “Do you believe in evolution?” — then presidential-hopeful Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz) responded with anything but his famed “straight talk”: “I believe in evolution,” he said, “But I also believe, when I hike the Grand Canyon and see it at sunset, that the hand of God is there also.”
The resulting skepticism was certainly understandable. The term “hand of God” evokes the imagery of intelligent design, the notion that biological systems are “irreducibly complex” and are thus necessarily the product of an active creator. McCain, critics charged, was likely pandering to Evangelicals who would otherwise disown him for praising evolution.
However, what if McCain actually was attempting to say something meaningful? What, then, can we learn from his seeming contradiction?
This critique reflects the notion that belief in some idea implies a belief in its exclusive explanatory power. Thus, if McCain actually “believes” evolution to be true, these critics wondered, how then could he also “believe” the hand of God is present in nature? How can one affirm the “truth” of divergent representations of reality?
The same view was expressed by a fellow columnist responding to a previous column of mine. Indeed, to demonstrate that evolution is our most “rational,” and, by implication, our most truthful theory, he noted its applicability to “economics, warfare and many arenas well beyond biology.”
Furthermore, given that “we hold ourselves to the standards of rationalism,” “religious freaks,” who use “neither logic nor experiment,” can contribute nothing to our search for the nature of things. Experimental science — specifically evolution — is sufficient.
This approach to “truth” was critiqued in the 19th century by the theoretical physicist Ludwig Boltzmann. Referring to the then-popular belief that mechanical theory perfectly explained all phenomena, and was therefore “true,” he stated, “Our ideas of things are never identical with the nature of things” and that “ideas are only pictures ... that represent one-sidedly ... and can do no more than imitate certain modes of connection ... without touching in the least their essential character.”
Accordingly, no one view is exclusively “true”: indeed, Boltzmann argues that “alongside this one picture (mechanics) there must be others” in order to fully represent reality. Religion and philosophy, indicates Boltzmann, are two such necessary “pictures,” as they, unlike mechanics, “represent the inward and ethical side of the matter.” These disciplines are thus a necessary complement to science, just as science, with its particular, detailed, models of the world, is a necessary complement to religion and philosophy.
This notion is certainly present in contemporary discourse. Indeed, we often note that though scientists can clone animals, genetically modify organisms and develop weapons of mass destruction, they cannot tell us their significance. Such, we claim, is a task better fit for philosophers and religious authorities.
With that said, however, Boltzmann’s approach to truth seriously imperils our ability to affirm “belief” in scientific theories. How can we “believe” in something that incompletely explains the nature of things?
Perhaps, then, we should return to Senator McCain. Indeed, Boltzmann would appreciate McCain’s conception of “belief,” that to “believe” in some idea is not to view it as an ultimate explanation, but rather to derive from it some meaning. Such explains why he could affirm “belief” in these seemingly contradictory ideas. Though physics can explain the intricate processes that cause the sun to set, only “God’s hand in nature” can appropriately describe his instinctive reaction to such.
We tend to resist commitment to just one form of expression. To cover the gamut of human experience, we require more expansive forms of articulation. Such, I believe, is the power of our language that allows us to express a wide range of responses to our experience of the world.
Take love, for instance. Do we experience it as a scientific “mammalian drive” that promotes reproduction? Or as a spiritual process through which “soul-mates” are joined? Likewise, how do we experience gravity? As -9.8 m/s2? Or as an invisible pull towards the ground?
It would be difficult to claim that any one of these definitions is more “truthful” than the other. Indeed, do they not all strongly resonate? Why, then, must we affirm “belief” in only one?
When we speak, we articulate only a one-sided picture of the world. Perhaps, then, our task is to recognize why others are drawn to those models we disfavor. In doing so, will we not only recognize their value, but also better understand what compels us to identify with certain images. In this way, even “religious freaks” will enrich our collective discourse.
Judah Bellin is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. He may be reached at
email@example.com. For Whom the Bellin Tolls appears alternate Mondays this semester. | <urn:uuid:4b84485a-3729-4921-9a25-2b820f05a7b6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cornellsun.com/section/opinion/content/2009/10/19/exploring-truth%E2%80%99s-ragged-edges | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954054 | 1,156 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Continental Ballroom 6, Ballroom LevelWEDNESDAY AFTERNOON, NOVEMBER 20
4:15 EUGENE N ANDERSON (UC-Riverside) How Cultures Get Moral
4:30 JOHN B. GATEWOOD (Lehigh U) Ignorance, Knowledge and Dummy Categories: Social and Cognitive Aspects of Expertise [Read paper]
4:45 DWIGHT W READ (UCLA) Cultural Phenomena as Seen Through the Lens of Kinship
5:00 ROY G D'ANDRADE (UC-San Diego) Externalization, Institutionalization and Internalization
5:15 DAVID B KRONENFELD (UC-Riverside) The Social Construction of Ethnicity: Intuition, Authenticity, Authenticators
5:30 MICHAEL D FISCHER (U Kent-Canterbury) Thinking with Others: "Modern" Traditions in Pakistan and the Cook Islands
6:15 JEFFREY C JOHNSON (East Carolina U), JAMES S BOSTER (UC-Irvine) and DAVID GRIFFITH (East Carolina U) Intracultural Variation and Network Position: The Place of Meat in Everyday Life
6:30 WILLIAM H MCKELLIN (U British Columbia) Making the Connections: Metaphorical and Analogical Processing in Managalase Political Allegories
6:45 HALVARD VIKE (Sisial Antropologisk Institut) Reification and Social Reality in Modern Governments
7:00 JAMES S BOSTER (UC-Irvine) and JEFFREY C JOHNSON (East Carolina U) The Social Distribution of Social Knowledge
7:15 BRIAN L HAZLEHURST (UC-San Diego) Dots, Sprinkles and Flecks: Sonar Talk and the Distributed Cognition Model of Mind
7:45 End of Session
Anthropologists have begun to use this perspective to reexamine both the nature and the function or usefulness of culture. We now know that culture is not a rigid set of rules or behavioral patterns, but is instead some sort of set of shared expectations and understandings concerning what goes with what, what leads to what, what occasions what, and so forth which we make use of in communicating with one another, in anticipating each other's actions and reactions, in manipulating, helping, cooperating with, and competing with one another, and so forth. This new view of culture leads us to consider the evolutionary payoff for creatures with such capabilities, and the ongoing usefulness or function of these capabilities. This functional approach to culture leads to biological questions concerning the particular nature of human sociability--the particular sense in which humans can be seen as social animals--and concerning the innate predilections and capabilities which enable such cultural flexibility and organization.
This joining of a Cognitive Sciences based concern with distributed
knowledge and computation to the old anthropological concern with
collective representations and emergent properties foregrounds, in
turn, the issue of the production of cultural and linguistic knowledge.
Culture is a complex that is constantly changing and evolving in
response to changes in the social and material environment. The various
systems, including language, that make up the complex are changed
collectively by users as they are used without benefit of a metalanguage
in which the changes can be coded or of a master designer who can
initiate, shape, and communicate them. At issue is not only the creation
of specific knowledge but the creation and gradual changing of the
linguistic and cultural systems (or 'codes') in which such knowledge
is held, organized, and expressed. This question of the structuring
and changing of these collectively held systems is important because--unlike
the case with computer languages or other codes that humans have self-consciously
created--there exists no metalanguage in (or by) which these systems
are defined, evaluated, and changed. Messages in the language are,
at the same time, messages about the language--and something about
the combination of the nature of the mental apparatus (and/or predispositions)
that we bring to their use and the conditions of our learning of them
separates out the two kinds of effects. Important biological issues
are posed by the evolution of the capacity to create and use such
collective and distributed systems of knowledge.
Nearly 40 years ago, at a symposium in the 56th Annual Meeting of the AAA entitled The Evolution of Man's Capacity for Culture, Spuhler listed 7 preconditions for culture: 1) accommodative vision, 2) bipedal locomotion, 3) manipulation, 4) carnivorous-omnivorous diet, 5) cortical control of sexual behavior, 6) vocal communication, and 7) expansion of the association areas in the cerebral cortex. Today's view of culture as a set of shared expectations about how to behave, rather than Tylor's catalog of "knowledge, belief, art ..." (= the things humans do), suggests a reconsideration--and revision--of Spuhler's preconditions.
Two areas of modern evolutionary research seem central to understanding the evolution of this capacity and will be explored in this paper. 1) According to the social intelligence model, human consciousness evolved to predict other's actions. Intelligence is thus intimately tied to social life. As a precursor to a system of shared expectations and knowledge, this evolutionary scenario has obvious relevance. 2) The evolution of human foraging also predisposed humans to a particular form of distributed cognition. Bipedalism and tool use were components of this system but the key factor was the shift to patchy, high-energy food items (not just "carnivory" but including high quality plant material such as seeds and nuts as well). Social foraging for such clumped valuable resources selected for information exchange among foragers leading to a particularly human form of sociality and culture.
Anthropologists have long concerned themselves with morals, ethics, or "values," but surprisingly little has come of this research. Leaving aside inadequacies of research methodology, there are two conceptual problems with much of the older literature: much of it either assumes that cultural values and moral rules are rigidly unchanging, or assumes that "society" selects morals that shore up the social order. Both propositions have been devastatingly critiqued in recent years, by appeal to the real-world prevalence of individual rational choice and by appeal to the notorious plurality of opinions about moral issues within even the smallest communities. Data from Hong Kong and from southeast Mexico are herein adduced to show that morals are socially negotiated, are under continuous negotiation, and appear to be stable insofar as the parameters of negotiation remain stable.
Compared to other species, human beings have large brains, enabling each of us to learn and retain a great deal of information during our life spans. Private neurological storage, however, has upper limits. Eventually, brain size limitations on cultural development were overcome by a group strategy built on the principle of reciprocal ignorance, i.e., a division of labor entailing non-redundant distribution of cultural knowledge among individuals. Maintenance of the group's social heritage ceased being a matter of replicating uniformity and rested instead on organizing diversity, superficially similar to the group life of the social insects.
Today, any given individual learns only a portion of his or her group's heritage, and for most domains, individuals range along a novice-to-expert gradient. Partial knowledge, along with the ability to access what others know, is sufficient for most purposes for most people.
This paper discusses the role of linguistic categories in bridging very asymmetric knowledge boundaries in frequently occurring social contexts. Particular attention is given to the kinds of knowledge (knowing of, knowing about, and knowing how) that distinguish Nacerima experts from novices in the domain of mixed alcoholic drinks.
Culture remains a concept whose phenomenal nature is unclearly specified. Hence there remains uncertainty regarding the nature and form that theories about culture should take. In Tylor's classic definition culture is ideational; Keesing ties culture to a learning process linked to external referents; Kroeber and Kluckhohn see culture as "behind" behavior and hence not directly observable, while White argues for the abstraction's structural/systemic nature. All of these scholars take as given the location of culture in the minds of individuals, yet none consider the implications imposed by this fact.
How can culture be individually situated and yet have the commonality of expression that transcends individual situation? What are the processes involved in transmission, expression and interpersonal communication that enable or produce change or variation and yet, simultaneously, maintain stability and common understanding? Kinship--as one of the few domains sufficiently well specified to permit detailed analysis ranging from the abstract to the concretely particularistic--offers a suitable culture form for exploring these issues. At one extreme kinship terminologies are constituted of abstract, conceptual structures that culturally specify the kinship universe. At the other extreme of on-going interpersonal relations, the meaning of kin terms as they are translated into practice undergo re-interpretation, challenge and redefinition in accordance with re-conceptualizations that are made about who are the constituents of kinship categories. Examples are drawn from re-conceptualizations currently taking place in the US regarding the nature of the family and the role of biological linkage in determining parenthood.
Most social scientists expect culture, society, and personality to refer to different things. But the world does not divide neatly into these three things. Many things are said to be both culture and personality, and many things are said to be both culture and society. Values are even said to be all three. This paper will reconsider this ancient issue. Basically, the idea is that there are three distinct processes which produce the stuff that we call culture, society, and personality.
According to this theory, culture is formed by the externalization of mind or psyche. This is done by having external symbols which signify various things, thus creating external physical forms which require common definitions for understanding.
Externalized meanings by themselves have little effect on behavior. However, some of these externalized meanings are institutionalized. "Institutionalization" refers to the process by which certain externalized meanings become incorporated into roles or other socially prescribed activities.
The fact that some idea, value, sentiment, or goal has been externalized and institutionalized does not mean that individuals really believe the idea, or hold the value, or feel the sentiment, or want the goal. "Internalization" refers to the process by which, through socialization, the individual comes to believe, or hold the value, or feel the sentiment, or want the goal.
Thus when a piece of psyche or mind has been externalized, institutionalized, and internalized, it is simultaneously part of culture, society, and personality.
Ethnic groups, as labeled segments of society, are at once part of language and parts of society. Ethnic labels are Saussurean signs; their signifieds represent the conceptual categories which are evoked by their use in the minds of members of the speech community of their users. Signs are Durkheimian "collective representations", properties of communities rather than individuals. Some particular community within the larger society may claim or be conceded a particularly authoritative role regarding definitions in some special area of concern or expertise. In the case of socially or politically problematic categories it is important to attend to the make-up of such authoritative communities and to the social processes by which they acquire their authority.
Ethnic terms are defined (and sometimes contested) by interested groups; such groups have some latitude in their definitions. But, language is a system whose parts constrain one another. The semantic relations of ethnic terms, the contexts in which they are normally used, and the purposes for which they are normally used all constrain the freedom of an authoritative group to define for the wider community the properties of ethnic categories. Using Sami, Blackfeet, and Jewish examples, I explore who gets to define ethnic labels, what happens when such definitions are contested, what social and political conditions enable authoritative groupings (relative to ethnic labels) to emerge, what conditions lead such authoritative groups and their definitions to be contested, and within what wider socio-political and semantic framework the contest is played out and judged.
The status of tradition has come under serious scrutiny over the past decade or so, especially in the South Pacific. This inquiry has focused on the disjuncture between continuity with past practice/thought with the contemporary 'invention' of the past and adaptation to the present. In both Pakistan and the Cook Islands people appear to have a concept of tradition consistent with each of these perspectives, though without the disjuncture: the past is honoured, but few wish to live there. Based on field research between 1982 and 1996, I examine how 'traditional' resources are invoked and amended by urban Panjabi in Lahore, rural Pathan and Kohistani in Kalam/Bhiu (Swat) and Maori in the Cook Islands.
My fundamental point is that traditions can serve as specifications for identifying, reasoning about and solving situational problems in a social context. I focus on how traditional resources act as a catalyst for contemporary social interaction, as a medium for this interaction and as an evaluation criteria for outcomes of situational interaction. Traditions are robust (eg traditional) precisely because they are flexible and partial and subject to structured (and not so structured) change, representing contemporary processes as well as historical precedence. Traditions also serve to specify patterns of distribution for social participation; they influence the role relations and flows of reasoning and information between participants within the local process.
Psychologists and anthropologists see romantic love in very different ways. Relying on survey data, psychologists tend to conceptualize love as unidimensional and as an attitudinal or feeling-state that shapes romantic experiences. Anthropologists have mostly relied on intensive and unstructured interviews to develop a description of romantic love as multidimensional and shaped by experience. Both anthropologists and psychologists have neglected the connection between romantic love and sexual behavior.
The objective of this study is to bridge this division between psychological and anthropological approaches to the study of love and to examine how different ideologies of romantic love impact on sexual behavior. This study describes different conceptual models of romantic love as they are organized around certain prototypical emotions and how these "motivated models" influence sexual behaviors. The distribution of emotional prototypical states associated with romantic love will be seen as "motivated" in the sense that they are related to each other and that, for example, individuals will attempt to change scenarios that trigger prototypical sad feelings to those scenarios associated with "happy" feelings. This study uses data from students at the University of New Hampshire to explore this connection.
The range of different cultural ideologies regarding romantic love is shared by the student population, but their application is contingent both on the degree to which these ideologies are internalized and on situational factors. Gender differences are seen in the degree of internalization and in situational linkages between conditions of sexual intimacy and behavioral expressions of romantic love.
Variation in cultural knowledge and understanding is linked to material conditions as well as social structure and organization. These linkages have important implications in that they tie cognition and its variation to aspects of culture at various levels (individual uniqueness vs. cultural sharing). Spheres of interaction that influence cognition are themselves linked more broadly to concepts of organization such as stratification and social class. This paper examines the relationship between intra- cultural variation and social network position through a study of the perception of meat in the everyday lives of the residents of a small Midwestern town. The study finds that intracultural variation is a function of one's position in the social network and that such variation is the result of the differences in the symbolic importance of food in the everyday lives of its' members.
Models of culture as distributed systems make it possible to represent the shifting relevance of different facets of cultural representations. The Managalase of Papua New Guinea use allegorical rhetoric to conduct political negotiations to shield negotiations from the pressures of public debate and confrontation. Speakers and members of their audiences employ and identify thematic and narrative patterns in the dialogic process of interpretation. These interchanges play upon the current context of social relations and the distribution of the knowledge of themes and previous interpretations among members of the community. This paper examines the distribution of information and the process of analogical reasoning in the public performances of political allegories.
Culture is "made up" of symbolic representations that objectify reality. Through language we transform our experience of this reality into more or less bounded "things" and relations between them. Through processes of attribution these categories are projected into "reality" and given status as characteristics of this reality--and sometimes a sign's abstract referent gets taken as substantial.
I examine such reifications in modern, reflexive settings where people constantly evaluate their own interpretations and where instrumentality is held in high regard. I examine how local politicians and bureaucrats in a Norwegian town try to solve problems by means of pragmatic understandings of how things work, for instance in municipal welfare. Politicians and bureaucrats alike, despite their self-reflexivity and pragmatism, firmly believe that successful solutions depend on "correct" interpretations--and thus are relatively ignorant of the way in which their own reifications ("service", "efficiency", "satisfied clients", etc.) shape the phenomena to which they refer.
We examine how "instrumental rationality" is constructed in complex organizations. Reifications transform symbolic representations and social conventions into technology because people start to believe in them and act accordingly. The verification of knowledge can be seen as resulting from the ability of such reifications to put self-fulfilling prophecies in motion and thus to construct the world to which they are supposed to refer. It may be noted here that the welfare problem solving is guided by a deep, and sometimes even aggressive, skepticism towards language and what is often spoken of as "merely words".
This paper explores the pattern of agreement among members of a social group on the social structure of the group and the social roles played by members of the group. The groups examined are over-wintering crews at Antarctica's Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.
The cognitive revolution of the 1950's spawned development of the Turing Machine model of Mind (TMM) entailing both the formalism and practice of casting human cognition in the image of a digital computer. With the TMM, the mechanism of knowing (processing over internal knowledge states) could be integrated with the content of what is known (the mental products of histories of social living). This integration promoted the division of labor among psychologists and anthropologists which persists in many modern studies of mind and culture. This paper presents an alternative model of mind -- the Distributed Cognition model of Mind (DCM) -- based upon a reconstruction of the natures of, and relationships between, culture and cognition. The DCM is founded upon the notions that (1) cognition is built out of interactions among structures, (2) these interactions (instances of processes which employ and create structures) are not limited to events internal to individuals, but distribute across diverse media, social space, and time, and (3) culture is itself such a process, generating many of the structures and processes constituting cognition and human intelligence. The model is supported by data collected during ethnographic fieldwork among fishermen of an island community off the west coast of Sweden. Data analysis demonstrates the negotiated, distributed, and experientially grounded nature of language employed to communicate about sonar images of herring which mediate fishermen's understandings and practice. | <urn:uuid:b8099082-6699-47af-b714-98ca1dca7667> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lucy.kent.ac.uk/Cultcog/aaa96.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933793 | 4,050 | 1.625 | 2 |
The force of sound may be a logical explanation for the previously unexplained phenomena of crop circles.
by Freddy Silva
During the twilight days of 1998, small articles tucked away in the nether regions of the British press quietly announced “Unknown Force Was Behind Corn Circles, Claims Hoaxer.” This dramatic U-turn by the surviving member of the infamous Doug and Dave duo—the English sexagenarians who since 1991 have misled the world with tales of their crop-flattening prowess with planks of wood—illustrates that the hand of man materialized in crop circle lore long after the real phenomenon manifested.
Although hoaxers claim to have orchestrated the phenomenon in 1978, unpublished evidence at the time showed approximately 200 sporadic reports of crop circles around the world throughout the 1900s, with dozens of eyewitnesses reporting crop circles forming in a matter of seconds as far back as 1890. Several highly descriptive accounts were even documented in 1678 by Robert Plot, then curator of the Ashmolean Library in Oxford, England. If hoaxers are responsible for crop circles, then they appear to have mastered the art of time travel, in which case it is they who ought to be under scientific scrutiny.
To date some 10,000 crop circles have been cataloged in 29 countries worldwide, and their anomalous features continue to defy replication: plants bent an inch above soil, their cellular structure altered; stems lightly burned around the base; alterations to the crystalline structure of the affected soil; evaporation of ground water; alteration of the local electromagnetic field; and dowsable, long-lasting energy patterns, not to mention hundreds of measured effects on the human biological field.
So much for two guys and a piece of wood. But thanks to a virtual embargo on the coverage of research throughout the media, a popular myth has developed that all crop circles have been nothing more than a prank with a plank.
By definition, a hoax is a forgery, and a forger requires an original from which to copy. So what is this “unknown force” that creates genuine crop circles? One answer may lie with sound.
A Universal Force
Traditionally, sound is considered a prime universal force in the creation of matter. This concept is echoed in all faiths and traditions: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,” so the Bible, the Qu’ran, and the Rig Veda remind us. In a similar way, Hopi and Navajo religious traditions assert that, in ancient times, shamans could utter words onto sand and create patterns, a concept not dissimilar to the Hindu mandalas, those geometric paintings held to be expressions of vibrations from the unseen universe. Consequently, the Eastern faiths, Islam in particular, chose sacred geometry to express the image of God. In the 12th century these geometric principles were encoded in the design of Gothic cathedrals, and their application is now known to enhance the buildings’ sonic effects.
Geometry, sound, resonance, and vibration are fundamental to our supposedly physical world. When the primeval Hindu sound OM is sung into a tonoscope, a device for converting the human voice into visible form, it is possible to see geometric shapes attributed with sacredness. Under the microscope, even atoms are seen as harmonic resonators, and their structures are composed of geometric rhythms whose proportions are similar to the mathematical intervals governing the notes of the music scale. For example, the gap between the notes C and G, a musical fifth, can be represented geometrically as a pentagram.
As the expression of number in space, geometry is inextricably linked to sound, since the laws of the former govern the mathematical intervals that make up the notes in the Western music scale, also known as diatonic ratios. Physical reality, it seems, is governed by geometric arrays related to sound frequencies.
A Mathematical Challenge
One of the mathematical minds studying crop circles was the late Prof. Gerald Hawkins. In February 1992 he published an interesting challenge to the half-million subscribers of Science News. Hawkins had studied the work of Euclid, a Greek mathematician of the third century b.c., whose treatises on mathematics form the basis of our knowledge today. He used the principles of Euclid to prove that four geometric theorems can be derived from the relationships of design elements in crop circles. More significantly, he discovered a previously unknown fifth theorem from which he could derive the other four. Euclid himself had not written it in his 13 treatises on mathematics, and yet Hawkins showed that a gap existed in Euclid’s work where, logically, it ought to have fitted.
Despite an open challenge to Science News’ high-IQ readership no one was able to create this fifth theorem. Needless to say, it came as a slight shock when it materialized as a 160,000-square-foot crop circle at Litchfield, England, in 1995. Incredibly, the theorem did not appear overtly, and just like the challenge laid by Hawkins, the circlemakers required it to be decoded from within their own design.
By their nature, the crop circle theorems produce diatonic ratios, so a link now exists between crop circles and musical notes, which are the by-product of sound frequencies. By 1995 crop circles bearing unmistakable physical associations with sound began to appear. One contained a curious ratchet feature from which is extracted a musical diagram dating to the ancient Egyptian mystery schools, the Lambdoma. Also known as the Pythagorean Table, it defines the exact relationships between musical harmonics and mathematical ratios.
But it was a convincing crop circle etched in barley at Goodwood Clatford, England, in 1996, which had its plants bent six inches from the top, that gave the proverbial nod to sound, for here was a representation of a cymatic pattern.
Cymatics is the study of sound waves and their interaction with physical substances. One of its modern pupils was Swiss scientist Hans Jenny who, throughout the 1950s and ’60s, painstakingly captured on film the effects of sound as it interacted with powders and liquids.
He observed how sound vibration created geometric shapes: a low frequency produced a simple circle encompassed by rings, whereas a higher frequency increased the number of concentric rings around a central circle. As the frequencies rose, so did the complexity of shapes, to the point where tetrahedrons, mandalas, and other sacred geometric forms could be discerned.
Just as the Egyptians had once described geometry as “frozen music,” so Jenny now enabled humanity to see it. Jenny also provided a physical connection to the creation of crop circles. Many of the vibrational patterns captured in his photos mimic their designs, from the simple circle surrounded by concentric rings typical of early 1980s designs to the tetrahedron and the complex star fractals of the 1990s.
Visually, then, the connection is undeniable. But what evidence links sound and crop circles at a physical level?
Many accounts exist of a trilling sound heard by witnesses to crop circles forming. This unusual noise, which sounds like a cross between a cicada and a waterfall, was eventually captured on magnetic tape in 1989 during a night watch of a field at Cheesefoot Head, England, by a group of researchers. It was duly sent to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, where it was brought to the attention of Robert Weiss, the man who had previously analyzed the famous Watergate tapes. He concluded that the noise was not related to any type of bird or insect, and due to its looping, rhythmic nature appeared to be of intelligent, mechanical origin. Further, it contained a frequency of 5.0–5.2 kilohertz.
Later that summer the trilling sound was captured again, this time by a BBC cameraman while recording an interview inside a crop circle. A few seconds after its appearance, it rendered his $55,000 camera useless. According to the technicians who later rebuilt the equipment, the sound frequency interfered with the circuitry to such a degree that the camera would not work after that episode.
Interestingly, latter-day Australian Aborigines relate to this trilling sound. During their ceremonies to contact their “sky spirits,” a specially-shaped piece of wood called a bora is attached to the end of a long string and whirled, creating a noise practically identical to the crop circle sound. It was later discovered that not only have crop circles appeared in Australia, they also manifest throughout Aboriginal myths, just as their geometries appear in ancient Aboriginal rock paintings.
Microwaves or Sound Waves?
The five-kilohertz connection has taken me on a journey of extraordinary connections, particularly the way in which sound interacts with plants and soil. Back in the 1950s, American agricultural researcher George Smith found that exposing corn to sound frequencies produced a higher heat content in soil, as well as a slightly burned appearance in the plants. Such effects are consistent with the soil of crop circles, where the affected area appears noticeably drier (in some cases baked) than the rest of the field, despite overnight rain; the same applies to the slight burning at the base of crop circle stalks.
Oddly enough, Smith speculated at the time that particular sound frequencies also increased molecular activity in plants. Three decades later, such activity was indeed discovered in plant samples taken from crop circles: tests performed since 1989 by Michigan-based physicist Dr. W. Levengood consistently show how the energy creating crop circles affects seed embryo and plant growth, elongates the plants’ nodes, and even alters the pattern of their crystalline structure.
The sudden and abnormal growth in plants affected by the energy of crop circles was attributed by Levengood to microwaves. However, microwaves have the ability to render biological systems sterile, and an overdose will even kill organisms. Crop circle plants, on the other hand, are certainly alive and well, so there must be another answer.
Already conversant with discoveries by Russian scientists that certain sound frequencies noticeably affected the growth of plants and seeds, Mary Measures and Paul Weinberger experimented with sound at the University of Ottawa throughout the 1960s. They succeeded in accelerating growth in wheat, but the sound also produced a resonant effect in the plants’ cells, thereby affecting their metabolism. And the frequency applied was identical to the crop circle trilling noise: five kilohertz.
Perhaps the greatest connection linking sound to the manifestation of crop circles lies in their greatest anomaly: the permanent bending of the plants’ stems. In 1968, laboratory experiments at Temple Buell College in Colorado measured the effects of music on plants by subjecting them to different tones. Exposure to heavy metal music made the plants tilt in the opposite direction or die, whereas classical music lulled the plants to lean toward the speakers. But in the case of Hindu devotional music, the type played by the sitar artist Ravi Shankar, the stems bent in excess of 60 degrees to the vertical, perhaps the closest any human has ever come to recreating that right-angle bend common to genuine crop circles.
Interestingly, applications of Indian devotional song to plants during the 1930s at Annamalai University in India also showed a number of similar biophysical changes to those which occur in plants collected from crop circles and analyzed by Dr. Levengood.
What Kind of Sound?
Sound as one energy source capable of creating crop circles now becomes very feasible. But what type of sound coaxes plants to bend and lie down, applying firm and gentle pressure and, given the intricacy and complexity of latter-day patterns, with a fine degree of precision?
Ultrasound is capable of interacting with physical elements to such an incredible degree. It can be aimed like a laser beam, and specific frequencies can be focused to cause certain kinds of molecules to vibrate while others nearby are left unmoved.
The higher the frequency of ultrasound, the greater its ability to be directed. This requires frequencies in the high megahertz range, such as those detected for over a decade inside crop circles. The readings generally hover in the vicinity of 260 to 320 megahertz. However, the frequencies appear to increase each year relative to the increase in their geometric complexity. This mirrors Jenny’s experiments, which show that a relationship exists between the complexity of cymatic geometries in proportion to the dispensed sound frequencies. In other words, the higher the frequency, the greater the geometric intricacy.
Such extremely high frequencies are known to affect states of awareness and consciousness in humans, and visitors to crop formations often report this. Such effects are traditionally associated with sacred spaces (stone circles in particular), and it is interesting to note that ultrasound has been detected at stone circles and standing stones in England.
When tuned in the megahertz range, ultrasound prevents damage to sensitive tissue, so its healing properties are today used in the treatment of muscular ailments. Again, this mirrors the folklore of sacred spaces, and as far as crop circles are concerned, hundreds of people have also reported healings. One long-time sufferer of Parkinson’s disease stopped shaking, and a man with a retinal eye tumor saw it shrivel away after contact with crop circles. This case is clinically documented in New Hampshire, and the patient’s doctor remains at odds to explain this.
Below 20 hertz, sound becomes infrasonic, and such frequencies influence biological processes. And here lies the direct connection to crop circles: Experiments throughout the 1980s at Princeton’s P.E.A.R. laboratory demonstrate that, when combined with high pressure, the acoustic power of infrasound boils water inside a cavity in one nanosecond. As water heats, it expands, and in the case of crop circle plants and their water-filled stems, a close look reveals tiny holes in their nodes (the plant’s “knuckles”), indicating that the superheated water has blown outwards.
The bases of the stems are made subtle like molten glass by the heat, leaving the now top-heavy plants to collapse into their new horizontal position.
Since this action (vapor cavitation) creates local temperature increases of hundreds of thousands of degrees for a fraction of a second, it is not difficult to see how millions of gallons of groundwater can disappear within and around the perimeter of a crop circle, or why the plants attain their slightly burned appearance. Combine this with Levengood’s discovery of microscopic blow-holes in the plants’ cell wall pits (indicating the rapid boiling of water inside the plant), and everything starts to fall into place.
Infrasound is also capable of atomizing water molecules, creating a fine mist, and farmers in England and Canada have witnessed columns of mist rising from within newly arrived crop circles.
The lower the operating frequency of infrasound, the greater the effect. Eighteen hertz is the lowest safety threshold below which the pressure formed by infrasound is known to produce disruption to chromosomes. Every summer, crop circle plants of every variety are sent to Dr. Levengood for blind testing, and some samples inevitably show unmistakable disruption to their chromosomes. Yet give him samples from man-made designs and he finds something remarkable: perfectly normal plants!
So, who is in control of the technology that is manifesting these euphonious crop circles? In England, one highly respected psychic individual inadvertently vectored information about the origin of crop circles during a trance session. Her name is Isabelle Kingston.
Report from the Shining Ones
The information vectored by Isabelle in 1982 came from the Watchers, a universal group consciousness who appear throughout history, serving as helpful guides to humanity during its times of tumultuous change. As the Shining Ones or Els, they feature throughout ancient Egyptian texts. They also facilitated the building of Europe’s tallest mound, Silbury Hill. (Silbury literally means “the hill of the shining beings.”) At the time, few knew what a crop circle was, so when the Watchers said they would provide signs of their purpose in the fields at Silbury Hill within seven days, no one in Isabelle’s group knew what to expect.
Seven days later, a group of five crop circles, arranged like a Celtic cross, manifested at the base of the 5,000-year-old sacred site.
In succeeding years Isabelle would be provided with further instructions ahead of time as to the circles’ location and physical attributes. Their appearance was often closely followed by military helicopters, which seem to be able to pick up their electromagnetic fingerprint on radar.
The main purpose behind the glyphs, we are told, is to feed information into the planet’s subtle energy grid, thus providing human beings with the tools that will help them wake up to their responsibilities as co-creators and achieve their greater potential.
To some, the message may seem simplistic, even utopian, yet there is no doubt that we are living in times of great upheaval, and whatever choices we are making as a collective will affect generations to come. What is already certain is that the tens of thousands of people who have come into contact with crop circles have taken with them a more positive world-view, and this change in perception is quietly seeping into the everyday world.
The Watchers spoke of technology yet to be deciphered from the glyphs (spinning disk and anti-gravity devices based on the designs are being developed as I write), and how the patterns are connected to all ancient sacred sites via subtle energies. It has since been discovered that all genuine crop circles indeed lie at the crossroads of invisible electromagnetic pathways which criss-cross the entire globe, linking all sacred sites.
According to the Watchers, the designs are created through thought processes sent from other levels of awareness. These vibrations transform into sound and light as their frequencies are slowed down by our atmosphere and the laws of the physical world. Indications of these processes would eventually be discovered in the plants and the soil by people who would be communicated with at a subtle level of exchange.
If sound vibrations are creating crop circles, is it not possible that they can arouse the individual at a spiritual level? After all, it is through music that human experiences are celebrated and carried from generation to generation. It is very probable that it is for this reason that the very shape of the human ear, more specifically, the cochlea, is a spiral constructed according to the harmonic laws of tone, just as the same spiral is the primary form from which thousands of crop circles have sprung.
Music is a carrier for social change. Handel’s music is believed to have reversed the state of morality in Victorian England, just as the anarchic overtones of punk rock corralled disillusioned youth into fighting an establishment that held no tolerance for those who stepped outside its rules. The effects in peoples’ awareness after contact with crop circles is similarly documented. In 1990 a pictogram at Alton Barnes sported the trident of Neptune or Shiva, figures traditionally associated with transformation. Ironically, it was through exposure to this unique crop circle that millions around the world felt transformed, just as images of crop circles today continue to enlighten the awareness of those who come into contact with them.
If sound is one of the formative principles behind crop circles, it is not surprising that they are leaving psychological impressions on those whose antenna is extended and receptive to their tune.
Freddy Silva has researched crop circles and sacred spaces from a multi-disciplinary point of view since 1990, and is today one of the world’s leading experts on these subjects, as well as a bestselling author. His website is: www.lovely.clara.net | <urn:uuid:667425b1-8162-44c9-8b05-327e7eade87f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fatemag.com/ufos/crop-circles-created-by-sound/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957324 | 4,074 | 3.078125 | 3 |
Efforts are gaining steam to restore one of Meridian's historic buildings.
Last year the state of Mississippi awarded $210,000 to restore what was once Fielder and Brooks Drug Store in downtown.
That building housed the Council of Federated Organizations Office, also known as COFO in 1964.
With the 50 year anniversary of Freedom Summer '64 just one year away, there are energized efforts to start the work.
The address for the COFO office in Meridian was 2505 5th Street. In 1964 COFO offices were only established in Mississippi. These offices were 'one stop shops' which brought together the resources of four prominent civil rights groups of the time: the NAACP, SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference), CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) and SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee).
'Freedom 64,' which is a progressive community group in Meridian that was founded by local civil rights icon, Roscoe Jones, is spearheading the effort to renovate the building.
"Well, March we'd like to have people in here working,' says Jones. 'We're going to have to gut the building and then we're going to have to structurally put another frame on the inside of the building because if we tear it down, it's not a historical building anymore. So, we have to maintain the integrity of the building."
Once the renovation is finished, the second floor of the building will house a museum and interpretive center.
As for the bottom floor, Jones says he wants it to be used to help young people by possibly providing some type of educational opportunity. However, he says community meetings will likely be held to ultimately determine how that floor will be used.
'We're going to train students how to do oral histories and then they will do oral histories," says Jones. "Say that you want to find out about Roscoe Jones. You go over; you find Roscoe Jones and push a button and up pops an interview with Roscoe Jones. So, you can listen to what Roscoe Jones has to say about the Civil Rights Movement in 1964."
Jones says what's still needed to help preserve history about the local Civil Rights Movement is $55,000 so that the restoration work can start. In coming weeks a large fundraiser for the effort is expected to be announced. At this time, no other details about that fundraiser are available. | <urn:uuid:c4591a23-719c-4a04-906f-b7c6391a6da0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wtok.com/news/headlines/COFO-Restoration-188680681.html?site=full | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96741 | 489 | 1.84375 | 2 |
This interactive learning game will help you to practice simplifying fractions. You will be shown a fraction and need to work out what the simplest form of the fraction would be.
You should aim for full marks in this game – replay it as many times as you need to.
If you are now an expert on simplifying fractions then why not check out our mathematics page for a range of other interactive mathematics games. Even better – sign up for your free account to get full access to the thousands of interactive learning games inside What2Learn. You even get your own virtual farm to develop and care for! | <urn:uuid:8bcab8a7-bef9-4c4c-b1f7-75ce10d1640c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.what2learn.com/home/examgames/maths/simplifying3/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927046 | 121 | 2.546875 | 3 |
NEW DELHI: While pushing through FDI in retail, the government may end up completely watering down the sourcing requirement from micro and small enterprises as the revised provision is non-compliant with the provisions of the World Trade Organisation.
Trade experts and government officials told TOI that in its present form - where retailers have to mandatorily source 30% of their requirement from micro and small enterprises in India - the proposal may fall foul of Article III of the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (Gatt) and the WTO's Trade Related Investment Measures (Trims) Agreement. "It leaves India open to being dragged to WTO in case some of our competitors think that their industry is being discriminated against due to the norms that the government has prescribed," said a trade expert who did not wish to be identified.
Gatt rules mandate that WTO member countries prescribe the same set of rules to domestic and foreign companies when it comes to purchase, sale, transport, distribution and taxation of goods. Besides, Trims stipulates that foreign and local companies should face the same rules on investment.
Trade experts, in fact, cite the case of Indonesia's National Car Programme, where the government had decided to grant pioneer company status for car makers that met criteria on ownership, use of trademarks and technology and complied with local content requirements over a three-year period. It offers sops in the form of import duty exemption on import of auto parts and exemption from luxury tax for certain types of vehicles. Japan, European Union and the US won the case in which India was a "third party", which in WTO parlance means that it had shown interest.
They also point to India's own experience with the 1997-2002 Exim Policy that granted import licences to local joint ventures under which they undertook a prescribe level of indigenization and export obligation. First EU alleged violation Gatt and Trims Agreement. In 1999, the US too joined the dispute and India lost the case in 2002 resulting in the policy being withdrawn. When the committee of secretaries approved the plan to allow 51% FDI in retail, it also asked a panel comprising representatives from the ministries of commerce, textiles, telecom and IT and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) to look at the demand for 30% sourcing from small units to ward off a threat from cheap Chinese imports.
As reported first by TOI on August 27, the commerce ministry had said the clause would violate WTO rules, especially Trims. If a violation is established, India would have to reverse its decision or face a penalty under multilateral trade rules. Subsequently, the department of industrial policy and promotion, which piloted the proposal, said sourcing could be done on self-certification basis from micro and small enterprises located anywhere in the world. This was done with a view to stay on the right side of WTO rules. But what DIPP forgot to do was bring it out clearly during the Cabinet meeting.
"I had raised the issue at the meeting and I was told that the clause is there. I will obviously demand support for Indian companies and not for foreign players," MSME minister Virbhadra Singh told TOI on Monday after DIPP clarified that the 30% sourcing clause will be for Indian units only. | <urn:uuid:dc3ab8f2-a407-4e78-b0cc-874a3cb02044> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-11-29/india-business/30454224_1_wto-rules-world-trade-organisation-wto-norms | 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 | 0.971145 | 659 | 1.640625 | 2 |
This old barn at Kricklewood Farm is like many other timber frame barns of the same period. They were built to last with hand-hewn timbers put together with wooden pegs, wide planks underfoot and on the walls, covered with a tin roof. We’re told that the barn predates the house, making it about 160 years old.
Unfortunately, the same thing that happens to most of them is happening to this one. They were typically built on a foundation of rubble and fieldstone. As time marches on, the stones move around and the bottom sills touch dirt. Wood rots from the years of wicking moisture and as the stills and posts rot, the structure slowly sinks, loses shape and eventually succumbing to gravity.
We’ve had a few visitors in the past couple of years and people are usually anxious to see the barn. It’s quite an impressive sight on the inside. The peak must be 30 feet and the workmanship is awe-inspiring, especially considering that everything was done with hand tools alone. Now that we’ve started to use the barn to house the goats and chickens, the time has come to make it functional for the expanding menagerie of animals at Kricklewood Farm. The goats are expecting in early April so the herd will double in size (at minimum) and we are thinking about turkeys and a few other additions.
Aside from the overall structure sinking into the ground, the walls don’t provide much in the way of protection from the wind and cold. We’ve resorted to using tarps for this season. The roof is in ok shape with only a few minor leaks. Power and water would be nice so we can avoid carrying buckets of water and finding our way around in the dark with flashlights. The list maybe long but the first step has been to invite a few of the local barn contractors to assess the situation.
In the meantime, I put together a layout so we can see what we have now and start to think about where we want to end up, hopefully before next winter sets in. We’ll keep the process well-documented with lots of photos as we progress. The plan is to start work as soon as the snow is gone and the ground is dry enough to work, knock wood! We welcome input from anyone who has gone through their own barn renovation project, so feel free to contact us. | <urn:uuid:729e7424-c384-4e8a-a832-851c531acaae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kricklewoodfarm.com/this-old-barn/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97307 | 502 | 1.96875 | 2 |
Local people not left out of the REDD debate
23 May 2008 | News story
Local and indigenous people have to be active participants in the REDD debate, argued IUCN during today's side event at the ongoing Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Bonn.
While the link between climate change and forests has been the focus of various international discussions for some time, the fact that they are home to millions of local and indigenous populations has become a hot topic during the ongoing CBD meeting. Close to 100 delegates attending the side event, organised by IUCN, UNEP and others united by the Poverty and Environment Partnership (PEP), identified the need for REDD to deliver on three fronts: climate change, biodiversity, and local livelihoods.
"We should not let the carbon tail wag the forest dog", said IUCN's Economics and the Environment Senior Adviser, Joshua Bishop. Forests are about much more than the carbon they contain.
To those who actually live in and depend on forests directly for their well-being, carbon remains a rather elusive asset. Victoria Tauli Corpuz – Chairperson of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues – warned the audience that local and indigenous communities could be ‘left out of the REDD scene’. For it to work successfully, REDD should not become a barrier to local livelihoods.
The uncertainty surrounding REDD is, unfortunately, not limited to the community level. Leo Peskett from the Overseas Development Institute, aptly presented its intricacies and provided some initial indications of how REDD could work for the poor, emphasizing that poverty reduction needed to be an explicit goal of the scheme, as opposed to a simple ‘add-on’.
REDD has a tremendous potential for achieving environmental and development objectives and for this potential to be realized, those local and indigenous communities who have the most to lose from climate change and deforestation need to become the main beneficiaries. Raising community-level awareness on REDD and carbon markets is one step in the right direction, but the road towards pro-poor REDD is still long. IUCN is committed to having local communities on board for the entire ride. | <urn:uuid:43661ef0-cb41-46fe-abdb-4653418f7c65> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.iucn.org/news_homepage/events/cbd/resources/news/?992/Local-people-not-left-out-of-the-REDD-debate | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94355 | 454 | 2.78125 | 3 |
By Phillip Samuelson
The African grey parrot has the reputation for being the world’s greatest talking parrot. I consider this an accurate claim to fame, but having spent time around a number of greys, both pets and aviary birds, I’ve developed a fascination for this species that extends well beyond its speaking ability.
These birds are known for being somewhat nervous parrots that stress fairly easily. Tell-tale signs of African grey stress are somewhat unique and include ruffled feathers, pinned eyes, and nervous chewing of their toenails, often alternating feet to chew one set of toes, then the other. Frequently stressed greys are also near the top of the list when it comes to developing feather chewing and plucking behavior.
African grey vocalizations are unique. The squawks and screams common to neotropical parrots like Amazons, conures and macaws are not a part of the grey repertoire. Instead, greys use a range of piercing clicks and whistles. The wolf whistle comes naturally to them, and they pick it up easily if encouraged. But they need little encouragement. Teaching an African grey to whistle is about as pointless as teaching a fish to swim.
It wasn’t until a friend gave me a pampered hand-fed grey that I came to realize what all the fuss was about. This bird had been my friend’s personal pet. She called me one day to ask if I could care for it while she was on vacation. I was happy to oblige, but when I stopped by her house to pick up the bird, I was greatly disturbed to see my friend’s weakened and sickly condition. Lung cancer had taken a huge toll, and the end of her battle with this horrible disease was near. She was an elderly, gruff woman who always had a seemingly ornery disposition, but I knew her as a lovable grump with a heart of gold. During my visit that day, I knew it was the last time I would ever see her. She just didn’t know how to say good-bye, so I played along with her story about “going on vacation.” I left her house with a new pet, but very sad.
I arrived home that evening tired and depressed about my friend. My bedroom had a huge walk-in closet with a large window at one end, so I decided to put the grey in there in a cage by the window. I would find a permanent place for the bird later. Sleep came quickly that evening, and I planned to sleep in the next day.
I awoke at the crack of dawn to the sound of a phone ringing. But this was a ring tone I had never heard. All of a sudden came my friend’s voice from the closet saying, “Hello?” Then came, “Hold on a moment please. Michael!” Next there was the adult male voice of my friend’ son, Michael. “Yeah. What’s up? OK. I’ll meet you there. See you later,” followed by the clattering sound of a phone being hung up. By that point I was sitting up in bed, wide-eyed and amazed. It was the grey making the noise! I had owned talking parrots for years but had never heard anything like that. It was truly amazing–the proverbial jaw dropper. | <urn:uuid:57a2e9a6-5901-4bcf-b7ee-85c735393d21> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.birdsupplies.com/the-african-grey-parrot-gif-for-gab | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984123 | 707 | 2.015625 | 2 |
Obamacare ignores illegal immigrants; hospitals may get stuck with the bill
Hospital leaders told The New York Times they're wary of terms in the health care reform law that will eventually halve the amount of money they receive for caring for uninsured people without addressing the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the country, most of them lacking insurance.
Emergency rooms are required to take in all patients, insured or uninsured, under a federal law signed by President Ronald Reagan. The government used a pot of about $20 billion to reimburse hospitals each year for this care. But that pot is going to be cut in half by 2019, under the reasoning that the health care law will dramatically cut the number of people who don't have insurance, thus saving hospitals money. The calculation leaves out one key group of uninsured people: illegal immigrants, who will not be required to buy health insurance or be eligible for Medicaid, or be allowed to purchase insurance on state-run exchanges under the law.
Earlier proposals that addressed illegal immigrants were scrapped during the health care debate after they drew controversy.
In New York City public hospitals, an estimated 40 percent of all uninsured patients treated are undocumented, and other hospital systems have an even larger share. Experts estimate that about 6 million of the nation's uninsured are illegal immigrants."
News & Politics | <urn:uuid:96957139-2fd0-447a-af83-3cf083edbba5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/obamacare-ignores-illegal-immigrants-hospitals-may-get-stuck-with-the-bill/question-2832769/?page=1&postId=89990949 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95668 | 262 | 1.835938 | 2 |
By Ryan Ekvall | Wisconsin Reporter
MADISON — While lawmakers and citizens debate opening a mine in northern Wisconsin, one of the biggest winners would be the state’s embattled Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.
In the evolution of mining reform legislation over the past year, WEDC has gone from receiving nothing to pocketing 40 percent of annual tax proceeds from the project – with no strings attached. And nobody seems to want to talk about it.
That made WEDC a punching bag for Democrats.
Under current law, all tax proceeds from mining are deposited into a so-called “local impact fund.” That cash would ostensibly send cash to mining communities for infrastructure upgrades.
But a curious thing happened as the bill moved through the Legislature. In Sen. Tom Tiffany’s new version, 60 percent of tax revenue goes to a local impact fund, while 40 percent goes to WEDC.
The weirdness doesn’t stop there. The Hazelhurst Republican’s bill echoes language in SB 488 Sub Amendment 2 — the final version of the Joint Finance Committee bill that failed to move in the Senate last March. It states WEDC must support business development “in this state, giving preference to businesses in an area affected by iron mining.”
But documents reviewed by Wisconsin Reporter show Rebecca Tradewell, an attorney with the state Legislative Reference Bureau, raised concerns that such a funding mechanism “is very broad. … It is not clear who would decide whether this money is appropriated or how the money would be kept track of.”
In short, WEDC, an agency with a record of cash mismanagement, could receive and spend millions of dollars annually that is not accounted for by the Legislature, have nothing to do with mining or the area affected by mining.
The Department of Revenue has not yet estimated how much tax revenue might come from a mine in the Penokee Hills. However, the NorthStar Economics study of the proposed mine estimates annual state and local tax yield of $17 million if eight million tons of iron ore are extracted, and $34 million after expansion if 16 million tons of iron ore are extracted.
It’s unclear from the report how much of that tax revenue is derived from the net proceeds tax on mining income.
For comparison, the Flambeau Mine at Ladysmith generated $14 million in net proceeds tax to the state. Forty percent of that, or $5.5 million, went to the Badger Fund, an athletic scholarship program, before eventually being transferred to the state’s general fund, according to a report from the Flambeau Mining Company.
Ore was extracted from that site for five years. The first phase of Gogebic Taconite’s proposal for Penoke Hills spans 35 years.
It’s unclear if the Legislative Reference Bureau’s questions have been answered because key players aren’t talking.
Walker’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
“We had no involvement in the drafting of mining legislation,” said Tom Thieding, spokesman for WEDC. Thieding said WEDC doesn’t comment on draft language unless asked by a member of the Legislature. “Check with the authors on that,” he advised.
So Wisconsin Reporter called around. Staff of Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, sent us to the office of Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau. Fitzgerald’s staff sent us to Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills. Darling’s staff said to check with Legislative Council documents, which did not provide any answers.
Last session, Vos and Darling co-chaired the Joint Finance Committee, which produced the final version of mining legislation in 2012. This was after Fitzgerald dissolved the Senate Select Committee on Mining and gave drafting responsibility to the Finance Committee.
Tiffany told Wisconsin Reporter he didn’t know who put the WEDC subsidy into the JFC bill, which he adapted to his bill.
But Tiffany shined some light on the reasoning behind sending 40 percent of tax revenue from iron mining to WEDC with no spending strings attached.
“Rather than the funds getting commingled in the general fund where it could be spent for anything, we wanted to make sure money could be used for economic development purposes,” Tiffany explained.
Why was the requirement that WEDC spend the money within 100 miles of a mine site taken out of the bill’s language?
“Let’s say there was a business further than 100 miles from a mine site, but was making equipment ancillary to the mining industry,” Tiffany posited. “It would be disappointing if a company 150 miles away from a mine site, making mining equipment, and needed help with startup costs or a new product couldn’t get it.”
Tiffany’s bill doesn’t include restrictions that WEDC has to spend the money on industry related to mining.
“We want to give WEDC a bit more discretion with that. There are times when they need that discretion,” Tiffany said.
“At the end of the day, we wanted some flexibility.”
Before Senate Bill 488 Sub-Amendment 2, the final destination for tax proceeds from mining changed twice. In the first Finance Committee compromise bill, adapted from Assembly Bill 426 — the bill that passed the assembly on party lines — 60 percent of mining revenue collected would go to the local impact fund while 40 percent would go to the state’s general fund.
Sub Amendment 1 provided 70 percent of tax revenue to the local impact fund, 20 percent to WEDC and 10 percent to a mining transportation fund.
That language required WEDC to create a “regional Wisconsin diversification program” and use the money it receives for economic development in “coordination with appropriate units of local government to businesses that are located in close proximity to, but no more than 100 miles from, the site of a mine for ferrous metallic minerals.”
Since then, the language about a regional diversification program, coordination with local government and proximity to the mine site has been removed.
The questions remain: Who requested the removal of the language, and why?
Contact Ryan Ekvall at email@example.com.
- In clash over Alaskan mineral lode, warnings for Wisconsin?
- State agency that lost track of millions wins big in WI mining bill
- Mine’s future uncertain, despite near-certain passage of mining bill
- No ‘Friends’ found in last episode of WI mining dramedy | <urn:uuid:9451c020-1973-4033-9e5c-ba2f847104af> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://watchdog.org/67474/economic-development-agency-that-lost-track-of-tens-of-millions-of-dollars-wins-big-in-wisconsin-mining-bill/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945494 | 1,404 | 1.734375 | 2 |
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the number of confirmed deaths due to West Nile virus this year rose to 19% this week to 219 in United States. The total number of cases, meanwhile, was up 4% to 4,725.
According to Marc Fischer, medical epidemiologist working in CDC’s Fort Collins, Colorado, laboratory, the center may release the full report of cases and deaths as early as next year. “It takes a lot of time for them to trickle from the local doctor to the local hospital to the state health department to the CDC.”
Close to 70% of the cases have been centered in eight states namely Texas (which has over one-third of the total), California, Louisiana, Mississippi, Illinois, South Dakota, Michigan, and Oklahoma.
This year marks the second worst West Nile virus outbreak on record, CDC says, and it is possible that it may overtake the outbreak back in 2003 in terms of deaths. In 2003, there were 9,862 cases with 264 deaths.
Fischer explained that numbers in 2003 could be in “disproportion” as West Nile virus tests were first commercially available in 2003, which tested a lot of patients in some states (particularly in the West) and less in others.
Because the weather begins to turn colder, mosquito activity starts to wane and so do the number of infections. | <urn:uuid:b7be692e-026a-4046-a343-1ce2e214abde> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theoretical.com/2013/02/01/west-nile-virus-deaths-in-united-states-increased-by-19/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955442 | 285 | 3.265625 | 3 |
Bachelor of Business Administration
Supply Chain Management
This program provides the skills and knowledge required to be successful throughout a challenging and rewarding career within a supply chain management occupation. Graduates will have opportunities that utilize a multitude of talents and skills, providing an invigorating and exciting career that never grows stagnant.
Potential occupations include demand planner, project manager, vendor managed inventory analyst, logistics analyst, warehouse management, production planner, and transportation specialist.
According to the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals, the supply chain management industry is one of the fastest growing industries within the United States and the world with logistics alone accounting for 9.5% of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product.
Students finishing this program will have completed a well rounded curriculum including business and general education cores, as well as the major core that examines all aspects of the industry from raw materials to end users and everything in between.
Global perspectives combined with cultural diversity are interwoven within the curriculum creating an awareness of today s business environment that the students will ultimately compete within.
- The average annual wage for a Transportation Manager is $51,320.
- In addition to providing overall direction and supervision, your work may include scheduling transportation, providing safety and other training, providing service support, and resolution of logistical problems.
- Manufacturers and other businesses are increasingly outsourcing distribution and logistical services, such as inventory management and just-in-time shipping to firms that can perform tasks like these more efficiently. | <urn:uuid:e65e9d0d-fa1c-4f55-bc66-77d411d81f55> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.baker.edu/programs/detail/supply-chain-management-bachelor-of-business-administration-online/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937688 | 301 | 1.8125 | 2 |
New Tobacco Products Advisory Committee Focuses on Menthol Cigarettes
The FDA’s new Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee (TPSAC) held its inaugural meeting in Washington, DC, last week. The main focus of the meeting was on menthol in cigarettes, and presentations focused on the demographics of menthol cigarette users, preferential use of menthol cigarettes by persons initiating tobacco use, the health effects of menthol in cigarettes, the effects of menthol on addiction and cessation, marketing and consumer perceptions about menthol cigarettes, the sensory qualities of menthol cigarettes, and the effects of menthol on how cigarettes are smoked.
The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, enacted last year, granted the FDA regulatory authority over tobacco products and required the formation of the TPSAC. Under the new law, the committee is required to submit a report by March 23, 2011 to the Secretary of Health and Human Services on the public health impact of using menthol in cigarettes.
The 2-day TPSAC meeting can be viewed in its entirety on the FDA’s tobacco products Web site. A second meeting, focusing on tobacco industry research and documents related to menthol and cigarettes, is planned for summer 2010.
Advisory Panel Recommends Restrictions on Tanning Bed Use by Minors
On March 25, the General and Plastic Surgery Devices Panel of the FDA’s Medical Devices Advisory Committee recommended that the agency consider restricting minors’ access to indoor tanning beds by requiring parental consent or outright banning their use by those under the age of 18. The panel also recommended that the FDA reclassify indoor tanning beds from Class I to Class II or Class III medical devices, which would allow for greater regulatory oversight. An increase in tanning bed use is one factor blamed for the rising incidence of melanoma in the United States, and a 10 percent tax on indoor tanning was included in the health reform bill signed by President Obama on March 23. | <urn:uuid:b9049564-fed0-426d-9c80-13ebb9cd9519> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cancer.gov/ncicancerbulletin/040610/page12 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922796 | 397 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Photos: Shirts emblazoned with the image of a young King Father Norodom Sihanouk
Tradition, Splendor for King Father’s Funeral
The funeral of Norodom Sihanouk is set to honor an ancient tradition for Khmer kings based on rituals not put into practice since the last funeral for a Cambodian King took place in 1960.
Officials are planning an elaborate ceremony to be held in the same vein as that of Norodom Suramarit, Norodom Sihanouk’s father, after he had spent just five years on the throne.
Norodom Sihanouk—who died of a heart attack aged 89 on Monday and will lie in state for at least three months—made various public statements about his preferences for how his death should be marked. He once demanded a quiet affair, with a quick cremation. But hundreds of thousands of mourners lining the streets for his return Wednesday made sure his passing would not be low key.
“His last wish about his funeral was to follow the royal tradition,” said the late King Father’s cabinet chief, Prince Sisowath Thomico, admitting that the King Father had been changeable on this issue. “I believe that the protocol in the royal tradition will be followed for this funeral.”
Chea Khean, deputy director of the National Committee for Organizing National and International Festivals, confirmed that the ceremony would be in keeping with the past.
“There is a traditional Buddhist ceremony for the King’s funeral, and it has looked the same from [19th-century] King Ang Duong to King Suramarit,” he said, adding that the committee was currently working out the details of Norodom Sihanouk’s funeral.
Ang Choulean, a professor at the Royal University of Fine Arts’ archeology faculty, said that a Khmer king’s funeral essentially follows the same custom as every Cambodian funeral, but on a much grander scale.
“It’s visible. Everything becomes longer and everything is spectacular,” he said. Going into more detail, Mr. Choulean said the Brahmanist element of Khmer tradition is dominant in the funeral rite—which bears a resemblance to the funerals of Thai royals—but there are influences from Buddhism and animism too.
The body is always kept in state for a number of months, during which prayers are said for the dead king, a period that serves both practical and spiritual purposes, he said.
“You have to make all the preparations. You have to build a special building” on which to cremate the body, he said. “But also, the king needs time. Death is a transformation…. You need to prepare every ritual so you can direct the journey in the right way. You push the destiny in the way you want: All this is the duty of the living.”
To aid this spiritual transformation, the late king’s face is covered with a golden mask, he said. “When you die, you have to change…. You have another individuality, another personality.”
As the date for cremation nears —often after a 100-day ceremony—the body of the late king is placed inside a golden urn, Mr. Choulean said. Prince Thomico said that Norodom Sihanouk’s golden urn was already at the Royal Palace, having been constructed by a team of artisans over a year ago.
Traditional practice, said Mr. Choulean, was for the king’s body to be seated upright in the urn, which is about 3 meters in height, in the fetal position, symbolizing rebirth.
“You put the dead into the position of someone who will be born, someone in their mother’s womb,” he said, adding that the urn is placed at the top of a five-tiered pyramidal pavilion and taken on a procession around Phnom Penh.
In an account published in a 1928 Bulletin de l’Ecole Francaise d’Extreme-Orient, French architect Henri Marchal gives his account of King Sisowath’s cremation in March of that year—some seven months after the king died.
Mr. Marchal described the elaborate procession of the urn in a carriage “made up of three wooden platforms bordered with golden Nagas, supporting the urn.”
“Behind the chariot followed mandarins on horseback, then the women of the palace followed on foot, heads shaven, and dressed in white, decorated with signs of mourning,” he wrote.
Mr. Marchal describes the scene the night before King Sisowath’s cremation, where fireworks and bright lights illuminated the area around the Royal Palace. “The effect is spectacular: with the urn looming in the stream of light, under the folds of the long white drapes, studded with golden stars surrounding the pedestal, a decoration that is in harmony with the funereal lamentations of women….”
A week after the procession, Mr. Marchal writes that King Sisowath’s now decomposing body was taken out of the urn at Veal Mean, the gardens in front of the National Museum, and a funeral pyre created.
The pyre is then lit by the king’s successor. King Sisowath’s ashes were collected the next day from the debris of the pyre and placed in a stupa at Oudong Mountain in Kandal province, according to the account.
Prince Thomico said that some of Norodom Sihanouk’s ashes would be kept in a stupa at the Silver Pagoda inside the grounds of the Royal Palace. But, according to a wish of the King Father, most of the King Father’s ashes will be emptied over the confluence of the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers, an area known as the Chaktomuk.
Historian Ros Chantrabot said it was also customary to give a deceased king an additional name upon the placing of his ashes in a stupa, as also occurs when a king is crowned. “Kings of Cambodia usually have three or four names that they are given from birth to death,” he said.
Mr. Choulean said he was uncertain whether those making the arrangements for Norodom Sihanouk’s funeral would be able to reproduce the long unpracticed funeral traditions.
However, he said, “This King is immensely revered, so I think that everyone will try to make it an event worthy of him. This King has a certain aura.” | <urn:uuid:52283fd0-0124-40bf-ac2a-9237563cfd53> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://norodomsihanouk2012.blogspot.com/2012/10/tradition-splendor-for-king-fathers.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958364 | 1,429 | 2.03125 | 2 |
I found the following while browsing the web and thought you'd be interested too!
Hope you didn’t use your scissors this past New Year as you might have “cut off” your fortune or wealth for the year.
Decrease the likelihood that your house will be struck by lightning in a storm by putting your scissors away.
Placing a pair of scissors under your pillow may help a variety of pains. It is said that a woman in labor can “cut her pain in half” by doing so. Likewise it would halve the discomfort of any others in bed ridden pain. Some believe that putting an open pair of scissors is a way to sleep better even if you are cursed.
Dropping a pair of scissors is said to warn that a lover is being unfaithful.
Breaking one blade is an omen of quarrel, while breaking both blades is a sign of an impending disaster.
Do not give scissors as a gift or the friendship will be “cut in half”. To subdue this superstition a little money should be exchanged for the scissors as buying them doesn’t count.
Ward off evil and witches with a pair of scissors nailed above a door in the ‘open’ position, so they somewhat resemble a cross.
The cross-bladed scissors origins point to Rome but have a widespread place in international cultural superstitions as well which can be specific to a region.
- To curse a bridegroom in North Africa wait until he is on horseback, then hold an open pair of scissors while calling his name. If he answers you, snap the scissors closed and he will not be able to consummate the marriage.
- It is bad luck to idly open and close scissors without a purpose in Pakistan.
- It is held in some Eastern Europe countries that leaving scissors open causes disagreements and discord within a household. | <urn:uuid:8494bb16-67fd-4bdf-956a-cf9da80966fe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://debatstitchesnthings.blogspot.com/2013/01/scissors-who-knew.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949384 | 388 | 2.390625 | 2 |
For the pain of abundance is more bitter than barrenness,
And the sorrow of the rich from whom no one will take
Is greater than the grief of the beggar to whom none would give."
— Khalil Gibran
— Khalil Gibran
“I know what I have given you; I do not know what you have received.”
- Antonio Porchia - Buenos Aires 1943
30, rue Saint Sulpice - Paris 6 è
22nd February 1963
Dear don Antonio Porchia:
I always think of you and have wanted to write you countless times. But I was always waiting for a unique moment to arrive—an exceptional one, separate from all others, unlike any other—to send you a few lines which might tell you in the finest manner how much I think of you and how terribly important it has been—and is—to have known your voice, your voices…
You’ll know via our common and dear friend Roberto Juarroz that I’ve been in Paris for almost three years now. I’m often tempted to come back, to see you, and Roberto, and a few others… and, what is strange: your book is the most solitary, the most profoundly alone that has ever been written, and yet, re-reading it at midnight, I felt accompanied or, better said, sheltered. And also assured, calmed, as if they’d agreed that I was right in the only thing I begged to be right about. Coming back to Paris: the reason I feel calm here is because I live alone, without family, and I see people only when I want to see them. This is very important to me. I need silence (or maybe it is silence that needs me). “Almost without words, you’ve come to this world, which understands nothing without words.” This sentence reiterates itself in me and sings in me with such frequency. Really, all I do is think about silence. And I’ve ended up asking myself whether silence exists. But if I ask then there’s no longer silence.
If you ever wish to write me a few lines, you’ll make me extremely happy, you’ll do me a great good.
Buenos Aires, 20th April (1963?)
My dear friend Antonio Porchia:
…Your voices are some of the purest and most beautiful things one can find in this world. And it is you who created them. Thank you. | <urn:uuid:58533f45-1c36-4c01-8d6f-2c707ffa0409> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ofwordsandwings.tumblr.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95972 | 524 | 1.921875 | 2 |
Check out a recent post in the Diet & Nutrition section by junior apple Annie B. She writes to tell us about a recent adventure to Boston Market, where she overheard two well-meaning ladies order the “healthy vegetable plate” of mashed potatoes, corn, and mac ‘n cheese. Hmm.
We’re a little concerned about that meal being thought of by anyone as a “vegetable” plate. Potatoes, maybe. But macaroni and cheese is definitely not a vegetable. It’s fat (processed cheese) and refined starch (white pasta). But we’re most upset about corn.
Friends, corn is not a vegetable. It’s not. We are perplexed as to when corn entered the American dietary lexicon as a veggie, because it’s a grain – and a really unhealthy grain at that. Corn is the most sugary, starchy, empty grain there is. You’re better off with white rice – seriously. (Not that we recommend eating a lot of white rice, because brown rice is higher in fiber and protein.)
In fact, we hate corn. Now, we’re not talking about the occasional corn on the cob at the family BBQ. That’s probably not going to hurt anyone. But corn should not make up the veggie section of your meal plate, because it’s a high-glycemic sugarfest. In sum: corn is not a vegetable, and it’s a worthless grain.
And yet, miraculously, it forms the basis of the American diet.
The most maddening thing about all of this is that corn is the #1 ingredient in just about every processed food and fried food. How, you ask? Well, we have a lot of excess corn sitting around every year (mostly because the government still subsidizes corn farmers). What to do? A few decades ago, people figured out that turning corn into oil was really cheap and profitable. Never mind that corn oil is terrible for you when used in cooking: trans fat city, and no Omega-3′s! Yet corn oil, and its trans-fat twin, hydrogenated corn oil, are in everything. Take a look at just about any food in the middle aisles of your grocery store. Yep, corn oil. If it doesn’t have corn oil, it will have corn syrup. Sometimes both.
Even worse is the corn sweetener situation. High fructose corn syrup is really, really cheap, which is great for food manufacturers. And it’s sweeter than sugar. What food manufacturer is going to say no to that? They won’t – not unless you tell them enough is enough.
HFCS goes into soda, sports drinks, kids’ snacks, candy, and breakfast cereals, to name just a few items. The HFCS lobby has a really, um…colorful brown website (we can’t think of anything nice to say about it) that makes a big deal about how nutritious corn syrup is and how it’s the backbone of the American Diet. Seriously, is that something you want to be bragging about? With diabetes now a runaway epidemic, and corn syrup registering off the charts on the old insulin-response meter?
Maybe the HFCS lobby lives in an alternate America where a diet high in pizza, Lucky Charms, pop tarts and Pepsi has produced legions of energetic, happy, lean, muscular individuals. You can check out their “fact” site right now. Clickativity.
Waves of grain…
It’s great that KFC has announced it will eliminate trans fats from all menu items. But until this unethical bucket-for-bypass is off the production line, I will continue to have less respect for KFC than I do for child-proof packaging. On the other hand, at least they don’t pretend to care, which is more than can be said about most fast-food chains. There’s no sprinkling of broccoli or lean grilled chicken to confuse the meal’s purpose: cheap fodder for the masses. When you can mock your customers and get away with it, you’ve entered into dealer-addict territory. I’m not sure where to lay the blame; at any rate, I’m more interested in a solution. What do we do?
Well, a few dozen words, which apparently still can’t compete with the number of ingredients required to make cheese “food”. When a food producer has to state the obvious, I get concerned. I start thinking about lobbies, factories, manufacturing, chemicals, and processes – things that sounded fun on the Jetsons but have disturbing consequences in reality.
Maybe I’m easily entertained, but I get a real kick (more pain than humor, actually) from “foods” I see in the grocery store. Some days, I can’t even make it through the center aisles – it’s just too much. But even the dairy case can be a minefield of scientific stupefaction for which no chemistry refresher course could possibly prepare me. Case in point: cheese food.
When did the food supply become about food products instead of food? When did it become acceptable to label something meant for human ingestion as a “cheese food”? What’s next: milk food, beef food, and perhaps food food?
I grew up in Maine: lots of trees, animals, mountains, farms. I grew up with the knowledge that cheese was something that came from milk after some fairly simple processing. Something about Miss Moppet and curds and whey. These days, cheese “food” comes from a factory and includes things like “anhydrous milkfat”. Google at your own risk. And schools feed it to our kids, meanwhile, and feel good because there’s calcium in it!
It’s a mass-produced, centralized, chemical-laden world of cheese food we live in, Apples. I encourage you to be vigilant about eating only fresh foods that don’t need descriptions like “process” or “product” or, as if we should eat something that comes with a reminder, “food”.
Here’s some clickativity from a less-perplexed soul who took the time to explain exactly what goes into cheese “food”. Read at your discretion.
Remember the bread-is-to-crumb logic section on the SAT’s? Or how about the interminable hours spent in Mr. Johnson’s English Lit class deconstructing the deeper meaning of that tree in that poem by that guy? The latest and greatest fish debate is worse.
Environmentalists, food lobbyists, and fishermen and women everywhere are in a big huff over whether we should label certain fish as organic or not.
Take a wild salmon and a farm-raised, sea-lice-infested, sick salmon. Which one is organic?
It’s not a trick question. The fish furor (as reported in the New York Times today) is because the government is likely to permit only farm-raised fish to be called organic. That means pristine, wild, icy-water Alaskan salmon cannot be labeled organic.
This is not a joke.
The reason wild, and ostensibly healthier, fish cannot be labeled organic is because we don’t know where their food comes from. And the official requirements of organic food include strict feeding rules. That’s great for a chicken, clucking around in a cage in Omaha. By all means, feed that darn chicken some organic seeds! But the day a wild, clean, natural Alaskan salmon cannot be labeled organic is the day I officially conclude our government employees did not sit through Mr. Johnson’s English Lit class.
The debate gets more complicated (as if we care). Evidently, because salmon are not vegetarian fish, said fish fishers cannot prove that the fish these salmon eat in their natural habitats are also organic. (It’s okay if you have to read that a few times.)
However, a farmed fish, infected with sea-lice, raised so quickly it doesn’t have adequate Omega-3 levels, and crowded in with other fish like, oh, I don’t know…sardines… can be labeled organic. Because we know where its food comes from.
On the other side of the net, one organic-fish-scandal expert says that to allow wild salmon organic status is just really disrespectful to the meaning of organic. Organic, by definition, means organic feed. In other words, we’re following the rules because those are the rules, rather than remembering that rules exist to serve our needs. If a rule doesn’t serve a need or reflect a situation accurately, it needs to be modified. End of story. No deeper meaning, no semantic salmon. Let’s remember the entire reason for starting this organic craze: the realization that we need to go back to natural, healthy foods.
© 2013 Mark's Daily Apple | Design By The Blog Studio | <urn:uuid:5f1837fb-c23e-4f6e-b8c2-37f9c9b07259> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.marksdailyapple.com/category/big-agra/page/19/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946764 | 1,932 | 2.046875 | 2 |
Microsoft Research shows off gloveless hand tracking device
By Dave LeClair
October 9, 2012
As evidenced by the Kinect system, Microsoft has a serious dedication to making user interfaces that track the movement of its users. The company has shown a new technology, which it is calling Digits, that tracks hand movements through a device worn on a user's wrist. This means there are no gloves needed.
Microsoft's new project is able to detect hand positions in 3D and translate them into software commands – perhaps a user could swipe their hand to the side to turn a page in a book, or pinch their fingers to zoom in on a document. The device can also display a human hand on-screen when necessary.
The prototype shown off by Microsoft at the UIST 2012 symposium has an IR (infrared) camera, an IR laser line generator, an IR diffuse illuminator, and an inertial-measurement unit (IMU). The prototype is not practical in terms of size, but Microsoft hopes to shrink it down to about the size of a common wrist watch by the time it is finished with the project.
At some point, Microsoft hopes to make this device a key method of input for tablets, cell phones, and Kinect. It could combine the finite detail Digits provides with the full body tracking of Kinect to provide gamers with a more realistic experience.
Another key aspect of this device is that does not rely on any external infrastructure. Essentially, this means that users are free to move about while still interacting with their electronics.
The potential uses for this device are quite exciting, and I look forward to seeing where this could go down the road. It could potentially replace video game controllers, while still offering a precise level of control that other motion trackers cannot offer. It could also change the way users interact with their computers and portable electronic devices.
The video below from Microsoft Research shows the device in action.
Source: Microsoft Research
Just enter your friends and your email address into the form below
For multiple addresses, separate each with a comma | <urn:uuid:9b1e3f75-1a79-45d1-863b-398363748bad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gizmag.com/microsoft-digits-hand-tracking/24481/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943525 | 424 | 2.234375 | 2 |
Black and White
In college in 1998, I read in a text book that tonal value is more important than color in representational painting. Tone defines the dimensional volume of an object and conveys the contrast between light and dark, setting the mood with in the painting. I spent the next ten years painting in only black and white to understand those theories for myself. Below are some examples of paintings I made during this ten-year period. | <urn:uuid:e97f0ec7-7b66-4eba-aa09-00c2960d07d7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.toddkosharek.com/black-and-white/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969661 | 89 | 1.890625 | 2 |
Why U.S President Obama must not reduce resources to Africa from the war on AIDS
By His Excellency Dr. Festus Mogae, President of Botswana from 1998 to 2008 and recipient of the the Légion d’honneur from France and in 2008 was awarded the Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership. He is currently Chair of ‘Champions for an HIV-free Generation’ and a spokesman for the ‘Africa Champions for Health’ campaign of Friends of the Global Fund Africa, which encourages greater political and financial commitments of African Heads of State to health within Africa.
USAfrica and USAfricaonline.com
(characterized by The New York Times as the most influential African-owned, U.S-based multimedia networks) established May 1992.
Imagine if one in four Americans were living with HIV. That’s roughly the percentage of adults in Botswana who are infected with the disease.
Most HIV-positive people, of course, don’t live in the United States. About 97 percent live in developing regions, like Sub-Saharan Africa where AIDS is the leading cause of death of adults.
They may not be American citizens, but they desperately need America’s help. Unfortunately, the Obama administration seems to be pulling back from the fight against AIDS at the very moment when the world has demonstrated what it is possible to achieve in this fight.
Africa is at a crossroads with AIDS-we can finish the job and win this fight with US support. But if US leadership wanes at this critical moment, we will see progress erode, an increase in preventable deaths and a return to the social and economic devastation of past decades.
AIDS has already killed more than 25 million people. Although AIDS has been converted from a killer disease to a chronic one in many of our African countries, for those without access to antiretroviral drugs, HIV/AIDS is too often a death sentence. In Botswana, an estimated 57,000 children have been orphaned by AIDS of which 49,400 have been registered.
The good news is that the distribution channels and public health wherewithal to defeat this disease exist-Botswana helped pioneer the provision of antiretroviral treatment in Africa, starting its national treatment program in 2002.
Now, across the developing world, more than five million individuals with HIV/AIDS have seen their lives transformed by the availability of treatment. Drugs that once cost $12,000 per year can now be purchased for less than $100. As drug prices have dropped precipitously, every dollar invested can have even greater impact.
In Botswana alone, roughly 151,695 people living with HIV/AIDS now have access to life-saving drugs, and our national goal of achieving universal access has come close to being achieved. 96 out of 100 Botswana infants born to HIV-positive mothers are now born AIDS-free.
A major catalyst for this success has been America’s ongoing leadership and generous investment.
In 2003, President Bush – with support from Republicans and Democrats alike – announced a plan to dramatically increase American efforts to fight AIDS across the globe. The US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) was a critical partner in Botswana’s AIDS treatment scale-up, as well as prevention efforts and the fight against tuberculosis, the biggest killer of people with AIDS.
As a key component of its AIDS initiative, the United States made a founding investment in the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, an innovative organization that has helped massively scale up countries’ responses to the three diseases. The Global Fund not only finances programs, but it also helps catalyze sustainable investments from governments in affected countries.
In just eight years, the Global Fund has allocated $18 billion in grants for health programs in 144 countries.
Today, the Fund is responsible for one-fourth of global spending to combat AIDS and two-thirds of external financing for TB and malaria. A critical portion of that investment comes from the US.
I know that President Obama believes in these programs. While campaigning in 2008, he promised that, if elected, he would provide at least $50 billion by 2013 to fight AIDS globally, and fully fund the Global Fund.
But there remains a large gap between the president’s vision, and his administration’s budget. The president’s budget actually proposed cutting America’s contribution to the Global Fund by $50 million next year at the very time when the Global Fund needs to double its resources to truly reverse the AIDS, TB and malaria epidemics.
For many of the world’s poorest, the budgeting decisions made in Washington mean the difference between life and death.
Health care providers in some African nations have already been forced to turn away new patients. Some find themselves unable to provide medicine, even to those who have been served by long-running programs.
This is no time to retreat. The world is on the cusp of victory against one of its greatest killers.
Experts estimate that a $6 billion, three-year commitment by the United States to the Global Fund could have a domino effect that helps turn the tide against AIDS, as well as TB and malaria. Over 100 members of the U.S. Congress have called for a pledge at this level.
Historically, for every dollar the U.S. donates toward the Global Fund, the world matches with $2. What other investment generates a return of that size? Africa needs President Obama’s strong leadership on this issue. Re-committing to the global fight against AIDS will encourage other nations to do likewise, and bring life and hope to millions in Africa.
Related insights, exclusively on USAfrica.
Powered by Facebook Comments | <urn:uuid:b921cbd2-dc5b-4ad1-8724-8c61c7380928> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://usafricaonline.com/2010/10/05/obama-africa-aids-war-by-festus-mogae/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954495 | 1,201 | 2.375 | 2 |
Iran Sending Jewish MP on Official Delegation for First Time
Iran is for the first time sending its Jewish MP abroad as part of an official delegation going to the United Nations next week, a Tehran newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Maurice Motamed will be part of the delegation led by parliamentary speaker Mehdi Karubi to attend a conference of world parliament leaders, the Iran News said.
The trip by Karubi, a close ally of President Mohammed Khatami, is also the first of its kind by an Iranian parliament speaker to the United Nations since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Iran's Jewish community is granted one deputy in parliament and the paper said Motamed would come under scrutiny from the press over the case of Iranian Jews sentenced to prison terms on charges of spying for Israel.
The paper said he would be called on to defend the court ruling in the face of a "smear campaign against the Islamic republic" launched by the foreign press over the case, which attracted international attention.
Members of the 20-person delegation, which also includes former deputy foreign minister and current envoy on Afghanistan Alaedin Borujerdi, will also hold other meetings on the sidelines of the conference, it said.
President Mohammed Khatami is himself scheduled to go to New York in September for a meeting of the UN General Assembly - TEHRAN (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com) | <urn:uuid:5af113a8-b4f9-4cee-97f1-69bef0d620e0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.albawaba.com/news/iran-sending-jewish-mp-official-delegation-first-time | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957208 | 293 | 1.664063 | 2 |
|Mark Nienow and his best friend on a clear August day in eastern Montana (I'm kidding!)|
|Ingredients straight from the store|
We get the best mail!Mark N. from Roundup, Montana made our day a couple of months ago when he mentioned to us that he was using our mesophilic cultures to make kimchi, a fermented vegetable dish used extensively in Korean cooking. He said there are other cultures, made specifically for kimchi, but they are very expensive, so he has been using ours with great success.
It's no surprise that Mark was able to figure this out- he's very familiar with the fermentation process. He has made goat's milk yogurt and cream cheese, as well as his own beer (although he hasn't done that in a few years). In one of his e-mails he remarked, "What would we do without bacteria?" Indeed!
|Nappa cabbage soaking in salt water|
Mark learned to make kimchi from a co-worker who had spent time in the military, stationed in South Korea. It is very popular in Korea and in many other Asian countries where it is also known as gimchi or kim chee. The exact ingredients vary according to the seasons (availability) and the regions of the world where it is made.
|Ingredients cut and mixed, ready for packing jars|
Kimchi is not exactly mainstream food in the US, but it is becoming increasingly popular because of its legendary health benefits. According to Wikipedia:
"The magazine Health named kimchi in its list of top five "World's Healthiest Foods" for being rich in vitamins, aiding digestion, and even possibly reducing cancer growth."
|Packed jars with drain tubes in center|
to help circulate juice and expel gas
"One study conducted by Seoul National University claimed that chickens infected with the H5N1 virus, also called avian flu, recovered after eating food containing the same bacteria found in kimchi.
During the 2003 SARS outbreak in Asia, many people even believed that kimchi could protect against infection, although there was no scientific evidence to support this belief.
However, in May 2009, the Korea Food Research Institute, Korea’s state food research organization, said they had conducted a larger study on 200 chickens, which supported the theory that it boosts chickens' immunity to the virus." (Wikipedia)
|Container tops pushed into jars to keep vegetables under juice|
Mark first decided to make kimchi when he suffered a bad case of the flu last winter. He knew kimchi would help to repair his digestive system and to prevent future illness. He has been experimenting with it for several months now, but this is his latest recipe: (click on it to see it larger)
|Kimchee ready to ferment|
The Inoculant - Lactobacillus
What kind to use:
Mark uses our CHOOZIT MM100 LYO 50 DCU which is a large pack of culture. However, our small packs of Mesophilic cultures (C1) and (C101) have the same bacteria, so they may be used as well.
He has been using 1/2 teaspoon per 4 gallon batch. That would be the equivalent of one of our small packs of culture.
How to use it:
The culture is blended in with the liquid/spice ingredients and poured over the vegetables before packing in jars. Mark is thinking about liquifying a little of the nappa cabbage with water and adding the dry culture a day before preparing the vegetables. In you have any thoughts about this, you may contact Mark at email@example.com.
How it works:
The cabbage and other vegetables release water and sugars. The Lactobacillus bacteria in the cultures use these sugars to make lactic acid. As more and more lactic acid is made, the pH drops. If you have a pH meter or pH paper, you can measure the change in the pH. When it drops from 6.5 to 3.5, you know it's ready to eat. If you don't have a means to measure the pH, taste it after a couple of days and keep tasting it until it's the way you like it.
Notes from Mark:
Understand- this process I use to make kimchee is not set in stone and still being tweaked. Regarding the drain tubes:
Although there is some additional liquid derived from the veggies as fermentation progresses, the majority of the excess liquid that forms at the top is due to all the gas forcing it to the top and not allowing anything to drain back down. In other words, the amount of gas formed overcomes gravity in relation to the liquid in a closed environment.
I made the drain tubes out of 1/2" PVC pipe with slots cut in the end with a table saw. The idea was that excess liquid at the top of the jar would gradually move back down to the bottom, unimpeded in the tube. I'm now thinking that I need a different type of tube that allows gas to exit easier, rather than water to flow easier- more of a screen tube that passes gas but still holds the veggies in place. This all became clear when I pulled one of the tubes and saw all the gas escaping from the hole left by the tube.
Mark welcomes any ideas to improve his kimchi- firstname.lastname@example.org | <urn:uuid:f053b884-b844-4052-8a0d-4d2451172cf3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cheesemakinghelp.blogspot.com/2011/04/making-kimchi-with-our-mesophilic.html?showComment=1304443312987 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972353 | 1,121 | 2.15625 | 2 |
Need of recycling wastewater
Some efforts are afoot to ensure smooth supply of drinking water to the maximum number of people around the world. Consequently, the population supplied by piped water has also been going up. Demand will soon outstrip supply if effective measures are not taken to improve this situation. Since population and demand for water increase, recycling wastewater can become helpful for mitigating drinking water crisis.
Research on practicability of wastewater reuse has hastened in the past few decades. It was found that, in Israel, about 65 percent of wastewater is reused in rural areas and 23 percent in urban ones.
Countries short of water may ultimately require sewers as a means of collecting all available wastewater for reclamation and reuse. They can be positive conservation measures, and acute shortage of water can be mitigated by this method.
Sewage, whether purely domestic in origin, industrial or agricultural, is the wastewater generated by a community resulting from washing, laundry and clearing purposes. Surface water sewers carry run-off from roofs, yards and roads. Sewers carrying only surface water can be discharged without treatment.
Research has made it clear that if sewage is discharged into a lake, stream or river, valuable nutrients are wasted. Not only this, the receiving water becomes polluted. As a lot of people still rely on surface water for irrigation and household water supply in hot climates; to retain quality of surface water, a realistic policy must be formulated on local pattern of surface water use.
In recent times, there has been an influx of people in many countries, especially in rural areas due to the availability of various facilities relating to health, education, trade and commerce. This is why there has been a steady increase in water demand.
Since water is the crying need of every individual. It should be available to all. However, many people have not been able to get sufficient water and have got tired of complaining against the concerned authorities because they turn a deaf ear to their grievances.
Although recycled wastewater is safe to drink, wastewater treatment and disposal systems are given low priority because of their high cost. Actually, water supplies are continued without any provision for disposal of resulting wastewater. Apart from this, unavailability of an effective methodology to assess the relative value of refuse and professional biases of engineers, public health officials and others has resulted in scant progress, however done effectively, wastewater reuse can reduce growing water problem to some extent.
Wastewater reuse is a useful method for meeting water demand. But such a method will only be successful if accepted by the concerned community. For this reason, community members should be involved in all stages of programming, planning and implementation. | <urn:uuid:4c2fcbdf-b6a8-4080-817f-8a546ef2c18a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.shvoong.com/exact-sciences/1817818-need-recycling-wastewater/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960381 | 535 | 3.4375 | 3 |
Seeking to highlight a phenomenon that has become so common that it's often overlooked by clergy, a new analysis of data about children of divorce reveals that kids raised in happy, intact marriages are twice as likely to worship later in life than children whose parents divorce amicably.
Researchers, who plan to unveil their findings Wednesday at Chicago's Fourth Presbyterian Church, say they hope the unprecedented project will awaken pastors to a common oversight contributing to the decline in mainline Christian denominations and religious affiliation in general.
"Mainline (Protestant Christianity) has done very little and has largely trusted that as long as everybody gets along and keeps their conflicts down, things will be OK," said the project's lead author, Elizabeth Marquardt, an American studies professor at Lake Forest College. "We're really trying to upend that view."
Marquardt, who also is director of the Center for Marriage and Families at the Institute for American Values in New York City, said the outcome of the study could have an impact on Protestant churches that rely on the next generations to secure their future.
"Children of divorce are on the leading edge of the well-documented spiritual-but-not-religious movement," Marquardt said. "These are potential leaders. As we grapple with more and more people growing up without a married mom and dad, the church can make more sense of that."
Marquardt, a daughter of divorced parents, cites many reasons that other children of divorce appear to be less religious, including many adults who recall not feeling understood at church when their parents were splitting.
Scholars analyzed existing data sets including the General Social Survey, National Survey on the Moral and Spiritual Lives of Children of Divorce, National Study of Youth and Religion and National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.
The Rev. Joyce Shin, associate pastor for congregational life at Fourth Presbyterian, said there is no protocol when a couple in the congregation is separating. She reaches out to the adults and tries to tune in to the children's needs.
"We just feel sorry because we can imagine it's a hard time," Shin said. "We know there are trusts that are being broken and that were broken, and it's going to take a lot to build up from that." | <urn:uuid:77480594-a1f7-460d-8691-f62ecfa97ddc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sun-sentinel.com/topic/ct-met-divorce-study-20130116,0,2981336.story | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976162 | 460 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Traveling by plane can be an unusual experience. The passenger often puts their life into the hands of two people, the pilots, who will steer and maneuver an expensive piece of equipment at 30,000 to 40,000 feet above ground. It is, therefore, not surprising that the landing of the plane and the end of a journey is met with delight and relief. In about 10-15 minutes, the passengers who shared the same flight will embark on different routes. The businessman will hurriedly make his way to the exit, where a personal limousine service will safely transport them to the business place for their meetings; the teenagers, who went away on a road-trip holiday, will leisurely make their way to the bus stop and the family, exhausted after their two-week holiday in the exotic destination, will have to settle with their back-to-reality routine as they make their way to collect their car at the parking lot.
However, before embarking of their different routes, those passengers will get the opportunity for another brief encounter, this time to collect their baggage from the designated space at each airport. The process is quite simple. Every time you fly with excessive baggage – mistakenly thinking that the stuff you brought with you are completely necessary - you will need to check it at the start of your journey. Your baggage is then transported, along with the baggage of your fellow travelers, at the aircraft hold. At the end of your journey, you will hopefully be reunited with your stuff, which are be delivered to you in a similar way that they were taken away. I said hopefully, because approximately 150 000 passengers left the airport without getting back their luggage last year. So, it is indeed a miracle each time you see your baggage at the revolving belt, knowing that it is only just a few seconds before you get reunited with it.
After you have exited the aircraft, then, you will need to follow the signs that will show you the route the the baggage claim area. But wait a moment! Is it a baggage claim area or baggage reclaim area? After all, this baggage belongs to you, you just gave it to the airline and they are giving it back to you. The British airports correctly define this area as the baggage reclaim area, but other european airports do not. Airports in Greece and in Germany for example, will designate this space as the baggage claim area. Occasionally, there are also non-typical signs, such as the “Baggage” sign at the Billbao airport, avoiding any mention of the word claim or reclaim.
After all, it does not really mind, as long as the passengers find the way to the area. But I think you will agree that it is the little details that count.
[all pictures © LambdaPhage] | <urn:uuid:e5426c37-206f-413a-b229-63ac8b6b1e00> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lambdaphage.wordpress.com/2009/06/13/baggage-reclaim/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972613 | 570 | 1.601563 | 2 |
What better time then to re-assess our priorities?
To look at what we are doing and why we are doing it?
"Whatever the tasks, do them slowly with ease,
do not do any tasks with the goal of getting them over with.
Resolve to each job in a relaxed way,
with all your attention.”
- Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Master
We often complete things so that we can tackle the next thing on our list of things-to-do. We rush from one destination to the next, only to hurry along to the next. We are often so tired from the grind, that we don't have the energy to do the things we love. Things we are passionate about.
So when you find yourself wrapped up in the busy-ness this season, try to spare a moment to hold onto the things that help us lead a contented life. To dance in the rain.
Keep things simple.
Look after your relationships.
Find the funny side.
Find joy in the mundane, the routine.
Never stop learning. | <urn:uuid:faf3ef1f-0ab2-4dfd-a76a-07024d6912c6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pilesofwashing.blogspot.com/2010_11_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937645 | 226 | 1.539063 | 2 |
"[...] The Museum of Art at the Rhode Island School of Design, in Providence, which last year opened its Rafael Moneo-designed Chace Center gallery space, teams up with nearby hotels to offer travel packages in connection with high-profile exhibitions (tickets to a recent Dale Chihuly show were combined with a room at the Providence Biltmore). Hope Alswang, the museum director, said that 75 percent of its visitors were unaffiliated with the college. “When times are rough, maybe you can’t go to the Cape for a week,” said Ms. Alswang. “But you might come to town for a museum show and lunch.”
I decided to test this formula of college campus as inexpensive tourist destination with a quick, culturally edifying trip to New Haven. Long curious about the two fine-art museums at Yale, and having heard that a chic hotel, the Study at Yale
, had opened in that same artsy part of the campus, I booked a room, printed out a calendar of events from the school’s Web site, and boarded an Amtrak train in New York on a Friday morning; in two hours, I was checking into my Chapel Street digs. The Study at Yale
— which plays up the academic connection with old-fashioned spectacles for its logo and a bookmark slipped into the sleeve for the electronic room key — did not disappoint. The lobby is a mod living room, furnished with clean-lined leather armchairs and a floor-to-ceiling bookcase full of art and architecture books. My seventh-floor room had a marble-floored bath, Tolomeo desk lamp, oak furniture with lightened finish and windows overlooking the slate roofs of the Yale campus.
An intriguingly titled lecture I’d circled on my events calendar — “Extraordinary Tourists,” about the Transcontinental Excursion of 1912, on offer at Yale’s Institution for Social and Policy Studies — was, alas, already under way, so I decided to get my bearings on a student-led campus tour departing from the Visitor Center, in a 1767 Federal house on Elm Street across from the New Haven Green.
Among the 12 other tourgoers also braving the 29-degree temperature that afternoon was Elisabeth Striedinger, a 28-year-old marketing assistant from Vienna and a graduate of the University of Vienna. Ms. Striedinger, who was taking time out from a three-week vacation in New York for the trip to New Haven, said she had seen Yale portrayed on the TV show “Gilmore Girls.” (Rory ends up going to school there.) “Everyone knows about Yale and the Ivy League,” she said. “Even in Austria.”
Our guide, Matt Eisen, a junior majoring in economics and political science, led us to Old Campus, the blocklong yard where Yale’s first buildings were constructed of brick in the mid-18th century. We also saw a couple of the school’s 12 residential colleges, modeled on those of Oxford and Cambridge universities in England. The neo-Gothic buildings that make up the Yale colleges, Mr. Eisen noted, were constructed in the 1930s with materials that were doctored to look hundreds of years old — the brick dribbled with acid, the panes for the windows purposefully mismatched, the slate roofs I’d admired from my hotel window composed of shingles whose edges had been methodically chipped before they were tucked into place.
After my tour I saw real, not ersatz, Gothic at the Yale Center for British Art — in the form of “The Thames at Westminster Stairs” by Claude de Jongh and intricately detailed oil paintings of the interiors of Westminster Abbey and Canterbury Cathedral. The museum’s holdings, said to be the most comprehensive collection of British art outside Britain, swing from serene (the misty waterfront in “Nocturne in Blue and Silver,” by James McNeill Whistler) to severely buttoned-up (a room full of Elizabethan and Jacobean portraits, with staring eyes) to satirical (William Hogarth’s “Midnight Modern Conversation,” depicting supposedly respectable middle-class men who have drunk themselves into a stupor)."
New York Times, Jane Margolies, March 1, 2009
For the full article please visit:http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/travel/01journeys-1.html?emc=eta1 | <urn:uuid:aca11532-2837-4679-bbee-f0423d3a864a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kpmbarchitects.com/index.asp?offset=130&layid=&navid=19&csid1=6&csid2=0&fid1=&fid2=72&fid3=&hiss= | 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 | 0.962016 | 955 | 1.671875 | 2 |
So, what do you get when you combine the great minds of the Technical University of Berlin with the designers from BMW? Something pretty Clever of course. All puns aside, the CLEVER aims to help reduce the congestion and harmful emissions that accumulate in urban areas.
CLEVER stands for Compact Low Emission Vehicle for Urban Transport and at 3 meters long and 1 meter wide, compact is an understatement. The entire vehicle weights in at just under 400Kg and is powered by natural gas. It has an estimated top speed of 100Km per hour and is expected to accelerate to 60Hm per hour in about 7 seconds.
Inside there will be seating for 2, one right in front of the other and a steel roll cage for stability and safety. All 3 wheels will have independent suspension and will allow the CLEVER to lean into corners like a motorcycle.
Sadly, the CLEVER will probably never see production as it is more of a design study, but much of the technology will be used. Also, since BMW was involved, you are never sure what will happen, so don't lose hope just yet.
HatTip : Inhabitat | <urn:uuid:9ba91cf2-640e-44ee-8361-98807241d942> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://inventorspot.com/articles/clever_concept_wellclever_14809 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946831 | 234 | 2.3125 | 2 |
soccerkid812 wrote:for the top part of the tower chimney,
is it better to have the bracing sides connected all the same way or where four pieces of bracing connect? (assuming you use one bracing per part of the tower) ...
An interesting question with no simple answer.
In towers, bracings mainly control member buckling and lateral movement of the structure.
With regard to member buckling, it does not matter how the bracings are oriented on the four sides of the chimney. What matters is how the bracing pattern on each side divides the long (vertical) compression members into shorter (un-braced) segments. As long as these segments are short enough (according to the Euler’s buckling equation), then theoretically no buckling will take place.
Lateral movement of the structure, however, could be effected by the orientation of the bracing pattern on each of the 4 sides of the tower. Let’s use an example to see how.
Consider the example tower used in my third post on the previous page. Let’s assume the tower uses bracing pattern P3 on all four sides where the diagonals are slanted with a negative slope (connecting an upper left node to a lower right node), as shown below.
Note: For visual clarity only bracing on two sides are drawn.
As it was shown previously, each side of the tower, if considered in isolation, displaces slightly to the left at the top of the tower, like this:
Here is a visualization exercise. In your mind, move round the tower and examine each side. As you face a side, you should see it being deformed in a manner similar to the image shown above. Can you see what happens to the whole tower when each side behaves the same way (sidesway to the left)? The tower twists, like this:
Now, let’s look at a different bracing orientation for the four sides.
In this case, let's assume the bracings on the opposite sides are oriented in the same direction, but the adjacent sides are mirror image of each other. Can you figure out how the tower is going to deform? Give it a try. Hint: It is not going to be by twisting.
The point is that different bracing patterns or different orientations of the same pattern on the four sides of a tower lead to different deformation patterns for the tower. As to which bracing pattern or orientation is a better choice, there is no simple answer. Bracing orientation A could result in excessive twisting in a member causing it to fail. On the other hand, orientation B could create significant stress at a glued joint causing it to come apart. You need to run experiments to determine what works best for your tower. | <urn:uuid:b5b67ed4-60c4-4e4e-85cf-256132a95747> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scioly.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=143371 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928658 | 584 | 2.59375 | 3 |
The Tolkien Frequently Asked Questions List (FAQ), is the first of two informational files on J.R.R. Tolkien and his writings, the other being the Less Frequently Asked Questions List (LessFAQ). The division of questions follows several general criteria. The FAQ leans towards questions of interest to people who have read only The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, together with most questions on Tolkien himself and on topics which seem fundamental to his worldview (his linguistic games in particular). The LessFAQ contains questions of a more obscure nature, most questions arising from posthumous works, and in general aspects of the nature and history of Middle-earth which are important but tangential to The Lord of the Rings. There is also an element of personal arbitrariness. All available sources have been used for both lists. Criticisms, corrections, and suggestions are of course welcome.
William D.B. Loos
Table of Contents
Sections/questions marked as follows:
* have been revised since the last release
** are new since the last release
- ) Who was J.R.R. Tolkien anyway?
- ) Were the languages presented in The Lord of the Rings real languages?
- ) What does it mean when people (or Tolkien himself) speak of him as having been the "editor" of The Lord of the Rings?
- ) How thoroughly realized was Tolkien's fiction that he was the "translator" of The Lord of the Rings?
- ) Why is Tolkien's work, The Lord of the Rings in particular, so difficult to translate (into other languages of our world)?
- ) Did the events in The Lord of the Rings take place on another planet or what?
- ) Was the northwest of Middle-earth, where the story takes place, meant to actually be Europe?
- ) Was the Shire meant to be England?
- ) What were the changes made to The Hobbit after The Lord of the Rings was written, and what motivated them? | <urn:uuid:5b480ca0-9a40-4d5b-9266-3732a5dd2b41> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tolkien.slimy.com/tfaq/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959239 | 412 | 2.171875 | 2 |
energy demand by sector
The future development pathways for Europe’s energy demand are shown in Figure 5.44 for the Reference and the Energy [R]evolution scenario. Under the Reference scenario, total primary energy demand in OECD Europe increases by 9% from the current 75,200 PJ/a to 82,080 PJ/a in 2050. The energy demand in 2050 in the Energy [R]evolution scenario decreases by 36% compared to current consumption and it is expected by 2050 to reach 47,800 PJ/a.
Under the Energy [R]evolution scenario, electricity demand in the industry as well as in the residential and service sectors is expected to decrease after 2015 (see Figure 5.45). Because of the growing shares of electric vehicles, heat pumps and hydrogen generation however, electricity demand increases to 3,470 TWh/a in 2050, still 21% below the Reference case.
Efficiency gains in the heat supply sector are larger than in the electricity sector. Under the Energy [R]evolution scenario, final demand for heat supply can even be reduced significantly (see Figure 5.47). Compared to the Reference scenario, consumption equivalent to 8,921 PJ/a is avoided through efficiency measures by 2050. As a result of energy-related renovation of the existing stock of residential buildings, as well as the introduction of low energy standards and ‘passive houses’ for new buildings, enjoyment of the same comfort and energy services will be accompanied by a much lower future energy demand. | <urn:uuid:f7fab5e7-8557-4165-b9fc-10bfa25f3212> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.energyblueprint.info/1545.0.html?L=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918616 | 308 | 2.484375 | 2 |
The Niagara Parks Commission has a mandated duty to protect, enhance and manage both cultivated and environmentally sensitive lands along the Niagara River corridor. The Park was created in 1885 by an Act of the Provincial Parliament of Ontario, to preserve and enhance lands adjacent to Niagara Falls. From its beginning with a small parcel of land at Niagara Falls, the Park has grown to a comprehensive system of more than 1,325 hectares (over 3,274 acres) along 56 kilometers (35 miles) of the Canadian side of the Niagara River.
This "ribbon of green" contains many jewels such as the Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens, old growth forest, sensitive riparian habitat and culturally significant heritage gardens. Niagara Parks is proud of recent partnerships which have fostered the development of "The Environmental Land Management Plan", a botanical inventory of the Niagara River corridor as well as a vibrant ecological restoration program supporting these lands.
The 40 hectare (99 acre) Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens has developed from the inception of the Niagara Parks School of Horticulture in 1936. At the Botanical Gardens, both live plant collections and a herbarium collection (pressed plants) are used along with associated policies, for education (as a campus for the Niagara Parks School of Horticulture and for the general public); as a visitor attraction (the world famous Niagara Parks' gardens are a tourist destination); and to support scientific research including preservation of the environment.
As you explore the pages we hope you will be inspired to visit us here in Ontario, Canada, to enjoy and support some of the most magnificent natural and cultural landscapes in the world. Niagara Parks are entirely self-funded and every purchase made by visitors to our properties helps to preserve this heritage. | <urn:uuid:ea724905-ba90-4fd0-8903-32ca678e0360> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.niagaraparksnature.com/environmental-initiatives/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940554 | 345 | 3 | 3 |
In a recent press release , Library and Archives Canada (LAC) announced three new online products to assist genealogists and family historians to access information on their ancestors in both LAC and other Canadian collections. Chief among these is the newly redesigned Canadian Genealogy Centre website, at www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogy. The website makes available Canadian collections of immigration, military, public service, land and census records and provides advice and guidance to researchers. It was voted one of the world's 100-best genealogy websites by Family Tree magazine.
"The new Canadian Genealogy Centre website provides easy access to records of significant interest to Canadians," said Librarian and Archivist of Canada Ian E. Wilson. "The search tools allow Canadians access to a very personal piece of Canadian history-a piece relating to somebody's own family-with the click of a mouse." Mr. Wilson added that the new website and search tools demonstrate how LAC's priorities in digitizing its collections and in working through partnerships with other institutions, benefit Canadians wherever they may be. | <urn:uuid:f2f97e15-70a8-4845-87dc-8500a71574d5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.genealogytoday.com/2007/10/redesigned-canadian-genealogy-centre.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9435 | 219 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Rumors from the web are slowly matriculating and hinting towards the addition of private browsing to IE 8. If you’re not familiar with private browsing it allows a user to surf the net without leaving any imprints on your system. So no cookies, no history, no cached pictures or files, no anything that could be drudged up by the next person who uses your computer to search the web. With features like this, it’s no surprise that private browsing is nicknamed “porn mode.” But there are legitimate, non x-rated reasons for private browsing as well. And although Firefox doesn’t support it, Mozilla does offer some valid reasons for such a feature:
“Many people believe that the primary use case for private browsing mode is viewing pornography. While viewing pornography may be a popular use case due to the nature of content on the Web, assuming that this is the only reason that users need private browsing trivializes the overall feature. For instance, users may wish to begin a private browsing session to research a medical condition, or plan a surprise vacation or birthday party for a loved one. Use cases will range from users cheating on their spouse, to users buying engagement rings. Given the breadth of our user base, specific use cases are likely to be extremely varied.”
At this time, only Safari gives you the option of private browsing (wonder why Apple felt it necessary to include this feature). The latest batch of hints pointing towards private browsing in IE came from IStartedSomething, when they discovered Microsoft had filed for the following trademarks:
IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: computer programs for accessing and using the Internet and the world wide web; and computer programs for deleting search history after accessing websites
IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: computer programs for accessing and using the Internet and the world wide web; computer programs for disabling the history and file caching features of a web browser; and computer software for notifying a user of a web browser when others are tracking web use and for controlling the information others can access about such use”
So what does this mean? Finally the cheating spouses could breathe a sigh of relief and the secret birthday shoppers can feel secure. But in reality this is just a feature that IE may come to have, that Firefox doesn’t. And with porn being as prevalent as it is, this may sway a lot of users back to the IE camp.
Read more at Tech-Ex | <urn:uuid:8cf732da-fddd-4447-bcef-c286fa9966bf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.geek.com/security/private-browsing-coming-to-ie8-577706/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913787 | 530 | 1.539063 | 2 |
September 17, 2008
(CA) What comes after killing pets? [Terrace Standard - opinion]
TWO WEEKS two Camrose teens were sentenced for microwaving a cat to death. The boys (allegedly along with five others) twice broke in to a home, and besides baking the cat for ten minutes, crushed a guitar, damaged a TV, and smashed holes in a wall. The boys showed no signs of mental illness and were not drunk at the time. These bizarre behaviours offered the boys no benefit, that I can see, except to relieve their aggression in cowardly fashion. So why behave this way?
The answer may lie in the findings of research done by Frank Ascione, professor of psychology at the Utah State University. Ascione conducted extensive research on the link between mistreating animals and mistreating women. In his book "Children and Animals: Exploring the Roots of Kindness and Cruelty", Dr. Ascione writes, "When animals in a home are abused or neglected, it is a warning sign that others in the household may not be safe."
-- full story: http://www.bclocalnews.com/bc_north/ terracestandard/opinion/28416749.html | <urn:uuid:7479eec0-6b0c-4387-abbe-776059e08090> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.animalliberationfront.com/Philosophy/AbuseLinked/AfterKillingAnimals-printer.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958603 | 256 | 1.804688 | 2 |